By the Grace of Her Humanity Chapter 1: Mercy, a Harry Potter + Avengers Crossover fanfic

By the Grace of Her Humanity

A/N: The prompt was that of a pocket-sized fic, and that a pocket-sized version of a character would be found, somewhere and somehow not specified. This meets that prompt, but also revolves around a larger plot of its own. This is listed as a Harry Potter and Avenger's crossover, however, it also crosses with Hetalia, and is an AU companion fic of Twice Charmed, as Lucy is Katia's youngest biological child. One does not need to be read to read the other.

Ch.1: Mercy

"You realize if I ever regain my actual size-"

"That you'll murder me with the nearest object or your bare hands? You can barely give me a mosquito bite, so you're going to be a good little toy and not squirm."

Loki scowled as the doll clothes were adjusted on him.

"Hmmm...maybe orange isn't your color after all..."

"I look utterly ridiculous."

"You're right. Now shut up and hold your arms up."

Loki reluctantly lifted his arms, scowling. Standing just made him fall into the crevice her lap created, and that made both of them equally unhappy. Lucy pulled forth another outfit. Loki narrowed his eyes.

"You wouldn't dare."

"I would," the nine and a half year old said loftily. "And post it on any social media sight available. But...how about this?"

Loki tilted his head. "You want me to kill you, don't you?"

"What're you gonna do, prick me with your almost microscopic little dagger? I have no qualms about dressing you in girl clothes. So here's the hoop. Jump."

Three outfits later, she picked him up by his waist and plunked him onto her dressed in front of her mirror.

"No wonder you choose green. It looks good on you," Lucy commented lightly. Loki had to resist the urge to model the outfit.

"Walk to the end of the dresser and back and I promise I won't change your clothes anymore today."

Loki glared poison daggers at her. "Excuse me? How dare you demand-"

"Swagger or sashay or whatever your little tail-hiney up there and back before I let Cloud play with you."

Cloud was her kitten. Loki obliged grudgingly. Lucy giggled.

"What?" He snapped, raising an eyebrow.

"You're so adorable like that...and..." The child covered her face with her hands, peeking out at him and blushing. "And your little bum looks so high in those tight pants. You have a high bum."

And she kept repeating it in a sing-song manner, Loki has a high bum, as if she might win an award. There was a knock at the door, and she plucked him up hurriedly and stowed him in her pocket. Loki was pressed quite suddenly against her purple DS, face and hands being imprinted with the little square designs on it.

"Hi mom," she said. Loki struggled upward to peek over the pocket edge, but his legs and arms in that form were so...lacking...that he merely slid down, tripping over the stylus.

"Are you all right? You've been up here all day."

"Yeah, mom, I'm fine. You know I'm like dad-sometimes I like being alone."

Katia watched her youngest child's face carefully before nodding, once.

"You should eat. If you're not going to have dinner, at least let me bring you something."

"Um...ok. I'll come."

Her hand descended in her pocket, gently touching the top of Loki's head as if to ensure he was still squished up against her electronics.

Once her mother had left, Lucy closed the door and exhaled in relief. Gingerly, she extricated Loki and placed him atop her jewelry box. She stooped down, laying her arms flat and using them to prop her head up by her chin.

"Is this your way of kneeling?" Loki asked, wincing at the slight shrill of his voice.

"Nope," she said carelessly, popping the 'p' for emphasis. "I'm deciding your fate."

"Marvelous," he retorted sarcastically.

Loki narrowed his eyes at her.

"Wanna bath?" She asked suddenly.

"You are not giving me a bath," Loki growled indignantly. "I am not a pet!"

"Funny, this looks like captivity to me," Lucy replied honestly. Loki ground his teeth. He really had not developed infinite patience for children.

"Besides," Lucy continued, scrunching her nose, "why would I want to wash your high bum? I was being hospiable."

Loki quirked an eyebrow. "Hospitable?"

"That's what I said," she said confusedly. He sighed.

"If that is true, I suppose I would like to bathe," Loki agreed. Lucy plucked him up and slid him into her pocket, humming. He heard doors opening and closing, water running, and rummaging. She did a lot of moving around, and he did a lot of sliding and face-mashing against her DS again. When he was pulled out once more, they were in her room, and a small clear container, an array of doll pajamas, and a hand towel were spread out in front of her on the floor. Lucy stood, placing him by the items on the floor. She set her hands on her hips.

"I'm going to trust you to not mess with anything," she began sternly. Loki merely let one eyebrow raise.

"But you'll close the door?"

"Well...yes. But it's so no one steps on your or anything. I was sure you would want privacy...And Cloud might eat you if I'm not around. So be a good little person while I go eat with my family. I'll bring something back for you, I promise. Oh, and uh..."

She dropped a minuscule cloth, bar of soap, scrub brush, and underwear before him. "I had my brother shrink these. I know you have a fantabulous high bum, but I kinda...-" here she swallowed, winced, and blushed, "-asked my brother to make a few copies of the pair you had on...and shrink some of the boxers he meant to give dad for Christmas for you. I told him your bum wasn't as flat as dad's and that your hips-erm...just try them."

Lucy fled from the room surprisingly quickly without an ounce of her earlier bravado.

Loki eyed the door warily before stripping down and climbing into the shallow container. He wished it wasn't clear, but he was alone, and Lucy didn't seem like the type or age range to want to stare at his naked bum or anything else. There was some sort of men's bath wash in the water, but just a touch, and the soap was a rather gender-neutral scent. He dunked his head, thinking on how he had come into contact with her. He vaguely remembered waking up outside to have her kneeling over him, fending off some animal from eating him, and then she had wiped him off, changed him, and made a tiny bed for him in her miniature house. The bed wasn't some awful plastic contraption he knew some Midgardian female children possessed. It was real furniture, tiny furniture, even if the mattress was fake, with patches that would have gone onto a quilt as blankets. She was considerate, he supposed, and useful. He might not kill her.

He began scrubbing and lathering the soap in his hair, wondering what she might bring him to eat. By the time he had finished and climbed out, she had not yet returned. He used the hand towel to dry himself, picking his way through the clothes she had left. Just as he buttoned a tiny green silk pj top, the door creaked open and Lucy appeared, eyes well above ground level as she closed it behind her. "Are you finished?" She asked, staring straight ahead.

"Yes," Loki replied tersely. Lucy's eyes found him. She fidgeted.

"How did your clothes fit?"

"The outfit is rather nice to be meant for an inanimate object, I must admit."

"Err-what about the rest of your clothes?" She blushed. Loki grinned mischievously. He always loved to play on embarrassment.

"A bit tight, but they'll do."

"It's not my fault you're blessed there," Lucy muttered.

"Excuse me?" Loki inquired. She couldn't mean what he thought.

"Nothing," she responded brightly, kneeling to clean up the scattered remains of his bath time.

"Now you kneel. Better late than never," Loki said smugly.

"Ha-ha," Lucy said sarcastically, "very witty. I'm sure you're proud of yourself. Are you hungry?"

"So eager to serve me," Loki continued in his tone from earlier. Lucy made a face. "In your dreams, pixie-man."

Loki opened his mouth to reply when a nock came at the door for the second time that day. Lucy lunged forward, scooping him up and pushing him unceremoniously into the deepest recesses of her pocket. He was just relieved that the girl had deigned to not shove him in with her DS again. She stowed the container under her bed, rearranging the skirt to cover it, and quickly kicking the towel and clothes into the far corner as she made her way to the door. She cracked it open slightly.

"Yes, Nico?" She narrowed her eyes at her oldest brother. He was staying until he could marry Angela and move out.

"Mam and dad have a date tonight, I'm going out, and Lils is with Vaati again. Aunt Evie will be coming over later, but Cameron and Sebastian will be here. Just didn't want you to freak. Leftovers're in the fridge."

Lucy blinked, and Loki could feel the shift of her clothes around him as she relaxed. "Okay, thanks."

Nico smiled, ruffling her hair before walking down the hallway and out of sight. Lucy closed the door firmly, leaning against it and pulling Loki out. She shimmied her fingers into a supporting position, and opened her hand so he could sit on the edge of her palm.

"That's my oldest brother, Nico."

"Who were-?"

"All of those people he mentioned?" Lucy laughed. "I'm the youngest of five siblings. Nico's name is Nicodemus, Lils is Lilianne. They're twins. They're five years older than my other two brothers, Cameron and Sebastian, who are ten months apart from each other and five years older than me. Vaati is Lil's boyfriend. Mom doesn't approve because he used to be a bad guy, some sort of Wind Mage that terrorized the land he lived in repeatedly, although admittedly he never did anything that bad and had a crappy life. Nico is probably going to go out with his fiancé Angela. She grew up with them. Her parents and mine knew each other for a long time. Our mom and hers are best friends. Aunt Evie is our real aunt and mom's older sister. Fabio is mom's twin brother. Dad doesn't have any family that I know of, or that he knows of, actually. His life was pretty crappy too before he met mom..."

Lucy's eyes focused on the minuscule man in her hand. He almost seemed to have been listening attentively.

"You didn't hear a thing I said, did you?"

Loki cocked his head. "Thrilling though it wasn't, I know exactly what you babbled."

Lucy blushed. "Well, you did ask..."

She turned the lock on her door and went to sprawl carefully on her bed, perching him atop a pigmy puff pillow before removing her DS from her pocket. She switched it on and bypassed the game video for the start menu while she fished absentmindedly for her stylus.

"What is that device?" Loki asked curiously.

"A Nintendo DSi . You play games on it as well as using a few other features. This one is called Pokémon. It's rather addicting. You can play for months or years, then have it sitting around getting dusty for a period of what we call remission, until the bug hits you again and you're more obsessed than before. Because you see, you never stop being obsessed. It just gets less noticeable. And sometimes you never have a remission. There's a big franchise and a tv series..."

She explained the concept, progression, world, and series to him, and opened her saved file. At first he merely watched with mild interest, but soon he steadily crept forward until, hours later, he was playing himself while she was sitting back like a back seat driver, albeit more effective and less annoying, as she gave him advice. She still had to hold it, but she had scooted back with pillows and the headboard of her bed supporting her back, the DS propped up by a pillow in her lap and Loki sitting beside of it on the pillow touching the screen, leaving her to operate the buttons. It was an agreeable partnership. She had explained type match-ups and level differences all ready, and he tended to be a very skilled trainer.

"He's going to faint," Lucy warned, somewhat alarmed, speaking about her Chimchar.

"He's not," Loki replied calmly, a determined edge to his voice. The Onix they were facing uttered a cry of protest and fainted as he spoke. Smugly, he added, "I believe I have won you your gym badge."

"Prat," Lucy muttered. They moved into the next town. To say Loki was competitive would have been an understatement. It got to the point that he slapped her hands if she tried interfering. Scowling, she let him play on.

"Did he really think he could defeat me?" Loki murmured.

"Mmm," Lucy mumbled. Her head drooped slightly, her hand going limp for a minute before coming back up. Loki's little hands paused and he looked back at her.

"You're tiring," he noted. Lucy blinked tiredly at him. She yawned.

"It's been a long day and you're supposed to rest your eyes anyway. We can play more tomorrow. Do you remember how to save?"

Scowling, Loki saved the file, holding the power button in until the screen went blank. Lucy rubbed her eyes groggily, placing the DS safely on her night-table and attaching the charger. The orange light flickered on. She eyed Loki.

"I need to take a bath of my own."

He arched an eyebrow. "And? I'm telling you now that I most certainly will not be going in with you."

Lucy spluttered, reddening. "I would hope not! Just...don't mess around, all right?"

She grabbed up her belongings, dashing out but making sure the door was closed firmly. Loki sat down, bored without the girl to entertain him. He paced across the bed, perusing her bookshelf from the post closest to that section. He wondered vaguely if his magic had changed much before he tried summoning a book of poetry. To his delight and relief, it had not, and the book floated onto the bed nicely.

He fumbled with the cover edge, finally lifting it enough to push it open. He read until she returned, her hair sleek with moisture and braided into one long plait over her left shoulder. He waved his hand, turning the page. She stopped short. Loki looked up. He had moved a pillow up so that he could perch on the edge, his feet dangling over the page.

"Are you going to stand there all night? I know you aren't dull, girl."

"Lucy," she corrected quietly. "You're magic too?" She asked. Loki tilted his head to the side. "Too?"

"Yeah, as in also or as we-"

"I know what you meant, I'm not daft," he snapped. He hopped down from the pillow, advancing across the comforter.

"Are you telling me that you have magic, Lucy?"

Lucy bit her lip. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."

Loki stopped just short of the edge. "Do your parents not appreciate it?" He asked quietly. Lucy blinked, face scrunching confusedly.

"Well, yes. They're both magic, too, my entire family is. But our society is separate from the Muggles-that is, non-magic folk without a drop of magic to be found in their blood. But it's supposed to be a secret. Our world has laws, and that's one of them. Unless we fall in love with Muggles or have friends or family in our life that we trust, or they would inevitably be exposed, we can never tell."

"Magic is valued here?" Loki asked sharply. Lucy shrugged.

"By some. By our world it is. Some Muggles like it, some respect it, some fear it, and some hate it. And in turn, feelings vary about the non-magical among us."

"You said both of your parents...you mean that your father and brothers...they aren't...demeaned...for their usage?"

Lucy shook her head no. "Our world isn't too sexist. It's blood purity that some concern themselves with, how many generations of magic and such. All of my siblings and I are pureblood, mom and her family are, but dad is a half-blood because his mom was a pureblood witch that married a Muggle. Uncle Fabio did too-marry a Muggle that is."

Lucy didn't understand the emotions that flitted across Loki's face. Finally, he gestured at the book and said, "Send that back to the shelf, then. Or try to close it."

"I'm sorry, I can't," Lucy said quickly, fidgeting and tugging on the end of her braid. Loki swept his arms wide, hands facing upward.

"Why ever not?"

Lucy sat on the bed, drawing her knees up to her chest and laying her head on them, turned to the side to face him.

"We're not sent off to be properly trained until we're eleven. Mom and dad teach me things, and so do my siblings, when they've all time, but..."

Loki paced towards her, hands behind his back. "Try," he instructed.

Lucy's eyes widened, then switched to the book. Her face scrunched up in concentration, her eyes squeezing shut for a fraction of a second. The book twitched, and with a lurch fell off of the bed, falling on its spine.

"Well, I suppose actually moving it counts for something," Loki mused. "Try again."

Lucy did try. She tried five more times in succession. On the sixth, the book pages stirred, and with a resounding smack, the cover flipped shut. She allowed herself a small smile of triumph, which quickly fell to uncertainty when Loki said, "Now put it back on the shelf."

By then, Lucy had a small pain just behind her eyes, her head throbbing. She sat back against her pillows, cradling it between her hands.

"I'm not like you, Loki" she said quietly. "We use wands and-"

"Then all it is is a conduit. I can teach you how to manipulate your greatest ally by your will alone. You will learn how-because I will teach you how."

Lucy peeked up at him through her fingers. "But what if I don't want to be like you? Using it that way corrupted you, didn't it?"

Loki paced closer. "No, it didn't. In magic, ~there is no good or evil, only power, and those too weak to take it. ~ I can teach you, unworthy though you are-if you wish, that is."

Lucy snorted. "Unworthy? Well aren't you a charmer."

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Mortal, do not tarry over my words. You will either accept my offer or decline."

Lucy shifted upward, picking him up by the waist.

"What are you-put me down," Loki snarled, clearly not appreciating being man-handled.

"You should be nicer to me," Lucy said solemnly, "since you're at my mercy."

Loki stopped struggling and tilted his head to the side. "What would you know of mercy?"

Lucy sat back against the headboard again, her knees drawn upward but not to her chest. She set him gently on her left knee.

"My father always says it was a mercy that my mother found him. He says she was ~a beautiful woman that loved a very ugly man, really, really, loved him. Aunt Evie says they gave each other something to live for."

"Would you care to explain?" Loki inquired. Lucy glanced sharply at him, staring at him, biting her lip the way she had when she had accidentally spoken to him about magic.

"Why should I tell you all of my secrets?"

"Who else have you to tell?" Loki retorted.

"Well, I'm not telling!" She sniffed. "You think you're so clever! I can't stand it."

He made an irritated noise in his throat and dug his nails into her knee. She yelped and swatted at him. He went flying across the room, hitting one of her bookcases and dropping to the floor unconscious. Lucy sat startled for a second, then leapt up, scrambling over to where his small form lay crumpled. She crouched on her heels, gingerly picking him up. His head lolled. Lucy, whimpering, cradled him close to her chest and retreated to her bed, where she placed him gently on one of her spare pillows, curling around it and pressing her cheek close to his head. She could just feel his breath filtering out from him. She hoped she hadn't broken anything of his. Making sure she wouldn't roll over and smother him, Lucy settled in and allowed her drooping eyelids to flutter closed in slumber.

Words kept echoing through Loki's throbbing skull, as he lay trapped half in and half out of consciousness while his body healed and rested.

*"'Your punishment, Loki Laufeyson," Odin had said gravely, with Frigga standing to the side, her son in chains before the throne, "is to be cast out to Midgard, the one you so wished to conquer;however, you will lose your status, title, and stature. You will keep your magic, but not your form-not until you are worthy, until you have proven yourself repentant. Your penance, then, shall be banishment on Midgard, reduced much in size so that you will hopefully be humbled by your physically lower position. You will have to overcome a larger world, Loki, and yourself. You live because Lady Queen Frigga wishes it. But now I see before me no son of mine. Prove me wrong. Be warned, though, that it will not be the same. Trust must be earned."

"Spare me your mercy," Loki sneered. Odin gazed coldly down at him, pointing Gungnir at him. The chains fell away but the room shrank around him. Frigga stepped down from the dais, picked him up, and took him to the Bifrost.

"Do not make my king regret this," Frigga cautioned, hugging him close to her before she set Loki down. "Nor do I advise you breaking my heart again. I cannot bear much more, and you will not have another chance. He will only listen to my pleading so many times. He does not forgive or forget so easily, or see his own faults."

She rose, falling into position behind Heimdall, who sank his sword into the slot, and Loki could feel himself being thrown downward, away from where he had grown up.'*

He remembered vaguely waking up underneath the trees. He had been in some wood, about to be eaten when, suddenly, a child's scolding voice could be heard. Rocks were thrown, and the animal, whatever it was, fled. He remembered seeing Lucy's face for the first time, bending over him, her breath quickening, her eyes widening-and then the recognition and disbelief. And something that had surprised him. Compassion. She had lifted him carefully, her fingers supportive and shaping around him to scoop him up as gingerly as she could. He recalled her face coming down close to him, looking him over from head to toe, the crease between her eyes. He remembered the wall of green and brown rushing by as she ran, the color of the clear, bright, morning sky, the slam of her back door and the pounding of her feet as she raced to her room. It had not escaped him how she had carefully peeled off his then minuscule armor, wiping him off as best she could without stripping him completely naked, tenderly combing his hair back, redressing him in soft, small clothes she had to rummage for somewhere out of his slitted line of sight. He remembered not saying a word or uttering a protest because for once, it felt good to lay back and let someone care for him, if only temporarily. He remembered her opening his mouth and dripping water in with an eyedropper, and his swallowing. He recalled the small details, like the gentleness of her soft hands and her concern. She was so achingly like Frigga in those actions, even though he knew she knew what he had done-probably to some of those she knew-and exactly who he was. Yet she had sheltered him, made him comfortable.

He finally achieved proper sleep, planning to punish her for throwing him against the wall. He had decided, though, that he would most definitely not kill her.

#Avengers(Loki) #Harry-Potter-&-Hetalia(Lucy) #Fanfiction-#Cross-over #prompt #Pocket-sized #sassy-fluff #Katia #SeverusSnape #Nico #doll-clothes #doll-houses-&-Furniture #Hi-Mom #Blessed-Down-There #Bath #Shrinking-Dad's-Undies #(fantabuous)high-bum(s) #hips #humor #addiction #little-girl #niña #god-of-mischief-&-fire #no-sparkles #green-looks-good-on-you #if-looks-could-kill #mercy #humanity #peridotpassages #sorry-about-all-da-hashtags