So I'm still kinda feeling bummed, but I've got more to post.
"Where are we going?" Erik asked later as he sat beside Erika, a blindfold over his eyes.
"It's a surprise," said Erika.
"It's really hot," said Erik.
"It's Florida, Kid, it's gonna be hot."
"Why are we in Florida?"
"Surprise," Erika reminded him, and Erik fell quiet for a while.
"Happy Birthday, Erik!"
Erik's blindfold was removed and his eyes widened.
They were standing in front of the Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Park, and Erik looked like he was going to explode.
"Come on, Buddy, race you inside!" Erika said excitedly, and she let Erik take a head start before running after him. The others followed at a slower pace and split up as soon as they got in, with a plan to meet up later.
"Have you ever been here?" Jormungand asked Steve and Erika as they waited in line for the Mad Tea Party ride – Tony had gotten them VIP fast passes, but Steve felt bad and didn't want to cut in front of anyone.
"Mom and Dad took me here when I was little, but I don't really remember much," said Erika.
"It wasn't here in the Forties," said Steve. "Even if it had been, I wouldn't have been able to afford to come."
Their turn came up and they had to split up—Steve took up a lot of room. He and Erik took one teacup while Erika and Jormungand took another. "Okay, the idea is to spin as fast as you can," Erika told Jormungand right before the ride started. "So grab the middle piece and spin—just don't break it," she reminded her unnaturally strong brother. "Same goes to you, Cap—I don't know how much strain these things can handle," she called to Steve, who gave her a thumbs up.
The ride started and Erika immediately started trying to spin the teacup. "Jeez, what do you weight?" she groaned, the teacup not moving very fast.
"Ha ha," Jormungand deadpanned, reaching for the middle piece, and soon he had the teacup going faster than one person should be able to. Halfway through the ride, he stopped making it spin, and he was forced back in his seat by the sheer force of how fast they were going. Erika was having a blast, and she didn't seem to notice her brother's sudden discomfort, or the fact that he looked slightly ill.
"Again!" Erik cheered when the ride was over and they all clambered out of the teacups. "Let's go again!"
"I'm in!" chimed Erika. "How bout it, Cap? You up for round two?"
Steve smiled—he'd had fun, and was about to say 'sure, why not,' but then he noticed Jormungand wasn't with them. He looked behind him to see Jormungand leaning on another teacup, looking like he might lose his breakfast. "I think we'll sit this one out," said Steve, going back to help Jormungand walk out of the attraction. "You two go ahead and hop back in like—we'll be waiting over there," he said, pointing to a nearby bench.
"Is Mama okay?" Erik asked.
Jormungand swallowed. "I'm f-fine," he said, giving Erik a shaky smile. "Go on and have fun, I'll just wait with your Papa."
"Okay!" Erik said, then grabbed Erika's hand and pulled her back towards the line. Steve and Jormungand walked over to the bench and Steve eased Jormungand down, the shorter man holding his stomach.
"Is this –ugh—what Midgardians do for fun?" Jormungand groaned, leaning heavily against Steve. "They're not all like this, are they?"
"I don't think so," said Steve. "Are you gonna be okay for other rides, or do you wanna sit the rest of them out?"
Jormungand shook his head. "I'll be fine," he said quietly. "I just—need to stay here a moment." He closed his eyes and took deep breaths.
They went on It's a Small World after that, to give Jormungand a nice, easy ride.
"Wow, maybe it's a good thing Dr. Banner stayed behind," said Erika in the middle of it. "I don't know if the Other Guy would like hearing this song over, and over. And Over. Even if it's a different language." Bruce's patience was legendary, but nobody was willing to push him (except Tony—Tony loved pushing him). She came out of the ride humming the tune, and stopped in horror, groaning. "Great, now it's stuck in my head. Come on, Buddy, let's go on the Dumbo ride," she muttered.
After Erika and Erik rode the Dumbo ride, Erik rode his first coaster—something called the Barnstormer.
He loved it.
"Are there any more roller coasters?" he asked Erika, who looked at her StarkPhone and the park's website she'd pulled up.
"There's one in FrontierLand and TomorrowLand," she said. "It's getting close to lunch, though—we should head over to where we said we'd meet the others. We can head over to FrontierLand after that, if you want."
"Okay," said Erik, letting Erika lead him towards the group's meeting spot.
"This whole park is lucky Banner didn't come," was Clint's first words when they all regrouped. "There's a lot of kids here, and most of them are not happy."
"Yeah, no kidding," said Tony. "There was one kid in the Carousel of Progress that wouldn't shut up."
"Hush, Anthony, she was probably bored," said Loki. "Small children, I'm coming to understand, like faster, less educational rides."
"Yeah, well, the animatronics sucked," said Tony. "Who's up for a cheeseburger?"
Erika and Clint raised their hand immediately.
"Can we get ice cream, too?" Erik asked.
"Real food first, Buddy, then we'll see about ice cream," said Steve.
The place they settled on needed a reservation, but Tony took care of it and they got a table. Tony, Clint and Erika got their cheeseburgers, while Steve settled on a Philly Cheesesteak and Natasha chose a grilled chicken sandwich. Erik wasn't sure what he wanted, but after seeing someone else's cheeseburger he decided that was what he wanted.
"What's with the rabbit food, Lo?" Tony asked Loki, eyeing the god's chicken strawberry salad.
Loki only shrugged. "I'm not really hungry." He looked over to Jormungand, who hadn't ordered anything. "Are you alright?"
"Fine," said Jormungand. "Just a bit queasy."
"What's wrong, Bean Pole, get motion sick?" asked Tony before taking a bite of cheeseburger.
"I just can't go on rides that do this," said Jormungand, mimicking a merry-go-round's motion with his finger. "Anything else is fine, I think."
They stayed together after lunch, moving through each section of the park. TomorrowLand was last, and Tony was excited because he and Loki hadn't gone on Space Mountain yet.
They saved that for last, and Erik seemed to have just as much fun waiting in line and looking at all the outer space displays. When they got closer to the front, Tony saw that Erik wasn't quite tall enough to ride it. The next thing Tony knew, Erik had noticed, too, and had changed his height accordingly.
"Careful, Kid, people are watching," he said quietly. Erika had noticed, too, and a quick glance around told her that nobody outside of their own group had noticed Erik's subtle use of magic.
"It's okay, Dad, I don't think anyone is," she aid just as quietly, and Tony looked around to see what Erika had seen—nobody else in line had noticed.
Huh.
"You cast a misdirection spell, didn't you?" Jormungand asked quietly, and Erik nodded happily.
"Clever boy," Loki murmured.
The ride carts were four seats split into two compartments. Loki, Tony, Clint and Natasha went first, and Erika, Steve, Erik and Jormungand climbed into the next available carts. The ride started, and they ascended into a dark tunnel.
"Here we go!" Erika yelled, and she heard her Dad's answering cheer in front of them, and then they were speeding along the tracks amongst flashing lights and the sounds of other people's screaming. Erika's own screams of delight joined in, and she threw her hands up.
"That was awesome!" she yelled excitedly after they got off and headed for the exit.
"Who wants to go again?" Tony asked once they were in earshot of each other. "I don't care if nobody else is, I'm using my damn pass and going again!" Steve and Jormungand declined, and so did Natasha and Loki, so they waited outside while Tony, Erika, Clint, and Erik went back to go again.
"Humans are insane," Jormungand muttered, watching people line up for the ride.
"They're thrill seekers," said Loki. "It's no different than dragon riding—they're just as fast."
"Yes, but I trust the dragon not to break suddenly and send me plummeting to my death." A fall from the ride wouldn't kill him and they both knew it, but Loki let it be.
Erik's birthday ended with the fireworks show, and he was asleep for the jet ride back home.
"Welcome back," said Hela, looking up from her book when they got back to the tower. "Did he enjoy himself?"
"He had a blast," said Tony. "Any trouble?"
Hela shook her head. "Everything was quiet. Sam and James went out earlier, but they weren't gone long." She glanced at Erik, asleep in Jormungand's arms. "I suppose we'll have to wait until tomorrow to give Erik his gifts."
"Well, I'm gonna hit the hay," said Erika, yawning. "Night."
Jormungand took Erik up to the boy's room and tucked him in, kissing his forehead before leaving the room. He got ready for bed and crawled in next to Steve.
"Feeling better?" Steve asked.
Jormungand 'hmm'd. "A little," he said quietly, curling up against Steve.
"Really? Just 'a little?'" Steve asked, running a hand up and down Jormunand's arm. "Anything I can do to help?"
Jormungand 'hmm'd again, and then in the blink of an eye he was on top of Steve, straddling him and running his hands up and down Steve's chest. "I can think of a few remedies," he said, leaning forward until his forehead was touching Steve's.
Steve swallowed and reached to grab Jormungand by the hips. "Yeah?" he asked thickly.
"Mm-hmm," Jormungand hummed. "I hope you weren't thinking of going to sleep, because I plan to spend the rest of the night riding you until we both forget our names."
And that's just what he did.
Steve and Jormungand got up late the next morning. Erik had already gotten his presents from everyone, and Erika was about to give him her gift.
"Let us go first, please, so he's not underwhelmed," said Steve, and Erika laughed—she'd shown her present to Steve and his confidence in his own gift had dwindled.
"Sure thing, Cap—go nuts," she said, and Steve brought out a box half as tall as Erik, wrapped in brightly colored paper.
The paper didn't stand a chance, and Erik squealed in delight at his newest toy—an armor covered missile shooting T-Rex. "Þakka þér , mamma ! Þakka þér , pabbi !" he said excitedly, hugging Steve first, then Jormungand.
"That's mostly from your pabbi," said Jormungand gently. "This is something I thought you might like—it goes with your Afi's gift."
Loki's gift to Erik had been a small carved stone with a rune—"To focus your talents," he'd said.
Jormungand pulled a small wrapped package out from behind his back and handed it to Erik, who opened it more carefully than he did the dinosaur. A blue crystal pendant was wrapped carefully inside, and Jormungand gently took the chain from Erik and looped it around Erik's neck. "This will also help you focus your power," he said gently.
Erik turned the crystal this way and that, watching the light shine through it. "Þakka þér , mamma," he said, hugging Jormungand.
"You're welcome, sonur minn."
They went out on the Tower's launch pad for Erika's gift reveal. She pulled out a small metal band and fixed it around Erik's wrist. "Alright, Kiddo, this is locked onto your voice, so you gotta tell it what to do. Do you want your present to come to you?"
Erik nodded eagerly.
"'Kay, then just say 'Come here.'"
'Come here,'" Erik repeated. The bracelet blinked to life and shone a brilliant blue, and Erika motioned for Erik to take a few steps back. The launching pad opened, and something shot out of it, up into the sky. It arced up in the air, then came speeding down towards the tower, landing on the now closed pad with a metallic THUD.
"Is that . . . . .?" Sam started.
"Það er dreki !" Erik shouted excitedly, surging forward towards his gift – a black and gold dragon made out of metal, with gold wings and glowing blue eyes. Its limbs shifted and it shook itself, opening its jaw wide showing a toothless mouth – the dragon was an almost exact replica of Toothless from the cartoon.
"Erik, meet Toothless 2.0., tweaked a bit, obviously, for copyright reasons."
Erik's fourth birthday party ended with him flying around Stark Tower strapped to a robotic dragon, with Erika flying right beside him in another suit Tony had made for her and everyone watching from the landing pad. Erika glanced over at her nephew and couldn't help the grin that grew behind her faceplate.
She was still getting used to being back home, and she'd been having nightmares about Jor's evil twin, but seeing how happy Erik was made her feel a little better. She was back where she belonged.
She was home.
Þakka þér , mamma ! Þakka þér , pabbi ! – Thank you, Mama! Thank you, Papa!
Afi - Grandfather
Sonur minn – my son
Það er dreki ! – it's a dragon!
A/N: In the beginning I wanted to give Erik a real dragon, but then I thought, 'eh, fuck it, Erika's a Stark, she can build one.'
That's it for 'Still Ain't Easy.' I've got one more story planned, if anyone's interested, because this thing is getting kinda long and I've still got a few things planned out.