Sixteen
I reawakened. I didn't know if I'd been out hours or days, or even months. I struggled to get my bearings. I was cold, and couldn't move. I opened my eyes to darkness, a blindfold over my eyes.
"Argh!" Came a strangled yell.
"Thor? Fury?" I shouted. "Is someone there?"
"Stark. You're awake." Came the purred voice.
"What do you want with me, Loki?" I yelled, struggling against my restraints. The throbbing starting in my hand again. He ripped the blindfold off me. I discovered my shirt had been removed. Loki's was missing as well, his toned pale chest splattered with blood. My eyes shot to where the arrow had pierced his lower stomach. The head of the arrow still buried into his flesh. The shaft now broken off. He had quite a bit of blood running down his front. It looked like he had been trying to pull it out.
"I want to know why I wasn't able to control your mind. I think it has something to do with this beautiful thing right here." He tapped the glass of the Arc Reactor in my chest. "What does it do?"
"Right now, not much." I admitted. I was always a sucker for showing off my genius. "But when you were destroying New York, it was keeping me alive. Keeping the metal shards from ripping apart my heart."
"And now?" He demanded.
"I had the metal taken out. It's more or less keeping birds from nesting in the giant hole in my chest." I joked to relieve some of the tension. Loki had taken to running a finger around the metal socket that held the magnet. His touch gave me goosebumps.
"And it still powers the Ironman, doesn't it?"
"Yes." I shivered under his touch. "Would you mind not doing that."
"Doing what? This?" He continued to run his fingertips along my skin. He bent to my eye level, running his tongue over his bottom lip. "Is this bothering you?"
"Ye…yes." I shuddered. The light touches on my chest were driving me insane. I tried ignoring my building arousal as he ghosted his fingers over my skin. What was he getting at, what was his angle.
"I think this is bothering you in more ways than one." He purred.
"There he is!" Shouted what sounded like Hawkeye, breaking the moment. He turned, suddenly in full armor again. He caught an arrow loosened by Barton.
"You won't get me again, you mewling quim." Loki spouted and disappeared into a cloud of black smoke.
"Tony, you're okay!" Steve ran over and freed me from the chair. I was more concerned about hiding the bulge that had arisen in my jeans.
"How did you find me?" I was confused, but desperate to change the subject.
"Tracking device built into the arrow head." Barton smiled proudly. "Next time he appears somewhere, we'll have him."
"Where is he now?" Fury demanded.
"Not on this planet. His signal has disappeared completely." Barton said looking at the tracking screen.
"Let's get Stark some medical attention. He may not be able to help us for awhile." Fury said as he lifted me up by my good arm.
I was taken to a S.H.I.E.L.D. clinic and patched up. Loki had re broken my hand and added a few more hairline breaks. S.H.I.E.L.D. kept me overnight for observation. As long as everything came back fine, I could still make it back to Malibu within two days as promised.