A/N: Yes *sigh* late, short chapter. I'm an asshat. But I've been working on my Show Me Your Teeth series and it's been taking up brainpower.
Chapter 39: Muffins Are A Paragon's Weakness
Tony actually slept in, to his embarrassment. He woke up briefly for Loki to kiss him goodbye and tell him there were pancakes to be heated when he wanted them, and then rolled over and fell asleep again.
He managed to stay in bed 'til lunchtime, an impressive feat when you consider the time difference, before blearily surfacing to explore Loki's house in greater detail. It was absurdly Loki, similar to his penthouse in New York; half-empty bookcases lined the living room, which had a couch and a squashy armchair, and a little patch of not-faded carpet where his favourite armchair must have stood.
If Tony had been infinitely creepier he would have worshipped that little patch of grey carpet. However, he wasn't, so he continued his explorations.
It was a tiny flat, ground floor, with one bedroom - nicely put together - bathroom, and big kitcheny living roomy arrangement. Simple, but it represented such a huge part of Loki's life that Tony was curious.
Loki was right about the stash in the bathroom roof, as it turned out. Tony left it there.
That night, they were going to dinner with Thor and his long-term fiancee, Jane Foster. However, Loki was coming back mid-afternoon so the people he was pitching the war to could deliberate, so Tony took this opportunity to be a good boyfriend.
Large displays of affection were not something Loki and Tony did, by silent agreement that yes they like each other but no they don't need to show it.
However, Tony was bored and couldn't be fucked actually getting out of his boxers and heading around town, so why not?
"SADIE?" Tony asked.
"Yes, my genesis?" She said cheerily.
"What's Loki's favourite flavour of muffin?"
-O.O-
As it turns out, Loki was an enormous fan of mint and double dark chocolate, and after a quick visit to the nearby shops and with strict instruction from SADIE, Tony managed to make a batch. With a few initial errors.
When Loki got back and saw the muffins, he stuffed a huge bite in his normally reserved mouth and then made out with Tony, who was shoved against the refrigerator, tasting of chocolate and mint.
"I have you well-trained." Loki announced shortly after, sitting triumphantly on the bench munching his second muffin. "A proper little house-husband. This is an occasion to be celebrated."
"How?" Tony asked bemusedly.
"With another muffin, naturally." Loki said, taking his third.
"If i'd known your secret weakness was muffins I would've broken you before now." Tony grinned.
"Never. I am a paragon of self-control." Loki mumbled.
"Paragon with muffin on his face." Tony pointed out. "How'd it go?"
"Excellent. Naturally. It's my native country's government, and they are more than used to me turning up asking for a permit to try this or that. What can I say, they love me." Loki grinned.
"So they weren't too confused by you telling them to grab their guns and watch out for spacemen?"
"I imagine they assumed it was only a matter of time before it happened to me." Loki grinned wickedly.
"Goddamn god of mischief, you are." Tony laughed.
"Mm." Loki purred, licking icing off his straight white teeth. "We needn't meet Thor for another four hours. I suggest I drag you around town for a while and then we take a nice, long shower before he arrives."
-O.O-
Tony hadn't met Jane Foster before, though he'd heard her name in a number of different science-based contexts. She was smart, he knew that. From what Loki and Darcy said, she was nice too.
Thor picked them up just after six from Loki's apartment. As Loki folded his lanky frame into the back seat, Tony saw him flash a smile at Jane typically reserved for Darcy, Tony, and phone calls with Frigga. So he liked her a lot. That explained why he'd agreed to dinner with Thor so readily.
"Janey Foster, Anthony Stark. I sincerely hope both of you have picked up enough science journals to have heard of the other." Loki introduced. Once the appropriate noises had been made, he continued. "Myself, of course, needs no introduction, fine specimen that I am."
"Yeah, sure, Loki." Jane chuckled. Then she seemed to grow serious; Tony didn't know why.
Loki was three steps ahead with foreknowledge. "What did Selvig say?"
"Uhm." She said awkwardly. "'Stay away from that freak and his pointy helmet.'"
"Rest assured, my dear, those actions were no choice of mine." Loki sighed. "I come in peace, as they say." With that the man lapsed into a thoughtful silence.
Thor looked pretty baffled by the whole thing. "So, Tony," He began uneasily. "How goes your ... affiliation ... with my brother?"
This clearly wasn't news to Jane; the woman had a scandalous smirk on.
"Erm." Tony had no idea how much Loki would want them to know. Fortunately Loki began paying attention again at that point.
"If so much as a word leaves this car..." Loki threatened. "Thor, employee of mine, it will probably make you irritatingly happy to learn that Tony and I are partners."
"Boyfriends?" said Jane enthusiastically.
"Partners." Tony said with a wince. "It sounds better."
Thor was beaming with delight. "I did wonder whether or not this would happen. I am pleased to hear it, having always agreed with Darcy's theory that all you need is love."
Loki made a retching motion, before saying "Hardly." in a derisive tone.
"Well, I think you'll be good for each other." Jane smiled.
Tony looked over to see Loki give the tiniest smile at that.
-O.O-
It turns out Thor had ulterior motives to inviting Loki into a public place where he couldn't make a scene without fucking up his mission.
Once they had their mains - Tony had ordered for Loki so he had a full meal instead of sneakily getting an entree - Thor cut the small talk and addressed Loki with his agenda.
"Brother, I would be honoured if you could come to the reunion I am hosting." Thor said gingerly.
Loki's vivid green eyes narrowed suspiciously. "A reunion. Who for, precisely? And why?"
"For my friends this weekend. Before my wedding." Thor replied.
See, Thor and Jane were having a relatively quiet wedding, and Thor wanted to see all his school friends and whatnot before then. Unbeknownest to Loki, the only thing that had stopped Thor doing it before then was that he wanted Loki there.
For some reason it didn't really occur to Thor that having Loki amongst the childhood torturers that had made him into the closed-off and callous man he was today was a bad idea.
"No. Certainly not. Never again, Thor." Loki hissed.
Hell, even Tony and Jane knew what a bad idea it was.
"Please, Loki. After this many years, surely-"
"No. I have no wish to see those oafs again. They are, in essence, responsible for all that is wrong in my life." Loki scowled.
"Little or naught is wrong in your life." Thor pointed out. "One night. It is so very little."
"Why would I do that? I clearly do not want to, and have no incentive." Loki countered. "If you hope to keep the tranquil feel to this evening, I suggest you do not pursue it further."
Which shut Thor up. He was probably thinking of Loki's ability to teleport, and his other ability to sulk royally and be more stubborn than a seedy-toed mule.
Everyone ate their food quietly for a while until a safer, more science and work based discussion started.
-O.O-
Despite the minor row between Thor and Loki, dinner passed mostly amiably, and Tony enjoyed Jane's company a lot. He had a thing about liking to have people nearly as smart as him around. Now he had Jane, Bruce and Loki, all genii. Beautiful.
After they got home, and after (shudder) making love - because occasionally it turned into that, when it wasn't rough and violent - Tony decided to add his two cents.
"I think you should go, you know." Tony said into the back of Loki's neck.
"Pardon?" Loki said sleepily.
"Go to Thor's reunion thing." Tony replied.
Loki wriggled irritably out of Tony's hold to face him. "Why would I face them again? I loathe them all, and I cannot imagine what you think I would get out of it."
"I can, Sparkles. I mean, come on. You're Loki Fucking Laufeyson, not that little Loki Valfodr kid they picked on. You're rich and famous and sexy-" Tony leaned over to kiss Loki's collarbone at that- "And really, you're pretty much perfect, and they're all working at Tesco's, or even better, working for you at Valaskjalf or Utgarda or whatever. So you can turn up looking like a god, and they can just sit around and think 'holy shit, am I a dick for being a douchebag to him.'"
Loki seemed to agree, judging by his tiny impish smile, so Tony went on. "And, even better, take me and then you can say 'I'm even friends with Tony Stark, you know, that guy that was on the front of every magazine when we were teens, and we used to jack off to his photo-'"
Loki laughed at that and kicked him under the bedspread. "Hardly."
"Aw, didn't you? And here I was thinking you used to have big crush on me when you were a kid." Tony grinned.
"Not an infatuation, per se - more the desire to prove I'm better than you." Loki explained.
"And have you succeeded?" Tony asked with an eyebrow raise.
"Hm. Well, my company may not be quite as successful as yours - yet - but I can easily overpower you in a fight and you submit rather readily under me, so yes, I think so." Loki teased.
"I'm gonna borrow a favourite word of yours here and say 'hardly'." Tony said it in a mockery of Loki's accent. Or JARVIS's. Who knew. "I'm always going to be boss around here."
Loki's hand darted up to press on a bite on Tony's shoulder and make the other man hiss a little in pain. "I've already won." He said as he lay back against the pillows and closed his eyes.
Tony took that as an invitation to sleep too.
They'd been lying in silence for a few minutes when Loki spoke again. "I did have a magazine with you on the cover."
"Which one?" Tony wondered.
Loki concentrated for a minute. Sometimes his memories of his teenage years could be so blurry. "The year before you took over Stark Industries. I was thirteen, so you must have been twenty. It was a science journal of some sort."
"Hm, I don't remember that one." Tony frowned. "Any reason you suddenly remembered?"
"The day didn't go very well." Loki sighed, and Tony could actually here him try to close off.
"Tell me about it. Come on, it's good for you to let it all out, and I'm not going to tell anyone," he urged.
Loki went silent again as he tried to fish up why that day had been so bad. "Mother gave me the magazine..." he began. "Ah, yes. It was the same day I was to deliver a speech to my chemistry class about conductivity and Van der Waal's forces. The reason the magazine relates to that is I showed it to my chemistry teacher before the class, saying I was going to be better than the great Tony Stark one day. I believe her nodding and agreeing was an attempt to humour me." There was a slight pout in Loki's tone when he said the last part.
"I have a bad feeling about that speech." Tony said.
"Rightfully so. Because of the unpleasant people in my class, I had practised the speech extensively and knew it word for word so I couldn't possibly make a mistake and give them any material. So, of course, something completely out of my control had to happen." Loki sounded resigned to the fact he couldn't just have had a simple success.
"What?" Tony asked.
"My voice broke," Loki said bitterly. "My fucking voice broke. Everything had been going fine, and suddenly I sounded as if a frog was crawling up my trachea."
"Ah, shit. I guess everyone else - the boys, not the girls - was already long past that phase?" Tony winced.
"I think some of the girls had deeper voices than I did at that point." Loki said dryly. "It was the first time I went truant. Certainly not the last."
Tony rolled over and hugged Loki. "S'okay. They can't be dicks to you now. If they do, you can just fry them."
Tony could have sworn Loki purred.
-O.O-
The next morning Tony actually did get up and enjoyed a warm shower with Loki before the other man left. Then, in a fit of boredom he spent the day exploring, eventually ending up at Valaskjalf and looking around. His association with Loki was pretty widely known, so Thor came and vouched for him and he was allowed to wander about on the solemn promise of stealing nothing.
Why just that promise was enough, he didn't know. Maybe Loki had rung ahead? It worked.
Eventually he made his way home via taxi and Loki met him at the flat, and they spent the afternoon together.
Such was the routine for the two days following, until the last day of Loki's attempts to bring England on board when Loki came home and announced that he had succeeded. Not, of course, that there was much chance of failure. Or so he said.
That night, being a Saturday, was the night of Thor's little party.
And Loki was going. Evidentally Tony did have some impact on his decisions.
Tony was delighted, but also cringing inwardly at the potential wrath of Loki to be unleashed.
Loki was fortunately distracted by his primping. His hair was perfectly groomed, he was wearing one of his nicest suits - emerald green waistcoat included - and he looked good in a godly, intimidating way.
And onwards they went.