About gods and engineers

Tony didn´t really want to burst out like that. Not now. Not when he felt like he was accusing his father of something he hadn´t had the chance to do yet. The posters were still on the wall. That meant his father hadn´t crossed the line. He wasn´t that person yet. He probably was indeed engaged in his work and moved everything including his family away, but Tony could still remember some bright moments together from this time around.

You won´t ask about me or the firm, but him. His own thrown charges made him feel particularly idiotic because after all he couldn´t say a shit about his “perfect” life or the firm.

“I feel like we don´t get too well with each other in your time, eh?” Howard shut of the inner fight in Tony´s head and made him focus on the man again. It was quite surprising Tony didn´t find tracks of any other emotion than confusion and maybe regret on his face. Could it be that this version of his father was one before he´d lost all his hope in finding the war hero in the ocean? It was hard for Tony to maintain his anger when the realization struck him.
“No, we don´t,” he answered finally deciding for a simple truth, “but I´m not an easy person to deal with either.” Yeah, that could work.

Howard nodded suddenly glancing towards Tony´s chest, right at the reactor shaping under his T-shirt. The gaze made Tony feel like he wanted to take a step back. He had to remind himself that his father wasn´t a danger to him.

“This is important, right? God, it´s in your chest…” He sounded amazed and terrified at the same time. “I´ve never imagined it could be so small.”
“So you´ve already made the first draft.” Despite his intelligence Tony was only seven now, he couldn´t know about everything his father was working on.
“Yes,” he agreed clearly drifting away to his own lab. Tony laughed in his head because it looked very similar to how Pepper once described him during the meetings. “Yes, but it´s not possible. Not in my lifetime perhaps.” Howard´s eyes returned to the device.

“It keeps me alive,” Tony gave away the information deciding this was a safe enough topic. “I have shrapnels around my heart, it keeps them out. And it also powers the suit.”
He wasn´t able to deny he felt really proud as his father´s face lit up by the mention. Then falling into the darkness again.
“Shrapnels?”
Tony briefly closed his eyes in irritation about his own slip. No, this wasn´t a safe topic. 
“I was kidnapped in Afganistan,” he explained anyway, “that happened during the ambush. I built the suit there to get out of the place where they kept me. Not this model, of course. It was far more clumsy.” Seeing his father face made him reconsider uttering a joke about all of the process of improving the mark 1.
“Can I somehow prevent it by knowing what happened?”
“Like giving my young self a warning? No,” Tony dismissed the idea, “It´s okay, dad. I´m okay. I survived and I recovered.” Physically at least. “This is the exact reason why I shouldn´t have tell you any of this. I don´t want you to live with such a burden.”

That definitely wasn´t a safe topic. Nothing really was.
“I think it would be the best if I´ll draw some answers out of Loki first before we do any more talking. I don´t want to screw something up.”
And maybe giving his father some time to process was a good idea on its own. He looked like he needed it. And so did Tony.

OOO

 “Thank God, you´re here.” The man – bodyguard – whatever, greeted him with big relief flashing on his face. “I was starting to lose my mind with him staring at me like that.”
Tony gazed at Loki on the ground still in the same position as he left him. His head was turned on the other side, but it probably happened as Tony walked in, not sooner.
“You´re good here with him alone?”
He nodded thinking about his plan with the god. There wasn´t much things the man could do to help him with that.
“Come for me, if anything happens.”

They remained alone in the room with Tony walking over the lying body. The suit wasn´t damaged at all, when he approached him.
“I want to make a deal.”
The god didn´t move at slightest. “Why should I make another deal with you, Stark?”

Tony already thought about some good reasons before he came in here, before he quite fought with his father, but all he said at the end was: “you fucked with my head.” Loki surprisingly turned to face him. “And I still can blow up your legs.”
“What is that deal then?” he asked with no emotion in his voice after a minute of silent treatment.
Tony started to walk around in small circle feeling the god´s eyes following his every move. 
“You´ll take us both home safe and sound and never ever again do any more mind tricks on me for your own good.”
“And what is there for me?”
Tony put up his best smile. “You will live long enough to gather your strength.”
“You think that is an attractive deal for me?” However he seemed to be thinking about it. After a quick consideration on the god´s side he suddenly clapped his hands on his tights – the only place, where he could barely reach.
“Here is my deal. First you will free me from this. Then you´ll give me enough peaceful time to rest. And then I will find a way to take us both back in our time, so we could kill each other there, Stark. What do you think? And all I ask is you answering my questions truthfully from this very moment so there won´t be a reason to go and search for myself…” He fell silent. “And one more thing.”
“What else?”
He looked in his face and saw a curiosity mixed with something dark and crazy. It was disturbingly familiar.
“I want to see that device in your chest again. That is my request from our first negotiation.”

Tony´s breath got stuck in his throat. “No way.” There was a panic rising inside of him only with the simple thought. Demanding few days relaxing under the sun wasn´t the same thing as asking him to reveal his biggest weakness to his enemy. Not after the mentioned enemy searched his head trough and left Tony wondering what exactly did he find there.
Loki seemed to be slightly irritated with his reply. “I helped you to fix it.” 
“It´s not the same.” This is personal.

There was a hazy picture of Loki´s elegant fingers moving around his reactor in Tony´s mind and Tony recalled feeling nothing but a relief that he wasn´t about to die that time. However just what he said – it wouldn´t be the same. 
“Do not forget you own me.”
Well, when he had promised the god something in return for his life-saving service he thought it would be a lot of more devilish thing. 
“Won´t you ask about helping you to take over the world?” He mentally slapped himself as soon as the question was out. Why to tempt him?
“Not this time, Stark.”

Tony was looking into the perfect green eyes searching for some kind of a mischief there – anything which would explain why was the god interested in him at all, but he found nothing as Loki could wiped of every emotion so nothing could be read from his sharp cut features. 
Tony felt his heart dropping to his stomach when he finally nodded. “Okay. I have no freaking idea why you want this, but we will do it my way.”
Loki didn´t protest, his eyes just fell to his legs reminding Tony that he was still trapped to the floor.
“I would like to eat something before I go to work, so perhaps you should start taking your armor of me.”
He stepped closer shutting himself before he would ask Jarvis to do the job. Jarvis wasn´t here. He put his hands on the god´s legs looking for the mechanical locks and wondering how the hell he managed to put them on so quickly before. Tony didn´t notice at first that Loki hadn´t turn to the side but instead was gazing at him while he moved around.

“What?”
He sounded a little surprised when he said: “you trust me” like it was something he would never consider experiencing from anyone. 
“Why not? You always keep your word on Asgard considering official deals, right?” And this is a well-balanced deal for both of us.
“Indeed.”

Whether it was clever or not, Tony didn´t have much of a choice anyway. He set the armor to support his own legs again and freed the god under its power in the same time. In that point he was really completely exhausted and sooner than his body would completely find out, he crashed into the pillows not really carrying about the other man in this state. Ok, so he may not wake up again. He still fell asleep almost instantly. Then two and a half hour later he woke up disoriented and unable to recognize where he was. He couldn´t doubt that his battered body needed a lot of more – not that he could really relax in the suit, but soon as Tony opened his eyes, he understood, why his consciousness decided it was a right time for an alarm just now.

He breathed in an inviting smell of fresh cooked food and his stomach growled back angrily in an agreement with his silent thoughts. As he slowly moved to the source, he couldn´t really decide what was more surprising to find there – whether it was the god actually serving a meal or the fact there was a one extra plate covered for him.

“Wow, I didn’t ´t know you could attend cooking classes along the deadly potions… Guess you have a lot of more interesting education system on Asgard.” Tony picked up the covering and smiled on the chicken there.

The whole plate was designed perfectly just like he expected.
“Not everyone only depends on the microwave, Stark.” Yeah, he was totally spending too much time on Earth. “And this I didn´t cook. The maid brought it here while you slept peacefully.” Like he needed to be remained he fell asleep with psychopath god in the room.

Tony maneuvered his ass on the chair without smashing anything and half expecting his attempt was at least worth a quick stare from Loki and the book he was reading. Not happening.
“How is that you know so much about me?” He pulled the plate in front of him. “Aren´t you my secret fan by the way?” At least he earned a dark frown which sent him coughing with food for a second. 
“Is it poisoned? Because it smells good. I forgot to ask.”
“I liked you more when you couldn´t talk.”
“The thing that matters is that you actually liked me for a while,” Tony skillfully played with his words rather than thinking about how he was trapped in his own invention with a possible death hanging about him. He wiped the memory away with another tasteful bite.

He had his meal almost finished, when Loki´s voice surprised him. “So, is it poisoned?”
“Well, you tell me. You´re the one who look like poisoning people´s food. I don´t think so.”
“I wasn´t the one preparing it,” he said reminding Tony of his obvious distrust of the place´s safety.

“Have some better place to go?” He didn´t receive any answer on that. Of course not. As he correctly remembered his father´s house was a fortress and surely the best place to land from the time spiral.
“Ok,” he decided to change the topic to something useful this time, “what about sharing your plans with me so I might help or anything?”

Loki wasn´t eating and he put down his book to look at Tony. “Now I´m searching for information we need. I believe I can find it in the books I own. And while you can´t read any other language than one you call English, you are of no use for me. Go and repair your suit if you feel like it.” With that he picked his book back in front of his eyes pretty much ignoring any other questions Tony uttered his way or the fact that he actually spoke more than one language.

Tony didn´t really want to go and fix his suit because that meant he had to deal with his dad and with all the stuff he could not tell him. He knew himself. Something would slip out eventually. So instead he went on with the questions, pacing around the room. He didn´t expect the god to answer. It was merely a ritual and a good way how to sort things in his head. So he went on and on noticing the change in Loki´s books although he had no idea where those books were coming from. Few hours may already passed when Loki closed the one he was currently studying and finally gazed Tony´s way.

“I found few facts about our current situation if you would allow me and shut up for a moment.”
Tony grinned. “Sure, no problem. Go on.”
The god first had given him a really noble eye roll before he decided to share the news. “As I originally thought there were only few possible explanations of what happened and none of it is our case so I rather focused on the rare stories mentioning time-traveling.”
“So it´s not a common thing in your circles? You´ve never done it before?” That wasn´t very encouraging.

Loki gave him an odd look. “No, Stark, believe me or not it isn´t a normal thing to do when you get bored. But back to the important facts, it seems like anything we do, the universe will repair it after we are gone.”
Tony frowned. “That means?”
“That means no one will remember us and nothing we do now will matter in the end. It is a rule of how the time is copying with time-traveling and time invaders. It is the reason why no one can change what is once done. So the world with its all time structures is safe.”
“But it only works if we get back, right?” Tony asked pointing to the obvious bug. “Is there any information on that matter?”
“I am not sure yet. There are plenty of more books I need to search.”

The god didn´t move to pick up his book or materialize a new one. He just sat there staring at Tony emotionless. But at least not hostile. 
“Ooookay….?”
“Not now, Stark. I need to rest.”
“Maybe you could rest even more, if you had my help.” No, he definitely won´t stop trying. He let Loki check him out with cold intelligent eyes.
“Is there any particular reason why you want to help me so much? Don´t you have things to do on your own?” He was suspicious.
“I do. But the suit won´t be much of a problem. I think that our first common goal should be finding the way out of here, right? What do you think will happen if we are stuck here by the time the universe goes for a walk and finds out? Won´t it search for the way to get rid of us and fix the past?”

He knew his assumption was correct immediately after he let the words out.
“Sometimes I hate when I´m fucking right. Why didn´t you tell me?” 
There was a glimpse of surprise on Loki´s side, he seemed not to be prepared for this kind of conversation. Bad for him.
“I didn´t think this idea might cross your mind and I didn´t want to…”
“… share the information with me I see…”
Loki gave him a mixture of angry and… more angry look. “Panic. I didn´t want to panic.”

Tony couldn´t do else than laugh a little bit hysterically. “Oh, hell, but I would so love to panic right now.”
The god put his fingers on the book´s paperback, touching it absently while he was speaking.
“I read about some disease of unknown source which should start to weaken us to the point we die,” he said, not trying to sound hopeful at all. But that was what Tony quite liked about him. He was always above everything, practical and a tactician searching for solutions even while world burned in flames. He was a survivor and that was a familiar position for Tony. With that he could work.
“That sounds like my super luck just knocked on the door again. What do we do about this problem?”
Loki glared at him like he expected a whole different reaction, but soon dropped back into the explaining mode.
“I believe I can prepare a potion to prolong our time here, but I need to know of what ingredients.”
“Ok, so perhaps this is really more important than my suit. Can you do that trick with sense sharpening you did before? Will it work on this foreign language in your books?”

He didn´t expect Loki to look amused by his idea, until he realized the reason. “What about no mind tricks or I will kick your knee, Stark?”
“It was no mind tricks or I´ll kill you,” he corrected, “and this doesn´t count. This is a fucking emergency if you haven´t realize. And I would have control over it. I would take your word on that.”
He met with this strange look while he mentioned Loki´s word again. Tony made a mental note to investigate it further. More important fact was that Loki just shook his head and said no and didn´t look like he planned to give away why. Tony still asked.
“Why not?”
“Because I said so.” Unbelievable.
“That´s not a reason but your period talking.” By now he was almost immune against his deadly stares. 
“You won´t shut up so easily, am I right?” Did he need to answer it?

Loki gazed out of the window, maybe thinking maybe planning to throw something at Tony´s so unprotected head and be over it. When he finally turned back to him, he wasn´t happy, but as far as Tony could say, he felt cooperative.
The god frowned even deeper like there was some inner fight he was waging and not winning at all.

“I won´t do it,” he finally stated, “because it is addictive.” He spat the last word like it had burned him on the tongue. “It is a drug, Stark. I do it once, you will seek it once more. I do it twice and you will grieve that feeling for the rest of your life.” 
Damn it. He would probably do so anyway. He was hooked even now. What was the better proof to his words than Tony´s free-will invitation to his head despite that the pain from the last time still lurked in his skull?
“What about something else then? You can speak any language, could you teach me that?”
“No.”
What the hell is with that negative approach… “Ok, why not?”
“Because it is a gift, not something you can simply learn.”
“It´s Christmas soon and I love gifts.”
“No.”

Loki was adamant about the matter. Stark had no idea what he asked for. He didn´t understand how Loki´s magic worked, mere human. Even without giving him his word he would have never touched his mind again.
“It is for your own good,” Loki decided to continue despite he knew he was giving away too much. It seemed the only way how that man would do what he is told without doubting it for days was when he fully understood it.

“There are people – simple minded people, they may be intelligent, but not nearly enough – their minds you can bend to your will. And there are other beings – rare ones like you, Stark, among all those idiotic humans. You have so many defenses and connections that your mind won´t bend but break.” And I might kill you one day, but I won´t ever break you or deprive you of what makes you so bright.

Miraculously Loki´s small speech left Stark astonished for some time and he quite enjoyed it while the silence last. When he started to speak again, Loki almost groaned out loud.
“I think this was some kind of a twisted compliment, but thank you, I think. It is a remarkable reason.” He looked up and right at the god´s face, his eyes reflecting the brightness Loki was talking about. “So here I have another idea. What about you making some spell of translation?”
Loki was mentally prepared to shut him off once more when he realized it could actually work.