Welcome to my new story. This is one coming from a completely new angle - first Avengers fic. I hope you enjoy. In some of the later chapters I'm referencing some Norse mythology, which I've turned up in some basic googling so if I get it wrong let me know and I'll fix it. It is rated for language and implied slash. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Avengers is a Mavel product, I only claim my plot.

Chapter One

"Hi guys," Tony introduced himself to the room from the doorway of the home theatre where all the Avengers were quibbling over what movie to watch.

"Tony!" yelled Clint. "Tell me you want to watch Men in Tights. Tasha is vetoing it because she thinks it's immature and not funny - but you know that's blasphemy!"

"Clint we watched that two weeks ago." replied Steve trying to placate the archer.

"But it's a classic Steve, one that should be enjoyed at every opportunity."

"Then, Clint," Natasha drawled, "you can go watch it by yourself."

Clint had his mouth open to fire back at the red head, when Bruce piped up from the couch across the room.

"Tony, are you alright?" he said, his soft calm manner coloured with concern.

Tony was still standing in the doorway and he was definitely acting nervous. His back foot was scratching his other shin and his hands were clasped tightly. The collective avengers looked at Bruce as he spoke before taking in the normally boisterous Tony. He felt everyone's eyes on him and slowly unclasped his hands, dropping his arms to his sides in an effort to relax, they are his friends he reminded himself, they wouldn't take it too bad.

Steve was half out of his chair with his arm out toward the billionaire, "Tony...?" His tone was worried, looking for the cause of this attitude.

"I'm okay guys, actually better than okay. I just don't know quite how you'll take this." Tony cleared his throat and straightened putting his hands behind his back. "There is someone I want you to meet, well re-meet." The others exchanged concerned looks. "I ran into them again a while back and we've been dating for a couple a months and it's gotten more serious and we wanted you to know." Tony trailed off.

"Come on Tony, stop stalling and bring her out here. It's not like she can be that bad and it's been almost a year since Pepper and you split. Personally I'm more surprised you jumped into another relationship so soon. It's not in your profile; you're more the sleep through most of Manhattan type." Concluded Natasha.

"Actually he's not a girl." stated Tony reaching into the other room and pulling through a protesting black haired man.

"Tony," the man whinged, "did you really need to manhandle me?" He smoothed the black slacks he was wearing before looking up into the gobsmacked faces in front of the odd couple.

Bruce was the first to recover, "I didn't know you had a gay bone in your body Tony."

"Well big guy, your research is lacking! I've bedded plenty of men over the years. The media just doesn't like portraying the All American patriot as swinging both ways - they got over that while I was still in my 20s. I like to call it selective journalism." said Tony smirking with the quip.

"Wait, wait, wait." Clint exclaimed. "That's Loki!"

"Well done birdbrain, gold star." Tony snarked.

"Tony," Steve said warningly as he repositioned himself in a defensive stance. Natasha was already up, on guard ready to draw a knife at a moment's notice.

"Rodgers." he replied, moving in front of Loki protectively, staring down the man-out-of-time.

"Tony," said Loki placing his hand on one of Tony's tense shoulders. "It's okay." Loki moved forward with is hand out for the Captain to shake. Addressing the man Loki continued, "Captain Rodgers, I don't think we've been formally introduced. I am Loki Odinson

Steve stiffened, not wanting to take the hand between them but his old fashioned manners fought against rejecting this polite social interaction. The silence stretched until Loki was ready to retract his hand, at the last moment Steve brought his hand to meet the God's, gritting his teeth, not dropping eye contact.

"You're meant to be on Asgard under punishment." Black Widow snarled voice deadly.

"I've fulfilled my punishment Ms Romanoff." the God replied coolly. "I am not here to cause trouble I'm just here to be introduced to the people my boyfriend views as family. At his request." he turned slightly to include Tony. They moved together in a practiced synchronisation, completely innocently as though it was subconscious. Tony wrapped his arm around Loki's waist moving to step up next to him.

"Guys, Loki's changed. He has reformed, he is remorseful for his part in what happened two years ago. He has paid for what happened and worked through the issues that sent him down that road. Please, you accepted me for all my faults, we all have faults. Please give him a chance despite his faults. You heard him, he introduced himself as Odinson for fucks sake."

"Get away from him Tony. He has you under his sorcery spell thingo." Clint demanded. Bruce was now the only one left sitting at least partially relaxed.

"Can you see blue sparkly eyes idiot, and I certainly don't feel empty." Tony snarled back.

"I'm sure he has another way." He replied.

"I am fully in possession of my faculties. And this was not an opportunity for you lot to protest my relationship it is a courtesy to let you know that Loki will be around in plain sight from now on and you will be treating him with respect. He'll be at the tower and may join us for dinners and movies when he is on earth and visiting me so you can go screw yourself if you are unhappy with this arrangement."

Tony was staring Clint down, arms over his chest. Clint snarled, a feral sound more like a dog than the bird he was compared to most often. Before he spun and stalked out the other door leading towards the gym. Natasha gave Tony an unreadable look then followed the archer out.

Tony's shoulders slumped as the two disappeared.

"Hey," Loki consoled, "we knew this wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world, and at one point I did possess him Tony. Let him come around to it and you know Ms Romanoff, she is overly suspicious and the two of them have been through a lot together, they have each other's backs, always."

Tony squeezed his hand and gave him a genuine smile, "Thanks."

Bruce cleared his throat moving forward to the front of his seat. "So Odinson?" he queried.

Loki gave a grateful half smile while Tony tugged him down to a sofa and Steve took up residence against the wall with his own arms crossed.

"I took my enforced time in my father's palace as an opportunity to talk with my parents. Over the time I came to realise that although they aren't my birth parents and they didn't tell me about my adoption it was not malicious or out of some need to collect trophies. Our relationship is far from perfect but we are now talking and I feel that with time it can only improve now everything is in the open. To this, I have now taken back my chosen name."

"Okay," said Bruce with measured words. "How did this start? Surely it was not something that just happened..."

Tony took up the mantle for this part of the tale, "You remember after Pepper and I ended and I was boozing and sleeping my way through Manhattan, as Nat put it?" At Bruce's nod, he continued, "Well I had made my way to a small bar off 42nd Street and this one was sitting at the bar nursing a drink. I was halfway to drunk and by the time I realised just who I was rambling to I was about three drinks too far to care. Told him if he was there to kill me to hurry up and get it over with."

Bruce threw a concerned look at Steve, he knew Tony had it tough when Pepper had ended it but he didn't realise Tony had got quite that low. He though the billionaire was just letting off steam and drowning himself in booze and sex like he had years previously, before Pepper. Now he thought he should probably not rely on newspapers as a reliable source on Tony quite so much.

"Anyway instead of killing me he took me back to the hotel he was staying in and got me a room and put me in bed. When I woke up the next morning he was downstairs waiting with breakfast. We talked, warily at first then as the day moved on we relaxed slightly. He was on Earth to finish off his punishment much like Thor was. Without his magic and he only got that back once he proved himself worthy of it by connecting with some 'Midgardians'. Instead of going to a bar to lose myself in another warm body the following night I sought out Loki instead. The conversation was stimulating, he can kept up with me and our debates and questions about magic vs. science were - are - heated. Eventually it evolved into more."

"You know you could have come to me right? I could have helped." Bruce spoke.

"I didn't want the pity. I needed someone who wouldn't give meaningless consolation." Tony replied looking anywhere but Bruce.

Steve piped up from his side of the room, "How long?" he said uncomfortably.

"Ten months next week." Tony said relieved to move the conversation away from his destructive behaviour, he hated talking about his emotions.

Steve nodded, "I know this sort of relationship is more accepted now-a-days but I will have to take time to get use to the idea, in my time it was an arrest-able offense. I will give Mr Odinson a chance. Are you happy Tony?"

"Yes." replied Tony, completely serious meeting Steve's eyes.

"I will talk to Clint and Natasha." was the response, Tony nodded and Steve moved out of the room. It was just the three of them left. Bruce sunk back into his seat more relaxed now.

"Does Thor know?"

"No, we thought he was with you all." Loki commented.

"He is visiting Jane in Boston for the weekend. He'll be back on Tuesday. I think he'll be okay with it though, he is always talking about what you two use to do as kids. He still obviously loves you."

"Thank you, we hope so."

Over the next couple of weeks Tony was happier than he could previously remember, since before Obadiah ordered him killed. He had a group of people who loved him like family and Loki who was not only his lover but his best friend. He even started joking around with Pepper again when she required his signature on company documents.

When Thor had arrived back at the tower with Jane in tow on that Tuesday he had taken one look at Loki before booming out his name, engulfing him in a hug and spinning him forward to meet the 'fair Miss Jane'. He had taken the relationship in stride with only a cursory, older brother threat that was made completely redundant by the grin splitting his face in half. It was made even better in Tony's mind by Loki burying his face in his shoulders in embarrassment.

Even Clint started to warm up to the God of Mischief when he encountered a flustered Loki in the kitchen trying to cook Tony something as he had been in the lab too long and 'hadn't eaten in much too long for you humans'. The way Clint told it, Loki had egg on his cheek and shell in the omelette, topped off with a pink fluffy apron.

It was a time of relative quiet for the Avengers. There had been small jobs that mainly Natasha and Clint had completed but nothing requiring the whole team.

It was a Friday when Steve walked into the room where all the Avengers except Thor were passing the day. Loki was currently visiting his folks on Asgard. "Doctor Doom has unleashed a new wave of robots in Chicago. Thor is on his way, we need to move."

"Alright boys and girls," Tony stood clapping his hands together, ready to go a couple rounds, "suit up!"

There was no response to his exclamation. The entire group silently stared straight ahead or at the ground as was their nature. He looked at them and tried again, "Up and at 'em losers. As good as I am I can't fight these guys by myself, never thought you'd hear me say that did you."

"You're not going." Clint casually let out into the tense room.

"What are you talking about, I know those robots the best, you need me." Tony said taken a back.

"You're compromised." stated Clint, steel in his voice.

"What...?" was the flabbergasted response.

The rest of the group stayed silent.

"You've been sleeping and consorting with a hostile. You are a liability, especially if Loki has a hand in this."

"What...?" Tony said, shocked, he didn't know where this was coming from. Everyone had been getting along, they had seen Loki had changed! "Loki is in Asgard, visiting Odin and helping with preparations for the festival of Lithasblot."

"Sorry Tony." Steve said, watching the lost look on the inventors face.

Betrayal. It was the only thing he could think when faced with the people around him. He thought the Avengers knew, understood. He could feel the anger that had protected him his whole life start to seep back into him. It wasn't until then he realised that he had released his anger at the world.

His walls slammed into place and he drew himself up into his business persona, despite wearing only jeans and an old Metallica shirt there wasn't an inch of the Tony the others had got use to seeing around the tower.

"I quit." was said into the silence, his voice flat, "S.H.I.E.L.D. and all Avengers have 24 hours to remove their belongings from Stark Industries property before it is impounded. Anyone found on Stark property after 10am tomorrow morning will find themselves prosecuted for trespassing."

The billionaire turned from who he had minutes ago thought were his confidences and moved towards the deployment structure for his suit. As he walked down the platform outside, the suit formed around him and he took off without another word.

"Fuck."

No one had really heard Bruce swear before, but no one could really fault him, it was just about what everyone was thinking. They knew Tony would take it badly, but quitting the Avengers?

"Do you think he means it?" was Steve's question to the group.

"I think it is in our best interest to assume he does, we better follow his demands and we can try and talk him around later. Right now we have to inform Fury and go and look after those robots in Chicago." Natasha reasoned.

"I'm an idiot." moaned Clint.

"Really, you're just getting that?" Sarcasm was dripping from Bruce's words. "You're informing Fury, this is your mess - great way to handle the issue, I told you we should have told him before. Let's go, I could really use a couple of robots to pound to a pulp and I'm not sure I'll make it until we get there without Hulking-out unless we leave now."

In wake of Bruce's anger the four of them headed to the jet in silence, tense.

The only thing spoken on the way was the Captain's mission brief and Clint's phone call to the Director. In which he was ripped a new one, ending with a terse, "I'll handle it." and a dropped line.

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