People of Midgard! The Queen of Fanfiction – or at least the queen of this fanfiction XD – has arrived with another chapter! Kneel – or sit in any other position you like – and read!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: Loki sighed and looked at his own hands again. He closed his eyes and obviously tried to make his skin change colour, because it rippled in a very disturbing way. Unfortunately – well, unfortunately for Loki, because Tony didn't mind seeing him like this at all – the blue returned full force, and disappointment flowed over through the bond.

CHAPTER 15

Again, his shapeshifting had failed. This time, there was even no reason for it to fail; there was no active ice spell, and no lack of magical energy – he might not have much at the moment, but he surely had enough to make this work! And he did have enough – it wasn't as if he had used it all trying to shapeshift. On the contrary, he had tried with the minimum amount necessary to change skins… He could use more, of course, and it would have to work then, but that meant he would forfeit the quickest replenishment possible of his core – and the quickest was already slow enough. At this rate it would take more than a week already, and if he slowed it down even more… Magic was his protection, and without it he felt like he was constantly prowling through a pack of hungry wolves, unarmed. No, slowing his healing process down was out of the question. However, there was no way he would stay like this either.

Loki glanced at his soulmate. Anthony was staring at him, eyes following the stupid lines that spelled out his origins, and, if Loki's research on the subject was correct – he had read about it on Ljósálfheimr long before he knew about his heritage – these lines also proved he was of royal blood. Not that he cared about that, really. Why would he want to be an heir to the wretched Realm of Jötunheimr anyway? Not that he was an heir to the throne there – or anywhere else, for that matter – as he had been left to die in the cold in the first place, being a runt and all. And why should he care? He didn't want to be king. He didn't want to be the king of any realm, truthfully. Being king was just a tremendous amount of responsibilities, and an awful lack of freedom.

A finger on his arm shocked him out of his musings. "You're not freezing everything you touch this time. I thought that that… spell, or whatever, was what stopped you last time, right?" Tony said, poking his way down each dark little ridge of one of the lines that went from his neck to his fingers. He was slowly nearing Loki's elbow. "What's stopping your skin changing thing now?" The middle of his forearm. "You still don't have enough magic?" Almost at the wrist. Loki grabbed the mortal's arm before he could trace down the lines on his hand.

"I have enough magic to see the shapeshifting through, however, if I were to use it, the recovery of the rest of my magic would take twice as long. I will regain my magic faster if I don't, or if I barely use it. And I don't like feeling… disabled like this, without my magic, so I am loath to prolong my suffering."

"Suffering. Right." Loki's grip tightened slightly. Of course, Anthony wouldn't understand what it was like to be left without magic, what it was like to feel as bereft as this. He didn't even know what using magic felt like, how magnificent it was to become one with the world, to become one with Yggdrasil for a mere, infinitesimally small moment. Anthony's magical core was untrained and unused. Unused. Of course!

He let go of Anthony's arm and placed his hand over the shining light of his chest instead. Anthony took a startled breath and looked down at where their flesh connected, where the base of Loki's palm and most of his fingers stretched over the scars that slithered outwards like lightning. Before Loki could even think of starting the merging of magic, Anthony had clasped two hands over his wrist and started pulling him away. Of course, the mortal's measly strength didn't faze him, but the vehement "wait!" made him pause.

Anthony looked at him with wide eyes. "I know what you wanna do! You wanna take my energy or whatever to help you change back, because apparently you can't use yours. Well, let me tell you something! First off, I don't care if we're one or whatever and that you think you can just take my energy like it's nothing, but I won't let you just do that! The least you can do is ask. And who says I can be your battery charge when you need it? I don't! Second, it's not fun getting your energy stolen. It's fucking exhausting. So I don't need that first thing in the morning. And third, last time you did this, my Arc reactor almost stopped again because it didn't have any more juice, and I know I should have changed it for a new one, but I forgot about it. It's holding for now, it has partially recharged itself, but it's still half-broken so… It might not survive whatever you have planned with it, so I'd prefer it if you didn't kill me – kill us just because you don't want to be blue."

Loki took his hand away and looked at the blue light. "Your… Arc reactor? It is faulty?"

"Er, yeah, I should replace it. I got another one ready in the workshop in case of emergencies."

"What does it do exactly?"

"Oh, um, it keeps shrapnel from entering my heart. It's the magnetic force tha—"

Loki frowned. "It keeps you alive?"

As if he felt where this conversation was going, Anthony cautiously scooted backwards. "It does…"

"It keeps us alive, and you dare not to take the utmost care of it? You idiot! You utterly stupid fool! I cannot believe I ever thought you even possessed a modicum of intelligence!" Loki was seething. How could Anthony put himself in danger like that with a faulty… machine, especially if he could replace it easily? "Go repair it! Now!"

"Yeah, okay. I'll change it after breakfast."

"No, you will do it now!"

It looked like Anthony was going to refuse again, so Loki let the anger that flowed towards his soulmate match the intensity of his glare. "Okay, geez!" Anthony threw the covers aside and got off the bed. Loki did the same. "I didn't know you cared!"

How preposterous! "Of course I care! You're my soulmate! I cannot let you be in danger!" Loki couldn't see Antony's face as his back was towards him, but he did not need to. Astonishment and a pang of guilt came from the mind bond, as well as, most surprisingly, a glimmer of hope and gladness. Whatever Anthony was happy about, he would not have the luxury of feeling that for long. Especially as he was walking in the wrong direction; any direction that was not the exit was the wrong direction. "Where are you going?"

"What? You don't expect me to go down like this, right? I'm only wearing my boxers—"

"I'm wearing my Jötunn skin, and yet I will still leave this room and witness you repair your… Arc reactor."

Tony blinked at him. "In your underwear?"

Loki looked down at said garment. It may not cover much, but it covered enough to not be outrageously indecent. It certainly was not worse than the leathery loincloths the Jötnar preferred. "It is not as if we were naked." For some reason, Anthony started to cough then. "And I don't see why our state of dress should be important when your life is in danger."

"My life isn't in danger! It's going to hold until after we're dressed! Tell him, J.A.R.V.'!"

"Your Arc reactor is working at twenty-three percent capacity, with a six-point-forty-three percent frequency discrepancy, Sir."

"See, no probl—"

"J.A.R.V.I.S.," Loki interrupted. "What are the numbers associated with a healthy Arc reactor?"

"At its peak efficiency, Sir's Arc reactor functions on average at ninety-nine-point-eight percent capacity, with a possible zero-point-zero-two percent frequency discrepancy, Mr Friggason."

Loki looked at Anthony unhappily, and the man mumbled: "J.A.R.V.I.S., you traitor."

"Anything to make your life better, Sir," the Artificial Intelligence chirped with an obvious false cheer, and Loki was impressed yet again by the being without body that his soulmate had created.

"We are going to your 'workshop' place immediately." Loki walked towards Anthony, using his approach to usher him towards the door without even having to touch him.

"This really isn't necessary, you know."

"I do not care."

Anthony sighed. "Yeah, I can see that." The sarcastic lilt of that statement was annoying, but Loki ignored it. Anthony was finally stepping out into the corridor, after all. In front of him, the Midgardian stopped in his tracks, apparently without reason; Loki was about to inquire why he did not continue walking, when panic and embarrassment shot along the bond, and he quickly stepped out of the room, only to find himself bared to Romanoff's raised eyebrow.

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Tony's hand was hovering at chest level, torn between the need to slap it over his face with unnecessary intensity, and the irrational urge to hide his already covered crotch – his burgundy boxer-briefs were great, thank you very much, and this was only Natasha. Sure, that was scary enough in itself, but she wouldn't give a shit even if he was standing there naked. His other hand was hiding his Arc reactor from view; a stupid reflex he had when someone surprised him with their presence, ever since Obadiah. He tried to morph the movement into an overtly fake 'you almost gave me a heart attack', but again, this was Natasha. He doubted that would work. He lowered both hands in the most casual gesture he could muster. Which wasn't very casual, given the raised ginger eyebrow and the flickering stare between his own appearance and that of the almost-naked-gorgeous-blue-alien that stood next to him. (He was going to ignore the unexpected 'gorgeous' comment his subconscious had slipped in there for no reason).

He cleared his throat – which, yeah, mistake, that made him look just as embarrassed as he felt. "For what it's worth, can I just mention that this is absolutely not what it looks like?"

"Oh? And what do you think it looks like?"

Tony rolled his eyes. "It's obviously a classic case of 'they spent the night in the same room and they're almost naked, oh my goodness, they must have slept together' scenario. Which is not true, by the way. I mean, sure, when spent most of the night in the same room, and we are almost naked, and we did sleep in the same bed so we did sleep together at the same time in the same bed but we didn't sleep together, you know…"

He took a deep, and held it. This was going nowhere, and Natasha's lips were twitching like she was trying not to laugh. "Okay. Forget what I said, rewind, I'm starting over. It looks like, because we're soulmates, we have to stay in physical contact for a certain – unknown – amount of time per day, otherwise the bond-thing we have is gonna drive us stir crazy. AKA why Loki ended up in my room again. And didn't take the time to put on some PJs. And this morning, he unexpectedly turned blue, again, and couldn't become all smooth and porcelain-skinned again because of his general lack of magic at the moment. So he thought he could take some of mine through my Arc reactor like he did last time, but this guy," Tony tapped said Arc reactor with his thumb, "might not survive it 'cause it's kinda broke since it went into space. So when I said that, Lo' here kinda went crazy, which is why I'm being forced out of my room in my underwear to go change my fancy pace-maker right this instant. Which is stupid, because it's not just gonna stop on its own in the next five minutes."

Next to him, Loki crossed his arms over his chest in a rather foreboding gesture; his feelings were muffled again and Tony would need to concentrate on the bond to be able to identify them. "How long would it take to 'stop on its own', as you say?"

"I don't know! A very long time."

Loki eyes felt like lasers baring holes in his skull. "Liar."

"What? No, I'm not lying!"

"And that was a lie again. You do know this is futile, do you not?"

Tony sighed and crossed his arms as well. "Yeah, yeah, we're human – well, humanoid – lie-detectors. But it still wasn't so much a lie as it was an exaggerated uncertainty. I don't know the exact time this Arc reactor could fail, 'cause there isn't an exact frequency at which is systematically fails, so it would always be a rough estimate. Plus, the speed of the degradation of the frequency depends on how much energy I use, so I can't tell how long that will take if I don't know what I'm gonna do during the day. And anyway, 'a very long time' is always true, because time is relative, so. Wasn't lying."

"You were obscuring information with the purpose of keeping it from me. The soul bond will see that as lying."

"Great. Whatever. I still say that wasn't a lie." He turned his eyes away from Loki with a noiseless huff, and his gaze met that of a smiling Natasha. Oh boy!

"You two are so cute!" Ugh! Tony wondered if he had ever heard words more cringe-worthy than that. His eyes darted to Loki's face, and he was sure that the sour expression he saw there mirrored his own quite well. "Every time I doubt the whole soulmate story, you make me believe in it again by acting like an old married couple even if you haven't known each other for two full days." Tony opened his mouth to let out an indignant squawk or other – they did not act like a married couple – but Natasha didn't give him the time. "Clint and I, we went from enemies to allies in a day too, but even our chemistry wasn't as unbelievably good as yours. You know that, right? That you're lucky?"

Loki snorted derisively. "I wouldn't call a death sentence 'lucky'."

Tony felt a pang of guilt; he had forgotten about that. To a millennia-old guy, the fifty or so potential years Tony had left would look like mere months from his point of view. "Right. That's not my fault, but for what it's worth… I'm sorry."

Loki's lips thinned, and after a heartbeat or two, he looked away. "You don't need to apologise. It is indeed not your fault." His crimson eyes delved into Tony's again, and an accusing finger with a black, sharp-looking nail touched the centre of his Arc reactor. "What you can do, however, is make certain you don't take us back to Yggdrasil unnecessarily."

Tony let go of the breath he didn't know he'd been holding, and stepped back. "Right. Yes. Let's do that." He turned his attention back to the corridor and at the end of it, the next destination; the elevator. Except that the Black Widow was standing in the way. Why was she here, by the way? This corridor only gave access to Pepper's room – currently unoccupied, as Thor had left – and his room. "Why are you here? Did you want something?" he asked her.

"You mean apart from almost getting an eyeful? I came to tell you that Thor had left—"

"We know."

"— and that you're both invited to help clear rumble in the streets and so on at ten. Captain's orders. And as it's now eight-ish I thought I'd come wake you. Who knows how much time divas and drama queens like you need to be ready."

Tony scoffed exaggeratingly. "I resent that! I don't have long hair that needs constant styling, and I don't wear intricate leather and gold armour as casual clothes."

Natasha smirked. "Perhaps not. But you at least have a goatee that needs constant trimming. And I mean, it needs trimming, because the edges are disappearing into your stubble."

Tony automatically passed a hand over his cheek at the comment, and indeed it felt awfully rough. "I'll get to it once the only drama queen here stops breathing down my neck. And to do that, I got to go change my little power plant here." He touched the rim of his Arc reactor and let his fingers linger there. "So… See ya." And he walked passed Natasha with a nod, bare feet slapping the black marble tiles. The elevator doors were open when he arrived, and he stepped inside at the same time as Loki. They closed behind him, leaving him alone with his soulmate again.

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The elevator plunged downwards, the numbers representing the levels decreasing rapidly, and Loki followed the progress of the red digits. He had learned that the ten topmost floors of the tower where those inhabited by Anthony, and that the rest of the tower was meant for the Stark Industries company, which seemed to be Anthony's livelihood – Loki was not certain how that worked exactly, but it was of no importance at the moment. Floor 0 represented earth level. Which meant that the negative number they just seemed to have stopped at – minus two – was situated underground. Loki involuntarily tensed. He did not like underground places much because they reminded him of the too many dungeons and dank cells he had seen in his life.

When the doors opened, however, the massive space that spread before him did not resemble anything dungeon-like. It was one humongous room divided in two by a glass wall. Beyond it colourful vehicles waited, while on this side the space was filled with various surfaces and machines, as well as many storage facilities that filled up the walls. One wall, however, displayed a rather lifelike image of a beach and a sunny sea, gentle waves licking at the shore every few seconds. This fake window might make one forget one was underground – perhaps Anthony preferred being above the surface as well.

His soulmate spread his arms wide. "Welcome to my workshop! And my personal garage. I like to have both on the same floor. Old habit of mine. I sometimes like to have a break and tinker on my cars instead to clear my mind."

He then proceeded to awkwardly walk to the left, as if the floor somehow disagreed with his feet, to where a steaming cup of coffee awaited him. He swooped the beverage up and drank long and deep, before putting the empty cup down and coming back towards Loki. Together they started walking towards a cluttered desk that seemed to be Anthony's main workplace.

"Shit! It's way colder here than I expected. This is why I don't go to my workshop half naked! Well, and also because it's dangerous. I haven't used this place much yet – it's still half empty, as you can see – but I did repair some stuff here yesterday, so there's always a chance there's something sharp lying on the floor somewhere, which is why I always have a 'shoes are obligatory' policy in place. So watch your step." Anthony wrapped his arms around himself, rubbing his skin exaggeratingly. Surely it could not be that cold! ". J.A.R.V.', can you please up the temp?" Anthony glanced at him." You're lucky you're blue right now. Hey, do you know how cold cold is for a Frost Giant?"

What a silly question! Firstly, Loki did not understand the scales and numbers Midgardians used to describe temperature, and secondly, he had never had the occasion to test such a thing out, now had he? "As the Jötnar I've seen seemed fine walking around in an ice desert wearing barely more than I am now, I suppose that a frozen planet would simply seem chilly in the summer, and perhaps colder in the winter when they seem to wear a furry cape as well."

Anthony's face and feelings showed both astonishment and awe. "So, what, you could walk around Siberia naked without so much as a runny nose is what you're saying? Wow! And for you this temperature here is, like, warm?"

"I would say like an early summer day."

"How about the temperature in my penthouse?"

"Warmer, but not yet uncomfortable."

Anthony smirked. "You've got no idea how many tests I'd like to run right now, and I'm not even into biology! Don't tell Bruce this, or he'd strap you to a table and scan you all over, and he'd have a field day, no doubt! Scientist are scary like that. Beware of scientists!"

"Are you not a 'scientist' as well?"

"Exactly!" And Anthony walked away without another word, as if that explained everything. And in a way, Loki supposed it did. Many would say 'beware of magic-wielders' as well: they knew things about the universe that others did not, and usually liked to experiment a lot – some of that experimentation could involve unsuspecting subjects.

"Are you coming?" Anthony asked from where he had stopped to look over his shoulder, about ten yards away – Loki had received an explanation from J.A.R.V.I.S. of the Metric and Imperial systems yesterday when it appeared in one of the novels he was reading.

They walked up to a wall with glass display cases, most of them empty, but one of them showed an Iron Man armour that Loki did not know – he supposed this had to be an older model, as it seemed somewhat bulkier and less refined in its details. Still, it was an impressive technological feat, given most of Midgard's scientific and technological knowledge Loki had read about. He knew his soulmate was the best in his technological field; just like Loki was the best sorcerer currently roaming the Nine Realms – the only difference was that Anthony was recognised as such and acclaimed for it, while Loki was, more often than not, disregarded and cursed alike.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., the safe."

"Are you certain, Sir?"

"Well, duh! Why do you think I ask?" A piece of wall with two empty display cases started moving into the wall, and then aside, revealing a huge metal door. "You don't really believe Loki is going to steal any of my secret prototypes, do you? Because that would be a very stupid move, soulmate-wise, and Loki is anything but stupid."

"Whatever you say, Sir."

Anthony walked up to a device that was installed in the wall next to the safe's door, and put his hand on it. He then proceeded to align his eye at the level of another device, and Loki was reminded of Stuttgart and the reason why he had had to steal a mortal's eye. Why were humans so obsessed with protecting their safes with eye-reading devices?

"Password?" J.A.R.V.I.S. drawled in a strange way.

"Caput Draconis." The huge metal door swung slowly outward in complete silence, forcing Loki to step back.

"A Gryffindor password. Why am I not surprised?"

"Because you're a Slytherin, and you scoff at anything Gryffindor-ish. I put the whole password thing up yesterday when I learned you read Harry Potter, just in case I let you inside my safe one of these days. I didn't expect it to happen so soon, though. But hey, you reacted exactly like I expected." Anthony threw him an arrogant smirk. "You're so predictable."

Loki let a sneer stretch his mouth in return. "Do continue to believe that, little Gryffindor."

Anthony laughed, and when he stopped, an amused grin remained on his face. "So scary! The pointy teeth and the red eyes are a nice combo. With that expression, you could be some poor kid's boggart all right!" Loki's face fell. A boggart: the creature that showed people their biggest fear in those silly Harry Potter novels. A creature that showed you your monsters. If boggarts existed, would they show Loki his own, Jötunn self?

Anthony looked at him with worry. "Never mind my big stupid mouth. I talked without thinking again. Your face isn't scary, it's beautiful. And sure, you can make your face look scary, but so can many, many people, and they don't have to be blue to do it. I'd like to be able to make my face look genuinely scary, but when I try people never seem to believe me and I don't know why. It sure would be practical if I could make my enemies flee in terror with just a look. Instead I need a whole suit of armour armed to the teeth. Go figure!"

Anthony turned around and stepped inside the safe, which was in fact almost as large as his bedroom. Loki hesitated before he entered. If this room contained his soulmate's most secret projects, was seeing its contents the equivalent of Loki showing him the spells he had invented himself? Was this a show of awe-inspiring trust because they were soulmates and shared every single thing they had, or was this simply Anthony belittling Loki's intelligence and thinking he could not possibly do anything that would put his secrets in jeopardy?

"So, I put the sceptre in the box there in the back, so if you don't want to get near the thing, you've been warned. Most of the dangerous and/or volatile things are boxed up and stuff, but sometimes I forget, so better not touch anything, just in case. A lot of these things are weapons dating back from when they called me 'The Merchant of Death'. Nice title, right? So very flattering. I wonder what they'd have called me if I'd put any of these on the market. Probably 'The Bringer of Apocalypse' or maybe 'The Planet Murderer'. Reminds me of that one journalist who called me the Anti-Christ. Funny guy that. Still hasn't changed his tune even though I'm Iron Man and I sell electricity etcetera instead of weapons."

Anthony walked over to a door about a square foot big at shoulder height, and entered a code to open it. Loki slowly approached, keeping away from the shelves on the walls and the boxes that filled the centre of the room. "Anyway, who cares about all the rest, when there is this." The door opened wide and revealed the treasure it held. "I present to you the crown jewel of the collection: a brand-new Arc reactor."

With a smile, Anthony picked up a big cylinder with an attached wire that had the same diameter as the Arc reactor in his chest and that shone the same Tesseract-like blue, but it was so very long! How could something of that size be placed in his fragile mortal chest? Or worse: how could he intend to take out something that kept him alive and replace it, when that something was so unnatural, and so big, and so full of energy it shone like a miniature star? Loki eyes strayed to Anthony's chest again, and the only thing that gripped his heart was an overwhelming sense of dread and fear.

Poor blue Loki! He's so not ready to see Tony rip his own Arc reactor out XD Let's make him suffer :p *evil smirk*

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