**this photo isn't the most accurate for my story but it's just so damn cute I had to include it**
"Ugh I'm starving, we've been here for hours... I'm bored. I'm hungry. And I'm calling quits."
"It's only been like two hours" Nat reminded him, this was literally Tony's idea and he was already bored.
"You have no idea how many much more useful things I could do in two hours! We have enough clothes and it's time to do something else. Like eattt." Tony paused thoughtfully "Did you guys actually wanna see a movie? I could totally rent the whole cinema out and get them to play whatever you want."
"Or we could just use the perfectly good and highly equipped theater that we have at the tower?" Nat suggested, yeah cause seeing a movie is so much more useful than buying clothes.
"Yeah I guess... ooorr we could rent out a cinema. We could invite the others as well and have like a team bonding movie night! But first I need food."
"Tony we're not renting out a cinema when we literally already own one."
"I know but I have enough money to-"
"It doesn't matter that you can. That's not a good enough excuse to do anything." Nat argued back.
"But it'll be awesome." But he already knew that there was no hope.
"No. Let's get you some food to restore your what little common sense you have. What do you-"
"Burritos!" Tony interrupted. "How about you Lokes?"
Loki shrugged, not knowing what Tony was saying but agreed anyway "Burritos?"
"Good choice princess." Tony commended him "Nat?"
"Fine. Burritos it is."
"Hell yeah! There's one of the best burrito place near here I mean it's actually beautiful." Nat shook her head at him. Of course he knew the nearby burrito bar I swear to God Tony's first priority is always food, I bet he knew every worthy diner in the whole of New York City and probably far beyond that. From behind Tony's back Nat shrugged and rolled her eyes at Tony's obsessive excitement, Loki grinned understandingly in return.
****
"No funny business this time. Keep those hands and that pretty mouth of yours to yourself, okay?" Tony warned as they climbed back into the car.
"I promise I'll be good for you Mr Stark." he replied, almost innocently.
That really didn't sound very promising at all. "At least save it till we get home." Tony continued in a mumble, still wary of the fact that Loki could of just been messing with him.
Loki heard him with his godly senses and was caught between either smiling or clawing his own guts out. Did Tony expect something between us now? Was there something between us? Did I want there to be something between us? 'No' was the answer Loki wanted from himself in response to that last question but he just couldn't help but to doubt his own sincerity. He may be the god of lies but he just couldn't lie to himself. Loki was scared. Scared of giving his trust away, scared of loving somebody and all the consequences and insecurities which follow. He deeply feared rejection, humiliation, heartbreak and being seen as weakened by his emotions. And so he sat in silence, contemplating his meaning on Earth and the options of his situation.
Thankfully they got home without any mishaps although Tony wasn't feeling very thankful, he'd definitely rather of been a dangerous nuisance to the public with his reckless driving if that meant having Loki touch him like that again. Fuck he would gladly crash his car to have Loki touch him again, he was craving Loki's touch and it was driving him crazy not to forget confusing the hell out of him.
By the time they got home Tony was just left feeling frustrated with Loki's tame behaviour. Not knowing whether he was genuine or not really pissed Tony off.
****
It was well into the evening when they arrived back at the tower, and according to Jarvis everyone was just milling around doing nothing and being boring-I mean bored.
"Jarvis! Tell everyone to meet me in the theater immediately."
"On it sir."
"Oh and call May for me." The phone started ringing over the intercom before falling through to Mays soft hushed voice.
"Hello, May Parker speaking?"
"Hi May it's me, was just wondering if Peter could drop by for a few hours this evening? To help me with some work you know just as part of his internship thing and all."
"Right yeah of course, um I'm still at work but I'm sure he's-"
"Excellent! I'll send a car over now, thank you and enjoy you're evening May."
"Oh ah you too Mr Stark."
Tony hung up and turned to Loki who was watching him, smiling thoughtfully. They stood watching each other hesitantly. "I sent everything to your room. You know you might wanna get changed into something more comfortable or whatever just if we're going to be watching a movie and all."
"Don't you think that if I desired to get changed I would do so Stark? You really don't have to tell me what I should or can do, I more than capable of controlling my own life."
"Oh well you're welcome." Tony's tone conveyed quite effectively that he was offended Loki hadn't thanked him and was instead back to his sour attitude. "You know what? Do whatever the fuck you want." he muttered. Loki paused on Tony's sentence, had he not just technically told him what to do by telling him he could do whatever he wanted and by doing literally anything Loki would automatically be doing what Tony told him to do. Loki narrowed his eyes at Tony questioningly.
"And one more thing, how the hell do you think explaining this to Nat went?" Loki suppressed a smile at the thought of Natasha confronting him about it as Tony gestured to his neck.
"I have not a clue Stark, alas I presume it was far from a pleasant event."
"No. No it wasn't. You should know nothing gets past that woman."
"Oh I know." Loki replied almost cheerily.
"And whatever's going on here.. she um well she knows about."
Loki's grin flickered as he raised his brow questioningly, what exactly did he tell her? "And what precisely is going on here Stark?"
"I was thinking you tell me."
"Now now darling, where would be the fun in that?" Hm so Tony was confused. Loki mused. Then again so was I. I mean what actually was going on here?
"I dunno but we sure as hell could be having a lot more fun if whatever's going on was what I hoped it was..."
Loki looked at him tiredly while inside his stomach flipped nervously with the urge to just crack and be honest with Tony, it felt similar to the sensation of looking down from an impossible height "I think I'm going to go get changed." he stated, turning abruptly and setting off on the short distance to his lonely room. Nothing solved a problem better than running away from it was Loki's theory, that was if you couldn't talk your way out of it first. Either talk. Or walk. Loki joked to himself, shaking his head as his own weird thoughts.
****
"Thank you everyone for gathering here this fine evening." Tony introduced in a sarcastic presentation voice before dropping back to himself "So I was thinking we could all watch a movie cause..." Tony couldn't think of a simple good explanation as to why he would want to do this. Everyone was openly done with him well everyone besides Peter who was far too busy freaking out over Thor and asking him a million questions a minute. "Aww come on guys we never do anything normal and fun together and honestly I hate to break it to ya but we're really not the best of teams. Especially after the last couple of years... we've fallen apart, lost half our people and then got newcomer as well. The dynamics are just a real mess at the moment so I think we're in desperate need for some team building. I mean how are we supposed to be able to fight for this earth if we're too busy fighting among ourselves? Also I know none of you have anything better to be doing at the moment so just zip it and what snacks do you all want?"
"Look. Tony it's really a beautiful speech you got going there but how does that translate to watching movies?"
"Can we have pretzels please Mr Stark?" Peter asked meekly, eyes wide with hope.
"Because Cap, when you have friends you do stuff together with them to maintain that friendship. We used to do this sort of thing more often, remember? And lately I feel we've all just been caught up in ourselves and we all just need to take a moment for each other. And of course we can have pretzels Peter."
Steve nodded at Tony in agreement, smiling at Tony's interest in rebuilding the avengers "Well as long as you're not picking the movie, I'm in."
"Hey! Why can't I pick the movie?"
"You have an awful taste in movies." Nat interjected bluntly. The room murmured in collective agreement as Tony stood before them appalled and offended.
"You know what? Fine. But whatever movie you guys pick I'm in control of the remote."
"Honestly anything to stop you picking the movie." Nat agreed immediately.
"Okay well since it seems that I've been banned from choosing the movie, how about we do a vote?"
"Oh, oh! Guys we gotta watch Shrek." Peter grinned madly.
"We're not watching Shrek." Tony dismissed.
"How about Despicable Me?"
"No, Peter."
Peter opened his mouth to speak "We're not watching a kids movie, Peter."
Silence.
"Star Wars?" Peter peeped hopefully.
The room moaned with a chorus of disagreement; "Ugh everyone's seen them so many times.", "Even Steve's seen them.", "Not again.", "The new ones suck. Disney totally ruined their chance." "Hell even Thor's seen it."
Loki looked slightly taken aback at the fact that he was the only one who hadn't seen 'Star Wars' "I'll watch that with you another time Lokes." Tony promised quietly as Peter proceeded to apologize for his faulty recommendations.
"Can everybody just shut up!" Tony yelled with a smile. "Thank you. Now each of you will submit a movie and then we'll have a vote okay?"
"Napoleon Dynamite." Peter decided.
"Love Actually." Was Bruce's input.
"The Matrix?" Sam offered.
"Actually no. Love, Simon?" Peter suggested again.
"TITANIC!" Thor yelled joyously "I am yet to view it and have been recommended by many that it is a worthy film."
"A Quiet Place." Steve stated, he'd missed seeing it in cinemas because he had been on a mission but it had gotten great reviews.
"Fantastic Mr. Fox." Peter called out, striking again.
"You only get one choice kid, so pick one and stick with it."
"Wonder Woman." Nat stated strongly.
Maria Hill, the main agent assigned to be guarding Loki and who had so far definitely been doing an excellent job at keeping an eye on him especially for the few hours he wasn't even in the building decided to put in a vote too, "The Great Gatsby's pretty good?"
"Jarvis you got all those?."
"Yes sir."
"Peter?" Tony warned.
"Back to the Future."
"Is that your final decision?"
"uhh....yes Mr Stark."
"Okay so rules: you get one vote and one vote only and you can't vote on your own choice."
Nat started death staring everyone in the room, most of whom knew not to mess with her. So it really wasn't very surprising when Wonder Woman got almost half of the votes.
"Well, looks like we're watching Wonder Woman." Tony announced, everyone started murmuring with either excitement or curses towards Nat. "Jarvis, lights! Also we need snacks up the front here pronto!"
"Right away sir." Jarvis dimmed the lights and flicked the projector on as everyone settled into their seats. Everyone else was spread around the cinema with Sam, Steve and Nat up back and Bruce and Thor as center as you could possible get. Meanwhile Peter and Loki had curled themselves up in the pit of bean bags and cushions at the front. With the snacks. Tony lounged himself onto a pile of cushions beside Loki who lent away from him with a warning side glance. Maria stayed poised close to the door.
Loki was sitting up hands folded and legs crossed out in front of him, Tony couldn't help but to appreciate his outfit of black biker jeans, black t-shirt and dusky green bomber jacket with a complex dragon sewn into the back. Wait was he wearing docs? I don't even remember getting those for him. How was he so cool like literally no matter what? The movie flickered though the starting credits and onto the opening scene. "That's a museum in France." Tony whispered to Loki "This is in the present but it flashes back to the second World War and she's a god based on Greek mythology."
"Stark I most definitely do not require a second by second commentary explaining each and every detail of this film."
"Just trying to be nice geez. Well if you have any questions..."
"Mr Stark? Do you think you could please pass me the skittles? Oh and hello again Mr Loki."
"Hello to you too."
Peter smiled "I was talking to your brother and I'd like you to know that I think you guys are literally the coolest beings on this planet. I mean you're a freaking god! That's like so crazy dude and Thor said you have all these super awesome magical powers-"
"Kid come on stop fangirling and move your head outta the way."
"Sorry Mr Stark. Also I really can't thank you enough for inviting me tonight, like watching super hero movies with actual superheros is unreal."
"It's 'kay, just move your damn head." Peter shuffled away and wrapped himself under a blanket with his precious bowl of skittles.
"Oh she's like a Valkyrie." Loki awed at Diana as she trained on the island of Themycira.
"Yeah exactly ...where is Valkyrie?"
"You are definitely asking the incorrect person."
"Thor?" Tony hissed, twisting around "Where's Val?"
"She should be back anytime now."
"Back from where?"
"Hush Man of Iron, I am invested within this show of moving images."
"Can you two shut the fuck up!" Sam whispered violently.
"Steve, did you hear that? Are you just gonna let someone get away with that type of language?" Nat teased to a stony faced Steve.
"Are any of you ever going to forget about that?"
"Ha! No way Capcicle."
The movie progressed with little interruption besides the snide comments from Loki and the quite bickering between him and Tony as well as constant giggling from Thor and Bruce and the endless stream of World War Two fact checks from Steve. So yeah no interruptions. Well besides Valkyrie stumbling in halfway though and practically getting assaulted and arrested by Maria who then proceeded to let her go, blushing and apologizing profusely "Oh shit I'm so sorry, the fight scene was really tense and I guess my crazy ninja reflexes kinda just kicked in there for a minute. Did I hurt you? Are you okay?"
"Yeah no I'm fine but damn who's the beautiful warrior girl we're watching?"
"Oh. It's a um fictional movie; Wonder Woman."
"Aww well fuck it." Val dismissed.
"Where the hell have you been?" Tony asked in a harsh whisper in which Val replied to by flipping him off and flopping herself over a seat.
"This really isn't a very historically accurate film, they really oughtta employ me for these sorts of things."
"Steve it's a fictional movie also that's not such a bad idea. I bet you got a heap of historians chasing you around for interviews."
"Oh you would not believe the number of emails I get."
Nat smiled warmly, giving an exhaling laugh.
****
"Do ugly gods exist or are all of them just the definition of perfection?" Tony asked softly, resting his chin on Loki's shoulder and tilting his head into Loki's neck so that he was still watching the screen.
"Well they are gods." Loki pointed out, shrugging Tony's head off his shoulder.
"I want one." Tony commented in a low voice, staring intensely at Loki as he weaved his arm behind Loki's back and leaned his body towards him. Loki glared at him with the intensity of a thousand tiny death inducing daggers.
****
Nat watched from afar as Loki pushed Tony off of him. Tony's mouth twisted up into a smile at whatever Loki had said before replying something obnoxious. She could just tell. Possibly from the death stare Loki was giving Tony as the two of them continued to, from the perspective of an outsider, argue but Nat knew Tony well enough to know that that wasn't just any old snarky argument.
Oh gosh these two are literally going to kill each other before admitting the fact that they actually have feelings one another. Nat didn't think she'd be able to stand however long they were going to dance around each other in denial whist being painfully obvious to everyone else. I know I swore to myself to respect their privacy but hell they really don't seem to be very concerned about it themselves. Sorry anyway Tony. "Hey Steve?" she whispered.
"Yeah?"
"How long do you think it'll take for those two to get together?"
"I'm sorry what?"
"Tony and Loki. Look at them. They totally like each other."
Steve peered over at them and watched carefully for a few moments. "I dunno about that Nat, isn't that just how Tony is?"
Nat rolled her eyes, "No it isn't... Oh. Oh of course you can't see it."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean? Why can't I see it? Also what exactly is there to see?" Steve was giving her his confused look. She knew if she didn't explain it would bug Steve for forever, she really never should of started this conversation. She took a deep breath and spoke slowly.
"You can't see that Tony absolutely has a crush on Loki because you're used to him acting like that around you... What you don't know is that Tony only acts like that with someone he really likes."
Steve gave her a concerned look of confusion, creasing his eyebrows together. She waited for her words to sink in. They didn't.
"Seriously? Let me just spell this out for you, okay so Tony used to have a huge crush on you whether he knew it or not."
"Oh." Steve's face melted back into a blankly stunned look as he reflected and applied this new information to past events. "You sure? I thought he'd made it pretty clear he hated me."
"Nah he's just really awful at expressing and recognizing his feelings, trust me I did a report on him."
"Oh okay well I guess that could explain some things. And you... wait you think he likes Loki? That would mean... wait does that mean he's um you know?"
"Gay?"
Steve cleared his throat and felt himself blush in the dark flickering light of the theater, "Uh yeah that."
Nat watched him fidget uncomfortably and shift around in his seat "Oh not you too."
"Huh? I'm not sure what you're implying?" Nat glared at him skeptically, eyebrows raised expectantly. He held an innocently confused expression for a moment before breaking it with a shake of his head. "I'm not gay." he hissed in return, blushing more so and refusing to make eye contact. Nat didn't give in and held her glare, waiting for him to continue. He straightened his posture, sitting up in his seat and leaning his head over towards Natasha "I'm uhh bisexual?" he mumbled into his hand gruffly. Nat's expression eased into a precious smile as she stared at Steve, who started freaking out. "Why are you looking at me like that?"
She shook her head adoringly before becoming concerned at Steve's anxious and defensive tone. "No I'm fine with it. You do know how things like that have changed now days, Steve? You can legally marry another guy in-"
"I know Natasha." he cut her of sharply "Sorry. But there's a different between knowing something and being able to accept and get used to it."
"Of course, all these changes must take time getting used to, I honestly can't imagine how difficult it's been for you to adapted to all of this. Just don't go beating yourself up about it, keeping secrets like that are a lot of pressure and in reality it's really nothing to worry about." Steve smiled and nodded thankfully as Nat's mind continued to whirl away, connecting dots and trying to fit everything together "Steve. I hope you don't mind me asking but... who was Bucky to you?"
Steve's mouth moved without words, his ears turning red with embarrassment "He was- well he is my best pal I suppose."
"Righhtt. 'Best pal', and what's that 40's slang for?"
"Oh come on Nat. Friend, best friend. Nothing more." Steve sounded disappointed, his voice dropping off to a sad silence. Nat decided to move on.
"I bet it'll take them at least another couple weeks." she guessed, nodding down to the front of the room.
"Nah." Steve dismissed with a scoff and small laugh "Longer than that. They're both so stubborn."
"You wanna bet?"
Steve grinned, "Oh you're on Romanoff."
****
Loki allowed for Tony to lean against him like this for some time, long enough for him to be shocked when he suddenly moved away to grab a pillow, what the hel was he doing? Shuffling away slightly, Tony lay his head and pillow down across Loki's lap, his hands curled cutely up under his chin. Loki tensed, holding his hands up awkwardly to avoid touching Tony, he looked around the room anxiously with a scattered gaze. Well no one was watching. And it did feel nice to be so close to someone like this. In a comforting way of course.
Glancing shyly towards Thor, Loki deduced that he was engrossed enough in the movie not to notice much else of what was going on around him, in specific his heartless brother showing some sign of affection towards another living being. He lowered his hands slightly. Oh but Tony had such a bad reputation and if anyone did happen to notice us they might think... wait since when did I care about keeping a good reputation? I mean how much lower could I possible sink from 'murderous psychopath who tried to invade and enslave Earth'? I don't know perhaps 'murderous psychopath who tried to invade and enslave Earth and is also probably seducing Tony Stark' could maybe be just slightly worse? Then again not by much.
Loki gently rested one arm so that it was draped over Tony's side. Loki's heart melted at the sight of Tony smiling to himself pleasantly, the light from the screen illuminating his face like a dull haze of gentle moonlight. Tony slowly closed his eyes, peaceful smile still dancing on his lips as, with his other hand, Loki gingerly fiddled with his tawny brown hair, gently gliding his delicate fingers through Tony's stupid haircut. It really didn't take long for Loki to become completely oblivious to the movie and lose all sense of anything else going on around them. He was simply far too absorbed on giving his full attention to the adorable man curled up before him.
****
Nat nudged Steve with her shoulder, brow raised and eyes glinting lively, a smug grin pasted across her lips. Flicking her head, she gestured for Steve to follow he gaze which landed on the two silhouetted figures up front. Steve looked surprised but tried to act annoyed over his amusement "Okay so maybe they're not as stubborn as I thought."
"So cute." Nat breathed quietly. Steve gave her a look. "Oh come on you've got to admit they're adorable."
Steve smiled, shrugging uncomfortably, "I guess so?"
"Oh wow you're actually too awkward for life Steve." Nat giggled. Steve brought the conversation to a close by blushing and shrugging helplessly before refocusing his attention to remainder of the movie playing on the screen.
****
Tony exhaled deeply and slowly and although he could totally fall asleep like this right here, right now he didn't want to miss a moment of Loki touching him. And so he just lay there with his eyes closed and a dopey smitten smile indelible from his face. Never had he been so overly contented with such simplicity.
**Authors Note**
I know. I know... I'm a terrible human being and absolutely awful at updating but hey good news: I'm working on another story!!
ALSO last night I went to INTERACTIVE INTROVERTS!! and is was AMAZING. Are there any other Dan & Phil fans reading this?
cOomMeNT aND VoTE!! (please: for my self esteem)