"I could have done it, Father! For You...for all of us."
"No, Loki," Odin said quietly.
He knew, in that moment, that he would never have the same love and acceptance from his father that Thor did.
He let himself fall.
**********
Loki woke up with a gasp. He tried to sit up, but the arm wrapped around him refused to let go. The owner of said arm shifted and groaned as he tried to wake himself up.
"What's wrong, Lo?"
"Nothing, Anthony," Loki said as he leaned down and gently pressed his lips to the other mans, " just a nightmare."
"Same one as usual?"
"You know me far too well," he sighed.
Tony chuckled and gathered Loki closer. The Mischief God snuggled into his neck, fingers lightly tracing the arc reactor in his lover's chest.
"Do you miss him?" Tony asked.
"Who? Odin? Of course not."
"I was talking about your brother, Lo."
"Oh," he muttered, " I don't really know the answer to that. I suppose it doesn't matter now, with the Bifrost damaged and after everything I did, I'll probably never see him again anyway."
Tony squeezed Loki tighter, fingers curling into his raven locks. He listened as his breath evened out, signaling that the God had went back to sleep. He stayed awake though, thoughts racing as he went over everything that had happened in the last several months.
*************
The old phrase about it hurting when you fall from heaven always cracked Tony up, especially with how absurd it was.
Then Loki happened.
Tony was lucky he'd been testing one of his suits out when an object crashed through the roof of his tower and landed right on top of him. At first, he thought it might have been a meteorite, until he rolled the thing off of him and saw that it was a man.
A really hot man, to be exact.
The guy was unconscious and bleeding, so Tony picked him up and ran down to the med bay. JARVIS was able to determine that, despite the crash landing, the mysterious visitor didn't have any internal injuries, just some minor scrapes and bruises.
Once the guy was cleaned up and resting, Tony got a good look at him. He had long, dark hair and alabaster skin. Lean, taught muscles and sharp, angular features put together a vision that Tony considered to be absolute perfection.
"Jesus, he could be a Greek God."
"Norse, actually."
Tony looked up at the voice, and found himself staring at a pair of emerald eyes that he wouldn't mind spending the rest of his life getting lost in.
"Hey there, glad to see you're awake."
Loki looked around in confusion, "Where am I?"
"Well, you're in my tower, which you just put a lovely new skylight in, by the way, and this is the medical area."
"My apologies about your ceiling" he chuckled weakly.
"Eh, it's an improvement," Tony shrugged," so...you got a name, Peter Pan?"
"I am unaware who this son of Pan is, but my name is Loki."
"Like the God of Mischief, Loki?"
"The same," Loki paused before looking at him strangely, " Why are you helping me? Most beings wouldn't."
"Why not?"
"I've done some rather...horrible things as of late."
"Can't be any worse than what I've done."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Loki muttered.
"Tell me about it?"
"If you insist."
****************
Loki ended up telling him everything that night. He didn't understand why, but he felt that total honesty was something this Midgardian deserved. The Trickster had been surprised when, after relaying what he tried to do to Jötunheim....Tony said he likely would have done the same thing.
Tony told him about his issues with his own father, the explosion that led to the device in his chest, and about becoming Ironman. It seemed that, despite the differences between them, they had a lot of things in common.
Tony showed Loki his technology, and Loki showed him his magic. He educated the God in Earth customs while reveling in tales of Asgard. Days turned into weeks, which turned into months, and pretty soon a year had passed since Loki had shown up.
Neither of them could pinpoint when the feelings had shifted from comradery to friendship to love, but Tony realized he'd fallen hard for the other man. The problem was, he didn't know if the feelings were mutual.
One night, Tony found the God sitting out on the balcony, staring up at the stars. He came over and sat next to him, enjoying a few minutes of comfortable silence before he spoke.
"We could always look for a way to get you back home, you know, to Asgard."
Loki smiled and shook his head, before placing a hand on Tony's cheek.
"No, Asgard isn't my home anymore, Anthony...you are."
He pressed his lips to Tony's and the rest they say...is history.
****************
Tony smiled as he recalled the memory of that night. They made love for the first time, right on that balcony. Loki provided a piece of him that had been missing for years, and the genius was finally happy.
He was worried, though, that these nightmares his love kept having were a sign of something coming...something that would try to take Loki away.
"Over my dead body," Tony muttered as he placed a kiss on top of his boyfriend's head, "no one is going to take you anywhere, Lo-Lo, I promise."
****************
A week later, Tony got a call from Phil Coulson. It seemed that S.H.I.E.L.D. was studying a powerful artifact, and they wanted both his and Loki's expertise on the matter.
When they got to the headquarters, they were met by Nick Fury, the head of the organization. He wasn't a huge fan of Tony's by a long shot, but he recognized the man's intelligence. He escorted them to the basement where the object was being kept. Once he saw what it was, Loki stopped in his tracks.
"Lo, what's wrong?"
"Anthony," he said shakily, " that is the Tesseract, a source of great power that Odin kept locked up on Asgard. What is it doing here?!"
"Good question," Tony said as he turned towards Fury, " got an answer for that patchy?"
A loud clap of Thunder cut off whatever he was going to say. Noone else seem to really be affected, but Loki was shaking like a leaf.
"Surely, you're not afraid of a little thunder?" Fury mused.
"I'm not overly fond of what follows."
A crash sounded as the basement doors flew off their hinges, and a blonde man stomped in that reminded Tony of the covers of those trashy romance novels Pepper loved but,refused to acknowledge reading in public.
"I am Thor, Crown Prince of Asgard, and I've come to retrieve the Tesseract. It's far too powerful for mortals to....." Thor was stopped in his speech when he noticed a familiar occupant in the room.
"Loki?!"
"Thor."
"Brother, we thought you were dead!" Thor exclaimed. He tried to step closer but Loki put his hand up.
"Stop! Stay where you are!"
"But..."
"Look Blondie,"Tony interjected," if my boyfriend says back off, then back off."
That phrase gave Thor pause.
"Boyfriend? I've heard Jane use that word before....what does it mean exactly?"
"Oh for..." Loki facepalmed at his brother's stupidity, " It means he's my intended, you oaf!"
"Oh.....oh!" Then a realization darkened the expression on the Thunder God's face, "So then, you were never going to return to Asgard? You were just going to continue letting us mourn you?"
"I didn't even know I could go back! Last I knew the Bifrost was destroyed. Plus I highly doubt Odin wanted the Jötunn monster back under his roof!"
"That's not true, Loki..."
"Isn't it? Tell me something, brother," Loki sneered as he walked up to Thor, " Between Heimdall's sight and Odin's , they must have known where I was, but did they tell you? No, instead he's more concerned about fetching a lost relic than his so-called son. Well I don't need him, and I damn sure don't need you!"
Loki ran out of the room with Tony following close behind. Thor walked out a few seconds later.
******************
Tony found Loki sitting on the steps outside of the building. He sat down next to his lover and pulled him closer, not saying anything about the tears trailing down his neck.
"You okay?"
"You know," he sniffed," when I saw my brother there, for a brief moment, I fooled myself into thinking my family had been looking for me, that they cared after all. Clearly, I was a fool."
"No you're not, Lo. It's perfectly normal to want love and acceptance from the people that are supposed to be close to you. But sometimes, the only family you have, is the one you make yourself."
"Like me and you?"
"Like me and you," Tony said as he kissed the top of his hair," I love you, Loki...always."
"And I love you, Anthony...always."
*****************
Thor stood back, watching the couple with a mixture of awe and sadness. He'd never seen his brother so affectionate with someone as he was with this Anthony person. Even when they had been close, Loki had only ever told Thor he loved him in private....and that was a rarity in and of itself.
He really hoped his brother was wrong about Father knowing where he was all this time. Surely, with as devastated as their mother had been for the past year, Odin would not have been so cruel as to not even tell her Loki was alive.
But if he had been...Thor didn't know what he was going to do about it.
For now, he decided to walk over and sit on the opposite side of his brother. Loki didn't even bother to look up from Tony's neck as he spoke.
"Leaving now that you've got what you came for?"
"The Tesseract can wait," Thor told him," I need to talk to you, in private, if possible."
"If you seriously think that I'm going to leave you alone with him...."
"Anthony,it's fine" Loki smiled at the fire blazing in his lover's eyes, " I'll be alright...but Thor's right, we do need to talk."
Tony sighed but eventually caved to his request.
"Okay, I'll go see if I can go mitigate the tantrum Fury's no doubt having right now," then he turned a hate-filled gaze to Thor," if you even think about hurting Loki or trying to take him away, there's nothing in this universe that will stop me from hunting you down."
The threat brought a smile to the thunderer's lips, " I would expect nothing less."
Tony nodded, then gave Loki another soft kiss before standing up and walking into the building, leaving the brothers alone for the first time in over a year.
*******************
"So," Thor said after several minutes of silence," he seems interesting."
"That's one way of putting it," Loki chuckled before turning to look at his brother, " I told him, you know, about the destroyer,what nearly happened to Jötunheim, and our fight at the Bifrost."
"And he....was okay with all of that?"
"He was...approved of it, even" he smiled at the memory of those conversations, " he's a strange one, my Anthony."
"You really love him, don't you?"
"I do," Loki turned to look at his brother, "and I will not leave here...not while he still lives."
They went quiet again after that. Anthony's mortal life was never something Loki liked thinking about, particularly the idea of it ending.
Thor seemed to come to a decision about something before he spoke again.
"I still have to take the Tesseract back to Asgard, but, if you'd permit me to come back afterwards, I can bring back the item needed to extend your Anthony's life."
Loki's eyes widened in shock, " You would bring one of Iðunn's apples here....for me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because it would make you happy...and your happiness is something I've neglected for far too long."
"Thor..." Loki sighed before Thor put a hand up to silence him.
"Let me finish, please."
"Alright."
"Loki," Thor began as he grasped his brother's neck in an achingly familiar gesture, " I can't pretend to understand everything that's happened. But what I do know is, no matter what, you are my brother and I love you. I'm sorry if I've ever done anything to make you doubt that."
"I'm sorry too," Loki whispered as they leaned against each other, " There's so many things I could have done differently."
"We both could have, but none of that matters now. The important thing is we move forward....together."
"Well this seems to be turning out all nice and non-stabby," a voice piped up from behind them," any room for me in the cuddle puddle?"
Loki chuckled as he extended his arm, " Come here, Anthony."
"Don't have to tell me twice," Tony said as he came over and eagerly wrapped his arms around his lover.
"Were you able to placate the other mortals?" Thor asked.
"For now, but they're not crazy about giving up the Tesseract. However....I might have an idea on that."
Tony had an evil grin on his face as he relayed the plan to the two brothers. Loki could barely contain his laughter at what his boyfriend was plotting.
"My love, that is positively Devilish."
"I learned from the best."
*******************
It was another three weeks before Loki saw Thor again. He landed on the penthouse balcony with a small bag and an enormous grin on his face.
"Did you get it?"
"I did,brother," Thor reached into the bag and pulled out a bright, golden apple and handed it to him," Mother sends her love, and said to tell you that should you wish to visit home, there will be no recriminations for your past actions."
Loki looked up at the Thunderer in shock, "how on earth did she convince Odin to agree to that?!"
"Something about separate bedchambers for the next millenia if he didn't."
The image of Odin being cowtowed by his wife prompted both Góðs into peals of laughter. When they both finally calmed down, Loki gave his brother a grateful smile.
"Thank you for this, Thor, truly. As for visiting Asgard.....tell mother I'll think about it."
"Consider it done, but first," Thor pulled a second golden apple out of the bag, " I've got my own proposal to make."
"She'd be a fool to refuse you, brother."
****************
After seeing the Thunder God off, Loki walked back into the penthouse to find a bleary-eyed Tony,waiting for him on the couch.
"Is there a reason Thor popped in at three in the morning? I swear that guy needs a space watch or something."
Loki chuckled as he sat down next to him, "he was dropping off a gift for you, actually."
"Oh?" Tony said as he became more alert, "do tell,Lo-Lo."
Loki took his lover's hand and gently placed the fruit in it.
"This is one of Iðunn's apples. It has the ability to grant those who eat it the same extended lifespan as an Æsir. I wanted to give you this because I love you, more than I've ever loved anything, and quite frankly, a universe without Anthony Stark in it is not one I wish to be a part of. The question remains......will you accept this gift?"
Tony looked down at the Apple,then back up at Loki with soft expression.
"A lifetime with you? How could I refuse?"
Then he took his first bite into enternity.
While the two lovers spent the rest of the night celebrating their deepened connection, an outraged Nick Fury tried to contact Tony about the recently discovered fake Tesseract that they'd left behind in place of the real one.
JARVIS happily sent all his calls to voicemail.