A/N: Well, I'd never expected so many people to favourite/follow this story. Thank you so very much, I hope I won't disappoint you!

Chapter two) Letting a lie slip.

Morning came and what he found in his kitchen was quite the curious God. Tony coughed to notify of his presence, though it didn't seem to bother Loki much.

"I know most consider this Tower a playground, but somehow I never expected you would see it as anything other than a place in need of destruction," Tony said as he watched Loki slam a few kitchen-cupboard doors shut. The man turned to face his intruder, green eyes prying and positively murderous.

Tony made his way into the kitchen, brushing past Loki reasonably casually. He'd never thought he'd be roommate with the previous would-be destroyer of New York City, his enemy and an ex-God, but hey, he was a versatile man, adaptable. "Are you hungry?" he asked, grabbing a few things from the fridge to make himself some breakfast. As Loki didn't reply, he turned to look at him and saw a kind of doubting look on his face. "Okay, get out of the way, I'll make you something, but just today. Don't expect me to do it for the rest of the week, okay?"

"You act as if I'm staying here," Loki replied, stepping away from the kitchen counter where Tony started making something for breakfast. He ignored the fact that it was for him and he wasn't going to show any gratitude towards Stark. Not one 'thank you' would leave his lips.

"Where else are you going? I know you don't like me and I'm sure this Tower brings back a few unwanted memories, but it's better than the streets. Well, I wouldn't know of course. Never been broke." Tony said, turning towards the oven to heat it up.

He observed the God out of the corner of his eye, making sure he wasn't up to anything. Though, Loki still seemed awfully passive. Despite his former investigation of Tony's kitchen, he now merely stood and watched the view outside. Something seemed awfully off, but Tony couldn't put his finger on what it was. Save, of course, for the obvious factor that Loki wasn't trying to kill him. Tony continued to make breakfast and it was only when he'd finished it and stepped forward to put the plates down on the table, that the silence was broken.

"Something about having breakfast with your enemy..." Tony spoke the sliver of thought, though did not continue it. He sat down, shoving Loki's plate to the other end of the table. Loki seemed to hesitate for a moment, though then did sit. Ah, that probably meant he was hungry enough to forget about always wanting to disappoint Tony. Tony deliberately watched how the God started to eat, as it amused him greatly. Though, after not too long it got boring and he decided he might as well start on his endless list of things to do. He pulled the closest computer towards him and touched the screen to get it working. He knew that whatever he did would go right past Loki, which was why he unashamedly googled the God's name. He had never gotten round to it and it seemed about time to refresh his memory of Norse mythology. It might help him out with keeping the God tied down, after all.

"So, why are you here again?" Tony asked, while his eyes never left the screen. Who said women were the only ones that could multitask? He wasn't afraid to say he'd gotten quite the knack of it himself over the years. Heck, he'd never have time to sleep otherwise. "I mean, are you here willingly? Or was it more of a 'oh heck, no powers, I should go mingle with mortals'? Or... were you banished, or something?"

"It is -" Loki started to say, and the tone in his voice had been certain enough, but he, for some reason, halted. Tony looked up from the screen, as that did catch his attention.

"It is...?" he pressed on.

"It's none of your business," Loki decided, but it was definitely not what he had wanted to say at first. He seemed far too wary. Not wary of Tony, just wary of something.

"No, what were you going to say?" Tony insisted. "That you are banished? Is that it?" Loki seemed awfully uncomfortable. For a God of lies he wasn't doing a brilliant job of it. "So, you are banished."

"No!" Loki snapped back, though a moment later looked shocked and pushed back from the table to stand up. Tony frowned, not quite sure how to classify this behaviour. He watched Loki's back turn to him and a few moments later Loki was rushing to the door.

"Hey!" Tony shouted after him, far too intrigued to let the other go without another prod. "At least finish your breakfast."

Strangely enough, Loki disappeared into his room for the rest of the day. Tony had followed him and had banged on his door a few times, asking what was wrong, but he had received no answer. So he just left him there. He may not have much respect for the evil Loki was, but leaving him in his room, where he obviously wanted to be, worked well for him.

He had the entire day to research Loki in the Norse mythology as much as he wanted to. Strangely enough, reading the entire wikipedia page on him didn't clarify much, at all. He didn't know how much had been thought up by people who believed in them, and how much was really true...

"Dinner is ready, if you want it," Tony asked, standing outside Loki's bedroom. "I can bring you a plate if you want to eat in here, even though that is a bit boring and antisocial as you are staying here without paying anything and I've even made dinner for you..." he trailed off. Loki gave no answer, not even after a few minutes and thus, he turned around again. "I guess that's a no, then," he headed back to the kitchen, starting to eat his own dinner.

By the next morning Loki still hadn't appeared and he wondered what was keeping him from turning up. He didn't understand what had happened yesterday and thus he didn't know how to convince Loki to just open the door and come out. He didn't know what Loki was doing in there and to be frank, he wondered if he was even still in there as he hadn't heard anything from inside the room. However, he couldn't have left as the system would have told him that the door would have opened and closed and there was no way Loki had jumped out of the window, because the system would have told him that too.

It was gone eleven when he finally thought that this was going on too long. Pushing one of the screens aside, he headed towards Loki's room and knocked softly. "Loki, I don't know what you're doing in there, but whatever happened yesterday at breakfast, it doesn't matter, okay?" Tony asked. He hated this reassuring talk and he hated the fact that Loki needed it. Couldn't he just pull himself together? "Just, come out and have some food before you die of hunger in there," he said, knocking on the door again. "Are you even listening? You can't stay in there forever."

But, no reassurance, threat or question got any response out of the God. Tony sighed and for a moment was about to step away once more, but he wasn't going to do that. He didn't want Loki in his house and the longer the God stayed hidden the longer it would take for them to come up with a better solution. "Answer me now or I'm coming in," Tony spoke and waited only a short moment, before he pressed the code to open the door, despite it being locked from the inside. A moment later a noise sounded against the other end of the door, which was the only thing that stopped him from pushing it open.

"Oh no, you haven't blocked my way in, have you?" Tony asked, although was quite glad that he'd gotten a confirmation that Loki wasn't only still in there, but alive too. He wasn't quite sure why the latter was a relief, but was certain it had to do with not liking corpses in the Tower. He pushed against the door, but it was slammed right shut again. Ah, no blockage, other than Loki's aggression. Something about the way he did that seemed desperate. "I read you were 'silver-tongued'," Tony said, "I thought that meant you were good at talking." So, why was he not tricking Tony into staying out? Or whatever it was a 'God of Mischief' did. "At least tell me why you're acting like a ten-year-old."

It sounded like in response Loki had hit his fist against the door, which wasn't the sort of response he would expect the God to give him. Nothing truly made much sense today, Tony thought and Loki did least of all. "So, you're just going to spend the rest of your life sulking in there, or what?" Tony asked, mockingly. Another bang against the door. "You better not be making a mess of my room." Silence. "It feels like I'm talking to a wall. Do you know how that feels?" Something that could have been a groan followed and it was the first actual noise the God had left out. Well, it seemed an improvement, although Tony didn't quite understand what the noise was meant to mean. He really didn't have time for this. Maybe he should ask Pepper to babysit. Somehow he didn't trust the God enough for that to happen, though.

With Loki not answering anything he said, he figured that they weren't going to get anywhere. He let out a sigh and rubbed his temples shortly. "How am I going to get you out of there?" Tony asked, but again Loki only replied with anger. "If this is about yesterday and about you running away from breakfast, don't make a big deal about it. It was just breakfast, breakfast can happen again," he said, but a frustrated groan got returned to him. Strangely enough, the groan made sense. If he was right, Loki was telling him that it wasn't that... Tony pushed against the door again, but the outcome was unsuccessful.

He sat down on the floor against the wall. "Alright, if you don't want me inside, I won't come in, but I'm staying here," he said. "Now, if it's not about the food, what is it about? The topic? You don't want to be asked about how you got down here?" he asked, but again the same kind of noise came, though it was less frustrated. Tony didn't know what to make of it and let out a soft sigh. "You know, it would help if you used words instead of just groaning at me. Not only is it making me a little uncomfortable, but it's making me look like an idiot, not... that anyone's watching, but still, I'm here talking to someone who's only groaning in -" he cut himself off and shook his head. "Whatever. Can't you just talk?"

Loki replied with silence, which was a bit frustrating, more so than the groans he'd been making. However, the silence could be some kind of... clue? He couldn't talk? Why was he being so difficult? Did he just require the attention, or something? Tony let out a sigh and rubbed his temples once again. "Is it about the banishment?" Tony asked, thinking back at what their conversation had been on. He felt like he was talking to a deaf person, a blind person or someone with something wrong, trying to pry information out of one who didn't understand or didn't want to tell. He didn't know which one Loki was at this moment.

Tony heard a soft noise on the other side of the door. So it was about the banishment? "So it is?" the groan was now frustrated, which meant that he'd got it right, but that Loki wasn't happy about it, or at least, that is what he figured... "And what about it? You didn't want me to find out? You wanted me to think you'd come here for fun? What is it?!"

One thing that wasn't difficult to figure out, however, was that if Loki didn't talk for the sake of staying silent, he wouldn't have made a noise at all, which meant... "You really can't talk, can you?" A moment of silence and then a noise that could certainly be picked out to be an affirmative one. "And you are here because you are banished, right?" Tony continued. At least that would straighten it all out. What he did afterwards or whyLoki couldn't talk, were things he'd get to later. The response was once again affirmative and not long after that he heard a strange scramble, as if someone was picking themselves up from the floor. So, he hadn't been the only one that had decided to sit down. He quickly got up as he realized what it meant that Loki had gotten up too and indeed, the door opened.

His eyes met green ones and for what seemed to be a silence that lasted far too long and was far too... genuine, they just stood there.

"Hey, sucks being banished, but I can't say you didn't deserve it," Tony said then, getting their spirits up where they belonged, again, nice and hostile. Loki looked at him, seemed to consider a series of snide remarks and comebacks, before he settled on a somewhat intimidating smirk.

"A punishment has never managed to retain me. My banishment to Midgard won't last forever, nor is it the worst of the punishments I received."

Tony frowned. "I thought you couldn't talk."

"I couldn't," Loki replied, though it was clear he would rather leave the topic unspoken of.