A/N: This chapter gave me some trouble; I'm rather shit at fillers. Hope these can keep you quenched until I have the next chapter finished! I apologize for such a long wait.

Chapter 10

Loki Laufeyson

I thought alarm clocks or the sounds of construction were worse than waking up to some lonely woman licking my back. Oh, gods, how wrong I was. I inwardly shuddered at the wet appendage trailing up my back and squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could to refrain from opening them and turning back around to greet my recent bed partner that morning. Her squishy, fake breasts poked me in the back as she snuggled up closer to me, arms wrapping tightly around me.

"Good morning," she said, sighing. My eyes rolled themselves but I returned the greeting. She gave my midsection a squeeze. "You have any place to go?" There was hope in her voice, hope that I would say no and she could "save me" and live out a Hollywood dream. Of course, I really didn't have anywhere I could go.

"Not at the moment," I confessed, and she laughed.

"I have work. But you're free to stay as long as you need to." She sat up and kissed my cheek, looking down at me. "Um, will you be here this afternoon?" She pushed blonde hair behind her ear, and I forced a sweet, sincere smile to my face. She took that as a yes, kissed me, and then jumped out of bed. I gave her privacy as she left for the bathroom and pulled the blankets around me.

As the sounds of the shower flowed into the room from the pipes trailing beneath the walls, I pulled my newly-cleaned underwear and pants from a nearby dresser where they had been folded and clothed myself from the waist down. Her handmaids must have come later in the night when we weren't in the "throes of passion" and washed them. They smelled strongly of citrus and made my nose itch.

I buttoned the shirt up to cover myself, my fingers ghosting over the fabric where I had ripped the button from the night before. My regret over damaging possibly one of the few good pieces of clothing I owned at the moment faded as I realized that the button had been replaced.

I returned to the side of the bed I had slept on and crossed my legs, looking over the large city from the wide windows of the woman's bedroom. I could stay as long as I needed, she had said. How long would that be? I made a mental pact with myself to make it no longer than one more night, even if I had to lie my way through the front door.

My first priority was to get into contact with Thor, explain the situation I was currently in, and find a way to get back home in New York without using Anthony's help. I ran a worried hand through my tangled, greasy hair and bit my tongue. How the hell was I going to get myself out of this situation?

The shower cut off and I could hear cloth moving around behind the door. My stomach clenched as the door opened, and the sound of heavy feet fell onto the carpet. She poked her head down, towel wrapped around her hair and a robe tied tightly against her body. She was smiling.

"You look worried," she said, sitting down beside me. "Something wrong?"

"Um . . ." I wrung my hands and sighed heavily. I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples, knowing that I'd have to get a touch intimate and tell her about my family, which she will positively love. "Well, I – I need to get into contact with my brother. He doesn't know I'm here. With you, I mean."

She smiled at me and patted my arm. "Borrow my phone!" She jumped up as a young maid, Asian in race, handed her her clothes for the day and walked away quickly to avoid further orders. "I'll be leaving in about twenty minutes. Like I said, you're welcome to stay as long as you want."

"Thank you very much."

I smiled at her as she kissed my cheek and pranced off to change her clothes. I waited for her to disappear into the front (back?) of her house and nearly lunged for the phone. I punched our number into the keypad and sat with the phone pressed hard against my ear. We didn't have an answering machine at home, so the phone continued ringing and my leg began to kick up and down with nerves. After a few moments, the phone had rung almost twenty times, and I was ready to throw myself through the window.

I hung up, redialed the number, and waited again for Thor to answer. My bedmate's voice echoed into the room as she called goodbye, and I tapped my fingers against my knee. The phone's ringing finally cut off as a groggy, deep voice growled, "Hello?"

"I'm guessing you don't work weekends?" I joked, mentally picturing the realization washing over Thor's face. He sputtered on the other end, trying to collect his thoughts. I allowed him a few moments to recollect himself before he spoke.

"You've done something stupid," he accused, jumping right to his point. "Your stunt at Stark's party is all over the place. Remember your old suitors? They're dragging your name through the dirt as we speak. They've got creative writers working for them, apparently. I didn't know you were a 'drug addict.'" Thor's voice was laced with bitter sarcasm. I was surprised that I wasn't surprised. "What happened to you?"

"Stark expressed his thoughts on our 'relationship' through his actions. I retaliated as I saw fit." I swallowed a regretful lump in my throat and said stiffly, "Thor, I want to come home. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of everything. I'm tired of being tired."

"Then come home." I could hear the wall creak as Thor possibly leaned his weight against it. "There's nothing stopping you from returning home."

"No money," I replied, and he grew silent. I remained so as well, pulling a leg up to my chest to rest my arm and chin on. I wiggled my toes inside of a few sheets that I had managed to wrap around my foot. The silence between us was agonizing, and I finally broke it by saying, "Thor, maybe I should stay here. I mean, with my job experience as a dancer, or my degree, I could probably find a job without even trying. I'll be fine here."

"What?" Thor sounded almost angry, insulted even. His voice rose, and if Jane was with him (as I was sure she was), then she was probably scrabbling out of bed to see what her lover was so upset about. "No, Loki, it took me nearly six years to find you after you left. You think I'm going to let you just disappear off the face of the earth?"

"There's nothing you could do if I did," I replied smugly. "We're thousands of miles apart, a whole country between us, and you haven't the funds to get a plane ticket to California, snatch me up, and get tickets back to New York for the both of us." I picked at the hem of my pants. "Besides . . . things will be easier for you."

"And what the hell makes you think that?"

"Well, you have one less mouth to feed. And a lower electric and water bill." I chuckled at my jokes, knowing that they were true. "The point I'm making, Thor, is that you can have that 'perfect life' Odin and Frigga wanted you to have, and I can disappear. It'll be perfect."

"It will not be perfect. Loki, you did something stupid. I'm sure Stark did something stupid as well." Thor sighed heavily, and I could imagine him running his hands through his tangled, disheveled blond hair, and I heard a growl. "Hell, you're both stupid. I know you're stupid from experience. Remember the worms?"

I smiled to myself. "I do. You're not going to make some deep, philosophical metaphor with me and the worms are you? If you are, please stop before you're ahead."

"No, Loki, I'm not going to do that." Thor chuckled on the other end. "I heard Stark was going to have a press conference about your behavior. You should be there, explain what really happened. People deserve second chances."

"Not assholes." I scoffed.

"Did he explain his actions?"

"He didn't need to."

"Clearly, he did." Thor growled. I knew I was being difficult. He hated it when I was difficult. "And you need to explain yours as well."

"Make me," I challenged.

Thor sighed heavily on the other end, the breath leaving crackling static in my ear, and he muttered, "Don't tempt me."

Anthony Stark

"You're an idiot."

Was I surprised to hear those words the very first thing in the morning? No, I was not. Was I surprised to hear them from Pepper? Not really. Was I expecting to open my eyes, have sunlight pour down from the fucking windows and nearly blind me, and send the dull throb of my head into a sharp pain that sent stars behind my eyes? You bet your ass I wasn't.

I yelped and covered my eyes, groaning as the burning of my eyes was proceeded by a painful, aching throb in the back of my eyes and skull. The simple tapping of Pepper's shoes against the linoleum flooring made me want to throw myself from the top of the building into the churning water below the cliff.

"Pepper, please stop tapping your foot. My head's pounding," I say as she steps closer. "Why is it that every time I'm around him, I always end up drunk off my ass and end up miserable the next day?"

"Because you're an idiot," she repeated, taking a seat beside me and scribbling something down on a piece of paper. "Your press conference is this evening. It's scheduled for seven o'clock, so don't be late. Your public image would look worse."

"Do I really even need to bother with 'public image' at this point, Pep? Everyone pretty much knows about Loki and me now. Why bother?" I laughed and leaned my head back, closing my eyes. Bad idea. Gonna puke. Sit back up, sit back up. I swallowed hard and fought the urge to vomit as Pepper instantly recognized the look of nausea and ran off. A few moments later, pills and water were forced into my hand.

"Because no one actually knows if you two had anything going on. You can play it off as a family friend getting drunk and losing his mind, right?"

I rubbed my sore eyes and sent Pepper a harsh look that said everything I was thinking. I wasn't exactly sure what I had been thinking, and I guessed that my stern glare towards Pepper did nothing to move her. She returned it, the look in her eyes more sure than my own, and I broke our stare.

"Take today off and rest," she suggested. "I'll send Happy after you at six o'clock. Please be ready by then, Tony." She seemed to linger around a few moments more than she needed but rushed off in the next instant.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I swallowed the pills and downed the water without much hesitation. I carefully placed the glass of water onto the table and eased myself down on the couch, throwing my arm over my eyes to block out the light. "J.A.R.V.I.S., mind tinting the windows a bit? I'm going blind."

"At least you haven't thrown acid in your face and damaged yourself on purpose." The reference was unexpected, as well as the laugh that followed. I let the grin come to my face as the lights dimmed and I was able to stare up at the ceiling without nearly losing my ability to see.

"Acid would probably have hurt less." I closed my eyes again.

Last night's events played in my head. My lip-locking with a girl front of Loki. Loki dancing to the tune of "Time Warp" on a table without his shoes. My mistakes. Loki's mistakes. Hell, we were both acting like stupid-ass high schoolers. I clenched my hand, relaxing it instantly as a sharp pain radiated from my palm.

I held my hand up, staring up at a blood-crusted hand and a thin laceration that cut from my thumb up to my middle finger. It hurt like a bitch, but it hadn't bled much, and was quite thin, almost like a paper cut. A small layer of skin that folded back when I brushed a finger across it showed that it hadn't been deep. The raw layer beneath it stung and I pulled my hand away.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., do you have video of what happened last night?"

"I do, sir. What would you like me to do with it?"

"Delete it." I sat up slowly, thankful for the affects of the medicine already beginning to kick in. My stomach didn't roll as horribly as it had done the first time. "I don't want a reminder of what happened last night. If the news is talking about it, I don't want to see it. I don't want to hear anything about Loki ever again. In fact, anything on file about Loki, delete."

"Shall I delete his number and address as well?"

"J.A.R.V.I.S., did I stutter?" I glared up at a camera that was whirring as it turned itself onto me.

"No, sir, you didn't." There was a short silence. It seemed to crawl by with my impatience. "Memory deleted. Anything on Loki Laufeyson has been wiped from the circuit board."

I lied back down against the couch arm, interweaving my fingers across my chest. Stressed was a euphemism for what I was feeling at the moment. There was no word in any mundane language to describe how I was feeling at the moment. I could have destroyed the entire house and built it up from the very foundation and I would still not be able to relax.

With my eyes closed, I could recall the entire night in detail again, but this time I refused to open my eyes. Where could I have fixed things? What could I have done to prevent stupidity? Well, the obvious answer was to not have shown up in the first place. That would have done wonders.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., time."

"It's half-past two, sir. You slept until one forty-five."

I closed my eyes and decided I wouldn't bother with thinking about Loki anymore. The past was the past, and I would learn to get over it.

"Put on some Black Sabbath for me, will you?" I asked, ignoring the small voice in my head that told me I would regret that decision the second it was carried out. "I feel like being a little masochistic as I prepare myself for this evening. Care to join me?"

"I do care, sir." There was a pause. "But I suppose that I have no choice. What would you like to listen to?"

"Whatever sounds appropriate to you." I stood carefully, watching so that I wouldn't knock my knees against the edge of the coffee table. "I'm about to get myself into some deep shit."