"Anthony, you need to wake up."

Tony whined into his pillow. "Don't wanna. Go away."

"Anthony."

"Leave me alone."

"Anthony..."

When the comfortable haziness of sleep began to slowly drift away, Tony realized what he was doing right now. He was actively refusing an order from his owner. Not-owner. Whatever. And although he was still testing his boundaries, judging by the tone of annoyance in Loki's voice, this was not a good idea. Hastily – perhaps a bit too hastily, as it caused a sharp pain in his chest right where the reactor sat – he rolled onto his back and stifled a groan, blinking sleepily to see Loki, crouched down at his bedside and his brows furrowed. Not angry yet, but clearly annoyed. As he saw Tony starting to wake up, his expression softened.

"I know you have not slept well, but Thor will be expecting us to be ready shortly after dawn. It is about time."

The inventor's tired brain needed a few seconds to digest that sentence. First – how did Loki know that? Wait. Yes. Oh sweet mother of all embarrassments, that was horrible. He'd had a breakdown right in front of Loki and he'd told him so much that he wasn't supposed to know – that nobody was supposed to know, really – and had literally cried in his arms. Most. Awkward. Moment. Ever.

Alright, happened, not changing, so he might as well get over it. Moving on to secondly: Shortly after dawn. He glanced out of the window. It was pitch black outside. Literally pitch black. And Loki was waking him up.

The world was so unfair. Or... the worlds. He was seriously too tired to deal with that right now and so he didn't manage more than an affirmative sound in reply before forcing himself upright. Standing up wasn't the most difficult thing he'd ever done, right? But it felt that way, right now. Jeez, Tony, stop being a whiny little child, this is not the worst thing that's happened to you. Besides, he had been able to go on for days without sleep before, so why not now?

He swung his legs off the bed and swallowed, grimacing at the bitter, metallic taste on the back of his throat. Where did that come from now?

With a shake of his head, he stood up and looked at Loki. The god was wearing the same clothes as yesterday and they looked rumpled, as if he had slept in them. His hair was tousled and he looked every inch like somebody who had just crawled out of bed.

Had he slept in Tony's bed?!

Apparently, the inventor's staring was very obvious, because Loki made a shooing motion with his hands and told him to get going already. He had probably overslept himself (what kind of normal person rises at dawn, anyway?) and just wanted to be on time now, which was why he had come to Tony's room before dressing himself. That could take hours, judging by the hundreds of straps and buckles the engineer had seen on the armour earlier.

That had to be it. Yes.

Day three with Loki began with a hasty scramble to get dressed and halfway presentable – he was riding with princes, after all – and continuous hiding of yawns that just wouldn't stop coming. Loki had explained that they would have breakfast later, so they made their way to the stables without visiting Finny in the kitchen. What a shame, the poor boy would be devastated. Tony grinned to himself.

Fandral and Hogun had already mounted their horses and were chattering among themselves (or, actually, Fandral talked and Hogun seemed to be somewhere else entirely, lost in his own thoughts. Tony hadn't heard him speak a single word yet. Loki greeted them with a nod and vanished into the stable, Tony on his heel. They picked the same horses that they had practised with the day before (or, to be more exact, Tony had practised and Loki had laughed at his expense from his own horse). They were already saddled so all they had to do was mount them.

Ah, yes. About that.

"Loki!", the engineer yelped. "The horse is trying to eat me!"

"Most certainly not", came the dry reply. "You are aware that they are vegetarian, yes?"

"Well, this one isn't! I swear, it's going to eat me!"

Loki rolled his eyes. "You got along with it just fine yesterday."

"Maybe it's on its period", Tony grumbled sulkily.

"It is a stallion, Anthony."

"Can't hear you, busy being eaten."

There was a long, deep sigh and a rustle of fabric and then, Loki stood beside him and practically hoisted Tony up onto his horse. The inventor yelped and clung to the reins for a moment, but then willed himself to remember what he had learned the day before. Riding wasn't that hard.

"Okay then, but don't expect me to shoot anything from up here", he declared. "Not that I've got a problem with shooting things, but bow and arrow aren't exactly my strength."

"No-one is expecting you to shoot anything", Loki replied with a trace of amusement. "To be honest, I mostly asked for you to come so I have someone around to talk to when I have to spend my time with oafs like Fandral." The last bit was spoken so loud that the blond man was bound to hear it even over his own talking and got an immediate response.

"Loki, you hurt my feelings", Fandral drawled and threw a leering grin in Loki's direction.

"What a shame", the god commented drily. "I should go and pick some flowers to soothe your heartache."

"Or you could just come over here and –"

"Still no luck, Fandral."

"So I have to pick my flowers myself?"

"It appears so."

Tony watched the exchange with an amused expression, although he felt a pang of sympathy for Fandral. The guy seemed to be seriously crushing on Loki for, what had he said the other day, two or three centuries?! He wouldn't even live that long. Especially not now with the poison slowly creeping through his body.

He shook his head as if that would help him to get rid of the thoughts. He was going to have a nice day now and definitely not going to think about the palladium or the disgusting taste it left in the back of his throat. A nice day. When had he last started a day thinking it was going to be nice? Loki had him here three days and Tony was already all wrapped around his lil' finger. He should be ashamed of himself, really, but Loki hadn't given him any reason to fear him, so why waste the bit of calmness he had on panicking about something that wasn't worth the effort? He could worry when the time came. Now, he was going to enjoy his day. Because he could do that, apparently.

They departed almost half an hour later, when an apparently hungover Thor finally arrived with Volstagg in his tow, making Tony wonder why he had had to hurry so much. He was riding next to Loki, the last in the formation, following Hogun and Volstagg while Fandral and Thor led them all through Asgard's streets. All of them, including Loki, were dressed in lighter leather outfits than the ones Tony had seen them in before, without metal parts and definitely easier to move in. Even out here in the streets, the golden colour was overwhelmingly present and Tony looked forward to seeing something else again.

He got something else before they reached Vanaheim.

The inventor had just been about to ask how the hell they would reach another world when the answer presented itself. A giant, long bridge, glowing in rainbow colours, that stretched over space and made all of Tony's instincts revolt because hey, oxygen? Apart from just about every law of physic...

"The Bifröst", Loki said upon seeing his wide-eyed gaping. "The bridge that connects Asgard with all the other realms."

"All the realms?", the engineer repeated. "As in, every single one?"

Loki gave him a unfathomable look, no doubt thinking something he didn't let shine through, before he answered: "Yes. Every single one."

Home. The thought struck him like a lightning and suddenly, Tony was glad he didn't have to walk on his own. Home. This was his key to get back to Earth, to... no, not his family, but the closest thing he had to one. If they were still alive. He couldn't find out if he didn't go there himself, could he? This... thing, the Bifröst, it would him allow to return home. It repeated in his head over and over again. Home. The key to get home. Right at my feet... figuratively speaking. Hooves, that's more like it. If he could just find a way to get there alone and figure out how to use it... Ah, wait.

"So", he said slowly, "this is making me curious. How do you operate this intergalactic portal thing?"

"The gatekeeper Heimdall can activate its powers with his sword. The only other way use it is taking Gungnir, the king's spear, and embed it in the socket." Loki watched him with keen eyes and Tony tried not to let his disappointment show. Gatekeeper. Of course they would have a gatekeeper for a place like this. It would be ridiculous if they hadn't. But still... it felt like Thor had crushed his building hopes with that hammer of his that he currently swung around while recounting some tale to Fandral. This thing could bring him home, it had given him hope that he had forbidden himself to have, that he could actually go home, but... there was nothing to it, after all. There was no way he would get past a gatekeeper without permission when he didn't even manage to find his way out of the palace without being caught.

Realizing that Loki probably expected an answer, he said belatedly: "I see. He's a good gatekeeper, I assume?" Dammit, Tony, keep your stupid mouth shut!

"Very much so. He can see everything that occurs in all the nine realms and beyond that."

"That's... yeah." Nothing much to say to that. "That counts as good gatekeeper, I guess."

"It does indeed." Loki looked forward again, his expression somewhat more tense than before. Alright, so Tony's line of questioning hadn't exactly been subtle, so the god had probably noticed where he was going with it. Well, damn. He stared at the reins in his hands and noticed for the first time just how artfully they were made, with black ornaments burned into the brown leather. They didn't form any specific pattern, at least, none that Tony could see, but that made them even more fascinating to stare at (it could be the fact that there was a certain prince whose eyes he didn't want to meet, too, but intricate patterns sounded like a far better excuse for that).

Why did he have a bad conscience, anyway? It wasn't like he owned it to Loki. He had bought him as a slave and Tony had made pretty clear that he was neither respectful nor obedient nor happy with being a slave, so he had absolutely no reason to behave himself in a way that made Loki happy. More like the opposite. He had done it with all his 'owners' before, so why not with this one?

He had posed that question to himself time and time again in these past few days, but he never found a sufficient answer. Yes, Loki was much kinder than anyone he had encountered in a long time, but still, it had taken him less than three days (day three was just getting started, after all) to make Tony trust him – to some degree, at least. He had told him about Pepper, for crying it out loud.

Only when they reached the strange (which was actually just the word Tony used so he didn't have to say golden again) dome at the end of the bridge, Tony tore his gaze away from his hands, or, um, the interesting pattern on the reins, and looked at their surroundings. Meaning, mostly empty space that should make it impossible to breathe or, you know, live, but it didn't. Obviously. It should be a sad statement about his life that this wasn't the weirdest thing he had experienced in the last, what, not even 72 hours?

Thor exchanged some words with the gatekeeper, an intimidating, tall man in a golden armour who didn't look like the classic Asgardian (as in big, blonde, blue-eyed) but was dark-skinned and met Tony's gaze out of shining, golden eyes that seemed like they could see right through all of his masks and lies into his core. He would say it was fascinating, or maybe thrilling, but actually it was just fucking unsettling, that's what it was. He looked away pretty quickly...

...which caused him to meet Loki's eyes, of course, and he smiled weakly as he asked: "So, how exactly does this thing work? I mean, what you did there when you... got me", yeah, Tony, very subtle, "was definitely something like teleporting, but how do you do that sort of thing? I'm not sure how y'all handle things here in Gold City, but where I come from, we've got physics, and those have laws, and you should be arrested for breaking every single one of them. Always. Let's start with how we're even breathing."

The mage looked at Tony for a long moment, but then luckily decided to roll with his poorly performed out-of-the-awkward-silence-leap and replied: "Have you ever heard of the ash tree Yggdrasil?" Tony shook his head mutely. "When I, as you so sophisticatedly put it, teleport, I use its branches to reach my destination."

"I, uh, what? Like, you're climbing the – wait, what kind of tree anyway?" The inventor shook his head. "That's absolutely – well, I don't know if that stuff is common knowledge here, but if you wanna explain it to me, you'll need to start from ground zero. Or maybe less than zero. Yeah. That'd be great."

Finally, Loki laughed, even if it was just a little bit. Nodding, he said: "Yes, I shall do that. But before I begin, don't you want to see it for yourself?"

"What do you mean, see for my- whoa!" Without any warning, Tony felt a pull ripping him from where he stood (or, more accurately, sat) and he had just enough presence of mind to cling to his mount's mane as everything became a blur of colours. Rainbow bridge, huh. His whole body told him to close his eyes because otherwise, he might just throw up into the multi-coloured empty space, but the swirl of stars and suns and moons was just to captivating not to watch. So what if it made him feel slightly sick, this was just about everything astronautics could ever hope to discover. They were travelling so damn fast that they could move between planets in mere seconds, and that without special equipment or suits or anything.

Just a moment later, it was over again, and a strong breeze blew his (slightly too long) hair out of his face. Tony breathed in deeply and looked around, and for a second he almost believed that he was back on Earth. Then, he reminded himself that no, this was Vanaheim (with an 'r' that was impossible to pronounce tacked somewhere, but he decided to leave that out). He half-turned towards Loki and admitted: "Okay, so I'm impressed. How do the horses do that thing where they don't freak out? I thought they were more... skittish."

"Some of Asgard's horses get trained especially for this sort of travel", Loki explained. "Now, you wanted to know something about Yggdrasil, right?" He tugged at the reins of his mount and it began to trot behind the rest of the group, Tony following suit. Soon, they were next to each other, close enough to talk in a normal voice, and the engineer challenged: "Sure. Hit me."

And Loki did.

He talked, slowly at first, but in no time getting into it and explaining with fluid hand motions and clever words, with a glint to his eyes that Tony had never seen before (alright, he had only known Loki for almost three days, but still; this seemed unique). He talked about Yggdrasil, the nine realms nestled in its branches and their connection to one another, about the way some mages were able to walk these branches so they could travel without having to use the Bifröst, about hidden pathways between realms, and then he came to magic. Of course, the topic made Tony sceptical at first, but Loki's way of speaking about it had him hooked pretty quickly. He threw in some remarks of his own and after what was surely an hour, let the god convince him that magic was just another form of science that wasn't yet discovered by mortals. Humans. Whatever.

The conversation came to a halt when they reached a forest, apparently the place where Thor and his friends were planning to hunt. The horses were bound to trees near the brim of the forest and after a short glance to Tony, Loki offered to watch them to prevent theft because there was a village nearby and too many people on a hunt would only drive away the prey. Fandral gave the two of them a trademark suggestive grin and a wink, but followed the other three into the forest.

Loki rummaged around in the saddle bags of his horse, then he pulled out a small, white linen bag that contained a loaf of bread and some cheese, as well as a variation of different kinds of fruit. Perks of being a prince, Tony guessed, this was practically a picnic. Let Thor do the hunting business, he had no problems with that.

After handing over a slice of bread, Loki asked: "Well then, are you going to tell me what that is?" He gave a nod towards the arc reactor.

"Wow, now that was subtle", Tony mused, but he wasn't actually startled or even surprised. He had noticed that the god was interested in his little night light, and although he might not be ready to share the story behind it just yet, he could probably explain the technological aspects, couldn't he? Knowledge for knowledge, that seemed fair. He cleared his throat. "Well, it's actually much bigger. The original thing was big enough to fill the bathroom of..." He hesitated to say my room, but that's what it was, wasn't it? Loki had given them to him. "... of my room", and yes, that sounded much more careful than he wanted it to, but whatever, "or maybe I'm exaggerating here, but you know what I mean. It was big. This baby here", he tapped the reactor with a fingernail, "is a miniature of that technology. Powered by a palladium core and completely clean. No environmental pollution or anything, not that that seems to be a problem on Asgard. I made it smaller, more compact, because I think you can imagine that anything else would've been pretty impractical." He gave a nervous little laugh, because despite his light attitude, the topic still set him on edge.

"And why do you need it?", Loki inquired curiously, but there was something else, something less innocent behind his words, something in his eyes that made him seem almost predatory. Tony didn't like that look at all.

"Let's just say it's... important. Health issues and all that." Close enough.

"Health issues", the god repeated, sounding almost incredulous.

"Yeah, it's, uh..." Tony began to scramble for an excuse, what could possibly require something like the reactor to fix it that would not mention shrapnel and how he got it and why –

Thankfully, Loki took on the speaking part: "And you said it has a palladium core, didn't you?" The engineer nodded. So they could get back to talking science now, Tony was comfortable with that – "I am not a smith, but from what I heard, palladium is poisonous even to Asgardians." Well, fuck.

"Y-you heard that", the inventor repeated nervously. "Huh, that's... strange. I never heard of something like that before. Maybe you're... mixing stuff up? There are lots of metals after all, I'm sure palladium is just fine –"

"Oh, stop it", Loki interrupted. He reached over from where he sat and yanked Tony's tunic down enough to make the black lines on his chest visible. The engineer immediately flinched backwards, firstly because Loki was touching him and no, that was just not right, and secondly – yeah, well, damn. "I am not blind, Anthony."

"I'm fine!", Tony snapped and wrenched himself free of the god's grip, scrambling to his feet. "That's perfectly normal."

"It's not", Loki responded quietly, also getting to his feet and following Tony who was slowly receding backwards. "You're not fine."

"Of course I'm fucking fine!" And if I'm dead in a week or two, well, what are you gonna do about it? "This. Is. Normal."

"Anthony", the prince said slowly and made the name sound like a threat, "stop it. You should know better than trying to deceive the god of lies, because you are many things, but I am sure a fool is not one of them."

"I'm okay", Tony tried again, although he noticed himself that it sounded pathetically fragile. He took another step backwards. "This is okay."

"This", Loki jabbed his index finger against the reactor, pushing Tony another step back, "is not okay. It is poisoning you and you should know that better than I do."

The engineer's back hit a tree and he swallowed, the metallic, bitter taste on the back of his throat suddenly becoming overly present. Still, he wasn't ready to give this argument or whatever it was up just yet. Stubbornly, he repeated: "I'm okay. I'm not poisoned. I'm not dying."

"You are." Loki didn't say anything more, just these two words, but he said them so coldly and strictly that there didn't need to be anything more. Tony's quiet "Am not" sounded more like a plea than like him actually giving Loki contra. It was impossible to say more because suddenly, there was a lump in his throat, a barrier that kept him from speaking.

Despite the mess his life had become, Tony didn't want to die. He had refused to even consider it so far. Dying would mean giving up and he had sworn not to do that. Just that you sometimes didn't get a say in these things. If he knew a possible replacement for palladium and a way to acquire it, this wouldn't be a problem, but, as a matter of fact, he didn't know one. He didn't have a solution. He had not the faintest clue what to do and it was literally killing him.

"You are", Loki repeated harshly, "and I am expecting you to do something about it." Tony looked up from the armour he had been staring at, surprised by the god's words. "You were able to build this, you will find a way help your health issues without killing you. Are we clear on this?" Speechlessly, the inventor nodded and finally, Loki allowed the hint of a smile on his face. "Good. Because I would hate to –"

His eyes widened and he sucked in a ragged breath, stumbling half a step forward. Tony was about to ask what was wrong when he saw the tip of an arrow protruding from the god's shoulder. Right, Loki didn't wear his battle armour, just this leather stuff – this was bad, who would attack a prince of Asgard in a place like this? Loki had said it was peaceful here, dammit!

After a second, Loki caught himself and his face twisted into a furious snarl. With a crack that made Tony wince, the shaft of the arrow was broken off and Loki threw it to the ground, whirling around. His stance shifted in something remotely defensive, his arms hovering at his sides, ready to strike and with daggers in them that Tony had not seen the prince carrying, but he didn't move away. It took a moment for Tony to realize that the god was shielding him.

"Who has the audacity to attack a prince of Asgard on a peaceful hunting trip?", he demanded angrily. As a response, another arrow came flying towards Loki, but this time, he caught it in mid-air and hissed towards Tony: "Into the forest. Quickly!" Then, he set off towards the direction where the arrow had come from.

The inventor didn't waste any time and ran off into the woods, hoping that maybe he could find Thor and his buddies if he was fast enough. Loki would handle himself, right? Well, he is injured, a small voice on the back of his head piped up. And he's also a god and just caught an arrow without even flinching. He'll be fine. On the other hand, if the attackers were also gods of some sort...

Tony's thoughts were interrupted by something hard colliding with his head. He stumbled and fell, but by the time he hit the ground, he was already unconscious.