A/N: I actually really like the way this chapter came out. I mean who can really know what an interaction between Tony and the Gods of Asgard is gonna be like. Probably not so well...
I don't own The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head.
Tony starts to idly wonder if he should try and get back in shape by the time they read the Hall. His legs are feeling wobbly as he tried not to lean any weight on Loki at all. He's aware that he's getting strange looks from other Asgardians as they walk and he keeps his head up and straight.
Tony can see a man in grand robes, and a staff, sitting in a large throne ahead of them, and a woman with some of the most elaborate hair Tony's ever seen, and he's seen a lot, and he knows that he might be a little over his head.
The trio stops at the stairs and Thor immediately kneels, pulling Loki down with him, who in turn pulls Tony down when the belt is pulled. Tony blinked a little when his one knee hit the ground. He never thought his take this pose, whether it be kneeling to a god and king, or proposing marriage. Tony stark did not get down on one knee.
Tony looks up and see Odin stand and start to walk towards them, and he concludes that the Allfather is not happy. One of the guards takes the container with the tesseract as Thor stands when Odin approaches. They start to talk in the same language that Loki had been using with his spells and Tony concludes that it must some kind of Ancient Norse. Loki winces a little at the words, but hasn't moved from his position.
Tony's eyes widened and he almost jumps back when Odin is suddenly standing in front of him. He pulled Tony up by the arm and Loki is pulled with him, thanks to the belt that Tony had failed to remove. Odin reaches out to touch Tony's arc reactor and he responds on survival instinct to slap away Odin's hand and take a few steps back.
'Way to go Stark,' Tony groans inwardly when he hears gasps and guards moving towards him with their weapons at the ready.
"I got this thing with people touching what's mine," Tony echoes words he used when talking to Thor. It seemed like forever ago, but less than a week when this mess had started. He can feel Loki and Thor planning his funeral.
Odin narrows his eyes in curiosity at Tony before waving away the guards. He reaches a hand out again, this time towards Tony's head and he can't help but lean his head back a little. He could have sworn that he heard Loki call out before Odin's fingers touch his temple.
Tony suddenly sees himself trying to get his fathers attention, the funeral for his parents, taking over Stark Industries, and then he's back in the damned cave. He sees Yinsen, the Ten Rings, and his first Iron Man suit. He feels the tortures, and the weight of the car battery in his arms, and then Stane as he falls into the arc reactor in the warehouse. Hammer and Ivan plotting his death, and he can feel the palladium in his body slowly killing him, the race in Monaco, Rhodey taking his suit, and then the battle at the Stark Expo. He starts to see flashes of the past week with Loki and that's when Tony pushes against the memories. He has to make them stop, he doesn't need more reminders of his shortcomings.
And suddenly he's on the floor, on his hands and knees, and he's so damned hot! He's breathing in and out of his mouth harder than he's ever done before and he can feel the sweat dripping off of his face and neck. There are hands on his shoulders, a voice trying to talk to him, and he's vaguely aware that the voice also sounds out of breath.
"Tony!" His eyes snap up to see Loki's face, cheeks flushed red, eyes wide. Tony blinks as he looks into Loki's eyes. He then starts to take off the damned belt that keeps them physically connected and stands up quickly, and shakily. Loki stands to help him but Tony just puts out a hand and then rounds on Odin. He suddenly doesn't care where he is and who is in front of him.
"You had no right!" He raises his voice and points at the Allfather and he's aware of the guards moving again. "How dare you- you- you invade my head like that!" Tony has never felt so angry, and just pure pissed off.
"I had to see what kind of man you were, Son of Howard," Odin responds calmly.
"Don't call me that," Tony growls out. "I made my reputation, my name, not my father, I don't care what your traditions are!" Tony feels a hand on his arm from behind but ignores it, ignores the rising sense of calm threatening to take away his deserved anger. He needs to stay angry. Doesn't he?
Odin merely raises his head as he regards Tony. "I find it interesting that you managed to push me away from some of your thoughts and memories. Specifically the ones about Loki."
"That's because my thoughts and memories are just that, mine, so stay away." If Thor hasn't had a heart attack yet he must be having several strokes. He turns his head and sees that it's Loki keeping a hand on Tony's arm and that said hand it glowing softly. The same color as the arc reactor.
"I warn you mortal to remember your place in my hall," Odin's voice is stern and commanding, but Tony's not about to back down yet. "You are an uninvited visitor here, and are interfering with Asgardian matters."
"You mean deciding what kind of punishment to pass down on Loki without hearing anything he might have to say in his defense?" Tony caught the eye of Odin, wondering if dying by the hands of a King makes his death any cooler. He can hear Thor hissing at him to hold his tongue. He doesn't. "That's what the fancy mouth plate was for right? To hold back his words and magic?"
"You speak of things you do not know!" Odin boomed. "These are matters that do not concern the likes of you, mortal!"
"I think they very well do," Tony didn't raise his voice, even though he longed too.
"Stark," this time Loki is hissing his name. "Stop your incessant interference this instant."
"No, I won't." Tony shook his head looking around at the three prominent men in the room. "I said that I would help people when I-" he stopped, not thinking about the cave, "-and that's just what I'm doing."
"This is not that cave, and this is not the same." Tony quickly turned back to Loki. He never told anyone about what happened. "We are bound," his hissed out, a slight smirk on his lips. "I see what you see." And suddenly Tony felt a little sick.
"These are the affairs of Asgard-"
"That affected the realm of Midgard!" Tony cut Odin off, turning back to face him. "You can have your tesseract back, I don't care, but don't go ignoring us, because I just helped defend a realm that you couldn't be bothered to care about."
"Do you represent Midgard?" Odin raised an eyebrow at Tony. Tony wondered briefly what Fury would like with the gold eye patch.
"Yes," Tony answered, thinking that things might go better if he said so. Fury was going to have his ass on a spit the second he came back.
"Although I do not condone his words and actions," Thor cut in, but Tony kept his eyes on Odin, "he fought valiantly, as any Aesir would. He was willing to sacrifice his life for the realm." Because Tony hadn't been reminded that he almost lost his life with that nuke yet today.
"One does not so blindly bond their life force with a mortal," Odin commented looking between Tony and Loki. "Especially, Loki."
"Life force?" Tony raised an eyebrow and glanced back at Loki for second.
"You agreed to the spell, did you not?" Tony scrunched his eyebrows but nodded. "Then you must be aware that you now hold half of his powers and life force inside of you."
Tony looked back down at the reactor with the green glow and glanced back at Loki, and suddenly understood why the god looked more tired. He looked at Odin and straightened. "Then you would listen as I petition to take Loki back to Midgard with me?" Tony had never felt such tension fill a room so quickly. Sure, he was no stranger to tension, no that was normal. But this was suffocating.
"He is Asgardian, and part of this court," Odin approached Tony again. "He must answer to his crimes against both our realm, and then yours."
"Then exile him to Midgard, and I will stand as his, um, Guardian?" Tony wasn't sure what he would be called.
"You would dare to tell me how to hand out punishment? In my halls?" Odin's voice was dangerously quiet.
"I'm trying to expedite the process," Tony said, his hands gesturing at nothing in particular. "Why waste time with a trial and all that petty little stuff? We don't even like that stuff down on Midgard."
"You are a poor ambassador," Odin told the shorter man.
"Well, I didn't exactly come here with the job in mind, but I try to adapt." Tony shrugged a little. "If you send Loki back down to Midgard with me I can help him try to make amends, he can help us better our defense, so that we don't have to fight the next time we feel a threat is coming. I once privatized world peace, and it felt pretty good. I wanna try it again."
"There is something that you have yet to tell me mortal," Odin raised his hand again and Tony took a large step back.
"I'll tell you, no need to try the mind trip again," Tony quickly placated. "I'm saying that Loki isn't entirely to blame for what happened on Midgard." This had caught the attention of everyone in the room. The woman had walked closer and was standing next to Odin, and the way she put her hand on his arm he figured that must be his wife, and Thor and Loki's mother.
"Explain yourself," Odin demanded. Tony had never been ordered around so much by someone who wasn't trying to kill him.
"You know that the tesseract is powerful, well there was a little bit of that power in the staff that had been given to Loki." Tony could practically feel Loki cringing as Tony talked. Loki was a proud man, and that's what had gotten him into trouble in the first place. "He was more or less manipulated with his emotions, that he fantastically hides. A good portion of his actions were not exactly his own. I myself actually saw when the change happened, when he broke free of that control."
"Was it before or after you offered me a drink?" Loki asked, knowing the answer, a smirk on his face.
"Oh, it was most definitely after you threw me out of my window," Tony answer, glancing over to Loki, a smirk on his face.
The woman, (Friggahe heard in his head in Loki's voice), leaned in to talk to Odin. "I have no reason to doubt this mortal. If everything that he says is not true, he would not go the lengths he is to defend Loki as such." Odin merely hummed.
"How do you know that this is true? Loki is an excellent wordsmith," Odin challenged.
"Don't I know it," Tony huffed a little. "He kind put the same mind whammy-" he stopped when three gods looked at with confusion. "He used the same kind of mind control on several, possible dozens, or people, including one of our team." Loki looked down slightly. "There were tell tale signs, and Loki exhibited all of them. I observe things like this, it's part of my job."
"You also are gifted with words, mortal," Odin said to Tony.
"Tony is fine," Tony told him. "Mortal really isn't a nickname I like."
"Tony Stark," Odin straightened and looked at Tony, then down to Loki. "Loki Odinson. I will now pass my judgement."
