Chapter 14: That was anticlimactic.
Tony woke slowly to the sound of someone knocking on the door. That would be Pepper badgering him for oversleeping a press conference or some shit. He was vaguely aware of a warm body pressed against him. Loki. That meant that was Thor and not Pepper at all. He opened his eyes blearily and looked down at the god who had his face nuzzled under his chin. Sensing he was awake, Loki extricated himself from Tony and glanced meaningfully at the door. He was about to ask what Thor wanted when someone else spoke.
"Stark, I know you're in there and you better be decent because I'm done fucking around!" Clint. The color drained from Tony's face.
"Not decent! Not decent – don't!" Too late. Clint burst through the door with Natasha at his heels. At least the sight that greeted Clint had the benefit of making him drop his gun in shock. Even Natasha's eyes widened in disbelief. Loki buried his face against Tony's chest. He just could not deal with this right now. This was Anthony's problem. Not his.
"This isn't – Oh fuck it. This is exactly what it looks like. What the hell do you two want now? Can't we just establish that we're not the bad guys?" Tony ranted. Clint looked away, his face redder than a tomato.
"We did establish that. We just thought something was wrong because we've been banging on the door for literally twenty minutes." Natasha groused. "Whatever. Get dressed and meet us in the Lobby. It's about Doom. And yes Stark, we knew where you were the whole time. Even in Malibu." She turned on her heel and left with Clint running to catch up with her. When the two spies were gone, and the door shut behind them, Tony let out the breath he was holding and tangled his fingers gently in Loki's hair.
"I guess that killed the mood for a possible encore." Tony complained. Loki chuckled and pushed himself up to kiss the inventor lightly on the lips.
"I unfortunately agree." The demigod commented and rolled over onto his back. He stretched and yawned languidly, still half wrapped in the sheets. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so deeply without being plagued by nightmares.
"You all right?" Tony asked, looking down on him from a half sitting position. Loki's eyes fell on the arc reactor. He carefully pressed his index finger against the center of it, feeling the energy that pulsed through it pass into his own body through the contact.
"What is this for? I thought at first it was to power your armor, but it must do something else for you to go so far as embedding it in your body." Loki asked, letting his hand drop to the bed beside him. Tony looked down at him uncertainly. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to talk about it, but trust seemed to be a pretty important theme in the strange relationship they were forming. ...And 'relationship' was definitely the word for it. Jesus Christ, how the hell did that happen?
"It keeps me alive." Tony said simply. "There is shrapnel in my body - tiny shards of metal. If they get into my heart, it'll kill me. This is basically a glorified electron magnet. The polarity keeps the shrapnel in place. It does power the suits, too. Well, partially."
"It feels like the Tesseract." Loki said for the second time. "Like magic. But you built this?"
"I did build it, yeah. It took three tries to get it right. The first two were doing just as good of a job killing me as they were keeping me alive. This one actually was based on the Tesseract and is made with an element that doesn't exist on earth. I had to artificially create it myself with a particle accelerator. In a way, it's like I have a bit of the Tesseract in me... I guess." Tony explained while Loki watched him intently. Curiously, he pressed his hands against Tony's chest on either side of the arc reactor. He felt a cool tingling sensation move through him, radiating from Loki's hands. The skin felt oddly hot when he removed them.
"I can see the metal shards." He observed. "It must be painful."
Tony shrugged nonchalantly, pretending not to be bothered. "Not really. Some days it's a little sore where the reactor itself is implanted, but I don't feel the shrapnel. I don't suppose you know some kind of space voodoo that could fix me?" Tony asked hopefully. Loki shook his head sadly.
"Not I, but I do know someone who might be able to in Alfheim." The demigod replied. "How did you come to be like this?"
With some trepidation, Tony launched into the story of his capture and imprisonment by the Ten Rings. He pulled his shirt over his head as he told Loki of being blown up by one of his own weapons. And how Obediah Stane, the man who had been like a father to him, paid to have him killed. He told the story of his escape in the Iron Man Mark 1 suit, after refusing to build weapons for the terrorists in spite of being tortured for weeks. It was with sadness that Tony spoke of Yinsen's death, and his promise not to waste the life he'd saved.
Loki's reaction shocked Tony. Instead of his usual cold indifference, he just threw his arms around the engineer and held him tightly. In spite of himself, Tony smiled and hugged him back. Damn, if he'd known that Loki was like a cuddly little puppy after sex, maybe he would have done it way sooner. It could have saved them from a ton pointless arguments.
"Come on, you. Get dressed. They'll think we're going at it again and that shit will be all over the internet. If it isn't already." Tony chided him gently. Loki smiled mischievously and ran his thumb across the very obvious bruise on Tony's neck where he'd bitten him.
"I think I will keep you." Loki murmured and kissed the spot softly. Tony shivered and recalled Loki's comment about a wonderful personality meaning nothing in a relationship if they weren't sexually compatible. And that was when he realized the real reason and he and Pepper could never get their shit together. He loved her more than anything, he knew that. It wasn't her nagging or her refusal to accept him being Iron Man that made him push her away. It was the sex. ...Or lack thereof. Tony needed constant change, he needed new, exciting things to keep him interested. Just like his work, he needed constant evolution in all aspects of his life. Pepper had flat out refused to try anything even a little kinky. She was straight up vanilla and it disappointed him horribly. He sincerely doubted he would have that problem with Loki.
And as far as personalities were concerned... Yeah, so they fought constantly, but Tony had a feeling it was a defense mechanism more than anything. In time, he was sure he'd manage to shake the crazy cats out of the bag and they'd get along just fine. Loki obviously was smart and had an interest in science, if nothing else that was common ground – a place to start trying to figure him out.
"I'm not your pet." Tony muttered and shoved Loki's shirt over his head. Loki indignantly straightened it and pulled his hair back into a ponytail. Tony secretly hoped he wouldn't cut it off later; he rather liked it long.
"Perhaps not at the moment... But later, well, we shall see." He teased and headed for the door. Tony wordlessly followed, smiling like an idiot. He really was in over his head this time, but he wasn't sure it was such a bad thing. Loki was everything Pepper wasn't, and it was exhilarating. The realization that he was finally letting go hit him like a ton of bricks, and he felt like a bird that had finally broken free of a cage that was five sizes too small.
Thor sat a small table in the motel lobby eating a poptart with Clint and Natasha who were both staring into their styrofoam coffee cups as if the bitter liquid held the meaning of life. Thor watched them curiously and set the half-eaten strawberry poptart aside.
"You walked in without knocking, did you not?" He asked, smiling awkwardly. Clint groaned and banged his head against the dirty table that was probably older than he was. Natasha raised her eyebrows and nodded.
"I did warn you not to, friends." The thunderer said with a sheepish smile. Natasha ignored Clint, he should have known better. It didn't even require a closed door to walk in on Stark and some slut covered in whipped cream. Obviously, even Thor wasn't that naïve. Either that or he was used to it. For all they knew, Loki was no better than Tony. Actually, Natasha was willing to bet on that.
"At least Stark didn't try to deny it. Though, it is kind of a shame because I'm sure any excuse he could have come up with would have been hilarious." Natasha commented and picked at a croissant on a paper plate in front of her. She wasn't sure it looked entirely edible. Either way, seeing Tony naked in bed with Loki had neither surprised her nor particularly bothered her. She'd seen far worse on various espionage missions. And who was she to judge? Maybe it would do them both some good. She doubted Tony was stupid enough to cheat on someone who could easily kill him with his bare hands. And if Loki was invested in Tony, he would be that much less likely the screw them all over later on.
"To be completely honest, I don't think excuses would've been all that effective." Tony quipped, walking up behind them with Loki in tow. Tony was dressed in a pair of bluejeans with a worn ACDC t-shirt. Loki was wearing his usual black denim jeans and a dark green wifebeater. The god had a cup of coffee in his hands that he was eying warily.
"I mean, you'd have to be blind or a virgin to not know what was going on in there." Tony said and gingerly sat next to Clint who glared at him with a mixture of disgust and betrayal. "Right, so you said this little house call was about Doctor Douche?" He added, trying to not to wince from the pain of his sore behind. He knew Loki could probably heal the bruises, but damn if he was going to ask. His pride would be the death of him, probably. If not liver failure. Loki sat next to him and placed the coffee as far away from him as physically possible. He had grown too accustomed to expensive varieties to tolerate that cheap swill.
"Yes, he is in SHIELD custody as of early this morning and the artifact he stole from the Metropolitan museum is on its way back where it belongs." Clint explained, glaring at Tony. "No thanks to you."
"Oh." The engineer muttered. "Uh, that's great. ...And really anticlimactic. I don't suppose I can throw some cash your way to go beat the shit out of him anyway? I'm still pissed about my tower."
"No, you can not. Anyway Tony, you can go the hell home and stop being an idiot. Thor set the record straight. You are officially not dead anymore, nor wanted by SHIELD. Oh, and we're pretty sure this belongs to you." Clint said and placed a small box on the table in front of him. Raising his eyebrows, Tony opened it and frowned. It was the spare arc reactor that was missing from his workshop, and it was in pieces.
"We found that in an underground lab Doom had right under noses back in New York." Natasha explained. "Miss Potts told us that there was a security breach that Jarvis couldn't pin-point in your Malibu mansion. We're guessing that was when he took it. If it makes you feel any better, we found it like that. ...And didn't mention it to Fury."
Tony turned over the core of the reactor in his hands, at least all the parts were there and he doubted Doom had the resources to replicate it if he broke out of the big house. Super villainy aside, he couldn't just pull a particle accelerator out of his ass. This was personal, though. Somehow it made him feel utterly violated to see it in pieces. At least Fury didn't get a look at the inner workings. Still, as soon as he got home he had some hacking to do in order to make damned sure of that.
"Loki, you're free to go, too. Thor told us all about your arrangement with the All-Mother. We won't get in your way, unless you get in over you head or if you decide to stop playing nice. But you're going to need better resources than that shitty apartment in Brooklyn to actually be effective at your job. I was going to see about petitioning Fury to give you SHIELD funding since you're basically doing our work for us, but after this morning..." Natasha told the demigod and glanced meaningfully at Tony. "...I think you're Stark's problem now."
Tony rolled his eyes but smiled disarmingly. "Yeah, fine. Just... I think I'd rather stay in New York. Is my father's old mansion still in one piece and secure, do you know?" He asked. Honestly, he just wanted to avoid Pepper. She'd kill him when she found out about Loki. ...If not, she was practically guaranteed to accidentally walk in on them every time they were getting somewhere.
"Yeah, as far as we know. Stark Tower is already being rebuilt, though. It should be done in a couple months, tops." Clint explained and finally nonchalantly dumped his coffee in the terracotta pot housing a fake palm plant on the windowsill beside him. Wordlessly, Natasha handed him hers and it followed suit. Loki did the same with his and the ugly plastic cactus on his side. Thor pointedly shoved his cup in his brother's direction and its contents also wound up in the pot belonging to the ridiculous acrylic succulent. The domesticity of it all overwhelmed Tony and he just started laughing. The others all watched, glaring at him like he'd finally cracked. Except Loki, he smiled - a real smile and Tony knew that was the equivalent of Fury rolling around on the helicarrier deck in hysterics.
"So... Can I keep the car as a souvenir?" Tony asked when he composed himself.
"No." Clint and Natasha said in unison.
"...Damn it." Tony muttered mutinously.