Armor of the Gods

Summary: A wise man gets more use from his enemies than a fool from his friends. – Baltasar Gracian

After Loki unexpectedly saves his life, Tony suddenly finds himself in a bizarre arrangement with the God of Mischief. There is an impossible challenge to solve and a mysterious conspiracy threatening his life, but mostly Tony just wants to figure out what the hell is Loki up to this time.

Pairings: Tony/Loki, past Tony/Pepper

Disclaimer: The characters depicted in this story do not belong to me and I'm making no money off them. I just occasionally borrow them for my own nefarious purposes.

Author's Note: This is the sequel to my previous Avengers fic, The Right Man. You don't need to read the previous story to understand this one, but it will give you a better idea about Loki's motivations.

This fic is my attempt to write an Iron Man story that incorporates the events of both Thor and Captain America movies. It takes place a few years after the Avengers movie and ignores Iron Man 3 (though I borrowed a few elements from it). It will be very long (probably over 100K words) and focuses mostly on Tony's relationship with Loki. It is also a lot more explicit than my previous stories (both for sex and violence), so if you don't like that kind of stuff, turn back now.

Chapter 1 – A Chance Encounter

Another night. Another party hosted by someone rich and important whom Tony probably knew but couldn't be bothered to give a crap about.

He tossed back another glass of scotch and leaned back against the bar, his eyes lazily scanning the crowd as he pretended to listen to whatever inane thing the woman on his right was trying to tell him. She was a classic Californian beauty – tan and blonde, with boobs you could use as a trampoline and grabby octopus arms that had so far managed to thwart each one of Tony's escape attempts.

The blonde pressed herself closer to his side, smushing her breasts against his arm to try and get him to look down her cleavage and Tony suppressed a sigh, mentally calculating the amount of time he would have to remain at the party before he could finally leave.

It wasn't that he didn't like blondes, he told himself as he subtly tried to rescue his arm out of her grip. It was just that she was so grabby and pushy and annoying and…not Pepper. And that was the key, wasn't it? Ever since Pepper had walked out on him a month ago, he'd had women (and sometimes men) throwing themselves at him left and right. Dozens of people flocking around him, drawn in by the glory of the Iron Man, all trying to get a piece of Tony Stark. If this had happened in his pre-Pepper days, he would have jumped at the opportunity, but now it all just felt incredibly hollow, the attention of the people as fake as their beaming smiles.

If he had to remain here for another hour, he might as well get plastered, Fury be damned. It had been the Director who had roped him into this, so let him deal with the PR nightmare that was a drunk-off-his-ass Tony Stark. He finally managed to slip from the grasp of the octopus lady and when she reached for him again, he gave her a hard look.

"Sorry, sweetheart, but you're really not my type. Maybe we can try this again when I'm more drunk and less choosy," he told her and watched with satisfaction as she stomped away on her six inch heels, no doubt to find the nearest gossip mag reporter and complain about his lack of manners. Predictable.

Tony turned back to the bar and signaled the barman, asking for a double whisky. This place was posh enough not to water the drinks down too much, so he felt fairly confident that he would be able to at least achieve a pleasant buzz before the whole thing was over.

He was on his third drink of the night when a familiar figure slid onto the seat next to him. Tony didn't need to look twice to know there would be trouble.

"Hello, Stark," Loki greeted, smirk firmly in place.

Tony almost did a double take when he realized that Loki was wearing a regular business suit instead of his Asgardian armor. There was a green scarf around his neck, breaking the black and white monotony, but otherwise he didn't look the slightest bit out of place among this gathering of the rich and powerful. It looked like he was trying to blend in tonight, which put Tony on instant alert. Outwardly he didn't move a muscle though, calmly sipping his drink.

"Aren't you supposed to be on Asgard? Getting eaten by ravens or chained in a dungeon or whatever medieval thing you guys do as a punishment?"

Loki's smirk widened. "As far as my jailors are concerned I am on Asgard. Technically. But you of all people should know that no prison can hold me forever."

Tony nodded at the barman to bring him another glass. "What are you doing here? Come to kill me?" If he was going to get thrown out of a window again, he might as well enjoy the booze while he could.

"You don't seem very alarmed by my presence." The god gave him an assessing look. Tony shrugged.

"You're not terribly intimidating. Besides, I figured - if you really wanted to kill me, you would have done it already. Since we're in a public place and there is a suspicious lack of theatrics involved in this scenario, I assume you're here because you want something from me. What is it?"

"Actually, I'm here to warn you," Loki said, surprising him a little.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Really. This should be good."

Loki's gaze swept over the crowd. "There is someone here tonight who has been ordered to kill you. Unless you leave now, you will be dead in less than ten minutes."

Tony turned on his barstool to face Loki fully for the first time. "Why are you doing this?"

"I have my reasons."

Tony rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please, drop the mystery act. There has to be a reason for this. What do you get out of it? Even if what you say is true – which I doubt - it would be much easier for you to just let the assassin do your dirty work. Let him get rid of me for you."

Loki inclined his head. "It would be easy, truly, but not terribly interesting." He fixed Tony with a stare that seemed to permeate into his very bones. "Out of all the mortals I have met on this world, you are by far the most entertaining one. It would be a shame if you were to die prematurely."

"Really." Tony's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "You'll excuse me if I don't particularly believe that. The last time we met, you seemed pretty happy to throw me out of a window."

He finished the last of his drink and slid down from the stool, nonchalantly making his way through the crowd. He rather felt than saw Loki slip after him, following a few inches behind.

"Yes, that was an…unfortunate incident."

Tony snorted. "Yeah, you can call it that. Why are you doing this again?"

"I have my reasons."

"You're not gonna tell me, are you?"

Loki gave him a smile full of teeth. "No."

They made it two floors down and into one of the side corridors leading to the entrance, which was suspiciously deserted. Tony shot the god a side glance. "Are you setting me up? Because if you are, you won't like what I will do to you once we're out of he- Whoa!"

He barely jumped out of the way of the blast that somebody shot at him from the other side of the corridor. Loki gave him an amused look.

"What did I tell you?"

"You can gloat later." Tony glued his back to the wall, his mind running a thousand calculations per minute as he pulled a miniature repulsor from his pocket and hastily started putting it together in his hand. "Let me get rid of them first. JARVIS, are you following?"

"You, sir? Always," the computer chimed in his ear.

"Awesome. Let's do this."

He rounded the corner with a sharp move, disposing of the two mooks before they could even press a trigger. The third nearly caught him by surprise but thanks to JARVIS s's timely warning he was able to dispose of him as well. When he turned back to Loki, he found the god leisurely propped against the wall, watching the fight with a small amused smile.

"You could help, you know," Tony couldn't help but remark. Loki's eyes glittered.

"Oh no, that would be too much hassle. I prefer to just watch. It's quite entertaining."

"Thanks for nothing, asshole," Tony gritted out as another guy in a mask rounded the corner and got thrown into a wall by a repulsor blast. "Where are they all coming from anyway? This is supposed to be a charity function, for fuck's sake." He shot another one. "Oh, this is getting ridiculous. Let's get out of here. JARVIS? Have my car meet me outside."

"Already done, sir."

"I knew I keep you around for a reason." He started to walk towards the exit but only managed to walk a few feet before he suddenly found himself with his back pressed against the wall, Loki standing only a few inches away.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," the god whispered in his ear. "Unless you want a new hole in your forehead. From what I've seen, you mortals don't recover well from those."

It took Tony less than a second to spot the tell-tale red dot on the opposite wall. "A sniper?"

"I told you that there was an assassin here tonight. The men in the corridor were just a distraction to keep your attention away from the real threat."

Tony looked in dismay at the long corridor lined with high glass windows that stood between their hiding place and the exit. "How am I supposed to get away from here? The guy has a great view of the whole corridor." And, judging by the rapidly approaching footsteps from the direction they had come from, they were getting surrounded from all sides. Awesome.

Loki's hand reached down and wrapped a hand around his left wrist.

"Do you trust me?"

Tony shot the hand a glance before he looked back up at the god's face.

"Hell no. But I'm open to suggestions."

"I can get you out of here, alive and whole."

Tony inclined his head. "For the sake of argument, let's say I agree. What do you want from me in return? Clearly, you're not doing this out of the goodness of your heart."

A slow smile spread over Loki's face. "No, I am not the type for that." His thumb ran over Tony's wrist in a slow, deliberate caress. "If I save your life, you will owe me a debt. The time and manner of its payment will be left to my discretion."

"Having an Avenger in your debt. Clever." Tony licked his lips, feeling his pulse spike a little under Loki's touch. He gave the god a smirk. "You know, I should really decline your offer and find a way to get out of here on my own. It would be the reasonable thing to do."

"From what I have heard of you, Stark, reasonable is rarely your typical course of action."

"No, it's not," Tony admitted. "You've done your homework on me."

"A wise man makes it a point to study his enemies." The touch continued, thumb making small circles against Tony's pulse. Even though Tony knew it was pure manipulation on Loki's part, an attempt to make Tony more agreeable to the god's offer, he still couldn't help the little thrill of excitement that ran through him at the contact.

"How do I know that it wasn't you who orchestrated this whole thing?" he couldn't help but ask, trying to distract himself from the fact that they were still standing uncomfortably close together.

One dark eyebrow shot up. "And why would I do that, pray tell?"

"You just said that I will owe you a favor if you save my life. It would be the perfect scam – hire the guys, let them rough me up a little then swoop in and save my life in some grandiose way. Boom! Favour granted. That's what I would do, anyway."

Loki showed his teeth. "Oh, you're good. That would be a wonderful plan, but sadly, no. I did not hire those men and do not know who is threatening your life."

"And now you're feeding me bullshit," Tony pointed out. "You know very well who those people are, you just can't be bothered to tell me. But hey, whatever. Normally I would be pissed, but right now I just want to get out of here."

Loki let go of his wrist and offered him a hand instead. "I can get you out of here instantly, but first I want your word. Do we have a deal?"

"I know I will regret this," Tony said, but he was already reaching for the god's hand. He briefly saw Loki's eyes widen at his easy acceptance but then the world turned into a swirl of green and disappeared. The next thing he knew, they were standing on the balcony of Stark Tower, the city lights bright beneath them.

Tony took a moment to ponder the sheer surrealness of the situation before he turned to Loki.

"You know, I was actually supposed to be back in Miami tonight, but whatever. It's nothing a half an hour flight in my suit can't fix and I'm not about to turn down a free ride home." He set off to walk inside, the glass doors opening automatically as he approached. Loki followed him at a slower pace.

"I see you have redecorated since my last visit," he said pleasantly when they walked in.

"Yeah," Tony said. "I had to make some renovations after our jolly green giant rearranged my floor with your head."

"Welcome back, sir," JARVIS chimed pleasantly.

"I'm not here," Tony told him at once. "As far as you're concerned, I was never here tonight. I refuse to explain to Captain America how I managed to get from LA to New York in less than a minute."

"Very well, sir. I will not notify the Avengers of your presence." He made a delicate pause. "Sir, I detect a hostile presence in the room. Do you want me to alert SHIELD?"

"No, that won't be necessary." Tony shot a look at Loki. "Unless he tries to kill me again, we should be fine."

"As you wish, sir," JARVIS sounded rather doubtful. "I will keep the alarm off for now. Nevertheless, let it be noted that I do not think this is a wise course of action."

"Yeah, yeah, you disapprove, I get it." Tony waved him off. "You can save the "I told you so" for the next time someone tries to kill me in my own home."

"Does that happen often?" Loki looked amused by the notion.

"Let's say it happens and leave it at that." Tony had no desire to touch this particular topic.

"Your servant seems more concerned by my presence than you are."

"He worries too much," Tony said tersely.

"He's wise to be concerned." Loki looked around. "Where is he hiding?"

"He's my A.I. Artificial Intelligence," he added at Loki's confused expression. "He's a computer program that I made to run my house and do anything else I might need."

"An invisible servant. Clever," Loki said, eyes flickering over the walls and ceiling. He didn't say anything else, instead seemed to be content with exploring the apartment.

Tony was starting to feel a little ill at ease. Here he was, alone in a room with Loki. It was one thing to banter with the Asgardian in the heat of the battle, when he was riding an adrenaline high, but now that the danger had passed, he had no idea what to do with the god. Throwing him out seemed a bit risky – Tony still had vivid memories of the street below flying to meet him, those endless seconds of freefall before the armor snapped safely around him feeling like eternity. He had no wish for a repeat of that particular experience.

"Is anyone home?" he asked JARVIS instead, hoping that hearing about the Hulk's presence might serve to quell any latent homicidal tendencies the god might be harboring.

"Doctor Banner is asleep in his rooms and Captain Rogers is currently in the gym," JARVIS said. "Do you wish for me to contact any of them?"

"That won't be necessary." Tony shot a furtive look at Loki, who was currently examining a coffee machine.

"Miss Potts is in Washington D.C. tonight," JARVIS continued.

"Of course she is," muttered Tony, trying not to feel resentful about that. Ever since they had broken up, she had done a marvelous job of avoiding Tony. He suspected JARVIS had something to do with it too, that traitor.

Loki chose that moment to look up from his perusal of Tony's kitchenette.

"The Avengers live here with you?" he asked, curious.

"Some of them," Tony grudgingly admitted. "They mostly come and go, but all of them have an apartment here to use, if they wish."

"How generous of you," Loki sounded only half-sarcastic.

"I'm the very soul of generosity," Tony told him flippantly, trying to move without making it obvious that he was putting a marble counter between himself and Loki. Loki, being the perceptive bastard that he was, naturally noticed.

"Am I making you nervous?" he asked with a small, predatory grin. "I am, am I not? I made you uneasy before, but you hid it quite well. Now, however, not so much." He stalked slowly over to where Tony was standing by the counter. "Tell me, Stark," he said when he was a foot away. "Are you afraid of me?"

It took all of Tony's willpower not to take a step back. He wasn't normally one to be easily intimidated, but there was something about Loki that set his teeth on edge.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you? This little power-play of yours."

Loki's grin widened. "Yes. More than I expected. It is amusing to watch your courage fight with your instincts."

"Yeah, the entertainment is free. Is there anything else you wanted?"

Loki's eyes flickered to the liquor cabinet. "I believe you still owe me a drink."

Tony suppressed a groan. "I did offer you one, didn't I?" He took the opportunity to put some distance between them. Reaching for two tumblers, he asked: "What do you want? I've got whisky, bourbon, wine, vodka…pretty much anything you can think off."

"I will leave that choice to you," Loki said. "Considering your wealth and general fondness for alcohol, I doubt you have anything truly distasteful."

"You'd be surprised what some people are willing to drink," Tony said, pouring two glasses of whisky. Damn, he really needed that drink. He handed the second glass to Loki. "There you go."

"What shall we drink to?" Loki asked, raising his glass.

"Daring escapes from death?" Tony suggested. That earned him a pleased smirk.

"Excellent suggestion," Loki said. "I hope you won't forget it."

Tony didn't say anything to that, sipping his whisky instead. It was his fifth drink of the night and he was slowly starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. He wasn't anywhere close to being drunk yet, but he was just buzzed enough to be in a good mood. He fervently hoped Loki would leave soon, because if he didn't, there was a real danger that Tony would start to notice the way Loki's well-tailored suit hugged those long, lean muscles in all the right places. That was a road he really didn't wish to take.

"This is surprisingly good," Loki broke the silence. "May I have some more?" He waved the empty glass at Tony, who wordlessly gestured to the bottle. Loki poured himself a full glass this time and leaned against the window, savoring the taste. "Sometimes I wonder how Asgard could survive for thousands of years on nothing but mead. One gets tired of it after a while."

"You don't have other drinks?" Tony asked, incredulous.

Loki grimaced. "We also have ale and wine, but there is very little variety."

"And you guys thought we are primitive." Tony made a few steps away from the bar, gesticulating with his glass. "You know, if you took a walk through the streets below, you would find over a hundred different drinks in any random bar. We might not have a fancy rainbow bridge, but we can be really creative when it comes to ways to get drunk."

"No wonder Thor liked staying here so much," Loki said quietly. He noticed Tony hovering by the stairs. "You can come closer, if you wish. I am not planning on killing you today or any time soon."

"Well that's reassuring," Tony muttered, but nonetheless came over to the window. For a brief moment he had a vivid flashback of freefalling through the glass, but a second later his vision cleared and he was once again standing in his penthouse, the glass pane before him intact. He noticed that Loki was watching him and turned his attention to the city instead.

"Pretty, isn't it?" he nodded at the lights below. "And you wanted to destroy it."

"It does have its charms, I admit," Loki said. He took a few steps closer, until he was standing next to Tony and looked out at the streets pulsing with life, even in the late night hour. "When I visited Earth before, centuries ago, it had always been dirty and primitive. Uneducated masses crawling around in the dirt, people living little better than animals. This, however," he gestured to the city below, "is closer to Asgard than I had expected."

"We've grown," Tony told him. "We evolve. You guys have stayed the same for centuries, unchanging, stuck in your ways. You're not trying to improve anything, because you are convinced that you're the best at everything. And when you think that you're the best, it's always a shock when someone comes along and proves that they are better." And didn't he know that.

"Speaking from experience, are you?" Loki asked with a smirk.

"You can say that," Tony admitted. "But I was thinking more about you. You came here with all your talk about superiority and glory and got your ass handed to you by a bunch of guys whom you thought were so beneath you. Must have been embarrassing." Loki didn't say anything to that, so Tony continued. "And now you're stuck in prison for god knows how long, probably bored out of your mind. You should give some thought to reworking your business model, you know. This whole evil villain shtick doesn't seem to be working too well for you."

"And become what? A defender of justice and goodness?" Loki asked sardonically. "Like you?"

"Nah, it wouldn't suit you." Tony waved a hand and went to pour another glass since Loki had managed to empty the second one, too. "And as for me, I'm mostly just protecting my own interests. The whole hero image is just a nice bonus."

"I am not joining your little band of do-gooders."

"Of course you're not," Tony said. "Nobody would believe it, anyway." He poured himself another glass and drained half of it in a single gulp. "But there are miles between Captain America and a mustache-twirling homicidal megalomaniac. Just because nobody wanted you as the good guy doesn't mean you have to do a one-eighty degree turn and go full villain."

"What do you suggest I do, then, O Wise Midgardian?" Loki asked, sounding only half-sarcastic.

Tony shrugged. "That's your problem to figure out. Prison should provide you with plenty of time to think about your choices. Maybe you'll come up with something."

"Maybe I will," Loki said quietly, getting lost in thought. Tony was wishing fervently that Loki would leave soon, because the god's pensive mood and sudden friendliness were creeping him out. There was no way to call for the suit without being painfully obvious about it, so he could only stand there, effectively being held hostage in his own house. Loki didn't look particularly murderous right now, but Tony knew all too well just how quickly his moods could change.

Finally, Loki drained the rest of his glass and straightened up.

"I suppose it's time for me to go," he announced. "My jailors might get suspicious if I stay away for too long. Thank you for your hospitality." He gave Tony a nod and started walking out towards the balcony.

Tony watched him leave, feeling like a mouse that had just managed to escape from the clutches of a boa constrictor. He was almost ready to call JARVIS and have him prepare a suit when Loki suddenly stopped in the doorway and looked back, as if a thought had just occurred to him.

"There is something that I wish to know, before I leave," Loki said. Tony bit back a curse. Why wouldn't the asshole just leave already? "How did you end up working for SHIELD? You do not seem like someone who enjoys following orders. Did they blackmail you? Bribe you?" He seemed genuinely interested in the answer.

For a second, Tony contemplated lying, but in the end decided to go with the facts.

"No. They presented me with an impossible challenge and gave me a key to solving it. By a happy coincidence, they also helped save my life in the process. It wasn't enough to put me fully aboard the Avenger train, but it made me willing to listen to future requests. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes, I suppose it does," Loki said. "Good night, Stark."

He was almost out of the door when Tony remembered something.

"Thanks, by the way," he said quickly, wanting to get it over with. Loki turned around, frowning. "You know," Tony continued, "for the whole 'saving me from a sniper' thing."

A flicker of surprise briefly appeared on Loki's face before he smoothed it out again.

"You're welcome," he said with a gracious nod. "I will be back to collect my debt."

"I bet you will," Tony muttered.

Loki finally strode out onto the balcony, where he stood for a few seconds before he got enveloped in a halo of golden-green light and disappeared. Tony waited until he was sure that the god was really gone, then slumped against the bar and ran a hand over his face. His heart was beating wildly in his chest and his legs felt a bit unsteady.

With Loki gone, the events of the previous hour (had it really been so long? Jesus) started to feel like a really weird dream. From Loki's mysterious appearance to the awkward conversation over whisky, the whole scene felt totally surreal. If it wasn't for the second glass standing on the counter, Tony would write the entire encounter off as a drunken hallucination.

"Get me out of here, JARVIS." He drained the rest of his glass and walked out to the balcony, where the Mark VII armor stood waiting for him. For a moment he just closed his eyes and enjoyed the way his armor enveloped him with comforting familiarity, the plates sliding into their place with ease. If he left now, he would be back in Miami well before dawn. With luck nobody would even notice his absence.

Tony took off from the balcony, flying high into the darkness to avoid any curious eyes watching below. Since JARVIS was taking care of calculating the flight path for him, Tony had plenty of time to think. The conversation with Loki kept playing itself in his mind on a loop, each repetition making it look more and more absurd. Had he really promised the Asgardian a favor? There hadn't been much time to specify just what kind of favor it was supposed to be.

As it was, Loki could ask practically anything of him and Tony wouldn't be able to say no. If Loki decided to ask him for a nuke or something equally disastrous, they were all in deep shit. And if he refused, he was as good as dead. No matter which way he looked at it, he was fucked and there was nothing he could do about it.

He could only wait and see what Loki was up to. He wasn't looking forward to finding out.

To be continued…

Author's Note: This is the first chapter of novel-length fic I'm currently working on. It's going to be pretty long – probably over 100K words. I've already written 60K words for it, so the updates should be fairly regular – once a week or so.

Since I don't have a beta for this and my own English tends to lean more towards the British version, there might be a few mistakes in this. I tried my best, but if you see any words that don't belong (Britishisms, phrases that an American wouldn't use), please feel free to point them out and I will correct them. It's my first time writing for a fandom in American English and the switch between the vocabularies is hard sometimes.

I hope you like the story so far. The second chapter should be up next Friday. Feedback is welcome as always :)