Disclaimer: I do not own the original canon nor am I making any profit from writing this piece. All works are accredited to their original authors, performers, and producers while this piece is mine. No copyright infringement is intended. I acknowledge that all views and opinions expressed herein are merely my interpretations of the characters and situations found within the original canon and may not reflect the views and opinions of the original author(s), producer(s), and/or other people.
Warnings: This story may contain material that is not suitable for all audiences and may offend some readers. There is also references to past child abuse and other canon bits of trauma. Please exercise understanding of personal sensitivities before and during reading.
Author's Note(s): While this is mostly a prompt smash fic, it nominally takes place in the Purpose of Aeries series (just very far down the timeline from the latest of the published bits) and may or may not end up being actually included in the series. That means that this piece will make a lot more sense if you've at least read Daedalus Bound. Reading Erinyes would also help.
Challenge/Competition Block:
Stacked with: MC4A (Su4)
Individual Challenges: Tell My Story; Best Stories (Y); La Vie Boheme; Not the Mama; Fix-It Felix (Y); My Favorite Things; No School MC; Magical MC (x2); Metahuman MC; Marvelous HP; Military MC; Neurodivergent (x2); Rowl in Her Grave; Rian-Russo Inversion; Ethnic & Present; Disabled; Tiny Terror; Shifter MC; Extraterrestial MC; Lovely Triangle; Claimed; Ship Sails (x2); Gwen's MCU Bribery (Y); Go Fluff Yourself; Colors Galore; Zed Era; Old Shoes (x2); Marvelous Cinema; Short Jog (Y); The Story Goes On; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon; Greatest Gift; Iron Fam Checklist [Iron Dad]
Other MC4A Challenges (Prompt): SpB [2B](Mud); TrB [5D](Competitive X); SuB [4A](Sun); AU [3C](Mutant); Ship (Frost Iron)[SpBig (Frisbee)/[SpBig (Tambourine)/ SuBig (Carnival/Fair)/[SuBig] (Drawing/Painting)/[SuMic2 (Purple)/[Bingo (3A - Battle Couple); Chim [Fish](Family/Friendship; The Trickster); Hunt [Sp WD (Black); Sp WD (Anxiety); Sp Set (Rainy); Sp Set (Outside); Su Set (Festival); Su Set (Sunny); Sp Con (Water); Su Con (Lemonade); Sp Items (Broom); Sp Items (Stuffed Toy); Sp Items (Pen); Sp Items (Scarf); Su Items (Ball); Su Items (Hat); Su Item (Guitar); Su Items (Grill); Su Items (Swimsuit)]; Garden [Chores (Painting/Drawing); Bed Types (Forest/Woods); Flowers (Violet); Flowers (Tangerine); Flowers (Crimson); Tools (Sweater/Jumper); Ship Ahoy! (War Zucchinis); Herbologist (Red Pepper Flakes); Behind Green Eyes (Found Family); Personal Favs (War Zucchinis); Blood & Water (Father & Son)]; Fire [x3](Evergreen; Walk the Plank; Crossing Streams); TWT (NB Loki; Trio Era)[Task#1](Purple)
Representation: NB Loki/Tony Stark; Tony Stark & James Rhodes QPR; Autistic Harry Potter; Pagan Festival
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenge(s): Deadliest Catch; For the Vine; Lovely Coconuts; Creature Feature; Wind Beneath; Second Verse (Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Middle Name; Spinning Plates; Unwanted Advice; Car in a Tutu; Lock & Key; Three's Company); Chorus (Endless Wonder; Odd Feathers; Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Fizzy Lemonade; Machismo; Fire Song; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow's Shade; Bandstand; Eternal Boredom; Larger than Life; Unicorn); Demo 1 (Muck & Slime; Most Human Bean; Grease Monkey; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Fruit Fly; Easy Zephyr); Demo 2 (Abandoned Ship; Toto's Tribute; Misshapen Pods)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Thimble); SN (Rail; Spare); LiCK (Poppy; Narcissus; Tansy; Yarrow); FR (Satisfaction; Liberation); O3 (Oath); War (Sanctuary); TY (Enfant)
Word Count: 1275
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Domains
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"It's the irony, isn't it?"
The question had popped out of Tony's mouth before he could even think about the possible offensiveness of his question. He wasn't paying enough attention to his current companion to notice the way xe tensed slightly. Tony's attention was actually about three yards ahead of them where Rhodey and Harry had stopped at one of the merchant booths. The boy was examining something that Tony was already planning on buying him, just because he knew that Harry would never ask for it.
"Whatever are you talking about?" Loki asked, a hint of frosty in xyr tone. Tony glanced towards xem, absently rolling his therapy ball between his palms. Meeting his eyes in clear challenge, Loki took a sip of xyr spicy lemonade. Afterwards, xe gave the clear and lidded cup an absent swirl that sent the red pepper flakes within spinning around the chunks of ice.
A parade of musicians move up the perpendicular avenue that crossed their own, forcing them to stop for them to pass. One of the musicians spun in a circle with enough vigor to make their long hair whip out around them in time with the jingly notes from the tambourine in their hand. A different one (this one in sarong and bikini top) was playing along on a violet guitar. She gave Tony and Loki a flirty wink as she passed them.
"You will have to clarify, pet," Loki continued, sliding xyr hand across Tony's shoulder to rest on the nape of his neck. Guitar-lady grinned as she moved on with the rest of the group.
"It's just ironic that of all the places you could have chosen for a vacation," Tony stated dryly, "you chose a pagan festival." Tony gave Loki a playful nudge with his elbow. "I think I even saw a shrine to you near the main grill. Right next to one that looked like it was some Greek goddess."
"Hestia," Loki supplied easily. "I'm pleased to see someone still honoring her. She's an old friend."
An unexpected sun shower started, sending people scattering into the shelter of nearby merchant tents. There were still plenty of people who didn't pay the rain any mind (or like Tony, merely adjusted their hat to block the worst of it from hitting their head). Loki tilted xyr face towards the sky, letting the water wash over xem in the same way xe did in their shower back at the tower. Tony couldn't help admiring xem as the reminder of their still-new relationship sparked warmly behind the reactor.
"Isn't it odd that there's a shrine there?" Tony asked after the brief rain had passed and Loki had lowered xyr face towards him once more. "Isn't it risky having the whole thing essentially right next to a fire pit?"
"The bulk of the publicly available food is prepared there." Loki shrugged nonchalantly, dismissing the idea that it was unusual at all. "It's the closest the fest has to a hearth."
A group of teenagers sprinted between one of the smaller gaps between merchant tents to the wild woods that edged the area on the other side. One of them had skin the same color as a tangerine. Another of the same group transformed as they were running into a dog and jumped up to snatch a frisbee out of the girl's hand as she slipped in a spot of mud created by the earlier rain. Neither one was the first obvious mutant they had seen walking through the festival. Like every other time, Loki looked after them a twist of the lips that struck Tony as quiet pride.
They paused briefly at the booth that Rhodey and Harry had been at last they had spotted them. As Tony had expected, Rhodey had asked the booth owner to hold onto what had caught Harry's attention. What had caught the little boy's attention was equally unsurprising. The sweater would be as overly large on the tiny child as it was currently out of season, but Tony knew that Harry liked his sweaters that way.
The little stuffed dragon had been done out of patchwork made from different Iron Man fabrics with plushy crimson spikes down its back and on the tip of its very long tail. Harry did like stuffies which had some part that he could wrap around his wrist. Like the bunny that Pepper had gotten Harry when they had first gotten back from Afghanistan, the dragon had a bit of heft to it, indicating that it had weighted stuffing of some sort inside.
They caught up with Rhodey and Harry at a large booth that seemed dedicated to arts and crafts of all kinds. Some of the projects were obviously pagan tools such as the woman guiding an older child through the final steps of constructing a broom. Others were the same sort of things that could probably be expected in a summer camp (not that Tony had ever gone to one, but he had watched plenty of movies). Rhodey was painting a premade ceramic Iron Man figure a ridiculously tacky shade of robin egg blue. Harry was carefully using an embossing pen to add a pattern onto a fashion scarf in the blue-green color that Pepper liked.
No question of who the boy was thinking of giving the scarf to.
Curiously, there was already something sitting near Harry's work station. It was a bit of green salt-dough that had been shaped into a snake figure before being coiled upon itself. There were delicate herringbone markings made down its back. It looked like something that Harry might have made, but Tony couldn't figure out why Harry would have.
Beside him, Loki went tense and still.
"It's an offering for your shrine," Harry said, not looking up from his work on Pepper's future scarf. His affect was flat, a sign that he was reaching the limits of his endurance for the crowded festival. "To say thank you." Harry shifted the scarf in order to reach a different section. "For listening."
"Harry," Loki breathed, already sinking into the chair across the table from him. Harry looked up finally, tilting his chin up in the way that he had adopted when he expected a blow (even now, years away from his previous guardians and the Ten Rings). Loki turned helpless eyes towards Tony instead, only to have xyr attention dragged back towards Harry a moment later.
"I read a book of myths once upon a time," Harry said. Tony felt himself freeze at the phrasing that Harry had taken to using in the very few instances he talked about his life before the Ten Rings. "You're the god of outcasts." Bravery spent, Harry dropped his head submissively and said the rest to the scarf. "So thank you, for listening to me when I had no one."
There was silence for a long moment. The festival outside of the tent sounded far away. The woman and child giggled together over their completed broom. When Loki lightly touched the back of Harry's hand, the boy did not flinch as he normally did at unexpected skin contact. Whatever memories they exchanged through the touch made Harry raise his gaze again.
"Really?" Harry asked, looking even more insecure than he had meeting Morgan for the first time or when Tony had told him to lag behind during their escape from Afghanistan. Tony felt his heart twisting on itself behind the reactor. Kid was going to kill him from heartbreak one of these days. Loki just dipped his head solemnly in response.
"Always, little one," Loki promised. "I will always listen to you."
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An Ending
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