So... do y'all still remember who I am?

Yeah, it's been a while, huh? I am so sincerely sorry for that. I've struggled a LOT with this chapter, and to add onto that it's REALLY long, so it just took extra time to complete. There were a lot of days where I really struggled with motivation - I kept sitting down to write and just not being able to think of what to write next, but your patience rewards you all now because I'm DONE with chapter 6, at long last!

I hope you enjoy this 12k+ word chapter!

Edelweiss Say I'll Be with You Till the Day You Leave

Chapter Six: The Luminary

One morning, Kari woke up and looked at himself in the mirror after dressing for school. He wore black jeans and his favourite thin sweater, soft and light purple in colour with a stereotypical green, egg-shaped alien face on the front with huge bulging eyes. He enjoyed the aesthetic of the old-school horror movie alien and was drawn to any kind of clothing or accessory branded with them; he wasn't sure when the fixation for them had arisen but after secretly watching one too many 'close encounter' movies on Netflix, he'd simply adopted the interest.

He frowned at his reflection, looking himself up and down.

His body was lean and lanky, some kid at school had called him 'Slenderman' in jest during gym, which had caused a majority of the class to laugh. Kari had brushed it off, snorting about it at first because it didn't immediately clock that they were making fun of him, but when he'd arrived home and googled the word only to be greeted with images of a creepy, faceless man, tall and spindly, who supposedly lived in the woods and ate children, Kari realised that his body was weird.

Kari was the tallest and thinnest person in his class and to his recollection, there weren't many students in the school that shared his body type.

His father was very tall, so it was clear to Kari - who had a very basic understanding of genetics - that he had inherited his growing trait from his dad. But his dad wasn't pathetically skinny like him.

Loki worked out daily, usually before half the people in Avengers Tower even woke up, he utilised the fact that he didn't need to sleep as long as humans and arose at 5am, trained for an hour in the training room before returning to his bedroom and showering in the ensuite just in time for Amelia to wake.

As a result of his strict training regime, his body - although slim - was muscular in a more compact way, not like Thor whose biceps were humongous, but at the very least was presented in a way that Kari would describe as 'gracefully strong.'

Kari was not strong. Well, no, he was strong, by human standards. He could do things his human peers could not, like climb a rope in gym class in a record-breaking amount of time or rip a metal locker door off its hinges like it was nothing, but compared to his father and his uncle, he was scrawny and weak.

Any training he tended to do with his father just succeeded in tiring him out, and in all honesty he'd started to neglect any sort of workout or training lessons in favour of playing games online with Louis - it was a much more fun activity to do after seven straight hours of school every weekday.

So, he was too thin and too gangly, but it wasn't just his body that people made fun of. The children in his grade poked fun at him for all sorts of reasons - he was too loud, too annoying, too odd, too absent-minded, too stupid, too everything. Not to mention, the curse of going through puberty was causing his voice to crack, which prompted kids to laugh at him when he spoke - usually the girls, because the other boys were going through the same thing.

Just being himself and existing seemed to garner ridicule from all directions, and Kari was sick of it.

Why couldn't he be smart and sophisticated like his sister? Or calm and attentive like Autumn? Heck, even Louis didn't have such a hard time with mathematics and geography, why couldn't Kari yield a basic understanding of the tasks he was set in class without staring at his worksheets like they were written in gibberish?

Kari was too flawed.

He was the son of one of the Avengers, and yet he was unpopular, uncool, and a total halfwit. He'd heard his father use that word once when one of the palace servants had brought him regular Midgardian wine instead of strong Asgardian wine - it was a silly mistake for the servant to make really. But Kari felt that he was just as much of an imbecile as that servant had been. His grades reflected it too.

Maybe today would be different. Or maybe it would be the same as every other day.

Kari left his room, late to breakfast like usual, and began his walk down the hallway, into the elevator and along the corridor that led to the communal lounge and kitchen. On the way there, however, he saw Tony approaching and stared at him, pondering whether or not to confide in him.

Tony was Iron Man. Iron Man was the coolest Avenger, in Kari's opinion. If anyone knew how to be cool and popular, it was Tony.

"Hey, curls," Tony greeted, giving the boy a smile as he passed. When Kari didn't give any sort of response to the greeting, Tony looked back, slowing to a stop; it was immediately clear that Tony could see in Kari's expression that he wanted to ask something, and Tony - who was always willing to lend an ear or give advice - gave Kari his full attention. "What's happening, kid?"

"Um…" Kari mumbled, briefly reconsidering telling Tony of his woes, but the words seemed to tumble out of his mouth before he could regain any semblance of control over them, "do you think I- uhh, am I… am I cool?"

Kari's face burned red the moment he posed the question. He sounded so stupid, asking someone if he was cool. That was the most uncool thing a person could do.

"Are you cool?" Tony repeated the question as if he hadn't heard it correctly, and Kari awkwardly nodded. "Well yeah, obviously you're cool," the multi-billionaire continued with utmost confidence, "you're the coolest fourteen year old I know, you can do magic. Real magic, not fake magician tricks. How could you think you're anything but cool?"

Tony's assurance was hard to ignore. The coolest Avengers just told Kari he was the coolest kid he knew, what fourteen year old didn't want to hear that from somebody they admired? If only everyone at school could hear Iron Man say aloud how cool he thought Kari was, then they'd all stop mocking him and being generally unkind. Trevor would curl up into a ball and wish for his own death if he ever heard Iron Man boast about Kari's coolness.

But sadly, the kids at school were not allowed to hear Tony Stark say those words, thanks to the rules Kari's father had put in place, and furthermore…

"Is my magic the only cool thing about me?" Kari asked, deflated. It solidified the idea that the way he presented himself at school truly was just awkward and uncool, that the only things that made Kari interesting were his magical abilities.

"What? No, don't twist my words, kid! You're cool, anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong," Tony gave the boy a pat on the shoulder before motioning down the hallway with a nod, "I think your mom wants you to hurry up, by the way, you still gotta eat your breakfast."

With that, Tony parted with one last smile, but Kari remained unconvinced about what the CEO had told him. He wasn't cool, he was just some silly video game nerd and he'd always be one of the unpopular kids.

The good thing about growing a little bit older was a small smidge of independence that Amelia and Loki allowed the twins; after their fourteenth birthday, it was Amelia who posed the idea that the twins could be driven to school without having to be accompanied by either of their parents. Kari and Aster were all for it, they both felt just a little bit more grown-up, as if they were making their own way to school - which they weren't, since they were still being accompanied by a driver - but it felt good nevertheless.

It was a little less embarrassing too, because occasionally Kari had to deal with his mother calling across the parking lot that he'd left his lunch bag in the car, to which Kari would have to do the walk of shame to quickly pick it up. Now, he didn't have to worry about such things. It wasn't like other kids in his class were still being dropped off by their parents. Heck, Kari had never even seen Louis's parents in person, they clearly weren't as clingy as the twins' parents were.

But now, the embarrassment was a thing of the past. They enjoyed arriving at school by themselves, though Amelia and Loki were still completely against the idea of the two of them walking to school and back without a chaperone - that was going to take a little more convincing.

Over the past few months, the twins had been getting used to the presence of Charlotte, who often sat with them at lunch and rolled her eyes more than ten times in the span of one lunch period. She was a pain, even if she was genuinely trying to be less bitchy towards the group, but she and Aster had made a deal, and in Charlotte's defence, she had gotten her little girl gang to lay off Autumn and Aster.

So Aster was merely upholding her end of the bargain by allowing Charlotte to sit close by at all times, by way of sheltering her from Trevor's targeted bullying. Ever since Charlotte had begun sitting with Aster, Autumn, Kari and Louis at lunch, she had not been on the receiving end of Trevor's misogynistic groping. The boy had been too afraid to go anywhere near Aster, their plan had worked.

But… Charlotte was a handful.

"Why do you wear that?" Charlotte asked in her overly judgy voice as she pushed her golden hair back behind her ears, pinning Kari's purple sweater with scrutiny that was entirely unnecessary.

Kari sighed, chewing his bite of the sandwich his mother had packed him for lunch, "Why are you so obsessed with what I wear?" He was inwardly smug at his witty response, but hid his smirk by taking another bite of his food.

Charlotte tutted, rolling her eyes, "I'm not obsessed with your clothing, idiot. I just think you look dumb wearing it."

Kari's face soured, "I thought you were supposed to be less of a bitch while hanging out with us?"

Charlotte glared, giving Kari the full brunt of her scathing stare, but Aster was the one who shrugged at her brother and tentatively murmured, "Well… technically the deal was that she stops bullying me and Autumn, you were never part of the equation."

"Tch. Some sister you are," Kari grumbled under his breath; upon finishing his sandwich, he reached back into his lunchbox and pulled out a Kit-Kat, getting ready to tear the packaging away and chomp it down one chocolate finger at a time, but Aster suddenly straightened up, staring at the treat in her brother's hand with a deeply agitated look.

"What? You have a Kit-Kat? Mum didn't put a Kit-Kat in my bag," she pointed out, sounding utterly disappointed.

"She likes me more," Kari shrugged.

"Funny," Aster dead-panned, before double-checking her bag and once again coming to the same conclusion, there was no Kit-Kat in there.

"Maybe your mom forgot? If she was in a rush, it's possible," Autumn helpfully supplied, not wanting her friend's feelings to be hurt.

Aster sighed, "Well, Daisy was being fussy this morning… maybe mum didn't realise because she was preoccupied."

"Or maybe she does have a favourite child," Charlotte taunted with a subtle snort, prompting an eye-roll from Aster.

"Are you gonna share it with your sister?" Louis asked, nudging Kari's arm expectantly.

"Of course he isn't," Aster spoke in the exact same moment Kari let out a roaring laugh.

Aster harrumphed, reaching into her pocket to pull out a few dollar bills, and then exited her seat and made her way over to the candy vending machine, ignoring Kari's pointed stare at the money in her hands. If he didn't spend all his allowance on junk food the moment he got it, he wouldn't be so shocked to learn that saving pocket money wasn't actually all that difficult.

Because Kari wasn't at all willing to share, Aster picked the king-size Snickers chocolate bar, knowing it would prompt her brother to be filled with jealousy; maybe next time he would be a little more generous - ah, who was Aster kidding? Kari would never be so generous as to share his candy bars with her in her time of need.

As she pulled her larger than usual chocolate bar out of the vending machine, her attention was drawn to the commotion growing across the room behind her. Turning her head, she spotted the route of the disturbance; Trevor had grown bold enough to come and bother Aster's friends, plus Charlotte, in the few moments she'd been absent from the table.

She watched Trevor openly tug on Charlotte's ponytail and dodge the swat that the latter attempted to direct his way immediately following that, and Aster rolled her eyes in annoyance. Could they not have one day without the school's resident asshole bothering them?

When Trevor turned to Autumn and tried to snatch her school bag, undeterred by Kari's warnings to back off, Aster's gaze darkened and, with her king-size Snickers in hand, she marched back to the table, giving off a dangerous aura to anybody aware enough to pick up on it.

"What's your damn problem?" Kari growled as Aster approached.

"I saw you staring at me from across the hall and wanted you to know that I'm not interested, gay boy," Trevor taunted, before returning his gaze to Charlotte. He reached down and poked her in the side with enough force to cause the girl to jump and yelp; she struck his arm away, enraged as he laughed.

The smile was wiped from his face when Aster appeared at his side, and Trevor notably backed away, sneering at her, "Oh, well if it isn't Queen Bitch. What the fuck do you want?"

"It's Princess Bitch, actually," Aster retorted bluntly, "and I was just wondering how many times I need to humiliate you before you leave us all alone."

Trevor's lip pulled up in disgust, and he looked her up and down, clearly agitated that Aster was unfazed by his insult, "You're an idiot if you think you can get away with attacking me for a second time, stupid bitch."

"I don't need to attack you to put you in your place," Aster stated simply, and then stepped towards Trevor, feeling a sliver of absolute delight when it caused him to take another step back. Unbelievable, Charlotte had been entirely correct - Trevor was afraid of her.

She was going to take full advantage of that fact.

Aster backed Trevor up against the wall, her back to her friends and the rest of the lunch hall, and for the second time, she broke one of her father's important rules.

At this angle, she had full confidence that Trevor would be the only one to see her little trick unfold, and in Aster's mind it was entirely necessary. Threats of suspension from the school weren't enough to stop the bully from bothering her friends, detentions wouldn't do anything to permanently keep him off their backs, so she had to take matters into her own hands, and she knew just how to do it.

"Mess with my friends one more time, and you won't enjoy what happens next," Aster spoke quietly so that only Trevor could hear, and before he could fully react to her words, she worked a little illusory magic on herself, causing her eyes to go from striking green to a fiery, bloody red. They were glowing, almost, and the fright it caused the boy was precisely the reaction Aster was hoping for.

Trevor let out an audible little yelp, quickly slipping away from Aster, staring at her with wide eyed confusion, disbelief upon his face. She'd only kept the illusion up for a moment, and was now staring at him expectantly through her natural green-eyed gaze.

"What- what the fuck," Trevor whispered, "what kind of fucking demon are you?" He practically yelped, before turning on his heel and running out of the closest door.

Aster turned back to the table where everybody present was staring at her, even Kari looked confused - none of them had been able to see the red glow of her eyes that she herself had triggered. Charlotte's jaw was completely agape, and for the first time she looked at Aster with something that was akin to admiration.

"How did you scare him off like that?" Autumn was the one to ask, also astounded by what she had seen.

Aster shrugged her shoulders as she sat back down between Charlotte and Autumn, peeling open the wrapper of her king-size Snickers as she did so, "You'd be surprised at how intimidating a little assertion can be when you're dealing with a coward."

Kari stared at her, an air of suspicion in his eyes. He had silently come to the conclusion that she had done something magic-related, and was giving her a knowing look.

"Maybe he'll leave us alone now," Louis spoke, quiet and hopeful, "I really don't like him."

"Nobody likes him, and I'm sure he'll keep his distance… at least for a while. Apparently my sister knows how to scare him," Kari remarked with a smirk, before nodding towards the Snickers bar, "hey, I'll trade you one of my Kit-Kat fingers for half of that candy bar."

"Dream on," Aster snorted.

Throughout the exchange, Charlotte just continued to stare at Aster, her blue eyes boring into the side of her head, and despite not receiving a single 'thank you' for stopping Trevor's onslaught, Aster could sense an air of gratitude in Charlotte's silence.

Loki was lying prone on the carpeted floor of Daisy's nursery, resting his chin on his arms as he watched his youngest daughter dip her fingers in acrylic paint and drag them across the large piece of white card spread before them. She used the paint to create incomprehensible shapes to Loki's eyes, but in Daisy's mind, she was creating something that made complete sense.

"What are you painting?" Loki asked as she brushed a few splodges of yellow paint across the paper.

"Bees", Daisy answered simply, and then dunked her fingers in green paint and began smearing green all around the edges of the page.

"And what about the green, what's that?"

"The trees, dada," Daisy answered, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. It was obvious to her.

"Oh, of course, my mistake," Loki chuckled, "what about a home for the bees?"

Daisy faltered and hummed, looking momentarily thoughtful, before her hand went to the bright red paint and she nodded in agreement, "Bees need a home."

Loki lifted an eyebrow as she started dotting the red paint amongst the green trees, "Do you know what a bee home is called?"

"In the flowers," Daisy answered idly.

"No, it's called a beehive. Bees live in hives, they go to flowers to collect pollen," Loki explained, "Are you going to paint a beehive for them?"

Daisy frowned, a sweet little pout on her face as she tilted her head, "No beehive," she stated with conviction, "they live in flowers."

She accompanied her words with a few purposeful dabs of red paint across the page, which Loki then understood to be the flowers she was speaking of - but she was putting flowers amongst the trees? That wasn't right, surely.

"Okay, these bees live in flowers. But why are the flowers in the trees?" Loki questioned gently, curiously.

"Because they are big flowers!" Daisy exclaimed, promptly wiping her paint-smeared fingers on her little yellow dress.

Loki inwardly cringed. Amelia wasn't going to be happy to see the paint stains on Daisy's dress, especially after he'd promised not to make too much of a mess when he opened up the paints for his daughter to play with. He really hoped acrylics would wash out easily.

"Is your painting all done?" Loki asked, sitting up straight so that he could admire it from a top-down view. He smiled at the absolute mess of colours, finding little sense in the random shapes and splotches, but regardless proudly stated, "It's a glorious creation, you could be a famous artist when you grow up."

Daisy was delighted by the praise, standing up and bouncing on the spot, "I wanna show mama, and Kari, and Aster…"

"Of course, we can show them all later-"

"And Tony, and Natasha, and Bruce, and Clint, and Steve…"

"Yes, we can show it to them as well-"

"And Thor, and Inga, and Magni, and Modi…"

"Daisy, we can show it to everyone when we see them, I promise," Loki chuckled at her enthusiasm to show off her painting, knowing that half of the people mentioned would have to really try hard to act like she had painted something incredible, rather than just a smudged mishmash of acrylic.

Daisy went quiet momentarily, looking down at her painting, before asking, "Will Kari and Aster be back soon?"

Her face was hopeful, doe-eyes large and shimmering like usual, but there was a flicker of sadness that Loki never wished to see on young Daisy's face. So he checked his watch, not wishing to disappoint his youngest, and told her, "They finish school in an hour, bumblebee. They'll be home soon after, it's not too long. Then you can show them your painting."

"I want to play with them," Daisy softly admitted.

"Oh, sweetheart, you'll be able to play with them when they arrive home," Loki told her, and opened his arms in invitation of a hug, which she eagerly accepted, throwing her arms around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder.

Unfortunately, the state of Daisy's dress had briefly slipped Loki's mind, and he realised when she pulled away that the red smears of paint had transferred to his own clothes, staining his black shirt.

"Whoopsie," Daisy murmured lightly, pointing at the paint while she hid a sheepish smile.

"Dear, oh dear," Loki sighed, "your mother will not be impressed with me."

As if summoned by the mention of her, the door swung open at that moment to reveal Amelia carrying a laundry basket. She opened her mouth to say something, and then faltered, brown eyes darting between Daisy's yellow dress and Loki's black shirt, and her expression grew weary as she breathed a sigh before rolling her eyes in a way that was not dissimilar to Loki's signature eye-roll.

"You had one job, darling, don't make a mess," Amelia recounted her words from roughly half an hour ago when Loki initially suggested the activity of finger-painting for his little girl.

It was Loki's turn to smile sheepishly, "Ah… you know how these things just happen, love." His words were accompanied by a shrug as he tried to play it off as not that big of a deal.

"Well then, it's your turn to do the laundry," Amelia stated, holding out the basket full of clothing in her arms expectantly.

Loki's brow furrowed, "Amelia… you know we have maids that can do that, right?"

"Ah!" Amelia exclaimed, repositioning the basket to lean against her hip with one arm so that she could lift a pointed finger, "You might be a prince in Asgard, but here in Manhattan, you're a dad with responsibilities, now take this basket and go collect Kari and Aster's dirty laundry. Hurry up, chop chop."

Loki gave an inaudible sigh as Amelia placed the basket down at her feet and disappeared back into the hallway, calling out as she went, "And make sure you get that paint off Daisy's hands first, or you'll be responsible for cleaning up whatever she touches." Amelia was off, rushing to do some other type of cleaning elsewhere - Loki didn't understand why all this cleaning had to be done now, why couldn't it just wait till later?

"Mama, my painting!" Daisy called out, but Amelia had already disappeared into the next room, and her voice didn't carry far enough to reach her mother. The girl pouted and looked back at her father with a trembling lip.

Loki launched into dad mode, willing to do anything to keep his beloved little girl from tearing up. First thing he did was tap her on the nose with a smile, "Let's get your hands washed, then I'll grab your brother and sister's dirty clothes, and then we can show mama your painting, yes?"

The promise reignited Daisy's smile and she nodded eagerly. With that, Loki did just as he'd said, they got Daisy's hands washed and freed of any red paint before Loki picked out a different dress for Daisy to change into; he ignored his own shirt for the moment, deciding to change it after gathering the laundry, and together the two left the nursery and crossed the hallway to enter Kari's room.

"What a mess," Loki murmured, mouth upturned in disgust as he bore witness to the absolute bomb site that was his son's bedroom, "Have I really raised him to be this messy?" Loki mused aloud as his gaze darted across Kari's bedroom, landing on the video game cases, comics and clothes strewn all over the place. "I was never this messy as a boy," he told Daisy matter-of-factly.

"Maybe he likes the mess," Daisy suggested, shrugging her little shoulders.

"Well he shouldn't like the mess, because messes are bad," Loki gave the girl a pat on the head.

"Why is it bad?" Daisy looked curiously around the room, like she couldn't see what was right in front of her.

"Wh-" Loki paused, lifting an eyebrow at his youngest daughter, "because if you're living in a mess, everything feels worse. A clean room feels better than a messy room," he explained, wondering what was going on in Daisy's head.

Daisy went temporarily quiet as she looked around the room, "But… but-" she looked as though she didn't know the right words to say what she was thinking, "maybe for Kari, it isn't a big mess! Because… because he knows where stuff is!"

Loki exhaled in amusement, running a hand through Daisy's hair again. She was always searching for the positives in places where others saw only negatives. Maybe there was some sense to what the girl was saying. Either way, he brushed the conversation off and began picking up presumably unwashed clothes from the floor.

He cringed when he spotted underwear amongst a pile of dirty clothes, and had to summon a pair of tongs to pick it up and place it in the basket, because there was no way he was going to touch a teenage boy's underwear with his bare hands.

"Is that all of it? Can you see any more clothes, Daisy?" Loki asked, giving the room another once over; now that all the clothes strewn over the floor had been picked up, the pig-sty of a room looked just a little bit better. It was a shame that within a few days, it would go back to being a messy heap.

"Yes!" Daisy declared, and led the way out of her brother's room and towards her sister's room.

Aster's room was a whole different story. The fourteen year old princess was all about order and cleanliness; in her space, everything was sorted neatly into its rightful place. All her books were stacked on her bookcase in alphabetical order, her bed was made and her desk chair was tucked nicely below her workspace.

Her dirty clothes were placed within a laundry bag, ready to be collected.

"See, your sister is what I would call a neat-freak, and I mean that in a positive way," Loki remarked as he picked up the laundry bag and poured the clothes into the basket he had.

"What's a knee-freak?" Daisy wondered aloud.

"Neat-freak," Loki corrected, "it's somebody who needs everything to be clean and in order."

"Are you one of those?" Daisy tilted her head curiously.

"Mm, yes, I'd like to think so. I like everything to be clean."

"Wow, if that isn't the biggest lie I've heard in a long time," Amelia groused in a jesting way from the open doorway, causing Loki's jaw to drop in surprise.

"What?" Loki said, almost shocked at Amelia's interjection. He laughed incredulously, ready to argue his case when his wife quickly interrupted once again.

"You like things to be clean, yes, but not when you're the one cleaning it!" Amelia pointed out with an accusatory finger, "Mr. I have servants who can do it all for me, you can't be a neat-freak unless you're the one actively cleaning and making things neat and tidy, sincerely, a real neat-freak."

Loki continued to stare at his wife, jaw agape for several moments before his mouth slammed shut and he gave an involuntary pout. He felt thoroughly called out by the woman he loved, and the little smirk on her face was infuriating.

"Now listen here, you little…" Loki began, ready to dive towards his wife and tickle her senseless until she begged him to stop, but his movement ceased entirely when the sensation of something alarming touched his consciousness and caused him to drop the laundry basket immediately and swing round, staring at the empty, tidy room with trepidation and suspicion.

Amelia frowned, following his line of sight in confusion, "Hmm? What is it?"

Daisy also looked around, failing to see anything that could've caught her father's attention so completely.

Loki didn't answer straight away. His eyes mapped the room twice over before his gaze narrowed and he stepped close towards his eldest daughter's bed, "I sense magic."

Amelia blinked, lifting an eyebrow, "Magic? What would be magical in here?"

"What magic?" Daisy inquired with interest, following her father in the search for the source of Loki's apprehension.

"That's what I'd like to know," Loki murmured. He could feel it, the vaguest sense of something in the air, like static but with a distinctly supernatural hint.

He pulled back Aster's bedsheets and found nothing, and then lifted the pillow, and there he found it - a book of unknown origin with no title on the cover. He urged Daisy to step back with a motioning hand and then lifted the book, flipping it over to find no other marks of indication; it was a deep dark green in colour, the cover was embroidered with little golden stars and the binding technique of the pages was decidedly Asgardian.

"Loki," Amelia said.

"Shh," Loki hushed his wife, but she wasn't having it.

"Loki," she tried again, with a hint of agitation in her tone, "put it back, it was hidden for a reason."

Loki swung round, his face a mixture of irritation and perplexity, "Love, do you know what this is?" He asked with genuine inquisitiveness.

"Yes, love, it's her diary, I bought it for her in Asgard last Summer," Amelia revealed, "and I hope you're not planning on opening it. I bought it for her specifically so she could write down her thoughts in private, without worrying about being judged."

Daisy looked between her parents, not sensing the slight upset in the air, "What's a die-ree?"

Ignoring his daughter's question, Loki held up the book, "Where did you buy this?"

Amelia frowned, "Just from a stationary shop in the market. Why?"

"Because it's infused with some sort of spell," Loki explained, before he opened up the journal and started flipping through the pages.

"Loki!" Amelia snapped, visibly upset, "What are you doing?"

Loki lifted his eyes from the pages and then turned the book around, "Look, it's fine. The pages are blank." Just as he said, each of the pages he flipped through were completely unfilled, but this clarification did not make Amelia any less upset. By this point, Daisy had sensed the tension between her parents, and was worriedly glancing between them as they spoke.

"I can't believe you. I told you it was her private diary and you still just opened it, completely disregarding Aster's privacy."

"It doesn't matter, there's nothing in here."

"So? There could have been something in there. You don't just open up a teenager's diary, Loki," Amelia stated, stifling her anger for Daisy's sake, "what kind of message does that send?"

"I didn't open it because I was interested in finding out our daughter's secrets, I opened it because I sensed magic coming from it and that concerned me. What if there was some sort of malicious hex placed on this book?"

Amelia grinded her teeth together subtly before picking up the laundry basket, "Come on, Daisy," she said, urging her daughter out of the room before she got too upset with her husband.

Daisy followed her mother, giving her father a pout over her shoulder before disappearing into the hallway and informing her mother that she had a painting to show her. Loki sighed, staring down at the diary with scrutiny.

The magic coming off of the diary did not feel overly powerful. If he had to guess, he would assume that the magic he sensed was a spell that hid the contents of the diary, keeping Aster's thoughts away from prying eyes, but he had to be certain of that fact before he dismissed it.

The spell to hide written words was well-known to him, a charm that was easily found within the enchantment books in Asgard's library, and as such he knew the counter to dispel such magic. So with a wave of his hand and a flicker of green, he willed the spell to be broken, to reveal what had been written in the pages of Aster's diary.

Only, no words appeared. The counter spell didn't seem to do anything.

Loki flicked quickly through the pages to double check, in case the page he was on just happened to be blank, but no, the entire book remained void of words.

How strange. Either his counter spell failed - unlikely - or he had wrongly assumed the spell placed on the book to begin with. Perhaps Aster hadn't placed an obscuring charm upon her secret diary, perhaps it was another spell entirely.

He hummed, placing the open book down on Aster's work desk while mumbling about why his daughter had to be so much like him, and grabbed a ball-point pen from a holder full of them, before bringing the tip to the blank page and writing 'Hello.'

It was just a test, really, to see if anything would happen, he wasn't expecting results.

To his surprise, something did happen.

The word 'Hello' disappeared entirely after several seconds as if it had sunk into the page, and shortly after, a new set of words appeared.

'Hi! How are you?'

Loki didn't like this. He was immediately reminded of the second Harry Potter book, which featured Tom Riddle's diary, a diary that seemed to work in much a similar way as the one in front of him, the only question was, who had written the response?

Perhaps his daughter had somehow charmed her diary into sentience. There wasn't any spell Loki was familiar with that could do something like that, but Aster's curiosity was unmatched, and her drive to seek out new knowledge rivalled his own.

He readied his pen and brought it to the page, choosing not to pose the question in the forefront of his mind. Instead, he played along, pretending to respond as his daughter would.

'I'm fine, and you?' He wrote.

Another few seconds passed after his words faded out of existence, and the response came.

'All is well. I've been kept busy as usual.'

Loki sneered at the book as if whoever on the other end could see his wretched expression. This was certainly not a sentient book he was dealing with, but rather the sorcerer's variation of instant messenger; now that he thought about it, he was sure he had read about a spell like this before, he just personally had never found any use for it, especially not since living on Earth and being introduced to a smartphone.

The only reason Aster would need to use a charmed book rather than her smartphone to message somebody was if the recipient did not own a phone, which meant they were almost certainly Asgardian. Every Midgardian child over the age of eleven owned a phone, in his experience.

This knowledge did not assuage his suspicions. Who could it have been on the other end?

'What have you been doing today?' Loki wrote, trying to fish for information without giving the game away.

'Just my errands. I had to go all the way to the fisherman's hut and back without a horse.'

Loki stared at the page. Who would be running errands that involved picking supplies up from the fisherman's hut without the use of a horse? Somebody who didn't know how to ride? Somebody who didn't have access to a horse and couldn't afford to rent one?

He didn't know anybody that fit those criteria, and it just made him all the more agitated.

Lowering the pen to the page once more, Loki didn't even have time to write anything before another sentence seeped into the page from the other side.

'Do you miss me as much as I miss you?'

Loki didn't like what he was reading. He shoved the pen back into the holder, inadvertently knocking it over and spilling ball-point pens all over the floor, but he was too irritated to pick them all up. Instead he closed the diary and put it in his inner pocket, ready to confront Aster later that afternoon when she returned home.

When the time came, shortly after the twins had arrived home, Aster discovered very quickly that her diary was missing.

Amelia and Loki were passing through the hallway, Daisy in the arms of the former, on the way to the elevator to head down to the kitchen so that a start could be made on dinner when Aster sharply opened the door of her bedroom and stepped out, her skin a shade whiter than usual.

"Mum, my diary's gone," Aster stated in a bit of a panic.

Loki, who had been expecting this moment, came clean before Amelia could process the fact that he must've swiped it, "That's because I have it," he revealed bluntly, pulling the diary from his pocket to hold up in plain view of his daughter's widening eyes.

"Loki!" Amelia snapped, far from impressed to learn that her husband had done such a thing.

"Give it back!" Aster demanded in a rush, making a gesture to snatch it from Loki's grasp, but he anticipated the action and lifted it out of her reach.

"Did you think I wouldn't sense the magic in this?" Loki asked sternly and calmly.

Aster looked infuriated, clenching her fists at her sides. "Give it back," she repeated in desperation - it was audible in her voice just how badly she wanted that diary back in her possession.

"No," Loki refused.

"Loki," Amelia said again, the tone with which she said his name a blatant indicator of her anger.

"Not until you tell me who you've been talking to in secret," Loki continued.

Amelia looked at Loki like he was crazy, struggling to see the connection between the matters at hand, "What are you talking about?"

"The diary, Amelia. It's charmed to act like a phone, she's been using it to send messages back and forth to somebody in Asgard," Loki explained concisely; Aster seemed to grow even paler, if that were possible, at her father's reveal of what she had been using the diary for. Amelia simply looked back and forth between her husband and her daughter, hoping for some sort of in-depth explanation about what exactly Aster had been doing and why it was so problematic.

"How do you know that?" Aster stammered nervously, "Did you open it? Did you write in it?"

"Yes," Loki admitted unapologetically, "and I'd like for you to tell me the truth. Who are you talking to?"

"What does it matter? Why do you need to know?" Aster shouted, her fury apparent. She let go of any composed behaviour, devolving into anger in a way that she rarely did; Aster was not the type to react so strongly in front of others, if something upset her she would usually go somewhere private to vent or cry.

Unlike his daughter, Loki kept his cool, "Because I'm your father. That's why I need to know."

Amelia audibly scoffed, still firmly on the side of her daughter, which agitated Loki - though he didn't let it show. She readjusted the way she was holding Daisy, who didn't look happy with the shouting.

"Loki, this is hardly fair. Why are you treating her like she's misbehaving?" As far as Amelia understood, there wasn't anything wrong with Aster speaking furtively with someone that she nor Loki knew personally, and it was more than a little irritating for Loki, who was always so concerned with the security of his family. Loki felt that his wife really should have known better by now.

"Because she is misbehaving. She's using magic to have clandestine conversations with somebody," Loki responded in a snippy way, frowning at Amelia.

"Since when is talking to someone misbehaving? I'm sure you were a lot worse when you were a child!" Amelia argued, her frustration abundantly clear. She wanted to speak her mind and tell Loki how she really felt about him invading Aster's privacy, but she refrained, knowing that if she said such things with the children present, it would cause a lot more upset.

Aster seemed to break down a little more amidst the quarrel, "Why do you always need to know every little thing about my life? Can't I have some privacy? Am I not entitled to that!?" Her eyes were lined with unshed tears as she frowned deeply, fighting every urge to cry; she didn't want her tears to flow freely, she wanted to hold them in and remain as composed as she could be, but it wasn't an easy feat.

Loki's gaze softened briefly at the sight of his eldest daughter's quivering lip and glistening eyes, but it hardened again when he spoke, "The fact you're avoiding answering the question says a lot. Tell me who you're speaking to and you can have it back, if I deem them safe."

Aster's teeth ground together. She took a steadying breath, and then spoke tightly, "I'm talking to my friend. That's all. Maybe you're not familiar with the term. It's a word used to describe someone you can rely on and who makes you happy."

"Oh, shit," came a whisper from just down the hall. Kari had opened his door and was eavesdropping on the commotion, clearly shocked by his sister's mocking tone towards their father.

"Kari!" Amelia scolded as she covered Daisy's ears, hoping the girl had been too preoccupied to hear her older brother swearing in the background, "Don't you dare use that language in this tower." She ignored the fact that she had said much worse things in her time living in the tower overall. Her son shrunk back slightly under the admonishment, but continued to listen in.

Loki was unfazed by Aster's attempt to taunt him; he'd grown up with Thor and had started to build an immunity to such derisive remarks.

"Their name, Aster."

"None of your business," the girl snapped right back.

Loki raised his voice ever so slightly, his tone stern and no-nonsense, "It is my business when my daughter is involved. Your safety is my top priority and in order to protect you, I need to know that the people you're talking to or spending time with can be trusted."

Aster brushed her tears from her eyes but refused to back down, "Why is it that you think everyone has bad intentions?"

Loki fell quiet, his face growing serious, before he quietly stated, "You've been taken from me before, I'm not going to let that happen again."

The Jotunheim incident. Aster scoffed, shaking her head.

"That was one time, like ten years ago, and it was a special case," Aster protested, arms raised as if to say 'really? You're bringing that up?'

Loki shook his head, "No. That's the second time you were taken from me, and it could've been the third time," his gaze shifted to Amelia as the two of them simultaneously recalled the incident in which Amelia was kidnapped by a bunch of evil aliens intent on imprisoning her in some sick museum, all while she was pregnant with the twins. And then again, they thought of the day Aster was almost kidnapped in the marketplace in Asgard when she wandered away from her father. There had been too many close calls over the years, it was the very reason why Loki could never relax, not entirely.

He looked back at his daughter, whose vexed expression was now mixed with confusion - the kids didn't know about the kidnapping of their mother when she was pregnant with them, and Aster most definitely did not remember the marketplace incident, at least not the details of it. Loki grabbed onto her upper arm with one hand, holding her firmly as he gave her an imploring look, "Don't you understand? I need to know these things. I need to be prepared so that if anything ever goes wrong, I know what to do."

Aster was silent. She looked at her mother, who looked down at the floor, and then peered down the hallway at Kari, who was just staring wide-eyed, his head peeking out the gap of his open door.

Finally, despite pulling back away from Loki's grip, she relented and spoke quietly, as if defeated, "Their name is Eske."

Loki scrutinised his daughter's face, searching for lies, but the reluctant and defeated expression she gave seemed entirely honest and devoid of fibs. "How old is Eske? When did you meet? What does she do and how do you know her?"

Aster's pursed lips parted after a moment and she once again wiped her eyes free of tears, "...My age. A little bit younger. Eske is a palace worker, we talked and became friends last Summer. I just wanted to keep in touch while we were apart, that's all the diary is for." She sniffled, eyebrows still tightly drawn together.

Loki was satisfied by the information his daughter gave him. He wish he knew why Aster felt the need to be so covert about her new Asgardian friend in the first place; he held the book out for his daughter to take back, and she did so, swiping it from his grasp and holding it close to her chest. She crossed her arms over it, as if Loki was going to change his mind at any moment and demand it back.

"Aster," Loki spoke softly, "I only do this because I love you. I can't have anything happening to you, or Kari, or Daisy."

Instead of responding with understanding like Loki hoped, his daughter turned to retreat back into her room, but not before he quickly grabbed her by the shoulder again, "Hey, perhaps when we return to Asgard, I can meet you friend Eske?"

Aster momentarily froze up, Loki couldn't see her face as she was turned away from him.

"Yeah, maybe," she responded swiftly and without conviction, before entering her room and closing the door firmly behind herself.

"Mom, please," Kari begged into his phone, shuffling from foot to foot beside his locker as Louis watched him with a hopeful gaze, his hands interlocked like he too was imploring his best friend's mother to acquiesce to their request, "Louis's mom and dad said he can go, and Autumn's allowed too. Pleeeeease can me and Aster go to the arcade with them after school?"

Amelia breathed a relenting sigh on the other side of the phone, to which Kari's eyes widened, locking with Louis's in anticipation. He'd firmly expected his mother to refuse the request outright, because she and their father were always so heavy on security and safety, and knowing exactly where they were at all times.

'How far from the school is it? And how long would you be at the arcade for?'

Kari waved his hand excitedly in front of his face, practically hopping up and down on one foot and Louis responded in kind, punching the air in victory. A group of popular girls gave them both disdainful looks as they passed them in the hallway, rolling their eyes as they went, but Kari and Louis paid them no mind.

"It's a ten minute walk, and only a couple of hours, we can be back before dinner!" Kari exclaimed down the phone.

Amelia was momentarily quiet as she considered this, before offering her compromise, 'You can stay there for an hour and a half, and the driver will pick you up from outside the arcade. Make sure your phones aren't on silent, I want you to respond to my texts within minutes if I message you.'

"Deal! Thanks mom!" Kari cheered, fist-bumping Louis who was grinning like wild.

'I mean it when I say I want you to respond quickly if I message you. Check your phones every five minutes, okay?'

"Understood, mom! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Love you!"

'Call if you need me, bug. Love you too.'

Kari hung up the phone, staring at Louis with the most delusionally happy expression on his face, "I can't believe it, I actually get to have a smidge of independence for like the first time ever. Yes!"

Louis grabbed Kari's arms, "OH, there's this one game we need to play- there's a chance to win a jackpot amount of tokens. Think of all the stuff we could exchange them for at the prize booth!"

"You do know that you spend more money playing the arcade games than the prizes are worth, right?" A bored voice trickled in from behind Kari, and the two boys whipped around to see Charlotte standing there with Aster and Autumn behind her.

"You are just mad that you're not invited to the arcade," Kari taunted, smirking at the blonde girl, who rolled her eyes in response and turned away to rummage through her locker.

"You actually got us permission to go?" Aster questioned, her voice interlaced with subtle wonder. "Who did you ask?"

"What kind of question is that? Obviously mom," Kari snorted, "Dad would've said no, like he does to everything."

"Good point. He probably won't be happy when he finds out about it though," Aster sighed, her gaze wandering as she thought agitatedly about how strict their father could be sometimes.

"Well we can't get in trouble, cause mom said yes. Besides, he's on a miss- uh, he's at work," Kari's lips snapped shut as he and his sister locked eyes, his going wide at his close blunder, and her's narrowing as if to say 'you idiot.'

The almost slip-up seemed to fly right over the heads of Autumn and Louis, but Charlotte slammed her locker door closed, and eyed Kari with a suspicious look, "Were you about to say 'he's on a mission'?"

Kari's eyes widened further at the fact Charlotte had correctly guessed what he'd almost said, while Aster practically radiated annoyance.

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?" Charlotte continued to probe, giving Kari a mocking glance.

"That's- I was not going to say he's on a mission, I just misspoke, is all," Kari rushed to clarify, a little too quickly for Aster's liking. She looked like she wanted to facepalm at Kari's pitiful lie, and appeared to take matters into her own hands.

"It's just what our dad used to say whenever he went to work, it's an inside joke," Aster said with conviction and a light shrug, and her lie seemed to appease Charlotte, because the blonde girl snorted and stopped pressing. She placed her tote bag on her shoulder and gave Kari an arrogant smirk.

"These air-heads might not pay close attention," she paused to motion Autumn and Louis, who glared at her for the unnecessary jab, "but I pay closer attention than you think, and I know what's going on here." With that, she haughtily side-stepped around the boys and headed to the next class just down the corridor.

"What was that all about?" Louis asked, a hint of something akin to perturbation in his tone. Charlotte always seemed to act a little weird, but that last line sounded extra weird.

"I don't know. I'm glad she's not invited to the arcade," Kari stuck his nose up in the air and quickly forgot about the interaction.

Aster peered off in the direction Charlotte had marched away, one eyebrow raised at her unusual display.

"Okay, I think we should play Rockstar Raiders first, and then we can have a go on that game where you play as an alien-"

"Abductors," Kari helpfully supplied as his best friend listed off all the arcade cabinets they were gonna wring tokens out of in an effort to win a whole bunch of prizes. "I've wanted to play it for ages but I never get to go to the arcade."

They were on the way to the mall where the arcade was located, navigating the streets with careful steps, sticking to the edge of the path that was furthest from the busy road, only crossing when the light turned green, and doing generally everything to stay safe.

"Is this all you two talk about?" Autumn inquired, sounding amused.

The boys looked curiously at Autumn, and Kari confusedly responded, "What else would we talk about?"

Autumn shook her head and gave a shrug, "I don't know…"

The redhead looked up as they passed a store that had a really cool graffiti mural of Spider-Man across the front and a question popped into her head, "Who's your favourite Avenger?" She asked the group with burgeoning curiosity.

"Uhh…" Kari mumbled, trailing off awkwardly, and then shrugged his shoulders, motioning the graffiti they'd just passed, "Spider-Man, I guess."

"You guess?" Autumn raised a single eyebrow at Kari, suspicious of his vague and inattentive reply, but brushed it off, "What about you, Louis?"

"Um, I like Thor and Loki, because, uh, yeah. They're cool," Louis stated somewhat shyly as he idly messed with his hair, and upon hearing his answer, Kari and Aster glanced at each other, sharing another one of their silent stares. Kari wasn't sure what Aster was thinking, but he was quite in tune with Louis's mannerisms, and the thought briefly slipped into his mind that his best friend might've had a crush on his dad and his uncle, which was rather awkward in and of itself, but it was particularly awkward seeing as Louis didn't know Kari was the son of Loki, and the nephew of Thor.

"My favourite is Black Widow, because she's super cool, and she has red hair like me!" Autumn spoke, and turned finally to Aster.

"Who's your favourite?"

Aster didn't take all that long to think about it, "My favourite is Iron Man."

"Ooh, because he's really smart and all about science?" Autumn pressed with a little grin, nudging her friend's arm slightly.

"That is correct," Aster agreed, "I feel he would be interesting to work alongside as a mentor." In reality, she knew out of experience that Tony was an incredible teacher and a fascinating human being, and that was mostly her reasons for liking him the most out of all the Avengers, but obviously that wasn't something she could admit.

"Makes sense. Hey, maybe one day you'll get to have an internship and meet him," Autumn shrugged, "you're absolutely smart enough to be his little lab partner."

Aster smiled. Her friend didn't know how accurate she was.

"Oh crap, is it going to rain?" Louis remarked, peering up at the sky to find dark clouds overhead. Kari lifted his eyes skywards, squinting at the black clouds that seemed oddly close, he drew in a breath and found there was an odd taste in the air.

"Those aren't clouds," Aster spoke, a touch of apprehension sitting in her expression as they all gazed up past the tall residential buildings, and slowly the sound of distance sirens became apparent, "it's smoke."

"Oh shit," Kari whispered, and without further ado, he launched into a run, both nosy and determined to find out what had happened and where it was happening. Naturally, Aster and the other two followed, the group rushing several blocks and round a corner past standstill traffic to find an apartment building that was several floors high ablaze, fire and smoke billowing out of open windows and balconies. A crowd had formed at the base of the burning structure and the emergency services were present in the form of a large fire engine and several ambulances.

"Oh my god," Autumn whispered, "I hope everyone got out okay!"

The firefighters seemed to be in the process of tackling the fire using their equipment, one hose firing an endless deluge from the ground while another set of firefighters drenched the insistent blaze with a hose from above in an adjacent building.

It was a large inferno, though. They appeared to be struggling.

The warmth of the flames could be felt even from where the kids were standing, which was quite far back. It was a warning to steer clear, but Kari had a growing urge to find out more; the thought that people might still have been trapped inside the burning building made him feel nauseous. He needed to know everyone was okay, so he pushed forwards through the sea of people hypnotised by the blaze, all the way to the makeshift barrier that had been put in place.

Louis, Aster and Autumn pushed through in turn, snapping about how he was crazy for wanting to get closer. Aster tugged on his arm none too gently in a way that was almost scolding, but Louis was the one to voice her thoughts.

"It's too damn hot!"

Indeed, the heat was far more noticeable where they now stood, even though the fire was escaping through the windows that were several floors up. It felt like an intense sunray on a hot summer day.

"Do you think any of the Avengers will appear?" Autumn gasped suddenly, looking around wildly for Spider-Man to swing into action, or for Iron Man to fly by.

"I think we should go," Aster said cautiously, ignoring her friend's question and pulling on Kari's sleeve with purpose.

The sound of a woman shrieking pulled the attention of many in the crowd, including the kids, who leaned over the barrier and looked further down the road to see what was occurring. The noise erupting from the woman's throat was distressing and infused with pure desperation, she coughed out angry tears, trying to escape the hold of a fireman intent on keeping her at bay.

"No, NO, my baby's in there! Please, you have to save her, she's in apartment C, fourth floor, PLEASE!" The woman wailed, her arm outstretched towards the building as she continued to try and fight her way past the firefighter.

"Ma'am, please stay back! We're trying to tackle the blaze in the stairwell, it's unsafe to go in there right now, we're going as fast as we can-"

"PLEASE, please, she's only three years old!" The woman put up a fight still, the fear of what may happen to her child fueling her desperation, and she sobbed as a second firefighter helped to keep her back and out of danger.

"Oh my god, there's a baby in there," Autumn whimpered, tears springing to her eyes as a hand covered her mouth.

Aster stared up at the fire billowing from the third floor balcony doors, her expression frozen in shock, and she pawed blindly for her phone in her bookbag, hurrying to compose a text to Tony Stark. Autumn and Louis were far too preoccupied to notice the recipient's name at the top of her phone as she began to tap out a message, though even if they were looking, they probably would've had difficulty making the name out through the relentless shaking of her hands.

"What… what happens if they can't put out the fire?" Louis asked quietly, barely audible above the rest of the crowd, his expression grave.

"What'll happen to the little girl?" Autumn whispered.

Before Aster could finish typing up her text, sudden movement to her left almost knocked her phone from her hands.

Kari jumped the barrier, launching immediately into a run, too fast to be stopped by his sister or his friends. Still, it didn't stop them from screaming his name and for him to come back. Kari's movement triggered more shouts from the crowd, and the fireman restraining the woman looked up and spotted the boy advancing on the building.

He shouted to his colleague, one of the firefighters near the entrance of the building, who turned just in time to spot Kari, but Kari was too fast and faked the man out, turning one way and then zipping around his other side when the fireman moved to grab him.

"Come back, COME BACK!" The fireman shouted, chasing after him, but Kari had only one objective in mind.

Save the girl.

Kari wasn't thinking about his own safety, he wasn't thinking about the fact that as a Jotun, he felt the heat far more quickly than a human might have, he just knew that if he didn't act quickly, a mother may very well have been burying her young child in the weeks to come.

That thought disturbed him, and spurred him on to run faster. The sound of the fireman's shouts devolved into background noise as Kari rushed for the stairwell; the fire wasn't as low as the ground floor, it seemed to have begun somewhere on the third floor and started to climb, but that didn't mean everything was fine and dandy on the lowest floors.

Kari could feel the heat seemingly through the floors above, and the air was stifling and tinted dark. It was like walking through early morning mist, except the mist was blackened and the air was not crisp and cool.

Sprinting around a corner, Kari spotted a sign on the wall pointing towards the stairwell, and followed until he reached it, there he stopped briefly to glance up the central gap, and felt his body quake at the sight of orange flickering above. He didn't stop to think through a plan - there wasn't time for that - he just ran, praying to all the Gods his father had taught him about that that day would have a happy ending for everybody involved.

After he climbed the first flight of stairs, and then the second, he finally stopped solidly to assess his situation. The fire door that permitted entry to the third floor was shut - as was its job to be - but through the small window he could see blazing light, he could feel the heat more intensely now that he was practically standing before it.

Smoke seeped out from the tiny gap between the floor and the bottom of the door, adding to the already misty surroundings. Kari coughed, reflexively waving his hand in front of his face as if it would banish the smoke slowly filling the air, and squinted up the stairwell. There were visible flames on the next floor up, the floor that that woman had said her daughter was on.

Fourth floor, apartment C.

He gathered his courage, or maybe it was just pure stupidity powering his body, and began climbing the steps until there were just a few more between himself and the fourth floor.

The first thing he noticed was that the fire door was ajar, held open by a piece of furniture, which explained why the flames escaping the edges of the doorway had begun making their way skywards. Kari may not have paid all that much attention in class, but he at least knew what a fire door was for.

He swallowed, holding his hoodie over his mouth to avoid breathing the thick smog that was escaping the open doorway. The heat was excruciating, and he almost wished he'd discarded it before entering the building, but he'd not been thinking about that when he was on the ground.

His ears already felt like they were on fire, but Kari surmised it would be a whole lot worse when he finally slipped past the furniture blockage and onto the fourth floor. The sign at the side of the door helpfully discerned that apartment C would be found down the left corridor, so at the very least he knew which direction to sprint from the get go.

Kari clenched his shaking hands, feeling the perspiration on his face, dripping from his forehead, and decided it was now or never.

He sprinted up the last few steps and vaulted over the furniture blockage, into an area so hot that his sweat seemed to evaporate instantly and leave a horrible burning in its wake. Not only that, but the smoke in the corridor was far, far thicker than it had been in the lower end of the stairwell. He squinted his stinging eyes, blinking away what felt like bits of tiny debris, and coughed through the fabric of his hoodie.

The memories of the school's mandatory fire-safety class Kari had been in a year prior were fuzzy, especially now that he needed them most, but he at least remembered that smoke rose, and that visibility would be clearer if he was closer to the ground, so he ducked down low, steering clear of the fire that licked the edges of the hallway.

Blessedly, he could just barely make out the letters on the doorways that denoted which apartment he was looking at, but when he stopped in front of apartment C, he could see from his low position that thick black fog was escaping the bottom of the door. That wasn't good, that really wasn't good.

Furthermore, when he tried to push himself up above his hands and knees, his body protested, and he collapsed back down to the floor, groaning in agony at the unbearable heat. His mind begged him to turn back and not push on further, but his heart demanded he continue on and not return empty-handed. He wouldn't abandon that little girl to die in a blazing, excruciating death.

That was, if she hadn't already.

Gods, please still be alive.

Kari repeated the words like a mantra in his head as he forced his body to cooperate, rising up despite the fact it felt as though his blood was literally boiling in his veins.

He rose up, standing but slightly crouched over to stay as low as he could without being back on his knees, and reached for the door handle.

The metal door handle, which was searing hot from the ongoing fire all around him.

Kari cried out, clutching the wrist of his now burned hand tightly; the skin was red raw at once, painfully searing from his terrible decision. But the pain also brought forth a burgeoning angry frustration.

He was the son of an Avenger, damnit, saving people should come easily to him.

"Fuck you!" Kari spat, addressing nobody except the inferno around him, then very impulsively backed up and slammed his foot into the door, ploughing through the door. Unfortunately, in a circumstance that was unforeseen to young Kari, the introduction of a new oxygen source into the fiery room caused the flames to intensify suddenly and explosively, right into his face.

He roared in pain, hands flying to his face in an effort to protect it. His eyes felt like they might melt out of his skull, and he began to cough in a horrendous fit as he tried to expel what surely must have been pure fire he'd inhaled into his lungs.

Kari sobbed out in desperation, wishing his father would rush in behind him and save him from his bad decisions. He'd really fucked up.

What if he died here in this building?

What if he died and his body was burned to ashes, unable to even be returned to his family?

And what's more is he wouldn't have even been able to save the little girl-

The girl. She was there in that very apartment somewhere.

"HELLO?" Kari shrieked, before another coughing fit wracked his body. It felt as though every breath he took garnered him a miniscule amount of oxygen, not to mention the horrible heat that travelled into his lungs with every inhale.

No response.

Kari dropped to his hands and knees and began crawling through the apartment, having to practically feel his way around given the fact that his vision, while obscured by smog, was also blurred by the tears trickling from his eyes.

His hand hit something, and he squinted down at what appeared to be a child's book that had yet to perish in the flames, and he surmised he must've been going the right way. Crawling a little further, he noticed to his right that the black fog seemed to clear a bit, billowing flames and smoke escaping out of the only exit to the outside - the balcony. The glass must have blown open at some point, leaving a gaping hole in the room.

Kari squinted through the air and spotted a door wide open ahead, he had no better ideas other than to keep searching and calling out, so he pressed on through it and instantly congratulated himself on finding a room that most definitely belonged to a little girl.

It was pink, from what he could see of it, and there were toys all over the floor. He felt his way around the room, calling out to try and get the attention of the little girl who surely had to be in there, but heard nothing back. Then again, it was difficult to either hear or be heard over the crackling noise of fire.

He reached the bed, and pawed the top of the mattress, searching for a body - a live one, he prayed, but felt nothing except the top of the mattress and bunched up bed sheets.

Dropping to the floor, he searched under the bed but once again found nothing.

Where would a small child hide to escape a fire, especially if they did not know better?

He scrutinised the room and his gaze fell on a closet, prompting his eyes to widen to the best of their ability; that had to be it, that was definitely it. Kari scrambled towards the closet as fast as he could, coughing and hacking as he went, but he tried his best to ignore his burning lungs and focus on the matter at hand.

Swinging the doors open, Kari felt a burst of relief as his eyes fell upon the sight of a sobbing little girl curled up at the bottom of the cupboard; he didn't even bother with any introduction, he just began loudly barking instructions.

"Come on! Come with me! Here-" He tugged the toddler's arm, pulling her up, "I'm gonna get you out!" He lifted his hoodie and motioned that she needed to get under it. The girl looked up at him with terrified eyes, but quickly did as she was told, climbing under his hoodie. "Wrap your arms around my neck- yes, there you go! And put your legs around my waist," Kari demanded, glad that he was skinny for once as it would be easier for the child to hold onto him.

Once she was securely beneath his hoodie, which Kari believed was the best place for her to be in terms of her safety and his mobility, he made a run for it, using his memory to retrace his steps.

He almost made it to the door when the sickening noise of the roof caving in above him sounded, and he had barely a moment to react. With a hand raised, he caught the falling debris with his magic, saving himself and the girl from being crushed. He didn't care if the girl noticed or not, but a downside to his quick thinking was that the cave in completely blocked the front door of the apartment, leaving no exit.

Well, there was one exit.

Kari turned and raced for the balcony, protecting the girl's head with his hand as he stumbled out the broken glass doors and fell to his knees in the very corner of the balcony, gasping for semi-fresh air as he longed to be able to breathe properly again.

The fire was searing behind him, the heat licking at his back as he felt the cool air against his face and dreamed of diving head first into a pool of icy water.

Down below, now that he could finally see without the thick black smog surrounding him in all directions, he saw and heard the rowdy crowd, several of which raised their hands to point up at him, alerting more and more people in the crowd. He couldn't spot Aster, Louis or Autumn in his quick perusal, but he knew they could see him.

"It's okay," he whispered to the little girl, voice hoarse, "it's gonna be okay."

Kari peered over the edge, it was a long way down and he wasn't sure he could survive a fall at this height even with the increased tensile strength of his body, let alone the little girl.

He was trapped, but he continued to comfort the little girl, rubbing her back through his hoodie. The sounds of her cries were still prominent, and it was painful to listen to.

Kari gripped the railing of the balcony hard as a wave of dizziness befell him and he fought it, before another wave of coughing and hacking attacked his lungs. Something needed to happen, or he wouldn't survive this.

"Please, please please please," he whispered, drawing in a shaky breath when he was able to again. He didn't want to die, he was too young to die, there were so many video games he and Louis still had yet to play together.

"Hey, kid!" A blessedly familiar voice interrupted his solemn train of thought, and Kari lifted his head so quickly that he was almost taken by another bout of light-headedness, but the relief flooding his veins kept him sober as he stared up at Tony Stark clad in his Iron-Man suit.

"Help, help," Kari begged, reaching out to the man he'd called Uncle Tony all his life.

"It's alright, kid. I've got you," Tony landed on the balcony and spotted the toddler beneath Kari's hoodie, and he realised the hardest work was already done, "hey, you got the little girl too, good job buddy."

Kari's mind reeled from how calm and composed Tony seemed when all his own mind wanted to do was scream, but the thought dissolved as Tony swept him up into his arms - along with the girl - and took off from the balcony, moving a good distance away from the heat of the burning building before descending.

"You must've been on fire in there, kid," Tony remarked casually, and Kari stared up at the man, wondering if the pun was intentional or not. He genuinely couldn't tell and it hurt his head to think about it. Come to think of it, his head was pounding, and the sky seemed to be blotting out and growing darker by the second.

"Hey, you still with me?"

The sky wasn't growing darker, Kari was just losing consciousness.

"Kid!?"

Tony's voice sounded further away by each passing moment. Kari felt himself jog as they presumably reached the ground, but his eyes were already rolling back in his head.

I'm not sure if many people actually read this fic here on fanfiction net as I don't seem to receive many, if any reviews at all per chapter, but if the rumours I've heard are true that this website may be shutting down some time soon, you should know that I used Archive of Our Own to upload this fic as my 'main' fic posting website. My username and the title of this fic are both the same on there as on here so I should be easy to find if you use the search engine.