Melt Iron with a Forsted Smile
It had been 2 full months since the band of Asgardians had settled in Avengers Tower. Everything was going smoothly....... No it wasn't. Everything was going horrible wrong. Everything was going wrong because of Loki. And of course the Avengers would never admit that, but deep down inside Tony knew Loki was the reason why The Avengers had bags under their eyes and why Areena would sleep during breakfast, eat breakfast at lunch and have lunch at dinner
Of course, Loki had no actual fault when it came to exactly why everything was turning upside down, of course not. But everyone quietly agreed that they would be better off without him. For starters, nightmares. Oh nightmares galore! Each night, at exactly 3 AM Loki would wake up screaming, shouting and screaming. Every. Single. Night! He screeched at the very top of his lungs and would more often than not scratch himself across the face on accident. And the nightmares made Tony hate Odin bit more each time.
Loki would wake up begging for mercy and saying things like 'I'm so sorry!', 'I won't steal again!', 'Have mercy!', 'Not my hands, please!' and that was just scratching the surface. And each time Areena would wake up, run to Loki and calm him down. Not hard, right? Wrong. It would take 2 full hours for Loki to calm down fully and not actually scratch the living shit out of himself or Areena. Truth be told, he almost scratched out Areena's eye once(twice). The first time he scratched her eye too hard, he woke up the next morning having completely forgotten about the previous night. He obliviously asked Areena how she scratched her eye. She told him the truth......and he freaked the hell out. He proceeded to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness. He was a sobbing mess by the time the rest of the Avengers had arrived in the kitchen. His hands trembled like no other as he cried for hours with no end. He didn't seem to understand a single word Areena was saying and after hours of crying, Thor managed to calm him down by demonstrating to Loki what 'accidents' were. Clint 'accidentally' hit Thor and Thor forgave because it was an 'accident' (really just a drama class). That seemed to do the trick and The Avengers fell back asleep........ The next day at 1 Pm. Needless to say, Areena made up a fake excuse the next time Loki asked about the scratches on her face.
Not only the Avengers, but Loki also looked miserable. In the chart of best to worst, Loki and Areena fell at worst while nobody fell at best. The poor man would be covered with scars 24/7. The idiot also tried to use magic to cover up his wounds once, and that resulted in him fainting for the whole day. At least they got one night of sleep.....? Loki ate in his own room or with Areena for the first one and a half month and only recently had he started to come out of his shell. The nightmares calmed down just a tinie-tiny bit as Loki started talking to a therapist and was prescribed sleeping medicine. Today was yet another boring day for Tony. All the Avengers were out. Areena was forced into one of Tony's beach houses to get some sleep. Thor, Steve and Bruce were out on one mission while Clint and Nat were out on another. Pepper was busy running a company. Now it was only Loki and Tony in the tower (except for the medical staff always on duty)
"Good morning Mr. Stark" Loki said politely as he stepped into the kitchen. His voice was hoarse from last night's shouting
"Hey Lokes, call me Tony. Bad night?" Tony asked with a playful tone but the humor left his voice when Loki brushed away his hair to show Tony a huge gaping slash across his face.
"Oof. That'll need a bandage for sure" Tony said with a wince and Loki sighed in reply. Tony walked over to one of the drawers and brought out sterile bandages and gestured Loki to sit down. And only after he sat down did Tony get closer and realize just how horrible Loki looked. The wound was drying up but crusted with blood. Loki's eyes were bloodshot. His hair was an absolute mess. Heavy, dark bags rested beneath Loki's sunken eyes. His face was hollow and thin. The man looked like he hadn't eaten in 5 days
"Jesus, when was the last time you ate?!?" Tony asked, exasperated as he covered Loki's wound with antiseptic. Loki winced but gave no other reaction, a normal person would hiss in pain. But pain wasn't new for Loki, and Tony knew that
"I ate dinner last night. The nightmares do a number on me" Loki said with a sigh as he got up and walked over to the sink to grab a glass of water before he stopped in his tracks
"Mr. Stark I don't mean to be rude but--nevermind" Loki changed his mind last minute and Tony furrowed his brows
"It's Tony, please. Spit it out, snowflake" Loki couldn't help but smile at the nickname Tony used. He decided to call Loki Snowflake after he saw his Jotun form, cause why not?
"I shouldn't--but I--not that I'm not grateful but umm......" Loki trailed off and Tony raised an unimpressed brow. Loki sighed before realizing he had to continue. "Pardon me for my rudeness, but I would really appreciate it if you would let me--g-go outside" Loki finished with a shaky exhale and Tony just sat there in silence. Shit. They hadn't let Loki out of the tower! Fuck! Tony cursed internally before face-palming and sighing
"Loki, I totally forgot that you never got to go outside. I am so sorry. It completely slipped our minds! Of course you can go outside! You know what, do you wanna go to the mall with me? We can also hang out in Central Park afterwards" Tony realized he was rambling after Loki just stood there in silence. After he was done, Loki was smiling like a hopeful 5 year old
"Of course, I would really appreciate that!" Loki beamed and Tony found his heart clench at the fact that a grown, 1500 year old man would start dancing over going to a standard mall.
"Okay then! And we can go to the Park and chill afterwards. 15 minutes enough for you to get ready?" Tony asked and Loki nodded vigorously before bolting to his floor. Tony smiled as he heard Loki squeal in delight even in the elevator
"Hey J, get my car ready. We are going on an adventure" Tony said with a smirk before chugging his glass of coffee.
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Roughly 7 minutes later, Loki ran back into the common room. JARVIS informed Tony that Loki was ready to go. Tony then proceeded to run to the elevator and meet Loki panting and sweaty. Loki winced at his condition before handing Tony a handkerchief.
"How are you so fast?!?" Tony asked in an amused voice as he wiped the sweat off of his face
"Unlike you, prison guards are not generous with time. You learn to increase your speed." Loki said with a shrug and Tony grimaced before gesturing to the elevator.
"Go on, let's go the garage and pick a car for our adventure" At Loki's confused expression, Tony pointed at the ceiling with a shrug and JARVIS started rapping/explaining what a car is to Loki. Loki was all ears and listening like a student listening to his favorite Professor. It was adorable.
"So, which one should we use?" Tony asked Loki who was staring in awe at the sheer amount of cars in front of him. His eyes glowed bright like stars and for one second, he didn't look like a kicked puppy
"I don't know--wow. I have umm....never seen anything like this before. I have never even seen carriages--this is a lot" Loki sounded like a child at Disneyland.....well kids didn't speak so sophisticated-ly like Loki. Maybe Sherlock would say that in Disneyland? Who knew!
"Yeah well there's a first time for everything. You just wait, I wanna see your reaction when you try a Mcflurry or even a Cheese Burger." Tony smiled to himself at the idea of Loki eating a Cheese Burger for the first time. He certainly didn't remember his first Cheese Burger, but Loki would. "Okay now choose a car, we ain't got all day" Tony said playfully and Loki squinted before pointing at a sleak, glossy black car with golden flames across the edges.
"I like black and gold. Gold reminds me of Areena" Loki said with a soft smile and Tony gave a stupid bow
"Black and gold it is!" Tony said happily and walked off to the car.
Loki tried to and failed miserably to fight back his tears of joy the whole entire ride to the mall. At first he was sobbing while looking at the blue sky. Then he started sobbing when he saw other people. To top it all off he started sobbing when he saw a woman with a puppy. By the time they reached the mall, Loki's eyes were puffed up and Tony handed him a pair of glasses to hide his eyes.
The time in the mall was great......right? Tony honestly had no idea what was going on. Loki gasped at anything and everything. He gasped when he saw a toilet, gasped when he saw mannequins, gasped when he saw escalators, gasped when he saw people and shops in general. Tony thought Loki had trouble breathing at one point but Loki said he was just shocked. After a bit of walking, they stepped into a men's clothing store and Loki just.
"Hey Snowflake, ya' good?" Tony asked as he brought Loki further into the shop. Loki seemed to snap out of his trance and smiled through tears
"Yes, it's just that--the cell was white. My clothes were white. Everything was white. This is just so.......lively" Loki finished with a sigh of relief and Tony shrugged before stalking off to the shirts. While Loki just stood there, Tony went crazy. He picked up anything and everything and threw them in the small shopping basket. A green dress-shirt, a yellow t-shirt, more green t-shirts (Loki apparently liked green), blue jeans, green pants and grey sweatpants etc. The bill came up to almost a thousand dollars and while Loki gasped, Tony just shrugged.
"M'kay, wanna grab something to eat when we go to Central Park? It's like a five minute drive from here" Tony suggested and Loki nodded with a smile. The two ended up going to McDonald's and Tony ordered two cheese burgers with extra cheese and one Oreo McFlurry. To say Loki was happy would be an understatement
"This dish is unlike anything I've ever had. It's is sweet, thick, soft and cold all at once! I love it!" Loki said happily and Tony's heart warmed at the mere sight of Loki, jumping up and down and squealing like a child who got to pet a puppy.
"Alright, let me finish my burger and we can head on over to the Park" Tony said through a mouthful of burger and Loki nodded vigorously
Once they were done with their 'meal' (you can never trust McDonald's) they headed on over to Central Park. Tony opened the door for Loki and Loki gasped in suprise as he stepped out of the car to look at his surroundings. To Tony, it was nothing new or special. But to Loki, it was the whole world. Trees, air, sky, wind, sun! What's not to like? But most importantly, freedom. Loki ushered away unbidden tears as he inhaled and exhaled deeply. The air filing his lungs felt heavenly. The breeze was cold and soft, the birds were chirping happily and the sun was shining brightly. Without thinking for one more second, Loki started running around the park with his arms spread. He kicked off his shoes and ran across the slightly wet grass while squealing in delight. Tony laughed a bit before sitting down on one of the park benches
It was fun watching Loki run around the grass like a toddler. Oh how happy he was! The breeze flowed freely through his tangled hair. His eyes were probably glowing in delight, but Tony couldn't tell because of the glasses. After an hour of running around, Loki finally came over and sat next to Tony. He was a bit drenched in sweat but happy nonetheless. Tony smiled as he handed Loki a handkerchief from his pocket and Loki took the handkerchief a bit sheepishly.
"So, ready to head back? I think Areena's back and I'm sure she'll want to see you" Tony said and Loki's smile faded just a bit before he nodded and got up.
"Mr. Stark?" Loki asked shyly once they got close to the Tower
"Don't call me Stark, go on" Loki nodded before chewing on his bottom lip
"I--thank you for today. I really appreciate it. Can we......go out again? Not now of course......just--I mean can I leave the Tower once in a while?" Loki asked in a low and afraid voice and Tony cursed at Odin internally before sighing
"Loki you can leave the Tower anytime you want, seriously. We just forgot that you haven't been outside in a long, long while. Of course you can go out anytime, but for your safety I'd recommend you to take one of us with you." Tony said as he pulled into the garage and Loki sighed in relief.
"Sir, Miss Royalblood is back from her vacation and is waiting in the common room" JARVIS informed Tony and Loki all but ran to the elevator to meet Areena. Suddenly, Tony felt like a dad witnessing his son's first love--how cute! They reached the common room first and Loki jumped out of the elevator and onto Areena who yelped in suprise. Tony stepped out of the elevator to grab a bottle of water before turning around again
"Alright, you two catch up, I'm gonna take a shower. Peace!" Tony said cheerily before walking off to the elevator. From the far distance, he could hear Loki ramble about his days like a preschooler rambling about his first day at school and Tony couldn't help the smile that creeped up on his lips and warmed his heart