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Chapter Text

Chapter 1 - Faith

Tony Stark was rich and famous. And as a person of public interest all manner of facts about him were circulated. People liked to know what he ate for breakfast, where he went on holiday, with which supermodel he was hooking up and so on and so forth. People liked to speculate wildly about everything, and while Tony had sat through numerous Q&A’s the interest in random and irrelevant details about his life never waned.

He just had to be spotted once at a Burger Store to spark discussions about his favorite burgers and which dip, he ordered. Being a celebrity in times of social media was annoying and made it nearly impossible to keep anything a secret. If you asked any of those Tony Stark and Iron man fans however, if Tony was religious or believed in God, none of them would have an answer. Most would shrug and claim he was probably Catholic but actually, religion had never once come up in any interview, talk show, magazine spread or Q&A.

Even if you asked Pepper Potts and James Rhodes, arguably the two people closest to the eccentric billionaire, they would not have a definitive answer. They would probably say that Tony was an agnostic and only believed in science and had no use for outdated social constructs. They had in any case never seen Tony do anything that they would consider religious. As far as they knew he was not a pious man, had never been to Church, did not pray and did not observe any religious holidays whatsoever. He did not celebrate Christmas, except to buy something for his friends on occasion, and Easter or other holidays even less.

To sum it up, Tony Stark's beliefs were one of the best guarded secrets of all times. Tony Stark had been a believer since a very young age and had kept it completely private, never talking to anyone about it. Religion was something that he kept close to his chest and that was that much more precious for being a private worship.

The thing was, if you asked Tony about it, he would say that in his opinion it had absolutely nothing to do with belief. Because he knew for a fact that his God and others like him existed. So, he did not have to believe in the elusive existence of a higher power but could worship and be devoted to a very real deity that had visited Earth regularly in centuries past. He had absolute Faith in his God and was devoted to him, addressing prayers and offerings to him regularly. He was Ásatrú and his chosen God was Loki, god of Fire, Chaos, Lies and Mischief.

Tony had first learned about his God as a child, reading tales from the Norse mythology. Loki had been someone to identify with in the stories, clever, quick, always in the shadow of his brother and not good enough for the throne of Asgard. Just like Tony was never able to meet his father’s expectations and was never as good as the fabled Captain America that his father was always talking about. Even when Tony sneaked into the workshop and built something beyond the capabilities of his age-group, his father never took notice. It was on one of those occasions, Tony was maybe seven or eight, that Tony found all the evidence he needed to become a follower of Loki’s.

His father must have left the workshop in a rush as the filing cabinet that was usually locked was left standing wide open with papers pouring out. One file had even fallen from the desk and had spilled some documents on the floor. Tony had approached the file, curious despite knowing he would be punished if caught with the forbidden papers. He only read the first page of the report, but that was more than enough to grasp that the figures from his mythological tales were all real and from an ageless alien race that visited Earth sometimes.

The file did not mention Loki, but it did talk about skirmishes between Jötunn and Aesir, magic and Odin. It was enough to be sure that Loki was just as real and existed somewhere out there and was an actual god, much more real and tangible than the one most people prayed to. That night, as the Nanny put him to bed and encouraged him to say a prayer, he addressed it to Loki for the very first time.

As Tony grew older and got to know himself better, he realized how accurate he had been in his choice of deities. He had never had reason to waver from his faith. He was absurdly attracted to fire, both literally in having fun making things blow up, and metaphorically in playing with fire, living on the edge. Living hard and fast and experiencing as many things as possible without care for the dangers. He loved driving fast cars, spending money, having sex with whoever he found pleasing and partying hard. That could also be part of his chaotic energy, but for him Chaos was much more closely associated with creation.

From the chaos of building and invention came creation. Often the things thought up in the most chaotic times came out the greatest, his AI JARVIS being a testament to that. The aspect of lies and mischief was a bit more subtle, he did not care overly much for practical jokes, but his many facades that he showed to the public, slipping from one skin to the next, playing business partners, press and fans alike with sharp comments and flirtatious smiles, all the while safeguarding his real persona was enough of a play to count in his books. Becoming Iron man also ticked all the boxes, reinforcing his trust in Loki.

Since believers of the Aesir were rare nowadays and not someone he could associate with easily, all of Tony’s practices of faith were cobbled together from historical sources, other religions and improvisation. Tony figured that if he did it wrong unknowingly that the sentiment would be enough for his God. He did not think that Loki would be very offended if he used the wrong ingredients in his offerings. But Tony did make sure that everything was as accurate as he could possibly make it and he borrowed liberally from other Pantheons to supplement his practice. He was very aware that Loki was not only a God but also a Prince or King, so he was always careful to address him with the respect he deserved.

Everything he bought for his deity was of the highest quality. Thankfully, he was known to be eccentric, so no one batted an eye if he ordered exquisite things in gold, velvet, or fur with emeralds all over it. Tony had even built his own place of worship in his home. Like nobles of times past had done, Tony had installed private chapels in his houses. To be honest they would not be recognized as a place of worship at first glance, but that was what it functioned as for Tony. In his Tower he had a secret room installed, only accessible with his fingerprints through a cleverly hidden door.

To anyone looking at the dimensions of the tower on a blueprint it would just look like the staircase and the utility room took up a lot of space, but in reality the temple with its reinforced walls was fit in between utilities and Tony’s bedroom. Tony only ever slept in that decoy bedroom if he had guests or company for the night, the rest of the time he slept in the hidden room. Especially since Afghanistan and the disaster with Obie, being hidden away and closer to his deity just made him feel that much safer. However, he had never even considered telling someone else about his faith. Not even Pepper or Rhodey. His Faith was more powerful by not practicing it openly, playing into the attribute of lies and mischief.

The only time in his life he had doubted his faith was while he was in the cave in Afghanistan. Going through the torture, the surgery in his chest and the following betrayal had nearly broken him. But he had remembered the hardship that Loki had gone through in the tales and had promised not to give up on him. Maybe it was imagination, but it felt as if the moment he had made the decision to be steadfast in his faith, that the process of creation had just gotten that much easier. He had thanked his God profusely by letting the whole base blow up in a glorious firestorm.

Obie’s betrayal and the subterfuge of SHIELD had made clear that there were various ways to lie and to be dishonest. Not all lies needed to be malicious. Lies often protected him from the world, being open and honest had not made him many friends or helped him out any. The hurt from those situations simmered in him, feeding the fire in him, ready to wreak chaos when necessary. Tony liked to think Afghanistan was a baptism of Fire, and that only after experiencing all that he was a true disciple of Loki.

Tony practiced his faith since childhood, but only as an adult, living on his own he had the opportunity to observe all the correct rituals and holidays. At first, he could only pray and offer some food that he had sneaked away. He had no altar or shrine, but he made sure to face north and to extend his arms to the sides while standing straight up as he had read was proper for a Norse God.

Later, when he was in College, he could add the ritualistic drinking to his practice. No one at MIT cared if he had alcoholic beverages and soon he had a certain reputation as an alcoholic that stuck to him for good. Some practices had to do with invoking magic, and while Tony was sure that Loki could wield magic and that it was just more advanced science, he could not do that by himself yet. Instead, he dedicated things he invented and built to his God, figuring that the act of creation through science would please him too.

As soon as he moved into his own house, he started celebrating religious holidays on the solstices, often with food and drinks and copious amounts of sex. No one cared if he mumbled some prayers and dedications under his breath while indulging. He took pleasure from it of course, but the main purpose was to offer to his God. At the end of such a night he would sometimes retire to his hidden shrine and sacrifice a small mammal or cut himself lightly to bleed on the stone altar to forge a deeper connection to his deity and show his adoration.

Tony always made sure to keep an eye on SHIELD, especially since they had more or less strong-armed him into the Avengers Initiative. He had been weak due to the palladium poisoning and they had taken advantage of that shamelessly. Now he was more careful with what they could discover and had JARVIS protect his interests. So, the moment JARVIS announced that Thor’s hammer had landed in New Mexico, Tony knew without a doubt that his life would change drastically and that his devotion to Loki could maybe not stay a secret forever.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2 - Knowledge

Tony did not want to raise SHIELD's suspicion by suddenly being interested in their actions, but he had JARVIS dig a little deeper in SHIELD's files than usual and hacked as many satellites and cameras as necessary to get a proper picture of what was going on in New Mexico. Thor was interesting and proved many things that had been written down about the Aesir in the past.

However, he also seemed very brash and straightforward, without any finesse he tried to solve his problems with strength alone. But what was much more interesting to Tony were the few mentions Thor made of his brother. While he did not go into detail about him, just the scant few words about him made Tony giddy with excitement. Suddenly his life had turned around again and there was an actual possibility of meeting his God in the future. An Aesir had returned to Earth and that could only be the beginning.

In the aftermath of Thor’s visit, SHIELD set up several new documents about Thor, Loki, Heimdall, Sif and the warrior three and the Bifrost. Tony made sure to download any scrap of information available. While SHIELD’s file on Loki was very short and barely included any information that Tony had not gleaned from his own research, Tony studied it carefully. Loki was a mage and had apparently taken the throne of Asgard, lying to Thor about the death of Odin. The giant metal man had been sent by him to prevent Thor from returning to Asgard.

Tony smiled. He only had fragments of the story, but it seemed as if his God was just as powerful and cunning as the tales had said. He longed to know the complete story, but he would bide his time and pray to his chosen deity more fervently to support him in his coup. Tony decided he would make a new, space capable Iron man suit in honor of his God, and if he painted it green and gold in deference to the traditional colors of his deity before repainting it in hot-rod-red, no one other than him and JARVIS needed to know.

Between his experiments with the new element he had created - he debated if he should call it Starkenium or Lokarium - he studied all the data that SHIELD had taken from Dr. Foster. He had needed to brush up on his astrophysics, but the idea that the Bifrost could generate a wormhole to a specific location to enable interstellar travel was just too interesting to let go of. He immediately programmed a little something that would track energy readings indicative of Bifrost activation and had JARVIS upload it to his satellites. It would ensure that he would be the first to know when the Bifrost activated.

Additionally, he started tinkering with the idea of building his own wormhole generator. He did not have enough data yet, and the energy requirements would necessitate a much larger arc reactor than the one he was using for the Tower currently, but it was an intriguing idea for the future.

When the Bifrost program pinged only a few days after Tony had activated it, he assumed it to be malfunctioning at first. Looking more closely at the energy readout however, it looked like his satellites had picked up energy that had dissipated through the cosmos. Calculating the initial energy according to the rate with which it dissipated, Tony was left with an enormous number that surpassed all readings Dr. Foster had ever taken. The duration of the phenomena Dr. Forster had observed never exceeded a few minutes, three at the most. Calculating the duration of the Bifrost activation by using this data meant, that the instance that his satellites had found was a constant wormhole of nearly forty minutes. Tony hoped for the first time that he had made some mistake in his calculation, because leaving an Einstein-Rosen-bridge open for such a long time could not end well for either the receiver or the sender.

Tony, with the heavy feeling that something had gone horribly wrong, abandoned his workshop to hole himself up in his Temple. He lit some candles, situated himself right in front of the niche that was adorned with a polished wooden panel with Loki’s name in golden Runes on it, dug his bare feet and toes into the soft, grey carpet, lifted his arms to the sides and his head to the ceiling and closed his eyes. He prayed for his god, for Loki to survive and prosper. He did not pray to ask for anything. No blessing, guidance, inspiration or favor, the only thing he wanted was for his God to be alright. He poured his devotion, adoration and his faith into his wordless plea. Maybe he could lend some fortitude to his chosen deity, whose existence alone had helped Tony overcome his hardships.

Nearly a year goes by without any mayor incidents for once. Tony is busy creating new suits and advancing the clean energy business with the arc reactor technology. He has upgraded the tower several times by now. Pepper is as always exasperated with him, but he continuously congratulates himself for making her CEO and for not pursuing a relationship with her after the disaster that had been the palladium poisoning and Vanko. Sure, they could have been great together, but she would never understand that he needed to be Iron man to fight not only his own demons but for the betterment of the future.

He was also still keeping his worship of Loki a secret and since Thor had come to Earth, Asgard and the gods took up a huge chunk of Tony’s attention. Pepper did not deserve to be perpetually in third place on his list of priorities, bad enough that the company was there. But Tony’s gut feeling that something was amiss in the universe had not lessened at all in the many months and he had taken to calming himself by following a very precise schedule of prayers and rituals throughout the week.

Since he often went on science binges in the lab or workshop, he had asked JARVIS to remind him of the time periodically. Every six hours he would speak a short prayer often combined with an offering of food and drink. Loki did not have a specific day dedicated to him, so Tony chose a different day every week to dedicate more time to his worship. He would reread stories from mythology or files that he had gathered through SHIELD and JARVIS and either make a shallow cut somewhere on his body or masturbate in his hidden room for an offering of life force.

Tony did not have any visual representation of Loki and did not dare to conjecture to much about it, considering that having an image of your God was thought blasphemous in many religions. But all representations in stories agreed that he was a shapeshifter that most often appeared as a pale skinned, black haired man. But his physical appearance was not that important to Tony anyway, as long as he was Loki, that would be enough. He had dedicated so much of his life to his god already, he could not imagine that there could be anything that would make him turn away at this point.

His belief in Loki had somewhere along the way turned into a bit of an obsession. He knew he tended towards excesses and addictions, but his worship was in a whole other category. Somehow, he felt as if he knew his deity; he had always felt that way, but since the events of last year that feeling had intensified and his dedication had become less abstract.

It was therefore not a surprise that Tony was on high alert as soon as JARVIS told him that Loki of Asgard had appeared in a SHIELD base, stolen a power source, enthralled a scientist and some agents and blown up the whole complex before disappearing again. Tony watched all footage he could get his hands on, which was not much considering the damage Loki had wrought, but just having a small glimpse at his God in a fine leather armor with golden details, a horned helmet and a glowing scepter was like all Christmases and birthdays had come early for Tony. He re-watched the short clip over and over, fascinated by the smirk on Loki’s face and the power he wielded so effortlessly. Tony was nearly vibrating with excitement. If he could, he would have immediately sought his god out, but SHIELD had no idea where he was, and Tony did not have enough data for JARVIS to track either the power source or to use the facial recognition software.

Agent Coulson’s sudden appearance in his tower was therefore a very unwelcome interruption to his brainstorming. Coulson tried handing him a tablet, Tony refused it, Coulson set it down and waited just long enough to see Tony open the files before leaving again. Tony did not care. Looking through the files and seeing the power source be called a tesseract reminded him of something. He had JARVIS summarize the rest of the information, then he started digging through his own files. Where had he heard of the tesseract before? A blue cube of unimaginable power… Tony froze. It was not in his files, it was in Howard’s files, that was why JARVIS had not made the connection immediately, much of Howard’s stuff was still on paper.

Tony wrenched the cupboard open, yanking out all boxes without any care. He frantically dug through them until he finally had the notebook that he had looked at briefly while searching for the new element. He flipped through it, and there nearly at the back of the book, between many blank pages was a sketch of the cube. Long strings of equations and energy readings had been written down meticulously next to it. Now that he had jump started his brain, he remembered that Howard had once said that he had found the most remarkable power at the bottom of the ocean. Tony had never paid any particular attention, already long past the need to hang onto his father’s lips as he spoke. But now it changed the game considerably. Tony rushed back to his workstation. The information was very rudimentary, but he was not a genius for nothing.

It took Tony two long days before his search program was not only running and scanning for the tesseract but could also pinpoint its location successfully. It was in Germany. Tony scrambled to take a shower and to dress himself appropriately. It was not every day that one met their God in the flesh after all, and Tony wanted to make a good first impression. He could do nothing against the bags under his eyes from his fifty-hour science binge, but at least he could ensure that he did not smell and looked pleasing. He stepped into one of his faster Iron man suits and launched himself from the landing pad to speed in the direction of Europe.

They were just crossing the boarders of France when JARVIS announced that SHIELD had identified Loki at an exhibition opening in Stuttgart. Tony adjusted his course and put more power into his thrusters. He wanted to be there before SHIELD.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3 – Recognition

Tony landed just as Loki came out of the museum building. He watched in awe as Loki’s evening outfit seamlessly transformed into the armor, he had already seen on the SHIELD tape. Tony could not resist starring for a moment, Loki with his long black hair, piercing green eyes, confident stride and evil smirk was absolutely gorgeous. He looked powerful and the magic swirling around him gave him an otherworldly glow.

Tony stepped out of the Iron Man armor and approached his God, who had just begun to coral the fleeing people together. As soon as he was close enough to be heard over the clamoring of the mass, he inclined his head slightly and addressed his deity as politely as he could: “Prince Loki, would you deign to offer a few moments of your time to your humble servant?”

Loki froze, then he turned slowly and stared at Tony. An expression of surprise few over his face before a small smile turned the corners of his mouth upwards. He threw a quick glance over his shoulder at the fleeing people, then he made a complex motion with his hands and Tony found himself encased in a near-silent, green-shimmering bubble of magic with his chosen God.

Loki approached further and cupped his cheek with his right hand to tilt his head up. He looked Tony in the eyes. “It is you”, he breathed, “you are mine and I must thank you. Your prayers and loyalty have kept me from losing myself completely.”

Loki studied him intently for a moment. “Your Highness?”, inquired Tony carefully before continuing on, “I am Tony Stark. I have believed in you for most of my life. It is great to meet you finally.” Tony smiled up at the taller God.

“I have put up a magical barrier, we will be undisturbed and unnoticed for a little bit, but I cannot hold the spell for long periods of time, so I must be swift in my explanation”, said Loki.

“I was a captive for a long while and only the strength of your belief, your loyalty and faith made it possible to safeguard a part of myself from the mind control of my enemy. The hooks of their spell could not get to me fully, but I am still forced to play my part in this story to be able to free myself from them. I thank you, Tony Stark for your faith. Will you help me with the rest of my plan?”, asked the God.

Tony searched his Gods face for a moment, seeing gratitude, resolve and pain in the green eyes. “You are still injured, my prince, are you not?”, he asked carefully. Loki looked away but lowered his chin an increment in a tiny nod.

“I’m not sure how much you know about earth, but I’m very rich and famous, nearly a prince of this world myself. Everything I own will be at your disposal and I'll do my best to help you.”, promised Tony, “I've a Tower in New York, the Penthouse is where I live, you are always welcome there, even if I'm not there, my AI JARVIS will make sure that you have everything you need.” Tony rambled on for a bit, but Loki grasped his chin to stop the flow of words.

“You have prayed to me for many years, Anthony, I may not hear every detail, but I have gotten to know you quite well I think, do not fret. My plan was to let myself be captured by SHIELD to rally the humans together. Because my larger plot hinges on the invasion of the Chitauri army that is currently under my control, and I want to make it seem as if the humans defeat me and the army on their own. The enemy cannot fault me for failing against such a strong force and then, with him distant and me imprisoned in Asgard I can get rid of his influence on my mind once and for all.”

Tony was a little overwhelmed by the flood of information and his thoughts raced about everything he had learned. “You've an army, my prince?”, he repeated slightly incredulously. Loki nodded pointing a finger upward, “It waits in space. Selvig has built a machine with the tesseract that will open a portal hopefully. We will need to position it on a high point.”, he explained.

“I can help with that”, said Tony, “I've studied the Bifrost and the tesseract recently and I own a Tower. I can make sure that the machine works. But what about SHIELD and the army itself once it arrives?”

Loki winced as the magical barrier flickered briefly. “I will tell you more at a later date, but I cannot hold the barrier for much longer and I think I will have to take you up on your offer of hospitality, letting myself be captured by SHIELD might not be the best option right now considering all you can help with.”, explained the God while taking a step back to observe the barrier critically.

Tony grinned, elated that his deity had placed his trust in him and that he could do something to help. “My prince, you probably know about Iron Man. We could stage a fight for the benefit of SHIELD. I know they should be arriving soon, and you could just disappear to recuperate in my Tower until I can get away from them again.”

Loki looked thoughtful for a moment. “Your plan is valid, but we will need to give them something to work with and rally around. I will let you take my scepter in the fight. With your help they will be able to track the tesseract with it and that means they will be where they should once my army arrives. Now, my faithful, get back into your suit of armor. I will drop the barrier.”

Tony did as his God commanded and stepped back in the suit. Right after the faceplate had dropped, the barrier did too.

Suddenly the loud noises of people running and screaming was there again and Loki resumed his approach of the mass as if barely any time had elapsed. Tony guessed that the barrier had been so difficult to hold for his injured God because it dilated time too.

Just the thought of someone harming his Loki made Tony mad. His God had turned out to be exactly as he had imagined, if more benevolent towards him than expected. It made him very happy to realize that all the words and sentiments that he had spoken in prayer over the years had not just echoed in the emptiness of space but had reached Loki and even helped him out. It had forged a connection between the two of them that made their interactions start off at a different level. They knew each other already, there was trust on both sides and Loki had repaid the vulnerability of Tony’s prayers by being honest about his plan and admitting to his injuries. Tony was very proud, of himself but also of Loki. He whispered a small prayer of gratitude and adoration under his breath and was rewarded with a piercing but knowing look from his God.

He powered up his repulsors and flew up to land dramatically in front of Loki. “Let the people go!”, he yelled before firing at Loki. Mentally he apologized to his God for not only yelling put also shooting at him, but a plan was a plan.

“JARVIS, ETA on SHIELD?”, he asked while dodging some magic.

“They just arrived, they are nearly on top of us, Captain America will be deployed imminently, Sir.”, informed the AI. Tony grinned. Perfect timing.

He fired a few more blasts at Loki, one directed at his hand so that he could drop the scepter as planned. Loki also had an immense grin on his face and was darting left and right while throwing magic around, always careful not to hit directly. With a clang Captain America dropped from the sky, throwing his shield at the mage. Loki dodged and focused his magic on the newcomer.

After a few more exchanges it seemed as if the Captain’s shield would hit Loki. Tony did not dare fire at it, but his worry was for naught anyway, as the shield sailed smoothly through the apparition of Loki. The clone dissipated into green smoke and Iron man and Captain America were left standing alone on the Plaza.

“Stark.”, greeted Steve Rogers.

“Captain” replied Tony in a calm voice before going to collect the scepter. “Look what he left behind.”, he said.

“We should take that back to SHIELD. How did you arrive so quickly?”, asked Steve.

Tony shrugged, “My suit is just much faster than a SHIELD jet, let’s take this, Loki has disappeared for now.”

They returned to the jet where Natascha was waiting. On the way to the Helicarrier the sky was suddenly lit up by lightning and the jet shook as something heavy landed on top of the aircraft. Tony closed the faceplate again, then opened the back door of the jet.

Before he could even consider jumping out, Thor, God of Thunder entered., “Brother!” he bellowed but realized immediately that the jet was empty of the Trickster. “Where is my brother?”, he asked threateningly.

“He escaped.”, said Steve through gritted teeth, “But we have his weapon”, he said holding up the scepter.

Thor assumed a more casual stance and frowned at the scepter. “This is not my brother’s usual choice of weapon, but I can feel that it is magical. The All-father has seen that Loki wishes to rule this planet, he has sent me to ensure that comes not to pass. Earth is under my protection.”

Tony rolled his eyes, thankful for the anonymity and privacy of the faceplate. That was so typical of Thor. He could not wait to get this SHIELD debriefing over with so that he could return to the Tower and show Loki around. “JARVIS, how is our godly guest? I hope you're making sure that he has everything he needs?”, Tony asked.

“Of course, Sir, Mr. Lie-smith is currently lounging in the living room. Before that he went through your wardrobe and your bedroom.” Tony chuckled, that was about what he had expected.

“Show him the workshop if he's interested, the rest will have to wait until I'm home. Then we can also make a fingerprint scan for him so that he can go everywhere.” Tony was brought back to the present as the jet landed on the Helicarrier.

The meeting with Fury was tedious. He had Tony recount the fight in Stuttgart twice even though Steve and surveillance cameras had been present as well. Tony was glad to see that the cameras had picked up nothing that had happened inside of the magical barrier. He made a bit of a show out of his story, exasperating Steve and Fury, but giving himself the perfect opportunity to introduce a virus to SHIELD's systems. By the time he was home again, he should have all the dirt he needed on Fury.

The only interesting part was meeting Bruce Banner for the first time. Tony could not resist bantering a bit and literally prodding him in the lab. Bruce was much more relaxed than Steve, who immediately got on Tony’s nerves. He was such a do-gooder and so righteous. It took Tony and Bruce no more than half an hour to use the scepter to set up a tracking program for the tesseract which would systematically search the planet. Now it was just a matter of time before they found it, even though Tony did not volunteer any of the information that he had gleaned from making his own tesseract-tracking device.

Tony put on his Iron man armor and was about to simply walk out. “Where are you going Stark?”, asked Fury just as Tony had exited the building.

“Home” said Tony. “You've debriefed me, and you've a tracking program that is currently running.”

“You cannot just leave”, exclaimed Fury, “We need to find Loki!”

Tony sighed. “I’m a busy man Fury, and I’m only a consultant on the Avengers Initiative. I already did you a favor by fighting Loki and getting you the Scepter. Now I’m going home. You can call me once you have found him.” Tony kept his voice level and used the tone that worked best on his board of directors at Stark Industries. Then he turned on his heel and resolutely marched out and shot into the air as soon as he had head clearance.

If Fury wanted more of his time, he should have made him a full member of the Initiative, not play mind games through Agent Romanoff. He would probably regret being so short with Fury the next time, but now he could not care less. He had his God waiting in his home and that was far more important than Fury and his temper tantrums.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4 - Adoration

When Tony arrived home the living room was deserted. He threw a quick glace into the bedroom and the kitchen, but Loki was nowhere to be seen. “JARVIS? Where is he?” Tony inquired.

“Downstairs in your workshop, Sir. Do you want me to notify him of your arrival?” replied JARVIS. Tony waved the suggestion away and proceeded to the workshop.

Tony spotted him immediately when he arrived downstairs and the second meeting with his deity made him just as nervous and excited as the first one. He still could barely believe that he was actually here, in his Tower, in his workshop. Loki was sitting cross-legged on one of Tony’s worktables.

He was wearing black jeans and a dark green long-sleeved tunic; his eyes were closed, and his hair was drifting slightly as if in the wind. In Tony’s opinion he looked amazing, maybe even better than in full armor. Having him here in the familiar surroundings, dressed so unassumingly, made his otherness just stand out more. He seemed to be glowing subtly from within and his face was just a tad too symmetric to pass for being human. Tony could not resist starring, but his gaze was apparently felt.

“There you are, my faithful” said Loki and opened his eyes slowly. His face was impassive, but his eyes grew notably warmer when looking at Tony. “It is good that you have returned, SHIELD will not be a safe place for much longer I fear”. He smirked and beckoned Tony to come closer. Tony strode through his workshop until he stood at the edge of Loki’s table.

Loki took Tony’s hands and lifted them up, studying the many scars from years of working with fire, chemicals and machinery. “You are a marvel, my faithful, your worship saturates this room. I can feel that this is a place of creation and I can feel each and every instance that you have invoked my name in here. It makes it easy to strengthen my magic in here, to absorb the energies left behind in your devotion.”

Tony beamed at him. “I have so much to show you, my prince. I’m very glad that it helps you. Already you seem much better than earlier. And if you allow the question, my prince, what is happening at SHIELD?” Tony asked a bit apprehensive.

“Initially the agents under my control were supposed to break me and the scepter out of SHIELD, but now that I have you on my side, I have no use for them anymore. They will attack the floating fortress and wreak some chaos, but they will be overwhelmed at the end and will be able to snap out of my mind control. It will be useful to establish myself as the common enemy even in my absence and it will give the two of us more time to plot and to get to know each other.” Explained Loki with a wicked grin on his face. Tony could not resist returning the grin. This sounded dangerous but very exciting. Thankfully, Tony was not someone who was easily turned off by dangerous and potentially horrible ideas.

“Let me show you something, my prince?” asked Tony and extended his hand to help his deity of the table. Loki humored him.

“There is no need to be so formal at all times, Anthony. I am well aware of your loyalty; it is fine if you call me by my name.” the God said.

“Well Loki, if you would follow me?” asked Tony with a half bow and a cheeky grin. Loki huffed out a laugh, then followed Tony back upstairs and into the bedroom.

“I have been in here before” he said “it is very- “ he seemed to be searching for an appropriate word.

“Dull? Minimalist? Unpersonal? Bland? Empty?” offered Tony with a smile.

“That is by design. I rarely spend time in here. It is mostly for show. And for storage. But there is something far more important hidden here.” Tony explained while moving towards the wall opposite of the bathroom. Loki looked around critically, intrigued when he observed Tony put his hand on a specific part of the wall. With a click a seam appeared in the wall. Tony opened the hidden door wide and stepped back to let his God enter first.

Loki stepped into the room that was so very different from the rest of the Tower. “Oh” he exclaimed breathlessly. Surprise, shock, vulnerability and awe mixed on his face he turned to Tony with an exceedingly gentle expression.

As Tony entered the room fully, Loki wrapped his arms around him and brought him close into an embrace. He put his chin on top of Tony’s head and tightened his arms a bit more. Tony wrapped his own arms around Loki’s waist and basked in the feeling of being cocooned by his God. For the first time in a long while he felt absolutely safe. Usually, he was not too fond of unexpected invasions into his personal bubble, but with Loki it was fine. Nothing and no one could do him any harm right now.

“I take it you like it?” Tony whispered into Loki’s chest.

Loki laughed and extracted himself from the embrace again. He smiled at Tony and let his eyes sweep around the room again. It looked like a room from a mansion had been transplanted into the Tower. The floor was covered in thick grey carpet, the walls were encased in a dark wood paneling. On the left stood a massive oak wood bed with a canopy and dark green curtains and black silk bed sheets. The far wall held a bookcase filled to the brim, a fireplace with a brown leather sofa in front of it and a dresser. But Loki was particularly interested in the right side of the room. Here stood a solid white marble altar with candles and brass bowls on top of it. Loki walked closer and trailed his fingers over the smooth surface of the altar as he looked at the wall where his name was carved and gilded in runes unto a wooden panel.

“I will have to tell you more about gods and followers for you to grasp the importance of all this” said Loki quietly “But this means a lot to me. There is so much faith, devotion and love in this room that it nearly took my breath away when walking in. If your workshop was saturated, this is several orders of magnitude more so. I can feel that you spend much of your time here and the echoes of the rituals and prayers. You have created a proper sanctum, a place consecrated to me, your deity.” Loki looked stunned as he said that, seemingly not able to believe that Tony would hold him in such high regards.

The God led Tony to the couch and sat down. “I was going to tell you more about my plan, but this” he gestured at the room at large, “is something very special. You are very special, Anthony. That is more important right now.” Tony was unusually quiet, but on the inside, he was bursting with feelings.

Seeing his Loki so emotional made him doubly so, he would have loved to hug him again, but he did not quite dare to, Loki looked so serious if also very touched. It was a heady feeling having had such an impact on his deity. He had always known himself to be a genius, to be leagues ahead in matters of weapons, clean energy and engineering in general. Not to mention the success of Iron Man. He knew himself to be attractive, confident and loved by his fans. But he had never expected to be good at worship or even to ever really be in this situation, seated on a couch with his God in a hallowed space of his own making. His faith had been something private and hidden for such a long time that it felt wild to realize that it had been a two-way-street all along.

Loki angled his body towards Tony before he continued his explanation. “As you may know, there are nine realms among the branches of Yggdrasil. Many of the older inhabitants, the Aesir, some of the Frost Giants, even some Elves can be considered gods. We are all near immortal, adept at magic, and very hard to kill. But a god is only a God if he has followers. A God is only as strong as his following and it is ideally an equal exchange. The follower provides faith and loyalty through rituals and in exchange the God offers protection, loyalty and favors depending on his field of expertise.” Loki paused briefly to see if Tony followed.

“What makes our case special is that I have not really been a God for long. My brother and other major Gods have a large following, the broader their attributes the easier it is for them to get faith. Thor for example is also the God of fertility, which is a standard thing to pray for. Every time someone addresses any deity about matters of fertility, Thor will get a cut of that faith immediately, he does not even need to be prayed to by name and intention. My attributes are fire, lies, chaos and mischief, all of those are things people usually do not pray for, so my access to faith has always been very limited. Fortunately, my innate magic is quite strong so I could hold my own. But then some thirty years ago, something changed significantly.” Loki paused again.

“I started praying?”, asked Tony. While Loki’s explanation made sense if one was willing to believe in gods and magic, it all sounded fantastical. He could also not believe that no one had seen the worth of Loki as a deity before him.

“Yes, Anthony. At first, I was not even sure what was happening, but I was getting stronger and stronger. What makes you so unique is that you pray to me alone and acknowledge all my attributes equally and frequently. Your faith is in everything you do, and the fact that you address it to me by name makes it so much more powerful than receiving faith by chance. Most people just pray to a nameless god and that makes the faith distribute evenly between all gods of those attributes, but your faith is only for me. I do not always hear prayers, I need to tune into it specifically, but imagine my surprise in discovering a human child had chosen me as his God. And as I said before, your devotion was what kept me sane in the hands of a great evil. You have given me more in the last thirty years than anyone before you, and I fear I have not paid you back sufficiently, you rarely ask for anything.” Loki again had a gentle expression and a small smile on his face and Tony could not resist anymore. He scooted closer and hugged Loki as tightly to him as he could. Loki reciprocated the embrace immediately.

“I don’t need much” murmured Tony “But that you are here and that I can speak to you and touch you and help you, means the world to me.” He gathered the adoration, gratefulness and faith he had in Loki together and focused on praying to his God to share the feeling with him. Wrapped up in his arms as he was, he felt the shiver that went through Loki’s body and the way his God was clinging to him even tighter than before.

“I said the bond between a God and a follower is based on an equal exchange” began Loki and took Tony’s face in his hands. “Just as you are devoted to me, I will devote myself to you” he promised and pressed a chaste kiss first on Tony’s brow, then on his lips.

Tony opened his eyes, which had fluttered shut. He looked up at Loki and could see nothing but honesty and returned sentiment in his eyes. He leaned closer and kissed him slowly. Loki’s hands moved further into Tony’s hair and he was pulled even closer until he was nearly sitting in Loki’s lap. The kiss started out slow, a careful mapping of each other’s mouths, but gained passion quickly until they were full on making out. Tony’s hands fisted the fabric of Loki’s tunic and they only separated briefly to catch their breath before continuing to kiss. Their kissed slowed again after a while, but they stayed with their foreheads pressed together and just breathed.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5 - Resolve

Tony was laying on the couch, half on his God and could not stop laughing. It was just so unbelievable what had happened in the last few hours. He had always prided himself on being very flexible and adaptable to new ideas, but somehow the fact that he was on a couch with his God after making out still struck him as being absurd, if also absolutely great. Loki looked amused if a bit pensive.

“I would never have expected this. You are just like I imagined you to be, Loki” confided Tony while trying to calm down from his bout of slight hysteria.

Loki continued to stroke Tony’s back, but he was frowning, and his face became more closed off.

“What is it?” asked Tony, “Did I say something wrong?” he sat up further so he could look Loki in the eyes.

“No, my faithful, everything is well. I must be honest with you however and caution you. I am not what your legends may have made me out to be. You may not wish to affiliate yourself with me further, once you learn of it.” said Loki in a grave voice. He looked sad and Tony could see that he struggled to keep his face neutral.

“Nothing you could tell me, would make me stray from you, my prince. But I would love to learn more about you” assured Tony.

He observed as Loki visibly fortified himself, then he began his story in a low voice with barely any inflection. He started with talking briefly about his father and his brother Thor’s coronation. He explained how he had wanted to open his father’s eyes to Thor’s immaturity and unsuitability. He talked about how he had been ignored and had had to resort to different means to make them understand. He detailed how Thor and his friends had rushed off to invade Jötunnheim and how they had been nearly overwhelmed by the Frost Giants.

This was where his tale started to become disjointed. Loki was staring into the distance and clutching Tony’s shoulder as his voice tapered out. “I am a Frost Giant, a Jotun, a monster” he said nearly inaudible.

Tony looked at his God, who seemed to have been through a lot and felt that any move to comfort him would not be well received at that moment. Instead, he did what Tony Stark did best and started talking himself.

The topic was not his favorite but considering his God’s story it was only fair, and confessions were an integral part of some religions. “First of all, I could not care less what you are, as long as you are Loki.” He said with a firm voice, then, before Loki could say anything he continued in a flippant tone “So my godfather sold me out to a group of terrorists, and I was held captive and tortured in a cave for several months”.

Loki’s head snapped to him and suddenly he was at the center of his God's focus. He continued by explaining his background in weapon production, the demands of the Ten Rings and the way he had built the first Iron man armor with Yinsen’s help. When it was his turn to be tongue tied as he glossed over the torture and the pain, betrayal and fear he had felt, Loki once again hugged him close.

Loki and Tony spoke in turns, everyone offering one tibbitt of information at a time. Tony had his face buried in Loki’s shoulder and not looking at each other made it far easier to speak the truth. Tony had never gone into so much detail about the whole experience, had not wanted to admit to his many issues resulting from the ordeal and had not wanted to see Pepper or Rhodey pity him for it. But it felt right that he would trust his God with this and as he spoke, he felt lighter and safer than ever.

Loki returned his trust by talking in a near whisper about his discovery of having been adopted, what it had meant for him, how betrayed he had felt and how he had clashed with his father and brother over it. He told Tony about the moment he had let go from the rainbow bridge and the horrifying fall into the Void where real monsters had awaited him. He became vaguer towards the end, but Tony understood perfectly that Loki had been tortured to near insanity and that his jailers had pressured him into his current quest.

Tony vowed to do anything he could to help to get his God out of this situation. He may be the only mortal in this equation, but as he had learnt, that made him far from powerless. They were both drained from this very emotional talk and Tony felt raw on the inside. In a way it was a good feeling to have said everything out loud and to have been honest to oneself for a change. It was much too easy to keep busy and deny what was going on.

“Bed?” Tony asked into Loki’s shoulder. A sigh escaped his God, and he could feel him nodding. He slowly unfurled himself from his position half on Loki’s lap. His legs protested the movement and his knees nearly folded under him. Loki caught him and stood himself, steering Tony towards the bed.

“JARVIS, lock down the Tower for the night” Tony commanded, and he heard as the door bolted itself shut.

Suddenly he was very tired if a bit unsure. What were the rules of personal interaction with a God? They had shared very personal stories just now and kissed, but was it alright to presume more? Tony was unaccustomed to being so uncertain, but this situation had literally no precedence.

He hesitated “Do you want me to sleep on the couch? Or on the floor?”

Loki furrowed his brows “This is your bed is it not?” he asked.

Tony shrugged “I mean technically it is meant to be your bed. I just sleep in it most nights.”

Loki looked amused “Then you will continue to sleep in my bed.”

He unlaced the top of his tunic, then pulled it off completely. Tony could not resist looking. Loki’s torso was covered in scars. They were crisscrossing and in different stages of healing. As Tony watched he could see some of them fade right in front of his eyes, but the sheer number of them, even with the divine healing, told Tony more than enough about the methods of Loki’s jailers. He pulled his own T-shirt over his head and Loki’s gaze was immediately drawn to the glow of the arc reactor.

“This is where - ?” he inquired carefully and extended his hand towards it. He hesitated before touching and looked at Tony “May I?”. Tony nodded and steeled himself mentally.

Since Obie he was never completely comfortable with someone coming near his chest. Loki was incredibly gentle; he trailed the tips of his fingers around the outer rim of the reactor and over the scars spreading from there, then laid his palm over it. He frowned “It nearly feels like magic” he said “Maybe you will let me look at it more in depth at some point. But not today. We both need some rest I think.”

Tony could only agree and after they had removed their jeans they slid into bed. Wordlessly they curled up against one another so that Tony’s head rested on his God’s shoulder again. Loki slung his arm around Tony’s waist and relaxed for the first time in ages. “I will place some spells around this sanctum, but even without them it is powerful enough to be safe.” he murmured and pressed a kiss to Tony’s hair. Tony nodded sleepily.

Normally he had trouble falling asleep or woke up frequently due to nightmares, but after the day and the talk they had had he felt bone tired and very safe in his God’s arms. He pressed a sloppy kiss against Loki’s chest and snuggled closer. He sent a prayer to his God, assuring him that he had his loyalty, love and faith as before, then he drifted off into a deep and dreamless sleep.

Tony woke once during the night, without any apparent reason. Maybe it was just that he was not used to having someone in bed with him. Before Afghanistan, when slept around a lot, he would always kick them out or retreat into the workshop or sanctum after the act. And after Afghanistan he had not wanted strangers anywhere close to him at all and had made do with his hand.

But now things were suddenly very different. Loki and he had moved around during the night and he could feel Loki’s body pressed up behind him, an arm slung over his hip. Tony turned slowly and the light of the arc reactor was enough to be able to look at the sleeping face of his God. He was even more perfect asleep, somehow more real with his hair spread over the pillow and spilling over his shoulder. He was breathing deeply, and Tony could see his eyes moving underneath his eyelids; he was dreaming. Tony very carefully raised his hand and smoothed out the frown on Loki’s face. He tangled his fingers in Loki’s hair and rested his hand on the side of his face. His God made a tiny sound but buried himself deeper in the pillow. Tony followed suit, curling closer and dozing off again.

The second awakening was much less pleasant. An earsplitting alarm started blaring, startling both Tony and Loki awake. Loki looked ready to murder someone, tense with green light swirling around his hands, in stark contrast to his naked chest and impressive bedhead. Tony was little better. He was grasping at his chest as his heart was racing. “JARVIS! What is it, kill the alarm” he yelled and let out a relieved sigh as the deafening sound ended.

“Someone has landed on the Tower without authorization, Sir” came JARVIS’ smooth voice. “Do you want me to alert the police department, SHIELD or the Avenger Initiative?” he asked.

“Neither” said Tony, “Do we have a visual?”

A holographic screen opened in front of the bed and Tony observed the helicopter and the two men unloading things, seemingly without hurry. Loki sighed and the magical light-show disappeared.

“I must apologize, Anthony, for this rude awakening. This is Selvig with the tesseract. I had ordered him here with the machine, but I had not anticipated that he would arrive so early or without forewarning. The spell for mind control is very unreliable if one does not reinforce and monitor it constantly.”

“Well,” said Tony, “at least they are friendly, I would hate to fight at – JARVIS what time is it?”

“5:47, Sir. I will start the coffee machine and order breakfast right away” said the AI.

Tony groaned and flopped down on the bed. “Too early,” he whined.

Loki chuckled and raked his finger through his hair, trying to untangle it. When he did not succeed, he stood up and a green light washed over him, leaving him in a light armor and perfect hair. Tony was jealous, he would save so much time if he could do that too.

He got up and made his way to the altar like every morning. He was very conscious of his deity standing behind him and observing him as he went through his morning ritual as was his habit.

He lit a candle, closed his eyes and stood up straighter as he formulated a prayer in his mind, wishing for Loki’s plan to come to fruition and, more selfishly, for more time with his God. He felt Loki at his back, his leather armor brushing his naked back with every inhale. Tony tried not to get distracted and took the small knife that was sitting on the altar. With a long practiced move, he cut shallowly into his arm, parallel to previous marks, and watched as the blood welled up and dripped into the brass bowl. He recited the ritualistic words and unlike any other time before green flames consumed the blood.

He was just about to press a piece of gauze against the cut, when Loki snaked his arms around his waist and brushed along the cut with his fingers. The cut closed and disappeared. “I thought part of the sacrifice was to put up with the pain and healing?” asked Tony.

“You are mine” breathed Loki next to his ear, as if that were explanation enough. Tony shivered.

“Yes, my prince.” He leaned back against his deity.

“I enjoy watching you worship me. I would make you my priest, my most devoted.” He said in a low voice.

Tony was half tempted to sink to his knees and show his God how willing he was to worship him further, but something in Loki’s voice was too intense. “What do you mean?” he asked instead.

“There is a ritual. I would infuse you with some of my magic and it would facilitate the exchange of faith and favor between us. We would have a direct spiritual bond to each other until I released you. Many Gods bind their most faithful in that manner to spread their worship and follow their rules, but I know your loyalty already and I do not need you to missionize at this point. I just want to strengthen our bond.” Tony turned in Loki’s arms to look at him, then nodded.

“What do I do?” he asked.

“You are certain? You would bind yourself to me as your God and to my mercy.” Loki warned.

Tony did not care about the details so much, maybe it was careless or reckless, but anything that meant being closer to his deity was positive in his book. His resolve must have been easily visible as Loki nodded and took a small step backwards.

“Kneel” he said. Tony smirked and sunk to his knees. He had meant something else when thinking of this position earlier, but this was fine too. He bowed his head, and set his hands on top of his knees, suddenly the picture of submission and piety. He felt Loki lay his hand on top of his head, then Loki started chanting in a strange language. Words were hard to make out, but a strange feeling started to spread through Tony. In the first instant it was as if someone had cracked an egg on his head, put the longer it went on, the warmer it felt spreading through every corner of Tony’s body. In a moment it was over. Tony opened his eyes and stood up slowly. Nothing felt different.

“Did it work?” he asked a bit confused. Loki said nothing, but he tapped lightly against the arc reactor casing. Tony looked down, and that was when he saw it. Every few seconds, a green swirl interspersed the blue glow. He clasped his hand against it, feeling the familiar vibrations and he listened carefully, but everything was as it was supposed to be, except for the green swirl.

“Do not worry, Anthony, it has no influence on the function, it is just an interesting visual representation of my magic inside of your body” Loki soothed. “Try praying, I think you will feel a difference then.”

Tony closed his eyes and prayed. It was as if there was connection from him to Loki. Intangible but direct. He knew with certainty that he would be heard if he prayed. He tested the new bond by sending a feeling. He was immediately rewarded by the lips descending unto his own. Tony melted into the kiss. This was fantastic. Amazing. Incredible. Loki had chosen him just as he had chosen his God and now, they were connected. Tony slung his arms around Loki and sunk further into the embrace.

“Sir? I apologize for interrupting. But what do you want me to do with our guest on the roof, Sir? They have finished unloading and one man has left with the helicopter.” Said JARVIS.

Tony groaned. He had completely forgotten about Loki’s minions on the roof. “I will take care of it” said Loki. “And afterwards we need to talk about the plan, we do not have much time anymore.” Loki vanished from the room.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6 – Crusade

After Tony had dressed himself, he joined Loki and Selvig in the living room. The breakfast that JARVIS had ordered was sitting on the counter and Tony fixed a plate and some coffee for his God and himself. He took a sip out of both cups for his habitual drinking ritual before handing one to Loki. His deity observed him amused but ate without remarking on it. Since they had company and were out of the sanctum, Loki was much more reserved and aloof, very regal in his bearing. Tony only understood now, how open and trusting his God had actually been the whole time and felt even more honored.

Selvig was strange. He had met the man several years previously at a conference, but now his eyes were glowing blue and he was very deferential to both Loki and Tony. “Were did you put the machine and the tesseract?”, questioned Tony. “The machine is still on the roof, from where it will open the portal. The tesseract is here,” said Loki and the glowing blue cube appeared in his hands.

“So, what is the problem with the machine?”, Tony asked Selvig.

The scientist shot a nervous glance at Loki but answered readily. “It works in theory and I added the Iridium to stabilize the energy connection, but Prince Loki asked that the Portal stay relatively small to bottleneck the army and the Iridium is not enough for that. Right now, the Portal will just expand until the energy source runs out, and with the tesseract powering it, that could be catastrophic.”

“And we need a safe way to shut it off again,” interjected Loki, “The scepter would have been useful, but we needed something to hold SHIELDs attention.”

Tony nodded slowly, already compiling everything he knew about portals, wormholes and the tesseract in his mind. “Do you have the schematics of your machine?”, he asked and Selvig handed him a Flash drive. Tony plugged it into one of his tablets and threw the holographic image of it into the room.

With a few movements he deconstructed it and studied the inside. “JARVIS, calculate the energy output according to these parameters and the readings we have of the tesseract,” He ordered and strings of numbers began to scroll over the screen. Tony manipulated the design further and grimaced at the numbers that JARVIS showed him.

“Sir, the tesseract appears to be highly compatible with your new element. If you used it –“, started the AI.

Tony interrupted loudly “to stabilize the energy connection and use the iridium for the size instead. Yes, that would work. Run calculations JARVIS. How much do we need? And is the particle accelerator in the basement still working?” He took the cube out of Loki’s hand and looked at it. “Let’s take some more readings of this too. Get to work JARVIS!”

“You have found a solution. Very impressive” complimented Loki, who had watched Tony work silently.

Tony grinned and replied in a flirty tone “Of course, your highness, you honor me with your favor after all. And the solution seems to be the element I discovered recently. I thought about calling it ‘lokarium’. What do you think?” Loki graced him with a genuine smile at that.

“We need to talk about the plan. Can Selvig and your JARVIS finish the machine on their own?”

Tony shrugged and handed the tesseract to Selvig. “Sure. JARVIS, help Selvig find the workshop and the basement. You know what to do.”

“Of course, Sir. If you would step into the elevator Dr. Selvig?” came JARVIS prompt and polite reply.

As soon as Selvig was gone, tension drained out of Loki’s posture. Tony sat next to him on the couch and pressed his thigh and left arm against his God. Loki sighed and began to outline his plan. Tony was already familiar with the overarching idea of making it seem like Loki had failed due to the prowess of the human race but did not know any specifics.

Loki explained about the hold the enemy still had in his mind and that only a defeat in combination with enough distance would be enough to slip out of it permanently. He spoke briefly about the enemy but never called him by his name, cautious not to draw attention to himself, but Tony understood him to be a powerful, if crazy adversary. Loki’s plan hinged in large parts on the Avengers but he had placed some more mind control spells earlier to ensure the desired outcome. Loki expected that he would be able to take control of the situation in a way that would mislead the enemy. He only needed help in setting up the portal and decimating the army. Then he would let himself be caught and shipped off to Asgard to free himself of the mind magic.

“The machine must disappear too,” said Tony, “SHIELD cannot get their hands on it. Not only would it be too dangerous, but they would also realize that I helped you”

Loki considered the problem “You are correct. I will return here to close the portal and destroy the machine in the process. Then I will lure Thor here to fight me.”

Before Tony could think the plan over, the peaceful time seemed to come to an end. Tony’s phone began to ring in an unusually shrill tone. “It is Director Fury, Sir. He is quite insistent,” warned JARVIS. Tony glanced at Loki, then picked up the phone and answered it.

“Stark!”, yelled Fury. “We have been attacked. The Heli carrier is severely damaged. You should have been here!”, Fury continued yelling without letting Tony say anything. He briefly described the attack of Loki’s mind-controlled agents. While they had not managed to get to the scepter, they had destroyed one of the rotors and the Heli carrier had had to do an emergency landing.

The Director was furious but happy that Clint Barton was back with SHIELD if still a little shaken up. “And your tracking program does not work either”, continued Fury, “we need to find the cube and more importantly Loki. Get your ass here and fix it.”

Fury continued to rant while Tony barely said anything. He observed as Selvig crossed the living room, carrying the cube and a bright blue triangle with a long thong. He glanced at Loki, then finally interrupted Fury.

“Fury. I don’t need to come over. You and the Avengers should come here. Loki and a machine just appeared on my roof. I will see if I can hold him up.” Said Tony in a deceptively calm voice. He ended the call as Fury started yelling again.

“Well, I guess it is time to suit up.” Tony stood up and offered his hand to his deity. Loki took it and stood too, magic washed over him again and then he wore his battle armor, complete with the horned helmet and a golden spear. Tony considered kneeling in front of him again, but Loki put a hand on his neck and dragged him closer. He kissed him deeply and only released him once he was in dire need of air.

“Good luck, my faithful,” wished Loki with a grin, baring his teeth. Tony laughed and kissed Loki again.

“Good luck, Loki”, he said and added further wishes and hopes in a prayer. He backed away and raced to the workshop to get his newest Iron Man armor.

When he came upstairs again, the Portal was just starting to open. The first soldiers of the alien army were pouring out and Tony would probably have been terrified if not for his knowledge of his Gods plan and his faith in him. As it was, his faith far outweighed his concerns for his planet. This was not a surprise attack; this was a tactical battle of his deity in order to get one step closer to eliminating a crazy madman. Tony launched himself into the sky and began firing at the incoming alien army.

For a while Tony focused only on shooting as many Chitauri as possible from the sky, diving and executing sharp maneuvers. Then his comms crackled to life with the arrival of the Avengers and the fight became a lot more interesting. Thor was invaluable, as he fried many with his lightning, but Tony was also cautious as he knew the God of Thunder was mainly in pursuit of his brother. Steve and Natascha took charge of the Streets below and Hawkeye gave them support from above. When the Hulk came out and started smashing the huge Leviathans, for a moment Tony thought that the battle would end this way.

He had a whole horde of Chitauri on his tail when he saw Thor flying towards his tower at full speed. “JARVIS, do you have eyes on Loki? What is happening?”, Tony asked, taking a sharp corner and whooping as nearly half of his pursuers crashed into the surrounding buildings.

“Sir, it seems as if Mr. Lie-smith was attempting to close the portal. Mr. Odinson crashed into him and they are currently fighting on the balcony. You have used all missiles in the shoulder cache, Sir, and the suits power is at 82%” came JARVIS calm and prompt reply. Tony gritted his teeth. That was so typical of Thor to interfere in his brothers plans. But there was nothing he could do about that right now. He focused back on the Chitauri and the Leviathan that was taking an interest in him.

“Cap, Tasha, I’m bringing some fun your way”, he called and dove down. Just before crashing into the street he pulled up and turned, many of the aliens had crashed, but there were still quite a few for Steve and Natascha to handle. He fired a few shots at some stragglers, then spiraled up again.

“Mr. Odinson has kicked Mr. Lie-smith from the tower, Mr. Barton is in pursuit,” came JARVIS’ report in his ear.

Tony was just about to interfere when suddenly the unwelcome voice of Fury rang in his ear. “Stark, the Council has sent a nuke your way. They did not listen to reason. Do something about it or get the Avengers out of there now.” Fury sounded as if he could barely contain his anger and his voice was low and sharp.

Tony cursed loudly, “I know just were to put it,” he pressed out between gritted teeth and closed the connection to Fury.

The Avengers were shouting at him through the comms, but he silenced them as well. He calculated the trajectory of the nuke and flew at it. “JARVIS, full power on my thrusters, we need to put this baby in the portal”, he ordered.

As soon as he had attached himself to the missile and exerted pressure on it to adjust the trajectory, he started praying. Loki had manipulated some people on the World Council, but the nuke had been supposed to be a last resort, in the event that the Avengers were not able to repel the Chitauri. But apparently the mind control had slipped or been faulty, because now Tony was clinging to a missile and directing it into a portal.

Tony felt the intense vibrations of the weapon underneath him and looked at the percentage of suit power dropping rapidly. There was just enough juice to enter the portal according to his calculations.

“Sir, do you want to call someone?”, asked JARVIS in an unusually somber voice.

“No JARVIS. I’m praying already,” said Tony and doubled his efforts as the nuke finally slipped through the opening in the sky.

He let go of it and in the few moments before the bomb exploded, he took in the reality on the other side of the portal. It was completely silent and dark; JARVIS had spluttered out as soon as the connection to the satellites had been broken, thankfully he was wearing a space-faring suit, otherwise he would be freezing and gasping for breath too. Tony took in the massive alien army with wide eyes. There were ships as far as he could see and several more Leviathans. A very real feeling of horror and panic began to creep up in Tony as he understood how overwhelmed earth would have been, had the complete army been able to enter the portal.

His suit was dead, and he was floating, panicking, when the nuke finally exploded. He had to close his eyes against the glaring flash, then he began to tumble downwards as the shock wave hit him full force. He started praying again fervently. Asking Loki to protect him, to save him and to please close the portal. He was now actively falling, the nearness to the opening having reinstated gravity. He prayed that he would survive this, as he wanted to spend more time with his God, they had only just met. He prayed that the earth would be safe, and that Loki’s plans would come to fruition. He put all the faith he had in Loki and trusted that Loki would have a solution, to his rapid decent towards the ground and to the alien forces in the sky.

Tony was still falling uncontrolled and he knew that even wearing the armor, a fall from that height and speed would kill him on impact. He again thought of Loki, and suddenly he saw green light out of the corner of his eye. He could not really look at himself inside the suit, but it felt as if he were cushioned inside of it. The feeling of magic enveloped him, and he felt safe again, the panic and horror subsided and as soon as he gave in to the feeling he blacked out.

When Tony came to with a shout, he was lying on the ground, face plate open with Steve, Hulk and Natascha leaning over him. “Please tell me nobody kissed me,” he tried to diffuse the tense atmosphere. It worked as Natascha quirked a small smile and Steve just rolled his eyes. Tony stood up slowly, very aware of the fact that his suit was severely damaged. Without Loki he would have gone splat on the pavement for sure. He looked up. The portal was gone, and the ground was littered with the bodies of dead Chitauri as if they had simply fallen out of the sky.

“We won,” announced Steve with a smile and patted Tony’s shoulder, “How strange that the portal closed right then”, he paused. “Stark, Tony, I would like to apologize about what I said on the Heli carrier,” he began.

Tony waved him off and talked over him,“No need Steve, God works in mysterious ways and all that. Let’s rather go get some food. Do you want Shawarma? I just have to go to the Tower quickly to get rid of this suit and then I will join you. There is a good place a few blocks from here.”

Tony refused all further help, and their attention was easily diverted as Hulk started shrinking back into Bruce and Thor and Barton joined them on the ground. As soon as he set foot into his Tower, JARVIS came to life in his ear again. “Good to see you, Sir.”, he greeted. Tony smiled and moved towards the elevators. “Sir, Mr. Odinson was here earlier, and left Mr. Lie-Smith bound on your floor. The machine from the rooftop has disappeared together with Dr. Selvig, but Mr. Odinson took the tesseract.” JARVIS sounded a little smug, making Tony smile even more.

It seemed as if some parts of Loki’s plan had worked out flawlessly after all. Tony entered the workshop and started prying the armor off of himself. Most of it was scrap metal at this point. As soon as it was gone, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was sore all over, but it beat being dead for sure. He needed a drink. He went up the stairs and into his living room and there was Loki.

His God was still in armor with his helmet on, sprawled elegantly over the couch. JARVIS had said he was bound, and he was, but he had never looked more godlike to Tony before. He was sat in the middle of the couch, his legs spread wide. His hands were shackled to each other, but Loki did not seem to care overly much about that. Next to him sat a contraption that could be a muzzle and even further away against the wall leaned his spear. All in all, he did not look very secured at all, but Tony bet that Thor was under a different impression.

“Anthony, my faithful”, greeted Loki and Tony approached and sank to his knees in front him. He rested his head on the inside of Loki’s right knee and closed his eyes briefly.

Only now he noticed that his hands were shaking, he breathed deeply but his exhale sounded shaky as well. “Thank you, my God, you saved me and my planet,” Tony reached up to Loki’s hands and pressed a kiss to his knuckles.

Loki wrapped his bound hands around his neck and stroked his hair in a soothing motion. “I must thank you, my own, it was not my intention to have you carry that weapon through that portal. But you did and you trusted me.”

Tony nodded. “Of course. I saw what was waiting there, we will need a miracle to get rid of them,” he whispered, “Please promise me that we will do something about that”.

Loki shushed him. “We will Anthony, but first I must get rid of his hold on me, you know that.”

“Yes, but I would prefer if you stayed here with me, I could hide you and worship you,” proposed Tony with a smirk, he was only half joking now that his fears had subsided.

Loki smirked too. “I do enjoy your worship Anthony, and I will return as soon as I am free. But for now, I have to go to Asgard.”

Tony acknowledged his Gods words but did not free himself from the strange position he was in. Instead, he nuzzled the inside of Loki’s legs and burrowed his nose between his legs. He could feel Loki getting hard against his cheek and he looked up at his deity with a coy smile. “Will you let me worship you a little at least?”, he asked and licked his lips suggestively.

Loki’s gaze was suddenly hungry and smoldering as he used his bound hands to tilt Tony’s head up so that he could pull him into a deep and filthy kiss. Tony moaned and his hands scrambled at Loki’s pants. “There is not much time,” said Loki between kisses.

“I will be quick,” promised Tony as he freed Loki’s cock from the confines of his leather pants. Tony salivated already. His God’s penis was, pun absolutely intended, divine. It was long and thick, and the foreskin was already pulling back around the bulbous head. Tony scooted backwards to get the proper angle, then he took him into his mouth in one go.

Loki made a sound, half moan, half shout above him and Tony bobbed up and down quickly. He licked around the head, the tip of his tongue playing with the foreskin. He alternated deep pulls with shallower ones around the head. Loki’s hands were wrapped in his hair and while his hips stayed firmly on the couch, he could not resist guiding Tony’s head a bit. Tony loved it. His God tasted fantastic and it was a power trip in itself to pleasure one’s deity. In addition to that came the adrenaline from the battle and the fact that the Avengers could come looking for him at any moment. Tony was rock hard in his underarmor and he was certain he would be able to come just from sucking his God off.

He redoubled his efforts and deepthroated Loki. It had been a while since he had done that to anyone and he chocked a little at first, but the sounds Loki was trying to muffle were enough motivation to let his cock sink into his throat as far as it would go. He breathed in his deity’s smell as his nose was pressed into his stomach. Loki pulled him back by his hair, then proceeded to fuck into his mouth in shallow strokes.

Tony moaned around the member and let his jaw go slack so that his God could do whatever he wanted. It only took a few more movements before Loki pushed in further and came with a drawn out groan. Tony swirled his tongue around, tasting and teasing his God. He cleaned him thoroughly before pulling off slowly.

He looked up at Loki, who was beautifully debauched. He had sunken further into the couch; his helmet was off and his hair a bit of a mess. But the best part was the satisfaction and lust shining in his eyes. Tony stood up on shaky legs and climbed into his Gods lap to kiss him deeply, letting him taste himself on his tongue. Loki’s hands wandered to Tony’s pants, but he stopped them “What about you?”, asked Loki.

“Not necessary,” said Tony in a raspy voice, “Having you fuck my mouth and come in me was more than enough.” He grinned mischievously “I haven’t come in my pants like that since I was a teenager I think.” Loki chuckled and kissed him again.

“Sir, the Avengers just entered the tower downstairs.” Interrupted JARVIS. Tony groaned but slid out of Loki’s lap.

“I don’t want you to leave,” he murmured.

“I know,” said Loki. He stood and his armor fell into place around him, impeccably clean once more. “But I will come back soon. With your help I should be able to free myself shortly. Help me put on the muzzle and get dressed,” he said while placing small kisses on Tony’s neck.

Tony took the muzzle and studied it briefly with a distasteful expression. A part had to be inserted into the mouth to keep the tongue from moving. He pressed another kiss on Loki’s lips, then carefully fitted the muzzle around his face. As soon as it made contact with his cheeks on both sides, the muzzle extended magically and covered the whole lower half of Loki’s face. Tony stroked over it and leaned into his God for an instant before hurrying off to get cleaned up and dressed.

He was just pouring himself a glass of whiskey when the Avengers entered the penthouse. “Tony, there you are. I thought you would join us?”, questioned Steve immediately.

Tony shrugged. “Once I was home and out of the suit, I did not feel like leaving again, and I thought it a good idea to keep and eye on this one,” he said while tilting his head towards Loki on the couch.

“There is no need to be cautious, my friend,” boomed Thor, “The muzzle prevents him from speaking or invoking any spells and the cuffs prevent him form doing magic.” Tony nodded, but on the inside, he was grinning like a loon, Thor was underestimating Loki so much, he had no idea. Not only had Loki been able to take off the muzzle, but he had also performed magic with the cuffs on.

Tony sipped at his drink, going over the ritualistic words of an offering in his mind. He could see the laughter in Loki’s eyes as he glanced at him. The Avengers all moved outside to the balcony. Thor was talking about justice and punishing Loki, but Tony only nodded at the appropriate places as he memorized his God. Who knew how long it would take before he would be back? After everyone said their goodbyes to Thor, the brothers grasped the tesseract and disappeared in a blue glow.

The Avengers went back inside. Tony offered them a room if they wanted to stay, and Bruce free reign of the labs, but his thoughts were mostly on his absent God. He would need to make preparations. Not only for the alien army and Loki’s enemy that were bound to come back, but also for his worship as he now had a deity counting on him to give him the means to escape. Tony walked into his workshop and set his drink down. He grinned broadly, full of teeth and slightly maniacal as he had JARVIS create a new project file.