The Unquiet Thought, Chapter 14
What Tony was doing in the last post. Plus he gets new information. Things happen.
Chapter 14
Originally- originally the whole point of the damn research was to do something… something… fuck it, it was stupid. Like, really? Really? That’s what he wanted to do? Crazy Loki was crazy and tried to kill him. Repeatedly. Why- why is he even-
Yeah, okay, so Loki got screwed over and Thor was a raging jackass, but what happened happened and now it’s done. Right? Kind of?
Shit.
And now, the whole point of this fixing what they did, was just- he didn’t… want to.
Well, he did, because what they did was shitty… but Loki.
His Loki.
He didn’t want-
Tony buries his face in his arms and tries not to think about the terrified green eyes that he can’t escape from.
Would he cause that? If he “fixed” him. Would his Loki look at him with begging and unbridled panic, and die hoping in those last seconds that Tony would change his mind? The way that Loki had looked at Thor.
He’s drunk, oh God he is so drunk. And he can’t even distract himself because JARVIS has locked him out of all of the fun things for Reasons. Like that his lack of common sense makes him do dangerous stuff, except- flawed reasoning- cause he still does dumb shit when he’s sober. So this? Not all that special. Most things Tony does are because of a lack of common sense.
The bots buzz around him, chattering in binary beeps that he is too drunk to understand.
He has to hold onto Dummy’s primary strut to make it to the couch so he can pass out. You stares down at him worriedly despite extensive experience with drunktony, but Butterfingers keeps acting like it’s normal workshop time and makes a shit ton of noise because he’s a goddamn troll.
-
The morning is not pleasant.
-
Tony stumbles back into the lab, still suffering from a headache and kind of happy that he promised Pepper he’d go to a board meeting today (even if he did have to deal with all their shit while he was hung over) because Loki isn’t in the lab.
He’s with Bruce. For baby-sitting.
Tony should buy Bruce a present.
It’s not that he doesn’t trust Loki, this Loki (his Loki), but he’s worried. And irritable. And looking at the other man will remind him that ever since Tony first brought him down to the lab he’s basically been harboring plans to kill him, which he really really does not want to deal with right now.
He wants distractions. And science.
Glorious, glorious science.
That’s when he sees the communication log that JARVIS has pulled up on the screen, and he tries to focus on the study of it, not the eventual results.
“They talk about Thor, and… Dummy’s tennis ball?”
“It appears so.”
“What? Hallr? What does that even- is that a language?”
“I believe it is Old Norse Sir, it translates roughly to stone.”
“Stone.”
“Yes Sir.”
“What the hell does that have anything to do with- give me the results of the last scan will you, what did Thor say Loki’s body was supposed to be made of again?”
“Thor’s understanding of Loki’s physical integrity is limited, Sir.” An unhelpful mess of data appears on one of his screens. “The spell work woven into Mr. Odinson’s form has interfered with the readings of all previous scans.”
Tony isolates a small portion of the text, bits of common code scattered throughout, and balls the rest up to throw in the virtual trash bin.
“What about this right here? Looks like the composition of something, but there are pieces missing.”
“Shall I run a search for similar patterns, Sir?”
“Yeah, do that.”
By the time Jarvis comes back with the results, Tony is elbow deep in the engine of his Roadster (flown in special, because it felt weird not to have his cars around when he first shifted to New York) and had completely forgotten what they had been discussing.
“It appears similar in density and make to a variety of igneous rock.”
“Oh,” he looks up, almost hits his head on the raised hood. “Oh, that- how would Dummy know that?” Tony takes a rag from Dummy who is perched quietly next to him, visual sensor tracking him as he wipes his hands and moves back to the desk. He taps Dummy’s arm as he walks by. “What are you up to, kid.” You’s arm peeks up above the roof from the other side of the car and gives a conspiratorial whir.
“Give me a visual.” An image of a brilliant green gemstone appears on the screen beside him, polished and shining, like an emerald. Like Loki’s eyes. “… huh.”
-
“So basically, I just need to do a quick scan for verification purposes.”
He feels kind of bad for lying to him (except he’s not, because he’s totally going to make everyone do this, just to be fair), but he would feel equally bad if he told Loki that he was studying him. Like it was breaking his trust, even though Loki’s first reaction was always to smile pleasantly and agree to whatever Tony asked for Because.
Goddamn Thor.
But still, he’s curious. He can’t help it.
“I figured it was about time to officially up some security measures; start with retinal, move on from there.” He leans back against the table across from Loki, who is leaning against Dummy, examining the retinal scanner Tony had jerry-rigged last night.
Anyway, it is a good idea, safety and such, even if he doesn’t bring Thor’s Loki back.
“This part right here, the glass piece, that’s where you’re going to be looking, and then you’ll just hold that, like we did for the first scans. Only less eye movement.”
They set the scanner up on the table for stability and Loki leans in, trusting him without a second thought, and looks directly into the eyepiece. Tony starts counting to fifteen, but doesn’t make it farther than six before Loki reels back, blinking rapidly.
“Sir-”
“Hold on, J-” He reaches out to hold Loki’s shoulders, turning him so that they face each other. His view is obscured by Loki bringing his hands up and pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes. Hard. “You okay there? I wasn’t sure what- it’s just light- it shouldn’t have-” The other man’s hands slide down until they completely cup his face and he shakes his head, dropping them suddenly to growl and push Tony away. He beelines to the other side of the lab and begins to pace.
Tony stands staring at him until JARVIS speaks again.
“Sir-”
“Shit.”
“Sir, it is incomplete, but there appear to be some abnormalities in Mr. Odinson’s retinal scan.” What appears is something like distorted chicken scratch; Tony takes a stab in the dark.
“Is this Old Norse? What are they called- runes?”
“Shall I attempt a translation into the western alphabet?”
“Yeah, do that, I’m going to-” he makes an aborted gesture to Loki’s pacing.
By the time Tony finally approaches him, made cautious by cohabitating with violent spies who have hair-trigger reactions to just about everything and his own inability to comfort upset people, Loki doesn’t register his presence.
Tony watches until Loki stops and holds for a few minutes, then he reaches out.
And his breath is gone and his vision goes white as his skull cracks back against the wall, a hand clenched tight around his neck.
Chapter 15
Chapter 14
Originally- originally the whole point of the damn research was to do something… something… fuck it, it was stupid. Like, really? Really? That’s what he wanted to do? Crazy Loki was crazy and tried to kill him. Repeatedly. Why- why is he even-
Yeah, okay, so Loki got screwed over and Thor was a raging jackass, but what happened happened and now it’s done. Right? Kind of?
Shit.
And now, the whole point of this fixing what they did, was just- he didn’t… want to.
Well, he did, because what they did was shitty… but Loki.
His Loki.
He didn’t want-
Tony buries his face in his arms and tries not to think about the terrified green eyes that he can’t escape from.
Would he cause that? If he “fixed” him. Would his Loki look at him with begging and unbridled panic, and die hoping in those last seconds that Tony would change his mind? The way that Loki had looked at Thor.
He’s drunk, oh God he is so drunk. And he can’t even distract himself because JARVIS has locked him out of all of the fun things for Reasons. Like that his lack of common sense makes him do dangerous stuff, except- flawed reasoning- cause he still does dumb shit when he’s sober. So this? Not all that special. Most things Tony does are because of a lack of common sense.
The bots buzz around him, chattering in binary beeps that he is too drunk to understand.
He has to hold onto Dummy’s primary strut to make it to the couch so he can pass out. You stares down at him worriedly despite extensive experience with drunktony, but Butterfingers keeps acting like it’s normal workshop time and makes a shit ton of noise because he’s a goddamn troll.
-
The morning is not pleasant.
-
Tony stumbles back into the lab, still suffering from a headache and kind of happy that he promised Pepper he’d go to a board meeting today (even if he did have to deal with all their shit while he was hung over) because Loki isn’t in the lab.
He’s with Bruce. For baby-sitting.
Tony should buy Bruce a present.
It’s not that he doesn’t trust Loki, this Loki (his Loki), but he’s worried. And irritable. And looking at the other man will remind him that ever since Tony first brought him down to the lab he’s basically been harboring plans to kill him, which he really really does not want to deal with right now.
He wants distractions. And science.
Glorious, glorious science.
That’s when he sees the communication log that JARVIS has pulled up on the screen, and he tries to focus on the study of it, not the eventual results.
“They talk about Thor, and… Dummy’s tennis ball?”
“It appears so.”
“What? Hallr? What does that even- is that a language?”
“I believe it is Old Norse Sir, it translates roughly to stone.”
“Stone.”
“Yes Sir.”
“What the hell does that have anything to do with- give me the results of the last scan will you, what did Thor say Loki’s body was supposed to be made of again?”
“Thor’s understanding of Loki’s physical integrity is limited, Sir.” An unhelpful mess of data appears on one of his screens. “The spell work woven into Mr. Odinson’s form has interfered with the readings of all previous scans.”
Tony isolates a small portion of the text, bits of common code scattered throughout, and balls the rest up to throw in the virtual trash bin.
“What about this right here? Looks like the composition of something, but there are pieces missing.”
“Shall I run a search for similar patterns, Sir?”
“Yeah, do that.”
By the time Jarvis comes back with the results, Tony is elbow deep in the engine of his Roadster (flown in special, because it felt weird not to have his cars around when he first shifted to New York) and had completely forgotten what they had been discussing.
“It appears similar in density and make to a variety of igneous rock.”
“Oh,” he looks up, almost hits his head on the raised hood. “Oh, that- how would Dummy know that?” Tony takes a rag from Dummy who is perched quietly next to him, visual sensor tracking him as he wipes his hands and moves back to the desk. He taps Dummy’s arm as he walks by. “What are you up to, kid.” You’s arm peeks up above the roof from the other side of the car and gives a conspiratorial whir.
“Give me a visual.” An image of a brilliant green gemstone appears on the screen beside him, polished and shining, like an emerald. Like Loki’s eyes. “… huh.”
-
“So basically, I just need to do a quick scan for verification purposes.”
He feels kind of bad for lying to him (except he’s not, because he’s totally going to make everyone do this, just to be fair), but he would feel equally bad if he told Loki that he was studying him. Like it was breaking his trust, even though Loki’s first reaction was always to smile pleasantly and agree to whatever Tony asked for Because.
Goddamn Thor.
But still, he’s curious. He can’t help it.
“I figured it was about time to officially up some security measures; start with retinal, move on from there.” He leans back against the table across from Loki, who is leaning against Dummy, examining the retinal scanner Tony had jerry-rigged last night.
Anyway, it is a good idea, safety and such, even if he doesn’t bring Thor’s Loki back.
“This part right here, the glass piece, that’s where you’re going to be looking, and then you’ll just hold that, like we did for the first scans. Only less eye movement.”
They set the scanner up on the table for stability and Loki leans in, trusting him without a second thought, and looks directly into the eyepiece. Tony starts counting to fifteen, but doesn’t make it farther than six before Loki reels back, blinking rapidly.
“Sir-”
“Hold on, J-” He reaches out to hold Loki’s shoulders, turning him so that they face each other. His view is obscured by Loki bringing his hands up and pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes. Hard. “You okay there? I wasn’t sure what- it’s just light- it shouldn’t have-” The other man’s hands slide down until they completely cup his face and he shakes his head, dropping them suddenly to growl and push Tony away. He beelines to the other side of the lab and begins to pace.
Tony stands staring at him until JARVIS speaks again.
“Sir-”
“Shit.”
“Sir, it is incomplete, but there appear to be some abnormalities in Mr. Odinson’s retinal scan.” What appears is something like distorted chicken scratch; Tony takes a stab in the dark.
“Is this Old Norse? What are they called- runes?”
“Shall I attempt a translation into the western alphabet?”
“Yeah, do that, I’m going to-” he makes an aborted gesture to Loki’s pacing.
By the time Tony finally approaches him, made cautious by cohabitating with violent spies who have hair-trigger reactions to just about everything and his own inability to comfort upset people, Loki doesn’t register his presence.
Tony watches until Loki stops and holds for a few minutes, then he reaches out.
And his breath is gone and his vision goes white as his skull cracks back against the wall, a hand clenched tight around his neck.
Chapter 15