Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tony cursed as the sudden blare of the Avengers alarm almost made him splash himself with hot coffee.

He rubbed his bleary eyes and blinked hard a few times, groaning at the pretty shit timing of who- or whatever it was this time. He had just come out of a working binge in the lab that had lasted something like… 3 days? Maybe. It was hard to tell. His body felt more or less ready to crash by now, and he was so not looking forward to this particular fight.

"You alright, Tony?", Bruce asked softly, looking concerned for his sleep deprived science buddy. Steve, having just gotten up from his seat next to him, was wearing a similar expression with an additional note of disapproval to it. Tony sighed internally.

He took one last gulp of his liquid gold and waved Bruce off, "No sweat, Grean Bean." He grinned at the two as he headed out of the communal kitchen to suit up, calling back, "See you there. Last to show up has to brief Fury!"

He just heard "It doesn't work that way, Tony!" before the elevator doors closed. Tch. Would've been nice though.

Tony leaned against the back wall to give his body a moment to rest. He stifled a yawn. "JARVIS, report please."

"Very well, Sir. The cause of the alarm has with 99% certainty been confirmed to be Loki. He is currently–"

"Wait wait, wait a second," Tony interrupted. He took a deep breath, trying to make sure he hadn't just hallucinated.

Please let it be a hallucination.

"Did you just say Loki?"

"That is correct, Sir," JARVIS answered, and he didn't even sound sassy about it. Tony put his head in his hands. Fuck.

The AI continued: "I have run several facial recognition programs. The match rate of surveillance imagery from today and his appearances from 2012 is 99%. Unless unknown means of impersonation are involved, the individual in question is Loki, Mr. Odinson's brother."

Lowering his hands, Tony noticed that he had already arrived at the penthouse. He straightened up and walked into the room, heading towards the balcony. "Didn't Thor say that they dropped him on some other planet? What the fuck is he doing here," he grumbled.

"I wouldn't know, Sir."

Tony sighed and stood in front of the doors leading outside, letting his suit close around him. "Yeah, who the fuck knows with that maniac. Thanks, JARVIS."

Tony stepped outside and his faceplate came down, darkening his field of vision before the UI lit it up again. "Always a pleasure, Sir," his AI's voice sounded as he took off into the sky.

He let JARVIS guide him to Loki's current location, using the short wait to watch surveillance footage of what the alien was doing. Whatever the fuck that actually was.

The bag of cats was strolling through the city with a giant brush in hand, painting huge flowers and leaves of grass onto the bottoms of the buildings he passed. He was joined by a horde of elephants that were doing the same within a few blocks of his location, kicking and trampling the people that didn't get out of their way fast enough. Higher up, a couple of flying baby elephants with huge flapping ears were spraying stuff like falling flower petals onto windows and walls using their trunks.

Something must've been in that coffee. Cause there was no way this was real.

"JARVIS … is Loki actually …" He wasn't even sure what to call it.

"He is painting buildings, yes," the AI responded. Right, keep it nice and simple.

So, great, Tony wasn't seeing things. Awesome. Incredible. Just what he had needed today.

Though it was definitely better than Loki painting buildings with blood and guts and okaaayyyy he hadn’t needed to go there.

Soon, [ETA 5 seconds] flashed in the bottom right corner of the UI, and he steeled himself for another round with the unhinged alien. At least he was already wearing a suit this time, so that lessened the choking and falling risks. Small mercies, he thought to himself sardonically, landing a short way away from Loki.

"Long time no see, Reindeer Games!" he opened, making the space mage stop to look at him. "Whatever godland they threw you in must've been pretty boring to make you visit our little planet full of ants."

"Ah yes, the Man of Iron," Loki answered with a smirk, turning to face him fully. Damn, he looked good. No, Tony, we aren't thinking about supervillains' looks. "What a pleasure to see you again. It has been far too long, hasn't it," the mage turned artist finished with a false smile, then spun around and continued painting.

Tony wasn't sure if he felt more offended by the obvious disregard or relieved that at least this time, Loki hadn't brought an army of aliens with him. And he didn't seem very intent on causing a bloodbath either...?

Well, whatever. He still had to go.

Tony aimed a repulsor at Loki's head. The alien ex prince was pretty much asking for it, turning his back on him like that. He was just about to fire when he heard a "Loki!" from behind him.

Both of them turned to find Thor landing a short stretch away; barely losing momentum as he barreled down the street towards them. Keeping watch on Loki from the corner of his eye – UI – Tony only got a glimpse of something metallic replacing the giant brush in his hands before the blonde pack of muscles had arrived. He slammed into Loki at full speed, almost bawling his ex? brother over in a massive tackle hug.

After catching himself, Loki just looked annoyed, his face twisting in a grimace. Baring his teeth, he asked, "Would you like another?" next to Thor's ear.

Another what?

Thor took a step back and reached up to cup Loki's neck, guffawing. "No, that is quite alright, brother! I have missed you!"

The space mage hissed, "We are not brothers, Thor," the hand visible to Tony clenching around a bloodied dagger - and that's what he meant with 'another', huh.

Loki had stabbed Thor, who had just laughed it off like it happened all the time. ...which, for all Tony knew, it probably did.

What the actual fuck, he thought, eyeing the two aliens who definitely both had a screw loose.

Thor started pestering Loki about where he had been, and complimented his elephants as a 'fine trick', while the latter spat back barbs and insults.

Yeah, Loki might've been exiled from Asgard, but disowned by the royal family? My ass. That looked like peak sibling behavior right there.

Tony began to feel kind of weird about just standing next to them, while around them people were screaming and trying to get out of the way of all the elephants.

"Alright, as happy as I am for you having your awesome family reunion," Loki turned to him, looking ready to fire an insult or something much less verbal in his direction, "there are elephants trampling around. Do something about your batshit brother, Thor."

And oh, he was definitely in for a good fight now. Loki looked furious. This could definitely become a pattern. Maybe he shouldn't keep provoking homicidal aliens but who could blame him when it was just so easy, and fun? Tony grinned and raised his arms to target Loki, ready to kick some ass.

Unfortunately – not really, commented the small part of his brain that was responsible for his continued survival, but he resolutely ignored that – Thor looked to have other plans. Seemingly overwhelmed, he clung to Loki again and boomed: "I am so happy to see you alive and well, brother. But of course, you would be. You were never trifled with easily!"

Loki sneered a little, and yup – JARVIS had helpfully pulled up camera footage from another angle – got stabby again.

Tesla's dry dick, Thor hadn't even winced. He just kept hugging Loki, who heaved a put upon sigh and asked, "All good things come in threes, do they not?"; pulling his arm back for another stab.

Before he could hit his target though, Thor moved backwards with a grin on his face. "Indeed they do," he said and made to hug Loki again, who snarled and simply vanished. Without the Tesseract having been anywhere in sight.

Tony stood there, staring numbly at the place Loki had just been, while Thor just looked mildly surprised.

"Loki can fucking teleport?!" Tony burst out.

Oh no. Oh no no no. Oh no.

Fuck.

Thor, on the other hand, just looked happy. You fucker. He answered, "Yes, it appears so. That must be how he traveled to Midgard"; a joyful grin spreading on his face.

Tony suddenly felt like he would enjoy stabbing Thor too.

No, bad Tony. No copying crazy aliens.

He wrangled his brain back to the issue at hand. So, Loki could teleport, had apparently increased in weird crazy but also decreased in homicidal crazy... hopefully. Alright, he could – maybe work with that.

Shit, who was he kidding. Chances were they were fucked.

And the elephants were still running around. And flying, of course. Can't forget the flying ones. Tony groaned, and started towards one painting what looked like a blue daisy 20 feet up in the air.

Time to kick some dumbo ass.

Chapter Text

Loki eyed the handful of peas and pieces of salad he had thrown to the group of ducks ambling near his bench. The greens didn't look very appetizing to him, but then again, he didn't have the palate of a duck at the moment.

Selecting a piece from the box of halved grapes next to him and bringing it up to his mouth, he wondered if he should try it. Tasting the food as a duck, that is. Most of the time, taste testing in different forms did end up being quite enjoyable, but he tended to get carried away ... there were just so many kinds of food, which he could spend hours sampling. And on top of that, there were a near infinity of forms he could assume; or at least that's what it felt like.

Maybe he should collect a vast selection of foods and keep shapeshifting until he had finished it all. He didn't have anything specific to do anyway, so he might as well spend a week or two temporarily satisfying that particular curiosity. Stifling a sigh, he reached for a grape.

Loki wouldn't go as far as saying he missed his royal duties and having to look after his oaf of a – not brother, but it did feel a bit strange to have complete control over his own time. Of course, there was no end to the possibilities of what he could do; his study of seidr had always been worthwhile and fulfilling, and Midgard alone offered knowledge and amusement to last him a century, if not multiple. But some days, he still felt a bit too untethered, too empty to be content with that.

Still. He snorted.

It seemed his mind thought he had been on his own for a long time ... though admittedly, it had felt strangely long indeed.

He sincerely hoped he would get used to his situation sooner rather than later. But of course, a millennium of ingrained habits, schedules and duties couldn't be so easily discarded and left behind. It almost made him envy mortals their ability to adapt as quickly as they did.

...but then again, if they didn't, they would spend their whole lives in a state of discomfort. Pitiful creatures, with their measly few decades.

Realizing that the ducks were almost done with the pieces on the ground, he ripped up a few more leaves of salad for them, then ate another grape himself. Ah, the tasting. He wondered what exactly he should get…

Loki continued offering food to his feathery acquaintances while musing on what he would like to try, and in which forms.

"Earth to spaced out alien. You in there?"

Norns damn it, he had been careless. Loki kept himself from starting visibly as his eyes darted to the source of the voice.

It was Stark. The mortal was standing a few feet next to his bench, posture relaxed and projecting carelessness. He wore tinted glasses and a suit, along with an amused expression.

No armor, no visible weapons either, Loki noted; and the other Avengers seemed to be nowhere in sight, but he couldn't be certain of that. He quickly erected an invisible barrier with his seidr.

Sitting up a bit straighter and reaching for a salad leaf to rip up, Loki inquired: "Are you here for another fight, Stark? I'm afraid I am not in the mood." He let his gaze wander demonstratively up and down the mortal's body, "And you don't seem equipped for it either."

If Stark was disquieted by his own lack of protection, he certainly didn't show it. Rather, he put on a meaningful grin and replied, "I don't? Sweetcheecks, I could take you any day"; ending the statement with a brazen rise and fall of his eyebrows.

Reckless little mortal.

Loki smirked and countered with a "You wish, Stark." Frankly, the mortal's attitude towards him had turned a bit baffling during their recent battles. He had behaved increasingly less hostile, and while they still fought and flyted, he seemed almost friendly. Well, not friendly, per se. But definitely friendly.

Stark gave a little shrug, leisurely responding, "Alright, your loss though."

Though the mortal was indeed quite handsome, Loki wouldn't exactly say that. He stared at Stark for a moment, then scoffed with purpose and pretended to turn his attention back to the ducks, ignoring the other's mock gasp of offense.

Silence ensued.

The mortal simply stood there, watching Loki alternate between eating grapes and throwing the ducks food. It felt a bit ... ah yes, awkward. The wonders of language. All-Speak really didn't do the inventiveness of mortals justice. Not even a couple of centuries had passed since Loki's last extended stay on Midgard, and yet he had found it difficult to understand a surprising amount of the terms and expressions that had been created in the meantime. He made a mental note to continue his study of Midgardian languages a bit after completing the food sampling.

Loki shook himself. He almost had to wonder how he had managed to survive past a century, with how he drifted off into thought with an enemy a mere few feet from him. But then again...

He eyed Stark, who was doing nothing but stand in place and observe Loki and the ducks in turn. This didn't exactly feel hostile. It was a bit discomforting though. He supposed – if the mortal was in fact not armed or waiting for support – that now would be a good time to do something along the lines of threatening or kidnapping him. But Loki had just been relaxing...

No, there would be enough opportunities for that in the future. Next time, perhaps. Decision made, he treated himself to a couple of grapes. Mmm.

"So you're ... actually just feeding ducks? You look like you're undercover or something," Stark said, sweeping his gaze over Loki's Midgardian attire and tied up hair.

Loki kept his lips from twitching upward in amusement. Though he supposed Stark's suspicion wasn't completely unfounded, it was rather ridiculous nonetheless. He affected a condescending expression and held back an eyeroll. "No, of course I'm not just feeding ducks. One day, they will make fine servants to aid me in my nefarious doings."

Stark put his glasses on top of his head and looked at him out of slightly narrowed eyes. Then he let out a small laugh. "Right. I actually almost believed you for a second there. Figures though that even Merlin can't make ducks into minions."

Loki just blinked at Stark.

After a beat, the mortal's expression turned skeptical, and he asked, "Right?"

Wouldn't you like to know? Loki thought as he smiled innocently at Stark.

"... okay, this isn't reassuring at all," Stark expressed warily.

Loki turned to the ducks again, grinning to himself. He wasn't exactly misleading the mortal, either. He was reasonably certain that he could make use of them in his mischief, but had deemed it to be an endeavor vastly disproportionate in effort required. Also ... he didn't want them to come to harm. They had been his meal companions – though bits of fruit could hardly be counted as a meal, but no matter – for quite a few months now, and he would rather like to keep it that way.

Speaking of retaining his peaceful duck feeding time: a good while had passed, and still there were no others in sight. Loki wasn't sure what to make of it. 

Keeping his gaze on the ducks and watching Stark from the corner of his eye, he commented, "No Avengers? You are awfully brave, Stark."

The mortal in question looked at him for a moment, then out to the pond a short distance away. "Why call backup if you don't need it? I'd say that rather than me being awfully brave, you're being weirdly peaceful."

The man said, while standing peacefully next to Loki and not moving a finger himself. It made Loki wonder what was going on in Stark's mind - if it hadn't deserted him entirely. Really, if this was Midgardian 'genius', he shuddered at the thought of the lows mortals' idiocy could reach. "You don't seem keen on fighting or apprehending me either. Isn't that what a hero should do when meeting a villain?", Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.

Stark gave him a look. "Hero and villain, my ass. Alright, let's cut the crap. I don't mean only now." He paused for a moment, then continued: "You didn't kill anyone during any of your known 'attacks' this year. The first few times, I thought we were just lucky, but now? There's no chance in hell."

Well. ...he wasn't wrong. Loki had taken care to not directly kill anyone. He could cause mischief just fine regardless, and the level of attention and grudges deaths would attract wasn't exactly what he was aiming for - or comfortable with, for now. He wasn't very keen on explicitly admitting to that though, plus who knew if the mortal would even believe him.

Loki let his expression show mild surprise, and exclaimed, "That's certainly fortunate. To think not a single little mortal found their death. Good for you," he ended with a falsely encouraging smile.

Stark studied him for a moment, then grinned, his posture relaxing a fraction. "Thought so. Glad to know for sure though," he said, seeming convinced that Loki had indeed been avoiding causing deaths.

And Loki hadn't even tried to persuade him of it. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Which, if he thought about it, was currently the case concerning far too many things in his life. He sighed and picked up a grape.

Another period of awkward silence followed, interspersed with duck chatter and the sounds of salad being torn and grapes being eaten.

Finally, Stark seemed to have run out of patience: "So what are you actually doing here?"

"Pardon?" Suspecting that the mortal was likely referring to his general presence on Midgard, and not very keen on the topic at all, Loki asked it with enough disdain to make it come across as 'We have been through this, imbecile. I am feeding. Ducks.'

And indeed, Stark let out an exasperated "Not here here. You know. If you're not planning on conquering Earth, and you're not broing it up with Thor, what exactly are you doing here?"

"Why don't you take a guess?" Loki responded. Him wanting to see Thor had actually been a significant part of the reason why he had come to Midgard. But while he could by now admit that to himself in the privacy of his own mind, he would sooner return to Thanos's clutches than do so out loud. ...which was certainly not healthy.

By the Nine, one of these days he would have to rethink his priorities, or better yet his whole life, if he would rather get tortured than admit to his own feelings of fondness.

Stark thought for a moment, then suggested, "It's easier to go through with your pranks in a place with no magic people to keep you in check?"

Loki smiled thinly in response. Again, the mortal wasn't wrong. Though Loki was one of the most powerful mages of the Nine, he wouldn't be able to contend against many lesser ones. Talking to Stark – or rather, trading barbs while battling – was usually more fun. He looked at the few lettuce leaves left, and almost empty container of grapes. At least it wouldn't continue for much longer.

He started shredding the salad. Likely sensing that he would leave soon, Stark ventured, "I've been meaning to ask for a while - why did you actually attack? You seem a bit too chill for world domination now, and I really doubt you discovered buddha during the last 2 years."

Loki stopped in his motions to regard the mortal. That had actually been the most genuinely curious inquiry he had received as to why he had tried to conquer Midgard. Even his former family's questions had been tinged with the acceptance of the notion that Loki had simply decided to do so. He admittedly hadn't allowed a hint to the contrary to show, but it still... alright, yes, it had hurt. Norns damned sentiment.

He looked around the meadow and pond again, then back at Stark. Astonishingly, it seemed the mortal indeed hadn't deemed it necessary to call his companions. It made Loki feel rather ... disproportionately glad that he would likely be able to keep coming here to feed ducks in peace. Of course, Stark could always inform someone later, but somehow Loki doubted he would.

In which case ... he supposed he could grant the mortal a little honesty in return.

"Simply put, I was 'in a bad place' at the time." He smirked a little at Stark's incredulously raised eyebrows, "I do know how that sounds, yes. I'm sure you have wondered why I seem different now, or more 'chill' as you have put it."

Loki took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly. He was a bit bewildered at himself for what he was about to say to the mortal. Though, even if he didn't, it would have likely come to light some day. At the latest when Thanos arrived and killed him – or tried to, Loki thought grimly – for failing in his task, or some such thing. The mortal might not even understand, and it couldn't be proven either way, but somehow that only made him feel marginally better.

Hel's shadowed planes, why is honesty so unpleasant. He wasn't certain at all if he should incorporate far more or far less of it into his life, but it felt like it had to be one of the two.

Loki continued, "The period immediately preceding my 'attack' was ... well. It contained the single most emotionally, followed by the single most physically," he pointedly looked at the middle of Stark's chest for a moment, "unpleasant experience of my life." With that, he threw the last of the salad and the grapes to the ducks, cleaned the empty box with his seidr and moved it to his pocket dimension.

Judging by Stark's somewhat complicated and contemplative expression, he seemed to have caught on, at least to a degree. Pity for him that not even Thor knew, and could therefore offer no clarity on the matter. Loki smirked a little. He did enjoy causing confusion.

Standing up, Loki finished: "Make of that what you will. I have since recovered," more or less, his mind unhelpfully supplied, "and returned to my usual ways."

Stark's somewhat thoughtful expression made way for a grin. "Pranks, chaos and mischief?"

Loki returned a slight grin of his own, and after leaving Stark with a final "Precisely" teleported back to his apartment.

He looked around his abode, then decided on slumping down on the couch, left strangely listless by the encounter. So much for a relaxing and energizing break out in the open.

He did wonder at how Stark had found him. From the apparent complete lack of armor, it seemed like he had happened upon him coincidentally – as even considering the mortal's usual heedless manner, he would have to be quite hare-brained to plan on meeting Loki without any armor or weaponry. And Loki could with almost complete certainty say that Stark was indeed more intelligent than a hare.

So it had to have been a coincidence.

Norns. He rolled his eyes skyward.

But then again, it had been ... nice to talk to someone while wearing his own face - or his face as he had known it for the vast majority of his life – and not have it end in a battle. While cloaking spells and illusions were convenient and possibly even necessary to live in this densely populated place undiscovered, it did give him an odd feeling to so often wear a face that was not his own. Especially considering that he had been essentially doing so all his life.

Well. Loki vanished the band holding his hair in place and closed his eyes to rest a little. He would add that to the list of things to contemplate later.

Chapter Text

Tony looked around the alley where the ping from Loki's Obviously Occult Notice – or, as he liked to call it, LOON – had originated from. Even now, weeks after he and JARVIS had launched the program, he found it hard to suppress his grin at the shortened name.

It seemed to have been mostly accurate in locating big usages of Loki's magic so far. 'Mostly' because a few times he hadn't found anything at the places the signal had come from. Whether that was because Loki had been there and left or because LOON – Tony grinned again – was malfunctioning, he wasn't totally sure. It could be either one – actually, scratch that, Tony's tech didn't just malfunction – or potentially Loki playing a particularly boring prank on him. At this point, he was pretty sure that the mage had caught on to the fact that Tony would be aware if he used a lot of magic.

Unsure which of the options it would be, Tony looked around the place but didn't notice anything obviously magical. It was mostly empty except for a few trash cans, a group of singers ... buskers? – whatever they were doing in this run down alley – and a dumpster at the far end.

Hmm.

He took out two bee sized drone prototypes and casually turned his back to the singers. Placing a hand on the headset in one ear, he quietly said, "JARVIS, scan the alley and show me."

"Understood, Sir," came the AI's answer; and the drones lifted from his palm and flew off.

Tony waited in place, glancing around a bit. The group was actually really good. Their location was pretty weird, but who was he to judge if people wanted to jam it out surrounded by dirt and trash. He had just started tapping his foot along when he heard, "Scanning complete, Sir. Showing results," and the data displayed on the screen of his glasses.

He looked back into the alley and froze in place. His glasses showed a cloud of green surrounding the singers, covering their bodies from head to toe.

"Iris colors of the individuals in question indicate only natural shades of blue. Mind control seems unlikely, Sir," JARVIS sounded unprompted.

Yeah, that's what Tony thought as well. Eye color aside, he hadn't gotten news from SHIELD – or what little was left of it at the moment – that the scepter had gone missing. Loki hadn't shown the ability to mind control without it, and please let that not be a thing. All of that aside though, he kind of doubted they would be totally covered in the stuff if Loki was controlling only their brains.

The spread pretty much ruled out simple stuff like altered hair color or clothing too. He did a quick sweep of them all. Yeah, they didn't look weird enough for that to be the case either. So what...

Or it could just be Loki messing with him. Tony groaned. That little shit. And he had been looking forward to whatever Loki had mojoed up this time too. On the few occasions he had actually found the space mage after following LOON, the result had been a mix of interesting, kind of unsettling and surprisingly fun. Magic was wild. He did wish for it to make some fucking sense though. Cause it didn't, not a bit. He really had to find a way to drag Loki into his lab to scan him without risking explosions and/or kidnapping of his stuff.

...but if Loki wanted something, he probably could've just teleported in and taken it anyway. Not for the first time, Tony got the momentary impulse to lie down and just bury his head in the sand at the thought of that loon in leather being able to pop in and out of existence wherever and whenever he wanted.

God, it was high time he got around to making some sort of magic blocker. But seeing as he had made no progress on his own, he was pretty sure he would need the help of someone magical, maybe even Loki himself.

It was fan-fucking-tastic. Why couldn't Tony have nice things.

He listened to the melodic performance, absentmindedly deciding to wait for them to finish their piece before asking if they had seen Loki.

Suddenly, there was a voice far too close to his ear: "Hello there, little mortal."

Tony's pulse skyrocketed and he whirled around, activating his gauntlet. It was – of course – Loki. The trickster's smirk stiffened but stayed in place as he tensed minutely, daggers having suddenly appeared in his hands.

Tony stepped back and raised his gauntleted arm a little, narrowing his eyes at Loki. Luckily his suit was in the car close by and should be here in a flash once activated. The both of them hadn't fought outside of Loki's 'attacks' but it seemed like that was about to change.

.......

Or not?

They just stood there eyeing each other, alert and ready to strike. The silence of Sister Act in the background really made the increasingly tense and kind of weird atmosphere hit home for Tony.

About a minute into their staring contest, Tony slowly lowered his arm and after a beat, Loki relaxed his posture in turn. ...so he had just been reacting to Tony. With a grin, Tony deactivated his gauntlet, letting it form back into a wrist watch.

"You fucker, ever heard of maybe not surprising the dude with a blaster?"

The space mage stared at him, seeming to hesitate a little before finally vanishing his daggers. He raised a brow and snarked back, "You are very easy to startle, Stark."

Heh.

"Says the one who trigger pulled two daggers out of his space pocket."

Loki lightly pressed his lips together in reaction, apparently having no retort. Heh. One point for Tony.

Now that he had the opportunity to actually take in what he was seeing, he realized that Loki was (once again) wearing Earth clothes. The trickster really seemed to have taken a liking to them, and hot damn was he pulling it off.

I swear to god. Tony still wasn't a huge fan of his brain constantly telling him how hot it found Loki.

Though, maybe he should just accept it. At least the space mage was turning out to be more of a public nuisance and prank genius than an actual supervillain.

Further inside the alley, the singers started up a new song. Tony glanced at them in surprise. They sure were relaxed for people who had just seen Iron Man and Loki almost start a fight.

Speaking of which ... he looked to the camouflaged alien again and asked him maybe a bit too enthusiastically, "Anyway, what is it this time?"; not wanting to give away that he knew where exactly the signal had come from.

Loki snorted lightly and went, "As if you don't know." He looked down at his hand, which all of a sudden was holding Tony's drones, and demonstratively studied them for a moment. Damn.

Tony groaned, "Couldn't you have been born a bit dumber or something? It's not fucking fair." He stretched out his hand on the off chance that Loki felt nice enough to just give his tech back.

Which he did, surprisingly. Tony dumbly blinked down at the drones in his hand, then caught himself and slipped them into his pocket.

Loki smirked, "And this from the mortal reputed to be amongst the brightest of his kind. Really, I could say the same to you." He pointedly looked at the suit pocket containing the drones, then up at Tony's glasses.

Okay, fair.

Also, had they just complimented each other? What a weird day it was.

"Touché", Tony said, conceding the point, then looked at the singers again. He quietly asked, "So really, what is it you did? They seem pretty normal."

Loki's smirk grew. "Always so curious, Stark."

Suddenly the singing stopped, and one guy of the group started laughing. Tony turned to look at him and weirdly they were all looking back in their direction – more specifically, at Tony.

The guy stopped laughing and opened his mouth.

And what came out of it ended up perma saved in Tony's brain at the top of his WTF list:

The guy went, "Why–"

A woman joined in, "–don't–"

Two others as well, "–you–"

Plus the 3 left, "–guess?"

A smirk spread on the faces of all 7 of them, their eyes focused on him in an unsettling stare.

What the actual fuck.

Tony only just stopped himself from taking a full step backwards, unconsciously letting out an unsettled "Woah there." Nope. Nope nope. That was some weird hivemind shit.

He heard Loki let out a laugh and turned to look at him. Pretty.

No. Just, fuck.

Tony realised that this was actually the first time he had seen Loki laugh in a way that seemed more genuinely amused than some form of villainously manic. In his casual but stylish getup, it almost made him look like a normal human model– guy. Yes. Just a normal guy who was definitely not among the best looking people Tony had ever seen.

God fucking dammit, Tony.

The thing the trickster was laughing about definitely wasn't normal though. Tony looked back at the singers, who had just picked the song back up; continuing from where they had paused like they had never stopped at all. He didn't know a lot about singing but they had done it so smoothly, it kind of seemed beyond human. Not to shit on the power of practice but you could only get so far before having to accept that you'd need to actually share a brain to sync perfectly.

Tony squinted. Hivemind shit for real. Had Loki brought an alien friend or something? Even the mind control stuff two years ago hadn't seemed to work like that. And he didn't really want to think of the possibility of Loki having the power to control people like that and using it casually just to make them sing and scare the crap out of Tony.

Yeah, not thinking of it. Nope.

He just decided to ask, hoping the answer wouldn't endanger his sanity: "Friends of yours? Or is it one friend?"

Loki raised his brows, surprise quickly fading into amusement. "Ah, I see why you would think that, but no. Do try again."

Oh no.

"You found a new glowstick of destiny?", Tony joked weakly. He wasn't feeling so good at the moment.

Loki shot back a disdainful "Unimaginative simpleton."

"Hey," Tony protested.

"Haven't you already seen enough of my abilities to make another guess? Really, Stark, I expected more of you."

Damn, why did that sting a little. So ignoring that.

Loki continued, "There are more ways one can appear to have control over multiple beings than simply 'mind control'." With that, he pointed to the group.

Tony followed his motion and promptly got a minor heart attack. Where there had been 7 very different people before, 7 Lokis were now standing in their place. Still singing. With the same voices as before.

Tony didn't even know what to say anymore.

Apparently his mouth did though: "Shapeshifting clones?"

"I don't know. Are they?" Loki asked.

"Oh come ooon," Tony whined. Seriously, what was it with the space mage and his rhetorical questions.

Loki grinned a little. "Well ... your guess did make some amount of sense. Singing is one of the most enjoyable activities I have found which one can perform using duplicates."

Tony's eyebrows rose on their own. "I can easily think of several more enjoyable things I could do with your clones," he drawled, openly checking out the 7 Lokis with a smirk on his face. In reaction to that, their faces took on expressions ranging from amused to annoyed, angry or somewhat pleased, to just neutral. If someone had told him Loki had a split personality, this would've been all the proof he needed.

Shaking himself, Tony decided to just focus on the main Loki from now on, who from the looks of it was having a ball messing with him.

Expression definitely entertained, Loki went, "Base desires and activities. How very inventive and imaginative of you."

Tony couldn't exactly deny that. Still. "There's no way you haven't tried it though. If nothing else, then at least to find out if you could," he challenged.

Loki paused at that. "Well, I have tried it," he admitted, "though really, it's basically masturbation. It was alright."

"Only alright?" Tony found that pretty weird to hear. Also, the thought of multiple Lokis doing it with each other was pretty distracting, so he pushed that into the background to think of later– not. To not think of later. Tony wheezed internally. He continued, "Wouldn't it be awesome even just because you know what you like?"

"I suppose," the mage answered. "It is definitely physically enjoyable. But without the added pleasure of having a partner whose actions one can't predict and will react to differently than one's own, it is just one satisfying oneself; except more complicated. And the more duplicates there are, the more challenging it is to focus on controlling them while being distracted by the pleasure. It can be quite frustrating, actually."

Huh. "Wow. That actually makes a lot of sense." There went Tony's fantasy of a clone orgy with himself. If even focusing on one body operating properly was enough to challenge him sometimes, he didn't want to know what it would be like with multiple, and during sex at that. He wasn't sure what type of alien brain Loki had for him to be able to do it either. God.

Tony looked at Loki and his clones – not clones? – and was suddenly very glad that the mage wasn't into world domination now, and had possibly never been, really. Which was good considering Loki could teleport, but not so good considering its implications. Yeah, let's shelve that for now.

"Anyway. So they are clones?" Tony asked.

The Lokis changed to their former appearances and started humming harmonies. They were good.

Tony gave Loki a look. "Now you're just showing off."

Loki grinned. "A completely foreign activity to you, I'm sure."

Tony couldn't help his lips quirking up at that. "Guilty as charged," he admitted easily.

Loki looked towards the group, his face showing a pleased expression like he was enjoying the music too. After a couple seconds, he focused back on Tony. "But regarding your question: what will I have in return? You are bold to ask a mage their secrets without offering some of your own."

Tony hesitated for a moment, then decided to just go for it. "Alright. You get a question too. I deserve the right to veto though if it's certified or too personal."

Loki smiled, satisfied. "Great. Regarding whether they are 'clones': the answer is no. They're illusions made to look, sound and feel real. If my imagination or memory of something is good enough, making an illusion of it is child's play."

"What's the difference between a clone and an illusion?" Tony asked immediately.

"My, a second question," Loki said, brows raised. "I'm feeling generous, so I will answer it too, after you have answered my first."

"Alright, bring it on." Hopefully it was a harmless one, cause he did want to know about the clones and stuff.

"Why did you remove your arc reactor?" Of fucking course. It couldn't just have been something harmless like 'How do you take your coffee?', could it. "It was a device which seemed to offer you protection from magical attacks, at least to a degree. I've been wondering why you would forgo that."

Certified and personal. Loki really knew how to hit a target when he wanted to. Although ... it wasn't like the info would be of any use to the trickster. The arc was already out anyway. So really, there wouldn't be any harm in answering it – aside from it not being fun for Tony, of course.

The idea of just offering the answer up – especially to Loki – was a bit weird, but he figured he had traded more for less before. Plus, magic answers.

Okay then.

Tony took a breath, deciding to go with short and concise: "Pretty sure you heard of Afghanistan. Long story short, a bomb exploded and I got shrapnel shot into my chest. The arc reactor was holding the pieces of metal in place, preventing them from shredding my heart. The shrapnel had to come out because duh and the arc wasn't needed after that, so yeah," he quickly rambled out, while Loki listened intently.

Huh. That hadn't been so bad. Maybe he should talk about stuff more often.

...yeah, no, actually.

The mage was staring at Tony's chest, an almost fascinated expression on his face. "Mortals can be surprisingly resilient, can't they," he mused.

Tony found that pretty funny coming from the guy who had been ragdolled by the Hulk, and then recovered enough to crawl out from his hole in the floor not even an hour later.

He noticed that even though the arc wasn't there anymore, Loki staring at the area still made him kind of uncomfortable. Wanting to distract him, Tony joked, "Hey, my eyes are up here."

Loki looked up, smirking a little. "So they are. As for your second question, the answer is that illusions don't exist physically at all, or potentially, aren't dense enough to interact with. It depends on the type of illusion. Duplicates on the other hand are made of real matter. They are alive, so to say, and take significantly more effort to construct."

"If they're alive, does that mean they can be killed?" Tony asked, wondering what that felt like.

"And here we have the third question already. No manners, you mortals."

"Oh come on. Just ask me stuff in return. I'm pretty sure we'll find something else I can answer."

"Well, I... guess", came Loki's response. It kind of seemed like he hadn't even thought of another question. Way to make a guy feel special.

"So?" Tony asked, expectant eyes on Loki.

"Alright, fine." The space mage looked around the dirty alley, gaze landing on the various trash cans. "But not here. I've had quite enough of this place." And with that, he took off, making the illusions vanish in the middle of their humming.

Tony blinked at the empty spot for a moment, then turned around. "Where are we going?" he called after Loki.

"You'll see!" came the answer.

'Alright, fine', for sure.

What the fuck am I even doing, Tony thought to himself as he made to follow after Loki.

Then again, the space mage didn't really seem that dangerous anymore. Just earlier, he had chosen to stare at Tony for like a whole minute instead of simply stabbing him.

And that had to count for something, right?

Tony still felt pretty weird when he returned to the tower a couple hours later. He'd had a surprisingly good time. Loki had answered a lot of his questions – yes, clones could be killed but Loki had never experienced it; yes, Loki could teleport places he had never been before as long as he had a good idea of where they were; no, he wouldn't magic a teletubbies suit onto the president during his next speech – Tony suspected though that he had liked the idea. Weirdly, the questions the mage had asked in return had all pretty much seemed like alien tourist stuff: the most interesting places on earth, the strangest language Tony had ever heard, the most fun things Tony had done in his life. Then Loki had asked him to make two lists, one for the most delicious, one for the weirdest foods he had ever eaten. And then somehow, their conversation had veered into how Loki had seen pretty much no movies nor tv shows and wasn't that just a sin.

Put together with the trickster's lackluster motivation to actually harm people and his tendency to sometimes straight up vanish after Thor had annoyed him enough – and he had gotten a good stab in of course – it kind of made Tony feel like Loki was on earth just for sightseeing and fun, casually harassing humanity with his pranks in between when he felt like it.

Which did sound like fun.

Tony suppressed his knee jerk response of mentally scolding himself for approving of anything Loki related. He thought it might be about time to get rid of his ingrained aversion regarding the space mage.

Because ... sure, there was no denying that 2012 had been fucked up. But if there had been more to the circumstances like Loki had hinted at – and Tony was pretty sure that was the case after he had dug up footage and SHIELD reports and found out about Loki's less than optimal state just after his arrival – then it was ... different.

Having fucked up majorly himself before, Tony wouldn't be the one to deny a changed guy a second chance. Though as Loki had said himself, it could've also been 'recovered' rather than changed. Tony wondered if he should ask Thor what exactly had happened. Given their less than harmonious brotherly bond though, he doubted the blond muscle man knew everything. Maybe asking Loki himself would make more sense? It was pretty unlikely though that the god would just spill everything, so maybe Thor was the better option for now after all.

Regardless, Tony was already looking forward to the next time LOON would ping and give him another opportunity to ask Loki about his magic and discuss random earth stuff with him. The mage made for surprisingly entertaining company.

Really, he'd never have expected Loki to just be fun to hang out with. But man, he actually was.

...

Yeah, it definitely was a weird day.

Chapter Text

Loki stood and stretched, satisfied with his practice for the day. It hadn't been easy learning how to smoothly replace himself with an illusion after teleportation – and vice versa – but it seemed he had figured it out at last. Next he would have to test it in different situations (conversation and combat, mostly) and ensure it couldn't be detected.

But that he would get started on tomorrow.

Loki ambled into his kitchen, willing his seidr to make tea. He summoned a pack of cookies into his hand and proceeded to open it. Nibbling on one while waiting for his tea to finish, he thought about what he wanted to do that evening.

He could browse the internet in search of something interesting, or cause some confusion and mischief himself. Though he was beginning to grow hungry; so maybe practice his culinary skills first? ...or he could watch another nature documentary, then go search for its most noteworthy species after. Hmm...

Loki went to sit on the couch, bringing the cookies and the finished tea with him. He took a sip and hummed in contentment.

Or I could start planning my next bout with the Avengers?

He was still considering his options when his doorbell rang. That was strange. The only time it ever did was when he had ordered something, which wasn't the case today. He stood and walked towards the door, pulling the usual illusions over his face and the entrance area as he did.

Loki opened the door. The man outside was holding three pizza boxes, his downturned face mostly hidden by the cap he was wearing. "Pizza delivery for," he said and took a quick look at his phone, "Luke Walker"; pocketing the device as he held the boxes out to Loki.

That had sounded like…

He took a closer look at the 'deliveryman'. Keeping his gaze fixed on the other's still almost completely hidden face, Loki slowly said, "I haven't ordered pizza."

The man responded, "True. But I'm nice, so I brought you some anyway," and took his cap off to grin at Loki, who just stared in return. It was Stark.

Loki certainly hadn't expected that this evening. "How..."

The mortal stared back, eyes sweeping over his features. "Wow, it sure is weird hearing your voice come out of another face." He leaned a bit to the side to look into Loki's apartment. "Aren't you gonna invite me in?" Grin on his face, Stark made to walk past him with the pizza boxes in hand.

Loki waited for the mortal to lose that grin once he ran into his wards –

Which didn't happen.

He turned and stared after him, dumbfounded. Stark had just stepped in, continuing past Loki into his apartment. That shouldn't have... what. He quickly checked his wards. They were fully intact.

...well, that was ... a surprise, to say the least.

For a long time now, Loki's wards had contained a spell that prevented anyone with hostile intentions or disposition towards him from entering his rooms. Even Thor had flattened his face on them multiple times over the centuries, mostly when Loki had angered him greatly and he had been out for revenge. So for Stark to simply walk past them ... Loki would have suspected him to have created a way to circumvent his wards, but one couldn't hide so easily from his seidr, especially not using something as fundamentally material as Stark's technology.

Which could only mean that Stark had actually come here with neutral, possibly even friendly intentions.

Well. This promised to be interesting.

The mortal turned towards him, apparently having finished his initial inspection of the entrance area and living room. Noticing Loki's continued stare, he smirked. "Surprised, huh? Took me long enough to find your place but here I am!" he finished, spreading his arms in a self-satisfied gesture like he was waiting to be heaped with admiration and compliments.

Charmed despite himself, Loki let out a small laugh. Stark was indeed a clever little mortal, that he had to admit.

Loki closed the door and let the illusions fall. "Congratulations. Here, have a cookie," he spoke, as if rewarding a child. The mortal eyed the pack of confectionary floating up towards him in mild suspicion, but took one and bit off half of it.

"Mh. Good taste," Stark commented, throwing the other half into his mouth. He put down the pizza boxes on the living room table and sat down on the couch. Then he patted the cushions next to him with an expectant look to Loki, inviting him to sit down. Loki felt himself start to grin. Cheeky mortal.

He went along with it, sitting down on the couch and turning towards Stark a little. "So you came here to eat pizza with me?" he asked, his tone leaving no doubts as to how strange an idea he found that to be.

Stark grinned, answering, "Yup. And to introduce you to Fight Club. I have a feeling you still haven't watched it, and that's just a sin. Do you have Netflix?"

"Uh... I do," Loki said, and after a moment of baffled surprise at this turn of events, switched on the TV with his seidr. So the mortal wanted to watch a movie as well as share a meal with him. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. Here we go again. Loki internally rolled his eyes at himself. He surreptitiously looked at Stark, then at the boxes on the table. At least he did know that he didn't mind this very much.

The mortal was looking at the screen, watching him open and navigate through the app with his seidr instead of a remote. "That sure is handy." Seeing that Loki had found the movie, he reached out to open and spread the pizza boxes out on the table, then made a motion for Loki to help himself to them. "Do you have drinks?"

Loki pointed to the kitchen. "Pick one yourself. Water for me." He reached for a slice of pizza, humming at the taste of his first bite, and slowly continued eating as he waited for Stark to return.

Soon enough, the mortal did just that; his expression turning smug at Loki's apparent enjoyment of the food. Setting the drinks down, he took his place again and picked up a slice himself. "Good, right?"

Loki made a sound of agreement. It felt quite strange to partake in a meal with Stark. It had been ... quite a while since he had done so with anyone, much less someone who he had thought of as somewhat of an enemy so far.

Though maybe not an enemy at all, Loki mused, remembering the way Stark had just walked through his wards.

A little discomfited, Loki thought to occupy his mind with the movie instead. "Ready?" he asked the other, who grunted in assent around a slice of pizza. Loki pressed play, and leaned back.

He wasn't sure what to call the relationship he and Stark had. Yes, they had started out as enemies, but after Loki's arrival on Midgard this time, it had turned into banter and mutual teasing at a surprising speed; their interactions outside his public mischief surprisingly peaceful and fun. It confused him a little as to what exactly he should make of Stark. Though, thinking of his wards, what he could say with certainty was this: at this moment at least, they weren't enemies.

Loki took another bite, settling further into the cushions and getting ready to simply enjoy the food and the movie in Stark's – so far – quiet company.

No, Loki found, he didn't mind this. He didn't mind this at all.

Chapter Text

Tony stood outside the closed ice rink, looking up at its unlit windows reflecting the night sky and a couple street lamps.

...was Loki actually here?

He pulled out his phone to verify that the ping from LOON had in fact come from inside the building.

During the last few weeks, Tony had noticed a kind of pattern to LOON's alerts: a couple times the signal had been pretty much the exact same value, like Loki had been using the same spell, or spells. On those occasions, Tony would show up to where they originated from, and find Loki there pretty much doing nothing; maybe playing around with his magic in a way that looked like he was just killing time until Tony arrived. Once, the god had even straight up said that he was bored, and told Tony to entertain him. It seemed Loki had come up with a method to summon him, and it actually worked. Every time. So far, at least. Luckily, until now, it hadn't happened when he was super busy or sleeping. ...'luckily', huh, Tony thought to himself.

It seemed the weird space mage had grown on him quite a bit. Not that he minded, really. There were definitely worse friends you could make.

Tony stopped with his hand on the door handle.

...was he friends with Loki?

...

His brain at least seemed to think so.

...huh.

...

I mean, alright. Tony smiled to himself and successfully pulled on the door. Not so closed after all. He grinned a little at the thought that Loki had probably left it open for him.

Tony headed through the entrance and ticket area to the ice. Despite the building seeming dark from the outside, there were actually a few lights on; just enough to see by. He came up to the ice and saw a dark silhouette lying in the middle of it. The fuck is he doing? Tony would've been worried, but somehow his mind couldn't really comprehend the idea of that. As in, worrying about Loki. The trickster seemed much too crafty. Also, he was definitely weird enough to be doing this – whatever this actually was.

Tony walked out on the ice. As he came nearer, he noticed that the reason Loki's silhouette had looked dark wasn't that the mage was wearing dark clothes. Sure, he had black pants on. And then nothing else. Tony came to a stop next to Loki, all the while staring at the other's blue skin.

He looked down at the mage, who was just lying there eyes closed. His face seemed the same except for the fact that it was blue, and for the light lines running over it in an interesting pattern. Tony swept his gaze down over Loki's chest, and damn.

Right. Not the point. Tony snorted internally at his ever present appreciation of Loki's good looks.

Who could blame him though. Loki was fit. The lines ran over his neck as well, some leading to the sides to cover the god's arms, others coming down to frame and partially cover his muscled torso that was rising and falling with his breathing.

"What are you doing here, Stark. It is the middle of the night." Yeah, right. Like you didn't call me here. Tony looked at Loki's face in amusement, wondering at his sleeping beauty act.

"At least I'm only awake at 3am in an ice rink. You're awake at 3am in a dark ice rink, lying on the ice half naked and your skin is blue. How long did you lie here to become an actual popsicle?"

"Very funny," Loki said, tone neutral like he was commenting on the weather.

After a moment of silence from the mage, Tony asked, "So?"

When he received no answer to that except for a hum, he simply sat down next to Loki, and took a closer look at the patterns on his skin.

Tony experimentally reached out to poke the other's arm. Just as he made contact, Loki immediately jerked away, sitting up with a hissed "Stark, you Norns damned fool–"; halting when he noticed Tony gaping at him.

Were Loki's eyes red?

The space mage looked down at Tony's still outstretched hand for a moment, then back up at his face. "The eyes are an unusual sight, aren't they?" he dryly asked, though it sounded more like a statement.

Tony blinked. "I mean, yeah, they are. Is your skin super sensitive like this though? Like, why..." he petered off, still surprised at how strongly Loki had reacted to his touch. Sure, they hadn't had a lot of body contact so far but it had never resulted in a reaction like that either.

Loki rolled his eyes a little. They were definitely red. "No, you idiot mortal. Next time you see skin so different from yours, you might want to reconsider simply touching it."

"Huh?" Tony asked. That had sounded weirdly racist. Then again, brightly colored skin was a sign of toxicity in some animals, and he was dealing with an actual alien here, so who knew what that had actually meant.

Loki hesitated, then went, "A Jotunn's touch can be lethal for an As. I wasn't certain if it was the same for other beings."

So the knee jerk reaction had been because he thought Tony had been in danger. His chest warmed at the thought, and he couldn't contain a grin. "Aww, so you were worried about me? Love you too, honeypie."

Loki just stared back at him with a deadpan expression. ...someone isn't in the mood for jokes, huh.

Ookay then.

Tony looked down to inspect his hand, finding that it looked normal. It felt normal too. He wiggled his fingers, noting nothing different in the feel of them. Hm. After moving his fingers, and turning and flexing his hand a couple times, he looked up again and realised Loki was watching him. "All good," he said, and saw him relax a little. Tony bit down on a smile.

"So, you're a ... 'Jotun', huh?" he asked, hoping he hadn't butchered the word. "Thor did say you were adopted. Never thought I'd meet a smurf, and a big one at that."

Loki raised his eyebrows at him, "A what?"

Right, alien tourist. "Smurfs are basically little blue guys. Kinda goofy," he answered.

The god smiled a little, though it looked more like a grimace. "It seems you have found an apt comparison this time. Jotnar, or less respectfully referred to as 'Frost Giants', are usually much larger." Apparently perceiving Tony's curiosity, he went on, "Bigger than me by multiple times, in fact. As for why I'm not," he looked down at his hands, gaze a little empty, "I couldn't say."

Sensing that the topic wasn't a very happy one for Loki, Tony went for a different one. "How about your eyes? Are they super sensitive?" He raised his arm in a little wave to encompass the dim ice rink, "Or were you just being creepy?"

"I was enjoying some peace and quiet, thank you very much," Loki answered, and Tony was kind of glad that his expression had lost its despondent note.

Tony grinned. "Yeah, exactly. You were." He paused for a moment, then called out, "JARVIS, lights please." It took a few seconds, then all the lights went on at the same time. Tony threw his hand over his momentarily blinded eyes. Okay. Maybe tell him to go slow next time.

After a bit, he removed his hand and blinked around the place, letting out an involuntary "Woah" when his eyes fell on Loki.

The blue of the god's skin was lighter than he would've thought, in part due to it looking almost a little ... iced over? His eyes were light red where a human's would've been white, and his irises were of a deeper shade that reminded Tony of rubies. Looking down, he couldn't help but note that the dim light had hidden quite a bit of Loki's muscle definition, and that the bright light surrounding them now was doing Loki all the favors. Hot damn. The blueish white lines running over his body made for an interesting finish on the very pretty picture the god painted. Tony slowly raised his eyebrows in appreciation and let out a whistle. Loki lifted his own brows a little and started smirking, throwing Tony's joke from a few months before back at him: "My eyes are up here, Stark."

Managing to wrench his gaze up from the other's torso, Tony chuckled at the reminder. Then he realized that, right, Loki liked singing.

He let out a laugh. "You're Elsa." The god looked at him uncomprehendingly again, and Tony asked, "Really? You haven't heard of Frozen yet? Alright, that's our next movie decided then."

Loki slowly answered, "That's fine." Then he raised his voice a little, adding, "Hello, Jarvis."

The AI answered through the speakers, "Hello, Loki. Are you having a pleasant night?"

The god smiled. "It is quite alright. Thank you for asking."

"Of course," sounded JARVIS's response. Tony grinned a little at their way of talking that almost seemed like they were trying to outpolite each other.

He couldn't quite keep his eyes away from Loki. When he had poked him just before, it had felt kind of cold, but it had been too short to really tell. He wanted to know whether his skin actually felt as frosty as it looked.

"So... now that we know it's apparently not dangerous for me, could I...?" Tony trailed off, stretching his hand out to show what he meant.

Loki looked at him, his brows almost flying off his face in an expression that very clearly said 'excuse me, what the fuck'. "What?"

Instead of grinning at the god's incredulous face, Tony somehow managed to form a pout, and made grabby hands towards him. "No touchy?" he asked, giving him his best puppy eyes.

He successfully held his expression through the god trying and failing to contain a grin. Definitely seeming amused now, plus a little exasperated, Loki gave him the ok: "Fine, you average sized child," which excuse me?? but Tony decided to ignore that part in favor of the next, "have at it."

With a little "Yay" Tony closed the small gap between them, sitting down on the ice again and grabbing for the mage's slightly outstretched hand. It felt kind of cool in his own, though aside from that, pretty similar to human skin. The lines on it though... he moved his thumb along the ones running over the back of Loki's hand. They were a little raised, and kind of felt like scars. Tony's blood ran cold. He really hoped they weren't.

He hesitantly peered up at the god, who was watching him right back – and damn, the eyes were a little freaky up close, but also – gorgeous. Tony blinked, regaining his focus. "Are those..." His gaze darted over the lines on the other's face, chest and arms, down to the hands and back up again. "...They're not ...scars, right?" he finished weakly. Please let them not be scars.

Loki's eyes seemed to soften, and he lowly replied, "No. They are markings Jotnar have from birth." Having said so, he laid down on the ice again, making Tony lean forward a little to keep his grip on his hand. Once settled, Loki closed his eyes and let out a small hum.

He actually seemed pretty comfortable on the ice. Still exploring the other's hand and a bit of his arm, Tony wondered aloud, "Is this actually a good temperature for you? Or is it the ice that's comfortable?"

Appearing to have simply given his hand over to Tony, the god didn't move a muscle as he replied, "Both, kind of. It is a bit strange still but they're quite pleasant to this form."

Tony went, "Huh."

After another minute or so of feeling the lines on the mage's hand and forearm, he lowered it down onto the ice and reluctantly let go. He was really getting cold by now. Looking at Loki just lying there with an appearance like he was sunbathing, he thought it was pretty wild that he had just touched a frosty alien smurf. Tony grinned. This is awesome. Sure, Thor was an alien too, but he was almost boring in comparison. Lookswise, he could pass as a human any day. His brother, on the other hand... Loki was wild.

Definitely the sexiest blueberry ever. Tony snorted.

...

Really though, he was getting cold.

Tony wrapped his arms around himself, tightening the jacket he had put on in preparation for the temperature. I guess that's what you get, sitting on ice.

He blurted out, "I'm starting to freeze my ass off."

After a beat, Loki lightly replied, "Oh no. Poor little mortal"; not even opening his eyes for it.

Tony almost grinned. That little shit.

He returned a "Fuck you," then stood up and stretched his stiff legs. A chuckle sounded behind him as he turned and went to leave the ice, making the corner of his mouth twitch up.

Tony had just reached the edge when Loki called after him, "Leaving already, Stark?" Tony turned around to find him sitting up and looking in his direction. It kind of felt like Loki didn't want him to go yet. He smirked at the thought, calling back, "No, I'm just getting skates to have some actual fun. Not whatever it is you're," he vaguely waved in Loki's direction, "doing there." With that, he turned again and left for the fitting area.

After a while, Tony returned, and was welcomed by the sight of the god skating on the ice, still half naked. Damn, he thought, that body in motion is a work of art.

Loki was gliding smoothly over the ice, lean muscles on display as he accelerated and decelerated, turned and jumped and occasionally spun in midair. The black pants he was wearing contrasted nicely with his frosty blue skin, and – hold on, was Loki wearing ice skates? Like, made of ice??

Tony quickly put on the skates he had found and went to join Loki on the ice. Yeah, he found as he got closer, that does look like ice.

As he approached, Loki stopped to look at him, grinning with an excited sparkle in his eyes.

Tony asked him an incredulous "Ice skates?"; looking down at the other's feet. When Loki agreed, he added, "That makes no fucking sense."

The god grinned smugly. "But it certainly does... if you're Jotunn." He held up his hands, and ice came out of them, forming two daggers within moments.

Tony stared.

"Yup, you're so Elsa. Just stabbier," he said with a disbelieving grin. He observed the daggers for a moment. Looking at it more closely like this, the ice did seem a bit darker, and had a noticeable blue tint. He glanced down at the ice skates again. "Is it harder than normal ice?"

"Indeed it is. These," the god raised the daggers in emphasis, "are also a lot sharper than 'normal' ice could be."

"I bet," Tony responded, regarding the reflective, very sharp looking daggers. Loki continued holding them up patiently until Tony had had enough: "Alright, I really gotta get warmed up." He watched as the mage absorbed the ice back into his hands. Wild.

Tony held out a hand, and pointed down at one of the skates Loki was wearing. "Can I see that for a second?"

The other's face showed a toned down version of his earlier 'excuse me, what the fuck' expression.

Tony just blinked at him expectantly.

Loki stared at him for a bit, then went, "You're a funny little mortal, aren't you." Giving in, he bent down a little to take off one of his skates, and handed it to Tony.

He accepted the icy object, its cold seeping into his skin rather quickly. Temperature aside, it had a nice feel to it – it was super smooth, and didn't really resemble other ice Tony had felt at all. He turned it in his hands, noting that Loki had melted part of it so he could take it off. A few taps against it with his fingernails followed by a couple seconds of pointed studying, and he figured it was enough.

Tony gave a thoughtful "Mmh, I see." Then he quickly pulled his arm back and flung the skate out on the ice as far as he could.

He looked up at Loki, who was staring back at him like he had just grown a second head.

It made him break out in a laugh. Which, going by the god's face, wasn't reassuring at all.

It wasn't like Tony had meant it to be though.

He bolted off towards the far end of the ice, throwing back a "Race you!" and laughing again once he heard Loki's "You–!" shouted after him.

This was fun.

Chapter Text

Loki's cellphone vibrated, interrupting his study of a text outlining the use of seidr in weather manipulation. He turned his head to look at it, hesitating as it lay there silently. He was just about to continue reading when it vibrated again. With a sigh, he summoned it into his hand to take a look at his notifications. There were two messages from his contact 'Little Mortal':

(Sup Dumbledore, you in?)

(Busy?)

Loki's lips involuntarily spread in a smile and he sent back an answer:

(Yes, and not really)

He received a reply within seconds:

(K cya soon)

Forgoing to respond to that, he waited another moment to see if Stark would add anything. When he didn't do so, Loki locked his phone and sent it to its usual place on the shelf again. His smile widened a little. It looked like Stark was coming over.

Loki glanced around his living room to ascertain whether it was fit to host the mortal, then returned to his text, looking forward to the other's arrival.

A while later, the doorbell rang and there was a muffled "Open Sesame!" from outside. Amused, Loki used his seidr to open the door.

Stark strode in wearing a grin and one of his usual Midgardian suits, a brown paper bag in hand. "Hey there, Lokes. It's been a hot minute. Did you miss me?" The mortal unceremoniously sat down on the couch next to Loki and beamed at him.

The god closed his book and set it aside. He actually had, somewhat. It had been about three weeks since he had last seen Stark, and he had been beginning to miss his easy company. Loki put on a purposely sad expression and agreed, "Yes, terribly. How will you make it up to me?"; looking at the other in exaggerated despondency.

Stark snorted and gave him a look that said 'Yeah, sure'. He offered Loki the paper bag. "So sorry. How about this?"

Loki took and opened it. Oooh. Yes, that is acceptable. He picked out a chocolate muffin from the selection in the bag and tasted it, closing his eyes for a moment as he savoured his first bite. Mmh.

The corners of his mouth drew up on their own, and he made to eat the rest of it. Norns, mortal food was good. After finishing it, he remembered to look at Stark to express his appreciation.

The mortal was sitting sideways, arm on the back of the couch and hand supporting his head; watching him eat with a pleased expression on his face.

Loki smirked. He had noticed that Stark seemed to like bringing him food. What a peculiar thing to enjoy, he thought as he selected a blueberry one. He bit into it and barely suppressed an appreciative moan. He glanced at Stark again, whose smile had widened a bit. Definitely strange. Loki certainly wasn't going to complain though.

He held up the bag in a silent question, to which the other shook his head and answered, "I'm good." Loki hummed in acknowledgement and continued eating.

After a bit, Stark said, "You know, I've been thinking..." Loki made a questioning noise around his bite of chocolate chip muffin. "Wanna join the Avengers?"

?!?

Loki almost choked on his mouthful, having just been about to swallow. He coughed a few times, waving off Stark's slightly amused "You good?" He summoned a glass of water and drank from it to soothe his throat, then put down the bag on the table.

Having regained his bearings, Loki regarded the mortal and asked him, "Are you quite alright?"

"You're asking me that? I didn't just choke on a muffin," Stark responded with a grin.

Loki couldn't resist an eyeroll. "What you did just do is ask me to join the Avengers. Clearly, there is something wrong with you."

Stark seemed to just ignore the latter part as he replied, "It makes sense though, doesn't it? You get to spend more time with Thor," – the gall of him to mention that first – "and you can just join us openly in hard fights instead of lurking somewhere and causing lucky coincidences and shit." Stark was looking at him pointedly, eyebrows raised a little. Of course he had noticed that. Blasted man with his inconvenient technology.

"Also," he continued and leaned forward slightly, his wide smile making his eyes glint, "the wifi and cyber security in the tower are the best you could find."

That was interesting. Loki looked at the mortal thoughtfully. Ever since he had learned about tracing and hacking on the internet, it had irked him that he couldn't use his seidr to become undetectable in his mischief whenever he wanted as he would in reality. But that was more of an inconvenience than an actual reason to join the Midgardian band of 'heroes'. The same went for his rare shadowy interferences in Avengers' battles to protect either Thor, Stark, or places he didn't want destroyed.

Being closer to Thor on the other hand ... that did make him hesitate, loathe as he was to admit it. But he quickly dismissed that as well. Loki could barely stand the oaf on a good day, and certainly wouldn't put himself in a situation where Thor could find and pester him whenever he wanted.

One of these days though, he should probably warn him about Thanos coming to seek the Tesseract at some point in the future. Of course, there was no way to know when he would arrive. But that only meant that it could happen next week (though that seemed less likely), just as well as it could in a hundred years from now. Loki sighed internally. He was certainly not looking forward to that conversation.

Likely sensing that he hadn't succeeded in persuading him at all, Stark exhaled and said, "Alright, cards on the table. I want to work with you. As for why ... I have a hunch that there's something coming for Earth, something big." He paused, then squared his shoulders and asked almost challengingly: "Am I wrong?"

Well. It seemed the mortal had understood his hint indeed. Maybe a little too well. And although circumstances were different now, with the Tesseract on Asgard instead of Midgard, Thanos would still pay the latter a visit, even if only to retrieve his Scepter.

Loki looked back at Stark, and let out a little sigh at his continued expectant staring. "You aren't wrong. I don't much fancy discussing it in depth but there is something indeed. Although I'm not sure when to expect 'it' – it could arrive within days, decades or centuries." He wondered how the mortal would react to the information.

Stark relaxed – what a strange creature he was – and said, "Shittiest news I've heard in a while but at least now I know I'm not crazy." Loki tilted his head a fraction. It seemed the mortal had been worried about this quite a bit.

Sensing no immediate continuation forthcoming, Loki asked, "And what would that have to do with me joining the Avengers?"

Stark smirked, and explained, "Think about it. I'm pretty sure you're planning on sticking around for some time, and whatever is on the way probably isn't too happy with you," which Loki found to be a nicely worded extreme understatement. The man studied his expression for a moment, then continued, "So why not combine our fighting power? If we're used to fighting together, we'll have much better odds, plus we," Stark gestured between himself and Loki, "can work on special defense and attack stuff together. It'll be fun!" he ended with a grin.

Loki regarded the Midgardian creator. That ... actually was quite sensible. Although he wasn't too fond of relying on others in a fight, he was very much in agreement regarding their increased chances if he and Stark had time to create new weaponry and defenses. Although the mortal's understanding of the workings of seidr was very rudimentary still, Loki could teach him. Just as Stark would have to teach him technology in return if they wanted to combine their fields of expertise.

...

But Loki didn't have to be part of the Avengers for that. Which he promptly told the mortal.

Stark gave a slightly pinched look at that, studying Loki for a few moments before his expression shifted. Something about it made Loki feel as if he was about to receive the other's last, carefully kept piece for negotiation.

"Alright," Stark sighed. "You got me. Sure, all of that would be simpler if you were an Avenger but I just..." the mortal trailed off and raised his hand to card it through his hair in a scattered manner. Finally, he looked up and offered Loki a slightly despondent yet affectionate smile, and said, "I'd really like it if I had an actual friend on the team."

Loki stared at him, shocked.

Were they friends?

His astonishment must've shown on his face, as Stark gave an immediate outraged gasp, his hand dramatically thrown over his chest. "You don't think we're friends?! You are cruel, Rudolph, cruel," he exclaimed, exaggeratedly miming a grieved expression and tone.

For a moment, Loki was unsure how to react. He could've sworn to have glimpsed a fine thread of insecurity underneath the other's pretense, possibly even – hurt? He wasn't as sure about the latter, and somewhat hoped that he had only imagined it. Loki wouldn't want to have hurt his ... friend with his own much belated understanding.

Because now that he thought about it, they certainly were friends. It was rather strange that he hadn't even entertained the notion so far.

Loki quickly put on a smirk, hoping to make the mortal think that he had been out for a reaction just like the one Stark had provided. He reassured his friend, voice consoling as if playing along: "Peace, little mortal. We certainly are friends."

Stark looked at him suspiciously, then huffed one last time for his performance before his expression shifted into an easy smile. It seemed Loki had fooled him. That was ... good.

...

Norns, Loki was beginning to grow embarrassed.

Wanting to distract the mortal lest he notice, he asked: "Does that mean the Avengers aren't your friends?" If so, he found that a bit baffling.

Stark averted his gaze in thought. "Kinda sorta? They're like … work friends. I get along with them fine, I guess." He looked at Loki again, as if gauging his reaction to what he was about to say next, "I'm closest with Bruce, since we're science buddies. But even with him, it's..." the mortal trailed off and sighed. "I don't know." Stark stopped, his gaze absent and downturned.

Interesting. To think that he was closest with Banner, another shapeshifter of sorts - and truthfully, one of the strangest and most unique shapeshifters Loki had ever encountered. It seemed Stark had an easy habit of accepting people and their other forms. Loki internally smiled at the thought. He could definitely attest to that.

It gave him an odd sense of satisfaction to know that Stark considered him a friend over even his shield-siblings. A centuries old part of him smugly noted that Thor hadn't even been mentioned. He almost grinned at that.

To think that Stark wanted him by his side ... that did make Loki hesitate again but he still wasn't very keen on being bound to that group of (mostly) mortals.

Finally, he asked Stark, who had been watching him contemplate the idea: "What are the associated duties and restrictions?"

The man promptly answered, "Depends. Full time would be most team building stuff and responding to all Avengers alerts. You could also join as a consultant for magic though, which would definitely mean less stuff to deal with. But either way, I'm sure I'll make it work." Stark spoke confidently, looking at him in earnest. It seemed he really wanted this, and was prepared to use his power to find or simply create an option Loki would be willing to accept. It made him feel rather flattered, and a little charmed as well.

"Oh, will you?" Loki teasingly asked.

"Yup. Just watch me," Stark replied with a grin. Loki chuckled. He hummed, regarding the other.

"Are you in?" Stark asked, excitement colouring his voice.

Well. Looking back on the last few months, he had never been very good at denying his friend things anyway. Least of all his own company.

So why start now?

Loki began, "Of course, we will definitely have to discuss various points, but in essence..." Stark was watching him unblinkingly, a grin slowly forming on his face. Loki found himself smiling in turn, and finished, "...yes."

The mortal whooped and threw himself at Loki in a hug, squeezing him. Loki stiffened in surprise. Taking notice of his reaction, Stark moved back with a "Whoops" and looked down at himself in surprise. "You didn't stab me."

Loki's eyebrows flew up. "Excuse me?"

His friend mirrored his expression. "The last time I saw Thor hug you, you stabbed him. Just like you did every time before that," Stark said, evidently amused.

Yes, but that was Thor.

Loki rolled his eyes a little. "I certainly wouldn't stab you," he replied, and only realized after the fact that it might've been a bit too telling. He narrowed his eyes at the mortal's overly smug expression. "Unless you do something stabworthy, of course."

Impossibly, Stark's smile turned even more smug, forming into a wide grin. "So me hugging you isn't stabworthy?" His crinkled eyes sparkled at Loki in mirthful humor.

Fine. He had already given himself away; might as well admit it now.

"It isn't," Loki answered him. Then he added, "but I can't guarantee I won't reflexively stab you if you startle me"; smiling sweetly at Stark, who certainly seemed less smug at that. It admittedly was very unlikely that Loki wouldn't recognize his friend but he wasn't about to give anyone blanket permission to hug him.

"That's ... good to know," Stark answered, then spread his arms a little. "So can I hug you?" he proceeded to ask, smiling at Loki.

The god pretended to huff out a sigh, then found himself smiling along. "Go ahead," he told the mortal, who beamed a grin at him and leaned forward to embrace him again.

The man's arms went around the sides of Loki's body, crossing his back and pulling him closer. Stark rested his head on Loki's shoulder and let out a sigh, relaxing and slightly sinking into him. His hands were still except for his thumbs, which were moving minutely in soft caresses on the god's back.

This was ... surprisingly pleasant.

Loki slowly raised his arms in turn and held the man, careful not to use too much force. Mortals' bodies were so fragile. He laid his head on the other's shoulder and tightened his hold on him a little, feeling his warmth through the fabric of the suit.

After a few moments, Loki gradually relaxed into the embrace as well. Yes, this felt very nice indeed. He hummed a little in pleasure.

Stark chuckled and said, "You know, you're a surprisingly good hugger."

Surprising. Loki scoffed lightly. "I'm not sure if I should feel flattered or insulted, Stark. Do try to remember that I'm over a thousand years old."

The mortal let out a laugh and replied, "True that," then loosened their embrace and sat back again.

That was a pity. Loki would've liked for it to continue a while longer. Thankfully it didn't seem to show on his face, seeing as the mortal simply grinned, and commented, "'Stark' again, huh. It's high time you started calling me Tony, now that we're science and magic buddies."

Loki quirked a brow in jest, silently making his judgement of the term clear. Stark huffed a little, conceding, "Shield bros, prank pals, movie mates, whatever." He paused, then looked at Loki: "So?"

Well... Loki had initially not agreed with Stark's early requests to address him differently because he did what he wanted, and also, he hadn't been keen on simulating familiarity where there was none. Afterwards, Stark had stopped asking and Loki had simply not thought about it. But now that it had been brought up again ... he did want to address his friend more intimately.

"Anthony," Loki intoned experimentally.

He liked it.

The mortal looked at him consideringly for a moment, then replied, "...alright, I'll take it. Much better than 'Stark', actually." He grinned at Loki.

Then Anthony leaned sideways to recline on the couch again, asking him, "So what've you been up to? Anything fun you forgot to text me, or pranks I can help with?" He looked at Loki, his smile one of excitement and anticipation.

Oh, he didn't know the half of it.

Loki smirked, and began to tell his friend about his newest ways of causing mischief.