Chapter Text
The elevator dinged and Jarvis’ soothing tones greeted him as Tony stepped into the penthouse. He quickly strode towards his room, the sun streaming into the space through the large glass windows lining every part of the penthouse. With a sigh, he singlehandedly removed and tossed his tie haphazardly onto his bed in one fluid, well-practiced motion. He had spent the entire day at various board meetings and Stark Industries related business. Despite how the media portrayed him, he did work hard to make Stark Industries the leader in technology and clean energy. And despite Pepper insisting that he never showed up to board meetings, he did make an appearance when it counted. After all it was his company. Tony was constantly overbooked. Between the business side, R&D, his work as Iron Man, and charity fundraising events he was constantly stretched thin. Like today. He stripped out of his suit into his workshop clothes and made his way down to the lab.
JARVIS helpfully summarized the top ten items he had on his to do list, pulling up various hologram schematics of projects in different stages of completion, as Tony scrolled through the list. He had JARVIS cue up some AC/DC and started working on a new StarkPhone. When he finished the design and sent it to R&D and the board, he ordered some Indian food for dinner then decided to work on the suit.
As he was tweaking the gauntlets, an otherworldly roar cut through the music and a black swirling portal opened up above his couch. JARVIS cut off the music just as a thin man with shoulder-length black hair fell out of the portal face-first with a soft thump onto his couch. Tony gasped in surprise and quickly put on and powered his gauntlets, slowly approaching the couch. He was too tired for this shit. A leather-clad man that looked straight out of a Renaissance Faire had somehow fallen out of thin air. Onto his couch.
Tony inquired, “Hey Green Knight, how the hell did you get into my lab?” The stranger righted himself and looked directly at him with piercing green eyes. Tony nearly gasped again. He had an intensity to his eyes, cheekbones you could cut yourself on, and legs that went on for days. The stranger was HOT. Despite gracelessly falling onto Tony’s couch and doing little else, Tony’s gut told him that the man seemed dangerous, like a flickering flame. Tony would have to figure out who he was dealing with, attractive or not. Tony tried to speak to him again, more conciliatory this time. “Did you open that portal?” An awkward silence prevailed. He lowered his gauntlets slightly, “Are you okay?”
The stranger suddenly gasped and shifted his gaze to Tony’s chest. Tony immediately lifted his guard again, his gauntlets raised and aimed. “Hey, Fifty Shades of Grey, my eyes are up here. I’m going to ask you again, how did you enter my tower undetected?”
The stranger put his hands up and replied politely, “I apologize for entering your tower uninvited. I was trying a new spell to walk worlds and while I was successful at that I appear to have picked the wrong world.”
Tony was shocked into silence. The stranger spoke with a Shakespearean sort of cadence. And did he say a spell?
“A spell? Like magic?” It was well known that Tony was a scientist. If there really was magic, there had to be a logical explanation for it. It had to be some higher form of science we didn't understand yet. Maybe this was a prank, a reboot of Punk’d or something like that. He lowered his gauntlets. “Is this a joke, did Pepper put you up to this? Is David Blaine going to pop out from somewhere else in my lab?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know your references. I am from Asgard. But yes, my magic is real.” The stranger suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Tony. He was almost a foot taller and towered over Tony. “Sooo hot, glad he’s not trying to kill me”, he absentmindedly thought. Because Tony realized, with powers like that, he easily could.
“Woah! JARVIS, did you get that? You’re magic and an alien?”
JARVIS responded, “I have some abnormal energy readings but other than that our visitor appears to be truthful about his magic.”
The stranger jumped an impressive amount in the air at JARVIS’s voice and Tony barely suppressed a chuckle. The stranger raised his eyebrows, asking a silent question about where the voice came from. Tony was excited. An honest to god alien, and he seemed to be the first person on Earth to meet him. And not just any alien, a super sexy, magic alien that could teleport across his lab and if that wasn’t impressive enough, from world to world. Tony almost clapped his hands together in delight then sheepishly realized he was still wearing his gauntlets. But whatever, he wasn’t going to let that phase him, it wasn’t everyday you met an intelligent alien. He beamed and said, “Introduction time. I’m Tony Stark of Earth. Genius, billionaire, playboy, and philanthropist. And the voice is JARVIS, my artificial intelligence. And you are?”
The stranger bowed respectfully and responded, “I am Loki, prince of Asgard, god of mischief, skilled mage, and now world walker. An artificial intelligence? You’ve created a living being and an immeasurable power source you can feel from the Yggdrasil” he said gesturing at the arc reactor in Tony’s chest. “I see the genius title is well earned, especially for a Midgardian.”
Whoa, the alien could sense the arc reactor all the way out from outerspace?? And he just called Tony a genius! It was nice to be recognized. Nowadays, people just expected him to constantly produce innovation after influential innovation, no matter how advanced it was compared to everything else on the market. Tony smiled softly at the praise, so unused to hearing it, and launched into a series of questions about magic and where Loki was from.
Loki explained world walking and Tony let out a low exhale as he leaned back onto his chair, understanding the implications. Loki could near instantaneously travel undetected anywhere in the universe. And he had figured it out from old books in the matter of a few weeks. Loki in turn, asked just as many questions as Tony did about Earth’s technology from skyscrapers, to cars, to the armor, to JARVIS, to the arc reactor. Tony was reluctant to answer questions about the reactor. He trusted Loki by the sheer virtue that Loki didn’t seem to want to hurt him, given that he was hopelessly outgunned in the face of Loki’s magic, but he trusted people on the whole a lot less after Stane. Additionally, Loki was still very much a stranger. But then Loki compared its strength to magic and explained how he had followed the reactor’s energy to Earth and that’s what had led him to tumble onto Tony’s worn-out lab couch. And Tony just about melted at that. His reactor was being compared to Loki's magic, a science so advanced JARVIS could barely detect it. Tony answered questions more freely after that. They talked throughout the entire night. At sunrise, Tony took him to the roof of the tower and watched Loki take in the NYC skyline and the bustling traffic below. Loki unfortunately had to go back to Asgard but he promised to visit again and bring back a magical metal for his armor. Tony smiled in awe as Loki summoned a blinding rainbow light from the sky to Stark Tower and disappeared with it, leaving an intricate crop circle like burn on the roof.