Affirm
He’s expected to move the next night. But he and Loki head out this night, suits in hand they wear upon exit, take off into the sky, land someways from site. Vacating their armors and contracting and hiding them, they survey the region pinpoint their entry. Loki’s magic guised them, they dealt with whomever could hinder, infiltrate swiftly the building, near the target room then as Tony makes his move unexpected company intervenes – They’re quick to hide, wedged between one of the servers and a corner wall, wedged against one another and Tony damns his luck for the need to sneeze, remnants of the stubborn cold he’s been battling all week!
Loki sees the signs, tells him: “Do it. They won’t hear.” Of its own volition Tony’s body complies, sneezing loud aside – alarms blare in his mind – quieted, by Loki’s fingers in his hair, rubbing circles at his nape. He tilts forward head resting to the god’s chest, ears tracing the guards converse that resumed as though indeed, they hadn’t heard him. Tony slackens relieved against Loki, wondering what in seven hells would he have done without him.
The door shuts as the guards leave but Tony doesn’t yet move and Loki doesn’t prompt him. Then registering once more their current disposition Tony’s mind urged forward so he squeezed out from the space, Loki behind him.
Wrapping up with the task the pair walk out easily and away. Their flight back’s filled with banter and adrenaline-fueled laughter, even when Jarvis warns him the others have found out.
They land near the bunker stumbling out of their suits grinning like children, resuming their discourse even as Tony’s arms cross tight from the cold the falling snow, that he wants to pluck from Loki’s soft hair. Who indicates the door but Tony’s head shakes. “What’s the rush? They’ll be on our asses the second we walk in. Headache.” Loki smiled, faced away,
the weaves of fabric black flashing into existence into his grasp, amazing Tony like always, draping this coat along his shoulders. And before the smith can process, he’s tucked into an embrace familiar and warm. He laughs from the shock, succumbing swiftly. “You’re a big sap, you know?” quips softly, arms rounding the god’s torso.
Promptly the cold’s thwarted, yet this way they remain for minutes several. That Tony knows,
no more is it trivial, dismissable. He feels for Loki in a way he has not felt for another in a way he hasn’t felt for her, for any other. He feels safe, and adored and understood, seen. His heart aches longing.
“Come on, let’s go,” Loki whispers as softly and his heart longs, as he retreats.
It longs as Loki brushes warm fleeting lips to his cheekbone. It longs as hands linked Loki walks him to the door and he wants to stop and tug and make meet their mouths in a kiss lasting, affirming.
They’re sooner inside, confronted by an audience disgruntled.