Spooky Action at a Distance | Frostiron

Doubt Thou the Stars are Fire

Loki tensed when she heard that voice. Of course they'd happen to bump into each other. It was just her luck. She'd heard someone walk towards her, but hoped it was someone just coming to pick up some supplies. Maybe Tony was too? Hopefully, but she wasn't that lucky. He didn't seem to recognise her, though. No one knew that it was her, no one recognised her, so she could go around unnoticed. The one upside of being closeted, she guessed. People who wanted supplies just thought that she was Loki's supplier who came to take over. She didn't expect that cover to work, but no one seemed to question it.

She kept her gaze upon the stars, trying her best to stay calm. She could see Tony out of the corner of her eye, he was a couple of feet away from her. He didn't seem to have a clue who she was, so that was definitely good. She just had to keep her cover. That, in theory, wouldn't be hard. She just hoped that no one figured out that she was out of her room. Then it would be fairly easy to figure out that she is Loki. Even her fake name gave it away. She didn't understand how people could be so slow. Of course, she could just leave the realm now. Leave and not turn back. Avoid the manhunt. But if she was right, which she was almost certain she was, she had to stay on Asgard. She didn't know for how long, but if she could successfully hide on Asgard, then she'd have to take it. She'd probably never be able to leave the realm again, and that scared her.

"The stars are beautiful," Loki replied, her voice calm and steady. "If not lonely."

Tony turned to look at the woman again, seeming almost intrigued by the stranger's words. He noticed that she still hadn't looked at him. That unnerved him. Was there something wrong? Didn't she want to talk to a human? He bit his lip before looking back out, trying to stay calm. There was something about her that made him nervous, that made his heart flutter and his hands clammy. He'd never had that before. Not even with Pepper. Part of him felt that maybe his arc reactor was failing and his body was slowly shutting down, but it wasn't painful enough for that. He knew he'd have to ask Bruce about it.

"Lonely?" Tony questioned, trying his best to keep his focus on the stars. "What makes you think that they're lonely?"

"They're trapped in an infinite void, never to escape. They have no way out. The only way out is death, and they live for five billion years. They're at least eight billion lightyears away from each other, in an infinite void of nothing. It would be enough to drive a person mad, though it's unlikely anyone could survive the conditions they live through. We're constantly surrounded by stars. Look off of the edge of the realm and there are stars. We're a realm floating in the middle of stars, keeping them even further apart. The vast void is lonely, and though it looks beautiful, it's rather sad."

Oh. Tony wasn't expecting that. He didn't know what he was expecting, but he wasn't expecting an astrology lesson. It felt nice, though. Even comforting. He was talking to someone with wisdom. Whether or not that could reflect into intelligence, he didn't know, but it was comforting to think that he could be talking to someone who would get what he was saying, like Bruce. The way she spoke about space was eerily accurate to how he experienced it, though. It was a void of nothing, and despite everything, he'd never felt so alone than the few minutes he was there.

"I... I never thought about it like that," Tony replied, looking down at the wall of the balcony. "Have you ever been into space?"

"I've travelled," Loki replied, finally turning to look at Tony.

He looked different. That was the first thing she noticed. He looked exhausted. Sure, he didn't look great when they met, but he somehow looked worse. She didn't think that that was possible. She saw the way he froze when they saw each other the previous day, how for a second, he looked petrified. Had she caused his deterioration? She knew that it was possible that she had. After all, she was the reason he almost died. She was the one that attacked the realm. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. She couldn't think about that, she had to stay focused. She just wanted to apologise, but she couldn't do that. She wanted to help him, try to help him get better. She paused, almost in shock by her own feelings. Did she care? Why would she care? He was just a human. A human she'd almost killed. Besides, he didn't know who she was. The moment he found out, he'd either kill her or call Thor. Neither of them sounded great.