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Tony and Loki had been dating for a little over eight months when their first Thanksgiving rolled around. The holiday had gone unbelievably well. Nobody had died or gotten maimed, much to the surprise of many. The worst casualty of the day was what Barton had dropped the still-frozen turkey on his foot the night before. There was no harm done, though, and it was still ready for Steve to start roasting early the next morning. (Of course, anyone who asked Clint would think it was the end of the world, but that was probably why nobody asked him.)
Dinner had been lively to say the least and Tony and Loki had headed to bed while Natasha and Clint were still plotting out the best plan of attack for their Black Friday shopping. Thor had hovered over their shoulders and expressed his interest in joining them, though Jane was not nearly as enthusiastic. Not a single one of them planned on getting sleep until the wee hours of the morning. Steve had just laughed in that way of his that seemed to say, "Have fun, kids, but stay safe."
It was the first time in years that Loki had felt like a part of a family. Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy had shown up to join in the festivities, along with Rhodey's mother who doted on Tony more than she did her own son. Jane had brought along Darcy, but Selvig had decline the invitation to join. Loki figured that was probably his fault. Steve's friend Sam had flown in and helped keep Bucky from drifting too far into the background. Dr. Banner had even brought Betty Ross.
The entire evening had filled Loki with a sense of belonging that he hadn't realized he'd missed so much until he had it again. He'd felt a loneliness, of course, but he hadn't realized how large the hole in his chest had been until it was filled. He'd spent hours that night worshipping Anthony's body in an unspoken thank you for giving him back so much that he had lost. The billionaire didn't seem to mind in the slightest.
So, in short, the evening had gone off without a hitch, which made Loki's predicament the next morning all the more startling and unexpected. He'd woken up in Anthony's bed expecting to still be curled around his mortal only to find himself alone. Sitting up, his gaze had swept the room and ascertained that, no, Anthony had not simply slipped off to the bathroom. He frowned a bit, not entirely happy at waking up alone.
Dragging himself from the bed, he pulled clean clothes from the closet and dressed in black slacks and a sweater. Anthony had been badgering him for weeks after they'd first gotten together to try wearing Midgardian clothing and now Loki found that he quite enjoyed the variety of their fabrics. Perhaps his lover had been struck by inspiration in the middle of the night and rushed off to the lab to bring it to life. It wouldn't be the first time such a thing had occurred.
Forgoing shoes, Loki stepped into the elevator and directed JARVIS to take him to the labs. As soon as he stepped inside, DUM-E whirred in excitement and sped over to greet him. Loki rewarded his enthusiasm with a few pats, but his mind was too distracted by the fact that Anthony was not here, either.
"JARVIS? Is Anthony in the Tower?"
"Sir left early this morning in the company of Sergeant Barnes and Colonel Rhodes. His intentions were not announced at the time, but credit card activity indicated he has been doing an impressive amount of shopping as well as conscripted the services of a moving company."
Loki's brows furrowed. He could not think of a single reason why Anthony would need the services of a moving company. He had bought no new properties that Loki knew of, and Loki usually knew everything he did on the single merit that Tony was the type to ramble at every given opportunity. Filing the information away for when his lover returned, Loki reboarded the elevator after bidding DUM-E a farewell and headed to the Avengers Communal floor.
Steve and Mrs. Rhodes were standing in the kitchen, working seamlessly around each other as they prepared breakfast. Bruce sat at the table with a steaming mug of tea and was chatting with an impeccable-looking Natasha about what deals she'd found the night before while Clint was slumped across the table, every once in a while letting out a pitiable moan. Mrs. Rhodes spotted him as she was pulling a tray of cinnamon rolls out of the oven. A huge grin broke out across her face as she beckoned him closer.
"There you are, dear! I was starting to think you would sleep straight through the day!"
Loki chuckled. He'd grown quite fond of the miniscule woman after they had met the day before. They'd bonded quite thoroughly over sharing stories about Tony, much to the man's embarrassment. Now she turned to wrap him in a hug as she placed the tray of food down on the counter.
"It is not yet even 10."
Mrs. Rhodes tutted dismissively to his reasoning and Loki spotted Bruce smiling at them from the table. This was probably the first person other than Tony that the team had seen Loki show true affection for.
"Tony made it sound like you'd slipped into a coma!" She huffed a noise of amusement and Loki couldn't keep the smile off of his face. It seemed like more than half of her communications were nonverbal. "Our boys headed out early this morning, by the way. I swear, I have never seen an obsession with Christmas like the one Tony has!"
Loki's brows drew together in confusion but he didn't get a chance to voice it before Pepper's laugh could be heard from the living area. She and Happy appeared moments later.
"I'm pretty sure he'd leave the decorations up year-round if I let him!"
Happy nodded right along with her.
"You should have seen some of the stuff he used to pull. When he was building his Malibu residence he wanted to put in an airstrip from Santa's sleigh."
He clapped a hand on Loki's shoulder in greeting as he passed to refill his mug of coffee. Tony had been near-terrified to introduce the two of them and had been utterly floored to discover they apparently got on extremely well. Ms. Potts, on the other hand, still seemed skittish to get too close.
"Who is this Santa?"
There was suddenly silence in the kitchen. Even Clint's head had popped up like a meerkat's from the kitchen table. Loki cleared his throat uncomfortably but did not allow it to color his expression. He'd become accustomed to hiding any and all weaknesses long ago. Happy was suddenly at his shoulder.
"You don't know who Santa is?"
Loki's eyes narrowed into a glare. He would have thought that was obvious by his question.
"No."
"And Christmas? Please tell me you know what Christmas is."
His voice was actually worried, which managed to reach Loki through his irritation. Was this really such a large oversight?
"I do not. Many of your Midgardian customs are still a mystery to me."
Before he knew what was happening, Happy had one elbow and Mrs. Rhodes had the other and they were guiding him towards a seat at the table and pushing him into it. They were probably the only two individuals in the room he would allow to manhandle him in such a manner. Pepper was on her phone, typing away.
"I'm giving Rhodey a heads up. I doubt there's much he can do, but he can try and reel him in a bit without giving him the true reason."
Loki's irritation was growing again. Why was this such a big deal? He'd had gaps in his knowledge before and it had never caused such a flurry of activity. When he spoke again, it was in what Anthony had quickly dubbed his 'Snape Voice'.
"I trust one of you plans to actually explain?"
"Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate here on Earth," Natasha began, only for Clint to interrupt and take over.
"Yeah, and Stark's, like, really into it. Decorations, music, costumes, gifts, the whole shebang. He's obsessed."
Happy's hand was on Loki's shoulder again. The Head of Security had always been a touchy person and Loki would never in a million years admit that he actually enjoyed the casualness of it.
"The actual day isn't until the 24th of December, but Tony is gonna run with it from here all the way up until the date. He went out this morning to get his regular decorations out of storage and no doubt buy more. He'll insist on us all putting them up ourselves, no professional decorators."
Loki was nodding along, taking all of the information in. He wasn't honestly that surprised. His lover had a tendency to take an inch and run a mile, as the mortals said.
"And why is this an issue?"
"Because you don't know what it is!" Clint exclaimed, rocketing to his feet and showing more energy than Loki would have thought he still possessed. "He's gonna flip!"
Loki still didn't understand what the problem was, but JARVIS decided that was a perfect time to interrupt.
"Excuse me, but given the current conversation, I thought it prudent to inform you that Sir has just returned to the Tower and is boarding the elevator as we speak. The moving service is due to arrive in less than an hour with additional decorations."
Clint whirled back from looking at the ceiling to all but launching across the table to grab Loki by his shoulders.
"Look, there's no time to educate you on everything you'll need to know, but whatever you do, do not tell Stark you don't know what Christmas is! If you have any questions, ask us! Just, keep it subtle with those silvertongue, God of Lies powers of yours, okay?"
Loki arched one eyebrow.
"I am hardly the God of Lies, Barton, merely mischief and fire."
Clint leaned closer, actually getting one knee up on top of the table.
"Not the point! Just stick to the plan, okay? Do not tell him. Tony can't know."
"I can't know what?"
Clint nearly fell over with how fast his head whipped towards the door and Loki was momentarily concerned about what the archer's lack of sleep was clearly doing to his brain. Tony was standing in the doorway, one eyebrow arched and an army of shopping bags at his feet. Rhodey and Bucky, each bearing more bags, stood behind him. Rhodey smiled apologetically at Pepper.
"Sorry, by the time I got your text there really wasn't much I could do."
Tony was looking around at all of them with a half-glare, half-confused look. He also looked about three seconds away from throwing an absolute tantrum, which would be ridiculous considering he was wearing a red sweater with a snowman on it and a floppy cone-shaped red hat with white fur trim…and the fact that he was a grown-ass adult. Letting a small smile make its way onto his face, Loki rose and crossed the room. He dropped a quick kiss to Tony's lips before slipping behind him and pulling the billionaire's back to his front. He kept his arms wrapped around the shorter man's shoulders while he rested his chin on top of that fluffy hat.
"Your teammates were attempting to discourage me from telling you that I have no idea what this 'Christmas' is that you are apparently so infatuated with."
Tony was suddenly pulling out of his arms and turning around, bewilderment decorating his face.
"You don't know what Christmas is?!" He thrust one finger out to point almost accusingly at Bucky. "Even Amnesia Anonymous over there knows what Christmas is!"
Steve made a strangled noise of protest at the nickname, but Bucky just rolled his eyes. Loki had figured out long ago that the soldier actually appreciated that Tony didn't treat him like breakable china or dance around the issue.
"We had no such holiday on Asgard and I have not been on Midgard during the season for the past few years." He reached forward to lay one finger on Anthony's chin and close his gaping mouth. Then he pressed another kiss to the genius's lips. "But I very much look forward to learning all about it with you, if it is a holiday of such importance."
Anthony all but launched himself into Loki's arms, hugging him tightly.
"Oh, my God! This is going to be so much fun!" When he pulled away, his eyes were alight with joy. "First things first, decorations! We can start with what we picked up today and more is coming soon! The trees won't arrive later today, but we can still get a lot done without them! JARVIS! Start us off with Jingle Bell Rock and then give me a shuffle!"
"At once, Sir."
Music began to pour from the speakers, not loud enough to be disturbing to conversation, but still loud enough that no one would have to strain to hear it. Tony started grabbing up bags from the floor.
"Come on! We can start in the living room! I want to get this floor done first, then we can move on to ours and then the lab!"
"Not so fast, young man!"
Tony instantly froze at the sound of Mrs. Rhodes's voice. He peeked over his shoulder like a schoolboy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His face instantly crumbled when he caught sight of her expression.
"But I'm already behind on getting the decorations started!"
Rhodey laughed, already moving to drop his bags in a corner of the room and move towards the table.
"That's your own fault, man! You're the one who kept dragging up into all those ridiculous catalogue outlet stores."
Suddenly, Tony's whining was transferred to his oldest friend.
"But Frontgate was having a sale! How was I supposed to say no to that?"
Rhodey just shook his head.
"You're a billionaire, Tones. I'm pretty sure you could just buy Frontgate. "
Tony gasped and immediately whirled on Pepper, eyes shining with excitement.
"I never thought of that! Pep-" "Absolutely not."
She didn't even look up from her phone as she shot him down. Mrs. Rhodes just tutted as she moved back towards the kitchen.
"Take a seat at the table, dear. That boyfriend of yours hasn't eaten a thing yet, and I doubt you have either! Let's get some food in you and then you can get to your decorating."
Still pouting, Tony took his seat, dragging Loki right along with him. He pulled the god's arm around his shoulders and snuggled up close.
"So where are Thor and Jane? And that Darcy girl?"
Clint just shrugged, returning to his previous position of playing dead across the table now that all the excitement was over. Bruce answered in his stead.
"Apparently Darcy has friends in the city and dragged Thor along to meet them so she could show off. Jane went with them to supervise. They headed out just about an hour after you all did."
"Oh yeah, that reminds me. Steve!"
Tony twirled around in Loki's arm to kneel in his chair and look into the kitchen. Loki tipped his head back to watch Steve give Tony his full attention.
"I'm totally claiming your BFFL over there for all future shopping trips. That man is a GENIUS when it comes to navigating a crowd! I've never seen someone use a shopping cart like that!"
Rhodey snorted laughter in the background, but Steve just looked confused.
"Biffle?"
"B-F-F-L. It stands for Best Friend For Life. I know we've been over this one, Capsicle."
Steve grumbled something about there being too many letters in this century, but went back to his eggs without too much comment. Before long, Tony's kitchen table was nearly groaning under the weight of all the food covering its surface and Sam had managed to drag himself out of bed to join them. Even if Thanksgiving had only been the day before, it didn't stop the team from having the appetite of an entire army. Thor would be sad he missed it.
JARVIS hadn't let the Christmas music stop for a moment and Loki asked questions periodically about this reference or the other. He was particularly interested in both the legends of Frosty the Snowman and Jack Frost. This, of course, prompted Tony to declare it movie night every night until Christmas. He usually did that anyway, but this year they would watch two movies a night instead of one to catch Loki up on all the classics and good stuff. Tonight would be Frosty and Rise of the Guardians.
Clint revived himself enough to stage a campaign for Love Actually, which he declared was clearly the greatest Christmas movie ever made. Natasha put in a vote for Last Holiday with Queen Latifa while Bruce listed off Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Charlie Brown's Christmas. Clint had then snapped his fingers and added The Polar Express to the list. Rhodey insisted that they had to watch Christopher and Holly: The Bears Who Saved Christmas at least once. It was quick, he reasoned, they could easily fit it in somewhere. And Dragons Holiday, he added, the season just wouldn't be complete without it.
Sam tried to recommend Elf, only for Tony to loudly and vehemently shoot him down. Apparently the billionaire was not a fan. He acquiesced and instead put It's a Wonderful Life into the pot for consideration. Movie discussion continued all the way through their meal until everyone was full and Tony was nearly bouncing in his seat. Mrs. Rhodes smiled at him indulgently.
"Oh, go on, then. Captain Rogers and I will clean up here while you take your troops and conquer the Tower."
She laughed heartily as Tony all but shot out of the room, grabbing bags along the way and shouting for the others to get their butts moving. It was the closest he'd come to cussing since she'd set foot in the building.
Soon, the Avengers and company were all assembled in the living room, following Tony's instructions as he flitted from one project to another. The assassin duo was tacking up garland all around the rooms while Clint added touches of mistletoe at strategic positions. The moment Loki had learned what the purpose of that particular decoration was he'd taken every opportunity to drag Tony under it with him. (They'd worked together to shove Pepper and Happy under it as well.)
Bucky was in charge of assembling the various Christmas Villages Tony had acquired over the years. He seemed to enjoy placing the tiny figurines in different positions to represent their holiday life. Steve had nearly hugged the life out of Tony when he'd caught a glimpse of the delighted smile on Bucky's face. Loki was in charge of lights and was working with Sam and Rhodey to get them all in place. Tony swore he had an eye for decoration and could keep the other two in line.
Bruce had retreated back to the kitchen with Steve and Mrs. Rhodes but ventured forth at regular intervals bearing gifts of eggnog and apple cider. Loki decided he like the cider far better of the two, but didn't mind the taste of eggnog when it was licked from his lover's lips. Thor, Jane and Darcy were swept into the insanity as soon as they got back to the tower, just in time for the trees to be delivered.
Apparently Tony had a personal Christmas Tree farm because he simply bought too many to bother with trying to find a company to supply them all. The farm supplied each of the Stark Industries offices, too, so it wasn't like they were all for his personal use. Still, he'd made sure just about every room would have its own tree, including a 12' behemoth in the living room. Some of the trees were as small as three feet tall and were to be placed on countertops, but each and every one of them would be decorated with ornaments, garland, and lights. Loki was pretty sure it wasn't normal.
Tony insisted that they all come together to decorate the tree in the living room. He pulled out boxes and boxes of ornaments that had been in storage along with a number that he had acquired while out that morning, including an entire line of Avengers ornaments. Loki was actually getting into the whole thing when he felt a hand on his wrist and looked down to find Anthony pulling him gently away from the tree.
They moved back until they were nearly across the room. The others were still surrounding the tree, hanging ornaments, talking, and laughing. Sam and Pepper had both had a bit too much eggnog and were dancing in a less than coordinated fashion. Tony burrowed his way under Loki's arm to lay his head on the god's chest. He wrapped his own arms around the other's waste.
"Christmas was the only time my family ever actually acted like, well, a family when I was growing up. I mean, my dad was still an asshole and my mom mostly ignored everything that didn't involve looking good for a society party or magazine, but we were together. They never missed it, not for a single year. And now I have this."
He was gazing at the others, eyes filled with such wonder that it was almost like he expected them to disappear at any moment.
"It's a real family, one that I chose and that chose me, and I just…I mean…I…" He bit his lip and looked down. "It means a lot to me to have you here."
Loki smiled indulgently and dropped a kiss on top of Tony's head.
"Anthony, I will be anywhere you are. It doesn't take Christmas Magic to make that happen."
The genius laughed and tilted his head up to give him another kiss on the lips. Then one turned into two and pretty soon they were forgetting what their conversation had even been about.
"Oi! Lovebirds! Stop making out and get back over here! This tree isn't going to decorate itself, you slackers!"
"Alright, alright, birdbrain! We're coming! Don't get your panties in a bunch!"
As they rejoined the others, Loki couldn't help but think that he was starting to enjoy Christmas almost as much as his lover did…or perhaps he just enjoyed his lover's excitement. After all, the man had nearly had a conniption fit when Loki enchanted the snow on his balcony to turn into a singing, dancing snowman.
Loki couldn't wait for the actual day to arrive.