𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗔𝗕𝗬 𝗔𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗚𝗘𝗥𝗦

chapter xvi.

Loki awoke in the early hours of the morning to Tony frantically shaking him. His thoughts were scattered from sleep as he managed to regard his boyfriend with a bleary gaze. Although the remains of sleep still made his eyelids heavy, one glance at Tony made his heart drop in his chest. The usual spark behind Tony's eyes had grown out of control. It was a wildfire.

"You've found it, haven't you?"

He should feel happy, he knew. This was what Tony had been working so relentlessly to achieve. While Loki had been desperate to remain stuck in the little world they had created, the safe space that they had carved for themselves, the genius had been in pain every day, missing his family. Loki had been stupid to think that, in their own way, they had one now.

Tony nodded his head frantically, presenting him with a small black box. With shaking, slender fingers, Loki took it from him and undid the silver buckles. Pulling back the lid revealed five syringes. The liquid inside looked remarkably uneventful, no neon colours or glowing substances, just a clear colour. They looked so normal, yet they were about to change everything. As much as most of him wished that things could remain the same, he had also been fighting for this. The chance that this would give him to see his brother again, to apologise for what he had done and finally allow himself the happiness that he had convinced himself that he did not deserve. Within himself, he managed to find a small smile, as he softly closed the lid of the box with a snap. Reaching out with one arm, he tangled his fingers into the material of Tony's shirt and pulled him down for a kiss. "Genius." The word was often thrown around in regards to Tony Stark, often by the man himself, but he said it with so much warmth and weight that it was undeniable that he meant it.

The other man melted into his touch, whereas before he had been almost vibrating, most certainly having been up for the last forty-eight hours or more. "Do we do it now?" All the time that had been leading to this moment caused even the usually reckless billionaire to hesitate. Loki simply tugged him down onto the mattress in an attempt to convince him to rest. A glance at the clock revealed that there were only a couple of hours before the kids would wake them up anyway. "Maybe," the God's tone was laced with caution, as he wondered whether or not he should reveal his inner turmoil about the Avengers reverting to their adult selves, "we should have one more day? I know that you want them back more than anything, but once they do, everything's going to change." The future of their relationships was uncertain. It seemed obvious to Loki that they would be instantly distrustful of him in a best case scenario, and be convinced that he had worked some sort of magic on Tony and physically coerce him into 'reversing it' in the worst case.

"Yeah." He felt a wave of relief wash over him when Tony agreed, "It'll be nice to have just one more day. But I promise you, whatever happens after we get the team back, we'll face it together, okay?"

Loki found Tony's rough hand with his own and linked them together as the genius' breathing finally evened and his eyes shuttered closed, truly exhausted at last.

When the morning arrived, the melancholy tone of the night had set with the stars, and the two men seemed more determined to enjoy the merits of their last day with the children rather than dwell on their anxieties about the future. After showering and getting dressed, they made their way into the kitchen to begin preparing breakfast. They decided to attempt pancakes in honour of the special occasion, and as soon as the scent began to emerge from the kitchen, the children didn't take long to seek out the source.

Clint was the first to emerge from his (disorderly) bedroom, but Steve was a surprisingly close second, almost shyly admitting that the food looked wonderful to Tony. The God began serving up pancakes to the children who slowly but surely trickled into the room. He watched affectionately as Thor dumped a river worth's syrup over his own stack before digging in enthusiastically. Perhaps he wasn't too different from his adult counterpart after all. Once they were finished, Tony clapped his hands together in the way he often did to gather their attention.