Heya! I have muddled through the heavy waters of fatigue to bring you this chapter, so I apologise for the potential increase of spelling mistakes and the overall decrease in quality. Let's put it this way – covid, as it turned out, was a b****. Whoever said the new omicron variants were mild didn't meet my immune system :/

(Spoilers/references to: Agents of Shield series, Captain Marvel, and hinting at some Captain America The Winter Soldier stuff. But if you don't know/remember much about those, don't worry, it isn't that much so it shouldn't hinder your comprehension/enjoyment.)

So, I'm not happy with this chapter but I'll give it to you anyway because I really can't bring myself to rewrite anything. Hopefully you'll still enjoy it!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: Bruce left with the promise to come check on Loki in a bit, and to call him if anything were to happen. Not long after, Dum-E barged in with warmed-up leftovers on a tray that was tilted a tad to the left, making the arrival of the precariously piled-up cutlery a near miracle. Tony quickly grabbed the tray and took it with him to the other side of the bed – the side that usually was Loki's. He toed off his shoes and socks, and with his food in his lap, a foot in contact with Loki's ankle and a tablet to stave-off the boredom – he had to figure out how S.H.I.E.L.D. could miss the fact that Chitauri weapons had reached those insane criminals anyway – Tony was ready to wait for his soulmate to wake up.

CHAPTER 41

Waking was not the instant consciousness Loki was used to. Instead it was a trek through heavy, clammy fog, and even when his eyelids finally accepted to open slightly and let in a sliver of light, the world refused to come into proper focus. Or perhaps it was his usual awareness of his surroundings that was dimmed, making everything seem flatter and fuzzier than normal.

Either way, his mind was noticeably slow; awareness first of the ceiling of Tony's room, then the sensation of the sheets of their bed. Then awareness of his hand, captured by Tony. Tony, awake, sitting next to him on the bed, cross-legged. Tony, on the wrong side of him, meaning Loki was on the other side of the bed than was their habit. Then the light, too bright to be morning, too dim to be noon.

Only then did his memories of last night – hopefully it was last night, and not days ago – come back to him. The gala, the dancing, the enemies, the outburst of his ice during his use of the Mind stone's raw energy. Giving the stone to Tony. And nothingness.

Loki hesitated between probing his core or the soul bond first. Which one would be less unpleasant; finding out whether he had crippled himself beyond repair, or that his soulmate resented him, feeling like Loki could not be trusted anymore?

Loki concentrated on his Jötunn heart, beating sluggishly just underneath his clavicles. There was an instability in his magical core that was genuinely worrying; it had been cracked before, hairline fractures in the intangibleness of the energy that was purely him and very much Yggdrasil's, and now those seams didn't heave and ebb with the rest of his magic. Was it surprising? No. He had suspected something like this could happen. Channelling an outside source of magic on a core so low on its base energies had to have consequences. And Loki had done crazy things to his magic before, back when he was very young. Though he doubted he had ever been unwise enough to get it in a state like this.

Loki knew his worry must bleed through to Tony. Tony had to know he was awake. Tony must have felt it the moment his mind started to stir. And yet his soulmate had not reacted. His emotions along the bond had barely changed. There was anger, and unbelief, and a touch of worry, but mostly a focus that was very much not turned towards Loki. Was Tony trying to evade him, while still keeping their unvoiced agreement of not using shielding? Though if he was, why would he be here with Loki, holding his hand, instead of hiding himself away in his workshop as he was wont to do?

Loki was tempted to close his eyes and drift off again. It might keep Tony here longer, and keep Tony's full focus off him. He did not relish the conversation that was bound to come the moment Loki made his wakefulness known.

"Good afternoon, Mr Friggason. It is currently 4.52PM and you have been unconscious for over eighteen hours."

Loki growled. J.A.R.V.I.S. you traitor! Tony's focus had shifted the moment the Artificial Intelligence had said his name, and Loki could not escape the undistinguishable avalanche of sensations that the bond bombarded him with.

"Finally! J.A.R.V., get Bruce. And send up some food. Hey, Mr Heimdall! Loki's awake but he doesn't look good, now does he? Where's that Viking medic? Can't Asgard move their butts, seriously? I'm not equipped to deal with alien illnesses, okay?"

Loki squeezed Tony's hand wishing to silence him – he really hoped his soulmate had not been bothering Heimdall every hour. He would not put it past Tony to do something so reckless. And it was no use anyway – Asgard would not bother sending a delegation simply because Loki was injured. After all, Asgard probably regarded him as a felon, if not for aiding the Mad Titan in his conquest for Midgard, then for abusing the Asgardian throne, endangering the true heir with the Destroyer, and perhaps – though he expected this to be quickly overlooked – attempting to destroy the land of his birth, Jötunheimr.

Tony extricated his hand out of Loki's grip, but he did not have time to mourn the loss. Tony's hand incongruously landed on Loki's forehead. The moment stretched.

"Is it me or are you still not as cold as your blue self should be? J.A.R.V., what do you think?"

"Though I cannot be certain what temperature divergence constitutes a fever among Jötnar, I do concur that Mr Friggason's temperature is still higher than the norm."

That might explain why Loki was feeling so sluggish. It was no wonder he had not recognised the feeling – it had been at least a millennia since he had been ill. Though why his body should react to his magic-based injury with fever, he did not know. Perhaps it was merely a natural reaction; it was something one might expect after deep physical injuries as well. In the past, however, he had always been in Asgard's magical medical care before such things could manifest themselves.

"I wonder if painkillers will do anything… Maybe Bruce could do a blood test, see if you've caught a bug or if it's just some kind of magical inflammation. Even alien-ish bugs should be recognisable, right? Besides, you could have caught something human. And anyway, J.A.R.V. could do an assessment on whether painkillers would even work or be detrimental or something."

"There is no need. I will get better."

"Sure, a lot of people do, doesn't mean they have to suffer more than they need to. Just humour me, yeah? I think you owe me that after stealing the stone from the vault."

Tony's tone was casual, but a peak of hurt from the bond told another story. Loki could not refuse him. He would prefer it if Tony didn't fuss so much. Though it was nice to know Tony cared – cared enough to stay by his side until he awoke. Loki did not doubt Tony waited up all night and day to make certain he was well. He could feel that his soulmate's tiredness almost rivalled his own.

Tony tapped his goatee with a finger, thinking. "What else am I missing?"

"Perhaps some water, Sir. For humans hydration is very important during a fever."

"Right. On it."

Glasses clinked at one end of the room; water ran at the other. Loki focused on getting himself sitting upright despite his trembling, uncooperative limbs. Damn the Norns! Why did he have to be so weak? What if some enemy again managed to infiltrate a space Tony deemed secure and Loki could not do anything to protect him – neither use any magic, nor hit an opponent, nor even run to his soulmate's aid? He was pathetic!

Worse, in this state he was only a burden to Tony. An enemy could more easily target Loki, threaten Tony through him, or end their existence altogether because Loki was weaker than a Midgardian right now. Worry and humiliation burned him both – the latter even more so when he remembered Tony had called Heimdall's all-seeing eye upon him. The last thing he needed was for Asgard to mock him even more than they heretofore did; he was already diminished by being less strong physically, being a 'male' magic user, being attracted to what they wrongly viewed as his own sex, and worst of all, being Jötunn. With his treason, apparent death and current weakness, the rumours must run rampant. Even if he were allowed, how could he ever set foot on Asgard again?

"Hello! Earth's classiest hero to fairest Asgardian Prince!"

Loki focused on Tony, and the glass of water he was holding right in front of Loki's face. "Thank you," he said as he grasped the glass, the tremors in his hands almost making the contents spill over.

Tony watched on until Loki drained the glass in careful sips, and took the glass from him to go refill it. Loki was glad Tony did not insist on him drinking this second glass; his stomach was already roiling from the first one. The glass ended up on the side table.

"Do you need the bathroom?" Loki shook his head minutely. "You better lay back down, then. You don't look like you're up to sitting for long." Loki hated to admit it, but Tony was probably correct.

To Loki's surprise Tony went back to the other side of the bed, lounging against the cushions with his tablet in hand, settling enough under the covers to connect his bare foot with Loki's bare calf. It was only then that Loki realised someone must have taken his clothes off except for his underwear. He sincerely hoped Tony was the one who had – while also inexplicably feeling embarrassment at the very idea. Midgardian prudishness must be rubbing off on him.

"You don't have to feel ashamed at being vulnerable, you know," Tony commented, somewhat misinterpreting the emotions freely flowing between them.

"That was not my main concern. I simply wondered who helped me shed my clothes."

Tony's embarrassment was much more ardent than Loki's had been. "Ah, that would be me. But hey, nothing I haven't seen before, right? I mean, you were kind of sweating ice-cold water and I thought maybe those nice-looking clothes wouldn't be very comfortable. Since you often only sleep in your… boxers, I thought it might be best? 'Cause maybe you do that because for blue-you pyjamas are too hot? That's what I assumed anyway, and besides, getting someone unconscious out of clothes is hard enough, I didn't really want to have to heave you into pyjamas. And—"

"Rambling," Loki sighed.

"Right. Yeah. Sorry." Tony passed a hand through his hair, dishevelling it even more than it had already been. "Do you want some pyjamas? If you're cold or something?"

"I am not cold." If anything, Loki felt slightly overheated.

"How are you feeling?"

Loki did not really want to discuss it, but Tony's insistent gaze and spikes of worry made him speak regardless. "Weak. Muddled. Too warm, nauseous, sore. My head aches, and my core shivers in a way it never has before."

"Like a magic-induced flu? Sounds nasty." If anything Tony's worry had only increased.

"It will pass," Loki reassured him.

"Are you certain?" Tony sounded sceptical, no doubt because Loki did not truly know if he would indeed heal from this type of magical damage. In truth, he needed the Allmother to examine him.

And if he was honest with himself, Loki simply wished his mother to hold his hand and tell him he would be fine. However, Loki was a child no longer – he had not been in a long time. He did not need his mother to hold him. If he had foolishly maimed himself in order to protect his soulmate, then he would learn to live with that knowledge without resentment.

He ended up not answering Tony's question. At this point it was most likely redundant – his feelings spoke clearly enough. Tony's frown attested to that.

"Why did you do it?" Tony asked after a while. It took a few moments for the question to register in the fog of Loki's mind, and then more time to decipher what Tony was referring to. When he finally did, familiar dread crept upon him.

Tony sighed when the silence grew. "I'm not upset." The statement itched lightly, revealing it was not the entire truth. However, it did show Tony was not as angry and hurt by Loki's use of the Mind Stone as he had expected.

"I dreaded being vulnerable," Loki finally said. "Unable to protect you, or myself, in case of an emergency."

"I wish you'd told me."

"Would you have let me bring the stone if I had?"

Tony's momentary silence was answer enough. "I guess in the end it was a good thing you took it. I bow down to your superior planning and paranoia. But I still would have liked to be in the loop. I mean, we're soulmates. What's the point of that if we can't trust each other and have each other's backs?"

Loki tentatively sought Tony's hand and squeezed his fingers. "I apologise. I will consult you in the future. I must confess I am not used to including others in my plans." Not anymore anyway. He had not needed, nor had the opportunity, to do so for a long time. Especially if one was speaking of sharing a plan others might actually listen to.

Tony squeezed back. "You and me both. We both have to work on being a team."

The silence stretched then, and the warmth and the ebb and flow of Tony's breaths pushed Loki's mind further into the fog, until exhaustion claimed him once more.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki's side of the bond had slowly muted again to the light presence that accompanied normal sleep. Tony relaxed a bit further against the headboard. At least Loki hadn't slipped back into unconsciousness – that felt like an unbearable blankness that poked him in the back of the mind constantly. The only advantage of it had been that it had helped him stay awake all this time. His own tiredness was pulling at him now, but he could not afford to lie down. First Bruce needed to check on Loki, and he also needed to solve this S.H.I.E.L.D. mystery.

Tony had thought the lapse in security at the gala was just due to S.H.I.E.L.D. incompetence – as much as they like to pretend they are the best and have a finger in every pie, they're not as good as all that. They thought Tony was unqualified to be part of the Avengers, for God's sake! So anyway, he'd pegged it on incompetence. The further he dug, the more unlikely that theory became.

As easy as S.H.I.E.L.D. was to hack for the likes of J.A.R.V. and himself on the surface, the agency sure had a lot of layers. Like, a lot. Tony had been at it for close to a day and he was wondering if he'd ever reach the bottom. Really, it felt like being a prosecutor trying to sue an evil corporation and getting buried in a shit-ton of irrelevant paperwork. It was hard to find patterns amongst what he was seeing, even though there was a nagging feeling that the most random, useless things were connected, and that it was somehow important. Really, if J.A.R.V.I.S. hadn't shared Tony's hunch that something wasn't right, he wouldn't have bothered digging any further. It was such a mind-numbing job.

It had all started when he'd found out all the agents guarding the area where their attackers had entered had no distinguishable injuries apart from being 'unconscious'. Sure, they could have been drugged, but he couldn't really see those goons be subtle enough to use those tactics. Besides, the identities of the attackers didn't spell out highly trained evildoers, but rather a rag-tag team of conspiracy theorists. And that didn't explain at all how on Earth they managed to get ahold of those Chitauri guns, and even less how they modified them. In other words, it was fishy as hell.

Tony worked alongside J.A.R.V.I.S. to hack their way through the agency servers, and his A.I. flagged up files for him that could be of interest – and not necessarily linked to the gala incident. Just of interest in a what-the-fuck-has-S.H.I.E.L.D.-been-doing kind of way. Like, the Tesseract had been in the hands of Nazis, and then after Captain America saved and lost it, Howard had worked with it? P.E.G.A.S.U.S., aliens, a superhuman called Danvers that Fury had worked with, and even a cat-monster called Goose of all things – and that was only the tip of the iceberg. He was finding a treasure-trove of information that was rewriting history, but among the incredible revelations a thread was forming that was making Tony's skin crawl.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had their fingers in every pie you could imagine, from governments around the world to every important corporation to every significant scientific progress made in the last half-century. While you could say the trend of what they'd been influencing looked mostly good for humanity, there were also some pretty shady things going on behind the scenes. And among those, Tony was starting to see more and more projects that really couldn't be said to be good. No, they really spelled out 'bad' in big bold letters. Like some Big-Awful-Devilish persons were pulling the strings to benefit some villainous plot that Tony just couldn't put his finger on.

The impression he was getting though, even if it was never spelled out in so many words, was that the attack at the gala and the history of the Tesseract were somehow linked. Those crazy goons certainly had a motive linked to the invasion, but he was pretty sure the 'aliens are bad' excuse was not the true reason. While Loki himself was a treasure-trove of information and power to any mad scientist or money-hungry entity, he was also the one who had been in contact with both the Tesseract and the sceptre, and so the one who might for all intents and purposes know the most about them. Sure, the attackers had asked for Loki; but Tony got the distinct impression that it was code for the Tesseract or sceptre. First get the source of information, worry about getting the magical items later, kind of thing.

Bruce's arrival cut through his bleary-eyed stare at the latest files he'd dug up. God, did he need a coffee. Bruce had come up with a tray with medical-related items and a bowl of soup or some such, and the smell reminded Tony he hadn't eaten in a while. The content of his search sure didn't make him hungry, but he wasn't as youthful and energetic as he used to be, and the all-nighter was echoing through his very bones.

"He woke up earlier," Tony said in lieu of a greeting. "Drank a glass of water. He said he felt too hot and nauseous, and weak and sore. With the faces he was making and the feelings I got from him, I'd say feeling like you have a flu is not the kind of thing people on Asgard usually get. Of course he was all 'don't worry I'll heal', but it would be nice if we could give him something for the pain and whatnot."

"Have you slept at all?" Of course Bruce had to focus on Tony when he was supposed to check on Loki.

"No. And I haven't eaten. And before you say anything, I'm going to go down right now to grab some food." They stared at each other, and Bruce was very much fighting against his instincts to reprimand Tony's lack of self-care, he could tell. Bruce nodded and looked down at Loki. Who was asleep. Right.

"Lokes." Tony grabbed Loki's hand and squeezed. "Loki." He tried a shoulder shake next. How hard should you shake the shoulder of a super-strong alien for them to notice, while taking into account that they were ill?

Mmmh, what else did people usually notice most when they were asleep? The face was a sensitive area, right? Tony hesitated an instant, hand hovering about Loki's temple, before stroking down with his finger tips from forehead to jaw, pushing back some hair that had stuck to Loki's not-so-cold face.

"Tony, it's okay—" Bruce interrupted.

"Loki!" he said loudly. He repeated the movement with more force, and the red eyes slowly flickered open. "Stay awake for a minute, okay? Bruce wants to examine you. I'm going down for a bite to eat, but I'll be back soon."

Loki gave him the tiniest of nods, and Tony let his fingers linger for an extra couple of seconds before letting go and getting off the bed. As he made his way to the kitchen barefoot he noticed he was still in his bespoke trousers and shirt, now creased and wrinkled in many places. He should probably take a shower after his meal. Do the whole nine yards normal healthy people did before he went back to uncovering the evil plot he was sure hid among S.H.I.E.L.D.'s haystack.

He wished he could get someone else's opinion on this, make sure he wasn't going insane, but if he breathed a word without any proof, someone was either going to lock him up – because they thought he'd lost the plot, and to be fair Tony wasn't sure whether they'd be right or not – or someone was going to murder him – because they were part of the cabal and Tony had missed the clues.

He downed two steaming mugs of black goodness before grabbing a couple of sandwiches that sat front and centre in the fridge. If this was meant for someone specific, they should have put a note on it. Served them right if they came back to find their food gone. He chewed it quickly without really tasting it, mind already on the next steps. He would have to needle Coulson for details of the gala attack – it would be hyper suspicious if he didn't. Really, he should have done it already. S.H.I.E.L.D. might suspect he was doing research on his own if he didn't ask questions. He was Tony Stark – no one would believe worry for his soulmate would hold his curiosity at bay for very long.

As he walked back upstairs, he sent a quick message to Coulson, pretty much demanding to meet him to discuss the attack. He would have to summon some righteous anger when they spoke. Not that he wasn't angry, of course, but his curiosity about the hidden facets of the agency had taken over the majority of his mental space and he couldn't let that show until he could be sure of Coulson's role in S.H.I.E.L.D.

Bruce was still sitting on the side of the bed when he came back in, softly talking to his soulmate. Loki was slowly eating the broth he'd been served, and he looked like he might throw it all up if he dared eat any quicker. The nausea even seemed to reach Tony over the bond, and Tony grimaced. Sharing symptoms? How was that practical? Shouldn't Lady Fate have made the other soulmate immune so they could take care of their sick counterpart? Really, old sorcerers-goddesses-or-whatever had no logic whatsoever.

"I'm taking a shower," Tony announced as he walked past, just in case those two thought he was avoiding them if he slipped into the bathroom without a word. Loki had a tendency to catastrophise everything, especially if it concerned Tony. It was probably a testimony of how shitty Loki's life had been, that the first thing that came to mind was the worst possible option. Tony knew what that was like – there had been times when he did that too, but he'd quickly learned to calculate the odds of the worst-case scenario and see it wasn't the most probable one. Besides, he was Tony fucking Stark. He'd always change a worst-case into a best-case scenario or fucking die trying.

By the time he slipped out of the bathroom, only clad in a towel because he somehow could never remember the dire need of clean clothes before he already stood under the warm spray, Bruce was gone. Loki had abandoned his soup, though it did look like at least half of it was gone. Propped against the headboard, Loki looked like he was both too tired to sit up and too ill to sleep. His blue skin actually looked dewy. That Jötunn fever must still be running – even sprinting – its course.

Tony raided the bottom shelves of his walk-in for some lounge-wear and came out again to throw himself on the bed. He picked his tablet up and went back to work. Even if it took him another day, he would hack the shit out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s big secret or pass out trying.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Head pounding and stomach roiling, Loki just sat, waiting for these Helheimr-like times to pass. Tony had pushed his freshly showered, warm feet against Loki's, and he concentrated on his soulmate's feelings as he worked beside him.

Loki was torn. In a sense he wanted to be left alone, did not want to be seen in this state. He also wanted Tony to pay attention to him and show concern. He supposed the Midgardian had unknowingly found the perfect compromise; present and also not, aware of Loki and also not, respecting and invading his privacy both.

Loki closed his eyes in the hopes of alleviating his headache some. He felt for the echoes of Tony's annoyance-surprise-disgust-worry, endless loops of faint emotions that accompanied whatever Tony was working on. It made Loki rather curious as to what he could be doing. Surely creating new technologies, which Loki assumed was akin to experimenting with new spell weaves, would not bring up these particular feelings.

"I'm hacking S.H.I.E.L.D.," Tony informed him, unprompted. Or perhaps Loki had actually sent his curiosity too strongly across the bond. In this state his emotional control was unfortunately rather inexistent. "I wanted to understand how S.H.I.E.L.D. could fail so spectacularly at gala security. I thought it would be easy enough to find. But S.H.I.E.L.D. has layers upon layers of mysterious, crazy, weird shit going on, and the deeper I dig for answers, the less I understand what's going on. There's a pattern behind it all, I can feel it, but I just can't put my finger on it. I hate it."

Tony remained silent for a couple of minutes and Loki thought he would not speak again, but Tony seemed eager to talk about the things he had found.

"I mean, did you know the Tesseract had been the Nazi's play toy in the nineteen forties, and Captain America stole it, lost it in the ocean, and then apparently my father of all people found it and experimented on it? He never mentioned anything like that! Not that it surprises me, he barely ever spoke to me unless it was to express his eternal disappointment. Anyway, apparently some other blue-skinned aliens have graced Earth in the eighties and played with it, and then a woman called Captain Marvel got superpowers from it and a cat-monster ate it to keep it from the evil aliens. All with the help of not evil aliens. And then the cat gave it to Fury of all people. That's how S.H.I.E.L.D got it."

"Blue-skinned aliens." Loki had encountered many races in his explorations of the galaxy. Strangely enough, many of the blue-hued ones had a tendency to be barbaric in nature. One species especially came to mind… "The Kree perhaps?"

"Yes, that was the name! You know them? They don't look like the nice pacifist type."

"They are not."

"I tried to find out some more about those Kree, and I found a thing called project T.A.H.I.T.I. that was protected by a hell of a lot of security levels. J.A.R.V.I.S. cracked it for me, but a lot is strongly encrypted and redacted. I found out Coulson was heading it, though, a while back. I wouldn't know what this had to do with my search for info on those Kree except T.A.H.I.T.I. means Terrestrialized Alien Host Integrative Tissue I, and that doesn't sound so good. Like experimenting with alien flesh and stuff. Xenobiology is important I guess, but still, this sounds more like trying to mix Earth and Kree DNA and see what kind of chimeras they can make or something, I don't know. Kind of gross. In the experiment, babies in a tube kind of way. Nothing against multispecies couples. Anyway, what kind of psycho would associate that with the paradise on Earth that is Tahiti?"

Every time Tony said that name there was a stronger and stronger impression that Loki was forgetting something of importance.

"I guess I could try to prod Coulson for more info, but that would be letting the cat out of the bag. Sure, S.H.I.E.L.D. will figure out they've been hacked one of these days, but the more I can gather before that happens, the better. Guess I'll just have to wait before needling it out of Phil."

Oh! Now it came back to him! "Tahiti, it's a magical place!"

"You've been there?"

"No, Coulson has often repeated that phrase." Recognition filled Tony's eyes. "And his magical signature when he has… There was something about it. Something foreign but familiar. I would have to feel it again to be certain but—"

"Sir. The Deputy Director has just asked about your whereabouts and is headed towards this floor."

Loki and Tony stared at each other. Tony quickly changed the display of his tablet to that of a colourful game while Loki reclined against his pillows more and closed his eyes once again. There was a knock on the door. Tony bid him to come in.

Loki listened to the steps of the Midgardian as he walked to the foot of the bed. "Stark. You summoned me."

"Wha— Oh, yes. What's the news, then? Who were those guys and how the hell did they come in to crash my gala?"

The Deputy Director sighed. "To be honest, Stark, I wish I knew. I've been hounding Fury for information but he's been keeping me out of the loop."

"What, is he afraid you're an Avengers man now instead of a S.H.I.E.L.D. man? Kind of makes you want to go back on holiday, huh. Like in Tahiti." At the word Loki opened his eyes and focused on Coulson.

"It's a magical place," Coulson said.

"Tahiti," Loki said.

"It's a magical place," Coulson repeated.

"Tahiti," Loki prompted again. There was indeed a distinct flicker in the Midgardian's magical signature that didn't properly mix with the rest of him.

"It's a m— magical— place," Coulson said, frowning. "What the fuck." He narrowed his eyes at Loki. "What are you doing?"

"Figuring out if you are under the influence of foreign magic. I do believe it is indeed the case."

Loki concentrated on the bond and tentatively pulled to send 'IT SEEMS KREE'. He could not be entirely certain, even with the enhancement of his magical awareness that a direct connection to Tony afforded him; however, the flavour of that magic did feel from the corner of the universe that the Kree originated from.

Tony's lips thinned, and a plethora of feelings echoed across the bond as his mind clearly churned. He nodded, as if coming to a conclusion. "Phil, apparently you have something to do with a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. project called T.A.H.I.T.I.," Tony said. It looked like he had changed his mind about keeping secret his snooping.

"It's a magical pla— Stop that!" Coulson glared at both of them. "I don't know anything about that project. And I haven't been… cursed, or whatever you think is happening here."

"I can sense it," Loki said. "There is something foreign in your magical signature. Something that wasn't there when I… killed you. And I indeed killed you. I have no doubt about that. And yet you are here, alive. Something drastic must have undone it, and Midgard is not, overall, capable of such a feat."

"Tahiti," Tony said with a smirk.

"It's a magical place," Coulson said, and sighed. "Fine. Yes. There is something strange going on. It's not like I didn't notice something didn't add up. I remember being in Ta— You know. But why would I be taking a holiday when Earth had just been attacked? I asked Fury, of course, and he gave me a bullshit answer that would have been just as enlightening as saying 'classified', and then he promoted me." Coulson crossed his arms and glared them down. "I know I have to figure out what the hell happened. But I'm not exactly the priority right now, as you well know."

"That depends," Tony said. "You might be the priority if your curse, whatever it may be, makes you unreliable. I mean, you saw what mind-addling curses did to Loki and Clint."

"My mind isn't addled."

"Tahiti?" Loki reminded him.

"It's a— No! Whatever this is, it isn't controlling me or anything. Apart from that silly phrase. But that could just as well be your regular old brain washing techniques. Which I don't want to think about right now. Besides, if anything is driving me crazy it's you two. And the attack at the gala."

"Does that mean you don't know anything about it?" Tony asked.

"I just told you I didn't!"

"Well you've been cursed so sorry if I don't take your word at face value."

Coulson pinched the bridge of his nose and stayed like that for a number of deep breaths. "Stark. Can you please, for the love of God, not be a pain in my arse for a single minute?"

"Dunno. A minute is pretty long. Might be able to give you thirty seconds. If I try hard."

Loki sighed at the turn the conversation was taking. "Can we please get to the point? I am rather exhausted."

"Right, sorry sweetcheeks. So… I'm gonna trust you here, Phil, but you better not be on the wrong side of this or I'm going to hound your arse, I swear. Grab a chair, this might take a while."

Coulson joined Tony on his side of the bed to see the tablet, and Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. started to explain the things they had discovered about S.H.I.E.L.D.. Coulson's indignation about the hacking became less and less frequent, and Loki suspected it was linked with the things he was himself discovering about the organisation he worked for.

Loki attempted to follow the rapid-fire prattle of Tony's arguments, but without the visual aid of the files Tony referred to he quickly lost all sense of the subject matter. The fact that the world had started to spin didn't help. Loki gave it up as a lost cause and shimmied down the bed to lay down and get back under the covers. Tony was too close to the edge of the bed to be able to keep his physical connection to him, and Loki was mourning the loss, but he wasn't shameless and desperate enough to crawl over and plaster himself against his soulmate's skin with the Deputy Director there.

The bed's apparent swaying and pitching made his stomach roil, and the sound of voices increased and decreased with the rhythm of his heartbeat. Despite all this, Loki's mind drifted off into a fitful sleep.

I feel like both nothing much and quite a lot happened in this chapter? Like, not much action, but some evolution in the characters (read, Tony). He's being so casual about staying at the bedside – or rather on the bed's side – of his soulmate all night and doesn't even realise how natural it felt. (And do I have a thing for putting Loki in a vulnerable position or what? Sorry not sorry!)

My studies start again, and I will be moving house soon (and you know, health issues abound)… So not much time to write. But hey, that doesn't make much difference given my sporadic updating schedule, haha… ha.

Spread the Luv!

LL