Hiya there! Ready for 'meanwhile, in the corner?' XD (Never mind my blatantly false crazy Budapest Operation trivia :p)

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: "Wait, wait, wait!" He pointed at Loki again – really, what was it with that mortal and pointing at him? "How good is your hearing?"

Loki smirked. It seemed like Barton had remembered quite a lot from his time under the sceptre's mind-control enchantment. "It is good."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. You go to that corner, and we go to that one."

Loki rolled his eyes but complied, and went to lean against the wall on the other side of the room.

CHAPTER 18

For some reason, Tony had followed him, and stood next to him, looking at the spies gathered on the opposite side. His motive became clear soon enough. "You think you can hear them from here?"

"Perhaps if you remain silent." Loki had no reason to listen in – he did not care what had happened at that Budapest – except it would obviously be good blackmail material against Barton if he needed it. He concentrated on feeling the magical flow at the other end of the kitchen area, and on listening. His soulmate's breathing was as loud as the curiosity and pent-up energy flowing though the bond, and he did his best to shut it out. Coulson had taken the same position as before, and Loki slightly cocked his head to turn his ear imperceptibly in their direction.

Mismatched pillowcases… Lilac toilet paper… Circle of Pain by Blind Myself… It made no sense to Loki, but Barton looked shocked, then outraged. "How the hell do you know that?"

"This is something only I – or we – know. Is this sufficient proof for now?" Coulson asked, tone and expression more serious than Loki had ever seen – and he had faced the man in battle. Barton grumble a positive reply. "All right, then! Is everybody ready to go?"

"I need a suit!" Tony said. "And more coffee!"

Coulson smiled, but it did not seem joyful in the least. "Of course you do. Anyone else need to get pimped up?"

"Well, Sir. Phil." When Rogers spoke, Coulson's eyes crinkled and sparkled. Interesting. "Perhaps we should all suit up?"

"Publicity stunt!" Tony said above the sound of the grinding coffee-machine.

"No! This isn't for publicity!"

"What a good idea, Captain! That way everybody knows that the Avengers care about the city, and are ready to help," Coulson agreed jovially.

"Exactly!" Rogers said, and Tony snorted. "Everyone, back here in five!" And the soldier walked out.

Tony came back towards Loki, sipping his beverage. "So, J.A.R.V.', which suit is ready enough for some heavy lifting?"

"That would be the Mark V, Sir."

"What? How come? Yesterday I used the half-repaired VI to bring windows up!"

"Indeed, however it has been dismantled and is awaiting further repairs, as per your instructions."

"Fuck. Okay. And VII won't work either." Tony sighed and looked at Loki. "Want to come with me to desecrate my Hall of Armour? Yes? Great." And without waiting for an answer, he walked towards the exit. As Loki did not especially like to stay here with people he did not trust in any way, he followed at a slow pace. Barton and Romanoff followed him out of the door. And in the elevator.

Tony looked surprised. "What are you two doing here? You've got, what? Two, three floors to go?"

"And you, what? Four?" Barton answered in the same tone.

"Nope! We're going to my workshop all the way in the basement." The doors of the elevator slowly closed.

Barton made a face. "Again? What are you doing in there? Snogging?"

Tony rolled his eyes and focused on Loki. "So, did you manage to hear what Coulson whispered?"

Barton's eyes widened. "What?"

Loki didn't even hesitate. "No," he answered.

Tony's eyebrows joined each other in the middle. "That's a—"

Loki yanked on the thread that linked them, and Tony gasped and took an involuntary step forward just as the doors opened. Romanoff got off without a glance backwards, but Barton remained, glaring. Loki faked surprise at Tony's reaction while he spelled out 'NO' in Morse code.

His soulmate smirked. "Well, that's a shame! I would have loved to hear Barton's big secret!" The archer eyed Tony for another moment, sceptical, but finally left the elevator, and the doors closed again. "So, what did you hear?"

"I won't tell you."

"Whaaaaaat!" the mortal gasped. "Why not? We're soulmates! We share everything, right? So spill!"

Tony scowled, and Loki could only smirk teasingly. "Even though this information is really useless, I shall keep it to myself. I won't share what I heard. This way I can use it as blackmail whenever I need. If you knew and were to use it before me, it might not work."

Tony's expression could almost be qualified as a pout. "Fine! I'll find my own dirt on Legolas!" The elevator stopped and revealed the workshop again.

"Legolas? I don't see the resemblance. Surely you don't mean to say Barton is as graceful as a Tolkienian elf?"

Tony snorted. "Hardly. I just mean he could as well be blond, and it's an easy reference to an archery nut."

"I still feel it is too much of a compliment."

"Maybe. Hey, wait! You read Lord of the Rings too?" Loki merely lifted an eyebrow. "How many books did you read in one afternoon?"

"I'm uncertain. Around fifty, perhaps."

Tony stopped in front of the showcased older armours protected by a very thick slab of glass, eyebrows nearing his hairline. "Wow! That's gotta be a world record! But then again, you don't qualify, being an alien and all that." He put his hand on the glass, and a blue light scanned it. "Take it in, J.A.R.V.'". One of the armours disappeared in the wall. He then went back to the entrance of the safe and opened it like earlier this morning. This time, Loki remained outside – the further away he stayed from the sceptre, the better he felt – and Tony came out with a suitcase bearing the same colours as the suit that had vanished. "All right, let's go back up." And they walked back towards the elevator.

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Mark V in hand, they went up towards the main penthouse floor. Tony glanced at Loki, with his blue tee and grey sweatpants, and wondered if perhaps his soulmate wanted to 'suit up' as well. Though… Maybe not. That leather armour had probably not been washed anyway, and he probably didn't want to risk being recognised as the one who instigated the attack – even though not many people might know it in the end. Most of the action had been confined to S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities, Stuttgart and the Tower, so the media wouldn't be able to make the link. In New York, Loki might be able to pass as 'Thor's brother who came to help out'. He'd probably hate it, but it was better than the alternative.

When they arrived in the kitchen, everybody else was already there. Agent Coulson had a tablet in hand – an ugly, big S.H.I.E.L.D. thing – with a map of the damaged areas in the city, Stark Tower at the centre of it. Which almost gave the impression that Tony was somehow at fault. Pepper wasn't gonna like the bad publicity; she was probably gonna blame it on the fact he was Iron Man again. And that wasn't even why the tower had been chosen. It was because of the Arc reactor powering it – all right, which you might say was a consequence of him being Iron Man, but still.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. has been working non-stop to rid the streets of the Chitauri bodies and technology ever since the portal closed. Most of the gliders are gone, but the Leviathans – situated here, here and here – are more difficult to remove. It seems most of our technology cannot cut through whatever they're made of, so maybe you could take look, Stark," Agent said, glancing at him. His eyes continued past his right shoulder, finding Loki. "And perhaps our Asgardian expert could lend a hand as well. We've tried to keep the public out, but the perimeter," he made a circular motion over the map, "is too big to be able to keep them out. So today, inhabitants and owners are slowly being let inside the safer areas, and the media is of course slipping in as well. Civilian and military personnel are helping in the remaining areas. You will be paired up and spread out, and you'll rotate between areas so that you get a chance to help a little bit everywhere, so to speak."

And to get them as much media coverage as possible too. It was so obvious, Tony wondered how Cap' could still not see it. "And why are we getting out there today, and not yesterday? Mandatory resting day? I didn't know it was in the contract. Oh, wait, I didn't sign any contracts! Does that mean I'm not getting the company health insurance?"

"Fury isn't the only one deciding S.H.I.E.L.D.'s actions, there is a Council. And the Council didn't want you on the streets before now. And you were on alien-sitting duty anyway. You still are, but as Loki stayed put yesterday, they're giving him the benefit of the doubt, or so I was told. Could be that Fury just told them to go, and I quote, 'fuck themselves'. That's probably the likeliest scenario." Agent handed out some earbuds. "Communication, just in case. If you're all ready to go, let's head down."

They all crammed themselves in the elevator for an uncomfortable ride down – not that the elevator was small in any way, Tony had chosen one of the biggest luxury elevators out there. A glassless road had been swept through the lobby, leading them towards three non-descript black cars.

"S.H.I.E.L.D. cars, really? How uncool!" Tony said.

"Do you ever stop whining, Stark?" Barton muttered from behind him.

"Not since the moment I could string two words together, Katniss!" Tony replied with a sunny smile.

"Your poor parents, they must have suffered so much."

Tony's smile turned supernova, even though it felt more like the edges of his mouth wanted to turn downwards with the strength of an all-encompassing black hole. "Nah, they were never there. The nanny, though. Nannies. They usually didn't stay long."

"No wonder."

Agent clapped in his hands. "All right, kids! I want some order now! Captain, Doctor Banner, if you'd be so kind as to take the first car. Agent Romanoff, if you could please keep an eye on Barton. Third car. Stark and… Friggason, was it? With me."

Agent slipped in the front seat, and Tony opened the rear door, gesturing at Loki to go in. He then had to shoo him over to the other side so that he could get in himself. He put the Mark V suitcase down at his feet with a sigh; the thing was damned heavy after a while. His arm was trembling, little aftershocks of the continuous effort. The car started and pulled away from the curb, zigzagging between pieces of debris.

Agent turned around in his seat. "This is Agent May. She's going to be your other babysitter today. She's not very talkative, though. I think it's a common characteristic of the 'dark and brooding'." His eyes went to Loki for half a second. "Don't try your usual flirting routine, Stark, she might try to cut your balls off."

"There will be nothing trying about it," May muttered from behind the wheel.

"I suppose that depends if I'm there or not," Loki answered smoothly, looking out of the tinted glass.

Agent cleared his throat. "Well, now that the introductions went as efficiently as expected… We're heading to the closest alien space-monster-ship. It collapsed a building before it was grounded, so it's difficult to get near it by car. We'll have to walk a block. I hope you're not getting to old for that, Stark." Agent smirked.

"Fuck you, Phil," Tony sneered in response. "Is it me or are you getting as sassy as your boss?"

"I think it's death. Gives you perspective. I'm in a 'I do whatever the hell I want' mood right now."

"They told his fiancée he was dead," May piped in. "So after the whole, 'no, sorry, my bad' speech, she broke it off."

"Yes, thank you, May," Agent said in a tone that made it clear he meant the opposite.

"Harsh," Tony commented. "I found out I had an alien soulmate on the opposite side of a battle, and then Pepper left. So I can relate."

"Still, I say she found out you'd lied to her about your job when that idiot from Relations called." May continued. "You should have done more than just fire the guy."

"Yes, thank you, May. That will be enough about my love life for now."

"Just trying to help," she replied, and Tony could see her smirk reflected in the rear-view mirror.

The rest of the short ride was spent in silence. They parked in the middle of an avenue that was cut off by rubble, between a dozen or so S.H.I.E.L.D. cars and vans. While they got out, a helicopter passed not far above, the rumble of its engine and the whooshing of its blades almost deafening in the eerie silence. Tony hauled his suitcase out of the car, and trotted behind the others to join them, as they had walked ahead – the bastards.

"Darling! Can you hold this for me? It's heavy!" Loki eyed him, unperturbed – about to ignore him, Tony was sure – so he used his best puppy-dog eyes. With a sigh and a roll of his eyes, Loki held out his hand, and Tony put the handle of his Mark V case in it. "Thanks, babe! You're the best!" And he used his new freedom of movement to hop on the path ahead.

He didn't get far on his own; May was trailing him like a shadow. Or like a body-guard. If he asked she'd probably say she was there 'for his protection' or some bullshit like that. "You don't have to follow me so closely, you know. I won't get lost or anything."

She sneered. "If only. It's not as if I want to babysit you either. My orders are to make sure you don't do anything stupid. So I'm just standing close enough to whack you in the head if you do."

Wow! S.H.I.E.L.D. women were always so charming! It was like the only people joining that organisation were either full of sass, brutes, or both. Unless those were the only kind they sent Tony's way, just to annoy him. He wouldn't put it past Fury – or past Agent, for that matter.

Soon enough, they went around the corner of the skeleton of a building to find that of an alien monstrosity. The Leviathan was on its side, spread out on the road, the rubble of the building it had flown through piled up next to it and covering its tail. The mouth had been pried open with a crane, and people were milling around and inside it, covered in white plastic overalls. Faint drilling noises could be heard, as well as some beeping noises from a device or other. As they approached the stench of dead fish became nauseatingly strong.

Tony stopped at a still breathable distance. "I'm guessing you've been at it from both the outside and inside. I kind of know how to kill one of these things, but that doesn't mean I can help you cut one up. What have you tried so far?"

Agent placed himself right next to Tony. "All types of cutting and excavating tools of the strongest materials – we even tried using diamonds, adamantium and vibranium – lasers, C-4 in varying and dangerous quantities, we tried pulling it apart… We tried about everything short of nuclear, I think."

"Except the Hulk."

"I'll let you ask Doctor Banner, then."

"Right. No thanks. I can shoot stuff at it if you want, but my portable suit is just an emergency one, so it doesn't have the strong stuff. You've tried melting it? It looks kind of metal-y."

"We did. We barely made a dent."

"Have you tried hotter?"

If Tony wasn't mistaken, Agent was barely containing his exasperation. "We've got something on the way for that."

"Something? Does that mean it's a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. thing? You sure you don't want to ask me for a Stark one? I have a lot of nice tech, I'm sure I can find 'something' better than your 'something'."

This time Agent did roll his eyes. "No thanks, Stark. We don't need to inflate your ego even more. I'm kinda hoping you won't find a way to cut this thing to pieces either. That way I won't have to suffer your smug smile while you lord your ingenious solution over me."

"That's not a very nice way to ask people for help, Agent."

"It's Deputy Director now, actually."

"What?" Tony gasped theatrically. "What about your name? That is very impractical!"

The man's eye's glinted. "Why? I think Deputy Director Agent Coulson sounds good."

"Tsk." 'Agent' was ruining his 'annoying nickname' gig. "You're no fun, Phil."

"I hear that a lot."

"No, you don't," May muttered from Tony's other side.

The horrible smell was brought to them again in the next gust of wind, and Tony crinkled his nose. Time to get back to business. "Did you try freezing it?"

"Freezing? Whatever for?"

"Well, you know, you might be able to shatter it on impact. If you manage to get it cold enough. Maybe."

May snorted. "Right. Brilliant idea. I'll let you grab the ice cubes then."

"I'm just saying we have an expert on freezing shit when he doesn't want it to. So maybe he can find a way to do it in a controlled way?" Tony had leaned back to look past Coulson – no fun calling him 'Agent' now that he didn't mind the name – and looked at Loki. His soulmate was scowling at the Leviathan, arms crossed and a forbidding look in his eye.

"No."

"Aw, come on! You haven't even tried! I'll let you change back with my magical energy and shit. Unless this has to do with your mana reserve not healing correctly if you do or something."

The answer was long in coming. "My magical core. Yes." Tony narrowed his eyes. Something felt wrong here. Not an outright lie, but something similar – the feeling was muted but still there. Tony's question had been indirect – would using the freezing spell thing make the recovery of his magical core worse? – and Loki's answer had been more indirect still, but Tony's interpretation of 'yes, it would' felt like it was not really true.

"I have the impression that that's a lie, somehow." He threw a glance at Coulson and looked back at Loki. He had phrased his answer in a way that didn't show his 'lie-detector' capacity, but if Loki continued like that he would just say it outright. (Though Coulson probably already knew. He had two spies in the Tower anyway.)

"Fine! It should not impact my magical core much because it is a racial spell, which does not use the core so much as it does every single cell of the body. That is why every Jötunn can use the spell, even if they are not versed in magic," Loki explained, teeth clenched.

"Great! So you can give it a try."

"I was merely explicating. Not agreeing to this farce."

"You have a better idea, then?"

"Several."

"And you know with certainty that freezing the thing won't help one bit."

"Yes." Tony stared meaningfully. "No," Loki amended with the inkling of a growl.

"Could you then help clean up the mess you partially made?" Loki glared at him. "Please?" Tony tried, but Loki's face and feelings were still entirely opposed to this idea. The alien's eyes flickered an instant to one of the scientists that was pushing a cart full of material past them, and Tony realised something. "What if everybody took an early lunch break? Well, everybody except our tour guides." Some of the strain in the mind bond relaxed just slightly, and Tony knew he'd hit the jackpot.

"Perhaps…"

"Awesome! You heard him, Phil! If you want us to help, you gotta get rid of your people. It's not as if they were making much progress anyway."

"Really, Stark, you can't expect me to—"

"Those are my terms, Philly. Take it or leave it."

Coulson eyed him for a moment, and he must have read Tony's determination in his face – or he must have remembered his stubbornness – because his hand went to his earpiece. "Everybody take thirty." The whole site and its ant-like activity froze, and every single person he could see within the block started making their way towards the perimeter of the crash-site. Soon enough, the four of them were the only living beings within half a block.

"Now what, Stark?"

"Darling, if you would be so kind?"

Loki's eyes were throwing daggers at him – mean, jagged ones coated with poison which disappeared from view when his eyes closed – and yet, Tony could still feel them pointed at him in the anger that pierced him through the bond. Loki huffed through his nose and clenched his fists, and everything was silent for a while. Loki was obviously struggling with the transformation, possibly because he wasn't used to going at it from this angle – Tony doubted his soulmate had ever tried to voluntarily put his Jötunn skin on. Nothing happened, and through the mounting anger Tony could discern the beginning of a sense of futility, and he felt compelled for some reason to step closer and grab Loki's wrist.

The reaction was instantaneous. Loki's eyes flew open, a silent 'o' on his lips, and Tony felt his whole body prickle. Their 'thread' had become a 'cable' again, which brought a slight sense of relief, and power and recognition flowed through them at light speed. In Tony's hand, skin chittering with energy rippled, changing texture and temperature, and in the next blink Loki had gone from porcelain to that unique colour that Tony had dubbed 'Jötunn blue'. Loki's exhale was a staccato of breath and his ruby eyes were wide open from the aftershock.

Tony slowly let go, fingertips lingering for half a second. "Okay. That was fast. Was that too fast?" Loki's look obviously spelled 'unimpressed'. "Is that your 'No shit, Sherlock!' look?" The raised eyebrow screamed 'unimpressed'. "Does that mean your read Conan Doyle? Is that your 'if that's all you have to say just shut up' look? 'Cause you should know by now that it won't work on me. And I'm sorry if your… transformation was too fast, but I can't say I was expecting that to happen. I don't even know what I did. Or why. I just felt like touching you was the thing to do. I won't do it next time. Unless it actually helped, and it was just too sudden. Then I'll gladly touch you again. Wait, that came out wrong. Feel free to tell me to shut up."

"Shut up."

"Thank you. Now, how about you try to freeze the larva-snake-ship thing. It's why you turned blue after all." Loki pursed his lips and scrunched his nose while he approached the Leviathan – if his hearing was as good as it was, his other senses probably were enhanced as well. Tony was glad to be as far away from that stench as he was, so he was kind of sorry for Loki right now.

Meanwhile, he activated the Mark V Loki had left on the ground, and when the faceplate slid into place and J.A.R.V.I.S. joined him as the lights blinked on, he took a deep breath of odourless filtered air and smiled. Next to him the suit's microphones picked up the hush conversation that included the words "what the hell" and "adopted", so Tony decided to walk towards Loki instead.

"Sir, please do not try to use the repulsors; I need to adjust their controlling system to the stronger power source of your new Arc reactor," J.A.R.V.I.S. informed him.

"Roger that." This suit was kind of a relic after all – it had been made with a palladium Arc reactor in mind. It was already half a miracle that the whole thing wasn't short-circuiting on him – but then again, this was Stark tech, so it wasn't really a miracle either.

Loki stood stock-still, a hand placed on the outer hull-skin of the Leviathan, eyes tightly shut in concentration. He didn't move for quite a while, so Tony scanned the area – and Loki while he was at it, who knew what he could learn about Frost Giant physiology – and poked the teeth of the beast with his foot. This was taking too long.

"Need any help? As in skin contact? 'Cause that is about the only thing I can do."

"How about you shut up and let me concentrate?" Loki mumbled, eyes still closed.

"Yep. Sure thing. If you need me just call. I'll be right here."

One eyelid lifted, revealing a red orb fixated on his faceplate. "Can you even shut up?"

"I've wondered that myself."

A growl left Loki's throat, and it would have sounded rather menacing if Tony hadn't felt the exasperation that accompanied it. "Is J.A.R.V.I.S. controlling your armour?"

"He's helping me control it, yes."

"J.A.R.V.I.S., can you silence him for five minutes?"

"Of course, Mr Friggason."

"Hey!" Tony protested, but the sound remained stuck inside the suit. "J.A.R.V.I.S., you traitor! I can't believe you listened to him! I made you! I'm your Dad! Shouldn't you listen to me first?"

"If you are my father, and Mr Friggason is your soulmate, does that make him my new, adoptive parent?"

"What? No! You two together would be a menace! Don't let him influence you! And don't influence him!"

"Ah, I'm afraid that your warning comes too late, Sir. I've already accepted Mr Friggason as my new 'daddy'. And I've always dreamed of the opportunity to 'silence' you." J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded oh-so-smug, and Tony was having an apoplexy while stuck in the Mark V. What had his cute baby A.I. become? Was this the rebellious stage of adolescence? How did parents survive this without drowning themselves in alcohol? An Irish coffee would be nice right about now.

Under Loki's hand, frost started to appear, slowly spreading on the surface of the beast. Soon fumes of water started to rise, disappearing quickly in the sunlight that was beating down on them. The ice creaked, and on Tony's scanners the temperature was going down drastically, up until minus three hundred degrees Fahrenheit under Loki's hand, and slowly getting even colder. Tony ventured inside the 'mouth' part to check the temperature inside, and frost was forming there as well.

When he came out again, Loki had stepped back, and one side of the Leviathan's head was smoking with cold. "I'll shoot some stuff at it, so you all better take a step back." The arsenal on this suit wasn't that great, but if there was a dent to be made, it should be enough for that at least. J.A.R.V.I.S. prepared all the missiles and ballistics he had, and he shot them all at the same time. The blast it made, hidden it the flaming misty cloud, forced Coulson and May to shield their faces with an arm, and when the smoke cleared, a crack or two had appeared in the fuming hull.

Loki went back to the cheek of the beast and froze it again. Tony had used up most of his weapons in this attack, so he looked around at the materials S.H.I.E.L.D. had left lying around. He didn't register that Loki had walked further along the body of the Leviathan until he had disappeared from view inside of the beast-ship – probably through one of exits the Chitauri platoons had used. What he did see, however, was the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents drawing their weapons in a hurry.

"Drop it!" Coulson said warningly.

Loki lifted his hands in the air – but he didn't drop the Chitauri gun he had found.

Oh Loki, what are you doing? XD You're supposed to clear mess up, not make a new one :p

Spread the Luv!

LL