Part 3 - Chp 15
“Three days, Tony,” Steve says, extra emphasis, like if he just repeats it enough Tony will get it. Loki, the traitor, has left him to deal with Steve on his own; on the other hand, he’s pretty sure Thor saw them get back. Honestly, Tony would rather deal with Steve now than Thor considering what all happened.
“Yeah, so? It was fine. Everything’s fine.”
Steve sighs with one of his most pained eagle looks yet. Tony just shrugs; he still feels amazing, and there’s very little Steve can do to change that. Loki had said there wasn’t anything else more important, and really, Tony’s inclined to believe him if only because he hasn’t had to deal with any debriefing.
“We won,” Tony says. “What more do you want?”
“I know we won. I want to know what happened. Everything went to hell in the last ten minutes and Loki blew out the comms screeching when he thought you’d gotten hit.”
“Oh. Well why didn’t you say so?”
***
He finds Loki and Thor talking. Thor has intent look on his face; Loki looks impassive, but Tony knows he’s irritated if only because it’s humming under his own skin despite his own good mood. It’s not murder though, so Tony isn’t worried.
Tony strolls up and hip checks Loki when Thor stops talking for a moment; he doesn’t want to get involved with their drama, not really. If it’s anything Tony needs to know, Loki will tell him later. Loki doesn’t budge, just shifts so Tony can stand in his space without taking his eyes off Thor.
“Hey, Fabio,” Tony says.
Thor stops staring at Loki for a second to glance at Tony, then jerks his head to look back at Tony again so hard Tony’s neck winces in sympathy pain. Thor looks absolutely thunderstruck, quickly looking at Loki again, mouth parted just slightly.
“Brother, what did you do?”
Loki shrugs.
“I didn’t hurt anyone.”
“That is not the—”
“Who would stop me? You were here, Mother rules in Odin’s place, and Odin is in one of his famous slumbers.” Loki smirks at Thor. “Idunn? I’ve tricked her before.”
“It is forbidden, Loki! You cannot just do as you will now! There are responsibilities that come with the power you wield, there are reasons for this law and you cannot just throw them aside!”
“And they matter not at all when I have made an oath.”
That shuts Thor up for a moment, a vein visibly pulsing in his temple.
“We will have words about this, Loki,” Thor snaps for before stalking off.
“What was all that about?”
Loki looks at him sideways, smirk blooming to full smile, knife-sharp and gleeful.
“He’s only sore what I fed you during our retreat.”
Tony blinks and tries to remember what he ate. Just apples, really--that’s the only thing he really remembers, the most amazing apples he’s ever had in his—
“Oh.” Tony blinks, then starts to laugh. “I thought that was going to take longer.”
“Three days and three nights. I thought it fitting we spend the time well, to distract you from any discomfort you might feel. I hear that shedding mortality can be painful.”
Tony leans up to snag a kiss, wrapping an arm around Loki’s waist when he pulls away.
“So what’s next on the agenda?”
Loki tilts his head back to study the lights, cocking his head--just a little, Tony thinks, like a magpie.
“I do believe you said you wished to fix this planet instead of let it destroy itself. Or the Tesseract, which needs finding before anyone else stumbles upon it. Pity that would be.”
“Whatever sounds good,” Tony says.
After all, they have all the time in the universe--right up until it ends.
He’ll make sure of it.