fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

With all of the setbacks they'd been having, letting Bruce get under his skin was not an option. He smiled, genuine enough, at the hand to his arm and then shrugged. "If you call her a shrimp in public, she might cut you. I don't think I can step in there either. Grab me the insulation?"

At least Bruce seemed all right with the explaination that the kiss had meant nothing. They could carry on without ever bringing it up again. That was his genuine hope. He could not lose Bruce. Even if he made this so much harder on himself than it had to be.

"What do you think about another move? Because if we do it it will have to be right after our rescue mission."

"We need to move, a moon this big isn't going to support a population that will probably expand rapidly within three or four generations; especially after we get the people from the training moon back among us again. It's imperative that we take the offer of the Frost Giants and find a new place, safe from this Asgard."

Bruce had only just finished speaking when Loki popped her head around the door with a grin and then inserted the rest of herself, having found who she was looking for.

"There you are, Tony Stark," she said with a smile. "I think that went well, do you not? And you, Bruce Banner, as well."

Though he was more the afterthought, it was Tony who had become her friend.

Though it was in Steve's hands to call a vote, Tony didn't need to be wooed. He wanted to take the Jotnar up on their off and the Jotun King was beyond kind in sending delegates to work out the terms. He had opened his mouth when he heard Loki's voice and a grin broke out in his face.

He wanted Banner in ways he shouldn't and couldn't have him and Loki took that edge off. She was something of a marvel. Clever and chaos but with a good heart and a quick tongue and the fire power behind each threat. He liked that.

It was a good thing that she was young. And promised to Thor. He could keep his dirty thoughts to himself.

"I think it went really well. Jotunheim is pretty cool." He meant that both ways. "Just finishing up a place for you and your brother to hang out. You don't seem to mind the warmth too much but he probably does."

"That is because big brothers are inevitably of a weaker constitution, he needs to be looked after or his delicate sensibilities might be offended by the warmth."

Though Loki's words were teasing, they were obviously underpinned by a genuine affection for her older brother. She had been raised not in competition with them, for she was never for the throne, but with her own talents celebrated in kind. It had shaped what could have been a jealous nature into an affectionate one, for she could not doubt the love her family had shown her.

"May we go somewhere more private. I do not wish to offend Bruce Banner, but I have matters I wish to discuss with you of a personal angle."

She had been thinking about this since she had decided that Tony Stark was a pleasant person who she would not mind counting as a friend.

"Uh, yeah. Almost finished, give me ten minutes to get this baby fired up." Evidently all the teenaged girls still loved him. That was a relief. And also a relief that he didn't have legal reminding him every few days to check IDs before he posed for racy photos with underaged visitors to his tower.

He worked on his welding, quickly, which went fairly well with Bruce's help, and then threw the switch, sending puffs of extremely cold air into the building.

He smirked at Bruce and dropped his tools. "Not running away. I've been summoned by our savior," he pointed out. "Get dinner later? Good, I'll come and find you unless Cap wants us wining and dining everyone."

And with that he hurried after Loki, eyebrow arched.

"Gotta warn you. Most people don't like to talk to me. I'm a little judgey."

Bruce could at least see that this wasn't an avoidance and so he just waved them both off and went to fetch Helblindi to show him to his new cold quarters and let him be comfortable before the council inevitably convened later to officially talk to the delegates who had been named to treat with them. This was a big deal, the sort of thing that would end up being taught in history class centuries from now if they got it right and saved the human race.

Loki waited until they were alone before she fixed Tony with piercing green eyes and jumped straight into a topic that she didn't realise was more taboo with mortals than it was with most other races.

"I would like you to have sex with me, mortals are much closer in size to my future husband than other Aesir, and I do not want to shame myself with pain on our first night together. He will think me undesirable if I'm untouched but, for obvious reasons, I cannot lie with another Jotnar."

They'd break her apart.

Why him? Where was legal at? Shouldn't they have sent a memo by now? Or like... A reminder that he was entering really dangerous water here? Tony didn't stop the surprise from hitting him and hitting him hard.

"I--". Well what did he say? What would be the excuse here? He pressed a hand to his face. "You're cute. But you're a kid. I can't, legally. And.... I'm going to be very honest with you... I don't know if I physically can. Not after what the Asgardians did to me."

He'd expressed this issue in part to Bruce.

"There are a lot of guys that look around your age that would be willing to."

Loki didn't want to sleep with one of the other mortals, she didn't know them or like them, and it would turn this into something more sordid than she wished it to be. She wouldn't force Tony, of course, she was no monster. If he truly couldn't copulate any longer then she would mourn for him, and help him take his revenge on the Aesir when the time was right.

"My age is of no consequence, I am consenting and much older than you. If anything, you are the child to me."

She was, after all, several centuries old.

"Would you be willing to attempt it?"

What did it say about him that he was willing, if only to see if he could. And he felt something for Loki. Maybe it was lust, but mostly it was because they were kindred spirits. And yes. He knew that immediately upon meeting her. The same as Bruce Banner.

"If anyone found out, I'd be killed." He was just throwing it out there. "Maybe... You shape shift right? Can you make yourself look a little older?" You know. With hips. And breasts. And not like a child?

He was damned for even asking but there it was.

Loki tilted her head slightly as she assessed whether he was being literal or hyperbolic about being killed, she decided on hyperbolic after he immediately assessed a way they may be able to go about it. Surely he would not risk his life as a favour to her, not for something like this.

"I suppose that I could model an image on how I might look in another thousand years."

She sounded amused, she had never used her ability to alter such minor things as age, it seemed pointless. But after a moment of concentration and a glow of green light, a distinctly more adult Loki sat on the packing crate by Tony, all long legs and a slender waist.

"Is this more to your liking?"

Well well well. Tony smirked, one shoulder rolled and his hip jutting out. He put his hand on the table next to one of Loki's supple, perfectly thick thighs and grinned up at her. "Yeah. Sure. That'll do I guess," he said, moving himself between her legs. If he could get over this mess with Asgard in his head, he'd be all right. He would work out his sexual tension with Banner and then they could be good again.

This was a win-win... And adding to Loki's needs, another win.

Tony pur his hands on the woman's hips and tilted his head back up towards her. "Is your husband to be gonna be pissed off and kill me for this? Not saying it's a deal breaker but I gotta know. And then we have to find someplace private."

He planned to show the girl a good time. And have one himself.

Loki had never done this before. Though Jotunheim was more open with casual sex than Midgard seemed to be, they were not quite so open as Asgard and it was not seen as normal to simply jump into the furs of anyone for a good time. But for a friend to ask another of this, especially when she was to become the bride of a man who's culture did indulge in casual sex, would not be inappropriate.

Still, she was inexperienced as to what should happen.

"Aesir believe that sex is an activity to be enjoyed between all who consent, not be bound to the marriage bed. That is why I do not want to go to him untouched, he may think there is something wrong with me if I do."

He may think that anyway, she has no idea how he actually feels about a Jotnar bride.

"Thank you, Tony Stark, you are a true friend."

"No. I'm a dirty old man. It's not altruistic." He didn't want Loki to think differently either. He didn't want their friendship to be based on something that wasn't entirely true. "It's complicated," Tony said. "And we don't even know if I can help."

And this probably wasn't the place to do this. Not that his hands were listening. He was desperate to be touched and to touch someone else without being forced to. This wasn't a need to seed someone caused by drugged alcohol and magic. He pulled Loki towards him, until their chests touched, and tilted back his head to draw her into a kiss.

As Bruce could now attest, he was particularly good at that.

"Go to my bed," he breathed when he drew back. "Two floors above where my workshop is. And wait for me there. Don't undress. Don't do anything."

Loki wound her arms around Tony when she was pulled in close and savoured her first kiss, she had none to compare it to but he seemed experienced and the kiss was pleasant. She was prepared to do the act here and now, but he pulled her up just before she could get her hands into his trousers and told her to wait upstairs.

She had no idea why.

And why fully clothed?

Perhaps this had something to do with the traumas he had suffered at the hands of the Aesir, or perhaps he wished to do something foolish like check with her brother that he wasn't committing treason. Either way, she wished for him to be comfortable while doing her this favour, so she nodded and drew away, her hips swaying invitingly as she darted out of the room and up the stairs.

Luckily, the only stupid thing that Tony was about to do was Loki. He took his time getting back to his place and then upstairs. He thought and he thought hard about what he was supposed to be doing and the rights and his his needs outweighed the wrongs.

He was shirtless when he appeared in the door of his bedroom, pants undone but still on. His reactor glowed in the shadow cast by the late afternoon sun coming through his windows. He approached Loki slowly, moving as if suddenly unsure of himself, and paused to crawl into bed, over her body.

His hand cupped her breast and he kissed her again, more sweetly. He knew how to deal with virgins.

And that generally included a certain vulnerability. He did not offer Loki that, however. He would be vulnerable enough. Tony was slow removing the fasteners of the princess' robes. He worshiped exposed skin with hand and mouth. This was not how it had gone with the women on the training moon. This was not feral.

Loki had never done this, but it didn't mean that she had never spoken to her friends about what it was like or that she did not have natural instincts for what to do. She felt her breath quicken with his attention and was swift to return it, her hand sliding over his chest, brushing the reactor, and then down to between his legs.

She allowed Tony to undress her at his pace, revealing creamy pale skin and a lack of any hair below the neck, for Jotnar did not naturally have hair in other places and so it did not occur to her to create any with her shapeshifting.

The silence seemed sweet and she was loathe to break it, so she focused herself instead on cupping the weight of him in her hand and experimenting with what made him react the most favourably.

At least it all worked, springing to life with a touch that left him thanking a god he didn't believe in for giving him back any sort of virility. He'd thought it had been lost, thought he might never want to sleep with another woman again, but that wasn't true at all. Loki handled him with curriousity but not with blind need. He allowed her to have the chance to explore him and offered up explanation when required as something felt fantastic or perhaps needed less attention.

And in return, he made sure that she felt good too, feeling top of the world when she wriggled out an orgasm with his fingers, shifting her hips up and down and then on his tongue.

He wiped his mouth clean when she had finished vibrating with her pleasure and came back to lay on top of her. She was ready for him, Tony had made sure of that, well priked to house him. That didn't mean he wasn't gentle as he entered her, reading the princess for a husband larger and rougher than Tony could ever be.

Loki did not truly understand how lucky she was to have a partner who was concerned with making this as pain free as possible for her first time, she could have had a brute who simply gave in to his desires and rutted into her. Though Thor might be a good man, Aesir were not well known for their subtlety, and perhaps she would have suffered more than she did now.

Some pain, some blood, were both unavoidable, but she did not cry out nor ask him to stop. She was better than some small pain, and the more he moved, the more her body accepted him until it felt better. Only then did she also begin to move underneath him, to try and make this pleasurable for him and make him release.

Perhaps this was dangerous, she may get used to a lover as gentle and careful as Tony.

It was very dangerous. Tony didn't get attached to lovers the way he did to friends but when a friend became a lover? It was not just another layer to glue them together, it was another way to wound him. Tony was not in the best state of mind for this, and perhaps he would realize it at some point, but as he cradled the princess in one arm, lavished her with sweet kisses, and took a shared pleasure in her newly opened womb, all he thought about was how healing this felt.

Tony made sure that Loki came first, her body wrapped around his, before he did, pulling out to deposit his seed on her belly. He had enough illicit children and while he had no idea if she could even conceive a child with him, he wasn't chancing it.

Red faced from effort, panting, and grinning, he rocked himself between her nether lips and kissed her.

If Loki knew that this was a healing experience for Tony as much as he believed it to be so, then she would have been pleased to know that she was also providing a service for him. She would be sure to keep in touch with this mortal of whom she had become so fond, no matter what ended up becoming of their race after the negotiations finished.

When all was said and done, she lay beside him, skin still cold despite their efforts for that was her natural state, and yawned like a cat.

"You have set a standard for my husband to maintain, my friend."

For even she knew that not all lovers were created equally.

"Don't compare me to an Asgardian," Tony said with a laugh. "You'll be disappointed that I was your first." He stroked her hair, having always admired the length women could get to with their locks, and propped his head up on his arm. "But if you want another round or two in the next year before you're up against a prince, you'll know where to find me."

Especially since Loki seemed to be gifted the honor of acting as secondary liaison to her brother. Perhaps starting s sexual relationship with a benefactor wasn't outwardly ideal but the business world often worked like this too.

He took her hand and lightly kissed her knuckles. "And I want to thank you for proving that I'm not broken."

"One day you will break those who tried to break you, and laugh as you watch them burn beneath your revenge."

Loki intended that to be comforting for, to her, it would be. To burn an enemy was the ultimate disgrace and torture for a Jotnar, and those who enslaved others deserved the lowest and meanest deaths available.

"When I was young, my deformity bothered me greatly. I began to see myself as a broken thing, and it was only my mother who told me that any misfortune can become a weapon that allowed me to see that there were advantages as well as disadvantages. Let your misfortune become a weapon for survival."

It wasn't bad advice. He'd even heard something similar before but like most men, he found it so much easier to grasp concepts when he was enjoying a little bit of an afterglow from a more than enjoyable late afternoon. He watched the side of Loki's face before she turned her green eyes on him and he reached out to lightly trace across her lower jaw.

"You're wiser than I am. I'll give you that much," he said, and then pulled her back into his arms to curl around her body. The cool skin felt nice against his own and he lightly stroked her velvet soft arms and thighs.

One shouldn't cuddle with a person you were having favor-sex with. He knew that. Sort of.

"I want to save our people. And maybe then we can work on healing properly."

Loki didn't mind the intimacy of an embrace, she had often laid down in the furs with one of her brothers curled around her or a friend, entirely innocently and usually with clothes on, but this felt little different. Tony was a friend and they had done something much more intimate than merely cuddle, so why would this matter?

"A worthy cause to set your eyes to. I hope that my brother and I can be instrumental in helping your people find a new place to prosper in safety, and then perhaps alliances could be brokered with Asgard and Jotunheim in the future."

By alliances, she naturally meant vassalage, but such was the same for Jotunheim and Asgard. All paid deference to the golden dais, that was simply the natural order of things for Yggdrasil, but Asgard did not rule with a heavy fist or enslave those bound to them.

Tony was already aware that there would be terms. They would fall under Jotunheim's protection and probably have taxes to pay or something similar for use of their land. But from what little Tony saw of how they ruled themselves, he was pretty sure that the remaining humans would flourish under their benefactors. They were fair. And they were kind. But even the most fair and most kind didn't give something for nothing.

But Steve would work that out. And Tony would be there to help him.

Tony set his cheek, scratchy with his unruly beard, against the back of Loki's neck. "I'm sure alliances will be brokered with your people before then." He yawned hotly against her skin. "If I pass out on you, it's not because I'm not interesting in continuing our chats." He loved talking with Loki. "But you've worn a guy out."

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