Chapter Text
The first time Tony saw Loki, it was at that place in Germany with the speech and the staff and the, “Bow down to me, mortals!”
It was all very pretty, but not very smart.
The second time he saw Loki, it was when he was in the Hulk's cage and had just scared the living shit out of the Black Widow. But not really, because she gave just as good as she got, even if Tony could see that the words had cut deep.
That had all been very pretty, but also pretty damn smart.
The third time – and frankly, this was also the first, if one was thinking in terms of actually meeting each other face to face – was during the invasion, when Loki had waltzed into Tony's tower and tapped him on the chest with a piece of glow-y blue staff thing-y. Because apparently, he’d wanted to mind-rape Tony too.
Very pretty, and absolutely, incredibly, smart. Because imagine a Loki with a Tony at his side; Earth would have been lost the moment Tony's pretty brown eyes had glowed blue. (He's not tooting his own horn here, he really isn't. Ask JARVIS, hell, ask SHIELD; they know it – they used to have Tony on the list of Earth's Greatest Threats, right underneath Loki's own crazy green ass. They still do.) That was also the time Tony really took a second to look at the god, to look at his hair, his clothes, his pale face, blue eyes and slender neck, to hear his words dripping with charm and seduction, to think, I'd tap that, and not even feel guilty over objectifying a mass murderer.
That may have been the third time Tony saw Loki, but it was also the first time he saw Loki. If you catch his drift.
It didn't really matter anyway in the long run, because the Avengers won, Thor took Loki back to Asgard to get a slap on the hand (and hopefully deal with the butt load of issues he was carrying around, jeez) and Tony... Well, Tony had to go see a man about a horse. Or, to be brutally more correct, Tony had to go see a villain about Pepper, save her (read: get saved by her) and have tons of bro-time with Rhodey. The only good thing that had even come of all that had been the time spent fighting bad guys with Rhodey. Rhodey was always great to have at your back. Way better than the Avengers, anyway.
(JARVIS would agree.)
So anyway, that was the first time Tony really saw Loki, that was the first time he realised that the good looking son of a bitch had a lot more going on for him than insanity. So Tony opened a new file, called it JADE because why the hell not, then left it to JARVIS to collect every known data and any piece of information they could possibly get about Loki. This included SHIELD's servers – the imbeciles really thought they could keep their shit safe from him? Hah! – drunken nights with Thor (who got very, very, chatty once he was even remotely tipsy), and the internet.
The internet was amazing, okay?
So JARVIS collected all the data, colour coordinated everything and organised it all to his little computerised heart's content, displaying frightening degrees of OCD and paranoia to boot. The file had security on par with the arc reactor and the Iron Man armours (or armour, considering the others had all been blown up during a moment of sheer stupidity on Tony's part.) It was all very hush hush, and a great bonding project between Tony and his A.I. His A.I. who was very interested in the alien god himself.
(Tony had theories about that-- oh, who was he kidding? It was obvious why JARVIS was fascinated with Loki. Why on earth wouldn't an artificial intelligence be interested in magic? Tony was interested in magic, and he was JARVIS' papa!) So they added little pieces onto it whenever they got it, worked on it as a side hobby, but ultimately continued on with the stuff that was higher priority for the moment.
And life went on.
They fought a couple of other villains, like Doom, who wasn't even their villain but whatever, nobody listened to Tony. Nobody had really spoken about the whole alien invasion thing since, or acted like it even happened, which was great for Tony because he really didn't want to talk about how space looked like on the other side. Everybody was staying in the fully restored tower now, including the super spies, but despite fighting crime on a weekly basis, none of them had really... clicked.
Except for Thor. Tony clicked with Thor like the arc reactor clicked into place when he shoved it back into his chest. Tony clicked with Thor so much that Rhodey started getting jealous and flew all the way to New York to stomp all over Tony like a possessive toddler. It was adorable.
(What was even more adorable was Rhodey actually meeting Thor and Thor meeting Rhodey and the two clicking even more than Tony had in the first place. And then all three of them going out for fun and showing Thor more and more ridiculously colourful alcoholic drinks with unsubtle sexual names; like Blowjobs, or Sexually Arousing Pomegranate, Thor especially liked that one, hah.)
So everything was great; Pepper was taking SI to heights previously never seen before with extensions into other fields, Tony was getting a work out figuring what to actually build for those other fields, and Happy was just happy his boss wasn't dying in a ditch somewhere. Or in outer space.
And bit by bit - with Amora crashing in on New York and setting her lust filled sight on Thor, with Dr. Strange pretending to be of use to SHIELD with his many strange ways, with Thor strutting around the tower with Mjolnir on his person, all three of them emitting magic like body odour - project JADE grew bigger and bigger. It was all theoretical though, nothing solid, but Tony didn't mind. Every bit of new entry was fascinating, him and JARVIS geeking out over the sheer newness of it all, because they'd been around long enough by now to pretty much be bored with the present, and this was all so very futuristic.
Magic was uncharted territory, an ocean of wealth and knowledge, and pretty damn cool to boot. It kept Tony occupied and away from unnecessary explosions for a good, long, year. In fact, it kept him so occupied that the media started missing him, and began begging he do something eccentric like drunk-engineer at a party again.
But no sirree, Tony was busy.
Then, on a random amazing day, the sky ripped open and a battered and bruised Thor dropped in. And not alone.
Loki, equally battered and bruised, was with him.
#
“Whoa, whoa, you're saying Asgard was attacked?” Clint demanded incredulously, passing a glass of water to the god of thunder.
“Aye,” Thor responded, sighing heavily but taking the glass with a thankful nod. “The enemy is not powerful, so I do not fear for my people, but nonetheless it is... worrying that there are those that even dare to face us.”
Both gods – Thor and Loki – looked exhausted, smoke drifting off them in lazy curls and making Tony's living room smell burnt. They were sitting on the largest sofa in the room, side by side, shoulders and knees brushing, both in identical poses, completely at ease with each other's presence. It was a far cry from the last time Tony had seen them together; after saving the world from an alien invasion the two had still seemed completely hostile to each other, however reluctant on Thor's part. Now they looked like brothers, albeit one dark and the other light, but Tony was the last person to go about opining on that.
“Asgard is the strongest of the Nine Realms,” Loki spoke, voice quiet and soothing, his eyes a bright green Tony knew for a fact had been blue before. The god of mischief only ever made eye contact with Steve, outright refused to look anywhere in the general vicinity of Clint and Natasha (understandable) and seemed uneasy by Bruce's presence (equally understandable, but still hilarious). Those green eyes sometimes flickered to Tony, but would always quickly look away. Guilt, maybe? How bizarre. “For any force to be willing to face up to it, it will only invite more attempts.”
“He should be in prison,” came Natasha's equally quiet, but not very soothing, voice, her eyes hard and cold. “How are you sure he didn't lead them to your home?”
Thor looked up, realising the question was for him, and Tony didn't miss his pained wince. Natasha had hit a cord with that question, but what exactly that cord was they didn't (and probably wouldn't) know. “It could not have been him as he had been imprisoned since being declared guilty of his wrongdoings. His imprisonment included no access to his magic.”
“But now?” Natasha shot back with deadly force. “Does he have his magic now?”
In answer, Loki twisted his hand and let it light up in the strange green of his magic. It faded away quickly, leaving no trace behind, but the silence in the room was answer enough.
Natasha and Clint were seething, fingers itching at their side to grab their weapons and take a shot at the god, but their training held them still. Bruce was taking deep breaths, keeping himself controlled, but every now and then Tony could see his skin tone flush a little green before receding. Steve just looked troubled, and for good reason too.
“Do you know who attacked you?” The Captain finally asked, resting his elbows on his knees.
Thor grimaced, but nodded. “It is why we have come to you, my friends. We believe the attackers were of Midgard.”
Clint sat up. “Are you fucking serious?”
“Aye, Hawkeye. It saddens me to say so.”
“How did humans get to Asgard?” Bruce sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Actually, how did you two even get here?”
It was Loki that answered, casually saying, “We used one of the less known paths. They are more dangerous, and run the risk of... failure... but it was our only chance of coming here without the use of the Bifrost.”
“Bifrost?” Bruce repeated, asking for clarification.
“I believe Lady Jane would be best at describing it. It is a bridge that allows us to travel between our realms, a permanent bridge.” Thor explained, scratching at his beard in thought. His hair was longer, but not by much, and now that Tony had noticed it, Loki's hair was equally longer, and a bit... wavy. It suited him, or it probably would if it also didn't look like it was burning slightly, and completely messed up from wherever the hell they'd come through.
“Friend Tony,” Thor continued curiously, looking up at him with a small smile. “You have been unusually quiet.”
Tony snapped his finger at the cue, startling Bruce and Clint, and pointed it at Thor with an exaggerated wink. “Einstein-Rosen Bridge,” he announced, mostly for Bruce's sake, to which the dark haired scientist made an understanding hum and nodded. “And also, humans are humans, we can handle humans. Tell us what they're capable off, big guy. Actually, JARVIS, put Fury on the line so he can hear this too. Don't want to have to repeat everything again.”
“Forcibly, sir?” JARVIS' polite voice asked, causing Steve and Natasha to frown disapprovingly at Tony.
Tony just grinned, not missing the very small startled twitch Loki gave at the voice, and said, “You know me so well, baby.”
“Indeed,” JARVIS replied, voice still polite to anybody that didn't know him so well, which, in this room, was everybody but Tony. “Sir.”
The call connected soon enough, the glass of the coffee table lighting up with a holographic display that showed Fury's angry face. The man slowly blinked with his one eye as he took in Thor and Loki, then looked around at the remaining Avengers and sighed heavily. “This better be fucking worth it. And Stark, fuck you.”
Tony just laughed, and flopped onto the seat beside Bruce, throwing his legs over the man as Thor started detailing everything he could remember. Bruce grumbled under his breath about personal space, but the way he leaned his arms on Tony's legs and used them as a rest spoke loudly enough that he didn't really mind. Plus, it had the convenient side-effect of relaxing the doctor too. Not that Tony was watching. No, his focus was mostly on Loki, watching as the dark haired god interjected every now and then with an extra piece of information, or clarification of something Thor had said, and maybe he was staring (because Loki looked up and made eye contact every now and then, and seemed... curious, for lack of a better word, at the attention), but he didn't really care.
He was Tony Stark after all, and if he wanted to stare at a god, he could damn well stare.
This would be the fourth time he saw Loki. But mostly, truthfully, it was the second.
#
In the end, Thor and Loki stayed, because travelling the 'dark paths' between realms was tiring and dangerous for anyone let alone a sorcerer that had only recently received his magic back and a thunder god that had never really learnt the term 'restraint'.
Apparently, Thor's innate thunderous magic had caused havoc in whatever dark place they'd been in, and the two had only survived by the skin of their teeth. Either way, Loki didn't have the energy or the will to try that again, and Thor was determined to find the humans that were capable of attacking Asgard and, as he put it, “Deal with them swiftly.”
So they stayed. At the tower. At Tony's insistence.
Sure, the other Avengers were quick to make it obvious that they didn't want Loki around, but this was Tony's tower, and despite a year of saving each other's asses, none of them were close enough to try and tell Tony otherwise. Bruce pulled him aside after arrangements had been made, and quietly said, “I hope you know what you're doing.” but he hadn't argued further. The super spies officially left the building an hour later, and JARVIS informed him that they had returned to their bunkers at SHIELD HQ. Steve just sighed, shook his head, and went down to his floor.
“Tony,” Pepper greeted him with a roll of her eyes as she entered, running a hand through her hair as she slipped off her coat. “You can't blame them for being unwelcoming. They weren't raised like you to be made of iron.”
“Natasha was,” Tony pointed out, wincing at her words and watching as she sat on the kitchen stool. He wasn't at all surprised that she already knew everything. “Not so much the others, I'll admit, but she definitely was.”
“Tony.” Pepper repeated herself, giving him a hard look.
Waving a hand placatingly at her and her words, Tony turned around to pour himself a cup of his newly brewed coffee, and sat down on a stool himself. “You not okay with this too? Unlike the others, you have twelve percent of this building.”
A sardonic smile twitched across the red head's lips. “Unlike the others,” she said knowingly, “I actually understand you. Never show your enemies ruffled feathers, huh Tony?”
“And always offer them a drink,” Tony agreed, tipping his drink to her without spilling anything. “You know me so well, m'lady.”
She stole the coffee from him, ignoring his squawk as she took a deep swallow of the hot drink and held it hostage between her pale hands. “That I do. So tell me about these humans that attacked Thor's world.”
“Realm,” Tony corrected distantly, mind already on other things, even as he mourned the loss of his coffee. “Apparently they use magic like Reindeer Games, and staged a home invasion via secret pathways only really skilled witches and wizards can navigate. I'm guessing they're people like Strange – the asshole that consults for SHIELD that I told you about? – yeah, people like him. Not sure what they want exactly, but Thor says the basement or whatever of his home is basically filled with hidden treasures.”
“Treasures that could destroy the world?” Pepper asked dryly.
Tony nodded, rolling his eyes in commiseration. “And the universe as we know it. Plus, they were dressed like ninjas.” Grinning, Tony nodded his head at Pepper's cocked eyebrow. “Thor didn't say ninjas, exactly, because he doesn't know what ninjas are, but he basically described ninjas. It's great – can you just imagine a couple of people dressed to the nine like ninjas attacking vikings? I would pay good money to see that.”
“Unfortunately for you,” Pepper smirked, pulling a whole wad of paper out of thin air and dropping it in front of Tony like a death sentence. “You have work to do. Chop to it, Mr. Stark, I'll be back in a few hours to collect them.” She stood up and put on her coat again, gulping down the remains of the coffee, and with a sardonic kiss to his cheek stalked out of the room in her high heels with a parting goodbye off, “And be a good host!”
Tony watched her go, yawning a little as he glared down at the pile of papers once she'd disappeared from sight, and completely missed the arrival of both gods.
“Friend Tony!” Thor boomed in greeting, scaring the living crap out of Tony. “It is most good to see you. How do you fare, friend?”
Looking up, Tony took in the sight of the two gods – clean and fresh from a recent shower – entering his kitchen. Loki trailed behind Thor a good few steps, looking reluctant to enter, hesitant of his welcome maybe, but Thor just breezed through and opened the one cupboard he had pretty much claimed as his own. The happy noise he made at the sight of poptarts had Tony snorting, which, for some reason, made Loki relax minutely and fully enter.
“Sit, sit,” Tony waved at the seats, digging into his pockets for a pen. He found one and clicked at the end, spreading out the papers Pepper had left to try and make the pile look less daunting. “Everything's good and hunky dory, Blondie. How did you two sleep?”
Thor popped the poptarts into the microwave, then threw a companionable arm over Loki and steered him to the stool Pepper had been sitting in just moments ago. Taking his own seat next to his brother, Thor grinned at Tony and said, “Most well! It is great to once more be back in my Midgardian home. I must thank you once more for allowing us to stay, friend Tony. It is most gracious of you.”
“Yeah, yeah,” dismissed Tony, scrawling his signature on a sheath of paper he'd just read, moving on to the next without bothering to look up. “Great to have you, the place is all yours, feel free to use the kitchen and everything and blah blah blah, you know the drill. You good too, Silvertongue?”
There was a beat of silence, from both Thor and Loki, until the latter answered, “Yes. I am most well.”
Before the silence that followed could turn awkward, Thor asked, “Where are the others, friend?”
Ouch. Tony grimaced, wondering how to explain, but then decided to just go with the blunt end of the truth. “The spies went back to Eyepatch Daddy because they couldn't handle Loki over there,” he looked up to nod his head at the god of chaos, “Bruce had a seminar planned ages ago some place in Minneapolis, so he went there anyway, and Steve's down on his floor, or- actually- JARVIS, where's Cap?”
“At the gym, sir.”
“Yep, at the gym. He's only ever in his penthouse or the gym, so I doubt you'll see much of him anyway.” Tony summarised, gesturing with the hand that held his pen even as he returned to reading his papers. “It's good for you guys anyway, since it means you've got free reign to do whatever the hell you want without having to worry about stepping on anyone's toes. JARVIS will mediate between you and SHIELD, he'll set up appointments and meetings and whatnot so we can stay on top of the whole magic ninjas thing.” He signed again, moved the paper towards his designated done pile, and looked to the next. “Anything else?”
Thor sighed, getting up when the microwave pinged, and sadly said, “It saddens me to see my shield-brothers and sister still so very distant from each other.”
“Eh,” Tony shrugged, glancing up to give Thor a reassuring grin. “It might be slow going, but at least we're not at each other's throats anymore.”
“It-” Loki began, stopping when Tony turned to look at him. Swallowing thickly, Loki hesitantly tried again. “It has been a year since you've come together. Have you truly not banded as a team?”
“Oh no, we're a team alright. As long as it's on the battlefield. But outside it? Not much. It doesn't help that the ones that could maybe make a difference have other things to do.” Answered Tony. “Out of everyone, I'm the one that can charm and schmooze; I've also got at least one thing in common with everyone, except maybe Natasha, but I'm also incredibly busy being the richest man on Earth. Thor's next, because of his personality and the fact that he's on good terms with everyone except the Hulk, but he's busy and rarely in town for a week, and that's if he's even on the same realm to begin with. All that's left is the super spies who only trust each other, a captain from the 1940s who feels like an outcast, and a scientist that turns into a green rage monster every now and then who has commitment issues. I'd be worried if they did try socialising with each other.”
“I have failed this team,” Thor sighed, passing both Loki and Tony some poptarts. “Just as I have failed much else. If perhaps I extended my visits...”
“Impossible,” Loki cut in, picking the poptart and eyeing it curiously. “The Bifrost is broken and still in disarray. The Allfather cannot continuously waste his time and magic on sending you cross-realm. We should focus on our mission here, and maybe once the attackers have been captured you may focus on your team.”
Tony picked up a poptart himself, popping it into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully as he speed read through the papers. Sure, he trusted Pepper, and would fall off a cliff if she told him to, but years of habit and increased paranoia made it impossible to sign anything he hadn't read for himself.
“Your team mates are bothered by my presence,” Loki's voice said, cutting into Tony's focus and making him pause. “Yet you yourself seem indifferent. You offered me a drink, before, and now you offer me your home. Is it arrogance? Confidence? Or a veritable lack of fear?”
“Brother,” Thor warned, voice a low rumble.
“No, no, it's okay,” Tony reassured Thor, putting his pen down and absently scratching at his stomach. He looked at Loki, really looked at him, and saw the lack of insanity in his green – not blue – eyes, the way he seemed older, weary, as if he'd been through hell and heaven and seen things. Tony remembered seeing the man in his armour, remembered the monologuing Loki had given him, remembered the spear tapping him on the arc reactor and nothing happening. He remembered Loki laughing in amusement when Tony had offered him a drink, and the consequent sensation of free falling as he fell through his own window and plummeted to what would have been his death.
He remembered how everybody had thought he'd have a fear of windows afterwards, or would just be uncomfortable around them, and how Tony had waved off Rhodey and Pepper's worries and told them he had bigger things to be afraid off. Because he didn't; he didn't fear the window he'd broken right through, he didn't fear falling, and while he had known and calculated the huge amounts of danger Loki posed, he hadn't ever feared Loki.
“I guess all three?” He answered somewhat lamely, resting his chin on his hand. “Arrogance comes hand in hand with being me, just like it comes hand in hand with being you or Thor. Confidence comes from the fact that I have the brains and the money to back it up, as well as the looks if I say so myself. There's also the fact that this is my home, my playing field, my territory, and it doesn't matter what you try to do because I'll have a thousand and one ways to cut you before you try it.”
Loki hummed in consideration, even while Thor sat tense beside him. “And fear?”
Tony shrugged. “You pose the same threat to me that the super spies do and always have done. You pose the same threat Fury and his SHIELD cronies do. You were never our enemy, just Thor's, and even now you're not our anything. The day you genuinely start gunning for me is the day I'll genuinely start fearing for my life.”
“I threw you out of your own window.”
“I stalled you long enough for the suit to reach me before I splattered against the ground.”
“Your friends are nowhere around you.”
“I have friends you've never heard off, or will ever see.”
“You are armour-less, sitting right in front of me in nothing but cotton.”
“And yet I'm still safer than I'll ever be.”
Finally accepting this, Loki nodded his head and returned his focus to the poptarts, slowly and with extreme focus eating them one by one. Beside him, Thor loosened inch by inch, until he sighed and shook his head in exasperation, but looked more settled in his bones at the apparent truce between his brother and friend.
Tony just returned to his paperwork, satisfied that he'd gotten his point across. And when Thor and Loki bid him goodbye, saying that they were going to visit Thor's girlfriend in New Mexico, Tony watched them go and brought up a screen as soon as they teleported from his balcony.
“JARVIS, did you get anything?”
“An abundance of new information, sir.”
Grinning, Tony brought up the information and squirmed in his seat happily. “This... This is...”
“Indeed, sir,” JARVIS agreed, highlighting some of the information and bringing them up for Tony's perusal. “It would seem that Mr. Silvertongue emits a continuous amount of a single frequency. Most interestingly enough, it is in the same range as the Tesseract, and also Mr. Odinson's significantly smaller magical presence.” A pause, then, “Allowing both Asgardians to stay in the tower was indeed a good choice.”
“Hell yeah it was,” Tony grinned, sweeping the files into JADE and locking it shut. “Keep an eye on him. I want you to monitor everything he does, at all freaking times, especially when he actively uses his green stuff.”
“Consider it done, sir.”