Oh cheese on a hibiscus plant! I have no idea how this chapter will end up so… let's get to it!

Ever wake up and feel as if your entire body had imploded, releasing multiple spasms trough each and every nerve ending at the same time when you so much as twitched?

Loki would be able to describe, in perfect detail, what that felt like.

His eyes were open but everything had a purplish hue to it, and everything else was spinning. He felt like throwing up and he felt like dying. This had to be the worst day yet, this had transcended the realm of pain – this right here was death. He could feel its chilly breath on the nape of his neck whenever he hurled out whatever substance was in his body. When that was done, he just heaved dryly, his throat raw with misuse. He was so hot he melted into the furs, every follicle of hair clung tightly to his skin. He could feel the bile rising. It was a miracle he was still alive.

He had tried everything and nothing had worked.

"No, no. no… the equation is all wrong. This, this will kill us if I so much as place it on our skin. No we need something gentler… But strong enough to counteract the effect of the electric current keeping us together. Jesus, this is harder than I thought." Tony sighed into his arms looking desperately at the screen in front of him. It had been an entire week of nonstop calculating. He can't remember the last time he'd expended so much brainpower on one damn math equation. If given A and B he had to yield a result, C, that would not kill them. He was trying to separate, not 'til death do us part.

"Maybe we should –

"If you say take a break, so help me God Steve, I will throw away your entire box set of vintage baseball cards!" Tony snapped, grabbing a chunk full of his hair and tugging at it slightly. He was on edge, tense. It all made sense and at the same time it didn't. The numbers swam in his head teasing him, but he could not get them to work in any particular order.

"In order to cancel the magnetic field around our hands we need to be able to reverse the polarity… I think. If I'm north and you're south, we need to make both our hands the same poles in order for them to repel instead of attract. But then there is static the discharge, something I've NEVER heard of when concerning magnets, I mean yeah there are miniscule amounts of energy transpiring between anything, like friction between two balloons, but magnets. This alone defies any logical explanation, hell; even the illogical ones make no sense. And why our hands? Why is the spell so specific that it targets only one aspect of our biology and not the rest, why if I were to place my hand on your shoulder are we not attached that way? If I had a radar that could show exactly where the field starts this would be so much easier. And then there's another problem with where exactly this field is. Is it around? Between? Within? Damn it!" Tony slammed a fist into the table top spilling his half-drunk coffee on the glassy surface.

"Shit!"

Steve remained perfectly silent and still, he couldn't help, Tony could be speaking another language for all he knew. And he felt horrible for it, useless. Offering anything amiable only pissed Tony off more.

"What does your reactor run on?" Steve asked in a stroke of genuine insight. "Isn't that energy? And isn't there a magnet inside your chest as well? I mean, how many different types of energies are there?"

"Already thought of that, the magnet is there to keep the shrapnel from moving towards my heart, the reactor however runs my heart for me, they work symbiotically; if the reactor were to shut off, the magnet no longer works, if the magnet were to be yanked out… holy shit." Tony exhaled suddenly stunned by his own stupidity. How come he had never thought of that angle before?

"What? What's wrong?" Steve asked, panic coursing through his veins.

"No, not wrong, right! We've hit the Holy Grail, no; you've hit the Holy Grail. Holy shit!" Tony breathed, his entire face emanating relief and joy.

"Holy shit?" Steve said, wondering why Tony felt the need to sound so damned happy when he said it.

"Yes, a monumental holy shit." Tony said, pulling up the blueprints of his arc reactor and superimposing them unto the… the demagnetizer Mark I. The numbers all aligned so beautifully, he was so lost in thought he didn't even notice how tightly he gripped Steve's hand.

"Here, swallow this." Velma ordered as she shoved an icy cup into Loki's face. She seemed distraught and the edges of her eyes looked bluer than normal. Loki stared at her for a bit, his pale blue skin dripping with sweat.

"W… What is it?" He was barely able to whisper. His dull red eyes looked at her but didn't quite focus.

"Normally, this is given to livestock to increase their productivity. It is an energizer, guaranteed to raise anyone from the dead. Or so I sell it." Velma said, a sad smile grazing her lips. She looked smaller, vulnerable even. Loki had never seen her this way. He was able to rip away from the pain for a small second and close his hot hand around her cooler one.

"You don't have to do this, you should let me die. I… have done many a-things that I am not particularly proud of. This is my penance, and I gladly accept every second of it." Loki whispered, completely calm.

"You fool –

"You've said that already, Lady Velma." Loki took a swig at the rancid smelling fluid to satiate her. Immediately he could feel the burn in the back of his throat and the same sensation course through his veins. He bolted upright in a flash his breathing heavy and his heart palpitating out of his chest.

"That's better; you know a Jotun is really sick when their skin is hot. This should last for a couple of hours. Now go get up and walk around, you've been in this bed for too long." Velma said, helping him rise up.

"Whatisinthat!" Loki rushed out his tongue twisting uncomfortably against his top palette. He spoke so fast, it took even him by surprise.

"As I said, it is an energizer, had it been any other Jotun I would have never given them this. This could kill you, you know." Velma said dumping the dark black liquid on to the floor.

"That's reassuring!" Loki said his eyes wide and his entire body bouncing. He eventually began pacing, trying to release the synthetic energy in his veins. At the very least he wasn't dying… Yet.

"You are welcome." Velma sighed out and left the room. Loki followed quietly behind her. He turned to the right where his eidetic memory guided him to the large room where they housed all the books.

He tried to, he really did, but he could not concentrate for all it was worth. He was energized yes, but he was still in pain. That aspect of his physique had not disappeared with the administration of this substance.

He was no longer hot from the fever, but hot with need. A quacking, all-encompassing, need and he could feel the tight tingles of desire travel downwards whenever he so much as thought of the name.

It made him wonder what exactly was in the substance.

Using the resources provided to him by the small library he was able to (after many hours of researching) find a potion that fit his description.

"You lied to me, energizer my left thumb!" Loki accused, slamming the heavy book onto Velma's desk.

"Whatever do you mean?" Velma asked, not looking up from her papers. She really hadn't expected Loki to investigate the means to an end. She supposed it was too much to ask for him to chin up and face his ridiculous fears. She had felt the bond transpire between the two boys. And holy Valhalla had it been strong. Stronger than anything she'd felt in a long while. If that Asgardian prince didn't already reciprocate Loki's feelings, he would as soon as Loki enlightened him to them.

"The 'energizer' you administered, it is no energizer; it is an aphrodisiac. One of the most powerful potions I have seen to date. And the little you gave me has my adrenaline levels spiking to the ceiling." Loki clarified.

"Oh, that, yes just a slight mishap. Sorry about that." Velma apologized without really apologizing.

"Slight mishap? The ingredient list is thirty-five items long! You deliberately prepared this so that I would feel… so that I would… God!" Loki crumpled into the nearby mounds holding a firm hand to his head and the other to his abdomen.

"And if I did? This insanity needs to stop. If you weren't of my blood I would kill you on the principle of mercy alone. You are denying yourself the opportunity of a lifetime, all for what? Petty speculations? What have you got to lose that you haven't lost already?" Velma asked, her nerves fraying at the end.

"You yourself stipulated that the rejection would be the worst pain imaginable. Veryl was in the middle of epilepsy when he entered the infirmary, for heaven's sake!" Loki countered hotly.

"You are afraid of the pain it would cause, but still subject yourself to this! I do not understand you Loki of Asgard; I do not understand your reasoning!" Velma finally shouted, her voice thundered through the room and shook the walls.

"I-I don't need you to understand," Loki's voice was low and broken, his throat closed up and his eyes filled with tears. "I just need you to help. Please." Loki begged clasping his arms around himself.

Velma sighed in frustration.

"There is one thing that we could use; it's been so long since anyone has used it that I've only ever heard of it." Velma said moving a cabinet that revealed a secret closet filled with books.

"What would that be?" Loki asked, hope flaring brightly in his chest. He could not stamp it down even he had wanted to.

Velma heaved thick volumes after thick volumes on to her desk. They were old but well kept, they had power to them… Loki could feel it. His magic wielding side itched to devour into each page and absorb the knowledge. But he resisted, more pressing matters governed his head right now.

"In the days of old, when our bodies were fairly new to the entire Tu'Matra season, some of our older Jotun leaders, who still remembered the olden arts, created a set of steps for a potion that would dampen down the drive for a couple of hours. In times of war, this was very useful, but as our bodies eventually evolved to agree with the seasons this potion became obsolete. Some of these ingredients may not even be around anymore." Velma explained, leafing through the volumes.

"And you withheld this information why exactly?" Loki asked incredulously.

"Because I thought that you would wise up and take charge, and it also just occurred to me. I don't keep these things at hand every moment of the day." And with that they lapsed into a tense silence. Velma instructed Loki on what to look for and hours passed before they broke ground.

"The Vileh-Nyr'e Tu'M'Ta steps, this would be the archaic way of spelling Tu'Matra." Velma pointed out, going over the ingredients and mentally checking off what she did and didn't have.

"The scalp of an Orc?" Loki asked, his stomach already turning at the thought of drinking something with rotten flesh in it.

"Extinct on this part of the planet… I do not know if it is wise of you to partake in this potion." Velma said, closing the book but footnoting the page.

"Why? Do we lack the ingredients?" Loki asked desperately.

"There is enough of everything to make one potion, except the most important." Velma said feeling Loki's apprehension.

"What would that be?"

"The blood of the intended." Velma breathed out. She could see the complete resignation on his face, the total collapse of his hope. Everything he was trying to do to avoid Thor of Asgard led him back full circle. Even the one thing that would dampen down the drive to bearable minimum meant they would have to get close. He could not see this as a dead end, he would keep trying, die if he had to, in order to avoid expressing his feelings. She could see all that in the look he was giving her.

"Alright, I will procure that ingredient and be right back." Loki said his voice tight.

"No Loki, that is the final step, besides we lack a certain something as well." Velma corrected.

"And what would that be?" Loki asked testily. He was fed up with having to run around in circles just to end up in the exact same place he started.

"Sunlight, at that time we still had a bright and burning sun, eventually it died as well. Sol'arys it was called." Velma said reminiscing the time when it finally blinked out and they were submerged in complete darkness for the rest of their lives.

"Sunlight, and blood. Two things we lack, alright. Give me the list and the ingredients. I will end this today." Loki swore.

"You have no idea how great it feels to finally finish this. Now all I need are the parts and time and we'll be free in no time!" Tony said jovially. He stretched and winced at the slight pain that lingered in his core.

"See, I knew you could do it. You're not a Stark for nothin'." Steve said getting up from the seat; he looked around the room for the holographic clock and noticed that they had skipped breakfast. Strangely, he wasn't hungry.

"Thanks… I think that's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me. And the worst." Tony said, putting his tablet down once he had processed what Steve had said.

"I… I didn't mean to compare you to your father, I- it's just the two of you are so smart and –

"No, I understand. The Howard you knew and the Howard I grew up with were two very different people. He talked about you non-stop you know. How you were the best thing that had ever happened to him. He drove himself insane looking for you… took out most of his frustration on my mom and me." Tony confessed. He didn't know what damned dam had broken, but he couldn't stop the words flowing out of his mouth. "I was so, I don't know, excited to finally meet you after having heard all these stories from my- from Howard. I collected your action figures and prototype shields, hell I think if I looked hard enough I could still find them!"

Tony gave a strangled laugh that bordered on the line of hysterical tears.

"You were my hero Rogers, for a very long time… and then I grew up, and realized there was no such thing as heroes, regardless of what you would like to believe." Tony concluded, finally getting out of the chair and pulling them out of the lab.

Steve was speechless; he couldn't even remember his own damn name if someone had asked it of him at that moment.

He had been Tony's hero at one point in his life, and he'd treated the guy like complete dog shit (he wasn't gonna sugar coat it this time) the moment they had an altercation.

He'd told him to stop pretending to be a hero, when in the end he had been the one who sacrificed the most for the team. Steve was the one that needed to stop acting like the hero. He would have probably been dead a long time ago had it not been for the Serum.

A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!

Tony hadn't been wrong back then. Steve had just been too self-righteous at the time to notice.

"Earth to Rogers, beep, beep." Tony waved an impatient hand over Steve's face.

"Oh, yeah, sorry what was that?" Steve asked but before Tony could retort. Loki winked into existence, his glamour shimmering around the edges.

"Well look what the proverbial cat dragged in?" Tony teased, though it went unnoticed by Loki.

"Well he seems just as peachy as I recalled." Tony continued walking around the mini-bar where Loki hastily prepared the potion.

"Has anyone seen my… brother?" Loki forced out, the aphrodisiac not quite out of his system, he held unto the counter his only support in a world so quickly falling apart.

"Nah, last I saw him he was with Jane or his mom, that was what yesterday?" Tony asked, looking up at Steve for confirmation.

Steve nodded absentmindedly.

"Blast and damnation!" Loki hissed. He turned to pace the room thinking on what to do next. He couldn't just conjure up Thor and he wasn't about to call him.

Tony eyed the glass on the counter skeptically. It was a pastel orange, sort of like orange juice but much thicker, it shimmered in the sunlight and looked to be on the cold side. Curiosity got the best of him and he lifted the glass to his lips but before he tipped it back asked, "Is this orange juice?" and downed the entire glass in one gulp. It hadn't been that tall of a glass to begin with.

Five things happened at the same time:

Loki screamed

The glass fell out of Tony's hands and shattered on the ground

Natasha, Clint, and Bruce rushed in to see what the big deal had been

Tony clutched his mouth and bolted out of the kitchen area and into the nearest bathroom which was (thankfully) right at the corner

Thor appeared

Tony threw up the entire section of his stomach and then proceeded to throw up his stomach. Steve sat quietly at his side, gingerly cradling his head and rubbing Tony's back and hair as he heaved into the toilet, occasionally flushing in between breaks.

"YOU, what the fuck were you thinking? How are you hailed as one of the most intellectually adept men on earth when you simultaneously down a substance you can't hope to make ear or tail of?!" Loki shouted as loudly as he could at the vomiting man. He was done, sooo done. All of it, everything, had gone down the toilet.

"Give him a break Loki, he was thirsty. We didn't know." Steve answered for Tony.

Loki's rage burned white hot. For a second his eyes flashed a bright red and he looked bluer than normal. He clenched his jaw so hard it hurt and when he finally turned around, he was pressed against the one person who had caused all this.

"You!" Loki hissed trampling his way into their conjoined rooms. Anything that stood in his way was obliterated into a million different pieces. The door to their room included.

All of it. Down. The. Fucking. Toilet.

"Loki, what is it?" Thor asked catching up with the cataclysmic Loki. "The last time I ventured to your location you disregarded me with not even so much as a second thought. Are you here because you have healed? What was your ailment?" Thor asked worriedly. If Loki would take the time to look at him, he would see how disheveled he actually was, his normally smooth face was dusted over with a fast-growing beard, it seemed as if he hadn't slept for a while, and he was a bit paler than Loki remembered. But he didn't take the time, not at that moment anyways.

"Leave me be brother-

"No, not until you have given me some answers to your strange behavior!" Thor demanded, lifting Loki up by the shoulders. His hands went through the glamour and were burnt by the frostbiting cold of the Jotun skin.

Loki shuddered and winked out of existence before he could do anything stupid.

ooOOoo

He landed on his chest in the middle of the hall, not quite the position he had tried to land in, but he had reached. His arms still tingled and he hoisted himself up and clung to the wall. His world was spinning and he felt like throwing up all over again.

This was the end, this was it. He could feel something breaking. Something started to leak. He realized it was his eyes.

He was crying.

"Velma!" He begged as he entered her office. "Please, help me. He drank it, and I have no more, something, anything, there has to be…" Loki couldn't make sense of what he was saying, much less convey it to Velma.

"Enough! Loki, ENOUGH!" Loki jumped at the sound of her angered voice. He had thought she was mad before, he had been sorely mistaken.

"I have nursed you back to health more times than I have with all my children combined; I have gone to great means in order for you to understand that what you are doing is wrong. But enough is enough. I will do no more. Either get out or end it! Because you are no longer welcome here." She whispered the last part hoarsely, her eyes dripping with mercury-colored tears.

Loki set his jaw, closed his eyes, and prepared to do the most life changing thing he had ever thought of doing.*

Thor stood in the middle of his room looking at the burnt marks on his hands. They hurt, oh Odin, they hurt. But it was nothing compared to what he had seen flash in those green orbs before his brother had decided to wink out of existence.

That all-consuming desperation, the need… the want. He could tell just by looking at him that he was in some seriously deep pain.

Damn it, he had felt it! In the same hands that were now burnt with frostbite, he had felt all those emotions and he wondered why his brother hadn't bothered with confessing these things to him.

He knew he could be thick-headed and prideful, but he still held the capacity to have a heart. He looked at the spot that Loki stood last in.

He turned around and prepared to walk away when he heard a soft voice calling him with such acute agony that it rattled his bones and sucked out all the air that was left in his lungs.

Thor turned around slowly; his brother was crying mercurial tears, his entire physique that of a complete stranger, yet he had been able to pick him out in a sea of faces. Where he was once a proud jungle cat, he now looked domesticated and weak.

And he was completely at Thor's mercy.

It had been a mutual movement, both bodies in sync and pulling towards each other from need.

Loki stood on the tips of his toes and pulled Thor's entire head down for a fully-fledged kiss. Likewise, Thor encircled Loki's hips with his large arms and pulled him closer out of pure, unadulterated, desperation.

Their tongues clashed with each other, two swords, in tight combat.

Thor could feel Loki's hands burning his skin wherever they touched, and that alone should have discouraged him. But instead, it heated the deepest part of his desire and it flared up to meet the rising tide of emotion that was likely to overwhelm him eventually.

Loki had remembered Velma speaking of a total completion when one was with their mate. She had momentously watered that down. When Loki locked lips with Thor, he had been expecting complete and utter rejection, not reciprocation. But not only were his feeling requited, they were being put to the test. Thor kissed him with so much electric fire, that the mere touch of his lips danced around his entire body and made him jump more eagerly into the kiss.

The tight pain that had been growing in his abdomen for so long blossomed into an unbearable pleasure. This was the type of pain he could live with his entire life and never complain. It wrapped around his core and continued in a constant, never-ending flow from the top of his crown to the soles of his feet. It centered itself, however, closer and closer to that mounting need inside of his-

"Fuck!" Loki croaked as Thor pressed their hips together and gyrated torturously slow.

Thor panted a bit, Loki had sounded so absolutely wrecked. It made him grind a little harder just to hear him again.

Loki made a small keening noise in the back of his throat and he could feel himself losing it, losing the battle with his own biology, after so long.

"Loki." Thor growled (fucking growled), increasing their speed by a fraction of a second. He still managed to go tremendously slow.

They locked lips again this time a bit more desirous than before, when it had all been out of pure desperation.

Thor ran his tongue along the roof of Loki's mouth and the smaller man moaned, deep and needy, in the back of his throat.

Loki felt a slight tingling in his hands and he was distracted momentarily by the hissing noise. He opened his eyes to find splotches of blue all around Thor's face; he was killing him with frostbite.

"Thor! Wait, stop." Loki said urgently his hand pushing away Thor. There was a slight altercation, Thor didn't want to let go.

"No wait, stop it! I'm burning you, you giant oaf!" Loki reminded finally gaining the upper hand and pulling away, though he stayed in Thor's personal space, caressing his face with a finger and marveling at the thin strip of blue he left behind. Thor didn't even flinch, so enraptured was he in Loki that it didn't matter how much of his face felt absolutely numb.

"This skin, it's non-compatible with your fair Asgardian complexion." Loki whispered. Thor nodded as if in a daze, he seemed bewitched by Loki. "Here, this should relieve the pain." Loki caressed Thor's face and healed his wounds. He then proceeded to return the Asgardian skin, the All-Father had bestowed on him since birth, on his person. It snapped back into place with no objection whatsoever, when before he couldn't even keep it on.

"May I kiss you again?" Thor asked, wrapping one big arm around Loki's waist and the other he used to caress his face.

"Not yet… why did you respond so, so willingly? I surely assumed you to be repulsed by my affections." Loki asked staring intently into the blue orbs of his brother. The man he had grown up with, the man who he had fought with, and not to mention, against. The one he trusted and then betrayed. How is he so willing to overlook all that?

"You assume too much Loki, you are my brother and I love you." Thor replied, as if it was the simplest thing in the world, as if that statement wouldn't turn a couple of heads in a casual setting.

"This is insane, how can you even say that? I betrayed you, sentenced you to die! How could you possibly be okay with this, with me?" Loki whispered trying to make sense of everything, he didn't want to give hope a chance.

"We all make mistakes Loki; it is a natural fact of life. I do not condone your previous actions, but I do forgive you of them." Thor promised placing a small kiss on Loki's forehead like he used to do when they were younger, when things were so much simpler.

"You are more senseless than I thought." Loki sighed, pulling out of Thor's arms. He walked towards the broken door when only minutes (had it only been minutes?) ago he had pulverized it.

He touched the frame and reveled in the fact that his magic had been unaffected by this change in circumstances.

Loki walked slowly towards the bedroom door; this was it, the defining moment in this young and fragile relationship. He knew that if Thor backed down now he would surely die.

"So are you coming or not?" Loki asked with a façade of nonchalance, but on the inside his heart had stopped, packed up, and relocated to the base of his throat.

It didn't take much convincing to influence Thor to move and envelop Loki in another heart-stopping, earth-breaking, breath-taking, kiss.

They made it to the bed in a slow and wonderful process, sometimes too lost in the kiss to remember to move towards a more comfortable location. The back of Loki's knees hit the edge of the bed and he fell back pulling Thor down with him. The weight of his brother's body on top of his own made him feel comfortable and warm.

Thor broke the kiss in order to pursue another venture; he kissed his way down his brother's neck, stopping there to suck gingerly at the skin, hoping that in the morning his ministrations would show. He was about to move a hand into the waistband of his brother's pants when he heard a familiar siren and his hand stilled.

"Thor, I believe you are being hailed." Loki breathed, his chest rising and falling quickly. They'd been so close!

"Ignore it." Thor said placing a small kiss on his chin and moved his hand and placed it on Loki's flat stomach.

"Thor," Loki grabbed Thor's roaming hand and held it tightly in both of his. With all the sincerity he could muster he said, "I'll be fine, I won't go anywhere, I promise."

"I-I… fine. I'll be back as soon as possible. Just – stay there." Thor breathed out, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

"I wasn't planning on moving. Good luck, by the way. I don't believe I've ever said that to you before." Loki said, looking completely debauched from his place on the bed. Thor had to use all the self-restraint he had left to turn away and not say 'fuck it' and proceed to make sweet, sweet, love to his little brother.

That was an odd thought, an odd and exciting thought.

"Is it just me, or is Thor actually angry?" Clint asked as he shot the targets from his post up high on a random building in New York. He observed the deep scowl that had set into Thor's normally jovial face. His swinging was also harsher than usual and he didn't use his lighting as much, he simply chose to get up close and personal with the enemy and pound them down into ground meat.

"Yeah, I noticed that." Natasha answered, dodging a stray missile.

"Well, there's a first for everything," Clint concluded.

"You don't have to do this you know." Tony said as the last of the contents in his stomach emptied and flushed down into the abyss that was the sewer.

"I know, but what sort of hand-mate would I be if I just stood there like a jerk while you threw up; it would ruin my good boy-scout image." Steve joked mostly out of relief; he thought Tony was a goner. It had made all his fraternal instincts kick in, and he was suddenly very aware of his hand still placed delicately over Tony's neck. He hoped his cooler-than-average skin provided some comfort.

Tony snorted at his comment and wiped his eyes clear of the tears that had developed from the constant heaving.

"When I see Loki again, I'm gonna punch him straight in the face. And there is nothing you or anyone else around here will be able to say to stop me from doing it." Tony swore, rising from his spot on the floor and waddling over towards the sink.

"I wouldn't stop you either; I'll give you a free pass just this one time." Steve assured noticing how his hand tingled at his side, where he had dropped it after Tony rose.

"I don't need permission from you, old man." Steve was about to argue when he noticed the small smile playing on Tony's lips.

"And I wasn't giving it, older man." Steve retorted earning a fully-fledged grin from Tony's face. Damn his smile was beautiful.

What?

Steve shook himself out of his reverie and proceeded to stand there stoically as Tony freshened up.

"After this we should go out, get some shawarma or something since the rest of the team is gone… again." Tony suggested as they left the small bathroom.

"Just the two of us, like this?" Steve asked skeptically holding up the rarely mentioned condition, though it was always present in the back of both their minds each and every second of each and every day.

"Yeah, unless you're afraid someone will spot us and do – well – absolutely nothing. Come on Steve, I'm sick and tired of all these walls. We need something else – I need something else to see." Tony explained running a frustrated hand into his hair.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes."

"Awesome."

Thor returned to find his brother fast asleep in the middle of the bed. He couldn't have been gone more than two hours…

He sighed and dropped his hammer silently on the floor. After a much needed shower and some sustenance he returned to find his brother blinking slowly and stretching his limbs like a feline.

"You're awake." Thor observed.

"You returned." Loki countered.

"You stayed."

"I promised I would."

Thor nodded and pulled a chair to be able to sit and look at Loki. Now that he had had some time to clear his head and sober up, he had to have some questions answered.

Loki looked at Thor expectantly, waiting for him to say the first words.

"Alright, explain brother, how it is that you've avoided me for weeks and then dismiss me. And now… this." Thor said, gesturing to the both of them.

"It is a question of biology; my people experience a mating drive called Tu'Matra. It is uncontrollable, no more easily controlled than one's own heartbeat. I… we… us – we had some form of connection that made me deathly attracted to you. I feared rejection above all else, and then I learned what rejection did to someone, so I actively avoided you.

"Thor, I've been in so much pain. A constant iron-like pull kept tugging at my core and I ignored and ignored, until today. Today I felt as if I were dying. I could feel it in my veins, the withering of my muscles, and the decaying of my bones. That kiss was a desperate attempt, a drowning man bobbing his head over the water once more." Loki concluded, his voiced had lowered to a whisper by the end.

"Why would you not simply ask me?" Thor asked quietly, not wanting to break the soft atmosphere.

"Thor… it was not as if you simply draped yourself over me, your affections were with another. Or so I had assumed. You only regarded me as your younger brother. How could I ever fathom you becoming anything more?" Loki countered; somewhere along the conversation they had intertwined their hands.

"You have heard what they say about assuming. Loki, it is true that I have felt affections for another, but, I love you. Always have, even if it had been of a more innocent nature in our youth." Thor replied, finally feeling satisfied with the answers he was receiving.

"It would be simpler if we hadn't been related." Loki admitted softly, tracing circles into Thor's palm.

"Aren't you the one always going on about us not being brothers?" Thor asked good-naturedly.

"It may seem that I have developed some unfathomable sentiments along the course of this mating season." Loki observed, reminding himself of how happy he was to have finally lifted the burden of death off his shoulders.

"Speaking of which." Thor leaned in tentatively, his kiss was feather-light and Loki hadn't even known Thor had the capacity to be gentle. It tugged at something in his chest and he wrapped his arms tightly around Thor's neck.

He pulled his older brother towards the bed and just laid there comfortably on his chest.

"Can we stay like this for tonight?" Loki asked, listening to the strong heartbeat below his ear.

"For you? Anything." Thor promised placing a small kiss on the top of Loki's head.

"Thank you, Ta'ya." Loki breathed out. It took Thor a couple of seconds to realize he did not recognize that word.

"Ta'ya?"

"Ta'ya, Da'lin, they mean beloved, bond-mate, life partner. I picked up a couple of words in my stay with the Jotuns." Loki replied sleepily. He was so warm and happy.

"I've decided that I like it, Da'lin." Thor said. At the mention of the endearment small shivers of pleasure coursed down Loki's spine.

This, this right here was heaven.

"But did you have to buy shawarma for the entire restaurant?" Steve asked as they walked down Central Park, the night had caught up to them but that was all fun and good, it made them less recognizable.

"Yes, they were very entertaining, especially that one man with the yodeling dog. Classic." Tony said, a smile on his lips. All his troubles seemed to fall right behind him and crumble. He'd been so stressed out the past couple of months that it was nice to be so carefree. He reveled in it.

"Yeah, that was cute. Hey Tony, not to alert you or anything but we've been followed for the past mile or so." Steve warned.

"It's probably the paparazzi. Let's lose 'em."

Together (like they had another choice) they ran through the park and into the busy nightlife street. Whoever was following them was damn persistent. They turned on Broadway and continued down until the crowd thinned out.

Tony spotted an alley and rushed towards it. He tried the door and cursed it when it didn't open.

"Steve, cover me." Tony hissed digging in his pocket for the – ah, there it was.

"What- what are you doing?" Steve asked looking back at a leaning Tony who was fiddling with the door handle.

"Almost got it, this is so much harder with one hand." Tony grumbled as he lock-picked the door. The satisfying click was worth it as he opened the door and yanked Steve inside; relocking the door once they were both safely inside.

He recognized the smell immediately. It reminded him of too many blurry nights in his late teens. That smell that every establishment like this one had, stale beer, sweat, and an overwhelming scent of hormones.

"Don't freak out Cap, but I think we're in a bar." Tony teased as they walked down the dark corridor. A steady thumping beat rang through the walls and Tony tried hard to figure out where he'd heard that tune before.

"Har, har. I've been to a bar before." Steve replied.

"Not in the 21st century, I fear I may have to have the 'talk' with you." Tony said and stopped short when he realized just what type of bar they had stepped into.

He also recognized the song.

"Hey, Tony, your name is in the song." Steve said, completely oblivious to their surroundings.

Tony was surprised that the bright pink atmosphere, sequined menus, and overly effeminate bar tender with black eyeliner didn't give it all away.

Or the two men engaged in some seriously heavy snogging by the DJ booth.

"… at the Copa-Copacabana-

"Don't sing along!" Tony hissed. Normally if he ended up in a gay bar by himself he wouldn't have batted an eyelash, but he was with Steve, holding hands with Steve, it was all very compromising. Also, why was Steve not freaking out? He had to do twice the freaking just to make up for his lack thereof.

Or maybe he hadn't caught on.

Tony made his way towards the back of the room ignoring all the strange looks they were receiving. Had the lights been a bit brighter, his cheeks would be a bright red.

They finally settled down in a booth that had surprisingly comfortable seats, he absentmindedly picked up a menu and leafed over the ridiculous choices. Rainbow Swirl, LG on Ice?

"Hello sirs, welcome to The Copa, may I interest you in something to drink?" a petite male wearing a petite female's work uniform asked.

"Just water is fine." Tony answered for both of them. Surely Steve had seen the waiter. He'd know now, and bolt out of his seat crying home to his non-existent mother.

But instead, he just sat there, looking around at the people.

That freaked Tony out even more.

"Steve, please tell me why you aren't freaking out. You do realize what type of bar we've found ourselves in?" Tony asked, fully facing Steve. In the warm light his face was half shrouded in darkness giving Steve a mysterious look. His blue eyes shone like miniature stars with the little light that were reflecting in them.

"I'm fully aware of what sort of bar you got us into." Steve said, and that was all. No spitting words, no venom flying out of his mouth.

"Why aren't you freaking out? I thought your kind hated shit like this – why are you just sitting there?" Tony asked perplexed.

"My kind? I don't understand, I don't hate anyone or anything." Steve said, now getting even more confused with Tony's strange behavior.

"You know, rim-rod straight, holier-than-thou sort of deal, that kind." Tony explained according to his own mind.

"First, what gave you the idea that I'm holy and second, you can't just stereotype that all the people from the forties hated homosexuals. It makes you sound closed-minded and phobic." Steve said.

Tony felt… scolded.

"I guess I owe you an apology then. I'm sorry I assumed. You know what they say about assuming-

"Makes an ass out of you and me." Steve filled in with a smile.

Tony laughed not expecting Steve to just come out and say it.

"Two curse words in one day, goodness me, Captain, I think I may be rubbing off on you." Just as those last words escaped his mouth the waiter returned almost tripping over his laces. He blushed brightly and handed them their water.

"If you desire anything else, some food," he looked at both at them pointedly, "a room, just let me know." Then he disappeared.

Tony cleared his throat and took a swig of his water. Ugh, he should have ordered something stronger because it was going to be a long ass night.

(You better thank the computer Gods, because I would have ended it right here, and maybe you'd have to wait another month before I dished something out.)

Phew! Freaking long-ass momma-jama chappie of butterfly excrement, it's done! I hope you enjoyed.

R.R makes me feel alive, gives me inner strength.

[EDIT: 3/24/2015]