"Hopefully that's them told," Tony whispered as the crowd began chatting amongst themselves again.

"Tony!" 

Obadiah Stane came pushing through the crowd. 

"Obie!" Replied Tony, pleased.

"I think we need to have a talk," the man said and, to Loki, it sounded ominous. "Without Mr Walker here."

Loki walked away without another word, leaving Tony and his guardian with a little privacy. A few people offered him congratulations and then Jane walked up to him.

"Thank you so much for inviting me, Alden," she said, smiling.

"You're very welcome," Loki smiled back.

"It was very kind of you to invite all your friends from the hospital as well," Jane continued. "I had a great chat with Libby."

"I'm glad you got on," said Loki.

"Yes, she made some things clear," Jane answered. "See you around, Alden."

After Jane left, Daniel walked up to him.

"Enjoy that, Al?" He asked, grinning. 

"I hope I've convinced some of them that I've got what it takes," Loki replied.

"It sounded like you were born on the stage!"

Born on a throne, more like, Loki thought.

"Your face will be in the papers tomorrow, you know," Daniel pointed out.

"Luckily it's a good face," Libby said, appearing between them.

Daniel laughed in surprise.

"You think that, do you Libby?" He asked, amused.

"Yeah I do," she replied defiantly.

Daniel and Loki shared a surprised look.

"Seems like you've got yourself an admirer," Daniel muttered, brushing past Loki and patting him on the back as he did so.

"I thought your speech was fantastic," Libby said, face glowing with admiration. "You'll have them all eating out of your hand in no time."

"Thank you," Loki replied, genuinely appreciative. "I hope so too."

"You'll be great," she whispered and, before she could change her mind, kissed him on the cheek and walked away, seemingly skipping with excitement.

Tony appeared just in time to see the kiss. 

"Wow, you're getting all the ladies tonight!" Tony crowed. "First Miss Foster and now the delightful nurse!"

Loki took it all on board. It wasn't as if he'd had no suitors on Asgard; there'd been plenty of men and women content to spend time with the trickster despite his troublesome reputation. People wanted to be with a prince, no matter what that prince was like.

He shrugged.

"You got more attention than I did," he pointed out.

Tony waved a hand dismissively as though it was nothing.

"You'll have them all squawking about you in no time. You've got multiple available options: either flirt back, pretend you're not interested in romance or come out as someone who doesn't like sex."

Tony was shockingly flippant about the whole thing.

"It's obvious which path you chose," Loki commented, rolling his eyes. "Flirting."

"Don't sound so virtuous, with your 'holier than thou' attitude. And I said I preferred women to avoid disappointing anyone. But if it's a pretty man, sure - I'm up for anything. Well, almost anything."

Loki sighed.

"You're a hopeless case, Tony."

"Or maybe I'm just comfortable with my masculinity," he replied, waggling his eyebrows as if to say: 'beat that'.

"And how is that related?"

"Oh, I don't know," Tony said, throwing his hands about. "Bisexuality trumps toxic masculinity or something like that."

"Well I think we should leave before the papers get you involved in a scandal about said toxic masculinity," Loki said, putting his hands on the shorter man's shoulders and steering him towards the door. "There are bad men out there."

"And I'm one of them," Tony murmured sleepily.

Loki just rolled his eyes.

*

Luckily it didn't take Tony long to recover from his hangover and thankfully he could remember enough of his speech to be able to regurgitate a summary in a news interview the next afternoon. He also relayed Obadiah's message to Loki.

"I don't think he likes you," he said, rather bluntly, while sipping at his third coffee. "He was suspicious of the move."

"Well there was nothing suspicious about it," Loki reply neutrally. "If anything goes wrong, it's all your fault. I didn't hire myself."

"You did apply for a job," Tony accused.

"Yeah, the first time!" Loki pointed out. "You came to me the second time."

"True," Tony mused, staring into space.

The billionaire could be extremely forgetful at times.

"Does it matter if he doesn't like me?" Loki asked carefully.

Tony shrugged.

"Depends if you care about the board being against us and his eternal disdain. He was a fussy guardian; I prefer you by my side, Alden."

"Thanks," Loki replied, surprised. "So you're going to ignore him and his_ Did he threaten you to get rid of me?"

Tony shrugged again.

"He said you were a poor choice. But it's my business. I can do what I damn well like."

"As long as you're sure," Loki muttered, unfolding his newspaper.

*

"I've got an idea," Tony announced to the living room a few days later.

Given that only Loki shared the house with him, the volume of his exclamation was unnecessary.

"To appease Obie, we need to come up with something new. He can't complain if you're shown to do some good for the company."

"Way ahead of you," Loki said, turning around. 

He had a phone in his hand and had been typing away at it.

"We're going to invent a new smartphone. I've already come up with a few ideas."

"I knew we were on the same page!" Tony said, pleased, throwing himself on the sofa next to Loki.

"So there are things that everybody hates about the current smartphones," Loki explained. "Size of the screen and keys, glitches, storage, data usage, things like that. With the help of surveys we can compile a list of what everyone wants fixed and reformatted and make a new phone."

"Now this is why you're the ideas guy!" Tony exclaimed.

They shared an identical grin.

"We'd better get started," said Loki.

*****

A.N. As is obvious, Tony is very honest and open about stuff and Loki simply remains unflustered. I hope you enjoyed their banter!

Thank you for reading!