Then: Life is 10% what happens to you…

Frigga did not even give them two days to recuperate from their impromptu travel to Asgard. After all, Toni had announced that she did fancy a ceremony in the Realm Eternal, and obviously, that needed thorough planning. Which meant that the All-mother was visiting more or less every other day for the past four weeks or so. Determined to have the wedding as soon as possible.

Well, obviously people in Asgard did not fancy being engaged for longer periods. She was wondering slightly whether Jane and Thor got visits on the days Frigga was not with Loki and Toni, in order to plan their wedding, too.

Toni gave her free reign over the food, the decoration and the music, because she did not want to argue.

She was fighting tooth and nail about dresses and whom she would bring. Steve Rogers definitely would not be present at her wedding, no matter how much of a shield brother he was according to Thor. She could live with Clint, if he chose to behave. She would designate Natasha one of her bridesmaids if she got to put her into the ugliest dress she could find on either Earth or Asgard, but on the other hand… nope, the widow would also not join them.

Also Fury was a no-go. The fucker had tried to kill Phil, after all, and still, somehow, had managed to weasel his way back into the graces of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new head honcho. Toni did not believe in the slightest that it had been a set-up, a fake, to get H.Y.D.R.A. off one-eye's track.

She was still trying to find Bruce. They had met occasionally, during their fights, but that was it. No more science binges, no science bro-mance since that fateful day S.H.I.E.L.D. thought it would be good to meddle with her relationship with Loki. Somewhere during the downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Bruce had just disappeared, showing up every once in a while, and it was not like she could actually hold that against him.

At some point though, Frigga was really grazing on her nerves, wanting to discuss details Toni did not care in the slightest about, hell, Loki himself, while being a neat-freak and perfectionist did not care whether the printed flowers on the table cards would be on the right or the left side.

She did not care about these things, especially not after a day spent in board meetings and whatever other crap the CEO of Stark Industries had to attend and be actually attentive at, while Pepper was enjoying her maternity leave.

She was a bit miffed about the fact that Penelope was not supposed to travel by Bifrost, yet, so Pepper would most probably not join them. But for that they'd have another wedding on Earth. She could live with that.

She had a headache, she had not eaten for the entire day, and could remember one coffee that an angel of a secretary brought during one of the meetings where she had to make very clear with the people facing her that while normally Pepper was taking care of everything paper work and dealing with their crap, she knew what she was doing and would not let them fuck her over.

They tried anyway, and she left this conference room with a few more people who did not like Toni Stark anymore after underestimating her true genius. All she wanted to do was go home, eat something, and be left alone.

The smell of food when she entered the Malibu mansion made her stomach churn, though, instead of making her mouth water as it normally did when Loki cooked.

Instead of her usual "Honey, I'm home!" that had Loki smile for the rest of the evening like the idiot he sometimes was, she just let her briefcase drop next to the door, shrugged out of her blazer and thought very hard about just disappearing in her bedroom and sleep 12 hours straight.

After J.A.R.V.I.S. informed her that she had guests and that it would be very rude to not greet them as she had already taken the first few steps of the stairs, she turned around, heading for the kitchen.

Loki was indeed at the helm of the kitchen, wearing a dishtowel around his hips, having Frigga's gaze on him with each and every movement. Pepper, Phil, and a stroller with Baby Penelope completed the merry round.

Tony made a silent "Hey", as everyone was still engaged in a conversation that did not give any clue on the topic they were discussing. Four heads turned around to her, as she waved at them and tried to stifle a yawn.

While she got a round of greetings from the two men and her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Pepper jumped off her chair, holding out her left hand in excitement.

The engineer couldn't help but smile.

"So he finally asked, huh?" she asked, giving the glittery diamond a long look. Phil at least had some taste concerning jewelry.

"With a drop to his knee and flowers and everything!" Pepper beamed, as Toni sent Phil a smile that told the other man he would be mercilessly teased about this at some later time point. She did not see Loki's critical look as she made a bee-line to the stroller, peeling Penelope out of her nest of blankets despite the protests all around that the kid was sleeping.

Penelope never woke when Auntie Toni took her. And a sleeping Penelope was very good at switching her aunt's brain off, at least for a little while, while she was sitting on her couch, the baby on her lap, taking in the faint baby-smell and the warmth radiating from the kid in her arms.

When Loki pecked her temple, informing her that the food was ready, her foul mood was mostly gone, and she sent him a smile.

"Is everything alright, Toni?"

Loki had just tucked them in, serving as a giant teddy bear the way Toni wrapped herself around him, her head pillowed on his chest and he for sure would need quite some time to fall asleep, because it would take some time for her to let go off him enough so he could maneuver her in a way that he could also sleep on his side.

She had only been picking at her food this evening, her banter with Philipp and Pepper had been half-hearted at best, and her reaction to Frigga's announcement that their wedding would be this weekend was a simple "Great."

" 'm just tired, Lo. I always hated that CEO crap, I cannot wait for Peps to come back. And I hate people trying to hornswoggle me as if I didn't have any clue of my business. I brought the company out of being almost bankrupt after Daddy dearest blew almost all resources into finding Mr. Star Spangled banner all those years ago, and they still treat me like I'm fresh from business school."

Loki just continued staring into the darkness, his arm curling around her shoulder.

"So… you are just… exhausted? This is not about…" he trailed off, having Toni lift her head to look at him.

"About what?"

"I did not know that proposing entails jewelry on Midgard. Or a knee fall from the person who is proposing…"

Oh, right… Toni may have oohed and aahed over Pepper's ring properly during dinner, and had made fun of Phil, asking how long the old man had needed to get back up from his knees.

She turned in his arms, draping herself halfway over him to be able to kiss him.

"The way you proposed was perfect, Honey. I don't need a ring. My work actually requires to not wear anything around my fingers that could catch somewhere and rip my appendages off, you know?"

Loki cringed at that though, and did not answer, contemplating what this would mean for their wedding bands.

Toni must have sensed that as she lowered her head again, snuggling against his side. "I'll wear my wedding band, though, when my fingers are in no imminent danger. Well, given the fact that there are wedding bands on Asgard…"

"There are", he replied, his lips finding her hairline as he shifted to his side, closing both arms around her.

The alarm clock on the bedside table showed 4:47 am when she managed to get out of his embrace without waking him, spending the next 20 minutes dry-heaving over the toilet and then resting her head against the cool porcelain.

Great.

Now her nerves decided to make an appearance? Now, that they finally had a date? Not that she minded Frigga taking over also that. Actually, she had joked more than once that they should just elope to Vegas, and somehow she felt like waking him now and do just that.

Huh. Weird.

Well, at least wanting to elope did not mean getting cold feet and running away, right?

Now she just had to muster up the strength to get up from her bathroom floor again.