Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Prologue

He was panting softly as he carded his calloused fingers through his hair and pulled a bit. He needed that small jolt of pain to bring him back from whatever was going on.

He had been working straight on his current project with the Ironman suit for three says straight and he was hungry, tired, and just in general exhausted. He bit his bottom lip when he heard his stomach basically screaming in pain from lack of nourishment and a higher intake of alcohol on an empty stomach than should be legal or healthy. He crunched over and groaned a bit. Yeah, he was Tony Stark, but it didn’t mean he didn’t need food in his stomach.

“Jarvis! Order me a double cheese pepperoni pizza… actually add bacon and sausage and any other meat they can to it. Fuck, I’m hungry.”

“The usually place, sir?” his AI chimed back, his classic English accent almost mocking his creator from knowing that he hadn’t eaten in a good few days.

“Yes, I want my pizza’s greasy, burning hot, and at my doorstep in less than 30 minutes,” he barked back, a little grumpy from the pain hunger was driving at his stomach.

“Alright, sir. It’ll be here in 20 minutes.”

“Perfect, Jarv.”

He uncurled himself and sat on the floor, letting himself flop back onto the cement flooring. His stomach still hurt but it was his own fucking fault. So he might as well sit around and wait for his pizza now, right?

“Sir. I suggest you clean yourself up before you head upstairs to see Ms. Potts when you get the pizza,” his AI chimed in again. He enjoyed making obvious, valid points that Tony really didn’t care about most days. But today, he supposed he would humor his own intelligence imputed into his AI.

“Fine, fine. Sounds good. Start the water in the shower down here, Jarv. I’ll be up in a second. Just need to, find my bearings and all that jazz.” He sat himself up with a bit of effort.

“Sir, the water is turned on and at your preferred temperature.”

“The high one I use when I haven’t showered for…”

“Five days, sir.”

“Yeah, that one. Sounds good to me.” He stood himself up with the help of his workbench then table and walked over to the bathroom attached to his workshop. He shed his garments piece by piece as he walked, leaving his work goggles on his desk. When he closed the bathroom door behind himself he dropped his boxers onto the floor from his hips.

The bathroom was already started to steam up from the water pouring from the showerhead to the main basin for it all. Fuck, I needed this, was all he could think as he slipped under the water, the heat and pressure relieving some of the stress and tension of his muscles from his constant working. The water at the bottom was already a murky grey brown colour from the grease and oil that Tony had managed to coat himself with.

As he let the water wash the base coat of the grime off, he grabbed his bottle of shampoo and squeezed a ton into a hand to start scrubbing at his head with. The dirt all came out of his hair as he did, trails of white mixed with brown of the dirtied bubbles going down his back and inching over muscles slowly. Smaller trails went across the engineers face, narrowly missing his blue eyes before he dunked his head under the stream of water and scrubbed more to get all the soap out now.

He grabbed the bar of soap next and just began scrubbing at himself all over with it, the dirty and grease on the bottom of the basin growing in amount but soon faded as he got it all off himself and just stood there in the warmth of the water.

“Jarv, raise the temperature of the water by 3 degrees.” He needed to be heated to the core for a bit and bring him back to a more human condition before the world knew he was out of his work shop and able to go and kick ass again.

“Yes, sir.” The affirmative reply from his AI and then the water heated up just a touch more.

“Yes, just what I needed.” He let himself slink back against the wall of the shower and just allowed the water to hit him before he slid down to the bottom of the basin and closed his eyes. “Jarv, tell me when the pizza gets here. Inform Pepper that the pizza is coming and I’ll pay for it through my usual bill.”

“Affirmative, sir. Done and done.”

“Thank you Jarvis. Now make sure I don’t drown if I fall asleep in here. Turn the water off, yell at me, set off the alarms, whatever you have to do.”

“Would the whistle tuned that only you can hear it be proper, sir?”

“The high pitched dog whistle I messed? Sure, why not. It wakes me up every time, so, seems legit.”

“All right then, sir.”

His AI went quiet and Tony sat there in the water in silence for a while. It was times like these that he enjoyed. He could sit and just let ideas form in his head, clear out the harder to solve ones for better clearance, or just think things over.

Like today.

He sat up abruptly and shouted at Jarvis to turn the water off as he hopped out of the shower at close to lightning speed [there was no way he would beat Thor in lightning speed or anything]. He grabbed a towel and quickly started to towel dry himself off, stuffed a pair of boxers he kept down here for days like these [though they were his last pair down there, so he told Jarvis to remind him to bring down another couple pairs for later] and went running out of the bathroom.

He had grabbed an elastic from the counter before he jumped into the elevator and tied back the top layer of his hair while strands still fell into his face. He needed a haircut and he knew it was his own fault. But really, he had no time for petty things like haircuts when he was in science mode and not in his flashy billionaire mode to the public.

When the elevator chimed on Pepper’s level though [she was in the common room, Jarvis had informed him], he went running out and over to her, grabbing her shoulders from behind and putting his lips to her ear.

“Pepper, I just had the most brilliant beyond brilliant idea.”

Chapter Text

He sat himself down across the couch, which in truth was more so flopping his entire body down on the couch, but this is Tony Stark and he doesn’t care about those details. Pepper looked down at him and had an eyebrow cocked up, wondering what in the world Tony had decided was his brilliant idea.

“So, what’s this idea of yours you have, Tony?” she asked, her interest slightly peaked. She had too many times dealt with Tony’s brilliant ideas to learn that generally they weren’t the greatest idea in the end.

“No no no Pepper, this has got to be one of my greatest ideas ever, and in truth, I don’t have to lift a finger, but I want you to pick who will lift their finger for this.”

Pepper gave him a look that would confuse the most regular person, but Tony understood this look quite well. “Pepper, I want to write an autobiography. Obviously my life is much too busy and hectic to do this though-“

“More so you drink and party and don’t let yourself have the time to do so-“

“-Hey, I haven’t been doing that nearly as much as before so quiet down-“

“-Now its just you spending all your time inventing things for SHEILD.”

“And myself. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he huffed before he waved his hands at her to quiet down and let him finish. She leaned back in the chair she sat in and beckoned him on, to finish his idea. “Now, I wanted you to pick who would write this autobiography for me. I am positive you could pick a much better writer than I could for this, and because I am sure you can pick someone who can write my life out like its suppose to be written out, you know?” He waved his hands over his head like this was the finale of his grand idea.

“So you want me to find someone to write about you, pay him for you, and just let him work?” she asked, her voice was a bit questioning, but when Tony nodded back to her she sighed softly and pushed her hair behind her ears in habit. “Seems simple enough, I can do some research on those out there and can send you a list of names to choose fr-“

“Nope. You pick who you want Pepper. You know me best so you can pick who can write me best. I trust you, Pepp. You can do this.” He sat himself up with a bit of a swing and her eyes wandered to him. “What?”

“You need a hair cut. Desperately, Tony.”

“Hair cuts are for the high publicity days. I won’t be needed out there for a while, I’m busy working on something anyways, so it can be saved for later.”

“If you say so.” Pepper stood up from her chair and grabbed her bundle of papers and files from the coffee table and smiled. “Well, I’ll inform you before I send who I pick to meet you Tony, so I’ll be in contact. Just remember to eat something and sleep tonight, alright?”

“Can do, Pepp.” He saluted to her before getting up and heading towards the kitchen right away. “Hey JARV, where’s my pizza?”

A couple days passed before he heard any word from Pepper, and it wasn’t even anything about the writer for the autobiography. His spirits were a little down seeing as he thought she would figure someone out right away, but he just brushed it off and continued with his work anyways. She had to be spending a lot of time thinking of the perfect writer for him.

And that’s when he heard a doorbell ring.

“JARV, did I have any planned visitors today?” He rolled himself out from under the car he was working on and grabbed a towel, wiping his face and neck off of sweat and grease.

“No one that I was informed of, sir. Perhaps it is someone from SHEILD requesting assistance?”

“Naw, they enjoy more so just calling me and yelling at me. Fury mainly really. Oh well, tell them I’ll be there in a minute, I just need to clean up. Let them into the living room I suppose, I’ll be there soon.” He stood up and grabbed a towel that he had sitting clean on his workbench, and waited for JARVIS’ affirmative response.

“He says that he wished to remain at the door until you welcome him in specifically.” JARVIS relayed, and Tony just looked a touch perplexed.

“Really? He’s going to stand outside and wait for me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, tell him he’ll be a couple minutes out there, I’m not the most presentable at this moment. Might as well ask him to tell me his name before I greet him at the door.” He was walking over to the sink to wash his face before he headed upstairs. The cool water felt pretty amazing on his overheated skin, so he took in a breath after he basically drowned himself. Or tried to.

“He refuses to give it to me, only to you in person.”

This guy at the door had to be a lunatic.

“I’m coming I’m coming. Patch me through to the voice box at the door.”

“Patched through, sir.”

“Good afternoon, may I ask your name or are we not personal enough for that just yet?” he asked, stepping into the elevator, a towel around his shoulders as he dried his face off.

“I would prefer to supply you with it and my purpose here in person. When you greet me at the door that is.” The voice was obviously a mans, it was soft and elegant, yet with a bite to it that showed he was upset that Tony had not answered his own door personally and sooner.

“Well I’m on the elevator up, I’ll be there in a minute or two.” The doors opened to the main floor and he walked out, his pace a bit relaxed as he meandered over to the front door. “Cut the link to the voice box.” He opened the door after JARVIS’ response and blinked.

In front of him stood close to, or over, six foot of lean muscle, slim form and pale complexion. Sleeked black hair was pulled back and slightly framed his face as emerald eyes looked down at him, a smirk just hinted on the mans lips. “Pleasure to meet you Mr. Stark. My name is Loki Laufeyson, Ms. Potts has recently hired me to write your autobiography, so I thought I would visit to know the man in person.”

Tony stood there, a bit in shock. Pepper had hired someone, good. But the guy looked almost like a complete snob with his British accent and the way that he carried himself, placing himself almost over Tony in position. And Pepper hadn’t told him she had hired someone and that he was going to visit him randomly.

He hated the guy already.

“Nice to meet you too, Loki. Obviously you know who I am already, so come in, sit down, want a coffee? Tea?” He shifted out of the doorway as Loki welcomed himself in and he walked into the kitchen to grab something to drink.

“Tea, if you insist.” He walked over to the couch and sat himself down on one side of it, narrow eyes watching Tony as he pulled out a couple boxes of tea, a jar as well and a tea ball [don’t ask why he has these, it’s a Bruce and Pepper thing he didn’t understand].

“We have Earl Grey, Green, Mint, a couple fruity ones, and a special mix that tastes like grass from Pepper in the jar.” He waved it around a bit before he caught Loki watching him and stopped. He put the jar down before he let it affect him. “So, pick your poison.” He moved over to the coffee maker and turned it on, knowing it all was set up for him and just let the pot of coffee start to brew as he awaited the response from Loki.

“At the moment I’m feeling daring and I’ll try this, ‘grass’ tea your secretary seems to have made.” He waved his hand in its direction, and Tony pulled out a cup before putting away the boxes. He watched with attentive eyes as Tony poured some of the jar contents into the tea ball and dropped it into the cup. The kettle was still hot from when Bruce had come through that morning it seemed so he ticked it on hoping it wouldn’t take long to actually heat up fully again.

“Anything to eat? We might not have everything on the planet in the fridge, but I think Bruce left me some chocolate mint cupcakes as snacks before he left this morning- Oh! He did!” He pulled a platter out of the fridge he had stuck his head into and placed it on the counter, the dark brown treats were topped with a bright green frosting with a leaf of mint on the tops of each of them. “Bruce bakes delicious cupcakes. I’d suggest you try one.”

Loki cocked a brow up towards him with a gentle chuckle. “Bruce? Dr. Bruce Banner I am assuming?”

“Yeah, who else? He basically lives with me now, took a bit of begging to get him to stay though, but these treats are the best things. They happen once a week and last about two days. So get them while you can.” He peeled the wrapper off of one before he took a bite out of one himself, the sounds he made being slightly close to obscene after. He looked over to the kettle and his coffee, both which were done. “Strong, average, or just scare the flavor out of your tea?” He was pouring himself a cup of coffee as he asked this.

“Nothing too strong, so I suppose just bring it over to me and I’ll judge it myself,” Loki smiles softly, almost forced on his lips as Tony brought over the cup and the kettle, placing them on the table in front of him with a spoon before he went back and grabbed his cupcake and his own cup, sitting on a chair across from Loki so that they could face each other and talk.

“So, what do you want to know? You’ll be spending a lot of time with me so you’ll be learning more about me than most people do, obviously.” He winked from across the table with a smirk before he took a gulp of his coffee.

“I suppose I am here to just get my first…feeling about you, Mr. Stark-“

“Tony. Please call me Tony. Mr. Stark was my dad and I’d rather not delve into him just yet.”

“…Tony… but as I was saying, I’m here to get my first feeling of you, which is why I requested that Ms. Potts not inform you of my arrival here today so that I could see you at your most…natural state.” His eyes wandered up and down Tony across from him, his hand motioning to it as well.

“So…you just wanted to see me at my worst or something? I was working on one of my cars so I was sweaty and greasy and I thought you wouldn’t want to see me at my absolute worst.” He licked his fingers, having finished the cupcake, now moving towards his cup of coffee again to wash it down.

“Yes, precisely in a way.” He took a casual sip of his tea, the tea ball now sitting on the spoon he was brought. “An autobiography is filled with both the high and low moments of ones life, so I don’t plan on mincing any sort of words, even at your request.” He watched for Tony’s reaction from over his cup.

“Well, lets just see if you can portray things the way they’re meant to be.” Tony smirked after he took another gulp of his coffee.

“Challenge accepted.”

Chapter Text

There was going to be a lot of time that Tony was bound to spend with Loki, and he was loathing that he had to start right away.

Except he didn't.

For three weeks after that meeting, Loki never contacted Tony at all. He was decently fine with it; the writer and himself seemed to start off on the wrong foot [or feet in their case], so he wasn't itching to get into the groove of writing and telling his life to Loki. He mostly spent those three weeks trying to sort his own mind out about his life. His father, his mother, his early boarding school then college and university, taking up Stark Industries, then the inevitable moments of Ironman, the Avengers, and then where he currently pleasantly was.

He rolled over on his bed, a hand pressed lightly to the glowing circle on his chest. The Arc Reactor. It was a defining point of his life, but something he, in a way, wished to keep more to himself. The reasons why he had to have it, the story behind it, they were part of him, and as much as he wanted this autobiography, he wanted to keep this final part to himself. Yes, most people enjoyed the thrills of reading a capture, then an escape; but to Tony, his almost felt dream-like because of his current situation. But it was him, and he would put off. He'd find a way to loop around and avoid, if he could, talking about this with Loki. Strangers didn't need to be in his inner thoughts and history. He'd find a way to avoid it.

He rolled himself out of bed this time, the strands of hair in his face just blown out, the motion was as carefree as Tony got. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror near his bedroom door before he shifted to standing, an arm stretched over his head, then the other. He would have to shave that morning. If there was anything he wanted to keep in general good condition it was his face- Or well, the hair on it. He rubbed his cheeks a bit before he strode over to his bathroom, pulling the electric razor off its charging dock and flicking it on. It wasn't too much of an upkeep, so he didn't bother with the whole fanfare of shaving cream and all, quickly cleaning up edges and lines of his usual design.

The shower was tempting, but he had things he had to work on that morning, a meeting he had to attend with Pepper, and maybe that damned Loki would show his face to Tony again to start writing the autobiography he was being paid to write. Maybe he would.

Walking back towards his bedside table, he grabbed his phone and clicked it on, scanning his texts and messages from people over night and...well, earlier that day it looked like. Pepper was harping on him to get a haircut before he appeared in public, but he had no time, he tutted. He had no time for such things when he was so close to finishing his current project. He would get his haircut and make himself presentable when he was finished and went public with the whole thing. This one was a breakthrough, and he knew it. Everyone would need one when he was done and he'd be even richer than before. Not that he needed to be, but it was a bonus of his genius.

He kept tapping through them all as he walked to the elevator, muttered a quick “Kitchen, Jarvis,” before the door closed behind him and he shifted down levels. He leaned against the back wall before the door opened again, a quicker ride than usual, and he walked off. He bee-lined for the fridge and pried it open before tossing his phone onto the counter and pulling out some cold pizza he had left over from the night before. It was a breakfast of kings and no one could convince him otherwise. Not Pepper, not even the stranger sitting on his cou- Wait, what?

He froze on the spot for a second before he took a second take towards the couch. There sat one of the most lean and sexual looking beings he had ever laid eyes on. Did he drink himself to almost death and have a fling last night? No, he'd have the hangover still, and anyways, he remembered the night before because there was pizza, Bruce and science. Lots of science. So whoever this was was not invited into his house.

Then he remembered who it was.

“May I ask how you made it up to my penthouse, Loki?” he grumbled, taking a bite of the cheesiest meatiest pizza on the planet. God did he love this pizza for breakfast.

“Ms. Potts let me up as she seen no point in making me wait any much longer outside. The meeting she had arranged for you today was with me, she thought it would be best if you arrived looking presentable, not quite like...this,” he smirked, motioning towards what Tony was still wearing.

Tony looked down at himself. He was wearing pants, what was so awkward about this whole meeting? Pants were something that Pepper constantly reminded him to wear, or else he'd walk right out of his house in nothing but his boxer shorts. Loki rolled his eyes at Tony before he had a moment to retort, but he took the chance to after, a quickly muttered, “It’s my house and I wasn’t expecting any guests, got a problem with that?”

He stuffed the pizza in his mouth again before he meandered over to the couch and sat down as well, turning himself towards Loki. This bastard sure had a thing for trying, and so far succeeding, in catching Tony in his least representable moments. Next thing he knew Loki would be watching him while he showered, had sex, or slept. Whichever Loki felt as the next least representable to his own or Tony’s standards. He personally believed it would be sleeping, because God knew that he had no decorum while he was unconscious and dreaming…or having nightmares as recently was happening. Shower would be second, and sex was his close third though. He liked to regard himself as very skilled in love making so of course he was still very presentable, well, depending on the party watching.

Blue eyes dropped to look directly into green ones that were avidly watching for his next move. Which just happened to be taking another bite of pizza as unimpressed as he could make eating pizza look; which wasn’t that much, so he just looked more like he was angrily, or annoying eating pizza at most. He internally shrugged off his fail and flopped back into the back of the couch before he grabbed an elastic band off the table and sat right back up silently as the pizza hung out of his mouth, pulling his hair back into his half-pony that he seemed to routinely use for his hair. “So, what do you want to know today after three weeks of not contacting me or anything?”

A gentle smirk graced the taller mans’ lips as he pulled a laptop from his bag beside him, flipped it open, and took a deep breath in. “I was simply pulling together the main events that have been recorded over your life to see what the media and population seen as inspiring or interesting. I then went ahead and did further research on them all to see what others, your parents at the time, and yourself stated about them.” He glanced up at Tony like he knew this was a simple thing that he did as a writer, but Tony only cocked his brow up to motion for him to continue. He did, “So, according to the population and media, the main events that they would be expected to buy for more information in your life would be your childhood as a genius seeing as many people kept asking if your early education was what spurred your decisions on; when you took up the head of Stark Industries as you made quite a change and improvement on the business; your time in captivity right before the unveiling as Ironman; and lastly would be your recent life as an Avenger and the life and tales of such battles.”

Tony almost wanted to just take his head off and throw it at a wall. Of course, it was everything he didn’t want to talk about besides his genius as a child. He brought a hand up to his temple and rubbed it briefly before he shrugged and nodded. “Everything I didn’t want to talk about, huh?”

“Clearly, as you always left everything decently brief in any and all interviews about them each.” Loki shifted himself softly on the couch before he closed his laptop and returned it to his side bag on the ground. “Hiding your true feelings about these all is doing nothing but spur the press onwards towards knowing the real situation. There’s constantly small talk amongst the public about what could have truly transpired.” Tony chuckled, alliteration. Loki as a writer seemed to do it without even thinking. “And besides,” he started up again, oblivious to Tony’s chuckling, “I know that there’s more to you than meets the eye of the public.” His voice dropped deep, his tone reflecting his serious nature of it all. Tony blinked and swallowed what little saliva there was in his mouth at the moment, not frightened, just surprised at how well Loki could read him and see right through him.

“Well,” he responded back, pushing already falling strands of hair out of his face, “I guess I can’t hide jack all from you now, can I?” he slightly grumbled it, annoyed that he wouldn’t be too protected from the press after it all was released.

“If it helps to ease your worries, Stark, this will all be written quite grudgingly from your own point of view.”

“Well, that’s comforting.” But definitely not.

“What? You wouldn’t write it like that?” Loki questioned, green eyes dropping to Tony’s lips just briefly before back to his eyes. “How would you have written it then?” In truth, Loki knew exactly how, he just wanted to be sure of how he would write this all. He was a ghost writer for a reason, to make it seem like Tony Stark himself had written it all and he didn’t do a damn thing.

“Like hell I’d write the shit I don’t like with a grudge. I’d scribble it all out as fast as I could and leave it at that. There’s too much… emotion and shit tied to them all and I don’t want to touch on them. I’d only be going into details because I would have had to for the damn book. If you were locked up in a cave with a battery strapped to your chests for a few months, would you want to keep remembering about it when you wrote? I the hell don’t want to,” he growled softly, letting his eyes meet Loki’s for the moment before drifting off.

Well, Loki did have to admit that he was right at least. No normal person would want to write about what would have happened. All he knew from the articles was brief glimpses and simple statements: forced to make weapons after kidnapped; Obadiah’s fault for basically all of it; and the start of Ironman because of the shrapnel in his veins ready to head to his heart and tear it apart on him. Loki smiled softly though, trying to reassure Tony a bit, it was all part of the job at hand. “You’ll be fine. In a way, telling someone might help you get it off your chest and no longer let it haunt you,” he reassured, his voice gentle and calming, a truthful feeling running through it. He hated to see his odd clients who did have a mortifying aspect to their life break down in front of him, and part of him really didn’t want to see Stark break down as he spoke about it all for the records. “I won’t let it haunt you…” he whispered, his voice barely the remnants of an echo, but Tony perked his head up, having heard something.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing…”