Step four

"Show your loyalty"

Tony dreaded the visit from his best friend, his brother. Ever since his call two days ago after the public declaration of his and Loki's relationship, Tony knew that it was a matter of time before Rhodey will come back to New York to beat the shit out of him for keeping such a secret from him. Stark should tell him that in one of his weekly calls. He knows it, but there was never a good occasion. When they talked on the phone it was mostly about Rhodey's convalescence in the new SI health department. So yeah, there was no good time to inform his best friend that Tony has a new boyfriend. That, and he and Loki were official only a month. It wasn't that long.

"Colonel Rhodes is landing on the deck, boss," FRIDAY announced, as Tony drown the last drops of his scotch. He placed the empty glass on the bar and walked outside. James was taking cautious steps in his new prothesis on legs, designed by Tony.

"Platypus!" he greeted him and opened his arms widely. However, Rhodey just gave him an annoyed look. "Oh come on, we haven't seen each other face to face in two months. Won't you give me a hug?"

"You're a dick, Tones," well, it could pass for a greeting as well. The colonel walked inside the penthouse and moved towards the nearest couch. He still had some trouble with walking. Tony sat next to him and silently pointed at the bar, but his friend denied an alcoholic drink. "Water will be fine. Can't drink with the painkillers."

"Sure thing," Tony jumped to his feet and went to pour him a glass of water and one for himself. He handed it to his friend and sat down again. "How are you?"

"Fuck me," he muttered. "Why the hell am I the last one to learn you have a new boyfriend, huh?! I thought we're closer than that, Tones. We're brothers!"

"I'm sorry, really," Tony gave him an askew smile. "There was no good occasion. Besides, me and Loki...it's still a very fresh thing."

"Cut the bullshit, Tone. You've been inseparable for months now. Why didn't you say anything before?"

"It's really a fresh thing, Rhodey," Tony tried again. "We've been dating officially for a little over three weeks now. It's really all new."

"And how long you were banging him unofficially?" the older man asked with a smirk on his face.

"I'm not," Tony replied in a whisper. Rhodey leaned closer to him with a confused look in his brown eyes. "We're not having sex at all."

"Are you kidding me? Tony, you were having sex with each of your partner, one-night stand ever since you were fifteen. And I know about it because I'd like to remind you that you gloated about your very first time with eighteen-year-old Chrissie from the first year." Rhodes commented. "Are you trying to tell me that you are officially dating a hot guy because yes, Loki is hot and you didn't get him to your bed yet? Are you in chastity now? Or maybe there is some problem with Tony Junior?"

"Tony Junior is fine," he assured his friend. "We're not having sex and it's ok." James raised an eyebrow in a question. "It's complicated. Look, he's an Asgardian Prince and I talked to Thor and he explained to me how it looks like in Asgard. So, apparently dating… courting in Asgard it's a little middle-aged and has a few steps. And I like Loki so much… fuck, I think I'm in love with him and I want to do good by him. Fuck, Rhodey, I'm so gone for him. Like I've never felt like this before. It's way different than what I had with Pepper. It's like… Loki matches me in so many ways… I think… I'm so happy with him. Hell, I haven't kissed him on his lips yet and it drives me crazy but I want to do this properly."

"Holy shit…" Rhodey said after a while. "What he had done to you, man?"

"Made me feel good," Tony answered with a bashful smile. "He's wonderful, Rhodes. Perfect and so damn beautiful, and I'm the luckiest man alive that he agreed to this courtship."

"You're so whipped, Tones."

"I really don't mind, man."

"So, tell me some more about those steps?" Rhodey continued and Tony happily explained to him everything he is ought to do. James was nodding to every word of his friend, thinking about the whole process. It was strange to see Tony so determined about dating someone, let alone a man.

"...and I've done three steps now and I'm onto the four-step."

"Which is?"

"Showing my loyalty to him." Rhodey gestured for him to continue. "The first part of the loyalty is announcing our courtship to the public, but I want to do more. The public thing is to state I am officially just with him and that I will refrain from laying with others and all that shit. But I want to show him how loyal I will be to him. Not just because I will not look for another, but also another side of loyalty. I want everyone to know I'm his and he's mine."

"You already planned something, did you?"

"You know me so well, Rhodes." Tony flashed him a shark grin and reached for his laptop. "Baby girl, give us the visual of the project FrostIron."

James was amazed. The image Tony presented him with was marvelous. The man traced his fingers around the strange markings on it and shot his friend a quizzical look.

"These are the markings he has on his skin, at least as much as I could see on his bare arms, chest and face one time when he turned into his real form."

"Real form?"

"He's not an Aesir by blood," Tony explained quickly. "He's a Jotun, his birth realm is Jotunheimr, a land of Frost Giants. I saw his real form once, but I got enough to do this. So, what do you think?"

"Tony it's… amazing. I'm sure Loki will like it," the colonel admitted truthfully. If that wasn't a sign of true love, he did not know what was it. "When will you show it to him?"

"Oh, I'm not going to show it just to him. I'm going to show it to the whole world."

"When?"

"Soon."

The soon came even earlier than Tony expected. Only two days later after his talk with Rhodey, an alarm boomed through the entire Stark/ Avengers Tower. Tony was in the middle of finishing his new repulsor when Steve's face popped up on the holographic screen.

"Suit up, Stark," he announced firmly. "Doctor Doom and his doombots are attacking people in Central Park. The Fantastic Four cannot defeat him on their own. We leave in a minute."

"I'll meet you in Central Park, Cap." Tony dismissed the screen before Steve could even think about arguing with him. He jumped off his chair and walked towards the closed part of his lab. He pressed his hand towards the scanner and waited for the metal door to slid open. Once inside, Tony stepped onto the platform and let FRIDAY suit him up. He pushed manually the faceplate down and waited for FRIDAY to log in. "Baby girl, it's showtime."

FRIDAY opened the roof in the garage and let Tony fly out into the air. Iron Man passed the jet too quickly for them to catch up. The fly to Central Park took him less than two minutes. Before he knew, he was landing in the middle of a fight scene; doombots vs innocent civilians.

He shot the bots with small ounces of his repulsor power to distract them enough so the civilians could run away. When the attention was on him, Tony smirked to himself and started to use his new abilities. He shot the six doombots from his left repulsor, sending a freezing wave at them. He watched as his armor arm changed into a deep blue color with and the markings on it changed from green into a midnight blue, almost black. It looked incredible.

"DOOM ASK WHO ARE YOU?!" he heard a shout before him. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO DOOM'S BOTS?!"

"You ask who am I?" Tony replied in a question, observing how the blue arm changed back into gold-green color. "I'm your destiny, Doom."

Ok, that was a bit dramatic, even for you, Tony, - he thought to himself.

The man behind a metal mask shot him a confused look just in time as the rest of his team ran towards him. Tony could feel their surprised and confused looks on his back.

"Rhodey?" Barton asked. "Man, I preferred you in your usual patriotic armor. Did the US gov order this change? And since when you're back in a fight. And where the hell is Iron Man?"

"Keep guessing, Legolas."

"Tony?!" Natasha, Clint, Bruce, and Steve shouted at once. "What the hell?"

"Language, guys!" Stark mocked them before he moved his eyes on his lover. Loki was standing behind them with his mouth agape. His beautiful green eyes were wide open in shock. He waved his fingers at him. "Right, keep staring at me, while I'll take care of Doom."

"YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT DOOM, IRON MAN?! DOOM WILL DEFEAT YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL." the man boomed again. "LOKI YOU SHOULD JOIN DOOM, NOT THOSE PETTY AVENGERS."

"Yeah, back off, Mask, Loki is mine," once again Tony let his suit change the color into the deep blue to shot Victor with freezing wave, before the pseudo wizard or however the hell he's calling himself could use his weapons on Tony. Stark froze his hands with the ray of his new light and Doom fell to the ground. Iron Man flew towards him and crouched to his level. He lifted his faceplate and shot him a smirk. "It's gonna be so damn cool to hand your ass towards SHIELD. And after that, I'll crack your little doombots to shreds. Hm… maybe Reed Richards will help me… oh wait, he's on a honeymoon with Susan, who didn't want you."

"DOOM WILL FIND A WAY TO KILL ALL OF YOU."

"Yeah, good luck with that, man," he patted his shoulder and called to Captain to take him into the jet. Tony walked back to his team but didn't change the color of his suit yet. "Took you long enough to get here, guys. I had to take care of it on my own."

"What the hell man?!" Clint asked, pointing at the suit. "You're blue now? And you shot ice? What the hell?"

Tony just shrugged his arms in response.

"And what are those markings?" Natasha inquired. "Is this some sort of code? And how can you change the color of your suit? What's going on?"

"Felt like Iron Man needed some changes," Tony smiled and turned to Loki. "You like it?"

"I…"

"You know what is this?" Steve asked the mage and Loki confirmed with a single nod. "Well?"

"It's none of your business, Capsicle," Tony explained and moved towards his boyfriend. "So, do you like it, Loki?"

"Why did you change your colors to… mine…" he added in a whisper. "And the blue… and markings on your suit… Why?"

"I want you and the whole world to know that I'm loyal to you and I belong to you. I wanted you to know that I accept all of you, sweetheart. My Green Eyes and my blue Loki."

Loki blushed in his adorable way and snapped his fingers. The usual green, metallic elements of his fighting armor changed into red and gold, an exact shade as Tony's suits.

"Well then, I believe it is only fair that I shall wear your colors in combat as well, my darling Iron Man."

"Oh yeah!" Tony exclaimed loudly. "We're the best duo. And I totally have a name for our ship, babe. We're the FrostIron."

The two men couldn't stop laughing, as they were disappearing into the green mist of Loki's magic. The rest of the team and Victor von Doom were left, standing and staring confused at one another.

"I will never really understand them," Bruce spoke for the first time.

"Believe me, I did not understand them even before they got together," Captain added.

"I'm pretty sure, no one will ever be able to understand the two of them," Natasha commented as well before she sighed. "Ok, let's get Doom to the base and get someone to clean this shit."

When the next battle with local villains erupted, both Tony and Loki wore the armors with the colors of each other. And the media picked it out pretty quickly and started to call the duo just as Tony announced the FrostIron.