Chapter Text
Tony was falling.
The next thing he knew, he wasn’t.
His vision filled with the crackle of green electricity, and he felt more than heard his heart start. The sharpness of it all made his chest seize and he instinctively gasped in a breath, which came out a ragged cough. But he was breathing at least, which was a definite bonus. He opened his eyes, realizing that the faceplate of his suit had gone missing, and found himself staring up at his savior.
“Are all humans this crazy?” Loki inquired. “Or are you a special breed?”
“What?” Tony said dazedly. It belatedly occurred to him that they were still moving, and he looked around in confusion as they stopped.
Loki was holding the Iron Man armor, and therefore Tony himself, bridal style in his arms. They were standing on one of the streets in New York that had definitely seen better days. Tony looked up at the sky instinctively but couldn’t see anything aside from endless blue and fluffy white clouds. The portal was gone now like it had never existed. The only evidence that the battle had happened was the carnage around them, the dead alien bodies laying around, and the god holding Tony like a princess.
“Did you… save me?” Tony asked, blinking slowly as his brain struggled to put two and two together. It sounded ludicrous, but it was the only explanation he could think of. He’d been falling, then there was Loki, and now he wasn’t falling.
“Yes, I did,” said Loki.
“Uh… why?” Tony said slowly. He wasn’t sure if he should be trying to repulsor Loki in the face or what. The seemingly calm way that Loki was acting right now was so at odds with how Loki had been before. There were no threats, no vows to carve out Tony’s heart, no attempts at brainwashing, no throwing Tony through a window with no care for how far away the ground was.
Why the hell would Loki save him from falling when like two hours ago, he’d tried to kill Tony the same way?
“Because your Hulk saved me,” Loki said, and Tony looked up at his face. He remembered thinking before that it was pretty unfair that someone so psychotic could be so pretty. Loki’s blue eyes had been almost the same color as the arc reactor.
Blue eyes.
No, green eyes.
“Oh fuck,” Tony said, realization settling in. “You were brainwashed, weren’t you?”
Loki gave him a small smile. “You’re smarter than you look,” he said, and somehow managed to make that sound like a compliment.
He set Tony down on the ground and honestly, if it weren’t for the armor, Tony probably would’ve fallen over. His whole body was one solid ache from toe to head, though the biggest concentration of pain was definitely centered around his chest. He put a hand to the arc reactor and wondered if the green electricity he remembered had come from Loki. Probably. If so, Loki had actually saved Tony’s life twice over.
“Your Hulk hit me in the head multiple times. That was enough to free me,” Loki continued. He stood there with his hands loose at his sides. With his helmet gone, it was hard to believe that he’d been waging war against Earth not thirty minutes ago.
“Hulk is good at smashing,” Tony said. “Thor didn’t say anything about you being brainwashed.”
Loki sighed. “Thor and I parted on unusual terms,” he said stiffly. “He probably didn’t realize.”
“Unusual terms, huh?” Tony repeated. “That code for ‘my brother is a dick’?”
That startled another smile out of Loki. He really did have a nice smile, Tony thought. Kind of reserved, a little bit shy, but genuine. If he had been brainwashed, then he was handling it really well – unless he wasn’t, and he was just pretending that he was fine. That’s what Tony would have done if their situations were reversed.
He looked around at the street again and tried to think this through. Okay, so Loki was claiming that he’d been brainwashed. Considering the scepter seemed to have the power to brainwash anyone touched by it, and Loki had been carrying it around, that made sense. But that also posed the more important question of just who had been the person to brainwash Loki. That meant there was something deeper at play. Something powerful enough to get one over on a god.
Tony had the sinking feeling that he really did not want to know who that someone was.
“Stark! Stark, where are you?”
The sound of Romanov’s voice made Tony jump. The armor tilted precariously. Loki’s arm shot out and grasped Tony’s arm, gently steadying the armor again until Tony wasn’t at risk of falling over. Tony looked at him in surprise and had just opened his mouth to say thank you when suddenly the street was flooded with cops, SHIELD agents, and a couple Avengers.
“Take your hands off of Iron Man and get down on your knees! Hands behind your head!” a SHIELD agent barked.
“Wait!” Tony shouted, moving in front of Loki. “He was brainwashed. Loki is not the enemy here.”
That announcement got him looks of disbelief from pretty much everyone there. Romanov was the only one who moved; she had a streak of blood down her right cheek and her eyes were a little wild. Tony tensed slightly. He honestly wouldn’t have put it past her to shoot him right now to get to Loki, and there were enough cracks in the armor that he couldn’t be sure the bullet wouldn’t get through.
“Stark, have you lost your mind? You’re protecting the enemy,” Romanov hissed.
“If you’d listen to me, I’m trying to tell you that I’m not. Loki was brainwashed just like Barton,” Tony said impatiently. As he’d hoped, she looked a little more focused at the mention of Barton’s name.
“How do you know that he’s telling the truth?” she demanded, looking at Loki suspiciously. “He could be lying now that he’s caught.”
Tony wasn’t sure how to explain the evidence to her given that it seemed pretty circumstantial. So he decided to go with, “Why don’t we find Thor, then? He should be able to tell us the truth.”
Romanov didn’t look convinced but nodded. “Alright, fine. But one false move –”
“You’ll put a new hole in him, we know,” Tony said, suddenly weary. It had been a very long day and it now seemed like it was just going to get longer.
It took them a little while to track Thor down. Tony wasn’t sure what happened during the reunion between the two brothers, as they had their conversation on top of a roof and well out of earshot of anyone on the ground, but Thor emerged from the talk completely convinced that Loki had been a victim just like Barton and Selvig. No one seemed to be pleased by that.
“Are you sure we can’t shoot him? He brainwashed me, Nat,” Barton whispered to Romanov.
“And he was brainwashed first, Barton. Why don’t you shoot the guy who brainwashed Loki and started all this?” Tony said hotly, twisting around to glare at Barton. He’d shed the Iron Man armor by that point, and barely felt capable of standing. But he’d be damned if he’d let them pin the blame on an innocent man.
He’d already lived through too many guilty people getting to walk free.
Barton glowered back at him. “Gladly.”
“Alright you two. Barton, come on. Coulson’s waiting for us,” Romanov interrupted, giving Barton a gentle nudge in the shoulder. Tony briefly contemplated suggesting that the team go out for shawarma but decided against it at the last minute. Besides, Thor was waving at him.
“What’s up?” Tony said when he was close enough to speak without yelling. Thor beamed at him and clapped Tony on the shoulder with such force that Tony’s legs gave out.
For the third time – or was it the fourth time? Tony was losing count – Loki stuck out an arm and caught Tony before he could hit the ground. His hand was an unyielding, steadying force beneath Tony’s arm as Loki turned a cool look of chastisement on Thor.
“You need to be more careful, Thor. Humans are fragile.”
“Oh, right,” Thor said, looking embarrassed. “My apologies, Stark.”
“No big deal. All good,” Tony said, not sure how he felt about being labeled ‘fragile’. Yet he couldn’t really argue against it either, considering that humans were fragile when compared against Asgardians. Still, he pulled away from Loki as soon as he felt steady enough.
“I was wondering if we might ask you a favor,” said Thor.
“A favor?” Tony repeated warily.
“My brother cannot return to Asgard. Our father would not welcome him,” Thor said.
Tony could suddenly see where this was going. “So, you want him to stay here. On Earth.”
Thor nodded. “If at all possible, I believe this would be the best place. Loki has already agreed to held out around your city.”
“You mean, help out with the clean-up and everything?” Tony said, looking to Loki.
It was Loki’s turn to nod. “If you believe my help would be accepted.”
“Well, they probably wouldn’t say no,” Tony said thoughtfully. That would actually go a long way towards helping people to trust Loki. It was a pretty good PR move, and exactly what Tony would have recommended had his opinion been asked.
“But he would need somewhere to stay,” Thor said, and now he was looking hopefully at Tony.
“Thor!” Loki hissed, looking embarrassed. Clearly, this part of the conversation had not been communicated beforehand.
Tony looked between the two of them. Even considering the fact that the tower had been partially destroyed, he did have the most room out of everyone. He didn’t think Loki would fare very well if he had to stay in the SHIELD barracks: a lot of those agents were probably still holding a serious grudge and didn’t believe in Loki’s innocence. Might not ever believe in Loki’s innocence, truthfully.
“Sure,” he said slowly. “I still have a few empty guest rooms. You’re welcome to stay in one if you like.”
“Really?” Loki said, unable to hide his surprise.
“Really,” Tony said. “Least I can do considering the fact that you saved my life. No way I would have survived a fall like that, even in the armor.”
What he didn’t say, but which he couldn’t help thinking, was that he’d been intending to offer those guest rooms to the Avengers. But Tony had already decided against doing that. Cap was still watching him with something that was at best uncertainty and at worst outright suspicion, and Barton and Romanov were so wrapped up in each other they didn’t seem to be aware of anything else. Bruce had already taken off; Tony had no idea where he’d gone or if Bruce would ever show face again.
So why not offer Loki a room? It wasn’t like anyone else would be around.
“Thank you,” Loki said, a curious expression on his face that Tony couldn’t parse.
“Thor, will you need a room too?” Tony asked.
“Perhaps for one night,” said Thor. “I have already spoken to Director Fury and let him know that the Tesseract is safest on Asgard. He was very reluctant, but I believe he will eventually understand my reasoning. So, within a day or two, I hope to be on my way back to Asgard.”
“Okay, well, you’re welcome to crash at mine for as long as you need,” Tony said with a shrug. Then he winced, putting a hand to his chest. That hurt.
“Are you well?” Thor asked, watching him with obvious concern.
Tony waved him off. “I’m fine. Just a few bumps and bruises. That’s what happens when you’re a squishy human inside of the armor,” he said. He was pretty sure he had come through the battle with the most ‘bumps and bruises’ out of everyone. Considering that they hadn’t had armor to wear, Barton and Romanov had looked pretty unharmed. Tony wasn’t sure what that said about the battle in general.
He looked around at the general state of things. SHIELD seemed to have it well in hand; everywhere Tony looked, there were agents collaborating with the NYPD and EMTs. It didn’t really seem like there was much need for any of the Avengers right now when it came to cleaning things up. Right now, everything was focused on recovery. Tony, much as he hated to admit it, needed to rest first, and he didn’t think Loki’s help would be accepted just yet, and Thor was clearly reluctant to leave his brother alone.
So he turned back to the brothers and said, “Let’s head to the tower, then.”