Lunch Date With Disaster

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Did you partake? When you were in New York." Tony spoke up from across the infirmary desk, having been mostly occupied with his own journal. "Food, that is. Not wanton mayhem."

True to his cavalier word, Tony had been consistent with his follow ups for part-medical/part-cosmetic/entirely-snoopy visits with Loki, who was still repaying his debts to society. They ended up settling on lunchtime (or breakfast in Tony's case, depending on what he got up to the night before) to do the "procedure" and "enjoy" an "amiable" back and forth. Today had been rather unremarkable--a few jabs, but a lot of quiet time in between.

Maybe it was desensitization to Loki's presence, but Tony's countenance was unremarkable. Vigilant, but passively so. In an odd way, the trickster's focus on his work had a mirroring effect that prompted Tony to focus on his own. None of that excepted some "polite" conversation, however, especially over food. Pleasing Thor had become a priority, whether he wanted to put it that way or not. Consuming genuine sustenance and playing nice with the little brother simultaneously was just efficiently used time.

Comments

[st_ratagem]

It was entirely possible, Loki thought, that the only regular meal either of them actually managed some days was the one they shared out of spite and inertia. (He'd actually snapped something like if this is going to be a regular occurrence, bring lunch! be useful, human! and somehow that had happened.) Stark had no real appetite, and Loki considered eating to be one of several activities he engaged in so as not to die. (That his I-don't-give-a-fuck eating habits were still better than Stark's, judging from the weight the man had dropped or was still dropping, was probably something a new-minted medical professional should care about. Loki didn't, yet.)

Beyond the vague annoyance of 'what do you even want?', though, Stark actually wasn't terrible company. They'd grown comparatively used to each other, quiet most of the time as Loki tried to stuff reams of medical knowledge into his head (whether or not he'd been forced into the role, staying bad at it was unacceptable to his ego) and Stark did whatever Stark things came to him.

From the outside, it might even have looked like they were becoming friends. They were not, of course, and most of their conversation was in the nature of 'picking a fight' or 'picking scabs'.

Loki wondered which one this would be as he answered, intentionally breezily, "Heavens no. When would I have had time? Just the mayhem, for me."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"So if you're not feeding off food, you're feeding off of misery. Makes sense." Tony mashed the salad he was nursing in its bowl. He resented turning his attention away from his notes to make himself eat it, aside from picking out the cranberries to nibble at. Now there was no fruit to balance the flavors out and he simply was through with it.

"You sure you don't want me to bring more around? NY style pizza, knish, Fancy Feast..."

[st_ratagem]

"I don't care. I grew out of being picky by... age fifty? Something like that." Everything scorched over a fire just tasted like fire, after all. "Swamp food, prison food. Meh. If it doesn't kill me, I'm fine."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Don't give me that. If you're going to put something in your mouth, you should want it there in the first place." With that, Tony pushed away the thoroughly-mashed salad. "Give me a flavor."

[st_ratagem]

Loki rolled his eyes. "Don't give me that. I'm not the one losing weight like I'm melting in the sun."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Yeah, heard it all, I'll dump a pail of water on you and we can twin it out." Loki's reminder wasn't enough to make the greens any more appealing. He simply squinted, as if he could read the man's taste buds.

"Let me guess. You take your eggs poached."

[st_ratagem]

"Still not a witch." Damn Thor for making that a thing in the first place. Loki didn't have anything against witches - they had a hard road and he was certain that precognition was a special kind of nightmare. It was just that he wasn't a witch.

It was like people didn't even care about terminology. "And I have no preferences regarding eggs."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Okay--you, me, Eggs Benedict." Tony tossed Loki a brief smile, even if the man wasn't looking. That was a dish Tony could genuinely get muster some excitement for.

[st_ratagem]

"That's fine." Loki glanced up, catching the tail end of the smile. That was... odd. "I truly don't care what I eat. It's a learned skill, not a challenge."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Eating to live, not living to eat. How very...ascetic of you." Even having said that, Tony wasn't sure what to label it. It was no secret he was a hedonist at heart.

"Well, I'll learn you the skill. What else are we gonna do, besides having me play nurse?" Even having said that, Tony had a few ideas, mainly over picking Loki's brain about their captivity. He was comfortable chasing his own leads, first. Even if Loki had no reason to mislead him, it wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

[st_ratagem]

"Purely practical, I promise." He wasn't a monk, either. However much certain aspects of his life might resemble it. "Spend enough time deciding whether or not to eat raw snake eggs and you'd decide it doesn't matter, too. That being the case, it's not actually a skill I'm interested in losing."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"The first time I got stuck in a cave against my will, you better believe the first thing I demanded was a cheeseburger the second I got the chance." Practicality or no practicality, creature comforts were all that kept Tony sane at times.

He leaned forward on his palm, tapping his lips. The talk was rousing his appetite, somewhat. "Is that a yes? I could even order out if you're embarrassed to be seen in public with a dumb mortal."

[st_ratagem]

"Clearly we react differently. It's a shocking revelation." Loki waved a hand. "As I said: fine. So yes, it's a yes." The books would still be there when he got back, after all.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"As far as your quirks go, this is the least of them. No judgement." Tony was quick to add, pushing to stand and stretch. The gray cable knit scarf he had taken to wearing, even indoors, brushed his nose and he tugged it away in the nick of time to avoid a sneeze. Maybe wool was the wrong choice. But hey, it kept his hands warm in a pinch.

"So, indulge me. Any interesting look-who-just-rolled-into-the-clinic stories yet?"

[st_ratagem]

Bo had definitely been interesting. The little girl Annie had been entertaining. But, “Not a one,” was the answer as Loki stood up as well, after making sure that he’d marked his place in his current book.

It wasn’t ethics. He’d actually chuckled for a full minute at the ‘medical ethics’ text he’d found in his pile and promptly returned it to the library. Simpler than that, he’d promised to keep the secrets of both. So he would, until it was more beneficial not to.

The only other interesting thing was cutting and then healing Thor, and that was... more personal than he cared to get. “Unless you count my brother’s lover stalking me, of course.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Visiting counts as stalking these days? I'll have to be careful." Spinning on his heel, Tony thought.

Lurking around the victim's workplace? He hung around for half an hour at most, and he wasn't exactly sneaky about it. Watching the victim? If anything, that went the other way around with the cat business. Giving inappropriate gifts? Tony was insistent on the lunch but it wasn't a gift and Loki had already said it was fine repeatedly. Well, maybe the wine was pretty unexpected...

The aggressive behavior was already right out. Tony was specifically not treading that path. Giving a heartfelt death threat wasn't all that satisfying when the "victim" just giggled at you.

"If you really hated it, you could just poke my third eye and make me believe I was an impala or something."

[st_ratagem]

"I didn't say I hated it. You asked for interesting clinic stories, and you're the only one who might qualify." Loki folded his hands behind his back; always an ambiguous gesture, which was why he enjoyed it. On the one hand, no threat. On the other hand, as soon as you couldn't see his hands the question always became what's he doing with his hands. "If I hated it, believe me, I'd do worse than tweak your self-image."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Glancing back, the way the gooseflesh rose on the back of Tony's neck indicated the gesture's effect wasn't lost on him. Even so, showing weakness or suspicion was a clear loss in his own eyes.

"So you don't hate this and you don't hate me." Tony rubbed his nose, clearing a few woolen fibers from his nostrils.

[st_ratagem]

Hah. Got him. Loki smiled his sweetest smile. "Of course not. Why would I?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"You're doing that weird thing with your lips again." Tony gestured at his own as he pushed open the doors that lead back into the greater hotel.

[st_ratagem]

"It's called a smile. I do it a lot, normally." Smiles were useful expressions. Confusing, reassuring, threatening: it was all about context.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"All saccharine like that? You look like you're gonna try and sell me Girl Scout cookies." Tony slowed his steps enough to fall more in line with Loki's. "And if I didn't know better, I'd probably buy out the stock."

[st_ratagem]

“That’s the very general idea.” One of them, anyway. Pleasant expressions made nearly anything he said more believable, even when speaking to someone who knew better.

Sometimes especially when, depending what the words were. “Though in this case I’m just practicing, not attempting a sale.”

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Practicing...smiling?" Immediately a smirk was cracked, and he invaded the outer walls of Loki's bubble with a gesturing hand. "Someone special you're not trying to scare off at first glance?"

Tony heavily doubted it, but that was practically a requisite question in a situation like this.

[st_ratagem]

“Of course not.” Loki’s tone was almost pure amusement, as from a ridiculous idea. ‘Someone special’, ha! “Practicing maintains the skill, that’s all.”