A/N: Sorry for taking so long to post this! Enough of you reviewed or PM'd me asking for an update that I decided to hunker down this morning and crank something out. Feel free to start poking me if I take too long again. :)
No idea where this is going, ehhh heh, but oh well.
Also, keep an eye out for a new fic that I'll start posting within the next few days. It involves even more Loki/Tony shenanigans! ;)
Accomplices
Steve and Thor were sitting on the living room couch, sipping coffee and discussing the finer points of smashing things when Tony plopped down next to them, looking halfway between resigned and miffed. A red baseball cap was perched incongruously atop his head, and tufts of black hair peeked out from under it.
Tony gave his friends a look that all but dared them to ask. Steve did.
"What's with the hat?"
Thor hummed in agreement and angled himself to better look at Tony.
Tony sighed, slumped, and craned his neck back until his head rested on the back of the couch. "Loki replaced my shampoo with glue," he answered.
Thor nodded as though Tony's words had confirmed something in his mind. Steve coughed and sipped at his coffee to mask his laughter. He would be sure to double check his own shampoo from then on.
"Oh, I'm sure it's not that bad," Steve said, trying to reassure his friend. He schooled his expression into one more sympathetic and less amused.
"Are you, now?" Tony challenged, rolling his head along the back of the couch until he was staring directly at Steve.
Thor was suspiciously silent, his expression thoughtful.
"Yes," Steve answered bluntly. He and Tony stared at each other for a long moment.
"You just want me to take off the hat, don't you?"
"Yes, yes I do."
Tony sighed melodramatically and sat up. He took off the hat – wincing and tugging a bit when it stuck to his hair – with a jaunty bow and a flourish. His hair molded to his scalp where the hat had been and then stuck out in stiff spikes where it had not. Steve let out a snort of laughter and clapped a hand over his mouth.
"It's not funny, Steve," Tony whined.
Steve bit back a smirk. "No, no, of course not," Steve replied. His voice wavered with suppressed laughter.
Thor smiled and shook his head but did not look terribly surprised. "At least you still have hair," he said. "He cut off all of Sif's once. We all still have scars from that."
Tony looked at Thor with wide eyes and then cupped his hands protectively over his hair. "Well, that certainly puts things in perspective," he sighed. "But he... didn't mess with your shampoo?"
Thor and Steve exchanged glances before shaking their heads. Tony groaned and slumped back against the couch again.
"Every few hours, it's something new," Tony groaned, cupping his hands over his face. "Please, someone, get the boy a hobby."
"I think that is his hobby," Steve replied oh so helpfully.
"So let me get this straight," Thor said, rubbing his chin broodingly, "Loki has been bombarding you almost exclusively with annoying but harmless pranks all week?"
"Yeah," Tony replied, trying to read the meaning in Thor's deadly-serious expression. Steve sat by awkwardly, sipping his coffee. "What does that mean? Oh God, does he has some annoying not-so-harmless prank planned for me?"
Tony gripped the edge of the couch, tensing as though afraid that Loki would strike at any moment.
"Actually, I think it means he likes you."
Tony blinked. "Oh." With a nervous laugh, he uncurled his fingers from their white-knuckled grip. "Well, that's a good thing, right? It's better than having him hate me, isn't it?"
"Actually, in some ways it's worse."
Steve gave Tony's hair another appraising look. "So it would seem," he agreed.
The three men stilled as the sound of someone whistling approached the living room. Tony groaned and thunked his head against the back of the couch when he recognized the chorus of "Bad Romance". Loki shuffled into the doorway moments later, still wearing Tony's clothes – a Black Sabbath t-shirt and plaid pajama pants this time – and letting his hair curl. Again Tony was thrown by how... normal he looked.
Then again, he supposed that "normal" was in the eye of the beholder.
The whistling died off when Loki caught sight of the three Avengers, and he stared back at them with wide, too-innocent green eyes. His stare lingered on Tony for moment, and he snickered. Tony glowered and pulled the hat back over his hair.
"You," the human growled, pointing an accusatory finger Loki's way.
"Me?" Loki cocked his head to the side. His smile crooked higher on the left side, and Tony found that terribly distracting. "Oh, by the way, I tie-dyed your favorite suit. Good day."
Tony roared and sprang to his feet. Cackling evilly, Loki spun on his heel and took off down the hallway, Tony in hot pursuit.
Steve and Thor watched after them for a long moment. Seconds later there was a resounding crash and a loud cuss from Tony.
Steve sighed and finished off his coffee. Someone should probably make sure Tony hadn't broken something important.
"Looks like your brother has recovered," he said as he rose to his feet.
"Unfortunately."
"I was half expecting him to take off once he could move."
Thor favored Steve with a weary, long-suffering look. "To be honest, so was I."
More shouting, and then a sound like breaking glass. "Oh dear," Steve sighed.
"Verily."
An hour later, Tony found himself in his workshop, sitting across from Loki and playing Battleship. He had no idea how that had happened.
Tony cracked his knuckles and studied the board. "E4," he said after some deliberation.
"Go fish."
Tony arched an eyebrow at Loki over the partition. "I don't think you understand the concept of this game."
Loki smiled wickedly, and Tony was again struck by the pleasing symmetry of his face, the expressive quality of those green, green eyes. "I understand that your battleship missed mine," he replied imperiously, "and I think that, maybe, its crew should take up fishing instead."
Tony rubbed at the ache forming in the middle of his forehead. "I don't think that's how it works," he sighed. "Anyway, it's your turn, smart-ass."
Loki smirked at the epithet. He almost seemed to take it as a compliment. "B6," he said.
"Go fish."
Loki laughed, and Tony found himself smiling like an idiot. "C... 9?"
Loki's eyes darted to the side shiftily, and Tony saw him move something on his side of the partition. "Miss."
Tony eyed him narrowly. "Did you just move one of your ships?"
"Maybe."
Tony laughed and shook his head. He was not exactly surprised.
He leaned back in his chair and studied Loki's face. Loki stared down at the board, brow furrowed in concentration, when he felt the weight of the human's scrutiny and returned the stare. His eyes spelled a question.
"Will you stop pranking me now?" Tony asked.
Loki grinned and sat back, mimicking Tony's posture and studying the human in turn. He shrugged. "If you find some other way to keep me entertained."
Immediately, Tony's thoughts turned less than innocent. "I'm sure I can think of a few things," he said with a lascivious smirk.
Loki's eyebrows rose to meet his hairline. "Not quite what I meant," he laughed. Then he paused as though considering. "But maybe." He looked at Tony out of the corner of his eye and favored him with a sly smile.
"Thor would kill me."
"Thor would kill you," Loki agreed. He tilted his head and stroked a finger over his chin. "Unless we keep him occupied."
"Occupied?"
Loki's lopsided smile was anything but reassuring.
