Epilogue

Tony had been tired and panicked when he'd decided to sleep in Loki's room, so he didn't know how he'd feel when he woke up.

He felt great. Loki, in an unconscious attempt to ward off nightmares, had wrapped himself around him like a python with his face buried in Tony's neck, so the sweet smell of his hair and something Lokish was in Tony's nose.

As far as he was aware, Loki hadn't had much of a disturbed sleep, which was unusual.

It felt surprisingly natural, despite the circumstances, to wake up with Loki like that. He sincerely didn't want it to be one time only.

Loki stirred with his movement and unconsciously nuzzled just under Tony's ear, before his brain caught up and he pulled away.

"My apologies, Stark," Loki mumbled, pushing himself back to his own side and preparing to get up.

"Don't you Stark me. I've had your dick in my throat, I think you can manage 'Tony'," Tony replied jokingly.

He was worried for a second that Loki might take it badly, but Loki just chuckled and got out of bed anyway. "Suit yourself, Tony," he said. "I have to take a shower, so I suppose I shall see you later."

Tony didn't actually know how Loki dealt with showers, but as rain made him miserable, showers probably made him even worse.

"I could..." Tony offered vaguely.

"No," Loki said, almost a snap, but restrained at the last moment.

"It's all right. Come to the lab when you feel okay, yeah?" Tony said.

Loki looked pleasantly surprised by the offer as he vanished into the bathroom. Tony took his leave.

-O.O-

Loki turned up in the lab around an hour later looking disheveled but basically okay.

To better protect himself in the future, Tony got Loki to teach him a few tricks about hacking, as well as the basics. More lessons to follow.

Over the next few days, Tony and Loki patched things up one step at a time; Tony tried to encourage Loki to relax a little, and Loki behaved himself immaculately, within the bounds of his usual mischief. Movies were watched, innovations were worked on.

They continued both sleeping in Loki's bed, as it helped a surprising amount, but the lack of an invitation for them to move to Tony's bed or even personal quarters was rather stark.

Despite all this, Tony did have JARVIS warning him of Loki's activities. Most of them involved sleeping or reading, so that wasn't a problem. On one particular occasion, he sent an email to a Thor Burison, and also to Darcy Lewis. The former was his brother, but the latter was an American actress, so Tony didn't get it. When asked, Loki said she was a friend he'd made.

He'd expected Loki to be more stable and consistent now that he wasn't plagued by doubts regarding his espionage, but Loki was still running hot and cold, not wanting to be touched or spoken to one minute and curling up in bed with Tony the next. Tony wasn't going to ask; Loki was clearly still working through a lot of stuff.

It was on the sixth morning that Tony woke up with a little problem. He was surprised he hadn't earlier, actually, but quite frankly, despite whatever romance novels might tell you, nightmares really did tend to kill the mood.

Sharing a bed with Loki was abating the nightmares and clearly increasing the sexual frustration that had been clear ever since he'd met Loki.

It didn't take much to wake Loki and it didn't seem like he'd been asleep anyway; he had sleeping problems even when calm and unbothered, Tony was quickly learning.

"Good morning to you too," Loki said dryly. "Should I go...?"

"Hey, uh-" Tony began. Loki rolled over to face him. "Maybe it's the hard-on and the general sexual frustration I get whenever I so much as look at your pretty face, but if it's cool with you, I'm definitely going to kiss you."

"You're a true romantic," Loki murmured with a chuckle. He seemed pretty happy about this turn of events. "Fortunately, so am I. Tongue in mouth, get to it."

Tony smiled before leaning forward and getting to it.

It started warm and sleepy, soft, lazy presses of their lips that deepened into quicker opened lips and Tony's hand cupping the back of Loki's head.

They hadn't kissed much in Urumqi, or at least not passionately; Loki had been something like tense and upset and the whole thing had been over way too quickly for Tony's tastes. Not again. This time he was going to make Loki feel goddamn wooed.

His tongue ran along Loki's lower lip before slipping behind the merc's teeth to be met eagerly by Loki's own. That was when he pulled Loki closer, a hot flush running through him when a soft moan escaped from Loki's throat.

Tony loved Loki's style of kiss; his tongue was clever and quick, just like the man himself.

Without breaking away from him for a moment, Loki moved over so he was on top of Tony, allowing him a better angle and freeing his hand to trace over Tony's t-shirted shoulder. He was gentle and slightly unsure, like he didn't know where the barriers were.

Almost unconsciously, Tony lifted the hand that wasn't knotted in Loki's hair and traced his thumb over Loki's scar gently.
This got him a slight shiver and renewed vigour in the lips caressing his own.

Damn, the scar tissue was sensitive. And if admiring the sensitivity of that gnarled flesh helped with Loki's issues, then that was definitely a bonus.

Tony wasn't sure how long they spent just kissing, getting to know how the other liked it and after a minute or two, exploring the curves of each others' bodies and hunting out sensitive spots. For once, he didn't feel like he was trying to get them naked; it just kind of felt like that was where they would eventually end up.

But eventually comes sometimes and Loki's exploring hand was starting to tease below Tony's waistband as they rolled their hips into each other, so Tony pulled back to establish something.

"We need to sort this out," he breathed, his voice stolen by Loki's wicked tongue.

Loki looked worried and pulled back slightly.

"No, nope, don't do that. I just meant - what are you up for? How far do you want this to go? Also, how much pain will that scar put you in, because you seem like the kind of asshole who won't mention he's in agony until after." Negotiation was almost always a great idea, given the circumstances.

"Well," Loki purred, relaxing again. "The plan I formed involved me slinking down under the covers to suck your cock and take the edge off, then have you fuck me. If that's acceptable."

That sounded more than good to Tony. In fact, he couldn't actually get any words out to express that, but Loki seemed to understand anyway.

"But yes, missionary position only," Loki conceded matter-of-factly. "Anything else does require abdominal strength and that hurts like a bitch right now."

"Gotcha," Tony said, kissing him again.

True to his word, after half a minute Loki pulled away again to pull off Tony's shirt, then tongue his way down his chest to his waistband, where he gripped the elastic of Tony's sweatpants and tugged them down.

With Loki hidden under the covers, Tony couldn't really see what he was up to, but he could feel warm breath on his hard cock for just a moment before Loki licked a stripe up it and then sucked on the head.

Loki didn't stay down there long, just a few lashes of his tongue and then short licks around the head, but gods, Tony felt every touch like an electric shock of the pleasurable nature.

When Loki's head appeared again after a brief break to nibble gently on Tony's nipples, they kissed again, but Tony's patience was starting run short and he rolled them over so he was on top.

"Ready?" he asked.

"I am," Loki said, his hands still questing over Tony, like if he touched him enough his whole body would be recorded in Loki's mind like a blueprint. Probably would, actually.

Meanwhile, Tony removed Loki's shirt - sparing a moment to gently scrape his thumbnail across Loki's scar a few times, which elicited an excellently breathy reaction - and enjoyed the warmth of Loki's chest against his as he slipped Loki's boxers off.

He wrapped his hand around Loki's cock and stroked firmly; Loki's hips bucked and he let out a groan.

"Just fuck me," Loki gasped. "It's been a long time, I want to feel it."

Which worked for Tony. It'd been a while since he'd prepped a guy, but it was a pretty basic procedure, so after retrieving the lube he slowly worked one finger into Loki, then built up to two and then three, searching out Loki's prostate. He knew he'd found it when Loki brought his knees up sharply and dropped his head back.

"Condom?" Tony asked.

"Got tested after Afghanistan because I passed out a lot and I don't remember what happened to me. Haven't been with anyone since then; too sore," Loki breathed shortly. "I'm fine if you are."

"That makes two of us," Tony said.

Gripping his cock - which was all too ready, leaking at the tip - he kissed Loki, then guided himself in.

Loki grinned breathlessly against Tony's mouth, like there was nothing he enjoyed more than Tony's cock sliding into his ass smoothly. Frankly, that was probably true.

Tony rocked his hips back and forth after he bottomed out, getting them both used to the feeling. The tight clench of Loki's muscles was almost too good, like a low hum of pleasure under his skin that wouldn't quit. He wasn't too far off coming already.

"We good here?" Tony asked, dropping a hand to splay across Loki's scar. So help him, he was worried. He'd seen Loki collapse to the ground from pain after straining it before.

"S'all right, just not too fast," Loki mumbled. Then he grinned wryly. "This is embarrassing."

"Speak for yourself," Tony replied, moving his hips to drag his cock from Loki's ass, then slid it slickly back in. "You feel amazing."

"So do you," Loki admitted, then brought a hand up behind Tony's head to pull him into another kiss, slow and sensual like everything they were doing.

Slow, under the covers, lots of kissing, lots of banter. Regardless of the practical reasons, it was about as close to making love as either of them had come. Not that either of them would call it that. Perish the thought.

Loki's legs came up just a little to cradle Tony in place while they rocked together, Tony staying slow but making up for it with firm, consistent thrusts, aiming for one spot in particular.

He was feeling little hot spasms in his groin when he found Loki's prostate, Loki moaning into Tony's mouth when he did.

They broke apart from the mouth as they got close, Tony burying his face in Loki's neck to lick and suck and bite as he dropped his hand to stroke Loki's straining cock again. Loki's response was to let loose his words of pleasure, telling Tony how good it felt, how much he wanted it, how he wanted Tony to come in his ass.

Tony could oblige that. Loki rocked his hips back into Tony's increasingly erratic thrusts a few times before he came with a choked moan, hot liquid in Tony's palm, and the spasms of his ass pushed Tony over too, the pair of them coming in near-synchronicity.

Coming to a halt, Tony breathed heavily into Loki's neck for half a minute, maybe more, then pulled out when he felt ready and lay down next to Loki.

"That wasn't fucking," Loki muttered. "That was borderline romantic. I'm losing my ways."

"Yeah, but your ways seem kind of shitty, so I'm not complaining," Tony reminded him.

"True," Loki said. "Thank you."

"Not that I'm not cool with being thanked, but why?" Tony asked.

"You're letting me be here," Loki said. "To be honest, my realistic hopes were that you'd thank me, take my information and at least not shoot me. Pathetic as it sounds, I'm happy to be here."

"Doesn't sound pathetic. It sounds kind of human."

"That's disgusting," Loki sighed. "Satisfaction's not in my nature, yet here I am, satisfied. You're either the best or the worst thing that's happened to me."

"Pretty sure I'm the best. I always satisfy," Tony joked.

Loki chuckled, then rolled over and assumed his usual sleeping position, curled against Tony's chest with his forehead on the engineer's clavicle.

"More sleep? Okay, I can do that," Tony said. Never mind the general state the bed was now in and the fact that they were both naked.

"We got come on my bedsheets," Loki murmured tetchily. "We're sleeping in your bed tonight."

"How presumptuous, Agent Feison," Tony said. "Oh god, we sound like a married couple already and we've only been sort of dating for about an hour."

"Sort of dating," Loki said, and Tony was about to apologise when Loki continued "I can work with that."

-O.O-

The issue of them being sticky and sweaty didn't resolve itself with sleep, and when they woke up an hour or two later, they came to the conclusion that yeah, they did need a shower. This was a problem in itself.

After a lot of debate in which they changed sides repeatedly and didn't really get anyway, Loki slid out of bed and walked to the door of his ensuite, saying "Today is the day I start to get over this."

Tony had mixed feelings about that. If it worked, great. But if it didn't, then it would be a serious dent in Loki's self-image yet again.

However, if Loki was determined, then Tony wouldn't stop him.

Loki's bedroom was one of Tony's many guest bedrooms and as such, the bathroom was large and the shower wasn't joking around either. They both fit into it comfortably.

Watching Loki try and hold it together as he turned on the water was painful, and while Tony did his best to help with soothing words, his breaths were getting shorter and sharper.

"It's okay," Tony said, reaching a soapy hand out to Loki's shoulder.

Once his hand met Loki's flesh, Loki jerked away from him, backing himself into a corner and letting his breathing rate skyrocket.

"JARVIS, turn off the water," Tony barked. JARVIS did. "Loki, you're right here with me. 'Kay? We're in the shower. You can drink all the water you like, or none at all. It's up to you. And I'm right here."

Loki reached out with a hand and balanced himself on Tony's shoulder, catching his breath.

"Turns out the power of liking someone a lot can't cure PTSD," Loki rasped after a minute or two of getting himself together.

"Yeah, no, I've been there and it doesn't. You with me?"

"Nearly," Loki replied.

"You made it about thirty seconds. Next time, we aim for forty seconds," Tony reached out of the shower to grab a towel for Loki.

"You're being awfully helpful," Loki said suspiciously, accepting the towel.

"Nah, I'm just preparing you for when you have to deal with me at my worst," Tony said bluntly. "You're not exactly clean there."

"I really don't care," Loki said, scrubbing himself with the towel. "I'll try again later. Alone."

"Are you actually better when you're alone or do you just not want to look crumbly in front of me?" Tony asked harshly.

"The latter, I think," Loki replied coolly, exiting the shower and the bathroom in search of clothes.

"Are we having an argument?" Tony wondered out loud.

"Slightly," Loki said with a wry smile. "I'm not okay; we know that. Let me work it out for myself."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Tony said. "I'm gonna take a proper shower, okay? Go have breakfast or something."

-O.O-

Loki did go and help himself to breakfast. There was some stewed fruit left over from the night before, and Loki swiftly claimed it for himself and Tony and added yoghurt.

"You patched things up with Tony, then?" Nat said from the doorway. She had an eyebrow raised in amusement. "Your hair's a mess and you have a bite on your neck."

"That could've been anyone," Loki said, rubbing over the mark thoughtfully.

"Yes, but it wasn't," Nat replied.

"True. Certainly, Tony and I fucked. Are you jealous?" Loki teased.

"Not even a little," Nat said, sitting down next to him. "Now Tony has to deal with what you qualify as dirty talk."

"Excuse you; I'm excellent," Loki tutted. "You must miss me a little; Barton doesn't seem like he's particularly silvertongued."

"He has his merits. He's not crazy, for one."

Loki snorted.

"Not as crazy as you. But we're Avengers. You don't get onto this team without baggage," Nat conceded. "On that note, Fury's tripping over himself to figure out a way of dealing with you."

"Yes, I didn't think I'd seen the last of him."

"The high-ups at SHIELD are laughing at him because he's scared. He's got an immoral spy in with the Avengers, and they won't give him up; add that to the chaos and destruction that you wreaked and he saw at Hammer's compound, and you're a problem that won't go away," Nat said. She looked quite amused by this.

"Hm," Loki took another mouthful of fruit and pondered that. "Based on your experiences with SHIELD, what do you think he'll do?"

"I'd guess he'll offer you some kind of job that gives him the right to check up on your movements, then tell you that you can't stay if you don't accept," Nat said. "He may also give you the option of joining SHIELD as a junior agent again."

"Interesting," Loki replied. "And tempting. I'll see just what he does."

Loki sensed Tony entering the room right before his warm hands landed on his shoulders.

"Hey, Pixie," Tony said, kissing him on the back of the neck. Evidently his afterglow was still alive and well.

Nat smirked. "Look at yourself, Loki. All domestic; you've been tamed."

"Lies, all of it," Loki said. "I'm only stopping over here on my way to combat James Bond. Or be James Bond. Whichever."

"Yeah, sure," Tony said, teasing a particularly prominent knot out of Loki's hair. "You should brush this. It's a mess."

"You're the one who tangled your hand in it."

"Heat of the moment. I can't be blamed," Tony was smiling, Loki could tell.

-O.O-

True to form, Fury arrived later that day wanting to speak to Loki.

It was a short conversation. Fury wanted Loki to be the Avengers' 'mission supervisor', a made-up job that basically involved watching them from the skies and helping them work together, much like Loki had done when the Avengers had first come to the defence of Hammer's compound.

Fury also not-subtly suggested that Loki should consider joining SHIELD as an agent.

Inside, Loki was laughing, because not only was Fury doing exactly what Nat said he would, but he was definitely, irrefutably unhappy with having Loki outside of his control.

Loki accepted the offer airily. Both Loki and Fury left the meeting feeling like winners.

-O.O-

Later, Loki was watching a movie with Tony, just like they'd done a thousand times before. He was feeling rather pleased with himself, and the positive emotion made him feel generally affectionate, which was why he was lying against Tony on the couch.

He'd said earlier that satisfaction wasn't in his nature, and he'd been serious; he'd tried in the past to just settle down with his riches and a hotel room in the city for a few months, and inevitably found the experience lacking in excitement and generally unfulfilling. After the stress of the last half a year, he was willing to try again, but he wasn't under any false impressions that lying around Stark Tower was where he wanted to be forever.

That wasn't to say he didn't think he'd be with Tony for any long period of time; he was just concerned he'd get bored without his merc lifestyle.

He planned to be with Tony for as long as he was wanted.

And besides, it didn't need to be all boring. After all, there was the offer of becoming a SHIELD agent on the table.

Having his cake and eating it too did seem to be the theme of the day.

He was distracted from his thoughts by Tony's hand slipping under his shirt to gently trace along his belly. Loki twitched as his fingers drew across the sensitive skin of his scar.

"Ticklish?" Tony chuckled wickedly, brushing his fingers over it again.

Loki flinched this time, and batted his elbow at Tony's hip playfully.

"Nope, no getting away. I've found your secret weakness now," Tony said, pinning Loki a little closer and tickling him again.

No, I won't be living domestically around here forever, Loki thought. But I think I'll be happy here for now.

A/N: So. Uh. It's over.

Sorry for posting the wrong chapter last time - I was in a hurry and must've clicked the wrong one! Thanks for pointing it out.

Thank you to everyone who's read, commented, bookmarked etc. this fic, it's been more popular than I anticipated and I'm really grateful.

Because I know some of you are going to ask about a sequel - it's a maybe, a definite maybe.

Seriously, just thanks ^.^