Bit of a shorter chapter, but it's more of an epilogue than anything ;) I'll be editing the first few chapters and touching up the grammar and whatnot, and rereading the first chapter I found it rather hard to follow, and then I'll post something saying editing is done, etc, and will mark this as complete ;)
Tony sighed as he – finally – got to his room after yet another day of being grilled by the people high up who had absolutely no clue what had happened and why. He grimaced as he tried to imagine what Loki's day must have been like – it had taken him and Fury two weeks to convince the government he wasn't about to kill everybody, and in the week since then they'd still been suspicious. On a certain level, Tony didn't blame them. But they could still be stubborn fools, more so than the rest of the population. There were plenty of videos caught by fleeing or stupidly curious citizens of Loki in the centre of a green, glowing aura, light shattering out from him and destroying the army that might have slaughtered everyone on Midgard. But even with the evidence, everyone was slightly wary. Well, everyone that seemed to be in power at the moment – the people themselves seemed perfectly happy to have Loki back as part of the Avengers. Tony smiled to himself, remembering Loki's face as Fury had told him he was now part of the Avengers, yadda yadda, welcome, and all that stuff. He was probably still stuck in yet another meeting. Tony stretched and grunted as his backbone popped a little, before looking at the time and deciding he would just go to sleep. Asgard knew he was tired from all the paperwork and what-not. He stripped off his shirt and flung himself face-up on his bed, half closing his eyes.
He was already half-asleep when the bed suddenly dipped under him as Loki joined him, rolling over to rest his head on Tony's shoulder, letting out a groan of relief as he finally relaxed. "You know," Loki murmured idly after a while, tracing a circle around the arc reactor in Tony's chest. "I don't think I've ever actually mentioned this before." He tapped it thoughtfully and Tony raised himself up on his elbows, thinking. "Hmm," he agreed. "You're right." Loki cocked his head, then shook it and smiled to himself. "it was never that important," he smirked, and Tony rolled his eyes, slumping back onto the bed. "How was your day?" he asked him, though he was fairly sure he knew the answer. Loki let out a small huff and buried his face in Tony's shoulder. "Don't even ask," he mumbled. "You know Fury. And I'm starting to think he isn't even the worst of them." Tony raised his eyebrows, then shrugged as he remembered how Fury's bosses had reacted to learning about Loki. Not particularly well. "Anything interesting happen?" he probed, hoping there might be something. Loki shrugged then his face cleared as he remembered something. "Oh, Fury made me show off to the board," he chuckled. "What did you do?" asked Tony, curious, and Loki held his hand up. A green glow surrounded it and sparks skittered around them. Tony grinned. "Beautiful," he whispered, and kissed Loki.
Loki felt the tenseness in Tony, felt that there was something he wanted to say or ask, even as they kissed. There had been for the past few days. He hadn't probed, not wanting to press, but when they pulled back, he looked Tony in the eyes and tilted his head just slightly – as much as he was able to when lying down, really. Tony sighed and, seeing the question in his eyes, asked him, "doesn't having your magic back mean you are immortal again?" Loki blinked, pleased that Tony had thought about it. "Yes," he murmured. "It does. But it's a conscious part of us that makes us immortal – and I don't want to live for centuries longer than you." Tony frowned and narrowed his eyes at Loki. "I'm mortal," Loki told him. "I want us to have matching wrinkles." Tony snorted and whacked him over the shoulder, before hugging Loki tightly. "You don't mind… Doing that for me?" he asked, his whisper barely a breath on Loki's cheek. "Of course not," Loki told him, slightly surprised that Tony might think he minded growing old with him. He didn't mind; not in the slightest. Tony gazed into his eyes for a brief second, then said, "You can keep your eyes green, Loki. I don't care what colour they are, and it doesn't matter what other people think." Loki's eyes widened as he realised Tony had sensed the illusion. His magic wasn't very strong – not as strong as it had been before, due to the huge amount of energy he'd expanded bringing life to all those barren planets. But he spared some of it for the illusion on his eyes, hiding the fact that they had not reverted back to blue, but stayed green, albeit not as piercingly bright as when he had used his magic. Then quite suddenly he smiled. "You noticed," he whispered, and slowly the illusion faded away.
His eyes were no longer blue, that was for sure. But rather than the piercing green they had been when he had been using his magic, Tony noted that they now seemed more… Subdued. His eyes had a ring of deep, dark green about the pupils and the very edge of his iris, but in a small circle in the middle of his iris was a beautiful, streaked pattern of light green strands speckled with dark. They were… Quite possibly the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen – paired with the most beautiful face. He gaped for some moments, then told Loki, "I need to cut your hair." His eyes widened slightly, and Tony snorted. "Just a little bit – it's really messy." Loki's eyes narrowed then he rolled off the bed and stood up. "Then let's go to my room. It's cleaner." He wrinkled his nose as he surveyed the pile of clothes on the floor. "And I have chairs." Tony rolled his eyes and followed Loki.
Loki had spent a large amount of time redecorating his room, and must have spent quite a few sleepless nights on it, because of their tightly-packed schedule through the day. Thankfully, it was easing off a bit now, something Tony was extremely glad of, and Loki seemed somewhat more relaxed now than he had the first few weeks after defeating Thanos and his army. He'd painted it white, though most of the walls were now obscured by big, deep brown wooden bookshelves, and he'd somehow managed to convert almost an entire wall into a massive window, with white curtains that must be a horror to keep clean, though Loki seemed to like them. Amidst the bookshelves was a small white writing desk and a mirror hanging above it. Tony sat Loki down behind them and produced a small pair of scissors from a case in his trouser pocket – he'd been meaning to cut Loki's hair for some time now. It didn't take him long to cut it now, just a few minutes to comb it out carefully and trim the bottom. He'd managed to get the bottom of his hair quite straight, and was overall pleased with himself for doing so. Loki was squirming and grumbling the whole time, but didn't look displeased when he finally twisted his head and brushed his hair over his shoulder to take a good look. He sniffed. "Not bad," he groused, as if displeased, but there was mirth dancing in his eyes. Tony rolled his eyes and walked over to the bed, sitting down on it and stretching. Loki remained standing, reaching into a white wardrobe Tony hadn't even noticed – it was not very wide, and squeezed between two bookshelves – and pulling out a towel and a clean change of clothes.
"I need a shower," he told Tony. "You do, too." Tony wasn't sure if Loki was genuinely insulting him or just laughing, but either way he simply shrugged and muttered, "Can't be bothered." Loki rolled his eyes. "Of course not," he smirked, then dumped his stuff on the bed and gave Tony a quick, deep kiss that set his heart racing, before pulling back and smirking. "You can stay here for the night," he said, before vanishing into the bathroom hidden behind – here Tony raised an incredulous eyebrow – yet another bookcase. Most of them were empty, but he was quickly amassing quite a collection – and was proving to be fond of really old, illustrated books that Tony had a feeling would most likely in the future create a deep dent in his wallet. And he was a multi-billionaire. But he didn't mind one bit. He lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, relaxing into Loki's comforting smell. After a while he noticed the curtains were still open, even though it was already dark, so he got up with a groan and wandered over to close them. It was a beautiful night, and he smiled as he slowly drew the curtains closed. "Tony?" he heard Loki call from the shower, which was still running. "Yeah?" he shouted back. "I've forgotten my towel," answered Loki, and Tony realised it was still on the bed. He sighed and grabbed it, turning around and opening the door of the bathroom to put it on the floor for Loki.
Instead, Loki was standing right inside the door, head cocked, waiting for Tony. The shower door was open behind him and water was running off his finely muscled shoulders in little rivulets from his hair. His scars formed a pattern he had come to find beautiful, all across his chest and arms. Tony, who had already been bending down slightly to drop the towel on the floor, couldn't stop his gaze from dipping down for the briefest second before he spluttered slightly, going bright red. "Sorry," he muttered, and backed away quickly, hoping to run from the room before he exploded with the embarrassment. "Tony," came Loki's deep purr from behind him, and Tony turned, meeting the god's dark eyes. Loki's voice was guttural as he asked, "Aren't you going to join me?"
All thoughts of running from the room vanished as Loki reached out a slender hand and pulled him into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind them.
The End