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The next morning is calm when Tony wakes far too early. He’s painfully aware of how much there is to do, how many arrangements and phone calls and meetings he’s going to have to handle in response to this newest attack on the city and how little sleep he’s gotten. There’s a good chance he won’t be able to talk to Loki all day, won’t be able to have a real, sit-down discussion with him for even longer, and isn’t that ironic that Loki finally comes back and Tony is the one who has to disappear?
But right now, when the guest bedroom they’re sleeping in because Tony’s room has two blown-in windows is warm with the light of a recently risen sun, it’s easy to take a moment to breathe, to pretend he doesn’t have a laundry list of work and just enjoy the view.
He vaguely remembers stumbling into this room last night well after midnight to faceplant into the soft embrace of the bedding with a moan of gratitude. He’d fallen asleep almost instantly after that, but not before shooting Loki a tired smile as he followed him into bed, stripping himself of layers upon layers of armor and leather to a simple undershirt with no more than a thought as he’d stretched out at Tony’s side.
It had made him smile, the fact that Loki hadn’t even hesitated, that he hadn’t thought he needed to ask permission for that simple thing. But the best part is that Loki is still here now, dark hair spreading out around his head on the pillow and body relaxed under the sheets.
There aren't any rules to how and when they can touch anymore. Loki is still likely to disappear on him, to insult him and pinch him and cast unasked-for magic on him. But he wouldn't be Loki if he didn’t. There's no such thing as taming someone like him and even though Tony has his attention now, he has no illusions about the fact that Loki will endure for centuries after he's gone.
Tony takes his time looking, drinking up the sight of him to make up for all the lost time when he'd had to wait for days or weeks between visits and all the times Loki never stayed after sex or every time he turned around to find Loki missing. At first, he's worried Loki will wake and murmur some insult or reprimand to ruin the moment. But he doesn't, not even when Tony gets up hours later and not for the sound of the shower or when Tony comes back from the brunch that Steve makes for the whole team.
He sleeps for almost three days straight, but so does Thor, so Tony tries not to worry too much. The whole team spends those days picking up the pieces. They sweep the tower and Tony brings in workers to fix all the broken things. They pick a few interviews and a few talk shows for a little good press and to explain exactly what the hell just happened, or at least as much of it as the public really needs to know. Tony is used to this media gauntlet and the others are learning fast, but it’s a drain on their time and energy all the same.
Tony starts to feel like every spare moment he has in between all these things is filled with questions and answers and arguments as he tries to convince the others to let Loki stay. He doesn’t have Thor to back him up, but it’s probably for the best that Loki doesn’t participate. Several comparisons to housepets are made and Tony really doesn’t think Loki would have appreciated that. There’s even one day where the words that fall out of Tony’s mouth are too cruel, even for him, and that night he buys them all dinner from his favorite expensive sushi restaurant out of guilt.
The morning of the fourth day, Tony pauses before climbing out of bed to watch Loki sleep for a few moments more. He’s had a lot of time to do that lately and somehow it still feels like the sappiest kind of novelty he’d never admit to liking as much as he does. But there’s no one around to tell except for JARVIS and JARVIS wouldn’t betray him like that.
He tugs on the covers gently to pull them lower, peeling back the sheets as gently as he can to reveal the rest of Loki’s face and part of his shoulder. Tony almost thinks he got away with it too, at least until Loki stirs under his touch and opens his eyes.
He smiles a tiny, lazy smile up at Tony, annoyed to be woken so soon. But it’s so difficult to begrudge Tony the interruption of his sleep when he looks so handsome and affectionate like that. It's not the pressed and combed and artfully ruffled look that Tony pulls off so well; it's something more honest than that. There's unshaven stubble on his jaw and wrinkles in his t-shirt and an honest grin on his face.
"What are you so pleased about?” Loki murmurs softly without moving an inch.
"I've never seen you wake up before," Tony says and knows it probably doesn’t make that much sense.
Loki huffs a soft noise that probably would have been a mocking laugh if he was fully awake, but falls somewhere closer to affectionate now.
"I should have known you'd be a romantic,” he says, shifting and stretching out all of his limbs as he rolls onto his back and sits up slowly.
“Yeah, you probably should’ve. Not much you can do about it now, though,” Tony chuckles, leaning back against the headboard and his pile of pillows. He reaches out to brush knuckles along the curve of Loki’s back because it’s right there within reach and because he can.
Then Loki shifts and leans over to kiss him, slow and deep and thorough as if simply saying “good morning” is too mundane an act for Loki to bother with it.
"Are you going to get up now?” Tony asks against his lips when they break apart just enough for a breath.
"No, I don’t think I will.”
"Lazy."
"Be quiet," Loki says, biting at his lip just hard enough to sting before shifting away to lie down again.
"Thor and I haven't slept more than a handful of hours in the last two and a half weeks,” he explains sleepily from where he’s positioned with eyes closed right next to Tony’s hip.
"How are you not dead on your feet? Can all Asgardians go that long without sleep?" Tony asks eagerly, brushing stray hair away from Loki’s face.
"I’m not Aesir," Loki mutters with a sigh. There's still a deeply ingrained part of him that expects Tony to flinch at the reminder of his heritage, but Tony doesn't do any such thing. He seems more interested in the biology of Aesir and Jotun alike and how they're capable of going without sleep, food and water for much longer periods than humans.
“That wasn’t an answer,” Tony reminds him after a beat.
"Of course. We're superior to mortals in every way," Loki sighs tolerantly. Tony laughs, a relaxed, cheerful sound and utterly fails to rise to the argument.
"Where are you going?" Loki asks without opening his eyes when Tony moves to get out of bed a little while later.
"A meeting. You know, for that company I own?" Tony says, quirking a smile.
"Stay."
"I have to go. It won’t just be Pepper on my case if I miss it,” Tony says, but hesitates anyway.
"Stay,” Loki commands firmly. He’s certain that no real harm will come of it if Tony does miss his meeting. Some angry men and women are worth far less than the fact that Loki wants to keep him here, wrap him up in his arms and not let go.
“I can’t believe you,” Tony says, but by then he’s already given in and is moving back to his old position against the headboard. Once he’s settled, Loki is the one that moves, placing his head in Tony’s lap to make sure that he stays right where he is.
“Isn’t there a saying here on Midgard? Something about age and wisdom? You should trust me,” Loki murmurs, lips quirking deviously.
“I don’t trust you any further than I can throw you,” Tony replies fondly.
“Glad to see you haven’t lost your intelligence while I was away after all. I was concerned that you had, considering what you were doing when I arrived,” Loki replies and presses into the fingers that start carding gently through his hair.
"How old are you anyway?" Tony asks, choosing to ignore Loki’s jab at his last-ditch, desperate attempt to do something good.
"Much older than you."
"I was looking for more of a numerical answer,” Tony prods.
"You do remember that Asgardian time does not move in the same way that Midgardian time does? I can't give you a number, but I am at least several thousand years old by your clock,” Loki tells him, feeling utterly boneless and relaxed.
"I figured it was something like that. Still, nothing like a several thousand year old god to make you feel young,” Tony laughs.
"And you?"
"Forty-four."
Loki sighs deeply before saying, "Positively a child.”
"Hey, I’m a consenting adult. I can buy alcohol and pay taxes and everything,” Tony teases in return.
"What age are you likely to reach?" Loki murmurs, finally opening his eyes to look up at Tony above him again.
"Maybe eighty? Ninety? Assuming being a superhero doesn't kill be first," Tony shrugs carelessly. He’s not quite prepared for the way that Loki sits up in a rush and turns on him, leaning right into his personal space with a deep-set frown.
"That short?" he demands.
"I thought you knew this,” Tony says carefully, searching Loki’s face with concern.
"I know mortal lives end in less than the space of a heartbeat, but I didn't realize they were that short,” Loki says and that’s when Tony realizes what emotion it is that he hears lacing Loki’s voice.
"You're upset,” he says wonderingly.
"Of course I am,” Loki very nearly snaps back.
"It'll be fine,” he tries and lets his head fall back against the headboard when Loki crowds even closer.
"No, it will not be fine. You’ll be dead and what then?” Loki questions with a hard edge to his voice.
"You'll find someone else,” Tony assures him, trying to smile and knowing it comes out a little less genuine than he’d like.
"I very much doubt it,” Loki replies. He doesn't say he's never been in love, doesn't say that Tony in the first and could very well be the last when so much of the rest of the universe is suspicious and predictable and dull. He doesn't say that Tony is the only one of his kind that Loki has ever encountered and that’s all the more reason that Loki simply can’t afford to lose him to an injury or an accident and now, apparently, to his imminent old age as well.
“You’re mine,” he says more quietly and only just manages to not look away, to not show his weakness, not in this.
"Loki," Tony says and then again when it doesn't work: "Loki."
Finally, Loki pauses and seems to really, actually look at him instead of through him, all that sharp focus waiting for what comes next.
"I can't promise you a year from now, or even a month from now. Worrying about something half a lifetime away is just—" He doesn't know how to end that sentence, not in the slightest, but Loki nods and lets out a slow breath and leans into the hand that Tony presses to his cheek.
Sure, Tony thinks, they’ve known each other for a while now. They’ve talked for hours upon hours and had sex and maybe saved the world together. But really, they’re nearly strangers, still so new with so very much uncharted territory between them. He wants to promise Loki the world just to see him relax, to promise him a lifetime to help him fight against the horrible, bone-deep loneliness that lurks in his heart. But Tony can’t, now right now. Maybe someday, he thinks, maybe someday he’ll be able to make that promise and mean it with everything that he is.
But until then, Loki is here in front of him, real, solid, visible and apparently intent on sticking around, and Tony intends to keep it that way for as long as he can.