Chapter Text
Neither of them wore white, but really no one expected them too. The idea of Tony is white was enough to send anyone into hysterics and Loki claimed the color washed him out. He was right of course, though no one told him that.
Instead Tony wore pale blue, which was basically his way of thumbing his nose at everyone who’d laughed at the white suit. Blue was the color of purity before Queen Victoria decided to be ‘frugal’. Loki, unsurprisingly wore green. Technically, Loki wore his armor, which was green and black and gold, but whatever. The armor thing, which did not bother Tony in the slightest even if it did put half the world on edge, was an Aesir tradition. Since they were observing so few of those, Loki had insisted.
Other than the clothing the two grooms had almost no input into the wedding at all. Pepper arranged the transport for everyone attending and she’d arranged for a preacher to come out for it. They were having the wedding ceremony on the beach at the house in Malibu. Immediately before the ceremony, Tony, Loki, and the Avengers were taking a quick flight back to New York to make it official. After which they’d return for the wedding and the party afterwards. Tony did not ask whose brilliant idea that was. Actually, he didn’t ask about any of it. He just wrote his vows and showed up when and where he was supposed to.
Natasha, surprisingly, had picked the color scheme. Bruce had arranged for a caterer and managed to convince both AC/DC and Black Sabbath to do sets. Steve was doing all the heavy lifting and guinea-pigging, tasting food and things. Pepper and Director Fury had arranged the guest list together. Fury took the political side and Pepper the popular side. Everyone who was anyone would be there. Not in a ‘This is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s wedding all the celebrities have to go’ kind of way, but more in a ‘this man privatized world peace and created the only self-sustaining clean energy source ever and he also protects the planet from supervillians there is no way you can risk offending him’ kind of way. The freaking Queen of England herself was flying out for this, as were both Princes and Kate Middleton. All the A-list actors were going to be there, including Robert Downey Jr. and Halle Berry and Judi Dench and Michael Cane and just everyone. The list made Tony’s head spin and Loki even recognized several names from watching CNN.
The preparations took months. Much longer than either groom preferred, but they relinquish complete control to appease Pepper and Natasha (and Steve, though he would deny it with his dying breath) for not telling them about the engagement.
The one thing they were allowed to do was pick their own rings, two simple platinum bands. He’d had the inside inscribed with a single of Norse that Loki promised meant: Together through eternity.
The act day itself passed in a complete blur for the two grooms. Neither really paid much attention to what was going on. Tony’s entire focus was on the vows and he waited impatiently for that part of the ceremony to arrive. Finally, Finally, just when Tony thought he might start climbing the walls, the preacher looked to him and it was time.
Tony smiled broadly. “Well, I’m totally determined today to destroy any kind of reputation I have left so completely that no one will remember it existed.” Loki smirked. “What reputations you may ask? Well, world-class man-slut comes to mind. And then there’s the heartless bastard one. To the first, Loki, you have certainly made me a one-person-man. I fully intend to spend the rest of my unnatural life proving it to you. As to the other, it’s still true in a manner of speaking. I don’t have a heart, not in here.” He tapped the arc reactor. Loki was frowning at him. “Pepper likes to think that the arc reactor is proof that I do have one. Not true. If any such proof exists, it’s you. At the risk of sounding utterly cliché, my heart was removed from my chest a long time ago. I’d miss placed it for a while. Years in fact, but it appeared in my workroom one day, sort of out of the blue. In my heart’s absence, it’s had changed shape. Now, it’s Loki shaped and it won’t fit back were it used to go, so you better take care.” Tony reached up and cupped Loki’s face; the god had tears glistening in his eyes. “It’s a little damaged, pained maybe, but two sets of hands to hold it will make sure that it has time to heal. My heart also came back in the guise of the best man I’ve ever met. Clever enough to stay two steps ahead of all my shit, intelligent enough to talk me in circles, and let’s face it people. That’s hard to do.” The audience chuckled wetly. “And so beautiful, it’s sometimes hard to look. Loki, I honestly can imagine ever living without you. Not to freak anybody out, but I don’t think I’d fair to well it you make me try. I think I’d get itchy fingers to see the inside of the arc reactor. So, lover, don’t make me try. Stay with me forever an I’ll try to be worth it.” He ran a thumb over Loki’s sharp cheekbone and smiled, not the wide bright thing he used for parties and the media, but soft and secret, a smile only for Loki. “Loki, I’m marrying you today. You. Every beautiful inch of you, exactly how you really are. I wanted everyone to see who it is I’m marrying. Can you do that for me? Just for today? Just for a couple hours?”
Loki’s eyes went wide and he glanced at the crowd. “After I speak, I will do that for you.”
Tony nodded. Loki smiled, just an upturn of the corners of his mouth. “Tony…” When he spoke it was in Old Norse. Darcy appeared to be the only person in the audience who could understand what he was saying. As for his groom, Loki had cast a spell that allowed Tony to understand without having to learn. “You are right, Tony. I am damaged. I am broken, missing pieces. I’ve been shattered and I do not know if I can ever find all the scattered parts. Inside, I found you. You filled the holes inside of me left by other people and I think perhaps, with you, I do not need what I have left behind. I do not want to search any longer. I have found my greatest missing part. You said that I am your heart now. Well, it is fitting then that you are mine. Together, we hold one heart between us; we share it. I can no more break it or be careless of it, than I could do of my own body. And yet, your heart is more precious to me. I have given you the apple. There is no greater sign that I can offer of my…love for you. The golden apple and its promise of immortality. It gives me the chance to make up for my hate and the destruction I have wrought with love and creation. We will be together, you and I, for all time.” Loki leaned forward and into Tony’s ear, he whispered, “And I will give you children if you wish it, and we will be a family.”
Tony, who somehow managed to keep his composure through that heartrending little speech, jerked and tears filled his eyes. “Well, fuck. I promised Pepper I wouldn’t cry and ruin the make-up.” He managed to choke out, trying to shake the tears away. Loki smiled indulgently at him and everyone laughed.
Loki opened his mouth to continue, but a voice from the back of the crowd stopped them. “You claim love, Loki Laufeyson, but does the mortal know the monster that you are? And you, Man of Iron, you claim to love him in return. Do you know the creature hiding inside that pretty skin? If you did, would you still practice your deviance for all the worlds to see?”
A woman stood and came forward up the center isle. Tony was scowling now. Darcy leapt to her feet. “I know that voice! That’s one of Thor’s posse.”
Tony gestured for her to sit. “The Lady Sif, I presume. How unlovely to meet you. Why are you interrupting our wedding?”
The woman snapped her fingers. Tony stiffened and glanced around. Nothing at had changed. He glanced at Loki in question and discovered what she’d done. Loki’s skin was turn blue and his eyes red. The clench of his jaw told Tony that he could feel it happen. Turning his back on Sif, Tony once again reached up to run a gentle thumb over Loki’s cheek. “Hey, Lover.” Loki reluctantly turned to Tony. “I love you. You’re a work of art.”
Some of the tension seeped out of Loki, until a voice call from the audience, “What’s with the avatar look? You’re not telling me he looks that freakish normally!”
Tony spun, eyes dark with anger and teeth bared in a snarl. “George, just because you’re in a crowd, don’t think I can’t tell it’s you, you fucker. The next person who makes a derogatory statement about my husband because of the color of his skin will be forcibly ejected. I don’t care who the fuck it is or what kind of international incident it will cause. Got that?” There was not a single sound from the assemble crowd. “Good.” He turned back to Sif. “Now, what the fuck do you want, interrupting our wedding and being a racist, homophobic bitch?”
Loki raised an eyebrow at him, the pain receding from his red eyes. Sif stiffened. “You would speak such to an embassador from Asgard?”
The snarl did not fade. “I would speak such to anybody whose talked to me like you have, bitch. I do not like being called a deviant for loving someone. I do not like it when you force someone I love to do something they do want to do. I know what you’ve done, Sif. I know who you are. You think I’m deviant? You’re a sick sadistic fuck.”
She drew herself up, indignation clear in her body language, and took several steps forward, until she was standing at the bottom of the platform that they stood on. “I? I am sick? Do you know the things that your…toy has done? Do you know the atrocities he has commited? I merely bring justice and—“
“You don’t know a fucking thing about justice, Sif. You and all of your people wouldn’t know what justice is if it came up behind them and raped them up the ass. What you know is torture and cruelty. Sadistic pleasure in the giving of pain. What you don’t know is compassion. Justice and equality. Freedom. A few things that we’re kind of fond of down here on Midgard. I know exactly what Loki has and hasn’t done and I know what drove him. Probably better than most. And certainly better than anyone on Asgard.” Tony stepped forward away from Loki. “Listen to me, you sick bitch. If you or any of the Warriors Three turn up here. Meaning on Midgard. I’m going to regard that as an act of war. You got that? Steve, Bruce, Natasha, Clint? You guys, got that? Sif, I don’t think you want to go a round with the Avengers. Loki tried it once. So did Thor. Guess what? Both of them lost. In fact, why don’t you scurry on home and ask Thor exactly what happens when you piss me the fuck off.”
“I was sent to bring Loki back to Asgard. The Allfather requests—”
“Well, fuck that. Loki, you want to go back?” Loki shook his head, narrowing his eyes at Sif. She shuddered. “Good. He doesn’t fancy a trip back to that sack of shit planet. So guess what? He’s not going. You want to try to take him? You’re going to have to go through me.”
“And me.” Steve stood.
“Us too.” Natasha, Bruce, Clint, Pepper, Jane, and Darcy all stood.
Tony raised an eyebrow at them, but smiled. The smile was not at all comforting. “So. You want to push your fucking luck here? Act. Of. War. Now go the fuck home and tell your…mewling quim of a king that he can take his ‘requests’ and fuck himself with them. Now, get out.”
Sif narrowed her eyes, but vanished. Loki’s face was a twisted mess of confusion, fear, and hatred. “Loki, lover…”
“Tony, she should not have magic. She’s never had magic before, not on this scale.”
Tony shrugged. “Don’t know. Don’t care. She’s a bitch and if she comes back I will personally see her hang, yeah? Good.” He turned to the audience. “I know there are several major heads of state here and all that kind of rot. That woman who just vanished. She and three companions have committed what amounts to crimes against humanity on behalf of Odin’s government. I have concrete proof. I’d really like not to have to use it. Actually, what I’d really like is to kill her myself, but you don’t always get what you want.”
Tony took a deep breath. The assembly was still entirely still. He forced a smile and turned back to Loki. “Right. Well. Where were w—“
A thick fork of lightening split the sky and the following thunder immediately cut off Tony’s words. He sighed. “Well, fuck. I knew we should have eloped.”