Hide and Seek
Tony opened his eyes groggily, blinked several times, still tired, with throbbing head and under the impression that a truck must have hit him before he had gone to bed. Only that he suddenly realized that he actually hadn´t gone to bed or out from his workshop for that matter. He´d been lying with his head in Loki´s lap and the god seemed to be sleeping just as Tony was few minutes back.
Loki.
Tony raised his hand to tentatively touch the god´s jaw, his cheek, his parted lips and a wave of relief smashed his insides. He was alive. It wasn´t a dream. He was here and he was real. Something like a strained sob escaped Tony´s lips and Loki woke up, immediately finding Tony´s wide, honest eyes looking back at him.
Tony cursed in his head for letting that pitiful sound to slip out. God, he had even fucking cried when he´d seen Loki for the first time since they´d parted. And Thor had been there as well to see it all.
Fighting away the blush, he almost missed Loki´s features softening while his hand cradled the side of Tony´s face. The engineer was about to open his mouth, his thoughts not even fully formed yet, but Loki just put his fingers over his mouth and speaking himself, he whispered a single “sorry” to his face like he had any reason to apologize.
“What for?” Tony furrowed his brows. He kept his hands on Loki, touching, moving, caressing, it helped him to relax.
Loki had given him a look that was hard to interpret before he sighed. Tony immediately knew he was angry, but controlling his words and tone for Tony´s sake.
“I am sorry you were made to believe I was dead,” was apparently the first item on the list because then Loki kept talking, even dangerously lowering his voice when it came down to Wanda and Ultron and Tony´s team.
Tony listened without trying to interrupt him, but once he stopped, he simply told him it was okay. He was okay. Now more than one hour before.
Loki´s look was skeptical.
“And I am sorry for JARVIS,” he stated slowly, “I know he´s been one of your oldest friends.”
Tony flinched in Loki´s arms.
No one has acknowledged what had happened to JARVIS in this way – implying that he was so much more than an AI to Tony. His friend, yes. He lost his friend. God, no… he couldn´t start to think about that again. He stubbornly pressed his face against Loki´s chest, holding onto his arms for few minutes until he had a chance to calm down and speak without getting those damn tears in his eyes again.
“I… his code… it can´t be repaired,” he stated as a fact, but everyone with two ears could have heard how painful that was to admit. He can´t fix him. The only thing he is good for and he can´t fix his friend.
“I will kill her for this and for what she has done to your mind.”
Tony looked up with wide eyes. He remembered ordering Friday not to tell Loki about Wanda´s manipulation, so how…
“Don´t try to lie. I can see her magic dwelling around you.” Here was his answer.
“Can you do something about it?” The truth was Tony despised the fact it was still in him, this self-destructing stimuli Wanda implied in the core of his mind. He wanted to get rid of it. But he wasn´t sure if he wanted to get rid of Wanda too. Not like this.
“I let her stay.” Because the team wanted her to stay. “For now. Please don´t hurt her.”
Loki looked stubborn enough to ignore his request, so Tony tried again, this time firstly placing a kiss on the god´s lips.
“Please.”
It was hard to tell if Loki´s tentative nod was honest, but it was all Tony would get in the moment and he knew it.
“Why can´t you never stay out of trouble?”
“Wouldn´t be fun otherwise.” Only this wasn´t fun, was it?
“So what happened?” Tony started tentatively. On one side he didn´t want to talk about it, but on the other he wanted to know really badly how such a mistake came to be.
Loki explained how his mission with Thor had gone. Then he briefly elaborated on how Thor had appreciated his help and suggested a plan. So obviously Loki´d met his parents and they´d agreed upon proclaiming him dead and therefore making him free and safe from at least some threats.
“It was a perfect idea.”
Loki looked at him skeptically like he wasn´t sure about it anymore after he´d returned to the tower and to Tony losing his shit.
“What´s the plan now? You still searching for Amora? Want to free her mind? Then yours? Then finding out what Mad Titan is after?”
Loki nodded. “Yes, but first I need to deal with your mind, if you allow me.”
Tony shivered all over. “Sure.” He sat up straight, opposite of Loki as they both turned towards each other. “Will it hurt?” the engineer asked, “just to know what to expect.”
“No, if you won´t fight me. And you won´t, will you? You know I won´t hurt you.”
Tony sighed… and smiled. “Yeah.” He braced himself a bit anyway. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing,” Loki replied, “just close your eyes, stay quiet and let me in.”
Tony shut his eyes as he was told, smirking. “That is not nothing.”
He heard Loki making a snorting noise and then two cold fingers brushed the skin on his temples and he flinched back.
“Easy.”
He let himself be guided by Loki´s ensuring words and his soft tone during the whole process. He could feel something leaving from his mind when it was all over, like he was suddenly emotionally lighter and clean.
“If you had done something to yourself while I was gone because of her spells, there would have been no force here on Midgard or anywhere in the universe which could protect her from me.”
Tony slowly opened his eyes and just watched Loki for a moment, then pulling him to his lips, hungry to taste him.
“Thank you.”
“Tomorrow,” Loki stated after they parted, “I´ll put some protecting spells on you. I should have done that long time ago.”
Tony agreed gladly. Wanda was still here, right? And still hating his guts.
“And after your mind heals,” Loki continued, “I will teach you how to protect yourself too.”
Some dirty thoughts crossed Tony´s mind and he purred.
“Oh, so you will be my teacher. What do you do to pupils who don´t behave?”
Finally, Loki gave him a devilish smile. “Shall I show you?”
“Yes, please,” Tony whispered into the god´s skin over his beautiful, long neck.
The pair of strong hands then lifted him up and over the god´s lap. The couch didn´t even bother to noisily disagree with their actions as they tried to imprint everything they´d felt when apart into clumsy kisses and touches. At the end of it, Tony was pleasingly sore and happy to fall back asleep. He enjoyed the cold seeping from Loki´s skin when he was feverish with satisfied lust. When he woke up for a third time that day, Loki was gone and Tony´s stomach turned with dread.
OOO
Loki let the glamour spread around his form, the same one he used for this event he´d gone to with Anthony. He didn´t even tried to hide his presence from anyone who would like to see, but no one met him on his way to the witch´s room. He didn´t bother with knocking.
“I said I don´t… What? Who are you?” Her voice was surprised, irritated, but not alarmed. What a mistake.
Loki closed the door behind him.
“Oh, you are Stark´s…” she suddenly started, probably recalling his appearance from some photo of that night. Loki dared her with his eyes to continue and say something disrespectful. She didn´t.
“What do you want?”
Loki smiled and he could see the effect it had on her right before his eyes.
“I came to make something clear. About him and you.” He made few small steps forward and she stood up from her bed, finally sensing the danger, which was very real.
“You came threating me?” She asked looking at him like she couldn´t believe her own accusation.
“No,” Loki slowly shook his head, his smile only growing, “no. I came to show you something.”
He was in front of her, taking her be her throat and slamming her into the wall behind her back. One of his hands raised towards her head and Loki watched how her eyes clouded. When she started to scream, he muted her, his eyes bright with the pleasure of her horror.
“If you use your magic on him ever again,” he whispered near her ear tenderly, “or you hurt him in any other way…” She trashed into his grip furiously, fighting the battle already lost. “I will tear your mind into shreds… And play with what is left until there is…” he leaned even impossibly closer, “nothing… left.”
He released her at once, trying to regain the control he was losing quite frequently when dealing with people around Anthony.
The witch started to cough violently, falling on her knees, her eyes wide and wet when lifted towards Loki´s face.
“What… what are you?”
Loki snorted. “Someone you don´t want to make any more furious with you, I would say.” Loki marched back towards the door like nothing has happened, like there wasn´t a gasping girl left behind him.
“Only to make myself clear,” he turned his face back to her, “you don´t go near him, you don´t approach him, you don´t even breathe his way.” He put his hand on the doorknob. “If any accident happens to him while you´re near him, you´re going to regret it, the same counts, if he is in trouble and you won´t help him.”
Loki gave her one more deadly smile.
“And please, do try to tell anyone about us having this conversation.”
OOO
“Where were you?” Tony emerged from the shower in a towel, eyeing the god who put a plate with food on one of the workbenches. “You missed the show.”
Loki made a regretful face.
“Uhm, what a shame, but I went to gather us some nutrition.”
“You did?” Tony didn´t question him further, burying his fingers into blueberry pancakes. Probably from Bruce´s production… Oh, no, Bruce wasn´t here. He ran away.
“What are we going to do today?” Tony asked interested if Loki was staying for some time or going on a hunt. He hoped for the first, at least for few days, until Tony would stop freaking out every time he´ll leave his sight.
“Actually, your team upstairs would like you to join them for a movie night – as they called it.”
Tony raised both of his eyebrows.
“And you know that how?”
Loki smirked and his appearance changed in an instant. Tony flinched a bit by the sight and he saw Loki frowning before he probably forced his face muscles to cooperate. Who knows why it was so hard for the engineer to get used to him changing his body like that.
“And you want me to come?” It was a stupid question. Of course, Loki didn´t. But he gave the message anyway, so Tony could decide for himself.
“Would you like to come upstairs with me? It could be fun… you know… seeing cap´s face again when he sees us or when I reach for your crotch in the middle of the film.” Tony winked at Loki and watched the god´s eyes track each of his movement as he put away the towel and started to dress, right there on the spot.
“I think I would like that,” Loki replied slowly.
Tony walked to him on his bare feet, jeans hanging from his hips and the reactor bright in his chest.
“And what about the time before that?”
Loki put his hands on Tony´s ass, closing the distance between them in one gentle pull.
“For that time I have my own plan.”
OOO
“So this is it?”
Tony raised both of his hands into the air, pointing at all directions around him. He was standing on one of the very busy streets of New York, where tons of people walked by and hurried somewhere with only him and Loki - in his glamour standing opposite each other.
“This is your grand plan for the evening?” Tony was smiling under the hoodie and black fashion glasses covering his eyes.
“Yes, this is our first course in magic. You´d mentioned you want to learn some before or you don´t remember?”
Tony faked a deep recalling of this event.
“You mean that one time when you gave me this amazing blow job, I called you magical and wanted you to teach me that? But honey, I wanted to learn the blowjob, not the magic,” he teased Loki, shaking from the suppressed laugh. “Okay, okay, I remember. But why now? Or you know what? It doesn´t matter. What is the first lesson?” The truth was he was excited and he didn´t care about Loki´s reasons at all.
“The very first lesson is something what you already can do.”
“Driving you crazy?”
“Beside that.”
“Oh,” Tony lifted his chin, “do enlighten me, please.”
Loki stood close so they could hear each other through the noise of the traffic.
“You are very sensitive to magic. You must remember that one time in the forest. You felt the difference when we passed the borders. Now we must teach you how to use it and not merely feel it randomly.”
That sounded great, but… “Why?”
Loki pursed his lips together, watching Tony intensively.
“Because it is hard for you to see through my glamour and therefore you feel uncomfortable around me when I wear it.”
“That´s not…”
Loki hushed him. “It is a truth. And I know the reason. No one likes when you can´t recognize the person. All we need to do is to teach you how to search for my magic signature.”
Tony´s eyes brightened.
“You mean like my scans in the workshop?”
Loki probably knew he had him hooked up this very second.
“Yes, exactly, like your scans.”
Tony excitedly clapped his hands with a big shit-eating grin. “Okay, I´m ready.”
Loki nodded and started explaining at once. Tony was supposed to concentrate, not expecting to see something, but feel it. Loki did his best in describing what it should be and how Tony should work with it. When he was finished. His appearance changed again and Tony looked around if anyone had noticed.
“Don´t worry. They can´t see.”
“So how can we test if I payed you enough attention with those lips talking in my vicinity?”
One corner of Loki´s mouth went up, but otherwise he didn´t acknowledge the remark.
“Close your eyes and when you open them up, find me in the crowd.”
Tony´s mouth went open. “What?”
That was a bad plan. Very bad plan. “You just want to make a fool of me.”
“Maybe.”
Tony stubbornly put his hands into the pockets of his jeans.
“Okay, whatever. It won´t be the first time.”
He closed his eyes afterwards, counted to three until he looked again through people on the busy pavement. There were several workmen working next to his left. A crowd of teenagers and then a small crowd of tourists. People waiting on the bus, people waiting to cross a street and numerous more people bypassing Tony from all sides.
“Oh shit. Loki?” He whispered. Nothing. Of course.
He automatically started to look for anything familiar, but stopped when he realized this was a mistake. He wasn´t supposed to focus on the visuality.
For a few minutes he practiced everything Loki taught him. It wasn´t like practicing real magic, more like just recognizing it and that was a very good step in Tony´s journey.
“Hm, I think I got you,” Tony murmured under his nose, his legs carrying him towards a man standing nearby a shop with books. As he was closing the distance, the man noticed him and narrowed his eyes and suddenly it felt wrong… very wrong… and then a woman walked out of that shop and kissed the man on his cheek. Tony stopped in his tracks.
“Well, well,” the voice behind him made the engineer jump.
“I was sure on 65%,” Tony said apologetically.
“That is not enough as we see. Shall we try again?”
Tony hummed and closed his eyes again. This was quite funny. Like playing hide and seek adult magic version.
“Hi,” he approached yet another man he was sure it was Loki. Well, sure on 70%, but this time the man smiled warmly.
“Oh, my god, aren´t you Tony Stark?”
Tony sighed in his head. He won´t hear the end of it, would he?
“Nope. Everyone says that. Sorry.”
He backed away and again Loki appeared behind his back.
“Maybe you need a little encouragement,” he suggested.
“You´re going to hold a bottle of whiskey behind your back?” Tony looked at him with a smile. “That could help.”
Loki made a face and Tony was pleased because according to him, no one could get under the god´s skin so easily. A familiar green energy started to form around Loki´s outstretched hands until something like a ball raised from it. He held it close to Tony to gape at.
“That´s beautiful.”
“Touch it,” Loki invited him and Tony hesitantly pushed his fingers forward.
“You feel it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” Loki looked him in the eyes and in that moment Tony knew he was lost forever. “This is my very essence. No matter what I wear outside, this is me.”
Tony let his eyes slide back to the ball, closing his eyes, breathing in, touching while letting the magic give him goosebumps all around his body.
“I think I got it… I mean… what you´re trying to say,” Tony admitted after a long moment just standing there.
“You will find me then?”
Tony grinned. “I think so.”
Loki returned him a mischievous look.
“This time, when you approach me, don´t say anything. Kiss me.”
Tony´s eyes widened.
“What? No. You´re serious?”
Loki was serious. Deadly serious. So that was his encouragement.
“Close your eyes.”
He wouldn´t let Tony kiss some stranger, would he? It was perfectly safe.
Tony gazed around, but this time he tried to block what were his eyes transmitting and focused on how Loki´s energy felt in his hands, how it vibrated on his skin, how cold and fresh it felt. His attention fell on a woman, standing near the trash can, holding a phone in her hand and typing something. Tony didn´t let his brain talk him out of it. He knew it was crazy. There was like 8% this would be him, but…
His legs carried him there.
“Please stop me, if it´s not you,” he whispered before he reached for his glasses and her phone, putting both out of the way while reaching for her neck, pulling the woman close and on his lips. The kiss was quick, but let him breathless anyway.
The woman smiled at him and Tony let out a shuddering breath. It was him. It had to be. The woman looked him over.
“That´s a nice surprise.”
“Oh no,” Tony wanted to slap himself, “he´s going to kill me.”