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They decided to take a trip to London, Tony and Loki. Mainly because Thor was going and Loki didn’t want to be left behind, but then Thor wanted to spend time with Jane and having Loki there might have been… well a bit awkward. So Tony kindly agreed to go to accompany Loki and Thor on their little trip.
They had all booked a hotel, using Tony’s money of course. Loki and Tony shared a room, and Thor and Jane had the room next to theirs. The rooms were quite spectacular, obviously. Tony made sure it was like that. To impress Loki, mainly, but also to give himself a treat. It had been ages since he had managed to get away from work after the whole fiasco with the infinity stones and Thanos.
Tony shuddered when he thought about Thanos and plopped himself onto a bed next to the wall, leaving Loki with the bed next to the giant windows.
Loki slowly walked towards his side of the room and dropped his bag onto the bed.
“So…” Tony started. He didn’t really know what to say. Loki had only joined them a few weeks ago, straight after the battle, and had avoided pretty much all the avengers except Thor. “What do you wanna do, Lokes?”
He noticed Loki slightly wince at the use of the nickname so he made a mental note to not use it again. Loki shrugged and turned to face the window, probably just taking the view in.
“Okayyy,” Tony sighed. He really didn’t know how to get the god to talk to him. It would be so much easier if Thor was here. “Are you hungry?”
Tony managed to catch Loki subtly shaking his head. Which really just made Tony annoyed.
“Come on, Loki. You’ve got to work with me here.”
“I’m not hungry, Stark.”
“You finally spoke!” Tony exclaimed, making Loki scoff and turn around.
“What are you playing at Stark?” Loki growled, a hint of anger flickering in his eyes caught Tony’s attention. It terrified him, but he couldn’t show it. He couldn’t let everything fall apart. He needed to make sure that he didn’t ruin this for Thor. For Thor , he repeated in his mind.
“Nothing, I was just asking if you’re hungry!” He held his hands up as if to make him seem more trustworthy. But Tony couldn’t tell if it had worked since Loki just turned away again. “Ok, fine, I want us to be friends.” Tony admitted. He looked down at his shoes. “I always thought that if… if none of this.. fighting had happened then, well we would’ve been great friends.” Tony rubbed the back of his neck, awaiting Loki’s answer. He wasn’t used to these sorts of conversations, but right now it felt necessary.
Loki turned back round, with a frown creeping upon his face. “Do you mean that?” he asked. And it sounded like a genuine question this time. Not a snide remark Tony thought.
“Yes.” Tony smiled, and for the first time in years, they managed to make eye contact. It was unsettling at first, with how piercing Loki’s eyes were. It felt as though he could see everything in his mind, and read his very soul, but he didn’t want to be the first to break it.
Luckily he didn’t have to worry about that anymore as now Loki decided it was his turn to stare at his shoes. “How about we get lunch?” Loki whispered, and Tony nodded in agreement, trying to hide his urge to jump around with joy.
“People in this part of England sound like you.” Tony pointed out, after they walked out of the hotel and onto the street. “How come you don’t have an American accent?”
Loki didn’t turn his head but Tony could see him thinking. This is a good start.
“Well accents are something you develop over time, aren’t they? I did spend a good deal of time in my youth coming down to London with Thor to… pass time.” He chuckled at the last part, but suddenly stopped when he realised that he was letting his guard down in front of someone he didn’t trust. Tony noticed this, but opted to ignore it, and try to carry on with the conversation.
“And by passing time you mean messing around?” Tony smirked. He wasn’t going to let Loki get out of this one easily.
They started to emerge onto the more busier streets and Loki tensed up, but Tony was prepared. He pulled out a cap and sunglasses for the both of them and stuck them on. “Now you can answer my question.”
Loki frowned, but it quickly disappeared as he began to explain one time they came to Midgard.
“...And so we decided to use that money to buy those sausage rolls from Greggs. All of them that they had. Even the ones that weren’t cooked! And we took them back to Asgard with us, hid them in Thor’s wardrobe, and shared them with all our friends!” Loki smiled as they passed yet another Greggs shop.
Tony laughed. It was nice seeing Loki so happy, especially after everything he had been through. The god deserves a break . Tony thought.
“Well that sounded so normal?” Tony joked. “I didn’t know you were capable of pulling off a prank where nobody got hurt.”
“Oh you don’t know just how much I am capable of, Stark.” Loki replied, although it didn’t sound threatening at all.
“Alright, Reindeer Games, what should we get for lunch?”
“Oh. I’m not sure.” Loki looked confused. Possibly wondering why Tony had decided to ask what Loki wanted.
“Well…” Tony wondered what to eat. Suddenly he really fancied an ice cream. They had passed a shop on the drive to the hotel, and if Tony remembered correctly, it was only round the corner from where they were. “How about Ice cream?”
“I-ice cream?”
“Yeah!”
“For.. lunch?”
“Mhm, why not?”
“Ok then?”
“Correct answer, let’s go!”
They headed off in the direction of the ice cream shop, and once they finally made it, Loki just stood outside and stared at the building in awe.
“Awesome, right?”
“It truly is a sight to behold.” Loki breathed as he took in the rainbow walls, and big silver letters stating the name of the company. “I think this building is the definition of fun.”
“Haha it sure is” Tony smiled before dragging Loki in to take a look at the menu.
They sat at the table in the corner, furthest away from everyone else. Tony hoped Loki would appreciate it, and looked at him for approval. Loki gave him a small smile, and Tony returned the favour.
“Okie dokie, Loki.” Tony picked up the menu and handed it to Loki. “What flavour do you fancy?”
“I.. uhm, I’m not sure.”
“Take a look, choose anything!”
“There are so many, I-”
“How about I choose for you?”
“Please.” Loki handed the menu back to Tony, who quickly snatched it off him and skimmed the list of flavours.
He didn’t know what the god would want. He didn’t even know what sort of foods they ate on Asgard. Were they similar to Earth foods? He better ask Thor later he thought. Or he could even ask Loki…
Tony turned his thoughts back to the menu and decided to just go with the simplest one.
“Vanilla it is!” he exclaimed, and to his delight, Loki smiled at his enthusiasm. “It’s simple, but still amazing. You can have any toppings with it, but I think to start off with you should just try it plain… you know? To get a feel of what ice cream is like.”
After Tony ordered the ice cream, he continued rambling on about how he thought ice cream truly was one of the best things that humans had invented so far. And Loki didn’t mind listening to him. It was nice, he thought, being able to sit with a man he once threw out the window and feel like they’ve been best friends for ages. Of course deep down he still felt like this was all wrong, and that he shouldn’t be sat conversing with ‘the enemy’, but were they really enemies? Sure the battle of New York happened, but that wasn’t really him, and they knew now that it was really Thanos all this time. They all fought Thanos together, Loki reminded himself, so he really had no reason to not trust Stark. Yet he still couldn’t shake off the feeling of something being wrong. So instead, he pushed it to the back of his mind so that he could focus on the ice cream that had just been placed in front of him.
“Enjoy!” The waiter smiled before heading back off to the counter. Tony nodded, so Loki did the same, and then picked up the spoon when Tony did too.
For a few seconds, Tony just stared at Loki, who was looking down at the untouched ice cream in front of him
“Try it.” Tony insisted, “Promise it’s not poison.” He added, which made Loki chuckle.
Slowly, he lifted the spoon full of ice cream to his mouth and ate his first bit of ice cream. His eyes widened as the coldness hit him, followed by the sweet flavour which must’ve been vanilla he thought.
“Wow,” he murmured after his third spoonful, “This is amazing.” He didn’t even look up to see the wide smile on Tony’s face as the ice cream was way too good to focus on anything else.
“I knew you’d like it, Rock of Ages.” Tony whispered, before starting on his own ice cream.