"Lokiiiii! I'm hooome!" Tony called out, stepping through the door with multiple bags in his arms, he probably could've just made two trips with the amount he had; but Tony was renowned for being stubborn. He ungraciously set them down on the kitchen floor and went about unpacking various items into the fridge and cupboards. He was remarkably out of practice when it came to common housekeeping.

Loki strode in and put away the brush and pan that he'd been using to clean up the ceramic shards after throwing the mug earlier. He was curious as to why Tony had even bothered going shopping and what he'd actually bought while out. He hoped he got more apples.

"Oh thank goodness, I thought my Man of Iron had been kidnapped!" Loki said sarcastically, pretending to swoon.

"Nope, just got some stuff," he replied dismissively.

Loki was suspicious now, Tony never bothered himself with 'just getting stuff,' he had Jarvis for that, and his trips to the shops were hardly ever spontaneous or unexplained beforehand.

"What 'stuff' did you get exactly?" Loki questioned lightly, he tried to act as though he didn't suspect anything, not that Tony would have noticed anyway considering the intense concentration he apparently required to correctly put away groceries. Sitting on the kitchen bench with his legs crossed beneath him, he watched Tony. It took some extra effort to lift himself up because of his reduced size. Never has it been this tall, he thought.

Tony gave him a sideways glance. He used to complain about this habit of Loki's, stating arguments about the availability of chairs in the tower and the way it makes him look like a child at story-time, but had long since given up trying to convince him to stop doing it.

"Well, I got a new mug, since you acquainted my other one with the door," Tony said still avoiding direct answers, "and some food we needed, and some movies." He tossed some DVDs on the bench, which were promptly ignored by the God.

"And?" Loki asked. He wasn't about to give up.

"And what?"

"And what else did you get? You can't lie to me remember, I can tell."

"Nothing, just food and stuff."

There was a pause as Tony shifted under Loki's scrutiny. "Stuff?" he asked.

Tony rolled his eyes. "OK fine! I got one other thing," he exclaimed, smiling excitedly and practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, hands clasping something behind his back, "it was going to be a surprise but I can't wait anymore."

Loki couldn't help but be curious, and Tony's jittery happiness appeared to be contagious. "What else? You must tell me," he pleaded.

Tony's smiled grew bigger, "well you're little…so…" he began, teasingly slow.

"Tonyyyy what's behind you? What is it?"

Tony withdrew a large black object that Loki recognised but couldn't identify. He held it out proudly.

"Um what is it?" He also wanted to ask how Tony had managed to hide it the whole time, but swiftly forgot that when Tony replied.

"It's a top hat, duh," Tony said, plonking the slightly over-sized hat on Loki's head. It slid down over his eyes. "See? Makes you look taller," he stated.

Loki removed the hat, studying it, before putting it on again and adjusting it so he could see. It slipped down a bit but for the most part it stayed in place. It would probably have been too over-sized if Loki's newly acquired puppy ears didn't hold it in place. "Thank you, Tony!" he said, hopping off the bench to see whether the top of his hat was tall enough for his liking; it was, coming just above Tony's head.

"Makes you look adorable too," Tony said.

"I'm not adorable," he said, but crossing his arms and pouting crossly only reinforced Tony's statement.

"Aww!"

"I'm not adorable!"

"Yes. Yes you are."

Loki frowned, before losing his composure and being overcome with giggles; not helping his case much, but not really caring. They laughed and laughed until they were clutching their stomachs from all the hysteria. All hard feelings from recent events had now been very much forgotten.

They soon found themselves with an abundance of free time, and since doing something productive for the rest of the day didn't appeal to either of them at this point, Tony made a suggestion.

"Come on Reindeer Games, movie time?" Tony asked, "hmm, I'm gonna have to think of something new, references to that snazzy helmet of yours might have to be replaced with something puppy-related."

Loki chuckled. "Movies? Yes. New nickname? No."

"Aww you're no fun," Tony complained.

Loki grabbed the DVDs Tony had tossed before and lead the way to the lift. Still not fully knowing his way around Tony's enormous tower he waited for the man to choose a floor while he looked over the rented entertainment.

"These seem…bloody," Loki stated, unsure what to make of the amount of monsters, murder and gore they seemed to contain.

"Yeah they're horror and thriller, they had a special on at the shop."

As if that helped Loki's confidence. So far his digital entertainment experiences hadn't been that bad, but then he hadn't watched anything of this nature.

"They're just scary movies, not even that scary, it'll be fun." Tony said sensing Loki's uneasiness. The elevator made a cheery 'ding' sound and the doors slid open, yet again the sound seemed out of place to Loki.

They sat on the couch with their feet on the coffee table. Neither of them were ever one for etiquette after all. It was growing dark outside but the blinds had been lowered long before to block out all light, obscuring all sense of what time of day or night it was.


Well, Tony may have called a 'scary movie' but Loki described with words that'd be censored in children's movies…

He was terrified.

To his credit he started off well, but from the first jump-scare (which totally wasn't predictable, no matter what Tony says) Loki had been curled into a little ball and clutching Tony's arm for safety. His big, strong Iron Man would save him from the spooky demon kids and cannibalistic psychopaths.

Tony did his best to comfort him without laughing at how pitiful the small God was acting. It was obvious that they didn't have scary movies where he came from, but to the experienced veteran of scary movies these were actually considered low budget, B Grade crap with poor acting and a dodgy script. Even the fake blood wasn't convincing.

Loki flinched as another very much expected jump-scare frightened him, Tony held him closer, stifling a laugh.

"This isn't funny Tony! How can you watch this?!"

"It's not even that bad! And it's only pretend, ghosts and demons aren't real," Tony tried reassuring.

"But chainsaw wielding murderers and serial killers are!" Loki whispered, as though he'd be heard by beings of the sort if he said it too loud.

"Meh you're safe here, don't worry."

Yep, hardly anything fazed Tony.

Loki shuffled closer, resting his head on Tony's shoulder.

"OK I get it! You don't like scary movies that are made by Earthlings?"

"We refer to you Midgardians actually," Loki corrected, "but yes, I don't like scary movies very much."

"You're safe," Tony said, hugging Loki tighter.


A/N: I know the chapters are getting shorter, I'm sorry, blame writers block and lack of inspiration. Thanks to everyone who favorited/followed! Please feel free to send me some feedback or requests, I'll be sure to include something if you ask.