Breathe, Baby, Breathe...

Chapter One

When Loki Laufeyson met Tony Stark, the son of his father's business partner, he thought all his prayers had been answered.
Tony Stark corresponded to all his secret desires and more. He couldn't believe his eyes.

Loki was the youngest (and most frail) son of a wealthy banker from the west coast. Loki was born and bred elite but he barely fitted in. He had two older brothers that didn't have a tenth of Loki's intellectual capacities but had tremendous skills where American football was concerned.
For the people of their world, sometimes that was all that mattered and so they were the darlings of their parents.

Loki was just the nerd. Not that he couldn't be helpful and that his brilliance was not repeatedly appraised by his peers, he only came second. Or at least, that was how he felt.
Worse, he had a terrible asthma that sometimes made him feel like he was going to die. It had been hell as a child but now, as a teenager, it had calmed down. Yet, it was still a painful hindrance for any kind of physical activity.

He had more or less accepted it. Actually, whether he accepted it or not was secondary. There was nothing he could do right now to change it. He hoped to be quickly independent and to start his own business in top engineering, to build an empire all of his own, fit to rival his father's.
But it would be long before he could do that.

In the meantime, he saw his brothers indulging themselves in competitions, victories followed by orgies with their team which were not alcohol-free most of the time and where female company was abundant.
It was quite normal for Loki to glimpse the chaos in both his brothers' room as well as the stench and to help a lost girl with big boobs, blond hair, a bad hangover and not much maturity to find her way to a cab and go home.
He envied those girls and their easiness, he envied his brothers' popularity only because it allowed them to meet those kind of girls. He knew deep inside that it wouldn't last and that, one day, his brothers would become fat and bitter, being dutifully married to the correct person, having bred the expected two children and doing a proper job at Daddy's bank.

Like so many, they would wake up one morning, wondering where did their youth go. Maybe Loki would do the same but not without a fight.

Yet one day, when Loki was finishing high school, one of the less brilliant-minded of his brothers' crowd brought a dvd of gay porn, just to have a laugh. Loki was absolutely disgusted by the vulgar cheering and crude comments the posse made out loud, taking advantage of Loki's parents' absence.
It was outrageous. He wanted to tell them that if they were interested by this kind of movie, they should seriously question their sexuality. Yet, he was outnumbered and would have ended locked out, naked and cold in the swimming pool for all the neighbors to see.
Their idea of a good joke...

And something happened. Something that would change Loki forever.

In fact, his brothers and their dumb friends were having forced and hysterical laughs only because deep down, they were embarrassed. There wasn't much of a plot, like all porn movies, just a story about young cowboys, on their own, in the country.
But each time a sexy scene started and the older cowboy was seducing the younger one, Loki had a jolt that went from his heart, through his stomach to settle on his groin. The older cowboy was a sort of hunk with very dark hair that could be seen on his arms and chest.

Seeing him, Loki wished he was in the younger cowboy's place.

From this moment on, Loki realized he was aware of male bodies. Especially buff ones with black hair.
One of his brothers' friends was a handsome and dark-haired linebacker with a foul mouth. Loki knew he was better seen than heard, having no more common sense than an oyster.
But Loki couldn't help trying to imagine him naked and to touch him.
One of his brothers made him a remark that staring at the handsome (but moronic) linebacker like that was suspicious and rude and Loki endeavored to be more cautious.