You should try hiking, Steve had said. Getting out in nature will be good for you, Steve had said. Tony was going to strangle the fucker if he ever saw him again. Right after he finished building himself a completely waterproof cellphone, that was.

Okay, so falling in the lake had been his own stupid fault for leaning too far off the rocks. He'd admit that, being as there were no witnesses and the only person to admit it to was himself. He could handle his clothes and the contents of his backpack being a bit wet. He'd dry off pretty well in the sun by the time he got back to the car. The downpour that started just as he'd finished wringing out his shirt though...that was just not fair.

The hike back to his car was taking far longer than it had on the way out. Tony wanted to say it was just his imagination, but he knew it wasn't. The trail was slippery and the footing hard to see with the angry storm clouds blotting out the sun, making it impossible to move very quickly. Tony cursed himself for not listening when JARVIS tried to tell him the weather forecast as he slipped and slid along, drenched and cold.

The sound of the river, barely audible over the pounding of the rain, was music to Tony's ears. The trailhead and his car with its heater was just a few minutes walk beyond the crossing. Just a few more minutes of this and then he could go home and be warm and never go out in nature again.

Oh. Oh shit. Change of plans, he wasn't going to be going home soon. Not until he found another way across the river. The shallows where the trail crossed the river were...not shallow anymore. In fact, they appeared quite deep. And fast. Dangerously so. The river was much too swollen by the rain for him to dare try wading across it. Tony cursed Murphy's Law and set off bushwhacking along the bank in search of a way across or even just someplace to get out of the rain and wait it out.

There was a cave of sorts formed of leaning boulders a ways uphill. Glancing at the still-rising river, Tony decided that looked like the place to be.

Just as he started for the cave, something caught his eye. There was a human figure several yards off in the trees, awkwardly sprawled in the mud. He started in its direction. Whoever it was probably needed help if they were so close to shelter but not availing themself of it, and self-centered though he was, he wasn't going to leave them there. Being an Avenger must have been rubbing off on him.

A flash of lightning illuminated Loki. Wait. Loki? What was Loki doing sprawled in the mud in a downpour on Earth? Tony grabbed for his phone to contact S.H.I.E.L.D. or Thor or somebody. He certainly wasn't going to try and apprehend a super villain alone without his suit.

His phone was unresponsive. Not even a flicker of life. He should have seen that one coming, really, considering how wet everything was. But more importantly, he was stranded in the woods in the rain next to a river about to spill over its banks with Loki and had no way of calling for help or even telling anybody where he was.

This had to be a trap. There was no other explanation for it. Nobody, not even a crazy super villain and demigod, would sit there in these conditions by choice unless they were trying to lure somebody to come help them so they could attack.

...By choice. But what if it wasn't by choice? Tony edged closer despite himself. What if something really was wrong? They were well away from the trail and Loki wasn't making any effort to attract attention. Hardly what he'd expect of someone trying to lure a victim over to him. He continued his tentative approach, heart pounding.

Now he could see the reason for the god's undignified sprawl. He seemed to have fallen, his foot wedged in the fork of a log and leg twisted such that freeing himself would be difficult or impossible from his position. Tony looked back at the river, noticing with alarm that it had started to flood. He really hoped this wasn't a trap.

A hand on his shoulder brought Loki back to his senses, and he looked dully up at Tony with red-rimmed eyes. Brilliant. An Avenger. He didn't even care. They'd probably take advantage of his trapped state to finish him off. Whatever. He closed his eyes again.

"Hey, don't do that." The hand slid over to the side of his neck now, but it wasn't choking him, just feeling his pulse. "I need you to stay awake for me. I'm gonna get you out of this. You're gonna be okay. Eyes on me." Loki obeyed, not quite sure why, watching woozily as Tony moved down to examine the wood trapping his foot.

Okay, not a trap then. Unless of course someone else had set it, but Tony tried not to think about that possibility. Loki was definitely not a hologram, definitely in shock, well and truly stuck in that log, looked like he'd been crying, and it didn't take a doctor to see that his ankle was broken. And the rain hadn't let up, so the river was still rising, inching closer to them. Tony got to work freeing him.

"C'mon, up you get." Tony's doubts about helping his enemy were dulled by the water starting to lap at his boots as he hauled Loki to his feet. "There we go. Lean on me. Don't even try to put weight on that leg, I don't know if I can carry you if you pass out." Not that he was very far from carrying him right now, but every little bit helped.

Loki whined in pain, fresh tears spilling despite himself, as he was lowered to the floor of the cave. The mortal was being gentle, but there was nothing he could do about the stab of pain of his foot touching the floor, and Loki was too dazed for dignity. Which wasn't to say that he didn't struggle when the mortal started undressing him, but the tense "Stop it, I'm saving your life you ungrateful bastard. You're in shock and wet clothes will only make it worse." was enough that he did indeed stop fighting it.

There were an "emergency camping blanket" and a first aid kit in the bottom of his backpack. Tony thanked the powers that be for JARVIS and the robots not trusting him to pack for himself. They were even still sealed in their original packaging. Original waterproof packaging. Tony looked longingly at the (larger than ought to fit in that package, but still rather small) blanket, but then threw it over Loki and commenced feeling around in the dark for any wood he could burn. Or use for a splint. Both were important, if he was remembering correctly that lecture on first aid that Fury had made them sit through.

Fury. Oh shit, The others would have a field day with this. Not that Tony felt like he had any choice. He couldn't have sat in his elevated sort-of-dry cave and watched the flood water rise around a trapped injured person even if it was Loki. Nor was he going to not at least try to perform first aid. He wasn't a monster.

Loki gingerly pushed himself up, trying to make sense of his surroundings. He was lying on a dirt floor, naked but for his underwear and wrapped in a light blanket. There was a small fire burning a few feet away, his clothes spread out next to it. His ankle was crudely splinted and in considerable pain. Oh. That was right. He vaguely remembered Stark trying to bandage it. Evidently he'd passed out during the process. And speaking of the man, there he was, ducking back inside out of the rain with an armload of wood to dry by the fire.

"Well look who's awake. How're you feeling, sleeping beauty?"

"A little woozy still." He shifted, wincing at the movement, to lean on the cave wall. "I'm surprised you didn't take the opportunity to finish me off."

"I don't like killing if I can help it. I'm surprised you didn't magic yourself out of that little mess."

"My magic got drained. Why haven't you just called your little buddies to bail you out and capture me?"

Tony smirked a little. "What, Chitauri angry with you? And my phone is dead."

Loki glared, but it wasn't exactly threatening when Tony knew he was magicless, dizzy, and couldn't put weight on one leg. "Their master is a little irritated that their hold over me was broken. Though that's really the doing of your troop of goons."

Tony did a double take. He'd thought he was imagining it earlier, but there was something a little different about the god's eyes. "They mind controlled you like you did Hawkeye and Selvig."

"Something similar though with not quite the same results." He admitted. "It is harder to control me so I was not as mindless as the mortals, but any inhibitions that would have interfered with their plans were silenced."

They surveyed one another warily from across the fire. "Well this is an improvement over our last meeting, even if we are stuck here."

Loki looked out at the floodwaters. "I must thank you for saving me. I would not like to still be trapped out there."

"You're awfully polite for a super villain."

"I'm a prince. I was raised at court. Of course I know manners. And I thought we established that I was mind controlled when I did those villainous deeds."

"Oh I'm sorry, does being called a super villain offend you your princeliness?"

"...the correct term is Highness." Loki shot him a look like he wasn't sure if he was trying to be annoying or was just uneducated. Tony decided this was fun.

"Oh, that's the new politically correct term? My bad. I'm old fashioned. I don't keep up with these things. A villain is a villain."

"Now I know you're just trying to get on my nerves."

Tony grinned. "Bite me."

"You wish."

I'm not real happy that yet another story is being begun by Loki getting hurt. But...they had to be forced together somehow. And this was actually the second Avengers fanfic that I started, an idea I had while writing Silver Lining and wrote down so I wouldn't forget it, so at the time I hadn't yet done it as many times.

I got to interact with college freshmen. It was scary. They're so young and full of hope. Was I like that when I was their age?