Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Avenger characters.
Tony's New Assistant, part 10
"Your brother, Loptr? You have a brother and you didn't tell me?" Tony pouted and attempted to make what some people apparently referred to as 'puppydog eyes.' Loptr thought the phrase somewhat disturbing. Even as a puppy, Fenrir's eyes had looked nothing like that, nor anything much like begging, either.
"You should invite him over! We can have a family dinner. And you can show off how much more successful you are than him. I'll talk you up and be a perfect host, I promise."
Tony was talking too much, again, but Loptr was pretty comfortable at this point, keeping half an ear open to make sure he didn't miss anything while ignoring most of the words. It was not at all surprising that Tony understood about wanting to outclass family members.
If any of his so-called family ever did make it down here, Loki would make sure that they had the pleasure of being hosted by Tony. And that Tony had the pleasure of upstaging the gods of Asgard. Because, really, if anyone could do it, Tony could.
Loki was pleased with his patron. Tony was smart and sneaky and had found a way to make his weakness into a strength, with his shredded heart and his flying armor. He understood the benefits of tricks and lies and understood the problems as well.
Loki had thought himself unusually lucky to have fallen into such company.
But now, after meeting the man named Fury, Loki wondered. Were lies and tricks such a part of Midgard society that it was not luck but inevitability that Loki would find such a one?
On Asgard, Loki had been alone in his mischief.
On Midgard, there was Tony and the foreign researchers he had contacted online and now the man Fury.
Fury had looked like Odin and Heimdall and yet in some ways he acted more like Loki himself, with his curiosity and his unspoken threats. It had unnerved Loki.
In his uncertainty, Loki had spoken perhaps more truth and fewer questions than he might otherwise have. Had his instincts betrayed him or proved true? Truth sometimes made for the very best of lies, and if Odin were to ever fix the Bifrost, then any lies of his would have to be carefully interwoven with the truth, such that all evidence would support his statements.
Tony did not know of Thor or of the Asgard and while the man Fury knew of Thor, he would know only that which Thor had spoken of.
He wondered if the man Fury had the power and the interest to take the bait Loki had offered regarding the bridge. If he did, then Loki could learn more of what had happened when Thor had been banished here and what had been seen when the bridge had been destroyed.
Whether the bait was taken or not, though, just this one visit had given him a better sense of which lies would be believed and which ones would be doubted. And he had met one of the people who would make those judgments.
Loki found himself grinning.