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….
"Pffft," Pepper laughed. This was Tony all over, he was always a master of introducing a dose of absurdity and reckless madness into any matter. "I agree."
After these words, the crowd came to life and began to applaud and congratulate the couple.
Far from everyone was doing it sincerely, but… almost-no-longer-Miss Potts cared little about that. It seems the holiday happened not only for Tony today.
"And now I love you,
And now I praise you!
Finally, you, dirty boy,
Pleased Moydodyr!.."
The strange man who had attracted her attention recited something vaguely familiar in… as it seemed to Pepper, Russian, approaching closer.
"What?" Tony didn't understand, turning to the stranger. However, as soon as Stark saw his face, he perked up as if he saw an acquaintance he hadn't expected to see at all.
"Chukovsky?" the girl recalled something from her numerous self-education courses.
"She understands!" the guest portrayed delight with, as it seemed to her, genuine pleasure. "You're a lucky man, my almost entirely-iron big-mech!"
"You know, when God calls you a word suspiciously similar to 'Big Mac,' it's a little unnerving," Tony shared with the stranger, lowering his voice. Although, judging by his reaction, he remained a stranger only to her.
"Believe me, it's much better than when for ten centuries they tell tales about you turning into a mare, letting a giant's stallion screw you, and giving birth to a foal in the end," the man confided, shrugging, having taken a sip from a glass taken from somewhere unnoticed.
"I think I heard something similar about Zeus and Europa," Stark nodded, taking a greedy gulp himself, staring blankly into space.
"Will someone introduce me?" denoting a carefully measured note of irritation, the girl inquired.
"This is…" Tony moved his fingers in the air, looking at the interlocutor as if choosing words. Right words… Tony. And right words. That alone was alarming.
"Loki," meanwhile, the stranger portrayed a slight half-bow. "I can't kiss your hand, forgive me—I'm not here."
"And where are you?" Pepper asked again on reflexes, trying to fit into her head either the picture of another joke or another unfounded madness in her life.
"In the desert—reading a bedtime story to a cute little girl capable of arranging a massacre. I don't know how she does it," seeing their looks, the brunet raised his hands in a defensive gesture.
"Managing to arrange a massacre?" Stark clarified.
"No, that's actually very simple," the guest waved it off. "How she manages to make me read her fairy tales all the time—that's the question! But why are we all about me and me? Come on, confess, what should I give you for the wedding?"
"Isn't it supposed to be a surprise?" at the mention of the wedding, the girl's lips spread into a smile of their own accord, but she didn't forget that something incomprehensible was happening in front of her.
"No," the man calling himself Loki shook his head, taking another sip of whiskey, "it's better not to trust me in this regard. If my imagination runs wild, it might turn out very awkward."
"Really?"
"You know, Pepper," Stark squinted trustingly as only he can, "something tells me we'd better believe him. By the way," Tony portrayed his inimitable business stance again, switching to the guest, "are spaceships included in the assortment of possibilities?"
"Only a pleasure yacht," the brunet answered in the same tone. "I won't give you a Death Star," he added with expression, in a tone that puts a full stop to the conversation.
"A yacht is good too," the billionaire perked up, convincing the girl even more that these two are clearly on their own wavelength and know something she doesn't.
"So… what did you say your name was?" taking a sip from the glass, Miss Potts resolutely set out to sort out the situation.
"Loki. I just called you," the brunet smiled charmingly, causing in the soul of the CEO of Stark Industries an incomparable feeling that before her was a notorious fraud and scoundrel.
Not that this feeling hadn't been itching at the edge of consciousness the whole time of the conversation, but now it came to the fore.
"Oh, is that so…"
"Yes…" said… Tony, simultaneously and in the same key with the guest.
The men exchanged glances, suspiciously identical smiles of mischievous schoolboys climbed onto their faces synchronously, followed by a short pantomime in which they communicated literally with eyebrow movements.
And Pepper could swear they were discussing who would explain things to her. And Tony clearly wanted to shirk…
"I'll leave you to it," the brunet noticed this too, basely throwing Stark to the wolves with his whole appearance.
"Uh-h-h," the billionaire quickly swept her face with the gaze of a hunted beast and immediately, as he knew how, pretended to discover selective blindness in himself, "maybe another glass?" he shook his almost empty glass with an innocent look, addressing… Loki.
"No, I told you—I'm not here, this body and glass are just an illusion," the brunet repeated his movement.
"And dispersing the guests' attention so they don't notice you talking to emptiness and don't pester you with congratulations is a bit tiring."
Pepper looked around and to her surprise actually noticed that the invitees were behaving somewhat wrongly.
No one was really in a hurry to approach them, catch their eye, give smiles; even when glances swept over them, they did it as if they didn't see them at all.
"Why do you do that?" having also looked around, Tony voiced the question.
"Do what?"
"This invisibility crap," Stark made a circular motion with his hand, as if outlining the space around them.
"Mmm," the guest thought for a second, "imagine Hammer was your older brother who genuinely loves you, and he had three friends of about the same level of intellectual development… who at every holiday would strive to drag you to 'truly masculine entertainment,' as they see it."
"…" Tony froze, staring into space, and his face began to look as if he had eaten something very bitter.
"Can I not imagine that?" he returned to reality. "A birthday is not the time for waking nightmares."
"That's why the ability to be invisible is very important. And it has absolutely nothing to do with the opportunity to peep in the girls' locker room at college."
"Oh yes, of course…" Stark immediately received a surge of strength from a topic close to him, forcing Pepper to roll her eyes. "Wait a minute," the man caught himself, "you said you work as a teacher at some college?!"
"Mmm, do I sense a crisis of faith in you?" the brunet grinned, and only now did Pepper notice how rich emerald his eyes were.
"No, well actually, there is something to it," Stark seemed even ashamed of his fit of morality.
"I knew you'd understand me! Alright, I really have to go, or people will start noticing something is wrong," the guest shrugged, making the glass in his hands disappear in a shimmer of green-gold light.
"As they say, love and harmony to you! Happiness, mutual understanding, and fewer quarrels over lost socks. And yes, kick him more often!" leaning slightly toward her, the guy gave parting words, only to immediately dissolve into the air in already familiar green-gold shimmers.
"…" Tony froze with his mouth already open for an answer, but due to the sharp disappearance of the interlocutor, he looked utterly insulted.
….
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
[email protected]/Yggdrasil_Loki