Chapter 2
When Tony arrived, everyone else was already absorbed in the battle, fighting under Steve's command just like any other time, though this time felt different. The Sovereign attackers were making a mess and blowing up things, but it felt less organized than the first time they had attacked. Something was up.
"Thor, can you hear me?" he asked through the comms.
The god was flying in the sky, waving his hammer like a flag. He needed him, or more specifically his hammer, if they were going to activate his invention. This time, he hoped, it would actually turn off the attackers' motors without further incidents. Last time the electrical impulse had affected the Sovereigns motors, but also turned off electricity in NYC for ten hours. But that mark had been assembled in the heat of the battle.
He shot at one golden space car, giving it his full attention so when he noticed another flying towards at full speed him from behind it was already too late. He blasted off the other car, but the other hit him and he was thrown into a wall. The monitors in his suit went crazy for a while, and after he gathered himself a bit he realized that his backplate was hanging loose. He thrust his hands forward, ready to shoot at the space car clearly getting ready to taze him into a melted puddle of iron, but the system screamed error and nothing came out of his blasters.
"Shit," he said. "Shit, shit, shit, Jarvis, what do we do now?"
"I'm checking the-"
The car flashed, glazing rays flying out of it and he tried to cover with his hands, already preparing for the worst, but instead the spacecar blew into a million pieces. Only scraps from the explosion fell on him, bouncing harmlessly off his armor.
He looked around to see which one of his friends he had to thank for saving his life, but they were all too far away, fighting their respective opponents. There was no one, no explanation for the space car blowing up but that was exactly what had happened.
At least Thor had finally answered his call.
"Stark! Are you hurt?" he asked, and bashed a Sovereign attacker out of the way while flying closer to him.
"Nothing I can't handle," he said. It was true. Probably. "We need to get to the tower so we can activate the pulse. Follow me."
Jarvis had started the spare engine so that he could lead them to the Avengers tower and his workshop. He watched as Thor easily placed Mjolnir into the device, and couldn't help a little twitch of envy. Thor was everything a man was supposed to be – he was huge, good looking, deadly in a battle and gentle with his lover. He laughed easily and darkness seemed to have never touched him. He sometimes made mistakes in his shortsightedness, but he was genuine and good and he didn't get paralyzing panic attacks. His own mind didn't turn against him, and god, that guy was worthy, something that Tony could never even dream to be.
Sometimes, looking at Thor, he could momentarily get why Loki had had so much pain inside him, enough to turn him bitter and evil. To have your ideal be someone who you could never be, well… Tony knew something about that. The wrong push at the wrong time, and Tony might've been the one blowing things up.
"How do we turn this thing on?" Thor asked. "I would like my hammer back before the Sovereign reaches here."
Tony fiddled with the buttons for a moment, praying to a God he didn't believe in - any god. But now that he knew the universe was filled with the strangest beings he thought that maybe there was a change that someone would hear him. He envied Steve too, sometimes, for having such unwavering belief in a righteous Christian God. Even though it did seem a little silly to him.
"Now we hope and beg and pray very hard," Tony said, his heart beating a little louder. There was a thunderclap, Mjolnir was sending little lightning bolts all around, and then the lights went off. Tony felt the pulse in his suit, and it was like his heart had turned a full circle in his chest. The lights flickered back on.
"Did it work?" Thor asked.
"Steve?" Tony said into the comm.
"They've stopped. In the middle of the air, just hanging there. It's amazing!" Steve sounded out of breath but besides that just fine. Tony was relieved.
"You can take your hammer now," Tony said, and Thor pulled Mjolnir out of the machine and lifted it up before flying away. Tony called a new suit, and then flew after him.
It was an easy fight after that: the Sovereign's power relied on their technology, and once it was disabled, they fled by any means they could. All the team had to do was some cleanup. In the end they were all standing in a circle looking up at the last Sovereign warrior escaping, perfect for the cover of the next New York Times.
"Who wants pizza?" Clint asked after they were sure no aliens were left. They all did.It had became kind of a tradition, them going to get some fast food together after a successful mission
They ate in silence, too hungry to speak, and Bucky was the first to finish. Tony was close second, even though Thor claimed it had been him since Natasha stole a piece of Tony's pizza. They got into an argument which only the two of them took seriously – the others were laughing, rooting for either of them. Finally Bucky got bored of their banter.
"I'm the winner so I get to decide who was the second," he said. Tony and Thor leaned closer.
"I saved you from that blast today," Thor said eagerly.
"Don't forget that the bed you fuck your boyfriend on is paid by me," Tony said, enjoying the blush that spread on Steve's cheeks.
"I won't. The winner is-" Bucky stopped for dramatic effect, and then grinned slowly. "Steve Rogers!"
Tony rolled his eyes, Natasha and Clint howled in laughter so the rest of them joined too. Bucky pressed his mouth against Steve's earlobe, and whispered: "'Cause I'm with you till the end of the line." Steve laughed, and turned his head so they were kissing, or at least laughing into each other’s mouths. He still had a slice of pizza on his plate.
Tony hadn't meant to stare, but his eyes were glued on the couple of super-soldiers. He wondered how Bucky’s stubble felt against the Steve's face, did it feel good or unpleasant, was it a constant reminder that he was kissing a man or did he even think about it anymore.
He didn't need to wonder how Steve's clean shaved face and plump lips felt against Bucky's, because he'd experienced it once before. They'd been partying, both of them pretty drunk and Steve had jokingly pulled Tony on the dance floor. He hadn't been planning anything, but suddenly their mouths had been so close to each other, and he remembered thinking – why not? To this day he still wasn't sure which of them had moved forward first, he liked to blame Steve, because, which one of them was proven to like men? But he still wasn't sure. He'd grown up both admiring and hating Captain America, and while he now knew he had no romantic feelings for Steve he couldn't deny that he was 'the prettiest piece of ass in star spangled suit' like Bucky liked to put it. Though maybe he was a little too bulky for Tony's tastes after all.
"- and when Gunnar found out she'd been Loki all along, he was furious!" Thor ended, apparently having been telling some story while Tony had been busy staring at Steve and Bucky.
"Because he'd been dating a man?" Bucky asked. He didn't seem to be amused by Thor's story, which confused the demigod.
"No! Didn't you listen? She swore that 'as long as my body remains the same that it is in your arms' she'd marry him. Well, as a man, Loki wasn't the same she'd been in his arms! That's why he was furious. Since that, Loki has been making sure to never be female in his company."
"Oh," Bucky said, and now he seemed bemused. "Doesn't it bother you then that your brother dates men?"
"Of course not!" Thor said. He stole Clint's last forgotten piece of pizza, but seemed sad as he bit into it. He spoke the next words rather to his plate than the rest of the team. "It bothers me that he was never honest with me, and that after all those years of fighting side by side he still was ready to turn on me. I wish I could've trusted him. But he died an honorable death."
"Why did he trick – uh, that fella," Tony asked. He hadn't been listening to the story, but it felt strange to think Loki wouldn't have had an agenda for doing such a thing. He'd only met him once, but from what he'd gathered from Thor's stories, he wasn't as illogical as the other Avengers made him out to be.
"I guess she thought it was funny," he said, shrugging. "It's – it was – hard to know what he was trying to accomplish with everything. He's not really like other Asgardians that way."
Steve started speaking about some new series he and Bucky had gotten into – Tony had taught them to use Netflix and now they were both obsessed. Tony joined the conversation when they talked about something he had seen, but somehow Thor managed to talk more even though Tony wasn't even sure if he really knew what Netflix was.
...
Later that night, when Tony had planned to get some midnight snacks from the fridge he saw Natasha and Clint on the couch, talking in hushed voices while Clint massaged Natasha's shoulders. She looked relaxed, and the fact that she was letting him touch her so intimately was a sign of deep trust.
He felt a pinch of jealousy. Not for either of them in general; he found Nat attractive and had even tried to hit on her when they first met, but now the thought of being with her physically just repulsed him. Well, mostly. Like, sixty four percent, at least.
What they had, the bond, was what made him jealous. He wished he had someone who he could trust entirely, someone who loved him unconditionally, someone who was ready to stand up to authority for him like Clint had for Natasha, like Steve had for Bucky.
Suddenly, he wasn't hungry anymore.
He turned back to his room, fished his phone out of his pocket and called Lana.
She didn't answer.
He told himself it didn't matter – it was the middle of the night, she was probably sleeping. He took a glass of whiskey and locked himself in his workshop, tinkering with the device, since it had partially burned from Mjolnir's lightning.
Lana didn't call him the next morning. He didn't try again. He worked the next day, and slept only when he passed out on his bench. Pepper found him like that, with takeout in her hands.
"You're an angel. What would I do without you?" he said.
"You'd die," she said matter of factly. "Eat, and then go to sleep on your own bed. Much better for your back."
"Yes," he said. He took the takeout food from her hand, and reached for his phone. His disappointment must've shown on his face, since she lifted her eyebrows.
"Waiting for an important call?" she asked.
"Mhmm," he said, mouth full of tikka masala.
"A woman?"
"Mhmmm."
"You haven't told me anything."
He swallowed. "I wasn't sure how serious we were. Apparently not that serious."
"Why don't you call her?"
"I did. She doesn't answer."
"Maybe she just isn't interested."
"Maybe," he said. Lana's smile when he'd fed her a bright green candy flashed behind his eyelids. How her body had started to feel a degree warmer after Tony had pressed her against his side for a while. "She seemed interested."
"Call again tomorrow," she said. "Maybe a new day will shine a brighter light on everything."
"I will." He lifted his gaze to her eyes, and smiled a genuine smile. "Thank you for taking care of me. And tolerating me."
"I tolerate you because I like you," she said. "We all do here, even though I think we don't say it often enough."
Tony took her hand, and squeezed it once.
...
Lana didn't answer the next day, or the whole week, and Tony was feeling more and more anxious about the missed calls she must've been deleting from her notifications. Or what if something had happened? He didn't know her address, last name or profession. She could die, and he wouldn't know.
Tony wasn't sure whose idea it was – he suspected Pepper, but after a week of moping in his workshop, Steve broke in and threw him across his shoulder.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Caveman?" he asked. He even considered calling his armor for a moment, but then decided to just keep banging Steve's back with his fists like a child. "I don't want your assassin boyfriend to get any wrong ideas."
"We're watching a movie," he said after throwing Tony on his bed. "Change into something comfortable. And clean. We'll be waiting."
"We?" Tony asked.
"Me, Buck, Nat, Sam, Bruce, Pepper, Clint, Rhodes, Thor and Jane," he listed.
"Oh fuck you all."
"That was not the plan but if you want me to ask around -"
"Shut up, 'Merica."
Steve saluted and left Tony to search through his closet for clean pair of joggers.
He hated them even more when he heard that they were watching Frozen.
"Someone keep an eye on the super-soldiers, they might get traumatic flashbacks from all the ice," he said. Bucky laughed, and put his feet on the table. He was wearing Captain America pyjamas.
In the middle of the movie, Tony's phone started ringing. Tony couldn't help his heart beating twice as fast as before. Natasha paused the movie. Sam handed him the phone, but not before glancing the screen first.
"Lana's calling."
Tony grabbed it from him, nearly knocking over several beers as he struggled to get off of the couch.
"Ohhh, who's Lana?" asked Bucky.
"I'm guessing she's the reason we're watching this stupid movie," Natasha said.
"Hey!" Clint protested. "I like it."
"I thought the reason we're watching this was Avengers bonding time," Tony muttered. He accepted the call and pressed the phone to his ear.
"Hey Lana!" Bucky shouted. "You better start treating our man better or you have bunch of assassins trying to get you." He only stopped when Steve poked his side and he couldn't get a word out between giggles. Tony closed the door between them.
"You told your friends about me?" she asked, voice cold and seductive. He wanted to crack her shell again, to get even a glimpse of what he saw a week ago before Fury and aliens ruined everything. Mostly Fury.
"Oh yeah," he said. "All I've been talking about for the whole week is how much I'm pining after you."
He craved to hear her laugh, but not the fake one he heard from the other end of the line.
"They saw my name on the phone screen, didn’t they," she said.
"But I did miss you, L."
"Now I even get a nickname? I almost feel bad for avoiding you all week."
"And why was that?"
"I needed to figure out some... things."
"And now you have."
"Yes. We should meet."
"To get the 'it's not you it's me' speech? I'd rather hear it right now and get it over with. Time is money, love."
"If I was about to leave you, I would never blame myself, idiot. I'm asking you out on a date."
"Thank gods I'm worthy of your attention."
"All the gods?" She sounded amused.
"Yes. Well, no. Not sure if the god of lies likes me. Though he apparently is dead – I wonder what happens to gods after they die."
"Why would you think so?"
"He did try to kill me the last time we met, but apart from that it was just a shot in the dark. Who knows, really."
She laughed, but it sounded forced. Like she was stressed. He wanted to ask if she was alright, tell her that it would be okay to open up. He didn't.
"Well then, Stark," she said. "Will you go out with me?"
"Obviously. Tomorrow. Five o'clock fine with you?"
"Have I made you mad, darling?" she said playfully, but it was hollow. The entire conversation was, she sounded as cold as her skin had felt before Tony held her tightly. He wanted to strip her naked and touch her under blankets until she was burning hot, melting on him. "Last time you were so eager to see me."
"I am currently attending a superhero pyjama party," he told her. The others were apparently getting restless due to his endless phone call, because they were getting noisy. Wouldn't take long until someone broke something. That someone most likely being Bucky.
"I've never been to a pyjama party," she confessed, clearly going for an arrogant tone, but it came out kind of sad. It made him wonder why. Hadn't she had any friends growing up? He'd never been to a pyjama party before Avengers either. He'd had some friends at the MIT academy, but it was mostly just a bunch of kids teaming together and pretending they knew what friendship meant. They had discussed science, competed against each other, even played the occasional game of football, but that was it. No sharing secrets, god forbid talking about feelings. Rhodey was the only friend from those days who had stayed.
But, he guessed, that was the case for most of their group. They were a bunch of loners. Steve and Bucky had had each other, but nothing else. Thor was the only one of them whose childhood hadn't left him with mental scars, and even he had a little brother go evil, so everything couldn't have been sugar and spice and everything nice in the house of Odin.
"Trust me, you haven't missed anything," he said. Natasha ran past him, Thor a few feet behind. He jumped and flew through the air to where Natasha had just stood.
"We agreed you wouldn't use your superpowers!" she shouted, hanging from the lamp.
"You're too fast!" he roared in answer.
"Did Thor get affected by gamma rays?" Tony asked.
"We're playing tag," Thor explained. "It's very fun, for a Midgardian game."
"What's going on?" Lana asked, for the first time during the phone call showing actual emotion, even if it was just confusion.
"Avengers don't know how to adult," Tony answered.
"Who does?" she asked. "Have fun. See you tomorrow."
He did have fun. They finished the movie, and since he knew he'd be meeting Lana tomorrow he was much cheerier for the rest of the evening. They played Alias, then they started drinking and wanted to try cards against humanity, since none of them had ever played it. Tony had the cards delivered to them in ten minutes.
The game was funny, but even funnier was how horrified Steve was by it. Tony's cheeks hurt from laughing so much.
...
Tony had cleared the whole Avengers Tower of curious pairs of eyes and ears when Lana arrived. She was wearing a black, short dress, and a necklace that reminded him of bondage-inspired laces kids nowadays wore around their necks, but it was heavier and made of gold. It was more like a collar than a choker, and it made sinful images appear in the back of his head. He resisted the urge to adjust himself in his boxers.
When they arrived the main floor of the tower, she made her way to the window with a view over the city. He went to his bar desk, and took out a carafe.
"Drink?" he asked lifting the carafe.
She turned to him slowly, and with the city behind her, he for a moment felt like he'd seen a ghost. But Loki had died, it had been years when he'd attacked Tony right here and when Lana came closer the differences became more apparent.
"Thank you," she said. Her smile was warm, nothing like the manic grin of Loki's. She stepped out of her heels and moved towards him softly, like a cat in need for attention. Loki's face had been twisted somehow, not that he remembered exactly how the other man looked anymore, but that sort of evil must leave a permanent mark, right? "Wine, if you have it."
"Of course." Tony poured himself a whiskey, and then took a tall glass and poured Lana red wine. Her nails were emerald green, which made the paleness of her skin stand out.
They sat on the couch, side to side.
"Where are you from?" Tony asked her. She sipped her wine, letting the glass linger on her mouth way too long.
"Not here."
"British? You kinda sound British."
"I'm not trying to make you guess."
"Fine." Tony reached out his hand, and brushed hair out of her face. It was soft, and he slowly stroked it, touched her cheek with just one finger, then her chin, and finally her lips. He leaned closer and pressed his nose to the crook of her neck. She smelled of flowers and ice. She lifted her chin, revealing the marble arch of her throat, and Tony brushed his lips against her skin. He made his way up and down, barely touching her skin, and stopped when he felt her artery under his lips. He wanted to bite and leave marks, but that was for some other day. He pulled away.
"Who hurt you?" he asked. She tensed, and opened her eyes slowly.
"I've never been taken against my will," she said.
"Then you've been giving out yesses too easily."
For a minute it seemed like she was going to be angry, but then her face melted to a neutral expression. "I may have been too reckless with my body," she said. "I would prefer to see it as merely a tool for my mind."
He took her hand, and kissed it, four times, once for every knuckle. Her presence was radiant, he felt like everything was glowing.
"But it isn't."
"Unfortunately." Her eyes followed him curiously when he put down her hand, and took the other between his to kiss. "I have a b – sister. She's like the Sun. Everybody loves hi – her. I loved her, and I wanted to be her more than anything. Not just because I loved her, but because father always seemed to see what she did, and never what I did."
"Was she ever mean to you?" he asked. He was now just holding her hand, listening. What she was telling sounded way too familiar, struggling to be someone you could never become.
"Not on purpose," Lana said, her expression clouded. "She is good. She lives to keep people happy and satisfied, and often she does it well, but sometimes she is just so blatantly ignorant."
"Yes," he just said.
"Yes?"
"My father called me his greatest creation," he said.
"Oh?"
"In a film that I saw years after his death," he explained. "Before that, I thought he was ashamed of me. I still do."
"You know better, but you can't help feeling like you're dirty somehow?" Lana's eyes were fierce. He nodded.
"Inadequate," he confirmed.
"Always the second choice."
Lana had leaned closer, and she held onto the front of Tony's shirt.
"I won all the awards for young geniuses," Tony said. "He never said he was proud of me for taking after him."
"My father prided in being both a warrior and a scholar. I read through his library, I knew all about the politics he was trying to teach to T – my sister. He was proud of her for being strong, but never of me for being smart."
Tony pulled her chin up so that they were looking eye to eye.
"Who are you?" he asked.
There was real pain in her eyes. They seemed to glimmer a little more than usual, as if they were watery. "I wish I could be yours," she whispered. When she closed her eyes, a tear fell out.
"You can," he answered, shocked by how serious he was being. She shook her head, and her black hair was all over him. He placed his hands gently on her waist and the small of her back.
"I wish I could."
Then she kissed him, stopping any argument he could've made.
Her mouth was soft and her cheeks wet, their lips barely touching at first. Tony felt like he could drown into her, like she was the sea and he just a lonely sailor. She was a force of nature and he had caught himself in the eye of a hurricane, on the beach before a tidal wave. He didn't know why, but he felt like he was getting sucked into something unhealthy, that she was a natural disaster.
They pulled away to catch breath, just for a second, and he felt himself being sucked back in by her eyes. They dropped back to his lips, wanting, and then they were kissing again. Her tongue was sliding in his mouth and he was unable to pull away anymore, as if they were physically attached.
"Hey Tony do we have – wow." Steve stopped aruptly.
"I'm sorry Sir, I tried to warn him," Jarvis said.
"Excuse me if I didn't realize you'd be fucking your girlfriend on the couch."
Tony slowly pulled off Lana, who looked like a deer caught on headlights.
"We're wearing all of our clothes."
Steve looked over them. "She isn't wearing much," he said. "Kids these days."
"We're – I'm older than you," he said pointing at Steve accusingly, then turned to Lana, who was combing her hair with her fingers. He felt pretty smug about having messed it so thoroughly. "How old are you."
"Older than him," she said. She didn't look like she'd been crying anymore.
"Biologically," Steve said. Lana chuckled.
"Whatever you say grandpa," Tony said. "What was so important that you felt the need to cockblock me?"
"Waffles," he said. "I was going to ask if we have the ingredients to make waffles."
Tony lifted his eyebrows, and glanced to Lana. "Unbelievable. The old guy interrupted us for waffles."
Lana laughed. "I should probably go."
"Don't let me bother you," Steve said, going through the fridge and taking out milk and eggs, and then attacking the dry cabinets. "I'm not even here."
"Your presence is woefully noticeable," Lana said, and got up. She had clearly decided to leave.
"I'll walk you out," Tony offered. She seemed to consider it, and then she nodded.
When they were passing Tony's workshop she stopped, and peeked through the window. His device was in the middle of the room, surrounded with currently dead screens and tables full of his newest inventions and tools.
"Is this where you work?" she asked.
"When I'm not blowing up the bad guys."
There was admiration and curiosity in her eyes. He still didn't know who she was, and her talk about her father being a warrior should probably been a huge red flag for him, but he had never known what was best for him. "Wanna see?"
"If it's no trouble," she said.
"I certainly hope so." He swiped his card and entered the workshop, Lana on his heels. He'd never shown it to his hookups, but Lana wasn't a normal hookup. Wasn't even a hookup yet.
The screens lit up at his order, and she seemed fascinated. He made sure no classified information was on view, and while she was shaping a hologram in total awe, he sneaked to the device and threw a blanket over it.
"This is like magic," she said, holding a perfect hologram of Tony's head on her hand.
"How'd you do that?" he asked, thrown back. She swirled the hologram around, shaping its shoulders.
"Isn't that what this technology is meant for?" she asked.
"Yes – well, no, not that exactly. It just shouldn't be that easy."
"Oh." She said and grinned. He typed the command to the screen, and turned in time to see the holo-Tony throw a kiss at her. He was quite sure her cheeks turned a shade pinker, but he could've been imagining. And the lighting was pretty weird.
"What was the machine you just hid?" she asked, dropping the holo-Tony.
"Classified." He said. He was itching to explain it to her because he had the feeling she'd understand and actually appreciate the mechanics. SHIELD was happy as long as it defended the earth, but no one but Bruce actually cared about how things worked. And even Bruce wasn't a mechanic, he was a biochemist, and they didn't always speak the same foreign language as Steve claimed they did.
"Does it have something to do with all the Sovereign aircrafts stopping mid air?" she asked. "It would need a powerful energy source. I can't think of anything that would have enough energy."
"Lucky we aren't limited to just earthly energy sources." He'd already said too much. "Stop prodding or I'll have to kill you."
"You wouldn't kill me, Stark," she said, and placed her palms against his chest. She walked forward, pushing him along until his back hit a wall. "But you could always punish me."
She kissed him hard, slid her leg between his and suddenly her hands were all over him. He moaned into her mouth, grabbed her ass and tried to pull her closer. She broke the kiss and stepped back.
"But not today."
She walked away.
"Jarvis, see her out," he said, panting.
"Will do, Sir."
...
The next morning Tony awakened to the sound of all his alarms blaring, and a half naked super-soldier screaming at him. He was on his feet and half armored before he'd even properly woken up.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"The Sovereign, they're here," Steve yelled as Jarvis said in his ever so calm voice: "They're currently trying to infiltrate this building. They've triggered all the alarms."
Steve pulled the rest of his Captain America suit on and ran away with a shield on his arm. Tony didn't believe in the naive ideal of American Dream, but seeing Steve in action always made him eager to fight for his country. Maybe the scientists had been right. Or maybe it was just purely Steve.
Tony flew after him. No damage or fighting in the halls. There was a not so distant sound of gunshots fired from both normal and laser weapons, and he flew out of the window and to the rooftop.
Thor was surrounded by at least twenty spacecars, a lot, even for him. Hulk was smashing the villains, but mostly the buildings, doing three times more damage than the attackers. Tony tried to make his way to Thor, since they needed Mjolnir in his workshop more than here, but the aliens surrounded him immediately. He blasted at one of them, but it disappeared and the energy burst missed Clint by an inch. Something green flew through the air, and it was far too grateful to be Hulk.
Tony blasted at another alien, and this time it hit the target. Thor was so surrounded by lighting and thunder that Tony barely saw him.
He called his robotic Iron Men to fight beside them, but there were only ten of them. He blasted, hit, kicked and got shot by various weapons.
This attack was fundamentally different from the last time. Now they seemed to be fighting with purpose, trying to get into the Avengers Tower. It made sense, it was the base of a lot of the tech, the Avenger nest. They finally had a good strategy, but it was as if a different person was behind this attack than the last one.
One thing he didn't understand was why were they suddenly concentrating so much on Thor. He was a powerful enemy, yes, but Hulk was possibly even more dangerous, and the rest of them had been doing nearly as much damage as him. And by killing Tony, they'd get rid of the brain behind the tech, but he wasn't sure if they knew that.
But they certainly knew something, something that they hadn't known the last time. A yellow spacecar tried to slip into the building, and as Tony attacked it another tried its luck. If he didn't know all his teammates as well as he did, he'd say they'd been betrayed by someone inside.
Flash of green, and Tony flew after it, grabbed it and found himself rolling hundred miles per hour with none other than Loki, somehow alive. They hit a wall. It shook and sprinkled sawdust on top of them.
Tony's first reaction was to strangle the god, before even questioning how he was alive. Was he an illusion? But weren't illusions Loki's department anyway?
"Nice to meet you again," Loki said, and something on his voice made Tony's stomach twist and curl, drop like he'd been on a too fast roller coaster. His eyes were green, framed with dark eyelashes, a straight nose-
"Loki," was all he could say, he wasn't sure what his mind was doing, he shut it out and hit him, wanting to break his pretty face because it seemed strangely – he hit him again, if he reshaped it it wouldn't be the same, but his face didn't break, his nose got just a scratch.
Tony attacked with full force, full of anger that he couldn't explain, didn't care to explain, this was the man behind his panic attacks and his lack of sleep, this man needed to die and he didn't need another reason for that bursting anger he felt.
When Thor arrived, having got a surge of energy to fight off all the aliens after hearing his little brother's name. Tony was beating Loki on the floor, and even though his face was already bloodied Loki was doing very little to fight him off. Thor threw him out of the way, as if he was the one who had destroyed the city twice.
"BROTHER!" Thor bellowed and fell on his knees next to Loki.
"He's one of the bad guys," Tony reminded him. "The bad guy actually."
There were tears on Thor's face, but he placed the Mjolnir on his little brother's chest as he was trying to get up. He collapsed back on the floor, struggling under the hammer.
"I watched you die!" Thor shouted through his tears. "I mourned, again. I felt even more alone than the last time, with both you and our mother gone."
Thor took Loki's face in his hands, but he still didn't say anything. If Tony hadn't heard him talking earlier, he'd have thought that he couldn't.
"ANSWER ME BROTHER!"
Thor was spreading into the air around him, seeming bigger, more powerful in his rage. Loki shrunk into himself, looking smaller, fragile. His horned helmet had fallen to the floor during Tony's beating, his face was blank of any emotion.
Another alien tried to get in, but retreated as she saw Loki lying on the floor. Another attacked, and Thor fought him off, Tony took the next.
"I need to retrieve chains that can hold him from Asgard," he said. "Until I return, you need to hold them off without my help. Don't worry about my brother, he won't be able to move."
He granted Loki one final glance before he flew off the building. Tony didn't. He took off after him, shutting Loki entirely off his mind and giving himself fully into the fight until Thor returned.
Loki still didn't speak when they took him away to a temporary SHIELD cell. Tony left. He wanted to be alone, for no apparent reason. There was no fast food this time, at least not for him and Thor. They both disappeared to be alone in their separate places.
Tony beat a boxing bag until his knees gave out from exhaustion, and he couldn't get back up anymore. He had to call his suit to carry him to bed.
…
Tony was in space. He visited there often in his dreams nowadays, but this time it was different. The space wasn't cold and dangerous and he wasn't falling. The colors surrounding him were shades of purple, black and blue, stars shattered around the galaxy like little diamonds. This was the space he'd dreamed of visiting as a boy, before the events of New York ruined it for him. This was the place where he'd gone when Maria shouted at him, when Howard hit him in his rage.
A pair of delicate arms wrapped around him, and the smell of pine and hyacinths filled his nose and he leaned back into Lana's touch. Her lips were on his neck, her hand slid under his shirt and another cupped his bulge. He thrust in her hand and she hummed in approval. He could feel her body pressed tightly against his back, her flat stomach, full breasts, legs he wanted to have around his waist. She loosened her grip a little so he could turn around, he lifted her skirt and slipped his hand in her panties, feeling the wetness, so ready for him to thrust his fingers into her warmth, but she had other ideas. She got on her knees, opened his belt, pulled his boxers off and took his hard dick in her mouth.
He moaned in pleasure, pushed his hand in her hair but suddenly it was much shorter, he grabbed it and pulled, wanting to see her eyes, but it wasn't Lana who looked up at him, his cock halfway in his mouth.
Loki had the exact expression he imagined Lana would have, actually it was almost impossible to tell the difference, Lana had longer hair and she wore makeup, and maybe her features were a little softer but it was hard to tell since his cock was blocking the way. Loki pulled off, his lips glistening with spit, and Lana's grin spread on his lips.
"I bet you knew all along," he said.
Tony jumped up on his bed, covered in sweat, his cock achingly hard. He wished he had someone to fuck, it had been at least three weeks since the last time and be was going crazy, but he only had the images of Lana and Loki burned behind his eyelids as he slid his hand in his boxers, and shamefully grabbed himself. He didn't feel shame for jerking off, that was a perfectly healthy habit, but for the the images that got him off.
He showered, and as the water washed the last drops of sleep off him he had to admit to himself what he'd knew since he'd heard Loki's voice yesterday.
The resemblance was so blatant that he wondered how he could even call himself a genius after not figuring out her identity. She hadn't even lied about her background, had just refused to answer his questions and he'd accepted it as if it was normal. And all that fucking green.
He still couldn't help himself for having a tiny shed of hope, and he tried calling Lana. No one answered as he'd predicted.
He went through his video surveillance data, and compared Lana's face to Loki's. They were almost identical.
If Tony had been a good man, he would've marched to SHIELD. headquarters, demanded to meet Fury, and told him everything. He could've at least told Steve, Pepper or Rhodey – Thor, of all people, deserved to know.
But Tony Stark had never been able to make the right decisions when beautiful women were concerned, so instead he marched to SHIELD headquarters, demanded to meet Fury and lied to his face.
"We could have a leak," Tony told Fury, dead serious. "The weapon is mine, and I am the one who knows all about it. Let me question him."
"We have trained professionals doing that right now," Fury said.
"Your trained professional's don't know shit about my device," Tony said, having started a staring contest with Fury and not planning to lose now. "They don't live in the Avengers Tower. I need to know who, how, why."
"And you will. When we are done."
"We don't exactly have all the time in the world," Tony said. "There's an alien ship looming in out athmosphere, we don't have time to let Loki play with your trainees."
Fury sighed deeply, and Tony knew he'd won. "You get ten minutes alone with him. No more."
Tony nodded. He was escorted by two SHIELD agents to Loki's cell.
He was sitting in the middle of the room, tied to a chair, the blank look ever present. The Agents listened to their orders, and then nodded at Tony before exiting the cell.
The two of them stood there, sizing each other up, and a flicker of life could be seen in Loki's fiery green eyes. He had a long wound starting from his cheek and continuing until his neck, and his left eye was a sickly shade of dark purple. The purple eye was his doing, but the wound was new.
His face was Lana's face, and Tony couldn't help but wince seeing her – him – like this.
Loki looked at him, and for a minute his edges blurred and then Lana was there, dressed in Loki's leather armor and bound to a chair. Her grin was short, the wound seemed to cause her pain.
"Hello, Stark," she said. "So nice of you to come and see me."
"God of lies and deception," Tony said, like he was talking to himself. Lana's – Loki's – expression darkened.
"I am the god of mischief," she said. "Tricks and illusions for laughs and survival. Change and fluidity. And fire. Everybody forgets about the fire."
"I don't care."
"Yet you're here," she said. "I am not the god of destruction."
"Thank you for finally explaining!" Tony said, mock relieved. "Imagine how much trouble it would've been for everyone involved if we just kept thinking you're evil!"
"Evil?" she asked.
"Could you go back to your real form?" Tony asked, the scrunched his eyebrows. "You shouldn't be able to use magic with those cuffs."
"I'm not using magic. This is my real form," she said. "I am as much a woman as I am a man."
She tilted her head, and then turned into the Loki Tony knew. "But if you prefer this one."
Loki grinned, wide and scary, but the mad glint in his eyes that Tony had seen all those years ago was not there. He wasn't sure if Loki was just controlling his expression to fool him, or if something had truly changed.
"Was Lana real?" he asked. "Was any of it?"
"I was Lana," he said.
"Not what I meant."
He looked away."Lana is me," he said. "But I am Loki."
Tony nodded. If only he could believe him.
The door opened, and SHIELD agents arrived in. Tony was escorted out, and he felt like he was in a dream. Loki had been realer than anything that surrounded him, the cars, the buildings, the people.
Tony called Jane. Thor still hadn't learned how to use a cellphone, so the only way to reach him was to leave a message to his girlfriend, since they saw each other almost every day. She was sort of confused about him calling – they weren't close, even though they hanged in the same group.
"How's... everything?" she asked after having promised to tell Thor to drop by. "Thor seemed unwell, but wouldn't talk about it. All I know is that Loki is alive and is now being held in a SHIELD cell."
"That's pretty much all there's to know," he said. "They're torturing Loki for information. If Thor knows that, it must be tearing him apart."
"It just doesn't feel right at all," she said. "Loki being behind this attack. Last time he saved us. He died."
"Apparently he didn't," Tony said, even though he silently agreed. Loki had been just as confused about the attack that happened the day of their movie date. Someone else had commanded her army, if it was her army at all. They had retreated when Loki was captured, but they didn't seem to fall apart without a leader.
"They shouldn't torture him," Jane said.
"I know," Tony said. "Sometimes it's hard to remember we are the good guys here."
"You protect innocent lives," Jane said, and it sounded like she'd already had this conversation a few times. Maybe Thor wasn't as aggressive and unfazable as he seemed in the battlefield.
"I hope so."
...
"Make room lovebirds," Tony told Steve and Bucky. They were watching Sherlock, and had somehow managed to spread over the whole couch. They moved so Tony fit next to them, and he lifted his feet on top of them. He kicked Bucky when he tried to push them to the floor, so finally they let him stay so.
"Tony! You're straight!" Bucky said suddenly, and Tony lifted his eyebrows. "We need your unbiased opinion. Do you think John and Sherlock are a couple?"
Steve looked at him, eyebrows slightly scrunched. They seemed so serious, and Tony wanted to laugh. Or maybe suggest that they make a tumblr. He'd heard that was a place for people whose obsession got out of hand.
"My slightly biased opinion is that they should be a couple," he said.
"Your slightly biased opinion?" Bucky asked.
Tony swallowed. He wasn't sure why he felt nervous – Steve and Bucky were both bisexual, and they definitely wouldn't judge him. None of his friends would, but saying it out loud seemed to make everything so final. His sexuality. Lana. Loki.
"I've fucked a few men," Tony said. "It wasn't horrible."
It was worth it just for the reaction he got. Bucky almost choked on his soda, and Steve's eyebrows flew at least an inch higher than he'd thought they'd go.
"You've fucked a few men?" Bucky asked. "We haven't fucked 'a few men'!"
"I'm not wearing a purity ring like Steve did or pulling one girl a year like you did," Tony said smugly. "I've had sex with at least four hundred people. Few of them were three- or foursomes and the girls liked the show. Plus a blowjob is a blowjob."
"I thought our kiss was special to you," Steve said, and pouted. Bucky apparently knew about it already because he didn't comment, just laughed. "You were the third person I ever kissed."
"It was," Tony said and patted his cheek. "I hadn't kissed men before. Kissing is not necessary when you can just slide in and rock your hips."
"You're unbelievable," Steve said.
"So who was the first?" Tony asked. "I was third so Peggy must've been second."
Steve pointed at Bucky and grinned. "We were just 'practising for the girls'," he said. "And look how that turned out."
The two of them seemed to get lost in each other's eyes, and even though Tony claimed he hated their romantic crap, he had to admit they were kinda cute in their puppy love. Extremely cute. He wished he had someone who looked at him like that, not all the time, but even once, to know how it would feel. A picture of Loki, chained to a chair and his cheek slit open returned to his mind, and he knew he couldn't forget now. Couldn't pretend nothing had happened between them and let Fury torture him to death.
"When you saw him, back from the dead and wearing the enemy's colors how could you be so sure that you'd make him remember?" Tony asked, and they both turned to him again. There was a flicker of that old pain in Bucky's eyes and Steve wasn't smiling anymore, but he needed the answer. "How did you know your friend was still there? That when he'd get his memories back he'd just return to your side happily?"
Bucky shook his head, looking slightly angry. "He didn't know any of that. He tried to make me remember, but nothing worked. In the end he dropped his shield, and would have let me kill him." It seemed Tony had arisen an old fight about Steve's willingness to sacrifice himself.
"No, Bucky that's..." Steve breathed deeply, and then continued more steadily. "I knew I had no other choice. I needed him by my side or I couldn't have been able to live with myself thinking about the ‘maybes’ and ‘what ifs’. I believed in him, because I love him. And I did the right thing, didn't I? We're here." He squeezed Bucky's hand in his reassuringly.
"Where do you get that kind of belief?" Tony asked.
"He's Captain America," Bucky said. "He is faith. He believes in the best of everything and everyone." And that's what I love about you was left unsaid, but Tony could almost hear it. He wanted to believe in the best of Loki, but how could he? Loki hadn't been brainwashed, he'd never knewhim as a good person, if he'd ever even been one.
"So are you bisexual?" Bucky asked when the silence streched. Tony almost jumped.
"Bisexual as in a hole is a hole?" he joked. They weren't buying it.
"Could you ever love a man?" Steve asked.
"I will burn the heart out of you," Moriarty growled to Sherlock on the screen.
"I've been informed that I don't have one," Sherlock answered, expression cold, almost making the viewer believe it was true.
"But we both know that's not quite true," Moriarty said, always one step ahead.
"Who knows about love?" Tony said. "I don't do love."
"Are you going to be seeing Lana again soon?" Steve asked, as if that was the logical follow-up for what Tony had said. Maybe it was.
"We'll see," he said. "Lets watch the next episode too. Irene Adler is hot."
"Black hair and a vicious smile," Steve said. "Someone has a type."
Tony laughed. It's not like he offered a drink to every villain he met.
"You'd make a great Sherlock," Bucky said, eyeing him up and down. "You'd get your own Adler and your own Watson. Who'd you be more excited about?"
He didn't know. Maybe he wanted both.