Well okay, I got 100% votes last time; as in you all voted for the same thing. All of you. So no problem figuring out which way to go now…
I did a hell of a lot of contemplating over this one, so I hope it's okay… Also I butchered the crap out of everything you ever knew, but hey, creative license, so all you myth followers; sorry, but you'll have to deal.
Holy moly, I'm still writing this but I just realised how long it is… o.o too bad though, I can't cut the chapter in half and add a random question, so uber long chap it is for you…
Anyways, enjoy if you can
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"Is my heritage not reason enough?" he asks sourly, sinking to the floor and bringing the scientists with him to lean back on the bench.
"No." Tony pries. After long moments of nothing other than the god rubbing his eyes he asks again, "Loki, please."
Truthfully, Tony has no idea what he really means about his heritage not being enough to make him emotionally screwed. He's adopted; so what? Heaps of people are adopted.
Somehow, he doesn't think that's the tale he's going to hear here.
"Loki," Banner emphasises, "We just want to help."
"My experiences with people 'just wanting to help' do not turn your words in your favour." Loki replied, pulling his hands away from his eyes and lets his head fall back against the bench while his arms fall to the floor. Tony could see the gloss covering the gods eyes as he looked at the ceiling, but there aren't any tears in sight. Which is good; humans shouldn't watch gods cry. It's not meant for their eyes, and he's seen it once already.
They sat there and waited, silently pushing for answers. Tony was about to speak again when Loki's voice broke the room; "I shall tell you the tale of the day my lips were sown shut."
"Because you cut the girl's hair?" Bruce asked, already enthralled, attracted because he's heard of this myth and he wants to hear more. Loki lets loose a self-depreciating chuckle, and his head lolls on the bench, one hand coming up to gesture flippantly.
"No, not quite." He said, closing his eyes against the light. Another chuckle, "Not like that at all." His voice is clearer now. "Understand, before I begin, this is far from the worst thing I have endured. It happened possibly half of my life ago – or two thirds – somewhere between those times." His brow creased faintly as he tried to figure it out, before it lifted and he again began regaling his tale, "We were heading back home; returning to the castle after collecting the jewel of Rabdh – a personal quest Thor sought out…
"Brother, stop you're stalling, let us away!" Thor called back to Loki whom had stopped.
"No, Brother. We are in danger." He replied, a hand hovering at his side testing the air whilst his other gripped the bag and jewel tightly. Thor gave a wide sweep of the forest they were on the edge of, trees surrounded them, but they were widely parted.
"There is naught a presence here." He gave a sweep of the area with one arm, full of confidence. "You're trickery deceives even you. What have I told you; there is no place for such matters in battle!" he teased.
"Thor." Loki silenced him with a potent look. The princes stood in the forest and waited, Thor becoming ever more restless with the want to move, and Loki restless due to the trouble he could sense.
"We must-" Thor began, only to stop himself when he hears the crunching of leaves underfoot. Neither of them had moved, "Show yourselves!" he bellowed to the area, "Show yourselves and fight us with honour!" he raised his hand, therefore displaying mjolnir to all present.
Loki clenched his eyes tightly; they would not show themselves, he could feel their magic; they had themselves cloaked. He spread his own magic as far as he could, the grey plains of what he could see in his mind's eye showing the outline of the enemies. Too many. "Thor, we must leave quickly."
"Nay, Brother! Never fun from a fight, you must learn this to become a warrior!"
"Thor! There are too many!"
"Yet I cannot see one!" He suddenly fell forward, a force striking him in the back. He swiped his arm around in retaliation, contact immediate with an unseen force, "Brother?" he cried, trepidation heavy in his voice.
"On your left!" The younger instructed and the elder followed through with his movements, cutting through another foe. It was now that more shapes began to take form in his searching vision. Too many, too many. "Right! On your six! Left! Duck! Brother, swing down!" he yelled the instructions over the sounds of metal hitting substance. Initially they trained on Thor only, but soon found that the darker haired was the more challenging foe, the one who could discern where they were. Loki found himself battling his own foe, eyes still closed to his surroundings all whilst trying to dictate Thor's movements. "Brother I cannot do this longer!" he called to the blonde who had taken to swinging haphazardly in the absence of his brother's instruction. It was true; the magic tired him, he was constantly chanting to see their presence, giving his brother aid, trying to protect the jewel and fighting for himself. Too much.
"Loki! Get us out of here!" Thor responded, battling his way to his partner. Loki pulled his staff up and slammed the tip to the ground as though he wanted to split it in half. With a small string of words and a loud cry smoke erupted from the ground, pouring thick into the air and destroying all vision. Chanting as softly as he could he reached for Thor's arm and pulled them both away from the enemy, through the trees and across the country plains. Soon they would be back at the palace.
They stood in front of the king and his royal court, the tale of the mishappenings previously having spilled from both their lips.
"Loki, you have run from battle?" Their father asked, standing above the kneeling princes.
"Yes, father." He responded respectful as always.
"Then you have disgraced the honour of your family." His voice was loud and boomed through the court, "What have you to say in defence?"
"Father, I am truly sorry, but I saw no other option. There were too many."
"This is what comes from spending your time studying forms of trickery as opposed to forms of battle! Had you been trained in ways that Thor has been you would have faced no match, instead you mock the court and your family's honour with a desire to study the woman's trade!"
"Father, without my magic we would not have seen such an opponent, we would never have suspected the-"
"Silence!" The all father bellowed over the court, "You persist to disobey my command to learn in the ways of battle, and then cannot even protect your brother in a woman's trade? This is unacceptable, have you learnt nothing of your time in Alfheim?" Loki flinched noticeably, "Clearly not!"
"But father-"
"Your disrespect is not welcome in our court! You shall be sent to Muspelheim until such a time that you have learnt your lesson!" He ordered.
"Father no!"
"You shall cease-"
"No Father!" Loki interrupted, receiving scathing looks from the entire audience, but none as hard as the one he received from Odin, "I have yet to heal from Alfheim. I implore you, please reconsider."
"Thor." Odin continued, ignoring the younger prince in favour of his elder, "You have done well to fight as you have in the light of Loki's inability. You are to head to the healing rooms after the court and have yourself tendered to." Thor gave a nod and Odin turned back to the younger, fixing him with a long look. "Loki Odinson; for your dishonour to the court, you will be sent to Muspelheim until you understand the honour you have disregarded. You have begged me to reconsider, so I shall make the process easier for you," he turned and took a box off one of the servants, walking down the steps and handing it to Thor, "Thor Odinson, you have been given this task; sow your brothers lips shut. This will stop him from being able to conjure any magic and will aid him in finding the wrongs of his ways."
"Yes father." Thor nodded, taking the box from the glowering King.
"No father! This is uneeded-"
"Silence, this is your punishment. Bear it like the man you are yet to become." He turned and walked back up the stairs to his throne – he would see to it that his elder delivered the punishment to the younger.
"Brother please," Loki pleaded as the guards took his arms and held them to the ground, another pinning his legs.
"It is Father's word. Father is never wrong." Thor replied, taking the golden thread and hooking it through the needle's eye. Loki fell silent, but his eyes continued to beg with his brother. The needle pulled at his skin.
He fought it, of course he did, bucking and pulling his limbs, trying to move his face away from the pain, but his brother had a strong grip which left bruises along his jawline. It was a haze of pain as the thread pierced his lip time and time again, ripping at the skin on insertion and tearing at the flesh as the golden string was pulled taut. Warmth spread across his mouth and jaw and neck. At first it was due to the pain and adrenaline. Then it was because of the sticky red which flowed from the wounds and didn't stop. Enchanted threads then; the kind that doesn't let you heal. He caused himself more damage as he tried to plead with half his mouth closed and the other half quickly joining in the binds.
The guards hands hefted him upright once it was done. He was still in the court, but the reserved seating had been replaced by people with drinks and varieties of food.
Of course, they always did enjoy the unfolding of punishment.
It made him sick to his core and bile threatened to crawl up his throat. His eyes gave way to streams of water rushing down his dirtied cheeks as he tried to quell the feeling; if he were to throw up he would asphyxiate, he knew this much.
Thor began to lead him through the hall with the guards holding his arms to stop him from stumbling to the ground.
"See you when you get back from Muspelheim!" Thor cried with a bright grin as they parted ways; Thor to the healers and he to the Bifrost. He'd never felt such hatred for his brother before, even if he knew it wasn't his fault…
"They didn't take the string out for thirteen days in the… correction facilities… at Muspelhiem, and even then they only did it so I could heal; the thread stopped all healing, not just the places it touched." Loki finished the tale, his right arm flailed in the general direction of his mouth. His eyes were still closed, head still turned to the roof.
"You're joking." Tony said, because it's the only thing that comes to mind. No way had Thor done that, no way Loki let him do that. Loki's face crumples at his words; brows pull together in pain and lips shape a grimace. Before they stretch to let out another laugh, hollow and empty and his feet dig at the ground whilst his back arcs a small amount.
Loki bangs his head back with a dull clang and says; "I told you, you wouldn't believe me." His face was still crunched.
Tony grabbed at his chin, turning it until it faced him completely. He used the leverage to study the gods lips. They looked absolutely normal; soft pink that dipped and raised and melded with the darker red from his mouth and ended at the pallor of his skin. Scratch looking normal, they looked perfect.
He pulled himself closer, examining the skin. It took a while, but finally, finally he saw the evidence. Small scars littered across both the pink of the lips and the pale of the skin surrounding them. They were tiny and almost completely faded and he knows he never ever would have spotted them without the knowledge they could be there. He thinks that even if he spent all day studying them he wouldn't have spotted them. His thumb swipes at some and the lips part.
But just because they're there doesn't mean the story is true.
He could have had them for cutting the chick's hair – as terrible a punishment that in itself sounds. He looked up, brown eyes locking with green and now he knows, knows the story is true, because eyes are the window to the soul, and eyes don't lie. There is pain in those eyes, but more than that; a desperation. A desperate need to be believed, to be seen.
"You're telling the truth." He says softly and the god nods just as gently, even with the hand still holding his jaw. "He's telling the truth." He says again, louder, this time to Bruce who is watching with an open mouth and wide searching eyes. "I'll kill that bastard." He says suddenly, but still quietly, voice filled with determination. Bruce lets out something along the lines of; 'I can't believe…'
"You won't," Loki rebukes, "Simply because you can't." Tony lets out a sigh – there is no argument to be made there.
"Loki look, you've got to tell us stuff like this," he starts.
"Interaction like that really screws with you." Bruce finished for him. "But if that's the case, where did the story come from?"
"Me. As much as the court found it amusing, and the people of the realm disregarded me in favour of Thor, it would sully his reputation to have fled from battle. So I wove a tail that the others would find fitting."
"So, sowing his brothers mouth shut because of a haircut was better than fleeing from battle?"
Loki opened his eyes again and fixed Tony with an incredulous look, "Well yes." He said as though it were the most obvious thing. It sent crawls across his body, and not the pleasant kind, to know that Loki thought this.
The interaction continued like this for some time, and partway through both Tony and Bruce came to a sickening realisation; Loki still felt that way. The hatred, the pain, the worthlessness. All of it and more, multiplied over century after century.
In the end they told him they just wanted him to be himself around them. Loki looked so put off by the concept, he didn't know how to act like himself. He couldn't act like his other, couldn't act how he did after the other first came to him, and couldn't be himself before that. And now he was after it all, who was he? The simple solution; you just do what you feel like doing, apart from, y'know, killing people.
He agreed.
Easily. With something along the lines of; "I do what I want."
"So," Bruce prompted a few nights later. They had spent the past days collating an order sheet and sending it away because, despite it all, Loki was still going to make that bike for them. The parts were to arrive tomorrow and Tony couldn't help but notice how exited the god was at the prospect. "Loki; singer of all songs – is that true?"
"Excuse me?" Loki asked politely, and god was that weird, that Loki had all of those princely things down to a T.
"Well, you like making music, and that's one of the things I've heard. I just wanted to know if it was true…"
Loki let out a small laugh, spoon filtering through the remainder of the cereal he had been eating because, hey, he does what he wants, and that includes eating cereal at night. "That would be a brobdignagian of songs – perhaps, one day I shall have sung all the songs, but that day is far from now." He points a spoon at Bruce, "How many songs do you think there are?"
"uh, a million?" he gave a quick guess and Loki then pointed the spoon at Tony with a questioning arc of his brow.
"More." Tony supplied.
"More indeed. In this country alone there is approximately… 50 albums published per week, yes?" he received nods form them both; "There are 52 weeks in your year, which makes 2500 albums per year. Multiply this by 69 for the years of the music industry would make 179,400 unique albums since 1943. Should we say 12 songs to an album? 12 by 179,400 is 2,152,800 songs in your country alone. I would suspect, with the songs from before the recording and in the multitude of other countries, not to mention the songs yet to come, that the numbers would far surpass the billions." Tony nods dumbly; he'd tried to do the math as they went, but Loki just kept barrelling on like he'd read the numbers, "I don't suppose you know where I'd find the time to do such things?" He gave them a mocking smile before returning the spoon to the bowl and playing with its contents.
"So I suppose 'Loki; speaker of all tongues' is false too?" Bruce asked after a moment to gather himself.
"Oh no, that one's true." He said standing to flush the milk down the sink.
"Really? That's amazing! There's what, 6500 languages on Earth alone?"
"6909 living languages, although 94% of those languages are only spoken by 6% of your people. I also know the dead languages, as I was trained in them whilst they were still used."
"Okay, I am no longer inclined to believe you; that is too much knowledge." Tony interrupted, "If you can't learn all the songs, why learn all the languages?"
"I never said I couldn't learn all the songs; simply that I haven't. Languages, however, are far more useful and I've had millennia to perfect it; it is not the only thing I know, but it is helpful when trying to communicate."
"If that's true," Tony began, "Then I am taking you with me everywhere I need to do business; you can be my translator, never again will I have to hire random's for every country! Now I have a translating god."
"And why would I do that?" Loki asked walking to the edge of the counter.
"Because you like me." He pronounced proudly. Loki just scoffed and pushed off the marble, muttering something about sleep. "Well I think that went well. What do you reckon his salary should be?" he turned to Bruce who rolled his eyes and said something about bed before leaving. "JARVIS," he spoke to the roof and pouted, "Everyone's leaving me."
"Then perhaps, Sir, you should follow their lead and retire." The AI responded.
"Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. Lock it all down, see you tomorrow JARVIS."
"Goodnight, Sir."
The next morning found Bruce and Tony on the balcony; because it was Saturday and Bruce didn't have to go to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. They squinted in the sunlight and enjoyed the quiet as they ate and drank coffee. In the mid-morning sun everything looked wonderful, no matter that it almost made their eyes bleed even through the shades they wore. The buildings around sparkled as the rays reflected of the windows, the water was a stunning blue and what they could see of central park was an iridescent green. And up here the sounds of the city were drowned out, the wind cooling their bodies from the suns warmth.
Of course the quiet was short lived when the two of them heard a series of crashes inside. They looked to each other and then towards the door, trying to see through the glass to observe whatever had happened.
Another crash.
Loki then came into sight, moving a fair sight quicker than was usual for indoors and pushing at the door, coming out into the sun. Today he wore green converses which wrapped over black skinny jeans and finished with a green shirt.
He only noticed because they paled in comparison to his eyes.
Eyes which soaked in the sun which fell on them without so much as a grimace. His pupil was so far contracted you could barely see it, making his eyes a shattering green which made all thoughts of the beauty of central park leave his mind.
Surprisingly, it was Bruce who spoke first; "Woah." He muttered, clearly seeing the same thing. Damn gods and their perks. Loki threw a momentarily confused glance at the scientist as he leant on the door, "You're eyes are just really green." Tony spoke by way of explanation and Loki immediately returned to rushing across the floor.
"Stark!" he pushed a chair out of the way, felling it to clatter along the ground. So that's where the noises were coming from, "Stark! Come!" Tony was surprised as Loki lifted him from the chair in his excitement, "Come! You must get the pieces to the lab!" Because Loki knew how unwise it would be to contact the public directly and therefore couldn't get the parts from the delivery area, "Doctor, you must come as well!" Loki pulled him up from the chair too.
'Not gonna lie', Tony thought to himself, 's damn cute'. Watching what they had seen as a manic god bent on taking the world pulling at them with a child's excitement, it made him smile easily as it did with Bruce who was failing at his attempt to hide his grin.
From here Loki's eyes were all the more green, pulsing with a joy that didn't fully radiate on his face. It was clear that Loki was trying his damndest not to look incredibly happy or hopeful. The god pushed the both of them to the elevator, urging them to get the parts transferred to somewhere he could touch them.
"Okay okay okay! We'll get the stuff Loki!" Tony called around laughter, "We'll put it in the service elevator and get it up to the shop, but only!" he stressed as the god looked ready to go and wait in the shop, "Only, if you do something first."
"Tony." Bruce reprimanded as Loki schooled himself into a seemingly disinterested state.
"What is it?" he asked digging his hands into the jean pockets. Tony observed the room and noted the knocked over table, chairs, vase and other items that showed clearly the path Loki had taken to get to them.
"First; pick up the stuff you knocked over," Loki glanced around and returned his sight to Tony nodding and blushing ever so slightly, "Second – shut up Bruce – second;" he shushed Bruce's attempt at interrupting, and mused, "I don't think you're really that excited. Give us a smile; show us huh? No walls remember?"
Loki looked to Bruce who gave an encouraging nod, which was more than enough to spur the upwards turn of lips. The upwards turn soon evolved into a full blown smile, tearing at the edges of his face; all teeth but no malice. His eyes crumpled with the anticipation and he spoke still smiling; "I will clean this," he gave a wide gesture, "now go. Go go go go go go-" the closing of the elevator doors was the only reason they lost the sound of his voice.
"Interesting?" he asked turning to Bruce. He got a swift punch in the arm as a reply.
When they stepped out of the service elevator amidst a hoard of crates and containers they were met with the loud pounding of music and a Loki laying on one of the tables with a spanner twirling in his fingers as he watched the roof, clearly not noticing their arrival. The music had a consistent beat and the bass wove across the ground and up through their feet and pulsed in their bodies. Tony pulled one of the trolleys and Bruce pulled the other.
"Hey Lokes!" he called loudly, trying to convey his voice over the beat and was rewarded with a swift turning of the others head. The trickster hoisted himself off the bench and walked over to them, lifting lids off the boxes while they pulled them into the space, "Well that's convenient; thought we'd need a crowbar for that. You still gotta use your magic up?" Loki gave a nod as he pulled a thick hunk of metal out of one of the boxes and placed it in the middle of the space before taking another box and tipping its contents onto the floor. "Jeez you make a lot of noise."
"Hmn," Loki spoke around the spanner he had put in his mouth so his hands could access the boxes. He pulled it out, "It's in my nature I suppose."
"What do you mean?" He hefted a smaller box from the trolley to the floor.
"Thor is the lightning, I am the thunder."
"Huh." He said by way of acknowledgement and listened carefully to the rock and sway of the beat. After a while he stopped paying attention and just let the beat rock over him.
And the next beat.
And the next.
Turns out Loki has an affinity for inventing, and Tony and Bruce aren't forced to stay in the shop while he works. They have to wait, Loki tells them, until he's developing the part of the bike that will learn to respond to them. How the hell a machine learns to respond to them he doesn't know, but Tony spends most of the time on the opposite side of whatever Loki's creating anyway, watching how it's put together. Bruce spends the time asking Loki questions about the fluctuations and Loki responds to what he can, attention chiefly absorbed by what he's doing.
It's a while before Tony notices; he's been too busy watching the small piece Loki is developing, it's only about the size of a boot, but it has got a hell of a lot of things in it already. And he only notices because the constant movement out of the corner of his eye, no matter how small, is irritating. So he focuses his vision to the movement.
He doesn't expect to see the slight movements he's making in time to the beat. The movements are monumentally small, but they're there tipping and dipping in time with the beat. He notices that Loki mouths the deeper beats, still in tune to the song while all his attention is focused on what he's creating. Which is where Tony should be focusing, but he's not.
"Well," Bruce says, thoroughly interrupting his train of thought and dislodging Loki from his if the blank stare is anything to go by, "I think, we should probably go get dinner, because as fine as you two may be, I've been cooped up in here all day, missed lunch, and now it's six and I wanna eat."
"…You didn't have to stay," Loki said after a moment, "I told you this."
"Yeah, well, I don't wanna sit all alone either. I did enough of that in Calcutta, and as absorbed as you two were, you're better conversation than a television." He stood and made his way over to the duo, "Come on, you need a break anyway."
"I do not." Loki protests but gets up anyway. Tony doesn't.
"But I wanna stay heeeeere." He whined, more to act like the petulant child Loki wont, because he knows what he's seeing. He's seeing how he is when he gets into something; you lose track of time and you want to, you want to stay and forget the rest of the world. But Loki is still tip-toeing; there are too many issues for him and he won't stay if it's going to cause more.
"Dr Banner is right, Stark. You, at least, need sustenance." Tony is surprised when the god grips his arm and hoists him to his feet for the second time that day. Bruce is already halfway up the stairs and Tony quickly moves to catch up; because he wants a say in what he's going to have to eat, the last time he let Bruce pick was a disaster all round.
"You," he called over his shoulder, "Need to fight for what you want." And he's not really paying attention so again he's shocked when he hears a voice in his ear.
"And you," Loki speaks walking all too close but not touching because his arms are clasped behind his back, "Are a bad influence." The breath hit his skin in a cold rush, but Loki had already pulled away with a smirk and was up ahead.
He tried to get his body to relax as he followed the other two, but it's hard when his skin still has goose bumps and his chest feels like its coiling in on itself.
They end up getting Chinese, because Loki hasn't had it yet and Tony is trying his best to corrupt the gods limited taste experience with the food of their realm. Bruce is happy because he can get ginger beef, while Tony orders enough fried rice and sweet and sour pork to feed the whole team. Good, he can deal with left overs.
Loki likes both the fried rice and the sweet and sour pork, but he spits the ginger beef into the bin. On closer inspection, it's just because he hates the ginger.
The next day is spent in the shop again, and Tony, damn his mind to hell, can't stop looking at the grease that Loki has smeared on his skin and thinking; that's nice, before he abruptly cuts off the train of thought time and time again.
It's in light of this that Tony tells Loki it's time for a recreational break, tells him to clean up and then they're going exploring through the tower to see what else he likes to do.
It takes the whole day, but he knows so much more about the god now. Loki is a scholar, picks everything up amazingly quickly. Anything creative and Loki is there; especially art – give him a pencil and he's happy to draw on whatever surface appears in front of him. He probably should have guessed that one in light of the way he drew that missing piece, but oh well. Give Loki a puzzle and he'll sit there 'till it's done; he finishes those sliding square puzzles with surprising ease and completes the Chinese ring puzzle in under three minutes with an facile confidence. It took Tony twenty minutes to figure it out. He takes to throwing riddles at the god as they walk, always receiving the correct answers, even if it takes Loki a few tries, and that's only because some of the answers are stupid and Loki's are a viable option anyway. Loki likes playing video games, but most notably the playstation; the x-box has too many first person shooters and the wii is pointless; if he wanted to play tennis he'd go outside and play tennis. The most disturbing thing about this is why he likes them. Loki likes the playstation games because he likes that people depend on him in it, likes that people are asking him for help. He's incredibly good at card games, and Tony soon realises that Loki has been counting cards from the start, his mind already figuring out how the game works. He teaches him games like uno, and when Loki loses he just smiles like 'finally, a worthy opponent' and it's hilarious, because it's the exact same thing he does when he loses something that's not really important to him. Because if he loses something that matters you better believe Tony will chuck a fit worth remembering. Darts is a disaster, not because Loki sucks at it, but because Tony thought; here's something I'm good at and Loki flat out beat him on his first go. Turns out, Loki never misses his mark, at least that's what he's told as the god smirks at his disbelieving face.
They were in one of the many game rooms and Tony spots an old arcade game at the back. Perfect, he thinks, Mrs Pacman, I can beat him at that. He weaves through the tables to get there but is stopped by Loki's voice.
"What about this one?" he asks over the beats he's still playing, because apparently those leaves really like to fuck with the god's physiology. Tony takes one look at the green felt and coloured balls, and his first thought is; oh yes, which then abruptly changes to a resounding nope. Probably for the best.
He goes to decline, but Loki turns to him and gives him these eyes that just really wanna know how to work this, how to play this game. He did promise to teach Loki what he wanted though. He knows he lost the internal battle before he even takes the first step.
So really, it should be no surprise when Bruce corners him later that night when Loki's been asleep for about an hour and says; "So am I just gonna pretend I didn't see that?"
And Tony is genuinely confused, because he hasn't done anything and says; "See what?" as he takes a sip of his drink which is, for now, water.
And he really shouldn't be surprised when Bruce says; "You bending Loki over the pool table." But it doesn't stop him from choking on his water and spraying it everywhere as he gasps for air.
Because the universe hates him.
"Dear god," he chokes, and then blurts out quickly, "You make that sound way worse than it was." Bruce just laughs as Tony wipes at the water drops that landed on his shirt. He understands in that moment that Bruce is just teasing him, which is good, because he doesn't want to plunder through an explanation of how he was teaching the god to play pool, and he definitely doesn't want to have to remember the feeling of the other under him as he taught him the way to stand and the way to shoot. That was troubling enough at the time.
"He likes you, you know." Bruce says after a moment of silence, and Tony can't help his response.
"What?"
"He likes you." Bruce re-iterates, not taking his eyes off the skyline they'd been watching.
"He likes you too." He argues, because he doesn't really want to think about this.
"Not the same. I doubt he would have let me do that." He gives a small scandalous smile, still not meeting his eyes.
"He wanted to learn; you know what that's like, you'd do anything for the knowledge. He has the same drive as you or I." Bruce's only response is a disbelieving raise of his eyebrows and thin pressed lips to display his amusement. "Hey, he let you give him a fricken bear hug the other day," he says more offensively.
"He also practically picked you up the other day, twice."
"He did it to you too," he argues, "Maybe he's just a touchy-feely guy."
"Maybe," Bruce acquiesces, but Tony isn't pleased by it one bit.
"I think it's cute." He speaks again after a bit and Tony, for some strange reason, feels an extraordinary amount of relief flow through him. Don't know what to do with this, he thinks, shoving the feeling away and replacing it with a scathing trepidation.
"You think everything's cute," he grouches and Bruce opens his mouth to speak, "You say one more thing," he talks before the other gets a chance, "and I will shove this glass so far up your ass even the hulk will be uncomfortable." He shakes the glass for emphasis. Bruce just flicks his eyes sideways to him with a shit-eating grin on his face.
He goes to bed to firmly not deal with this shit.
Ever.
Unfortunately for him, Bruce had other ideas and began babbling in the workshop while Loki was working.
"So I have a question," Bruce broached the subject to Loki while Tony and he were at the table going through more calculations. He didn't think anything on it at the time, still going through calculations and only half listening to the conversation. Loki gave a responding yes but otherwise didn't indicate he'd heard. "What is Asgard's stance on same sex relations?" Tony heard the tech he'd been holding clatter to the table and quickly pounced on it to stop, shooting an incredulous look at Banner, "Because here on Earth it's fine, and I didn't want you to be shocked or anything." He added by way of explanation for the question. Loki continued to work on his bike and they could see the concentration on his face, regardless of the pieces separating them.
"Well," he gave a harsh turn to the spanner and forced the pieces together, "It is frowned upon." His answer was distracted, he wasn't really paying that much attention, "But then, relations outside of wedlock is frowned upon, but" he reached over to pick up a piece, the last word drawing out and becoming slightly strained, "same sexed couples aren't allowed to marry," he slotted something into place, "So I suppose that's not the most ideal of upbringings, considering." He looked up and gave them a small smile before returning to his work.
"Wait, so you're saying," Tony cut in, "That your people aren't allowed to have sex until you're married?"
"Unless you are a warrior, but even then same sex relations are censure." He frowned down at what he was making and pulled at the pieces, "And I am neither married, nor a warrior." He pushed a piece in with surprising force and twisted, giving a small 'he' laugh in triumph.
"How are you not a warrior, you fou- wait, are you saying you've never had sex?" he asked incredulity obvious, frowning at the god that was still working away.
A smirk worked its way onto the god's face, "I've never been one for rules, Stark. I do what I want." He placed another piece on and pressed his lips tight as he welded them together, Tony and Bruce looking away so that the light didn't blind them and giving pause to the conversation over the noise. Loki just kept looking at it like it wasn't going to burn his retinas.
"More like you do who you want." Bruce joked when the noise subsided and it was cause enough for Loki to look up and give another small smile.
"Precisely." He returned to work, pulling over some pieces from his position kneeling on the ground.
"Wait, so you're telling us you've not only had sex out of wedlock without being a warrior, which I'm guessing is at least in part against your laws, but you've had sex with men, which is even more disregarding of said laws?" Tony asked still confused.
"I never said that." Loki replied, twisting a piece to the light to look at it, "But yes." There was that damn feeling again; the same one he squished last night. He pushed it away with more effort. Loki looked up, "Don't be so surprised," Looked back down, "I've lived for a long time. Sleeping with men is hardly the worst thing I've done or will do; although I'm sure the punishment is fittingly inappropriate." He stretched for another piece, "But…" he slotted the two pieces together, "I've never been caught," he uses the screwdriver to twine them together, "so I hardly think it matters," he points the screwdriver at them with a new seriousness, "unless you tell someone. If you do that, I will put this through your eye." He goes back to working.
"Not even Thor?" Bruce asks, "Surely he wouldn't care?" but Loki's shaking his head.
"Especially not Thor. I'm lucky to have gotten away with it this long," he puts the piece to the side and starts working on something else, "Heimdall hasn't said a thing, and he see's everything, so gods know he could have. Apparently my trysts with women have been enough to sway his opinion, although," he licked some of the wires to help them spark, "he always was understanding. Perhaps he simply doesn't care." He continues working and they sit in silence for a good while before Loki speaks up again, "What about you?" and he waved a piece of machinery at them non-committal.
Bruce and Tony share a look before speaking, "That's a bit personal don't you think?" he doesn't know which of them asked, but hey, the message would be exactly the same either way. Loki just raises one eyebrow and spares them a glance before he continues slotting the pieces together.
"You were just asking the same questions of me," he frowns at his work and looks up, "Do you have a surface grinder?"
"Uh yeah, over there," Tony points to the corner, "But you didn't have to answer."
"I thought that was the deal." Loki says before starting the machine and shaving off a good third of the piece. He waits till it's finished before continuing, "I answer the questions you asked; you said they may be personal." He looks nonplussed though as he continues the work, like he doesn't really care he admitted it.
"Well, that's not the type of personal I meant." He responds and Loki just sits on the floor again.
"Well it's not as if it were important; if you held the same views as they did on Asgard I would have not told you. But as it was you didn't." he puts the newly modified piece together with the main piece, which is getting larger and larger by the minute, although is still only mostly frame and the skeletal size of a chair, "It's not much of an admission either way. It doesn't irk me to say it." He dismisses their lack of comfort and puts more pieces together.
The conversation is dropped and they say nothing for a solid ten minutes.
"I've slept with men before." Surprisingly, it's Bruce who makes the admission and it makes Loki look up in surprise, clearly having not expected to hear from them. Tony gives him this look and Bruce responds with a; "What. Eye for an eye."
"Nothing," Tony shook his head with a laugh, "I just didn't expect that."
"My, my, Doctor Banner. Not a lie, but the admission displeases you. Perhaps the people of your world aren't as tolerant as you lead me to believe." Loki teased them, calling them out on their bluff.
"Yeah well, most people don't care, only the stupid ones." He replied.
Suddenly Tony finds himself with two pairs of watchful eyes on him, and he can feel them burning through his skin, waiting for his input. He ignores them in favour of watching and working through data, but they don't back off. He couldn't even hear Loki working anymore, meaning he had their full attention. "Fine," he said in exasperation, swivelling his chair harshly to face them.
"The world's greatest womaniser isn't so exclusive I take it?" Loki talked with a knowing lilt to his voice.
"Yes, I've done it with men before, but don't you dare tell anyone." He pointed his finger at them with an angry enthusiasm, "Only a few people know, and the press already like to swarm over it. So you better keep a lid on it." The others both just chuckle and go back to whatever they were doing before this disastrous excuse for conversation began. It was a clear notion that this knowledge never left this room.
It took until the afternoon a few days later when anything troubling happened.
And it was troubling, make no doubt.
Tony and Bruce were sitting on the lounge when Loki came stumbling in from the workshop in the afternoon, one hand clutching at his forehead which was bowed.
He slammed the door open as he entered the space, face pulled in a grimace as he walked forward throwing his head back and bringing both hands to his head, one pulling back his hair while the other's fingers pushed into the skin. He clearly didn't know they were there and he clenched his eyes shut tightly before opening them to the light and closing them, as if trying to blink away the issue. The only problem was when he opened his eyes the colour of his iris washed over the white lens of the eye, turning it all a vibrant green, before that too washed away and left a plain white surface; not pupil, no iris, just white. The god shut his eyes again and fumbled his way over to the counter, one hand gripping the bench while the other swept his hair back again and again, fingers pressing in tightly. He hunched over the counter and the hand holding his brow's elbow connected with the surface and held his head up, while the other forearm braced itself on the surface.
Tony and Bruce stood as Loki's back pulsed and expanded with the effort of breathing. They walked closer and the gods mouth opened, probably to help with the intake of air, but ended up letting out a noise that was more suited to something the hulk would create than a human. They moved to his side quickly and Bruce held his hair back so Loki could kneed his head while Tony just put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" Tony asked softly and the same time Bruce asked, "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine," Loki responded with a surprisingly slack jaw for the amount his teeth had been pressed together moments ago, "I just – it happens sometimes."
"Is it the other guy?" Bruce asked.
"No it just," he lets out a large breath and they can see the pain is subsiding for now. He opens his eyes to lock on them and they're back to normal for now, "It feels like my skin is trying to peel away and my head is being split open while being shoved in a pit of ice." His face starts scrunching up, "And it comes in waves." He forces out and Tony watches his eyes bleed red before they're shut tightly again. One look at Bruce tells him he saw it too.
Loki starts shivering and when they feel his skin he is so, so cold. Bruce rushes of to grab cloths and stuff while Tony leads Loki to the couch. They wrap him up in the blankets and sit by his side, forcing him to stay inside the blankets as he breaks out in a sweat and tries to get out of them.
"Stay in there," Bruce said after the latest attempt to get out, "It'll only make you better."
"But it's so hot. I've never been wrapped before, let me out, I'll be fine." He pleads with them, hands still rubbing circles into his forehead and Bruce and Tony taking turns at massaging his neck. They're on the pull out lounge Tony bought for when he was too tired to move from the lounge room to his bed room. It comes in handy now because it gives them enough space on the surface that they're all comfortable.
After a while he seems to calm down and Bruce has to go to sleep, because it's 11 and he has to go in to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ early tomorrow for a report on findings. Tony stays on the couch because Loki is still in pain and he can't bring himself to leave him alone like that.
Finally Loki's head falls back on the couch and he's only got one blanket on now because his temperature returned to what Loki said was normal (still colder than a humans) about 45 minutes ago.
"You okay?" Tony asks.
"It hurts still, but I'm mostly tired." Loki responded, and he sounded it. His voice was soft and breathy in exhaustion, "I hate fighting this." His voice is still soft and his head lolls on the back of the couch until it comes to a rest on Tony's shoulder, which is especially hard because he's near the armrest, which means Loki's slid all the way down and is practically lying on top of him. Is lying on top of him.
"How long does it normally last?" he asks softly, aware that Loki's head is probably still pounding.
"idunno,s'dffrntvrytm" he mumbles and it takes Tony a few minutes to figure out that Loki was saying it differed every time. By then he had a Norse God sleeping on him on the pull out lounge.
He takes into consideration the options he has; wake the finally sleeping Loki and ruin his respite to get the god to his room, or sacrifice himself and let Loki use him as a personal pillow…
~~~~~PUMPIN' PAGEBREAK~~~~~
Ooooooooh, so loooong. I don't care.
Your choice; Tony wakes Loki up and they go to their respective rooms, or Tony lets Loki sleep on him…
I trust you understand where this is heading…
I love to hear from you, and if I may ask that you please tell me what you thought about Loki's treatment in his past, coz I was so messed up over that.
I re-wrote parts of this chapter twice, which is weird, because apart from the occasional spell check I NEVER re-write. It was mostly because I didn't have the start bit already in my mind and it kind of threw me off, but then I was back on track. The headache thing will be explained in the distant future and I have a bunch of action ready for the next chapter, so be ready…
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Stay tuned and stay awesome