"Tony?"
"Yup?" he didn't even raise his eyes from the newspaper.
"I wanted to ask you something…" Loki took his time, differently from his habits, and that made Stark worry.
"What?"
"You know, I've been staying here for a while now, only for convenience, clearly," he hurried to add, trying to act in a dignified manner, "But at home, in Asgard, there's someone who claims me."
"If that someone is your brother, not-brother, whatever he is, we have already discussed it: I'm a possessive person and…" he folded up the newspaper and turned his whole attention to him, but he was immediately interrupted.
"It's not about Thor, not in that way at least. The point is that I don't trust him."
"Why?" he asked, relieved for not having fallen again in the Thorny Matter, that had made him sleep alone for two weeks.
"Ehr … Would you grant him custody of some children?"
"To the blond guy with the hammer, a drugged sloth's intelligence quotient and a buffalo's charm? I don't think so; to Jack the Ripper maybe. No offence meant, but that guy had brains at least."
"Exactly, that's why I'm talking to you about this."
"What exactly is your point?" he glanced at him, trying to understand something from his expression since it didn't seem likely Loki would have explained something.
"I prefer showing it to you,"and he disappeared in the usual greenish light, which for weeks had announced many hours full of pleasure, although he had seen less and less in the last days, not because the god was fed up with him, though, but because he had decided to make camp in his house, or better in his bed. Not that Stark minded.
He sighted, used to being kept in the dark about everything and he resumed his reading of the newspaper.
A new green light, more brilliant this time, snatched. him from his reading again; he had managed to read more less five lines.
"Well, have you gone to Asgard to buy some milk because you loath the Midgardians'one?' his voice died in his throat when he raised his eyes on the norse god: next to him there were what seemed an husky puppy, hanging from his neck a little girl with black long hair, who could have been four or five, and, to complete the scene, a snake wrapped around his shoulders.
He goggled, knowing his pupils were as big as tennis balls and his jaw was basically at the level of his knees.
"Tony, these're Fenrir," bending down he stroked the puppy's head, and he happily wagged his tail, "Hela," he gestured to the little girl, "And Jormungandr. Say hi, children."
"H-hello," tried the baby, and then she hid against Loki's shoulder, followed by a soft whining and by a less reassuring hiss.
Tony was still looking at them with his eyes popping out of his head like a cartoon, unable to utter a single word.
"Tony, my children, children, Tony," he finished the presentations, forcing the puppy who was hidden behind his legs to come out into the open.
"Your what?!"
"They are my children, that's what I was trying to say before."
Tony didn't go beyond staring at him with a stupid expression.
"Where's the one who considers himself a genius?"
"He's run away when he's known that you have children, and that two of them are animals."
"I thought you could've understood…" he murmured, rather deluded, hugging the little girl and the snake, while the puppy climber on his foot.
"No, wait. Don't do that," he approached Loki quickly, trying to ignore the fact that he had a little anaconda on his shoulders, "I'm not saying that the lot of you looks like a circus or something similar, I'm just surprised and a little taken aback," he reached out his hand on the snake-less arm and led Loki on the sofa.
"So don't you think that we're the most irrational family in the universe?"
"Yes, but I already thought that about you, honey."
The puppy tried to jump on the sofa but he was stopped by his father's imperious voice.
"Fenrir, no. Not on the sofa."
He looked at him with his disappointed big green eyes and squatted down on the rug.
If Tony believed that Loki was the master of the subtle technique of the puppy's eyes now he had to change his mind: no one could've been able to beat the little silver-mantled dog's expression.
"Poor thing…"
"I don't want him to take up bad manners, and he could ruin the sofa scratching it."
"This sofa has seen worse," he made an allusive smile provoking a snort and the raising of a couple of the eight emerald irises that now were fixed on him.
Loki put down the little girl and the snake who joined their brother and soon they started brawling, ending up in the two adults' feet, or better the adult and the too-grown teen.
For a while they looked at each other in silence, then Loki decided that maybe he could lower himself to be so magnanimous to give him some sort of explanation.
"I had to bring them here. Lately I'm spending lot of time here and I can't leave them at home alone. Thor offered to look after them, but even if his intentions are noble he's unreliable, he could hurt them just by hugging them, and I can't risk that."
Tony tried to swallow that thing that was threatening to suffocate him, but that was of no use, "So…?" He asked in almost strangled tone.
"So I'm asking you to host them here."
The fact that the asking truly was a be clear that in spite of everything I'm the one who decides here was negligible.
"Hang on a second. Are you asking me to keep here three little hurricanes," he pointed at the shapeless mass of arms, paws and coils that was putting up an harmless fight on the rug, "Just for hobby and because there's space?"
"No, I'm asking because I can't divide my time among all of you, and I'm sorry, but they are my priority."
The idea of being supplanted by those three little monsters made him feel betrayed and annoyed, but then he turned his eyes on them, seeing that they had finally stopped brawling; they were the most tender spectacle in the world, curled up around each other, exhausted for the fight.
"So you want to move here with the whole troop?"
"It seems the best idea. If we don't want to stop what we do, and I don't, I need to know them somewhere not too far and safe," his eyes became darker just at the thought of his children alone and in danger.
"Can't you find a nanny?"
"No one would babysit for Hela, Fenrir and Jormungandr's, the bringers of Ragnarok," he murmured, getting sad.
"Talk to me," Tony cradled him against his chest, since the 'children' had fallen asleep.
"My people's legends say they'll bring Ragnarok, the downfall of the gods. According to the Norns Fenrir'll kill Odin and Jormungandr'll do the same with Thor, while Hela'll bring plagues and illnesses in every world 'cause she's destined to become the Queen of the Dead."
"They're just legends," he whispered against his raven-black hair.
"It's one of Destiny's possible sceneries, I've seen it and I'm trying to avoid it in any way, but if the Æsirs find them they'll kill them, they don't want to take the risk," he emerged from Tony's hug and sat next to the babies to stroke their heads.
The genius, who at the moment couldn't find a away to sort things out, followed him, "What does Thor think about it?" He hated to talk about Thor with Loki, but in this particular case he could make an exception.
"He agrees with me and wants to protect them, he doesn't care what Norns say."
Tony stretched out a hand toward the puppy, put it on his head and gave him a little scratch behind his ears, "So they are supposed to wipe out the gods?" he asked, absorbed by the three sleeping cubs's contemplation. They seemed the embodiment of tenderness in that moment, there was no way he could think of them as the slayers of all the Norse Gods.
"Now they are babies, but they'll grow. The Æsirs are scared of facing them when the moment'll come, so they want to put an end to this right now, when they can't defend themselves."
"So you want to keep them here, hidden from the Asgardians, but the ones who are looking for them are gods, not fat policemen, they can see them everywhere, I suppose."
"In theory, yes, but the energy of Arc reactor, as I've experienced myself, swerves our powers. Essentially, your house's a blind spot for everyone who's looking for them."
"How did you find that out?" Tony asked while a little suspicion began to creep into his mind.
"I haven't found it out, I hope to be right," he sighted returning his eyes to his children.
Suspicion disappeared as soon as it had arrived: Loki wasn't using him just to find a shelter for his children, what there was between them wasn't about that.
"Just tell me one thing: are you going to come and settle here with your children?"
"I only need a place where I can be sure that my children won't be killed, Tony, and if it coincides with staying with you, so much the better," he looked at him from behind his long lashes, his eyes quite desperate.
"Are you really waiting for an answer without doing whatever you ant in the first place, asking for permission only when all said and done?"
He nodded.
He sighted "Probably I'll. regret this soon, but you can stay."
Loki raised his eyes and smiled, a happy smile that could take the breath away, and then he pushed Tony against the sofa, kissing him.
"Thank you," he whispered when they both were short of breath.