Snowflake

The need for company had become stronger and stronger over the last few days.

Loki's sudden change in demeanor did not keep Tony from longing for the little moments of escape they shared. If anything, it made him need it more.

He suspected the reason for Loki's more affectionate side to be Tony's acceptance of his male form. That's the only explanation he had and he did not plan on correcting Loki's understanding of the situation.

He had wanted pain, wanted the pleasure without physical attraction, if that was possible. He really, really had not expected what he had gotten instead.

Acceptance. He knew it to affect the so-called outsiders most of all people. He was one himself, he had to know. And he constantly sought acceptance for whatever he did. Nothing he liked to admit to anyone, but he was well aware of it.

Pepper accepted him just the way he was. She acknowledged strength and weakness alike and she stayed by his side, no matter what choices he made. And he loved her so dearly for it, it scared him.



And now he might just have given Loki something the god had needed. A mere mortal like him. Under any other circumstance this might have freaked him out, but.. well, he needed Loki. He had given up on denying it. And so it happened, that he found himself lying underneath the god once again, the remnants of mind-blowing sex rendering them both unable to move.



"They will not wait much longer."



Loki's voice, as quietly as the words were spoken, sounded harsh in the comfortable silence that had engulfed them after their love-making.



"Chitauri.", Tony stated and felt the man on top of him shiver at the mere sound of it.



"Yes. We need to move soon. My power has replenished. I would rather call them sooner than later. If they so much as suspect my betrayal, they might not come when I call."



"Excuse me. Why would that be a bad thing again?"



"Because I promised them something. Something they need very badly. If I do not call them through the Tesseract they will find their own way of transport and when they do, we will not know when or where they will hit. We need this advantage dearly if we-"



"Alright, point taken. We call them. How?"



"I have it all set up. Selvig should be ready by now. All we need now is to contact your team and tell them, what they need to know."



Tony sighed and held the other closer. He was scared and this was exactly the moment he was scared of. What if the Widow had not come back? What will they say? Will they believe him? Will they think, that he truly switched sides? Which he sort of had, only, that Loki had switched sides before him, so they were basically still on the same side, but would they believe that as he had? And he noticed his mind was running in sloppy circles again, so he decided to stop.



"Let's get up and going then."



He attempted to begin by standing, long limbs untangled themselves from his own and he finally managed an upright position..

Loki magicked them both clean and in decent shape to leave the house, then donned his golden armor.



"Going to battle or something?", Tony teased and was rewarded with a cocked eyebrow that said 'duh' and nearly made him smile, weren't it for the implications this might have.



"I am guessing my friends will not be too thrilled to face you in full battle-gear. You can magick it on quickly enough, right? Maybe just meet them all casually like, you know, non-threatening?"



Loki did not seem comfortable with the idea of facing his foes without proper protection. Just as anxious as Tony was, to face them without his Iron Man armor. His friends. The good guys, and he half expected them to attack on sight. Lovely.



"See, I will get them to meet me at Stark Tower. My armor is there, so I will not be useless if something goes down. Alright?"



After a long, contemplative look Loki finally nodded.



"Stark Tower is quite alright. This is where we will make our stand anyway."



Some sort of noise, most likely a gasp with words of denial half-spoken and mixed in somewhere, escaped the open mouth of Tony Stark, proud owner of Stark Towers.



"Why the hell would we do that? That Tower is new and very, very costly. I do not want an alien invasion at my doorstep! My very costly doorstep!"



Loki only laughed at that.



"Don't be so petty. You have more than enough money to build ten more of those towers. I need the energy, fused with the Tesseract, to open a portal of that size, over that kind of distance. They are not waiting around in this galaxy, not even close. This is nothing like my coming to Midgard, which was a hell of a trip, mind you."



Tony held his hands up in defeat.



"If it can't be changed... let's just hope we defeat them, before they reach my villa in Malibu. I like that place."



To that Loki just grinned. The sort of wicked grin, that said more than it should, and Tony did not like it.



"I would rather save my power and get to Stark Tower the normal way, if you don't mind."



"I don't, but people know me. And as I know Fury, he might just have gotten word out, that I was wanted or something. You can do your shapeshift thing, me- Well."



"They will not see you, I will take care of that. A simple spell I can still muster the energy for. I'd just rather not waste magic where it is not needed."



"I understand, let's take the cab then."



Loki went as his usual, female self, Tony stayed the way he was, though people constantly averted their eyes whenever their glance was just about to meet him. It was creepy, but he would not complain. Whatever got the job done.



It did not take them long to get to their destination. Tony had already had JARVIS call the Avengers, sans Fury, and had him alter the security protocol to let said party in when they arrived.

Wondrously, all the others were already assembled up in his lounge, when he and Loki arrived.

The god had the sense to make Tony noticeable and himself female again. Otherwise the results of the encounter might have strayed a little from the way they were intended.

Tony did not neglect to pick up his bracelets and let JARVIS get his suit ready. He saw his hands shaking, as he put them on, and it was undeniably hard to keep himself from gripping Loki's hand to seek the comfort that he had gotten so used to.

No, he would have to deal with this on his own.



"You might want to stay outside, let me talk to them first.", he warned and was ignored, which he commented on with a shrug. It was worth a try.



And so they walked in side by side. The looks it got them ranged from confusion to rage with tints of flat out disgust here and there.

But most importantly, the Widow was there.

Tony ran towards her and caught her in a big hug. He let her struggle for a couple of seconds, before he let himself be pushed at arm's length and regarded with an angry look, that rivaled the one Hawkeye was throwing Loki at the moment.



"I am so glad you are alive. Was it really the Antarctic? I am so sorry, I never wanted this to happen, you have to believe me."



He babbled, he did not care that he did.



"Shut it, Stark. You better explain yourself and better make it a good one. We pretty much vouched for your sanity by leaving S.H.I.E.L.D out of this."



And so Tony explained, not without getting himself a nice glass of whisky and strutting across the room the entire time.

When he was done everyone was, well, at least not murderous, as far as he could tell.



"I don't know what their weakness is. He wouldn't tell me."



He threw Loki a glance in mock annoyance and the god smiled sweetly in return.



Everyone tensed as he moved towards the window, cautiously so, regardful of the hands that hovered over potential weapons.

When he had reached Tony's side he turned and faced them, his shoulder brushing Tony's ever so slightly in the process.



"I am most grateful for your trust."



Hawkeye snorted, Steve frowned, the Widow looked ready to bare her teeth at him and Thor, Thor tried to keep his features as impassive as he could, failing horribly to do so. His face awash with worry, rage, sorrow, mistrust and a good portion of joy at seeing his brother alive and well. Only Bruce Banner managed to keep himself pure zen, as he watched on.

Loki tried his best to ignore them all. Not an easy task, as he was currently talking to them.



"I need the Chitauri gone just as you do, you need to understand that. They will be coming through a portal above us on my cue, so we will know where and when the will hit. Regarding their weakness-"



Thor had stood up and all but stomped towards his brother, electricity sparking at his hands.



"There is none! You know this, I know this. Everyone knows this! The Chitauri can not be defeated by such as us. This is madness!"



Loki dodged the hand, that had attempted to grip his shoulder and pull him into the certain doom that was a thundergodly bear-hug.



"Gamma-ray, you big fool. Beyond your understanding, I am sure. But this is how it can be done. Their armor is weak to it, as is everything they build with. Weapons, even their ship will become brittle and break under it. All we have to do is find a way to direct it, use it for our purpose. We have Stark to help us with this."



He put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed lightly, the gesture so much more intimate than it looked.

It helped.



Tony managed to stand up straight and throw a beaming smile at all the frowny faces around.



"Bruce! We will work together on this one. Loki? How long do we have?"



"I can probably hold them off for one more day, but no longer."



"Alright! A challenge. I like challenges. JARVIS, Coffee, in the lab, now. Banner, with me."



With this they left to work on a way to integrate gamma-rays into a weapon easy enough to wield for all of them.

Surely no problem for the combination of one of the leading physicists on the matter of gamma radiation and the former Merchant of Death, as he had been dubbed by the media.



Loki stayed behind and tried his best to look unfazed by the enemies surrounding him.

When it came down to it Thor would protect him, that much he was sure of. Without Iron Man and the Hulk in the equation things were looking good for him one way or the other.

He had seen the Captain fight, impressive for a human, but surely not someone he should be wary of.

A big armchair by the table caught his interest and he claimed it as nonchalantly as he could, a cocky smile plastered on his face, as he sat down next to Widow and Hawkeye.



He bit back a penguin-related taunt and kept silent. He had to survive in between these people for near 25 hours now. It would not be a good idea to start fighting this early, as inevitable as it probably was.



And so they all just stared at each other, fake smiles and wary glances were thrown in plenty, and somewhere else two men were working on a gun, that might well be earth's only hope.



And in another galaxy the enemy host was waiting to be called, ready to attack at any given time.



Soon.

 

 

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Woohoo, new chapter. I am not used to updating this regularly.

Things are finally starting to get really interesting around here.