Whatever You Do, Just Don't Touch Him
That night, Tony couldn't sleep. That wasn't an unusual thing for him as of late - nightmares of suffocating in space still kept his brain occupied at night. However, this nightmare was different in a way that Tony couldn't quite pin down.
Tony only needed to see a set of bloodied teeth to figure out that The Other was in his nightmare. The rest of the alien's appearance revealed itself when said alien stepped into a glowing blue light. It was about the same blue as his arc reactor was, but with more white to it. He realized that it was most like the bright, glowing blue of the Tesseract. He wished, not for the first time, that the cube had just stayed in the ocean.
"Why do you look so scared, little godling?" the Other jeered. "You knew what was coming to you. I warned you that he'd find you. And I warned you that it would be agonizing. Did you really expect anything else?"
The glowing blue light illuminated a body - Loki's body.
Tony wasn't sure if it was possible to actually vomit during a dream, but he nearly did when he saw what had happened to Loki. Bloodied thread held the Asgardian's lips sewn shut. Strange rope bound him to a large rock. It looked more like intestines than it did like rope and Tony shuddered when he realized that it might just be entrails. He wondered whose entrails held Loki to that boulder.
The Other stepped closer to Loki and the Asgardian flinched noticeably. He took Loki's chin in his six-fingered hand and said, "You're pathetic. You hold yourself so high but really, you're nothing. You're lucky Thanos found you - without him, a weakling like you would be dead. But when Thanos finds you this time, he will be the reason for your death."
The alien produced a blade and Tony woke up just as Loki was about to get stabbed with it. He was in a cold sweat, breathing heavily and shaking a little. He didn't know if the dream was just a nightmare or if he saw what was actually happening, but he knew he had to get up and do something about it either way. He went to the kitchen and brewed a pot of the strongest coffee he had. He gulped his entire mug down within the span of several seconds. It scalded his mouth and throat but he knew he needed energy if he was going to look for Loki.
Tony hadn't thought to implant a tracker under Loki's skin, but he wished he had done so the second he started housing him. Loki was unpredictable both in mood and behavior. Perhaps he disappeared as some sort of cruel prank or just lied about who he was seeing. Tony told himself all of this mostly to keep himself from losing it.
As soon as he got out of his car, Tony realized that Loki might not be on Earth. For all he knew, his dream could've been what was really happening and Loki was in space. He didn't want to even think about space - falling from it mentally scarred him and still kept him up at night. He tried thinking about other things, like Selene's happy babbling and Loki's smile. But the more he thought about Loki, the more anxious he became.
Tony decided to let himself relax for a bit. He drove back home and watched mindless TV, something that always seemed to calm him down. In the middle of a show, he got a call. It turned out to be from Steve Rogers. Tony turned the volume of the television down and said, "Hey, Cap. What's up?"
"I found Loki," Steve said, a bit breathlessly, as if he had just been running. "Well, Natasha found him but I was with her. It's not... it's not pretty, Tony."
"What do you mean it's not pretty?" Tony asked. "Did something bad happen?"
"Loki's badly hurt. He's bleeding and he's all bruised and... I don't know, it's really bad. And it's not the Other that got him. It's someone else."
"Someone else? Who? Thanos?"
"No, not even Thanos. I don't know his name but... he's messed up."
Tony tried to get his breathing under control. "Where are you? I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Manhattan. I don't know the exact address but we're in a high-end apartment building with lots of windows. You should be able to find the complex; it's got a big yellow sign in front of it."
As soon as he could, Tony got back into his car and drove through Manhattan. He eventually came across the building Steve was talking about. He practically bounded up the stairs and found the apartment by listening to Steve and Natasha's voices. He came inside - the door was unlocked - and nearly vomited at what he saw.
Loki's skin was paler than usual and caked with dried blood. There were gashes all over his torso and bruises all over his body. Blood was flowing from a huge gash in his stomach and Tony saw with horror that a chunk of flesh was missing from Loki's ribs. His ribcage was partially exposed due to that.
At that point, Tony threw up into the apartment hallway, though it was mostly bile. He turned back to face the room. "Sorry about that. Is he okay?"
"He's injured terribly and you ask if he's okay?" Steve said bitterly.
Loki raised his head when he heard the sound of Tony's voice. He got up but fell down before he could take even one step.
"Tony? Is it really you?" Loki said, breathing a sigh of relief.. "He told me you were dead..."
"Who told you?!" Tony demanded. "Who did this to you? I'll kill them!"
Steve put his hand on Tony's shoulder firmly. "Don't scare him. He said it was someone he used to live with."
Tony felt as if his blood was boiling. "Loki told me about someone like that. I swear I'll find that sick sonofabitch and blast him dead."
"Tony, he's already dead," Natasha said. "As he was escaping from the scene of his crime, he got hit by a car. He got hit hard and it crushed his skull. I saw him lying in the middle of the street in a pool of his own blood. He's dead. He can't hurt Loki anymore."
Hearing that didn't improve Tony's mood the slightest even though it should have. "Is Loki going to be okay?"
"I honestly don't know," Steve sighed. "He probably won't die, but he needs time to heal."
"He didn't hurt me in the way I told you," Loki said to Tony. "But I guess this isn't any better. I'm just glad that you're here. I didn't know what to do when he told me you were dead..."
"And I don't know what to do seeing you so hurt," Tony replied, suddenly aware of a heavy feeling in his throat like he was about to cry. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you and get you away from him. I'm sorry for everything."
"You don't need to be sorry," Loki assured him. "I love you no matter what."
Steve and Natasha fell silent - they weren't expecting a heartfelt answer from Loki. After a few moments, Steve laughed and said, "I should've known you two were a thing. You're like two peas in a pod."
Loki gave a tired smile and got up. As soon as he was standing, he fell back down again and winced at the pain. Tony picked him up and started to carry him while walking out of the apartment and down the stairs of the complex, Steve and Natasha behind him.
All of a sudden, Loki said quietly, "He's here."
"Who's here?" Natasha asked.
"You might want to look behind you."
There stood Thanos in full armor, grinning madly.