Working Title : Loki & Annie

96 Confrontations Part Two

By the time Annie made it up the three flights of stairs her legs felt like burning jello and her arms felt like they were about to pull from their sockets. Loki didn't weigh much but it seemed to add up the higher she climbed. When she finally stood in front of her door she let Loki slide down to stand on his own while trying not to breathe as if she'd just run a marathon. Not that I would know what that felt like. Holy crap I need to do some endurance or cardio or something. It took more effort that it should to pull her door key from her pocket and push it into the lock. Opening the door she motioned for him to go ahead of her, "Go on in, buddy." Her ability to speak was a little hard as she continued to try to catch her breath, "No gym needed with those stairs," She used some precious oxygen to mutter as she worked to pull the key back out.

Standing on his feet Loki looked around as he had been taught so that no one could take him unawares. This was an action he hadn't been doing and he knew he had forgotten so much while in the dungeons and he wondered if Father would be disappointed in him.

Closing the door Annie started pulling off her coat while she toed off her shoes, giving Loki a tired smile, "Whew, I'm going to be feeling this tomorrow." She hung her coat up then moved to help Loki out of his, first pulling off his knit cap by the yarn ball, "Well, buddy. Looks like your brother is going to be awhile."

"That's good because you and I need to talk."

Annie startled at the man's voice and grabbed Loki roughly so she could stand between him and the stranger. But then when the figure waved from where he was sitting on her couch she realized that it was no stranger in her living room. "Tony Stark." Her voice whispered out, "Tony Stark is in my living room. Holy heck, Tony Stark."

At the woman's words Tony tilted his head to the side, she sounded impressed which was good. Yeah, he could work with impressed. "In the flesh, which is actually not always the case." He pulled his feet off the coffee table and motioned around the room, "Nice place you've got here. It's what, twentieth-century thrift store?"

Tony Stark is in MY living room. My. Livingroom. Tony - wait, what? The words took a moment to register, "What?" Annie frowned, was he was commenting on her furniture? Why would Tony Stark comment on her furniture?

Tony ignored her and dropped his eyes to Loki who was staring at him, "Hey kid. You're looking better."

Loki recognized the man even though he couldn't remember exactly why because the memory was blurry around the edges. He knew this man was a friend of Thor's but that didn't mean that the man was his friend because most of Thor's friends weren't his friends. Not really. Loki wasn't sure why the man was talking to him just like he wasn't sure why he was here because he shouldn't be here because this was Annie's home. Blinking slowly several times Loki made no acknowledgment of the words, instead, he squeezed the skin by his thumb between his fingers while he waited for what would happen next.

Tony raised an eyebrow at this lack of acknowledgment, "Come on, you remember me, right? Tony Stark? Of the famous Tony Stark Tower? Where you stayed almost a week?" Tony shook his head at the continued blank look on Loki's face. "Really? Nothing?" Tony gave a casual shrug, "Kids these days."

Annie opened her mouth to say something, anything really but found herself saying nothing. She wanted to point out that Loki had basically been kicked out of the famous Stark Tower but thought that would be kinda rude. 

With a casual smile, Tony stood even as he wondered exactly where Thor was. "So." Tony continued while pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "You're Annemarie Miller." He scrunched his nose, "You have a colorful past." He picked up a horse from where it was perched on the top of a box that was sitting on a chair, keeping his eyes focused intently on the woman standing across the room from him. He noticed her hand resting on Loki.