Hey everybody! So we are almost there, the end of the story, at least the beginning of Adrian's story.
I am just going to remind everyone that, ADRIAN AND LOKI WILL NEVER EVER BE A COUPLE! It does not matter if he does not really age, to me it would still be weird. I have a bunch of ideas for her future romantic stuff, but that is a long ways away because she is SIX.
Thank you all so much for the love and support you have given to this story!
Give a standing ovation to AnarchicMuse, because without her My Little Girl would not be possible. ANARCHICMUSE IS A BETA GODDESS!
[Loki]
As promised, when dawn broke, Thor and I left the castle to go return to the Bridge. The Bifrost was still broken, but the Rainbow Bridge was still the perfect place to use the Tesseract to transport us back to Midgard.
I do admit, breaking the Bifrost was not a very good idea of mine.
I had decided to keep Adrian under the sleeping spell until we returned to Midgard, to lessen the stress of the journey, so I cradled her in my arms.
"The sooner we get Adrian back to her father the better. Who knows how the Man of Iron is dealing with their parting," Thor said.
[Tony]
I wasn't freaking out.
I wasn't. The others might say I was, but I'm not. In fact I am perfectly calm…Oh who am I kidding?
I am totally freaking the fuck out!
It was only a matter of time before one of the other Avengers tied me up or knocked me out. Or both. My money was on Bruce.
It had been almost a day since Adrian disappeared with Point Break and Reindeer Games to Asgard.
In that time I had drank fourteen cups of coffee, completely redid an Iron Man model, and put trackers in every single jacket, headband, and piece of jewelry that Adrian and Pepper owned…I might be paranoid after the whole vortex in space thing too.
"Stark you need to calm down" Romanov said for the fifth time that hour. I turned to her with a crazed smile on my face.
"You want me to calm down? Me? Do you have any idea what I am thinking right now?" I demanded, glaring at the red head.
Bruce and Pepper, who had returned from her business trip the moment she got word of Adrian's disappearance, slowly walked toward me.
"We could not possibly understand how you're feeling, Tony. But you need to recover from the battle. Please, just sit down." Bruce said, none-too gently steering me toward the couch. Pepper sat down next to me.
"My daughter. My sweet, special, wonderful, magical little girl is GONE! Off to fucking Asgard where Thor wasn't heard from for over a WHOLE YEAR!" I shouted rubbing my face with my hands.
My heart was racing so hard I was afraid it would burst right out of my chest, I could feel my whole body shaking.
"No one can take care of Adrian like me. They don't know that she likes being read science papers to go to bed, and only I read them the way she likes. They don't know the exact temperature she takes her tea, hot chocolate, and milk! They definitely don't know how to help her with her nightmares. Do they have Ferris wheels in Asgard? I don't think so!" I ranted.
I could feel myself starting to break down and that made me panic more. I didn't want to do that in front of them.
"She needs me! She needs me to do all that and I need her. She helps me sleep at night. Her and Pepper make me want to get up in the morning. She keeps all my robots company. She doesn't have a mean bone in her body, despite the monsters she used to be with. She gives me all of her sweet undivided attention." I just couldn't stop.
"I'm her world and she's mine. I've already lost her twice, I can't do it again," I said, finally giving up and sobbing in my hands. I felt a hand on my knee and looked up and shocked to see Steve.
I had never seen the human Capsicle so serious, not even on the damn flying ship.
"We're going to get her back Tony," he said. "No matter what it takes we are going to get her back."
I could only nod my head and try to calm down. Pepper began running her hands through my hair, forcing me to calm down.
"JARVIS remind me to notify the Pope to give Pepper Sainthood," I mumbled. That got a small laugh out of everybody.
"What is this Sainthood and how can Lady Pepper acquire such an honor?"
I turned to see Thor and Loki, what the hell is he doing here? But I couldn't care less because in his arms was-
"Adrian," I breathed out, fresh tears coming out again. I slowly approached on unsteady legs and looked at my little pride and joy. She was fast asleep in Loki's arms, and looked adorable in a silk blue nightgown and Loki's too large cape.
I gently took her from his arms and held onto her so tight she might have snapped in half. I buried my face in her hair and began crying again.
"Addy…" I breathed out, my legs giving out. I felt multiple people help me to the ground so neither one of us were hurt.
I was on my knees, rocking back and forth, and sobbing like a girl. Adrian slept against my chest, nuzzled near the arc reactor, so peacefully.
I saw Loki wave his had over us and I could feel Adrian begin to wake up.
First her heart rate picked up, then her breathing began to quicken, and she started to wiggle around in my arms, wanting to remain asleep and wake up at the same time. Her eyes scrunched together and she clenched her fists, then she nuzzled the reactor.
Instantly, her eyes shot open and those emerald green gems looked up to me. The moment her eyes locked with mine she was crying.
"Papa!" she shouted, throwing her arms around me.
"You are so grounded!" I choked out. "You are never allowed out of my sight again."
"I won't ever leave again, Papa," Adrian said. She slowly pulled away and began wiping away my tears. I did the same with her and we just had our hands on each other's faces. Our foreheads were touching and we couldn't help but smile at each other.
"Why would you do that Addy?" I asked.
"I needed to prove that Mr. Loki isn't all bad. Like me," she said, looking down again.
"Addy you aren't bad," I said, lifting her chin. "You made a mistake, but that's what people do. You are a good little girl, the best little girl in the whole world to me."
"That's the point Papa," Adrian said, with this beaming smile. "You taught me that. Now I needed to teach everyone else that about Mr. Loki."
I couldn't help but laugh uncontrollably. "Of course you would you precious thing," I said, lifting her into the air. She squealed and hugged me again. "You're still grounded for the rest of your life though," I told her. She only smiled and kissed my cheek.
"Let's see how long that lasts," Barton said with a smirk. Everyone was smiling at us and Pepper was wiping her eyes.
"Do you like to play dress up?" Adrian asked Pepper.
"I do," Pepper said. "I actually have a trunk full of old costume tucked away somewhere."
In a split second, Adrian had crawled from my arms and wrapped herself around Pepper in a hug.
Tears filled Pepper's eyes as she returned the hug. This was the first time Adrian initiated contact with Pepper.
"Thank you for bringing her back." I told Thor and Loki.
"Little Adrian is not the only one I am bringing back," Thor said with a wide grin,
"Thanks to Adrian, my father came to the conclusion that I was under the control of Thanos when I attacked Midgard," Loki said. "I have returned to repair the damage that I have caused. I have been banished to Earth for the next ten years."
"You have got to be kidding me?" Barton said, clearly pissed off. Adrian politely tugged on Pepper to let her down.
"How are we supposed to trust him?" Steve asked, looking at the two gods. Thor frowned.
"It's going to take a lot of convincing to make people see the truth," Bruce agreed.
"There is more to my tasks on Earth." Loki said carefully. I noticed he was looking between me and Adrian.
It took only a moment for realization to dawn on me. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"What is it, Tony?" Pepper asked worriedly.
"Mr. Loki is my teacher now!" Adrian said excitedly.
The all important All-Father wanted a recently mind-controlled God of Mischief and Lies teaching my daughter magic? Why did the idea both terrify and excite me?
"And we are just supposed to be okay with this?" Romanoff said.
"How can we trust that Thanos still doesn't still have Loki under his control?" Steve asked.
"Because I trust Mr. Loki." Adrian said, looking to me.
If Adrian could trust Loki and trust him enough to potentially be alone with him, I coud find no fault with the man. "Okay," I told her, earning an enormous grin.
"Why should we take your word?" Steve asked. Okay mister you need to take that stick out of your –
"Because I said so," Adrian said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. I burst out laughing, and leaned down to pull her into my arms.
"That's my girl!" I shouted, kissing her cheek.
We'll be okay.
So we are almost done. Only the epilogue is left? Ahh!