Thanks everyone for your feedback on this! You all are awesome! I don't know why this update took longer.
This first part of this chapter addresses some things that some reviewers (pallyndrome and Nessaiya) brought up. I'm actually sort of surprised more people didn't bring up what they did.
Oh, yeah. I saw Civil War with my brother and dad and it was awesome!
Okay, so that conversation had been, well, interesting, Tony thinks. On Loki's part, there had been screaming, crying and laughter, the last one sometimes being at inappropriate times. He'd also thrown Steve's shield across the room in the middle of a... tantrum? No that doesn't seem like the right word. Rage-fest? Blind-attack-induced-by-panic?
Well, the screaming wasn't as awkward as the crying. Even though Tony's seen Loki cry before, those had been nothing like the times just recently.
After they'd told him everything, Loki had started crying as if the world were about to end because of him, and then he'd started hitting himself, which somewhat worryingly made the god laugh.
Loki had also said something that indicated he'd gone through some situation that uncomfortably reminded Tony of Obadiah Stane betraying him. He wonders if that Heimdall guy knew about that when he decided to drop Loki here. It's another thing the two of them seem to have in common, though Tony sincerely hopes Heimdall doesn't know everything about his life. That would be really creepy, not to mention a serious breach of privacy.
Tony stands there, realizing he's still holding onto Loki's wrists from his second futile attempt to get Loki to stop hitting himself. He lets go of them once he notices this, since it's not like holding really did anything. Loki had already easily overpowered him once, freeing his wrists from Tony's grip until Tony grabbed them again. As of right now Loki doesn't look like he's going to start hitting himself again.
"You okay?" Tony asks, staring at Loki to make sure he doesn't miss anything potentially telling in his reaction.
Loki nods and smiles, actually seeming okay. Better than okay, Tony amends. Loki appears to be back to his normal self, and Tony hopes that's not a ruse.
"Why were you hitting yourself, Snoopy?" Tony asks, not even sure what he expects the answer to be. Actually, he's not even sure if he should expect an answer in the first place.
"I'm awake!" Loki laughs, bouncing on his toes. He goes to slap himself another time, but Tony reflexively grabs his wrist yet again, even though that wouldn't stop Loki. However, this time, Loki doesn't hit himself, instead acting as if Tony really could hold him back.
Seeing Loki slap himself as he'd just done a minute or so ago and then laugh was rather unsettling, making the god seem somewhat crazy. Some of those slaps looked pretty brutal too, leaving red marks on the god's cheeks, though they've faded already due to his super-fast healing and durability. They might have bruised a human, though. It was almost painful to watch Loki do that to himself but Loki hardly seems to care about the pain. As a godly alien being, he probably has a ridiculously high pain tolerance anyways, to go along with his superhuman durability and all that jazz, but Tony has a feeling that Loki's pain tolerance was conditioned even more by frequent exposure to pain greater than slaps, no matter how brutal they look.
Before now, the only self-injurious behavior he'd seen Loki do was scratch at his lips, presumably when he was having a nightmare or flashback about that lip-sewing incident, but those weren't quite the same because they were during flashbacks. Well, there's the lip scratching and then there's the elephant in the room that was recently pointed out, the whole potential suicide issue.
Loki had claimed he wasn't trying to kill himself, but Tony's not entirely sure if it's true or not. Loki had laughed after that, too, which hadn't exactly been appropriate. Tony Stark saying something is inappropriate to laugh at is about as rare as a solar eclipse, but making light of suicide is one line he just doesn't cross.
Tony glances at Bruce, still remembering the words his science bro said about a year and a half ago, back when their little band of superheroes wasn't exactly a team yet. "I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth... and the other guy spit it back out!"
Bruce probably understands whatever Loki was going through earlier in the evening the best out of any of them. Sure, Tony's faced death countless times, and at one point hadn't told anyone he was slowly being poisoned by Palladium, although that wasn't facing death voluntarily. In the Battle of New York, he'd chosen to fly a nuke into the- No, Tony, he mentally berates himself, don't think about that! Think about something else, anything else!
The memory starts to surface and Tony tries to think about something else and shove it down, without much success. Until Loki throws his arms around him, that is. The physical contact helps him force the memory down. It seems to help Loki when somebody's touching him too. Simply finding comfort in human contact is a basic thing. Tony supposes that preventing a flashback that way isn't too different from waking up when someone touches you and shakes you awake.
Tony's not sure what the reason for the hug is. Is Loki somehow sensing the possibility of a flashback on Tony's part, or is the hug just a coincidence? On a hunch, Tony's guessing it's a coincidence, because Loki's not singing that lullaby he always sang the other times he thought Tony needed a hug, which Tony wound up singing to him earlier tonight before the whole Thor confrontation.
He hugs Loki back, telling himself that maybe the reason for the hug is because Loki's seeking comfort himself. That idea sits better with Tony, simply because he doesn't like thinking about himself as the one needing to be consoled. Besides, it's actually a pretty realistic explanation, considering how Loki had apparently thought all his friends turned on him once Thor showed up and how panicked he'd been in general this evening.
"You're hugging me." Loki mumbles, and Tony briefly wonders why he'd state the obvious. Then it dawns on him that since Loki's used to people hating his appearance, he's probably surprised that Tony's hugging him like nothing's different. Which is quite true- he's blue, so what?
Even if Loki really hadn't been trying to kill himself, Tony thinks as he hopes that's the case, Bruce would still at least understand the part about not liking his other form.
After seeing Loki's Jotun form for the first time, Tony honestly has no clue why the Aesir seem to hate the blue-skinned frost giants. He'd sort of been imagining that there would be all sorts of odd beings in Asgard, or at least in other realms or whatever they're called. Maybe there are beings with fangs or extra limbs or something that make them look not at all human. He's pretty sure Thor's mentioned dark elves at some point, whatever the heck those are.
Wookiees probably wouldn't be too out of place in Asgard, he thinks with a smirk as a mental image of Chewbacca in Thor's armor with Mjolnir pops into his head. So Asgardians probably have experience with vastly different beings, but apparently something as little as skin color is reason enough to hate someone in Asgard. Although really, it's not like Earth was any better even a couple centuries ago.
How can the Aesir call Loki a monster for his looks when he doesn't even look that different in his real form? Aside from those lines on his forehead and the backs of his hands (and perhaps his arms, although he was wearing long sleeves so Tony couldn't see), and the chameleon act, Loki really hadn't looked any different. It's not even like he was an ugly shade of blue or anything, not that it would have merited the racism the Aesir have against the Jotuns if the color wasn't aesthetically pleasing.
The lines, which Bruce had assured Loki weren't monster lines, were actually rather decorative, and it occurs to Tony how boring human foreheads are in comparison. The red eyes, although somewhat of a cliché for creepy things, weren't bad either, but it had been a little odd since Tony's so used to the green eyes Loki so obviously prefers. Loki basically had different eyes, and the eyes are a really distinctive part of a person. His eyes still had their wide, slightly-glassy look.
Loki's probably the only person who can hug a friend for this long and not make it feel weird, Tony thinks. If anyone else hugged him for this amount of time, it would probably seem too intimate, and it would seem like they were interested in him or something. But Loki somehow makes it seem like a normal gesture.
Loki snuggles in closer and Tony feels a dampness pressing into his leg, which reminds him about the wet spot on Loki's pants earlier. Tony had barely stopped himself earlier from making some ill-considered quip to the god about being housebroken, or perhaps a sarcastic suggestion about diapers. That certainly wouldn't have been appreciated, since Loki had clearly been ashamed about wetting himself already, so it's rather fortunate that Tony had been able to hold back his tongue for once. The accident undoubtedly had something to do with Loki being panicked, rather than incontinence, since this is the first time it happened. Hey, at least it's pee instead of the more disgusting second option.
The hug ends somewhat abruptly when Tony remembers why Loki's leg is wet, and Tony suggests that Loki go change, adding that Dum-E can deal with the soiled pants. Loki stares at him for a bit, and Tony's starting to wonder if he needs to specify that Loki should go to his bedroom first, remembering the one incident in the clothing store where Loki had started removing his pants in public. Loki's giving him a rather strange look, so Tony shoots him a questioning look. Loki doesn't respond at first, so Tony asks "What?"
"You're not like them, 'cause you're not making fun of me for it." Loki gestures towards the wet spot on his pants. In a quiet voice, he asks "You're not gonna start... are you?" He doesn't sound quite as worried as he normally does about this sort of stuff.
"Of course we're not going to make fun of you for it." Pepper says. "You were really scared, I bet, and that's why it happened." Her voice is understanding, until she shoots Tony a death glare as if he's going to say otherwise and start teasing Loki, which admittedly he would have done to anybody else and might have even done in another circumstance with Loki. Tony holds his hands up in a sign of peace.
Loki grins widely at her, clapping his hands. Clearly, Peppers answer was what he'd been hoping to hear. "I think..." Loki starts to mumble in an almost sleepily quiet tone as he goes over to Pepper and hugs her too. "I think you guys still like me an' you're still my friends and nobody says you're not reals, nope nope nope. Not likes what they say 'bout the others."
Tony feels a wave of triumph. That's major progress right there, since Loki apparently believes them now about them still liking him, which he hadn't believed earlier. "Of course we're still your friends, Snoopy, and we still like you a lot."
Pepper seconds that with her arms around Loki, looking up at him because he's taller than she is. Jarvis, Steve and Bruce all add their agreement.
Loki grins and says "Simba too. He says his best friends are Nala and me. But what 'bouts Timon and Pumbaa? Why's he leave them out?" Tony's noticed a couple random words had an s tacked on the end, and he wonders if maybe it's an All-Tongue glitch or something. Loki seems uncharacteristically tired, as opposed to his usual state of constant energy and motion. Tony can't exactly blame him if tonight's events wore him out- actually, he'd be impressed if they hadn't. Loki eventually stops hugging Pepper.
"Well, he hasn't met them yet. After all, he talks about his dad like he's still alive and he talks about Nala." Tony says, because by now he's heard Simba's prerecorded conversation so many times he has it memorized. Which has to be a waste of brain cells.
"And you like my magic?" Loki asks sort of randomly in a quiet voice, staring at them. They assure him that they do. Loki nods, looking somewhat confused as if the idea is still strange. He grabs his long-coat from where it had been left on the floor after they'd taken it off to remove his Iron Man suit and starts to go towards his room, saying "C'mon Simba." to his lion. There's a slight spring in his step as he heads off, and Tony hears him continuing to chatter to Simba. "I thought you left me on the balcony, but I shoulda known you wouldn't do that. Just like Tony didn't! He's really nice, you know. Yeah, I know you know."
Tony smiles slightly at that as he kicks back on the couch, sighing in relief. The whole conversation they'd had after the balcony incident had been tough (the toughest part obviously being the potential suicide part). For a while, it really had seemed like they were back on square one. All the progress Loki had made in trusting them and knowing he wouldn't get hit, as well as perhaps starting to not view his magic as bad had seemed to fly right out the window. But it seems like now, after that whole conversation where they reassured Loki that they didn't hate him, they might've actually made progress, which would be really awesome.
"Should we really be sending him there on his own?" Steve asks. "I mean, what if he tries to..." Steve trails off, but Tony's ninety-nine percent sure he knows what was going to come.
"I will alert you if Mr. Loki does anything that could lead to himself getting harmed," Jarvis speaks up, clearly guessing the same thing. "Although right now he seems to have no inclination to do so."
Tony hadn't even considered that issue, but he's glad to hear it's apparently not an issue in the first place. He can't help adding to Steve "What do you want to do? Go in there and watch him change?" Steve hastily denies that, and Tony smirks. Annoying the super-soldier is so much fun.
"So where's Thor?" Bruce asks, and Steve seems glad about the change of topic.
"Prince Odinson is no longer in the tower." Jarvis informs them. Tony already knows that, but it's certainly news to Bruce. Tony remarks that he sort of wishes Thor was still here.
"Why, do you want to smash him into the floor again?" Steve asks in an annoyed, accusatory voice.
"Whoa, Spangles, who got your spandex up in a bunch?" Tony arches an eyebrow, although he's sort of annoyed.
Steve has his whole your-moral-compass-isn't-pointing-North-like-mine look going right now, and the super-soldier gives Tony an unamused look. "You were beating him up while telling him that beating Loki up was wrong. Two wrongs don't make a right." Wow, he's even using cliché lines and everything. Tony pinches the bridge of his nose. His headache from earlier is just getting worse. Maybe he should get some scotch, although that would probably just get him annoying lectures from both Steve and Pepper. Maybe he'll wait until they've left.
"Well, he deserved a taste of his own medicine, after what he's done to Loki." Tony shoots back. Is Steve actually feeling sorry for Thor or something?! After everything he did? "Are you saying what he did was right?"
"Of course not. He was wrong, but you're stooping to his level." Geez, Steve can be annoying. "Regardless of if he deserved it, beating him up wasn't right. He wasn't even fighting you for most of it. Besides, what did hitting him accomplish?" Steve asks.
"It gave him an idea of what he and the others put Loki through." Tony crosses his arms. Thor deserved it.
Tony's never been one for Steve's lectures on right and wrong, but he admits to himself in the back of his mind that hitting Thor, while satisfying, didn't really accomplish anything aside from avenging Loki. It's not like that would show the thunderer that he's wrong about Loki, that there's no reason to hate him. Granted, Tony still doesn't know the whole story, like whatever Thor said about telling Heimdall that Loki should be sent to Midgard, but he doubts that'll change much.
"So what do you suggest? Have a nice little chat with him? Maybe break out the teacups?" Of course, Tony knows this is probably exactly what Steve has in mind, although maybe without the tea part.
"It might get him to understand why he was wrong, whereas beating him up won't teach him anything." Steve's tone is even more preachy now, Tony thinks, even though he'd realized in the back of his mind that beating up Loki didn't change anything. At least Steve's moral views make him on their side instead of Thor's.
"He can't get away scot-free with what he did to Loki." Tony protests. There really does need to be some sort of punishment for it.
Bruce and Pepper manage to diffuse the argument, although Steve and Tony continue to glare at each other. The other two seem to take Steve's side, saying that hitting Thor might not have been the right thing to do. Bruce especially takes this view. Then again, Tony supposes that Hulk takes care of all the violent thoughts or something.
Steve actually apologizes for his last comment, to Tony's surprise, and he grudgingly accepts the apology, sort of.
Jarvis shows Bruce the footage of what happened with Thor, but Bruce focuses more on Hulk hugging Loki than Hulk beating Thor into the floor.
Watching the scene again, Tony realizes Steve was right- not that he admits to this realization. Even though Tony hates people who beat up defenseless victims, that's sort of what they'd done to Thor. Beating up people who aren't attacking you is wrong. Tony's slightly uncomfortable now, watching himself hit Thor with a repulsor blast while Thor still didn't even really know what was going on and wasn't fighting. He'd even told Thor not to defend himself, which is apparently what Asgard did to Loki. A small part of Tony has to admit that beating Thor up and shoving him into walls probably wasn't exactly morally justifiable, but he deserved something for everything he put Loki through.
Although, it wasn't like Thor was Loki's sole tormentor and he has done a lot of good as an Avenger, so Tony can't just write him off as a bad guy now. Not that any of them are clearly good or bad. Yes, Thor deserves to pay for what he's done, but if they beat him up for it, aren't they just as bad as him? Tony's not sure when Thor's going to show up a second time, and he's not entirely sure what he'll do to the thunderer when he does, either.
Ugh, why does this have to be so complicated? Tony half wishes it would just be plain and simple, like in the Disney movies Loki loves so much, where the bad guys are clearly bad and get what's coming for them.
Bruce pulls Tony aside privately. Tony's rather amazed that Loki's still in his room at this point, but he supposes it works out better for their conversations this way. Perhaps Loki got distracted and is reading Calvin and Hobbes or Peanuts or playing with Simba or something.
"Thanks again for what you said about the Other Guy being your friend." Bruce tells him. Tony waves it aside.
"He is now. He's not what he seems at first. Besides, he didn't even do that much damage to my tower this time, not that it's a big deal if he does. Seriously, Bruce, it's better to let him out here than somewhere else. At least this way there aren't other people he could hurt."
Okay, maybe that last part wasn't the most sensitive thing he could say, Tony thinks as Bruce looks very uncomfortable at the idea of Hulk hurting people, but when has he ever been close to sensitive? The main point is that he seriously doesn't care if Hulk makes in appearance in his tower, although he'd prefer he didn't make an appearance in the penthouse. It's not like he ever kicked Bruce out for it anyways, even when he'd Hulked-out in the penthouse twice that one day a few weeks ago. Tony starts to head back, but apparently the conversation isn't over. Actually, it turns out that wasn't the reason Bruce pulled him aside in the first place.
"Look, I'm not sure you handled things well." Bruce starts, fiddling with his glasses. Geez, why is everyone on his back all of the sudden? Tony opens his mouth, ready to cut off another lecture about beating up Thor, but Bruce continues before he can. "The way you were mad and annoyed at Loki earlier... that sort of thing doesn't do anything to help. If anything, it makes things worse." Bruce says quietly, before adding with a humorless, self-deprecating smile and says "Trust me, I know."
There's a bit of a pause, but Tony uncharacteristically remains silent.
Bruce continues calmly, his self-deprecating smile thankfully gone now. "Don't get me wrong- you're great for Loki and he's really lucky to have you as a friend. But you can't expect him to get over his issues in a month. He's got centuries of stuff to work through, and it takes us humans a lot longer than a month to get through serious stuff."
Okay, that hits a little too close to home. After all, Tony himself still isn't totally over Afghanistan and the Ten Rings, or the Battle of New York. It's been years since the cave and a year and a half since the Avengers' first mission together, and those incidents certainly hadn't lasted centuries like all the abuse Loki suffered.
Although he only felt somewhat guilty about Thor, he starts to feel really guilty about this. Why is he expecting Loki's progress to be quick, when his own isn't? Frankly, it's probably remarkable that they've made as much progress as they have, even with their apparently temporary setback tonight, where Loki evidently thought they were only pretending to like him after Thor showed up. Besides, Loki had apparently thought that Tony hated him, and being annoyed at him probably drew out the whole process of convincing him that wasn't the case. Not to mention, if Loki's really suicidal, getting angry at him definitely wouldn't help, as Bruce just pointed out. It might just make him want to die more.
Tony really wasn't angry with Loki, but now that he thinks about it, he had sort of directed some of his annoyance and anger- about the situation, about Thor, about things that weren't Loki but were related to him- at the god.
Loki hadn't seemed to think that Tony was mad at him when he hugged him, but who's to say he's not thinking that under the surface? Loki seems to wear his emotions on his sleeves a lot, but he's not always readable, as evidenced by the whole misunderstanding on both sides that they (hopefully) just worked through.
He's about to ask Bruce whether he thinks Loki was actually contemplating suicide or if they should believe Loki when he says he wasn't, but Loki wanders back in before he can. Simba is currently asking "Do you have a best friend?"
Loki replies that he does, mentioning that Tony's his best friend, and Simba answers "I have two- Nala, and you!"
"And Timon and Pumbaa, later." Loki tells Simba. Loki's in his Iron Man pajamas, and he'd apparently left the coat in his room. Pepper smiles slightly at the sight while Steve shoots Tony a look, perhaps wondering if Tony forced the pajamas and costume on him. Sheesh, why does everyone think that? Admittedly, Bruce seemed to be mostly joking when he'd asked, but still. Tony informs him that Loki had chosen both the pajamas and the costume, and Loki nods.
Loki picks up his drawstring bag from the floor and rummages through it, but instead of pulling out the Iron Man and Hulk action figures, he pulls out the Captain America one.
He approaches Steve (who's still in his stars-and-stripes suit, although he's not wearing the mask anymore) less cautiously than he had before. Apparently, watching Steve tell Thor he was wrong really raised Steve's status in Loki's eyes. Loki gives Steve a rather long demonstration of the toy's posing ability, putting the figure into various poses which he tries to get Steve to copy, although some of them aren't even possible for humans to perform without breaking something. Tony smirks when Loki makes Steve do something resembling a sort of ballet pose, and he really hopes Jarvis got a good picture of it.
While Loki is distracted with that, Tony and Bruce quietly return to their conversation in a separate room. Bruce believes that Loki's telling the truth about not trying to kill himself, and Tony's starting to be mostly convinced that's the case, too. Still, they agree they should keep an eye out for any worrying signs, and Jarvis says he'd be watching extra closely even if Tony hadn't just told him to do so.
When they go back into the living room, Loki's showing Steve and Pepper the other Avengers toys. Pepper's already seen them, but she watches anyways. Steve asks why the Hulk and Iron Man ones look so much better than the others. Tony's actually curious about what Loki's answer will be, since he generally hates talking about this stuff.
To his surprise, Loki answers with "I made them." Admittedly, he doesn't answer when Steve follows up by asking how he made them, but it's definitely another step in the right direction.
What Bruce said has been gnawing at Tony, and he pulls Loki aside. Loki hadn't seemed annoyed or worried when hugging him, but it could be hidden under the surface or something. Tony blurts out, without preamble "You know I'm not mad at you, right?"
Loki stares at him and says matter-of-factly "You don't seem mad."
"Good. Because I'm not." Tony says. "Hopefully it didn't seem like I was angry at you earlier, since I was never mad at you. I'm mad at Thor and the other Asgardians."
Loki cocks his head to the side, confused.
"Yeah, you heard that right. I'm mad at them, for treating you horribly." Actually, he's also mad at the fact Loki was treated horribly. Tony feels like he should say something more. He's not good with this sort of thing, but he continues.
"So, yeah, I'm not mad at you, and as we just went over, we don't hate you and we're still your friends."
Loki grins and does a sort of happy wriggle with his body. He obviously likes hearing that, not that Tony can blame him.
"Even though I'm blue?"
"You're not blue right now, but yeah, even when you're blue. I actually think blue is a nice color for you." Tony replies. "You know, they lied to you in Asgard. You're not the only magic user there."
Loki's head tilts further to the side and his mouth turns downwards in a disbelieving frown.
"Here, watch this." Tony has Jarvis play the clip from when Thor said that Odin and Frigga had used magic to hide Loki's real form.
Perhaps dumping that on him, on top of everything else, is just too much to process at the moment, after already finding out that his friends don't in fact hate him like everyone else. Loki doesn't seem to believe it yet as he stares at the screen after Jarvis pauses the footage.
"But they hate magic. At least, the Allfather does. Lady Frigga never said anything bad 'bout it, but he dids!" There's the glitch again, Tony can't help but notice.
Tony doesn't have any idea why magic would be considered bad, especially if the leader of Asgard does it on the side. He supposes that, from what Thor's said, Asgard seems very concerned with warrior prowess and all that jazz, something Loki seems to lack. Magic is very different from waving an ax or a hammer around, but Loki's clearly powerful and might have made a pretty capable warrior, if he'd had the chance and been so inclined. Although perhaps doing magic isn't something a warrior would do, since it's clearly frowned upon for some reason. Anyways, that's sort of a moot point, since Loki really doesn't seem like the warrior type. Which probably hadn't helped his standing in Asgard any.
"I think..." Loki mumbles, seemingly both to Simba and them. "I think they were wrong, when they said I'd never have real friends."
"They were wrong about way more than that, buddy." Tony puts his hand on Loki's shoulder. "And remember, we're your friends."
Loki doesn't answer but he smiles a million-dollar smile and flicks his fingers. "I made my other friends up," He mumbles. "But they felt real."
"Well, they were real to you, right?" Bruce asks. Loki nods.
Steve asks about Loki's other friends but the god doesn't answer, instead asking Tony out of the blue "You're not gonna let me wear the suit anymore, are you?"
"I hadn't really thought about it. I mean, it's a Halloween costume, and most people don't wear those unless it's Halloween, but I guess you can wear it. As a costume, just to make things clear, I'm not going to be outfitting it with weapons and bringing you along to fight Doom-bots anyways."
Loki looked like he wouldn't be too thrilled if that were the case, anyways.
"Even though I iced it?" Loki asks in a somewhat small voice, looking down at the ground.
"The first time Mr. Stark flew the Mark Two armor," Jarvis pipes up. "He flew high enough that it froze and he barely thawed it in time to avoid crashing into the ground. His suits don't freeze anymore, since he found a way to fix the icing problem, but we did not think to equip your costume suit with that, Mr. Loki."
A blink is Loki's only response. He's silent for a couple seconds before he changes the subject.
"Are you really jealous of my magic, Jarvis? You said you were, right?"
"Jealous is not quite the right word, Mr. Loki, since there are no ill feelings." Jarvis says politely. "I merely wish I could do some things with the same efficiency you do, like modifying armor, which you do wonderfully with Toy Stark. If I were jealous of you, which I assure you I am not since I don't really feel jealousy, I would probably be worried about losing my job and having you replace me. You made Toy Stark's armor much quicker than I can make even a piece of Mr. Stark's armor."
Jarvis really doesn't need to worry about that, Tony privately thinks, since he has a lot more social skills than Loki. He sort of wonders what Loki would do if tasked to reserve a hotel room for him or something. While that would probably be a highly entertaining conversation to overhear, it wouldn't be practical at all. Tony doubts that Loki even knows what a hotel is, much less what one would even do to reserve one.
"So you don't hate me," Loki singsongs, "You don't hate me, even though I do all that stuff."
Tony feels like he's beating a dead horse, but keeping what Bruce said in mind, he calmly tells Loki once again that they don't hate him and that his magic and real form are both awesome.
"Remember, Mr. Loki, we are quite alike." Jarvis says. "There is no reason for them to dislike what you can do when I do those things as well."
Tony snorts slightly and says "Yeah you're alike- you even both have British accents." Given that Loki's not even from Earth, he's not entirely sure how he'd wound up with the accent.
Loki nods and grins at him. Ten seconds later, Loki's eyes widen and he says "Oh yeah! Jarvis?"
"Yes, Mr. Loki?"
"What does kinky mean?"
"Hi Bruce!" Loki calls out happily, trotting into Bruce's lab from the elevator. Bruce smiles slightly at Loki's enthusiasm and returns the greeting. Loki really has been back to his usual self, it seems, despite yesterday's whole misunderstanding.
"Are we gonna do All-Tongue stuff again?" Bruce is somewhat surprised, but glad, that the first question out of Loki's mouth isn't whether he can let 'Hulk-y' out or not. Loki's asked him that countless times, and he's avoided Loki after every time.
Bruce still isn't sure whether or not letting the Other Guy out is a good idea. Every time he's come out in the tower, he's smashed stuff. Despite what Tony says about the cost of repairs not mattering, Bruce still feels guilty.
Tony said yesterday that he now considers the Other Guy his friend, and Steve does too, apparently. Pepper seemed somewhat nervous and he's not entirely sure if she considers the Other Guy a friend, but she doesn't seem to have anything against the Other Guy.
"Actually, I thought we might do something different today, if that's okay with you." Bruce replies from where he's sitting on a gymnastics mat he'd dragged in from the training room about a week ago, once Tony declared that this lab was 'officially' Bruce's, even though there wasn't anything truly official about it, since it's not listed under his name or anything. If Loki finds it at all strange that Bruce is sitting on a blue mat, he doesn't say anything.
"Come sit down." Bruce pats the blue area in front of him. The mat is designed for tumbling and is easily big enough to seat two adults, which is good because that's what it's going to be used for right now. Loki immediately plonks down at full speed, basically collapsing onto the mat, laughing when he realizes it doesn't hurt. He smacks his hand against it, as if testing it out without a whole lot of force, and then the god leans forward so his head is touching the floor. He runs his fingertips through one of the creases where the mat is supposed to fold.
"It's like sitting in mud, only it's not wet or sticky and it doesn't make that sound." Loki says as he sinks down slightly into the material, and he makes a sort of squelching sound with his mouth, apparently trying to give an example of the sound mud makes. That certainly wasn't the way Bruce would have chosen to describe it. "You know I can get mud off stuff?"
Bruce isn't sure if Loki means he can remove it by using his magic or just plain old elbow grease, but Loki's already moved on. "I wish this wasn't blue, though." His long, pale fingers drum the mat and he frowns at it slightly. Just like Bruce isn't too fond of green because of the Other Guy, Loki apparently doesn't like blue because of his real form.
Hopefully, they'll eventually get Loki to stop hating his blue form, sometime.
Loki starts crawling around in small circles on the mat, trying to get Simba to balance on his back like he's a horse and Simba's the rider. Although riders don't usually stand up (which is Simba's permanent position), and they generally aren't lions.
"What color would you make this, if you could choose?" Bruce asks, tapping the mat himself, not even realizing that that's hinting about Loki's magic. He's expecting Loki's answer to be either green(if he were a betting man, he'd even put money on it, since it's Loki's favorite color), or brown to go with his description of it being like mud.
It's a good thing he hadn't bet, because he would have lost. "Purple. A nice bright happy purple, like Rapunzel's-Dress-Purple." Apparently, Loki's named a color in Rapunzel's honor. Green energy starts forming around Loki's hands. "Oh, and maybe some bright orange too, in little squares." Bruce wonders if it's a coincidence that the shirt Loki's wearing right now (under that somewhat ridiculous starry long coat) is bright orange, or if he picked the color for that reason.
Courtesy of Loki's magic, the mat is now purple with small orange squares arranged in a grid. "Oops..." Loki mumbles, now looking at him with wide, worried green eyes. "Sorry! I didn't mean to! You hate it, don't you?" Bruce isn't sure if he's asking about this specifically or about his magic in general.
Bruce is astonished that Loki hadn't freaked out about using his magic. Then again, he seems to be perfectly at ease changing his action figures now, which is definitely good. Changing his own appearance is an entirely different matter, still. Perhaps he has some bad memories about doing that.
"Of course not. I don't hate it. I think it looks very... nice." Bruce says the last part in a neutral tone. To be honest, the colors clash horribly and the whole thing is a huge eyesore, but Bruce decides to keep those opinions to himself.
"I like it." Loki admits, clapping his hands. Looking down, he traces lines between the orange squares and says in a quieter voice. "I made Toy Stark fly earlier this morning. Tony said it was really neat. He didn't fly with fire, like Tony does in his suits. He just flew. He flewed!" Loki laughs at that last part and points at something unseen in the air. "Like Peter Pan, without anything, not fire in his suit or a flying carpet, or even wings and Pixie Dust like Tinker Bell. He just said 'I'm gonna fly' and he did."
"That does sound really neat." Bruce says, and Loki looks up with a somewhat happy expression. "I wish I could have seen it. Nice job staying calm, by the way." Bruce tells him, and Loki positively glows at the praise and the approval of his magic.
"Speaking of remaining calm, that's why we're here like this." Bruce continues. Loki shoots him a quizzical look at that, and Bruce smiles slightly. "Have you ever heard of meditation?"
"Med-it...?"
"Meditation." Bruce supplies the word again, and Loki repeats it a couple times in a singsong voice. Loki asks Jarvis what meditation means, and Bruce answers instead. "It's a way to keep yourself calm. I do it a lot, and I figured you could join me." It's one of the things he'd picked up to try to keep the Other Guy at bay, and he thinks it might help Loki. Considering how often Loki gets panicked about either a nightmare or magic, Bruce thinks it would be good for Loki to learn to calm himself down. He's not sure how Loki had done it in Asgard, but right now the only thing that seems to work is being hugged, which isn't exactly a great long-term coping strategy.
He demonstrates a simple breathing technique, and Loki points at him, exclaiming "I've seen you do that! You do it to not be mad."
Bruce blinks, somewhat surprised that Loki knows the reason for his meditation. Bruce just gives a sort of non-committal shrug in response. "I asked Jarvis to remain silent unless absolutely necessary." Bruce explains Jarvis' lack of response. He knows Loki would just talk to Jarvis the whole time, and the AI would be a distraction. Bruce already has his work cut out for him with this idea, because Loki and meditation don't exactly fit together in his head, considering Loki almost always moves in some way and doesn't have a particularly long attention span.
Loki pouts slightly at this news and says something about it being like when "Dr. C" comes.
"Would you like to be able to calm down on your own and maybe not be scared for as long?" Loki nods slightly.
"So are you willing to try it?" Bruce asks him. He's not going to force this on him.
Loki slowly nods and asks "Can we play a game after?"
A deal, then. "Sure, we can play a game later." Bruce agrees, smiling slightly. He glances at the several drawings of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast hanging on a nearby wall that Loki had drawn for him. He'd gotten roped into re-enacting the fight between Gaston and the Beast a couple days ago, where they'd each ended up playing both Gaston and Beast.
"Are you ready to start?" Bruce asks. Loki nods, and Bruce directs him to sit cross-legged, like he's doing. Loki slowly copies the position and puts Simba in his lap, rocking back and forth slightly. "Okay, now close your eyes." Bruce says. It's definitely better to start Loki off without visual distractions.
"Snakes don't have eyelids, so they don't ever blink, you know." Loki informs him "Like Jormungand. He didn't blink. Or Serpens, but he's stars."
"Actually, I'd forgotten that snakes don't have eyelids." Bruce admits, before asking if Jormungand is a snake. Bruce isn't sure who Jormungand is, but he knows Serpens is a constellation of a serpent. Loki definitely has a thing for stars and constellations. Maybe Jormungand is what Loki's named another constellation, or maybe he made up a constellation and named it that. Regardless of who or what Jormungand is, Loki sounds very fond of him. Loki had said Jormungand was a him just now.
Loki quietly answers that Jormungand is a very nice friend who hugged him and kept watch, and there's a smile on his face. Bruce smiles slightly at that and reminds Loki to close his eyes, which Loki does without complaint.
"Now, keep your body still, like a statue, but try to relax all your muscles." Bruce says in a quiet, calm voice that he hopes might induce some relaxation in the god.
Loki flops over like a rag doll. Bruce tries to pull him into a sitting position, but he's freakishly heavy andright now he's a dead weight, not offering any help in reorienting himself. Loki's eyes open and Bruce sees the glassy green eyes looking at him with a slightly accusing look. "You said'ta relax all my muscles."
"I meant you're supposed to relax while still sitting up." Bruce says, although he wonders if maybe he should have worded that better. He beckons Loki to sit up again, which Loki does this time, flapping his hands slightly. "Okay, now without falling over, try to relax, and sit still."
Loki actually sits still for about a minute before his fingers start drumming rhythmically on the mat and flicking in the air. Soon, it's no longer just the fingers moving, and he's rocking back and forth.
Bruce sighs inwardly. Generally, you aren't supposed to move, and he knew this was coming. "Be still, Loki." He says again, calmly. At least Loki doesn't seem to think he's annoyed at him.
Loki once again goes mostly still for about a minute, but he seems to zone out. Once Bruce gets Loki's attention, the god is soon back to moving while he stares at Bruce.
Okay, this is not working, Bruce thinks as Loki starts humming.
After five minutes of trying to get Loki to sit still for a longer period of time, during which Bruce even goes as far as to try to make being still a contest between them (which motivates Loki not at all), Bruce gives up on the part about being still for now. As long as Loki doesn't wander off, he won't say anything. They'll work on that later, since there's only so much one can totally relax while moving. Bruce tries to get Loki to stop humming, but doesn't mention anything about his rocking back and forth or wringing his hands together.
"Now I want you to focus on my voice Loki. Can you do that?" Loki nods, apparently not getting the hint that he's supposed to stop humming. "Please, no humming, Loki. Just focus on my words. You can move, but try to stay in the same spot, okay?" Bruce makes sure to make these sound like requests instead of commands; really, Loki doesn't have to do this with him if he doesn't want to.
Loki stops humming. "Thank you." Bruce says and Loki smiles somewhat. He's bouncing up and down and rocking on his knees now, but he hasn't moved from his spot on the mat.
"Okay, are you focusing on my voice?" Loki nods slightly, and Bruce continues. "Good. Now, we're going to be doing a breathing exercise. So, breathe in deeply through your nose." Bruce inhales deeply and hears Loki take in a loud, quick inhale of breath.
"Very good, Loki, but it was a little fast. Now, slowly breathe out through your mouth. Try to do it at the same rate I do." Bruce exhales slowly, and, upon hearing Loki do the same, smiles slightly.
"Jarvis had me do this." Loki says. "He said it helps calm people down."
"Jarvis was right about that- it's very calming. At least, I've found it is." Bruce says. "Now, it would be best if you tried to stay quiet."
"Why?"
Bruce patiently explains that you can't focus on your breathing if you're talking. Loki accepts the answer and falls silent. They breathe slowly for another minute or two, and Loki actually looks more relaxed than normal. His hand is now tracing lazy patterns on the mat instead of rapidly darting around, and he's no longer twirling his hair. He's still rocking slightly, but that seems to actually help since he's sort of doing it in rhythm with his breaths.
"I'm gonna be a mighty king, like no king was before..."
Simba suddenly starts singing, and Loki laughs. "Simba! You're supposed to be quiet!" He shoots Bruce a fake innocent look, as if to say "Well, I didn't do it." However, there's the faintest trace of something mischievous in his eyes.
"Simba's supposed to be quiet too." Bruce echoes. He isn't actually annoyed, though, and he hopes Loki knows that.
The actual meditation lasts somewhere between five and ten minutes before Loki seems bored out of his mind. Yet at the same time, he had seemed marginally calmer when he was doing it.
"Good job." Bruce tells him when they're done. It's not just empty praise- it had actually gone better than he thought. To be honest, Tony probably would have called it quits way sooner than Loki had.
"Time for our game!" Loki announces. "You promised!"
"What game did you have in mind?" Bruce asks. Mostly, Loki seems to like doing re-enactments or pretending to be Iron Man.
Loki answers with a surprisingly sly grin. "You turn into Hulk-y."
Bruce blinks, because that's totally not what he expected. Loki has asked about Hulk coming ou point-blank many times, and Bruce had always refused. It hadn't occurred to him that Loki might try a more sneaky method instead of just asking bluntly.
Bruce sighs. "That's really not a game, Loki."
"You promised." Loki says almost petulantly, clearly sensing his hesitation.
Bruce still isn't sure what to do though. Tony's still working on that Hulk-proof room, but he'd also amazingly said that he doesn't mind of Bruce lets the Other Guy out on an unused floor, one that wouldn't matter if it was smashed up. Tony's never made Bruce feel bad for the damage the Other Guy has caused, which Bruce still finds rather amazing.
It appears that the Other Guy really does like Loki, the footage of the confrontation with Thor proved that yet again. So letting the Other Guy out voluntarily, when Bruce normally has more control over him would have a very low risk of Loki getting hurt. But still...
"I don't really like bringing the Other Guy out." Bruce admits, fiddling with his glasses and adjusting how they sit on his face. "I expect that's how you feel about... changing colors." He's not entirely sure how to address Loki's Jotun form, and he hopes he didn't just screw it up.
Loki looks sort of tense, although he doesn't totally freak out. He nods after a bit, but he looks sort of confused. "I don't like being blue, but being green's not bad. So why do you hate letting him out? Is it 'cause you said he can be mean on the roof? 'Cause he's not mean! He's nice, even if he wrecks stuff. Tony blew some stuff up once, and he's nice."
Bruce chuckles at that. "Trust me, Tony's blown stuff up a lot more than once."
Loki continues as if he hadn't been interrupted. "So you should let Hulk-y out, 'cause you promised you'd play a game and that's the game." He fiddles with the Bruce Banner action figure and turns it into the Hulk toy with his magic. He doesn't even tense up, instead looking at Bruce and waving the toy in front of him. "The game is to do what he just did."
"But it's not a game." Bruce protests again. "It's not easy being green." Did he really just quote Kermit the Frog? Oh well, who doesn't like Kermit?
"If I may?" Jarvis says, and Bruce nods for him to continue. "Mr. Stark would like to remind you, Dr. Banner, that he has no problem with you letting the Hulk out as long as you do it on an unused floor."
Bruce sits back slightly. He already knew that, but Tony apparently thinks that reminding him will help. They're all acting like letting the Other Guy out in the tower wouldn't be a big deal. Admittedly, it doesn't sound quite as objectionable as it has other times. Mostly because he'll have more control over the Other Guy if he lets him out voluntarily.
He pulls up the holographic image of Loki and the Hulk hugging and sighs. Everyone but him seems to think it's not a problem, and the Other Guy actually has a really good track record in terms of interacting with Loki.
He sighs and looks at the god, who's staring at him with a hopeful expression. "Okay, I'll do it."
Going in Bruce's lab today really wasn't what Loki expected. He thought they were going to do All-Tongue stuff, like reading and writing. That's what they've been doing in here a lot. Bruce will have him read something, although sometimes a word won't pop up where there should be one, like it's on the page but just blank in his head. He hates that, and sometimes it happens when he hears or says stuff too. He's been trying to listen to the gibberish that is apparently the language here, instead of just ignoring it and listening to the meaning in his head.
Sometimes, Bruce will get him to write, either normally like he always has, or in those symbols in a lot of books here, which apparently make up a language called English. Bruce and Jarvis have been teaching him how to write in it. Sometimes, Bruce has him read in what are apparently a lot of other Midgardian languages too.
The thought of being able to write so that Tony, Jarvis and Bruce will be able to read it is kind of exciting. He's not actually writing, but hitting buttons with the letters on them (typing, apparently), but they produce words all the same. Having the buttons means all the options are right there. He just needs to hit them in the right order.
Instead of that, though, Bruce had asked him if he wanted to do that meditation thing. It's weird that Bruce doesn't just tell him to do stuff, and he actually seems to care about whether he wants to do it or not. Tony's weird that way, too, but Loki likes that kind of weird. It's the nice kind, literally, because people are nice to him.
The meditation itself was sort of strange too. And somewhat boring, because he was just sitting there, not doing anything. But it wasn't too bad, certainly better than being strapped to a seat in those dumb car things.
He's just asked Bruce if Hulk can come out. Bruce has refused every other time he asked, and he's decided just asking won't work anymore. So this time, he tried to disguise it as something else, although he truly thinks it would be a really fun game to play.
Every other time he's asked, Bruce has hidden in his lab for a while afterwards. But they're already in his lab, so he can't run there and hide. Then again, Bruce could always kick him out now, but instead the man just sits there and looks at him.
Bruce claims that turning into Hulk makes him feel how Loki himself feels when he reveals his Jotun form. Right, Bruce doesn't like letting Hulk out (though he's agreed to right now). Loki still can't fathom what's so bad about Hulk. It doesn't make sense, because Hulk's not a monster. He's a shield brother of Tony's and he's a hero. Plus, Tony even said he didn't care if Hulk broke stuff. Loki wonders if Tony would care if he broke something.
Tony had told Loki that there was no problem letting his blue form show, and that he could do it here. Plus Tony and the others really hadn't been faking when they said they liked it.
He doesn't like his blue form. He likes hearing that it's not hideous, but it really is.
"You really think being Hulk-y is as bad as being a Jotun?" Loki asks, as they ride the elevator to an unused floor. "If I could be Hulk-y instead, I would."
Bruce doesn't say anything to that, but yesterday he'd said that he'd rather be a Jotun than be the Hulk. Somehow, it makes being blue seem not quite as bad, since Bruce wants to do it. It's like Tony or Jarvis saying they wished they had his magic.
It's really weird, though, because Thor had said in the video that Odin and Frigga used magic to change his appearance. Loki had asked if it was magic once, but he'd never gotten an answer, he just got punished. But even back then, he hadn't known what else it could possibly be.
He hadn't known who'd done it, except that it hadn't been him because people said that he hadn't hid his hideous frost giant form. Apparently, it was Odin and Frigga who had hidden it, with magic. Jarvis had shown him that video a lot since yesterday. The whole idea is absurd, because Odin hates magic.
"Did they really use magic to make me not blue?" Loki asks. Bruce looks at him for a bit.
"I can't say for sure. I'm just going off what Thor said." Bruce gives him an apologetic smile and a shrug.
Loki cocks his head to the side. Sure the idea is ridiculous, but Thor wouldn't lie about that, even if he was trying to trick him. Making up that the Allfather had magic would be stupid, because it would be saying something he wouldn't want said about him. It would be like spreading a mean rumor, and nobody does that about the Allfather.
Why would they hate him for using magic, if they do the same thing? Loki can't even begin to understand that, since it makes no sense.
Maybe they lied, like Frollo and Mother Gothel and Scar? Tony said they lied about more than just that nobody would ever like him. But how would Tony know?
The elevator reaches a floor that Loki's never been on before. This floor is really wide and empty, and it doesn't have much in terms of furniture or anything on it. It seems like a really good place to run around.
Bruce takes off his shirt and pants before folding them and placing them off to the side, mumbling something about keeping them from ripping. He's wearing those stretchy shorts that Hulk wears under his pants, and right now those are the only things he's wearing. He seems a little embarrassed about that.
"Jarvis, is Tony ready for intervention if necessary?" Bruce asks.
"Of course, Dr. Banner. If you want, I could get him down here now." Jarvis says.
Bruce nods, and a couple minutes later, Tony emerges from the elevator in the Hulk suit. "Hopefully he doesn't think I'm threatening him and flip out." Tony says, his voice distorted by the helmet. Tony moves off to the side of the room and opens the top part of the Hulk armor, pulling up a bunch of holographic screens in front of himself and starting to work on something. He glances at Bruce and says "Go ahead. Loki's waiting to see your party trick."
Bruce looks at them for a bit and then nods and heads towards the center of the room. He closes his eyes and starts to turn green. Loki hops up and down in excitement as his friend turns into his larger, green friend. Hulk gives Tony a suspicious look, and Tony raises his hands. "Hey, big guy, as long as you keep your cool, I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to sit here and work." Hulk grunts but looks slightly less suspicious now.
"Hulk-y!" Loki runs up to hug him. "Look." He waves his Hulk toy at the real Hulk.
Hulk grunts and says "Mini me." Loki giggles and nods, holding the Hulk toy up to Hulk. Hulk takes the mini Hulk, which looks puny in his huge hand, and studies it, turning it around.
Loki's really excited to see Hulk again, especially since he beat up Thor yesterday. "You know," He mumbles once he stops hugging Hulk "You're like my Fenrir, 'cause you attacked Thor. Fenrir wants to hurt them when they hurt me, 'xcept when Fenrir does it, they aren't hurt 'cause he can't touch them."
Hulk just blinks at him. Loki imagines Fenrir going up to sniff Hulk, and he laughs. Fenrir's sniffing Hulk and wagging his tail. Fenrir likes Hulk.
"Why Loki not blue?" Hulk asks suddenly, looking down at him. "Loki was blue yesterday."
Loki tenses slightly at that. He doesn't like being blue much.
"Feel free to go blue if you want." Tony says from the sidelines, briefly looking up from the holographic document he's reading to give him a quick grin.
Hulk hadn't even seemed to have a problem with his blue-ness, though. He supposes that Hulk would have the least problem with it out of anyone, because he looks different from everyone else too. Even if being a Jotun is way worse than being the Hulk, Hulk probably understands. Hulk had seen the real him and it hadn't seemed to bother him. Which is really weird.
Actually, it seems like a lot of people here don't like Hulk, like how people in Asgard don't like him. Tony used to seem sort of annoyed about Hulk coming out, but he said Hulk's his friend now. Bruce always avoids him when he asks about Hulk. Except this time.
"Do you want me to be blue?" Loki asks incredulously. Hulk just gives him a sort of grin, but Tony speaks up.
"I don't want to force you into it, but yeah, seeing your real colors again would be pretty neat. It's like your own version of Hulking out."
Tony's not lying when he says that, Loki reminds himself. Still, he's not sure how he'd feel about seeing them blue again.
Loki wrings his hands together and flicks his fingers. Is that really what Bruce feels like becoming Hulk? It's a weird thought. He feels sort of bad for Bruce, if he feels the same way every time he Hulks out. because he's done it a lot more times recently than Loki has shown his real form. Besides, Loki knows it feels really bad. He's not sure why Bruce feels that way about Hulk, though, because Hulk is a hero and he helped save Midgard and everything, right?
Bruce said he'd rather be a Frost Giant than Hulk, though, which definitely means that people on Midgard (or Earth, as they call it here- Loki thinks that word sounds funny) don't hate Frost Giants like they did in Asgard. The idea is so weird, but really amazing at the same time. Like the idea that his friends seeing his true form or talking to Thor didn't change the facts that they're friends with him. At all.
They're his friends. He smiles at the thought. They'd seen his real form yesterday and said they like the way it looks. He'd thought they were lying, but they weren't. They actually seemed to like it.
He'd had another nightmare where they'd taken back everything they said last night. He'd been terrified and it had taken a while to calm down even with Tony there, and even when he knew it wasn't real. Jarvis had showed him the video proving that they indeed still liked him, and that the stuff where they said they didn't was a dream.
He wonders if they'd say his real form isn't hideous again as he looks down at his clothes. At least he's wearing his long coat, so he only really sees his hands and his feet.
If they really want to see his Frost Giant form, he supposes it's only fair. Especially since Bruce Hulked-out for him, even though he apparently likes doing that as little as he himself likes showing his Jotun form.
Loki closes his eyes and slowly lets his Jotun form show. Apparently, he's really dropping Odin and Frigga's magic. The thought that Odin has magic is really strange, since Odin hated his magic. Odin punished him for his magic, but Loki sort of doubts he punished himself.
Loki feels his skin getting colder and he tries to warm it up a bit, but he can still feel the ridges on his forehead.
"Seriously, Snoopy, you look a lot cooler than those Avatar aliens." Tony tells him. Loki likes hearing that, even though he doesn't agree at all. He's hideous, right. But his friends don't think so, and they don't stop liking him because he changes.
"What color are my eyes?" Loki asks. He doesn't like his red eyes. He likes his green eyes, and he likes to think that his green eyes are the real ones and his red eyes are the fake ones.
"Red." Tony answers, and Loki freezes, even though Tony adds that there's nothing wrong with red eyes. He's avoided looking at his hands and feet until now, and he squeezes his eyes shut. His eyes need to be green. Green green green green green. He chants in his head, although he might be saying it aloud too. He's not sure.
"How 'bout now?" He asks, opening his eyes. Tony gives him a brief look and says that they're green.
"By the way, the rest of you matches your eyes. You're looking a lot like a small, skinny Hulk with long hair." Tony smirks at him. Loki brings a hand up. He's pretty sure he's still in his Jotun form, but instead of the hideous blue, he's a nice green color, like his eyes. It's a bright green, brighter than Hulk. There's the faintest hint of blue still in Loki's skin and his hands still have the ridges on the backs of them, but Loki tries to ignore it. This is still much better than the hideous blue.
Bruce is wrong. Being green is easy.
It has to have been his magic, he thinks, though he's actually glad this happened. He's actually glad he accidentally used his magic.
"Are you part chameleon or something?" Tony asks, still smirking slightly.
"I read about those, and Pascal's one!" Loki says excitedly, looking over at Hulk. Hulk is actually looking rather happy that Loki's green now.
Loki grins at him and singsongs "I'm green like you, you're green like me. We're both green, green, green, green green green..." He does a sort of dance around Hulk and then looks up at him again.
"Have you ever seen Beauty and the Beast?"
A couple minutes later, he and Hulk are sitting on the floor in front of a holographic screen showing Belle singing about wanting so much more than a provincial life. Loki sings along with her.
When Mrs. Potts and Chip make their first appearance, Loki giggles and wriggles slightly, flicking his green fingers. He looks over at Hulk and whispers. "I have them, 'cause I made them."
At some point during the movie, Loki realizes that his skin is back to its usual paleness, though he's not sure when he went back to his usual form.
Hulk starts to get rather angry when the villagers try to kill the Beast, and he tries to smash his fist through the holographic screen. It shatters into little pieces but then it reforms for Hulk to smash again. Jarvis stops the movie, which Loki is sort of disappointed about.
He wonders if it makes Hulk angry because some people seem to think Hulk's a beast. A bad beast. People thought Beast was a bad beast, even Belle, but once she got to know him she saw he wasn't scary at all.
Loki points this out to Hulk. Hulk doesn't totally calm down, but he stops trying to smashing the holographic screen. The screen goes away, and Loki looks at Hulk.
"Beast lives happily ever after with Lumiere and Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts and Chip. Gaston doesn't kill him. You're like Beast and Boo, 'cause people think you're a monster when you're not!"
Hulk had gotten angrier at the word monster but calmed down a bit towards the end of the sentence. He just grunts at that, and Tony, who had gotten up but hadn't intervened yet, arches an eyebrow at Hulk "I thought you liked that movie."
When Tony leaves his lab the next morning and steps into the penthouse from the elevator, he is somewhat surprised to find Bruce and Loki sitting on yoga mats in the middle of the living room floor. Apparently, they'd been meditating in Bruce's lab yesterday, a mental image Tony finds very amusing, although right now it's not as funny as it had been in his head.
He's just picked up a delivery and is glad to see that Loki's eyes are closed, since it makes it easier for him to drag a rug to Loki's room without the god noticing. Tony does so- apparently, Loki doesn't think much of the sound the rug makes as it's dragged across the floor, but Bruce seems to know what it is. Once the rug is stowed out of sight in Loki's room, Tony casts another glance back at him.
Loki really has seemed to have made a lot of progress. Tony's still really surprised about yesterday, when Loki had shown his Jotun form to Hulk again. Also, the toys for Steve, Clint and Natasha look better than they did before, thanks to Loki's magic. Loki hasn't improved the Thor one, for obvious reasons.
Seeing Loki do the chameleon act and turn green yesterday was rather interesting, although not nearly as interesting as it would have been if Tony hadn't already seen him turn blue. He'd seemed much more comfortable being green than blue, which means there's definitely something specific he hates about his true form. Hopefully, they'll be able to fix that sometimes.
"Well, I'll leave you two to your crazy Jedi stuff." Tony says flippantly to the two people meditating on the floor of the living room. He's amazed Bruce managed to drag Loki into that, because Loki just keeps going and going and going. He really is like the Energizer Bunny, and he practically never stays still, even when he's asleep. Not that Loki's staying still now either, but he actually does look somewhat calmer. And he's staying in the same spot on the floor. Huh, it's actually going better than Tony would've thought, which means it's not nearly as entertaining as it could have been.
Bruce had suggested he join in, but there's no way Tony's doing that.
Well, even if he was inclined to do such a thing, which he isn't, he wouldn't have been able to do it now anyways. No, right now he has some... redecorating to do. Not the fun kind, either, with knocking down walls or anything.
He heads towards Loki's room, glad that Loki is distracted enough to not follow him. Actually, seeing Loki's reaction might be kind of fun, if he's as over-excitable as usual.
It had partly been Jarvis' idea to make some modifications to Loki's bedroom, and partly his own. Jarvis had suggested carpeting it so the floor would be more comfortable, especially for under Loki's bed.
Bruce had said something about something to do with redecorating making Loki feel welcome permanently, yet hadn't seemed to think anything of the sort should be done for him. Not that Tony was really planning on it. The drawings on Loki's wall make the room seem somewhat personalized, but this will help it look even less like practically every other bedroom in the tower.
Tony had another idea for Loki's room, something Loki's really going to love. At least, he hopes so, because otherwise it will be pointless. Still, he starts with the rug. He's knows Loki's going to like the rug, since it's the exact same rug in the therapy room, the one that sort of resembles grass.
The rug doesn't cover the entire floor, since there's still a thin frame of hard floor around the edges of the room where the rug won't reach. He looks around him. He's going to have to lift two legs of Loki's bed off the floor to get the rug under them.
He can't roll the rug out and lift Loki's bed at the same time, and Dum-E would probably totally fail at even doing something simple like unrolling the rug, so Tony supposes he'll have to enlist Bruce. He gets Jarvis to call Bruce in.
Loki originally follows Bruce, but Jarvis manages to distract him by turning on the TV. This is going to be better as a surprise, Tony thinks.
With Bruce's help, the manage to roll the rug under the bed, and now Loki's floor resembles a grassy field.
Then, Tony starts fiddling with the holographic program he'd made for Loki, testing it out.
For about ten minutes, he and Bruce work together in Loki's rooom while Loki is distracted by the TV.
The peace is broken when Loki screams half angrily and half scared from the living room.
So that's kind of a weird ending because it doesn't even really seem like a cliffhanger. At least, probably not a very good one, if it even counts. I hope this chapter wasn't boring.
Wow, this story is over 200,000 words now. Sorry that Hulk's role in this was sort of small, but he'll show up again.
Thor's going to show up again sometime soon-ish. I'm not entirely sure what they're going to do to him. While he does deserve to be beat up, at the same time it is sort of hypocritical and it really won't change his view of Loki.
Hopefully I can update again soon.