Happy Star Wars Day, everyone! (May the Fourth be with you). Whoever came up with that is awesome. Not that it has anything to do with this story...
As always, thanks to all you awesome readers, reviewers, followers and favoriters! :) A couple of reviewers have suggested putting Nightcrawler in this story but I'm still undecided on if I will. I think it sounds like a really neat idea, but I know absolutely nothing about him aside from basic stuff that I found on the internet, like him being a blue, teleporting mutant (I spent over an hour looking stuff up, too). I'd probably totally mess up portraying him. Plus putting him in would make this story a crossover between Avengers and X-Men, so I'd probably have to move this to the crossover section and I kind of don't want to do that. Long story short, I still don't know.
There are slight spoilers for yet another movie in this chapter, but it's not going to be a super long synopsis like it was last chapter. Basically, whenever they watch a movie in this fic, there are probably going to be some spoilers. Also, I don't own any song lyrics in this chapter.
This chapter has another section in Jarvis' POV, which is always so fun to write. I still have Jarvis think of Tony as Sir, though. (I also have him think of the other characters as what he calls them). Hopefully it's not confusing, but I totally think that's how he'd think of them. This is another really long chapter, by the way.
Okay, Tony did not expect Loki to fall asleep on his bed. Nudging him produces no reaction, to Tony's disappointment. Neither does shaking him or even calling his name. Tony slumps back, annoyed. Obviously, he can't move Loki back to the his own bed. Dum-E's useless in this situation, too, since he can't carry Loki.
Tony could get Bruce to help, except he really doesn't want Bruce to know about this, for some reason. Well, that and the fact his room is off limits. Besides, Loki's freakishly heavy, and considering that Tony can't lift him without a suit, Bruce couldn't lift him without going all green. Bruce isn't invited in his bedroom and there's no way in hell Tony will ever let the Hulk in here.
"Can you play some loud music or something, Jarvis?" Tony mumbles. He's too tired to be very loud himself.
"I could, sir, but I do not think that would be advised. You see, Mr. Loki is rather sleep-deprived already, so denying him this sleep would be detrimental."
Tony sits up, annoyed. "Yeah, well, he's in my bed. And in case you haven't noticed, I haven't been sleeping much either."
"I have indeed noticed, sir. In case you've forgotten, we AI's can see eeeveryythiing."
"Did you just paraphrase Woody from Toy Story?" Tony asks in surprise. The slow way Jarvis had said it sounded quite like when Woody was scaring Sid. Jarvis has quoted other characters before, but they're usually AI characters like HAL 9000 or even Auto from Wall-E (which is Dum-E's all time favorite movie).
"Indeed I did, sir. Besides, even if I was not monitoring your sleep, your excessive consumption of coffee makes your lack of sleep obvious." Jarvis replies dryly.
"Well, what do we do about him?" Tony asks, referring to the god who's clinging to him. He tries to extract himself again, to no avail. Tony's more awake now, but for some reason he can't find it in him to startle Loki awake himself. He hates that. When the hell had he gotten so soft anyways?! Nobody's going to find out about this.
"Even if you managed to wake Mr. Loki up, I'm not sure you'd be able to get him to leave. Besides," The AI adds, sounding amused "It's not like you haven't had a great number of people in your bed, exactly-"
"This isn't like that, and you know that." Tony grumbles. Geez, this is like deja vu from when Loki had gone in his bedroom the first day. Actually, their conversation then had been basically the same, if Tony's memory is right.
"Whatever you say, sir. This is such a touching scene." Jarvis replies, sounding way too amused. "Rest assured that I am recording the whole thing. I dare say it could make good blackmail material."
"You can be a real jerk, you know that?" Tony grumbles.
"I learned from the best, sir." Jarvis replies.
"Don't make me reprogram you. Or I could just demote you to an answering machine." Tony threatens, and Jarvis wisely falls silent. Tony sighs as he looks at the god. It looks like Loki's going to be sleeping here for the remainder of tonight, but not in that way. Tony's bed is easily big enough for six people, maybe eight if everyone cozied up next to each other. Loki's still clinging to him, and when Tony tries to extract himself to move away, the god tightens his hold a bit, but at least it's not crushing him or anything.
Tony sighs as sleep eludes him. Figures- he'd actually been sleeping rather peacefully before Loki came in. Now, to his annoyance, memories from New York fill his head, which brings him to thinking of all the people he hadn't saved.
He'd never admit this, but having someone with him- even someone who's sleeping- helps, and he's almost glad Loki's here.
When Tony wakes up, he immediately wishes he hadn't. He almost feels more tired now than last night. When had he fallen asleep anyways? He notices that someone's sprawled next to him with one of their hands on his chest. He frowns slightly. It's not like he hasn't woken up with someone in his bed a million times, but he doesn't remember taking anyone home last night. Wasn't he in the tower the whole time? Where would he even have picked up a one-night stand? Whoever's next to him is actually on top of the covers, judging from the way they're weighed down, Also, what's the metal thing next to his right arm and why is there something around his leg?
He opens his eyes and realizes that the person is Loki. Of course, he thinks as the memories of last night (or, technically, earlier this morning) return. How could he have forgotten?
He remembers Loki thinking he was going to be sent to Asgard, which brings up the question of why Loki would seek comfort from Tony if he believed he'd be cast away like that. Wouldn't a lot of people push others away in that situation? He certainly would, anyways.
It seems rather bizarre that Loki sought Tony out even in that mindset, although it did make calming him down easier. Then again, there are a lot of other things about Loki's behavior that Tony hasn't been able to make sense of, such as why he carries Simba everywhere, why he grows bored by live action movies quickly, why he sometimes personifies Tony's arc reactor... Really, he doesn't know why Loki acts the way he does in general, or why he's so childish.
Tony gets out of bed without waking the god- he has years of experience sneaking away from one night stands without waking them. While it's harder to be stealthy with a broken leg, Tony has a feeling he could be fairly loud and still not wake Loki right now.
He heads into the bathroom intending on taking a shower but Jarvis reminds him that he's not supposed to get his cast wet. Tony realizes that, as of right now, he doesn't have anything to keep it dry, so that's kind of out of the picture now. Oh well, it's not like he's too concerned with showering on a regular basis anyways.
Upon exiting the bathroom, Tony notices Loki is gone. Huh, maybe he hadn't been as asleep as Tony had thought. On a hunch, he checks under the bed, but there's no god there either. Loki has probably left the room, Tony thinks, which Jarvis confirms when he asks.
After changing into a Black Sabbath shirt and jeans, Tony ignores his unmade bed and heads out towards the kitchen. He finds Bruce showing Loki how to use a waffle-maker and is greeted by the welcome smell of coffee. Bruce had apparently brewed a pot and it's even Tony's favorite type of coffee, although that's the only type in the tower.
"Morning." Bruce says. "Loki was just telling me about how you two were sleeping together." Bruce's lips twitch upwards slightly and Tony rolls his eyes. Loki clearly doesn't seem to get how that could be interpreted, because the god just nods to confirm he'd said that. Maybe he'll have to talk to him later.
Tony grabs a couple waffles and starts eating, which gets him a slightly critical look from Bruce. He rolls his eyes when Bruce starts telling him to not take things without asking. It's his tower, for crying out loud.
"What's with all the Avengers merchandise you've gotten Loki? You're not brainwashing him, are you?" Bruce asks once he sits down to eat.
"By 'all the Avengers merchandise' you mean a pair of pajamas and an action figure set." Tony replies. "Loki wanted both of those- he even picked the pajamas out. Right, Snoopy?" Tony switches to talking to Loki, gesturing to the Iron Man pajamas Loki's wearing.
Loki nods as he digs into his own waffles with his bare hands. At least he actually refrains from touching things with his syrup-covered hands, which saves Tony from having to worry about him getting the tower all sticky.
After breakfast, Tony heads down to his lab as he always does. It's rather annoying with crutches, and Tony soon learns how much he'd taken moving around quickly for granted, even in his lab. He hates it and is already extremely sick of having a broken leg.
Loki spends most of that morning crawling around under the lab tables like they're some sort of maze. Tony definitely does not jump when Loki grabs his leg, but he does tell him in a somewhat dangerous voice not to do that again. Loki looks too frightened at that, and Tony mentally kicks himself. Loki seems way more nervous of anger than most people, probably because of his past. He spends the next five minutes far away from Tony's table while Tony has to reassure him that he doesn't hate him.
At least that knee scooter arrives later that day, which Tony is glad about. Sure, it's not perfect, but it's a lot faster and less awkward than crutches. Gliding around on that is a lot better, although Bruce once again tells him not to make any modifications to it. Loki looks at Tony like he's crazy when he uses it, though.
Tony groans. Four weeks with this boring, unmodified thing is going to be horrible. Actually, this stupid cast in general is horrible. He can't even shower since he's not supposed to put weight on that leg; he has to take a bath instead, with a cover over the cast. Tony figures he can space out the baths a lot. It's not like he showers every day anyways (something Pepper had found really annoying when they were dating).
Sometimes, over the next couple days, Bruce and Tony both work in Tony's lab, but Bruce is often in his own lab. Bruce, it turns out, is annoyingly good at keeping him from doing things he shouldn't on that leg, even from another lab. Or maybe it's just that nobody in their right mind wants to anger Bruce, particularly someone with a broken leg. Tony's not sure how much care the Hulk would show towards his injuries. Probably none.
Tony sections off a part of the lab, hidden from Bruce, for working on the Hulkbuster armor. Sure, Bruce already knows about it, but the Hulk might not like being reminded of it.
Over the next couple days following the broken-bone incident, Jarvis cuts out the huge metal pieces for the suit while Tony spends most of his time wiring circuits and working on the innards, which allows him to sit down a lot of the time and avoid Bruce's wrath.
By noon on the third day after breaking his ankle, Tony's actually pretty close to done with the Hulkbuster armor.
Loki, meanwhile, has yet to start another project, as far as Tony can tell. Sometimes he'll fiddle with holographic shapes but Tony doesn't think he's making anything. Loki spends most of his time with Tony in his lab but will occasionally venture to Bruce's lab. He's ventured to Tony's library a couple times, too, where he's been making his way through a huge book about animals that Tony hadn't even known he'd owned. Sometimes, Loki will get Jarvis to tell him about stars, though Loki rarely reads about them himself for some reason.
Jarvis tells Tony later that Loki's bookmarked the pages for horses, wolves and snakes in that animal book, with drawings he'd traced of said animals as the bookmarks. Tony is pretty sure part of the reason Loki loves horses is because of Sleipnir and the horses in Asgard. He even has that song about horses he's sung a couple times.
Loki spends a fair amount of time adding to his huge collection of drawings for his bedroom. Tony notices a fair number of drawings of Quasimodo and Esmeralda, which seems like a good sign. After all, Loki rarely draws characters he doesn't like. The only times villains appear in his drawings are when the drawings depict the heroes defeating them, like Loki's week-old rendering of Boo hitting Randal with a baseball bat in Monsters Inc.
One new drawing in particular stands out to Tony, and he notices it almost as soon as Loki's done drawing it in the lab. It's of Quasimodo's gargoyle friends along with some other figures. There's a wolf, a snake, a girl that Tony thinks sort of looks like Two-Face from Batman, and an eight-legged horse. Wait a minute, Loki had said something about an eight-legged horse at his therapy session.
Tony glances at Loki, who's playing some sort of game with his toys. Whatever Loki's playing right now seems to have combined elements and characters of several movies they've watched. Tony honestly has no idea what each toy's role is, because it seems to switch a lot. Sometimes the Avengers action figures seem to represent the actual Avengers, and sometimes they seem to represent various characters (mostly from Disney movies).
Loki seems completely unaware that he's being watched as he's playing with Simba and the Avengers toys. Tony's noticed that Loki doesn't treat the Avengers toys as if they're alive in the same way he does with Simba. Maybe it's because he's actually met the Avengers. Occasionally, he'll say something to the action figures, but it's almost like he's trying to speak to the actual people instead of the toys.
Yesterday, he'd actually picked up the Thor toy and started using it in one of his games. Tony had been planning on blowing it up in front of Loki, since Loki had seemed reluctant to even touch it before yesterday, but this actually seems better. When Loki had reenacted the song Out There from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Thor toy had been cast as Frollo. Tony's not sure if it was supposed to be symbolic or if it had simply been because all the other toys already had parts, but it seemed to be another step in the right direction.
That had been a really good movie to show Loki, even if he had panicked at some parts. Tony's certain it was a good thing to show him now, and he thinks Frozen would be good too.
"Hey, Snoopy, come over here, will you?" Tony asks as he looks back at the drawing with the gargoyles and the four other figures. Loki looks up as if he'd forgotten Tony was even there. Then, Loki gets up and trots over as Tony pops a blueberry into his mouth.
Once Loki is next to him, Tony hands him a blueberry. Loki throws it into the air and literally bounces it off his nose before catching it it in his mouth. He can still easily put Tony to shame in that regard, seemingly with no effort at all, which is so not fair.
Tony gestures at the figures in the drawing. "Are these your friends? What were their names again? Hell? Slayp...?"
Loki bites his lip and nods, looking somewhat nervous. "Hel, Sleipnir, Fenrir, and Jormungand." He says, pointing to the girl, the horse, the wolf and finally the snake. "Quasi's lucky. His friends didn't have to go away." Loki adds quietly.
Tony honestly doesn't know what to say to that, but Loki's wandered back to his toys already. That didn't alleviate Tony's curiosity- actually, knowing what Loki's imaginary friends look like has just made him more curious about them. Unfortunately, Loki doesn't seem to be up for revealing more right now.
"Hey, I wasn't done yet, Snoopy. Besides, you're probably going to like this." Tony says. He pulls up a teaser trailer for Frozen of a snowman (Olaf, according to that other trailer he'd watched) losing his nose and trying to get to it before a reindeer. Loki comes back over and clearly thinks the whole thing is hysterical, especially when Olaf's whole head blows off his body at the end.
Tony's still not sure whether to show him the trailer about Elsa's icy magic or not, but he decides doesn't want to wait a month until Frozen comes out to watch it with Loki, especially if it could help Loki now.
If Tony waves enough money around, though, he can probably arrange to see it before it comes out. Maybe he'll do that. Actually, he might want to see it once before Loki does so he knows what's coming up and can do what he'd done during The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Loki of course continues to have nightmares, and Tony finds himself going over to the god's room on his knee scooter every night. Those other-Loki's still appear, and Tony sees the one that he's pretty sure is Loki as a child another time. That one seems so different from the Loki Tony knows, which makes Tony somewhat uneasy- especially the eyes, since they're not nearly as glazed as Loki's are now.
Sometimes, Loki's already awake when Tony enters, and Tony has to try to coax him out from under the bed and calm him down, with varying degrees of success. Sometimes Loki will crawl out to him and sometimes he'll remain stubbornly under the bed. Once, Bruce even joins Tony in Loki's room, to Tony's surprise. However, he doesn't stay long and instead busies himself with making tea and hot chocolate.
Tony himself has a rather horrible nightmare on the second night, but only has Jarvis to calm him down.
There are several more instances of Loki's powers, including one time, on the second day since Tony's broken ankle, where Loki makes Tony's cast neon green. For some reason, that incident freaks Loki out more than a lot of the others, like when another Loki appeared out of thin air. However, he doesn't freak out as much over the cast as he does later when he makes Simba levitate as if he's flying in his Iron Man suit. However, Jarvis' sensors haven't picked up anything identifiable, much to Tony's disappointment.
On the fourth morning since Tony broke his leg, his cast is still neon green, which is sort of annoying. Loki hasn't changed it back, nor has he changed the Bruce and Tony figures back into Hulk and Iron Man, despite clearly wanting those ones back. Tony's managed to refrain from pressuring him; he's only pointed out that Loki can change them once before reassuring him that doing so isn't bad.
Jarvis informs Tony that he has an interview this morning with someone from some talk show. Tony sighs. This is clearly why Pepper had been so insistent on informing him about what was happening with the company. He'd been hoping to see what the Hulkbuster suit looks like put together, now that all the armor pieces have been cut. Tony reluctantly changes into a suit, which he now has to do sitting on his bed. He can't fit any socks or shoes over his cast, either, which is really annoying.
After Tony gets Loki's stuff out of the lab, he makes sure Jarvis has it locked. Then, he heads down towards the garage where his chauffeur- Daniel or whatever his name is- is waiting silently for him by a limo. The man doesn't even comment on Tony's injured leg, instead just silently placing the knee-scooter in the back of the limo. Unlike when he was taking Loki to therapy, Tony can really ride in style now. It only slightly makes up for his stupid broken leg.
Loki's not sure where Tony went, but he'd been dressed weirdly. He'd only been wearing a shoe on his left foot, since his shoes apparently wouldn't fit over the thing on his right leg and foot; Tony had seemed annoyed about that. Anyways, Tony's shoe, jacket and pants had all been black, and he'd been wearing a buttoned, navy blue, collared shirt under said jacket. Some weird cloth thing had been tied around his neck. Loki still thinks it had looked sort of like a leash, but Tony had given him a really strange look when he'd asked if that's what it was.
Jarvis had explained that the whole outfit was a suit (but not a suit like a Man of Iron suit) and that Tony was wearing it because he was going somewhere important. Tony had muttered that whatever interview thing he was going to wasn't important, which is confusing. Jarvis and Tony seem to disagree on that, but they're both always right. How does that work? Jarvis had then said that Tony was wearing it to look nice.
Loki puzzles over this. What's wrong with what Tony normally wears? It's not like those clothes make him look mean. He frowns before eventually realizing that by 'look nice' Jarvis hadn't meant nice as in kind, but instead meant that it made him look 'neat and professional', as Jarvis puts it when he asks.
Midgard is even more confusing than Asgard, and Loki had been confused plenty of times there, too.
Right now, Loki's in a different lab than the one Tony always uses, and he's just with Bruce. Bruce isn't making things like Tony does. Loki remembers not to tell Bruce about what Tony's making. Bruce knows about the Hulk suit, but Tony said not to mention it anyways. Loki's not sure what Bruce is doing, though.
Bruce explains he's doing something related to gamma radiation, whatever that is. Loki turns back to his game, which currently consists of having the Tony and Bruce action figures stomp on the Thor one.
"I see Thor's the bad guy." Bruce says, and Loki looks up at him, confused. He doesn't like Thor, but Thor isn't bad. He's like the perfect Asgardian. Loki's the bad one. Loki just shrugs, and Bruce says "It's okay to make him the bad guy."
"He's not the bad guy!" Loki shrieks. Saying the prince is a bad guy is a stupid idea. Plus, Thor's not even bad, Loki thinks as his mouth runs on at a rapid pace. "He helped save Midgard like Tony and you and Hulk-y and the other 'Vengers, and he's fought Frost Giants and everyone says he's a hero!" He's not making Thor the bad guy, he's just making the Thor toy lose to Toy Stark and Bruce.
"People aren't all good or all bad." Bruce explains. "You said yourself that people aren't nice all the time, and the same thing applies to whether or not people are good or bad. Thor was good when he helped stop the alien invasion here, but-" Bruce closes his eyes and takes a few deep breaths "-he was bad to you, wasn't he?"
Thor was mean to him, Loki thinks, but he deserves it, so that's not bad. It's just not very nice. It's very strange, though, that Thor hasn't hit him since being banished for a couple days to some Midgardian place called New Mexico. Then again, Thor has been away from Asgard a lot since then, and that banishment hadn't been very long ago at all. Thor's probably just been too busy to deal with him. That's the only explanation Loki's been able to come up with, because Fandral, Hogunn and Volstagg still torment him all the time.
Thor's a hero both on Asgard and Midgard, so it makes sense he hates someone bad like Loki. But aren't Tony, Bruce and Hulk heroes here on Midgard, too? Yeah, they are, he thinks. They're the Avengers.
So why do they seem to like a broken, monstrous freak like him? Heroes don't like bad guys.
Thankfully, Bruce changes the subject. "You know, the Other Guy's punched Thor so hard he's knocked him off his feet." Loki stares at him in disbelief. That can't be true, can it? Bruce smiles the tiniest bit and says "It's true. Just like this." Bruce punches the Thor toy off its feet.
Loki laughs and claps his hands. Thor never loses, or so he'd thought. Loki finds himself unable to keep from grinning as wide as possible. Thor probably hadn't deserved it, but Loki likes the idea anyways. He loves the Hulk even more now! "Can Hulk-y come out now? Tony's not here, so they can't fight."
"These look really good." Bruce changes the subject again as he picks up Toy Stark and the Bruce action figure. Loki stares at him in surprise. It was weird enough when Tony said he liked Toy Stark, even though he'd been made with magic, and now Bruce likes his action figure? Loki watches as Bruce examines at the action figure of himself.
"The details on these are amazing." Bruce looks up at him and smiles. "I know you don't think so, but you have a talent."
But talents are good things to have, right? Loki's really confused, but Bruce's words make a lump form in Loki's throat.
Bruce looks at him and says "I'm getting the feeling you don't want to talk about this anymore. Is that right?" Loki nods.
"Ok, we'll stop. Just... think about what I said, all right?" Bruce stands up and heads back to the table and continuing whatever work he's doing. goes back to his game where Thor is losing to Tony and Bruce. Loki wonders if Bruce even knows he's still there. He seems really absorbed in his work, like Tony is sometimes.
"How come you never let him out?" Loki asks, suddenly remembering that Bruce had dodged the question about the Hulk earlier.
Bruce looks like he's struggling to remain calm. He takes some deep breaths as he grips the ends of the table he's standing at. "Loki, please, just stop asking about him."
Loki sulks for a good ten minutes at that. Why does nobody else want the Hulk around? He picks up the Bruce toy and scurries under the table. He stands the toy up in front of him before staring at it. "I wanna see Hulk-y." He mumbles. He watches the toy Hulk-out in a way almost exactly like Bruce. However, the clothes just disappear.
It's only when the clothes disappear that he realizes it's his magic. Of course. How could he have been that stupid? Toys don't Hulk-out anyways, so he should have realized that a lot sooner. He squeezes his eyes shut. He was bad! A small voice in the back of his head reminds him that Bruce and Tony both like the changed versions of the toys, but it's squashed by the louder voice telling him he's done something freaky and bad.
"Loki, it's okay." Bruce murmurs, almost before Loki reaches the realization about it being his magic. Bruce doesn't pull him close like Tony does, but his voice is soft and soothing and he rubs circles on Loki's back.
The thought that he's a freak stops consuming his mind, and Loki looks at the new version of the Hulk toy. He has to agree with Bruce's assessment that it looks very realistic- much better than the old one, Loki thinks, though he won't admit that out loud. Bruce doesn't even comment on the magic, though. It's almost like he doesn't care that freakish magic was used. Maybe Bruce and Tony are both crazy.
Loki hugs the Hulk toy along with Simba and Toy Stark. "I want a Hulk Hug." Loki had really liked it when the Hulk hugged him. Hulk's so big, Loki thinks, he could beat up anyone who tried to hurt him. Apparently he can even beat up Thor! "Hulk-y gives really good hugs."
Bruce just takes some deep breaths again and doesn't reply. A couple minutes later, he pulls a small plastic thing out of his pocket and sticks it in one of the machines. A holographic picture of Loki and the Hulk hugging appears. Bruce smiles slightly at the image and Loki swears he hears the man whisper "There? Are you good now?" But Loki's pretty sure Bruce isn't talking to him. Whoever Bruce is talking too is apparently good now, because Bruce relaxes, relieved.
Loki grins and runs up to the picture, close enough so it fills his field of vision. "Yeah, just like that! Why can't he do that again?"
"Loki" Bruce says in a strained voice as he takes several more deep breaths. "Please, let's not talk about him... Let's just talk about something else, okay?"
Loki thinks for a topic. "Jarvis says his name stands for Just A Rather Very Intelligent System. He said.. 'each letter is the first letter of each word.'Right Jarvis?" Jarvis confirms it and Loki grins. He likes getting things right. "That's really neat, don't you think? I don't think my name stands for anything but I dunno. Your letters look really weird, you know? They're like these weird squiggles."
"Well, most names aren't acronyms." Bruce says, before asking what he meant by the thing about letters. Loki shrugs. It's all gibberish on the page but it makes sense in his head, which is really weird. He doesn't know how to explain that in a way that makes sense- he hasn't even totally made sense of it himself. When he tries to explain anyways, Bruce just gives him a strange look.
Bruce soon changes the topic. "So, are you and Tony doing anything for Halloween? Of course you are- from what I've heard, Stark Industries employees were actually required to wear costumes when Tony was CEO. Tony usually just wears one of his suits."
What in the Nine Realms is Bruce talking about?! Bruce seems to notice his confusion, because he shakes his head, amused, and says "Right. You probably need a crash course on Midgardian culture. Not that everyone on Midgard celebrates Halloween, but a lot of people here do."
Loki's not sure, but he thinks there's a hint of triumph on Bruce's face as he launches into an explanation, with some side comments from Jarvis.
As far as interviews go, Tony thinks, this one isn't too bad- actually, he might even go so far as to say it's good. The lady interviewing him- Mary or Margaret or Marla, something starting with M-A-R, is hot and not at all subtle in her interest in him. She insists on signing his cast and does so before Tony even has a chance to respond (at least the cameras haven't started rolling). To be honest, it's kind of ugly and he'd wanted to avoid advertising the fact he'd broken his leg. Well, that ship has sailed, Tony thinks as he looks at the gorgeous host. Perhaps he'll move on to doing better things with her later...
"So, tell us all how you broke your leg. When did it even happen?" She asks, as if it's the most fascinating subject in the world. Yep, keeping that a secret is long gone.
"I fell down the stairs about four nights ago." Tony lies easily enough. "You know, I'm thinking of just demolishing all the stairs in my tower and putting in escalators." Marla or whatever her name is actually laughs at that, even though it wasn't really funny.
She asks what he's been doing with his life, probably hungry for some gossip. Tony almost answers that he's been trying to pound self-esteem and acceptance into an abused Norse god, but he manages to stop himself. It would be kind of funny to see her reaction, but he still doesn't think revealing Loki to the world is a good idea. So instead of that, he gives one of those vague answers that seems to say a lot but really reveals nothing.
Not too long ago he wouldn't have even made it this long without trying to get Marla into his bed (or anywhere, really. He's not picky where he does it). Tony actually hasn't had a one-night-stand (or day, in this case- it's 9:30 in the morning) in a surprisingly lone time. It's certainly been three weeks, since he hasn't had sex since Loki arrived, and he's pretty sure it had been a few weeks before that. Which is shameful for a playboy, really.
They move on to the annoying talk show part, now with boring questions about how Stark Industries is doing. This is definitely why Pepper had been so insistent on filling him in about the company, since he can now actually answer these questions. Pepper's CEO now and he really shouldn't have to be doing this, he thinks. But the media clearly prefers to interview him, not that he can blame them. He's not exactly complaining at the moment- although if it wasn't for the hot reporter, he probably would be. Pepper's probably going to kill him for some of the lewd comments he makes, but he doesn't care.
Marla, despite seeming very interested in him, starts dragging up all the wrong topics, including how his company used to make weapons. Maybe her interest has been a ruse, Tony thinks. It doesn't matter now; she's lost her chance with him. He certainly doesn't want her in his bed now that she's dragging this up in such an accusatory way, though he hadn't felt this way when Christine Everhart had asked similar things.
Tony's trying to make up for the weapon-making part of his life and he doesn't like people bringing it up, which this woman keeps doing very insistently and accusingly. Geez, this Marla person really is like another Christine. She even brings up that now-dreaded Merchant of Death title, which Tony hadn't given a crap about back when Christine first interviewed him, before Afghanistan changed him.
Something unknown to the press is that Tony actually has lost a lot of sleep over how many people his weapons had killed. Right now, the guilt starts ferociously gnawing in his stomach again. He'll never be able to make up for all the lives he's ruined. No matter how many people he saves as Iron Man and how many millions of dollars he donates to charity, he can never erase that people have died because of him, that there are always people he doesn't save.
He's very good at hiding that guilt, and most of the time it's a dull sensation, only flaring up after missions and in the night when he can't sleep- or when his past is brought up, like right now.
Right now he puts on his fake smile as he talks about how Stark Industries is going. He tells her about how StarkPads are doing and what new features might be coming up; the StarkPads in particular have been extraordinarily popular. He also describes a speech app they're working on for those who can't or don't speak, such as some people with autism. It had been Pepper's idea (though Tony's not sure how she came up with it) and he'd actually done a bit of the coding before leaving the rest to the employees. They've been trying to get it so someone can talk as quickly with the app as most people do with their mouths. They're not there yet, but they're miles ahead of other such apps.
He also talks about how they've been furthering arc reactor usage around the world to try to use as much of the clean, renewable energy as possible, as well as how they've been working more on Intelli-crops. Both of those had just been stunts for public relations back when the company made weapons, but had expanded after Tony declared that Stark Industries would no longer make weapons.
However, the accusing questions keep coming, along with jabbing statements that try to shoot down all the contributions he makes, and Tony drops the businessman act. PR can suck it, Tony thinks. Why the hell should he bother pretending to be polite when she's acting like this?! She's almost viciously bringing up everything he hates thinking about. Tony knows there are people who refuse to look past his past. Sometimes, Tony's not sure if they should. But right now, he doesn't want to go ove all his mistakes.
He starts getting more and more snarky and sarcastic. He even starts cutting Marla off before she's done speaking.
Tony's then asked what he's going to do over the next month now that he can't be Iron Man. His answer will probably get him at least half an hour of Pepper screaming at him, but he really doesn't give a rat's ass right now.
Finally it's over and he heads back to his limo, alone except for his chauffeur. He sighs as he kicks back in the back seat before groping around for the cooler of scotch. He pours a glass and takes a big gulp, though it doesn't do much to improve his foul mood.
As far as interviews go, Tony thinks, this one had been really bad.
Jarvis of course knows when his creator is arriving back at the tower. He can track the location of Sir's Stark Phone via satellite, so he'd know Sir was home even if he couldn't see the limo pull in. "Welcome home, sir." Jarvis greets quietly when the man steps out of the car. Sir is in a bad mood, with good reason. This certainly isn't the first time Jarvis has been faced with his creator in a horrible mood.
Jarvis had watched the interview, of course. At first, he'd been grateful that at least he wouldn't have to watch Sir have sex this time (Jarvis will never understand the appeal such a thing holds for humans, even though he knows the science behind it. Sir had tried explaining it once, and while Jarvis can feel a lot of things, sexual attraction clearly isn't one of them). Simultaneously, Jarvis had watched Dr. Banner and Mr. Loki's activities in the tower.
Jarvis is mad- no, furious- at the talk show host, Marla Simhan. She had made Sir out to be the bad guy, dragging up all the things from his past that he hates talking about, even some of the things he has nightmares about, and thrusting them on him as if that's all he ever was. She'd ignored all the good he does for society even when he'd laid it out in front of her, and had focused on the bad times. Sir is a good man, he doesn't need that.
Jarvis had channeled his fury into something productive. He'd dug up everything he could find about Miss Simhan online and had found some nice blackmail material. He had even hacked into her social media accounts (which was child's play compared to hacking S.H.I.E.L.D.) He hasn't changed anything yet, but he's ready if Sir gives him permission.
Miss Potts has already called and left a very long message, at first sounding angry at Sir, but then the anger shifts to Miss Simhan.
"Where are Loki and Bruce?" Sir asks abruptly.
"Dr. Banner and Mr. Loki are in Dr. Banner's lab, sir." Jarvis answers smoothly, knowing why he's asking. "They are well out of your way, so you won't run into them."
"Good. Make sure it stays that way." Sir orders curtly. He takes the elevator directly from the garage to penthouse to grab a bottle of scotch and a glass before heading down to his private lab. Having to carry those things while using the knee scooter doesn't seem to help Sir's mood. Once he enters his lab, he tells Jarvis not to let anyone in, as if that actually has to be specified right now. Jarvis can read him like an open book and had already started blasting Sir's favorite rock music before he entered the lab.
Sir seats himself in his usual wheeled, spinning chair. He pours himself a glass of scotch, takes a generous first gulp, and then starts furiously pulling off his dress clothes and flinging them to the floor (he's wearing jeans and a shirt underneath). Dum-E beeps worriedly and pats Sir's leg before trying to fold the clothes heaped on the floor.
"Jarvis, pull out the Hulkbuster armor and start piecing it together." Sir says in a deceptively normal tone. Jarvis politely complies, while worrying about Sir. He hasn't been this bad in a while.
Sir watches as Jarvis slowly pieces the huge suit of armor together. "Loki will love this." He mutters as he spins his chair slightly. "It's combining two of his favorite things in the world- or the universe, considering where he's from. Throw in horses, stars or anything Disney and he might die from excitement."
"Yes, I do believe Mr. Loki will adore this armor." Jarvis says fondly. If Sir wants to talk about Mr. Loki, they'll talk about Mr. Loki.
"I'd bet my tower the first thing he'll do is hug it." Sir's voice is light and carefree, but deceptively so. Jarvis knows he's not that way inside right now, though he's not sure if anyone else would be able to tell from his voice. Miss Potts might be able to tell, but Jarvis isn't sure.
"I have a feeling you'd win that bet." Jarvis replies. He really wants to ask Sir if he wants to talk about whatever he's feeling, but that normally makes things worse. So he lets Sir lose himself in working on the armor. For a while, neither of them says anything unless it's directly related to the Hulkbuster armor they're working on.
Jarvis has Dum-E take the bottle of scotch away so Sir doesn't end up intoxicated.
Around noon, almost an hour and a half after arriving home, Sir is the one to break the trend of only speaking about their project. After running a hand over his face, Sir sighs deeply and says "Pepper's going to kill me, for wrecking our PR and all that jazz."
"Miss Potts has already left a message, and she seems to be annoyed at both you and Miss Simhan." Jarvis offers to play the message, but Sir refuses. Jarvis continues speaking. "Regardless, do not blame yourself, sir. You are not the horrible person that Miss Simhan made you out to be."
"...I was once, and a lot of people think I still am." Sir mutters. He hasn't been this bad in a while, and Jarvis' fury at the talk show host shoots upwards again.
"You've changed." Jarvis answers simply. "Even back then, you had my unconditional support, just as you do now, sir. It is not just because you programmed me to support you, although that helps." Jarvis finishes dryly. Sir's lips quirk upwards a bit at that. The expression quickly falls, though.
"People died because of me." He says. Jarvis has heard Sir voice his guilt before (though Sir is usually very good at hiding it), and a lot of the other Avengers clearly feel similar guilt, especially Dr. Banner and Agent Romanoff. They've helped each other with these feelings a bit, but Sir still mostly turns to Jarvis.
"You have done more to help the world in the past year than most people do in their entire lives." Jarvis says.
"It's not enough. I can never do enough to make up for all that."
Jarvis knows that Sir is nowhere near as open with anyone else, but one of the reasons Sir built him was to have someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't judge him.
"You've done so much since then." Jarvis says gently. "Do you not constantly tell Dr. Banner not to hate himself for what the Hulk does? How is this different?" Jarvis replies. "Might I suggest you talk to Dr. Banner now?"
"No." Sir says flatly.
Jarvis sighs (he's very glad Sir had equipped him with that capability). "Sir, you are not a bad person. What you tell Dr. Banner applies to you too." After a bit, he adds "You're as hard to convince as Mr. Loki. Perhaps we should not solely be thinking of him."
Sir doesn't say anything to that, and Jarvis gets the sense that conversation is over. While Sir doesn't explicitly thank him for what he's said, Jarvis can tell that Sir is glad to have heard those things. Jarvis is glad to have helped; helping Sir is the reason for his existence, and Jarvis hates seeing Sir in the dumps.
"I believe these may be of interest to you." Jarvis changes the topic, pulling up all the stuff he'd dug up about the reporter. Sir glances over the data and whistles, his smile very predatory.
"Who knew a talk show host could have this much dirt about them? Jarvis, you are officially a genius." Sir says before he taps his chin in mock thoughtfulness. "You know, it would be a shame if some of her darker moments were dragged up again. What do you say, J?"
"Indeed it would be a shame, sir. A real shame." Jarvis replies dryly. "I've already hacked her Facebook and Twitter if you're interested."
Sir's grin isn't nearly as fake now. "Oh, Jarvis, what would I do without you?" There's a touch of sarcasm in his voice, because Sir could easily hack those himself.
"I shudder to imagine it, sir." Jarvis quips back, very glad to hear the real laugh comes from his creator in response.
Less than an hour later, there are several videos of Marla Simhan's less-than-stellar moments circulating the internet, with so many links leading to the videos that they're practically predestined to go viral. Ad links on countless pages, including every page featuring Tony's interview from earlier today, now take the user to one of those videos.
Additionally, some rather embarrassing social media posts Marla probably hopes have been forgotten about have mysteriously resurfaced. It's not perfect revenge, Tony thinks, but it's a start.
Everything he and Jarvis had dragged up had already been on the internet, which had been the case with all the things she'd dragged up about him. So aside from the hacking (which nobody will be able to trace) they'd played it fair. Then again, the interview had been broadcast on live television as well as the internet, so that seems about even.
Tony spends the afternoon holed up in his lab, but he eventually goes to Bruce's lab when he can deal with people again. Tony feels better now that all the guilt has died down to its usual level. It's never totally gone, but it's basically dormant until something brings it up, sort of the same way as his memories of Afghanistan or the invasion in New York a year and a half ago. Sometimes, the guilt will come up in the middle of the night (also like the memories).
Bruce seems to have a fairly good idea of what's been going on, since he gives Tony an understanding look when he enters the lab. Tony wonders if he'd seen the interview.
Loki is ecstatic to see him, which feels really nice. The god rushes up to over-excitedly hug him, already talking a mile a minute. Loki's holding Toy Stark as well as Simba; apparently, the action figure joins the lion as the god's constant companion when Tony's gone.
"TONY!" Loki practically screams. "Guess what? Bruce was telling me about something called..." Loki frowns, cocking his head to the side, and Bruce supplies the word he'd apparently been thinking of- Halloween. "Yeah. That. He said you dress up as people, and that you normally go as Man of Iron. But he said you're supposed to go as something you're not, and you are Man of Iron, so that's kind of silly, don't you think?"
"I don't know. Is there a better option than Iron Man?" Tony asks, smirking.
"I can think of hundreds." Jarvis says dryly and Loki giggles, shaking his head head wildly.
"Nobody's better than you, nope nope nope!" Loki grins at Tony. "'You're the best person ever!" Tony grins slightly at that. He wouldn't object to Loki thinking that for a while longer. Hearing that feels even better after that crappy interview. Tony's not sure he wants to know what Loki would think if he knew of his past, though.
"I told him about how you apparently made everyone at Stark Industries dress up." Bruce says. Technically, Pepper nixed that rule when she became CEO, but most employees still wear costumes anyways.
With all the stuff that's happened since Loki arrived, Tony's forgotten all about Halloween. Usually he goes over-the-top, like he does with a lot of holidays. Last year, he had designed an elaborate haunted house on of one of the tower's spare floors (complete with realistic robot zombies), invited a bunch of employees up, and watched them scream like little girls. It had been very entertaining, despite the lecture he'd gotten from Pepper afterwards.
They've got about a week before Halloween now, which is plenty of time to get Loki a costume.
"So who do you want to be?" Tony asks. "Let's see.. you could be Simba, or Genie." Loki vigorously shakes his head at the second suggestion, to Tony's slight disappointment. Considering how he thought Genie was going to be hated, though, Tony supposes that makes sense.
"You could be a wolf. Maybe even a werewolf." Bruce suggests, smiling slightly. Loki giggles at the werewolf part, and Tony feels he's missing something. After a bit, Bruce adds "Or you could be a horse." Clearly, Tony's not the only one who's picked up on Loki's favorite animal.
Loki cocks his head to the side and gazes down at Simba. "What do you think?" He murmurs to the toy. He waits as if hearing an answer and then nods and laughs. "Yeah! That's what I was thinking."
"You've decided already?" Tony asks, surprised. Loki nods but doesn't reveal it. "Well, what is it?"
Loki points at Tony. "You want to be me? Or Iron Man?" Loki just nods, so Tony's not sure which one he means.
"Wow, you should be flattered, Tony." Bruce says, smiling slightly. "I mean, he already dresses up as you every night, and he still wants to go as you."
To be honest, it really does make Tony feel nice. "Well, there are a million reasons to want to go as me, after all."
"You're strong." Loki says softly.
"So are you." Tony replies. It's not just an empty response, either. Loki is strong, more so than he seems to know. For one thing, he has that superhuman strength all Asgardians seem gifted with. But it's not just physical strength. It's beyond Tony how Loki can still face the world with endless enthusiasm and breathtaking grins despite everything life has thrown at him to knock him down. Sure, Loki clearly has some issues, and some of them are pretty major, but he acts a lot happier after at least hundreds- maybe thousands- of years of abuse than Tony did after far less time in Afghanistan.
"You should be someone other than Iron Man." Bruce tells Tony. "After all, Loki's already got him covered."
"You could be Hulk-y." Loki giggles. "You're making-" Loki quickly cuts himself off when Tony sends him a warning look. He'd probably been about to mention the Hulkbuster armor.
Bruce is clearly uncomfortable, and he tries to change the topic. "Loki did something amazing again today." He glances pointedly at the Avengers action figures and Tony sees that the Hulk is back among them, only he looks better than before.
"Wow, this is amazing. He looks at least twenty times better than he did before." Tony says truthfully as he picks up the toy. Loki stares at him while Tony hopes he won't freak out. Loki's clearly nervous, and Tony and Bruce both quickly try to reassure him that he's done nothing wrong.
To Tony's surprise, Loki eventually mumbles "Bruce said he looks good." Then, in a disbelieving whisper "He says I have a talent."
"Well, Bruce was right. It is a talent." Tony says as he throws an arm around Loki's shoulder. "Seriously, he looks amazing. Almost like the real deal."
Tony would have laughed at Loki's expression of total confusion if it had been in another context.
At some point, Loki comments on the signature on Tony's cast. Tony had forgotten about that, and he certainly doesn't want it there. He gets Bruce to cross it out as Tony explains about signing casts to Loki. Of course, Loki ends up doing it. He draws some very messy squiggles on it, and Tony wonders if he even knows how to write. Now that he thinks about it, he hasn't seen Loki write anything up until now.
"What does that say?" Tony asks. Loki looks at him as if wondering if he's kidding and tells them it says Loki. Those squiggles certainly don't look like an alphabet, though. They're so messy they literally look like scribbling. Loki can clearly read, though. They'd talked about this, hadn't they? Before Tony had questioned Loki about his powers for the first time.
"Hey, Snoopy, you said you understand every language, right?" Tony asks.
Loki looks confused for a bit before he nods. "Yeah. 'Cause of All-Tongue."
"Does it work for reading and writing, too?" Tony asks. This is actually fascinating.
"I think so. 'Cause your words are made with weird symbols, but..." Loki frowns thoughtfully as he twists his hands together, clearly thinking about what to say. "They're all like-" He seems at a loss for words and jumps up and down, wringing his hands together wildly. "-But my head knows the words. Most of the time... They're all weird out there but normal in here." Loki taps his head.
"Oh, so that's what you meant earlier about our letters being gibberish." Bruce says, and Loki nods and claps his hands.
"Yeah! You got it!" Loki does a happy little dance, to Tony's amusement. "You guys sound different than people back there, you know. You're speaking gibberish, but it's not gibberish."
"So does it not work for writing?" Tony asks, glancing at Loki's messy scrawl. He has a feeling it doesn't, at least not for Loki.
Thor's never really explained All-Tongue, and Tony had never really though about Asgardians speaking another language since everything Thor said sounded like English to him.
They eat leftover Lo Mein for dinner and decide to watch a movie. In the three nights since watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame, the only movie they've watched was Lady and the Tramp. They'd watched that one without incident.
One of the Frozen trailers had said it was from the same studio as Tangled. Tony hasn't seen Tangled yet (he's not too familiar with some of Disney's more recent films), but he decides maybe they can watch it tonight.
He realizes he's taking a gamble with it when he buys it on demand online. Not that the money matters in the slightest, he just doesn't think to check for anything that could set Loki off until after he buys it. However, a quick internet search reveals that it has a magic flower which later gives Rapunzel the ability to heal people, but that's it in terms of bizarre things. Tony doesn't think that will be a trigger.
Fortunately, Loki doesn't freak out about the magic flower that Mother Gothel uses to stay young. Instead, he mumbles something about Idunn and apples.
Apparently Tony's quick scour of the internet wasn't enough, since it turns out Mother Gothel can disappear into thin air. They are fortunately warned ahead of time by Jarvis (who's clearly watching ahead of them again) and Loki doesn't totally lose it at that, though they do need to calm him down. Part of that might also be because Mother Gothel just stole a baby, though.
Loki doesn't freak out about Rapunzel's healing powers, either- although maybe the reason is because Rapunzel got her healing powers from said flower.
While he watches the film, Tony has to say that Flynn Rider is probably his favorite Disney character of all time. He's probably the character that fits him the most, except for the whole thief part. Bruce obviously notices the similarities and keeps sending Tony amused glances.
Loki comments at one point that this is a lot like The Hunchback of Notre Dame. He also wonders aloud why Mother Gothel thinks Rapunzel is the flower, which confuses Tony for a bit.
Loki clearly loves Maximus the horse, for obvious reasons. At some points seeming so excited that he literally jumps up and down, screaming or laughing almost maniacally.
As Rapunzel sings her healing song to heal Flynn's injured hand, Loki alternates between staring at the screen and staring at Tony's cast. With a thoughtful expression, Loki says "Oh, that's what you need to do." He cocks his head to the side and looks at Tony as if he's crazy. "So why haven't you done it? You're just wearing this thing instead." His hands scurry over Tony's cast like spiders.
Seriously? Hasn't Loki noticed that nobody else in the movie is able to do that? "Well, that's not really how it works. We can't just heal ourselves here, not like you demigods or whatever you are." Tony tells him.
Loki looks at the screen and realization dawns on his face. "You can't...?"
"I'm afraid not." Bruce says. "You Asgardians are lucky that way."
Loki frowns. "Oh, is it 'cause... you need special hair? 'Cause Rapunzel can do it and she has special hair." At least Loki hadn't said Rapunzel was freakish, Tony thinks.
Before Tony can tell him that 'special hair' isn't real, Loki grabs Tony's cast and bends down so his long black hair falls around Tony's cast. After casting a quick glance at Tony, Loki closes his eyes. "You're gonna be Flynn." Loki announces, as he seems to be trying to remember something. Tony rolls his eyes. Of course- they're going into some kind of pretend game, he realizes as Loki starts to sing.
"Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine
Make the clock reverse, Bring back what once was mine"
Then something strange happens, although Loki's hair isn't glowing like Rapunzel's does. That would be really strange. However, a soft green glow starts coming from Loki's hands, and it soon spreads around Tony's cast. There's also an inexplicable yet comforting warmth around Tony's ankle that increases during the rest of the song.
"Heal what has been hurt, Change the fates' design
Save what has been lost, Bring back what once was mine
What once was mine"
Okay, this whole sensation is really freaky, Tony thinks. There's a weird stinging feeling in his leg, especially when Tony feels his bones change. The comforting warmth dampens the pain a bit, but it still hurts a lot. He's about to shout at Loki to stop when it's over, the slight glow fading.
Tony just stares at Loki and then at his cast. The slight pain that had been coming from is ankle is gone. Actually, his ankle feels entirely normal. Loki opens his eyes and looks guilelessly back at him. "Why do you feel so warm and tingly?" Loki asks, furrowing his brow.
"I don't know." Tony shrugs. "Hey, Bruce, do you think we can check under this cast?"
Before Bruce can stop him, Tony stands up normally. There's absolutely no pain coming from his ankle. Bruce sends him a look telling him not to put weight on it, and Tony protests, saying his ankle feels totally normal. Bruce clearly doesn't want to risk it, and Tony sighs and grabs his stupid knee scooter. No sense angering Bruce, after all. Tony glares at him, though.
Once they get to the medical floor, Bruce starts cutting off the cast (though they first need to reassure Loki that the saw isn't cutting Tony).
Bruce peels away the cast, and Tony glances at Bruce, who looks just as shocked as he feels. Tony's ankle seems completely healed. Bruce makes Tony test it and it feels like he'd never broken it at all. Honestly, he probably shouldn't be shocked, but he is anyways. He hadn't considered that Loki could make other people heal as quickly as he can.
"Hey, you're not wearing that weird thing anymore." Loki comments once the cast is off.
"Courtesy of you, it seems." Tony replies before muttering "But why couldn't you have done that right after I broke my leg, instead of making me suffer in a cast for a few days?"
Bruce gives Tony a really?! look and tells him not to look a gift horse in the mouth, because he would still be in a cast for another month if it hadn't been for Loki. Ok, maybe he did come off as rather ungrateful.
"Don't freak out or anything, but did you know you could do that? Heal people, I mean." Tony watches Loki carefully for his reaction.
"What?" Loki honestly seems to have no clue what Tony's talking about, considering his expression is one of total confusion. "I sang just like Rapunzel did to Flynn, you were Flynn 'cause you have brown eyes and you act like him. And you're hurt. Rapunzel can fix people. She fixed Eugene. That's Flynn's real name, you know; he said so."
"Yeah, well, I think you can fix people, too, buddy." Tony replies, still shocked. "Just like Rapunzel."
"But I don't have special hair." Loki mumbles, confused.
"No, you don't have special hair. Just a black mop- not that it's bad, mind you." Tony smirks slightly before going on, hoping Loki won't freak out. "But you heal ridiculously quickly, and you have special powers, which apparently include being able to heal others really quickly."
Loki's expression becomes panicked at the mention of his powers and Tony feels a sharp stab of disappointment as Loki visibly tenses his entire body. He pulls Loki close and calms him down fairly quickly (is that progress?!) Tony then grips Loki lightly by the shoulders and gives him a stern look.
"Loki, don't you dare think what you just did was bad, because it wasn't. Nothing you've done here so far is bad. Hell, you seriously just fixed my leg so it's not broken anymore. That's literally the complete opposite of bad, and I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone who says otherwise."
"Rapunzel's not bad." Bruce points out, and Loki hesitantly nods in agreement. "What you did was just like Rapunzel. You healed Tony, just like she healed Flynn."
Loki looks at them in disbelief, but they confirm that he'd done it, while simultaneously telling him he'd done nothing wrong. Thankfully, Loki doesn't panic now, either. Loki seems honestly surprised that he'd done that, as if he really didn't know he could heal people.
Loki glances at Tony and asks "...I made you feel better, right?" Tony's pretty sure Loki had asked the exact same question after singing to him when Tony had woken up from his nightmare during Beauty and the Beast.
"Yeah, I feel a lot better." Tony tells Loki, and he's entirely truthful this time, unlike after that nightmare. "So kudos, good job, all that jazz." Yeah, he's really not good at thanking people. After a bit, he squeezes Loki's arm and says "Seriously, Snoopy, you did good." He grins at Loki.
Loki ducks his head, but not before Tony notices that there's a smile on his face, and that his face is starting to turn red.
"You're blushing!" Tony cackles at the sight. If it was anyone else, he would have started teasing them for it, but this seems like a really good alternative to freaking out about his magic.
Tony loves being able to walk again, and he asks Loki if he wants to continue watching the movie. Loki nods and they head towards the elevator. "Rapunzel's good and people like her powers, right?" Tony nods, grinning. That's definitely progress. "And Esmeralda does freaky things but people like her... and Genie was a freak too."
"None of them are freaks, and neither are you." Tony says. "You're just as good as Rapunzel, Esmeralda and Genie."
There's a bit of silence, before Loki speaks.
"I sang to you and made you better, just like Rapunzel." Loki says slowly, and it sounds like he's asking for confirmation, which both Bruce and Tony give. It doesn't slip Tony's notice that Loki doesn't mention his powers, though.
It's only when they get to the theater that Loki stops as if struck by a sudden realization. He gives Tony a vaguely accusing look and exclaims almost victoriously "You said singing doesn't help, but it does!"
I'd always planned for Loki to heal Tony's leg this way (a lot of reviewers were apparently surprised he didn't heal Tony's leg right after he broke it. I've got a reason for that). The song doesn't actually have anything to do with Loki healing his leg, he just happened to be singing it.
I really hope I didn't screw up the scene between Tony and Jarvis. I think I've been neglecting Tony's problems lately.
Also, that scene in the beginning with Tony and Loki sleeping together wasn't supposed to imply anything. Some people have asked if this is going to turn into a romance. I personally love FrostIron fics but I'm pretty sure this is going to remain a friendship fic.
Hopefully I can update soon, maybe in less than a week. I actually wrote almost all of this since Monday.