Chapter 6
"You know? People usually have a drink with me before attacking me with wildlife." Loki smirked lazily. He was beginning to grow used to the luxury of having a fixed sleeping place, after two more storms-less nights.
"Those lowly beasts you call birds are hardly wildlife, Stark. " He looked down at the human who waited by his tree´s roots. "And as much as I´m puzzled by your obsession for having me drinking stuff, I´m afraid the drink in question would have to be on you."
Tony grinned back. "What, Odin´s hold on your allowance is too strong for you to treat me?"
Loki slid of the branch, landing gracefully in front of the human, his mouth still curled into a loose smirk. "You go on trying to mock me; this is by far the best punishment I´ve ever had."
"Or so I´ve read." Tony was actually grateful. The three hours he had spent looking for the exact tree in which he and Pepper had spotted Loki in some amateur video would have been useless if the god wasn´t in good mood. "So? Are you going to take me up on that drink or not?"
"What is it, Stark? Do you usually treat breakfast to your enemies?" The human smiled.
"Actually, my team would be delighted if I treated breakfast to our enemies only."
-
Thing was, now Tony sat across the table from the pale god, prying quick glances at him from behind his menu.
"Do you even know what half of these things are?" Loki frowned.
"No, but I take it nearly everything´s edible, since Thor has survived here, even with his… Eating habits."He didn´t miss the way the frown deepened when mentioning his brother´s name, and he smirked to himself.
"Oh, yeah, well, no offense, but I doubt there´s anything in all of the… What do you guys call it? "Realms" that your brother wouldn´t be able to chow down. But it´s pretty much an accurate guess, I hope everything´s edible here."
"I´m not Thor´s brother." Tony rolled his eyes at the god´s stubborness. "What are these pancake things?"
"Hmmm… Do you have a sweet tooth?" Dear god, the puzzled look on Loki´s face was worth all the pancakes.
"Excuse me?"
"Sugar... Do you even have sugar? Sweet tastes. Do you like them?" Still noticeably wary, Loki nodded. "Then order those. Man, how come you have survived for nearly three months on your own?" Loki drank a sip of his steaming coffee, shrugging.
"Despite what Thor has made you believe, not all as…" Tony frowned, when Loki´s voice slowly died in his throat, without finishing the sentence.
"Not all asgardians eat like starved wolves?" He provided, trying to be helpful. Loki cleared his throat.
"Exactly, they don´t." They stumbled into a pause, that quickly threatened to grow into an awkward silence. Tony frowned. He hated all silences, but the awkward ones were his nemesis and hell if he was going to let his nemesis take over his international diplomacy attempts.
"But I mean, how did you even discover coffee?" He asked, to break it.
"Selvig and Barton used to have it."
"Oh. Ok." Nothing like remembering your mind-controlled colleagues to ease the mood.
The silence remained even after the waitress wrote their orders down, and walked away, again, not sparing a glanec for the full-armored Norse.
Tony didn´t even look up as his omelette (because who doesn´t like an omelette that has not been made by Tony?) was placed on the table before him.
"Maple syrup, sir?" The waitress asked.
Loki stared at the woman, holding the oddly shaped bottle and waiting for his response. His eyes jumped between the so-called pancakes on his plate, to the bottle, to the waitress, before he cleared his throat again.
"Stark?" Tony looked up, to the awkward scene of what seemed to be the waitress threatening Loki with a bottle of syrup, judging on the way the god leaned far from her and eyed the thing warily.
"What… Ah, syrup!" He finally caught on to the waitress question. "Yes, leave it there, honey." And he gifted the young girl with one of his trademark smiles, hoping to make her forget about this strange being that wouldn´t touch the syrup when it was placed on the table.
Predictably, the girl walked away as fast as her high heels would take her after blushing and managing to smile back, and Tony looked back to the table, enjoying his small victory.
"Charming." Loki used his fork to poke at the top pancake, as if expecting it to jump to his face and bite it off. Tony smirked.
"Come on. Thor´s always going on and on about how brilliant you are, I´m sure you can figure out how to eat pancakes."
Loki huffed, finally bringing his rounded knife into business, and chopping off a bit of the bread.
"Not something to take into account, as someone with accurate spelling abilities is brilliant for him."
Tony shook his head.
"Now you´re just exaggerating." He grabbed the syrup bottle, squeezing it over the other´s plate before he had a chance to refuse. "There. No need to thank me." Loki´s glare was obviously trying to dig holes into his skull, and he ignored it, rather focusing on his eggs.
"For messing with my food? I wasn´t planning on it."
"Just eat it, ok? I promise it´s not poisoned. Midgardian honor."
"Is there such a thing?" Loki muttered, before smelling the syrup soaked pancake bit, and taking it into his mouth.
Sure enough, the sweet, buttery flavor exploded in his tongue, bringing back all the hunger he didn´t recall having in the first place, and his regal manners were somehow forgotten for a minute, when he wolfed down on his first real, solid meal while in Midgard.
"… Say whatever you want, but you look pretty much like Thor´s brother right now." He heard the human mutter, amused. "I think you´re about to break his record with the poptarts."
He grunted, uninterested, too enthralled with stuffing his face with pancakes to care about his remarks. It wasn´t until he finished the last piece, and rested his fork and knife on the table, that he looked up again, wiping the corners of his mouth with a paper napkin.
"Forgive my enthusiasm, but I can´t say I´ve eaten much since I was brought back."
"You should´ve told me that, I would´ve taken you to a fancy restaurant." Tony chewed faster, trying to finish his own meal before Loki decided he´d had enough and left.
"Do they serve these pancakes in the fancy restaurant?"
"What have I done…"
"No, but you can make them at home." He looked up when he heard the sarcastic snicker, in time to see the smirk in the thin, pale lips.
"Yes, I´m sure I will find all the necessary ingredients in my tree, thank you." he looked back down, and finished eating in silence, wondering how to board the subject.
After downing the last of his mug´s contents in one gulp, he stood up, gesturing for Loki to do the same, and placing some bills on the table. More than enough for their little breakfast and a juicy tip for their waitress.
-
"I need you to keep it a secret, ok?" He finally asked, while on the street.
"Wise decision, I´m sure you have found me to be trustworthy. Rest assured, this breakfast never happened." Loki smirked, and Tony looked back, realizing all his reasoning had been listed only in his head and the god had no idea what he was talking about.
"Not the pancakes, hell I´m going to brag about it myself, you Norse kin sure do have a soft spot for breakfast treats in your heart." He let silence set for a moment, while he reorganized his ideas. "Look. I´m going to do something, and I´ll be in deep shit with S.H.I.E.L.D. if they find out."
"Are you going to try and conquer this realm? Because I must warn you, I still consider it mine."
"I already own this "realm", Loki, I don´t need to conquer it." He leaded the pale man down some streets and up some others, the god obviously following with a mixture of curiosity and confidence in his ability of kicking his ass if needed.
They stopped in a common apartment tower, and Tony guided them inside, holding the elevator doors open, while the god stared at him, an eyebrow arched in interest.
"Just come in. I´m the one that should be worried about flying through another window." He rolled his eyes, and Loki walked in, reassured.
There was something in elevator rides, Tony didn´t know exactly what, but they were hell. Maybe it was the enclosed space, the mirror walls, or even the sticky, annoying tunes escaping the speakers in the top corners of the cubicle. He hated elevator rides. He and Loki hadn´t said another word during the whole walk here, but suddenly the silence they were in became awkward as hell. His nemesis scored another point.
He was pleased when they finally reached their floor, and stepped out into a well lit hallway, with two doors on each side.
He pointed to the one on the left, and walked to it, rummaging into his pocket.
"Explain yourself, Stark." Loki stared at the golden key that rested atop his palm, where Tony had dropped it, next to a small plastic object.
"I´m sure they have keys in Asgard, I hope I don´t have to explain that." Tony shrugged. "This is a cell phone. You can use it to call people, and speak to them. It has only Thor and mine´s number, and I´m afraid your brother hasn´t quite mastered the use of his yet, so you´re pretty much short on options."
Loki´s eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Stark."
Tony patted on his upper arm, passing by his side in his way back to the elevator.
"I just thought your Chitauri pals will have a harder time finding you in an apartment than on a tree in some park." He enjoyed the way Loki´s eyes widened, and his body froze in surprise for barely a second, before he hid it again.
"Just for that, you owe me an even bigger explanation." Tony grinned, as the elevator doors closed before him.
"Well, there weren´t really many ways for me to find out, were they?"
Loki stared at the closed doors, before looking back at the objects in his hand.
"That oaf…"