Chapter 29 – Two Years Later
The sun on his face woke him up, and Tony pulled the pillow next to him over his face with a groan.
"Loki, why did you open the curtain," he groaned, but when he got no response he tossed the pillow away to glance around. Loki wasn't in the room, and the curtain was open, but the window wasn't showing, and it wasn't the sun shining through. The window had turned into some sort of mirror. No longer tired, Tony climbed out of bed, yanking on jeans before heading towards where his window had been. He stepped up to the surface so he was only an inch away. It appeared like a mirror, but his reflection was distorted. He moved as if to lean against it, to try and see if he could hear what was on the other side, but instead of a solid surface, he fell through. With a shout of surprise, Tony found himself face-first on a smooth surface, something sharp-sounding whirring over his head. He looked up to see something else coming at him, and rolled to the side just in time to see it was blade the size of a car. He got to his feet as fast as he could, searching for some sign of where he was, only to see a blur of motion in the middle of the room, destroying everything that came at it. Another shape shot towards him and he dropped to his hands and knees, only to look up and see the blur pause, and see Loki staring at him in surprise. Another blur came towards him and he tried to move out of the way, but before he had to worry Loki was there, batting aside the thing that had come towards him, offering his hand. Tony took it and let Loki help him up, before Loki pushed him back through the strange doorway. Tony dropped back down on the bed, watching in wary amazement as Loki waved a hand over the mirror and it turned back into a window. Then he moved over to Tony, clearly worried.
"Are you alright?" he had already begun checking Tony for injuries, but Tony shook him off.
"I'm fine. What is that place?"
When he was sure the other was alright, Loki gave a sheepish smile.
"Training room."
With a curious frown, Tony wandered back to the window, knocking on the glass. It made the sound glass should when it's knocked on.
"What -" He turned back to see Loki pulling off the top half of his training gear, pausing in his speech at the sight of his partners' now bare torso covered with a thin gleam of sweat and had to clear his throat to continue speaking. "What is that place? I mean – where is it?"
"It's here. Or at least. More or less here. It's sort of a separate space within a space. Like a pocket." as he spoke he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling off his boots, and then sliding out of his pants, tossing it all over a chair beside the bathroom door. "It's technically a real place. But it's a bit complicated to explain the difference between the time and space of that place. It's just sort of a thing." he laughs and wanders naked into the bathroom where Tony can hear the shower turn on. Both amused and surprised, he wandered towards the open bathroom door, seeing the blur of Loki behind the frosted glass.
"That's all you can tell me? It's a thing outside of a thing?"
Loki laughed and Tony had to force himself not to jump him in the shower, crossing his arms across his chest instead.
"No, it's a place. Outside of current time and space. It's on earth, but it's separate because it hasn't happened yet, but will happen. Does that make sense?"
Tony shrugged though he knew Loki couldn't see him.
"It isn't that much of a stretch to understand."
"Oh good. I wasn't really sure how else to explain it."
This time Tony laughed, watching as the shower turned off and Loki reached out and grabbed a towel, pulling it into the shower before stepping out with it slung around his hips.
"What is it?"
"You. With you're magic. It defies everything I believe and yet you prove that it's all possible time and time again."
With a surprisingly relaxed smile that Tony was growing more and more accustomed to seeing, Loki came over to where Tony stood in the doorway, surprising him with a quick but passionate kiss before he stepped past him and walked towards the closest. Now doubly shocked, Tony stood frozen for a minute before following after Loki, turning to see him right as he did up his pants. He was rubbing a towel over his hair as he stared at the row of shirts, clearly trying to decide which one to wear, but Tony stepped in the way, grabbing him for another kiss. The towel fell to the ground as Loki's arms moved to band around Tony's waist, but then just as suddenly as before, Tony was standing on his own and Loki was walking out of the big closet, sliding a shirt on, towel in hand, tossing a grin over his shoulder.
"Where are you in such a hurry to be?" Tony asked, feeling almost put out by Loki's evasive yet overt physical behaviour.
"I have an appointment."
"Where?" this time the question was exasperated as Tony stormed after him as he headed for the front door. Loki turned and stepped into another kiss, distracting Tony just long enough to be able to run out the door.
"You'll see. I'll be back soon!"
With that, the door closed behind him and Tony was left alone in the room, scowling at the door. He stormed back to the room, scooping up his phone and dialling Loki's number.
"Hello love," he answered on the first ring, voice filled with amusement.
"What are you up to?" Tony demanded, and Loki laughed.
"Mischief of course. What else?"
Tony groaned, which only had Loki laughing again, the sound drawing a reluctant smile onto Tony's face.
"Seriously though – what are you doing?"
"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise, would it, love?"
Tony grimaced. "I hate surprises."
"I know, but I quite enjoy them. Allow me this?"
Unable to say no, Tony made a face at the phone.
"I should be able to accuse you of playing dirty." Tony mumbled, and he could practically hear Loki's smile.
"But you can't. I'll be home soon, I promise. I just need to pick some things up. Relax. It's not like I plan on doing anything dangerous."
there was a sound of a minor explosion that had Tony jumping to his feet.
"What the hell was that?"
"Nothing to worry about. Sounds worse than it is. Relax, everything is fine."
"Everything is not fine! There was an explosion." now he was pacing the floor, phone pressed to his ear. "What is going on over there?"
Loki gave an over dramatic sigh. "Really Tony, you'd think from your reaction I'd stepped into a war zone. You heard a television, I'm in a store. It was playing. Can you trust me not to get myself into anything I can't handle?"
Tony drew a hand over his face. "I'm going to regret this."
Again Loki laughed. "Probably. Clean yourself up, see you soon."
Loki hung up and Tony glared at the phone, wondering what on earth Loki could possibly be planning. Muttering under his breath, he went to grab a shower, deciding to do as Loki had said since really he would just be pacing otherwise.
Once he'd showered and dressed, Tony headed out of the bedroom, surprised to see Loki back already.
"I didn't hear you come in." he said, and Loki shrugged.
"I'm fairly quiet when i want to be." he seemed to be arranging something, but Tony couldn't see around Loki to see what it was.
"What've you got?"
"A surprise."
Tony scowled at Loki's back. "I really don't like surprises."
Loki turned towards him, a gentle smile on his features, walking towards him but staying in the way of whatever he was hiding.
"I'm not doing anything dangerous. I swear." he gave a sheepish grin. "Well not to dangerous anyways."
Now more curious than ever, he struggled to see past Loki. When he couldn't get past him, he gave his partner a quick look over, as if judging if he could fight past him. Loki just grinned.
"Don't make me lock you in the bedroom."
Tony cocked an eyebrow. "Is that a threat or a promise?"
Loki only rolled his eyes. "I'm nearly done. Come back in five minutes."
Tony wanted to object, but Loki seemed to thrilled, and it was such a relief that he didn't want to take that away.
"Alright, alright, I'm going. But five minutes only."
Loki gave him another quick kiss before hurrying back to what he'd been doing.
Five minutes later, when Tony came back in, Loki was waiting for him, a grin on his face, his hands folded in front of him, but something making quiet whirring sounds behind him. Loki made a quick shushing sound and it quieted down and Tony approached curiously.
"I've been working on it for a few days now, but today I added the final touches." he didn't move, but stepped forward to meet Tony before he could get to the table. "Close your eyes."
Tony made a face but Loki just gave him a look and Tony folded, closing his eyes.
"Activate."
Tony frowned at the word and then at the mini humming noise that started again. It grew closer until it seemed to pause, right in front of him.
"Alright, open your eyes."
Tony opened his eyes to see a miniature iron man, flying right in front of him. It was about 6 inches tall but looked like an exact replica.
"Is that -"
"An updated version of what you would call an action figure."
A grin split Tony's face.
"What can it do?"
"Well, it'll react to your voice command, so really, whatever you want."
Tony's grin widened impossibly.
"Sweet." he turned his attention to the figurine of himself. "Land." he watched as the tiny figure lowered itself to the nearest surface, which happened to be the hand he'd put out. "Fire." Two little hands came up and fired what seemed to be little blasts of air. "Fly." the little figurine shot into the air, hovering at eye level.
"It can follow more complex directions than that, for future reference, and can be made to shoot actual energy, but I thought it safer to make the automatic fire power be something harmless."
"Ten laps around the room." Tony commanded, and watched the mini-him wiz off. "That is... really cool technology. And I didn't even make it."
Loki smiled at that, inclining his head.
"Glad you like it. Thought he would make good company in the lab since he's just as sassy as you, and would probably understand many more of your jokes."
Tony just laughed, watching as it whirled around the room, coming back to hover in front of them.
"Any more orders, hotshot?" a little, Tony-like voice squeaked, and Tony barked out a laugh.
"Watch it, unless you want to be de-programmed." Tony joked, before turning his attention back to Loki. "I love it. But what's the occasion?"
Loki just smiled again. "Look at the calendar. You'll figure it out."
With that he moved towards the kitchen, and Tony realized something was cooking.
"What day is it today?"
"Did you lose some braincells or something? It's your birthday! Maybe I should de-program you." the figurine sassed, and Tony made a face at the mini-ironman before looking at the kitchen doorway. He'd completely forgotten it was his birthday, with everything going on with Loki, and was strangely touched that Loki had remembered. For the past two years it had been constant work to get Loki comfortable being back. After everything that had happened, Loki had been so self-hating that convincing him it was okay to be happy had been a chore all on its own. Even still Tony had to wake him up on certain nights when he still had nightmares about one city or another he'd attacked nearly two years before. And the others still didn't trust him, which didn't bother Loki, but it bothered Tony.
"Cake won't be ready for another hour," Loki said, coming back out, drying his hands on a dish towel. "I assumed you'd want dessert first." he said with a smile, and Tony felt dazzled and wondered briefly if it was all some weird dream.
"Everything alright?" Loki asked, worry appearing, and proving it wasn't a dream as Loki put a careful hand on his arm. Tony just stared, not really understanding how he'd forgotten the date, or how the day had turned out so far, but he was glad for it.
So far, this was the best birthday he'd ever had.
"Perfect, everything is perfect."
