I am so confused on why this chapter is so long when the one before it was way shorter. Maybe my subconscious is trying to make the chapters even and is overcompensating. Or I'm just crazy. Either one is completely viable.
So I really hope everyone likes this chapter because it has way more dialogue than most of the other ones and answers some of the questions.

Not mine, never mine, usual disclaimers

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

o~*+*~o

Tony could barely keep a straight face and it was only thanks to the decades of learning how to perfectly control his expression that kept him from laughing at Loki's face.

Loki, the ever composed god of mischief, lies, and deception, was positively gaping at him.

"Close your mouth, Bambi, or you'll catch flies." The click of the inured god's mouth broke whatever was left of Tony's facade of seriousness and the man was left to laugh silently at the ground to avoid the injured god's glare.

"Your reasons, Stark." Loki was definitely starting to get angry now but that face was all Tony could think about and you really couldn't blame him. Would anyone really be able to sit there with a straight face if the most stoic person in your life looked at you, completely dumbfounded, by a simple statement? Tony definitely couldn't.

"Oh, right. Those are important," Tony said with a grin that just wouldn't leave his face even though he knew that it only made the god of lies and mischief angrier. That though sobered the genius up a little bit.

"Ok, for starters you eyes are green." The confused look was back on Loki's face and Tony was sad to say that it was becoming quite common. If the man would just stop being confused by kindness and Tony's awesome leaps in logic then Tony would be able to stop feeling like comforting the injured god like he was a little kid. Tony was sure that he would get his throat slit for that, magic or no magic.

"The eyes of Barton, Selvig and yourself while under the tesseract's influence had blue eyes that matched the color of the cube. What snapped me out of my horribly ill timed panic attack was that fact. My mind could not understand why you eyes were green and not blue, the blue of the tesseract, the same blue as Barton's, and it clicked. One panic attack bypassed. Now if only I could do that with all of them.

"Secondly, your injuries." Just by the way the god's green eyes flashed warned Tony that he was treading on thin ice. It was a good thing that Tony didn't really care. Loki probably wouldn't kill him before he had finished his explanation.

"What does my suffering have to do with anything?" The words were bit out but, having been in a somewhat similar situation before, Tony could tell Loki wasn't angry at him but at the one's who had caused the suffering.

"Once Thor came back to Earth, Midgard, whatever, he spread the word of your 'glorious sacrifice'. To all the realms you were dead. I know that with your magic you would likely have the ability to shapeshift and when Thor told us that it was a natural talent of yours it only made sense to me that you had faked your death. But why?"

Loki's mouth was clenched, his lips pressed into a thin line, and it was obvious that the raven haired man was not going to answer his question. Too bad Tony already had an answer.

"I could not understand why you had faked your death until you showed up on my doorstep or, more precisely, crash landed in my living room.

"The injuries that you had were consistent with torture over an extended period of time. It only made sense that you had faked your death to hide from those who would do you harm. Unfortunately for you, the death that fooled the thunder god didn't fool them.

"Let me guess, the Chitauri?" Loki flinched when he heard the name. If these aliens could make a god flinch out of fear then why wasn't Earth under their control? The more Tony thought about it the more he believed that there had been another being pulling everyone's strings; Loki's, the Chitauri's, and through Loki they had controlled Barton and Selvig. With effort, Tony pushed his contemplations away for another day because right now he had to deal with the god in front of him.

"I'm assuming that they were not pleased with the way your invasion played out." There was the slightest dipping of Loki's head and Tony took it as a nod and moved forward.

"Ah, so they, like myself, did not believe that you were truly dead and sought you out. When they found you they kidnapped you, godnapped you? And they took you to their home, or new home if I did blow up where they had lived with that nuke, to punish you for your failure." Another slight nod; they were finally getting somewhere.

"The extent of the injuries also tells me two more things." Loki looked up into Tony's eyes with something similar to surprise and wariness written in them.

Unfortunately for Tony, instead of the bright green eyes slipping into curiosity the emerald eyes turned as sharp as the stone. "Pray tell." The words were accompanied with an almost feral gin that challenged Tony. Thankfully the human genius knew that he was right. Probably.

"The first is that you have for more power than you ever revealed in the invasion. Anyone else would have died in the first day if not the first few hours of what I could tell of the torture. Your magic was constantly healing you and draining itself in the process, leaving you with a smaller chance to resist each time. And somehow, after all that you had been through, you found a way to teleport yourself here.

"The second is that even with all of your power you never used your magic once, relying on the power of the scepter alone, during the invasion. That makes it likely that you were fighting the tesseract's hold and blocking the use of your magic. If it had been actually you and you had actually tried then the world would be bowing at your feet, however reluctantly."

Now that it was over Tony couldn't tell whether or not Loki's non-expression was good thing or not.

"So, to sum it all up, I don't think of you as an enemy anymore because I know that you were under the tesseract's control during the invasion, you didn't use your magic during the invasion, and you have been punished enough by the Chitauri to completely make up for the destruction the invasion caused, though I am still put out by you throwing me out of my window."

The smallest sliver of hope shone through when the last comment did make Loki grin. Maybe they could get over this wary stage and be something closer to business partners or friends. Just thinking about all of the knowledge that Loki must have gathered after living for decades made Tony want to drag him down to his lab and start asking questions but that probably wouldn't go over well now. Oh well.

"Logically, your argument holds up but you know nothing about my character. You have no idea what I might do now that I am free of the Chitauri's hold and can walk of my own free will. You have no idea what I will do once my magic returns to me. You are making your decision over things that I had next to no control over but you know nothing about how I feel."

Now Tony was confused, was Loki trying to keep himself labeled as the enemy? Why would anyone want to be considered the bad guy? Tony had changed his entire lifestyle, not really but some of it, to change the image of himself. It is the reason there is an Iron Man suit in the first place.

"So tell me Stark." Loki stood from his position on the edge of the bed and took a step closer so that Tony and him were only inches apart. It was times like these where Tony really hated being so short.

"What will I do next?"

It was actually a very good question but apparently Loki hadn't been listening yesterday when he had mentioned Thor. That made Tony grin and Loki lose his creepy grin and take a step back.

"You forget that Thor told us your life story as he remembers it.

"You are going to stay here for as long as it takes you to regain the majority of your magic, maybe more, and while you are here you are going to try and gather as much information as possible so you are not left out to dry when you leave or when I toss you out." The way Loki simultaneously somehow got paler and glared at Tony was astounding.

"Which I won't." The glare was still there.

"Probably." Still there.

"Most likely, and that's the best answer you are going to get." Still there but now Loki was smiling. Tony took it as a good sign this time.

"Well it is good to know that I can keep this wonderful bed for at least a little while longer." Loki turned away and slid under the covers on his side of the bed. Odd that he was already thinking about the bed with his side and Loki's side. Time for the worst idea ever but those were Tony's forte.

"Again, technically my bed, but while you are here it is yours under one condition." One of Loki's eyebrows rose in question and his eyes glowed in the dim room. Tony really hoped that he wouldn't regret this extremely horrible idea.

"And that is?"

"You have to share it with me." This dumbfounded look was almost funnier than the last one but it didn't last long enough for Tony to truly savor it.

"Didn't I tell you just this morning that you make a wonderful pillow?"

"Yes."

"Well I wasn't lying and because your core temperature is freaky low for a human you make the perfect ice pack. Definitely not complaining about whatever place you are from that made you like this, it's awesome. My own personal ice pack." Poor Loki looked too surprised about the ice pack part. It didn't take a genius to know that most people did not want their own humanoid ice packs but most people didn't have an arc reactor warming their body from the inside.

"Plus, the recognition that you are not evil and that you are here is great for nightmares and panic attacks alike." It wasn't completely surprising that this was the line that got through to Loki, after all, the man had gone through the godly equivalent of the hellish Afghan cave.

"Fine. I will share this overly large, comfortable, bed with you Stark." Totally unexpected answer but who was he to turn down his own personal ice pack. Not him.

"Good, we have an agreement." Tony held out his hand for Loki to shake and was surprised to see the soft smile on Loki's face when he shook his hand with a firm grip.

"Indeed."

Loki was the one to pull away from the grip first and move back under the covers. Taking that as his cue, Tony moved to the other side of the bed but lay on top of the covers. Unless Loki the ice cube was closer we would be smothered by the soft blankets.

"Why did you let JARVIS take me down to the labs?" The injured god's question came out of nowhere and Tony had really been expecting that to be the first question out of the raven haired man's mouth.

The inventor turned to look at the injured god to find the other man just a little bit closer than he remembered. Maybe Loki craved whatever warmth the arc reactor emitted just as much as Tony wanted the coolness Loki radiated. That was probably the only reason the other man agreed to share the bed with him, not that Tony cared particularly, he was just happy that Loki agreed.

"Because I knew that you would want to see them for your information gathering spree. And before you ask, I wanted JARVIS to relay that piece of audio to you because I had already showed you the reactor anyways and the whole philosophical thing I told Brucie totally applies to you too." Or at least Tony thought that it could apply to Loki.

The terrible curse that the trickster had been gifted with was both his alien biology that made him amazingly cold and his magic that was considered womanly on Asgard, or at least that is what Tony had gathered from Thor. Loki just needed to accept the fact that what made him different was awesome and, though the other man had likely accepted his magic already, what race he is or what he looks like really doesn't matter or affect the way he has lived his life now other than how he lets it.

"How?"

"Think on it, you're a smart guy," Tony said sweetly with a smile. Loki merely looked unamused and seemed perfectly content to wait as long as needed for the answer to be told.

There was no way Tony was going to give Loki the answer that he seemed to want so badly. It would be better if the other man figured it out on his own because Tony was sure that he would have no luck convincing Loki that he didn't care what the hell he looked like because the only thing that really mattered was how you acted, or at least in Tony's gracious opinion that was all that mattered.

"I'm gonna go check on Bruce and see how he is settling in. There might be food in the kitchen, JARVIS can direct you, but if there isn't just order something it it will be sent to your room," the billionaire said with a grin as he got out of bed and walked to the door before pausing.

It was sad that it only hit him now that Loki probably didn't even know what pizza was, much less Shawarma. The guy hadn't really lived yet.

"If he can't decide what to order just buy him pizza or shawarma."

"Yes, sir."

"Good."

Now that dinner or lunch or whatever meal was supposed to be right for this time was completed, Tony walked out the door to check on Bruce. The man had been ecstatic about his lab and couldn't wait to start working, something Tony could understand. The man was better about taking breaks to do silly stuff like eating and drinking and sleeping so it was likely the man would come wandering around eventually looking for one of the three. To say it would be bad for Bruce to return to this floor and find Loki would be an understatement.

The inventors mind was filled with questions and equations and good recommendations as he rode the lift back down to Bruce's lab. Though he was quite distracted he probably wouldn't have heard Loki's question anyways, he was halfway down the hallway when it was asked. If he had heard it though, he would be hard pressed to choose whether to laugh or stand there astonished.

"JARVIS, what is pizza?"

I know that some people are wondering when magic is going to come into play and I promise it will happen soon. I just need there need to be a conversation about Loki's injuries, magic regeneration and possibly a drunk Loki that mentions Stark's potential for magic.

Leave a review for any comments or suggestions! Also, if you think that a drunk Loki that mentions Tony's magical potential is a good idea say so in a review! depending on how many people think it will work I might just do it.

Please review!