"The Seventh Child"
Leo Fitz rubbed his temples, and a large hand landed on his shoulder.
"Turbo, you okay?"
"Headache," he said shortly. Damnit, Jör! Won't you leave Captain Rogers alone? I'm sure he didn't design his suit.
No, your bossssss did.
Not the latest one.
"Turbo!"
"What, Mack?" he snapped, glaring up at his friend. Immediately, he felt guilty. "Sorry. I've got a lot on my mind." Yes. A lot of people.
"Want me to get something for you?"
Fitz sighed. "Maybe a hot water bottle for my head."
"You go lie down. I'll be back soon." Mack gestured to the next room, where there was an extremely comfortable armchair. Fitz nodded, saved his work, and wandered into the lounge. It was vacant, so he collapsed into the chair, kicked the footrest up, and closed his eyes as he rested his head back.
It'd been like this since last night, and he probably shouldn't have tried working. Silly him, he thought that human facts and figures would shut his siblings up. But they'd even ignored Hela, their big sister. Sure, Fitz hadn't heard from his family in a long time, but they communicated from time to time, if it was possible. Whatever the Avengers were doing – especially Uncle Thor – it seemed to have opened the floodgates so that their voices came through loud and clear, and all at once.
The Man of Iron called the woman in black a star, Narfi said. But she looks nothing like a ball of white fire. She looks Asgardian.
Fitz groaned, rubbing his eyes. He hoped that Vali wouldn't… but it was in vain.
Perhaps she is a shape-shifter, Narfi's twin chimed in. Thank Odin they'd left Hela where she was, the queen of her own realm, because she would've smacked them up the back of the head, rather than mocking them like Jör, or misleading them further like Fen.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up," he whispered, and he rubbed his face. "Please, I'm trying to rest here, yeah?"
"Didn't say a word, mate," Hunter said, plopping himself down nearby. "Mack said you wouldn't want a beer, but I brought one in case."
"Don't think I could handle it," Fitz said.
"Here," Mack murmured. Fitz gazed up at him, grateful, and hummed as Mack laid the heat pack on his forehead.
"Thank you."
"Not a problem, Turbo. Need anything else, you let me know. Or Hunter can fetch me."
Sleip was strangely silent, and Fitz wondered whether the Avengers had checked the Asgardian palace stables yet. Or had Mother hidden Sleipnir? Really, it was well past time for Loki to reveal himself. Fitz knew his mother was alive, but he had mixed feelings about the being who'd stabbed Fitz's boss. Not that Coulson seemed to have a problem with it, although he refused to say how he knew about Fitz's unusual heritage.
Well, don't they look like they've accomplished so much? Fenrir said.
Fitz scowled, and thought as loudly as he could, They've just broken all of you out of confinement. Don't be ungrateful!
Sheesh, calm down, he growled.
No sign of Mother? Or Sleip?
Uncle Thor'sss gone to break Ssssleipnir out of the ssstablessss, Jör said.
It was quiet for awhile, and Fitz relaxed. He was on the cusp of sleep when there was a wall of noise. He nearly jumped out of his seat, and Hunter leapt towards him.
"Whoa, mate, are you alright?"
"Gah!" Fitz tangled his hands in his hair and gripped tight. "What did you do? Fen, what happened? Jör? Anyone?"
Fen was being ssssarcassstic, like alwayssss, Jör said. Now the Avengerssss know about Mother'sss sssseventh child. You.
"Damnit!"
"I'm getting help," Hunter said, standing up. Mack had already come running back in, and was kneeling in front of Fitz.
"Hey, calm down, Turbo," he said, grabbing Fitz's hands and wrenching them away. "Stop doing that. You'll hurt yourself."
"I think we're about to get a visit from my family," Fitz said, trying hard to focus. "Shit, I have to tell Coulson. They could be here any minute. And I have to… I have to find Heimdall. He needs to know who I am. I know where Mum is, but I can't… I can't…"
"I'm calling Coulson," Hunter said, already on his phone.
"The Avengers are coming, too," Fitz said. "If they're doing what I think they are…"
"The Avengers?" Mack said. "Are you sure? Have you got some kind of powers you should've told us about?"
"I can hear my family sometimes, but I haven't got any real powers. If I have, they haven't manifested themselves yet. I don't even turn the tiniest bit blue."
Mack rubbed up and down his arms. "Okay, I've got no idea what you're talking about."
"My mother had six other children before me, by different fathers. I was the only one conceived with a human, though."
"The others being…?" Hunter prompted, shoving his phone back into his pocket.
"H-how much do you know about Norse mythology?" Fitz asked.
"A hell of a lot more after we met Sif," Mack said. "Had to research, just in case."
"And about the children of Loki, the Trickster God?"
There was silence while his friends processed this. Then Hunter spoke.
"Loki is your father," he said.
"My mother," Fitz corrected. "He's intersexed. It's a Jötun thing. I never met my father, and I haven't seen my mother in a long time. He's supposedly dead now, and Uncle Thor is still under that impression. The Avengers were talking about Mum, and our uncle revealed that he really did have children. He didn't know about me, of course, because after most of the others were imprisoned, our mother learnt his lesson. Don't tell racist All-Fathers about monstrous children from interspecies relationships. Hela and I are the only ones who look remotely humanoid, and she looks half dead. Literally."
"You do look human," Mack said.
"Because I take after my father. Only a bit of my mother in me, as far as we know. It was safer to keep me on Midgard… on Earth."
"How did our lives become so crazy that this doesn't sound insane?" Hunter said.
"Was that rhetorical?"
"Yeah, mate."
"Sorry." Fitz leaned back again, nearly squashing the heat pack. "I've had my siblings chattering away in my head for hours, ever since the Avengers busted Fenrir out of the cave. Jörmungandr was more difficult, and Hela had to help when they were nearly caught rescuing Vali and Narfi. She chose to stay behind. They've just released Sleipnir, and Odin knows where they'll put him. But they've all been snarking away at each other for ages. That's why I've got a spitting headache."
"So they're coming for you now?" Mack said.
"Yes," Fitz said. "Coulson will kill me. We've kept it quiet, and he hasn't worked out how to tell the Avengers that he's alive without them killing him on first sight. We'll have to go out there together." He sighed. "I haven't met all of them, not in person. I've met Hela…" It reminded him of when he nearly died under the ocean, and she'd granted him more life. Sometimes he wished that she hadn't touched him with both hands. He was still recovering from the brain cells and nerves she had rendered comatose, and her apologies did him no good.
"Hey." Mack squeezed his hand, and Hunter perched on the arm of the chair.
"I'm fine. It'll be nice to meet my half-siblings after all this time. And maybe Mother will join us one day."
"Will Coulson be alright with that?" Hunter said.
"I'll have to be," the director said, making them all jump. "This is going to be one of those days, isn't it?"
"I'm sorry, sir," Fitz said. "Hela mentioned me, said I was 'mostly' safe, but they took it to mean that I wasn't entirely safe."
"Well, you're not," Mack pointed out. Hunter snorted, and Fitz rolled his eyes. He wished he could see the director's expression.
"Now the Avengers want to rescue me," he said. "Do they really think I'd be any safer with them than I am here? But now you'll have to see them, and I'm sorry."
"Turns out that Fury hinted to Stark that I wasn't all that dead," Coulson said. "I suspect he, at least, won't be surprised to see me."
Fitz looked up suddenly. "Heimdall's just sent them. They're nearly here."
Coulson sighed. "I don't think I'll risking wearing a tie around Natasha Romanov."
"All Grandfather's fault, really," Fitz muttered. "He wanted them locked up. Our mother had no say in the matter, nor our grandmother."
"How do you know all of this, sir?" Mack said, standing up to his ten foot-whatever.
Fitz turned his head, and saw the director's half-smile.
"Classified," Coulson said.
Okay, so I'm guessing the OP wanted to see the Avengers doing the breaking out, but as I thought about it, I decided that it'd be funnier to see everything from Fitz's point-of-view, right down to sibling-induced headaches. Not sure I could do justice to everyone's reactions, I'm sorry to say.
I figure that part of the reason Fitz could empathise with Skye was because of this, and he kept quiet about his family because of the prejudice shown against powered people. Especially since he doesn't have his own noticeable powers (as far as anyone's aware).
Please review!