It was a calm, peaceful day in the Avenger's Tower...or at least it was calm and peaceful as the Tower and it's usual denizens and guests could get. No baddies to deal with, no emergencies to handle, Jarvis was keeping an eye on things, and somehow, someway, a strange game was underway between all the members of the Avengers, two Lokis and a toddler with magic.

It started, of course, with Astrid. The three year old had spent the early portion of the day playing but by afternoon was running around away from Sylvie, who had then tried chasing down the child. Loki was fairly certain it was the ice cream, and Sylvie agreed which was why she had grabbed him by the hair and forced him to help her in trying to catch the hyperactive toddler since it was him who gave her the sweet frozen treat. Thor had joined in because, as it turned out, he found it fun to spend time with his niece and seemed all the happier to spend time with his brother and sister. Neither trusted him of course, though Loki had a feeling it was different reasons, but they couldn't stop him either really and while he tried to stop the child with magic, and Sylvie tried repeatedly to grab Astrid whenever she got close enough, Thor seemed to think an old game was the best way to go. Loki made his argument but after being ignored by the giggly toddler and yet still picked up and thrown into yet another wall, he finally just ran from his brother and it turned into a multiple faucet game of chase and hide'n'seek.

Loki wasn't sure when the Black Widow and Hawkeye were joined in, or why either would want to either. All he knew was that as he ran down the hallway he was nearly shot by what he realized was a Nerf dart and turning his head to see who had tried to shoot him, he locked eyes with a very serious looking Clint Barton. Wielding a very not serious looking Nerf bow. Were there even Nerf bows? He was not entirely sure but he was also not surprised that the marksman had one, just that he had actually managed to miss. Or maybe he didn't; with that thought he went a little faster.

One thing led to another and an hour in he was hiding with Astrid under one arm, covered in glitter and red paint, and on a table in the main laboratory. Sylvie was standing by the door, panting slightly and glaring at him but that was of course nothing strange by now; it was more abnormal for her to not be annoyed with him over something, his mere existence seeming to bother her. But he gave a smile and offered Astrid like some kind of offering.

"Truce?" the god of mischief asked and watched as the goddess narrowed her eyes and the child wiggled in hopes of being set down; he did so and she ran over to Sylvie, clinging onto her leg.

"I can't believe you tripped that trap," Sylvie said, shaking her head and sighing as she saw some glitter flutter out of her hair as she did so; the female Variant was similarly covered in glitter but not paint save for a small portion of her left arm that had been splashed in the aftermath.

Loki shrugged, unconcerned, unbothered. "Who expected a paint trap in the middle of the hallway? Or any traps at all; this was just supposed to be about making the little one take her nap."

"I just wanna play more," Astrid said with a huff and pulled on Sylvie's cloak, staring up at the older girl, "I'm not tired."

"It's fine, little one," Sylvie told her, looking at Astrid for a moment before throwing Loki a look, "We both know who's fault that is."

He put his hands up in his defense but there was none. He had given the child ice cream because he was curious and because she asked; he'd even tried some and been quick to try to hide the fact it turned his actual mouth blue trying to eat it. Astrid seemed fine, no changes outside of her hyperactivity, and that had led him to feed her more of it to see what would happen. Eventually she had just run off and he never got his answer, even when he managed to be the one to catch her only for the game to have evolved from "grab the toddler" to "everyone catch everyone else" which of course led into him tripping a trap laid by Tony, running to try and get away, and ending up in the lab. A comedy of errors that had snowballed out of control and when he listened he could hear Thor yelling out names, including his own.

"Does Luka deal with this every day?" Loki asked without a thought and Sylvie stared at him.

Their other self was honestly an odd duck; at least a few days had passed since they arrived in this New York and they had learned very little about him. Even for a Loki there was a sense of too many secrets, all of which he held close to his chest and without full knowledge of anything else going on, Loki had yet to crack any of them, despite trying. He got the sense Sylvie was curious too, even while she tried her hardest to act like what mattered most to her was the ongoing repairs on the Tempad; there was impatience to her, no doubt still remembering her plans against the TVA, but as there was nothing to be done about that it seemed, she too looked to be interested in the mystery of the third Loki.

Astrid whined and Sylvie sighed before lifting the child up; she dusted glitter from Sylvie's hair, giggling as it fell on her face, and threw her arms around her neck. "Daddy likes the others though; he says they amuse him with their antics."

"I can't really understand why considering what happened a year ago," Loki continued.

"You were alive a year ago," Sylvie spoke, looking at Astrid, "Why does your parent like the people who beat him?"

The child put her hands over her own mouth, unable to hide her smile. This was not surprising or rare; when Loki had tried asking her direct questions, when she wasn't hungry, that was the common answer. Who the Nightingale was, what Nevermore was, what Luka was doing helping the Avengers, the mysteries got only a child withholding information with sparkling eyes and a mischievous smile. And Loki was left feeling both annoyed and strangely proud in a way.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair only to remember he was still covered in fresh paint and with a frown he snapped his fingers, cleaning himself off with magic. Sylvie raised an eyebrow at him. "Why didn't you do that immediately?"

"Do you want the honest answer or a lie?"

"You forgot you could, didn't you?"

"Now what's the point in asking if you're just going to blurt out the answer anyway?"

"Idiot."

He put his hand over his chest and gave her his best puppy dog eyes which while they always worked on Thor even when their sibling rivalry was at the worst, did not work on Lokis. Sylvie continued to frown and Astrid giggled at him now as he shrugged and straightened up.

"What next?" he asked walking over to stand by her.

"We figure out how to end this stupid game," Sylvie answered in an obvious tone.

"Because you're tired of being chased?"

"Because that idiot Midgardian Tony is currently taking part instead of working on fixing my Tempad and I don't want to be stuck here longer just because everyone here seems to be childish." She moved Astrid so she was carrying her on her back and moved to open the door. Loki made his way over, preparing himself for anything really: another Nerf arrow? A paintball to the face? Mjolnir? A dart? Who knew with this group and he found himself wondering how exactly he had gotten beaten by a group who's general maturity level seemed to suffer from a serious case of Tony Stark and Thor God of Thunder.

Coast was clear though and with a sigh of relief the two gods of mischief walked down the hallway, keeping their eyes open and their ears perked. It took a moment for Loki to realize that it was quiet and he could have sworn that he had heard Thor yelling only moments before. There wasn't even the sound of footsteps and he immediately felt the sensation that something was very much not right around there. His first instinct was to summon knives, the reaction of a god who was used to having to fight all the time everyday; his second was to send them away and create a butterfly net instead, the reaction of a man whose life had become even more chaotic than normal and who had had to adjust accordingly. Sylvie took note and furrowed her brow at him but he shrugged; to him it was no less strange a choice than the paint trap, the glitter, the game, any of this. And if his days were going to be full of chaos he figured he might as well indulge in it.

"Where's Anthony?" Astrid asked, speaking into Sylvie's hair, looking out over her head.

"If he knows what's good for him, realizing he has more important things to do right now rather than run around playing games," Sylvie answered.

Loki glanced into an open room, finding neither hide nor hair of the others; yeah this definitely was suspicious. He tightened his grip on his net and looked about. "Keep on your toes though."

"You look ridiculous, Loki."

"As always Sylvie you are a bastion of kindness and love." Astrid giggled, inhaling some left over glitter and then sneezing; Sylvie made a face then rolled her eyes at Loki.

They had just walked into the living area when finally something happened, though it took a few extra seconds for Loki to process what; everything just happened so fast. Astrid was suddenly falling, Loki was moving, and Sylvie was stock still with her hands pressed against the sides of Clint's head, who stared at her with wide eyes that suddenly swirled with a familiar shade of green energy. The god just barely managed to catch the toddler before she could hit the ground, making her exclaim in delight; the net fell though with a thud and he stared up at his female equivalent, wondering what exactly she thought she was doing, and why. Then he realized there was more than just them; Natasha was covered in paint as well, this time gold, and from what Loki could see probably that was why Tony was icing his face. Bruce was currently sitting on the couch with his eyes closed, no doubt trying to keep his cool for the time being over whatever he had had to go through; Loki vaguely remembered seeing him in a different shirt earlier and he had certainly had not had wet hair before but focusing on the not-giant form of the Hulk was not something he much wanted to spend time doing. Steve was leaning against a wall, plucking feathers off himself with a rather unfavorable look; now Loki wasn't sure if it was the spider or the boy scout who had made Tony have to hold ice to his face.

Seconds passed like hours before Sylvie finally spoke, in a tone that was equally confused, exasperated and loud, "How in Hel do you manage to hide being deaf for so long?!"

"Wait, Barton is deaf?" Tony piped up and lowered the ice; that was some black eye he had.

"That...explains nothing actually, not a single thing," Loki said thinking back to dealing with the agent during the Battle; there had been no clues that would have leaned him towards thinking Clint was actually hearing impaired. Not that it would have stopped them from using the man.

"I was not aware," Thor said frowning some, "Why didn't he tell us?"

Natasha rubbed the bridge of her nose as Sylvie let go of Clint and the man shook his head. "Because it's not any of your business?"

"Nat, you knew?" Tony asked with tinges of betrayal in his voice.

"What is it with Lokis and invading my head?!" Clint himself did not sound very happy about the whole thing and Loki stood up, holding Astrid carefully in his arms. Part of him felt bad about that though another part told him not to, means to an end. Or maybe that was just what the Scepter had convinced him; the longer he was away from the thing and from Thanos, the more he was convinced the whole thing had been a rather unpleasant experience that had him as much a puppet as the people he controlled. But Loki knew he still did it all because deep down he wanted to.

Sylvie frowned and lowered her hands before giving a noncommittal shrug of a shoulder. "Maybe if your mind wasn't so easy to control we'd not be able to get in."

"So it wasn't just the Specter? You can do that on your own anyway?" Natasha asked crossing her arms and throwing Loki a look that made him feel worse. Mainly for himself.

"No, that's a Sylvie thing," he said a little too quickly, "Enchantment is low level magic, far below me."

Oh great, now he had two women glaring at him and one of them was himself. Sylvie spoke in a low tone, "You're lucky you're holding the child."

"Good, now I know how to keep you from hitting me all the time." He adjusted Astrid then cleared his throat. "So...deaf?"

Clint frowned and that made three angry with him. Maybe if he got the whole set he could get excused from playing tag with them. No one else said a word and the man ran a hand through his hair with an annoyed, heavy sigh. "That is none of your business, at all, and I'm not comfortable talking about that with the god who brainwashed me to make me attack my friends and colleagues."

"Fair enough," Loki admitted, raising a hand.

"That was a fun game," Astrid chirped and wiggled in Loki's arms, making him struggle and wonder how Sylvie and Luka managed to hold onto her all the time; she didn't seem to care though and continued, "Can we play again?"

"I think we could all do with a nap right now," Natasha said gently; based on the expressions of the others she was speaking for the whole group.

She approached, giving Loki a look and he handed over Astrid willingly though not because he was afraid of the Black Widow or anything; it wasn't like he had any reason to even if he did suspect she was one of the smarter members of this group and certainly the most mature at times. The toddler cuddled up to her, nestling her face in the woman's hair and she carried her back to the others, followed soon by Loki and Sylvie.

"Okay!~" Astrid lifted a hand and Loki watched as she seemed to try to summon up blankets. But as was the problem with the wild magic of toddlers, what she got was a lot more than a few. They filled the room actually, like an ever-fluffing sea of comfyness and various colors. She was unbothered but Clint froze and looked around. "Where's Bruce?"

"Lost under the blanket-geddon it seems," Tony said and tried to wade through the continuing to expand collection.

Sylvie looked to Loki and he moved before she could even say it; they both knew what she was thinking and he waved his hand, stopping the onslaught. Their magic seemed to resonate which while it didn't surprise him, did make it only more cemented for him that ultimately they were related. Luka might be her actual father but Luka was Loki and Loki was Luka, one person in three bodies at the end of the day.

There were sighs of relief but there was still a lot of blankets; Astrid swung her legs, looking quite pleased and Loki thought for a moment, moving his legs in the weight of lots and lots of fabric. At least they were soft though; the couches, the lamps, the counter and tables, everything was covered and gave the room a sort of strange look.

"Aren't you going to fix this?" Steve asked and Loki realized he was being stared at, the others waiting on him to do something.

The god paused then he smiled and he snapped his fingers. "Of course."

Technically speaking he did "fix" it. Instead the lumps under the blankets all disappeared and there was a grunt from where Bruce was assumed to still be. As he resurfaced, already looking more than a little green around the gills, Loki quickly acted and changed him into a pair of soothing blue pajamas with a teddy bear. Tony opened his mouth but the magic didn't stop there, redressing each of them in similar pajamas, decorated accordingly to each; Astrid laughed delightedly as she was placed in footie pajamas that were fashioned after a black cat and cuddled a confused Natasha, no longer painted and now dressed in spider print pajamas.

"What the?" Tony asked looking himself over, his mechanic causal clothing changed to pajamas like Astrid's that made him look like a giant robot. Well a human-sized giant robot.

"You said we could all do with a nap," Loki said nonchalantly, dressed in elegant green silk. Until Astrid took note and huffed before changing his clothes to make him wear a bigger version of her own clothes; he pulled up the hood and grinned like the mischievous scamp he was, "Meow~"

"I always knew he was a big bag of cats," Tony mumbled then snorted as he saw that Steve was dressed as, well, Captain America. But in sleepwear form. He even had a little sleeping cap and while the man himself seemed unperturbed, Tony seemed to find it hilarious.

"I suppose I should have seen this coming." Clint really looked more like a chicken than a hawk; this may or may not have been on purpose. But the fake "wings" did make his outfit amusing and Loki turned his head in vain hope that his grin wouldn't be seen. Not that he cared much if he was seen laughing at the assassin. He could feel the stare from Clint burning into his skull, daring him to snort or outright laugh; the god thought on it for a moment and did chuckle, which made Clint try and approach. And immediately faceplant before of the sheer amount of density of soft blankets on the floor, also the pjs didn't help his coordination right now. Loki burst out laughing, forgetting who he was standing near; Natasha managed, while still holding a delighted Astrid, to grab him by the back of his neck and pull so that the god fell as well. It didn't hurt but it did stun him for a second, causing him to just stare at the ceiling before hearing a snicker from Sylvie and he looked at her. She was smiling, dressed in a similar outfit to him and Astrid though he had chosen to make hers a golden color to match her hair. She actually seemed happy for a moment and Loki too smiled.

He did not hate his other self. He had all sorts of feelings, about himself, about the situation, about everything, but while Sylvie often snapped and seemed frustrated with him, Loki could not hate her for it. Because deep down he understood; he was a fool and he had messed up things for her, and it was clear that the things she had gone through because of the TVA were probably far worse than the murders she had committed. She was emotional, the way he could be emotional, the way he was emotional, and while he hated being the target for her lashing out when he wasn't trying to do anything, it didn't make him dislike her. It just made him want to figure out how to help her when there was very little else they could do but cope with their situation.

"Uncle, are you okay?" Astrid asked looking at him and he paused before shrugging.

"Thor has done worse to me," he answered, hopping up. Or trying; it really was hard to move and he just ended up sort of flopping up and down, making the child giggle more and Sylvie shake her head at him.

"You look ridiculous," the goddess said.

"You already said that before."

"You look really ridiculous."

"I personally think the cat onesie suits us. Though I liked my silk pajamas."

"Matching!" Astrid exclaimed and threw her hands up, nearly smacking Natasha in the face.

The assassin seemed to decide that this meant it was a good idea to set her down and the child was almost immediately swallowed up by blankets of her own creation, sinking until Loki waved his hand and started to slowly levitate her out. Astrid took this as a sign she should pretend to swim and he floated her about, allowing her to continue. Sylvie watched for a time but eventually took her and tried to lay down in the ocean of comfy; she too was almost swallowed but being an adult it wasn't as much of a concern and she yawned.

"Alright idiot one, gremlin, it's naptime," she said, closing her eyes; there were audible sighs but Loki yawned and lay down as well, allowing himself to be consumed by the softness. It was honestly pretty nice if he was truthful.

"You heard the Loki with a sword," he said and snapped his fingers again, causing the room to go dark and some panic to erupt, "Calm down, it's naptime; naptime requires quiet and darkness."

"How does Reindeer Games Mark 2 know anything about naptime?" That was definitely Tony's voice.

"Brother, we are not mortal children; we do not need a nap." Okay, there was Thor.

"Admittedly if being parent's taught me anything, it's that naptime is for everyone." Wow, Clint actually sounded supportive.

"Wasn't Tony supposed to be working on fixing up your guys' time travel device?" And there was Bruce.

"We need to stay alert in case of any emergencies." Of course Steve was more worried about the safety of others than the ridiculousness of this situation.

Loki waited for Nat or Sylvie to say something but neither piped up. Waiting a little longer he took note of soft breathing to one side of him and a small sleepy whine from a small body; there was movement all about, the sounds of mumbles and whines and then bodies hitting the blanket sea, and the god smirked before closing his eyes. Victory.

Loki wasn't sure how long he'd been out, not even entirely sure when he'd really fallen asleep. All he knew was that suddenly there was light shining on his face and he whined, waving his hand to try and make it go away only for it to come right back somehow. He turned over, trying to bury his face in the blankets but heard a chuckle and a familiar voice that mused at him, "Sorry to wake you, sleeping beauty, but I have a few questions."

He tried waving his hand again but it was caught and he opened one eye to glare, a little blurrily considering he'd been sleeping, at his own face. Well, technically Luka's face but again, that was just a technicality.

"I was sleeping," Loki said in a low, annoyed voice.

"I could see that," Luka responded and seemed to look about, "I don't think I've ever seen everyone so peaceful. And certainly never saw myself cuddling with the Avengers on a sea of blankets."

Loki was confused until he felt something move beside him and he slowly came to the realization that somehow, someway, during their naps everyone had somehow moved towards some weird central point where they were just all...sleeping. Sylvie had Astrid laying on top of her, the female Variant still fast asleep it seemed despite being literally right beside Loki; actually she had strands of his hair between her fingers, her sleeping face towards his. He could make out Tony's foot inches from where his own head was and if he looked carefully he could see Bruce cuddling with the teddy bear and Nat curled up with Clint. It took him another minute before his brain started to process how no one else seemed to notice the light or at the very least care; he groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. Sylvie made a displeased noise and he yawned. "Naptime."

"I see," Luka responded, his tone making it clear he did understand.

There was another chuckle beside him and the god turned his attention to the people beside his twin. One was a young woman, maybe late twenties, with long black hair and an amused smirk; she looked normal enough, dressed in a long coat over a t-shirt and jeans, but behind her glasses he could see the red color of her eyes and he realized that she very likely wasn't. To Luka's other side was a man with what Loki thought couldn't possibly be dark blue hair, shaved on one side of his head and long enough for a loose ponytail on the other; silver-gold eyes stared back at him and there was a definite sense of not dealing with something not human though what exactly was unclear. Loki got the sense the chuckle came from the woman, as the nonhuman had a rather serious expression on his face that made it hard to think he was the one who laughed.

The god turned to his twin and raised an eyebrow. "More friends?"

"You could say that," Luka said turned to look at them, gesturing to the woman first, "This is Tsuki and that's Nox," once addressed the man gave a small bow of the head.

The woman Tsuki waved some. "Nice to meet you, Loki."

"You don't seem surprised that there are two of me," Loki said watching her very carefully; that was pretty suspicious honestly considering everyone else had been at least a little shocked and this woman just looked at him with clear eyes.

"Luka told me about you and about Sylvie," she answered with a small shrug, "Plus in my line of work expecting the abnormal is just, well, normal."

"And that line of work is...?"

"I own a bookstore." There was definitely something not right about this and he narrowed his eyes. Unfortunately that just made him remember how sleepy he still was and he widened them again to try not to fall unconscious again.

Luka shook his head and looked about. "We came by to speak with Tony but as everyone else seems to be asleep..."

"Naptime certainly sounds like a good plan to me," Tsuki said stretching before jumping into the blanket pile. Loki was about to say something but it seemed the worse that happened was that she accidentally smacked Tony in the head who proceeded to smack her in his sleep in return and then try to kick Loki. The god grabbed his foot and pulled, making the genius whine and then retract his foot; he nodded then turned back to see Luka laying down next to Sylvie, pulling Astrid to him and looking quite content.

"So...you're just gonna lay down and sleep?" Loki asked more than a little confused, "Didn't you have something to do?"

"As your twin said, we came to see this idiot," Tsuki said and poked Tony's cheek, smirking as he rolled away from her and ended up spooning Steve in result, "But honestly it's so rare to see them all so calm and just resting; it's concerning how much work they do and how little they tend to sleep so I see no hurry in waking any of them."

"This is a good opportunity to make these two get some sleep too," the being called Nox spoke and Loki wasn't sure when he had gotten into the sea as well but he was sitting near Tsuki and speaking in a low calming sort of voice, "Heavens know they work hard enough."

"Nox is a worrywart," Tsuki commented as Luka tried to drift off to sleep with his daughter; she smiled at Loki and he settled back down, figuring if he couldn't beat them he would have to join them in this, "But I'm sure you don't much care about any of that."

He didn't really. Mostly he was curious, wondering who, and what, these two were really, whether this was destined to just be another weird mystery for his collection or if he would actually get answers this time.

But right now Loki was really just sleepy and with another yawn he settled back into the strangely calm slumber of naptime. As he closed his eyes again he just barely noted the way that the light started to disappear, shrouded away by shadows that he could almost swear moved on their own. But maybe the god was just that tired.