“You Midgardians truly do have a number of celebrations, don’t you?” questioned Loki, turning off the oven.
Tony looked up from where he was using a pump to blow up several balloons - no Arc Reactor did not, unfortunately, mean that his lung capacity was back to normal, and balloons were more of a normal lung capacity person's game. “What do you mean?”
Loki turned to face him, a raised eyebrow. “Since I have been here you have celebrated either with everyone or just with me and Amaya: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Mother’s day - and thank you for the card, by the way - and now you and Amaya's birthdays. You celebrate a lot of things.”
“There is also Independence Day, Labour Day and Halloween, but true, I guess. Why? Don’t you guys celebrate things as well?”
“Not at such a scale. There is Yule, which the entirety of Asgard celebrates together on the day of the Winter Solstice. And the Midsummer, on the day of the Summer Solstice. Nothing else,” he explained, with a shrug.
Tony was a little surprised. “What about your birthdays?”
Loki just blinked back at him, confused. “What about them?”
“You don’t celebrate them?” clarified Tony.
“It would grow tedious, to celebrate every year for over 5 millennia, don’t you think?” He pointed out and right.
Sometimes, it was hard to think that Loki was a lot older than Tony was. He just looked like he was in early thirties, but that wasn’t his real age. He was like over one thousands year old, and nowhere near half of how old he could grow.
And Tony had never actually asked how age in Asgard worked, but there was a chance Amaya too would end up growing old the same way Loki did. She was growing up at a pretty normal rate for the time being, but she could also turn blue like Loki. Which meant the alien genes had to be dominating.
Even if she couldn’t grow quite as old as Loki, she’d definitely outlive Tony by a long shot.
Tony was lucky if he managed to drag his ass 50 years more. And what were 50 years, for someone like Loki, who was basically immortal?
Loki might be the love of his life - it was cheesy, but it was also very true - but that might not be the same him. Eventually Tony would be gone, and just become a fond memory to Loki.
“Anthony?” called Loki, and Tony immediately forced himself to smile again.
It wasn’t hard, when he was looking at Loki. “Sorry, was just thinking. But yeah, we Midgardians do celebrate them. Normally each person gets to celebrate their own, but me and Amaya’s birthday are literally 3 days apart, so we just celebrate it together.”
Her first birthday was held separately, when they were still living in California. But Tony was no longer really on the party scene, considering Iron Man and the fact that back then he was pretty much a single dad, so his birthday ended up becoming a footnote or a prelude to Amaya's.
Since this was his 40th, Rhodey had asked him if he wanted to throw something more extravagant, but Tony was not really interested in a bunch of people he did not really even like showing up and giving him gifts he did not like or want. He'd rather spend it with his family, as cheesy as that sounded.
“Four years of age,” said Loki with a sigh, staring at the cake still sitting in the oven. “And yet this is my very first time being around for one.”
Technically, the second. But Loki had basically fled Amaya’s third birthday party, and he hadn't even been physically there, so Tony guessed it did not really count.
“First time, but definitely won’t be the last,” he told him, bumping their shoulders together.
Loki offered him a smile nodding slightly before pulling out a perfect looking cake from the oven. Tony was very impressed, and a little suspicious. “You used magic, didn’t you?”
“As if,” scoffed the other. “Your Midgardian pastries are absolutely nothing to my natural talents. All I had to do was follow the recipe and recreate what they had made.”
“It’s not fair,” whined Tony, which made Loki’s smug grin grow. “You can’t be good at this too. Cooking things perfectly and destroying people’s expectations since everyone assumes I can't cook is my thing. You can’t steal my thing, Lokes.”
“Don’t be a baby,” scolded him Loki, still smirking like the annoying asshole he was. “And instead go wake the baby. I’ll finish filling these... things with air.”
“Balloons,” informed him Tony, before going towards Amaya’s room to wake her up.
Amaya was surprisingly still asleep, and Tony took a second to watch her.
Would she even remember him, when he was gone? Would Loki remind her of him?
Or would he just fade from both of their memories, as if he was never there?
50 years. 60, maximum.
And that was if being Iron Man did not kill him before natural death had a chance to. If he did not end up dying during some random battle.
But he couldn’t stop being Iron Man, not yet. Not when what he was doing kept Amaya safe. Not when he knew that the Mad Titan would turn up again, because of those annoying Infinity Stones. Not when Loki was still, technically, in danger of his retribution (Loki was pretty good at waking himself, but Tony had witnessed some of his nightmares. It was not pretty, and it made him want to suit up, open up that wormhole again and kick that big grape's ass).
He had to keep fighting, for the time being.
“Should I start slowly increasing the lights in the room?” questioned JARVIS, volume low.
At least, JARVIS wouldn’t be alone when Tony ended up dying. His AI was technically as immortal as Loki was. At least he’d have Loki and Amaya when Tony was finally gone.
“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat a little. He needed to stop with the sadness. For now, there was a birthday to celebrate. Two birthdays. “Go ahead, J.”
+++
Whatever sadness had taken over Anthony’s mood promptly disappeared by the time Amaya woke up; and by the time everyone arrived to celebrate, it was completely forgotten.
“Oh my god, Loki, did you make this?” asked May, staring at the cake in Loki's hands with wide eyes. “It’s gorgeous.”
He preened slightly. “Thank you. Amaya really loves Elsa from Frozen, so I thought why not attempt it, at least.” Anthony found the irony of her loving the princess with ice powers hilarious. Loki might have teared up slightly when they had watched the movie together the week before. But give him a break!
She was shunned by her people because of her magic. That hit way too close to home.
“It’s so pretty!” said Ashley, eyes shining. “Can you make me one for my birthday, Uncle Loki?”
Loki nearly crashed against the table at her words. He looked up a little wildly, half expecting Evelyn to tell her that Loki was not her uncle, but all he got was a shrug from the other woman.
Anthony just looked terribly amused from where he stood.
Ashley kept looking at him hopefully, unaware of what emotions her words had stirred within him, and finally Loki smiled albeit slightly nervously. “But of course, Ashley. Whatever princess you want.”
“Yay!” cheered the girl, as Amaya returned into the room, holding hands with Pepper.
“Yes! Princess Elsa cake!” cheered the young girl, letting go of her Aunt and rushing towards the table. “Come on, daddy, we need to blow the candles!”
“Coming, coming,” said Anthony, picking her up in his arms.
For the event, James had brought two sets of candle. One was a singular one in the same blue as Elsa's dress with the number '4' on it. The other was a novelty piece in white with the words 'old' on it, which had immediately made Anthony and James argue since, apparently, Anthony was 'two years younger than you, Platipus, so if I'm old, what does that make you?'.
They stopped near the cake and then everyone started singing in a strangely haunting chorus.
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, Tony and Amaya, happy birthday to you!”
Loki couldn’t help feel a little unsettled, watching the Midgardians. All of them in a semi circle around the table, chanting repetitive lyrics over a cake with two flames on it, as Amaya and Anthony stood in the middle, facing said candles. It was a little creepy, to be quite frank.
But Amaya and Anthony blew out the candles at the same time, and everyone started cheering, so Loki promptly cheered along with them.
"Okay, now you got to make a wish!" called out Peter.
"I know!" shouted Amaya, excited. "I wish that Uncle Billy and Uncle Blindi get out of the ice mirror soon and come meet us!"
Loki's eyes widened without his consent, even as he tried to cover it up with a little laugh.
Amaya had taken a real shining to Býleistr and Helblindi, though she seemed unable as of yet to call them by their real names. And while Loki had mentioned to them about having three siblings (whatever his feelings might be for Thor, a lot of stories about his childhood that he had shared starred him), the ice mirror thing was not something Amaya should be sharing with them.
"You and your imagination," joked Anthony, shaking his head fondly though Loki could feel the slight anxiety.
Evelyn blinked. "Oh, we're all still pretending that we don't know that Loki is definitely an alien and related to the dude with the hammer from the Invasion?" she asked, quite innocently at that.
Anthony choked on his tongue, while Loki's eye twitched slightly. "I beg your pardon?"
May shrugged, both her and Ben looking amused at the slight panic in Anthony and Loki's faces. "Your name is Loki, like the Norse god. You have a brother called Thor, like the other Norse God who helped save New York during the invasion. Your surname is Friggasen, and your mother's name is Frigga. In the old language Frigga-sen literally means son of Frigga. And Thor goes by Odinson, which is 'son of Odin'. You stated several times that you have a bad relationship with your adoptive father, Odin. Also, I was, and kind of still am, Amaya's primary physician. She literally turns blue in the cold, and considering the years we've had, alien is the first answer."
Evelyn snickered at Loki's shocked expression. "Also, Loki, babe. I may not be an expert on people being genderfluid, but I'm pretty sure humans don't just develop boobs and literally change bone structure slightly when they go from one gender to another."
"But..." started Loki, feeling both confused and a little faint.
Ben took pity on him. "It's your secret identity, we just were waiting for you to feel comfortable enough to share it," he said, giving a pointed look at Evelyn.
The woman shrugged. "I mean, it's always funny to watch you and Tony scramble to find an excuse when Amaya says stuff like call you Royalty or talk about magic, but it was getting old."
Anthony looked over at Harold, Pepper and James who were just laughing. "And how long have you known that they knew?"
James snorted. "They came to us first, to share their 'suspicions'. I didn't know May knew about Amaya till now, though."
May shrugged. "At first I was freaked out, and worried. But Amaya was a baby and she was lovely, and I saw how much you loved her, and there was no reason to bring it up, since you clearly already knew it, considering how you always bundled her up during the winter if we were around." Then she smiled over at Loki. "And before you start freaking out, no, we're not mad that you did not feel you could tell us, considering you've known us for like 8 months now. We were hoping to wait for you to tell us, but Evie can't keep her mouth shut."
"You guys are so odd," managed Loki, staring at them in utter befuddlement, though his heart felt already lighter. He had been thinking about telling them eventually, but he had been worried about their reactions. And now he found that they had known all along.
"We take it as a compliment," said Evelyn, winking at Loki. "Now, cake time!"
Yes, thought Loki, as he watched over at where the children had moved over to the presents pile and were 'helping' Amaya unbox each of her presents.
Midgardians were truly odd.