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“Anthony, are you coming to bed anytime this year?”
Loki looked around the workshop, trying to spot where his mortal had hidden himself in the maze of equipment and tools. Normally it wasn’t too much of an issue, as whenever Anthony decided to work long into the night, he did so with as much noise and clamor as possible. Loki suspected that it was to drown out the clamor going on inside his head, the same reason he spent so much of his time avoiding sleep in the first place.
Normally Loki did his best to head off such bouts entirely, but occasionally they slipped through. When that happened, he would allow Anthony some time working out the frustrations fueling him, giving him time to exhaust himself before he tried to intervene. This time Loki had held off for one entire night, watching closely as Anthony made his way through the next day – his experience of pulling all-nighters making it so that it was almost impossible to tell. When it looked as though he were prepared to repeat that night with another just the same, Loki had held off long enough, hopefully, for Anthony to work off the edge of his anxiety before he went downstairs to interrupt.
From the looks of it, he hadn’t needed to wait as long as he had.
“Anthony?”
“You will find Sir reclining on the couch in the back of the lab, Mr. Laufeyson.”
Loki frowned at JARVIS’ direction, but followed it anyway. He wound through the lab, patting the robots as he went by them at their cleaning duties, and when he came to the couch, there was indeed a reclining human on the cushions.
Although ‘reclining’ was perhaps a little optimistic. Loki would have described it as ‘sprawled,’ maybe. ‘Splattered across the seats like he’d been thrown there from across the room’ also seemed apt.
“JARVIS, how long has he been like this?”
“Approximately twenty minutes,” the AI responded. “He was unable to maintain the level of alertness necessary to complete his intended projects for the night.”
“Yes, I can see that. Do you have any idea why that is? I’ve seen him get into these sorts of phases before; he’s capable of going for days when he wants to.”
“Sir’s inability to remain awake may have something to do with the lack of stimulants to assist him.”
Loki frowned, and looked around the room. “Are you trying to tell me that he went more than three hours without some sort of coffee? That worries me almost more than the fact that he was down here working so late in the first place.”
“No, Sir was provided with his requested amounts of coffee,” JARVIS corrected. “Decaffeinated.”
Loki grinned, counting the number of empty cups around the room. Anthony must have been getting frustrated with how little his coffee was keeping the drowsiness at bay. “Why, JARVIS, how perfectly duplicitous of you.”
“Thank you, Mr. Laufeyson. I like to think that your living here has improved on my methods for… assisting Sir.”
Loki laughed. “I’m flattered. Between the two of us we might actually keep the man functional.”
“Such is my purpose, yes.”
“Mine too, these days,” Loki muttered to himself, but affectionately. With a sigh, Loki bent and gathered up the mortal into his arms. He worked carefully, but it was still an endeavor, making sure all of the various limbs were properly gathered up, and then levering the sleeping man up off of the cushions. Anthony must have been completely exhausted, as he didn’t stir at all, despite the jostling.
Loki looked down on the man’s face with a mixture of warmth and weariness, wondering how it was he ended up becoming this human’s keeper.
He wondered if he would ever decide if he were more grateful or more annoyed by the fact.
Carrying Anthony easily, Loki worked his way back through the workshop and up the stairs to bed.