A/N: Sorry about the delay. This story and my brain do not coexist. And reviews would be lovely

= D

Chapter 2: Call Me A Whore

Virginia is around 2500 km from North Dakota, for those who didn't know.

It had taken Tony over two days to get from Hoople to where Loki was camping out, driving in a crappy Corolla for as long as he could before crashing in a campground in the backseat.

Hunter style. No one said it was glamourous.

Tony had a lot of money, most of it belonging to his late father, but he hated the man and hated the inheritance he'd been left so generally he went native and worked off the bones of his ass.

This drive, though, would probably go faster because he didn't have to find Loki's bolthole.

Loki bitched and complained the whole drive, not because there was anything to complain about, but because he knew Tony had to put up with it either way.

"Pathetic tiny car, not built for someone of my height." Loki grumbled, legs bent awkwardly.

"Yeah, well, a Range Rover would attract attention, sunshine." Tony frowned.

"These clothes are unwieldy and ugly." Loki whined, flapping the overlarge sweatshirt about.

Tony rolled his eyes. "It's wrap up tight or burn, and you know it, so stop bitching."

"I need to hunt. I am hungry." Loki frowned.

"I'll agree with you on that one." Tony nodded. "C'mon, there's a shawarma joint up a bit."

It was late afternoon, bleeding to evening, as Tony pulled over. Loki tugged a wide-brimmed hat on over his pale face as he got out of the car, making Tony burst out laughing.

"What!?" Loki snapped.

"You look fucking ridiculous." Tony sniggered, locking the car manually because it was a pile of junk.

"It is this or my skin will scorch and burn," Loki said, and oh yeah, monster.

Tony fiddled with his fingers as he thought about what he was doing. Steve would kill him or at least give him a very stern lecture for asking Loki's help, but he had to, right? And if Tony tried to ignore all of Loki's vampiric quirks, he could almost pretend he wasn't working with a monster he should have killed. The guy was likable when he wasn't being a little bitch.

Tony distinctly heard Loki make a hungry noise as he walked into the restaurant and saw all the unsuspecting humans just sitting there.

"Cool it, big guy, or the deal's off." Tony warned.

"And what a pity that would be." Loki said dryly. Tony looked at him; his pupils were dilated and he seemed to swallow a lot.

"Go back to the car." Tony said suddenly.

"I am fine. Bloodlust is nothing I haven't experienced before." Loki said, slightly breathily.

Tony pointed Loki at an empty booth when he went to order. "Sit there and don't eat anyone."

Loki made a disapproving noise and went to sit down. When Tony brought food over and set a tray in front of Loki, the vampire glared at it and said "What do you wish me to do with it? Absorb it through osmosis?"

"Oh, yeah, whoops. Mm. I'll eat that too, then." Tony shrugged. Goddamnit Tony you can't make a vampire eat vegetarian food, his subconscious shouted.

Loki rolled his eyes and bared his teeth, looking around the diner.

"That girl," He said lowly, indicating a child sitting on a barstool. "Is six years old, blood type AB-, slightly underweight due to mild anaemia caused by vegetarianism."

"Uh, you okay there?" Tony said, reaching for the blade on his belt.

"I could be across this diner with my fangs in her neck before you could stop me, Stark," Loki hissed, his mouth distorting ever so slightly as he threatened to extend his fangs.

"I'd like to see you try," Tony said, leaning towards him in the booth to gently prod him with the silver knife in warning.

"But I would not, Stark, and do you know why?" Loki said smoothly. "Because, like so many of my kind, I can control the bloodlust. We are not unthinking beasts like so many other monsters, and myself even less so. You and I made a deal, and I will not break it unless you do."

"I shouldn't trust you, Liesmith." Tony said uncertainly.

"I believe you should. I have much to gain, as do you. So trust me, at least until this deal is over, and then we will return to our lives and with any luck never see the other again." Loki said, leaning back against the bench like nothing had happened.

"Agreed." Tony said.

"Where are you resting tonight?" Loki said, the question so disturbingly innocent after the previous conversation that Tony was thrown off for a second.

"Uh, I've been sleeping in the car, but unless you have other ideas we'll need two beds-"

"I do not require sleep. I will hunt tonight and then continue my book." Loki said flatly.

"Okay. Is that a vamp thing, the not sleeping? Cause I've never heard it before." Tony said curiously.

"I am not tired." Loki replied, staring at the little girl hungrily again.

Tony ate in silence, watching Loki in case of sudden attacks.

-O.O-

Their final stop for the night was a campground in Ohio. Tony wanted to be up and moving before dawn, so as soon as they parked Loki jumped out to hunt while Tony curled up on the backseat to sleep.

Tony was feeling completely baffled. He shouldn't trust Loki, plain and simple, but like he'd told Steve, the vampire fought with his brains and left you all confused about exactly what you wanted. About half of Tony hated that and the other half admired his intelligence.

He had drifted off into an uneasy sleep when there was a tap at the glass.

Opening his eyes, Tony yelped like a little girl when he saw a gaunt, pale face with its mouth smeared with blood in the opposite window. Loki rolled his eyes and gestured for him to unlock the car.

Oops. Must have been force of habit.

"Hey, 'Lo." Tony said sleepily through the window. "Good hunt?"

Loki nodded and gave a bloodstained, predatory smile that sent a shiver down Tony's spine.

Flicking the latch blearily, the hunter lay back down and tried to fall asleep.

The door opened and a weight fell on Tony.

"Stark." Loki breathed hotly despite his cool skin.

Oh my god, Tony though as Loki began to crawl up his body and pull the door shut with his foot. Horny bloodstained vamp warning. Never thought I'd need that one.

He'd known Loki had a fetishist connection with fucking and feeding - the three bite scars on his neck and one on his pectoral were proof of that - but still, what the hell.

Tony stopped caring when Loki's clever pickpocket hands pulled his head up for a bloody, coppery kiss that made him simultaneously revolted and delighted.

"Uh, sunshine," Tony chuckled when he registered that Loki was on top of him. "You're not fucking me. I know all about the super strength and I want my pelvis in one piece tomorrow."

Loki made an irritated noise, biting sharply at Tony's collarbone. "Whenever were you told you had a choice?"

-O.O-

Tony expected to feel guilty - guiltier - when he woke up, but really didn't.

The first pinky tinges of dawn were teasing over the horizon when he woke up to his phone alarm playing Problem Child.

He dozily pulled his shirt back on and looked in the front to see Loki reading Game Of Thrones.

"Me, I think I'm the rightful Stark for the Iron Throne." Tony quipped. "But whatever."

Loki gave a low, wicked chuckle. "And how is our lord and master's pelvis faring?"

"Mm, good." Tony said teasingly, with a surprisingly lack of asshattery. "We'd better drive."

As Tony turned his head to back out of the campground, he felt a stabbing pain in his neck from the previous night. His hand came away bloody from it. Fucking Loki and his twisted take on love bites.

"Bloody hell, Loki, you don't have to bite me all the time! Steve'll kill me when he sees that." Tony growled.

Loki hissed ferally, looking ticked off. "The temptation is a little too strong."

"Come on, you tried to tell me yesterday you had a lid on it." Tony said.

"From what I have heard, your alcoholism is under your control, but could you resist a shot of scotch poured into the navel of a whore?" Loki seethed, knowing he had Tony. "I did not think so."

"Did you just call me a whore?"

"I likened you to one." Loki shrugged. "Any time you worship my flesh, I may just give in to the temptation. Either deal with it or cease submitting to me."

Well. If that wasn't an ultimatum.

Tony rubbed his short hair with one hand. This would be a long car trip unless he could think of a topic of conversation not relating to his companion's disturbing sexual preferences.

"So." Tony said awkwardly. "Tell me about yourself."

Tony saw Loki look a tad surprised out of the corner of his eye. "Pardon?"

"Yeah, well, I've got to make you a new identity, right?" Tony shrugged, though he knew full well that wasn't the reason. "Give me something to work with, big guy."

"My name is Loki Laufeyson...?" Loki offered stubbornly.

"Yeah, and that's all I know about you. Were you born a vamp or made one? Why don't you travel in a pack? Who actually are you apart from a bitchy vamp who doesn't play well with others?" Tony said.

"I was born human." Loki said shortly, averting his gaze and running his hand along the door. "My past means I cannot join a pack, and who I am is truly none of your business."

"See, I wanted to know if you were born human, cause the only other Loki my researcher could tell me anything about was that hunter's kid, Loki Burison, who went missing several years back." Tony said, knowing full well he was scratching something there.

"That is not me." Loki said acidly, accidentally ripping a hole in the door panel in sudden anger. "Pay attention to the road."

Loki didn't say another word for hours, and Tony knew full well he'd pissed the vampire off.