Still Holding On

Chapter 14

"Sir, it has been four hours since Loki has been medicated."

Tony groans quietly and rubs his eyes. Well, that was a shit nap. He just keeps getting more and more tired. This is all starting to feel very counterproductive.

He looks up at Loki, fast asleep on the couch. He's resting on his side, his hands folded beneath his head. He looks peaceful like that, comfortable. And, given that he can count the number of times he's seen the guy sleep on one hand, he decides it's definitely not worth waking him up for Advil.

Tony sighs and looks up at the ceiling. Well, he might as well try to go back to sleep.

"Hey, JARVIS?" Tony whispers. "If Loki gets up before me, tell him he can wake me up."

"Will do, sir," JARVIS says quietly.

Tony spares one more glance at Loki, looking perfectly content where he is, and closes his eyes. Time to go back to sleep.

~~~

He wakes up many hours later to the sight of sunlight shining through the window and Loki still asleep on the couch. It's nice to see that he's actually getting some rest for once, and Tony is obviously in no rush to wake him.

But he's all rested up, so he can't just go back to sleep until Loki wakes up. But he doesn't want to leave the guy here alone, either, especially after he asked Tony to stay with him. And that begs the question: what does he do now?

He sits up and arches his back, stretching his arms over his head. He tilts his head to the left, then the right, working out the stuff muscles. He doesn't regret sleeping on the floor, exactly, because it convinced Loki to sleep, but it's not the most comfortable bed on the planet.

Tony glances around the room, but there's not a whole lot to do in here, so he pushes himself to his feet. "Hey, JARVIS," he says quietly, "if Loki wakes up while I'm out, tell him I'll be back in a minute."

He heads out of the room and tracks down his cellphone, sitting half-charged in his lab. He grabs not only his phone but his charger as well and brings them back to the living room, where he sits down with his back against the wall and starts charging his phone.

And now, while he waits for Loki to wake up, he's going to do some very important adult things.

Like Fruit Ninja.

He plays the game for an embarrassingly long time, and he only stops when he sees Loki begin to stir. He finishes the last 20 seconds of his round before he puts his phone down in his lap, looking up at Loki expectantly.

Loki hums quietly, rolling over so his back is to the engineer. He squirms a bit, trying to get comfortable, until he settles down again.

Tony clicks his phone back on and plays another few rounds of Fruit Ninja while he waits.

And then finally, Loki stretches out on the couch, his arms hoisted over his head and his legs hanging far off the arm rest. He rolls onto his back and rubs his eyes, and then he sits up, looking around the room tiredly.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Tony quips.

Loki's gaze finds the window, and he squints at the incoming sunlight. "How long was I asleep?"

"A long-ass time," Tony says.

Loki frowns. "I'm sorry; I really hadn't planned —"

"Hey, it's fine," Tony interrupts him. "You needed the sleep."

"You may be right about that," Loki concedes.

"I'm always right," Tony says with a dismissive shrug. "How's your head?"