Justin was glad to see that Peter and Hela came back from Central Park holding hands. They had been in denial for a while, but now things finally seemed okay again. Peter was his best friend and even though Hela was a girl completely deserving of her nickname "Creepy", if she made his friend happy he would support them.
It had all been a little much for him, only a few months ago he was the underdog of his class who paid off jocks to keep his nose in one piece and now he lived in an epic tower with the coolest people he had ever laid eyes on. Not to mention he had actually made friends with them…
He was also pretty convinced that Tony Stark and Loki were together. Unfortunately denial appeared to be a family disease, and the tension between the men was so strong it was almost as if they had an elastic cord wound up between them. Now, since Justin Hammer Junior was a meddlesome individual and he found the soap-series-like properties of the group rather interesting, he decided to stick his nose and possibly some other things too in the situation. One day he was working on a project in Stark's workshop (the capsules he invented for his itching powder had impressed Tony so that he had gotten his own workbench in the shop) when Loki went to use the bathroom. Justin saw his chance.
"You know, you should really tell him."
Tony looked up from the repulsor he was modifying.
"Tell who what?"
"You know who I mean, the one who just had to take a leak. And you definitely know what, it's as obvious as Natasha's string in that white summer dress of hers."
Tony felt he had to grin and blush at the same time. That boy definitely didn't talk around a subject… Denying was the only option.
"I do not know what you're talking about."
"Seriously. Just tell him. He totally feels the same way otherwise he wouldn't be staring at you like at a tasty cupcake all the time when you're not looking."
Wait. Loki stared at him like at a tasty cupcake? Loki stared at him, that to begin with? Tony glared at Justin.
"I doubt he does that, either way it's none of your business."
Justin held up his hands and started cleaning his too-big glasses.
"True. Just think about it. I mean so much tension can't be good for your health…"
Tony watched how Justin purposefully cleaned a cylindrical tube and then proceeded to pull a plastic cover over it. The images that filled his mind sent the blood to his cheeks. That darn kid… Loki returned from the toilet seeing Tony stare frustrated at Justin, who simply continued to assemble his project, ignoring the engineer completely. Loki thought about it for a moment, and then decided that whatever it was he didn't really want to know.
(Pagebreak)
Tony felt frustrated. As if it hadn't been bad enough that his whole body went crazy when Loki wasn't around, now it also went crazy when he was around. In a different manner, but still… It was biting his teeth. Especially when the circumstances required a cold shower, and Loki sort of just followed him to the bathroom. How long had it been since he had last gotten laid? Months. It had been months. Tony tried to calm himself down. He could easily go to a party, pick up a pretty girl or boy, or both, and fuck the living daylight out of them… the problem was that he completely didn't feel like it. The only person he wanted was Loki. And how he wanted him… Oh, Tony cursed his dirty fantasies.
It was so awkward, since they had actually kissed in that shared dream, but Tony didn't know how much Loki remembered of that, and he didn't want to force anything. If anyone had told him a few months ago he would ever worry about Loki doing something he didn't really want out of gratitude or obligation, he would have sent that person to a shrink. But now? Loki wasn't the same person he had been. That manic Kneel-Before-Me thing had apparently just been a phase, and now Tony worried about the god's apparent low self-esteem. When with the others he always tried to make himself invisible –sometimes even literally, Tony had caught him blending into the wallpaper when Clint entered once- and at night he silently cried against Tony's shoulder. Trying to hit on him now would be abusing the situation, Tony knew. Didn't make it any less hard…
(Pagebreak)
Hela had ventured into the living room, wearing her black dress and her uniform blazer. Natasha looked up when the girl silently sat down, and said.
"You know, I don't wish to pry, but… don't you have other clothes?"
Hela looked up at Natasha, her green eyes sad. She shook her head.
"I do not have that many Midgardian clothes. Most of the clothes I can conjure are highly inappropriate for these surroundings, and I lack the skill to design my own."
"Conjure?"
"Yes. My father sometimes conjured me a piece, he is very skilled and knew my exact sizes… Yet I still don't have a lot. It wasn't necessary, for I rarely wore something other than my uniform when going out. If you want to know more about it you should ask my father."
Natasha shook her head as well.
"I can imagine Bruce and Tony being interested in that, but I'm not. I just… wondered if you perhaps would like some more clothes."
The Russian spy didn't know why she proposed that. A shopping trip with Loki's daughter, what an idea! There was something in Hela that reminded her of herself when she was that age, that look in her eyes that lacked all innocence. It wasn't something she liked to remind herself of; how young she had been when her training had started, the horrors she had seen already when she was only fifteen. Perhaps that was the reason she wanted to do something nice for Hela. Armed with Stark's credit card they left the Tower to the high-end stores…
(Pagebreak)
"You did WHAT?"
"I poked Tony a bit into the right direction, that's all!"
Peter facepalmed.
"Loki is an evil deity, not to mention Hela's dad! Do you have any idea how awkward this is going to be?"
Justin grinned widely.
"I am counting on it…"
That earned him a well-deserved punch. Tony and Loki's level of awkwardness had indeed risen off the charts now, and the team was starting to think that red was actually Tony's natural skin color with how much he blushed.
"So far your actions haven't really helped them, you know…"
"They need a catalyzer. I just don't know what would work…"
It turned out they didn't really need to set up a catalyzer; they got one served on a silver platter to them… An alarm resounded through the tower letting the Avengers know something was threatening the city. When Peter and Justin looked out of the window they could see what it was for: through the streets below the tower marched row after row of identical, menacing-looking robot copies of Dr. Doom. Justin's mouth fell open.
"Oh my god is that what I think it is?"
The sound of a window smashing told them enough.
"If you were thinking something along the lines of evil robots invading, yup."
Peter remained rather stoic about it.
"I have to go. Where is Hela?"
"Err… I think Natasha took her out shopping…"
"Shit. Justin, please hide and stay away from windows!"
"Man, you don't think I'm going to miss out on this? I already missed out on the last evil invasion!"
Peter shook his head and ran to his room to don his Spiderman suit. In the meantime, all the Avengers –minus Natasha- had gathered and prepared for a serious battle. Tony didn't like leaving Loki, but he had no choice. The doombots showed no mercy to people nor buildings, crashing through it all in ever-growing waves.
"How did he ever manage to build so many of these bastards?"
Clint yelled over the come while shooting one explosive arrow after the other. Bruce had hulked out and was smashing multiple bots at once, their weapons useless against the sheer muscle power of the Hulk, and Tony was blasting away bots as well, part of his mind still with Loki and those wide eyes when he had told him he had to leave…. His old arc-reactor would be a temporary shield for the god while he was gone, but the elemental structure was slightly different so it wasn't as effective, and that worried him.
Steve's shield proved useful too against the bots, but he still was more occupied with rescuing civilians than actually fighting.
"I think they're being cloned or something, there is no way he could have hidden this many of them!"
"I'm going to look for the source!"
Tony flew away, over the rows of doombots, until a large shadow told him he had reached his goal. With large, booming steps an enormous contraption moved through the streets. It was shaped like an enormous doombot, and in the head Tony could see Dr. Victor Von Doom himself, laughing manically. From the bottom of the machine row after row of new doombots were "born". Tony tried his repulsors on the glass cabin, but it didn't avail. Suddenly the thickly accented voice of Dr. Doom resounded through the streets.
"How do you like the Ultra-Doom, Ironman? Don't you see now I am superior to all of you?"
His manic laugh cackled through the speakers as the gigantic contraption showed what appeared to be some kind of gun and blasted Tony away into the mass of bots.
(Pagebreak)
Loki had been watching it all on TV, trembling and shaking, and the moment he saw the Ultra-Doom blast away Tony it was as if a surge went right through his heart.
"TONY!"
He screamed, despite knowing that no one could hear him. A decision was quickly made after that... His magic was still weak, but the sheer panic of seeing Tony being harmed had Loki riled up with the Jotun equivalent of adrenaline. He conjured his battle armor, complete with his horned helmet and staff, and broke one of the enormous windows of Stark Tower. JARVIS called after him.
"Sir, could you please use the door?"
"No time!"
Hooking his staff in the building, Loki made a slide down, breaking all the windows he encountered on his way. Normally he would have teleported, but he needed to save his strength for battle…
(Pagebreak)
Tony was practically being trampled on by the endless amount of bots. He fought as hard as he could, but Doom's blast had damaged his propulsion system, making flying away from the machines practically impossible. He had to stay in the line of fire, shooting at everything around him while the energy levels of his suit slowly went down. He stopped listening to JARVIS' warnings, and therefor he also didn't hear the AI mention a certain Norse God had used his 44th story window as an emergency exit. Loki knew who was behind the attack, and it didn't please him. Not one bit. His anger and concern fueling his magic, he teleported right to the evil Ultra-Doom machine. He aimed his staff at the glass cabin and with a fiery green blast he made it crumble. He could hear Doom scream. With a flick of his wrist he teleported himself into the cabin, grabbing Dr. Doom by the collar… The evil scientist's eyes widen at the sight of Loki.
"Loki!?"
"Turn it off."
"Where… how…"
"TURN IT OFF!"
The anger was clearly written on the god's face, and the pointy end of his staff was dangerously close to Doom's main arteries, so Von Doom resolved to press a few buttons, making the evil contraption hold still and stop the production of extra doombots.
"Loki, where have you been? Why didn't you return my calls?"
Loki didn't answer the man, instead he grabbed him and threw him out of the machine, causing a big dent in the road below it. Then he appeared next to it and roughly pulled Dr. Doom up. The doctor was completely dumbstruck, not knowing what was going on with his former ally.
"What are you doing!? I thought you loved me, Loki!"
The god's face turned into a deep frown. Love, this man did not know love. He had fooled around, played a bit; they had had their fun, but love? No.
"You wouldn't know love if it bit you in the face, Victor!"
"I was worried! You disappear for months and now you're back you come sabotage my plans, what is WRONG with you?"
"You have no idea what I have been through!"
"Maybe I don't, but you are a selfish bastard, Loki Laufeyson!"
"And you are a disgusting little mortal fool and I detest you! You're an unfeeling monster!"
"You're one to speak! I loved you but you don't know love! You can't love, you have no HEART! How are your children by the way? Still as monstrous as always?"
If there's one thing you shouldn't do when fighting Loki, it's commenting on his children. With a roar of anger Loki stabbed his staff through Dr. Doom's suit. He knew it wasn't enough to kill him, but that didn't matter. He pulled out his weapon and proceeded to repeatedly hit the robot-man on the head with it, screaming.
"HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY CHILDREN? THEY ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN YOU WILL EVER BE AND I AM SURPRISED YOU STILL DARE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR YOU ARE THE UGLIEST THING IN THE NINE REALMS AND I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU!"
Doom was already unconscious but Loki just continued to divert his anger on him. When he had cooled down a bit he looked up, and saw the Avengers all staring at him, openmouthed. Apparently shutting down the Ultra-Doom machine also shut down all the other robots, and the team had been able to listen to the whole of his rant against Doom. Loki looked over the group of Avengers, trying to find Tony. He wasn't there. Another surge of panic rushed through his system. Where was Tony?
(Pagebreak)
The Ironman suit had had what it could have, and with no more power to either fly away or work his repulsors, Tony had thought he was done for. That was the moment that as by miracle all the doombots around him fell down like ragdolls. Unfortunately, one of the bots had fallen on him, and he was having trouble lifting the thing off him. His com wasn't functioning properly, but he suspected one of the others had managed to disable the Ultra-Doom machine and with that all the doombots. In a final feat he pushed the bot off his suit and crawled up, the joints of the suit creaking unpleasantly. What he saw when he looked up left him astonished... There were all the others, looking rather worse for wear, and… Loki. In full battle armor, screaming and yelling at what appeared to be an unconscious Dr. Doom.
"JARVIS, I am dreaming this, no?"
His faithful AI didn't answer, the connection had been broken, and all Tony could do was stand and stare…
(Pagebreak)
Loki saw Tony and rushed to him, ignoring the others.
"Tony!"
"Loki!"
If this had been a scene in some mushy romantic movie, Tony would have made a sarcastic comment on how ridiculous it is when two lovers run towards each other screaming out each other's names. Now the thought didn't even occur to him. He caught Loki in his arms and immediately felt as if a missing piece had been added to him. He clicked open his visor and got clear sight of the god of mischief who stood trembling in his arms, staff and all, his eyes wide and pleading.
"Tony…"
"Loki what are you doing here? I thought…"
"I saw he hit you. I couldn't… I couldn't leave you…"
Tony saw Loki was crying now.
"Don't cry…"
He pulled Loki closer and kissed him. Not a chaste smooch, but the kind of kiss worthy of being featured in a romantic movie ending. It felt as if the world spun around them, as if time stopped for a moment to make their kiss never-ending. It was warm and delicious, and so much better than even that one dream they had shared… Neither Tony nor Loki was eager to draw away, feeling as if their lips were made to be together like this. Eventually they did have to stop, mostly because the other avengers were making comments, the loudest coming from Clint.
"Oh for fuck's sake stop sucking at each other's face! You love each other, we know it now okay?"
Loki looked a little anxious at Tony.
"You… you love me?"
Tony had no better way to give his answer than pull the god in for another kiss, much to Clint's annoyance. He whispered against Loki's lips.
"Of course I love you."
(Pagebreak)
For once SHIELD had decided to send in cleanup teams, mostly because they wanted to have a look at Doom's new technology, so the whole team was present at the tower. Justin had followed the whole spectacle, both on TV and live from one of the big windows, and he looked worried when he saw Peter wasn't with them.
"Where is Spider?"
"I think he went to look for Natasha and Hela…"
Steve had made a correct assumption. Justin didn't ask any further though; his attention was drawn to Tony and Loki. Tony was free from his suit, but Loki was still in armor, pale and unstable on his feet. The engineer led him to a chair and took away his helmet and staff. Justin suspected something was wrong from the ease with which Loki let him do that. The others all felt awkward as Tony proceeded to take the quivering god in his arms and cradle him. Loki had been in an adrenaline rush, which had quickly made place for a chemical rush of something else that made him impossibly happy, and now he just crashed. While he mumbled unintelligible things, Tony glared at the rest of the team.
"Get. Out. Grant him some dignity, will you? There's booze in the kitchen too."
That was their cue to leave; they all moved to Frigga's territory. The Allmother had purposefully not followed the fight because she preferred not to interfere in Midgard business, but when she heard what was happening to Loki she abandoned the kitchen and rushed the living room.
"Man of iron, what is wrong with him?"
Tony looked at the worried face of the goddess and sighed.
"I think it's some sort of flashback. On the way back he just stopped reacting to us…"
"Will he be…"
"He will be okay. He just needs rest."
Or so Tony told himself. He carried Loki to the bedroom, freed him from his complicated battle armor and tucked him in. Then he crawled next to him and held him close.
"I love you, Reindeer Games. Don't you dare go all crazy catatonia on me, you hear me?"
Loki didn't respond, his eyes still open but absorbed in his own world. Tony closed the god's eyes and cradled him, running his hand through Loki's black tresses and whispering calming words. He was both happy and mad. Happy, because Loki loved him, and mad because Loki had put himself in danger by overexerting his magic in such a manner. At long last Loki's whimpering ceased, and Tony felt the tension in the god's muscles relaxed. He softly kissed Loki's lips and whispered.
"Sweet dreams, my love…"
(Author's Notes)
Mushy gushy looove! I couldn't help myself. Also I imagine Loki would go completely irrationally mad at anyone insulting his children xD
Then, I also took a little bit of inspiration from "I, Robot" for Loki's epic window action (anyone remembers the scene where Will Smith hooks his robot arm into a pillar and slides down like 50 stories?), the temptation was too big.
I hope you liked it! Please review!
Now, here follows a little christmas-themed snippet for my most loyal reviewer (she commented on EVERY chapter!) jaquelinelittle, loosely based on a suggestion of hers!
-Thor returns from Asgard looking positively beat. Of course the others worry what has happened...-
Tony: Wow. You look terrible.
Steve: Have you been fighting? Is there war in Asgard?
-Thor shakes his head and says.-
Thor: It's December again.
Everyone: Err... so?
Thor: December is the Allfather's hunting month, and that means the warriors get to drive together hundreds of Bilgesnipes for him to chase. And those don't like that all too much. I hate December! Mother doesn't like it too much either, and neither does Loki. He says Sleipnir will get an indigestion from all those carrots.
Everyone: Huh?
Thor: Don't you know then that the people of Midgard put cookies ready for my father when he passes, and in some countries it is customary to put a carrot ready for his horse Sleipnir! In return for their hospitality my father then leaves gifts!
Everyone: WHAT?
Tony (dumbstruck): You mean your dad is SANTA CLAUS?
Thor: Err...
Tony: And Sleipnir is Loki's son, right? So, if Odin is Santa Claus, and he rides Sleipnir, that makes Sleipnir the reindeer... Ermagerdh, I have unveiled THE MYSTERY!
Everyone: Err... What the fuck?
Tony: I finally understand those ridiculous horns on Loki's helmet! He is actually... A reindeer himself! I have totally picked the best nickname ever for him... (is smug)
-insert collective facepalm here-
PS: This is actually A TRUE STORY. Odin IS Santa Claus, according to the pre-christianization legends!