Be warned; the writing of this chapter involved a lot of cackling on the author's part. Make of that what you will ;) *cackle, cackle* On another note, sorry it took me so long to write this. You'd think a lockdown would give me more time, but instead it has taken all the inspiration out of me. Anyway, here we finally are. Enjoy!

PREVIOUSLY ON ASAF: The amount of people inside the park, as well as the immediate lack of true wilderness, was disappointing to say the least. He had been right about calling it a garden; it was carefully monitored vegetation with crowded walking paths. The first thing Loki did was therefore to get off said path. The soles of his feet welcomed the soft grass, and all of a sudden the whole trek to get to this place was worth it. Now if he could just find somewhere quiet, it would be perfect.

Loki didn't dare slow down again, for fear of creating another goggling swarm of followers. His route was hindered more than once by water or lone buildings, and more than once his bond twanged with 'WHERE R U' and the like. Loki pressed down harder on his presence marker. Tony had rejected him so blatantly; now it was Loki's turn to do the same.

CHAPTER 34

When Loki walked out of the kitchen, Tony's first thought after 'I think I fucked up again' was 'who the hell is Volstagg?' And that pretty much summed up his abso-fucking-lutely-not-in-working-order brain. It had to be all the talk about feels. It was like tar thrown over his meticulously polished and oiled gears.

"That could have gone better," Rhodey oh-so-helpfully stated.

"No shit." Tony passed his hand over his goatee a few times. He should probably trim it a bit. Maybe he should even alter the style a bit. Breathe new life into it.

"Sir."

"What are you going to do now? And don't say you're just going to let the situation be again because I swear to God, Tony, if you—"

Maybe he should grow a full beard and become a proper scientific genius hermit. Or he could shave it off. It made him look twenty years younger – something you didn't necessarily want in the business world, but it would make him look closer in age to his soulmate's ageless fake-youth.

"Sir! Mr Friggason is—"

"J.A.R.V.I.S., can't you just give me one fucking minute where I don't have to think about Loki? Like, for example, hey Rhodey, you can stay until the day after tomorrow, right? Cause tomorrow evening there's this fundraiser that Pepper is blackmailing me to go to, so it would be really great if I could have a friend there. Yes? Awesome."

"Do I have a choice?"

"Well no, obviously I just chose for you. J.A.R.V.I.S. can clear any schedules you might have. You can thank me later."

"Sir, I really must insist! Mr Friggason is attempting to— Correction, Mr Friggason has just left the Tower."

Tony looked up at the ceiling in reflex. "What?"

"Mr Friggason just—"

"Yes, I heard you. I mean, how on Earth can you just let him leave the Tower unaccompanied? Fury is going to skin me! And he'll lock Loki up, and then what are we going to do? Loki isn't stupid! Why the hell did he—"

"Sir, I do not believe Mr Friggason was in his right mind, which, given the circumstances, is understandable."

Tony felt cold creep up his chest. "Why the fuck did you let him leave, though? I didn't program you to become stupid!" What was he going to do?

"Sir, I did not let him leave. He simply left."

"Ever heard about that nifty thing called—"

"Door, Sir?" J.A.R.V.I.S. interrupted, the sassy bastard. He accompanied his statement with a recording of said doors on Tony's phone – the screen drew Tony's eye as it lit up, and he had no comment to make after that. Except, perhaps, what the fuck are people doing to my beautiful tower!

"Ah," was Rhodey's only comment once again.

"Yeah, ah. Told you he was a bastard."

"Is this where I go; oh, you mean just like you?"

"Not helping," Tony growled, and Rhodey laughed. Tony closed his eyes and looked for Loki's location, following the soul bond's thread like always. Except this time, said thread seemed to simply disappear midway. "The fuck?" No helpful little light in his head that gave him Loki's exact location compared to his own. All Tony could sense was that Loki was 'not here'. And 'not here' was exactly where he shouldn't be. "J.A.R.V.I.S., tell me you can give me a visual. I can't— I don't—" Tony took a deep breath. "He's not showing up on my soulmate radar." Could something have happened to Loki? Nothing else seemed amiss – Loki's feelings were shielded, sure, but his presence was still there in the back of Tony's mind, no different than a few hours ago. Except for the location bit.

"I am hacking into the traffic cams as we speak," J.A.R.V.I.S. replied.

Tony rushed to the elevator, eyes glued on his phone where his A.I. displayed his hacking. When the doors opened onto his workshop he practically ran to his vault, intent on getting the Mark V and flying out there right this minute.

"Tony. You can't just go out there and fly in circles. It's gonna scare a shit ton of people if you do that," Rhodey said as Tony came out and set the Mark V on the ground.

"What else do you want me to do? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs?"

"Can you still, like, call him? The magical messaging?"

"I don't know." Their telegram system kind of relied on the thread between them that now kind of seemed to lead to nowhere and no one. It was like it entered a deep dark mist less than two feet in front of him. Was it shortening? He felt like earlier he'd been able to follow it much further before the end got obscured.

"Sir, a traffic accident happened suspiciously close to the Tower mere minutes after Loki left the front plaza."

"Show me," Tony said as he quickly walked over to his desk.

"I am afraid the only available footage is too far away to distinguish anything of significance. A number of cameras destroyed during the invasion are yet to be replaced."

"Well, show me all directions you have that Loki could have gone to from that location since the accident!" The screen split into a dozen poorly coloured, low resolution recordings. Surely it shouldn't be too hard to spot a blue-skinned— Wait. Did Loki still need Tony's energy to change skins? "Also check for his not-Jötunn face, you never know." And what if Loki had managed to change his appearance completely? An illusion, he'd called it. How was Tony supposed to track him then?

"Did you manage to send him your magic message?"

"Haven't tried." The screen froze, the images unmoving. "J.A.R.V., what—"

"Sir. Please try to contact Mr Friggason. It would be better if he were to make his way back on his own."

Tony huffed. "Geez. Fine." 'COME BACK,' he sent. Or hoped he sent. There was no telling if Loki had received it. But then, he'd never been able to tell anyway. "Done. No answer. So." He gestured at the screen and the footage unfroze.

A few minutes of scrutinising the screen later, J.A.R.V.I.S. switched the display to a single traffic cam. At the edge of the screen was a group of people awkwardly moving along the pavement. "Is that?"

"It would seem Mr Friggason is in the centre of that group."

"What, you're not sure?"

"My facial recognition won't work until I get a better angle. However, given the two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents that are being dispatched to that location, it would seem it is indeed Mr Friggason."

"S.H.I.E.L.D. found him before you? You got to be kidding me! Where is he? I'll go get him."

"Tony, I told you—"

"The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have confirmed Mr Friggason's location and— Sir, Director Fury is on the line."

"Tell him to fuck himself. I don't have time for his nagging."

There was a moment of silence. "I suppose you do not wish to hear Director Fury's colourful response?"

"You suppose right."

"Sir, I have footage of Mr Friggason from multiple social media accounts. One video especially is going viral; apparently the public has made the link between Mr Friggason and the photos the press took of the two of you during the unearthing of survivors from the debris. Should I remove these videos?"

"Leave them. Loki decided to go out like this, let him deal with the consequences."

"But Sir—"

"Where is he now? I'll go get him." Tony turned to go get his Mark V suitcase that he'd left on the other side of the workshop, only to find Rhodey hugging the heavy case to his chest. He expected Rhodey to put the suit down. It took him an embarrassingly long second to realise why Rhodey was hugging his suit like that. "Rhodes. Put it down."

"I told you. You shouldn't go. I can't let you go scare the public for nothing."

"It's not nothing! It's Loki! As a blue alien, for fuck's sake! Don't you think that's already scaring the public?"

"Mr Friggason's following seems to have grown. The press seems to also be on his tail."

"See, the public loves him. What do you think will happen if you just drop from the sky and take him away? Doesn't that show the public that maybe they should have been scared after all?"

"Mr Friggason is… running. He has escaped the press and— S.H.I.E.L.D. has lost his current location."

Tony looked at his soulmate hopping from one traffic cam to the other at a frankly kind of frightening speed. Boy, could these super aliens run. Tony pointed at the screen with his thumb. "And now what, genius? Still think I should stay here?"

"I think you should try sending him another message."

"Jesus fuck, you're stubborn. I already tried that!"

"And you can try again."

Fine. Whatever. Tony tugged on the thread, harder than he usually would for a soul telegram, 'COME BACK'. Followed in quick succession by 'LOKI' and 'COME ON. SHIELD WONT LET YOU RUN AROUND.' There. That way, if Loki did get his messages, he would know Tony knew he was running down the streets of New York City like a lunatic.

Or not running. On screen, Loki had stopped on 5th Avenue. Grand Army Plaza. And beyond that, Central Park. "If he goes in the park you won't be able to follow like you can now, J.A.R.V.. Still agree with Rhodey?"

"He has not entered Central Park yet, Sir."

"Seriously? Okay. I'll wait." Tony crossed his arms. Two minutes later, they'd lost sight of Loki. "And now?"

"Uhm, well…"

"And don't tell me to send him another message, Rhodey. I don't even know if he can get them, what with his location being… I don't know, hidden. Broken. Suppressed. I didn't know he could do that. Probably kept it from me so he could use it for a time like this. And since it's the same link I use to send him the messages… Come on. Just set down the Mark V."

Rhodey's eye twitched. "I'm coming with you."

"What, you think Iron Man and War Machine flying out will scare the public less?"

"No, but I think baby-sitting you might help mollify S.H.I.E.L.D.."

"And if you fly together, Sir, the media might believe us if we tell them you were simply doing a test run of your enhancements for War Machine, and happened upon Loki who seemed to be in need of a ride back to the Tower."

"No one is going to believe that," Tony said with a snort.

"If S.H.I.E.L.D. is issuing that as their official statement, they might. As for your statement to S.H.I.E.L.D., you were not aware that Loki had gone outside – you were too concentrated on your work to notice his location changing, and your capacity to locate him never failed you, of course. I tried to tell you, however in your wish for uninterrupted worktime you had shut me out of all the systems in the workshop. Therefore, it was only when you left the workshop that you were notified. You then went out to Central Park with War Machine in order to retrieve Loki as swiftly as possible, following his location that you could of course feel, but making it look like a test run for War Machine's modifications, ergo your indirect flight path. As for Loki's reason for going outside, he was in need of fresh air and the roof was not enough; he attempted to contact you but your legendary concentration did not let him, and he took matters in his own hands despite my ample protests and left the Tower for Central Park. Any erratic behaviour he might have shown while out are undoubtably due to his alien nature, and his underestimation of the strangeness of humans."

Tony closed his mouth with an audible smack. God, his baby J.A.R.V.' grew up to be one hell of a bullshitter! Like father like son! Tony grinned. "That's my boy! A genius like your daddy. Let's suit up, then."

Rhodey sighed heavily and put down the suitcase, walking over to his own War Machine suit that J.A.R.V.I.S. was opening for him. Tony let the Mark V crawl over him, and Tony tuned out J.A.R.V.I.S.'s checklist and complaints about the things that should have been repaired since his digging-up-people-from-the-debris trip. He clunked over to the bullet-proof glass doors that separated his workshop from his car collection, and looked over his shoulder to find Rhodey still standing in the same spot with his armour on, whirring about as if he was stretching.

"You ready to go or what?"

"I've already flown quite a bit recently, remember? So excuse me if I'd like to come out of this trip backache-free."

"Sure, grandpa. Take your time."

"I'm only two years older than you, you know," Rhodey's voice grumbled in his ear while he loudly walked past Tony towards the special Iron Man flight tunnel at the other end of the garage, as if he owned the place. He didn't even wait for Tony to go first even though this was his Tower and his tunnel, and took off into the New York sky before him. Rude!

Tony joined Rhodey hovering at penthouse height, turned in the direction of Central Park. "So, how do you want to do this? Go straight to the park and do backflips over there, or are we slaloming between buildings first? How do you usually do you test runs?"

"Well I don't usually do my test runs in New York. But slaloming while doing backflips sounds fun."

"God, I should learn to keep my mouth shut. No, don't answer that, cause you of all people should really, really learn to keep your mouth shut." Rhodey gestured at the neighbouring buildings. "Go on then. Start the air ballet and I'll follow."

"Don't worry if you can't keep up. There's only one good enough to be an Etoile here," Tony said as he shot off at full speed, circling round the first sky-scraper he got to with barely any space between his chest and the windows.

It had been a while since Tony had flown just for fun – he was on a soulmate searching mission, so it wasn't just for fun, but… He could delay that for a few minutes. Feel the Gs, ignore the aches and pains from his body and the headache that was Loki. Imagine, just for a bit, that he was free again. Free to do what he wanted, go where he wanted to go, without being tethered down by S.H.I.E.L.D. bureaucracy, or a superhero-group membership, or ancient magic mumbo-jumbo, or mind shattering spirit and soul truths.

Of course his 'best friend' had to ruin it all. "Are we heading to the park or what?" Rhodey was keeping up with him, which given the suit he was in was rather impressive – War Machine was more of a chain-mailed tank while his suitcase-suit was the leather-armoured assassin. Tony was happy to hear that Rhodey was definitely out of breath despite his military training.

"Sure, just after we do those backflips you wanted," Tony answered quickly in an effort to hide how much more out of breath he was. He'd been letting exercise fall to the wayside during the construction of Stark Tower. He should do something about that, probably.

"Let's go then," Rhodey said as he shot past to take the lead, curving up to sharply drop down in a loop and Tony raced after him. They made three full circles before War Machine went straight for Central Park. Talk about discretion.

"I hope you're not gonna go for a standard military grid search pattern, because even the first clueless jogger is going to find that suspicious."

"Not sure there will be many joggers at this hour."

"There are always joggers. And that's not the point. You're deflecting."

"I'm not fooling the master of deflection, am I? Then what do you propose we do? I doubt doing a random search pattern is going to look any less weird to the picnickers. Best case scenario here would still be for him to go back on his own."

"I've asked him where he was a thousand times already!"

"Maybe another thousand will do it then. Nag him into answering. He's already angry with you, and he's ignoring you. Maybe make him angry enough to lash out instead."

"Yeah, antagonise the prickly, prodigal alien, sure. Brilliant idea." Tony didn't want to make things worse! He still sent a quick 'WHERE R U', just to remind Loki that he was still looking. If Loki could still hear him. God, this situation was stressing him out and Tony Stark didn't get stressed out, damn it!

"Sir, Loki has not been seen on social media posts for fifteen minutes. I have extrapolated from the images that the last location he was seen at was north east of the Alexander Hamilton Monument."

"All right," said Rhodey before heading straight in that direction. Rhodey needed to read Discretion 101 ASAP. He should get J.A.R.V.I.S. to put together an easy-to-understand manual.

When they reached the monument, Rhodey just… landed. Tony shook his head. What on earth did he think he was doing? Tony sure as hell was going to stay safely in the air. There were already thirty-two phones pointed in his direction, and Rhodey was instantly being mobbed.

"Great idea, War Machine. You do the PR stunt, talking about test runs and shit, and I'll go do the hard work."

Rhodey grunted. "Yeah, I didn't think this through, no need to rub it in." He lifted his helmet and met the crowd with an awkward smile.

"Have fun with your fans!" Tony said loudly through his speakers, and flew off. He went slowly, though, staying just above the trees, and letting J.A.R.V.I.S. run the temperature and facial recognition programs. From time to time a few low-level S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were flagged on the screen, but Tony would have been able to spot them regardless – with those black suits and demeanour, they stuck out like a sore thumb in the strolling crowds.

Tony flew up the paths on the eastern side of the reservoir, without success. Seriously, how could a blue-skinned guy walk by unnoticed? This didn't make any sense! 'COME ON LOKES', he sent out of pure frustration. Had Loki managed to shift back to his Áss skin? That had to be it. And he'd managed to escape all the cameras – phones and traffic cams alike. J.A.R.V.I.S. was monitoring both. Tony was nearing the other end of the park now. This was ridiculous. There had to be another way. 'PLEASE LOKI IM SORRY OK'. Maybe a pleading tone would do it? Tony snorted. No, Loki wasn't the type. And he probably knew Tony hadn't been feeling sincerely pleading just now anyway.

"From his last known position, can you give me the different paths he could have taken that would keep him in camera blind spots?"

"Certainly, Sir."

The ghost image of a path appeared on his head display and Tony followed it's zigzag down the other side of the reservoir. He checked out the short branching paths, and ended up back near the Hamilton monument again. He'd already checked the reservoir's eastern side, so going down that path again was useless. Unless Loki was currently on the far side of the park, which seemed unlikely… He had to be hunkered down somewhere.

"Could he be hiding in a building?" Unless he'd climbed a tree. But then Tony should have been able to see his heat – or non-heat – signature. If only he could look for his magic signature somehow. But his suit didn't have that kind of capabilities. He might never be able to make a magic scanner small enough to fit in a suit – though it did sound like a good challenge for a sleepless night.

"Sir, a new photo was just posted that might contain Mr Friggason. The picture itself is more than thirty minutes old, but it might be a new clue. The photo was taken close to the South Gate House." The photo appeared on the display. There was a man walking in the middle of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Walking on the barely submerged wall that cut it in two.

"Son of a—"

XXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXXxxxXXX

Loki followed the Iron Man suit with his eyes as it flew above the trees, going around the lake. It was only a matter of time before Tony found him. He was bound to take a shortcut and simply fly over the water at some point. But for now, he was alone on his little island. A big block of ice rooted on the dam that was covered in two feet of water.

It had been more luck than anything else that brought him here. He had been running from another gawking crowd of mortals when he came upon the lake, right next to a building. Somehow no one seemed to have noticed him there yet, but it would not take long before they cornered him there. Perhaps it was that thought that made his skin freeze up. He did not want to be found yet. He wanted to be able to get lost in the crowd, but it was made impossible by this monstrous skin – gorgeous, Tony's voice echoed in his mind, and he suppressed the memory.

The embankment grew slippery from his frost, and crystals formed on the sun-bright water. The idea formed in his mind like ice, growing in the intricate form of a silly idea. Walking on water was not the most difficult magical feat; using ice magic was not the most straightforward way to do it, however. It would be an intriguing experience. And it would keep him away from the innumerable Midgardians.

He was already a nearly a hundred yards from the beach when he realised that, while he wasn't using his magical core as a source of power, the energy expense wouldn't be sustainable for long. He could make a large, thicker surface – an ice raft of some sort. Loki was about to start on that, and perhaps make an oar to get himself further down the lake when he saw it. The way the light hit the water, it was luck more than anything that made him notice the submerged dam, but the moment he saw it he knew what he wanted to do. It was just fifty feet away. He could make it.

Loki ran, his ice-path getting thinner and thinner. His last leap brought him above the submerged stone, and he let himself sink through the surface. The water was slightly deeper than the perspective had made him think, but it was too late to regret the small waves lapping at his upper thighs. He was here now. A place the mortals would not follow. Though he was still close enough to the shore for people to notice him.

He went to the middle of the lake. While the temperature of the water was rather nice, he was not fond of being wet, so he just used another burst of ice to make an island that gave him enough space to spread out and look at the hazy blue sky.

He had pressed down hard on all sides of the bond and tried to pretend, just for a little while, that he was back home. That he had not fallen off the Bifrost. That he had never found out he was not Æsir. That he did not belong. That his brother was not his brother. That little fantasy only lasted as long as it took Tony to send him more messages of which he could not ignore the pulls on his soul.

Then Iron Man had flown by in the at the edge of his sight, and all potential peace of mind had gone to the bilgesnipes. He squashed down on all parts of the bond. Maybe it would give him just a minute more before he would have to confront his soulmate. He followed Tony's progress, his soulmate's focus going from curiosity to frustration, and as the flight path sharpened and reached an area Loki remembered running through, he knew his time had to be up soon.

Tony was hovering in one spot, and Loki inhaled sharply – a phantom transference of Tony's physical reaction. There was an explosion of feelings on Tony's end, which Loki imagined must be what the Midgardian's meant when they used a now-dead language to express they had found the solution to their problem. And lo and behold, Tony was moving directly to the building from which the dam originated.

'I SWEAR TO GOD' Tony sent him in hard tugs, 'IF U ARENT—'

The message stopped abruptly the moment Tony must have noticed the discrepancy in the middle of the lake. With enough speed to cut the water into sharp waves, Tony flew over. He stopped just shy of the ice, spraying a liberal amount of water in Loki's face in the process.

"What," said the mechanical approximation of his voice, "the fuck are you doing here."

Loki stood up, opened his mouth to answer, acerbic words lining up on his tongue – damn the Norns, he could very well go wherever in the Nine Realms he wanted, and soulmate or not, it wasn't a pitiful mortal like Tony that was going to stop him – until he felt that tinge of relief and shame. It was overshadowed by the anger, the irritation, the exasperation, but they were there, straight out of Tony's heart. So the words that fell out of his mouth were not as sharp, and came from a deeper part of him than he had intended. "I had to get out. I couldn't stand to be close to you." At least he managed to cut it off there. Words like 'being near you hurt too much' would never cross his lips. He would rather drown himself.

A handful of long seconds passed in which only the sound of the armoured suit and the water the repulsors were spraying around could be heard. Then the helmet flipped open. Tony's eyes flicked to Loki's, and away. Discomfort took up their soul bond.

"Er… Is your"– Tony waved a hand at the ice – "er, island. Is it strong enough for me to land on, you reckon?"

"No."

Tony's lip twitched. "Yeah, you don't want me on your desert island, I get it. Are you gonna push me in the water if I land?"

"Without a doubt."

Tony's smile was small, but there. "Good to know." Tony hovered over to the ice, and while he most probably touched down as gently as he could, the ice creaked under his weight, which Loki had not anticipated. This was Jötunn ice – surely it couldn't have melted so much already.

Tony was looking down at his metal-covered feet. "You sure this is gonna hold?"

"No."

"Awesome. You could have mentioned you weren't sure, instead of straight up lying and making me think your iceberg was solid."

"I thought it was." Loki dropped down to one knee and put his hand on the ice.

"Don't you dare propose without a proper ring. Like with a giant space diamond. I won't accept." Loki looked up and quirked an inquisitive eyebrow. "Culture clash. Never mind." Loki shook his head. Midgardians. There was nothing more strange in the whole Nine Realms. He closed his eyes, ignored the smothering feeling of discomfort coming from Tony after his curious speech failed to elicit the appropriate response, and froze the island properly once more.

With a whining whir, Tony dislodged the feet of his suit from the crystals that gripped them. Loki ignored his antics and sat down on the ice once more, legs outstretched and feet just shy of the lapping water. If Tony thought he would just follow him back to the tower like a good pet, he was sorely mistaken.

The Iron Man suit crept away from Tony's skin with its distinctive clicking and humming, folding itself back into a suitcase form. Tony pushed the suitcase next to Loki and sat down on it. They stared out at the lake for a minute.

"Hey, how do you manage to hide where you are? You're right next to me but I can't feel you there at all." Loki kept his eyes on the faraway shore. "Oh, come on! You can tell me. If you're afraid I'll use it against you, then don't be; I probably won't be able to do it without you teaching me anyway."

"Probably," Loki repeated, sarcasm dripping from every syllable.

"Yeah. I'm counting on the fact that there's no way the Fate lady will make it easy for me."

"I press down on my presence."

"Okay." There were a few beats of silence. "Still feel me here? Then yeah, I've got no idea what that's supposed to mean, pressing down on my presence."

"Good."

"Ha! Yeah, good for you I bet! From my point of view it's pretty unfair."

Loki turned his head away so he would not have to see Tony from the corner of his eye. "Fate is unfair."

Tony snorted. "Tell me about it." Loki felt the urge to wet his lips – transference from Tony, again. "How much did you hear?"

Loki's nails dug into the ice all by themselves. "Enough," he spat.

"Yeah, no, I'm not so sure about that. I mean, depending on what you heard exactly, there might be room for incorrect interpretations and—"

"You think you are being manipulated by magic," Loki said, monotone, eyes unfocused.

"Uhm—"

"You described be as 'some old violent creepy dude'."

"What? No I didn't! I was talking about actual old creepy dudes!"

"You said you can't imagine anything worse than being my soulmate." His voice did not crack on the last word. It did not!

"Hell no." Tony's hand landed heavily on his shoulder, and squeezed hard, and shook him. Loki gritted his teeth, itching to slap his soulmate's hand away. He did not know why he did not do it. "Look at me. LOOK AT ME! I never said that!" More shaking. "Loki!" Tony moved and crouched in his field of vision. Loki turned his head further to the side. He could not meet Tony's eyes right now. He did not think he would be able to keep his composure, or his hold on the shield otherwise.

His soulmate's hand slid over his jaw, thumb cupping his cheekbone. The force exerted was nothing – even if Loki had been a mortal, he would have been able to keep his head just where it was. And yet the warmth of that hand, the thrumming of their bond so overwhelmingly bright, the strength of it so all-encompassing, made him yield to that touch, and he faced Tony despite himself.

Tony's eyes were wide and he was breathing hard, and the bond… The bond. They were touching. His shielding had shattered, and now Tony would be able to feel everything! Loki jerked his head back, away from Tony's touch, but his soulmate lurched forward and grabbed his face with both hands this time.

"No, no, sweetheart, no. It's okay. It's okay. Shhh, it's okay." Tony's thumbs reached up to the corners of his eyes, flicking away the crystals that were forming. Helheimr, no. He could not be crying. Not now. Not now, damn the Norns! Please, not now.

So. Yeah. Cliffhanger. *cackle, cackle* I'm sorry! It was just the perfect place to stop. It's all right, though. You've all had lessons in patience and coping with frustration during lockdown – and if not, well, let this be a lesson to you :p I promise I'll do my best to write the next instalment quicker.

(Also, we passed 150k OMG! I can't believe I managed to write this amount of crap and I'm still not done XD)

Spread the Luv!

LL