A/N Okay, first off, next week is Christmas so to everyone who celebrates it, Merry Christmas! Now a question: Since next week is Christmas and a lot of people will be busy opening presents, playing with their new 'toys,' and visiting with family, are you guys going to be too busy for fanfic? Should I wait an extra week to update? If you guys want an update, I can update no problem, I just don't want to intrude on anyone's holiday plans. So just let me know.

All right, things are starting to heat up just a bit. We'll still have some lighter moments here and there but things are going to start getting more serious for a while.

Thanks to all my reviewers! I love you guys and every review you send me! :)

thewriterstory

Ophelia Lokisdottir

Aka-Baka Hoshi

aliceindeepdarkwonderland

Son-of-hiddle

RossyGaray

ImperfectIsPerfect

literaturelife7

OkieDokieLoki

RoxasGuyXIII

maliha1205

pallyndrome

Trouble Confirmed

It had been a full week since Loki had come home and things between him and his friends and family only got better, while things within his mind seemed to only grow worse.

He found himself often having to bite back caustic comments or venomous insults. All too easily they popped into his mind and sprang to the tip of his tongue. So far, he had always managed to catch himself before the traitorous side of him let something slip and drove everyone around him away with hurtful words. However, it made it so he was constantly having to police himself. Thinking about his words before speaking them, but not taking so long that anyone got suspicious about his delayed responses and called him on it.

It was a balancing act. He had to constantly make sure his scrambled mind didn't ruin everything he had managed to gain back, but at the same time, he couldn't let anyone notice that anything was less than okay with him. It was exhausting and the many nights of little to no sleep weren't helping. He honestly didn't know how much longer he could keep it up. At this rate, he would either finally slip and hurt his friends and family and tear down the bonds he had manage to build, or he would truly lose it and go mad.

The only comfort was that it did seem to be getting better, bit by bit, every day... maybe. It was not nearly fast enough for Loki's liking but still he thought there might be progress. He didn't know if he was just getting the hang of watching his words, or if the dark part of his mind was finally beginning to fade, but it did seem like it was getting a bit easier as time went by. Unfortunately, just to top off his troubles, it was getting harder and harder to hide the moments when that phrase intruded into his thoughts.

You will know pain.

He was starting to become more worried and sure that it wasn't simply a flashback as he had hoped. He was beginning to feel that it was Thanos himself threatening him, but Loki wasn't sure and his sleeplessness didn't help. It could very well be a flashback and he was just being paranoid. Fatigue could do that. But fatigue didn't really explain the pain that accompanied the words. He always felt a sharp pain shoot through his head when the words were spoken, and to make matters worse, the pains were growing more severe. So much so that he couldn't hold back a wince whenever it came.

The pain was always brief but it had gone from sharp to agonizing. It was all Loki could do to restrain his reaction to just gritted teeth and a flinch. However, that was enough for Thor and their friends to take notice a few times. So far, Loki had managed to wave it off as a headache or some other excuse, but he could only convince them for so long before they started getting suspicious and figured out something more was going on.

Unfortunately, that moment ended up coming much sooner than he had hoped.

Loki was in his room, laying on his bed and reading a book. Although, he, Thor and the other Avengers had been spending a lot of time together recently, they still had moments where they each spent time alone, doing their own things, much as Loki was currently doing.

At that moment, Thor was on the training grounds practicing with Mjolnir and sparring with Sif and the Warriors Three while Natasha and Clint did some target practice with their respective weapons. Earlier at breakfast, Steve had said he was planning on going to his room and doing some drawings of the city. Bruce was speaking with Eir, Asgard's chief healer, about Asgardian healing technology, and Loki wasn't really sure where Tony was as the billionaire hadn't had much interest in Asgardian medical tech, having shown more interest in the other technologies Asgard had to offer, such as the bifrost. He hadn't mentioned exploring the workings of any of the Asgardian technologies at breakfast, though.

After breakfast, Loki had decided to return to his room and lose himself in a book in the hopes that maybe it would lull him to sleep, but he had had no such luck. For as tired as he was, his mind just refused to fall asleep. Although that may have been a good thing, considering what had happened the last time he tried taking a nap during the day.

Loki had been reading for about an hour when he was brought out of his book by a light knock on his open door. He looked up to see Tony step into the room.

"Hey, Lokes, what're you doing?"

Loki raised an eyebrow at him and pointedly looked down at the book in his lap then back up at Tony with a smirk.

"Oh, right," Tony said, shrugging off the unspoken 'duh.'

"Did you need something, Tony?" Loki asked, sitting up and swinging his legs over the side of the bed before placing his book on the bedside table.

"I was just in the mood for a snack and I was walking by your room anyway, so I thought I'd stop in and see if you wanted to come with," Tony offered.

"Sure. Why not?" Loki said and stood up to retrieve his boots.

He pulled them on and turned to Tony, opening his mouth to speak to the billionaire when, suddenly, agony ripped through Loki's mind and body and he collapsed to his knees with a cry of pain. He felt a tug on his mind and his room disappeared. Through the excruciating torment shooting through his mind and tricking his brain into thinking his body was being torn apart, Loki found himself somewhere else without his body ever moving from his room.

Images flashed through his mind in rapid succession. Chitauri flooding into Asgard; warriors being cut down left and right; Asgard fallen and burning; Thor, Frigga, and Odin lying bloody and dead; the Avengers lying nearby in the same condition; Loki himself lying broken and bleeding on the ground near his family and friends, only moments from following them into death. And above it all, towering over Loki and the other dead and dying was Thanos, standing tall and malevolent. Next to him was a man with a red face, holding the very spear Loki himself had used on Earth. Loki struggled to draw his final breaths as pain surged through him. Helplessly, he looked up at Thanos. The purple man smiled sadistically at him and spoke.

I am coming for them and for you. You will watch them all die, then you will know pain.

Loki returned to his body with a jolt and the pain disappeared, leaving him kneeling on the floor where he had fallen, panting and shuddering.

"Loki? What's wrong?" Tony asked worriedly, crouching down next to him and gently laying a hand on his back.

Any thoughts Loki might have had about brushing it off and denying that anything was wrong had fled the moment he collapsed in pain and images of pain and death flooded his mind. Now he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Thanos was coming, and that scared him. He wanted to take care of it himself and keep his family and friends and his realm safe, but he knew he couldn't do it on his own.

"Thanos is coming," Loki whispered.

"Here?" Tony asked.

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"He's been touching my mind. Telling me I will know pain."

"Why haven't you said anything before now?" Tony demanded.

"I wasn't sure it was truly him until now. I thought it was simply nightmares and flashbacks. I hoped it was just memories," Loki said softly.

"We need to warn your family."

"No."

Loki stood up, regaining his composure as the pain and images faded and his resolve to keep this to himself returned. He regretted telling Tony. He had told Tony in a moment of weakness, but that didn't mean he had to tell his family too.

"Why not?" Tony asked.

"Thanos is coming for me. It's my problem not theirs," Loki said with a shake of his head.

"That's bull. Someone is threatening you. That makes it their problem," Tony said.

"It doesn't have to be. I can handle this."

"Do you really think your family wants you to handle this? Don't you think they want to help you?"

"It's not their problem," Loki said again. "If I can take care of it, they never even have to know."

'And I can finally make them proud of me,' he thought.

"You really think Thanos will just leave them alone? You really think that he won't go after them just to hurt you?" Tony asked incredulously.

"All the more reason for me to keep this between Thanos and myself."

"This is stupid!" Tony yelled in frustration. "You're not even going to warn them? Let them know there is a danger, if not for you then for them?"

"They are not in danger! Nothing will happen to them. I won't let it!" Loki yelled back.

"Stop trying to earn their love!"

Loki's mouth snapped shut in shock.

"I- I'm not-"

For once his silver tongue abandoned him as shame flowed through him. Tony had seen right though him and Loki was ashamed that not only had someone been able to read him so well, but it was true. After so long, after so many people, including his own family, telling him that he was loved, he still felt the need to earn their love and pride. And he couldn't seem to stop himself. Even if he knew in his head that he didn't need to do things to make his family care, he couldn't seem to help trying anyway. What was wrong with him? Was he so weak and insecure that he couldn't take his family at face value but instead felt the need to prove himself? To do something big and heroic to make himself worthy of being Odin and Frigga's son and Thor's brother? Was he that pitiful?

"You think you have to do or say something to make them love you, but you can't."

Loki looked away, blinking back tears. He refused to cry. Tony reached out and grabbed his shoulder, forcing Loki to turn back to him.

"You can't earn their love because you already have it. When are you going to start letting yourself believe that?"

Loki pulled away from Tony and turned his back to the man as a single tear rolled down his face. He quickly pulled himself together, though, roughly wiping away the tear before turning back to Tony, his expression closed and unyielding.

"It's my problem. I won't tell them," he said stubbornly.

'I won't give them any more reason to regret me,' he added mentally.

If it came to it, Tony would warn Odin, Frigga, and Thor himself but he wanted Loki to do it. Whether the younger prince wanted to admit it or not, he knew as well as Tony that his family was in danger. Thanos would come after them just because Loki cared about them if for no other reason. And the way to save them wasn't to keep the information from them and let them be taken off guard. It was to tell them and let them help Loki in the coming fight.

"Look, I know you're dealing with a lot right now and your head is still all scrambled, but tell me, deep down, underneath all the crap, all the fronts and pride and stubbornness, at the very core of you, do you care about them?" Tony asked.

Loki opened his mouth to answer but Tony cut him off.

"No! I want the truth," Tony said, his eyes brokering no room for argument.

He had had enough. Loki's stubborn sense of guilt, self-depreciation, and feelings of sole responsibility was going to get him killed and Tony was not about to let that happen. Tony knew he could talk to Loki all day and not change anything. The only person Loki couldn't argue with or ignore completely was himself. Tony just needed to rile him up and get him to verbally back himself into a corner, and the billionaire knew challenging Loki's love for his family would be just the thing to get him to see sense.

"No lies, no deflecting, no skirting around the subject. Look me in the eye and tell me, yes or no, do you, at the very deepest part of you, even care whether they live or die?"

Loki raised his eyes to meet Tony's and they shared a long, hard look before he finally spoke.

"Yes," Loki said softly.

"Well, that sounded convincing," Tony snorted sarcastically. "How about we just keep this to ourselves and let them all get blindsided by Thanos? All he's going to do is kill them after all. Let's just forget about it and let it go. It'll be easier that way. They're not that important anyway. "

"How dare you suggest they don't matter!" Loki exploded. "My family is everything to me! They are my life!"

Tony looked Loki right in the eye, a fiery gleam shining in his brown eyes as he spoke intensely.

"Then save them."

A/N And there you have it for this week. Please let me know what you think and be sure to let me know if you want an update next Friday like normal or not. :)

Next chapter, Loki finally clues everyone else into what's going on, plans are made, and Loki and Frigga have a tender mother/son moment.