Title: Welcoming Jól.

Author: Teofse

Fandom: MCU

Pairing: Loki/Tony

Characters: Loki, Tony Stark

Rating: G.

Word count: 657

Disclaimer: These characters belong to Marvel (both comics and movies). No money is being made out of this work.

A/N: Unbetaed. Post Avengers AU, disregards Iron Man 3 and Thor: TDW. This is the next installment of my adventdrabbles 2014 series No Time For Sentiment. Prompt 21: Winter Solstice.

Summary: 'Jól is here.' He thought, pleasantly surprised at his own lack of bitterness and decided there and then to celebrate the winter solstice in the way they would back home.

Welcoming Jól.

Loki welcomed the shortest day of the year curled around his mortal in a tangle of bare limbs. He was wide awake and basking in the strange and new sensation of guarding a lover's rest. Tony's head rested atop his extended right arm, wild mop of tangled bed-hair brushing the underside of his jaw every time his mortal breathed.

A tanned back was glued to his front, the ass he'd so thoroughly plundered the night before nestled against his crotch, keeping him warm and semi-aroused while their legs knotted them together, thigh stretched over thigh, keeping he-who-was-now-his firmly anchored to his side.

Loki's green eyes glowed with a quiet and content satisfaction. Pleased with his lot for once, wanting nothing else at all beyond the treasure his arms already held and therefore feeling no envy whatsoever as the sun rose across the sky on the one day a year when Thor's glory shone the most in Asgard.

'Jól is here.' He thought, pleasantly surprised at his own lack of bitterness and decided there and then to celebrate the winter solstice in the way they would back home.

He'd honor his brother with the kind of wholeheartedness he hadn't been able to muster in a very long time, allow himself the joy of remembering how it felt to feel brotherly pride. How it felt to embrace the knowledge that his sibling was meant to be a great protector, destined to be revered and beloved by the masses.

He wanted to savor once again the absolute certainty that, even though his big brother could lay claim to such wide-spread adulation, Thor would always value his Jól offering above all others, no matter how lackluster it may have been or how gracelessly delivered, because it had been made by Loki's own hands and that never stopped meaning something to his brother.

His impulsive decision left him feeling oddly melancholic, saddened for the years he had wasted warring the first-born of Asgard. He should have accepted his fate to lead a throne-less existence long before his conviction that he was better suited for the position had the time to develop. He'd lost his youth and his innocence pursuing a goal that was never within reach. Thor was the rightful heir of Asgard. The first-born. The Realms' acknowledged protector. There had never been any chance of him ever outshining his brother and his decision to try anyway had only served the purpose of poisoning his heart with envy, and alienating him from his family.

"Hmmmm... What's going on in that crafty mind of yours, snowflake? You're thinking loudly enough to cause earthquakes."

Loki laughed, thoroughly amused, and focused happy green eyes on the object of his affections.

"I feel strangely inclined to continue embracing sentiment this morn, Anthony, and it's all because of you."

Sleepy amber eyes lit with unholy desire and his lover shifted in his arms, curled a warm hand around the back of his neck and pulled his head down; taking his breath away with a kiss that was both plea and invitation.

"I like the sound of that, hot stuff. I like the sound of that a lot."

"You are insatiable." Loki whispered, tone rough with renewed desire, and decided to postpone his plan of heading back to his room and craft a goat mask for his brother until after he'd welcomed Jól in the arms of his beloved.

Giving gifts and burning logs while drinking ale in Thor's honor would come later. He'd had time to be a good brother after he devoted himself to being a good partner. He may even be able to coax the rest of the team into following his example, once he explained the meaning behind the ancient asgardian traditions to them. He could have it all in this day of new beginnings and maybe, if he played his cards well, he could still have it all on the morrow. And beyond.

TBC