A/N It has been a very, very long time since I updated this story. I had almost given up on it, but every so often a review would come through from someone asking me to update. Updating was not the problem, the problem was my own confidence in my own writing. And I had stepped away from writing but here I am again ready to give it another go and simply have fun.
Since it is the holidays dear reader, I thought it would be an appropriate time for a Christmas fic...
"Tommy said Santa isn't real." Were the very first words that came out of Loki's mouth when he arrived from school.
He tossed his Avenger backpack on the couch with disdain and looked at Steven like he demanded answers and he demanded them now.
Steve put on his bravest face and kept his tone of voice light and animated. "Santa is very real." Steve assured the boy, bending down to Loki's height and helping Loki out of his thick winter jacket meant to protect him from the winter storm that was slowly building across New York city.
"Where's your other mitten?" Steve asked and Loki looked down at his left hand, he looked perplexed at Steve, then at the hand that was not wearing a mitten, Loki shrugged as if he had no idea what a mitten even was.
"That's the third pair you've lost in one week." Steve said frustrated. "And it's only Tuesday kiddo."
"You are avoiding my question, is Santa real?"
"And you're dodgingmy question where is the mitten?"
"There is more in my room." Loki said sounding hundreds of years old. Steve tried to hide a smile.
"You have to take better care of your things." Steve said tossing the now useless mitten aside and he was hoping that the question of Santa was safely now out of the way and forgotten. But he should have known better Loki was anything but relentless when it came to getting to the bottom of things. He wouldn't stop until he had a proper answer, an answer that satisfied him enough.
"Is Santa real?" Loki persisted.
"I told you yes, now what do you want for lunch?" From the corner of the room Pepper giggled but offered no help whatsoever to Steve, she was enjoying him under Loki's blazing spotlight of questioning way too much. "Would you like chicken nuggets? You love chicken nuggets."
"Tommy said that mom's and dad's put presents under Christmas trees." Loki said. "I don't have a mom or dad so do you put my presents under the tree?" He wanted to know, his green eyes were wide and curious. He was starting to resemble the old Loki, the features of his former self was breaking through slowly and with conviction. And it was a marvelous and terrifying thing to observe. There was no malice in these eyes now and they all hoped to God that there never would be.
"We don't put presents under the tree Santa does." Steven said matter of factly hoping against hope that, that would be the end of the subject.
"Santa isn't real is he Steven?" Loki placed a lot of emphasis on the word Steven like he was thoroughly infuriated by the first Avenger and he sounded in that moment exactly like someone else Steve knew all too well, the very same someone who was now laughing really loud.
Steve turned around and glared at Tony with one look that said this is all your fault.
"Oh you're laughing, you think this is funny, that he just Steven'd me."
"I do think it's funny and I've never been prouder in my whole entire life come here my boy." Tony picked Loki up in his arms so that they were face to face, and Loki wrapped his arms around Tony's neck.
"Do you put my presents under the Christmas tree?" Loki wanted to know in earnest.
"Loki do I look like I have time to do that?"
"Yes." Loki said without even giving it much thought. Tony looked at Steve who shrugged.
"Who is this Tommy kid I'm going to beat him up."
"We can't beat up children." Steve said exasperated.
"Says who?"
"Everyone." Pepper and Steve said at the same time.
"So is there no Santa?" Loki asked and his face was glum and there was sadness in his eyes. That was something that Tony never wanted to see. He never wanted to see pain in those green eyes.
"There is a Santa babe, don't you remember you saw him last year." Loki thought about it, he had seen Santa last year. Or someone who resembled Santa. He had been hell bent on seeing Father Christmas and wanted to stay awake to catch the big guy delivering gifts. And so the Avengers had allowed him to stay up but in the end he got too tired and sleep won him over.
But Tony had woken him, when it was very dark and the light of the moon shone very brightly in his room.
"He's here." Tony had whispered in a secretive way, there was no need to explain who the he in question was. It was Father Christmas and Loki had pushed the bed covers off from himself quickly and together hand in hand he and Tony had made their way to the livingroom where they hid behind the couch and yes they had seen a man in a red suit busy unpacking gifts from a large red bag and carefully placing them under the tree. It was magical and wonderful and Tony had made Loki not say a word the entire time as they watched Santa, which was difficult to do because Loki had so many questions to ask and he also wanted to shout out something to Santa but Tony's finger had remained firmly on his lip and Loki had obeyed the order to remain silent.
"Uh uh, we did see Santa, but Tommy says that it was probably one of you dressed like Santa."
It had in fact been Thor dressed as Santa. He had been chosen as Santa on the premise that red was definitely his color. And even though the thunder God had been annoyed by the costume he secretly enjoyed the little ruse on Loki. It was made even more worthwhile when Loki woke up the next morning and retold the entire story with great excitement that he and Tony had finally caught Santa in the flesh. But along came Tommy Mitchell, little mister life and soul of the party and diminished that memory to a lie.
"Okay enough, we didn't go through last year's charade for some little." Tony looked at Loki and spelled the word "S – H – I – T called Tommy to ruin everything, really someone get me Tommy's details now." By someone he of course meant Pepper who looked up from her laptop and gave him an, in your dreams look and then she went back to typing away at her computer.
"Pepper I can't believe you won't help me save Loki's childhood."
"Take the melodrama down a notch Dr Phil." She said shaking her head.
"Maybe it is time we told him…" Steven suggested.
"That Santa isn't real?" Loki asked his voice was filled with deep disappointed.
"No!" Tony yelled. "This isn't happening on my watch."
"He will find out sooner or later." Steven said and there was a moment of unspoken silence between him and Tony and Tony finally spoke and looked at Loki.
"Okay fine…Loki."
"Yes." The child asked with great uncertainty.
"Santa is very real!" Steve rolled his eyes, why did he even bother. "Santa is so real that if you don't believe in him then you go straight on the naughty list." Tony said.
"No you don't!" Loki contested indignantly.
"I thought you said Santa wasn't real." And both he and Tony wore matching frowns that made Steve smile.
"But Tommy said." Loki started to say.
"I never want to hear that name mentioned in this house again basically he is the language of Mordor and this is the rest of Middle earth"
"I don't understand."
"Good! All you need to know is that there is a Santa and he's at some store in New York right now okay. Do you want to go see him?"
"Yeah." Tony tapped a finger on his cheek which Loki quickly slapped a kiss on.
"Okay good lets go. Steven put his coat on." He turned to Pepper. "Call Macy's tell them I am coming over and that Santa better be so convincing that even I must be convinced."
"You're joking?"
"Do I look like a joking man?" And the obvious answer to that was that Tony never looked like a joking man. He never joked when it came to matters concerning Loki. And Pepper picked up her telephone and started calling every contact she had.
There was a queue at Macy's that was so long just looking at it made Happy wish he had stayed in the car outside, where there was music and air conditioning and most importantly there was not screaming and crying little children who were all there to see one fat guy in a suit.
"This is nuts." Happy told Tony.
"Where's your Christmas spirit huh? Were you never a child who harmed you in life buddy?" Tony asked and Happy eyed him.
"We aren't standing in the queue are we?" He asked.
"Hell no."
"Mister Stark!" A man in a suit said over enthusiastically, he was very tall and made quick long strides over to them and Loki's hands tightened on Tony's jacket. He didn't like this too animated man who reminded him too much of his principle at school. "We are so happy that you have chosen our store to visit this year." The over enthusiastic man shook Tony's hand a little too hard.
"Yeah my pleasure, so Miss Potts spoke to you?"
"Yes she did." He looked at Tony and winked in a conspiring way then looked at Loki.
"Good show us the way."
"Of course sir, now I have spoken to Santa and this was a special arrangement and.."
"What do you need?" Tony asked tired of beating around the bush.
"A couple of photos of Tony Stark shopping at our store will suffice…and an autograph for my son he is a big fan."
"I'm sure he is, okay that's no problem let us get this over with." Tony dropped a kisson Loki's head. "Are you ready to see Santa?"
"Yep."
The over enthusiastic store manager led them through the line of queues that stretched and ran in mind numbing circles until they reached the very start of the queue and Tony was ushered right at the beginning just as a tired looking mother was about to escort her own child up to see Santa.
"I don't care if you are Tony Stark you don't get to jump the queue. I've been standing here for over an hour." She said with disgust. Happy scratched in his pockets and flashed the woman a hundred dollar bill. "Tony Stark can do whatever he wants to." She proclaimed pulling her daughter back.
Tony put Loki down on the floor and they climbed up the red carpeted stairs up to where Santa was sitting on his throne.
Loki held onto Tony's hand tightly and the closer they got to Santa, Loki's apprehension grew and his grip on Tony's hand tightened.
"It's okay buddy there's nothing to worry about he is just good old Santa." Loki looked up at Tony, full of trust and it sent a surge of ache through Tony's body as Loki let go of his hand and walked up closer to Father Christmas.
"Hello Loki." Santa said with as much enthusiasm as the store manager had offered Tony and Tony wondered what fear Pepper had struck in this people.
"How did you know my name?" Was the very first thing Loki wanted to know.
"I know all little children's names, do you want to come have a sit on my lap." Loki turned around and made sure Tony was still there. Tony gave him a thumbs up and Loki stepped closer and allowed Santa to lift him up and put him on his lap. Loki eyed the man curiously.
"Have you been a good boy this year Loki?"
"Shouldn't you know that already?" Loki asked. "You have a naughty and nice list don't you know already?'
"Yeah Santa!" Tony intervened giving Santa a stern look and inside he was filled with pride at the same time that they had been gifted with such a wonderfully bright andintelligent child.
"Of course I knowLoki, you are on my nice list. Your daddy is very proud of you." Loki looked over at Tony and shrugged a here we go again shrug. It happened all too often when they were together alone, people would just naturally assume that they were father and son. And Loki liked playing along with it.
"Did my daddy make you say this stuff."Loki asked.
"Him?" Santa asked anxiously. "Not at all." Santa was sweating profusely beneath his fake beard and the heavy weight of his red fluffy hat.
"Because he is Tony Stark and he can make people do stuff." Loki notified the man in case he didn't know.
"Loki." Tony said with a little bit of warning in his voice.
"What you said I could ask anything daddy."
Tony sighed, it was the truth. He had told Loki that he could say anything he wanted to, but interrogating the man had never unfortunately come up. Natasha had she been there would have been very proud of him.
"He really is practically you're kid." Happy whispered in Tony's ear.
"Shut up Happy."
"Your daddy can't make me say or do anything Loki." Which Tony laughed at and Loki looked at him questioningly and Tony began coughing. He turned to Happy.
"He has a great career in espionage ahead of him."
"Aw you sound disappointed."
"Because Tasha and Clint will win the bet"
"You guys are taking bets on his future career path?"
"Shut up, now you sound like Steve."
"Tommy Mitchell says you aren't real" Tony sighed here we go again. Wherever that little shit Tommy Mitchell was, Tony hoped he was barefoot and stepping on a room floor filled with nothing but Legos.
"Tommy is on my naughty list, and has been for many years. You would do very well to stay away from him." Tony smiled, good save there not-Santa.
"Far away." Tony added in a whisper.
"That's right Very far away!" Santa yelled.
"So you're the real Santa?" Loki said still with so much doubt.
"Yes I am."
"But how do I know you are really real?" Oh crap Tony thought.
"Remember last year, you waited up to see me, but you fell asleep and your daddy woke you, I know you saw me." Tony felt it in his heart and in his cheque book, he was going to owe Pepper so much for this favor.
"You're real." Loki said with bright and happy eyes. Whatever reservations he had was now thoroughly diminished because there was no way anyone but Santa could have known that.
"Those chocolate fudge cookies you left me were delicious it was the best I had all night." Santa said
"Thank you Steve made them, I'll tell him."
"Leave a few extras this year okay." Santa said with a wink and now Tony knew he was going to owe the Santa a lot as well.
"I will keep you extra cookies and milk."
"That's a good boy. Now tell me what doyou want for Christmas?"
Loki whispered long in Santa's ear.
"Sorry I stopped believing in you." He said when he was done.
"It's alright. You believe in me now don't you?" And Loki nodded vigorously.
"And I won't listen to Tommy again."
"Good! And I will see you on Christmas eve." Loki gave Santa a quick embrace and Santa helped him off his lap and Loki went running into Tony's direction.
"Happy distract him." Tony said his lips as sealed as a ventriloquist's.
"Hey Loki come check out this train set over here." Happy called and Loki went off in his direction.
"Okay Saint Nick what did the kid ask for?" Tony asked taking out his mobile phone and wallet.
"Santa's real!" Loki said as he entered the Avengers home.
"Of course he is." Clint said.
"He said he liked your cookies Steve and we should leave out more this year."
"We will most certainly do that and an extra big glass of milk."
"Can I have chicken nuggets now?" Loki asked
"Of course you can." Tony watched as Steve and Loki went to the kitchen, Loki talking non stop of his incredible experience with Santa.
"Good job Tony." Natasha whispered.
"Pepper helped a lot." He admitted giving her a quick squeeze.
"Anything to save Christmas from that Grinch Tommy whatever his name is." Pepper said smiling brightly.
"Exactly." Tony took his phone out. "So here's the list ofthings he asked Santa for."
"Great, everyone can pick something from the list." Bruce said.
"Yeah, about that." Tony said staring down at his phone with a funny look on his face.
"What is it?" Thor asked with concern.
"He also asked Santa for a baby brother, so who wants to get him that?"
"Pass!" Everyone shouted in unison.
A/N I hope you enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed writing it. Again many thanks to the people who stopped by and left a review asking for more little Loki stories. You're the reason I didn't give up and hopefully I don't take just about forever to update again! Many thanks for reading, take care until next time.