Pools of Emerald (frostiron fic)

6.) The Truth

As soon as Loki had been brought back inside and put in bed, Tony knew he would have a lot of explaining to do. Tony casually walked back into the living room and a group of angry Avengers were glaring at him. "Look everyone," and with that he was cut off.

"You have some nerve bringing him here Tony." Steve spat. It was very unlike Steve to act that harshly. Tony walked over to the bar to pour himself a drink.

"Yeah I know, man you guys act like I didn't think about this or something."

"I don't know, usually you're too drunk to make coherent decisions." Natasha's brows furrowed. Tony rolled his eyes and took a sip of his scotch, feeling the warmth as it ran down his throat.

"Man of Iron, why do you have my brother here, he was banished from Asgard and he shall not stay here either." Thor bellowed.

"Whoa why am I even answering to any of you?! This is my house and I can let anyone in that I please. Now leave me alone and leave him alone too." Tony glared at each and every one of them and hastily walked off to his own room. He would continue to drink his scotch until he would fall into a drunken sleep.

                             .      .      .

A few days had passed and no one brought up the Loki situation again. Not that they didn't think about it, but no one wanted to piss Tony off anymore than they already had. No one even saw Loki, he stayed in his room 24/7. Thor occasionally would knock on Loki's door, but he wanted nothing to do with Thor. The only person he would let in was Stark, and even then he secluded himself from him most of the time. It was late afternoon and Tony hadn't heard a peep from Loki so he decided to try and talk to him, maybe get him to eat. Tony quietly knocked on the door and waited for a response. Loki didn't even bother asking who it was, he had a sense and knew no one else would try seeing him. He slowly opened the door barely a foot open. Tony gasped internally at the sight of Loki. He looked extremely disheveled; the dark circles under his eyes consumed him and his eyes were extremely sunken in. Tony tried not to look shocked even if he was. He had just seen him the morning before.

"Hey reindeer games, can I come in?" Loki nodded slowly and pushed the door open some more and moved aside so Tony had room to enter. Loki dragged himself to the bed and put a marker in his book. He sat himself back down on the bed. "You hungry? I can go make you some lunch. Whatever you want." Tony forced a smile.

"No thank you." Loki's quiet voice cracked.

"Come on, you have to eat at some point, you're going to starve yourself to death if you don't." Tony's brows furrowed. As reclusive as Loki had been, Tony was strangely irritated with him. He wasn't going to let him act this way.

"I'm sorry just don't have much of an appetite right now." Tony rolled his eyes. He knew you can't go days without eating and still not feel hungry. He wasn't going to force it but if Loki was going to continue refusing food he was going to have to be more stern.

"Ok well if you need anything just ask me ok?"

"I will Stark." Loki looked at the ground as he spoke, hurt sounded in his voice. Tony had started to leave the room when Loki spoke up again. "I'm sorry. . ." His voice trailed off. Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Don't be. . . Do you want to go get coffee? Get out for a little bit?" Tony was fully expecting a no but at least he tried.

Loki's eyes slowly lit up, "really?" Tony let out a soft chuckle.

"Nope of course not. Why would I invite you to go anywhere and be seen with me? Come on Reindeer games, go shower or change clothes or something you aren't going out looking like that."

                                       .   .   .

The walk to the coffee shop was fairly quiet. Tony had made a few tries at conversation but Loki remained silent. Tony grabbed an outside table. Even in the middle of fall in New York, the weather was beautiful as ever. "I'll be right back. Wait here." Tony told a silent Loki; all he did was nod. Loki opened up one of his books, lit a cigarette and began reading. From inside the coffee shop, Tony glanced outside and laughed in his head. He paid for the coffee and headed his way back outside. "You should quit." Loki glared at Tony rolling his emerald eyes.

"There's a lot of things you should do too but I won't bring it up." Loki flicked ash from his cigarette in the nearby ashtray. Tony smirked, as gross as it was, Loki smoking seemed to bring him back to his smart ass self.

"Well maybe I want you to bring it up." Tony raised both of his eyebrows this time. Loki scoffed.

"Fuck off Stark." Loki stifled a laugh and changed the subject. "Why did you 'rescue' me anyways. All of the others hate my guts. I'm just curious, why me, even after all I've done?" This was the most Tony had heard from Loki in a few days. Loki pulled a Stark and raised one of his brows, pulling another drag of his cigarette before stubbing it out.

Tony looked surprised. "Because I believed everything you told me. I saw in your eyes you were being honest. I'll admit I didn't trust you at first, but I wasn't going to leave you alone in the city. You deserve another chance just like all of us did. We all got second chances; everyone deserves one." Loki looked at the ground and a genuine half smile danced across his face.

"Thank you Stark. You won't regret it."

Finally got through my bout of writers block, hope this is ok. Any constructive criticism would be great. Just writing for fun anyways.