I Know You Had To Lie To Me (I Know You Had To Cheat)

The suit was a write-off, there was no coming back from that. So here he was, going to face Loki with nothing but a smile and a can-do attitude. What could possibly go wrong? Probably best not to ask that question, things tend to go very wrong, very quick when he asks that question. Cue memory lane of Afghani terrorists and long walks in the desert. Definitely not the kinda date Tony likes.

Loki...Banner's bag of cats, Thor's brother, and a pain in the ass for everyone. What the hell is going on with this guy? What had Thor not been telling them? Adopted, what was that about? Wait, shit was that what THIS was about? This entire clusterfuck, this mission...a kid trying to get daddy's attention? This is good. No, not good, this is fucking bad. But Tony's territory for sure, he can work with daddy issues. He owns stock in daddy issues.

Between JARIVS and Valet, the Iron Man is gone entirely, so now all that can be done is talk. No big man in a suit of armor, just Tony, just Loki, and whatever words he can work out between the two of them. God, he needs a drink. He can't talk to a god hellbent on destruction without a drink. And the bar is right there…

"Care for a drink?"

"Stalling won't change anything," It was cute, really. Loki knows he's stalling, but has no idea WHY. And the why is always more important than the what.

"No, yeah, you're right on that. But this isn't stalling. It's a drink. What's a little drink between enemies? Foes? Nemesis? Nemeses...Well. Unless you're afraid of what I've got inside the tower?" Oh shit, innuendo? That's what he brings out at a time like this? Fuck.

"What have I to fear?"

"That's actually a really good question. I'm glad you asked. But I think you and I both know what it is, and it sure as hell ain't here." Back on track, Tony can do this. Loki may have been called "silver tongue", but goddamn Tony made it this far too, he knows his way around talking.

"See, Loki, can I call you Loki? Mr Odinson? I don't really know how this works, I'll be honest, I've never really talked to a god before. Well, your brother. But that was a lot more hostile than this, which is weird, that's weird, isn't–"

"Loki is fine." Confused. Oh good, confused is step one. Though "befuddled" might be a more apt description of the expression Loki is wearing right now, but semantics.

"Good, then I'm Tony. Scotch or whisky?"

"What is this? Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity." He should feel bad, twisting Loki's hate and fear against him. Should? No, he does. What Tony is doing to Loki is what Obie did to him, and if Tony can get Loki to just stop, and talk he might just get passed that parallel.

"Nope, not even a little. I don't do humanity. Have you seen my file? No, of course not, prisoners don't get SHIELD access codes, and I doubt you cared about Earth's inhabitants before this whole debacle. Anyways. Me? Not too much of a humanitarian. Until recently, I built weapons. Sold weapons, designed them. Basically did everything but pull the trigger for any army or cause willing to pay up. They called me the Merchant of Death, at one point. I had it on my e-mail for a while, but then Pepper found out, and WOW you would not want to invade earth on a day she was pissed, seriously, you would have just turned back."

"I'm sorry, are you going anywhere with this? In case you haven't noticed, I've got places to be." Oh right. There was a point here, how did he lose that?

"RIGHT! That! The army, the Chitauri you have coming. Will it fix anything for you? Will it make it better, be the Polysporin/Band-Aid combo to heal all wounds? Is that what you think will happen, that you do this and you'll forget that you were Thor's brother? That you were Odin's son? I can promise you, those will STICK, and you'll just have the same father, the same brother, but a lot more people will hate you for it. Is that what you're working for here?"

"You're a man of power and influence, Mr Stark. Do you not think it will be easier if one man controlled it all? One man prevented your wars and your petty conflicts over resources?" Loki was pacing, gripping the spear like he wanted to throw it at someone, but that someone wasn't here. Shit, being right should not be so bad.

"You're missing the point! There's no throne, there is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us but it's all on you. And daddy still won't love you, that's for sure."

And suddenly, Loki's right in front of him, no longer pacing from the other side of the room, but right in front of him, and the glass is against his back.

"What do you know? What could you possibly know about my life, about why I do this? You are just a common, mortal, man, YOU CAN'T KNOW THIS."

Loki pushes, and the glass creaks in its frame.

"My father didn't speak to me, I wasn't on his radar until I went to MIT, and even then you know what he talked about? Projects. What I could design. What I could make. Not me, never me. I know this, and I know you. Believe you me, you don't corner the market on fucked up fathers, fathers who will see you for what you do for them, not for the fact that you are their son."

Now, the moment of truth. The precipice, the impetus. People can literally die from not being touched affectionately, or so Tony heard once.

He curls one hand, the one not bracing himself against the glass, around Loki's neck. To an onlooker, it would seem romantic, and Tony knows if he were looking on, he'd think something in the R-rating scale. But this? This is just contact, just a touch. Nothing more, not now.

"So, we become just what our fathers wanted us to be, right? We become their weapons –" a flinch there, why does he have to be right, he hates it so much, and is THAT a new feeling "–and we do exactly what they'd expect us to do. I make an armory for the entire fucking world, and you try to destroy whatever you can get your sights on, and we do it to say, yep, we fucking did it, just what you wanted."

The hand on his chest has loosened, and the glass is no longer anywhere near the danger zone of breaking. Good, this is progress, moving toward something here. Tony takes another breath, ready to make some case for good (whatever that is), but Loki beats him to the punch.

"I was my father's stolen relic, something from another world that he took for his own. This is what that leads to; this is what my father's actions have brought about. I do not wish to be a relic, but that is what I am. However. However, you do not seem like your father's creation to me. You seem very far removed from that." A huff of what might be laughter follows that, and now it's up to Tony to bring it all home.

"Well, an Afghani holiday and a couple of near death experiences later, I got a new perspective. I don't have to be what Howard wanted. Hell, I don't have to be anything. Neither do you. You can call this all off, and if you wanna leave, I won't stop you."

"The Chitauri are coming, nothing can stop that, not even me. It's been pushed too far, and they have too much power. Even if I thought you right, even if I wanted…to try a new perspective. They will come. That is inevitable." Loki's grip had relaxed even further, and now they were just standing there, still connected by a little bit of touch, but no threat present, not even in the slightest.

"Okay, but you know the Chitauri. You know what they're weaknesses are. If you wanted to help us–and I'm not saying you are–but if you were. Thor is in your back pocket, and you got me in your corner. If you tell us what to do, how to target them, how to get rid of it…new start. Guaranteed. You can do whatever the fuck you want."

The look Loki was giving him was more than suspicious, more than contemplative. It was the look of a man about to go batshit on someone, and checking to see if there was someone else there. It was fucking Thelma looking at Louise. And Tony knew he had him, had him hooked. Being right can suck SO MUCH.

"Alright. I can tell you what I know, but do not mistake this for complacency, or for an alliance. A temporary truce is what I will offer you, for I am about as fond of the Chitauri as you are. After this is done, after I have the Tesseract–and I will–then we will talk more. We will decide what exactly has happened here."

"Deal."

Being right sucked, Tony never wanted to be this right. Shit, he's gonna have to talk to Fury. Barton's gonna kill him. But first, they have a party to attend.