Chapter Text
It was snowing.
Not the horrible kind of sleet-ice-mush that soaks you through and makes you shiver, nor the tiniest little flurries that you can barely see anyway. It was a snowglobe-like snow. Peaceful. Beautiful.
Cozy.
Tony was on the couch, limbs entangled with Loki’s, drowsily gazing out the wall-size picture window of his cabin. Loki was still dozing, his soft breathing brushing over Tony’s neck as they lay under the blanket.
Loki had been away for the better part of the year. Tony knew he was busy, but he’d missed the man, and couldn’t quite contain his excitement when Loki had shown up just a few days before Christmas, promising to stay for a while. He never used his vacation cabin – never felt the need to, as being alone with himself and nothing to do wasn’t something that particularly interested him – but it hadn’t taken much to convince Loki to come here with him, away from the world.
Tony didn’t like Loki being away and busy, but Loki didn’t like Tony being present but busy, so Loki had jumped at the chance. “I didn’t spend all that time away just to come back to you and be ignored,” Loki had claimed indignantly. He clearly meant it to be rude, but Tony couldn’t help noticing the words “come back to you”. Loki had come back for Tony, specifically, and that was worth a good bit of time away from the workshop, and the tower, and… well, life in general, he supposed.
He didn’t reflect too much on what it meant that he was pretty sure nobody else in the universe would have been able to talk him into coming here, let alone for an undefined length of time, yet Loki’s presence made him positively jump at the chance. No need to give it too much thought. It was much more fun, their relationship, without thinking too hard about any of it.
Tony gave a small, contented sigh, gently squeezing Loki’s arm against him where he held it. He wasn’t sure how long they’d been asleep, but the movie was over, the TV off and the outside far darker than he remembered it being when his eyes last opened.
It was strangely freeing to realize it didn’t matter how long they’d been sleeping. So far they’d slept when they wanted, ate when they wanted, and just generally didn’t pay attention to a schedule. Mostly it had been sleeping; Loki had been extremely tired when he showed up just a couple of days ago, and Tony couldn’t deny he’d been pushing himself too hard as usual. And lying on a couch in Loki’s arms, away from the world, listening to the fireplace roar… well, he didn’t have much reason to want to fight his body’s desire to sleep, too.
Curiosity got the better of him and he pulled his hand free of the blanket, glancing at his watch. 10:47. So it had only been a few hours since they’d eaten and settled down to watch that movie. It was still Christmas Eve.
At that, Tony couldn’t help but smile a little to himself. A year ago tonight – almost the same time – he’d (literally) bumped into Loki, walking the streets of New York. And changed his life.
There was still plenty to do. Plenty to worry about. Plenty to scare the absolute fuck out of him. But he wasn’t alone – even when Loki spent so much time away, it hadn’t felt as lonely – and that made a hell of a difference in itself.
Tony felt Loki shift, taking a deep breath and sighing it out as he seemed to wake.
“Tony,” he breathed softly, and Tony still couldn’t quite get over the warm feeling that spread through him when Loki said his name. Like it was personal, like he mattered.
“Hey,” Tony breathed back, squeezing Loki’s arm gently again. “Think we fell asleep again.”
“Mmm,” Loki acknowledged, burrowing his face into Tony’s shoulder and pressing a kiss to his neck. “You’re comfortable. Can’t help it.” Tony grinned. He made Loki comfortable.
“No complaints here,” Tony agreed, finding one of Loki’s hands and bringing it to his lips to brush a kiss to it.
“Time is it?” Loki murmured.
“Close to eleven,” Tony answered. “Still Christmas Eve.”
“Ahh,” Loki replied, and it was a pleased sigh of a word. “A year to the moment, nearly.” He squeezed Tony to him. “The moment when your flailing arms interrupted my walk.” Tony heard the smile in his voice.
“The moment when you literally ran into me,” Tony corrected with a chuckle. “That was not my fault, Lokes.”
“I can think of better things to do than argue with you when you’re clearly wrong,” Loki said, his predatory grin evident in his voice without Tony even having to turn and see it.
He really got away with too much with that grin.
“Then by all means,” Tony said, turning over to kiss Loki properly.