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Warnings: drug use, past abusive relationship

I do not own the Avengers or anyone therein.

Chapter 2
Things have lulled and Steve isn't going to be cooking; he's in the office strictly for paperwork and to make sure that everything is running smoothly before he heads off to check out a new potential supplier. He spots Loki going by with drinks for the back of house, and he can hear them goofing off. Everyone seems to like the new waiter; he remembers the way Tony had smiled at him again.

"Loki, come here for a second," he calls when Loki is on his way back to the front.

Loki steps into his office, and Steve catches just the tiniest deer-in-the-headlights look, but it's already gone. Loki is all smooth confidence and wit; not for the first time he wonders why Loki isn't fresh out of college and making headlines.

"Close the door, would you?"

Loki does and crosses his arms loosely. It's the only indicator Steve gets that he's nervous.

"So, what did you think of Tony?" he asks, trying for nonchalance. Loki just blinks at him, clearly confused; not that Steve could blame him, this is a total set-up for getting fired or written up. "He was in here the other night?"

Loki licks his lips, obviously trying to remember who Steve is talking about and coming up blank. Steve nearly laughs but he manages to keep it to himself; it's like he's found the only person who doesn't immediately know who Tony is.

"He was the one who came in five before close," he prods.

"Oh! Him. I thought his name was Toby or Kelly or something," and Steve has to suppress his laughter again. "He was okay, I suppose. A bit of a smart ass."

"Yeah? Would you want to see him again? Maybe dinner?" Steve realizes how awkward it sounds, and tries to very firmly remind himself of Tony's smile when he was talking to Loki that night. This will be good for Tony, going out with someone for a date and not just to get in their bed.

"Do I just scream 'fag' or something?" Loki sounds honestly amused, not offended, and for that Steve is pretty grateful. Doesn't stop his face from going entirely red. And his neck. And his ears.

"No, not that at all, I just. Um. Well. You two seemed to, you know, hit it off well. Just trying to help him out a little, he's my best friend."

"Ah." Loki has this strange expression on his face Steve isn't sure he's ever seen anyone with. He doesn't even know how to begin to read it.

"Not that. Look. This just sounds terrible. I'm not going to…. You don't have to do this if you don't want." Steve sighs.

Loki gives this elegant little shrug, lithe and serpentine, and grins his wide and devious grin that gets all the his straight female customers swooning and buying little extras he recommends. "Sure. It could be fun."

Then the hostess is yelling, trying to find Loki and Loki's out of his office before he can even respond. Steve wonders if maybe this is as good an idea as he thinks.

XXXXXX

Tony has his nose in the fridge, trying to figure out how to make himself food since Steve isn't here. He's also debating if a bottle of scotch and box of poptarts might be a better dinner when he hears the front door open.

"Steve!" he says brightly, racing out of the kitchen to greet his best friend with the biggest smile he can.

"Tony," Steve says, ignoring his clearly charming smile and heading past him. Tony edges so that he is in the man's way and tries to turn the charm up even more.

"How was your day?" he asks, rather magnanimously.

"Good." Steve has stopped to look at him.

"You eaten yet? I was justgoing to make dinner." He thumbs back towards the kitchen.

Steve sighs, and rubs his head. "I think you mean burn down the house. I'll make us something."

"Are you sure, I mean, I'm sure I could whip us up somethi—"

"Tony, the last time you tried to 'make us something' you burned half the kitchen, ruined my favourite pan, and caught your hair on fire. You don't have to pretend, I can cook. Otherwise you'll end up eating poptarts and drinking scotch again." Steve doesn't even look at him as he goes by and starts to pull things down from the cabinets and out of the fridge.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault!" He follows Steve into the kitchen. "And I was not going to eat poptarts and drink scotch again." Steve stops what he's doing to pointedly raise an eyebrow. "Uh. Thanks. You're the best, Steve!"

Steve just shakes his head.

"So, uh, I'll just get out of your way here and let you work your magic…." Tony starts to edge out of the kitchen. He might not be able to cook, but that has never stopped Steve from delegating vegetable chopping to him. He suspects his buddy has been in restaurants too long and is just used to other people prepping his stuff now.

"No." Steve turns suddenly, and Tony really doesn't like that awkward and 'just had an idea' look in his friend's eye. Or the knife pointing at him. Steve seems to realize the knife pointing thing and lowers it. "I, uh, need to tell you something."

Tony really, really hopes Steve just picked up a puppy.

"You, erm. You've got an appointment at six on Friday." Steve is getting slowly redder in the face. It's really quite fascinating. "At the little Japanese restaurant you like."

"Oh. Dude. If you needed me to do a business meeting or whatever you could have just said so." Tony frowns at Steve; Steve is usually awkward getting Tony's help with things relating to the diner, but he's never been such a particular shade of scarlet before.

Steve turns around to go back to chopping vegetables before he says anything else. It's almost not audible, but Tony is ready to swear he hears the words 'date' and 'waiter.'

"Steve…" Tony says cautiously, rooted to the spot in the doorway by some horrid fascination.

"I just sort . And I'm holding dinner hostage until you agree to go."

"You did what?"

"I uh," Steve stops chopping again, rubbing the back of his neck and looking down awkwardly, "set you up. With a date. That waiter at the diner, Loki, you really hit it off with him and I thought that it'd been a while since you went on an actual date and not just dragged a warm body home for a one night stand, so I got him to agree to go on a date with you."

Tony tries to say something. A few times.

"And you can't have dinner unless you promise you'll go. Or scotch. I've got it locked up in my room." Steve points the knife at Tony again, this time with some actual menace.

"You… you…." Tony sputters. He thought Steve didn't a sly bone in his body. And looking at his buddy, at how red he is and yet how absolutely determined and serious, he can't help but laugh a little at the whole absurd situation. "Okay. Okay. I'll go, if it means that much to you. I won't even make him cry."

XXXXXX

Tony hadn't really been hoping for a freak snowstorm Friday. He was honestly really okay with the lightly falling snow when he walked up to the Japanese restaurant. He totally was not resenting Steve a bit for this. He didn't need a date or to get out like a normal person because he happened to to to be sarcastic at one of Steve's waiters.

Tony is not grumbling to himself when he steps into the restaurant and rakes his eyes over the company in the waiting area. The waiter—Loki, he reminds himself because he promised Steve he won't make him cry—is already here. Tony stops grumbling for a moment and just admires the view.

Loki is standing by the medium sized rock pool set up inside and filled with fishes and a rogue turtle, and while Tony generally prefers a woman in a low cut dress, Loki is certainly not a bad thing to find instead. His black hair is slicked back and curling slightly at his neck and ears. He's wearing a deep forest green shirt that made his skin look like ivory and a pair of black jeans. The lighting cast more shadows on his face and just emphasizes how sharp his features are. When he looks up and spots Tony, the barest hint of a smirk touches his features and Tony decides maybe this isn't going to be as much a chore as he thought.

Tony moves over to him, holds his hand out. "Tony Stark," he says and tries not kick himself, because Loki knows who he was, everyone did.

"Loki Odinson," the other says, letting the silence settle. Tony tells the host the name for the reservation—Steve's—and tries not to fidget while they wait, glancing at Loki.

"So, Tony," and it seemed there was a joke in there Tony is missing, "does your friend often make it a habit to set up you with new employees as some sort of hazing rite?"

"What, you think this is normal for me?" Tony laughs and it is not nervous at all, thank you very much. "And you agreed to go along with it."

"Well, of course," Loki says, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and gives Tony this wide-eyed innocent and absolutely devastating look. "You mean your boss doesn't just randomly ask you to go on dates with customers you don't even know the name of and you spoke to for all of five minutes?"

Tony just looks at him, and then Loki's face changes again, this tiny little smirk he can't suppress flicking across his features.

"So long as we've got the awkward out of the way," Tony says, but he can't help but grin as he did.

XXXXXX

"Toby? Kelly? Really?" Tony is laughing, and Loki grins at him over his glass of plum wine.

"Really. I was three-quarters right, at least. And as you were the one making fun of my name—"

"I did not, I just said that you probably got teased a lot!"

Loki raises an eyebrow like Tony just proved his point.

"Well, okay, names aside, what exactly is it you do?" Loki asks, pushing onward.

"You really don't know?"

"You play with machines for a company most my family works at, but I'm not going to internet stalk my date. Have some class." Loki looks offended.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay, you get what I do. That's it, really, they just pay me lots of money to make really interesting machines and go hog—" Tony stopped, blinking. "Wait. What's your last name again?"

Loki rolls his eyes.

"Is that really all that important?"

"I'll just ask Steve," Tony says petulantly.

"Mmm, yes, go ask Steve. What is that weird thing between you two anyway?" Loki raises an eyebrow, chopsticks poised to take the last piece of sushi and clearly waiting to see if Tony wanted it. Tony flicks a hand to indicate 'go ahead.'

"There's not a thing. He's just my best friend of forever and we just moved in together after his wife died and my girlfriend ditched. Strength in numbers." Tony does not sound bitter. Loki doesn't even react to the bitter, so it clearly isn't there, and besides, it's more interesting to watch the way the muscles in Loki's wrist move as he flicks the sushi into his mouth.

XXXXXX

It is still snowing when they go outside, big and fat heavy flakes that are Loki's favourite. They remind him of the snow globes that his mother liked to collect, all shaken up. He shoves his hands into the pockets of his wool coat, and looks at Tony in the street light. When they'd started, Tony had looked the picture of presentable, but now he looks scruffy and like he's been to a wild party, hair going every which way; he likes to talk with his hands and runs them through his hair while he thinks. Loki kind of likes how he looks now more.

It is more honest.

"So…" Tony starts, and Loki feels a little nervousness tighten his features. He makes himself smirk.

"So?"

"That was nice."

"I would be inclined to agree." He keeps his voice neutral.

"Wanna do something again?"

Loki frowns before he can catch himself, licking his lips. He looks at the ground because he doesn't want to look at Tony, his chest tight and his head getting light. He wonders a little if Tony is just interested because of his looks—what he has of them—or if he actually enjoyed this little excursion.

"Not that we have to. You know. I just thought it was nice. Steve might not be totally wrong sometimes." He recognizes the way Tony is talking more and faster—he used to do it, too, before he stopped because it got him in more trouble. He glances up at Tony briefly, and lets out a breath.

"And what would we do?" he hedges.

"Well, I don't know. Maybe something you'd want?" Something of the panic of choosing must have shown on his face, because Tony just keeps going quickly, too quickly for it to be obliviousness. "The zoo! There's a zoo at the park. We could go. It's supposed to be sunny all week. How's whatever day you have off?"

"Tuesday." Hope sparks in Tony's eyes, and he realizes what it sounded like. Well, it won't hurt. He has enjoyed himself, even if he's been on pins and needles all night, waiting on the slip that will irritate Tony and make him leave or yell or kill the conversation. "Around three, I usually get up late. Does that work?"

Tony grins at him with something in that million watt smile that makes Loki smile back.