Hello, dears!

Extended summary: As he lies awake in bed, he tells himself it´s not really his fault. Loki is hot, single, intelligent and an asshole; of course he likes him. He´s also engaged and his friend´s brother. Oh, and then there´s the fact that he´s got a boyfriend himself. Five seconds later Tony contemplates suffocating himself to death with his pillow as he concludes there´s a special place in hell for people like him.

Disclaimer: The Avengers are not mine. Also Adele´s song titles are hers, of course.

1

Rumor has it

A heat.

Someone´s going into heat. It´s painfully obvious with the way the scent filters even through the science facility´s special airways.

Tony sniffs a bit, vaguely interested.

If he´s to be honest (and he isn´t, he´s made sure no one ever expects the truth from him) the only Omega he´s ever seen through a heat had been Pepper.

Not that anyone truly believed her to be an Omega, with that confident, taking-none-of-your-shit attitude, but Tony knows there´s only one redheaded female Alpha in the campus, and he counts himself lucky to never having gotten it up with her. If there´s someone who deserves to be called a Black Widow, that´s Natasha.

Whatever, hallway gossip has always been a constant in Tony´s life, just like that time it had prophesized he wouldn´t last long with Pepper.

He hadn´t.

It hadn´t been because he hadn´t loved her (oh, how he´d loved her, the click of her heels, the honey of her scent, the gleam of her smile), but apparently he had to be bad at something, and that something was apparently loving.

He´d tried and tried, and she´d been forgiving and understanding like she´d always been, but it just hadn´t worked. He had felt guilty for having wasted her time, and he´d tried not to feel to offended when she´d ran right into his bodyguard´s waiting arms. Happy was a good man. Good for her. For both of them.

And well, he´d grieved and drowned in alcohol for a while, yes, but celibacy just wasn´t the thing for him, and he´d found his own waiting arms to fall into. The fact that everyone had twisted their panties when two perfectly fine Alphas had decided to let themselves go wasted with each other only added to the charm of it. Tony loved causing polemics.

Steve is delicious. Steve is perfect. Steve is not an omega.

He tries reminding himself of how he doesn´t really care, how he´s more than perfectly fine with their crazy bed shenanigans and switching around, because well, it never got boring and Steve really lived up to the "lady in the streets but a freak in the sheets" thing... But it´s just plain hard when a goddamned scent is enough to make his mind foggy and his body wants to go out, kill whoever´s in his way and fuck whoever´s at the end of it.

This is college, for fuck´s sake! How could anyone have forgotten their fucking suppressants?

He slams his circuit board on the table and goes to turn on the emergency air filtering. On his way back he starts a text to Steve because hey, he can turn this to his favor, right?

However, his expectations of kinky sex in inappropriate places is quickly dampened when the lab doors part to reveal a very pissed off Bruce sniffing on a rag.

Tony places the phone next to the discarded circuit board and extends a hand for the rag. When he brings it to his face he realizes it´s soaked in strong cologne or perfume of some sort. He smiles teasingly.

"I take it you smelt them?"

Bruce huffs. "If only. I bumped into him."

"Him? Who´s `him´?"

"Have you met Thor´s brother?"

"...Thor´s not an only child?"

Bruce rolls his eyes. "He was there last semester when we went to his house for a movie night. Tall, black hair, pissed that we had eaten all the chips... Remember?"

"Hmmmmmaybe..." He mutters, unwilling to remind the other that he´d spent the last three movie nights eating Steve´s face. "Well, why is he on heat? Is the guy stupid or something?" And he turns back to his board.

"Apparently Thor´s parents want to check if he´s still fertile. Which, let me assure you, he is."

"Why would someone´s parents make you go off your suppressants to check if your baby oven is working? That´s a bit creepy."

"Well he has to be fertile if he´s having Thor´s kid."

The board hits the table again, rather hard this time, and Tony turns back forcing his mind to backpedal because he had to have missed something.

"Tell me I heard wrong."

"Not at all. Thor was complaining to Steve last month, I thought you had heard. Their parents are arranging their engagement."

"... I´m sure I would remember something that´s up to porn levels of sick."

Bruce frowns, and then he seems to catch up because his face reddens and he shakes his head.

"They´re not really brothers. Where have you been since you started hanging out with us?"

"In or under Steve, mostly."

"Typical."

"Sorry." Tony says with a grin that´s anything but.

There are some days in which you just know you shouldn´t get out of bed.

Loki is having one of those. From the moment he walks down the stairs and finds Odin smiling contently he knows he should go back to sleep.

Now don´t take him wrong, Loki loves his adoptive father; without him, he´d probably be out there, whoring himself like so many other homeless Omegas.

Instead, when his father had died (surrounded by suspicious circumstances, but then again, whenever a successful entrepreneur died because of something other than a heart attack it was considered suspicious)and his mother had ran away with all the money she could carry, Odin had picked his associate´s little toddler and taken him into his own house. His lawyers had found Laufey´s wife soon enough and Loki had been formally fostered into the Borson household.

Odin had been a wonderful father, along with his wife he´d managed to incorporate Loki seamlessly amongst his closely knit family, and Loki loved him with every fiber of his being.

But god did he have some stupid ideas every now and then.

Like his `Let´s marry you off to Thor so that you can get a fair share of the company´s actions´ initiative.

Or his `You should stop taking your pills for a while´ advice.

All in all, it was no wonder why Loki wants to tail off. Unfortunately for him, this time he´ll be the one to fuck himself up.

When the first wave of the heat shoots through him, he bangs his forehead against the wall, hoping it´ll be enough to kill him, but he´s never been that lucky.

He makes it to the bathroom just in time, and slams the door shut right on a dazed Alpha´s face. He stumbles to the sink after locking it, and rinses the stranger´s scent off his nose. Only then does he pull his phone out to send a text. Thor gets there so fast Loki has to smile, picturing him knocking innocent freshmen out of the way.

And then he feels it.

Again, don´t take him wrong. Being an Omega is amazing. Sex is great, and the way he can sweep Alphas off their feet with a single, enigmatic smile is a blessing. But this is repulsive.

He loves Thor. He always has. He´s his brother. The thing is, his body doesn´t seem to care right now, instead flooding him with hormones to inform him that there is a very suitable Alpha just a door away.

He takes a deep breath into his soaked sleeve and opens the door. His body goes crazy with alarms; Thor´s not alone.

He´d been sure Bruce was a Beta, but the more he looks, the more his scent deepens and dizzies him. He swallows his pride and looks at Thor in the eye.

"Take me home." He means to order, but his voice wavers at the end and takes the tone of a plea. Bruce looks hungrily all over him and weren´t his eyes supposed to be brown? "Thor."

His brother reacts at his name, and turns to his friend. "Thanks, Bruce. I´ll take it from here."

Bruce nods. "Careful. It´s... Strong." He motions at the air around them, and Loki reddens in rage and shame.

"Well you´re not precisely smelling of daisies right now, Banner." He chides in as he tries his best to ignore the musky, smoky scent coming of him.

Bruce pays his words no heed and instead takes off his white lab coat and throws it at him. Loki rolls his eyes, but mutters a low `thank you´ and gets his arms through the sleeves either way.

"I´ll see you later." Thor offers and places a hand on Loki´s shoulder. Bruce bids them goodbye, and they hurry down the hallway.

"You could try to behave like a human being, you know?" Thor mutters sullenly when they have found a safe, isolated seats in an empty subway wagon. Loki looks sideways, his nose and mouth still buried in the white coat´s sleeve, and glares.

"Big words for not having let go of my neck yet. And what the fuck are those grumblings supposed to be? Are you a lawnmower, by any chance?"

Thor reddens and leaves his neck alone. After a second, though, he sighs.

"I hate this."

Loki´s glare softens.

"We both do."

"I´m sorry"

"Don´t be... You´re not the only one, I´ve been getting high on your friend´s scent for a reason." He smirks, but it loses strength when faced with Thor´s saddened pout.

"I don´t get how father expects us to do this."

"I see his logic. He´s got my best interests in mind." Loki shrugs. "He just forgot he raised us as brothers for twenty years."

"The worst thing is..."

Loki nods. He knows.

"Don´t go there, Thor. You´re too righteous to admit you want to fuck your brother and not throw yourself off a building right after."

"Thankfully you´re not."

He shrugs again, aware of Thor´s eyes on him, intense and questioning.

"I´m detached enough to know it´s my body that wants to fuck you, not me." And he gives a sigh of his own. "Sunny side up at least we know I can still give you devil spawn."

"Shut up, please."

"Fine."

"Your dad arranging it so that you get to fuck your brother..." Tony starts again from the other end of the lab. "I still don´t know how I feel about it."

Bruce rolls his eyes but smiles. "It does sound like a bad porno, I´ll give you that."

"And I´ll take it." Tony´s grinning face peaks out from behind a motor. "So? Is Thor´s boy slash bro hot?"

"He is very, very pretty." Probably the adjective would have been better used on a young, clear-eyed, stereotypical Omega, but he means it. With those green eyes, the thin rosy lips, and the soft black locks framing it, his face alone deserves it, even without taking the lean body wrapped in the tight-fitting clothing he seemed to favor, with patches of white, smooth skin showing here and there whenever he stretched too much... He hasn´t had this much trouble controlling his Alpha instincts in a while. "But I don´t think he´s my type. From what I´ve heard around campus, he´s a bit too much like Natasha."

"Fuck."

"Exactly."

Tony frowns deeper. "Now you´re making me curious. Do people talk about him a lot? How is it I´ve never heard of it?"

"They do. Quite a lot actually, the guy is a little scandal. I heard last semester he hooked up with the exchange guy from Norway. You know, the one that´s always lifting at the gym."

"Svadilfari? What´s so special about him?"

"That´s what I thought, but now people are calling him `The Horse´ and it doesn´t take much to guess."

"... Whoa."

"And then he went and got caught with Professor Angrböda." Bruce waits until Tony´s eyebrows have finished their ascent ion before he nods and continues. "And last month with another Omega, the Sigyn girl, I think."

"How does Thor deal with that?"

"I don´t think he tries anymore, I mean... The guy is just past caring and Thor seems to have accepted it."

"I want to meet this guy, he seems like my type of guy."

"If by that you mean an insufferable ass, then yeah, he probably is. But you won´t meet him anytime soon, he´ll be out of the scene for a while with that heat of his." He watches Tony´s mouth curl into a pout, and breaks into a smile. "He´s pretty good friends with Clint, though, and I´m sure I´ve seen him with Nat a lot too."

"You´re the best, Brucie." Tony grins and for a second Bruce feels a bit guilty. Then he remembers Tony has been with Steve for over a year and a half now, and he´s never been the cheating type, not once he finally settles. He probably just wants someone new to cause trouble with.

He smells Tony before he even hears his footsteps. It´s a strong scent reminiscing of metal and sweat that makes his body ache with rivalry, which his mind translates into a crazed urge to throw him against the wall; fuck him; show him his place.

He takes a deep breath and counts to ten. Truth to be told, this reflex is not natural (Hell, when faced with another Alpha during a breeding season, when their hormones are at their highest, any Alpha in their right mind would try and claw each other´s eyes off before going to look for someone to burn the bloodlust with)and while it certainly had its advantages. A lot of them, actually.

Though his lack of competitiveness had fueled the rumors that he was the luckiest Omega boy in Earth for getting to date Peggy Carter, before he buffed up and everyone had to admit their relationship was a bit peculiar, it had been causing him trouble recently.

Especially when Tony smells like this.

As it´s not anywhere close to breeding season, he jumps to the second conclusion: He ran into someone in heat.

"How are we doing?" He asks with a smile. Tony doesn´t answer; he grips a hand tight in Steve´s hair and pulls down to bring him into a kiss. And what a kiss. Bruising and demanding, and Steve finds himself yielding soon enough. Fuck his Alpha drive, he´ll top some other time. Preferably when they´re not at the back of an empty studio in the Arts building.

However, his moral restraints do nothing to stop the calloused hand that makes is way across his front and undoes the button of his jeans.

"We´re going to get caught." He whispers between kisses.

"Would you like that?"

Steve makes an attempt at rolling his eyes, but fails spectacularly when the aforementioned hand wraps around his half-hard cock and gives it a lazy pull. He gasps, and makes a move to reach for Tony´s still clothed and very noticeable erection, but the other just pulls away and quickens his jerking motions.

He bends forward (Their height difference makes for awesome positions sometimes. Some others, for horrible neck pain.) and gets to work with marking his neck.

The thrill of the public space, Tony´s scent and his practiced movements... It´s too much, and it isn´t long before Steve´s spilling all over Tony´s hand, which jercks him through his orgasm. He delivers a last, firmer bite to Tony´s neck and reaches for his crotch again.

"What about you?" He asks, half concerned and half blissfully uncaring with the afterglow. Tony grins devilishly.

And really, Steve did, at some point, have a strong moral code that prevented him from performing orals in a crammed bathroom stall, but somehow that feels like too long ago and right then, as Tony´s muffled moans drive him to hardness again he can´t bring himself to care.

"You´ve been gone for two weeks now, man, is it really that bad?" Clint asks, his back turned as he browses through the dresses and blouses in the closet, with Nat´s shower as background noise. He turns in time to see Loki´s face souring in the laptop´s screen.

"You speak as though you´ve never had one of your own." He mutters bitterly. "The green dress." He adds, as a suggestion.

Clint shakes his head. "Too fancy." And then, in response to Loki´s first commentary. "I had my first one, but I started with the suppressants the day after. Haven´t had one ever since."

"Lucky you." Loki eyes the yellow frilly blouse Clint has just placed on the bed. "What are you dressing her up for?"

"We´re going out for dinner. It´s our anniversary."

"You disgust me." Loki curls into a ball and Clint laughs. "People disgust me right now."

"You say it like it´s a one-time thing."

That prompts a smirk out of Loki. "Well, now more than ever."

"What´s so bad about it?" Clint asks, completing the outfit with black pants and high-heeled boots. Loki goes sour again.

"I want to fuck everyone."

"Again, you always do."

"I mean literally." Loki adds after a pause, and Clint is surprised to see a faint blush on his cheeks. "Last night Thor came in after gym and I had to lock myself in the bathroom." Clint winces, but Loki goes on. "I can´t even look at my dad in the eye, and then there´s the fact that whatever Alpha happens to walk under my window is guaranteed to stop ad stay there like an idiot until someone goes to send them away."

"You´re quality then, huh?" Clint arches an eyebrow. He heard about the strength of Loki´s pheromones from Bruce just a couple days ago. Behind him, the shower sound dies, and he angles the laptop away from the bathroom door. Loki shakes his head. "My real parent´s weren´t native." He mutters, short and hurried as he always does whenever his biological family comes up in a conversation.

Well, that certainly explains it, Clint thinks. Alphas and Omegas were naturally attracted to their foreign counterparts´ scents, as it made for genetic diversity. Clint experienced it firsthand with Thor and Natasha, whose scents were much more attractive to him than those of Steve, Bruce and Tony.

"It´ll wear off." He assures Loki. "And then you can go on your suppressants again and we´ll laugh about it later."

"You dare laughing about this any time in the foreseeable future and I WILL hurt..." He stops mid-sentence, and inhales shallowly a couple of times. The faint blush comes back in full force and, without another word, he jumps off the bed and disappears. Clint hears the sound of the bathroom door locking through the laptop´s speakers, and lets out another bark of laughter. He closes the computer and leaves Loki to deal with his problems alone.

When he turns, Nat is there, clad only in the boots and the black lace panties.

"We´re gonna be late." He warns, but he´s smiling as he pulls his own shirt over his head.

"We can get another reservation." Is all she says. Clint feels himself get wetter and harder, and lets her crawl on the bed over him. Life is amazing.

Thor wakes up slowly, feeling relaxed for the very first time in a while, and inhales deeply.

He notices right then something is off. Wonderfully off.

There´s no sweet, fresh or minty hue to his house´s old common scent. His muscles aren´t tense and he doesn´t feel irritated. He takes his time getting dressed and goes down for breakfast with a smile plastered on his face. Loki is already down, smiling as well and smelling of nothing but his usual products.

"Let´s all agree that this was a stupid experiment and NEVER repeat it." His brother says as he picks him up into a bone-crushing hug.

"Never again, please." He agrees, and pays no mind to the footsteps signaling their parents´ arrival to the kitchen.

"It finally wore off, huh?" Frigga asks with a smile of her own. Thor lets go of Loki so that their mother can have a go at hugging him, and their father after her.

"I´m glad you´re feeling better, son." Odin mutters. "I´m proud of you for enduring it."

Loki lets himself be squeezed, obviously happy beyond anything else, but Thor´s throat go dry.

"Dad... About the wedding..."

"I´ve told you not to worry, child." Odin pats his shoulder. "It´s scheduled for after you´ve both graduated, my lawyers are already fixing things up."

Just like that, Loki´s face falls at the other side of the table, and he figures it mirrors his own. He expects him to say something, but all he does is shrug and he frowns. Has his brother finally accepted their fate?

"What are you planning?" He asks as soon as they´re both sitting in his car. Loki doesn´t have any morning classes that day, but he´s apparently decided to leave early and get a head start in catching up with his projects.

"Excuse me?"

"You didn´t say anything when he brought the wedding up again. What are you planning?"

"Why, nothing. I´m just overjoyed to be outside. I´ll worry about that later."

Thor frowns. "Just promise me your getaway plan doesn´t involve murdering me."

Loki laughs. "Not at all, dear brother, that would be much too easy."

"I need a passport."

"I believe there are plenty of government facilities where you can acquire one." Natasha doesn´t lift her gaze from the stapled papers she´s reading. She restrains a smile when she feels Loki´s frustration rise.

"You know what I´m asking for." He grumbles.

"Are we planning a confidential honeymoon, Loki dear?"

"Oh, no. Thor´s staying. And that is also confidential."

She looks up to find him smirking, and rolls her eyes.

"That´s your plan? Escaping the country just like that? What a cliché." She whispers back. "Your father will look for you and then you will have to explain him why you think his engagement is stupid."

"It´ll buy me time, though."

"And he won´t notice the leak of the company´s funds to wherever you´re hiding. Good thinking."

"Maybe I could, you know, work? Give me some credit."

"Yes, surely you´ll make enough money as an amateur actor to stick t your current lifestyle." She counters, and Loki finally sits down.

"You might want to be more careful with what you say, dear widow, you´re starting to sound like you care." He grunts.

"Oh, I care. A bit. Sometimes." She allow herself a sharp smile. "Besides, Thor will probably be suspected on if you suddenly disappear and whoever looks for you finds out none of you were exactly thriving for your wedding."

"I´ll craft him and alibi..." Loki starts, and then shakes his head as if noticing what he just said. "It´s not like I´m falling off the face of Earth forever, Natasha." He frowns. "I just need time to think."

"Think fast, then. Before they pull out the white suit:" She smirks. "If you´re cynical enough to marry in white, I mean."

"Think of it as an ironic remark on my behalf." He sighs. "Come on, as my wedding gift."

"I thought you weren´t getting married."

"I´m going to murder you." Loki grits his teeth, glaring at her in a way that only encourages her to smirk harder. "I don´t want the company, Natasha. I wouldn´t take it if they offered it to me whole. Not if it means screwing up what I have with Thor."

"Then why don´t you tell you father?"

"I did. When he first announced it." He sighs. "He told me it was just to make sure I could get protection from his lawyers and a share of the company, you know how the law is."

Natasha nods; as blissfully pleased as she was that she wasn´t born an Omega, she still thought their circumstances were unfair and disgusting. Most of them could only aspire to own physical and legal property only by ways of inheritance or marriage, and if even a son of a family as powerful as Loki´s was not excluded from it then things were much worse than she´d thought at first.

"And what did he say about Thor?"

"Nothing. I do believe he thinks I see Thor as a good friend, but not a brother."

"And that you´ll come to like him in time."

"Exactly." He rubs a hand across his face, and she´s never seen him so defeated. "How was your anniversary dinner?"

Natasha smiles, pleasantly surprised at the question and moreso at the memory that comes with it.

"Oh, we didn´t made it in time."

That brings a smile out of Loki.

"Hey, birdie."

Clint rolls his eyes. He knows that tone.

"What is it, jerkface?"

Tony laughs. "How are things going?"

"Pretty fine." He answers, sliding along the bench to make a space for him, and then a suspicion begins to grow in him.

"Are you here to cancel movie night? Because if you are then you´re a douche for offering your place and we won´t reschedule for you again"

"That was ONE time Clint, one!" Tony counters. "And no. I actually just wanted to ask you to invite your friend over."

"What friend?"

"Thor´s brother."

"... You want me to take Loki to your house?"

"Loki... Weird name."

"You didn´t even know his name, why would you want him in your house?" Clint narrows his eyes "Is it because of the heat? Did you smell him? Look Tony, if you´re planning on cheating on my friend with my friend then I will personally..."

"Hey hey hey, cut the threats birdie." Tony cuts him hurriedly and holds his hands in front of his chest in a surrendering gesture. "Why would I ever cheat on Steve? Have you met Steve? He´s the best! I just heard about the guy and he sounds funny. He´s funny, right?"

"That depends on your definition of funny."

"Sounds like someone I want to meet, then. Anyone capable of generation more hallway gossip than me is a guaranteed get-along."

"You would get along."

"See?"

Clint rolls his eyes; this is going to end up bad, he just knows it. "Fine, I´ll invite him. Not sure he´ll go, though. Loki does what he wants."

"You´re the best, birdie." He pats his shoulder. "I´ll buy you a new bow for your birthday."

"You better."

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