Disclaimer: I. Own. Nothing.
Tony didn't have a lot of friends at school. He could count on one hand the number of friends (not mere acquaintances) he had who actually liked him back. There was Pepper, but she was secretly a goddess (if only he believed in those) in disguise and therefore didn't count. There was also Rhodey, his childhood friend since forever. The guy was a bit too strict given his military upbringing, but Rhodey was a good, loyal friend who put up with him and that was a lot considering how 'eccentric' Tony could be.
So that his left his friend count at...one. Two, he corrected, sneaking in Pepper because that number was a bit too small for his tastes. Tony later revised it to two point five after meeting Loki. He hoped to make it three by the time he actually got to know the kid and if it bothered him that he was seeking companionship from a six year old, he didn't think about it.
"Tony?"
Tony made a noise, signaling that he was listening with at least one ear. They were sitting under one of the big oak trees, enjoying a lazy-feeling October evening. Ever since their fateful meeting a week ago, Tony had been almost ritual with his meetings, coming straight home after school, blazing through his homework and departing at around six or so to meet Loki at the park. The ink-haired wonder was always there before him. He just assumed Loki lived near. He questioned why they never saw each other at school. It turned out the the kid was home-schooled He left it at that.
Loki looked thoughtful, "What does 'accident' mean?"
"Accident? Why do you want to know that?"
"...It's..." Green eyes averted his gaze and a pink tongue swiped across his lips, "Important."
Tony clicked his tongue. It wasn't often that Loki asked him questions about such menial subjects. Definitions were never particularly a favourite of his, the kid preferring to figure out stuff by himself, connecting the dots on his own. If he needed help, he asked for it, but tried to avoid it as long as he could. As a man (because he was not a boy) of science, Tony appreciated Loki's style of learning. They were both hands-on learners who had something to prove.
"It means when something you don't like happens. Not on purpose, though. It just...happens," Tony answered finally, picking out his words carefully because Loki really was only six. He didn't want to sound like one of those sugary-sweet teachers who had a degrading accent because 'Oh, but they're just children. They can't understand this stuff yet.' Tony scoffed, there were many other ways to phrase his answer. A lot of them just happened to contain some very long words that Loki probably never heard in his life.
"Oh."
Something about the tone, the way he said it just screamed off. Tony regarded Loki with a mix of concern and curiosity.
"Something else on your mind?" Tony prodded gently, trying his best to not be insensitive. He swore that if Loki cried again because of his stupid, big, fat mouth, he would dance on his hands to make the tears go away. Kids crying - not his area of expertise.
"Daddy, he-" Loki started, shifting positions and biting his lip. The way his legs were pressed flush against his chest and how his arms wrapped around them tightly made Loki look infinitely smaller and more vulnerable. Tony could already fill in the blanks and he put a hand on Loki's shoulder (that was what friends did to other friends right? Shit, he was not good at this) and squeezed it reassuringly. When Loki winced, he pulled his hand away and apologized.
The next few moments were spent in relative awkward silence.
"You don't have to tell me you know," Tony mumbled, once again, filing away a reminder to murder (and maim, he added later on) Loki's family.
Loki gave him a thankful look and they spent the rest of their time pretending to be superheros. He was a man with really cool armour that shot missiles and Loki was a wizard. Together they battled against an army of giant reindeer-reptile crossbreeds.
They won and what a satisfying victory it was.
When he finally came home, he didn't waste any time in rushing up to his room, making a blatant point of ignoring his father. Tony ordered Jarvis, the family butler, to remind him when it was dinner time before closing and locking his door.
He heard his mother gently ask where he had been through the wooden barrier and he answered with a vague 'Out'.
Tony laced his fingers together and cracked his knuckles, slipping into his chair and booting up his laptop. A couple clicks and the word 'Laufeyson' typed into Google later, he already had several tabs open. One was about Icelandic naming traditions after Google had said Did you mean: Laufey to his first search.
The one that was labeled 'Laufey' was some fancy article about a frost giantess from Norse Mythology. He skimmed through the information and clicked the hyperlink leading to another article about a god of mischief named Loki. Tony hummed in surprise and made a note to tell Loki about this earlier.
After that, he managed to find a biography about an Icelandic man (Tony snorted) who was making ground-breaking strides in glaciology. He stopped reading and skipped to the end once the author started gushing about how amazing and brilliant Laufey was, even if the man was a bit rude. Tony had heard enough of those types of comments from people talking to him and his father. Sadly, there was no address of any sort of where this Laufey was living in currently. All he had was a sad, tearful message that Laufey had moved to the Americas ages ago. The year stated 1935.
He disregarded it.
The third tab was the one that caught his attention thought. Brown eyes scanned the blog with interest. It was a about a house-fire that happened in Marvel City seventy years ago. He read it mostly because nothing interesting ever happened in Marvel City (yet there was a lot of action in New York and Tony made it is mission to move to the city when he was older) and it happened to mention one very familiar Laufey.
...neighbours were given quite the wake-up call when at around 3:00 am, the sounds of explosions reached their ears. The flames reached up to scorching temperatures as the house was engulfed. Firefighters took well over an hour to put the blaze under control, and an additional thirty to extinguish it.
It comes as grim news to say that the family inhabiting the house all died as they were unable to escape in time. Among them was Laufey Einarson, a leading glaciologist...
It continued on but after that bit, Tony lost interest as he looked for a date.
1942.
He groaned, all that time for nothing. How many Laufeys could their be? Norse Mythology must really be popular back in Iceland.
Still, that one article about Loki could be worthwhile.
Knock.
"Sir, dinner is ready."
"Thank-you Jarvis."
Dinner was an awkward affair, Tony would admit later in the evening. It was just him and mother, not to say that that wasn't a surprising outcome. Howard Stark held no interest in his family and it made Tony wonder why his mother would marry such a man.
"So, what did you do today, Tony?" Maria Stark asked with a polite, caring smile.
Tony paused. He felt like standing up and slamming his hands on the table, crying out with accusations about how she really didn't care about him and it was no use to pretend that she cared. But he didn't and he commended himself on his self-control.
"Hung out with a friend," Tony answered as vaguely as he could. He placed a piece of pork in his mouth and chewed.
"Really? Sounds like it was fun. Who is it?"
"A kid."
Maria frowned and Tony felt no guilt.
"Do you have a name?"
Tony smirked smugly, "Tony Stark."
"Tony..."
"You asked if I had a name, and I did more than just confirm it," he shrugged and went back to eating.
They ate the rest of their meal in silence.
Tony laid in his bed and wondered how he could track down Loki's incredibly elusive parents. All the technology 2012 had to offer and then some at his fingertips and he couldn't even find out the addressees of some jerks.
He turned over.
Tony knew he could always ask Loki where he lived, but it felt creepy (and what he was planning to do totally wasn't) to ask a young child that question. Plus, that wouldn've been boring.
The police station probably had some records in the archives. If Loki was home-schooled then that implied that Loki had a home. Probably in Marvel City since it needed to be close to the park. Tony frowned. He realized that the only way to get his hands on those records would be to sneak in.
Or...
He could always have someone give it to him. Maybe a certain blond with blue eyes and a patriotism that made him want to puke.
It helped that that guy also happened to be the son of the head police chief.
I didn't expect the response so I wrote up the next chapter extra early (making my procrastination work for me).
Okay, Laufey Einarson is just, I don't know. Who is Laufey's father anyway?
Happy reading!
