Darn! I only managed to update once over break. Which is kind of sad considering how much time I had. But this chapter was really hard to write. I actually could have posted this last night and it only would've been a week in between updates, but I wanted to go over it again. So I guess I got off my Wednesday schedule, since it's Thursday.
You guys continue to amaze me with your response to this story. I've been completely blown away. When I started this, I never thought it would get anywhere close to 100 follows, let alone pass it! I never thought it would get 10,000 views, either. Seriously, you all are the best! I'm probably going to keep thanking everyone every chapter.
So, on to the Avengers' visit, Part Two!
Tony hadn't even been sure if Bruce was going to join the rest of the team and Loki for dinner, thinking that maybe Bruce would be too worried about Hulking out again. Tony had actually tried calling Bruce once a couple days ago, inviting him over again, but Bruce hadn't answered. Tony's glad Bruce had joined them today, because he really wants his opinion on something. Besides, Bruce is one of the few people he truly enjoys spending time with.
Tony keeps a hand on Loki's upper arm as he leads him out of the kitchen. Bruce is already in the living room, looking as if he's trying to think about something other than where the conversation had almost ended up.
Although he can't make out the words, Tony can still hear the other Avengers talking in the kitchen. Maybe they should go somewhere even more private, he thinks, watching as Loki squats down and begins flipping through a book on the floor.
Tony suggests going down to the lab to ensure total privacy (given he hasn't actually started making the Hulkbuster armor, there's nothing for Bruce to see). Loki doesn't move until Tony calls out to him, and then he gets up, hugging Simba, the book and his star drawings to his chest.
As they ride the elevator, Bruce asks somewhat awkwardly "How are the floors? Do they still have the holes in them? I'm really sorry about all that, by the way."
Loki seems to be tuning them out and is poking the buttons for the different floors, and Tony can tell Jarvis is overriding the commands again. Though Loki doesn't seem to care that pressing them doesn't have any effect. Tony turns towards Bruce.
"They're still getting fixed, but it's all good." Tony leans casually against the wall and smirks slightly "They actually add a bit of pizazz. Holes are in, these days. They've already been putting them in clothes, you know, with those ripped jeans you see a lot of people wearing. I guess I'm starting a trend of having them in floors. They do force you to be more aware of your surroundings." The corners of Bruce's mouth twitch upwards, and the mood lightens somewhat.
The elevator doors slide open and Loki rushes out, placing the book and papers on a table before going off to greet Dum-E. He's already halfway across the lab by the time Tony and Bruce get out of the elevator.
"Before we start, you need to see this." Tony tells his Science Bro, pulling up a video from the other day Bruce had been over. He hits play and watches Bruce's reaction.
When the footage shows Loki hugging the Hulk, Bruce has an almost awed expression on his face, which quickly turns into shock when the Hulk rests a hand on Loki's back.
"I remember that." Loki announces, right behind them. Tony hadn't heard him come up, but he's already paused the video. Bruce is still staring at the paused frame as if it's a priceless painting. Considering how most people react around the Hulk, Tony thinks, seeing something like this must feel really nice. Bruce is starting to look somewhat emotional.
"Is Hulk-y going to come out?" Loki asks. Tony glances incredulously at Bruce, who's giving him a similar expression- apparently he hadn't misheard the Hulk-y part. Tony quips that they should make that the Hulk's official name for the Avengers, which earns him an exasperated smile from Bruce, though Bruce says he doubts the Hulk would approve. When asked why he'd called the Hulk that, Loki offers no explanation, instead singsonging "Tony, Hulk-y! Loki, Hulk-y! Tony, Loki, Tony, Hulk-y!" Oddly enough, that actually seems to answer the question.
"Do you still like the Other Guy?" Bruce asks, obviously trying to keep his voice neutral. He probably thinks the second incident had ruined Loki's good feelings towards the Hulk. To be honest, it sort of had for a bit until Tony had that conversation with Loki after Bruce left the other day.
"Yeah. Except when he threw stuff at Tony, 'cause Tony shouldn't get hurt. Nope nope nope! But Tony said it was fine and I should still like Hulk and he can still be my friend." Loki grins. "So he is!"
"I'm glad to hear that." Bruce smiles slightly, glancing at Tony. His eyes say thank you for telling him that. "Am I still your friend, too?" Loki nods happily and Bruce's smile gets a little larger.
Tony screenshots that frame of Loki hugging the Hulk before putting it on a flash drive. He hands the flash drive to Bruce saying "Feel free to use it as your wallpaper or for an Avengers promotional poster. Maybe you could stick it on a coffee cup or a t-shirt." He's not exactly serious about those suggestions, though. He's not sure how he'd feel about the picture going public. People would undoubtedly try to figure out who Loki is. Although Loki's face is turned away in the picture so it would be hard for anyone to identify him, that doesn't mean it's impossible. Tony can tell Bruce gets that.
Bruce looks somewhat surprised at this gift but gives Tony a very sincere thanks, tucking the flash drive into his shirt pocket.
Tony figures they should probably move on to the actual topic he'd wanted to discuss.
"Jarvis suggested that I find you a therapist, Snoopy." Tony says without further preamble, looking at Loki. This doesn't get any sort of reaction from the god for about five seconds, and then Loki's face takes on a confused expression.
"What?" Clearly he has no idea what they're talking about. Tony's not sure if they even have therapists in Asgard.
Jarvis speaks up. "A psychotherapist is a trained professional who helps a patient overcome psychological problems through the use of psychological methods."
"Or tries to." Tony mutters. "There's no guarantee they'll succeed."
Bruce gives Tony a bit of a sharp look, although Tony thinks it's an important thing to mention. However, Loki's wandered off again and his showing Dum-E the constellations he drew.
"What do you think about it?" Tony turns to Bruce. Bruce doesn't answer immediately.
"It could help him," Bruce begins. "There are therapists that specialize in helping people who have been through... traumatic situations." He's still clearly trying not to think too much about Loki's past to avoid Hulking-out, but he still adds, in a detached, clinical sort of way "Clearly, Loki's life has been very traumatic."
Even a moron would be able to see that, Tony thinks. Loki's obviously been through some traumatic experiences. Actually, he's pretty sure Loki has PTSD.
"If I end up doing this, finding the right therapist is going to be tricky. They need to be someone who won't care that Loki's not a citizen and is instead a thousand-year old god from another world, and they need to keep his powers a secret. And that's on top of actually being a specialist in trauma." Tony groans and runs a hand through his hair. "You don't happen to know anyone like that, do you?"
"I'm not that kind of doctor, Tony." Bruce sighs. "I mean, I can ask around but I don't think I'll have much luck." There's a bit of a pause before Bruce continues "About his powers being a secret, it's not like he's the only one on Earth who can do strange things." Ok, so that's true, Tony admits, but this still seems different since Loki isn't actually from Earth. Besides, revealing Loki's powers (or Loki himself) to the public still doesn't seem like a good idea.
Tony looks over at the subject of the conversation. Loki is holding Dum-E's claw and singing as he stares into thin air. Even if they manage to find a therapist who meets all of those qualifications, what if Loki doesn't take to them and refuses to talk with them?
"I really do think he should see somebody." Bruce remarks, also watching Loki. Bruce and Jarvis certainly seem to be thinking along the same lines, and Tony has made up his mind. Tony decides they should at least give it a shot, since he has no idea how to help people get over traumatic experiences (although he knows all to well what it feels like to experience them and their aftereffects).
Tony calls out to Loki and Loki's eyes eventually focus on him. Loki trots over to them, pulling Dum-E along behind him. Tony fixes the god with a look and asks "How would you feel about seeing a therapist?" Tony's not entirely sure what to do if Loki says he doesn't want to.
"What's that?" Loki asks. Jarvis doesn't rattle off the definition this time.
"It's someone who would try to help you work through your past." Tony offers, although that might not be the best explanation. "You'd talk with them and hopefully end up feeling better about things eventually. Would you be up for that?"
"I dunno." Loki shrugs at first and unexpectedly asks "Do you think I should do it?"
Jarvis pipes up. "It could have a positive effect on your well-being, Mr. Loki."
Loki nods cautiously, and since that's the most they get out of him on the subject, Tony decides to go for it. He sets Jarvis to trying to find a good therapist for the god. Tony has no idea how long it'll take Jarvis to find someone, but at least price isn't going to be an issue. Tony can pay whatever.
Tony suddenly realizes they've been away from the other Avengers, and the other three still don't actually know anything about Loki. He probably should tell them without Bruce or Loki there. Bruce could Hulk-out and Loki clearly hadn't wanted to talk about it when Natasha had been questioning him earlier. "Well, I guess that's settled. The others are probably wondering where we are."
Bruce gives him a knowing look and says "Go fill them in. I'll stay down here with Loki."
Tony nods. "See ya, Snoopy." He says over his shoulder as he heads to the elevator. "Don't blow anything up when I'm gone. I wouldn't want to be excluded."
Loki watches anxiously as the elevator door closes and Tony disappears from sight. He'd followed Tony at first, but Tony had told him to stay here. Loki clutches Simba tighter. "Where's Tony going?"
"He's going to talk to the others." Bruce explains gently. That doesn't explain why they're still down here, though. Loki's never been in the lab without Tony before, since Jarvis won't let him in unless Tony's there (and sometimes he's not allowed in even when Tony's in the lab).
Loki likes Bruce, really. After all, Bruce is his friend. But he can't help wishing that Tony was still down here. Although it sort of goes without saying that he'd rather be with Tony than without him.
At least Dum-E and Jarvis are still here. Dum-E rolls up to him with a supportive beep as Loki looks at Bruce. Loki slips his free hand into Dum-E's claw while hugging Simba in his other arm.
"Jarvis, where's Tony?" Maybe Bruce is wrong about where Tony is. Or maybe he's lying, though Loki's not sure why he'd lie about that.
"Mr. Stark is with the others, as Dr. Banner said. He has not left the tower, Mr. Loki." Jarvis says in a reassuring tone. Loki nods and relaxes. Jarvis is always right, so that has to be the truth. If Tony's still in the tower, it's not that bad. After all, he'd been alone with the Hulk for a bit, he reminds himself, and that had been fine. It had actually been sort of fun. This isn't really different from that, even though Bruce is different from the Hulk. So he should be fine now, too.
"So what have you been doing down here in the lab? You said you had a project you were working on." Bruce's voice is quiet, as usual, which Loki likes a lot.
Nodding, Loki says "Yeah... I'm making a suit like Tony's! But it's for Simba, not Tony."
Bruce smiles and asks "Would you be willing to show it to me?"
Loki grins as the holograms suddenly appear before him. Bruce watches patiently as Loki shows what it looks like on Simba. Bruce says it looks really good, which makes that warm feeling spread through Loki's body, like when Tony had said that, too.
They continue to talk, and Loki remembers Tony had said to keep the Hulk-like Man of Iron armor a secret. Loki can keep secrets, sort of. Admittedly, he hadn't kept his magic a secret for long (he'd done it and accidentally blurted out that he had magic), but he hasn't let it slip that he's a Frost Giant yet. He really hopes that continues.
Loki wishes the Hulk would come out, too, but when he asks Bruce, Bruce says it wouldn't be a good idea and promptly changes the subject.
When Tony returns to the floor the other Avengers are on, he finds Steve, Clint and Natasha still eating in the kitchen. Tony starts pouring himself a glass of scotch (his stash of alcohol isn't just limited to the penthouse, after all). He offers the others some though only Clint accepts, which is pretty typical. Clint is always willing to get his hands on the good- and incredibly expensive- drinks that Tony owns, though Tony can't blame him in the slightest.
Steve gives him an annoyed look and starts criticizing his alcohol consumption. Tony returns his glare, not in the mood for a lecture. Thankfully, Steve stops when Natasha asks about the two people who are currently missing. "Where are Bruce and Loki?"
"In the lab." Tony says. "They can't really be here for this conversation unless you want the Hulk to make an appearance. So, you guys were wondering about Loki..." The others seem surprised at his lack of sarcastic comments. He doesn't have to wait long at all before the three of them start asking questions about Loki again.
"How did he end up here?" Steve asks, even though they'd already gone over that earlier.
"It's like he told you. He landed on my roof about two weeks ago, and he's been here ever since." Tony pauses a bit to down some scotch and then says "He's from Asgard."
"So why is he here? Are you just waiting for Thor to come pick him up?" Clint asks. It's been a bit over a month since Thor's latest visit to Midgard, though to be honest, Tony's glad he's not here right now.
"Loki's not going back there." Tony makes his voice firm. He's already decided this isn't up for debate. Steve starts to ask rather accusingly what gives Tony the right to decide that and Tony snaps "It's what Loki wants."
A holographic video pops up, courtesy of Jarvis, though it remains paused. Tony recognizes the scene and plays it. It's from the first day Loki had been here- actually, from Tony's very first conversation with the god. The video shows Loki begging Tony to not send him back to Asgard, the fear in his voice clear as day.
Jarvis is brilliant, Tony thinks as he pours himself another glass of scotch. Showing them is so much better than him explaining it. After all, he hadn't actually told Pepper or Bruce that much about Loki- it had been Loki's actions more than Tony's words that brought the point home. Steve certainly looks more convinced now.
"Jarvis, pull up all footage relating to Loki's past, would you? And don't start playing anything. Leave that to me." Tony says, deciding to start over. After a bit, dozens of holographic videos spring out in front of him, all paused like he'd requested. Tony glances over them, recognizing most of the events just by the one frame each is showing.
Tony flicks through the videos, trying to decide what to show them.
"I don't know a whole lot of details, but it's painfully obvious he was treated horribly in Asgard. Horribly enough to have nightmares about it almost every night." Tony says darkly and he decides not to show any clips of the nightmares. That might be a bit too personal.
The other three are starting to look somewhat sympathetic. It's not like any of their lives have been filled with meadows and butterflies. Life's not fair, and they all know that firsthand. But Tony feels like it's been ridiculously unfair to Loki.
Considering what Loki's been through, Tony thinks, it's remarkable he hadn't turned into one of those sociopaths that the Avengers end up fighting. Or, slightly less extreme, that he hasn't just given up on people and withdrawn into himself. Tony's not sure how Loki manages to be so happy, despite his terrible-sounding past.
"This will give you a good idea of how bad it was." Tony plays the video of when Loki had exclaimed that everyone on Asgard hated him and how he'd had his mouth sewn shut. Steve looks horrified, Clint looks repulsed, and Natasha's face doesn't betray her emotion.
Steve launches into a tirade about all the ways that is so wrong. For once, Steve's ranting about morals doesn't grate on Tony's nerves. "How could they do that to someone?" The super-soldier asks, rhetorically.
Natasha speaks up. "Have you considered that Loki could have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder?" Natasha had connected the dots pretty quickly, but that's hardly surprising. Tony's already been thinking Loki might have PTSD for a while, while ruthlessly shoving down any thoughts that pop up about the possibility he might have it too. Sure, he also has nightmares, but Tony doesn't want to consider that his nightmares and Loki's might indicate the same thing.
"I'm pretty sure he does, and given what he's been through, it wouldn't be surprising. I have no doubt Loki was physically abused, and emotional abuse seems pretty likely too. The only bright side is there hasn't been anything to suggest sexual abuse." That would just be icing on the cake, wouldn't it? Although that metaphorical cake would have to be revolting to truly represent Loki's situation. Something poisonous and filled with fingernails, maybe, with pus for icing.
The others seem to have worked out what Loki has against Thor and what Tony had meant when he said earlier that Thor had a lot to answer to, but they bring it up anyways. Tony frowns. "Loki's mentioned Thor and his friends, but I'm not actually sure how much of it was them and how much was other Asgardians. From what it sounds like, everyone hated him."
"Did they have any motivation?" Natasha asks.
"They just seemed to hate him on principle." It isn't a lie, but Tony has a feeling Natasha knows he's not saying everything, what with her being a spy and all. Besides, Tony doesn't exactly know. Sure, they seemed to hate Loki's powers, but he's not sure why they hated them.
"That doesn't sound like Thor at all, though." Steve frowns. Tony had thought the same thing at first.
"Well, Loki's clearly terrified of him, so maybe there's something about Point Break that we don't know. Loki's mentioned Thor hurting him, though." Maybe Thor was a lot more of a jerk for the first couple thousand years of life than he was during the year and a half Tony's known him. Or maybe Thor just doesn't show one of his uglier sides here. The former doesn't sound nearly as bad as the latter, but it's still pretty bad. Not that Tony can really point fingers in that regard. He'd been a complete asshole before Afghanistan.
Clint brings up that Thor had changed since his stint in New Mexico a couple years ago, but that still doesn't give any indication of how he was to Loki. Clearly there's more investigating to be done.
"Loki was really worried that we were going to hurt him since we're also Avengers." Tony amends that statement "Actually, I'm pretty sure he's still worried about that. I doubt he trusts you three farther than he could throw you." He smirks slightly. "No, that's not true since he could probably throw you pretty far, with his super-human strength and all."
"So he has the same powers as Thor?" Clint asks.
"Well, not the thunder part, but he's still got super-human strength, ridiculous speed, insanely-fast healing, All-speak. Basically the whole package, really. Although he has some extra powers." Tony frowns. He hadn't planned on saying that last part, but he supposes that since Bruce already knows about Loki's powers, it wouldn't hurt for the others to know too. They're clearly expecting him to elaborate now.
"He has these powers that he's terrified of. Everyone in Asgard hated them, and he was punished for using them." Tony takes another swig of scotch to try to ease his mind. "He described them as magic."
"Like Dr. Doom?" Natasha asks in an emotionless voice. Tony's eyebrows shoot up. That is not the comparison they should be going for. To be honest, Tony hadn't even thought of it. He's never actually run into Victor Von Doom himself, just his stupid robots, so he's only heard of Doom's abilities.
"No. It's not like Doom's." Tony replies quickly. "From what I've heard, Doom teleports and shoots stuff out of his hands. Loki doesn't. So Doom's a lot higher up on the freaky-shit-o'meter." Admittedly, he's not sure what the extent of Loki's powers are (nor is he sure what Doom's powers are) but comparing Loki's powers to Doom's is like comparing the Iron Man suits to Doombots.
Tony proceeds to give a brief description of Loki's powers, and the others don't interrupt, even when he gets sidetracked trying to think of explanations for them.
Natasha sits there with her arms crossed, and Tony wonders if maybe this was a mistake. If for some reason S.H.I.E.L.D. decides to take an interest in Loki and try to drag him into their less-than-hospitable care for experimentation or something, well, shit's really going to hit the fan. But Tony's not going to let that happen.
"Loki's not going to be taking over the world with his powers soon. Or ever, really." Tony hopes this will dissolve any potential problems. Not that there would be a reason for anything to happen, but S.H.I.E.L.D can be really paranoid. And it has a history of being grabby, like the biggest kid on the playground taking all the toys they want, no matter whom they originally belonged to. So if Natasha decides that Fury should know about Loki, and Director Cyclops decides to drag him in for testing...
Thankfully, it seems like Tony's fears are unfounded. Natasha says she doesn't see a reason that S.H.I.E.L.D would need to know about Loki right now, since he doesn't seem to be a threat (although, she adds that if she's proven otherwise, she won't hesitate to call them in). But Tony seriously doubts that's going to be an issue. Aside from defending Tony from the Hulk, Loki seems like the least-threatening person on the planet- and even with the Hulk incident, he'd only defended. He'd never actually attacked.
There's not much else to tell them about Loki, so Tony tells Jarvis to inform Loki and Bruce that they can come back up. Then he turns to the others and says "By the way, don't mention Loki's powers around him, and try to stay away from the subject of Asgard." As long as they do as he'd just said, Loki might actually start to like them.
Finally, Jarvis tells Loki and Bruce that they can go back up to where the other Avengers are. Being with Bruce had been fun. After showing him the suit he's making for Simba, Loki had gotten Jarvis to pull up that huge hologram that made it feel like you were floating in the stars. Loki hadn't been able to resist spinning around delightedly in the middle of it again.
But still, Loki can't wait to get back to Tony. He bounces on his toes in anticipation as the elevator takes him and Bruce up (Dum-E had stayed in the lab, to Loki's disappointment).
When he elevator doors open, Loki makes a beeline for his favorite person. Tony looks up and says "Hey, Snoopy. What were you and Bruce up to? Tap-dancing? Kickboxing? Building a time machine?" Loki's not sure what tap-dancing and kickboxing are (again, he'd never heard of them in Asgard), but he's almost positive they're not at all related to what he'd actually been doing.
"I showed him the stuff I'm making. But I remembered you said not to tell him about the Hulk suit!"
Oops.
Once again his mouth blurted something out before he could stop it. He clamps a hand over his mouth, but it's already been said. That has to be one of the worst ways to accidentally reveal a secret though, since he'd been talking about not revealing it.
"Hey! If you're going to reveal all my secret projects, maybe I shouldn't let you in the lab anymore." Tony's giving him an annoyed look, which Loki really hates. He doesn't want Tony to be annoyed at him. Maybe Tony's going to start disliking him, like everyone in Asgard. Loki switches from holding Simba by one of his legs to hugging him close.
"I'm sorry!" Loki stares into Tony's eyes, nervously trying to work out Tony's thoughts. "I didn't mean to!"
"What Hulk suit?" Bruce asks, though Loki can't tell if he's annoyed or not. Hopefully he's not, because that annoyance would probably be directed at him, like Tony's is already. Being annoyed isn't too far away from being mad, and when people are mad around him he almost always gets hurt.
Tony turns away and sighs before addressing Bruce. "I'm building a suit that will hopefully keep Hulk from hurting anyone." Bruce's face is unreadable, but he says softly that that's not a bad idea.
"Do you hate me?" Loki interrupts worriedly before Bruce gets anything else out. Now Tony's giving him a strange look while asking why he'd hate him. It seems obvious to Loki, but he explains anyways. "'Cause I told when you said not to."
"No. I don't hate you." Tony says, sounding much less annoyed. "I mean, I didn't really want you to tell anyone, but that doesn't make me hate you."
"Technically, he didn't actually tell me." Bruce says quietly. "He just told you about not telling me while I was in earshot."
"Why were you even trying to keep that armor a secret?" Clint asks. "We would have found out when you used it, anyways."
"Are you really not gonna let me in the lab anymore?" Loki changes the subject again, looking at Tony. He doesn't really like that idea. Tony spends a lot of time in there, and if he couldn't be there too that means he wouldn't see Tony as much, or Dum-E for that matter. Plus, he wouldn't be able to work on Simba's Man of Iron suit.
"No, I'll still let you down." Tony eventually says, and Loki grins. "Just keep your lips sealed about my projects-"
Loki freezes at the words keep your lips sealed. Tony's still talking, but whatever he's saying, Loki's not making it out. It's become a distant noise as images flash through his head. Odin looming over him. A sharp, scary needle coming towards his face. Stabbing through his lips, sewing them together. White-hot pain exploding in his mouth. Nothing but agonizing pain. PAIN, PAIN, PAIN! His mouth's stitched shut and he can't open it, so he can't talk as the Warriors Three descend on him, followed almost immediately by Thor.
Loki distantly hears someone talking to him, and he feels something touch his shoulder and he flinches away. Slowly, the voice grows louder. His breath is caught in his throat as he's shaking and crying, clinging to Simba desperately and curled into a ball on the floor.
It's Tony, he realizes eventually. Tony's speaking in that calming tone, and the man pulls him close. "Loki, you're safe. You're with me, in my tower. You're not there anymore."
Meanwhile, he can hear Jarvis gently telling him to take slow, deep breaths, and he tries to comply. Eventually, his body stops shaking and he wipes his eyes.
Loki eventually looks at the Avengers he'd just met tonight. He's still nowhere near comfortable with the three new Avengers, especially since they're all looking at him and he'd just freaked out. But they're not looking at him with disgust, but something else. Concern, maybe? Loki's not entirely sure, but the looks they're giving him are similar to what he gets from Tony.
Jarvis and Tony had said the other Avengers weren't going to hurt him, but that didn't mean they'd like him, either. Having a handful of people like him already seems too good to be true, so more people liking him is probably too much to ask for. He squeezes Simba's ear and Simba starts to sing and move his head and tail, and Loki smiles down at him.
Loki notices Bruce isn't in the group. Maybe Hulk's come out to play. But the Hulk's not anywhere either, which is kind of disappointing.
After a stretch of silence, Steve starts talking to him. Loki eyes him warily, expecting him to lash out or start mocking him like anyone in Asgard. He inches closer to Tony, leaning into the man's embrace for comfort. "Do you like living here?" Steve asks, and Tony is giving the man an annoyed look. Loki's not sure why he's asking, but it's a no-brainer.
"I love it here! I don't wanna live anywhere else, ever. Nope nope nope." Loki smiles a bit as he thinks about how much he likes being here. Where instead of being made fun of, he's actually comforted. Where he's told he's good at things, where people actually seem to like him, as illogical as that is. "It's best here, 'cause Tony's here and Jarvis is here and so is Dum-E..." Loki nods to emphasize this, since he's too tired to jump up and down.
He's really, really glad he ended up here when he'd been thrown out of Asgard.
Tony feels incredibly stupid for his comment about lips being sealed. He'd known as soon as it left his mouth what effect it would have on Loki. Of course, Loki had been reminded of when his lips actually were sealed shut. Loki had gone into some sort of flashback, like he'd seemed to have done after Tony lost him in the bustle of New York. Loki had started clawing at his lips again, and Tony had struggled to hold him back.
When he'd gone to comfort Loki this time, Tony had almost forgotten the other Avengers were there until they'd helped with trying to hold Loki back. He had noticed that Bruce had suddenly been absent, although his Science Bro his back now. Apparently he'd hulked-out a couple floors down, which means more repairs, but there at least hadn't been a fight this time. Maybe he should try to build a Hulk-proof room for the Hulk to vent his anger and throw tantrums in.
Thankfully, nobody has mentioned Loki's flashback or his powers, which Loki might not even know that they know about. Although nobody really seems to know what to say now. There'd been some rather awkward small talk.
Tony actually apologizes for what he'd said, but Loki just shrugs it off. He seems to be back to his regular self, which no longer surprises Tony, though he's still sort of jealous Loki can go back to being happy relatively quickly. He's still not sure how he does it.
Tony suggests that they watch a movie. The Avengers have movie nights often anyways, and it might help avoid any more situations without Tony actually booting the others out of the tower. Things have been kind of awkward since Loki's flashback, so it might help alleviate some of that awkwardness. Plus a movie could help distract Loki from his flashback. So they all head into the tower's private movie theater, which is on the same floor they're currently on.
When the enter, Loki points at the huge white screen and says "Jarvis says the moving pictures don't come from that. Something shines them on it instead." Tony supposes that Jarvis had told him that when he was alone today. Although Tony seriously doubts Jarvis would have used the word shine to describe it.
Loki walks through every row of seats before choosing one in the middle of the front row. Tony turns to the others and says "Whatever we watch, it's going to have to be animated if we want Snoopy to stick with us." Tony had tried exposing Loki to live-action stuff, but he'd never made it through a live-action movie. He'd either fallen asleep or wandered off.
"How many movies have you guys watched?" Steve asks.
"Five or six, probably." Tony answers. "And they've all been either Pixar or Disney flicks." He'd watched a couple action flicks without Loki, technically.
"Disney's coming out with a new movie soon." Clint says, "Frozen. It's about an ice princess or queen or something." He shrugs, and Tony stares at him and asks how he knows that. Clint rolls his eyes and says "There are these things called movie previews, and they sometimes play during commercial breaks. I thought Steve would be the only one to not know of those." This gets a somewhat annoyed protest from Steve.
Tony notices that Loki's listening in, clearly interested. Maybe they should watch it when it comes out. Tony makes a mental note to look into it later.
Eventually, they decide to watch Aladdin. Tony plonks down in the seat next to Loki.
Loki had been less energetic right after his flashback, but his usual energy seems to have returned now. The movie's certainly distracting him, like Tony hoped. Loki is just as into this movie as he was with all the others. As always, he bounces in his seat and laughs- both at the funny parts and parts where the humor is known only by him. Sometimes he even gets up and goes to a different seat for a couple minutes before going to sit next to Tony again.
If the others are at all annoyed by Loki's outbursts, they don't say anything.
During the part where Genie sings Friend Like Me, Loki's mood seems to change to confusion as he watches Genie create a bunch of magical Genie-illusions, and he blurts out "Why don't they hate him?"
Tony turns slowly to look at him, knowing the reason Loki's asking, and Jarvis pauses the movie. "Because there's no reason to hate him." Tony says
"Yes there is." Loki replies bluntly. "He's doing magic. It's messed up." Tony's rather surprised Loki's so open about this. Maybe it's because the focus is on Genie and not Loki himself, even though they're discussing Genie making other-Genies? Thankfully, the others seem to remember not to mention Loki's powers, though they still join the conversation.
"I think it's pretty cool." Clint says from the row behind them, and Loki turns to look at him as if he's crazy. When Tony agrees with Clint, Loki gives him that look too, and says "But it's bad! Why aren't they showing him that?" The implications of the words showing him make Tony really uncomfortable, and despite the fact Loki's not panicking, he puts an arm around the god's shoulder anyways. Loki curls up slightly and leans into Tony's arm.
"None of them seem to think it's messed up." Bruce says quietly, referring to the characters. This seems close to Hulking-out territory, but Bruce seems to have a lid on it for now. Perhaps he's also focusing on Genie to avoid dwelling on Loki. Bruce continues "So it's not bad there, is it?" Loki doesn't look very convinced.
"Is that the only reason you think they'd hate him?" Natasha asks, looking at Loki with a rather assessing gaze, although her voice sounds gentler than usual. Loki shakes his head in the negative but doesn't actually give another reason. Tony tries to think of what it would be, and he thinks about how Genie has blue skin, just like the Frost Giant enemies of Asgard. If it weren't for the fact he's only seen Loki with ridiculously pale skin and green eyes, Tony would be positive that he's a Jotun. But missing the blue skin and red eyes characteristic of Jotuns means he can't be sure. Tony sighs. Maybe he should just ask sometime anyways. But now certainly isn't the time.
"Why aren't they moving?" Loki asks suddenly, pointing at the screen and effectively ending the conversation. Jarvis apparently takes that as their cue to resume playing since it starts up again. Despite his confusion as to why Genie isn't hated or punished, Loki seems to still really enjoy the movie, and it's clear that Genie is his favorite character of the lot.
Tony has surprised Steve many times tonight, Steve thinks as he watches the billionaire say something to Loki as they're watching Aladdin. Whatever he'd said makes Loki giggle and wriggle around in his seat.
When Steve first learned about Loki living with Tony, he had thought that Tony was being his usual impulsive self, jumping into a decision before thinking it through. Really, he hadn't thought Tony was responsible enough to look after someone else.
When he'd brought this up, Tony had been annoyed. But he hadn't only been annoyed about the suggestion that he wasn't responsible, he'd also been annoyed about the idea that Loki should be somewhere else.
During dinner, Loki had been acting rather odd. To be honest, Steve's still not entirely sure what to make of him. Loki's certainly a strange character- something about him is just off. It's in the distant look in his eyes, the way he bounces and wriggles, his innocent-but-slightly-crazy-sounding laugh. It's in the way he talks, as well as the way he treats Simba as if he were real and carries him everywhere.
But hearing about how Loki had been treated was horrible, and watching his flashback was even more so. How could anyone do that to anyone, let alone someone as seemingly gentle as Loki?
Okay, so Tony hadn't been perfect. He had still been drinking, which Steve feels is only one of the man's annoying habits. But he hadn't ended up completely drunk like he had so often before.
When discussing Loki's past, though, Tony hadn't made a single inappropriate remark or ill-mannered joke. The abuse Loki apparently went through isn't a joking matter by any means, but Steve thinks it was really surprising how serious Tony had been through that whole conversation.
Watching Tony and Loki interact is not at all what Steve thought it would be like. He was certain that snarky remarks were going to fly from Tony's mouth. But they haven't. Astonishingly, he'd actually complimented Loki instead of putting him down. But the most astonishing part was watching him comfort Loki during his flashback. Before he saw it with his own eyes, Steve couldn't imagine Tony hugging someone and speaking soft, reassuring words.
As if all that hadn't been enough, Tony had kept Loki in mind when picking a movie instead of just choosing what he wanted to watch. Apparently, this wasn't a new occurrence, if his remark about only watching Disney or Pixar movies the past two weeks is anything to go by. It seems like Loki's choice actually trumps Tony's.
Perhaps he was wrong about the situation, Steve thinks. Loki clearly likes it here, and Tony doesn't just ignore him. Steve's still not sure if it's the best place for Loki, but it's certainly not a bad place.
Actually, Steve realizes, it seems Tony likes Loki more than he likes him.
Well, now you know why I had to cut last chapter off, since this is how much more I had for the rest of the Avengers' first visit (though I honestly thought this was going to be a lot shorter). So if it had all been one chapter it would have been over 13,000 words! Plus I only started writing this after I posted last chapter...
So I hope Steve's POV was ok. I figure Steve would at least realize he was wrong about Tony, even if he was kind of feeling superior last chapter (apparently some of you liked how he was portrayed last chapter. Hopefully this chapter didn't ruin that or seem too OOC or anything).
Hopefully I can update again soon, but I'm not sure how busy I'll be.