Geez, I wrote this in less than three hours after posting Chapter 2. Clearly these short, semi-connected snippets are easy to write. Or maybe it's just new-story excitement.
Loki was already perfectly capable of conveying how he felt about situations, and whether or not he was pleased with an offering. He could grab for something he wanted, but if it was out of sight, he had no way to let others know. His illusions were sporadic and seemingly random. He often rejected the objects once his illusions portrayed.
Tony and Bruce were fascinated by Loki's illusions. "You bring the candles, next time." Bruce smiled as glowing energy danced around Loki's fingers like flames.
Jarvis brought up sign language videos, which Loki ignored. Natasha showed Loki the sign for book while Loki flipped through them. Steve and Clint, who had both grown up Deaf or hard-of-hearing, were already fluent and quickly immersed Loki in an environment of dual ASL and speech.
According to Thor, Asgardians could understand any language. Loki likely already understood the signs.
They should have realized, with Loki's limited dexterity, it would be harder for him to produce them.
Loki often swung his fist like a hammer, banging on surfaces until Thor came. Other times, he tugged his own long hair. Sometimes, Loki used his modified signs for Thor but became more upset when his brother appeared. This was frustrating for the team, and even more frustrating for Loki himself.
He alternated between clumsily copying the sign for book and turning invisible pages. When he was hungry or thirsty, Loki brought his fingers to his mouth, but had yet to copy signs for specific foods.
Signing, books or AAC worked wonders for so many nonverbal people, yet Loki quickly stagnated with signing. He would not be producing eloquently signed sentences anytime soon, it seemed. He had his words, which he signed sporadically, and he made much less progress than the others had hoped.
Thor didn't seem surprised.
Stark Tower had a state-of-the-art gym, fit for superheros. Naturally, that seemed the best place for Loki to receive a sort of physical therapy.
Tony had constructed a new gait-trainer, a sort of wheelchair that held Loki in a standing position and encouraged him to use his legs. Much as he had with the wheelchair, Loki looked at the wheeled contraption beneath him in confusion. They did not have either on Asgard.
Thor gently pushed Loki forward, showing him how to move his legs. A few kicks had Loki rolling backwards.
Thor ran ahead, calling for Loki to follow. Loki could not be bothered to chase Thor, or Steve. Steve even tried running while holding a sketchbook, but Loki continued to smack at the device supporting him.
Clint tossed things for Loki to chase, but Loki remained stationary. "My brother is not a dog," Thor grumbled, a hint of warning in his voice as Loki stuck his tongue out.
"He can walk with me," Thor assured his teammates, as if they hadn't seen him leading Loki around the past week or so.
Thor unfastened Loki, letting him down on the floor. Clint tried to coach Loki on how to throw, but Loki mostly shook the balls. Whenever he let go, they flew randomly, nowhere near the intended target. Out of nowhere, one hit Thor's head, and Loki cackled.
When they were set to head back to the common floor, Loki once again refused to walk with his gait trainer. He flicked the pages of an invisible book, then dropped it on the ground. He grunted until Thor picked it up, and dropped it again.
Tony smirked. Loki had his brother wrapped around his little finger. Once, when Thor bent for the book, it was suddenly back in Loki's hand.
Over the next several tries with the gait trainer, Natasha took it upon herself to determine what exactly would convince Loki to use his new equipment. Loki took it upon himself to refute all her attempts, stubbornly refusing to budge.
Tony tried blasting music to pump Loki up. He tried flying ahead in his Iron Man armor.
Finally, lest anyone think it wasn't his own idea, Loki surged forward with his new wheels. He ran over Thor's toes, and attempted to step on Steve's back as he did push-ups.
Thor beamed, seeming entirely unaware of his foot.
Loki kept them all on their toes, that was for sure.
The team discovered that Loki had perhaps the most varied taste in music of any of them. He enjoyed classical just as much as he enjoyed the chaos of Tony's preferred Rock. Of course, he only enjoyed one at a time.
Jarvis noticed that, if Loki wanted something classical or relaxing, he slowly swayed his head. For Rock, he shook his arm vigorously, almost his sign for summoning Thor. He let out quick spits for rap music, clearly a fan of the way words flowed off the rappers' tongues.
In his gait trainer, Loki swayed his head. Jarvis switched on Tchaikovsky. Thor opened his mouth, but Natasha abandoned her practice with her new widow-bites. She crossed the gym and took Loki's hand.
Loki was almost a foot taller than her, so she lifted her arm and spun underneath his.
Natasha spun, faster and faster, and danced across the floor, pulling Loki along with her. When Natasha went in for another spin, Loki grinned and decided to kick backwards. Anyone other than the Black Widow would have stumbled as her arm was tugged, but she followed along gracefully, continuing their dance.
Tony wouldn't have even noticed Loki outside his lab if it weren't for Jarvis alerting him.
"Wake Thor up," Tony said, glancing at Loki through the glass wall. Loki eyed the hovering holograms with interest. Did he think they were magic, like the energy that sometimes appeared around his fingers?
Tony glanced back at his work. He wanted to scan that energy, work out it's secrets, but letting Loki in his lab seemed like a tremendously bad idea.
Tony glanced up. Loki was gone, Thor must've gotten his brother while Tony was absorbed in his work.
"Sir," Jarvis said. "Loki seems to have teleported inside your lab."
There was a clatter, and sure enough, Loki was on his knees, pulling an important bit of wiring toward his mouth.
"Hey, stop that!" Tony yelped. Loki paid him no mind, and Tony muttered. "You're worse than Dum-E. My robot. Not calling you a dummy, don't tell Thor. I like my limbs attached, thank you very much. You won't tell Thor, of course you won't."
Loki abruptly tossed the wiring aside, energy dancing around his hands.
It wouldn't hurt to run a few tests. Loki had invaded his lab after all, and Tony fired off several questions to Jarvis about what his scanners had picked up. Loki, meanwhile, pulled himself up with a workbench, standing to poke at the holograms. He watched them spin, but seemed frustrated they weren't tangible.
"You like that?" Tony asked, picking up a tablet with a transparent glass screen. Images that looked similar to the holograms sprung up. A green yes, a red no, both big enough for Loki to press with his palm.
Loki reached for the green, and Tony grinned. Success.
But Loki tapped green every time. It was clear that Loki preferred green while Thor favored red- was it just that?
Tony sighed and set the tablet down.
Tony wasn't ready to give up on the tablet just yet. Thor said that Loki had not used a communication book as intended; so far, the tablet had gone the same. But it took many attempts to figure out a solution.
Tony scrapped the red and green symbols for yes and no. He had Jarvis transfer photos taken from Loki's tablet while tracking his eye gaze. A smiling Loki meant yes, and a scowling Loki meant no.
Loki already used his own face to communicate positive or negative thoughts clearly- surely that could be extended to photos of his face.
"You can't sleep?" Tony asked.
Scowling, Loki smacked the photos of his face indiscriminately, then struck his own face.
"Hey, I know, it's tough." Tony told him. "You miss your mom?"
Loki's grunts turned to a shout as he scratched his ear. "I know," Tony wasn't going to spill his feelings about his own mother's death to Loki. He wouldn't, even if Loki had been spilling his own secrets.
Even though Loki didn't snark like Jarvis did, Tony was surprised to realize he enjoyed the company- until Loki's mischief once again distracted him from his work.
I know I won't be able to keep this pace up. And I really should update my other fics.