Chapter 3

"I was watching you sleep, I mean I was present while you were unconscious"

Tony awoke to a coughing stutter that was coming from Loki. Really though, he'd been awake for a while, just dosing when he noticed his Asgardian bunkmate shaking and coughing in his sleep. Tony had just flipped Loki on his back, hoping that would make him stop, but so far it hadn't helped. Sighing he gave in and stretched his aching limbs to wake himself up. As far as he could tell he had gotten a few hours of good sleep.-well as good sleep as could be had under the circumstances- but for him it was enough. Tony reached over and felt Loki's forehead, then neck, and was shocked how cold he felt. If he could get Loki warmed up, hopefully he would awaken and poof them back home. Loki could go strut in his ridiculous green costume all the way into a shield prison, and Tony would be content to have a lovely evening with a large bottle of liquor and a few lovelier models.

"Apologies in advance, but I can't really think of anything else that would help. Just remember the first rule and don't kill me, got it?" He spoke to Loki as if he were awake, thinking hearing some sort of voice might help as well. "Sheesh, you have a lot of layers on, who seriously needs this much clothing?" Tony began taking off Loki's cape, jacket, boots and belt and layered them around the branches of the tree so they would dry near the "fire box" in his helmet. The coat was next, and Tony had some difficulty finding and then prying the little clips at the front open. He also notices that Loki's spear has apparently disappeared, and he cant find it hiding in his jacket anywhere. He sighs and hopes its lost in the avalanche, because the last thing he wants is to be trapped with Loki in a confined space with pointy objects.

Tony places the coat next to the boots and continues his work. Underneath Loki's coat is a light green tunic top which is soaked in sweat, and as he removes it, he can see a large bruise on his upper shoulder. What catches his attention are dozens of tiny scars all over his pale torso, some faded, but quite a few still puffy and red. "Looks like life was pretty rough with you too ,eh?" he whispers to no-one. Out of curiosity he runs his hand over a curved one right over Loki's heart. His skin is much colder here than anywhere else, and Tony can make out tiny blue lines radiating out from the scar. Loki flinches in his sleep and tony takes it as a cue to stop and places the tunic closest to the fire so it will dry quickly. With nothing else left, Tony kneels beside Loki, who has begun to cough again. He reaches for the string around Loki's pants and hesitates –you're a grown man stark, and it's nothing you haven't seen before- and thankfully Loki has a pair of underclothes on that Tony decides to leave. Tony then removes his own shirt and places it near the tunic, but he refuses to remove his pants, hoping they are dry enough.

Loki is shuddering again, and Tony sits with his back against the tree trunk with his thermal blanket over his shoulders. He moves Loki up and positions him so his frigid back is against Tony's stomach and Loki's legs are on the inside of his. Tony then wraps the thermal blanket around the pair of them and wishes the clothes would dry faster. Loki stirs and nuzzles his head so its right below Tony's chin, so close that he can smell something mint scented in Loki's hair. He wiggles up and out of the way, but now Loki's elbow is jamming him right in his stomach wound. "Ow. Quit wiggling, this is bad enough without you stabbing me again" Tony retorts hotly. As if he heard, Loki adjusts his arm to the side. Tony raises his eyebrow, but is past caring. After a few minutes Tony's back is stiffening and he tries to pass the time by thinking how he can find a way home if he doesn't know where he is now. In a while, he'll go look outside and see if he can find anything familiar, or at least buildings, or hell maybe there's a shield helicarrier right outside the door, and they haven't made a move 'cause fury is seeing how long it takes for him to admit to needing help. That just the thing Fury would do too, the dick.

Tony attempts to move because Loki is getting warmer and the clothes must be dry now when Loki suddenly twists his face to smile wolfishly at Tony.

"Please do not move Stark, I'm quite comfortable now."

"What?" Tony gasps not quite able to form the word, and reflexively pushes Loki to the side.

"Now what was that for? You didn't seem to have a problem manhandling me in my sleep." Loki laughs, but the light in his eyes is more angry than humorous.

"You were cold –I was only – That's not even –You! Why didn't you say anything?" Tony stutters shuffling away. Not many people can throw him off his game, and Loki managed to do that in one instant. He childishly throws Loki's tunic at his face. "There! It's dry. Now get dressed so we can get the hell out of here!"

"First, mortal, pass me my remaining clothes. Then I will see about amending this situation"

Loki says mortal like Tony would say scumbag and right now that's exactly what he feels like calling the little god, but he keeps is mouth shut and flings a boot at Loki instead. It misses, but lands with a thump against the far wall. Loki smirks at him and stretches his arms above his head in a catlike manner. " Not a morning person after all stark?"He mutters, and Tony flings the other boot, but Loki snatches it in midair and tosses it to the side.

"And my pants?"

Tony shoots him a dark look. "They're not dry yet. You would have to prance around in real leather instead of something practical."

Loki is ignoring him now and slowly begins to pull the tunic over his head. It gets caught on the bandage Tony wrapped around earlier. He fusses with the neck opening for a moment and the bandage is pulled off in favor of the shirt. Loki pulls his tunic down over his hips and a trickle of blood emerges from his head wound. "Damn." He snorts, and uses one hand to stop the blood flow and the other to grope for the bandage. He winces and attempts to put the bandage on, but finds it difficult with one hand.

Tony is just sitting at the end of the Hollow watching Loki fumble with the bandage. Serves him right holding out on me like that. He could have helped at any time but he chose to sit there like a damn rock and make me do all the work.

Loki glares at him in frustration, and Tony can see that he needs help, but refuses to move."Stark, I need you to re-tie this crude bandage." He asks looking totally helpless, and holds the bandage out to him .Tony thinks it over and tilts his torso to show Loki his own bandage."Oh I'm sorry, I would but the wound you gave me hurts too much to move right now." He says sarcastically.

Loki rolls his eyes. "I was merely toying with you Stark. I did not know I had caused you injury."

"Well you did. And I'm not moving until I get an apology." Tony retorted, and knew full well he was being childish and difficult. He also knew Loki would never admit an apology, especially in front of the –literally- injured party. But Loki held out the bandage further, relaxing his frame and tilting his head down.

"Anthony Edward Stark, I am sorry I injured you, and I apologise for any grievance I have caused. Now will you kindly fix this for me?"

Tony was dumbstruck. How did Loki know his full name? And he seemed sincere in his apology. Was it a trick to gain his trust? Or was Loki toying with him again? He just sat there mouth hanging slightly agape, unsure of what to believe.

Loki sighed in exasperation. "Please?"

Well that did it. How could he refuse a begging god? Tony smiled and crawled over to sit behind Loki. "For a god, you're pretty fragile you know." He said taking the bandage from Loki's cool hand. "And by the way, how are you still this cold?"Loki stiffened at his words and turned his head away from Tony. "That is none of your business, Stark." He hissed.

"Alright cranky, I'm just making sure my ticket out of here isn't going to do a Captain America impression and turn into a human popsicle. Well god popsicle anyways." He rambled, off put by Loki's sudden darker change in mood. "Now hold still and I'll get this over with."

Tony took Loki's chin in his hand and tilted his head sideways to better see his wound. Loki was still holding his cut closed with his hand and as Tony reached to move it, Loki resisted and turned away. "Look if I don't clean the blood off, it's going to stick all over the bandage. Now hold still." Tony reached for his face and gently pulled at Loki's hand. His emerald eyes burned into Tony's with frustration, and as Tony tilted his hand away from his cut, there was a flicker of fear in his eyes. It was only there for a moment, but Tony noticed it and frowned. Tony picked up a tiny handful of snow and wiped the blood off Loki's cheek and eyebrow. He gingerly placed a smaller clump of snow to the cut, and saw Loki hiding a flinch.

"Almost done." Tony crooned, surprised even to himself the light tone he was taking. Everything now clean, Tony places the square of the bandage over Loki's brow. "Hold this." He motioned. Loki held up the bandage and raised his good eyebrow in questioning. Tony sighs and begins to pull Loki's hair away from his face, tucking it behind his ears. He takes one end of the gauze and wraps it around and around Loki's head, being mindful not to pull to tightly. The other end of the gauze went on the same way and he ties the back in a good knot. "There." Tony said, wiping the blood of his hands in the snow. "At least the bandage matches your shirt."

Loki scooted his back towards the curving wall. "Thank-you for your assistance, Stark."

"I'm a mechanic, I like to fix things." Tony shrugs, and reaches for his own dry shirt. "I'm just glad I had something to work with. I know what it's like to be stuck in the middle of nowhere without supplies. Not fun." He tucks his shirt down around his pants, and waves his hand over the "firebox" in his helmet.

"Huh, probably about an hour or two left in this charge. I've got a few more left, and they're supposed to last at least 10 hours a piece." He frowns for a moment, and checks the math in his head. He must have been asleep for far longer than he though, or there was something wrong in the batch.

"It's an ingenious piece of technology, and fortunate to survive the fall." Loki intones.

"Of course it is, I made it." Tony remarks with more than a little pride. Nothing wrong with a good ego stroking. "Which reminds me." He reaches over to the pile of supplies and fishes out the protein bar. "Well it's certainly not a five star meal, but it will keep us going for a while." He unwraps it with his teeth, and breaks it in into quarters. He tosses one quarter to Loki and sets one down on his knee. The rest he folds back into the wrapper and places it to the side. Loki brings the chunk of food to his lips and takes a tiny nibble, while Tony wolfs his down in one go. He was never one to waste time eating when he could be working.

Loki chews and swallows the tiny piece and goes for another bite. "For a survival ration, this is surprisingly agreeable." He says with a small smile.

"No, it's not."

"No, it is not." Loki agrees. "But I was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially one so willingly given."

Tony sits there playing with a stick in his hands until Loki has finished eating.

"Have you any water?" Loki asks.

"Uh. One sec." Tony reaches over and digs out his piece of shoulder armor. He pulls what wires he can out of the inside and washes it out with snow. He then flips his helmet over so the neck opening is facing up and places the "bowl" of armor on top and ads a handful of ice to melt.

"So..." Tony rambles again, uncomfortable to be using small talk with Loki. "Where are we and how do we get home? I mean you do know where we are right?"

"Actually I don't."

"What do you mean, you opened up the portal, how do you not know where we are?" Tony huffed and leaned forward.

"Well I indented simply to move to somewhere nearby, but you crashed into me and broke my concentration."

Tony sits up as much as he can and glares at Loki."My fault? This is my fault now? Just tell me you can get us back!"

Loki replies slowly as if he's explaining this to a child. "If I do not know where I am, I can not get to wherever I wish to go."

"And how did you go from wanting to zap somewhere else and zapping us to the middle of Antarctica? Its freezing and miserable. And I have yet to see a dancing penguin!" Tony snaps at Loki.

"It was not my Idea there was- " He stops himself and Tony can see he's hiding something in his eyes. Loki takes a deep breath and composes himself again. " If you give me a moment I can find out where we are!" Loki holds up his hand.

"Fine."

"I require quiet. Please do not talk or move."

"Fine."

Tony sits there with his arms crossed over his chest like a scolded child. He just sits and watches. Loki arranges himself into a cross legged pose and closes his eyes. He places his hands in front of him, Like he's holding an invisible ball and begins to speak quietly and quickly so Tony has to strain to make out any words. There is a tiny thread of light weaving out of Loki's fingertips and forming a ball in his hands. Loki moves with the ease of practice and begins to push and twist the ball of blue light until It forms a perfect globe.

Tony realised he's holding his breath, fascinated at what is taking place in front of him. Here is something new, powerful and alien... and he hasn't the slightest clue how any of it works. He studies Loki's face as it ranges from concentration to frustration and is full of calculated intensity. His hands moving delicately and precisely where he wants, almost as if Loki is conducting a great piece of music in front of grand audience. Tony can tell from the way he moves that Loki is now utterly focused on the ball of light and he twists his wrist to change the colour from blue to white. The words he's chanting are in some language he doesn't recognise, and Loki is muttering them faster and faster now. But there is a whisper of something else that is not Loki's voice, but something that makes the hair on Tony's neck stand up and he shivers involuntarily. And now Tony can see a tendril of grey mist twist from the ground behind Loki and pause above his shoulder. The grey mist begins to solidify, and suddenly there is a dagger of ice and Tony doesn't think, he just lunges at Loki, pinning him against the ground, as the light in his hands vanishes and the and the dagger plunges into the snow.

"What!" Loki glares at Tony, his eyes full of venom. "You stopped the spell you Idiot!" he punches Tony who is babbling an explanation that Loki will not hear, when Loki stops cold. His mouth is agape and his eyes are wide with horror. Tony can see the blood literally drain from his skin, and it looks Like Loki is going to pass out.

"No..." he stammers. "NO NO NO NO!" Loki backs up as far as he can and lets out an ear-piercing scream.

"What? What is it ? LOKI DAMN IT WHATS WRONG!?" and Tony is shaking his shoulders and Loki reaches up and digs his fingers into Tony's arm, and pulls Tony down to his level.

"Jotunheim..." he gasps to Tony, his eyes wild with fear. "We're in Jotunheim!" and Loki, an all powerful Norse god, begins to shake in fear.

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. (Hence the arc reactor is still in his chest)