❝ ˢ ᵃ ᶜ ʳ ᶦ ᶠ ᶦ ᶜ ᵉ ❞

   Stephen here, looking for the other Avengers,    that thing with TONY was a one time event,     promise not to let the rest of you die. 

❝ not the spectacle.—–  ❞       that’s for the press, maintaining appearances, and sprinkling a little attention on relationships with acquaintances that are occasionally useful.  ya know, business.       ❝ –— the real party. ❞       chin dips as if divulging a secret  ( he kind of is.  this is not public information. )         ❝ the one with the actual fun people. ❞        a pause. if he weren’t such as ass, he’d stop there.   instead —–        ❝ and you, of course. ❞       

Loki sighed and leaned into Stephen’s touch, wondering how in all the Nine he had managed to stay sane those past six months without him. He hadn’t been lacking in things with which to keep himself occupied; He had had the run of the Sanctum’s vast libraries and archives, as well as the upkeep and protection of the Sanctum and the realm to attend to. But he had felt Stephen’s absence through all of it. The missing part of him that he had spent so many sleepless nights worrying might not survive to return to him. The missing part he hadn’t known was so very vital until it was already gone. 

He knew that the mission Stephen had gone on was noble and for the good of the realms, but Loki was still a selfish man at heart, and had wanted more than anything for Stephen to stay in the Sanctum with him where it was (mostly) safe. 

He was already teetering on the edge of what felt like a very steep drop into a sea of uncontrolled emotion, and Stephen’s words were only making it worse. He desperately wanted to stay composed for the sake of his pride, but it was becoming harder and harder with each passing second. 

“You should know better than to say things like that to me,” he said, trying to scoff. “You stand to inflate an ego which you have informed me on numerous occasions is far too big.” He brought a hand up to where Stephen’s rested on his face and linked their fingers together. He was sure Stephen already knew how much his trust meant to him, which was a relief, as it meant he didn’t need to vocalise it. 

“You don’t need to thank me.” 

   ❝ Of course I needed to thank you, you did a lot for me and for the Masters of the Mystic Arts. I know his stressful running this place is, on top of everything else you have going on. ❞   He would never doubt whether or not he could trust Loki, Stephen had long since learned that his lover was one of the people he could absolutely lean on. Time and time again he had relied on it and it have never fallen out on him. He believed in Loki and he was glad for the fact that the other would stand by his side and be there for Stephen. Especially when he needed him. 

   ❝ Come on, let’s go somewhere where we can talk better, not the middle of the Sanctum. ❞   He still needed to change and take a shower too, he wasn’t sure what was crawling around on him underneath his robes but he was quite sure he didn’t want to find out especially considering how big it felt and the dimension he had just wandered back from. 

   There had been Ants, the size of his head. 

         ❝ why, were you looking for me? ❞ the trickster teased, stopping in his tracks to turn and face the mortal. with a raise of his brow and a smirk crossing his lips, the look on loki’s face was a mixture of amusement and curiosity.

         ❝ what’s the matter, strange? do you need help with one of your little spells? ❞ 

‘ right. ’              tony nodded his head, his arms still folded against his chest. it could have turned out worse, thanos could have won, stephen had made his point as far as that was concerned. but tony was standing there searching for something that he clearly wasn’t going to find - just a small inkling that stephen had cared about whether he’d lived or died. he realised pretty quickly that he should admit defeat, he wasn’t about to find what he came looking for. 

‘ gotcha. ’        tony nodded his head and turned to look back at the door before he took a step in that diretion. then he paused.     ‘ i actually came here to tell you that shield are planning on stopping by, they want to recruit you since the whole place has fallen apart and half the team is gone. i just figured i better give you a heads up since last i checked that wasn’t your thing. they can be very persuasive, maybe mildly threatening depending on which way you want to look at it. ’

   ❝ Stark, ❞   Stephen sighed and loosened his grip on his chest, arms falling down to his side even as his hands clenched there. He lost some of the defensiveness he had taken, gaze moving away from the billionaire before he forced it back. Stephen was never a coward, he was one who stood his ground and backed his choices up. Even if they were viewed as rather awful ones regarding other people. There are people who would never forgive him for having to make the decision he did, and Stephen understood that. But no one was more directly effected by his choices than Stark. Simply because he was the endgame. 

   He was the key to ‘victory’ as loose a term as they could claim that.

   ❝ It wouldn’t have been a victory had you died. ❞   They could claim they won, that they beat Thanos, but it wouldn’t be a victory. It would have simply been an end to a terrible station, that Stephen was sure of. And the fourteen thousand six hundred and five futures that he saw backed that claim up as much as everything else. 

   ❝ It’s never a victory if even one life is lost. ❞   He offers Stark a smile and turns his gaze away, hands falling to tuck behind his back underneath the Cloak of Levitation.   ❝ There’s a little spider boy that would greatly remind me every second he got of that had you died, I’m sure. I spent quite a long time with him telling me stories of the great Tony Stark. ❞   His head inclines back a bit, looking down at the other.   ❝ And he definitely didn’t make the choices I had to make easy. ❞   That was all he was going to say on it, if he regretted having to pick between their reality and Stark’s life. 

‘ not that you cared, clearly. ’          his arms were still folded and his expression remained as stubborn as it possibly could. sure he’d lived, that had been clearly luck and it probably hadn’t been on the cards as far as stephen’s various visions played out. why had he come to visit? honestly he’d been holding to that little bit of a grudge for far too long. now he’d got it out he couldn’t remember why he was actually here.              ‘ well as long as you’re intact that’s all that matters. you’re not even gonna apologise, do you even feel bad about it? because you knew all that time and you didn’t tell a soul. didn’t eat at you even a little? i thought we were…. ’           what were they? teammates? friends? they’d flirted a little too much to be friends but they weren’t anything more than that and now they were probably what could only be classed as a mess.            ‘ i don’t know. i guess it doesn’t matter. everybody lived, that’s all that matters.  ‘

   ❝ I had a choice to make. ❞   The fate of their entire reality or the fate of a single man.

   ❝ And I chose the one where less people died. ❞   It was a choice that no one should have to make, picking one life over another and he did try a different way first. He did try to stop Thanos on Titan. And they almost won, almost, if that moron with anger issues didn’t start bashing the damned titans head in and ruin everything. And yet somehow, against all the odds presented to him, Tony Stark survived yet again. He fought destiny itself and he came out on top, every piece of him intact and just a little worse for wear. 

‘ i’d say you owe me a whole lot after you kept me alive to kill me at the proper time, dumbledore. or was that snape? i don’t remember. it’s been a while since i read those books. ’          tony shrugged his shoulders. arms folded, the right one shielded in his armor. he made his way towards the sorcerer probably with one too many questions waiting on the end of his tongue. where did he start?          ‘ you did know, right? you didn’t save me the first time because you got overly fond of me? ’