Loneliness. Complete and utter. Loki does not know anyone in this realm nor is he interested in getting know anyone in this realm. He wants to go home. He wants Thor. For days he hides inside his new luxury apartment, ordering food for delivery. Eventually, however, he comes to terms with his situation. He is going to be on Midgard for a very long time, at least until Thor is crowned and Odin is dead. Then he and his child will not have to live in fear. He feels anger then. This child should be the rightful heir to the throne of Asgard but if the public ever learned of the child's parentage it would be killed off. Whoever Thor is aligned to marry, her child will be seen as the legitimate heir not his. It fills Loki's chest with bile. He resigns himself to make friends with his neighbors and carve out a small niche of happiness on this god forsaken realm.
XxXxXxXx
"He's beautiful." Natasha says as she admires Loki's portrait. "He looks lonely though."
"Loki was always a breed apart, though I suspect that was because of his predicament. I am eager to see the kind of man he will be now that his needs are being met. If I can find him." Thor's face displays his signature kicked puppy dog expression and Natasha pats his arm in comfort.
"Jarvis scan this image and render a 3D image based off of your analysis and then upload it into the facial recognition software." Tony orders.
"Yes sir."
"I cannot thank you enough for your efforts Sir Anthony."
"Well, based on what you've told us it is a long shot but we might get lucky." Tony says.
"What we need to do to narrow our search is do a personality profile of Loki. Where is the most likely place he would go to settle down here on Earth?" Natasha asks.
"Loki is a prince and accustomed to the finer things in life. He emptied his room of all his valuables before he left, no doubt to sell them to get some of the currency of this world." Thor says.
"That's a place to start." Steve says. "We could start with jewelry and pawn shops and look for anything that might be Asgardian and show Loki's picture too."
"You mean portrait. Won't people think that is odd?" Clint says.
"You're so cute when you underestimate me. Jarvis, using the image of the portrait, fake a photo the team can use to show to other people." Tony says.
"Compiling sir." After a few moments the printer prints several mock photos of Loki.
"Damn Tony, that looks real." Clint says.
"I've got all the best toys."
"Okay, let's assume Loki landed on earth in the same spot Thor did. He didn't have any money and he didn't know anything about how anything works, which means he probably did not travel very far." Steve has Jarvis pull up a map of the city. "Jarvis, how many pawn shops and jewelry stores are within a 4 block radius of the park location?"
"33 Captain."
"Damn! Why so many?"
"Rich part of town. Lots of high end jewelry stores down in that area. Thor what kind of items did Loki have?" Steve asks.
"Rings, daggers, a jewel encrusted box with a rose on top made entirely of gold and diamonds." Thor says.
"What color diamonds?" Tony asks.
"Red ones." Thor says. Steve has Thor elaborate as much as possible on all of the items he thinks Loki had in his possession so that his team knows what to look for. He assigns sections of the area to the team and they spread out to hunt for Loki.
XxXxXxXx
Thor uses Mjolnir to fly through the air as Natasha clings to him. She can't help but smile. How can she not? She's flying through the air with a great big blonde hunk holding a magic hammer. And he's a prince. They touch down at the first jewelry store on their list and enter it. Natasha knows these men will not be forthcoming with information right away, so she watches them for any tells, like a poker player. She expects them to lie. Anonymity is precious in the jewelry trade.
Thor circles round all the glass cases searching for any items that are familiar but he doesn't recognize anything. The man Natasha is talking to is honest and does not recognize Loki. She can see it in the eyes. He was never here. They move on to the next one.
It goes like this for all the teams as they search for someone who recognizes Thor's brother. After a couple of days of searching they are no closer to finding him. The group holds another meeting to assess their strategy.
"You wouldn't happen to have any portraits of any of the stuff Loki brought here with him? Even just one of the items? If we knew what to look for we'd be more effective. Right now you are the only one out of all of us that would recognize something that belongs to him."
"Nay I do not have such an image. I think I must personally visit each of these establishments and inspect their wares."
"You will probably still not find anything." Tony says. Everyone looks at him.
"Look I don't think the salesmen are going to be forthcoming anyway. Not every diamond they get comes from ethical sources plus they are paid well to keep the secrets of rich people like me. Instead of going into those shops as Iron Man, I need to go into them as myself. The items your brother brought with him sound like they are very high quality. There is a good chance they wouldn't even be on display in the general showroom. They are probably being kept in the VIP area."
"So Thor would still need to visit each store himself but you could get him access to the places where Loki's stuff might be stored?"
"Yes. I think Thor needs to dress in human clothes and look the part of a rich man with a ton of money to spend. With me tagging along they will buy it."
"That won't really work in the stores you two have already been in."
"Sure it will. When I'm in the suit I'm Iron Man, there on official business. When in not, I'm Tony Stark, billionaire with money to burn. As for Thor, we could trim that hair of his and shave his beard and put him into some nice clothes. He'll be a new man."
"I think that would work actually." Natasha says.
XxXxXxXxXx
"So you're the new mysterious neighbor. We are pleased to meet you!" Jill says to Loki. She is hosting a party in her family's apartment and sent him an invitation so he could meet the neighbors.
"I thank you."
"Where is that wife of yours? She is your wife isn't she?" Jill's husband asks. His name is Greg or Gary or something. Loki has been using illusions to make it appear that two people are living in his apartment. It will come in handy later when his baby bump shows.
"She is visiting her mother. With the news of our pregnancy she needed to go through all of her old childhood things and bring them here. She and her mother are sorting through all of that tonight."
"You guys are pregnant! Oh my goodness!" All the ladies at the party crowd around him then and gush about all the things they'll need, where the best preschool is, and various all-natural pregnancy diets Loki's wife Linda (yeah Linda, that'll work) should start right away. Loki keeps a polite smile as he tries to build a social web with these people. Their customs and ways are so strange to him, but he will need to get used to life on this world so he tells himself to make the effort to reciprocate their interest in things.
XxXxXxXxXx
"33 stores and we found nothing." Tony says.
"That just means Loki didn't visit any of those places. Perhaps he travelled further than we thought before selling anything."
"That's going to be a problem. Just by expanding the search radius another 2 blocks we add another 21 jewelry stores to our list. At three blocks that list jumps to 49."
"Fuck, people living in New York City have too much fucking money." Clint says.
"What is Thor doing?" Cap asks, looking out the window. Thor is standing on the balcony standing in the rain. Thunder claps outside and lightning streaks across the sky in front of him.
"Wasn't today's forecast sunny?" Clint asks.
"Ah-huh." Tony says. Thor's long red cape billows behind him dramatically. Each passing day is like a knife in his heart.
"He's the real thing isn't he?" Natasha asks.
"No. There is only one god and he doesn't dress like that." Steve says.
"Yeah well, be that as it may, the god standing on my balcony is whipping up the wind fast enough to start causing damage to the city. I'm going to go talk to him." Tony says. He steps outside and stands beside Thor and waits for the man to speak.
"I may never see him again. I may never lay eyes upon my own child."
"It's only been a couple of weeks. Don't give up hope yet. Something will break our way soon."
"I pray you are right my friend."