"Come on," Tony smiled, looking up at the taller man who stood by his side, admiring the view of New York, "You can tell me."
"What?" Loki pouted, "So you can make fun of me?"
"Well... only if it's hilarious."
Loki gave him a punch that wasn't light enough to be a joke but wasn't hard enough to be serious.
"Come on!" Tony muttered, gingerly rubbing his arm, "You can tell me! Look, I'll go first. My first proper grown-up tongues-n-all kiss was with this cheerleader named Samantha. We were 15. She was smoking hot... probably too hot because I came in my pants about half-way through our make-out session. It was under the bleachers - ha! I'm officially a cliche."
Tony laughed, breaking off his reminiscences and looking at Loki expectantly.
A moment or two of silence. Loki flicked dirt out from under his nails.
"Why do you want to know?" he sighed eventually, looking at Tony from beneath those Bambi-lashes of his.
"Because... well it's what couples do – talk about stuff like this. The embarrassing stuff, the sexy stuff, the painful stuff. It shows that they trust each other..."
Tony pretended not to notice Loki's back straighten at the word 'trust.'
"It's just us here," Tony smiled gently, "come on Lokes, who was your first kiss?"
Loki looked down at his nails again, "It," he said, quietly, "was a long time ago Stark. He was a stable boy – Yvain. He had... the most beautiful eyes. He was older than me. Strong. Broad... very kind..." Loki sighed heavily, "I made a true fool of myself. I gave him everything."
Tony eyebrows rose in amusement, "Everything? As in bum-chukka-wow-wowww...?"
"I assume that's a reference to carnality. Yes, Stark, we had sex. Right there, in the stable."
Tony chuckled with what could only be described as glee, "The stable? Loki, you bad boy!"
Loki allowed himself the smallest of smiles.
"I think sex in the stable beats under-the-bleachers jizz-pants," Tony laughed, "you win, Loki."
"I didn't know it was a contest."
Tony reached across to put his arm around Loki's waist, burying his face in the god's side, "Lokes?" he said after a heavy moment, voice muffled by the fabric of Loki's shirt.
"Mm?"
"Why are you sad?"
Loki sighed, and Tony could hear the echo of his breath through his torso, "Because it ended badly. And quickly."
"With the stable-boy?" Tony drew back a little and looked up at Loki's face, "What happened?"
Loki shook his head sadly, "Yvain was executed."
"WHAT?!"
"My father... Odin... heard of our romance. Yvain was a stable boy Stark, he shouldn't even have been looking me in the eye, let alone fucking me. He... Odin..."
"You don't have to say," Tony turned Loki to him, pulled him down to his (shorter) level, placed a kiss on his lips, "babe, if you don't want to say, you don't have to. Really."
Loki sighed and shook his head, "He... he made me attend the execution. My portion of the punishment, I suspect, for making him lose our best stable boy."
Tony trembled. He didn't know why. Maybe it was rage, or sorrow, or pity for the man who'd lost his life for loving a prince – just like Tony loved that prince now. Was it fear? Was he scared of Odin doing the same to him?
"I should not have told you," Loki sighed.
"No," Tony shook his head, "I'm glad you did, babe."
Loki looked at him, confused, "Why?"
"Because it meant something to you. Because he – Yvain – is a piece of your heart that I can understand a little better. Because it goes some way to showing me just how many pieces your poor beautiful heart had been broken into..."
Loki said nothing, eyes cast down.
"This isn't pity," Tony assured him. (At least, Tony didn't think it was pity.) "It's just love – sadness for your sadness. Sadness shared and better coped with - just between us."
Loki smiled sadly, "Just between us," he said, and pulled Tony into a surprisingly large hug.