Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 97: The Banquet Part 1

Chapter Ninety-Seven

The Banquet Part I

Milky Way Galaxy

Sol System

Nine Realms / Planet Earth

When Loki first woke up, back on-board of the Aurelion, at first he just kept staring up at the ceiling with a confused frown on his face and Tony feared that whatever Hatchet had done was not enough. And it hurt, just to think about Loki not remembering their past. He felt selfish, so incredibly selfish, because there were a lot of horrible memories Loki would be better off without and once he remembered Tony, he would remember everything else too, but still he wanted nothing more but to see recognition in his eyes. And then Loki turned his head and noticed him. Within a blink Tony was held in a bone-crushing embrace. "You're alive" Loki had said, his voice full of relief. He sounded like he was barely able to believe it. Yeah, that broke Tony's heart all over again. He had known in that very moment that it would take a long time until they were all able to move on from this.

He would also never forget the look on Loki's face when he noticed everyone else around them, Hatchet and Thor hovering by his bed, Rhodey and Bruce standing behind Tony, while Cap and Bucky just a few steps away. It was hard to make Loki speechless, but he was without a doubt shocked to see the extent of his rescue party. Tony did his best to hide the sadness he felt at seeing Loki's disbelief. Loki then immediately asked about Bee, Juyu and Drongo, since he could not see them anywhere. He expected the worse of course, so Tony was all too happy to inform him about what really happened.

During those few days they were coming home, no, not just those few days, even still Tony was a little overwhelmed with the need to help Loki or take care of him. But of course there was a limit how much Loki was willing to accept from him, and Tony understood that, he really did. Loki had his own way of dealing with shit and it involved very little patience for affectionate gestures. Sure, he took comfort in touch and enjoyed using sex as distraction and stress relief, but generally he liked to sort himself out in a more methodical and clinical way. So yeah, Tony got all that, so he was willing to accept Loki's smiles as genuine and he did not push him too much when he was clearly unwilling to listen. But it was still frustrating. At least Hatchet seemed to share both his concern and annoyance. Not that either of them wanted to demand more from Loki than he was ready to give, and that was right so. It would be fine, in time.

That was also the reason why Tony agreed when out of the blue Loki announced that it was time to move forward with his plans. He didn't argue at all really. If Loki wanted to jump headfirst into interstellar diplomacy to take his mind off of things, then so be it. To be honest, he was eager to have this problem gone too. He didn't expect it to turn into such a spectacle, but it was the two of them, so of course they turned it into a flashy party the whole world had its eyes on.

'So after tonight we're either going to celebrate or... die a horrible death.'

'Not like you to speak in extremes this much,' Loki huffed. Tony turned to look at him and saw that despite his words Loki was tense. He reached out and stroked Loki's bare arm with the back of his hand.

'It will be perfect,' Tony told him. 'I mean... you and Pepper. Wow, I mean, that's like... world domination, right there. You could probably have a posh brunch, get on with the conquering, and be done with it before tea time.'

Loki chuckled and leaned into his touch, finally looking back at him.

'Well, it is good I suppose that neither of us have much interest ruling this realm... at the moment.'

'That's hilarious... I am so gonna monitor you two.'

'Stop it,' Loki chastised. Tony gave him a shit-eating grin and leaned closer for a short kiss.