It started with the Doombots incident.
Well, not necessarily. It started a long time before that – maybe when Loki first tried to conquer the earth, or when he fell off the Bifrost, or even when he was first taken from his home by a foreign king. But for Tony Stark, it all started with the Doombots incident.
Loki had only just become a tentative (Clint was still holding out) ally of Avengers when Doom decided that now that New York had seemingly lost its resident magical villain, it needed a new one. Of course, the god of mischief hadn't taken too well to someone trespassing in what he considered his personal territory, and what should have been a battle between the Avengers and Doom and his creations had turned into a perfect chance for Loki to antagonise a person he hadn't gotten along well with even before he had changed sides.
Tony liked knowing how things worked. It was a fact that practically the entire world knew about him – but regardless of that, he couldn't help but feel a shiver run down his spine as he saw Loki's magic truly unleashed. No matter how much he had tried, studying both Mjölnir and Loki himself, he had not been able to figure out how magic worked.
Seeing Loki in action, however, it didn't matter. As the Doombots turned what seemed to be every form of candy under the sun, the little boy inside of him that had once believed in magic almost shrieked in delight.
He might not have understood exactly how magic worked, but in that moment, he realised that it didn't matter.
It was a surprising realisation, to know that he still found some beauty in the unknown – at least enough that for the first time in the last two decades, he didn't feel compelled to thoroughly solve a mystery and strip it to its core. But with that knowledge came an entirely different set of problems.
He wasn't interested in finding out the fundamentals of magic anymore – but at the same time, he wanted nothing more than to see more. And not just what he could get Loki to perform under the guise of science – he wanted to see things like what he had seen Loki do to the Doombots.
He wanted his inner child fed.
Being Tony Stark, there was no chance that he was actually going to admit everything that was going through his head to anyone, let alone Loki, who he still didn't trust as far as he could throw him without wearing the suit. Unfortunately, Loki wasn't the god of mischief for nothing – as he had told them once, a few days ago, having that as his domain meant that he had to be perfect at understanding the emotions of most sentient living beings.
It took him a few days, but eventually, Tony caught on to way that Loki had taken to staring at him. He couldn't help but relate it to the way he had looked when he had realised that the arc reactor prevented him from taking control of Tony's mind – and if he were being honest with himself, that look was more than a little hot, if also the same levels of creepy at the same time.
Thankfully, Loki didn't seem inclined to try and kill him this time, so Tony forced himself to bear the looks without asking the god about them. Loki was far too much like himself for him not to realise the fact that he would reveal his thoughts when he wanted to, and not a moment before that.
For once, Loki seemed inclined to let people – Tony – in on his thought process easily enough. It was a good thing for the inventor's curiosity, but at the same time, when Loki first approached him, a slight smirk on his face, he was well aware that the exchange could go either way.
Loki, however, didn't say anything. Instead, he reached out and touched Tony's sleeve, taking him with him in a swirl of magic as they both vanished from the portion of the tower they had been standing in.
"As dramatic as always, I see," Tony murmured as soon as they reappeared, raising an eyebrow in the only expression of surprise he allowed himself as he took in the fact that Loki had teleported them to his bedroom.
The bedroom that he had protected so well that not even Natasha had been able to infiltrate it.
He knew he should be annoyed, but instead, he simply found himself all the more intrigued. "You know you could have just asked," he said lasciviously, wandering over to his bed. "We both know I wouldn't have turned down an offer from you."
Loki simply threw him an irritated look, deciding not to deign him words with an answer. "I should have known that even you would stop thinking with you brain as soon as we entered your chambers, Stark."
"And you love it," Tony replied, completely unruffled by the look the Jotun was throwing him. "Though, if you aren't offering, I'm once again left wondering why exactly we're here. I'd rather you make that offer, though," he added, seemingly as a stray thought.
Loki shook his head, again deciding that Tony's words weren't worth the bother to reply. Instead, he snapped his fingers, filling the room with hundreds of soft toys – at least, they seemed to be soft toys. When Tony attempted to gab on to one, enchanted despite himself, he discovered they were nothing more than an elaborately crafted illusion.
"You intrigue me, Stark," Loki mused, walking around the room and ignoring Tony's pout upon his discovery of the nature of the illusion. "You are perhaps the only person with a desire to know that has the potential to match mine – a surprise to find in a mortal, of all people – but at the same time, you're still enchanted by children's tricks."
"So…you've decided to entertain me?" Tony knew he sounded doubtful, and pissing Loki off was not in his best interests, considering the god seemed content to fulfil his desires when it came to magic, but he knew better than to trust Loki of having such obviously altruistic motives.
"Not at all," Loki replied, confirming Tony's suspicions. "I will fulfil your desires, and in doing so, I will get time to study your responses. I would like to understand you, Anthony Stark, and this is only my method in doing so."
Honestly, even though he should probably have been insulted, Tony felt relieved at that statement. Not only did he get what he wanted, but at the same time, he didn't need to change his view of the world – and of Loki.
"I still don't understand you, Stark," Loki said, sounding utterly disgruntled. "As much as I am loathe to admit, you are perhaps one of the few on this planet who actually have a true brain, and yet I find you fascinated with tricks the youngest child learns on Asgard, whether it is a mage or not."
"It's hard to explain to someone who grew up with magic an integral part of life," Tony whispered, staring, entranced, at the forest that Loki had caused to appear in the middle of his bedroom. He stood as clear of the illusions as he could, unwilling to risk touching and possibly destroying them. "On earth, magic resides only in the imagination of children, and seeing magic in reality after believing that for a couple of decades – I can't possibly describe what a thrill it is."
The god of mischief didn't reply, choosing instead to watch Tony's fascination with his creations. He would never admit it out loud, but seeing his delight with the magic he created was as enchanting as it was perplexing. He would probably never understand how the mortal was thrilled by such easy magic, but at the same time, he couldn't help but find it charming in its own way.
He couldn't remember the last time that anyone had been this entranced by, or interested in his magic, even when he was still young. In truth, he wondered if anyone had ever reacted to it with even part of the wonder that the Midgardian was showing.
So really, he couldn't be blamed if the scene in Stark's room suddenly included a large variety of Midgardian non-predatory forest wildlife. And if the surprised gasp that came from the man made him smile without reservation for a single moment before his mask returned to his face, well, no one had been there to see it.
The second time Loki entered Tony's room, it was because he had not turned up to help the Avengers for the last week, and even though they lived with him, not one of the costumed fools could tell him what was wrong with him. All he had managed to discover was that the man was still inside the tower, which was really more than he had expected for beings as honestly stupid as the rest of Stark's team.
And he had thought that Sif and Warriors Three were bad.
(Well, maybe they still were. At least here Tony was a redeeming factor for his team. The addition of Thor to the already mentioned warriors of Asgard only served to degrade the quality of psyche further.)
He had had many an idea regarding Stark's mysterious disappearance.
None of them were even close.
The last thing he had expected to find after walking into Tony Stark's room was the man himself, shivering under a thick pile of blankets even though it was rather warm in the bedroom.
"Fool," he hissed under his breath. "You could have let someone know about this, you realise that right? And it would definitely have been far safer than trying to deal with this yourself and simply hoping that it wears off before the Hulk's alter ego decides to check up on you.
Tony smiled weakly in reply. "And here I thought you knew me, Loki," he murmured. "That isn't exactly my style, is it?"
Loki growled. It was inaudible to human ears, but it still made him feel better.
He would not have even entertained the thought had it been anyone other than Stark. Even knowing it was Stark, even knowing that the chances of him reacting badly were almost non-existent, he couldn't help but worry. Had it been anyone else, he would have let them die rather than to what he was about to.
But the atmosphere between the two of them had been radically different ever since that first demonstration of magic in the same room in which he was standing. It hadn't been anything obvious enough for the other Avengers to realise, even the spies, but Loki hadn't survived for as long as he had without being the best in the universe. Stark looked at him differently now, with much more softness in his eyes, and – unless Loki had completely lost his ability to read people – the start of an infatuation.
And in return, he had remained intrigued by the inventor. It had been a long time since he had spoken to someone even near his level of knowledge – not since he had become smarter than everyone on Asgard, as far as he could recall. And to find what he had been seeking, however unknowingly, in a mortal was astounding.
He knew that he hadn't been the most convinced at first – tossing him out of the window even after realising that Stark was immune to his brand of mind control, for one – but now that he had realised what he had found, he wasn't about to give it up. Not to aliens, or foolish human-mages, or even the stupidity of Stark himself. No, Stark would live, and give Loki more time to try and understand him.
He closed his eyes and let the one enchantment that always surrounded him fall, letting his true self into the light. As much as he hated himself for it, he opened his eyes tentatively – he didn't want to risk seeing hatred in Stark's eyes, the eyes that had only so recently been gentle and almost trusting.
Of course, he should have known better than to doubt Stark – or the possibilities. The latter almost never lied when he did the calculations, and stark had ever delighted in turning his world on its head.
Loki was accustomed to people shrinking in horror and terror from Jötunn, not them sighing in pleasure and gesturing to a frost giant, trying to get it to come closer. And yet, that was exactly what Stark was in the middle of doing when he opened his eyes.
"Honestly, Loki, if you turn into a personal freezer, you need to come closer," Tony grumbled. "I'm boiling, and you aren't allowed to not share your cold."
"It's part of my body, Stark," Loki remarked in reply, sounding amused. "I decide whether I want to share my body cold with you or not." Nonetheless, he did exactly what Stark was telling him, and mover closer towards the invalid on the bed.
When he voiced that thought, Tony snorted in reply. "I should be annoyed about that, but as long as you come here, lie down next to me, and let me snuggle up to you and let me use you as mu personal air conditioning device, I wont care."
While Loki stared at him in bemusement, Tony weakly held up a finger. "Oh, and never mention to Pepper – or Bruce, Clint or Natasha – that I ever used the word snuggle. Yeah, that should do it," he announced.
The god stared at him doubtfully, but started walking towards him all the same. If there was anything that he had learned in all the time that he had known Tony Stark, regardless of if they had been allies or not, it was that arguing with the man was useless. He would get what he wanted, and not even he could change that.
(And maybe he also wanted to experience the feeling of someone embracing his Jötunn heritage instead of being repelled by it, as he had come to expect since finding out his true history, but that wasn't something he was about to admit, even to himself.)
(He could – and did – however admit that having Stark wrapped around him was a surprisingly pleasant feeling. And to add to his surprise, it wasn't even because there was someone who embraced all of him – it was because it was Stark doing the embracing.
In that moment, he knew that he wasn't about to let the other man go. And if he had any problem with that, well, they weren't Loki's concern.)
Anyone passing by the room would probably have thought that someone was bring tortured to death inside, but there was no way that Tony was going to be able to control himself anytime soon.
"I can't believe it," he wheezed out between laughs. "I had wondered if that was true, but I knew that Thor was never going to answer that question."
"Yes, well, you probably should have come to ask me first," Loki replied smugly, waving his hands and making the figures dance in the air.
Tony tried to shoot back a reply, but watching Thor dance with a rather large frost giant, all the while dressed as rather terrible looking woman, was a bit too much for him. He helplessly broke into peals of laughter once again, and was able to only weakly gasp out, "Thor – female – how?"
Somehow, Loki managed to understand what he meant, and the smirk on his face only deepened.
(Really, the mad god knew him better than possibly even Pepper, and that should have been terrifying, or at least sufficiently creepy. It should not have been arousing, especially not when considering who the figure causing said arousal was. But Tony had never been one to make things easy for anyone, himself or the world, and those feelings of arousal towards Loki had been growing not only in frequency and duration, but also in terms of what exactly he was attracted to.
Perhaps asking Loki to act as his personal air conditioner had been a bad idea – that was the moment he could pinpoint as the start of his interest in the god – but Tony had the monopoly on turning bad ideas into the best possible ones in the Tower, and he couldn't feel regret when Loki was looking as sexy as he was at that moment.)
"The same way you are seeing one of Thor's most humiliating moments come to life, of course – magic. I thought you called yourself a genius, Anthony?" he inquired lightly.
Had it been any other time, Tony would probably have replied snarkily. But laughing for what felt like days sapped some of his sarcasm. "It's Thor in a dress," he replied instead after he managed to calm himself down. "You can't really blame me on this one."
"That is true," Loki conceded after a few moments of thought. "I wasn't the best at controlling myself when I first saw him in that dress either – trust me, despite the fact that Thrym was dumber than Thor is, controlling my laughter enough to fool him was perhaps one of the most difficult challenges I've ever had to face."
"I have to admit," Tony confessed, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, "That I didn't really think that that story had any truth in it, let alone that it was all fact, ever since Thor confirmed for us that the only child you ever had was Hela."
That was enough to fix a dark frown on Loki's face. "Yes, that is something that I feel the need to correct," he mused. "How the fools in this realm got it into their heads that I ever had a child by a horse, I do not wish to know, but if anyone repeats that tale once more in my earshot, I will not be held responsible for my actions."
"Somehow, I doubt that anyone would be able to blame you if you did snap over that," Tony agreed comfortingly, trying to ignore what that expression on the god's face did to him, "Still, since you're supposed to be an ally of the Avengers now, let's try and keep the death and destruction to a minimum, shall we?"
The dark look on Loki's face did not vanish at Tony's words like he had hoped it would, and suddenly, he couldn't control himself. It was no doubt an awful idea, and if anyone had had any idea of what he was planning on doing, they would have locked him up until they found a way to change his mind. Still, as far as he was concerned, kissing Loki was the thing he wanted most at the moment – and something that he had resisted doing for far too long, longer than he was used to denying himself.
He really didn't see any reason to continue doing that any longer, and he doubted most people would blame him if they could see the way he looked at that moment.
(Not that he was willing to let them see it. No, when it came to Loki, Tony found himself feeling oddly possessive in a way he had never felt about anyone before, not even Pepper during their ill-fated romantic relationship.)
No, Tony wasn't willing to let anyone dictate what he was going to do about Loki anymore.
Loki continued to look dark and thoughtful, as though he was going through plans of how to destroy all information about him in Norse mythology that wasn't true from the face of the earth. He tended to turn a blind eye to the world when he got into that mood – unless, of course, there was some actual danger that he was facing – and he didn't notice Tony stepping towards him, a determined look in his eye.
It took Tony's lips on his to break him out of his thoughts, his eyes snapping open in shock at the sudden sensation. Had it been anyone else, perhaps it would have taken them a few moments to gather their thoughts. But this was Loki, and as soon as he realised what was happening, he returned the kiss with a gentleness even he hadn't known he possessed.
"So, I assume this means you're open for a date?" Tony asked as he pulled away from the kiss. Despite the fact that both of them obviously disliked being separated, being the mortal one meant that breathing was still a necessity for him.
"I don't know, Stark, do you plan on making it worth my while?" Loki shot back. Just because the man had managed to catch him off guard with the kiss didn't mean that he planned on making anything easy for him.
But Tony was Tony and he just laughed before diving in for another kiss.
(And if that was when Loki realised exactly why he wasn't about to let Stark go anywhere – well, he wasn't about to mention how long it took him to come up with such a simple answer.
No self-respecting god of mischief was about to let anyone have that much ammunition against him.)
The next time Doombots attacked New York Loki decided that he needed to one up himself.
Turning them into fireworks was rather impressive in itself, especially as they all seemed to differ from one another. That was definitely not a small feat considering that there seemed to be about a thousand of the magically driven robots.
As Steve would say days later as he berated Loki, their transformation was impressive enough. Actually setting them all ablaze was really not necessary, especially not right in the middle of the city.
But he didn't really care if SHIELD got a Doombot to study or not, and he'd already transported a few away to Tony's lab so that he wouldn't pout later.
And as the sky filled with colours, Tony threw him a delighted look that he secreted away into the most secure corners of his mind. The good Captain America could disagree as much as wanted – somehow, he doubted that the fireworks show he had started was going to the last time he used his powers in such a flamboyant manner.
It didn't matter to him. No matter what the good Captain or the rest of SHIELD had to say, there was absolutely no chance that he was about to regret it anytime soon.
After all, they could try all they wanted, but they would never be able to give him what Tony promised him in a whisper as the first fireworks burst in the sky.
(Truth be told, he wouldn't really want them to.
There were some images that were too much even for gods. No, in this situation, concentrating on Tony's promises was really the best idea.)
A/N: I hope you guys liked it! As always, please don't forget to drop a review on your way out :)