I officially love all of you people out there reading this story! You guys went above and beyond with your beautiful reviews and I couldn't be happier! I hope this longer chapter is enough for the next couple of days because I'm pretty sure I'm getting sick. Keep reviewing because they are my fuel and my inspiration.
Not mine, never mine, usual disclaimers
"If you would step into the closet please," came JARVIS's calm voice from the ceiling. With a sceptical look Loki did just that on for his doubt to transform into amazement almost as quickly as the closet became an elevator that quickly swooped downwards towards Stark's laboratory. There were certain perks involved when accepting help from a genius billionaire.
o~*+*~o
Tony had known the moment that Natasha had actually asked him, of all people, for help that at least her agenda diverted slightly from Clint's. Clint, Tony believed, was speaking truthfully when he said that he had been blamed for what he had done when being mind controlled and had been subsequently punished. Tony had actually verified the archer's claim that his bow had been confiscated and found it to be true. Schematic for a new and improved one were already floating around in his mind and in a semi-tangible hologram above his desk.
Natasha though, was an entirely different story. It was probably true that she had followed Clint when he had left, finally caving under SHIELD's incessant pressure and his own misguided guilt, but that she had cut ties with SHIELD wasn't. Nick Fury was practically the man that had raised he after the Red Room so her loyalty would always be to him first and Clint a close second. Fury had likely "suggested" that Natasha "observe" him, make sure he didn't do anything to stupid or dangerous without Ms. Potts, and ensure that Banner was tracked and contained. Not that Tony had any intention of any of that happening.
The first thing Tony had done after he had left the spies to scout out their rooms was notify Bruce that the spies were here and to stay in his lab for as long as he could or until Tony came and got him. Food was rather important though and patching Loki up hadn't taken that long so Tony believed Bruce was still sufficiently occupied in his state of the art laboratory and could wait a little longer.
It was only the quiet ding of his personal elevator alerting Tony of Loki's arrival that tore the engineer from the blueprints projected in front of him. With a wave of his hand the blue hologram dissipated and Tony spun his chair to face the raven haired man, a crazed smile plastered on his face.
"Welcome to my true home and the place where my mind babies are born, Lokes!" The look that Loki returned to his was so confuzzled that Tony just had to laugh and did till there were tears in his eyes and Loki was standing over him with a concerned look on his face, with good right. If Tony hadn't been sitting down he would be laying on the ground right now.
"Where is the food, Stark?" Tony looked up at the raven haired man with a hurt look on his face, only his eyes betraying the mirth he truly felt as he looked up at Loki's serious countenance.
"Is that the only reason you accepted my generous invitation? And here I was thinking that you had done it because you loved me for my mind," Tony pouted as he jumped into a standing position just in front of the god whose eyebrow was arched in an unimpressed look. The stupid deity was so ridiculously tall that he was still looking down on him ever when Tony raised himself to his full height and that only served to increase the disapproving expression that graced Loki's face to an almost hilarious degree.
"It was you yourself that preached the incredibleness of the cheeseburger. I am intrigued." All of this was said with absolutely no infliction or feeling in the raven haired han's voice. It was both impressive and comedic. Tony regretted picking himself off the floor now because he just might laugh himself right back down there. Luckily though, he did have some self-restraint and merely broke the staring contest he and Loki had started to grab the large paper sack on his desk.
"Here," Tony laughed with a genuine grin curving his lips as he reached inside the bag and handed Loki a random burger from its depths. "That one has the cheese and meat, obviously, but also tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, and mustard. No onions because that is a fate that I would not wish upon my worst enemy."
Loki, who had just begun unwrapping the burger, tipping his head forward to take a bite, when he paused to shoot Tony another one of those unimpressed stares that merely glanced off of Tony's nigh on impenetrable emotional armour. "Ok, not really," Tony conceded with a grin, "but I don't like them so I didn't get them. This stuff is probably going to end up being my brain food for the week."
"You 'brain food' is such unhealthy, grease filled items of food?" Loki inquired as he fiddled with the paper wrapping surrounding the burger while Tony grabbed his own, quickly folding down the paper and taking a large bite.
"Yep," Tony mumbled before quickly swallowing and continuing. "I practically live off of coffee alone at times of pure brilliance, this is nothing," Tony scoffed lightly as he took another large bite before using his burger to gesture towards Loki's untouched one.
"Now come on," Tony coaxed. "Take a bite."
It was with great hesitancy and caution that Loki approached the burger, gently bending his neck forward and taking a delicate bite. A bite that was quickly followed by a much larger one that the god chewed slowly, as if savoring the flavors. Despite the disappointing fact that the raven haired man's eyes did not widen comically when he had first tasted the burger, the man adapted startlingly quick, it was still gratifying to see the man devour the new food with gusto.
"Such variety of flavor in one item is not found on Asgard unless it has been imbued with magic," Loki managed to say after he had consumed more than half of the burger. "This is quite good," Loki conceded with a slight incline of his head before slipping the last of the burger last his lips. Tony could easily imagine the god licking the grease and spilled condiments off of the tips of his fingers and lips with pleasure and almost laughed at the image.
"Quite good? Quite good is all you have to say about the American cheeseburger?" Tony yelped indignantly as he stared at Loki with an incredulous look. He did, however, refuse to stop eating the burger in his hand because even his incredulousness did not outweigh his hunger.
"Yes." Loki's statement was undermined by the way the man reached back into the bag holding the burgers and pulled out not one but two of them before retreating back towards a nearby worktable that he proceeded to hop up upon.
"JARVIS, remind me to show Lokes here cotton candy and ice cream. Get some of both ordered for us to have tomorrow." The grin Tony was currently sporting seemed to be crazy enough to make the raven haired man uneasy as he dipped his head and continued to eat with a poise that only a god could retain while eating such a messy meal but Tony didn't care. The genius could only imagine that if this was the reaction he got from savory food he could only dream of what sweet would do.
"Actually, what time is it, J?" Tony asked after the two had settled into a comfortable silence.
"It is 11:17, sir." The clear British voice from above shocked Tony from where he had turned back to fiddling with Mark 55 and Barton's new bow and arrow set. He slowly turned his chair back to face Loki who had already eaten one of the two burgers he had taken. The must have been really hungry but it was the time that concerned him more.
"Oh," Tony said as he sat up straighten and heard the popping of his back, an easy sign that he had been sitting in his chair longer than he had thought. "Well that explains why Natashalie was so surprised to see me."
It actually didn't, Tony and Natasha both knew that his sleep cycle was anything but normal, but Tony was willing to let it slide this once because it threw the spies off of his trail. Apparently Loki had caught onto this too because the man merely gave him a look and went back to eating.
Snatching the bag from where it had been resting on the edge of his desk, Tony quickly fished around before finding the last burger, unwrapping it, and taking a quick bite. "Best midnight snack ever," Tony moaned as he savored the last of this admittedly rare occurrence. He was now the CEO of SI as well as Iron Man, he could not afford to slack off on anything. Especially his health after all those years of drinking and regret.
Shaking off the dark thoughts with a twist of his head, Tony turned towards Loki and pointed at the now burgerless man. "You should be thanking me."
"You have my thanks," Loki drawled sarcastically back before standing up and gliding over to Tony's desk, leaning against the back of the engineer's chair to observe the blue holograms floating nearby.
"Are you being sarcastic?" Tony tilted his head as far back as he could to see Loki's face as the man leaned over his head to get a closer look at the projections. A small smile quirked Tony's lips at the banter him and the mischievous god had together. If anyone would have told him this would happen just a couple of months ago he would have laughed and told Pep to see about getting them into a mental institution. Tony's internal happiness dimmed slightly but his grin never faltered.
"No, of course not. For what reason would I ever be that?" Loki's sarcastic reply to not being sarcastic was exactly what Tony needed. His smile as completely genuine again and all fond thoughts about Ms. Potts were gone. Odd that it was the God of Lies that knew exactly how to make the man of masks feel genuine. Just then Tony caught Loki glance down at him, the god's lips twitching upwards ever so slightly in a childlike glee. Maybe it wasn't so odd after all.
"You know if I had known you had a good sense of humor we would have gotten along a lot better a lot quicker." The two mens eyes met again, the stare breaking before anything important passed through, and Tony went back to tweaking the Mark 55 and Birdbrain's things while Loki observed.
"Perhap," Loki whispered from above him and if Tony concentrated really hard he thought he might just be able to feel Loki's cool breath as it passed over the top of his head as the man leaned against the back of his chair. Oh the wonderful coolness.
Tony relaxed further into his chair and changed the angle of the bow before responding to Loki's rather vague comment.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You would have warmed up to me quicker but what do you have to offer me that you don't now?" The raven haired man looked down at Tony with something akin to amusement in those emerald eyes, his long and inky locks framing his face as he tilted his head forward.
"That," Tony conceded after a moment of thought, "is actually quite a good point."
Tony nudged Loki in warning before spinning the chair around to face the man, genuine smiles, no matter how small or slight, gracing both of their faces.
"I do occasionally have those." Loki's eyes sparkling with an inner light that, if Tony didn't know better, he would have said was magic flickering in the emerald depths. Tony knew the feeling though. Weighing yourself up to a worthy opponent in this playful and loquacious way was a thrill, a tease.
It was a tease but a wonderful tease and all part of a wonderful game, a game that Tony hadn't been able to play in years. No one was ever intelligent or talented enough to banter with him but it seems he had found an equal in a god that was thousands of years older than him and the most powerful mage of practically ever. It was exhilarating.
"Yeah, I know. It's amazing you have any at all considering you were raised with people like Thor." Tony was oh so tempted to stand up from where he was sitting so that he and Loki would be inches apart and the energy between them would heighten. Tony could only dream of what would happen when magic got added to the equation.
The anticipation in waiting for Loki to regain his magic was becoming almost overwhelming, even though it had only been just over a day. Tony firmly believed that either witnessing Loki using magic in a non-malevolent fashion or possibly magic itself would get his nightmares to go away for good. After all, simply sleeping next to the frost giant had blessed him with a dreamless night. He just might have to keep the god around.
"Yes, I suppose it is," Loki replied smoothly, almost looking as if he were about to lean forward and loom over Tony in a completely threatening yet non-threatening way when a voice broke the rhythm between them.
"Sir, Dr. Banner is attempting to contact you. I believe he is growing concerned about his position." Both Tony and Loki looked up at the ceiling in surprise. After all, nothing short of a catastrophe should have been allowed to interrupt their moment of pure brilliance. Okay, maybe not pure brilliance but this was the first person Tony was able to feel relaxed around since the woman.
"That's fine," Tony said with a sigh. "I'll just get him, bring him down here and convince him to stay. Besides, now is as good a time as any." It was with that though that all of Tony's previous good humor returned with a vengeance. You don't get to rile up both Bruce, Hulk, and Loki all at once often.
"As you say, sir." JARVIS's tone was as disapproving as an AI's voice could be but resigned to merely watch as his creator tempted destruction upon himself once again. It was not the first time Tony flirted with death nor would it be the last. JARVIS did, however, make sure that he would have video evidence to hold against his creator if things went south.
"I don't remember programming you to sass me, J." Tony asked innocently as he kept up from his chair and practically skipped towards the door. When JARVIS made no reply, Tony gave one of the cameras a mock glare. "That's right. And stay quite."
"Am I to take the closet up again or something else?" Loki asked as he slowly began backing towards the door. The man had obviously caught onto the fact that something was about to happen that would not be pleasant be was either avoiding or denying the inevitable.
"Neither," Tony said firmly, halting the raven haired man's escape route and causing him to turn towards him sharply. "You're not going anywhere."
"It's time for you to meet the doctor. Your appointment is long overdue."
I hope I wasn't too confusing at the end there but there will be some action or at least hilariousness to come. Please keep reading and reviewing, it makes my day! Comments on how you think Bruce and Loki's second meeting should go are welcome and may influence the outcome. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge.
Please review!