AN: This is my way of coping with Infinity War I guess: A fic that takes place long before those traumatic happenings. Loki is supposedly dead after Thor the Dark World, but in reality restoring his magic on Earth - among other things; Bruce lives in Stark Tower and Pepper forces Tony to take some responsibility of the damage caused by their green friend.

Loki wanted to kick himself when he finally read the email with the meeting details. A few minutes earlier, goddamit, and he would have been able to call in sick or had an accident at the last minute. As it was, he had already parked in front of Deansel Enterprise headquarters and nothing short of destroying at least seven cameras and strangling a few people who had seen him could save the situation. Tapping at the steering wheel, he clenched his teeth.

But had he really been seen? Cameras recorded his car, yes, and people might have glanced at him, his dark hair and pale skin.

Sighing, he reached for his cell phone and dialled his boss. He liked this job. It was not overly demanding, but to his surprise it did manage to keep him on his toes. Not to mention that to see humans' interactions with each other, their struggles and petty arguments was entertaining.

"Raughan speaking."

"Hello, Simon," he made himself sound a bit hoarse and definitely tired. "I'm sorry to call you only now, but I can't attend this meeting, something... something came up and..."

"Is everything alright with you? Is Anthony OK?"

Loki was touched not to hear any duplicity in the man's voice. He almost felt a tiny, tiny spark of guilt for lying. Almost.

"Well, I- ah, it's not that bad, I'll explain later... I got you a replacement." His briefcase changed into an elegant black bag.

"Oh, Luke, you needn't have done that! Truth be told, this meeting doesn't require a translator, I just wanted to have you here, because you're so good at negotiations, you always seem to know when someone is bluffing and what you should say..."

"I'm sure my sister will do everything in her power to help you strike a good deal, she's-" he pretended to catch himself, sighing audibly. "Well, she's not particularly nice, but I daresay we're equally talented in the negotiating area. She should be arriving any moment now."

When Simon saw a tall woman exiting Luke's familiar green Ford, he almost dropped his phone. The black-haired beauty crossed the few meters to the entrance in quick graceful strides, opened the heavy glass door with absolute ease and passed him without a word, heels clicking loudly on the marble floor. Then she stopped in her tracks and turned her head sharply. Black locks bounced like in a shampoo advertisement, but that line of thought was quickly cut off by two green eyes boring into him.

"Mr. Raughan? Lucinda Winter, Luke's sister, I am to help you skin Stark Industries."

He was losing his touch and running out of his luck it seemed, because he certainly hadn't predicted having to present his offer to Iron Man himself. An offer of installing new windows and some furniture in Stark Tower, no less. Granted, Pepper Potts did most of the talking and Tony looked none too happy to be there, throwing only a few scornful comments of how much Roughan would have to pay if his workers did an awful job.

"The reason for why we are looking for a small company like you is that we wish for-"

"Discretion. Of course," Loki cut Pepper off with a slight smile of understanding and a bit of sympathy. "We are an independent organization, have no profits from the government and no obligations towards anybody except our clients. Our only advertisement is a job well done and private recommendations."

He did everything in his power to avoid Stark's stare without being too obvious. The man narrowed his eyes every time Loki spoke out; it was as though he recognized the voice despite the disguise.

"Excellent." Pepper also picked up on Tony's sudden interest and wanted to finish the negotiations as quickly as possible. Thanks to that Roughan managed to get quite a nice price in the contract and the meeting didn't stretch on too long.

Loki tried to slip out as quick and discreetly as possible without looking like a chased rabbit, but his boss managed to catch him.

"Miss Lucinda!" Roughan hurried to open the door for him and to his chagrin followed to his car. "I would like to really uh, thank-"

"Of course, but I must be going-"

"But I insist! This contract is truly a victory to be-"

"I have pressed charges against my previous boss - sexual harassment," He made sure to look pointedly at Roughan's hand hovering around his back in a protective gesture, and the man dropped it hurriedly. "-and I guess my being late to the court could be explained as a trauma and all, but I am not used to playing a victim, mister Roughan, I want to crush him," he declared coldly and that seemed to finally scare his boss off. It felt good to be nasty once in a while.

"Oh, um, well, good luck then."

Only when he had parked his car, back in his male form, did he dare to let out his emotions. His body shivered with adrenaline, excitement and fear. A question he had dared not ask himself rang out clearly in his head.

What would have happened if Stark had recognised him?

He would have to abandon Anthony. He would have to fight and run, deceive and laugh. All alone, again. Damn, did he need to get more careful...

His dark musings were cut short by the car's door being opened and a pair of small arms wrapping around his neck.

"Daddy! You're just in time for lunch!"

The angle was awkward at best, but he smiled anyway.

"Hey, Anthony."

On the other hand, he would pay millions of dollars to see Iron Man's face if he had walked into that room in his male form.

Let's us stay in the happy times.