I've almost died with happiness at the response this story is getting- over 800 views in less than two weeks! Plus favorites, follows and reviews. Seriously, you all are the best!
I've started school again so updates may be slower :P Also I downloaded a Jarvis app to my phone and I set all my ringtones to stuff Jarvis says. Sadly, I don't actually have Jarvis...
Just a reminder, Norse Mythology is AU in this fic, due to the absence of Loki in the myths.
Wow. This chapter is pretty long. Probably because the last scene was originally going to be part of a different chapter.
Tony looks at the sleeping figure next to him. Loki had nodded off really quickly. He gently shakes the god, but apparently his sleep is deeper than he'd thought.
He can't possibly lift Loki without the aid of the Iron Man suit. He'd figured that out when the god had been unconscious earlier that day.
It doesn't seem worth it to call the Iron Man suit just to get Loki to bed. His sofa's comfortable enough to sleep on, at least. He's done it himself occasionally. Besides, how would Loki react if he happened to wake up when getting picked up by a metal suit he's never seen before?
So Tony goes and gets some blankets and pillows. He manages to place the pillows underneath Loki's head. Then, he drapes a blanket over Loki's body. Loki snuggles down with a small smile on his lips, and Tony denies that the corners of his own mouth have crept upward.
Once Tony's in his lab, Jarvis speaks. "That was really sweet," the AI says in what Tony interprets as a mocking tone, "perhaps I should post pictures on the internet."
"Don't you dare." Tony says, glaring at where he knows one of Jarvis' cameras is.
"Whatever you say, sir." Jarvis seems to sigh. "I suppose it would be a pity if the world found out about this side of you. Even if it would help your PR."
Tony simply flips Jarvis the finger as Jarvis asks "Should I keep an eye on Mr. Loki?"
"Do you need to ask? I thought I programmed you to be smarter than that." Tony answers, before adding "Now stop wasting both of our time."
Today's events have left him with a boat-load of questions and few answers. Right now, he intends to find some.
He takes a swig of scotch and opens up a holographic internet page. He goes to a database and taps in 'Norse mythology Loki." Nothing comes up with the word "Loki" in it. He even runs a search through an electronic copy of the myths. Still nothing.
Figures. He hadn't remembered seeing the god mentioned in them back when he read them after meeting Thor. But that would've been almost too easy. His research on Norse myths when he met Thor hadn't been too thorough.
He realizes he's humming to himself. He hadn't noticed what he's humming, but now that he's paying attention, he identifies it as Hakuna Matata.
"Jarvis, switch on some music." The AI complies and Tony nods his head along to the AC/DC that's blasting out of his speakers. Hopefully that'll get his head to stop repeating "Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase" over and over.
He scrolls through the myths floating in front of him and starts to read. He could just have Jarvis do it, as he would often do, but he wants to figure this out by himself.
He finds something about the nine worlds. He's heard Thor mention Asgard (obviously) and he recognizes Midgard as what Thor calls Earth. He only vaguely remembers the others. Loki said he wasn't born in Asgard, so maybe he's from one of the other worlds.
Drinking some more scotch, he opens a separate tab and just searches for summaries of the other worlds. He starts with Vanaheim, home of the Vanir. Not finding anything noteworthy, he moves on to the others.
Jotunheim catches his attention, because it's the home of the blue-skinned Frost Giants. That fits two of his observations about Loki- that he'd seemed terrified of his blue-tinted hand under the bed, and he said he was something that started with an Fr sound. Admittedly the Fr part could have been something entirely different- freaky, friendly, frat boy, maybe even afraid.
For a moment, Tony wonders if maybe Loki's from Jotunheim.
But the rest doesn't fit at all. Loki's tall, but he's no giant. Plus Loki doesn't have the blue, frigid skin that's described on the hologram in front of Tony. The Frost Giants, or Jotuns, are apparently enemies of Asgard, so perhaps Loki hated the blue glow on his skin because it reminded him of them.
Tony sighs. He has a feeling he's missing a few key pieces to the puzzle. He came down here for answers and he hasn't found any, which is really annoying. In fact, he has more questions now, and he hasn't even started trying to figure out a logical explanation for how Loki healed so quickly after falling hard enough to make a crater on his roof. It's not like it just magically happened.
"Jarvis, arrange to have the roof fixed sometime." Tony says. He'd been so preoccupied with Loki that he hadn't even thought of that until now.
After a couple minutes, Jarvis asks "Would the day after tomorrow be all right?"
"Sure," Tony replies offhandedly, not really caring. Running a hand through his hair, he switches off the hologram. Downing the remainder of the scotch, he goes to his room and gets into bed.
"Sir, you need to wake up."
Tony doesn't respond, hoping maybe this is a dream and he isn't awake. It's a very flimsy hope.
"I'm afraid you must get up immediately, sir." Jarvis' voice makes that hope fly right out of the window.
Tony rolls over and grumbles something into his pillow. Whatever ungodly hour it is, it's way too early to be up. Wearily, he looks at the clock to see it's six in the morning.
"Director Fury says he needs to speak with you immediately." Jarvis tells him.
Tony groans. This can't be good, whatever it is. "Let's see what he has to say."
He's greeted by Fury's usual charm. "Stark, you need to get your ass to Pennsylvania immediately. Doom's sent a bunch of Doombots there."
Tony sighs. Why do maniacs bent on world domination always attack cities at the most annoying times? Maybe they plan it as part of their evil schemes or something.
He throws on some clothes and leaves his bedroom. Then he sees Loki sleeping on the couch. Great. In his sleepy state, Tony had forgotten about the god until now. Well, guess that means Loki's going to be alone in his tower. He doesn't really have a choice in the matter.
He's glad he made it so Jarvis could operate in his suit and the tower simultaneously. At least this way someone will be able to keep an eye on the god. He's not sure what Loki would do if left to his own devices.
Once an Iron Man suit attaches around him, he fires up the repulsers and takes off. He has Jarvis do the actual flying, since he hasn't had any coffee yet. At least he's not in his Malibu house- the flight from there would take a lot longer.
After about half an hour, he arrives in Philadelphia to chaos. Doombots are running rampant, and Natasha and the Hulk are the only other Avengers there.
Figures. When he needs to talk to Thor, the thunderer isn't there.
Tony takes control of the suit just in time to roll out of the way of a blast coming his way. He has no need for coffee now. Nothing wakes you up quite like almost being shot out of the sky.
Loki isn't very happy to wake up. He'd been having a wonderful dream. A man named Tony had let him live in his tower, and had even promised to not let Thor hurt him anymore. If that wasn't good enough, both he and Pepper seemed to actually like him.
He wishes he could sleep forever so the dream would never end.
Reluctantly, he eventually opens his eyes and blinks in confusion. Even in the dim light, the ceiling looks different than normal. It's white. Usually it's not. He looks around and realizes he's on a couch, and a blanket is draped over him.
Looking around the room, he realizes it looks exactly like the place he'd been in in his dream. The rectangular thing he and Tony watched last night that showed other worlds is there, and the colorful cube and the other thing he fiddled with are on a low table by the couch.
Then he realizes it wasn't a dream. He lets out a shriek of joy, jumping up from the couch and bouncing ecstatically. It was all real! He really wasn't in Asgard anymore, and Tony and Pepper really did like him and Tony said he'd protect Loki from Thor. Tony could probably hold his own against Thor, too, since he was another Avenger.
For a minute, Loki just stands there, laughing. It's a completely involuntary release of emotion. Once he's paying attention to the world again, he notices another Loki standing beside him, grinning broadly.
It's not really another Loki. He knows that. As soon as something touches the other Loki, it will disappear. That's what always happened before, anyways.
That means he just did magic. No! Closing his eyes, he swipes a hand through the other Loki. When he opens his eyes, the other Loki is gone.
He'd decided to try extra hard to keep it hidden after that first screw up, and he's already messed up again. Yesterday, it had only been a bit of green smoke, but this is much worse. Everyone in Asgard said it was bad enough having one of him around, so he was always punished for making more of himself.
This isn't Asgard, but Tony probably hates magic too.
But, to his relief, Tony's not anywhere to be seen. So he probably doesn't know. That's good. As long as he doesn't find out, everything should be fine.
Where is Tony, anyways? He goes to Tony's bedroom door, but it doesn't open.
"I'm afraid Mr. Stark has requested that you not go in there, Mr. Loki," A voice says. Loki cocks his head to the side. He knows that voice. He heard it yesterday, but it's not Tony's.
"...Jarvis...?" Yeah, that's it. "Who's Mr. Stark? Where's Tony?" Loki asks in rapid succession, more concerned about the second part. Did Tony just ditch him or something?
"Mr. Stark is a genius, billionaire, playboy and philanthropist." Jarvis says, and Loki frowns at all the new words. He doesn't think he ever ran across those words in Asgard.
"I believe you think of him as Tony, Mr. Loki, and currently he is out saving a city." Jarvis adds. Loki nods. Stark is a cool name. It's a lot better than Laufeyson.
Loki likes Jarvis, even though he only had a short conversation with him yesterday. Jarvis called him "Mr Loki." Originally he called him "sir," but that's what he called Tony. Besides, it sounded too weirdly formal and impersonal to Loki, so he didn't want to be called that. But Tony called him "Snoopy" and he had no idea why.
"What's a Snoopy?" He asks. Hopefully it's not something bad.
"One moment, Mr. Loki" Jarvis responds. After a couple seconds, he says "Snoopy is a fictitious beagle from the comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schultz." Loki wrinkles his brow in confusion. That explanation didn't really help at all.
"I've prepared breakfast for you in the kitchen," Jarvis says. Loki is pulled from his thoughts and he heads over to the room where he ate last night. Once he's there, Jarvis directs him to a weird metal box with two circular things sticking out of the slots on top.
He looks at the circular things curiously after pulling them out of the slots as Jarvis tells him to. The circular things have a grid of lines sticking out of them, so it looks like there are a bunch of little indented squares in them. Are these food?
Jarvis says they're called waffles, which is a really fun word to say. Loki singsongs it to himself for a bit, going faster and faster until it becomes a tongue twister and he messes up.
Giggling, he continues to follow Jarvis' instructions. He gets a jug of sticky stuff out of a big box that's cold on the inside. He carefully pours a bit into each square of the waffles and then forgoes looking for utensils. Instead he just picks one up and bites in. It's really sweet, and he instantly loves these waffle things. The food here has been really good so far.
"Jarvis, Tony said you're not real." He's been thinking about Tony's description of Jarvis from yesterday as he eats.
"If you are using 'real' to mean 'alive', then you would be correct." Jarvis responds, but Loki shakes his head. He's not finished yet.
"You seem real to me. Even though I can't see you. It's like you're hiding behind a wall or something. But I don't hear you walking in the walls or anything. I can't smell you either. But you're here." He retreats to his thoughts for a couple minutes, staring at the air in front of him, and then asks "Are you just a voice?"
Before Jarvis can answer, the topic abruptly changes as he blurts out something else that's on his mind. "Are you my friend?"
"I am if you want me to be, Mr. Loki." Jarvis answers, and Loki rocks back excitedly, a huge grin spreading across his face.
"Are Tony and Pepper my friends too?" He asks excitedly, getting up and skipping around the table. Jarvis says they are, and Loki claps his hands gleefully. He always liked the idea of having friends.
But nobody's friends with a worthless Jotun monster. His face falls and he stops skipping. What will happen when they find out what he is? How long will it be before they catch him using magic?
The magic one is inevitable, especially since he's already screwed up twice. But maybe he can keep the Jotun part a secret. If Tony doesn't know about that yet, he probably won't find out unless Loki shows his true (and shameful) form.
Feeling marginally better, he goes out into the living room and picks up the colorful cube before lying down on the floor. After solving it twice, he twists the sections around aimlessly, and eventually just ends up pushing it around on the floor.
He starts humming one of the songs Simba sang in that thing last night. Jarvis asks him if he wants the song to be played, and he shrugs. Suddenly, the words "I'm gonna be a mighty king, so enemies beware..." blasts out of... somewhere. He's not sure where.
Loki looks over at the box thing the animals had been in last night, but they're not there. How odd. Maybe they became like Jarvis, and are now just voices in the walls. Loki's glad he's not just a voice in a wall. Actually that might have been nice in Asgard. You can't hurt something that's just a voice.
The song ends, and Jarvis asks if he'd like to hear it again. Loki nods and the song starts up again. Loki wiggles his feet in time with the music.
After the song ends and restarts again, he asks "Jarvis, what's Snoopy again?"
Instead of an answer, a clear picture is suddenly floating in front of him. Curiously, he puts his hand behind it. He can still see both the picture and his hand. But he can move it around in the air.
Is this some kind of magic too? If it is, maybe Tony wouldn't hate him for using magic. But everyone hates his magic, so why would Tony be any different?
He shakes his head furiously and tries to turn his attention to something less confusing and upsetting.
Looking at the picture floating in front of him, he sees it's a drawing of a white dog with black ears and an oddly-shaped head. It's standing on it's hind legs, like a person.
"This is Snoopy?" He asks. Jarvis confirms it, and Loki smiles. He likes the way Snoopy looks. Suddenly, there's another picture floating in the air- this time of Snoopy with a round-headed boy in a shirt with a zig-zag stripe. Loki grabs it, giggling. Whatever these clear floating things are, they're really fun. He can swipe them around the air and spin them around while they're floating.
"Where's Tony?" He asks another time. Jarvis had said he was off somewhere, but what if Tony decides to just leave him here?
"I could show you if you'd like, Mr. Loki." Jarvis says, and suddenly the rectangular thing Loki and Tony had watched last night lights up. But it's not Simba on it this time. Instead, it's a bunch of weird metal creatures in a city, sort of like the stupid thing they'd been watching before The Lion King last night.
He wrinkles his nose. Why would he want to watch this?
Then he notices a huge green thing destroying the robots. Wait. Tony had told him about a green guy yesterday. What was he called again? Hul? Holk? No, Hulk. That was it.
Suddenly more interested, he watches the Hulk smash the metal things. One of the things fires at a woman with red hair, but its head suddenly explodes, and a red and gold thing flies through the picture.
"That was Iron Man." Jarvis tells him. Loki cocks his head to the side. That's Tony?
Almost two hours after Tony's arrival in Philadelphia, the last Doombot is turned into a worthless scrap of metal. The city block had suffered during the battle. The street is torn apart in one place and some of the buildings haven't fared too well either. One has a hole in it from when one of the Doombots dodged Tony's repulser blast.
Although the city block had suffered, there had been surprisingly few injured citizens- seven to be exact- and none of them were seriously hurt.
This had been a rather mild skirmish compared to other things the Avengers had done.
Once the Hulk becomes Bruce Banner, Tony approaches his "Science Bro." They hadn't done science together in a while, actually, which was a pity. Working with Bruce was like intellectual ecstasy. But that's not what he's approaching Bruce about right now, although Bruce could help figure out how Loki had healed so quickly.
Tony's been thinking it might be a good idea for Loki to actually meet some of the other Avengers. Perhaps that would help drive the point home that the other Avengers wouldn't treat him like how Thor supposedly did. Besides, it would be nice to have Bruce on his side when he confronts Thor about his treatment of Loki.
He briefly tells Bruce about Loki, but doesn't give much information. He's not even sure how to describe the god anymore. Bruce says he can't come over today, but that he'll come over as soon as possible.
Once Tony's back in the sky, Jarvis speaks up. "Sir, you might want to have a look at my camera in the living room. It seems to have malfunctioned briefly. I ran diagnostics but found nothing wrong with it."
Wondering where this is going, Tony looks at the holographic video Jarvis has just pulled up. He watches as Loki wakes up and inexplicably laughs. Maybe that's what Jarvis thought he should see. Suddenly, there are two Loki's.
Wait, what? Had he blinked and missed something? "Replay that bit." He says. The video replays, and it's the same thing. Another Loki just randomly appears out of thin air.
"Does Loki have a twin or something?" Tony asks.
"I'm sorry, sir. I do not know. However, my scanners only detected one person in the room." That's weird. Then again, what about Loki isn't abnormal in some way?
Maybe someone hacked into Jarvis' videos and digitally added another Loki? That idea doesn't even sound plausible in his head. For starters, Jarvis says that nobody had tried to hack into anything. Very, very few people are capable of hacking into Jarvis. Besides, if someone were to hack into Jarvis, why would they waste their time with something stupid like adding another Loki into a video for five seconds?
When he arrives back at his tower, he still doesn't have a reasonable explanation for this.
After landing on the balcony, he walks into the living room to find Loki sprawled on the floor, surrounded by at least a hundred holographs, while The Lion King soundtrack plays quietly from the speakers. Clearly, Loki doesn't share his love of loud rock.
Loki looks his way at the sound of Jarvis extending the arms that will remove the Iron Man suit. The god watches in fascination as the suit is pulled away to reveal Tony. Even after the suit is whisked away, Loki stares at Tony. Tony's noticed he does that a lot.
"Well, I'm going to take a shower." Tony informs Loki, stretching. "You might want to as well. Here." He has to move the holograms, which turn out to be Peanuts strips, out of the way to reach the god. Once he does, he leads Loki to one of the Tower's many bathrooms. After making sure there are towels for Loki, he realizes Loki doesn't have any other clothes besides the ones he's wearing.
"Come on Snoopy, let's go find you something else to wear after you shower." Loki takes a moment to pull himself away from making faces in the mirror, but he turns and follow Tony without being pulled along by the other man.
Tony enters his room and goes to the closet. He scans through his clothes. Most of them are probably too small for Loki. And as entertaining as the mental image of the god wearing the shirt with the words "god of sex" on it is, Tony's not actually going to have Loki wear that.
Eventually, he picks out a light blue t-shirt and a pair of white sweatpants, which still end above Loki's ankles even though they're the longest pair Tony owns. Clearly, Loki needs his own clothes. Even if he wasn't too tall for most of Tony's, it just doesn't feel right to give him old hand-me-downs. Especially since Tony's not lacking in money or anything.
"Hey, Snoopy, are you up for shopping later today?"
As they exit Stark Tower later, Tony glances over at Loki through his sunglasses. It's odd how different the god looks now that he's not wearing those dark leather clothes. He's still wearing the heavy-looking boots from his previous garb, though, since none of Tony's shoes fit him.
Loki pulls the Stark Phone Tony had give him out of his pocket and turns it around in his hands. Tony had just set it up so that all Loki had to do was press the number 5 and it would call him. Tony just gives up on having Loki keep it in his pocket. This has been the fifth time in five minutes.
There's a definite spring in Loki's step. He's basically skipping alongside Tony, singing I Just Can't Wait to be King, which he apparently has memorized now. He doesn't seem to be listening to Tony, who's making up for the lack of conversation with an endless monologue about whatever's on his mind. Like how the restaurant they're passing once gave him unwanted pickles in his sub sandwich or how he'd once caught someone pickpocketing an old lady right at the very spot they're on.
Tony asks Loki what types of clothes he likes, but the god just shrugs as he sings "I think it's time that you and I arranged a heart to heart. Kings don't need advice from little hornbills for a start..."
Tony sighs. Maybe he should just pick a random store and buy stuff for Loki. Though he won't resort to that quite yet. Instead, he starts asking Loki his opinion on every store they pass, but the god doesn't seem interested in any of them.
Suddenly, Loki stops and stares across the street. "That one!" Tony follows his gaze to see a story with bright, graphic shirts in the windows. They'd already passed five similar stores, and Loki had barely glanced at those. Well, at least he finally decided.
The inside of the store is filled with clothes of every color, most of them in very bright shades. A lot of them have some kind of graphic on the front. Loki giggles and says "This place looks like the Bifrost." Whatever that is.
There aren't too many other people shopping, so they'll probably be left alone.
Tony intercepts Loki, who's started to wander towards the women's department, and guides him towards the men's section. Just to test the size, he picks up a pair of pants that look like they could be tall enough for Loki.
"Here, try these on." He takes the phone out of Loki's hands and hands him the pants. Loki looks down, surprised, as if the pants had suddenly materialized in his hands. Then, to Tony's shock, he starts to pull down his pants right there.
Tony quickly yanks them back up and says "Not here." He glances around, hoping nobody saw that. That would be fun to explain. Don't mind him. He's a Norse god and I forgot to tell him about changing rooms. What's that? Why is he hopping up and down like that and singing 'Hakuna Matata'? I honestly don't know but it's none of your damn business.
He gently pushes Loki into a changing room and stands guard in case something else should happen.
Something catches his eye and he steps away for a moment. He can't believe he's never seen pajamas made to look like the Iron Man suit before. They even have a hood. He debates about getting a pair. Really, if anyone should wear Iron Man pajamas, it should be the actual Iron Man.
"That looks like your metal skin." Loki's voice is right behind him and Tony nearly jumps out of his skin.
"I like those." Loki says, nodding to himself before wandering off. Tony grabs a pair for Loki and decides to get one for himself, just because it would be funny. Iron Man in Iron Man pajamas.
He realizes that he hasn't even known Loki for a full day and they're already getting matching pajamas. But it's not too weird, he tells himself. They didn't plan to get matching stuff. They just both know awesome pajamas when they see them.
Later, they head up to the register with a cart full of clothes, including a Snoopy shirt Tony saw and immediately grabbed, given his nickname for Loki and the fact Loki had been reading Peanuts comics earlier that morning.
The cashier, a pimply teenage boy, gives Loki a weird look as the god stares into thin air and sings to himself. Tony comes up behind Loki, and the teen freaks out when he discovers who Tony is, gushing about Tony's performance in Philadelphia a couple of hours ago. Loki finds something about this hysterical. He bounces up and down, laughing, and says "He's Man of Iron."
"It's Iron Man, you retard." The teen sneers, looking at Loki like he's a slug or something.
"What did you just say?" Tony demands angrily, although he'd heard the hateful word.
"He's with you?" The teen looks shocked, even though Tony had gone to the register with Loki.
His face asks all too clearly How is someone like him with someone like you?
"He lives with me." Tony replies, hating this jerk more by the second. Sure he could be an asshole himself, but there were lines even he wouldn't cross, and making fun of people with disabilities was one of them. Especially when it was Loki. He doesn't even really know what Loki went through in Asgard, but he still knows the god has already been tormented more than enough in his life. And now it's happening here, by some snooty teen.
"Why does he live with-"
Tony silences the jerk with a glare. "You're starting to piss me off, and trust me, you don't want to deal with me when I'm pissed off. I'm not as bad as the Hulk, but that's like saying fire isn't as hot as lava." The cashier looks suitably frightened, and he mumbles an apology.
"Not to me, to him." Tony continues, although honestly Loki doesn't look like he cares. He's still staring into space and seems to be totally ignoring them. Though he had been watching earlier.
"Sorry man." The teen says. He sounds more sorry about Tony Stark being annoyed at him than about what he said about Loki. But that's probably the closest thing to an apology Loki's going to get from him.
Tony just glares at him as he swipes his credit card before standing around impatiently as the teen bags the stuff. When the teen finishes, he grabs the bags and heads off.
As they're leaving the store, Loki trots up beside him. Quietly, Loki says "Thank you for sticking up for me." So Loki had been listening. Tony has a hunch that nobody's ever defended him before. It was horrible, really, that Loki seemed to think telling someone off for making fun of him was going above and beyond the call of duty instead of just doing what was right.
"Don't mention it," Tony replies, still angry at the idiotic cashier. They exit the store into the bustling streets of New York.
Tony doesn't say a whole lot as they walk, which is uncharacteristic. He doesn't know why the incident bothered him so much, but it did. Heck, it seems to have bothered him more than it bothered Loki.
As he pushes through a particularly thick crowd, he looks over to see how Loki is doing and freezes.
Loki's not there.
He searches around frantically for a blue shirt, pale skin, a flash of long black hair. But there's nothing.
Suddenly, he remembers the phone he gave Loki. He reaches into his pocket to grab his own phone, only to realize he never gave Loki the phone back after sending him to the changing rooms.
He clenches a hand around the phone. He had stupidly ruined his plan to prevent something like this from happening.
Loki's gone, and he has no idea if he'll be able to find the god.
Dun dun duunnn! Cliffhangers are so fun. Actually, I'm not sure that counts as a cliffhanger. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed.
I hope Tony wasn't out of character in the last part of this chapter.
Sadly, this semester looks like it's going to be really busy, so it'll probably take me longer to update.