A/N: Here's a little smidge of plot development for you, Tony is a man with a plan! Also, I've currently just about finished the bare bones of the following chapter, which is shaping up to be an absolute BEAST, with a million bits of dialogue and just about every character possible demanding their 15 minutes of fame. It's (obviously) the sequel to this chapter, so if it seems a bit short/not very well explained here, don't fear, ALL THE WORDS are coming shortly! As soon as I've edited the 7300 word monster that is...
Also, so glad people seemed to like the previous chapter and not think it was too OOC! Very reassuring, thank you all dearests! xD xD

Disclaimer: Characters. Not mine. Technology: Not mine. Plot: Kind of mine. I think? Title, from part of the film score of the movie by Alan Silvestri. Because sometimes only the ACTUAL Avengers music will do!

Chapter 15. A Little Help.

''For – fucks – sake! God- damn it!''

Tony was lying on the floor of his workshop, arms bent at unnatural and painful angles, hips digging into the cold polished surface of the tiles and teeth gritted in frustration. He was trying to wire a particularly tricky and intricate part of the Sonic Borer Mark 1, a new low heat drilling method for deep sea oil rigs that had been his latest commission before the whole Avengers Assemble mini break last week. After burning his finger and failing to get the wires to fuse for what felt like the millionth time, he crawled out from under the casket, throwing his soldering iron back onto his desk and clutching his left hand where a shiny red lump was throbbing and stinging. He was already behind schedule on this; he didn't have the time or the patience to put up with it misbehaving. Being the latest, richest and most technically adept pioneer in green and eco energy, Tony Stark had deadlines to work towards, deadlines that would arrive regardless of whether he was entertaining two Norse gods in his house, one of whom required his constant attention and one of whom stole it in a different way altogether.

Thor was still finding life on Midguard a challenge, and was bumbling through the days seemingly content to remain as adroit as an 8 year old child, whereas Loki…Loki demanded Tony's attention unknowingly, Tony found himself looking forward to the hours when Loki would come and hang out in the living room after Thor had gone to sleep, listening to Tony moan about his work, drinking it all in and occasionally asking questions or offering ideas. He was a distraction through no effort of his own; though mostly a welcome one – Tony was surprised at how much the god had understood of Earths technology; whether he had picked it up at lightening speed or already had knowledge of it was anybodies guess. Tony wouldn't have put either past him.

As a result, his productivity rate had slowed considerably over the past few days; what with having to constantly check up on Thor and getting tangled up in discussions with Loki that invariably went off at so many tangents that Tony more often than not forgot what he was originally doing and started tinkering with something else because of an idea that had suddenly seized him during their conversation. Loki was talking more and more as every hour passed, he seemed content in Tony's company, and had more or less completely healed from his New York injuries –physically, at least. The mental scars were still cutting pretty deep; the most telling sign being that Loki and Thor still had not had anything which could be described as a conversation since being at the villa, and Tony was yet to even see them in the same room. He'd wondered briefly if this was ever going to be resolved; he was getting to the end of his tether with Thor's moping, but he was loathe to even bring up the subject with Loki – he was happy with the new status quo, would even go as far as to say he was enjoying the younger god's company, and he didn't want to risk upturning the basket. Or upsetting the nest. Or whatever the hell that saying was.

Tony was also curious and slightly hurt as to the lack of contact by any of the Avengers, or Pepper – the only contact he had with anyone who wasn't Loki, Thor, JARVIS, his cleaner or the takeaway delivery guy was with Fury, and that regular evening conversation remained as pleasant as it always had been. Fury was treating him with barely veiled suspicion as well as his usual disdain ever since the night after Tony and Loki's 'breakfast chat', apparently hearing what he had asked for – a development – wasn't actually good enough, and Tony was being 'monitored' in order to check that Loki hadn't brainwashed him and was planning on stealing all of Stark Industries secrets, secrets that linked very heavily with SHEILD. Tony supposed it was strange to hear that he and Loki had established some form of 'mutual respect', and were even semi-working together, but as he had told Fury – what the fuck was he supposed to be doing? Wasn't this what everyone had wanted, when they all agreed to send Loki here in the first place? Wasn't this better than silence or enmity?

The bottom line was, Tony smelt hypocrisy and distrust, and he hated it. He hated that Fury had somehow managed to rub off his own reservations on Tony's friends, because why else would they be completely ignoring him? Why else would Pepper be ignoring him? Sure, she'd been upset, but it had nearly been a whole week since he had seen her. He hadn't even had a phone call, and that wasn't like Pepper. He hated that he was being cut out. He would have hated it purely from his own point of view anyway, but he especially hated that even now, Loki was still being viewed as dangerous, as a threat. He'd so passionately told the god that there was a chance, there was hope, he could recover, he could change – and what the hell was the point if no one was willing to see that? If no one apart from Tony believed in him? The fact that no one else really seemed to 'get it' yet made Tony ridiculously angry, and as a result, he'd had a plan brewing for the past few days, a plan that, like most of his ideas, had the potential to blow up in his face and ruin everything, but held enough promise of reward that he was going to fuck the risks and do it anyway. He hadn't told Loki of the plan yet, or even Thor, not because it didn't involve them, but because the less time either of them had to talk him out of it or make it see it for how ridiculous it really was, the better.

Catching sight of the clock on the opposite wall, Tony realised that if this plan was going to come to fruition, and come to fruition tonight, now was the time to get the ball rolling. Casting a glare over the Sonic Borer, Tony vowed to get the better of it the next day, and with a final squeeze of his still-throbbing burn, he strode from the workshop, calling to JARVIS as he made his way upstairs to find food and Thor ice. Lots of ice.

XXXXX

Thor was lying on the sofa in the living room fully engrossed in a showing of The Titanic, alternating chewing mouthfuls of popcorn (a recent, albeit messy discovery of his) and shouting out instructions at the characters. Tony still hadn't quite managed to convince him that people inside 'the magic box' couldn't hear anything he said, weren't real, and probably wouldn't have listened anyway. Shaking his head at just how loud Thor's inside voice was, he made his way over the other sofa, hand wrapped in a freezing cold cloth, and prepared to activate Stage One of his Plan of Action. Clearing his throat to get Thor's attention, he instructed JARVIS to pause the movie, and had to stop himself laughing for about the hundredth time at Thor's standard overreaction to things seemingly obeying the power of Tony's voice alone.

''Hey, big guy. Enjoying the movie? It gets even sadder you know, just warning you. There's Kleenex over there, you might wanna grab some later''.

Thor returned his attempt at a greeting with a blank look and a furrowed brow. Tony realised they probably didn't have Kleenex on Asgard.

''Kleenex…tissues…look, never mind. Not important. I need to ask you a favour''.

At this, Thor sat up straighter, grinning.

''You have need of me, Son of Stark? I am to complete a job for you? A quest?''

His booming voice was full of gratitude and pride, and Tony was once again reminded just how medieval Thor was compared to Loki. It was slightly ridiculous, and Tony was seized with a second of doubt about involving Thor in what was perhaps the most important stage of his plan. He hurried on, he was here now, and it was still a good idea. It had to work.

''Yeah, err…sort of. Listen, I want you to contact the others – Steve and 'Tasha and Clint and Bruce and Pepper, you can do that right? With the phone I gave you? – and I want you to tell them they have to get here immediately, that you suspect I've been compromised by your brother, that he's been acting strangely and you haven't seen me for hours and you think I might be in danger. And that you require back up. Like now. Tonight. All of them.''

Thor looked confused again, and Tony didn't miss the flash of pain that crossed his face when he'd mentioned Loki.

''Danger? At the hands of my brother? What is this, what has happened? What has Loki done? And…but… I have seen you!''

Taking a deep breath, Tony counted to five. If there was one plus point to be gained from having Thor around, it was that he was finally learning the true meaning of patience. Sort of.

''No, no, there's no danger. I'm fine. Loki's fine. He hasn't done anything, he's upstairs, I guess, avoiding you. But you have to make the others think he has done something, you have to make them think there's a good enough reason for them to come and investigate. It's like…pretence, right? It's like acting. Like Titanic''.

He followed the realisation slowly dawn across the blonde gods face.

''You wish…you wish for me to lie, Stark? Lie to our friends? That is Loki's forte, not mine, nor is it honourable! Why do you wish this?''

Thor had moved from a look of confusion to one of great disproval, and Tony realised this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. Damn Asgardians and their honour.

''Not lie, Thor. Not in a bad way anyway. Just…pretend. It's the only way they'll all come, and I have something important to talk to them about. I get the feeling Fury's banned them from contacting me, or something, and I can't exactly leave you guys here to go and find them myself. Besides, it's important for you that they come. For Loki too. You want to reconcile with him, right?''

That last line was Tony's trump card, and he prayed that it had worked. Thor still looked reluctant to commit the apparent atrocity that was a lie, but Tony could see he was now torn between wanting his brother back and wanting to maintain his apparent 'honour'. Loki won.

''Man of Iron, I do not know what this mischief is…but you say it will reunite me with Loki. If carrying out your wish is all I need to do to guarantee this, I will be glad to assist. I will summon the others. And your 'Pepper'. But, erm, my…phone… is it, I don't know…'' and he broke off, searching the air around him, patting at his torso and the sofa, as if expecting his phone to jump into his hand the same way Mjolnir did.

Tony grinned, and slapped Thor on the shoulder.

''Nice one, point break. Don't worry about the phone, JARVIS will talk you through it. It's in the hallway, on the table near the stairs, if I remember correctly…just go out there and ring them all, oh, and the most important thing – DON'T let SHEILD muscle in on this, tell them all NOT to alert security. I don't want any agents coming with them. JUST them. Understand? And Pepper. Tell them they MUST keep the info on lock down, or….or Loki might finish me off. Yeah, that'll do. They need to come quick, and they need to come ALONE.''

Thor nodded in agreement and with apparent understanding. Satisfied that he'd explained himself as well as he needed, Tony followed him out into the hallway, spying Thor's phone where he said it would be and handing it to him.

''JARVIS, help him out. I don't want him video-calling HQ or something and causing a full scale international hostage incident''.

Leaving Thor and his mobile in the capable hands of JARVIS, Tony started up the stairs, ready to deploy Stage Two. This one was probably going to be a lot trickier, but he needed practice. If everything went as he expected, he was going to find himself in a potentially very sticky situation later; he needed his powers of persuasion to be gunning at full throttle. Just as well he was due a conversation with the acclaimed universal 'silvertongue'.

XXXXXX

Loki's desk was small and covered in books, books that he'd squirreled away from various corners of Tony's house whenever he'd been sure Thor was otherwise occupied and had proceeded to escape the confines of his room. There was a mishmash of cookery books, engineering manuals and stories about a very boring looking man in a suit called 'James Bond 007', and so far Loki didn't think much to any of them, but they were books all the same, and some of the technology ones were mildly interesting, even if they did mostly consist of concepts he'd learnt aeons ago. It intrigued him to study the mortals take on them, and more than once he'd let his mind wander into thinking just how powerful they could be if they pushed themselves more, if they let go of these ancient explanations and theories and understood things as he understood them. He'd been testing the water with Stark briefly over the last day or so, suggestion minute hints and tips whenever he saw the engineer wrestling with a problem, and come to the conclusion that the man was definitely more advanced than the majority of his race, and had potential – real potential for magic, if not the ability. He was just pondering why this interested him so, why he had such a preoccupation with Starks work, and with Stark himself, when the man in question knocked on Loki's door – at least, Loki assumed it was Stark, Thor wouldn't have dared be so brazen after their last 'incident'.

''Loki? Can I come in?''

Yep, Stark.Loki rose out of his chair and crossed the short distance to the door, turning the handle to unlock it. Tony pushed the door open and Loki stood back to let him enter, brows knitted in curiosity – even after their 'truce' or 'bonding session' two days before, neither had actively sought out the other for company yet. Tony crossed over the floor and hovered at the base of Loki's bed; nodding, the god indicated that he should sit, and made his way back over to his chair.

''To what do I owe this unexpected visit, Stark?''

Loki noticed Tony looked slightly uncomfortable, although restless and…was that excitement he detected?

''Tony, please, I thought we'd got rid of this Stark nonsense – Thor is bad enough with Son of Stark.'' Tony shuddered, and Loki understood, being referred to by the name of your father had to hurt when you spent your whole life avoiding any paternal connections. It wasn't as if Tony strode around calling him 'Laufeyson' or 'Odinson', both of which grated uncomfortably. Slightly embarrassed and with an apologetic gesture, Loki readdressed his host.

''Tony. What is it that you want?''

''I've got a, err…proposition for you. Something I need to run by you. Inform you of. Kind of like, a, um, warning.''

Loki noticed how quickly Tony had gone from 'proposition' to 'inform' to 'warn'. Narrowing his eyes, all his old walls and barriers were put on high alert. Tony seemed to notice the change in his demeanour, for he hurried on, clearly wanting to avoid any hostility.

''No no, it's not anything bad, you're not in any danger, nothing's wrong. It's fine. It's just… we can't go on forever like this, holed up here, with only each other for company. I don't know what the hell's up with the other guys, but I'm betting Fury's got them all on some sort of SHEILD arrest. And I'm sick of it. If you want to recover, if you want to be forgiven and all that, it has to be by everyone. It has to come from all of us. And they all do accept this, I know they do – you heard what they said in the meeting – but the fact is they're being kept away from you, and thus you aren't getting your full chance. So I've….arranged a way for them all to be here. Together. Tonight. And I want you to come down and see them and Iwanttomakethisagroupthing.''

Tony rushed out his last sentence, apparently worried that it was going to act as some sort of grenade and completely obliterate any understanding that he and Loki had come to. Loki felt his heart rate increase as Tony had spoken, the familiar feeling of dread and panic and losing control threatening to overwhelm him, but he saw, even through this, that Tony was talking sense. It didn't mean he wasn't still terrified.

''A group thing? What if they don't want it to be a group thing…you can't force them to accept me, I'll never be like them…I'm not an Avenger and I'm not in your superhero family…they won't, I can't, I don't' - ''

Loki was letting his anxiety run away with him, he stopped and took a deep breath, there was no way he was afraid of the Avengers, surely? But they were afraid of him, he reminded himself. And that's just as bad. That's worse. He hated anything that reminded him of being different, outcast, a monster.

''Loki. It doesn't matter. I'm not asking you to be an Avenger – you really think Fury would sanction that? You're out of you're mind again.''

Tony's easy grin was reassuring, calming, Loki forced himself to pay attention and not freak out. Tony continued.

''All I want is for them to see you like I do. See that you're not a threat anymore. I want them to not have to avoid me because they've been ordered to avoid you. I'm not asking for happy families, just a sense of normality. You want normality, right?''

Loki hesitated, before nodding.

''Right. And seen as you don't really have one of your own, you're going to have to put up with my version. Which involves friends, alcohol, food and…not much else really. Various combinations of those variables. Except work. And you've already been introduced to that part.''

Slowly, the sense of panic and urge to run was leaving. Loki could see that Stark – Tony – was doing this for him, as much as he was for himself. This wasn't a trick, he wasn't going to be arrested or punished or taken away anywhere. Out of his comfort zone didn't count.

''One more thing….''

He snapped his attention back to Tony, waiting with bated breath.

''…Thor's one of the Avengers now. You have to reconcile with him. If not for his sake or your sake, for mine. And the rest of the team. There's no point getting everyone together on an even footing if the pair of you still refuse to even be in the same room. It'll be like putting a band-aid on when the wound's still flowing. And I'm not good with the sight of blood. So, you're going to patch things up''.

Loki made as though to protest, but Tony's voice was so authoritive and so definite that all his arguments died on his tongue. Stark wouldn't let him argue, he wouldn't see why Loki couldn't be friends with Thor. Loki wasn't being difficult on purpose. Tony wouldn't see that Loki wanted to hate Thor, but he couldn't, and that just made him hate himself, and then Thor thought that Loki hating himself was his fault, and Loki knew this, which then just made Loki even more guilty and even more messed up and even more conflicted. Tony wouldn't see it because Loki couldn't ever explain it, and thus there was no point bringing it up. He'd let Tony think he agreed, and when the time came when he had to face Thor…well, they'd all see then. And if they didn't, at least they'd see it wasn't as easy as Tony was professing. Whatever 'it' was. It was all well and good trying to build bridges with the others…if Tony thought it was possible, he'd dare to harbour a hope…but Thor was too far away, too large, too big of an issue to reach that easily. Looking up, Loki carefully tried to remove all traces of thoughts about his brother from his face, and did an excellent job at sounding contrite.

''OK. I will meet with them…if I must. I will take your lead. I understand your reasoning and I respect your efforts. Now, if you'd excuse me, I think I should sleep, I get the feeling tonight will be exhausting. Notify…notify me when they arrive''.

Loki made to stand up, and Tony took his cue. Shocked at how easily Loki had accepted his terms, he had one last thing to warn the god of before he left him to prepare for the evening.

''Sure. One thing before I go…I kind of had to pretend that I was in danger, to get them to come at all. So don't be alarmed if they turn up in like, suits and stuff. But don't worry, I'll take to them all first and explain the ruse before I call for you. Honest, it'll be fine. And I'll make them leave the weapons at the door''.

Loki felt his alarm rising again, but he'd already agreed, and strangely, he felt reassured by Stark. He believed him, felt safe with him. Tony wouldn't have arranged this if he thought doing so would have brought any real danger to Loki. And besides, Thor, the idiot, he wouldn't let anyone harm him, even if Loki didn't want or need his protection. He nodded again, resigning himself to his fate, and crossed over to the bed, motioning that he really did need sleep now. Tony smiled, an oddly friendly smile, a proper smile, before turning and walking towards the corridor, closing the door softly on his way out.

Loki pulled the sheets over his fully clothed body and sank his head down onto the pillow, mind full with conflicting thoughts and emotions. The one that nagged him most of all was conspicuous in its unfamiliarity, he'd felt it a couple of times over the last week, more so during the last two days, and especially strongly during the conversation he'd just had. Mentally exhausted, he mulled it over as he made himself comfy, realising right before he succumbed to his nap what it was.

Contentment.

For the first time since he could remember, he felt content. Safe. Secure. He could be himself, at last. And no one was threatening him, or mocking him, or running away from him. Stark was even pulling people towards him. He drifted off, and also for the first time since he could remember, he was not plagued by horrors or bad visions or restless limbs. For the first time, his dream, however brief, wasn't a nightmare. For the first time, Loki rested.