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Red, Green, and Chocolate

Chapter Text

Tony had donuts as breakfast.

Or to be precise, Pepper had dropped in his suite about seven in the morning and dragged him out of his sorry state of inebriation telling about ‘Business meeting, because, duh, I did remind you for three hundreds and sixty one times!’. Then, Pepper said with emphasis that ‘No, Mr. Stark, you will have breakfast’ and Tony happened to choose Dunkin’ Donuts.

It’s not really a big deal, honestly.

So here they were sitting; Tony, Pepper, and Happy; in Dunkin’ Donuts. Happy was happy with his salami sandwich and Pepper was checking on her PDA—Stark PDA, Stark Electronics’ product, latest release—while sipping on her coffee. Tony had sugar sprinkled donut and iced coffee, because, seriously, it was summer and he started to get all sweaty and the air conditioner in the building wasn’t working.

That was when he wiped sweat beads on his forehead, he saw Loki.

Loki, of all the people, the Trickster, the God of Mischief, the supervillain evil who Tony and his group band of superheroes had been fighting. The very same Loki was sitting in the same Dunkin’ Donuts with Tony, reading The New York Times, while eating chocolate glazed donut.

What a civilized supervillain, Tony laughed mentally because, oh the irony!

Had Tony been a good S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent—Consultant—he will make a phone call straight to the S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Director and summoned The Avengers here. Instead, Tony was being just Tony, so he started staring. How could he not? The way Loki ate his donut involved tongue.

A lot of tongue.

For example, when he licked his thumb to flip the paper’s page. Or when he licked his chocolate-smeared fingers. Or when he licked the corner of his own lips to clean the chocolate glaze there. Or when he bit his tongue so slightly when he appeared to be deep in thought. Tony forced his eyes away because, seriously, how come someone could be thoroughly distracting while eating donut?

Eventually, Pepper noticed Tony’s face and asked.

“Tony?”

She sat back-facing the Trickster, so probably she didn’t see Loki. But she noticed Tony’s eyes and eventually followed his eyes, looking over her shoulder.

She opened her mouth a little.

Tony was fast enough before Pepper could dial a number. He snatched the Stark PDA off her hand and said, “Pep, you know what, every New Yorkers deserve a happy brunch. No, I think I have a better idea.”

It wasn’t Iron Man whose talking. It wasn’t Tony Stark the S.H.I.E.L.D. Consultant. It was Tony Stark, just another average New Yorker. So he scurried to the cashier, scribbling something fast in a sheet of paper printed with Stark Industries’ logo on the way, then plastering his flashy grin to the cashier guy.

“A box of double chocolate glazed donuts for the guy reading New York Time there—” he pointed at Loki then waved the sheet of paper. “—and please tape this on the box. You are welcome.”

He paid, then he walked back to his seat, where Pepper was fuming—God, Tony could see steam swirling from her head. He ignored Pepper and continued with his iced coffee while throwing glance towards Loki; the waitress was handing him the box. Tony could see the Trickster’s eyebrows narrowed as he read the sheet of paper, then he darted his green eyes towards Tony, and laughed.

No, not that kind of maniac laughter Tony often saw in their battle—but more… honest?

Not very long after, he received a sugar sprinkled donut with a note written in slim curvy handwriting:

‘I always accept a box of chocolate glazed doughnuts for truce. -L.L.’

Chapter Text

It was hot, hot, hot, so fucking hot, scorching hot.

Tony disliked heat. And summer. Summer made Tony useless. Bless the air conditioners in his mansion. Bless JARVIS and his installed program to keep Tony managed through summer. If only he didn’t need to go out for business meeting or work or fly around in suit to fight villain or whatsofuckever, he would manage through summer.

So curse that fat old man slash business partner slash CEO of something bigass company, who had made Tony walk out of his perfect sanctuary. Where’s Happy when Tony needed him?

He slouched on the bench at park, under an oak tree—at least some oxygen should be good, refreshing. He’d lost his tie somewhere on the way because it was too goddamn hot in his business suit already. He’d opened two buttons of his shirt and discarded his suit jacket. He stared towards the fountain where children played around it and actually considered to play too—but fuck, adult’s conscience, why you no let Tony Stark play with children around the fountain and get wet?

Wait a sec, that sounded so… indecent.

A hand, slim hand, suddenly appeared from behind him and offered a chocolate dipped cone right before his face—and Tony drooled.

He grabbed the cone first then looked over his shoulder, to find Loki standing behind him.

Fuck.

“Peace offering”, Loki stated calmly.

“How could I know you didn’t put poison or something funny here? Like, lava drop from Mount Kilauea? Fuck, why are you giving me ice cream? Why don’t you stab me from behind? You’re creepy as shit you know!” Tony babbled. His mouth preceded his brain. Because his brain, metaphorically, had already stopped working. Blame the heat, not Tony.

Anyway, yeah, why Loki didn’t stab him in his most invulnerable state? Without his Mark-VII suit and all? Fuck. Tony could imagine tomorrow’s newspaper: The Iron Man-less Tony Stark Had Been Stabbed to Death In Central Park.

“You think so lowly of me”, Loki flinched, looked offended. Tony laughed. Because he, indeed, thought so lowly of Loki.

“You accept or not?” the Trickster asked with more pushy tone, but Tony already had his hand on the cone, so that should be a yes.

He nipped the chocolate on top side, cautiously. Nothing happened.

He continued with his ice cream while Loki moved to sit on the bench with him, licking his own ice cream—also chocolate dipped. And fuck, those tongue. Tony’s thought wandered at the time when Thor mentioned about his ‘brother and his wicked tongue’, and Tony couldn’t help but think about the ambiguous message.

Instead, he asked, “What’s with you and chocolate thingey?”

Loki licked his lips before turned to Tony—rolled his eyes in oh so sexy way. He smirked. “I had no such thing in home—Asgard.” he quickly corrected, Tony noticed a tinge of panic in those green eyes. “I am quite fond with the taste.”

“You have sweet tooth”, Tony stated.

“I believe that’s how you Midgardians call it.”

“Oh my God, I can’t believe it!” Tony started to laugh. “The God of Mischief is actually having sweet tooth! Also addiction for chocolate!!”

“Be silence, mortal. Also I don’t quite know why would it be such a big deal”, Loki quipped, and Tony closed his mouth—back to his ice cream. He groaned because it started to melt already, making his hand all sticky with cream.

“I hate summer”, Tony grumbled while wiping his hand clean with handkerchief.

“I must agree. It is annoying to walk under the sunlight, when the sun is scorching hot”, Loki added.

Tony looked at him.

“You are? I think being God of Fire makes you resistant to heat.”

The said God of Fire flicked his eyes towards Tony, again. Only now he gave Tony a deadpan stare. “Do you honestly think a Frost Giant can be resistant to the heat?”

“Uh—okay”, Tony flinched. Poor thing. Tony himself would always think he could melt or something when the heat being so unbearable. “So we’re on the same boat here. Me hates summer and you could be melt away. And you know what, thing I want the most right now is to lay down in my bathtub filled to the brink with ice blocks until the summer end. For our both’s sake, I think we have to agree to keep this truce throughout summer.”

Loki studied him for a long, silent moment. Then he nodded.

“Let’s we call it truce”, the God offered his hand.

Tony greeted it with his.

Chapter Text

A month and a half without Loki wreaking havoc made the other Avengers wary—or Natasha told so. They expected that Loki was scheming something, but day by day passed with nothing happened. 

However, for Tony, ‘wary’ would be an understatement of the year. To be fact, they were all frustrated to the point they overreacted for every single thing—sound of breaking glass, of flapping fabrics, and hissing wind. They started to connect everything with Loki. Especially, Natasha and Clint. As for Thor, boy, the big guy was making scene in S.H.I.E.L.D HQ by yelling to Nick Motherfucker Fury that his baby brother could be dead and nobody would know that. Only Tony who seemed to be so relaxed with Loki’s absence.

Tony hadn’t tell them yet about his secret truce and didn’t find the reason to do so. Maybe by doing so would stop Natasha’s constant murderous intent for every little thing and Thor’s constant nagging to see if his little brother would be okay; but nope. That would bring too much hassle.

So he kept going on, pretending like nothing happened, and be very happy for Loki’s absence.

Tony passed the day with occasional party and few meetings, and he actually did filled his bathtub with ice cubes to the brim when the temperature getting too unbearable and laid there for hours until all the ices melted.

And that was what he was doing at the time, when a certain velvet voice smoothed his ears like some goddamn winter breeze.

“Be careful of frostbite.”

Loki’s voice.

So Tony’s reaction would be whipping his head back with loud pop of his neck joints. His gaze met with a pair of extremely familiar greenness that were Loki’s eyes.

The damn motherfucker was leaning on Tony’s bathtub, only an inch from Tony’s face.

“Peace offering, now on me.”

Without any warning, without even giving Tony’s brain some time to work, to comprehend the goddamn situation which was getting absolutely weird, Loki pressed his lips to Tony. Too dumbfounded, Tony’s reaction was merely to gape.

The God’s lips were soft and tasted somewhat sweet. Chocolate, Tony thought. He would be losing his mind, because he kissed back. He kissed Loki, that Loki, the Avenger’s most wanted criminal, the Trickster, the God of Mischief.

“Sir, Mr. Barton is calling”, JARVIS noted in his British accent robotic voice. Tony blinked. He faced air and Loki was gone already.

He groaned. “Put on the line.”

“Hey Tony”, Clint’s voice chirped happily. “We’re thinking to have Thursday Movie Night because it’s Thor’s day and he seriously needs diversion from flippin’-a-shit over his baby brother’s MIA.”

“Great. Count me in”, Tony replied half-heartedly and hung up the phone call. He slid out from the tub and put on the bathrobe—peach color, seriously, who bought him this shit?

The chocolate taste still lingered in his mouth. Tony’s mind still blurred. Did he just daydreaming of kissing the God of Mischief? He thought as he walked to his room.

There was a message, written with lipstick, over the mirror in his room. Lipstick. Tony read the message three times before his brain managed to work properly. The message said:

‘Have a nice Thursday. xoxo.’

Over the dresser, there was a box of truffles. It looked expensive. Classy, Tony thought. Another message, written in paper, was taped to the box’ lid.

‘Don’t eat the poptarts. -L.L.’

Somewhere, downstairs, Thor hollered.

“WHO PUT A MOUSE IN MY POPTARTS?!”

Chapter Text

The Thursday Movie Night went (not really) smoothly with a Happy Feet 2 played on the screen, except for one overly disappointed God of Thunder and an overcautious spy. Steve went to buy another Poptarts for Thor and things should be calmed already; except that Natasha, once again, connected the Mouse-Poptarts incident with Loki’s working.

On the other hand, Clint found the whole Mouse-Poptarts thingy amusing and said that they should find a name for the Mouse-Poptarts because it would be the rival of an internet creature named Nyan-Cat or something like that. Bruce sat on the couch, thinking deeply whether he should be cautious or not—or perhaps thinking whether he should regret when he decided to join this ragtag team of circus freaks or not. Tony found everything ridiculous and pranced his way to his lab with a mug of coffee on one hand and the box of truffles on the other.

Friday came and passed without much incident. Tony was still indulging inside his lab, working upgrades on his suit. JARVIS was playing Hard As A Rock at maximum volume as background music as Tony working, when the song suddenly, somehow, changed into 90s disco music.

‘I’m a barbie girl, in the barbie world
Life in plastic, it’s fantastic!’

Tony squinted hearing the annoying tunes, accidentally cutting a metal plate he was working with. He swore loudly. “What the fuck, JARVIS?”

“Please don’t blame your artificial intelligence, Mr. Stark.”

“HOLY JUMPING RABBITS!” Tony toppled over from his stool as Loki materialized right in front of his face. He landed on his butt with loud bang, thump, and crash, then ended with pained whine.

“How the fuck you get in here?” the suit-less Iron Man screeched, glaring towards the God of Goddamn Mischief who was laughing. “Fuck you, Loki.”

“Oooh, straight to the point, Mr. Stark?” Loki crouched and kindly offered Tony’s mug to the heap of Tony Stark on the floor. Tony sat cross-legged, accepting the mug.

“Thanks for you, our Thursday Movie Night ruined.” Not that Tony mind that much, though. “But seriously? Mice on Poptart box?”

“Come on. It’s funny, Stark”, Loki answered. His poison-green eyes glinted with mischievously and he smirked.

“Your joke is downgrading, you know”, Tony quipped, tilted his coffee mug to drink—but nothing come. He eyed it only to find his coffee was freezing on the bottom of his mug. Loki giggled.

“Frost Giant”, Tony glared.

“Dwarf.”

Tony squinted. “Height joke, seriously? Anyway, just curious. When you shave, does it called ‘shaving ice’ or something?”

“Ha ha. Very punny. At least I’m not prancing around in ten-centimeters platform shoes, Mr. Stark.”

“Twelve and custom-made”, Tony corrected him. He moved, looming over Loki’s lean body. The sight was so appealing and Tony might be dreaming. He trained his eyes from the deep pool of green of Loki’s eyes, to the sharp cheekbones, the thin lips, the neck—he couldn’t help but think indecently, if he could lean his head slightly, if he could nip it, bite it, causing delicious sounds for his ears. God, how could it possible for a man to have such sexy neck?

But it was Loki who was pulling Tony closer. He breathed warmly over Tony’s ears, and Tony couldn’t help but groaning. He might have to tell JARVIS to lock his lab and restrict access to everyone because he could. Because there was a God pinned under his arms. The sexy one, on the top of that.

“Tony”, Loki whispered and Tony felt shiver ran down his spine. Oh how he loved Loki’s sound when he called his name. He wanted to hear it again. Granted, Loki called for him again.

“Tony. I sent your PA some chocolate-coated strawberry under your name.”

Tony blinked. “What?”

“ANTHONY STARK!” Pepper’s voice screeched and her heels clacked loud as she strutted—Tony imagined—down the stairs to the lab. The door opened in a swish and had it not made of glass, she would already kick it open. Loki, again as Tony noticed, had already gone, leaving Tony stumped on the floor.

“You know that I have allergy for strawberry!” she shouted and shoved a box full of chocolate-coated strawberries into his face. “Why, Tony, WHY?!”

“Pep, I can explain...” Tony blurted as he stood. His jaws worked, trying to tell her words he couldn’t even know what to tell. What should he explain to Pepper? That he, Tony Stark, the mighty Iron Man, had somehow fraternizing with enemy? When he couldn’t find the proper word, he merely waved his hand aimlessly.

Somewhere inside his brain, the last strand of Stark Sanity snapped break.

“LOKI!” he shouted.

He heard bodiless voice cackled darkly inside his head.

Chapter Text

“Frost Giant.”

“Dwarf.”

“Emo Smurf.”

“Oompa-Loompa.”

“Prissy Princess.”

“Canned Lilliput.”

Tony snorted at that one. “Canned Lilliput? Canned Lilliput?” he said in a tone that ended with ‘very creative’ in sarcastic manner.

It was a beautiful day in June, a perfect day in midsummer, where both Tony Stark and Loki Laufeyson were coincidentally met at a certain cake house in Manhattan. Tony wore his pale blue suit while Loki dressed in dark green tight V-neck tee and tight leather pants. While they were exchanging witty remarks, the shop attendant looked torn between amused for the two’s banter, scared for Loki’s own presence, and delighted by seeing the notorious Tony Stark in person.

“Hobbit in Tin Can, then”, Loki quipped, plastering his usual shit eating grin.

“Fuck you, Mama Horse”, Tony grunted.

“Don’t forget to bring condoms, Mr. Vertically Challenged. You could be a daddy if you do.”

Tony stared at the slim figure who is choosing the cakes with mixture of astonishment and disbelief. “Wait, so the myths are somewhat true?”

Loki looked at him over his shoulder, shrugging nonchalantly. “Maybe.”

“Oh come on. This is interesting. So you can, like, get pregnant?” Tony rushed to stand at his side again, looking uninterestedly to the lines of cakes in front of him. Well, the very person just next to him was more interesting.

“Maybe”, Loki replied, without even looking at Tony.

Tony gritted his teeth. Fishing straight, non-cryptical answers from Loki was just as hard as cooking omelette. By Tony’s standard, of course.

He looked at the various cakes and remembered why he was here on the first place.

“Say, what kind of cakes Pepper might like?” he asked, not really know if he wanted Loki’s answer or not. He might choose whatever cake for Pepper, anyway. Anything strawberry-less. That was the least he could do to make up the Chocolate-Coated Strawberry Incident.

“I like opera cake”, Loki replied unconcernedly.

“I don’t ask what you like, Sir Chocolate Puddingston”, Tony frowned.

“I don’t care”, Loki rolled his eyes.

Tony stared at him again, then turned to see the shop attendant.

“Two opera cakes then.”

“Three”, Loki corrected, smiling sweetly while hugging Tony’s arm in intimate manner. “On him.”

Tony mouthed a voiceless ‘Jesus, help me’ and Loki let out manly giggle. The shop attendant quickly wrapped three boxes of opera cake all while staring awkwardly towards the mishmash couple in front of him. Tony paid all three then walked out the shop, Loki still clinging dearly to his arm.

“Kay, so now what?” the billionaire asked.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go back to my apartment and curl on my arabic cushions while eating opera cake and watching Oprah Show”, the god replied while taking two boxes with him. “Ta!”

With that, he disappeared in green-gold glitters, leaving Tony alone, flabbergasted.

“Oprah Show?”

Chapter Text

From: (unknown number)
hey

To: (unknown number)
Who is this and where did you get this number from? Address me properly, you filthy mortal.

From: (unknown number)
im janes friend darcy

To: (unknown number)
What would that she-devil’s companion want from me?

From: (unknown number)
wow calm ur tits bro i didnt ship u w her thorki 4 lyf

To: (unknown number)
What are you blithering about?

From: (unknown number)
nah 4get it i kno u wanna get in2 starks pants

From: (unknown number)
u ruined my ship dude i h8 u

From: (unknown number)
dude im @ ur front door

From: (unknown number)
can i com in

From: (unknown number)
o lord loki i brouhgt u sacrifice

From: (unknown number)
i hv pizza w extra cheese

From: (unknown number)
pls

From: (unknown number)
whatevs im knockin ur window

From: (unknown number)
hey do u know u forgot 2 lock it

From: (unknown number)
wow i dunno u collect glee

From: (unknown number)
fancy mug ‘#1 bro’ ehehehe

From: (unknown number)
were are u

From: (unknown number)
ur not home :(

To: (unknown number)
By Thor’s tits, you have three seconds before I send hordes of Hel to sweep your arse off my apartment. 

To: (unknown number)
And I am allergic to cheese.

Chapter Text

Tony Stark; a S.H.I.E.L.D adviser and owner of Stark Co.; was enjoying a shot of cold scotch and a nice view of setting sun in the middle of his private room at Avengers Tower, stark nude.

Before you giggle and think he was naked because he just had a very sexy time, girls, unfortunately I had to inform you that he just had a nice bath after a very long and mind-killingly boring board meeting. Self pampering, you could say. Or self rewarding, for being a good boy to Pepper for actually attending board meeting and listening, instead of playing Pac Man or Crash Bandicoot on his StarkPhone because the meeting was always boring and no one had more brilliant ideas than his own anyway. Of course, it was another day of summer, hot and humid. Ugh.

Shortly, after the bath, he decided that he wanted to enjoy the nudeness. Or the tickle of cold air from the air conditioner around the most private part of his body. What’s wrong with being naked after bath anyway? He was in his private suite, after all.

“I honestly did not expect to see you in your birthday regalia.”

Said a voice from the corner of his room, somewhere behind him. And Tony cursed. Loud.

There, in a corner, stood Loki Laufeyson, that bastard, with his creepy-ass grin plastering over his face. Logically, Tony fumbled to reach a blanket from his bed to cover his crotch. No, he didn’t have little self-esteem regarding of his Stark Jr.’s size—there was another reason why he called Iron Man, pun intended, thank you. But flashing his dick to one of S.H.I.E.L.D. #2 Most Wanted Enemy was completely another matter. There was a distinct line there between work and pleasure.

Or to be read: he wanted to minimize the probability of getting castrated by the very Norse God of Mischief.

‘I was about to let you know there is a breach, but I assume you’ve found out about it’, JARVIS quipped in mock respect, and Tony had to remind himself, for the hundredth times, why did he need a sarcastic, sardonic artificial intelligence as his butler.

“Gee, thanks, JARV!” he chirped sarcastically and tied the blanket around his waist as makeshift loincloth. Then, he turned his attention fully to Loki, whose looked utterly unaffected and instead taking liberty to sit on Tony’s bed.

By sit, Tony meant was with his legs spread.

With a very nice view of his crotch.

His mighty crotch.

Tony shifted his eyes immediately before his mind could wander too far in thought. He was wearing only a blanket as loincloth, and a hard-on would be very, very obvious.

“It’s not healthy for me to have you pop in and out in front of me like that, y’know!” he pouted; yes, pouted, because Loki was a Royal Dickiness of Sassgard and because he always did what he wanted. “What if I caught cardiac arrest or something?”

That was it. That was rolleyes, alright, that sassy bitch.

“With that unhealthy lifestyle of yours, I am thoroughly surprised it didn’t happen sooner”, the God of Mischief retorted impressively.

“Right. Why do I have this honor of your honorable visit, Your Sassiness? Another chocolate-induced gossipy talk about latest episode of Queer Eye? No, wait, I bet my thongs you watch My Little Pony”, Tony spat.

“Ha ha, very funny. However my intention was to ask you about this.” And with that, he whipped out a newspaper from the thin air and showed him a certain article.

It read: ‘God Particle Found?’

“Um, please enlighten me, do you interested in this particular topic because it’s named after you gods or something?” Tony humored. Because Thor’s reaction was quite extravagant when the big guy stomped on Tony’s door, 8 am in the morning and Tony was still in pre-caffeinated mode, and bellowed ‘THESE MORTALS NAMED A PARTICLE AFTER GODS, TONY STARK, THIS IS UNCOUTH!’

Another roll eyes. “Please, Stark, I am not that imbecile”, the god replied as if reading Tony’s mind. Pretty.

So he stared at him incredulously for the longest moment. “You’re interested in science.”

“I appreciate science”, Loki nodded.

“While you have magic.”

“Here I thought you would believe that magic is science that you’ve yet to find out”, the Asgardian sighed. “Yes, I appreciate science as a part of nature doing its workings.”

“And you came to me”, and hell, Tony couldn’t help but feel his grin spread wider across his face.

“Don’t overestimate yourself. I simply seek you because you have higher mental capability and higher understanding of science than other Midgardians. In fact, your intelligence is nowhere near me.”

Oh wow, way to burst the bubble.

“Right, well, where to start first because this shit is like, very long to be explained. Basically, God Particle or known as Higgs boson or Higgs particle is one of twelve elementary particles from Standard Model of particle physics, in which the elementary particles include the fundamental fermions, including quarks, leptons, and their antiparticles; and fundamental bosons, including gauge bosons and Higgs boson. Higgs boson was the only one of these particles that was yet to be found, so particle physicists were kind of getting their pants in twist to find this one certain particle, and built Large Hadron Collider which said to be one of the most complicated scientific instruments ever built to test the existence of the Higgs boson and measure its properties to validate the theory.”

Loki gave him peculiar look.

Oh shit, he babbled, didn’t he. Of course he babbled. Most of the shit he’d just said was not accurately understandable for anyone, no less for an intergalactic alien demigod from Viking planet. Which was odd as fuck. Because said planet had developed the intergalactic portal-like teleporter which abled ones to travel to and fro.

“Sooooo… Long story short, because I know you’re confused as fuck, why don’t I just show you the LHC because I’m damn sure I invested tons of bucks for that shit?”

“That means France”, Loki stated. Dully.

“Accurately, Switzerland, near Geneva. Hold on, I’m going to get my private jet”, pause. “And clothes first.”

“No need”, and with a sweep of his hand, Loki conjured one of Tony’s business suit—the beige one with checkered pattern and his suit shoes.

“Whoa, that’s cool”, the billionaire gaped. “And creepy. You put underwear on me.”

“I’d rather not to be seen with mortal who proudly going around commando”, the Trickster shrugged and conjured a fancy suit of his own—similar like the one he wore at his debut at Stuttgart, with green ethnic scarf and cane.

“Ha, you don’t know me”, Tony grinned, smirked. He picked up his phone on the nightstand and was about to make a call, but Loki made a tsk.

The next second he realized that he was no longer at home, at New York, that he was sure—with crowds of scientists passing around them, and Tony just squealed. It seemed like less than five minutes ago, he was explaining Higgs particle in his own room at Avengers Tower - Manhattan, naked.

Next to him, Loki just giggled. Gleefully.

“I prefer my jet, like, very, very, very, very, very much”, Tony deadpanned, but much to his annoyance, Loki dismissed the talk with a wave of his hand.

Tony’s presence, in no time, stole everyone’s attention. All while he was being steered for countless handshakes, he noticed the way Loki observed everything with serious look. Sometimes the Asgardian stopped on his track to touch, to smell, to close his eyes and contemplate everything that caught his attention. Tony wondered what the Asgardian’s super senses had caught.

Sometimes Tony, helped by few experts, explained about the basics of particle physics to him, in whom Tony had introduced to the scientists as ‘a business partner of mine and an appreciator of science’. One that scared the shit out of him was that Loki, in fact, was a fast learner. No, it was beyond fast learner—the Asgardian absorbed everything he was taught like a damn black hole. When they walked out of the facility, Tony noticed the quirk of his lips, clearly satisfied.

It was nearly night when Loki, once again, teleported them. This time, they landed at Paris, which brought question to Tony.

“Enjoy, Stark. You don’t see Paris everyday”, was only the God’s reply when Tony asked why Paris.

“In fact, I can. What’s wrong with Paris, anyway? You don’t want to steal someone’s eyeball again, right?”

Loki just smiled and walked to a certain direction. Okay, that was creepy. He reminded himself how he got careless—hell, Loki was still on S.H.I.E.L.D Wanted List, and as far as he remembered, the rouge Asgardian hadn’t reclaim himself not-villain. He didn’t bring his MARK VIII suit. He didn’t bring any weapon. He didn’t even bring his passport. He silently pondered how lethal his StarkPhone and his credit card against Loki.

Well damn.

“We’re still in that truce, right?” Tony dared to ask.

“It’s still summer, if you notice”, Loki replied nonchalantly. “I’ll let you know if the truce ends, if you’re wondering.”

“How?”

Loki flashed a grin. “You’ll see.”

“With a bang and boom?” Tony couldn’t stop himself.

“With a bang and boom”, Loki parroted.

And Tony did shut up.

During the truce, he already fancied their sort-of-something between them (no, not relationship, because that was something Tony would deny to death). He secretly waited for their next meeting, sometimes found himself restless by thinking where and when and at what kind of occasion they would meet. Loki was a prankster, that was for sure, and now that he wasn’t blowing Manhattan into smithereens, Loki’s pranks were hundreds times more fun and totally harmless.

When the truce ended, would they go back as they were? Bashing each others’ skull and causing injuries of random civilians?

Tony didn’t voice out his thought, which surprised even himself. Tony Stark now had brain-to-mouth filter, that was something.

It turned out that Loki brought them to a chocolate store. No, store would be degrading this expensive-looking decoration—it was a chocolate boutique. While Loki entered the boutique, Tony stared at the nameplate and grinned. Well, maybe he could bribe Loki with all chocolates in the world to stop them from going back to their old way.

When Tony entered the boutique, Loki was already looking around the store, with chocolate scent filled every space of the room, so much it was nauseating. A centerpiece made of chocolate was put on display and later Tony found out that it was a necklace. A perfectly usable necklace in a shape of snake, made entirely of chocolate, except for the yellow diamond the snake ‘carried’. 20 carat yellow diamond. Way to go.

The next he knew, Loki was with him, staring at the necklace with expression of longing and want.

“That’s worth one million bucks, y’know”, Tony informed, reading the price according to the card under it. The Asgardian simply shrugged as reply before walking away.

And Tony was stumped.

Did he just felt bad for the God of Mischief? Did he just felt bad for crushing the villain’s heart desire?

In the end, they walked out the shop only with two slices of Tarte Chocolat, one of the shop’s special pastries. Loki teleported them back to Manhattan, dropping Tony in his own room, and left before the billionaire could say anything.

Later, Tony found himself unable to sleep. Unnamed emotion so much like guilt weighed his gut like a damn anchor to his body.