#<— no trash fires here this is just my Summoning Mutuals tag now

[cuteniarose]

Happy Old New Year to all my beloved mutuals who have no idea what I’m talking about <3

[mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea]

First lines meme thingie

I was tagged by @mcfiddlestan, and I rarely ever get tagged for things.  So here goes.  

Rules: Post the first lines of your last ten fics read or written and then tag others to do the same.

10. WIP: From Chapter 5 of Mission (Part 2, of Hemispheres): 

"Oh.  You're back, Stark."  

Tony stepped up to the cell just as Loki's honeyed voice greeted him from the darkness.  Behind him, Fandral continued to use what Frigga had given him – more daylily, it seemed – to keep the guards befuddled and forgetful about their presence.

"I am, Bambi.  And I see...well, hear...you're still awake.  Which is good.  I'd hate to think I was disturbing your sleep," Tony retorted, the corner of his mouth quirking into that smile that let anyone know he was amused, especially with himself.  

Tony had actually fallen asleep after navigating his way back to his room and crawling into the orgy-bed.  It was Fandral's voice hovering right over him, followed by a hand shaking him that had jolted him from sleep.  He couldn't be mad, though.  After all, here he was again, in Loki's presence.  

Even if he couldn't see him yet.  

As that thought entered Tony's mind, a candle silently illuminated the cell, and Loki sat on the edge of the narrow bed, dressed for sleep, his hair down around his face but not tousled yet to indicate any sleep.  Those stunning green eyes pierced through the glass to stare into Tony's.  

9. From Chapter 1 of Mission; “A spirit with a vision (Is a dream with a mission)”; (Part 2 of Hemispheres): 

"Tony, this is madness."

Tony finished his third cup of coffee and poured another for himself.  He turned to offer Thor a refill, but the God of Thunder covered the top of his ginormous mug with his hand to politely refuse.  Buzzing from the caffeine and distracted for length of a cicada's wing-flutter, Tony tried to remember which one of them had taught Thor to be polite about coffee.

"It's not madness, Thor.  I've just...had time to think about it, and...Loki should be here.  Not...wherever you put him," he hedged and tried to meet Thor's eyes.

"He threw you through the window of your own home.  He wrecked your city.  He killed..."

Setting the carafe back on its hot plate a little rougher than he'd intended, Tony took the three wide steps it took to land him right in Thor's space, and he glared up at him.

"And how many have you killed, Hammer Time?  You're the actual warrior, so how much blood do you have on your hands?  How much innocent blood, at that?"

Thor was taken aback by the acrimony in Tony's tone, the way those dark eyes flashed with a red-hot forge fire that burned the breath between them.  He lifted his cup between them, took a drink of what remained in it then set it down again.  He never took a step back or tried to push Tony away.

"That is not a discussion we're going to have, Tony.  You're upset with me, and I cannot fathom why," he told his friend, a hint of warning to his voice.  "The last I knew, you were glad to see my brother returned to Asgard for punishment.  You have nightmares..."

Tony stepped back of his own volition and waved a hand to dismiss the last thing Thor mentioned.

"You don't know anything about my nightmares.  They have nothing to do with your brother."  When Thor gave him a questioning eyebrow raise, Tony poked a finger into his chest.  "They don't.  Compared to what I saw in that wormhole, Loki was just a pissed off kitten."

8. From Part 1 of Hemispheres; Far away you were made in a sea just like me: 

It was the gray light that gently tugged him from sleep.

Tony squinted, and at first, he wanted to grouse and tell the cloudy morning to go fuck itself; he wasn't ready to wake up.  Especially when a warm body spooned against his, a creamy-skinned arm draped over his side, and the hand that belonged to it cupped his belly.  That was enough to make him smile and close his eyes again, his own hand slipping away from where it rested between his cheek and pillow to settle on that other hand.

This must not be one of his many flings that he picked up at a bar or conference because he felt no need to get out of bed and begin the Ritual of Escape.  He didn't have the urge to run and leave Pepper to 'take out the trash', as she so often explained it.

Wait.  Is that Pepper behind me?

Tony caressed the knuckles of the hand on his stomach, and while the hand was fine-boned and nimble, it was certainly not the hand of a woman.

Definitely not Pepper's.

Still, that body felt so good against his back; not bed-warm the way he would've expected.  It was cooler than most bodies, though not uncomfortably so, and Tony snuggled back against it all the same, feeling this lover's arm tighten against him.

He said fuck it to the outside world and responsibilities again, ready to drift off.  Ready to ignore the meetings lined up for him, the half a dozen projects in his lab, and the business luncheon he no doubtedly was supposed to attend that was Incredibly Important to Stark Industries.

"Mmm, if you keep squirming against me like that, ástin mín, you're not going to make that breakfast meeting you're supposed to be at in..."  Loki lifted his head to squint at the projected clock on Tony's nightstand.  "...an hour," he finished and took that moment to snuggle back down against Tony's back, rubbing his smooth cheek along that naked shoulder.

7. From Ghost of a Chance, a Steve/Bucky/Peggy prompt drabble.

December 1943; London, England

Scratchy tunes faded in and out from the radio in the training facility.  Bucky's eyes focused on the two men in the makeshift boxing ring, working in some training while the remains of the 107th continued to enjoy their break from combat.

Eventually, they'd have to get back in the fight.

Eventually, they'd follow the golden blond leader who barely matched the image Bucky went into combat with seared into his mind.

Eventually, he'd be chasing after Steve like he always did, but this time, they'd be equals against the mutual enemy.

Steve didn't even need him anymore, did he?

So, what the hell was Bucky supposed to do with himself anymore if Steve didn't need him?

"He's pretty amazing to watch, isn't he, Sargent Barnes?"

Bucky glanced over to see the pretty brunette whose heart Steve had managed to snag.  All on his own, too.  Bucky hadn't needed to set up a blind date or anything with this one.  He huffed and shrugged a shoulder.

6. From Behind Blue Eyes, Emma Frost/Loki.  With several twists.

Emma hissed as the cup burned her bottom lip, and she set it down with a scowl.  Yes, she’d wanted hot tea, but she hadn’t needed it to come out boiling or to bring back the moral condemnation that still echoed in her memories.  If Robert were here, she’d ask him to cool it down for her, but he wasn’t.  She knew what was in his thoughts, and she sincerely doubted that he would join her at a café for an afternoon drink.

Would any of them?

She almost laughed out loud to herself when she realized that one person who might was the one person who offered her some of the only comfort throughout the whole debacle.  Logan.  However, she was as aware as one of his claws punched through her chest that he was like the others, too busy wrapped up in a woman who could have prevented everything that had happened, if only she’d been thinking with her head and not jealous little heart of hers.

And everyone thought Emma was the ice queen.

5. From Supernaut; Eventual Loki/Tony but Loki + Nebula; Infinity War/Endgame Divergent.

Whatever pieces of Loki were left in the wreckage of The Statesman were intact enough that healing from death...again...took only as long as Thanos' snap that ended half of all life across the known universe.

Ironically, Loki didn't die in the snap.

He'd been cold after Thor's body floated to...wherever it had once his unconsciousness pried him from the Trickster's corpse.  Loki distinctly remembered that from his place at the gates of Valhalla; that alone told him that his death had come as an honorable sacrifice, and only after kissing his mother and father goodbye – for now – because he'd left unfinished business behind, did he wake up without Thor as his blanket.  

Through whatever grace of the Norns that still existed, Loki stood on that piece of the ship that had held his dead body.  He studied the stars, charted the constellations, found himself staring at Lokabrenna with a smile as it guided him.  It was difficult to breathe as if Thanos' hand was still around his throat, and it was good he didn't need to speak words right away to summon the pieces of the ship around him, soldering it together with what magic he could bring immediately to his fingertips.  His windpipe and voice box had been crushed, and it would take days to heal them unless he dug deep into the secret supply of golden apples he'd stored away ages ago in a dimensional pocket.  Or unless Eir could come to his rescue, but he didn't know where she was.  She and several chests of those apples had been on the escape ship with Brunnhilde, Korg, and half of the Asgardians.

Loki hoped they'd found a safe course and stayed out of Thanos' reach.

4. From We Were Never Boy Scouts; Loki/Steve Rogers.

*

A frost giant and a once-frozen centenarian walk into a bar...

*

That's where the joke ends.  That bar isn't really a bar.  It's the middle of nowhere in the North Siberian Lowland, and there isn't a structure or building or person in sight.

"Golly, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

Loki's eyes twinkle with mischief as he turns to see if his companion is as impressed by his Midgardian cultural reference as he is.

"I don't think we're anywhere near Yatutsk," Steve says.  He's braced his hands on his hips.  His breath forms ghosts.  The air bites his cheeks, nose, and ear-tips until they're red.  Loki's reference hasn't been missed by Steve, but he's not in the mood for a joke.  "I thought you could teleport us anywhere."

He closes his eyes.  Takes Thor's advice regarding a Midgardian calming trick by counting to ten.  Several deep breaths keep him from yelling at the good Captain.

"I can teleport us anywhere.  I did teleport us 'anywhere'.  But I'm not from Russia nor am I from your planet, so I can't get you to exact locations when I haven't been to them, especially not when they seem to be in the middle of Frost-Etin wastelands."

3. From A Warrior’s Wounds, a Kurt/Logan (Nightcrawler/Wolverine) ficlet part of a 130 prompt list, and the only one I actually managed to write.

In the near-two centuries since he’d been alive, Logan had been stabbed, sliced, gutted, burned, shot, survived grenades, canons, arrows, magic, inter-dimensional weaponry, Dracula’s bite, Sabertooth’s claws, Hulk’s smash, Black Widow’s knives, Cyclops’ eye-blast, Jean’s mind-punches, Hank eating his leg, Remy’s flying sparky cards, Rogue’s touch, Emma’s diamond slaps, Reed’s rubbery choke-holds, S.H.I.E.L.D removing his head, Mystique’s...everything, and sometimes, his own clumsiness.  

He’d endured just about every painful thing a body could endure.

And survived.

2. From Hey Jealousy, a Thor: Ragnarok ‘deleted scene’ short-fic; Loki and Bruce have a ‘conversation’ about Tony’s pants.

(skipping ahead from the first lines, which are replaying the canon lines from Ragnarok)

Before they split up to take care of their escape plans, Bruce tugs at the crotch of the pants again.

“How the hell does Tony wear these so tight?”

None of them notice the narrowed glare from Loki that could shoot magic daggers.

Instead, Loki changes his expression and speaks quietly, gently to the man who could rage-shift at any moment.

“Banner.”

The chains are off at last, and Thor’s busy staring at how much liquor Valkyrie keeps consuming.  Loki corners Bruce but in a not-as-threatening-as-it-could-be way.

“Just what are you doing in Anthony Stark’s trousers?”

Bruce stares up...and up...at Loki, his mouth quirks.  Eyes squint.

“What?” he asks, watching as Loki sheds the chains as easily as a snake sheds its skin.  “What does that even have to do with...”

Loki stares down into Bruce’s face, and there’s something in the Trickster’s eyes that gives away his disappointment.  His jealousy.

“What are you doing in Stark’s trousers, Banner?  Are you two...together now?  A...couple?”

1. From Sunset, an Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ficlet during the Framework season of the series when the Framework is being shut down.

Radcliffe breathes a sigh of relief when Mack and Yoyo disappear from the Framework to return to the Other Side.

“Right then,” he says to no one.  “Time tae go.”

But first, he returns to the Triskelion.  There’s something he wants from Madame Hydra’s office.  Something he knows from Hydra-Fitz she keeps in there.

*

Tagging: @scottxlogan, @majorenglishesquire, @kleenexwoman, @mistressofmuses, @elvenferretots, @iamanartichoke, @gaslightgallows, @mypaopu, @jcrewguy, @mayphoenix