Hello, everyone! As promised, a new chapter within a weeks time. With luck this will be the new schedule that I am keeping, a chapter per week. Wish me luck!

Not mine, never mine, usual disclaimers

"Spin your tale, Silvertongue," Tony requested teasingly and was rewarded with the sky smirk and subtle tip of Loki's head as he complied.

o~*+*~o

"From the beginning then? I suppose, in a rather ironic way, everything began in the void. For something that is comprised of pure nothingness it is likely the catalyst for all events that followed.

"The last time Thor and I fought before I found myself on Midgard, Earth, was on the Rainbow Bridge or Bifrost, a bridge that leads to an observatory of the realms and acts as a pathway for those who can walk between realms. I am one such person. However, during the fight Thor broke the Rainbow Bridge, leaving it useless, and Thor and I were thrown over the edge, Thor catching edge with one hand and grabbing onto me with the other.

"Thought mighty, Thor was slipping under our combined weight but as we fell Odin, Thor's father and the god who raised me, stretched out his scepter for Thor to snag, which he did, and dragged the both of us back up to the Bifrost. Thor quickly dragged himself up into safety while I hung onto the scepter to ask Odin a question.

"While I do understand that course of action likely was not the smartest it was the best way of getting the answers I needed. After all, I had just figured out that I had been adopted, I already told you about my opinion on that so I will not revisit it, and I needed to know why the Allfather would go against all he taught Thor and I as children. I asked why, why he was doing everything he was, why he had stopped me when it had been exactly what he had spoken about when I was a child.

"All he said was no. He said that he never wanted it this way. He called me his son." Loki growled out his last remark, his thin lips twisted in a small snarl while his eyes were unfocused. Tony made sure to keep his expression as calm as possible while he tried not to make any sudden movements. It was obvious to Tony that Loki's daddy issues might actually be bad enough to rival his. They should start a club.

"So I let go," Loki continued with a diminished demeanor, his voice a loud whisper that floated softly across the couch. Tony was tempted to lean closer towards the inviting voice and intriguing tale.

"You just let go? Without a parting shot or something?" Tony questioned in quiet surprise, his soft tone an even match to Loki's.

"No, not without a final parting shot," Loki chuckled with a near reluctant, but genuine, grin. Tony was very proud that he was the one to put it on the morose mage's face, even if it was short lived.

"Before I fell into the void wishing for death, I told the Allfather that I had no father." The familiar, sad, and self-depreciating smile that flickered across Loki's face was one that Tony often saw in the mirror. It was still kinda freaky how similar Tony's life was to the god of mischief's but maybe it wasn't such a bad thing. He wasn't alone.

"I honestly believed that death would embrace me when I fell only for the opposite to occur. Life clung to my very bones, my magic and near immortal constitution letting me survive in the void without any form of sustenance for an incalculable stretch of time. I don't know how long I fell before I started hearing the voices."

Tony shifted uneasily in his seat, the tale bringing back memories of the cave and the voices that he couldn't understand and the pain that he could not control. With a small shake of his head, Tony focused on Loki's voice and stared at the raven haired man like looking away would bring the memories back.

"At first I had believed that this was it, I had finally gone mad from nothing. The voices talked about ways to get me out of the void, they talked about peace, they talked about revenge, they talked about death. Because these voices were merely a comforting illusion my mind created as a final attempt at sanity, I spoke back to the voices and they told me what I wanted to hear. When I agreed to do what the main voice wanted in exchange for an escape for the void I was not expecting to actually be transported to a barren moon in front of one of the most infamous creature in the nine realms and possibly beyond. Thanos."

Loki, the god of mischief and lies, shuddered almost imperceptibly after speaking the name. Not wanting to consider just what could make a god, especially Loki, so shaken, Tony did what he did best; Tony joked to try and diffuse the tension. "So ominous," Tony teased tensely. "What makes him so special?" Grinning seemed to be pushing it and it was so strained that Tony dropped the smile for a look of curiosity.

"His title is the Mad Titan and he has been known to court Death." Loki answered in monotone, no inflection whatsoever. Silently, Tony was taken aback at the seriousness that pervaded Loki's voice and unconsciously tensed before consciously relaxing, or at least attempting to relax when he realized what exactly the raven haired man had said.

"Wait, death is a person?" The full force of Tony's confusion and curiosity was directed at the injured god for just a moment and Tony watched as the raven haired man paused before answering a redirecting the forceful attention back to the story.

"Yes. Now stop interrupting or I won't finish the story," Loki reprimanded lightly, his eyes glowing between slitted eyes. Tony grinned and held his hands up in surrender before stretching out into a more comfortable position while Loki began to weave his tale once more.

"When Thanos pulled me from the void my mind was already fractured, not usually an immediate concern but with Thanos present it was. For a second indeterminable amount of time, Thanos persuaded me to join his cause and when the easy way didn't work he did it the hard way.

"In the Mad Titan's travels he had obtained one of the six infinity stones, the mind stone, which he later embedded into the scepter I had during my time on Earth. Each stone has a wealth of power that can not be contained or controlled and, individually, are very difficult to circumvent."

Tony thought back to how hard it had been to stop the tesseract, how they had just been lucky that cognitive recalibration was enough to break whatever hold the mind stone had on them and shuddered internally. They had gotten lucky, very lucky. If it took all of the Avengers and luck to defeat a puppet god with an infinity stone then what would happen if a Titan got all of the stones?

"And together?" Tony asked, trying to calculate the odds that he knew were beyond infinitesimal.

"Together in the infinity gauntlet they are an unstoppable force that can wipe out realms with the wave of a hand."

The two men had a short moment of silence while they both imagined the preparations and battle that could possibly occur in the mortals lifespan. The battle itself, the circumstances, depended completely on magic and madness, both as unpredictable as chaos itself. The engineers only hope was that he could build up whatever magical potential Loki had talked about so he and his loved ones could hold out a little longer in the end.

"The mind stone does exactly what it sounds like it should do, it manipulates minds. Under normal circumstances, my magic could have repelled the stone for a significant period of time so I could escape but the earlier persuasion had taken its toll," Loki said softly as he continued his story.

"As I said before, magic is semi-sentient and automatically began to heal my physical wounds, leaving me open to the mental attacks from the stone directed by Thanos. Instead of merely pushing my consciousness behind barriers, Thanos, through the stone, exploited the cracks that the void had created and widened them. I was trapped inside my own consciousness with the stone creating a conduit between the two so messages and pain could travel.

"In a similar state to the one I placed your teammate in, I was sent as a puppet to Earth in order to recover a second infinity stone."

"The tesseract." Loki tilted his head forward slightly in affirmation.

"Indeed. You already know that I remember my actions now but I could not when they occurred nor later when I was sent to Asgard.

"On Asgard, things began to happen very quickly. First, I was imprisoned for crimes I could not recall, not that I mention it because no one would believe me. Soon after, Malekith, a dark elf, attacked the palace and killed my mother in an attempt to obtain the Aether, the liquid form of yet another infinity stone. Thor broke me out of prison to help him and his beloved Jane take the Aether from Malekith and hide it away forever. In the attempt I faked my death and became Odin for a short while. However, I was soon recaptured by the remaining Chitauri as the Allfather awoke from the Odinsleep. My disappearance went unmentioned and unnoticed.

"In the time between, Thanos made good on his previous promise. Because of my failure to retrieve the tesseract I would 'wish for something sweet as death.' Luckily my magic returned enough for me to come hear but it was a near thing."

Once more, silence invaded the room and sucked out the words that could be spoken in joking wit. This nightmare was what their lives had become but they had peace for now. At least until the rest of the Avengers arrived and began to ask questions.

"Thank you," Tony whispered roughly, soft but sincere. Loki, perhaps sensing the trueness in his voice and words, gave him and doubtful look with his head cocked to the side in moderate disbelief. "No, I really mean it. Thank you," Tony reiterated. He finally had the answers his mind needed to compensate for all of the unknown variables how mind could not stop pondering late at night.

"You don't even know what you traded to get the story." The incredulous expression that was so openly expressed on the raven haired man's face made Tony break into laughter internally. It was like the man, god, didn't understand that it didn't matter what the consequences were because, no matter what, this meant that he got his life back. With these answers he could use the full range of his intelligence and not have to drive himself until he passed out from exhaustion.

"I got peaceful sleep as a reward so I pretty much don't care what you want, I'll give it to you." Nothing in that moment could have stopped Tony from smiling and letting out a small chuckle at the confounded sight that Loki presented, probably from the flippant way that Tony blew off Loki's concern for his sanity but that wasn't really important.

"So what is it? What do I have on you that you want assurances on?" Tony asked carelessly over his shoulder as he stood from the couch and began walking towards the hallway and the elevator at the end.

"I-," Loki began but quickly cut himself off and glances away when Tony turned to meet his eyes.

Spinning back around to face the wall, Tony considered all of the possible things that he, of all people, could have on a god. There weren't many things; money bought a lot, including safety for most, but Loki didn't seem like the greedy type. Tony's tech was a whole other ballpark. While his work was certainly important and worth a lot to a whole lot of people it wasn't leverage worthy of a god who had magic at his beck and call, even if said god didn't have his magic available at the moment. Safety was the key but Tony wasn't sure how. After all, if Loki was found in the Avengers Tower with him he would be hunted by every security agency on the planet and possibly more is Asgard ever found out.

"I want to stay."

The request was unquestionably the most stupid and the smartest query to ask. Out of all the things he could have asked for he asked for the one thing that was practically guaranteed to him and now definitely was. Smart god.

"That's it?"

"Yes," Loki responded calmly while staring at Tony like he was an idiot which was actually kind of understandable.

This fear of rejection that the raven haired man seemed to wear around him like a dark cloak that made him occasionally overly cautious made Tony's relaxed response an under reaction in Loki's eyes. Only someone who was smart enough to understand all that letting him stay entailed or someone who was stupid enough to think they did understand all of the consequences and dangers could act that calmly and be genuine. Loki would figure out sooner or later that he was both.

"Okay," Tony answered backhandedly as he walked to the entrance of the hallway and turned towards Loki, who still lay stunned on the couch, and slouched against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Loki whatever his last name was would not be leaving the tower anytime soon, not that Tony had been planning on making Loki vacate the premise anyways. The guy was good company and was great at conversation and understanding his work, or at least pretending to. He was an okay guy, god, whatever, where life had screwed him ever enough to have made horrible decisions in the past. It was about time for the guy to get lucky.

As he pushed himself off the wall and began walking towards the elevator, Tony turned to the injured god and asked, "You want breakfast? I think we still have some eggs..."

I apologize for any discrepancies between what I wrote about the end of the first Thor movie and the actual thing but I haven't watched the movie in a while and don't own it so... Any corrections would be welcome as I would like to make it more accurate if I can.
I saw the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie and, while it was very enjoyable, I believed it downplayed Stark's intelligence and JARVIS's power. I will try to eventually (read hopefully) add the storyline of the movie into my story, with my own take on it of course.
The next chapter should be posted by June 26th.

Please review!