Heya people! Long time no see! But still, here I am with a belated Christmas gift :) I hope you like it. It was damned difficult for me to write – I've got no idea why. I hope you'll appreciate the effort, though :p

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF:

Tony opened his arms like an invitation, giving access to the Arc reactor whose light barely showed through the fabric of his shirt, but that shone like a star in Loki's mind. He started to lift his hand – why would he not? Why would he not shapeshift back into his Áss form if given the opportunity? It was only logical. But Loki could feel Tony's reluctance; he was definitely unhappy with the situation. Was it because Tony preferred, for some strange reason – scientific curiosity, a voice whispered in his mind – to see him wearing his true skin?

"Perhaps later," Loki answered, surprising himself just as much as Tony, if the astonishment the bond communicated was anything to go by. There was also, though, a tiny spike of joy mixed in what Loki could feel, and that was good enough for him.

"All right then. Let's go get breakfast." And Tony led the way out the door.

CHAPTER 24

When they walked into the kitchen, all the other Avengers – minus Thor – and their official babysitter/freeloader Phil were eating and chatting amicably. Then someone noticed their presence, and soon all eyes were trained on them. Silence ensued.

"Erm, morning?" Tony said. What were they all being so silent for? It wasn't Loki's skin – they'd all see him like this before. So what— Oh. Right. Clint had seen them… doing whatever they'd been doing on the ground, and he wouldn't have interpreted that as the game of cat and mouse it had been. And he'd probably blabbed the instant he came down here. And now they were all looking like this at them.

"You're late," Phil said.

"Yeah, well, you could ask J.A.R.V.I.S. to wake us up earlier, you know. This was kinda last minute. I'm not a morning person, I need time. Then again, I don't see why we have to suffer through communal breakfast all the time. So in my opinion, we're not late. We're early." Phil didn't look amused – as if he was the boss around here! This was Tony's tower. Tony's tower, Tony's rules, right?

"What good does it do me to ask you're A.I. to wake you earlier if I have to send someone up to physically drag you out of bed?"

"What are you talking about? We were—" Not in bed. Wait a second! Did Clint not… Tony glanced at Clint, but Clint wasn't looking at him – he seemed to be in the middle of a staring contest with Loki. Well then, he'd just hope Clint told the others they were still in bed, and go with that. "I don't know what Clint told you, but we weren't sleeping or anything. Sure, we were still in bed and all, but we were talking. About important soulmate magic stuff. Not lazing about."

"We've been waiting for you. AKA you're late," Clint said, looking down at his spoon as he scooped up some soggy cereals. Tony wasn't going to argue with Clint – he'd done them the courtesy of not spreading false rumours around.

"Okay, fine, we're late. I haven't invented a time machine yet, so there's nothing I can do about it. You can all stop nagging."

"If they stopped nagging," Loki said, "how would you ever learn?"

"Gee, thanks! Aren't you the best soulmate anyone could ask for? All bitchiness and sarcasm."

"Why thank you, Tony. You're acceptable yourself. After all, it could have been worse." And with a smirk, that princely bastard Tony was stuck with took a seat and waited to be served breakfast. Really, someone should teach him that food didn't make itself. And everyone expected Tony to do it, he was sure; well, he wouldn't do it today. Not with Loki throwing smugness at him through the bond in heaps.

He walked over to the counter, and put a mug under the coffee machine. Coffee. The nectar of the gods – real gods, not aliens. It wouldn't make the day great, but it certainly would make it better. "Loks." Loki had been in a staring contest with Clint again – what was it with those two? First Clint was a sassy arsehole, then a grudgingly accepting broody kid, then he was running away like a flustered chick, and now, what? Was he stuck in Loki's hypnotizing ruby gaze? At least Loki had the decency to look up when called. Clint just continued to stare. "PBJ – peanut butter jelly – okay with you?"

"If I must," Loki sighed, but Tony was pretty sure it was all an act. The bond wasn't closed off, and no reluctance flowed over from it.

"Well, guess what? If you want something else, you can get your scrawny arse off that chair and do it yourself."

"No thank you. And my 'arse', as you say, is not scrawny. You should know."

Oh, wow, okay. That was sooooo not acceptable. First, Loki should be banned from saying words like 'arse' in that accent of his, it was just lecherously indecent. It made Tony tingle all over. That was not something that should happen before coffee. Or anytime, for that matter. Not when Loki was the one who did that to him. And second, why the hell was that idiot spewing words that could be so awfully misinterpreted? Sure, it was true, Tony did see Loki's arse, but saying it out loud? People would just imagine all the wrong things.

"Sorry, my bad. I'm not that good at judging arse sizes from afar. And it's not as if I had any reason to look either." And he hadn't had a good reason. There had been no reason, and no functioning brain cells whatsoever actually, during those damning long seconds when he stared. He concentrated on finding the butter knife – where was that stupid thing again? – but he could feel, even without looking, that Loki's eyebrow was raised. Please don't let him make this worse. Please don't let him make this worse!

"Your 'arse size' judging skills are appalling then. We weren't that far apart; your view of my 'arse' should have been sufficient. And for future reference, let me tell you that my 'arse' is perfectly well-built and rounded. There is nothing scrawny about my 'arse'."

Oh. My. God! Tony couldn't stop himself from letting his new-found butter knife clatter on the bamboo cutting board and look at his soulmate with his mouth open. Was Loki doing it on purpose? Of course he was. He had to be. He had repeated the word 'arse' as many times as he could, no doubt about it. He even insisted on each occurrence of the word, enunciating them with painstaking precision. The bond was smirking smugly at Tony even though Loki's face was a perfect poker face. Yes, the bastard definitively knew that that word, when coming from Loki's lips, was troubling him. A lot.

"You— You—" Tony didn't even know what he wanted to say exactly. His brain had deserted him, the traitor, and he was only left with a blank slate of nothing. All he knew was that his face was inappropriately hot.

"Are they always like that?" Phil was saying.

"As far as I've seen, yes," Natasha answered him, not even looking up from the magazine she was perusing.

"I've seen them being way worse," Clint added with a slight grimace on his face.

"Perhaps breakfast together really should be compulsory every morning." Phil was looking speculative now.

"Hmm, how would you justify it?" Natasha picked up her mug and sipped. "Training exercise? Team-building?"

"If you make it dinner instead of breakfast, I'm in. Their interactions can be hilarious," Bruce thought funny to add.

"We could always do breakfast and dinner," Phil said, smirking.

"What about lunch?" Natasha added nonchalantly. Okay, that got Tony brain back in order fast, all right! As if he was going to subject himself to—

"Guys, don't be so mean." Oh, Steve, always the good guy. Standing up for the poor bullied people like Tony. "Dinner is enough." Right. Scrap that, Capsicle was just as much an arsehole as the others.

"You Midgardians really are strange creatures," Loki said from behind Tony. When the hell did he walk over here?

Tony finally, finally found his voice again. "No we're not."

"Please don't put you and me in the same category," Clint mumbled, but Tony heard him all the same.

"We humans are not strange," he enunciated clearly in Clint's direction. "And you're the alien one here," he added, glancing over his shoulder at Loki.

"That is so. And as such, I can indeed judge Midgardians' strangeness, as I have met more 'aliens' than all of you combined." Loki sounded smug, but who could blame him? Tony would love to meet tons of aliens – as long as they weren't hostile. Who didn't want to get on a spaceship and boldly go where no man had gone before?

Bruce smiled in his tea. "I hope you're not judging all of humanity based on us, because we're not the most conventional sample."

"Hmm, not the most conventional." Loki stepped closer to Tony, almost touching his left side – AKA standing too close. "Like these 'PBJ' things you call breakfast, I assume."

"Er, no, that's pretty normal." All the bread was buttered now. Tony hoped this would be enough sandwiches… Yeah, fuck it, this was enough. If his gluttonous soulmate needed more food, he could do the work himself! "Why are you standing here anyway? Changed your mind about the PBJs?"

"No. You were simply taking too long."

"Taking too long? I'm so sorry, princess, but you won't find any servants waiting on you here. This is the last time I'm making you breakfast, so from tomorrow on you're on your own. I'm not some sandwich-making robot— Oh. Why didn't I think of that sooner? J.A.R.V.', put a PBJ-making robot on my project list."

"At the top of the list, Sir?"

"Of course." J.A.R.V.I.S. knew his priorities so well. He glanced at Loki again. "In the meantime, while there is no automated system made by awesome little me, you're gonna have to learn how to do it. It's not complicated, really. It's all about balance. Throwing on the right amount of peanut butter and all that. Here, I'll show you, and you do this one on your own."

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Sitting on a chair squeezed between Tony and Coulson, Loki was staring at his self-made sandwich. It did not look as neat as the ones made by Tony – not that those looked 'neat' by any definition, mind you – and he wondered if he should eat his own one first or last. If he ate it last, and it was not as good as the others, it would be a disappointing end to this meal. If he ate it first, it might not be the greatest start, but at least he would have Tony's sandwiches to wash away any unpleasant tastes it could have.

Tony had said it was all about proportions, but he did not have any tools to measure said proportions accurately. And as this was Loki's first time, he could not judge those proportions by eye alone. How different would the result be? He hadn't anticipated this level of involvement with his breakfast – he had simply followed his desire to be physically close to his soulmate. That, at least, had worked out perfectly. Their shoulders and arms had brushed repeatedly during the whole 'teaching' process.

Tony was debating wake up time with Coulson again between two bites of his breakfast, and Loki was not really listening. It was not as if he needed much more sleep than this – despite everything his magical core seemed to be healing nicely, and he could hear the reassuring sound of Yggdrasil thrumming lightly in the background.

He picked up one of the sandwiches Tony made, and bit into it. It had the same taste as the last time he ate it – which meant it was quite edible. When he finished it, he took the one he made himself. If he ate it in between the other sandwiches, there was no 'first or last' dilemma. He tore a hearty piece off with his teeth – teeth too pointy for this dish – and slowly chewed. Huh. The taste was rather close to Tony's. A bit more sugary perhaps; he must have added too much of that jam ingredient. But otherwise, it was all right for a first time, was it not?

Loki had almost finished all his food when he caught the word 'sceptre' coming out of Coulson's mouth. It seemed like they had been talking about it for a little while at least, and he'd missed most of it like the hungry fool he was – it was a bit too much like Thor's usual behaviour, and Loki grimaced. He listened to Coulson carefully while he chewed.

"I want you to make it your number one priority, Stark. That thing is dangerous, dangerous enough for Thor to want to take it back to Asgard, so I want it shipped off as soon as possible. Before Director Fury decides he wants to keep it for himself."

"But shouldn't we be helping with clearing the rubble and all that?" Tony asked between two sips of coffee.

"You made sure we found all the survivors already. The cleaning up can be done by others."

"You're right. We don't really have to be there. But you're still making the others do nice little walks around the block with a broom for publicity. Why not me? My suit is more like a vacuum cleaner. Flashier. Louder. More efficient."

"We're not leaving Loki alone with the sceptre" – as if Loki even wanted to – "and you need to be near him for the whole magic thing to work now, right?"

"Until his mana points fill up again, yeah. I'm like a temporary mana fountain." As always, Tony did not make much sense. Coulson, however, merely nodded.

"Exactly. You stay and help him."

Tony opened his mouth, closed it, opened it and said, "Fine," in a petulant tone. If Loki had understood correctly, he was to try and purify the sceptre from Thanos' influence today. He was not sure he could even do it. The Mad Titan used magics he had never actually studied and he had only a basic understanding of the spells that were fuelled by death. He would not go as far as saying that the thought of handling the sceptre again made him nervous, but his stomach tightened and he did not feel like eating the rest of his sandwich anymore.

He had barely put his hand down on the table when Tony grabbed it and squeezed gently. Loki turned his head towards his soulmate, but he was not looking back, and among the emotions that swirled around Tony's side of the bond, there were spikes of embarrassment he could feel. If Tony did not want something as embarrassing as touching hands in public, then he should not do it. Loki tried to extricate his hand from under Tony's, but the stupid Midgardian just held onto it tighter. Loki was debating if he should just pull it away – he could remind his soulmate that their physical strengths could not even compare – or if he should just leave it – Tony was holding his hand, even if it was only in a misguided attempt to comfort him – when Tony stood up.

"Well, awesome breakfast, let's not do that again any time soon, thank you. You people have fun cleaning up. We're off to save the world from any more magic-influenced impending doom."

Tony's hand shifted so that he was holding Loki's in a way that looked like an invitation to follow him, so Loki sighed and stood up as well. Tony's fingers wrapped themselves around the back of his hand firmly, and they walked together towards the elevator. Loki did not look around, but he could certainly feel the curious gaze of the Avengers and their new manager.

The elevator doors closed behind them, and still Tony did not release his hand. They opened again to reveal the underground workshop, and still Tony did not release his hand. Loki was tugged along to the main working space, and only when they reached it did Tony release his hand. All that time the spikes of embarrassment had remained – even now, when they were not touching anymore Loki could feel them – and it made no sense at all.

"Okay, find yourself a chair or something – not that one though, that's mine – and I'll go get the sceptre. Don't worry, you won't have to touch it any time soon. I want to scan it first. And to do that I need to calibrate the scanner. That's going to take some time. So you might want to read some books or something. J.A.R.V.', can you send DUM-E round with his e-reader?"

"Of course, Sir."

Then Tony walked away, and Loki was left looking at the cluttered space surrounding his soulmate's desk. An engineer's desk. It was full of what Loki supposed were tools and pieces of machinery – the magicless science that Midgard preferred. Loki located a chair with coloured wires draped over the back and seat, and put them on the nearest surface before sitting down.

Tony came out of his vault at the other side of the room, the pulsing sceptre in his hand. Loki could not stop his muscles from tautening, and he monitored the bond attentively in case something unexpected happened. From here he could feel the malice of Thanos' taint come off the weapon in waves, even if he could not see the tendrils of the spell itself. Tony stayed far away, strapping the sceptre to metal rods that were sticking out of a massive metal counter. When he let go, the force of the taint ebbed away, and transparent walls came out of the base of the counter and surrounded the sceptre on all side.

Tony fiddled with some buttons before walking over and sitting in the chair he had designated as his. His desk had glass walls also; blue writing and schematics appeared the moment he touched it. He leaned back and said, "Okay J.A.R.V.I.S., throw all the scans you can think of at it, and I'll think of scans that don't exist yet." He swivelled his chair around until it faced Loki. "You said my Arc reactor contained some form of magic, right? What does it look like?"

"What does what look like?"

"Magic. The magic coming from my Arc reactor. If I can devise a scan that can see the magic from my Arc reactor, I should be able to see the magic from the sceptre, right?"

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. The magic from your Arc reactor is raw, unbridled, wild and harvesting its energy form a source I do not know. The sceptre has a powerful core I don't know the origin of, and Thanos' magic, a foul and oozing creeping spell, is based on some form of death magic I wouldn't be able to explain, as I have never studied it. The magic I use flows from the branches of Yggdrasil that span the Nine Realms, channelled through my magical core, and I weave it into spells. And Jötunn racial magic, as well as my shapeshifting, uses the magic that infuses all the cells of the body, using it in the same way as physical energy, mostly. Magic can take many different forms."

"All right. They're different, but they're still magic, yes? Those different forms of magic have something in common, I suppose. If I can start by scanning that, that what all magic has in common, then I could later calibrate it to fit the sceptre's magic."

"The sceptre's magics. It has two different sources."

Tony sighed. "Right. Well, let's start with something with just one source. Here," he said, handing Loki a glass case with a very different looking Arc reactor from the one he had seen before. 'Proof that Tony Stark has a heart' was written on it. What a preposterous message. "How's the magic in this one?"

Loki placed his hands on either side of the glass box, and closed his eyes. He opened his senses fully to the magical flow around him. The sceptre was like a dark presence, whispering in the background, beckoning to him; Yggdrasil's weaker reach here in Midgard was still detectable, trickling power drop by drop into his magical core, smoothing it, filling in the cracks; and the energy source between his hands hissed and lashed out like a tiny angry child.

"There is magic here, yes, but it is incomplete, juvenile, trying to bite and tear apart its confinement, but too weak and clueless to do it on its own."

"Juvenile. Uhuh. Well, this was my first Arc reactor, so it's not the best constructed, that's for sure. I made this in a cave with the crappiest tools possible." He took the box from Loki and put it down on his desk again. "You, my baby, saved my life more than once," he added, patting the glass.

"Really? I wouldn't have trusted such an ill-willed energy source."

"Well… the palladium core was poisoning me, that's true."

Ah, yes, poison. Tony did mention that before. Loki looked at that Arc reactor with new eyes now. "Yes. It does have a form of destructive intent."

"What, you think it's linked to the palladium? Like, a different element, a different magic? I mean, I'm guessing this baby" – he flicked his thumb towards his chest – "doesn't want to kill me, as I've had no problems so far." Loki could only stare at him expressionlessly. To say he'd thought his soulmate was a mortal genius. "That's your 'well duh' face, isn't it? Well, I can scan elements. Now I just need to find the magical thing they have in common. If I do a comparative study of an old and a new design of the Arc reactor…"

Loki couldn't hear the rest, as Tony started mumbling and merely breathing out the rest of his thoughts while he stood up and paced, and walked to vault again. He came out with two Arc reactors, one similar to the encased one, the other strangely flat but emitting the same signature as the one in Tony's chest. Both were placed in what Loki supposed were the devices that would permit the 'scans' Tony was looking for, after which his soulmate started a conversation that seemed to be half typed and half spoken in terms Loki did not understand, peppered with J.A.R.V.I.S.'s 'yes, Sir' and 'of course, Sir' in response.

Loki was at a loss what to do until the strange one-armed robotic servant came out of the elevator with the electronic library held in its mechanical hand, and as Tony did not seem to require his help in any way – why did Loki need to be down here in the first place if there was nothing for him to do? – he just continued reading random works of literature that the knowledgeable Artificial Intelligence had listed for him.

Loki had tuned out Tony's lively half conversation, until J.A.R.V.I.S. said the name of his soulmate's former lover. "Sir, you have received an e-mail from Miss Potts."

All work halted quite abruptly, and Loki looked up from the ramblings of a certain C.S. Lewis, straight into Tony's wide-eyed gaze. Slight panic reached Loki in tiny undulations on the surface of their connection, and Tony turned away, suddenly looking frantically for something on his cluttered desk.

"To your right, Sir, under the schematics for the robotic toaster."

Tony unearthed a 'tablet' device and turned the screen on. He breathed in. "Okay, J.A.R.V.', let's have it." The display changed to text, but Loki was too far to be able to read the message. Tony, however, was frowning more and more, until something that Loki could only describe as a 'sense of doom' reached him, and the grimace on Tony's face encompassed the bond as well.

That could not mean anything good.

Ooooh what does the message say, I wonder :p

I hope you all have a lovely end of the year :)

Spread the Luv!

LL