Chapter 11 – Catching up

"So, first I guess I should say my father died." Tony began.

They had now moved onto the grassy floor so they were leant against the log, their shoulders were touching but nothing else. Tony just wanted to curl up in Loki's arms but there would be time for that later, now they had to catch up in order to move on. Also, Tony was still wearing his suit and he was starting to get uncomfortable as he leant against the log.

"I'm sorry." Loki said.

Tony looked down sadly, he hadn't been that close to his father but he did regret that he had argued with him so much.

"I took over at Stark Industries." Tony continued.

"But I thought you didn't-" Loki began.

"Yeah I know. But how could I not? My father left the business to me and I couldn't just refuse it and plus I didn't have anything else to do..." Tony looked sadly at Loki. "So I took over and it actually hadn't been all that bad to be honest. It was going well until I went over to Afghanistan..."

Tony came to stop as he remembered what had happened there.

"Tony?"

Tony looked at Loki and couldn't resist any longer so he leaned in fast and crushed his lips into Loki's. Loki made a choked sound of surprise but then quickly recovered and pressed back urgently. Tony couldn't believe how natural it felt to kiss Loki. When he was kissing other people he always thought it felt good but there was always something off about it and it never felt passionate enough and now Tony knew it was because they weren't Loki. No one could ever compare to Loki.

Tony pulled away first but he didn't go far, just rested his forehead against the god's.

"I missed this." Tony sighed.

Loki smiled; "Yes me too."

They sat like that for a while just taking each other in. Tony still had to keep reminding himself that this was real and Loki was still here and this wasn't some messed up dream he was having.

Eventually Loki pulled back a little to settle against the log again.

"Will you tell me the rest of the story?" Loki asked. "About what happened in... where did you say?"

"Afghanistan." Tony murmured as he moved to lean against Loki's side slightly.

Loki must have noticed Tony's apprehension because he slowly rubbed Tony's side in a comforting gesture, even though it was kind of pointless since Tony was wearing his freaking metal suit, and gave Tony time to speak.

"I'm still hazy on the details." Tony began rubbing his hands over his eyes. "Something went wrong when I was over there and a bomb went off – one of my bombs and I got hit by it. I woke up in a kind of prison-cave thing with this guy and he put this in me." Tony gestured to the circle light in his chest. "called an arc reactor and..."

"Wait, hold on." Loki said as he leant down and peered at the arc reactor.

"Why did he do that?" He said after a few minutes of silence.

"To stop tiny bits of shrapnel from entering my heart." Tony stated.

Loki frowned as he slowly ran his fingers of the light.

"So, you can't ever..."

"No, or I will die."

Loki's fingers twitched when Tony said 'I will die'.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault Loki. And anyway, it's fine. I mean, now I'm this." He said gesturing to his suit that he still wore.

"What's is this?" Loki asked.

"I'm Iron man. I save people and stuff... no big deal really."

"Wait what?"

"I'm Iron man. I save-"

Loki waved him off with his hand.

"Yes, yes. I heard you I just don't understand."

"I'm kind of a superhero." Tony said wiggling his eyebrows.

Loki couldn't help but laugh.

"So this suit is like your armour?"

"Yes and it means I am able to fly."

"Well that's..."

Tony frowned at Loki when he trailed off.

"That's?"

"Never mind... continue your story." Loki said grinning slightly.

Tony continued frowning and defensively crossed his arms before carrying on anyway.

"So obviously I had to try and escape this prison-cave and so I started to build myself a suit of iron. The guy helped me and I eventually got out..."

"You built yourself a suit of iron?" Loki asked in surprise.

"Um yeah."

"Wow. I- Well that is pretty cool."

Tony laughed and looked down at the soft grass. "So, your turn?"

"Wait, how did you even get out?" Loki asked persistently.

"I just told you-." Tony started, a little bit annoyed.

"You told me you built a suit but I want to hear how you got out." Loki's arm was still on Tony's side and he tightened it around him.

"Loki. There is nothing to even tell... I JUST BUSTED OUT OF THE PLACE WHILST WEARING THE SUIT!" Tony suddenly shouted. He wasn't sure why he was getting angry but he could feel the anger rising within him. He hated talking about it in the first place and he was really trying to open up to Loki. He didn't appreciate Loki in pushing him for more.

Loki looked taken back by Tony's sudden rise in tone and volume of voice and he moved his arm away from Tony slowly.

Tony sighed sadly, "Sorry. I just don't like talking about it much."

Loki shifted so his body was angled away from Tony more and it made Tony frown. Loki stayed silent and Tony's heart skip a beat, why wasn't he saying anything?

"Loki...?" Tony patted Loki's ridged arm, "Loki?" He said again.

Tony reached out and turned Loki's head by his chin to face Tony. Loki quickly glared daggers and hit Tony's hand out the way.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Loki jumped to his feet.

Tony startled and jumped up too, what the hell had just happened?

"Loki, what?"

"Tony. Shut up, I-I was just asking you a question and you shouted at me!"

"And I said I was sorry, I didn't mean to shout at you..."

"I can't handle it when people shout at me, it I-I-" Loki cut off suddenly, looking down at the ground. His fists were in tight balls at his sides.

"What?" Tony was so confused and he wanted to pull Loki into an embrace but didn't dare.

Loki gritted his teeth, "I'll not be pushed around anymore!"

But Loki wasn't even talking to Tony anymore and then Tony realised this had to be something to with Asgard and Loki's father and it made Tony nearly sob at the look on Loki's face. It was twisted in sadness and anger and Tony wanted to soothe it away.

"Loki, please..." Tony reached out again to Loki slowly, hoping he would let him this time.

"I SAID DON'T TOUCH ME!" Loki said and as he spoke he slapped Tony hard on the face. Tony went down to the ground with the force of it. There was a stunned silence that covered the whole forest; not a bird was tweeting.

Tony was on the ground, holding the side of his face which was burning and red and his side hurt from where he landed weirdly on it. He grunted in pain and slowly got back up to his feet. Loki looked horrified like he couldn't believe what he had done but he didn't move, didn't speak and ask if Tony was ok.

Tony made a split second decision and ran to his helmet, put it on and asked Jarvis to boost his feet jets and he was suddenly flying through the air. A kind of relief swept over him as he got further away from Loki but it quickly disappeared to a feeling of sadness and hurt.

He couldn't look down at the slowly disappearing figure of Loki, he just kept looking forward and up as he circled the sky, not going anywhere in particular. He flew for a bit, replaying what had just happened in his mind. He couldn't even get over it, It had been going so well and then suddenly everything went sour and Tony wondered when would anything go right for once in his life without the added drama of heartbreak.

He finally flew to the Stark Tower and quickly got out of his suit before pouring a glass of whiskey. He downed it one and winced slightly at the harsh taste before pouring another. He had a feeling of regret in his stomach and he couldn't help but thinking that leaving Loki was probably the worst thing he could have done. Yeah okay Loki hit him but also Loki wasn't in his right mind and he was clearly going through something and Tony had just up and left him and what if he went back to Asgard in this state and what if he never came back...

Shit.

He had to get back to Loki. Now.

Tony got up and grabbed his coat on the way out before running, all that circled his mind was that he hoped to god that Loki was still there... let him still be there.

TBC

Authors notes: I am so so sorry for the late upload. But anyways, I hope you liked this update... it took me ages to get it the way I wanted it and I still don't know if I'm happy with it. Just a few chapters left and then this story will be complete!