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Late evenings at the campus café wasn’t normally Tony’s kind of scene.
The fact that it was a campus café meant that it had a reputation as far as the clientele it attracted – kind of stereotypical, really. The art students, the hipsters, the stoners… and the prevalence of every type only increased the later in the day it got. Once the sun was down, there was no real chance of finding anyone except those types.
Nothing against poetry readings or whatever, it just wasn’t Tony’s thing.
Except that now, recently, Tony had taken to crashing in on the campus café – the Thanks a Latte Café, may he live long enough for that name to fade forever from his memory.
He hadn’t meant to, the first time. Or, yes, he had meant to walk into the café, but it… it had been an emergency? He’ d been having a late night in the labs with Bruce, helping him figure out some of his hands-on mechanical projects in trade for some tutoring on biochemistry, which he still felt he could be doing a lot better on. It had gotten later than he’d realized by the time he was stumbling out of the labs and back to his dorm, and still had plenty of his own work to get through before he could let himself pass out.
And the Thanks a Latte had been on his path between the two.
He hadn’t really thought about it. As much as the pretentious artiste scene was not his, it wasn’t like he actively avoided it. Certainly not to the point of ignoring a perfectly good outlet for caffeine when he saw one. So he’d ducked in and ordered himself whatever it was that was the strongest off of their menu.
And while he’d been standing and waiting for his drink to be made, leaning against one of the pillars which held up the little half-story above, he’d had the dubious pleasure of listening to the live music that had been playing. Dubious, because the musicians they had in to play were, as might be expected, students from the college. It wasn’t too bad, he supposed, but definitely more indie than he usually liked his tunes. Though he honestly doubted that any of the talent going up on the little stage the café provided would have had much familiarity with heavy metal. But his drink had taken long enough – there had been several people in front of him also waiting – that the musician who had been on when he came in finished their set, and the next had time to get set up and begin theirs while Tony was still trying not to doze against the pillar.
The sound of a piano had been enough of a surprise to shake him out of his doze and gotten him to look over at who was on the stage.
And it was more or less from that moment on where Tony was pretty sure he’d been screwed.
“Tony, for god’s sake, how long are you going to keep coming here and just stare at him?”
“I don’t know, Rhodey, how loud are you going to be every time you ask that question?”
Rhodey rolled his eyes, but at least he shut up, and went back to reading his book on military history or whatever it was.
Really, Rhodes had every right to feel put out by the situation – specifically acting as an unwilling cover story for why Tony was suddenly frequenting the Thanks a Latte every night a certain musician was scheduled to be there. It had been a little awkward to come in just on those nights, alone, and spend all of his time nursing a fancy coffee and pretending to read, or write, or go over papers. Someone was bound to notice eventually that his eye kept straying, that he would ogle the musician on stage. So he needed even more of an excuse to be there every damn night.
Which was why he’d begun dragging Rhodey with him to the café. Not that he appreciated it, or the limitless supply of coffee and pastries which Tony bought for him. Ingrate.
Keeping his eyes trained on his book and his voice low for once, Rhodey went on. “I’m just saying that this isn’t really like you, you know? Usually when you see someone you like and want to hook up with, you’re up in their face about it practically before the thought has finished forming. We’ve been coming here for two weeks and you haven’t made a single move. And I don’t even know how long you’d been coming here before you started dragging me along.”
“Not that long…” Tony muttered, fiddling with his cup, refusing to look Rhodey in the eye.
“My point is,” Rhodey said, putting the book down again, too riled up to keep his cover for very long, “that you should get a damned move on. Get in there, work your magic. Either it works or it doesn’t, and then we all get to move on. And I can have a dinner which isn’t raspberry scones or cinnamon swirl muffins.”
“Easy for you to say,” Tony shot back lowly. “But I want to do it right. I want him to accept, so I can’t just go in there without thinking…”
The look Rhodey was giving him was unreasonably soft. It was very nearly pitying, he thought.
“You’ve really got it bad for this guy, don’t you?”
Tony didn’t reply. The heat he could feel rising to his cheeks was probably enough of an answer, really. Instead of answering, he looked up to the stage, where the whole reason he’d been coming to this stuffy artist-focused café for so long was playing his set.
His name was Loki, Tony had eventually found out, and he was probably the epitome of what Tony would have thought of as a hipster artiste. Tall and lanky, sharp cheekbones, long black hair which he kept swept back into a man bun… Really, he couldn’t have done much better unless he’d also found someone who wore those old retro glasses with the thick frames.
Or at least he’d thought so, until Loki had to read something and busted out a pair of specs to do so. They had thick frames.
If the whole artist scene wasn’t his cup of tea, then artists themselves… well, he wouldn’t have thought they were his type, either. Apparently he’d been wrong about that.
The first night when he’d been run down and dog tired, just wanting a little bit of caffeine to get him back home and hopefully see him through a few hours before exhaustion took him, Loki’s piano playing had caught his attention. Or, his keyboard playing. The café was far too small to house a piano, but the keyboard was pretty high end, and its settings were pretty damn good. As was Loki’s playing. Better than the musician who had come before him, anyway.
It might have been because he had been so tired, or because of the atmosphere and being in a strange place so late at night, but there had been something in the way Loki had been playing which had caught his attention and held it.
He’d been almost ethereal, unreal even, as he sat up on the stage and played away at the keyboard.
Tony hadn’t been the only one to be struck with his beautiful music, either. The notes weaving their way through the café had worked their magic on every patron, not quite silencing the café, but bringing the volume down to a murmur. Tony had watched and listened to him, entranced, not registering when he’d been handed his complete coffee, and allowing it to grow cold in his hand as he ignored it in favor of taking in the pianist.
And then he’d finished his set.
And then he’d smiled, and it was like watching the clouds clear after a whole day being overcast.
He didn’t know why it was that he hadn’t done what Rhodey said, rightly, that he would have done with anyone else – go right up to the man and strike up a conversation. On one hand he was glad that he hadn’t, because he’d been so dazed at the time there was no knowing what might have actually come out of his mouth. But on the other, he was beyond mad with himself for not having gotten it over with and out of the way right then and there.
If he had, then he wouldn’t be sitting at a table and suffering through trying to come up with either the courage or a good enough opening line to do it now.
It was ridiculous, really. And the way things were going that night, it didn’t look like he would be getting along any further than he had been the last couple of weeks. Rhodey was going to be stuck with muffin dinners for a little while longer.
Loki finished his set, and Tony worked a little bit harder at making it look as though he were a normal, everyday, coffee loving patron, thank you so very much, and didn’t watch as the man broke down his setup and packed all his equipment away. It was strategic to wait until Loki left the café first before he followed suit, giving him enough time to get far out of sight before Tony left the café after him.
Strategy.
So it came as something of a shock when a familiar but only-distantly-heard voice spoke to him.
“Excuse me. Do you have a moment?”
Tony looked up and around, and his heart nearly stopped. After three weeks of trying to get up the gumption to speak to Loki, Loki had walked right over to his table and was talking to him.
Thankfully, despite what his heart was doing, his mouth still worked fine. “I guess that depends.” He smiled. “What do you need the moment for?”
It earned a smirk out of Loki, which was an entirely unfair expression on his face. Everything about the man’s appearance was unfair, honestly. From the tied-back hair to the maroon button down with the sleeves rolled up. “Just a little chat, if you’re amenable.” He cocked his head. “I’d be willing to buy you another round of whatever it is you’re drinking, of course.”
It was hardly an original pick up line, and a refill on coffee didn’t have the same overtones as a whiskey, but it still made his heart jump again. It also didn’t escape him that Loki was talking exclusively to him, and was ignoring Rhodey entirely.
It didn’t escape Rhodey’s notice, either, and like a good wingman, he was already gathering up his things to make himself scarce.
“I think I’ll pass on getting myself another latte tonight,” he said, shoving the book he had into his bag. “I’ll see you later, yeah, Tony?”
“Yeah, Rhodey. Have a good night.”
“You, too,” Rhodey replied over his shoulder, and Tony hoped that Loki didn’t hear the emphasis which might have been there, or which might have just been in Tony’s head.
He didn’t seem to hear anything odd, though, not reacting much at all to Rhodey’s departure save to smile politely, and then turn back to Tony once they were alone. He motioned to one of the empty chairs. “May I?”
“Please.”
Loki sat down across from him, and Tony got his first really good, up close look at the man.
Green. His eyes were incredibly green.
“I must admit to a little bit of rudeness. I’m rather glad that your friend took himself off for the evening.”
Okay, so that wasn’t helping his heartrate go down at all. But this was good, in a way. This was familiar. He could deal with flirty, it was well trodden territory, and he could get into this kind of swing. Even if it was with the guy he’d been more or less shamelessly mooning over for weeks. That… that was fine.
“That right? And why might that be, Ivories?”
Loki blinked at him, a surprised smile coming to his face. “The better to hold a private conversation,” he said, and Tony repressed a shiver at how low the guy’s voice could go. “I’d prefer not to talk around a third party when discussing certain… well.” He shifted in his seat, leaning just a little closer to Tony across the table. “I’ve been made aware that you’ve been coming to the café for a while, now, and that your times always coincide with the evenings when I’m playing.”
Oh. Well, shit. Someone had beaten him to the punch in revealing that little tidbit. But Loki didn’t seem at all put off by the knowledge. He was still here at his table, after all, so maybe it wasn’t a total loss?
God, he hoped it wasn’t a total loss.
“That… might be true,” Tony admitted, a bit of a clumsy attempt at being coy. “Though that could also be a coincidence.”
The smile which came to Loki’s face this time wasn’t surprised, nor was it the grin which he sometimes gave after his sets. It was a low, knowing sort of grin which went directly through Tony’s defenses. “Oh, I very much doubt that,” he said. “From what I understand, you’ve been meaning to approach me for some time, but have been a little too… shy? I can assure you that I’m not nearly as scary as you might think.”
Tony almost hoped that was a lie. He was rather enjoying the idea of Loki being frightening, of being a little intimidating, maybe on purpose…
“Well, I can’t say that whoever told you was wrong, per se. So, now that the whole ‘approach’ thing is taken care of, how did you see this playing out? You’ve already offered me coffee.”
“True,” Loki agreed. “But I was rather thinking of leaving the how’s up to you, since it was you who expressed the interest first. Though I will say that I am up for practically anything you might have in mind.” His smile turned modest. “It’s not bragging to say that I’m quite experienced, and you would be in good hands with me.”
The atmosphere controls in the café must have got on the blink, because it was suddenly very, very hot and close. It was a little hard to breathe, and the room might have been tilting just slightly.
“I, uh…”
Tony’s loss of cool must have been very obvious, because Loki’s expression shuttered slightly. “Oh, I’m sorry. I can be rather forward at times. I get carried away. Here.” He pulled out a card from his breast pocket, and a pen from a trouser pocket, and began scribbling something on the back. “This has my email with the school and some of my social media, and this is my cell phone number. I’ll leave you be to think it over for a bit, and if you decide you’d like to go through with the lessons, just give me a call and we can work something out.”
“Lessons…?” Tony asked as he took the card numbly. What in blue hell had he walked into? He glanced down at the card.
“Yes. Though of course, if you decide that you’d prefer not to try your hand at the piano, there’s no hard feelings.”
Tony stared at the card. Loki’s name was listed there – his last name was Odinson – and all of the information he’d said would be there, as well as a small tag just beneath his name.
“Pianist, Composer, Tutor”
Tutor.
“Oh,” Tony laughed. “That… I see.”
Loki tilted his head at him, a frown creasing his forehead. “What is it?”
“Nothing, just uh… Who was it who told you that I wanted to meet you?” He’d assumed that it had been Rhodey, finally gotten tired of being dragged to the café over and over, and decided to kick things into gear himself. But if Loki was a tutor…
Loki motioned towards the counter. “My mother, actually. She owns the café, and she noticed your habit of coming in when I was here. In fact she said that you asked for my schedule, so she…” Loki trailed off as some realization or other dawned on him. He glanced back at Tony, and it seemed like his expression had become even more closed off. Not unfriendly, but no longer trying to get Tony to open up in turn.
“You weren’t interested in lessons at all, were you?”
Tony shrugged. “’Fraid not.”
“This is all a setup by my mother, isn’t it?”
“Sure seems that way.”
Loki muttered, too low for Tony to make out any words, but it sounded like cursing – though not English cursing. After a few good rounds of that, he sighed and sat up straight again. “I really must apologize on behalf of my mother,” he said, avoiding eye contact. “She likes to meddle in affairs she’s not involved with, and so involves everyone around her, whether they wanted to be or not. Please, just ignore everything I’ve said tonight. We were both led astray, I’m afraid.”
Loki leaned across the table, reaching for the card still held in Tony’s fingers. He pulled it away from Loki protectively. “Hey, now, who’s saying I don’t want lessons, huh?”
Loki blinked at him. “I’m sorry?”
Tony grinned. Yes, this was much more his speed, now. “I’m saying I think that I would like to learn a little bit of piano, if you’re still willing to teach, that is.” He squinted at the card, and then looked back at Loki, who was watching him with no small degree of confusion. “I’ll even return the favor and take you out for coffee in return for teaching me to play as beautifully as you do.”
A blush came to Loki’s cheeks, and Tony crowed internally.
He recovered quickly enough, though. “Well, that’ll depend on you, won’t it? Whether or not you manage to play beautifully.”
“Ow. Ow, sir, you cut me to the quick. …But it is a fair point. Though I would also point out that much of a student’s success rests in how good of a teacher they have.”
“Hmph.” The green eyes had lit up with amusement, and the smile become charmingly genuine. “We’ll just have to see how well we do together, won’t we?”
Tony grinned. “Can’t wait.”