BIG LOVE TO KRYS FOR EVERYTHING. 3

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"Is he any better?"

Tony looks up, blinking owlishly at the cookie cutter silhouette of Thor in the doorway before looking back down to Loki curled up next to him.

The shivers are less than they were an hour ago but that might be because of the two Tylenol that Loki had managed not to puke back up. Thank god.

Tony shrugs a little, it's an incredibly unenthusiastic move but it's hard to cheer over a reduced fever when it's dropped from a hundred and three all the way down to a hundred one. Yay!

"He hasn't thrown up in about an hour."

"That is good." Thor says softly, coming up to the edge of the bed to peer down at the younger god. The Asgardian seems unaffected by the mused state of Tony's hair and clothing or the fact that the lavish penthouse bedroom smells of sickness. Instead taking a second to dip down and brush his lips to Tony's in a soft and affectionate kiss that says Sorry as much as I missed you.

"Or you know he's just saving it for the next time he's really pissed at me." Tony sighs, scrubbing his hands over his face. He feels like he's aged ten years in the last twenty four hours. Maybe twenty.

Thor has the balls to chuckle softly, clasping his hand to Tony's shoulder. "I know how it is. Too many days of my youth were spent in just the place you are."

"He really got sick a lot eh?" he asks, looking down to Loki.

"Very much so." Thor sighs heavily, coming around the foot of the bed and sitting on the opposite side of Loki, his eyes down on the younger god in the dim lit room. "It would be just like this. Mother and Father would sit with him although I doubt he remembers those times. As we grew older the sickness came less, Mother and Father worried less too, but I'd always stay with him through it. "

"Maybe he does, deep down inside." Tony says, his expression soft as he watches Loki relax into a restful sleep with both his lovers at his side now. Reaching down and stroking his sweat soaked hair from his brow.

"Commander Fury was displeased that the both of you were missing from the conference." Thor says, drawing his attention up for a moment, smiling to Tony. "I informed him that the consequences of him risking my brother's health are far worse than a missed meeting."

"Was wondering about that." he says with a little bit of a chuckle, it dies in his throat as Loki gives a low whimper in his sleep. The miserable sound like that of a wounded animal drawing Tony to the breaking point.

"Come on, come here. Fuck. You're getting hotter again. Come here." he says, shaking the moaning deity softly till fever bright green eyes blink open. Coaxing Loki till he's resting his head against Tony's chest, shifting to sit more in the middle of the bed; Thor coming in close next to him.

Hot breath puffs against his neck as Loki settles himself between them. "Anthony…"

"Shh. I'm right here." he whispers, pressing his cheek to Loki's warm, too hot, forehead. "Thor's here too. You've got to cool your shit though or I'm going to have to give you a cold bath."

"Brother." Loki whispers, the one word leaving his mouth in his fevered haze that he would never say knowledgably. Even with the odd tango that they dance called a relationship, things still can be problematic between the two gods. Loki clinging to old hates and bitter memories even as new ones filled with love and family forage over them.

"I am here brother." Thor says, his voice a rumble between the three of them as he rests a giant hand on his little adopted brother's back, rubbing soothing circles.

There is that dying animal sound again for a second till Thor shifts even closer still, cramming the fevered god between them.

Tony closing his eyes tight as he holds his lover trying to bring his fever down by will alone. "Did they always get this bad." he asks, throat tight because this is all too much for him. Trying to swallow down the sinking suspicion that things just got real.

It was the beauty of being in a relationship with these two, where his love with Pepper before was such a disaster, he doesn't have to worry. Didn't have to.

They could rush into battle and walk out bruised and winded but no less alive, no less immortal in Tony's eyes. They could never be used as a weakness, never be harmed, never leave him.

Now though. This cold changes so much.

Thor breaths a great sigh that ruffles Loki's sweat soaked hair thinking back though his long, long, long life.

"If memory serves me right, yes. He would always spend so many hours like this, especially when the sun would set, it seemed to trap him in the illness' grasp."

"No Night-quill and Tylenol in Asgard?"

"The healers never could reduce the effects of the illness. It always had to run its course." Thor says, his voice laden with sadness as he rubs Loki's back and side. "I know too little of Jotunns to know the whys."

Tony tries hard not to feel scared.

His voice is rough and tired when he tries to talk again some time later. "How often does it happen?" he asks, lifting his head and resting his chin on top of Loki's head, watching Thor's grim eyes tighten in thought.

"After passing into adulthood they happen considerably less. On Asgard two years would pass before he would come down with it, other times he'll get it two or three times in a season and would be fine again for a period."

"He'd never told me…" Tony says, feeling cheated and almost bitter. Almost. More or less he just feels terrified.

Thor smiles in the mists of his beard shaking his head a little, propping himself up on his fist as he fusses with the pillows. "No, Anthony. My brother is proud. He would not tell his love of this." Dropping his eyes down to Loki he watches the rise and fall of his brother's chest, the chills chasing up and down his spine. "He hates this. As do I. As I think you do."

"More than anything in the world." he admits with a whisper.

They're quiet for such a long time Tony's sure Thor's almost asleep, Loki a radiator against his chest and the dark room quiet aside from their soft breaths.

"I'm going to fix this you know." Tony says, his voice faint but so strong.

Thor, lifting his head from where it's slumped against the pillows and headboard, blinks and rubs his mouth with the back of his hand. "What?"

"I'm going to fix this; fix him. This sickness. I'm not going to let it get him like this again." He shakes his head, meeting Thor's tired eyes across from him. "I can't…" his voice gives out, tight as a rubber band strung to far, choking a little on his own words.

Thor smiles, lifting his hand from his brother's side and strokes his knuckles down Tony's cheek in a tender gesture for such an omnipotent being. "You are a wise man Anthony. Far wiser than any mortal I have ever meet. Far wiser than most even in Asgard. If anyone can help Loki, it is you."

Tony closes his eyes with a nod, Loki shifting between them as Thor settles once more.

He keeps watch though the night as Loki drifts in and out of his fever. Thor slumbering with his nose pressed into Loki's curled black locks. Both lit by the cool blue glow of his arc.

A little bit of his world broke today. That emotional self-preservation that had been a protective barrier between him and the awful facts of life shattering into a thousand unfixable pieces. It's startling to him how easy it is to keep loving though, even now that he knows everything can still be taken away from him. That with a fever it could all be gone.