Chapter 11 – Helping

"Stay out, I'm naked!"

"Stark, you're always running around in the nude, in case you haven't already realised..."

"I feel uncomfortable with someone else being in the shower while I am."

"How do you expect to turn on the water then?"

"... Fine. Come on in then."

Loki let out an exasperated sigh, he had been standing outside the bathroom door for some time waiting for the billionaire to let go of his pride and admit that he needed help. He opened the door with ease – he forgot that Tony wasn't tall enough to lock it, hence why he was having to help the guy with turning on the water – to see the kitten sitting frustratedly glaring at the shower head by the ceiling.

Most of the flour had fallen off while Tony was walking to the bathroom, so there was now some brown patches visible along the billionaire's back; he was still staring at the shower head like it was his mortal enemy when Loki moved closer and brushed some more flour off of his tail, making the brown fur visible there too.

As he went to stand up again, the trickster bashed his head on the tap that controls the water on the wall and rubbed his head instinctively even though it didn't really hurt him, grumbling a bit at how he forgot that the tap was there. He heard Tony giggle at his complaining and couldn't help but smile at how he'd cheered up the grumpy kitten. The hand on his head moved to grasp at the wall blindly until he found the tap, not taking is eyes off of Stark. This would be kind of weird if he wasn't a cat...

The water quickly turned on and Loki stepped back out of the way just in time so that none of it hit him; Tony jumped at the sudden gush of water and tried to run into a corner out of the way, although it didn't work as well as he would have liked.

"Ah! That's boiling, I feel like I'm on fire!"

It was the god's turn to laugh now as he turned the tap to the left, to a more comfortable temperature, and watched Tony wander back under the full flow of the water before quickly flicking his wrist, making the water the coldest it will go.

"Loki! Stop that already!"

The trickster was now laughing manically at how Stark ran around in circles to find a corner to avoid the freezing water, no longer able to see through tears of laughter, and could hardly breathe by the time he finally had mercy on Tony and turned the water temperature back up again. He eventually calmed down after a few minutes and looked down to see the kitten looking up at him with an irritated expression.

"Sorry."

"Why did you do that?"

"Trickster god."

"Fair enough. Just don't do it again or I'll claw you to death with my tiny kitty claws."

Loki sighed in defeat – he didn't want to annoy Tony when the billionaire could easily just leave him before being turned back into a human – and threw a bar of soap from by the sink down to the kitten, realising that a bar of soap wouldn't be very good for cleaning a kitten but it was the best thing he had other than washing up liquid.

"I doubt you'll need much help with cleaning yourself, so I'll leave you to it while I start tidying up your mess in the kitchen."

"Thanks Lokes! And I would say that I'm sorry about the mess but I'm not after your little water incident," Tony replied with a smug tone, rugby tackling the soap in an effort to get clean, as the god stepped out of the bathroom and inspected the trail of flour through his bedroom. Trying his hardest not to step in the white powder so that he wouldn't make more mess himself, Loki walked into the kitchen and was faced with the decision of what he should do first: unpack the shopping or clean up the flour. He decided that cleaning the mess would be more effective because Tony would only step in it again and end up spreading the powder even further around the apartment, bringing him back to step one.

He got a dustpan and brush from under the sink that hadn't been used before and began to sweep up the offending mess. Yes, he could have used magic but with using quite a bit to allow him to hear what Tony is saying, he wasn't going to attempt any more spells for a while – he would probably end up ripping up the floor along with the flour, creating more mess than before.

Sweeping up the kitchen and hallway took the god a lot longer than it would take anyone else; he wasn't very good at doing housework because when he was in Asgard he either used magic to clean or made a servant to do it. As he was about to head into the living room, he saw Tony's clothes still in a crumpled pile out of the way. Loki picked up the shirt and jeans, careful to not get any flour over it, and folded them delicately into a little square that he was pretty proud of. Under them was two casual shoes that were definitely very expensive and looked like they cost more than the average person made in a year – obviously shoes that belonged to Tony Stark. Loki picked them up too and headed to put them in his room; there was no closet in there considering the god could just magic clothes out of nothing so he placed them on top of some papers on his desk.

He peeked around the bathroom door to see how Tony was getting along with washing himself as a cat. Stark seemed to be enjoying himself as he was currently covered in soap bubbles and sliding around the shower like an ice skater, leaving a bubbly trail behind him. Covering his mouth with his sleeve to muffle his laughter, the trickster left the kitten to enjoy his shower while he headed back to the living room to continue cleaning up.

The flour was remarkably easy to sweep up off of the living room carpet compared to the other rooms, so it wasn't long until Loki had cleaned up the majority of the powder and was up to the last little patch remaining by the sofa.

"Hey. Hey, Loki. Guess what?"

The silence was broken by an enthusiastic Tony and Loki couldn't help the grin on his face when he sighed in reply, "Have you finished washing yet, Stark?"

"You obviously didn't hear what I said. Guess what?"

"Fine. What?"

"I'm..." Tony paused for a second to hold in a giggle – there was definitely mischief in his voice, Loki knew mischief better than anyone else – before he ran into the living room, water flying off of his soaked fur, "...Stark naked! Get it?"

The god followed Stark running around with his eyes, wanting to laugh but not wanting to give Tony credit for such a bad pun, as he cleared up the last of the flour from the carpet. Tony was still running around in a mad attempt to dry himself and bounded over to Loki when he finally stood up, fur still damp and dripping in places, "Not even a smile? That was the best pun I've done all month!"

The Cheshire-cat smile on Stark's face faded slightly when the god just walked past him to the kitchen and emptied the dustpan into a little bin that was already pretty full with flour; he was nearly worried that he'd hurt the trickster's feelings until Loki turned around with a grin on his face that could challenge Tony's.

"That was bad and you know it."

"But I can see you enjoyed it."

"You're clearing up the flour in my bedroom for a pun that bad." The god was only being sarcastic and didn't expect Tony to saunter out into the hallway, turning in the direction of Loki's room.

Loki followed curiously behind, bursting into fits of laughter when he saw Stark starting to lick the powder dusting his bedroom carpet in an attempt to clean.

"Your carpet tastes horrid."

"It's not meant to be tasted." The trickster had walked over to where Tony was now pretending he was being sick, still laughing at how idiotic the 'genius' man was.

"Eurgh, I've got carpet fluff on my tongue!"

Loki was now gasping for air through his giggles and managed to breathe out, "Your... fault," before laughing even harder at the kitten who was now rolling around on the floor making gagging sounds.

"Get it off! There's carpet fluff on my tongue and it tastes horrid!"

"Don't... lick the... carpet then."

"My mouth is fluffy, help!" Stark weakly shuffled over to where the god was standing, groaning like a zombie, and started to lick the bottom of Loki's trousers.

Loki instantly stopped laughing when he felt the tugging on his trousers, surprised at the kitten's actions.

"Why are you attempting to eat my clothing?"

"It tastes better than the carpet." Stark's voice was muffled by the fabric but the mischief was clearly heard.

"Stop it."

"Why?"

"I'm... ticklish." The god admitted reluctantly and heard a less muffled giggle from the kitten as the tugging stopped, only to be replaced with a fuzzy face nuzzling into his ankle instead, "What are you doing, Stark?"

"Tickling you."

Even though he tried to hold in his laughter, Loki ended up laughing even harder than before at the sensation of the fur tickling his ankle. Tony Stark was one cruel man to use his weakness against him.

A/N: It's been a month since I started this fic, so I've decided to post this sooner as a thank you to all of you beautiful people reading this! You're all awesome!

- Tony