Hi all! Look, for all of you who thought the last chapter was the end, it was not! Another chapter! I should've cleared that up a long time ago, but I've been incredibly busy. What I meant was that I have an idea in mind for the end, but I haven't actually written it yet, because I'm not sure I'm ready to be done with this world yet. So! If I ever get inspired enough, or I run out of ideas for these little one shots, it will probably be written. However, on to the next problem. I have a one shot that could go one of three ways. I'm leaving it up to you guys to decide. Would you rather have:
a) Extremis
b) Harmless kidnapping
c) Not harmless kidnapping
Just let me know in the review and I'll get focused on writing it. Thanks for your help guys!
As always, read, review, and enjoy!
Loki moves into the tower slowly. It starts when Tony blindly reaches into his closet for a shirt and pulls out of one Loki's silk shirts. Tony stares at it for a second, then at the god who's still sleeping back in the bed, then back at the shirt before throwing it into the closet. He wonders how often Clint or Natasha breaks into his room and finds the shirts that aren't really in his size (not that it's ever stopped him in an emergency, like when they've thrown their clothes all over the rooms and Steve is demanding entrance now). He debates wading through his clothes to find out just how much of his closet is packed with Loki's clothes before remembering the team meeting started twenty minutes ago.
He chalks it up to the fact that it's only practical—Loki doesn't always mean to stay the night, but Tony has a tendency to be very persuasive.
The next time, it's the kitchen.
"Who stocked all of this food?" Bruce wonders, looking in the cupboards. Tony "hms" as he reviews an equation on his tablet. "Did Natasha shop this weekend?"
"Nay, it was my turn to do the shopping!" Thor booms, jarring Tony out of his work with a scowl. "I have filled our cupboards with delicious poptarts and popcorn!"
"Uh, this is definitely not any of that," Bruce says. He pulls out three bags, each a different type of rice.
"Is that health food?" Tony asks incredulously.
"There's a ton of canned veggies in here too. The fridge is full of fruits, fresh veggies and meat."
"There are no poptarts left!" Thor practically moans. "Where have all of the delicious pastries gone?"
Natasha walks into the kitchen, headphones in. She ducks into the fridge and pulls out one of her protein shakes and starts to walk out before freezing and pulling out an earbud. "Didn't Thor do the shopping this week?"
"Indeed I did, Lady Natasha!" Thor protests. "Yet it appears that all of my food is gone!"
"Who filled the kitchen full of healthy foods? I thought you didn't do healthy," Natasha says, her eyes turning to Tony.
Tony shrugs helplessly. "Pepper?"
It's a totally valid answer, but Tony doubts it's true. Everyone else accepts it without pause.
Later, when Tony and Loki are lying in bed, Tony throws out his suspicions.
"You wouldn't, I don't know, have cleaned out all the crap that Thor bought and filled it all with healthy food instead?"
"Poptarts provide absolutely no nutritional value. I do not know how you manage to eat them," Loki responds.
"I don't. That's why I always order food and have it brought to me."
"There was quite a bit of fresh vegetables and meat located in the fridge. Surely you won't let that go to waste," Loki comments idly. Tony raises himself up on his arms to glare at Loki.
"If I get stuck making team dinner tomorrow night just because you want me to eat healthier, I'm throwing away everything of yours that you've left here."
"I never said I wanted you to eat healthier," Loki says, stretching out, conveniently bumping Tony's elbows, causing him to fall onto Loki's chest. Tony's glare darkens.
"You are the most passive aggressive person I have ever dated," Tony says, giving up.
"You make many assumptions." But Loki's tone is happy, and Tony knows that Loki's won this battle.
Sure enough, Steve pulls him from the lab the next evening.
"I don't know where all this food came from," Steve says. "But it needs to be eaten, so we're all helping out."
If he hears any of the angry grumbles Tony says under his breath, he doesn't say anything, even if Steve did give him several strange looks.
What really gives it away is when he walks into the lab one day and finds Loki hunched over one of his workbenches.
"How long have you been here?" Tony asks, barely focused on his boyfriend as he deposits his arm full of goods, fully prepared for a work binge.
"A few hours," Loki says back without looking up.
"Hm," Tony comments, waking Jarvis up at his station. He stops after a minute and realizes that Loki hasn't actually moved from the workbench. Usually when Loki waits for him in the lab, he'll come over and distract him, or work with him on a project. This time, there is no friendly contact, no teasing remarks, no smart ass insults. Tony looks up. "What're you doing?"
Loki turns to face him. "Working," he says, like that was the obvious answer. He looks back down to his work.
"Oh." Tony says, because he guesses it is the obvious answer. He's just never seen Loki do any of his own work, especially not in his lab. He turns back to the screens in front of him, feeling like this should be an invasion of privacy, but instead he's left wondering why it feels so comfortable.
One day, Loki walks into the bedroom—their bedroom apparently—and sees a fully stocked bookshelf, covering a variety of subjects, everything from classic fictional literature to theories on physics. It's clearly meant for him, because Tony shuns the touch of anything on paper. He smiles as he hangs his jacket up on the back of the door.
Later, after the team finds out about their relationship and Loki becomes more comfortable moving around in plain view, Clint asks about how Loki came to live in the tower in the first place.
"I mean, obviously he was going to move in here, because you have the digs here and can't stand to be parted from your workshop," Clint says.
"We share a workshop," Tony puts in idly, tapping the stylus he's using against the tablet.
"But you won't even share a workshop with Bruce," Clint protests.
"That's because Bruce and I work in different fields."
"It is also because Doctor Banner can only handle his presence for so long," Loki says, walking into the living room and lying down on the couch. He puts his head over the tablet on Tony's lap, who's left to stare in bewilderment at what is no longer his work.
"I mean, there is that too," Tony says. He tries to tug his tablet out from underneath Loki's head, but the god is not accommodating. With a groan, Tony gives up and leans back against the couch. "And in answer to your question, Loki moved in slowly. And unofficially. Very unofficially."
"What do you mean 'unofficially'?" Clint asks.
"He means that I began to just move stuff in without talking about it."
"Exactly like that."
"And you never questioned it?" Clint asked. "You. Of all people."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tony asks leaning forward. When Clint just keeps staring at him, he huffs and leans back again. "Yes. In my defense, I barely even knew it was happening. That food that mysteriously appeared in the house? His doing."
"Are you kidding me? I was planning on target practice all night and then Nat comes down and-"
"And what?" Natasha asks, her voice dangerously smooth as she leans against Tony and Loki's couch.
Clint gulps. "And made sure that I was taking care of my body and eating healthy."
Natasha smiles at him, all predator. "You're welcome. And thank you, Loki, for sparing us from another week of Thor's poptarts and Tony's takeout."
Loki smiles back at her. They have a strange relationship, one that Tony thinks is more animalistic than anything else. "Of course, Agent Romanoff."
"Speaking of dinner, who's helping?" Natasha asks. It's a rhetorical question for Tony, because they stopped trusting him to make things after he got distracted and managed to blow up an omelet.
"I will assist you if you'd like," Loki offers, gracefully rolling off the couch in a way that Tony's gotten used to. Clint still tends to stare. "I fear that Agent Barton's meals tend to be a bit…bland."
"Just like his face," Tony agrees as Clint splutters for a comeback.
The sorcerer and assassin move off into the kitchen, quietly talking amongst themselves.
"But seriously, you didn't even realize he was moving in?" Clint asked. Tony looks up from his work, wondering what has Clint so interested.
"Not until he started working in my lab all the time. After that, it was obvious. He had his part of the closet, I had mine. He replaced the pillows on his side of the bed. He left his shit all over the bedroom. Why do you care so much about this?"
"Because you've never asked someone to move in with you before. Pepper hardly counts. She was already practically living in the tower before you guys started dating. She still is practically moved into the tower."
"How do you even know about the before part?"
"Don't change the subject," Clint says, which Tony assumes means "S.H.I.E.L.D has always been watching you with one very well pointed eye."
Tony leans forward. "You wanna know how serious this is," he states. Clint nods. "But you already have your answer."
"I just needed to hear you say it," Clint says, relaxing back against the couch. Tony frowns.
"I don't see why my personal life matters to you."
"Because I already know that it's not going to remain personal. This is a big place to you, Tony, but with all of us here, it tends to become small. We know just about everything that happens here, whether we want to or not. It's just a part of close quarter living."
"Maybe I'll just move back out to California," Tony mutters, looking back at his tablet.
"You'd miss us. And we'd follow you. Plus, I feel like Loki wouldn't really like California," Clint says idly, but his tone is plagued with a deeper meaning. Tony glances up at Clint out of the corner of his eye. The agent is too nonchalant. He wonders if Clint knows what Loki really is. Clint meets his eyes and he has his answer.
"You're right," Tony says easily. "He'd absolutely hate Malibu."
"Love, you still remember how to set the table without turning the dishes into an explosive, right?" Loki calls from the kitchen.
"It depends on what kind of dishes you're planning on using!" Tony calls back.
"The paper kind, Tony. Get in here," Natasha calls back.
"Ooooh, environment killers!" Tony says as he sets his tablet down. "And why do I have to do this when birdboy is sitting here being useless?"
"Because you're my least favorite," Natasha answers, pushing paper plates and silverware into his hand. He gives a two fingered salute with his free hand and turns to the attached dining room. Loki follows him in with a salad bowl.
"Don't worry, love. You are still my favorite." He gives Tony a kiss, quickly moving away when Tony leans in for a second one. "For now!" he calls over his shoulder.
"Hey!"