Happy (Belated) Birthday, Tony Stark!

1.

Before he had the Avengers and the love of his life at his side, Tony Stark would throw the most extravagant birthday parties for himself that usually lasted the whole weekend (or the whole week depending on when his birthday fell). He blames it on his dad never paying enough attention to him as a child so he sought out the attention of random strangers to stroke his ego. He blames it on never having a ton of friends growing up so the more people he surrounded himself with, the more popular he looked--the less alone he felt. He blames it on losing his parents at twenty-one--still far too young to be the grown up everyone expected him to be back then. He blames his over-dramatic tendencies on a lot of things.

But now he has the Avengers--his family. With them, he never feels like he gets the short end of the stick, never alone, never forgotten. He's not constantly paranoid about someone judging him for who he is deep down. With the Avengers, he can just be.

So now the over-extravagant weekend long birthday parties are less over-extravagant one-day birthday parties; which he likes more than the parties before.

Tony, the birthday boy, currently sits relatively close to the center of the living room in the moderately sized cabin he and Loki share. There's a pile of presents lying about his feet and he already has one in his lap. Multicolored streamers and balloons litter the rest of the living room, very obviously declaring that it's someone's birthday. There's a half eaten cake sitting on the table with scattered plates of its other half. A punch bowl sits on the counter in the kitchen, practically empty by now. Party hats are scattered throughout the house. There's not much else to do for this birthday party other than opening the gifts illuminated only by the golden light of the dying sun.

His eyes scan the room, his leg bouncing as he impatiently waits for the rest of the Avengers to take their seats and give him their undivided attention. Once Loki walks into the room and flashes him a smile, her clothes slightly damp from where the water splashed her while washing the dishes, Tony turns his attention to the box and starts to pull at the ribbon. She quickly moves to his side, takes the present out of his hands, and plucks a new one out of the pile to sit on his lap. He pouts and stares at the new present, now more intrigued by the first since obviously there's something in there he can't know yet. She presses a kiss to his cheek before sitting down beside him.

"You can open that one after the rest have been opened, darling," she whispers, her lips nearly pressed against his ear. He smiles for a few seconds before detaching the card from the new present. "Trust me, you'd want to save it for last anyway." He raises an eyebrow. Loki hides the box behind her back. "It's from me." Tony snorts. Loki raises an eyebrow now. "What's so funny about that?" He shakes his head. Loki crosses her arms and tilts her head away. Tony rolls his eyes before leaning back and kissing her cheek.

"Just teasing, Lokes," he promises. "Don't take everything so seriously." Loki rolls her eyes again.

Tony finally looks down and briefly reads the card, declaring it from Steve and Bucky (but mostly Steve) before opening the present. Tony lets the discarded wrapping paper fall to the ground much to Loki's dismay before taking off the lid of the brown box sitting in his lap. He raises an eyebrow and looks to Steve. Steve gestures for him to look inside. Tony rolls his eyes before sticking his hands inside to pull out whatever's sitting there, letting the box fall to the floor as well. Tony's jaw drops as he takes in the scrapbook in his hands--the edges starting to turn yellow with age and the cover clearly covered in a light layer of dust. Steve smiles proudly and leans back in his seat to watch as Tony starts sifting through the pictures. Bucky nudges his shoulder at his side, shooting him a look. Steve only shrugs.

"Where did you find this?" Tony whispers, closing the book to stroke the cover. "I. . . I thought it was long gone."

Steve shrugs. "For whatever reason, Peggy had it." Tony starts to smile as he opens the book back up again. "I went to visit her the other day and I had mentioned I didn't know what to get you--after all, what do you get a man who can make or buy anything he wants?" The room starts laughing. Loki smirks, reaching behind her back to touch her present. She knows exactly what to get that sort of person and it's sitting right beside him. "She started going on and on about the scrapbook Ana Jarvis had made for you when you were younger. Apparently Ana had trusted Peggy with it when she died. Told her to give it to you whenever you needed it most."