disclaimer: i still do not own marvel, but by the gods i would not mindit!

Chapter 15

Tony Stark was at a loss for words. Not a single syllable sprang to his mind nor had any coherent words formed in his brain. The short, brown-haired genius was certain that if he opened his mouth right now, nothing but gibberish would come out of it. Surely any sound of his voice daring to break the spell of silence would take him away from this impossibly surreal moment.

A mop of golden, sand-coloured hair rested against his shoulder. The engineer could not comprehend what was happening or why it happened at all. The only thing left for him to do was sit still and enjoy it for as long as it lasted.

After Captain America left him with his almost comatose assistant, who was starring in utter silence toward the raging storm outside, a spark of desire had stolen over Tony. It crept closer and closer to the surface, giving him small goosebumps over his entire body. Those staring blue eyes were so tragic and beautiful, practically hypnotic. They didn't burn with their regular fire and venomous passion, yet they remained desirable nonetheless. It made him feel like the helpless moth drawn to the burning flame that would eventually turn him to a pile of ashes.

He wrapped his arms around the other man, hoping they could stay there for a even just a brief moment in time.

His silent request was granted. His arms held Locke and stayed carefully placed around the tall, lean man. Minutes seemed to pass before the intense gaze of his assistant softened. Tony could feel Locke's chest rising up and slowly releasing a deep breath. The ominous dark-grey colour in the sky above New York dispersed, giving way to blue clear skies just as fast as the storm had appeared. As those clouds faded, his tall assistant gradually relaxed, slowly letting his weight lean into Tony's embrace.

That is how Tony ended up in his current predicament: trapped holding a pale-faced man adorned by golden locks. Locke's eyes were closed and he leaning against him. His snarky, easily-angered assistant was now in deep sleep, his breathing brushing against Tony's goosebump-filled skin with every exhale. For the love of God, he could not help but inhale the man's natural scent - Locke smelled of cold winter evenings, when the skies were clear and all the stars shone across a black background. Well, at least, that was what Tony envisioned from that pure scent.

No other description could be given, except that Locke had minty breath. Which is also nice. I mean, you don't kiss people with horrible morning breath. Not even when they are sleeping this cutely.

Tony's eyes shot open and he raised an eyebrow in contemplation. Wait, what? Did I just…

Yes, I did think he was cute.

Damn. Tony was torn between two ideas. First, he wanted to let Locke rest without waking him up. Second, he wanted to go, put on his suit, and leave. Whatever Fury had done, he wanted to know and know it now. An internal dilemma raged war between these two desires; he could not do one without giving up the other. And he really did not want to let Locke go. If anything, he wanted to pull him closer and place a kiss on those soft, smooth lips. They were almost begging for him to place a tender touch on them and the cleanly-shaved skin on Locke's jaw deserved lingering strokes too. Not to mention, Locke's neck practically begged for Tony to run the tip of his tongue along it, only to end with a…

Fuck. I should really stop thinking.

"Jarvis? What is the probability of Locke waking up if I move him?" Tony shifted uneasily in his chair.

"Given his state of sleep, I would say about thirty-seven percent, sir. My advice would be to sit still and wait patiently."

"Torture, Jarvis!"

"What is torture, Tony?" came a voice from behind him.

He turned his head and saw Pepper entering the room. It had been over a week since he had last seen her and that was when she had left him with Locke.

"I had kind of hoped you would grow accustomed to having a man as a personal assistant," she sighed.

Well shit, that's not a problem anymore, Pep.

"Anyways, S.H.I.E.L.D. called me here, telling me you had a problem big enough to cause you to not attend their meeting. Is everything al—" Miss Virginia 'Pepper' Potts stopped dead in her tracks at the sight. Tony's arms were the only thing that held Locke in his chair. Otherwise, the blonde man would have slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Had Locke fainted? Was he unwell?

"Help me, Pep." Tony didn't beg. He never begged. But he could ask for help...sometimes. Apparently, this was definitely one of those times.

"What's wrong with him?" Pepper asked concernedly, surveying the situation with care.

"Just sleeping." Tony gestured with his head to the couch. "Now help me get him up. I need to put him to bed so I can leave."

"Just sleeping? What do you mean 'just sleeping'?" The Tony she knew, even if he was kind-hearted, would not let a man sleep like that, especially in his arms.

"Yeah, long story. Now please help me, before he slips." Or before I start getting ideas again.

It looked like she had no choice. What had he gotten himself into now? Trouble after trouble came along when your name was Tony Stark. She wrapped her arms around Locke, carefully trying to keep him from sliding out of his chair. "All right Tony, but hurry. I can't hold him for long. And you should head over to S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Absolutely. You know me, Pep, ready to go ruin S.H.I.E.L.D.'s day, every day." He made sure Pepper had Locke secured before moving. "Perfect. Now hold him for a while so he doesn't fall off, okay? And don't wake him up. He gets really cranky. Like PMS cranky."

Tony took the momentary release of hold as an opportunity and stretched. Pepper gave him a glare that said, 'Hurry up.' He shrugged and let out a sigh as if responding, 'Yeah, I know, but I don't care.' He picked up the other man, more delicately than he cared to realise, and carried him over to the couch.

Tony took great care of his assistant and Pepper saw that clearly when Tony Stark, the ever single billionaire, pulled a blanket over Locke's sleeping form. It was as if a light bulb went on in her head. He cared—no, he didn't just care for the other man—he liked him more than he could probably admit to himself. Knowing Tony, he was in denial of some sort or just too stupid to realise it. Oh God, all this time Tony was attracted to men and she, and probably he, didn't even know it. The question was, does Tony know?

"There we go. All tucked in. Now be a good Pepper and watch over him," Tony said to her, a wide stupid grin on his face. "Never know when he'll wake up and freak out again." He walked in the direction of the balcony's ledge where Jarvis was already preparing the gold and red parts of his Iron Man suit.

He knows. And he cares for Locke, too. Well, at least that explained a few things that had happened over the past few months. Already, the anger and worry she had toward him lessened. Men, no matter how intelligent, were always stupid fools when it came to the heart. Intelligent men—geniuses—were worse off than regular men. Somehow, she ended up feeling a bit foolish herself, for not seeing something like this coming her way.

The only other question running rampant in her brain was, is he aware that he cares? Did he realise that besides a physical attraction, he might have a deeper connection with Locke already? He had to suspect something, right? She hoped he wouldn't make the awful mistake of seeing Locke as just another conquest. Dear God, would he do that to his assistant or to himself?

Pepper hoped that Tony Stark's brain would conclude that "just sleeping" with this particular assistant would result in nothing except madness and trouble. Locke would be furious, assuming there was even a pinprick of a chance that he'd actually do it. Pepper would be furious herself, and as they say, 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.' Or, in this particular case, it would be a very vengeful, venomous, and tall man who had already tried to strangle Tony and that was while he was still in a hospital bed.

She looked at the man in question, sleeping in peaceful oblivion on the couch. He was unaware of his surroundings and the fact that he'd been carried there by his boss. The only visible part of him was a mess of blonde hair and a grey-socked foot poking out from underneath the covers. Pepper palmed her face. The man Tony cares for...may God have mercy on us all.

Tony Stark, Iron Man, was flying high in the sky with great velocity toward his destination. It wouldn't take him long to reach Fury with his thrusters on max. He'd even be there before the Director could have a chance to calm down an angry Captain America and that was saying a lot, since Steve was by far the easiest Avenger to calm. The clouds parted before him, his red and gold armour gleaming, to reveal the helicarrier. Before he landed on the deck, he made sure to pass the windows just to notify Fury of his arrival, but mostly because he knew it pissed the hell out of him.

He walked in with full armour and his faceplate pulled up - Iron Man in all his pissed off glory. He looked around the room. Aside from Clint and Natasha, the others were already there. Steve had left the Tower before him, flying one of Tony's vehicles. Banner sat on a chair, fidgeting and probably still feeling uncomfortable in the enormous military battle-helicopter ship—whatever they combined to create this monstrosity. No one could blame the scientist though; who could feel comfortable within the vicinity of a cell designed especially for them? Stupid assholes. Thor was there too, in all his armoured Asgardian glory.

"So what did I miss?" Tony asked with a loud clap of his hands, calling attention to himself and his words. "Come on, people. Fill me in."

"Man of Iron, 'tis good to see you well," Thor claimed in his loud voice.

"Stark, nice of you to finally join us," Fury spoke, his one good eye ruthlessly staring at him and analyzing his reactions.

"I'm a nice guy after all, Fury. Unlike some here I actually stopped making weapons." Tony gave a pat on Bruce's shoulder as he passed by, a signal for the man that said something along the lines of 'don't worry.' "Oh, did I forget to mention the Chitauri? Because those are always bad. Nasty little things. Like cockroaches."

Tony cocked his eyebrow. "Right, Steve? You got one under your boot the other day, didn't you?" Steve—no, Captain America—looked at him and nodded in approval. Tony continued. "And I know for a fact that there is a crack forming in your basement large enough for the insects to crawl out."

"Stark, I hope you're not implying that they got here with my help." Fury's one good eye narrowed.

"No, no. Not implying at all. Just pointing in the general direction of where things get fucked up." God, he wished he had a drink right now. Fury was not only pissed off at him but, judging by the look of his face, the man was pissed at himself too. "So to what do we owe the pleasure of their visit?"

Surprisingly, it was Thor that answered instead of Fury. "Loki."

"What?" Tony thought it was good that he didn't have a drink in his hand right now for he probably would have crushed his glass at the mention of that particular name. "Don't tell me your dear little darling brother escaped, Pointbreak."

"No, he…" Thor swallowed in the middle of his sentence as he tried to find the right words. "Loki is no longer…" His teammates visibly relaxed, glad that the chaotic and rampant god could no longer spread his menacing terror across the Earth. Tony was just glad that he had his armour on for he felt tense after hearing those words come out of Thor's mouth. He can't be…

Thor continued. "The Other swore an oath to my brother, a pact that if Loki failed him, the Other would find him and torture him. They came to Asgard trying to sniff him out but found nothing except a lingering scent."

He is still making me have those dreams so he can't be gone.

"Now they have come to Midgard." Thor looked to Fury and anyone could see that the strong Asgardian was angry. "Only a few got in by passing a rift created by you. Foolish mortal." Fury gave no obvious reaction, but he knew very well that those words were aimed at him. "They will not find Loki," Thor said. "But they are intent on giving the Other the revenge it seeks. That creature wants to see Midgard destroyed and it is only a matter of finding a way."

Then those dreams I had meant that I—

Discussion burst out among them. Tony was too lost in his own thoughts and Thor's words to even join the debate, something that he would have done immediately had he not come to a certain conclusion in his mind. If Loki had not caused those dreams to stay there, haunting him, if the god was elsewhere…then those thoughts were his own.

I wanted Loki.

"Tony?" the voice of Steve Rogers called to him.

"Huh, yeah?" Tony said, snapping out of his thoughts.

"Don't you agree that as a temporary solution, it would be best if we stayed at Stark Tower together?" Steve looked at him and both Bruce and Thor followed suit. It would be bad for Bruce to attempt to sleep in this goddamn helicarrier monstrosity. Steve probably didn't feel inclined to stay in the helicarrier either. And Thor, well, he was Thor. The Asgardian god that would follow them everywhere if it meant having Pop-Tarts, coffee, and shawarma.

So Tony shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sure, just give me two days."

That was how the Avengers came to agree that, for the time being, instead of staying in the hellicarrier, they would stay in Stark Tower. From there on out, they could easily move and advance on any trouble. Bruce could continue all of his lab work without the constantly eerie and watchful eye of S.H.I.E.L.D. glaring over his shoulder. Steve, like Tony, was just pissed off, though he was professional enough to not show it. Most of the time, he seemed to spend his hours drawing somewhere in the city or at the Tower anyway. Thor would follow the rest of them, it was as simple as that. And the assassins…well, only time could tell what they thought whenever they returned from their current mission.

Locke would definitely not be amused by any of this, but at least he'd be safe. Why do I need him safe? Tony mentally shook his head. It doesn't matter. Of course he needed his assistant safe, the guy works for him after all. It doesn't matter one bit that they kissed or that he was hot just like…

Just like Loki.

They all said their farewells for the time being and in two days, they would all show up on his doorstep. There were enough empty rooms in the Tower on the level below his and Locke's living quarters; it was simple a matter of providing those rooms with enough furniture. None of that troubled him though, because only one thought was spinning in his mind, making his already pissed-off mood worse and adding an unexpected depression to the mix.

Loki is dead.

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Last not least, big thanks to sinister Banana and swordmisstress for beta-ing this one here!