A/N: Hay guys! So sorry for the wait, although I was able to write the first part of this chapter on holiday, I had no way of sending it to npeg for an upload. When I got back I started writing straight away, but this was a tricky chapter to get out so it took some time. Basically this is a monster chappie, with a word count at almost 5k, but I hope you guys enjoy it. There's a bit more filler, bit more character development. BUT THERE'S ALSO A BIT WITH TONY AND LOKI IN THE SAME ROOM. YAYYYYYY. But not that much of them you know actually being together because I'm mean and believe in pacing fics out ahaha. Anyway this chapter was crazy fun to write and I hope you all like it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
They entered the meeting room to find the other Avengers already assembled, waiting patiently at the table as Fury whispered heatedly to Agent Hill in the corner. Tony took a seat beside Banner, and Steve sat down opposite him, across the table. Stark glanced over to Clint and raised his eyebrows as if to say, "Wonder what this is about"; Clint conveyed his lack of knowledge with a shrug. Both Agent Barton and Dr Banner appeared curious about the meeting, probably because they knew that whatever warranted an urgent meeting at the mansion as opposed to SHIELD HQ was obviously something big. Tony's eyes moved to Natasha, who wore her usual blank mask, but underneath Tony knew that she too was impatient to find out what was going on. Tony didn't know whether he should have enjoyed knowing something before everyone else or not. Probably not, he conceded. Especially seeing as it had landed him with what felt like three cracked ribs, serious back pain and sprained wrists. It was hard to feel smug when you couldn't move without something hurting.
Fury still seemed pretty focussed on his conversation with Hill so Stark turned his attention to the God of Thunder, who stood, as opposed to sat, by the door. His wide shoulders and imposing height filled up the space in the room and, ignoring the pun, his expression was thunderous. A deep frown was carved into Thor's face, and his eyebrows were furrowed in seemingly deep concentration. He had a hand on his chin, his elbow supported by his other arm crossed over his torso. As Tony finished his quiet assessment of Thor (trying not to think about the fact that this was the man who's baby brother had just been rutting against him like a cat in heat), Fury turned away from Agent Hill and addressed the table:
"Thor has just informed me that Loki Laufeyson has escaped from his imprisonment on Asgard." His statement was met with a quiet chorus of mutters and exclamations of 'what?' and 'how?' that rang around the room from both SHIELD agents and Avengers. Luckily no one paid any attention to either Tony or Steve, so no one noticed their distinct lack of surprise. They made eye contact and silently communicated the questions that had been plaguing them the second they'd walked into the room; which one of us will cave first and admit that Loki was downstairs barely ten minutes ago? Will either of us accidentally add that he was playing tonsil tennis with Tony? Will either of us mention that he was clearly winning?
"I do not know how he escaped," Thor said, his loud deep voice ringing in the air. "Loki is a master of magic, I fear he is more powerful than we assumed, and was thus able to escape his bindings." Thor shook his head, obviously perplexed and angry at being thwarted by his trickster brother again. "I do not know where he went, only that he travelled to Midgard." Tony glanced back to Steve and found the captain staring back at him, a vague hint of panic in his eyes. Captain America was not one to keep valuable information from the team, in fact, the very thought of doing such a thing usually made him feel physically sick. Just by looking at him Tony could see that he was about to crack and blurt everything out in a spectacular flood of word vomit.
So Tony decided it was probably best to take the bull by the horns. If he left it to Steve, he knew the man out of time would automatically switch into report delivery mode and everyone would know about Tony's 'fraternization' within the minute. And he really didn't feel like answering questions about his sexuality from Clint Barton; neither was he particularly keen on getting arrested. Plus, he just knew someone would ask "But what about Pepper?" With everything happening so fast (and being so incredibly fucked up) he hadn't even had time to process that he had technically cheated on his girlfriend with a Norse God, and he didn't really want to talk about that with the team when he hadn't even thought about it himself.
So yeah, letting Cap handle things was probably a bad idea.
"I know where he went," he blurted out. He was almost interrupted by Fury's "What?" -echoed by pretty much everyone around the room, with the exception of Steve of course, who just looked surprised that Tony had broken first- but he soldiered on. He decided it was probably best to explain things quickly, like ripping off a Band-Aid.
"He just suddenly showed up in my lab less than an hour ago, I have no fucking clue why, we exchanged a few words, then a few blows, then Cap came in and saved the day and Loki did his little vanishing trick." No one said anything for a second as they processed what Tony had just said.
The silence was broken when Fury asked incredulously "You engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Loki Laufeyson without your fucking suit?" His sole eye was trained on Tony. "Are you fucking crazy?"
"That's what I said!" Steve exclaimed, his hand gesturing a 'finally, someone agrees with me!' Tony was about to shout out if someone uses the phrase hand-to-hand combat one more time I swear to God…when Natasha asked:
"Why didn't you immediately sound an alarm?" Her head was cocked slightly to the side, and the billionaire just knew she had suspicions.
"I was trying to see if I could get him to tell me how he escaped," he lied effortlessly. Yes, he thought, it was obviously because of that, and not at all because you secretly wanted to see if Loki's tongue felt as good in your mouth as it looked running over his lips. "And then when things got violent…well, I kinda had my hands tied." Or pinned, to the floor, as Loki straddled you. Jesus he needed to stop thinking about it, the fact that the memories alone were getting him hot under the collar freaked him the fuck out. Because Tony Stark was not gay. At that his mind immediately challenged him by presenting a memory of Loki, hard and flush against him, mouth, teeth and tongue claiming and possessing. He almost had to slap himself to snap out of it. Get a grip! He growled inwardly. Not gay!
Fury turning to Steve and asking whether or not Loki mentioned where he was going or anything that could hint to what the God of mischief had planned interrupted Tony's inner turmoil. He tuned back into their conversation, pushing all indecent thoughts of Loki firmly out of mind.
"No, Sir," Steve replied, "When I arrived at the lab he said he'd 'be back' before simply disappearing. He didn't even try to use force or magic against me, even though I would have been an easy target seeing as I didn't have my shield." Steve looked Fury directly in the eye when he spoke and no part of him at all indicated that he was lying, or at least withholding some facts. Tony was surprised to see that the Captain could actually keep a straight face, and he felt a little warmth in his chest at the thought that Steve was not telling his superior information, and therefore going against his better judgment, not to mention years of army mentality, just because Tony had asked him not to. He felt a little uncomfortable at the amount of loyalty that took. He flashed the Cap a quick smile of thanks when he caught his eye.
"Thor, any ideas what the fuck your crazy-ass brother is up to now?" Fury asked, his eye locked onto Tony's briefly and for a second he thought he was somehow busted, but within the next second Fury had turned his gaze to the demigod by the door.
"This behaviour is unusual for Loki," Thor frowned, his hand still on his chin, a pensive look in his eyes.
"Breaking free from his prison, suddenly coming to Earth, and causing havoc with the Avengers. Yeah you're right, that's not like Loki at all," Clint snorted, leaning back in his chair.
"What I mean to say is, his act of only visiting Anthony, and not slaying him when he was most vulnerable, is the most intriguing part." Thor replied, scratching his chin. "I do not know why he acted in such a manner. I fear he has something planned for the Man of Iron." He stared gravely at Tony's face, and Tony swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing slightly. He shouldn't have found the idea that Loki had something planned for him more arousing than he did alarming, but he did. Oops.
"Well, when we find him, you can ask him what his plans are yourself," Fury said and suddenly his voice switched to ordering-everyone-around mode. "Rogers, Banner, Thor, I want you to scout the city on foot and try to find him, Romanoff and Barton you'll take the Quinjet. We're currently trying to track him using every device we can, but we'll apply a manual approach as well. Maybe if he's interested in starting trouble, he'll come looking for you. We'll keep you updated via comms.
'Stark, I want you to start working on an alarm that detects when Loki enters a premises, because I'm sure we're all pretty agitated by how fucking easy it was for him to get in to one of our most supposedly secure locations. I want a prototype immediately."
"Roger that," Tony said dryly, doing a mock salute with two fingers. In fact he had no intention of devoting all his time to the alarm. He was sure J.A.R.V.I.S could collect enough data from Loki's residual magic left in the lab to start developing something straight away. Tony, in the mean time, would be too busy working on other equations and calculations, and researching. He was hell bent on solving the puzzle that had been dropped into his lap.
"Class dismissed, get the fuck out of here," Fury growled, before turning and striding out of the room, Agent Hill following behind.
-IIWT-
An hour later, back in the lab, J.A.R.V.I.S was successfully running test simulations on the teleportation sensing alarm. The prototype would be built and ready within the hour, which incidentally gave Tony plenty of time to get investigating.
He'd spent the last thirty minutes, whilst his AI had been busy working on schematics, becoming an expert on the science of attraction and sketching out rough drafts of calculations and tests he'd be using to explore his theories. Now he was ready to play.
He decided to begin with a blood test, so that he could measure his oxytocin and serotonin levels. Oxytocin, he had learned, was known as the 'love' hormone, as it was released during intercourse or childbirth, and was responsible for feelings of closeness and intimacy. Serotonin affected arousal. Tony had a feeling (well he was actually blindly hoping) that his levels were just naturally and coincidentally high today, and therefore he couldn't technically be held accountable for his reaction to Loki's behaviour, seeing as it was obviously just his body being ridiculous. He took a blood sample, wincing a little as the needle pierced his skin, before taking the vial and placing it in a docking device connected to his computer. With a few taps of his fingers on the touch-screen keyboard, the program was up and running, all he had to do was wait.
The second test he had planned was to gauge his heart rate, and see if it increased when he thought of the God of Lies and Mischief. Ideally it would have worked more efficiently if he was actually around Loki, but seeing as that usually resulted in him being thrown out of a window or molested on his workbench, he decided to leave that variable firmly isolated for the time being, thank you very much.
"J.A.R.V.I.S, update me on the alarm," Tony ordered, glancing at the progress bar on the blood test before swivelling in his chair to the other side of his desk, reaching over to grab the heart monitor he had built ten minutes before. Yeah, he could have bought one, but that would have taken time, and what was the point in being a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist if you couldn't build your own heart monitor that can be plugged in to your tech and works specifically with your system software in less than 16 minutes?
"Progress is looking encouraging, Sir. Construction of the device will commence shortly." The familiar disembodied voice replied.
"Cool," Tony muttered, nodding his head in approval as he slid his shirt off and began wrapping the transmitter belt around his chest. This was the other benefit of designing his own heart rate monitor; it meant that he was able to customize it to take into account his arc reactor. The belt had a circular hole at the front that fitted around the reactor, and stuck incredibly close to the skin. He had made the transmitter sensitive enough that it should have been able to pick up the electrical activity caused by his heart muscle contracting, despite the fact that the detector plate was not directly above the organ. He'd checked and re-checked the Math, and he was pretty sure it was going to work out fine; he just needed to test it. His fingers fiddled with the receiver that was plugged in via USB to one of his computers. It's job was to pick up the electromagnetic signal coming from the belt that contained the heart rate data and send it through the wire to the computer, where it would be displayed, along with billions of other facts and figures. Pretty simple really. Well, simple for the guy who had made the Iron Man suit from bits of scrap and deconstructed weaponry in the middle of a scorching desert.
"Your blood test results are ready, Sir," J.A.R.V.I.S said and Tony's head snapped up to stare at the screen. His shoulders sagged a little in disappointment. His levels were completely normal. "There appears to have been a small peak in oxytocin and serotonin earlier, Sir, but this was most likely caused by your body's natural response to your interaction with Mr. Laufeyson." If his AI had had a face, Tony was pretty sure it would have been smirking at that point. Well, fuck, he thought. His response to Lokiwas apparently not due to a hormone imbalance after all, but due to natural attraction. Like that wasn't the most singularly terrifying thought he'd ever had? How could he be attracted to Loki fucking Laufeyson? The man who was not only as mad as a hatter, who enjoyed trying to subjugate entire races and who killed for fun, but who also was a fucking man. A.k.a someone who did not possess a vagina. How could Tony possibly be attracted to a man –a male demigod –whatever? He would have to take his heart rate to make sure he was in fact attracted (man that word was hard for his mind to get around) to Loki, only then could he make arrangements for his suicide.
"Okay, J.A.R.V.I.S, fire up the receiver, let's get some data." He took a deep breath and when the computer beeped at him to know the heart rate monitor was ready, he began to think about board meetings and Fury's lectures and signing documents… all the boring things he could think of just to get a base level to work with, an idea of what his normal heart rate was like. The monitor continued it's steady beeping for a minute, and Tony's eyes traced the even peaks and pits on the screen. Then, he let himself flood his mind with images of Loki. He concentrated his thoughts on the memory of Loki against him, of his kisses, the taste of his mouth, the sound of his voice, raspy in his ear. The result was immediate. The green line peaked then fell dramatically, and the beeping became rapid staccatos of sound, almost blurring into each other to form one long high pitched squeak. Tony cursed and typed out the sequence on the keyboard that ended the monitoring. The beeping stopped.
"Fuck." he called out to his empty lab, bringing the heels of his hands up to rub his eyes.
"Not the results you wanted, Sir?" J.A.R.V.I.S asked, barely attempting to sound innocent.
"Shut up, J.A.R.V.I.S," Tony growled removing his hands from his face and moving to look back at the screen. "It was one trial," he muttered to himself, "Probably just my body subconsciously acting like that on purpose to see if the machine worked, observer effect and all that…I just need more trials…J.A.R.V.I.S, run it again." He closed his eyes and sat back into his chair, taking several calming breaths.
"As you wish, Sir," came the reply, and then the sound of steady beeping filled the air again. He was thinking about mundane things once more when he felt the pressure in the room change, and his ears pop.
"Sir…" J.A.R.V.I.S said haltingly, and Tony snapped his eyes open and wheeled round to see none other than fucking Loki standing barely ten feet away from him. Tony faintly heard the sudden increase in frequency of beeping coming from the heart rate monitor behind him, and mentally noted that, no, the previous reading probably wasn't an anomaly, he was probably just screwed. In which way he wasn't too sure of at that point. He also realised abruptly that he was now sitting half naked with a mass murderer in the room. The same mass murderer who, merely hours previously, had had his tongue down Tony's throat. He heard the beeping increase again as his heart rate peaked once more. Jesus Christ, he thought, what the fuck is wrong with me?
Loki's mouth was curved into that familiar devilish grin but his eyebrows furrowed slightly in curiosity at the racket Tony's computer was making. The mortal flailed his arms about behind him, his cheeks burning red, desperately trying to shut off the heart monitor without turning his back on the demigod. He typed in the wrong sequence and a loud honking started echoing around the room, complete with red flashing lights. Loki looked like he was about to actually laugh out loud as Tony called out, his hands still scrambling over keys, "Fuck! Shit! J.A.R.V.I.S shut it off!"
Barely-audible-over-the-sirens, J.A.R.V.I.S said, "As you wish, Sir," before the room fell into a blessed silence.
Upon hearing the disembodied voice, Loki had started, eyes immediately on the ceiling. "What was that?" he muttered, and Tony almost fucking laughed at the fact that the God of Mischief was getting all panicky not because of a team of fucking superheroes, but because of a computer program –that is, he would have laughed, had he not been too busy hyperventilating in sheer panic.
"That's… J.A.R.V.I.S," he managed to gasp out in between large inhalations of oxygen, "Artificial Intelligence." Cue big deep breath. "He runs the house." And another. He kept his eyes trained on the demigod, practically feeling the rush of adrenaline as it coursed through his veins, his fight or flight instinct kicking in. The question was, would he fight or fly?
"Fascinating," Loki whispered, his voice raspy with, wait, was that…wonder? He gazed around at the ceiling, almost as if he was expecting some weird contraption fresh out of "Portal" to descend (not that he would have known what "Portal" was mind you, but the analogy remained accurate).
Tony was unsure how to act in such a situation. No previous life experience had prepared him for the current circumstances. One of the most dangerous men in existence was interested in his AI.
He figured he might as well introduce them. "J.A.R.V.I.S, this is Loki Laufeyson, notorious super-villain, and general pain in the Avengers' ass. Loki, this is J.A.R.V.I.S, my greatest invention."
"You flatter me, Sir," the AI said dryly, before addressing Loki directly, "It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Laufeyson." The whole time J.A.R.V.I.S spoke, Loki stood smiling up at the ceiling in apparent amazement, and Tony had to admit, he looked good when he smiled. More carefree and innocent, less dangerous, unhinged and filled with blood lust.
"The pleasure is mine, J.A.R.V.I.S," Loki replied, inclining his head in acknowledgement. Tony remained bewildered at the scene playing out before him. He was considering interrupting them before they began befriending each other or something else that was just as crazy, but it turned out he didn't have to, Loki turned his attention from the ceiling to the mortal and fixed him with a heated stare.
"Er, Hi," Tony said warily, as the demigod began to freaking stalk towards him in a way that was altogether far too predatory to be socially acceptable.
"If I asked you what the fuck you're doing here, I don't suppose you'd answer, huh?" He wheeled back in his chair until it met with his desk, once again trying to maximise space between him and the demigod,fully aware that he was still very much topless. He wondered if all their meetings would be spent like this: him trying to get as far away as possible and Loki forever stalking closer and closer, a perpetual game of cat and mouse.
"I said I'd be back," Loki replied simply, a smile playing on his lips. Despite all of Tony's desperate efforts to deny whatever his feelings for Loki were, he couldn't help but admit that the smile was freaking sexy. It was sly, it was mischievous, and it sent blood running to all the wrong places.
"…Right," Tony nodded, subconsciously wetting his lips. He saw Loki's eyes dart down to his mouth then back to his eyes and colour flooded Tony's cheeks once more. He reached a hand up to his chest and scratched underneath the transmitter belt near the edge of his arc reactor. Loki's eyes traced the movement, and a small line appeared between in eyebrows.
"What is that?" he demanded.
"What is what?" Tony asked back, snatching his hand away from his chest and moving it to rest casually on the armrest of his office chair. "The blue glowing circular thing or the black belt thing?"
"You are always so eloquent, Mr. Stark," the demigod smirked, inching closer until they were only three feet apart.
"Fuck you, Loki" Tony retorted. A second later Loki was standing in front of his chair, leaning down over him, his hands once again wrapped round the now familiar part of Tony's wrists, pinning them to the arm rests. His face edged into Tony's personal space and the proximity, mixed with the spicy scent of the demigod before him, made the mortal feel light headed.
"Oh I fully intend you to," Loki whispered seductively, voice low, tilting his head up so that his lips brushed against Tony's. "But first, tell me what the black belt does."
"No," Tony stammered, his heart beating faster than a drum and he realised with sudden horror that he was very, very hard.
There was no way in hell he was just going to explain everything to the God of Lies. What would he even say? Oh yeah, this is a heart monitor, I've been using it to see if I'm attracted to you, but seeing as you were practically sat on my cock earlier, I guess you already know the answer to that.
"Oh? Then, tell me what the blue disc does," Loki muttered, his teeth now grazing along Tony's jaw. The mortal subconsciously titled his head back, letting out a little gasp of air. Fuck, he needed space, he needed more oxygen, his head was fuzzy and he could barely think straight. What was going on? How could Loki affect him like this?
"Double no," he mumbled, rearing his head back, away from Loki's mouth, "definitely, definitely, no". The last thing he wanted to do was explain the arc reactor, the thing keeping him alive, to freaking Loki Laufeyson. In fact, he was pretty sure that was the worst idea in the history of ideas. Who knows when he'd try and use that knowledge against him? Suddenly he felt Loki's long fingers grab his chin and move his face so that it was an inch from the demigod's, those blue eyes boring into his own again, and he felt like he was going to spontaneously combust because his body was burning with so much heat.
"You're not being very fair, Stark," Loki crooned, eyes bright. "You will explain one to me, or else I will rip that curious blue disc out of your chest and examine it myself. That or crush it into dust. Seeing as that is the object of the two that looks as if it is physically attached to your body, I'm sure it is the item you would least like to see pulverised." He punctuated his threat with a little smile, and the word psychopath flashed across Tony's mind.
"The belt…" Tony began immediately, and he swore he saw a look of disappointment flash across Loki's face. Probably because the arc reactor intrigued the tall man more, and hey, fair enough, it's blue and shiny, but you know, tough shit, Tony thought. Loki had given the billionaire a choice, and clearly he was going to pick the one that yeah, was probably going to cause the most embarrassment, but it was also the one that wasn't going to result in his immediate, or near enough immediate, death.
He coughs. "The belt measures my heart rate, my uh, my pulse… when I do, certain things, or think about… certain things. You could say it measures excitement. I built it this evening."
"You built this?" Loki asked, and after seeing the mortal nod, he released his hold on Tony's chin in order to trace a finger along the black material, eyes following his finger's movements. He seemed impressed. Not that Tony noticed, of course, seeing as he was too busy trying not to shiver at the feel of Loki touching his chest through only one layer of material. "Show me how it works," the demigod whispered, looking up at him through his lashes. And at the sight of that the only coherent thought going through Tony's mind was a mantra of fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
Tony was quite tempted to simply refuse, but he prided himself on his genius, and he was smart enough to know that if he did refuse then Loki would just beat the crap out of him again, or maybe even ask J.A.R.V.I.S to explain the machine for him instead. Neither of those scenarios appealed to the billionaire, so he thought he'd just comply with the demigod's wishes. And hey, being the first out of himself and Steve to tell Fury about Loki, and then showing the God of Mischief the machine he built to measure his attraction to that same God? He was being all kinds of brave today. Hell, he probably deserved some kind of medal.
"You'll have to move away for a second to fully appreciate its functioning," Tony muttered softly. The demigod backed away five feet or so without a word, just silently studying the mortal. Tony closed his eyes and spent an entire minute calming his rapid heartbeat, solely focussing on gardening, invoices, dinner parties with people he hated, chick flicks, slow cars, everything he could think of that was mundane, dull and boring.
"Okay, activate heart monitor please, J.A.R.V.I.S," He said out loud. "But keep the volume low this time, I don't want my ears bleeding." The AI remained silent, apparently intelligent enough to know that's what was best, and Tony heard the device whir into life. He began repeating the roll call of dreary things, whilst paying some attention to the steady beeping of the monitor, just to make sure it was constant.
When he was sure that his heart was thudding at a normal rate in his chest, he took a deep breath, letting it rattle out of his lungs in a rush of carbon dioxide, before opening his eyes and settling them on Loki. The increase in heart rate was just as instantaneous as before. He could feel his heart practically battering against his arc reactor as icy blue eyes found his and he couldn't decipher whether the ringing in his ears was coming from the incessant beeping of the monitor, which although much quieter now, was still just as annoying, or from the blood pounding furiously in his head.
"Oh," Loki said, his eyes widening in understanding. Then his face stretched into a terrifying, impish grin as he said once more: "Oh."
A/N: Please R&R, npeg and I love hearing your thoughts and opinions. Also please go read npeg's amazing Stove fic: Drowning In A Sea of Stars, it's simply beautiful. And I'm not just saying that because I'm related to the author.