During the next couple of days Agent Coulson was more angry with Loki than he had any reason to be. Even Fury had taken the breach of the perimeter with fewer swears than the usually collected agent and the director was mainly concerned with a shapeshifter being able to walk around unnoticed among the staff for so long. Coulson, however, was mostly angry with Loki. He hoarded his anger like it was precious collectibles, stacking the emotion high, not wanting to really feel that which huddled behind it, just far enough out of reach that the agent could still ignore it.
Loki noticed the agent keeping his distance, and his usual casual tone being tinged with bitterness those brief sessions when they spoke. For some reason it made the trickster smile.
Something that didn't make the demigod smile however was his continued failure at teaching his daughter magic. He simply didn't have the patience to make her understand the complex things that used to come so easy to him when he wielded the power, since he'd had centuries of practice. And, Loki, had to admit, a rather excellent teacher in Frigga.
After exhausting every other possibility, including asking Hela to confer with The Grey to see if there was anything they could teach her, Loki did something he thought he would never do again.
He wrote his adoptive mother.
"To her Majesty the Queen of Asgard,
I hope this letter finds you well. However, since you consider yourself to be very knowledgeable of me and my ways, I believe you will quickly see through such shallow polite greetings. I do not write to exchange pleasantries.
My daughter has a talent for magic and I have no talent to teach it. What I ask I ask for her sake and not my own; any advice you could provide to aid her in her studies would be appreciated."
The word "appreciated" had been written slightly different than the rest of the letter, signifying a pause as Loki had stopped his hand to choose the word carefully. Frigga would undoubtedly notice. He quickly signed it "Loki Laufeyson", without greeting, and folded it twice before he could change his mind or feel the shame of having to write it in one of Helas colored pencils since SHIELD still wouldn't allow him a damn pen.
He left the letter sitting in front of the little food-hatch in the kitchen and within the hour it had disappeared, assumingly being filtered through all the proper channels before reaching Asgard. He received a reply in the form of a thunderstorm a couple of days later, but not before Tony Stark could somehow get wind of Helas problems.
Whoever read his outgoing messages was a blabbermouth, Loki concluded as he started to receive random advice about teaching Hela from selected Avengers during a crammed afternoon session on the towers well equipped lab.
"She just needs to be properly motivated" Captain America advised as he was sitting shirtless on a cold slab of metal, allowing Banner to draw huge amounts of blood for some to Loki undisclosed reason.
"Some disciplined, well scheduled exercises and she'll be right as rain!"
"Or perhaps we could simply brew a potent tonic to have her magically gain all those desired abilities, since that is what helped you when rigorous exercise and discipline failed" Loki replied, his voice dripping with well-practiced hostility while Stark beamed at Rogers over the top of a computer screen.
"Would you like some water to apply to that burn, cap?"
"Please Tony, even I know that meme is tired and overused" the captain quipped, causing the two scientists heads to snap to his direction.
"What? I know what memes are. I looked it up on the Google. Nat keeps e-mailing me angry cats and images of dogs with incredibly poor grammar. I thought it was some sort of cipher"
"I'm gonna go ahead and buy that explanation. If you can learn to use memebase, I'm sure Hela can learn magic!"
Loki shot Stark an icy stare which the man didn't notice since he was bent over a series of microchips, carefully attaching tiny strings of metal to each one of them.
"How come all of you are suddenly so well-informed in the nature of my daughters... struggle?" the demigod asked, completely disregarding the printed photocopies of some glowing runes left on the side of the Baxter-building which he was supposed to study.
"A not-so-little arrow-loving purple bird whispered it in my ear" Tony smiled, his head once again popping up from behind the multiple screens to show off his unnaturally white teeth to Loki "And I told Bruce and Cap, because I thought they might like to pitch in. Also, because I'm a gossip. No use denying it"
"He really is" Banner said "I've learn so much useless Rihanna trivia since I started to use this lab I think I might actually be able to get a doctorate in that as well"
"Hey! That woman is a national treasure and every tidbit of information we get to know about her is a privilege" Stak empathized his words by pointing whatever tiny tool he was using to work on the microchips at Banner, who defensively held up his hands with a vial of Rogers blood still in them.
"I'm not criticizing Tony. If you love her so much why don't you just arrange for a private concert? You could afford that"
"I could. Pepper won't let me."
"Ah. Have you tried talking..."
"Don't make this about me when we're supposed to help this poor single mom who's trying to give his daughter a proper education in witchcraft and wizardry!" Stark deflected the attention back to Loki, who crossed his arms and arranged his features from slightly amused to menacing.
"I can not possibly phantom any reality in any universe in any part of the nine realms where your counsel in this matter would carry any significance" he said.
"She's scared of her powers" Banner started with his solemn, almost sullen voice without looking at anyone else as he spoke.
"You know nothing of it" Loki hissed.
"Maybe not" Banner shrugged, eyes still turned anywhere but at Loki "But from what I've been told about her attempts and the experience we have with mutant children developing their powers, being afraid to use them wrong, or to get in trouble, is usually an inhibitor"
"Maybe for your midgardian whelps…"
"Kids are kids, Loki" Steve interrupted "I don't claim to know Hela like you do, and I can't begin to understand what it's like growing up as an exiled aesir, but I don't see all that when I look at her. I see a little kid. A quiet, intelligent kid, but still a kid"
Loki felt like he should argue, or reply something devastatingly clever but he couldn't think of anything. He'd always seen his children as simply children, but he had never heard anyone else express the same thing, except maybe Heid. At that moment, he felt an enormous amount of gratitude towards the large man, the first person to ever ask his daughter name. Before Loki could say something uncharacteristically kind or express an emotion that wasn't snark, Tony ruined the moment by triumphantly shouting:
"I've got it!"
"Please Stark, spare us the details of whatever venereal disease you have contracted" It wasn't Lokis best joke, but it efficiently shattered that mushy feeling that might have caused him to say something nice to someone who wasn't Hela.
"That the best you've got, Trickster god?" Stark waited theatrically for Loki to say something more before continuing "I've got a fool-proof way to help Hela! It's got all the motivation a little girl might need for learning to conquer her possible fear of using magic!"
"You don't mean…" Banner was interrupted by Starks almost maniacal smile.
"Oh. I do."
Stark left whatever project he was working on in pieces all over his table and rushed out the room. Loki was unable to follow as he was chained to the table, so he simply stared at Banner who wouldn't meet his eyes.
When Loki was returned to his apartment-prison several agonizingly long moments later Stark was already busy with setting up the television, his jeans clad behind the only thing visible as he plugged in cables and muttered things to himself.
"We're gonna have a movie-night!" Stark announced happily, dust covering his dark hair as it became visible again when he stood up.
Loki hadn't plugged in the television set, firstly because he didn't see what purpose the machine would serve and secondly because he had no idea how. Suspiciously he rounded the sofa, only to find his daughter already plopped up on the soft pillows.
"We are going to watch a fairy tale, mother!" she said, her quiet voice filled with unusual expectation.
"Are we now?" Loki replied softly in old norse, taking a small, flat plastic container out of her hand and studying it intensely. It had a picture of a reindeer on it, as well as some humans with disproportionate eyes and a headless snowman.
"Is this appropriate, Stark?" he asked the billionaire as the man sprawled out in Lokis armchair, leaving him to take the sofa with Hela.
"Oh yeah. It's perfect! She'll love it" the billionaire ensured. Loki looked from Starks beaming face to Helas expectant green eyes and sighed, taking his place next to his daughter.
Tony had been right. As Frozen progressed Hela became more and more involved in the story. She smiled at the jokes and scootched closer to her mother during the darker segments, displaying an for her unusual cavalcade of emotion during the movies run time. She was fascinated by Elsa and Loki had to admit that the young princess story seemed well suited for his daughters situation. As the end-credits rolled Hela rocked gently to the music, silently mouthing the words.
"Did you like it, Hela?" Tony asked, smiling at the child who simply gave him one silent nod as a reply "Then keep it! Watch it whenever you want!"
"Thank you" she whispered in her tiny hushed voice.
"How'd mom like it?" Tony asked as Loki accompanied him to the door, eager to get some alone time with Hela after spending almost the entire day in the company of the billionaire. His daughter was in desperate need of a hair cut. As usual.
"It was a monumental misrepresentation of the time-period, as well as rock trolls. They are in no way cuddly creatures, Stark, and they got the height wrong by several faðmr"
"Several whatnow?"
"Faðmr" Loki measured roughly the length of his outstretched arms to show what he meant.
"Ah, yards!"
"You have very small yards for a society built on agriculture" Loki remarked and Tony laughed, leaving the cell with a smile.
After he left it struck Loki that Stark was almost always referring to him as a mother, but didn't use it in a derogatory way. He'd become so accustomed to not being mocked that he didn't even notice until now.
Authors Notes: So yeah, I wrote basically an entire chapter just to set that pretty bad Frozen-joke up. TIME WELL SPENT!
