"I think that's it. I'm not an expert though," Peter finally finished and it sure did sound like he was an expert. From what Tony could tell, the general reaction was more in awe at how diverse society was rather than transphobic, which was extremely comforting, but not enough.
"Spiderling, I believe you've missed one," Thor declared after seeming to have thought it through.
"I'm sure I missed more than one. Like I said, I'm not an expert. Your turn to educate me- go ahead." Peter seemed all too happy to admit his faults.
"I'm not sure the name for it, but Loki-" and then the Asgardian pulled out his oh-so-sad flip phone and started desperately trying to use the small buttons. It was pathetic, honestly. After looking at something, he seemed to deem it safe to continue. "My sister's gender changes, though she is usually as you know her, in male form."
Tony almost choked at how easily Thor switched over to using feminine pronouns for Loki. Her heart started beating way too fast, either with the possibilities this held for herself or the anxiety from hearing about Loki.
Apparently she did actually choke, because eyes were drawn to her.
"Everything alright?" Bruce asked, voice laced with worry.
"You text Loki!? Even after she's tried to kill us all and take over the world more than once!?" Those were also thoughts of Tony's, and high-quality excuses to pass off her reaction.
"Well, yes. Family is family, no matter how many times you stab one another." He smiled fondly as though recalling all of the wonderful times he and Loki had stabbed each other.
"Alright, fine, but still, why didn't you tell us this? How long have you had her number? Where is she? How does that even work? Where does she get reception? And why is your phone so goddamn old?" Needless to say, Tony was kind of shook.
"Before answering your questions I must first thank you for using the correct pronouns."
"Of course." Tony accidentally sounded way more sincere than she meant to in that moment. But oh well.
"We have a deal that goes unbroken by either of us. As traitorous as Loki is, she has never attempted to break this one unspoken rule. We only communicate for purposes unrelated to important matters, such as status or whereabouts or war plans... but whenever it changes, she makes sure I'm aware of her gender since I am the only one she knows of to have respected her identity. I suppose as much as she hates everything else about me and our family, she cannot risk losing that little bit of acceptance."
Tony's heart hurt a little, and it wasn't from the arc reactor scar. "That must be painful."
Thor nodded grimly. "You know not much of her past. You might find yourself less hostile towards my sister if you did as I do."
"It's called genderfluid, by the way," Peter chimed in, trying to turn the mood away from the dark hole it was going down.
"Is it against your rules to invite her over?"
Everyone stared at Tony like she'd grown a second head and turned blue.
"You seriously want to invite Loki to the tower? On purpose?" Natasha gave Tony her best 'what the hell is wrong with you' look, which was quite impressive.
"I don't care what gender she is, I don't want Loki anywhere near me, so if you do somehow go through with this, I'm leaving," Clint made his reasonable opinion very clear. It made sense. If you get your mind hijacked by a villain once, you don't really want to chance it again.
"The rules are undiscussed, but I suppose it would fit within the guidelines of what is writ if we don't try to kill each other and discuss nothing of the Avengers or other plans?"
Tony knew it was a bad idea, generally, to invite someone who actually wanted to murder you into your home. But hearing that Loki was like her, that there was someone just within her reach who could understand... that was too good of an opportunity to pass up. So did she plan on getting Loki alone and talking to her about it? Yes. Was being alone and unarmed with Loki one of the worst decisions she was likely ever to make? Also yes. But still.
"I can give her a call?" Thor suggested. Tony figured calling was more his speed because he couldn't get the typing thing down.
"Would you?" Tony sat down again and stirred her now lukewarm coffee. Would Peter please ust stop staring at her? UHhhhHHHhhhh. Even when he finally did look away, she still didn't look at him. She only watched Thor, who was carefully pressing the call button. Tony timed about two rings before Thor grinned.
"SISTER!" He yelled into the phone at his ear. "I would so love to see you again."
There was a pause while Loki spoke.
"I am not the one with the tricks, Loki, you mistake me for yourself."
More silence, and Tony could assume that Loki was using the phone at a normal volume, unlike Thor who felt he needed to be loud enough for Loki to hear him without the phone.
"We were discussing the complexities of gender, and I mentioned you-"
Now Tony could hear a small voice coming through from the other end. Probably yelling. Tony wouldn't be happy if someone outed her to her enemies either, to be fair.
"Please, there is no call for alarm. The Man of Iron-" ouch "-was especially intrigued and requested my inviting you over for purposes far beyond any other meeting of yours."
Silence.
"I'm sure he-" ouch "-is just as aware as you are of the circumstances around your previous meetings, and it is a show of trust that despite this, he-" OW "-still wishes to speak with you with regard to an unrelated topic. Do you accept?"
Brief silence.
"Excellent!"
Clint left the room.
"We shall see you in one hour then. It fills me with such joy to imagine a friendly meeting with you as we have not seen since our chi- Loki? Hello? Oh." Thor lowered the phone from his ear. "Loki shall be arriving in one hour, no armour or weapons, she claims, though I suspect she would not allow herself anywhere completely unarmed for the purpose of defense."
"That's fair. I'll probably have a gun or something on me too." Tony nodded.
"I have a pistol in my bra right now." Natasha sipped her tea like her previous statement was nothing out of the ordinary. Tony's eyes were drawn to her chest at that, at first looking for a sign of the hidden weapon, then looking at them like she hadn't before. Instead of desirable in the sense of sexual appeal, Tony saw them as desirable to have. It was strange, but she could almost feel the lack of weight on her chest in that moment.
"Hey." Natasha snapped, drawing Tony's attention away. "Eyes up here."
"I was trying to see the pistol," Tony quickly defended.
"Sure you were."
She had never really felt embarrassed for gawking before, mostly because she was too classy to do something like that. But if she just couldn't keep her eyes away, she never lied about it if that's what she was doing. No honour in a liar. But now she blushed ever so slightly for having been caught wanting breasts. Not that Nat would be able to tell that's what she was thinking, but having been caught in these ideas was far worse than being caught mentally undressing someone.
Only an hour until Loki. Tony felt the strong, horrible urge to dress up in some dress she had bought for Pepper but never ended up giving her. She didn't.