Here it is, the grand finale. Conveniently enough, it is also the longest chapter ^.^ Also, I had been thinking about writing a sequel, from Loki's POV and extending it a little with real plot but I'm not sure and it would take some time doing...
Fun fact: I wrote most of the dialogue between Loki and Tony at the end while taking one of my AP Exams-so, essentially, I have been writing everything for and around this point so it's a climax in every sense-and doodled Loki's name in Norse ruins all over the place. Cuz I'm cool like that.
Chapter Seven: How to Win A Game of Tag
He went to the top floor, or rather, to the veranda where he had landed before to first offer the God a drink. Apparently, he was in one of those rare nostalgic, sentimental moods. He smiled softly and closed his eyes to enjoy his memory montage with the ambiance of wind blowing through his hair.
God, maybe Loki had managed to brain-whammy him somehow. That would explain everything. He couldn't remember ever acting this way for Pepper-for anyone, actually-and he didn't really mind because Loki was-well, Loki-everything he needed and a little bit of what he didn't want because to be a perfect fit would have been boring. And neither of them did well with perfection-or boredom. Kinda why they were here in the first place.
He snorted. Time's up on that whole soft fluff moment. Another moment and he would have had to remind himself that he was, in fact, a dude. He was such a sappy relationship guy now; beware, world, there was one less genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist around.
"What are you thinking about?" a gruff voice asked quietly, tinged with honest curiosity. Cue sappy grin and dramatic turn to violin music or something.
"You," he watched Loki blush faintly. "What are you thinking about?" Great, he was already starting the 'let's-ask-each-other-the-same-questions-over-and-over-again, it'll-be-cute-and-fun' thing.
"War, destruction, revenge, stupid Gods of Thunder with his stupid band of heroes ruining my plans, the usual," Loki shrugged with a grin. He joined Tony at the edge and looked down at the city and rushing people with him.
"But, mostly about...you," Tony looked up at that, surprised at the admission. "Us. What we did that night," he continued in a completely different, gentle tone.
Tony's heart pounded faster and he licked his lips. A drink would be really great right now, stupendous even. He didn't expect to have this talk so soon, but whatever. Here goes nothing. "I'd like to do that again," he practically croaked.
He blinked in clear shock. "You-you do?"
"Yeah, I-" he shook his head. "Listen, Loki, I-" he was cut off this time by the sudden sound of alarms calling for the Avengers to assemble and Fury's voice over the intercom. They both cursed the timing.
"Loki's attacking the nation's capital. We need everyone to suit up and protect the White House immediately. That means you, Stark, if you're even listening. This is the third time I've called you!"
Tony sighed and turned to the Loki-clone after turning off the intercom systems. Any anger he might have felt melted away at the look of guilt on its face. "Guess I'll be seeing the real you now?"
"You are not angry at me for manipulating your emotions in order to distract you?" he asked with child-like earnesty. It was the most emotion he had seen him show in the entire time he had known him, pretty much.
"Honestly, Loki, if you don't try to manipulate me every once in awhile, I'd be worried. Though, it's not one of my most enjoyable experiences ever and I hate being used for a purpose only like I don't even matter-" Like Obadiah treated me. But Loki wasn't Obadiah, nor was his Loki-clone, if the crushed expression on his face was anything to go by.
He padded closer to him. "But, since you were so nice bout it, I think you deserve a little reward," He meant just to press a kiss to his forehead only, he really did. But he had forgotten to calculate his ability to draw him in, especially after such a long time. His lips left his cool skin there and as soon as he met his eyes, his self-control broke.
"Loki," he breathed, putting his lips bruisingly against his and wrapped a hand over the back of his skull to dig his fingers deep in his long locks. "I missed you,"
The Loki-clone shakily pushed him away and Tony was privy to a kaleidoscope of emotions filter through his green eyes. "Then, you should..." he took a deep breath. It was rather cute to see him so undone by his emotions eve if it wasn't the real him. "You should kiss the real me,"
"Stark?" Steve's voice called a few seconds before his body appeared at the entrance. Loki-clone disappeared in a flash of green. "Stark, did you hear-"
"Yeah, no," he interrupted, turning around to face him while brushing a hand over his goatee to hide his bruising lips that would give him away. Because he was clearly up here alone and there was only one magical-invisible/disappearing-act that the Avengers knew of. "I-I heard. I'll be there in approximately 25.8 minutes, which is almost twice as fast as how long it will take you to get there even with my high-powered jet,"
"You're on," he said, because the only way to distract Steve from anything Tony does is to challenge him. It was part of his remaining guilt he felt for practically daring Tony to sacrifice himself to save the world when he took that missile through the portal. Still, it was one of the few times he got to see the Captain without his usual serious mask so he figured it didn't matter that he manipulated him since it benefited the both of them-Steve didn't catch Tony doing something forbidden and Tony gave him a chance to relax and enjoy himself a bit to take away the burden of his guilt.
Huh. He didn't realize how similar he and Loki were in that aspect. Wouldn't he be glad to know.
He smirked as he heard Steve start to hurry everybody out. "Jarvis, calibrate my new suit," He managed to squeeze out this new design in between the time Pepper all but kicked him out of his room to eat and converse with people like a normal human and now so he was expecting a few glitches out of it. But it would work so well for this confrontation. No more awkward waiting time to get the suit off and get down to other kinds of business during tags.
"But, sir, you have purposefully left out armor capabilities in favour of a few, dare I say, unique qualities-"
"Jarvis, it's Loki we're talking about. I doubt that I'm going to be in that kind of trouble. It's not like the old days," At least, he hoped not. "Suit up,"
"You're late," Steve complained as soon as he was in range.
"Yeah, well, I took the scenic route, so sue me," he bit back into the headset. Actually, he had a minor problem with the flight aspect in this suit. Wasn't quite balanced yet, so it knocked him a few minutes back from his previous estimated time of arrival.
Loki sent off a flare obviously meant for him-why else would there be red and gold flares sparkling a little to his left-and he couldn't stop a smile. Guess he wasn't the only one missing someone. "As much as I love listening to you criticize my ear off, I've got a good shot on Loki and I'm going to take it. Stark out,"
"Wait! There are a bunch of his clones running around and-"
Oh, would you look at that. His communication system was down now, too. How...fortunate.
His landing still had that metallic clang that he had easily come to love and he watched Loki emerge from the shadows-literally, it was like the shadows were reluctantly allowing him to step into the light in a way that he had also easily fell in love with-with a hard intensity in his bright eyes. "Suit off," he muttered into voice commands, shivering as his lighter metal-alloy design for the skin decompressed and the green plates piled on top of each other until they formed a tight metal backbone along the length of his spine.
"Heavier than I thought, but with more surface area-" he cut off his out loud musings as complicated equations started to distract him from the being that was Loki. "I'm guessing you were behind the whole shutdown of my systems-thanks for that, by the way," He didn't get an answer but Loki's smile curled a bit more smugly and gave him away.
Tony took a cocky step forward. "So, is this the real you or mmph?" Loki surged the great distance between them in a single stride, gripped him by the sides of his face and attacked his mouth with a rough passion while shoving him up against the nearest wall in a fluid motion full of surprising agility and pain. Thankfully, his new exoskeleton spine absorbed most of the shock of his impact, though his shoulders rolled with recoil hard enough that he knew they were going to be sore tomorrow. Maybe sooner.
"Loki," he moaned, ignoring the thought of future pain in favour of Loki's tongue and the oddly wonderful tenderness he was expressing with the simplest of faint tugs on his hair. God, the just the feeling of having his long, talented fingers slide through his hair was so...novel-in a good way. And he had missed Loki so very much. Could he really be blamed for arching back up to him-because Loki made the best sounds when he was being touched and Tony really couldn't touch him enough-and repeating his name with a needy, begging quality to it? "Loki!"
"Yes," he hissed, finally breaking away to speak and give the mortal a chance to suck in some air-did he not need to breathe or what?-only to start sucking circles on the left side of his neck and shoulders. He was pretty sure he made a mostly involuntary mewling-whimper kind of noise as he sagged against the wall for support to keep him upright. "Scream my name, Stark,"
Stark was his business name, and while he was all for mixing business with pleasure-as long as it was conducive to profits, of course-it was something of a mood-killer at this very point. He put his palms out on Loki's chest with a fair amount of force. "Wait, Loki-uh, we need to talk..." He couldn't believe he was actually instigating this conversation that he had tried to avoid his entire life with everyone he had ever been with.
Loki narrowed his eyes, obviously displeased. "I do not appreciate this two-sidedness," he grumbled, but he did stop.
Two-sidedness? Really? Look who's talking. Tony shook himself free of those thoughts. He needed to concentrate on getting his message through with as little awkwardness as possible. "It's not that. Just, before we continue...I have a confession to make..."
Loki raised his eyebrow and crossed his arms, indicating that he was waiting for him to elaborate with what little patience he had. "Which is...?" he prompted, not too gently.
"I-" Tony sighed after stretching out the vowel and moment as long as it was humanely possible, rubbing his forehead in exasperation at himself. "I love...you."
For a good deal longer than a second, but not quite long enough to be more substantial than that, the God's eyes widened with something like hope and maybe fear and possibly even a smidgen of something mutual. But then an iron mask slammed down over his face and he went back to the snarky, smug, holier-than-thou confidence from the first time they met and fought. Except he knew it was a lie, a trick, because his eyes weren't as bright as they normally were.
"Is that so?" he smiled like he had just pulled one over on him, complete with that laugh that said 'Oh, Stark, you silly human'. And, even though he knew with all his heart that Loki was only desperately trying not to look or become vulnerable by his declaration, Loki got to him.
"You smug bastard-" he began bitingly.
"That is inconclusive, Stark," he teased with a dangerous flash of teeth.
"God, you can't even say my name-you never have!" he threw his hands up in the air in a violent motion of anger he didn't know he felt towards the God, totally frustrated by his inability to get personal with him. He didn't want to be kept at a distance like that. It hurt. And now he knew exactly how much it sucked to be on the receiving end of it. Fuck you, karma, fuck you. "What am I going to do with you?"
"On the contrary, Tony," he sneered viciously, lips curling and mocking him with the use of his first name now. "I do possess the ability to say your name. It is...distaste that encourages my informality with you," Something flashed from behind the mask and Tony bet it was the thing that he really feared, the thing he was trying to hide from him.
"Distaste?" he blinked, frowning into an answering snarl. "What, because I'm a human-a lowly mortal not fit for a God like you?"
Something about what he just said finally got Loki to drop the act and don a more realistic tired and weary form. "You are anything but low, Stark, else I would not have lain with you even if it was to win a game. You must not think so of yourself-it is unbecoming of my partner,"
Tony slumped tiredly himself with a hand to his forehead and sighed. It was exhausting fighting with him and keeping up with his charades. He was more difficult to get along with than himself-from what he heard-on a bad day. "I don't get you, Loki. First you're all-" he gave a lazy hand motion to articulate what he meant. "Now you say stuff like-that," He used to be so easy to read, predictable. He felt like he and Loki were cut from the same cloth-they had similar back stories, led similar lives, had a similar sense of fun-why now did he have to be such a mystery? Why couldn't he understand anymore?
That's what really ticked him off; the fact that he didn't know. Stark was a man of intelligence-among other things-but take away his ability to deal with a situation and make plans or guesses that could help him come out on top, he didn't know what to do. He was useless and he hated that feeling. He had to be somebody. Call it the product of his own daddy issues or whatever you want, he needed to be important. And, lately, he thought he had been important to Loki.
But now that he confessed and accepted the fact that Loki managed to worm his way under his skin and infect his heart the way his magic staff couldn't, and had been left out to dry, he was beyond scared. He was terrified. No one ever made him feel the way Loki did and to think that there was a chance this entire thing might be all over-
He didn't know what he would do. But he sure wouldn't care anymore.
"Sta-Anthony." Loki took a step forward as Tony snapped his head up to watch him with wide eyes.
"The reason for my distaste is the fact that-" he looked down for a moment and when he looked back up, his eyes were bright lime again and shimmering with tears he would never let himself shed if he could help it. "Every moment I have with you is a reminder of what cannot last, because my most perfect equal in eons-perhaps ever and for all time-is mortal and this-this vulnerability, this weakness to want you and be with you for all of your eternity despite the inevitable heartache that will surely cause my demise is unbearably bittersweet.
"It is distasteful because...with you, I am complete-and the damnable, all-too-soon future shows me that I will soon be incomplete and live out the rest of my days with an ache gnawing on my soul whose release will not come even in death for we are separated and parted from one another in that regard as well. Do you understand?" he implored with every molecule of his body, in his tone and in his eyes-all at a whisper-soft level of volume. There was the faintest sheen on his face that suggested one of those tears had leaked out unintentionally and unnoticed. It was really painting quite the picture that Tony couldn't stay so unmoved by. "I am in agony when I see you, Tony, and you have just professed your love to me. The question is, what am I going to do with you?"
Tony took some time to process all that had just been hurled at him-and it was a lot to process-and maybe give Loki some time to recover and collect himself just a little before he got up and walked the remaining distance between them to deliver his message.
"Well," he drawled. Loki's eyes flickered to him with curiosity and apprehension reflected in the entire tense stance of his body. It was like a mirror of what he had just been-terrified that he had said too much and not knowing what to do with it all. "After a confession like that...it better be a three-day-we'll-make-this-work-somehow-but-until-then-I'm-gonna-fuck-you-like-there's-no-tomorrow sex marathon,"
Loki's lips twitched and his eyes sparkled. "That does sound pleasant," he purred. Tony shivered at the sound and Loki almost hesitantly leaned down to kiss him, toying with his bottom lip caught between his teeth for a delightful pinch to add to the sensation. He met Tony's gaze, pulling away, as if to ask if this was okay. Instead of replying verbally, Tony gripped his ebony locks located on the back of his head and yanked him back to his mouth for a crushing kiss. That got him to unwind his odd restraint.
"Mm," he exhaled as Loki returned to his neck with a new drive. "Before I forget," he said into his ear with a much lighter hold now. "Can we agree on a new rule that adds 50 points for every Avenger and SHEILD agent that catches us in the act?"
"No," Loki rumbled in a husky voice, ignoring Tony's pout with a smirk. "Oh, and, before I forget-no, this isn't the real me." It shimmered away in yet another cloud of green smoke before Tony could do more than grind his teeth in frustration.
"Suit up," he huffed, determined to find him once and for all and get some payback for today's events. Tricks like this when they had been pouring their hearts out to each other were not appreciated. At all.
His communications turned back on as soon as the plates started gearing back into place which was like an added bonus. Yay.
"Tony? Tony, can you hear me?" The Cap called loudly-as if that would help the lack of connection, but he wasn't totally up to date and hip with technology so Tony forgave him with a wince. Certainly not because he had been his childhood hero at one point.
"I hear you, Cap, loud and clear," he said as he prepared for flight.
"Good. I was afraid I would have to send out a search party. Listen, we think we've triangled-"
"Triangulated, boy wonder," Tony corrected absent mindedly.
"-Whatever. We have Loki's real area. You're the closest, so try to hold down the fort until we can get there," Tony rolled his eyes at his choice of words. "It's 1600 Pennsylvannia Avenue Northwest, by the Rose Gardens,"
"Gotcha, on my way. Stark out," he ended the transmission and took a hard left out of Zei Alley to cross diagonally through a few blocks to touch down right behind the only person he knew who wore golden horns with his green cape.
Loki turned around in his full battle gear-armor, he calls it-immediately and grinned with a self-satisfied glow. "So, you've found me finally. Just what are you going to do with me, now, Anthony Stark?"
"I think you've got a good idea already," his semi-mechanical voice retorted. "Suit off," he commanded, stalking over to grip him by the collar. "Let's say this is my turn, 55 points for my tag. Which puts you at 1,560 and me at 1,650,"
He pulled Loki to him again, locking their bodies smack against each other. He felt Loki's fingers go to the back of his neck almost searchingly. "What are you doing?"
"Never you mind," he murmured and pressed some part of him back there that made him gasp and his knees buckle almost underneath him.
"I think I'd like you to do that thing again," he said, voice velvety soft with promises of even more pleasure in a way that made sure Tony could not misunderstand exactly what he was asking for.
"Extra 50 points," he managed to get out.
"Deal," Loki agreed instantly. Tony grinned-he knew Loki had enjoyed it before- and got on his knees.
"Like this, master?" He grinned brighter when he heard Loki's sharp intake of breath and felt fingers shakily run through his already messed up hair. "Let me take care of you, my king," he simpered, stretching to untie his belt with his teeth. A simple talent he had developed over the years as an equivalent to strip-teasing but on a much more rewarding scale. Well, rewarding for him, since he was the one to get to torture Loki slowly and watch him come undone and start to-
"STARK! What the HELL do you think you're doing?"
That was Fury's furious voice. If Fury was here...
He glanced casually around him with a slow turn of his head.
Oh, shit.
Not only was his entire team out there, gawking, but quite a few reporters and paparazzi taking quite the candid shot. Well, he knew who was going to be make the headlines of every major news station for the next few days. Dammit. How could he forget that the White House was a very populated area full of tourists and such?
But, at least Loki did manage to coordinate a nice background for them.
"Hey, Avengers. Fury," he waved weakly, coughing. "Nice day, eh? Got Loki for ya," he said with a jerk of his thumb. Fury growled and Tony swore he saw some steam come out of him. True story.
He coughed again and stood up to face Loki's smug grin. "I won," he cheered-the bastard. He had this all planned...somehow.
"You cheated," he pouted, ignoring the world for a moment longer. "I don't know how, and I can't prove anything, but you cheated. I know you did,"
"But I won," he repeated with that stupid grin of his, fingering the light of his arc reactor-where his heart was.
Tony's resolve broke-not that there was much of that- and he gave him a real smile. "Yeah, I guess you did."
So, maybe he lost a few details along the way-not like they were that important anyways-since the beginning. Big deal. He still knew how it ended, and that's the thing that really counts: happily ever after.
Well, their version of it, at least.