Most of the other Avengers were already assembled at the restaurant, including Pepper by the time Stark and Loki got there with Clint.

"Eat and drink as much as you like. It's on me," Stark said in lieu of greeting.

"What's the occasion?" Steve asked, his wound from yesterday completely healed.

"Bad news actually, but we'll get to that once everyone's here. Jarvis, ETA of the good doctor?"

"He has just arrived, Sir," Jarvis announced, his voice muffled due to the cell phone being in Stark's pocket. A moment later they saw Bruce enter the private room.

"Hey Brucie." Stark waved while smiling at the serene looking doctor. "I guess you'll be the last one to hop on the knowledge train." Bruce a single eyebrow in question. "I'll give you a brief summary of the last few days." Bruce sat down, giving Stark a subtle look of incredulousness. "Long and short of it: You know how Thor and Loki are from a castle in the sky? Well I am too, just a different castle, a different time." Stark's eyes drifted off for a brief moment before snapping back to the berserker. "During the initial attack on New York I captured Loki. He was being controlled the same way Clint was."

"Tony is this another one of your tricks?" Bruce asked while opening up a menu.

"I assure you, Dr. Banner, that this is no trick," Pepper said, cutting in. "Your other teammates can verify that." Pepper took a sip of her red wine. "Just yesterday we went on a quick mission to capture the last leader of the Chitauri."

"We?"

"How silly of me not to mention, I'm not a human either. I come from a different 'castle in the sky' then Tony does." Pepper smiled at him, conveying her honesty. Bruce looked around the table, reading the expressions of his teammates.

"Not to be rude or anything, but why is your girlfriend here?" Bruce asked.

"That's Loki," Natasha said brazenly. The doctor froze and turned a shade green around his ears. "According to Tony he's on our side. He didn't betray us yesterday even though we were surrounded by his former allies."

"They were never my allies." Loki forced his wrath down, reminding himself that anger would only worsen the situation and possible set off the green beast.

"You said something about bad news," Natasha said, pulling everyone's attention away from Loki.

"I did, but we're going to need the good stuff to hear it." Stark performed a displacement spell and the same bottle of golden drink that Loki had gotten drunk on the first time he ate with all the Avengers. Stark poured himself a large glass before handing the bottle to Loki. The younger god only poured half a glass, not wanting a repeat of last time. "Fair warning this stuff is strong. If you're 100% human I suggest you water it down."

Loki passed it to Pepper who took none for herself. Of everyone there she looked the calmest. Bruce took a swig of the alcohol and cringed. The assassin and archer both took Stark's advice, watering down theirs, even so Clint's face immediately became flushed after his first taste. Loki was surprised when the captain poured himself a hardy amount.

"Pep, this is your plan. Why don't you play the bearer of bad news?" Stark said, leaning back in his chair and draping an arm over Loki's shoulders.

"You just hate being an adult."

"That's why I have you, so I don't have to be an adult. We've discussed this literally thousands of times." Stark waved his hand flippantly in her direction. Pepper made a hmph noise, but put on her business face none the less.

"There's no easy way of putting this, but in three weeks' time this realm will end."

"What… you mean like the rapture?" Steve asked, his face a picture of disbelief. Stark burst out laughing.

"Yeah, sure the rapture, except all the good little boys and girls die too."

"Tony," Pepper said sternly, cutting off his laughter. He just shook his head before taking a large gulp from his drink. Loki leaned against him, seeing the very evident signs of stress on his expression. "The rapture, Armageddon, Ragnarök, it's all the same to us. Normally Tony and I wouldn't tell anyone this news, but we're a bit strapped for time and need your help."

"The world is about to end and you want us to waste our last three weeks helping you all?" Natasha asked incredulously.

"No, we're asking you to spend the last eight weeks with us, exploring worlds you've never seen before."

"Pep, don't romanticize it. Pretty much we'll be going to different realms, blowing stuff up and taking back my cubes." Stark grinned brightly before turning serious again. "You can spend three weeks in a place you've been all your lives or you can go on an adventure with us."

"What proof do you have that the world is really ending?" Natasha asked, the most cynical of the humans.

"There's no proof that would make sense to any of you. It took me thousands of years to be able to interpret the signs. The margin of error is about twelve hours though, then kaboom, or kchss, sometimes it's a hhhh noise. Whatever, the sounds a dying realm can make are endless."

"You're so elegant with your words," Loki said sarcastically, giving Stark a sidelong glance.

"Thank you, Mr. Silvertongue. That's an honor coming from you." Stark fell silent as the waiter entered the room. Everyone seemed to tense up before Pepper effortlessly directed the waiter's attention to her. It was uncomfortably semi-silent as he took the orders. "You all don't have to make your decision right now. If you like you all can come with us to get the first cube. It's not too much of an adventure, but it may convince you to do more than just wait around to die."

"What is the point of doing all this if we're all just going to die anyway?" Clint asked, contemplating taking another swig from his drink. He was surprised by how strong it was.

"Well, not all of us are going to die," Stark smiled grimly. "I have business to attend to post-apocalypse so I won't be able to make my meeting with Death."

"So we can survive," Natasha said, her eyes narrowed and analytical.

"I mean you can try, if you're fine with endless night, no food, no air, and no gravity." Stark shrugged nonchalantly.

"I would not recommend it. It would likely shatter your mind, it nearly destroyed mine and I was only in the Void for just under a year. It's no place for any sane person." Loki plucked up a breadstick from the middle of the table, tearing off a small part of it to eat. Remembering the Void always made Loki appreciate food all the more.

"Are you sure this isn't just another one of your tricks, Tony?" Bruce asked again.

"Scout's honor." Stark held his hand over his heart.

"You were never a boy scout," Pepper countered.

"On my honor as a god."

"There's only one god," The super soldier added in. "And he is definitely not sitting at this table."

"Blasphemy," Loki said dryly.

"Heresy." Stark sounded scandalized.

"Idiocy," Pepper said, ending the joke.

"Will Thor be coming with us?" Clint asked after a few moments of comfortable silence. Loki glanced at Stark, trying to read his expression.

"We're not really on speaking terms with him," Stark finally said pulling Loki closer to him.

"Wait, are you two…" Bruce pointed at each god in turn. "You two are acting all couply."

"Indeed we are," Loki said as the waiter came back, a large tray balanced on each hand. Each platter was passed out.

"You mentioned something about cubes," Bruce said midway through his meal.

"Tesseracts, as you all called them. They're mine and I plan to collect them before Ragnarök can destroy them." Possessiveness edged into Stark's tone. "And don't even think about trying to use them to create weapons or portals. The only ones who are allowed to touch them are Pepper and me. It doesn't matter how strong your mental defenses are, my cosmic cubes will break them down. They have accumulated too much power."

"Pardon his enthusiasm," Pepper said, pouring herself a glass of the alcohol Stark had brought. "He gets very protective of his things."

"So when we were making the Tesseract tracking device and I was trying to figure out where it was you already knew?" Bruce asked, leaning forward in his seat. Stark had the decency to at least look bashful.

"Plus side: you got some gold and jewels from Asgard when we sold it to them." Stark held up his glass as if to make a toast. Loki tried holding back a chuckle, making it come out as a snort. Anything that tricked the All-Father was a profitable venture in Loki's mind.

"Because gold and jewels are things I care about, especially now that the world's ending," Bruce said, shaking his head in a scolding manner.

"Everyone wants to leave behind a pretty corpse," Stark responded, not missing a beat.

"Can we stop talking about death?" the captain asked, letting out a long suffering sigh.

"Hmm, what else is there to talk about?" Loki asked, his eyes half lidded as he finished off his pasta.

"How about we discuss why you're helping on this mission considering you've gotten your revenge," Natasha, ever the spy, said.

"My reasons are my own. Just know I will not betray Stark on this venture."

"But you have no problem with betraying us?" Clint asked, his earlier cheerfulness gone away.

"How quick, these agents, what is the saying? Ah, how quickly they change their tune." Loki delicately set down his cutlery, dabbing the corners of his mouth with a napkin.

"It's in their nature, dear. Don't fault them for it." Stark laced his fingers through his.

"You know, you only call me dear when I'm in this form." Loki gestured to his female body.

"I am aware. I'm also aware of how each time I do so it slowly builds up your annoyance because I'm treating you differently because you look female and you think it's a slight. It's an endearment yet you think negatively of it because I associate it with you female form." Everyone around the table was silent, watching anger slowly build up on Loki's face.

"You manipulative bastard." Loki tried to scowl at him, but it suddenly turned into a grin.

"I know how the Aesir regard women. I don't want you to doubt yourself if in your next iteration in case you're female," Stark explained, squeezing his hand reassuringly.

"Do you ever do anything directly?"

"Not when it require subtlety." The two gods stared at each other a moment before simultaneously looking away, one grinning while the younger one blushed.

So, I'm fed up with ffn so I'm not going to be posting this story here anymore. I'm on Archive of our own. My screen name is silver_drip. To find me just google: AO3 silver_drip