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“JARVIS, do you have any idea where our resident Troublemaker might be?”
There was a brief pause before the AI answered. It was a pause which Tony was certain meant that he was making a quick search, but which the answer, “Yes, Sir, I do,” made him think the computer was being coy.
He paused in getting his coffee, and tilted his head to look upwards at the ceiling. It’s not where JARVIS was, but it was a habit which was hard to break. “You mind sharing that little idea, J, or would you like me to guess?”
“You are free to guess if you wish,” J said, definitely sassy now. “You’ve been somewhat deprived of low-stress leisure activities of late.”
“What are you talking about, I’ve had plenty of leisure time scheduled—“
“Yes, Sir, but scheduled is not quite the same are attended.”
“Are you mother-henning right now, JARVIS?”
“Yes.”
It startled a snort out of him, and he shook his head. Programming a computer to act as a sort of combination secretary and caregiver had seemed like such a good idea – and then he’d created an advanced AI system capable of learning and thrown that into the mix, and now he had a sassy set of circuit boards to deal with on a daily basis. Not that he was complaining, really. He finished adding the cream to his coffee.
“Maybe some other time, buddy. You mind telling me where Loki is?”
“Of course I don’t mind, Sir.”
There was another long pause. Tony glared at the ceiling. “JARVIS.”
“Loki is currently in the workshop, Sir.”
Tony sighed. “Thank you, was that so—wait. He’s where?”
JARVIS couldn’t laugh per se – programming a computer which could laugh at him seemed like tempting fate – but there was definitely an amused undercurrent to his tone when he answered, sweet and innocent as you please. “In the workshop, Sir. He has been there for the past fifteen minutes. I believe his reason for coming was that he was seeking you out.”
“Oh.” Tony’s cheeks warmed. Loki had been doing that more and more of late – seeking out his company, soliciting his opinions on various subjects, inquiring as to his own projects… At first he’d just thought that the guy was looking for someone he could talk to other than Thor. Brother or not, it must have gotten old only having one person who was willing to talk to him on a regular basis. So it had been Tony’s assumption that the mage had gone round with several of the other Avengers, testing the waters to see who would be the least likely to tell him to get lost when he attempted a conversation.
Then he’d begun to notice that Loki’s conversations with him were more than just friendly. That his body language was a little too far shaded on the inviting side be an accident. That his smiles were all so much warmer when they were turned Tony’s direction…
A bigger surprise – or perhaps not – had been in realizing that he… really didn’t mind that kind of attention coming from Loki. He would have thought that he would have, really. Having the amorous attentions of the guy who had tried to take over the world? Probably not very high on his list of priorities.
Except a lot of time had passed since then, and a lot had been learned about the circumstances of how Loki had ended up in the position he had. He’d become a part of the team, if a slightly off kilter one, and had long shed the reputation of ‘villain.’ It was hard to be considered a villain when you kept saving entire swathes of cities with magic which would have otherwise been crushed. If Wanda and Pietro could do it, then Loki could too.
Face still warm, Tony started gathering up his coffee and tablet, already on his way back to the shop. “Been waiting for me to get back, has he?”
“Yes, Sir. But I believe that he would have moved on to continue his search sooner had he not found something to preoccupy him in the meantime.”
“What, is he rooting through my blueprints or something? If he’s looking for a Christmas list, he’s going to be disappointed. I’ve already got his gift picked out.”
“He’s not rifling through your blueprints, Sir.”
Before he could ask for more clarification, a holo-screen unfolded directly in front of him, making him pull up short and nearly slosh coffee all over himself. “Hey, J—!”
He stopped when the screen lit up. It showed the inside of his workshop, which was instantly recognizable with its maze of tables and equipment. Given how much time he spent in there, it would have been a cold day when Tony didn’t recognize his own shop. What was slightly less recognizable, at least in the context of the shop, was the figure of Loki. He was standing amid all of the familiar surroundings, dressed down in his ‘normal’ Asgardian greens, and surrounded by—
“Is Loki under attack by the kids, J?”
Dum-E and U were gathered around Loki, looking like a pair of oversized dogs, bouncing up and down on their struts, pawing at the mage excitedly.
“In a manner of speaking. Although Loki doesn’t appear to mind the attention.”
He didn’t. The angle of the camera view was such that Tony could make out about half of Loki’s face, and he was grinning at the bots. It made Tony grin reflexively, seeing someone enjoying the robots’ company. Reactions could be split on whether one thought of them as charming, annoying, or just background and ignored them. The fact that they were gathered round him and looked as though they were attempting to get Loki to interact with them – and that he’d been down in the shop of a considerable length of time – was a good sign that Loki fell into the former category.
There was a muffled crackle as JARVIS started piping sound in from the shop, giving Tony not only a visual on what was happening, but allowed him to hear what was being said, as well.
Because Loki was talking to them.
“… doubt that he’s been gone forever. It might be a little longer than usual, but it’s not forever.”
One of the bots bounced a little more aggressively, which, for some reason, made Loki chuckle.
“Has he ever not come back before?”
The bot – Dum-E, he was pretty sure – slowed down and tilted his hand at Loki, as though considering. He turned to U, who also titled, and Tony got the very distinct impression that they were communicating with one another. Which wasn’t very strange, really. They could communicate information back and forth, it made their jobs of coordinating with one another easier, same as with JARVIS being able to communicate with them. But then—
Dum-E turned back to Loki, his hand tilted in the other direction, and there might have been a series of beeps and whistles, barely heard over the mics and speakers…
“Oh.” Loki’s expression sobered, and he looked as though he regretted asking the question. “Yes, I can see where that would lead you to worry about him whenever he left…”
Was… was Loki actually talking to the bots? Tony squinted at the screen, as though that would help with anything. “J, what’s going on?”
“It would appear that the Allspeak which Thor attempted to explain a few months ago is effective not only with living creatures, but any form of organized communication. Loki is capable of understanding Dum-E and U perfectly.”
“… huh. Well, that’s… Wait, does that mean that they can both understand the bots?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“And other non-human things? You said anything with ‘organized communication,’ so does that mean…?”
“I’m uncertain as to the parameters,” J admitted. “But it does appear to give both Loki and Thor a rather broad range of beings which they are able to communicate with. Limited to whatever level the other is able to communicate, of course.”
“Right…” Tony said distractedly, still watching the screen in fascination. Why had he never considered this as a possibility, or even all the possibilities which someone who had a built in universal translator would have? “I guess being able to talk to a bee wouldn’t amount to much, unless you wanted to talk about flowers… Oh my god, I need to drop a hint to Scott about this, he’ll lose his mind.”
On the screen, it looked as though Loki were actually petting Dum-E, now. What?
“…time ago,” Loki was saying as Tony tuned back in. “Much has changed since then. Your master has grown in skill, and he has many comrades who will be at his side whenever he needs them.” He patted the bot’s casing. “For example, if anything were to happen along the lines you’re worried about, whoever was responsible would have to deal with me.”
Tony frowned. He felt a little weird spying on them like this, but his curiosity was piqued now… “J, what’s that all about?”
“Dum-E was relating the time when you left for Afghanistan and then failed to return for some time, with no expectation of when you would return as an example of how you might once again fail to return. It was meant as an explanation for why it is they become anxious whenever you are out of sight, Sir.”
Tony felt his heart twist. “They do? Seriously?”
“Yes, Sir. It is the most common reason I ever have for needing to calm them.”
“I… I didn’t think that they even remembered that.” Tony stared at the screen, wondering. He knew the bots were intelligent – maybe not JARVIS-intelligent, but still much smarter than they appeared. But the possibility that they might remember that incident had never entered his head. The fact that they could understand on some level that he might not come back and been affected by the experience had also never occurred to him.
“I can assure you that they do, Sir. And may I say that it is reassuring for me as well to know that should anything happen, you not only have a team to help you, but Loki as well. He’s proven to be quite an effective combatant. Moreover, he has a personal investment in your wellbeing. Which increases the possibility that he will do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
Yep, that was the flush coming back. If even JARVIS had noticed this going on, then what were the odds that the rest of the team had as well? Although… JARVIS was considerably more observant than a lot of the team, so maybe it wasn’t that much of a stretch. Especially some of them…
“That’s, uh… That’s either incredibly sweet of you, J, or incredibly ruthless. I’m not sure which I find more endearing, to be honest.”
“I shall endeavor to maintain my mysterious charm, Sir.”
The holo screen folded together and away, leaving Tony standing halfway between the kitchen and the elevator which would take him down to the workshop. Down to where Loki was, apparently bonding with his robots and assuring them that he would rescue Tony if it ever came to that. He wasn’t sure, exactly, what all his emotions were doing. There was the fact that Loki was down there and speaking with the bots, that he had come to seek Tony out again to continue this… whatever it was that they were doing… and the fact that JARVIS seemed to approve of every last bit of it.
That was probably a good sign, though, wasn’t it? Whatever his own feelings might be doing, J’s approval was probably good. He was an AI with a good, non-existent head on his non-existent shoulders.
Tony started when he realized he basically had the tacit approval of ‘the kids’ for his potential new…
And he thought his face couldn’t get any hotter.
He strode for the elevator, heading down before he could change his mind.
By the time he reached the shop, the bots had convinced Loki to play fetch with them again, using one of the more solid wrenches lying around. The door to the elevator slid open just as Loki had tossed it, so Tony got to watch as the wrench flew through the air, the bots both sped after it, and listen as it clanged back to the floor. It wouldn’t break anything, but he still winced.
Then Loki twisted around, and his face lit up at the sight of Tony.
And Tony’s heart, already warmed, absolutely melted.
Ignoring the heat in his own face, Tony strode into the workshop, heading for the same table where Loki was leaning.
“There you are, Anthony. I was beginning to think that perhaps you’d gone off on some adventure without informing rest of us. Your creations certainly seemed under the impression that you had been gone for a perfectly unreasonable amount of time and that I had to go out and find you right this moment. I trust you haven’t managed to get lost in your own—“
He probably would have kept going. He had that kind of look on his face which said that he intended to just keep going on and on in teasing the hell out of Tony. Which was fine – more than fine. Tony was rather fond of those days when Loki decided to invade his space just to pointlessly banter with him.
The only reason he didn’t keep going was because Tony had covered his mouth with his.
That was usually a good way to get people to shut up, Tony found.
Loki stiffened under the touch, but didn’t pull away. Tony kept it brief, pulling away again to look up into Loki’s wide, surprised eyes.
“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” he said slowly, “but what was that?”
“Recontextualizing,” Tony said, deciding that since Loki wasn’t giving off any ‘I’m about to kill you’ vibes that it was still safe to be so close to him. “Now there’s a definite element to this relationship, instead of just hints.”
Loki quirked an eyebrow at him. “Have we grown tired of merely hinting, Anthony?”
And Tony grinned, because to his ear, and in the common language of tricky tricksters, that wasn’t a denial. “Well, maybe not tired, per se. But leaving it at only hints is a little limiting, wouldn’t you say?”
Loki’s expression pulled into a smile, and as much as Tony’s heart picked up its pace at that, it began to thunder when he felt Loki’s arms sneaking around his waist, holding him in place.
“You raise a good point,” Loki agreed, his voice dipping low. “And as much fun as the previous game was, if the new one comes with advantages like this, I highly approve.”
“I thought you might,” Tony chuckled, and was then distracted when Loki lowered his head to catch him in a much more thorough kiss.
They only pulled apart when one of the bots finally returned with the wrench and nudged Loki’s shoulder, bringing his attention back to the game. Tony laughed and Loki chuckled, taking the proffered ‘toy.’
“The kids approve of you, by the way,” Tony pointed out, deciding to make sure he was completely up to speed.
“Is that right?” He rubbed at Dum-E’s ‘head’ fondly. “I’ll have to make some time to bring my own to meet them someday.”
“Yeah…” Tony blinked, coming out of his pink haze abruptly. “Wait—your what?”