Author's note: And so… The Task!
He watches as Tony enters the room carrying a big cardboard box filled with something that must be very heavy, judging by the strained look on the man's face and the loud thump as he sets his burden down on the floor. Groaning as if he has just performed a great physical feat, Tony straightens himself up with hands pressed against the small of his back.
Then he turns to face Loki who is sitting on the couch, watching the proceedings in silence. Tony summoned him here only minutes ago regarding that task he wanted Loki to perform, and from the looks of it, it involves the nondescript box on the floor.
"Alright, sunshine, here's the task for today," he says gesturing towards the bulky thing. Loki chooses not to comment; whatever is in that box he hopes that the contents won't turn out to be too unpleasant if he's going to have to deal with them.
Tony crouches down, opening the top flaps, and then digs deep into the innards of the box. His hands emerge holding a stack of documents, long lines of fine-printed text on white paper.
"These all need to be sorted." Tony says, his thumb flipping through the stack as he speaks, making the flimsy things produce a flapping sound. "They're documents relating to the great and awesome Stark Industries, which happens to be my company." His gaze leaves the handful of papers and comes to rest on Loki, as if expecting him to comment.
"I see," he says, eyeing the box with some dismay. There are a lot of papers in there.
"Now, usually Pepper would have taken care of these things when she was still unofficially running the company, but since she left… well, let's just say that paperwork isn't my style and I can picture a million different things I'd rather spend my time on." He lifts the top sheet to take a look at the document beneath, humming quietly to himself.
Then his attention turns back to Loki again. "In her absence, all these papers that people for some reason keep sending me and that certain board members and managers are producing have been accumulating for quite a while." He indicates the cardboard box. "But I think it's about time they finally got sorted out."
Paperwork. Loki sighs inwardly, half from the sheer boredom at the prospect and half from relief that that's all there is to the task. Dull, but nothing he can't deal with.
There are a bunch of black and grey folders lying at Tony's feet and the man disposes of the stack of papers and picks up one of the folders instead. "Okay, each document goes into one of these. And there's a system to it all, so listen up."
Then follows a lengthy recourse about what should go where, according to what premises and in what order. The topic is tedious, of course, but Loki makes sure to register each detail of the sorting system in his mind. At least his memory has always been good, so he can easily recall long-winded instructions.
"You got all that?" Tony asks as his little exposé about the intricacies of paper sorting has come to an end.
"I got it," Loki replies, quenching the sigh wanting to escape his lips.
"Good." Tony says. "Then you should be set for the next few hours."
And with that, the man is gone and Loki is left alone with the box and its papery contents.
Of course, there's nothing else to it than to get to it, so he grabs the top handful of papers, making little piles around himself as he works. It's dull, it's boring, and he fails to see the importance of this, but he does it anyway.
After all that's happened, he isn't one to push his luck. After… things didn't turn out the way he had expected them to since coming here, it would be foolish and unwise to tempt fate. Perhaps the Norns would think him ungrateful and unravel the threads already spun, deciding to turn his fortunes into something much more resembling what he only recently had been certain would be awaiting him.
He's still confused about his unfulfilled expectations, not quite sure of the whys and hows behind it all. And it isn't until now that it feels like the realization is finally starting to sink in, and he truly dares to believe Tony's reassurances. As desperately as he had wanted to believe them, words only meant so much, after all. Especially yesterday, when Tony had come into his room, still not sober, he had been fearful that words were indeed only that – words. But all his worrying had been for naught, it had turned out.
Of course, even he can see from his very much subjective position that there has hardly been any revenge at all to speak of. And it's in such stark dissonance with the vivid images of what would happen playing out in his mind before, during, and after his arrival in Tony's tower.
No, it would indeed seem that Tony has no intention of doing any of those things that Loki had feared. it And it's perplexing, because he was so sure that everything that transpired after his coming here, everything the man did and said, pointed in that direction… and yet, it didn't.
How could he have been so mistaken?
In the end, Tony had even promised Loki not to hurt him, and he is still trying to get his head around that. Even if he should never have given Tony plenty of reasons to bear grudges against him, even if the two of them had never met before his arrival here, it still makes no sense. What reason could there possibly be for a master to promise not to hurt his slave? That is highly counterproductive, as the constant threat of pain as a consequence of undesirable behaviour is the easiest and most effective way of enforcing a slave's obedience. Why would Tony willingly pass up on that?
No, he doesn't understand, but regardless what prompted it, it would be unwise to give Tony any reason to think better of his decision, so he does his best to perform the task at hand as ordered. Dislike it as he may, he's still smart enough to realize what course of action will make his life here easier, and it sure as heck isn't being uncooperative.
In the end, when it all comes down to it, he still has no choice but to live with the humiliation and degradation inherent in his station, but it could, of course, have been so much worse than this.
It is several hours later in the evening when Tony comes back to check on Loki to see if he's finished. By then, the god has fallen asleep on the couch, legs drawn up and one arm nestled beneath his head as a make-shift pillow.
Tony regards the sleeping form for a little while, and then turns to the box and the folders littering the floor. The box is empty, so apparently all the papers have been sorted. Well, what do you know.
Crouching down, he picks up one of the folders and slowly flips through the documents contained therein. It does look correctly sorted. Just to be sure, he checks another folder, and makes the same assessment after some further leafing through of formal and boring sheets of paper.
Of course, this was the one box, out of several in his unwanted collection, that contained the least important kind of papers, nothing that the IRS would ever be asking for or anything, but still. Pepper would have taken care of this responsibility, if she'd still been a part of his life, but now it has fallen onto him. Too confidential to let just anyone handle, because trust is something that doesn't come easy to him after everything that's happened. The information is too sensitive, and even though most people wouldn't be able to make head or tail out of them, he doesn't want to run the risk of the documents ending up with someone secretly working for a competitor, like Justin Hammer. He could trust Pepper with his life, to say nothing of some measly papers, but he has yet to find someone he would be willing to let fill her position. And the recent mishap with the rotten apple in his company is proof of the wisdom of that decision.
He sighs, because now, Pepper has walked out of his life, and what has entered in her stead is the god of mischief-slash-slave now snoozing on his couch.
Pepper was the reliable constant that kept his life in order, made sure he didn't slide too far off the beaten track. In contrast, Loki has only served to put everything into a state of disorder and turmoil, making a worse mess out of his life than he would ever have managed on his own. Sure he had his ups and downs with Pepper, but they were of a fairly predictable and conventional nature, whereas Loki has been taking him on a high speed roller-coaster ride without even allowing him to buckle up first.
And perhaps, he should just collect his folders and go dump them into the archive, but something is holding him back. Perhaps it's the realization that he has never seen Loki asleep before, and something about the sight is grabbing a firm hold of his attention, refusing to let go.
There is one thing in particular that stands out like a sore thumb as he watches the sleeping god up close, and that is how peaceful and relaxed his features are. And it is only now, when he sees the god like this, that he realizes how extremely taut and strained Loki's face has been during his stay here. The difference is striking in its conspicuousness, almost like the god on the couch and the one in his memory are two different persons altogether. They just look so dissimilar.
It isn't until then that it truly hits home just how worried Loki must have been. How much fearfulness and anxiety that his situation must have been causing him. That Tony must have been causing him. That part has already been made more than clear enough, of course, but seeing his face like this really serves to drive the point home even more brutally.
At that, he feels another sharp pang of guilt. Sure he had wanted to make Loki stew a little when he first came here, but not anything like this mental torture that he's been put through. That was never what he intended, not anything close to it.
A strand of hair has fallen down across Loki's face, and Tony is overcome by an urge to reach out and sweep it away. Perhaps even to run his fingers along those fine-chiselled features, trailing over the handsome face.
But he controls himself, forcing the urge back into the deepest pits of indecency where it originated in his brain. Given all that's transpired recently, if there's one thing he's going to do from now on, it's to keep his hands to himself as far as Loki is concerned. Because this isn't anything like his usual self being drunk at a party, leering at a pretty girl, making an indecent comment or two, grabbing a body part that might well have gotten him slapped if he hadn't been the famous Tony Stark. Because all those people would be in a position to say no; they would be free to turn his advances down, should they want to.
But Loki isn't in a position where he is technically allowed to do that, in case Tony should have been enough of an asshole to decide to take advantage.
The idea is disturbing and wrong on far too many levels to even bother counting.
Of course, since the incident with the knife leading to Loki finally asking the million-dollar question that must have been eating him from the inside out, Tony has never breached the topic again, and neither has Loki, both content to let it lie where they left it. He's glad of that; merely thinking about those horrible misunderstandings and the awkward conversation that followed is enough to make him want to go hide in a closet and never come out again.
No, he will make sure never to do anything that could cause any reason for the subject to be brought up again, be it directly or indirectly.
Throwing one last long look at the sleeping form, he picks up the sorted folders and walks out of the room, leaving Loki on the couch, the stray strand of black hair still hanging into his face.
Credit for the idea of having Loki sort papers goes to AidennQueen. :D I was having some trouble thinking up ideas for what kind of work Tony could task Loki with, but this fit perfectly. ^^
Please review. :)