Great Minds Think Alike - FrostIron

Chapter 07


The pavement was incredibly cold. Sure, it was late at night and wintertime, still, Tony was baffled by how cold it could be, or maybe that was just his reaction to bleeding to death all alone.

He was an idiot, that was the simple truth, he had gone alone, not wanting to face the others and now he will die as the idiot he was, with no help en route to aid him, only the coldness of the wind billowing around him.
Like a distant night, one when his life turned upside down.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the mouthy bastard at loss of words.” Snickered a wicked voice from above him. The man walked closer to the genius, gun still in hand, and looked down to his prey.
He was so close that Tony could smell the stench of smoke from the half-lit cigarette.

He knew that this was it.

No suit, no weapons, no help.

He yelped in pain when the man stepped on his injured shoulder, then glared back at him, refusing to let him see his fears.
The man laughed viciously, pressing a little harder on the wound, “Got any last wishes?” he sneered back, pointing the gun at Tony’s head, ready to shoot. “No? too bad…”

Tony held his gaze and then the world turned red…



Blood, his mind supplied, so much blood…





6 hours earlier…



His mind was still reeling after Bruce’s discovery, his world falling apart. A piece of metal in his side, ‘cause the ones crawling towards his heart weren’t enough.
Still, the real question here was ‘what the hell happened?’ He had no recollection of a knife fight, much less one with him on the losing end, especially since he should be dead, right?

Or not.

Tony sat on his lab’s floor, he held his head in his hands, recalling a ‘certain’ night, when he drank his weight in alcohol and mysteriously ended up back home.
He had thought about it the next day, but then it had slipped his mind completely, after all that was hardly the first time he got home drunk, and yet something kept tugging at his mind, some lingering thought that he couldn’t quite grasp.

“C’mon, man, you’re supposed to be a genius, here, remember!”

He kept thinking and thinking back at that night, he knew something was wrong and yet he can’t remember what.

“Perhaps I might be of assistance, sir?”

Jarvis voice snapped him out of his reverie, of course! Jarvis!

“Jarvis, oh, man, Jarvis, I knew I was a genius!” Tony exclaimed, jumping to his feet and heading towards the holographic screen over his desk.

“Jarvis, pull the security footage, let’s say about three weeks ago.”
He waited patiently to have all the footage and started sorting through it, going room to room, watching his friends walk, talk, eat and then he found the one he was looking for, the one from the night when he broke up with Pepper.

What he saw was truly mind-blowing, to say the least.

He watched it five times before having Jarvis describe the scene for him, ‘cause that simply can’t be true.

“It appears, sir, that Mr. Laufeyson was the one who brought you back from your night out.”

“Fuck, Jarvis, I can see that, but… that can’t be real… why would he… no, this makes no sense whatsoever…”
He stared once more at the screen in front of him, watching the Liesmith carrying his sleeping form to the bed, stripping and cleaning him, hands lightly touching his naked flesh, a brief touch on his reactor, and then… and then… he frigging caressed his cheek!

Tony felt utterly shocked, of all the things he was expecting, this certainly wasn’t it.

He looked at the Loki on the screen once more and then everything came back to him in a rush, a man dressed in black… a flash of silver… a stinking alley… blood, pain, and huge green eyes…



‘Open your eyes, look at me! Talk to me’



Oh, fuuuuuuck!



He was totally screwed, that was for sure, and yet he could feel something else tugging at his heart.
But first things first, he had to know if this was a one-time thing or if the Trickster had something else planned for him.

“Jarvis, did he… did he came back after that night?”

“… yes, sir.”

Tony closed his eyes, he had to know, but what will he find? Obviously he’s still alive, so no harm had come to him, or his friends, but what the hell was happening, and more importantly, why?

“Show me.”

Jarvis ordered the scenes chronologically, starting with that first night, their bedroom encounter, and every night after that with a certain god cuddled against Tony’s side, petting and whispering to him, soothing him when his nightmares clawed at his mind, caring for him when he was sure that no one, not even Tony, could see him.

Tony sat back at his desk, this was just too much to digest, he needed help, someone to talk to, someone that could actively advise him.

“Jarvis… uhm… Jarv, call Bruce, tell him to make a huge cup of tea and to come here, I… I need to show him something.”

“Yes, sir, doctor Banner in on his way.”

Tony was playing idly with a piece of his gauntlet when he heard the door to the lab opening and Bruce’s voice calling out to him.

“Tony? You here? Jarvis told me the strangest thing, are you okay? Did something else happened?”

“In here, big guy, as for the rest, I have no idea.” Tony slowly raised from his seat and went to greet his friend.
He grabbed Bruce’s cup of tea and gulped down a mouthful before giving it back to the doctor.

Bruce was rooted to the spot, he had never, ever seen Tony Stark drink anything that wasn’t either coffee or Scotch.

“Tony… are you dying?”

The inventor laughed a little, “no, big guy, I’m fine, I think. I need you to see something and then I need to know what you think about it. Here, have a seat and enjoy it. I’m gonna grab a shower and we’ll talk later.”

“Okay, sure, but why the dramatics? Tony?”

The inventor left without answering and Bruce made himself confortable at his desk, he waited for the video to start, fixing his glasses and tasting his tea.
The screen played the security footage from Tony’s bedroom, the stamp on the left side dated it back to almost 3 weeks ago, he didn’t know what to expect, but surely not Loki entering the room with Tony in his arms.



Well, maybe he needed something a little stronger than green tea.



The water was a perfect mix of cold and hot, just the right temperature to loosen all the knots on Tony’s shoulders and to keep him awake despite his exhaustion.
His thoughts kept circulating on a pair of green eyes, and he touched his lips with his forefinger, he hadn’t dreamt the kiss, nope, no sir, he wasn’t hallucinating, that was as real as everything else.
The inventor sighed deeply and shut off the shower, he dried himself up as fast as he could and went to find Bruce.
If he kept thinking about their little ‘something’ he’ll get distracted and this was not the right time.
He stepped into his bedroom and found the doctor already there, nervously fiddling with his glasses.

Bruce looked up when he heard Tony entering the room, “I… Tony, I… uhm…” he didn’t know what to say, what to think. What he had seen wasn’t just some random prank on the Trickster part, one could clearly see the care in his actions, but to what end?

Was it really as it seems? Was Loki… was he… in love with Tony?

And yet, what other reason could it be?

They looked at each other for a long time, Tony knew what Bruce was thinking, he had thought the exact same thing after all, great minds think alike, so when the doctor only stared at him, he knew he was lost.

“Bruce, I… ” Tony tried to come up with something witty, to lighten the mood, but came up empty.

“This isn’t about what I think, Tony, it’s about what YOU think of it.”

He couldn’t hold Bruce’s questioning gaze any longer, so he walked toward the window, glancing out to the darkening sky “I’m not exactly sure. I mean, what should I think about it? It doesn’t make any sense, he tried to kill me, to kill us, pretty much every other week in the last year, and now he’s playing nurse? It doesn’t make any fucking sense!”

Bruce’s voice was gentle, soothing, when he answered back ”and yet he had done nothing of the sort in the last two months, right? Even before that, his attempts were nothing more than a ruse to see you, that’s why he always came at you. I’d say that that and this make perfect sense. I think that he-“

“Don’t’ you fucking dare say it!” yelled Tony, turning toward his friend.

“Very well, then, I think you should talk to Thor, maybe… I don’t know, maybe he knows something?”

“Right, ‘cause Goldilocks usually is an unlimited source of wisdom…” drawled Tony, looking as unimpressed as he sounded.

“Well, he usually is when it came to Loki.” Pointed out the doctor.

“Do you always have to be right? Really, you want a trophy or something? Fine, I’ll go find Point Break and we’ll see.”

Tony left Bruce in his room, the doctor was still smiling at his antics, and that was worth a lot, especially seeing how rare it was.

Tony found Thor on his third try, the Thunderer was watching some TV with the others, so he had to lure him out of there somehow, before mother-hen Steve got an aneurysm out of this whole mess.

The inventor neared the couch and whispered to the god’s ear “hey, blond and tall, how ya doin’? Can you come with me for a while, I need to talk to you.”

Thor looked surprised for a moment, then boomed his response so softly that even New Jersey heard it.

“Friend Tony! We have much to talk about, I might need your advice in a delicate matter.”

Three pairs of eyes all turned toward the two of them and Tony knew it was over even before it started.

“What’s wrong? Something happened?”

“Ah, really, advice from Tony, are you drunk?”

“If you need something you could ask, we’ll help.”

“Ehm… that’s okay guys, really, I just need Goldilocks here… he… he kinda have the right expertise, you know.”
Tony was pretty desperate at this point, if Clint or Natasha ever got wind of his situation they’ll rip him a new one, literally.

But, of course, luck was never on his side, lately, so the redhead in question raised a perfect eyebrow and burned a hole in Tony’s forehead with her gaze “talk.”

The genius sighted loudly, this was going downhill very fast, but he didn’t want to actually talk about it, since he still didn’t know how he felt about it.

“Fine, fine. But I’m telling you, I just found out and you won’t like it, nope, not one bit. Jarv, pull up the video and load it on the TV screen, we’re gonna watch a new episode of Crazyland.”

On the screen the movie stopped abruptly, and a new video appeared, one of Tony’s bedroom and a long sequences of raw footage.

The group watched silently till the very end, and then all hell broke loose.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Clint was the first to jump to his feet and confront the inventor.

“Stark, I can’t believe you didn’t tell us!” Followed by a very angry Natasha.

“Tony, oh, my God, Tony…” not to forget mother-hen Steve in his super Cap mode.

“Guys, fuck guys, I just told you-” Tony tried to speak over the chaos, but was suddenly interrupted by a huge roar.



“SON OF STARK!”



They all froze, watching Thor with something akin to fear, it was well known that the Thunderer had a soft spot for his little, homicidal brother.

“Son of Stark…” repeated the god, raising from the couch and nearing Tony, “you’re not a fair maiden!”

They all looked at Thor, thinking that he had obviously lost his mind, “… are you drunk?” asked Clint with mirth in his voice.

“Of course not, but… I had a talk with my brother and he had told me that he was courting a fair, Midgardian maiden and needed help to win her over. He… lied to me.”

Tony blinked twice before finding his voice “Uhm… so you’re saying that you’re upset because the God of Lies actually lied to you?”

“It’s not… I mean… yes.” Thor flopped down again, with his sad puppy-face on “what did you want to know?”

This time Tony didn’t even had the time to open his mouth that the others went at it once again, all turning towards him.

“You can’t be real-”

“How do you know it’s not a trick-”

“Really, a maiden?”

They were talking all together, so loud that he couldn’t even think of what to say back “enough! I’m done explaining myself to you. I’ve done nothing wrong and I won’t be blamed for something that I don’t even get.”
He yelled, looking at his friends once again and feeling a twinge of regret inside.

No one, not one of them actually asked if HE was alright, they all thought that he was a slut, anyway, ready to fuck anyone, so why bother asking if he was okay with it, right?
The inventor turned on his heels and left the room, the shouts still impossible to ignore.
If he had to be honest with himself, it had hurt, and a lot.
To know that they think so little of him, after all they’ve done together, to know that for them he still is and always be just a rich playboy was... frustrating.

Tony left the Tower with a heavy heart, he thought that maybe a walk around the city would help him clear his mind, so he walked aimlessly for a very long time, ending up farther from home than he wanted to.
He looked at the cars parked on the side of the street, it was so late that no one but him was around, the city was completely asleep, so he decided to come back before something happen to him, after all his face was on the news regularly and someone could-

“Well, well, what do we have here?”

Tony jumped at the sudden interruption to his thoughts and turned around, finding a young man pointing a gun at him.

He tried to be reasonable, to soothe the other guy “Look, man, this is not your lucky night, really, I even left home without any cash…”

The young man just looked at him, emerging from the dark alley he was hidden into, stepping under a streetlight.

As soon as he took one good look at his face, Tony’s blood ran cold, he knew this guy, he had seen him before… he was the one that stabbed him ‘that’ night.

“What is it, Mr. Stark? Cat’s got your tongue, uh? I bet you just remembered me, but that’s okay, ‘cause you won’t live long enough to tell the tale, and this time I’ll stick around to be sure that you die. You know, my boss wasn’t very pleased with me after that little stunt that you pulled. Really, who had thought you’ll be surviving that gutting.”
He mused out load, before pointing his gun at Tony “Oh, well.”

The shot was deafening this close, Tony fell on the ground with the impact, but found himself still alive.

The dumbass had missed him… or not, he could feel a burning sensation spreading from his shoulder already.

God, so this was it? The guy was still talking, but Tony could only think of a pair of beautiful green eyes and soft pink lips, sweet and warm against his own.

What a joke, here he was, bleeding to death and yet again he was thinking with his dick, gah, maybe the others were right about him…



“Got any last wishes?”



“No? too bad…”



Tony gazed at the man one more time, this close he won’t miss a second time and then he heard the shot, louder still, and the world went red.