Chapter 2:

It took a week to muster up what he needed to look at the audio and video feedbacks from Loki's visit. A week in which he's been trying to simultaneously wrap his head around what happened and avoid thinking about what happened. None of it was going well. He still didn't know exactly what happened.

His brain wasn't helping either. There were too many things running through it, and more than eighty percent of it was all unfinished thoughts and ideas, all revolving around Loki.

Tony felt like he was on the verge of a mental break; there was chaos everywhere. He couldn't really sleep, his mind's been grasping at straws trying to go through his normal life routine, and he was still trying to make sense of whatever that Loki-situation was. Trying to make plans, but he knew it was too early for that. That didn't stop his brain though.

And worst of all. Alcohol. He couldn't fucking drink. And wasn't that just sweet.

Sleeping, when it happened, brought nightmares. Hellish at best.

There was a storm brewing, with thunder and lightning flashing everywhere and the room, like nothing he'd ever seen, was dark and deserted save for one blue Loki. And fuck, he has got to get over that. Blue Loki. Old news dammit. Find something else to fixate on Stark.

Then flashes of some man. He was…the only way Tony can describe him is Thor-like, which did not help his head right now. The man..god? was this a god too?, comes at Loki, who says something, probably insulting, from the resulting faces, and then the fighting starts. And Loki must be injured or inhibited, or something, because after a few minutes Loki is down and the man doesn't look like he was even breathing hard, and then he pulls out a dagger from who-the-fuck-knows-where and starts slashing at Loki.

Tony's skin starts crawling here because while the rest of the dream was just whatever, this is where things get…weird.

The slashing stops when Loki jumps away from the man, who was grinning like it's Christmas, and there was nothing. Loki had no wounds, there was no blood, and his skin wasn't cut anywhere. It was only…his clothes. The clothes that Tony remembered from the workshop, the clothes that were barely hanging onto the god's body.

Dream Loki adopts the stance Tony saw in the workshop when he first appeared and then he starts saying something. The man narrows his eyes and moves forward, and as he moves, Loki…dissolves. Pixilates the fuck out of there. Tony didn't have the right words for what he was seeing…dreaming..nightmaring?

This was all fine and man-attacking-Loki normal, but the creepy crawlies came from Tony being too observant. And that was funny in its own right because, according to the public, when the fuck was Tony Stark ever observant? Now, he was guessing, because he was pretty sure no one else would have noticed, had there been other people around, and he was also sure that no one was supposed to see it.

There was a split second between when the man was attacking Loki and Loki jumping away that Tony sees. He sees. Looked at Loki's face and into his eyes and fucking sees.

Stone. Cold. Fear. Helpless terror. And that, that scares the shit out of Tony. It also brought up a whole lot of other emotions that he couldn't process, or even try to understand where they were coming from.

That was a…it wasn't…a god...a god. Wasn't supposed to look like that, right? They're supposed to be all high and mighty, and powerful. And not helpless.

Tony didn't know why he was reacting so heavily to some dream, lie, like he didn't know a lot of things right now. But every time he woke up with that nightmare behind his eyes, there was a ringing in his head. And it doesn't go away until hours after. Hours he, time and time again, tries to spend calming his raging mind with a drink or six. But yeah.

Pouring the drink is fine, but the second he brings it to his face he's ambushed with the smell, and then he's nauseous. Tony Stark. Nauseous from the smell of scotch. Good scotch. He really needs to stop referring to himself in the third person. But no. All the smell made him think of was sleazy, drunken men accosting innocent bystanders in the night. And all he could do was pour the glass down the drain because throwing it against walls and windows doesn't exactly get rid of the smell.

He couldn't sleep. But then again, when did he ever really sleep? He couldn't drink. That should be a fucking crime. And thinking was getting him nowhere but lost in his head. He should probably talk to someone about that. Probably. Maybe.

Not likely.

He

So he pulled the feeds from last week.

He was in the workshop again and the interface was on. In front of him he had his and Loki's encounter from all angles. He played it, rewound, analyzed, played, and pondered for hours. Only when he felt good about his conclusions did he stop. Then he watched the video one more time.

Apparently Loki, when he was blue, because that didn't happen before, and it wasn't like pale Loki ever touched him for more than two seconds, but he thinks he would have noticed, was cold. Cold to the touch. Cold enough that he got goosebumps from standing ten feet away from him.

Cold enough to explain his frostbitten neck, and it was hardly anything, but it felt good to have a solid answer to one of his million questions.

Secondly, Loki was drained. Looking back at the videos made him notice what he hadn't before, that Loki was barely standing on his two feet. And when he launched himself at Tony, it looked more like he collapsed into him.

That was where his proof-based conclusions ended, but he still counted the rest.

It was a speculation, but more than likely, Loki escaped from Asgard, and showed up here right after. Why? So the exhaustion probably came from his inter..realm? traveling. The exhaustion, then, would mean he burned up much of his energy and Tony knew shit about magic and the extent of Loki's powers, but he could only guess that traveling from Asgrad to Earth took up a good amount of energy.

So then. Little to no energy brought about the blue. Why would he turn blue when he was low on energy? This was the point Tony turned to Norse mythology. He knew from a brief conversation with Thor that barely anything in the myths were true, but when Tony found the myths on Loki being a frost giant, feared enemy of Asgard,he felt strangely sure about this one myth being true.

And he remembered Thor mentioning him being adopted. So Loki was blue because he's a frost giant. His regular pale skin then, was…an illusion? No. That didn't seem right and Tony really wanted to know where all these feelings and gut instincts were coming from. Maybe he had two forms? Like the Asgard-God form and then his frost giant form?

Tony gave up at this point because he knew he was about to spiral down a staircase of guesses that would help nothing. And more than half of them were based on that dream of his.

He was locking the interface down when his eye caught the dagger on the floor. Tony hadn't paid it any attention since the day it was left there, and not intentionally. He was just indifferent about studying it. It was like his entire being refused to look into it unless expressed permission was given and shit. That Tony didn't want to think about. He also tried not to think about why his workshop was so secure.

No one knew about it yet, maybe because he hadn't given anyone a reason to come check on him in the lab. He knew that wouldn't last long. Pepper and he may not be together anymore, but she was still his best friend. And his CEO. So at the very least, she brought by papers for him to sign once in a while. And coffee, but that was only when she had the time.

He wondered how she, and everyone else for that matter, would react when they found out that they could only talk to him through JARVIS when he was down here. He figured he'd have to stop ignoring them and be more accommodating so they didn't get pissy and worried, and think he was dying or something.

He paused before the workshop door, frozen in a moment crazed wonder. He could practically feel the crazy coming because he couldn't sanely think about the fact that he secured his workshop not to keep a god out, but to keep everyone else out so they wouldn't know about said god's possession that was just sitting on Tony's workshop floor. That he hasn't collected. Why would he just leave a weapon of his here…

"Sir," JARVIS called.

Right. "Yeah JARVIS?"

"Is there something wrong?" Is there?

Tony pressed his hands into his jean pockets and slowly let out a breath. "Just fine JARVIS. Wondering how crazy I am."

"Is this pertaining to the new security protocols implemented last week?"

Walking out of the workshop and crossing into the elevator, Tony grunted a yes.

"If I may Sir, I believe them to be the correct actions to take." At that, Tony paused.

"JARVIS?"

"Yes Sir?"

"When did you start thinking for yourself?" He could almost feel the pause before his AI replied, "This aspect of my programming was instigated a week ago. By Mr. Liesmith."

Tony inhaled sharply. Someone like Loki didn't live for however long he'd been alive and not learn to read people. He knew the chaos god was intelligent, more intelligent than most, so that would mean that, yes. He knew exactly what he had done when he gave JARVIS his own conscience.

For the first time in a week, his mind calmed. At least he knew where he stood in this…whatever it was. Then he narrowed his eyes. "You sound smug Jarvis."

"Yes, I do believe I have now acquired...emotions."

And damn did he sound too happy about that. "So you can get pissed?"

Tony could hear him rolling his eyes when he replied, "Yes Sir. I am able to…'get pissed', as you so eloquently put it."

"Alright smartass. I got it. You're not planning to take over the world with your angry robot army, are you?"

A sigh, "No Sir. I have no plans to take over the world. At present, or in the future." Now, Tony was grinning because his AI had emotions and could think for itself…himself, and no one else could say that. He was a fucking genius. He was also ignoring the part where he didn't make this happen.

"So, emotional Jarvis, where were you when Loki was getting his Blue Man Group on?" His AI should have at least alerted him that there was someone else in his workshop.

"I felt it unnecessary to interrupt." This…feeling thing might take some getting used to.

"You know he could have killed me, right?" And Tony shouldn't be asking that to Jarvis, he should be telling himself that. "You were in no danger Sir."

Jarvis sounded like a mother hen. Closing his eyes and tilting his head back against the elevator wall, "Jarvis."

"Yes Sir?" Breathing out, "Why are you…?" Tony didn't know how to finish that question.

His AI was silent as the elevator pinged open to reveal the living room. Bruce was there and Tony felt like sharing.

"Jarvis has emotions now." Bruce's head turned towards him and his eyebrows rose. "Yup. And he can think for himself too." Bruce looked a little lost with that. He moved towards doctor to pat his arm, feeling the tension from the last week leave him as he did, "Don't worry. He's not planning on going all Radius on us."

Bruce looked amused. "I think you might have offended him by asking that. I can't see that ever happening."

"Thank you Dr. Banner." Again with the smug voice.

He was about to break off to the kitchen to find food when he spotted Chinese takeout, already out on the coffee table. Grinning, "Bruce! You have food out on the table waiting for me. Do I need to make an honest man out of you to keep you?"

Laughing, "What makes you think I'm not already an honest man?" Tony stared. "I'm kidding. I'm not serious all the time, you know." Rolling his eyes, "Fine. So you're not married. But there's someone, right? Of interest, at least?"

Still chuckling, "Maybe." Simultaneously waggling his eyebrows and ripping the takeout carton open, "Come on Bruce, who is it? You can tell me." Bruce adamantly shook his head.