And here comes the epilogue! I hope that, after all this time, the ending won't be a disappointment. Thank you for your feedbacks and special thanks to Nyaed for her corrections. Enjoy your reading!

Epilogue: Tying up the loose ends

Infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. proved as easy as hacking into the server of MIT during his first years of attendance.

An uniform, a fake identification card, and the map of the building on the microcomputer he wore around his wrist like a watch, where he could see the guards' movement in real time, allowed him to pass the most populated floor without any problems.

Convincing the elevator to accept his fingerprints and his retina was only a little harder, but Jarvis had already taken control of the surveillance cameras. Tony only had to plug in the USB flash drive he had brought to open the elevator and reach the basement where highest security prisoners were being held.

"There are two armed guards in front of the elevator. I suggest you to use the suppressor during the next ten seconds, sir."

"Thanks, Jarvis."

He pressed against one of the walls of the elevator so that he wouldn't be seen, and as soon as the doors began to open, he placed the tiny sphere on the floor and pushed it towards the hallway. There were no sounds, except for a low hiss – it was a little, harmless sphere which was able to fire tranquillizer darts thanks to Jarvis' remote control, one of the inventions he had worked on while he was bored because of the lack of progress with his anti-magic prototype – and the two agents guarding the elevator fell down with two simultaneous thuds.

"If you reach the right hallway and follow the map, you'll have a clear path for two minutes and twenty seconds, sir," Jarvis told him, while Tony crouched down to collect the suppressor.

"Roger that."

He walked through the hallway with his grip on the suitcase so tight that he feared he would distort the handle. He got rid of another guard with the suppressor, catching him by surprise thanks to Jarvis' indication, then he used the electronic key that would convince the last door he possessed Fury's fingerprints and voice to pass the last obstacle that separated him from his target. Once it opened he froze.

Loki was in front of him, sitting on the cot where Schmidt should have been.

"I was wondering when you would arrive."

For a moment, Tony couldn't breathe. He was sure that all of this was just a huge joke from the fates.

He acted out of instinct, while he was still trying to accept the fact that the god was in a S.H.I.E.L.D. cell, but it didn't matter: Loki was there, and Tony had a chance for payback. His suitcase had already started to unfold, morphing into his suit, giving him a weapon in a confrontation for which he had been yearning since the moment he had been pushed off the roof.

Just a second before his suit began covering his body, though, he found himself thrown into the wall without the god even making a movement towards him.

"Calm down, Stark. There is no need to make a fuss."

Muffling a curse, Tony desperately tried to free himself from the invisible force that was forcing him against the wall, with his breath heavy and his heart hammering against the Reactor, but he wasn't able to move, not even an inch. Schmidt was at his feet. Dead. His body had been torn apart, and his face was frozen in an expression of unbearable agony; soon he would be the same. He returned to watching the god again, cursing his own slowness and the fact he hadn't brought his prototype with him – and why should he have brought it, when he had been ready to face only S.H.I.E.L.D.? However, the thought of having the perfect weapon to exact vengeance, if only as a prototype, and having left it at home burnt.

It wasn't fair, and he knew that nothing in the world was truly fair, but still he couldn't avoid feeling like his chest was full of rage and regrets. He wanted to at least have a chance against the bastard god, to see if his prototype functioned, to die with dignity, and not like an harmless mortal.

"Come on, Kylo, what are you waiting for? Just kill me," he spat out.

Loki arched one of his eyebrows.

"And why should I kill you?"

He burst into a bitter laughter.

"Why, you ask?" He struggled again against the pressure that was holding him trapped before replacing the laughter with a glare. "You were the one who pushed me off the roof the last time we saw each other, or did you forget?"

Loki rolled his eyes, and if Tony hadn't been blocked by his magic, he would have attacked him barehanded.

"I wonder if your intelligence is maybe a sporadic condition," the god commented, making a slight movement with his fingers.

The invisible force disappeared in an instant, and Tony fell down deadweight, panting.

"What the fuck does that mean?" he growled while he was still trying to regain control of his body so that he could get up and strangle the god.

"I do not want to kill you now, and I did not want to kill you then."

"Well, good way to show me, making me do a leap towards the asphalt."

Loki met his eyes with a smile, following his uncertain movements until Tony managed to stand up again.

"Do you really think that if I had wanted to kill you I would have pushed you exactly when Thor was passing nearby?" The god smiled. "It would have been more efficient to just break your neck."

And it was true to a point that Tony stopped himself for a moment before trying again to put his suit on and look for vengeance in an unfair fight in one of the highest security buildings belonging to S.H.I.E.L.D..

"I guess it makes sense," he grumbled with a little reluctance because he hated to be proved wrong even when the tables were being turned with such speed that he felt almost dizzy.

He looked at the god, then he shifted his attention towards the corpse that laid between them without holding back a grimace.

Loki had taken both his chances at vengeance from him.

"So, what are you doing here?"

In any other case, he would have speculated it was an attempt from the god to frame him for Schmidt's murder, maybe set off the alarm before disappearing, leaving him as the only culprit, but the Nazi had been pierced by an half dozen knifes made from ice, which were still sticking out from his dead body like a signature, and not even all of Fury's will could connect those weapons to him.

"Did you really thought I would let a mortal who dared to defy me live?"

"And you thought to come settle the score only now? Right before I came here too?"

The god shrugged.

"I was not aware of his survival. I discovered it with you."

For a moment, Tony stared at him with a gaping mouth before his surprise was replaced by his indignation.

"I knew it! I knew it wasn't only my imagination that there really was an invisible stalker who made my things disappear and preyed on my favorite bottles and harassed me during the night."

Loki shot him a grin.

"Stalker?" he asked then, in a questioning voice.

"A sociopath who is morbidly, obsessively in love with someone, who spies and follows them, invades their home, and doesn't have the slightest respect of the basic concept of privacy. In the matter in question, you." And it was unbelievable how much that discovery was lightening his chest, giving him a hint of triumph.

On the god's face, the grin was replaced by a grimace.

"I only wanted to make sure that you did not drown yourself in alcohol before our showdown."

Tony snorted.

"Don't tell me you're getting emotional."

The god returned serious and Tony felt his eyes sliding down his frame in a burning path. For a moment, it was like he was back to a room full of alien corpses with adrenalin filling his veins like a drug and Loki above him, his demanding mouth on his own, his hands exploring every inch of his body to caress and own and give him pleasure.

"You belong to me, Stark. Be it in my abode or in yours, it matters not."

Swallowing, for Tony, suddenly became very difficult.

"Should I take that as a compliment?"

But part of him had already decided to take his words with an increased heartbeat and an annoying and at the same time pleasant sensation of warmth inside his chest.

Loki smiled at him without averting his eyes.

"You should."

Tony's briefcase was still between them, half turned into his suit, but he didn't have any intentions to fight anymore, not now that it was so clear that they weren't really enemies. The god must have noticed the change in his mood, since he relaxed, and for a moment it was like a few weeks before, when they had enjoyed each others company more than they had expected.

"You know," Loki began, swinging his legs like he was a young boy, the glimpse of a smile at the edge of his mouth, "My offer still stands."

Tony met his eyes with a shiver. Loki was exactly what he desired: an interesting mind, a perfect body, a lover, and a myster,y and a god with whom he had maybe begun feeling much too comfortable.

And he was tempted, even more than the last time, now that his life was in pieces and that every single day as Tony Stark had become a torment. Leaving a house where he felt like a stranger and the people he couldn't bear to face would be easier, way easier, than staying. He gave form to his regret through a smile before shaking his head.

"I could never abandon Capsicle and the others. They would be completely lost without me. But my offer still stands too."

"I have already told you what I think of it."

"I guess there's not much more to say, then. There are no windows to push me through, will you break my neck?"

The god smiled.

"Not without your suit. It would not be fair."

Tony offered his hand the same way he had done on the roof.

"Well then, no too hard feelings?" he asked, but instead of accepting his hand, Loki stepped closer with a fluid, elegant movement that was so fast Tony almost didn't register it, and in the blink of an eye his hand was on Tony's hair, tugging it a little, just enough to give him a not unpleasant glimpse of pain.

"Stark," he murmured, a breath away from his lips.

It was Tony who started the kiss, a contact so familiar that he felt the urge to melt against the god and the same time to grab his shoulders and never let go, to have the certainty that he could keep the god with him forever, because Loki was kissing him back with his same need, teeth, tongue and lips that wanted to mark and explore and own every inch of his mouth. The god was the only person Tony had seen in the last few weeks without having felt the desire to disappear or to hide in the solitude of his lab, he was the safety that the part of him that was still broken desperately needed.

He bit down on his lower lip hard with a needy sound he would be ashamed of in other circumstances, and suddenly they were pressed together, devouring each other, rubbing against each other's body through clothes that had never been as frustrating as that moment – and was it really so wrong to have sex in a room where there was a corpse again?

Tony arched against the god, looking for some friction, while he was sure that his erection trapped in his boxers would kill him in matter of seconds if he couldn't free it, and then he found himself kissing the air.

He immediately opened his eyes, panting.

"Son of a bitch."

In the sudden silence of an empty cell, there echoed a dark laugh.

Author's final note: And so this story ends. As some of you already know or have guessed, there will be a sequel focusing on the war against Thanos and on the sort of relationship between Loki and Tony. Before that, though, thank you so much to you all! I started translating this story as an attempt at my first translation to English and I would never imagine that so many of you would read it and even leave me reviews. I'm actually quite moved to see how many people caught interest in it. I really hope you like how I chose to end it, even if it wasn't an actual end.

I also want to give special thanks to Sara, fabricdragon and Nyaed, who all helped me with my chapters.

Now I'm taking some time to focus on my real life, evil exams are coming. But I'll return with the sequel as soon as I can. I just have to decide whether to publish it as soon as I write a new chapter, like I have done until now, or to start publishing it only when it's finished.

So, this is it. I'd love to know what you thought about my story, now that it's ended, but anyway, thank you for having followed me so far.