Chapter Twenty-One

After about half-an-hour of cuddling (it was cuddling, no matter how much Loki tried to deny it!), Tony and Loki headed back to the penthouse. Loki put Logan back on, and they went to get something to eat. Tony was going through his fridge when JARVIS announced that the Avengers wanted him to meet them on Rogers' floor. Tony sighed and stood up to look at Loki, who was sitting at the kitchen island watching him.

'Fancy spending some time with the Avengers?' he asked. Loki gave him a disgusted look and Tony snorted. 'Hey, I don't want to either, but Clint or Steve will barge in here if I don't head down there.'

'Why do they require your presence?' Loki questioned.

'They probably wanna discuss the fight again,' Tony shrugged. 'Seriously, they like going over everything a thousand times. I'm all for research and comparing notes, but not forty times an hour. They have issues,' he said, shrugging again.

Loki sighed but slid from the stool. 'I suppose that it would work to our advantage, the Avengers getting to know Logan better. It would be good if they felt calm in my presence.'

'Yeah,' Tony agreed. 'Okay, then. Steve will probably cook something, or Bruce will. Either that or we'll order in.'

'Very well,' Loki said, and followed Tony into the elevator.

The Avengers- minus Natasha- were sitting in Steve's lounge room. Clint was curled up in one of the armchairs poking at the bandage wrapped around his right arm; he'd gotten burnt just before the S-Hawk had crashed into the building. Steve was at full strength again, only a few cuts and bruises still on his face, and Thor was completely fine. Bruce, having not been in the actual fight, was the one in the kitchen. They'd apparently decided to cook before calling Tony down, because Bruce was pulling large trays of lasagne out of the oven when Tony and Loki walked in.

'Ooh, lasagne,' Tony hummed in appreciation. He hated Steve, true, but the man was a good cook.

'We cooked enough for everyone,' Steve said. He offered Loki a small, tentative smile. 'Logan.'

'Mr Rogers,' Loki replied.

Tony snorted, and Steve said, 'Please, call me Steve.'

Loki just nodded and stuck close to Tony, displaying an air of mild nerves.

'We all remember Logan, Logan remembers everyone,' Tony said, waving a hand around. 'Why am I here?'

'We want to talk about the fight,' Steve said, giving Tony his no-nonsense look. Tony rolled his eyes but didn't say anything; fighting was useless, he'd learned that early on. It was either talk and talk and fucking talk or just storm out and ignore Steve trying to order him back. 'We should also talk about your workshop,' Steve added.

Tony raised his eyebrows, and it was Clint who said, 'JARVIS told us how Loki turned up in your workshop.'

'Oh, yeah,' Tony said, pasting a scowl on his face. 'That fucker destroyed all the magic sensors I was working on, even the portable DVD one.' Clint stared at him, and Tony shrugged. 'What? I like taking things apart and making them better.'

'What is a DVD, again?' Thor asked, looking sheepish, and with good reason; Tony always got incredibly frustrated when Thor failed to remember the basics of human technology. It was really fucking annoying because Thor wasn't an idiot, not really; he was just from a different world. But technology and Thor didn't mix, so Tony had given up trying to teach the big bastard about anything, leaving that to Steve and Clint.

'Never mind, Pikachu,' Tony said, the nickname earning another confused frown from Thor and a snort from Clint.

'How did Loki know that you had more sensors?' Steve asked, apparently deciding to get right into it. He walked into the kitchen and Tony followed, Loki right beside him, and that prompted Clint and Thor to stand and trail in. Bruce was setting the table, had already cut up the lasagne, and Tony grinned at him.

'No idea,' Tony said as he took a seat. 'I have three theories; one, Loki knew that I'd make more than one and figured he'd just destroy anything even remotely magic sensor-looking just in case; two, more than one of my magic sensors actually worked, Loki sensed that and destroyed them; or three, Loki's an asshole and just likes blowing up my shit.'

Loki, very subtly, kicked Tony under the table, and Tony fought not to turn and poke his tongue out at the mage. Instead he offered Steve a shrug.

'I'm just glad that Logan wasn't anywhere near my workshop,' Tony added.

'Yeah,' Steve agreed, smiling at Loki. 'He didn't pop up?'

'No,' Loki shook his head. 'JARVIS told me as soon as the cameras in Tony's workshop stopped working, and advised me to hide on the helipad. If Loki did teleport into the penthouse, JARVIS could at least call Tony for help.'

'I woulda broken that fucker's neck if he came anywhere near you,' Tony growled, earning surprised looks from everyone but Bruce. Apparently they still hadn't figured out that he and Logan were in this for the long haul. Tony had no plans to give up Loki any time soon; their business agreement was indefinite, and Tony kinda hoped that their sexual relationship was, too.

But it was too soon to really think about that, let alone bring it up with Loki, so Tony pushed it from his mind.

Steve cleared his throat and sat, which was the signal for everyone to start loading their plates with lasagne and salad, which Bruce had just put on the table. Loki had more salad than lasagne, while Thor ignored the greens all together, instead stuffing his face full of meat and pasta. The others had a bit of each, and Steve stood briefly to grab drinks and cups before they started discussing the battle again.

Steve clearly didn't feel comfortable with Logan there, but Tony just stared at him every time he started to trail off, so eventually Steve just spoke, addressing the Avengers and ignoring Loki. Not that Loki seemed to care; he sat close to Tony and ate slowly, appearing only vaguely interested in the conversation.

After Steve was done, Clint explained his part of the battle, and Tony was mildly annoyed when the archer mentioned how his quick reflexes had saved his life when the S-Hawk crashed. Then again, he kinda wanted to kill Clint himself.

Thor rambled about battling Loki, his disappointment and heartbreak over his "brother's" continued descent into madness clear in his words and on his face. Loki's hand had migrated to Tony's thigh by then, and the mage took his frustrations out on Tony's poor, innocent leg, making Tony stuff food into his mouth to muffle his whimpers. At least Loki wasn't jumping across the table and trying to strangle Thor with his bare hands; Tony was sure that Loki wanted to.

Bruce's account was simple and short, which was why he was Tony's favourite; he sat on the Helicarrier, he heard about the fight, he sat some more before Fury let him leave, and then he stood and watched SHIELD clean up the aftermath.

When it was Tony's turn he sighed and groaned but obediently re-told his story again, leaving out the fact that Loki had teleported to him before Tony had joined the Avengers on the ground. Then it was Loki's turn, and he jolted slightly in his seat when everybody turned their sights on him.

'It's okay,' Tony said, voice soothing. He reached up to pat Loki's hand, which had finally moved from hurting Tony's thigh to playing with his plate. 'If you need to stop, stop. If you need a break, let me know. Loki can't hurt you, okay? I won't let him.'

Loki glanced at him, held his eyes, before taking a deep breath and nodding weakly. Tony marvelled at Loki's deception as the Trickster weaved a tale of hiding out in the penthouse while Loki destroyed the workshop. He'd even recorded footage of Logan doing just that, JARVIS faking the time-stamps in case Natasha or Clint decided to investigate.

When story-time was over, Tony finally glanced between Steve and Clint and asked, 'How's Natasha?'

Clint scowled briefly, clearly annoyed that Tony hadn't cared until this point; Tony didn't care even remotely, but appearances had to be kept up.

'She'll be fine,' Steve answered. 'Loki broke her arm in two places and cracked a few ribs; she'll spend a few weeks in a cast and sit out some missions, but she'll heal, thankfully.'

'I'm gonna tear that fucker's eye out when I get a hold of him,' Clint growled.

Thor made a soft noise of annoyance, always wanting to defend his brother's honour despite Loki's clear evilness. Clint just glared at him, daring him to say anything, and Thor eventually backed down, going back to his fifth helping of lasagne.

Steve glanced between Clint and Thor and, as always, decided to play mediator by changing the subject. Clearing his throat, he turned to Loki with a genuine, if small, smile on his face. 'So, Logan,' he said, and Loki looked up from his plate.

'Yes, Captain... Steve.'

Tony snorted. Captain Steve. Steve, of course, ignored him. 'You said you were a writer?' Steve asked Loki.

Loki inclined his head and said, 'I took to writing when I was a teenager. I've always loved reading, and I wanted to create my own stories.'

'So what kind of things do you write?' Bruce questioned, looking genuinely interested. Yet another reason why Brucie was Tony's favourite.

'Anything and everything, really,' Loki lied, a soft smile pulling at his lips. 'I enjoy fantasy, science fiction, romance... whatever idea comes to to me, I write it down in one of my notebooks. I'm currently working on a story about a hunter who tracks down magical beings. It's in its early stages, but I'm researching various myths about werewolves and other such beasts to try and find a plot I like.'

Wow, Loki was a damn good liar. There was just enough hesitance- just enough nerves and excitement- in his voice to make his story seem so... real. If Tony didn't know that Logan was really Loki, he'd probably fall for the bullshit leaving Loki's mouth.

'Wow,' Bruce said. He was the only one at the table, apart from Tony, who seemed to like Loki; or, at least, not be annoyed just by his presence. 'That must be interesting, researching things like that for work.'

'The various distant relatives I have often tell me that writing isn't a real job,' Loki said, 'but I enjoy it, and I have the money to keep going.'

'You win the lottery or something?' Clint muttered.

Tony glanced at him. Clint didn't seem truly interested; he was just making small talk. His eyes were still dark, fingers tight around his fork. He was still thinking about Loki and what he'd like to do to him. Tony really wished that he could just stab his own fork into Clint's eye. The Bird fucking annoyed him.

'No,' Loki answered Clint, drawing the agent's gaze, 'my parents passed away when I was eighteen. Both were rather wealthy and, as an only child, they left everything to me.' He paused, as though trying to swallow back the old pain of losing both mother and father at such a young age. When he spoke again it was with forced cheer. 'I'm glad for everything they gave me.'

Steve was staring around the table now, apparently at a loss as how to change this subject. Clint didn't seem inclined to help, and Thor was staring morosely at his plate as he shovelled lasagne into his mouth. Bruce was giving Loki a sympathetic smile.

'We're thinking of heading to England soon,' Tony piped in. It wasn't really a lie; he vaguely remembered Pepper mentioning England and the new Stark Industries offices, and getting away from New York for a week or two would give he and Loki some time alone together to plan and study magic. 'Visit some of Logan's estranged family, just relax, you know.'

Steve beamed, 'That's good, Tony. You deserve a break.'

Tony nearly snorted, but managed to stop himself by biting the inside of his cheek. Clint was smirking at Steve; fucking prick.

'Yeah,' Tony said, while Loki nodded enthusiastically, seemingly ignorant of the declining atmosphere.

'I can't wait to play tour guide,' Loki smiled. 'I've lived in America for a few years, but I only just moved to New York a few months ago and don't really know my way around all that well. Tony's been showing me the sights.'

'Aww, you just want me to look like an idiot,' Tony teased.

Loki chuckled. 'I don't have to try hard to do that, love.'

Clint snorted, but Tony ignored him, still smiling at Loki.

'Well, that's great,' Steve interrupted, drawing their attention. 'Um, Tony...' he trailed off and Tony raised his eyebrows. 'Is there, uh... any way you can start working on another magic sensor immediately?' Steve asked. 'Before you go to England or anything?'

Tony frowned a bit. One minute it was "Tony, take a break, you're hurting the team", and the next it was "work on this for us, you're team, you have to"! Stupid fucking... fucks.

'Yeah, sure,' Tony said, his anger buried deep down. 'But what if it works again and Loki shows up?'

Steve frowned; he clearly hadn't thought of that.

'Maybe we can keep it locked up?' Bruce suggested. 'Just something that'll take Loki a little while to get to. That'd be enough time for Thor to realise he's here and stop him.'

Tony nodded slowly, as though thinking of ways to keep his experiments from being destroyed again. 'Yeah, that could work,' he said. 'I back up all of my research, all I have to do is build the sensors again. I might go over my notes a bit more thoroughly before trying; I gotta figure out what I got right so I can do it better this time.'

'Then we can finally ship Loki off to Asgard,' Clint grunted.

'He will not escape this time,' Thor promised; he'd been doing that ever since he returned with news of Loki's escape. 'The All-Father didn't take his Jötunn abilities into account last time. This time, he will.'

Loki jolted at that, and Tony grabbed his thigh under the table. Now was not the time for Loki to freak out, damn it!

'What do you mean?' Clint asked.

'My father explained to me that Loki's magic has two separate parts,' Thor said, much to Loki's clear annoyance- Tony could feel the tension in his leg. 'There is his Asgardian magic, which he can wield due to him growing up on Asgard; he absorbed it at a young age, and his years there caused his magical core to accept it as part of himself. Now, his body replenishes Æsir magic as well as Jötunn magic. His Jötunn magic is a part of his very being because he is Jötunn. It is of ice and darkness, his Asgardian magic of gold and light. Loki can wield both, and his Jötunn magic allowed him to strengthen himself and break out of his cell. We have never kept Jötnar as prisoners on Asgard, and the magic weaved into the cells could not contain him.'

Clint was glaring at Thor now, and even Steve looked annoyed. 'Well that's fucking fantastic,' Clint grunted. 'If your dad had just thought for a goddamn second, Loki would still be rotting away in prison instead of running around our planet trying to kill us!'

Thor's shoulders slumped and Steve sighed.

'Clint, the King made a mistake; a terrible one, yes, but it wasn't his fault,' Steve said. 'You heard Thor; next time Loki will be held properly.'

'If we ever catch him,' Clint muttered. With that he stood and left the kitchen, bring an abrupt end to the little get together.

'Whelp, me and Logan are gonna go, then,' Tony said. He wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to finally fucking leave. 'If that's all?' he added to Steve.

'Yeah,' Steve sighed. 'Keep us updated on the sensor, okay?'

'I'll start first thing tomorrow,' Tony said. It wasn't even a lie; he'd get Loki to take him back to their Hideout, and he'd start working with Loki again to get a real magic sensor up and running. It'd come in handy if any other magic-wielders crawled out of the woodwork.

Plus, Tony wanted to study magic some more. He wouldn't be happy until his knowledge was closer to Loki's rather than Thor's. Tony knew that he'd never understand magic as well as Loki; magic was a very big part of Loki, and he'd been studying it for over a thousand years. Still, Tony needed to know how it worked.

'Seeya later, kiddies!' Tony called and left the kitchen.

'It was nice to see you all again,' Loki said behind him, voice pleasant and honest. Tony bit back a snort until he and Loki were in the elevator.

'Kiss-ass,' Tony said.

'Shut up,' Loki retorted. Tony laughed. 'You wish to work on your magic sensor tomorrow, don't you?' Loki said after a beat of silence.

'Yeah,' Tony said. 'We've made progress with my magic, right?' Loki nodded. 'Time to make some progress on the science side of things,' Tony decided.

'Very well,' Loki said.

'Right now I wanna work on my new suit designs,' Tony added, 'we'll do magic tomorrow.'

'Very well,' Loki repeated.

The elevator stopped at Tony's workshop, and Tony stepped out, stopping when he realised that Loki hadn't followed him. 'Join me?' Tony asked, holding out a hand and wiggling his fingers.

Loki chuckled and shook his head, but he reached out and linked his fingers with Tony's. Smiling, Tony dragged Loki into the workshop.

{oOo}

Loki watched, intrigued, as Anthony went to the far right wall of his workshop and started... pressing against the concrete and metal. He raised an eyebrow when a panel slid to the side, revealing a keypad that glowed green. Stark entered a code and then the entire wall to his left shifted, revealing a glass case containing...

'Your new suit designs,' Loki realised as he walked across the workshop.

Anthony nodded. 'Yeah, I had to keep them hidden from snooping agents.'

'Clever,' Loki mused. He wouldn't have realised the extra room was there if Anthony hadn't revealed it, so he doubted that the Spider or Bird had discovered it.

'They're still in the planning stages, but I've got some parts built,' Tony explained as he opened cases and drawers. 'I can only really work on them when Natasha and Clint are out on a mission or definitely asleep, which isn't that often, really. They take stalking me too seriously.'

Loki snorted and watched Tony bustle about the little area.

'J, the workshop's locked down, right?' Tony asked suddenly.

'Yes, sir,' the AI said. 'I always lock down the workshop when you work on the Genesis suits.'

'Good boy,' Tony said.

'I live for your praise, sir,' the computer drawled, making Loki snicker in amusement.

'Cheeky bastard,' Anthony muttered. The hidden workshop was a small, square area filled with large boxes, and Loki could see that three of the walls were filled with drawers built into the concrete. The large table in the middle of the room had three large, steel boxes sitting atop it, which Anthony had just opened.

Inside were bits and pieces of matted silver suits; gauntlets, boots, chest and leg plates. It seemed that Anthony had only just begun to build the armour.

'I've got the wiring done,' Tony said as he pulled pieces out to show Loki. 'I pretty much just built on what I already have; made everything faster, stronger, etcetera. It's the armour that's the hardest part; make it a bit like Iron Man, but not too much.'

'Yes,' Loki agreed as he took one of the gauntlets Anthony offered him. The metal Anthony had used was cool to the touch and rough, not quite ready to be painted.

'I want to move all this stuff to your Hideout,' Tony said.

'Our Hideout,' Loki corrected.

Anthony rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, yeah; whatever. I've just gotta bring some bots to help fit everything together.'

'I could do it with magic,' Loki offered, making Anthony raise his eyebrows. 'We have to figure out how to make your suit magic proof.'

'Yeah...' Anthony hummed, head tilted as he looked Loki over. 'If I explain how the suit fits together, you could put it together properly?'

'Yes,' Loki said.

'Okay,' Tony nodded, 'we'll do that, then. It'll save time. I still have to bring some more hardware over; work out the bugs in the Genesis suit's programming and all that.'

Loki just nodded and handed the gauntlet back, watching as Anthony put it back into its correct box. 'How many new suits have you created?' he asked while Anthony sealed the box. 'Or, rather, how many are you going to build?'

'Seven,' Anthony told him. 'Two that can only be operated by me, or by JARVIS if I'm knocked out during a fight, and five that are strictly JARVIS-operated suits. Those will look a bit different to my two, and hopefully SHIELD and the Avengers will think that I'm your special body-guard suit while the others are just general back-up.

'I've already got a self-destruct programme written that just has to be inserted into the JARVIS-bots after I've built them and put them together,' Tony continued as he left the small, hidden workshop, Loki trailing after him.

'Self-destruct?' Loki questioned.

'Yeah, in case the Avengers- or Thor, more likely- manages to take one out and JARVIS can't get it back to our Hideout. JARVIS will be able to turn the self-destruct programme on if the power goes out, meaning that if the casing is cracked by any of SHIELD's scientists, it'll blow up; massive boom that'll hopefully take 'em all out,' Tony added with a snicker.

Loki smirked slowly and sat at one of the tables, folding his legs while Tony started fiddling with his computers. 'The darker parts of you are rather arousing,' he said.

Anthony jumped but turned to face him with a cocky grin. 'Oh, are they?' he drawled.

'Very,' Loki grinned. 'If I'd known that you were like this back when I invaded, I would have approached you sooner.'

'Hey, I approached you,' Tony waggled a finger at him. 'Don't forget that, princess.'

Loki rolled his eyes at the nickname.

'Anyway, it's probably better that we didn't join forces 'til now,' Tony continued. 'If we'd joined before, SHIELD would have been better prepared for an attack, what with them rushing about trying to stop your invasion and all. This way they're more reliant on the Avengers, aka me. By the time they figure out that I'm on your side- if they figure it out- it'll be too late. They might not like me, but they do trust me. They think I'm too narcissistic to work with anyone else.'

A smile tugged at Loki's lips as he looked Anthony over. Yes, he really should have joined forces with the human sooner; they could have started having fun much earlier. But Anthony was right, he supposed; this way, Tony was closer with the Avengers, giving him insider access that he wouldn't have had any earlier. Also, like he'd said; SHIELD might not like him, but they did trust him to a certain extent.

And that, in the end, would bring about their downfall.

Author's Note: 'Tis Christmas in good old Sydney, Australia, so I decided to update. Happy holidays to all of you who are celebrating Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or any other event that I'm not aware of. Basically, happy holidays to all!

Also, yesterday, after staying up for 27 hours, I added random graphics to some parts of this story. Yes, they are awful, but I couldn't help myself. Anywho, cheers!

{Dreamer}