Finally Belonging

by Yodeling Prospector

What happens when a brain-damaged Loki who's been abused and unwanted his whole life lands on Tony Stark's tower?

33. Chapter 33

Ugh. Sophomore year of college is a lot busier and more stressful than freshman year. That being said, I really hope these two week update times don't become the norm.

As always, thanks to all my amazing readers, reviewers, followers and favoriters.

If anyone is interested, I found out that someone translated the first two chapters of this into Russian. It's over on some site called ficbook, and is translated by Cat_Leyran. I didn't actually know anyone was translating it because they never told me, but they gave me credit and had the link to this story, so it's not like they ripped it off. Although they rated it R (there's a different system from here) and the translator said it's a slash between Tony and Loki, which it isn't. Actually, so far this story is entirely gen, because I don't even know if I can write pairings.

Sadly Charles Xavier's first visit was moved to next chapter, although I do have part of it already written. I cut this chapter off partway. Hopefully you enjoy reading it.

Bruce is pretty sure he'd fallen asleep during The Incredibles, somewhere around when the whole Incredibles family was captured by Syndrome. Glancing at the screen, he sees that the movie's over. He's still sort of tired, since the Other Guy takes a lot out of him, especially when fighting, but he's not quite tired enough to fall asleep immediately. Not that he could fall asleep at all, really, with what woke him up- or, more specifically, who.

"Bruuuce!" Loki calls out, shaking him slightly. "Wake up, wake up, wake up!"

"Loki, don't bother him." Bruce hears Steve say. The Other Guy stirs in Bruce's mind, but doesn't actually come out like he does if Bruce is woken suddenly, especially if he's startled awake. He'd Hulked-out after waking up more times than he'd care to admit when on the run. Admittedly, some of those times were when the soldiers found him. That being said, people now rarely wake Bruce on purpose, and he can't really blame them, when the result could be a Hulk-out. One time, when Bruce was talked into staying at the tower for a night or two around a year ago, Tony had gotten the brilliant idea to dump a bucket of ice cold water on Bruce's head when he was sleeping. The result had been a thoroughly wrecked guest room, and Tony hadn't repeated that.

Fortunately, the Other Guy settles down in Bruce's mind. Bruce groans slightly, blinking at the bright light in the theater. "Bruce, c'mon we gotta play! You're Jack-Jack." Loki says, starting to pull Bruce out of his seat and ignoring what Steve just said. Bruce suddenly makes the connection that Loki looks like himself again, instead of masquerading in Tony's body.

"Loki, what did I just say?" Steve asks, sounding slightly annoyed. Tony snaps back that Loki doesn't need to listen to Steve. Clearly, Steve's thinking the Other Guy is going to make an appearance.

Bruce rubs his eyes in an effort to wake up and says "No, no, it's all right." Bruce tries to reassure them. "I wasn't startled awake, so the Other Guy's not rearing to come out." The Other Guy had been straining to come out much of the time Thor was here- actually, he still is- despite being let out to blow of steam and smash up Doom-bots just hours before Thor came over. The Other Guy had been distracted by said Doom-bots and seems annoyed that he hadn't gotten to beat Thor up again. He'd wanted to make up for that once Thor was here, which is why Bruce had been even less social than usual- he never really was a party guy or anything, not like Tony.

"You were sleeping." Loki informs him, as if he doesn't know that.

Bruce notices that Thor is nowhere in the room, and he can tell just by the other Avengers' faces and the fact that Loki doesn't look nearly as tense, that Thor's gone, instead of just in another room or something. Bruce uses that knowledge to get the Other Guy to calm down a bit more, saying Thor's not here for him to smash. He wonders if Thor took that fruit basket that Tony prepared, complete with spa tickets, to Heimdall.

The idea had been so Tony. The gesture of giving a fruit basket was nice, but only Tony would decide to purposely mislabel Asgard as Ass-guard when sending said basket to the watchman for the realm-world-thing he'd just renamed- a realm full of extremely powerful beings who seem to far outstrip humans, no less. Bruce hopes they won't be pissed off enough to declare war on Earth or something.

Bruce is literally pulled from his thoughts when Loki drags him out of the media room. When they're in the living room, Tony heads towards one of the sofas and pulls a couple shoes out from under it. Loki laughs, and Bruce is pretty sure Loki was the reason they were under there. Clint has a raised eyebrow and Steve looks confused as to why someone would hide shoes under a couch.

"How'd you know?" Loki asks, confirming Bruce's theory.

"Jarvis." Tony replies simply. Loki pouts and asks the AI why he'd told Tony about that.

"Sorry, buddy, but you really can't turn Jarvis against me." Tony says with one of his characteristic smirks.

"Tony says you got Simba back." Loki abruptly changes topics and looks at Clint, before smiling slightly and saying "Thank you. I like Simba, and I didn't like it when they took him, nope nope nope. Stealing's wrong! Didja know that Tony can tell where I am now? He can, 'cause Jarvis is in Simba's armor, and he can tells Tony where Simba is and that's where I am too. Tony found me wherever I hid."

"That seems like a good idea." Clint replies. "But it was kind of hard to find you when you disappeared last time."

"He found me every time." Loki says again. Whether he's talking about when he'd actually been lost or about that hide and seek game he and Tony played, Bruce isn't sure. Maybe he means both.

Loki grins at Tony, before trying to drag Bruce to the kitchen. "You're gonna be Jack-Jack."

"Who are you going to be?" Bruce asks.

"Violet, like earlier, even though I'm not a girl like her. I mades a force field a little bit ago, but Odin hates that and basically everyone else hates too, and..." Loki trails off worriedly, and a quick glance at Tony confirms Bruce's suspicions- that Loki had, sometime when Bruce was sleeping, made a force field in Thor's presence and panicked. Not that Bruce can blame Loki for that reaction. "Thor didn't hit me like he used to."

"We would have been very angry at him if he hit you." Bruce replies, and the Other Guy certainly seems to agree. "Are you going to be Frozone?" That would mean progress, right, if Loki pretended to be someone who controlled ice? Well, Bruce thinks he might have pretended to be Elsa before, but it would still be progress if he did it more.

"Not now, he's not here." Loki says, leaving Bruce slightly confused, wondering if Loki means that literally, as in Frozone's not present in the room. "His ice is really cool, but he didn't make a ice castle, likes Elsa and Slushy." Loki adds. "I made Elsa's castle on the beach."

"I know. It looks great." Bruce replies, smiling.

"Tasha's Mrs. Incredible, and Tony's Mr. Incredible, but sometimes they go by Helen and Bob. Like how you're Black Widow sometimes but Tasha sometimes, right?" He asks, looking at Natasha, who nods. Bruce is kind of surprised that Loki can get away with calling her Tasha.

"Tony's playing Mr. Incredible?" Bruce asks, surprised. That role seems to suit Steve perfectly, what with the super strength. Steve even sort of looks like Mr. Incredible, and they have somewhat similar personalities. To be honest, Syndrome seems the most like Tony, with the technology-replacing-superpowers thing, except Tony isn't a villain, despite what some people think. Well, he had been called the Merchant of Death, but he's making up for that. So why is Loki casting them like this?

Loki offers no explanation as to why he'd picked Tony for that role as he tells everyone where to sit around the table. Apparently, they're re-enacting the dinner scene from the movie. At least Bruce had been awake during that part.

"Why am I Jack-Jack?" Bruce asks, not exactly happy with the casting choices. Jack-Jack's the baby, after all.

"Be-cauuuse-" Loki draws it out, making it sound like Bruce really shouldn't have to ask. "He turned into a... thing. A angry little red thing that went all RAAWWRRR!"

Bruce figures he missed that part of the movie, although he's not entirely sure if Loki's making that up or not. He glances at the others and sees that had indeed happened. Loki keeps chattering. "Ands he was fire and metal too!"

Bruce has a feeling Loki wants him to let the Other Guy out to re-enact something, but he's not going to do that. For starters, the Other Guy was just out earlier this afternoon, and they're inside.

Bruce doesn't really do anything in this scene, aside from being pretend-fed by Natasha, which leaves Tony and Clint in stitches. Frankly, Bruce is amazed Natasha's going along with this, although she has undoubtedly acted out various fake identities over the years as a spy, so pretending to be a retired superhero mother in a casual re-enactment probably isn't that hard.

Still, Bruce feels like an idiot, and he glares at Clint and Tony, who are still howling with laughter. Steve looks like he's trying not to smile, and there's even a hint of amusement in Natasha's eyes. Even Loki's snickering, and Bruce has to wonder if he'd chosen to include this part just for this sight. It's odd that Loki finds so much amusement in Bruce pretending to be a baby, though, when Loki himself acts like a child.

Loki has to provide lines for basically everyone- he apparently has the entire scene memorized, although nobody else does, even though Bruce and Tony are geniuses. Bruce remembers Loki apparently not having The Lion King entirely memorized when they first met, and yet now Loki can clearly memorize movies after one viewing.

Loki sounds odd as Violet, since his voice is deeper than a teenage girl's. Then again, his adult voice contrasts greatly with his somewhat childish speech in general.

The god starts to pretend-fight with Clint, who's playing Dash, and the two of them run around the table. He instructs Clint to say "Hey! No force fields!" although he doesn't actually make one this time.

"Y'know, it was awesome when you made a force field earlier." Clint tells him.

"'Cause it can do goods, like saving family?" Loki asks. Tony nods. "Violet saved her whole family when it 'xploded." Bruce isn't sure what exploded, exactly. It seems they've stopped their game, though.

"Exactly."

"Don't like 'em." Loki says after a bit, contradicting what he said about them being good.

Bruce decides there's something Loki really needs to hear. "You were really brave, you know, for deciding Thor can come over. And for being in the same room as him." Really, Bruce isn't sure he would have done as well as Loki had, if he was in a room with, say, General Ross. The whole visit with Thor had gone a lot better than Bruce thought it would. "And for talking to Thor."

Loki ducks his head towards his feet, which are bare as always, and mumbles "Me?" He sounds very skeptical and slightly embarrassed at the same time.

"Yeah, you." Tony says, putting a hand on Loki's shoulder.

"'M not brave." Loki answers. "Saids I'm a coward."

"You're not a coward for being scared of your abusers, Loki. It's kind of a side effect of abuse cases." Tony mutters the last part darkly. "Anyone would have been scared, going through all the shit you've gone through. Hell, most people probably wouldn't have made it." Some of the other Avengers look at Tony in surprise, as if not expecting to hear that from him. Still, it's true. The fact that Loki made it through his abuse says a great deal about his strength.

Most people probably would have gone totally insane, if they'd made it at all.

"Fear doesn't make you weak." Natasha speaks up, surprising Bruce. "It's natural, and it helps protect you. In your case, by trying to avoid your abusers."

Loki paces some more, wringing his hands together. "They said force fields are cowardly." He says. "But not the ways Violet used her's. She's a super, and that's good, and they said her powers were super too." Bruce is pretty sure who they was switched between those two sentences.

"That's a good word for it, actually." Tony says with a grin. "Super."

"Super!" Loki laughs. "Suuu-peeeerr!" Seemingly without thinking, he adds "I did that. I stopped Hulk-y with a force field when he got mad at Tony."

Bruce shifts uncomfortably, and Tony sends him a look. "No hard feelings, big guy, so if you start hating yourself I'm going to have to blast some sense into you with one of my suits."

"You stopped Hulk with a force field?" Clint asks, staring at Loki in shock.

Loki just stares back, honestly seeming to have no clue how much of an accomplishment physically stopping the Other Guy is, before he starts talking again.

"Violet can be... not seen, too. Like Randal, but I don't like him. He's mean but Violet's nice. She hides even better than Pascal, and he changes colors so it's almost like he's not there. It's... camouflage," Loki nods. "Like for hiding, but doesn't that make them cowards?"

"Hiding can be more important than fighting." Natasha says. "It's easier to sneak into an enemy base than to fight your way in. If the Asgardians don't know that, they're idiots."

Loki blinks and keeps talking. "Bruce changes colors too when he becomes Hulk-y, and I turned green before, but not like Pascal."

"Who's Pascal?" Steve mumbles.

"Rapunzel's chameleon! Violet's the best at hiding, though. I was too, sometimes. Like in the petri dish. They didn't like that in Asgard, but I did 'cause they wouldn't looks at me, nope nope nope! But I didn't like it when they found me later and sometimes it didn't work." Loki frowns briefly as if he's remembering something unpleasant, and he squeezes Simba tighter. Tony puts an arm around his shoulders.

"You know, most of us can't make force fields or turn invisible." Tony says, and Loki bristles slightly. "But those powers are so awesome, we actually invented ways to pull them off. Like, we have ships that can turn invisible and stuff."

Bruce notices that everyone pointedly doesn't mention that that ship is the Helicarrier, which Loki had been stuck on.

"Force fields would be awesome on my suits." Tony adds.

Loki turns to him, a smile slowly starting to creep on his face.

"I would've thought that you'd like force fields." Clint says. "Wouldn't they keep you from getting hurt? I mean, if you can stop Hulk, than they couldn't really hurt you if you had a force field up, right?" Natasha elbows him, and it seems bringing up Asgard wasn't a good idea.

"Stopped it for a bit, but worse later. They got madder. Stronger, worse. Went on longer..." Loki starts shaking, eyes haunted and even more glazed than normal. Bruce wonders if he's having a flashback as Tony pulls Loki into a hug. However, it seems Loki wasn't as lost as Bruce was fearing, since he relaxes a bit as soon as Tony hugs him.

But they hit me more if I hit them. They're always stronger, always." Loki's face crumples. "Ands, and Odin got real scary and angry, 'specially with magic." He's bouncing anxiously on his toes, hugging Simba tightly and wringing his hands together. Tony puts a hand on Loki's shoulder.

Tony's scowl darkens. "You're not a coward. Those bastards made it so you couldn't win. They took away the only way you could fight back." He continues to mutter about all the unpleasant things he's going to do to Odin if they ever meet, Allfather or not. Loki looks at him in something like awe.

Clint's scowling almost as darkly as Tony. "Trust me, fighting a fight you can't win isn't brave, it's stupid. I take it not fighting had a better outcome for you? Or not having force fields?"

"Lasted less without them. Hurt less. Would stop, go 'way sooner. But... but fighting mades it hurt more. Coward Loki."

Bruce sighs. "Loki, you were so brave." Loki still looks skeptical. "There are different types of bravery, and I honestly wouldn't have blamed you if you refused to ever be in the same room as Thor again. But you faced him and even told him about all the things Anna did right that he did wrong." Bruce sees the others nodding in agreement, except for Natasha, although she does look like she agrees. Even though Loki had been simply telling the story of Frozen, it had seemed like he'd been very subtly telling Thor off by pointing out how nice Anna was to Elsa, no matter what she did.

"Anna's lots lots lots lots nicer." Loki nods, bouncing slightly and holding out his hand to Stitch. He asks for Anna and, surprisingly, his Thor action figure. Stitch spits out the requested toys, apparently knowing Loki meant the Anna doll instead of the figurine.

"How do they all fit in there?" Steve asks, eyeing the backpack, which isn't really that big. Loki makes Anna punch the Thor toy in the face.

Tony rolls his eyes and says "You saw him become me earlier and you're asking about how much a backpack can hold?"

As an afterthought, Loki asks Stitch for a Pop Tart. Clint starts to laugh and says "So that's where they were."

"Actually, they were under his bed at first." Tony corrects, and Clint raises an eyebrow. Bruce apparently missed something with Pop Tarts, when he was resting earlier in the evening. "By the way, Rudolph, that was pretty funny. I mean, the look on Thor's face when he saw you with a Pop Tart and he thought we were out..."

Loki looks down at the floor, munching on the Pop Tart with a slight smile. He's humming something contentedly.

"Did you ever play any pranks in Asgard?" Clint asks curiously, hastily adding "I like pranks."

Tony starts to blurt out an answer for Loki "Yeah, he was saying something about some guy eating a bug once... I just ruined it, didn't I?"

Loki looks at them worriedly, and Clint assures him they want to hear it and won't get mad.

"Volstagg ate a bug." Loki confirms eventually, with a mischievous smirk. "Tried to spit it out, but it stayed in. And, a guard's feet got stuck to the floor, but I dunno if that was me." He pauses, looking slightl worried and confused. "It didn't matter. They thought it was..."

Tony takes Loki's hands and swings them back and forth, sometimes Bruce has seen Dum-E do with Loki sometimes. Loki seems to calm down a bit.

"Fandral got really ugly once. He likes his face and he got really angry..." Clint and Tony burst out laughing, but Loki's smirk has been long gone by now and he says quietly. "They always... I always hurt later, even when I said it wasn't me. Even when it really wasn't me."

"I hated getting hurt." He adds, as if there's any doubt.

"Do you know how to block punches?" Natasha asks suddenly. "You said they were stronger than you, and you don't seem comfortable with force fields."

"That's an idea, actually." Tony says. "You know, until you're totally comfortable with force fields. Or as a back up, if they don't work for some reason."

Loki's staring at them bemusedly, or maybe he's having some private funny thought. Maybe he's thinking about whatever the Pop Tart incident was. He tosses Anna and Thor back to Stitch. Stitch swallows Anna whole, but makes a show of chewing on Thor. With fabric teeth, though, it doesn't really do anything.

That's new, Bruce realizes.

"What do you say, Lokes?" Clint asks. "Want to learn some self-defense?"

Bruce privately thinks that teaching Loki self-defense is going to be even harder than teaching him meditation, although they have been making some progress with that. He actually seems pretty relaxed in the ocean, when he's not trying to surf or just swimming and running around.

"I won't get hurt anymore?" Loki asks.

"We won't let anyone hurt you if we can help it, but yeah, this could help you keep others from hurting you." Tony says, before quickly adding "Not that anyone should hurt you."

Loki nods slightly, and they head towards the gym. Once they're in there, the god glances at the ceiling, as if he's looking for the rafters, and seems to relax upon seeing there aren't any.

Tony climbs into the elevated boxing ring, and Loki follows him.

"All right, so, self defense!" Tony says, rubbing his hands together as Loki pokes at the cords surrounding the boxing ring, and then pulls them, watching them vibrate like guitar strings. "It's a nice thing to know, even if you have awesome suits like I do. Or force fields. Or, well, anything really. And one of the first things you have to know how to do is block a punch."

Loki stares at him. "This is like Bruce's mat." He says out of the blue, crouching down, fingers drumming the soft material. Bruce thinks he's talking about the gym mats they'd repurposed for meditation back in the tower and his theory is soon confirmed. "But that's purple and orange like I wanted."

Loki plops down on the mat, as if ready to meditate with Bruce. Bruce smiles slightly and sits next to him.

"Nice, but we're kinda doing the opposite of that." Clint says.

"Okay, you know what? I think we need a demonstration." Tony pauses and points to Natasha. "Okay, Kim Possible. Front and center, come into the church." Tony smirks, gesturing in the ring, and Natasha sends him a death glare.

Loki, however, giggles and says "You're Kim, now, 'kay Tasha?" Natasha sends Tony another look that says that just saved him from a painful death for calling her that. Loki starts humming the Kim Possible theme song to himself.

"You too, Ron." Tony jerks his head for Clint to come in too. This comment earns another laugh from Loki.

"Ron, where's Rufus?" Loki asks, staring intently at Clint's pocket. Clint looks at him for a bit and pulls a small drawing out of his pocket. Loki grins.

"Show us what you can do." Tony says to the two agents.

Clint and Natasha start to spar, using only punches and blocks, and they're going slowly so their movements will be easier to follow.

"Is this-" Loki starts, watching with slight apprehension and more confusion. "-a..." He seems to be hunting for the right word and then just tries a different approach, or maybe he'd switched subjects entirely. "Sometimes in Asgard, they'd fight, 'xcept they weren't killing each other, nope nope nope. Thor and the Warriors Three and Sif foughts each other like that. It was like... pretend? No, it was..." Loki can't seem to find the word and he groans loudly.

"This is sparring. It's practice. We're not trying to kill each other, and we're not mad at each other or anything. That what you meant?" Clint asks. Loki nods, smiling slightly.

"You ready to try?" Loki's now looking slightly uncertain.

"Maybe we should start you out with a shield or something." Natasha says.

"Spangles, can he borrow your's?" Tony asks, smirking, clearly not really meaning it.

Loki darts out of the room, and Tony starts to follow him. Bruce and the others stand there for a bit, wondering if they're coming back or not.

They do, after a couple minutes, and Loki is holding a frying pan.

Bruce chuckles slightly, and, surprisingly, Clint and Natasha look like they get the reference when Loki mentions Rapunzel and Flynn.

Loki climbs up into the ring, clutching the frying pan and Simba tightly, though he plops down on the mat again, bouncing slightly.

"To block attacks," Natasha says, taking over the lesson, gesturing for Loki to get up. "You have to keep your eye on your opponent at all times. Never look away. Got it?" She glances at Loki, who stares at her for a bit, and then nods.

"Okay, next, your body needs to be in the right position." Natasha starts. "Feet spread apart. Muscles relaxed but ready, arms up like this." She holds her arms up in front of her torso, ready to block with them.

Loki spreads his legs out and holds his arms like Natasha's doing, but he starts to flap his arms and rock back and forth on his toes.

"You're supposed to stay still."

Bruce sighs sympathetically, remembering having a similar conversation when working on meditating. Loki's still not great at it.

Tony, who's currently behind Loki, gently grabs Loki's arm with the frying pan and holds it still. "Just like that, okay Snoopy? Keep it right there." Loki nods ever so slightly, and when Tony lets go, the arm stays still even as Loki rocks from side to side.

Natasha straps on a pair of boxing gloves.

They explain that Natasha's going to punch the frying pan, to show him that he can block it and not get hurt, asking if that's okay. After many reassurances that he will positively block this punch, Loki nods. Tony is currently holding onto Loki's arm to make sure it's extra steady.

Natasha gently punches the pan, and even though it hadn't hit Loki, he still flinches backwards, curling up slightly. Bruce is reminded that he probably doesn't know there's a such thing as a non-threatening punch. The fact that he's even letting them do this is somewhat surprising.

Natasha hesitates, asking him if he wants to continue.

"Don't wanna get hurt." Loki says.

"You won't, see?" She punches it again, but Bruce thinks he might've meant that he wants to be able to stop people from hurting him.

After simply punching the pan for a bit, Natasha starts to move the punches around a bit, and Tony, still standing behind Loki, starts to guide Loki's hand so the pan blocks the punches.

Loki still flinches every time a punch comes at him, but it's far less noticeable. Eventually, Tony lets go of Loki's hand.

It's horrible that Loki's somehow able to not move to defend himself, when most people would instinctually try to block attacks. Loki seems to have been trained not to, and simply curls up on himself.

At one point, he accidentally makes another force field. Bruce is surprised it's happened twice this evening alone, when it almost never happened the entire rest of the time Bruce has been living with them.

They all tell him that was great, but Loki seems to be remembering the consequences of force fields in Asgard. After all, he'd gotten punished for for making them, probably faced punishments nobody should have to face. He stands, shaking, as Tony shifts to hugging him again.

From the looks of the others, his reaction had had been worse when he made one when Thor was here.

It takes a little bit for Loki to calm down, and they all reassure him that what he did was very good.

Loki cocks his head to the side and says "Fenrir, why're you growling?" He bends down, as if trying to pet the currently-invisible wolf. He pauses, looking at them warily and hugging Simba tightly. "Do you hate him?"

"Fenrir's the wolf who growled at Thor, right?" Clint asks, and Loki nods warily. "I don't hate him. He was awesome. I wouldn't mind seeing him again." Clint replies, and Loki pauses thoughtfully, clearly trying to work out if the archer actually means that. He glances at Steve and Natasha, too, and Steve echoes Clint's sentiment. Loki relaxes visibly.

"Wanna be... see-able? I like it when I can see you." Loki says, and Fenrir appears after a bit. Loki laughs, going to hug the huge wolf, although Bruce realizes Fenrir's still not exactly solid after testing by trying to put a hand on the wolf's back. Still, it feels different than just waving his hand through air.

Fenrir stands there, looking ready to snap at anything that dare hurt Loki, but he seems to relax a bit, giving a low, comforting sort of bark.

"He seemed angrier earlier." Clint remarks dryly.

"Fenrir doesn't like Thor. He gets all mads, and goes-"

Loki suddenly snarls loudly and makes clawing motions with his hands. He's quickly joined by Fenrir. Everyone but Natasha startles slightly at this sudden change in Loki's demeanor, as well as Fenrir's reaction.

Loki's Stitch backpack, still with the straps attached to its hands and feet, stands on Loki's shoulders and does basically the same, while Simba roars playfully. Loki hugs Simba and glances back at Stitch. Bruce remembers both the stuffed animal and the plush backpack roaring at Thor earlier. Loki had really seemed to like that.

"Are they alive?" Steve asks, sounding confused. Bruce doesn't answer, but he doesn't think Simba and Stitch can count as living. Well, the certainly can't from a biological standpoint, but they don't yet even seem real like Loki's friends/Monster Family.

Loki, however, seems to think he's asking about Fenrir. "Just 'cause you can't always see him doesn't mean he's not real, nope nope nope! The stars look like they're gone in the day, and you can't touch 'em but they're stills there. But Fenrir can't really stop them 'cause biting and scratching doesn't do anything."

Fenrir lets out an apologetic whine.

"Aren't there others, too?" Natasha asks.

"Jormungand." Loki gestures to his necklace, which doesn't move this time. "He's a snake. Timon got banished 'cause a snake got in the meerkat village when he was supposed to be guarding behind it, like when the Jotuns got past Heimdall at Thor's coronation. But Jormungand won't eats Timon, 'cause he doesn't eat. And Sleipnir's my horse, and he's like a spider, and Hel rules dead people."

Some of them look slightly lost after the abrupt changes of topic as well as the descriptions.

"They didn't like 'em." Loki mutters. "Had to go away. They made them go 'way, but Tony likes 'em, I think." Tony nods encouragigly at him. "They didn't like magic, either, nope nope nope! Hated it!" Once again, it's slightly hard to follow since he doesn't indicate when they starts referring to the Asgardians instead of his friends.

"They said magic's all bad, but Rapunzel has healings hair. We had healers there, I think. I dunno. Never saw one. Is that healing magic? I have healing hair, like Rapunzel, 'xcept Tony says it's not really my hair, just me. That's magic, but it can do good things like fixing people, so it's not alls bad, so were they wrong?." Loki looks briefly at Clint for some reason, who nods at him.

"They were wrong." Bruce says, immensely pleased to hear Loki say that.

"And ice isn't all bad, right, 'cause Elsa made Olaf and Marshmallow, and slides for Anna when they were little. And she made that huge ice thing everyone slid over at the end. Slushy mades fun ice too, and Frozone stopped the... Omni-droid. My Tony says Elsa wasn't a coward, even though she ran away and made ice and got scared when she made it. Says she kicked the guards' asses. Ands Frozone's not a coward, right, 'cause he's a super just like Violet?"

"Right." Tony says, grinning. "And our million dollar winner is... Loki!" Loki stares at him blankly.

"Hey, if you're handing out money, I'll take some." Clint says to Tony, sounding like he's mostly joking.

"I don't think they woulda liked Elsa and Frozone much." Loki switches topics again. "Do you think they'd try to kill 'em?"

"Who, the Asgardians?" Bruce asks, and Loki nods slightly. "Do you mean that Elsa and Frozone would kill the Asgardians, or that the Asgardians would try to kill them?" Bruce asks, because that wording could make it go either way.

"The Asgardians trying'ta kill them. They used to hunt Jotuns before. And they killed lots after Jotuns invaded Thor's cor-onation, but it wasn't really that 'cause he's not actually king, and he got banished to Midgard for a couple days after. He went to Jotunheim and I think I was there but I don't r'member, and Heimdall got me outs. Odin was angry and he banished Thor, but I don't think he cared 'bout the dead Jotuns. But Elsa's good and Hans was bad for trying to kill her, right?" He sounds like he already knows. After all, the movie had tried to make viewers hate Hans and like Elsa. Still, Bruce and Tony nod.

"They were wrong about Jotuns too..." Loki says, eyes growing even wider. "Elsa's a good one and Frozone too, but they always said they were's all bad, better off dead! Like in that thing with Pocahontas! Savages, savages, barely even human! But that was... racist, and it doesn't follow the Quasiralda-Loki rule, but Pocahontas and John Smith knows that rule!"

"The what?" Steve asks.

"Don't hate people for looking different like Quasimodo, or for being gypsies like Esmeralda. Or anything else, my Tony says it doesn't have to be gypsies. It can be like Elsa. Or me." Loki answers.

"Basically, don't judge on appearances or be a bigot." Bruce clarifies.

"Frollo didn't follow it, and he got in trouble." Loki adds.

"That's kind of an understatement." Tony says. "He died."

"And Gov... Gov-er-nor Rat-cliffe, he gots in trouble too." Loki nods. "But they don't have to follows it in Asgard, so they're not gonna get in trouble for not following it, like Frollo dids." Loki says, looking at them with wide eyes.

"They should get in trouble for that." Steve counters. "They should get in trouble for way more more than just that. What they did to you is wrong, and it's against the law."

"But Odin makes the laws." Loki says, sounding confused.

"Not here he doesn't." Tony replies. "Although he's probably egotistical enough to think he does."

Several Avengers snort at the idea of Tony accusing someone else of being egotistical.

They've spent so much time trying to convince Loki that his treatment was wrong, but Bruce doesn't remember ever really going into the legal aspect of it, aside from perhaps a couple passing references.

"They abused you." Clint says flatly. "Abuse is against the law. They would've been arrested and their asses would be in jail, if they did that here and were found out. For child abuse and domestic abuse. Although they deserve a hell of a lot worse."

"Abuse?" Loki asks blankly.

"Abuse is the cruel or violent treatment of a person or animal." Jarvis speaks up, providing what is probably the dictionary definition. "Abuse can take many forms, including physical abuse, which involves any unwanted physical contact, or psychological abuse, which includes making someone feel scared and unsafe and verbally insulting them, among other things."

Jarvis' tone is still level, but is laced with fury when he continues. "I am certain you were severely abused in both those areas. I suppose the only thing in Asgard's favor is that I have seen no signs of sexual abuse."

"They'd also get nailed for infringing on human rights." Tony adds. Technically, though, Loki's not human. Still, this results in a long explanation on what human rights are.

"So they'd have gottens in trouble here? On Midgard?" Loki asks at the end of the explanation.

"If anyone found out, yeah."

"I wish I was on Midgard my whole life. Everyone there used to says that Midgard's worse than Asgard, but I think they were wrong 'bout that too."

"Hell yeah they were." Clint says.

"So should they get in trouble, even though they're there and not here?" Loki asks, sounding slightly unsure.

"They should get in heaps of trouble."

"Odin can't get in trouble. He's the Allfather."

"We should see about that." Tony mutters darkly.

"Odin has an eyepatch, right?" Clint asks, and Loki nods, looking worried. Clint growls that he'd love to put an arrow through the other eye.

But really, what could they even hope to do against the Allfather?

---

The following day, Bruce watches Loki finish his latest sand creation. It's a fair distance away from Loki's "circuit city", as he called it. Said city is still somehow standing, although it really should have been destroyed by wind long ago. He had to have used magic to make it them stand, like he apparently had with blocks at the daycare, and the Jenga tower back on the day Bruce first met him, before even moving into the tower.

Loki had to have used magic just to build this creation, Bruce thinks. There's really no other way, really.

It looks to be some sort of castle or something, although it sort of looks like a bunch of pan flutes stuck together, so maybe that castle part is just Bruce's imagination. Still, that's what most people build in the sand, although Loki's not 'most people'.

The thing's not all sand, though. Some of it's sand coated in ice, and some looks like plain ice. There are some gold-colored rods, though Bruce has no clue where those came from. Maybe Loki had gotten them from Tony's lab? Or maybe he'd made them.

The whole structure is actually a couple inches taller than Loki and a lot wider than the god.

Loki gazes at his new creation, and Bruce is about to truthfully tell him that it looks amazing when Loki attacks it.

Loki rampages, snarling and screaming as he tears into his newest creation. Bruce watches in shock. Loki's smashing his fists into it, stomping other parts to the ground, like some creature out of a monster movie. Fenrir appears, and attacks with similar fury, and Sleipnir shows up to stomp on it, though neither of them actually manage to do much to the... is it a castle? Except, for a brief second, Sleipnir's hoof actually crushes part of it, before the horse goes back to being intangible. Or maybe that part had been magic, too?

Bruce is reminded of that scene in Lilo & Stitch, when Stitch builds a replica of San Fransisco in Lilo's bedroom and stomps through it. That's probably where Loki got the idea.

Loki only stops once the structure has been reduced to nothing.

"Taking a leaf out of Stitch's book?" Bruce asks with a slight smile.

"My friends need to be punished, for what they did to me." Loki says, quoting Lilo as he and Sleipnir stomp around some more.

Bruce wonders if there's more to it than that.

---

Loki crouches by the large bath thing inside. There's a similar bath right outside, too, almost identical to the one in here. But who bathes outside?

Loki strips off his coat, pajamas, and underwear. He'd gotten up to find Tony still asleep in the lab. Loki had tried to stay awake last night but had eventually fallen asleep next to Tony on the bed in the corner.

While Bruce had said he's supposed to wear a swimsuit in the ocean, he knows he doesn't have to wear one in the bath. This bath smells really weird, but that's undoubtedly just some strange Midgardian thing, like swimsuits and bizarre sayings that make no sense. There's a room like this one in the tower, Loki remembers, near the room with all the weird equipment, and the rafters that he'd teleported from.

There's a very large bath here, and, right next to it, a smaller one that sort of reminds Loki private areas of the baths in Asgard. There's only one smaller bath here, though, and it's not very private. In Asgard, they'd been laid out in stalls, like in the stables. He'd mostly used the private areas; he wouldn't want to be around the people in the public ones and they wouldn't have wanted him there either. They surely would have said he'd contaminated the water with his disgusting Jotun skin or something, even if it wasn't showing.

Occasionally, from nearby private stalls in the Asgard baths, he'd hear those weird grunting and screaming sounds people make when they're trying to make a baby. Only, Lady Frigga said that people do sex when they're not trying to make a baby, just for fun, which Loki finds really odd. Why would anyone want to do that if they didn't even get a baby out of it?

Of course, both here and in the tower, Loki has his own bathroom with a rather large bath in it, but he sort of wants to try this out, even though it smells really weird.

Loki presses his hand against the water of the smaller bath and quickly draws it back. It's really hot, and why would anyone want to scald themselves? It's not bubbling like boiling water does when he and Bruce make pasta, but it's still burning. Ice starts to creep onto Loki's palm, and he sighs in relief at the comforting cold.

He tests the larger, public bath with more caution. It's not hot, but it's warm, although he feels it steadily grow colder. Maybe he did that? He crouches there, continuing to push down, but not enough to break the surface tension that makes it feel almost like he's pushing against something solid. He'd known that could happen even back in Asgard, but he'd had no clue why or how.

Tony had explained about surface tension and cohesion making that happen, and Jarvis and Bruce had explained about molecules. Loki's not entirely sure he gets it, but he knows now that they're really small things that sometimes bond together, like friends because they share things called electrons, and that molecules are made of elements. Or something like that. Bruce apparently does science stuff with electrons and things sometimes, whereas Tony seems to mostly build stuff like Man of Iron suits and apparently Dum-E and M-O.

Loki had been more interested when Jarvis told him that there are bugs that can walk across water than he had hearing about those molecule things.

For a while, Loki occupies himself with splashing around a bit with Sleipnir, and sometimes Sleipnir even makes it splash but sometimes it doesn't move. Jormungand swims around as the necklace, and Loki tries to mimic his slithering movements, although that doesn't work out too well.

Loki also brings some of his figurines in the water- they can get wet, unlike Simba, Stitch, Olaf and Maximus. Well, he has small figurines of Simba, Olaf and Maximus that can go in the water.

Loki grabs a bar of soap from the side of the bath, although now that he thinks about it, he doesn't remember seeing it there a minute ago. He probably just hadn't noticed it, he thinks, although he's not entirely sure he believes that.

After soaping his body and hair, Loki makes waves, liking how the light in the room reflects off the water and how his plastic toys bob up and down with the waves. He tries to make huge waves for them to ride. Once he tires of that, Loki simply lays floating in the water.

Floating is almost like flying, in a way, and he liked doing this in Asgard sometimes. He feels weightless now, and he hadn't even felt weightless when Tony took him flying in the Hulk suit.

He wonders if this is what it would be like to have Tinker Bell sprinkle Pixie Dust on him, and he grabs his Peter and Tink figurines, holding them up and imagining they're flying above him.

He shoots a small flurry of snow in the air, like he had when making snow stars, and imagines it's Pixie Dust. "You can fly, you can fly, you can fly." He laughs slightly at the song, propelling himself through the water with his feet. He remembers making Toy Stark fly a couple times, and he wonders if he can do it with Peter and Tink. He throws them up, but they just fall back down to the water. Five times later, this is still the result.

When he imagines them floating, though, they start to rise a bit, and he grins. Everyone in Asgard would say this is freaky and wrong, but Tony had seemed to genuinely think it was really neat when Loki accidentally made Toy Stark fly, so if he'd seen this, he probably would have liked it, too. He gazes up at the ceiling happily, thinking about how Tony probably would have said that was awesome. Considering that Tony can fly in his suits, Loki's not sure why he thought Toy Stark flying was so interesting, but Loki likes that Tony had liked it.

He finds himself humming a song from the movie they'd watched last night. It was about a mermaid named Ariel (the same mermaid that Stitch had surfed by in that thing Tony had shown him, that also showed Stitch taking Simba's place and stealing Jasmine. Ariel had been on her rock, watching Prince Eric when Stitch rode in, knocking her over with a wave).

In the movie, Ariel had really wanted to be part of the human world, and had traded her fin for legs, to Ursula, the Sea Witch.

Ursula was bad and did magic, which Loki really hadn't liked. She'd even changed her appearance, like he sometimes does.

King Triton had magic, too, but he'd been kind of scary. Like Odin, and he's old like Odin and has similar hair and a longer beard. He'd gotten really mad at Ariel once and wrecked her treasure trove with magic, but he hadn't beat her. Loki still thinks he's too much like the Allfather, though.

Ariel had been without her voice, too, like he had once. But it probably hurt a lot less the way she did it, since she'd just traded it for legs. There hadn't even been a needle...

Images of that horrible incident start to flash through Loki's mind and Jormungand, as the necklace, gives Loki a gentle squeeze. Loki's not sure how long he's in the flashback, but it hadn't been quite as bad as usual. And it had been a lot worse when he saw a needle in Asgard after that, when one of the servants had been sewing.

As he floats there, shaking afterwards, the water actually helps him feel a bit better. Sleipnir's still singing their song to him, which also helps, although it's not as good as when Tony hugs him.

He tries to take deep, slow breaths, like Bruce has been teaching him.

"Are you all right, Mr. Loki?" Jarvis asks, sounding concerned.

Loki nods slightly, although in some ways he's not. He stares out the window in thought, watching a bird fly past the glass, and then starts to lazily swim around, everything but his face submerged in the water.

He dimly hears sort of a vague sound of someone's voice, but his ears are underwater, so he can't really make any of it out. At first, he wonders if he'd imagined it, but it gets slightly louder.

Apparently he'd nodded off for a second, because the voice is what woke him up, he thinks.

Loki looks around and notices one of his illusions splashing around with Sleipnir. Sometimes, his illusions look slightly different, with different clothes and things, but this one is completely naked, like him. Perhaps he'd been dreaming about playing with Sleipnir, he thinks. Or maybe it's just there randomly, he's not even sure if had been asleep long enough to have a dream. The sunlight streaming through the glass wall hasn't really changed at all so he can't have been asleep long.

Loki also sees Tony, and he grins. Tony's smirking at the Other Loki, apparently thinking it's him, and Loki snickers slightly. Tony's fooled! Sometimes, people would be fooled by the illusions in Asgard, but sometimes they wouldn't be. Either way, they'd let their anger be known eventually. But the guards had looked at the Other-Loki's when he'd been in the petri dish cell, instead of at him- for a little bit at least.

He lifts his head slightly so he can hear what Tony's saying to the other Loki. "I didn't know you were a fan of skinny dipping, Snoopy. Jarvis told me you were in here, but he didn't mention this."

"Actually, sir, I started to, but you didn't listen." Jarvis says with a sigh.

"Eh," Tony waves that aside like it means nothing before addressing the illusion. "You know, maybe we should go to a nude beach and..." Loki doesn't even really hear what comes after that as he tries to work out what skinny dipping is. He knows he's skinny- the fact he's not muscular like all the other men in Asgard had always been glaringly obvious- but what does that have to do with anything?

"What in the Nine Realms is skinny dipping?" He hears the Other Loki asks, mirroring his thoughts, and Tony answers that it's being naked in a pool, whatever that is. Loki laughs, figuring Tony's joking. Of course he's naked! Who bathes wearing clothes? Swimming in the ocean with clothes is weird enough, and Tony never said anything about wearing clothes when bathing before now.

"But you always take baths naked." Loki pipes up, finally moving. He goes from lying down to standing, although he still feels weightless in the water. Tony looks at him instead of the Other Loki, arching an eyebrow.

"Now, which one of you is the real deal?" Tony glances between Loki and the illusion, and Loki raises his hand. "I totally knew that, by the way." Tony adds.

"You're not gonna come in?" Loki asks, before realizing Tony's wearing one of those suit things he wears to work (not a Man of Iron suit).

"Hell no." Tony says, and Loki wonders why he's talking to her. He also remembers Tony not wanting to go surfing either, saying he doesn't like water. "Besides, I'm going to work in a bit." Loki pouts. He doesn't like it when Tony's gone, and Tony only left the tower occasionally. Tony goes every day now.

"Hey, I probably like it even less than you do when I go to meetings. You get to stay here, after all." Tony says, before abruptly changing topics.

"Hey, are you all right?" Tony asks suddenly. "Jarvis said you had a flashback... I probably should've started out with asking that."

Loki nods slightly, actually meaning it this time. He's all right, now that Tony's here.

"Glad to hear it. That you're all right, I mean. Not that you had a flashback." Tony says.

Loki gets out of the water to hug him, but Tony steps away. "Whoa, there, Snoopy. One, you're dripping wet and this suit cost me four figures, and Two, you're naked."

Loki stares at him, nonplussed. "So?"

"People will think you want to have sex with me if you hug me when you're naked." Tony tells him with his usual smirk. "And they'll think you've actually had sex with me if you tell them you slept in my bed once. I have a reputation as a playboy, after all."

Even though Tony's smirking, Loki can't figure out if Tony's being serious about this or not.

"So why can't I bathe naked here?" Loki asks, still confused about that.

"This isn't a bath, Reindeer Games. The baths are in the bathroom. That's why it's called a bathroom, you know. This is a swimming pool. You swim in it, like in the ocean. You don't bathe in it. Although, judging from your current state and that bar of soap in the water, I'd guess you didn't know that. I'm going to have to get the pool cleaned now."

"'Cause of me?" Loki stares at him, hurt. That sounds like what people in Asgard would say, having to get the water decontaminated because the Jotun was in it.

Tony gives him a strange look and says "Because of the soap, Snoopy. Not because of you. Trust me, people have gone in here naked before. I have, actually. And it gets cleaned on a regular basis. I think. Jarvis covers that sort of stuff."

"But you saids you're not supposed to be naked in here." Tony's not making any sense, Loki thinks, laughing.

"Skinny dipping, remember?" Tony shrugs. "Do they have public baths in Asgard?" Loki nods, even more confused. Do they not have them here? But if people go naked, or skinny dip as Tony says, isn't that bathing? Because, apparently, you don't go naked when you're swimming here, or so Bruce and Tony say.

"That's burning." Loki points accusingly at the smaller bath that felt like it scalded him earlier.

"That's a hot tub." Tony says. "They can actually be quite relaxing."

Loki snorts in disbelief. Surely Tony's jesting. How can being boiled be relaxing in any way whatsoever?

"Hey, do you think I could grow a tail?" Loki asks. He'd made himself look like Tony and Mowgli, but growing a tail's sort of different.

"Like Ariel's?" Tony asks, smirking with a raised brow.

Loki shakes his head. He likes having legs, and Ariel didn't have them at first. Neither did Genie, and both of them liked having legs more, so why would he even bother not having them? He couldn't even walk without them.

"No... like, like a lion!" Loki laughs, clapping his hands. He'd made pants with a lion tail on the butt, around the time he'd made his constellation coat. They have feet, though, so he hasn't really worn them, but maybe he can get rid of the feet?

"By the way, I'd suggest putting some clothes on. I bought you swimsuits, you know." As Tony says this, Jormungand wraps himself loosely around Loki's neck and becomes a lifeless necklace again.

He was basically done bathing anyways, so Loki decides to put on normal clothes instead. Tony turns away as Loki pulls on his underwear (red, like Mowgli's), his Man of Iron pajamas, and his starry long coat.

Tony turns around and, muttering something else about cleaning the pool, dips his hand in the water only to quickly yank it out. "Jesus, Rudolph!" He exclaims. "If that got any colder, it'd be ice. No wonder you hate hot tubs, if you can stand this! Although, I guess that makes sense, given, you know..." Tony waves a hand vaguely. "Jarvis, how cold is the water, exactly?"

"One degree Celsius, sir." Jarvis says. "You were quite right about that ice comment."

Loki cocks his head to the side curiously. It's almost ice?

He kind of wants to try sliding around on ice. It had looked really fun when Elsa and Anna did it, and when Stitch, Frozone and Bambi did it.

Tony said they have snow here on Midgard. And the Abominable Snowman that Sulley and Mike met said that snow place was a wonderland, not a wasteland like everyone says about Jotunheim.

Maybe he can make it ice? Tony had told him there wasn't anything wrong with Elsa and Frozone doing that. They both froze water and went across it.

Asgard was wrong about ice.

"Do the magic, do the magic!" Loki mimics Little Anna, flicking his hands. Tony looks at him in surprise.

"Ready?" Loki asks, thrusting his hands into the air. Snowflakes form, and they're snow stars and Pixie Dust at the same time. Loki laughs, looking up at them.

He looks over at Tony, who grins at him.

"Watch this." Loki says, stomping his foot on the ground like Elsa had and hoping it will have similar results. The pool slowly freezes over and Tony whistles slightly. "Wow, I think you just gave Frozone and Elsa a run for their money."

Loki grins and asks Stitch for Elsa, Anna and Olaf. Stitch spits out them out, and Loki slides them across the ice, followed by Simba.

"Oh, yeah, Jarvis, Bruce and I found another therapist for you to talk to." Tony says out of nowhere. Loki was about to go across the ice after his toys, but he pauses.

"Like Dr. Car-something?" Loki wrinkles his nose. Talking to her hadn't done anything, and she didn't like Tony or Bruce. And he had flashbacks with her.

"Hopefully this guy will be better. Technically, he's a professor acting as a therapist, but he'll hopefully be good. I guess we'll find out sometime after we go back to the tower."

"What's a 'fessor?"

"A professor? It's like a teacher. You know what teachers are, right?"

Loki nods. "Thor had tutors and lessons, to teach him stuff like how to be king later and he always saids he hated reading. Liked fighting lessons more. I like reading, and it wasn't hard to figure it out, once I found the library."

"What do you mean 'figure it out'?" Tony asks, looking at him in a weird way, as if he's trying to uncover a secret. Loki's not entirely sure what that secret would be.

Loki frowns, confused. That's a really weird question. He'd just spent time in the library and figured out what the books said. Even a lot of those books were in different languages with different alphabets, though.

"I dunno. I just... read 'em?" Loki asks, not sure what Tony's looking for. "Likes, first they were weird symbols like the books in here used to be's, still are sometimes, but then they made sense." He nods, because it's that simple. Well, it had been. All-Tongue used to work better, he thinks.

"Did someone teach you to read?" Tony asks, and Loki shakes his head. Why would anyone have wasted their time doing that? For starters, they all hated him, and he figured it out on his own anyways.

Tony looks somewhat surprised, and Loki doesn't know why. What's so weird about that? After all, Belle seemed to be one of the only big readers in her village, so she probably taught herself, right? Just like Tony undoubtedly taught himself, and Bruce taught himself. But Belle had to teach Beast to read. Loki frowns, confused now that he thinks about that. Why would Beast need to be taught?

Shrugging it off, he turns around to slide across the ice he'd made. However, his legs slide two different directions and he winds up on his stomach, arms and legs splayed.

"You're living up to your nickname there, Bambi." Tony says with a smirk, and Loki tries to glare at him, but he's partially smiling as he remembers Bambi falling on the ice with splayed limbs. He likes Bambi. He scrambles to his feet only to slip again, sprawled near Tony's shoes, which aren't on the ice. Loki can almost see his reflection in the black shoes.

"Hey, don't kill yourself." Tony says, offering a hand to help him up. "You almost face-planted into concrete." Loki ignores that, because he was never planning on killing himself. He thought they'd gone over that on Halloween.

He shifts so his feet aren't on the ice and gets up. He backs up a couple steps, still holding onto Tony. Then, he rushes forwards, sliding across the ice, still hanging onto Tony, who'd let out a surprised sort of yell.

The momentum carries them to the center of the ice before Loki loses his balance again, accidentally letting go of Tony. This time, his feet slip out in front of him, like Charlie Brown when he tries to kick the football, and he lands flat on his back. He hears a cracking sound and sincerely hopes it's not his spine.

But then, he's underwater, and he realizes that he'd fallen through the ice.

---

Tony's eyes go wide as Loki falls through the ice. He waits for Loki to pop up, unharmed but perhaps a little rattled. After all, Loki's clearly capable of swimming, so he should pop up any time now...

He doesn't, and an icy feeling of worry starts to form in Tony's stomach as seconds tick by.

"Loki!" Tony calls completely uselessly, cursing himself six ways to Sunday. He should have thought of the ice breaking, should have perhaps not let Loki skate over a frozen pool. Then this wouldn't have happened. They're definitely not going to do this in the future.

Tony shakes his head. C'mon Tony... he berates himself. Don't just stand there. Do something! You're Iron Man.

But there's not much he can do when he doesn't dare move in case the ice beneath him breaks too.

Muttering obscenities under is breath, Tony scans the water in the hole for some sign of Loki, but sees nothing. His cursing grows louder as he realizes that Loki's pajamas and long coat are probably dragging the god down. He snaps at Jarvis to scan for Loki, but is told what he'd suspected- the scanners can't detect much through the ice.

"Jarvis, get a suit over here now." He snaps.

Tony looks around for something to dangle in the hole for Loki to grab. There isn't really anything around him, though. Jormungand, as a living form of the necklace, had been in the pool earlier. Tony's about to cast that random thought away when he realizes Jormungand would be the perfect thing to pull Loki out with. The snake can grow, after all, and has become animated, seeming to bring the necklace to life, on several occasions.

Tony doesn't see the snake, and realizes it's because Loki had been wearing the Jormungand necklace when he'd gone under.

Precious seconds tick away as Tony tries to locate the god. He doesn't know if oxygen deprivation affects Loki in the same way as it does people, but if it does affect him similarly and Loki's in there for long enough, Loki might end up even worse off than he already is.

Tony finds himself calling Loki's name, and then Jormungand's.

The snake's head pokes up out of the water, hissing. Tony hopes the rest of Jormungand is hanging onto Loki somehow. "Yesssssss?" Jormungand hisses.

"Where's Loki?"

"Under the sssssea." Jormungand replies, and Tony groans. They'd watched The Little Mermaid last night, since Loki kept asking who the red-haired lady Stitch surfed into was, but that answer doesn't help at all. He already knows Loki's underwater. Jormungand, however, just disappears as if he had been pulled under.

Tony's mind supplies him with an unwanted mental image of a panicked Loki pulling down his snake in desperation. He hates it, hates the idea of Loki drowning. Can Loki drown?

Tony hears a cracking sound and realizes it's the ice beneath him. Shit.

"Jarvis, where's that suit?"

"It's on its way, Sir." Jarvis replies, but by now the ice has given way and he plunges into the freezing water. No, no. He can't do water.

His whole body goes numb from the cold, but his mind's far away. He can't breathe.

He's back in Afghanistan, being waterboarded as they try to persuade him to build the Jericho missile. He struggles uselessly against his captors as his lungs beg for air, but no mercy is forthcoming.

---

Jarvis watches in horror as Sir falls into the water as well.

Jarvis has been trying to wake Dr. Banner to enlist his help, only he needs to wake him in a way that won't cause the Hulk to emerge. Unfortunately, that rules out suddenly playing loud noises in Dr. Banner's room, so it's not as quick of a process as he would have liked. Dr. Banner had a nightmare during the night, and after reading for several hours and fixing himself some tea, had fallen back asleep.

Sir had conked out in the lab and Mr. Loki, surprisingly, had picked Sir up and laid him on the spare bed in the lab without so much as a suggestion. Mr. Loki had diligently tried to stay awake after that but had eventually just, as he usually does, gone from full of energy to passed out within seconds, collapsing on the bed beside Sir.

Jarvis cannot just metaphorically sit back and do nothing as his creator is trapped under ice, with who is probably Jarvis' second favorite person. However, he does not have a body.

He could have one, though, in a manner of speaking- more specifically, he could borrow one. After all, Sir had given him permission to do beneficial or critical things without consulting him about it first on the thirty-first of October.

He'd already started preparing a suit to send to Sir, but he's furious at himself for not doing so earlier. Jarvis downloads himself into another of Sir's suits, switching it on by himself and taking command. While he can control them without Sir, he generally doesn't. Jarvis makes the suits rocket out the tunnel leading from the lab and then loop back around the house towards the outdoor pool, which is next to the indoor one.

Dr. Banner finally wakes up, and Jarvis tells him where to go as he guides the suits through a side door that separates the indoor pool area from the outdoor pool area.

Jarvis is very glad he's so skilled at multitasking.

Dr. Banner's eyes widen and he dashes for the same room. Inside the indoor pool area, Jarvis hurriedly scans for Sir and Mr. Loki.

Dr. Banner enters the indoor pool area, and takes in the proceedings with a tense expression that he tries to smooth over. He says something about looking for something to break the ice with and asks what happened.

Jarvis lowers the two suits, one after another, into the hole in the ice that both Sir and Mr. Loki fell through. He sees Sir floating under a patch of ice, his slaps against the ice weakening by the second. Sir's whole body is shivering, and Jarvis heads towards him. Sir has always been and will always be Jarvis' number one priority.

As he does this, he regales the tale to a very worried Dr. Banner through the speakers in the ceiling. In one of Jarvis' cameras in the room, the AI watches Dr. Banner take deep breaths, meditating on the concrete by the pool. Jarvis switches on some soft, orchestral music to help.

Back underwater, Jarvis moves towards Sir with one suit, and reaches out a hand to touch him, but Sir jerks away. Sir seems to be having a flashback, most likely about his treatment in Afghanistan.

He needs to get Sir and Mr. Loki to the surface as soon as possible. Going without oxygen for too long could be quite detrimental, resulting in things such as brain damage.

Unfortunately, what would be the easiest way to get them to the surface- breaking the ice, doesn't seem to be plausible. Blasting apart the ice with a the suits' repulsors isn't an option, since the electrical discharge would flow through the water and shock Sir and Mr. Loki.

Equally unfortunately, he can't simply wrap the suit around Sir, since he's still thrashing weakly. Plus there'd be no way to drain out the water on the interior of the suit, which isn't even supposed to get wet in the first place...

Jarvis makes the first suit grab Sir's wrist, although he jerks violently at that. It pains Jarvis to see Sir like this, even though he's seen Sir panic many times.

Jarvis finally locates Mr. Loki when he turns the second suit around.

Jarvis notices several things about Mr. Loki as he simultaneously tries to get a firm hold on Sir. One is that Mr. Loki's Jotun form is showing, perhaps due to the frigid temperature of the water. It hadn't been showing before, though, and the water had been frigid then, but Jarvis doesn't delve any deeper into that.

Mr. Loki's currently-red eyes are still wide and glassy, more so than usual as he stares at his skin, seeming lost in his own little world. He simply floats there, his constellation-covered long coat and shoulder-length hair flowing out around him as Jormungand floats, unmoving and matching Mr. Loki. Jarvis isn't even sure if Mr. Loki is aware of anything going on around him.

In the room, Dr. Banner has stopped meditating and, evidently calm, has gathered all the blankets and towels he can find.

As Jarvis pulls Sir towards the hole, he reaches out with the second suit to touch Mr. Loki. Mr. Loki blinks and looks at the suit, before his now-red eyes flick towards the other suit Jarvis is controlling and Tony. His face furrows in confusion,

Mr. Loki then looks concerned as he swims towards the suit with Sir, grabbing onto Sir as well and helping Jarvis pull him though the hole.

However, Sir has gone worryingly still.

---

Tony doesn't even have the energy to struggle against the hands anymore, the hands of the terrorists down. He doesn't know how long he's been underwater, only that it feels like forever as his lungs beg for air.

The water they shoved him in yesterday hadn't been this cold- if anything, it had been slightly hot. Tony dimly thinks this as his vision starts to black out.

And then, by some mercy from his captors, he feels himself being pulled up, feels his head break the surface. Air!

He coughs the water out of his lungs, and the dark spots in his vision fade, although he doesn't really notice what's in front of him. Of course, he knows it won't last. Knows they'll only keep him from passing out before shoving him back down again. Knows he probably won't be able to even get all the water out of his lungs before he's thrust under again.

The coughing is agony, but not as bad as not being able to breathe.

Tony tries to break free of the grip around him as it lugs him somewhere. The grip is unyielding, but there's a voice. No, a few voices, and they don't sound like the Ten Rings, but he's too busy coughing and his ears are too waterlogged to hear what they're saying.

He feels something warm being wrapped around him, and that fact in of itself is odd enough, as his captors certainly weren't this... gentle.

"...Yinsen...?" He mumbles, sure it's the doctor who'd saved his life.

Yinsen never sang to him, though, and someone's singing now, rocking him back and forth and hugging him like one would with a baby. Tony can hear a melody he knows he's heard before, even if he can't make out the words. It's the lullaby Loki sings about horses and stars, but that doesn't make any sense...

Tony makes a move to clear his waterlogged ears, but he finds his arms are trapped by whatever's wrapped around him as well as the arms around him, but the grip's too strong. He struggles against his bindings, wondering if they'd decided to put him in a straightjacket or something. And who's arms are those?

There are other voices, and Tony finally makes them out. Bruce and Jarvis are telling someone to let him go. Jarvis' voice, with its British accent, is the first one that stands out to him.

"Hugs help!" Another voice with a British accent says from somewhere closer to Tony, and Tony realizes it's Loki holding him and rocking him. Of course.

Opening his eyes, though, he sees blue, and he realizes Loki's Jotun skin is showing. Red eyes, without any whites or even noticeable pupils or irises, stare back at him, though they still look somewhat glazed.

He realizes that Loki's rocking back and forth himself, hence the reason for Tony rocking as well.

Shit. They just saw him having a flashback, didn't they?

Tony snaps tersely at Loki to let go, but Loki just sings. "Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine, make the clock reverse, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine."

Of course he'd sing Rapunzel's song. Tony feels... better, after that. Well, better physically. He's no longer shivering, although he can still feel a bit of a chill through the blankets. Loki's skin, he realizes. Tony also notices that his ears are no longer waterlogged. His lungs feel normal, and, oddly enough, his business suit, which should still be soaked, feels dry and warm. It had a four figure price tag, too.

He's still unsuccessful at freeing himself from Loki's grip and the numerous blankets and towels wrapped around him, but it's not for lack of trying. He'd been thinking about going to his lab and drinking a ton, but it seems they have other ideas for him.

"Tony, stay still." Bruce says, his voice sounding weary and worried. "I need to make sure you don't have pneumonia, or frostbite."

"I'm fine!" Tony protests, definitely not wanting to be checked up on. He's not really sure how long he was in the water, but he's not dead, so that says something.

"Mr. Loki seems to have helped get rid of the worst of the effects, sir." Jarvis says, his voice coming from one of the two Iron Man suits standing nearby, instead of from the ceiling. Tony had a feeling about that when his symptoms mysteriously disappeared, although how Loki knew what was wrong is beyond him. Did he, really, or does he just have some automatic healing thing?

"Thanks." Tony grunts to Loki, who beams.

He absolutely hates that Loki and Bruce saw him like that, hates that the flashback happened in the first place. Jarvis obviously has seen his episodes before, has helped him through them, even. At least Jarvis has the sense not to bring it up now, although Tony's sure the AI wants to.

Pepper, Rhodey and Jarvis were the only ones who know about these up until now. Well, Loki had seen him have a nightmare once, way back when watching Beauty and the Beast for the first time, but Tony isn't sure Loki knows the extent of it. Loki had mentioned that nightmare to Dr. Carlisle, though, and Tony hopes she keeps her mouth shut about that.

Bruce seeing it is new, though, and he would have preferred he remain ignorant. Bruce is probably going to figure out the reason behind why he hates water eventually. Sometimes, Bruce is too smart for his own good.

Both Loki and Bruce are watching him, and he's uncharacteristically uncomfortable with being the center of attention.

"You all right, Snoopy?" Tony asks. As long as they don't bring up the flashback, he can pretend it didn't happen. Which is what he's going to do.

Loki just nods.

"Did you know you're blue?" Tony asks rather tactlessly, trying to shove the flashback out of his mind and hoping nobody mentions it. He's putting on his usual flippant attitude, though he mentally kicks himself for asking that question. First he'd failed at helping Loki, and now he just goes and points this out when he knows Loki hates it.

Loki bites his lip and nods nervously. "Didn't even do it. I just... turned. Couldn't turn back, no matter how hard I tried..." Rocking back and forth even more, he closes his eyes and his usual pale skin starts to slowly replace the blue. When his eyes open again, they're their usual startling green. He looks down at his skin and seems relieved.

"Hey, you looked awesome like that." Tony replies. Loki blinks at him, still seeming surprised to hear that.

Bruce still decides to check Tony over, much to Tony's annoyance.

"You were... drowning, like Eric. That's what Bruce saids." Loki informs him. Suddenly looking panicked, he asks "Are you gonna die?"

"No, I'm not gonna die." Tony replies. He doesn't even feel like crap anymore. At least not physically. Thanks to Loki, apparently. "I'm not even going to be bed-ridden, so you have another thing coming to you if you think so." He gives a pointed look to Bruce and the suits containing Jarvis.

"By the way, let's not slide over frozen pools anymore, all right?" Tony says.

"But you said ice isn't bad." Loki says.

"It's not. Just... freeze the floor or something. But do it in a room we don't normally use." The last thing he needs is to find some room frozen when he walks in it and slip and break his back. Or his neck. Once they get back to the tower, maybe he'll have to designate a 'snow room'.

"I helped Jarvis get you out." Loki says. "Did I do goods?" None of them bother correcting his grammar.

"You helped me get out?" Tony asks, surprised. "You were drowning too, right?"

After all, that's what caused this. He'd failed at saving Loki. Totally and utterly failed. He hates that. He hates himself for failing, obviously. What would've happened if Loki was under the water for too long? Oxygen deprivation can cause brain damage in people. Is it the same for Jotuns and Aesir, or does their superhuman strength protect them from that?

Loki doesn't answer. "You need lots of saving, you know." Loki stares down at him with a odd sort of smile ghosting his lips.

"Says the pot to the kettle." Tony mutters. Loki stares at him blankly. Tony sighs, not feeling up to explaining it. Bruce explains it to the god, and Loki looks even more confused.

"You Midgardian humans really can't breathes underwater?" Loki asks, cocking his head to the side with a worried look.

"You can?" Tony counters, surprised. "You don't look like you have gills or anything."

Loki frowns, looking confused. "Wasn't 'xactly breathing, I don't think? I dunno. Ariel doesn't have gills and she breathes underwater and on air. Like me."

So that whole thing was pointless? Loki let him think he was in trouble, when he wasn't in trouble at all. Tony opens his mouth to furiously demand why the hell Loki didn't come up when Tony called out to him, before he himself fell through the ice.

"Is that why you hate water? 'Cause it can kill you?" Loki asks innocently, before Tony can get a word out. Loki frowns, confused. "Bruce doesn't hates it, nope nope nope. And he's human. So why do you?" Tony sees Bruce frantically shake his head, mouthing no at Loki, but it's already been said.

"I don't want to talk about it." Tony shouts. He wrenches himself from Loki's grip and the blankets and stalking to the lab, only stopping to grab a couple bottles of beer. He notices the suits containing Jarvis following him, but, surprisingly, Loki isn't. Maybe Bruce is keeping him back.

He slams open the door to his workshop and lets it slam behind him, yanking off a bottle cap and flinging it to the workbench with more force than necessary. He pulls of his tie and jacket before removing the dress pants and shirt as well. As always, he's wearing normal clothes under them.

"Sir-" Jarvis says, from the suits, which had just allowed themselves entry into the lab. Tony sighs, knowing what's coming.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of." Jarvis says, this time from the ceiling as the suits re-insert themselves into their spots.

But he does. He hadn't saved Loki, although apparently Loki hadn't needed saving. But if he had, Tony would've failed.

Still, he knows Jarvis is talking about the flashback.

"Yeah, yeah. 'You are not weak for reacting like that, for being traumatized by what you went through.' I've heard, Jarvis." Jarvis told him a couple nights ago, when he had a dream about the portal he'd flown the missile through.

"That's what you tell Mr. Loki, is it not?" Jarvis says sharply. "If it applies to him, sir, it applies to you as well. Unless you look down on Mr. Loki for it?"

Tony groans, taking another swig of alcohol. It's not the same.

Jarvis is almost reading his thoughts, as Tony's treated to a explanation about how it is the same.

Tony still doesn't like it, but he admits that, of all the people who could see him have a flashback, Loki and Bruce are the least objectionable options. Neither Loki nor Bruce can be particularly judgmental about this. After all, Loki himself has flashbacks a lot- had just had one not long ago- and probably doesn't think anything of Tony having them.

And Bruce, well, Bruce was hounded like a dog because of the Hulk, chased down by the military. That's got to be awful, and further still, Tony's seen the look in Bruce's eyes when he recalls the damage the Hulk's done when angry. Tony's seen the same look in his own reflection's eyes, when he thinks about being the Merchant of Death, of all the people his weapons have killed.

Only, the Hulk isn't like a missile. Tony might've thought so at first, but it's clear now that he's more than just an unthinking rage monster. It had been clear since the Chitauri attack and it's startingly obvious, watching Hulk and Loki interact. Yet Bruce still doesn't seem to see that, and, apparently, at one point had gotten so low that he'd decided to try to end it all.

Yeah, Tony thinks, he's in good company, it seems. He's certainly not the only one with issues here.

"You do not have to go through this alone, sir." Jarvis tells him gently.

Less than a minute later, Tony hears the sound of Loki's footsteps galloping down the stairs. Loki can, oddly enough, be almost eerily quiet on his feet sometimes, yet sound like an elephant running around at other times.

Apparently, Loki had managed to slip past Bruce, since Tony's Science Bro comes down the stairs, and, casting a look that Tony pretends not to notice, tries to pull Loki back upstairs. Of course, physically moving Loki is all but impossible. Well, without an Iron Man suit or an enormous green body.

Tony sees the god staring at him through the glass, banging on it slightly. At one point, he even closes his eyes and jumps up and down, like he's trying to teleport inside.

Tony remembers Loki panicking at the idea of being locked out, having been reminded of the Hulk cage. He doesn't have a choice, really, unless he wants Loki to panic, and he wouldn't wish that on anyone. Well, maybe some of his enemies, but definitely not his friends.

Tony tells Jarvis to unlock the door and let them in.

---

Two days later, Tony glances over at Loki, who's humming as he sits, bouncing slightly on the spare bed shoved into a corner of the workshop, for when Tony can't be bothered to go to his room. A huge holographic screen is up against one wall, for Loki to draw on. He'd seemed to like the mural idea, after all, and it certainly beats the possibility of having magic marker on the walls. Loki already knows about digital art like 3d modeling with holograms, so explaining this to him hadn't been hard.

The screen isn't quite as transparent as most holograms. Loki has most of it painted a dark blue, almost black, with green grass at the bottom, starting directly above the bed, made by the god dragging his fingernails over the screen. Holographic 3d models of horses and trees float in front of the 'grass'. Loki had scanned Maximus for the horses and modeled the tree himself. It sort of looks like that tree in the yard, that Loki named 'Willow-Willowy', although he usually just calls it by one of those names.

Loki's fingers are currently flying over the sky, occasionally tapping it and making what have to be stars.

Tony wonders if Loki's trying to make up for the lack of the projector that projects stars and horses in his room in the tower. They're going to be back there soon. Today's the last of the tedious meetings. Tony groans in relief.

The past few nights, Loki has crawled next to Tony when he's sleeping, either claiming he can't sleep himself or claiming to have had nightmares. Tony had been having trouble sleeping, himself, and Loki's presence had helped. Not that Tony's going to admit that or anything.

"Hey, Rudolph." Tony calls, and Loki takes a bit to look over at him, too absorbed in his painting.

"Can you, I don't know, make Bruce's hair blue or something?" Tony blurts out as he checks the settings on the room's sensors. He's wondering if he can finally get some decent measurements on Loki's magic. Loki's seemed a lot more comfortable using certain aspects of it now, which is definitely good.

Loki looks at him like he's lost his mind. Tony supposes he did sort of just drop that on Loki out of the blue.

"He should make your hair blue." Bruce replies.

"Hey, I'd look good with blue hair." Tony throws back, although he's not sure he actually would. "Okay, maybe not blue hair. Um, could you make something fly? Jarvis says you made Peter and Tinker Bell fly the other day in the pool."

Tony hears Loki make an angry, inarticulate sound, followed by the unmistakable sound of breaking glass, and he whirls around.

Loki hastily shoves the shattered remains of something in front of Bruce. "Bruce did it." Loki states, suddenly becoming fascinated with the wall.

"What? No I didn't. I-" Bruce starts, and then sees Tony smirking and seems to get that Tony knows who's really the culprit, before turning to Loki. "You shouldn't lie."

Loki doesn't reply. Still, Tony's somewhat surprised. Loki's never intentionally broken anything before. He'd actually panicked when he accidentally broke a mug not that long ago. Loki's made coffee a couple times since then, and had tried slipping other random ingredients in it.

Jarvis informs him that the broken glass thing had been a petri dish, which is what Loki had deemed the Hulk cage on the Helicarrier. That's probably not a coincidence that he'd chosen to break that. Maybe this could be therapeutic or something. Hell, Tony's not a therapist, but it's worth a shot.

He hunts around for another for more petri dishes. Being an engineer, instead of a chemist or a biologist, he doesn't have oodles of them. Well, he does in the tower, but not here, and he doesn't even know why the one Loki just broke had been out in the first place. Still, he figures he can sacrifice some. He finds a stash of about twenty in a cabinet. After clearing off the table Loki's at- or under, currently- Tony places one of the petri dishes on the table, picking up a Geiger Counter in his other hand.

"What's that?" Loki asks, eyeing the Geiger Counter warily as he pokes his head out from under the table.

"This is a Geiger counter." Bruce is explaining to Loki. "It measures ionizing radiation." At Loki's understandably blank look- not everybody understands particle physics- he adds "It won't hurt."

"They had one. In the petri dish cell..." Loki mumbles. Tony and Bruce exchange a look.

"Yeah, they might have. But it's not going to zap you or anything."

Loki seems to relax a bit, and Tony shows him the intact petri dish. "I know you broke the first petri dish, Snoopy. I'm not mad, although you should ask before breaking things. But I'm going to let you break this one, too."

Loki glances at him warily. "Really? You aren't mad? You won't be's mad?"

"Nope." Tony replies, popping the p. "Go ahead, wreck the petri dish cell. You have my full permission." He pauses and adds as an afterthought "But don't use your hands." He's kind of curious how Loki will break it, with the subtle hint to use his magic.

Loki scrutinizes him some more. He then nods slightly and slowly crawls out from under the table to stare at the small glass dish. Tony waits, Geiger Counter and other scanners ready.

Loki grins and makes Simba "pounce" on the glass dish. Simba's Iron Man suit easily breaks it and glass shards go everywhere. Nobody seems to have gotten cut, luckily. Although Loki could have healed them.

"That... that was good." Tony replies, disappointed Loki hadn't used his powers. Loki grins at him.

He rewords his request as he places the next petri dish on the table. "Okay, try to break it, but don't hit it with anything. Or throw anything at it." He tries to think if he's missed a loophole.

Loki nods for a bit and seems to think, perhaps preparing his magic. Tony tenses in anticipation of whatever wonder will appear before his eyes. Will Loki blow it up with his mind? That would be awesome.

Suddenly, Loki flips the entire table over, sending the petri dish and the broken remains of the others to the floor. It's not exactly a lightweight table, either. Tony remembers Jarvis saying something about Loki lifting a sofa.

"That was very clever of you." Bruce tells Loki, also sounding like he's masking his disappointment. Loki grins, humming slightly.

As Loki flips the table the right way and settles it back on the floor, Tony wonders if maybe they're being too subtle, or if Loki knows they're alluding to his magic.

"Do you think you could change this one into something else?" Tony asks, setting another petri dish in front of the god.

"Like Elsa's dress? And Toy Stark and Hulk-y?" Loki asks.

"Yeah."

"...Maybe. For you, 'kay?" Loki replies. Tony grins.

Loki picks it up and turns it around in his hands, looking at it with distaste. He glances between Tony and the petri dish a couple times, and then stares at the ceiling, shaking the thing slightly.

For a bit, Tony doesn't think anything's going to happen, but green magic starts to form around Loki's hands. Slowly, the petri dish morphs into a genie lamp. It's still transparent, like the glass, and it's obvious there's no genie in there.

Tony probably wouldn't have been too surprised if there had been, though. Or an illusion of one, anyways. Man, what is his nice, scientific life coming to when a freaking genie probably wouldn't make him bat an eye?

Before he can say anything, Loki flings the glass lamp at the wall, shattering it into a million pieces.

"...That was very good." Tony tells him as he looks over the results from various scanners. None of them really tell him anything, much to his annoyance. He's going to need more than a cursory glance, though. There's got to be some sort of science behind this. As Arthur C. Clarke said, magic is just science we don't understand yet.

"He totally destroyed a sand castle the other day." Bruce tells Tony, looking over the data with him. For a bit it's silent, except for Loki humming Friend Like Me."Wait a minute." Bruce murmurs besides Tony. "Genie was trapped in a lamp, and the petri dishes..." Is that supposed to be symbolic?

Tony glances at Loki, who neither confirms nor denies that theory. He's back to adding stars to his digital painting.

"Hey, I'm curious, when you turned into me the other day, did you actually feel it happen? Did you, like, actually grow shorter or something?" Tony asks.

Loki turns to look at him. "Cans I be you again?" He asks hopefully.

"Sure." Tony says, somewhat surprised, reading the sensors again.

Loki claps his hands and bounces off the bed, practically skipping over to them. He scrunches his face up in concentration and, after a bit, slowly starts to morph, appearing to grow shorter and more Tony-like, until Tony's staring at another him again.

It's still weird, seeing Loki in his own body, but that had to give Tony lots of great data. And he'd missed Loki shifting the first time.

"So, did you actually feel yourself change, or...?"

"Felt it this time." Loki says, looking himself over. "Not last time. I didn't even notice then, 'til I was in the bathroom and I saw you in the mirror."

"So it was just an illusion?" Tony asks, and Loki nods slightly. "What about when you were Mowgli?"

"I was smaller then." Loki says, as if it's obvious. Tony remembers that he'd actually been smaller, when he'd touched him.

Tony's brain, which can be very immature and perverted, gleefully points out that that could be interpreted an entirely different way, if he'd meant another kind of touching. Which he hadn't. They're family, if not officially.

Surprisingly, those thoughts hadn't been blurted out by his mouth.

Loki- or, rather, another Tony, hugs him, and Tony sees Bruce's eyes widen. Tony stares at him suspiciously, but he just smiles slightly. Loki pulls away and laughs, flapping his hands, which are holding Simba.

"Mirror, J." Tony mutters, and a holographic mirror appears in front of him. It's not his own face staring back at him.

It's Loki's.

For a second, Tony forgets this is supposed to be a mirror and goes to peer around the screen and see if Loki had transformed back into himself. But when he moves slightly to the side, the Loki does too, and he remembers this is a mirror. He can see his old silver Audi R8 Coupe behind him in the screen, just as it's behind him in the room.

Huh. So not only does Loki look like him again, but it turns out he looks like Loki. He hadn't felt anything though. Figures, he doesn't even get the benefit of growing a couple inches when he looks like Loki.

Staring at the reflection is somewhat odd. Just as it was- and still is- weird seeing what Loki brings to his body (glassy eyes, bizarre movements and behavior), it's even stranger seeing what he brings to Loki's body.

As the saying goes, the eyes are the window to the soul. Gone is the dreamy look. The green eyes staring back at him are now sharp and intelligent. Somewhat like the eyes on that one illusion Loki had made when first watching Kim Possible, or that child-Loki illusion.

And just like how Loki taking on Tony's body shows what Tony would have been like in Loki's position, this shows what Loki may have been had circumstances been different. What he could have been, if that child-Loki illusion is accurate, and Loki was different, once.

Not that Tony thinks Loki's an idiot, although his speech and behavior sometimes make him seem really childish. Still, Tony's starting to seriously wonder exactly how smart Loki is. Not many people just teach themselves to read, which is the impression he gave in the pool. Certainly, from what Tony's heard, there probably weren't a whole lot of people in Asgard who were big on reading in the first place. They seem to only care about physical strength there rather than intellectual strength.

Or maybe everyone in Asgard just figures out how to read. After all, they do have All-Tongue and all that jazz. Is Tony reading too much into that?

"So, I'm you, huh?"

Loki giggles and nods. "You didn't think you'd be!"

"No, no I didn't."

"Sir, you're scheduled to be in a meeting in forty-five minutes." Jarvis says.

"Uh, Bambi, do you think you could, you know, turn me back?" Tony asks.

Loki frowns. "Why? You know, Kim and Ron were each other. Dr. Drakken swapped their brains. Or maybe it was their bodies? It's kinda the same. And Ron had to do that cheering dance that Kim does, 'xcept he didn't know how so Kim tooks over but she looked like Ron."

"Yeah, well, that won't exactly work for us. I can't go to a meeting like this. I'd get hauled out by security." Tony mutters. Sending Loki in his place could be highly entertaining, but Pepper would put a stop to it before tue fun even started.

Tony grins, realizing he literally can't go to that stupid meeting. "Loki, buddy, you are a genius. You just got me out of hours of tedious boredom. On second thought, don't change me back." Pepper can't get mad at him for ditching it when he looks like someone else. Well, she probably could, but he can't do anything about this.

Tony starts looking over the data from that energy.

About fifteen minutes later, Jarvis interrupts to say he has a call. Tony would have bet it was Pepper calling to demand where he was, but he would have lost.

"It's Colonel Rhodes, sir. He says he needs a tune up on his War Machine armor, although it looks like it needs a bit more than a tune up."

"Tell him to come over now." Tony says, grinning. He hasn't seen Rhodey in a while, and he realizes that Rhodey doesn't even know about Loki, much less that he change people's appearances.

"Hey, Snoopy, think you can pretend to be me? We're going to try to fool someone." Tony asks.

Loki nods, grinning. Tony had a feeling his emerging prankster side would like that.

"Okay, what's your name?"

"Tony." Loki answers almost immediately, sounding like he's trying to cover up his accent. He does a decent job at it. The effect is ruined when he laughs and flicks his fingers. Still, Rhodey probably won't think that someone made them look like each other. Who would, really? It sounds insane.

"This is going to be good." Bruce says dryly, looking between the two of them.

So, I hope you enjoyed this, and that Tony's flashback/post-flashback scene was realistic. I'm not entirely sure what I think of this.

Next chapter's going to be really fun :) Rhodey and Charles (at different times, though). Hopefully I won't screw up their characterizations. I already have part of Charles' visit written. I've wanted to write Rhodey into this for a while. I think I mentioned that on one of the Halloween chapters. Geez, those were a while ago.

I figured since Pepper and the other Avengers would have some idea of what could've happened with Tony and Loki switching bodies (Pepper's seen him turn into his Jotun form, although she hasn't seen him turn into someone else), someone new would have to encounter this, and voila, Rhodey.

Hopefully I can get that part up sooner. Also, with the part about Loki not breathing underwater, when MCU Loki fell into the void in Thor, there wasn't really air there. Or maybe that's just other fanfics?