And a happy birthday to me means a gift to you in the form of an update. I've worked out there are about 12-14 chapters left depending how well I can wrap this up, just to let you guys know :)


Chapter 17

It was now very late November. The students getting up for school awoke in darkness and had to wait until they were actually leaving before they even saw the weak sun make its first appearance over the rooftops. The frozen grass appeared to have been scattered with tiny crystals that glistened in the light while the bare tree branches were dusted with icing sugar that melted as the day wore on.

Hats, scarves and gloves were a must for anyone who didn't want to end up ill or missing a limb. Students got to school in record time, unwilling to spend excess amounts of time in the freezing cold, knowing there were heaters already powered up and waiting for them to arrive. Those who drove to school had the misfortune of de-icing their windows each morning, except for the lucky few who had enough garage space to squeeze their car into the warmth.

Tony was very grateful to be one of those lucky few as he pulled out of his drive and onto road that had been gritted over night to help prevent accidents. The closer he got to school, the more of his fellow pupil he saw struggling through the intense cold. In a way he felt sorry for them. But then he didn't because all thoughts of those poor souls were forgotten when he parked his car and hurried up the front steps.

There, waiting for him just inside the door, was Loki. He was wrapped up in a coat that fell to the tops of his thighs and clutched a thermos in his ghostly white hands. He smiled as Tony approached, pushing away from the wall to meet him.

"You okay?" Tony asked in greeting, noticing how pale his boyfriend was. Wow, his boyfriend. He doubted he would ever get used to saying that.

"Yes I'm fine," he replied unconvincingly. Judging by how strange his voice sounded and how he suddenly turned away, his body shaking violently due to a huge coughing fit, Tony guessed that that was not true.

"You may look fine, because, come on, you look hot today, but I still don't think you're well. Maybe you should go home?"

"I just have a bit of a cold," Loki said. After he spoke this time he shivered, drawing his coat in tighter around himself.

"Right, no, you're going home now. You can't be in school like this and I really don't want to be infected as well."

Loki made weak protests as he was steered out of the door towards Tony's car but gave in once the doors were shut and the heating was switched on. It was true, he felt awful. His head was throbbing no matter how many painkillers he had taken; his nose was blocked to the extent where he couldn't breathe through it at all, every time he coughed his throat felt worse and his head pounded all the more. He'd only managed to force himself out of bed because he knew he needed to go to school.

As if Tony sensed what Loki was thinking about he said, "If you tell me what classes you have today, I'll go and collect the work for you and drop it round this evening."

The relief on Loki's face shined through the thin sheen of sweat on his face. Yeah, so much for 'just have a bit of a cold', he had a full blown fever going on. By the time they reached his house, the man's eyes were fighting to stay open and it took all of his last energy to make it out of the car and up the drive to his front door. Having no patience to find his key, Loki knocked lightly on the door to have his mother open it a few seconds later.

"Wha-Loki? What's wrong?" She stumbled out, guiding him into the house before placing a hand on his forehead. "Oh Hel you're burning up, come up stairs and get into bed." She walked with Loki up the stairs then turned her head to speak to Tony. "Just wait there, I'll be back down in a minute."

It was another five minutes until she actually came back but Tony wasn't annoyed. He'd missed the start of school now anyway so there really wasn't much point in panicking. Maths was his first lesson anyway, he was great at maths...and his teacher loved him. Win, win.

"I wouldn't have even let him leave the house this morning if I knew he was that bad but he told me he was fine and he looked pretty fine so I didn't question it. That boy is such a good liar; it will get him into trouble one day." Tony chuckled at that. "Thankyou for bringing him home, I'm about to call the school to let them know that he came home and I'll slip in a word about you as I don't want you to get detention for being late."

"It's fine honestly, but thankyou," Tony said, his polite parent voice firmly in place. "Anyway...I should probably be going...oh one more thing, is it okay if I drop round after school to give Loki his work for the day? He was all panicked that he was going to fall behind."

"Of course you can, you are welcome here any time," Frigga smiled.

Tony thanked her again, said his goodbyes then left.

Such a sweet young man, Frigga thought as she climbed the stairs to check on Loki. She was glad Loki had found someone nice. He deserved it.


As it turned out, when he finally got back to school, Tony didn't have maths first. He had Psychology which was, more importantly, taught by Mr Phelps. The teacher that had just so happened to be the man that had read the note of him asking Loki out via hangman. Since that day he'd been strangely kind to both Tony and Loki. Not that he was showing favouritism or doing anything that the other students would even notice, he just didn't pick on them randomly to answer questions as often and was more lenient if they didn't answer perfectly.

When he hurtled through the classroom door, forty minutes late and with a stitch in his side, his teacher just raised his head and gave him an appraising look.

"Stay after class to explain your lack of punctuality Mr Stark. For now take your seat and open your book to chapter four, page 37."

Tony did as instructed, opening his textbook and reading the page. By the time the bell rang he had managed to gain enough information from the textbook to know what was being discussed in the class.

"I'll only take a moment of your time Stark," Mr Phelps said, cleaning the board while Tony hovered beside his desk, the side nearest the door. "Why were you late?"

"Loki, he wasn't feeling well this morning but was too damn stubborn to take a day off and came to school anyway. When I saw him, I insisted on driving him home so...so that's what I did," Tony finished flatly, not sure if that was an adequate excuse or not.

"That was a nice thing to do Mr Stark though I will insist that you at least try and be on time to class but it's your education, not mine."

"I do try Sir. Can I just ask something quick? Do you have copies of the work we did this lesson so I can drop it round to Loki after school."

Mr Phelps began to gather a few sheets of paper together that before had been scattered over his desk. "Here, make sure he doesn't sneeze on them or something, will you? I don't want to be ill over Christmas."

"I'll try," Tony said smiling then left the room.

The more time he spent with his teacher, the more he came round to liking him. Maybe he wasn't such a droning douche after all.


It only took two days for Loki to be back on his feet and in school again. He'd been angry that he had missed just one day of school so missing two had made him downright furious to the point that Tony had to sit for almost two hours one night listening to Loki grumble and whine about how Thor wouldn't leave his side, insisting that Loki couldn't spend all the time in bed alone.

"He's just cares about you Loki, cut him some slack."

"I'm not a child! I don't need him coddling me."

"I'm assuming he's not beside you now otherwise I think he would be quite offended listening to you."

"No, he brought Jane round for dinner and they're still downstairs I think. Getting out of that dinner was the only good thing that's come of me being ill."

Tony was happy to see that he was almost back to his old self again though his voice was still croaky from all the coughing. By the next morning you would have hardly noticed and, though he was still extremely pale, there were no obvious signs of sickness.

With hardly any time to talk before class, Tony accompanied Clint while Loki was whisked away by Natasha. English wasn't the worse class Loki had to admit. Nor was it the best. If you weren't feeling very imaginative at the time then there just wasn't much point being there. It was so horrible being picked on by your teacher to give an insightful analysis of a quote or a character's trait and the best you can come up with is some basic points that barely even fit together to create a clear argument.

"Are you busy on the 5th?" Loki asked as they took their seats.

"Of December? I don't know, why?" Natasha replied.

"No of September. Yes of course December," Loki deadpanned.

"Calm down. Now tell me why, what's going on?"

"It's my parents' thirtieth anniversary and they're having a big party but Thor managed to get out of it by being invited to Jane's to meet her parents and they're going out or doing something...I don't know. Anyway, my mum said I can invite someone to come if I want and I do want because I cannot take an evening with my parents, relatives and their friends all by myself."

"Well I'm not going," Natasha said stoutly.

"What? Why? You literally just said that you don't know if you're free now suddenly you already have plans."

When Natasha spoke again her voice was sagging with exasperation. "Yes because you are a bloody idiot and I can't honestly believe that I'm your friend right now."

"What did I do?"

"Oh I don't know," She said, stopping her sentence and pretending to think. "Maybe it's because you asked me when you should have been asking Tony!"

"Wha-Oh. Oh now I see what you mean," Loki said, feeling slightly guilty. Natasha just nodded at him. "When I see him at lunch I'll ask him then."

"Good," Natasha replied. Then, after a few beats of silence, she continued, "How you even got a boyfriend is beyond me."

Loki just rolled his eyes. He wasn't that terrible she just always exaggerated everything. Or maybe he was terrible. And now he was panicking over a stupid comment. Well that was just perfect. God he needed to get a grip. It had been so long since he had been in a relationship that might actually go somewhere, or was with someone that he actually really liked, that he had forgotten what it took to make a relationship in the first place. What if he messed this all up? What if Tony got bored, or moved on, or just realised that Loki was just a shit boyfriend and left him? Okay now he was definitely over reacting.

Forcing his brain to move onto brighter thoughts, Loki considered Tony's reaction when he asked him to come to the anniversary party. Oh god, what if he said no? Again Loki fought off the negativity, much preferring to think about Tony coming to the party and making it the first ever family get together that Loki would actually enjoy. With that thought in mind, Loki found it far easier to concentrate on his work than when he was deluged with panicked and ill-thought-out questions.


"Of course I'll come," Tony exclaimed enthusiastically when Loki finally asked him at lunch.

They were sitting with all their friends in the warmth of the cafeteria. The rest were all in deep conversation so Tony and Loki's side conversation went almost unnoticed.

"Are you sure? I guarantee it will be dreadfully dull and you may never look at me in the same way again afterwards."

"Yes I'm sure and it will be fine," Tony reassured him. "You're such a drama queen, you know that right?"

"It has been mentioned on occasion," Loki said evasively, sipping at his drink.

Tony just smirked at that. He was pretty sure that Loki was a full on diva when he got riled up enough, Tony just hadn't known him long enough yet to experience it. However, he looked forward to that day immensely.

Lunch passed in quick succession as did the rest of the day and the few days after that. Soon it was the day before Loki's parents' party and Tony was having a mild panic attack. He'd texted him over an hour ago but still not received a reply. With all his pent up energy, Tony took to pacing the living room. Waiting. Waiting.

There was a noise from the doorway but he was too deep in thought to pay any attention. It was probably nothing anyway. Only when he heard a throat being cleared did he stop his pacing and look up to see who was there. Of course there was only one it could be. Rhodey.

"You know I kind of like this flooring so I'd appreciate if you didn't wear a hole in it."

"Sorry," Tony mumbled, flopping down on the sofa with a sigh of defeat. He checked his phone for about the thousandth time already knowing that there would be no text there. Annoyed by this, he threw his phone across onto the other sofa, where it bounced against the cushions, landing safely, and buried his face into the armrest.

"Okay spill," Rhodey demanded, sitting down next to Tony. "You've been weird all day and now I find you pacing and throwing technology, which happens to be one of your favourite things, so tell me what's going on. I get your going out tomorrow but what's so important about it?"

"Wouldn't understand," was the muffled response he received. It was his turn to sigh.

"Come on, something's clearly bothering you. I'm not asking for every detail, just something. I don't want to become one of those parents who worry constantly about everything but I'm starting to get slightly concerned."

Tony sat up slowly, not looking at him. "Fine, I'll tell you but...but you have to promise not to like freak out or shout or...I don't know..."

"I promise," Rhodey said, hiding his hesitation well. Just from those few words his slight concern had grown into strong concern.

"So the thing...the thing is...what I wanted to say was...is about the thing...which is..."

"Just spit it out, I'm sure it can't be that ba-"

"I'm dating a guy," Tony interrupted, his voice blunt and devoid of emotion. Not wanted to even look at Rhodey, he dropped his head into his hands and closed his eyes. When his guardian didn't speak he carried on himself. "We've been together for a while now and it's going really good and I'm really happy. So yeah...I don't honestly know what this means. I mean...I don't think I'm gay because I still like women but I just haven't really analysed it yet. I'm happy and that's...that's what matters."

He worked himself into silence, taking a shaky breath when he was finished. He didn't dare look up for fear of what he would see. Though he and Rhodey had had many conversations on serious topics, this, surprisingly, had never been one of them. Now he wished it had been. He'd never actually heard Rhodey say anything against same sex relationships but he'd also never heard him say anything for them either.

When his guardian did speak again, he nearly flinched. It had been so long since anyone had spoken.

"Okay," Rhodey said slowly.

"Okay? Is that all you're going to say?" Tony asked, finding his voice again.

"What? I just said that it's okay. Honestly Tony I don't care who you date, men, women, any gender, I don't care. It's your life and whatever makes you happy then I will support you. I never spoke to you about this stuff because I thought you knew I'd be cool about it but now I see I was kind of wrong. Seriously though don't panic, I'm fine with it and as long as you're fine too then that's all that matters."

Instead of responding, Tony just sat up and wrapped his arms around Rhodey in a tight hug. For a second he didn't respond, surprised at what Tony was doing, then he did the same, bringing his arms up and around him, returning the hug. After a short time Tony pulled away, managing to look Rhodey in the eye and smile.

"Thanks," he muttered.

"No worries. Now what's your real problem?"

"What?" Tony asked, bewildered.

"You didn't throw your phone because you wanted to say you have a boyfriend, so what's the real issue? Boyfriend not replying to your texts?"

"Something like that. You know I'm going out tomorrow, yeah? Well I'm going to his parents' thirtieth wedding anniversary party for moral support and they don't know yet that we're dating but I still kinda want to impress them so that they...like me, I suppose. Anyway, I text Loki – that's the guy I'm seeing – about what to wear and he won't reply and now I'm stressed."

In spite of the situation, Rhodey actually laughed. "That's what's worrying you...Tony of course they will like you and I'm sure there's a valid reason why he's not replying. Just calm down, you have all night and all tomorrow morning to sort out what to wear." Then he paused, thinking for a minute. "Loki...wait isn't that the guy you keep having round here?" Tony nodded. "How did I not guess?"

"Maybe you just didn't dwell on it, I mean all I said to you was that he was coming round to do studying, why would you have any reason not to believe that? And truthfully we did study a lot, mostly because Loki made me."

"I really don't want to know what else you do apart from studying, that's a conversation I never want to have. Wait..." He paused again. "Your boyfriend has really weird hair."

"Hey," Tony objected. "I like his hair. You're just jealous because you can't grow yours that long."

"Yeah, that's it," Rhodey replied sarcastically.

The atmosphere had eased a lot since the conversation had moved on to lighter topics. Speaking of light, that was how Tony was feeling. No longer weighed down by stress, the worry that Rhodey would reject him or hate him was all gone. The worry about the party was also gone despite not hearing from Loki still. And, talk of the devil.

His phone started to ring and he nearly fell off the sofa in order to grab it. Tapping the screen, he put the phone to his ear, releasing a sigh of relief as Loki's slightly British accent filled his ears. He mouthed an apology to Rhodey, who gave him a thumbs-up as he left the room.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't reply to your messages, I was forced to go out with father and Thor but I didn't have time to grab my phone before we went and I have only just got home. What's wrong?"

"It's going to sound really stupid now but what should I wear to your parents' thing tomorrow. Like I know it's formal but how formal? Is it like jacket and tie or what?"

He heard Loki laughing on the other end of the line and pulled a face. Damn this idiot, why did he have to like him so much? He could be such an asshole.

"Just a smart shirt and trousers should be fine, nothing too extravagant," Loki chuckled.

"Good to know."

"I gave you the address of the venue so get there for around six. Text me when you leave and I'll be waiting outside to meet you."

"Thanks babe," Tony smiled.

"Ughhh," Loki groaned at the name. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yep, bye."

The line went dead and he was left standing in his hallway with a huge grin on his face.


I wasn't going to do a coming out scene in this story but then I thought it necessary and it fitted in nicely in this chapter. It was a scene I added also to be dedicated to my best friend Hannah who is always there and has been amazing to me for the past few months...anyway, I hope you enjoyed and please leave a review?!