Chapter 2

"Home is where the Stark is"

Tony Stark was falling. Again. When did this become a recurring theme? And definitely no Hulk to catch him this time, and almost no power in his suit. Without the ability to direct himself he was at the mercy of the blinding blue void that seemed intent on shaking him around like a Stark flavored martini. He knew he was going far and at a speed that was laughing at Einstein's theory of relativity, but to where? Where could Loki possibly trying to escape to? He attempted to grab Loki in the void, to shake him and demand that he stop these magic shenanigans, but as his hand closed on Loki's flailing arm, there was a great wrench in the void. The blue light burst and slammed him into something cold and dark. Tony went flying down the –mountain top? Too dark to see, where was he? And oh hell was that a-

"Rock!" he yelled right before smacking chest first into the strutting bolder, his one ungloved hand still grasping a hold of Loki. Some piece of his shoulder armor was torn away and he was now flipped over and tobogganing feet first down the snow covered mountain towards another piece of jagged rock.

"Shit! This is so not where I want to be right now!" He plunged his left hand into the snow in hopes the momentum he and Loki were getting would be enough to swing them wide –oh please please work-and Tony cleared it, but there was a sickening crack and Loki's arm was wrenched from his grasp. God-damn it he was going to need the little bugger to get the hell out of here, now where did he go? Tony was flipped onto his stomach and he saw Loki's ragdoll form sliding towards a huge crevice. "You are way too much trouble mister!" he yelled and dove belly first down the mountain after Loki. He was a few body lengths away and the cliff edge was coming up way too fast for his liking. He tucked in his arms and lifted his feet, getting a few more precious seconds of speed. Loki's cape briefly tore on an ice shard, pulling it out behind him and within inches of Tony's hand. He grunted and lunged for the cape, his fingers closing in on the material, but it slipped out of his grasp. He snuck a peek ahead and saw Loki was about to hit a small bump just before the gaping maw of ice.

"Jarvis, emergency power to boosters now!"

"But sir, that will drain-"

"I know just do it on three!"

"One" stark aligned his body to match up with Loki.

"Two" He smacked into a hunk of ice, tearing something important from his leg armor.

"THREE!" Loki bounced up over the bump and Tony gunned his thrusters, overshooting Loki and landing on his side ahead of him. He scrambled for a purchase with his good hand and reached for Loki with his other. He touched Loki's hand and would have caught it if not for the blood from the earlier fight. He lunged again and caught his fingers under a piece of the shoulder armor, just as his good hand found a rock. Tony came to a lurching halt just over the edge of the cliff, one leg dangling over the edge. There was a rush of falling snow in his wake that momentarily blinded him, and covered Loki who was hanging completely over the edge. "Eurggg..." Tony moaned utterly exhausted "Hey you, wake up. Damn it Loki wake up and climb up here because I don't have the energy to lift you up myself" he strained and pulled but Tony couldn't lift his arm any higher. It was taking all he had just to keep them suspended on the ledge. "Loki! Gahhhh... Loki you Idiot wake up and get up here right now. What the heck have you been eating? You weigh a tonne..." There was a soft groan from Loki below."That's it sunshine, just because you're a diva does not mean you get knocked out from one girly hit."

"I am not girly" Loki slurred

"Could have fooled me with the hair"

"Be quiet Stark... your voice is grating"

"Keep with the attitude mister and I might just drop you. Now climb up before we both fall"

Tony could feel Loki pulling himself up and over his arm, and he saw Loki's bloodied face rise above the ledge. Loki stabbed the ice above him with a dagger and heaved himself up and nearly on top of Tony's back. Now pinned under Loki he looked briefly upwards and his heart stuck in his throat. "Uh do you see that? Please tell me that's not going to do what I think It's about to do." Where they touched down farther up the mountain slope, the portal had turned into a large pulsating ball of blue flame. It was warping in and out of shape and it was flashing really fast, like when a bomb flashes and -oh hell-. "Loki your stupid portal is gonna blow! If it can take out a shield lab I don't wana see what it can do here!" Loki turned to Tony, eyes wide open in horror and opened his mouth to speak when, BOOM! The ball of magic flame exploded and heaved up a mighty tidal wave of snow. "HOLD ON!" Is all Tony has time to yell before the smothering wave of snow hits them. He instinctively clutches Loki, because he knows he'll never get back if he's dead. And now Tony and Loki are being thrown off the cliff in an avalanche of snow and he's being banged and shoved and twisted in every direction, but he does not let go of the god in his arms. He's been turned around and flipped so he can't tell where up is anymore

-he wishes for a moment he had a chance to say goodbye to Pepper because he didn't last time and he doesn't know if he'll make it out alive-

and still the churning snow goes on and on, he's lost and disoriented and smacked around some more. He starts to panic because he's at the mercy of the avalanche that seems intent on killing him. He tries to move his arms with Loki curled in them, up towards his face to create an air pocket, when finally there is a little drop and he's brought to a slamming halt, Loki crunched up beside him. At least Tony hopes its Loki because everything is dark and cold and smothering him and he can't breathe. He goes to his last resort, knowing it has a chance to kill him, but if he doesn't break free he'll definitely die. He moves Loki to the side and pulls up his energy readings in his H.U.D.. There is .7 percent left and he flicks the button with his eye movements to take all the power he can and funnel it into his chest piece for one last pulse. Tony gasps as his arc reactor from his chest fires through the broken armor, through the ice and snow to the cold night sky above. Tony sits there paralyzed by exhaustion and he can see his reactor flicker as his vision goes to black and he mercifully slides into unconsciousness.

Cold, Really cold and owwwwwww... What is that? Head hurts, hand hurts, and his chest feels like there's someone sitting on it. Feeling around in the dark he tries to find familiar things, the cold concrete of his workshop. Nope. An empty nightcap glass that would explain the massive hangover-like headache that is currently throbbing away. Nada. What he does feel is a cold wet body draped over him. He shudders and runs his hand along the slightly moving form which he now remembers is Loki.

"hey." He mumbles and shakes Loki's shoulders. "Rise and shine sleeping ugly, time to get us out of here" but the god is deathly still, and in a moment of panic he places his hand over Loki's chest. Tony can feel it rising and falling ever so slightly. "Good, at least you didn't check out on me."

His relief is short lived, as a cold gust of wind whips down the hole he made with his reactor. Tony chokes and coughs from the frigid air and gently moves Loki off his chest to expose his arc reactor. A pale blue light floods the little hollow he made in the snow, and he looks around to get his bearings. It looks like he's in a bubble about nine feet all around, and about five feet high. There is a large fallen tree in front of him and its girth and branches seem to be the reason that the snow is being held back. Above him is a hole in the "ceiling" about two feet around and shaped like a teardrop. Tony places Loki's limp form off to the side and tries to kneel. On top of his missing glove, shoulder, and most of his chest piece gone, one of his leg joints in the suit is warped and refuses to bend. He struggles with the manual release system because his fingers are white from cold and he can't quite feel them. It takes far longer than he likes to peel off his broken suit, tossing the junk to the side. Tony crawls over to the hole in the ceiling and begins to plug it with snow from the ground. He reinforces it with chunks of ice and branches because he's a good engineer and he knows the value of proper reinforcement, even when all he has to work with is snow and ice. He gets most of it plugged up and then remembers to leave a breathing hole so he pokes one with a left over stick. He's cleared out a good portion of the floor, and there is now a small divot around the trunk of the tree.

He remembers something and starts pawing through the broken pieces of his suit, his movements now agonizingly slow. "Nope, gah... where is it? Come on you stupid suit show me what I need." And there it is, a tiny silver and glass tube enclosed in his back armor. He twists open the top and three small bags pop out. He places a small hunk of metal from one bag back in the tube and sprinkles in a powder from the second, then a liquid from the last bag. He closes the lid and shakes it as fast as he can. Immediately glorious warmth begins to emit from the tube and it quickly becomes too hot to handle. He places it in his empty helmet and puts it near the divot under the branches. It begins to emit a soft yellow glow and Tony smiles, glad to have light and heat again. Pawing through the remains, he finds two reflective survival blankets, several thermal hot packs and bandages. Unfortunately all he has left of the emergency food is one tiny protein bar, but he is still happy that he can find even this. After crashing in the middle of Tennessee in the dead of winter he learned the hard way to carry some form of emergency supplies.

Tony places one of the foil blankets in the hollow and hauls Loki on top of it. -At least the little bugger is still alive, or I'd be stuck where ever the hell this is.- He sighs inwardly. He sits beside the slumbering god, and reaches for a handful of snow. He gingerly washes his injured hand and decides it's not a deep enough cut to worry about bandaging it. His stomach however is not as lucky. Lifting his shirt he sees an angry purple bruise just to the left of his belly button, and in the center is a fairly deep gouge. Tony gently washes away the blood and grits his teeth as he applies an emergency bandage. His ribs also protest as the wraps the gauze around his torso but he has to keep going. He winces as the pulls the knot tight, and moves over to Loki. He can see right away that Loki is going to have one, if not two black eyes and possibly a severe concussion. Tony takes a small glob of snow and washes away the blood from Loki's face. He can see Loki flinch at the cold, but he doesn't wake up. Tony can finally see the wound above his eyebrow and he delicately picks out a tiny shard of rock out as he cleans it. Using the other bandage, he wraps it around the sleeping god's head and Tony chuckles to himself because it looks like Loki is wearing a hippie headband now. Tony quickly looks over the rest of Loki, removing the pieces of armor and throwing them in the pile with his suit. He hasn't seen anymore blood, and really does not want to strip the god down to check for minor injuries. "Well, I'm going to sleep and if you wake up and kill me, I swear I will haunt you for the rest of your miserable eternal life" he mumbles. Tony reluctantly gets the other foil blanket and lies down beside Loki and covers the both of them ."The things I do to stay alive. First I put a giant magnet in my chest and now I have to sleep next to you for warmth. Urg."

Tony wiggles onto his stomach and uses his arm for a pillow. He takes one last look at Loki and just to see if he's faking it, pokes him on his nose. "Last chance to zap us out of here you diva." And Tony sighs because now he's actually going to have to sleep next to him. Damn it. He shivers from exhaustion and tries to make himself comfortable. Eventually Tony gives up and falls into a deep sleep, warmed by his mini heater and lulled by Loki's quiet breathing.

Notes

Disclaimer: I do not own any marvel characters or their movie interpretations, I've done this for fun and I hope you enjoy! Also this is set after Iron man 3 and the avengers. Loki escaped to earth and Tony never had romantic feelings for Pepper.(and Tony never got his arc reactor out because of it)