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Tony’s first Loki-related press conference went rather well, in Tony’s humble opinion. He wasn’t forcibly removed from the premises. He wasn’t forcibly placed in a mental ward somewhere. He was also not boycotted by his company. However, the fall-out from the announcement that Loki was innocent went rather less smoothly. Fury had worked himself into a lather by the time Tony made it back to headquarters.
“Just because you’re fucking that bag of crazy does not mean that you can—“
“I think you’ll find director that being Tony Stark means that I can do what I want. The world needed to know this. Loki deserves this. Nothing you can say or do will change it.”
The second Loki-related press conference did not go nearly so well. Liam had disappeared over a month prior to the conference, so Tony had not been seen out with a man since then. When he stepped out onto the platform, tugging Loki by the wrist, the press went nuts, shouting over each other.
Tony stepped up to the mic and kept hold of Loki. He grinned winningly at them all. “If you’d all settle down? You know what? No. Sit. Everybody. Sit.” He came around the podium, still tugging Loki, and sat on the edge of the platform. He pulled Loki down with him and the Norse god scowled at him.
“I do not like being manhandled, Stark.”
“Yes, you do, Lover. You just won’t admit it. Now hush, the superheroes are having a press conference.”
Loki arched an eyebrow. “I see only one Avenger here and I see no super anything. Unless it is super-annoying.”
Tony snorted. “On form today, aren’t we? Well…” He blinked and noticed the stillness that had settled over the room. He turned back to find every member of the press gaping at them. “Okay, well. I have an announcement to make. I think almost all of you were here a little over six months ago, when I set the record straight about the Chitauri invasion of earth and Loki’s unwilling part in it.” There were murmurs of accent. “Well…um…This is difficult to explain.”
Loki smirked. “No, it is not. You just do not want to have to explain it.”
Tony rolled his eyes, a smiled playing at his lips. “Oh shut it, you.” He took a deep breath. “Anyway, apparently Asgard, home of our resident hero Thor and of course, his brother Loki, heard my little announcement as well. They released Loki from the holding cell where they’d been keeping him. A few weeks later, Thor brought him back here.” He turned to the Trickster. “Loki, do you want to explain this part?”
Loki looked vaguely incredulous. “Tony…Oh, very well. I felt…” his nostrils flared a moment and the room shrunk back just a bit. “Guilty. I felt guilt over what I had wrought here, even if I did not wish it and had not control over my own actions. I came back to view the destruction I had caused while I was under the Chitauri’s control. It was…” He blinked and looked away from the group. “It was terrible. I’ve never…seen anything quite like it. I…It make me ill to think that I had done all that. I wanted...” He swallowed, paused, and then turned back to the group. “I wished to make amends for what I had done. I contacted Tony Stark, because Thor had told me of his research into the scepter and magic itself. I wanted to offer myself as test subject or whatever else he might need. A…I believe the correct term is Lab Rat?”
One of the reporters laughed softly and Loki smiled at her. There was a warmth in his face that Tony recognized as genuine. Several of the women in the back of the room sighed. Tony smirked. Of course, Loki was beautiful and everyone should notice, but he was Tony’s. Nothing they could do about it. Nothing anyone could do about it. Tony’s thoughts directed to Thor as Loki continued to feed the public their prearranged tale.
****
Thor had been deceptively quiet that first week, after Tony’s little surprise meeting. It was unsettling. Of course, that had not lasted because Thor usually had all the subtly of an enraged bull in a room full of blown glass. It wasn’t until the following Saturday that Thor caught Tony unaware. Tony has been testing out a new flying mechanism he and Bruce had created, with the help of Loki’s magic. It gave him the ability to hover without depleting his power or using the repulsors. He’d been testing it in Central Park, when Thor had appeared on the scene. Tony still did not know how Thor had found him. He suspected Pepper and her annoying need for everyone to get along.
“You have dishonored my brother and unmanned him, Man of Iron. You are not worthy of the suit you wear or the title you bear.”
That had hurt. Tony had been trying, for years and years, to silence the tiny voice in the back of his mind that whispered things just like that. The voice sounded suspiciously like Howard. To have Thor, who knew a little about this, voice them hurt. Tony dropped back to the ground and removed the faceplate. The neck and head support folded itself away into the suit, which was a handy add on he’s only recently completed. “Fuck you, Thor. You do not get to tell me who to sleep with. In fact, I don’t much like that you think you get to talk to me even.”
Thor growled. “Men of Asgard do not lie with other men. That is a practice for beasts in the fields. You have dishonored and despoiled a Prince of Asgard. If we were not in Midgard, you would pay with your life.”
Tony snorted and rolled his eyes. “First of all, Asgardians seem to me to be narrow-minded fuckwits who live in the Dark Ages. Second, Loki is Jotun, not Asgardian. Third, you are a homophobic fucker and Loki can do what he wants.”
Thor took a large step forward and made to backhand Tony across the face. Tony managed to grab his wrist first. It took much of the power of the suit to stop the blow, but Tony managed it, squeezing the wrist tightly in his iron grip. “What? I’m gay so I don’t warrant a regular hit anymore? You’s backhand me like I was…I don’t even know.”
Thor sneered. “I hit you as I would a woman, were I the type to hit women.”
Tony rolled his eyes again. “Thor. You are not understanding something here. You are not on Asgard. You are on Earth. Get with the fucking program and deal with it.”
Tony dropped Thor’s wrist and turned away. The god actually have the nerve to roundhouse Tony in the back. Iron Man spun in mid-flight to hit the ground on his back. Tony smirked. “Thor, with me in this suit, we’re too evenly matched. This fight will go on forever and you know what? I’m not going to waste my time. It won’t get you to realize that you aren’t the fucking king of the universe. You do not get to pick fights and attempt to force Asgardian ideals on me or anyone else. Jarvis, call Jane Foster for me would you?”
The AI’s voice came from somewhere in the vicinity of Tony’s chest. “Yes, sir. Connecting now.”
It rang twice. Thor stood stock still and watched Tony with wide, confused eyes. “Hello, Jane Foster speaking.”
“Hey, Janie, love. Tony Stark.”
“Oh! Tony. How are you? How’s Loki doing? Thor told me he was back on earth and I saw the press conference.”
“Hm. Yes, about that actually. Several things. Some interesting things that Thor probably didn’t tell you was that he himself carried out the punishment Loki’s father handed down, which was to sew Loki’s mouth shut and bind his magic.” Jane gasped loudly. “He then had Loki stripped. This is Thor, mind you, not Odin. Loki was thrown, naked, into a cell and left there to rot for almost six months. Thor’s friends, the warriors that came here before? Yeah, they beat Loki and torture him that whole time. They also didn’t feed him once in the entire six months or give him water. I took the poor bastard him, when he managed to escape to Earth.”
“Tony…oh Jesus fuck. Tony…That’s….I feel sick…”
“And want to hear the kicker? I’m going out with Loki now…I think…I think I might be falling for him, Jane.”
She still sounded shaken, but there was a faint smile in her voice. “Oh Tony, that’s wonderful, but—“
“Yeah, well, when I told the Avengers about all this, Thor decided that I’d dishonored his brother, who he allowed to be starved and tortured for six months by sleeping with him. I’ve dirtied him, because I’m savage, which is apparently what Asgardians think of gay men. He wants to kill me for it. He’s already tried to attack me for being gay. You’re boyfriend is a violent homophob and I suspect he’s a sadist.”
“Tony…” Her voice was faint. “Tony…no, that can’t be…Tony, I—“
Thor finally spoke, not doubt baffled by the triumphant smirk on Tony’s face. “Lady Jane, surely you do not condone such…repulsive and base action as the…physical encounter of two men? You cannot honestly be accepting of such a dishonorable and unworthy action as that?”
There was silence for several minutes. “Thor. That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard you say. Men on Midgard are allowed to love whoever they want.” Tony noticed that she definitely exaggerated that one, but kept silent. “If you can’t accept the love between Tony and Loki, then I’m not sure you understand love at all. Especially in light of what you did to Loki—“
“But, my love, the Allfather ordered it be done!”
“And you obeyed? He is your brother, Thor! You clearly don’t understand love at all. You obviously don’t feel love if that is how you treat your brother. I can’t…Don’t come back here, Thor. I’m not sure I want to see you again. At least until you understand the terribly things you’ve done.” She hung up.
Tony grinned up at Thor from where he was now lounging on the ground. “Yeah, I think this pain is going to last a lot longer than the beating I really want to give you.”
Thor was confused, that much was obvious. “But why would she condone such—“
“Because being gay. A guy liking a guy? That’s all good here. A girl can love another girl too. Whatever. Anyway, see you around, big guy…Or actually no. If I do see you around again outside of Avenger battles, I’m going to rip your balls off, you fucker. Ta.”
****
A hand on Tony’s shoulder brought him back to reality. He glanced up at Loki, who was kneeling next to him. “You looked a million miles away.”
Tony offered a half smile. “Nope, just a few months. S’it time for questions now?”
Loki smirked. “Not entirely.” He said and took hold of Tony’s face. He leaned down and placed the softest of kisses against Tony’s mouth. The smaller man settled his hands on Loki’s waist and let his eyes drift shut. For several moments, they remained like that, touching their mouths together and drinking in each other’s warmth. The tenderness of it reminded Tony of an evening not so long ago.
****
It was several months after the incident with Thor, who had actually fled back to Asgard, rather than face a world where his brother was happily fucking a man and where his beloved thought him a monster. Tony’d smirked and muttered, “Good riddance.”
It was late evening. He and ‘Liam’ had just returned from dinner. Loki had gone to stand by the tall long wall of windows, gazing out over the expanse of New York City. Tony joined him, slipping his arms around Loki’s waste from behind. He was just tall enough to rest his chin on Loki’s shoulder.
“Tony, how is it that you still…that you haven’t…Why do you still tolerate me here?” Loki’s voice was soft and painfully vulnerable. Tony was not sure where this sudden fragility came from, but he meant to find out.
“Tolerate? What are you talking about?”
Loki did not turn. He addressed his question to the skyline. “It has been many months now…”
“Four months, twenty days, and sixteen hours since our first real kiss.”
Loki blinked and shot Tony a look out from the corner of his eye. “As you say. You still tolerate me. You do not seem to have grown tired of me yet. You appear to want me still, both in regards to my physical person and myself.”
Tony frowned sharply and pulled back from Loki to try and look at him better. Loki shuddered and seemed to shrink. “I should not have pointed it out to you. You are…as always being very generous to me, allowing me to remain here and…tolerating my person.”
“My god…” Tony’s exclamation was so soft, Loki was not sure he’d actually heard it. The Norse god was forcibly turned and Tony grabbed his face in both hands, forcing Loki to meet his gaze. Tony found pain, regret, resignation, despair, and a hundred other things in Loki’s eyes. Loki could detect only what he thought was anger in Tony and flinched. “Loki! I thought…Oh god. I thought you were overcoming your self-esteem issues. Loki…”
Loki shook his head, frowning. “I no longer have ‘self-esteem issues’ as you call them. I understand that I have some inherent value. I am intelligent, clever, a skilled magician. I am competent as a lover. I know these things. That does not—“
“No…God, Loki. Yes, you are all those things. And I’d say that competent is the world’s biggest understatement… No. That is not all I meant by value and worth. You are worthy of love. You are worthy of affection and gratitude and any number of other positive emotions. You deserve all of that…Loki, I…I thought you knew. Otherwise, I…” Tony left go of Loki and ran both hands through his hair, tugging in obvious frustration. Loki looked at him in confusion. “God, I should have told you, everyday, from the moment you appeared in my workshop…Loki…I love you.”
The Norse god was still for a moment, before his eyes widened. He gaped. “Tony, what…?”
“Loki, I don’t tolerate you. I don’t put up with you or suffer your presence. I want you here. I can’t imagine my life without you in it anymore. I refuse to imagine my life without you in it. I will never grow tired of you. Everyday I look at you and I’m stunned all over again by the force and scope of your mind, by the fierceness of your loyalty and determination, by your beauty in both forms. Every damn day I ask myself how I got so damn lucky that you’re here with me, who isn’t worth shit. Steve once told me that he knew guys, who had nothing and were nothing compared to my fame and fortune, that were worth ten of me. He was right. And yet somehow, you chose me. I’m speechless with wonder at the thought. And everyone knows how well I do speechless.” He winked at Loki, who smiled faintly. “I thought you knew. I thought you…oh god. Do you not…Have you just been…? Oh fuck.”
Tony turned away to the window and Loki frowned at his back. His shoulders hunched and he wrapped his arms around his middle. “Loki, I’m sorry. I thought that we were on the same page here. If you…that is. If you want to, you leave at any time. I won’t try to stop you, if you really want to leave me. If…I won’t. I promise I won’t be That Guy.”
Finally, Loki understood what had shifted. “Tony, you think that because I did not know…how you felt about me, that I do not return your…sentiment?”
Tony turned back to him with blank eyes and an expressionless face. “Seems plausible. Afterall, why should I assume that you loved me back? No one else does.”
Loki scowled at that. “That is, to borrow your word, bullshit, Tony Stark. Everyone loves you.”
Tony scoffed, with a sickly smile blossoming across his face. “Everyone loves Iron Man. No one loves Tony Stark…except maybe Pepper.”
Loki shook his head with narrowed eyes. “The team adores you. Steven seems to believe that if you wished you may…’lasso the moon,’ I think is the phrase he used. Natasha calls you The Big Guy and seems to look to you like an older brother. Admittedly, she believes you have a poor sense of humor, but there is no accounting for taste. Bruce loves you, very quietly, but he does. I have yet to understand in what way, but I believe if I were not here…well, I am pleased that I am here. Clint looks on you as a particularly amusing comrade in arms, now that he has overcome his grudge about me. Director Fury, I believe, though it is most difficult to tell with him, looks on you as a particularly recalcitrant favorite child. Even the Hulk likes you, and the Hulk likes no one. And, as you say, Pepper Potts. Tony, you are well loved by your team.”
Tony blinked up at him, a small and genuine smile flitting at the corners of his eyes. “And you?” His voice was so soft as to be merely a breath.
Loki swallowed thickly. “And I. I love you most of all. Tony, it has been the sweetest agony these past months, waiting for you to grow tired of me. Knowing that one day, I would wake up to find you gone from my arms, never to return. I savored every moment as though there would be no more. So convinced was I that you would discard me, a most uncharitable and blind assumption on my part for which I apologize, that I could not see what was before me. You are not…as I was pretending you were. I l-love you, Tony Stark, and would spend as much time with you as you will let me.”
Tony’s smile could out shine all the suns in the Nine Realms, Loki was sure. “Loki, I would spend every moment of every day for the remainder of my disgustingly brief life with you.”
Loki smirked. “And what of the remainder of my life, which is significantly longer?”
Tony frowned. “God, if only. To be able to stay with you forever? To be able to continue helping the Avengers, two of whom can’t die? To have enough time to prove to you what you mean to me?”
Loki smiled softly at him, an expression on his face that Tony wasn’t sure he’d ever seen before. Tony, in his mind, took back all the reasons he could ever give for wanting immortality. Producing that smile as much as possible was reason enough for him. “Good.” Loki said quietly. He snapped his fingers and held out his left hand. A bag appeared, hanging off the tips of his fingers. He opened it and pulled out a yellow apple. “Here. Eat this.”
Tony blinked and frowned, staring at the apple for a moment. “Okay, you guys are totally Norse. Why do you have Greek apples?”
Loki laughed. “You Midgardians think that everything is separate, merely because you are isolated. The ones you think of as Greek Gods live on a world called Olympis, but the Bifrost has always allowed us access to them. We have an agreement…I have made my own agreement with the Keeper of the Apples. I do owe you an apology, however.”
Tony glanced up, away from the apple in his hand. “What?”
“I have taken one of your spare arc reactors. I needed something to trade. The Keeper of the Apples will allow me access to them until such a time as I no longer have need of them, but, whenever I come to taken them, I must bring with me some of the element you created to exchange.”
Tony shrugged and bit into his apple. “Not a problem. I’ll just make more, whenever you need it. How often do I have to eat the apples?”
Loki grinned. “Once every hundred years or so, but you may eat them more often, especially if you are injured. You need only eat one.”
Tony frowned and glanced down at the bag, still in Loki’s hand. Loki hefted it, reached in to take one of his own, and it vanished. “What are those for then?”
Loki smiled. “Those are for Natasha, Clint, Agent Coulson, Director Fury, if you wish, and Pepper. Steve and Bruce are already unable to die. The Avengers are your family. You love them and they love you. I would give that to you for always.”
To his horror, Tony felt his eyes prick with tears. “God, Loki. You do love me, don’t you? God. I can’t…” He reached up and ground the backs of his hands into his eyes, still holding the half-eaten apple. “I love you so fucking much, you amazing bastard. I don’t even know the words to tell you and I have a fucking great vocabulary.”
Loki laughed, full and deep. “Yes, I can see that. Absolutely stellar.”
Tony dropped his hands to his sides. “What a pair we make, eh?” He shook his head and took another bite of his apple. “Do I need to eat this all now? Does it get all brown and wilt-y if I save the rest for later?”
Loki raised an eyebrow at him. “You are asking me if apples that give immortality turn brown and die overnight?”
Tony flushed. “Okay, so I’m not thinking properly. You’re distracting. Shoot me.” Tony put the apple down on the nearest surface and seized Loki’s hand.
Loki followed him willingly up to the room they now shared. When the door shut with a soft snick, Tony turned to Loki, taking a gentle hold of the god’s face and pulling him down for a kiss. “I want to show you how much I fucking love you.”
Loki smiled. “How do you want me? Male or female?”
Tony smiled, just a little curl of the corners of his mouth. “I want you as you.” Loki frowned. “I want to see red eyes gazing at me when I made you come. I want to be buried balls-deep in cool, blue skin. I want you, Loki.”
Loki gaped at him. Loki had not shifted to his true form since that first night when he showed Tony exactly what the engineer was harboring. He had never been intimate wearing that form. Tony was the only person who ever touched him at all when he was Jotun. Tony was looking at him, merely looking. He was not judging or prompting, just looking and waiting for Loki’s decision. It was this more that anything that convinced Loki to do as Tony asked. He allowed the glamour to slip and his true form to show through. Hunger took root in the smaller man’s eyes and Loki was stunned.
Tony reached up to kiss Loki again, turning them and forcing the taller man down onto the bed. Loki broke the kiss to push himself back until he was resting against the headboard. Tony stood at the foot of the bed for a moment, drinking in the sight. Blue skin dark and rich against the white bed-sheets and the pale linen of Loki’s clothing. The deep navy patterns on Loki’s face stood out darkly and the red of his eyes shown in the dim light of the room. “Fuck, you’re so fucking gorgeous.” He swallowed thickly. “I will spend the rest of eternity proving to you that you are so fucking beautiful like this.”
So saying, Tony pulled off his own shirt, bathing them both in the light from the arc reactor. He watched Loki’s face as he reached down to unbuckle his belt. When he dropped pants and boxers to the floor and stood, naked and so fucking hard, at the end of the bed, he relished the darkening of Loki’s eyes from bright red to a deep, almost bloody, crimson. He knelt on the bed and crawled up Loki’s body. “I want to see all this lovely skin. I’m going to touch it, lick it. I want to taste every last inch of your blue skin until you’re writhing and then I’ll touch some more of you, inside.”
Loki groaned and reached up to shed his shirt. In mere moments, his clothing was a pile next to the bed and he was stretched out below Tony, panting lightly at the look on Tony’s face. Too much.
For his part Tony wanted to take a picture the size of the fucking building and paint the sky with it so everyone could see how fucking beautiful his boyfriend was.
The room was silent, but for Loki’s panting and intermittent whimpers as Tony made good on his promise. His fingertips ghosted, feather-light, over Loki’s skin, followed quickly by his tongue. The Norse god tasted of winter’s first snowfall and the icy dust of a star shower. Tony decided in that moment that if he never had another drink in his life, never ingested another illegal substance, never tasted another fucking thing, except Loki’s skin, he’s be perfectly content with that. He told Loki this.
Loki opened his mouth to reply to Tony’s absurd statement, but the only thing that came out was an unintelligible string of nonsense. Tony’s hot, hot oh fuck so hot I’m burning you’re burning me it hurts oh god it hurts so sweet don’t stop don’t ever stop I’ll kill you if you stop it’s so hot, mouth engulfed him. The feeling of Tony’s mouth around his cock seemed to broadcast through his entire body and there was heat everywhere.
Tony hummed around his mouthful and took Loki as deep as he could, which was not deep enough. Tony prided himself on his…shall we say prowess, in bed. He was proud of the fact that he’d overcome his own gag-reflex and he’d been able to deep throat all of the male lovers he’d had after that. He still couldn’t manage to take all of Loki down his throat. He’d been trying for months and still hadn’t managed it. If pressed, Tony would concede that the god was hung like a fucking horse. No, seriously. The man seriously had Mjolnir in his pants.
When Tony hummed, Loki arched like a bow off the bed and his fingers tore holes in the sheets. Tony chuckled around his lover’s cock and Loki’s eyes slipped shut. He moaned and let a steady stream of Norse slip out. Tony marveled at the reaction he was drawing. Loki in his blue skin was so much more responsive. He pulled back to tease his tongue in Loki’s slit and reached blindly for the drawer next to his bed, bypassing the lube that was on the tabletop. He’d managed to develop a substance, halfway between and grease and an ointment, that would protect skin from frostbite if it came in direct contact with a cold object. As he patted around blindly for the tube, he reached up to roll Loki’s balls in his other hand. He was painfully hard and leaking on the bedspread, but he ignored his body.
Watching Loki greedily, he sucked hard around the head of his cock in triumph when his hand closed around the tube he was looking for. Preparing Loki when he was in his Jotun form was a study in patience for Tony and a lesson in self-control for Loki. They both quickly realized that this body had never had sex before and Tony would have to proceed with the utmost care. This thought made Tony giddy with a rush of power and possession. He was going to be the first person to fuck Loki like this. This would always be his and no one could take it away from him.
“Loveyougodiloveyousofuckingmuch.” Tony mumbled into the skin of Loki’s buttocks.
Loki, for his part, was suspended in a haze of sensation. He barely registered the actual events that were happening. The skin he was in was so much more difficult to control and the sensations, the touches, everything was a hundred times stronger, more potent like this. All that added to the fact that Tony’s body heat burned against him and his mind could barely register anything.
He did register when Tony finally, oh Valhalla finally fuck Tony just fuck me please please please I can’t take this anymore I’m going out of my mind the heat please, entered him. His entire body was on fire with it. He could feel every millimeter of Tony’s cock, shorter and slightly thicker then his own, as the engineer slowly, agonizingly slowly, pushed into Loki’s body. He stopped, holding completely still, when his hips and thighs rested against Loki’s skin.
“Burns, god, it burns, I’m on fire, you’re so fucking hot that I’m on fire. It burns everywhere. My heart is burning, oh…oh god.” Loki was hoping vaguely somewhere in the back of his mind that this string of nonsense would prompt Tony to move, but it had the opposite effect.
Tony stills entirely, frozen. “Loki. Loki, what do you mean it burns? I’m hurting you? Are you alright? Loki, talk to me!”
Loki shook his head. “No. Hurts, feels so good it hurts, burns.” Loki managed to swallow and tried to pull his shattered thoughts together to form a coherent sentence, but it was so difficult with all that delicious heat inside him. “You’re…Tony…your body heat. It’s…oh god, please just fucking move! I can feel your body heat all over inside me and it’s burning, but I’m so cold and it’s burning. I love it. Love you. Please. God….just please move!” He snarled the last bit and that seemed to convince Tony that he was alright.
After that, coherent thought, never mind speech, was impossible. When Loki finally let go, his orgasm tore through him like the inexorable roll of lava from a volcano, with just as much heat. Tony kissed him, lewd and wet and just as hot as Tony’s cock inside him, swallowing the noises he made and attempting to devour Loki completely. Loki was sure, when he was once again capable of thinking, that he must have developed a fever from Tony’s heat inside him and also that he’d never consider heat from the sun the same way again because it paled in comparison.
They lay together afterwards, Loki back in his Asgardian skin because Tony’s heat was took much for his oversensitive, over-stimulated Jotun body. Tony pressed his mouth to Loki’s chest and whispered things into his skin.
Thank you. I love you. You’re mine so please don’t leave me. I’m yours until you don’t want me anymore. I love you. You’re beautiful.
Loki smiled softly.
****
Tony forcibly pushed that memory away, because now was really not the time. He pulled back gently from Loki. The room was dead silent. Tony reached up and ran his thumb over Loki’s cheek. The clearly affectionate gesture seemed to break the stillness and the room erupted in noise.
Tony turned back to the group, slipping his arm around Loki’s waist. Loki dropped his own arm across Tony’s shoulders, leaning casually against the smaller man. “Guys, I’ll answer some of your questions, but only if I can hear them. A show of hands, please!”
Every hand in the crowd went up. Tony laughed and calls on a tall blond woman that Loki does not recognize. “Christine, darling, you have a question.”
“Tony, Loki here looks remarkably like Liam, the man you were seeing a few months ago. Any connection?” Tony didn’t freeze. He didn’t stiffen. He didn’t even bat an eyelash. Loki however went completely still and narrowed his eyes at the woman.
“Christine, you do always ask the most annoying questions. Remind me never to sleep with a journalist again. it makes you lot uppity.” Loki scowled and turned to glare at Tony. The audience laughed and the woman went bright red. “No, darling. I’m not even sure what you mean by connection. Loki as everyone knows already is from Asgard. No family here. I suppose I just have a type.”
“You’ve never been known to have a type before, Mr. Stark. In fact, you’ve never been known to actually date someone before. What changed?”
Tony frowned slightly. “Do you mean with Liam or with Loki? For either…I guess the time was right. I can’t…bed hop for the rest of my life. That lifestyle, while a total party, isn’t exactly self-sustaining. I’d developed a drinking problem.”
Loki coughed. “That might be the understatement of the year.”
Tony sighed and raised an eyebrow at him. “Alright. Fine. I’d become an alcoholic, which is seriously dangerous for my health. Honestly, with the way I was living, I’m surprised I never caught anything. AIDs or something less dangerous. I was extremely lucky. But…when I met Loki…Really me him, not the mind-controlled version of him we saw the first time, I just…The whole thing sort of hit me in the face. You know how people talk about love at first sight and all that? Well, it’s garbage. Complete shit. It wasn’t at first sight. It was the first time he opened his mouth and spoke to me. My brain just sort of turned off, for literally the first time in my life and wasn’t that freaky thing, and the rest of me went: Yep. That’s what you were looking for. Search over.”
Half the woman and a quarter of the men in the room heaved a sigh. Loki smirked at them. Tony certainly was a master of manipulation, even if he was speaking the truth. Wasn’t that a little jarring?
“Loki!” the Norse god was jerked from his musings and looked out at the crowd. “What’s he like in bed?”
Loki raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure there are any number of others to whom you could address that question. Ms. Everhart in the back being one of them, apparently.” Tony grinned at him apologetically. “But if you really must ask me, I’d say…” Loki smirked and surveyed Tony for a moment, who looked incredulous. “I’ve been alive for just over a millennia. Tony Stark is the best fuck I’ve ever had.”
The entire room went silent. Tony’s face split into a shit-eating grin. “No shit? Well, I’m this world’s most renounced whore and I’d say the same about you.”
Loki flushed slightly. Tony had lain with many more people then Loki had, so that was indeed a compliment. He was never going to tell Tony this, of course.
Christine was scowling in the back. “Exactly how many people have you slept with, Tony?”
Tony turned back to her and smirked. “Including you? Four hundred and ninety-one. Thanks for asking. Anyone else have any questions? We will answer questions about the original topic of this little shindig, which was the research Loki and I have been doing.”
Someone toward the center called out, “Nah! This is more fun.”
Tony chuckled. “Fair enough. We’ll take five more questions.”
“Any plans for the future?”
Tony’s face split into a secret smile.
****
Three nights before the press conference, Tony took Loki to the same street-side restaurant that they’d eaten their first meal together. They sat inside this time, in a private room and Loki got to be himself. Once the meal was over, Tony stood and came around the table. He crouched down, so Loki would not be looking up at him. “Loki, you gave me the greatest gift that I could ever hope to ask for and then you gave me an eternity to savor it. You’re the most intelligent, most quick-witted, and most beautiful person I have ever met. You’ve also got the sharpest tongue. I love you more than anything in the Nine Realms and I want the world to know that I intend to spend the rest of forever with you…even if I sound like the world’s biggest sap.”
He went up on one knee and Loki frowned, thinking that this looked an awful lot like in the movies when…Tony pulled out a small jeweler’s box and opened it. “Will you marry me?”
Inside the box, two rings rested. Both were thick gold bands. One was studded with diamonds and the other with small round balls of the material that powers the arc reactor. The ring glowed faintly. Tony pulled the glowing ring out and offered it to Loki.
Loki looked up at the man kneeling beside him, the one who’d saved him from his own family, who stood up to Thor for him and was going to brave the hatred of the entire world. Who had already braved the hatred of the Avengers, which was so much more important. He smiled faintly. “Is that allowed here?’
Tony grinned. “In this state, it is.”
Loki could feel the tears pricking his eyes and tried to stamp them back, with the shock that anyone would want to make such a public statement about being with him. “Of course. Tony, are you sure you—“
“If you finish that question, lover, you’re sleeping alone tonight.” Loki clamped his mouth shut and grinned a little. “Good man.”
His smiled turned a little sad. “That I am not.”
Tony scoffed. “Of course you are. How are you kidding? You’re one of the best.” He slipped the ring on Loki’s left ring finger. Pulling out the matching diamon band, Loki put it on Tony’s corresponding finger. Tony smiled down at it. “This is not a day I ever thought would come. But I would not change one fucking minute. I don’t care what anybody says. They can go fuck themselves.”
Loki laughed and pulled Tony up for a kiss.
****
“Absolutely.” Tony turned to Loki with a question in his eyes. Loki offered him a half smile and raised his left hand for the crowd.
Again, there was dead silence. Christine was once again the one to break it. “You’re marrying him???” She shrieked.
Tony smiled widely, freely, and with such joy that Loki felt a little breathless. Things had changed so much. He had changed so much since he’d arrived in Tony’s workroom so many months ago. He wasn’t sure if he recognized himself as the same person, but he also wasn’t sure that that was a bad thing. “Yes. He’s marrying me.” His voice was soft and reverent, but he really couldn’t help it.
A short man towards the front raised his hand. “What’s the ring made of? It’s glowing.”
Tony laughed. “I am completely destroying any reputation I may have very had today. It’s made of this stuff.” He unbuttoned his shirt and tapped the arc reactor. “Loki keeps me going just as much as this thing does, so I thought it was fitting.”
Loki smiled brightly at him, hearing the reason for the first time. He fingered the ring a moment. “Proof that Tony Stark has a heart.”
Tony grinned. “Yep.”
“When’s the big day?” Tony didn’t recognize the voice.
“We haven’t decided yet. We’ll need to coordinate with the Avengers. It probably won’t be for at least a few months. Pepper would never forgive me if she didn’t get to plan something. It’ll probably be huge and outlandish and the party of the century.”
Loki chuckled. “I will have absolutely no say in this, will I?”
Tony shook his head. “Neither will I, lover. Neither will I.”
“Tony, you said you’re an alcoholic. Are you—“
“No. I said I was. I don’t drink anymore. And it’s not that AA thing where I’ll always be recovering. I’ve replaced any addiction I’ve ever had with a new one. And it’s even good for me.”
Tony was leering at Loki and Loki laughed, loudly. “Yes. He claims he’s now addicted to me, instead. I am perfectly accepting of this, of course. Anything to help.”
The crowd snickered.
“And that, people, was the fifth question. We’re done for today. If you want to set up interviews or anything, please contact Pepper Potts, CEO of Stark Industries. She’ll direct you to the proper people. I really have no clue who that would be.”
“Tony. Honestly, you need to learn who in your staff does what so that you are not sending everything to Lady Potts. She does not take kindly to it.”
Tony flapped a hand at his fiancé (!!! He still couldn’t believe Loki had said yes). “Someday, Loki, I will do that. Today is not that day.” He turned and waved to the press, who all filed out.
Loki watched them leave with a smirk. “Pepper is going to kill us, you know. As will Steve and Natasha.”
Tony grinned. “Yep. Basically. Story of my life though.”
Loki laughed. “We should have told them first and we could have avoid bloodshed.”
Tony slipped a hand to curl around the back of Loki’s neck. “Whatever.” He murmured and pulled the Norse god down for a kiss.