Chapter Nine:

He was playing with one of Asta's stuffed bears when Steve found him in the kitchen. The half empty bottle of scotch next to the bear probably made for an odd sight but Tony really didn't care.

"So I think Loki's threatening to turn Clint into a toad if he comes near Asta with those weapons of his. For a man who stashed guns all over the place, he certainly doesn't want them anywhere near her." Understandable. The third day of her life, just yesterday, she had floated one of her own blankets to her. Loki denied doing it. Frigga had laughed and claimed the girl was very powerful indeed and he didn't miss the look of pride on her face.

"Hmmm..." was his reply, pretending like he didn't care. He'd been walking around like a zombie lately and he knew that hadn't endeared Odin to him. The man had been shooting him looks of distaste the whole time he'd been staying in the house. Frigga hadn't approached to talk to him again, content it seemed to stop whatever meddling she'd been doing. Tony couldn't help but hate her a little for it.

Steve let out an irritated little huff and grabbed the bottle of scotch. Tony looked up blearily as he went to pour the rest down the drain. That was expensive.

"Steve, you know how money that is?"

"Is that what you're complaining about? You've given up. You're not even going to fight for them and you're sitting here drowning yourself like your father would and you think that's just fine? You think it's just fine you're condemning her to not knowing her father?"

"Fuck you. She's better off. Crappy father I am anyway, what do I know about it? Just a workaholic who couldn't even be bothered to tell his son he loved him till after he was dead. I can't take care of her. I can't protect her."

"You're not in this alone Tony," Steve said, sitting down. Tony sighed, even the rest of the Avengers aren't enough. There were only a few of them, the government held thousands more. Steve wouldn't understand.

"It doesn't matter Steve. Do you think Loki wants to stay here? He hates earth, hates humans. There she'd be raised as a princess, could do all the magic she wants without worrying about getting the attention of the wrong people. It's for the best." The look on his face surely said that it didn't matter what Tony himself really wanted.

Steve put his hand on Tony's shoulder. Manly show of support. "I spent seventy years in ice. I don't remember it. But I do remember her voice. The last thing she said to me. Knowing that I wasn't coming back. The date we never got to have. And I'll never forget it."

"You're going to live a long time Tony. So are they. Do you really want to go through life alone?"

Tony sat alone in his workshop that night thinking. The gods were upstairs packing up things that Asta didn't need to be parted with for their trip home the next morning. Thor would be going with them for a while, but had promised to be back, that he wasn't abandoning the team. He had given Tony a rather pointed look as he said it.

Tony felt like crying but he didn't know how. So he drowned himself in another bottle of scotch and hid. Emotional stability, they name was Tony Stark. And he worked on one of his cars. The same car incidentally that he and Loki had their second encounter in. Maybe he should set it on fire. But then he'd have to set his whole house on fire, to many memories. He suddenly understood why couples that had lost love ones moved from their homes.

He turned around to get a wrench and saw an apple was sitting on his desk. He suddenly felt like he hated apples. He stalked over irritated to throw it out and stopped. There was a note pinned to it. Outside. It said outside. His eyebrows furrowed in contemplation.

She was standing outside with a scowl on her face. An image he'd seen often the past few months but not one he'd thought he'd be seeing again. For one, the fact that the scowl was on her face, when Loki could now stay as a man that he normally was without harm to anyone. Her hair was curled up in the same way it had been the night he'd taken her out to the gala and she had on a long, leather coat. Snow flakes were hitting her hair.

"What...what are you doing?" Her face didn't even softened from her scowl. This was the first time in days he didn't see her with Asta. He was concerned. What if something had happened? Had Odin and Frigga lied and made off with the girl? No, couldn't be. Loki wouldn't be calm. And slightly irritated was perfectly calm in Loki's books.

"Come on," she snapped, grabbing his hand. Tony followed her numbly to...a limo that had been parked outside. Was that Happy in the driver's seat?

"I don't..." she shoved him inside, and closed the door shut behind her. "Where are we going?" He watched as his mansion disappeared as the car started to move. Loki had conjured up a rag and was wiping the grease off his hands and face.

He grabbed her wrist to stop her, "Tell me what's going on?"

"You're a mess, I'm fixing you up." He could see that, but why?

"Why do you look like this?"

Loki stopped scowling and cast her eyes down, suddenly seeming vulnerable. An image he'd never really seen her as, not even in the heights of her weakness as her magic dropped had she ever seemed vulnerable. Loki always had a trick. What was this one?

"Father...there is a loophole. It's stupid really and I don't...you probably won't want this but she needs you, I'm not human. She's got your genetics and well...I don't want her to feel like an outsider. We're going to a church. I asked Pepper where to go." She didn't look up at him. Was she...telling him she wanted to marry him? That she wanted him there with them?

"You want to get married." It wasn't a question.

"Yes...for Asta. It's best for her. Thor was right. As hard as it is to say but he is sometimes. Father won't split up someone married just because he thinks human eyes shouldn't see Asgard."

Tony nodded, staring at her. She still wasn't looking at him. It was a good plan really, even if it meant taking him away from everything he knew. But she would have thought about that, and she wouldn't have approached this if she thought he really didn't want to stay with Asta, even if it meant leaving Earth.

"Best for Asta?"

"Yes!"

"So...nothing about what's best for you? What you want?" He was reaching. He was probably wrong.

Loki snapped, "Don't be stupid." Her eyes were still on the seat. Her put his hand on her chin and lifted her face up. She looked at the door. Tony smirked.

"Alright. Let's go get married," he said. She nodded. She tossed a suit at him that she had apparently been keeping cloaked. He grabbed his phone and texted Happy.

Twenty minutes later the limo stopped. Tony was dressed and didn't even look as if a half hour before he'd been covered in engine grease. Loki was about to open the door when he grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Don't. We're not at the church." Loki tossed him a confused, angry look.

"You can't tell me you changed your mind three seconds ago."

"I didn't. This is California."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Tony smiled, "You're not a girl. Don't get me wrong, you are a gorgeous woman, but you're not one. And I'm not going to marry a lie."

Loki stared, "You want...me? What about your media public?"

"I don't think that's going to matter if I'm going to be gone. I'll have Pepper say I retreated to a private Island somewhere after our daughter's birth. Lucy...was a carrier for our child but I was really with her twin brother. It will be a scandal. The media will eat it up."

"So what, shock value? One last trick?" Tricks were something Loki would always be able to understand but while it would be fun to see America's reaction, that wasn't it.

"No. This is for you. Because despite the fact that you are manipulative, maniacal, drive me completely nuts and always will, I want you. Exactly as you are. My life, long as it now will be, never be boring. And I don't want you to have to lie."

Loki wiped angrily at his face. Hiding tears? Maybe he'd messed up with this and Loki was going to order Happy to take them back, that he no longer thought this was a good idea. Crap, what if he'd overstepped? It felt like diving off a cliff.

Loki opened the door, got out. The courthouse came into view behind them.

Loki rolled his green eyes, "Are you coming?" He started to walk away. Tony laughed and got out to follow him. A stray thought crossed his mind as he caught up to him going up the steps. Was he wearing a dress underneath that coat?