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Tony really hoped all schools weren't this easy to break into.
He pocketed his tools, then pushed open the door. Piece of cake, that. It actually seemed to get easier everytime.
He carefully let the door fall shut, reminded of that one saying, that locks only keep honest people out. It seemed to be true, at least in this case: anyone in the mood for a bit of B&E with a pair of somewhat functional hands could probably make it in here. ...not that they’d find much if they did.
As for why he was here... it was out of boredom.
Alright, actually it was to secretly slip something into his seat neighbor and best friend’s desk.
But it had started with boredom. Or something along the lines of it. From ‘wow, picking locks is easy’ to ‘hey what about the school locks’ to ‘fuck, the night guard almost got me’ to ‘I wonder if I can plant a tracking devi– guess I can,’ and all along he had hidden it from Loki to eventually reveal it in a big ‘guess what I did.’
Only, then he had gotten the idea. It was stupid. (Of course it was.) But it was also kind of hilarious, and that was definitely the reason he kept doing it; and not because he couldn’t otherwise act on his not-crush on his aro something friend. (Or was it ace? Hard to say. Loki had never told him – and by now, Tony had definitely passed the stage where he could ask and be normal about it, so... yay for him.)(Ugh, fuck.)
It was dumb and probably somewhere on the line between friendly and annoying, but Loki had smiled about it more often than not, despite the weirdness. And that was really all Tony needed to keep it up, for better or worse.
The first time, he had stuck a printed note with ‘I like your new shirt’ on a small pringles can. Nice, but not too much – he didn’t want to bother Loki, after all. (Loki had looked at the note askance, then binned the pringles. Tony still wasn’t sure how he felt about that.)
The next couple times had gone similarly, with Loki throwing away whatever small snack Tony had included with the note. Of course, Tony had gotten the message after the first one – Loki didn’t fuck around with his health, so strange food was apparently a no-no – but had kept it up; as if the information had taken a bit longer to get to him.
The first non-food thing had been a black-green spinning top that, when in motion, kind of looked like it was on fire.
And Loki had loved it.
He hadn’t said so, but the way he had grinned at it while respinning it six (!) times before putting it in his bag had spoken for itself.
So, yeah. That was that, and Tony was stuck doing this for eternity.
Jokes, compliments, friendly greetings and weird lines like ‘Has anyone ever told you that your nose looks like it functions perfectly’ found their way into Loki’s desk every couple of days. And Loki would laugh, and smile, and show them to Tony, and Tony would have to pretend like he was seeing them for the first time while silently congratulating himself on another delivery nailed.
Hoping that this one would live up to its predecessors, he made his way through dark halls and sparingly moonlit corridors. Though he knew the night guard’s schedule by heart, there was still a chance of it changing, so he kept his flashlight off. Not that he needed it, having walked this path far too often already.
Soon, he had arrived at his classroom. He silently opened the door, then stepped in and pulled it shut behind him. A glance at his phone told him he had about ten minutes; then, the patrols would shift to this area and mess with his retreat.
Blinking for a bit to get rid of the rectangle burnt into his retinas (god, why did he forget about that everytime), he crept up to Loki's desk. It was easy to reach in the second to last row – fortunately so, as one of his knees had had a spontaneous blind date with a last row table already, and that was really more than enough. Cursing under his breath, he lowered himself into a squat. Then, he felt around in his hoodie’s pockets for this round’s lucky items.
There was the note.
Just to be sure it was the right one and not some (unlikely but not impossible) scribble of his, he unfolded the paper. Turning it a bit, he managed to decipher the words in the weak light coming from the windows:
How to be cool:
A) Put on cool sunglasses.
B)
Goddammit, what a stupid joke. He loved it. Chuckling and grinning to himself, Tony refolded the paper
“Boo.”
and crumpled it as he flew to the side and promptly rammed his elbow into a chair. Right on the fucking nerve. A let's-not-talk-about-it-you-didn’t-hear-that noise escaped him.
The guy who had just whisper-scared him by talking directly in his ear started laughing.
Oh, fuck you.
Halfway through turning around and more than ready to give that jackass a piece of his mind, he recognized the sound:
Loki.
Oh, shit.
Still turning, Tony went through a rapid thought rollercoaster of: hide face and run? – no, he might’ve seen it already because of my fucking stupid phone – also he might recognize the clothes – also Loki is faster – plus running is suspicious; what if he knows already – wait, what if I’m just doing this for fun? this doesn’t have to be for that reason – right, right, that’s believable actually – okay, alright, I’m Tony, and I’m messing around and doing things ‘cause I can and this has all been very fun, and good on you for finding me out, hahaha, good job Loki–
There he was. Backlit und visually almost unrecognizable due to the lack of light, Loki was kneeling in front of him. Tony put on his best ‘thanks so much’ look, holding his aching elbow and waiting for his friend’s laughter to die down.
“How did you get in here?” he asked once Loki had quieted a bit.
The answer came promptly: “I stole the keys, of course.”
Of course.
A hot wave of affection flooded Tony’s chest. He didn't know what he had expected, but it wasn’t that – and at the same time, the answer didn't surprise him in the least. Sometimes he just wanted to shake Loki and tell him to stop being so– so... him. Because god, was he making it hard.
“But I think I should be the one asking questions here, don’t you agree?”
Tony shrugged, doing his best to appear calm. He silently waited for Loki to start his interrogation, determined to play the fun-loving, no-thoughts-here friend.
Silence. He couldn't see it, but Loki had to be staring at him. Finally, there was a “Why...” that trailed off into nothing.
Seemingly unable to come up with a better question, Loki tilted his head. Self-conscious under the scrutiny, Tony felt his face heat up. He was glad for the relative darkness in the room, helping conceal what he didn’t want seen. Just to be safe, he ducked his head a bit as he shrugged again. “Why not?” he answered, trying and failing to make it sound casual.
Even more heat. God, he had screwed that one up; he knew he had. But what was he supposed to say? ‘I like you, I like seeing you smile, and I really enjoy giving you things?’ Yeah, right. That wouldn't make it obvious at all.
A small rustle. Loki’s arm lifted; a click. And Tony was blinded.
“What the fuck, man,” he complained, a hand rising to shield his eyes from the sudden light.
After a beat, there was another click, then darkness. Tony squinted at Loki, seeing even less than he had before.
“What?” he repeated. Had that really been necessary?
Loki didn’t answer. Instead, he moved closer – that much, Tony could tell. And he was raising his arm... to grab Tony’s collar??
Completely blind-sided (heh), he didn’t have time to react as Loki got up close and very personal. It was vaguely reminiscent of two boxers nearly face-planted to each other.
The fuck was Loki on? If he wanted to see Tony better, his flashlight would’ve made much more sense than this.
Really, what–
...
??!?
Heart hammering from the soft touch lingering on his lips, he watched Loki move back.
What.
The.
Actual unicorn FUCK.
Had Loki just kissed him??
“Uhm,” he croaked, his voice managing to almost break on the one syllable. God, why was it so dark. He couldn’t make out Loki’s expression at all.
There was a small hum. It was strangely awkward sounding – embarrassed, almost.
Alright.
Figuring that turnabout was fair play, he quickly pulled out his own flashlight, and lit up Loki's face.
Loki made a protesting sound. His hand lifted, seemingly in reflex, then lowered again. Not that Tony had much brain space to appreciate that.
All he could focus on was Loki's face. Red in the cheeks and looking decidedly less unaffected than he usually liked to pretend he was, Loki was staring back at him. A beat later, his brows rose in a passing show of composed humor, but he wasn’t fooling Tony – actually, he didn’t even seem to be trying to. It was written all over his face, how he had... liked that. Possibly a lot.
Fuck.
Chucking the flashlight aside, Tony closed the distance. Hand in Loki's hair.
And kissed him.
Parts of his brain simply blue screened. (There was no way this was actually happening.) While others filtered info from his senses and told him, in no uncertain terms, that it very much was.
Loki’s lips were soft. (Which he already knew, because Loki had kissed him first!!? – more blue screening.) Having initially tensed a bit, Loki recovered in no time, tilting his head and drawing closer. He was kissing Tony back. Unpracticed (fucking, had that been Loki’s first kiss??! dear nonexistent god almighty) and despite the lack of confident ease with which Tony knew him to do pretty much anything, Loki was kissing him back.
Heart beating up into his throat, Tony did his best to keep breathing and not have a happiness meltdown; to keep it nice and gentle and contain his pent up affection and sheer want. It wasn’t easy, especially considering the enthusiastic response he was getting. But the last thing he wanted was to overwhelm Loki and possibly turn him off this whole thing.
Maybe he shouldn’t have worried, though. After all, this was Loki. Enemy of hesitancy and half-assery, he didn’t take long at all to hit his stride, and soon he was doing things with his lips that Tony thought should be illegal. And that was before apparently discovering that other parts of him could be touching Tony, too.
(Oh god.)
Hands on Tony’s jaw. Thumbs gliding over his cheeks. Fingers running through his hair, careful but increasingly certain; possessive almost. Like Loki wanted to map him out, so he could point and smugly go ‘mine’–
Jesus nope, not going down that route. Bad for the downstairs department. (Or more like too good.) Nope, nope.
The kiss continued, better and 100% more real than Tony would’ve thought possible. Hands grasping, breaths hot and heavy, Loki pressing against him. And then there was tongue.
Sweet baby Jesus.
All too soon, Tony had to back off, because school boners were definitely past tense. Absolutely not would he – and Loki – fuck, fuck, don’t think about that, don’t think about it.
He drew back just a bit, to the inbetween of too far for his liking and too close for his good. (No, it would definitely be good– shut up, nope, fuck.)
They stayed like that, sharing each other’s space. Breaths intermingling, and calming slowly.
After a while, Tony remembered he had eyes, and opened them. Not that it made much of a difference: he could barely make out anything of Loki’s face. The light glint of his eyes and flash of his teeth were more than enough, though.
Tony huffed out a breath and grinned back giddily. His emotions were one big swirl of elation and awed disbelief.
“I didn’t know you did that,” he said finally, after being certain he wouldn’t gasp the words.
Loki was silent for a moment. Then, with a smile in his voice, he said, “You could’ve asked.”
No I couldn’t have.
Tony swallowed the knee-jerk retort because, yeah, he could have. For better or worse, (and no matter if he’d thought better wasn’t an option,) he very much could have.
Fishing for something to say that wouldn’t ruin the moment, he was surprised when Loki continued: “You were very obvious, by the way.”
The fu– no he hadn’t been–
“Any idiot would’ve known they were from you.”
Oh. That’s what he was talking about.
“The hell I was,” he shot back reflexively. “I bet you had no idea it was me until I beamed myself in the face.”
Loki let out a laugh. “Yeah, continue thinking that if it makes you happy.” With that, he took back his hands and got up, walking towards the back of the classroom.
“What do you mean?” Tony called after him, craning his neck to follow him with his eyes. After a moment, he got up as well, and somehow managed to hit his shoulder as he did. Cursing lowly, he rubbed it, so occupied with the fact that this was the third time already that he almost missed Loki’s quietly spoken answer.
“Your gifts were too good.”
“What?” he asked, only for his brain to get it after the fact. But by then, Loki had already picked up his bag that had been hidden who knows where and turned around to face him again.
Grinning, he said, “And the way you were fretting about each one like a parent worried about their kid's test results really drove it home. It was kind of hilarious, actually.”
“Shut up, Shakespeare” Tony told him, because he had not. Worried – fretted about them like that. Again, he could feel his face getting warmer.
Loki laughed, pausing on his way to the door to wait for Tony.
Done retrieving his flashlight, Tony joined him, pocketing it along with this time’s note. He’d show that one to Loki later. Fingers brushing against his phone, he was abruptly reminded of the time.
Or their possible lack of it.
Stopping Loki with a hand on his arm, he said, “Wait,” and pulled out his phone. A good bit past 10 minutes.
He looked up, barely able to see Loki (god, every fucking time, why couldn’t he remember to crank down his floodlight of a screen). At what he was reasonably sure was a questioning look, Tony said, “Wait a sec. Night guard,” and got back to his phone.
He opened the app with the locator ping, and zoomed out until he had found him.
Hmm.
Should be... fine? Maybe not. But eh. Yolo and all that.
Loki drew closer. “Did you plant a tracker on them?”
Tony mh-hmmed in response.
“Nice,” Loki praised, making him grin.
“I know.”
Loki chuckled and elbowed him lightly.
They stepped out the door, quiet as they closed it and started towards the exit. Tony kept his phone in his pocket as he led the way, sure that knowing the guard’s exact location wasn’t worth the near signal flare of his lit screen in the dark.
They had made it almost half of the way when a shout came from down the corridor behind them. “Who's there?”
Pulse spiking with adrenaline, Tony let out a “Fuck” and grabbed Loki, both of them breaking into a sprint.
In just a few strides, Loki had overtaken him and started pulling him along, the sounds of their laughter ringing out and mixing with the calls and footfalls chasing them.
They made good time, staying far ahead of the guard and actually increasing the distance. Well, more or less. There was one corner where Loki went the wrong way and Tony almost planted on his face ‘cause he hadn’t, but soon, they had made it out, wheezing and gasping for air.
(Why wasn't running while laughing an Olympic discipline? That would be hilarious, and definitely a new kind of challenge.)
As they took a few seconds to catch their breath, Tony glanced at Loki. And thought how great it was to finally see him.
The streetlight was hitting his face, illuminating his reddened lips split in a grin, and the gleeful spark in his crinkled emerald eyes.
Loki looked at him, a question and challenge in his gaze.
Ready?
Tony let out a breathless laugh, mirroring glee lighting his insides as he wordlessly answered him.
Ready.
And they were off again.