Odin offered to send them back, and Heimdall did too, but Loki turned them both down, saying he was strong enough to summon the Dark Energy needed to send himself and Thor back to Midgard without assistance. He was stubborn and wished to do this because he needed to see that he had the strength to keep command of his powers despite putting significant strain on himself. He had rested, he felt, more than long enough, allowing Eir and Frigga to fuss over him for most of the remainder of the Asgardian day. He was anxious to return to Judah, and he felt certain that Judah would be anxiously awaiting his return.

He could be wrong, though. Judah could be getting on gangbusters with Coulson and have forgotten all about him. Coulson had that folksy, friendly way about him to which a child would respond well, despite his being a bona fide moron, and Midgardian children seemed to be a fickle lot. Judah had started calling him "Daddy" before he had stopped weeping about the loss of his real parents. Though he sometimes felt that was a calculated maneuver on the child's part to try and win him over.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Thor asked, nudging him. "Aren't we going? You look like you're a million miles away already."

"Sorry. I'll conjure now," Loki said, and summoned the Dark Energy. It was not the relatively swift trip from Asgard to Helheim, Midgard being many millions of lightyears farther away, but in good time they stood on the Quinjet landing pad on the roof of Stark Tower.

"Hey, fellas, welcome back," Tony said, starting up out of the arm chair he was lounging in and tilting down his sunglasses. He set aside his scotch and soda and came to greet them. "Everything cleared up on the Old Home Front?"

"For the time being," Thor said. "Thanos remains a threat to be dealt with, but Loki was anxious to return to the boy."

"Ah. Good. He's been something of a handful for poor Phil."

"What? What do you mean?" Loki said, on the alert.

"What can I say? The kid has bad taste."

"What do you mean?" Loki said, grinding his teeth.

"Go down to your rooms and see for yourself. Give Phil the break he so richly deserves."

Loki immediately stalked off for the elevators. Tony looked at Thor and said, "So, did you boys have fun?"

"I felt rather superfluous, actually. Loki did all the heavy lifting this time. But he did open up to me… a bit. It was a beginning, I feel."

"What, you think he's coming around?" Tony said skeptically.

"Let us say perhaps there are signs that there is less distance between this version of my brother and the version of my brother that died at the hands of Thanos in the future than I had thought. Not that this is saying much."

"That version of your brother tried to sell you into slavery to save his own neck," Tony pointed out.

"But he also gave me a hug and admitted that I could be a good king. Future me told me so."

On a lower floor, Loki had just reached the door of his apartment. Suspicious sounds came from inside. He didn't bother searching for the key he kept hidden in his many pockets, instead he simply popped the lock open with magic and stepped inside. "Judah?" he called.

"DADDY!"

Pounding feet, and he was tackled around the knees by a small figure in a bright orange hoodie and yellow board shorts. Coulson must have let the boy dress himself. Of greater import was the fact that the boy was squeezing his knees together so tightly that he found himself slightly off balance, which was a more disconcerting feeling than one might realize given that he was a being who prided himself on being completely centered at all times. He actually thought that he might… in all possibility… fall down…

The sense of being off-kilter overtook him and down he went, landing on his ass with a crash. Judah transferred his grip from his knees to his shoulders and buried his little face against his neck, and was he actually crying? Shaken again, Loki awkwardly patted the boy's back in an attempt to calm him.

"Daddy, where were you? You were gone so long I thought you'd abandoned me!"

"Yes, I am sorry about that, Judah. I tried to return sooner, I truly did, but I was detained. Lines of communication between Asgard and Midgard are… well, they are pretty much non-existent, so I could not send word. Coul – Agent Coulson was with you, was he not? Did you not get along?"

"I tried," Coulson said, appearing at the edge of the living room. "It seems I was an unacceptable substitute. We reached détente eventually, but he never really was happy to be here with me and not you. There were a lot of tears."

"Well I'm here now, Judah, you can stop crying. And please do let me up," Loki said.

The boy sniffled and backed away. "You won't go away again, will you?" he said plaintively.

"I cannot promise that, Judah. The Avengers may call upon me to go with them to many far-flung places. And there may come a time when I must return to Asgard."

"Take me with you!" Judah pleaded.

"I can't. The work is too dangerous. You have to stay safe. Agent Coulson will keep you safe when I cannot."

"But Phil's not you!"

"Phil? You call him Phil? I guess détente really was achieved."

"He said I should," the boy said. "Should I not?"

"No, you go right ahead," he said. He wondered a bit about the front he was putting up and whether it was crumbling to dust about his feet, but he chose not to worry about it. "Have you eaten your dinner?"

"Yeah, Phil gave me chicken nuggets."

"Is that all you ate?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow. Judah sighed.

"And mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus, and yes, I ate it all."

"That's my boy. Get ready for your bath. Much as I hate to say it, it's almost bedtime."

"Aw, can't I stay up?"

"No. Little mortals aren't made for long days. Now mind me."

"Yes, Daddy," the boy said, and trotted off to his bedroom to prepare.

"He minds you a lot better than he does me," Coulson said, stepping closer as Loki climbed to his feet. "How do you get him to eat his vegetables? Does he fight you? I had to resort to bribery."

"Bribery? You bribed my son to get him to do something he should do as a matter of course? I knew my misgivings about leaving him in your charge were justified."

"Hey, cut me some slack, I'm new to this parenting thing," Coulson said. "I've never even been an uncle before."

"You are not a parent. You are not even an uncle. You are simply a glorified babysitter."

"Then I definitely need a raise," Coulson said, with the quirk of a smile.

"What?" Loki said, without one.

"Hey, I like Judah, don't get me wrong. I hang around him and I start to think there must even be something to be said for you, though I haven't really seen it yet. But if all I'm doing is babysitting then I need to raise my rates 'cause this past week was hell."

Loki paused. "Week? Was it really that long?"

"You don't know how long you were gone?" Coulson said.

"Time passes differently in Asgard. Days are very much longer and hours last longer, too. I'm aware of the conversion rates, but… well, I've never actually experienced them. Time passes so swiftly in Midgard that it's quite ludicrous. Even when I fell to Titan I barely noticed the time differential. It was not so drastic there, and it did not matter so much as I did not have a small being dependent upon my every waking move. And my head was… different… there."

"What does that mean?" Coulson asked.

"Well, from the time I awoke there to the time that… I took a strong blow during the battle of New York, my self-control was not entirely my own."

"The Mind Stone. You were under its control the same as Agent Barton and Dr. Selvig," Coulson said.

"Perhaps. Not, however, in the same way. They had virtually no command of themselves after being subjected to the Mind Stone. I had quite a little. I was… influenced, however… by the owner of the staff."

"Thanos."

"Thanos."

Judah appeared at the doorway of the bathroom, wrapped in a tiny maroon bathrobe. "I'm ready, Daddy," he said. He squeaked the rubber ducky he held in his little hand.

"You'll excuse me, Agent, I need to run a bath for my son."

"Yeah, I'll get out of your hair. Have a good evening. Give Judah an extra tight hug before you tuck him in, he needs it."

Phil left, Loki ran Judah a bath, the boy washed up and played until the water cooled, and then Loki tucked him into bed. He stayed up for a time, restless with nothing whatsoever to do, and then gave up and went to bed himself, not remotely tired as he had spent the last few Asgardian hours resting. Then, around ten or so, his bedroom door creaked open, and a small figure padded into the room and leaped into his bed.

"Judah, what in Helheim are you doing?" he said, as the boy snuggled down next to him.

"I can't sleep. I keep thinking I'll wake up and you'll be gone."

"Judah, I won't be gone. You have to get over this."

"I can't. First my parents left me, then you did… I was so scared."

"Judah, your parents didn't want to leave you. Neither did I."

"You did, though," Judah said quietly. "When we first met. I know you did. You didn't want to be stuck with me."

"It crossed my mind, briefly, that I wasn't prepared to adopt a child," Loki said cautiously.

"And I started calling you Daddy… to rope you in," Judah said, sighing heavily in the manner of a young man getting the worst over with.

"For what it's worth, I kind of figured as much. I'm proud of your manipulative skills. You're talented for your age."

"Are you angry with me?" Judah asked.

"Absolutely not. And… I have my own confession. When I made up my mind to take you in, I did it to kind of make up for something I didn't get to do in my life."

"What's that?" Judah asked.

"Raise my own son."

Judah pushed himself up on one shoulder. "You have a son? A for-real son?"

"Uh huh."

"Why didn't you get to raise him? Did he die?"

"No, he's still alive. He lives in my father's stables."

"In his stables?" Judah said. "Why does he live in his stables?"

"It's a long and not very child-friendly story. Suffice to say that my son is a god but not much like other gods. His name is Sleipnir. My father determined that I was too young and irresponsible to raise him, so he took him away from me. I told myself for a long time that I did not regret that but then… well, again, it's difficult to explain to a child. I saw the future, Judah. My homeland was destroyed. The people were evacuated, but… the stables were not."

"So your son is going to die," Judah said.

"No. I already altered that future. Asgard is safe from that outcome, and so too is Sleipnir. Even if he barely knows me."

"Well good. But you should talk to him."

"Armchair psychology from a five-year-old."

"You're obviously thinking about him. Talk to him. I bet he would love to talk to you. Just… don't abandon me after you do."

"I would never do that, Judah."

"Do I have to go back to my room?"

"No, Judah."

The little boy snuggled back in and Loki pulled the covers over both of them.

"Goodnight, Daddy," Judah said.

"Goodnight, Judah," Loki said. The boy was asleep in minutes.