The Middle

Part 3: Tony's terrible night

"Mr. Loki!" Friday called urgently in the dead of night but, Asgardian or not, the trickster kept on snoring, face buried into the comfiest pillow he had ever felt; not that said trickster would admit it. "MR. LOKI!!!" Friday now shouted while blaring the alarms in his room.

Loki shot up, conjured knife in each hand, as he looked around frantically. "What in Norns name?!" He shouted as Friday added some light to his room.

"I'm so glad you're awake Mr. Loki," Friday said as she stopped the alarms. "We have a bit of a situation."

"What kind of situation?" Loki asked, now completely awake.

"Boss fell asleep in the workshop and now he's having a panic attack." Friday explained, while sounding very worried, as Loki magicked a robe and left the room. The lights along the hallway were guiding him to the workshop as Friday continued to explain.

"...and Mr. Vision is currently helping out in Australia, and Mr. Rhodey is on a mission for the military......" Friday kept talking. Loki thought it might be something she does to try and stay calm. "Miss Potts is landing tonight and there is no one else with access to the lab."

"Wait, I have access to the lab?" Loki nearly stopped in his tracks.

"You do Mr. Loki. Both you and Thor as well as Doctor Banner have access to the lab." Friday informed him. "Also Doctor Banner isn't currently in the Tower since he is helping with the Asgardian relocation."

"Right," Loki said as he reached the end of a set of stairs that opened up into a wide lab. There was a transparent door in front of him with a keypad. "Uhm... Friday?"

The AI opened the door and Loki stepped into the workshop. He was looking around at the white walls and all the machinery strewn about, trying to find Stark when a large robot claw suddenly grabbed his robe and tugged. Loki had only been here a week so he hadn't met any of the bots yet but by the way Tony described them then this must be DUM-E.

The bot tugged and rolled across the workshop to a small alcove. Loki's eyes widened when he saw Tony huddled there, his head against his drawn up knees, and his breathing erratic.

"Anthony?" Loki called, not yet touching the man. "Can you look at me?" There was a bit of movement and Tony's eye peered up at Loki who had crouched down.

"Go away," Tony's muffled voice could be heard in the workshop that was silent for the most part. The whirring of worried bots was still noticeable though.

"How about we get you to bed?" Loki prodded.

"Not sleepy...... can't sleep........" Tony answered in that same muffled voice.

"Why can't you sleep?" Loki now asked. He still hadn't heard much about what had happened between Tony and the rest of the team and even Thor knew only the bare bones. He just had this feeling that it had something to do with them.

"Phone........" Was all Tony said and then somewhat pointed at a discarded box on the floor. Loki turned to where Tony had pointed and saw the broken remains of a flip phone strewn about. A cardboard box was on the floor as well as a crumpled piece of paper.

Tony wasn't very talkative, which was both a wonder and worrisome. Loki scanned the short letter that appeared to be from Rodgers and then looked back at Tony. He didn't have much context to go with the letter but if it sent Anthony into a fit like this then there must be more to it. It didn't look like Tony would even be moving soon and Loki was no expert on panic attacks so he did the only thing he could think of to get his host's breathing under control.

A small mew caught Tony's attention not a minute later and the man looked up slightly to see a black cat with forest green eyes staring back at him. "Loki?" Tony asked more to himself but when he leaned back a bit to get a closer look, the cat took the opportunity to jump in his lap and settle there.

"Hey now!" Tony exclaimed only to have a black fur paw boop his nose twice.

"Really Loki?!" Tony uttered as he gripped the cat around the waist. "You-Hey, this is really soft fur," Tony mumbled as he absentmindedly started running his fingers through the cat's fur. Tony was a bit out of it as he kept stroking the cat and scratching behind its ears. "Hmmm, this is nice," The engineer muttered.

Loki flicked his cat ears and curled up further on Tony's lap. His cat form seems to have done the trick of distracting the man a bit. He flicked his black fluffy tail around Anthony's wrist and settled down for the night. If the man wasn't going to move then at least he'd stay warm. That was how the pair fell asleep.

Tony opened his eyes the following morning. His back and knees felt stiff but that's what you get from sleeping in an alcove. Tony remembered some of the events of last night. Waking up from a nightmare featuring Siberia and then seeing the package that he had yet to open on his desk. He really wished he hadn't opened that package. A faint meow could be heard and Tony looked down to see a cat asleep on his stomach, legs splayed and tail wagging lazily.

"Loki?" Tony asked with a bit of uncertainty. He didn't remember adopting a cat. His finger poked the cat's belly and the feline batted his hand away with a paw before continuing to sleep.

"Lazy cat... god... eh.. Ish," Tony mumbled. "Can you please turn back now?" He asked and the lazy cat shot him an annoyed look before hopping off of his stomach and transforming back.

"How do you even do that?" Tony asked, more curious than ever.

"Transformation magic, surely Thor told you about it." Loki raised a brow. "Feeling better yet?"

"Yeah Thor told me about the snake and the stabbing when you guys were eight. And yeah, surprisingly I do feel better." Tony mumbled.

"Good now we can have food." Loki stated. "I'm cooking,"

"Wait, what?!" Tony asked as he followed after Loki.

"I could eat a horse," Loki said as they went up the stairs.

"I hope you mean that figuratively." Tony mumbled.

When they were back in Tony's penthouse things turned more domestic than Tony would have ever thought. He sat on a stool at the kitchen island while Loki was raiding his fridge. "How can you have so little food in here?!" Loki asked as he placed some eggs on the counter and butter.

"I usually just buy food," Tony mumbled.

Loki just huffed and then proceeded to uproot the pots and pans. "Thor stole the girl I liked." He said and Tony looked up at the still crouching god.

"Wait, what?"

"Me stabbing Thor when we were eight," Loki explained as he came back out with a large frying pan. "I told him I liked this girl and the next day I see him asking her out on a playdate," Loki grumbled.

"So you stabbed him?" Tony quirked a brow.

"So I stabbed him," Loki nodded while cracking some eggs.

"Youch," Tony said just as the doors to the penthouse opened. Pepper walked in and stopped dead in her tracks at the scene before her. You'd think that she'd scream when seeing Loki, since Tony hadn't told her yet that he would be staying in the Tower.

"Eh..... Hiya Pep," Tony greeted. Loki turned slightly and gave a short nod along with a "Morning miss,"

Pepper merely blinked at the absurdity of the scene she was seeing and then nodded before saying to Tony in astonishment "You haven't devoured the coffee pot yet." She mumbled. "And you're eating actual food for breakfast?"

"Well.... Eh......" Now it was Tony's turn to look sheepish. "Figured I just might since I was using Loki as a plushie last night."

"What?" Pepper's eyes gazed between the two. Loki had no clue what a plushie was so he just kept making the food. Soon he slipped a plate of four omelets in front of Tony. Pepper just sat quietly watching and mumbled "Tony is eating breakfast,"

"Really Pep? Really?" Tony asked while scarfing down the eggs. He was hungry and this just tasted, mind the pun, out of this world.

"Tony?" Pepper asked, getting his attention. Her longtime friend turned to her slightly and then she pointed at Loki. "We are keeping him, right?"