A/N: I am so, so sorry for the lack of update over the past… two weeks, is it? School has me busy and stuff XD And I'm lazy. But hey! New chapter! Woo! :D I hope you enjoy it, m'dears ~

Bruce and Steve exchanged a glance then looked back at the confused and, frankly, angry billionaire. They knew Tony would eventually find out their secret, but they hadn't exactly worked out how to break it to him. Steve, personally, thought this was better than just telling Tony that they'd lied to him and have him be even angrier than he was now. Bruce, on the other hand, was perfectly content with not telling his 'science bro' anything, as he didn't like seeing Tony angry.

"Well?" Tony hissed, glaring at the two men. Steve stood up confidently.

"Loki isn't a threat, Tony. He's been hurt badly and Bruce and I are helping him."

Tony's jaw dropped and he exclaimed breathlessly, "What the… what the hell is wrong with you?!" He understood why they hadn't told him, but he was slightly hurt that they thought he couldn't be trusted with this information. Bruce stood up slowly.

"There's nothing wrong with helping someone in need, Tony," he said softly. "We wanted to tell you, but we knew you'd take it like this, so we didn't. Look at him, Tony. Do you see how broken he looks?"

Tony turned around the look at the god once more, his chocolate eyes narrowed. Loki had positioned himself on the couch so that his wounds wouldn't be disturbed as he slept. His inky black hair was knotted and hung limply around his face. Most of his armor was scattered on the ground next to the sofa, and was all broken. Loki was using his cape as a blanket, despite the fact that it was torn and burned in multiple places. Loki had bandages on almost every part of his body. His eyebrows furrowed as he slept and he curled in tighter on himself, as though he was a curious child in the beginning of a nightmare. Tony's fists slowly unclenched and he turned back to Bruce and Steve. "Why is he like that?"

"We don't know," Steve said. "He won't tell us anything about who did that to him. But he keeps thinking that we're not real. He's not fond of the dark, either."

"Not to mention his wounds are-" Bruce was cut off by a scream coming from Loki, who was still asleep, thrashing around.

"STAY AWAY!" Were the only words all three men could make out through Loki's yells, his face showing nothing but pure horror. Steve and Bruce raced over to the god.

"Try and wake him up," Bruce said. "We have to get him to stop thrashing, or he'll open his wounds again." Steve nodded and yelled Loki's name, a feeble attempt to wake the god.

Loki finally snapped open his eyes, tears streaming down his face. He looked around and, when he saw Tony, preformed the previous act of desperately climbing over the couch, landing heavily on the other side, and curling up in the corner, sobbing. He put his head in his hands, humitated at how scared he was.

"Not again…" Steve slowly went behind the couch and crouched beside Loki. "Hey, hey, it's okay, Loki… We're not going to hurt you. You know that." Loki shook his head and curled in tighter on himself. He tried to push Steve away, with little success. Bruce walked over and put a hand on Steve's shoulder.

"Let me." Steve nodded and moved away, Bruce taking the position Loki was in. "I know you're scared, Loki. There's no shame in admitting that you're afraid. You don't have to tell me why you're scared, but you need to let me look at your wounds, okay? We can't have you bleed to death all over Steve's carpet."

Loki shook his head. "D-Death is-is-is b-b-better."

Bruce's eyes widened a little. "No, it's not. Loki, please, please, let me help you."

Loki finally looked at Bruce, tear streaks running down his face. He slowly nodded and crawled out from his corner, lying down on the ground for Bruce to heal him. Bruce smiled a little. "Good." He opened the bandages again, fixing what needed to be fixed. As he did so, Loki became dizzy from the loss of blood and passed out.

Tony had watched the whole ordeal silently, wondering what had caused the confident, clever god he had met four years ago into a cowering mess. His eyes were wide and shock was painted clearly on his face. Steve glanced over at him.

"This is normal. He did that when he woke up and saw Bruce leaning over him to heal him. I found him when I was on a walk through the park," Steve explained to the flabbergasted billionaire.

"Normal…" Tony repeated quietly. "That…" Steve nodded solemnly and they both fell silent, watching Bruce as he healed Loki. Tony wasn't sure what to make of everything that was happening. How could Loki be scared of him? He had thrown Tony out his own window! As Tony watched, a horrible feeling washed over him. There was something very wrong about all of this.

A/N: Yay :3

I know it's short, but hey, I felt like we needed an update. I just whipped this together really quickly. I'll make the next chapter longer, promise ~