Relics

Tony uses the few minutes it takes the Avengers, their guest, and a remarkably large group of SHIELD agents to reach the abandoned bunker to reflect on what he has just seen and heard. They are passing by the large video screen still showing what must be by now the world's most boring footage of a closed, severely enforced door. Even the heavily armed SHIELD operatives standing guard have stopped watching the thing.

After getting over the initial shock of having to acknowledge the fact that Loki is still alive, Tony is somehow glad to have met his assailant after all those months. Close by, in this relaxed mood he is making such a show of, Loki appears much less threatening than in Tony's memories or nightmares. Perhaps this encounter will even help him to handle his PTSD better.

Walking next to a smiling and confident Thor, who is carelessly holding Mjolnir in his hand as if she was nothing more important than an umbrella on a cloudless day in New York City, Loki seems to pose no danger at all.

Like everybody else present, Tony is just hoping that Thor would know how to get his brother under control in case of an emergency.

Because, after all is said and done, Asgard is a monarchy, and Thor is the older one, he is the bloody crown prince. And therefore he is bound to be in charge of the situation.

Or is he? Tony wonders not for the first time since Thor's younger brother's arrival.

Loki shows no signs of submissiveness or docility at all. He is even talking back sometimes, in a very polite and sophisticated voice, and in the most gentle way possible. Still, he's talking back at Thor. It's obvious that he's not afraid of his brother and feels there is nothing to fear in this situation.

Once or twice Tony even thinks that Loki is signalling Thor to change the subject or to stop talking at all by using some kind of eyebrow-based Morse code. This is certainly not typical prisoner behaviour towards the guy who is supposed to be holding the keys.

Or maybe it's just an echo of the time they spend growing up with each other. A relic of their childhood, Tony thinks. The boys are long gone, but the men dare not to let go.

To Tony, who grew up without any siblings at all, this idea feels oddly sad.

Then he tries to catch Natasha's eye, but the spy is avoiding him.

***************

When the group arrives at the fortified door, Director Fury starts to remind Loki on the importance of safety precautions again.

Loki just steps closer and pokes a long, thin finger at the door. “This does not look very magical to me,” he says. “It's just a door.”

”We think that a magical object of great might may be hidden behind it,” Thor booms.

”No, Thor,” Bruce Banner, who has started to clean his glasses again, says. “You think that. We don't.”

”So you haven't opened this... door yet to find out what's behind it?” Loki wrinkles his shapely nose a little. He obviously feels that even the doors on Midgard are somehow substandard, and way beneath his notice.

”Fury's afraid there might be a dragon hiding inside,” Tony quips.

Loki considers this. “This lair is far too small for a dragon, Anthony Stark. It's fit for a manticore at the outmost.”

Then he blinks at his brother who obligingly starts to laugh and mutters something that sounds like filthy, outlandish beasts and both brothers look happy on account of their short trip into memory lane.

Lovely, Tony thinks. Now they are exchanging cute brotherly in-jokes. And I have to do something about this Anthony Stark thing again.

Tony never understood Thor's problem with his team mates' names. For a while he suspected that the Asgardian was doing this only to annoy. Now that Loki is starting on the same game, Tony feels sure of it.

“Name's Tony,” he tells Loki's back. The owner of said dorsum has already turned towards the door again and checks it thoroughly by running his hands very carefully and slowly over it's surface.

Tony watches as Loki leans gently towards the door as if he was listening to something barely audible. Then Loki goes on caressing it lightly with the back of his hand while softly whispering words in a strange language under his breath.

Loki's facial expression is totally focused while his body seems to be completely relaxed. Everybody else present is looking on in a breathless silence.

Loki's eyes are closed. His mouth is slightly opened. He is breathing very deeply, and very evenly.

If he kisses the damn thing, I'm going to flip out, Tony thinks.

Then suddenly, some green sparks happen at Loki's fingertips.

”Ah,” the God of Mischief and Lies says. “You were right, brother. There is some magic energy in there after all.”

”Did you see that?” Tony Stark asks the humans around him.

But there is only a stunned, almost petrified group of Avengers and SHIELD operatives and, naturally, Thor, who is starting to radiate a smug and annoying air of I-told-you-so.

“No one else is gonna deal with the fact that Loki has just started to emit sparkles?” Tony, who is feeling a little lonely by now, asks again.

”I guess we need to be very careful,” Nick Fury says.

Loki nods absent-mindedly. Then he takes a good aim and kicks in the enforced door.

”My brother kicks like a mule,” Thor, who has often been on the receiving end, says proudly. Then he looks around, no doubt expecting some applause for his sibling

But despite his cheerful smile, the God of Thunder only gets pointed at by several guns and semi-automatic weapons.

As Tony Stark has foretold, Natasha Romanoff is even aiming two guns at the Asgardians. He wonders if it would be all right to feel proud of his newly found scrying powers.

Perhaps I should ask Loki, Tony thinks. He seems to be our specialist for the occult around here by now.

Meanwhile, Mjolnir twitches slightly in Thor's hand.

For the first time it occurs to Tony that perhaps Mjolnir's presence is not a warning for Loki, but for the people surrounding him.

Damn it, he thinks, we have been so naive.

Because, if Tony considers the situation, there is not much they know about Thor. And what they know he has told them himself. There is a tremendous scope for made-up bullshit of all possible kinds. The first time they met, Thor had simply hit Tony with Mjolnir without even introducing himself, grabbed his brother without a word of explanation, and jumped off the quinjet provided by SHIELD to carry the alien aggressor from Germany back to the USA.

Some attitude, Tony thinks.

It could have been the Asgardian version of Shakespeare in the Park after all.

Especially with Loki choosing to remain at a convenient distance, perched on top of some random rock formation. He was completely unguarded and could have run.

Instead Loki decided to stay, wearing a gleeful smirk on his face, while Thor, Cap, and Tony were fighting each other and exchanging quips.

Tony glances quickly at Natasha who is suddenly looking very thoughtful.

***************

"Shall I go in there now or would you prefer me to wait until Ragnarok?" Loki asks in a not too patient voice.

"Brother, the Norns shall bless you while you seek to protect this realm from evil sorcery," Thor says while gently rocking Mjolnir back and forth.

"Well then," Loki says and struts into what Tony is calling The Chamber of Doom by now.

Iron Man does so on a strictly ironical basis of course.

And then he waits for something exciting to happen.