Bruce yawned, leaned in his chair comfortably and sipped his morning tea blend as the Avengers were finishing breakfast.
He was quite tired - though feeling wonderful. He and Hulk were making great progress. The team just returned from the weekend team building camping trip where Hulk was let out and could participate in the team bonding. They did it several times now and Bruce was quite happy that Hulk didn't need to smash and just enjoyed swimming, fishing and holding large s'mores on a big stick over the fire.
Tony also transformed a floor just for Hulk and filled it with Hulk-sized things. The Avengers and Jarvis often spend time there with him teaching him everything from the alphabet and reading to teaching him how to ride a Hulk-sized bike built by Tony. Unbeknownst to the other Avengers except for Tony, also certain two booksellers and their rat friend sometimes visited Hulk there.
Bruce had a smile on his face as he looked around and watched his friends. Steve was finishing the last of the pancakes, Tony was immersed in his phone because lately he has been preparing the annual Starkcon, Natasha just left for something probably SHIELD related, Clint was playing Angry Birds and Thor was… frowning at his tablet?
That was strange since Thor didn't use it that much and if so he usually watched funny videos and memes on it and tried to find and contact Loki (unsuccessfully). Him frowning at the tablet was unusual.
"Everything alright, Thor?" Bruce asked, concerned.
"My brother contacted me," said Thor but not as happily as Bruce would expect.
"That's… good?" The Avengers now knew that Loki was not responsible for the invasion but it seemed that he had some kind of family issues and liked to make it known by mischievous acts aimed at Thor and his new 'shield brothers'. And of course, since the brothers were 'gods' used to operate on a much different scale, Loki's doings were always of epic proportions. Though, as Bruce now realized, the last weeks the God of Mischief had been suspiciously quiet.
"He sent me a picture of himself and grandmother Yrsa's pie!" exclaimed Thor as if that was a worse offence than to invade Earth.
"Okay and…?"
"That is not okay, friend Bruce. And I'll explain that mightily to Loki, once I shall find him. His flat does not look very much like Loki's style though," said Thor and pushed the tablet with the open photo towards Bruce.
Bruce blinked.
No, the room in the background certainly did not look like Loki's style. It was homey, cozy and full of things and mainly, Bruce knew the room. He spent quite a lot of nice time with Aziraphale and Crowley there.
"Tony," he nudged the Avenger next to him.
"Wha?" said the genius coming back from the world of his phone.
"Look at this photo that Loki sent to Thor, it doesn't look much like Loki's style, does it?" said Bruce and was a little worried that he would have to kick his friend under the table not to reveal anything out loud, but the inventor had a great poker face and after looking at Loki in Aziraphale and Crowley's kitchen just nodded as if nothing was amiss, "No, it really doesn't like Loki's place. By the way, Brucie Bear, I need your help in the lab."
"Yes, yes, of course," understood Bruce.
They went to the corridor leading from the Avenger's kitchen and when sufficiently away Bruce said, "What do you think is happening?"
"I don't know, I'll enquire. Probably better to ask Aziraphale for a clearer answer," said Tony as he was composing a text message to the blond bookseller.
It didn't take long for the answer to come back:
[see: cutt*DOT*ly/pTYTues (replace *DOT* with a dot)]
[description: Mobile screen. Tony: Why was the God of Mischief in your kitchen? / Aziraphale: Loki is our friend! 😊 He's a good boy. Though Crowley taught him the glue coin trick. 😅]
Tony looked at it and said, "I think they adopted him."
"Oh my," said Bruce as he looked at the message as well. "So… well, we can't tell Thor, he would storm the Angel&Serpent."
"Yeah. Me and Pepper have numerous meetings today and you seem like you will spend the day in bed but maybe in the evening we can visit them and ask?"
"And warn them that Thor is on the warpath because of the pie, yeah. It looks delicious, by the way, I hope Loki left some of it in their fridge."
What the two geniuses didn't know as they agreed and continued their way was that they were not alone in the corridor. Thor would admit himself that he was not the sharpest sword in the armory in some things but he did grow up with Loki as his brother and he could certainly recognize when people suspiciously left the table. He followed his shield brothers and listened to their conversation. It seemed that they recognized the place Loki had taken the picture in. Now, what was 'Angel&Serpent'? Perhaps the all knowing Google might help him?
As Thor landed before the building, there were dark clouds gathering in the sky. He had quite worked himself up during his search and flight. Apparently Angel&Serpent was an establishment selling books - and truly, of course Loki would hide there, he had often holed up in the Asgardian Royal Library instead of accompanying Thor and the others to quests.
When Thor entered the door the first thunder could be heard, "LOKI!" the Asgardian prince bellowed as he took the picture in front of him - the whole bookshop froze and looked at him. There were two lines leading to a blond and redhead booksellers, people sitting on sofas and armchair or standing near the bookshelves and there, there was his brother, obviously interrupted when talking to one of customers, his black hair put into a ponytail and instead of his armour he had black jeans and a black T-shirt which had the title and the logo of the bookshop on the back and as he turned towards Thor, the Thunderer noticed a nametag reading 'Serpent No.2'. Loki raised an eyebrow on him.
Ignoring all that Thor with a furious scowl started advancing on the God of Mischief, Mjölnir in front of him in his right hand, "Stop hiding brother! I am tired of your games! And how did you get grandmother Yrsa's pie?! I demand my share of it as is my right! And-"
Loki teleported away.
The blond bookseller meanwhile came to Thor who growled, "Where is Loki? I demand you tell-"
"Enough of that, young man," said the blond calmly but firmly.
"I am not young, mortal! I am the prince of Asgard and I am over one thousand years old!" exclaimed Thor irritably.
Then he startled as he suddenly noticed the redhead bookseller sharply grinning at his side, "Did you hear that, Aziraphale, he's over one thousand years old!"
"What a great accomplishment," deadpanned the blond unimpressed. "Loki is our friend and is employed here. You have no right storming in here, interrupting the day of these lovely people and our business, and shouting at anyone here. Loki does not owe you anything, and especially not with such behaviour, and if you want a piece of your grandmother's cooking, then you should have visited her in the last decade."
"You don't understand-" started Thor waving the Mjölnir around.
Before he could process what was happening, the blond man took a step forward, gripped Mjölnir's handle, took it from his hand and continued, "And there will be no weapon waving in our bookshop either, young man."
Thor was gaping at the sight in front of him, the man was holding Mjölnir as if it was weighing nothing, "Who… who are you?"
"Wouldn't you like to know, Weather Boy?" hissed a redhead at his side. "Now shoo, we've got work to do."
"Crowley is right," nodded the blonde, "I think you should leave now, have a nice stroll and do a bit of thinking about proper manners, we close 11:30 for two hours to have lunch, you can come and apologize then, I'll keep this for you until then," he gestured at Mjölnir.
Thor, still stunned that he saw somebody casually wielding Mjölnir, turned around and left the bookshop. He heard clapping from the people inside but was too shocked to pay any attention to that.
Loki, watching all from the second floor was stunned as well, but also had a warm feeling inside that someone stood up for him. Well, the least he could do was magically delete all the footage that people started filming when his idiot brother stormed into the shop. Mmm, though perhaps he can save one of those for himself to watch later (probably on repeat). After all, it was glorious.
The clouds dissipated as Thor slowly walked to the nearest park. He sat at an empty bench and started feeling embarrassed. Didn't he work since he had started living with the Avengers on his impulsiveness? Didn't he repeat many times to himself that when he finds Loki he will talk with him and be patient and listen?
All of that and it took only one teasing picture from Loki for him to forget everything and go spare.
He squirmed a bit as he looked at his feet and thought that he had certainly not been behaving like a crown prince nor a good brother.
But he shall apologise as the blond bookseller said and think of something nice to do for both the booksellers and Loki! Yes, Thor will all show them that he can be worthy!
Thor didn't know how long he had been sitting in the park and 'plotting' as his brother would say when he noticed a shiny coin nearby. He blinked, surprised that he had not noticed it before. He walked to it and bent over to pick it up.
Unsuccessfully.
Thor frowned and tried again.
Nothing.
Alright, no messing about then. He caught the coin between his two fingers in a mighty grip and pulled.
And there! He held the coin in his hand… and a piece of asphalt stuck to it.
He guiltily looked at the small hole in the pavement and stepped on it looking around if anyone had seen him.
"Oh, dear, vandalism? What would mother say?" his brother shimmered not far from him with a smirk.
"Loki! That-" started Thor and then swallowed his first response. "That was a great joke, brother."
Loki obviously didn't expect this response and so was too slow away to notice that Thor started moving to teleport away. Instead Thor was able to embrace him and hug him.
It took a bit for his brother to stop squirming away and calling him an oaf before Loki melted into the hug as well.
Finally Thor let go to get a proper look at Loki, "You look good brother, the employment in the books establishment does you well."
Loki narrowed his eyes on him.
Thor grinned sheepishly, "I'm sorry brother about the shouting, my temper got away from me."
"As usual," sniped his brother.
"I am working on it, truly. But I was greatly thinking about an apology gift for it!"
"Oh?" said Loki feigning lack of interest, but Thor knew that Loki was - as Darcy would say - sucker for gifts.
"As your friend pointed out, I had not visited grandmothers for a long time and grandmother Gudrun's birthday is coming soon so I thought that I could visit them for a bit-"
"-that's not a gift for me, you oaf!"
"-with mother."
"W-what?"
"I could take mother with me. And since it's on Vanaheim and not on Asgard, and you're welcomed there, you could come and spend some time with mother, just the two of you."
"Oh." Loki blinked several times.
"What do you think?"
"I think… that you certainly got better at gift giving, brother."
Thor beamed.
"I am most sorry for making a scene in your establishment," said Thor after Loki brought him back to the shop and led him through the now open stairs passageway upstairs to the kitchen.
"We accept your apology, young man. I am Aziraphale and this is my beloved, Crowley," said the blonde with a smile and handed him Mjölnir which Thor immediately started cradling protectively to his chest.
"Thank you, most noble Aziraphale! But truly I am not young to you."
The man who introduced himself as Aziraphale looked at his beloved, who looked at Loki. His brother at first shrugged but then nodded.
The one called Crowley removed his glasses and revealed his eyes to be the one of a snake. Thor blinked, not having seen these on a mortal yet and the redhead grinned, "You truly are."
Thor looked at his brother who in return smirked, obviously knowing something Thor did not.
During the most delicious lunch Thor listened to the tale of Aziraphale and Crowley who had seemed to travel the multiverse and also their woes about Crowley's shrunken travelling device that also contained Aziraphale's books. It seemed like a very difficult problem since even his clever brother didn't know the solution for it.
In return Thor told a story how he started living with the Avengers and now was protecting Midgard presuming that Loki already told them about their life on Asgard.
"And what about your crown prince duties, Thor," asked Loki pointedly, "don't you think you should be preparing to become a king instead of this? The Allfather is not getting any younger and I still find you woefully unprepared."
"You're right, brother," admitted Thor (to Loki's great shock)."But father is being… difficult lately. He isn't interested in teaching me how to reign and is short-tempered when I ask a question."
"Oh," said his brother, obviously surprised that now Thor would like to learn, but can't.
"Perhaps you could teach me, Loki? You've always been the smart one."
Loki was staring at him as if he saw Thor for the first time and started getting slightly pink. "Er..." he looked around frantically until he caught the gazes of Aziraphale and Crowley, who, Thor noticed, were looking encouragingly at his brother.
"I… I can share what I know about the court, about the relationships, who prefers working with who or the opposite, and I certainly have some ideas how to make Asgard better, mainly concentrating on the magic wielding community…but," his brother took a deep sigh, "but I'm afraid I do not know much about the actual ruling either. Father was never interested in discussing treaties or other things with me even though I asked him to."
Thor blinked, knowing that it was never easy for Loki admitting that he didn't know or couldn't do something and said, "Thank you for telling me, brother, I would be grateful for you to share what you know."
Loki gave him a small shy smile similar to those he used to give him when they were children.
"I-" Thor was interrupted by a small animal scurrying to the room. It was a rat that had a tartan bow tie and the top of the head coloured red, and was carrying a letter.
"This is Atouille," said Crowley and took the letter while thanking the rat.
"Well met, Atouille!" said Thor and Atouille waved at him and squeaked.
"It's from Gytha," said Crowley reading the note and Aziraphale leaned to him to look at it as well. "She writes that she consulted the shrunken Bentley problem with other witches and they agreed that a time magic could help, you know, like to bring the Bentley back in time to a state when it wasn't shrunk. Unfortunately they are not very familiar with time manipulation."
"Time manipulation," hummed Loki, "I suppose that could work. Regrettably there is not much known about it. At least not in the Asgardian library, though if Thor smuggles me there I can take a second look to be sure."
"Excellent idea, brother! And, I thought that I could invite Aziraphale and Crowley to visit Asgard as my apology gift for the scene I caused? They are not mortals and at least one of them can lift Mjölnir so I think they will be most welcome! What do you think," he turned fully to the beings from another dimension, "when could you leave for the Realm Eternal?"
They looked at each other and it seemed they exchanged a whole communication just by several looks
The blond started and gave Thor a soft smile, "Well, Thor, that is… we are of course honored by your invitation… but..."
"But honestly just the idea of it reminds us too much of Heaven," finished Crowley. "Plus we are preparing for the StarkCon. One day we are even going to have a booth there selling fantasy and sci-fi literature."
Thor stared at them with his mouth open, his brain not understanding how someone might refuse the opportunity to visit Asgard, the best of the realms.
Also his brain was telling him that something was weird about this situation.
Oh yes, Loki was not laughing about it at him.
How strange. Thor looked at his brother who had a pensive look, "Loki?"
His brother gave him a patented Loki smile, "I have an idea."
Oh Bor, the whole palace learned to be apprehensive after Loki uttered these words, "Yes, brother?"
"There is one artifact that I know can influence time - the Time Infinity Stone," started Loki.
"Yes, but it hasn't been seen-"
"Also, you - and perhaps even me if I ever want to claim the throne of Jotunheim so we - need to educate ourselves how to rule rightly and prosperously."
"True, though-"
"And well, I just know of the two beings that helped many civilizations to rise and fall," Loki grinned at their two hosts who stared at him.
Loki leaned comfortably at his seat, "Of course, the price for such teachings is not small, I was thinking that the Time Infinity Stone might do. If only there was a crown prince that could order Heimdall to search for it."
All three (well, four, Atouille was as well) were staring at the God of Mischief who grinned at them.
Aziraphale looked at Crowley who looked back and raised his eyebrow and said, "Well, we'd be happy to help, but for that we'd need a lot of documents to start properly, Asgardian history books, treaties, trade documents, crafts information..."
"...agricultural maps, data about granaries and food distribution, population data...", continued Aziraphale.
"I don't think father would let me take those, or even show them to someone," said Thor glumly.
Loki sighed theatrically, "Oh dear, if only there was someone who could easily do the duplication charms and bring the copies secretly to Midgard."
Thor grinned.
Tony and Bruce were quite surprised that before they could leave for the bookshop visit, Thor found them in the tower and told them that he met Crowley and Aziraphale, that those two are wonderful companions, that they employed Loki in the bookshop and that Thor was going for some things to Asgard but would be back soon. They were even more surprised when they noticed a black kitten with green eyes poking his head from Thor's pocket.
Aziraphale was happily munching on the sweet pastry he bought at a food booth at the StarkCon. He had his wings out. As had Crowley who was for once without his sunglasses outside. His demon was standing beside him pointing at Loki and Thor who were in their full Asgard regalia surrounded by both God of Mischief and God of Thunder fans wearing similar costumes. Thor seemed to be in the middle of a quite thrilling tale while Loki accompanied the story by the corresponding illusions.
They didn't have many kingdom lessons so far. Loki and Thor found out that the thousands of years of documents would fill at least half of the bookshop and were wondering where to put them since the best would be in the bookshop with their teachers but there was not enough space for it. Loki and Thor agreed that Heimdall should also look for the Reality Infinity Stone so they could use it in the bookshop to create a room bigger on the inside there to store the documents. Aziraphale and Crowley didn't protest, while it seemed like an overkill since they could simply store them somewhere else, bigger bookshop rooms would be nice.
"Seems like they're getting on better now, huh?" said a voice next to Crowley and both him and Aziraphale looked at Tony Stark who was dressed to the nines and wearing a smirk on his face.
"Yes, they are good boys," agreed Aziraphale.
Tony looked at them from head to toe, concentrating on their wings and Crowley's eyes and they could both see that the genius knew that the wings and eyes are the real deal and would love to ask them questions, but then the inventor just said, "Your bookshop booth here is tomorrow right? Make sure you have a lot in stock since I'll certainly tweet about it. Now excuse me, I'll have a presentation about the next Starphone generation in the next hall," he winked and left.
Aziraphale and Crowley were looking at Tony's back moving away from them and the angel said, "They are all such good boys, aren't they?"
"Yep," nodded Crowley, "that they are. Look, angel, they are opening a sushi booth there."
"Oooh, delightful, my dear."