Chapter 9: Chaos and Confessions

Soooo... I'm going against my own words because people begged me to post more and one in particular *cough*Natalie. Toni .Barton*cough*. He/She also got me to promise to post 10 tomorrow and if I have the time on Tuesday before I go on my VACATION *ehem* I will also post 11. *sighs* I'm to kind sometimes... BUT now I expect a few reviews in return! PLEASE? PRETTY PLEASE? AND PLEASE DON'T BEG FOR MORE, okay?

Phil didn't get the chance to confront Tony about the bracelet. After Thor's departure he had to clean up the mess the demigod had left behind together with the other SHIELD Agents and then the affair of the recovered as well as still alive Captain America threw SHIELD out of balance. Phil being SHIELD's main handler was consulted in how to approach different things with the Captain and Fury kept him on his toes so that he had only occasionally a few minutes of time to call Tony to reassure himself that the genius hadn't blow himself up in his lab (or while outside as Iron Man but that he would have heard of) or buried under some part of his newly built tower and that he was eating as well as sleeping (relatively) regularly.

And then came Loki…

Tony had just finished with connecting the last pieces of the new arc reactor that would power his new tower in New York for at least a year as a test before going on the market for clean energy, and flew back to said tower.

Tony landed the suit on the landing platform and let Jarvis dismantle it while he walked towards Happy and Yinsen who were there to celebrate Tony's next step for another future of SI with him – that they were missing a few members of their makeshift family was obvious in the air. Tony tried to stomp down the disappointment he felt at the knowledge that Nick, Clint (who had wanted to bring along his partner Natasha whom Tony had now met a few times) and Phil had to cancel their little get together. In the corner of his mind Tony maybe even admitted to himself that the biggest disappointment was that Phil wasn't here with him, that he hadn't been able to meet him for quiet some time.

Happy handed him a glass of coke – they would make a real party for the occasion when the others had more time – and they sat down in their respective seats. Tony leaned forward to clink his glass together with Happy's and Yinsen's.

"To another step in a new direction for SI."

Happy and Yinsen echoed the toast and each took a small sip before Jarvis' voice interrupted their small get-together.

"Sir, Phil is here. He wants to talk to you about something urgently."

The happiness Tony had felt at the announcement of Phil's presence immediately vaporised at the last part of Jarvis' message. "Let him up J."

"Right away sir."

Seconds later the door of the elevator opened and Phil stepped outside with a grim – to Tony's trained eyes – face. "What happened?"

Phil handed him a folder and took a deep breath. "Loki of Asgard came to Earth to get the Tesseract and attacked members of SHIELD, while compromising some of them with some kind of magical sceptre. Tony… Clint has been compromised too." Tony sat back down on the couch and Phil continued stoically even though he wanted to hug the billionaire at the moment – Clint was one of his best friends and now he had been compromised by some kind of god. "Director Fury wants you to help us, you and your bodyguard. We will need both your expertise. Everything you need to know is in the digital folder I just gave you."

"Of course I will help. I will get to it right away." Tony turned to Happy and Yinsen who had been silent so far. "Sorry guys, I have homework to do."

"No problem boss. Just holler if you need me. Night."

"I will be checking the medical supply, just in case. Good night Tony, Phil."

"Good night." Tony and Phil chorused and the other two left the floor to go to their own.

Tony stepped towards one of his holographic tables and inserted the electronic folder. "Will you stay for the night or are you needed at SHIELD HQ right now?"

Phil stepped beside him, looking at the different screens until his eyes fell on Tony. "I can't stay but we will see us tomorrow." "Oh… okay." He hesitated a moment and then quickly gave Tony a peck on the cheek. Tony was startled out of his thoughts at Phil's gesture and turned to the other man. The Agent stood his ground as he searched Tony's face for a sign – they had danced around each other for so long and even though it wasn't the perfect moment (but when would it ever be?) Phil at least wanted to confess his feelings just in case something went wrong in the next few days. The genius' face broke out into a smile and Phil let out small sigh of relief. Tony slowly closed the gab between them and gave Phil a chaste kiss on the lips, which the slightly older Agent returned.

When they broke the kiss they stared into each other's eyes – Tony captivated by Phil's blue ones and Phil by Tony's brown with their green rim.
Phil didn't want to break the moment but sadly he had to go and he told Tony so. "I have to go Tony."

Tony's smile dimed slightly but he nodded in understanding, they had hawk and a god to find. "Okay. Good night." "Good night, Tony."

Phil slowly turned and walked towards the elevator but before the doors closed behind him, he heard Tony call "Stay save Phil." after him. The Agent nodded and saw Tony turning back to his 'homework'…

Iron Man fired a repulsor blast at the god that had done something to one of Tony's best friends. Inside the suit Tony squinted his eyes in slight pain, a headache had been bothering him since he had taken a look at the information Phil had given him and it reached a new height when he arrived at the scene in Germany.

Luckily Loki surrendered – even though it was extremely suspicious – and the Captain didn't know who was under the mask so he wouldn't have to take it of and Cap wouldn't see the pinched expression Tony was wearing on his face.

They got Loki on the Quinjet and took of towards the flying SHIELD base, the Helicarrier that Tony had designed for Nick. When the clouds darkened and thunder rumbled in the sky, Tony had a strange feeling that something was going to happen and it was confirmed when they heard thud on the roof of the Helicarrier and only seconds later Loki was 'taken' – more like stolen – from their custody by Thor, the God of Thunder and Prince of Asgard according to the files Phil had given him.

Tony followed them without hesitation but not before giving the Captain a smartass reply for being such a stick in the mud that couldn't adapt fast enough to a new situation.

Originally Tony had planned to land near the two gods and try to convince Odinson to work with them but the sight of Thor threatening Loki with his hammer Mjolnir made Toby for some reason angry and so he rammed into the blond god thus creating a great distance between them and Loki.

He skidded in the soil while Thor landed with his full body in it. The thunder god stood slightly shakily back up and Tony had the urge to flip up his mask to show him who had succeeded in making him eat dirt but he fought that urge down. It just wouldn't do to destroy his secret identity because of a childish urge.

Tony expected Thor to get angry and threaten him but the god surprised him, he did get angry but when he looked at Iron Man he got a slightly puzzled look.

"Who are you Man of Iron?"

Iron Man cocked his head to the side, taken aback by the sudden question and simultaneously trying to ignore the flashes that appeared before his eyes that had come with Thor's voice.

"I'm Iron Man, why do you ask Odinson?"

Thor still gave him that strange look and Tony could make out from the corner of his eyes that Loki was staring at them intrigued, probably wondering why they hadn't started to clobber the other yet.

"You seem familiar…"

"Can't be, we have never personally met as far as I know."

"…Maybe. But whatever the case may be Man of Iron, I have to ask you to hand my brother over to me. He will face Asgardian justice."

"When he discloses the location of the Cube, he will be handed over to you. Until then, I can only over you to work with us. The faster we find the cube, the faster you can take Loki-" Another wave of distorted images hit him as he spoke the name out loud "-back home."

A slightly worried crease came over Thor's face, he had heard the slight pause and had seen the slight shake of the head that Tony had made as a reaction to the sudden images.
Instead of addressing it, the thunder god nodded in agreement. "I will agree to that but the Tesseract should come with me too. It is a dangerous artefact and in the wrong hands it could do great damage."

"We will see what we can do about that."

"Then shall we return to your base to exchange information about the situation?"
"Sounds good to me."

In that exact moment Captain Spangles landed near them and he looked at them perplexed.
"What is it Captain? Didn't think we could talk this out?"

"Shall we, Thor Odinson?" He asked politely and Thor nodded in consent. "We shall, Man of Iron."

The Captain just stared at them both and meanwhile Tony told Natasha to pick them up at the coordinates he was sending her.

On the Helicarrier Iron Man excused himself for a few minutes and Tony joined them in the observation deck of the Helicarrier with the Iron Man suit – controlled by Jarvis – following him. Tony had barely a set a foot into the room when Thor's head swivelled around to him and the god's mouth fell open in surprise. "Tiǫrvi? Brother is that you?!" He quickly stepped towards Tony would took a few steps back but he wasn't fast enough to escape the God's embrace. "I thought you were dead! Father told us that a Frost Giant had killed you. Why haven't you contacted us in all these years?" Thor stopped his on slaughter of questions when he realised that Tony had stiffened in his embrace and let him go to properly look at him. Tony had a slightly pained expression on his face as new images came to his mind but he had enough control over himself to take step away from Thor when the God let go of him. "I'm sorry Mister Odinson but I have no idea what you are talking about." Tony said more calmly then he felt at the moment and he could see from the corner of his eyes that everyone's eyes where on them – Phil, Fury and Natasha even looked openly worried.

Thor frowned at him and then looked closer, he seemed to see that something was different between this 'Tiǫrvi' and Tony but at the same time didn't look convinced. "I am sorry for my actions. It seems that I have mistaken you for someone else. Can you forgive my rash action…" "Tony, Tony Stark and its already forgive Odinson." At the mention of his first name that surprised look came back but Thor seemed to let go off the topic – for now – and they finally could go back to discussing Loki's plan. During the whole discussion, Tony couldn't get ride of the feeling of eyes on him but tried to ignore them as best as he could as he finally met Doctor Banner. Phil decided to stand close to Tony while they were still talking and shot him a concerned glance to which Tony just responded with a small smile that said 'I'm okay, really.' But it didn't seem to convince his… boyfriend? Lover? Whatever! It didn't convince Phil and it didn't convince the other two spies that had seen the exchange, as short as it had been.

Finally they had finished their talk and Tony was glad when he could finally flee the room with Doctor Banner without making it look like he was really fleeing – Jarvis following them since he was Tony's bodyguard, kind of. He knew that one of the others would soon confront him and Tony wanted to avoid that as long as he could. He himself didn't know why Thor thought him to be his long-thought-dead-brother they had never heard about and it didn't help that the images grew more and more as well as the headaches stronger the longer he stayed in the presence of the Thunder God or that of the God of Mischief and Lies.

Back in the 'meeting room' Fury turned to look at Thor after having seen his godson practically flee the room. "Want to tell us what that was about earlier? Why did you call Stark 'Tiǫrvi' and brother?"

Thor looked at his hands in thought and finally said: "The Son of Stark looks nearly identical to my younger brother Tiǫrvi and older brother of Loki whom we also called Tony because he preferred this nickname to his birth name. Tony was a great magician just like Loki, which was no real surprise since the two are twins-" "Wait a moment! Are you telling me that Mister Crazy there" Fury pointed at the screen that showed Loki in his cell "Has a twin brother?! Why are we learning about that only now?" Thor blinked at Fury and his face became slightly angry and sad at the same time. "I didn't think it necessary to mention Director of the Shield because Tony died years ago! …And it still wounds me to talk about it especially because Loki began to change at that moment when our father told us of our brother's demise…"

"'Changed' how?" Natasha now asked, a bit gentler than she normally did.

"Loki had lost his other half and he tried to compensate for this hole at his side with creating more Mischief and keeping more to himself. Only mother and I could make him open up a bit more but he would never tell us everything because that was something he would only do to his other half. You have to understand that twins in our realm, especially those that have strong magic, have the strongest bond there is and next to nothing can break this bond…"

"But you do understand that Stark isn't your brother, right? I mean if he was he would know-" Fury's eyes narrowed slightly at Natasha's words, remembering that Maria had found the four year old Tony who hadn't had any memories except for what he believed to be his name but even though Tony had been too young to be Loki's twin, right? Since Asgardian's aged slower Tony had to have been as old as the other two God's to be the one they thought dead – ugh, Fury felt a headache coming at the possibility of his godson being this 'Tiǫrvi' Thor spoke of…

Natasha continued, unaware of her boss' thoughts about the situation "and recognize you as well as Loki. Besides wouldn't Loki just know that Stark was his 'other half' as you call it?" It slipped out of her mouth because Tony Stark and Loki hadn't met but Iron Man and Loki had. Despite this unusual slip up Thor still seemed to know what she meant and said, "That is what surprises me, Lady Widow. It is as you say; they should recognize each other but they didn't and I can't feel Tiǫrvi in the Son of Stark but at the same time feel this sense of recognition…"
"Maybe he lost his memories when he 'died'? It is possible, isn't it?" The Captain finally contributed to the discussion.

"Maybe… But maybe the Son of Coul could help us out in that case."

"Why me?" Phil looked slightly puzzled at the sudden direction the conversation had taken, as did the others.

"Could I see the bracelet you are wearing again?"
"…Of course." Phil slowly pushed the sleeves of his suit up and stepped closer to show the bracelet to Thor, again. The Thunder God looked it over with a critical eye and then asked, "Where did you get it, Son of Coul?"

"It was a birthday present from a friend, again I ask: why?"

"Who is this friend?"

"I don't know why I should tell you that when you don't tell me why you want to know that." The Agent said now slightly angered that Thor didn't answer his own question.

"That bracelet belonged to my brother."

"Which one?"

"…"

"Thor, which one?"

"Tiǫrvi."

That was all Phil needed to hear before he quickly walked out of the room and headed towards the lab where Tony and Doctor Banner were working. He needed to know where Tony had gotten that bracelet of Thor said the truth – and why should he lie about that? – it wouldn't change Phil's feelings for Tony even if the younger man was a demigod but he just wanted to know. Tony had told him about being adopted by Maria and not remembering his parents or anything before the moment where Maria had found him in the garden of the Stark premises. Phil heard the other's following him but he didn't care, he just wanted to know: was Tony Stark actually Tiǫrvi 'Tony' Odinson?

Nordic Name for Tony: Tiǫrvi ('a charmer, wizard' deriving from Old Norse taufr = 'sorcery'); 'Tony' is the nickname that Loki and Thor used