Hello, dears!

Just following my tradition of adapting movie endings to my stupid OTPs

Disclaimer: I don´t own any of the characters portrayed in this story

Pour your sweet poison into my ear

The first time it happens is just a few weeks after the surgery, and he gets so worked up he entertains the possibility of needing a second one.

He's been living at the tower because he wanted to be in on whatever was going on while the house was being rebuilt. Besides, Bruce comes in every now and then and he likes spending time with the guy.

Whatever, he's just walked into the penthouse and ho-fucking-ho, there's a Norse god in his couch. And not the loud, cheery, lovable one, that's apparently too good to happen to him.

"What are you doing here?"

Loki looks up from studying the fireplace and frowns.

"Excuse me?" He asks because of course the genocidal, prisoner alien is the one that gets to be confused.

"You heard me. Why are you not in some cell at Asgard and how did you get here?"

"Oh, that..." Loki's frown morphs into a smirk and Tony wishes he had fucking done what he had to and finished the new version of the suit. Whatever, Jarvis must have called the others already. "The throne got boring. I had a sudden urge to take a stroll."

"And you strolled to another planet, right... Did you just say 'the throne'?"

"I did. I rule in Asgard now." Loki confirms with a pleased smile. Tony knows it's a mistake, with the murderous god just a few feet away and whatnot, but he can't help the laugh that erupts past his lips.

"Fuck, what did they do to you? Lobotomy?" He asks when he's gotten it under control.

Loki's smile prevails, although his eyes narrow a bit at the mockery.

"You are as blind as them."

"Whatever, how did you get here?"

"Who says I'm here?"

"Oh no, no. You're not playing mind games with me." He counters. "Why would I ever hallucinate you?

"I do not presume to know how your twisted mind works"

"That's a lazy ass attempt and you know it. Even if I'm imagining you, why would I imagine a you that genuinely believes he's king?" He rolls his eyes and turns to pour himself a drink. "Honestly, try harder next time, and get out of my tower."

He turns again, but there's no one there.

"... Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Where are the others?"

"Mr. Odinson is currently having lunch, Mr. Barton is at target practice, and Dr. Banner is running some tests at Lab A." The computer answers dutifully, and Tony frowns.

"Didn't you call them, Jarv?" Like really, Loki could have killed him and they wouldn't have found out until someone found his corpse.

This time the answer takes a bit longer to come, like Jarvis is having a hard time processing the question.

"Should I have, sir? My apologies."

"Show me the security tapes from the moment I entered the room."

"Right away, sir."

The flat screen turns on by itself and Tony wants to chuck the glass at it when he sees himself walking in and standing there, talking to no one until he addresses Jarvis.

He rubs a hand over his eyes and attributes it to the stress.

The second time he almost blasts his hand off, and he turns to the intruder immediately with his weapon ready.

Loki doesn't move from the position he saw him reflected in on the glass wall, his arms behind his back and an uninterested eyebrow arched.

"Whatever game it is you're playing, it's over." Is all he says before he shoots.

He doesn't even bat an eyelash when the blast goes through him and tears a chunk of plaster off the wall.

"Unnecessary." Is all he says.

Tony turns and tries to ignore him, even though he can still see his unmoving reflection.

He looks down to bolt two pieces together, and when he looks up again the glass is empty, as well as the room when he sweeps a look around.

"Hey big guy." He sits next to Thor after their next public appearance, and he must admit he's glad he can attend the dinner in a suit, unlike Thor and Steve who have to wear their armor and uniform respectively to 'keep up with the event's formality'.

"Greetings, Anthony." Thor looks up from the bland excuse of soup they've been served.

"I see you're wearing the horny vambraces again?"

Thor's eyes travel down to his forearms, to the metallic plates engraved with the horned motif.

"Do they offend you? I had worried it might be seen as insensitive, but I felt it would have been dishonorable not to wear them."

Tony shrugs. "Bud, if I got offended every time someone tried to kill me I'd hate too many people to list. It comes with the job, doesn't it?"

"It does. But it's fine, as long as we remain aware that what we do is the right thing."

He smiles and wishes his life were as simple, but he nods anyways. "So? What's the story? I thought you had stopped wearing them when he let out he was a traitorous ass."

Thor's muscles flex immediately, but he seems to get his anger under control, just as his face acquires a saddened tint.

"I did. He did not deserve my mourning." He takes a deep breath. "But my brother died defending me, and his last words were the truest I ever heard him say."

"... What?" Tony repeats, blinking stupidly. Surely he'd have heard about something that big.

"He died?"

Thor nods again, grimly this time.

"His body rests on the barren plains of Svaltarfheim. It is my biggest regret that I could not wait to give him a royal burial." His eyes get deep all of a sudden, like he's a thousand years old, (which he probably is, Tony remembers) as if he's seeing a world galaxies away. "He helped me save my lady, and we avenged our mother together. I fear I would have died myself if it weren't for his actions."

"Whoa... Ehm... Are you sure it wasn't a... You know?" Tony curses his tied tongue as he's forced to swish his hands around to signal the word he just plainly refuses to use.

"His illusions can only sustain a certain amount of damage." He shakes his head. His voice is slow and thick like he's entertained he possibility one too many times. "We made peace in the end, Anthony. In my mind he died a hero, but most of all he died my brother, and I resent his loss."

Tony blinks once slowly, his mind bringing back the memory of one who started friend and father and died enemy, and how it had hurt him, haunted him for years with whether or not he could've done something differently.

"I wish I knew how you feel man. Sorry." He pats Thor's mail-coated arm and turns back to his own cold soup with the questionable relief that he's not in lethal danger, just going a bit crazy.

"Heard you died." He mutters the next time, not even flinching when Loki's misty figure clears on the couch in front of him.

"Did I?"

"Thor's wearing his vambraces again. He must get a lot of shit for that."

"He used to, yes. But he shut up the bolder ones, and I made sure I was remembered with the proper, if somewhat begrudging, respect."

"Still convinced you own the throne?"

Loki rolls his eyes and lets out a sigh bordering on irritated.

"This is the life of a dedicated liar... Whenever I have seen it fit to tell the truth it has been discarded as just another scheme."

"And is it not?"

"That's one truth I keep for myself."

"You're not real."

"I am not. That, however, doesn't mean I don't say the truth." Loki flashes him a white, smug smile.

"I think the fact that it's you speaking what automatically makes everything you say a lie."

"You're very sharp, for a mortal."

"You're very dead, for a god."

Loki smiles again, tight lipped this time, and they stay in silence for a blissful moment.

"Will a therapist get you out of my head?"

The god shrugs. "I doubt it. After all, I'm here because you want me to."

"Oh, trust me, I do not."

"Then why am I here, Stark?" Loki leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees and Tony notices with a shiver that the couch's cushions don't sink under his weight. "Your life is good, is it not? Free of your menace, free to pass along the suit to someone who actually wants to fight and free to stay in your damsel's arms."

"Yeah, thanks for the analys..."

"Is it getting a bit boring?"

"Not at all." Tony answers as fast as he can, which is, obviously, much too fast.

"You miss the thrill. The call of duty that only you and your technology could answer. The excuses it gave you. Now you're just... In a cage.

"Excuse me? I'm not the one trapped in someone's head."

"Ah, but I'm not trapped."

"You said you were a hallucination."

"I say many things. Many truths and many lies and everyone is as dangerous as the last one." This time he disappears gradually, his image dissolves until the only thing left of him are his eyes and his smirk. "I must go. My people need their king."

And he's gone.

He doesn't look for a therapist, it was an empty threat from the start.

But he makes it work.

He never imagines Loki when he's with Peps. Or anyone else, for that matter, and whenever the god does appear, he makes sure to erase the security tapes of his monologuing sessions.

He still finds it a bit puzzling that his mind Loki seems to actually believe he's king. But well, his mind not always does what he wants it to, does it?

"Pareidolia."

"Bless you." He looks up from his crossword at the voice, even though he can't feel so much as a breathing on his neck.

"Your species' penchant for finding a likeness to human faces in inanimate objects. Pareidolia."

"I know what it is. I was trying to solve the mythology related ones first because I need to take a break of Norse lore."

"My feelings are hurt..." Loki moves without a sound to sit on the couch's arm. "Tezcatlipoca, then."

"You just have to suck the fun out of everything, don't you?"

"I find a certain pleasure in it."

"Why do you stalk me?"

"I've told you..."

"Yes, yes, hallucination. Whatever. I want to find out why I keep bringing you here, so you tell me. Why do you come here? Why is Clint not imagining you? You were I'm his head. Why me?"

Loki stays there, staring at him as if he's never wondered this before, and when he eventually looks away Tony feels like he's won something.

"Perhaps I find you pleasing."

"Pleasing? Are you... Is my own ego flirting with me?"

"Does it surprise you?"

"... Not really, no."

The god smirks. "I thought so. You are aesthetically pleasing, and I find you to be a decent company." He pauses. "Or at least you seem to think I do."

"Does it have more to do with you being a part of my ego or with the fact that your getup screams 'not straight' with a megaphone?"

"It's one of the things I never tried to be subtle about."

"So I was right? And did daddy Odin have anything to say with the fact that his baby boy was not exclusively into luscious bosoms and sinful hips?"

"Only that one time when I got caught with one of my guards that had taken to watching me much closer than was the norm." And if the expression on his face is to be taken as a hint, he's not sorry in the least.

"Spicy."

Once he cat is out of the bag Loki loses all semblance of discretion. He sits on the couch's arm an inch away from him, he appears at odd hours and spends his appearances either watching him in an unnerving silence or talking out of his elbows.

Tony manages to ignore it, people get handsy with him all the time and it's not something he's particularly against. The fact that Loki's the one doing it should throw him off, but his constant reminders that he's nothing but a spur of his imagination reassure him. Besides, his conversations are interesting. He gets all sorts of information about (probably fake and idealized) Asgardian culture and technology, and whenever he chooses to participate in the one-sided conversation, the god stops immediately and listens as if he's never heard anything more important.

He has it bad for him, it seems.

Or... He thinks he has it bad for him?

Really, his ego's getting a bit out of control, if he managed to make a mental projection fall in love with him.

Whatever, he mostly ignores the god until he wakes up one night, freezing under two blankets, and finds a sleepy pale face an inch from his.

"Just what the fuck are you doing in my bed?!" He demands, offended and slightly relieved that Pepper is away on a business trip.

"I was lonely, and I knew you were too." He answers, shrugging.

"Is the royal bed too big for you?" He huffs, still angry, and Loki lifts his eyelids to glare back at him.

"I wouldn't taint my mother's bed."

"Too low even for you?" He pushes him, but he weighs a ton. "Get out."

Loki huffs and rolls until his back is facing him. Then he rearranges the covers over himself and stops moving at all.

Tony considers pushing him again, or getting out himself.

In the end, he lies back down, face burning and an intense hatred for himself settling in his stomach. After all, Loki's only here because he was feeling lonely, isn't he?

After that Loki comes every time Pepper can't spend the night with him. He lies on one side of the bed and makes small talk until neither of them can keep up, and he's gone by the time Tony wakes up.

He wakes up because he feels watched. He squeezes Pepper a bit tighter, and looks over the top of her head, squinting in the dark.

Loki's standing next to the bed, just staring.

Their eyes meet, and Loki dissolves in the air without a sound.

"And here I was, thinking I had gotten rid of you for real." Tony smirks when he catches sight of the distorted reflection in the foggy bathroom mirror.

"Sorry to disappoint you?" Loki's voice sounds sarcastic and amused. Also a bit strangled.

Tony's smirk grows wider and he turns to face him with the towel still busy at his hair. The way Loki's eyes drift downwards for a second before he glares up at him and throws him a second towel is simply too good to forget.

It's been two months since the night he came when Pepper was there. He's spent many lonely nights ever since, and he couldn't help but to be a bit annoying at how he was apparently capable of creating hallucinations that were sentient enough to get offended.

"How's the throne?"

"Not as fun as I'd have liked." Loki looks exhausted. Tony wonders if it mirrors how he feels.

"Can you drink something?"

Loki hesitates a bit before answering. "I'm in your mind."

"Then sit with me while I drink, at least."

They sit at the living room, and Tony pours two scotches, just to feel like a proper host.

"I was starting to miss you." He figures there's no harm in saying it, is there? Loki's a part of him, he knows.

"Were you? I figured Miss. Potts' company would be enough for you." Loki smirks.

"It is." He replies, and Loki's smirk falls and his image flickers for a second like an old TV screen.

"But you're not particularly bad. When you're not real anyways."

"Nice of you." Loki mutters, flickering a bit more.

"What's up with the interference?"

Loki shrugs. "I've grown tired of repeating it. It's not me doing it."

He's leaving, Tony realizes. He's said it, Pepper is more than enough for him. He doesn't need this crazy whatever it is to feel accompanied. He's got a life, and he's happy.

"You don't have to go."

"Excuse me?"

"I said you're not bad, didn't I?"

He still vanishes, and Tony's left with the vague, asphyxiating feeling that he's still lonely as fuck, and he hates it.

When he´s able to form a coherent thought, the only thing that comes to his mind is that he´s surprised.

He´s often had nightmares about this, and in those he´s always yelling until his throat rips, tearing the responsible apart limb from limb and unable to be reasoned with.

It´s nothing like that.

They had Steve pull him out of the emergency room, and it was Coulson who gave them the news, his eyes red rimmed and his face pale. And just like that, his mind had shut off. He has no clue how he got to the penthouse, or if he crossed anyone on the way, he only knows Loki´s there the moment he crosses the door.

"Did you hear?"

"I did." And if the God of Mischief, the murderer dressed in gold, the one that haunts his nightmares and fills his silences can look apologetic, he does. "What are you going to do about it?"

"About what? The plane crashed."

Loki´s eyes narrow. "I live off lies, Stark. I know when I hear one."

"Go away." He turns his back on him. It was an accident.

"How long has it been since you took a mission?"

He whips back to face the room but it´s empty, save for him and the echo of the god´s last remark.

If he can say something nice about Loki, it´s that he knows when to hold back.

He comes, and he sits around him in silence. In fact, they don´t talk at all until exactly six weeks after The Incident, and it´s just because he addresses him first.

"How does it feel?"

"What?"

He doesn´t look at him, instead focusing on the broken propeller he´s got to fix.

"Dying."

"Oh."

The silence stretches for so long Tony starts to think he´s not going to answer.

"It´s not the same, you know?"

"Why?"

"I died in battle."

"... So?" He asks through clenched teeth because if he´s going to say something about her death not being honorable or something...

"Mine was... Messy. They ran me through with a sword." Loki starts again. Tony does look at him then, and he can´t help but to imagine that face contorted in agony and fear. "Dying was just... An end to everything." He sigh. "She went out painlessly. Fast. Probably thinking of you."

"You were thinking of Thor."

Loki shrugs. "If you´d like."

"He said you died as his brother."

"He´s still a sentimental fool."

"Then what were you thinking of?"

The god looks away as if he can´t hold his stare, and his exhaustion is even more apparent.

"The home I destroyed."

People tell him he looks good, that they´re glad he managed to get back on his feet in such a short time.

A year without her doesn´t feel like a short time.

Loki´s in his penthouse almost every day, and only after the door closes behind him does Tony allow himself to look as tired as he feels.

"Will you go away if I die?" Tony asks one day, sitting in the empty bathtub and fully aware of how Loki has chosen to stand directly between him and the medicine cabinet.

"When you die." He corrects him. "And I most certainly will."

"I wish you weren´t such a bastard in real life." He mutters. His head is propped on the tub´s edge and he feels much more than just sleepy, like his body will sink through the whole tower until he reaches the ground and buries himself in it. "If you weren´t, I´d even introduce you to Peps once I join you two."

The god doesn´t answer, and they stay there, immobile, as daylight fades gradually. None of them bothers turning on the lights.

Loki sighs, and Tony could swear he sounds disappointed. "You were meant for so much more than this."

"Really?" He wants to be sarcastic, to tease `Real power´ about complimenting lowly human. He´s got no strength for it though. "What was I meant for?"

"Don´t mind me, I´m just musing." Loki moves to take a seat on the closed toilet lid. "It´s sad, to see such potential go to waste. You could´ve seized the world when you lost her, and instead you just lost yourself."

"Seizing the world sounds a bit too villian-y for me, sorry." He mutters back with a hint of his first real smile in months.

"It´s only natural, though. She was your light, your virtue... Your everything." Loki starts again, his voice bitter in more ways than one. "And they took her from you. Just like that. Like she wasn´t the most important thing in your life."

"Who are we talking about again?" He interrupts, because Loki´s driving too close to home, and he´s starting to feel all that anger he´d managed to bottle in the pit of his stomach.

Loki huffs an ugly bark of laughter. "I didn´t have anyone like that."

"But you had something like that, didn´t you? You might not have been the best prince, but you were a prince. An Asgardian. And then they took that from you."

He thinks Loki will get mad. He wants him to. Actually, he wishes he were real so he could throw him out the window again.

He just laughs again, but this time it´s softer.

"Clever mortal. It´s sad you chose to go down this path instead of mine."

"Is it? Look where your path got you."

"My path didn´t get me anywhere. I made it so I got exactly where I wanted to."

He kisses Loki, and he thinks he feels something before his lips go through him and he finds himself alone in the room.

He thinks of Pepper, and spends the rest of the night drinking the shame away.

Loki doesn´t come back after that.

He copes with it.

He´d been alone before, he can be again. The trick is keeping himself busy.

As a result, he ends up being in a ridiculous amount of missions and public appearances. At least he´s accompanied then.

"Is this normal? For your people, I mean." He asks Thor one day. The parade moves on before them.

"This kind of couples, you mean?" Thor takes his eyes off the brightly dressed crowd to look at him. "It´s... Not common, but it´s not regarded in a particularly negative way."

"So your brother..."

Thor´s eyes widen in an almost comical fashion.

"How in the Nine Realms..."

Tony laughs. He hasn't laughed in a while. It feels nice.

"Really, Thor?

The blond laughs and shakes his head, embarrassed. "So it was that obvious."

"Must have been a shocker for you, huh?" He laughs again. "How did you even find out?"

At this Thor´s face reddens like he just got slapped, and he looks much less amused.

"I... What´s the term here?" He muses. "I walked in on him. With one of his guards."

Tony freezes in his spot and he literally feels the blood draining down his face.

"Oh... Awkward." He stammers out and grips the contention bars tighter because he feels he´ll faint if he doesn´t have something to hold to.

"Are you unwell, Anthony? You look a bit pale."

"... I´m fine man."

He´s not surprised in the least when he walks into the penthouse and finds Loki sitting on his couch. He came prepared, and he fixes the gauntlet on him.

"Why?"

Loki doesn´t look up.

"I thought I had been clear."

"You told me you were a fucking hallucination!"

"... It was easier that way." The god looks up at him, and his eyes are empty of apology.

"Is everything real, then?"

His lips curve into a small smile.

"My death wasn´t."

"So you... That nonsense of you being in the throne of Asgard..."

"I told you I said many truths."

"What happened to your father?"

"I killed my Laufey a long time ago."

"Don´t play smart with me!" He shoots a warning shot, and it burns on the wall next to Loki´s head. "Did you kill Odin?"

"It´s easier the second time ago. I had about as much love for him as I had it for Laufey."

"You´re so full of shit..."

Loki shrugs.

"I never lied to you."

"You told me you weren´t real!"

"And I never was, if you didn´t want me to be." He starts blurring at the edges, his eyes still focused on his. "Still... Everything else was just the truth. It wasn´t an accident. And I still hold high hopes for you."

"Go away."

"I will come back if you call."

"Just go."

And he obeys.

Tony stops worrying himself with the `Why didn´t he kill me?´ and the `Is a psychotic alien really in love with me?´ parts because he knows he´ll just break down if he does.

Still, he focuses on investigating the one thing he seemed the more intent on making him believe.

The plane had been perfectly fine.

It hadn´t been an accident.

"You said you´d come back if I called."

His words echo in the empty penthouse even as he looks around, full clad in his suit.

"I advise you to get down here before I calm down and think this over."

There´s a faint smell of something in the air, and he turns around. Loki´s sitting on the couch and this time the cushions do sink under him.

"I take it you did your research?"

"Do you know who did it?" He asks, his rage flaring again now he´s decided to act.

"Not exactly. It was a... Consensual decision, as far as I know." Loki shakes his hand in the air and there´s a wavy image of two shaking hands he doesn´t recognize, and a whisper that sounds like `It´s for the best... We need him to be fully involved.´ It´s gone with another wave of his hand. "The one that hijacked the plane died there with her."

"Good."

"I asked you before. What are you going to do about it?"

Tony stays where he is, but he stretches a hand and Loki rises from the couch as if he´d been pulled up.

"So?" His thin lips were curved in the slightest hint of a smirk.

"I´m going to bring them down. And you´re going to help me." The hint turns into a full smirk.

"Why would I, exactly?"

"Because you wouldn´t pass up the chance to give them hell."

Loki walks towards him, and he´s surprised he doesn´t have the urge to flinch or edge away. The god had had plenty of chances to kill him in the past year, he´s not going to do it now.

"She wouldn´t have wanted this." Loki circles like a lion would its prey. Tony nods. He´s thought about it.

"I´m going to avenge her." He answers, slow and certain and with a smirk of his own tearing through. "And when I find her again, I will apologize. If I have enough time to practice I might even sound sincere."

Loki laughs and drops a hand on his shoulder. Even through the suit it feels heavy, and Tony´s pretty sure it´s not in a physical way. His own hand makes is way to grip the back of the god´s neck.

"I draw my line at S.H.I.E.L.D." He warns. "I´m done after I finish with them. I won´t hurt innocents."

The god´s breath is cold against his face.

"I´m sure you´ll come to realize in time that hardly anyone is truly innocent."

He can´t help it. He pulls the god closer and smashes their lips together, and this time he does feel and there´s no guilt to it. He´s going to make her death right. And he´s going to have fun while he does it.

"Let´s go, then." Loki´s lips are red and puffed when they let go, and there´s an amused glint in his eyes.

He sees green light all around, and then they´re gone.

The building burns.

Outside, people yell and run, trying to do something, but it´s useless. Worthless too, since the only ones inside are already dead.

The fire won´t make it to the news. After all, it´s just that one building no one really knew anything about, with all these suit-clad people coming in and out at all times. Shady business.

"How does it feel?" Loki´s presence is reassuring at his side, and it eases the weight in his stomach.

"You should know."

"First times are always surprising."

He turns to look at the god, who seems to be studying his face.

"What now?"

"You haven´t answered."

"I won´t."

Loki smiles as if he amused by his stubbornness, and turns to look at the mess again.

"I have a throne."

"That´s not a answer." It does, however, sound like an invitation.

"No, I guess it´s not."

"Let´s go, then." He smirks, and this time Loki´s the one that pulls him in for a soot-flavored kiss before they disappear in a blur of green light.

Thanks for reading!

Just to be clear, I don´t really think Loki killed Odin, but it went well with the story.