You're waiting for someone
To put you together
You're waiting for someone to push you away
There's always another wound to discover
There's always something more you wish he'd say
He's everything you want
He's everything you need
He's everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
He says all the right things
At exactly the right time
But he means nothing to you
And you don't know why
-Vertical Horizon "Everything You Want"
Heavy footsteps pounded up the stairwell heading to the emergency exit to the roof. The sound of the door slamming open was all Loki had to warn him before flinching and letting his eyes slide shut, waiting for the inevitable booming voice that would condemn him and possibly, throw him off the building before even speaking to him.
"What is it that you want?" Loki all but nearly whispered to himself, hands stilling on the knife that he had been about to throw at the concrete wall, where its other brothers were already nestled nicely into in a neat horizontal line. He felt the footsteps pause; hesitate, before, to his great surprise and somewhat displeasure, the large mass dropped beside him.
"Can one no longer call on his own brother for a friendly council and chatter?" Thor asked; looking over to his once close family whose own green eyes were focused on the small blade he was twirling in his lap.
"I see your skill has not diminished during your time of absence brother."
"A wormhole leaves one with quite a large amount of time to ponder and to practice." Loki stated before sharply snapping his wrist and sending the other blade precisely to the end of the line, one millimeter away from the blade previous to it.
"If the Man of Iron should ask about the holes in the concrete, shall I state I took fancy to fighting with that infernal stapler?"
Loki twirled to meet his brother's gaze, green eyes wide when they met blue orbs filled with truth, mirth, and never ending strength and pride.
"It is an infernal contraction indeed. It bared its teeth against my cape and damaged such a fine cloth with its metal grip." Thor continued, adamantly gesturing to where his cape would have been, fist clenching when he mentioned the holes. Loki was having a hard time trying not to laugh because he had a pretty accurate vision of who it was that stapled his brother's cape in the first place.
"It's not every day that I hear such a tale in which the mighty prince of Asagard is defeated by a machine so small." Loki mocked.
"It is crafty. Reminds me of one whom I believe turned my wine to snakes for a twelfth century birthday surprise." Thor laughed before giving the unsuspecting Loki a rather hard slap to the back. The God of Mischief winced, thinking that had that been anyone else, they might have been falling about 40 stories by now, or somewhere in the air singing Over the Rainbow. He had been on this planet for much too long. Even his comebacks have picked up the Midgardian slang. Silence hung over the two kin as they looked out over the tower to the city below.
"Stark certainly has an eccentric tastes for these Midgardian sceneries. All of his residences have some sort of expansive view of the landscape." Thor hummed in approval. Loki rolled his eyes. As if he'd just noticed. Everything about the billionaire, playboy philanthropist was eccentric. It certainly didn't leave him much to complain about when it came to their activities. At that, Loki coughed to keep the creeping blush away and to stop his thoughts from wandering any further down that particular path, especially in front of his former brother.
"Are you alright brother?" Thor turned his blue eyes from the city that was in the process of lighting up to the nightlife back to the still coughing God of Mischief.
"I'm fine." In his mind he growled, 'and stop calling me brother you oversized buffoon.' "What was it that you wished to speak with me about?"
"The Man of Iron does have a heart does he not?" That question threw the other god for a loop as he stared at his companion with his jaw slack.
"What brought this on?"
Those baby blue eyes bore into his, searching for something and that something was not going to be found without a heavy fight. Resigning, Thor laid back and gazed up to the sky.
"I was speaking with Barton and he stated that with your staff, you went through his heart and were able to push him out of his mind."
Loki winced at that particular memory and how said current person was still bearing a rather heavy grudge and wishing to stick an arrow through his throat.
"He also mentioned that Stark told him you had attempted the same thing on him but it did not work."
Loki remembered the hollow tapping sound as he attempted twice to bring the Iron Man to his side. He had been curious himself but well, he had been much to busy with other things to dwell on such a fleeting thought.
"The man does have a heart." Loki found his lips answering for him. "The staff was probably reacting to the Tesseract on top of his building.
Thor gave a halfhearted shrug. "That is possible brother. Jane had once said that every mortal here has a beating heart and without it they would surely perish. Thus Stark must be in possession of one."
"I would assume so as well."
"Jane has a heart. She showed me when she placed my hand between her bosoms and allowed me to feel the thud of such an organ. It was a marvelous feeling." Thor beamed. Loki shuffled in discomfort at the sharing of such private information.
"I care not for your philandering with the mortals." He snorted, picking himself up to stand as Thor sat up, giving him that same inquisitive gaze. "Why is that I am not captured and seated in your maximum security cell? Also, brother, why are you not trying to strangle me into submission before returning me to Asgard?"
Thor winced at the last statement before turning his eyes back to the realm. Loki huffed and moved to retrieve his knives from the wall, using his magic to fix the holes so that the stapler wouldn't get the blame for his target practice.
"Because your attack, though brutal, seemed out of character for you brother."
Loki froze at that statement. Out of character…HOW? He had blown up buildings. He had sent the monsters in. He had yelled and laughed as the humans ran pathetically in every which direction. He had used his magic to power up the monsters. He had seen Steve Rogers nearly beaten to a pulp by one of the trolls. He had Thor thrown through a few good loops with the variety of troops. Then Iron Man had come and he had gone right after him, red blurring his vision as he tore away at the human. Then, everything that was happening now happened.
"Brother—," before Thor could finish that statement a small loud speaker spoke up.
"Good evening sirs, Ms. Potts simply wished me to inform you that my creator was once again awake but has now disappeared. If you both could kindly locate him for I am not allowed to disclose his location, it would be much appreciated."
Loki automatically piped up, "is he not in his lab?"
"No sir, that was the first place she had checked."
"Then we shall assist Lady Potts and locate the elusive Man of Iron." Thor stood and walked to the door without a glance backward, leaving a frozen Loki in his wake. Inside, the god of chaos was seething.
'THAT FOOLISH MORTAL! He has only just awaken from a slumber I placed him in and he feels well enough to go wandering the streets?' With a whirl of his hands, his customary armor was on and staff was in hand. Hearing a few hollers from the Avengers downstairs that had started to run up upon feeling his power surge, his weaved a spell and vanished in a puff of smoke. When he found that mortal, he would wrangle more than just sense into his puny brain.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Tony woke feeling more rested that he had ever been since he was born pretty much. And that made him feel restless. He had to get out of here. The room was still suffocating. He needed to get out into the night air and feel the wind across his face. He couldn't suit up in here. It would be too suspicious. Instead, he took his bracelets for the mock seven and snuck down a tunnel he built behind his closet when he knew Pepper guarded every house exit and threatened JAVRIS with a virus if he let him get away.
The instant the cool New York air hit his face; Tony takes gulps upon gulps of crisp, fresh air. He looked up to the moon that was slowly beginning to come into view as the sun was in its last stages of setting, before barreling into the streets. He didn't have a destination in mind and knew that he would probably end up lost. Happy won't be happy again and Pepper was probably having a cow, but he needed this. Head down and jacket wrapped tight he made his way out. Though he should have expected what was to come next; it still caught him off guard.
"ANTHONY STARK?" Oh yeah, there was still a rampaging god of chaos, doom and destruction with major issues and crazy after bed afterglow to deal with. Wait…why wasn't he in S.H.I.E.L.D custody yet? Either way, he now had a pair of glowing, and seemingly about to shoot lasers out of green eyes piercing his own brown ones filled with boredom and confusion. This was so what he needed at the moment.
"How dare you perform such an act of foolishness and loose headedness!" Loki snarled, approaching him menacingly. Oddly enough, Tony didn't feel a thing. He didn't feel fear. No fear was still in the darkest recesses of his mind, knowing and clawing to come out at moments beckon. He didn't feel rage of the fact that the god had destroyed his precious Mock-5, which he had just repaired, and hand polished. He just stared at the angry god, completely blank while the other seemed to want to explode like a volcano. Is it even physically possible to turn that shade of red?
"ANSWER ME YOU FOOL!" Loki's yell sent the birds skittering away like a rabid pack of dogs chasing a bunny rabbit and left Tony with a dazed ringing in his ears.
"What do you want me to say?" He surprised himself with how calm his tone was and he could tell it threw Loki for a curve ball as well.
"What?" was all the god could stutter out as he stared into those impassive brown orbs. The two men stared at each other, the birds long since gone leaving them only with the night lights of the city and the stars, and the single street lamp they were currently under, glowing over the park bench in which Tony sat, staring out into the darkness of Central Park.
"What do you want me to say Loki?" Tony turned his face away from the god, closing his eyes and leaning his head back, reveling in the cool breeze passing through the leaves. "I've fought you, I've fucked you, I've been thrown out a window by you, and now my armor has taken a pissed off blow from you as well. What more do you want me to say?"
The god stood there, frozen in spot, barely breathing as he stared at the human that was adamantly defying every form of logic he had ever known to be in his life.
"I've seen things, I've done things, and I've been things. What more do you want? I went out. I needed so air. The lab would have been a bit crowded and despite there being Dummy, Pepper would have yelled at me. Steve would have coddled me. Banner would have poked and prodded me, begging to find out why I went all loopy. And now there's you, standing right there in front of me, yelling at me asking why I was an arrogant idiot to step outside of my own tower, into the town that I reside in and that you currently decided to make your ant. Instead of a boot though, you turned out of be a really terrible tissue who tries to squish the ant and misses time and time again." Tony stood up now, back still facing the god, and began to walk into the park.
"Now if you are done making a mess out of my night, I would like to finish my walk before the entire group finds my coordinates and I'm man handled rather ungracefully back to the penthouse."
"Then would you mind the company?" Loki finally found his silver tongue again. A shrug from the inventor was the cue and slowly, the tall, lanky figure joined the shorter one as they proceeded with their stroll.
"Now that you mention it though…how did you find me that fast? Please tell me it was my radiant personality that lit the beckon over my location."
Loki let out an exasperated sigh, "Right when I thought I was about to enjoy a pleasant conversation with an intelligent being."
"I am more than intelligent and I don't quite remember you ever wanting a conversation. After all, your lie-smith tongue was at work elsewhere."
"Stark, I shall turn you into something rather unsightly if you do not cease and desist this verbal horror."
"Oh back to Stark now are we?"
"Anthony," Loki spat out, smirking at the wince it got from the smaller man. They walked in relative silence for a bit, Tony noticing that his breath was coming out in small puffs now as the temperature dropped slowly.
"So…why aren't you in custody anyways?" Loki winced, remembering the fight that had broke out because of that issue between Rogers, Fury, and Thor ending only when Thor slammed Mjollnir onto the director's chest and refused to remove it until he agreed to the terms that Loki be allowed to see the Man of Iron and stay out of the holding cell.
"Yeah well, you win some, you lose some." Tony shrugged when Loki didn't answer. "By the way, thanks for the beach thing. Though you left out the important aspects of alcohol and scantily clad, blond bikini chicks with massive breasts."
"I was unaware of such tastes within you Anthony." Loki smirked when he saw the blush beginning to burn the other's neck. "Last time I checked, breasts were well endowed and not massive, and I believe you preferred brunets."
He allowed himself a smirk when he heard Tony mumble something about the reason he never slept with someone he could talk to later and walked further forward, distancing himself from the God. The silence settled in as well as the cold. Tony could feel the ice wanting to set in underneath his jacket. He risked a glance back at the God and gasped.
"DUDE! You're BLUE!"
Loki whirled on the human, eyes wide and hands quickly rising to touch his face, finger tips ghosting over his marks and he looked down to his hands, which were slowly beginning to adapt the same hue.
"You okay man?" Tony's hands were on him before his hissed, pulling back to stare at the raw stinging flash. Minor case of frostbite…this was totally weird. The God's green eyes were solidifying into rubies and all Tony would do was watch in wonder as the god went from human…to a blue…well…god creature thingy?
"Loki—!" Before anything else could be said, Loki blasted him with a blue jet of magic and as he felt the familiar sensation of teleportation tugging him, he reached for the blue Norse God as he watched the man drop face into his hands, red eyes slamming themselves shut. Then the both of them if had been seen, would have vanished into their own respective clouds of smoke.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Tony woke to a very angry looking Pepper as he tried to duck back under his covers while she dragged him bodily up into a sitting position, force feeding him soup and the day's paper before leaving in a huff to continue her job of running his company. He looked down to his hands where the angry red marks had slowly begun to fade. He off handedly asked JARVIS to go get some cream because he knew the wounds would start to sting soon. The blue god still filled his mind. His last fleeting thought as he slept was why did those eyes look so tortured?
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Loki destroyed his apartment. Well, destroyed is an understatement. Vaporized was more like it. Everything was upturned, burned, torn, for plain turned to dust. Windows smashed, curtains torn, countertops broken, appliances torn from the walls, and in the middle of it all was the God of Fire, Mischief, and Chaos with his face hidden in his hands and green eyes darting back and forth, staring at the claw ripped carpet. Stark had seen what he was. He had tried to touch him. He had not run screaming, but Loki was the one who had blasted him away. Why of all the times then? He screamed in frustration, nails digging into his face as his entire body let out another blast of magic that smashed deep craters into the walls. At least this was a cheap place that didn't ask questions of its tenants. He would fix it up later when he felt like moving. Right now, all he did was topple over to his side, curling into a small ball and fell asleep with his arms wrapped tightly around himself.
He dreamt of Asgard. He dreamt of all the places were he and Thor used to run, chasing each other squealing with laughter or screaming in fear as they ran from Odin when a prank went wrong. He dreamt of a time when he was ignorant and blissfully burying himself in tome after tome of magic spells, earning laughter from little girls when he turned broken shards of pots into flowers for them, laughing to himself when he turned Thor's cape into a vegetable leaf after a nasty bruise his brother had left him on his cheek during a play wrestle. But most of all, he dreamt of Stark. The way those brown eyes looked at his. The way he had asked him to change back. The way he had reached out to touch him without hesitation when Loki took on his Frost Giant form.
He felt that same twist of a knife in his chest when he remembered the limp and pliable being he had held in his arms after nearly rage killing the man. He wondered what the man had dreamt of when those blank eyes met his. Then he knew the feeling that was running through his veins then and was still there now. He, Loki Laufeyson, had felt fear for another being other than himself.
"Damn you Anthony Stark." Loki murmured to the darkness of his surroundings. "Damn you."