st_arkravinghazelnut | December 18th, 2012

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December 18th, 2012

Following the Battle of New York, Tony Stark and his brand were becoming many things. The days of being a no-accountability war profiteer were already well behind him, but he hardly anticipated playing landlord to a ragtag team of honest-to-god superheros. In the aftermath, that was one the first things he set about doing with Pepper. With her blessing, Tony had thrown himself into it. Never one to half-ass things, he oversaw the extensive remodeling to accommodate the specific needs of each and every Avenger. Several were essentially homeless and there was no initiative for the superpowerly-abled, even in a place as progressive as New York.

Including Steve. Even if he called Stark Tower ugly and immediately found an apartment somewhere in Brooklyn. Even though Tony set aside one of the top 12 floors for him like everyone else. Fine.

Today was all about adding that personal touch. He was giving free room and board, might as well be a gracious sugar daddy about it. Besides, who wanted to thwart crime with a guy or gal whose liquor of choice you couldn't name? Just bad form.

Stopping outside the luxury suite dedicated to the arguably most unique new friendly friend, Tony bounced on his heels. He contemplated just walking in for a split second, but he liked having his cranium hammer-free. And it was still about being gracious--as much as he could be. "JARVIS? Ping Point Break for me." Tony didn't feel like knocking. This was a compromise.

"Mr. Odinson, you have a visitor." JARVIS dutifully announced from within Thor's quarters.

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"I always have time for a spin on Mjölnir," he says. "It's one of my favorite things in our universe."

"Let's do it." Tony quirked a small grin. "After some pepto bismol."

Some time passed before Thor felt well enough to take a spin on Mjölnir, but true to Tony's word, the human medicine had helped and he managed to avoid emptying the contents of his stomach in Tony's car. That would have been embarrassing. He'd seen humans sick before -- Jane in particular -- and Asgardians were hearty enough that sickness wasn't a frequent occurrence.

It isn't long afterwards that they find a place appropriate for taking flight -- a place far enough away that they weren't likely to draw human attention.

"You're going to need to hold on tightly," he tells Tony. "When I spin the hammer, it sometimes pushes even the strongest mortals away. I'll hold onto you too, but I'd feel more comfortable if you did the same."

A quiet beach near Sandy Hook that overlooked the bay was the order of the evening. JARVIS had already been directed to deploy at the slightest sign of trouble--Tony had little doubts about the activity beyond the inevitable awkward question that was coming up...now.

"Where's the best--..." Tony's quick mind worked to decide the best orientation to grapple Thor. Whatever was the steadiest, the most secure.

"One arm over the shoulder, the other one under my arm. That's usually how Jane does it."

Thor smiles at Tony; he's aware that some Earth men for some reason had problems with that kind of closeness between two men. Setting aside Thor's own personal preferences, he didn't understand it. Maybe it was because he'd grown up unashamed of anything and spoke or did whatever he wanted without thinking about how he might be perceived for doing it.

That and Earth could be socially backwards compared to the other eight realms that surrounded it.

"It doesn't make you uncomfortable, does it?"

Tony rolled his eyes and then maneuvered his arms into the proper orientation. He asked for this, after all--even if he had to stand on his toes to do it.

"Well." He wiggled his brow. "Let us defy-eth the stars."

Thor wraps an arm around Tony, then starts spinning the hammer. The force of it lifts Thor's hair off his shoulders ever-so-slightly and then --

they're off, speeding skyward at a tremendous speed. Thor lets out an excited laugh and looks over at Tony, eager to see his reaction.

"It's different from flying around as Iron Man, isn't it? I love feeling that rush of air against my skin. I never tire of it."

And Thor has been in possession of Mjölnir since he was very young, comparably speaking.

Tony felt the air rush out of his lungs, stifling the gasp that nearly slipped out. The cold wind chipped at his skin, though Thor's body temperature was utterly unaffected. A necessary secondary power, of course.

Tony kept his head down at the water below, protecting his dark eyes from the headwind. The shimmering waves raced past as did the dark sky with the indigo clouds above.

It was exhilarating. Not unlike his first flight in his Mark II armor. Though flight never became boring, this was the first time he'd taken to an elevation with nothing between him and the air.

"How do you like it?"

As they speed up, Thor has to shout to be heard over the rush of wind. He's not usually talking to anyone while he's flying; in fact, other than Tony, Jane was the only one who got to ride on his hammer and they didn't usually talk when they did it.

"Have you ever seen Aladdin?" Tony shouted back. It was tempting to request that they descend near the water for him to dip his hand in, but at their velocity...probably not the wisest impulse. "Peter Pan?"

"No," Thor says. "Should I?"

Thor doesn't have the slightest idea what the two of those movies is about.

"They--nevermind, we'll watch 'em later." Tony patted Thor's shoulder appreciatively from the wrist down. He couldn't make out the man's face past his chin as he utilized his head for a windbreak, but Thor didn't have to know that.

As they made another arc towards the sky, Tony gave him another pat to garner his attention. "Not too high, not too high. I can't keep excited as a Starksicle."

Thor brings them down to lower heights as per Tony's request.

"I forgot sometimes how fragile humans are," he says. He really does. Asgardians are made of far sturdier stuff. Even at those heights Thor didn't have any trouble.

"Should I pull us in for a landing so you might warm up?"

"As long as you help." Tony saw little point in playing macho here. He nodded towards a little crescent-shaped island some 200 meters away.

Thor hums in confirmation, then looks out to where Tony is nodding. Their speed begins to slow as they make their approach, and when they're a few feet off the ground, Thor drops, then sets Tony down on the ground.

"There," he says and he looks around, staring out at the rest of the beach. There's nothing particularly special about it; it looks the same as any other island on Earth. He turns and looks back at Tony with a befuddled expression, clearly looking for explanation.

"Nothing fancy." Tony grunted as he shook his limbs to wake them up, presenting his chilled hands. "Just blow on them or something."

Edited 2018-11-14 00:41 (UTC)

"You really want me to warm you up?" Thor looks at Tony, incredulous. He hadn't believed that he was actually serious about it. Tony seemed unserious about virtually everything.

Thor takes Tony's hands into his own, then folds then sandwiches them in between his own. Tony's hands are truly cold against his much warmer ones. Thor runs his hands over Tony's in quick motion, then leans over to let out a hot breath over them.

He looks up at Tony, long blonde locks falling into his face. "Are you good?"

Tony quirked his head in a leisurely affirmation. The closeness, the skin, the breath--they all brought questions Tony had long been mulling over to the forefront of his mind.

The thickness of his skin hadn't felt different, nor did it feel rougher, so how durable was it? How long would his digestive system take to process all that fat and protein? Thor's metabolism in general had raised some interesting questions all night long in and of itself. There was a theory that body size and metabolic rate affected the perception of movement and time. How true was that for a race so long-lived as the Asgardians? Even as Tony got older, a veritable embryo in comparison he was, the days seemed to blend together.

"A little more wrist action. Really get those blood vessels pumping." He simply smiled. "Please and thanks."

"I don't know how you survive if you're this cold all the time," Thor says, rubbing his hands over Tony's faster than before. The friction of their hands against one another warms Thor's palms. He can't tell if it has warmed the other man any.

"If you need to, I can wrap you up in my drape."

No, Thor hasn't forgotten Tony's quip during their first encounter.

"What are you gonna do? Swaddle me?" Tony imagined Thor fashioning him into a burrito of an Iron Man, and he snorted. "It looks better on you, Prospero." Tony gave Thor's arm a good-natured pat.

"I thought you would look cute with a hood like your Little Red Riding," Thor says. Swaddling Tony had never even occurred to him.

"I'd look what now?" Of all the many, many, MANY things people had called Tony Stark...'cute' was a first.

"Like your Little Red Riding," Thor repeats for him, assuming Tony was asking specifically about who he'd resemble. "She has the grandmother who was swallowed by the wolf." An attempt to jog Tony's memory.

"Yeah, I know who she is. Not seeing the resemblan--why am I even arguing with you?" Tony tossed up a hand.

"It's because you don't have the hood yet," Thor argues. "You would agree if you tied my cape into a hood for yourself."

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