Chapter Text
“Hit the deck!”
Tony barely managed to dodge the arrow Clint fired before it sailed right past where his head had just been. It hit the gremlin square in the chest, and- okay, seriously? What had his life come to if that’s not the weirdest thing the Avengers had fought this week?
He winced as it shrieked in pain. “Watch it bird brain!” he snapped, turning around and finishing the monster off with a repulsor blast before it could decide to attack him.
“You watch it!” Clint shot back. Without missing a beat, he continued to fire arrows from his perch on top of a fire escape, almost too fast for Tony to see. “Seriously, Tony, would you just stay the hell out of my line of fire for five fucking minutes?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Tony countered, “Can these damn things leave me the hell alone!?”
The answer, apparently, was no, because at that exact moment about a dozen more of them decided to try throwing one another at Tony from where he hovered ten feet in the air. He swore and fired at them, scowling as they dodged and laughed maniacally. Small as they were (three feet tall and ugly as fuck ) they were apparently too much for SHIELD to handle. No surprise there, Fury’s people probably couldn’t stop the minions from ‘Despicable Me’. Not that Loki would be nice enough to give them something easy to work with.
Speaking of which...
“Anyone got eyes on Loki?” Natasha asked over the comms. Tony wasn’t quite sure where she had positioned herself in all the chaos. He never was actually, and found it better not to ask, not even during the post-battle debriefing (assuming he didn’t manage to escape before Steve or Fury could catch him slipping away).
“Negative,” Steve responded, grunting as he fought back a horde of the little green devils, working tirelessly to keep them from entering a building. A group of civilians was hiding inside of it, and Tony could hear incoherent shrieks and cries of terror every time one of the little bastards managed to get past the door before Steve could knock it away. “Keep your eyes open,” he ordered. “We don’t know what Loki’s objective is.”
Tony scoffed as he quickly came to Steve’s aid, blasting the last of them away, much to the crowd's relief. He gave cap' a cheerful salute, then began focusing on the much larger horde making their way towards a bakery.
Objective, he thought. Right. As if Steve doesn’t know Loki’s so-called objective by now.
For the past few months, Loki had been randomly popping up with some new kind of magical minion for shits and giggles, and had done absolutely nothing but terrorize the citizens of New York with - mostly - harmless pranks and jump scares.
Tony had enjoyed it to a small extent at first. Once Thor had explained the whole debacle behind the invasion - from Loki being brainwashed to his shitty backstory - he'd begun to look towards the mage with less malice. Loki turned out to be pretty clever and fun when he wasn’t actively trying to take over the world. Not to mention he was by far the most entertaining of all the villains the Avenger’s faced, and Tony enjoyed both physically and verbally sparring with him. But after four, Goddamn months of this combined with the other constant shit that he and the Avengers had to face, Tony was just so fucking tired of it.
Tired of the Goddamn press showing the media only every fucking mistake he made during a fight. Tired of being the one to pay for all the damages, only to be told ‘it’s not enough'. It was never enough.
Tired of swooping in to save the day, only to later get yelled at by Fury for ignoring orders, reprimanded by Pepper and Rhodey for being reckless, and given Cap’s customary speeches of what Howard would think of his behavior.
And most, most, most of all, he was tired of everyone leaving him.
After everything was said and done, the villain was caught, the city was saved - what a load of shit, there was always tomorrow - Tony would watch despondently as the rest of the team went to their separate floors before he took the elevator ride alone to an empty penthouse, where he could only imagine sleep would find him. Very next day: rinse, wash, repeat.
Tony sighed. It just, well, sucked that his life was this routine by now. He never asked for things to be the way they were, and Loki’s antics were only adding unwanted stress and frustration to the mix.
“I’d like to set his teeth on fire,” he muttered to himself. He wanted this fight over yesterday, and if he had to kick the god’s immature ass, then so be it. Tony was done playing his games.
“Uh, Tony?” Bruce said.
Tony paused midair. “What’s up Bruce?” he asked, frowning at how hesitant his science buddy sounded. “Look, I don't think we’re going to need you to go green today. Things are looking pretty okay for the most part.”
It was true. Most of the gremlins were either dead or were slowly being herded by the rest of the team to SHIELD agents, waiting patiently to help pick the stragglers off.
A pause. “Well, um, that’s good, but it’s not about that.”
“Then what?” Tony asked swooping down to tear a monster away from the chihuahua it had been about to viciously maul. “No good coffee on the helicarrier? Fury’s riding up your ass? You’re disappointed Natasha’s top hasn’t been ripped to shreds by now?”
That earned him an indignant shout from Steve, but it was worth it when Tony also heard a responding snort from Clint and gained him a playful eye roll from Natasha - who had popped out of nowhere and was now close enough to give him both that and the finger before she used the same hand to break a gremlins neck.
“N-no,” Bruce stuttered, clearly flustered. “It’s, well, it’s-”
“Yeah?”
A sigh. “It’s your tower.”
That made Tony pause, suddenly very interested to know just what the fuck Bruce was talking about. “What about my tower?”
Suddenly, Cling burst out laughing. “Oh, oh my God. Tony, you are going to lose your shit when you see this!”
“See what?” Tony demanded, speeding in the direction of his tower; his home. A second later, he rounded a building and stopped short, hovering as he stared uncomprehendingly at his tower.
It was green. The entire tower was an obnoxious shade of emerald green, one that matched the armor of a certain space mage to a ‘t’.
Tony shot forwards, seething as he came to a hard landing on the roof. “That cocky, narcissistic, son of a-”
“Tony!” Thor shouted indignantly, coming to land beside him, Mjolnir sparking threateningly in his hand.
Tony sighed, pushing his faceplate up so Thor could see how unimpressed he was. “Point Break, you know I’m not trying to insult your mother when I call Loki that. I know you know that.”
“Hmm, yes, well, Thor has never been all that bright,” a familiar voice drawled from behind them. “Between the two of us, I do believe he was dropped the most during infancy.”
Tony turned around and fired.
Loki leaped out of the way, but the repulsor beam managed to catch the tail end of his cape. He gave Tony a scandalized look.
“Does my attire truly offend you that much?” he questioned, fingering the singed cloth between two fingers. “I think you’ll find it’s a far better sight than those unseemly rags you chose to wear on a daily basis, Stark.”
Tony scowled and pushed his faceplate back down, not bothering to dignify that jab with a response. Loki frowned, but before he could say anything else, Thor stepped forward.
“Brother, call off the monsters,” he demanded. The air crackled with electricity around them, but Loki didn’t really seem to care.
“Not now, Thor,” the mage reprimanded him. He was peering at Tony as if he were some sort of puzzle he was trying to solve. “I haven’t time for you or your continued delusions that we are kin.”
Thor looked like he was about to argue that fact, but at that moment Loki mumbled something under his breath and flicked his wrist. Green tendrils of magic shot forwards and hit Thor square in the chest, knocking him onto his back. In his surprise, Thor had dropped Mjolnir, and Loki took advantage of that by having his sieder curl around Thor’s hands, forcing them closed. Tony watched as the god of thunder desperately tried to call his hammer to him, but it was to no avail. With his fists closed, Thor couldn’t actually grasp the handle, and it slammed uselessly against his knuckles over and over again.
Loki turned to Tony, as if he were expecting him to laugh or make a sarcastic remark about the situation, but all Tony did was activate a device he had all the Avengers place on themselves recently, and disrupted the mage’s magic on Thor entirely.
Now Loki looked downright affronted. “Really Stark, I expected this level of rudeness from the captain or perhaps the beast, but certainly not from you.”
“I live to disappoint,” Tony deadpanned, opting to step back to let Thor, who had gotten to his feet and was storming over angrily, do his thing.
“Loki,” he growled, “Stop this madness, or I’ll-“
“Be forced to have the good captain throw his shield at my head? Because,” Loki smirked, “I do believe he’s already done that.”
Thor had about three seconds to look confused, before Natasha shouted: “Incoming!” over the comms.
Tony didn’t really have time to wonder how or when Steve had gotten up there. Instead, for the second time that day he found himself ducking down to avoid a projectile. Glowing green with Loki’s magic, Cap’s shield swept past him and rammed itself into Thor, knocking him off the building. A second later, it came back around and hit Steve, who, luckily, was able to land on the patio of Tony’s floor before he could become America’s first super-pancake.
Tony let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding once he realized Steve was okay, only to tense again as he heard Loki move closer behind him.
“I do so detest spring cleaning,” he tsked. “But I suppose if one wishes to get rid of the pests, they have to do it themselves.”
Tony clenched his fists, seething, and turned around to face the god. “What’s it going to take, Loki?” he demanded, stalking forwards.
Loki frowned and cocked his head to one side, brow furrowed in confusion. “I beg your pardon?”
Tony grit his teeth, and, against the better judgment he never claimed to have, had his suit retract from around him. “What’s it gonna take, to make you leave?” he elaborated, stepping away from the protection of his armor. He stopped just as he came chest to chest with Loki, glaring up at him. “For this little shit fest to end?”
Now Loki looked down right affronted. “Shit fest?” he repeated incredulously.
Tony bared his teeth, getting more and more pissed off with each passing second. “Get. The fuck. Off. My tower.” He punctuated each of his words with a shove, and, surprisingly, Loki let him manhandle him until they were both standing at the edge of the building. “Now!”
With a final push, Loki’s feet met air, and Tony watched as he fell; a mockery of the moment he had been thrown by the very same mage he now watched plummet below. Only, unlike Tony’s rather traumatizing experience, neither he nor Loki were really that worried. With a frown Tony thought looked rather petulant, Loki snapped his fingers. A moment later, a flash of green seider warped around his body, blinding Tony momentarily. When he could finally see again, Loki was gone.
He didn’t reappear anywhere Tony could see him.
Coward, he thought.
Over the coms, he could hear the others saying that the gremlins had all vanished, and, looking down once more, Tony noted that his tower wasn’t green, but rather it’s natural color.
The sight of it didn’t make him feel any better.
Turning on his heel, he walked silently into his home. Everyone kept trying to ask him if he was all right - over Thor’s outraged shouting at him having the audacity to even attempt to kill Loki - but Tony ignored all of it. Instead of answering, he entered the elevator, and headed down to his lab.
“Jarvis, set everything to lockdown mode,” he muttered tiredly once he had stepped inside. His bots tried to greet him as he walked by, but once he grabbed the emergency scotch he kept under his desk, they all backed off. They knew their creator didn’t like to be bothered once he started drinking.
Tony felt a pang in his chest at that, but he ignored it. Instead, for the next few hours, the inventor focused on getting drunk, and hating himself and everything he had become.
“Wake up.”
Tony groaned, not bothering to open his eyes. “Leave me alone, Cap,” he mumbled. He could feel, tiredly, that his face was pressed down against his desk; the cot in the corner of the lab apparently too much effort for his previously drunken self to get to. “‘m not in the mood for whatever bullshit training you have planned for today.”
His hangover was nearly out of his system, and he just needed a few more hours of sleep to get rid of the worst of the migraine. Then it was back to being sober, to being a hero.
“I’m afraid you’re mistaken, Stark,” Steve chuckled.
Wait, Steve doesn’t chuckle.
“Although,” not Steve continued. “I feel flattered on the captain’s behalf that you believe his voice sounds similar to mine.”
Tony froze, every muscle in his body tightening into a sharp coil. Slowly, every so slowly, he opened his eyes.
Low and be-fucking-hold, Loki was standing over him, teeth bared in a sharp grin.
In a flash, Tony sat up and threw himself as far away from the mage as he could, arm extended to bring a gauntlet to him. Nothing happened, and he growled at Loki’s amused smirk.
“An eye for an eye, I do believe is how the midgardian saying goes,” he taunted, snapping his fingers. To Tony’s outrage, the room grew brighter, leaving him raw and exposed beneath Loki’s gaze. “You have, quite impressively, I’ll admit, managed to damper a small portion of my sieder with your devices here. It only seems fair that I should limit your aid as well, wouldn’t you agree?”
“Fuck you,” Tony spat, grabbing a wrench from one of his work stations and holding it in front of himself threateningly. “I don’t know what you thought you’d accomplishing by coming here, but you’ve got another thing coming if you think I’d go down without a fight!”
He watched as Loki stared at him assessingly for a few beats before shaking his head in disbelief. “Honestly Stark, have you truly come to think so little of me that you believe I would slit your throat as you sleep?” He took a step forward, slowly, and Tony involuntarily took an according step back. “I did not come here with the intention to sabotage or slay you.”
“Then why the fuck are you here?” Tony demanded, holding his ground even as the mage came within arms reach of him. Their proximity allowed Tony to watch as Loki’s stare grew a little distant, as if the trickster were remembering something horrible.
“The events that transpired during our last battle seemed all too similar to the invasion, wouldn’t you agree?” he murmured.
Tony scowled in annoyance. Of course. “If this is about pushing you off the building-”
“As I said, an eye for an eye,” Loki interrupted. “I do not truly fault you for that action, Stark. It was an atonement I was grateful to pay, in actuality.”
Tony had only been half listening, half paying attention at that point, trying to figure out how to make it out of his lab alive, but that made him pause. “Say what now?” he asked dumbly.
Loki sighed, looking, for the briefest of instances, guilty. “As I’m sure Thor has told you,” he began, walking past Tony in favor of examining the lab as he spoke, “I was under the influence of the mind stone during the Chitauri’s attack. I was still present enough to be aware of what was happening, however, and had retained a small level control over my actions. When we first met, I thought you to be nothing but a nuisance; a coward trying to hide from the battle I wished for you to achieve victory in, so as to free me from Thanos.”
He paused by a suit of armor, placing a hand over the chest plating, before turning to face Tony again. “I find it unforgivable, now, that I so carelessly tossed aside the one, brilliant mind on this dull planet.”
Tony swallowed hard, resisting the urge to check his own forehead to see if he was running a fever. Was, was he dreaming this? Or was Loki actually apologizing to him?
“But no, Stark,” Loki continued, seeming to have dropped all sympathies in favor of glaring at him again. “I am not moaning over the fact that I was pushed from your tower. I am here because you were the one who did so.”
Tony had to repeat what a Loki said in his head a few times before it made any sense. Once it did, he scoffed. “Wait, you only have a problem with it because I did it? What kind of twisted, half-fucked logic is that!? We both knew you’d be fine, and besides! It’s not like you did anything to stop me.”
“Because of what I saw in your eyes,” Loki countered. “The anger, the-” he clenched his teeth. “Despair. I could scarcely believe you were the same person, especially so after the actions you took against me.”
That… well, Tony didn’t really know how to respond to that.
“I have let myself enter the same emotional turmoil you were in, Stark, and that allowed me to fall down a much darker path than I could have ever previously envisioned. I would rather you did not meet the same fate.”
“And how exactly do you plan on preventing that?” Tony asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
Loki was still for a moment before he took a step forward. Then another, and another. Something had shifted in his gaze, and Tony couldn’t find fault in himself for trying to keep his distance this time. “Loki?” he asked, continuing to shift backwards even as the distance between himself and the wall behind him grew shorter. “What are you doing?”
Loki gave him a smile that was probably meant to be reassuring, but it only succeeded in creeping the fuck out of him. “I have decided to correct this by, alleviating your stress, so to speak.”
Wait. “What?”
Loki chuckled, his smirk slow and… seductive?
“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you? Such a clever mortal.”
Before Tony could even protest that, Loki rushed forwards, pressing him bodily against the wall and grabbing his wrists; slamming Tony’s hands on either side of his head. Tony gasped, too caught up with the fact that Loki was caging him in to really think to fight back. He felt trapped, helpless, and he could only swallow as the mage’s eyes swept over his body before coming back to meet his stare. Then, Loki leaned closer still and whispered into his ear.
“I want you.”