Still Holding On

Chapter 38

Thor and Loki are sitting in absolute silence when Tony returns to the kitchen. Loki clutches Edward to his chest in a tight hug, his grip loosening only when he sees Tony in the doorway. Tony greets him with a smile. He feels like the god needs it right now.

He sits back down at the kitchen table, claiming his seat right next to Loki's. He pats his friend on the leg, and Loki smiles back at him. There they go. That's what he wanted. Things are going better already.

He turns his attention to Thor. "What's up?" he asks. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Thor says. "I just thought I would visit my brother."

Tony nods slowly. Yep. He sure did. His brother sure has been visited. And it's going great.

There's a long, awkward pause, until Thor asks, "Are you doing anything fun today?" It says how little he knows about what these last few weeks have been like. They've hardly done anything at all.

Still, he chose a good day to ask, because for once, they do have some fun things planned. Tony looks at Loki expectantly. The question was meant for him, after all. He should get to answer.

He doesn't seem to want to, if his long pause is any indication. But when Tony doesn't, he finally says, "We're going to the mall."

"Oh, wonderful!" Thor says with a grin. He pauses. "What is a mall?"

Tony gives Loki another few seconds to answer, and when he doesn't, Tony fills in with, "It's just a bunch of stores. It's fun to walk around."

"Ah." Thor nods as though he understands. Tony gets the feeling that he doesn't. "Why was Fury here?"

"To be a dick," Tony says.

Loki huffs at that, a small smile on his face that he can't quite hide.

As a slightly more serious answer, Tony says, "Nat came by the other day and got to meet Loki. I think Fury was jealous."

"Natasha was...?" Thor gives him a weird look – well-deserved, he'll admit, given that it was his idea to keep the other Avengers out of it.

"She had a work question," Tony says vaguely. "She didn't realize I had a new housemate."

Thor nods slowly, processing that. Whether he manages to figure out what really happened, Tony cannot tell for the life of him, but he does stop asking after that, so that explanation must be somewhat satisfactory.

Loki looks between them, confused. "You know them?" he asks his brother. "Natasha and the Director?"

"Of course," Thor says. "They're my friends."

Loki makes a face at that, and Tony bites back a laugh.

"This is an anti-SHIELD household," Tony tells Thor. "If you're friends with anyone from SHIELD, you need to leave."

Thor furrows his brows. "I'm sorry?"

"No, I'm kidding," Tony says. "But if one more person from SHIELD walks into this building, I might strangle them."

Thor just stares at him uncomprehendingly.

"They're rude," Loki explains, two words that do a better job of explaining than Tony probably could have done in multiple sentences.

Actually, speaking of them being rude...

Tony looks at the god curiously. "Did you have people executed for being rude to you a lot?"

Loki bursts out laughing, which is an answer in and of itself. "No, but it sounded like it, right?"

"So you never had anybody executed," Tony surmises. That's what he's saying, right? God, he hopes that's what he's saying.