The Ties that Bind (Part I)

"Like this?"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"What am I doing wrong?"

"Everything."

"Gee, that's helpful."

Steve rolled his eyes and shook his head, ignoring the voices in favor of reading yesterday's newspaper.

A heavy sigh, and then, "Try it a little more like – no, no, Tony, stopstopstop!"

"Huh?"

There was a bone-jarring crash that Steve could feel in his teeth, followed by the smell of sulphur. Steve craned his neck to squint down the hallway in the direction of the noise, newspaper flopping, forgotten, across his lap.

"Tony – " Steve began to shout.

"We're good!"

Steve frowned and sucked his lips between his teeth.

"Nothing to see here!"

"Then what was all that noise?"

"The sound of my pride crashing and burning?"

"Don't be ridiculous." Steve could only just hear Loki's voice float down the hall. "That would involve having some pride to begin with."

"Yeah..."

Another, smaller crash, and a curse. Steve decided he was better off not knowing the details and went back to his paper.

It was like static, a crackle of electricity centered on the tips of his fingers. The air hummed around him, his skin glowed blue, and for a split second, he could see the outlines of the bones and muscles in his fingers. Then the electricity flickered and died, taking with it the blue glow and the thin bubble he had conjured around himself.

"I got it," Tony breathed, staring at his hand and grinning like a kid with a new toy. "Awesome!"

"Yes, congratulations, you held the shield for two whole seconds." Loki's voice was wry, but he was smiling that soft, genuine smile that few people ever got to witness.

Tony let his hand flop to the table and flexed his fingers. He'd had no idea just how much work went into learning magic. He had been expecting something Harry Potter-esque, a swish-and-flick, and voila, a fireball up your ass!

Instead it had taken him almost a full month to get up two seconds' worth of shield. And now he was exhausted.

"You are not a natural sorcerer," Loki said, and Tony supposed that his thoughts must have read plainly across his face. "Humans have more flexibility in that regard than Aesir, but there is a reason why well-trained sorcerers are rare. You just need the basics: a shield and an offensive strike. This is merely 'back-up', as you would say, not a career change."

Tony nodded, though he still felt frustrated. The important thing was to be able to defend himself in a suit-less emergency, after all. Loki had suggested making magical enhancements to his suit, but he had balked at the thought. He knew he relied too much on his technology, but he knew his technology. He'd rather any magic came straight from him.

Although...

Tony ran a finger lightly up the length of Loki's arm. "I don't suppose you could teach me that spell you used last night, could you?"

He watched as a lascivious smile spread across Loki's face. The Trickster favored him with a sideways look.

"A God of Mischief never reveals his secrets," Loki replied playfully, resting his chin on his palm and leaning towards Tony. "But I could give you another demonstration, if you like."

Cold lips met his, and Tony had no complaints.

The night breeze was cool against his skin, soothing and grounding, reminding him that he was alive and awake. Loki sighed and wiped the last of the cold sweat from his forehead. His hair was still damp and stringy with it, but he didn't care, not in that moment.

Spending the night with Tony helped the nightmares but didn't dispel them completely. Usually he would shake Loki awake, mostly asleep himself, and wrap his limbs around the god. His warmth and solidity would eventually lull Loki back to sleep. Loki only remembered his fall through the worlds in these dreams, only to wake knowing nothing but a sense of nameless terror.

Tonight, the human was in far too deep a sleep, leaving Loki to suffer alone in the darkness, among the shadows and demons of his mind. Tonight, Loki was outside, alone on the rooftop, roused by a cold breeze when he longed for warm limbs.

Except he wasn't alone. Not for long.

Footsteps behind him, heavy, slow, and trying for stealth but failing miserably.

Thor.

Loki grimaced and wound his arms tighter around himself, debating whether or not he should just teleport away.

The footsteps stopped a few steps shy of where Loki was standing. "Hello, Loki," Thor said, keeping his voice soft as though in deference to a sleeping world that could not hear them.

"Thor," Loki answered without turning around. He stared out at the stars and at the city lights that mirrored them in the dark. "Isn't it past your bedtime?"

Another step, and Thor entered the periphery of his vision, a red and gold blur at the corner of his eye.

"I cannot find sleep," Thor said, "and neither, I suspect, can you."

Loki hummed noncommittally in reply. He could feel Thor watching him, studying him, and he wondered what the other god was seeing.

"What do you want, Thor?" he asked finally, resignedly.

The red and gold blur shuffled awkwardly at the edge of his vision. "Your company," Thor replied, his voice still soft, uncertain, and Loki would find his discomfort amusing under better circumstances. "For months you've been coming and going as you please, to... to see your human, but you have been avoiding me. You are even teaching him magic, I hear, but do not so much as greet me in the hall."

Loki scoffed and rolled his eyes. "What arrogance," he sneered, "to think that I care whether you are there or not."

Thor took another step forward, and they were side by side now. The red and gold blur started to gain definition around the edges, to coalesce into Thor, and Loki finally turned to look at him. Thor was tired, his hair sweat-lank and armor tattered and bloodied. Just returned from a battle. Loki remembered how Thor would spar or go looking for trouble when he couldn't fall asleep. Goodness knows he had been dragged along often enough.

"Do you deny it then?" Thor asked tightly. "Then why has Clint seen more of you than I have?"

"What does it matter, Thor?" Loki snapped. "I am here, as you say, 'to see my human'. You and I have all of eternity to fight and talk and whatever the Hel else you wish! There is plenty of time for that when the human is gone."

Loki kept himself numb, shoving aside the panic and anger that knowledge dredged up. He stared out at the night but saw none of it.

"There is plenty of time for it now," Thor answered. "The city sleeps, but we don't. Can we just talk, brother?"

Loki tried not to wince at that name. "Words have never been your strong suit, 'brother'," he grumbled. "But say what you will."

Judging from the number of blinks, Thor had not expected that answer. Thor leaned on the rail and stared out at nothing as well, jaw working uselessly for a long moment.

"I want you to join us, Loki. I don't want to be your enemy."

Loki laughed mirthlessly at that. "Then don't be," he said.

"What?" Thor turned to look at him fully.

"You heard me," Loki said with a small smile. "Don't be my enemy. Join with me, and together we can purge this world of these human insects." He eyed Thor slyly, expression giving away nothing.

"What?" Thor said again. "You know I can't do that, Loki!"

Loki turned to face Thor fully. "Oh, I see," he said with a saccharine smile, "you mean you want me to be the one to make all the sacrifices? Hardly seems fair when you're the one coming to me."

Thor straightened, his face tightening. "But if the Man of Iron asks, it is fine?" he ground out.

Loki bristled. "What are you talking about?"

"When you made a deal with Fury, was that not for Tony's sake?"

"You want to know why I did that?" Loki hissed, leaning until his was right in Thor's face. "Because Tony didn't ask and said he never would, even though I knew it was what he wanted."

Thor gaped at Loki, brows furrowed as he tried to puzzle this out.

"I-I thought..." he stammered. "Forgive me. I should not have assumed."

"No. No, you shouldn't have." Loki laughed bitterly and pulled back. "You may think yourself so much wiser than before, Thor, but the truth is, you haven't changed a bit."

Loki turned to walk away, when Thor's hand on his shoulder stopped him. "That's why I need you," Thor said softly. "You were always the wise one."

Loki frowned and shoved aside Thor's hand but felt his anger soften to annoyance.

"I just want my brother back, Loki."

Loki's answering smile was more of a grimace. "Oh, Thor," he said in a parody of affection. "Your brother died years ago. He isn't coming back."

This time Thor did not stop him when he walked away.

Loki woke well into the morning to the smell of coffee and fried eggs. He stretched and rolled onto his back, wiping a crust of drool from the corner of his mouth. Tony sat on the edge of the bed next to him, tantalizingly waving a mug of steaming coffee under his nose. Loki smiled and sat up, early-morning crabbiness nullified by the immediate presence of coffee. He took the mug, sipped and closed his eyes. Black with two sugars, just as he liked it.

"I knew there was a reason to keep you around," Loki purred, skating a long hand up Tony's leg. Tony smirked and sipped at his own coffee, pale with three sugars, sweet enough to rot his teeth.

"Well, my new religion involves bringing my god offerings of coffee every morning," Tony replied, voice still gravelly with sleep in a way that ran straight down Loki's spine. He pressed a chaste kiss to Loki's lips and indicated the end table with a nod of his head. "And eggs. Thought breakfast in bed might keep you in bed a bit longer."

Loki looked to the side and saw a pair of fried eggs waiting for him, still sizzling. He dodged another, less chaste kiss with a strategic sip of coffee.

"Breakfast first," Loki said sweetly, tangling a hand in Tony's t-shirt front, "and then 'your god' wants you on your knees."

Tony hummed appreciatively in the back of his throat. "Although, the last time one of us did that..."

"Yes, yes, Thor, I know," Loki sighed. Just the thought of his brother killed the mood for him. He frowned and turned to his eggs.

Tony sat back and regarded the Trickster for a long moment. His fingers tapped against the side of his mug in a way that Loki knew meant he wanted to say something but was holding himself back.

"Out with it," Loki sighed, glaring at his eggs.

"You won't kill me?"

"I make no promises."

"Alright then." Tony paused to take a long gulp of coffee, and Loki raised an eyebrow, wondering just how badly the self-destructive idiot was scalding his throat. "It's just... Thor looked a bit like a kicked puppy this morning, and..."

Tony trailed off meaningfully, eyeing Loki, but Loki watched him expressionlessly, letting him flounder on his own. Tony sighed and rolled his eyes.

"And I was wondering if you had something to do with that?"

"If I did, would it be any of your business?" Loki blithely went back to his eggs, stabbing the yolk and watching it bleed yellow over his fork and plate.

"Uh." He could feel Tony watching the clipped way Loki stabbed at his eggs. "I guess no, not really." A pause, and then – wait for it, Loki, "No, yeah, actually it kind of is. I'm the one stuck in the middle of a spat between two angry gods, and that is not someplace I'd like to be."

Loki regarded Tony with one eyebrow raised, unimpressed. Tony staunchly eyed him back, though his fingers continued to tap nervously. The idiot human was still afraid of his temper. Good. Loki doubted he could bring himself to hurt the fool now, but he did not need Tony to know that. Loki liked being the one in control. Always.

"You want me to talk to him," Loki said flatly. This was the part where Loki would normally snap and tell Tony to leave it alone, but the coffee left a pleasant glow in his stomach and it did not seem worth the effort. He suspected that had been Tony's plan all along and found himself impressed by the human's deviousness.

"It'd be nice, yeah."

"Mmhm. And what do I get out of it, if I do?"

Tony smirked and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Loki laughed. "I'll get that anyway."

"Well, yeah. But I'll do that thing I usually don't do..."

"Tony, all I have to do is point, and you'll do that thing."

Tony opened his mouth to reply, only to sigh and nod his head in a, "yeah, you're right" gesture.

Loki chuckled and set aside his empty plate. "It's not your problem, Tony," he purred, wrapping his arms around the human's shoulders and mouthing at his ear. "Now let me take your mind off it, hmm?"

Footnote: The Thor issue will be continued in the next chapter, since this one was getting too long. Don't worry, it won't interfere with the Tony/Loki-ness going on, but it is something that needs to be addressed, methinks.