And we're back. Quick update; next one will be a few days away. All the main chapters are somewhat long, or looking like they'll go like this one, so bear with peeps.

Warnings: none

Chapter 1

The first time Loki appeared, Tony was half inside one of his cars, toying with the engine and covered in grease. He did not panic, not at all, thank you very much, though his heart did speed up a bit. JARVIS didn't sound any alarms, so he figured he was okay. He leaned out from under the hood and watched Loki, and, yeah, he'd admit it, admired a bit too. Loki walked through the room with the same lazy grace as a panther and looked over Tony's garage casually, circled Tony like he was circling prey. Loki's eyes flashed when he finally looked at Tony, stood there a few yards away, hands behind his back.

"Aren't you meant to be in a dark room somewhere in Asgard?" Tony reached for the glass of scotch he had on the cart next to him, took an even sip.

Loki just flashed that oh so pretty grin, the one that was stuck in Tony's head ever since that conversation. The one right before he got thrown out a window. The grin that if he saw a glimmer of he'd drag a man home because of it. None of them fucked like he imagined Loki did, but then, he supposed it was unfair to be comparing them to a god.

"I mean, I get it, I'm irresistible, but it won't take two seconds for the others to come bounding down the stairs."

"Two seconds is plenty of time to kill you, if that is what I wished." Loki's voice was… strained. As if he was having to focus on the words, each one a chore to get out. It wasn't much, the way he paused slightly, the slight lag in words that, three months ago, would have been quick and slick. Tony looked him over; he looked thinner and exhausted. Green eyes watched him, criminally intense. Tony hadn't managed to find someone to fuck yet who looked close enough to Loki, and it was always the eyes that broke the spell.

"You mean, you could try. We saw happened last time. And you haven't done anything yet; performance issues still?"

The god's face twisted, alien and muscles drawn too tight over his face, spitting out a sound that ripped through him, made his knees give out and he leaned against the car, ears ringing and heart thundering; then it was gone. That sharp face and too bright eyes—eyes that Tony was only just now realizing were just barely managing to hold back the shattered mind behind them, pain and hatred and something dark that brushed against Tony late at night when it was just him, a bottle of scotch, and too many memories. Tony wasn't crazy, yet, but he recognized the rest, knew that pain as well as he knew his own.

"You've got a mouth on you, don't you?"

Loki frowned at him, clearly confused that he wasn't on the ground screaming, so he just grinned and got his knees back under him. He blinked and by the time he opened his eyes again, Loki was gone.

"Jarvis, I want to know what he said as of yesterday."

"Yes sir."

XXXXXX

The second time was a week later, Tony by himself on the couch flipping through channels, something to put on in the background while he drank and worked on his tablet because Pepper insisted he not stay locked up in the lab. Sweet woman, he needed to get her something nice (was her birthday soon? He couldn't remember, he'd need to check that too), but he sort of resented her as he skipped over yet another rerun of Golden Girls. He took a swig of his drink and when he put it down, Loki was there, perched on one of the armchairs.

Tony was pretty pleased he didn't jump up and swear, but he did nearly swallow his tongue.

"Can't you just knock like a normal person?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Loki said, a smile spreading over his features. Tony rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the television. Maybe if he just ignored the god he'd be left alone; that would keep him from making any bad decisions. Like, oh, getting drunk and trying to fuck the god. He didn't want to go through the window again so soon.

Loki broke the silence first.

"What is this?" Tony flicked his gaze over to Loki gesturing at the television.

"TV. People make shows, we watch 'em. Well, when there's actually something good on, which there isn't. There never is." Tony paused, catching a glimpse of a tavern and Prince Hal getting ale poured into his face. "Okay, exception." He flicked the guide up, grinned a bit.

"'Henry IV - Part I?'"

"Shakespeare. You'd like him, he's good with words." Tony let the show play and went back to studying his tablet. Everything suggested the sound Loki had made last time shouldn't be physically possible, kind of lending a little more credence to that whole god angle. Jarvis was still churning through some of the information, but so far they'd managed to figure out the first syllable: 'che.' "So couldn't keep yourself away?"

"Don't flatter yourself." Loki didn't take his gaze from television.

"Okay. Say, how come we haven't got any thunderstorms rolling through? No one notice you missing? They must not be very good at punishing you." Tony watched Loki out of the corner of his eye, waiting to duck over the back of the couch. Loki didn't lunge towards him, which he found a little odd. With how cracked the god's eyes had been last time he figured that it would take very little to set the god off again. "I asked Thor what was going on; doesn't really sound like much."

"Indeed." Loki's voice was low with only the tiniest tremour. "Can it not wait? I wish to see what happens to this Prince Hal."

Tony glanced back at the screen, frowned a little. Ah. Right. He was willing to bet there were some daddy issues there Loki could relate to.

Retrospectively, Tony would recognize that the next few hours (as they went straight from Part I into Part II) were probably some of the odder ones he'd had, and he'd had a number. Loki didn't speak, didn't threaten (other than the occasional irritated glance when Tony tried to speak to him), just sat and watched Henry IV as if it was the most riveting thing on the planet. When it ended, Loki let out a sigh, relaxing into the armchair with a stretch, and looked over at Tony once more.

"You get one question," the god allowed, lashes lowered.

"One, hey we just spent a bunch of time bonding over Shakespeare and I didn't even try to stab you in the back once. I think you owe me more than one."

"You still owe me a drink."

"Yeah, if I take care of that, do I get three questions?"

Loki studied him and Tony studied right back, cocky grin plastered on his face.

"Three questions, and you still owe me a drink," Loki finally said when Tony didn't back down.

"Score. Okay. Wait. I don't know what questions I want to ask." Tony paused, racked his mind. He was pretty sure he could figure out what the hell Loki had said last time (thank goodness for Jarvis having better than human hearing), and he had a million questions to ask the god but he wasn't sure 'how does magic work' would really go over well. At least not yet. Might press his luck a bit far, what with Loki not even trying to kill him this time. Guy liked Shakespeare, he couldn't be that bad (course, Hitler might have liked Shakespeare, he'd need to ask Steve next time he saw the Captain).

"I'm going to save the other two so you have to come back, but let's go back to the one I really want to know. How the hell is being stuck in a dark room punishment?"

The indulgent smirk on Loki's features vanished behind a smooth mask; he went from lounging to rigid in seconds. The god watched Tony; Tony kept his expression just as blank, ignoring the chill slowly crawling along his spine and making him want to shiver. He realized again that he was playing with a glass encased bomb, and when it went off he was going to be shredded meat; but what was life without a little risk? Tony used to make bombs, he wasn't going to be scared of the metaphorical one sitting in his living room. He quirked an eyebrow, made it clear he was still waiting.

"Shall I show you?" Loki held out a hand, palm facing up.

"Sure," Tony said, and put his hand on Loki's against his better judgment. He felt ice and heat spread across his skin where he touched the god, and immediate blackness. Whispers and sound he couldn't understand surrounded him, edged against his mind—Fenrir, Baldr, blood on his hands, "No, Loki", second best, second best, shadows he can't escape,pain pain pain, Baldr Fenrir—and took up what space they could find. He didn't know which way was up, and when he tried to move his hands to cover his ears from the whispers and the noise that crowded around him, he couldn't. Silk twined and wrapped with a deceptive softness between his fingers, bound his hands together so that he could do nothing. Panic welled up in him, memories of caves and Yinsen and desert heat—

He was sitting in his living room. Loki was gone again. The hand that had taken Loki's was balled into a tight fist, and he felt something crunch inside. He opened his palm; there was a piece of scrap paper in it.

Think of better questions, Stark.

He chuckled uneasily, remembered the whispers that crowded and pushed his own memories to the surface.

XXXXXX

"What is the item in your chest, Stark?"

Tony paused and just held the screwdriver in his hand for a few moments. Deep breaths. He didn't look up from the machine he was working on; just went back to what he was doing once his heart stopped thundering away and he was pretty sure his hand wouldn't tremble.

Finding those tiny screws was a pain in the ass when they fell on the floor.

"Suit's power source."

"I gathered that," Loki said dryly. Tony spared him a glance; he was sitting cross-legged on the table, chin in one hand while he watched Tony work. Blood on his hands, second best—Tony cut the thoughts off and shrugged.

"What else is there to tell? You're not the one with a bank of questions saved up."

"If it were that simple, then everyone would have one and I would not have come so close to success as I did." Tony could feel the way Loki's eyes burned into his back and he grumbled, spinning around on his stool to look at the god.

"Yeah, well, I'm not everyone. Why didn't they just take your magic away?" Tony had a hunch, especially after that mess of noise, how they hadn't gagged Loki, the sound (xxxxxeeeeeeee rreeeeee white noise screech Jarvis had informed him just that morning there was no known meaning for).

"It's part of you," Loki said, eyes glimmering in understanding.

"Yeah, let's go with that. And forgive me if I don't want to spill how it works to a former enemy, thanks."

Loki looked thoughtful and instead of dwell on how that made him a bit uncomfortable Tony went back to work.

"Does it have a sound?"

"What?" Tony swung back around, brow furrowing in confusion. He clearly needed to drink more around Loki; he didn't remember the god being quite so talkative the past two visits.

"A sound. Does it make a sound in your head?"

"Uh. No."

Something jealous flashed in Loki's eyes, made his face soft and wistful. Tony wasn't quite sure if he'd actually seen anything with how fast Loki's features returned to guarded curiosity. He'd look over the security footage for it again after Loki left.

"Have you thought of another question?"

"How's it work?"

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Your magic. Cause before you were captured, you never made a noise but Thor insisted we gag you. And whatever it was you said that first time, that 'chere' crap, that was magic. Why do you suddenly have to speak to use it? How's it work?"

"You understood that."

"Well, Jarvis did most the work, because I sure didn't. Even if I listen to the recording of it all I get is this 'eeee' and white noise; it shouldn't be possible to speak at a frequency like you did, not for a human anyway. Maybe Aesir or whatever you guys call yourselves can." Loki was staring at him, so Tony smirked. "You didn't tell me what I could and couldn't ask questions on."

"Indeed," Loki said slowly, a slow grin spreading on his features, as if whatever he had bet on was paying off. "Indeed, I did not. Next time, then."

"What, why not now?"

"I did not specify when I would answer your questions, did I?" And gone with a flash of that cocksure grin that made Tony weak in the knees.

Tony sighed and turned back to what he was working on again. He was really going to have to start thinking about how he worded his questions.

XXXXXX

Tony woke up, clock politely informing him it was currently 4 am. He wasn't sure why he was awake, just grumbled and shoved a pillow on his face.

"xE rre."

He sat up, swearing blue enough to make the air curl. Even in the half light of the bedroom it wasn't hard to pick out where Loki leaned, arms crossed as he stared out of the window. He flicked too brilliant green eyes at Tony and Tony decided the pillow should stay in his lap.

"It is 4 in the morning, people sleep right now, can you not just phone ahead? Do you need a phone? I can totally get you a phone." Tony rubbed at his arc reactor, ignoring the way his skin crawled when Loki studied it. "And I know I'm sexy, but stop staring. It's rude. Didn't your parents teach you better?"

"You say that as if I have a sense of time. Dark room, or do geniuses need not remember anything?" Loki chuckled, returning his gaze back outside. Tony let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"Whatever." Tony's brain finally caught up with the words that had started him up in the first place. " 'Che re?"

"You're pronunciation would make my rather inept brother flush in shame, and he never bothered to learn." Loki moved from where he was by the window, crossing the room silently, perching at the foot of the bed—but still out of arm's reach. Tony filed that away. "'xE rre,'" he repeated again, slower, more carefully. Tony wasn't sure how someone could pronounce a capital, but Loki made it sound pretty natural.

"'xe rre.' Better?"

Loki studied him, then smirked slightly.

"It will do."

"What's it mean?"

"Mean. Average?" Loki sounded confused, just briefly losing his focus on Tony, eyes inwardly searching, as if racking his brain for what Tony had asked, what it well… meant. Tony didn't know what to say at the obvious confusion; he was pretty sure mean as average wasn't an Asgard thing.

"The words. In English, you know, what we're talking right now?" Tony didn't actually snark at him, feeling off that the word-smith had lost a word.

"Ah. Yes. That 'mean.'" Loki's gaze snapped back to Tony as if he'd never been interrupted. "It doesn't mean anything."

"Bullshit. That meant something, otherwise I wouldn't have gone weak in the knees."

"Perhaps," a slow smile and a glance at his nails, "you simply find my voice so attractive you cannot resist it."

Tony didn't give me a reply, mostly because the only thing between him and Loki was a blanket and a pillow, and he didn't want to risk Loki testing out if his voice did arouse him that much, because proof it did was half-hard between his legs right now.

"I suppose, if you insist, that fragment of a fragment meant… mmm. Right. You wanted to learn about magic, yes?"

"What? Yes. That's what I asked, and you gave me three questions. That's my second."

"Is the meaning of 'xE rre' your third then?"

"No. It's not."

"Then I won't tell you. You're quick enough, you'll figure it out. If you absolutely must. Now, shall we begin here, or would you prefer to attire yourself?"

"Loki. It is four in the morning. I went to sleep three hours ago."

Loki raised one perfect brow and his lips curved slightly, as if asking 'and?'

Tony rubbed a hand through his hair and sighed. He waved a hand at the door.

"I'll see you in the kitchen. Dammit."

He pulled on some gym sweats and a robe, stumbling his way to the kitchen. Loki followed along, clearly having not mapped the entire place out or pretending to have not—small comforts. Jarvis already had the coffee pot running by the time they arrived. When Loki tried to say something, Tony held up a hand and pointed to the pot he was watching. Once it dinged off, he poured himself a mug and sat down at the breakfast bar.

Tony curled protectively around the cup of pitch black coffee, eying where Loki stood. Loki walked around the space, studying things curiously, but he didn't touch anything. "You want a cup?" Tony asked grudgingly. Loki eyed the coffee mug in Tony's hands for a few moments, something flickering through his eyes, licked his lips and smiled politely, shaking his head.

They stayed in silence for a bit longer, until Tony finished his first cup and poured his second, starting to feel less like he'd been run over by a bus.

"Okay. You can talk now. I might actually even comprehend some of it."

"Indeed." Loki leaned against a counter so that he could see both doors leading into the kitchen, crossed his arms. "I take it your… beverage has helped then?"

"Coffee, Loki. It's called coffee, and it's the nectar of the gods. Well, apparently not, since you don't know what it is. Maybe you need to get on that. This stuff is fantastic. You sure you don't want a cup?"

"No." Tony noted the barest flicker at the edge of his eyes, a tightening of his mouth, and wondered if Loki knew he did it. "I'd rather save my drink you owe for a better time and different place."

"Suit yourself." Tony sat back at the breakfast bar.

"The energy that powers your tower, your machines, does it make noise?"

"Well, it hums. I guess. Not really much else, I suppose, but it's not something I've really paid attention to. Usually just turn on some loud music and get to work, you know. Why are you looking at me like that? Stop it, it's creepy." Loki blinked, looking away. "Thank you. Why?"

"You Midgardians are deaf, after all. And here I was suspecting otherwise."

"Huh?"

"Nothing." Loki shook his head, keeping his eyes closed. "The universe's energy is music. Magic is simply conducting it to suit your own emotions. That's all. It is fairly simple, in theory; the universe is constantly trying to find conduits for expression."

Tony took another sip of coffee, waiting. When Loki didn't look like he would continue, he sucked up his pride and asked.

"So what's the words got to do with it? Why didn't you have to speak before?"

"I…. It is difficult to explain."

Tony didn't speak. Loki moved from the counter, began to pace, always just out of reach. He was, Tony decided, incredibly aware of exactly how much distance was between them at all times. Interesting. He filed it away with how Loki's eyes tightened and the way he licked his lips. It wouldn't hurt to know.

"My hands weren't bound. I could use them to express what I desired. Now, I must return to… other means of expression, in which case is simply using the distilled sounds of the universe to communicate with it. My idle boredom in youth come to aid me again." A twisted thing that pretended at being a smile, and poorly at that. "However, I think they should do nicely in explaining." Loki stopped, looked around before noting Tony's tablet, left on the counter from dinner. It was within arm reach of Tony; Tony watched the god calculate; if he hadn't noticed the way Loki's eyes tightened earlier he would have missed it. Apparently some sort of decision was reached; Loki came closer, brushed a finger over it, and the screen lit up.

Tony resisted the urge to reach out and grab his wrist, especially when he saw the sudden and rapid spill of data over the screen. He decided to wait until Loki was done because he didn't recognize well over half the characters flying by; he didn't want to lose the chance to get a good look at it because he pissed the god off. Really, he was surprised Loki was being nearly so forthcoming about the topic. Remembered the dark and words again—maybe Loki was just bored.

When Loki was safely out of arm's reach again (casually, so it did not seem the god was trying), Tony slid the tablet over, flipped through the rather neatly organized… e-book? Really?

"You know what the hell an e-book is?"

Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Thor can barely operate a toaster, I didn't think you Aesir even knew what a computer was." Tony glanced over the table of contents. "I didn't know I was getting homework."

"You asked, did you not?"

"I did, I did. I can't believe you just had this sitting around in your head. Heck, I didn't think anyone had this much crammed in their head that wasn't me." Tony sipped his coffee. Standard Scale, Cadenza, Hymn, Aleatory, notation, typical usage, duration, wave forms, lexicons… He didn't even know what half these things meant. He might need to dig out a dictionary, or just ask Jarvis. "This looks like it's even half-decently organized, that's not fair. I wish my notes were half this organized."

Loki chuckled. Tony glanced up at him before he got sucked into the information he'd just had handed to him.

"Any particular reason this is just sitting there, ready to be dumped out?"

"I had time to think." The words were emotionless despite the smirk on Loki's features. His eyes were, too, for that matter.

"You must be really bored."

A shrug and gone. Ah. So he'd hit the nail right on the head. He looked back at the tablet. Well, he was already up. It wouldn't hurt to read a little.

XXXXXX

He started, suitably enough, with the beginning. There was a little note, kind of snide, that suggested he start with Standard Scale, if only because it would be less confusing if he had a solid grasp of the basics. Tony almost skipped them to be contrary—well he tried, but quickly realized he had no idea what in the world Loki was talking about with frequency, amplitude shapes, or where the hell he was pulling meanings from.

Tony only grumbled a little.

"Tony, you've got a meeting. Put your tablet down."

"Mm."

He went, left the tablet. Told Jarvis to take a look through and store everything, sort through it and figure out what 'xE rre' meant for him and he'd come back to it.