Still Holding On

Chapter 49

Tony starts the morning off with muffins, because, depending on how the rest of the day goes, they really might need their emotional support muffins.

Loki's not the least bit suspicious that there may be any ulterior motives for their baking session. He's as enthusiastic as ever – the novelty of baking his own food has yet to wear off, it seems – and it's hard to think about the rest of the day when Loki's right there being so freaking precious as he meticulously measures out each and every ingredient.

It's as they sit down to eat their muffins that he finally breaches the topic.

"So," Tony says, "I got a call from a friend last night."

"Hmm?" Loki hums, his mouth full of muffin.

"Mm-hmm," Tony hums back. "I haven't seen him in a couple months, so he was thinking he might swing by today."

"Hmm." Loki holds up a finger as he finishes chewing.

"He's not a super close friend," Tony adds. "He's not, you know, Pepper. We're not that close. So if you're all peopled out–"

"I wouldn't mind," Loki assures him. "I like meeting your friends. I like when we do different things."

Well. That was easy.

But he'd assumed it would be. Loki seems to be quite the "yes" man. He'll do just about anything Tony suggests, and, for the most part, he really does seem to enjoy it. Hopefully this brief visit from Clint will be just as nice.

"What's your friend's name?" Loki asks.

"Clint Barton."

Unsurprisingly, the name seems to mean nothing to him. "Is he a friend from work? From SHIELD?"

That's something he hadn't planned to mention, but since he asked, Tony admits, "Yeah, he's from SHIELD."

That seems to dampen Loki's excitement only a little bit. "I don't suppose he has any new information."

Tony shakes his head. "Nothing yet," he says.

"Oh." That dampens his excitement a little bit more. "When should we expect him to arrive?"

"Not for a few hours," Tony tells him. "We've got time. And I don't think he'll stay for long." In fact, he won't stay much longer than 45 minutes – less, even, if he says anything Tony doesn't like. It's not going to take up much of their day. He just can't say that, because when he kicks Clint out, he'd like it to be somewhat subtle.

"Alright," Loki says, and that's all he says before he grabs another muffin and takes a bite.

Tony waits for him to finish chewing. He gives him plenty of time to say something else. If there's anything else bugging him, anything else on his mind, now's the time to share. But Loki just takes another bite of his muffin.

So, that's that, then.

That was easy.

~~~

It hasn't been all that long since Loki was in Tony's lab – a week or two, maybe, but no longer than that – but he hasn't had more than a passing glance at any of the Iron Man suits for well over a month. So, with the time they have to kill, Tony decides to let Loki try them out again. It gives him the chance to have some fun, and Tony gets to spend a little while working on his newest model, which he's been severely neglecting in favor of actually adopting a healthy sleeping schedule.

Still, he hasn't gotten a whole lot done in the hour or so they've been in the lab. Loki's been trying out various pieces of the suit – not at the same time; he's interested how they work individually – and watching him toy around with it has been far more entertaining than any blueprint-making could be.