Traditionals

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The interior of Tony's lair had seen a few makeovers as of recent. Wherever he'd set up his workspace had been the most intimate space possible--a macrocosm of his mental world where everything was happening at once, decipherable to only him. However, the space had undergone a shift ever since he opened it up to the littler ones. He suddenly found himself having to make the space accessible to other people. Inviting, even. It was...exhausting.

And this next venture was, too. But the exhaustion brought the promise of reward. It always did.

Tony lounged on the sofa (the one piece of the room he still had the most affection for) as he awaited Thor's knock. He nursed a cup of warm rum as he lounged about in a robe, having indulged in the longest bath in ages. The snow was exciting, but it sucked the life out of him.

Comments

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor leans down and presses his lips against the arc reactor. When he straightens, he reaches for Tony's hand and holds it tightly for a moment before eventually letting it go.

"I will carry you with me for as long as the universe permits me to."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The arc reactor wasn't sensitive to touch, but the rest of him reacted as if it was--perhaps even more than if Thor had simply kissed him anywhere else. Of everywhere he'd been touched, his chest was treated as off-limits (or a distraction). If Tony was ever given to blushing, he might have started and then thanked the dark it wasn't visible, brushing a few fingers over his chest.

"Good. It suits you."

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'd be worried if it didn't," Thor says. "I've been wearing capes since I was 12, 14 years old."

That was a really long time to be a walking fashion faux pas.

"It's good to have one again."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony gave it one brooch a firm pat, watching the nanites recede back into their silver housing units. "No AI interface, so it takes a touch." Tony shrugged apologetically. "This one's been on the burner for...four months? At first it was a side project, but with Christmas rolling in..."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor presses his palm against one of the brooches, same as Tony, and the cape unfurls behind him again. He'd done it just to test the thing out, but now that he has, he thinks he'll keep the cape right where it is.

"I prefer simplicity," he says. "Probably doesn't explain why I'm in love with one of the most complex men the universe has ever known."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“It’s a Gemini thing.” Tony chirped glibly before relenting, his cool expression breaking into a momentary grin. Seeing Thor this pleased was all the gift he needed. “Thank my cute little nanites. They’re yours, now. Take care of them.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"I'll care for them as if they were my own children." Thor says, giving Tony a reassuring pat on the side of one arm. He turns and looks out at the horizon, feeling out the barometric pressure. Thor supposes if he were Midgardian, he'd probably make a decent weatherman.

He turns back to Tony. "You mind if I give a test drive?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"I'd be insulted if you didn't." Tony stepped back, summoning his glasses so as not to lose a moment of the visuals.

[st_ormbreaker]

"You might want to," Thor gestures vaguely, "put on the suit." After one womans' response to their fun little adventure in weather manipulation, he's giving himself only one go at it.

He needs to make it count.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Oh, it was going to be one of these. He should have seen it coming. Iron Man immediately stood where Tony did, backing up a few more steps. Ever since his run-in with Vanko, his suit was optimized for electrification-infliction, but no need to literally steal his husband's thunder.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor glances over his shoulder at Tony, verifying that he's transformed into the Man of Iron and grins.

"No tornado this time," he says, with a joy that some people might find disturbing. He's pretty sure he'd have more than just Regina chewing him out for that.

But one nice gust of wind? That would be okay, wouldn't it?

Thor claps his hands together and gives them a rub, then focuses. The air around them begins to shift; in the distance, thunder rumbles.

Then in one sudden burst, the wind races towards them. His cape audibly snaps out, and he can feel the weight of it against him pull at the muscles of his shoulders. As the wind dies down, it billows out in waves behind him.

Thor turns to face Tony, his cape still in motion. A grin erupts on his face.

"It's amazing!"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

"Naturally." Tony's cool voice projected over the roar of the God's symphony. "You plus me. Pure magic."

[st_ormbreaker]

The wind dies out completely and as quickly as it rose, his cape fell down behind him. Thor throws his arm over Tony's hard metal shoulder and plants a kiss to the side of his hard metal head.

"Magic," he pronounces, as if the word itself were a spell. "You ready to go back inside?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

The sight of Thor, his grin stretching from ear to ear, filled out in his cape like old times...he looked complete. it filled Tony to the brim.

“In a second.” The armor receded, leaving Tony in the flesh.

[st_ormbreaker]

There's something strangely relaxed about Tony tonight.

No, Tony didn't radiate misery all the time, but he did have an edge to him that Thor didn't remember being so pronounced back on Earth, save for perhaps during their heated argument over Ultron. Thor had found that slightly disconcerting immediately after their reunion, but he accepted that part of Tony as easily as the rest.

At first, he wondered if those two years apart had changed Tony the way that they had changed him, but there were times lately that he wondered if that part of Tony had always existed and he had failed to see it. It might have been as his father said -- even with two eyes, he had always seen only half the picture.

Strange that now with only one real one to call his own, the picture was becoming more clear.

Thor pulls Tony a little closer as he sheds his armor.

"If you have any more surprises, you'll have a hard time outdoing this one," he says, tapping one the brooches just lightly enough that it doesn't register as a full touch.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“I peaked.” Tony gazed up at Thor as he lingered against his front, his dark eyes oddly bright. “Unless you want to take me to bed. Leave your cape on.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor hums at Tony's proposition.

"Is there any way I can keep the cape on but take the shirt off?"

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony began working his hands up Thor’s front, tugging him towards the edge of the roof. “There is every way you want me.”

[st_ormbreaker]

"Is there?"

Thor allows himself to to be pulled along by Tony. He'd said it before, but there were few people in his life that he trusted enough to go with their flow without question. Tony had not always been one of them, but he was now.

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Right before Tony tipped off the edge, he held on to Thor and pulled himself back in for an honest hug. Kisses, stray hands, even the occasional tackle—but hugs were extraordinarily rare from Tony Stark.

“Stay like this.”

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor returns the hug, his arms tightly wound around Tony's body. He doesn't know the next time he will get one.

"I'll stay wherever you need me."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

Tony swayed against him, bouncing up to cup his cheeks to get drunk on the nostalgia of seeing Thor in a proper cape. It felt like--like home. Where he was meant to be. The way they were meant to be. There was an outpouring of overwhelming adoration from somewhere within him and it was all he could do to stand still.

[st_ormbreaker]

Tony's hands are cool against his cheeks. Thor presses his hands over them, holding Tony's hands in place and warming them up at the same time.

Thor gives them a quick squeeze and looks straight into Tony's large, glossy brown eyes.

"I love you."

[st_arkravinghazelnut]

“You complete me!” Tony tipped right back at his admission, falling back off the roof as his armor swept over him, taking off in flight to circle the inn.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor laughs, his shoulders shaking as he watches as Tony circles the inn; Thor spins, watching in amusement and appreciation as Tony moves fluidly through the night. The clouds he summoned from earlier have moved on or otherwise evaporated, leaving his partner on display against a dark blanket of stars.

That was one of the things Thor loved about this place. Far from any civilization to speak of, the stars in the night sky were almost as brilliant as they were when he traveled through space.