Chapter 7: Jealously?

Pepper smiled slightly, excited and turned in her seat almost immediately locking eyes with none other than the God of Mischief.

She screamed.

Loki screamed too and jumped high enough out of his seat that he banged his head on the roof. Although his helmet didn't give him much head room anyways.

Tony winced as he glanced from his girlfriend to his new friend in the back, both looking like they'd just seen ghosts.

"Tony what the hell is going on!" Pepper screeched, turning away from the God in the back to interrogate him. She was pissed, beyond pissed. Her normally shining blue eyes were clouded, and creased with a deep frown. Tony definitely wasn't going to be able to worm his way out of this one easily.

Even so, you can't blame a man for trying. He held up his hands in a surrender, frantically searching his mind for the right thing to say without angering her further. "… Ah, wait wait, calm down… He's a friendly now. You know that. I've told you about the summer, right?" he looked back to Loki, hoping he wasn't glaring at her. Because hell, that guy had the death stare of all death stares. He didn't need Pepper freaking out at him for any other reasons.

Thankfully though for Tony, Loki only had his eyes wide, looking almost as scared as Pepper originally did. He sat in silence staring at the couple in the front, making fleeting eye contact with Pepper before he averted his eyes back to Tony.

Pepper could only raise her brows, staring at Tony like he was insane. "Me? Calm down? You bring an… an alien in here, and expect me to calm down?!"

Tony cringed realizing now that saying 'calm down' had put him even further into the dog house than he already was. "No no no hey, I didn't mean calm down, ..well I did- but just look at him! He's more scared of you than you are of him! You know, like... how they say that about spiders?" he turned in his chair and made direct eye contact with Loki, taking a break from Pepper's hard gaze. He silently begged Loki for some sort of reassurance that he wasn't about to kill anybody.

Loki saw Tony's pleading look toward him and decided to at least try and help him. He took a deep breath, composing himself before he took a chance at speaking. "I can assure you, I am no threat." he said calmly to Pepper, even putting his slowly hands in the air as if to surrender. "Nor spider… " he assured, casting a look back over to Tony.

Tony sighed in relief, making a mental note to thank Loki for being so cooperative, "See Pepper? He's good. I told you he was fine when he came on vacation with us." he tried giving her some sort of a smile, but the look she was giving him made it turn into a grimace. "You have nothing to worry about. You've got Iron Man protecting you." he added, a little glint in his eye at the last bit. "Trust me."

After a long moment of hesitation, a few glances back to Loki, and cursing herself for ever letting Tony's puppy dog eyes get to her, Pepper let out a frustrated sigh and brought her hands up to rub at her temples. She wasn't sure if this was just some stress induced nightmare playing throughout her mind or the real thing any longer. But over all that, as angry as she was, she trusted him. "Please Tony… just get us home."

Tony opened his mouth as if to say something else but promptly shut it, and turned back to the wheel. "You got it." he chimed, quickly pulling out of the front and weaving his way out of the traffic.


They drove in a very very awkward silence for the next few minutes, Tony having to turn off the radio after Pepper's polite request. Apparently her headache was much worse than she had let on.

The silence left Loki to his own thoughts in the back. On the outside he was calm, collected and staring out the window. When inside, his mind was racing a mile a minute. He wasn't sure what exactly was rendering him in this state of mind, but he was sure he didn't like it. Overanalyzing everything, just why Tony chose to bring him here and what Pepper would think of him later on. Why did he care? He took his gaze away from the cars whizzing past him in the opposite direction to Tony and then to Pepper. She was slumped slightly in her chair, looking absolutely miserable.

Loki wasn't sure how long he'd been staring at Pepper, but after what he assumed was a short while he saw Tony reach his hand out toward her, it landing on her hand. Pepper didn't move from her slumped position, but she did flip her hand over, taking his with hers.

Loki kept his eyes trained on their hands, somehow finding the interactions between the two of them much more interesting than the hustle and bustle outside. It was strange, seeing as how this woman appeared to be the complete opposite of Tony yet she'd agreed to a relationship with him. He wondered absently just how much you'd have to care for someone to be able to look past their differences and accept them for who they were. It was thoughts like these that kept him up at night, and seeing it happen in front of him was really… intriguing to say the least.

"You doing alright Loks?"

That broke him out of his thoughts.

Loki looked away from their hands and up into the rearview mirror once again seeing Tony's eyes looking back at him. He nodded out of reflex.

Tony held his gaze for a moment longer before looking back to the road.

Loki let out a quiet sigh of relief. No one needed to know. He couldn't let anyone know.

He couldn't let anyone know that he was the last thing from alright.


Tony had parked in his usual spot and got out, walking to the trunk to get out Pepper's luggage. Loki waited for Pepper to get out first, and then took a deep breath composing himself before he opened the door and carefully closed it behind him. He watched Tony take out her bags, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Pepper staring at him. Instead of giving her back a challenging grin, or a judging raise of his eyebrows he stayed silent, bringing his eyes to the ground.

Tony took out her bag and carried it in one hand. His other hand found Pepper's easily and Loki watched as their fingers interlocked as if it were routine.

They made their way into the elevator, and as the silence once again surrounded them Tony sighed. He looked over to Pepper and saw that her eyes were closed. Whether she just wanted to pretend that Loki wasn't there, or her headache really was that bad he wasn't exactly sure. He then brought his gaze over to Loki, seeing him staring at well, nothing in particular. He stuck his foot out and nudged Loki's boot with his toe, getting his attention. He mouthed, "You sure you're okay?" but before Loki had the chance to reply, the elevator dinged on the main floor where the lounge was.

Pepper looked up, glancing from the floor number and then back to Tony. This wasn't their floor. She thought they were going to their floor.

Loki awkwardly looked over to Tony, seeing as though he was making no move to get out of the elevator.

"Uh, Loks, I'm just going to get Pepper all settled in our room. It's fine if you just, hang around here for a bit?"

Loki made his way out the door without another word.


Back inside the elevator Tony winced, hoping he hadn't hurt Loki's feelings or anything, seeing as he just… stormed off. He tried to get those thought out of his head, and figured he had another thing to worry about right now, and that was the woman right beside him. He pressed the button for their floor, and then turned to face her, surprised by the look he got back. She was smiling.

"Loks?" She asked, an amused look on her features. "You have nicknames for him now?"

Tony raised an eyebrow at her, "Come on, don't be like that." he chastised, "He's a friend. And personally Loks sounds much better than saying Loki all the time."

"...All the time?" she asked again, wondering just how often they spent time together.

"…Well, when he's actually here, yes. I sort of am his only friend." It felt weird saying that, the realization of it all only hitting him now. He was Loki's only friend. Sure Steve was friendly to him, and Thor was his brother but… actually being friends? He had no one else.

Pepper only managed a bit of a tired chuckle. She supposed that seeing how Loki seemed more solemn rather than malicious she truly had nothing to worry about. And if Tony was friends with him, well then she was just going to have to accept that. He was Tony Stark after all, she just thought he couldn't get any weirder. "Should I be jealous?" she added, her smile growing as she teased him and gave his hand a squeeze.

Tony grinned and pulled her to him, their faces close now. "I actually think it's the reverse." he chuckled, and leaned in to give her a kiss.

Very insensitive Tony...
But, guys, wow. I know it's been a while, but I haven't gone anywhere! It's also, almost summer again, and well, I think I'm still going to continue on with this even though it's set in winter. I just would like to let everyone know, that no, this will not be a
frostiron story. It's categorized under friendship, and even though there are little hinty hints and people like Clint who keep assuming things, it won't get anywhere farther than a few awkward moments and borderline flirty comments. Okay, well, maybe a lot more than just a few awkward moments. I really hope this wont stop anyone from reading, and I apologize for leaving you guys for such a long time! It would mean an extreme amount to me if you could please leave a comment in the box telling me what your thoughts are on the story so far. Thanks you guys! :)

Please review! :)