AN: Well that was much better time, eh? Chapter 10, guys! We're in the double digits! *happy dance* I'd like to thank you all for your outstanding support thus far, you're awesome readers. This chapter's gonna be some more emotional rollercoastering, and then some business. But mostly feels. I'm seriously getting more and more happy with these chapters as time goes on, guys. And that can only mean good things.

Chapter 10: A Proposition

After a while, Stark reluctantly broke the kiss, regretting it all the more when a soft whimper escaped Loki's lips. Tony was enjoying this new side of Loki far more than he should be which was exactly why he was forcing himself to stop. He knew that no matter how much the god seemed to want and need him now, he was still just that: a god. A slightly crazy one, at that.

'As if my own mind isn't at least partially a bag of cats as well.' Tony told himself to shut up as usual, reminding himself that in the end, Loki would always regain his indomitable persona and no longer have any use for the mortal. He was always the pessimist, after all. 'I would kill to know what's going on in his bag of cats... I wonder if he's as conflicted as I am. No, stop it Tony. He's a crazy alien Norse god frost giant mage thingy bent on world domination, you're a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist with a super-suit and a cocksure attitude. It could never work out.'

At this point, Tony honestly had no idea if his conscience was serious, or if it was being as much of a little shit as the god he was fretting over, but suddenly he became aware that Loki was pulling away. Shit, he must have missed something while he was having an argument with himself.

Before the moment was completely ruined, Tony tightened his grip on Loki's waist and said hurriedly, "No no, I'm sorry! Don't go away. I was… thinking."

Looking up to meet the trickster's gaze, the engineer was met with the most heartbreaking puppy-dog stare he had ever seen.

'I am so fucked.' Tony thought to himself as he let the god pull him back into his arms.

'What has this Midgardian done to me?' Loki asked himself as he let the mortal hold him.

Suddenly, there was a slight crackle in the air and Loki head whipped up from where it rested in the crook of Tony's neck, anger flaring back up at the intrusion. Tony wrenched himself away, flying to the other end of the landing.

"Well well, what do we have here?" Hel laughed, having teleported up to check on them, her voice echoing even more than usual in the stairwell.

"Hel! Wha… What are you doing here?" Loki demanded, slightly flustered.

"I came up to make sure you weren't killing Stark for intruding. Don't worry, father. I'm not going to try and defend your honour or anything. Although you should be glad I'm not uncle Thor. I doubt he would be as… understanding."

"Why is it always the women that catch us?" Tony joked, trying to hide how uncomfortable he was to be caught by Loki's daughter.

"Ooh, so Natasha knows as well? How fun!" Hel grinned.

"Yes, and no one else. And I intend to keep it that way," Tony hissed. "There are… complications. Besides, I'm pretty sure Fury would personally shoot me in the head."

"Sir, Miss Potts has arrived downstairs. She seems angry with you. Again." JARVIS interrupted.

"Speaking of complications…" Tony sighed, glancing guiltily at Loki. The god was looking at him reproachfully, and when Tony open his mouth to speak he disappeared to the penthouse below.

Pepper jumped when he appeared, accidentally directly in front of her.

"Oh! H… Hello, Loki…" she stuttered.

He merely gave her a blank stare and turned on his heels, ignoring Thor's pleas to talk and slamming the door to the bedroom Tony had given him.

Back in the stairwell, Tony cursed and yelled, "I didn't even do anything! It's almost one in the morning! Why is Pepper mad at me at one in the morning?"

"Girlfriend, I'm guessing?" Hel asked, her voice making Tony jump. He'd almost forgotten she was there.

"Well… technically. Even before Loki was in the mix I barely ever saw her. I'm always busy in my lab or with Avengers stuff, and she's always running my company for me so I can be busy in my lab or with Avengers stuff. The only time I ever see her is when she's mad at me…"

"And you enjoy my father's company more?"

"Yes. No. I don't know, okay? Everything's been so crazy around here with Thanos, and Doom, and Loki, and you, and almost dying that I haven't had time to think about any of this! No one will let me think!" Tony shouted, voice echoing around the stairwell as he slammed his fists down on the metal railing.

"You're good for him. I had been wondering why he was acting so… peaceful. Now it's clear. Be warned, Stark: my father carries with him great pain. All his life he has been treated as a lesser being and it has left its mark. If you cause his pain to worsen, the eternity you spend in my realm will not be a pleasant one."

"What if I die in battle and go to Valhalla?"

"Steps can be taken."

Tony chuckled halfheartedly at how serious the woman was before saying, "I don't want to hurt either one of them, Hel. Pep's done so much for me over the years, and I really thought that she was going to be the one, but your dad…"

His voice trailed off, unsure of how to continue. However, JARVIS interrupted his thoughts. "Sir, Pepper is demanding your presence. Her exact words were, 'Tell that useless drunk to get up here this instant before I search the building for him.' I believe she thinks you're in your laboratory.

Tony swore again, in haling sharply and running a hand over his face. Wordlessly Hel placed a hand on his shoulder and teleported them both back down.

Pepper actually screamed a little bit this time when Tony appeared in front of her with a woman who appeared to be half corpse beside him.

"Pepper!" he exclaimed brightly, trying to act like his usual self. "You haven't met our new guest, have you? This is Hel. Loki's daughter, goddess of death, blah blah blah."

"Nice to meet you," she shot quickly at the goddess before rounding on Tony, "Have you been ignoring me? Were you dead again? Because those are the only reasons I can think of for you to be ignoring my calls."

"I've been ignoring your calls? JARVIS, have I been ignoring her calls?"

"You told me to automatically mute all incoming calls from Miss Potts two weeks ago, sir. I believe you were intoxicated at the time."

"You told him to do what?" Pepper screeched, outraged. "Tony, I've been trying to get ahold of you for days! There are mountains of forms I need you to sign, there was a gala tonight that I needed you to attend, there's an extremely important meeting later this week… are you even listening to me?"

Tony had wandered over to his bar, desperately needing a drink if he was going to deal with Pepper's yelling. The rest of the team, including Hel, was looking on in stunned silence, too scared to move less the angry woman's fury be turned on them.

"Yea yea Pep, I'm listening. Forms, galas, meetings, I got it. Drink?"

"No, Tony I don't want a drink, I want you to listen. Maybe come down from your tower every once in a while? You've got yourself locked up in here like Rapunzel!"

"My hair's not that long. Tasha just had to cut it a couple weeks ago after Loki lit it on fire."

Pepper was silent for a moment before continuing her tirade, maybe even angrier than before. "He goes around lighting you on fire and you still let him stay here?"

Tony could have sworn he heard Tasha and Hel giggle. Giggle. The goddess of death and a master assassin were laughing at his expense. "To be fair, I did try to make him wear a stupid T-shirt."

Pepper growled, saying, "Tony I don't have time for this. This one in the morning and I'm here begging you to work with me because it's the first chance I've had to come up here with how busy I've been running your company. Now we can either talk about business, or you can tell me why you haven't bothered to take me out in two months."

Tony's eyes suddenly flared open, and he wished that he was way, way drunker than he was. "Has it been that long?" he croaked.

"Yes." Pepper said, glaring at him.

"Well, you know, I've been really busy with saving the world and all…"

"Is there another woman?" she snapped suddenly. Tony froze, eyes flying to where Natasha stood, praying she would gut him later for lying to Pepper. 'It's only a half lie,' he told himself as his mouth formed the word no. 'She asked if there was another woman.'

Unfortunately, Pepper caught the lie in his voice and followed his glace towards Natasha, face twisting in agony. "Her? You're cheating on me with Natal—Natasha? Really Tony?!"

"No! Pepper, that's ridiculous!" Tony rushed, trying desperately to diffuse her.

"Miss Potts, I would never. Ever." Natasha said, trying to help as Barton was now glaring at her as well.

"Really, Tasha? Never ever? Ouch."

"Not helping, Tony!" the assassin yelled at him.

"That's it, Tony. I can't take this anymore. I don't care if you've been cheating on me or not, I'm done with you. I just can't take it. I'll stay on as your secretary because this company would crash and burn without me, but we're through," she shouted, on the verge of tears as she stormed away towards the elevator. Before she stepped inside, she shot over her shoulder, "I'll be back in Tuesday to go over paperwork with you. That's in two days if you've lost track." Then the metal doors slid shut after her.

Immediately after Pepper left Clint stormed off as well, Natasha on his heels. They both glared at Stark as they passed.

Thor tried to comfort Tony, but the genius shrugged off the Asgardian's arm, making a beeline for his bar. Without a word he removed two unopened bottles of scotch and disappeared into his room, slamming the door behind him. A few moments later, Metallica was leaking out through his not-quite-soundproof-enough walls.

Thor, Steve, and Bruce just stood there, exchanging confused looks.

"Clint, wait!" Natasha shouted after the archer as he stormed away to the roof Tony and Loki had just vacated. "Clint, nothing is going on between me and Tony, I swear! Please come back!"

"Then why did he look at you all nervous like that?" he shouted, finally stopping and whirling to face her.

"Because I know something he doesn't want the rest of the team, or Pepper, to know," she told him in her usual deadpan way.

"What does that mean, Tasha?" Clint sighed. He was beginning to calm down from his initial rage at the suggestion that there might be something between her and the engineer, unwilling to lose her after he'd finally gotten her.

"I don't think he'd be comfortable with me telling anyone…"

"Tasha," he said, warning in his voice. "I know you're a spy and all, but there can't be any secrets between us anymore. I don't care about Tony's feelings, hell I don't even care about our jobs. I only care about you. I always have."

At Clint's words, Natasha's cold demeanor cracked and she grinned like an idiot at the archer. Her archer. "Fine, Clint. Tony is… I caught him, that's why he looked at me. I caught him making out with… Loki."

Clint's eyes widened, anger flickering over his face momentarily. "Loki? Seriously? I didn't even know he was gay, let alone for that… that monster. Are you sure this is his own choice, Tasha? What if Loki's controlling him?"

"I doubt it. You've seen his eyes. Besides, I doubt Loki would have risked his life to heal him if he was just under his control."

"This has been going on for that long? Should we tell the others?"

"No, Clint! That is exactly why I didn't want you to know! I doubt Steve or Furywould be as understanding. They'd be worried about us being compromised if they found out, let alone Tony and Loki. And I definitely don't want to be around when Thor finds out."

At mention of the trickster's older brother, Clint grimaced, finally conceding to Natasha. "Fine. But can I at least talk to Tony about it? I still don't trust the bastard after what he did to me…"

"I don't either, but you have to admit he hasn't done anything suspicious. Maybe he really is more concerned with getting the Chitauri off him than he is with causing havoc."

"Or with getting Tony on him." Clint laughed. Natasha glared at him, but couldn't help chuckle at him joke, no matter how immature. "Okay… thanks for telling me the truth Tasha. I'm sorry I thought… I'm sorry."

Natasha just gave him a halfhearted smile and a reassuring grip on the shoulder and walked off to find Hel. She had noticed the goddess react similarly to her during Pepper's screaming match with Tony, and she had to find out how much she knew. Once a spy, always a spy.

The next morning, Fury arrived to retrieve Victor Von Doom. As the two that did the most to finally capture him, Fury made Tony and Loki ride with him in the quinjet up to the Luxor. It was a very quiet trip.

The two held Doom securely between them as Fury led them through the redesigned helicarrier. The cyclops didn't like trusting someone he still considered an enemy escorting another enemy, but he recognized that even Steve would have had trouble escaping from the god's grip. They rounded a corner and came to a cell not unlike the one they had thrown Loki in three years ago, and the trickster couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the situation.

Fury glared at him as the palm scanner analyzed his prints, the large door sliding open. When doom was safely on the other side, he turned and faced the trio, trying to assume an intimidating pose just as Loki had.

"How's it feel to be on the other side of the glass?" Fury addressed the god. When he just looked at the director with an unreadable expression, he continued. "I had my doubts about your intentions, and while I still may not trust you completely, it's not as if I trust Tony completely either. This is a big step on the road to redemption, and I'm glad to have you on our side. Let's just hope you do as good a job on the Chitauri."

"Despite appearances, Director Fury, I am still on my own side as I have always been. It just so happens that my interests now align with yours rather than the Chitauri's."

At Loki's smug words, Tony snorted a brief laugh, followed by a groan as he rubbed his head. The genius was intensely hung over after spending most of the night drinking on his own while listening to his music at a volume that JARVIS kept telling him he would regret in the morning. If only he had listened. Tony knew Loki was mad at him, and for once he knew exactly why, but his head was pounding so hard he could barely speak, let alone form a cohesive argument as to why Loki shouldn't just kill him.

Fury just rolled his eyes and led them off to the debriefing room like the one where three years previously Bruce had called Loki a bag of cats, grumbling something incoherent under his breath about how another Stark was the last thing he needed.

When they got to the debriefing room, Tony collapsed heavily into one of the chairs and put his head down on the table, Loki gracefully folding himself into another one a few places down. Fury dropped three files on the table, one grey and two blood red, before rolling a bottle of Advil across the table at Stark and sitting down.

Tony gratefully uncapped it and took two dry, then after a moment's though took two more and turned his glazed eyes towards Fury. Loki was busy staring at his own file with a slightly annoyed look on his face. His was one of the red ones, the other being Doom's.

"We haven't bothered to change yours yet," Fury grumbled to the god before shoving his and Tony's files to the side and opening Victor's. After glancing over it for a moment, he let it fall shut again and said, "So let me get this straight. You two, on a whim, decided to bust one of Doom's most heavily fortified facilities without any backup, and it just happened to be the one he was hiding out in?"

"Well it sounds like you already know what happened, anyway. Guess we don't need to be here. Come on, Reindeer Games," Tony said, standing to leave.

"Sit down, Stark. I'm nowhere near done with you yet," Fury barked. "What the hell were you thinking? Going in there backed only by someone who could just as easily turn around and be working with Doom as he could work with you."

Loki snarled at Fury, hackles rising at the suggestion that he would betray Stark despite his current anger with the engineer. He was about to launch into a tirade, but Tony interrupted him.

"I was just trying out my new suit."

"New suit? Stark, you were told to keep us up to date on all new models of the Ironman weapon."

"Not a weapon, and not a new model. It's just a mark VIII."

"Then what's so new about it?"

"I gave Stark a large quantity of a nearly indestructible metal from one of the nine realms to make his suits out of in the hopes that he would stop getting himself half-killed." Loki interrupted, not willing to put up with Tony's banter as much as it normally amused him.

"And you just put it into a suit without testing to make sure it was safe?" Fury growled at the inventor.

"I ran a couple tests. Enough to know I wouldn't blow up or fall out of the sky."

"I'm gonna need to get a sample of this metal, Stark."

"No can do, Fury. I don't work for you, remember?"

"SHIELD has the ability seize any materials it deems potentially harmful, Stark. You know that."

"And I have the right to retract all Stark Industries support of your little organization. Now where would you be without your precious floating sky palace?" Tony threatened, indicating the helicarrier around them. Fury forgot all too easily that it had been Tony that designed the things.

The director stared him down for almost half a minute before begrudgingly saying they could go back up to the flight deck and a quinjet would take them back to Stark Tower.

"No need," Loki hissed smugly, placing a hand on Tony's shoulder and teleporting them both back down.

When they landed, Tony turned to the god, saying, "Thanks, buddy. I don't think I could have taken another jet ride with this hangover."

Loki just ignored him, shifting into his battle armour. "Silence. I have matters to attend, unless you want the Chitauri to take your planet this time." With that he disappeared, leaving Tony blinking at the empty air that hummed with magic, the only reminder that seconds before it had been occupied by the god of mischief.

The next breath Loki took was acidic with heat and sulfur, making the god gag. He was standing in a massive stone chamber, miles beneath the surface of the Earth where the heat of the planet's core seeped into the air. Though that was not the sole reason for the heat.

The air filled with a deep laughter, causing the stone around him to shudder. "You've come a long way to die, little prince."

"Not the first time I've heard those words," Loki said, turning to face the speaker. Before him stood a massive red figure, with long horns that curved outwards rather than forwards like those of Loki's helm. His laughing face was rimmed with a mane of fire, and his long tail lashed against the rocks. It would have been an intimidating sight had it not been for the massive chains that shackled the fire giant to the stone floor. "And likely not the last."

"What do you wish of me, son of Odin?"

Loki laughed at this, glad to hear of Surtur's ignorance of his true nature. It would make his plan all the easier. "I have a proposition."

"I'm listening."

"I grant you your freedom and all the souls of Midgard, and all you must do is destroy three puny Chitauri ships and the army that accompanies them. They would destroy this realm and you with it regardless, the gain is purely yours."

"And what do you serve to gain, prince?"

"The Chitauri would have my head. I am to keep it."

Surtur laughed again, small stones falling to the cavern floor with the vibrations, "I accept."

AN: What do you think? Who is our little liar playing like a fiddle? Tony and the Avengers, or Surtur? Tell me your thoughts, reviews make me happy! Aaaaand now it's reply time!

cara-tanaka: Well that's just borderline passive aggressive XD

kitkatthevampirelover92: I'm glad you liked it. Loki's emotions are actually quite easy for me to write because (unfortunately) I can relate to him and Tony quite easily.

Trekkergurl: I love them too. Like I said in the author's note, I just keep getting happier and happier with my characterization of them.

sv4me: I love your reviews so much, they're always so long and sweet. I hope that *points up* answers some of your questions, as all the rest are spoilers, darling. ;P I'm glad you love my Loki, I just can't not write him as a broken little thing who deep down just needs someone to care.

neko: I'm glad you thought so, I really enjoyed writing that scene. I don't like making those two do cute things too often because for their characters it's just not believable, but given the chance I'll pounce. And you are beyond awesome for being so nice.