Snowflake

Adamantium was tough. Adamantium was a bitch. Tony loved every second of it.

The challenge made him think back to his arc reactor problem, the creation of a new element. He had felt like a god back then and he couldn't help but wonder, how it would feel this time, when he will have had figured out, how to coat wires as thin as a single hair with a layer of the most capricious of materials available on earth. But he would, eventually. That much he knew. Tony Stark always found a way.

He would have loved to figure it all out by himself, but time was of the essence, as Loki assured him, so he let the god help a little.

As it turned out, magic was capable of influencing and manipulating more than just fire, water, air and perception. Loki held power over 'every' matter, adamantium included. 'Hacking physics' is what Tony called it, but he knew better than to bring up 'cheating' aswell.

They then learned that even though Loki could manipulate all matter, the one at hand was just as unyielding towards his methods as it had been to Tony's.

With all the information, the Weapon X program had held, long since lost to mankind, there was not really much more to do than start at the beginning and figure this out.

The unspoken challenge that lay in this approach clear to them both, as they entered the silent competition with a grin on their faces and deadly determination in their eyes.

This was going to be fun.

Well, much to both their grievance they had to give up on their little games for the sake of the shield's integrity and Cap's sanity, both seemingly being in some sort of correspondence with each other.

Things progressed quickly after they decided to work together after all, and just a week later they had managed to create an elaborate system that mechanically smelted the metalflakes in a minituarized electrical forge, made by Tony and powered by Loki, who then proceeded to magically transport the delicate substance to evenly coat it over the wires which would have to withstand most of the strain and have them cooled off by an intelligently set-up system of fans and coolers, courtesy of Tony Stark.

When all was done the construct didn't really look that different, the thin coating just a touch shiny, more silvery than before. But the two tired men knew what work had gone into this, and so they enjoyed their moment. All 50% of it, respectively. Looking at the finished piece, the thought slowly kicked in. Finished, actually done with and ready to use before them lay a harness that was capable of controlling and directing a power so universal, so 'endless', it was hard to wrap one's mind around. And all that in 'their' hands, truly unbelievable.

Tony slung an arm around the other man's waist and pulled him close.

"Well done."

Loki kept his gaze fixed on the glowing cube on top of the iridium-hand, but he smiled.

"You didn't do so bad, either."

Wow, that was nearly a compliment. Tony was over getting offended by statements like that. Had to be, otherwise he would have walked out ages ago.

"I couldn't have done this without you."

Well, that admission one did not expect to hear from a god, Tony smiled to himself.

"Now we only have to see if it works."

"Yes."

Something in Loki's voice sent shivers down Tony's spine, but he couldn't for the life of him put his finger on it.

The god stepped forward and reached out, his hand hovering over the Tesseract in its cage and his face stilled in a mask of concentration as his mind expanded, communicated.

"Yes!"

His eyes opened in a flash, the pure blue of the Tesseract swimming over his usual gaze, which was now without focus, reaching out into dimensions and galaxies farther away than Tony would ever begin to understand. Then he pulled away completely and it was gone, the light in his eyes back to normal. Sort of.

The eerie feeling remained and Tony now recognized what it was. Age. The god was old, ancient. He knew this. Why was this a surprise? Why did it put him off the way it did now? Why hadn't it before?

Well, he remembered. Back in Stuttgart, later in the helicarrier and then again in the quinjet. It had been there, the ancientness of this divine being, the danger of age, the unthinkable power that came with each year-ring, so many of them, that they seemed to form silent ripples just underneath his skin, like an invisible rainbow, an aura.

Suddenly he smelled of danger again, of poison and deceit and Tony was completely and utterly lost under that sense of godliness, that washed over him.

Where was approachable Loki? Waking-up-next-to Loki? That was wrong, something was not the way it was supposed to be, he felt it. And then Loki looked him in the eye, dead-on.

And then he knew. Part of his mind clicked, and there it was. 'He's above me.' A simple thought, a logic conclusion. One, he had known of all along, no big deal, right? Wrong. Because now he felt it. His mind tried to reason, that this was the Tesseract's might running through the guy, but Tony knew better. He had tasted Loki on several occasions, he knew the scent, the feel of his essence, his magic, his character. He knew Loki, and this was him. Stronger, older, so intense it burned your eyes out if you looked at it too long.

"Anthony."

The name was said with a casual smile on the porcelain face, that towered over him, but he might as well have screamed it down onto him with all his might.

Tony wanted to speak, wanted sounds and words to come from his lips, but they wouldn't. He choked on the air he tried to breathe. Awestruck was the only word that fit his description. Either that or he was having a stroke.

The god laughed at him. With him, for him. He did not know, he did not care. There was a laugh and it rang deeper than it should. Then there was a hand on his shoulder, a gentle touch, a light squeeze and it might just as well be a dragon's tail coming down onto him. A dragon, that was fitting.

He was pulled close, the air tasted intoxicatingly Loki, he could not breathe, did not dare to. His t-shirt clad chest met chilly leather and a hand found his chin, angled his head up, and then there were lips and the world exploded. Kissing a god. The word's had been on his mind often, usually accompanied by a smug smile. This was... nothing like it. This was kissing the center of the earth, the sky in its entirety compressed into those soft lips that pressed so gently on his own. 'Don't faint!', he thought, and then he did.

---

He awoke to the sound of ozone. Smell! The smell of ozone. Did ozone have a smell? It smelt of energy, the pure kind. Or was it a taste? He felt it with all his senses, it surrounded him, and when he opened his eyes he remembered why.

Loki was on the prowl a couple of meters away from Tony, who currently lay on the floor in an undignified heap, discarded.

In the back of the room, Loki. Like a caged animal he was rushing back and forth in front of the Tesseract, he wore full armor, his face maniacally driven by motives yet unknown to Tony.

What he did know, now, was the difference that he felt, still. Back in Stuttgart there had been old and ancient but it had been laced with weariness and exhaustion. It had made him look more dangerous, like a cornered beast, but fact of the matter was, now he had regained his power, he was brimming with magical energy, this sort of danger could be felt. Pure might, the danger didn't lie in the possibility to lash out unpredictably, it was, well, still there, but it did not matter one bit if you expected the attack or not, because there was no such thing as dodging anymore.

He had to say something, make a connection. He knew he could, this was Loki. His Loki, after all.

"Hey."

That was a start. Then a head was turned and eyes met his.

"Hey."

Well that was sort of anti-climatic.

"You have regained quite a lot of power, haven't you. Did you draw it from the Tesseract?"

The answer was a smile, no more. A show of teeth, that made Tony so very uneasy.

"I mean, just asking... I can feel the power on you, it's so different."

"Are you scared?"

The god sounded way too pleased with himself.

"Should I be?"

A laugh, sharp as a knife and ice-cold.

"Oh, yes.", he shook his head and chuckled to himself, "I do not wish you harm, though. And I did not draw this energy from the Tesseract, she is not ready yet. I am still communicating, arguing, one could say. We will get there eventually."

This was maddening. Tony had all but forgotten how it felt to be truly at his god's mercy.

"To answer your question: I have replenished part of my energy in my time on earth. This is still only little of what I can do, it would take one such as me years to truly regenerate to my full potential, the initial travel through the raw Tesseract had me drained to the core. And to that other question, that is so adorably evident in those pretty eyes of yours: I hid my true potential in order to avoid causing you discomfort. I'd rather let you cherish the illusion of me as your equal, as long as I had need of you."

He spat the last words, obviously hating the sound of it.

Tony was, again, at a loss of words.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. It was not all a lie, I do enjoy your company and I would keep you with me, for now. After all, your proficiency with this tower of yours did come in handy at a couple of occasions. And then there are the other... assets."

He finally left the Tesseract to the little tantrum she was seemingly throwing at the moment, and came towards Tony in long, purposeful strides.

When he stopped he towered above him for a whole minute, until he finally had pity on the broken figure to his feet and knelt in front of him.

A slender hand reached out and cupped his cheek, Loki's power felt as nothing but a soothing sizzle on his skin and he noticed his mind relaxing against the other's presence, filled by him.

Wait, was he getting drugged? The thought nothing but a flash in his already sunken consciousness and then it was gone.

"What the hell!"

That was Clint's voice. Clint was here. The hand left him and suddenly everything began to clear again. The sudden return of awareness shook him to the core and with a start he sat upright.

There was fear where fear had been long overdue, and he thought of runnning. Thing was, his legs wouldn't move.

He saw Loki as he edged closer to Clint. The preditorial look on his face reduced him to his most primal instincts and all he could do was cower and be thankful it wasn't him those hungry eyes flayed alive.

Clint was not as sensible. The look on his face clearly showed that he knew something was up, but he did not have the sense to run. Why did he not flee? Tony wanted to scream but... he didn't.

"The hell, Loki? Did you get the Tesseract working? Is this what this is?"

The god laughed, an unholy sound that shook Tony's spine.

Behind them Natasha had appeared. She noticed instantly, and she screamed.

Uncoherently so, but it did not matter. Too late.

Like a shadow Loki had edged forward and then he was on Clint, held his head in both hands and with a smile, he twisted.

The ugly sound would never leave. Even as the body fell, it struggled, flailed in horror. The neck was distorted horribly, his face looking at Tony from above his shoulder blade with unseeing eyes and a mouth that closed and opened, fighting for breath. Then it stilled. And Loki laughed. And Natasha ran. And Tony was lying there, nothing but a helpless pile of flesh, that found himself at the mercy of a blood-thirsty god, whom he had called lover once.

---

I'm sorry, I guess.