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"I hope you don't mind, but somebody else ordered a cab for JFK at the same time you need to be there. We'll go around and pick him up first, it's on the way."
Nobody can accuse Bruce of being a rude cab driver; a rare thing to find in New York. He always makes sure to be nice to all his customers, he keeps his cool in the harsh traffic of the sleepless city, he tackles everything with a small smile on his face. In part because customers tend to pay a bit better for that kind of experience. In part because he generally tries to be kind and helpful.
In part because the alternative is him becoming so angry and frustrated with this maddening place that he smashes a mirror on the car.
The regal looking male in the back seat only hums his reply. Not a chatter, then. Which is fine with Bruce. He doesn't mind talking to his customers or listen to them if they need him to do that, but the occasional silent passenger is a welcome break amidst the endless blabber.
The radio fills the silence, playing softly in the background; not loud enough to drown the noise of the streets, but not too quiet to hear either. A perfect balance.
The next passenger isn't too far off. A few miles later, he pulls up at another apartment building, less ratty and definitely in a nicer neighborhood. The guy has the decency to wait outside; or rather, the strawberry blonde female has made sure he has the decency by the looks of it.
"Leave it, Pep," he hears the male say to the woman. "I'll take care of it." The woman rolls her eyes but steps back as the man stuffs his suitcase in the trunk. Slamming it closed , he shoots the woman a winning smile and an "I'll see you in a week!" before opening the door and getting in, allowing Bruce to get going. Eyeing his fellow passenger, he lights up in a grin. "Hey, I had no idea a cab from this company came with eye candy," he says, sounding every bit as arrogant and self entitles as one might expect from reading this.
The regal looking man doesn't even bat an eye lid.
"If you want to stare, it'll have to cost you," he says in smooth, accented tones without even once looking up from his copy of 'Lord of the Flies'.
It doesn't dissuade the older man. Neither does the fact that he is not just older though he looks good despite being in his forties. He has at least a decade on the young man who looks to be in his late twenties, early thirties.
"Yeah? How much? Will dinner do?"
That seems to surprise the younger though, who finally looks up to direct a pair of calculating green eyes towards the cocky and brown gaze of the other. "I beg your pardon?"
"It's simple, really. I take you to dinner, you let me stare at you all night. And now. I get home next week. How does Friday sound?"
Apparently, it really is that simple.
"The Golden Swan. Eight o'clock. Don't be late. If you stand me up, I'll hunt you down and flay you alive."
"Would never dream of it. My name is Tony. Tony Stark."
"Loki. Laufeyson."
O O O O O
"I can't believe you would do that--"
"How was that my--"
"--especially after I told you specifically not to but nooo--"
"--besides, you didn't even care up until--"
The couple currently getting into the cab are by no means happy with each other at that point. Bruce has been enjoying a rare moment of peace and quiet, parked outside a hotel where a big benefit is being hosted.
"Um..." Bruce tries to cut in. If they want him to drive them somewhere, it would be nice if they told him where to go. And besides, it's awkward to be seated there in the driver's seat as if they don't even notice him or the fact that they have just gotten into a cab.
"--oh, that's a lie and you know it--"
"--nope, don't you fucking go denying it--"
"--oh, you're just making up all sorts of things--"
"--don't you go preaching honesty on me--"
"--how dare you--"
"EXCUSE ME!"
The booming voice belonging to neither of the two men in the backseat startles them all into silence for a long moment. Even Bruce is startled by his own outburst.
"I just want to know where you want me to drive you," he says, sounding almost sheepish and apologetic.
It isn't until much later that night that he realizes the couple was the same two men he had driven to the airport two months prior to that.
O O O O O
Three years pass.
He still drives the couple around from time to time and has his fair share of watching them making out in the backseat, Loki in Tony's lap, when he drives them home after a wild night of partying around town, but he has also seen them happy, laughing together, arguing or just sitting side by side, doing different things. He doesn't see them all the time, maybe a few times a month if that much, but it gets to the point that they could tell him 'home', 'work' or 'that really nice place we ate last week' and he would know where to go.
Mostly he drives them around together, but sometimes he drives them around seperately. Bruce even strikes up something akin to a friendship with Tony. Tony always lights up in a grin when he gets in the cab and it turns out to be Bruce, greeting him enthusiastically and chatting about science with him. Tony will occasionally ask him to go get a beer and he will always decline with a polite smile and a promise to do it some other time even though they both know he never will. Still, the offer is there. Bruce thinks it's nice.
Loki isn't as outgoing. He will nod at him upon recognition and as time passes a small smile manages to sneak its way onto his face and into the greeting as well. Bruce isn't under the impression that Loki particularly likes the company of others or that he is much of a people's person. Seeing him with Tony is like seeing an entirely different man. He suspects Tony is the exception to the rule. Bruce never bothers Loki, just lets him read his book or tap away at his tablet. He will always set the radio to a classical station when he drives with him, however. It seems to make him smile.
O O O O O
A few weeks go by and there are no signs of the couple he has come to know so well through observation, conversations with Tony and listening to Loki on the phone. He likes to think he has a unique look into the life of this couple and it warms his heart for reasons he can't quite explain. He feels like he helped making that. In his mind, he compares it to planting a tiny seed in a pot and watching it grow into a beautiful flower. On bad days it might look a little like it's about to wither, but it pulls through every time and it makes him happier than it should.
When he does see them again, they've just been out to dinner and Tony looks ecstatic when he gets into the car and spots the driver.
"Brucieboy! I was hoping I'd see you tonight!" Something in his eyes tells Bruce it might have been for longer than that.
Loki follows his love into the car with a huff, but he doesn't seem annoyed so much as amused. He nods and smiles at Bruce, the smile brighter and warmer than usual as his hand finds Tony's. Through the rearview mirror, he can see Loki squeezing Tony's hand and Tony squeeze it back. A gesture Bruce has long since realized is a quiet display of love, something they do to tell each other how much they mean to each other. The gesture is intimate, even more so tonight and Bruce feels like he should look away.
"I don't think now is the time for getting that beer, Tony," he chuckles, the good mood rubbing off on him. They aren't drunk, but there's something in the air anyway that tells him the high spirits aren't solely due to a nice evening.
Tony's laugh is hearty and Loki only smiles a little at a joke he isn't in on but understands anyway. "No no no. I have my man with me tonight. But there's something I wanted to do and I wanted you to be present."
Loki raises an eyebrow and it's clearly the first he's heard of it too, but he doesn't interrupt, just lets Tony do the talking. They match each other well in that aspect, Bruce can't help but think.
"Oh? Is that so?"
"Yeah," he grins, reaching into his pocket. "It wouldn't feel right without you here." He turns in his seat and pops open a small box, causing a gasp to escape Loki. It's the nicest ring Bruce has ever seen, an elegant gold band with little emeralds the exact same shade as Loki's eyes.
"Listen... Loki, I love you. You know that. I don't say it a lot, but I do. I fuck up and we fight and you have somehow stuck with me through it all. And I know I say a lot more than you, but I'm not nearly as eloquent so you aren't in for some big speech. Bottom line of it all is that I want to keep you and be with you forever because I love you, dammit. I want to be with you. I want to do all those silly rom com things with you. I want to marry you. So will you do me the honor?"
Bruce has started driving in the meantime, aimlessly, without turning on the taxi meter. He feels it's only appropriate.
As Loki kisses Tony in the backseat, Bruce wonders how long Tony has been waiting to do this.
O O O O O
Bruce is startled by the slamming door of the backseat, resulting in him dropping his sandwich and approaching a rare moment of anger caused sheerly because he was startled, but then he sees exactly who caused the stir and he opts for becoming surprised instead.
"Tony? Isn't it your wedding day? I thought you were going to go by limousine?" He has overheard Loki's end of a conversation between the two of them where Loki had at first been pretty adamant that no, they were not going to be tacky enough to get a limousine but Tony hadn't budged and Loki had succumbed to his inner diva and agreed.
"Yeah, no, apparently not. Terrible company apparently. We're both taking cabs." He looks worried, though Bruce is pretty sure it's not cold feet as much as it's concern that he won't make it in time.
Bruce makes a rare exception and exceeds the speed limit to get Tony there on time and the gratitude in the smile he gets makes the ticket he gets totally worth it.
O O O O O
Years more pass and the same routine persists. Sometimes he drives them around as a couple, sometimes he takes them seperately to wherever they need to go.
Then, all of a sudden, a full twelve months pass without him seeing them.
He often finds himself wondering - which he wonders about too. Because they are really just like any other couple who lives and frequents the area of town he happens to drive in the most. If he thinks hard, he can think of a few other couples he's seen more than a few times.
Maybe they left town. Tony has sometimes mentioned how he'd like to take Loki back to Scandinavia where he is from. Tony has been talking about how Loki sometimes gets a little homesick. Bruce isn't sure which of the countries it is. Norway or Denmark, maybe. He's almost certain it isn't Sweden, his accent isn't strong enough.
Maybe it's all just a coincidence, he finally concludes and tries to stop thinking about them but it is really hitting him how much he's been looking forward to them popping into his cab. He likes them, treasures Tony greatly as a friend and he knows more about them and their lives than they realize because in the end he is just another cab driver and nobody cares what cab drivers know or overhear.
He wants to contact them, but he doesn't have any e-mail addresses or phone numbers. And posting them a letter or visiting them personally would be creepy. Especially if they moved.
O O O O O
When Loki finally gets in his cab after an entire year, the occasion isn't as joyous as it should have been. He recognizes Bruce and he smiles and nods as usual, but the smile is lifeless and the nod is stiff. He is holding an urn in his arms.
"Is that..?" he says and he shouldn't but he does and Loki nods.
"I'm afraid so." He tries for an apologetic smile as if to say 'what can you do' and it's not the first time Loki is putting on a brave face but it's the first time it's this cracked. He is clearly mourning.
"I'm sorry," Bruce says, offering his condolences.
"Yeah. Me too. Thanks." His speech patterns have americanized a bit. Bruce knows Tony hated that. He had always found his accent endearing.
"Where to?"
"Central Park. I want to scatter his ashes there."
Bruce nods and starts the car in silence, letting Loki sit and stare blankly out the window. Bruce has never seen him do that before.
"How?" he finally brings himself to ask.
"Heart attack," he replies. And really, was it ever going to go any other way? Tony smoked and drank and while he hadn't been that old, he had never been particularly good to himself. One drunken night after a fight with Loki, Tony had confessed to Bruce he had done drugs.
Bruce doesn't say anything because he's already offered his 'sorry to hear that' and even after a year he will bet everything he owns that Loki wouldn't appreciate another one.
For once, Loki breaks the silence. Bruce assumes he feels the need to let it all out and he lets him. "He died three months ago. It's only now that I've pulled myself together to get rid of his ashes. Pathetic, isn't it?" He doesn't stop to get an answer. Bruce doesn't think to offer one. "I'm too young to be a widow. He is too young to leave me one. Well, was. Was too young to leave me one."
Bruce wants to offer some comfort, but doesn't know how and his entire being yearns to make those tears gathering in deep green eyes go away, the color matching the stones in the ring he is still wearing on the long fingered hand resting protectively on top of the beautiful urn. Loki snorts to himself, managing to sound elegant as he does it. Bruce never expected anything less from him.
"It's rather appropriate that he should have his last journey in this. He loved this cab." A beat of silence fills the car, as heavy as if a drum had just been pounded. "This is where our ways first entwined. This is where it parts as well. How awfully poetic."
They arrive at their destination and Bruce turns around. "You'll be okay. In the end, you will be okay," he promises and he doesn't know how he can do that but he does and Loki smiles.
"Thank you," is the last thing he says as his tall and still youthful frame leaves the car.
Bruce never sees him again.