24 or 34 for frostiron :D
Kiss of life/Returned from the dead kiss
“I’ve seen this movie before,” Tony said, trying to make a joke but his voice was trembling. “Sleeping Beauty, right? All it takes is true love’s kiss to bring him back to life.”
The Asgardian doctors gathered around Tony said nothing, their faces still grim as they looked down at Loki.
Loki looked fine and that was the hardest part. Tony had seen people die before, watched their skin go pale and the brightness drain from their eyes, watched their limbs go slack and their heads drop down whichever direction they were facing. He saw none of this in Loki. Loki lay on his back on a hospital bed--or what counted as a hospital bed for Asgard--his eyes closed, arms folded over his stomach, still flushed with life, still warm to the touch, all despite his breathing having stopped hours earlier.
“Why aren’t you doing something?” Tony asked, his voice sharper than he intended, but if he didn’t try to be angry, he knew he’d start to lose himself in the sorrow. “You’re just looking at him. Why aren’t you running tests or something? Do I need to take him back to earth to get him checked out or something?”
“I don’t think you understand how complicated this situation is,” said one of the Asgardian doctors, a woman with fine features and long black hair pulled into twin french braids that were curled into buns in the back. “Loki is... well. He’s not Asgardian, so that makes this complex.”
“No one has ever tried to cure a frost giant of anything,” said another doctor. “Frost giants have been the enemy of Asgard for--”
“I don’t give a shit!” This time the anger was real. “Does he look like a frost giant to you?”
“No,” said the doctor reluctantly, “however that does not negate the fact that his physicality is completely different from that of an Asgardian.”
“Not completely different.” The voice came from the open door, and everyone looked to see Frigga standing there, cupping a golden apple in her hands. “I would like a moment with my child,” she said. “Perhaps you could do some research into how to treat him while I sit with him for a moment.” Frigga sat in the chair next to Loki’s bed, touching his cheek with the back of her hand very gently. “Not you, Anthony,” she said as Tony moved to leave, his expression stricken.
When the doctors had vacated, Frigga motioned for Tony to sit, and he dragged another chair to Loki’s bedside, sitting next to her.
“There is much you do not know about Loki,” Frigga began quietly, stroking his cheek again before resting her hand in her lap. “He is unique among all of us and not just due to his background.” She rolled the apple between her hands, her expression distant. “Loki has died before. In fact, the Loki you know is the fourth iteration of my child.”
“How...” was all Tony could manage to say.
“He has grown much through death, I think. There was a time when he was all anger and nothing else.” There was a soft smile on Frigga’s face as she looked at Loki’s prone body. From somewhere in her dress she drew a small knife which she used to slice a sliver of flesh from the apple. “A mother does not want to outlive her child,” she said, her brows furrowed. “And if he doesn’t swallow this is unlikely to work.” As Tony watched, Frigga used one hand to part his lips, the other to squeeze the sliver of apple until juice ran from her palm--a feat that made Tony wonder if she was as strong as the other Asgardians he had met.
“No disrespect meant, but how is an apple supposed to help?”
Frigga stood, still smiling softly. “These apples impart those who eat them with immortality. And for Loki, they are the reason he is Asgardian.” She looked at Loki’s body, then down at Tony. “You may stay as long as you like, but I would recommend giving yourself a break. Whatever happens will happen--he has never stayed dead long.”
When Frigga was gone, Tony dropped his head into his hands and sighed. “Son of a bitch,” he whispered. The room was silent, without even so much as the ticking of a clock, and there was no indication how much time passed as Tony sat there.
“When do I get that kiss?” Loki’s voice was so thin and quiet that Tony thought he imagined it. But when he looked up he saw that Loki’s eyes were half open. He still didn’t seem to be breathing, but when he looked closely, Tony could see the slightest movement of his chest.
“Ironic isn’t it?” Loki asked. “In Snow White, it’s an apple that causes her apparent death.”
“I don’t give a fuck about irony right now, Sleeping Beauty,” Tony stood and put his hand on Loki’s cheek, finding it warmer now. He leaned over him and kissed him, just gently, and felt Loki’s hand on the back of his head. With some difficulty, he climbed onto the hospital bed with him and sat at his side, stroking his hair.
“I’m not sure that one was enough,” Loki said, this time smiling, his voice a hair more powerful than before, just enough to make Tony laugh as he bent to kiss him again, and again, until he was alive again.
