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It had been nearly five hundred years since Anthony last set foot on Midgard. With his former life and relations lost to the relentless march of time, he had avoided seeing the realm entirely, instead choosing to stay at Loki’s side and explore the rest of the universe together. It had struck the god by surprise, then, when one unspectacular day, his beloved asked if they could return. Loki, of course, obliged.
Mankind’s endless innovation, thirst for knowledge, and subsequent technological advancements had rendered the planet nigh unrecognizable and the pair took most of the day simply traveling the planet and observing all that was around them. No one in their travels gave the pair a second glance. Recognition of the name Tony Stark had, over the centuries, been relegated mainly to academia and mythic tales of who was now known as the Iron Avenger. As with all its other children, Midgard had moved on.
“It’s like another world entirely,” the human noted as they sat atop a high hill in one of the enormous city’s larger gardens.
The current generation of Midgardians called it a garden. Anthony insisted that it better resembled an expansive national park, which he decided aloud was a good thing. Loki kept silent on the matter, unsure what the best response might be. Anthony had been uncharacteristically quiet for most of the day, much to Loki’s growing concern. This was his former home, of course, but the changes over the centuries left the mage worrying about the conflicting nostalgia and monumental loss that may be dancing in the human’s brain. Now that they were in a position to converse privately, Loki decided that he may as well ask.
“Is that a good thing?” he questioned.
Anthony was fixated on what looked like a mother near the bottom of the hill who was currently busy reining in a trio of excitable children playing on the lowest crags.
“Yeah,” he replied after a stretch of silence. “I think so. A lot’s changed but…some things never do, you know?”
“Oh?”
His mortal—for, despite partaking in Iðunn’s apple and traveling with Loki going on hundreds of years, Anthony still seemed fond of that title—simply nodded and continued to watch the small gathering of people below. Loki studied Anthony’s face and felt a pang of dread over the turmoil he found there. Just as he had become an open book to his partner over the years, Loki was more than confident in his own ability to read his mate. The unwavering stare and tightness both in brow and at the corners of his mouth suggested that Stark was ruminating, and whatever it was troubled him deeply.
“Anthony?” he asked gently. “Is something wrong?”
Loki barely seemed to break through whatever mental barriers were holding his beloved’s attention. Tony’s face showed a fleeting moment of clarity before he again suppressed whatever thoughts were being kneaded over in his mind.
“No. Well, not really? Technically…?”
Loki sighed, leaning his elbow against the rocks behind them to better face his husband. “I hate that I’m the one to be asking this,” he began, “But what have we said about lying?”
That got a small smirk from the man. Anthony turned to him and offered a sheepish smile. He reached his hand out for Loki’s. The mage gave it a gentle squeeze.
“It’s just something that’s been on my mind for a while, I guess,” his mortal said with a breathy sigh. “It doesn’t really matter. Not in the grand scheme of things, but I gotta admit…I’ve been…thinking about it.”
“Thinking of what, my love?”
Anthony leaned back. He was silent for a moment before nodding out toward the hills and city beyond.
“All this.”
“Midgard?”
“In a way. People, maybe? This place…it’s changed so much. Moves right on with or without ya, you know? Life used to feel like one big scramble for the ultimate finish line and I gotta say, even now, part of me wonders if I’ve somehow managed to miss out on stuff despite all the extra time that got added to my meter.”
The mage could feel his heart immediately drop into his stomach.
“You…regret your choice, then,” Loki ventured in a quiet voice.
He had known this day would come, though the god had always hoped that it wouldn’t. When he had officially begun to court the mortal, when they had been married, when he presented Tony with the apple, when they had bonded their very souls…at every point, Loki had expected the man to reject him, to finally decide that things had gone too far, that he was finished, that he needed to be free of Loki and his ways. It had taken Loki decades—daresay over a century—to finally shed that ever-present dread that one day his beloved Tony would tire of him. And now, here it was. The god swallowed his pain as best he could and did the only thing that he could think of: he let go of Anthony’s hand.
Only, the man wouldn’t let him.
“No! No, Lokes…hey. Hey, look at me.” Anthony’s eyes were beautiful and warm as ever, if not a little concerned. “I don’t regret anything, okay? Don’t go down that road again. Stop it or I’ll tell Thor you miss your one-on-one campouts.”
“Then, what is it?” the mage heard himself ask. “If not regret, then what is wrong?”
Stark’s mouth twitched in that familiar way Loki loved so much, the small quirk of his lips that showed he had had a brilliant idea that he was dying to share and looking for any opportunity at which to do so. The juxtaposition left him baffled.
“Nothing, Lolo. I just, uh…” Tony huffed and rolled his eyes. “How to put this,” he mumbled as he scratched at his beard with his free hand.
Loki listened quietly and patiently. The tightness in his chest began to slowly unwind.
“I guess it’s kind of a human thing. We…create. We run around for, what? A couple decades trying to figure out how the world works, realizing we have barely any time in it, and then spend the last few decades trying to find a way to leave our mark on the world before we’re not a part of it anymore.
“For me, you came along and plucked me out of all that and said ‘nope, you’re going to be the one who gets to hang around and take a couple victory laps.’ I’ve be around for generations now, Lokes…but I’m not really a part of the race anymore, you know? I’m the one who got to slow down and do their own thing while everyone else had to keep scrambling for that legacy.
“It’s not that something’s been missing in my life, per say, but…oh, hell with it, that is how it kinda feels. I guess. Just because I get to live way longer than other humans doesn’t mean I’m not still human myself, right? I just have a way longer timescale in which to get everything done.”
“And there is something you yet desire, regardless of any time constraints,” Loki added in a hopeful attempt to summarize his mate’s needs.
Tony shrugged, but didn’t look at him. “Yeah, I guess so. Honestly, I never thought I would want it but…yeah.”
“What is it? I will give you anything you want, Anthony; you need only say the word.”
“I know, but…I don’t want you to just jump into it just because I want it, okay? It has to be a mutual decision and…honestly, that’s pretty much why I’ve been hesitant to bring it up. I guess walking down Nosalgia Lane here’s just made it a little harder for me to ignore.”
Loki squeezed his mortal’s hand. Now he simply needed to know what was sitting so heavily on Anthony’s mind. He brought Tony’s hand to his lips, kissing the man’s knuckles and rubbing gentle circles with his thumb.
“Open yourself to me, my love,” he beseeched.
Anthony shighed. “Y-you ever consider…I mean…” He nodded toward the little family enjoying their evening down below. “You ever want something like that?”
Loki watched the mortals for a few moments before his mate’s meaning dawned on him.
“Children…?”
Tony didn’t seem able to look in his direction for the moment.
“Y…yeah.”
Loki sat for a minute, not knowing what to say. Children. Anthony wanted children. A family. A legacy. He wanted all of that and more…with him. Anthony Stark wanted to begin a family with Loki. Loki had never thought he would have a family of his own. For the longest time, he hadn’t been interested in such future, or deemed such at all possible, regardless of his heritage. But Anthony had changed everything. And now the god found himself able to imagine a future, not only with his mortal, but a pair of dark-haired little ones fighting for the right to ride upon the Midgardian’s shoulders. And, to his utter surprise, Loki found that he wanted it.
“Look, I know it’s a lot,” his mortal was already saying. “And like I said, I don’t want you to just go along with it if you don’t want it. That’d be ten times worse than you not wanting kids in the first place, so—”
“I…think I might like that.”
Tony’s hurried words came to an abrupt halt. He turned sharply to look at Loki, narrowing his eyes and studying the mage’s soft expression with distrusting confusion.
“Wait, really?”
Loki nodded. “I admit, I…I had not truly considered the idea, but…” He looked down at the mother picking up one of her children while her elder siblings ran to whom Loki suspected was their father waving at them. “…raising a child, having a family with you sounds…nice.”
Anthony stared, his eyes widening in surprise while a smile stretched across his face. “I…I didn’t really expect that,” he admitted. “Wow. Um…s-so next question, I guess…how would we even go about doing that? Like, is there an Asgardian adoption center or something we could—?”
Loki furrowed his brow. “You would not want a child of our own?” he questioned.
His mortal looked confused. “What? How?”
They stared at one another for a moment before Loki gave a light chuckle.
“I had thought you of all people would know where babies come from.”
“No. Wait. Wait! You can have kids?” Anthony asked, desperately miming a large stomach as he stared at his mate in awe.
“Of course.”
“Since when?”
“Puberty, I presume.”
“You mean that damn horse story is real? All this time I thought it was made-up!”
“Many of your Midgardian tales are exaggerated, but I assure you, Anthony, we can most certainly have a child of our own if you so desire it.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
The mage couldn’t help but notice the admiration tinged with want that immediately nestled itself in his husband’s eyes.
Loki leaned over, reaching for Anthony and pressing his lips lightly against those of his bonded. “I would love to have a child for you. With you. My wonderful mortal,” he purred softly before their lips met again.
And he meant it.