Hallucination
Thor didn´t understand Loki´s sudden urge to return immediately back to Midgard, but he could sense that whatever mother had shown him, it´d caused him a great distress. Thor didn´t try to pretend he understood the relationship between Loki and Tony Stark. It wasn´t merely complicated to comprehend, but it was also unbelievable and strange. He couldn´t remember a single time he´d witnessed Loki having such a strong bond to anyone.
Not even to his family – he thought bitterly while giving a silent nod to Heimdall. The guardian of the Bifrost put a sword in its place without questions and without any implication that he didn´t agree with this, but perhaps he didn´t. It was hard to tell.
“I´ll be watching you,” was the only thing he uttered Loki´s way, and Loki reacted in his usual manner – raising an eyebrow and snorting like he had no reason to worry about Heimdall or anything else. Or maybe just except of someone else.
The travel back to Midgard was quick and without complications. They´d both decided that the best and safest place to return would be Tony´s tower and his underground rooms, where he worked. Thor agreed, and so when the Bifrost threw them back in New York, he somehow expected Tony´s voice to greet them first thing, then Loki would maybe be able to finally calm down.
However, there was a deep silence in the room and a dark atmosphere hanging in the air, forcing Thor to take a look at both sides and make sure it was safe to proceed. Loki had to feel it too, because his movement was also cautious.
“JARVIS?” Loki muttered towards the person in the ceiling. The voice that replied back was however someone else.
“It´s FRIDAY, sir, welcome back. JARVIS is… unavailable. Can you stand still for a moment for me to scan you and identify you properly?” The voice sounded uncertain, worried even.
Loki didn´t make an attempt to move, but he spoke up again and his voice strangely wavered.
“Where is Anthony?” Thor tried not to flinch from how many emotions he felt from that simple question. He was indeed utterly amazed.
“Boss is… further in the room, you may proceed now.”
That was all Loki needed. He walked quickly to where he probably expected Tony to be, but then he stopped abruptly and Thor hurried to his side when he saw his whole body tense and ready for a fight.
“He is alright. Sleeping.” A man´s voice he didn´t recognize came rushing to his ears before he could see what caught Loki´s eyes and why he paled. Then a figure, similar to a robot, moved into his vision, looking on both of them, his hands up and displayed, confirming he was no threat.
Thor´s eyes then slid to a second person lying on the ground, curled to himself, with a blanket over his unnaturally small form. Tony. Pale just as Thor´s brother. His hair messy and eyes moving behind the closed eyelids – the only sign he was really alive. Tony´s robots stood their guard around his body, their claws hovering protectively nearby.
Loki didn´t hesitate. He kneeled down beside the sleeping man, placing his hand partly on his neck and jaw, maybe making sure he was indeed good, before he pulled his lips firmly in one straight line and gazed back at the robot.
“Who are you? What happened?” His tone was pure ice, dangerous and promising a revenge if the robot-man had anything to do with Tony´s current state.
“My name is Vision,” the unfamiliar face moved his head slightly to Thor and then returned back to Loki on the floor, “Mr. Stark created me. A lot of things happened while you were away, Mr. Liesmith.”
Loki´s eyes narrowed even more.
“You sound like JARVIS.”
The robot-man… Vision… remained silent for a moment.
“It is a rather complicated matter, I´m afraid.”
Thor cleared his throat. “What happened to friend, Tony?” he repeated the question, unsure of where to lay his eyes.
“He…” Vision started, then his eyes darted towards the engineer, “he was quite upset about some recent events with his team, but he was holding quite alright. He was waiting for you…” The word evaporated into the thick air. Loki didn´t react, not in the way Thor expected him. He kept his eyes on Tony´s face, careesing it with his fingers, the gesture so intimate and so strange in connection with Loki that Thor had a feeling he shouldn’t be looking.
“It changed when he received a message,” Vision finished his thought.
“What message?”
“That you are dead.”
Both brothers gazed at Vision in shock, Loki reacting even faster than Thor, like those words physically struck him.
“What are you talking about?” Loki hissed, his anger evident in his voice.
Vision didn´t seem alarmed, but he should be. Loki usually didn´t display his anger so easily without a good reason. And good reason usually comes hand in hand with bad consequences.
“Captain Rogers met with doctor Jane and she passed the massage of your death. I don´t know the full version as I escorted Mr. Stark after only few initial sentences here in his workshop. After that I was banned and allowed to return only today. Friday worried about Mr. Stark´s condition. In the case of his unconsciousness she has the right to overrun his protocols.”
After the explaining, Loki´s gaze turned on Thor, piercing him through like it was a dagger and not the pair of green eyes.
“I´m sorry. I told Jane our version, it was all in hurry, she had to misunderstood the timing.” I felt like a fool. It has never crossed my mind how Tony would feel if he discovered Loki was dead before he had a chance to learn it wasn´t true. He didn’t… Norns, he didn´t consider this thing between them to be this serious. He thought there was merely an attraction, or attraction and maybe some shallow, uncovered feelings, maybe Loki having some plan and therefore Thor would have to watch him and Tony closely.
Only now he remembered the scene on Asgard and understood it for what it was, mother´s vision, Loki´s honest and raw reaction to it. Thor has never seen him so protective. Was he… with this mortal?
“Anthony,” he heard his brother´s voice gently escaping his mouth, his hands shaking the man on the ground in an attempt to wake him up. For a while it didn´t work and Thor´s heart was seized in a silent panic. But then the engineer´s eyes snapped open, looking dazed for a moment, but then aiming straight at Loki like he was the center of the world and nothing else existed in that moment.
It was hard to predict a reaction, when Thor now knew what he knew, but the calm sigh and an uncertain touch aimed towards Loki´s face was surely not what either of them expected.
“Anthony,” Loki repeated, when he saw that Tony wasn´t really being himself. His eyes glassy and red, face pale and strained, tired, unfocused. “Talk to me, please.”
It seemed like Tony had to try his voice first. His silent words sent shivers down Thor´s spine.
“You… real?”
Loki looked at him with somehow pained expression, his fingers brushing away the hair from Tony´s forehead.
“Yes. I´m here. I´ve come back to you as I promised.”
Loki probably tried not to overload him with information. He waited patiently until there was at least some recognition in Tony´s eyes before he continued.
“I´m alive and well. What you learnt, it wasn´t real.”
Loki helped Tony to sit, slowly, holding his hands in his, Tony watching him unsure, his eyes darting between Loki´s face and their joined hands.
“No,” he said after a moment, he was shaking his head, “no, you can´t do this to me. I can´t…” a pained, suppressed sob escaped his lips and he closed his eyes stubbornly, but not fast enough to prevent the tears run down both of his cheeks down to his throat, right where Loki´s fingers were holding him.
Thor heard Loki growl deeply, a sound full of frustration and emotions so complex he couldn´t even dream of reading them.
“Anthony, open your eyes,” he commanded, but in contrast his voice was calming and steady, clearly a lie he forced himself in, because Thor could see his hands shaking, “please, look at me.”
Tony listened to him. He opened his eyes, wet and full of unmistakable suffering he must were feeling, but he stayed rather focused and again there was a little bit of more recognition than the first time.
“I´m real, Anthony, take a look at your left,” he leaded Tony and after a second Thor´s eyes met with his.
“It´s Thor,” Loki continued, “we are here.”
Tony glanced back at Loki´s face, one of his hand moving for Loki´s neck, almost like before, but this time when Tony spoke his voice was much stronger.
“You´re here,” he repeated and in that moment of pure relief, Tony returned to them. His eyes cleared completely. He became aware of his surroundings, but he paid his attention to it only for a while. After learning who was present, he returned back to the god before him, his other hand settling in Loki´s hair. And then in contrary how slow his movement were until now, he nearly threw himself on Loki. Tony managed to make him lose his stability for a moment, but when he regained it, Loki only pulled the engineer closer, encircling his arms over Tony´s like he wanted to shield him from everything and everyone.
Thor maybe heard Tony try Loki´s name on his tongue, but he wasn´t sure.
When they parted after a long moment, Tony smiled and it was very unsettling smile, but still bright and happy. He closed the distance again, but this time he reached for Loki´s lips instead, taking it with desperation, like a drowning man taking a hold of the lifeguard.
Thor looked away, feeling like an intruder on this private moment.
Only when he heard Tony speaking again, his eyes returned.
“I thought… They told me… Oh, god…” the engineer started, unable to end any of his sentences, “I thought you left me.”
Loki was looking at him in the way it was hard to describe because Thor has never witnessed it before.
“I wouldn´t,” he replied back. His words full of affection. “It was a mistake.”
Thor swallowed the guilt. He couldn´t imagine Jane being in Tony´s place or himself. The mere thought of losing a loved person just for a moment… and how long Tony thought this? How long did it take until he become this? And where was everyone? Where was the team?
“Come,” Loki more or less picked him up on his two feet, dragging Tony towards the couch while his robots followed him awkwardly across the room. And although the situation was heavy, Thor had to smile at the sight.
It was only natural that Tony fought Loki when the god insisted Tony had to sleep off whatever he had in him. It wasn´t hard to figure out what exactly as Loki had kicked few empty bottles angrily off their way to the couch.
“Did you take anything? Drugs, medication?”
“No,” Tony snorted, “wasn´t in that stage yet.”
Loki´s brows furrowed, but he didn´t say anything.
Thor suddenly felt out of the place and he could sense that Vision shared that feeling. They couldn´t help. And their presence wasn´t welcomed from what he could read out from Loki´s sidelooks while he pushed Tony down and threatened him to knock him out with a spell if he won´t listen.
“Always so bossy, you must be real then,” Tony said with a hint of humor behind his strained voice. Maybe he was willing to rest for a bit, but he was clearly not able to let Loki go anywhere away from him. A fear still evident on his face.
“Stay,” he murmured, “I will go crazy, if I can´t see you when I wake up. There is still 35% of me thinking this is just another hallucination.”
“Of course,” Loki replied, sitting next to him, even rolling his eyes over the last comment, although there was something very serious and alarming behind it.
When Tony didn´t make a move to lie down, Loki just pulled him strong enough to unbalance him and let his head rest in his lap. One of the robots then hurried to their side and brought an abandoned blanket to Loki´s outstretched hand.
“Thank you, U,” Tony tried to pat the robot and it beeped back happily in response.
“I will be on my way, Loki," Thor decided to interrupt then. From the glance sent his way, he sensed Loki was still angry with him and wished nothing else, but he nodded. His gaze then turned to Vision.
“I won´t speak about your presence,” he addressed Loki before he had a chance to set a question, “I believe I´m leaving Mr. Stark in good hands. If you need something, Friday knows how to contact me.”
Thor followed him out of the room and something warm spread in him with the thought of what he´s just witnessed. Maybe there is indeed a hope for his little brother.
“Friday, start the explaining,” Thor heard him give an order before the door closed behind Thor´s back and the voices died in the room. Tony had to be already sleeping then.
Thor would like to know what happened as well, but he had his own source, so he aimed his steps up and into the common rooms.