Chapter Text
Tony was excited. Really excited. Really really excited. Much to excited to sleep now.
Tomorrow his father would take him and his brother to the greatest yearly scientific convention in the whole world and he couldn't think of something cooler than that. He had been begging his parents for two years now to let him go, and yet, at last, in the age of five they had actually deemed him old enough to attend.
So really - how could they believe him to be tired right now?
Clutching his toy-dog to his chest - he never went anywhere without Dummy - he rolled out of his bed and patted barfooted to the door. His parents would surely scold him for that - he knew how important it was to wear shoes, especially now that the early fall-wind creeped cold up from the labs, despite the best central-heating that Eureka could provide - but only if they found out, and when he was careful they wouldn't ever suspect anything.
As quiet as possible he opened and then closed the door, then ran down the floor to his brother's room at the other end of the corridor.
As he had expected his older brother was obediently lying in bed, trying to sleep. Not for a moment did Tony believe that he was truly asleep - he had seen his look over the dinner-table, and Nathan had been as excited as him.
He ran over to the bed, climbed on it and flung himself over his brother's prone form. "Stand up!", he demanded. "Nate, come play with me!"
Typically for him Nathan barely even opened an eye. “Go away, Tony!”, he groaned. “Let me sleep.”
As if that had ever succeeded in persuading Tony to leave him alone.
“Oh, come on, Nate", he whined, then grinned as inspiration struck him. "Everyone is sleeping", he tempted. "We could go down in the lab and play with Loki."
As he had expected the mountain made of blankets moved and was then thrown away. His brother had never been able to resist the lure his own creations presented.
Grinning he looked up in his brother’s victorious face. "Okay.", accepted Nathan. "But you have to slip on a jacket" Another look down to Tony’s feet. "And a pair of my socks. That’s much to cold this way."
Tony complied. He was up to anything, as long as his brother would play with him. "Okay", he said and pulled on the socks that Nathan threw his way as well as the pullover he gave him.
But that was all he had the patience for to endure and as soon as they were both ready he grabbed his brother’s hand and dragged him down to the lab they shared. "Come, Nate!", he urged him forward. "If you continue to dawdle the night will be over before we reach the lab!"
His brother just laughed and then followed a bit faster.
Eventually they reached the room they both shared. It was about as big as a normal lab, with a couple of desks and shelves, some built-in cupboards and two PCs. There also were a forge they weren’t allowed to use without a grown-up as supervisor (and Tony not at all until he was six), chemical equipment, a gigantic Holoscreen, a door leading to a storage room and a vent. Not to mention the white boards, tools and everything else. There was even a sterile compartment.
Tony had never been to another kid’s house (or another scientist’s lab, for that matter) but he had often heard his father’s scientists speak about the lab in awed voices, as if it was something special, so he assumed that the lab was pretty cool stuff and something to show-off to other kids should he ever need to speak to them (he didn’t think he ever would - he had Nate, so why would he need them?)
Loki, the robot his brother had assembled with his gift - and wasn't it a really cool gift? He could move anything he wanted with it, and he could use the scrap metal lying around, moulding them into shape and putting them into place by ... by magic! And not only that - what his brother made that way seemed to be sentient, or why else would Loki be this lively?
Tony slipped into the lab shoes they kept in one of the cupboards while a soft command of his brother woke the machine up.
"It's in the middle of the night!", Loki immediately complained. "Can't a guy sleep when he's tired?"
Nathan snorted. "You never are tired", he said. "Worst, you run out of energy."
Loki grinned. "Yep", he said. "You sure that's not what happened? I had a very busy day today." He still detached himself from the charging station.
"We weren't down in the lab", Tony protested and jumped out of the way when the machine run to Nathan and sprang up to plant a quick kiss on his cheek.
"Exactly", Loki said. "I had a lot of time to prank the grown-ups out there."
Nathan groaned while Tony laughed.
Loki was prone to cause mischief, and everyone at Global Dynamics knew not to underestimate the just one meter-high robot, that with his black hair and green-eyes and the rosy skin-equivalent almost looked like a normal child. But if he was a child then one whose parents hadn't been successful in teaching him manners. He was always causing trouble - never anything dangerous, or really awful, but the small annoyances were bad enough, not to mention what he did to those that picked on his creator or the little brother.
And always it was Nathan that got the problems, because it was his machine (and yes, there were those that demanded Loki should be disassembled, but neither Tony nor Nathan wanted to consider it, and fortunately their parents didn't demand it).
"I hope you made sure that no-one could pin it on you", Nathan warned.
Loki just grinned and hopped up on a desk (Tony really envied him for this ability; even knowing that Loki was just hydraulic and springs he couldn't stop from wishing he were able to do that himself, too, but with his short legs he would have to use one of the smaller desks cranked down for him or wait for his body to get bigger), carefully not touching the experiment being laid out there.
Then Loki spotted Dummy and his grin became even wider and a bit too wicked. "Are we going to play with the dog again?", he asked and instinctively Tony pressed Dummy harder against his chest - since that one time Loki had been angry enough with him to steal his toy he hadn't brought Dummy down to the lab again. Of course he had to forget that today,
"Loki!", Nathan said sternly and Loki ducked with a chastised expression on his face no-one was ever going to believe.
Save behind his brother Tony glared at Loki. He was stealing all the attention for himself, but this shouldn't be about his brother's robot. After all, while he liked Loki, the machine had just been a pretext to lure his brother down. "You wanted to show me how to build a hybrid-engine for Dummy's car!", he reminded Nathan with a cheeky grin.
His brother grinned, too. "I knew it. You just wanted me down here to play with your car.", he teased.
Tony wasn't the least bit apologetic, but then neither of them expected it. And it wasn't as if Nathan wasn't happy showing off his abilities and knowledge.
It didn't take Tony long to understand the functioning of the motor, nor did he need long to build one of his own (and it was really useful to have a brother that can shape the pieces that weren't available in the lab; it would have taken hours if not days otherwise).
But this way they managed to play with the car within the hour, setting Dummy in it while Tony ran behind them and one of Nathan's pterodactyls flew over them, circling like an eagle in the stale lab air. It was one of the best days Tony had had for a long time - between school and his father taking him to the official labs Nathan didn't have as much time for him as he used to have - and he enjoyed it as much as he could.
He was running after the car, Nathan laughing behind him - and telling him to not run so fast, but, really? Why should Tony slow down? - when Loki, who had been sitting on one of the desks, his legs dangling over the edge, suddenly shouted: "Stop!"
Tony couldn't work out why, not fast enough to avoid crashing in the desk at least. And it wouldn’t have been that bad, no, not at all - he had been crashing in desks and trees and anything else for five years now without lasting damage - if not for the fact that it was the desk with the experiment on it.
The chemical experiment.
That their father warned them not to touch without him.
That even Loki - careless, reckless Loki - avoided to touch.
That had some acid in it, and some even worse substances.
That was now tipping over and dripping down exactly where Tony was trying to get a hold.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Loki speeding up to him, but the lab was so big, and the robot was on the other end of it, and he just knew that even the machine’s hydraulic-powered legs wouldn’t be fast enough to help him.
And then there was another thing speeding to him. Something he couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, could only feel as power, like electricity running over his skin.
It felt like everywhere there were ants running over his legs and arms and skin and then they all bit down and he screamed and trashed and screamed even more ... he couldn’t hear himself scream... and then blessed darkness swallowed him up.