Here's chapter 12, all ready to get the FrostIron ball rolling ;)

And I would be very remiss if I didn't thank all my wonderful, patient readers - I'm so sorry for torturing you all with such long waits X( Thank you for your favorites and follows and reviews - though I said it before, I'll said it again - I'm writing this for you guys. :)

Enjoy!


Tony caught the door just before it swung closed behind the god. Though Loki had surely heard him, he continued walking away.

"Hey," Tony said shortly, but Loki did not turn. Tony didn't like being ignored, especially since he'd just stood up for the guy. He fired up his boots and flew a short distance, landing in front of the god. Loki made to go around him, but Tony caught his arm. The thick fabric was slick and wet with blood.

"Um, that's not good," Tony said brilliantly.

Loki snatched his arm back. "What an astute observation," Loki said sarcastically, walking around Tony, heading for the gates.

Tony got in front of him again. "You saved our lives in there," Tony said bluntly. "All of ours. Several times. We're not just going to let you walk away after that."

"They were perfectly fine in letting me do so." He jerked his chin in the direction of the manor.

"Okay, fine. But I'm not."

Loki stopped trying to walk away and just stared at him, his eyes impassive.

"Loki, I know you hate us. We hate you. We have a nice cozy hate-hate relationship going," Tony said, though he wasn't entirely sure that was true anymore. "But you know you need us to try to bring down this guy. And we know," Tony said grudgingly, "That we need you. Even though your magic doesn't compare -" Loki bristled at that, but Tony ignored him – his magic was child play's to Voldy's. If that hurt his pride, tough luck.

"It's still magic. And – " He broke off as Loki leaned over, panting heavily. There was way too much blood splashing on the grass. Tony cut the speech. He didn't know why he was bothering – oh wait, yes he did. This god, regardless of intentions, ha d saved Tony's sorry ass from that hairy beast. And Tony owed him for that. If he could patch the god up, well, that'd be a step in the right direction, at least.

He opened his mouth to say Loki better buck up and accept help, but it turned out the words weren't necessary. With a low grunt, Loki's knees gave way and he went toppling into the blood-soaked grass. That was as clear an invitation for help as Tony had ever seen… even though it hadn't been voluntary.

"You're just going to have to suck it up and deal," Tony muttered as he kneeled and yanked off the first layer of his leather getup.

"Jesus, do always wear this much clothing?" Tony complained as he cut through a thick leather vest. "I often wear rather more than this," Loki said, a faint grin on his blood-smeared face. Tony shook his head in disbelief, continuing to cut away until finally – there was pale skin beneath all the dark fabric. But what was lurking beneath all the clothes made Tony's stomach turn.

Loki's chest and arms were covered in deep, thick gashes; each was straight and precise as though measured with a ruler. "When he was aiming at me, he was not trying to kill me," Loki rasped. "Merely incapacitate me, so I could better be taken prisoner."

"Looks like he did a pretty good job of it," Tony said. Loki did not answer.

Well, Tony didn't have any bandages stashed in his suit. He stood, leaving the god lying pitifully in the grass. "Stay here," He said. Loki laughed, though it sounded painful. Tony didn't know why he'd even said it – the god clearly wasn't going anywhere.

Tony flew to the ship and found gauze, towels, and huge pile of bandages. He grabbed a protein drink as an afterthought and jetted back to the god.

Tony wondered as he flew whether he should go for help, but discounted the idea. Too many people around trying to help were nothing short of annoying, and he didn't want Natasha or Steve setting Loki off again.

And, strangely, there was another reason. No one had ever seen it coming, but Tony just got along with Loki best. In those long hours in the workshop, they'd learned to tolerate each other. Loki had never spent any significant amount of time with the others, except for Bruce – and Bruce was gallivanting as a big green guy at the present. Tony hoped the toleration would extend to letting Tony bandage him up – though a small voice in the back of his head still wondered why he was bothering.

"Drink this," Tony said, shoving the drink in his hand as he unwound the towels. The god was now naked from the waist up, and Tony was finding that more distracting than he would have thought.

Loki unscrewed the top and took a sniff. "What is this foul mixture?" Loki said, eyeing the bottle with distaste. He skewered Tony with a menacing glare. "It would be a cruel trick, to bandage the wounds and yet kill with poison."

Tony's mouth dropped – he couldn't help it. He really hadn't seen that coming. "You should teach a class on paranoia," Tony muttered. "It's not poison - It's an energy drink," Tony said, "So you don't drop dead the moment I finish here. I don't like wasting my time, and if you die on me, that's a hell of a lot of my time wasted."

"How touching," Loki said as he downed the drink with a grimace. Tony – still completely bemused by what he was doing – clumsily toweled the blood off, wrapped him round with gauze and secured it with the bandage.

"There. We're even."

"Hardly." Loki's eyes seemed a little brighter, but he still made no move to get up, which wasn't necessarily a good sign. "I took four blasts from you. Taking back the one you deflected-" He gave an arrogant little nod by way of thanks – "I still am owed three life-debts."

Tony snorted. "You kept track?" He said derisively. "Fine. But –" Struck by a sudden idea, Tony quickly said, "How many life debts does Steve owe you? Or Natasha?" Tony asked shrewdly.

Loki said nothing and turned away.

How interesting.

Before Tony had time to needle him – figuratively – about why he'd gotten special life-debt treatment, a new voice floated to them through the darkness.

"Tony, what are you doing?"

Natasha was approaching them through the darkness. And then Tony realized belatedly how this must look. Both of them sitting, quite close together, with Loki sitting in the moonlight and naked to the waist.

"Don't let Clint see," Was Tony's answer. "If he sees me gallivanting with his shooter, the fury may just finish him off."

"Nice try, Tony." Tony didn't get away with it. "What are you doing?"

Tony gave up on being evasive and came clean. "Moldy's spells weren't as ineffective as they looked. Since I thought we would have more use for a live sorcerer than a dead one, I patched him up." Tony waved vaguely back to the blood-soaked towels, the bandages, and the half-naked god.

"I see." Her expression was impassive, but Tony still felt guilty – hell if he knew why, though.

"Well, we've got a mansion to get back to. Excuse me," He said to Widow, turning back to Loki. "Up you get, princess," He said, offering a gauntleted hand.

"What, no offer to carry me?" Loki said with a smirk, though his sarcasm was marred somewhat as he picked himself painfully off the ground.

"I could drag you behind me, if you'd like," Tony offered in a falsely helpful voice.

Loki rolled his eyes and started walking towards the jet. Every step looked pained, but at least he didn't look like he was knocking on death's door anymore.

And Tony still had that annoying little voice, asking why he'd helped him when no one else would have.

And Tony did not have an answer, but his eyes were riveted to the god's frame as they made their slow way to the jet.

It took awhile to get everyone loaded up. Hermione, Harry and Ron came along for the ride, along with the Dobby thing – they all got on fairly quickly – but it took Bruce awhile to find his humanity and let the Hulk go. Only after he'd been de-greened and Clint had been carried in on a stretcher did the jet finally take off.

Loki was worse off than he'd let on. A few minutes into the journey back to the mansion, he slumped over in his seat, unconscious. Not surprising – he'd lost enough blood to kill a normal human. Gods were made of sterner stuff, but still. No one besides Tony spared him a second glance.

"Hey, Harry," Tony said, catching the boy wizard's attention. "You know a little about this Voldy character, right?"

"More than a little," Harry replied, sounding a little stung.

"Good. Any idea what Voldy did to him, then?" he pointed his thumb at the unconscious god. Harry glanced at Loki. "What do you mean?"

Tony sighed and said, "The green laser doesn't leave any physical damage besides being dead, right?" When Harry nodded, Tony continued, "Then Voldy used something else, because Loki looks like he lost a fight with a giant lawn mower."

Harry looked confused. "Let me see," He said, unstrapping his seatbelt and going over to the unconscious Loki.

Tony grumbled but stood as well, watching as Harry undid the bandage on Loki's arm. When the deep, angular slashes came to light, Harry let out a hoarse cry, dropping Loki's arm.

"Sectumsempra," Harry said bitterly. "That's Snape's curse."

"Sectawhat?" Tony said, getting seriously tired of the all the magic gibberish.

"Sectumsempra," Harry repeated, as if that would help anything. "Dark Magic. It's amazing he's not dead," Harry said, untidily tying the bandage back and returning to his seat. Tony frowned at the sloppy job as he went back to his seat as well.

"Need a little more explanation than that, Merlin," Tony said to Harry.

Harry sighed and said, "Professor Snape," He made the title a curse, "Invented that spell in his sixth year. Slashes you open like a knife."

"That much was pretty obvious," Tony said.

Harry looked solemn. "Dark Magic doesn't heal on its own," He said gravely. He said it like he was trying to prepare Tony for Loki's death.

Tony resisted the urge to scoff. "Loki's not your average human," Tony said in reply. "He'll be fine."

"What do you mean by, 'not your average human?'" Hermione asked. She looked terrible – deathly pale, still shaking slightly. There were no other physical injuries other than the small cut on her throat, but Harry had explained upon boarding that Bellatrix had tortured her.

Tony didn't quite know what to say – he wasn't sure the proper way to say two of their company were gods from Asgard. Before he could think of something, Steve piped up. "You didn't tell them?" He said incredulously.

Tony shrugged. "You didn't either," He shot back.

"Tell us what?" Harry said suspiciously.

Tony looked evenly at the wizard. "Let's talk when we're back on solid ground. There's a few things about the Avengers you probably should know about. But first -" Tony said, "You need to tell us everything you know about Voldy."

Harry looked about to argue, but Tony cut him off. "You're hiding something. You all are. Your little chats of 'what should we tell them' weren't exactly subtle." Tony was especially averse to secrets after the whole fiasco with Fury and nuclear weaponry.

Harry frowned and said nothing, glancing back at his comrades.

"You tell us, we tell you," Tony said calmly.

"Who died and made you boss?" Tony heard Clint mutter from the medical bay. Tony ignored him.

Harry was still looking at Ron and Hermione. Ron said nothing, but Hermione gave a tiny nod. Harry then turned back to Tony and said shortly, "Fine."

"Good," Tony said with a nod.

The rest of the ride was a quiet one. Tony wished he still had his headset – everyone could see whenever he glanced back at the god, which was more often than he'd thought it would be. Tony cleared his throat and looked solidly away as Steve caught his eyes the third time, looking at him questioningly. He spent the rest of the trip examining the Dobby, trying to figure out what the hell it was. The Dobby was completely oblivious to Tony's scrutiny – he was looking up at Harry with positive adoration. Weird thing.

The long-fingered creature had come with them too, but was back in the medical bay with Clint. It had been attacked by Bellatrix as well.

In short, they were all pretty beat up. Tony looked forward to getting back to the mansion, to get some scotch, maybe some food – and hopefully, some answers. The wizards had a lot of explaining to do.


Hope you guys enjoyed! :3