"This is not what I wanted!" Tony shouts, hysteria laced into every syllable of his words. "You know this is not what I meant!" Brown eyes glare at him, the color plain on anyone else yet on him, full of fire. Crackling.
"You should have been more specific then," Loki says without a hint of remorse. "Your fate has been weaved and determined. You will be happy, Tony Stark, until the end of your time. And" - Loki appears in front of Tony in a flash and cradles his jaws in his hand before the mortal can react - "you will be mine."
Xxx
Once upon a time, there was a lonely prince. He was surrounded by people, but he didn't belong. Somehow, no matter how hard he tried, there was always something that wasn't right about him: his magic, his lean stature, his preference for 'trickery', and even when he attempted to help, still that wasn't right.
Xxx
Tony slaps his hand away, and Loki lets him. "Don't fuck with me!" he hisses. "Happy? How does you leading invading aliens to New York make me happy, Liesmith?"
"If you so intend to make me the Liesmith and you the Truthspeaker, then answer me," Loki says, eyes focus on the mortal standing before him. His mortal. "Are you not happy now, associated with a band of superhero" - Loki sneers - "and living with the Avengers in this very tower?"
Tony freezes, an answer in itself.
Loki smiles, not exactly kind. "I thought so."
Xxx
Once upon a time, there also lived a boy. A lonely sad boy whose mother and father ignored his existence. The only time the boy's existence was relevant was when the father expected something from him and when he didn't meet his expectations. How come you can't do this right, it's simple stuff. How are you going to inherit my company?
"You're no son of mine!"
Xxx
"Y -" Loki watches his mortal's Adam's apple bobs as he attempts to speak. "You can't tell me that you invaded Earth for me ," he says, his eyes and tone disbelieving.
"Oh," Loki purrs, leaning close to the mortal and he doesn't even back away, intent as he is for Loki's answer. "But I did."
Blood rushes away from Tony's face, leaving him ghastly pale. He looks sick. "All those death…"
"For you," Loki confirms with the nod of his head. "It seems like even when you dropped your epithet, it follows everywhere you go, Merchant of Death." His lips curl. "As fitting of the soulmate of the God of Chaos."
Xxx
One day by chance, the two that were from different worlds came across each other.
"You've come quite far in your dreams, little boy," the prince called out, startling the boy into jumping. He chuckled. "What do you want?"
The boy whirled around, blurting, "I don't want anything!" out of impulse more than actual truth. Still he looked at his surrounding, awed and bemused at once.
"Lie," the prince declared. "Everyone wants something. The question is, what do you want."
"I…" The boy gazed down at his feet, deep in thought, before looking up abruptly. "Wait! If everyone wants something, then what do you want?"
The prince stared at him for a moment, before chuckling. "Me?" the prince said and the boy nodded rapidly. "I want" a father's love, a brother's approval "a companion." The prince glanced at the boy and suggested half-mockingly, "Should we make a trade? Your companionship for candies? Toys? Money?"
The boy wrinkled his nose. "I don't want anything of that. I have them already. You can't trick me!" he said. "I want…" His chest was puffed comically in triumph as he came upon the answer. "I want to be happy!"
The prince's eyes widened.
"Ha! You can't do that, can you?" the boy said. "I win!"
"Improbable, but not impossible," the prince said, looking over the boy with new insight now. He could prove to be interesting, the prince thought. He stood, towering over the boy, and walked over to him. "Is that the contract? In return for your companionship, I will ensure your happiness."
"But you can't..."
The prince smiled, sly, sharp, devious, and mischievous at once, and pressed a finger to the boy's lips. "Just answer. Are those the terms?"
The boy hesitated for a second, suspecting some sort of trickery, but nodded anyway. "Yeah, but it's not like you can do it -"
"Done," the prince uttered after withdrawing from the boy's lips. He looked utterly befuddled. "And I believe it's time for you to wake."
"But -" The boy winked out of sight.
"Happiness," the prince muttered thoughtfully. "Let's see what fate has in store for you." Loki waved his arm and shining strings materialized from thin air, some of which were now newly connected to him. "Tony Stark, is it?"
Xxx
"But you being in my life doesn't make me happy, so ha!" Tony says the next time they meet. "So beat that!"
"You will be happy, Tony."
"Bullshit," Tony says, but Loki isn't done.
"That's fate's will, Tony, or rather my will," Loki says. "While I was in solitary confinement for yet another fault my father and brother find of me" - Loki make father and brother sound like a curse - "I weaved. I, with your blessing and our contract, weaved your fate with mine. You can't live without me, Tony, nor can you live without happiness."
"Impossible," Tony says, shaking his head in denial. He has heard the unmistakable certainty in Loki's voice, but he isn't Tony Stark if he doesn't fight. "For one, fate is not science and I don't believe in that shit. For another, even if fate is a thing, it's impossible for you - for anyone - to guarantee happiness."
"Then try it," Loki challenges. "How do you want to ruin your life? Or should I do it for you? Who should I kill? The good captain? The mortal woman who runs your company?" he asks, intercepting the Iron Man gauntlet just before it fitted around the mortal's hand. He reached out and grasped Tony by the wrist, reveling in his small gasp. "It's no used, Tony," he croons, planting a kiss to his mortal's fingertips. "You will grieve and wallow in misery after their deaths and you will hate me, but I will appear in your life time after time, and eventually you will be glad for my presence, will look forward to meeting me again. Then, while hating yourself for liking me, for caring and spending time with me" - Tony's heart thud against his throat as Loki leans forward, their eyes meeting as he finishes with a flourish - "you will be happy."
A/N: This is the result of thinking too much about fate and happiness. Children are always asked about what they want to be when they grow up and I remember reading an instance where someone cleverly answers "I want to be happy," which is the most simple yet profound answer. Literally nothing could go wrong with this answer, I thought. Thought being past tense, of course.
And here's where this fic comes into play. You think about all the tragedies that could occur. They do occur, but you come out with a smile. Triumph, you would think, except this happiness is not something you can control. You will be happy whether you want to or not, and in a way, is that not the most wretched thing? To have the one thing that everyone strive for in the way you want the least. Then that, of course, reminds me of Loki because of course Loki will find a way to twist such a simple "I want to be happy" into something horrifying.
I'm not actually sure if Loki can manipulate someone's fate, but I heard somewhere that Frigga can. Let's just pretend that manipulating someone's fate is high-level magic that Loki learned from Frigga, and the only reason that Loki can influence Tony's is because Tony gave him permission via their contract.