Clint wasn't called Hawkeye for nothing. Even before he landed the Quinjet, he could see Cooper and Lila's eager faces peering out the window. Cooper was in his Thor Halloween costume, clearly desperate to impress their guests.
The front door burst open right as Clint touched the Quinjet down, and his kids practically flew down the porch and across the yard. The Quinjet's ramp lowered just in time for Lila and Cooper to run up it.
"Daddy!" Lila squealed as Clint scooped her into a hug. She had a toy bow slung over her shoulder. "You brought Auntie Nat!"
Natasha smiled, catching Lila when she threw herself out of Clint's arms. Clint ruffled Cooper's long, blonde wig before bending to pick up the books and cauldron Loki had chucked across the cabin.
"Where's Thor?" Cooper asked, looking around the aircraft. He wandered toward the pilot seats, even though he knew Clint was usually the pilot.
"Welcome home, Dad. Glad to see you." Clint muttered, half joking and half miffed.
Cooper and Lila gasped as a blur streaked across the sky. Thor landed in the yard, Mjolnir gripped in one hand and Loki clutched tightly to his chest. Earlier, strapped in the Quinjet, Loki had screamed louder than Lila or Cooper ever had in the car, but had clearly settled when Thor took him flying his way. The brothers were smiling together.
Starstruck and overwhelmed, Cooper turned to Clint to ask. "Can I have a turn with Mr. Thor, Dad?"
"Let's let Mr. Thor and Mr. Loki get settled," Clint told him.
Thor gave his booming laugh, pretending to believe that Cooper's plastic Mjolnir gifted him the power of flight and lightning. When Cooper admitted it didn't, Thor promised to give both Cooper and Lila rides if Clint and 'Lady Barton' allowed it.
Sometime during their brotherly flight, Thor and Loki had acquired a bag, and Clint suspected Thor had picked up presents.
From the bag, Thor handed both kids several light up bouncy balls and wands. If it weren't for the fact that Thor was formal about giving gifts to hosts, Clint would have wondered if he was using presents to bribe the kids into accepting Loki's presence.
Next, Thor handed Clint a pair of sunglasses that he said Loki picked out. Clint stuck them in the cauldron he was holding, which Loki surprisingly ignored.
Clint gestured to his home. "I know you're used to a palace or a billionaire's tower, but-"
Thor simply beamed as if the farmhouse was indeed another palace while he carried Loki up the porch steps. Lila asked about Loki's wheelchair, though Clint thought he might be able to crawl around the house without it.
"Honey, I'm home," Clint called as they entered the house.
Laura welcomed them all, told Thor the gifts weren't necessary, and told both Thor and Loki that they were welcome in their home.
Thor helped Loki cross the living room, accidentally crushing a LEGO house under his boot. Lila and Cooper had made an entire city out of blocks.
In mere moments, Loki destroyed the whole city with a devilish grin.
During the tour of the home, Loki snatched a few books from the shelf, but settled down with his favorites from the tower on the porch. Lila glanced at the page and shared that grown-up books were boring, with too many words and no pictures.
Thor took Cooper on his promised flight, staying in view of the house so Loki would not think Thor was replacing and abandoning him. Loki remained engrossed with his book.
"Can you fly, too?" Lila signed as she spoke to Loki. "You don't even have to walk if you can fly."
"He made a book fly," Clint shared. The incident had been spread over the internet; it was hardly a secret and likely the reason Loki had been targeted in the recent attack.
"You're a real wizard? Not just for Halloween?!" Lila was delighted and begged for a demonstration while she waited for her ride with Thor.
Loki crawled forward to bat at a plastic horse. Lila trotted another horse across the wooden boards. "Can you make it move and run for real?"
Loki turned to crawl off, and Lila clambered onto his back, just as she'd climbed onto her parents' backs over the years.
Clint watched like a hawk to ensure Loki wouldn't buck Lila off or roll on top of her, but Loki was gentle. He rounded the porch like a horse at the races.
Thor beamed with pride when he returned. "I see you are giving your own rides, brother. Lady Lila, would you prefer to delay your turn, or ride with me now?"
Loki lapped the porch again before Lila slid off his back. As soon as Thor picked Lila up, Loki swung his fist in agitation. Thor hesitated, concerned.
"I've got it," Clint got up, heading over to Loki. Loki forcefully crawled between Clint's legs, then pushed his ankles so Clint fell onto his back.
"You have bested the famous Hawkeye." Thor's eyes were as mischievous as Loki's in that moment, never mind that Clint hadn't been fighting Loki. Loki snorted as if it was the greatest prank ever pulled.
Cooper laughed loud and long as Clint played an unwilling jockey, while Lila's shrieks spread around the yard as she soared with Thor.
Natasha headed back to the tower, to Lila's obvious disappointment, though both Lila and Cooper were eager to see Loki do magic. Perhaps even more eager than Bruce and Tony had been.
Lila encouraged Loki to pull a rabbit out of a hat after seeing him throw stuff into his cauldron. Cooper talked about card tricks, but seemed to realize that handing Loki a deck of cards would just result in the deck's demise.
Cooper waved one of the new light-up wands like a magician. When he realized Loki didn't intend to do magic anytime soon, he lay on the floor and started to try to spit farther than Loki.
Laura walked into the room to see a full-on spitting contest. Loki was putting both Cooper and Lila to shame without even trying.
Laura promptly put an end to it.
"We do it when we eat watermelon," Cooper argued. Laura pointed out that they weren't eating watermelon, and those contests were always outside. Cooper and Lila trooped out to the porch, but Loki only followed to find one of his abandoned books.
With the contest canceled, Lila bounced a flashing bouncy ball and tried to catch it in her baseball glove.
Thor expected Loki to push or pull the ball with his magic, as he did when Clint juggled, but when he looked over, Loki had a flashing ball of flames in his hand.
Thor and Clint both jumped in between Loki and the children. Thor held his palm near the fireball, eyes rising when he realized it emitted no heat. It was merely an illusion, like Mother had tried to teach him. Hadn't the fireball he'd thrown at the enemy agents been real?
"Loki, are you doing magic? I can't see!" Lila exclaimed, dropping her ball and glove and trying to inch around Clint.
Loki, who loved all things leather, dived for the baseball glove and put the illusion ball in it.
"I wish I could do that," Lila said, and Cooper nodded.
A short while later, Loki started to grunt, frustrated. Thor checked to his needs, which Cooper started voicing as he'd done before Lila could talk.
Everything Cooper guessed was wrong. Loki wasn't interested in any of the toys they showed him, he resisted going to the kitchen. He was inconsolable, laying on his back and shouting at the ceiling.
Clint got a call from the rest of the Avengers, and Loki's yells lessened by a small fraction. Still, it was too loud to hear, and Clint took the call outside.
Cooper ran out, breathless, interrupting Steve's report. "Dad, he wants to talk to them! Or hear them! Can you do a video call so Loki can say hi?"
Steve confirmed that he could talk with Loki for a bit. They started a video call, but Loki barely glanced at Steve or Bruce. Lila eagerly talked to Natasha as if she hadn't just seen her earlier that day.
"I know who you want." Tony said, having just hung up another call with the care home where Roberta resided. "Take it away, J."
JARVIS greeted Loki and recited a short passage from Macbeth.
Tony promised to mail a StarkPhone with full access to JARVIS.
After the call, Lila got out some large blocks that Loki couldn't swallow. "You miss your home, right? We can build it."
Lila and Cooper sat down to build Avengers tower, though Lila kept asking Loki what Asgard was like. "The palace has many gold towers," Thor told them, so Lila gathered all the yellow blocks.
Thor smiled when they continued to ask Loki questions. Though Lila began building Asgard, awed at the idea of another world, Thor thought that Midgard had thus far been better for his brother. A warrior society like Asgard did not look kindly on the fact that Loki could not walk.
Before the block tower could get too high, Loki knocked it down. Lila gave him a long look before starting again.
On the next attempt, Loki went through a few very halfhearted motions of stacking blocks atop the tower, but mostly knocked it over. He threw blocks and then Lila's bow at Clint, who caught them and began to seamlessly juggle. Lila and Cooper had seen their father's tricks many times, but eagerly lobbed their new light up balls into the mix of swirling blocks.
The blocks began flashing colors as well, but Lila and Cooper didn't notice the magic at first. When they did, they handed Loki other things to make flash, but most of them went in Loki's mouth.
At dinner, Lila passed Loki a fork when he began to shovel mashed potatoes and corn into his mouth with his bare hands. Loki banged it like a hammer and Thor took over, feeding Loki with a spoon as he'd done for centuries.
That evening, Clint curled up on the couch with his children to read a story. "Make sure Mr. Loki can hear, too." Cooper told him, though Loki would not be going to bed for several more hours.
"Mr. Loki likes grown-up books." Lila told her brother as if that should be obvious.
Thor nodded. "Loki is quite fond of the Midgardian bard Shakespeare."
When Clint began reading aloud, Loki looked between his book and the one in Clint's hands with a scandalized expression. Thor took the Shakespeare book to read, and not intrude on Clint's time with his children.
When Clint and Laura returned from tucking in the kids with goodnight kisses, Thor said "You are a better father than the Allfather."