Summary: Loki hasn't told anyone in the tower he is a Jotun, and some times, emotions are bottled up and he explodes, he just doesn't expect anyone to find him when they do.

Beta Reader: DobbyRocksSocks

A/N: I basically played Snowman by Sia on a loop while writing this at 1 am. Enjoy.

Tony had caught Loki crying on the couch and he had frozen to the spot. It wasn't that he thought that the other one wasn't able to cry, or something like that, it was just shocking to see the snarky demi-god in such a state, at three in the morning, on his way for a snack. Loki had always seemed so composed when he wasn't an evil maniac trying to conquer the Earth with his army.

Right now he was hugging his knees to his chest, with his face buried between them, and Tony could only stare at him and think about what to do.

While he was a technological genius, he was non the wiser when it came to emotional topics. He had many emotional issues himself but if he couldn't deal with those, then other people's feelings were far away from his universe of comprehension. Pepper and Rhodey had tried to teach him some things about how to treat others when they were sad, so he kind of knew the basics, but how do you treat an Asgardian prince when you see him crying on a couch? Nope, he'd missed that class.

So he stayed silent for a while, looking at Loki, hearing him make small noises every now and then. Ironically, it was a comfortable silence, and in that silence, he realized that he had never seen the other one so still for that amount of time. It had only been around 5 minutes, but it was a lot as Loki always stood up and moved to another room whenever a teammate entered the room he was using, most times without saying anything. Except this time he was still, and had said something. Wait. He had said something, and Tony had been too lost in his thoughts to realize he now had an angry demi-god looking at him.

"I- Sorry, what?" was all Tony could come up with as he came back to reality.

"I asked", a raspy voice started, "do you find it entertaining to see me vulnerable, mortal?"

Tony frowned and tilted his head slightly. "I don't. I just-"

"Then why did you stay for so long, watching me?"

It wasn't a crazy question, but Tony didn't really know how to answer either. Mainly, he could say that it had been because he didn't think Loki knew that he was there, so that had made it a bit less awkward than it was now that he knew that the other one had known. He could also say that he hadn't wanted to risk Loki asking him for comfort, but now it seemed like an impossible situation given to, well, Loki's personality. So those weren't valid excuses.

"I just froze."

And that answer had made Loki twitch very mildly, almost unnoticeably. But Tony had noticed.

"Go away, Stark, this is none of your business." he spitted.

With this, Tony straightened.

"Fine, I don't have time for a spoiled prince's problems anyways, have fun on your own, Reindeer Games," and turned to leave but heard, as he was walking away, a soft but angry sentence.

"You know nothing about my life."

"Maybe because you don't tell anyone about it?"

Loki was no longer looking at him, but he hadn't changed his position either. He stayed silent for a second.

"You don't know anything."

Tony was starting to suspect he was going to have to do some comforting after all, so he mentally sighed, as he approached the couch. It was going to be a long night for him and all he'd wanted were some snacks. Maybe this was the reason why JARVIS had told him he shouldn't get snacks, and not the fact that he hadn't had a full meal in two days as he had thought. Maybe he should start to listen to his A.I. more often.

"And you know nothing about me either Loki, so why don't you enlighten me as to what am I missing? Or, I could just go back to my lab and let you keep doing what you were doing."

Loki seemed to be thinking about this for a moment, so Tony stayed where he was, waiting.

"Why would you want to hear me tell you why I was crying? Didn't you say you didn't have time for, what was it? Oh right 'a spoiled prince's problems'."

Tony rubbed a hand on his face. It was, in fact, going to be a long night.

"Yeah, but that was because you started to bark at me."

"I don't bark, I am no dog."

"It's not- Nevermind. Do you want to talk or not?"

Loki didn't answer, but he moved to let Tony sit and still have a good amount of space between them. As Tony sat he started to notice more details, like the way Loki's knuckles were white from the strength which he was closing his fists with, or the way his eyes were

slightly red from the crying.

"So...", Tony started.

There was a small silence and he wondered if maybe he should have just walked away, or if he should say something again because it was starting to get uncomfortable and man he hadn't even been able to grab the snacks he wanted. Or more coffee. God, he needed coffee for this.

"Thor gave us a little bit of an overview, so I'm not completely in the dark."

"What do you know about me?" Loki asked, not looking him in the eyes.

"Not much really. I know you are Thor's little brother, an asgardian prince, son of Odin, who always lived with luxury in a happy castle, then went cuckoo and almost destroyed New York City."

Loki huffed slightly. "Of course that's the version of the story he chose to tell." Loki hugged his legs harder against his chest before adding. "None of that is true. Except perhaps the destruction and luxury."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "And what's your version?"

"Once I thought all those things were true as well," Loki began, "until I found out that I was actually a Jotun, the monster in the asgardian bedtime stories, the enemies that my brother, my father, and even I had slain so many times. I was one of them. And not only that, my biological father, Laufey, the King of the Frost Giants, had abandoned me as a baby because I was too small to be a frost giant. Odin adopted me as a way of truce between Asgard and Jotunheim. When I found out, I killed my father, Laufey, as a way to make Odin proud, as he had never loved me the same way he loved Thor. It didn't work, and now I'm aware of this… hideous thing I am, the same thing I was taught to hate since I was a small child. So no, you know nothing about my life."

Tony sat there in silence and started to look at the floor. "I understand a bit. My father never really liked me either, you know? He used to beat the crap out of me whenever he felt I wasn't enough like his beloved 'Captain America', or when he was drunk. Or simply because he wanted to. I spent a lot of time trying to make him proud of me, getting the best grades I could, showing him my inventions, It was never enough for him. The only person to care for me when I was growing up was my butler, Jarvis. He looked after me as if I had been his own child. Eventually my father sent me to boarding school and a few years later, both my parents died in a car crash."

"Is that why the voice in the ceiling is called Jarvis? Because of your adoptive father?" Loki asked curiously, for the first time in the conversation showing something more than sadness or anger.

Tony just nodded.

They stayed in silence for a little while. It wasn't uncomfortable, nor really long. It wasn't that they had nothing to say, but it was a situation neither had gone through before. It was the closest anyone had ever been to understanding them. Loki had visibly relaxed, at least a little bit.

"I don't really think you are a monster, by the way. I mean you don't look scary, so I don't understand why your species would be monsters under the bed. You look just like Thor, so nobody would really know, Loksters. I think you worry too much."

Tony was expecting his words to cheer up the other one, but apparently that wasn't the case as the demigod looked like he was about to cry again. Was this a bad moment to get off the couch and make himself some coffee?

"I… don't actually look like this." He shifted a little bit and continued. "This is a glamour."

A simple 'Oh' was all that came out of the genius' mouth. He stared at Loki for a moment, considering whether to ask him or not. What would he lose if the demigod answered 'no'? Probably nothing, but it could make the other one feel pretty bad, judging by his body language. He decided to be curious, but not enough to be killed like a cat.

"Hey, you probably don't want to show me, and that's totally fine, but if you do want to show me then I'll be glad to see it because I'm curious, but I want to respect your personal space and emotions, so it would be perfectly great if you didn't show me, although I want to let you know that if you did want to show me then it would be awesome, and I'm rambling. I'm sorry."

He was met with intrigued eyes with one raised eyebrow. They mostly said 'is this guy for real?', and there wasn't a hint of anger or sadness, just a plain thought that Loki expressed quite straightforwardly.

"Why?"

Tony blinked once. "Why what?"

"Why would you want to see it? My Jotun form."

"Well um…" It wasn't such a hard question but the brunet didn't know the answer. "Maybe because I have never seen a frost giant and you are the only chance I'll get to get a close look at one without having to run for my life."

Loki seemed to consider this answer for a moment and then nodded.

"Very well, but I must warn you that I'm… hideous"

Tony simply nodded. "Whenever you're ready, Loksters."

The Trickster took a deep breath and let the glamour down. He revealed his blue skin and red eyes met chocolate. The genius was left speechless and admiring with his mouth slightly parted.

According to Wikipedia, as Tony had read, there's a psychosomatic condition involving rapid heartbeat, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations, allegedly occurring when individuals become exposed to objects, artworks, or phenomena of great beauty and antiquity. It was called the Stendhal syndrome, and he was sure that he was suffering that condition in that precise moment because holy fuck was Loki so blind as to think this was anything other that beautiful.

Loki had markings all over his skin, or at least the parts which were visible, his emerald eyes were now ruby red, and his body temperature had lowered, judging by the feeling around his body. Tony stayed admiring for a while until he noticed Loki was waiting for feedback of any kind and was starting to get twitchy. The avenger opened and closed his mouth a few times before the demigod changed back into his asgardian form and looked away, visibly feeling humiliated and vulnerable.

"I told you that I was hideous."

Tony denied with his head. "You're not, you're actually attractive."

And with that the raven haired man looked totally taken aback.

"You think I'm… Attractive…" Was this mortal being serious?

"And, or, beautiful. Not a hideous monster at all, like your Asgardian form. You look equally attractive in both forms." Now Tony looked shy.

"You think I'm attractive?" A small smirk forming was answered with a "I, um, yeah, I do."

Loki smiled lightly and looked at his hands while nodding. "You're not bad yourself."

"Are you flirting back, Reindeer Games?"

"Were you flirting first?"

Both smirking, with a much more calm atmosphere, both men relaxed in their places. Tony looked down and saw his arc reactor's light glowing and decided that he could open up a bit as well.

"Do you… umm, want to see my arc reactor upclose?"

A slightly raised eyebrow got the genius explaining that this was his way of repaying the frost giant thing because it was also something he really didn't like of himself and that reminded him of not very nice things. With a 'Sure' from the Demigod, Tony took his shirt off and got closer to him. Loki looked at it and reached out to touch it, but stopped at mid air.

"You can touch it if you want," said the brunet.

The trickster looked at Tony's eyes as if to double check and then to the arc reactor. He reached out and touched it very softly, as if it were made of glass. He stared at the light glow almost hypnotized, and caressed the skin around it, causing Tony to flinch a little. A soft 'Sorry' was answered with an equally soft 'It's okay'.

Without noticing, their faces had gotten mere centimeters apart and the demigod could feel the genius' breath, so he looked up and saw his face, and the other one's expression was expecting and nervous, as his own had been a few moments ago. He stared at the other one's lips for a moment and licked his own before sitting up.

"I like it. Thank you."

Tony smiled slightly.

"You're welcome, Lokster."

He had the feeling that this was the beginning of something. Maybe coming up for snacks more often. Maybe something more.