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At 100 years old, Tony looked the same as he did almost six decades before. Not that he would know, since he couldn’t see himself in the mirror anymore. But he knew that he would always look the same. Everything would always be the same.
Tony had been a vampire for 57 years. He watched all of his friends grow old around him as he stayed exactly the same. He watched them die from old age while he was stuck in the same unchanging blood thirsty body. It was hard, to say the least. Pepper passed away just under 20 years ago, and Rhodey passed away 15 years ago. Tony’s only company since then were JARVIS and the rest of his bots. He missed his friends.
After being isolated from the world for decades, Tony was finally beginning to be able to go out in public without being recognized. As he walked through the streets of New York, no one even looked at him. At least that was what he thought.
“Stark?”
Tony looked up to see someone that he never expected to see again.
“Loki?” Tony asked in shock.
The Battle of New York was 58 years ago and no one had seen Loki since. Thor told Tony and the Avengers that he was bringing Loki back to Asgard using the Tesseract, where Loki would most likely be put in prison. No one heard from either of the gods since then.
“Last I checked, mortals are not supposed to live this long,” the god said to him with a smirk.
“You’re right,” Tony told him.
Loki was silent for a minute as he studied Tony. It almost felt like the god’s piercing green eyes were staring into his soul, learning everything about him.
“You were not a vampire the last time we met,” Loki said.
“You were one year shy of my transformation. That’s a shame, we could have celebrated by murdering innocent people together,” Tony replied, but right away he knew that it was a terrible joke.
“Murdering is not one of my favorite hobbies, unfortunately,” the god said with a quick wink.
Seeing Loki again brought up memories that took Tony decades to forget. He was suddenly greeted with images of endless space and Chitauri ships blowing up. He finally managed to go 5 years without a nightmare related to it, but he knew that streak was not going to last much longer.
“I need a drink for this conversation,” Tony muttered. “You can come back with me if you’d like.”
“Not a drink from me, I hope,” Loki was quick to respond with a mischievous tone.
Tony rolled his eyes. “An alcoholic drink.”
Tony wasn’t sure why he was so quick to invite Loki to his apartment. Even though it would be much harder for the god to hurt him as a vampire, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to try. But Tony also had nothing to lose. They weren’t far from Tony’s apartment. It was almost midnight and there weren’t many people on the streets, so they got there quickly.
“This is much smaller than your previous home,” Loki noted, referring to his tower.
“Living in a tower doesn’t make it easy to lay low,” Tony told him.
Tony’s best bottle of scotch was needed for this occasion. It had been a while since Tony invited someone into his home. It must have been at least 20 years. After he poured two glasses, Tony took a seat next to Loki at the bar.
“Alright, you have some explaining to do,” Tony turned to Loki on his right and said.
“I am more intrigued by you at the moment,” the god responded.
“I think figuring out why you’re not rotting away in an Asgardian prison right now is a more important issue,” Tony said.
Everyone thought that Loki would be locked up for life, however long his life may be. At the time, Tony thought Loki and the rest of the gods would outlive him by thousands of years, but things have changed.
“Odin finally was able to see the truth of what caused me to come to your realm. It was against my volition.”
“Okay, I’m going to need more of an explanation of that,” Tony demanded.
“I do not want to explain all of the details because it was a very traumatic time of my life, but I was captured and forced to retrieve the tesseract for my captor,” Loki revealed.
Loki didn’t say it out loud, but Tony still heard it. He was tortured.
“Oh shit , Loki,” Tony gasped.
The god didn’t respond. He only took a large drink from his scotch. Tony’s thoughts began to spiral. He didn’t even think of the possibility that Loki wasn’t behind the invasion. If he took a longer look at it, he could have noticed what was going on. He had the chance to stop it and he didn’t. It was another thing that he wasn’t able to do right.
“You did not know, Stark. You could not have known,” Loki said.
The logical part of Tony knew that he was right, but it was still upsetting.
“I’m sorry,” Tony said to him.
Loki shrugged. “It was over half of a century ago.”
Tony poured another glass of scotch for himself and then poured one for Loki when he realized that his was empty too.
“I am curious about what happened to you, Stark,” Loki said with green eyes focused on Tony.
“A vampire bit me,” Tony replied, stating the obvious.
Loki let out an exhausted sigh. “I mean that I am curious about the circumstances that led to your transformation.”
Tony did not talk about his transformation often. It brought up memories of people and events that he didn’t want to think about ever again. But it was also a crucial part of his life that was hard for him to ignore.
“When I was still with the Avengers, I was badly injured in a battle. I wasn’t going to make it,” Tony started to explain. He could still remember the Doombots attacking him like it was yesterday. There were so many and his suit wasn’t enough to protect him.
“You did it to save your life,” Loki stated.
“No,” Tony quickly said. He didn’t want to give off that impression. “My life ended that day.”
Loki slightly nodded, encouraging Tony to continue.
“I was brought to a hospital unconscious and doctors quickly determined that I wasn’t going to live much longer. SHIELD had some vampires working for them and they brought them in. Them and the rest of the Avengers made the call.” This was always a hard topic for Tony to talk about.
“They turned you without your consent,” Loki sighed. Tony nodded.
SHIELD had a vampire bite him to save his life. Iron Man would be in their control forever.
Or that’s what they thought. If them and the Avengers thought that becoming a vampire was something that Tony wanted, they didn’t know him at all. When Tony woke up after his transformation, he was horrified. He already had enough blood on his hands from the weapons he developed, and being a vampire meant that he needed blood to survive. It still made him feel sick decades later. Tony managed to cut his ties with SHIELD and the Avengers shortly after. He disappeared from the world. It really hurt knowing his friends were so clueless after all of the time they spent together living in his tower.
“I’ve been a monster ever since,” Tony said simply.
“I guess that is something that we have in common,” Loki said as he raised his glass. They cheered and took a sip of their scotch.
They stayed in silence for a few minutes, but it felt comfortable to Tony. Being in the presence of Loki wasn’t unsettling, and it wasn’t because Tony had enhanced strength and speed if anything were to go wrong. He actually enjoyed Loki’s company. Maybe it was because Tony hadn’t had anyone in his apartment in decades, or maybe it was because it was Loki.
Was he that desperate for company?
“I assume you are no longer in contact with your shield brothers?” Loki questioned.
“I went off the grid as soon as I finished my transformation. I wasn’t going to live as SHIELD’s puppet for the rest of eternity,” Tony responded. He didn’t even miss them.
“Understandable. How is immortality treating you?” Loki asked.
“Everyone I knew is dead,” Tony said simply. He took another sip of scotch before adding, “Immortality sucks.”
“Oh it’s not so bad,” Loki said with a mischievous grin.
Tony couldn’t list many good things about being a vampire. He supposed the enhanced strength, speed, and senses could be cool, but he wasn’t really putting them to use. The only other good thing was being able to see technology evolve. He couldn’t invent things for other people to use anymore, but he did enjoy working in his workshop for himself.
“I haven’t seen sunlight in almost 60 years,” Tony told him. It wasn’t something that he expected to miss as much as he did. When he was human, he spent so much time in his workshop that he had to be forced outside. But now he wished that he could feel the warmth of the sun more than anything.
“I may be able to help with that,” Loki said.
Loki took the sunglasses off of Tony’s face, which caused Tony to blink in surprise. Tony always wore them to cover his eyes that often turned red when he was drinking blood or when he was thirsty. But Loki wasn’t paying attention to that. He held the sunglasses in both of his hands as his green magic surrounded them. It lasted for a minute or two until the magic disappeared.
“I enchanted them so you will be able to go outside in daylight as long as you are wearing them,” Loki said as he placed the glasses back on Tony’s face.
Instinctively, Tony took the sunglasses off to inspect them for any changes, but they looked exactly the same. He couldn’t believe it.
“How do I know you are telling the truth?” Tony asked.
“It is a simple spell. You are not the first vampire that I have shared a drink with,” Loki replied.
Tony wanted to believe him, but he couldn’t. It sounded too good to be true.
“The sun will be rising shortly. I can stay with you until then if you would like,” Loki offered. Tony definitely would like that.
They moved to the couch and faced the window. Tony anxiously waited for the sun to rise. He could barely sit still, but Loki’s presence sitting next to him was oddly calming. Loki was sitting so close to him that their legs were almost touching. It would not take much for Tony’s arm to brush against Loki’s, and it took a lot of effort to stop himself. It had been so long since he was this close to someone. He could feel himself slightly shaking with need, but he was able to refrain himself.
“What brings you back to New York?” Tony asked to try to break his thoughts up.
“Boredom,” Loki simply said.
“Being a prince isn’t entertaining enough?” Tony inquired.
“I am the god of mischief , Stark. I cannot simply stay in one place for long,” Loki explained. Tony could understand that. Loki was someone that longed for adventure and challenge. For a brief second, Tony wondered if the god was lonely too.
“Fair point,” Tony said. “So that’s what you’ve been up to since you got out of prison? Traveling around?”
“Yes. I was curious to see how this city was doing,” Loki responded.
Tony suspected that Loki wanted some closure, but he wasn’t going to mention it to him.
The sky was starting to brighten up. It was the beginning of summer in New York, meaning temperatures were rising and sunrises were earlier. The sky was a beautiful mixture of yellow, orange, and red. Seeing the color red in a new context was refreshing.
“It’s been years since I’ve seen a sunrise,” Tony turned to Loki and said.
“That’s a shame, they really are lovely to watch,” Loki replied.
“I can watch them every day from now on, thanks to you,” Tony grinned.
It was slight, but Tony was pretty sure that Loki blushed. He might not have been able to notice it without his enhanced eyesight, but it was there. For some reason, Tony thought that it was really cute.
As time went on, Tony found himself looking at Loki’s profile beside him rather than the sunrise. It was strange. Tony hadn’t seen the sun in almost 60 years but the god sitting next to him was more fascinating. It had been quite a while since Tony was interested in someone, but he didn’t remember it happening so fast.
When the sun was fully in the sky, Tony made no effort to move. Neither did Loki for a little while. They sat beside each other peacefully while they enjoyed each other’s company.
“I suppose I should go,” Loki said after a half an hour or so.
“Oh,” Tony mumbled. “Okay.”
“Thank you for the drinks,” Loki told him as he stood up from the couch.
“I owed you,” Tony said with a soft laugh. “Thank you again for the glasses.”
“You’re welcome,” Loki replied before walking towards the door.
There was a moment of silence as Loki continued to make his way towards the door to leave the apartment. It was as if time slowed down. Tony felt stuck on the couch, completely helpless. He had to sit there and watch the only person he had a meaningful interaction with in decades leave, and he couldn’t do anything about it.
Except he could.
“Wait,” Tony quickly stood up and said before Loki had the chance to leave. Loki turned around and responded with a raised eyebrow. “Don’t leave yet.”
“How come?” Loki asked.
“I just-” Tony began to say, but he paused to think through his words. How could he even begin to explain without sounding completely desperate?
Loki softly nodded, encouraging him to go on. He looked like he was listening carefully, like he really cared about what Tony was going to say. If Tony’s heart was still beating, it would be fluttering in his chest.
“I don’t want you to go. I’ve been alone for so long and it feels too good to spend time with someone familiar. So I don’t want you to leave,” Tony revealed.
The god walked away from the door until he was standing in front of Tony. He gently held Tony’s hand, and Tony shivered from the contact. It had been years since his hand was held.
“I do not have to leave,” Loki said softly.
“Good,” Tony whispered. He couldn’t stop the smile on his face from forming. He looked up to see that Loki had a smile that mirrored his own.
There was something forming between them that Tony didn’t want to let go. He knew that he was desperate, but he genuinely wanted to spend more time with Loki. He could see the potential for something really special to happen. They weren’t there yet, but it was a start. Just like the sun in the sky, Tony’s future was finally bright.