I come from a land of ice and snow

[throneenvy]

Asgard sat atop the branches of Yggdrasil since time began, and little had changed in their society in the years since. Each Asgardian was long-lived into the millennia, their lands were fertile, their people brave and strong. They had their vassals, their allies, and their enemies. Yet even those who opposed them respected the might of the Golden Dias, and the royalty who sat upon it. Currently that was Odin Borson, though he grew weary more easily now and had begun to consider passing the throne to his eldest son.

He had been blessed with many children, but only two that he considered worthy of his lineage and status. His firstborn, Thor, strong and honourable and everything an Asgardian warrior should be. His second son, Loki, was not natural born, though none knew that but his wife. He was different, a creature of magic and mayhem, of sharp intelligence. Both were worthy, but together they would take Asgard to a new prosperity, he was certain of it.

Midgard, where the mortals dwelt, was a land raided every few centuries for stock. It was seen as a breeding ground, much like a corral for cattle. Mortals were lesser, short-lived and weak, they were fit only as slaves. The last raid had taken place when Loki had been but a baby, nearly a thousand years ago, but the mortals that had been taken had been bred and cared for so that a healthy slave population still thrived. Slaves were given a weakened mixture of Idunn's crop with their food, to extend their natural lives to at least a few centuries in order to make them worth the effort to train. They had no rights, but they were taught well that this was their natural position.

All slave children were raised in a central pen and taught the same when small, those that then displayed talent at cooking, riding, hunting, housework, artisan skills, or singing were then measured off to be specially trained for higher masters. Every five years those who could afford to buy a slave, or those of high enough status to simply demand them, came to the corral and chose. Those who were chosen were special, were envied, and those who were not ended up working the fields out in the far reaches of Asgard, the most menial of work.

Anthony and Steven had been friends since they were little and being raised in the large pens together. Both had excelled, Anthony at crafting and Steven at warrior's skills, but neither were chosen when they were five, nor ten, nor even fifteen. Now, at twenty, it was their final chance to be chosen before they would be assigned to one of the meanest farmers beyond the borders of the great capital. Steven woke Anthony as the dawn rose, mingled excitement and nerves on his face.

"Anthony! Wake up, I've got news! I heard the overseer talking to one of the passing guards, and Princes Thor and Loki are coming to the corral today."

Comments

[throneenvy]

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?

[starkingenuity]

"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.

[throneenvy]

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."

[starkingenuity]

"Did he reject you outright, sister?" He wasn't being wise. He was just asking. Loki had thick skin, thicker than the rest. And as much as he wished to help her resolve this, he also needed to see it resolved himself so that their dealings with the Midgardians went well. His own future was at stake here. This was a test of their father.

Helblindi was not meant for the throne. He was not meant to be married off. He was the backup to their older brother and he was expected to do as much work as Bylister without half the rewards. That said, he had a duty here. He'd be matched to a favourable house and find love himself and be a good advisor.

That thought made his chest rumble.

"It is my duty to be wise. And my purpose. When you are of Asgard, I will be left to be wise alone. I must practice. Now come. Face your friend as a Laufeydottir. And tomorrow we shall add to our family's greatness by bringing these lost souls home."

[throneenvy]

"I may live on Asgard, Helblindi, but I will always be of Jotunheim. Thor will find he has married more than he can handle if he tries to keep me from my homeland, you will not be alone all that often."

She rose to her feet and kissed his shoulder, before turning to go back in search of Tony Stark. She would not be quite as understanding and patient as Helblindi wished her to be, but she would not wallow in misery either.

So it would be that not long after Tony had stalked away from Bruce at their ill-fated dinner, he would find himself once more accosted by Loki, green eyes flashing hard as flint and arms folded over her chest in a manner that from Midgard to Asgard meant that a woman was unimpressed.

"You must explain your actions, for they do not seem to me to be those of a friend."

[starkingenuity]

Back to working on the armor, just in case Banner decided to follow him and make sure he was doing what he said he was, Tony was honestly startled to find the girl in front of him, being angry and demanding. For a moment, he didn't track what she was saying, he just sat back and turned off his multi tool before it turned a hole in him or anything else.

"Which actions?" Because for fuck's sake, if Loki was suddenly regretful of what they did, he might as well just come clean and let Steve figure out what sort of punishment he'd get. That would be the same as rape.

There was a reason statuatory laws existed. It didn't matter how old Loki was. She was still a child. And taking advantage of that had been wrong.

[throneenvy]

The fact that Tony did not even know which of his actions were so hurtful made Loki scowl even harder, green eyes like flint. She had thought him an intelligent man, he could not be so clueless as this.

"You threw me from your chambers in secret, as though we had done something to be ashamed of, as though I were someone to be ashamed of coupling with."

That was the heart of the issue, she feared being an object of shame. Not just with him, though that stung, but she feared it for her future. She did not want to be an embarrassment to the throne of Asgard, a reason to mock the future All-Father for his bride was defective, or even a reason that the relationship between Asgard and Jotunheim soured if they felt slighted by their choice in bride for their future King.

[starkingenuity]

Tony arched an eyebrow at the girl. It was hard talking about this with a kid. When she had boobs and hips, he felt so much less like a dirty old man. Still dirty. Increasingly old. But less awful about himself. It didn't help that he wasn't ashamed of what they had done so much as being ashamed of nearly being caught. And of hurting her feelings.

"Do you remember the initial conversation where I told you that they would literally kill me if anyone found out?"

He watched her, warily.

"I'm not ashamed of you. But they can't know. It's wrong on a lot of levels. Which we discussed. Remember?"

[throneenvy]

"I thought that you were being hyperbolic, you could not possibly expect me to believe that age is an issue when I am many centuries older than you. And if it had truly been a deadly crime, I did not think you would risk your life just to have some bed sport."

She sat herself down, but at least unbent with her annoyance a little now that she could see that he was serious. What a fool, why had he endangered himself so just to do her a favour? He should have impressed on her what a bad idea it was, and she wouldn't have been offended.

"You made me think they may mock you for bedding me, and that your pride couldn't take it. It was Helblindi who made me see otherwise, so you should thank him for that."

[starkingenuity]

"Mock-- yeah. No. More like throw me in a place where bad men that diddle little girls go. People are prudish. We don't have the long lives that you guys have." And he had tried to say no. He'd sort of tried to say no. Yeah. He knew this sounded badly. "I'm a jerk. I get that. But as much as you say you're a lot older than me, absolutely no one here will understand. And I hate to say this, but since I have no where else to go-- I can't let anyone find out so... Wait. Did you tell your brother?"

He almost dropped the tool he was holding.

Whatever he might have said that morning about other rounds, or more fun with Loki in all of her forms, he couldn't risk it. Not if she thought it was fine to tell everyone.

Shit.

[throneenvy]

"Helblindi already knew there was something amiss, he had been told by your Bruce Banner that we had quarrelled and he came to assist. I do not often lie to my brother, he is my closest confidant and I saw no reason not to tell him, he was not shocked or appalled at our decisions, only anxious that we should not remain at odds."

Loki rippled and became Jotnar in truth, all blue skin and delicate patterns, though she did not consciously make the choice to become so. She was agitated, and so she chose the form most soothing to her, most familiar.

"Your people should not be close-minded of the cultures of others. Perhaps if you had bedded a child of your species there would be wrong, but there is no wrong here, and your people should realise this."

[starkingenuity]

Tony pressed his finger and thumb to the base of his nose. "You look like a kid. Not now. Well. You look like a Smurf kid. Or one of those Avatar people. I don't want to get into it. I helped you out. You helped me out. We had fun. And.. I'm sorry, Loki. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or make you think I was afraid of being laughed at. I just want to keep being friends. I don't have a lot of them. And I have even less that I can talk to."

It was a big deal for him to apologize like this. Evidently Banner's efforts to shape him up had worked out. Tony felt like a better human being.

Minus sleeping with an alien princess. Ah god. Banner would judge him forever.

"I can't speak to what people feel. They just do. No one talks about who they sleep with but everyone loves to know who everyone else is sleeping with so that they can judge. And again. I'm sorry. Are we still friends?"

[throneenvy]

"What you are trying to say, without being so overt about it, is that you would like to be friends with me and not bed me again. But you do not wish to hurt my feelings and say so directly."

She at least believed him now, though the whole of Midgard had gone down in her estimation for being so backwards and narrow-minded as to fix only their worldview onto the cultures and worlds that were not their own. There were many strange things about the other realms on Yggdrasil, but she knew to accept them for what they were and not judge. It seemed Midgard had yet to learn that.

There was a brief hesitation as she considered making him suffer more, but she truly did enjoy his company and so she huffed with a nod.

"Of course we are still friends, foolish Tony Stark."

[starkingenuity]

There was a weird moment where Tony's face seemed to crunch in on itself. "That's not what I'm-- I didn't say that I--" Okay. Maybe she'd been giving him a way out?

How much of a criminal was he to still want her? Even as she looked now? Sure. Sometimes body mattered but most of the time, Tony just wanted to have a connection.

There weren't many people he felt that way about at all.

Tony reached forward, no idea her skin would burn him if he touched her. "Like I told you, I'm more than willing to go for another round--"

[throneenvy]

Loki watched his hand come closer, but wherever he went to touch would melt to flesh tones again, giving her a mottled appearance. It was harder to shapeshift only parts of her this way, but she did not want to wear the skin of a mortal right now, she wanted to feel Jotnar.

"You cannot touch me in my natural skin, I would burn you. The touch of a Jotnar can turn even the hardened skin of an Aesir black and dead, and I would not wish to kill you."

Her lips turned down a bit, though more with confusion than anger.

"I do not understand you, you say how forbidden this is and yet you seek it again."

[starkingenuity]

There were few things that Tony needed more than his hands and he tugged his own back with a laugh and picked up his tools again. It was probably strange that he was talking to Loki about sex while making her future husband a one of a kind present for the wedding night.

"I'm chaotic," Tony said as if that was a way to explain himself. It probably wasn't. "I don't even count on myself so you probably shouldn't count on me either. Besides in a year you're off limits right? I have to live up to Time Magazine calling me the most impossibly possible man of the decade. And lots of people want what they can't have."

He was all over the place on that reaponse, dropping a screwdriver in favor of a hammer to start thinning out some metal in a joint. His bare arms flexed.

"You probably saved my libido, Loki. So don't think I'm ever ashamed of what we did."

He was also going to have to kill Banner for meddling in his affairs. Jesus.

[throneenvy]

"Why would I be off-limits in a year?"

Loki had not heard that particular phrasing before, but it was rather self explanatory. Though Jotnar often mated for life and rarely had other sexual partners, it was not frowned upon if they did and the Aesir encouraged it. She had researched their culture thoroughly to be sure that she would be able to fit in with her new home.

"I do not expect to be Thor's only bed partner, and I doubt he expects the same of me. Aesir view sexual encounters as a bonding exercise between friends."

That hadn't changed from the good to the bad Aesir, so Tony might have to be careful promiscuous Aesir didn't try and get him into bed and make him relive all his old traumas.

[starkingenuity]

"If you would have told me that a year ago, I would have been eager to meet these people," Tony admitted. But now he didn't want any casual partners. He obviously still wanted partners if he had propositioned Banner (who could never consummate with him) and agreed to bed Loki (who he had assumed with be a short term thing). But hearing how free Loki would be...

Not that it mattered. He'd be dead in fifty years and Loki would be in her honeymoon phase right now.

"Aren't you suppose to have his kids? Wouldn't it be bad if you slept around and he couldn't be sure your kids were his?" He was just asking. That was how the monarchy usually worked regardless of the culture.

[throneenvy]

"Any children that were not his would be sent to one of the outlying palaces and raised there, they would not be damned for their parentage, but they would not have the throne unless Thor adopted them to it. Not that this will be a problem for me, for I am a shapeshifter as you seem to have forgotten, should I not wish children then I will simply render myself infertile for that coupling."

Remove the womb, change her internal organs. Or even do so afterwards to kill any potentially gestating children. She did not mind which, she did not intend to be a mother many times over as she didn't see herself as particularly maternal.

[starkingenuity]

"You guys are leaps and bounds better than us, then, when it comes to jealousy." That didn't mean that Tony expected to really see Loki after she was shipped to Asgard, though. Until then-- He decided to get over himself. If the others didn't understand, well so be it. Tony found himself leaning against his palm, frowning lightly at the princess.

There was no reason to be anything other than blunt, however.

"Okay. So. Friends with benefits. That's a thing you guys do. Right? Are you open to that? With me?" He sort of wished she was that buxom woman right now. Alas.

[throneenvy]

Such strange phrases the mortals had, but again judging by the context of their conversation so far it was not hard to see the 'benefits' as being bedsport. She shook her head, feeling as if she were the one far more adult than he despite the touches of grey at his temples, and sighed.

"I believed we were already that, you need not ask. You were not so terrible that I would not enjoy rolling in the furs with you again."

She reached out and flicked him on the ear.

"Now do not be so despondent, it is dull and does not suit you."

[starkingenuity]

Tony cupped his ear, not even once flinching despite Loki's assertion that she could kill him with a touch. She wasn't going to kill him. That would look bad for everyone. And she could evidently shift just part of herself anyway. It was ridiculously appealing to see her draw back with two pink fleshed fingers and a blue body.

"I'm never dull. Ever. And I was better than good. I am better than good. If you drop by later I'll show you. But first I could use a hand with this." Thor would be her husband. She could help him out with the manual labor.

And he always liked having someone around to admire his work and offer witty banter. FRIDAY was good company now that he had her back but she was no JARVIS. And Tony was starting to prefer Loki to Bruce.

Probably because Bruce wasn't ever going to be in his bed.

"Pick up a hammer."

[throneenvy]

Loki was no dwarven smith. She had many skills, some greater than any other she knew, but smithing was not one of them. She was loathe to show herself ignorant to most, but for some reason she did not care so much with Tony. Perhaps because there was so much he was obviously ignorant about as well, and she did not think that he would judge her for the lack of knowledge.

"You will have to show me what to do, I have never held hammer or tongs before."

She slipped off the desk and went to collect the tools requested, though, and stood back a little warily.

"Do not think me a coward, but does your smithing need the use of fire as the dwarves use to smelt their metal? There is a reason the Jotnar do not often work with metal, for we cannot stand the heat well."

Even shapeshifting into something else, the core of her would always remain Jotnar and heat would be the best way to hurt her.

[starkingenuity]

"Sometimes. But not with this. It's all about cold tempering when it comes down to armor construction. I'm using materials that have been strengthened at their molecular level already so we don't have to heat and beat to rearrange the molecules to make them stronger. They'll get spray applied after we have our skeleton. Tin is pretty easy to work by hand."

Tony was a fantastic teacher when he wanted to be and when his pupil wasn't clueless. He and Loki worked on the chest plate together, first molding the shell and then sending it odd to FRIDAY to coat it in titanium gold alloy. After, he showed her how to hook up the hardware and wiring.

At least if Banner came by this time, they would be innocently enjoying themselves.

[throneenvy]

It would not be Banner that came and disturbed them, but Helblindi. He had found his heart especially troubled by a possible rift between his sister and Stark, this was the first diplomatic mission of true import that his father had entrusted to him and he was loathe to see it go wrong. Aside from that, he also did not wish to see his sister's heart bruised.

He could scarcely fit through the doorway, having to almost crawl and even then the bulk of him made the jamb warp a little. He smiled, though, to see them working so well together.

"A sight I had hoped to see, and one I hope we may yet see for many lifetimes, mortal and Jotnar working side by side. Well met, Tony Stark, I see that your smithing prowess has not been exaggerated."