Summary: It would figure that he'd pick now to have a flashback freak out; in the middle of a kidnapping with no one around but the God of Lies. [Tony/Loki]
Inspired by an amazing character study video of Stark; because he's amazing. And I gotta throw Loki in there somewhere.
Warnings; torture, flashbacks, talk of non-con,
~~~~Line Breaker~~~~~
When Tony came to, he felt like he might've pissed off Bruce. Again. Only this time, Hulk actually hit him because he felt like he wanted to die.
His head wasn't pounding; it was agony behind his eyelids, and it made the skin on his skull feel like it burned and crawled and cracked. The area around the Arc Reactor pulsed and pained and pressured whatever heart he had left; he smelled blood and tasted it on his tongue before realizing that yes, his mouth was full of it and he spit it out in disgust as he forced himself to finally open his eyes.
"Aw, hell..."
It was a cave; he was in a fucking cave again. He wondered if whoever took him did this on purpose. If they knew. If they did, he was so screwed because already he had to close his eyes and will away the memories of dirt and pain and water and a friendly voice talking about families and children and wishing that they'd finally just kill him-
"Finally awake." a voice drawled, sounding bored despite whatever turmoils Tony was currently going through. "They sounded worried that they had killed you."
He forced his eyes open again, looking his left. Oh, son of a bitch. He scowled, cursing, annoyed when it only caused the God of Mischief to smirk at him. "I can tell this is going to be fun."
"How the hell are you here?" the billionaire asked, not really caring but curious. Loki didn't look like himself; he was pale, dirty and bloody, and from the way his hands were cuffed, it looked like one of his wrists were broken. "I'm guessing not by choice, unless you think blood or dirt is a thing now. It's not, by the way. Maybe for some people, and I appreciate the effort, but not me."
Loki rolled his still incredibly green eyes, though he still smirked at him. "No, this is my own foolishness."
The cuffs were just long enough that he could pull down the collar of his leather armor; a gold...collar was wrapped around his neck, covered in odd markings he'd never seen before. Frowning, he looked between that and the god's face, brain still having trouble putting things together. Like, that he was still alive and conscious, or that Loki was in a cell with him, or how nicely leather clung to him when he wasn't throwing him out a window.
"Having...trouble thinking, for once...what is that?" Tony finally asked, hating that his eyes blurred for a moment before everything weaved back together in a way that made him feel sick.
"The Allfather's way of punishing me." the God explained easily; Tony suddenly wondered why the hell they were both being so civil about this. "It keeps my magic from being used, but not my...heritage. Hence why I looked better than I did a few hours ago."
Tony snorted; lucky bastard. He suddenly gave himself a look-over, feeling nauseous again. His hands were cuffed in front of him, and a shackle was attached to his right leg, connecting to the wall behind him. He moved his sight to the rest of the room; besides being a fucking cave, there was a jail-door that cut them off from the rest of the area. He made out a door further back, but it was hard to see. The only light was coming from a tiny lantern on the other side of the row of bars.
"Cozy." he muttered, already trying to wretch his hands from the their bindings; he could barely move his fingers, and suddenly there wasn't enough room, and he found himself trying to bite them as the shadows began crawling closer, and why was there still blood in his mouth?
"Stark."
He stopped, looking up with dazed eyes; he'd forgotten that the other was there briefly, watching him with curious eyes. He then realized how fast he was breathing and forced himself to calm down. How embarrassing; he was freaking out already and they hadn't even started torturing him yet.
"So," Tony had to stop...stop thinking, for once, and turned his body to face Loki, determined not to look at the rest of the room. "Why are you here? I mean, why'd they need the both of us?"
Loki shrugged easily, and the brown-eyed man secretly hated him when he saw him suddenly pop his wrist back into place like it'd never been broken in the first place. "I thought revenge, until they brought you in. Maybe simple fear of someone more powerful, but that does not explain the location. So, my presence just might be that I cannot fight back and they thought it might be some opportunity for them."
"So it's just really my show. Great. I don't share the spotlight well." Tony said, relaxing slightly when the god chuckled. "You know, you're pretty tolerable when you're not throwing me out of windows."
Again came the curious eyes, looking him over, pausing wherever Loki might've spotted something that Tony hoped he couldn't see. "You are beginning to breathe hard again, Stark. Is this something you have gone through before?"
Tony flinched and saw the others eyes light up. Bastard. "Pff, yeah, getting kidnapped and tortured, go through that every night."
He needed to keep his mouth shut.
"Nightmares." Not a question, but Tony gave a half-assed shrug anyway. "And what would give the Man of Iron nightmares every night and have him curled up like a child as you are now?"
"I believe I told you." he snapped, curling his legs up under him, feeling suddenly, oddly, cold.
Loki decided to give him some mercy and didn't push. Instead, he nodded and took to eying the darkness by the door. Like a watch-out or something. And suddenly, Tony just wanted to sleep, curl up against the rocky walls and hope that maybe this was the nightmare and Loki had shown up in them because the God of Mischief was fucking with him.
"You might not want to sleep." He forced his eyes open, weirded out that the god was watching him. "You might have a concussion and neither of us have enough room to make sure you keep waking up."
"I'm a bit more disturbed that you'd worry enough to wake me up at all." Tony muttered, feeling the corners of his mouth turn upwards slightly. "And how do you know about concussions?"
The green-eyed male chuckled lightly, condescendingly. "Well, if you die, might get a bit boring around here. That would be dreadful. Besides, we have such things on Asgard, just not your sickening ways of...'treating' them."
The smile came oddly easy. "Not fond of our medicine practices?"
Loki almost looked horrified but it's hard to tell with the way the shadows are hitting his face. "Looks disgusting. I'm amazed you mortals live the lifespans you do with such things."
"You know how to heal with your magic voodoo shit?" Tony eloquently asked, grinning when he was glared at.
There's a pause, making him think Loki won't answer him. Instead, the god seemed to have pity on him because he was finally feeling a bit better and who'd have thought the God of Lies could be decent company in a kidnapping?
"I learned...but it was difficult." Seeing the curious look Tony was giving him, he reluctantly continued. "In Asgard, magic is used only by the women, who are not allowed to be warriors, and they cannot use it for fighting...When I started learning magic, I was shunned from the others because it was not...normal."
"Seriously? That's what stopped them?" Tony asked, amazed and annoyed at the same time. "Fuck, I'd love to know how to do that; be useful since it's always my ass every body aims for."
Loki grinned, flashing his perfect teeth and Tony forced himself not to stare. "I was not...the best healer, my first attempt I ended up shattering all the bones in my right arm when I tried patching together some skin. But I have learned much since then."
Tony winced, not able to image what that had felt like. He shuddered, noticing that they were both rather comfortable talking to each other about such things. He wondered why Loki would be forced to Earth for his punishment, but didn't ask. It wasn't really important at the moment, and might as well save that story for later, if they needed it.
His mind began to wander, trying to think of something else to say and just...thinking. He couldn't remember anything before waking up...he thought maybe getting into an argument with Steve, since the Avengers were living in his mansion at the moment (except Bruce, who was currently wrapping up things in India but planned on returning). Maybe getting into his limo to head to Stark Towers, but it was so blurry.
He was forced into awareness when Loki stiffened, green eyes scanning the room. He uncurled himself, keeping his eyes on the lantern. He heard it; footsteps. Apparently the rest of the area was caves because they echoed off the walls pretty damn easily. It made his migraine come back with a vengeance.
"Ah, Tony! You're awake!"
No...way.
No fucking way.
Tony stared as the tiny, needle-thin man walked up to the bars, dusting off some dirt from his white suite. He was with four armed men, all of who wore black hunter masks and had matching rifles. They even had the worm's logo splattered all over it.
"Justin. I didn't know you were out of prison yet, I'd have brought flowers."
Hammer grinned, looking out of place and uncomfortable but determined. "Yes, well...I hadn't planned on being there long. Perks of being rich, as you know."
"So, what's up with all this?" He motioned to the walls of the cave, the bars, trying not to bring attention to the Norse God that was watching it all like a soap opera; and dammit if that's not what it felt like. "Seems kinda desperate, even for you, to get me to talk with you."
"Ah, see...that's the problem, Tony." the dirty blond laughed, and it was then that he realized that Hammer had changed in prison. There was something in his expression that had never been there before. "This might surprise you, but this isn't about you."
Tony raised an eyebrow, looking around. "You've kidnapped me, put me in a cave and left me pretty bloody; how is this not about me?"
"I'll get right to it, then." Hammer took out a small piece of paper from his breast pocket, showing it and revealing it to be a picture of the helicarrier that they'd rode in when fighting Loki. "I need to know everything you do on this; I know you rode on it, you've hacked their systems. I need everything, Tony."
"Oh, kinda desperate, aren't you?" Tony asked, rolling his eyes. "You're really gonna start ripping off Shield? The way they operate, I'm convinced that one of your little helpers are probably working for them."
"I've thought it through," the younger man continued, acting like the other hadn't spoken. "Been planning this for awhile, Tony. I contacted your new boss about you; said you might not show up to work for awhile. Gotta admit, I'm a bit surprised that they haven't found me yet, but..." He shrugged, grinning. "Either they're dumber than we both thought or that don't care you're here."
They both looked over when Loki snorted. "Please. With how clingy they all are? It's rather disgusting, actually."
Hammer looked confused. "Right, you...I'm surprised at how easily we captured you after the, uh...remodeling you did on New York."
"Luckily for you." the god said, grinning darkly.
Their captor apparently didn't like that; he nodded to one of the armed guys and he strolled in. Tony yelled when suddenly he belted Loki across the face with the rifle, fighting against his cuffs, watching as a trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
"Give a guy some warning." the billionaire hissed, forcing his eyes away. He'd hate to give Hammer ideas that he and Loki were in this together. He learned the hard way not to have partners in capture.
"Pity." Loki mused, still grinning. "I'd hoped for something a bit more impressive and flashy than that."
"One chance, Tony, since we're buddies." Hammer cut in, eyes glinting. "You gonna tell me what the Shield Craft?"
Tony glared at him. "Fuck. You."
He was suddenly forced up, one guy holding him while another unlocked the shackle around his leg. They then proceeded to drag him out of the cell and through the door, which Tony realized was only wood. Cocky then; he could work with that then. He just needed an opening.
"Do what you will." He heard Hammer say. "Call me when he's ready to talk."
Tony didn't even try to respond; he suddenly couldn't remember where he was. The tunnel or hallway, they were in was too similar and he was suddenly having trouble breathing. They threw him into a room, and he began panicking when he saw the tub.
"You gonna talk?" one of them asked.
He just stared ahead, feeling like his mind was in a lock-down. He wouldn't talk. He wouldn't cry. He wouldn't beg. It had done him no good the first time, he'd never make that mistake again. That didn't stop him from stiffening him they dragged him forward, already able to feel the chilling cold coming off the water in the tub.
Hands gripped his hair, and they kicked the back of his knees, forcing him down. He felt light-headed. Would they kill him if he didn't give in to their demands? Death didn't scare him; not anymore. But he wondered if it would affect anything, if it would seriously hurt anyone. Pepper, maybe. Bruce. Rhodie.
They dunked him, the cold water stinging the various cuts on his face. The back of his head screamed at him, whatever they had knocked him out with had seriously left a mark. The water turned a nasty shade of pink and he hated himself for opening his mouth and choking. His face was already numb.
They pulled him up, gasping for air and shivering. Before he could get a proper breath, he was shoved back under.
He wondered how long it'd take before they broke him this time.
~~~~~~Line Breaker~~~~~
So, what do you think?
I had this idea for awhile, and I really hope that I got the emotions down for Tony. I really wanna focus on the PTSD he has, which is one of the things that makes Tony my favorite of any Marvel hero. :3
MRIMO