Building Bridges(Avengers) Moon/church

[FoxWriter]

It had all happened so suddenly. No one had been expecting it, and how could they have? It was supposed to be over and done with, the bad guy was caught, in prison, and the good guys had won and most of Manhattan had survived and was recovering... and then Thor returned, looking deeply troubled and explained that Loki had been as much of a victim as Hawkeye and Dr. Selvig. He explained that Loki had come into contact with the Tesseract, and it had taken over his brain the way he'd taken over Hawkeye, and that it had left Loki very sick now that he was free of it's poison. He explained how the Asgardian's where refusing to help Loki, refusing to see sense, refusing to admit that Loki couldn't be held accountable for his actions. They refused to even treat him for the injuries he'd gotten from the Avengers, let alone the sickness that was sapping his strength, both physical and magical. To make things worse, apparently Loki's guards had tried to kill him through a severe beating. Which was where Thor returning to Earth came in.

he went straight to Tony Stark, and begged the man to let him bring Loki there so he could get some sort of medical treatment. After all, it wasn't really Loki's fault, all that had happened. Loki had even done everything he could to make sure he failed! After all, Loki had been very dramatic about the whole thing, giving the Avenger's all the clues they needed to win. Thor never really gave Tony a chance to say no, he just thanked the Man or Iron and left to go and get Loki, which was how Loki ended up sitting at Tony Stark's breakfast table after having spent the night in a midgaurdian hospital to take care of his various damages. And he really did look like he'd been through the grinder. Bruises where blossomed over his body, he was entirely too thin after being in incarceration for only a month, and he was as pale as the moon... and not in a healthy way. Loki looked exactly how Thor said he would look. He looked like he was sick and had received a hell of a beating... even after The Hulk had gotten done with him, Loki hadn't looked that bad!

“Loki, you promise to behave?” Thor demanded, Loki rolling his eyes. “Thor... my magic is being sucked away by some foreign disease that no one is willing to treat. What the hell kind of trouble can I get into!?” Loki demanded. “besides, I'd much rather be in hell here on midgard, than in hell up in Asgard.” Loki muttered. “i'm not about to ruin this chance. Now stop hovering, I'm not dying yet.” he complained, but the way he said it, indicated that he fully expected this strange affliction to take his life. “i'm sure Master Stark can find a use for me, just because I can't use magic without agonizing pain, doesn't mean I'm helpless Thor.” Loki complained as Thor looked unconvinced and worried about his little brother. “i liked you more when you hated me.” “you don't mean that.” Thor grumbled and Loki sighed and shook his head. “i don't mean that.” he agreed softly, sounding more like a hurt little boy, than an almighty god of mischief. “behave for Tony Loki.” Thor ordered. “i will do what I can in Asgard.” “why bother? They have always hated me... at least now I understand why. If they want me gone then so be it.” Loki stated with a sniff. “i'll make a life for myself on Midgard... selling Tacos. I enjoy tacos.” he muttered, looking rather stoned for a moment before he snapped to. “or I could sell cars. Lots of people sell cars.” Thor just rolled his eyes. This Loki was certainly not the same one that broke Manhattan.

 

[Church]

When Thor had come to Tony about his brother he was much more intrigued by anything else as to why the tesseract was still effecting him, agreeing to house him and to see what he could do for the Asgardian. Besides, he didn't have much going on now as of any sort of project so he could dedicate a good amount of time to the God to figure out the riddle presented to him. He was drinking a hot cup of coffee as black as his hair when they came in and Loki was sat delicately into one of his chairs. "Well, reindeer games, you've looked better" he commented, trying to lighten the mood a bit. His eyes roamed over the other, noticing the bruising and their stark contrast to his white skin. Loki looked even paler than usual, which was saying something because he was already pale to begin with. He looked nothing like his golden tanned brother who looked to be from Australia or somewhere tropical. He remained fairly quiet as he sipped on his coffee and watched the brothers interact. He hadn't had the chance to observe the way they acted before. He was always with one or the other. Never together. It was much easier to see how they cared about each other when they were like this.

"I'd have you work for me before I let you sell tacos" he butted in at the statement. He knew their wages and besides, he was fun to mess with. He'd definitely want him around in the shop to pick at and talk to if nothing else. There were a few moments of silence after Thor left when neither man said anything to the other and Tony just drank coffee as he inspected the other. "Alright, come down to the workshop with me" he said, taking his cup with him as he led Loki downstairs "Jarvis, get me one of the nice chairs and do his blood work. Let Banner up when he gets here too." He looked at the other when he was sat down, tilting his head a bit. He had to keep reminding himself that he was still a person and hadn't been in control of himself when he was trying to take over Manhattan. "Is there anything that Jarvis can get you? Something to eat or drink? A taco?" He teased the other lightly. He turned when Banner came in, Bruce's eyes widening when he saw the shape that Loki was in. How could he even look that terrible? He resembled a cancer patient beginning chemo without the hair loss. Tony had called the doctor for help because a. he was a doctor and b. he liked having him around. They had started up a friendship after the Avengers had separated.

 

[FoxWriter]

Loki smirked a little. "why must you call me that infernal name? what does reindeer have to do with anything that i do?" he demanded, honestly puzzled, but also amused by the weird nickname. "of course i've looked better. i'm beautiful, no matter the state i'm in." "modest too." Thor stated with a roll of his eyes. "modesty is for the weak and the ugly." Loki countered, giving his brother an appraising glance. "and stupid neanderthal." "hey!" they sounded just like any other set of brothers. picking and teasing each other with friendly barbs and insults. you could practically see the adoration Loki had for his brother, no matter his words, Loki truly loved Thor. "i would rather live on the streets than work for you." Loki stated, staring at Tony stark through narrowed eyes. "you'll dress me up in maids outfits and make me call you 'sir'..." and that had Thor laughing his ass off. because frankly... he wasn't entirely sure Tony wouldn't dress his brother up in a maids outfit. "just a warning Friend Tony!" Thor stated, leaning in. "do not, ever, under ANY circumstances, allow Loki to do the laundry or run a vacuum." he warned before skipping off. "and keep him away from your microwave!" "infernal blasted mechanics..." Loki grumbled. "how was i supposed to know you couldn't put a pot in the microwave?" he grumbled as he slowly stood up. what he really wanted to do, was to lay down and take a nap, but telling Tony Stark 'no' would be a fruitless endeavor.

Loki settled into the 'nice' chair... which was admittedly, very nice and leaned back as one of the machines strapped his arm and slipped a needle into his vein and drew a few test vials of blood. Loki looked utterly fascinated as he studied the needle and the blood flowing through the little plastic tube. Loki's blood had thrice the amount of red blood cells as a human, which made his blood quite a bit thicker. "Jotunheimer.. the land of the Frost giants, has only about half the oxygen as Asgard or midgard does." Loki explained, feeling sleepy now. "so we need more red blood cells to carry the oxygen more efficiently. even an Aeser would suffocate in Jotunheimer after a few days." he admitted, blinking at Tony. "Aeser is what Thor is." he explained. "a god." he smiled. "i would love some of that sludge your drinking. i forget the name of it." Coffee. Loki wanted coffee? somehow that seamed like a bad idea, to give the god of mischief caffeine. especially the kind that Tony drank. he was dozing when Bruce came in and his eyes flickered open, emerald orbs examining the Doctor/Rage Monster. "i would like to thank you, Doctor." Loki stated suddenly. "your, pet... Hulk was the only creature known to man who was able to hit me hard enough on the head to knock me back into my right senses." he admitted before his lips twitched. "perhaps next time, you might convince him he only needs to do it the once?"

 

[Church]

"Because the helmet, with the antlers. They're like a reindeer," he said, putting his other hand up as though imitating one of the beasts he spoke of. "No? Don't know about those?" He shrugged, smirking at Loki's 'modesty'. "I've never been very modest myself, I find it to be a tad overrated" he admitted. "Well this stupid neanderthal is going to be watching over and running tests on you so you might want to be a little nicer to him" he added, though now the thought of Loki in a maids outfit was in his mind and would probably stay there for a while longer. Tony Stark had always been interested in beautiful people, whether they be a man or woman, though usually his interests lay in women more often. He laughed a little at him "why would you put a pot in the microwave?" he asked, scoffing. He made a mental note not to let Loki near anything, though he was sure that Jarvis would take care of anything that Loki touched. "As long as he doesn't break Jarvis, and I highly doubt he could do that" he said, looking between the brothers. He looked at the vials, holding them up to the light and inspecting them as Loki told him about the blood cell count "interesting. Do you have blood types then?" he asked, wondering if he could inject the blood into his own body. It would be handy in case he ever needed to travel where there's a lack of oxygen again.

"This?" Tony asked, holding up his cup. Maybe he would let Loki try it some other time when he wasn't so exhausted already. Loki may have been trying to hide it but he was doing a cruddy job of it. Bruce looked a little confused "he's not a pet, I wish I didn't have him honestly. I'm glad he helped you out though. Maybe he would've taken it a bit easier on you if you hadn't been killing a bunch of people right before and generally just being a terrible person." He said. He had been a little hesitant to let Loki stay here, regardless of what Thor was claiming. Though seeing him now and just how weak he was it was much easier to believe that he had been taken advantage of and hadn't done it all on his own accord. "So what do you have so far, Stark?" He asked the man and was handed a chart showing the levels of everything in his blood. Tony leaned over Loki, holding a flashlight "stay calm, I'm going to check your pupillary response" he told him, flashing the light in his eye before pulling it away on both eyes. "Response is slow" he made a note which Jarvis took down for him, updating the electronic pad in Bruce's hand. He had a glass of water in his hand for Loki, holding it for him to take but he would hold it to his lips if he was too tired. "Alright, I don't need you for anything else right now while I run tests so I'm going to take you upstairs so you can sleep." Stark took Loki to his own bed, seeing as that was the only one in the tower. There was a guest bed that Banner had used a few times and Tony was more likely to stay up all night than to actually use his bed.

 

[FoxWriter]

Loki blinked, uncomprehending of Tony's explanation. what in the hell was a reindeer? obviously it was something used in conjunction with a game of some sort, and it must have horns... but that was about all he could suss from that particular statement. "i was not speaking of the green man. i was speaking of my brother. the green man is highly intelligent, Thor is not." Loki stated with a sniff. "i desired soup." Loki stated. "it said to boil water, and place the noodles once the water was boiling. since there was no fire, and i knew that microwaves could boil water, it simply made sense to me." he admitted with a shrug. "Jarvis is the mechanical man?" Loki asked curiously. "the one with no form?" he asked before frowning, confused. "blood type? oh, the funny little letters. no, Jotun and Aeser do not have 'blood type' so to speak. we are always O+, universal donors." he admitted. "though, i am uncertain what would happen if you where to inject a human with the blood of a Jotun or an Aeser." he admitted. "yes that, it smells very good." Loki admitted, trying to peer into the cup from where he was laying down.

he actually cringed, and flinched when Bruce spoke though, clearly his actions weighed very heavily on him, even if he wasn't really responsible for his own actions. "i did everything i could to make it stop..." Loki admitted softly. "i... i made it as public as possible... the Voice... it couldn't override my natural tendencies to... show off. the more i pushed into showing off, the easier it was for you to find me..." he admitted softly. "it took every ounce of Willpower... i even gave you clues, as best i could... thankfully you where smart enough to look through the madness to glean in on the clues, garbled as they where... honestly, i had hoped you would kill me." he admitted softly. "anything was better than The Voice..." he muttered, curious about his blood work, but too tired to care to ask. Loki's blood was very odd. not only was there the promised three times as many red blood cells, but there was also three times the amount of white. it was much thicker, though that seamed to be normal. there where also odd little shapes that seamed to be normal, considering how much of it there was. either that or Loki had a very severe case of some sort of blood poisoning.

"it's an insulator." Loki explained. "Jotunheimer is about -150* on a warm day. it keeps our blood from freezing, or boiling should we end up in Muspelheim, which could get up to 150* on a cold day." he admitted with a chuckle. "you will find my organs to be twice as thick as yours, with three, or even four times as many blood vessels in separate 'layers' of my outer, and inner organ walls." he let Tony test his eyes and blinked the spots out of his eyes. he accepted the water happily, pouting at th cup of black sludge that Tony called Coffee, but allowed himself to be taken upstairs to sleep. he was so tired he almost couldn't walk himself there. he was asleep the second he collapsed onto the bed, looking frail... and beautiful. as thin, pale, and bruised as he was, Loki still had that unearthly 'i'm a god, worship me' look about him. he slept through the rest of the night, exaughsted and wok up in the morning looking a sight better than he had last night. he was still pale, still too thin, and much too pretty, but most of the bruising was gone, and he didn't look so ungodly TIRED. in fact, he was very curious, and so when Tony woke up in the morning, Jarvis informed him that Loki was doing something odd with the refrigerator. when Tony got there, he would see Loki opening and closing the door at varying speeds, no doubt trying to figure out if the little light was ALWAYS on, and if not, how it was turned on. "...how the hell does this thing DO that?!" Loki demanded, opening the fridge just enough to see that the inside was dark, before yanking it open and making an exasperated noise when he failed to understand why the light had turned on.

 

[Church]

"Well, I may try it depending on how your tests go. A little wouldn't kill me. I don't think," he added towards the end, not actually sure what it would do to him. He chuckled softly at the other wanting some of the coffee, wondering what he would think of it if he drank some. Tony listened to the other, it was very obvious to him how bad Loki felt for what he had done but there was no way that they could have known that he wasn't acting like himself. If anyone could have guessed it would have been Thor since he had grown up with the man. He still claimed they got lucky that the Hulk had gotten a hold of him and shook him out of his madness. "That's interesting" he commented after Loki described when he was seeing in the others blood. Maybe he would have to run the other through a MRI or something. He'd like to see how the 'god' was composed. He was glad that the water was taken without a fuss, he'd hate to have to start forcing things into him to keep him alive. He was a billionaire playboy philanthropist, not a babysitter. Stark stood and watched Loki sleep for a few moments, moving to remove his shoes and cover him with a blanket when he essentially collapsed in the bed. Hopefully his clothes were comfortable, because he certainly was not going that far.

The next morning he padded out barefoot into his kitchen to make breakfast, wondering what Loki was up to and hoping he wasn't destroying his fridge. He laughed at Loki's distress, glad that Bruce wasn't here to watch this and taunt him about it. He started a pot of coffee before going behind Loki and taking the handle right above Loki's hand. "Look, so now the light is off, right?" he asked, the door barely open so the light was off. He pulled it a bit more and it came on "and right then, the door opened enough to turn the light on. There's a sensor right here," he said, motioning with his finger "that when the door opens this far, it makes the light come on so that you can see what's inside but turns off so it doesn't wear the light or the battery down." He stepped away from him again, looking him up and down "you might want to take a shower" he commented, noticing how dirty he looked as well. "You might feel better" he added, pouring the coffee into a cup and going ahead to pour a second. "Here," he gave him the cup, watching to see if he'd like it or not. "I'm going to make breakfast too, what do you want? Or do you know Earth food?" he asked, knowing he knew what tacos were but that could be about it.

 

[FoxWriter]

Loki snorted. "it might kill you." he pointed out. "you should test it on someone who isn't saving my life." he pointed out, his good mood vanishing at Bruce's quip about the battles. "not really. it's simply survival." Loki admitted. "polar bears have blubber, human's have clothes, we have insulated blood." he admitted with a small smile. "our lungs are bigger too." Loki admitted, tracing the outline of his lungs on his chest. "and out hearts are here." he explained, setting fists on each side of his rib cage. which seamed to extend a bit lower. Loki had several more ribs than a human did, and they where a lot harder, made of a higher density calcium than human bones. no wonder he'd been able to take such a beating, he was practically armor plated with a bone density like that. he didn't bother putting up a fuss, he was thirsty after all. he slept better than he had since he was a child, and was in quite a good mood when he woke up. there was no food like he was used to, but he wasn't all that hungry anyway.

he ignored the human when he started playing with things behind him, and nearly crawled out of his skin when Tony came up behind him. Tony was warm, and thrummed with power, and Loki was very glad he was a shapeshifter and able to control 'human reactions'. "yes, the glowing orb is off." Loki agreed, his eyes narrowed in concentration as he studied what Tony was doing, his head cocking to the side like a curious puppy as he examined the sensor, touching it and watching the light turn off, his eyes widening. "what a delightful idea!" he gasped, stunned that humans could so such amazing things, like making glowing orbs turn on and off. Asgard didn't have things like that, they had glowing plants instead, as soon as the sun went down, the plants lit up, like Glow worms. they where very bright, but you couldn't turn them off. instead, most of the light in the rooms came from large fire pits, that could be covered to hide the light. "what, pray tell, is a shower?" Loki asked, looking baffled. "and i am well aware that i look like shit, thank you very much. the guards refused to allow me simple requests, such as bathing, and more than one meal a day." even after they became aware that Loki had not been accountable for his actions, they had treated him like shit, simply because he was not Aeser, he was not like them.

"...the black sludge." Loki commented, taking a curious sip, blinking at the bitter taste and the rush of adrenaline before a sly grin spread his lips. "i desire to feed this to Thor." gods no! Thor on Coffee was a BAD idea! "this is almost like our Cusca beans..." he mused. "when they are dried, ground, and boiled, they secrete a chemical that gives a large burst of energy... not as big as this though, and the Cusca is even more bitter than this. only people with no taste buds drink the Cusca..." he admitted with a snort as he took another sip. "but this is very pleasant, bitter, but not so bad, i like it very much, and it doesn't have any alcohol in it. everything in Asgard, drink wise i mean, has alcohol in it save for a few juices for the pregnant." he scoffed. "no one ever thought to think what alcohol might do to someone who's blood is much thicker, and flows thrice as fast as theirs. i do not handle alcohol well, and have you ever seen a drunken sorcerer? it is not a pretty sight." he admitted with a shake of his head. "i only know about Tacos." he admitted. "when i was..." here he flushed a bit. "the man named Hawkeye enjoys them, and while i was building the portal, he often brought them back from his excursions." Loki admitted. "i know the thing called a 'banana strawberry milkshake' as well. i do like that as well. and the thing called 'hamburger with cheese'..." he looked at Tony. "i would like a place to become clean, but i could not find your bathing room... i found your wastebox just fine, it took me a moment to figure out how to work it though..." he admitted with a wry grin. "humans are so intelligent..."