A little over a month after Christmas, the time for the new year to be heralded in drew close. Legolas and Frigga came to visit Stark tower the day before New Year's Eve. Frigga had to return by sundown that night, but Legolas wanted to stay, and help Sigyn and Loki move out, on New Year's Day. Much to Clint's happiness. On the eve, after Sigyn had put Sleipnir to bed, Legolas, Sigyn, and Loki pushed all the furniture in the lounge to the edges of the room and danced. The Avengers were fascinated by the dancing, and sat on the displaced furniture to watch them. They danced until about eleven o'clock, and then Legolas flopped on the ground, panting, and flushed. "Gah, I'm out of practice." He breathed, wiping moisture off his face. "Somebody, get me some ice!"
He glanced around. Nobody moved, just smirked down at his prostrate form. "Sorry, I forgot there aren't any servants, here." He scrambled to his feet, and ambled over to the bar, where he snatched an ice cube, and returned to where Loki and Sigyn were still standing, popping the solid water into his mouth.
"So, we apparently can't dance, anymore…" Sigyn sighed, disappointed. She was barely winded. "What will we do for another hour?"
"Do you want to go sit in my freezer?" Loki offered to Legolas.
"Exactly how likely am I to freeze into an icicle, in there?"
Loki shrugged. "Pretty likely. I mean, it was designed to be comfortable for Jotnar."
"Nah, I'd rather be hot than frost bitten." Legolas declined. "What about you guys, what do you want to do?" He turned to the Avengers.
"What do elves typically do on New Year's?" Clint asked curiously.
"Dance." Loki and Sigyn both said at the same time. "Lots of dancing." Legolas agreed. "Well… there is a particular tradition of something akin to fireworks."
"Hey, we do fireworks, too!" Tony noticed. "Let's go onto the roof and set some bangers up!"
Elvish fireworks were not like the Midgardian alternative. Instead of shooting up into the sky, and exploding into a shower of sparks, they seemed to be mostly made of light. They would fly high into the stars and flower into beautiful patterns of light, and slowly, gently fall down around the Avengers on the roof. Legolas looked far too pleased with himself. Loki got the brilliant idea to fly his new drone up among the fireworks, and take pictures from inside the explosions. Sigyn would pester him to let her use the controls, but he refused. "It's far harder to fly than it looks, Sig. No offense, but I don't want you breaking my drone."
After the ball dropped at midnight, Sigyn, Bruce, and Steve went to bed, but the rest of them stayed up, watching the movie "It's a Wonderful Life". Legolas fell asleep halfway through it, and Loki had to keep poking him to keep him from snoring.
"Psst. Loki." Tony whispered as the credits started rolling.
Loki, thinking Legolas was bothering them again, poked him in the shoulder.
"Huh? Wha?" The prince muttered. "'M 'wake. Quit pokin' me." His eyes stayed blearily open for maybe two more seconds, before he fell asleep on Loki's shoulder.
"Loki." Tony hissed again. Loki turned to look at the engineer. "You hungry?"
"Mildly." Loki nodded.
"Come here."
Loki stood up abruptly, leaving the elvish prince to topple over on the couch, awaking suddenly with a snort. "Hey!" He glared sleepily at Loki's quickly fleeing form. "You're mean, Muindor."
"You get worse from Eomer." Loki pointed out, but Legolas was already asleep, again.
Tony was waiting for him in the kitchen, an untouched tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream sitting next to his left elbow. Loki greedily pounced. "Did you want to speak with me about something?" Loki guessed.
"Nah, I just wanted to hang out with you before you leave, tomorrow." Tony sighed, taking a bite of his own vanilla ice cream. "I haven't actually seen the house, what's it like?"
"It's smaller than I would've liked." Loki admitted. "I'd hoped to raise a family, there, but there are only two bedrooms. Real estate is ridiculous on Midgard, you know that?"
Tony waved a hand. "No, just in New York. So, you thinking of getting a new house, once Sigyn pops out another baby?"
Loki snorted in laughter. "Pops out… Anthony… that is the single most ridiculous thing you've said today."
"Hey, I don't anything about popping out babies!" Tony shrugged. "Wait… it's only two in the morning! I haven't said very much today at all!"
"Small mercies." Loki agreed. "To answer your question, I don't know."
"You don't know?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "Your house, isn't it? Besides, you'll be filthy rich, by then, anyway."
Loki nodded. "Yes, but… the truth is, I'm not sure where I'll be, at that point."
"You're not going to abandon Sigyn, are you?" Tony asked warily.
Loki was quiet for a minute. How to explain this, without giving himself away, or sounding like a terrible person. "Not… abandoning, persay. I'm a wanted man, Anthony. There's a… being out there who swore revenge on me. If I'm around Sigyn for very much longer, than when he finds me… and, it's not a matter of if, it's when… when he finds me… he can't be allowed to find her, too."
"Holy…" Tony breathed. "Where will you go?"
"I don't want to tell you that." Loki replied stiffly. "I'd like to put off my capture as long as possible, so… none of you will know."
"Will Sigyn?"
"Know?" Loki clarified. "I haven't decided. I… I think so."
Tony shook his head. "What about raising your family?"
"That's my cover story until I vanish." Loki sighed. "I have to choose between watching my daughter grow up, or watching her die."
"Damn… Who's after you?" Tony gasped.
Loki stared at the floor. "The one who controlled me. He… he told me that if I failed, I would long for something as sweet as pain. I've actually felt that, before. The only thing I can think of that would cause that would be the total numbness that comes with…" His voice broke.
Tony cut in, whispering the last part. "…watching a loved one die."
Loki nodded, blinking back tears. "So, I can only allow him the next best thing. Making me think they're dead, instead of actually killing them before my eyes."
The kitchen was full of eerie silence. "Who… who controlled you?" Tony whispered. Loki shook his head. "I can't say his name… it would not bode well for me… you probably wouldn't know him, anyway."
Suddenly, Loki snapped his eyes up to meet the engineer's. "I pray you never meet him, Anthony. But, if you do, you will know him for how he courts Death."
"Death?" Tony asked. "Like, he's a daredevil kind of guy?"
"No." Loki whispered huskily. "He only wishes to please Death. And the only way to please Death is to cause an astronomical amount of it. In his deluded mind, death is not a concept. It is not an event. It is a person. And he has an enormous crush on her. He goes from planet to planet, killing everything. Because he thinks it will make her happy. He's mad, he's demented, he's delusional, and… and… he taught me what it is to fear."
"What are you two whispering about?" Natasha asked. The two men jumped, and turned to look at the assassin.
"Nothing important." Loki stated briskly, standing up, and marching to the elevator.
After Sigyn was finally satisfied with the arrangement of the furniture in their new home, Loki took Sleipnir outside, and set her in the snowy backyard. She turned blue almost immediately, and patted the snow in curiosity. "Wet." She finally announced.
"Yes, it is." Loki grinned, kneeling down beside her in the snow. "It's snow, Sleepy. Can you say, 'snow'?"
"No!" Sleepy declared. Loki chuckled at her infant pronunciation, and scooped up a bit of the substance, rolling it into a ball between his blue hands. He set it on the ground before Sleipnir, and soon stacked two more small snow balls on each other.
"Ooh!" Sleepy cooed.
"Snow-man." Loki explained.
"No-mam!" Sleipnir happily smashed it. "No-mam!" She dug her fingers into the snow, squishing it in great joy. Like she did with literally everything else she was presented with, she brought the cold white substance up to her mouth, and sucked on it cheerfully. Loki was about to stop her, and make her spit it out, when he realized that snow was technically nothing but solid water. It was clean, too, so there was really no reason she couldn't eat it.
Sigyn came out of the house, wearing a coat and boots. "Hey, how are my living popsicles doing?"
"No, Mama!" Sleepy proclaimed, holding up fistfuls of snow.
"No?" Sigyn tilted her head.
"She's saying 'snow'." Loki explained, making another small snow-man for her, which she gleefully smashed. And then ate.
"Don't ruin your appetite, Godzilla, I just got your dinner ready." Sigyn smiled, scooping Sleepy up into her arms. Loki stood up, brushing the snow off his pants as he trotted after his girls. For a small amount of time, he was finally… home.
That should be my last out of season holiday chapter for a while...
TheOnlyHuman.