Pools of Emerald (frostiron fic)

UPDATE ch 13

That evening, Tony stayed awake as long as he possibly could before he eventually felt his eyes dropping at about 2 AM. He wasn't planning on leaving Loki the entire night. Loki only stirred a few times throughout the evening, which was unusual; he was never able to sleep one hundred percent through a night. Even though Loki wasn't aware fully yet, maybe it was just the presence of Anthony being there that was subconsciously helping him get a good nights rest.

At some point in the morning Loki finally found himself awake. The initial realization was quite the shock. He had no recollection of being awake, or alive for that matter. He squinted his eyes, looking at the bright white all around him. It took him a few minutes to fully come to his senses. He looked down at his hand to see an IV needle carefully placed. Soon enough he realized he was hooked up to a heart rate monitor as well. "No... no, no, no." His breathing quickened and his hands trembled. Panic filled his body as he begun frantically tearing the monitors off of his body.

Tony was definitely not asleep anymore. As soon as he heard Loki he shot awake. His first instinct was to hold him down. "Loki shh. You're okay." That seemed to make matters even worse when Loki pushed him away with all of the force he seemed to have left in his body; letting out an exasperated cry. With that, the IV made its way off of his body as well. Loki frantically scrambled to get detangled from the thin cotton blankets, engulfing him like a snake. He struggled to take in air like a fish out of water.

Tony grabbed a hold of Loki, bringing him down to the ground. Loki's initial reaction was to try and fight it, but at some point his body became exhausted and just gave in. He curled into Tony, letting himself become vulnerable. Tony just let Loki cry out on his shoulder. He wasn't normally the comforting type but it seemed to come naturally to him in this moment. He gave just enough physical contact to let Loki feel safe but not too much to smother him. Eventually Loki began to calm, and the two sat together silenced for what seemed like hours.
_______________________________
The next few days seemed to go by in a slow haze. Tony and Thor were constantly keeping an eye on Loki, and every now and again Steve or Bruce would pop in and see how he was. He was eating regulated meals, and not allowed to drink anything alcoholic. Loki was going slowly and silently insane for not having any form of privacy. Once he found a second to himself, he longed for that familiar feeling of a cold blade against his pale skin. He scoured his bathroom for something, anything that could take away some of the hurt, some of the anxiety, some of the stress. When his efforts became unsuccessful anger raged throughout him. He was on the verge of snapping at any moment.

"Lokes, come on let's watch a movie or something." Tony called from the chair he had placed next to Loki's bed. Loki balled his hands into fists and couldn't stop himself from yelling.
"Stark please just leave me the fuck alone! I am fine, just go, leave me be. I'm not going to do anything I just can't stand being smothered by all of you! I can't stand it anymore." His face glowed a fiery red. Tony couldn't bare to listen to Loki any longer.

"Listen up goat horns, this isn't for my sake this is for your own. You have no quality of life anymore, so trust me, me trying to help you is not for me at all."

"I don't want your help, I don't want anyone's help. There's nothing wrong with me, this is who I am and I'm not going to sit here and be waking on eggshells around everyone. I'm done." Fire seemed to spit from his mouth, with every word burning a hole into Tony.

"Ok, you don't want help, then go. I'm not going to act like your mother anymore. She's gone and I'm not taking her place." Tony returned with just as much fire if not more. He knew he was hitting him where it hurt, and honestly he couldn't give a shit anymore.