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‘Where did you find this…delightful creature again?’
There it was, the muffled squeal of pain as fangs sank into flesh.
Damn it, why couldn’t he behave? Every time, every damn time he brought someone over.
Tony gripped the edge of the kitchen counter, knuckles blanching white. He took a deep breath, holding it until his lungs burned before answering. ‘He was wandering the streets, half-starved. I wasn’t going to leave him there.’
No matter how much he annoyed him by mauling his guests, his cupboards now bare of the crockery that used to adorn them, fatalities of a sadistic mastermind. He couldn’t stay mad at him long.
Half-starved was an understatement, he’d believed the cat to be dead when he found him, limp within a puddle, the neon lights of the city above him bleaching his fur. Covered in wounds, his chest barely moving as he struggled to breathe, Tony had bundled him in his arms, nursing him back to health in his crappy apartment.
He overheard a muffled curse as his date found out how sharp Nox’s claws were. He really was the sweetest creature, sitting on his lap in the evenings, kneading his thigh as they read together, but he hated men.
Tony’s parents were waiting for him to fail, for him to come crawling back, and their silence was a punishment. He was determined to make it on his own though, without the Stark name to help him.
Sometimes, he felt like Nox was the only one who listened to him, those huge, liquid jade eyes watching him as he spoke, the purring bundle in his hands the best barrier against loneliness.
Tony forced a smile to his lips as he grabbed the plate of food he’d assembled for his date. Delights of the sea, the vendor down the street had called it, a culinary delight for the man sat in his tiny studio apartment.
The briny smell was disgusting.
‘His name is rather curious,’ Justin said carefully, eyes widening in delight as he placed the plate of tentacles and other sea creatures in front of him.
It had been Nox he was thinking of when he brought it, not the man he’d met in the local bar sitting across from him. The man who was currently under attack by his protective feline.
‘You didn’t strike me as the sort or person that had money for more than instant noodles.’ He used his hand to gesture at Tony, flinching as Nox leapt for it.
Nox’s bristled fur at the implication matched the mental image Tony had of himself. Forcing his metaphorical hackles to lower, he resisted his sarcastic impulses, opening his crossed arms as Nox climbed into his lap. He was distracted by the way he paced in a small circle for a few moments before he settled into a ball, eyes narrowed in a glare at his guest, the tip of his tail flicking in silent annoyance.
Sometimes he envied how honest cats could be. Would things have been better back home? If Tony had been able to be truthful earlier in his life?
No. His dreams, his aspirations would always be a blight on the Stark family.
He took Nox’s ears gently in his hand, using his thumb to rub over the velvety appendages. ‘After I brought him home, I was looking at him one night and the name came to me.’
That was a slight discolouration of the truth. It had been a few days after bringing him home, days without sleep as he nursed him back to health, the floor of his apartment littered with bloody bandages and tins of tuna. In his delirious, sleep-deprived observation of his new roommate, he’d wondered out loud what to call him, and the name Nox had blazed within his brain, branding on the back of his eyelids.
Nox, night, darkness, nocturnal. and the feline in his lap was a brand of sunlight, a deep, burnished orange.
A complete contrast to his name.
‘How’s the food?’ Tony asked his date, lifting his glass to his lips. He’d never known tentacle suckers could make that squelching noise when chewed, even Nox who loved seafood was wrinkling his pink nose.
‘You know, we don’t have to do this. Pretend this is something more when we both know why I came here.’ Justin’s hand slipped under the table, trailing up the inside of his thigh.
Nox’s purring cut out abruptly, his head lifting to growl at their guest.
‘There wasn’t any ulterior motives.’ There was a bite in Tony’s words as he moved his leg away, Nox looking up at him and blinking his approval.
‘Please, Tony Stark, playboy extraordinaire, of course that’s why I’m here.’
Justin knew who he was then, knew and had made assumptions based on rumors.
‘I think it’s time you were leaving, Justin.’
‘Now, now, don’t play coy with me, you certainly weren’t the other – Ow!’
Justin leapt to his feet, fingers clamped around his forearm where blood was now welling.
‘Disgusting, flea bitten-’
Tony grabbed Justin by the shoulders and shepherded him out the front door, Nox tearing at his heels.
‘Do you want the rest of that?’ he asked him when he returned, proud and puffed up, spitting a scrap of Justin’s pants on the table. Tony had never heard a cat laugh, but the strange chuffing noise vibrating in Nox’s throat came pretty close.
Nox turned his head away, kicking at a slimy tentacle with his back paw. ‘Aren’t you supposed to love fishy things?’
Tony laughed at his impressive glower, the shifting of powerful shoulder blades as he arched in disgust.
‘Yeah, that’s enough of stereotypes for tonight.’
Reaching out, he scratched under his chin, coaxing him into forgiveness, his body slinky and relaxed once more.
‘I think after the night we’ve had, we can break out the good stuff, huh?’
Nox’s ears pricked up, an excited chirp showing how he felt about that. Getting up on his hind legs, he butted his head against Tony’s legs. Kneeling, he stretched his head forward, smiling as Nox bumped his forehead against his.
‘How is it I enjoy spending more time with you than actual people?’ Tony whispered to him.
His family would be horrified that he was keeping a small creature like this as a companion. Tony hadn’t been allowed pets growing up, had always been scorned for asking his parents for one. Nox listened, he was there after work to greet him with a chirp and a hug, banishing his stress with kisses to his furry head.
‘I don’t feel like I need anything else when I’m with you,’ he told him, laughing at his rumbling purr.
Nox was there when the stresses of trying to make it on his own in the huge city wore him down, his stubborn refusal to return home manifesting in frustrated tears and long nights of insomnia.
‘Chicken or pork?’ Tony asked him, kissing the top of his head. ‘I got strips of heart in for you.’
Nox tilted his head in thought before sauntering to the kitchen, tail raised high, waiting expectantly at the fridge.
***
He drifted between the haze of sleep and reality, hand patting across the bed for the furred warmth he usually found when awake. The bed was cold, and he pushed herself up on his elbows, trying to form words as he gazed blearily over the bedroom.
A shard of sunlight had escaped the busted blinds, the tape he’d used peeling away from the corner.
Tomorrow’s problem.
Dragging his blankets over his head to avoid the worst of it, Tony froze at the creature in bed with him.
The very masculine creature that had a thick bushy tail wrapped around his ankle.
Shivering from the cold, he murmured in his sleep, lazy green eyes blinking awake and looking up at him.
Those same vibrant eyes that greeted him in the morning and last thing at night.
‘Nox?’
He was dreaming. Had to be.
‘Ah, I can explain. I should tell you my real name is Loki.’