Work Text:
Loki had enough of Tony's sad stares when he was leaving the Tower right after sex. Stark tried various manipulative techniques to keep Loki for the night, everything from expressing the sudden need of a bony, complaining body pillow to accusing Loki of fear of commitment. That was a hideous insinuation and a veiled challenge. Loki wanted to prove he was perfectly ok with opening up to Tony. For the first time since they became enemies with benefits, he didn't jump off the bed as soon as Tony was finished with him.
'Now what?' Loki barked at a beaming Tony. 'What do we do? Talk about our feelings? Share some stories from our childhood? Cuddle until we have enough of each other?'
'Whatever you want. I was thinking about sleeping.'
'Oh. That sounds good.'
After a long discussion about their position, Loki ended up on lying on his side, tightly embraced by Tony from behind. Several minutes of teasing about being Tony's cute little spoon and Tony finally shut up, his breathing slowed down, Loki assumed the idiot fell asleep. It wasn't that difficult, Loki thought, piece of cake. Now he tried to relax and get some sleep. He closed his eyes, took slow, deep breaths and then it started. Tony turned on his inner radiator. Uncomfortable warmth of a sleeping mortal was hard to ignore, Loki kicked off the covers and wriggled away from Tony's body. He should have predicted that, Tony Stark was so hot, literally. A fucking furnace.
Loki had two choices- give up and admit he was weak, or stay, show how strong he was and risk a heatstroke. He chose the latter. He gently pushed Tony towards the edge of the bed and built a pillow wall to separate himself from the source of the scorching heat. It worked, for around five minutes. Loki couldn't breathe properly, he was nauseous, his head was throbbing with pain. Damn. He got up to get some ice cold water to prevent dehydration. It was useless, he was still unable to get some rest. Muttered curses helped a bit to ease the frustration.
'I'm a fucking Ice Giant,' Loki whispered, glaring at Tony. 'I'm melting here!'
Loki went on another trip to the kitchen to grab a large bucket of vanilla ice cream. He eat that in bed, while Tony snored happily.
'I'm tired!' Loki complained to his oblivious lover. 'I want to sleep, too!'
Another idea popped into his head. He went to the bathroom, soaked a large towel in cold water, wrung it out a bit and returned to bed. He lay as far away from Tony as possible and covered himself with the towel. That felt good, what a relief, after hours of the cruel torture.
It seemed he slept for no more than ten minutes when Tony's kisses woke him up. It was so bright in the bedroom, Loki's confused brain didn't understand what was going on.
'Good morning, sunshine,' Tony sang into Loki's ear delightedly. 'It's almost ten!'
'What?' Loki jerked when he remembered the damp towel. Tony saw it, of course he did. 'Oh crap. You know?'
Tony nodded and smiled apologetically. 'Sorry, darling, I didn't think this through. Next time, I'll lower the temperature in the room.'
'Oh. So... you're not mad at me?'
'Why would I be?'
Loki didn't want to talk about how repulsive and unlovable Frost Giants are, how he was taught to despise that part of himself. Tony wasn't aware of the depth of Loki's self-esteem issues. Good.
'Either way, I won that round,' Loki said cheerfully to push away sad thoughts. 'I stayed.'
'I'm so proud of you,' Tony said honestly. 'My brave little Snowflake. I ran you an ice cold bubbly bath. Sounds so weird but you deserved it.'
It was a wonderfully soothing bath, with dozens of ice cubes and peppermint oil. Tony still felt guilty and not only did he bring Loki more ice cream and iced coffee but also offered to wash Loki's hair and massage his feet. Loki felt a powerful surge of affection for him and gratitude. Tony accepted him as he was, with all his flaws. However, Loki was still a trickster and couldn't resist the temptation of pulling Tony into the bathtub. It turned into a messy, wet sexy time, so Tony didn't complain.
Loki spent another night with Tony and another one until it dawned on him that he had practically moved in. To his surprise, that didn't terrify him. He didn't have commitment issues, after all. Or he used to have them but Tony fixed him. That could be true, Tony was good at fixing things- and worrisome Ice Giant boyfriends.