The Balance Between

Suit Decorating: Just Like Egg Decorating But Gayer

"You know, I could always snap my fingers and the suits would automatically be the matching colors," Loki brought up. Her arm was linked with Tony's as they strolled down the aisles of a fabric store, looking for the brightly colored fabric they'd need for everyone to make new suits. Sometimes she rested her head against his shoulder but that was mainly when they were stopped; walking made it difficult to remain comfortable. "Then we wouldn't have to worry about the fabric and we could do something else instead."

"It wouldn't be as fun," Tony remarked, his eyes scanning up and down the shelves to make sure they weren't skipping anything. Loki shrugged.

"True." Tony laughed and kissed her cheek.

"Dad!" Peter exclaimed as he rounded the corner, almost missing and falling in the process, and then came running down the aisle they were in. Tony and Loki stopped walking so they could turn and face Peter. He held about five bags of something in his hands. "Dad! I found glitter!" He held the bags up to proudly display them. Tony raised an eyebrow while Loki smiled and bit back a laugh. "Can we buy them and throw them at the crowds?" As he waited for an answer, Peter bounced up and down on the heels of his feet. Loki turned to face Tony, awaiting an answer as well. "Can we, can we, can we?"

Tony narrowed his eyes and went to sake his head when Loki said, "Well?" He looked to her, his eyes a bit wide. "Can we?" she asked. Tony, his mouth agape, looked between both Peter and Loki for a few moments before sighing and nodding.

"Alright. Fine," he allowed. "We can buy them." Peter and Loki started smiling brightly. "But how many you got there? Four? Five?" Peter shrugged and started to count them up. "Go make sure you have one for everyone. Aside for maybe Bruce." Loki raised an eyebrow. "He doesn't like crowds," he added, not even realizing he was answering Loki's unspoken question. "So, you should get. . ." Tony looked up at the ceiling as he counted. "Us is three. Bucky and Steve makes five. Sam and Thor makes seven. Clint and Pietro is nine. Wanda and Natasha is eleven," he mumbled under his breath. "Just get like fifteen," he said, growing agitated at his memory. Gods, for someone who's lived alone for a good chunk of his adult life, he certainly does have a lot of people living in his house now. Peter nodded enthusiastically before running back down the aisle and rounding the corner again. Tony watched him go, shaking his head in exasperation. "What are we going to do with that kid?" he muttered. Loki giggled and placed her free hand on Tony's arm.

"Love and cherish him for all of eternity." He looked to her and raised an eyebrow. She smiled before kissing his nose. "At least I will. You won't live for all of eternity." He gasped, his eyes wide. She smiled innocently at him before taking in a deep breath and looking back to the aisle. "Shall we continue?" she asked sweetly, trying her hardest not to let the pain seep into her voice. Not that it would matter anyway. Tony always had a way of knowing--cheeky bastard.

The passing of time is something Loki was painfully aware of now. She's been aware of it since she's fallen for Tony. While she lived on Asgard, a thousand years on Midgard seemed to happen in the blink of an eye to her. There was nothing there to keep her emotionally attached so she never seemed to mind as the Midgardians reproduced just in time for the oldest generation to die. To her, it was clock work. Just part of the normal schedule. She'd wake up, go down to breakfast and eat with her family, then head to lessons with her mother for a few hours, check in with Heimdall to find a few couple hundred Midgardians had since perished since the last time they spoke, and then go off for training. Nothing special. Now, she can feel the years pass within her. Can see it in everyone's faces as they grow a year older; it's subtle but there--and Tony looked the oldest. She's more aware of the sense of time the Midgardians don't seem to pay attention to; or feel--she isn't entirely sure. Though they've never touched upon it, Loki knows Thor can feel it too. She's seen the fear in his eyes as they celebrate everyone's birthdays; a reminder to her and Thor that their loved ones are each one year closer to death. They have too much at stake now; too much to continue their carefree ways of life. They can't look away for a moment and come back to find a century has passed. They are as mortal as the rest of us (albeit keeping their godly powers).   

Tony squeezed her arm, sensing something was off, but nodded. They continued down the aisle together. Loki scanned one side of the aisle while Tony scanned the other so they could work more efficiently. Peter, at some point in time, rushed back into the aisle, this time with way more bags of glitter in his arms. He walked behind them, trying not to drop the bags. 

After looking down several aisles, they finally found the brightly colored fabric they were looking for. And they were fully in stock too. Which was a great thing considering they needed plenty of the rainbow colors to begin with, plus extra blues, purples, pinks, and yellows. Tony and Loki exchanged a few glances before they grabbed everything off the shelves and headed to the cashier. Peter laughed behind them and trailed along, dropping a few bags of glitter along the way (which he quickly went back and grabbed--which caused a few more bags to fall but that's beside the point). The old woman working at the register raised an eyebrow as she scanned everything. Tony and Loki smiled awkwardly, Loki rocking on the balls of her feet. Eventually, she finished scanning the fabric and the bags of glitter before putting everything in a few bags. Tony paid and evenly distributed the bags between the three of them. 

They then headed out of the store, biting back their laughter, and made their way to the car. 

~~~

To literally no one's surprise, everyone was lounging around in the living room when they arrived home. But in their defense, they had to wait for the Stark-Friggadottir (which will hopefully end up just being Stark soon) family to get home with the fabric in order for them to do anything. The three made their way deeper into the living room before Tony held up the bag and cleared his throat, earning everyone's attention. 

"Sewing time," he announced. Everyone then heaved themselves onto their feet and made their way over to the dining room table. 

Tony threw the bags of fabric onto the table as everyone sat down, including himself, Loki, and Peter (who had placed the bag with all the glitter bags in the kitchen; that can be a surprise for everyone tomorrow). After the silent count of three, everyone lounged for the fabric, grabbing the colors they needed. They cut and sized the pieces to match their suits with the colors before handing them to Steve so he could sew them together, using the sewing machine Tony bought for him. Tony watched as everyone worked, occasionally helping Peter and Tony with the sizing. All he had to do was paint one of his suits so he got to relax as everyone worked their asses off. Thor and Bruce weren't home but they didn't have to change their suits; Bruce wasn't going as he didn't like crowds and Thor wasn't entirely sure what his sexuality was so he's never went. 

After a few hours--which as it grew closer to dinner time, Tony got up and started dinner--everyone's suits were done. They all dispersed to find a private room for them to change. A few minutes later, they came back into the dining room, dawning their new pride suits. Tony came out of the kitchen to see the finished product. 

Steve's star in the center of his chest held a stripe of each color of the rainbow. The rest of his suit was the typical dark blue except his sleeves and boots. Those were rainbows as well. Bucky was fully decked out in rainbow--except his arm, that he couldn't change yet. Clint swapped his purple out for pinks, blues, and yellows. Pietro, who no longer had a suit, made a demisexual flag shirt out of the fabric he was rationed. Wanda made a jacket out of her fabric. Natasha made a full bodysuit with hers. The red in her hair bled into the pinks of her suit. Peter, who held his mask in his hand, smoothed out his suit. The black spider on his chest and the webbing was swapped out for white instead. Where the red normally is in his suit is a lighter pink and the blue, still where it should be, is lighter to fit the flag. Tony gestured for him to put the mask on. He smiled brightly and slid it on. The mask matched the suit but the goggles had PRIDE written on it. Everyone's suits looked beautiful. 

Loki stepped out a few moments later with a bright smile on her face. She bounced up to Tony before smoothing out her suit. Unlike everyone else, she was fully decked out in her armor, helmet and all. Her sleeves were pink which bled into the white of her chest and then her black pants. The normally gold accents of her armor were blue, including her horns. With an even brighter smile, Loki balled her cape in her hands and twirled around so Tony could see it. Instead of her normally green cape, it was the pansexual flag. She spun back around and bounced on the balls of her feet, biting her lip to keep herself from giggling. She looked to Tony expectantly. He smiled back at her before pulling her into a hug. 

"You look beautiful," he whispered. "Just like always." She giggled. He kissed her before pulling away. "They won't know what hit them tomorrow."