#peppertoki

[govthookercoulson]

OOC: Fanfiction problems.

I’m trying to work on the Power Ballad series (my semi-massive PepperToki fanfic series) because I am NOT leaving it unfinished but I’ve fallen several movies behind.

And now I’m trying to deal with IM3, but...

Tony sold the Malibu house.

All of the Avengers are together in the tower.

Which means that...

The Malibu house can’t be attacked.

Killian’s not dealing with Tony. He’s dealing with all of the Avengers.

Square peg? Meet round hole.

[govthookercoulson]

Get Up is the third installment of the Power Ballad series, my relatively insane Pepper/Tony/Loki fanfic trilogy.

[roseapprentice]

Garlic Pepper 2.5

Navigate this story through the masterpost.

-

“So. First question: Do we have to kill people?” Tony had a talent for picking the pillow talk.

"Have you ever fed without killing?"

“I guess Pepper didn’t tell you exactly how she met me.”

“No. What happened?”

Tony answered Loki’s earlier question instead. “It depends on who I’m killing. I mean, just strangers, just innocent people…. Yeah I’d rather die, because who wants killing those people to be their legacy? But if I can control that, if I can change up the story… there are probably a lot of people I’d sooner see erased from the world than me.”

“So what does a sentient being have to do for a man like you to consider him disposable?”

“Ugly phrasing, that.”

“Ugly topic.”

“Fine.” Tony took a breath. “Enemy combatants. I’d kill someone who kills other people and decides to work against me or mine.”

Loki looked at him for a long time.

“Don’t like my answer, sensei?”

“It’s… a broad category. You place your enemies across from you rather than below. Unorthodox, for a vampire.”

“I always kind of figured the underworld was a pragmatic place. Living on blood and all, it has to be hard to develop a moral superiority complex.”

“You really have learned nothing about vampire culture so far. This is tragically pathetic. The old families survive on self-delusion. Any enemy is by definition uncultured and personified by their lowest and most shameful moments. Humans are goats, dumb and born to be slaughtered, and so forth, and so forth.”

“I can tell you fit right in.”

Loki hissed in disgusted annoyance and shot Tony a warning look.

Tony grinned. “Oh shit, did I ever hit a nerve.”

“You want to shut up now.”

“You used to be an Odinson, right? Before the royal family kicked you out and everyone started calling you Liesmith?”

“Tony, I could kill you quite easily.”

“Yeah, and then face Pepper’s wrath. She could so take you.” Tony wiggled his eyebrows. “And I bet you wish she would.”

A moment later Tony was looking up at Loki with genuine fear while Loki’s hand gripped his neck much too tightly. “What are you trying to accomplish?”

“...Angry sex?” Tony offered plaintively.

Loki released the other vampire's neck in favor of executing an elegant face-palm. “To answer your earlier question: No, we do not have to kill to feed. But feeding live in moderation is a skill, and one which you have been the opposite of trained for.”

“So what’s the alternative? Animals a-la Twilight, or re-reheated Red Cross donations in a mug?”

“Animals are easier to acquire and better practice for learning control. But go too long without drinking human blood and you will get sick.”

“Both then. Both is good.”

“I doubt you’ll say that once you’ve tasted either.”

-

Next: Part 3

[roseapprentice]

Garlic Pepper 2.1

Navigate this story through the masterpost.

-

Pepper left the two vampires to their own devices around four a. m., with another warning look at Loki. Really, Loki could only get up to so much mischief with only an hour or so left before dawn.

Well, not really. He turned to Tony. “Do you have a place to sleep today?”

“Well, there’s always the mansion, although I’m guessing there’s probably a lot of panic there right now, and possibly some police cars.”

Tony crossed his arms. “What do you recommend?”

It was interesting, Loki thought, how little Tony was really asking his advice. How much this was a test. The air prickled with challenge, and Loki thought again of how good satisfied bloodlust looked on this man, and what other activities could put a similar expression on his face, what other reactions he could get along the way.

Loki paced thoughtfully around Tony as he advised him. “Stay away for the day. Disappear for long enough to incriminate yourself. Then you will always have a reputation as a man ruthless enough to kill his own sire. Short term, it paints a target on your head. But if you survive long enough, it will seem that no one can make you bleed.” He moved to stand right behind the other vampire as finished painting the picture of Tony’s future for him. “That legend will never stop serving you.”

“Or you, if this works out.”

“True, but that’s not primarily what I’m after this time.”

“What are you after?”

Loki nosed lightly at the back of Tony’s neck. “Well, if you don’t sleep in your own bed, I can provide an alternative.”

Tony shivered slightly. “I knew you would try to get into my pants.”

Loki pressed his mouth against Tony’s ear. “‘Try’?”

An unsteady inhale. “Fair point. Your place.”

-

Next: Part 2.5

[roseapprentice]

Garlic Pepper 4

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-

“So. Here I lie,” Loki said into the darkness. He was in Pepper’s bed, and she was a warm weight on top of him as they both drifted through the tail end of a pleasant, post-orgasm haze.

“You lie in a lot of places,” Pepper said, a smile in her voice.

“Mm,” Loki agreed. “And languages. And centuries. But never so transparently as here with you.”

“Lying at my mercy?” Pepper mused warmly.

“I hope not.” Loki kept his tone light but he looked disquieted, or would have, without the darkness. “I have many talents, but inspiring mercy isn’t one of them.”

Pepper frowned at something in his voice and pushed herself upright.

Pepper was looking hard at his face, frowning in almost aggressive concern. “You don’t want me to see you.”

The corners of Loki’s mouth drew back and up in a look of humorless mocking, and he opened his eyes to look at her, as if to challenge her and prove her wrong. “That’s almost true. So very close. The best lies are.”

“Where am I off?”

After a very long silence, he gave an inch. “What does a man like me fear most, Pepper?”

“I’ll need a bigger hint than that.”

“I hope not,” he said earnestly.

Pepper's eyes widened. “Oh my god, you really do. That is the hint. You’re hoping I’ll figure you out. You want me to. That’s what scares you. Wanting something. Wanting to be seen and acknowledged. Because if I start to look at you and then I look away, if I offer you what you want and then take it away again, that could break you.”

Watching his face while she spoke was like watching a man turn into a child. A thousand years of masks and experiences fell away. All that was left was fear, and not-quite-hope.

“It did, didn’t it? Someone offered you something you really wanted. Like, really. As much as you want me now. And it didn’t end well.”

Loki opened his mouth and paused there. Not quite shaking, not quite brushing off her words as laughable, not quite begging her to continue, but stuck on the verge of doing all of those things at once.

Pepper leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his. “Loki.”

“Yes?”

“I see you. And you’re mine.”

-

That was that last installment. Thanks for reading!

[roseapprentice]

Garlic Pepper 0.5

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(And now we're getting prequel-y)

-

Loki thought that his life should probably be flashing before his eyes right now. Should, if a thousand years and change were not far too much life for his terrified mind to really know where to start.

As it was, he saw exactly what was in front of him. A red haired woman with a sharpened stick coming at him with enough force and precision of form that Loki could summon no plans to his mind for outmaneuvering his own end. Not even the ridiculous, far-fetched and subtly brilliant plans which would usually be flickering around the edge of his consciousness at moments like these.

No. He was dead. And about to be more so.

But the sharpened stick the slayer held at her side actually stayed at her side, and Loki only found himself on his back, the point of a very impractical shoe digging into a spot on his neck a little lateral to the hyoid bone.

There was a moment of quiet as Loki readjusted to his new position, and to the notion of continued existence. The slayer looked down at him expectantly.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Loki lied, “and the answer is no.” (Because sometimes a complete shot in the dark really was the best gamble.)

“Then why were you following me?”

Because the head of a slayer looks good in the hand of a prodigal son begging to return home.

“Because I need your help,” Loki lied further, realizing as the words left his mouth that he usually offered opportunities at moments like this. The fact that he had instinctively chosen a more helpless role tonight told him something about the woman standing over him.

He was right. The shoe withdrew from his neck. “What sort of vampire wants my help?”

“The very desperate sort.” Loki rose to his feet, rubbing his bruised neck.

Pepper stepped back as he stood, still on her guard. “Who are you?”

“My name is Loki Odinson.”

She narrowed her eyes in recognition. “I've heard of you.”

“All bad, I hope, considering the sort of people who speak of me.”

Pepper smiled a little. “Yes. All bad.”

“And you’re Pepper. Despised among the same circles as I am, I believe.”

“What is it you wanted my help with?”

Which left him to come up with and answer. But then, it wasn’t as if Loki was had a shortage of troubles. And certainly some of them could be helped -- or at least made more interesting -- by involving a meddlesome slayer in the mix.

Sometimes, the solution to one problem was a much bigger problem. “Have you ever heard of Ragnarok?”

-

Next: Part 1

[roseapprentice]

Garlic Pepper 3

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(Jumping forward in time a bit here.)

-

Loki was waiting outside Pepper’s house when she got home. “He learns well, but he doesn’t look on me as his sire.”

Pepper frowned. “Tony? What do you mean? I mean, it seemed pretty obvious the other day that he didn’t exactly want a ‘sire.’ But now you look concerned.”

“Whatever he calls it, the instincts are the same. A vampire as young as Tony always finds another to look to if he can. Otherwise, the recklessness of the young would have exposed the secrets of our world long ago. Those instincts give his sire a power over him. It’s an intense bond, and leaves the youth cruelly at the mercy of his sire’s will and good opinion. Tony doesn’t look to me as a sire.”

“I didn’t realize it was so…”

“Consuming? Yes. It’s amazing that he was even able to wish violence against Obadiah, let alone participate in it. The only explanation I can think of is that his loyalty had already somehow shifted to someone else.”

“Who?”

“Pepper. Don’t be naive. It doesn’t suit you.”

“Me?” Pepper realized. And it was obvious, when she thought about it.

“There it is,” Loki confirmed. He stepped closer, taking Pepper’s hands in his, and leaned forward to speak softly in her ear. “You won him over, and then you sent him to me like a horse to Troy to look in on my life and report back. And you may not have consciously planned to so completely undermine either of us, but I think part of you knew exactly what you were doing.”

Pepper felt just a moment of real fear, because she had let him take hold of her hands and bring his teeth very close to her neck, and that would put her at a disadvantage if, in this moment, Loki found her death to be preferable over her life.

But it was only a moment, and Pepper just pulled her head back and sent him a questioning look. “So you’re angry?” she asked wryly.

“I’m impressed. But then, the two often overlap, considering what it takes to impress me.”

Thinking back over Loki’s previous words, Pepper realized there was something odd in them. “Tony told me a few things about how you live. Who you talk to. I don’t think that makes you completely undermined.”

Loki looked away.

Pepper narrowed her eyes. “Unless that’s not really what you meant.”

Loki let go of her hands with a sharp motion.

“You talked about shifting loyalties…. That doesn’t just apply to Tony, does it?”

“I don’t look on you or Tony as a sire,” Loki snapped.

“That’s not what I was thinking of.” Then she smirked a little. “Loki, don’t be naive. It doesn’t suit you.”

Loki gave her a look, not funny, and under that was a warning, and just a little of something like pleading that she not pursue the topic any further.

This time she stepped into his space, and put her mouth as close to his ear as she could reach. “As I understand it, vampires have some pretty strong instincts when it comes to their mates, right?”

“Pepper….” Warning again, and the beginning of something very cold. All the walls were up, though he wouldn’t give ground by stepping away.

Pepper stepped back for him. He was afraid, she realized. Terrified didn’t begin to cover it, and she wasn’t interested in lording over him with this. She sighed. “So you’re bonding with Tony. And me. And I think Tony’s not the only one who’s had his instincts used against him in the past.”

After a long silence, Loki spoke with toneless difficulty. “Mate bonds are mutual as a rule, among vampires. Between a vampire and a human…”

“It gives me all the power. Over both of you. That’s not fair.”

“I noticed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Ah.” Loki looked at her carefully and finally did step back. “So, not mutual then.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Come into my house, Loki.”

-

(A bunch of Loki/Tony bonding and sex belongs before this scene, and a bunch of Loki/Pepper sex belongs after it. You just get to see the angst. I’m so, so sorry.)

Next: Part 4

[roseapprentice]

I have just read both bits of Garlic Pepper and I want you to know it's glorious and full of so much potential. Oh, I hope you continue with it or I might have to, and I've still got to catch up on my WIPs, woman don't tempt me like that! [Deep breath.] To sum up: all of the love for Garlic Pepper the Vampire Slayer, and for you, because awesome. I'm gonna... go proofread frostiron fighting a dragon, now. <3

Welp, I read this, I grinned like an idiot for a while, and then I started typing, so there will at least be a one more short installment. (probably this evening?) I think this idea is only ever going to come out as bits and pieces for me, and if I write more installments they’ll probably jump around the timeline. The next bit jumps forward in a way that makes even me feel a bit indignant. (What was the author thinking?)

I definitely encourage anyone (especially you because OMG) to post some snippet or drawing to weave into the story line and tag me so I see it, or even just make your own thing of it and post it anywhere you like with a bit of attribution.

On the other hand, I’m holding of on reading Catch and Release with somewhat bated breath because the premise looks a bit terrifying to be caught in the middle of. So go forth and write that so I can find out what the story is behind these intriguing, full-of-beautifully-crafted-Tony-style-word-clumsiness chapter titles that keep appearing in my inbox.