REC: Paintbox

Author: Lunik
Summary: Loki learns that when a man asks permission to paint you, sometimes he means he actually wants to paint you. More literally in some cases than others.
Word count: 4k
Characters/pairings: Loki/Steve
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: None

Rec notes: This is one of those pairings I didn't expect to like when I first started seeing it crop up around the internet. Especially considering how this fic pre-dates Avengers 1.

But whoops, it's one of my favourites, and one I go for when I'm looking for something quiet and thoughtful. This author especially manages to weave Loki and Steve's personalities together to complement one another, without either seeming to undermine the other. The AU is simple, and allows those personalities to shine through without the inherent bravado and posturing that is necessary when the ship is presented in a canon-compliant setting. Steve is an artist, and Loki is his agent. This is all the fic asks you to accept in order to get these two dancing around one another while they both try to figure out what the hell Steve is actually trying to accomplish with this scheme of his.

It's short and sweet, and more about how the characters fit together than the rating and length imply.

Read on AO3