"Loki, what's this?" Natasha asked, straightening from where she was putting their clothing in the dresser to pull out a small doll. One of her eyebrows rose in curiosity as Loki's face paled, then went deep red.
"That is something that should never have left Asgard," he muttered. Natasha looked worried for a moment, hoping it wasn't something dangerous, and she asked him what he meant by that as he stepped closer to take it.
"I'm not going to fall sick or lose my fingers for touching it, am I?" She asked, only half playing. Her lover shot her a small, playful smile.
"Not that I know of. Must you always be so serious? No, this was a toy of mine from when I was a child. Likely Thor put it there. We used to do that whenever we'd court a girl; take the most embarrassing thing we'd owned and were too sentimental to throw out, then hide it so the lady might see it." He gave a short laugh at the memory, one hand stroking the worn face of the doll. "This was made for me by my mother."
"You played with dolls?" Natasha asked, her mouth twisting a little as she tried not to laugh. Loki hit her over the head with it, the soft fabric barely affecting her.
"He was what you would call an action figure. One of my favorite heroes of the old stories. He was Odin's brother, and even though he was a sorcerer he was one of the best." He grinned as he looked down at the doll once more, then back up at Natasha. She was staring at him with something else that he hadn't seen in some time, a light that was soft and sweet and she stood on her tiptoes to press her lips to his cheeks.
"You're adorable," she murmured to him when she was flat on her feet again.
He just smiled down at her and couldn't help himself from tucking the doll under his arm. He'd almost forgotten about Vali. "Didn't you have any dolls or toys that you used to play with growing up?"
Her expression hardened a little and she looked away before shaking her head. "No. I didn't. Toys weren't allowed in the Red Room; we were supposed to focus on our work and nothing else. Toys meant a distraction."
His brow pulled forward as he stared at her, searching her eyes once he tipped her chin back to face his. "None? Ever? What kind of childhood did you have?"
She scowled and pulled away. "That's a stupid question and you know it is, Loki." She said, throwing one last scowl at him before she disappeared out of the door.
When she came back, thoroughly exhausted from working herself over and over in the training room, there was a small assortment of gifts on the bed, Loki pacing just on the other side of it. His face lit up when she entered and he grinned as she crossed over towards her, arms folded across her chest.
"What's all this?" She asked, head tipped to the side.
He pulled her close to kiss her forehead, ignoring the sweat and the quiet protest, before he reached back to grab a box and press it into her hand. "Open it."
With slow fingers she did, pulling at the carefully taped and cut paper. He'd picked the Christmas variety, she noticed as she caught sight of a fat little Santa Claus starring jollily up at her, and it made her smile in spite of herself. Under the paper was a plain box, and in the box was the doll she'd found that day.
"You're giving me your old toys?"
"I thought you might like to say that you owned some and . . . well, if you're up to it, I thought we might play." He smiled, eyes alight as he watched her reaction. For once, Natasha was speechless, staring down at the toy as the hand holding it trembled for a moment. She pressed her eyes shut and breathed deep, so when she looked back up at Loki they were clear of teras.
"You went through all this trouble so I could play with some toys?" She asked, the words cut off by an incredulous laugh that Loki joined in on.
"Darling, there's no such thing as too much trouble. You know I'd do anything for you," he murmured as he leaned forward to kiss her softly. She gave a quiet groan when he pulled away, his hand on hers as he led her to the rest of her presents. "Now c'mon and open up so we can get started," he teased.
They were sprawled out on the bed moments later, Natasha's fingers wrapped around the small horse figure that she galloped around the bed, neighing as she went. Loki laughed.
"You call that a neigh?" He asked, smirking, before letting out a deep whinny that had Natasha on her back with laughter and asking him how he got so good at that. He just shot her a secretive smile as he took a carved wolf statue and gave a deep growl. That was a story for a different day, one Natasha would be sure to wait until he was ready to tell.
A/N: A story for a different day indeed! Hope you enjoyed it, and thanks to JackPittGregor for the prompt! 3 If there's anything you'd like to see, Blackfrost-wise, feel free to leave me a message on here, or on my tumblr!