The Avengers: To Love and be Loved By Me

Shawarma

It had been many a week since Tony appeared in Loki's glass cell and held him, soothed his tears and brought to light the error of what Loki was trying to accomplish. Loki cleaned up his mess, with Tony's help of course, and not much harm came to Midgard after that, at least not by Loki's hand.

Tony fought so hard, indeed, to make sure Loki was unpunished for his acts. He had dropped his plans after all and showed such remorse, at least to Tony. Yet that was the problem, Tony was the only person Loki dare express any emotion besides apathy to, and Stark's word alone was not enough to convince any but Thor that Loki was sorry. After all, before the incident in the cell eighty innocent lives had been taken. But Tony was not going to give up on Loki, not when they'd made such a break through with each other...and honestly, it wasn't only for Loki's sake.

Tony didn't want to go back to bottling everything inside of him, always being a walking time bomb. He had cherished the feeling it gave him to open up to Loki, and he wasn't sure he was willing to lose that, eighty people dead or not. Besides, it wasn't just a matter of understanding each other. When they were in that prison Loki's lips had melted into his and poured every ounce of trust he had left straight into Tony's heart. That kiss was more than just your every day peck on the lips, that kiss was a promise. A promise that from that point on Loki would let Tony help him, let him love him, and that's exactly what he intended to do.

Loki was still being kept in that damned cell until SHIELD could figure out what to do with him. Thor wanted to take Loki back home, to carry out his sentence in the most merciful way possible, he believed, but Tony pleaded with him to drop that case. Merciful as the Asgardians might be Tony was not allowing this magnificent god of his to travel a realm away. There had to be something else...but what? Asgard wasn't going to work out and SHIELD was going to treat him like a prisoner of war, and Stark couldn't even allow himself to think of the pain they'd inflict. No. There was only one way this was going to go down, and Tony had to see Fury about it ASAP.

Tony's idea was that because Loki had dropped all attempts at taking over Midgard so willingly, that his punishment should at least be less severe than it would have been otherwise. How about, he would offer, Loki moved into the tower with him and spent his punishment helping him in the lab, building all sorts of things for Stark Industries, what better way to help out and protect the realm he once attacked? Stark Industries was such an asset to SHIELD, since they built all of their helicarriers, and supplied the US military with more weapons than they knew what to do with. There was no doubt in his mind that Loki could do it too, he knew he must be just as smart has he was.

It took a long argument and a couple of whiskey glasses thrown at his head, but Fury finally relented and allowed Stark his request, under the condition that Thor make sure the bifrost was not to be opened to Loki unless Thor himself was present, and that any escape attempt by Loki or an attempt on human life would result in Loki's deportation to Asgard and Tony's own punishment, likely jail time or probation. Tony had knots in his stomach when he went to retrieve Loki from his cell, hoping the god wasn't angry that it had taken so long. The moment they locked eyes he knew he wasn't upset, the dark jade eyes filled with surprise and longing. Tony smirked.

"How's it going, reindeer games? Sorry it took so long, but Fury's such a stick in the mud. Long story short though, you get to come home with me." Loki only looked perplexed further, opening his mouth to say something, but there were restraints.

"Could somebody please get that off of him?!" Tony barked, angrily glaring at Fury as he walked in.

"And uncuff him, lord, I don't even know why this was necessary." Fury rolled his eyes and looked almost suspiciously at Stark.

"I'm keeping him bound and gagged until I tell him the terms and conditions of this new arrangement, Stark. Only when he agrees is he a free man." It took about half an hour for Fury to babble on about the rules Loki had to abide by and Tony was about to snap again when he finally heard the magic words, 'what do you say?'. Loki looked to Tony with wide eyes, his way of asking if this was really okay, and Tony gave a subtle nod. Loki then gave a nod to Fury and was released of all his restraints. Tony didn't wait around for Fury to change his mind, grabbing Loki by the arm quickly.