Perfectly Suited

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony Stark was too old to play games. Every time he ran hot and cold with his partner was never a calculated power play so much as a deeply embedded habit built around mitigating whatever anxiety he’d built up. Even the old days full of ninja crawling out of bed just to avoid the morning after spiel were motivated by the intimidation (in part) of having them at all.

He’d gotten better at that part, though. Far better. Tony was curled up on the side of the long-suffering pink couch that wasn’t bearing a warped arm rest caused by some make-up rapporto sessuale from earlier in the evening, followed by a shower and the ceremonial poptart.

“You know—“ Tony brushed off some crumbs from his dark sweater, “You are terrible for my diet.”

Comments

[st_ormbreaker]

"The diet where you eat very little or the diet where you don't eat anything at all?" Thor asks, chomping away on his second Pop Tart. If he had any shame at all, he might have been ashamed to admit that Pop Tarts were easily in the top five things he missed while he was away from Earth.

But Thor was born shameless and would probably die shameless.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony nibbled the plain breading around the edge, not even broaching the pink frosting. "I've been putting the weight back on." He licked a bit of the jam filling with a frown.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor swallows, then shoots Tony a curious look.

"Why the sudden change of heart?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Just thinking about the future. As always." Tony leaned over, picking up Thor's discarded tee from the floor and tossing it at the man. "Like that. Put it on, you'll catch cold."

[st_ormbreaker]

"I don't get colds," Thor says, somewhat indignantly. "Or cold. Not like you." Tony was a human icebox.

Still, he pops the rest of his Pop Tart in his mouth and pulls the shirt on, chomping away all the while.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony pulled the loose sweater over his knees and simply smiled a little momentary smile. It felt good to be back in the oppressively cheery room. He felt like he was home.

"So. Uh. I'm sober. Just making that clear." He balanced the uneven pastry on the tip of his finger. "We still doing this? Plighting our troth."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor smiles at Tony's admission. He crinkles the foil packaging into a ball and launches it into the trash can. It easily lands in its target. More practice for his basketball practice with Rogers.

"Is someone getting cold feet already?" he asks, turning his full attention to Tony.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Not metaphorically. Not even literally." Tony wiggled his toes from within their thick, woolly confines. "I want this. And I want it with you."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor smiles. It was rare that Thor found himself feeling embarrassed at all, let alone happy-embarrassed; he thought he had cast off the emotion years ago. Somehow Tony managed to dredge those old, unfamiliar feelings up with ease that might have made him uncomfortable had they not been so close.

"Should we discuss it, then? I've been to a Midgardian wedding before. They're not anything like the weddings we have back home."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Like who we want there? For starters." Tony broke off a small piece of the frosted bit with his teeth, rolling it around in his mouth to let the sugar melt. "Loki's your Best Man, you've said that much."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor watches as Tony doesn't quite eat his food and wonders how he can possibly exhibit that much self control. It took two minutes for Thor to wolf down just as many Pop Tarts.

"Peter and Valkyrie, obviously. Jane, Clarice, Corbie, Quill." A beat, and then:

"Are Alec and Rogers okay?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Yes. And yes." Tony shrugged. He didn't have it in him to stick to some kind of script about this affair when they were clearly going to make it up as they went along. "I'd add Liz, Annie, Kitty, and Xavin on my end." There had certainly been other friendly faces during his stay, but those accounted for the ongoing ones.

"I mean...I'm not exactly feeling exclusivity, either." Tony rubbed the back of his neck, getting at some lingering tension. "Frame it as an open thing, maybe. Whoever wants to opt in for some easy eats can. The people we know would stick around for the ceremony anyway."

[st_ormbreaker]

"When were we looking to do this?" Thor asks at the mention of easy eats. "I need to find a goat before then. Pretty sure I saw some over by the mountains the last time I was out that way, but it's been awhile since I've been out there."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony gave Thor a blank look before it hit.

"No."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor's confusing is palpable.

"You don't like goat?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony freed his legs from his sweater, laying them over Thor's lap authoritatively. "I'd prefer the ceremony be light on animal sacrifice."

[st_ormbreaker]

"How about just for eating later?"

It's at least worth a shot, right? He was willing to give up the ritual goat slaughtering, but it would be nice to have goat to feast upon.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“As long as you don’t process it in front of the guests.” Tony prodded Thor in the cheek with his clothed toe.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor reaches for Tony's toes and gives them a squeeze.

"I think I can agree to that," he says, setting Tony's socked foot free. "There's still the issue of the swords, though..."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Please, go on." Tony lifted his foot again, laying his ankle over the back of Thor's neck.

[st_ormbreaker]

"Normally, you'd have to go into the grave of one of your ancestors and retrieve a sworwd that had been buried with them, but that's not really an option here."

Here as in "here at the inn", but also here as in "in this particular situation". Even if they weren't trapped here, Thor somehow doubted that his father had been buried with a sword for this particular purpose. And with Asgard gone, he couldn't exactly retrieve a weapon from Bor's grave for this purpose.

"Normally, you'd wear it during the ceremony, then gift it to your partner. There's this whole wring ceremony, too, where you have the rings balanced on the hilt of the sword." Thor waves a hand. "All standard stuff. The best part of the sword thing is when they stab the ceiling."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony rolled his heel over the back of Thor's shoulders as he spoke, oddly fascinated by the explanation. It was certainly expected.

"If you want to stab the architecture I'll look the other way."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor shifts his shoulder, using Tony's heel as a scratcher to get at an itch.

"You sure you don't want to do it? It may be your only opportunity to stab a ceiling legitimately."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony followed Thor's bodily cues, moving his leg a little more vigorously to get hit the right spot. "We'll stab the ceiling together. How's that?"

[st_ormbreaker]

"Mmm," Thor says in affirmation as Tony's heel does indeed hit the right spot. "The further the sword sinks into the ceiling, the more enduring the union," he informs Tony.