Thor was gone, banished, and there was nothing Loki could do. His father... could he even call Odin that? Now that he knew he wasn't? Now that he knew what he was?... Odin had fallen into the Odin sleep and Amir had stepped up to take the weight of the throne while Loki and his mother attempted to cope with grief Amir was an old friend of Odin's and wasn't hearing anything about bringing Thor home. Lost in his thoughts as they replayed the last few days over and over again, Loki didn't notice he wasn't alone until they spoke. "Hello, Loki."
Loki looked up to see his old girlfriend, Amora aka the Enchantress, standing before him. She wore her usual green dress, tights and shoes with her long blonde hair was clipped back like it always was with the usual green head band. In her arms she held a young girl who wore a pale purple dress with the same blonde hair as Amora.
"Amora." Loki breathed, standing "what are you doing here?"
"I heard Thor had been banished to Midgard. How... terrible. I came to support you through this hard time." Loki just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at her. Amora sighed in frustration. "Fine. I bring good news, Loki. Congratulations, you're a father." She shoved the small girl into Loki's arms before continuing. "Her name is Luminardia, she is four and she is your problem now. Goodbye." And with that, Amora vanished.
"Bye-bye mommy." Luminardia said and Loki looked down at her. She looked up and smiled at him but he couldn't return the smile. The small girl he held in his arms had his eyes, the exact same shape and colour. She began looking around Loki's room and Loki followed her gaze around, trying to see it all though her eyes. His room was very clean and tidy, probably the neatest place on Asgard, Thor had always joked. Loki signed and put Luminardia down and she wondered into his room, her bare feet padding across the cold metal floor.
Did he even know how to raise a child? What if she turned out like him? What if she was like him, a monster? He looked at her standing innocently in the middle of his room and sighed again. He really didn't know what to do. Usually, not that this happened a lot, he would go to Thor. Who, after laughing about it for ten to thirty minutes, sometimes more, depending on what it was, would eventually help him. But Thor was gone. And it was all his fault. Suddenly there was a knocking on his door. "Loki?" it was Fandral with Sif and the rest of the Warriors three probably in tow. "You still crying on your balcony steps, or did someone come to cheer you up." There was more knocking when Loki didn't answer. "Loki?!"
Quietly, Loki grabbed Luminardia and hid her behind a curtain out on the balcony. "Stay here." He told her sternly and she sat on one of the golden steps. "LOKI?!"
"Coming!" Loki yelled. With one last warning look at Luminardia, Loki went back inside and opened the door. Just as he thought, Sif and the Warriors three were standing there, frowning at him. "Yes?" he asked, attempting innocence. "What was the Enchantress doing here?" Sif asked. Loki shrugged, "I don't know." He lied. It still felt a little strange, lying to his friends, but for some reason, he didn't want Luminardia's presence known. Not yet anyway.
"We saw her on your balcony, Loki, don't lie to us." Sif hissed. Loki looked from one face to the other, he didn't want to lie to them but he didn't really want them to know about the small girl hiding on his balcony. Starting to get impatient Volstagg gave Loki a small shove but, being a little bit 'flimsy' as many people put it, the force of the shove was enough to send Loki falling to the ground with a thud. Thought the ringing in his ears Loki heard a small patter of feet and a number of gasps. Someone tugged on his sleeve.
"Daddy?" a small worried voice spoke up next to him. "Daddy." His eyes focused on a mane on golden hair and a pair of blue-green eyes, a small girl, his daughter. She sniffed and her eyes began to fill with tears. "I'm sorry, daddy." She said and began to sob. "Shhh." Loki said, pulling her into a hug. "It's OK. It's all OK." He wondered if he had frightened her by telling her to hide. Had she thought they were going to hurt him?
"Oh my God." Fandral's statement brought Loki back to where he was, Sif and the Warriors Three had entered and closed his door, now they all stood before them in a line. He stood up carefully, still holding Luminardia close. "You have a daughter? You actually have a daughter? With the Enchantress?" Loki was about to defend himself when Sif hit Fandral on the arm. "How could you hate her?"Sif asked. "She's so adorable." Loki blinked in surprise as Luminardia reached out to Sif, indicating she wanted a hug from the warrior woman. Carefully, Loki passed his daughter to Sif who smiled down at the small girl. "You're so beautiful." Sif crooned "Mummy's hair but Daddy's eyes." Hogun looked over her shoulder. "Exactly Loki's eyes." He said in a grim voice. Sif rolled her eyes. "That's Hogun the Grim." She told Luminardia "I'm Sif and that's Fandral and Volstagg. Those three boys are called 'The Warriors Three'." Sif sat next to Loki on his bed, Luminardia on her lap. "Loki, what we really came to discuss with you was... well, Thor. We need to get him back." without saying anything, Loki covered his face with his hands. "Please Loki. We need him and... something bad is going to happen, I can feel it." She released the wriggling child before continuing "who know what'll happen to him on Midgard. He's not exactly a god anymore. There must be something we can do."
Loki watched his daughter wonder off into another part of his apartment before speaking. "We should find out how to bring Thor back, before we set about actually doing it. My father, he... he said something about worthiness. Thor has to prove his worth, or something like that." Sif thought for a moment. "How do we do that?"
"I don't know." Loki hid his face in his hands but looked up when Sif laughed. She was looking over his shoulder and when he followed her gaze, what he saw made him smile. Luminardia had found his gold helmet and was wearing it, even though it was far too big for her. "Tell you the truth, I don't think you're going to have a problem with her." Sif giggled and Luminardia gasped and ran back outside.
"Did you know, Luminardia means 'small child'?" Hogun said, suddenly, still standing by the door. "Wow, Amora really didn't like her." Loki muttered. "I don't want to call my daughter 'small child'."
"Luminardia may mean 'small child' but Lumi means 'angel'." Sif told him. Loki smiled as Luminardia came running back in and jumped onto the double bed next to him. "Perrdy bridge, Daddy. I wanna go see the Perddy bridge. Please. Please, please, please, please, please."
"Tomorrow." Loki said, firmly. "Oh, but Daddyyyy."
"No buts, Lumi." Loki said and she stopped jumping up and down and sighed. "OK. Tomorrow. Pwomise?"
"Promise."
…
The sun filtered through Loki's bedroom window the next morning, just the same as it always did at six am. Loki groaned at sat up in bed, another day. His room was quiet, too quiet. He looked down at the small bed he had managed to produce for Lumi. It was empty. "Lumi?" he asked to the quiet apartment, already knowing the answer. Silence. Loki groaned again and flopped back down. "Oh god no, just no." He groaned and got up. He really didn't want to admit he'd lost one small girl already. Before leaving he glanced out across his balcony and his eyes fell on the Bifrost and he remembered that Lumi wanted to see it. He sighed, suddenly Lumi was almost as much trouble as his brother.
When he arrived at Heimdall's observatory Loki wasn't surprised to find Lumi talking to Heimdall as he guarded the portal. "Here he is." Heimdall said when he saw him. "Daddy, perrdy bridge. It all perrdy colours." Lumi said excitedly, jumping up and down a little. "You were meant to wait for me, Lumi." Loki told her with a yawn. "The bridge isn't going anywhere."
"Sorry daddy."
"Have you introduced her to your parents yet?" Heimdall asked. "No." Loki said quickly, almost cutting off Heimdall as he did. "Why we no go see parents?" Loki's ever curious daughter asked, hanging off his arm. "We go see them Daddy. We go see them now. Please. , please, please, please." Loki groaned and inwardly cursing at his luck. "OK. Let's go. But you have to be on your best behaviour."
"Yes!"
"That means no jumping around."
"Yes."
"Or shouting."
"OK!"
"And no pulling on my arm."
"We go see them now." Lumi said, dragging her father back towards the city.
Loki gave his golden haired daughter a stern look before knocking on his parent's door. But Lumi just smiled at him and followed him in when he was told to enter. "Loki." Frigga said, rising from Odin's side. "Who is this?" she asked when she noticed the small girl holding tight to Loki's hand. "Mother. This is Luminardia, my daughter."
"Your daughter?" Frigga asked, surprised. "Yes." Loki said as Lumi ran up to Odin's side. "why he no wake up?" she asked.
"Odin must sleep, nothing can wake him." Frigga explained, gently as Loki sat next to her
"For how long?"
"Not long."
"Oh." There was a moment of silence while Lumi gazed around in awe at the golden walls. "I don't know anything about being a parent." Loki whispered to his mother. "I've already lost her once. And I haven't even had her for 24 hours." Frigga looked at her youngest son and smiled. "But you found her again." She whispered back. "I doubt she can be any more trouble than Thor. And you've been coping with him for centuries."
"Thor's not my child. I have a responsibility to look after her."
"You love her, don't you?"
"Why do you think I call her angel instead of small child?" they watched and Lumi got up and started exploring the room. "Do you think she's going to be like me?"
"how do you mean?"
"when I touch something from Jotunheim my skin turns blue and my eyes turn red. That's how I found out who I was."
"I don't know. All I know is that she is the daughter of mischief and magic." Loki looked at her. "the girl who will save Asgard? I thought that was just a bedtime story."
"No. there was a prophecy written of it many years ago. a small child will appear, and she will be the daughter of mischief and magic and she will save us all."
"she's 4."
"we may have to wait a few years." Frigga agreed.
"daddy, I'm hungry." Lumi said, appearing at Loki's elbow and Frigga smiled. Lumi grinned up at her then focused her attention back on her father. "Daddy, may I have some food?" Loki chuckled a little. "Of course. Come on." Loki had just stood up to take Lumi to the kitchen when she unexpectedly hugged Frigga and said. "I hope he wakes up soon. I want to meet him."