A/N: I told you I'd write it. I told you I would. Why Tony Stark Shouldn't Mess With Magic, redone.

This is the introduction. The crunchy good bits start soon.

Chapter 1: Love At First Sight

Contrary to what many people thought, Loki was capable of spending time with Thor without trying to kill or maim him. Or run away. Or generally reacting negatively.

But these calm times were pretty rare.

Usually they were the result of Loki needing something through official channels in Asgard, such as news or goods. On this occasion, Loki was enquiring after one of his few friends in Asgard, his nurse as a child, who was reaching the end of her very long life.

It was as the conversation was declining into small talk that Loki felt it. Like his heartbeat had just been grabbed by someone and yanked, then tied to a tall, strong post in the middle of a field.

A little overdescriptive, Loki knew, but accurate.

Fortunate, his skill in the field of magic allowed him to sense where said post was, and after briefly accusing Thor of tricking him, Loki vanished.

Following the trail, he found himself in a part of the Avengers Tower that he hadn't seen before. It was big, full of workbenches and equipment and parts sprawled all over the workbenches and the equipment.

As soon as he materialised, though, the room began flashing red, the doors all locked down and several lasers were pointed at him.

"Please remain still, sir," a clinical voice with an accent not unlike his own said. "The Avengers will be here shortly."

This didn't bother Loki overly, and he continued on his business, tracking down the source of the binding.

He found Iron Man, Tony Stark, crumpled unconscious on the floor. This also didn't bother Loki overly, but what did both him was how he could sense the binding between them. So he sat down on a workbench cross-legged, closed his eyes, and traced the magic in his mind.

A binding spell, as he'd thought. One-sided, mostly. Quite powerful, and with an odd energy signature that seemed too precise and uniform for a living creature to have created.

Somehow Stark had managed to place a binding spell on himself. The issue was, binding spells needed two living hosts, and Stark was only one. Loki's magic must have called to it like gravity.

Which raised the question: what type of binding spell was it? Loki could only hope that it was a standard edition subservience binding; ordering Stark around would be quite entertaining. But there was something about it, something blue and curly and soft - or at least that's what the magic felt like in his mind - that warned him that it could be much, much worse.

Stark was waking up. Loki just sat there expectantly, even as the alarms were still going off.

"Loki!" Stark said loudly, but he didn't seem unhappy. Quite the opposite.

The inventor crawled to his feet, seemingly uninjured. He smiled warmly at Loki. "It's good to see you here. Not that I'm the type to be straightforward with my emotions and all that, but I've never been more sure of anything. Ever."

There was a sinking feeling in Loki's chest. He knew what was going to happen next.

"Loki, I love you," Stark said.

"I very much doubt that," Loki replied.

"Never been more sure about anything. You ever looked at yourself? You're just about perfect. Smart and funny and full of alien weirdness and you're just..." Stark trailed off, his hands swirling happily. "I love you, Lokes."

"You're being affected by binding spell. The bindandi ást, to be exact," Loki told him. He didn't expect it to work.

"Nah. This is real. I've never even seen a Bindi Oust."

"What were you doing before you fell unconscious?" Loki said.

That slowed Stark down for a moment. He thought about it, then admitted that he didn't know.

Which settled things in Loki's mind. Somehow, either someone else or Stark himself had managed to cast a binding spell.

"This is rather irritating. Stand still for a minute and do nothing," Loki said.

The alarms were still going as Loki sat down again on a workbench and started concentrating. He was surprised at how long response to it was taking.

Mentally, he tried to grasp the thread of magic bonding the pair of them and snap it. But it slid away from him time and time again, and when he firmly grasped it, it was unbreakable.

He was interrupted by Stark. "You're so cute when you concentrate."

"I was led to believe you have a greater-than-average intelligence, Stark," Loki said. "I was hoping that 'cute' wasn't part of your vocabulary."

"You kidding me? If you're going to be smart and talk proper, you're gonna get boring fast," Stark said. "Pull that dildo out of your ass and lighten up, big guy."

Loki frowned, still with his eyes closed. Normally he enjoyed joking around with Stark on the battlefield, but it really wasn't the time.

He was beginning to accept that he couldn't break the spell when he felt Stark's hands on his arms.

One of Loki's eyes opened. "Don't touch me."

He knew that Stark touching him was helping to alleviate the yank of the spell, but he still had boundaries.

Then Loki spotted the Captain through the glass doorway separating the lab from the elevator and stairwell. Which was when Loki had an idea. Stark was in love with him, yes? He'd been looking for a way to get access to some of the Avengers' information. And now he had the perfect cover.

Making sure that the Captain was watching, he cupped the back of Tony's neck and pulled him closer, pressing their lips together with what he assumed was a relationship level of affection.

Stark seemed happy with this turn of events, kissing back with rather a lot of enthusiasm.

Then, theatrically, Loki broke away and raised an eyebrow at the gathered Avengers, who looked more than a little shocked. Thor was there, a little gobsmacked.

"Turn off the alarm," Loki said to Tony, who obeyed. "And let them in."

Stark did this too, and the Avengers piled in.

"You were a little slow," Loki said, still with his hands on Tony. "With that alarm going off, he could have been killed by me already."

"That alarm has gone off several times a day all week," Natasha said dismissively.

Loki filed that piece of information away. He needed to find out what it was a warning for.

"False alarm. Loki set it off," Stark said.

"That's not a false alarm," Clint noted. "He's right there."

"I know; isn't it great?" Stark grinned.

"Loki?" Thor said uncertainly.

"I suppose now is an excellent time to tell all of you," Loki said.

"I love Loki!" Stark announced cheerfully. He was met by shock and surprise. "Oh, and he loves me. It's win-win."

Steve raised an eyebrow at Loki. "Is this true?"

"As true as anything I've ever said," Loki said with an innocent little smile. "Scratch that. As true as anything you've ever said."

"And that means he's serious," Stark said, pecking Loki on the cheek.

Loki worked rather hard and created a smile that suggested he was uncontrollably in love.

"I knew Tony was up to something!" Clint crowed. "All that time spent in your lab or your room - you said SHIELD had put you up to something, but really you were just fucking Loki!"

Loki suddenly mentally took the thread of the spell and yanked it, disorientating Tony to keep him quiet. "That's right," he smiled. "We have excellent footage, if you'd like to see."

Clint was about to say something when Thor cut him off. "I would like to discuss this with you privately, Loki."

Really, everyone was taking it surprisingly well considering what Loki had done to the Avengers symbol on the building last week.

"And if that's all," Loki said finally, turning his head back to a still slightly confused Stark and kissing him again. "We're busy."

Clint just shrugged and left. Steve followed, after giving Loki a serious look for a moment. Thor also gave a serious look and left. It was just Bruce and Natasha looking them over sceptically, and then they were gone too.

"And now we have some time to ourselves..." Stark said suggestively, Loki's magic yanking forgotten in favour of sliding his hands up Loki's thighs.

Loki twitched away. "I am afraid, little Stark, that I really must leave you for now. But I'll be back, don't you worry."

He got to his feet, made sure his leathers were straight and tidy.

"Tony," Stark said.

Loki shot him a questioning look.

"Call me Tony. C'mon, we're dating," Tony urged.

Loki acknowledged that, then said "Do not talk to the Avengers about our relationship."

Tony nodded.

Then Loki vanished.

-O.O-

Loki returned to his apartment feeling rather happy. Tony was the clever one of the Avengers, their source of information and new technology, and now Loki owned him. All through a mysterious happening in Tony's lab that Loki couldn't identify.

It was all very convenient, or so Loki couldn't help feeling. He wondered if someone was setting him up, Amora maybe. It was her style. But at this point, since the spell was one-sided, he really couldn't see how there was any kind of downside.

In fact, he wasn't even feeling any ill effects of not being near Tony. This was probably not true for his thrall, or so he suspected. They were currently separated by a few kilometres.

Meanwhile, he could sit somewhere quiet and properly meditate on the magic currently binding Tony to him like a dog on a leash.

When customising his apartment - which was modern and comfortable, in dark shades - Loki had actually included a special place for him to scry and meditate and generally perform magic that required him to be static and comfortable. While perusing a local furniture store, he'd come across the perfect furnishing.

Loki sank down into his large bean bag and closed his eyes.

He could feel the link of the magic. But despite his prodigious skill in that sort of thing, he couldn't break it if he wanted to. Usually something like that could be broken by unwinding the signature of whoever had cast it, but it didn't seem to have one. Machine-made, maybe, but that was far beyond Midgardian skill. They didn't even seem to be sure what magic was. There wasn't a chance Tony could have done this, or so he believed.

His efforts at figuring out what it was were interrupted by a loud knocking from elsewhere. Seeing as he was already there, Loki didn't bother to stand, instead scrying what was going on.

Stark. Tony was at his balcony door in his Iron Man suit. Was the pull of the spell really so strong that Tony could locate him right down to his apartment?

Evidently, yes, because he'd made certain and double-certain that no one knew where he was currently living.

Reluctantly, he appeared at the doorway and opened it without a word, waiting for Tony to talk first. Which he did.

"Loki!" Tony said. "I just had to see you. Couldn't help myself; I just miss you when you're not around."

Loki clenched his jaw. Then he smiled. He couldn't really force Tony away without letting the Avengers know that they actually weren't dating.

"Come in," Loki said politely.

Tony got out of the suit and smeared himself across the couch, then got up. "You want a coffee? I'm going to make a coffee."

Loki just gestured towards the kitchen. He would let Tony relax, then he could probably get some information out of him.

When Tony was settled, Loki sat down on the couch next to him at a companionable distance.

"Talk to me," Loki said, acting his friendliest.

"What about?" Tony said.

"Tell me about the Avengers' Tower," Loki said.

"Okay. Well, first, there's JARVIS. He's my baby. And my caretaker, sort of..."

Tony launched into an explanation, and Loki felt a little hum of contentment.