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Loki braved a peek out the window and winced. “Is it just me or did the earth population quadruple overnight?”
Stephen laughed. “What?”
“Why are there so many humans all of a sudden? They’re everywhere!” Loki complained. “I nipped to the shops and the line at the register went all the way round the back of the supermarket! I couldn’t tell where it began and where it ended.”
“You were at the shops?”
“It’s Tuesday night.”
Stephen stared at him blankly.
“It’s Prosecco night.” Which should have been self-explanatory – after all, Loki’s personal chef back in Asgard had prepared the charcuterie board himself. “What’s the matter with you?”
The furrow in Stephen’s forehead smoothened. “Oh. Sorry. I was distracted.”
“I can see.” Loki’s sharp eyes missed nothing. “Something is on your mind.”
“There is never nothing on my mind, Loki,” Stephen said absently. “It’s not humanly possible.”
Loki walked over to where Stephen was sitting quietly in his armchair.
There was an open book in his lap but Loki knew he was not reading. Stephen was a speed reader and the page had not turned for the past five minutes.
With a quick wave of Loki’s hand, the book made way for his pert behind.
“What’s the matter, my love?” The back of Stephen’s neck felt tense. Loki unconsciously began to massage the knots away. “You look morose.”
Stephen gazed into Loki’s eyes. Gone was the ever-present scornful glint, in its place a placid, surprisingly genuine concern.
“More than usual?” Stephen asked dryly.
Loki nodded. His hand left Stephen’s neck to grasp his cheek. As much as Loki tried to thumb the crease away from between Stephen’s brows, it would not budge.
“Is this because I was late with the Prosecco? I told you the line was long,” Loki pouted prettily. “You did say no magic, no stealing and absolutely no stabbing.”
Stephen chuckled. “That I did.”
Then he did something that surprised them both.
Stephen tightened his hold around Loki’s waist and pulled him closer, hugging him so tightly it lifted Loki’s pert behind off his lap. “Oh, Loki…”
Loki waited until Stephen’s shuddering breaths evened out and the dampness on his chest stopped spreading.
“All the humans I saw on the streets today looked so happy, Strange.”
“Did they.” Stephen mumbled into Loki’s shirt. It was one of Stephen’s own, but to his delight, it now had Loki’s scent.
“Would you rather spend the night with…somebody else?”
Stephen stiffened. “What do you mean?”
“Perhaps you’d be happier…among friends.” Loki’s eyes dropped. “Family.”
Stephen lifted his face off Loki’s chest to look at his lover sharply.
“It is Christmas Eve…isn’t it?” Loki asked haltingly.
Stephen lifted an eyebrow.
Loki tried to muster an encouraging smile. “Stark slipped me a card under my door this morning. I think it is meant to be a Christmas card, but the drawing is tasteless and I’m afraid I still do not get the joke.”
Now both Stephen’s eyebrows were raised. “Let me see it.”
It took five minutes of further cajoling before Loki finally retrieved it from his pocket dimension, very, very reluctantly.
Stephen’s lips curled involuntarily into a smile as he perused the item in his hand.
Tony had certainly gone to extra-length to make it, judging from the carefully hand-drawn caricature of Loki wearing a Santa Suit…but instead of a Santa hat, Cartoon Loki was wearing his trademark horned helm, and he was surrounded by a herd of reindeers.
“Merry Christmas, Rudolph.” Stephen flipped the card around. “Bring on the Reindeer Games!”
Loki snatched the card out of Stephen’s hand.
“I still don’t get why he keeps calling me that,” he muttered darkly.
Stephen tried very hard not to smile. “You’ll find out on our next movie date night.”
“Will I.” Loki snorted. “Can’t wait.”
As quickly as it had come, the mirth left Stephen’s voice, and a heavy gloom fell over the study again.
“I have none.”
“Hmm?”
“Friends. Or family.” With a sigh, Stephen rested his forehead on Loki’s shoulder. “Not anymore.”
“None?” Loki threaded his fingers through the silky strands of Stephen’s hair. “Not even from…work?”
Stephen shook his head. “Back when I was still a doctor, my colleagues hated me all-year-round but never on Christmas, because I would gladly stay behind and work over the holidays.”
“And now?”
“Can’t exactly leave our post unmanned, Loki. It would only invite disaster,” Stephen said flatly.
“Poor darling.” Loki sought Stephen’s lips. They were soft and delightfully warm against his. “My valiant, courageous, brave Watcher on the walls...”
“The Fire that burns against the cold…” More kisses were exchanged, each hungrier than the one before. “The Shield that guards the realms of men…”
“Loki…” Stephen murmured in between kisses.
“Yes?” Loki bit Stephen’s lower lip gently.
“I’m sorry.”
“What?” Loki pulled back slightly.
“For feeling sorry for myself. Making you worry.”
“Oh Lord Commander.” Loki laughed softly. "I always worry about you."
"But alas..." He grabbed the front of Stephen’s tunic once more. "It is Christmas. It is your night."
A husky whisper. “And Rudolph never forgets to bring the presents."
“Who needs presents when we have Prosecco?”
Loki’s eyes softened and for the first time that night, Stephen caught the glimpse of sadness behind them.
It jolted him then, the realisation that like him, Loki too had no one he could call friends.
Like him, Loki too had no family.
Well. Almost. If you really must count Thor.
“Don’t you know the best thing you could give to me, Loki?”
The absence of warmth on the skin of Stephen’s face had Stephen palming Loki’s chest. True enough, it had gone still, as still as the frozen, petrified look on Loki’s face.
“It’s you,” Stephen said simply, for it was the truth, even if it had taken him too long to realise it.
Loki’s ghostly pale face instantly lit up in a most magnificent smile –
And Stephen's heart skipped a beat.
The room a thousand times brighter now thanks to its radiance, the smile chased away the last of the shadows from all the dark corners of Stephen’s heart.
Who needed Christmas lights anyway?
Two wine glasses appeared out of nowhere, and as Tuesday night tradition might just be their very own Christmas tradition from now on – “Salute.”
“Merry Christmas, Doctor.”
“Merry Christmas, Loki.”