Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Tony and Loki are in the kitchen preparing formula because baby girl has just woken up. Tony would love to use that as an excuse to stay behind, but he probably can't do that considering it's the King and Queen of Asgard. So with a sigh he abandons the formula and joins Loki and Thor as they head to the roof – ironically, the very same place where Loki had sent the spear of energy up into the sky to open a wormhole.

Thankfully, neither Odin nor Frigga are dressed in armor or anything like that. Their clothes are still fine and there's a fair amount of leather and metal, but Tony knows enough by this point to know that that's what they consider casual wear. It looks hot on Loki alright, but Tony would kill himself if he had to run around in that all day, every day.

Frigga is the first to greet them, smiling widely and enveloping first Loki, then Thor, and then even Tony in her arms, though she's careful with him because of baby girl. "It is a pleasure to see you again. I trust you are in good health, Tony," she says as a greeting.

"Yeah, I am. How about you?" Tony replies courteously, but he gets the impression she's only trying to be polite. Her eyes are magnetically drawn to the baby he's carrying, baby girl's face resting against his neck. So without waiting for any more formal, polite smalltalk he puts baby girl in the crook of his elbow and angles his body so Frigga can get a good look on her face. "May I introduce, my daughter." And Loki's, but whatever. Loki is involved in a very stilted, very polite greeting ritual with Odin. Tony doesn't envy him.

"Welcome, beautiful," Frigga coos, reaching out to her. Just before her fingers touch baby girl's skin she pauses and sends a questioning look towards Tony, who raises an eyebrow and nods. He's fond of people who ask him whether they can touch his baby instead of just grabbing for her like they have any right to, but Frigga is her grandmother, so it's different.

Unfortunately, baby girl is irritable – for her, at least – and frowns and turns her head away when Frigga touches her cheek.

"She just got up, she's hungry," Tony sort of apologizes, only not really. He's never going to apologize for his daughter, but again, Frigga is her grandmother, so it's different.

Frigga doesn't look at all annoyed or hurt. In fact, she's wearing the face Tony has seen on a number of people's faces recently; flushed cheeks, wide eyes, a completely besotted expression. Yep, somebody else has fallen for his baby. Tony doesn't mind because he in his opinion that's the way it's got to be.

"Then perhaps we should move inside so you may feed her," Frigga says belatedly. Not giving Tony time to answer she turns towards her sons and Odin. "We will go inside." Her voice is enforced with steel and Tony doesn't even think about protesting; the others look like they don't either.

They all head inside. The living room is completely void of people, but Tony suspects at least Clint is slinking around somewhere – not hiding to spy on them, they had strictly forbidden that sort of thing, but the guy is too curious for his own good so he's probably hoping to at least catch a look.

"Show me this unusual feeding method Thor has told me about," Frigga then says, steering Tony with baby girl towards the kitchen, leaving Odin, Thor and Loki in the living room. Tony is really conflicted about whether he should stay or leave, but he's acutely aware of the fact that he's pretty much unnecessary there. Besides, baby girl needs to be fed so it's not like he has a choice anyway.

"How do you feed babies when there are no women involved, then?" Tony asks curiously once he and Frigga have settled in the kitchen. He had for a brief period utterly freaked out at the idea of growing breasts himself (not a far-fetched thought at all, he maintains that, considering that he'd been pregnant) but Loki had calmed him down with one withering glance. Tony had never brought the topic up again.

Frigga blinks at him. "Why, wet nurses, of course."

Of course.

"Yeah, we don't really have those anymore, as far as I know," Tony says, switching the kettle on again. The bottle with the correct amount of powder is still standing on the counter, but this is as much as he can do with baby girl lying in his arms. "Would you like to hold her?"

Frigga looks absolutely delighted, but after a second her face dims. "I am not sure my son would be happy with that," she says regretfully, glancing towards the living room.

Tony blinks. "Why do you think that?"

"Surely you are aware that events have gone very wrong some time ago," she tells him freely after a brief pause. "We all have made mistakes, but both our oldest and most recent ones have led us to a place where our youngest son is barely on speaking terms with us." She watches as Tony, in lieu of giving her baby girl, puts her in her seat by the table. Baby girl does not appreciate being put down at all, but she's not at the crying part of fussy yet. "Loki does not trust us," Frigga continues quietly, soberly. "I understand why, but it grieves me."

Tony doesn't quite know what to say to that. She's right, she's perfectly right, but he doesn't really think it's his place to say anything to that. Yeah, normally he doesn't give a fuck what's his place and what isn't but this is Loki they're talking about, and he's talking to his mom. He barely knows the tip of the iceberg, and Loki would not appreciate him getting involved at all. "I think he trusts you more than he does Odin," he offers eventually, because that's plainly obvious to just about everybody.

"Given that trust is probably the last emotion he feels towards my husband, that does not compliment me overly," she says dryly. "I have not spoken out against the king often enough, at least not in front of our sons."

Yeah, Tony sees what she did there – the careful distinction that she didn't protest against the king, not her husband, often enough. He's certain she did it on purpose (he knows well what language acrobatics they are in Asgard) but he doesn't really know what it means.

"Well," he says as he tests the formula's temperature on his wrist and, upon finding it too hot, puts it into a pot of cold water that he adds ice cubes to. Turning around to face her, he says seriously – because it might not be his place but fuck that – "There is always room for improvement so long as nobody is dead." He's not quite sure he actually believes that, but he's the living example living with a bunch of other living examples.

"Certainly." Frigga smiles, and Tony can't quite tell whether she thinks he's naïve or just adorably optimistic.

Glad that he has something to busy his hands with, Tony tests the temperature of the formula again and finds it cool enough. He picks baby girl up and sits down on the kitchen sofa, settling her in his arms as he starts to feed her. Frigga watches carefully, eyeing the bottle and the way baby girl's tiny hands pat it.

"And this will adequately sustain her?" she asks curiously, the same question Thor and Loki had asked when they had first heard about formula.

"Yes." Tony leaves it at that, mostly because he didn't care to remember enough about the details on how and why it works.

"The more I know about Midgard, the more I am fascinated by the many ways your people have found to do things differently," Frigga says.

"Yeah, that's how we are. Everything that makes life easier is great," Tony agrees.

"It is quite interesting, I understand better now why my sons are so fascinated with this realm."

Tony raises an eyebrow. He can't quite argue the point, but he thinks that Loki was less drawn to Earth because he was fascinated with anyone and more because he wanted to ruin everything Thor likes. And then he just sort of got stuck.

Not that Tony thinks Loki isn't here of his own free will, or that he isn't enjoying himself. But this is certainly not where Loki had at any point planned or even wanted to be before he actually ended up here.

Well, Tony is certainly not going to worry about that now. "I think everything that's unfamiliar is interesting," he tells her.

Frigga smiles. "Then you should enjoy your stay at Asgard. You and your friends are the first mortals in millennia to be allowed to visit."

"We're honored," Tony replies diplomatically. He can't suppress his grin completely and Frigga of course sees it; she smiles and winks at him.

"And how is fatherhood becoming you?"

Several replies shoot through Tony's head; several witty ones, corny lines he knows from movies and one or two honest ones. His first impulse is to use one of those from the movies, but this is Loki's mom and she's neither naïve nor stupid. Tony certainly doesn't want to end up on bad terms with her just because he's an asshole.

"Good," he says eventually. "Way better than I would have thought." Yeah, he doesn't get to spend as much time in the lab as he would like, but the others are always willing to watch baby girl when he needs some time alone. And to be honest, right now he's flying on a high anyway because of all the sex he and Loki are finally having again. He's missed it.

Frigga smiles at him softly. "When I had my sons, my world changed."

"Both of them?" It slips out before Tony can stop himself. His eyes widen, but Frigga doesn't get angry. She just looks at him calmly.

"Yes," she says, and Tony believes her. "Thor was a very active child, even as an infant. Loki was a lot quieter. He screamed a lot, at the beginning." Frigga is looking at baby girl but her expression says that she's very far away in her memories. "But once they both had learned to walk… Loki followed Thor everywhere."

Neither of them says it, but Tony is sure both of them think it: he still does.

They're silent for a long time. Tony bridges the awkward silence by cleaning up baby girl and laying her on his shoulder, patting her back gently.

Eventually Frigga takes a deep breath. Her face clears and she looks at Tony. "They caused a lot of mischief, the two of them."

Should he…? Oh fuck it, he's going to, whatever. "What sort of mischief?"

Frigga smiles, a twinkle in her eyes. "Perhaps you should ask my sons about that."

Well, it was worth a try, anyway. "Yeah." Noting how Frigga's eyes have once more found their way to baby girl, Tony decides that this is ridiculous. She's not going to harm a baby. "Here, hold her for a bit," he says and hands baby girl over unceremoniously. Entirely startled, Frigga takes her but immediately tries to hand her back. Tony won't take her, however. Instead, he gets up and puts the bottle in the sterilizer and then busies himself making some coffee for everybody. Behind him, Frigga is deceptively quiet.

By the time Tony has made five cups, Frigga has settled baby girl in her arms and is staring down at her. Her head is angled in such a way that Tony can't see much of her expression, and he figures that's for the better. Baby girl's fingers are tangled in Frigga's golden locks; she looks perfectly content.

Shifting, Tony clears his throat awkwardly. "Think I can go in there?"

Frigga looks up. Her eyes are clear, thankfully. Tony does not like making women cry. Or anyone, really. "If you make noise before entering, they will fall silent," she advises.

Awesome. An awkward silence is preferable to him bursting in at a delicate moment.

Leaving two cups on the kitchen table Tony puts the remaining three (decaf, because he's not about to give any of them caffeine) on a tray. In the hall he spots Clint lurking about by the stairs; they share a look, both raising their eyebrows, then Clint tilts his head questioningly. Tony shrugs helplessly and kicks the living room door.

It takes some time, but eventually someone opens for him. It's Loki, and he looks like a complete mess. Not superficially, of course, but he's pale but for two angry red blotches on his cheeks, and his expression… Tony decides on the spot that he's not going to leave. He doesn't care that Loki doesn't look entirely pleased to see him; there's a brief flicker of relief in his eyes and that's all Tony needs to know.

"I brought something to drink," he announces loudly, stepping into the room. He finds Thor sitting on one side of the sofa and Odin in the armchair; Odin looks neutral and Thor frazzled.

"Thank you, brother Tony," Thor says. He doesn't bother hiding his relief at the interruption.

Tony puts the tray on the table while Loki sits back down on the other side of the L-shaped sofa. Well-aware that he's not entirely welcome, Tony sits down next to him and smiles at Odin, trying hard not to make it too fake.

"It's coffee," he says. "Most awesome non-alcoholic drink in this realm."

He and Odin stare at each other for one long moment. Then Odin leans forward and takes one cup. As if that's some sort of signal Thor and Loki move as well, taking the other two cups. Thor's eyes are unnaturally wide; he looks pretty taken aback.

"Interesting," Odin pronounces. "Very… burnt."

Hah. Thor and Loki had been skeptical too at the beginning. "Some people have it with sugar and milk." Tony gestures towards the tray. Odin leans forwards and puts a spoonful of sugar in.

An awkward silence ensues. Loki sits stiff and still next to him; Tony hesitates for a moment but decides that fuck it, there's living proof that he and Loki had sex. He presses his leg against Loki's, carefully not looking at him.

Loki hands him the cup of coffee and Tony takes a sip, grateful to have something in his hands.

"So," Tony says when nobody else moves. "Nice to meet you."

Odin inclines his head. "Verily. Though the circumstances were a bit unexpected."

Right, because he didn't have five months to prepare.

"Which part of it?" Tony asks, because he already is acting like an insolent asshole anyway. Still respectful, yeah, but he's probably breaking protocol left and right.

A bit unexpectedly, the corners of Odin's mouth tilt up in a mild smirk. "Every one." He inclines his head, glances at Loki. "Though I have come to realize that I did not know either of my sons as well as I had believed, which is wherein some of the surprise is grounded."

Tony tilts his head. "I think that it's always like that with parents and children. You're too close."

"Indeed."

"Better now?" Tony asks when nothing more follows, glancing at Odin's cup.

Odin raises an eyebrow. "This appears to be a complicated beverage."

"You don't know half of it," Tony grins. "It's made from the coffee bean. There's different areas to get it from, different ways to roast it and different ways to brew it and different ways to prepare it with different kinds of sugar and different kinds of milk, and then there's other sorts of flavor some people like to mix in. We don't fuck around with coffee here." He raises his cup in a salute and takes a sip.

"Clearly," Odin says, sounding vaguely amused.

A short knock on the door captures all their attention; Clint opens it, looking a bit wide-eyed and nervous.

"Thank you," Frigga says from behind him. Baby girl in her arms she enters the room, immediately assessing the situation.

"No problem," Clint replies, stepping aside to let her enter. Sending Tony a sympathetic look he closes the door behind himself again.

"She is absolutely delightful," Frigga says warmly, moving towards Loki and handing baby girl over again. While she takes a seat on the sofa between Thor and Odin's armchair Loki sits back, leaning more into Tony's side, baby girl settled on his chest.

"Yes. She is very calm," he replies belatedly, voice a bit tight.

"Indeed," Frigga agrees with a delighted smile. "Both you and Thor were a lot noisier." Her face turns exaggeratedly thoughtful. "This has never changed, in truth."

"Mother," Thor says, embarrassed. "We do not quarrel as babes do."

"Do you not?" Frigga smiles innocently. "That must be a very recent development. You have told me nothing of it, I am disappointed."

Thor squirms and Loki grimaces. He still seems tense but he is at least a little more relaxed now.

"Have you tried this warm beverage? It apparently is of great importance on Midgard," Odin asks Frigga.

"I have," Frigga replies. "I quite enjoy the earthy taste. It is quite unlike tea, is it not?" She turns to Tony. "Has it replaced tea completely on Midgard?"

That's how they end up talking about tea, which leads to Tony having to better explain about coffee and how it's prepared. It might be a bit ridiculous but at least it passes the time until it's time for lunch on Asgard. Tony had started getting nervous that he'd have to feed Frigga and Odin, he has no idea what sort of food they'd eat (not to mention how much), but thankfully it doesn't come to that. Instead Tony gets to go to collect their bags (Loki is still holding baby girl, he hasn't let anyone hold her once) and then they all head back to the roof.

Tony has witnessed a couple of Thor's returns to Asgard; none of them had been as instant as that first return with Loki and the tesseract. It had involved Thor standing around and yelling at the sky for varying lengths of time. Not so with Odin; he just glances up and the next moment they're all zapped away.

Bifrost travel had always looked vaguely violent to Tony; being sucked into the sky as a blur doesn't seem to be the gentlest way to travel. It feels nothing like he had expected, though – the world whirls around him and for the blink of an eye it feels like the ground is falling away from his feet, making him breathless, but then they're already standing on solid ground again.

They're in a golden room with a whirling, dome-shaped ceiling. Tony glances around quickly but he can't look as close as he'd like to because he has to check that everything went well with baby girl and Loki. Of course they both look fine, Loki has her safely in her baby sling, one hand on the back of her covered head. He raises an eyebrow when Tony looks at them. Tony can't help it, he has to lean in and give him a quick kiss. He makes it fast in case Loki won't appreciate it, and he glances at Odin to check whether he's looking – he isn't, he's talking to the gigantic golden guard with the gigantic sword scepter thingy, and Loki looks too startled to be annoyed.

Once he's done talking to the tall guy Odin leads them out of the hall, and Tony was prepared for a lot, but the sight of the city of Asgard basically just floating in space? Yeah, not that. He's completely stunned and only barely manages not to gape like an idiot. Thankfully Loki puts a hand in the small of his back; the touch keeps him grounded. And Thor – whether on purpose or not Tony can't determine – distracts his parents with questions about people they all know, as if he isn't going to see them in person soon.

The palace is at the front of the city. Everything is pretty golden and bright; honestly, it seems a bit tacky to Tony, though it's all real gold. Thankfully they don't meet many people as they walk through the long halls, though some guards attach themselves to them and follow them around. They might have been there already as soon as they left the room with the tall guy before they crossed the bridge but Tony was too distracted to notice.

Lunch turns out to be private – or as private as it gets with royalty. Somehow Tony didn't really internalize that part, that Loki and Thor are princes to Odin and Frigga's king and queen. There are always guards around, and just as many servants; the food is extravagant and consists of five+ courses. And they call that casual.

Conversation is light and revolves around gossip and politics, both of which Tony has no idea of. He doesn't mind; it gives him the opportunity to observe. What he finds isn't surprising, but interesting it is nonetheless; it seems they're all skilled in pretending everything is fine even while they shoot little barbs at each other. Clearly there were established roles in the family for a long time – Odin the strict father, Frigga the gentle mother, Thor the jock son, Loki the outsider son. Tony sees especially Loki and Thor slipping back into old patterns all the time; sometimes one of them seems startled by it or tries to retract but at other times they don't even seem to notice. At other times, something one of them says that goes completely against their old roles – a thoughtful remark from Thor, something peacemaking from Loki – and especially Odin and Frigga seem startled.

It's pretty fascinating to Tony, seeing so different facets to the man he has a child with and his friend. Also Tony has never really been in a family so this inside look at family dynamic is very interesting. Though this family is probably as far from a normal family as can be, what with the having had thousands of years to extensively develop their issues and the big scale… everything.

After they've all eaten Tony and Loki excuse themselves; baby girl has started fussing and it's really time for her to go to bed. As they walk through the halls on their own there suddenly are a lot more people, and they don't pretend not to stare anymore. At least the whispers stay pretty low-key, which is possibly mostly due to Loki's haughty, coldly hostile expression.

As soon as the doors to Loki's chambers close behind them much of the tension seems to just fall off Loki. He puts his hand on the door and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Tony watches him for a moment before he takes a look around the room, making a point to turn his back on Loki to give him some resemblance of privacy.

He doesn't know what he expected of the room, but this wasn't it; bare walls apart from a fair number of bookshelves, a window showing some sort of garden and a desk area that is empty except for a quill and an inkwell. The room isn't small or cheap by any definition but it all looks very naked and not like a place where somebody has been living for hundreds of years at a time. Maybe Loki cleared it sometime after he left, but Tony doesn't think so – from what he knows of how things went, Loki didn't exactly have the opportunity.

As Tony takes a closer look at the bookshelves – most of which aren't in any language he understands, he's lucky if the letters are actually decipherable to him – Loki starts to move around behind him, digging through their bag and starting to prepare the formula for baby girl. Tony expects Loki to want to be the one to feed her but instead, Loki wordlessly gestures towards the bed. Once Tony has settled down leaning against the headboard, baby girl in his arms, Loki, still silent, hands the bottle over.

Tony starts to feed their daughter and eyes Loki, who stands by the foot of the bed and stares into nothing with unseeing eyes.

"Loki."

Startled, Loki blinks at him.

Tony pats the bed next to him. "Come on." This strange behavior of Loki's is starting to worry him. But thankfully Loki immediately follows his suggestion and sits down. From there it doesn't take much to hand baby girl over to him. Tony knows from experience that this will calm Loki down; spending time with baby girl always does. It does Tony too, really.

"You alright?" Tony dares ask after having given baby girl some time to work her magic on Loki.

Loki doesn't reply for a while; in fact, he doesn't until Tony leans in close into his side, hooks his chin over Loki's shoulder. "Primarily," he says then, and from his tone Tony can tell that that's as much as he'll get out of him on the subject.

"Okay." He takes a breath. "Just let me know if or when you need to use me or baby girl to get away."

Of course Loki doesn't take to that suggestion kindly. "Are you implying that I am incapable of dealing with my f- with this on my own?"

"No, of course not. I honestly can't think of anything you'd be incapable to deal with." Perhaps not deal well by any definition, but Loki deals. "But you don't have to do this to yourself if it's not necessary." Tony kisses Loki on the cheek. "Just something to keep in mind." Purposefully changing the topic, he then looks around the room. "So, where is baby girl supposed to sleep? Because I gotta be honest with you, I'm not comfortable with her sleeping with us." He's read way too many horror stories of parents accidentally rolling over their babies in their sleep and smothering them. Lying in bed with baby girl is perfectly fine, but Tony will not be sleeping.

"There is another room." Loki gestures towards a door Tony hadn't really registered previously. Curious, Tony slides off the bed and walks over, poking his head into the other room. It's mostly bare as well, hosting a very big wardrobe and a crib that obviously doesn't normally belong there. Yes, as with the main room everything is fancy and expensive, but it's nevertheless rather naked and completely lacking in personality.

It's enough for their purposes, though. Tony checks the crib out, feels around for splinters in the wood and testing durability, but everything is fine.

When he gets back Loki is just changing baby girl, who looks unhappy and sleepy, and then they put her to bed.

Tony eyes the door Loki closes after himself. "So… how soundproof is this place?"

Loki raises an eyebrow."Enough." A slow smirk blooms on his face. It's the only warning Tony gets; the next moment Loki pounces, throwing Tony onto the bed and putting his teeth to his neck.

With a hiss Tony throws his head back. He loves it when Loki gets like that, harsh and demanding, no time for pleasantries or questions. Loki is wearing one of these tight leather concoctions Asgardians seem to love and that Tony has no idea how to open, so he undresses himself instead, clumsily opening buttons and pushing clothes off while Loki's teeth scrape over his skin, sometimes biting down less-than-gently. It sends shivers through Tony's body.

"Hngh," Tony makes when Loki pushes his knee between Tony's legs, presses his leather-clad thigh against his naked erection. "Loki…"

Loki growls, pressing his teeth into Tony's chest, making his way down towards his nipple. He isn't gentle or careful when his teeth close around it and pull; his hands are demanding when they clench around Tony's hips, encourage him to hump Loki's thigh. He makes no attempt to unclothe himself, demands Tony's surrender and doesn't give anything back. It drives Tony crazy when Loki is like that; they haven't done it like this often. It requires a certain level of trust they hadn't had for a long time, and then Tony had been too pregnant for this sort of thing.

None of that is the case now. There is nothing stopping them – nothing urgent, at least – and Tony can relax and let Loki take control.

And he's magnificent with it. There is a smug, self-satisfied smile on Loki's lips and the dark glint in his eyes makes the hair in the back of Tony's neck stand up. More as a test than anything else Tony tries to touch Loki; as expected Loki will have none of it. With a growl he snatches Tony's hands at the wrists and presses them into the mattress above Tony's head. His body is an elegant curve above Tony, eyes hot and hard as he looks down on Tony.

Biting his lower lip Tony arches up, lets his eyelids flutter closed at the pleasure that courses through him when he rubs his hard cock against Loki's thigh. Loki hisses and leans down, finally presses his lips against Tony's to take his mouth in a wild, demanding kiss. His silky hair fans across Tony's face as he ends the kiss by biting down on Tony's lower lip.

Tony hisses out a long "yesssss", hitches one leg up and wraps it around Loki's hips. It earns him a narrow-eyed look but Loki takes the hint. Tony doesn't know how he does it because Loki distracts him by nibbling down his throat but a moment later slick fingers slide between his legs, carefully ignoring Tony's balls and hard cock and moving directly for his hole.

They've had a lot of sex over the past couple of days, so Tony doesn't need much preparation. It's a good thing because while Loki isn't too rough, he still is less than careful when he pushes his finger in, giving Tony minimal time to adjust before adding a second and then a third. His mouth moves along Tony's collarbone and his other hand remains on Tony's wrists, holding him down. Tony is deliciously pinned; all he can do is writhe helplessly and moan. They both quite enjoy that, but what they enjoy even more is when Loki deems Tony ready. He pulls back, pushes Tony's knees apart roughly and then takes his cock in hand, coating it with oil before moving for Tony's hole. Hands on Tony's hips, he pulls him up and then thrusts in torturously slowly.

They both moan. Tony keeps his eyes on Loki; the completely relaxed, joyful expression on his face that first moment when he pushes in takes Tony's breath away. And then Loki slowly opens his eyes and looks at Tony, expression dark.

Tony knows what's to come. Oh so slowly Loki pulls back; just when he's about to slip out he halts and doesn't move. Frustrated, Tony moans and clenches his muscles, making Loki clench his jaw, but that's all he does until Tony can't bear it anymore and whimpers. "Please," he whines.

Then, and only then, does Loki finally move, slamming into him with one smooth, powerful thrust that makes them both groan loudly. After that, Loki doesn't hold back or tease anymore. He picks up a relentless rhythm and steadily fucks Tony into the mattress.

Within minutes he has reduced Tony to incoherence; it's all Tony can do to keep his hands away from Loki or his own cock, clenching his fingers in the sheets as he moans and shivers. Loki keeps one hand on Tony's hips, sliding the other between his legs, fingering around where their bodies are joined. The expression on his face speaks of possessiveness and dark self-satisfaction.

Completely deliberate, Tony clenches down on him. Loki's expression turns even more intense and his rhythm speeds up. He slides his hand up the inside of Tony's thigh and then back down again, wrapping long fingers around Tony's hard cock.

"Fuck!" Tony curses, vision blurring. He's about to come; he's not sure Loki will be happy if he does without permission but he's past the point of caring.

In the distance he hears Loki snarling but he's already coming, entire body going tense as pleasure crests in him. By the time he's coming back to himself Loki is growling, rhythm turned unsteady as he comes as well, spilling deep in Tony's body. His thrusts slow down until he stills, staring down on Tony and panting heavily. A drop of sweat trickles down his temple.

Still breathing hard, Tony reaches out and wipes it away. He feels like pudding, the leg he'd wrapped around Loki's hip sliding off weakly.

"That was…" Tony swallows, slides the hand on the side of Loki's face into his damp hair.

Loki closes his eyes and shivers. When he opens them again they're dark and unfathomable. He slides his hands up Tony's body, fingers pressing into the red marks and tooth prints he left littered all over Tony's chest and neck.

Tony stretches his arms over his head, letting a slow, satisfied smile bloom on his face. Loki is acting a bit strange, unusually silent but the possessiveness isn't that extraordinary. It doesn't feel like a bad thing to Tony.

He shifts a little, the sheets clinging uncomfortably to his skin. "Shower?"

Loki takes a breath and finally moves off him, lying down on his side and unceremoniously pulling Tony close.

Okay then, no showers yet. That's okay.

Tony sighs and wraps an arm around Loki's waist, presses his face into his collarbone and just breathes. Loki curls vaguely around him, puts a hand on the back of Tony's head. It's protective, but that also is not something unusual where Tony is concerned, though still way less common than the possessiveness. Tony wants to ask what's going on but it's not difficult to figure out, considering where they are and the meal they just went through. It wasn't too bad in Tony's opinion but things probably look different to Loki, who has a fuckton of history with these people and in this place.

Tony dozes a little but eventually he feels too sticky and uncomfortable to keep this up much longer. "Come on." He nudges Loki's chest with his nose. "It's time to shower."

"I have no shower, Tony," Loki replies dryly.

Very slowly, Tony pulls back to look Loki in the face. "Come again?"

Loki sighs. "You are not in Midgard anymore. Customs are different here. There are no individual bathrooms for each room. If you want to clean yourself, you will have to visit one of the public baths."

Tony stares at him for one long moment, trying to figure out the implications. "Please tell me that doesn't mean people don't wash here."

"On the contrary." Loki raises an eyebrow; he's clearly amused to be the one more familiar with customs now. By the time he and Tony had started their... thing he had been fairly fluent in the necessities, but he'd stumbled over each and every one of Tony's pop culture references. "It is tradition to share a bath with friends or family once a day. Sometimes several." He sits up, runs a hand through his hair in the vain attempt to tame it. "In fact, Thor should be bathing with his friends at right this moment. You could join them."

"What about you?" Tony eyes Loki, who is about as sticky as Tony is.

Loki's eyes flicker to the door behind which baby girl sleeps. "We cannot leave our daughter alone."

No, they really can't. There's no Jarvis to alert them to anything that might be wrong with her – and truly anything; Jarvis keeps track of her temperature and breathing and how much she moves in her sleep. Tony didn't precisely instruct him to do that but he doesn't think it's too bad a thing and honestly, he'd rather not think too much about his AI being obsessed with his daughter's well-being.

But Loki can't not clean up, and while Tony supposes they could take turns, he's really not much in favor of that. He'd really rather not wander the halls of Asgard on his own, not with the way people had eyed them. Not even if he's going to find Thor, because Thor is going to be with his friends and Tony knows enough of them to not be entirely enthusiastic about the prospect of meeting them himself.

"Your mother could watch her," he suggests, well-aware that Loki isn't going to be much in favor of that.

"Or you could go on your own," Loki returns, clearly unimpressed.

Tony's going to have to do some very smooth talking to bring him around. "Yeah, I could do that, but do you really want to leave me alone with Thor and his friends?" It's a cheap shot and they both know it. Though Tony isn't entirely sure whether he's trying to appeal to Loki's protectiveness (having experienced first-hand how really not nice Thor's friends can be) or to his possessiveness (Loki's fear that they were going to take Tony away from him the way they had taken Thor). Wincing at Loki's expression, Tony leans closer. "Look, I'm sorry, I just really, really don't want to go alone. Most people here are wary of you, but me? I'm an unknown – on the one hand I'm mortal so they feel superior, on the other I'm affiliated with two of their princes and the king and queen approve of me enough to have invited me over as a guest. They're going to test boundaries, try to figure out where I fit in. Normally I wouldn't give a fuck and say let them try, but now is really not the time to mess with some assholes." And no matter what happens, it will reflect on baby girl as well and Tony does not want that. He isn't going to say it yet, though, it'd be even more of a cheap shot and he isn't keen on acting like a manipulative asshole unless he has to.

Instead he tries another angle. "Your mother... I offered her to hold baby girl, but she said no, even though she really wanted to. She said you wouldn't like it and that you don't trust her – she said she deserves it." Loki's face is a mix of disbelief and something else, hurt and wariness and other things Tony isn't going to poke at now. "I have no idea what the fuck actually happened, and you don't need to tell me. But unless you're truly not comfortable with that, I think we should give her a chance to prove that she isn't going to let any harm come to baby girl."

"The issue is not that I do not trust her with baby girl," Loki says slowly, voice low as he leans their foreheads together. "It is that I do not trust her to refuse the Allfather if he decides to take my daughter after all."

"He won't, not today," Tony whispers. He can't know, but in his gut he believes it. This is primarily a diplomatic overture and so many things will break if Odin uses it to kidnap or even harm a baby. "We'll lay waste to this place if he does, and he knows it."

Loki nods, comforted by the promise of destruction and the knowledge that he won't be the only one going nuts this time. Tony doesn't know what he'd do if Odin took baby girl, but he knows it wouldn't be pretty. The only reason he stopped producing weapons is by choice, and it's a choice easily reversible.

They sit in silence for a moment, just breathing, until Tony dares to break it. "Is that a yes to the bath?"

Loki nods again. He pulls away and climbs off the bed, wanders over into baby girl's room. When Tony peeks in Loki is just standing by her crib, staring down at her. She's asleep, breathing steadily; she looks so small and vulnerable and just looking at her Tony feels fear and fierce protectiveness well up in him. He can only imagine how Loki must feel, having had six children before her, none of which he ultimately could protect.

Tony doesn't say any platitudes; he knows how futile they are and especially in this context they would seem like mocking to Loki. All Tony can do is walk up to Loki and wrap his arms around him from behind, press his mouth to the back of his neck and hope that it's enough to remind him that things are different now, that at least he isn't alone in this anymore.

Taking a deep breath, Loki puts his hands on top of Tony's. He lets them rest there for a moment before he pulls Tony's arms away, turns around. "We should go now, if we want to have enough time to prepare before the feast."

They leave the nursery and while Tony carefully closes the door behind them Loki walks over to the mirror. He touches it with two fingers and says, "Mother."

"Loki," Frigga replies warmly and the mirror turns into a window to what must be her rooms.

Tony yelps and ducks out of the frame, because Jesus fuck, he's stark naked. Loki is as well and while neither he nor his mother seem to care, Tony very well does, thank you very much. That's the Queen of Asgard, Loki's mom. Tony's exhibitionist streak only reaches so far.

"Tony and I are going to the baths," Loki is saying. "Would you be able to watch over our daughter in the meantime?"

Astonishment and delight flitter over Frigga's face and she makes little effort to hide it, nor the tears that well up in her eyes afterwards. "I would be honored," she manages to say, a smile blooming on her face.

Loki lowers his eyes, smiles a little in return. "Very well." He reaches out and touches the window, turning it back into a mirror. "She will arrive momentarily."

"Cool," Tony says.

Loki eyes him and the sheet Tony has wrapped himself in completely. "I was not aware your sensibilities are so delicate."

"They're not," Tony protests, only half-sure he knows what Loki is talking about, "I just... that was your mother, okay? Being naked in front of people is entirely different to being naked in front of people's mothers."

"If you say so," Loki says blandly. He wanders over into baby girl's room again, returning with two wooden bowls, a couple of towels and two bathrobes – or what clearly passes for a bathrobe here, because they're way shorter than Tony is used to, barely reaching his mid-thigh when he puts his on. The bowl contains a washcloth and a bar of soap.

"There is no point putting on clothes when going to the baths," Loki says, correctly interpreting Tony's dubious expression.

Tony doesn't get to try to explain because there's a knock on the door – and it's a good thing, because he isn't sure he'd be able to. All he knows is that he does not want to wander the halls of Asgard naked almost as much as he doesn't want to wander them on his own.

Determined not to let on – and who would have thought that Tony would ever turn out to be the prudish one – Tony waves weakly when Frigga enters the room. She doesn't seem to care about the wrecked bed or their states of undress, just smiles warmly at them while Loki explains that baby girl is asleep.

"I shall busy myself with this new text on Midgardian herbology I have received, then," she says, holding up a book... yep, "Royal Horticultural Society Propagation Techniques: Simple Guide for 1000 Garden Plants". Tony is fairly taken aback for a moment, then he has to hold back a giggle at the prospect of the Queen of Asgard ordering books via UK amazon. Though it does say royal in the title, so that's fitting.

"She should not need sustenance again before our return," Loki tells his mother, then he gestures for Tony to follow him. After another awkward wave at Frigga, Tony does just that.

"So..." he can't keep himself from saying it as soon as the doors to Loki's quarters are closed. "Your mom totally knows we had sex."

"My mother," Loki emphasizes with a glance, "Certainly is aware of that, considering our union produced a child."

Union. Yeah, Tony isn't going to touch that one with a ten foot pole. The part about how their feelings made magic make Tony pregnant still freaks him out.

"No, I mean just now. As in, half an hour ago."

"Does that bother you?" Loki asks curiously in the same way he would ask about American gender stereotypes. Like it was all very quaint but really rather backwards.

"No, it's just..." Tony pauses, trying to pinpoint what exactly bothers him. "I don't know," he eventually has to admit, shrugging helplessly. "I'm not used to the whole parents and sex thing, I guess." By the time he had discovered what exactly his penis was for he had long since moved out, and his parents had died before anything could have changed. Not that it would have, he doesn't think, even if they had had a thousand of years. And really, considering that Loki and his parents had way more time than that, it's no wonder they're so completely nonchalant about the whole thing. They probably got over the awkwardness within the first century.

"Are there several baths?" Tony asks a bit later. This seems like an inconveniently long walk to get to a place to clean up.

"Yes. I assumed you would want to go where Thor is." Loki pauses in his steps. "Was I wrong?"

"Oh, no, that's fine." Tony thinks about that for a moment. "Yeah, that's good." He'd rather the bath be filled with Thor and his questionable friends than a bunch of strangers. "So, how exactly does it work?"

Loki sighs with exasperation. "You take your robe off. You use soap and a bowl of water to wash yourself. You rinse the soap off and then enter the bath."

Right, okay. "Anything I should know beforehand? Not stare at other people's genitals, that sort of thing?"

"Staring might be interpreted as either a challenge or an invitation," Loki explains. "Considering that everybody knows you are with me, probably both, so you would do better to refrain."

Especially considering that Loki forbade him from bringing a suit. Right. "Okay. Anything else?"

Loki throws him a glance. "You are the Allfather's honored guest. You are my partner, my daughter's other parent and Thor's brother-in-arms. As such, you are of a high status, technically. But because they have not personally witnessed your capability and furthermore don't respect me, people might try to test boundaries."

"Well, I'm not going to take any shit from anyone," Tony replies. He doesn't care who these people are.

A fierce smile curves Loki's lips. "I expect no less of you."

That probably means that it's okay to let his mouth run off.

They finally arrive in a sort of locker room; the walls are lined completely with shelves. Most of them contain clothes and towels, some other stuff and Tony even spots the odd weapon – Mjölnir among them, sitting in a corner. Loki shrugs out of his robe and puts it, together with the towel, on a seemingly random shelf, leaving room for Tony's. Clearly nobody is worried about things getting stolen; Tony is fascinated by that but he decides now is not a good time to ask. Better not hail that Midgard is full of thieves in front of curious Asgardians who are doing their best to pretend not look like they're staring attention at them.

The first room they enter that actually looks like a bathroom (or, well, as much as a room without tiles can look like a bathroom) brings Tony up short, but only for a moment. He was not aware that it was going to be a mixed bath; he's really going to have to make an effort to keep his eyes to himself.

Loki seems unconcerned; he walks up to a sort of waterfall thingy and fills his wooden bowl with water. He waits until Tony has done the same before walking to some sort of bench thing. The handful of other people present are all sitting on benches as well, some chatting in low voices as they use washcloths and soap to clean themselves.

Tony keeps his gaze fixed on the waterfall or, when that gets too boring, on Loki while he soaps himself up, and damn, the water is cold. He is not looking forward to the part where he has to rinse himself in the waterfall before entering the next room, the way he sees other people do.

Well, at least he gets to wash Loki's back beforehand. And while he's at it he also soaps up his hair a little; Loki is always quick and careless but he practically melts when Tony massages his head. Tony is not going to do that to him in front of people Loki feels at best neutral about, but he is not above making a point in front of them. They're all good at pretending to be busy, but they keep glancing at the two of them, clearly curious.

Loki returns the favor and soaps up Tony's back and hair, expression absent-minded, but Tony knows better. They rinse – and fuck, that's cold, Tony would make such a fuss about that if they were alone – and then put their bowls with the soap onto their shelf in the other room.

And then, finally, they head into the third room. It's a bit steamy but not enough to obstruct the view and there's a couple of basins of varying sizes, ranging from big whirl pool to swimming pool. All of them are clearly hot and one of them contains Thor and his friends.

"Brothers!" Thor exclaims when he spots them, looking both surprised and pleased. "Come join us!"

Having had enough of behaving like a proper person, Tony turns pleading eyes on Loki, who just sighs and waves him off. "Go ahead, behave like a child if you must."

Tony grins and starts to run. Thor whoops loudly when Tony jumps and makes an epic water bomb, if he does say so himself.

And yeah, the water his hot, but it's bearable. Loki wouldn't have let him jump in without warning if it weren't.

Tony emerges to loud cheering from Thor; the others are at various stages of blinking water out of their eyes. "That was a beautiful water bomb, brother," Thor tells him with a wide grin.

"What is a... bomb?" one of his friends asks, and that must be Sif; she's the only woman among the five people in the pool.

"Something that explodes," Tony replies easily.

"Brother Tony is an expert in making bombs," Thor claims, putting a hand on Tony's shoulder. "Is he not, Loki?"

"And other things that explode," Loki agrees blandly, stepping into the pool in a much more elegant manner. He sits down on the underwater bench lining the rim of the pool and Tony sits down next to him, putting himself between Loki and the others.

"So, who are you?" he asks when nobody makes any move to introduce anybody. Yeah, he's heard of these guys, but not enough to recognize faces apart from Sif, who is easy to recognize because of her gender.

Thor startles. "My apologies. These are Lady Sif and the Warriors Three: Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun. Friends, this is Anthony Stark, the Man of Iron."

"Is the iron in your chest?" Sif asks, eying the arc reactor.

"A bit of it," Tony says, "But it's trying to kill me. This thing stops it." He taps the arc reactor. "And it's not where I got my title. That I get from my suit of armor." Though that isn't really iron either. Well, it's not like he named himself.

Sif looks curious but before she can ask any other questions Thor says, "It is a great armor for a great warrior. Friends, have I told you the story of how brother Tony single-handedly defeated the eight-armed man?" And then Thor proceeds to tell the story. Every now and then Tony feels forced to interject because Thor makes it seem like he did all the work himself when the other Avengers were involved as well and even Tony can only deal with so much undeserved praise. Loki stays silent next to him, head tilted back and eyes closed in apparent relaxation, though Tony knows better. Loki's arm keeps brushing his as if accidentally, especially every time one of Thor's friends asks something and Tony replies, so eventually Tony puts his hand on Loki's knee. He can only guess why Loki keeps initiating body contact, but once Tony's hand is on his body Loki settles a little.

The whole thing doesn't go unnoticed by Sif and Tony has a bad, bad feeling about this.

He's right. As soon as Thor has finished telling the story Sif leans forwards (Tony keeps his eyes carefully on her face) and asks, "How did your union come to be?"

She's addressing Tony, but it's Loki who replies, raising his head and looking at her coolly. "I believe that is none of your concern."

Narrowing her eyes, she says, "I am curious, though," still ostensibly addressing Tony, who's starting to feel like a pawn in an age-old chess game. "It is, after all, rather... unusual."

Volstagg doesn't even pretend he isn't talking to Loki when he adds, "We know what you are."

A little skittishly Sif's eyes flicker to him; Tony gets the impression she didn't plan on addressing that.

"Do you really?" Loki smiles his coldest smile, eyes glittering dangerously.

Tony knows that expression well; he shares a look with Thor, who looks stricken. "My friends-" he starts, but Tony knows that any attempt at mediating will look like taking sides to Loki – other people's sides.

Volstagg either doesn't recognize the danger or just doesn't care. "You're a Jötunn," he says loudly. "A monster. It does not conceive why the Allfather-"

An abrupt drop in temperature makes him stop talking; Tony, sitting right next to Loki, feels it first. Maybe he should try to stop Loki, but he knows very well that there is no such thing if Loki doesn't allow it. Besides, Volstagg is an asshole. Tony would like to kick his ass himself; he certainly isn't going to stop Loki from doing it.

He does climb out of the water, though, because the temperature keeps dropping; Loki's skin is beginning to turn blue, and now Thor and his friends quickly jump out of the pool as well. Loki rises, the thin sheet of ice that built on the water cracking, and walks over to where Volstagg is crouching at the edge of the pool, eyes narrowed and hateful.

The complete attention of everybody in the bath is on them as Loki, skin blue and eyes red, cold emanating from him, asks silkily, "Why do you not become king of Asgard yourself, if you believe yourself to have such a better grasp on what and what not a king should do?" He looks around at his wide-eyed audience, taking in the shock, horror and hate palpable in the room. Despite the fact that he's still in the pool and has to look up to meet their gazes, it's clear who has the upper hand here. "It is not your place to question the Allfather's motives or actions, or mine. It has never been, and I won't have it anymore. Keep your opinions to yourselves or suffer the consequences."

Nobody dares move. Eventually, Thor steps forward and holds out a hand to Loki. "Come, brother," he says.

Loki looks up at him for one long moment before reaching for him slowly. His hand stays blue and cold until it almost touches Thor's; Thor neither flinches nor withdraws, just calmly looks at Loki.

As their hands touch Loki's skin seeps pink again; it drips down his arm and across his body as he emerges from the frozen pool, hiding his true heritage again.

Loki's skin is still cool when Tony frames his face and presses a kiss to his lips but he warms up quickly at the brief touch that makes Tony's loyalties perfectly clear, should there be any doubt. Tony keeps one hand possessively in the small of Loki's back as they walk back to the room with the shelves, and Loki lets him. He doesn't make any motions of stopping him even when Tony picks it up again after they've put their robes on and are on the way back to Loki's rooms.

"So I'm guessing Volstagg won't be at the feast tonight," Tony says conversationally when they're halfway there.

"Does he look to you like someone who misses mealtimes?" Loki sneers.

"That may be the case, but did you see the way Thor was looking at him? I was surprised he didn't call for Mjölnir right then and there."

"Don't," Loki says sharply. When that actually does shut Tony up (it's always fifty-fifty with him), he sighs. "I do not need Thor's protection."

"Oh, he knows that," Tony replies. "I know that. I think everybody knows that by this point. But you have it nonetheless." He pauses, thinking about how to phrase the next bit. "It's about solidarity, about family, not about your capability to protect and fight for yourself."

"I know," Loki says, but he doesn't say that he doesn't need Thor's solidarity, so Tony counts that as a step forwards.

"By the way," he adds conversationally after having given Loki some time to calm down further. "That was pretty awesome."

"You haven't seen my full form before," Loki replies, an apparent non-sequitur.

"No, I haven't." But he had seen Loki's hand and arm up to his elbow turning blue before, with the patterns and the coldness emanating from his skin. Loki had used it to threaten him about nine months before the pregnancy, and Tony had been scared, he was not suicidal, but there still must have been something about his reaction that had taken Loki off-guard because Loki hadn't been satisfied, hadn't left. And Tony had recognized a bit of himself in Loki then, the way he shoved his (perceived) faults into people's faces to drive them away, to prove to himself and to them that they didn't like him enough to stay. To protect himself from them, from letting them get too close.

Suffice to say, it hadn't worked in their instance. Tony is way too stubborn to act according to expectations at the best of times.

"Perhaps it's for the better," Loki says, but his voice wavers a little. "Our daughter might... it is better you're used to it."

"Baby girl might what?" Tony asks sharply. There's something else about that he'll have to come back to later, but this has priority.

"Hela..." Loki hesitates. "As she grew up, her body started to change. Obviously at the time we did not know the cause; we thought someone must have cursed her or one of us but we could never find the culprit or even the origin or nature of the curse. Things would have been very different, had we known then."

There's so much Tony wants to ask about that, but he focuses on the most important. "What do you mean, change?"

"Half of her body turned dark," Loki explains. "A bit similar to Jötunns, but also to dark elves. Her two heritages are visible on her skin, but they have tamed each other enough to coexist within her."

"And you think the same might happen to baby girl," Tony clarifies.

Loki glances at him. "Not like that. I know now what to expect, and I know how to counter it. I know how to make it considerably less painful and traumatizing for her. If anything like that even happens, which is unlikely because you're human and non-magical."

Well, that's good, Tony guesses. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

Hand on the door handle of his room, Loki pauses. "I want her to have two parents. I thought that if you already love her the chance of you abandoning her will be lower." He turns to calmly meet Tony's pissed off glare. "I will not apologize for the manipulation."

Not giving Tony a chance to reply, he opens the door and enters his room.

That isn't going to deter Tony, though; not with this. If Loki is going to risk having Frigga as an audience for this argument, so be it. "You know what racism is?" he asks, keeping his voice low on the off-chance that baby girl is up. She isn't; the only occupant of the room is Frigga, sitting at Loki's desk and looking at them with her brows furrowed. Good. "Because it's disgusting, and it exists here in abundance, and that's something I really, really don't like about this place or these people. There is nothing that could convince me that all Jötunns or all Orcs or all Romulans are evil or stupid by nature of their race. All cultures are different, and most of the time it only seems that they're horrible because their ways are very different. And if you honestly think that I would abandon my daughter because she's quarter Jötunn – something I knew about you and consequently also her from the beginning, by the way – and because it might show eventually then you can fuck right off."

Loki whirls around but Tony meets his angry glare with equal fury before stalking past him and entering baby girls room. He's just done with this conversation; he's said everything there is to say and he has a feeling that anything Loki might say right now is only going to piss him off more.

As expected, Loki doesn't follow him. It doesn't take Tony long to cool off – he's still angry for the presumption, yes, but the sad part is that there is a lot of internalized racism at work in Loki. Maybe Loki's wife didn't react well to Hela's change – maybe Loki himself didn't react well to it. All Tony knows is that there is a fuckton of history from Loki's previous children and the things that happened to them as well as Asgard's history of war with the Jötunns. Thor had told him of the hate for the other race fostered within the two of them from the beginning – not exactly encouraged by Odin but certainly not discouraged either. The two of them but especially Loki are still working through the issues left over from that. What happened in the bath just now must have considerably frayed Loki's nerves, even if Thor's clear and demonstrative support must have helped him a bit. It doesn't excuse him from being manipulative though and Tony is not going to forgive the implication that he would abandon his own daughter because of some Jötunn heritage that might possibly come to the surface. However, he does understand that there is a lot more going on than just his own stuff and that Loki has some very deeply-rooted issues.

Having mostly calmed down, Tony steps up to baby girl's crib and finds that she's awake; her eyes are open but she clearly felt no need for company or attention yet.

"Hey darling," Tony coos and puts his finger in her hand; she reflexively clings to it. "Sleep well?"

She flails a bit; Tony takes that as a request to be picked up. After dislodging her grip on his finger he puts her on his chest, her chest on the arc reactor, and folds his bathrobe over her for no other reason than that he can. She rests her cheek on his collarbone, her tiny nose against the side of his neck, and seems content to stay there.

Yeah, Tony doesn't give a fuck if she turns black or blue or purple. If she grew horns and a tail he still wouldn't love her any less.

The door behind him opens; fairly sure who it's going to be Tony doesn't turn around at all.

"Mother says I should stop being afraid," Loki murmurs.

"Some of your fears are valid," Tony grants, "Though it varies how much so. But just now you were way out of line."

"I... I am sorry," Loki says, not without difficulty.

"You're worried," Tony replies, finally turning around to face him. "I get that. But you can't keep doing everything on your own. I'm just as involved in this as you are and it pisses me off that you keep acting like somehow you're in deeper than I am."

"There is very little you can do," Loki says a bit helplessly, taking a step towards him. His eyes keep flickering back and forth from Tony's face to where he's holding baby girl, one hand under her and one on her head, his arm keeping her securely in place.

"You don't know that. You don't know that until you give me a chance. I've done a lot of stuff that was supposed to be impossible – that nobody expected me to pull off, and I didn't give a fuck and did it anyway." He shrugs the shoulder baby girl isn't resting on. "If it helps, you can view me as your wild card. There's no way anybody's going to expect me, not with the way you're acting and considering what's involved." His eyes harden. "But you gotta stop keeping me out of the loop or treating me like a variable you have to deal with, or we're going to have a problem."

A bit reluctantly, Loki nods. "I will do my best," he says tightly. "But you can't treat me like this if I slip up. I'm not used to having support, not in this, and it's going to take me some time to get used to it."

"That's fine. As long as you do it. And I will treat you like this if you slip up, because she's my daughter as much as she's yours and I won't stand for being kept out of the loop when it's about her."

They stare at each other for one long moment, but Tony is adamant; he isn't going to give Loki any more than that. Eventually, Loki nods.

Tony nods as well, then takes pity on them both and changes the topic. "Your mom still here?"

"No." Loki raises an eyebrow. "She sensed that we'd need privacy for this."

Indeed. Tony raises an eyebrow to mirror Loki's expression when Loki walks up to him, but by the time Loki cups the back of Tony's head he's figured out what Loki wants. And Tony is happy to oblige and return the kiss when Loki leans in and presses their lips together. Loki doesn't even make a move to touch baby girl as he usually does when he sidles close when Tony is holding her; he just puts his other hand on Tony's waist and leans their foreheads together, eyes closed.

Belatedly Tony realizes just how troubled he must be, not just about the origin of their argument but about what just happened. Loki's issues don't come from nowhere, and it's monumental that he showed his other form in front of a bunch of hostile assholes like that – the same assholes who have made most of his childhood and much of his adult life horrible in some way.

Careful not to jostle baby girl, Tony adjusts his hold on her so he has one arm free and wraps it around Loki's neck, pulls him closer.

"Fuck those bastards, anyway," Tony murmurs softly. "I wouldn't give you back even if they begged me."

"They won't," Loki replies just as quietly. "Not unless there is something to blame me for. I'm sure they're at this moment going through the whole history of Asgard from the day I was brought here, blaming everything that's gone wrong on me."

"Well, a lot that's gone right in my life is on you as well," Tony says. He's referring less to things that had happened and more to how... stable he feels nowadays. Yeah, that's a good word for it, stable. Content. Sure, it isn't perfect, but it doesn't need to be. "And you won't be around for that petty bullshit anyway. You'll be home with me, enjoying yourself and generally not giving a fuck. That's the worst you can do to them, anyway – just doing your own thing, being happy or whatever, not giving a rat's ass about what they wag their tongues about."

"Home," Loki repeats slowly. "Yes." He takes a breath, presses a kiss to the side of Tony's mouth before pulling away. "And worse than me not caring is the fact that it's the Allfather who brought me here, who kept me, who has invited me now, after all that has happened."

Tony raises an eyebrow questioningly. "He going to be pissed about the whole thing at the bath?"

"Perhaps," Loki says blandly. "He has claimed not to care when we spoke earlier today. We will see how much of a lie that was."

Ah, so that's what they argued about before Tony came with the coffee. Tony can just imagine how that went down; Loki takes to anything positive pertaining to his person about as well as most other people do to passionate hate speeches, especially from Thor. Consequently it must be even worse if it's Odin saying it. Tony is one of very few people who can say something nice about Loki in a glib way without Loki perceiving it as mocking, and the number of people who won't be dismissed even if they put it in a sincere, honest manner is only marginally bigger.

"We should get dressed," Loki says when Tony doesn't reply.

Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Except baby girl doesn't seem to think so; as soon as Tony puts her down on their bed so he can get his bag she starts to fuss, and even when he picks her up again she won't really calm down anymore. Thinking resigned things about sleeping dragons Tony goes to change her while Loki prepares her formula; by the time she's ready to eat she's deeply unhappy with the world at general, if her expression is anything to go by. But as soon as she's nestled in the crook of Loki's arm and gets her food she seems content again, if hungry.

Taking his suit out of its bag, Tony frowns at the slight creases. He'd put it in a suit bag but of course that still had to go into the bag, which pretty much negated the effects of the suit bag.

"Just put it on, I will straighten it for you later," Loki says.

Tony had debated back and forth for a while about whether to put on a normal suit (or a tux, maybe?) or have Loki put him in Asgardian formal wear; in the end he had decided that as much as he'd like to wear some leather and see how much Loki appreciates seeing him in those clothes, he's not going to even vaguely suggest that he's anything but a human – an immortal one now, but still perfectly Midgardian. Maybe he'll live somewhere else one day; it's hard to imagine right now because he really doesn't want to be anywhere else but good, old, flawed planet Earth, but he's going to live for quite a while so who knows what the future will bring? But he never wants to live on Asgard. That place is just too fucked up and history-laden for him to be comfortable here, especially with all these assholes still populating it. Immortality unfortunately stagnates a society's development, and it certainly shows. He'd go nuts from boredom within the year.

So, yeah, Tony is going to wear a normal (if expensive and tailored) suit to his daughter's formal baby shower slash whatever feast thing like any other human father would. And sneakers, because Tony doesn't like those stiff, shiny leather loafers he has to wear when it's Pepper deciding for him, and it's not like these people are going to know the difference anyway. Besides, he hears all the mad geniuses do it.

Once Tony is dressed in his favorite suit (it's of a blue that really emphasizes his eyes, and it's cut in a way that makes him look slim and tall) he takes baby girl from Loki and watches as Loki gets dressed very much like Loki had watched him. As expected, there goes a lot of work into Loki's clothes, a lot of clasps and ties and zips and buttons, but it certainly is worth it in the end; Loki looks gorgeous, all black leather with the occasional dark green accent. He looks lean and dangerous and Tony very much wants to do things to him that he isn't going to think about in detail while he's holding his infant daughter.

"Baby sling?" Tony asks, not keen on having to carry baby girl around all evening, but even less cherishing the idea of putting her down and leaving her somewhere, even if he'll stand right next to her the whole time.

Loki nods slowly, but instead of wrapping it around his upper body in the way they had learned at the prenatal class he ties it around his hips in a way that's definitely sassy. At least Tony had the foresight to bring a black cloth so Loki doesn't look silly, but still. Sassy. "We can put her in there if need be," Loki explains upon Tony's questioning look.

Yeah, alright. She isn't too heavy to carry around for a while, especially not if they switch. Tony only isn't looking forward to having to manage food (unknown food especially) with his hands full of squirming baby.

"Natasha and Steve should arrive soon," Loki says, so they head over to the bifrost. It's not a short walk at all and Tony can't get over the crystal bridge and the lights shooting through it, or how there is no railing or anything. More than one idiot must have fallen off by this point, at quite a few drunk people for certain, but clearly Asgard doesn't give a fuck about its less graceful inhabitants.

The tall warrior guy (Heimdall, apparently, and come to think of it Tony has heard Thor yell his name a number of times; that explains a lot actually) doesn't seem to like Loki much, if the way Loki delights in rubbing in the fact that he's here by right and invitation both is anything to go by. He doesn't get the chance to truly piss him off though (which is probably for the better, considering he's their means of transport) because pretty soon Steve and Natasha arrive, looking a bit wide-eyed by this way of traveling and very fine in their formal clothes. Steve is wearing a nice dark brown suit Tony had given to him for Christmas because Steve refuses to pay a lot of money for clothes when less money will do just as fine, which is a sin if you ask Tony because Steve's got the sort of body to pull a lot off. Natasha is wearing a black little number with a slit dangerously up to her thigh and lethal heels – and Tony means that literally, he has no doubt that she knows about twenty different ways of how to kill a person with those heels in under five seconds. More with more time.

"Nice," Tony drawls, looking both of them up and down slowly. Steve barely even blushes anymore; he and Natasha just roll their eyes in tandem, too used to his ways, which is a shame.

"Hey," Steve greets them. "Everything alright?"

"Peachy," Tony emphasizes.

Steve eyes him dubiously.

"There was a bit of an altercation between me and Thor's friends," Loki informs them silkily. "They will doubtlessly approach you to discuss me."

"Discuss you?" Steve asks. "How? Why?"

"You know, we can talk about all this while moving," Tony interjects because he doesn't fancy discussing this in front of Heimdall. After they step out of the dome there's a bit of an adjustment period as Steve and Natasha take in the view, but sooner than expected Steve returns to the conversation.

"What happened with Thor's friends?"

"They disapprove of the fact that Loki's a Jötunn," Tony says deliberately flippantly.

"Oh, that," Steve returns knowingly. They had a couple of conversations about racism, first in the context of Steve's upbringing and later in the context of Loki and Thor's. There had been a surprising amount of parallels and Steve had proclaimed Asgard to be rather backwards in some sense. "I'm not used to that anymore," he had revealed to Tony. "Everything is so modern and forward nowadays. Sure, it's not perfect, but I'm used to all the social upheaval already having happened."

Loki seems a bit confounded that Steve and Natasha take that so nonchalantly. "I take it you are aware of this."

"Well, yes." Steve shrugs. "Though there's a lot of cultural difference, so to us it seems not as problematic as it clearly is to you and the people here."

Yeah, that's one way to put it.

Loki doesn't say anything, just keeps leading them back through the palace, and eventually Natasha makes use of his distraction to sidle up to Tony and ask quietly, "What exactly happened?"

Tony waves it off, not really in the mood to explain it all. "Some bitches – of Thor's friends, no less – said some stupid stuff. Loki doesn't bear idiocy with any kind of tolerance."

She raises an eyebrow at him, clearly aware that there is way more to it, but lets it rest with an amused crinkle of her eyes. "He is not the only one."

And yeah, maybe Tony isn't too patient either, so sue him.

"So what exactly is going to happen now?" Steve asks loudly. "I mean, are we just going to eat or what?"

"The Allfather will introduce our daughter to the guests, making her officially a member of Asgard," Loki explains without looking back. "Then there will be some mingling, as you say, followed by a great and extended meal." He glances back at them. "Don't eat more than you can stomach. Your appetites are considerably smaller than is the norm here. Eat slowly and in small bites if you don't want to spend three quarters of the meal trying not to throw up at some people's table manners." He sneers.

Tony wants to make a joke about how he can just feel the love but it really is not the time, so all he does is sidle up to Loki, grabbing baby girl's foot between index finger and thumb, grinning when she tries to pull it away. "We going there directly?"

"Yes. It's a bit early but there's no point in going back to my rooms." He looks at Natasha and Steve. "Unless you fancy a tour?"

"Oi, I haven't gotten a tour!" Tony complains.

Loki raises both eyebrows at him. "We were otherwise occupied. I can give you one later, though."

"We're fine with later, too," Steve interjects.

"Very well." And off they are again. Tony can't be sure, this place is huge and everything looks pretty much the same, but he doesn't think this is the same direction they had gone into when they had met with Odin and Frigga for that uncomfortable family lunch. His suspicion is proven right when they instead end up in a small room – or well, as small as rooms here seem to get, which isn't very – that is bare except for a seating arrangement. They all sit down there and pretty much immediately a servant pops up seemingly out of nowhere, asking if they want anything to drink.

"Water," Loki says, and the others nod quickly. Who knows what sort of other stuff they have around here; Tony isn't going to drink a drop of alcohol and he also isn't going to try out any strange juices. If they have anything he's familiar with, great, but as that is rather unlikely, Tony is going to stay safe with water.

"Yes, my Prince," the servant says, bowing and scuttling away. Natasha and Steve's matching startled expressions tell Tony that they're having the same sort of realization he had earlier; the one where they remember that oh yeah, Loki and Thor are actually royalty here. It's a bit weird to get used to it, especially considering all the things they have seen Loki and Thor do that were certainly not very prince-like.

As soon as they're alone once more, Loki addresses Steve and Natasha, "One thing you must never do is eat apples."

"Apples," Steve repeats slowly, as if it's a codeword he forgot the meaning of.

"Golden apples," Loki clarifies. "You are here as guests. For you to eat the apples would be seen as treachery and trickery. It would not end well for you, despite immortality."

"Wait, immortality?" Natasha asks sharply. "Does that mean these golden apples give immortality?"

"Or some resemblance of it," Loki confirms. He narrows his eyes at her. "Stealing them would be ill-advised as well."

She frowns, a mix between displeased and insulted, but she has to concede the point. Her curiosity is almost as bad as Tony's and Tony doesn't know if he would have managed to refrain from stealing an apple out of pure need to know.

Steve clearly thinks along the same lines as Tony, because he raises an eyebrow at him. "I don't even know what to say to you that will dissuade you, Tony, but please don't do anything to jeopardize this, okay?"

Tony pouts, a little insulted. "I wouldn't. This is about my daughter, what sort of father do you take me for? Besides, I already had one. They're not that awe-inspiring, really."

Both Steve and Natasha sit up straight at that. "Run that by me again," Steve says in a strangled voice. "You ate an apple that gives immortality?"

"Or something like it, yeah." Tony flaps his hand. "It was perfectly legal and everything, Odin gave his permission, so don't get your knickers in a twist."

Except Steve doesn't seem to be paying attention. He's too busy staring at the both of them, having some sort of revelation; only Tony has no idea what it could be.

They're distracted by Natasha's loud groan. "Does that mean you're going to be around forever?"

Tony grins. "Or at least for a very, very long time."

"God help us all," she mutters dramatically.

A bit of an awkward silence ensues afterwards. Tony busies himself grabbing baby girl's food again, but eventually he has enough; he's never dealt well with silence. "So, how was your afternoon?"

Natasha raises both eyebrows in disbelief. "Really?" Upon Tony's awkward shrug, she sighs. "We had lunch, got ready, waited on the roof to be zipped here. How was yours?"

It takes Tony a while to find a word that fits, but eventually he manages. "...eventful."

"How so?" Steve asks curiously.

"Put it this way: I now know first-hand what awkward family meals are like, and I find I didn't actually want to know."

Loki snorts. "That was a very tempered meal."

"Then I'm scared to find out what you'd call hostile," Tony says. "The throwing of knives?"

"Nothing as tacky as that." Loki raises an eyebrow. "Meals in that constellation generally-" He falls silent and a moment later the door to the room opens to admit Thor.

"My friends!" he exclaims happily. "I trust your journey went well?"

"Yes, thank you," Steve replies politely. "How are you?" And to think they saw each other just a couple of hours ago.

"I am well," Thor says, a bit grimmer than usual. He stands behind Loki and puts a hand on his shoulder; Loki looks annoyed at the gesture but doesn't shrug him off. "I am saddened to find that my friends have changed little, despite everything that has happened."

God, if Volstagg has always been such an asshole Tony has to remedy his opinion of pre-exile Thor. For the worse.

"Perhaps you should sit them down for a calm, serious talk," Steve suggests. "Explain to them what annoys you, and listen to what they have to say in return. Maybe they'll come around."

Thor looks thoughtful. "Perhaps I should do that. Thank you for the advice, my friend."

Steve smiles. "Anytime."

There is a bit more smalltalk – mostly involving Thor telling Steve and Natasha what all he's going to show them once he finds out that they haven't had a tour – until the door opens again for Frigga and Odin. A bit awkwardly, everybody stands up; introductions are made and more smalltalk ensues. It's a bit more stilted this time but at least Odin stays away from Loki on Tony and instead focuses on Steve and Natasha, curiously asking about them and how they came to be who they are. Thor is standing with them as cultural liaison. The reverse will never cease to amuse Tony.

Frigga has sat down in an armchair facing the sofa Tony and Loki are sitting on, smiling gently and asking harmless questions about baby girl and the things she does. It seems a pretty safe topic until Loki's face starts to tighten around his mouth; Tony doesn't know what his problem is but he decides a change of topic is probably for the better.

"So, Frigga," he says a bit awkwardly, not feeling like he should be addressing the queen so informally but she had requested it during lunch. "What do you do?" Immediately realizing how offensive that might come across as, he tries to amend, "I mean, what sort of thing do you do in your free time here? Only, all the things I do aren't really a thing here, I'm just wondering."

"You are curious about this world," she says, "as I am curious about yours. Perhaps we could trade one activity for another?"

So Tony trades watching TV (and a fumbled explanation of what that actually is; Loki just watches him flail with amusement, making absolutely no move to help, the fucker) with weaving lives, which turns out to be hella complicated. It physically involves the weaving of string into tapestries, that far it's simple, but there is magic involved and prophecies and destiny and what not; Tony doesn't really follow the explanation, to his chagrin. In the end he figures it means Frigga makes horoscope tapestries for people for special occasions.

Next they trade playing around in his lab (only playing isn't the right word as he's rather productive, but it's playing to him, so it actually is sort of the right word, why does Loki not stop him from babbling?) with teaching, only it's not normal subject teaching the way knowledge is acquired on Earth; Frigga apparently teaches individual people she picks herself in, well, whatever subject she sees fit, basically. It's of course more complicated than that, she explains all about how she tailors what she passes on to each person, meeting their temper and intelligence and talents, but Tony likes to keep things simple. All this is turning out to be more complicated than he had expected anyway.

Tony doesn't know how long they stay there and chat, but it's long enough that he starts to watch out for baby girl getting hungry again. They have everything they need to feed and change her in a bag that Loki put somewhere, Tony is definitely going to ask in detail what the heck he did there once they have a bit of time at their hands. Still, Tony doesn't want to do all this in front of a whole crowd of people, even if it's just their friends plus Frigga and Odin. Steve, Natasha and Thor are one thing, but Frigga and especially Odin... Loki is just not comfortable enough with them for that, and Tony to be honest isn't either.

Before Tony can decide what to do one way or another, Odin rises and they all have to walk over (in order, of course, with the king and queen leading, followed by Thor, followed by Loki and Tony, followed by Steve and Natasha) to what turns out to be a giant hall. Filled with lots and lots of Vikings. Who are all staring at them silently. Awesome.

"The Allfather will sit at the center of the table," Loki whispers into Tony's ear. Tony can't even see his lips move. "Frigga to his right, Thor to his left. Steve and Natasha next to Thor, me and you next to Frigga, in that order."

Tony glances at Steve who nods imperceptibly; apparently Loki whispered to all of them at the same time. They all follow Odin who walks to the front of the room, but a subtle hand gesture by Loki has them all halt along with Thor and Frigga at the edge of the crowd while Odin continues on towards the center of the free space. It's all pretty formal and festive, which instantly puts Tony's mind into drifting off mode. He has to make a concerted effort to keep his face interested and smooth, especially since he isn't wearing any sunglasses. He's so busy trying not to get distracted he misses most of the speech Odin gives.

He doesn't miss the part where Odin walks over, takes baby girl from Loki (who bears it with a neutral expression, body nearly vibrating with tension) and holds her up for the crowd to see, officially welcoming her as a member of the royal household and "our people", which Tony guesses means Asgard. It's all very Lion King and anytime else Tony might have had to suppress laughter. As it is, it's all he can do to smile weakly at the polite applause, putting a hand in the small of Loki's back in a futile effort to calm him and try not to breathe an audible sign of relief when Odin brings her back.

Loki immediately settles her against his chest, cupping her with both hands; she's small enough that he nearly manages to cover her completely. He's almost shaking underneath Tony's hand. Uncaring for their audience, Tony wraps his arm around Loki's waist and pulls him in, pressing a kiss to his temple under the guise of celebratory congratulations or whatever. That Loki lets him tells Tony a lot about how nerve-wracking that just was for him. Understandably so, really.

Thankfully nobody seems to have noticed, or at least Tony thinks so as he sends a glance around to check. Nobody is staring at them and he actually sees some happy faces; he guesses the baby thing really is a big deal here. Considering how long these people live, how small in number they actually are and how pregnancy is incurred not by biological processes but by magic, they must not have many births.

Then Odin does something Tony didn't expect; he waves for Tony to come closer. Glancing at Loki and getting no help there – Loki is fully focused on baby girl – Tony takes one step towards Odin and, when that doesn't seem to have been the wrong thing to do, walks over to him. Odin nods at him, puts one hand on his shoulder and introduces Tony as "The Man of Iron Anthony Stark of Midgard, son of Howard Stark, my son Thor's brothers-in-arms and my son Loki's spouse" which is a fuckass long title and also really unexpected. Loki did not warn him this was going to happen. Though when Tony glances at Loki and sees his slightly widened eyes, he's fairly sure Loki didn't know it was going to happen to begin with. In the face of the fact that every time they were out in public Loki put on a smooth, emotionless mask, this is practically a spilling of his emotions in front of all these people.

Odin proceeds to tell everyone about a couple of the awesome things Tony did, recounting some of his most impressive feats in battle (especially the personally accompanying a nuclear bomb through a wormhole thing, he apparently really liked that) as well as emphasizing the prowess of his brain. Tony earns a fair number of curious and intrigued looks and a couple of people actually seem impressed, though Tony isn't sure if that's because of the things Odin is saying or because of the fact that Odin is saying them. Once Odin is done there is tempered applause; really unsure of the protocol, Tony waves lamely and smiles fleetingly before hurrying back to Loki's side as soon as Odin releases him.

This seems to have been the end of the ceremonial part. Odin says some closing words and then waves his hand. Waiters with trays of drink enter the room and conversations brand up, hailing the beginning of the mingling part. Tony leans into Loki and murmurs out of the corner of his mouth, "What the heck was that?"

Loki looks a bit pinched and it's actually Thor who replies, patting Tony on the back. "You are now an official member of the family, brother Tony! Welcome!"

"Why did he do that?" Loki asks, sounding incredibly lost. "He does not approve of our union."

"I do not know why you think that," Thor replies carefully. "The Allfather is wary, yes. There is much to be amended. But he evidently respects Tony."

"But why?" Tony asks, careful to keep his face expressionless, well-aware of how closely they're being watched by some people. "We barely spoke earlier today."

Loki and Thor raise their eyebrows at him in tandem. Never have they seemed more like siblings with one single movement. "Perhaps this is better explained at a later time," Thor says. He sounds a bit like Tony said something particularly stupid. Tony is not used to getting that tone – at least not from Thor; Loki does use it on him pretty regularly actually.

"Yes," Loki says. It's apparently a reply counting for both of them because Thor nods and leaves them to talk to some guys. Tony looks around a bit and finds Steve and Natasha already engaged in conversation with some people; he and Loki are being eyed as well but clearly everyone is a lot more wary of them. The lure of baby girl is too strong to keep them away for long, though. Pretty soon, a pretty woman with curly, long brown hair and a twinkle in her eye approaches them. Tony unobtrusively looks her up and down appreciatively; she's definitely someone he would have liked to end up in bed with by the end of the evening, two years ago.

"Loki," she greets, her voice low.

"Sigyn," Loki replies with a nod. Ah.

"It is good to see you," she says. "Many rumors have been carried to me of how you have been fairing. I am gladdened to see that most of them were grossly exaggerated."

"Which ones weren't?" Loki asks, the corner of his mouth curling up. That probably means this isn't an uncomfortable ex situation, thank god.

Sigyn suppresses a smile. "I think you would know that better than I." Her eyes focus on baby girl, all the humor slowly seeping off of her face. She's still for a moment, just looking at the baby in Loki's arms. Grief flickers briefly over her face before she visibly buries it; Tony is vaguely familiar with that, though it's his deepest hope that he'll never exactly understand her struggle. He doesn't want to imagine having to live with anything happening to baby girl, much less something like what happened to Sigyn and Loki's sons.

Drawing a sharp breath, Sigyn meets Loki's eyes again, managing to dredge up a weak smile before she turns to Tony, quickly recovering from the moment with long practice but little ease. "Anthony Stark," she says. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"Tony, please," Tony replies, "and the pleasure is all mine."

"I have been curious who managed to capture Loki's heart after so many centuries." She looks around, noting the fact that many eyes are surreptitiously on them. "And you certainly have managed to capture everybody's attention."

Tony shrugs. "Story of my life." Belatedly he realizes how arrogant that sounds but really, he doesn't care much; it's the truth after all. He gets people's attention, but generally not their approval. Not that he cares much about what some strangers think about him.

Sigyn's smile is a bit unsure as if she doesn't quite know what Tony is saying, catapulting Tony back into a time when Thor didn't get one single idiom, but she glosses it over with a gracious nod. "It was nice speaking to you." Nodding at Loki as well, she takes her leave.

Tony barely has the chance to raise an eyebrow and glance at Loki before the next person steps up; some young-ish (it's sort of hard to tell with these people) guy who turns out to have been a student of Loki's. Tony listens to their conversation for a bit – the student starts telling Loki all the rumors that have been going around about him since the last time they spoke, which eventually turns out to have been before the coronation. At the beginning it's vaguely interesting, at least the stuff relating to Thor and Loki, but Tony's never cared much for rumors and he doesn't know anybody else the guy is talking about either. So when Thor calls him over Tony is more or less grateful for the opportunity to make a graceful exit and leaves.

Thor is standing with a group of guys who look to be the warrior type, not just by dress and demeanor but by the general noise they produce. It turns out that Thor's been telling tales of Avengers Adventures and wants Tony's support. Tony certainly can do that, but he does keep an eye on Loki and baby girl. Loki talks to a couple of other people but he starts looking a bit tense so Tony takes his leave from Thor's fans and heads back to Loki.

"Hey," he says, not caring whether he's interrupting or not. The man and woman who have been talking to Loki eye him skeptically.

"Hello Tony, Hädda and Alfir were just leaving," Loki says pointedly. They scowl at him and stalk off abruptly.

"What was that about?" Tony asks, not bothering to lower his voice.

Apart from a roll of his eyes Loki doesn't deign to reply.

Deliberately changing the topic, Tony leans in and peeks at baby girl's face. "And how's the little one doing?"

"She's sleepy," Loki reports.

Her eyes are open but she does seem fairly comfortable on Loki's chest. Tony sort of wants to hold her for a while as well but she looks so content with her hands balled into tiny fists, one of them around a string of leather from Loki's complicated top, he's reluctant to pull her away. Loki doesn't volunteer her either, so Tony leaves it at petting her a bit and cooing nonsense. It has the positive side-effect that Loki relaxes a bit and that nobody approaches them while they're paying attention to the baby. But as soon as Tony pulls away again and casts his eyes around the room to briefly assess the crowd and the mood, somebody approaches them; three women, one of around Frigga's age and two younger ones. They do seem to know Loki but not have any personal history with him, if their polite but impersonal friendliness is anything to go by. Their main interest clearly is baby girl.

After they've left Loki quietly tells Tony that the two younger women – Erra and Lungard – have been trying to get pregnant for centuries and haven't managed yet.

Tony frowns. "So they're infertile?"

"I have noticed the way everything is relayed back to biology on Midgard," Loki says. "It is not so here, I think I've mentioned this already."

"Yeah, you keep saying that, but I don't get it." Tony frowns. "If there's nothing wrong biologically, why are they not having any children? Not enough sex?"

Loki shakes his head lightly. "It's not that simple. If it were they would have solved it years ago, wouldn't they? As I said before, we don't really know how exactly pregnancies come to pass. There is some consensus on what necessarily has to be there, but it is all guesswork, made more complicated by the fact that pregnancy in general does not occur often on Asgard."

"Hm." It sounds pretty nebulous and complicated to Tony; he doesn't like it. He really prefers Midgard, where they maybe don't know much but at least it can be figured out.

There is some more mingling, more people to prod at Loki or Tony but most want to look at their baby up close. Loki eventually relinquishes her to Tony, who puts her in the crook of his arm so people can see her face without leaning too close, the way they've been doing to Loki. Tony really hadn't liked that, less because maybe he's a bit possessive and more because it had made Loki uncomfortable. Thankfully when Tony's just about had enough for the moment baby girl gets hungry again and they can excuse themselves into the other room to feed her. As soon as they're in private Loki drops the smooth, unaffected face and starts scowling as he prepares the formula.

"You really hate it here, don't you," Tony comments fake off-handedly while checking baby girl's diaper.

Loki pauses. "Yes." No mitigation. Okay. That's really not good at all.

"Well, good," Tony says sharply, narrowing his eyes. "Because I have no intention of giving you back."

After a quick glance at him Loki's lips quirk in a smile.

As usual after eating, once she's done baby girl gets really tired, but if they put her to sleep now one of them will have to stay with her and neither of them wants to leave the other alone. So Tony puts on the baby sling, cover her head with the cloth and Loki puts a sort of dampening enchantment on it so noise from the outside will be a bit muffled, not disturbing her sleep, while any noise she makes will still be at normal level.

When they get back to the party there is some more mingling but pretty soon Odin calls for the feast to start. Everybody wanders over into a hall filled with tables laden with food and Tony very quickly finds that Loki did not exaggerate when he made that dry comment about table manners. People here clearly like to eat, and eat a lot, and they don't care much how it looks while going in. Tony follows Loki's advice of eating slowly, as do Natasha and even Steve, though Steve with his higher metabolism eats considerably more than they do. Tony and Natasha have a bit of a conversation with their eyes (as far as Tony can tell, she's entertained in her own way) but Steve is deeply entrenched in a conversation with the guy sitting right next to him. It's probably a good sign.

The food is strange but not too much so; it's unusual, certainly. There's weird spices and weird meats (incredible amounts of that) and weird vegetables and the tastes are all unfamiliar, but Tony is generally easy to please where food is concerned. As in, if he doesn't like it, he just won't eat it.

Tony doesn't get to talk to people much; Loki eyes him and at one point leans in and murmurs, under the guise of checking on baby girl, "Mind leaving early?"

He doesn't, so they use the baby as an excuse to leave. After putting baby girl, who barely wakes up, back to bed Tony throws himself onto the bed and groans. "Well, that was tedious."

Loki grins unabashedly, happy that Tony finally knows first-hand what Loki's been living with all his life – and that Tony's assessment matches his after just one day. "Exactly."

With a sigh Tony rolls onto his belly and puts his chin on his hands, looking up at Loki, who is perching on the mattress. "At least everybody behaved."

"More or less," is Loki's unimpressed comment to that.

"And what was that part where Odin introduced me?" Tony suddenly remembers. "You didn't tell me that was going to happen."

Spine straightening, Loki says, "Because I did not know it was going to happen." He pauses, face very thoughtful. "That was quite unexpected, actually. With that, Odin officially accepted you as part of the family, if not as one as his subjects, the way he did our daughter."

"Okay," Tony drawls. "What does that actually mean?"

Loki shrugs. "Nothing much, politically. Sigyn is part of the family, Odin accepted her when we wedded, but there are no actual ramifications. It was largely symbolic."

Tony figures that that symbolism is actually what threw Loki so much, but he still doesn't really get it. "What does it mean symbolically, then?"

Pushing him out of the way a little to make room, Loki lies down on the bed as well. "It means that he approves of you and of our union. Enough to let everybody know."

"That's big, right?"

Loki nods wordlessly.

Sensing that Loki needs some time to think that over, Tony nods and goes to take his clothes off, putting on something more comfortable. He peeks in on baby girl to find her awake, which is a bit unusual as she didn't actually sleep that long. Maybe it's the strange surroundings or the stress from her parents she's picking up on (and she does get a little fussy if something is out of order around her). Tony takes her to bed with him and Loki, figuring that some quality time with her parents will calm her down. And her parents as well, actually.

Loki is fairly quiet, but baby girl does calm him. It's a good thing because Thor knocks on their door after a couple of hours, bringing Natasha and Steve.

"Hey guys," Tony calls out, craning his neck to peek at them. He can't exactly move, baby girl is lying on his belly; Loki is playing some version of peek-a-boo with the arc reactor. "Had fun at the party?"

"It was... interesting," Natasha offers diplomatically; Steve nods in agreement.

Out of politeness mainly to Thor, Tony doesn't ask any more questions or offer any of his own opinions. Thankfully Steve was born with his very own politeness setting, and it's a lot more sociable than Tony's. "There are some very interesting people here," he says unprompted. "And the palace is very impressive."

Thor puffs up with pride. "It took a long time to build."

Loki grimaces but Tony is the only one who really noticed because his face is mostly turned away from the others. Tony knows his expression only because Loki's face is resting on his shoulder and he literally feels Loki's disapproval.

"I met Lady Sif," Natasha says abruptly.

"I introduced them," Thor adds happily. He generally looks fairly cheerful; Tony supposes he quite enjoyed the turned tables of him being the one who knows the society and customs.

Natasha nods. "We're going to spar tomorrow."

Lifting his head, Loki says, "That's not particularly fair. Her body strength is far superior to yours."

Raising an eyebrow, Natasha replies softly, "Uneven odds will merely make victory all the sweeter."

Yeah, scary scary lady. Tony sort of adores her. "I'll certainly be rooting for you, honey."

Steve smiles and pats her on the shoulder. "Me as well."

"It shall most certainly be interesting," Thor opines.

"I think it's time to feed her again," Loki says abruptly, sitting up.

The others take that as their cue to leave, and they were right too. Though they probably didn't figure out that baby girl isn't actually hungry yet. Tony wonders why Loki is annoyed with Thor all of a sudden, but Loki's nerves are already frayed; he's not going to ask now. He just stays quiet and plays with their daughter to let Loki slowly unwind. Once she's fed and back asleep, they quietly go to bed as well.

Due to baby girl's regularly waking them up for food it's actually no problem to be up early in order to not miss Natasha and Sif's sparring match. Loki puts on soft, stretchy leather and warns Tony that they might be asked for a demonstration of Tony's skills as well, if they don't look busy.

"Busy how?" Tony asks, not hiding his annoyance. He's getting really tired of having to prove himself. It doesn't even matter what these people think of them.

"Katas," Loki replies simply. They started doing them during Tony's pregnancy, when he was still mobile enough to move that is, and picked them up again shortly after; Loki claims they're good at increasing body strength and agility but Tony hasn't yet had the opportunity to test that.

At Tony's skeptical look Loki adds, "They know not to disturb me when I'm doing kata."

That's much better. "Where are we leaving baby girl?"

"Mother," Loki says, with remarkably little reluctance. If nothing else, this visit was at least good for mending some fences there, it seems.

So they head over to what counts as a gym on Asgard, stopping at Frigga's quarters to leave baby girl and very, very detailed instructions that include veiled warnings as to her care. Frigga bears it all with angelic patience.

There is already a sizable crowd congregating in what appears to be the gym, not that it contains any gym machines. It's just an empty room with a couple of marked off areas that nobody is paying attention to right now except for one in the center. Natasha, Thor and Steve are grouped together in one corner of that marked off area, Natasha in her skintight work-out gear, Sif in the other corner is clad in similar clothes as Loki. She looks determined and excited while Natasha seems perfectly calm and collected.

Tony and Loki join Steve and Thor just as Natasha moves into the ring. Natasha and Sif have a brief talk and then move into positions.

It's a good fight, starting out slow as they test each other out, picking up speed and skill and becoming fierce in the middle before it turns playful towards the end, with the two of them more showing off than actually fighting. Natasha certainly proves that one doesn't need superior strength to hold their own in a fight, and the Asgardians seem very impressed by some of her more acrobatic moves. There are a lot of congratulations to both Natasha and Sif and a number of intrigued to even awed looks aimed at Natasha. All in all, she seems pretty pleased when she gets back to them.

After the excitement has died down Loki and Tony do some katas; Tony finds it vaguely enjoyable and surprisingly taxing. And Loki was right; nobody dares approach them, not even the most insistent lurkers that are clearly waiting around for one of them. When they finish and some people call out some suggestions about a demonstration of Tony's skills – Steve, it turns out, is planning to have a sparring match with Thor later and is currently warming up for it – Loki easily fends them off by replying that they need to get back to their daughter.

"Smooth," Tony murmurs once they're outside. Loki eyes him and smirks.

They take a quick bath – nobody even joins them in their pool, Tony doesn't know if that's by chance or by design – and head back to baby girl. Frigga is currently feeding her and of course the first thing Loki does is ask her very detailed questions on how she prepared the formula, did she test the temperature, how is baby girl doing in general, did anything happen, what did she do.

"I have taken care of a number of babies in my lifetime," Frigga reminds him mildly.

"Oh, did you?" Tony asks accidentally. It sparks a not very fascination explanation by her and Loki both of what Frigga's queenly duties are; they involve (among a lot of other things) a sort of motherly thing where she spends time with new parents and teaches them how to take care of babies and raise children.

They end up spending some time talking to Frigga. She and Loki explain a bit of the inner workings of Asgard to him and the royal duties Loki and Thor still execute, which Tony didn't know. Most of it is formalities or appearances at parties, for which only one of them is necessary which recently tends to be Thor, but they do have oversight over some areas of the palace machinery and apparently the plan is to slowly reestablish Loki into his duties. Baby girl spends most of the conversation asleep on Loki. Shortly before lunch they leave to pack their bags, because directly after they'll return to Midgard.

As they walk back to their quarters Tony tries his best not to eye Loki, but he can't help being curious. Over the course of the past two days it seems like Loki and Frigga mended some fences. Without actually talking about anything, of course, but Loki is much more at ease with her now than he was when she and Odin first came down to pick them up. Still far from relaxed and, Tony figures, far from how it used to be before the whole coronation thing and everything after, but better. Tony wonders whether it's a subconscious development brought upon by closer interaction between the two of them or if it's deliberate.

Just like the other things, he pushes it aside to be talked about later, once they're back home and have had some time to unwind: it's quite a list by this point. Once arrived at Loki's quarters they put baby girl on the bed – again with pillow walls just in case she miraculously discovers her ability to roll or crawl while they're not looking and falls off the bed – and pack their things. Loki takes a couple of books and quite a lot of stuff out of his wardrobe and puts them in a bag, commenting absently that he's missed his normal clothes; clothes on Midgard all feel like sleepwear to him. "Even your formal suits are very simple," he says.

Instead of being bothered about what everybody must have thought about his clothes yesterday, Tony makes a mental list of all the role playing scenarios he can think of involving Loki's new range of clothes and carefully keeps any teasing comments as to Loki's prissiness to himself. And because Tony is an asshole the best way to do that is to keep his mouth otherwise occupied. Normally he'd do that by delivering a free blowjob but their bed is occupied and Tony can't do that sort of thing with baby girl in the room, so he goes with the more chaste option and kisses Loki instead. And then he just keeps doing it because Loki has a rather nice tongue and they really should do this more often.

They end up being late for lunch. Nobody comments upon it but Odin's face is mildly disapproving and mostly resigned, while Frigga seems mildly amused and Thor doesn’t give any indication as to having even noticed. Steve and Natasha just share a mild look.

As they sit down, to absolutely everybody’s surprise, Loki hands baby girl over to his brother. "Since you seem to have finished eating you can hold her while Tony and I dine."

Thor's plate is half full and he looks nowhere near finished, but he doesn't say a word about it. He just holds baby girl and pretends that it's a normal every day occurrence; they have all learned by this point that to acknowledge any gestures Loki might make will only have negative effects. Loki pretends like nothing is going on, calmly fills a plate with food and solicitously hands it to Tony before filling his own plate.

"How did you enjoy the feast, Tony?" Odin asks politely.

"Greatly," Tony replies. That's as far as his ability to adapt to the way these people talk and behave lasts. He really does not know how to say the next bit, so he settles with his default setting of when he bothers to be honest at all to begin with: awkwardly genuine. "Thank you for the…" he flaps his hand, "thing with the introducing and all."

Odin raises an eyebrow, faintly amused. "It seemed like I had little choice in the matter."

That is definitely not true; Tony knows that much. There was absolutely no need for Odin to do anything.

With fake nonchalance, Tony shrugs. "I don't understand much about politics here. I am grateful either way." Perhaps Thor is actually on to something, always acting like he doesn't understand the finer subtleties at play.

Odin verbally shrugs it off in a very smooth, roundabout way in the process of which he turns to Steve and Natasha and asks them how they liked the feast. The rest of lunch is spent with small talk; Odin seems fairly interested in their outside impressions of Asgard. Tony doesn't know if it's Steve and Natasha's presence or the fact that they had a day to talk and work through some things, but there are none of the little barbs that had passed between the family during yesterday's lunch. He's really confused by this point, not sure whether the previous day was an exception or the rule and whether today is mostly a front or not. Maybe he'll ask Loki about that later, but this isn't something Tony is comfortable talking about – family dynamics and his lack of knowledge thereof. Tony generally gains dubious to pitying looks when he asks about that sort of thing.

After lunch they leisurely stroll over through the palace and across the bridge to the circular room. There are some awkward goodbyes and then Heimdall sends the five (and a half) of them back to the roof of Stark tower.

They stand there awkwardly for a moment until Tony clears his throat and says, "Well. That was interesting."

"Certainly," Natasha agrees, sounding satisfied. "I will go and tell Clint all about it." With a strange spring in her step she climbs down the stairs and wanders off.

"Who wants to bet she’s going to tell him about her encounter with Sif in minute detail?" Tony asks.

"Tony," Steve chides, sounding vaguely scandalized.

It takes Tony two shameful seconds to catch on. "Steve!" he exclaims when he does. "You dirty, dirty man. You think they did it?"

"Oh my god," Steve says, flushes deep red and runs off.

Tony gapes. "Did you-?" He turns to Loki, who has raised both eyebrows and is staring after Steve. "Natasha and Sif actually-?"

"The only thing I am certain of," Thor says gravely, "is that both Lady Sif and Lady Natasha will perform very painful, unpleasant things upon our persons if we continue this line of discussion."

"Perhaps it is a topic best abandoned," Loki agrees.

With a sigh Tony concedes the point. At least for right now; he's certainly going to ask Loki how likely he thinks it is later. He knows Sif better than Tony does and he knows Natasha better than Tony does Sif; he's in a better position to speculate.

First, though, Tony needs some time to himself. After helping Loki take care of baby girl he goes to his lab and firmly locks the doors for some alone time without anyone invading his space or demanding his attention. He has way less time for that than he would like because of baby girl waking up but it's enough to relax a little, not just for him but for Loki as well.

Of course as soon as they make it into the kitchen there's no escape; the others are already congregated there and it appears are interrogating Steve and Natasha about Asgard. Thor watches the whole thing curiously, hiding a smile when Clint immediately pounces on Tony as soon as he spots him.

It takes about two hours until not even Bruce has any unanswered questions; they're sitting in the living room by this point, it's late evening and baby girl will soon start getting sleepy again. Tony is somewhere between annoyed and content; even with all the questions he's fairly comfortable here. Comfortable enough to be dozing off a little, baby girl lying on his chest and drooling on his arc reactor. Loki is sitting next to him, legs folded, nibbling Doritos and seeming vaguely bored. The others are talking about bread for some reason; Tony lost track of the conversation a while ago.

"Hey, guys," Steve says. "Tony? Loki?"

Tony doesn't bother opening his eyes, just grumbles. Until Steve says, "It's been a week, right? So you can give baby girl a name now?"

Blinking, Tony sits up properly, finding that the others are all looking at them. Next to him Loki noisily crunches down on a whole Dorito. "Wha'?"

Steve furrows his brows. "Do I remember that correctly, you give babies names a week after their birth?"

"You start considering names then, yes," Loki confirms. "And you are right, we may start considering names for her now."

It's probably a good thing to do it now, before the nickname "baby girl" permanently sets in. Except so far, Tony's made things rather easy for himself on that front by pushing the issue away, safe with the knowledge that there's no point thinking about it right now. That attitude is coming back to bite him in the ass now that the time has come to start considering names; he does not feel up to the task at all. Names are important. His daughter will be saddled with hers for the rest of her life and she might end up hating him for it.

"So how does it work? Is there a special ceremony you do or what?" Clint asks.

"Normally the name is announced at the feast," Thor replies.

"Really?" Tony turns to Loki, eyebrow raised inquisitively. "You didn't say anything about it."

"It was not a normal ceremony," Thor says. "Loki made several changes. For example, there were no prophecies made."

"Though the point is likely moot by this time," Loki says darkly. "Mother probably has made her own prophecies by now."

Wait a minute. "Is that why-" Tony bursts out, stopping mid-speech because almost as quick as the realization comes the consideration that Loki might not want it spoken about in font of his friends.

Or maybe not. "Why I did not want mother to be near her? Yes." Loki's voice is dry.

Well, if he had mentioned that Tony would have handled that whole thing differently. He hopes his raised eyebrow conveys that.

"Prophecies?" Bruce repeats. "Why are there prophecies made? How?"

"Seers make them," Thor replies.

"And they are made to give the Allfather an excuse," Loki adds darkly.

"Right," says Steve, clearly deciding that this is a good moment to completely unsubtly change the topic. "So what about that name?"

"Names make prophecies easier," Loki replies. "And also curses."

Tony really does not like that that's a possibility. He's going to have to talk to Loki about that later.

"No, I mean, how are you going to name her?"

Loki frowns. "Is there a special protocol to the naming process on Midgard?"

"Uh, I've never done it." Steve shrugs. "I think parents just keep suggesting names to each other until they find one they both like?"

"There's baby books and everything for that sort of thing," Tony adds. "How is it done on Asgard?"

"I picked Loki's name," Thor says proudly.

That's clearly news to Loki because he blinks in surprise. "You did?"

Thor nods. "You were really small but I knew you would be my best friend." He grins. "And I was right."

Sensing that they're on delicate ground Tony raises an eyebrow and asks, deliberately lightly, "So you basically just give a more or less random name like here."

"Not random," Loki protests, frowning. "I told you how Hela got her name."

Tony frowns as well, giving Loki his full attention as always when Loki talks about his other children. "No you haven't. You just said that she was considerably louder than baby girl."

Smiling slightly with amusement, Loki says, "I'm certain I didn't put it as delicately." As usual when he talks about his other children there's a certain quietness about him. Tony figures it's hiding bigger things that Loki isn't ready to show, especially not in front of the others. But Loki doesn't pause to give himself time to remember, just continues, "She was very strong-willed from the beginning. That's where she got her name. Hela means storm, or strong wind."

Now Tony really wants to know what Loki's and Thor's names mean as well as where the names for Loki's other children came from, but he's not going to ask in front of everybody. "So baby girl should have something that fits her temper."

"Docile?" Thor suggests.

"No." Tony shoots that down immediately. "No. No actual English words. If we give her a name that means something, it has to be in a language not spoken on Earth, and it can't be docile."

"Nothing connotative to submissive," Loki agrees. "Though why not in a language that is actually spoken here?"

"Kids can be cruel." Tony puts a hand on the back of her head protectively. "Actually, I'm not comfortable with her having an alien name either, but if it has to have a meaning, then something nobody can find out on the internet." She's likely going to get enough shit for her parentage; Tony knows what that's like but even he didn't have a Norse God as his other parent. There is little Tony can do to protect her from that sort of thing, at least not much that won't be detrimental to her normal development, but he can try to minimize as much as he can.

"You could just give her two names," Clint suggests. "A normal English one without meaning and another with meaning in an alien language."

"A third name?" Thor asks, raising an eyebrow. "That is many names for such a small person."

"People here generally have three names," Tony points out. "I have three names. Four, if you count the nickname. Five, or actually technically six, if you count the title. Nine, if you count the other title, and then there are my doctorates. Do titles count as names?"

"No." Thor eyes him curiously. "Which other title?"

Out of the corner of his eyes Tony glances at Loki who is suppressing a smirk, clearly remembering the circumstances under which he found out. It had been somewhat early on into their… relationship, and they'd been doing a strange mix of flirting, hatefucking and confessing their sins. "Merchant of Death," Tony answers Thor's question, trying his best to keep his face neutral. Going by the "I don't even want to know" eyebrow he's getting from Steve, he isn't very successful.

Thor blinks. "That… is an interesting title."

"Same as Iron Man, I didn't pick it myself," Tony tells him. "The press gave it to me." He shrugs. "I mostly don't deserve it anymore." Steve's face is taking on a mulish expression that means he does not agree with Tony and is unhappy with Tony putting himself down. Not ready for that sort of conversation, Tony quickly puts the topic back on track. "Anyways. Anthony Edward Stark, my three names."

"Clinton Francis Barton are mine," Clint volunteers. The others join in, and it's like a sort of introduction round a couple of years too late.

"Robert Bruce Banner."

"I just have two, Steven Rogers."

"Natalia Alianovna Romanova."

Thor frowns. "How is it that none of you are called by your real names?"

"Hey, Bruce is my real name, it's just the second one," Bruce protests playfully.

"Nicknames are just sort of… well they're a mix of people being too lazy to call people by their proper, long names and a sign of familiarity," Tony adds. "Many people only let close friends and family call them by their nicknames."

"And your last names do not refer to your fathers but to your family," Thor says. It's not a question; apparently someone explained this to him. Tony bets on Coulson.

Clint frowns. "What's going to be baby girl's last name?"

Tony and Loki share a look. "We don't know yet."

"There is much we have to discuss where her name is concerned," Loki says in a final tone of voice, putting an end to the conversation.

Only temporarily though and only in front of their friends; later that evening, once baby girl is in bed and they're alone, they have a short talk during which they sort of decide that Tony is going to pick a Midgardian name and Loki a non-Midgardian one and they'll once more postpone the last name talk. They'll talk about this again tomorrow evening.

Satisfied that this is taken care of for now Tony makes a mental note and moves on to something he's been looking forward to for a while: blowjobs. Fuck yes. Life with a sex drive and no giant baby belly in the way is great. Tony is never going to take that for granted again.

The next day Tony trolls the internet and its abundance of baby names websites, which turns out to have been a mistake. There's a fuckton of names out there and each name has about five different variations and spellings and can be traced back to some other, infinitely more lame name. After about two hours Tony's head is whirling and he has no idea anymore which names he's seriously considering and which ones he just finds interesting. So he leaves it for a couple of hours and when he gets back to it after messing about with numbers for a while, he makes a list of the first eight names he likes in his internet history. That should do, he figures, emailing Loki the list.

Within the hour Loki sends him the list back with nice little comments like "She wins ashes? How glorious. Truly a name that suits the daughter of Tony Stark, the richest man of Midgard, and Loki, Prince to two realms, God of Fire." next to the name "Ashwin" and "a bitter spice, wikipedia tells me. The most expensive one in the world, which certainly is suitable, but "bitter spice" would be more suitable for someone like me. Let us not give her a name with such a connotation, yes?" next to "Saffron". But he seems okay with three of the names (Emma, Emily and Morgan), which is good, because they're among the most common names of the list Tony made. No fancy celebrity name for their daughter.

Then Loki sends Tony a list of nine names plus connotations and meanings and why he thinks they fit. Tony is halfway sure he can pronounce one of them, maybe three without the name turning unrecognizable in his mouth. None of them sound nice to him except maybe Levira (meaning dear, friendly, wise one, to summarize Loki's 300 words linguistic essay on that name alone). Unfortunately, it sounds like a stripper name. Tony would rather have one of the unpronounceable ones than that, he thinks.

Out of principle, he vetoes most of the names, keeping Auðr (treasure, self-explanatory, though you wouldn't think so going by Loki's essay on that name), Heiljúf (bright, beautiful, dear, friendly one) and Sellif (blissfully happy, protected one). This only leaves them with having to finally properly discuss last names, and this time Tony won't keep out of the minefield that is the Laufeyson/Odinsson problem.

In the evening, after dinner and once baby girl is in bed, Tony and Loki sit in bed (Tony picked the location in the hopes that he could get a quickie out of it before they got down to business, but Loki hadn't been amendable) and stare at the tablet with all six first names they shortlisted.

"We either make both names fit together or completely independent from each other," Loki eventually says.

Sounds good. Except it turns out making them completely independent from each other is a little difficult, and then they have a brief fight during which Loki almost jumps Tony in the non-fun way because Tony makes a low-brow comment about how "universal friendly one" sounds like a whore that does everyone and everything. They should be in a bad mood by the time they settle on two names (Emily Auðr, meaning "to rival all treasures"), but instead Tony feels happy and proud. Both names really fit her, especially together, and she hopefully won't end up needing therapy for that.

He's hoping for some celebratory/break sex, and while Loki doesn't seem disinclined he's firm. "When this is taken care of we can have all the sex you want," he says. "That's much better than a quickie now, isn't it?"

Tony considers it, noting the time and the fact that if they have sex now they probably won't get done before baby girl- Emily needs to be fed, and by the time they'll be finished after that they'll be too tired for much of anything. Whereas if they find a last name before she wakes up they'll have enough time and leisure for more than a quickie afterwards.

"You're so wise," he says admiringly with an overly earnest expression. Then he rubs his hands together decisively; they have about twenty minutes for this. It should be doable. "Okay, so, I made a list." He tabs the tablet and tilts it so Loki can get a proper look at said list; it contains six last names (Lokadóttir, Tonydóttir, Laufeyson, Odinsson, Stark, Starkdóttir) plus two extra names that are a variation of one of them (Tonadóttir or even Anthonadóttir, if they want to be etymologically correct). He bites his lip as Loki reads through them silently and, unable to deal with the silence, continues, "So I know technically it should be either Lokadóttir or Stark, depending on which culture we go with, but either would be sort of exclusive, as would be any of the others, so I was thinking… we could do both? Lokadóttir and Stark, I mean? Double last names are fairly common, especially if the parents aren't married. Or if they marry and neither wants to give up their last name, that's when double names happen."

"Emily Auðr Lokadóttir Stark?" Loki says skeptically. "That's a great number of names."

"Yeah, but there's way worse. Especially celebrity babies, honestly, you don't want to know what some people do to their children in terms of names." Tony pauses. "And I was thinking… your other children probably got your name, right?"

"I was father to Váli and Hela," Loki replies. When Tony just continues to look at him he sighs his "we're both lucky you're good in bed" sigh and explains, "That means both of them got my name – Lokason and Lokadóttir – as last name. Nari was Sigynson, Jörmungandr and Fenrir were Angrboðason and Sleipnir was Lokason by virtue of his father having been a horse."

Right. Moving along… "Yeah, so, I don't remember what my point was, but I thought about it and while I like Tonydóttir or the more grammatically correct versions thereof, I like the two last names thing better."

Furrowing his brows, Loki thinks about that for a moment. Eventually he nods slowly. "If it's truly Midgardian custom to have such a high number of names…"

"Four is not many, especially if two of them are last names," Tony confirms.

Loki inclines his head. "So be it."

"Awesome." Grinning widely, Tony holds up his hand. With an eyeroll Loki high-fives him and then he lets Tony pull him in for some kissing. Unfortunately they enjoy it a little too much and they really don't have enough time for anything now, not when Emily is going to wake up any minute, so they have to separate. After they've cooled off a little they wander over into the kitchen to make Emily's formula and something to eat for themselves.

They find Steve and Natasha already in the kitchen, sipping green tea and falling silent when Tony and Loki enter. It's not difficult to figure out what they've been talking about, but Tony doesn't care for once. "We have a name!" he announces proudly.

"Several, rather," Loki adds dryly.

"Do tell," Natasha says, sounding intrigued.

Tony looks at Loki and raises an eyebrow. "I need some more practice before I'll be able to pronounce it properly, love."

Loki raises an answering eyebrow at him before he turns to Steve and Natasha and says, "She has two first and two last names, which, Tony informs me, is not unusual." He waits until both of them have nodded before finally telling them their god child's name. "Emily Auðr Lokadóttir Stark."

"It means "to rival all treasures"," Tony adds proudly from the counter, where he's spooning formula powder into a bottle.

"What does? Auðr?" Steve asks, clumsily pronouncing the name. Tony probably did only a marginally better job at it.

"Auðr means treasure," Loki informs him. "Emily means to rival."

"That's a good name," Natasha says softly. She smiles at them both, unusually sweetly. "I like it."

Helpless in the face of her genuineness, Tony smiles back. "Me too." Embarrassed about the spilling of emotions he turns his back on them and pours a bit of freshly boiled water into the bottle.

"Me too," Steve joins in. "It's beautiful. I especially like it because it's a bit of both, just like her last names."

"That was very much the point of it," Loki tells him.

They talk a bit more about names and then other stuff; when she wakes up Tony collects baby girl and, after a silent exchange of glances with Loki, lets Steve feed her. He and Loki exchange some more glances and decide to let Steve and Natasha take care of her and, after hammering out the details with them, go back to bed.

Of course they don't get to doing anything fun; Loki isn't exactly comfortable knowing somebody else is handling Emily and might or might not be watching Steve and Natasha via the security cameras. Tony has a feeling they at least suspect as much. "You'll be much more comfortable leaving Emily to them for a couple of hours if you know they're used to each other," Tony points out to him for the nth time.

The look Loki sends him is not as scathing as it could be. "I know that," he snaps.

Tony sighs and wraps himself around Loki's back, hooking his chin over his shoulder to stare down at the tablet with him. At least the audio is turned off, Tony feels a little less creepy watching Steve coo to Emily while Natasha changes her nappies if he can't hear them. "They're doing a good job."

"Yes," Loki agrees reluctantly.

Tony takes that as permission to grope Loki. Only a little, because Loki probably isn't up to much just yet but really, Tony loves Loki's thighs. His whole legs really. And the sensitive skin of his pelvis just above his pubic hair, and the way Loki shivers if Tony runs his fingernails over it just so, and his hipbones, they're delicious to nibble on.

"Tony," Loki chides, but it's not an order to stop so Tony just buries his nose in Loki's hair and hums, gently scratching Loki's belly just beneath his bellybutton. He keeps his other hand on the inside of Loki's thigh, feeling his warmth through the pants he's wearing and trying to figure out how to get him out of them inconspicuously.

"Tony," Loki sighs again, decisively more breathy.

Humming again, Tony scrapes his teeth over the back of Loki's neck. Deciding there's no subtle way to get Loki out of his pants, not with the way he's sitting, he murmurs into Loki's ear, "How about you turn that off?"

"And then?" Loki asks, voice low.

"Then I'm going to take off your clothes, you're going to lie down on your belly and let me massage you."

Loki hums thoughtfully. He eyes the tablet, observing the way Natasha lifts Emily up, mindful of her head, and sighs, closing it down with a flick of his fingers. Leaning away from Tony he puts it on the nightstand and then leans back into Tony's chest. "Do your best," he orders with an imperious hand gesture.

There are some orders Tony enjoys following. He takes his time, running his hands up Loki's belly and pushing his shirt (well, it's actually Tony's, which only makes it hotter) up in the process. He really likes Loki's skin; it's not unblemished, it's not soft as petals, but he can feel Loki shiver when he touches him in an especially sensitive place, feels his breath catch when he slightly digs his fingernails into the spaces between his ribs.

With a long exhale Loki lets his head fall back onto Tony's shoulder. Tony just keeps slowly running his hands up and down Loki's belly, each time inching a bit higher and a bit lower, cupping Loki's hips and dipping his fingertips underneath Loki's pants. Loki's breath quickens when Tony flicks his button open and then on the upstroke almost brushes over his nipples. When Tony pulls his zipper down and brushes his fingers over the bulge in his boxers he holds his breath for a second, releasing it in installments when Tony runs his fingers up his belly and up his breastbone, circling around his nipples before going back down.

"Tony," Loki chides, voice tight.

Pressing his grin into Loki's neck Tony slides his fingers underneath his boxers and cards them through the nest of hair, carefully avoiding his cock in the process. Before Loki can complain again he quickly reaches up and pinches both of Loki's nipples at the same time, making him gasp and tense. On his next downstroke he pushes both Loki's pants and boxers down his thighs, assisted by Loki helpfully lifting his hips to make it easier. As he slides his hands up again Tony scratches up the insides of Loki's thighs, making him grunt and then moan in relief when he loosely wraps his hand around his cock and tugs slightly.

"More," Loki demands breathily. His voice makes shivers run down Tony's back, the knowledge that he's the one to make Loki sound like that, the only one who does this to him always turning him on like nobody's business. He shifts, adjusting Loki against his chest a little, and pushes his free hand up to tease his nipples again while he slowly pulls at Loki's cock, his grip just a little too loose. Loki writhes with it, pushing back against Tony and tilting his hips so his ass rubs enticingly over the bulge in Tony's pants, making him grunt.

"Alright," Tony grinds out when Loki does it again, and again; if he keeps it up Tony's going to be unable to resist temptation and push him down, rub off against his ass. "Do you want to come now or later?"

"Why not both?" Loki pants, one hand clenching where it's gripping Tony's knee.

Okay, fair enough. Tightening his grip around Loki's cock and pinching his nipple at the same time, Tony stops teasing and starts seriously bringing Loki off. For a while he just enjoys the noises Loki makes as he gets more and more worked up, pants and low moans and the way his breath hitches when Tony twists his wrist and tugs at his nipple at the same time, but Tony's never been good at shutting up.

"Look at you," he murmurs lowly, pressing his lips against Loki's ear. "You're going to come all over yourself in a minute, and you aren't even undressed yet."

Loki immediately starts writhing in a different way, twisting his legs and using his feet to push his jeans and boxershorts off. Once they're gone he spreads his legs wider than he could previously, giving Tony a glorious view down his whole body. Fuck, Loki is just the sexiest thing he's ever had.

"Fuck," he curses roughly, squeezing Loki's cock almost too hard, but it only makes him moan louder. "You know what I'm going to do when you've come?"

"You promised a massage," Loki gasps, voice tight.

"I'm going to push you on your belly and I'm going to give you that massage," Tony growls. "And then, when you're all loose and half asleep, I'm going to put my fingers in you, so slowly you won't even realize it's happening until there's at least two. And then I'm going to fuck you, just like that. Maybe, if you're really good, I'll let you get up on your knees so I can fuck you better. Would you like that?"

"Yes," Loki breathes, and he's close, so close, Tony can hear it. "I want for you to fuck me hard. Maybe, if you're good, I won't even need your fingers before I let you put your cock in me."

Tony groans, helpless against the way the thought makes him shiver; he won't be able to fuck Loki as hard as he'd like without prep and they both know it, but fuck if he cares, the image is breathtaking. Loki is continuously moaning now, hips rolling forth into Tony's hand and back against the bulge in his jeans.

"Come on," Tony urges, flicking his thumb over the head of Loki's cock. Loki gasps and goes rigid; sensing that he's about to come, Tony abruptly digs his teeth into his neck and simultaneously squeezes his nipple harshly, taking Loki's breath away mid-groan as he comes, come shooting out over Tony's hand and his own belly.

"So hot," Tony breathes, watching mesmerized as Loki's whole body first goes tense and then abruptly relaxes, making him sag in his arms. He has to make a conscious effort not to rub off against Loki's ass and in fact only manages to stop himself after two, three thrusts.

They're both breathing hard and Tony has to tell himself very firmly that yes, straddling Loki and coming all over him and making him even more dirty would be very hot, but what he has planned will be even hotter. He wants to come so much, wants to see his come on Loki's creamy skin, but he wants to fuck Loki even more. Wants him pliant and near-obedient underneath him.

It's that image that helps Tony get a grip on himself, and then Loki almost makes him lose it again when he grabs Tony's hand at the wrist and licks his own come off his fingers.

"Fuck, Loki," Tony groans. "If you keep that up I won't be fucking you anytime soon."

"Can't have that," Loki murmurs, releasing his hand. He stretches lazily and turns his head, pushing his nose against Tony's cheek. "I believe it's time for my massage now."

Hedonist.

With little help from Loki Tony peels his t-shirt off him and uses it to wipe the come off them both. "I really like it when you wear my shirts, by the way," he says as he throws it across the room.

"While I have missed my normal clothes, I find your Midgardian style is more comfortable at times," Loki explains, sighing and rolling off Tony when Tony pats his hip.

"It's hot," Tony replies, groaning in relief when he finally can open his pants, releasing his hard cock. Perhaps he should look into wearing skirts; they'd be much more convenient for quickie situations as well.

"I believe Asgardian leather would suit you very well," Loki murmurs, settling on his belly and sending Tony a sly look from the corner of his eyes.

"Was that a proposal to cross-roleplay?" Tony asks, pulling his shirt over his head and throwing it wherever. "I'll be the Asgardian god and you'll be the genius, handsome scientist from Midgard."

"I wouldn't go that far," Loki returns, blatantly checking him out as Tony stretches towards the nightstand, digging through the drawers in search for the oil. "I could hardly be an ordinary human."

That earns him a put-off glare from Tony. "I am not ordinary."

"Certainly not," Loki agrees, and he sounds both surprised and insulted; it's the latter that assures Tony that he didn't mean it that way.

"Whatever," he shrugs it off, making a mental note to come back to the leather later. "Put your arms down and no talking."

Surprisingly Loki obeys, but he doesn't refrain from sending him a smirk when Tony straddles his ass. After that, though, he settles and closes his eyes, sighing when Tony pours a bit of oil between his shoulderblades. He watches it pool there for a moment before it starts to slowly drip down Loki's spine.

They haven't done this often, at least not this way around; not at all, actually. Loki gave Tony a number of massages during his pregnancy but they were generally less for pleasure and more to relieve pain. He'd been very good at it and Tony unfortunately probably won't match up to his level of skill. He hasn't massaged many people but at least he had been massaged many times, most of them by professional massage therapists, so he knows vaguely what to do.

Making sure his hands are properly coated with oil, Tony starts to gently rub them up and down Loki's back and shoulders, warming both of them up. "You're tense, darling," he murmurs absently as his fingers follow the curve of Loki's neck and shoulders, only registering the term of endearment after it's slipped out. Thankfully Loki doesn't protest, doesn't even so much as twitch.

He slips into a sort of trance, concentrating completely on slowly softening up Loki's tense muscles. It would work faster if he used more pressure but Tony doesn't want fast; he's really enjoying this actually so having patience doesn't feel like a chore. Loki is all but purring beneath him, slowly going from humming and occasionally moaning with approval into complete, blissful silence. Tony is still mostly hard but his arousal moves onto the backburner until he's barely even aware of it as anything but a low thrumming in his veins. Much more important is they way they're breathing in sync, slow and deep, how warm his hands and Loki's back feel, how much he likes doing this to Loki as well. It seems doing things for (to?) Loki is what he enjoys; whether they are of sexual nature or not apparently is secondary.

"You asleep?" Tony eventually asks softly, when the muscles of Loki's back are as soft and warm as they're going to get.

Loki barely gives more than a lethargic hum as a reply but it's enough of a sign for Tony. He slides down Loki's body a little until he's straddling his thighs, rubs his hands over Loki's ass. He just loves Loki's ass; he's had bigger, more bubble-shaped shaped ones but Loki's is by no way as skinny as other's he's had, and all in all it's his favorite. It's perfect to grab and squeeze when Loki is fucking him and just as perfect to take hold of when Tony is the one doing the fucking.

"You have the perfect ass," Tony murmurs lowly, skating his slick fingers between the cheeks. Carefully he probes at Loki's hole; Loki's only reaction is to spread his legs wider as much as he can with Tony straddling him.

Trying not to pull Loki out of his trance too much Tony takes his time, keeps his pace slow and unhurried even as he himself gets more and more worked up at the feel of Loki's hot muscles clenching around his fingers. Loki gets increasingly into it as well, humming and rolling his hips a little, more when Tony shifts off him and kneels between his thighs.

"Come on," Loki eventually murmurs, shifting onto his hands and knees. Abruptly Tony's mouth runs dry and he has to swallow.

"Fuck, Loki," he says hoarsely. Kneeling up he drips a bit of lube into his hand, coating his cock thoroughly. Then he plasters himself to Loki's back, nips at the back of his neck and orders silkily, "Off your hands, Loki."

Not a hint of protest in him Loki lowers his upper body to his elbows, presenting his ass as he bends his back into one delicious curve. Loki is never this obedient, and if it's just a dry comment or a sly smile curving his lips as he does what Tony wants. It almost makes Tony lose control; he has to hold his breath and bite the inside of his cheek to keep it.

"You're perfect," he rasps, guiding his cock towards Loki's hole. Without hesitation he pushes inside, slow and steady, gritting his teeth. Loki moans, the noise muffled by the pillow he's pressing his face into.

Once his pelvis is pressed against Loki's ass Tony pauses, taking a deep breath. Then he slowly pulls out, pushes back in, keeping it slow at first but steadily increasing the pace and power behind his thrusts. Loki tries to move with him but Tony won't have it, taking tight hold of Loki's hips and slamming into him even harder. They're both moaning loudly by this point, Loki having tilted his face away from the pillow to breathe more freely. Tony just loves hearing the noises Loki makes, loves that Loki's given himself over to his control completely, loves fucking him hard. Loves it too much, really; originally he meant to make Loki come with just his cock but he doesn't think he'll manage to hold out for that long. But it's not like it's a chore, having to reach around Loki and take hold of his cock.

Keeping up his pace, Tony leans over Loki and scrapes his teeth over his back. Teeth and pain are always a good way to make him come and pretty soon Loki falls apart under him, shuddering and going tight around his cock. But it's the way Loki moans his name that sends Tony over the edge completely. With a loud groan Tony comes as well, slumping on top of Loki's back as aftershocks make him shudder.

Loki sighs and shifts under him, which Tony takes as a sign to pull out and push off him. They both shudder as he slides out, then simultaneously collapse onto the mattress, still breathing heavily. Eventually Tony shifts onto his side and reaches out to push the strands of hair that are clinging to Loki's temples out of his face. "Gotta shower," he murmurs.

Loki yawns but nods. He doesn't quite see Tony's point – the one where Tony absolutely does not want for either of them to touch Emily if they've had sex and haven't showered yet – but he never complains. They shower and get in a two hour nap before they have to get up for Emily again.

"You have to massage me again soon," Loki tells Tony. They're sitting on the sofa in Emily's room, wearing only underwear. Loki is giving her the bottle, her cheek pressed against his chest close to his heart.

"It was good, then?" Tony suppresses a smirk when Loki raises an eyebrow at him. "Not fishing for compliments, darling. I haven't really done that before."

"You're always fishing for compliments," Loki returns. "But yes, it was good. I would have thought as much was obvious."

Well, okay, he's right about that. About both.

Sending Loki an innocent smile Tony leans back and settles against the armrest of the sofa until he's in a comfortable position to watch Loki and Emily. The silence is tranquil; both of them seem completely content. Tony is as well, just watching them, the only point of contact his knee pressed against Loki's.

It's a shame to disrupt the silence, but the more Tony looks at them the less he can keep his mouth shut about it.

"About the thing with Hela," he says quietly.

Loki's body goes still in a different way, his eyes a little wary when he looks up to meet Tony's gaze. "Yes?"

"What exactly happened with her?"

Loki takes a deep breath. "Her body… changed. Half her skin slowly turned dark and started to- I know now that it's because of the spell the Allfather put on me. It won't happen with Emily."

"That's not actually why I asked, but now I'm curious. Why not? The spell is still on you, isn't it?"

"But it's mine now," Loki explains. "It's no longer another's magic imposed upon me without my knowledge or willing participation."

That makes Tony really curious; he wants to ask how it makes a difference and he wants to know what exactly happened with Hela, but that will derail the conversation too much. There's something else he's been wanting to ask since their fight. "You said something, in Asgard, after the bath. You said it's better I'm used to how you look. I don't get it."

Loki frowns. "What is there not to understand? I want you to be prepared to how it looks so your reaction will not traumatize Emily."

Ah, there it is. "Why should my reaction traumatize her? It's not like you're hideous or anything."

Loki opens his mouth, a scathing reply clearly on his lips, but then he pauses. Narrowing his eyes, he stares at Tony. His voice is suspicious when he says, "You are not lying."

Well, no. And Tony isn't stupid either; he knows that Loki has issues with the whole Jötunn thing – the whole of Asgard has issues with Jötunns. He's read some articles about internalized racism and that sort of thing, and he knows that there isn't much he can do about it. But they've never talked about it, and there are some things Tony can say – especially now that he's actually seen Loki's full form. Loki probably won't believe him so Tony's just going to have to keep saying it until he does. "You look different, yeah. But actually, uh. I think you look pretty beautiful."

That renders Loki speechless. He just stares at Tony, all but gaping.

The complete silence makes Tony pretty uncomfortable, so he starts to babble. "I know it doesn't matter much what I think, but, well. I honestly don't see the problem if the Jötunn heritage becomes visible with Emily. I don't see the problem with you being one, either. I don't know anything about Jötunns, yeah, but you're the living example that they can't be the monsters the people on Asgard claim they are."

Loki swallows compulsively. "Am I?" He aims for sarcasm but falls off by miles, the topic too sensitive for it.

Tony sends him a look, deliberately keeping his voice more light. "Well, yeah. You fucked up massively, there's no denying that, but not because it's in your nature or some shit like that. You've been massively fucked up by other people several times over, that has a lot more to do with it than anything else." He carefully looks at Loki, catching his eyes. "I'm not saying that because we're… well. I definitely know so now, but I had my suspicions years ago already." His mouth twists dryly. "Every time Thor opened his mouth they solidified, in fact." It's a bit of an exaggeration but it makes Loki snort, the mood lightening a little, which is just what Tony wanted.

"Why is it that you can see that, but so few others couldn't even if they were actually there?" Loki says. His voice is light but the expression in his eyes isn't.

"Maybe because they were actually there," Tony suggests with a shrug. "It's often difficult to see something if you're too close." He should know; he never suspected a thing about Stane. "And really, I'm not the only one. The others certainly wouldn't have accepted you so easily if they hadn't had their own thoughts on the matter."

Loki frowns, spine straightening. "Do you talk about me?"

"No." Tony is well-aware of how much Loki would hate that; he himself hates it as well when he finds out that other people have discussed his issues. "Well, maybe they do among each other? At the beginning, at least." He shrugs. "I don't know for sure, but it's likely. Everybody talks about everybody."

The corners of Loki's mouth turn down in displeasure, but his expression is resigned.

They don't talk any more after that; Loki seems deep in thought and Tony hopes he's thinking about the whole Jötunn think. After Emily's in bed again Loki doesn't come back to bed with Tony. He doesn't tell Tony where he goes when he wanders off but Jarvis lets him know that Loki's out on the balcony.

Tony gives him an hour during which he plays around with stuff on his tablet, but then he can't deal with it any longer and goes to join him.

Loki has vanished the railing and is sitting there with his feet dangling over the edge. Even knowing that it's perfectly safe, the sight makes Tony's heart stutter for a moment.

"Hey," he says, sitting down next to Loki. "You okay?"

"I am well." Loki shrugs.

Right. Sure. "What are you thinking about?"

Loki is silent for a long moment. When he eventually replies, the troubled tone of his voice reveals how much he must have thought about this. "I don't understand Odin's game."

Well, that's not quite what Tony expected, but it's related. "How do you mean?"

"He's been very accepting." Loki spits the word like a curse. "I've been thinking and thinking, but I just can't figure out what his intention is." He frowns down at the city below their feet. "There is nothing he gains from this, nothing I can think of. Surely he must be aware that he cannot use me as a diplomatic figure against the Jötunn the way he had originally intended anymore. I'm all but a pariah on Asgard and there is nothing I can get him from Midgard that Thor cannot obtain, and probably more easily than I. Most of my connections are not the sort he could or would make use of, especially now. I just… I don't understand."

Tony shrugs helplessly. "Me neither. I barely know the guy. But…" He takes a deep breath, well-aware of how delicate the topic is. "Look, I know you. You're incredibly smart; sometimes I can barely keep up with you. So… if even you can't think of any ulterior motives, not even any far-fetched ones… maybe that's because there aren't any. I know you can't believe that," he hastily adds when Loki snorts disbelievingly. "But maybe you should consider the possibility. Just consider it. I'm not saying trust the guy and hug and make up and stop whatever you're doing to, just… keep it in mind as a possibility."

For a long time, Loki is quiet. Eventually he lets out a long breath and says, "Maybe." That's all, but considering the topic it's a lot.

They don't get back to bed until much later, after having fed Emily again. Consequently they don't get up until late, especially since they have to regularly wake up for Emily. By the time Tony forces himself out of bed to get some coffee it's eleven and Clint, who is sitting with Thor and eating elevensies cereal, comments his appearance – boxers and t-shirt, hair a mess – with catcalls. "Didn't get much sleep, did you?"

Tony sends him a grumpy look. "Shut up."

"Is everything alright?" Thor asks with a worried frown.

"Yeah, fine." Tony glances at him and dredges up a smile. He turns on the coffee machine and the kettle, food for them and food for Emily. Which reminds him. "Hey, we got a name."

"We heard already," Clint says. "Emily, right? Cute name."

"I like it as well," Thor agrees. "Though I wonder about her second name. Friend Steve did not fully remember."

Yeah, he probably pronounced it wrong, or was too self-conscious to even try. Tony is not going to do much better, he's fairly sure. "'Kay, I'm not good at pronouncing it either though. Auðr."

"Auðr?" Thor asks. A slow smile blooms on his face when Tony nods. "A truly beautiful, fitting name."

"Together they mean "to rival all treasures"," Tony tells him. Thor grins widely and Clint doesn't even awww, he just nods and smiles a little into his cereal.

"So, hey." Tony takes his cup of coffee and sits down at the table. "Thor. You said something while we were in Asgard, about Odin, why he introduced me to everybody?"

"I said that the Allfather must respect you greatly to have done that," Thor says with a decisive nod. "He does not accept just everybody one of us is liaised with." He frowns unhappily. "He has not yet even met my Jane."

"Yeah, that. I don't get it. Is it because of all the stories you told him about me? Because we barely even talked that day."

Thor raises an eyebrow at him, his face taking on that expression again that Tony is much more used to getting from Loki. "You met the Allfather like a king, Tony."

Clint chokes and coughs into his hand. Tony slants a glare at him before focusing back on Thor. "What do you mean by that?"

Thor shrugs helplessly. "I do not know how to better explain. You did not face him like it would be expected of someone with no title and merely affiliated with his sons."

"Wait, wait. Are you saying that was a diplomatic faux-pas but your father liked it?" The last time somebody found his insolence cute was when he was four, shortly before it turned out that he truly was smarter than all his teachers. Well, and the number of times he used it to flirt, but that's a different kind of insolence.

Come to think of it, Tony possibly might have been flirting with Loki from the start. Huh.

"Perhaps?" Thor ducks his head. "My apologies. Diplomacy is not something I am very skilled at. Loki is much more versed than I."

"I'll ask him, then." Giving both of them a two-fingered salute, Tony finishes making Emily's formula and makes himself another cup of coffee in the process.

Loki and Emily are in bed, neither looking entirely happy that he's taken so long.

"I talked to Thor," Tony says once Emily is settled in his arm and happily feeding. "He said he's not very good at diplomacy and I should ask you."

"At least he's self-aware now," Loki replies dryly. "What about?"

"The thing with Odin? Thor said I talked to him like a king or something."

"That's an apt way to put it." Loki purses his lips. "While polite, you acted territorial and didn't defer to the Allfather's authority. You were protective of me and at the same time went against my wishes by leaving Emily with mother, showing that you are loyal to me but not subservient. That, in addition to Thor's high opinion of you and the fact that Heimdall surely has been watching us and reporting back to him has apparently gained you Odin's respect."

"Ah." Tony doesn't quite know what to say to that. It apparently is a good thing so he makes a mental note to bring that up the next time someone criticizes him for his behavior. If it's good enough for Odin Allfather, it should be enough for some idiotic politician.

"Was that all?" Loki asks with exaggerated exasperation.

Tony snorts. "Yes."

"Good, I want to sleep. Shut up now." That said, Loki sinks back into the pillows and pulls the sheet up to his shoulder, burying his face between Tony's side and the pillow.

Tony rolls his eyes. "Love you too." Then he bites his tongue; it just slipped out, he didn't mean to-

"…shut up," Loki says again. One of his arms snakes out and wraps around Tony's waist; he mouths something into Tony's ribs, breath warm on Tony's skin.

Tony smiles.