Okay, first off, LONG CHAPTER.
Secondly, OMG episode 5 of the Loki show was so fucking good!
Thirdly, this chapter has some awesome dad Loki moments and I love it.
Fourthly, the end of this chapter teases what will be happening in the next chapter and I am SO EXCITED to write it, holy crap.
Fifthly, ENJOY THE CHAPTER!
Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish
Chapter Forty-Three: Keep Your Eyes On Me
1055 years ago...
"Loki, my dear?"
Loki crouched among the brush that was wet with recently fallen raindrops, his small body easily concealed by the undergrowth of the woods. He didn't care that the moisture of the surrounding shrubbery was being absorbed by his green tunic, he only cared about hiding from his mother so that he could jump out at the opportune moment and scare her.
The subtle crunches of twigs below boots approached him, and Loki waited until a shadow passed over him before he leapt from his hiding spot, letting out a mighty, yet squeaky, "RAH!"
His shout startled his mother only mildly, and Frigga placed her hands on her hips, eyeing her three-year-old son with a chastising yet affectionate look, "I told you not to run off, Loki," she admonished gently, but softened at the sound of the boy giggling, "I suppose I should have expected it, though."
Loki hopped back onto the trail that led to the clearing where Frigga had promised she would teach him some spells, jumping and splashing in the puddles as he went while his mother pursued at a calmer pace. It didn't rain all that often in Asgard, but there was something about the sights and smells that came along with it that brought Loki contentment.
Now that the rain had let up, leaving a slippery sheen on every surface, Frigga had agreed to take him somewhere that would allow him to focus and learn to control the magic that lay undisciplined within him.
They reached the glade together where a wooden gazebo sat, sheltering a sitting area that had been kept dry from the rain, and Loki energetically climbed the steps that seemed all too big for his little body. With tremendous effort, he pulled himself up onto one of the cushioned chairs that stood opposite the other, and swung his legs which were nowhere near touching the ground.
"Are you comfortable, my boy?" Frigga inquired, sitting in the vacant seat in front of her son.
"Yes, mama. I wanna see the fwog one again," he pointed at and repeatedly tapped his own palm excitedly.
Frigga chuckled and relented. On the small table beside them sat a vase with flowers that were beginning to wilt. She plucked a dying flower from its stem and held it in the palm of her hand before him, and then waved her other hand over the bloom; after a small fizzle of a light, a frog sat in the place of the flower.
It blinked and croaked, and Loki laughed, clapping his hands.
Frigga lowered the frog to the ground and let it hop off of the gazebo and into the plants, watching as her son waved to the amphibian.
"Bye bye fwog," Loki called, and Frigga smiled warmly.
"Loki, I think it's about time I started teaching you how to use magic with purpose," she spoke, "I can sense great power within you, and the sooner you know how to control it and perform spells, the better. What do you think, my boy?" She leaned forward and brushed a strand of midnight-black hair from her son's face.
Loki practically bounced in his chair, swinging his legs back and forth, "I wanna learn!"
Frigga's mouth pulled into a muted grin, "One day, you'll be a truly powerful sorcerer, Loki. You know you can do anything you put your mind to, don't you? If you work hard, there is nothing you cannot do. I believe in you, my son."
Loki tilted his head up, looking at his mother with an almost wondrous expression.
"I can make a fwog?"
Frigga grinned, "Yes, I can even teach you that."
Present day…
Another night of nightmares.
Loki shushed his son gently, whom he held firmly to his chest. The boy had his arms wrapped around his father's neck and he was crying softly into his shoulder while Loki rubbed his back soothingly. Kari had had a bad dream; he'd woken up tearful and disorientated, whimpering that the 'bad man' had come to hurt mama again.
"Shh, it's okay. Mama's fine, see," he shifted the boy in his arms, pointing to Amelia, who lay sleeping soundly on the bed. Kari sniffled, blinking his blurry eyes in the darkness of the room, and wrapped his arms tighter around Loki's neck.
"I saw the man come back…"
"Just a nightmare, my boy," Loki whispered, "I'm here, I'm watching over all of you, remember? I won't let anything happen." He rubbed the nape of Kari's neck, fingers tickling the curls of his black hair, and the boy began to relax, his cries quieting under the promise that daddy wouldn't let any harm come to them.
After a few minutes, Kari was sound asleep again. As Loki laid the boy back down beside his mother, he noticed Amelia was now awake and watching them solemnly; she pulled Kari's blanket up to his shoulders and breathed a quiet sigh.
"Nightmare?" She whispered, even though she already knew the answer to that.
Loki nodded, carefully slotting himself back below the covers, taking care not to awaken either of the two children sleeping between them, "They don't seem to be slowing down." Neither of the two children could go more than one night without waking up in a panic from the clutches of a chilling nightmare. They both claimed that the man who had hurt their mother was back, that he was hurting her again, and that their father wasn't there to save her.
It pained him, flooded him with fresh guilt every night. It seemed as though they would never shake these terrifying dreams.
"They'll stop," Amelia whispered, but paired with her deep frown, Loki couldn't sense any conviction behind her words.
He shook his head, staring up at the ceiling through the darkness, until eventually Amelia reached across the kids and took hold of his hand, squeezing it gently. He gazed over at her, seeing a softened look in her eyes.
"Bad dreams... don't last forever," she murmured, and then took a moment to swallow through the slight sting in her throat, because even though it had been a few weeks, the inside of the wound was still healing, "you know as well as I do."
Loki held onto her hand firmly, looking over her face with an expression that told his wife he was wanting to say something but feeling hesitancy to do so. Amelia lifted herself up a bit, squinting through the darkness at him, and while she couldn't see his face all too clearly, she could sense what he was feeling in that moment.
"What are you thinking?" She spoke softly.
Another brief, tentative moment passed, and then Loki opened his mouth, "I want to teach the kids defensive and offensive magic."
With his superior vision, Loki saw Amelia's eyes grow wide in the low light of the room, and she shook her head immediately. No, her face said, not in a million fucking years.
"Listen, Amelia…"
"No. No, you don't-" Amelia lifted her hand to her neck, trying not to clear her throat too loudly as she didn't want to wake the kids, "They don't need to… why would they need to...?"
She trailed off, falling into silence, and her gaze fell to the children, sleeping soundly and unaware of the hushed disagreement taking place from either side of them, and her face pinched in despair as she experienced a revelation.
After Eruk's kidnap of Amelia, she had pleaded for Loki to teach her how to defend herself with magic, just on the off chance that she might need to use such skills in the event of some sort of emergency, and at the time Loki had been the one protesting, because he swore she would never again be in a position where she would be required to fight, that he would always be there - and look how that turned out - but eventually he had given in, and shown her a couple of tricks with using magic in an offensive style. It was what had saved the children that night, because if she hadn't expelled her magical energy in that man's direction, she would never have reached him in time.
And now Amelia was the one protesting. Her brain told her it was logical to teach the children to defend themselves, but her heart objected so harshly to the idea that the kids would ever be in a situation where only they could save themselves. Unfortunately, as Amelia had learnt, sometimes shit just happened.
The idea that the children would need to put defense lessons into action was just abominable, but… it was necessary.
So she relented.
"Loki," she whispered, her voice full of desperation, "they're so young… I don't want them to have to fight."
Loki stroked her hand, "Neither do I, Amelia. But they will need to know how. I will do everything in my power to ensure they never end up in a situation like that," he breathed a soft sigh, "and if they don't end up putting these lessons to use, then perhaps simply knowing how to defend themselves will bring an end to these nightmares."
It made sense. If the children felt powerful enough to fight back, they would be less scared, which meant less nightmares.
Amelia said nothing more that night, and she found it difficult to fall back to sleep.
Loki wasn't renowned for being particularly patient. His tolerance had certainly improved since becoming a parent, but his frustration tended to rear its ugly face on occasion, and today was no exception.
He had forgotten how difficult it had been to keep up the magic lessons with Amelia back when she was pregnant with the kids, but that was with Amelia, who was a fully grown adult and had an easier time understanding Loki's way of teaching. If that had been a struggle for him and his lack of patience, he should have expected just how irritable he would get in his attempt to teach the children in the same way.
The thought that the kids would pick up his teachings quickly had been based on the fact they already knew how to use magic to a degree, they had a small amount of experience - that Loki had mistakenly assumed would be enough - manipulating certain aspects of sorcery to achieve basic spellcraft. Aster could create illusions and Kari could use telekinesis, and they were impressive feats for a couple of four-year-olds, but Loki had zero experience tutoring children in the mastery of magic.
He really wished his mother was still alive. She would know exactly how to instruct them, she had always been his favourite teacher as a child and he had no doubt they would have loved her. What he would give to have her level of patience. Perhaps his frustrations were simply doubled, owing to the fact that he had two little sorcerer's in training rather than his mother who had had only one.
Loki found himself pinching the bridge of his nose after explaining for the seventh time how to formulate their magic outside of themselves in the form of a ball, just as he had done with Amelia. She had picked it up rather quickly, while the children just kept staring at him blankly.
The three of them were in the training room in the underground level of Avengers Tower, a place where Loki felt it was necessary to teach given the volatile nature of magic, and they were sat cross-legged on mats in a way that was comfortable. Comfort was important when they were learning magic control, as was focus.
The kids clearly didn't know the meaning of the word 'focus'. Their eyes kept wandering around the room, which Loki supposed he couldn't blame them for since it was their first time seeing it. They'd never had any reason to come down here before, so it was new to them.
"Watch closely," Loki told the children for what felt like the hundredth time as he lifted his hands about a shoulders-width apart, palms facing each other, and with the incredible ease of somebody who had done it a thousand times, he formed an orb of glowing, green magical energy. The magic sparked, fizzled and hissed as it grew, before growing silent as the ball stabilised; the light reflected off the children's wowed faces - even though he had already demonstrated several times, they were still awed at the show.
"You see? In this form, my magic can be used as a weapon, a projectile. If I launched this at a foe, it would harm them greatly depending on how much energy I charged it with," he pulled his hands apart and the ball dispersed harmlessly, "you have the power to do this too, you just need to comprehend how, and then we can start practising throwing them." He gave the kids a strained smile. "Do you think we can give it another try?"
With wide eyes full of uncertainty, Aster and Kari nodded their heads slowly, but didn't do much else other than blink nervously. Loki gave an amused puff of breath, having to remind himself that his children were young, and half human, and that it would take a lot for them to become the independent sorcerers he hoped for.
"Sit up straight. Don't slouch," he instructed, and the kids quickly straightened their backs, "hands up, I need you both to focus. Close your eyes if it helps. Listen to me, you're both so clever, and it's amazing what you can do with your magic already, but there is much more to learn, and if you work hard, there is nothing you cannot do." He patted their heads affectionately, his smile now genuine, and a fresh look of determination befell their faces.
And so, another hour of intermittent attempts at conjuring the ball of magical energy passed with little success. The children were getting very bored, clearly not as enthused at the idea of learning magic now that they realised it was going to take so much time, patience and energy. Their little four-year-old brains refused to cooperate, their eyes kept wandering, they weren't even attempting to try anymore.
"Alright, that's it for today, you two can go play with mama," Loki sighed, rubbing his forehead to stave off an impending headache, "good job, both of you." He added the last few words as an afterthought, remembering that sometimes praise could help bolster confidence.
The kids looked relieved. Loki took them in the elevator back upstairs to the communal living room, where he dropped them off with Amelia, who was presently having a cup of tea in Stark's presence.
"Hey kiddos," Stark greeted them as the children came bounding in, his voice radiating comical positivity, "you didn't destroy my training room, did you?"
Amelia smiled at them as they rushed up to her and climbed onto her lap in search of a cuddle, both ignoring the question Tony had posed to them. She raised an eyebrow at just how restless they looked.
"You two learn some magic?" She inquired curiously.
Kari shook his head and Aster pouted, and Amelia peered up at Loki, who collapsed on the opposite couch, stretching as he lounged across it, long limbs hanging messily over the cushions and the arm rest.
As if sensing her gaze on him, he woefully mumbled aloud, "If a master sorcerer can't teach his children a simple piece of tangible magic, is he even a master sorcerer?"
Tony spoke up, a smirk on his face, "I don't know, if I ever meet a master sorcerer, I'll ask him."
Loki tilted his head, glaring at the man.
Perhaps it was a better idea to teach the children separately. That way, Loki could focus all of his attention on one child at a time, and hopefully make more substantial progress.
Today, he stood opposite his daughter in the training room, while Amelia spent time with Kari in the upper levels of the tower. Aster already looked a bit weary, likely predicting another session of boring failed attempts, but Loki had already decided to start with something Aster was good at.
"I want you to put your illusory magic into action today, Aster. It shouldn't be hard for you, since you have already shown that you can create convincing illusions," he gave Aster a proud smile, "and I shouldn't expect anything less. You've inherited your skills from me, after all," he gave her cheek a playful pinch and Aster giggled, swatting his hand away.
"Now, there are two notable types of illusory magic. Illusion projection is one of them, this is when you create an image outside of oneself - could be of a butterfly, or a frog, or anything really - and the other type is duplication casting, where you create a carbon copy of yourself in its exact physical state at that present moment. Are you with me so far?"
"Umm," Aster murmured, before nodding her head with resolve, "yes."
Loki tilted his head. He could spot a lie from a million miles away.
"Let me demonstrate," said Loki, taking a few steps back, and with practised precision and a flicker of green, he created the image of his wife, Amelia, standing a few steps away, her bright smile reaching her kind eyes in a way that vividly accentuated her beauty. Aster stood up, smiling at the sight of her radiant mother in a pretty Asgardian dress with her askew hairstyle.
"This is an illusion projection. I've recreated an image of your mother, pulled from my mind, the subject of the spell is anything that isn't a perfect copy of yourself. I could still attempt to create an imperfect copy of myself, but unless I was performing duplication casting, it would not be identical. Like so," he pointed at the image of her mother, who then flickered out of existence only to be replaced with an identical image of himself, "duplication casting. Here is a perfect copy of myself," he continued to elaborate while his clone stood with his hands on his hips. Aster looked amused, glancing between her real father and the illusion of her father.
"There isn't a hair on his head that is different to mine, right now, in my current form. If I told you to turn around for a moment and then try and pick out which me is the real me, you wouldn't be able to tell." At this, Aster's head tilted to the side and a challenging look appeared on her face. Loki laughed.
"You won't pick the real me correctly. Go on then, turn around. No peeking."
Aster giggled and did a one-eighty, covering her eyes with her hands.
A few seconds passed. "Okay, turn back. Which one is really me?" Loki asked.
Aster turned around with a determined look, which quickly melted away when she realised there were now three other Loki's in addition to the real one and the initial duplicate, which made for a total of five. She looked between them with wide eyes, and while their postures and stances were all varied, they all really looked perfectly identical.
She made a soft noise, a small hum of uncertainty, and then pointed at the Loki who was second from the right. After a few drawn out moments, the remaining four Loki's she wasn't pointed at all disappeared, and her real father crossed his arms and gave her a dubious look.
"To be clear, that was an incredibly lucky guess. You didn't actually know it was me," Loki grumbled agitatedly, annoyed that the point of the test had completely backfired out of pure chance.
Aster laughed, "I did!"
"No, you didn't. Don't lie to me, little flower," Loki tried to sound stern, pointing one wagging finger in her direction, but it didn't have the desired effect because Aster found it so incredibly funny that she had picked correctly.
With a roll of his eyes, Loki shook his head, "Anyway," he drawled, "we already know you can create a convincing illusion projection, which is why today I want to focus on tapping into your ability to cast duplicates of yourself. True duplicates."
Loki detailed extensively how to perform the spell, but the first few times Aster tried it, she merely attempted to recreate her image using the illusion projection technique, which was simply not what he had asked of her.
"No, this is incorrect. What you've done is made an image that you believe looks just like you, but on close inspection, it's obvious that this isn't a perfect replica," Loki lightly criticised, circling the illusion Aster had cast, picking out all the pieces that were wrong, "It's clear you've made simply what you've seen in the mirror; the freckles on your face are reversed, the parting of your hair is on the opposite side. And on top of that, your eyes are the incorrect shade of green."
Aster's pout deepend with each note of reproval and her illusion fizzled away. She let out a resigned sigh that was far too big for a four year old, and Loki knelt down in front of her, holding onto her shoulders.
"Hey, listen. I didn't expect you to pick it up so quickly. Learning magic isn't easy," he brushed her hair back behind her ears, "duplication projection isn't about knowing exactly what you look like from all angles. You have to let your magic map out every part of your body for you, like it's scanning you and taking note of your exact visage, only then can you instruct it to recreate that image before you. Do you understand?"
Aster nodded her head.
Loki gave her a firm hug, "You have the power to do this, my love. Practise makes perfect."
"I'll try again," Aster murmured.
Loki smiled, cupping his daughter's face with his hands softly, "I'll tell you what. If you manage to make progress, you can have some of the mint chocolate chip ice cream we have in the freezer," he finished with a wink, and Aster's face lit up with newfound motivation.
The right incentive always did wonders for one's enthusiasm.
It took several more demonstrations, and a lot of explanations, but eventually Aster managed to cast an exact duplicate of herself at her side. Loki hummed, inspecting the illusion closely, and finally he smiled, lips curling with pride.
"This is it. You did it," Loki praised the girl, who began to literally jump up and down for joy.
Her perfect clone imitated the movements with exact precision, which caught Loki's attention.
"Aster, can you make your duplicate walk over there?" He pointed a few paces away, and Aster blinked, her fingers touching her lips almost nervously - another gesture that the clone copied - and she stared blankly at herself, willing the illusion to do as she wanted, to no avail.
"It looks like the duplicate is linked to your body's movements," he hummed again, but pushed any notion of chagrin out of his mind when he saw the faces of both Aster's drop in sorrow. He gave his daughter a strong smile, "Hey, progress is progress. You've done amazingly today, and that mint chocolate chip ice cream is all yours."
"Yay!" Aster exclaimed, throwing both arms up in the end in a victorious pose.
Loki had been hoping to explore Aster's potential for healing abilities, but it could wait another day. There was only so much a four-year-old could take before growing irritable and Loki believed they had reached that point.
At least when Loki had taken Aster in for her private magic lesson, she had actually been motivated to pay attention in an effort to make her father proud; Kari, on the other hand, was completely distracted from the get go.
Instead of following Loki to the area he had set up for their magic training session, Kari bounced over to the archery range where Barton was in the middle of firing off a few arrows and hitting all the bullseye targets with ease; Loki didn't realise his son wasn't following behind him until he heard the excitable voice coming from across the other side of the room, at which point he'd turned and glared at Barton for simply existing in the same space.
"I wanna have a go!" Kari exclaimed, and Loki grew further irritated when Clint smirked over his shoulder at the boy's interest.
"Over here, Kari," Loki called, pointing at the mats down by his feet. Kari obeyed, but his thoughts were obviously occupied with the notion that he would be allowed a turn at the archery range.
"Daddy, I want to shoot a bow," Kari declared, his smile wide and hopeful.
"Well you can't. You're too small, we don't have any baby-sized bows," Loki retorted in a deadpan tone, slipping his shoes off and nudging the mats into position with his feet.
"I'm not a baby," Kari grumbled, stomping one foot in a rather immature fashion.
"No? Then why are you pouting like one," Loki pointed out with glee, and Kari's eyebrows shot up before his pout only grew stronger.
"Daddy, can I please shoot a bow?" The boy pleaded, knowing that oftentimes manners were a deciding factor in getting what he wanted.
"When you're older, maybe, but not right now," Loki responded dismissively, "for now, we're here to help you get a better grasp on your magical abilities." His lack of compromise had Kari moping silently.
"Magic is more exciting than a flimsy bow and arrow, anyway," Loki pressed on, hoping to dislodge the idea of archery from his son's mind; if the boy did still want to learn archery in the future when he was big enough to hold a bow, Loki would teach him himself. Barton would have no part in it.
He gave his son's head a ruffle, and then looked across the training area he had set up, "I've got some weights of varying mass positioned here, I want to find out how much you're able to lift with your telekinetic ability." Loki didn't expect his son to be able to lift anything too heavy. Telekinesis acted almost like one's own muscles did - a child's muscles were nowhere near as strong as that of an adult, and had to be trained to lift heavier masses, much like magic that involved pushing or pulling heavy objects.
"We'll start with the lightest and work our way up," Loki turned Kari with two hands on his shoulders so that he was facing the lineup of weights, and pointed at the smallest one, "this one is only two kilograms, it should be easy for you. I want you to simply lift it into the air and hold it there for a few moments."
Kari blinked, tilting his head back to look up at his father with an uncertain expression; Loki nodded encouragingly, offering a smile, and Kari set his sights on the weights, lifting his hand with his palm facing the objects. He squinted his eyes slightly in focus and after a moment, the lightest weight lifted into the air, hovering steadily in place, before gently lowering to the ground.
When Kari sought out his approval, Loki once again gave him a smile, "Very good, now try the three kilogram weight next to it."
Again, Kari lifted it with hardly a problem, letting it float in the air before placing it back down.
"And the five kilogram weight beside that?" Loki prompted.
It wasn't a problem for Kari.
They worked the next couple of weights until they reached the ten kilogram weight, and this time the object seemed to shift momentarily across the floor before being lifted, this time with a visible struggle. It wasn't as steady where the others had been held quite still, and Kari's look of concentration seemed a tad more intense. When the boy placed it back down, Loki hesitated on his next instruction.
Instead of instructing Kari to lift the twelve kilo weight that was next in the row, he skipped ahead to a heavier one, "Instead of lifting the next one over, I want you to lift the weight labelled sixteen kilograms." He pointed to the corresponding mass, waiting patiently for his son to follow his order.
Kari looked tentative, but once again lifted his hand, eyebrows furrowing as he glared at the weight, willing his magic to strengthen and raise the object. The sixteen kilo weight was rather fickle as Kari's invisible magic tried its best to heave it into the air. It was heavy for a child to lift, but Loki suspected that Kari could likely succeed if he put all of his power into it.
It wobbled in place, unstable, and Kari let out a soft noise of discomfort. Then, the sixteen kilo weight lifted, very briefly, about a foot and a half off the ground, before falling as if dropped. The noise of it hitting the floor was sharp and loud.
Kari immediately responded with extreme agitation at his lack of success. He stamped his foot against the mat he was standing on and gave a short scream of infuriation before he started crying and rubbing at his eyes, "I can't do it!"
Loki surveyed his son, giving the boy a few moments to let out the buildup of frustration over his failure. Kari was a lot louder and more emotional than his sister when it came to not being able to do something, he was often the one throwing the most tantrums - which wasn't to say that Aster didn't have her fair share of tantrums. Loki was used to dealing with Kari's outbursts more often.
He knelt beside his son, holding onto the boy's shoulders to calm him, and spoke clearly, "Stop crying. Failure is a part of learning, it happens to all of us. It doesn't mean we should get all huffy and start crying, now does it? What do we do when we fail?" He had told the boy this before, but children never absorbed anything the first or second or tenth time you told them. It always bore repeating.
Kari wiped his eyes with his sleeve and put his fingers into his mouth, chewing on them anxiously, and Loki quickly pulled the hand away from Kari's mouth when the boy didn't immediately respond to him.
"What do we do when we fail? You know the answer."
Kari sniffled, and faltering murmured, "We… we… try again?"
Loki smiled, nodding his head, "Yes. We try again. So try again," he instructed, not unkindly.
In the corner of his eye, Loki noted Barton had ceased firing arrows at the archery range and was instead, rather annoyingly, watching him and his son's interaction. He glared at the man, mumbling a derisive, "What are you looking at?"
Barton shrugged, his face bearing an annoying smirk, but he didn't sensibly proceed to mind his own business, instead choosing to continue watching. Loki tutted and tore his attention away from the dullest Avenger, taking a crouched position by his son so he could encourage him on a more personal level.
"Alright, clear your mind, focus, and try again." Loki lifted his son's hand up, holding onto it like a crutch for the boy. Kari let out a few diminishing sniffles and took some deep breaths before reaching out with his magic again.
The sixteen kilo weight shuddered in place, its heavy mass resisting the pulling and tugging of the magic. Loki monitored his son's physical state, checking that Kari was straining himself too much; if it got too much for the boy, it would simply give him a headache and that was no good for anyone. Loki would ask Kari to stop before it reached that point.
Kari's eyes squeezed together as tightly as they could without actually closing, his nose scrunching up with the effort, and the coaxing words Loki had given him started to pay off, because the weight lifted fully off of the ground.
"That's it. You're doing great," Loki murmured with the intent to bolster the boy's confidence.
The object rose to a foot off the ground, and that's where it hung for several drawn out seconds, the duration of which a laboured sound escaped Kari's throat, and Loki noticed the thin layer of perspiration coming up on his son's forehead.
"Alright, that's enough," Loki stated, satisfied with the effort Kari had shown; the boy promptly dropped the weight, letting out large, taxed breaths. He'd been very close to the point of overdoing it, but Loki was aware of his son's limits; drawing his son into a hug, he congratulated him joyfully on his achievement.
"Oh, well done. You did it! See, I knew you could. That's why we try again instead of getting upset," Loki stroked a hand through his boy's curly hair.
"I did it!" Kari's arms tightened around his father's neck in excitement as he continued to huff and puff, clearly delighted. Very suddenly, Kari pulled back, pointing at the weight at the very end. "What about that one?"
Loki laughed, "Don't get too ahead of yourself. That one is seventy-five kilograms and it's far beyond your current level. But," he added when Kari's face fell slightly, "with a lot of practise, you will reach that level, and beyond, if you work hard and believe in yourself."
Kari fell quiet for a few seconds, "Can you lift it, daddy?"
Loki smirked, "Of course." With a show-offy twirl of his hand, the heavy weight lifted into the air with ease as if he was simply lifting a feather, prompting Kari to gasp in wonderment. Lowering it back to the ground, Loki wanted to chuckle at the inspiring gaze in the boy's eyes - children were very easy to impress.
Loki and his son took a short break, allowing the boy to have a re-energizing snack and a drink, and when they returned Barton was thankfully gone, no longer acting as a distraction for the child. This time, Loki wanted to attempt to draw out his son's potential by instructing him through a lesson in luring his magical power outside of his body into a ball like before, except now with his focus on only one child, it was his hope that there would be some progress.
"Now, remember what I told you before?" Loki asked, his voice quiet and just a notch above a whisper as his son attempted to generate a corporeal sphere of his own magical power. "You have the ability to do this, you just need to figure out how. Once you do it the first time, the second time will be easy."
Kari nodded almost imperceptibly, unwilling to say a word in case he broke his own concentration. His little hands twitched slightly in place, and Loki could sense the boy's magic gearing up like static in the air.
"Yes, good. Guide it through your hands, let it gather between your palms and mould it into a sphere," Loki found himself holding his breath. His son was right on the cusp of correctly performing the spell, he could feel it.
Kari was antsy, his brow furrowed. The boy's patience was visibly wearing thin.
"Don't give up now," Loki murmured, "You're so close."
Kari squeezed a restless sound from his throat, and then one of his eyes peered open, glaring down at his bare hands; unfortunately in opening his eyes, he broke his concentration and the buzz of magic Loki could sense in the air instantly vanished.
Loki resisted the urge to groan and tear out his hair, instead tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling as if gazing through the realms at Valhalla where his mother resided, likely watching over them and giggling at that very moment. A great sigh escaped him; truly, he didn't know how his mother had managed to teach him magic. Why were children so… so difficult? Their attention spans were practically nonexistent, they kept disobeying the simplest instructions - like keeping their eyes shut when told to - and instead of being driven by the desire to become more powerful, they were driven rather annoyingly by the promise of sweets.
Loki knew Amelia would disapprove if she found out he was bribing the kids with sweets, though he figured he had a low chance of being able to hide it from her in the first place. The woman was far too perceptive, and there was no use in telling the children to keep it a secret. They wouldn't. They were little blabber mouths and they could not be trusted with secrets.
Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Loki breathed out a trying breath. How would he teach his son to wield magic like he himself did? At least Aster was attentive, she had a good chance of learning all the spells in Loki's arsenal before her brother. Kari just wanted the lesson over with the moment it began.
"Oh, I did it."
Loki was halfway through running a hand through his hair when his son's voice rang out, and he returned his gaze to the boy, more specifically to the object suspended between Kari's open palms.
"Wh- how did you...?" Loki inquired.
"I just tried again!" Kari exclaimed.
A rush of excitement flushed through Loki's body as all his attention quickly returned to his son, his previous thoughts completely forgotten, "Oh! Yes! Well done!" Loki cheered, clapping his hands together in a brief applause, "Well done, well done! That's fantas-" he faltered very suddenly, his brow furrowing in confusion as he took the time to examine the supposed magical sphere.
Kari's eyes were twinkling as he gazed down at it, a huge smile on his sweet face. The object between his hands was not quite the ball of magical energy it was supposed to be; where it should have been glowing with surging magic, it was instead more like a pale green, translucent orb that didn't seem to flutter with energy at all. It was like an empty shell of what it should've been. Hollow.
"Hmm," Loki hummed aloud, utterly confounded by the development. He didn't want to dampen Kari's excitement, but it wasn't what he'd been aiming for. "Can you make it bigger?"
Kari blinked up at his father, and then slowly pulled his hands apart. The orb grew as if being pulled into a larger sphere.
"Stop," Loki held up a hand before the boy made it too large. He still didn't know what to make of it and didn't want the damn thing exploding in his face if it did turn out to be magically charged. With the intent to try and figure out what it was, Loki reached out with his fingers and gently prodded the ball.
It reacted like a solid object, showing resistance against his finger, and he pulled his hand back quickly as he felt the harmless but startling spark of static-like power zip through his hand. He hummed again, raising an eyebrow, and then reached for it a second time, this time coating his hand in flaring magical energy, as if to combat it.
As the tip of his finger made contact with the translucent ball, it seemed suddenly like it was sapping the magic straight from Loki's hand, absorbing it with a brutal pull. Two things happened at once, Loki retracted his hand in shock, and Kari flinched, arms flailing as he fell back, the mysterious magic ball dispersing into nothing.
Loki took his son by the shoulders, quickly looking him over for any hint of injury, because the boy's eyes were wide and alarmed, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?" It concerned Loki that he didn't know what had just happened, he wasn't familiar with the spell his son had performed, and he was beyond puzzled. Could it have been another inherent ability that his body knew to perform by instinct rather than by teachings? Just like Aster's healing and illusory abilities? Like Kari's own telekinesis?
He was starting to think his children would grow up to be more powerful than him given the rate their untaught abilities were manifesting, Loki didn't quite know whether to be proud or worried.
Kari blinked dazedly up at his father, also seemingly confused by what had just happened. "What was it, daddy?"
Loki released a breath, the boy appeared to be unharmed and was just a little stunned, "I, uh, I don't know, little one. I'll have to dig into my books and see if I can figure out what exactly you demonstrated just now."
The boy seemed a little deflated that he hadn't actually managed to do what his father was hoping for, but Loki ruffled the boy's hair and gave him a smile, "Hey. I'm still proud of you. And those extra oreo cookies I promised you are all your's." He winked, and Kari gave a big smile.
It was fascinating to Loki that Aster's healing potential seemed to be something that was entirely subconscious. When he first brought it up to her, she merely looked up at him with eyes full of bewilderment, like she had no idea what he was talking about. Did she really not know what she had done? Had she tapped into her healing power right when she needed it without even knowing she had?
Did she not realise she had saved her mother's life the night of the attempted assassination?
Loki had contemplated whether or not to tell Aster what she had unconsciously done, and ultimately decided against it. Knowing that her mother's life had only been spared due to her latent abilities could potentially scare her rather than inspire her, and Loki didn't want to give the girl nightmares in which she failed to save her mother.
Instead, over the course of a couple weeks, he would take her to the training room for lessons and lightly knick his finger with the tip of his blade to give Aster something to practise on. The first time he did this, Aster had failed to tap into her healing powers, and tears had dribbled down her sorrowful face until Loki had gathered her up in a hug and assured her it was fine, that since it was only a tiny cut, his finger would heal itself within just a few hours.
The second, third and fourth time he'd done this, Aster still hadn't gotten anywhere at all with bringing her healing ability to the table, and each time Loki gave her a reassuring hug, telling her not to worry and that they would figure it out eventually.
The tenth time it happened, there was yet again no progress, but that night, Amelia entered the bathroom while Loki was brushing his teeth, getting ready for bed, and she swatted his arm none too gently with an incredibly vexed glare on her face. The strike didn't hurt, but Loki rubbed his arm with his free hand and murmured, "Ouch… what was that for?"
Amelia spoke in a hushed but angry tone, keeping her voice down so that the children didn't hear from where they were snuggled in bed, "Aster just told me what you've been doing in your lessons with her."
Loki tilted his head, "Attempting to trigger her healing abilities?" He didn't understand why Amelia was upset.
"Hurting yourself and asking Aster to heal you?"
This made Loki's eyebrows skyrocket, "Amelia, it's the tiniest cut. On my finger. It's already healed itself, there's no lasting damage."
"Not to your hand, no. But that little girl out there thinks her inability to make your finger better means it's her fault you're hurting yourself in the first place!" Amelia swatted him again and Loki recoiled slightly, more from the revelation that he'd been causing Aster to feel guilty in what he'd thought was a harmless process to tap into her magic.
He stopped the lessons on her healing ability altogether, knowing he likely wasn't equipped to help teach his daughter these abilities when he himself had no affinity for healing magic. Again, he wished his mother was alive, because she had been gifted with healing spells, and she would've had Aster using her abilities at will within just a few days if she was here.
He felt awful for what he had done to try and force his daughter's latent healing magic out of her, and reminded her at every opportunity that it wasn't her fault. He promised the girl he would stop, and then that was that.
It wasn't until one afternoon about ten days later that Aster's healing magic leapt into play at just the right moment once again.
For a few weeks now, the children were inclined to take naps in the mid-afternoon due to their messed up sleeping schedules brought on by their nightmares, and it usually led to them being a bit cranky when it came time to wake up. If it didn't complicate things, Amelia would've just let the children sleep for however long they could with uninterrupted dreams, but unfortunately they had to ensure the children were awake for most of the afternoon so that they could attempt to sleep through the night. They couldn't very well allow the twins to stay up all night while Amelia and Loki satisfied their own desire for sleep, no, they had to all be on the same boat.
So, the problem of cranky children had occurred.
It was Natasha who had suggested the bright idea of giving the kids something to look forward to after their naps so that they would be more happy with the idea of getting up, and that something had been freshly baked cookies.
While Aster and Kari slept soundly on the sofas in the communal living quarters, Amelia joyfully went about showing Loki how to bake the tastiest triple chocolate cookies; she measured out the ingredients and allowed him to add the contents to the mixing bowl, and once the cookie dough was the right consistency, she added the chocolate chips, let the bowl merge them with the dough, and then demonstrated the final step, which happened to be taking small handfuls of the dough and rolling it into balls which could then be placed on the baking tray, ready to enter the oven.
It was a sweet little bonding moment. Even after being married for four and a half years, they were still finding brand new experiences to share together. Plus, it wasn't often nowadays that Amelia got to have an experience like this with just Loki - it was always Loki and the kids, and as much as she loved the two little sweethearts, they were always loud and distracting. It was nice to have some husband and wife time while the kids were asleep.
And at that moment, Amelia was taking great delight in watching her husband roll cookie dough between his palms into a perfect sphere. He was fitted with a vertical striped, green and white apron which had smudges of flour across it, his hair was tied back out of his face and he had this intense look of concentration as he cast his furrowed expression down at the dough being rolled between his hands.
Amelia didn't know exactly what it was, but his hands looked particularly attractive with the way they worked the dough.
Overall, his look was utterly adorable, and she felt a flutter of happy butterflies in her stomach at the scene.
After a few minutes, Loki lifted his gaze and caught Amelia staring with that dreamy, spaced out expression on her face, at which point he lifted an eyebrow and gave her a curious smile.
"What is it?" He asked, continuing his goal to roll up the remaining dough into sizable spheres.
Amelia cleared her throat quietly, "I'm telling you, if you had any skill at actually cooking, you'd make the perfect little housewife." Her voice was relatively strong now, only retaining a slight rasp that became more obvious if she talked a lot in one sitting.
Loki paused his mission, placing his slightly lopsided cookie dough ball onto the awaiting tray before turning to Amelia with his hands placed squarely on his hips. "I don't know whether to feel pleased or patronised by what you just said," he drawled somewhat sarcastically.
"It was a compliment," Amelia specified.
"More of a backhanded compliment."
"Not really."
"Yes, really."
"Well, what are you gonna do about it?" Amelia asked coyly.
Loki's eyes narrowed, a tingle of interest rolling through him at the sound of his wife's playful tone; it was quite a beautiful thing to hear, it was the first time, in fact, since the incident, that she had been playful and suggestive, so naturally it sent a few fine ideas through his mind. If it wasn't for the fact that they were in the communal kitchen and the kids weren't just across the room, he would've immediately been down to get frisky.
Instead, he dashed around the counter and began to tickle his wife relentlessly, her resulting squeals waking the children almost at once.
"Stop!" Amelia giggled, seeing both of her kids sit up and rub their eyes in her peripheral vision. Thankfully, the sound of the oven beeping, signalling that the first batch of cookies was finished baking, had Loki pulling away and tending to the tray at once - determined to prove that he could finish the cooking process without letting anything burn.
Using a tea towel as a barrier between his hand and the blazing hot metal tray that housed batch number one of the cookies, Loki removed them from the oven and placed them on the adjacent countertop to let them cool.
"Mama, are the cookies ready yet?" Kari called, sliding off the couch onto slightly wobbly feet as a result of waking up too suddenly. Amelia was happy to hear that there was no grumpiness in the little boy's tone, just anticipation.
"The first lot of cookies are done, bug," Amelia answered with a wink as both kids quickly followed the glorious scent wafting over from the kitchen, and she really couldn't blame them because the smell assaulting her olfactory senses was just divine.
Amelia washed her hands at the sink as Kari came to hover around her legs, the look on the boy's face clearly expressing his desire to eat a cookie right that second, but it was imperative that he and his sister wait, because the cookies were still far too hot to touch.
"You've got to wait a little while, honey," Amelia explained, "unless you wanna burn your tongue. That wouldn't be a fun experience, trust me," she turned to grab a glass from one of the cabinets with the intent to fill it with water and take a sip to ease the rasp in her throat, but the sight of the freshly baked metallic tray of cookies moving seemingly by itself towards the edge of the countertop caught her eye.
In a brief half-second, she realised it wasn't moving by itself. Aster was pulling on the tea towel beneath the tray, dragging it precariously towards the edge.
"Loki!" Amelia snapped, pointing out the hazard to her husband who was much closer, his back turned to the peril.
Loki flung around in record speed, his brain recognising and calculating the danger in nanoseconds, and acting just a beat later. He dashed forward and caught the metal tray out of reflex, his hand clutching it hard, before it could land on Aster's head; the girl recoiled in shock as Loki howled in pain, throwing the tray back onto the countertop with minimal care.
Falling immediately to his knees, Loki's other hand clutched at the wrist of his injured hand, sucking pained breaths in between his gritted teeth; severe burns were particularly agonising for him. At once, he began to sweat all over as he endured the excruciating sting all over his palm and the underside of his fingers. He tentatively turned his hand around to check the damage and an unpleasant shiver went through him at the sight of red raw skin already blistering.
That was going to hurt for days. Shit, he wouldn't be able to hold a dagger or throw a punch with that hand if a situation demanded it, not until the skin had healed.
He turned his head to Aster, who stood a few paces away, her eyes full to the brim with tears and her fingers shoved in her mouth as she chewed nervously on them.
"Are you alright?" He asked her. She nodded, her face full of guilt. "Why did you do that? You should've known better, Aster." He scolded gently, wincing at the tender throbbing he felt in his hand.
"Oh- oh gosh," Amelia stammered, "Quick- Loki, get- get up and run it under cold water, oh shi-" she cut herself off by clapping her hand over her mouth, giving an empathetic wince at the sight of the damage.
Loki groaned, hand shaky as he shifted to get to his feet, but Aster rushed forward and stopped him from rising, grabbing ahold of his elbow before reaching forth and gently cradling her father's wounded hand. A soft whine escaped her mouth as a few tears rolled down her face, and after a single beat, a gentle white glow began emitting from her palms, encompassing Loki's hand.
Loki watched, entranced, as the pain ebbed away slightly to a very light soreness, and he examined his hand when the light died down. His palm and fingers were still red and the skin was raw, but nowhere near the level it had been just moments before, the blistering had gone and the burn appeared only minor now.
She had healed the injury. Incredible.
Loki sat on the floor with his mouth hanging open, staring at his hand. After all those unsuccessful times where Aster had failed to call upon her healing power, it simply just happened when she was faced with the sight of her father in pain. The same way it had happened when she was faced with her mother in mortal danger.
Loki looked at his daughter, who stared back anxiously, and smiled proudly, her little stunt with the burning hot cookie tray completely forgotten in favour of showing her how excited he was that she had managed to utilise her healing ability. Aster blinked a few times fast in response to his smile, confused at his sudden one-eighty.
Another night of nightmares.
Loki sat in the reading nook by the window overlooking the world below, Aster cradled against his chest as she calmed down from the dream that had woken her so suddenly and forced a heart-wrenching scream from her throat.
She'd flailed below the bed covers and her expression had been wild, full of terror, she hadn't known where she was for a few moments and continued to scream, waking Kari as well as her parents.
After a long half hour, Loki had finally soothed her fretful state by showing her all the city lights across the vast expanse of Manhattan. It was quite a pacifying sight, and Aster slowly fell asleep again with her head against her father's shoulder.
"Loki…"
Loki peered over his shoulder at Amelia, who was sitting against the headboard of the bed, rubbing her hand over Kari's back as he slept soundly once again. She looked tired.
"It's been a month since you started training them to use their magic, I had hoped there might've been a change by now regarding these nightmares… I'd hoped they would be sleeping through the night, at least," her gaze fell solemnly to Kari at her side.
Loki frowned, holding Aster firmly to his chest as he rose from his spot at the window and walked slowly to his side of the bed where he laid his daughter down, pulling the blanket up to her shoulders to cocoon her in the warmth.
He sat on the edge of the bed and let out a sigh.
"My nightmares," he began with a whisper, "from Thanos… they simply lessened over time until they became rare. I thought perhaps the same would be true for the children, but the rate at which they're experiencing these nightmares hasn't faltered even slightly. I don't know what to do."
Amelia's lip wobbled at Loki's grim admission. Hearing the words 'I don't know what to do' from her husband's mouth was inherently daunting, because Loki always knew what to do; she shook her head slightly, feeling uncomfortable in the following silence.
"I feel like the next logical step would be looking into getting a child therapist," Amelia murmured. She wasn't happy at the idea but if it was the only way to slow down the nightmares her babies kept having, it was necessary.
Loki shook his head and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I… I cannot risk anybody else knowing about them," he spoke, and Amelia could hear the conflict in his voice. It was crucial that they kept all knowledge of their children's existence to a minimum in the world's eyes, because the more people who knew about them, the larger the target painted on their little family.
"Then we need to think of a way to erase their trauma on our own," Amelia stated, like it was an impossible task. And then she paused, before sitting up a little more straight, "Hold on. You have your nightmare-erasing magic, right? Can't you just… you know," she wiggled her fingers above Kari's sleeping head.
Loki's eyes widened and he shook his head, "Absolutely not." He sounded upset that Amelia would even suggest it, but Amelia was clueless about why he was reacting that way.
With a sigh, Loki quietly explained himself, "I've told you before, Amelia, it's dark magic. There's a reason it's classed as such. It involves manipulating the temporal lobe and it's a very delicate procedure, and a much easier spell to perform on a fully grown person, hence why I have admitted to using it on you in your times of distress. To use that magic on a child… it's frowned upon, and if I mess up-" he snapped his lips shut, disgusted at the thought, "I don't want to mess them up further, understand?"
Amelia stared wide-eyed at her husband. She'd never really thought about how difficult it must have been to perform a spell that manipulated the brain, she just assumed it was something Loki did as easily as conjuring his knives or casting an illusion. She nodded her head silently.
"So… how do you remove trauma without the use of magic?" She inquired softly, tilting her head back against the headboard again. "How do you make bad memories seem less frightening?"
Loki did not know the answer. Another silence fell and Amelia gazed over her children, her eyes falling on the Disney Frozen blanket lying atop them over the duvet cover.
She drew in a sudden sharp breath as a potential idea occurred, and Loki lifted his head, casting a concerned glance over at her.
"Amelia?" He inquired softly.
"Loki, what if… what if we give them a really fantastic experience that is so incredibly wonderful and brilliant that they can't think about anything other than the good memories it would create?"
Loki blinked, absorbing the growing look of excitement on his wife's face. He wasn't sure where this sudden burst of enthusiasm had come from.
"A fantastic experience," he repeated skeptically, "and what would that entail?"
Suddenly, Amelia had the widest grin on her face; it was a grin that was comparable to that of a child on Christmas day, and her apparent confidence actually managed to squash down some of his cynicism and give him a dash of hope.
"We need to take them to Disney World."
Loki blinked.
"Disney World?"
Amelia looked like she was trying not to vibrate from anticipation, "Yes!" Her excitable confirmation was more of a hushed yell, because they were still trying to keep their voices low so as not to wake the kids.
Loki was struggling to follow her train of thought. "Are you telling me there's a whole planet dedicated to all things Disney?"
Amelia covered her mouth so as not to laugh, but unfortunately snorted in the process. Both she and Loki froze as Aster shifted slightly in her sleep, but quickly settled again.
"No, Loki. There's not a whole planet dedicated to all things Disney. But there is a huge park equal to the size of San Francisco, and it's magical. I… I've always wanted to go," she quietened slightly, her eyes going slightly teary, "ever since I was a little girl, I've always wanted to go, but I never got the chance. Can we please take the kids? Please, Loki? Oh, please, I really think it will help stop their nightmares!"
Loki was, to say the least, taken aback. In that moment his wife seemed to be acting more like a child than an adult, but he would be lying if he said it wasn't rather adorable. Still, Loki knew nothing about this so-called Disney World, so he remained somewhat uncertain.
"Loki. Please. Please. I'm begging you. I'll get on my knees and beg. The children will love it. You might even enjoy it!" Amelia clutched her hands together and pressed them to her lips in the typical begging gesture.
"Alright. Okay. Fine. We'll… we'll go to this Disney World you speak of."
Amelia made an almost inhuman noise that she stifled down to a few frantic breaths and a very soft squeal. Even through the darkness, Loki could see that her cheeks had reddened and her eyes were wild with excitement.
What on Earth was this Disney World, and why had it sent his wife into an unusual state of extreme elation?
Please, please take a short moment to leave a comment on this chapter. I worked super hard on this one!
I HAVE A BUNCH OF THING I WISH TO DISCUSS!
I am super open to discussing the Loki show with everyone! I cannot believe that in two days time, the finale is gonna be out ;_; It's over far too soon, if you ask me, though I'm glad a season 2 has been announced!
Now, I would like to announce that I'm planning to write a sort-of sidefic in this series that isn't INTENDED to be canon to this series, but still sorta slots into canon. It's gonna be my retelling of the TVA story, yes that's right, I'm warping the Loki show to my will in a way that will playfully include Amelia. I know what you're wondering... HOW will I rewrite it to include Amelia? Well, my friends, I have it all planned out (or I will do as soon as episode 6 drops lmao) and I think you're all gonna enjoy it ;) I'm very excited to write that. I won't start it till I finish this fic, however, but that's really not that far away - I wanted this fic to be at least 50 chapters and it looks like that's roughly what it's gonna be. I can't believe how far we've come with this fic, you guys!
Also, another very fun thing for you to enjoy that's coming up at the end of this fic. I have a sexy, spicy chapter planned and it will be my smuttiest chapter to date. Amelia and Loki are gonna have a damn good time, that's all I'm saying for now ;) But that's going to be one of the final chapters after all the plot resolves, sort of as a reward for all of you for sticking by this fic ;)
So, next up is the Disney World chapter. As a little teaser, I will tell you this. Tony Stark has a deal with Disney which means (just like at the real Disney World) there are people dressed as Loki and Thor, and other Avengers. And yes, Loki will come face to face with his Disney counterpart. Yes, he will be rather peeved. Yes, it will be funny as hell though. This Disney chapter will be the final bit of filler before the plot picks up again and leads towards the end of the fic.
I hope you're all excited for the upcoming things I have planned!
