FIC: The Lightning Strike ~ Movement I, pt 2 of 2 ~ Loki/Tony Stark ~ Mature

[batsutousai]

Title: The Lightning Strike
Fandom: Marvel (movie 'verse)
Author: Batsutousai
Betas: Runic, SharaLunison, Nimohtar
Rating: Mature
Pairings: Loki/Tony Stark, Phil Coulson/Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Thor/Jane Foster
Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega trope (to an extent), actual wolf pack dynamics, intersexual Jötnar, sexism, suggestion of previous dub-/non-con, mating, hurt/comfort, Loki just needs some love, Bruce really wants to go Hulk on Odin, Tony is confused about everything (but not as much as Steve), Clint is an absolute ass (& drags Natasha and Phil along for the ride), Pepper is kinda a BAMF
Summary: Pack dynamics are confusing enough for the Avengers without adding the complete mess that Thor and Loki grew up with, but they aren't given much choice when Loki goes into heat in the middle of a battle and Tony's alpha instincts tell him he has to take care of his pack, enemy or no.

Part One

-0-

Steve met him at the door, looking entirely too worn for Tony's comfort. Instead of stepping into the apartment, he grabbed Steve's arm and dragged him out onto the landing, the door closing behind him. "What's wrong?"

Steve sighed and rubbed at his eyes. "He's been whining and moaning and begging for you since you left."

Tony raised both eyebrows as far as they would go. "Excuse me."

Steve's laugh was not comforting. "You heard me."

Tony stared at him for a long moment, then shoved past the soldier and into the apartment. He found Loki curled up on the couch, whimpering and rocking himself. Steve had managed to get the god out of his armour, at least, and into a pair of cotton trousers and a shirt – or Loki had been wearing that under his armour, more likely, since there shouldn't have been any clothing in the apartment.

As Tony's scent reached him, Loki fell silent and his body relaxed. "Stark," he breathed.

And then, like a shot, Loki's entire body tensed and he got up and stumbled from the room, the bedroom door slamming shut behind him.

Tony felt Steve stop at his side, smothering a laugh behind one hand. Tony closed his eyes and groaned. "Jesus Christ, how is this even remotely my life?"

Steve gave up on muffling his amusement and let out a bellow of a laugh.

Tony shot him an unamused look, then walked over to the bedroom door. He rattled a quick knock against the wood and called, "Loki? Do you want to explain that little show?"

Loki was silent.

Tony sighed and ran a hand through his hair, unsurprised. "Do you need anything?" he asked Steve, determined to ignore the faint giggles the captain couldn't quite contain. At least he'd stopped bellowing his laughter.

Steve snorted and covered his mouth. "Nothing JARVIS can't find for me."

Tony nodded. "Good. Thor left with Clint for New Mexico this morning. He's not intending to come back until either his girl kicks him out, or Loki's settled, so you shouldn't have to worry about him busting down a door."

"Unless Dr Foster kicks him out."

Tony raised an eyebrow at Steve. "Really?"

Steve grinned, wide and obvious behind his hand.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Whatever. If Loki gives you any trouble, I can send someone over to relieve you, so let me know."

"Certainly."

Tony nodded. "Good. I've got some–"

The bedroom door crashed open and Tony crumpled under Loki's greater body weight as the god crashed into his back.

"Tony!" Steve reached forward to try and help, but Loki snarled at him, hovering over Tony, then buried his nose against the back of Tony's neck, breathing him in.

Tony, for his part, held very, very still. "Loki," he called, forcibly keeping his voice calm. He had no fucking clue what was going on, but he had a sneaking suspicion this had to do with Loki spending the last twelve hours complaining about him not being around.

Loki relaxed against his back and let out a contented hum.

"Loki, you need to let me up," Tony said.

Loki let out a whine and pressed his face harder against the back of Tony's neck.

"Now," Tony ordered, steel in his tone.

Loki let out another whine, but he obediently backed off enough for Tony to get to his knees. Before he could rise the rest of the way, however, Loki lay on the ground and curled up around him, head in Tony's lap, shoulder pressed against one side of Tony's thighs, knees pressed against the other.

Tony closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then looked helplessly up at Steve.

Steve blinked a few times, clearly just as confused as Tony. "I– I don't–"

"Go get Bruce," Tony suggested, because he was the one who understood the most about the Asgardian's – and Jötunn; Jötnar, whatever – fucked up physiology.

"Right." Steve gave a quick nod, then spun and ran from the apartment.

Tony sighed and turned his gaze down at the god in his lap. Loki had clenched his eyes shut, one hand clutching at the front of Tony's shirt. "You wanna explain this, Rudolph?"

Loki turned his face away, hiding against the inside of Tony's thighs.

Tony sighed again. "I didn't think so," he murmured, finally giving in to the strange compulsion to run his fingers through the tangles of Loki's hair.

Loki relaxed and hummed, pleased.

Tony really hoped Steve and Bruce got back before his legs fell asleep.

-0-

Bruce took one look at them and sighed. "Tony," he said, "what do you do when Clint ticks you off?"

"Get the fuck away from him before I rip him a new mouth in his neck?" Tony suggested.

Loki huffed a laugh against his thighs.

Bruce turned his eyes heavenward for a moment. "Who do you go to? When you're stressed."

"Pepper," Tony replied shortly, feeling a bit defensive. Bruce knew where he went – all the Avengers did.

"Why?" Bruce pressed.

Tony shot him a sharp look.

"Bear with me, please."

Tony let out a quiet growl, barely aware of his hand soothing down Loki's back when the god shifted uncomfortably. "Because she's my alpha."

"She's safe," Bruce pushed and Tony gave a short nod, scowling. "You stood up to Thor in the park, told Loki you wanted him safe from other alphas."

"Oh," Tony breathed, glancing down at the god, who was still clinging to his shirt. Loki had turned his head enough that he could peek up at Tony through one green eye, a sort of helpless fear dulling the usual colour. Tony carefully ran his fingers through Loki's hair again, just firm enough that the omega would know they were there. "Well, I do. As often as I want you locked up and out of our hair, right now I want you safe. You're pack," he murmured. And maybe that was oversimplifying things a bit, but Tony had a feeling that simple was as much as any of them was going to want right now.

Loki hid his face against Tony's thighs again.

Tony let out a quiet sigh and glanced up at Bruce. "I'm going to have to stay here," he guessed.

Bruce glanced back at Steve, who carefully stepped forward and placed two suitcases within easy reach. One was a horrid paisley affair that Tony almost remembered from the very back of his closet – Clint's idea of a birthday present – the other was the Mark V. "If you need anything else, one of us can run it over," Steve added, offering Tony a helpless little smile.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, chaffing at the restrictions he could already feel closing in on him.

From his lap, Loki let out a quiet whimper and flexed the hand clutching Tony's shirt, gathering more fabric in his fist.

Tony took a deep breath, reminded himself that he had duties as Loki's alpha, dammit, and he'd sworn off being a fucking failure back in a cave in Afghanistan. "Okay," he said quietly. "Okay. Loki, I need to check my suitcase, and you need to let me up for that."

Loki reluctantly uncurled himself from around Tony, sitting up at Tony's side and hanging his head.

Tony reached out and ran his fingers through Loki's hair again, watching the faint tensing of his shoulders relax at the contact. "Do you want to go sit on the couch?" he suggested. "It's more comfortable, and I'll be right over."

Loki shifted uncertainly for a moment, then shook himself and climbed to his feet, movements suddenly violent. He wavered for a moment, need and fury warring across the lines of his face, then he spun and stalked over to the couch, falling into the cushions with a huff.

Tony found himself unspeakably relieved at the reappearance of the contrary Loki they were all so familiar with, as brief as the appearance might turn out to be.

"I had to kick Clint out a few times, so he may have slipped something in," Steve offered apologetically as Tony pulled the ugly paisley suitcase onto its side.

"Second mouth, I swear," Tony muttered, pulling the suitcase open. The necessities were there, packed to military standard, and Tony very carefully tilted his head away when he rolled his eyes, so Steve wouldn't see. Clint's contributions turned out to be an arrow filled with that solution to knock out Thor – ostensibly meant for Loki, should the Trickster pose a threat – and one of the Hulk rubber duckies that Stark Industries had started selling as a lark. (Tony was keeping the creator a secret from Bruce, half afraid the good doctor would go mean and green on the bright young woman who had been dared by her co-workers to bring the project to Tony's attention. He'd thought it was brilliant and approved it immediately, much to Pepper's resigned amusement. Bruce seemed eternally torn between horror and disbelief whenever one of the ducks appeared in the tower, and Tony suspected that Clint got as much of a laugh as he did at Bruce's reactions, which was why they both kept bringing them up and leaving them where they were certain to be found.)

Bruce groaned upon seeing the current duck, then turned and walked over to the couch. He didn't sit next to Loki, instead choosing to crouch down in front of the couch. "Loki, I don't know if you're aware that there are differences between human packs and those of the rest of the Nine Realms, but there very much are, and we're not really sure what to expect from you. Can you walk me through what a normal heat is like for you?"

"I don't answer to you, Monster," Loki spat.

"Okay, no," Tony snapped, hurrying over and standing behind the couch, one hand dropping to the back of Loki's neck. "Everyone's pack, and there will be no name-calling."

"Or what?" Loki demanded, craning his head around to glare up at Tony as he sort of half attempted to shrug Tony's hand off of him.

Tony raised an eyebrow. "I leave."

Loki went tense all over, his eyes widening with such depths of fear that Tony felt dizzy watching him. Then the god ducked his head, chin to his chest, and pulled his knees up to curl around them.

Tony gently massaged the back of Loki's neck, feeling the tension leak away like water through a cracked bowl the longer he did so. "We can tell you how it works in our culture, and then you can fill in the blanks," he suggested, glancing down at Bruce.

"I can do that," Bruce agreed with a cautious smile. Loki must have made some sort of silent response, because he continued, "For humans, only women have a heat. It happens every two to four months, depending, and usually lasts about a week. During that time, they can become pregnant, and a pregnancy will put a hold on future heats until the child is born. From what I've been told, women tend to be supremely miserable if they're not sexually active during their heat, and some honestly can't function without some sort of object – penis or sex toy, the body doesn't differentiate – filling them."

Steve let out a faint noise of discontent and hurried from the room. Tony smirked a bit at Bruce, who rolled his eyes.

Loki shifted under Tony's hand, uncomfortable, and explained in a stilted tone, "I have only suffered one heat previous, and cannot speak for other omegas, but it is my experience that there is first a need for–" his breath hitched, "–for physical contact, then intimacy. My last heat lasted...I believe it was four of your weeks, but time passes oddly in the Void."

Tony tensed, but before he could comment on that last, Bruce asked, in a voice laced with carefully controlled fury, "You've only ever had the one heat before?"

Loki pressed back against the hand on his neck and gave a cautious nod.

Bruce let out a hard breath and closed his eyes, knuckles tinged green where they were clenched too tightly. "For humans," he said, voice low, anger less controlled, "it's dangerous to chemically suppress a woman's heat. It can lead to all sorts of physical damage, even death." He opened his eyes, violently green, and spat, "If I ever find whoever suppressed your heat, I'll–"

"Bruce," Tony murmured, pressing his hand tighter against the knot of tension at the top of Loki's spine, "as much as I enjoy Mr Hyde's company, I don't think this apartment will survive him."

Bruce took a great, shuddering breath and pressed his fingers against his eyes, setting his glasses askew. "Sorry. Sorry, I know. Give me a minute."

Tony was quiet while Bruce regained his centre, fingers soothing along Loki's neck. When the other scientist finally opened his eyes, Tony ordered, "Go check on Steve. Make sure he didn't drown himself in his embarrassment."

Bruce gave a jerky nod and hurried to hunt down their other pack-mate.

Tony considered his options for a moment, then boosted himself over the back of the couch and settled down next to Loki, keeping his hand on the back of the god's neck the entire time. "I can do physical contact," he promised quietly, ducking his head forward so he could meet the watchful green eyes hidden behind a curtain of black hair. "But I have a rule about sex while someone's in heat, and that's that it doesn't happen unless it was fully discussed beforehand."

Loki's eyes widened. "That's not–"

"I'm not Æsir," Tony interrupted, certain he knew what Loki was about to say. "And I'm not Chitauri, either," he added, making an educated guess as to who had handled Loki's last heat. By the way the god tensed and his eyes closed with shame, Tony knew he'd guessed right, and his stomach rolled with a sick sort of fury. "I'm Tony Stark," he continued, keeping his voice steady, "and Tony Stark has rules about taking advantage. When you're in heat, you can't make a proper choice, your instincts won't let you. In the park, when your heat was still just coming on, you told me no. Nothing you do until your heat is over will ever mean yes. Do you understand?"

Loki gave a great shudder and leaned over, sagging against Tony and pressing his nose against the human's collarbone. "Thank you," he whispered.

Tony closed his eyes and shifted so he could wrap his arm around the god's shaking shoulders. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you," he whispered into the black hair that tickled his lips.

It was going to be a long month.

-0-

Loki kept a constant contact with Tony all day, seeming much calmer when the contact was skin-on-skin. Tony took off his shirt as soon as Bruce and Steve left, simplifying things for them both, and Loki ended up taking a nap curled against him while Tony liquefied his mind via daytime television.

He called out for dinner, ordering them a pizza to share. There was some limited food in the pantry, and a couple of perishables in the fridge, which Steve must have ordered before Tony arrived that afternoon, but Tony's 'cooking' skills were limited to coffee and pasta; nothing he could rightly serve someone going through their heat. (Not that pizza was much better, but it was the first number that came up on his phone when he started thinking about ordering something.)

Loki turned his nose up at the pizza when Tony first opened the box. Tony rolled his eyes at the god and happily got himself a slice to eat. Within a couple minutes, Loki gave in and tried a slice. He then proceeded to devour a good two-thirds of the pie.

"I'm going to count pizza as a win," Tony decided as Loki curled back up against him, eyeing Tony's last slice. Tony, very determinedly, didn't give in.

(He totally did.)

With the last of the pizza finished, they settled back in for Loki to continue his nap while Tony stared blankly at the television. He wanted to be working on a project, but the movement required to work on even just blueprints would have upset Loki. And, really, Tony was finding the constant physical contact a bit too comfortable to fully consider shifting them so he could work.

Tony was just dozing off himself when Loki let out a helpless little moan and shifted against him. He jerked to full wakefulness when his instincts started jumping up and down, because something about Loki's scent had changed. It was too subtle for Tony's human biology to fully understand, to fully figure out what the change signified, but Tony remembered what Loki said about his heat being two parts.

Loki's hand cupped the front of Tony's trousers and he grabbed the hand, pulling it away. "No," he said, voice edged with all the steel that he could muster.

Loki let out a whine and tugged his hand as though making an attempt to get it free, but not trying hard enough to actually do so.

In response, Tony grabbed Loki's other wrist in his free hand and moved both hands so they were touching the god. "Look at me," he ordered.

Loki shook his head and whined again.

"Look. At. Me."

Eyes dull with an all-consuming need met Tony's.

Tony took a deep breath and gave a gentle squeeze to the wrists he still held. "You can touch yourself. You can touch me, but your hands have to stay above my waist. Understand?"

Loki shook his head, licked his lips, and whispered, "I n-nee– I need–"

"I know what you need. I'm telling you no."

Loki whimpered and leaned forward so he could press the crown of his head to one side of the arc reactor.

Tony let Loki's wrists go and brought his hands up to card through the god's hair. "JARVIS," he called.

"Sir," his AI's voice responded from the speakers of his phone.

Tony closed his eyes and cautiously let his hands rub along Loki's shoulders. "Call Pep, tell her I need that black box in her closet that I'm not supposed to know about. And send Happy to pick it up from her and bring it to me."

"Of course, Sir."

One of Loki's hands slid very lightly along Tony's thigh, and he caught his breath before firmly reaching down to catch the errant hand. "Above my waist," he reminded the god, holding the hand against his abdomen.

Loki breathed a silent complaint against the bottom edge of the arc reactor, but obediently kept his hand against Tony's stomach, fingers splayed. The god's other hand was worryingly hidden from Tony's sight, but so long as he didn't suddenly feel it against his lower body, he decided not to care about its whereabouts.

In the time it took Happy to arrive, Loki didn't move. He let out the occasional noise of discontent, and his fingers spasmed against Tony's skin a couple of times, but he was otherwise as still as the grave.

When the door chime sounded, Tony let out a quiet groan. "Loki, I need to get up."

"No," Loki whispered, but he obediently pulled away so Tony could get up.

Tony shuddered at the easy obedience, hated it with a passion that surprised him, but he took what he could get and went to answer the door.

"She looked a little bit like she wanted to kill you, Boss," Happy informed him as he held out the small box.

"I'm sure she'll ply me with enough paperwork to make me want to kill myself, once I can get back to the tower," Tony replied drily.

Happy flashed him a knowing grin.

Tony smiled back, a little tired, but entirely honest. "Thanks, Happy. Sorry if I woke you."

"Don't worry about it, Tony," Happy replied easily. "So what's in–"

"If I told you, she'd be out for your blood, too," Tony pointed out and Happy paled. Tony resisted the urge to cackle and stepped back to close the door again. "Good night, Happy."

Happy swallowed. "Good night, Boss."

Tony closed the door, waited a moment for Happy to stop loitering and leave – the man was too predictable, really, and Tony loved him for it – then he started towards the bedroom. "Loki, come with me."

Loki moaned a bit, displeased, but followed Tony all the same.

In the bedroom, Tony set the box on the bed and frowned to himself as he fiddled with the electronic lock Pepper had foolishly put on it. (She'd hidden it well, but if she hadn't wanted Tony to snoop, she should have used a normal lock. Which she knew. So, really, she had no cause for being disgruntled with him over his knowledge of it.)

Loki settled gingerly on the edge of the bed, in easy reach of Tony, as he got the lock open. He carefully opened the lid, half expecting it to be booby-trapped, but nothing happened, so he let the lid drop back to the bedcovers, showing off the small collection of anal toys.

"Like Bruce said," Tony explained for Loki's confused frown, "when human women go into heat, they sometimes need to have something in them. When they can't find someone willing, they use sex toys. These ones are specifically for anal use."

"Oh," Loki breathed.

Tony took a firm hold of the god's chin and made him meet Tony's gaze. "The box stays in this room. I will not touch any of these. I'm also going to leave this room in a minute, and I won't come back in here. This room is yours, okay? I'm going to stay on the couch if you want me, but you're under no obligation to do so. You can totally spend the rest of your heat in here, if you want."

Loki just sort of stared at him. Gratitude and understanding were bright in his eyes for a long moment before the need took back over and his eyes turned down towards the box.

"Okay," Tony whispered and leaned in to press a kiss against the god's forehead before he realised what he was doing. He blinked at himself, then hurried back to the couch in the living room.

God, this whole thing was fucked up.

-0-

True to his word, Tony didn't enter the room again, and he didn't try to force Loki out. He did make sure to provide three meals a day, leaving them on a tray outside the door with a quick announcement that there was food there. Loki must have been eating it, since the dishes were always empty when Tony dropped off the next meal, but he didn't see the god, and he never heard the bedroom door opening.

The third evening of Loki's heat – almost a full twenty-four hours since Loki had started craving sexual intimacy, a little over forty-eight since the battle in the park – Bruce called with news: "I had Jane ask Thor for anything he might know about their omegas, and it turns out he knows quite a bit."

Tony sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Of course he does."

Bruce let out a sigh of his own. "What Loki told us is pretty much true of all Jötnar. Their heat has two stages: The first few days are spent craving physical contact; the less time spent in that first stage, the shorter the heat, which Thor seems to think can last up to two months."

Tony groaned. "Of course it can. Well, Loki moved on to the second stage last night, so I hope his cycle is going to be brief this time through."

"Hm. Thor also said that a Jötunn's heat cycles on only every fifteen years or so."

"He said he was in heat while in the Void," Tony pointed out, keeping his voice low. He knew Loki had said time was odd in the Void, but it couldn't be that messed up; Thor had said it was only a little over a year between when Loki had fallen into the Void and when he'd reappeared on Earth.

"I know." Bruce let out a strained noise. "I don't know if this accelerated cycle is because someone suppressed his heat for so long, or if it's the cause of something that happened to him in the Void. I'm not sure we'll ever know, even if Loki will submit to testing."

"Magic," Tony muttered, eternally irritated with what Thor considered to be a particularly advanced form of human science. (Tony thought Thor had been knocked around the head too many times. Bruce very politely agreed with Tony. Even if he rarely said so.)

"How is he?" Bruce asked after a short silence between them.

"I gave him the option of locking himself in the bedroom with some dildos, and he took it," Tony replied frankly. "He's eating, at least, but I haven't seen or heard from him since I left him alone."

"...do I want to know where you got dildos from on such short notice without leaving the apartment?"

"Trade secret."

"That's what I thought," Bruce said drily, then burst out laughing.

Tony grinned at the 3D blueprints he'd been working on, the mask of the new suit staring back at him without humour. "How are things in the tower?"

Bruce snorted. "Fine. Clint seems set on making sure Steve catches him in every compromising position Natasha will agree to."

Tony huffed, more amused than irritated with Clint's assholery, for once. "Just Natasha?"

"I think Phil was more embarrassed than Steve when Clint tried something with him, honestly. Phil will let you spot them, but he's worked out some sort of system with JARVIS to keep Steve from spotting them."

"You know," Tony muttered, feeling a bit petulant, "when I asked JARVIS to warn me if I was about to come across Clint's idea of fun, it only worked about a third of the time."

"Want me to ask Phil what his trick is?"

Tony considered that for a moment, then shook his head. "Nah. I suspect Clint is bribing JARVIS somehow. I don't want to make Phil and Steve suffer because I changed something and JARVIS won't warn Phil any more."

Bruce made a quiet sound of approval. "And you swore you'd never make a good alpha."

"I'm a terrible alpha."

"You're the best alpha I've ever had."

Tony choked on an inhale and coughed to cover the confusing rush of emotions that washed over him. "That's–" He coughed again. "That's not a high bar, there, Brucey."

"Keep an eye on our omega, Tony," Bruce replied, wisely changing the topic.

Tony smiled and glanced back towards the closed bedroom door. "I will. Let me know if there's any trouble I need to handle."

"Steve or I will call you first thing," Bruce promised. "And I'll let you know if we learn anything more that might help you with Loki."

Tony turned back to his blueprints. "If Thor starts talking about ownership again, I might just kill him," he muttered.

Bruce sighed, tired and with an edge that spoke to how trying the current events were on his own temper. "I'll keep you posted."

"Thanks, Bruce," he said and hung up. Tony allowed himself a glance at the closed door, then turned back to his blueprints, starting up a new project to let him, with any luck, get some forewarning about Clint's trysts without utilising JARVIS.

-0-

-0-

A/N: Wnnb_darklord's gifset for the confrontation between Thor and Tony in the tower can be found on this tumblr post.

Because it confused Nim a bit: In actual wolf packs, only the alphas are allowed to mate. Betas are celibate, save for extenuating circumstances – like an alpha male/female who doesn't care to mate. Humans get that their betas are going to be fucking around on the side, and they might well be an alpha in another pack, but their alpha instincts say the beta(s) shouldn't be making eyes around them, and it gets their hackles up.
Different alphas will let their betas get away with more, and the situation can have some effect on things, too, of course.

Hope that helps with any questions you might have had!

The Lightning Strike ~ Chapters
Movement I ~ What If This Storm Ends | Movement II ~ The Sunlight Through the Flags | Movement III ~ Daylight

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