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Chapter 10

"I'm sorry, what?" Clint asked.

"You heard me."

"And you're sure?" Bruce said, looking uncharacteristically pale.

"I...well...I sort of walked in on them."

Clint whistled and fell back against the sofa cushions. "Did you see anything good?"

"Clint!" Natasha almost shrieked.

He sent her a look before turning back to Steve, awaiting his response.

"I didn't see anything like that but they were kissing and Loki wasn't wearing a lot," Steve muttered, perching on the arm of the sofa because he felt like he was about to keel over. "To be honest I would rather forget the whole thing."

"To hell with that, come on so...what do you think? Just sex or something more?" Clint looked around at each person, hoping someone would jump in and answer. "Wait does this mean the plan worked?"

Still no one answered but they each had a different reason. Steve was slowly slipping off his seat. His expression was even more horrified and his skin had taken on an almost green tinge. Natasha was staring and Clint in utter disbelief, whether it was because of how well he had taken this news or what he was saying about it, nobody knew.

Bruce, on the other hand, was deep in thought. He was having trouble processing this new information. Tony and Loki. Loki and Tony. WHAT? Just the other day Tony had been asking for Bruce's help on proving himself to someone, who was a man, who now was known to be Loki. That meant this must be more than sex. Tony actually liked Loki, as in properly attracted to him and Loki must feel the same otherwise why would Loki have stayed overnight. Damn he wished he could talk to Tony and ask him about it but that would mean giving away that he knew. The situation was difficult. Also should he tell the others about what he knows? Would it help? Or would it make matters worse? He wasn't sure if Tony and Loki just fucking was worse than actually having some feelings towards each other.

"You're not going to say anything, are you?" Steve suddenly said, looking wildly around at them all.

"Can we really keep quiet about this? Do you think Fury needs to be told?" Natasha answered.

"No, not yet. Let's not make a big deal out of it when we aren't even sure of everything," Bruce replied hastily, not making eye contact with any of them.

Clint watched him carefully and noticed his slight hesitations and quick response. "Hey do you know something?"

Jumping at the direct question, Bruce continued to stare at the floor but it was too late. They had all noticed now so he had no choice, he could either lie which would make matters worse or he could tell the truth.

Without any more prompting he began to tell the story of how Tony and he had gone walking in Central Park. He told them everything he could remember before launching into the story of the evening in Las Vegas where he had given Tony the stupid advice that he had, unfortunately, taken. Although maybe it wasn't so unfortunate, for Tony anyway, because something must have happened for him and Loki to get together and Bruce couldn't think of anything else that may have triggered it and he knew that Loki had left soon after he had noticed Tony's flirting.

Once he was done with the explanation, the room lapsed back into silence until Clint let out a long whistle.

"Well this is a big turn of events," He commented.

"I just don't understand it. How can Tony like Loki? I mean I know he has begun to change and make amends for his actions but I thought Tony of all people would never let that be enough. I would have expected him to be the last to forgive Loki except for Clint," Natasha said, shaking her head.

"It's late. Maybe we should all go to bed and finish this in the morning when we aren't all so...freaked." They all looked over at Steve, who still didn't look great.

Black Widow nodded and stood up. Taking Clint's arm, she dragged him across the room to the lift and, when it arrived, they disappeared to their floor. Left alone with Steve, Bruce leant forward and placed his hand on the Captain's shoulder.

Startled by the contact, Steve jumped. "Yes bed...I'm going now," He mumbled.

"Hey Steve are you okay?" Bruce asked, concern written on his face. "I know this is a shock but-"

"No it's not that, well not entirely. It's just I expected to be disgusted by this, I thought if it did ever happen I thought I would hate it. But the truth is I'm okay with it, I'm far more okay than I want to be which kind of scares me." Steve took a breath. "Back in my time homosexual couples weren't really accepted. I personally had nothing against them but the time I lived in, they were very frowned upon. Now here I am, year 2013 and one of my team is having relations with another man and people are okay with that, it is not the big deal I thought it was. Times have changed and I think I need to as well."

"Maybe you're right," Bruce answered after a pause. "Because I can guarantee things are going to get weirder."

Steve nodded and managed a small smile. They both then straightened up and headed to their own floors to sleep for what remained of the night.

The morning came around quicker than most would have liked. All the faces at the table were groggy with dark circles around their eyes. So much travelling in a short time was not among any of their favourite things to do. Except for Thor, who they had discovered had left early to visit Jane once they had read his note left on the table.

Breakfast was slow and conversation ran thin. Steve was, as ever, at the kitchen island preparing food for the others who had not even offered to help. Not that he would complain, it kept his mind focused and he worked faster without stumbling around other people.

No one had mentioned last night's events yet which left them all on tenterhooks. They all wanted just one of them to bring it up but they were all reluctant to be that person. Overnight they had all had chance to think things through and were now pretty okay with the whole situation. But what they were not sure on is what to do now. Should they tell Tony they know? Should they confront Loki? Though none of them would admit it, they all desperately wanted to know Loki's side of things. That, however, was unlikely to happen.

Still the silence remained. Hurrying over with a plate of fried bacon, Steve set it down in the centre of the table and watched as people lent forward to fork the slices onto their own plates. Chewing and swallowing, that was the only sound apart from the soft hiss from the fresh bacon now sizzling in the frying pan. After about five minutes the new bacon was ready. Carrying the frying pan over, Steve tipped it to the side so the contents slipped out onto the plate.

"Morning folks!" Tony cried, walking into the kitchen.

"Jesus Tony, give us some warning next time," The captain gasped, scooping up the bacon that had slipped onto the table after he had jumped.

Instead of replying Tony just leant over, snatched up a slice of bacon and began to chew on it loudly.

Shaking his head, Clint said, "Dude you are disgusting."

Shrugging, Tony continued to eat while he moved around the kitchen ordering JARVIS to switch on the coffee machine. It was hard to deny that he had a definite spring in his step as he marched around them all. They all had to fight urges to comment on his new behaviour.

That fight became a massive internal struggle when Loki lopped into the room and started to prepare his usual morning tea. It was like a perfect domestic family routine playing out before the team as Loki and Tony dodged around each other, reaching for the sugar pot or a cupboard handle. The pair didn't make eye contact but if someone had watched them before for a long time then studied them today they would notice how they both no longer worried about personal space. Not that they were on top of each other either, they just no longer minded if their arms brushed together or worried about leaning across the other for something.

When both had finished preparing their drinks they took opposite seats at the now almost full table. They never made eye contact but their gaze often strayed close to the other.

"Thor left a note, he said he's gone to visit Lady Jane to quote him correctly," Clint said, waving the small piece of paper in Loki's direction.

Lifting his gaze to the archers face, Loki asked, "Do you know when he will be back? I have matters to discuss with him."

I bet you do Clint thought but instead his reply was, "No he only said he was gone, not when he was coming back."

Loki nodded and sipped at his tea. Still being too hot to drink properly, he lifted up the mug, cupping it in his hands, and brought it close to his mouth where he blew lightly on it causing the liquid to ripple.

"So Loki," Clint began again, breaking the silence that had just started to venture into the realm of awkward. "You are really starting to break through your shell aren't you?"

The mischief maker looked at his curiously, not totally understanding his meaning behind his musings. Clint just smiled at him but the smile contained a hidden something like he had a secret that he could not share or a private joke that only he found amusing. Not really bothering to think about it, Loki began to slowly blow on his tea again.

"I mean you're really starting to show yourself as you, it's almost as if you're...I don't know...coming out the closet," He finished slowly and deliberately, his smile forming into a smirk.

Tony choked loudly on his drink, spluttering and choking, trying to contain the boiling liquid in his mouth. The others just looked shocked by Clint's words and Steve had started to go slightly pale again. On the other hand, Loki continued to sit still but, seeing everyone's odd reactions, he thought there could be a hidden meaning to those words, something that he didn't understand.

However, Tony was the one that beat him to talking first. "I'm sorry but please say I heard that wrong."

"What? I didn't mean anything by it, why what do you mean?" The archer replied innocently.

"Fuck you, Legolas I know exactly what you meant."

"But what are you talking about? Why are you so bothered?"

"Oh just cut the crap," Tony said, anger starting to creep into his voice.

Loki watched the scene unfold before him and pieces were finally starting to click into place. He thought now that he had a pretty good idea what they were referring to which was bad news. It also meant that someone had told, the only person who actually knew.

Moving his gaze from Clint, Tony rounded on Steve who was leaning back from the table, trying to be as far away as possible. "So Cap, it didn't take long, did it?"

"Look Tony I'm sorry I-"

"Uhhh," He groaned. "Don't bother. So come on, hit me with it. Who's first, oh don't tell me, Fury already knows and is on his way here to bust my ass."

"No, we haven't told anyone yet. We were waiting to see...well...to see if it was true or not," Bruce said helpfully, trying with all his might to calm the situation or at least to ease some of the tension.

"Well what are you going to do now that it is true huh?" No one said anything. "Look come on, you all seem to want to say something so why don't you all just say it? Come on Romeo, you had a lot to say a minute ago, why so quiet now?"

"I'm not sure what to say now that it's definite. Of course I think it's fucked up but there's not much I can do and I think you already know that. If you wanna do it that's fine just don't do all your kissing or whatever in front of me. I'm not against gays I just don't want to see the dude that enslaved me eating the face off one of my friends," Clint answered.

Loki looked over at the archer who stared right back but nothing more was said. The god's eyebrows were slightly raised in surprise but he didn't comment. He found it rather amusing they were the only feelings on the matter but he also felt uneasy. Soon he knew that Thor would find out and he had no idea what to expect. What he did know was that the reaction wouldn't be good. This was his punishment, staying in Tony's tower, which meant that getting into a relationship was probably not going to be accepted. Did that mean it would be banned? That he would no longer be allowed near Tony? Would he be put under room arrest? Or would he be removed altogether to a different location? All of the questions caused his stomach to knot tightly. He wanted none of them to come true.

If this relationship was to continue and was to develop into something serious then Loki knew there would be difficulties. He wasn't ready to face the problems now and over time he knew they would get far worse and with another person to worry and care about would make his plans difficult. With added problems from Thor would just cause more pressure making decisions nearly impossible to make. The future was going to get tough.

Being absorbed in his thoughts, Loki hadn't realised that the conversation had began to flow again. His cup of tea had cooled making it far easier to drink. So he began to swallow small sips as he listened into the conversation, trying to catch up with what he had missed.

"I don't really care what Fury thinks, like his opinion matters to me. If you tell me to not do something it usually makes me want to do it that little bit more just to piss you off and before you say it, no I'm not doing this to annoy S.H.I.E.L.D. No one ever said to me this was against the rules," Tony said, seeming calmer than he had been previously.

"Yeah probably because no one ever thought it would be an issue," Natasha responded, eyebrow raised.

"Well it's not an issue. If you don't like it, don't look."

Black Widow just rolled her eyes.

Tony's sentence seemed quite final and it effectively closed the conversation. No one else really had any comments to make and the ones they did have, they didn't voice. The group began to disperse from the room, slowly dragging their bodies to the lift that would take them to whatever floor they desired. Steve stayed behind the kitchen counter gathering all the plates and mugs together to begin the washing up. Tony did have a state of the art dishwasher but the Captain always preferred the old fashioned way and seeing the others didn't want to deal with the mess, they left him to it.

Loki headed off down the corridor to his usual seat by the massive floor to ceiling window where his new book was waiting. He had found it on a shelf a while ago, shoved to the back and covered in a thin layer of dust. He had freed it from its prison and dusted it off and had now started to read it. So far the storyline was not totally clear but he was sure that it would soon fall into place.

Bruce followed Tony down to his lab after the genius had finished up his coffee and now he sat at the only vacant chair in the room, the others all being used to hold large blocks of strange metals. Tony, himself, was leaning over one of his workbenches tinkering with some toy that would soon be ready to add to his new suit.

"So Tony..." Bruce began, but his voice faded away.

"I know what you're going to say and don't bother, I already know this is probably a bad idea," Tony said, not looking up from his work.

"If you know it's bad then why are you starting it in the first place?"

Tony sighed and looked up at his friend, putting down his tools. "Honestly, I don't know."

"Then what's going on because when we spoke the other day you seemed almost smitten with this mysterious man that I now know is Loki. What happened that made you even consider this?"

"Look I don't know. Maybe I saw something in him that was different. I know what happened in the past, I know what he did to Manhattan, I was there. But even you have to admit he is different now, something has changed."

"And this change, that's what attracted you?"

"Um yes, no, I don't know Bruce. All I know is that I like him and he likes me and for now that's enough. We aren't serious, we aren't committed. It's just like any other relationship when it fist starts out, everything is new and it's weird but...but it feels good," Tony finished, a small smile forming on his lips.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Well I don't know what else to say. You seem serious and you seem in the right mind and I trust in your judgement and I just hope this works out or else we could all face the consequences."

"I think that's the closest I'm getting to some kind of approval."

Bruce nodded and Tony resumed his work. After a couple of minutes he ordered JARVIS to play some music which Bruce took as his queue to leave. When he was half way up the small staircase, he glanced back to see the genius singing along to the deafening music. Pausing for a second he thought about walking back down and attempting to dissuade Tony from his decision but thought better of it. He had a bad feeling about this whole situation but he kept his silence, it wasn't his place to say anything. Tony needed to make his own mistakes. But first he needed to decide if being with Loki was a mistake.