Apologies for the shortness. Important notes at the end.


Chapter 15

Tony walked up his drive after dropping Loki off from their third date. Third date? That sounded weird but it was undeniably true. A very successful third date if he might add. It was probably safe to say they were dating properly now even though neither of them had actually spoken out loud their question of asking whether the other will be their boyfriend. Ah well, Tony thought, the moment would present itself soon he was sure.

His stomach rumbled violently as he closed the front door, and he knew it was time to eat. He walked into the kitchen to find Rhodey sitting at the kitchen island stirring a cup of coffee and enjoying cheese on toast.

"There's more bread over there if you want one," he said, noting how Tony was eyeing his plate.

Some clattering followed his words and soon the kitchen was filled once again with the aroma of toast and heated cheese. It was truly divine. He took it off the grill just as the yellow solid was starting to run off the crusts and the bread was well and truly toasted. Using the spatula that had been left on the side, Tony manoeuvred the toast onto his plate then sliced them both in half so that four large triangles of perfect cheese on toast sat cooling on his plate. Very much impressed with his cooking skills, he took a seat opposite Rhodey at the kitchen island and began to eat.

It was only when he was half way through his second triangle that he noticed his guardian watching him from across the recently cleaned surface. At first he ignored the look, thinking it was just coincidence seeing as, as soon as he had met Rhodey's eye, the other had quickly dropped his gaze back to his own plate.

"Okay seriously what is it?" Tony demanded, finally letting his lack of knowledge get to him enough to strike a nerve. Rhodey looked like he was hiding something, something to do with himself he was guessing. He wanted to know what that was. "Is there something on my face?" He wiped his face for emphasis, noting that a few crumbs did actually fall from his lips.

"Nothing, why do you think there's something up?"

"Because you keep staring at me all warily as though you're trying to work out some really difficult algebra or something. Do you think by staring at my face the answer is just going to pop out of my brain?"

"No, surprisingly I have better things to do than work out algebra that you could solve in a couple of seconds."

"Then what' up?"

Rhodey sighed quietly and rolled his eyes. Teenagers could be so demanding, no matter how close they were to being an adult. "You've been going out a lot lately."

It wasn't a question but it felt like one. Tony felt a sudden strong need to defend himself. Instead he just played it cool. He was good at that, especially at school when people asked where he had got the strange marks on his neck from. He always had some excuse ready so as not to let slip they were actually made by Loki sucking and kissing his neck though he supposed it would be more fun to tell the truth once, just to see the persons curious demeanour turn into one of utter incredulity (with probably a hint of horror).

"Does it come as a surprise that the famous teenage billionaire has friends and a social life?"

"Ha bloody ha," Rhodey replied dryly. "I meant more than usual and you keep checking your phone...a lot," he added when the telltale sound of Tony's phone going off echoed from the direction of his pocket.

Okay, not the best timing Loki, Tony thought, checking the text, smirking slightly then sending off a brief yet adequate reply. When he looked back up Rhodey was staring at him with a knowing expression plastered on his face.

"It was just a friend," he muttered evasively, taking a bite from his almost cold toast just so that he had something to do. He felt like he was under a spotlight and, surprisingly, it didn't feel that good.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say you are dating someone."

"It's a good job you don't know better then."

Rhodey's unimpressed glance did nothing to rock Tony's perfectly composed calm. "So you're telling me nothing is going on? Not even with Pepper? You did go out with her about two weeks ago?"

So he was the second person to ask that. Loki, having finally worked up the courage due to Natasha's prompts, had asked him not a few days before why they had been out together. He having found out because that was the day that Loki had called him up, acting rather strangely. Tony had successfully put his wonderings to rest by reassuring him that the only reason he had actually gone out with the girl was to be polite and the whole point of the meeting had been to reassure her for the umpteenth time that they were not getting back together.

"Yeah we did but no definitely no. We are not together and I doubt we will be again at this rate so just no. Why do people keep thinking we are?"

Ignoring the question because he assumed it was rhetorical, Rhodey said instead, "At this rate? Look you don't need to explain yourself, I'm just curious. You seem a lot happier at the moment and I wondered if there was any specific reason."

Tony sighed in defeat. No matter how much he kept denying this or evading the questions, his guardian wasn't stupid. "Fine okay, okay you win. I like someone and we've gone out a few times but nothing is confirmed yet. Are you happy now?"

The smug expression on Rhodey's face made him want to punch it off. "Much, thankyou."

"Alright, I'm out of here. I've got a lot of work to do," Tony replied, unable to stand the sight any longer.

Why did parents or guardians always have to get so excited and invested in their children's love lives? It was just plain weird. Maybe it was because their younger days were so far behind them that they couldn't remember the feelings properly anymore so they need their children to help jog their memories. Well, whatever it was, they should stop.

As he left the room he heard Rhodey say something along the lines of 'have fun' but it wasn't the words that got to him, it was the tone. He sounded far too smug to be legal.


School was boring. Going to class was boring. This specific class was boring. The teacher wouldn't stop droning on. The students wouldn't shut up enough to let him finish so they could actually get on with their work. It wasn't even Christmas yet and already school was too much. How was anyone supposed to stand another six months or so of this?

The only thing that was improving his day right now was the fact that Loki had just slid into the seat next to his, having arrived late for the class. As Tony sent him a questioning glance, silently asking where he had been, Loki just shook his head then gestured to the front, this meaning that he would tell him later. The unimpressed look on his face told Tony that it was definitely nothing good.

Class dragged on, as did their teacher, and Loki and Tony continued to share deep sighs and eye rolls that communicated their feelings clearly. They were both extremely bored. Then Tony, the genius that he was, was struck with an idea. Hurriedly he tapped on Loki's arm and gestured to a blank sheet of paper and his pen. When Loki sent him a questioning glance he scrawled the word hangman? To which Loki smiled in amusement then nodded.

Tony went first, tapping his pen against his closed lips while he thought of a word or phrase that he could do. Suddenly hit with inspiration (with special thanks to their mind numbingly dull teacher) he drew a number of lines indicating how many letters per word, then separating each word with a forward slash. Tapping Loki once again to let him know he was done, he sat back and waited for Loki to start guessing. Obviously he started with the vowels to which a few were filled in and then he started on the consonants. In the end he had enough of a clue to fill in the rest of the gaps before Tony could finish drawing the hanging stickman. The final words when filled in read Mr Phelps is a freaking douche (Mr Phelps being their irritatingly talkative teacher).

Loki sent Tony an unamused expression, writing neatly beside the game a note saying Don't you think that was too long for the game? In reply Tony just wrote that he would do a shorter one next time. Satisfied, Loki sat back in his chair and stared into space, thinking up his own for Tony to guess at. In the end he settled on one of two possibilities and started to draw out the dashes for Tony to fill.

This game lasted a lot longer and by the end of it Tony was getting frustrated as he was unable to work out what the short message spelled. In the end he just gave up, filling in the rest of the hangman as a gesture to say that he had lost. Knowing he had won, Loki pocketed the piece of paper with a far too smug smile on his face. God it was just hangman, Tony thought, it wasn't like he had just become the ruler of the world.

It took only a few more seconds for an idea to present itself and after some silent negotiations he had finally managed to convince Loki to play one last game. Digging out the old sheet they had been playing on, now rather crumpled, he began to draw the lines signifying the words. When done there were three words, each separated by a dash. Loki stared at it for a few seconds before starting to guess.

His first choice was 'e' and two were filled in. Next he went for 'a' but that was wrong and Tony started to draw the stickman. After a few more guesses there were only a few letters missing and Loki was frowning at the paper.

"Tony, what?" He questioned, not sure if he should fill in the gaps with what he thought it said, or rather, asked.

"Do you give up?" Tony asked, nonchalant. When Loki didn't reply he said, "Here, let me help." He leant forward and filled in the few remaining gaps then leaned back so Loki could see. "Oh wait just quickly..." He picked up his pen and added a question mark to the end of the three words.

"Be my boyfriend?" Loki mouthed then stared at Tony incredulously. "Are you seriously asking me out through hangman?"

"I guess so," Tony said, suddenly unsure of himself. "So yes or no?"

Instead of speaking Loki drew three dashes on the paper.

"I'm going to take a wild guess but I think that word is yes." Loki filled in the gaps for him a wide smile on his face as Tony spoke again. "Or it says no with an exclamation mark at the end."

"You're such an idiot," Loki grinned, shaking his head as though he was trying to rid himself of the wonderfully warm feeling rising inside of him. Reaching down he took hold of his hand, entwining their fingers together discreetly under the desk.

"Are you two quite finished?"

Their heads snapped up in unison, both gazes coming to rest on their teacher who was standing over them on the other side of their desk. Before they had time to act he had swiped the sheet of paper off their desk, his eyes skimming across the page as he read the few words printed there. When done he lowered the paper and just stared at them both, eyebrows raised. Clearly he had not been expecting what he had read.

"Sir, I beg you, please don't read that out as one of those humiliation things that teachers do!" Tony begged, keeping his voice low so no one else could hear.

Mr Phelps sent him an appraising look, reread the paper then sighed dramatically. "Fine I won't read this out but I want to see you both after class."

"That's fair," Tony nodded, joined in a second later by Loki.

"Good."

And the lesson continued as though nothing had happened and neither Tony nor Loki had ever been more grateful to hear their teacher rambling on again. Only when the class were dismissed and they were the only ones left at their desks did some form of nerves creep into either's body.

"So, though I am thrilled to learn intimate details of your personal lives, I would ask that you don't discuss them during my class."

"Yes Sir, sorry," Loki mumbled, staring resolutely at his desk.

"And I'd also appreciate if you didn't refer to me as a 'freaking douche'," he said, a flicker of amusement on his usually expressionless face.

"Again, sorry," Tony added.

"Well I think that's it, you better hurry and apologise to your next teacher for being kept behind."

They both got up and collected their things together, shoving their books and pens safely into their bags before fixing them on their backs or balancing them on one shoulder.

"Oh and just one more thing." Turning around at the door, they looked back to their teacher. "I suppose a congratulations is in order."

"Um I think you normally say congratulations when someone is getting married," Tony said. "And that is definitely not what is happening."

"Well you never know, give it a few years," He laughed, enjoying how their expressions became a mixture of confusion and embarrassment. "I'm just kidding. Now get to class before you get detention."

Without another word they were off up the corridor, heading towards their next lessons, for Loki it was English, for Tony it was Physics . They didn't say a word to each other until they were far enough away from Mr Phelps's classroom to not be heard yet weren't too close to the classroom near then so that they couldn't be seen.

"Well that was certainly an eventful lesson."

"Indeed," Loki agreed. "Out of curiosity what would you have done if he had read out the note?"

"I honestly don't know. I'm not sure I'm ready for the whole school knowing about this yet."

"Oh thank god," Loki sighed heavily. "I'd rather keep this quiet for a while too."

There was silence for a moment. Neither of them appeared to notice that they were still holding hands.

"I suppose we should get to class seeing as I really don't want detention, especially not when I have a hot boyfriend to take out somewhere after school."

He smirked watching the happy expression take over Loki's face. Then, without any warning, Loki was upon him, pressing his lips to Tony's in a chaste kiss. When he pulled away Tony chased his lips until they connected again and they were soon lost in each other.

By the time they got to their respective classes they were at least fifteen minutes late and neither had a good enough excuse for their long absence. They both were given hour long detentions.


This chapter was basically a way to show my appreciation for cheese on toast and hangman. I'm sorry if you thought it lame but I found it kinda sweet. Anyway for the important notices: I am now going on holiday for two weeks where I will be without WiFi so you won't have an update for quite some time just fyi. That's why I wrote this quickly in order to give you some fluff before I went away. I hope you enjoyed and please review?!

(Also check out my new oneshot if you like James Bond/Q, it's called Priorities)