Pretoogjes
by Valerie Vancollie
Notes: This is set in the divergent time-stream created in Avengers: Endgame when Loki made off with the Tesseract. So whether you consider that canon or AU is up to you (at least until Loki airs!).
The title is a Dutch/Flemish expression that doesn't fully have an English equivalent. Some translate it as 'to have a twinkle in your eye' but the connotation isn't entirely the same. 'Pret' means joy or fun and 'oog' means eye. The 'jes' is something which doesn't exist in English but can mean a variety of things like 'little' or 'cute' or it can be used as a term of endearment when tacked onto a name. So I used to be 'Valerietje'.
So altogether 'pretoogjes' is something like fun eyes or the look a little kid will get in their eyes when they're up to innocent mischief. Which is what made me think of Loki and what he might have been like as a kid, and that made me think of what the Avengers might have thought if they'd known him as a child and voila, the idea for this fic was born.
Spoilers: Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Avengers, Iron Man 3 & Avengers: Endgame
Update Schedule: Unlike Ásgarðrian Galdr, this fic is not yet fully finished. The only reason I'm starting to post it now is because I know Loki will render it completely AU and I wanted to start posting it before that happens. At present I have the first 17 chapters finished. I will aim to post those 1 a week, at which point I hope to have more chapters finished. But if I catch up, then the posting rate will slow down. So you have been warned. As I currently post Ásgarðrian Galdr updates around the end of the week, these will likely be earlier in the week.
Language: I like to use the more proper Old Norse spelling for anything related to Norse Mythology. Hence I will have Ásgarðr instead of Asgard and Óðinn instead of Odin. The only times I won't do so, is if I think the original spelling will interfere with recognition. So I will use Thor instead of Þórr. I will also use a smattering of actual Old Norse words for local color - all of them will be explained in the footnotes.
Nine Realms: As it's not entirely clear in the MCU or Norse Mythology, I thought I'd make it explicit here which Realms I view as being within 'the Nine': Ásgarðr, Miðgarðr (Earth), Álfheimr, Niðavellir, Svartálfaheimr, Jötunheimr, Vanaheimr, Niflheimr & Múspellsheimr. I leave Hel(heimr) as an afterlife, while Nornheimr is outside the Nine here.
Prologue
Of all the things Loki had ever heard said about him, one of those he agreed with most was that he was an opportunist. If a perfect opportunity presented itself to him, then of course he was going to take it. Why would he not?
Therefore, when Stark went down in the lobby of his own building and the Tesseract subsequently landed right at his feet, naturally he utilized it to make his escape.
Whyever would he not have? He was not, and had never been, one to calmly accept defeat. Not when there was a perfectly good means of either achieving victory or escape. And, if the latter had often clashed with Thor's Norns-be-damned sense of honor or what was 'right', well Loki hardly cared about that if it either kept him alive or safe. He half wished he could see the look on his so-called brother's face when Thor realized he had not only vanished, but made off with the Tesseract as well.
So much for Stark's belief that there was no way he could come out on top.
Stark. The reminder of the man made Loki frown even as he glanced around at his surroundings. When he had grabbed the Tesseract, he had only specified to be sent somewhere safe. With the chains Thor had bound him in, his powers had been too restricted for anything more fanciful. Even reaching out far enough to utilize the Tesseract had been all his bound seiðr had been able to do and would not have been possible for any either less skilled or powerful than him.
It took him a moment or two, but Loki was relatively confident he had been transported to Nornheimr. What the Tesseract had been thinking depositing him here he did not know, but 'twas not of import. 'Twas away from Thor and out of Óðinn's immediate reach, regardless of how much his former father might think he controlled the planet. Though Queen Karnilla paid homage to Ásgarðr, Loki had long since known she viewed herself and her Realm as independent as well, much as most of the Nine did.
He would have no trouble finding a means to free himself from his chains here, nor of finding accommodation and sustenance.
The reassurance meant Loki was able to turn his thoughts back to Stark. The events which had led to his escape had transpired very quickly, but he had always been far more observant than most. So he had caught not only the flicker of movement from the downed mortal's hand to the case containing the Tesseract, but also the surprising similarities between the Man of Iron and the bearded man who had grabbed the case and tried to make off with it.
Others might have written it off as coincidence or a trick of the light due to the speed with which everything had occurred, but not Loki. Nay, he was certain of what he had seen, and he knew well how there were means to make it far more likely than most would assume it to be.
Time travel.
Which was very, very interesting. And worrying.
Unfortunately, Loki did not even need to ponder why Stark might feel compelled to come back in time to obtain the Tesseract. Even if it meant potentially endangering himself as he had.
Thanos. The Infinity Stones.
Loki felt a cold fear sweep through him as he realized the full implications of what he had just witnessed. If Stark and the Avengers were resorting to time travel in order to obtain the Infinity Stones for themselves, then it meant the Mad Titan had succeeded in his goal despite Loki's own actions to not only thwart Thanos, but to lose him the Mind Stone as well. He had hoped his actions would be enough to alert Óðinn to the need for vigilance where the Infinity Stones were concerned, but, clearly, he had been mistaken.
As tempted as Loki was to shrug it off and let someone else deal with the situation, he knew well he could not. If Thanos succeeded, then it meant half of all life in the universe had been extinguished at the snap of the Mad Titan's fingers. Even if he disregarded The Other's words on what failure would cost him, Loki would not gamble on those odds. He would not leave his own life to pure chance when the odds of his dying were as great as his survival.
Nay, if he wished to avert his own potential death, then he would need to act. Before the thought had seemed unappealing, but as Loki looked down at the glowing cube he now held in his hands, he knew the Avengers' own desperate plan had changed everything.
He had the Tesseract now, one of the Infinity Stones themselves and one of the six most powerful objects ever to be created.
Ta da! The start of a new fic, I hope you liked it. I know it's not the most original idea ever, but hopefully with the new setting/time-stream, I can add some different elements to what's come before it.
On a side note: kattenkwaad is the Dutch/Flemish for 'mischief'. As with so many Germanic words, kattenkwaad is a mashup of 2 words, namely 'katten' and 'kwaad'. The reason I mention this is because, if you were to translate those 2 words separately instead of together, you'd get 'angry cats'.
Seriously, how ironic is it that the Dutch/Flemish word for mischief would literally translate to angry cats? Bruce was onto something, me thinks! ?
Old Norse:
seiðr - witchcraft, sorcery / a type of sorcery practiced in Norse society during the Late Scandinavian Iron Age - i.e. magic