"We are the champions, my friends...", Tony hummed and picked up the tunics that had miraculously appeared in his room overnight. They didn't have the strong red of the others he had received, two of which were of a light blue and the other two dark green, the latter also with golden threads woven into the collar and the ends of the sleeves. "And we will keep on fighting 'til the end..." Together with the tunics, three new pairs of the leather trousers had been stacked onto the chair in front of his desk and he loaded them onto his arms, too, so he could carry everything over to the wardrobe that he hadn't used so far. Singing louder with every word, he went on: "We are the champions, we are the champions..." He was here for seven days and got a workshop, clothes and a daily workout. That counted as spoilt, didn't it? "No time for losers, 'cause we are the champions..." He stuffed the clothes into the wardrobe, slammed its door shut, whirled around with a great flourish and finished: "Of the wooorld!"
For a moment, he just stood there with his arms spread wide open. I am Tony Stark, owner (former owner?) of Earth's greatest weapons company, sold to slave traders – space slave traders, mind you – and bought by an alien prince who has a dick father and too many enemies, and now I'm standing in another world in a palace with my pyjamas on, doing my laundry and singing Queen. Make a movie out of this and people will tell you that the storyline is awful and far too crazy to be real. For some reason, the thought made him grin. Then giggle. A minute later, Loki burst into the room to find the engineer clutching his sides and shaking with laughter, propped up against the wardrobe.
"Anthony, what..." He broke off and just stared at Tony for a moment. "Are you alright?"
It sent the inventor into another fit of hysterical laughter and between gasps, he managed to reassure: "Don't you worry, Prince Charming, Snow White is- is just fine! She might've lost her mind though, but you won't notice. Not much of a difference, really." Loki's expression, torn between amused and worried, caused him to crack up even more and by the time he calmed down, he had to wipe tears out of his eyes in order to see clearly.
"Are you done?", the mage, who had made himself comfortable in the large armchair next to the bed, asked. Although he clearly still didn't know what had caused Tony's little outburst, he seemed amused by it.
"Yeah, I am. Sorta." The engineer grinned. "Thanks... thanks for the clothes, by the way."
"They were not, by chance, the cause of your delight, were they?", Loki asked suspiciously. Now that his laughter had ebbed off, Tony found the silence strangely uncomfortable and so he just shook his head and worked on filling it: "Nope, they just made me think about... something else. Bit complicated. Did you plan anything for today?"
The prince nodded after a short pause, apparently accepting that he wouldn't learn anything about Tony's fit of maniacal cackling, and explained: "Breakfast is the first, of course, but then I would like to take you to the healers – or, if you are more comfortable with that, to my mother – so someone can take a look at the poisoning and if we can do anything to get rid of it faster." He paused and Tony hesitantly nodded his agreement. Something told him that Loki actually waited for it and would accept 'no' for an answer if he insisted on it, and that was exactly what made him agree. "I will need to attend a council meeting afterwards", the mage continued with an annoyed grimace, "and you can choose yourself whether you would like to spend the time in the library, your laboratory or in the kitchen – just make sure you find the kitchen this time." The last sentence was accompanied by a sharp look and Tony shot the god an audacious grin, causing a sigh and an eye-roll. "Afterwards, we will have our training session..."
"Yeah, about that", the inventor cut in. Better say it now than later. "We're not doing three hours again. I'm serious, and don't give me that look, but I really can't take it, not before the palladium is out of my system. Remember yesterday? We started well before lunch and I was out for the whole afternoon, that's not healthy. I'm just a weak little mortal, I can't take it just now. We can do more when I'm up and running again, but at the moment, I'm not." He exhaled slowly and, somewhat anxiously, waited for Loki's response.
The mage, to his surprise, just nodded and said: "Two hours, then."
"One."
"One and a half, and I will go easy on you."
"Deal." Well, that had been surprisingly easy. "And then?"
"I thought about showing you around the palace for the rest of the afternoon", the prince answered. "There are some beautiful places I could show you."
"Sounds great", Tony replied with a smile. "So, breakfast now?"
"Breakfast now", Loki confirmed and stood up. "I will wait in my room until you are..." He looked Tony up and down once. "...ready." Right. Pyjamas. Silk pyjamas.
Blushing despite himself, Tony gathered himself up from the floor and responded: "Yeah, you go... do that. Waiting. Ready in a minute." He forced his mouth shut before he could end up stammering something embarrassing and turned towards the wardrobe again. He probably just imagined the chuckle before Loki left the room... right?
Looking over his shoulder to make sure that he really was alone, he opened the buttons of the long-sleeved pyjama and listened to the whispering sound that only silk could produce as it slid off his shoulders. While he laid it over the back of the chair at the desk, the thought occurred to him that he had never been this careful with his own things before. Well, look what it does to you when you don't have 'your own things' anymore for a while. Staring at the tunics on the dark shelves, he noticed that he hadn't had to choose between different clothes for months and for a moment it felt like something this simple was going to be too much for him, but then he remembered that he had seen Loki in barely anything than green and black so far and reached for one of the green tunics. Not because he wanted to please Loki, just because it was the first choice. Yeah, instead of the colour you chose yourself when he asked you. Seems legit, Tony.
Shut up, brain.
He ran a hand through his hair, slipped the tunic on and changed into one of the leather trousers. He was just going to have breakfast, nothing more, there was no reason to make a fuss out of it.
Despite that, he found himself hesitating when he stood in front of Loki's door, taking a deep breath and only then knocking softly. There was a quiet "Come in" from inside and Tony opened the door, once again looking around the god's quarters. The sun illuminated the room in soft colours and it looked more domestic than when Tony had first seen it: The bed wasn't tidied up yet, a book and some papers were laying next to a pillow
Loki was just stacking a roll of parchment on the huge desk on top of another one, creating some free space around the tablet with food standing near the table's edge. He looked up and smiled when the inventor came in, gesturing towards the table: "I do not usually eat in here... at least not with guests." Tony grinned as he pictured Loki on the large armchair in dark green silk pyjamas, a book on his lap and some sort of pastry in his hands, or maybe even having breakfast in bed, complete with tousled hair and lazily turning the book's pages as he ate. The image was disturbingly adorable. Stop thinking about that. Loki is a lot of things, cute is not one of them. "But I would rather not have breakfast with Odin today."
Tony nodded his understanding, but decided not to strike a conversation about that topic right now. Mentioning his father's name had caused Loki's eyes to darken already, so he decided to talk about something else and chose the first thing that came to his mind: "I've been thinking about the thing with the library, because that sounds really great and all, but... I don't think I can read a single book in there. So I thought, when you're currently not busy with some... regal council stuff and everything, you could maybe, you know..." He shrugged, briefly wondering why he was so hesitant to pose the question – maybe it was too much to ask for? But Loki could always decline, couldn't he? Asking couldn't hurt. "...you could teach me? How to read it, I mean. Maybe even speak. Oh, and by the way, it would be pretty interesting to know how almost every alien I've met so far spoke English. With different accents, mind you."
Loki looked outright delighted on the prospect of teaching him. Not the wrong thing to ask for, then, Tony thought with a smile when the god responded: "I would love to teach you about anything you would like to learn." It sounded fond and excited at the same time, as if it was rare that anyone ever wanted to know anything from him – which was something Tony couldn't really imagine, with all the knowledge Loki had proven that he had in their previous conversations. Then again, judging by the impressions he had gotten so far, your average Aesir warrior didn't go about reading books all that often. He was glad that Loki was the exception to that rule.
The reply made the engineer grin – he was probably more excited about this than Loki was. He hadn't really had the opportunity to do any science-related things in months and now he was just getting back into it. He literally had a new world to explore and someone by his side who was willing to help him. What could possibly go wrong n- don't ask that question if you don't want an answer.
He sat down in the chair Loki nodded towards and asked: "So we're going to do that, yes? When do we start? I mean, we could of course, after dinner – or maybe after the palace tour..."
Loki handed him a soft bread roll and cut in with a smile: "Or we could skip the palace tour and head for the library after our spar."
"That might be the most wonderful thing you've said today", Tony stated with a grin and pretended not to notice how their fingers brushed against each other. It took him a moment to notice, though, that he hadn't flinched at the casual touch, which was... okay, Loki had exchanged his arc reactor which was about as intimate as it got, but still. He just... still wasn't used to touches he didn't have to shy away from. Touches that meant no harm. "Change of topic. I'm curious. Do I get to know what kind of brainwave did you have yesterday?" He felt the ghost touch of Loki's kiss on his forehead again and dear god, I'm not blushing right now, that's ridiculous.
The prince looked contemplative for a moment, as if he was considering how much he wanted to tell Tony. Well, seemed like there were some not-so-innocent plans at work here... Eventually, he settled for: "You will know, soon. I'd rather keep it a surprise."
"I love surprises", Tony chuckled, although he did it with the distinct notion that this particular surprise wouldn't be all that pleasant for some people. "So I won't pose any further questions, promise. And I suppose we won't be mentioning that in front of other people?"
"We won't", Loki agreed with a small smile. "Now, shall we move on to more enjoyable topics? There is something called the 'All-Speak' that you said interested you..."
#
Tony was a lot of things. A genius was one of them, an idiot was not. Which... was actually tautological, but not the point right now. The point was Loki.
He turned a tool over in his hands and thought about the morning, the evening before that, the midday he had spent sparring with Loki. He wasn't blind and Fandral's words had made him see things in a different light. A very different light. It wasn't even like it hadn't been there before, but he hadn't looked for it.
The first thing he had noticed when he had started to actually look for it, though, were small, lingering touches – never enough to make him uncomfortable, often fleeting enough for him not to notice up until now. The way Loki would lay a hand on Tony's lower back when he reached around him for a book on the desk with the other one. The way his fingers curled around the engineer's forearm as they were both bent over that same book some minutes later, their shoulders touching each other. The way Loki's fingers ran through his hair, tousling it playfully, and then lingered there for a little too long to be natural as he said goodbye to Tony when he had to attend his council meeting (they had ended up discussing the concept of All-Speak over breakfast so excessively that the prince had almost been late, so they had decided to visit Frigga afterwards).
The inventor found that he didn't mind this kind of familiarity at all. That didn't mean that he wanted some sort of... relationship with Loki (still straight here, thank you very much), but the mage didn't make him feel cornered or intimidated with his behaviour. It was just... comfortable, being touched without expecting pain in the next second.
There were Loki's glances, too. As he had entered the room this morning and Loki had seen that he wore the green tunic, there had been a brief flash of... something in his eyes, akin to satisfaction or just delight at seeing Tony in the colour that seemed to be his trademark here. Whenever he thought that Tony wasn't looking, sometimes even when he was, his eyes grew softer for a moment and he seemed thoughtful as if solving a riddle while not being sure if he really wanted a solution.
To sum it up: Loki was giving him signals, and he'd be lying if he said that he knew what to make of them. He wouldn't bring the topic up, that much was sure, but he felt like Loki would do it at some point, and he had no idea how he was going to react. It was going to be a disaster, a really fucking big disaster, and things were starting to look good right now so he wanted to avoid screwing up. Which meant he would have to talk to Loki. Or just go along with whatever Loki wanted...
"For Christ's sake, Tony, get a grip on yourself!", he snapped and threw the tool he had been toying with onto the table. "That's not even an option."
"Am I interrupting?", Loki asked from the door and the engineer almost fell from his chair before he managed to turn around so he could see the prince. He leaned in the door frame and smiled a little half-smile that looked partly sceptical, partly amused. A bit like when he had walked in on Tony's little Queen-debut in the morning. He seemed to have a knack for finding him in awkward situations. "Should I leave again? Are you having a moment?"
"Oh, shut up", Tony threw his way, although he felt a smile creeping its way onto his expression despite himself.
"No, I wouldn't want to disturb this deep conversation you seemed to be in", the mage continued, making a soothing gesture with his hands. "Tabletops make for the most interesting interlocutors, especially when it comes to listening."
"What did they give you to eat on that council meeting?", Tony demanded, trying not to laugh. "Are you seriously talking to me about the conversational skills of tables?"
"Well, otherwise I would have to tell you about the conversational skills of Odin's council, which makes tables appear like a really interesting topic", Loki explained drily. "Please don't make me talk about it. Should we head for Frigga's quarters right away?"
"Yeah, why not", the inventor replied and stood up, stretching and wincing at the popping sounds in his spine. He'd been sitting at the table for far too long, but he had decided to make a little catalogue of all the things he had down here. It would surely take a while, but he had the time, after all. "Sparring before or after lunch?"
"Do you feel like sparring after eating?", Loki asked back with a raised eyebrow while they began to make their way through the hallways of the castle. Tony wordlessly shook his head and the god nodded with a smile. "I thought so."
"To pick that up where we left off before", the engineer mused, "I understand that the All-Speak translates whatever you say into whatever the other party can understand. But what I don't get yet is how people acquire that sort of skill. Is it something you were born with? Because if you are, and the All-Speak translates what you want to say analogously, then how about babies? Imagine you've got some two-year-old there who goes all 'Dada mama baba' on you while he actually wants to tell you how wonderful that fountain over there looks – wait, is that a pig? A pig with horns? Antlers? Seriously, what the hell is that statue? Is that guy trying to kill it or does he... I don't even know." Frowning in confusion, Tony stared at the figure in the middle of the fountain in the hall they were currently passing through while Loki beside him laughed in amusement over his obliviousness.
"It is a bilgesnipe", he replied, which, thank you, was not answering any questions. "You don't know those?" Tony wordlessly shook his head and the prince promised: "I will show them to you one day. As soon as you are better."
"O-kay", Tony said slowly. Welcome to my world. We have magicians, golden castles and pigs with antlers. Why not? "Good thing my biology teacher isn't here to see this."
"Your teacher?", Loki repeated.
"My old teacher", the engineer corrected. "I don't know how things like that work here, but I used to go to school. As a prince and everything, you probably got private tutoring, but I visited an official college. It's not that great when you're younger and still smarter than everybody else around you. People don't tend to like it when someone they consider a kid tells them how to do their stuff and is right about it." He shrugged and looked around, searching for something to talk about that wasn't his stupid fellow college students. It wasn't hard to find something, really. "I get why you live for thousands of years", he muttered. "Over the half of that is probably spent with walking through this giant castle-thing. Seriously, how big is this? It's not a castle anymore, it's a city in a building. There's nothing you don't have in here, is there?"
"Congratulations", Loki replied with a grin, "you have understood Asgard." He made a wide motion with one arm and the other hand found its way to the small of Tony's back. The inventor refused to admit that he leaned into the touch, walked a little closer to Loki – a little, okay? It didn't have to mean anything. "Some of the people here have never seen anything but the walls of this palace. That is probably the reason why they are so incredibly boring."
Tony chuckled and watched the people around them. The crowd consisted of some people, probably nobles, with extravagant clothing and their noses high in the air, others were wearing armours and had weapons hanging from their belts, and then there were those who had a mixture of both, elaborate designs of layers and layers of fabric and metal. Some of them looked like they had seen a lot in their lives, but others... yeah, for most of them he could imagine nothing but boring dinners and sophisticated discussions over a cup of tea, especially the women. Looking at them, he found it hardly surprising that the Aesir seemed prejudiced when it came to them, they met just about every preconception he could imagine. Apart from that Sif-girl who had been with Thor, maybe, but she seemed to be the rare exception.
"Is it a good idea to say something like that in the middle of a crowd?", he asked anyway. There were a lot of people around to hear Loki call them boring and that might not be all that good if he met some of them on his council meetings later on.
The mage just waved his concerns off though and responded: "They are too busy trying to catch other people's attention to pay some to their surroundings themselves. We could be plotting the demise of the Nine Realms for all they care." Tony laughed and if he leaned a little closer to Loki while doing so, well, that had to be a coincidence.
The god bent down a little and started to mumble something about the people coming their way with a hushed voice: "Do you see the one over there? With the blue dress and the red hair? She started to cheat her husband two centuries ago and he still has no idea – he does the same, anyway. And that blonde over there? I might or might not have dyed her hair green a few years ago. Stop looking at me like that, she deserved it, her voice gave me headaches for days on end when she tried to lecture me about magic. And the oaf with the tousled beard once taunted me because magic was, and I quote, nothing that can even slightly bother a true warrior. For some reason, his furniture stuck to the ceiling for the next week." And it went on, and on, and on. Tony lost it completely when Loki changed the sword of a snobby lord passing them by into a tree's branch full of dark green leaves and by the time they reached the quieter part of the castle where Frigga's quarters were, the inventor leaned on the god for support, clutching his sides because he was laughing so hard. Loki was chuckling next to him, too, and they stopped in front of the door to Frigga's rooms to calm down a little.
Apparently, they were too loud to be overheard though. Only half a minute after their arrival, the queen opened her door with a curious look and looked at her son and his companion, both leaning against the opposite wall, Tony with one arm over his stomach and the other clinging to Loki's tunic to hold himself upright and Loki with his arm around the engineer's shoulders.
"Loki", Frigga began cautiously, "what did you do?"
"No-nothing", the prince gasped, giving her his most innocent smile that was completely ruined by Tony cascading in another wave of laughter next to him. Loki threw him a glance and amended: "Nothing really bad."
"Better or worse than the Bragi-incident?", she asked with a sigh.
"Not as bad", Loki replied and the inventor, straightening up, shot him a curious look. "I will tell you about it. Later."
Tony bit his tongue and tried to maintain a straight face while he greeted Frigga with a small bow and followed her inside together with Loki. The queen's calm, not even slightly exasperated behaviour (judging by her knowing smile, she probably had just as much fun with her son's pranks as he did – she was just better at hiding it) only increased Tony's respect for her. It had to be wonderful to have her for a mother.
He sobered up a little when they sat down – he knew what was coming now and although he knew that she wouldn't harm him in any way, he was still uncomfortable with people seeing the reactor (or him without a shirt in general). It was... something else with Loki.
"This is about the poisoning, isn't it?", she asked and the inventor nodded. "Loki told me about it."
"It's already better", Tony assured, "we took care of the source already. It's just the after-effects now, but Loki wanted that I let someone take a look at it and I... yeah." He shrugged, averting his eyes, and was suddenly incredibly grateful for Loki's steady hand that had inconspicuously found its way to his back again. "I'd like someone to see it whom I..." Trust, he wanted to say, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it and settled instead for: "...know."
The queen nodded with a smile and replied: "I understand. Shall we get it done, then?"
"Yeah", the engineer replied and swallowed. "Of course." Nothing's happening, Loki is here and she's the impersonation of the perfect mum. There's nothing that could go wrong, he tried to reassure himself while he took a hold of the tunic's rim and then pulled it over his head in one swift motion. Just to keep talking, he said: "My body is already disposing of it, I think I just sweated out a big part of it yesterday, so... it's just a matter of time, really. I have no idea if it left any permanent damage though." He stared at the cushions next to Frigga intently while she leaned forward to look at the black lines around the reactor. They had slightly faded already – not completely, but they were a lot less visible than two days before.
With Loki next to him, and a lot of resolve, he managed not to freak out while Frigga examined him with careful touches (she always asked before making contact, but he never managed more than a hasty nod in response) and magic (whatever she did there, but it felt almost more intimate than touching him). In the end, she told Loki that she'd give them something that Tony should eat with his meals, but otherwise leave the palladium to his body to deal with. He felt the tension drain from his shoulders when he finally had the tunic on again and dared to meet Frigga's eyes again. What he saw was disturbingly close to pity, and he really didn't need any of that.
Before he could say anything to drive the emotion out of her gaze, there was a knock on the door. The queen looked surprised, but called out for the visitor to come in. A young girl slipped through the door, apparently a servant, and leaned down to whisper something in the queen's ear. Frigga's eyes widened for a moment, but she schooled her expression into calmness again with a glance towards Tony and Loki.
The girl hurried out of the room again and Frigga rose from her seat and said: "You, both of you, need to leave. Now. I will pass the potion to you later on, but you cannot stay here now."
Loki regarded her with a concerned frown and asked: "What happened? Why do..."
"Not now, Loki!", she interrupted and urged her son towards the exit with a hand between his shoulder blades, Tony following her wordlessly and confused. "I will explain everything to you, but I cannot have you and Anthony here while..." She opened the door and stopped dead in her tracks for a second before she plastered a polite smile onto her face. "Freyja! What a lovely surprise. Why don't you come in?" Tony felt like all air had left his lungs. In front of him, Loki had clenched his fists tightly and was taking a deep, slow breath. "My son was just about to leave."
"Oh, no", the goddess responded with a silky laugh. "I was here to see him and his little... friend, anyway." Her voice was smooth and full of fake friendliness.
"I think Loki has somewhere to be", Frigga replied coolly and opened the door a bit wider.
"It's fine, I have time", the mage cut in, his voice carefully levelled. "Anthony, would you..."
"He stays here, too", Freyja interrupted.
"He has better things to do", Loki responded sharply. Tony, standing behind him so he couldn't really see Freyja, swallowed and tried to keep his breathing from becoming erratic. Loki would handle this and whatever Freyja wanted from him, it would turn out okay. For sure. Right?
"Oh, but I insist", the goddess answered, her voice spiked with a sudden sharpness now. "I think you owe me a little favour, don't you, Loki?"
For a moment, the room was filled with a tense silence until the prince took a step back to let Freyja in without a word. Frigga gave him a worried look (did she know about the dress thing?) and closed the door, following the others back inside.
Freyja had taken a seat in the armchair that Frigga had occupied before. The other seats, one couch and two other armchairs, were situated opposite from the one the goddess sat in, creating the atmosphere of a trial with the three others in front of her like sitting before a judge. Loki guided Tony to sit down next to him on the couch, Frigga on his other side, and glared at their uninvited guest with his hands clenched to fists in his lap. The engineer did his best not to fidget at his side, but he could feel panic building up inside of him and there was no way that was going to get better anytime soon.
Freyja watched them with a self-satisfied little smile until Loki broke the silence, speaking up with a cutting edge to his voice: "I know that you want compensation, so why delay this any longer? There is nothing I cannot give you, name your wish and then leave." The way he pronounced the last word, he could have said die as well.
"I am fully aware that there is nothing I could ask for that would be really difficult to arrange for a royal prince of Asgard", Freyja stated, still with that smug little smile on her lips. "I will not ask for gold, jewellery or anything the like. I am sure that it is in both our best interest if we keeps these incidents under wraps, isn't it? To ensure that, I think money will just not do."
"I did not ask you for what you don't wish for", Loki responded, his voice tense, and spread his arms slightly. "Tell me what you want. Artefacts? Books? Spells? Secrets? Anything in my possession, just choose something."
"Anything in your possession?", Freyja repeated, leaning forward with her eyes shining like those of a dangerous animal. Tony felt ice creep up his spine as he understood. Loki, no, he thought, staring at the god with wide eyes and biting his lip so he didn't blurt out anything stupid. Don't say anything wrong now, this is...
"Anything", the prince confirmed and Tony curled a hand around his own wrist, nails digging into his skin, to suppress the urge to stand up and run the moment he heard the word. You idiot, don't tell me you didn't get that, why did you... He tore his gaze away from Loki and met Freyja's eyes that had settled on him with a cold, satisfied glint in them.
Without breaking eye-contact with Tony, a sharp grin on her lips, she stated: "I want him."
#
Hey, did you notice how I never pulled cliffhangers on you during the last chapters? Time I got back into the game, isn't it?