Still Holding On

Chapter 48

"Well, that went well, didn't it?" Tony says with a grin.

Loki smiles back. "It did go well," he says. "It was nice to see him again — and nice to have spaghetti again as well."

Tony huffs a laugh. At least he knows that Loki's easy to impress when it comes to food. He'll have to make sure to keep some spaghetti around for a bad day. "Well, it's still a little early to go to bed, so now what should we do?"

"I don't know," Loki muses. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Not really," Tony admits. "We could watch TV." That tends to be his go-to idea. It's boring, but it works.

"Do you have another movie to show me?" Loki asks him. "I think I'd like that."

"I'm sure we can find one," Tony says. He's got the whole internet at his disposal. If nothing else, JARVIS should have a suggestion for the night. "You want to watch in the living room or the bedroom?"

"That depends on whether this is a movie I can fall asleep during," Loki says, a slight smile on his lips. "I'd hate to fall asleep in the midst of the action."

"Want me to pick a boring movie?" Tony offers, half-joking.

"Maybe a somewhat boring movie," Loki replies, the same lighthearted tone to his answer. "But not too boring. Just a little boring."

"Just a skosh boring?" Tony asks teasingly.

"Just a skosh," Loki agrees.

Tony chuckles. "I think we can manage that."

With that settled, they head off to the bedroom. It really does seem too early to crawl into bed, but he can't complain. He likes lying in bed with Loki snuggled up to him. He doesn't even care how weird and not him that sounds. He just wants to have his Loki time.

Unfortunately, they've barely made it to their shared bedroom when Tony's phone rings. He scowls and pulls it out of his back pocket. Natasha Romanoff lights up his phone screen. That's either something he really wants to ignore or something he really can't afford to, and, as much as he hates to do it, it's probably better safe than sorry.

"Hey, I gotta take this," Tony says. "I'll be right back."

Loki doesn't seem all too bothered by that. "I'll be here." He gives his friend a small smile, a subtle reassurance that it's alright.

So, as Loki gets all settled in, Tony slips out of the room. He heads down the hall, and only when he knows it's about to go to voicemail does he finally stop and answer it.

"Natalia," Tony greets her, a sarcastic lilt to his voice.

"Hey, Anthony Edward Stark," Natasha replies, the same sarcasm in her own tone.

There's a quiet chuckling in the background — which is ridiculous. Edward is not a funny middle name. It is actually a very normal, very respectable middle name.

"Alright," Tony deadpans, "who's the laugh track you got with you?"

"Barton," she answers.

"I would've called you myself," Clint adds, "but you ditched our team shawarma date before I could get your number."

Tony rolls his eyes. "Okay, first of all, we're not a team," he says. They worked together once. That doesn't make them a team. "And you could've just gotten my number from Romanoff."

"And would you have picked up if you didn't know who it was?" Clint asks skeptically.

Tony blinks at that.