Hello everyone! This chapter is a little bit shorter than the others but it leads up to a lot of stuff and is not boring. Or at least I don't think so. I hope you readers don't think so. (backs away slowly)
This chapter has a lot going on and goes pretty quickly but I think that it should still be good.

Not mine, never mine, usual disclaimers

Neither man noticed the green eyes that glittered even in the shadows, listening in on the entire conversation. The door had already closed by the time Loki stepped out into the light with a confused look on his face. Only JARVIS was witness when Loki pressed the button to the second elevator to take him down.

After a moment's hesitation it did just that.

o~*+*~o

It had been the slamming of the door that had knocked Loki out of his daze.

Yes, he had found it extremely amusing to see Stark run around like a nutter in his search for his shirt. The same shirt that Loki could see sticking out from under the bed. Even if the injured god hadn't been internally freaking out about Banner's sudden arrival he would not have informed Stark of the shirts whereabouts. Luckily, Stark was too busy to ask him where the shirt was or to notice how terrified Loki truly was.

The green beast inside Banner might have done him a favor by smashing the mad Titan out of his head part of the way but that fact that the monster could proved its strength. With his magic as drained as it was there would be no hope of withstanding its power.

Loki was so worried about what would happen to him when Banner found him that he didn't give a thought to what Stark would do.

It had been obvious from the slamming of the door that Stark did not want him to follow him and the mortal had been strangely kind so Loki was inclined to stay but curiosity won over.

Loki had snuck out of the room, ignoring JARVIS's protests, and made his way towards the voices. While he was hidden in the shadows he had heard Stark and Banner's entire conversation and found he had some sympathy for Banner's condition. After all, he himself had been hunted many times over the years and he was only escaping it now by tricking the realms into thinking he was dead.

What caught Loki's attention, though, was when Stark mentioned the labs. The broken god had always had a thirst for knowledge that was never quite quenched and, if he could, he would learn what these mortals knew. It only made sense to follow the men down and hear Stark's tour of them because it was highly unlikely the man would show the labs to him on his own.

"Thank you JARVIS," Loki said as the elevator took him down to the labs, the same level that Stark and Banner were now. Stark's

construct was surprisingly understanding when he had explained his reasons for wanting to go to the labs. By understanding Loki meant that the machine let him finish speaking before questioning him.

The raven haired man had sworn not to enter the labs, at least not this time, and by the extended pause after Loki assumed JARVIS was consulting with Stark before the lift smoothly began its descent. It was then that the injured god despised that he should really stop being so surprised by the eccentric human's niceness.

JARVIS was nice enough to silence the normal ding that was emitted when the elevator reached a floor and allowed Loki to sneak out unnoticed. After he saw what was ahead, the god of mischief thought that maybe, just maybe, Stark knew what he was doing.

Just around the corner was a glass wall and through it Loki could see Stark showing Banner around. The inventor was speaking avidly and waving his arms around while Banner nodded and occasionally gave his input when Stark paused for breath. The only problem for the injured god was that he couldn't hear a thing.

Not wanting to risk getting seen by Stark or Banner, the raven haired man made his way back to the elevator with a disappointed air surrounding him. If only he had some dregs of magic left, then he could have heard everything. Now he would never learn and Stark would never show him his place of work and security of his own free will. The man might be nice enough to bandage his wounds, share his bed, and clothe him but Loki was waiting for the minute where Stark told Banner about him and the green monster emerged.

It had been a foolish hope to wish to learn something about the odd man who had been, of all things, kind to him when he should have thrown him out. Nothing about Stark made sense and Loki could admit that what he wanted, almost more than the information the tour of the labs would give him, was to see the human interacting with someone else to see if it wasn't just to him that saw the other man as odd. He wished that he could have stayed and watched the man but the risk of Banner (Stark was probably the one who had let him down there) seeing him was too great.

During the slow trek back to the room that Stark had given him, Loki wondered if he could ask JARVIS to show him what was going on in the labs but quickly dismissed the idea. The machine was Stark's construct and would likely protect the man's privacy over most else. Besides, he had already been allowed down there in the first place.

"And this here is possibly my greatest invention ever."

The voice came out of nowhere. It was obviously Stark but the man was in his lab with Banner. It suddenly hit Loki like a ton of bricks that it was JARVIS relaying the audio from the lab to him. What did the machine think it was doing? Did Stark know?

"This miniaturized arc reactor was the only thing keeping me alive for the past couple of years. The one I have now is the fourth version of the one I built in a cave while held captive. Now let me tell you, that was not the best thing that ever happened to me but it did open my eyes to the horrible truths of the world.

I would not be the man I am today without that little kidnapping from good old Obie just like your incident with radiation poisoning changed you. You, however, have refused to embrace the horribly wonderful curse that we have been gifted with.

Now that I have bestowed upon you my wisdom, lets go to your lab!"

The audio feed abruptly cut off and Loki was left to wonder if that was all he was meant to hear or because of something else. This uncertainty meant that Loki was both surprised and not surprised when Stark rushed into the room.

"Ok, I know I didn't give you much warning before Bruce showed up," Stark started quickly. An apology was definitely not what the raven haired man had been expecting but, as the god of mischief, he quickly recovered.

"I would consider what happened no warning." Loki's eyes were narrowed in what was mostly false anger. It was the look that fooled everyone, especially Thor, but Stark just laughed and continued without pause.

"In my defense you learned he was here at the same time I did." The god of lies raised his eyebrow in derision. It did not help that they learned at the same time because Banner was almost there.

"Anyways, Jolly Green is going to be staying here for a while to stay off of SHIELD or whatever they call themselves now's radar. I have a whole other floor for him with his own personal lab so I don't think he should be up here often. If he does show up then JARVIS will warn you and you can hide." The human seemed sincere, he could tell as the god of lies. It was... Strange. That seemed to be the only consistent thing with Stark.

"Why?"

"Why would you hide? Do you have a death wish? Hide is you don't want the Hulk to remodel the floor with your face again!" A scowl covered Loki's face as the mortal completely avoided his question. The self proclaimed genius could not comprehend his simple question.

"Not that! Why are you not telling Banner that I'm here? Why are you keeping my presence, an enemy's presence a secret?"

"Um..." Stark rubbed the back of his neck and looked oddly self-conscious for a man of such sarcastic wit and humor. "We probably should have had this conversation when you first woke up but I had work and then Pep-Mrs. Potts showed up and for some reason I told you about her and Stane and the arc reactor." Tony paused for a minute and locked eyes with Loki, the human looking strangely solemn.

"For reasons that I will explain shortly, I don't consider you my enemy anymore."

Duh, duh, DUH! So how did I do? Did it move too fast because I really thought it did but it works really well for the next couple of chapters.
If there are any changes that you think should be changed leave a review and changes will be made.
I was really hoping to add more action in this chapter because the others are mainly the characters thoughts. I think I did accomplish at least that. For some reason I am already done writ in the next chapter and part of the one ofter that so I am way ahead of where I thought I would be. I'm still going to try and post each week but with work and school everything is unstable.

Please review!