I wasn't going to update today because I have an exam tomorrw but then I thought why the hell not. So this chapter starts off with a tiny bit of fluff seeing as I never write that. Sorry in advance for all of the English things I added in (Don't worry you'll see) and enjoy!

Chapter 12

Lying in bed, Loki gazed up at the ceiling feeling like a fool. He shouldn't have reacted that way to Tony. He was curious and who could blame him. He cared, and that's also the reason that Loki didn't answer because he cared about Tony and he wanted to protect him from the truth and the future. If it meant lying then he was prepared to do that. But he didn't want to. He actually wanted to tell Tony everything. He wanted to unload on him, share everything, scream, shout and rage and then he wanted to be taken in his arms and told that it would be okay. Was that too much to ask? Apparently it was. Still he prayed that one day it would happen. Until that day, though, he would have to go on alone.

Sighing, he climbed out of bed as JARVIS lifted the blinds, allowing light to stream in. For a few minutes he padded around his room bare foot, searching through draws to find some clothes. Once satisfied with his choice, a simple shirt and plain dark jeans, hardly a change from normal, he headed out to prepare his morning mug of tea and maybe grab something to eat.

He was unprepared, however, for the delicious smell that met his nostrils when he finally opened his bedroom door. All along the corridor the smell grew stronger until he thought he might drown from it.

When he finally reached the open planned kitchen slash living room, he was surprised to see it was Tony and Tony alone at the kitchen island preparing breakfast.

"What's going on," Loki asked, making his way over to get a closer look.

"I'm making breakfast," Tony replied, smiling widely and swatting the god's hand away when he reached out to take a slice of bacon that was lying on a plate to the side. "Oi keep your hands to yourself and sit down."

"But why? What's going on? And where are the rest of your team, they are usually here at breakfast time?"

"It's my tower so I sent them away to make breakfast alone, they have kitchens. Anyway, I felt like doing something nice for my super hot boyfriend," Tony said, filling up a few more plates with different foods, some of which Loki didn't recognise, before placing them on the table, kissing Loki's cheek and taking a seat opposite him.

The god couldn't help a small smile creeping onto his face. He would never deny that he loved to be pampered. And this, this was almost ridiculous. Obviously a lot of effort had been put into this because Tony was trying to make up for angering him, but Loki knew that it should be the other way around. He would make it up to Tony soon.

Leaning forward, he gestured to the contents on some of the plates and asked, "So what is all of this? I don't think I have seen them before."

If it was possible the smile on Tony's face grew wider.

"Well this is sorta an English style breakfast because it makes a change and it's amazing. These are crumpets and are like impossible to find in America. If you want you can put this stuff on, it's called Marmite and most people say you either love it or hate it, there's no in between." He nudged the jar forward slightly. "Obviously we have the cooked breakfast stuffs like bacon and sausages and toast along with the fresh fruit but lastly we have English muffins, I know really inventive with the name aren't they. Basically they are like these round bread things you toast and put butter on and taste awesome. Come on don't just take my word for it, eat one. W-why are you staring at me like that?"

Tony looked at Loki, feeling almost exposed under his gaze. He couldn't read the expression on the god's face which made it more difficult to know if he had said or done anything wrong. Instead of panicking, he just sat there and fidgeted for a few seconds that felt more like minutes.

"Did I do something wrong?" He asked hesitantly when Loki still didn't move.

"No, you have done nothing wrong; you have done the total opposite. This is very kind and I am most grateful even though it should be me apologising."

"Apologising? What for? This isn't an apology, it is just something nice."

"I know it is and you don't know how much I appreciate it. But I shouted unnecessarily yesterday when you asked what Thor meant by his words. I shouldn't have done that," Loki admitted, breaking eye contact and staring down at his empty plate.

"Oh no worries," Tony said, trying to hide the awkward note in his voice.

"Really?"

"If you don't want to share everything then that's fine, I won't push you. But if you ever need to talk I'm here, obviously," He smiled.

"Thankyou."

A silence formed between them for some time and they both had to admit it was more than just slightly awkward. It was broken, however, by Loki's stomach growling loudly.

"I really think you should eat, sorry if it's cold now."

Loki happily began to fill his plate with the obvious foods before he picked up a crumpet and pulled the Marmite towards him.

"I see your being adventurous," Tony joked, watching Loki stick his knife into the jar and scraping some of its contents onto his crumpet.

"I am making the most of this food because I doubt the Captain will prepare something like this."

"Hey I prepared all this," The genius said indignantly.

"I didn't even know you could cook," Loki replied, taking a bite of his crumpet and chewing.

"Yeah well I'm full of surprises." He winked at Loki who swallowed then pulled a strange face. "And I take it that you're not a fan of Marmite."

"I think I'll just stick with the plain English muffins, they seem safer."

Breakfast continued to pass as they both enjoyed each other's company. The conversation ran thin at times but that was probably due to the earlier conversation and yesterday's events. Or they were just unable to speak because they were eating from the wide spread of foods that lay before them. Still, it was a pleasant start to the day and neither of them wanted to part ways yet, not that Tony had told him yet that they weren't going to.

Once they had eaten all they could manage, they left the remaining food and all of the dirty plates at the table in hope that someone else would clear it all up later. They moved over to the sofa and collapsed onto each other. Loki sat at one end with his back resting on the arm and his legs draped over Tony's, who sat next to him.

They didn't say anything for a while, just sat and stared at each other. Tony watched Loki carefully, searching his face so he knew every detail. He wanted to always remember the way his eyebrows raised when he was surprised and how he lightly chewed his bottom lip when he was deep in thought. He wanted to memorise the crinkles the appeared when he smiled or frowned and most of all he wanted to always remember the whooshing feeling he received when returning to the real world after being lost in his eyes.

"Do you not have work to attend to? Your business?" Loki asked, lifting his head from where it had fallen back against the arm of the sofa.

"Probably but being with you is much more fun."

"And what is fun about it?"

"Everything. Why? You not finding this fun?"

"I could think of more entertaining ways to pass the time," Loki smiled slyly, sitting up and leaning closer into Tony.

"So could I."

With that Tony leapt forward onto Loki and straddled his lap. Moving his face close, he claimed Loki's lips for his own.

Entering through the large, newly cleaned glass doors, she headed across the foyer, not stopping until she reached the lift on the other side. Tapping her foot impatiently, her eyes flicked to the dial on top of the doors stating which floor the lift was on. It was still over halfway up the tower. For being exceptionally smart and incredibly rich she thought that Tony might have thought to install at least two lifts so people weren't left waiting. After that thought the doors slid open, to which she smiled at.

Stepping into the empty lift, she reached over and tapped the button for the floor that she wanted.

"Hold it," someone cried as they ran across the entrance hall.

It was a few seconds before they arrived but when they did Pepper's small smile turned into a beam.

"Ah Steve," Pepper said, smiling at the Captain as he jumped in and stood next to her.

"Miss Potts it's nice to see you," Steve greeted, nodding politely. "So where are you heading?"

Lifting out the stack of papers that had been tucked neatly under her arm, she showed them to Steve. "I need Tony to sign these and I need to discuss some things with him."

Steve smiled awkwardly and Pepper sent him a questioning look.

"It's just that Tony asked, well told everyone to get off his floor today. He really doesn't want to be disturbed by anyone...no offence. I'm just passing on the message."

"I'm sure he will be fine, unless he has company?" She sent Steve another look and he quickly averted his eyes.

The lift clattered loudly, disrupting the very awkward silence that had formed. Steve continued not to meet Pepper's gaze. He wasn't sure at all if h should tell her the truth or not. Already he had told far too many people and Tony hadn't been happy about it. But Pepper, she was different. Right? Are you supposed to share with someone's ex-girlfriend that they had moved on with a man who just so happened to be the psycho god that had attempted world domination. No, he definitely didn't want to be the deliverer of that information.

But he couldn't lie, not now. Not after she was sending him very odd looks. And they were in a very confined space which meant she could always beat it out of him or bombard him with vicious or manipulating comments that had him spilling his inner most secrets. Those were the thoughts that the Captain realised he was being stupid. Pepper wasn't like that. She was a kind, caring, trustworthy woman. She was also very calm considering she had had to put up with Tony for many years.

"Steve, Steve are you okay?"

"Um yeah it's just that..."He trailed off before taking a deep breath, then he spilled everything.

By the time he had finished they had reached the top floor, but Pepper had ordered JARVIS to keep the doors shut, to which he happily obliged. She didn't say anything to Steve. She didn't even look at him.

He wasn't sure if it was shock written on her face because it was such a mess of emotions. But then she cleared her throat and suddenly her face was blank. No emotion crossed it. It was like a blank canvas ready for its first coat of paint. She didn't paint it however. It remained blank as she finally let JARVIS open the doors and she stepped out onto Tony's floor.

At first it was quiet, nothing moved, nothing spoken. As she stepped further onto the top floor, her high heels making loud tapping noises on the hard wood floors, she looked around carefully before she froze, mid stride.

On the sofa sat Tony and Loki, or more Loki sat on the sofa with Tony atop him, lips locked together and hands buried in each other's hair. Hearing a noise by the lift, Loki moved his head up to look but Tony, not hearing anything, took it as an invitation to kiss and suck his way down the god's neck.

Loki's gaze settled on Pepper, who had not moved a muscle. Knowing it was best to stop Tony he tried to push him off, muttering his name but it did nothing. After a few more attempts and a more forceful shove he finally lifted his head with a questioning expression on his face.

"You have company," Loki said, looking back over to where Pepper stood and Steve stood, a couple of steps behind.

"Pepper, what? Oh Steve I should have known you'd tell, come on now all you need is Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D and you'll have a full set," Tony said, moving off Loki and standing up.

He offered Loki his hand which he took to help him up then they disconnected and made their way over to the others. Pepper watched their every movement with scrutinising eyes as though trying to search for evidence to confirm what had already be confirmed.

Tony stopped a few steps in front of Pepper, facing her straight on, while Loki hung back a step behind with his body slightly at an angle, a defensive move.

"Are you going to explain this Tony or what? Because I really think Steve had got the wrong idea."

"Wrong idea? Did you not just walk in on us or was that my imagination?"

Pepper sighed loudly, "For God's sake are you insane? This, this is stupid and ridiculous, what made you possibly think that hooking up with that was a good idea?"

"Hey don't even go there Pepper, this has nothing to do with you," Tony said coolly. No one seemed to notice that Steve was slowly backing out the room.

"Of course it's to do with me, we were together for quite a while if you remember," She cried, throwing her hands in the air in frustration.

"Yeah and I also remember you walking out on me to go off with some S.H.I.E.L.D agent so-"

"I didn't go off, I told you straight what was going on and it's not like I abandoned you. I've still kept your business going this whole time!"

Watching the argument unfold, Loki wasn't quite sure how to feel. Already he didn't really like Pepper, but at this moment he wasn't sure he liked Tony either. How could he not have told him about this woman? She was obviously important to him or at least used to be, at least, and yet he hadn't mentioned her once, not even an offhand comment about something irrelevant.

"I know that Pep and I'm grateful but this," He gestured between himself and Loki. "This is my personal life and you don't control that."

"What are you telling me you love him? The one that killed Phil and caused you to have anxiety attacks, I really don't think that's a good start for a relationship, do you?" Pepper snapped.

"I-I er I...and that has nothing to do with it, that's in the past."

"So you're saying you can forget all of that, you can forget everything he has done, all the lives he's ruined because there were a lot."

She turned and stared straight at Loki, who stared back but said nothing. What could he say? He couldn't defend himself against true facts. He knew he had done those things and he constantly was reminded everyday. Even if he wanted to reply to the woman that was throwing these words at him, he didn't know how to reply. His voice had gone. How could Tony not have told him about the anxiety? Their relationship had not started on the good note he thought it had.

"I don't know what you want me to say Pep."

"Forget it Tony, but remember when this mucks up don't come crying to me because I can't and won't sort out any more of your messes."

With that she turned on her heels and stalked towards the lift that opened as soon as she reached it. As the doors shut, they saw she had her head held high and her back ramrod straight.

After she was gone Tony didn't move and neither did Loki. Tony didn't want to look at Loki; he didn't want to see the expression that would be waiting for him. He had been an idiot to think he could keep all this stuff hidden. He should have mentioned it before hand. But what was he supposed to do now, Tony Stark didn't do feelings.

"Why didn't you say anything," Loki asked quietly.

"About what?"

"Everything, everything. About this woman who seems to think there is still something between you and about the anxiety attacks."

"Pepper doesn't think there is something still between-"

"How can you not see it?" Loki said loudly, making Tony flinch. "Just why didn't you tell me about her?"

Anger flared in Tony. "I'm sorry; I didn't know we were sharing everything now. Why are you so upset about it? We're not together now so what does it matter?"

"How would you feel if someone I used to be intimate with came back shouting all this stuff about you?"

"I'd be cool with it."

"So you'd be totally fine to learn that I used to be married?"

"What?" Tony spun around and faced Loki head on. "That's totally different!"

"It is not Stark, it is just the same." Loki unfolded his arms and dropped them to his sides.

They fell back into silence as they just stared at each other. Both had anger written all over their faces but hidden in the lines were hurt and sadness. Trust had always been an issue for them both and this was just proving it tenfold.

"But that's marriage, how could you not mention that?"

"Like you said, I didn't know we were sharing everything," Loki shouted.

"If you're going to turn this all back on me then fine, just go away. I don't wanna talk about this anymore," Tony said exhaustedly.

And to his surprise Loki did exactly what he said. The second he looked back the god was gone and then a door was shut firmly down the corridor.

Sighing quietly, Tony headed off to his workshop, the only place he had ever been able to drown away his sorrows. Work, music, alcohol. The best medicine money could buy.

Loki shut the door and fell onto his bed where he just lay staring at the ceiling. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't want to fight Tony again. He didn't want to talk to him but he didn't want to lose him either. Everything was a mess in his head. Trying to think of a solution to this problem was obviously never going to happen tonight so instead he crawled under the covers, not bothering to change, and closed his eyes ready to fall asleep.

Sleep didn't come quickly but when it finally did it was punctured by strange dreams with rushing images. Sometimes it was dark then light flooded in, illuminating scenes he had never seen before. Tony was there then he was gone, Thor appeared and spoke but no words came out. Then everything began to swirl. Round and round until all the colours became one. Suddenly everything went black. Then the darkness shattered and something huge and powerful reared up inside Loki.

He awoke and sat bolt upright, panting. A stinging on his wrists drew his gaze towards them and when his eyes fell on them they were red as though the skin had been rubbed hard. The bracelets that contained his magic were gone. He looked to the floor where they lay in pieces, no way of ever being fixed.

He wasn't allowed another moment to think before he was dragged backwards into darkness.

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