fossilised | I come from a land of ice and snow

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.

"No, you're right, we're going to negotiate tomorrow. Both Steve and Prince Helblindi thought that everyone should be present, all council members and Princess Loki as well, since they both have negotiating powers."

Steve and Helblindi had actually got on very well, they both had the same sense of duty and moral upstanding ideals that let them see eye-to-eye very easily. Helblindi had also taken a shine to Bucky, just because he was obviously a strong and silent warrior who looked out for the ones he loved, he could respect that.

"Speaking of Princess Loki, what was the favour she wanted to ask you?"

Tony didn't really think that Bruce wouldn't remember and ask, did he?

"It was personal," Tony said, as if Bruce was suddenly the rudest person in the world for even asking. "I like her enough to want to be trustworthy. And all we need is an act of betrayal to ruin this deal we've got going. Sorry, Banner. You're just going to have to stay curious forever." But what could a seemingly teenage girl ask of an older man? Tony's mind immediately went to sex and he assumed that Bruce's did too. Shit. "Oh all right. You twisted my arm. She's engaged. Evidently you're supposed to give your hubby to be something nice on your wedding night."

And that didn't help get the topic away from sex! Fuck!

"I'm making him armor. Like mine. I'll probably make her a set too. Evidently my craft is better than the dwarves. I think that's a knock against my size. Frost giant joke. Ha. When's the thing tomorrow? I have a lot of work to do."

Oh god. Why was he suddenly acting like an idiot?!

Bruce's eyebrows just hiked higher and higher during this very odd interlude of Tony rambling nonsensically. He did ramble, often, but usually with a wit and a purpose that this didn't have, it seemed more like the rapid nervous speech of someone trying to cover something up.

Was it something to do with who he'd ended up having sex with? Someone Loki had introduced him to? Or maybe guilt that he had been slacking off having sex while he'd been commissioned to build armour to fit someone like Thor? That was more like it.

"Calm down, Tony, why are you so nervous?" He called it out pretty bluntly, it was good for Tony to have someone who could see through him and didn't put up with his bullshit.

"Why?! Because I'm having trouble with everything. It's one thing after another anymore. Another version of Loki owns another version of me but I really like her. She's smart and she's chaotic and i want to be friends with her. And it's not the first time! Another version of you dragged me down to a room full of women once a week and held me down and-- Ans you're my best friend, plus I'm not so secretly harboring feelings for you that I know you know I know you know about." Yep. Nervous and nonsensical ramblings were a go today. "And now we're moving. Again. I get all of my stuff set up and poof! Gotta go to a whole new world. Again. Cap and Buck are married like its some fairytale and I don't know where I'm going to find closure because I feel ashamed at how easily and quickly I'm just getting over everything. Like its so god damned simple. So let me have my issues. You're a help but banging it all out in metal is a bigger help. Hardware is cathartic. It can't always be some thought experiment."

He picked up his tray and just left Bruce there, staring after him. Tony really couldn't blame the guy. He'd just gone to crazy town on the what the fuck express with a first class accommodation.

He needed a moment. Alone.

Edited 2017-07-29 17:42 (UTC)

If Tony had stuck around then Bruce would have been able to tell him that there was nothing wrong with how fast or slow he was processing things, and what mattered was that he was doing better. He shouldn't feel guilty for that. But then he was gone and Bruce had no chance to say anything, he could only watch Tony go with a sigh that echoed around the little canteen area.

He debated going after him, but decided that perhaps Tony needed some space. Instead, he went to Helblindi and politely informed him that he was worried something may have happened between Princess Loki and Tony to set them at odds, it was the only thing he could think of. Tony only usually got that stressed out when he had fallen out with someone important to him.

He had no idea how close to the mark and yet far off he was.

After that, trusting Helblindi to deal with anything that might have come up, he went back to his own bed to sleep and wait for tomorrow's meeting.

Tony was going to kill Bruce. He just was. The man was dead. He couldn't die but Tony would find a way to make it happen. He was a genius. He could do anything. Why would the other man go and meddle? Why would he talk to Helblindi about it? There were a lot of questions but no good answers to that. Other than Bruce wanting to die.

That said, Helblindi went to seek his sister out. He was disturbed that she was making enemies, spreading her chaos, and while that was generally fine at home, their father was looking to them to make this a smooth vassalage.

"Loki?" His voice was like snow and ice, deep but soft.

Loki had gone to nurse her wounds by the nearest river she could find. She always liked the flow of water, it was chaos constrained by the boundaries of the banks, seemingly docile and yet capable of killing. She didn't understand why she had been snubbed so thoroughly by one she had begun to consider a friend, and so she had come here to sit and think.

Helblindi, however, would likely know her thoughts and her patterns and so would find her easily. She looked up at his approach and considered turning into an otter and swimming away to avoid this conversation.

"I have not become lost, you did not need to seek me out."

"Oh my dear sister, worried not was I about your location but about the friendship that had been obviously blossoming between yourself and the mortal dwarven smith. I had thought you two close and now I hear that there has been a falling out of friendship." Helblindi took a seat, slowly, on the much too warm ground. He had an affinity for water as well, it was kind of course to ice and snow, but he did not love it as Loki did. "Once, you would have told me all that worries you. Let us pretend that you are not in your majority, a woman grown, and can still speak to your brother."

He did care for her. Deeply. She was precious to them, yes. Magical and about to join their kingdom fully to Asgard. But they were also close in age enough that they had played as children together. He remember that fondly, until duty forced them to put away their toys and amusements.

"Perhaps I may assist."

Though Loki loved Bylestir, he had always been the baby and had not been as close a confidant as Helblindi, who had been her best friend as well as her brother. She could almost remember them being the same height, when they were both young, but those times had passed not too long after both had learned to walk. Now she could stand and barely reach his waist, but he still felt like the same Helblindi.

"You know that my marriage to Thor is fast approaching," she said, seeing no reason why she should not confide in her brother. "And you know how Aesir view those who have not seen any bed sport. I asked if Tony Stark would assist me by bedding me, for he is of a rough size with an Aesir. He did, but when it was done, he bade me leave in silence and haste when one of his companions arrived, ashamed of what he had done and fearful of being known for it."

This had just stirred up old insecurities long buried. "I know not if he felt shame for bedding one not a mortal, or if it was for my deformities, but shame was clearly felt."

He feared that Thor would feel that same shame. He was to be a King, the All-Father, might he not feel slighted that Jotunheim had sent him a runt for a bride?

"Hmmmm..." It seemed to take Helblindi quite a long time to get the sound out, though Jotnar were often slow of speech and moreso when left to thought. "I am unaware of what is typical in Midgardian culture when it comes to bed sport," he replied without judging. "I do not even know the practices of the Aesir nor Vanir," he confessed. Jotnar were often middle of the road sort, many mated for life. Their father was one. He wanted not sought any other after the death of their mother. And Helblindi had not yet had the chance himself to enjoy the body of another. He was not yet of age to worry about such. "You have been struggling with much, my sister. I did know realise how worried you were about this marriage. We have laughed many times of the way your prince will become wrapped around your finger just as we are."

He lifted a massive hand to set it as gently as he could on Loki's back before scooping her against his chest.

"It is wise to ask questions and to never assume. You will lost in chains of whys and what does with no answers and only paranoia and sorrow if you do. Mortals are emotional creatures. Perhaps they do not care to let others know of their bedded companions. Perhaps the one at his door was his chosen life mate and he had strayed. Perhaps it is against their culture to bed at particular times or would consider bedding a guest unseemly. Perhaps he desires more of you than he can have. Perhaps he is feeling none of those things and is simply have reactions to the way the Asgardians in the corrupted branches of Yggdrassil treated him. Did you not tell me of the forced breeding? Loki. Seek out your answers before you come again to the river to lick wounds you may not have. Your Tony Stark's friend was concerned for his behavior as well. It would be my conclusion that he has been caught in an emotion he does not care for. Perhaps he requires comfort?"

It was a lot to say and it took a long time to say it.

Helblindi felt exhausted.

Helblindi's advice was sound, but it did not fully soothe Loki's ruffled feathers, she had never shared something so intimate with another before and, even though it had been merely a favour to assist with her first night with her husband, she had not expected to be cast aside for any reason.

But perhaps there was another layer beneath this.

She could not know for sure unless she asked him, and yet it seemed so embarrassing to go to someone and baldly ask outright for the reasons for rejection. She leaned against Helblindi's chest and let her skin melt to blue in order to feel the comforting pulse of his cold and let him feel it in return.

"When did you grow so wise without my knowledge? I did not ask you to be this way, and tell me to offer comfort to one who has rejected me."

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