Notes: Slightly awkward transitional chapter. Sorry.

Warnings: None needed.

Chapter Seven

Loki was immersed to his nose in a tub full of hot water and lavender-scented bubbles when Annie tapped on the bathroom door.

"Are you okay in there?" she called.

"Perfectly," he replied.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Loki sat up a little, decided there were sufficient bubbles for decency, and sank back down in the water. "Please do."

Annie opened the door and slipped through, which for some reason Loki found endearing, considering she had no need of human entryways. She walked over to the bathtub and sat on the mat beside it, and Loki shifted around so his head was as near hers as possible.

"How are you?" she asked. "All recovered?"

"I think so," Loki said, stretching under the water.

"Oh, good," Annie said. "I was a little worried."

"How nice," Loki replied, lifting himself out of the tub just far enough that he could reach over and kiss her.

The tree-cutting group had arrived at the house some forty-five minutes earlier, by which time the three humans were badly chilled, but otherwise had apparently come to little harm. Loki stopped at some distance from the house and shooed them toward it, with commands to quickly get out of their wet things and also not track snow all over the entryway. (He rather thought he was getting his Midgardian-fathers' speeches mixed up with Midgardian-mothers' speeches, but no one in the group objected.)

The humans sent on their way, Loki and George had continued around the house to the storage building in the back, where a tree stand had been placed in readiness before the expedition. Loki had unwrapped the tree, shaken off the snow, and held it standing up while George adjusted the tree stand. They had then left its branches to dry and fluff up again so it could be brought in later that evening to be decorated.

Loki had then shifted back into his Aesir form, and George helped him get dressed again in his discarded clothes. These were, of course, thoroughly wet and by now nearly frozen. Once back in his customary form, Loki also discovered he had apparently exerted himself more than he realized: his muscles were not only shaking with cold, but twitching with exhaustion. He and George tramped back into the house through the kitchen, where Pepper informed them that the rest of the party had been sent for restorative hot baths, and bid them do likewise. Loki obeyed, resorting to a short magical jump rather than trying to cope with all those stairs.

While filling the tub and struggling out of his clothing once again, Loki had found a bottle marked "Lavender, for Relaxation" and tipped a goodly amount into the water. To his pleasure, the label had not lied. He now felt warm and peaceful, and not at all in a hurry to lever himself out of the water, which responded nicely to minor heating spells and was therefore still steaming gently.

"I went and had a look at the tree," Annie informed him. "It's just beautiful. I can't wait to bring it in and decorate it. You did a great job picking it out."

"I cannot wait to see it all dressed in your ornaments," Loki replied contentedly. "Did you have a pleasant time making them?"

"I did," Annie sighed happily. "All of us did, even Natasha and Agent Hill. And Mrs. Coulson is really sweet. She thinks we're mutants, incidentally."

"Pardon?" Loki asked, still feeling a little woolly-brained with the hot water and tiredness.

"Mitchell and George and me. Apparently, Coulson told her we're mutants. Obviously she knows you're an alien- "

"She certainly does now," Loki replied, remembering Fury's outburst in the kitchen.

Annie rumpled his wet hair. "Coulson works with the Avengers. Thor is a member of the Avengers, and he certainly doesn't pretend to be a farm boy from... from one of those states in the middle. And you're Thor's brother. She already knew you were an alien," she reminded him patiently. "In fact, she also knows you're Jotun."

Loki sat up abruptly, with a considerable splash. It was fortunate Annie could not get wet. "She what?"

"Apparently she was looking out a side window when you brought the others back. When Tony came in, she asked who was the 'blue person' who'd been hauling the sled."

"And Tony told her?" Loki demanded, his heart accelerating.

"No, Thor was right there, so he just explained it was you, that you were adopted from a different realm and sometimes you took on the form you were born in, although you generally found it more comfortable to stay in the Aesir one." Annie smiled. "He was completely casual about it. I really could have kissed him."

"And Mrs. Coulson was not alarmed?" Loki asked, aware it sounded like a plea. He had at some point wrapped his arms around himself.

Annie reached up to pet his hair again. "Loki, she's at a house party where one of the other guestsis the Hulk. And... I always thought Agent Coulson is the way he is because of his SHIELD training. Apparently, he inherited it." As flustered as he was, it took Loki a moment to decipher what Annie meant by "it": which was to say, Coulson's... Coulson-ness.

"So she- ?" he prompted.

"Asked whether you had any food sensitivities she should be aware of. I'm serious, that was the first thing she thought of, making sure she didn't offer you something you couldn't eat in your Jotun form. Thor said he was unaware of anything and that you had never been a fussy eater, and that was the end of it."

"I am not extremely fond of pickled herring," Loki murmured.

"Smart of you," Annie said. "Anyway, come on down when you're ready, and don't be self-conscious, all right? Tony really seems to have had the best time ever, getting dragged home on the sled, and he's going to want to talk about it."

Loki smiled in spite of himself. "Yes, he said it reminded him of a fond memory of his father."

"And I doubt he has a whole lot of those," Annie pointed out.

Loki nodded. "You are, of course, correct. Very well, I will be down shortly."

"Okay. I'll leave you." Annie kissed him again, quickly, and got up to go.

"Annie?" Loki called after her, and she turned in the doorway.

"Yes?"

"I have been thinking... I am enjoying this trip very much and- would you perhaps care to, to accompany me on another little excursion sometime? Perhaps to Vanaheim?" Already flushed from the hot water, Loki could feel his face getting even warmer, and he spoke quickly, before he lost his nerve. "I know of a very nice inn, and- "

Annie tilted her head on one side. "When you say a 'nice' inn- by 'nice,' do you happen to mean 'romantic'?"

Loki fought the urge to dive back under the bubbles. "Um. Well, yes. Now you mention it."

"Vanaheim," Annie went on, musingly. "Where I'm pretty much, as you put it, corporeal."

Never let it be said that Annie was not quick.

"Well, yes," Loki muttered.

Annie smiled mischievously and narrowed her eyes. "So... am I right in assuming this is an improper suggestion?" After a merciless little pause, she added, "At least, I certainly hope it is."

Loki blushed harder. "Yes, well, you are not mistaken."

"In that case, I accept," Annie replied, blew him a kiss, and vanished.

~oOo~

Loki was very tempted indeed to put his pajamas on when he emerged from the bath, but since it was not even teatime he decided that could hardly be justified. Instead, he put on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved blue t-shirt under a short-sleeved red one- he hoped this would amuse Clint- and started back downstairs.

"Sir, if you wish to allow your pets to wander a little, I will be glad to continue to monitor them," JARVIS offered as Loki approached the door.

Loki looked up. "JARVIS, may I ask you something?"

"Certainly, sir."

"Are you bored? Because it really seems to me that observing kittens is perhaps not exactly a challenge to your considerable abilities."

"Oh, no, sir. I have been making a most interesting study of the divergence of their movements from the laws of physics. Mr. Stark does not keep pets, and so this is a new area of investigation for me. Please do not be concerned."

"Well, as long as it is not an imposition… " Loki murmured, and opened the bedroom door. It occurred to him to wonder whether JARVIS was incapable of boredom, or was perhaps programmed to ward off the state as it occurred. Loki had considerable experience with the chaos that could be caused when, say, so-called Gods of Mischief- or, perhaps worse, schoolchildren- found their own means of assuaging boredom, but apparently Tony had done a responsible job of programming his AI.

Loki decided he would tell Tony so, at the first opportune moment. That was to say, at a time when there were only soft things on hand for the engineer to throw at him.

Philip and Elizabeth were by now more than eager to leave the bedroom and encounter the wide world beyond. At the same time, even with so many choices of direction to take, they seemed to find reassurance in having Loki nearby, and insinuated themselves practically under his feet as he descended the two flights of stairs.

"Really, you two, anyone would think you meant me to fall to my death," Loki whispered as he untangled himself from them on the landing. "And then who would you sleep with?"

As they reached the ground floor, a friendly buzz of conversation could be heard coming from the direction of the room with the television and the comfortable seats. Philip and Elizabeth perked their ears, hoisted their tails, and galloped ahead of Loki toward the sound of familiar voices. When Loki caught up to them, they were walking back and forth across the legs of George and Mitchell, loudly proclaiming how much they had been missed.

"It's good to see you, too," George was saying to Philip, just as the kitten noticed the many new and untested laps in the room. Philip stretched his neck tall as he assessed the situation, then made his choice.

The next thing anyone knew, a black-and-white blur had resolved itself back into a kitten sitting in a lap, one clothed in black trousers.

"Hello, cat," said Director Fury. Philip looked up at the one-eyed man with an expression of perfect composure, squinted his eyes, and began to purr. Loki, who had been about to apply a small flying spell to retrieve his pet, stayed his hand: Director Fury did not look displeased to have been selected, and Loki had no desire to appear to insult him by snatching the kitten away. This was not so much a matter of manners as of pure self-preservation: Loki could be reckless, but he was, as any would tell you, not stupid.

Director Fury began rubbing Philip's head in a matter-of-fact, man-to-cat way. Loki left them to it and seated himself on the arm of the chair currently occupied by Annie.

Elizabeth, not as boisterously friendly as her brother, took a little longer to consider her options. Then she hopped from the sofa to the coffee table, walked diagonally across it, and thence to the arm of a comfortable chair occupied by Mrs. Coulson. She arrived just as Clint was offering that lady a small lacquered tray, upon which were carried small china vessels containing milk and sugar, as well as a cup and a dainty little teapot with steam rising gently from the spout.

"Hello, little kitty," Mrs. Coulson cooed to Elizabeth, before turning her attention to Clint. "Thank you so much," she addressed him, with rather more than her usual air of competent friendliness. Clint actually blushed a little, which was really just as incongruous as seeing him with the tea tray in the first place, and set the tea things on a small table at her elbow.

Elizabeth, with an impressive show of good manners, waited for Mrs. Coulson to be settled with her cup of tea before stepping down into the lady's lap. Mrs. Coulson displayed a competence worthy of her son as she dealt with her cup with one hand and scratched Elizabeth's head and neck with the other.

"Are these your kittens?" she addressed Loki, as though half the party had arrived accompanied by a feline retinue. Loki nodded. "They're very sweet."

"Thank you," Loki said. "I agree, but I confess I am partial."

Mrs. Coulson smiled at him, and not even Loki could see anything uneasy underneath. She then addressed the rest of the tree-hunting group at large. "Maria- " it took Loki a moment to connect this name with Agent Hill- "and I went out to look at the tree you found. It's beautiful. I hope we've made enough decorations for it."

Speaking of decorations, those made by the work party that morning were not yet in evidence. Loki considered this just as well, since strings of popcorn and cranberries sounded like exactly the sort of item made to be wrestled with by kittens. As Mrs. Coulson spoke, though, Tony looked up from the cardboard box he was examining on the floor in front of the television.

"And on that note, time to take a look in here," he said, opening the flaps. Philip jumped off Fury's lap and trotted over to Tony, where he stood on his hind legs and peered into the box. Tony grinned as he reached over the kitten to investigate. "There must be something in here we can- " Tony fell suddenly, utterly silent. Loki leaned forward, concerned, as Tony stared into the box, but he did not speak, nor did anyone else.

After a moment, Tony became aware of the eyes upon him. Looking awkward and surprised, he reached into the cardboard box and lifted out a small plastic tub, such as one would use to store leftover food.

Written on the lid and the sides, in heavy black marker, was the word TONY, and a date.

"What is it?" Pepper finally asked gently.

Tony did not reply at once. Instead, he pried open the lid, reached in, and brought out several small metal discs hanging on loops of faded red or green ribbon. When he held them up, Loki could see patterns on their surfaces, and realized they were formed of holes punched into the metal, perhaps with a hammer and nail. Tony laid the discs on the floor, carefully arranging them so that the ribbon was displayed. Philip made a pounce and this time Loki did magically scoop him up, transporting the indignant kitten to his own lap.

"Behave yourself," he whispered, hugging Philip.

By this time, Tony had also retrieved a number of shapes that seemed to have been made by stringing colourful beads on lengths of wire, and then twisting them into circles or spirals. After that were little trees made from felt, with more beads glued to them. Again, each item had a ribbon attached as though to hang it from the branches of a tree.

Pepper finally sank to the floor beside Tony, looking at the decorations.

"Yours?" she prompted gently.

"Yeah," Tony said, without looking up. "The last Christmas we spent here- I was ten or eleven, and I caught a terrible case of the flu right after we arrived. I was too miserable to get out of bed for a couple of days, didn't even feel like reading. But the housekeeper brought me some stuff to make crafts with- I was way too old for this kind of thing, but it gave me something to do, and we put them on the tree." He picked up a little felt tree with a forced chuckle. "I wasn't exactly artistic. I figured they must have all been thrown out."

Pepper rubbed his back. "Can we use them now?"

"Sure," Tony said. He put the little tree back in the container, then bundled the others away, closed the lid, and handed it to Pepper. "You're in charge," he said, with a smile that did not look entirely natural. Then he cleared his throat and looked around at the others. "I thought we might just make hamburgers tonight. That okay with everyone?"

The other made noises of assent. Tony closed the flaps of the cardboard box and got to his feet. When he faced them all, he was once again smiling his familiar Tony Stark smile.

"And I suggest everyone get all rested up tonight, because tomorrow is Festivus!"

Loki leaned over to Annie. "Do we yet know what Festivus is?"