Chapter 16: Tic Tac and Other Sugary Thingy

Loki had a lot of works in the following days giving that he had been unable to work the previous days. Alex was there to help so the work went a bit faster, but there was so much to do with the delay of his punishment.

"According to the rules of the reward system," said Steve, "you get one star if you finish all the work of the day and another if you don't misbehave for the whole day. And you don't get stars while being punished. Since you are late in your work, you are only getting one for today and none for yesterday. However, Alex had been behaving so he earned a few stars while you were gone."

"How much do we have at the moment?"

Loki had a few stars left from the time he used some to go outside so maybe he could get something for Alex.

"Right now you have six stars and Alex has twelve. So eighteen in total," said Steve.

"You know, we should put an interest system in place," suggested Tony. "Like Loki decided to put aside a couple of stars and he got like 5% more each month. Like interest in a bank account, but with gold stars."

"What, the stars would just appear," asked Loki.

"Yeah, accounting," said Tony like it was an explanation. "Basically, if you don't use them, you get more with time."

"The point is you can use money to make money," said Steve. "More money. And by putting money aside, you can save it for later use."

"I fail to see the point," said Loki.

"Well, let's say you put two stars aside each week," explained Tony, "after nearly a year, you should have one hundred. However, with the interest, you will have more. If you have one hundred stars with five per cent interest, you will get five more just for that last month. It would actually be more than that because of the interest of the previous months and I'll save you the great mathematical equation of economy and everything. But the point is that you would have even more stars by not using them."

"So I should not use the stars if I want to have even more later," concluded Loki.

"It's more like saving a few stars from time to time," said Steve. "Like making sure you have a lot of stars for Christmas or Alex's birthday. Wait, when is Alex's birthday?"

"In Asgard, we don't celebrate the birthday of slaves," said Loki.

"But you are not a slave," said Tony.

"And we celebrate the birthdays of everyone else only once every ten years. Some people prefer to only celebrate their centuries instead of their decades. But we don't celebrate the years," explained Loki.

"Because you guys can live for thousand of years. Might be redundant to celebrate the same thing each year then," said Tony,

"But do you celebrate birthdays more often for kids," asked Steve.

"Yes, some do. Mostly during the first one or two decades of life," said Loki.

"So when was he born?"

"A bit before the second anniversary of my defeat in New York," answered Loki.

"So, April maybe?"

"Could be, yes. I remembered the guards saying it was the first day of a new month. Could be on the first of April," said Loki.

"No way, no! We already have one trickster, if the kid is born on April fools, he will become a trickster too," said Tony.

"Come on, Tony! A date of birth does not determinate the temperament of a person," said Steve. "And Loki has not done any tricks so far. So April first?"

Seeing Tony like that, Loki was eager to accept the birthday of Alex.

"Yes, April first it is."

Loki waited until no one was watching before smiling mischievously.

Honestly and unfortunately, he had no idea when Alex was born, so he could just estimate. And after Alex's birth, for each birthday, what was there to celebrate in their cell? Now Alex was a little over three years old, but his next birthday would be awesome. As for Christmas, was it really something a Norse god was celebrating? Well, if he had to live on Midgard for so long, why not? Might even be fun. And if there were gifts involved, it might be fun. But maybe it was not for them...

oOo

Natasha and Sam came back the next day with some guy. Steve and Tony decided to meet him in some conference room far from the living quarter, just the five of them.

"So, you're Scott Lang," said Steve while extending his right hand to be shaken.

But Scott just gripped Steve arms.

"My god, you're Captain America. Wow! Awesome. This is surreal, right? Am I dreaming?"

"No, you are not dreaming," said Tony. And Scott knew he was not dreaming.

"Stark. Hank Pim said you can't trust a Stark," said Scott.

"Maybe your mentor and my father had differences, but today's subject is you," said Tony. "So, what can you do?"

"I can turn the size of an ant," said Scott super naturally which cause Tony to laugh. "I'm being serious!"

"He can also pack quite a punch," said Sam.

"He can infiltrate places even I can't," said Natasha.

"Yes, okay, he might be useful," said Tony.

"We would like to offer you a place in the Avengers. As a probation, first," offered Steve.

"Yeah, probation. I've never been too good," said Scott.

"What, you have a criminal record or something," asked Tony.

"Tony, I send you his file two weeks ago, have you read it," asked Steve.

"I read the name. What kind of name is Ant-Man?"

"Might I remind you that you tried to recruit a guy nicknamed Spider-Man," said Natasha.

"Cooler powers," said Tony.

"So, mister Lang, do you want to join us," said Steve.

"You are serious? Of course! Who wouldn't?"

"Spider-Man, apparently," said Tony.

"Well, as part of the job, you will be here for training. So we are going to offer you a room at the compound. We will also offer you free commute to your place in San Franscico whenever you want, by Quinjet," explained Steve.

"We should also tell him about the other guy living with us," said Sam. "The S word."

"Or L word," said Tony.

oOo

Loki was currently repairing a door. He was glad they trusted him enough with the tools, even though those were not dangerous tools, but, as Loki knew too well, even a hammer can cause great damage. Alex was handing him the tools he learns from the visual dictionary and Loki was glad he got to teach his son something useful. Sam and the new guy arrived.

"Loki, hey, Loki, do you have like five minutes," said Sam.

Loki put the tools back in the box and turned toward Sam.

"Who's this person, " asked Alex. At least, the kid knew better than to point at people.

"This is Scott Lang, he's going to be with us and live here," explained Sam.

"Hi! It's a ... honor? To meet you. God Loki," said Scott.

"You don't have to call me God, just Loki would suffice."

"You really are Loki, or you just look like him," asked Scott.

"It is me," said Loki. "And this is Alex, my son."

"As we told you," said Sam to Scott, "Loki is here as our handy man. It's his punishment for what happens. And he's a bit under house arrest."

"It's not as bad as it sound, really," said Loki.

"Well, I know house arrest," said Scott, "and jail. But I'm not that much of a bad guy either. You don't have to worry about me."

"Scott specialises in infiltration," said Sam. "And he loves ants."

"You love ants! I have a book with drawing of insects," said Alex. "I could show it to you."

"I would love that, " answered Scott.

"You'll be seeing Loki around, and Alex," said Sam.

oOo

It was during nap time that Loki saw Scott again with Steve.

"Loki, I got another task for you," said Steve.

"Yes, mister Rogers."

"Scott, as we explained this morning, Loki here is a slave. He is kind of under house arrest, and, as you know, he had a kid. Loki, Scott, if you both agree, I would like you both to talk about your situations. It would be good for you, Loki, giving that Scott had made peace with his track record."

"I'm still think I was right. I give the money back to the people. If you think about it, I'm like Robin Hood, because I stole from people who already stole money. So I steal back, that's what I did," explained Scott.

"And what do you want us to talk about," asked Loki.

"Anything you like. You said this kind of house arrest doesn't make sense, but Scott had been under house arrest. You said you don't know how to explain to Alex what you did, but Scott has been through it."

"Actually, my ex told my daughter, but, yeah, I had to talk to her. And she understood. Not everything, but a lot, most of it, in fact."

"Was your daughter punished for what you have done," asked Loki.

"You see, it doesn't work like that on Earth, Loki. And Alex is not a prisoner like you are. Scott, while you were under house arrest, was your daughter with you?"

"Yes, she was. We share custody, my ex and I. So I get to see her from time to time. Often enough. More than when I was still in prison. And house arrest is not jail! I mean, I didn't like not leaving my house, but it wasn't so bad. Better than jail."

"Loki, Scott here can answer your questions about our Earth view on prisoners. Would you like to talk to him?"

"If you want me to and if mister Lang wants to answer my questions, I will," answered Loki.

"Just call me Scott. Not mister Lang, or worst, just Lang."

"No. Loki, that's not what I meant. Scott agrees to talk to you."

"Apparently, I'm the new consultant/expert on prison," said Scott.

"And an Avenger on probation. But, Loki, it's up to you if you want to talk to him," said Steve.

Loki thought for a second.

"Was it hard to explain to your daughter?"

"Well, my ex did most of the job. But Cassie was three at the time. How do you tell a three year old her father had done something bad? She had a lot of questions. But I took my time and choose the right words. I won't say it was easy. It hurt to not see her for sometime. House arrest is better for that."

"And how did you come to term with being a prisoner?"

"Well, I still haven't admit my guilt. I think I did what was right. The method was not right. But I did my time and even got early on good behaviour!"

That caught Loki's attention.

"Yes, Loki," said Steve. "If a prisoner behaves well, something he can get early release."

"It's not automatic, but it happens," said Scott. "They said I was a model prisoner."

"I could never get early release, my sentence is for life," said Loki.

"Wait, how long do you live," asked Scott.

"Five thousand years, more or less."

"Wow! That's a lot," said Scott with a dramatic face. "But, can you get early release or something?"

"My crimes are too great. I'm lucky to even have what I have now. Slavery is bad, but mister Rogers is a good… He's good."

"Even under house arrest, it's still jail. No matter how good the prison, it is a prison, but bearable," said Scott.

"We are working with Thor on a way to do something for Loki if he shows he can change," said Steve.

"Telling Cassie I did something bad was not easy and it broke my heart, but I took the time to explain her."

"What was it like in prison? Did you have rules to follow? Work," asked Steve.

"Yes! Actually, in prison, we are paid for our work. It's not much, but we can buy stuff at the commissary. And phone cards so we can call our family. And yes, there are a lot of rules! Like keeping your space clean. Okay, that's a reasonable one. No fight, no contraband."

"Do you have to kneel? What do they call you? What do you call the others," asked Steve in quick succession.

"No, why would we kneel? No, no. Even if we are criminals, we still have a bit of dignity. They call me Scott, the other inmates, but the guards would call me Lang. I would call people by their name. Last name for guards and some other inmates, but mostly first names with the ones I was close with, those you called me Scott."

"Were you ever beaten while in prison," asked politely Loki. "Or otherwise punished?"

"The prison is the punishment," answered Scott. "As for beaten, only once, but it was a weird goodbye ritual when I left."

"What happens," asked Steve.

"Another inmate and I had a friendly fight. Like I said, strange ritual. But if a prisoner does a bad thing, there is always the shu. Solitary isolation. Not fun, but not hell."

"And, pray tell, did you have privileges," asked Loki.

"Yes. I had to earn them, but yes."

"I beg you pardon, I don't understand why prisoners would have the right to earn money," said Loki.

"Well, we have to buy some stuff. If you want something, like a kind of luxury, you have to buy it yourself. Food is provided by the prison, same as housing, clothing, water, plumbing, prison yard. But things that are not the basics, the prisoner has to earn the money for it. And of course, you can only buy stuff at the commissary, so the prison knows. Like, if you want some candy, that's not really food, so you have to buy it yourself with the money you earned. Made the prisoner responsible and he would value the need to work. Which reminds me I have mints here."

Scott took two small metal boxes from his back pocket.

"Hum, not that one, the other," said Scott as he put one box back in his pocket. "I keep precious things in that one. But this one has mints."

Scott opened the box to reveal the mints.

"Want some," offered Scott to Loki and Steve.

Steve accepted the offer and took a mint.

"Thank you," said Steve.

"What is it exactly?"

"Candy. That tastes like mints. You know candy, right," asked Scott.

Loki took one with caution.

"You're supposed to eat it. Well, suck it," said Scott then he put a mint in his mouth.

Loki try it too. It was unlike anything he ever taste before. It was sweet, but always with a fresh taste.

"Do you have candy on Asgard," asked Steve.

"Not those types of candy, no. It's good. Thank you very much Mister Lang."

"You can call me Scott. Or Ant-man, but Scott is fine."

"We should include candy on your list of reward," suggested Steve.

"I'm sure Alex would love them."

"But you don't want a kid on a sugar high, believe me, I tried," said Scott.

oOo

The next morning, candies had been added to the list of rewards with prices from one star to five stars depending of the size of the package. Loki decided it would be best to start with a small package and also another book for Alex.

"You know, you can also get something for yourself," said Steve.

"No. Alex earned stars this week. I still have work to catch up because of my punishment," answered Loki. "And I don't think I deserve it."

"You do deserve it. You earn some of those stars," said Steve.

"We can eat the candies together," said Alex.

"Exactly. And we will get to read the book together," said Loki.

"Okay. Well, enjoy your evening," said Steve.

"Come, Alex. Let's sit. Let's see those candies."

"They look like dinosaurs," exclaimed Alex.

"Yes, they do. Which colour do you want?"

"Blue! But there's no blue... Green!"

"A green for you, and I'll take a yellow."

"It's good! So good! And yummy!"

"Yes, it is. Now, should we read the book while we eat some of the candies?"

"Yeah!"

oOo

Later that day, at dinner, Alex saw Scott and ran to him.

"Scott! Daddy, can I ask him if he wants to see my book with insects?"

"Well, we are about to eat. Why don't you ask him if he wants to see it after dinner? If he has time. Maybe he doesn't have the time. So he might say no."

Loki didn't want Alex to feel bad if Scott said no. And he also wanted to give Scott the opportunity to refuse.

"Scott, do you want to see my book that has drawings of insects? After dinner, maybe?"

"Yes, I would love to," answered Scott, which put a smile on Alex's face.

Loki was glad Alex was less shy with the Avengers. The kid was adapting to this new reality. Loki just hoped in time, Alex could totally forget about the training and never had to get there. He also hoped he could adapt like that. Oh, he was adaptable, but training had made a huge impact on him.