Therapeutic?

[st_ratagem]

Following Thor without being hugely obvious was already getting tricky, even after only a day. It wasn’t surprising, really; Thor was more observant and aware of Loki’s tricks than he’d once been, and the Inn was still a confined space. That really only meant that instead of being sneaky, Loki was trying artful.

For whatever reason, Stark was confined to Thor’s room. Some kind of breakdown, who cared? It was an opening. If Stark was confined, they couldn’t have lunch in the cafe as they occasionally did, so bringing lunch was an excuse to lurk around Thor’s area. It was also a way to be a little bit of a jerk in the guise of being a medical type. Stark was an iffy eater at the best of times. And yes, Loki himself wasn’t interested in food, much, but he maintained weight and muscle mass without difficulty, which was more than Stark could say.

But the fact that he had multiple good reasons was why he turned up at Thor’s door and knocked by kicking it because his hands were carrying lunch.

Comments

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Heeding the viscous nature of the tuna salad, Tony's body was partially coated in his armor, though with a third arm sprouting from his shoulder to operate independently from the rest. It picked up the bottom slice with precision, holding up the rest for Tony to take a bite of.

"You could--" The third arm patted his mouth with a napkin, "Tell me what you think of my portrayal."

[st_ratagem]

Loki looked at the painted thing, then looked away almost immediately and more sharply when he wanted to. “Flat but recognizable. Equip it with a lethal taser and you’ll be closer.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"That may get in the way of his cleaning." Tony lowered it, dabbing his brush in more of the white paint to add a second coat. "WALL-E needed a friend and my room needs a maid."

[st_ratagem]

“It’s a terrible iteration then. Nothing like him.” Just the ‘friend’ part was laughable, really

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I like to think I'm decent at capturing peoples' essence. The target I fashioned in your image is still MIA." The third arm brought his sandwich in for another bite. It was less about being hungry so much as wanting all parts of his body to be occupied.

[st_ratagem]

“I suggest you bid farewell to your WALL-E, then.” Loki shrugged slightly and took a bite of his own sandwich. “No one survives Thanos.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony glanced at Loki meaningfully but opted to not keep silent on that point. "Well, then here's to me making yet another MurderBot. If I'm nice enough, maybe Thor won't throttle me for this one." Tony marked in the pupils, not yet touching them with paint.

"Bigger and brighter things. The snow was nice. About as much fun as I've had here."

[st_ratagem]

“What was the first one, yourself?” Loki wasn’t actually curious, it was just something to say. The subject change to snow was welcome. “It was decent practice, yes.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I hijacked your scepter to make an AI peacekeeping program. It tried to induce a technological singularity via the genocide of humanity." Tony's grip on the brush tightened minutely. Though a dull stab of guilt hit his gut, Tony described it with as much emotion as he would any other robotic venture. "In hindsight? Not a great plan."

[st_ratagem]

“Ah, just what I would do. Though of course, since AI always goes sideways, I would use regular sight to see that backing such an entity with one-sixth of the force that created the universe would go badly for someone.” Loki smiled slightly. “Perhaps it was fortunate that I was either imprisoned or ruling Asgard at the time.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Shrugging in acknowledgement, Tony gave Loki another little side-eye. A Loki-Ultron team-up--there was a nightmare for the ages. "Well, another bright spot. The whole thing gave me and your brother the only child we're likely to get. Banner was involved in conceiving. Doctor form. The beloved Jolly Green Giant would've been too much to take."

[st_ratagem]

Even less interesting, even the part that he should have pointed out: that none of Stark’s assorted ‘children’ would inherit from Thor. The throne of Asgard had to be held by an Asgardian. (Which was why it was on his eventual to-do list, within the next thousand years or so, to make sure that Thor actually did spawn and relieve Loki of heir status.) “Congratulations?”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Thanks. He's an Avenger now. Wields the Mind Stone like a champ."

For how well that worked out for him.

Tony's jaw tightened and he dropped the paint brush while his third arm dropped what remained of the sandwich. He shoved up and rubbed life into his clammy cheeks. "Christ, I need to get out."

[st_ratagem]

“Then go. I’m not stopping you.” Loki watched Stark carefully. Dropping things wasn’t usual. And he’d mentioned.... “Of course, that would prove your are in fact a flight risk.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

A harsh sigh followed by a frantic chuckle, and Tony was forming his helmet just to take it off and bounce it about. "Then Thor'd go chasing after and you'd miss out. No way to treat a guest."

[st_ratagem]

“You think I can’t keep up? I assure you I can.” Thor would have to come back briefly, at least, in order to see that his lover had gone.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Sounds like a goad." Tony met his helmet's eyes and they responded by blinking and projecting the vocals of Freddie Mercury. "At least someone'd get a kick out of it."

[st_ratagem]

“Go or don’t. It’s nothing to me either way.” Either way this was the best way and place to catch Thor.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"If you wanted to be forthcoming with him for once it might get his mind off me." Tony had taken to pacing, tossing his helmet up and prompting it to start flashing. The chat and the movement helped take the edge off the claustrophobia, though slightly.

[st_ratagem]

“Forthcoming about what, exactly?” It was a dangerous question to ask, since it might get answered. The conversation that was calming Toby was slowly but surely ratcheting Loki’s tension up.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony opened his mouth, though his confused mind turned on a dime. “About how much you want to be my furry little buddy again.”

[st_ratagem]

“Excuse me?” That was a considerable departure from what Loki had been expecting, conversationally speaking. Adding to the oddity of the moment, it didn’t actually sound like a terrible idea. Not permanently! No. Just... for a while.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“Say I’m projecting if you want—that wouldn’t be a shock.” Tony was now staring right at Loki over his helmet. “I miss it.”

[st_ratagem]

Stark spent a lot of time with Thor, being a kitten again - very temporarily! - would enable watching him under the excuse of keeping Stark company. And kittens were... less complicated. It could be restful, which was a good thing; the past ten years of his life was proof enough that Loki made very bad decisions under stress.

The simple fact that he’d been able to come up with multiple reasons to go along with the idea, too, probably meant that he did in fact want to do it.

Outwardly, Loki just shrugged a fine, crazy idiot sort of shrug, set the remainder of the food down, and changed back to the black-furred, green-eyed kitten Tony had known for two weeks,

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Without hesitation, Tony moved to the deceptively frail creature and immersed himself in the illusion of a loving pet as he picked it up and gave him a cradle in his arms.