It's about midnight and Thor still hasn't returned.
Tony is going to lose his mind.
Loki has given up on his illusions, which has resulted in hours of pained grunts and groans and sobs. It didn't take long for Tony to tell JARVIS to stop piping the audio through. Occasionally Tony will spare him a glance on the projector, but Loki is in no condition to leave so it doesn't seem necessary to keep such a close eye on him anymore.
It's been four hours since Tony brought some Advil down, so he might as well try it again. He grabs the bottle of pills and heads to Loki's room. He knocks on the door, but the only answer he gets is the distant sound of dry-heaving. Yeah, he's not gonna wait around for an answer. He has a feeling it's not coming.
He opens the door to find Loki — unsurprisingly — kneeling in front of the toilet. He can't tell if the god is oblivious to his presence or just unbothered, but he doesn't even look up as the door closes behind him.
"Guess I understand why you didn't want the sandwich," Tony remarks.
Loki slumps his shoulders, resting his head on his forearms over the toilet. "I haven't eaten in days," he mumbles. "There is nothing but bile in my stomach. What is my body trying to rid itself of?"
"How many days is 'days'?" Tony asks.
"I don't know," Loki admits. "They've begun to blend together." He rolls his head to the side so he can see the man. "Is Thor back?"
Tony shakes his head. "Not yet. I'm thinkin' probably tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon."
"Lovely," he mutters. "I hope this will pass by then, though I have little faith that it will."
Tony shrugs. "No idea," he says. "Did the Advil help?"
"It did, but the difference was negligible at best," he says.
"Yeah, I kinda figured," Tony says. "I'm thinking gods probably metabolise shit a hell of a lot faster than humans. We can try upping the dose. Might kill a human, but I think you'll be fine."
"I hope it kills me," Loki mutters under his breath.
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that," Tony tells him. Plausible deniability if anything goes wrong.
He grabs Loki's water bottle off the floor, seemingly untouched in the last four hours, and brings it to him. Loki sits back against the wall, and he holds out his hand. Tony hands him the water first, then crouches down next to him and pours some Advil in the cap.
"What do we wanna do?" Tony asks. "Six pills? Seven?"
"I would swallow every pill in this bottle if it would provide a temporary refuge from this pain," Loki tells him.
Tony nods slowly. "Okay..." He counts out the pills, then pours a few more. "Let's try eight. See what happens."
Tony hands the pills over, and Loki takes them two at a time. When he's done, he puts his water on the floor and lies back against the wall. He takes a deep breath, then begins to stand up.
"Woah, woah, okay." Tony puts his arms out cautiously, careful to catch him if he falls. "Let's go sit down before you pass out." If he falls and breaks his head open, Thor's going to be pissed — and he'll never get all the blood out of the floor.
"No," Loki says, his tone one of weak defiance.
Tony scoffs. "No?"
"I am not sitting down," Loki says. "If I sit, I will fall asleep."
"Good!" Tony says. "Sleeping is good! Go to sleep!"
"No," Loki repeats. "Until the connection weakens, I cannot and will not sleep. I do not care how long it takes."
"What connection?" Tony asks.
Loki shakes his head. "It doesn't matter." He hits Tony's arms out of the way and pushes past him — albeit very weakly — to go back to his corner. His legs shake with every step, and Tony is just waiting for him to collapse. He doesn't, but it has to be close.
Tony sighs. "Look, I'll be back in a few hours with more Advil. Just... don't die. Thor's expecting you back alive."
"I make no promises," Loki says.
"Yeah, didn't think so," Tony mutters. So, with that, he heads out the door. He's done his part. Loki can deal with his shit himself.
It's getting late and it's obviously been a very long couple of days, so Tony makes his way to bed. Just because Loki's an insomniac doesn't mean he can't get any sleep.
He leaves the bottle of Advil on his nightstand, a reminder for the morning that he needs to check on Loki. He lies down, slides under the covers, and closes his eyes.
"Hey, JARVIS?" Tony says. "Wake me up at 6 so I can go drug Loki again."
"Will do, sir," JARVIS replies.
Tony tries to drift off to sleep.
A thought gets to him before he can.
"Oh, and JARVIS?" he adds. "Also wake me up if Thor comes back."
"I will do that," JARVIS says.
Tony curls up on his side. Okay, time to sleep.
Actually...
"You know what, JARVIS?" Tony says. "Just keep me updated. If anything out of the ordinary happens with Loki, let me know."
"There are no standards for 'ordinary' where Loki is concerned," JARVIS remarks.
"You know what I mean." Tony rolls over, shoving his face in his pillow. "Use your best judgement."
"Okay, sir," JARVIS says. "Goodnight, sir."
"Mm," Tony hums.
Now he can finally get some sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Still Holding On
Fanfiction"I have built dozens of holes in this plan," Loki hisses. "Find them." When Loki tries to sabotage his own plan, the only reasonable explanation Tony can think of is that he wants to go back to Asgard, and that alone is more than enough reason to ke...
