The End
As the screen went dark. Everyone stayed silent. After several beats of silence Tony (of course) spoke up.
“Now that that’s done. Where’s the food?”
“Only you could act so casual after that.” sighed Rhodey. Tony shrugged. Inwardly he was having conflicting thoughts of horror, panic, and fear. But those weren’t exactly conflicting. Moreso brain damaging.
“You okay Mr S-Tony?” Peter asked seriously. Tony smiled and nodded.
“Always kid.” he lied easily. The awkward silence fell again. Then T’challa stood up making everyone stare at him. He silently moved towards the DVD player and took out the disc, placing it back in the box.
“Well.” He began, “There are a lot of other discs here so I suggest we take a break and maybe even rest.”
“Agreed, that was definitely a tiring experience.” Quill nodded. “So food, sleep, then continue?”
“That works.” agreed Tony, although he knew there was roughly a 0.07% chance of him getting any decent sleep. Promptly he jumped up and headed confidently to the side room. Luckily, the empty bottles from earlier had disappeared. Swiftly he grabbed the bottle of pills he had left on the table and slid them into his pocket just as everyone entered.
“Okay, so what are we supposed to eat?” Peter asked curiously. Almost as soon as he spoke, several dozen boxes of pizza appeared on the table. Tony almost heard the table groan in protest at the sudden weight.
“Okay, then.” Peter smiled slightly and began to rummage through the boxes looking for his desired toppings.
As everyone swarmed on the pizza, Tony sighed, sitting down in the armchair he had occupied earlier. A lump formed in his throat as he remembered what had driven him to this room originally. Tony ignored the occasional anxious glances being sent his way by almost everyone. After retrieving their pizza, everyone scattered around the room. Still, Tony noticed, drawn to their ‘teams’. Except for the Guardians who were being very loud and talking to half the room. And Loki, who curiously, was not eating and instead, sitting in an identical armchair on the opposite side of the room to Tony with his eyes closed.
“Tony?” Rhodey sat down beside him, practically forcing pizza into his hands. “Eat something.” Tony hummed, not really paying attention. After Rhodey continued to stare at him intensely for several seconds Tony finally answered.
“Not that hungry, I’ll eat later.” Rhodey groaned at his answer.
“You better.”
-
Steve was deep in thought about everything. He had seen things in this… film? That worried him. Well, more accurately, made him ashamed. He hadn’t known this somehow and never bothered to ask Tony. Instead, he had assumed Tony had just decided to become a superhero. Which, now he was thinking about it, was incredibly thick. The thing that greatly disturbed him though was how similar he had sounded to Stane. With the whole, ‘the safest hands are our own.’ speech. Although Steve was actually right unlike Stane. Oh, how had Howard never noticed?
Steve was pulled from his thoughts when he noticed Bucky was still not talking. He looked at him worriedly.
“You alright Buck?” Bucky jerked his head up, looking alarmed.
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s just, you didn’t really say… well, anything for the entire thing.”
“Oh yeah,” Bucky stared back as the slice of pizza he was holding, his brow furrowed slightly. “It just seemed wrong.”
“Wrong?” Steve echoed.
“Yeah, to be commenting on someone else’s life like that. God knows I wouldn’t want someone to watch my life.” Steve was speechless. Suddenly feeling embarrassed that he hadn’t even thought about it, so desperate to know more about Tony. To understand him.
“Oh.” Steve finally said.
“Don’t worry Stevie, I’ll probably speak later.” Bucky teased lightly. Steve’s lip twitched. He observed the room. Natasha was discretely observing Tony, who, quite frankly, looked exhausted. Clint was standing looking Wanda, both seemed deep in thought as they ate. Both incredibly troubled. Sam was chatting with Scott, seeming, at first glance, unbothered. In fact, that was the state of most everyone in the room. But the tension surrounding everyone was clear. All of them unsure of how to react to what they had seen.
-
Once again, Tony couldn’t sleep. After everyone had disappeared down the hallway to the bedrooms, Tony had quietly returned to the kitchen, fetching a trustworthy bottle of scotch. If this stupid thing kept on going on, then Tony would be needing more than a bottle of scotch. Not to mention that he would end up collapsing from exhaustion. There was no way he was going to sleep. No way. He knew that even shutting his eyes would bring up the nightmares that would have intensified with every scene of horror he had just relieved on-screen. Tony sighed. Why was Syn punishing him? I mean, he could understand the why. But seriously? Going to all this trouble just to torture Tony? Well. He knew one thing. It was definitely working.
You know what else was working? This scotch. Man. The foggy mindedness never felt so good. Now he could actually close his eyes without being reminded of his screams and pain. Unlike earlier. When every time he even blinked, a pain would stab his chest, right over the arc reactor. Tony grimaced, rubbing his chest as another sharp pain went through him.
“You know…” began a quiet voice from behind Tony. “We never did have that drink.” Tony turned quickly, coming face to face with Loki. At the offer, Tony began an internal argument. On one side, Loki was an evil god constantly desiring revenge. On the other, Loki was… there isn't really another side.
“Pull up a chair Reindeer Games.” Tony found himself saying anyway. Loki’s eyes narrowed slightly at the nickname, but he sat down anyway.
“You need a glass.” Tony pointed out. Loki sighed, a glass appearing in his hand. Tony blinked, he didn’t really like magic.
“Well then.” Tony poured the god a generous amount of alcohol before turning back to his own glass. “Can you even get drunk on this stuff?”
“Unless I drink a substantial amount, no I can not,” Loki replied coolly. “Shame really.”
“Hmm,” Tony replied then paused. “Wait, why are you awake? Shouldn’t you be asleep in your custom green pyjamas?”
“I don’t need as much sleep as you Midgardians,” Loki replied simply, ignoring the comment about pyjamas.
“Well, then when was the last time you slept?” Tony asked, suspicions subsiding as curiosity took over.
“I don’t know.” Loki pondered. “Probably about a month ago?” Tony whistled.
“Damn, I assume that isn’t good? I mean, Thor was constantly asleep when staying in Avengers Tower. He was either asleep or eating all my food.”
“Yes, Thor.” Loki stared at his now empty glass intently, it instantly refilled.
“Firstly, I need to learn that. It would be so incredibly useful for both coffee and alcohol. Second, you didn’t answer the question.”
“You are incredibly nosy aren’t you?” mused Loki. “Maybe I should throw you out another window.”
“Only if you want me to kick your ass.” Tony retorted. He had not been expecting this. In fact, this sort of banter was the last thing he had expected in this conversation.
“Like you could.” scoffed Loki.
“Try me, Snape.”
“Snape?” Loki raised an eyebrow.
“He’s a character in this wizard book series,” explained Tony. “He’s sort of evil and has greasy hair. It fits perfectly.” Tony snickered at the expression on Loki’s face.
“Right.” Loki glowered.
“Don’t look so down, it could be a lot worse.” joked Tony. Loki rolled his eyes, draining what was already his dozenth glass.
As the night wore on, Tony got drunker and drunker, Loki only mildly feeling the effects after his hundredth glass.
“We are all so messed up.” Tony slurred, his expression half tired, half angry.
“That might be the only true thing you have said in this conversation,” smirked Loki, Tony glared at him half-heartedly.
“It’s true though. It’s quite easy to tell all of us have had shitty lives. Tortured, and betrayed, and controlled, and abused. All of it.” Tony turned sharply to Loki. “But you. You are very intriguing. I mean obviously, your family was shitty to you for whatever reason. But why did you do the things you did? Clearly, you regret New York, so…” As Tony trailed off, Loki remained emotionless. He debated on answering before deciding, Tony was likely to forget half of what was said here tonight anyway.
“Just what you listed,” Loki replied simply. “Hel, I don’t want it shown on screen. Thor will get horribly mushy and that is always irritating.”
“Right,” Tony answered sluggishly. “Honestly. I’ve been awake for 47 hours now and with all the alcohol, am about to pass out so.” Tony clumsily stood up, instantly falling over. He lay on the floor groaning as Loki stared at him.
“I don’t want to go to sleep.” Tony half groaned half whimpered. Honestly, he was so drunk it was hard to tell. “I’ll end up screaming and waking everyone up and then they will hate me even more.” Loki sighed, unwillingly feeling empathy for the collapsed genius.
“You are an idiot,” Loki muttered as he raised his hand and teleported himself and Tony to one of the empty rooms clearly meant for Tony. Tony instantly collapsed on the bed, still groaning. Loki considered leaving him there to have his nightmares but a betraying piece of his conscience protested. Loki sighed heavily as he muttered a simple spell to clear the man’s mind. Rolling his eyes slightly, Loki left the slumbering genius to finally get some sleep.