Full summary: Loki and Amelia have been through a lot in the years they've known each other, they thought raising kids was the hardest thing they would ever experience, but raising teenagers is another story entirely. Between the drama, teen romance, the stress of school life, bullies, disobedience, fights, heroic acts and a very real alien threat, Loki and Amelia are about to find out that teenagers are everything but simple.
Guess who's back, back again, Kumi's back, tell a friend!
For newcomers: THIS STORY IS PART 5 OF AN ONGOING LOKI/OC SERIES. Don't read unless you've read the first four fics in The Language of Flowers series, because you'll probably just end up confused.
For my regulars: WELCOME BACK! I'm so sorry for the wait, thank you all so much for your patience! I'm so excited to be writing these characters again and I hope you all enjoy what I have planned in store ;)
Important note: This chapter has a lot of scenes from the POV of Aster and Kari at school, this is purely to set the scene and establish some characters. Going forward, this fic and all its chapters will be primarily focused on the relationship between Aster, Kari, Daisy, Loki and Amelia, and their overall family dynamic. Obviously there will be scenes with the Avengers too, and scenes in Asgard, so plenty of Thor! I just wanted to warn you in case people got the wrong idea. This fic is about Loki, Amelia and their children as they grow. Please enjoy ;)
Edelweiss Say I'll Be with You Till the Day You Leave
Chapter One: The First Day of the Rest of Your Lives
Amelia was nothing if not organised.
When it came to the twins' very first day of school, she was determined to be ready with absolutely everything. The week prior, she had taken both Aster and Kari clothes shopping so that they could pick out their own styles in order to aid their self-expression and individuality, something that was very important for children who were approaching twelve years old and getting ready to finally integrate themselves into Midgardian school life. Aster chose a very modest set of black skirts, black leggings and dark green blouses, some of which were decorated with gold embroidery around the collar in the form of foxes. Kari favoured denim jeans and purple sweaters, or sweaters with striped patterning.
After clothes shopping, Amelia had taken the kids to get haircuts - nothing too drastically different, just a trim here and there to tidy them up so that they looked presentable and neat; after that, they had walked into a school supplies store and each picked out a school bag and stationary sets.
The night before the twins were to begin their first day of school, Amelia made sure her kids each showered, brushed their teeth and picked out their outfits for their first day so that there wouldn't be any rush when it came to making sure her kids were washed and dressed the next morning.
Once everything was sorted, the twins went to bed at a reasonable hour, Daisy was put to bed in the nursery by Loki, and she met her husband in their bedroom where Amelia proceeded to tearfully gush about how her babies were growing up so fast and how she was both simultaneously excited and terrified for her kids.
"What are you afraid of?" Loki asked his wife. The nature of his question suggested that he found her fussing to be unnecessary, but the tone of his voice betrayed the fact that he was also anxious for his kids to start their first day of school.
"I don't know," Amelia murmured against his chest with a shrug, "I suppose I just want it to be perfect for them, y'know? I don't want them to have an awful experience, because their first impression of school is gonna mould their whole opinion of any Midgardian learning environment."
Loki frowned, trailing his fingers through Amelia's hair as he stared up at the ceiling, "But what could possibly go wrong that it would ruin their perception of school forever?"
Amelia smiled sarcastically, "Ask eleven year old me."
Loki peered down at Amelia as she tilted her head to meet his gaze, "If you hate school so much, why did you insist that we send our children to a Midgardian high school?"
Amelia was silent for a few minutes as she carefully pondered her response, before finally saying, "Just because I had a shit time at school doesn't mean they will. Perhaps they'll walk in there tomorrow and they'll make plenty of friends, learn a whole bunch and return home with big smiles on their faces."
Loki sighed. Amelia had told him it was normal for parents to feel anxious for their kids on their first day of school, but he felt that Amelia and himself had a lot more worries to deal with than most Midgardian parents.
"Let's hope so," said Loki.
Despite Amelia's extensive planning, she couldn't have accounted for everything.
"Where is my scrunchie!?" Aster's voice rang through the hall, her tone a bitter annoyance that was full of presupposed accusation. She bellowed, "Kari! Have you taken it again!?"
From her brother's room, he grumbled in exasperation, "I didn't take your dumb scrunchie!"
Amelia stomped through the hallway, already the perfect picture of stress and quickly diminishing patience, and gently grabbed her daughter by the shoulders as she reached her, "Honey, do you really need your scrunchie to go to school with? Why don't you wear your hair down like this? It's really pretty!" As if to prove her point, Amelia smoothed her hands down over Aster's flawlessly straight black locks all the way down to where they ended at her mid-back.
"No, mama, I need my scrunchie," Aster insisted, returning back into her room to give the space another once-over.
Amelia sighed, running her hand over her face before taking a deep breath and walking over to peek into her son's room, "Are you almost ready, love?"
Kari spun around, looking vaguely guilty, "Mama, I lost my shoes."
Biting her lip, Amelia stepped into the room which was, unfortunately, really quite messy. Books, video game boxes and a bunch of small pieces from an overturned board game littered the carpeted floor. She looked left, looked right, and then her eyes settled on the space just below the bed.
Amelia pointed, "They're right there, Kari."
Kari spotted them and then smiled bashfully, "Heh heh… thank you mama."
Amelia nodded, returned the smile and clapped her hands, "Right, c'mon, shoes on. It's almost time to leave." She left her son to get ready and headed back down the hallway towards the nursery where she took a moment to calm herself before walking in.
Glancing around the seemingly empty room, Amelia soon heard the telltale sound of gentle singing coming from the restroom where Loki was presumably changing Daisy.
"Hush little Daisy, don't say a word, dada's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don't sing, dada's gonna buy you a diamond ring. And if that diamond ring turns brass, dada's gonna buy you a looking glass. And if that looking glass… should break… dada's gonna buy you a… a birthday cake?"
Amelia covered her mouth to avoid giggling aloud, her stress melting to a certain degree as she contentedly listened to her husband sing to their third child, Daisy, who was only a couple of weeks away from her first birthday. The sound of Daisy's happy babbling escaped the ajar door of the restroom, and the longer Amelia listened to Loki sing, the clearer it became that he didn't know the rest of the words to the song whatsoever and was making it up on the fly.
"And if that birthday cake don't rise, dada's gonna… buy you a hundred mice. And if one hundred mice don't squeak, dada's gonna buy you… uh… a priceless antique. And if that priceless antique should break- hang on, I already used that rhyme… uh. Hmm… oh well. You'll still be the sweetest little babe in town."
Daisy giggled despite the awful butchering of the classic lullaby, she didn't have a single care in the world.
"Alright, all finished changing you, my little bumble bee," Loki cooed shortly before he exited the restroom, carrying Daisy in one arm. He paused upon seeing Amelia standing there, staring at him with an amused grin.
"How much did you hear?"
"All of it, Loki," Amelia admitted, "I must applaud you for your lyrical improvisation, darling."
"Thank you," Loki replied, audibly embarrassed, "are the kids ready to leave?"
Amelia sighed, lifting her hands to take Daisy from her husband so she could press a kiss to her youngest baby's forehead, "With any luck, they'll be ready by next fall."
Rule one as the children of one of Earth's most powerful superheroes: nobody was allowed to know the truth about Kari and Aster's identities. It was of the utmost importance that the twins carefully guarded the secret that could completely overturn their lives in a heartbeat, if anybody found out, it could put themselves, their mother and their younger sister in jeopardy, so it was imperative that they were reminded of this little 'regulation' about fifty thousand times on the drive to the school.
Aster was quiet, fingers playing with the rim of her skirt, while Kari continuously rolled his eyes and sighed every time his father repeated himself. They weren't idiots, they'd heard him the first time, and the both of them just wished their dad would cool it with the constant reminder. It was stressing them out even more than they already were, pushed to the brink of anxiousness at the thought of being around so many new people, the many reminders were just adding to it.
"Dad, we know, you don't have to say it again!" Kari groaned, clamping his hands down over his ears, looking at his parents with an imploring gaze, "You're gonna make me freak out."
Their mother smiled apologetically, reaching over to squeeze his shoulder, she could sense his worries like they were her own - perhaps they were her own - maybe everybody in the car was silently freaking out, bar the driver and Daisy in her little carseat, and that's why everybody's nerves were strung.
"Sorry bug, we just want to make sure you'll have a smooth first day and you understand all the rules."
"We understand the rules," Aster deadpanned, sighing and running her hand through her hair for the twelfth time in the past ten minutes. She was antsy and agitated that she was being forced to wear her hair down when she preferred it tied up - unfortunately she hadn't been able to find her scrunchie.
"Good," Loki stated simply as the car pulled up outside the school. He peered out the tinted windows at the many hundreds of kids mulling around inside and outside of the school gate and grimaced, looking back at his own children, "maybe we should go over all the rules one last time?"
"No!" Aster and Kari both protested.
Their father frowned, but nodded in acceptance, "Alright. Guess this is it. Your first day at high school," he murmured wistfully, staring into space like he was upset about something before seemingly coming back to his wits, "Do you want us to walk you in?"
Aster and Kari looked out at the hustle and bustle of kids their own age and older all filtering into the school, all of them notably without adults, and then glanced at each other with uncertainty. They both turned back to their parents in sync and mumbled, "No…"
Loki and Amelia shared a look before the latter gave the kids what she hoped was an encouraging smile, "Hey, you two are gonna do great today, okay? Make friends and impress the teachers." She shuffled over and kissed the twins' cheeks as Loki opened the car door and stepped out, holding the door open for Aster and Kari to step out.
He opened his arms for a hug once they threw their bags over their shoulders and gave them both one last squeeze before letting go.
"You're gonna be fine. I love you both."
Aster and Kari responded in kind, their words somewhat dampened by the nerves that were bubbling away in their stomachs, and then turned and walked off through the school gates, sifting through the crowd and staying close to each other as they approached the building.
It was already off to a rough start for Aster due to the pure noise of the kids around her, all chattering and shouting and laughing - she much preferred a quiet environment and she hoped that by the time the classes began, everybody would turn the volume down low; as she ascended the steps in front of the main doors, she felt a tug on her bag strap and glanced back at her brother who was clinging to her like a lifeline.
"What?" She asked.
"Huh?"
"You're holding my bag," she stated bluntly, eyebrows furrowing.
Kari shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know where I'm going."
Aster sighed, "Neither do I. At least let go of me, I'm not gonna disappear, am I?"
Kari was reluctant to do that, because the crowd was rather rowdy and there were a lot of students shuffling past each other, and if he lost sight of his sister, he wouldn't have anyone to follow - and then what would he do? What would he do if all the other students around him found their classes and he was left in the halls completely clueless?
Would he get in trouble? Would he get yelled at? He'd seen tv shows and movies where kids would get yelled at if they did something wrong at school and he was afraid it would happen to him.
"Look, there's a sign for new students to head through to the assembly hall," Aster pointed at a sign on the wall up ahead of them and made a beeline for it, quickly heading forwards so that she could escape the crowd as soon as possible.
Kari hurriedly along after her, still tightly gripping her bag strap.
After sitting through an induction speech by Principal Miller, the prim and proper head of the school, made to look rather shrewd thanks to her half-moon spectacles, every new student in the hall was given a map of the building, one that Aster found to be very useful and Kari found mostly worthless. He struggled to read the map, turning it upside down, left and right, shaking his head at his sister - it was pointless no matter how many times she tried to explain it, there were just too many classrooms and too many pathways.
"It's just confusing, how am I supposed to figure this out?" Kari grumbled, shoving the useless map into his bag.
"You'll get used to it," Aster tried to assure him, "probably."
"Gee, thanks," her brother sighed. He opened up the planner he'd been given and read over the weekly class schedule, "Hey, are your lessons the same as mine?"
Aster examined her own schedule and compared it to Kari's before humming, "It looks like we have the same teacher for Music, Maths, Geography and History, but different ones for English, Gym, Science and Art."
"Oh," Kari said, breathing out a fresh new bout of worries as he began wondering how he was going to work his way around the school if the map didn't make a lick of sense.
"You can always just ask someone if you get lost, you know," Aster responded, easily reading her brother's mind through the expression on his face, but Kari scrunched up his nose in irritation. That was easy to say for somebody who could read the map like the back of their hand.
They were interrupted then by a girl sitting in the row in front of them, with her dark blonde hair tied up in a ponytail and her unkind blue gaze pinned to Aster, "What's wrong with your voice?" She asked in a snippy, accusatory tone.
Aster blinked, taken aback, "Wha-?"
"Your accent. Are you British or something? You sound British," the blonde girl continued.
There was an odd hostility to the girl's remark, and Kari could see that his sister was too stunned to formulate a response, so he opted to answer for her in a playful tone, trying to melt the unwarranted tension, "She's not British."
The blonde girl glared at Kari, "I wasn't talking to you. Anyway, if you're not British then why do you sound British?" She turned her wide, stony gaze back on Aster, "Well?"
Aster had frozen up, lips sealed shut and unable to procure an explanation for the rude girl; she didn't know why she had been spoken to in such a terse manner by a person she didn't even know, and while she wanted to calmly ask what the girl's problem was, she found herself simply unable to answer. Words didn't want to leave her throat. It cooked up a feeling of panic in her stomach.
Even if she could summon the ability to speak in that moment, what was she supposed to say?
Rule number two: Aster and Kari weren't allowed to reveal their Asgardian/Jotun/non-human heritage to anybody. The truth was, Aster's accent was inherited from her father and was purely Asgardian, often mistaken for an English accent, but if she wasn't allowed to say that at all, what was she supposed to say instead?
"It's our dad's accent. Our mom is American," Kari answered.
"Wow, do you suddenly not speak now?" The girl jeered, giving Aster a derisive look. "Also, you two are related? So why don't you speak the same?" She peered critically between the two, "Are you twins? You look the same age."
"We are twins," Kari confirmed.
The blonde girl looked back and forth for a moment longer before shaking her head and laughing slightly in a way that seemed more teasing than joyful, "I'm Charlotte. What are your names?"
"I'm Kari."
Aster remained quiet, still unable to do anything but stare at the girl.
"Okay seriously, you're starting to freak me out. Why aren't you talking?" Charlotte inquired.
"Probably has to do with the way you're speaking to us," Kari mumbled under his breath, prompting Charlotte to sneer and harrumph at him before giving Aster one last jeering glare and turning back around.
Kari gave his sister a concerned look, tilting his head; Aster looked back at him with a deep frown and shrugged her shoulders, and then signed the words "I'm okay," despite being a little out of practice. Glad that his sister was alright, Kari glared daggers at the back of Charlotte's stupid blonde head for being mean to Aster.
Only he was allowed to be mean to Aster.
Amelia bounced Daisy on her lap, the baby girl making happy noises from the repetitive movement. They'd been home for roughly an hour and Amelia was already missing the twins; it was a lot quieter in Avengers Tower without them and she was surprised by how quickly she felt their absence.
Distracting herself by playing with Daisy was the only thing keeping her from worrying about whether her twins were having a good day so far at school, but the stray thoughts kept sinking through and pulling a frown onto her face. She could tell Aster and Kari had been feeling very anxious to start their first day, but she just had to remind herself that every kid there was likely feeling the exact same, therefore they wouldn't be odd ones out.
Loki appeared beside her, holding out the cup of tea he had made for his wife, which Amelia gratefully took in one hand. Loki swiped up his youngest daughter, who giggled with glee, before taking the spot beside his wife on the couch, "How are you doing, Daisy? Do you miss your brother and sister like mama does?"
Amelia sipped her tea, peering at her husband from her peripheral vision, and he smirked her way before smugly stating, "You're not subtle. I could practically read your thoughts."
"Hm. Acting like you don't miss them too," Amelia pointed out.
"Well, I don't miss hearing them squabble with each other."
Amelia sighed, "Do you think they're doing okay?"
"Love, I'm sure they're doing fine. They're the Children of Loki, they're probably making many friends already. I could always charm every person in a room with my charisma, no doubt they'll be able to do the same."
Amelia rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but they're also the Children of Amelia, and I couldn't charm anybody. I always got picked last for teams in gym, I never raised my hand in class."
Loki tickled Daisy under the chin with his finger, pulling another giggle from his youngest daughter, "You worry too much."
"You're such a hypocrite," Amelia groused.
"Oooh, dat's a big word, huh?" Loki initiated his 'baby-talk' voice, something he only ever did with Daisy and had never really done with Kari or Aster, "Can you say 'hypocrite'?"
Amelia couldn't help but smile at her husband's silly demeanour and laid her head down on his shoulder. Daisy pawed at the material of Loki's Asgardian linens and obliged, "Dadadadadada!"
Loki's eyes shone with delight every time Daisy said any number of 'da's; she'd started saying the word just over a week ago, and seemed to roll with it now every time she was asked to say anything. All she knew was that it made her dada extra happy judging by the big grin on his face.
"Aww, well done. She said 'hypocrite' in her own way," Amelia remarked, returning Loki's smug look from before. Loki seemed entirely unbothered by the teasing, lifting Daisy up so she could happily kick her dangling legs.
"You're just jealous she said dada first," Loki snickered, taking a moment to observe his wife's face before leaning down and kissing her lips softly, his nose brushing against her's. When they parted, he sighed through his nose, "When the twins get home later, they'll have so much to tell us about their first day and I'm sure they'll be excited."
"Maybe you're right," Amelia breathed.
"I am right." Loki lips tilted up pridefully, but a small hand patted against his cheek, drawing his attention to Daisy who, despite having a limited understanding of everything in the world around her, managed to look expectantly at him. "Oh, sorry, you want kisses too?" Loki asked, before pressing a kiss to her forehead, both of her cheeks, and her tiny little nose, to her delight.
"Wow, you get four kisses, Daisy. Now I am jealous." Amelia remarked. She finished up her tea and shuffled to the edge of the couch, rising and stretching, "I'll make some brunch and then I'll feed Daisy, in the meantime why don't you put a Disney movie on for her?"
"Brunch sounds good," Loki replied. They hadn't had such a filling breakfast that morning due to being short on time and he was starving. He grabbed the television remote and booted up Disney Plus, scrolling for a total of two minutes through the many, many films available to pick from before finding a movie that looked colourful and had several musical numbers. "What's this one? 'Encanto'. Shall we watch this, bumble bee?"
"Dadadadada!"
Loki smiled, "I'll take that as a 'yes'."
Unfortunately, the first period of the day after the induction assembly was English, a subject that Aster and Kari both had separately. Kari made his way stiffly down the hallway alone, searching for classroom 4B which just happened to be on the other side of the school to Aster's classroom, 1C. His sister had given him vague directions from her understanding of the map, but he was hardly confident in his own sense of direction when it came to this building - all the hallways looked exactly the same and were full of students walking back and forth between lessons.
Passing by a handful of older looking students, Kari paused at the mention of Black Widow from one of the boys and subtly listened in on the conversation.
"-but it's pretty obvious that her favourite colour is black. I mean, that's her outfit colour, duh."
"Oh come on, just cause it's the colour of her outfit doesn't mean it's her favourite colour, besides, black isn't a colour, it's a shade," one of the girls interjected, "I think her favourite colour is secretly pink. I mean it makes sense, she's a girl after all!"
"That doesn't mean anything! Hawkeye wears purple and that's a girl's colour too!" Another boy snapped.
Kari glanced down at his purple sweater and frowned. What were they talking about? Purple wasn't a girl's colour. Colours weren't gendered. He'd never heard something so ridiculous.
Feeling slightly emboldened by the knowledge that he could offer something to the group's conversation, Kari stepped forward slightly and spoke up, "Hey, uh, Black Widow's favourite colour is actually red."
It felt weird calling her 'Black Widow' rather than 'Aunty Nat', but it wasn't something he could allow himself to slip up on.
The group turned to him, all staring his way with raised eyebrows, there were five kids in total, all seemingly older than him, and he suddenly felt himself shrink under their leering.
"How do you know that?" A brunette girl asked, a distinct lack of faith in her tone.
"Uhh. Uh," Kari mumbled, looking between the bunch of them, "Uh…"
Rule three: they couldn't give any hints that they knew any of the Avengers personally. That included the knowledge of Natasha Romanoff's favourite colour, which she herself had told Kari one day when he'd curiously asked.
"I, um… I read it in an article," he shrugged dismissively, and quickly added, "nevermind." With that, he immediately rushed away before any of the other kids could say anything else, rounding a corner and letting out a breath when he was out of sight of the group. He doubled up on a relieved sigh when he spotted the sign for classroom 4B and scurried towards the room, carrying his backpack over one shoulder as he went.
He hoped his sister was doing well by herself, at least.
Aster sat stiffly at her table, hands resting in her lap as all the other children in the class paired up with a partner. The teacher had introduced herself as Miss Jason and announced the class would be doing an exercise in groups of two in which each student simply had to get to know the other for the first fifteen minutes of the class, at which point the teacher would begin her lesson plan.
The moment the teacher had asked each student to pair up, Aster had been filled with apprehension; she didn't like the idea of working with another student, especially one she didn't know. Her brother had been right - it sucked that the two of them had been split up for certain classes, because now in the event of being forced to pair up, she didn't have an automatic partner.
Most of the kids had jumped up immediately to pair with somebody they seemed to already know, but Aster had yet to make any friends. The only person in the class she knew was Charlotte, and she did not want to pair up with the girl who had unnecessarily made fun of her accent.
Aster's hope was that there were an odd number of children in the class and the teacher would simply tell her to work alone, which would be great. Aster could absolutely work alone, in fact she preferred the idea, even if it meant she'd have to do twice the work. She didn't like the thought of relying on somebody else to get a project done.
"Hey, um…" a soft voice came from beside Aster and she looked up at a girl with red hair in pig-tails, big round glasses, pale and heavily freckled skin, and a mint green dress, "it looks like we're the only two who don't have a partner. Do you want to be mine?" She sounded shy and unsure, standing awkwardly in place as she fiddled with her fingers.
"Okay," said Aster, because it wasn't as though she had any other choice. The girl gave a relieved smile and pulled up a chair before thrusting her hand out in greeting, which Aster shook in turn.
"I'm Autumn-Grace Williams, you can just call me Autumn though," her green eyes, which were a lot lighter in tone than Aster's eyes, shined with something hopeful and friendly, and Aster was instantly glad that this girl wasn't mean like Charlotte.
"I'm Aster Avery," Aster offered with a slight nod of her head.
"Ooh, 'Aster Avery', I like the alliteration in your name!" Autumn exclaimed over excitedly, before her face went red with embarrassment at her enthusiastic response, "Sorry. Small things like that make me happy," she admitted.
Aster gave a mild smile, "It's okay." She felt awkward, not knowing how to carry out the task of 'getting to know' Autumn. A part of her hoped Autumn would be able to carry the conversation, at least at first.
"Well, I guess we gotta get to know each other," Autumn hummed, "so uh, where abouts do you live?"
Aster's mouth opened and then snapped shut. It would've been so easy for 'Avengers Tower' to accidentally slip out of her mouth just then, she was lucky she'd caught herself; she swallowed nervously and stated, "I'm in midtown," keeping her answer purposely vague.
"Oh, cool! Hey, do you live near Avengers Tower?" Autumn inquired keenly, eyes full of curiosity.
Rule four: don't even mention Avengers Tower. Aster and Kari had to maintain the pretence that they had nothing to do with the Avengers, and any mention of their home address could lead to accidentally leaking a few secrets that ought to remain unheard.
"Uhh… no. No, I live on the complete other side of the area…"
"Oh, I see," Autumn regarded Aster with an odd look for a moment, before seeming to brush it off, "anyway, what's your favourite book?"
For the next fifteen minutes, Aster and Autumn proceeded to learn a whole bunch of trivia about each other including favourite colours, favourite foods, favourite places to hang out, and much more. Aster discovered that Autumn too had a love of Disney movies and enjoyed the Harry Potter books. It was good to learn that they shared a common interest as it was a useful talking point for any future interactions they had.
Autumn was nice, she was a little bit shy but at least she knew how to get to know someone, which was more than could be said for Aster. Perhaps Aster could learn from her new friend.
At lunch time, Aster entered the cafeteria with Autumn trailing along beside her. The hall was already filled with students, the ambient noise of chattering was loud and somewhat unpleasant; Aster much preferred to eat lunch at home in the dining area of Avengers Tower where there was simply peace and quiet, and she didn't have to worry about the proximity of other children.
Upon sweeping the room, Aster spotted a hand shoot up from one of the tables. Kari was sat by himself and his face held a relieved expression at the sight of his sister; she waved back at him and smiled at Autumn.
"Do you want to sit with me and my brother?" Aster had disclosed the fact that she had a twin brother during the fifteen minutes she and Autumn were given to become familiar with each other - Autumn had thought it was cool, revealing that she herself had no siblings, but Aster had assured her that having a sibling could sometimes be just plain annoying, so she wasn't missing out.
"Sure! I mean, I don't have anyone else to sit with, so yes please," Autumn laughed, and proceeded to follow Aster across the lunch hall.
Kari eyed Autumn as they approached the table, a hint of apprehension in his eyes as he took another bite of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he was already halfway through eating, so Aster quickly introduced the two, "Hey Kari. This is my new friend, Autumn. Autumn, this is my brother Kari."
"It's nice to meet you!" Autumn greeted and she and Aster took their seats and began unpacking their lunchboxes.
"Mm, hey," Kari mumbled as he chewed his food, causing Aster to scrunch her nose up in irritation.
"Finish your mouthful before talking. Gross."
Kari glared at his sister, "Sorry, mom."
Aster rolled her eyes, "Did you find your classroom okay earlier?"
Kari answered with a dismissive nod.
"Well?" Aster prompted, earning a puzzled look from her brother, "How did it go? Did you talk to anyone?"
Kari seemed to deflate a little, looking down at his half-eaten sandwich with a grumpy expression and furrowed eyebrows, "It sucked."
"What happened?" Autumn chimed in, tilting her head sympathetically.
Kari looked briefly at the red-head before sighing and peeking subtly across the lunch hall at a table being used by a whole bunch of rowdy kids, some of them looked eleven or twelve, and a few others looked older.
"There's this kid in my class, Trevor. He's a jerk. He's loud and mean," Kari mumbled, "like, imagine that snooty girl from earlier who randomly had issues with your accent, and throw in an added desire to punch people in the arm for no reason, and you've got Trevor. I had to sit next to him all lesson."
"Did you tell the teacher?" Aster asked.
Kari sunk his head into his hands and groaned out, "Yes," in a way that seemed to be full of regret, and before Aster could ask why he sounded so disappointed for informing the teacher, he clarified, "I told the teacher, who told him to stop. But that didn't make him stop, and then he spent the entire lesson calling me a snitch and said he was gonna get his brother to beat me up."
Autumn's eyes widened almost comically, a look of worry spreading over her face, but Aster had a wildly different reaction. She snorted, a response that Autumn didn't really understand, and rose an eyebrow at her brother.
"You're scared that some regular kid is gonna fight you?" Aster inquired, choosing her words carefully. 'Regular kid' was used instead of 'Midgardian' for the sake of Autumn sitting right next to them, but Kari seemed to understand the implications in her question immediately.
"Well no, but I just don't want to draw attention. How come you made a friend so easily?" Kari waved his hand in the red-head's general direction, a touch of disbelief in his voice, which Aster scoffed at.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Kari rolled his eyes and shook his head, "Forget it. My first class sucked, that's all I gotta say."
Autumn peered between the twins, vaguely frazzled by the somewhat unusual interaction, but started digging into her lunchbox instead of questioning them. The three of them ate lunch quietly, a stark contrast to the chaos of kids around them, but unfortunately they were soon interrupted by the unforeseen event of a student tripping slightly as they passed by the table, resulting in an opened carton of milk going flying, all over Aster's new blouse.
Aster shrieked, jumping out of her seat and stepping back with her hands raised in shock. Autumn and Kari both gasped at the sight, jaws hanging open in dismay as they turned their gaze on the perpetrator.
"Oh, I am so sorry!" A familiar voice drawled alongside a sea of malicious snickering from a group of surrounding students, and the three occupants of the table pinned their sights on Charlotte, whose face held a very insincere expression that practically exuded false remorse. "My bad," she shrugged and walked off with a handful of her friends who seemed to find the incident oh so hilarious.
Aster was at a loss for words, once again stunned into silence. The milk soaking and staining her top felt cold and sopping wet and awful, and people from adjacent tables were staring at her. Kari opened his mouth to say something but he didn't have the time to get the words out before Aster turned and rushed for the exit to the lunch hall, leaving Kari and Autumn alone at the table, still both shocked at what had occurred.
Since it was lunchtime, the corridors were mostly vacant, a sight that brought Aster only a small amount of comfort as she jogged towards the closest girl's restroom with the intent to clean up as quickly as she could. The fear that her brand new blouse was completely ruined hung heavily in the front of Aster's mind, her throat was tight as she blinked tears of anger and upset out of her eyes, desperately trying to force it down.
She quickly shoved her way into the girl's room, glad to see that there was nobody in there, and made a dive for the paper towels in the dispenser on the wall.
"No, no, no no no," she whimpered, scrunching the paper towels up and dabbing them against her shirt to try and absorb the moisture.
Aster was not naive. She could tell Charlotte's blunder had not been an accident, the girl had ruined her shirt on purpose, however, she didn't know what she had done to deserve such treatment from the blonde girl. All that had happened between them was Charlotte had questioned her about her accent and Aster had refused to speak to her, and now this. It made no logical sense.
The milk wasn't coming out. Aster squeezed her eyes shut and threw the damp paper towel into the waste bin, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She looked ridiculous. The stain on her green blouse was beyond noticeable, it was glaringly obvious that something had spilt all down her front.
Aster's cheeks burned with embarrassment as she wondered how many people had seen her get saturated with milk; the mortification she felt from all those eyes on her made her stomach churn.
She paused, then, blinking at her reflection.
She could… she could magic it away.
But that would be breaking rule five: absolutely no magic whatsoever, for whatever reason.
And this problem she had, all things considered, was trivial. Well, it would've been trivial by daddy's standards. He would flip his lid if he knew Aster used magic on her first day of school to clean her blouse, but then again, the steadily growing humiliation was quickly tipping her mind in favour of using a quick spell to remove the spillage from her clothing.
She looked around the empty restroom, and then decided to move into a stall for an added layer of security. Once locked in there, she lifted her hand and twirled her fingers swiftly, inducing a simple clean-up spell that daddy had taught her; with just a flash of green, the uncomfortable, wet stain was gone.
"What was that?" A bewildered voice from a few stalls down questioned aloud, and Aster froze, hissing a gasp through clenched teeth. She hadn't checked the other stalls. She'd been too worked up in her emotions that she hadn't even thought to make sure the room was clear, and some other girl had seen the residual green light of her magic.
Aster considered responding with something innocuous, that it was the flash on her phone, but that might have prompted questions about why the flash of her phone was going off in the bathroom, and Aster did not want to deal with it. Instead, she rushed out of the stall, hastily washed her hands and dried them with a paper towel before darting out of the restroom, content that she hadn't been seen by whoever had occupied that stall.
She slowed to an appropriate walk once she was free of the restroom and cleared her throat before making her way back to the lunch hall, glad that her blouse was no longer a wretched mess. When she arrived, she saw Charlotte sitting with her friends, and her fists balled at her sides as she walked past the blonde's table, making ice cold eye-contact with the girl in the form of a glare that would make her daddy proud.
Charlotte's eyebrows rose as she gave Aster a look of agitated wonderment, clearly perplexed at how she had cleaned up so quickly, and that annoyance on her face pacified Aster enough to just walk on by, as much as she wanted to grab the girl's ponytail and give it a good yank.
Aster took her seat at her table with Autumn and her brother to resume finishing her lunch, determined to just continue on as if nothing had happened, but Kari locked eyes with her knowingly as she sat. He knew she'd broken one of the rules. She knew merely from the look that flickered in his eyes that he was thinking of telling their parents in the hopes of getting rewarded in some way.
With narrowed eyes, Aster opened her mouth and inquired, "You're not a snitch, right?"
The reference to Kari's classroom troubles with Trevor that morning clearly invoked a reaction in him, because his nose twitched with dismay, and he grumbled in response, "No, not a snitch."
The exchange left Autumn even more confused than before, and it only seemed to increase intensity when she noticed Aster's blouse was all cleaned up, "How did you-? You dried it already…?"
Aster smiled nervously. "Ah, yes. I used some paper towels. It's still a little damp," she lied with a shrug, willing Autumn to just let it go. The red haired girl stared at her blouse a few moments longer before shaking her head incredulously and turning her attention back to her lunch.
Kari was late to class. It was the final lesson of the day and once again he found himself unsure of where his science classroom was, and this time Aster hadn't been with him to point him in the right direction, he was going purely off of his appalling map-reading abilities.
He was desperate to the point where he would have just asked a passing student, but there were no other children in the hallways as they had all entered their classrooms. Kari just knew he was going to get in trouble for this; he'd been the last kid into his English class earlier and the teacher had given him a disapproving look even though he'd beat the bell by about thirty seconds.
Kari squinted at his map as he turned a corner mumbling to himself out loud, "How is anyone supposed to read these? They don't make any sense."
The empty hallway had sets of lockers on either side that guided Kari forwards to the classrooms further up; he could hear distant chatter coming from the rooms ahead, but it was otherwise quiet in the halls. His footsteps vaguely echoed.
"Hey? Hey, can you help me?" An unidentified voice called out from somewhere around Kari, and he whipped round, confused to find an empty corridor free of people. He turned back ahead, searching for who had spoken, wondering if he'd just started hearing voices that weren't there.
"Over here," the voice was young like his own, and a little shaky. When whoever had spoken rapped lightly on metal, Kari realised suddenly that the voice was coming from right next to him, from within one of the tall lockers.
"Huh?" Kari murmured, staring at the set of lockers before him, "What? Are you hiding in a locker?" He asked the mysterious voice.
"I don't think hiding is the right word," they mumbled in response, and Kari could roughly see the light reflecting off somebody's face through the thin vent on one of the locker doors. "I'm kinda stuck in here, can you run to the office or tell a teacher so they can get me out?"
Kari blinked, not fully processing the kid's request for another few moments, "Why… why are you in a locker?"
The kid stuck in the locker sighed, "I thought it looked nice and cosy in here and I didn't wanna go to class."
Kari tilted his head in confusion and swallowed, "Really?"
"No! I got pushed in here by an older kid and they locked me in and ran off laughing!" They sounded a tad exasperated and rapped once again on the metal door, "Now can you please find help!"
Kari looked over his shoulder down both ways of the corridor and deflated, he had no idea how to get to the principal's office from here and running about trying to find a teacher would only make him even more late to class. He glanced back down at the padlock, chewing lightly on his lip; he wasn't very good at unlocking things via the use of magic, and even so his dad had told him not to, even though Aster had totally already ignored that rule because she couldn't handle her clothes getting a bit dirty. Plus, he didn't want to risk the kid inside the locker seeing green sparks fly if he did attempt to manipulate the lock.
He could just brute force it, but that would be breaking yet another rule.
Rule six: no usage of, or alluding to the inhuman strength they possessed as half Jotun children. It wouldn't be too difficult to just tear the padlock apart, though it would rouse suspicion; but he didn't have time to wander away in search of help or to stand around thinking about forcing the locker door.
So he just did it.
He grabbed the body of the padlock and the metal loop and pulled it until the metal suddenly gave under his strength, allowing him to pry it apart and open up the locker door.
A boy his age with brown skin, brown eyes, short black textured hair and a light spattering of freckles on his cheeks stumbled out of the tight space and fell to his knees, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down before sitting back on his heels and looking up at Kari in surprise, "Wow, was that your locker? What are the chances that the one kid around to help me is the owner of the locker I got shoved into-"
"Uh, actually," Kari began, cutting the boy off, "the, um, the padlock wasn't fully locked up. You just got lucky, heheh, it's not my locker." The unconvincing explanation was enough for the other boy, who was clearly just pleased to be out of the small, tight space.
"Oh! Well I'm still lucky you came by anyway! What's your name?"
"Uh, my name is Kari."
The boy smiled, "Hi Kari, you have a cool name! My name's Louis, thanks for saving me! Who knows how long I could've been stuck in there if you hadn't turned up!"
Kari smiled at the praise, it felt good to be thanked for helping the boy, "Thanks, it's no problem." His parents didn't need to know that he'd broken a rule, and besides, it was a good deed.
"Now I just need to get to science class," Louis trailed off, "are you late for class too? Where are you going?"
"Oh! Yes, I have science too. Classroom C2, any idea where it is?" Kari felt a spark of hope, praying this boy had the exact same class as him so that he didn't have to awkwardly enter the classroom late on his own.
"Oh sweet, we're in the same class? What luck! Feels like we were destined to meet. You save me from a locker, I help you find our classroom!" Louis grabbed Kari's wrist and began enthusiastically leading him down the hall with confidence. "Thanks again, by the way. Imagine if you hadn't come along. I might have been in there for the entire class period! That would've sucked." The boy babbled on, filling the silence with a natural flow of conversation, to which Kari chuckled lightly.
"It's fine, don't mention it."
"We don't talk about Bruno, no no no, we don't talk about Brunooooo."
Loki rolled his eyes for the fifteenth time that day, wishing he'd never put that damn Disney movie on the television for Daisy to watch, because his wife had caught perhaps the most catchy song of all time and it was lodged firmly in her brain. Amelia couldn't stop singing that one chorus line. It was driving him mad, but he put up with it because Daisy seemed to love it.
The child giggled and waved her hands almost constantly as Amelia sang the line to her, and the sound of her bubbly laughter negated the exasperation Loki felt from hearing the same exact line sung over and over and over. It wasn't that it sounded bad, it was a good song and Amelia sang it perfectly, but the least Amelia could do was learn the entire song rather than just five seconds of it.
The three of them were waiting in the car for the twins to finish school, and he and Amelia were eager to see the kids exit the building with big smiles on their faces and a positive attitude.
Loki adjusted his sunglasses and tied his hair up to assume his alternate identity of 'proud dad', something that the general public had yet to see through, and slipped out of the car to wait outside it, where his ears weren't being assaulted by the same set of lyrics a hundred times over.
Outside the school grounds, the car park was packed and there were other parents standing around waiting for the students in the school to begin filtering out; Loki wondered if all these other people had been just as nervous for their children as he and Amelia had been for their kids' first day. He didn't even really know why he felt so nervous. A part of him believed that Amelia's nerves had simply caused his own to bubble up in a sort of empathetic chain reaction, but then again it was entirely possible he just didn't want to see his children having a bad time in such an unfamiliar environment where he couldn't be immediately present to help them in case something were to happen.
It was different, being in the Tower with just Amelia and Daisy, with no Kari or Aster around to fill his time with. He supposed it was good to focus all his attention on Daisy, and then he blessedly got to spend time with his wife while Daisy was napping - usually when the twins were home, he rarely got the chance to just cuddle up to and kiss Amelia, at least not until bedtime in the evening.
But still, Loki missed them.
The sound of the bell snapped him out of his reverie and Loki lifted his eyes to the school gate; only a few minutes later, a flood of students left the building in a huge crowd. It wasn't long before he spotted Aster and Kari walking out together, and his immediate instinct was to raise his hand and wave them over.
They looked… tired.
Loki stopped leaning on the car and took a step forward to greet them as they approached, "Hi, how was-" Before he could finish his question, Kari pulled the car door open and climbed in with Aster sluggishly following after him. Loki stared at the open door a moment before ducking into the car after them and closing the door shut, becoming reacquainted with the sound of his youngest daughter squealing and waving her hands at the sight of her siblings - clearly she'd missed them too.
Amelia had stopped singing the moment the twins had hopped in the back and was looking at them expectantly, "Well? How'd it go?"
Kari shrugged his shoulders but otherwise didn't answer, whereas Aster actually bothered to respond, but all she said was, "It was okay."
Amelia and Loki waited for more, but when it became apparent the children weren't going to elaborate, they pressed a little firmer.
"Just okay?" Amelia asked with a sad smile, "Did you make any friends?"
Kari shrugged again.
"Well, I made friends with a girl called Autumn. She's got red hair and she likes Harry Potter and Disney movies," said Aster without a hint of eagerness, though this wasn't unusual behaviour for the girl. Kari, however, wasn't usually so quiet.
"That's great! I'm so glad you made a friend already, sweetheart!" Amelia gushed, clearly relieved.
"And what about you, Kari? Did you make any friends?" Loki pressed carefully.
Kari sighed, "I guess."
"You guess?" Loki raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I met this kid called Louis and we sat together in Science. But…" he trailed off, shaking his head and sealing his lips once again.
Loki was growing agitated at his son's lack of explanation, "You don't look happy," he pointed out, hoping it would prompt the boy to enlighten him as to why.
Kari growled, "It sucked, okay? I hate school. I don't want to go. Can't I just have lessons at the palace in Asgard?" The boy's tone was pleading and Loki looked to Amelia with wide eyes, seeing the same astonished look on her face at their son's admittance.
Aster spoke up then, sounding dejected and resigned, "Do we really have to come here five days a week?"
Amelia frowned, her lip quivering lightly. She was upset because her fears had come true; something had given her kids a bad first impression of school and they were upset, it was what she'd been afraid of. She sighed and took a breath before forcing herself to smile apologetically at the kids, "Listen, darlings… the first day is always the hardest. It might seem new and scary and upsetting, but that's only because you're not used to the new environment. Once you two settle and establish a routine, it's going to feel a lot easier, and you'll enjoy meeting your friends, and you might come to enjoy the subjects."
Kari crossed his arms, averting his gaze to stare out the window, "I don't like the teachers. Both Louis and I got scolded because we were late to class, but it wasn't our fault. The teacher didn't even let us explain why we were late!"
"Why were you late?" Loki asked.
Kari's eyebrows furrowed in annoyance, "Cause… cause the stupid map of the school doesn't make any sense."
"It does make sense, just not to him," Aster pointed out.
"Shut up," Kari grumbled.
"Don't tell your sister to shut up," Amelia lightly scolded her son before sighing, pinching the bridge of her nose momentarily before sharing a look with Loki.
Loki didn't know what his wife was trying to silently communicate, but after a few seconds she renewed her detached smile, "Okay, you two have had a difficult day. How about we order pizza and ice cream for dinner and you can tell us all about it? Would that help you feel better?"
It wasn't all that often that Amelia was the one to suggest such an unhealthy dinner, she was usually all about home-cooked healthy meals and encouraged the kids to eat sugary and fatty foods in moderation, but it seemed she was letting go of that principle just for the evening to allow a little reward for Aster and Kari, just to raise their spirits a little.
'Pizza' and 'ice cream' were clear buzz-words for the kids, because they both looked up at the mere mention of them. Loki could see a spark of craving behind their eyes and his lips pulled up slightly.
Kari didn't look as depressed as before, and quietly nodded his head, as did Aster with a small smile on her face.
"Okay, good. Just remember, everything's gonna be okay, alright?" Amelia winked, and the twins seemed a little more soothed by their mother's words. Just then, Amelia brightened, taking a hold of Daisy's hands and gently squeezing them. "Oh, and listen to this! Your sister and I have discovered a wonderful Disney movie that you two will totally love, isn't that right Daisy?"
The girl giggled and babbled in response.
"That's right! We can watch the movie again while we eat our pizza!" Amelia exclaimed, and Loki dropped his head into his hands, letting out a long groan, much to the confusion of Aster and Kari.
"Why? Why did I pick that movie?" Loki groused.
Please note: Louis is pronounced 'Lewis'.
Featuring references to my new favourite Disney movie, Encanto!
So, there we have it, the first chapter of the new fic! I'm BEYOND excited to hear all your thoughts and feelings, so please do be sure to review and bookmark my work! It's great to be back ^_^