Chapter 4

It had been three days since Loki's departure to Asgard. Three long and tortuously boring days of self-imposed house arrest, during which the only interesting activity had been playing hide-and-go-seek with the other Avengers. Of course said Avengers were not exactly willing participants. Sooner or later they were going to cotton-on to the fact that he was unabashedly avoiding them (as opposed to accidentally doing so) and he would be subjected to the Spanish Inquisition, Avengers style.

He had a vested interest in avoiding that particular outcome for as long as humanly possible. Unfortunately, it seemed his time was running out. Steve, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, had staked out Tony's room earlier that morning and hadn't left since. He was eighty per cent sure that Barton was lurking somewhere in the kitchen "rafters", though it was only a deep suspicion bred from experience and paranoia. He hadn't actually seen the S.H.I.E.L.D agent since the two-Loki's debacle. Natasha was a total wild-card, and Bruce was likely in one of the laboratories actively not-caring about the situation.

'Tony!'

Shit.

Tony hesitated, his instincts warring between fight or flight, and then realised he had nowhere to go. That was the situation you got yourself in, he supposed, when you chose to hide in cupboards that weren't entirely derelict.

'Steve.' He said evenly and then calmly plucked a roll of toilet paper off of the shelf and tucked it under his arm. 'Taking a break from guard duty?'

The super-soldier peered at him suspiciously, bright blue eyes narrowed and blonde hair as irritatingly immaculate as always.

'We're not out of toilet paper.' He said and folded his arms tight across his chest. The disapproval he emanated was palpable.

'Inventory.' Tony shrugged. 'Gotta be prepared, Cappy. Can you imagine the kind of tantrum Bruce would throw…'

'This isn't about…'

'…I'm telling you that's something…'

'…toilet paper.'

'…nobody wants to see.'

'Enough, Tony.' Steve looked ready to throw his hands up in exasperation.

Tony awarded himself a point for flustering the unimpeachable (supposedly) captain.

'Look, Steve,' Tony began in what he internally characterised as his serious voice. 'I know this is all strange to you, but there are some things that are just not done in any century.'

Steve eyed him sceptically but seemed inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Rookie mistake.

'…and running out of toilet paper is one of them. Top of the list, Cappers.' He patted the now scowling man on the shoulder and then shoved the roll of toilet paper into the hand that reached out to grab his shirt as he darted through the narrow gap left between him and the doorframe.

'Stark!' Steve growled and spun around, just missing the edge of Tony's shirt as he high-tailed it…

…straight into Clint Barton.

'Why hello there.' Tony said to a well-muscled, leather clad, chest as a very firm hand pressed itself into the groove between his shoulder and his neck.

'Hi.' Barton directed him back towards Steve, the corners of his mouth tugging up in a satisfied smirk.

'Did someone order a ninja?' Tony muttered, 'because I didn't, what's your return policy?'

'No refunds.' Barton said coolly, and then added. 'Be glad we don't still have the two for one deal.'

'I count my blessings daily.' Tony quipped and then shook the hand off, well aware that he was only being allowed to do so.

'Trap caught a rabbit, Cap.' The archer nudged him forward with something pointy at the base of his spine.

'Thanks Agent Barton.' Steve said politely and then turned to Tony. His gaze chilled in the two interim seconds, his irises flat like chips of glacial ice.

'What is going on with you?'

'Well, since you asked, Legolas here is using my spine as some kind of pincushion…' he tilted his head back, 'I mean really Barton, is that your bow or are you just that happy to see me?'

Barton chuckled, but it was low and unsettling.

'Stop the wisecracks, Stark.' Steve's jaw twitched, 'I know there's something you're not telling us.'

'Oh Capsicle,' Tony baited him, 'if you knew even half of the things I don't tell you.' He raised an eyebrow salaciously.

'Don't be facetious.' Steve snapped, apparently too angry to blush as he usually did when Tony threw out innuendos like Christmas candy.

'I can't help it; did Bruce teach you that word?'

'Don't change the subject. What aren't you telling us? What are you doing with Loki? Are you in league with him?'

'Wow.' Tony said softly. 'Is that really what you think of me?'

He hated what he was about to do, but it wasn't like he had another option.

'Is your opinion really that low, that you would accuse me of…of what? Consorting with not just a known villain, but the very - unhinged – one that brought an alien army to New York with the sole purpose of destroying it…' he paused, allowing himself to get caught up in the drama he was creating. 'I mean, Cap what are you accusing me of here exactly?'

Steve looked thrown.

'I don't…look Tony, I don't know okay? But something fishy is going on and it seems to have something to do with you.'

'I can't tell you what this is about,' Tony said truthfully. 'I don't know any more than you.'

At least he hadn't lied. Omitted a few key details, maybe, but he really didn't know what was going on.

'I'm sorry,' Steve said ruefully. He brushed a few strands of hair from his forehead and offered Tony a genuine smile.

'Yeah, sure,' Tony waved his apology away. 'Honest mistake. This world already revolves around me, why shouldn't all of them?'

Steve bit his lip, 'Tony,' he said earnestly. 'I don't think low of you…at all. I have a lot of respect for what you do.'

'Stop Cap, you'll make me blush.' Tony fought the surge of guilt that burrowed into his stomach. 'I know.' He added when it seemed Steve wasn't going to accept anything less than direct acknowledgement of his words.

'Good.' Steve nodded, 'I'll see you later then. Barton.' He clapped the archer on the shoulder and then marched out of the room.

'Hmmm…well I'll just be going then.' Tony said to nobody in particular. The pointy thing pressing into his spine had vanished sometime during his heart-to-heart with Steve and the room was so silent he assumed Barton had already ninja-ed his way out. He was at the hallway when a low humming reached his ears. He turned slowly to find Barton watching him, eyes narrowed. Something in his expression said "bullshit".

Tony held his gaze, hoping the archer didn't have the hearing of the Hawk after which he was named.

If he did, then there was no way he would miss the sound of Tony's heart fluttering in his chest like a bug trapped in a lantern.

…

One week after Loki's abrupt departure, Thor arrived oddly surreptitiously in the night. Tony's only warning was the sudden billowing of his curtains as the Norse legend strode into his room with the ease of one accustomed to such a thing. He looked precisely the same as Tony remembered him, though it had been several months, with his long blonde hair, thick corded muscles, and deep blue eyes that were possessed of a strange dichotomy – at once both ancient and child-like. Their depths were shadowed, now, with a seriousness and urgency that displayed itself in the coiled tightness of his movements.

'Man-of-Iron,' he greeted solemnly.

Tony rose slowly from his bed and the room lightened as the sheets fell away from his arc reactor. The weak blue wash cast monstrous shadows on the walls that writhed anxiously as he slipped a t-shirt over his bare chest.

'Thor,' he greeted curiously. 'You came.'

'Of course.' Thor hoisted Mjolnir higher into the air, his fingers sliding along the leather-bound haft.

'Where is Loki?' Tony studied the God's face, absently noting the way he seemed at odds with his cape – like he didn't quite know what to do with it.

'There are things to be discussed, Man-of-Iron, that cannot be done so within the hearing of others. Come,' he gestured to the window, 'we must make haste.'

'Cool the jets, Point Break.' Tony crossed his arms, 'why didn't Loki come and get me himself?'

Thor frowned, 'I cannot begin to understand the workings of my brother's mind,' he said slowly, 'and yet you ask me to explain them?'

'Try.' Tony said flatly, the hairs on the back of his neck inexplicably on edge. The air was humming with something he recognised…something like…like magic.

Thor's expression twisted unrecognisably as his features sharpened and thinned. Mjolnir vanished in a cloud of effervescent green as the red cape shrivelled into nothingness.

'Anthony,' Loki let out a puff of air that sounded like a hiss. 'I had hoped to do this the easy way.' His dark hair fell in limp tangles around his sharp cheekbones, his skin so pale it was translucent. Tony might have been tempted to believe it was his Loki if it hadn't been for his eyes. They were flat, empty; the faded green of leaves in the early grasp of autumn, or summer grass long bleached by the sun. They were dead, but for the flicker of feverish madness that seemed to stir the leaves into a morbid parody of a dance.

'Should have worn a better disguise.' He calculated the odds of managing to alert the others before this Loki whisked him away. 'All that power and no imagination; such a shame.'

'You dare mock me?' Loki growled, 'I, who have given everything to find you?' He clenched a single fist, the bones cracking loudly in the resounding silence.

'I was never yours to find.' Tony ignored all the signs of a Vesuvius worthy eruption and ploughed on with his usual finesse. 'Go back to your own dimension and bother the me over there. Far as I'm concerned, you're his problem.'

For one infinitesimal moment the God in front of him seemed to sag as if all the fight had drained out of him, as if Tony has simply reached out and erased it from his being.

'Do you truly think that I would be here…if…' his jaw tightened. 'Enough, I tire of your inanity.' He reached out and wrapped his long, bony, fingers around Tony's forearm. He ignored Tony's flailing, increasing the pressure until the shorter man could no longer fight the pain. A swirl of green engulfed them both, a warm presence that penetrated to the bone. The air seemed to freeze and thicken until Tony could no longer breathe and then…it was as if he had ceased to exist.

…