fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

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."

"I had heard that men lacked stamina in the aftermath of sex," teased Loki, allowing her form to change back to the shape that she found the most natural now that they were done with the intimate portion of the favour she asked of him. She didn't consider that he might feel just as awkward naked and cuddling with her in her usual form.

At least she remembered not to be a Jotnar, for she didn't want this to end with him burned and dead.

"Perhaps I will have to try it one day and see if I also feel the need to sleep immediately afterwards."

It probably ought to have been awkward, a suddenly-twelve year old seeming body in his arms, but it wasn't. Loki was Loki. Or maybe tony was just tired and content and not thinking. Since she'd shrunk, he held her all the more tightly, finding it amusing how her small feet used the tops of his like a platform.

He'd fall asleep that way, maybe murmuring that he was 'open to that too' when she mentioned trying out sex as a man, but he couldn't be sure. The very slight hum of the reactor inside of his chest was always soothing when he let it be, and though JARVIS had offen enough said that he shouldn't be able to feel it, Tony did. Even if he was psychological, he did.

It was a little different now, however, but that was because he had spent many, many lives and many, many realities being linked cosmically to the person he held now, though he would likely never know it.

They would not get more than three hours sleep before a knocking at the door had Loki twisting in Tony's arms and stretching like a cat. She was not bothered by any intrusion, they had done nothing wrong and there needed to be no veil of privacy over their acts. The only thing that stopped her from telling whoever it was to come in, was that these were not her chambers

"Tony? Are you in there?"

That was Bruce's voice. He had waited for Tony to come and get dinner with him after this favour, like he promised, and was still waiting. He had no idea why the two of them might be in Tony's bedroom, but it was the only place he had left to check before he raised an alert that he was missing.

Fuck.

Tony sat straight up and stared at the door as if it had betrayed him. His hair was sticking up everywhere and he absolutely smelled of sex since it clung not only to his skin, but his beard. "Fu... What? Banner? What time is it?" The answer was late because it was dark. "Mmmm... Fell asleep. Sorry."

He lightly shook Loki to make sure she was awake and leaned down to whisper in her ear that now was the time to make like a bird and get out of here. He'd wasted all day not helping out the council so he could fuck the princess he knew was betrothed to someone else and now Banner was here and--

"Loki, go find your brother. He's probably resting in the frozen building. I can get into some real shit if anyone catches you." That was more a hiss than whisper. He let his voice lift again. "Give me five minutes to shower. I'll meet you downstairs?"

If Loki didn't cooperate, there'd be no next time. No one would understand. No one.

Loki looked more than a little hurt at his abrupt dismissal and the way he was so desperate not to be caught with her in his bed. Was he so cowardly that he feared what people might say to one who would sleep with a member of another species? She had not thought that of him, and she had already forgotten the foolish question of age for she was much older than he anyway.

She slipped out of bed and gave him a glare that told him how much trouble he was in, before turning into a bird and flying out of his window without a word.

Bruce, however, knocked again and started to turn the handle to come in. It's not like he was bothered by Tony asleep or even in a state of undress if he happened to be so, though the scent of sex certainly hit him right away when he poked his head inside and took in Tony with his tousled hair.

"Sleeping? Are you sure?"

Not even for a second did he consider who the partner might have been.

Having already told Bruce, brazenly, that he was capable of lying while looking someone in the eye, Tony arched an eyebrow and shrugged. "I did actually fall asleep." That was not the lie. "Obviously I'm not now. Do you mind..? Or are you here for measuring purposes?"

He wasn't fooling Bruce and he hated that he minded that. The guy could probably smell it on him.

So Tony pulled the covers a little closer to his waist and let his frown deepen. "Don't tell me that you suddenly regret saying no to me. Because I already said yes to my hand in your stead." Now that was the lie. But Tony really could only deal with one person pissed off at him at a time these days. "So five minutes. Let me shower and then we'll get dinner?"

It had been a long time since Bruce had even taken care of himself like that for fear of his heartrate rising too much to be safe, but even he knew that masturbation didn't make a whole room smell of sex like this. But it wasn't his business if Tony had managed to find one of the other men or women here to have a dalliance with, it wasn't as though he wasn't well known for it before Pepper.

So he held up his hands in a placating way and took a step back.

"Okay, okay. I'll leave you and your hand to shower, but hurry up because I'm hungry and I've been waiting for you for hours."

What ought to have been a good evening with Bruce ended up being terrible. Tony smiled and made jokes and laughed and ate just fine but his thoughts had split between paranoia of what Bruce might know and anger for having pissed Loki off. The girl shouldn't have been forced to leave, that was not indicative of a good time, but he still believed that he hadn't had a choice.

"So tomorrow for everything Jotnar?" he asked Bruce, over whatever sort of ground meat burger this was. Steve and Bucky and some of the others had already had a salted fish dinner with Helblindi but Tony didn't ask for details on that in case Loki herself came up in the conversation. "Or did Steve already start with the negotiations? Are we even negotiating? They're giving us a new home and maybe a little help saving everyone. What exactly do they expect us to ask for in return? Do we need a no-rape clause or something?"

He ate his burger a little more feircely, gnoshing away at it as if angry at the meat instead of himself.

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