Infatuated with a God

Chapter Sixty-Nine

"Should I call in a potential biohazard warning?" He teased, picking up the mostly empty bowl of mixture and swiping his finger inside of it before tasting it.

"I don't know, have I poisoned the great Tony Stark?" He laughed gently as I snatched the bowl from his hands and began to wash it.

"Only one person could ever poison me. And trust me it isn't you." He hopped up onto the counter. It made me instantly suspicious. Tony never stayed around very long. He was always busy, distracting himself from his break with Pepper with lab work. In fact, around now the machine should be turning on. For him to be here, instead of downstairs was suspicious enough.

"And who, pray tell, could possibly poison Iron Man?" I smiled at him as I cleaned up the counters and put away all the ingredients, hiding the sugar behind a panel so Thor couldn't find it to experiment.

"Why me of course." He smiled down at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Okay Tony, what do you want? Because whatever it is needs to wait around twenty to thirty minutes." He sighed, his smile faltering. Whatever it was, I wasn't going to like it clearly.

"I've got the machine working at full capacity again. I think I'm at the point where I can begin to attempt to reverse engineer it." I practically lit up like a Christmas tree. This was brilliant news, knowing that soon I would be able to leave the house without looking over my shoulder constantly. I could go on missions without worrying about putting my friends in danger. But then his sombreness kicked in. He was hesitant and it involved me. He should be jumping for joy and making snarky remarks about his genius. And he wasn't. He sat on a counter looking like he was about to do something he didn't want to. Something that would hurt him.

"Just say it, Tony." I turned away. I couldn't face him, worried he was going to tell me he thought it wouldn't work. That I would always be a timebomb in the heart of the Avengers compound.

"To figure out how it works I need to monitor it when it's in use. More specifically, I'll need to monitor your vitals and have FRIDAY and possibly Vision analyse what it is doing." So, he thought he could do it. But it involved activating me first. It involves me being put back in the machine. "And I can't deactivate any part of it to be sure."

"Okay."

"Kid..."

I sighed, focussing all of my attention away from the kitchen and to him.

"No really, it's okay. If anything I'm more annoyed knowing that Loki will have to be there." I muttered the last part and Tony finally bit.

"I've been meaning to ask you about that. What happened on the trip, Kaya?" With a sigh, I turned back to the washing up and started to wash up by hand which no one ever seemed to do here.

"Nothing too serious. The rumours got to me a lot, they still do. Loki struggled as well with the hospital thing, which I was yet to thank you for by the way." Tony held his hands up and backed off.

"We don't have to have him there, necessarily. We could try getting through to you afterwards without all the hocus pocus." I chuckled slightly.

"Loki needs to be there, and you need to give me a few hours to convince him." He groaned, hoping from the counter and resting his hand on my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure he already knows the trigger words, Tony. Plus, you know he is the only one who could be able to bring me back without it being too dangerous. Despite us not really talking, I still trust him, and really that's what matters." He frowned, unspoken questions clear in his eyes. He was concerned about mine and Loki's friendship, especially following the rumours. Ever since Tony has looked at me differently. Like he's scared I'm going to run away if he makes a sudden move.

Still, he nodded and walked out without saying anything. I found myself knocking on Loki's door with a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies half an hour later. To my surprise, the door opened on its own and I found Loki is his usual spot, reading on his sofa. It was an Asgardian book hovering above him, and below he was writing in a black one. I smiled as I realised he was still translating all of the books we took from Asgard, noting that I had to start reading them in the order he used FRIDAY to list them.

"What's wrong?" He asked instantly, jumping up from the sofa and making everything else vanish as I walked over. A small smile lifted my lips

"Who's to say anything is wrong?" I muttered as I placed the cookies on the table and stood

"You haven't approached me for two weeks now. When you do, you knock on my door which you never do. And on top of it, after all this time, you bring me cookies. Therefore, I will ask again. What's wrong?" I sighed, knowing I couldn't avoid it but not knowing how to convince him to do this. Or if he would even do it for me anymore. Hell, I didn't even want to do this.

"I... I know that things aren't good between us right now, and I have no right asking you for anything. But I need a favour." After some hesitation, he walked slowly over to me and pressed his hand up to my cheek. I found myself leaning into it without thinking about it.

"Kaya... you could do much worse than run from me and I would still always be there for you if you needed me. What do you need?" I closed my eyes as I felt the warmth of his hand on my cheek. I found myself lost in the little memories I had from the machine. There were flashes of pain, what felt like lightning coursing through my body. It was hot and painful as they pumped this liquid into me. And the liquid was heavy as it entered my skin and coursed through my veins. It made my whole body feel heavier. It wasn't pleasant, and I didn't know how well I could mask the pain I felt in it. Then it was the shocks, the unimaginable pain, and the darkness.

"I need you to do something for me. Something you won't like or want to do. But I need you to do it anyway. Without stopping it from happening." He stiffened immediately, removing his hand and backing away from me.

"Kaya..." He warned deeply.

"It's to help me. To help get this stuff out of my head. It's really important to me." My voice was barely a whisper as I talked. Without thinking, I closed the distance between us, moving my hand up to his cheek in a mirror of his earlier gesture to me. My heart sang as he leant into it, emotions swirled within me which only worsened as he turned to press a kiss into my palm. This was dangerous, and I was worrying close to doing something stupid. The call to him shouldn't be this strong. It shouldn't be a challenge to remain apart from him.

"Darling, I would do anything if it meant you felt safer and more secure. Why would I ever not want to do that?" I tried to ignore the flutter of my heart at his words. Once more pushing away the surge of emotions he raised in me.

"Just promise me. Please." I stroked my thumb idly over the skin on his cheek, ignoring the hurt that I was feeling.

"I promise, darling." The name was too much for me to feel, and I flinched back from him. Turning to try to conceal how I needed to wipe the moisture from my eyes. I nodded slightly as I turned for the door.

"Tony's lab, in about an hour." I called out before leaving for my room forcing myself into a scalding hot shower so I could cry in peace before I stepped willingly into hell.