Prequel Chapter 45

“It may be best to simply wait for the portals to open and ask Mr. Odinson to see if there is similar activity coming from Asgard.”
“What if they move to another location by then?”
"They will never open in the same place twice."
“So they’ll be shifting constantly.” Tony frowned, tapping his foot and nibbling on his thumb. Hundreds of different ideas ran through his mind. “We’ll just have to see if Thor can find where they open on the other side. I can’t think of anything else.”
Loki nodded. "If I can get close enough to them during missions when I close them up I could possibly tell where they are but there's a great possibility they may be opening everywhere and anywhere."
Tony nodded at Loki’s words. “Is there a chance these are just random fluctuations? I mean, they don’t seem focused enough to be actual attacks.”
“The energy did change quite sporadically during the first attack Sir. From what I monitored, the portals were not as stable as those we have encountered before.”
"Which means whatever or whoever is causing them to open has never done this before so as long as I am there they will be easy to close."
“If this is an amateur, do you think they’re doing this on accident? Maybe they don’t realize that they’re actually sending creatures here?” Tony looked at the god truly curious.
"Well that’s just it you can't make creatures like those go where they don’t want to. Most likely the person using the spell isn't very well trained and opened it and those beast just happened to walk through."
Tony was relieved to hear this. At least they weren’t directly under attack. “So I guess we’re just stuck going around and closing these portals whenever they show up.” He shrugged; it was better than preparing for full-scale attack.
Loki nodded. "That would be the simple way of putting it.”
“All right. I’ll tell Fury I talked to Thor and we got this problem fixed.” Tony shrugged, pursing his lips a bit. He didn’t like the idea of giving Thor credit for Loki’s help, but Fury would skin them alive if he knew the god was helping. “You mind getting dragged around to close portals?”
"Not at all." Loki said. "What’s in the other realms needs to stay there. Thor wouldn’t know how to close them anyway."
Tony chuckled a bit and nodded. “Guess you’re right huh? He’s more the beat-it-to-death type.”
"That's always been his answer to everything."
Tony smiled at Loki then stood and served himself more meat. He grabbed a beer and sat back down. “That was my dad’s answer to everything too.”
Loki picked up another bit of meat to eat.
Tony took a bite of his meal, licking his lips a bit.
"May I have a bottle of water please?" he asked.
Tony nodded and stood, grabbing a bottle for the god and handing it to him.
“Sir, I have finished analyzing the portal data and have sent copies to Director Fury. When will you be informing him of your new plan?”
“Not just yet. I want to run it by Thor real quick in case Fury actually talks to him.”
“Of course Sir.”
"Still dumb as a box of rocks." Loki grumbled to himself.
Tony looked at Loki and chuckled a bit at his comment. “Who, Thor or Fury?” He sipped his own drink then picked up his plate. “I’ll talk to Thor so he’ll help us with our little white lie. We can tell Fury he found someone that can close the portals on the other side.” He shrugged. It was a stupid lie, but Fury wouldn’t know better anyway.
"But in truth it will be me closing them." Loki stated. He hated letting Thor have his credit. Thor had been taking the credit for years.
Tony nodded then sat with the god. “I’m sorry it has to be this way. If it were up to me, we’d be telling everybody that you’re the one that closed those portals.” He looked at Loki apologetically. “But it’s just for a little while.”
Loki shoved more food in his mouth. Without his magic it was a bad habit he'd picked up.
Tony watched the god and shook his head a bit. “You’re gonna make yourself sick eating like that.” He finished his beer then checked a few things on his phone. He absently added a few things and removed things from his schedule.
“Jarvis, reschedule this meeting Pepper has.”
“Will she not be upset with you Sir?”
“Tell her she can have that weekend off; she’s been stressing out about it.”
Loki frowned and shoved more into his face before drinking some water to help it go down.
Tony just shook his head as he watched Loki eat. He certainly looked more like Thor the way he shoved food into his mouth. “All right, no more food.” Tony grabbed the box and put it in the fridge.
Loki finished what he had in his mouth and headed off to his room with his glass of water.
Tony watched the god go then ran his hands over his face. “You’re welcome!” He frowned a bit then headed back down to his lab.
“He’s upset Sir.”
“I know he is Jarvis but I can’t just magically make everything better!” Tony sat down in his lab, pursing his lips. He didn’t like having to lie about Loki helping any more than the god did but they didn’t have many options.
"You could have just let him eat." Jarvis said. "It seemed to be making him feel better."
“All right genius, and then when he gets sick what do I do?” Tony snapped back at the AI then kept working on his earlier project. He burned his hand on his welding gun and just sat there fuming for a moment before going upstairs.
"Let him deal with it. Sir he's going to have to find a way to deal with his anger and his feelings on his own." Jarvis said.
Tony grumbled a bit but knew Jarvis was right. For something that wasn’t even human, Jarvis certainly was wise. Tony put some ointment on the burn and huffed a bit.
“I know you’re trying to fix everything Sir, but you must also let him deal with the pain that will cause.”
Tony was quiet a moment when Jarvis said this. He just didn’t want Loki to call it quits.
"Sir you've pulled him out of that stage but now it’s time you let him walk on his own two feet." Jarvis said.
Tony nodded quietly then walked out into the living room. “Remind me to talk to Thor when we get back. Tell Fury I’m meeting with him and then I’ll tell him the rest.”
“Very well Sir.”
He felt so tired suddenly. Tony dragged himself over to the couch and fell onto it.
Loki's stomach did hurt a bit more from stuffing himself as he had but it passed after a while.
Tony slept on the couch that night, which he greatly regretted the next morning. These weren’t nearly as comfortable as the ones he had back at the tower. He was sore and stiff everywhere.
"You did say you wanted to buy new couches for your home here, Sir, so you wouldn't wake up in pain every time you slept on them." Jarvis reminded him.
“Thanks for the early reminder Jarvis.” Tony groaned and got himself up slowly. His back popped loudly and he whined.
“Might I suggest a hot bath Sir?”
“Yeah, that might do the trick.” Tony rubbed his lower back and headed to his bathroom.
Loki was tucked into his bed under a mound of blankets that he'd gotten up to get in the middle of the night.
Once the tub was full of hot water, Tony sank in and sighed. His body immediately began to relax and he smiled a bit.
“Much better.”
“Shall I order your new couches Sir?”
“Yeah, go ahead.” He didn’t use this house often, which was a shame. He preferred the sun and beach scenery.
"Perhaps you should think about making this house into a second Avengers headquarters." Jarvis suggested.
“You know what? I should. Why don’t you go ahead and send Fury an email, so if he’ll go for it.”
“Of course Sir.”
Loki finally woke up out of what looked to be a nest of sorts.
“Good morning Mr. Laufeyson. Did you sleep well?” Jarvis asked the god and did a quick scan to make sure he wasn’t sick.
He nodded with a yawn. "Yes Jarvis I'm fine." Loki said
“That’s good to hear Mr. Laufeyson. I’m afraid this vacation will need to be cut short. The Director has asked that Mr. Stark do more analysis of the portals from his tower.”
Loki sighed. "Couldn't leave us be for all of two weeks." Loki grumbled. Getting up the god stormed his way into the kitchen to put out the smoked meat from the night before.
“You can always return another time Mr. Laufeyson. And once this location becomes converted into another Avengers headquarters, you will not need Director Fury’s permission to visit.”
Tony finished his bath after a while and got dressed again. He walked out of the room, his hair brushed back as he waited for it to dry.
“Jarvis, have you gotten a reply back from Fury?”
“He is seriously considering it Sir.”
"Jarvis I'd really like silence right now." Loki grumbled.
"Of course Sir, Sorry." he said.
Tony walked past the kitchen, engrossed in his tablet.
“All right, we’re going to need something that looks like it’s working to close the portals without actually disrupting the energy.”
“I can have a few designs ready for you Sir, though you will have to return to Stark tower today.”
Tony sighed but figured as much.  He had more equipment at the tower and couldn’t exactly talk to Thor from his house in Maui.
“All right, get everything ready for me.”
"Already working on it Sir. The plane will be ready to go in two hours." Jarvis told him.
“All right, thanks.” Tony scrolled through his tablet, making some designs for the machine. It would have be convincing enough for Fury to believe it was helping to close the portals.