Disclaimer: No, don't own anything. Everything in here is owned by Marvel except the plot and random OCs.

Notes: This idea originally came from a graphic and summary I had made for tumblr and thanks to the enthusiastic response I decided that it had to come into existence. I was originally going to wait to post this until I was farther along in Memento Mori but there was no way to stop the influx of ideas. Once the bunnies are jumping it's pretty much inevitable.

If one had asked Loki Laufeyson a couple years ago if he ever thought he'd end up in the position he was in now, he probably would have scoffed in his typical fashion and replied along the lines of 'of course not!'. A lot had changed since then. Life, he'd determined, was unpredictable; anyone who tried to throw predictions out there was an idiot and too naïve for their own damn good.

He was thinking over this as he stood against a light post, absently picking at his darkly painted nails and waiting for his client for that night. He'd probably already been there for half an hour, and with nothing else to do, his mind ran off on its own accord, which meant it going down normally forbidden roads. Thoughts he'd normally ignore, such as his life and how it turned out the way it was currently, or what lead him to waiting on a chilly New York street at dusk with his dark hair smoothed back from his pale face, dressed in a pair of tight fitting jeans, black form fitting shirt, leather jacket and tall boots.

Loki shifted his stance, shoving his hands in his pockets and let out a sigh, watching as his breath puffed out in a visible mist. It was hardly worth the wait in his opinion but he needed the money to live on and it wasn't cheap to buy his 'affections' these days. He was getting quite well known by interested individuals, all after the beautiful man with sharp enough wit and intelligence to cut through diamond.

He'd always been caught in-between pride and disdain towards his appearance. He stood out like a sore thumb in his family, telling the entire world that he wasn't related to that bunch. Loki was considered striking of course in his own ways, but he wished he looked more like them, possessed their traits. They were golden while he was dark.

Loki let out a growl, startling a couple walking past and watching their pace pick up as they retreated. Good, let them run. Like he gave a shit.

"Waiting for someone?" He turned at the voice and noticed that a car had pulled up, an expensive luxury brand at that. Well at least he was going to get paid well tonight, not that he was thrilled at the face that greeted him through the open window. The man was not attractive nor all that young. It would figure; an old, ugly man going for a young and beautiful one. He found it repulsive, but he couldn't afford to be picky. Bills didn't pay themselves, and food didn't just appear on tables.

So he masked his disgust and slid a seductive, teasing smirk onto his thin lips, green eyes glinting in the yellow light. "I was, but it appears I've been stood up."

"Oh, well I could give you a ride. I'd hate to see you sick from the cold. What a shame would that be." The man replied, eyeing Loki's body and barely hiding the wanting. He opened the passenger door on the other side of the car and patted the seat, "Come on now, I don't bite."

Loki's eyes threatened to roll but he managed to keep them still, holding up the guise of their little charade. These transactions got unbearably old after a while. "If it's not too much of a hassle. I'd be grateful."

"Of course." The man's face twitched with a grin, so damn proud of himself for accosting a street walker in public. Loki secretly hoped that he got caught by his wife and pushed off the balcony of his cushy penthouse suite. In fact, he was half tempted to do it himself and save the woman the hassle.

"Should I give you my address?" Loki continued to play along as he slid into the side seat and shut the door.

"I thought we could stop at my home briefly if that's not a problem with you."

"It's not an issue." Loki mentally sighed as the car smoothly moved forward. This was going to be a remarkably long night.

To tell the truth, he was surprised they'd even made it to the apartment building before he'd been jumped, what with how the man's hands had been roaming up his leg and settling between them. Loki wanted to break his fingers. The man was on him as soon as they'd gotten into the large elevator and had the button pushed for the top floor. They barely made it to the penthouse.

Loki shook his head as he wiped himself down with a towel and started redressing. He could hear his client's heavy breaths and shuddered internally. He wasn't sure if it was his sweat or the other man's that clung to his skin. More than likely a mix of both. 'How unpleasant'. He spared the old man in the bed a glance and contemplated smothering him with a pillow.

'You chose this life, Loki.' He thought to himself gloomily, trying to straighten out his messy hair, 'There shall be no shortage of men like this.'

Wasn't that a depressing thought?

Loki finished dressing and counted the money in his pocket. Five-hundred dollars wasn't a bad pay. He'd already made over a thousand that week with the other clients he'd dealt with. With that amount the bills were as good as paid. It almost made this whole ordeal worth it. Almost. No matter how often he'd scrub his skin tonight, the stain of it would never be washed away.

"Would we be doing this again?"

Loki did roll his eyes this time, and he sent a withering glare over his shoulder, causing the man to cringe. "I very highly doubt that. I'd have to be paid a lot more than this for me to put up with your stinking company again."

With that Loki stalked out, taking the stairs this time. He was fit enough that several floors worth of them barely wore him out. He bypassed the front desk, completely ignoring the woman who tried to speak to him, and moved out through the rotating doors. The cold, early morning air was refreshing against his still flushed skin as he flagged down a cab and gave the address to his apartment.

The ride back was short and after paying the driver, Loki walked through the familiar entry way, the smell of the cleaning products the maids used filling his nose. It wasn't the best building in New York, but it served the purposes it was intended for. While he did have enough money for a much nicer place to live, he preferred to hide out here. At the very least he wouldn't be found if he didn't want to be. The last thing he needed was for them to turn up on his doorstep.

While Loki did have expensive tastes and a particular type of aesthetic, which filled his home in the form of nice furniture and decent clothing, he knew that making himself more obvious was a risk. It was one of the reasons he'd grown his hair out a bit and stuck to more casual clothing rather than the suits he'd worn in his old life. Besides, it wasn't as if how he looked had gotten him any more noticed back then.

This was a wicked train of thought to be going back down, he told himself while dumping his keys and wallet into a glass bowl sitting near the door. As he turned on the lights, Loki noted carefully that everything looked as it had when he'd left. He didn't know what he'd been expecting. It wasn't as if he was going to walk in and find his brother sitting on the couch watching some sports show or another.

Loki sighed. No matter what he did these days it all seemed to eventually go back to them. He'd been the one to leave, but they'd pushed him away, forced his hand, and chosen this existence for him. Using his body for money and respect was the only thing he was good for now. Sure he wasn't as bad off as some of the others in this vocation that he'd spoken to, but that did not make him feel much better. Well… What did it matter? He was doing this to keep a low profile; it was unlikely that they'd ever think to find him living as a prostitute.

So he quickly shut off his thoughts and moved on auto pilot.

He stripped off his dirty clothing, tossing them in the wash, and then moved into the bathroom. When he caught a glance at his reflection in the mirror, he frowned. Thin and pale, purple bruise-like circles under his eyes, black hair hanging in waves around his face with the remains of product clinging to the strands, making them look greasy. He looked a mess.

Loki showered quickly, dressed faster, and went to bed with still-wet hair.

Tony Stark hated mornings.

He hated them whether they came in the late afternoon or actually before noon. The time they actually occurred didn't matter, and it was something that anyone who associated with him had quickly learned to count on. He'd turn up late to important meetings, he'd turn up late to dates, and no one doubted that when the day came he'd turn up late to his own funeral.

So needless to say when Pepper Potts came into his room that day and opened the curtains, filling the room with bright Manhattan sunlight, Tony was not the least bit pleased by the action. He made a sound that might have been something between a loud groan and a swear, burying his face further into the pillow and pulling his thick blankets over his head.

"You need to get up, Tony." Pepper said with an air of exasperation, moving to stand at the side of the bed, arms crossed, red hair pulled back into a clean ponytail and dressed in a business suit with skirt. She stared down at him or at least where she could see the shape that was Tony beneath the covers. It was like dealing with a child.

The lump moved, "No, I don't. Day off. Need sleep."

Pepper sighed and rolled her eyes before reaching down and grasping the edge of the covers. That was the only warning Tony got before she viciously ripped them off the bed. There was a yelp of surprise, and Tony quickly yanked his pillow up and onto his head to block the light. Pepper grabbed the pillow a few seconds later and it joined the blankets on the floor.

"Maybe not, but you still need to get up." She told him and watched in amusement as he attempted to curl up into a ball. "You told me to start making you get up. So here I am, making you."

"Dismiss my previous request." Tony groaned, opening one brown eye to blurrily stare at his assistant and close friend. "It was a mistake on my part."

"Mmhm, I'm sure it was. Well since you seem to be waking up now, maybe you can take that a step farther by actually removing yourself from the bed." Pepper teased him then patted his arm and adding, appeasingly, "You do know that the sooner you get out of bed the sooner you'll have coffee and donuts."

"Valid point. You win this round, Miss Potts." Tony grumbled, unfolding his legs and stretching out over the mattress.

It was another half an hour before he was officially up and moving, dressing himself in a pair of jeans and a black AC/DC shirt and combing out his hair so that he looked presentable enough to walk the two blocks to the nearest, his favorite, coffee shop. At least the sun had reassured him that it the weather was decent enough that he wouldn't need to waste gas on the short distance between Stark Tower and coffee. It might have been late fall, but brisk air wasn't going to kill him.

"Alright, you want anything?" Tony turned to look at Pepper as he threw on a jacket.

Pepper shook her head and chuckled, shifting the packet of papers that she had just picked up off the desk. "I'm fine. Unlike you I've been awake for a while now. I've already had my coffee for the morning."

"Well, if you're sure about that, I'll be back shortly. Make sure the place doesn't burn down while I'm gone." Tony grinned, waving at her and managing to catch her reply as he slipped out the door.

"Yes, because obviously I'd be the one to set fire to the building."

Tony relished the scent of fresh coffee and pastries as he entered the upscale coffee shop, hearing the familiar little jingle of the bell over the door and the alternative music pouring quietly through the speakers hidden around in the ceiling. There was a small line of people formed at the front register and another at the receptionist counter while the rest of the patrons sat about at tall tables, perched on stools as they chatted, consumed their orders, or typed away on laptops.

It was the natural habitat of starving artists and hipsters all over the world.

He spotted Darcy Lewis standing behind the register, chatting away with a woman enthusiastically, much to the annoyance of everyone stuck behind her. Tony chuckled and moved into the receptionist line, fiddling with the phone he created as he waited for the line to shorten that eventually did. He smiled widely at the pretty blond woman behind the counter.

"Hey, Anna, how's business?" He asked, pocketing his cell and pulling out his wallet.

"Busy. Everyone and their mother want's coffee today. You're here early, Mr. Stark. Did Miss Potts finally succeed in getting you up?" Anna leaned against the counter, smirking at him.

"Obviously." Tony remarked in return, and the conversation moved back to coffee.

"The usual then?"

"Yep."

Tony handed her the required amount and moved over to the line, grumbling as Darcy finally ended her chatter fest with the other woman and the line inched forward. This repeated for a while as the college student gossiped with each person in line until she finally got to Tony. Sometimes it was a wonder how she managed to even keep her job with her work ethic.

"Hey Tony, another day in paradise, huh?"

"Would be if I got my coffee faster." Tony told her pointedly before gesturing a thumb back at the rest of the line. "I'm pretty sure all these guys agree."

"What can I say, I like talking with people." Darcy shrugged indifferently and pushed up her glasses. "Heard you talking to Anna. So you lost the battle with Pepper, did you?"

"Lost the battle doesn't mean I lost the whole war." Tony reminded her. He smiled broadly when his coffee and blueberry scone were sat in front of him. Food of the gods. "So how's college life treating you? Oh and make the reply fast… I'd hate for all these nice individuals to hoist you by the ceiling fan if you take any longer."

Darcy snorted and sent them a nasty glare as if that alone would prevent such a thing from happening. "Yeah, right. Classes are going fine. Passing most of them. I need 6 credits for one of them, but that'll be easy enough. I'll just bug Jane about it and I'm sure she'll help."

"You are aware that Political Science has nothing to do with Astrophysics, right?" Darcy was a pretty girl, but she had a tendency to come off as a bit…spacy like not really seemingly to give a crap about most things and being a bit of a complainer. Tony had to give her employers and professors props for not having found a way to conveniently get rid of her.

"Well duh, but credits are credits wherever they come from and if they help me pass and get my degree, I really don't care." Darcy waved his receipt at his face. "So when are you and Pepper gonna get together? We're all taking bets."

Tony raised an eyebrow and let out a barking laugh. Yeah, like he and Pepper were ever going to go out on a date. That was about as likely as a pig flying into the coffee shop. In other words, it wasn't going to happen even though the woman was awesome. And put up with his ass on a daily basis. And had seen him in many compromising positions. He trusted no one about Miss Pepper Potts, a goddess in her own rights.

"Keep holding your breath." Tony picked up his order and walked over to an empty seat by one of the windows, grabbing a newspaper on the way. He sat there, reading through it, half listening to the music and quiet chatter of the patrons as they went on with their routines. It was actually kinda relaxing to sit in here sometimes, like everything in the world outside slowed to a crawl and nothing out there could affect things in here.

Tony looked up as the bell above the door jingled just in time to see a man come in. He was briefly surprised.

The man was tall and thin, made mostly by a pair of mile long legs, and had dark hair that reached just past his shoulders and was smoothed back from a pale face. An stunning face with sharp cheekbones, a perfectly straight nose, and thin lips. What really got Tony's attention, however, were the pair of deep emerald eyes that looked out from under well-kept eyebrows.

And those entrancing eyes glanced over at him and a grin threatened to pull at a corner of those thin lips.

Or maybe that was all Tony's imagination. It was quite possible, actually.

He watched the man walk to the receptionist line, receiving looks from most of the female patrons and Tony wondered who he was. He'd never seen him here before, but with his hours it was entirely plausible he just always missed him. He'd have to ask around. Which also made him wonder why he was suddenly so curious about a perfect stranger.

Who in the world was that?