Chapter 21 – Surprises
Summary: Tony should have known the peace wouldn't last.
Tony woke up feeling warm and happy, cocooned in a nest of blankets in a pleasant semi-darkness. His muscles were heavy with that vague, languid ache that they always had after a particularly good round of sex and he stretched lazily with his eyes still closed, enjoying the slow process of waking up.
There was a low chuckle on his left that sounded awfully familiar, but what would Loki be doing in his bed? He had– Oh. The memories from the night before rushed into Tony's mind in a flood of images and sounds and he couldn't have stopped the content, slightly dopey smile from appearing on his face even if he wished to. When he finally opened his eyes, Tony was met with the sight of Loki's face half-mashed into the pillow, his hair a wild tangle of curls that spilled everywhere. Despite the outward impression of laziness, Loki's eyes were alert, sharp and fully awake and were watching Tony with a mixture of fondness and amusement.
"G'morning," Tony mumbled, rubbing his eyelids.
"It is." Loki smiled at him, propping himself up on his elbow.
"What time is it?" Tony asked the ceiling.
"It is 8:42 a.m., Sir," JARVIS responded dutifully. "Shall I open the blinds for you, Sir?"
"Yeah, you might as well," Tony told him. He ran his hand through his hair and sat up, stretching a bit. The morning sun spilled in through the window, filling the room with light. Jesus, almost nine in the morning. He hadn't slept this long for…well, he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept this long (without being knocked out or black-out drunk). "You're still here," he said softly, his eyes turning to the naked man sprawled under the covers next to him.
"I am," Loki confirmed. He tried to make it sound cocky, but Tony didn't miss the brief flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
"That's good," Tony muttered, already leaning down. "Very, very good. Excellent, in fact, because if you're here, I can do things like this," he pressed a kiss against Loki's lips, "and this," another one beneath his jaw, "and this," he trailed a series of kisses down Loki's throat, scraping his teeth gently against his collarbone.
Moving closer, Tony propped his arm next to Loki's shoulder and leant down to pepper his neck and shoulder with kisses. Loki rolled fully on his back, pulling Tony down with him. The demigod waited for Tony to lift his head, then caught his mouth, doing his best to remind Tony why this morning was so good in the first place. While they were kissing, one of Loki's hands sneaked down Tony's back to grab his ass, using the leverage to pull him even closer, the sensuous slide of their naked bodies making Tony's skin heat up everywhere they touched.
Oh yeah, Tony thought as he bent down to kiss Loki again, this is going to be a great day.
Of course, he should have known better than to expect things to go well today – after all, he had just managed to patch up his personal life. It was only a matter of time before something else in his life went tits up. Unfortunately for him, the peace lasted nowhere near as long as he had hoped.
It took them over an hour before they were finally ready to get out of the bed and face the day. (Well, hour and a half, to be exact, because they got delayed in the shower when Loki got a little too enthusiastic about soaping up Tony's back and they ended up going for another round against the shower stall wall). As a result, it was already well past ten when they made their way downstairs for breakfast, their bodies still riding the wave of blissful contentment from their last orgasm. While Tony sat down at the kitchen table and started flipping through the news on his tablet, Loki made a beeline for the fridge, pulling out an enormous carton of eggs and several packets of bacon.
"You're going to eat all that?" Tony couldn't help but ask, as he watched Loki break egg after egg into a bowl.
"Of course not." Loki shot him a look. "Some of that is for you, too. Despite what you would like to believe, you cannot subsist on coffee alone. And since I'm already cooking for myself, I might as well throw in a little extra for you."
"That's…thanks," Tony said, feeling weirdly moved by such a small gesture. Sure, Loki had cooked for him before, but those occasions had been few and far between. And after the clusterfuck they had just gone through, it was nice to see Loki acting so at home here again. Still, drawing attention to it would only remind them both of the past few weeks, so all Tony said was: "Yeah, eggs will be great, thanks," and he turned his attention back to the tablet.
The gossip sites were full of paparazzi pictures from last night, running wild speculations about the identity of Tony's mysterious date. Which reminded him that he had no idea who she had been, either.
"Oh hey," Tony remarked casually, "your choice of disguise yesterday drew quite a bit of attention. Nobody has any idea who that smoking hot lady on my arm had been." He shot the demigod a side glance and found him steadfastly focused on the pan full of scrambled eggs. "Who was that, anyway?"
There was a brief moment of silence as Loki deliberated whether he wanted Tony to know.
"That was…my former wife," he said finally, hesitation clear in every word. Tony's eyebrows shot to his hairline.
"Your- That was your ex? Holy shit." Loki had been married to someone who looked like that? And still left her?
Loki seemed to follow the unspoken train of Tony's thoughts, because his lips pulled into a wry half-smile.
"Yes, she was beautiful, but she was also cold and vain and possessed no sense of humour. Our marriage had been one of convenience, not love, and we had never understood each other well. The decision to end our marriage had been entirely mutual, as neither of us had any desire to remain in it longer than absolutely necessary." He tried to keep his tone very matter-of-fact, but there was a thread of underlying bitterness in it. It made Tony remember their conversation on Christmas, about Odin marrying his son to gain political influence.
"Did anyone even ask you if you wanted any of it?" The thought had only occurred to Tony now, but it would fit in with the things Loki had told him so far.
Loki snorted. "No. I was presented with the decision after it had been made. Father did not particularly care about my opinions on that matter. Thor had tried to plead with him on my behalf, but Odin ignored us both. Just like he always has." The note of anger in his voice grew more pronounced and the stainless steel salt shaker bent a little in his fingers when he reached for it to salt the eggs, but Loki didn't seem to notice, lost in memories. "I had felt hurt by Father's decision back then, had wondered why he would disregard my thoughts on the matter, but now I am no longer surprised – after all, I have never been more than a bargaining chip for him. Why would he care about what I want, when gaining political leverage had been the reason for which he had kidnapped me from Jötunheim in the first place?"
There was something vaguely sad about the set of his shoulders, a memory of old hurt and disappointment that seemed to lay on him like a shadow. Tony had little experience in how to comfort people, but as he watched Loki poke the eggs with short, sharp movements, face clouded with memories of resentment and betrayal, he thought he might give it a try anyway.
He stood up from the kitchen table and crossed the few feet to the stove, stopping only a few inches behind Loki. After a second of hesitation, Tony raised a hand and laid it between Loki's shoulder blades, rubbing light circles over Loki's spine with his thumb.
"Your dad sounds like a real piece of work," Tony said, taking care to keep both his voice and the motion casual. "I mean, I thought mine was a dick, but yours really takes the cake." He kept up the rubbing motion as he leaned forward around Loki's shoulder to take a whiff of the lovely bacon smell from the pan. "This smells amazing. Want me to help you with the plates?"
"Yes, that would be...appreciated," Loki said and Tony could feel him relax a little under his hand, his mind finally focusing back on the present. Once he was sure that Loki wouldn't accidentally destroy any more of his kitchen utensils, Tony pulled his hand back and went to get the plates and silverware. Despite what some of his critics might think, he did know where his knives and forks were. He just usually didn't bother using them when he ordered takeout.
Loki loaded the plates full of eggs and bacon (his portion was considerably larger than Tony's) and laid them down on the table while Tony distributed the knives and forks. As Loki passed him to put the plates on the table, he briefly laid a hand on Tony's shoulder, the quick squeeze of his fingers conveying his thanks without making a big deal out of it.
They had never touched much outside of sex before this, Tony realized. Sure, there had been the occasional brush of shoulders as they had leaned over an armor schematic together or an arm sneaking around Tony's waist when Loki had been in a playful mood, but as a whole, they had never been particularly affectionate together. They'd had tons of great sex, but the moment they'd left the bed, an invisible barrier always seemed to spring up between them, keeping them apart. If he was honest with himself, Tony would have to admit that the unspoken no-touch rule had mostly been his invention. In his mind, non-sexual touches of this kind were reserved for couples and needy people and back then he had considered the two of them to be neither.
Now he was slowly beginning to change his mind. Sure, he was never going to be Mr. Touchy-Feely, but this kind of simple comfort really wasn't such a bad thing once in a while – after all, it wasn't as if there was anyone watching them, policing their behavior from afar. They could do whatever the hell they wanted. Including the occasional hug.
They ate their breakfast in comfortable silence, both of them lost in thought. Tony was still idly scrolling through the news on his tablet, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with the whole HYDRA thing, while Loki's eyes were a million miles away. Still, despite the lack of conversation, the mood was…surprisingly not awkward. Actually, this whole slow morning thing was pretty nice. Tony thought he could get used to this.
Once they were done with breakfast, Tony led the way to the workshop, where he opened one of the bigger storage lockers while Loki stood in the doorway, looking around.
"I'll clean up the mess later," Tony called out, doing his best to ignore the dried blood on the floor. There were still a few dark brown streaks leftover from Dummy's attempt at cleaning, but Tony couldn't blame him for the half-assed job – mopping up blood of someone you knew was always really fucking depressing. He'd deal with that later, because right now he had something for Loki.
"Come here," he told the demigod, drawing a haphazardly-wrapped bundle from the locker. He laid it down on the nearest table and gestured for Loki to take a look at it. "While you were gone, I took the liberty and made the first version of your armor. Well, actually, I used it as a way to try out the new anti-magic layer for my own suit, but it's still pretty good."
Loki stepped up to the table, unwrapping the heavy cloth from the armor with a look of curiosity. The armor wasn't anything special – just a rough model of the final product, no frills - but it was made of a steel alloy and the anti-magic layer seemed to be holding up pretty well so far. Loki lifted it in his hands, trying out the weight and material.
"It's an experiment," Tony explained as Loki examined it. "I made a computer model based on the scans of your armor and body and then had JARVIS create this for me. It's not handmade, so it doesn't possess that magic voodoo or whatever you wanted, but it's close enough to the final thing that it can give us some idea about the fit and durability."
Still without a word, Loki took the breastplate and pulled it down over his head, the intricate set of hooks and locks clicking into place when he pushed the front and the back pieces together. The seams on his sides slid together, creating a sleek carapace that fit him (almost) like a second skin. Loki watched the whole process without a word, still wearing that carefully neutral expression that he'd had since Tony had first mentioned the new armor. The blankness weirded Tony out a little, but he decided not to let it throw him off balance. Instead of trying to puzzle out Loki's thoughts, he turned his attention back to the armor.
"It's still not as flexible as the armor you have and we'll probably have to make at least half a dozen versions before we come up with the perfect deal, but for a first try, I don't think it's too bad." Tony made a circle around him, checking the fit. "Yep, the size is good. Try to conjure up a fireball or something. I tried to be careful with the anti-magic layer, but I had no way to test it. Hopefully, this shouldn't cut off your magic when you try to cast something."
Extending his right hand in front of him, Loki filled his palm with a ball of bright orange flames.
"It takes slightly more effort to perform the spell, but it does not block my magic significantly," Loki finally spoke, focusing on the magic for a moment longer before he killed the flames and turned to face Tony again. "You made this after I left?"
Tony made an awkward, one-shoulder shrug and turned away to tinker with a few spare engine parts to give his hands something to do.
"Yeah," he muttered. "I was spending a lot of time here and one project sort of started to blend into another and before I knew it, I was halfway done with this and it seemed like a waste not to finish it." The whole sentence came out of him in a rush and he cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable with the admission. "So, how is it?"
"It is…better than I expected," Loki said cautiously, running one hand over the smooth metal of the breastplate. "The anti-magic layer is still too deeply etched into the armor so it interferes with my own magic and the field it generates is too small to cover me entirely, but it is a very good start." He looked up and gave Tony a small smile, his expression softening from its previous stiffness. "It seems that I have chosen my craftsman well after all."
Before Tony could respond, he leaned over and gave Tony a short kiss, his hand lingering on Tony's shoulder before he stepped back again. "Thank you. I am confident that with some more practice you will be able to create exactly what I asked you for."
"And if I can't?" Tony couldn't help but ask.
Loki's smile turned into a smirk. "Then we'll find some other way for you to accomplish this. There are many resources in the Nine Realms that you have never even heard of. There are bound to be plenty of materials you can use if the limited selection that Midgard offers does not prove sufficient."
"So then you'll what?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Bring me some alien metal? Or take me travelling to some half-forgotten corner of the galaxy that has right material for this?" He had only been half serious when he'd said it, meaning it as a joke, but Loki didn't even blink.
"Why not both?" Loki suggested, surprising Tony a little. "You have never left this world, have you?"
"Well, no? Not for lack of trying, I'll give you that."
"Would you come travelling with me, if you could?" Loki asked, stepping closer until he was only a few inches away. He didn't touch Tony, not yet, but it was clear that the question wasn't meant just as a throwaway line. Tony took a minute to think about it, about all the implications of packing his bags and just disappearing off to an alien world for a few weeks or months. To his surprise, he found that he was strangely okay with that.
"Yeah," he replied a moment later. "Yeah, I think I would. I've always thought this world was far too small to hold all of my awesomeness. I wouldn't mind an occasional trip or two."
"I am glad to hear that," Loki murmured, leaning even closer until his nose bumped Tony's. "Because there is so much I wish to show you. Just you wait."
He ended his words with another kiss, one in which Tony happily participated. They kissed for a while, sharing languid, unhurried kisses that felt weirdly like sealing of a deal of some sort. But hell, if that deal involved more kissing and a possible opportunity to get his hands on some rare alien tech, Tony was all for it. They were finally forced to break apart when something hard poked Tony's ribs, causing him to pull back and glare down at Dummy, who was looking between the two of them, his claw-head tilted in silent question.
"Yes, we're back together. No, he's not going to leave again," Tony told him, shooting an amused glance at Loki before he looked back down at the bot. "Now, I believe you were supposed to be cleaning up the workshop, weren't you, Dummy? Stop poking me and go pick up some trash, that's a good boy."
Dummy shot him another curious look before he turned, apparently satisfied with the answer, and rolled away to gather the empty fast food wrappers from the workshop kitchenette. Tony stepped out of Loki's arms, giving him another smile.
"I'd better get back to work, too, before Dummy sets something on fire again. He swore it was an accident the last time, but one never knows with him." He cleared his throat a little, picking up the nearest half-finished prototype out of habit. "Anyway, it's good to hear that the armor fits. We can work on another version after I finish decrypting the files I brought home from the HYDRA base. Which reminds me," he spied the shiny lump of adamantium on a nearby workbench, "we might have something else I could use for the armor. I wonder just how much adamantium HYDRA has. I bet that if we raided a few more secret bunkers, I would have enough of the stuff to make a dozen suits." He could just imagine it, too, an impenetrable layer of protection around his body. No more stray bullets, no more danger of getting skewered by some weird alien beast. It would be like a dream come true.
While Loki was taking off the new armor, Tony wandered off to play with the lump of adamantium, running tests on it to measure the weight and volume so he could figure out just how much stuff he could make out of it. He was in the middle of toying with a few new ideas for armor upgrades when JARVIS spoke up, drawing his attention.
"Sir?" he asked, and there was unusual hesitation in his voice, which put Tony instantly on alert. Sure, he had programmed JARVIS with a personality, but these kinds of subtle inflections never bode anything good. His next sentence confirmed Tony's suspicions. "I have some bad news, Sir."
"What is it?" Tony asked, putting the lump of adamantium back on the table.
"Nicholas Fury is dead."
The words hit Tony like a bucket of ice-cold water and he straightened up, throwing the ceiling a startled look. "What the- Run that by me again?" Because he was sure he must have misheard. There was no way Nick Fury was dead.
"Nicholas Fury, the Director of SHIELD, is dead, Sir," JARVIS dutifully repeated. Even Loki looked up at that, his mind finally connecting the name and title to a corresponding face. Tony wasn't looking at him, however, his attention fully focused on JARVIS.
"I'm sorry, I must have heard wrong, because it sure as hell sounded like you just said that Nick Fury is dead. That's bullshit. That guy can't be dead, he's indestructible. He's like Rambo, or those weird starfish that grow back when you cut them in half. I bet if you cut him open, you would discover some kind of a Terminator skeleton under his skin. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that he's at least part cyborg."
He was fully aware that he was rambling, but his brain refused to compute the reality of Fury being dead. The guy was a badass – he had like fifty different secret identities and probably a spare brain in a jar somewhere. There was no way someone like that was dead. No fucking way.
"Nonetheless," JARVIS continued, "according to the official SHIELD report that I have managed to acquire this morning, the Director died at 2:13 a.m. Eastern Time."
It took Tony less than two seconds to convert that information.
"Are you telling me that he's been dead for almost twelve hours and I had no idea?" He pushed away from the table and started to pace, too full of energy to stay still. There was a thin tendril of panic trying to crawl its way down his throat and it was freaking him out.
"The report only appeared on official SHIELD channels an hour ago, Sir," JARVIS said. "I needed time to verify that it was genuine."
"And?" Tony paused in his pacing. "Is it?"
"It appears so, Sir."
"Shit." Fuck, this was bad. This was very, very bad. However, he couldn't let himself just descend into panic. He needed reason, logic, information… "How the hell did that happen, anyway?"
"According to the report, he was assassinated shortly after he left the SHIELD Headquarters in Washington D.C. The report does not go into detail, but from what information I have managed to aggregate, the attack on Director Fury had been carried out in a manner similar to the assassination attempt on you two days ago."
"So it was HYDRA, then?" Tony said, pacing again as he tried to puzzle all the pieces of the clue together. "When they didn't manage to kill me, they went after Fury? Why? Are they trying to bring down SHIELD? Nobody heard of them for decades and suddenly they're making highly publicized hits all over the country. Why now?" He combed a hand through his hair, bunching his fingers into a tight fist at the back of his head. "How did they get Fury, anyway? That guy has like a thousand safeguards in place. His car is like a tank. You can't just shoot it to pieces."
"From the available information, it appears that he got surrounded by several cars that opened fire on him," JARVIS explained. "When they failed to reach him, the attackers blocked his retreat and smashed his windows with a battering ram. Director Fury managed to escape them and find refuge in the home of Steven Rogers, but was hunted down by an assassin of unknown identity who shot him with a sniper rifle."
"Fuck," Tony breathed out, the similarities between his and Fury's cases almost eerie. "Did they use adamantium bullets, too?"
"The report does not say what kind of ammunition was used against the Director."
"Anything else I should know?"
"Captain Rogers was present during the final attack of the sniper, but was unable to apprehend the assassin responsible. He then accompanied the Director to the hospital."
That made Tony pause.
"Steve saw the whole thing? Get him on the line for me, I need to talk to him now."
Several seconds of silence passed before JARVIS spoke again. "I am afraid that I am unable to connect you to Captain Rogers, Sir."
"Why? Where is he?" And why wasn't he answering his phone? It had taken the Avengers a few days to explain the convenience of cell phones to Steve and persuade him to start carrying one on his person (he'd been genuinely baffled by the fact that you no longer needed an operator to connect you with the person on the other side of the line), but once they had, he never failed to answer a phone call, no matter what time it was. He still wasn't a big fan of texting (preferring the good, old fashioned pen and paper or a phone call), but he answered his calls with the same diligence that he applied to everything else in his life.
Steve Rogers not answering his phone meant that something was very, very wrong.
"The current location of Captain Rogers is unknown," JARVIS answered.
"Unknown? Unknown how?" Tony demanded. "Unknown as in you have no idea where he is, or because he's on some sort of a secret mission or what?"
There was a small pause. "I believe he has gone into hiding, Sir. There has been an…incident at SHIELD this morning. As of this moment, Steve Rogers is Number One on SHIELD's list of wanted persons."
Tony blinked, trying to comprehend what he had just heard.
"SHIELD is…hunting Steve?" He exchanged a baffled look with Loki. "What the fuck is going on? What the hell did Steve do?"
"I do not have enough information available to answer that, Sir," JARVIS said regretfully. "The order was issued twenty minutes ago, active immediately for all SHIELD personnel."
"Jesus." Tony wiped a hand over his face. "Why would SHIELD put a bounty on Steve's head? I mean, it's Steve. He's practically a living saint. There's no way they're after him because he suddenly went darkside. He'd never do that. Out of all of us, he's the one who'd rather die a hundred times that shake hands with Hitler. If they're after him this badly, it's probably because he found out something he shouldn't have, or yelled at some bigwig who had a great new idea about using alien artifacts to power nukes. Hell, with his luck, he probably stumbled across some conspiracy without any effort from his side."
He went over the available information again, reading the reports over and over and trying to see what lay beneath.
"Or, more likely, Fury told him something." Tony straightened up from the table and started moving again, gesticulating with his hands as he spun his theory. "You said that Fury came to Steve's flat, right? And SHIELD started hunting Steve shortly after that. There's no way that is a coincidence. Fury probably knew something he shouldn't have, shared the info with Steve before he died, and now SHIELD is trying to get the information back. And Steve, loyal old Steve, is going to protect it with his life, even though he probably has no idea what's going on with all this."
He sighed, shaking his head. "That would be just like him, protecting other people's secrets without even knowing what those secrets were. If I find out that Fury has been alive all this time and the manhunt for Steve was just some part of another one of his convoluted plots, I'm gonna kick his ass."
"You're very protective of him," Loki remarked quietly, interrupting Tony's frenetic ranting. He was watching Tony from a nearby workbench, keeping enough distance between them to give Tony room to pace.
"Well, yeah," Tony said, his eyes involuntarily flying towards the Captain America shield replica in the corner. "He's a friend. And a really decent guy. Honestly, I still have no idea how someone so wholesome ended up being friends with a guy like me, but he's one of the few people I can depend on. If someone is after his head, I want to know why."
"Will you go after him?" The question was carefully posed, but there was an undertone of tension in his voice which suggested that Loki wasn't too happy with the idea.
"Yeah, probably. He would do the same for me." Tony walked over to the holographic table and pulled up several screens, skimming through the dozens of SHIELD reports that JARVIS had gathered for him. "But I'm not gonna fly off blind when I don't even know where the guy is. I have to find him first and figure out what the hell is going on before I can even think of going after him."
"Your little red-headed spy could know where he's hiding," Loki suggested, coming closer to join Tony at the table. Actually, that was a pretty good idea.
"JARVIS, what about Natasha? The last I heard, she was with Steve in D.C., wasn't she? Do you have anything on her?"
"The current location of Agent Romanov is unknown," JARVIS replied. "She was last seen at Director Fury's side in the hospital, but has not been heard from for eight hours."
"So she's gone into hiding, too." Tony rubbed a hand over his beard. "With any luck, she's with Steve. That's good. Still, what the hell is going on?"
"I do not have enough infor-" JARVIS began.
"Then get me some, dammit!" Tony snapped. "I need to know what happened. All this can't be a coincidence." He turned to Loki, who was watching him with a carefully neutral expression. "It's not just me," Tony told him as he started to pace again. "Before, I thought someone was targeting me because I was the head of Stark Industries, but that's not it. HYDRA is going after the Avengers, one by one. They started with me and when that didn't work, they went after Fury. Still, that doesn't explain why Cap is suddenly on SHIELD's wanted list." He threw up his hands, feeling frustrated with this whole thing. "It doesn't make any sense - why would SHIELD try to kill one of their most prized soldiers, right after the Director has been assassinated by their enemies? Something smells fishy as hell here and I need to find out what it is. It can't be an accident that it all happened in such a short timeframe."
He clapped his hands and the screens with the Avengers' profiles rose into the air around him.
"So, Cap and Widow have gone AWOL. I should probably make sure the rest of the guys are still okay. Where's Hawkeye?" he asked JARVIS.
"Agent Barton is currently on a classified mission somewhere in the South Pacific area," JARVIS informed him.
"Barton's a big boy," Tony said. "He can take care of himself. What about Bruce?"
"Doctor Banner is in his lab in Avengers Tower. Should I call him for you, sir?"
Tony suppressed a sigh of relief. At least Bruce still seemed to be ok. Thank fuck.
"Yeah, patch him through."
Less than ten seconds later, Bruce's voice came through the speakers.
"Hi, Tony."
"Hi," Tony said, doing his best to keep his voice casual before he dropped the bomb on him. "How are things in my Tower? Thor hasn't blown it up, yet?" He ignored Loki's automatic scowl at the mention of his brother's name, focusing his attention on the phone call instead.
"No, he's been on his best behavior," Bruce assured him. There was a shuffling sound on the other side of the line and a few clinks, suggesting that Tony had most likely interrupted some sort of scientific experiment. "He might have accidentally destroyed the common room coffee table when he dropped his hammer on it, though." The easy-going humor in his voice made it clear that Bruce hadn't heard anything about the SHIELD clusterfuck yet. "He offered to repair it by hand, but I told him that you'll buy a new one."
"Yeah, I will," Tony said, his mind supplying him with a hazy image of an ugly rectangular thing made of chrome and glass. "The old one was hideous, anyway. I have no idea what Pepper was thinking when she bought that monstrosity. And it's probably better that you stopped him from trying to put it back together. God knows what would happen if he discovered the existence of super glue. How is he, anyway?" Tony couldn't help but ask, remembering the sobbing wreck on his couch a few months ago.
"Mostly well." Bruce's voice sobered up a bit. "He's trying to hide it, but I think he's still grieving for his mother and brother. The daily calls with Jane help a lot, but he still looks a bit sad. And he's been watching the Lion King again."
He didn't need to say any more than that to make it clear that he still hadn't gotten over Loki's death.
"Oh, boy," Tony sighed, shooting a quick look at Loki, who had no idea what any of this meant.
Thor had first seen the Lion King during his November visit at the Tower when Tony had suggested watching some Disney movies to help get Thor acquainted with Earth culture, and while the guy had loved all the songs, he'd spent half the movie sobbing into his popcorn. At the end, he had proclaimed it a "fable worthy of Asgardian legends" and had been watching it at least once a month ever since. Tony didn't know whether it was because the story reminded him of his own life in some way, or because Scar reminded him of Loki, but the movie had quickly become Thor's favorite. Even if he always ended up crying over Mufasa's death.
"Yes," Bruce confirmed awkwardly. "It's been…emotional." There was a wealth of unspoken words behind that sentence, things he was probably holding back out of respect for Thor's privacy, but Tony still heard enough to draw his own conclusions.
"Did he drink all my booze again?"
"Only about half of it. And luckily, I managed to stop him before he could go streaking through the streets of New York."
That drew a chuckle from Tony. "That's probably for the best. I don't think the Earth is quite ready to handle his naked awesomeness, yet."
"Neither am I!" Bruce protested, but it was pretty half-hearted.
"Hey, if there's anyone amongst us who knows how to handle angry naked superpowered dudes, it's you," Tony shot back.
"That might as well be true, but I still don't think I'm a good candidate for that. Jane is much better at calming him down than I am. But luckily for me, he flew back to her yesterday, so I can have a few days of peace," he said, making Tony freeze. "Don't get me wrong, I really like the guy, but he can be a handful at the best of times."
"Thor's not at the Tower anymore?" Tony asked, all the previous teasing slipping from his voice. Bruce probably picked up something from the change, because his next question was careful, wary.
"No, he's not. Why? Is there a problem?" When Tony didn't answer at once, he added: "What is going on, Tony?"
Tony sighed. "Do you want the long or the short version?"
"Start with the short one," Bruce suggested.
"Okay." Tony took a bracing breath. "Basically, Fury is dead, Steve and Natasha are on the run, and HYDRA is apparently alive and trying to kill us all." When the only reaction he got was baffled silence, he tentatively added: "You might have missed a few things these past few days."
"Fury is– What the– HYDRA?" Bruce burst out before he cut off, probably in an attempt to get his blood pressure under control. For a few seconds, his speech descended into incomprehensible muttering and when he started talking again, it was with that forced calm that he used when he was desperately trying not to Hulk out. "You know, Tony, if this were any other time, I would probably think you're playing some kind of prank on me with this, but I heard about the attack on you two days ago. I assume that was part of it, too."
"Yeah, most likely."
Another beat of silence passed before Bruce spoke again, sounding a little calmer. "So, Fury is dead?"
"As far as I know, yes," Tony confirmed.
"And Steve and Natasha are missing?"
"Yeah. I'm trying to locate them now."
"And you didn't think to begin the conversation with that in the first place?"
"Well I-" Tony began, but Bruce spoke over him.
"Begin from the start. And tell me what on Earth is going on. Why didn't I know about any of this?"
"You see, two days ago I was…"
It took almost an hour to explain everything to Bruce and even after he did, he could still hear the sheer disbelief over the situation in Bruce's voice.
"Tony, this is bad. If what you're saying is true - which, knowing our luck, it most likely is - then they'll be coming after all of us. We should be doing something. We should help Steve-"
"I'm already on it," Tony assured him. "The moment I find out anything, I'll let you know."
"Good." For a moment it seemed like Bruce was going to hang up before he remembered something else. "Why were you asking so much about Thor, anyway?"
Tony pointedly didn't look at the demigod, who was now reading in the corner where he had wandered during Tony's conversation with Bruce.
"I was hoping he might help you get the hell out of the Tower," Tony admitted. "This way if anything else happens, you'll be on your own. They might come after you next."
"I know how to disappear if it's necessary," Bruce told him. "It will be hard, but not impossible. But still, I would much rather stay and help you and Steve than run away again."
"You might end up doing both," Tony said grimly, fervently hoping that it wouldn't come to that. "I'm gonna try and crack the files I recovered from HYDRA, to see if I can find anything useful. Can you call Thor for me and tell him what's going on? We could use his help."
"I'll do that," Bruce promised. "The last I heard, he was battling some sort of sea-monster near London, but he'll come back if he hears about this."
"Let's hope so. Anyway, gotta go. I've got files to decrypt, government secrets to steal, you know how it goes. I'll keep you posted."
"Be careful, Tony."
"Yeah, you too. Bye."
Tony ended the call, trying not to feel too weirded out about the fact that in Steve's absence he had de facto stepped into his shoes to try and get the team back together. If this were happening a few years ago, he might have freaked out about it, but right now he only felt a grim determination to find out who was behind all this and take them down.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Loki put away his book and stand up.
"Why did you keep asking him about Thor?" he asked, coming closer. Tony turned around to face him, drawing himself up to his full height.
"Because whether you like it or not, Thor's still one of my friends," Tony told him. "He was pretty devastated by your death. As it turns out, he's apparently still not over it yet."
Loki pursed his lips and looked away, but not quickly enough to prevent Tony from seeing the flicker of guilt in his eyes.
"You know, you should probably talk to him eventually," Tony continued. "Whether you like it or not, he's your brother. It's kind of a shitty move to let him believe you're dead.
"He's not my brother," Loki muttered, turning away. Tony had expected the demigod to snap at him, to scream about wanting nothing to do with Thor, like he always had whenever Tony had brought the topic up before. Now, however, he seemed only mildly annoyed. "I do not wish to see him."
"He has a phone, you know," Tony pointed out. "You could at least call him."
"I do not wish to speak with him, either," Loki bit out, a little more forcefully than before. "And even if by some miracle I did, I cannot - not if I wish to stay unnoticed. If I told Thor that I am alive, the Allfather would hear about it as well. I need to stay hidden for longer yet."
"Why do you still keep all this up, anyway?" Tony wanted to know. "You've been pretending to be dead for months. Why? Is it because you don't want to go back in prison? Or is it something else?"
"I…do not wish to speak about that." Loki didn't meet his eyes, which all but confirmed to Tony that this wasn't just about hiding from the wrath of Asgard. There was something more going on here, he knew it, but unfortunately right now he didn't have the time to try and poke his nose into Loki's secrets. HYDRA was the more imminent issue, its threat looming over his head like a particularly ugly breed of spider and he needed to get back to uncovering what the hell their deal was.
"All right," he relented. "I won't pry, because I have better things to do right now, but we are going to talk about this." He met Loki's eyes, making it clear that he wasn't going to forget about the conversation. Loki scowled, but nodded anyway, acknowledging it reluctantly.
"All right," Tony said again, straightening up. "Now we need to figure out what the hell is going on with all this. JARVIS? Can you break into SHIELD's files? Not the super-secret ones, there's no need to alert them just yet, but enough to give us a better idea of what their game is?"
"Of course, sir," JARVIS answered. "I will start right away. This should only take a few hours."
"Awesome," Tony told him. "In the meantime, I'm gonna try and decrypt the stuff on the HYDRA discs that I stole yesterday. There must be something on them that will tell us what the hell is going on. Maybe I'll even discover something that will help explain how the hell they have managed to hide from everyone for fifty years." He carried the stolen discs over to his computer and started plugging them in with an elaborate set of cables.
"How long will this take?" Loki asked, coming to stand at Tony's side. Tony shrugged.
"No idea. Depending on their level of security, it could take anything between a few hours and a day, but since I'm a genius, it shouldn't take me very long. If you wanna go watch a movie or take a walk or something, I won't blame you. This next stage will be pretty boring."
"Very well, I will defer to your superior knowledge in this matter," Loki said with a hint of humor. "Let me know when you find anything useful."
"Will do."
After a second's hesitation, Loki leaned over and gave Tony a peck on the lips before walking out and disappearing up the stairs.
Tony sighed, turning his attention back to the secret data.
"Damn, and this day started out so good."
It took him six hours of using every trick in the book to slip around the numerous firewalls and safeguards those guys had in place and get to the data beneath. For a decades-old evil Nazi organization, they sure had good security – in fact, some of their security was a little too-good for Tony's taste. After the third run-in with the same problem, Tony had to admit that he knew why some of those protections seemed so familiar – they were based on his tech.
Someone had stolen his tech and given it to HYDRA, who had developed their own programs based on Tony's stuff. He was appalled and insulted, but most of all he was pissed as hell that yet another one of his creations had ended up in hands of people who should have no business handling it.
And just when he thought his discoveries couldn't get any worse, he broke through the final firewall and discovered something that made him blink several times to make sure that he wasn't dreaming.
There, printed black on white in a bold, stark script, lurked his newest nightmare.
"SHIELD is HYDRA?!"
To be continued…
A/N: As you may have already guessed (and I hinted at it in my very first Author's note for the story), this fic is CA: TWS compliant. This part of the story is my attempt to answer the "where the hell was Iron Man during all this?" question that a lot of people (including me) had while they were watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I always figured that Tony wasn't able to help Steve - not because he didn't want to, but because he was dealing with problems of his own. In my interpretation, those problems include assassination, HYDRA and his own convoluted love life. Knowing Tony, I don't think my version of the events is too far-fetched from reality.
Chapter 22 will be posted on Friday, April 17.