Chapter Text
Year 0 – 2018
Loki saw Thor turning towards him, his baby-blue eyes wide and full of terror and anguish. “Brother-“ Thor took a step towards him, Stormbreaker falling out of his hands, dropping to the ground with a loud thunk, burying its sharp blade in the green ground.
“Thor?”
“Hel-“ And Thor turned to dust before he could finish his last word. And Loki turned numb, seeing his brother crumbling and falling apart, gliding away with the wind like his mother had done in the form of stars and Thor in the form of dust particles. Ugly brown and not worthy of Thor.
“Thor!?”
Please-
~°~
38 Hours Earlier
When Thanos’ ship appeared in front of them, Loki felt a fear he only had felt once before. This had been when he landed in Thanos’ realm and got introduced to the maniac who had given him into The Other’s custody and had Maw visiting him. So much time had passed since then.
The ensuing fight had been bloody and the screams loud and full of terror; and Loki hated himself for being so weak, for not being able to do more than try to avert the worst –
but he couldn’t, he was only a man after all and he was caught in a state of fear for the people and for Thor – bound by the shackles that made him immovable, only pressed him down to his knees; it left Loki standing as the only Asgardian. And he wasn’t even that, was he? The Jotunn in him demanded to be let out but Loki couldn’t, not when they were torturing Thor in front of him and he gave the Tesseract up –
And Thanos laughed at his attempt to stab him.
Loki didn’t know what drove him to that – desperation, madness, a small shimmer of hope in the burning fire of the ARK? There had been hands around his neck, he remembered them with stinging horror but then, he’d been released. He had fallen to the ground, choking and coughing, just glad to be still alive and then, they had killed Heimdall instead who had sent the Hulk to Midgard.
It wasn’t a comfortable thought, seeing Heimdall die like that. It had been an unworthy death for him. Loki may have a low opinion of the gatekeeper but even him he’d have granted the chance of a better death: Have him face the enemy with pride, grant him the chance of an attack and then –
then he’d freeze him, so he was doomed to die in the ice. But not being pierced through by a sword when he already was laying defeated on the ground, not being able to fight and flee. Not having the opportunity now to get to Valhalla.
And when Thanos left, he went with the accursed Tesseract and the ship exploded around them. Loki cradled Thor in his arms and whisked them away, so they would not be hit by debris and by dead people, just away from here.
Falling through space had been an all too familiar sensation. And Loki was afraid of seeing his daemons again, haunting and chasing him but he couldn’t flee – he had Thor in his arms and even though he was heavy, he would not let go, he couldn’t, not when Thor was all he had, when he had just found and been accepted back into his family again – Loki would rather be damned than to let go.
~°~
Loki wasn’t sure what had prompted the Norns to send a ship to them, with the Guardians of the Galaxy on board – he knew of them by his dealings when he had posed as Odin, the Allfather and he wasn’t all too impressed by them, solely by the raccoon. It was annoying and loud and spoke his mind and he loved it for that – Thor, of course, had taken a liking the tree.
But he thanked the Norns anyway because that was what mother would have expected of him. He took some of Thor’s stolen food and burned it in the middle of the ship with his green seiðr flames. It draped them all in the smoke of burned bacon and bread.
He could swear he heard his mother laugh softly in his ears but then, he wasn’t of sound mind right now, the space –
It was cold. Loki shuddered of fear and hoped it would go by unnoticed.
A hand, soft, tender, and most importantly, warm touched his.
“What-“ he turned to see the antenna woman standing next to him, her hand on his, their fingers interlaced and her –
Her jaw dropped open.
He knew that feeling. It was as if someone was suddenly sharing his emotions, no, seeing, sensing, realising and understanding them. Loki only blinked and tilted his head when her obsidian black eyes suddenly filled with tears, got blurry and wet and he decided to wait. With the patience his mother used to have, he stayed where he was and saw how the Guardians became impatient while this woman read him and his emotions.
Oh, he hated her for doing that to him. But in the same moment he loved it because finally, finally someone would feel the pain that cut him open day for day. It robbed him of his sleep at night and maybe someone would finally realise that he was capable of feelings as well and that words, deeds, actions, laughter; that they hurt him.
“Have you had enough?” he asked with a rough voice when she finally drew back.
“You-,” she whimpered and let go of his hand as if he had burned her with the ice that was running in his veins. “How do you-,” she broke and stared at him, eyes wide and in them swam the same pain Loki felt day for day. “How do you even cope? How can you live with this?”
“Loki, what have you done?”
Loki grinned at his brother. “I didn’t take her hand.” He blew the last ash away from his fingers, let it dance through the air and looked back at the woman. “There’s a thing, Mantis, that I have learnt.” Because he had learnt of her name while she was rummaging through his emotions. When she took just the liberty of daring to mishandle him and invade his privacy like it was no big thing. But he could do the same and the things he had learnt of her –
“You don’t touch strangers without their permission,” he breathed to her and took her chin in his hands. She didn’t say anything, just stared, and blinked, cowed by fear, and stunned by the emotions which were his daily bread. Her hands, wisely, stayed on her side. “You might regret that. They might not be as nice as me and let you go so untouched.” He arched a brow. Then he let her go, abrupt and turned back to the Guardians. A grin, carelessly and free of sorrow like it often was, so fake, on his face.
“There was a man of Midgard. He wisely said ‘and if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee’.”
Quill shifted, his hand reaching for his pistol. “Are you threatening us?”
“I don’t threaten,” Loki replied amused. “I only offer counsel that often gets ignored and then, all blame falls to me when things go wrong. Isn’t that the truth, Thor?”
~°~
Loki didn’t know how he ended up on the ground. There was shock, panic, and denial in him and together with despair, they seemed to overwhelm him. Wakanda was filled with ash, with dead people and Thor was one of them. His breath stopped and stopped and he-, where, what?
The world around him lost its colours and the bright and brimming Midgard, thrumming before with energy and was so full of life and chaos – it stopped breathing.
Loki couldn’t remember how long he sat there. There was dust on his trousers, dirt, and grime on his cape, the green turning dark and darker like he felt himself going number and his mischief slowly burning down. What was he doing here?
Why –
Why had fate chosen Thor?
Why not him?
He-, He was the one they didn’t need. Thor was the worthier one of them both and Stormbreaker stood there, only a few feet away from him, reminding him of their, his failure.
“Loki.”
“Yes?” He looked up. The Avengers stood in front of him. Each looking bad, drained by the battle and there was grime sticking to Romanoff’s hair and he hated them all.
“Where is Thor?”
He snorted. Why did he do that? He hated himself. He felt himself trembling, his hands not working properly, his seiðr dancing on his knuckles and –
He pointed at Thor’s ridiculous weapon they had forged on Nidavellir what felt like Aeons before.
The Avengers paled instantly, understanding dawning on them. For a moment, Loki felt nothing but pure satisfaction. Then it fled him again and all he could do was to stand up and vanish the weapon in his pockets.
“What did you do with it?”
“I’m keeping it safe,” Loki replied and his seiðr danced a last time before it disappeared back into him. “Until we get Thor back.”
“We?” Romanoff asked, cold steel in her voice.
Loki cocked a brow and pointed upwards, the ash and dust dancing above them, mocking them and the loss they were experiencing. He didn’t know why he felt so… normal right now. Was that shock? Was that – he couldn’t even say. There were no words. When his mother had died, there had been rage. His loathing had tripled, and he only wanted to do something, be brash and brazen, have a weapon in his hands and kill someone. The thirst for blood wasn’t singing in his veins though. Neither was it singing in his head. His head was disturbingly empty, instead.
“Haven’t your brothers fallen as well? Or do you simply wish to let them rest and have it be over with?” he asked, frost in his voice, putting his helmet back on again.
He saw Rogers opening his loud mouth, patriotism or whatnot about to spill from his mouth but Loki sent him a glare. “Don’t say a word, Rogers.” And wisely, Rogers shut it close.
“What’s your plan?”
“Find Thanos,” he growled, closing his eyes in pain mere seconds later. “Find him, get the stones back from him and then reversing it all. Bringing them,” Thor, “back.”
“I don’t know what happened that you are so generous, but I somehow don’t give a shit,” the man in the grey Iron Man suit said. Loki’s head shot around to him and he pierced the man with a grin. “You fought with us against Thanos,” the man continued and his dark eyes grew to slits. “I am willing to forget what you put Tony and Clint through if it means we can reverse this all.”
“I think that I like you.”
“Can’t say the same about you.” The man held out his hand. “I am Rhodey. We didn’t have the pleasure yet.”
Loki took it and shook the hand. “A pleasure doing business with you.”
~°~
Against his expectations, they didn’t find Thanos. There was only so much Loki’s seiðr could do and finding a mad Titan in the whole universe? It was a bit too much asked for. Loki could sense the Nine Realms but Thanos wasn’t on one of them. He knew a few more planets, a few other systems he had occasionally visited but that was it all. Thanos wasn’t where they could reach him.
“Your magic has limits?” Rhodey asked.
“It’s like a muscle,” Loki whispered into the room that was only occupied by them both. There was nobody else there, all went to sleep – with alcohol, tears in their eyes and pills in their hands. There was a limit to what mortals could bear and staying up all night after a long fight that they lost – they had to go to sleep apparently.
And Loki was thankful for it. He didn’t like to be watched failing at something. He didn’t want to see those empty stares because he felt the emptiness in himself.
“Fuck.”
“Indeed.”
They both stared into nothing.
“Are you alright man?”
Loki turned his head to Rhodey. “Alright?”
“Yeah.”
“I want to get drunk,” Loki mused. “I lost my family again today. I nearly died when I was choked. I could feel myself getting closer to Lady Death and I really don’t want to see the purple colour again for a while. Unless it is to bury my daggers in it, to rip it to shreds and tearing it apart.”
Loki’s mouth formed a dark grin. “Just so that I can see his ribs, bend them outwards, make the ugliest blood eagle out of him and hang him on a field where all can see and throw rotten tomatoes, eggs and livers at him. Then I want to keep him alive with my seiðr, so he feels every second of the pain that I am experiencing. So that he feels what he ever dealt me with – I want to see him suffer him for all eternity, and if I must use the accursed stones for that, then I will do that.”
He was panting when he was finished. There was nothing else to add to that, his anger finally coming to the surface and he had Thor in his head, shaking his head at him and sighing, disappointed once again by the bloodthirst that is thrumming in Loki – something that Loki always had held hidden, afraid of why he felt that way. But that was just him, his gruesome nature which got woken up and demanded justice for the unfairness. The things he got told he was deserving of, they demanded retribution, but he only could pay it back with mischief and seiðr. Never with weapons and bloodshed because he was a prince and he had to uphold a certain standard.
“I’ve been here.”
“Better than nothing.” Loki enhanced the beer he got, made it stronger so that he could get drunk, get wasted and wouldn’t have to worry about the things in his head.
“How are you?” Loki asked when he had downed the first bottle, feeling already the Asgardian alcohol running in his system.
“Tony is lost in space,” Rhodey mumbled. “And neither I nor FRIDAY know how to get him.”
“I am sorry,” Loki offered quietly.
“As am I. But I know Tony will come back.” Rhodey snorted. “He always does, and he always will. He’s just crazy enough to do that. And he will never stop surprising us.”
“Oh well, he came back alive and well when I threw him out of a window, I’m sure space is nothing against that.”
Rhodey, who had been about to take another sip from his beer, spit it out.
“That was-“ Rhodey coughed and Loki patted his back. “That was gallows humour.”
Loki grinned and took another sip. Which meant, he refilled the bottle with his seiðr and emptied it all again, getting increasingly more drunk with each drop and the voices in his head turning more and more quiet, after all, this had been his intention.
“He came back from a cave,” Rhodey slurred later when they had decided to go and lay on the floor because chairs weren’t friendly enough to drunkards. They were hard. “Caaave with suit. Will come f’om space as ‘ell.”
“Su’. St‘s annoying enough fo’ it.” Loki nodded and waved around with a hand. “Annoyin’ people always come back.”
“Wise wo’ds.” Rhodey nodded.
They were drunk. So. Drunk. Loki’s head hit the floor – had he held it in the air for a few minutes? Was he in that stage again?
“S’unno where to put you to sleeb.” Rhodey patted his hand. “Jus’ sleeb here with me on floo’.”
“Tell me whe’e the bed’oom is.” Loki clutched Rhodey’s hand, squeezing it, willing the -, no actually he didn’t will the dizziness away. “Can telepo’t us the’e.”
“What.”
Loki blinked. Suddenly Rhodey was sitting. Very close to his face. Interesting. He could see his poooooooores. Pretty pores. Very nice.
“Teleport?”
“Su’e.” Loki hiccuped. “Just need to know whe’e, tell me and then we can sleep.” He eyed Rhodey speculatively. Fun. Maybe a bit of fun would be good now. “Sleep,” he purred and his fingers danced on Rhodey’s skin, drawing circles and he heard his conquest gasp for breath.
“Loki. Loki!”
“Mhm,” Loki purred, a bit soberer out of sudden. Bed mates should be satisfied, not be left dry and wanting, nobody would leave his bed unsatisfied, not without at least two orgasms. That was the rule for Midgardians. Most couldn’t handle more without going totally brain dead on him.
“TONY’S ‘N SPACE AN’ YOU CAN TELEPO’T?”
“Yes?” Loki raised a brow, not understand the upset tone from his future bed mate. “You want him to join us? That is possible but will take us a while, I think.” He cleared his throat.
“Dude.” Rhodey shook his shoulders. “Sex later; can you get Tony from space if I you give you something? You know, like an object from him as navigator thing or something?”
Loki frowned. “You know I could try. I found Volstagg like that once.”
Rhodey’s jaw dropped.
“I’m not sure if I find that appealing,” Loki admonished Rhodey softly and clicked his jaw shut. Loki squinted his eyes. “Better. So, what? You want me to find Tony, bring him here and then, threesome?”
He was a horny drunk. Very horny. Especially when he also felt another emotion quite strongly. Apparently, that just made his libido go ‘huiiiiiiiii, sex, orgasm!’ and –
Both men looked fine and would be a welcomed addition in Loki’s bed. But he should be sober for this. With loads of regret, he cast a spell to turn himself sober again – just more on the tipsy side and Rhodey as well. Maybe this was better anyway.
“I don’t know about the threesome, too drunk, but it’s been a while since I last saw Tony’s junk. But – you can get Tony back? Safely? In one piece?” Rhodey tilted his head. “Wait, I’m not drunk anymore.”
Loki shrugged. “Can’t promise anything but I can try.” He raised his hands, his seiðr flaring up. “You have something here? I can’t bring him here right now probably. I am a bit too tired but I can find him and get him here tomorrow?”
Rhodey nodded. “I am fine with that. As long as I know he is alright and –“
“Not dust?” Loki asked, then yawned. “I get that. Anyway, give me something. It can be anything, it can be his boxers for all that I care, as long as it’s something from him.”
“The prosthesis is made by him.” Rhodey pointed at them.
“Can you sacrifice one?” Loki squinted. There was another matter to clear besides prosthesis. “Do you prefer to bottom or to top in bed when your legs aren’t working that well?”
“Doesn’t matter to me if it’s top or bottom. And I can sacrifice one. The prosthesis is worth it if that means we get Tony back.”
Loki nodded and pressed a hand to the cold material. He could sense Tony in them – obviously Tony really adored his friend, when he could feel him there. It made him smile a bit and old worse that have been forgotten on this realm, flew from his mouth and his seiðr danced around the prosthesis. He closed his eyes and flew through space, passed the moon and it got darker around him, dark and oh-
Oh, he remembered that way.
He had fallen a long way down from Asgard; he could feel the realms when he had plummeted further, getting nearer to the abyss, it was below Helheim –
It had led to him. Loki could feel it, and he remembered the eerie green in the all-surrounding darkness, he could sense himself being mocked for his green-and-black affinity, he was at home here and yet, he wasn’t, it had been his way to becoming a monster and –
Tony was here somewhere.
And someone was with him.
The ship.
He knew that ship.
Abrupt, Loki opened his eyes and stared at Rhodey. “I know where he is. And he is not alone, someone is with him.”
“You saw him?”
“No.” Loki shook his head. “I can’t dwell there too long, it is too tempting and too dark.” His smile was full of teeth. “I am up and about to go back there with today’s events. Don’t tempt me all too much. But I will bring him back tomorrow.”
Rhodey nodded. “Thank you.”
Loki bowed his head. Didn’t want Rhodey to see the blush on his cheeks. He bit on his lips, trying to gain control of his blush and somehow, fighting the tears in his eyes.
When he looked up again, Rhodey had nodded off. His mouth was open and he was snoring.
Loki shook his head fondly, then picked the man up and went to a bedroom. The tiredness in his bones made him fall into the same bed as well.
~°~
“You are the Loki.”
Loki blinked awake, turning around, seeing a lady with red hair in the doorframe, determination written plainly on her face.
“Yes?” He mumbled.
“Morning, Peps,” Rhodey next to him mumbled, blinking awake slowly. “I take it you got the message?”
“I did.” She grinned at him like a shark.
Rhodey stood up from the bed and threw at Loki his leather pants. “C’mon, man.”
Alright. He stood up as well, let the sheet drop from his body and took his time to put on his pants and his leather top. He grinned at the lady who eyed him curiously, no shame, no blush on her face to see. A shame.
“I take it you are a friend of Tony as well?” He tilted his head. “I need a space where I can land the ship and I would ask where I can get a cup of tea, I need one to wake up properly, please.”
“I can make you a tea, you bring back Tony.” She held out her hand. “When he’s here we both probably should sit down for a talk about you staying here.”
“Staying?” he repeated. “Why would I stay?”
“Because NASA sent word that a ship full of Aesir is on its way here and it asks about their King Thor. And seeing that Thor isn’t here, and I know how a monarchy works, aren’t you the king in his stead then?”
There it was again, the emptiness in him, filling him and oh Norns-
Thor was dead. Dust. Ash.
Loki felt like vomiting and erasing last night from his memory because what had he done? Instead of holding night vigil, instead of praying for his brother’s soul –
He had gotten drunk.
“There is no need to beat yourself up for yesterday,” the lady said, cool and crisp like the air in the Avengers’ compound. “What you did was normal, and it was your way of dealing with pain and suffering with loss.” She smiled bitterly. “Tony tends to do the same thing. Drinking until he can’t speak properly anymore.”
Loki felt oddly assured by that. Less like a monster. More like he was forgiven for when he had simply enjoyed himself in a dark time, and really, drinking didn’t help but it had made him laugh and had helped him to fall asleep. He flicked with his fingers and a new prosthesis was on Rhodey’s left leg, giving him the much-needed support. He had rebuilt it after his memory, hopefully, it would be enough.
“Tea is ready to be served in five minutes, ” a woman voice spoke from the walls. Loki raised a brow. “Welcome, Prince Loki. My name is FRIDAY, I am here to aid you in bringing Sir home.”
“Hello, FRIDAY.” Loki cracked his knuckles and looked at the two mortals in front of him. “To where can we go?”
“Outside on the garden.” Rhodey pointed towards the window. “Nobody cares about the green and Thor left enough burn marks there as it is.” Immediately, Rhodey winced.
Loki waved him off, a tired smile on his face. “We’ll get him back. I shan’t kill you just because you mention him with his name.”
“Good,” Pepper replied and held out her arm. He took it and got led by her outside. Rhodey was next to him, keeping up step by step.
This was a weird feeling.
Romanoff brought the tea to him a few minutes later as Loki was painting runes in the green, golden-green and bright on the dark green.
He took it without a single comment and took a few sips. It was a wild berry tea and he closed his eyes in utter bliss. There was little to be said about the taste of a good tea because it was just that perfect, the opportunity to turn Helheim into Valhalla. He’d bring Tony back here, then Thor. And eventually, the others who got dusted. Step by step.
His seiðr was setting the runes aflame, burning the bright colours down and smoke was starting to blur their sight. It made their eyes water but Loki started to chant in his native tongue. Smooth and hard, vocals rolling off his tongue as if they had been lying there, only waiting for him to release them from their prison. The sun turned dark and he could feel sweat running down his temples as he was imagining the green and black space, the loneliness there and the promise of something –
There was Tony.
Loki gritted his teeth and wrapped the ship in his seiðr, draped it around it until there was only green and he screamed his name, then he called his seiðr and its victim back to him, willed it to come home and, back into his arms –
The ship moved and sped up.
A grin spread on his face, transformed it until he looked like a maniac on the green grass. He pulled and pulled and the ship was getting closer already, he could hear Tony scream in excitement as he realised where the ship was going to and oh-
There it was, breaking elegantly through the atmosphere.
The last thing he did was to slow down their fall and then the ship launched quietly like a sparrow on the green.
“Oh my god,” someone whispered next to him and Loki only nodded, feeling weaker with every breath he took and oh, he hadn’t used such an exhausting spell in a while, the space
– it called for him. Wanted him back in its arm and -
The door to the hangar opened. Loki woke from his trance.
There was ash on Tony’s face, Loki noted as he saw the Avenger strolling down the rampage, still in his Iron Man suit and didn’t that look vehemently better than the one from six years ago? Smooth and sleek and elegant, like a warrior who had finally left his embarrassing, pubescent stage behind and had turned into a grown man. A warrior who finally knew of his place and worth.
Loki was simply less impressed by the gauntlet pointed at his face, the blue glow confusing and exhausting him all too much.
“You.”
“Me,“ he said and leant forward, nuzzling the gauntlet because when danger decided to laugh in his face, Loki liked to lick it and so he wrapped his tongue around a metal finger, leaving it covered in his spit. “Welcome back home, Anthony Stark. Your friends had a mighty desire for you.”
“That,” Tony said and his armour disappeared into his blue glowing reactor, what a beautiful thing, “was the hottest and also most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen, Reindeer Games. And thanks for the saving. I am correct in the assumption that the green glow was you, yes? Yes, that was you, Wanda is red and ugly, Strange is orange and has a weird beard.”
“Strange.”
“He’s dust, Lokester.” Tony grinned at him, without humour. “I heard you saved Thor.” His eyes ran around, taking in the people that stood there. “And I take it he didn’t make it.”
Loki shook his head.
Tony nodded and patted his shoulder. “Sorry, man.” He looked to Rhodey. “I lost the kid.” And his eyes closed in pain and suddenly, Loki felt an understanding for the man who had lost someone close to him as well and why had Tony even been in space in the first place?
And here they were. Tony got lead by Rhodey and Pepper – that was her name, he knew it was a ridiculous sharp one – and Tony’s companion left the ship. It was Nebula.
The blood in Loki’s veins froze and he stared, couldn’t understand, couldn’t –
“I am not here to torture you, Jotunn.”
“If you touch me,” Loki said softly and his hands clenched, then a dagger appeared in one of them. “I will open you up and read your electronics to someone who cares enough to hear them.”
“Don’t threaten my favourite blue alien,” Tony yelled from far away.
“I am here to help haunting down Thanos,” Nebula said. “I don’t care about you, Jotunn. I only care about revenge.”
“Good.” Loki grinned sharply at her. “In that case, I’ll refrain from killing you.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be dead?” Nebula looked at him, an invisible eyebrow raised.
“I’m sure that’s something I hear too often and always with that disappointed undertone.” Loki grinned at her. “One might think my company isn’t wanted.”
Romanoff snorted beside him. “Either fight it now out of your systems or get back into the mansion, we have things to talk about.”
“You look better, Jotunn,” was all Nebula said to him then followed the mortals into the compound.
“Old friend of yours?” Romanoff asked.
“Nearly as old as you.”
“Then it’s a good friend.” She gave him another cup of tea. “That’s for bringing Tony back.”
She walked off and Loki walked behind her slowly, not bothering with a thanks because the tea had been her kind of a thanks and that was a good enough sentiment of gratitude. He wasn’t good at expressing his appreciation in words. For him gestures or a simple silence worked better and seeing that Romanoff had turned her back to him, this was her kind of a welcome in the group towards him.
Tony had been sat down into a wheelchair, an IV been put to his arm and giving him nutrition because Banner couldn’t deal with not having been able to help his friend and therefore, an IV had to do it. It seemed like the man had also his difficulties with expressing what he felt.
Loki laughed at that. Really hilarious how they all dealt differently with guilty feelings that threatened to drown them in the dark sea, where no one could hear them. Not when their sins were about to kill them, closed their mouths shut and all they could do was to hope, even when knowing it was a lost cause. Nobody but themselves could help them but they couldn’t save themselves, they knew they weren’t worth it. A horrible truth Loki had learnt years ago.
To his surprise, he got to see Tony ticking off at Rogers.
Loki’s eyes went wide as he saw Tony coming back to life in the argument, screaming his anger and his pain out in the compound, yelling about what he had foreseen, and nobody had bothered to listen to him. Oh, the betrayal in his voice was familiar to Loki. Who’d have thought the Avengers would end up one day so ripped apart and broken?
“I know where Thanos is,” Nebula interrupted them. She stood in the doorway, her eyes fixed on Tony. Loki was curious to find out one day what had happened between them to make the cold assassin so open towards a mere mortal. “He always spoke of his farm when his goal had been achieved.”
Loki grinned like a wolf and they assembled around the table where Banner had put up a holograph of a planet and the fucking raccoon knew more about this planet than they all combined.
“Is there a reason why you’re staring at me?” Rocket spat at him. “You like looking at the freak?”
“I look at you,” Loki said calmly, “because you are an incredible being and I like the things that leave your mouth.” He grinned at him. “You cut people down that are five times your size and you show no fear while doing it. I’d call that inspiring.” Loki leant down until he could whisper into Rocket’s ears. “And the freak is me, Rocket. I am simply admiring your skills at surviving among the idiots who call themselves Guardians.”
“I don’t flirt with tall people.”
Loki tsked. “What a shame. But I’m sure you know how to repair the ship out there easily and quick, so we can hunt down Thanos?”
Rocket stared at him. “You are a weird one, Aesir.”
“He’s a Jotunn,” Nebula cut in from the doorway. “Not an Aesir.”
Rocket tilted his head. “I know how to repair the ship, Aesir.”
“Are you saying-“ Tony’s eyes gleamed in excitement and also, fear, “that we are going after the purple asshole?”
Loki grinned sharp like a knife. “We do. You’re joining us?”
Tony flexed his hands. “I just come from space, yelled at Rogers, have an IV in my arms, do you really think I’ll stay here?”
“Well, one could argue that you just come from a battle?”
“Yes.” Tony’s grin met Loki’s in sharpness. “And I don’t intend to lose this one as well.”