WARNING: some language/mild violence.
Possible triggers.
Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own these characters. All rights belong to Marvel etc.
NOTE: The words in Italics that are not contained in "" [and that stand alone, not in a sentence] are the characters thoughts and not intended for others to overhear. [ although it does sometimes happen.]
The words in "Italics" are a conversation intended to be heard between the 'mind link'.
[ still not beta-d]
- A quick thanks to those who are reviewing! A note also, I was caught up with a lot of stuff this week, sorry!
Sitting, slumped over in a dark brooding mess, was Thor. His shoulders were hunched, impersonating Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders. His turbulent mind was filing away information from the day.
They left SHEILD together in a group, but separated once outside. Stark told the others to stay in the "Avengers" Tower until he fixed Loki and himself up.
Thor had watched them leave with worried eyes. He did not expect everyone to join him when he left SHEILD for good and he felt responsible for the trouble everyone may face after this.
Thor groaned under the burden of worry and guilt before the sound of someone entering the room made him look up.
Tony stumbled in and leaned on the wall, his breath coming in short stuttering pants. Thor stood immediately to help the mortal over to the couch.
"Thanks...again. I can't shake this feeling since it happened. Any advice on magic and shit would be real helpful right now." His voice sounded weak,
" I can't seem to get his magic out of the energy core. He keeps pressing it to his chest like he can just..." Tony trailed off.
Thor's eyes filled with sorrow before he looked away,
" I do now know how to return the magic to my brother. I only know that the way it was removed was very different from my father's method. I was never in any pain like Loki has experienced. "
Tears dripped from Thor's turned away face. Tony reached out and squeezed the god's shoulder to comfort him.
Thor turns and smiles weakly at Stark,
"Regardless, I can explain why both my brother and yourself were so badly affected."
He was silent for a moment before continuing,
" The connection that you have is deeper than the mental link you share. The Asgardians believed that those who share a strong mind link are what you would call 'soul mates'."
Tony rolled his eyes and interrupted,
" You told me that already, Point Break. Loki and I are meant to be, lovers for life, etc etc."
Chuckling, Thor responded,
"I did mention that, what I did not know at the time was that you were bound by something stronger."
Tony's brow furrowed as he leaned back into the cushions.
Thor smiles reassuringly and pats his shoulder,
" Do not worry, Tony! Normally it would not be a bad thing, but the machine tore my brother apart from the inside when it stole his magic. The connection you two have is something in your souls and therefore, connected to Loki's magic."
Tony laughed and fell into a fit of coughing. Frowning, Thor tried to pat the mortal's back but only managed to make his coughing worse.
At last, Tony spoke,
"We are seriously star-crossed lovers? Soul mates? Are you fucking kidding me, I don't even know if I love him yet."
At this his cheeks flushed and he glanced away.
Thor chuckled and smiled though his eyes were tired ,
"Tony, it is a tangible connection. You felt it happen and you are still effected by the damage to Loki. Something changed when you traveled through the portal. Something awoke in my brother's magic."
Bemused, Tony looked at the god for a long moment before he stood shakily.
" Well then,I'm going to go try to fix my soul mate again. Wish me luck." He said as he wobbled out of the room.
Thor waves at his back sadly and turns back into a lump of stress. Outside, the sky fills with rumbling clouds.
Loki was sitting in a similar position as his older brother, the only difference being the soft green glow of the orb clutched to his chest. Tony pauses a moment at the familiar scene.
"Loks, we need to try something else." He says as he closes the door behind him,
" Preferably before Thor knocks out the entire western seaboard. "
Loki looks up at Tony with his now gray eyes. His voice toneless and quiet,
"I would prefer to have it returned before you die."
Tony frowned and knelt in front of the god, wobbling a little.
" Worry about yourself first, I'm fine. " he said with a weak smile.
Loki managed to look pained when he spoke,
" Anthony, you are dying as we speak. Whatever magic left over from Odin's glamour is keeping my skin from changing and my body from rotting away. You , however , have nothing to protect you. You are dying... and there is nothing I can do about it."
He touched Tony's face gently with one hand, the other still clutching the core to his body. Tony nuzzles the god's hand and smiles again weakly.
"Loks, not to alarm you but, I feel like I'm already dead. I'm not, right? I'll never accept it if I become a zombie. You have to kill me with a single head shot. "
He pointed at Loki and then at his head to demonstrate.
Loki shook his head 'no' and kept his hand on Stark's head. Tony's smile faded as the god in front of him became blurry.
" I feel...worse... suddenly." Tony managed to croak before his head flopped forward. Loki caught him against his body and tilted his head up.
Tony was unable to see Loki's face anymore, but he could hear the panic rise in his voice,
"Anthony?! T-Tony, you need to stay conscious!"
Tony smiled deliriously as the god used his nick name and slumped against his chest.
There was a sickening metallic taste in his mouth as a crackle filled the air. Stark's eyes flew open in shock as his reactor met with the magic filled energy core. Both men shouted in pain when an explosion of light and energy threw their bodies apart.
Tendrils of magic crawled under Loki's skin until they reached his chest. His dead, gray eyes sparked so bright they were almost gold as his face broke into a wide toothy grin.
My magic has returned.
The smile dropped from his face when his eyes landed on Stark.
The man's eyes were rolling back as his body shook and twitched dangerously. Soft whimpers escaped his clenched teeth as his body spasmed out of control.
Loki quickly reached out with his magic and found that Tony's reactor was absorbing all of the electrical energy from the core. The god pulled the core away from Tony, causing a crackling disconnection between the mortal and the mechanism. Still twitching, Tony's body slumps forward again into loki's arms.
"...Tony?" Loki could barely speak.
There was a shuddering gasp before Tony pushed himself up to look at Loki. His hair was standing on end, (more so than usual.) and his eyes were still twitching. Loki furrowed his brow when he saw Tony's eyes were still black and lifeless.
He is still dying.
There was a surge of magic around their bodies, causing the room's light bulbs to explode.
Tony clutched the god's arms and shouted over the shattering sounds,
"Loki, take us down to the training room! Less..damage...!"
A second later, the training room filled with green waves of magic. Reaching out into the nearby work rooms, the green waves of magic started taking things apart and putting them back together again faster than the eye could follow. Tony stumbled to his knees, uncaring that his precious inventions were being manipulated by magic. Loki knelt in front of him and placed both hands on either side of Stark's face. His body was being overwhelmed with magic, making it difficult to focus on healing him gently. His face crunched with concentration as he carefully forced his healing magic into the man in front of him.
There is nothing to heal.
Loki closed his eyes and followed the pathways through Tony's mind and body. His eyes snapped open and met the still black eyes in front of him. His eyes filled with fear before he stood abruptly and stepped back. His concentration broken, the waves of magic rippled out stronger than before. Tony's eyebrows went up at the sound of glass breaking somewhere above.
He let out a weak laugh and spoke in a rasping voice,
"So, Loks... I take it I have some
incurable disease or something."
Loki snapped from fearful to angry ,
"That's the problem, there's nothing to cure!" He started pacing quickly around the room, shooting out flickers of green flame. The god pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned as his head throbbed from the overweight of magic.
Tony spoke up from the floor,
"You can't... You can't heal me?"
Loki turned abruptly to face him, his eyes were filled with desperate rage,
"There is nothing to heal inside of you, Anthony! You are empty. I suspect that the only thing keeping your body animated is that device in your chest."
If Tony's face couldn't get more pale, it tried. The god watched as the mortal's hands automatically went up to the dull glowing shape in his chest.
"Oh shit. I'm a zombie." He spoke without a hint of amusement.
Loki snarled and continued pacing, his head felt as if it were ripping apart.
Where was all the excess power coming from?
There should not have been more inside the core than what I can contain.
Unless...
He stopped abruptly, facing away from Tony. A hysterical laugh shook the god's body before he spun around to face Stark.
"This is all your fault!" He said, opening his arms wide in gesture,
" This is you!"
Tony was glaring at him,
"Nice, blame the dying guy for your magical hissy fit."
Loki rolled his eyes,
"No ,you little idiot, this is actually you doing this."
Tony snarled,
" Oh, so we're back to the name calling again? Whatever you say Smurfette ."
The god sighed with exasperation,
"Oh ,just, shut up."
He pointed at Tony's chest and shot him with a massive ball of magic.
" I was going to have a viking funeral, you know. Now, I think I'm off the whole fire, burning, electricity, zapping, crisping thing. Bury me in the damn ground. "
Laying on their backs on the now charred floor of the training room, were two men panting with exhaustion. Loki flopped he head to one side to inspect the mortal. He was met with clear brown eyes staring back at him.
Tony spoke again,
" So it really was me, tearing up the place? How is that possible, by the way? I'm not exactly a wizard like you are, Potter."
A puzzled look formed on Loki's face,
" Why are you calling me that, I do not craft ceramics?"
Tony chuckles and shakes his head, muttering something. The god frowns and turns his body on its side to face Stark properly.
"Anthony, you do have power in you. Everyone does, it's all about how you channel and shape it. Do you really think that your friend Banner's beast was created by mortal science alone?"
Loki snorted at the thought and continued,
" Your Midgardian science is just a bastardization of my magic. Humans took their magic and formed it into math and metal. Your bodies never stopped generating it, you just channel it differently."
Tony rolled on his side and stared at the god thoughtfully.
"That still doesn't explain why I suddenly had this explosive force if magic and why was it...'in' you? " he asked, making a face. A soft breath escaped the god's lips before his fingers touched the arch reactor in Tony's chest.
"I believe this may be why. You changed your body in many ways in your struggle to stay alive. What did you use to create this?" He asked, still staring at the blue glow shinning through his fingers.
Tony frowned and glanced down at the long-fingered hand on his chest. It wasn't something he liked talking about, his past.
Well, we can avoid most of it.
Right?
He clears his throat,
"You know all about the Tesseract already. So you probably know about the history with Captain America, right?"
Loki nodded.
"Well... My dad knew Rodgers, back in the day. He was my father's greatest 'invention' and his greatest regret. Mr. Capsicle got a little frozen for a while and lost the Tesseract somewhere in the ocean. Long story short, my dad found the Tesseract and not Rodgers. He then studied it and ignored me for pretty much my entire life. "
his voice started to drip with bitterness,
"So he found this element back in the day and hid the information until he could figure out how to make it. I'm pretty sure the information came from his research on the Tesseract. Between that and his weekly visits to the Frozen Sleeping Beauty he had no fucking time for me."
Wait, don't go into that.
Tony sighed and rubbed his eyes,
"Whatever, point is, I was dying from my original design. I mean, I made the thing in a cave and changed it again once I got back to the lab. I never really though that the elements could poison me. I tried a lot of things and got a little reckless until Fury staged an intervention."
Loki let out a huff of laughter and pulled Tony closer, his fingers still tracing the edge of the reactor. Tony shivered a little and gave the god a look.
"You're distracting, you know that?"
He said, raising an eyebrow.
Loki smirked and rolled his eyes,
"Do continue."
Stark grumbled,
"There's not much else to add, I made the element and used it in my reactor. I guess you could say, I've got a piece of the Tesseract in me."
Loki's eyes went wide before he leaned in closer to inspect the reactor through Tony's shirt. He paused a moment before jerking the black tee up to expose the mortals chest.
Tony yelped,
"Whoa! Some warning next time. Not that I mind being stripped, you know, but you have some cold ass hands there, Loks."
Loki scoffed and continued to peer at the device in Tony's chest.
Tony watched him as he tapped the glass plate that housed the device. The god muttered and started unscrewing the reactor from his chest.
"What are you doing?! Wait!" Tony panicked and tried to push him away. Loki looked up, surprised.
"What happens if I remove this, exactly?" He asked, his fingers still around the rim. Tony tries to calm down and breathe.
"In about three minutes, the shrapnel inside me will reach my heart and I will die suddenly and painfully. Now can you screw that back in ,please, before I die suddenly and painfully of a fucking heart attack." He asked, almost nicely. Loki frowned and quickly turned the device back into place.
He spoke softly,
"You have my apologies,Anthony. I was curious about its inner workings since it is heavily based on magic." He paused and looked down at Tony's exposed chest,
"I shall not remove it again."
There was a sudden movement and before Loki could react, Tony was pressed up against him. The god attempted to ignore the feeling of Stark's warmth absorbing through his own shirt. Loki found himself staring into the brown eyes again.
I never thought I would find brown so appealing.
The temperature seemed to rise in the room as Tony's hands slipped around the god's waist. Before either of them could do anything more, a massive clap of thunder shook the penthouse.
"Oh shit, the God of Thunder is still up there moping. I forgot to let him know we aren't dead. He's probably just blown the power for everyone in Cali."
Tony said, chuckling. He moved to stand up before he found himself flipped over on his back with a god straddling him.
Oh dear...G-
...uh
Loki..
The raven-haired god leaned down, hovering close to Tony's face. A flicker of concern filled the green eyes that seemed to be analyzing him. Tony started to get concerned for another reason.
Oh fucking hell, if he doesn't move soon he's gonna feel it.
I am not going to go through a high school boner moment right now.
"Uh, Loks?" Tony asked, carefully.
Loki blinked and smiled down at him, brushing his nose against Tony's gently.
His voice was a soft purr,
"I still have things I wish to speak of, later..."
His eyes went wide at the intentions behind the god's voice.
He stammered out,
" You are such a flirt."
Loki's laugh filled the room, causing a wide grin to form on Tony's face. The god was standing before he could blink, offering a hand to help Stark up. As he curled his fingers around Loki's they were suddenly upstairs.
Thor jerked his body around when he heard the familiar sound of teleportation. His tear stained face broke into a glowing smile when he saw them appear in front of him. Loki was dragged into his brothers arms for a bone crushing hug while his ears suffered the abuse of Thor's booming voice.
"I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO GLAD TO SEE YOU AGAIN, BOTHER!" He roared before leaning back to look fondly at his brother,
"I am glad to see you are both better, I had feared the worse from the sounds above."
A half hour went by with Thor clinging to his brother until Loki finally got fed up and grabbed Stark,
"We are heading to bed and I would suggest you do the same...brother."
Tony had a second to catch Thor's wide gleeful eyes before he was pulled away into the hallway.
He laughed,
" You just made his life. You're such a sweetie poo!"
Loki sneered and rolled his eyes before stopping and letting go of his 's laughed slowed and finally stopped as he stared out one of the wide windows he had designed to take in the scenery. Instead of enjoying the view, he felt fear creep into his gut. He watched the dark waves of the ocean crawl towards the shore like a sneaking animal.
He suddenly turned and looked into Loki's eyes, his voice a soft whisper,
"Loki... We were at our most vulnerable there. Why didn't...Why didn't that thing...attack?"
Loki looked back into his eyes a moment before looking out the window at the sea.
Tony almost missed it, the god's voice was soft,
"To it, we are always vulnerable."
Sorry it's such a short chapter!
I've been really busy this week with art and such things.
Please review!