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[Tony screwed up. But that was all right: he was used to screwing up, falling down both metaphorically and literally, making people pissed at him--pissed enough to even try and kill him sometimes--but at least nine out of ten times when it happened, he knows what he did wrong. Or it wasn't hard to figure out.

This did not apply to anything to do with Loki. As it turns out, a trickster is a perpetual variable in the mythological world, and managed to twist everything in whatever direction he pleased. With this, at least, Loki was doing a piss-poor job of masking the fact that Tony had angered him somehow in the last few hours they've been at this evening gala. And though he wasn't gouging out eyes or blowing things up, he almost knows Loki isn't trying to be that subtle with the looks and snide remarks. Though he wasn't subtle, he wasn't being direct, either.

Honestly, Tony was starting to feel like he was in a sitcom chasing after his wife. Asking her what was wrong to get a resounding, fuming "nothing" each time.

Except Tony wasn't going to pursue him, and Loki wasn't his wife. On top of all that, the game was kind of pissing him off. So when he sees Loki wander off somewhere by himself, he follows him, waiting until they were estranged enough from the rest of the party to confront him.]

Gee, Rudolph, is that a new bee in your gilded bonnet? [With a squint.] Doesn't flatter you at all, really.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh, and you are so the expert on flattery, are you not, Stark? [ And it's the easiest way to read into the fact he's upset about something. It's not Tony, or hell even Anthony; it's Stark. A verbal push, as if distancing himself from the other, and it's so difficult for him--upon this realm, to keep his anger coiled in his gut. He had given his word, which to most meant little, but he had done it all the same. Moments like this, however, pressed that urge to ruin things. Ruin was what he was good at, chaos he thrived in-- he could not be disappointed if he expected nothing. ]

I think you have very little room to be placing judgement upon my actions. [ And he's nearly to the point of pacing, an old, bad, habit-- but he restrains himself. Instead his posturing turns more inward, protective. Arms laced across his own waist and his back turned to the wall. Not that he expects a fight-- no, if one were to start it would probably be on his end-- but more a unconscious sort of movement. This situation is an uncomfortable one for him. ]

Was it you intention all along to make such a fool of me? I had not quite expected such cruelty; perhaps I was wrong in my assessment.

You make it sound like it's hard to read your sour puss. You're not exactly bluffing with your muffin there, Lady Gaga. [It was so easy to fall back into old habits, which makes him wonder how much it ever changed between them; if this was always the basis of their entire relationship since Tony shucked off his armor and offered Loki a drink. Verbal banter was to be expected: Loki was by far the smartest (ex-)villain he's ever encountered--probably one of the smartest people he knows period. Verbal banter that triggered physical reaction. He's tried to draw a precise timeline through how he went from fighting Loki to sleeping with him, but it almost feels inevitable.

Except now, he watches Loki posture himself like he was trying to keep something inside, barbs underneath every word he spat at him. And Tony is not sure if he's seeing a truce ending, a killer rising, or a friend he should try to reason with before the threads snapped, but the vagueness makes him agitated.]

Maybe. I don't even know what you're talking about, but I'm starting to go through my entire day trying to figure out what I did to you aside from eating the last donut. And--just now. When I called you Lady Gaga.

And you think such a reaction comes from something as frivolous as food? [ And his shoulders hunch, as if insulted by the idea that something so simple would upset him so greatly. Many believed Loki to be unreasonable still; feared provoking him wit things Loki might have laughed off had they not been so annoying-- but he had presumed them past that. Perhaps not. Perhaps Tony was simply mocking his irritation as he had the poor habit of doing. ]

This is not the time for humor. [ Mostly because being mocked only caused his ire to rise, the need to defend himself, to snap back and say things he knows he might regret. Loki rarely regrets things, but words that slip past his lips unfiltered have always been the bane of his existence. Words let past so many things he does not want told but is unable to hide. ]

I had been warned of your frivolous nature but I thought, perhaps, it would not be the same now. [ And it's a bitter sort of laugh, because he looks genuinely bothered by this and smothers it under that mask the same as he does anything else. ] I am not a toy to be played with and then thrown away, I am not a simple conquest. [ Because he's always been a thing; Thor's brother, Odin's son, the Trickster, a liar, the lesser Prince, he rarely finds himself valued as he was, but rather for his position or his ability to do what others want. ]

Unless you tell me what it actually is, you don't leave me with a lot of other theories.

[Mocking Loki wasn't the only reason he was applying a heavy amount of sarcasm to the situation: it's a natural reflex. Loki has his various masks; Tony has his armor. He uses it to hide what gets to him, and the things he cares about. One he'd never admit to when it comes to Loki, and the other causes the line of his mouth to tighten. There's no more humor visible; Tony's face becomes cold and business-like.

Tony isn't ready for the explanation that comes out of Loki. He blames it on his own misgivings, expecting him not to give him anything so fast, at least without making him dangle and sweat a little more. But after he hears the words, he actually filters them and realizes what Loki is saying. This throws Tony back fifty spaces: do not pass Go. Do not collect two hundred dollars.

What was he even supposed to say to that when he couldn't believe he was hearing it from Loki of all people?] I never said that you were.

You did not have to say as much, [ Words, however valuable they could be, were often overshadowed by actions. Stark did not have to say a word, because it was something he could simply see from the man's actions. Had he been more than some sort of passing fancy, or at least realized that was what it had been, he would not have felt so irrationally irritated. It irked him that he could let a mortal, a former enemy, provoke such a reaction from him. That was his job; and he never liked being on the other end of it. ]

I try to ignore your-- your-- [ His hand gestures aimlessly, the word comes to him easily but it feels uncomfortable on his lips. As if this was a concern he should not have, something for lesser beings; though he had joined them, had he not? Perhaps this was all a game, something to placate the God of Mischief? Would it not be best to keep him reigned in and under watch? Intimacies were a quick, if not cruel, way to do such things-- but he had not come to expect such methods from them. At this point, he finds himself hovering on a precipice of uncertainty; a unfamiliar situation settling upon his shoulders and letting all those wild, creeping thoughts cloy at his mind. ] --Propositioning; yet it is so horribly blatant I cannot help but feel I am being made a fool of.

[ These sort of situations; interactions, for the lack of a better term, are unfamiliar to him. It's another thing about this land to dislike, another thing that brings about distaste; and yet a small part of him feels that sinking sensation of disappointment-- which is most troubling of all. ]

[The thing that was strangest of all was he has been on the opposite end of this conversation before. Friends with benefits and one-night stands were only fun and functional when everyone understood that it wasn't serious. Naturally there were several women in the past that wanted more from him than he could see himself giving them, and it ended right there. He's never intentionally led anyone on for sex, though he's been accused of it--it was part of the playboy image. And that never deterred more women from approaching him.

That was the variable he had missing all along in the evening equation: the brunette in a backless red number that approached him at the open bar, got closer and more comfortable the more they spoke. He never put it together with Loki's sniping commentary because he didn't expect it from him, regardless of what they have done together.

It was more about what they hadn't done together. The first date that never happened, the conversation about what they were doing for the last few months if they weren't just satisfying Tony's attraction to him and Loki's presumed sexual frustration on earth (and let's face it, if it came to just that, he could do worse than Tony Stark). They never even held hands.]

Nobody is making a fool out of you. I'm not--I was never trying to do that. [Tony makes a brief face, as though swallowing Loki's jealousy. The concept that he could even trick a trickster god would almost make Tony laugh if this wasn't incredibly disorienting.] Explain to me how this is even a discussion unless you wanted--something.

The word's on the tip of my tongue. I just can't bring myself to say it.

Were I just looking to sate some sort of carnal desire I would be more than able to do such things for myself. [ The idea itself is less than proper, but his words are only tugged with the barest hint of a drawl. He could see to his own needs were he simply looking for satisfaction, not to mention... ] Even so, I would not bed you were that my sole interest-- being a companion of Thor's, mortal and male. [ Because, that is not exactly something they do on Asgard. ]

There are very few people I have found here that I can-- [ He bites down on the word, pauses and then clearly chooses another, ]-- relate to, in some way or another. Be it a still held grudge or a simple lack of shared interests. [ Which is the nicest way he can phrase his inability to deal with most of the Avengers-- be it attitude or the simple imbalance in intellegence that makes it difficult for him to carry a conversation. ] And outside of this circle of misfits it is not exactly--enjoyable. [ Turning over a new leaf or otherwise; most people still don't trust him, which they probably shouldn't-- and the others often reminded him of the bar wenches in Asgard who would fling themselves at either prince in hope of being caught by one or the other.

It wasn't intimacy they wanted; just position-- be it celebrity as they called it here or status upon Asgard. He had felt a sense of comfort, because he knew Stark wanted neither; had his own, suffocatingly enough, and perhaps he had presumed too much. ] This isn't something I am familiar with, Stark, it's not-- it is not looked upon well; should one take interest in the same sex, but I had decided to even with the caution of Heimdall's gaze because I thought--

[ The words catch, he staggers verbally and he knows it. A irritated furrow pulls his brows down because he is a man of words, such fumbling is below him. Why would simply discussing such things with Stark cause his words to feel foolish even if they had not before? ]-- I know not what I had thought, perhaps, but it was not this. I do not do these things simply to do them, I have lived a long time and long since tired of frivolity and waste; it has only left me feeling farther apart from all.

[His eyebrows quirk in subtle reaction to the mental image that Loki encouraged him to draw. Remember that aforementioned attraction Tony has been feeling for a while? He can't shut off one-hundred percent--even during an argument. And the idea of Loki bringing himself to satisfaction wasn't a horrible diversion from the topic at hand. Just brief.

There was a lot Tony didn't know about Asgard: first off, he doesn't know what the hell a 'Heimdall' is and doesn't ask because it seems like an irrelevant piece of trivia bracketed by everything else. What he does know, it's very similar to an ancient Norse society. And he never considered the possibilities of what a homosexual relationship meant to Loki, to Thor, to any of the people they knew from their planet--perhaps Loki above all of them. At least in the classic myths, he had a reputation just the way Tony did--albeit a much weirder one. He never did get around to asking him about the horse.

Being discreet was never even something they had to talk about. Though for Tony, getting caught with his hands down a man's pants wasn't the primary concern over being caught with a former space terrorist. There were still hundreds of people that would want his head on a pike for that, if they knew. Hawkeye alone would probably stop speaking to him and put Nair in his shampoo.

There were risks. They both had risks to consider. But regardless of past crimes and cultural stigma, they could communicate on an intellectual level. Even if Loki didn't understand some aspects of modern science and technology, he could keep up with Tony like few people could, and he called him out on his bullshit. He liked food, he liked his robots, and they figured out how to be alone together without someone being thrown through a window.

Maybe this had been a relationship all along, which Tony hasn't even attempted since things ended with Pepper, and for a very long time he hadn't been thrilled to try and do it over with someone else. It never even seemed like a thing that was on the table with Loki.

Tony slides his hands inside his coat pockets, becoming fascinated with the opposite side of the hallway for almost a minute before he looks at Loki again. After everything he said, laid bare in front of Tony, all he can think of to say is:] Why didn't you say anything before?

Edited 2012-10-30 07:33 (UTC)

[ Of all the retorts he might have expected, the one that follows is not one of them. It isn't challenging, or perturbed, but curious in a way that seems genuine and for a moment he's stuck because it's so simple but the answer itself varied in complexity the more he thought about it. In the end he settles for a simple, ] I hadn't thought I needed to. [ He can see now where things went awry; what he had viewed as something more had been passed along as simple companionship. It would be a lie to say he hadn't grown to enjoy Stark's company, or the curious afternoon activities he occasionally devised-- but Loki had taken the time spent together in an entirely different way. Perhaps this was how they all behaved in their communal way, but the addition of sex always made things more complicated-- the risks that much more. ]

I had not realized we were not thinking similarly till this evening when I watched that coquette hitch her skirt up and nearly plant herself upon you. [ The thought actually makes Loki roll his eyes, a very human expression, no doubt one learned in his time upon Midgard. He could not blame her, not entirely anyhow, this was Stark whom he had heard at least a dozen stories about; and as easy as he was sometimes to fall to the sting of jealousy, he's not fool enough to believe this to be some sly ploy on her part. Had Stark not even known he considered them something more, how could a strange woman in a slinky dress? Though admittedly he hadn't been entirely kind, either, but he was not the kind of person who handled such things well-- obviously. ]

I found no need to speak because it seemed unnecessary; all had been decent before then and there had been no other-- interlopers. [ For the lack of a effectively tact word. ] I thought things had simply worked themselves out.

[He squints.] I think we have two very different ideas about what happened tonight. [Tony doesn't remember any skirt-hitching. Or planting. They would've been escorted out if there had been any planting at the party.

Possibly harder to believe than tricking a dye-in-the-wool trickster was having a cliche sitcom misunderstanding with him about another woman--in the most fucked up, politically incorrect sitcom on cable television. Tony could almost hear the beats in the conversation where the laugh track would be inserted--where Loki all but confirmed he thought they were in a committed relationship this entire time, and the word 'coquette.' Loki has an interesting menagerie of old-fashioned slurs when it came to women he doesn't like.

Loki rolls his eyes, but for the most part, the acid seems to have dissolved from his tongue. They were communicating now, and Tony still feels like he's in the middle of a gray map with no concept of the landmarks around him. The thing about one person admitting they want more than just sex is it can never go back to the way things were (though he now realizes it was never like that for Loki to begin with). He has to consider the possibility that telling Loki he couldn't be exclusive with him would take everything off the table: not just sex but his company in general. Somehow, Tony has a hard time imagining Loki being cool with, 'let's just be friends.'

Tony wasn't even sure if he was all right with the idea of losing Loki at large.] It would've been nice if you said something. Maybe took some time to slap a Post-It on the fridge letting me know we were going steady this whole time.

What were you planning to do if she wanted to go home with me?

Turned her into a wasp? Blown up a city block? Set the tower aflame? In earnest-- [ Which is quiet an odd thing for a trickster of his sort to say, but for all the charm told of his 'lies' Loki often found the truth much more mailable to manipulation. Though in this instance he knows only truth, as it is naturally, will be of any benefit. ]-- I would have done naught. I made my displeasure known and were that not enough then I see not how losing what little I've gained here would accomplish anything.

[ He couldn't... wouldn't go back to Asgard, not anytime soon. ]

Of course, I would have been angry for a time-- [ There's no denying that much, considering the way his stomach settled so heavily at the thought earlier. ]-- but it is not the first time nor the last time such a experience has come my way. [ There is, without a doubt, always something or someone found to be of more value, of interest or just new in their own way. Often enough it was Thor; he could not count the maidens who had proclaimed interest in him only to get closer to his brother, nor would he want to. He had tried, and failed, at some half-baked sort of revenge that he is still not sure he was entirely in his right mind for and still found himself lacking-- is it to be any surprise that one could move on so quickly. Especially a mortal as their lives are so much shorter and prone to even more chaos.

Oft Loki found himself playing the fool; settled into a play he knew not the words to, but only his position. Reaching, grasping but never quite taking hold of what he wanted. Asgard. The throne. Sif. Odin. Midgard-- had he even wanted that? Stark. Tony could easily be another notch on the list of things he has not pulled into that ever cloying grasp; and that was the difficulty of trying to do things the right way. People, with all their choice and freedom, were not as predictable as Loki would like. There was, for once, not manipulation at play but rather just a genuine attempt to get close to another being and he's taken it too far; or perhaps not far enough. ]

I have learned, rather painfully, that you simply cannot make someone want you; it is something they must do of their own volition or it is not worthwhile.

[A list like that would've seemed glib and melodramatic with a human, but with Loki, who is more than capable of doing all those things--it's still melodramatic, but also a chilling likelihood. Perhaps what most people would expect of Loki: to turn the competition into a bearded toad and then abduct Tony to let him know that he was "his" and "his alone." Scorned jealous girlfriend-slash-super villain stuff.

Loki says he wouldn't have done anything, and even if that was a lie disguised as a very reasonable truth, the moment already passed. Tony wasn't compelled to go back and find his lady friend after this. He wonders if it was guilt, finding out he was one more thing that Loki feels he can't have. But that was insulting to both of them...and not one-hundred percent true. If he wasn't interested in committing, Tony would end it as quickly as possible. Something he hasn't done yet. The words feel false and awkward on his tongue.

He looks down again and nods.] Good lesson. That's a good moral to the after-school special about the red-nosed reindeer that tried to enslave humanity but then found out humans do what they want.

[Tony closes his mouth, changing his direction.] I want you. What do you think all this has been about?

[He takes a step forward, almost pointing to all the time they spent hanging out with each other, getting companionable, getting close in ways that made decent society at large scream and thumb its own eyes out and he should really get around to caring about that.] It's not like you made it obvious, Rudolph. We have protocol on earth: labels to go over, obligatory Facebook statuses to change. You didn't even Shakespeare it up. Aren't you supposed to ask Nick for courting permission, and then bring me gifts and sonnets penned by quill until I'm sufficiently wooed?

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pls to ignore the icon

/Stares at you instead mO_Om

nooooo

O: You're the reason cavemen drew on walls. O:

Are the O: faces your best Tony impression?

The best I can do without the kawaii sparkles

jdwioajdsa indeed.

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The flowers in the water are actually bubbles. >> Since idefk where Tony would get that many petals.