IMPORTANT NOTICE: If you haven't read the real chapter 15 that I posted last Sunday (April 3), go read that. Fanfiction didn't change the update date from April 1, though, because all I did was replace the chapter content. I'm not sure how many people noticed it was changed.
Oh yeah. Some of your reviews have suggested movies that they should watch, and I'd actually already had them planned, along with some movies that people haven't mentioned. I was actually going to have one of them in this chapter (not telling which), but one part of this chapter that I though was only going to be a fraction of the whole chapter ended up being the majority of it, so I didn't get to everything I had planned to have in this chapter.
On a totally unrelated note, I found a talking Captain America action figure at the same thrift store I found my Iron Man one. I think they might even be from the same toy line. I wonder if they're going to lead a civil war between my toys when I'm not in the room :) I wonder whose side Woody, Jessie, Buzz and Bullseye would be on- they're all in my dorm too, along with some other random toys. I've had Woody and Jessie since I was very young and I've bought the rest since coming to college, since I'm weird that way.
Okay, on to the chapter!
Loki keeps gripping Tony's sleeve, and Tony ends up sort of leading him that way. Loki keeps glancing down at his sandaled feet and grinning at his wiggling toes. Simba is hugged against his chest with his left arm while his left hand grips Tony's sleeve, and the shopping bag is dangling from the crook of Loki's currently bent elbow on his other arm. Tony had slipped the bag into his hands while they were looking at the Avengers toys. Loki honestly doesn't care. It's not like it's heavy or anything, although he pouts a bit when Tony tells him that his bouncing might break the bag.
Seeing those Avengers figures was really surprising. A lot of people here seem to know about Tony (or, rather, Man of Iron) and the other Avengers, but he hadn't thought there would be toys of them. Then again, when he'd found Simba, he hadn't known there were toys of his favorite lion, either. Maybe there are toys of everyone on Midgard? Then there would also be toys of Pepper and Dr. Car-something and that guy in the front of the car he and Tony had been in. If that's the case, are there toys of him, too? That would be really fun.
They enter the tower through the main entrance. This is only the second time Loki's done this, and he hadn't exactly been paying attention the last time. The whole place seems to be made of metal or glass and there are a ton of those screen things. There's also a very long desk with some people sitting behind it, and multiple elevators. Tony guides him towards one of the elevators (a specific one, it seems, since when Loki starts towards one of the others, Tony tugs him back). Loki doesn't like that everyone's staring at them though.
They take that specific elevator Tony's dragging him towards up to the penthouse and Loki presses all the buttons. It feels good, even though they don't do anything most of the time. Once they enter the penthouse, Tony says "Wake up, Jarvis. Daddy's home."
Loki giggles at that as he drops the shopping bag on the floor. Tony's not Jarvis' father! Right? He frowns thoughtfully. Tony had said he'd made Jarvis, and parents make kids, so maybe he really is. Though he has no idea how Tony would've made Jarvis. Or Dum-E. He said he'd made Dum-E too. Loki does know how babies are made, though, and he thinks it's rather disgusting that people do stuff with their bodies.
Loki wants to put Simba in his Man of Iron suit, but it's in the lab and Tony says they're not going down there right now. Loki pouts at this news until Tony asks what he wants for dinner and Loki shrugs. He's still not at all familiar with Midgardian food. He hasn't been here that long, and they've eaten different things for practically every meal, anyways. He doesn't even remember off the top of his head what he ate for a lot of meals, but he remembers waffles very well.
Tony suddenly looks horrified and asks "You haven't had pizza yet, have you?" Wondering what's wrong, Loki cautiously shakes his head. Why is Tony so scared? Maybe he should hug him again?
"That was mock-horror." Tony says, smirking slightly. Tony must be reading his mind or something, Loki thinks. Or had he accidentally said his thoughts aloud? Loki doesn't think he'd spoken but it wouldn't be the first time he'd blurted out what he was thinking.
"Seriously, though, you have got to try pizza. You've already gone weeks without it. I can't believe I let you get away with that!" Tony's still smirking, though, and Loki's pretty sure he's not being serious. Still, a little flutter of nervousness goes through his chest at the last sentence- had he done something wrong? What had he gotten away with? Tony rolls his eyes and says "I'm not being serious about that, Snoopy... So, cheese? Pepperoni? Something else?" Loki has no idea what to say, and Tony eventually just says "You know what? Jarvis, just get a plain cheese."
"Certainly, sir. Only one?" Jarvis replies. Tony says that there are only two of them and they might end up with leftovers with just one pizza anyways, adding that he'd made Jarvis to be smarter than that.
"Jarvis is smart!" Loki protests as he busies himself with pulling the boxes out of the shopping bag and taking out his new footwear. Jarvis thanks him for saying so and Loki grins.
"Why weren't you at the other place?" Loki asks Jarvis while inspecting each of the things he's just pulled out of the boxes. He sticks Simba's feet- or rather, entire front legs- into the rubber shoes he'd gotten. He giggles at the sight and glances at Tony, who's smirking with a raised eyebrow. He does that a lot, Loki's noticed. He tries to mirror Tony's expression but Tony just bursts out laughing. Maybe he hadn't done that face right.
"I'm afraid I'm not in every building in the world, Mr. Loki." Jarvis says, sounding both amused and apologetic as Loki then starts fiddling with the empty boxes. He stacks them and knocks them down a couple times. He soon tires of that and puts Simba in one of the empty boxes before sliding it across the floor and crashing it into the other two.
"Oh." Loki frowns. "But it would be better if you were!"
Tony snorts and says "Trust me, not everyone would agree with you. Jarvis creeps a lot of people out." Loki frowns even more. Why would people be creeped out by Jarvis? Jarvis asks how the talk went and Loki just shrugs,
The food eventually arrives and Loki watches as Tony carries a rather thin square box that smells delicious. Actually, he feels like he's smelled that smell sometime recently, but he can't remember where. Loki waits as Tony opens the box. Loki had learned to wait until any box was opened by his third day here, after almost biting into a box because he thought that was the food and causing Tony to go into hysterics. Loki still has no idea why almost everything they've eaten came in boxes. The thing in this box is like a cheesy circle cut into eighths, and Loki realizes that it's what Clint and Steve had eaten when they'd been over.
Loki watches as Tony pours himself a glass of alcohol- Loki can never figure out how to tell different alcoholic drinks apart, but it's not like it matters. He hates the stuff since it makes his thoughts feel funny in a bad way, or at least that's how he'd describe it. Not to mention Thor, Fandral, and Volstagg (but rarely Hogun, for some reason) used to make him drink a ton of it and then laugh- very much in his face- at how he was acting even stupider than usual, which they said was hard to do.
"Do you want something besides water? That's got to get boring." Tony says and Loki nods. He actually is getting sorta bored of water, which is what he's had for almost every meal. "Well, we've got soda, coffee," Loki wrinkles his nose more at each option. He'd tried both and they're disgusting.
Tony searches around in that cold box, muttering about how there's no orange juice. Suddenly, inspiration seems to strike and he asks as he starts rummaging through the cabinets "Do you like tea?" Loki nods enthusiastically. Tony grins triumphantly as he pulls out a kettle. "Bruce drinks tea here, sometimes." He adds conversationally after filling it with water and putting it on the stove, which Jarvis apparently starts.
Loki's eyes have drifted to the cabinet that Tony's just opened, and he grins. "Let's see... we've got chamomile... what else?" Tony says as he rummages through the cabinet. Loki rushes over. He actually leaves Simba on the table.
Loki reaches up and grabs the teapot and a teacup from the shelf above the one Tony's hunting through. He grins as he places them on the counter before turning to Tony. "These could be like Mrs. Potts and Chip!" Loki says, half to himself and half to Tony, Jarvis and Simba. "They'd just need to be white and have faces and gold bits and Mrs. Potts has a purple lid and stuff, but then they'd look just like them, right?"
Tony doesn't answer, instead staring at the objects in what seems like shock, if his open mouth is anything to go by. Loki turns around, confused, but then his eyes widen too.
Sitting where the teapot and teacup had been are Mrs. Potts and Chip, though they're not moving or anything. Loki smiles at them but the smile quickly falls when he notices that Tony's now staring at him. Did he do that?
Of course. Who else would it have been? It has to have been his magic, Loki realizes with horror. He quickly sends a panicked look at Tony while grabbing Simba and crawling under the table.
Tony runs a hand over his face in exasperation when Loki crawls under the table. He's hungry and has been looking forward to pizza and scotch, and now Loki has to go and freak out again. He really doesn't feel like crawling under a table at the moment. Actually, he's tired of crawling under things in general.
"Come on, let's not do this now." He sighs, crouching down and trying to pull Loki out from under it, but Loki just squirms even farther under. Tony switches tactics. "Don't you want to eat?" Sadly, that doesn't work.
"Loki, you're not in trouble. I'm not going to hurt you. You don't need to hide under a table." Tony tries, but Loki doesn't give any indication that he's even heard him. Despite not feeling like it, Tony ends up crawling under there, although he's sort of annoyed about it. He forces that annoyance down, though.
"Look, there's nothing wrong with what you did. Hell, I sort of wish that I could do that. That would be pretty awesome, don't you think?" He's trying to go for casual flippancy, as if he doesn't care at all that they're both postponing dinner to be under a piece of furniture. "I could make my armor look like Captain Spangles or our favorite green rage machine and then hit the villains with a repulser blast! They'd never see it coming!" He keeps imagining that for a bit before he focuses on the present.
He glances at Loki, but the god's still not giving any indication he's listening, which isn't the direction he wants them to be going. If anything, they're actually further away from Loki calming down now. Tony doesn't quite manage suppressing a groan of annoyance.
The tea kettle suddenly starts whistling and Tony jumps, having completely forgotten about it. He bangs his head on the underside of the table and shouts a couple curse words. There's already a lump on the top of his head. He scowls angrily but his thoughts shift back to the current issue. Why is it that no matter how many times he tells Loki he won't get hurt here, he still acts like he will?
"Come on, Loki, we've been over this." He says in an annoyed voice "What is it going to take to get you to stop doing this every time you do something like that?! When are you going to get it through your thick skull that this isn't Asgard?" Tony realizes what he'd said and immediately shuts up. He hadn't actually wanted to say that out loud, especially not in the angry tone he'd used when it slipped out, a tone which had been greatly helped by having just smashed his head against the underside of a table. Ordinarily, Tony wouldn't care about expressing his annoyance ane letting some harsh words fly- in fact, he often delights in doling out biting remarks. That had been rather mild coming from him, but he instantly knows Loki's not going to react well.
Loki doesn't even say anything. With one scared look in Tony's direction, he just bolts towards his bedroom. Once again, his insanely-fast speed takes effect, and Tony's barely registered he's gone when he hears a door slam. Tony crawls out from under the table, and Jarvis reports that Loki had slammed the door shut and locked it without even touching it. Probably his powers again, though Tony doubts that's helped Loki's mood at all. Jarvis could unlock it, of course, but he doesn't.
Tony downs the rest of his glass of scotch and pours another, before downing that too and reaching for the bottle again.
He's angry, and at first he thinks the annoyance is at Loki. The god's reactions to these incidents haven't changed at all, no matter what Tony's tried. It's like he hasn't listened to anything Tony's done to persuade him that he doesn't need to freak out. But then Tony remembers that Loki had good reason to react like that in Asgard for thousands of years, and he's only been here a couple weeks.
Tony suddenly feels awful, and he starts to get annoyed at himself for not thinking of a way to make Loki really get it. Most of all, though, Tony's furious at anyone in Asgard who helped lead to Loki reacting like that in the first place.
Tony groans. Geez, he really screwed that whole thing up.
Tony's torn between going after Loki to try to talk some more, and perhaps even apologize (which would be a real shocker to a lot of people), and letting him have some alone time. In the end, he settles for the latter, since Loki running to his room and locking the door seems to be a pretty good indicator he wants to be alone.
Loki just needs a bit of time to calm down by himself, he thinks. Then, Tony knows he's going to have to try to fix this problem he made.
He grabs a couple slices of pizza and then slips the rest into the fridge, figuring he can reheat some later for Loki when he's calm. Tony starts eating and sips his third glass of scotch, though he's not enjoying it as much as he thought he would.
It's weird, eating without Loki. Even though Loki hasn't even been here for three weeks, it's hard to imagine life without him now. Tony can't believe he'd just thought that. When had he turned into a sentimental fool?
He glances over at the teapot and cup that are now identical to Mrs. Potts and Chip. He runs a finger over the very real chip that's Chip's namesake. Changing a shirt color was odd enough. But this...? Loki hadn't just changed the colors and designs of the teapot and teacup, he'd changed their shapes as well. He traces the wavy lid that Mrs. Potts has. The original teapot hadn't had a lid like this at all. That shouldn't be possible. Yes, most of what Loki's done with his powers are things that Tony hasn't been able to think of an explanation for, but there literally isn't an explanation for this. You can't just change stuff like that.
Loki had said it was magic, and Tony, as a scientist convinced that everything has a logical explanation, hadn't believed it. Hell, he's still not sure he believes it. But Loki's powers are starting to make him to question that view, although he really doesn't like the idea of something being explainable.
Regardless of if it's magic or not, what in the world did the Asgardians have against it? Why did the torment Loki for being able to do awesome things like that?! Were they scared, or jealous? Tony sighs. He has no idea why everyone in Asgard treated Loki horribly, but it was certainly wrong and it's not going to happen here.
If only he could get Loki to realize that.
Loki curls under his bed, but he's near the edge and staring out the window-wall. It's a big sheet of glass spanning from floor to ceiling, and Loki can't decide if it's a huge window or a glass wall. His thoughs shift to more important things. Today has just been... confusing, he decides, before wondering if tough would be a better word.
The whole incident under the table had brought up a memory in his mind, and what happened under the table a couple minutes ago is uncomfortably similar to what happened there. Loki doesn't want to remember it, but of course it doesn't work that way. But it's not quite as realistic as his nightmares.
"Hey, come here." A servant says. Loki's just wandered into a courtyard. They're children; Loki's appearance is equivalent to a nine-year-old Midgardian and the servant's closer to fourteen-year-old, though they're both several centuries old. Loki keeps whispering to Hel, not even aware the servant's talking to him. "Hey, you!" The other boy calls in a loud, slightly obnoxious way. Loki snaps out of it, and looks at him worriedly. Loki can't recall seeing this servant before, so perhaps he was hired very recently.
"Come over here. I want to ask you something." Loki hesitates, but this boy hasn't done anything to hurt him yet. Disobeying will probably make things worse, anyways. Nobody else has to answer to servants, Loki's noticed, but nobody cares if the servants take out their frustrations on him, so he's learned it's best to avoid irking them. Besides, he might be below servants anyways- he's not sure, and it's sort of confusing. Hel whispers to be careful, but Loki already knows that. He cautiously tiptoes towards the other boy, Fenrir prowling by his side, the beginnings of a low growl forming in his throat. Too bad he can't actually feel the wolf, or see him.
"Can you do some magic for me?" The young servant asks in a hushed voice, shuffling his feet nervously. Loki stares at him, his mind totally blanking on what to say. Everyone hates magic. He pinches himself, but isn't in a dream. Is he in some weird opposite world or something? What in the Nine Realms is going on?
"Come on, show me something. Make another one of you!" He urges, smiling encouragingly, not seeming nervous at all now. Loki's only getting more nervous, though, and he starts wringing his hands together. Why is this guy being so weird?
"Are you gonna hit me?" Loki asks suspiciously. That's what always happens when he does magic in front of people, and they often make fun of him too.
"No, no! I'm not going to hit you." The servant assures him. He leans forward and conspiratorially whispers "Between you and me, I like your magic."
Loki doesn't think he heard that right, but the boy repeats that he likes it. "You know, I wish I could do that stuff," The servant says, looking at Loki in what seems like awe. Loki's returning the look.
"Really?" Loki looks at him hopefully. Could someone really like it- or him for that matter? Could he actually have a friend that he could see, that other people could see, that he won't get hit for talking to?
"Yeah! Can you show me some, please?" Loki thinks he hears a snicker somewhere, and he cocks his head to the side. Not hearing anything else, he decides he'd imagined it. The servant continues enthusiastically "Make an illusion!"
Loki stares at him for a whole minute, but he just smiles encouragingly and asks Loki to do it a couple more times. Eventually, Loki smiles too. He likes this boy.
Loki hesitates, but the servant eggs him on. Loki takes a deep breath. Is he going to do this? This boy's been nothing but kind to him. So yes, he decides, he is. Nobody else is around, so he's safe.
Loki frowns in concentration. He almost never does magic on purpose, so he's honestly not even really sure how to do it. Wiggling his hands, he focuses on seeing another Loki beside him, and eventually one shimmers into sight.
"Wow! Can you teach me?" The servant asks, excited. Loki smiles a bit in response. "Want to be friends?" Loki smiles even more.
"The idiot fell for it!" someone laughs, and Loki recognizes the voice as Fandral. He flinches as Fandral, Volstagg and Hogun emerge from where they'd been hiding in another entrance/exit in the courtyard, and Hogun mutters something to the servant about doing a nice job.
"Where's Thor?" Loki asks, worried. Is he hiding somewhere to ambush him? Loki vaguely wonders why those three are even here. Don't they have warrior training or something? Although why they're here doesn't matter. The main problem is that they are here.
"He's off performing some prince duties, but he sends his regards and really wishes he were here." Volstagg answers. Loki has no idea if that's the truth or not, but the second part makes his stomach churn.
Loki approaches the servant who'd been so nice to him, hoping he'll back him up, but he sneers. "Get away from me!" The servant shoves him away and Loki's face crumples. What?!
"I knew he'd fall for it. He's an idiot! His brain's messed up." Fandral continues viciously. Loki starts to cry. He's panicked about what's going on and he has no idea what's going on. One second, he'd been with that nice servant who seemed to like him, and now there's this. It's like reading a section in a book and suddenly flipping forward several pages and starting to read there, but having no idea what's happening.
"Stop crying!" Volstagg says, shoving him. Loki tries to stop, but only cries harder."Nobody's ever going to like you if you act like a baby."
"Nobody's ever going to like you anyways, or your magic! I can't believe you thought he did!" Fandral crows. Loki, propelled from the force of Volstagg's shove, has collided into the servant, who also shoves him away again.
"Monsters don't deserve friends!" Someone says, but Loki's not even sure who it is as the blows start to rain down on him.
Loki ends up curled into a tight quivering ball as he remembers this, but eventually his body stills and his thoughts shift back to today.
Tony hadn't abandoned him at that place they'd gone to, which was really relieving. Loki had been really worried about that but apparently his worries were unfounded. He'd thought life had gone back to normal- actually, it had... until he'd done magic again, that is.
Loki should have known that if Tony wasn't going to ditch him, he'd start tormenting him eventually. But he hadn't expected it to be this soon. Under the table, Tony had said he wasn't in trouble... but then he'd said nothing was wrong with magic, sort of like that servant.
Loki had eventually worked out what had happened with the servant. He'd been acting, only pretending to like his magic. He'd probably been roped into the whole ordeal by Thor, though Loki kind of doubts that Thor planned the thing. Thor was never really one for planning. They'd certainly picked a good actor, or maybe he'd just fallen for it because he's stupid. Hel had been outraged after that incident, going on about every nasty thing she would do to them when they fell into her clutches. While Thor hadn't been there, he had teased Loki about it afterwards.
Tony had been taunting him, too. It was definitely taunting, Loki thinks, because his voice hadn't sounded serious, and besides, there's no way Tony actually wants freakish magic. Then Tony had seemed really annoyed and Loki had fled.
Loki's whispering all of this to Simba. Without planning to, he also imagines that Fenrir, Sleipnir, Hel and Jormungand are there listening too, probably because they'd been brought up to the front of his mind recently (especially after talking to Dr. Car-something just a couple hours ago, if that). They'd always listened to him when he was sad, kind of like how Simba does now. Though he's mainly whispering to Simba right now, since he's the only one he can actually see and touch. Besides, he'd gotten in trouble talking to them but not Simba, although it's not like anyone's around to see him.
Earlier today, he'd been so worried Tony was going to ditch him, but now he's worried because this seems a lot more like Asgard than it used to. It's not even close to as bad as Asgard, but what happened under the table certainly started it off in that direction- and once someone starts going that direction, they never go back. He really hopes Tony doesn't start beating him, but he's already started taunting him and being annoyed, so it's only a matter of time before the beatings start too. Is Tony even his friend anymore? Probably not, considering what the man had just done. Tony had been angry at him under the table and tried to drag him out. Is his time of having Tony be nice to him up already?
Loki's view of the floor and the bottom part of that window-wall combo blurs as he starts to cry.
He's not sure how long it takes, but eventually he cries himself out. Now that he's no longer crying, he realizes that his body is rather cramped so he crawls out from under his bed. He sits on the bed for a bit, hugging Simba, but then starts pacing back and forth restlessly. It's starting to get sort of dark, but the huge window-wall still lets enough light in.
There's a knock on the door and he hears Tony ask "Loki?" His voice sounds slightly slurred and Loki's not sure whether or not it's due to the door.
"What?" Loki's sort of nervous. Is Tony here to make fun of him some more or escalate things further?
"Mind if I come in? Your door's still locked." Loki's not sure what to say to that. When had it even been locked in the first place? Part of him wants to say he doesn't want Tony to come in, because it would be harder for Tony to torment him through a door, but at the same time, not letting him in would just make him angrier and make things worse later. Though Tony, oddly, doesn't sound annoyed or angry now. Although some people in Asgard would apparently be angry when Loki would've sworn they weren't because they weren't acting angry.
Loki cautiously unlocks the door, scurrying to the other side of the room as Tony opens it. He walks in carrying a plate. "I brought pizza." He explains, his voice still just a tiny bit slurred as he offers it to Loki, though he's using that quiet, reassuring tone that Loki likes. Loki frowns, confused, but he's rather hungry. It smells really good. He sets Simba on the bed, sits next to him, and cautiously takes a bite. His eyes close and he bounces up and down from his spot on the bed, humming in appreciation. He grins. This is really good.
"So... I take it you like it?" Tony asks, smirking slightly. Loki's still trying to work out what's going on, because Tony had been mad and making fun of him under the table but now he's being nice again. Tony's eyes don't seem mean right now, either. Loki nods, wondering where this is going. "If you want, Jarvis can start the kettle again and you can have your tea." Loki shrugs and there's a brief period of silence.
"I guess I kind of snapped at you back there, and.." Tony stops, muttering that he's not good at this type of thing. There's a bit of a pause, and then he continues "... and, well... Well, I didn't mean to. And you don't have a thick skull."
Loki looks up at him in surprise. Nobody in Asgard ever said anything like that. But Tony was starting to act like Asgardians under the table. Tony hates him now, right?
"In case you didn't hear me earlier, you're not going to get in trouble for doing... that stuff here. Like changing teapots. I actually think it's really neat and I wouldn't mind seeing more of-"
"Stop!" Loki exclaims and for a second he doesn't even realize he was the one who said it. Then it's too quiet, and Loki starts fidgeting anxiously. It's too much like that servant. Tony's probably going to keep tormenting him, mockingly saying that magic isn't bad when Loki knows it is. Maybe Tony will even hit him.
"Stop what?" Tony replies, though Loki's not sure if he's really asking or not. Sometimes people don't want an answer when they ask a question. It takes a bit for Loki to remember the word for that, which he'd learned in a book- rhetorical.
Loki snaps out of those thoughts, realizing he'd just stepped into dangerous territory, especially with the somewhat forceful tone he'd used. A lot of people in Asgard hated when he told them what to do in that tone, and then they'd get mad at him and hurt him more. When he was very young, he sometimes lost his temper at his tormentors and lashed out, and they always put him in his place. Loki doesn't want Tony to get angrier at him- he'd already been angry under the table- so Loki ducks his head and mutters "Sorry."
"Whoa, hang on, what are you apologizing for? You didn't do anything." Tony protests, and Loki stares at him confused. This isn't what Tony's supposed to be doing- he's supposed to blame him because that's what makes sense. Loki knows he's always to blame. Why is Tony being so weird? Loki stays silent, not knowing what to say. "Seriously, Snoopy, you have nothing to apologize for."
Tony's looking at him expectantly, so Loki nods even though he has no idea what Tony's talking about. Tony just stares at him and says "I don't hate you, remember?" But he does, right?
"But you were like them!" Loki says. Tony looks confused for a brief second before he seems to understand Loki meant Asgardians in general. To Loki's great worry, his expression darkens.
"I'm nothing like them." Tony says in a tone that makes Loki back away from him. Tony's in between him and the bed and Loki doesn't think he can get through Tony to go under there, so he backs into a corner instead, hugging Simba and holding his pizza in one hand.
"But you taunted me under the table..." Loki mutters without thinking, and instantly regrets it, taking a big bite of pizza to stop himself from saying anything else. Complaining to people who hurt him always makes things worse. He flinches and glances at Tony, expecting the anger to flare up again. Instead, Tony looks shocked and asks when he was taunting him. As if he doesn't know! He was being like that boy! That's probably a rhetorical question. But Tony asks it again, rather firmly, and Loki realizes he seriously wants an answer. He doesn't make eye contact and instead stares at his pizza when he mumbles an answer. "You were all angry-like, and-"
Tony cuts him off. "I wasn't angry. Okay, yeah, I was sort of annoyed, but it wasn't even really at you." Loki frowns. Wait, what? What else would cause Tony's annoyance? Tony keeps going on and confusing him more. "Even if I do get annoyed or angry at you sometime, I'm not going to start treating you like how they did back in that messed-up viking land. What they did to you was wrong, got it? And I don't hate you, remember? I was annoyed for a bit, but overall I still like you."
Loki can't fathom why Tony likes him, why he's been so nice despite everything. He's a magic-using monster. He doesn't deserve everything Tony's done. Tony keeps going "I'm not going to start hating you for having special powers."
Loki's never heard that before. The few people in Asgard who didn't know about his secrets at first never lasted long. They'd find out and start harassing him- admittedly for good reason- and then there was no turning back. "But you said you wanted to..."
"That I wanted to what? Change stuff completely like that? Hell, yeah. That would be awesome!" No! Loki winces. He's doing it again! He can't actually be serious. He's tricking him, like that boy.
As if reading his mind, Tony says "I'm not kidding. I think doing that would be really cool. I don't get why you don't. I mean, now you have Mrs. Potts and Chip." His expression is serious as Loki ponders over that. He does like that they now have Mrs. Potts and Chip, but the way they got them was bad. Tony repeats, a bit more firmly, that he's not kidding about liking it, and Loki has to admit that it doesn't seem like he is. But it hadn't seemed like that servant had been kidding.
"Promise you're not lying?" Loki asks quietly.
Tony smirks slightly and holds out his hand with only his pinky finger extended. "Pinky promise." Loki cocks his head to the side. This must be some weird Midgardian thing. He hesitantly copies it and Tony interlocks their pinkies. Still smirking, Tony says "There, now you know I have to keep my word."
After staring at him for a minute, Loki hasn't detected any hint that he's lying. Tony's still smirking, but the smirk is the one he often uses, and it's not exactly mean. So Tony actually wants to be able to do stuff like that? Loki has no clue why Tony would want to be a freak. Maybe Tony's crazy, but Loki knows that magic is bad.
"You want to be a freak?" Loki asks incredulously. It seems like that's what Tony just said, even if it's completely ludicrous. "Are you crazy?" Loki asks innocently as an afterthought. Really, insanity is the only reason Loki can think of for Tony thinking that way. Loki hopes that question doesn't make Tony mad. A lot of people in Asgard voiced the opinion that he was crazy, and it's not like it's a great thing to be in general.
"Jury's out." Tony says. Loki stares at him, having no idea what that means. Tony rolls his eyes, smirking slightly. "There's a fair chance I am." Loki's not surprised by that answer, actually. It makes sense Tony would be crazy if he likes him. No sane person would like someone like him, after all. Loki knows that, but at the same time it sort of hurts that only people who aren't in their right mind would like him. This reminder of that doesn't help. That means Jarvis, Dum-E, Bruce and Hulk are probably crazy too.
Then Tony's expression becomes serious. "Loki, you are not a freak. I know you were probably told otherwise a million times, but that's wrong. They were wrong."
Tony's said some things about Asgardians being wrong before, but that's such a bizarre and foreign idea. Why does Tony keep telling him the opposite of everything he knows? Even though it's not true, hearing Tony say that makes a warm, happy feeling form in Loki's chest. For a bit, he imagines what it would be like if they were true.
"Genie did... stuff, like you, and he wasn't a freak." Tony says. But Genie was a freak. He was blue and did magic, he just wasn't hated for some bizarre reason. As if reading his mind, Tony repeats "Genie wasn't a freak. He's pretty awesome, actually."
Then Tony asks, while tapping his arc reactor through his shirt "Do you think I'm a freak?" Loki frantically shakes his head no. Tony's not a freak!
"Yeah, well, having this thing in your chest isn't exactly normal." Tony mutters, tapping his arc reactor again and it makes a slight clanging noise. Loki frowns. Okay, it's not normal, but that doesn't make Tony a freak. Loki actually likes Tony's arc reactor.
"How about Bruce and Hulk? Are they freaks?" Loki considers this a bit longer than he had for whether Tony was a freak. No, he decides soon after. Bruce and Hulk aren't freaks, and Hulk's not even a bad monster. "A lot of people think turning into a big green guy makes Bruce a freak, but it doesn't, right?" Loki nods, even though he thinks that might've been rhetorical. "So how are you any different?"
Loki glances away. He just is. It's like comparing those car things and the flying carpet in Aladdin. A couple minutes pass and Loki can't bring himself to speak. He glances back at Tony.
Tony's looking at him with disappointment. Loki hates it, so he quickly shifts his gaze away again and doesn't look back.
"I haven't convinced you, have I?" Tony asks quietly, and Loki's almost positive that one's rhetorical. Tony sighs.
"How about this at least?" Tony starts. "From now on, no hiding under beds or tables."
"Is that a rule?" Loki asks. It doesn't sound like such a bad one.
Tony hesitates. "I don't know, but you don't need to do that, okay?" That's basically a yes, Loki thinks.
"I'm not going to beat you." Tony waits a bit and reiterates. "I'm not going to hit you or anything. Got it?" Loki wants to believe that. He wants to believe everything Tony's just told him. But it's so hard, since it's the complete opposite of everything that makes sense.
Still... Tony hasn't hit him once, even though he's given him countless reasons to do far more than hit him. Loki glances at Tony, who's once again looking at him seriously. He's done so many things that deserve full out beatings and Tony hasn't laid a hand on him, and has repeatedly said he won't. Maybe that part's true, at least. "You're not gonna hit me?" Loki asks, and Tony once again confirms it.
Loki cocks his head to the side and stares unseeingly at the wall until he remembers what he just learned. His vision focuses on Tony and hesitantly holds up his hand, pinky extended. "Pinky promise?"
Tony laughs and interlocks their pinkies. "Pinky promise."
Tony groans as the latest test results come back inconclusive. Science can't fail him now, he thinks, although honestly it's doing just that.
Over the course of the morning, Tony's run Mrs. Potts and Chip through a bunch of different machines in his lab. He had barely been able to hold back his curiosity enough to not run tests on Loki's powers before, but after yesterday's incident he can't just sit around wondering anymore. He's had a hard time focusing on the Hulkbuster armor while waiting for the results from the various instruments he's used on the teapot and teacup.
He's found absolutely nothing. He'd though he would find at least some trace of that energy that's around Loki's hands, but there hadn't been any hints of electricity or radiation. Perhaps there had been earlier but if so, it's worn off by now. He really should have tested them earlier. For all intents and purposes, he might have been testing any of the other cups he owns. There's nothing to suggest the teapot and teacup were ever different than they are now.
Measuring Loki would undoubtedly be better since he's the source of all this stuff, but Tony doubts Loki would agree to it. Tony sends Bruce an email telling him to come over sometime, since Bruce would probably be just as curious as he is. Having someone to bounce ideas off of would be nice, too.
He's still not sure how to get Loki to be more comfortable about his powers. He's also unsure about what sort of effect their talk in the god's room yesterday had, since Loki hasn't had an incident yet. He'd had a nightmare last night, with the usual currently-inexplicable occurrences, but there's no way to determine which parts of his reaction were because of the nightmare and which were because he'd used his powers.
As horrible as it sounds, Tony actually sort of wants Loki to have an incident soon, so he can see if their talk had any effect. Plus, he's really curious about Loki's powers.
He looks over at the god, who's sprawled on the hard lab floor reading a Calvin and Hobbes book and snuggling with Simba, who's back in his Iron Man suit. That really can't be comfortable, Tony thinks, but Loki doesn't seem to care. Every so often, Loki will scoot across the floor, and at one point he finds something so funny that he laughs for three minutes straight. Tony can't decide if that's impressive or worrying.
Tony had known he owned the whole Calvin and Hobbes collection, but if it wasn't for Jarvis he would have never been able to find it. Tony thinks it might even rival Peanuts for the god, which is saying something because he has a bunch of drawings of Peanuts characters on his bedroom wall (mixed in with even more drawings of Disney characters). Plus he seems to really like being called Snoopy, and his Snoopy shirt- which he's wearing now- is by far his favorite.
Of course, now that Tony's actually waiting for an incident to occur, it's taking forever. He's been watching the whole morning and there's been nothing.
"Sir, a package arrived. Should I send it down?" Jarvis says smoothly. "It's the one you ordered yesterday." Tony grins.
The box arrives in the elevator, and Tony sends Dum-E to fetch it. Dum-E hands it to him with a cheerful beep and rolls over to Loki. "Hey, Snoopy, come over here." Tony says. It takes a bit to draw Loki's attention away from the book, but then he comes over, Dum-E's claw in his left hand and one of Simba's armored legs in his right.
Tony thrusts the box towards him. "I know it's not wrapped or anything, but happy early birthday. Or belated birthday, I don't know. When is your birthday anyways?" Loki just shrugs. "Wait, you don't know when your birthday is?!" He nods. Tony frowns, not liking where this is going. Who doesn't know their birthday? "They have birthdays in Asgard, right?"
Loki just nods again and doesn't move to take the box. "It's a gift, Snoopy. Take it."
"For me?" Loki asks in a hushed tone. Tony nods, surprised that he doesn't even feel an urge to roll his eyes. He grabs a Sharpie and scribbles To Loki, From Tony on the top, and adds a horrible drawing of an Iron Man mask- hey, he's no artist to begin with, and he'd rushed the thing. He offers the box to Loki again.
"There, it even says it's for you." Loki hugs Simba to his body with his arm and looks between Tony and the label in shock. Loki cautiously reaches out for the box, as if expecting Tony to pull it away. Tony doesn't, of course. He's not that mean.
When the box is in his hands, Loki sits down on the floor with Simba in his lap. Loki's face is so awed at the prospect of getting a gift that Tony feels like showering him with even more. "I've never gotten a gift before..." Loki murmurs.
"What about Simba? He was a gift." Tony says, though Loki just answers that he'd found Simba. Tony decides not to point out that since he'd paid for Simba, the lion's technically a gift no matter who found him. The clothes he'd bought the god don't really count as gifts since they're necessities, so Tony doesn't mention them.
Loki slowly opens the box and pulls out the first item, which happens to be the Black Widow action figure. He reads the little blurb about her written on the back of the box aloud, but doesn't react as much as Tony thought he would. Instead, he just asks "That's Natasha, right?" Tony nods.
This process repeats with Captain America and Hawkeye. When he pulls out the Hulk figure, though, Loki gives a small excited squeal of "Hulk-y!" He looks at that one considerably longer than the others and sets it right next to him.
Then, Loki looks in the box again and gives a cry of "No!" The box skids across the floor without him touching it, green energy now around his hands. Tony knows Jarvis has been scanning the room with everything at his disposal, so he has to have picked up on it. Though Jarvis hasn't found any explanation for any of the other incidents, either.
Tony looks down to see the Thor toy lying there innocently in its own box. Tony reaches down and pulls it out, skimming the blurb on the back. He hadn't thought about Loki's reaction to Thor when he'd instructed Jarvis to order the lot yesterday.
Loki definitely knows he's used his powers, and to Tony's dismay, he curls into a ball. But he doesn't crawl under the nearest table, which is only a couple feet away. Tony's actually rather surprised that Loki listened to the thing about not crawling under them. He goes to calm the god down and notices something else. Loki's not covering his head to shield it, though that might be because he's hugging Simba. Tony can't actually remember if Loki shielded his head the last time he freaked out. He asks Jarvis, and Jarvis answers that Loki had shielded his head last time. Tony hopes this isn't just a coincidence.
Tony thinks it might take a bit less time to calm him down, but he's not sure about that. It could be wishful thinking. It's a small step, smaller than Tony would have liked, but at least it's in the right direction. Tony knows the rest of the world doesn't operate by his "run before you can walk" philosophy, though he wishes it did.
Once Loki's calmed down, he looks over at Tony, his eyes sort of focused on him. "Hi." Loki says, as if Tony just walked in.
"Hey," Tony says, a little confused, before glancing in the box and exclaiming "You missed the best part!" He pushes the big box towards Loki, but Loki doesn't look inside, perhaps thinking it's still Thor in there. So Tony reaches in and pulls out the Iron Man toy. Loki grins at it and lets out a rather loud squeal, snatching it out of Tony's hands and turning the box over in his hands.
Tony removes the figures from their individual boxes since Loki doesn't make any move to. Loki insists on keeping all the boxes, and for a bit he starts stacking them like blocks and knocking them over.
Tony glances over the toys for a bit while Loki's occupied with the boxes. The Captain America one is a lot like the numerous Captain America toys Tony had owned growing up, though Tony feels no fondness remembering that, just bitter thoughts about how he never even came close to the Captain in his dad's eyes. Tony shakes his head. Why is he even thinking about that?
He glances back at his friend. Loki starts experimenting with the toys and their poseable limbs. He hugs the Hulk one and the iron Man one, but then his hand hovers over the Iron Man one as if he's about to rip his head off.
"Hey, don't decapitate me." Tony says, only half teasing. Loki just stares at him for a bit.
"He's not you." Loki says seriously. "You're you. He's a toy you. A toy Tony Stark." As an afterthought, Loki adds "He's Toy Stark!" He giggles and singsongs Toy Stark to himself.
"He needs your face, though." Loki says. Loki's one of the few people who prefers Tony over Iron Man, and Tony would be lying if he said that didn't make him feel good.
"You can change it." Tony says nonchalantly. This next part is rather risky "Like a teacup." If Loki was able to totally change a teapot and teacup into Mrs. Potts and Chip, he has to be able to change that toy's head, Tony figures. Loki freezes with a deer-in-the-headlights look and starts to curl into a ball, but Tony stops him. Loki slowly relaxes and acts like he hadn't heard what Tony had said.
"Where's Bruce?" Loki asks, and Tony thinks he's talking about the real Bruce at first, until Loki gestures at the other toys. Tony explains that they don't make Bruce Banner action figures, but that they can make one themselves. This time, he doesn't explicitly reference the Mrs. Potts and Chip incident. Technically, they could do it with a 3D printer.
Loki spends a large portion of the afternoon playing with the Avengers figures. At some points, he seems to be reenacting his interactions with them, using Simba to represent himself.
Loki casts a furtive glances at the Thor figure over several hours. He eventually goes over to the table it's on and looks down at it, clearly not too fondly. He picks it up by its cape in between two fingers, the way someone would hold a smelly sock. He just looks at it hanging from his hand for a bit and then drops it back on the table.
To be honest, Tony had been sort of hoping Loki might replace carrying around Simba with perhaps the Iron Man one, but that certainly isn't happening. Loki actually starts carrying around the Hulk toy and the Iron Man one (which Loki has actually named Toy Stark) with Simba. It makes it so his hands aren't really free to do anything, though.
Tony gets another email from Pepper with more information about that multi-day conference he wants to get out of, as well as a long explanation about all the things they need to talk about regarding the company. Tony sighs and asks if she'll stop by tonight since there's way too much to email about, and he adds a note at the bottom saying that Loki will probably enjoy seeing her again.
So, I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope the things between Tony and Loki were realistic. Pepper was originally going to be in this chapter, but I decided to do it next chapter since this is long enough. I know I say this a lot, but I seriously didn't think this would be my second-longest chapter. Loki naming an Iron Man figure "Toy Stark" is an idea I've had for a while. Also, the reason Thor wasn't in Loki's particular memory is exactly what Volstagg said- he was off doing princely stuff. He couldn't be there all the time.
Random fact: Apparently the term egging on comes from some Old Norse word.
So hopefully I can update again soon. I didn't think I'd update this one by now, since I didn't really start writing it until Thursday. I technically could have posted this last night and updated on Sunday again, but I decided to wait so I could go over it again.