Chapter Text
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand this.” Steve Rogers said with a sigh. He shook his head as his eyes followed Tony Stark’s movements through the glass window of his workshop.
Bruce Banner offered an half-smile. “It’s a puzzle, Steve. It’s a really dark, twisted puzzle and Tony wants to take it apart and see how it fits back together.”
The music was pounding such a deep base, the two men could feel it through their shoes. Tony was oblivious to the conversation going on just outside he workshop. He eyes ran over the numbers and images floating around him, trying to see a pattern. Something that could give him the keystone.
“A puzzle? I’ve seen Tony with puzzles, Bruce. They last a few hours, a few days at most. If he can’t solve them, which we all know is an incredibly rare occasion, he throws them away. This has been months. Bruce, he’s obsessed with trying to piece this all together.” Steve sighed again. “I knew we shouldn’t have let him go ask Loki about his magic before we put the muzzle on him.”
Bruce shrugged. “You know how well that would have worked. No, this is a puzzle, but it’s like science. Tony Stark is a genius, not just at engineering. There is a reason he is where he is, Steve. I know you don’t understand most of what he says. I don’t really understand about half of the stuff he talks about when he really gets going. He absorbs information like a sponge. Magic, this obsession he’s developed, it’s like a branch of science that he can only see little bits of and he has to be driving him crazy. He’s looking for the piece, the one tidbit of information, that will make it all fall into place.”
The two turned away from the workshop and went back downstairs. Stark Tower had been re-built and re-named. Avenger’s Tower looked much the same as it had in its previous life, except now each Avenger had their own floor. Tony had the topmost parts, the last full floor, and all the little ones for his equipment. His workshop was currently at the top of the top. The highest space inside the tower. Tony spun to reach for his Starkphone, but too late to see the other two leave. He continued working, ignorant of their discussion, which, though they didn’t know it, was not entirely true. Tony was attempting to solve this puzzle, but it was more than that. So much more. Tony felt that if he could just unlock the magic that drove Loki, the Tesseract and Loki’s own magic, he could figure out what had gone wrong inside the Asgardian Prince’s head. He’d read all the myths and he tried speaking to Thor about it, but that gave him very little. Thor’s view of what had happened was lopsided and clearly skewed, even Tony could see that without knowing Loki’s side of things. He wanted to know. He needed to know, because he saw too much of himself in the other. It was like looking into the mirror. Loki clearly had similar Daddy Issues to Tony’s own, not that Tony was even going to touch that topic with a ten-foot pole. He’d been an outsider; he was broken. Tony wanted to know why and how, because maybe he could fix Loki and if he could fix Loki, well…then maybe he could fix himself.
His phone buzzed as he reached for it and he saw a message from Pepper, who’d gone back to being…well, whatever she was before they’d kissed on that rooftop only more relaxed about it. Tony sighed. He had commitment issues the size of Everest, but he’d been willing to try, for Pepper. Pepper, on the other hand, had not been willing to put up with his bullshit or his work with the Avengers. She said it was too much for her nerves and she would have a breakdown. So they’d broken up. It hurt somewhere deep in his chest that even Pepper had given up on him, but he pushed it down. He moved to bring up the text she’d sent, but a blinding flash of green light flooded the room and he froze.
“JARVIS? Don’t sound the alarm on this. Thanks.” Tony muttered when he saw what had appeared on the floor of his workroom.
“Of course, sir, Alarm signal aborted.”
“You’re a pal, Jarv.” Tony stood and moved cautiously toward the broad expanse of naked skin. The thing on his floor was a man. A tall, pale man with long black hair who was also completely nude and dripping blood from…his mouth?
Tony called for one of his AIs to bring a blanket or a robe. The man, Loki! Tony realized with a start, attempted to rise, to push himself up off the ground, but failed and collapsed back as his arm gave out. He turned his head enough so that Tony could see his face.
“Holy fucking shit!”
Loki’s lips were oozing blood where someone has obviously sewn them together. Tony was by his side in a moment, fumbling for the nearest sharp object. Loki’s eyes were wide with terror and he jerked, attempting to loose himself from Tony’s grasp.
“Hey, shh. It’s fine. I’m going to cut the thread, okay? The person who did this to you should be shot. In the face. And them revived and shot again. In the nuts. You obviously ran into a sick fucker, Reindeer Games.”
The terror receded, replaced by confusion. Tony slowly raised the small razor blade that he’d snagged from the workbench. Being careful to move the stitches a little as possible, he passed the blade through the thread. In a moment, Loki’s lips parted and he gasped a loud shaky breath. His entire body was shuddering and he curled in on himself. Tony’s hands weren’t exactly steady themselves, when he draped the newly proffered blanket over the Norse God’s shoulders.
“Loki, can you speak? Who did this?”
Tony was kneeling in front of Loki, his hands rest on his shoulders as the engineer peered into the other’s face.
His voice was rusty with disuse and hoarse, but he managed to grate out one word. “Thor.”
Tony blinked and jerked back as if he’d been slapped. Loki was still shuddering and his mouth bled more freely as he tried to pull the threads free. Tony stood and stepped back. He turned and made his way to the door.
“Jarvis, call Pepper, would you?” There was a strangled noise from behind him. “Tell her I need antiseptic, tweezers, liquid bandages, and alcohol, the non-drinkable kind. Also some kind of painkiller. Have her leave it downstairs. No one gets up here. Not a single person, do you hear me? I don’t care who it is or what kind of security clearance they have. Not Nick Fury, not even Pepper. Someone tries, you lock down. Everything. You understand me, Jarvis?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Oh, and Loki?” He turned back to the god curled into a ball on his floor. “Stop trying to pluck out the thread. I imagine it hurts like a fuck, but if you don’t do it properly, it’ll scar. I’ll do it for you when Pepper comes with the medical supplies, yeah? For now, try and relax as much as you can. I’ll be back.”
Loki blinked, his vision hazy and tried to nod. He wasn’t sure if he managed it before he lost consciousness.
Tony sighed and went in search of the other resident God.