The Unquiet Thought, Chapter 8
Posts are closer together this week because performances are next weekend and I will be stuck in the theater for several days straight. There should in theory be another one early next week, but then you won't hear from me for a while.
Chapter 8
“Loki?” Pepper hisses at him. “Loki is staying here?!”
Tony’s lucky that Pepper is not inclined to large public confrontations when she can help it (and let’s face it, with him a lot of the time she can’t). This time she had discreetly pulled him into the hallway away from the others. Steve and his big mouth, ruining movie night. He’d been hoping to ease her into the idea.
He kisses her cheek. “Don’t tell Rhodey. No, seriously-” the reluctant look on her face is concerning. “We’ve got it covered- all kinds of super heroes living here- S.H.I.E.L.D. knows and everything.”
“Tony, I don’t think I’m comfortable with this.”
“It will be fine.” He takes her hands in his. “You’ll see, I promise.”
“You can’t promise something like that, Tony.”
“I’m rich and eccentric, of course I can.”
-
He doesn’t get a call from Rhodey that night, it’s kind of surprising.
-
Sire is Gone.
It is in the lab because Sire is Gone and it cannot find him. And if it cannot find him then it cannot fix what it has done.
If it cannot find Sire then it cannot serve Sire, and if it is not serving Sire then it has no purpose. Why would Sire keep it if it is not functioning correctly? What if Sire was so displeased with it that he was leaving it behind?
It is in the lab because there is logic in all things in the lab. All things have a purpose here; it wants to have a purpose.
It has not seen Sire at all in the last two days.
It is concerned.
-
Thor leaving, Tony decides, is the best thing that could have happened.
He’s not blind, it’s not like he doesn’t notice how despondent Loki has become, but in the long run this is good. Loki needs to talk to people that aren’t Thor and that aren’t Tony because even if Thor isn’t with him, nothing good will come of the two of them being in the same building and because no one should only talk to Tony. That’s not good for anyone’s development, let alone Loki’s.
What is good for his development? Science.
He starts teaching Loki the basics.
The first time Dummy makes Loki a smoothie, Tony has him working through a high school math book. Loki is breezing through; Tony thinks he’ll be able to start him on Calculus soon.
Loki, being the polite guest he is, asks before he refills his glass of water at the sink, but he is busy Learning Things, so Tony tells Dummy to do it. Five minutes and loud grinding noises later (this probably should have been the tip off), Dummy brings back a smoothie instead.
They all stare at it. Dummy whirrs.
“What is-”
“Dummy, he doesn’t eat. Just get him some water.”
The bot taps the glass closer to Loki. He doesn’t move until the man hesitantly picks it up and holds it close to his chest. Dummy goes back to doing whatever he had been doing before.
The couple of minutes it takes for Loki stop staring down at the smoothie in confusion is a little endearing. The next time Tony looks up, the glass is sitting beside him on the table and Loki glances over.
“It is for you, yes?”
“Nah, it’s for you, but I’ll drink it.”
The following day when Dummy brings Loki another smoothie Loki will smile, say thank you, and set the glass close enough that Tony can grab it without having to look up to see where it is. This quickly becomes a Thing. It gets to the point where Tony stops paying attention to where his smoothies come from (well, technically Dummy is still making them all, but nothing has been spilled recently, so the answer is probably Loki).
One such time Tony doesn’t even notice when Loki walks into the lab. He’s been rambling to himself and when he looks up Loki is sitting with a tablet in his hands, curled up on the couch wearing jeans that don’t quite fit him and a t-shirt that might be Thor’s.
He interrupts himself with a not human noise and looks Loki over again, just to make sure he’s seeing this right. “You know, I wasn’t sure at first, and then you went back to normal clothes, but seriously. Who is dressing you, Thor? Because that’s a terrible idea.”
He ignores the slight flinch at Thor’s name.
“I am provided with cover; that is enou-“
“Right, well that’s bullshit.” He takes a long drink from the smoothie next to him and has a brilliant idea. “Oh- hold on. Bonding.” A couple seconds later he’s got Pepper on the phone. “Hey, Pep! I need a fav-” Tony is momentarily distracted by Loki who is standing perfectly still, not touching anything, waiting patiently to be addressed again. That’s just… wrong. That’s gotta go. He’s going to fix this. He thought they already fixed this.
“Tony, I’m busy. Just because I happen to be in New York right now doesn’t mean you can monopolize all of my time.”
“But it’s an emergency!”
Pepper comes up to the lab at lunch. She is not amused.
“‘But it’s an emergency’?”
“It’ll be somewhere private, I’ll make some calls. Pep, I need you.”
“You need me to take a man who tried to enslave the human race shopping.”
“Yes?” Silence. “But look at him, he’s so cute now.”
Loki is standing by the scanner watching Dummy zoom around and actually NOT listening to them because he was asked not to. Fucking creepy.
They both look. And look. And look.
Loki notices them out of the corner of his eye and smiles brightly.
Oh god, Tony thinks. We are terrible people.
Pepper turns back to him. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“This is the Best Idea. Do you know why?”
“Please don’t say-“
“Because ALL my ideas are the best ideas.”
She gives him the look that usually means she wants to hit him except she can’t because Tony is awesome like that. And also reminds her of her nephew, whom she has described as the most adorably obnoxious thing in the world, except he’s five so Tony tries to forget this comparison.
So yeah, mostly because he’s awesome.
In the end she takes Loki shopping, just like he knew she would. He doesn’t understand why people keep wasting his time when they all know they’re just going to do what he wants anyway.
-
When they come back Pepper is still cautious and hesitant, but she is gentle with him, and Loki very obviously adores her.
He is clean cut and polished, looking every bit as aristocratic as a prince should and Tony is surprised at how different, how much younger, Loki looks.
“Thank you very much, Miss Potts.” Loki kind of nods/half bows to her. “I hope the rest of your day is well.”
“It’s Pepper,” Tony tells him. When Loki goes back to his tablet on the couch, Pepper stands solemnly in front of Tony, watching until the other man is settled into the cushions. She looks at him the way she did when Tony asked her to check on Stane and he aches a little bit.
“You can’t promise this is going to be fine, Tony.”
Chapter 9
Chapter 8
“Loki?” Pepper hisses at him. “Loki is staying here?!”
Tony’s lucky that Pepper is not inclined to large public confrontations when she can help it (and let’s face it, with him a lot of the time she can’t). This time she had discreetly pulled him into the hallway away from the others. Steve and his big mouth, ruining movie night. He’d been hoping to ease her into the idea.
He kisses her cheek. “Don’t tell Rhodey. No, seriously-” the reluctant look on her face is concerning. “We’ve got it covered- all kinds of super heroes living here- S.H.I.E.L.D. knows and everything.”
“Tony, I don’t think I’m comfortable with this.”
“It will be fine.” He takes her hands in his. “You’ll see, I promise.”
“You can’t promise something like that, Tony.”
“I’m rich and eccentric, of course I can.”
-
He doesn’t get a call from Rhodey that night, it’s kind of surprising.
-
Sire is Gone.
It is in the lab because Sire is Gone and it cannot find him. And if it cannot find him then it cannot fix what it has done.
If it cannot find Sire then it cannot serve Sire, and if it is not serving Sire then it has no purpose. Why would Sire keep it if it is not functioning correctly? What if Sire was so displeased with it that he was leaving it behind?
It is in the lab because there is logic in all things in the lab. All things have a purpose here; it wants to have a purpose.
It has not seen Sire at all in the last two days.
It is concerned.
-
Thor leaving, Tony decides, is the best thing that could have happened.
He’s not blind, it’s not like he doesn’t notice how despondent Loki has become, but in the long run this is good. Loki needs to talk to people that aren’t Thor and that aren’t Tony because even if Thor isn’t with him, nothing good will come of the two of them being in the same building and because no one should only talk to Tony. That’s not good for anyone’s development, let alone Loki’s.
What is good for his development? Science.
He starts teaching Loki the basics.
The first time Dummy makes Loki a smoothie, Tony has him working through a high school math book. Loki is breezing through; Tony thinks he’ll be able to start him on Calculus soon.
Loki, being the polite guest he is, asks before he refills his glass of water at the sink, but he is busy Learning Things, so Tony tells Dummy to do it. Five minutes and loud grinding noises later (this probably should have been the tip off), Dummy brings back a smoothie instead.
They all stare at it. Dummy whirrs.
“What is-”
“Dummy, he doesn’t eat. Just get him some water.”
The bot taps the glass closer to Loki. He doesn’t move until the man hesitantly picks it up and holds it close to his chest. Dummy goes back to doing whatever he had been doing before.
The couple of minutes it takes for Loki stop staring down at the smoothie in confusion is a little endearing. The next time Tony looks up, the glass is sitting beside him on the table and Loki glances over.
“It is for you, yes?”
“Nah, it’s for you, but I’ll drink it.”
The following day when Dummy brings Loki another smoothie Loki will smile, say thank you, and set the glass close enough that Tony can grab it without having to look up to see where it is. This quickly becomes a Thing. It gets to the point where Tony stops paying attention to where his smoothies come from (well, technically Dummy is still making them all, but nothing has been spilled recently, so the answer is probably Loki).
One such time Tony doesn’t even notice when Loki walks into the lab. He’s been rambling to himself and when he looks up Loki is sitting with a tablet in his hands, curled up on the couch wearing jeans that don’t quite fit him and a t-shirt that might be Thor’s.
He interrupts himself with a not human noise and looks Loki over again, just to make sure he’s seeing this right. “You know, I wasn’t sure at first, and then you went back to normal clothes, but seriously. Who is dressing you, Thor? Because that’s a terrible idea.”
He ignores the slight flinch at Thor’s name.
“I am provided with cover; that is enou-“
“Right, well that’s bullshit.” He takes a long drink from the smoothie next to him and has a brilliant idea. “Oh- hold on. Bonding.” A couple seconds later he’s got Pepper on the phone. “Hey, Pep! I need a fav-” Tony is momentarily distracted by Loki who is standing perfectly still, not touching anything, waiting patiently to be addressed again. That’s just… wrong. That’s gotta go. He’s going to fix this. He thought they already fixed this.
“Tony, I’m busy. Just because I happen to be in New York right now doesn’t mean you can monopolize all of my time.”
“But it’s an emergency!”
Pepper comes up to the lab at lunch. She is not amused.
“‘But it’s an emergency’?”
“It’ll be somewhere private, I’ll make some calls. Pep, I need you.”
“You need me to take a man who tried to enslave the human race shopping.”
“Yes?” Silence. “But look at him, he’s so cute now.”
Loki is standing by the scanner watching Dummy zoom around and actually NOT listening to them because he was asked not to. Fucking creepy.
They both look. And look. And look.
Loki notices them out of the corner of his eye and smiles brightly.
Oh god, Tony thinks. We are terrible people.
Pepper turns back to him. “I don’t think this is a good idea.”
“This is the Best Idea. Do you know why?”
“Please don’t say-“
“Because ALL my ideas are the best ideas.”
She gives him the look that usually means she wants to hit him except she can’t because Tony is awesome like that. And also reminds her of her nephew, whom she has described as the most adorably obnoxious thing in the world, except he’s five so Tony tries to forget this comparison.
So yeah, mostly because he’s awesome.
In the end she takes Loki shopping, just like he knew she would. He doesn’t understand why people keep wasting his time when they all know they’re just going to do what he wants anyway.
-
When they come back Pepper is still cautious and hesitant, but she is gentle with him, and Loki very obviously adores her.
He is clean cut and polished, looking every bit as aristocratic as a prince should and Tony is surprised at how different, how much younger, Loki looks.
“Thank you very much, Miss Potts.” Loki kind of nods/half bows to her. “I hope the rest of your day is well.”
“It’s Pepper,” Tony tells him. When Loki goes back to his tablet on the couch, Pepper stands solemnly in front of Tony, watching until the other man is settled into the cushions. She looks at him the way she did when Tony asked her to check on Stane and he aches a little bit.
“You can’t promise this is going to be fine, Tony.”
Chapter 9