HUD: I've decided to just update things sporadically with oneshots sprinkled in. Be prepared.
"What are you - no, no, like, that can - dude! Stop, just stop."
Tony dropped his face to his palm and groaned. This was just too much. Maybe he'd finally bitten off more than he could chew.
Or maybe Loki was just intentionally being an ass.
"What?" His low voice purred in Tony's ear. "Am I doing something incorrect?"
"Yes," Tony hissed. He rubbed his eyes and breathed through his nose. "So much, so much."
"Then perhaps you should course correct," Loki continued. Tony imagined he found his fingernails more interesting than the computer screen right then. Or he was reading a book - again.
"I've told you twice now to not run off without me. You're level five and these things are level twelve and I'd really rather not scrape your ass off of the cobblestones," Tony snapped. His patience had finally reached an end.
After two hours of explaining the basics to Loki with Thor and then another hour after the blond had to go to class, Tony was about done. Loki was intentionally sabotaging his teaching. When Thor had been on the team, he seemed to not understand that Loki was having him on whenever he asked a silly question or 'accidentally' caught the marauder on fire; Tony couldn't help but snigger when that ire wasn't aimed on him, but now it wasn't so funny.
Loki really was an ass.
"So either take this seriously or I'm logging off and you can handle these giants walking termites by yourself," Tony finished, grabbing his water bottle a little forcefully. He was lucky Bruce wasn't there or he'd catch an earful.
There was a moment of silence filled with just the natural background music of The World, a chorus of crickets and soft rustling of wind in leaves and grass. They were in a small woodsy area behind an abandoned castle; it was a great training spot that Tony found not too long after starting the game. Sometimes he'd take to hanging there to practice a new skill or work on his melding. Only low level enemies drifted by so often, leaving the user pretty much in solitude.
As Tony took a sip of his water he stared at he monitor, his eyes on Loki's avatar. The dark magician was decked out in the highest level gear he could have (which, thanks to Tony, was nearly level forty). The robes were dark green with a gold trim and he carried a gold staff with a glowing blue cube on the top. He looked pretty badass, if Tony did say so himself, but none of that mattered if Loki wasn't going to actually do anything.
"I...apologize, Tony." Tony blinked - did he really just hear that? "I just - "
Tony felt a pang of guilt. He'd volunteered the guy, after all, and he felt like had Loki not trailed off, his answer would be more along the lines of 'I don't want to play'. "What?"
Another moment of silence; Tony wondered if Loki was struggling to explain. He decided to cut him a break. Loki didn't seem to be too forthright with personal info, anyway.
"How 'bout we go over a few more things and then call it quits for the day, hmm?" Tony offered. He heard a barely audible sigh of relief.
"That would be fine."
They continued like that for about a week - Tony brought Loki to his little hideaway and guarded him against anything too big and let him loose on whatever Tony deemed he could handle. Before long, Loki finally began to grasp a few things and became comfortable with his character. The man was by no means unintelligent - in fact, Tony loved his snark and comments on whatever Tony shared. Their conversations eventually moved from just revolving around The World to schoolwork and then whatever lay beyond. Which for Tony was a little limited, but for Loki wasn't even close. Tony got treated to quite the imagery to Loki's daily life.
Other members of the guild would jump on to help with Loki's training when Tony couldn't, and after the first week, Tony and Bruce took Loki to a low level dungeon. They made quick work of every enemy and loot chest, and once the boss was up, Loki's debuffs and battle magic were so spot on Tony could've cried for joy. While they were splitting up the loot, Tony pushed his headset down and looked over his shoulder at Bruce. "You think he's ready?"
Bruce shrugged and clicked his mouse. "Could be. He's definitely catching on well, learning to read the AI and navigating his hot bar decently."
Tony blinked. "But?"
Bruce shrugged. "But what?"
"There's always a but, Bruce. I could practically hear it."
Bruce sighed and removed his glasses to rub between his eyes. "Something isn't right. I feel like there's something off. He's doing too well for only a few weeks' practice - "
"He's smart," Tony immediately defended. "Hella smart. And being a dark magician isn't rocket science."
"No," Bruce sighed. "But there's still something - "
A soft ping interrupted from Tony's desktop. He turned to see a private message from Loki.
Are you well?
Tony felt his stomach flip. He was fine, obviously, just hashing shit out with Bruce, but he had muted himself without so much as a word to the wise. Was Loki worried something had happened to him? The thought made him feel warm.
Yeah, I'll be back in a sec. ;)
Tony stifled his widened grin at the little flirty emoji he sent and turned back to Bruce, all Serious Business. "You were saying?"
Bruce sighed again and shook his head. "I don't think he wants to play. I don't think he and his brother get along very well, and having to work together doesn't seem like something Loki's a big fan of."
Tony nodded. "I can agree with that last part - during training, he seemed to go out of his way to use Thor's avatar as a target for a few spells." He tapped his fingers on his desk. "The other, I dunno. He's taken pretty well to everything."
Bruce paused, as if struggling with himself to decide if he should share something. Tony just waited; Bruce always told him everything, anyway. He just needed to be patient. "Natasha and I took him to a slightly higher dungeon a few days back."
Tony felt his stomach clench, this time not in the 'warm-and-fuzzy' way, but the...annoyed way. "I didn't know you guys took him for runs without me."
Bruce smiled apologetically. "She wanted to see how his progress was coming along, and, well, she wasn't impressed."
Tony balked. "Seriously? How could she not? He just did great with us - "
"With you, Tony," Bruce corrected. "He kept 'forgetting' to debuff me and Nat. I can counter regardless, so that didn't matter too much, but when she's toe-to-toe with wyrms that cast Slow, she needs it. He's too independent to play a support class."
Tony slowly nodded. "So he needs to master more battle magic."
Bruce shook his head. "No, he doesn't want to play, Tony. How do you not see that?"
After that first moment where Tony had been sure he'd mention it, Loki never brought anything like that up again. He'd taken all Tony's teachings and suggestions and used them for successful runs, like the one they'd just had. Perhaps Tony was intentionally ignoring the facts (he does that, sometimes), but it was hard to agree with Bruce when he knew Loki's potential.
"I don't think you're right," he finally answered, spinning back around to face the monitor. Loki's avatar was still there, casually leaning against a rock wall beside the exit portal. He looked so much like real life Loki that Tony often caught himself staring. He did now to distract himself from Bruce's huff.
"Well, believe what you want, but I can see it, Nat can see it, and whoever runs with him without you will see it," Bruce explained. Tony heard him shuffling around for a moment before he saw him out of the corner of his eye. "I'm done for tonight. I need to look over some motes before tomorrow."
Tony resisted rolling his eyes. Anytime they got even remotely close to a disagreement, Bruce always high-tailed it with school as an excuse. It was weak, they both knew it, because Tony and Bruce never studied a day in their lives.
Instead of calling him on it, Tony smiled at his best friend. "Alright. See you."
"Yeah," Bruce answered weakly, and then he was gone. Tony waited until he heard the door to Bruce's room shut before pulling his headset back on. Bruce's avatar wasn't there, leaving just his and Loki.
Back, he typed.
It was only a second before Loki spoke: "What took so long?"
Talking to Bruce before he logged off, Tony answered.
"Hence the typing," Loki drawled. Tony wondered if that usually sardonic tone had a little bit more venom to it or if he was just imagining things.
Yeah, I'm super considerate like that ;)
"I see," Loki replied. He lapsed into silence, moving his avatar to step into the exit portal. "Shall we?"
I'd follow you anywhere, doll face.
The light chuckle Tony got for a response made him feel warm again as he directed his avatar to the portal beside Loki. While the next area loaded, Tony had a moment to think. He could hear Loki's low breathing occasionally graze his mic, the sound more soothing than it should be. He'd be lying if he said his little crush on Loki hadn't multiplied with all the virtual time they spent together. They'd exchanged numbers towards the beginning at Tony's insistence (for scheduling, obviously) but Tony hadn't crossed that line in casual texting just yet.
Now, though, Tony had something he needed to evaluate. Loki acted like an ass while they played, but as a whole they were a good team. Tony hardly had to ask for anything before Loki was casting Cure or Haste or whatever Tony needed. He had a hard time believing Loki was anything but damn good at his class, but something Bruce kept saying made Tony pause.
It was Tony that Loki played well with, not Bruce or Natasha or especially Thor. Tony didn't know if Steve or Barton ran with him or not, but he'd be willing to bet they'd have a similar opinion regardless. Maybe Loki had a thing for him, and oh, if that idea didn't bring a grin to his face nothing would.
The screen still loaded, prompting Tony to grab his phone. He opened up a thread and picked Loki's name out of his contacts before typing away.
How far are you from campus?
Loki snorted a laugh over Tony's headset. "My, Stark - are you too shy to ask in person?"
Bruce, remember?
"...of course." Huh. That tone had certainly lost all of Loki's teasing. Tony filed that under the 'Loki Possibly Has A Thing For Me' section of his thoughts before continuing.
How far?
There was a pause. "Perhaps ten or fifteen minutes; why?"
There's this bar/coffee shop that's got late hours. Wanna meet me?
Tony tried not to hold his breath when Loki didn't immediately answer him. The screen loaded their hub world, Loki's dark magician standing nearly shoulder to shoulder with Tony's machinist. As contrasts go, the deep emerald of the dark magician blended well against the machinist's hot rod red armour. Tony felt a grin spread.
"I can be there in twenty minutes," Loki answered quietly. Tony threw both of his arms in the air as his grin took over his face.
Cool! It's Grinding Gears, a block down from the bookstore. See you then ;)
Tony waited a moment before logging out, curious if Loki would answer. Instead the other logged off, leaving Tony alone in their party chat. He followed suit, feeling his grin grow wider, if possible.
He had plenty of time for a shower; Grinding Gears was just two blocks from the dorms, anyway.
A/N: LEAVE YO THOUGHTS IN DAT BOX. :3