It was probably the hottest summer New York had ever seen.
Everywhere people were complaining about how hot it was outside, how everyone was sweating beyond reasonable, how everyone had become stupid and annoying.
To add to that there was also the fact that now New York was experiencing the worst blackout in living memory. Everyone's thoughts had gone to what had happened in California with the ruthless games Enron had played to gamble with the energy market, but this time that wasn't the case: everyone had turned the air conditioning on to fight the suffocating heat of the summer, the system was overloaded and it had simply stopped working.
No one knew when it would've started working again, so for now they were doomed to endure that suffocating heat.
For the Avengers there was a simple solution to that; even if the Stark Tower had been affected by the blackout too, it was reasonable to think its owner had found a remedy to that, probably willingly forgetting to fix their apartments too.
That was why all of the Avengers met on the stairs to Stark's loft – the elevator didn't work either – to demand a solution to their problem, or at least hospitality in the refreshed rooms.
"You think Tony is purposely ignoring the fact that it's awfully hot in here?" Bruce asked the others, panting to reach their destination up the stairs.
"I don't have any doubt," Natasha snorted before opening the door.
They were met by the same suffocating heat that had kicked them out of their own apartments.
"Stark?" Steve called him.
Knowing him they could tell it was rather strange the inventor hadn't already found a solution since as soon as a technological problem occurred he had already started fixing it, and since they knew he was home the only explanation possible was that he was either dead or close to be.
"Hey, Stark!" It was Thor's turn to call their friend, but since they received no answer they silently decided to venture further inside the apartment; maybe the heat had played Tony some trick, it was better to check on him.
When they reached the spacious living room they all stopped dead in their tracks.
What they saw on the leather sofa made them entertain the idea of being hallucinating.
Tony was sprawled on the sofa, but he wasn't alone. Holding him close there was the God of Mischief.
A very blue God of Mischief.
"L-Loki?" Thor stuttered, not much for the surprise of finding him there – they all knew those two had a sort of a fling — but of his colour.
"Hi, brother," he casually greeted him while Stark waved at them.
"W-What are you doing?"
There was no explanation coming to Thor's mind; Loki hated his jotun form, when he had discovered his true heritage his reaction ha been going mad and trying to destroy his native planet, but now he was easily showing himself to them in that shape.
"Stopping your mortal friend whinging."
"His mortal friend? I thought I was your mortal friend," Stark recriminated, but he was way too comfortable to sound convincing.
"You're the mortal I sometimes sleep with."
Despite his words they could all see the affectionate gestures with which he was refreshing his human; when they had entered they had seen the way he was nuzzling Tony's neck, how his cold fingers were absentmindedly caressing his side.
"Oh right, I forgot," Tony didn't even make an attempt at getting up to talk to his friends in a proper way, "What are you doing here?"
"We may ask the same thing."
"No, Rogers, you can't: this's my house, you're the ones who sneaked in."
"The air conditioning is off," Natasha stepped in to try to end that as soon as possible; the blue version of Loki was even more distressing than the normal one, and she wanted Bruce out of there.
"I know."
"Can you fix it?"
"Actually, no. But i've found my solution. Go look for yours," he grinned and adjusted against Loki's side; they had switched positions this time, both being more comfortable like that, with Loki hugging Tony from behind.
"Seriously? You're simply gonna sit there?"
"Well, yes," Tony shrugged.
"But there's a blackout," Steve complained.
"You don't pay rent here, I'm not your landlord, so I don't have to do anything. Bye," he sipped the beer Loki had conveniently been keeping cold with his right hand.
Natasha was the first one to understand they would've got nothing out of that, so she decided to take Bruce out of there before Tony started being even more annoying; those two had a good relationship, but the suffocating heat of the last days had already been exasperating Bruce, and she didn't want to let things pile up.
Steve and Thor remained though, the first one as a matter of principle, the latter to better understand what was going through his brother's troubled mind.
"Aren't you burning him?' Thor asked approaching his brother, just to check Stark's skin; he remembered that time on Jotunheim when one of the Frost Giants had touched one of his best friends who had then spent several days in the hospital wing, waiting for the skin of his forearm to heal. Tony didn't seem affected at all by the unusual coldness of Loki's skin though, his eyes were half closed as he enjoyed Loki's fresh presence.
"I can control my body temperature if I want to,° Loki explained briefly, not really wanting to discuss the matter at length with him; Tony had worked hard for months to convince him to show him his jotun form, to convince Loki that there was nothing bad in that, not in his eyes at least. For Tony that was just one of the other marvellous things Loki could do, fascinating and not disgusting at all, as Loki thought at first.
°Could you keep me fresh too then?" Thor asked with a hopeful smile.
°Are you serious?" Loki got up from his slouched position, making Tony grunt.
°Thanks, Point Break."
"Why not? You're doing it for Stark."
"That's entirely different," he pointed out.
°Why?"
"Let me answer with the first thing that comes to my mind. Let's see: firstly, he doesn't shiver in disgust when I'm in this form," he growled.
"Lokes, relax," Tony put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
Unexpectedly, it worked.
The other two men in the room would've. Expected Stark to lose a hand for that, but Loki's crimson eyes stopped looking like two hot embers; he simply kept on staring at Thor with a withering glare.
"Wow," Steve commented, "I didn't know your relationship was so… strong."
"What relationship?" Loki asked.
"Don't worry," Tony simply shushed him, "Why don't you go back to your apartments? Just to say."
"It's too hot in there," Steve complained.
"So is in here. Go away."
"In Asgard they'd never believe this," Thor commented with a hint of wonder in his voice, and Tony took his face in his hands; Loki would have killed them all, "We could show them, though, they'd understand that…"
"What?" Loki angrily cut him off getting up to face him, "That jotuns aren't monsters? That you could use a race you have despised for centuries for a purpose? That you managed to tame me?"
"Hey, you're my domesticated jotun," Tony physically put himself between the two siblings, "Your brother'll have to find another."
"I'm not your domesticated jotun," Loki protested, but there was nothing of the dangerous edge in his tone that was present when he had addressed Thor.
"Okay, fine, you're my repeated one night stand. Happy now?"
"Not completely," with his chin he pointed at the two blond men who were staring at them, glad to be still alive after Loki's outburst.
"You've heard what Papa Smurf said," Tony pushed them toward the door from which they had come just a few minutes before.
"We're your friends, you should listen to us," Steve complained again.
"Since I'd like to score tonight, no, I don't."
"That's my brother you're talking about!"
"And he's perfectly fine with me, while he'd prefer to get out in this awful sun than being in the same room you're in," before they could add another word to that useless conversation he closed the door on their faces, "So, were were we?"
When he turned around Loki had shed of all his clothes with just the snap of his fingers and was smirking.