Loki Misses the Asgardian Prison System

Chapter 62

Tony wakes up in the morning with high spirits. Pepper's finally coming back today! It's been weeks since he saw her!

... Okay, it's been a week and a half, but that still feels like a really long time.

He hops out of bed and throws on jeans and a Metallica tee, the first things he puts his hands on. He heads for the door... and then he pauses. There are a few pieces of notebook paper on the floor, mostly cursive writing scrawled across them, some in pencil and come in pen. He picks them up, skimming over them. A lot of it looks like the same stuff he's written down himself, except this isn't his writing. Someone just copied it. And they added on a bit, too. No, they added on a lot, actually. And then, at the bottom of the last page he looks at:

Check my work?

— Loki

Tony furrows his brows. Okay...

Tony plops down on his bed. Alright, let's take a look. He reads over it, paying much closer attention to its words this time. It's about Extremis, which Tony really thinks he's close to cracking. He understands how it works; it shouldn't be too long until he figures out how to undo it and get Pepper back to normal.

Except it seems Loki beat him to it. Looking over these papers, it seems Loki's not only figured out a potential way to remove Extremis from Pepper's bloodstream; he's also explained his reasoning every step of the way. And it makes sense, too. Try as he might, he can't find a flaw. It looks like it might work. It looks like it will work. That's... wow.

"Hey, JARVIS?" Tony says. "Where's Loki?"

"Loki is watching TV in the man cave," JARVIS says.

So that's where he goes. Papers in hand, he heads down the hall and straight to the elevator. Within minutes, he's on the right floor, and he walks down the hall to the man cave.

Loki is sitting on the floor with his back against the couch. Snowflake is on the cushion, her head resting on Loki's shoulder. He's mid-sip of Steve's Captain America shield mug, but when he catches sight of Tony, he lowers his coffee to the ground.

Tony holds the papers up. "When'd you have time to do all this?"

"Last night," Loki says simply.

Tony scoffs. "You did all of this last night? This thing that I've been working on for a month and a half, you did in a night?"

Loki pauses his movie before he speaks. "You've been overthinking it. All I did was read your work and come to what should have been the logical explanation."

Tony stares at him in disbelief. "Loki, I've asked for your help before. I've brought you down to my lab to help me. How come you've never mentioned any of this before?"

"You hadn't shown me half of what you've discovered about Extremis," Loki reminds him. "And with an entire night to focus solely on it without anybody in my way, it was much easier to work."

Tony shakes his head to himself. "God, I can't believe you — wait." He looks at the god quizzically. "How'd you even get in my lab? It's locked."

"Magic."

Tony gives him a look. "You can't just break into my lab whenever you want to."

Loki scoffs. "Alright, then give me my notes back. You can re-solve your dilemma yourself."

"Well, no, I'm grateful," Tony says. That's probably something he should have led with. "But stay out of my lab."

Loki rolls his eyes. "Alright, fine. Banner's work is more interesting, anyway." He bends his arm, awkwardly trying to scratch Snowflake's head without bothering her. "Is that all?"

Tony raises his brows. "What, trying to rush me out?"

"Well, yes, I would like to return to my movie," Loki says. "So unless you plan to watch it with me, and I'm fairly certain you do not, I am eagerly awaiting your departure."

Tony glances at the TV. What is he... wait.

He can't help it. He bursts out laughing. "Are you watching Cars?"

"Yes, I am," Loki says. "Is that a problem?"

"Loki, that's a kids' movie!" Tony tells him. "Like, seven-year-old boys watch this. I don't even know why I own it."

"Well, I am enjoying it," Loki says stubbornly. "I've already finished nearly all of your Owen Wilson movies. I have moved on to the animated selections."

"Oh my God," he mutters. This is hilarious. Maybe he was right to bombard the guy with kids' stuff. "Is this about the little cowboy in Night at the Museum?"

"Yes," Loki says simply.

"You really liked him that much that you want to watch every single one of his movies?" Tony says in disbelief.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"It makes it easy to choose a movie," Loki says. "JARVIS maintains a list of all of the Owen Wilson movies that you own that I have yet to watch. He tells me what to watch next."

"That is such a weird way to use JARVIS," Tony says.

"I really do not care."

"Fair enough," Tony says. He leans against the doorway and crosses his arms, eyeing the god curiously for a few moments. "When do you sleep?"

Loki blinks in surprise. "I beg your pardon?"

"The other day, you were doing Bruce's science homework all night," Tony says. "Now you're doing mine. But you eat with Steve so I know you're out and about during the day, so when do you sleep?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, kind of," Tony says. "'Cause we've seen what happens when you don't eat. I don't want to know what happens when you don't sleep."

"You've seen what happens when I do," Loki reminds him. "There is a hole in my wall to prove it."

"You still gotta sleep, Loki," Tony says. "Believe me. I did this whole 'three hours of sleep a night' thing, and it sucks."

"I really do not care," Loki says. "You are not my father, Stark, and you certainly are not my friend. I do not need you to lecture me."

Tony puts his hands up as a sarcastic surrender. "Fine, whatever. Go back to your movie."

With that, he heads out of the room. Loki doesn't try to stop him, so Tony doesn't pay him any mind. He makes his way to his lab, papers still in hand. He should still have another few hours until Pepper shows up. He can spend that time running some logistics analyses on Loki's proposed Extremis treatment. It seems to him that it makes sense, but he knows from experience that theories created on little to no sleep usually fucking suck. He'd like to know for sure that he's not going to accidentally explode his girlfriend before he does it.