Run before you walk
Loki tried to remain calm and composed but it was harder than it looked. They had made their plan to escape but their success was far from granted.
The prince took a deep breath and nodded at Angie who began to push against the boulder. Meanwhile Loki tried to simply not get in her way.
Angie had demonstrated her strength to him before but he was still impressed and a little terrified. The mermaid pushed the boulder away and the scraping sound made Loki curl up his tail, god that sounded awful.
As soon as the gap between the rocks was wide enough Angie stopped and swam through it. Loki followed behind surprised that there wasn’t a guard around.
Loki took the lead and easily found their way out but unfortunately right into a group of guards. Four large mermen floated in the water talking about something as the prince and his mermaid rounded the corner.
The halted immediately and the mermen looked at them dumbfounded until one of them spoke up.
“How the hell?”
Loki glanced at Angie pulling her in another tunnel away from them, “quick we need to get away from them.” Angie looked around, “do you even know where we are going?” Loki chuckled, “I have no idea.” The girl groaned and shook her head but followed nevertheless.
Loki hissed as he heard the guards following and yelling after them but he didn’t slow down. He couldn’t and as he saw the tunnel that led up and out of the cave system, he almost let out a shout of relieve.
They made their way through the tunnel ignoring the screams and Loki was almost blinded by the light that hit him. Angie followed closely after, looking rather confused by her surroundings.
“Fast, Asgard is a few miles south of here.”
Angie nodded and shot, with a surprising speed, through the water. Loki let out another impressed sound and followed behind, he was the fastest swimmer in Asgard, but he had to admit that he liked the competition.
Suddenly Angie stopped and looked around with her eyebrows drawn together. Loki also stopped and looked around but he was unable to spot anything weird.
“Angie?”
The mermaid lifted her hand shutting him up efficiently, before turning around and sniffing. Loki frowned and opened his mouth to ask as a shadow appeared over him. Angie shot out of the way and Loki tried to do the same but for the first time he wasn’t fast enough.
A net, obviously one made by humans, was thrown over him and thanks to the heavy weights, pinned him to the ocean floor. Angie turned to look at him but Loki let out a scream as she tried to help him.
“No! Get away, go to Asgard, find my mother or my brother, they will help you! Go!”
Angie hesitated but as the mermen attempted to go after her too, she quickly nodded at Loki and shot away through the water.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tony smiled as Peter managed stand up and hold his balance all on his own. They had been trying to get to that point the entire morning and finally Peter was steadily standing on his two feet.
The exercise was Peter sitting on the couch and trying to stand up keeping his balance without falling over. Scared that he would hurt himself, Tony had moved the coffee table away and put some pillows on the floor.
The boy had just rolled his eyes, but in the end he didn’t say anything since he was eager to get to practice. Tony had watched and encouraged him and now that Peter was finally standing he clapped.
“Impressive, now can you try to take a step towards me?”
The former merman licked his lips and stared at his feet, curling his toes nervously. Tony could see that he was thinking way too hard about all of it and sighed.
“Peter look at me,” he offered his hand and Peter looked at it, “just do it, you are a human now, your brain should do most of the work on its own.” Again the boy licked his lips nodding, “I, I will try, you will catch me if I fall right?”
Tony smiled, “always dear, now lift your foot and take a step.” Peter nodded and lifted his right foot swaying a little and Tony had to fight the urge to jump at him and steady the boy immediately.
Carefully Peter took a step, again swaying but he grabbed Tony’s still outstretched hand and stumbled in his arms. The human wrapped his arms tightly around him and kissed his head, “amazing, you made your first step, love.”
Peter grinned at him and placed a quick kiss on his lips.
“Again!”
Tony laughed at how excited Peter was but nodded and placed him on the couch, taking his position on the other side of the pillows reaching out for his beautiful lover.
They repeated this again and again until Peter was safely taking a stroll around the living room without falling or swaying. Tony watched with pride and grinned at Bruce who just came up from the lab downstairs.
The scientist smiled at the boy, “oh already up and walking I see.” Peter laughed and turned to walk over to Bruce, Tony had convinced him to wear a thin shirt for modesty reasons.
“Yes! I can finally walk, isn’t that amazing?”
Bruce chuckled and nodded, “it is, I am proud of you, I truly am.” Peter smiled and Bruce ruffled his hair making the boy giggle. Tony watched but he wasn’t amused by that, he almost growled but managed to keep quiet.
Peter chuckled and looked at Tony with his big, beautiful eyes and bright smile. To the human he was just perfect in every way and he wanted all of this for himself but well he couldn’t and he knew it.
Tony walked up to the other two and put a hand on Peter’s shoulder, “as soon as he can walk for a longer time I will take him to town and show him how normal humans live.”
Peter’s eyes shone with excitement but Bruce looked disapprovingly at his employer.
“You think this is a good idea?”
Tony knitted his eyebrows together, “sure why shouldn’t it be?” The scientist licked his lips and took off his glasses, fiddling around with them. Peter frowned at Bruce, “I would love to go Bruce, Tony isn’t forcing me or something.”
Bruce shook his head and looked at Peter, “this is not what I have an issue with, it is rather that you are a merman Peter and I don’t think the human world is…I think you would be overwhelmed by it.”
Tony pursed his lips and Peter looked rather confused by those words. Honestly he didn’t understand what Bruce’s issue was but Tony would surely be able to explain this to him. The two men stared at each other and even Peter was able to feel the tension between them and so he slowly moved away to sit on the couch.
Finally Bruce looked away, putting his glasses back on while turning to leave. Tony relaxed a little bit before glancing at Peter.
“I-I will just go, I have done all I could do today but I need to consult a few colleagues. I think I will be back tomorrow.”
Tony nodded and Peter watched as Bruce left, “bye Bruce, see you tomorrow.” The older man waved at him before he left and the last bit of tension left Tony and he turned to walk up to Peter.
“How about Sushi? I am in the mood for some.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Loki screamed and fought the Jotun every step of the way he only stopped when they bound him, gagged him and threatened to cut his fins so he wouldn’t be able to swim anymore. The prince was unsure if they would go through with their threat but he had no intention in finding out.
The guards were not talking and since Loki was unable to, the procession moved quietly and even the people they met on the way talked in hushed voices as they saw their bound prince. Once they were inside the throne cave, Loki was let down in front of the King who looked at him with a disapproving expression.
Loki glared up to him without faltering under his gaze. The king made a gesture and one of the guards moved to pull the gag away from the prince’s mouth.
The two royals kept staring at each other without talking and the guards slowly retreated, melting into the background. Loki was still tied up, but it did nothing to make him appear less regal and proud, his Sire obviously noticed since he angrily bared his teeth.
“How did you do it?”
Loki smirked, “I have my ways.” Laufey shot up and growled loudly, with a mighty flip of his tail he was in front of his son but Loki didn’t even flinch. He refused to give in to the man.
“Did you really think you could get away? That I wouldn’t capture you? This is my realm, boy, you cannot win here.”
Loki still smiled, “I will get away, Sire in fact I am quite certain that I will soon swim freely again.” Laufey let out a humourless laugh and waved his hand again.
“Throw him into his brother’s old room, maybe he will learn when he stays in there for a few days.” Loki frowned but the guards already moved to comply to the king’s order.
Angie watched from afar, as Loki was taken away and she sighed heavily. She was unsure what to do, Loki helped her flee but he also was the reason she was in this mess in the first place. So she had rather mixed feelings about all this.
Go to Asgard, she groaned and rubbed her face, “yeah sure just go into a hostile realm seek out the queen or the crown prince and get them to start a war, easiest thing in the world.”
The mermaid shook her head and looked around, she could just leave, she could just go back to the other mermaids and continue live her life but she hesitated. Loki had become her friend, could she abandon him, also she held a healthy amount of hate for the King and his stupid son.
Letting out another sigh she turned to swim south, she didn’t know where Asgard was located but she could feel where the waters turned warmer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter kissed every inch of skin he could reach and Tony grinned as he tried not to move. The sun was low in the sky but the tiles of the patio were still warm under the towel he had spread over them.
Peter had convinced Tony to take a swim in the pool and Tony had accepted as soon as Peter had promised him to not overdo it and be careful. He may be a creature of the sea but that didn’t mean he could swim with his new legs.
Now they were all wrinkled up and had decided it was a good idea to dry off in the sun. Tony was on his back while Peter straddled him, littering his body with his kisses and affection. Well it was not like Tony exactly complained.
Peter nipped at his collarbone and Tony gasped feeling his already half hard cock harden further. The boy chuckled and sat up to look down at his human lover.
“You like that?”
Tony grinned and jerked his hips slightly so his cock poked Peter in the back.
“What do you think?”
The boy laughed and let his hand roam over Tony’s chest. His thumbs briefly brushing his nipples and Peter couldn’t hold the smirk as Tony sucked in his breath at that. Peter began to move so Tony’s cock was now against his ass and he slowly began to wriggle a little making the human growl.
Peter loved how he was able to drive him insane with these little movements alone.
“Touch yourself.”
The boy blinked and looked down at Tony in surprise, he honestly hadn’t expected that. The human looked at him with lustful eyes and his pink tongue darted out to lick his lips. Peter swallowed.
Slowly he lifted his hand and palmed himself through his swimming trunks, his own cock was not completely hard yet but as soon as he was touched Peter could feel the growth. Holding back a moan he rubbed his palm up and down as these stupid clothes began to feel way too tight and uncomfortable.
Tony put both hands on his hips and tugged at the waistband.
“Take them off, I want to see everything.”
Peter almost jumped to his feet before he quickly pushed down the trunks and after thinking for a second he also got rid of Tony’s. His human didn’t complain so he was sure that this was okay.
Carefully he once again straddled the man, enjoying the view of Tony, wearing nothing but the emerald Peter had given to him. He was claimed, he was his. The thought alone was enough to make Peter moan and he quickly fisted his cock.
Tony growled and put his hands on Peter’s hips again. The boy moaned loudly as he slowly stroked his cock swiping the tip with his thumb each time he reached it. He was aware that Tony watched him closely and that he probably should be ashamed of the noises he made but he just couldn’t.
It felt too good, too forbidden to stop and soon he was kneeling, moving his hips, thrusting into his hand all while Tony was under him, watching, growling. Peter breathed heavily throwing his head back with his eyes closed as he let out another moan.
“I want to see you come Peter, come for me,” Tony’s voice was a low growl and Peter looked down on him, meeting his lustful gaze.
“I ah I want to kiss you.”
Tony smirked, “I am all yours baby.” Peter whimpered and leaned down to capture the older man’s lips with his, they tasted so good. Moaning loudly he straightened up again now desperately fucking his fist while Tony’s fingers tightly gripped his narrow hip.
“Peter, come!”
With a silent scream Peter threw back his head and froze in his movement as he came all over Tony’s chest, only his hips were shaking slightly. Tony moaned and pulled the boy down to wrap his arms around him kissing him deeply not minding that Peter wasn’t yet able to properly respond to him.
The boy tried to catch his breath as he felt Tony rut against his backside. He held Peter in place while he pushed his hard and leaking cock between the cheeks and moaned into the boy’s ear.
Peter rested on his chest, nuzzling his neck and Tony kissed and nipped at his shoulder. The thrusts became more quick and harder. Peter smiled and let Tony have his way with him, enjoying the closeness while the human’s slick precum was spread all over his rim.
Tony let out a groan as he stilled, hugging Peter tightly and spilling his seed, the boy could feel a part of it hitting his back. He chuckled and lifted his head to pull the human into a nice and gentle kiss they both needed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As it turned out with brother Laufey actually meant Thor and not how Loki assumed Byleist, and Thor’s old room was a hole in the ground. Loki was pushed into it and then a large boulder was placed over it only leaving a small space for the water to circulate.
Loki had yelled at the guard not expecting a reaction but only wanting to let out some of his frustration. As expected they ignored him and left him alone in his new prison.
The prince had some time to think about everything that had happened and his heart began to ache as he began to think about Peter. It felt like years since he had seen his friend and he wondered how he was doing.
Loki still hated Odin for banishing Peter, in his opinion he should have killed the human and be done with it; this would have been punishment enough for his friend. The prince vowed to himself that he would visit his friend once he was back in Asgard.
He briefly wondered if Peter missed him too.
The prince shook his head and curled up to keep what little warmth his body had from leaving. He would get out of here, Angie would get help, he was sure of that.
Angie had reached Asgard at the end of the day and she felt like she could sleep for ages after that swim. Her tail ached and her arms felt heavy as she looked at the entrance to the cave.
The Aesir were not known for their inconspicuous so it was relatively easy to find them. Still she hesitated to go inside. She could take on the guard but she had no desire to do so.
With a heavy sigh she slowly swam towards the merman who stiffed and gripped his spear tighter, pointing the tip at her.
“Who are you!”
Angie rolled her eyes; she hated to get yelled at.
“I am Angrboda of Jotunheim; I am here to see the queen by order of Prince Loki.”
The merman’s eyebrows shot up and he gaped at her for way too long.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter was surprised when Pepper sent Tony to his lab with a stern look because she wanted to talk to him. He liked the woman but he was confused by her actions and honestly he was kind of scared of her too.
Now he was seated on the couch and she in an armchair across from him, smiling a little timidly. The former merman was unsure of what to say or do so he simply smiled at her.
After a while Pepper sighed and rested her head in one hand, “he turned you into a human.” Peter nodded and shrugged, “well kind of, it was an accident actually. I went to his lab and this stuff that turned me, spilled on me so I guess it was both our fault.”
The redhead shook her head and looked at him with a tired expression, “no, no Peter this isn’t your fault at all, this is on Tony he…he always does such stupid things, thinking everything will just turn out right. A few months ago he had the idea to make another AI that had the potential to turn evil and threaten all of humanity, if I hadn’t been there and forbid it, he would probably have gone through with it.”
Peter didn’t know what to say about that so he just nodded. The woman sighed heavily and looked him up and down, she seemed tired and concerned.
“Are you well at least?”
Peter smiled at her, “I am very well actually, Tony takes good care of me.” The woman had her eyebrows knitted together as if she had a hard time believing any of it. Now Peter was even more confused, didn’t she know Tony quite well? Didn’t she know how nice, caring and lovable he was?
“I-I really mean it, being with him is great I love it.”
The woman still seemed sceptical and Peter was at a loss of what to say, why wouldn’t she believe him? Pepper sighed again and got up gripping her elbows with her hand as she walked towards the doors to the patio.
She looked deep in thought as she looked outside, watching a bird landing at the pool and fly away again when it sated its thirst. Peter waited but ultimately he grabbed the tablet that lay next to him.
Quickly he whispered against it, “Jarvis? What should I do?” The AI answered through the tablet and Peter vowed to learn the human writing since it would have been a lot easier just to write a message to his little helper.
Jarvis voice was as quiet as possible as he answered, “I suggest you let her think a little longer before offering her a refreshment. She will probably be grateful for the distraction.”
Peter nodded, knowing that Jarvis would see that and watched Pepper curiously. Slowly he got up and walked towards the kitchen, “ah Miss Potts?”
With a little gasp she spun around a hand over her heart, “oh sorry Peter was in thought, wh-what did you say?” Peter cleared his throat, “ah actually I was about to offer you something to drink.”
He walked up to the fridge and opened it, peeking inside. The redhead nodded, “ah yes a coke please, I-I need sugar, lots and lots of sugar.” Peter smiled at her and picked up a can for her and a smoothie for himself. Tony loved that he drank those, awfully healthy manifestations of evil, as he liked to call them.
Meanwhile the woman walked up to the couch and sat down with a heavy sigh. Peter slowly made his way back still wondering what the whole issue was and why she was here in the first place.
He offered her the can and she immediately cracked it open to take a sip while he took her seat in the chair. Pepper sighed again and put the can down licking her lips.
“I am sorry Peter I know this must all seem weird to you, I am just concerned about you and Tony, it…it is my job to care and Tony tends to be reckless and self-harming. At times at least.”
The woman sighed and took another large sip from her drink before smiling at the boy, “but if you are happy and he treats you well I am satisfied, in fact I think you are doing some real good on him, at least he looks like he gets a good night’s rest ever so often.”
Peter actually giggled and blushed a little, “yeah when we get to sleep.” Pepper frowned before she understood, she shot up and let out a scream.
“TONY!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Angie ignored the stares that were so obvious that she almost growled at the stupid Aesir. Some of them even were openly gaping at her as if she was a freak.
She was so glad Loki was different; in fact he seemed to be the perfect in between of the two people.
The guard led her through the cave system while another guard followed her for whatever reason and soon enough they entered a large cave that held two overly extravagant thrones. She almost rolled her eyes again.
The cave was empty except for the guards and Angie groaned at that, she was tired and wanted to get this over with as quick as possible. Sooner though that she expected a golden mermaid entered the cave looking frantic and just as exhausted as Angie felt.
The mermaid shot towards Angie who took a stance to defend herself if needed. The guards were alarmed too and Angie realized that this must be the queen so she frowned at her, “ah Frigga?”
The mermaid stopped right in front of her, “yes, you know about my son? Where is he, how is he? Oh God please tell me he is alright?” Angie blinked a little confused and slightly overwhelmed.
“I uh-,” she began but was cut off as someone else entered the cave. This time she undoubtedly recognized the merman as king and immediately she lifted her chin and looked at the merman in defiance. She would not cower in front of any man.
Odin looked at Angie with suspicion and something that looked akin to disgust.
“And who are you that you dare to come here?”
The King’s voice was loud and commanded respect but the young Jotun remained unimpressed. She simply crossed her arms in front of her chest, noting that another merman entered. He was tall and broad with golden hair like the queen.
Angie guessed that this was Thor. Slowly she focused on the King again, tilting her head slightly as she answered his question in a calm almost bored manner.
“I am Loki’s intended.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce rubbed the bridge of his nose as Tony paced around in the lab. The genius was angrily waving his hand in the air as he talked.
“I cannot believe you told Pepper, I mean seriously Bruce what kind of science bro are you?”
He stopped for a moment to look at him with anger in his face but Bruce, knowing very well that his ranting wasn’t over yet, kept his silence.
Tony began pacing again, “she already thinks me being with a merman is bad what do you think she will do to me when she finds out that he is basically a human teenager now, did you tell her that we are lovers? Oh dear gods please tell me you didn’t!”
Bruce sighed and took his glasses off to rub his eyes with both hands, he was so tired.
“No I didn’t Tony, why would I? And for the record I didn’t tell her but she found my notes on my desk and read them, it wasn’t my intention.”
“Then why did you let them lie around like this? Dammit Bruce you are a genius like I am, are you not?”
The greying man raised an eyebrow, giving Tony a dry look.
“I am and don’t mock me for that little mistake, I am not the one who ruined Peter’s life after all.”
Tony opened his mouth, only to close it again. He shook his head and groaned loudly.
“This is bad; this is so bad you know why? Because she is up there, talking to Peter finding out everything we did together and he is absolutely oblivious about all of it. Hell she will probably tell him that it is a bad idea sleeping with me, that he is a kid and I should protect him and all that crap.”
Bruce rolled his eyes, “Tony you are being dramatic and by the way, yes you should protect him aren’t you…Iron Man now?” Tony chuckled at that and glanced at the newspaper he had pinned to the wall.
It showed a picture of him in his suit taking care of some…business. Since he built the suit he had hardly used it only on a few occasions and he never told anyone outside from Bruce and Pepper that he was Iron Man.
Of course a smart person could maybe make the link between a multimillion dollar suit that had the best tech in the world and a now philanthropist, genius engineer with almost endless resources but up until now, no one did.
So his identity had remained protected and his family and friends unharmed. Tony had used the suit on three big occasions, one he took out the terrorists that should have kidnapped him if he had gone to Afghanistan as it had been originally planned.
Two when a terrorist who called himself the Mandarin threatened the US and called out for him personally, he had destroyed him as soon as Jarvis found out where the video was sent from. It was really easy and almost laughable.
And at last when some maniac started to create high end weapons and accidently blew up a ferry that was about to sink, but honestly hadn’t he been in New York that day he wouldn’t have helped, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
So he made it into the newspaper and Pepper had yelled at him a lot over the phone while Peter had laughed his ass off. But all fun aside Tony kind of liked being a hero; he just didn’t like the commitment so he was only a part time hero but a full time lover to his beloved little merman.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair looking at the scientist who watched him leaning casually up against the workbench.
“She is going to kill me, isn’t she?”
Bruce shrugged, “probably.”
“Sir, Miss Potts is asking you to the living room.”
“Oh, great.”