A/N: So after a hell of a long time, I'm back to this. I'm so sorry about the impossible delay between the chapters. Had some shitty stuff going on in my life and didn't really feel like doing anything, writing included. You guys have been amazing! Especially as of lately, I've been getting a lot of notifications about this fic, which made me want to come back to it. Thank you!

Post U Later: You'll find out in this chapter ;)

Anon: Now that's an image, might just as well do that, haha!

CheetahBlackCat: Indeed. Both Pepper and Howard are actually favourite characters of mine, Pepper especially, she's amazing. But for the story to keep going in the right direction, I had to alter them a little.

LaPirataAna: I would have done the same too, probably. Yep. Thank you!

Kowy: I've always liked communicating with the people that appreciate my work :) It's a way to show my gratitude to you guys, thanks a lot! ;)

The Sacred Heart 2: Thanks! I'm not into Thorki, so I wouldn't know about the other one, I'm glad you're enjoying this though! ;)

Pretzel-Logic: Not a spell-checker fail, that was just me being an idiot, haha. Thanks for noting me about that though. ;D

Eligentvomit: haha, studying is overrated I see ;D Thanks a lot!

whitebengal14: Thanks a lot, dear! I'm glad you're enjoying this ;)

I'm not a native and this wasn't beta-ed. Huge sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes!

I don't own the characters. Reviews mean the world to me!

Two days passed. Still nothing. Tony got considerably calmer though, Pepper didn't call after their talk and he was starting to believe the trickster wasn't on Earth and if he was, he probably wasn't in New York. So all he had to do was aimlessly fly above the city until it got dark. He had to admit, he missed some action. His days got boring and monotonic. The only thing that he actually enjoyed doing was looking after the cat. Raziel was getting better and Tony found himself drawn to the feline. He talked to him every evening; he talked about Pepper, his father, his life as the CEO. And it calmed him, because he could tell the cat anything he wanted without being judged. Without feeling vulnerable.

He was on his way home, when he spotted Steve searching one of the alleys. Rolling his eyes, Tony turned in the air and descended down until he landed about three meters away from the Captain. Steve turned, his expression showing full alert but when he recognised his team-mate, he relaxed and streightened up.

"Evening, Tony." He started and watched as the other man's helmet exposed his face.

"Hey, Cap." Tony smiled in greeting and searched the other man's face. "Got anything?"

Steve sighed, scratching the back of his head. Tony didn't even need an answer then. "Nothing. I'm getting hopeless here. It's been three days already."

"Fury is silent too, isn't he?"

"Actually… He called me in the morning. Thor hasn't found anything yet, but he does have some ideas." Steve looked him in the eyes then and Tony was suddenly very aware that this probably has something to do with him.

"Go on, Capsicle. You're being a dramatic theatre actor." Tony smirked and took a step to the side, leaning on the wall. Steve just rolled his eyes.

"He mentioned a meeting; I would have thought you knew." Steve continued. "Fury wants us and Thor in the Stark Tower two hours from now."

Tony frowned at that. "Since when is my home the Avengers' meeting place?"

"I don't know, Tony. But I can't go against his commands."

"Yeah, I know, Cap. I wonder why he didn't call me yet." And then he frowned again, his eyebrows coming closer to each other. "Jarvis? Any missed calls?"

"Five, sir." The AI perked up inside his suit. "All from Colonel Fury."

The look he's got from Steve was something he'd frame if he could. "Oops."

"Well that explains a lot of things." Steve smiled a little awkwardly, before turning and glancing at Tony. "I'll search a bit more and meet you at the Tower then."

Tony nodded, putting his mask back on and taking off again. Admittedly, he wanted some kind of a meeting, or a call, or something. He was getting bored and instead of these useless flights around the city, he could have been sitting in his lab, making improvements on his gadgets. But nu-huh, one has to fly around like a mosquito looking for nothing.

Two hours and thirty minutes later, he arrived back to the tower. Surprisingly enough the whole gang was there, including the very bossy and very angry colonel. Fury was standing in the middle of the seating, Steve, Natasha and Clint sitting around him. There was another figure that Tony recognised immediately. Thor was leaning on the wall, a strange look of awarness flickering over his features. He looked just as tired as Tony felt.

"Evening, my lovely companions." Tony chirped jokingly, letting the machines take off his suit and walking into the hall.

"You're thirty minutes late, Stark." Fury declared, piercing him with the one eye he had left.

"Oh, am I?" Tony looked up, as innocently as he could. "Silly me, forgot to set an alarm."

There was a low snicker from one of the assassins, Tony couldn't decide which one of them it was. He moved to the bar, leaning on the counter. "So, what's up?"

"Thor has some supposedly useful information." Fury turned around, looking at the God then. "Apparently Loki is on Earth. He's in disguise though."

"It's not a disguise as you, humans see it." The blonde God spoke up then, not quite looking at anyone. "He's a powerful sorcerer, he's able to change shape, voice, color."

"Basically, he can look like anything at the moment." Clint declared, a sign of worry in his voice.

"Not quite." Thor continued. "He had to use most of his magic when he escaped. He might be powerful, but his sources are limited, he needs to refill his energy to cast bigger spells again."

"He sounds like the Duracel rabbit." Tony jumped in, earning a snort from Natasha. Fury shut him up with a single look.

"Pardon me?" Thor asked, finally looking at the billionare.

"No, nothing, go on, buddy."

"To be realistic, I'm almost certain he shapeshifted into something. But considering his current state, it has to be something small and of Midg-Earth origin. A small animal most likely."

"So now we're not only hunting a person, we're looking for animals as well." The Hawk lifted his hands in defeat. Now that was just brilliant.

"That is true, but not just any animal. On Asgard, there isn't many animals that would be same or similar to the ones you humans have. And Loki has a certain taste, as far as I know, he's shifted into dogs, horses... but those are too big for his powers now, cats and birds."

"It's still kind of impossible, isn't it." Natasha commented. "To find him, I mean."

"Not if you know what to look for, and that's why I am here. If he shifted, you'll recognise him. He'll look like any other animal, but whatever he had shifted into, the green eyes will stay and the animal will most likely be black." Thor sighed. "And of course, he won't act like a normal animal of Earth origin. Lucky for us, he doesn't know that much of your fauna."

"Still impossible." Tony had decided then. Time for some scotch.

The team sighed in unison, this wasn't going to help them much.

"Are you going to stay?" Clint asked, the question sent towards the blonde thunderer.

"For a few days, yes." Thor replied with a brief smile. "I will help you on your search."

Thirty minutes later, when the Avengers finally left, Tony sat down with a glass of water. Water. Strangely enough, his taste had changed these past few days. He turned on the tv and quickly switched through the stations, settling on a hockey match. Oh well... His eyes slided down, falling upon an empty bowl. He realised, just then, that Raziel was nowhere to be seen eversince he arrived back for the meeting.

"Zee?" He said into the air, putting the glass on a table next to the sofa and stood up. He looked around every corner in the living room, unsuccesfull. The kitchen, nothing. He moved into the bedroom, but it felt as if the feline disappeared into thing air. It was only then, that he, in the corner of his eye, spotted a black mess of fur sticking from under the pillows. Raziel was there, only a bit of his fur showing and the emerald eyes piercing his.

"Oh hey, buddy." Tony snickered. "Did the big guys scare you?" He said and sat down, pushing the pillows away. The feline had worry in it's eyes.

"Don't worry, little guy, they're gone now." The millionare lied down next to the cat, patting it's head. He had to admit, the animal had done it's work on him, it was truth what they said about cats, he was somewhat calmer, felt fresh and considerably relaxed. The shit going on with the Avengers, Pepper and Loki... he could forget that so easily when he had that little animal to talk to.

Raziel moved, closer to Tony's arm, settling above his shoulder. He still looked alert. Tony was glad the animal seemed to trust him. Or that's what he thought anyway. It wasn't like Raziel came to him himself, or that he seemed like he wanted the cuddles Tony offered. But he wasn't moving away from his touches. He didn't have that 'leave me be' look everytime Tony approached anymore. And when Tony called it a night, the feline let him sleep nudging the ebony fur.

"Don't worry about a thing, I'll protect you." Tony muttered and the look the cat gave him was something he couldn't quite describe. It looked directly at him and if the feline could, it would probably be wearing a smug grin then. Tony stared back at it, the emerald eyes burning into his skull. He lifted a hand, leaning to touch the ebony fur, but stopped dead in his tracks, right above the animal.

Emerald eyes. Ebony fur. Intelligence in the eyes.

Tony shot up, getting on his feet and stormed off to his lab. He might be wrong, no, he had to be wrong. Getting through the doors, he didn't even sit down yet, shouting at Jarvis already.

"Jarvis?"

"Yes, sir?" The AI perked up.

"Show me the camera footage from when I wasn't here." Tony said and bit his thumb nail, sitting in one of the chairs. The monitors lighted up, showing his house on different screens, every room on each. "Fastforward it by four."

Tony watched the screens, or better said, the cat. Raziel was either lying on the bed, or moving around, nothing unusual. "Fastforward by eight."

The images flew by, showing nothing out of ordinary. Raziel seemed to behave like any other cat would. Tony leaned on the table, biting his lip. "Any unusual forms of energy these days?"

"Apart from Thor's visit, then no, sir. Nothing." Jarvis replied obediently. "You seem stressed, sir."

Tony relaxed then. "It's alright, just my genius mind doing things again."

Loki felt like a genius.

He was still lying on the bed, now comfortably spread to relax his limbs. He spent the whole day in this form, being not quite used to stay in a feline skin for that long. He was so clever.

It was the day he arrived, that he realised Stark would have some kind of high-tech monitoring his house. Luckily for him, he stacked up a bit of magic to use for this cause, covering himself in a constant shield against such technology. Apparently, it worked perfectly.

The problem was Thor. The information he's given the Avengers might cause Loki trouble. The Hawk and the red haired assassin had seen him in this form, they might get suspicious, they're not complete idiots after all. He had to be patient. When the time comes, he'll disappear again and no one will find him.

Stark came back into the room, stopping in front of the bed and looking down at him. "I looked like an idiot for a bit there, didn't I?" He said somewhat awkwardly and sat down. "For a moment I really thought you were the trickster."

Of course he did, Loki thought, it would be a disgrace to him if he looked completely like any other midgardian cat. Stark sighed and flopped down on the bed, closing his eyes. "I'm not even sure what I'd do if you actually were. You know, Loki is a stupid bastard," At that the trickster almost growled. "But he probably had his reasons. I can't imagine what I'd do in his place. It's messed up, this whole case."

Loki watched Stark rub the bridge of his nose and then close his eyes. The man's chest rose up and fell in a deep sigh. The trickster had to wonder then. What would Stark do if he found out? Would he report to the Avengers immediately or try to reason with him? Loki shifted to get a better view on the man's face. What would happen if he'd shown himself on purpose? Oh wait.

Loki sat back again and turned around, facing the other direction. What the hell was wrong with him? Such thoughts shouldn't even cross his mind, let alone the showing himself part. He closed his eyes and lied down. Just a few more days and he'll be ready to leave. Just a few more days.

He opened his eyes again.

Still.

What if?