Title: Smallest Promise (of Comfort)
Fandom: Marvel (movie 'verse)
Author: Batsutousai
Rating: General
Pairing: Loki/Tony Stark
Warnings: hurt/comfort
Summary: Loki's being destructive, and the only one Coulson trusts to calm him down is, obnoxiously, Tony Stark.
Disclaim Her: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by Marvel. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: solskensbarn, in response to my request for fluff prompts, requested 'Loki/Tony Stark, sassing each other to a frenzy over something stupid, like a children's tv show then making up.'
It ended up more h/c than fluff, but I tried? ^.^" (Also, less sassing, more Loki being snarly and Tony generally playing along.)

-0-

"No, but, seriously," Tony said by way of complaint as he stepped out onto the balcony, where Loki was sitting with a stack of Avengers cartoon DVDs. Tony honestly had no idea where the god had got them from, because they'd been banned from the tower after the time Clint refused to leave for a fight because he'd just watched an episode where his character had suffered during an encounter with that particular villain.

Loki didn't acknowledge him, just popped open a case and tossed the disc into the air. A flick of his fingers sent something – knife or magic, it was hard to tell at that speed – after it, shattering the disc and sending glinting plastic raining down.

About two floors down, between windows, the plastic vanished, apparently falling through a portal of some sort to deposit the debris safely away from the civilians below. Tony mentally crossed that particular complaint off the list that had Coulson dragging him from his workshop. (Another complaint, that of a barrier over the glass door keeping anyone from going out to the god, hadn't even slowed Tony down when he'd tried walking through it. Not that he'd expected it to.)

"I mean, I get that you two have a...a thing–" Tony continued, leaning down next to Loki and picking up one of the unopened cases "–but this is ridiculous." As he'd expected, the picture on the front of the box was Thor.

Loki held up one hand. "The portrayal of him in this...show is quite accurate in regards to his idiotic actions," he snapped.

Tony sighed and handed the case over. He settled next to the god as Loki snapped it open, then did the same with it as he had done with the last disc. The cases, Tony saw from this angle, were being dropped into a trash bag hanging down between Loki's legs.

He picked up the pile after Loki snatched up another case, glancing through the cases and finding they were always the same one. He wasn't surprised. "Have you seen the two episodes with you in them? You are so clichédly evil, it's actually physically painful to watch."

"I shall keep that in mind next time I wish to torture you," Loki returned, voice tight. He held out his hand for yet another case as the shatters of the DVD fell into the portal below them.

"I don't think it gives my intelligence enough credit," Tony added, disregarding Loki's words.

Loki looked at him at last, his eyes narrowed and a little red, as though irritated by the wind. (The wind never bothered him.) "I believe it gives your intelligence too much credit," he snapped before snatching one of the cases in Tony's hands and ripping it open with enough force to crack the plastic of the spine's hinge.

"Ouch." Tony shuffled the cases in his hands, staring down at the animated face grinning fiercely from the cover. "I think Natasha's a bit too back-and-forth."

"As though you have true knowledge of her intentions towards your 'team'."

Tony popped open the next case and handed Loki the disc, leaving him staring down at it in befuddlement while Tony leaned over and dropped the box between his legs. "Cap thinks they completely screwed up his character. He won't believe me when I say the 1940s cartoons were worse."

Loki finally threw the disc, followed almost immediately by whatever weapon – Tony still couldn't tell – he was using to shatter them.

They were silent as they emptied the last of the cases, Tony dropping each empty case into the bag while Loki destroyed the discs. The whole time, Tony could swear he felt Coulson's disapproving stare burning into his back. But so long as Loki wasn't hurting anyone, Tony wasn't going to stop him, so Nanny Coulson could damn well suck it.

Only when the last of the cases was in the bag, the disc pieces falling harmlessly into the portal, did Tony say, "He's going to be fine, you know."

"Who will?" Loki snapped, all sharp edges and impenetrable walls.

Tony kissed his cheek, tasting salt from long-tried tears, and stood. "Come on. I know the code to get into his bedroom. You can put snakes in his bed or something."

"Frogs," Loki corrected, gathering his bag of cases and rising gracefully to his feet. "He likes snakes."

"Purely a defence mechanism, I'm sure," Tony returned, catching Loki's wrist. When the god didn't attempt to pull away, he slipped his hand down into Loki's, and their fingers folded together easily. Tony squeezed his hand, the smallest promise of comfort, and Loki squeezed back.

They would be okay.

.