Maybe not... Everything
“hey Rudolph” Tony greets as he walks through the door and Ikol sits up, giving tony all his attention. “tell me what else is going on” he demands.
“about me dying?” Tony nods. “Um, there is no heaven” he doesn’t react, he already knew that because why would there be some holy man in the clouds? it makes no sense
“There’s just the other side”
“the other side?” Tony didn’t expect that, he expected nothing after you die.
“the others called it that” Kol states. “I couldn’t feel, I couldn’t get anyone to hear me or see me, I couldn’t interact with the other ghosts unless they wanted to as well” he lets out a sigh “it’s worse than Hel” he shrugs “I still can’t feel anything”
“at all?”
“physically” he snaps his fingers and a flame comes to life “no” he says as he holds his palm above the flame and Tony can instantly smell meat burning, he can hear it.
“Stop”
“why?” Kol asks innocently “I can’t feel it anyway-“ he shuts up as Tony pulls on his wrist, making the flame go out and the latter immediately starts checking on the burn, his skin already black and charred. Red and peeling, bubbling with pus, it’s gonna take a bit of time for that to heal.
“Loki…”
“was that my real name?” Kol asks quietly and they make eye contact. “you guys called me Loki earlier” he swallows down the grief in his throat when Tony nods. He asks “why did I forget everything?” in the softest voice Tony has ever heard and no, it does not break his still-healing heart.
“you didn’t have a very fun life” he says “from what I heard atleast”
“can you tell me?” Tony looks up, hesitantly making eye contact “please, I can’t not know such a huge part of my life and expect to be the same person again”
Tony asks “What’s your name?” instead, hopefully getting his mind off of it.
But of course it doesn’t work, he answers “Ikol” and instantly asks “what happened to me?” without hesitation, not letting Tony change the conversation.
Tony shakes his head, he can’t think about it all without feeling bad so he saves his own ass for once in the selfish way, just like everyone expects “I’ll tell you another time, when you’re ready to know it all”
“I am not a child Tony” it’s so weird hearing Loki- Ikol call him that. All Loki ever called him was Stark or Man of Iron, come to think of it, Ikol lacks the formal speaking as well.
“you just came back from the dead with half of your memories gone” Tony elaborates, “there’s way too much for you to catch up on without having a mental breakdown”
Kol sighs “I need something to do” and Tony gets an idea.
“There’s files you can read, see if it refreshes your memory”
“I thought you just said that you would wait until I’m ready”
“FRIDAY will make sure you don’t see anything to extreme”
“who the hell is Friday now?”
“Hello Mr-“
Ikol flinches and screams so loud that Tony’s ears sting
“-Laufeyson, I am Mr.Starks AI. I run everything in this building”
“and half of the company” Tony adds as Ikol relaxes, frowning at the cieling and Tony. “it’s not magic if that’s what you’re think- well actually Asgardians consider this magic so I guess it is”
“okay” Ikol looks at the door briefly “are we done?”
“I thought yoh were going to look through the files”
“you’re right” Ikol blurts making Tony stop “I should just wait until I’m ready, I’m just gonna go upstairs”
“okay” Tony agrees, watching Ikol walk out despite some urge to make him stay. As soon as the door closes he asks “FRIDAY, can you keep an eye on him please?”
“of course sir”
Clint and Natasha are watching Ikol intently, still suspicious of him even as he barely grips a french fry and pops it into his mouth. “mm” his face scrunches up and he forces himself to swallow the gross mushy cardboard stick.
“what?” Clint asks with a snarky tune “don’t like earth food?”
Ikol shrugs and pushes the plate away from himself “maybe”
Natasha pushes the plate back towards him “eat, you just came back to life”
Ikol shakes his head “I’m not hungry” he states as he looks up at her “you don’t have to pretend that you care”. He looks back down at his hands fiddling with each other “I know you didnt like me”
“not as much as I used to”
“what made you change your mind?” Natasha stays silent but lucky for him, Clint is still nearby. “you sacrificed yourself to save Thor and Asgard”
“Clint!”
Ikol stutters as he asks “from-from who?” even thought he does not want to know.
“Th-“
“Clint!” the man shut up this time as Natasha whispers “he’s not ready yet”
“he deserves to know, it’s his life”
“the first thing he knows shouldn’t be his death” Natasha says a little harshly before she focuses on Ikol again “you really do need to eat, you’ve been dead for two years”
“two years?” he asks, earning a nod and he sighs as he looks back down at the food. He does need to eat if it’s been that long
So he forces several of the cardboard sticks in his mouth, chewing as fast as he can before swallowing and letting out a disgusted groan.
“never met anyone that hates french fries” Clint says “you really are an alien”
Ikol covers his mouth as he grumbles “it tastes like wet cardboard”
“how do you know what that tastes like?”
“lost a bet” he states before shoving a couple more in his mouth and this time as he swallows he has to hold back a gag. His body lurching forwards enough for Natasha to notice.
“you don’t have to eat if it tastes that gross” She says and points to the fridge “find something else you like”
Ikol gladly listens, opening the fridge and stating “I don’t know what I like” so he grabs the first thing he sees which is blueberries. He pops a handfull of those in his mouth and as soon as he bites down he has to spit it back out onto his hand with a loud gag.
His stomach drops and his heart starts racing as Clint laughs at him.
Something is wrong.