An Earthly Scandal

His Real Colors

Tony and Loki walked hand and hand to the Lab. They walked in a comfortable silence. "Anthony, I must apologize to you." Loki said his voice trembling.

"About what Lokes?" Tony asked, he opened the door to the Lab letting go of Loki's hand.

"I can look like my Frost Giant self without the Casket, and I told you I could not do so."

"You don't need to say sorry about that Loki, honestly, its not a big deal. But," He gave childish grin, "Do you want to show me?" He sat down in his chair and threw his feet onto the desk.

"If you have anything that is highly cold to the touch I could try to show you." Loki said sitting on the desktop after putting his things down. Tony stood up and began to shuffle through different cabinets and drawers, occasionally coming over to Loki with something for him to touch that wouldn't work.

"I have no idea what kind of thing could set this off." Tony said to him.

"Couldn't you make a replica of the Casket I could touch? Would that work or no?" Tony just stared at him.

"Pretty and smart." He mumbled running to his computer. Loki informed him of what it looked like. Quickly he began to type and fumble on the keyboard. Very soon a blue glow surrounded them, it was ethereal looking and Loki saw a blue box that glew on the inside in front of his face. He looked at it hungrily and he knew it.

"Try it Loki." Tony said to him, watching him snap out of the trance he was in. Loki's hands clasped the Casket, he watched his hands hoping the skin tint of a Frost Giant would pass over his own body.

Nothing happened.

Tony made the blue around them fade, Loki's eyes had bubbled with tears when the Casket fell away and the skin had not changed color as he had hoped it would. He frowned miserably when the last trace of the Casket faded from his eyes and he was sitting there staring at his hands in the position they had been to hold it. He choked on a sob and clutched his shaking hands to his arms. He fell to his knees and touched his nose to the ground, wailing all the while.

Tony watched in shock for a minute before going to Loki and rubbing his back and arms. Caressing him as best he could to make him feel better. It was mostly unsuccessful, but Loki's sobs became quieter. Tony looked down at the ground, he lifted Loki's head and stared at a small puddle of tears.

"Loki, its alright. What's the matter? Tell me, it's OK, you can tell me what's wrong." Tony said, holding Loki's head to his chest where he cried silently into his shirt.

"My powers are mostly gone! I can't even look the way I'm supposed to!!" Loki screamed, a new wave of tears and sobs racked his body. Tony lifted Loki's chin.

"Hold on a minute, come here." He lifted up Loki and sat him down in the chair. Loki sniffed.

Tony pressed a button and the keyboard moved near him as did the monitor. Furiously he typed things, soon, a full size vision of Loki was standing before them.

"Tell me what it looks like when you become a Frost Giant." Tony said, Loki told him every detail. How the eyes would become fully crimson, lines would build upon the skin, and how blue would fully cover the body. Tony and Loki stood back and admired it.

"I've never seen myself as a Jotun." Loki mumbled, he walked to it and circled around it. Eyes moving up and down. Occasional choked laughs escaped him.

"Jotun?"

"Frost Giant." Tony nodded. "This is what I'm supposed to look like. Had Odin not taken me from my home I would look like this everyday, even now I would present myself in this fashion if even I came here." Loki went up to Tony and embraced him.

"You look perfect either way," Tony said returning it, "And either way I love you."

"I love you too, Anthony." Loki took in one big breath of air and though he was tensed up he slackened a bit. "I owe too much to you, I don't deserve you." 

"You think I deserve you either? I've done so much shit in my life that has probably reserved me a place in Hell but I still life like I'm never going to die. Not to long ago though, I actually thought I was gonna die. I swear thing in my head was if Pepper and my team were going to be alright if something happened and I died. So many nights I've woken up.

"I've woken up in the middle of the night so many times and I've been sweating fucking buckets because of nightmares about that portal closing. I thought I was dead! I saw my pitiful excuse of a life flash before my eyes and I closed my eyes and was ready to let it happen. Bruce woke me up." Loki listened to Tony carefully and quietly. 

"I haven't lived this softly in so long, normally after something like that I would hide in here for weeks ,maybe even longer, at a time and work on something else until finally someone would lure me out of here. You've kept me sane this past while, I don't know what I'd do without you." 

"Well, Anthony, we both know one day soon Thor will come back for me." Loki said, tears threatened him again. 

"Yes, you're right Loki. That day is today actually." Said Steve, who swaggered into the Lab with Thor behind him. Loki clutched Tony tight in his arms. 

"Loki, Father-" 

"He's not my father Thor!" Loki hissed, he seemed to get stronger as Thor spoke. His grip on Tony tightened to where it began to hurt. 

"Is returning your power to you as we speak. Mother wants you back too, my friends I thank you for watching him for me in my time of absence." He looked at Steve, not Tony. Loki leaned to Tony.

"I'll return to you I promise." He whispered and a green magic swirled hungrily at his skin. His jeans, sneakers, and his red shirt all transformed into the leather and metal and black, gold, silver, and green he favored so much as he stood up. "How dare you Thor. HOW DARE YOU!" His voice was sinister, not the way it had been for the time they had been together. Tony cowered away for only a second before he realized it was not the same Loki he had slept with and poured his heart into, but the cold, terrible Loki that had for such a long time hated Thor.

"Come Loki, it's time for us to return to Asgard." Steve pulled his phone from his pocket and he fumbled with it for a few minutes before placing it back into this pocket and he looked angrily at Tony.

"The other's are coming down. Bruce and Doctor Selvig have the Tesseract ready to send them off. Come on Tony, its time."