"Dear ladies, these are now yours. Please enter the elevator and JARVIS will help you with your departure."

"Hey! That's my collection of expensive scotch, and I-"

"But Tony!" Loki gently pushed the iron man back onto his bar stool with a hand on his shoulder while passing along the case of alcohol to the women. He gave the other man a mocking expression and adopted an innocent tone. "We have no need of this anymore as we won't be drinking it! It is only best if we give it to those who will use it well."

"Use it well my ass," Tony muttered but Loki continued on as if he never spoken.

"Here, have a bag to carry that!" Loki kindly passed over a plastic bag before waving goodbye to the ladies. "Farewell."

The women giggled and left the towers with all the alcohol they could carry under their arms or on their backs. Definitely heavy, definitely a lot of booze, but barely a dent in the almost endless supply of bottles Tony kept. Loki sighed and decided to push the problem of alcohol to the side for the time being. He would have to consult with Steve again about that.

"Not cool," Tony remarked after a moment of silence. "That was taking it too far."

"No," Loki said, straightening up and brushing imaginary dust off the counter. "Steven suggested it. We both agree a smaller supply to the beverages would definitely help with your alcoholism. We discussed it in the 'taxi cab'."

"Hm. At least you're supportive." Tony said. "But that costed a shit load of cash. Most of the stuff here is the good, old, expensive stuff."

"You can purchase more after I'm gone from the store. Besides that, you're wealthy."

Tony couldn't help but snort and chuckle at that.

"No, no, no, Rudolph. You can't just walk into Walmart and ask for some scotch like that. No, that shit came from private auctions from Scotland. Like, it's really old. Before your granny even set foot on this earth old and made from the purest wheat or rye or whatever. And then it sat in an oak- well, you get my point." He waved his hands around eccentrically. Loki simply blinked before nodding slowly.

"I see. We'll just have to auction off the rest of your collection then."

"What?! Uh, collection? I can't do that to my babies!"

"There's no way you can consume so much alcohol!" Loki argued. "You have a whole floor dedicated to it."

"I'm not going to drink it all! Most of the collection is just there. As a collection."

"How vain."

"Like you're one to talk-" Stark stopped midway through his sentence, head clicking back a ways in the conversation. "What do you mean by 'when you're gone'?"

Loki tilted his head ever so slightly and his brows came down in confusion. "You expect me...to be here forever?"

"I was under the impression that you weren't going to leave soon, yes."

"I'm not," the frost giant sighed. "Not this week. Perhaps next. I need to move on, you know."

"'Move on'? From what, me?" Tony's heart plummeted and he wasn't entirely sure why he immediately reacted that way. "You're leaving me too?"

"No," Loki reassured, tone very reassuring. Tony's shoulders relaxed. He didn't even know he had tensed up so much. "I just need to start searching."

"Searching...for what-" And then the iron man was interrupted by a different british voice.

"Sir, receiving a call from Dr. Bruce Banner." JARVIS chirped and added as if it were an afterthought, "I'm very sorry for the interruption but he said it was urgent."

Tony made a quick gesture toward the other man in the room. They'd pick up that conversation later. Loki nodded, looking a bit nervous at the ceiling though.

"Accept call," Tony said and waited for JARVIS' reply before speaking. "Green and Mean, long time no speak. What do I owe you the pleasure of?"

"Stark?" came the doctor's incredibly soft voice. It was such a contrast to the hulk. "I'm sorry for not keeping closer contact. SHIELD was too close for comfort."

"Aren't they always?" came Stark's quick reply. "What disaster do they want us to clean up this time?'

"Actually," the doctor's voice sounded sheepish this time. "There is no urgent news or emergency."

"Isn't that cute. You just wanted to hear my voice."

"Best thing in the world," Bruce drawled on sarcastically. "No, you wouldn't have picked it otherwise. But hey...I was wondering if I could use your lab. I got some pretty cool research here and I think you'll like it."

That was very true. Tony rarely answered any calls from anyone really. He usually told JARVIS to ignore everyone, tell them he's busy, use his real life model to take messages, whatever. The only way to really reach him was through declaring an emergency that he just had to come to. But not too many really did that either. He guessed they didn't think it was worth it. They were kind of right.

"Hm, nope. No thank you."

"Tony."

"Nope. I'm really busy." he insisted.

"Tony, look. I know it's been really hard for you for a while, but you really need some company. It's not healthy to be there for such a long time by yourself and doing...well what you do. And," Bruce continued, "Some science buddy time would be nice."

"You really want to get into my lab, Green Machine."

"I really want to help. And okay, maybe some collaboration would benefit me in this project."

"Fine." Tony finally budged. Though he really wanted to tell Bruce that he had a full house already, he supposed spending some time with the scientist would help him stop his worrying. And...possibly he could be a good addition to the little bro group they had going on at the towers. With Bruce, they'd have two calm-natured people to balance out the more messed-up (him and Loki). He could also maybe help Loki with whatever he was trying to find. He'd just have to figure out how to make this work... "But...I'm going to have to go over some stuff when you get here. Promise me you won't hulk out."

"Why would I hulk out?"

"You okay with coming next week?"

"Sure."

And with that the iron man quickly concluded his phone conversation and turned to the frost giant who was still in the room, still sitting on the bar counter. He looked terrified.

"You invited the beast..." Loki shuffled around. "...to our home?"

"Bruce is a cool guy," Tony said.

"He will surely kill me!"

"No, no, not Bruce! I can't answer for the hulk, but Bruce is chill."

"It won't end well."

"Trust me. If we play it right, he could even help you find..whatever it is you're looking for."

"A way to regain my magic."

"Sure." Tony answered.