Chapter 4: The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step (Lao Tzu)
Anthony had left the tower more than two days ago, and had done this rather quietly. Loki only realized that the inventor wasn't there when the ethereal entity leading the household, the entire Stark tower, and most of the engineer's life contacted him to cancel one of their playdates. And that had been one day after the mortal had disappeared. Anthony was a busy man, after all. They did not spend all their time together.
J.A.R.V.I.S. had not really gone into detail, he simply mentioned that Sir was visiting a close friend to cheer him up. The way how the artificial intelligence relayed his message told him so much more, though. While he definitely would put some energy into finding out how Stark had managed to build a machine with a soul, now he rather was contemplating why J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice sounded softer, almost fond of this… friend. The AI was definitely approving of Anthony's visit to that person.
For unknown reasons this was occupying his mind since he found out. And he could not even really pinpoint why it was bugging him that much.
So he kept sitting in the Penthouse kitchen, clasping his cup with delicious tea to his chest, warming his cool hands on it. It had become a ritual in the past weeks since he and Dr. Banner had moved into the tower, his trial on Asgard a rather short affair after not only Thor stood his ground against Odin. No, also Frigga had been on his side this time, contradicting every sentence that was not of acquittal. They would meet up in Anthony's kitchen for some tea (or in the inventor's case, coffee, black, the faster it dissolves my gut the better), sharing dinner, and talking about whatever came to their minds.
To Odin it still might have felt like he was punishing the second prince of Asgard by sending him back to Earth to help fortify them against the arrival of the Mad Titan.
For Loki, it was like entering a different universe, though. Where else would he have found a person who was thoroughly cursing magic yet so curious about everything around him that he had the most satisfying conversations about his gift in centuries?! It took him some time until he figured out that Anthony did not hate magic. He hated that he could not explain how it worked, that he could not fit it into his knowledge of how things worked. Once the Prince had figured this out his reluctance to share his knowledge was crumbling.
The young God continued looking out of the window – the very same window Anthony had made some rather intimate contact with only two months ago. It was astonishing how fast the mortal was willing to forgive him once he had all the necessary information about the scepter and Thanos controlling his mind.
The inventor also appeared to be collecting strays. Amongst the bunch of conglomerate heroes, spies, soldiers, rage monsters and Gods, he had only deemed worthy Loki and Dr. Banner to be offered living arrangements in Stark tower. The archer and the widow were employed by S.H.I.E.L.D.. S.H.I.E.L.D. was bending backwards to appeal itself to Captain America. Or Private Rogers, how Anthony kept calling him, much to the super soldiers displeasure and Loki's (and, curiously enough, Miss Potts') amusement.
Thor was commuting between Asgard and his mortal.
Loki rather relished the silence that surrounded him in his own floor – something that Anthony had somehow conjured out of nothing, making a comfortable home for both the God and the monster who had come to the decision that they would put insults and being pounded into marble flooring behind them and enjoy a home rather that a hideout for once.
He let his gaze stray to the other man in the room now. Dr. Banner. Smart, so guarded and cautious, such a quiet, introvert character, a person who had to learn again how to interact with others – not that Loki himself could not use a lesson or two in this regard, either.
The three of them did not trust many people, had been betrayed multiple times, shared similar pasts of abuse, torture, neglect and exploitation. They had found a mutual balance, though.
Anthony was an outgoing persona, while Bruce was an introvert to the bone. Loki did not really know anymore, what of the above fit for him – he had been playing so many roles in his life that being shy, afraid of talking to other people, and hiding away in his quarters seemed so unreal.
Normally, they would have been laughing, discussing, theorizing. The owner of the tower would talk twice as much as the resident God, and approximately five times as much as Banner.
Anthony would make innuendoes that had Loki questioning the ethereal voice in the evening if what he had heard only hours before was really legitimate on this planet. Banner would laugh and either contribute or change the topic.
His poker face was too good to let the engineer see that he was flustered and thus gave as good as he took. The AI had promised to keep his inquiries to himself.
And Loki now finally knew what was wrong, lifting his cup to his mouth and taking a pensive sip.
Anthony was missing.
It was just too quiet in here.
"We'd need space for my piano… yuck, how can you even let them get this bad?" Dino scrunched his nose as he watched the randomly playing YouTube video on the screen of his laptop. It was like a car crash, you simply couldn't look away.
The man who was resting his head in the agent's lap wore a similar expression before continuing their conversation. "I'd like a workshop. Nothing too big, just to be able to fool around a bit… maybe have DUM-E and U come along?"
Running his hands through Stark's hair, DiNozzo smiled. "Of course DUM-E and U will come along. We'd also include J.A.R.V.I.S.. And of course you will have a workshop. I'd like a big kitchen… and a garden? Would we like a garden? I never was allowed to play in our garden. God beware I would've gotten dirty or brought some insects inside… Oh good Lord, this one had eyes and teeth, why are we watching this?!"
T just laughed, readjusting the position of his head on Dino's thigh minimally to have a better view on the screen.
"I have no clue, but I feel I should leave a way bigger tip with my aesthetician the next time I go there… and maybe find a cure for blackheads, this is disgusting!"
Dino just continued running his fingers through the other man's hair, both of them not even thinking about moving, about leaving their comfortable position for changing the close-up video of somebody having his pores cleaned. In his mind, he added another point to their ever growing list of why being each other's significant other actually wasn't a bad idea.
T never would mock him for going to a beautician, or having a manicure. He'd tag along and talk him into a face mask. He'd never mock his body hair (which, by the way, by far wasn't as excessive as Ziva claimed it to be) or talk condescendingly about the way he chose to wear the hair on his head.
"You know we could simply build our dream house, right?" the engineer asked, having his friend sigh.
"You live in New York in the moment, I live in DC. It's rather pointless to talk about a shared house, don't you think?"
"It takes me about 15 minutes to get to DC in the suit if I go at a snail's pace. I could commute…"
At that, Dino stopped the movements of his fingers, having T look up at him.
"You're doing a crap job talking us out of this." Green eyes locked on chocolate brown as DiNozzo gazed down on his friend who, at some point just shrugged and turned his attention back to the video.
"Maybe I don't want to talk us out of it…" he said in a hushed voice, his eyes never leaving the screen.
"T…"
"Maybe I've had enough of being disappointed by people, of not trusting anyone enough to let them get close enough to get to know me and not the picture they have in their mind. I don't have a chance, anyway. I'll always be a screw-up, somehow, because not matter what I do, it's never good enough, big enough. They always expect bigger, better, more. I'm sick of being a constant disappointment to people who don't know me. Maybe it's stupid, but you said you don't want to be alone anymore."
Dino by now had started petting his hair again.
"Maybe I also don't want to be alone anymore…"
And maybe this was a really stupid reason to enter a relationship with somebody. But according to Pepper they were in one every time they were close enough to see each other every day. Both Tonys' partying and sleeping around escapades tended towards zero when they were in the same area. His PA had had field days in observing their, as she called it, domestic behavior, with Dino cooking, and T cleaning up after him… they always shared a bed when they were sleeping under the same roof.
They knew the other inside out, all the good and bad, and they still loved each other. Yes, maybe it was not the pink glasses and rainbows everywhere and butterflies in the stomach kind of love. But it was unconditional, based on trust and the life they had spent together.
It was quiet for a while, the next video showing the creation of some really awesome cakes.
"I'd rather buy a house… if the lovely Miss Potts hadn't taken over, you'd still be planning Stark tower…"
Both men continued watching the screen, Dino's fingers still carding through T's unruly hair.
"I'd have to make quite a mess to get J.A.R.V.I.S. installed" the inventor stated after some time, making the NCIS agent smile.
"J.A.R.V.I.S. is family. He's worth the mess."
A knock on the door made both men look up and abandon their comfortable position.
Leon Vance was staring at the snowy flurry that filled the big screen in MTAC for almost ten minutes now. Their Agent Afloat on the USS Reagan had contacted them because a sailor apparently had jumped overboard from the USS Seahawk.
Agent Gibbs was not in yet, so Leon had been contacted, only to figure out that the Reagan had problems with sending visual data. He could hear them fine, but had no picture.
He was a firm believer in using new technology (not that video-chats were that new…), thus also being rather patient when the crew aboard the ship tried to repair the problem, while certain other people (*cough* Gibbs *cough*) would have had DiNozzo report simply via phone. You did not necessarily need a picture to get all the facts, after all.
This way, though, he learned that the USS Reagan housed a rather illustrious guest in the moment, who apparently was rather shocked about the state of the telecommunication setup of the US Navy.
"Holy Tesla, have any of you ever heard of fiber optic cables? Those don't corrode at all, you know and… ugh… Dino, hand me that screwdriver, I need to get that panel off."
He heard some rustling around, sounds of metal against metal, and agent DiNozzo was apologizing again for the delay, suggesting once more to simply give an oral report, after all, he just needed to officially be sent to investigate. At the same time, "Dino" was assisting "T" with his efforts to get the video system running again.
Vance had just started contemplating whether this might qualify for the top ten of the weirdest conferences he had ever had when in the background, Tony Stark of all people made a rather weird sound, an octave higher than normal, and it sounded like he was jumping up.
"Oh God, eeewww, you don't need fiber optics, you need a cat!"
There was quite some commotion afterwards, somebody calling out for a plastic bag, having Vance ask for three times in a row what happened until he got the answer to what had caused the upheaval.
"Mr. Stark just found a rat behind that panel. It seems it chewed on a cable and got electrocuted. He is now repairing the damage", one of the technicians finally answered, sounding rather nonplussed by the discovery of the rodent. This was a big ship, after all. You could not really avoid having them aboard.
The doors to MTAC opened just when the screen finally flickered alive, showing a lot of people surrounding the engineer who was putting the wall panel back in place.
Leroy Jethro Gibbs entered the room, frowning at the commotion on the screen, taking in his rather pale agent standing a bit at the side. Somebody was coming in with a plastic bag to discard a dead rodent. Well, this at least explained why DiNozzo was keeping his distance. What didn't make sense was the guy who just got up from the floor, dusting off his pants and fisting his hands.
"I hope you have a bathtub full of disinfectant standing around somewhere!"
Of course he knew the man. At some point in his military career he had been insisting on only using Stark Industries sniper rifles. Gibbs had been within the large mass of people who could not understand why on earth the inventor had shut down the weapons manufacturing department. Maybe build in kill switches, or intensify the control of who the weapons were sold to, sure, but why shutting it down?
This had been one of the very few moments in his life where Tony DiNozzo had had no patience at all for his boss. He had been on the edge for the past three months (and secretly glad that he had received Pepper's call that T had been found when he was at home, so that he didn't have to explain his relieved crying fit to his co-workers), and had reacted rather indignantly to Gibbs' accusation of the rich boy being a coward.
"He just freed himself out of the grasps of the Ten Rings, not that the military or any agency did a lot to find him, of people who illegally possessed Stark Industries weapons. What is he supposed to do? Keep producing them and look away when civilians and innocent people are killed with them? Why do you think he was still alive after three months? I don't think the Ten Rings kept him because he's such good company! I can absolutely understand that he doesn't want to produce weapons anymore after they most likely tried to force him into making some for them!"
Gibbs had been speechless after that outburst. He didn't talk a lot anyway, but after his senior agent blowing up in his face like that, he seriously did not know what to say. Back then he had thought it was once more DiNozzo being DiNozzo, seeing the case from so many different angles that he was able to really channel the engineer's feelings.
"It's just a rat, Mr. Stark. You will find them on the ship every now and then…", the technician spoke up again, shrinking in his chair when the billionaire turned his attention at him.
"Yeah, and I know somebody in this room who survived the pneumonic plague and rightfully is a bit nervous around rats. You ok, Dino?"
Stark's gaze turned to the agent who just shrugged.
"It's a rat, T. I'll survive. I won't shake your hand, though."
Stark just grinned while all Gibbs wanted to do was bark a "Sitrep, DiNozzo, now!" to have his agent's attention back on him. He chose to observe the situation, though. It seemed that there was a lot more his former SFA was keeping from him than this unsanctioned undercover op for Jenny back then. Yeah, he was under orders, it would have been stupid to tell anyone, he understood that. He was still miffed that DiNozzo had not trusted him enough even though he knew there was something foul with that operation.
"Someone bring me that bathtub then. I'd like to hug my best friend before I leave. Let me know if you have to go somewhere, I'll take one of the Quinjets to the Seahawk before heading back to New York, Pep's actually praising my ass for doing such good PR work. Ta everyone, it was nice meeting you! Dino, you better put that PhD in criminology to good use, huh?"
With a wave and a grin the engineer left the room while DiNozzo yelled an "All your PhD in engineering got you was pulling out a dead rat from behind a wall panel!" before regaining his composure and starting to report about the sailor supposedly committing suicide.
When the next steps were clear (and, actually, all DiNozzo needed was the official go, he didn't seek or need advice for what to do next) and the conference call was ended, Vance sent Gibbs a scrutinizing look.
The other man did not look surprised at all how well his agent was performing. All Vance ever heard from Captain Bolt were praises of the man. It was in stark contrast to what he had read on the summary of the agent's personnel records.
His co-workers, agent McGee and Officer David did nothing to hide their opinion. Frat boy, chauvinist, fortune favors fools, just a cop, low education. Even Shepard didn't seem to have a high opinion, for all the time the man had spent at the NCIS, the summary was rather short, mostly describing his flaws. From what he had seen in the past 5 months, he did contribute a lot to the success of the MCRT, though. While the case load was not as heavy, the solve rate had dropped severely, and the cases that were solved went to Gibbs' account, without much help by either agent McGee or Officer David. The more he watched them, the more he was sure that the both of them couldn't investigate themselves out of a corner.
He would look at the agent's file more closely now. Maybe it was a mistake taking him out of the game. He had thought that a former Mossad agent and a computer whiz had all the skills needed to find a mole – actually, he had thought Gibbs alone would figure out who it was when he was alone with the three suspects. Nobody needed a reckless big mouth who got injured all the time or was flirting with all the female suspects. Why the heck had a PhD in criminology never come up before?! If Tony Stark of all people was friends with Anthony DiNozzo, there had to be more to him. And only now it dawned to him that Gibbs was not only asking to have DiNozzo back out of a misplaced sense of loyalty and hurt feelings over having lost his team.
Gibbs was watching him calmly, as if he had just waited for this moment, for Vance to realize his mistake. Before he could speak up, though, after all, he was working with internal information and all he did seemed justified, Gibbs addressed him.
"You broke rules 3 and 5, Leon. Make sure to adhere to rule 45 now."