A/N: Okay, so, I've been having internet problems all week, so I thought I'd throw out two updates, one here and one on Like Poison for you guys while I can. If I disappear for a bit, well, that's why. Hopefully that won't happen.
Man-handled
Oh, Helheim. How degrading.
Pepper had oh so helpfully brought a disposable litter box, which she had then set up and placed in a corner of Tony's workshop, much to her boss's chagrin. Tony was treating it like a piece of alien technology, poking at its sides with his feet, and Loki was reacting much the same, sniffing at the box distrustfully and whacking at it with one paw.
Loki glared up at his "keepers" as the humans stood over him, waiting, expectant.
If you expect me to publicly defecate into a box, you are sorely mistaken.
"C'mon, go ahead, kitty." Annoyingly enough, Tony was starting to adopt some of Pepper's high-pitched, babyish tones when he spoke to Loki.
Loki glared at the man, ears flat against his scalp, before lifting his head and marching off. Even in his normal form, Loki would not have dignified that comment with a response.
Tony and Pepper exchanged uncomfortable glances. "I guess he doesn't have to go," Pepper offered with a shrug.
It took Tony hours to find Loki – the cat, and boy did that amuse him more than it should – after introducing him to his new litter box and cat food, hours that could have been better spent in his workshop or cozying up to some long-legged goddess. If he didn't know any better, Tony would say that the cat had been insulted by the litter box, and he did not want that cat to start peeing in his shoes out of spite or something. Pepper assured him that cats could be picky and moody at times but that Loki would get over it. Tony was beginning to think that he would much rather be a dog person.
When he did find Loki, the cat was under his bed, all glaring green eyes and teeth as he hissed at Tony. The rest of his body blended in with the darkness.
"Oh, don't give me that," Tony snapped, at the end of his patience. "Do you want Pepper to throw you back out on the street?"
The cat stopped hissing then. Tony reflected that it probably didn't speak well of his sanity that he was trying to reason with a cat. The look Loki gave him then was really just pathetic.
Tony's shoulders slumped, and much of his anger evaporated at the guilty look in those green eyes.
"Okay, okay, so I wouldn't actually throw you out."
Loki mewed softly in response.
"But this would be a hell of a lot easier if you stopped being a pain in the ass."
This time Loki's meow bordered on a growl, like a cat equivalent to a warning, Hey.
Okay, seriously. It was like the cat actually understood what he was saying. Tony shook his head and reached out slowly, cautiously, to pat Loki on the head. The cat stiffly allowed the contact for a moment, though he looked decidedly unimpressed, before sniffing and turning around.
"What are you doing?"
Tony crawled out from under the bed to look at Pepper in the doorway. He let out a long-suffering sigh.
"I think I just got the cold shoulder from a cat."
Tony did not see Loki for the rest of the day or the day after and decided to leave him be. On the third day, some of the food in the cat's dish had at least been poked at. He decided to let Pepper deal with the litter box.
By the fourth day, Loki grudgingly realized that his magic would be slow to return and that he had better get used to living as a cat.
After three days of sulking in the dark corners of the Stark Mansion, Loki decided to occupy himself by exploring the rest of the layout. None of the other Avengers were at the mansion that day, thankfully, so Loki was able to take his time. The place was tastefully decorated in the modern minimalist style, and Loki peered curiously at the high-end, expensive-looking gadgets and appliances. He could not resist poking a few of the shinier buttons and ended up turning on a stereo and making toast without even knowing how.
A startled and wild-eyed Pepper turned off the stereo and shooed Loki into the basement. Loki suspected she was going to eat his toast.
Loki skittered down the stairs on silent feet, slowing to look around him when he reached the bottom. Last time he came down here, he was too offended by the litter box to take in any details, and now he made up for lost time. Spare parts and half-assembled machinery littered every flat surface, except for a cleared path barely a foot wide that connected each section of the workshop. Compared to the almost sterile spotlessness of the rest of the house, this room was the only one that looked lived-in.
Loki's ears perked at the sound of muttering nearby.
"Hold still, hold still, hold still!"
Crash!
"Dammit."
Picking his way across the floor, Loki padded towards the voice – Tony's voice – and found the human bent over a desk, fiddling with something small that let off a soft blue light. Loki flinched as the human cursed and threw something behind him. The discarded object landed with a hollow clang.
Loki crept around the desk until he was next to Tony's foot. He craned his neck to look up at the human and saw his face awash in blue light, his mouth set in a grim line, but could not see what the human was working on.
Loki watched him for a long moment, cloaked in shadow, and marveled at the intense concentration that deepened the lines along the human's brow. Loki wondered if he wore that same expression when he pored over his spell-books.
He bristled at the comparison, decided he was bored, and swatted at the human's leg to get his attention. Tony twitched and yelped in surprise, turning wide eyes down at the green-eyed menace watching him expectantly. He chuckled softly and put down whatever he was holding.
"Hello there."
Loki mewed in greeting, earning him a smile from the human.
"C'mere, you."
Tony scooped up Loki and placed him in his lap, one hand holding the cat in place and the other stroking gently down his spine. Loki tensed and growled at the manhandling, but Tony whacked him lightly on the nose.
"None of that now," Tony admonished gently. Loki stopped growling but still held himself stiffly. Sitting in Pepper's lap had been one thing, but Tony was a man and this was all very untoward and – !
Oh.
Well then.
Tony's fingers, surprisingly agile, scratched behind Loki's ear just so, and the Trickster shivered, slowly relaxing into the touch. Those fingers moved again, now massaging Loki's scalp with just the right amount of pressure. Loki closed his eyes contentedly and hummed under his breath. The sound translated into a purr, but Loki decided he would be mortified later.
The hand braced against Loki's chest loosened its grip and then fell away to go back to fiddling with the glowing gadget. When the other hand fell away to join the first, Loki opened his eyes and the purr ebbed into silence. In Tony's hands was a round object nearly identical to the one that glowed in the middle of his chest. An "arc reactor", his brain supplied.
Was Tony planning on replacing the one in his chest with an upgrade or was he making a spare? Either way, Loki filed this information away for later. He knew this arc reactor was a source of great power, and already the gears in his mind were churning over what he could do with one of his own.
Loki watched the human work for a while, fascinated despite himself, and marveled at the delicate work those hands were capable of. He was used to warriors being large and ham-fisted like his brother, and this more cerebral side of Tony Stark intrigued him for reasons he could not pinpoint.
Loki was Loki, however, and he eventually grew bored. He whacked at Tony's hand to let him know that he did not like being ignored. Tony paused and looked down at the cat in his lap, arching one eyebrow wryly.
"Pushy, are we?"
Loki innocently returned the stare. Tony sighed heavily, put down the arc reactor, and leaned back in his chair. Those marvelous, clever fingers returned to Loki's scalp, and the Trickster sighed happily and let his eyes slide shut again.
Somewhere, in the decidedly Not-Cat part of Loki's brain, the god wondered lewdly what else this human could do with those hands.
Loki opened his eyes and studied Tony's face, which was attractive in its own way if he thought about it, with dark eyes and fine bone structure. In another life, perhaps.
Loki closed his eyes and enjoyed the massage.