Chapter Text
Loki paced furiously outside of the healer's ward. He was waiting on word about Thor. He had stayed out of the ward when he passed Thor to the healers to avoid being considered as the source or treated as a threat. Granted, he had stabbed Thor a time or five but he had strictly avoided using anything that could be counted as a poison against the oaf. Not only was it easy to misinterpret or get the dosage wrong for a prank or even just to knock his thundering fool out poison was only ever used for treachery.
Loki had learned poisons as part of his healer training if only so that he would know how to craft an antidote. Other poisons were used in various magics so different training to handle them had been given to him during his mage craft training. Then there was the female specific training he had gotten while shape shifted as a female and deliberately locked that way for at least a decade before the woman's village courts accepted his petition to learn. That had been a rather unique several hundred years. Between that period as a woman and learning magic from a young age he was often considered more woman than man by many of Asgard. More than one person who had called him as a woman while not wearing a female form was challenged by Thor and killed for the insult despite Loki's own protests.
"So, you finally show your face," Heimdall spat, jerking Loki around to face him.
Loki hadn't even noticed his arrival and was taken completely off guard. Instinctively, he fought to get free and bloodied Heimdall's nose to do so.
"By the norns, you fool!" Loki snapped at him as he got a good look at who had grabbed him. "With Thor in with the healers and the news he brought you could not have picked a worse time to try and manhandle me. I nearly stabbed you!"
"This trickery must end!" Heimdall said angrily.
"You have no idea why I do the things I do," Loki retorted in his own fury. "You are not in my confidence, Heimdall. Nor do I answer to you. Once the healers are done with Thor there will be an announcement as to my so called tricks. The next time you lay a hand on me in anger I will challenge you for the insult!"
"Odin never should have brought you here," Heimdall growled. "You never should have been raised here."
Loki froze at his words and glared hard at him. Heimdall just glared hatefully back, not even bothering with his normal mask of blank politeness.
"You have no idea of which you speak," Loki snarled in icy fury. "Your actions against me specifically have placed Asgard in greater danger than necessary. Be grateful that to honor your years of service to the house of Odin I do not charge you with treason for those acts! I know not what you have ever had against me nor, at this point, do I care. You will leave, now, or so help me I will do worse to you than what you allowed the Mad Titan to do to me."
At Heimdall's shock and hesitancy Loki smirked nastily.
"I knew you could hear me as I begged while at the Mad Titan's mercy. One day I will take payment for that but that day is not today," Loki growled. "You have proven yourself untrustworthy and whatever competence you lent Odin you have refused to use on behalf of those he claimed as his sons. You no longer have a place here. Take your daughter Sif and begone before I change my mind and have you thrown into the dungeons until Thor and I can confer upon your fate."
"You would have Thor killed!" Heimdall accused angrily.
"No, I would have him be ready for his duties so that I no longer have to do them myself!" Loki snapped at him. "He's an oaf and a fool but he is still the rightful Heir of Asgard! You will not malign the house of Odin by proclaiming that there is so little honor as to foster kin-slaying!"
The way Loki's voice rose into a virtual roar by the end of his response couldn't be hidden with how it bounced and echoed down the hallways. Even as the words faded away to silence the door to the healing ward opened up behind Loki revealing a tired Thor and several furious healers. Thor looked over the situation and the fury both refused to conceal as the pair glared at each other.
"You were right, Loki," Thor said tiredly. "You were right, brother."
Loki simply cursed viciously in response. Thor turned his attention to Heimdall and flatly stole the wind out of his sails.
"Loki has been the rightful ruler whenever Odin was not ruling since my banishment. A fact you should be well aware of and supportive of," Thor told the old warrior flatly. "After mother died I fully renounced the throne. The Allfather had collapsed during an argument with Loki after the funeral. Loki acted in accordance with the situation and his past fully legal place as Odin's replacement. Could he have done so without taking on father's guise? Technically yes but practically? It would have proclaimed for one and all that we were vastly weakened after the convergence. I knew of it even if it took me some time to discover and I thought it wise to continue the seaming until Odin or I could take up the throne. Loki had our combined blessings in this endeavor as a way to protect Asgard. Odin Allfather is dead. I was at his side when he passed. Now we must handle things without even the seaming of him. These facts will be announced within the fortnight. Your banishment from the palace stands Heimdall... as does that of your daughter. Her actions over the years have been poor repayment for Loki's gift to her of his place to train as a true warrior of Asgard. If either of you come near either of us or any children we may have in the next hundred thousand years all in your family will be given over to Loki to do with as he pleases or executed outright."
"Sif?! The poison?!" Loki demanded in open fury.
"I know not for certain but I would not risk it after what we have learned," Thor said tiredly. Both Princes ignored Heimdall as he obeyed and fled.
"What does he need to purge the poison and heal from it?" Loki demanded of the healers.
"Three of Idunn's apples and a large infusion of magic," the spoken to healer answered instantly. "The magic needs to be incompatible to force a purge and later as compatible as possible to bolster him. He must have at least one apple as soon as possible to stop the soul decay that has set in."
Loki's eyes blaze in barely controlled fury as he pulled a golden apple he had kept in his pocket space for sometime.
"Eat it," Loki ordered as he handed it off to Thor. Thor gratefully complied.
"What can be done for the damage already in place?" Loki demanded, low and angry.
"Time under our care, regular support from those around him, treat it as battle damage for to survive this long against such a poison with so little damage he has won a mighty war," the healer informed him stiffly. "Your actions may have saved his life for if he had continued with the increasing dosage it would have killed him within months. His banishment and general time away from Asgard has prevented that fate."
Loki made a low noise of distress and Thor had to catch him before the trickster collapsed. The healers must have been expecting it since they ushered both Princes into the healing ward. Orders were snapped at nearby guards sending the wide-eyed men to alert the rest of what had happened and to emplace an increased guard on the ward. With permission gotten via the healers the announcement and news of both Princes was spread on swift wings.
~~~
Tony half dragged Stephen into the tower with him. Stephen complained but didn't stop him from dragging the doctor into the elevator and ordering Friday to take them to his penthouse. They left three separate Mystic Masters behind in the lobby to watch after them both baffled and amused.
The meeting of the Mystic Masters had been enlightening after the much needed nap. He had noticed immediately that they weren't as against the doctor as the man thought. In point of fact many of them had body language that showed exasperation and protectiveness that Stephen appeared completely blind to. It reminded him heavily of Rhodey's big brother vibes whenever Tony had gone on a studying or lab binge that lasted more than a week. Wong seemed to be the only one really able to get through to Stephen aside from Tony, which was so very wrong on so many levels.
Tony suspected the assignment of a rotating roster of several Masters was mostly to keep Stephen alive rather than as an actual punishment for all that they had phrased it as one. His own questions about the time doohickey and what it meant that it had forcibly bonded itself to Stephen had earned groans and consternation all around. Stephen had grumbled at his meddling but the quick looks of alarmed concern from some of the Masters were interesting. The private offers of teaching him magic while Stephen was dragged off to get checked over were just as interesting of a development. For that matter so was the general acceptance that he was going to marry the doc just because Dormammu had said so and his official inclusion on those grounds.
"Where have you been?!" Pepper demanded right as they stepped out of the elevator into his penthouse.
"And hello to you too. Where was I? Not a fucking clue. This one kidnapped me for Iron Man duties and didn't bother telling anyone," Tony said gesturing at Stephen. "In retaliation I have kidnapped him back and he's already under punishment for it from his superiors. That was part of why I was allowed to kidnap him back."
"How do you even get into these things?!" Pepper complained but otherwise didn't bat an eye as she shoved paperwork at him to sign.
Tony sighed and accepted it but dragged Stephen over to the couch and made him sit down first so that he could lay on top of him again while he worked. Stephen glared but didn't say anything since he knew the battle was already lost. Tony would forever be draping himself over Stephen or pinning him in place from now on.