All I Gave You is Gone

December in New York was always bitterly cold.

Loki hated the cold.

It never bothered him physically, but he couldn't stand the chilling dread it left within his soul.

It was too much like death.

The snow inside the cemetery was relatively untouched as he made his way to his destination. Visiting a grave at night seemed to be taboo for most mortals. That was a good thing in Loki's opinion, for he had no desire for an audience.

Sometimes, he wondered why kept doing this to himself. Even Thor had left Midgard when the last of his mortal friends died. Asgardians, even those that settled on Earth after Ragnarok, didn't see the point in maintaining a monument to the dead.

But Loki wasn't Asgardian, and there was one monument he was desparate to upkeep.

He finally stopped at a partparticular headstone and sat down. He traced the engraving of a familiar faceplate with shaking fingers as he looked at the name that drew so many emotions,even after all this time.

Anthony Edward Stark

May 29th,1970 - December 15th, 2077

Beloved Son, Husband, and Friend

"I Am Ironman"

Loki looked from the word husband to the band that still sat on his finger all these centuries later, and felt the familiar sting in his eyes.

Tony Stark had died three hundred years ago.....but for Loki it might as well have been yesterday.

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He knew, deep down, that taking on a mortal lover would only end in heartache. He'd pretty much rubbed Thor's face in it when his brother fell for that Jane woman.

Loki never thought he'd be falling right along with him.

He'd been attracted to the other man ever since the confrontation in that tower in New York. Tony had had a wit and intelligence that was unmatched, and he certainly hadn't been afraid to stand up to the God of Mischief.

He was also the only one that figured out that Loki was being manipulated and controlled in that invasion, something even Thor was blind to.

Tony fought to keep Loki on Earth with him instead of being sent back to Asgard, and together they worked on destroying the Tesseract and stopping Thanos from invading the planet. Slowly fascination became friendship, and without realizing it, the "man of Iron" had become the center of Loki's world.

When Thor informed him of their mother's death, it was Tony who held him while he broke down. It was Tony that helped find a way into the dark elves realm, so Loki could extract his revenge.

It was also Tony who patched up his wounds when he came back.

That was the first time Loki had ever seen anyone cry for him. When he asked why, Tony just shook his head, called him an idiot, and kissed him.

From then on, they were fairly inseparable. Whether it was the workshop or the battlefield, you'd be hard pressed to find one without the other. When Loki went to help Thor settle the Asgardian refugees into Norway, Tony went with him. They built a house big enough for themselves, along with Thor and the Valkyrie that had snared his heart.