Tony tried to not be anxious about his first Christmas with Loki, but it was hard not too, especially with as disastrous as Thanksgiving had been. Looking back on it, the holiday party probably hadn't been the best time to let the other Avengers know Tony was currently dating the once (and still sometimes) villain.

It'd taken a week before anyone had talked to him and now he was dealing with weekly 'Tony, I'm worried about you,' chats with everyone. Bruce was the worst because he was just so damn sincere about the whole thing.

Thankfully, the 'interventions' had stopped and Tony was pretty sure that there would be no more trying to save him. He'd deliberately made sure that he'd started timing his make out sessions with Loki right during these 'I'm worried about you' talks and that had worked like a charm.

Christmas however was a totally different beast. Like everything else, Tony Stark did Christmas big. The biggest tree he could get into the tower the Avengers were all sharing now, the outside of the tower decorated, and he'd even gotten a festive eye patch for Fury for the occasion. He'd spent loads of money buying the best things for his teammates and hoping that their gifts would go over better than the rabbit he'd gotten Pepper a few years back... He was pretty sure Pepper had burned it during her bachelorette party before marrying Happy. Tony didn't want to know or get confirmation about that one way or the other.

And now it was Christmas Eve and Tony was pacing the dining room, all the food had already been delivered (like Tony Stark cooked) and laid out on the table. The designers and linens people had already come and gone and the whole floor looked like Christmas had thrown up. There were reds and greens everywhere, wreaths, trees and glitter. Tony (well Jarvis really) had already even scheduled the cleaners to come on January the sixth to get rid of everything and remove every speck of glitter. Everything looked perfect, and the whole team was going to be here.

Everyone except Loki.

Last night, after a particularly rousing round of some bedroom acrobatics, Loki had informed Tony he had other things to do that night, but assured Tony he would be by in time for dinner on Christmas Day.

"Am I just your side guy?" Tony had asked, batting his eyes.

Loki had snorted and rolled his eyes, "No but I have other obligations that are not up for discussions."

That had been the end of that conversation and the beginning of round two in the sack. When Tony had woken up the next morning, Loki was gone and that was that. But where Loki was going made Tony anxious. Loki hadn't 100% given up the whole villain thing. He'd toned it down and now mostly just annoyed the Avengers when they were doing things he found ridiculous, but him disappearing around a major holiday without a word didn't look good. He knew the rest of the team would see that too and he wasn't in the mood to deal with it.

While Tony always decorated to the nines for the holidays, they weren't his favorite time of year. Ever since his family had died there'd never really been a Christmas that hadn't involved drinking until he blacked out. He was still feeling out this whole family-less holiday thing and it'd been twenty years.

The elevators jingled the opening of Jingle Bells as the door opened and Bruce walked in carrying a massive tray of cookies. Tony hurried over to help and Bruce smiled. "I wasn't sure there'd be enough food."

"I did hire a caterer Bruce, there's a chef in the kitchen. Figured point break would eat through a whole hog if he could," Tony said but smiled, "But yeah I didn't get many cookies so perfect. Come on in."

Bruce walked in and looked around, "It looks great in here Tony."

"Yeah, how many elves did you hire to set this up?" Came Clint's voice, hopping off the elevator with a bag slung over his shoulders.

"Oh real clever," Tony snorted.

Clint grinned and dropped the bag of presents under the largest tree in the den. Then he started pulling out badly wrapped gifts and putting them out. Tony tried to not snicker at the duct tape and newspaper wrapping job.

Bruce helped get the cookie tray onto the table then took a cookie for himself and started to nibble on it as he walked around the floor to admire the decorations.

Tony had to wonder when the last time Bruce had actually had celebrated anything with anyone. He knew Bruce had spent most of his time since the big guy alone, and he was glad to see Bruce out with the people, even if he did look like he was ready to run off at a moment's notice.

Natasha appeared without any of the elevator's fanfare. One moment she just appeared beside Clint, helping to get presents shoved under the tree. Steve arrived with Jingle Bells playing and he wore a fake Santa beard and a red jacket. Tony just snorted, "Finally looking your age!" Tony called.

Steve laughed, "Oh, low blow."

Tony shook his head and snorted as Steve handed a bag over to Natasha and Clint who appeared to have taken the lead on operation presents under the tree. Tony shook his head and couldn't help but smile. How the hell did all of them fit together, let alone not kill each other on sight?

"Thor coming?" Clint asked as he finished his work under the tree and started nibbling at the food.

"Yeah, point break said he would not miss 'this most glorious of feasts' and would be here tonight," Tony said.

Overhead the sky darkened and rumbled.

"If he breaks my patio again.." Tony muttered under his breath as the Bifrost landed against the patio and Thor stepped into the room with a wide grin.

Tony smiled at Thor, "Hey nice arrival, good job not breaking anything this time."

"Ah you worry too much, that was only once," Thor said, patting Tony's shoulder.

Tony tried to not wince at the back-breaking force behind Thor's slap. The god still hadn't really learned that whole delicate human thing, then again with humans like Steve around, Tony could see how it'd be hard to gauge what kind of force to bring, not that he wanted Thor's full-on back slaps anyways.

"Where is my brother?" Thor asked.

Out of all the Avengers, Thor had, surprisingly, taken the news of Tony and Loki the best. He'd said something about Tony being an upgrade from that stallion and Loki had thrown a bottle of wine at Thor while Thor laughed. Tony hadn't asked about that stallion comment yet but he was going to and hopefully Loki wouldn't also hurl a wine bottle at him.

"Yeah, where is tall, green and scowling?" Steve asked, leveling Tony with a disappointed look.

Tony forced that same smile he gave to the media. The one that said politely go eat a dick.

"He couldn't make it. Had another party to be at," Tony said, "So, let's go ahead and eat before anything gets cold."

Steve opened his mouth to say something but Tony walked past him to the table and started dishing up his food. He wasn't particularly hungry but once everyone got eating hopefully the Loki topic would get dropped at least for a while. He knew his team members wouldn't let it go for the night; Tony wasn't nearly that lucky.

Bruce followed behind Tony and soon everyone was circling the table and filling their plates and cups. It didn't take long before Thor was launching into a tale about some creatures that Tony was convinced weren't real.

"Okay look there is no way this Bligesnipe or whatever is real," Tony finally said, shaking his head.

"Oh?" Thor asked, "You've seen one then?" he asked.

"No," Tony said, "You're making it up. Come on. 900 feet tall with horns and poison spit?"

"Aye, one of the worst creatures on Asgard, it can take whole armies to fell one."

"You are screwing with us," Tony said again.

"It does sound a little far fetched," Bruce said after a moment.

Natasha just smirked and leaned back against the couch to sip at her straight vodka.

Thor laughed, "You would not say that if you had seen the battle we fought. Sif, the warriors three and I conquered it," he said.

"And what? It just evaporated? You kill Godzilla and don't even keep a souvenir?" Tony asked.

"I do not carry it with me. The horns of it live in the Great Hall," Thor said with a nod like that was the simplest answer possible.

Tony just snorted, "You are so full of it."

"After the death whale the chitauri brought to the party and you don't think that could exist too?" Natasha finally asked.

Tony frowned, "That is...a valid point," he relented.

Thor raised his glass towards Natasha. She tipped hers toward him and they both drank. Tony paced himself with his one glass of whiskey. He was not over doing it tonight. He did not need to be drunk and babbling about Loki here.

Steve and Thor both got up to get another plate of food, Tony had lost track of how many helpings they'd had but there was still food on the table but he wasn't about to try to stop them and their fourteen combined stomachs. He wondered how Shield kept enough food on hand to deal with those kinds of appetites.

"Thanks for organizing this Tony," Steve said as he finished his latest plate.

Tony nodded, "Yeah. I always decorate the tower this year I just toned down the me a little bit."

"Oh it still glitters plenty," Clint said.

Tony glared, "Yeah keep it up," Tony said.

Clint just grinned and took another bite of pie.

Tony swore that Clint had eaten nothing but desserts and not touched the meal at all but he wasn't about to start policing food choices.

"Sir, Director Fury is phoning," Jarvis spoke over the Christmas music.

Before Tony could answer that it was Christmas and they were not working, Steve spoke, "Put it on."

Jarvis, the traitor, put the call on. "Sorry to interrupt the fun," Fury said.

"Just because you weren't invited doesn't mean you get to crash," Tony said.

Fury ignored the comment. "There have been reports across the Eastern coast of the US of a horned man attacking households."

Tony felt his blood chill as all eyes turned towards him. He swallowed hard, Loki wouldn't, would he?

"What exactly is being reported?" Steve asked.

"Just that. A few families have called in to local emergency services about a horned creature that looks like a man trying to break into their homes. One family in Atlanta said the man got in but then heard something outside and fled."

"Do we have a location?" Steve asked, already getting to his feet.

"Sending it your way now," Fury responded.

Steve looked around the room.

"Party's over huh? I hadn't even gotten into the eggnog yet," Tony said.

"A horned man, huh?" Clint asked, "Who do we know that matches that description?"

Tony glared.

"Quinjets should be ready to go," Natasha said from where she typed quickly on her phone, "I'm inputting coordinates now. Let's get this over with so I can enjoy some hot chocolate."

Tony didn't say anything else and tapped his suit recall bracelet. The suit snapped into place as he walked to the elevator and tried to calm the mess in his head. Loki couldn't be out there attacked random families; they'd gotten past that hadn't they? Yeah Loki still liked to show up and mess with things but that was with pranks, like turning Clint's arrows into jelly, and disappearing things Cap was trying to jump onto it. Pranks, not active attacks on innocents. Loki didn't do that anymore, at least that's what Tony had been telling himself. Now he could only hope he'd been right about that.