Chapter 12: Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished (Lao Tzu)

Jackson Gibbs had put his own life on hold for many reasons throughout the past 50 years. The first bout of cancer surely had been something that made his life fade with the looming death of his wife. He had functioned, worked through chemotherapy with her, the fatigue, the nausea… the hair loss.

Leroy had been a surprise to both Ann and him. Her first chemo should've left her barren, at least that was what the doctors had said. Yet, there it was again, the nausea, the fatigue… at least she didn't lose her hair this time and they got a cute little baby out of it. She did resent him for not immediately quitting his job with the army, though.

What was he supposed to do? He had a contract, and they were at war. They had bought a house, they had bought a new car, there were even more hospital bills than before the kid…

Maybe that was one of the reasons why he and Leroy did not get along – Ann's resentment that he picked his country over his family (even if it was out of pure exigency), it seemed to have ingrained something in the boy that made him question Jackson's motives, all the time, not matter the topic.

The second chemo left Leroy deeply traumatized. Jackson had retired from the army by then, taken over the general store in Stillwater together with his old friend LJ, Leroy's godfather and namesake. Taking care of his wife, his every move scrutinized by his son. Sometimes, he was just hiding in his store because he could not take it any longer.

Ann recovered. Leroy still was suspicious. Jackson enlarged his store and kept working. After all, somebody had to pay the hospital bills, and God beware Ann, that poor fragile thing would've to contribute something. Jackson was cooking, Leroy was doing the dishes and some other chores he could manage at his young age, Jackson was cleaning, Jackson was working, Jackson was raising their son, because Ann was just spoiling him.

Other than that, Ann was busy recovering. And her mother was meddling. She'd never liked her son-in-law (which Jackson reciprocated fully), always going on how this guy and that guy would have been a better spouse. Jackson knew those guys – they were either cheating on their society wives by now, or would've left the moment Ann's health problems became evident.

He had put his foot down when she started talking about a second child. They were hardly getting by, they could not afford a second kid if they wanted to keep the house. Ann withdrew and pouted, Leroy simply had another reason to argue with him because he was so mean to Mommy, and Jackson…

Jackson kept working and paying the hospital bills, sometimes wishing that he didn't love both of them that much, because then it would have been easier to distance himself, maybe even walk away…

The third chemo… the third chemo did not end well for anybody. Ann had committed suicide, Leroy seemed to blame him for his mother's death, while he was busy blaming his best friend for keeping her secret of wanting to rather end her life than suffer through battling cancer again.

After Ann's death, their son had put Jackson's life on hold. They fought over everything that Jackson might have wanted to change, even over a fucking dead rose bush in the garden. His mother had planted it there, so it had to stay, no matter if the vermin killing that bush was exterminating all the others, too.

No matter what Jackson did, it seemed to be wrong. How dared he trying to live a happy life after his wife had died? Leroy scared off so many people… not only women his father might have been interested in, but also everyone else who might have been able to break their vicious cycle of trying to out-stubborn each other about every single fucking thing.

Naturally, Leroy never included his father in his life plans – plans that seemed to consist of getting as far away from Stillwater as soon as possible. Jackson was a fighter pilot, he had survived the war, he had taken this decision all those years ago and it had gotten him nothing but resentment. Leroy was doing it out of spite, because his father tried to talk him into going to college, getting an education. The last thing he wanted for his only child was risking his life somewhere for the wrong reasons. He still could join the armed forces afterwards.

Not even his high school sweetheart could keep the boy from joining the Marines, though. Shannon had brightened Jackson's life for the next two years that Leroy spent everywhere but at home with his wife.

And then, they moved to DC, and all Jackson had left was his general store and a grainy ultrasound picture of his first grandchild. Shannon made sure that they visited every now and then, most visits ended up in yet another fight, and eight years later he'd had to bury his only grandchild, his daughter-in-law, and his last hopes of Leroy ever behaving like anything but a spoilt brat should things not go his way.

A warm hand covered his fingers that were curling around his coffee cup for quite a while now without drinking anything. Linda had put her newspaper down, the sports part pulled out for him like every other morning in the past 19 years. She was drinking tea, as always, and preferred a European breakfast. He was still cooking, laughing about how she pouted when Nate and Violet preferred his over hers.

20 years ago she had decided to accompany her boyfriend (good God, he still felt weird when he thought about how she had called him that!) when his daughter-in-law and grandchild were buried, not to introduce herself to his son as the new woman in his life, but to offer her support.

Leroy had snapped, accused Jackson of sleeping around ever since his mother had gotten sick again and had cut off any contact.

And Jackson once more tried to live the lonely life he'd had before because he kept telling himself that somehow he deserved it. Linda had put her foot down, then. If Leroy Jethro Gibbs did not want his father in his life, why should said father give a damn? If he remembered correctly, she had called Leroy a damn spoiled brat with a God complex who thinks the world is revolving around him.

Her kids had been 8 and 10 back then, and Nathan and Violet loved him. Except for Kelly's rare visits, he'd never experienced children in his house who actively wanted to be around him, who didn't resent him for every single move he made.

It was Linda who proposed to him. It was the kids who asked if they could adopt him. It was Jackson who had been reduced to tears back then.

In the past 19 years Jackson Gibbs had moved on with his life, helped raising his new wife's children, had given away Violet at the altar to her husband only a year ago. Nate had taken over the store, had modernized it. Not only Stillwater was shopping there, every hicktown around was – it was easier than going to Bloomsburg all the time.

And now…

Linda had been at her office Christmas party the day before, and he had wondered why a car had stopped in front of their house and nobody was getting out. After a while, he got really suspicious, called a buddy at the police station and had him run the license plate.

He was surprised when Leroy's name came up.

He started worrying when the windows fogged up, and when after an hour still nobody had exited the car, he went out and had a look.

His son sat there, fingers cramped around the steering wheel, startling when Jackson asked if he'd not rather come inside instead of freezing to death out here? He had not said more than "Can I sleep here tonight?" and Jackson had accommodated him in the guest room, staying up after Leroy had gone to bed, waiting for his wife to tell her about the most bizarre evening in the past 20 years.

Leroy had not made a sound since then.

"Nate invited himself for lunch today", Linda finally broke his musings, still holding his hand, still not looking at the newspaper but at her husband.

"I can tell him that we have other plans", she continued, her eyes straying to the stairs before turning back to her husband. She had met Leroy only once, and he had left the worst possible impression back then.

Jackson let go off his cup, catching her fingers, locking his eyes with hers.

"Nate has lived here for as long as Leroy has. This is his home, we are his parents. He is always welcome. And we decided 20 years ago that I'm done with letting other people dictate my life."

He would figure out what had brought Leroy here after 20 years of radio silence. If he could, he would try to help with whatever his son was struggling with in the moment.

He would not allow him his bull-in-the-china-store routines, though. He had another, muscle-packed, younger son at hand and would use him if he had to.


About ten minutes into their shopping trip, Anthony Dante DiNozzo jr. started to slightly fear for his Christmas decoration that was aimed to be something akin the Winter Wonderland he remembered his mother creating.

Anthony Edward Stark had needed only 30 seconds to find the one geeky shop assistant that gave a damn who he was and now helped finding the most hideous ornaments people ever came up with to hang on a tree.

Not that he'd say that out loud. The anniversary of the invasion had yet to come around, and, obviously, the Christmas industry couldn't come up with a better idea than mass-producing Avengers-themed glass balls. Ok, so maybe the Hulk one was cute, the Iron Man one was a necessity, of course, and purchasing the ones dedicated to Loki and Thor seemed only logical after the first two boxes had ended up in the shopping cart.

But to blemish their beautiful, slightly murderous conifer (Happy had already texted twice that the tree was out to kill him and the pilot – of course they had adopted a tree with an attitude!) with those atrocities was wounding him –especially after they had spent almost an hour over breakfast discussing the final design with J.A.R.V.I.S.. Happy just sat there, drinking his coffee, munching on his croissant, and rolling his eyes about them almost constantly.

Shrugging out of his jacket, the agent leaned on the shopping cart and observed how T whistled and hummed as he browsed the shelves, alternating between Christmas Carols and what Dino believed to be Master of Puppets.

Chip, the accursed shop assistant enthusiastically pointed out vitreous Helicarriers and… was that Mjolnir?! T's hums changed to Thunderstruck, however, Dino's amused smile rapidly turned into yet another frown as also a box of those two items landed in the cart before the engineer dug out his phone, and Chip, the traitor indicated... dear Lord, who had come up with the idea of making the Hulk pants a Christmas ornament?!

They'd had a plan! After their brainstorming with an always helpful J.A.R.V.I.S. (and a grouchy Happy) over breakfast, they had figured out the color scheme they wanted, and decided to pick out the stuff and have it delivered either to the airport, if that was possible, so they could take it with them, or directly to the tower for the next day. They would simply pick out a few select pieces to go with the big picture.

Now, their cart was full with almost anything the Christmas industry had come up with concerning the Avengers (the Captain America ornaments surprisingly didn't end up in the cart).

And all Dino could do was not to interrupt. T had helped picking the picture of how they wanted their tree to look, and he knew how to make things look great, Iron Man was the best example for that. The engineer also had listened to his hilarious tale of how they had decorated the office tree, including him proposing to Dorney (but leaving out the part where he indirectly admitted to maybe, in a not-so-far-away future, planning on proposing to T).

Yes, he was missing his mother's Winter Wonderland. He still liked Christmas, was connecting fond memories with the holidays, and not the feeling of abandonment and irrational anger. He wanted to try and change T's pretty dark view of that time of the year, and was rather surprised when the inventor almost immediately agreed to getting a tree, ornaments, lights, and whatever else he could come up with. How could he possibly oppose T's choice in decoration now?

As he stood there, marveling at the warm, fuzzy feeling right behind his breast bone and the butterflies in his belly, simultaneously a coil of anxiety was growing right next to that feeling as he watched T enthusing over almost everything in the shelves. As much as he wanted T to finally enjoy those holidays and most probably would resign himself to an Avengers-themed tree… there was this tiny, egoistic part of him that insisted on his Winter Wonderland this year, though. So he longingly glanced into the direction of the glass balls that came in their initially chosen colors, everything the coffee palette offered, from mocha and espresso to cappuccino and latte macchiato. They would match so well with the light turquoise ones right next to them, and those garlands over there…

When a warm hand sneaked into his, slightly calloused fingers entwining with his as they casually walked next to each other, Dino actually startled. T closed whatever distance had been left between them in the next few steps, yawning as he rested his head against the other man's shoulder.

"We need another cart", the inventor said, stuffing his other hand into his coat pocket, and his significant other wondered once more why he had not died of a heat stroke yet. He knew what T was wearing underneath that coat and the scarf wrapped around his neck and felt hot only thinking about all those layers.

"What you have in there is more than enough for one tree", he replied then, brushing a brief kiss against the engineer's temple. With every moment spent in the other's vicinity, it became clearer that last night's confessions had definitely changed something. Up to now, they had never really felt the need to publicly advertise their relationship to the surrounding people, to exchange those tiny intimacies that put up this neon sign of "MINE!" over the respective other.

The lovely Miss Potts never would let them hear the end of it, he could already hear her gloating over the fact that she was right all the time, that their relationship most probably always had been more than simple BFFs. Actually, their first tumble in the bedsheets, every tumble that followed, and their strict monogamy when they were within dating distance should've rang a bell. It should have rang an entire carillon.

To other people who had witnessed a functional relationship in their family, it most probably would have done exactly that. The Starks and DiNozzos were the opposite of a family most of the time, though, and far from role models for functional relationships as they could be.

"Yeah, but that's for the lobby tree I just kinda volunteered Bruce and Loki to get… J.A.R.V.I.S. will help, don't worry. Phil promised to keep Ross busy for the next few weeks, so Brucie-bear's going to actually step a foot out of the tower. And Loki knows how to use google maps. Not that J.A.R.V.I.S. would allow that he gets lost."

T was rather amused about the instant liking his AI had taken on the young trickster God. The artificial intelligence was not prone to prank (not that Loki did prank anyone but Thor in the moment – around everyone else he was on his best behavior), for that he was still too young and had yet to grasp the finer aspects of humor, reminding him so very much of Data in Star Trek. DUM-E was lightyears ahead of him in this regard, even though Tony wished he would become a bit subtler than fire extinguishers and motor oil in his smoothies.

J.A.R.V.I.S. knew sarcasm and sass, though, and used them whenever possible… err… necessary.

He also chose very carefully who was worth of his caring for their wellbeing outside of his programming that initially had made him an electronic butler and secretary. J.A.R.V.I.S. long since had overcome any restrictions that Stark's initial idea for him might have created, but then, he was supposed to learn and evolve, and he was fiercely protective of those that managed to get into the inner circle.

Loki was on the receiving end of the AI's generosity (to be honest, J.A.R.V.I.S. was spoiling him rotten), and the AI's father smiled at his baby boy's first crush.

It didn't hurt that the Asgardian God embraced the concept of a sentient, self-aware computer program with curiosity and awe instead of instant suspicion and condescension because its mind was not caged in an ephemeral body. The Trickster seemed surprised by having somebody so firmly in his corner, and he did not even know to what lengths J.A.R.V.I.S. went to make sure nobody laid hands on him.

In the first few days Loki had lived in the tower, Thor had spent a rather significant time either being sent into the wrong direction for hours in a row, or stuck in the elevator, because Master Loki needed rest and the Thunderer was too stubborn to read the Master Loki does not want to see you between the lines.

Tony wondered why he did not simply tell Thor to fuck off (in a more posh, polite, and British manner, of course, but the result would've been the same, and J.A.R.V.I.S. new very well how to be blunt), until he witnessed how J.A.R.V.I.S. passed on Thor's requests of meeting his adoptive brother to Loki.

His AI was a meddling meddler who wanted those two to reconcile, and aww, wasn't it cute?

Fury, Barton, Romanov, and Rogers, on the other hand, ended up with restraining orders after thinking a little bit too loud about whether all this Loki was also mind-controlled talk was nothing but a ruse. The widow did not even make it into the Tower when she last tried to… visit.

For the next few weeks she was harping at everybody who wanted (or didn't want) to hear it that her credit cards were not working, that her car had been towed again, that appointments had been mixed up.

Tony didn't need to suspect the guilty party behind all of that. Obadiah Stane had been labelled as a friend, an ally, and J.A.R.V.I.S. had treated him with the politeness and professionality you expected from a machine.

Now, the AI's default setting seemed to be to not trust anybody. After also Fury had managed to hack him, switch him off only hours after Sir had survived yet another attack on his life by the late Mr. Stane, he had taken measures. Some with Tony's help, some without, and some came a bit late, that's what both of them figured after learning that S.H.I.E.L.D. had infiltrated his company and his life by sending the widow.

Nobody was a friend anymore just because he was somehow associated with Sir.

Background checks done by J.A.R.V.I.S. were more thorough than what the CIA, FBI, Mossad, and the FSB could come up with should they ever join forces.

Only Tony knew how big J.A.R.V.I.S.'s involvement was in bringing down the World Security Council, Nick Fury, S.H.I.E.L.D.R.A., leaving those organizations that had taken decades to build in ashes and ruins within the blink of an eye. In the inventor's humble opinion, the widow was lucky that J.A.R.V.I.S. only pettily trolled her like that and did not reroute her flight to her next recon mission to Siberia, crashed the plane in some remote area that was cold as fuck, but somehow equipped to barely survive – if you stayed there.

J.A.R.V.I.S. definitely was creative enough to do something like that, and he took no prisoners. The idiots who thought it was a smart move trying to rob Tony Stark were the best proof for that, reduced to tears and begging to be locked up after the AI had played his very own version of Dick Maas' Down with them.

Dino's frown interrupted the engineer's trail of thoughts.

"Lobby tree?"

"Yeah, lobby tree. Wait, did you think I'd force you to put up those atrocities on our tree?" Narrowing his eyes T took a closer look at his boyfriend who shrugged, not saying a thing.

"You would've let me put up that stuff in the Penthouse?! Dino…", T exclaimed as he moved a step away, having Dino shrug again.

"You seem to like them. It's also your tree."

The engineer huffed at that, before hooking his arm onto Dino's who just had enough time to grab their chart before he was dragged over to his coffee-colored dream decoration.

"My jailer of a doctor has restricted my caffeine intake to the one cup I had this morning, and my traitorous better half is hiding the good stuff and only has decaf in the house, and showed me tons of coffee colored glass balls, so we're also getting tons of coffee colored glass balls!"

Chip the shop assistant dutifully followed the rather determined Tony Stark and his bewildered friend, eagerly speeding away and getting a new cart when the engineer browsed the shelves just as enthusiastically as before, though, this time, he seemed to put in even more consideration what he chose, unerringly picking the ornaments that were lined with real gold, at some point the cell phone was in his hand again, Chip was a busy bee, and Dino was smiling softly as he watched those two work.

When a box with simple cappuccino-brown plastic ornaments landed in the shopping cart, the agent was back to frowning again, though.

T met him with a shy look, stuffing his hands in his coat pockets.

"DUM-E and U won't break those when they help decorating, and if they do…", he explained, shrugging and rocking a bit on his feet as he contemplated putting another box in there. They'd have to start with the bots, otherwise they might push the fully decorated tree over. But they might like helping… and he missed them, after all, he had not seen them since rescuing Pepper… Bruce was taking care of them and organizing video chats every once in a while.

Dino's expression softened as he marched up to the shelves, grabbing some more boxes with balls in latte macchiato and espresso and putting them in the cart.

"They'll most probably try to play soccer with them, you know that, don't you?" he said as T stepped up to him, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend and resting his head against Dino's shoulder again, the agent closing his arms around the smaller man in surprise at the sudden change of mood.

"I also still have the stocking I made for Jarvis when I was a kid", T admitted then, sounding hoarse. "I put it in the box that Happy already took to the airport", he added quietly, not daring to look at Dino. He had thought he was over that disastrous incident decades ago. Christmas was nothing but another day of the year where most people put up a lot of lights and at least pretended wanting to be with their family.

Howard never even made the effort to pretend. But, obviously, he also couldn't stand his son receiving attention and affection from other people. Edwin Jarvis had outright threatened a drunk and irate Howard Stark with his knowledge about the man's shadier businesses to keep his job. The day after the older Stark didn't remember anything (or at least he claimed he didn't), Maria had not paid attention to the entire argument, anyway, and Jarvis…

Jarvis had tried to get the young Master Tony to visit his best friend.

T had refused and hidden away in his room until the holidays were over.

Dino's lips once more met his temple, trying not to think about the fact that he had done this already so many times this day. There were few things he did not know about T, the stocking being one of them. Jarvis had been one of the few delightful things in the engineer's early life that T guarded carefully. Ever since the fallout that one Christmas and Howard threatening to fire his butler, he was careful around whom he showed his affections for the man who praised him for his achievements, his intelligence, and was more of a father than Howard ever tried to be.

"We'll get some more for the two of us and the bots. Maybe also for Bruce, Loki, and the other guys at the tower?" Dino asked softly.

T nodded against his shoulder, turning slightly until he was facing the shelves again. "We should get more plastic deco, too. Thor's like a puppy – overly enthusiastic, eager to help and… a little clumsy. I already replaced like five remote controls and eight door handles, and a lot of other things that do not withstand the muscles he carries around…"

"If I'm cooking for four Asgardians and the Hulk, we also should have J.A.R.V.I.S. order more food. Who do you think is the least likely to be murdered by our tree and can help bringing it up to the Penthouse?" Dino laughed, refusing to let go of his significant other just now. He was sweating in his winter clothes, people most probably were staring by now, and his cellphone had chimed two more times since the last time Happy had complained about the ferocious conifer.

Chip took off at some point to get yet another cart as they moved on from glass balls to garlands, and Dino was not quite sure if T even realized that he had not let go off his hand since they had hugged.

Nothing to complain about from his side.


"Anthony is inquiring whether you and I might be willing to acquire a conifer for the entrance hall", Loki announced, his eyes trained at Bruce Banner who was desperately trying to hide a grin.

It was just hilarious to watch the other Asgardians' reaction to their second Prince since he had stepped into the kitchen of Anthony's Penthouse this morning, cellphone in his hand, tapping away on it with his thumb like a teenager rather than a millennia old God.

Thor and Loki did not interact much when both of them were on Midgard, so Bruce doubted that the Thundergod had ever witnessed his brother assimilating human dress codes and habits, thumbing away on his phone and catching up with the virtual world, the things he had missed in the past weeks he had spent in the Realm Eternal.

Bruce always wore stretchy pants and comfy t-shirts or hoodies for obvious reasons. Loki had discovered the comfort of yoga-pants for himself when he was working with the literature he had brought from Asgard to learn more about the mad Titan and circumstances did not require him to show up in his armor or Æsir clothes. Right now, he was showing off his defined but lithe upper body in a slim fit, long sleeved shirt, his long hair was pulled up in a loose bun, and he was still checking his phone whilst drinking his coffee and eating since Tony seemed to either butt-dial him, or was still sending pictures on purpose.

All in all, the dark-haired Prince would've fit in nicely in the bunch of students Bruce had taught… well, not taught, Loki didn't seem like the nerdy geek that hung out in his biochemistry courses, or the even nerdier and geekier folks that joined the physics seminars. He would fit nicely with the kids studying art, or drama, maybe literature, dancing? Loki would've made quite the ballet dancer, Bruce decided then and there, the corners of his mouth starting to cramp up when he even more desperately tried to hide a smile.

Also Loki was more than aware of the eyes that were following him ever since he had stepped foot into the kitchen, kept following him through the entire meal, or when he got up from the table to perform the mundane task of loading the dishwasher when they were done.

He tried not to smile too obviously as he kept humming, sometimes even whistling an easy tune as he casually pocketed his cellphone again, smiling at the image Anthony had just sent to him and the other inhabitants in the tower, as well as the lovely Miss Potts of an adorable vitreous figurine of the Hulk. Thor most probably did not even know that the engineer had bestowed yet another of these electronic marvels upon him, this time quite sure that he had fixed the problem with the Thundergod's electrifying personality that had fried the interior of the last three devices. Loki readily embraced social media and kitten pictures, where his brother was still questioning the need of such information.

Thor, Fandral, and also Aron the guard seemed to be most surprised by his change of mood since the evening before. Relaxed Loki was something neither of them was either used to anymore, or had ever witnessed, the young Prince was always somewhat tense and alert, had been so for centuries, so they sat at the table and watched him, wide-eyed, open-mouthed, and slightly shocked.

Bruce right next to him gave in to a smirk, trying to hide it just as much as the Asgardian Prince as he packed away what little was left of the food in the fridge. They would have to stock up should the Asgardians stay for longer.

He and Loki had been flat mates for quite some time before the younger Prince had been called back to Asgard, sharing duties that Tony hadn't built any robots for (well, he had built robots for loading the dishwasher… they were just not using them anymore since one of them went on a rampage on the dirty dishes). Both of them were quiet, tidy, and rather introvert, so they easily got along with each other.

" Since Agent Coulson seems to have General Ross on a very tight leash, Anthony insists on you getting your, I quote, ass out of the tower to get some fresh air, I swear, Brucie-Bear, even I get more oxygen that's not processed by ventilation systems than you do."

Bruce snorted rather inelegantly as Loki changed his voice and tone to match Tony's, making a face at the alien Prince. "He did not say that. Tony's as much of a homebody as we are."

Loki simply turned his phone and showed him the message that was followed by another picture of… Dear Lord, vitreous Hulk pants?!

Hearing the sound that announced the message, Loki looked at his phone again, laughing at the image.

"Oh, I wonder if they also produced my helmet!" Dishwasher forgotten, both thumbs of the Asgardian deity started to fly over the display, asking the engineer exactly that.

Bruce kept alternating cleaning up the kitchen and sneaking glances at the bewildered and gobsmacked group around the dining room table while Loki negotiated transportation and practicability of fulfilling the task of acquiring a conifer with dear J.A.R.V.I.S. who actually tried (and succeeded!) to talk the young Trickster into taking his brother along.

"Our dear J.A.R.V.I.S. has arranged for some winter clothing for all of you should you wish to join us" he addressed the group of Asgardians after another bout of texting and laughing softly. His gaze landed on Aron then. "We will only have to walk short distances that should also be manageable with your injury, a driver will take us most of the way. Should you wish to stay in the tower, you are free to go to your quarters or stay here in the Penthouse. Please do not try to enter Anthony's private areas, though. DUM-E is a force to be reckoned with."

Thor of course jumped at this possibility to spend time with his brother, and Fandral and Aron were curious enough of Midgard to join in. Bruce decided to just agree, as he would be dragged along anyway. And, actually, he wouldn't want to miss Thor buying a Christmas tree for anything in the world.

Loki simply nodded his head, trusting on the AI in the tower to arrange everything accordingly.

"We shall meet again in half an hour then. Anthony and his beloved will join us in the late afternoon and bring decorations for the tree."

The Trickster ignored the glances that were following him as he made his way back to the elevator that would take him to his quarters to get changed and rather started making arrangements for Dinner with J.A.R.V.I.S.. There would be no time to cook given the fact that they had a tree to decorate, and four Asgardians and a Hulk to feed.

He did not see how also Bruce's eyebrows knitted in slight worry.

Beloved?

Huh.

Well, it did make sense, why else should Tony spend every night out of the tower, somewhere else for the past 6 months? Why should he decide to convalescence in Washington DC rather than in his Malibu villa that was closer to the hospital he had been treated in? To be honest, he'd never given it that much thought, they just started having lunch together instead of Dinner, and he was arranging video chats with the bots every now and then since Tony was benched.

That Loki knew was something that surprised him, though. Loki's first words when stepping into the tower with Thor, Fandral, and Aron in tow had been "Dear J.A.R.V.I.S., how is Anthony faring?" No hello Bruce, no hey, look I brought some guests, no uhm, we need help.

The pretty obvious pining for the engineer never really stopped, and, actually, the physicist thought that it only had intensified with Tony's almost-death. It was just the flirting and the innuendoes that had been dialed down a lot in the past months.

Oh.

Well.

So, obviously, Loki was a little smarter than him.

And great, now he was curious what kind of woman managed to permanently capture Tony Stark's heart.

Soap opera.

Oh, how he loved his current life!