fossilised | Jotunheimr

“There are plenty of places in New York to get food,” Tony said without sounding too exasperated (this has to be how Pepper felt on a constant basis with him). “And pigeons are street rats. You don’t eat pigeons. Nothing eats pigeons. They are filthy carriers of disease,” Tony said before he stayed behind to handle the news and to keep people from following Thor and Loki to the bathroom.

“There are many rules here,” Thor said before the smell of the place they watered made him balk. “You can not eat the wildlife and you must wait in a filthy outhouse? I do not understand! We have seen the marvels of indoor personal waterfalls. What is this?!”

Please explain this craziness to Thor.

“Midgard needs to be taken by hand and brought to the proper century!”

"When you are All-Father, I hope that you will use your time for unity. Too long has been spent on war and sundering, of stopping the free travel among the branches of Yggdrasil, and that must end. You could be the one remembered for bringing all to the fold and both teaching and learning from all."

That was the legacy that Loki wanted to be remembered for. He wanted to go down in history as the All-Mother and Loki-King of Jotunheim who had ruled during the most prosperous and golden age of all the realms. People would revere him and his consort for generations.

"Now is the time to begin to build those bridges. Look with compassion and learn, do not judge. That was your mistake on Jotunheim."

Thor was silent, not exactly because he was taking in the criticism but because there was criticism in the first place. He appreciated being led in the right direction but sometimes Loki was fairly harsh about it. He was frowning still, and quiet, when Stark pushed opened the door with his foot.

“Come on. We have to get back to the actual city.” Technically, Central Park was in the city but he didn’t trust any place with more trees than there were buildings.

When Thor finally spoke, it was not about seeking the Gem that they had come for, but to save some face with Loki.

“I require the texts of your culture. I do not wish to be seen as a fool while on your Realm.”

Tony glanced between Thor and Loki. “Uh. Put a pin on that. We have a few centuries for you to get used to and I don’t think you’re going to make it in an afternoon.”

Thor would be rewarded for his efforts with a smile from Loki and the Jotnar coming to his defence to Stark, not something he did often. But he knew that he needed to balance praise and support along with his teaching and criticism, or else he would drive Thor from him. Loki knew that someone who was rewarded for the right behaviour after learning would come to respect and love the teacher more.

"I think you underestimate the swiftness of Thor, our histories are much longer than mere centuries and our tutors have taught us to assimilate quickly. Texts of your culture would be of use to both of us, so that we no longer make such errors as we have made this afternoon."

He drew out a sculpture that he had collected from Jotunheim. Nothing too special, dwarven smiths could make things much better, but it was beautiful. A sculpture of a snowflake in perfect detail, crafted out of true ice by Jotnar magic and then set that way into a pendant.

"I offer you this small hearth gift as thanks for your hospitality, and in payment for the procurement of these texts."

For a man that had everything, this was so beyond anything he could hope to even craft for himself that Tony couldn’t stop himself from smiling. He didn’t usually do gifts. They didn’t usually interest him—

But wow. Wow, this was utterly amazing.

“Thanks,” he said, obviously buttered up well enough to spend the rest of the trip back to his Tower (after diverting Rogers again) showing the two aliens how to work a tablet computer to access the information they wanted.

It didn’t take long to be stuck in traffic with Thor already obsessing over cat videos, however, for the novelty of teaching American culture to go by the wayside.

Loki let Thor divert onto less meaningful means of entertainment, but he began to absorb the knowledge this thing could give him in the way that only a scholar with centuries of experience could do. He read faster than any human could, the text reflecting off the green of his eyes as he flicked ever quicker through the pages from war to economy to language and onwards.

There was so much, they had changed so much, done so much, in just a short number of years, and he was in love. This chaos was what embodied his soul, and he was addicted to learning about it now.

He barely noticed when they reached the Tower, having to be steered in with a hand on his elbow and his eyes never leaving the screen, muttering to himself in the snow-hissed language of his people when he found something new and interesting to dive into.

Steve was already there waiting when they arrived, looking both rumpled from the wind on the drive over and utterly perfect. "Hey-- took your time, Tony."

“We were picnicking in the park with pigeons,” Tony said by way of explanation as he lightly pushed Loki in the direction of the couch while Thor roared joyfully as a cat tried to fit itself into a box much too small for it.

Tony left them both there and nodded for Steve to join him in the kitchen, Pepper already there and wearing practically nothing as she sat with some of the designs that Tony had worked on before he left. She did smile at Steve and pull her legs further under the table.

“There’s fresh coffee—“

“We have aliens over for dinner, Pep,” Tony interrupted. “That okay? Good. I’m thinking Thai. Have you tried Thai yet?”

"Of course we have aliens over," she muttered, rolling her eyes as she eyed Steve who was blushing furiously at the level of undress that Pepper was in and had already averted his eyes to the wall. "And a gentleman, apparently, which is nice for a change."

It was a tease, she loved Tony even if he could be single minded and caught up in his own things. He was a good guy underneath it all, and she had every intention of being in this for the long haul.

"You didn't think to call ahead and give me a chance to not be in just my underwear?"

“Did I not do the work you sent over? I did the work. JARVIS told me it was clogging the system so I worked on that and then we out to stop CNN from covering the alien invasion in Central Park,” Tony said by way of explanation.

“You did part of the work and stopped half way through your revision. I know it’s been awhile since you’ve been in school but, at best, this is an incomplete,” Pepper said, giving Tony a look that was supposed to mean that he should take Rogers somewhere other than the kitchen so she could get up and get changed, but all it really did was call Tony over for a kiss.

“Plus, that’s not your underwear. I wish you would have breakfast in your underwear—”

“Tony,” Pepper warned and the older man rolled his eyes, grabbed the whole coffee pot, and nudged the beat red Rogers out of the kitchen.

“You need a girlfriend. After I finish my homework and we keep the world safe another few times, I’m setting you up. I think Pepper might have a sister or a cousin or something.” Yeah. He honestly didn’t know.

Steve ran a hand through his hair and focused on trying to cover the redness in his cheeks. It was hard, he had such trouble with pretty dames even now, even after Peggy had showed him that they were just like anyone else to talk to. He went all stumble footed and his tongue felt too big.

"--you don't even know if your girlfriend has a sister?"

That sounded a bit wrong.

"Tony, that's a dynamite lady in there, you ought to pay more attention to her."

“That’s why we work. She doesn’t need me to pay that much attention to her,” Tony said, which absolutely sounded wrong to Steve. Shouldn’t a guy like Tony, or any guy for that matter, want to? He couldn’t understand the older man’s mentality, and though they had developed an infuriating friendship since they’d gone out for pizza the last time Thor and Loki came for a visit a few months before, he would probably never understand him.

Steve just wasn’t sure about dating. How could he be when a lady took up so much time and he didn’t have the luxury of giving anyone that? That, and he was still that kid from Brooklyn. It didn’t matter what he looked like now, he was socially awkward and had no where near the talent his best friend had growing up when it came to talking to women.

Luckily, now was not the time for discussion. Tony had DUM-E follow them out with coffee cups and he offered the drink to the aliens sitting on the sofa, their knees touching. Thor was massive, but Tony was pretty sure he could give Loki his space if he wanted to. He poured them both drinks and almost before he finished getting Steve one, Thor had downed the liquid and shattered the cup on the floor. “Another!”

Tony groaned. “No, you broke your mug. No more for you. That’s the rules,” he said.

"If you had read more of the culture of Midgard, you would have known that." Loki chided as he took a sip from his own coffee and immediately wrinkled his nose at the bitter taste of the hot liquid, offering his mug to Thor instead. "Mortal manners dictate that you do not destroy their earthenware, it must be reused."

He finally set his tablet off to one side and nodded to both Tony and Steve in greeting, having been too caught up with what he had been learning before to properly offer the words he ought to have done.

"You must be wondering why we have returned to Midgard so soon. There is another Infinity Gem here, and we must retrieve it. It is vital that these all be gathered into safe protection before Thanos can recover them himself."

Tony could see the red flags immediately. Another one of those things? That seemed really unlikely. He smirked, shooed DUM-E away from his truly, horrifyingly messy attempt at cleaning up Thor’s initial mug of coffee, and dropped into the long black couch facing the one Thor and Loki were seated on.

“I’m just going to call bullshit right here,” Tony said, elbows on his knees as he put his mug on the coffee table. He didn’t bother with coasters. This was glass he had designed himself for cellphones and it didn’t smudge. “There just so happens to be another super dangerous item that you need my help breaking you into and you hope Rogers here will play Boy Scout and give you permission to take it?”

He glanced up at Steve and shrugged, as if to apologize without actually apologizing.

“It is true, friend Stark,” Thor said, following suit by putting his mug on the table as well. Gently. He paused to see if there would be praise and when there wasn’t, he straightened up again. “As amusing as your tiny animal portraits are, we have another task to complete. There are six gems in all. We have found another on Midgard. The others are being sought out and obtained as well.”

"It is important that Thanos does not regain control of any of these gems, his name as the Destroyer is aptly given as he has sent several worlds into ruination and extinction. Should he turn his gaze to Yggdrasil's branches, I fear that many lives would be lost and some realms ash by the time he was driven back."

It would be better to avoid any war at all.

"We have already met the one who holds the gem we seek, he is one of your mortal sorcerers, though I believe a large part of his magic comes from manipulating objects which have been infused with seidr."

His 'sling ring', his cloak, his amulet; none of this was innate power within him, only the discipline of how to use the objects provided.

“Why aren’t you hanging out trying to be a Magician’s Assistant then?” Tony did not believe in magic, not the way that other people might. That had little to do with Loki’s obvious skill because Tony did have an open mind when it came to somethings and he believed that science, ultimately, was the explanation behind everything Loki could do. But here on Earth? No way. Tony had the technological edge on everything (or so he assumed because Wakanda was not open to the rest of the world) and he would know about competition.

HAMMER was done. AIM had more or less been reigned in.

Steve glanced at Tony, so willing to write off what these two were saying, and tried to combat Tony’s blasé attitude with a little more clarity. “If you know the person who has another gem, what is it we can help with?”

Thor, decidedly, like Rogers much better than the impossible to understand Stark that Loki seemed amused by or at least fond of. “We have chosen Stark as our Guide. It would be unseamly not to abide by his role as such.”

Tony narrowed just one eye and bunched his brows together. “Guide, huh? Sounds… Like a lot of work. Fine. Who are we looking for? J, invite the guy to dinner.”

"We are seeking Doctor Stephen Strange, who we last saw in London."

Loki at least remembered the town name that they had found themselves in, where Stephen Strange had attempted to find out why they had come from another realm to invade Midgard and its peaceful isolation from everyone else.

"Doctor Stephen Strange was a renowned surgeon," JARVIS supplied. "However, he has since left the medical profession after an accident damaged the nerves in both of his hands, rendering him unable to perform surgery."

"His hands seemed well to me."

None of this made a lick of sense to Tony. He ran his hand through the back of his hair long his neck, glancing from Thor to Loki. “Do you... what? Need me to break into where he lives? I’m really not cool with stealing. As a prank, it’s fine. I’ll give you that. But we really need to stop breaking the law here. It’s bad for my brand.”

He wasn’t even sure if he could trust Steve to back him up here. The guy was a loose canon sometimes and really unpredictable.

And normally? Tony liked that.

“J, do we even know where this guy is?”

The AI took a few long moments to answer and it wasn’t anything Tony wanted to hear. “Sir, it seems as if there is no such man as Stephen Strange. I have isolated his image on the street just yesterday but it appears he no longer exists.”

Tony groaned. “Why is everything so weird lately?”

"I will be able to find him when we are close, the proximity of the stone he carries will call to me. But in order to get close, perhaps it might be wise to consult with other Midgardian sorcerers?"

Loki looked expectantly at Tony and Steve, waiting for them to provide the names of any sorcerers that they knew of. Surely Stephen Strange could not be the only one.

"Uh-- I didn't even know we had magic at all," Steve said apologetically. "This is a whole new ballpark for me."

"How can you not be aware of magic on your own realm?"

“Because m, oh I don’t know, we’ve figured out that there are good explanations for it?” He wasn’t trying to be rude but Tony was Tony, and rudeness was just a part of his very being. “Magic is a term you use when you don’t know how to explain why something works. We’ve pretty much got it figured out. Minus the stuff you do. That seems like magic.”

He wasn’t painting a very good picture here. Loki was giving him a look he really didn’t like. As the resident genius of the world, he really wanted to stick to his guns there and represent.

“If, and that’s a big if, there’s magic? No one talks about it.”

"There is seidr, what you call magic, throughout the whole of Yggdrasil. The World Tree has roots in magic and that spreads to all the realms on its branches, even Midgard, though the seidr here is small and weaker than in other realms."

Loki truthfully did not mean that as an insult, it was a genuine comment of fact. Midgard simply wasn't known for having sorcerers and to have found them was a surprise in itself.

"It is ignorant to believe that just because you do not understand it, it does not exist. And foolish to bury your head in the sand and refuse to discuss the possibility."

“I’ve been called worse—“

But Steve cut him off, crazily enough, by touching his arm. Tony was momentarily floored and he blinked up at the blond as if the most grievous of sins had been committed. When Tony was under pressure, like he was now, he couldn’t help but be immediately angered by the smallest of things. “If that’s true, then that explains why there isn’t much magic here. Or why it’s underground and no one believes in it anymore. I’ll help you find Dr. Strange. If he has something like SHIELD did, I would feel better getting it off of the planet.”

Tony didn’t understand why Steve was so willing to agree. For all they knew, these aliens could just be stealing from them. Or worse, planning them harm.

This was so short sighted and he threw his arms up in protest.

Thor immediately misunderstood. “And Stark is with us as well! I enjoy a good journeying party. Let us away!”

Loki didn't misunderstand Tony's gesture, but it amused him to see Thor's enthusiasm and so he didn't correct him. He did, however, give the mortal man a slight reprieve if he wished to take it.

"I am certain that you will wish to consult your electronic guides to help you find the one we seek. Perhaps we should set forth with Steve Rogers to the location where I met him last, and you can join us once you have completed your initial research?"

He liked Stark, and he was growing to quite like Rogers as well, he would quite like to keep all of them amenable and not drive any of them away. Thor was genuine and kind, but he needed a tempering and diplomatic force at his side.

Tony has no intention of using his know how to do anything more than track Loki. Sure, he likes him, but liking does not equate to trust. The last few years have really given him some trust issues and while Steve seems almost blasé about the whole situation, Tony isn’t about to let his world get overrun by aliens.

He’s seen those movies. They do nothing for him.

The moment the three leave, literally blinking out of being (haha, poor Steve) Tony is already in surveillance mode. Even with Pepper trying to get him to come back to bed.

It just goes to show how amazing she is by not being offended when he barely looks at her.

In London, however, Steve ducks into fight mode, fists raised and weight on his back foot. “What is this? What did you do?”

"Be at peace, we merely travelled to London."

Loki was quite amused at the sight of the mortal so riled up just because of their mode of transportation and he didn't hide it very well, grinning widely. He knew that Thor was also unused to teleporting without the Bifrost, but he had at least experienced it once or twice on Jotunheim and therefore wouldn't disgrace himself by showing consternation.

"I could have carried us here through other methods, but I do not believe that Midgard possesses anything so large as a gryfhawk."

Back at Tony's lab, he might not realise that even as he observed Loki through his surveillance, someone was watching him in turn, hidden from JARVIS in the air ducts, waiting for him to be fully alone. He needed the woman gone, she was a factor he didn't want to deal with.

Pepper doesn’t usually stick around when Tony’s like this. If he won’t talk to her, she has other things to do. While Steve is calmed down and Thor shares with him triumphant stories of battle on the way to see Strange, Tony is left flicking through cameras on London streets. He’s picked up Steve’s GPS on his phone pretty quickly and London is better than New York with the amount of cameras.

At least JARVIS doesn’t protest this one.

Tony is keeping an eye on a teammate…on a fellow superhero who sometimes works with him. They might have a difference of opinion on many things, but Steve has become a friend and they do collaborate very well together.

Tony isn’t going to let him ride shotgun on this one alone with a sorcerer and a guy who can drink his wait in 150 proof alcohol.

At least they’re walking now. And walking gives Tony time to refresh his coffee while he waits to see where they’re headed.

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