Chapter 22: Gifts and Hope

It was a relief for everybody when Odin left. Loki had told them very little of the talk he had alone with Odin, and then, Tony changed the subject.

"Hey, who is staying over for Christmas? Pepper will come and I was planning on throwing a big party, but not too big, just the Avengers and family."

"Well, I have nowhere else to go," said Steve.

"Me neither," said Wanda.

"I usually spend Christmas over at Clint's," said Natasha.

"I was planning on inviting him and his family," responded Tony. "You know, family Christmas."

"What's Christmas, daddy," asked Alex.

"It is a midgardian holiday in which they honor the birth of the Christian god's son," answered Loki.

"Yes, that's kind of the biblical definition," said Tony.

"They have other gods," asked Alex.

"Yes, people who venerate a god, or multiple gods are following a religion. Norse is one religion, but midgardian didn't really believe in us for a time. Now that Thor made himself known again, they do believe in us, but it's different," explained Loki.

"So there are many gods," asked Alex.

"Yes, many gods and many different religions."

"So we don't Christmas?"

"Not us."

"Hey, Christmas is about love for everyone," said Tony. "I don't care if you are not from the same religion, you are totally allowed to celebrate Christmas with us. And nowadays, Christmas is mostly to celebrate and have fun, and gifts! Gifts are very important. Gifts for everyone, especially children."

"Loki," said Steve, "you are free to enjoy Christmas with us. It is a midgardian tradition and we won't be very religious about it."

"No representation of Jesus, or Mary, Joseph, the beef and the donkey. Not even those kings. Melchior, Gaston and the slytherin guy, what's his name?"

"They are Gaspard, Melchior and Baltazar. The slytherin guy in Harry Potter is Salazar," said Bruce. "Loki, what are the holidays you celebrate in Asgard?"

"Well, we have Midsommar, to celebrate the beginning of the summer. It's a great festivity. And we have the same at the beginning of winter, to celebrate the sun, the end of the seasons. We honor the Norms. We have the time of grief, once a decade, in which we remember those who had left and the time of life, also once a decade, in which we celebrate life and love. There are a lot of weddings around that time. Of course, there is a feast after each won battles to honor those who fought, those who won and those who perished. And that's about it," said Loki.

"Yeah, I remember you said you don't celebrate birthdays," said Tony.

"When you live as long as we do, you don't want to celebrate what happens too frequently," said Loki.

"To go back to Christmas, Loki, you are invited," announced Tony. "It was never a question, since you live here."

"And when is your party?"

"24th of December, of course," exclaimed Tony. "Christmas Eve! But it will be intimate, just the Avengers and close friends, like a big happy family. Nat, tell Clint about it. I even have bedrooms for everyone."

oOo

Later in the day, Loki had researched Christmas — by asking questions to Friday and others — and was a bit worried, so the next time he saw Steve, he spoke to him alone.

"Mister Rogers, I would like to ask questions about the upcoming celebration."

"Sure, go ahead."

"Well, there are gifts exchanged at Christmas and I was wondering how I was supposed to offer gifts since I don't have money, nor permission to get out to buy gifts."

"Loki, you are not expected to buy gifts for everyone. We are going to be a big group and no one is going to give gifts to everyone. Don't worry about it. I know Tony had said he doesn't want gifts at all. And since he has all the money in the world, I believe him. Christmas is not about throwing gifts at everybody, just the people important in your life."

"Then I should get something for Alex and Storm. At least them."

"Yes, you can use your gold stars on special gifts for them. And I can help you choose the gifts."

"I also heard about Santa Claus, but I don't think I understood the concept quite well. The only way he could achieve what they saying he does would be using a time stone."

"Ah, I may not know what a time stone is, but yes, Santa delivers gifts to every house. But let me tell you a secret: he is not real. It's a story adults and parents tell the kids. If the kids behave all year long, then Santa Claus will come and bring them gifts while they are sleeping."

"How convenient."

"Yes. So basically, the parents buy some gifts, left them under the Christmas tree and in the morning, the children are surprised and happy."

"So I should save gold stars for a gift from me and from Santa," deduced Loki.

"Save some stars from the gifts you will give them and I will take care of the ones from Santa."

"I cannot ask you that."

"You are not asking, I'm offering," said Steve.

"But I cannot give anything in return."

"You don't. That's the spirit of Christmas. You do the best you can with what you have to make people around you happy."

"It doesn't seem fair. I fear people will give Alex and Storm gifts and I won't be able to do anything but thank them. And I will have to use all my stars to give them gifts."

"Gifts don't all have to be bought," said Steve. "You can make things. I don't know what, but you can maybe find an idea. How about you come back to me with ideas of gifts and we will discuss that? It can be really anything. And you don't have to get gifts for everyone."

"Yes, mister Rogers, thank you."

oOo

Loki thought about what he could give to the Avengers. They have been so generous so far and had helped Alex and Storm. Mister Rogers and Mister Stark were those who deserved gifts. But Mister Barton had given him all the baby stuff. Miss Wanda, Mister Banner, Miss Natasha and Mister Vision had all been so nice to him and the kids. As for Mister Rhodes and Mister Wilson, they have also been nice with them. Basically, with the exception of Pepper and Happy, whoever they were, Loki owned them all.

And he had told the truth, he did not have money nor permission to go get the gifts. Living in the 21st century, he could order via the internet, but he did not have a credit card nor permission to use a computer. Therefore, he had to either use his gold stars or anything he could do for free. Or services...

During his first talk, the first night here, Mister Rogers had said he didn't want Loki for sexual services. But maybe others would? Maybe he could offer other services? He could give massage, or pedicure. There were so many aspects of his training that had not been used here yet, way too many.

Well, he still had more than a month to come up with a solution.

oOo

A few days later, Loki was still pondering how he would get gifts for the Avengers when, during nap time and Avengers' training, Tony walked through the front door.

"Hey, Loki, could you give me a hand?"

So Loki helped Tony moving a lot of boxes of every size inside.

"Great, thanks. Now I just need a way to move all those in my lab."

"I can help you," proposed Loki.

"Sure, why not. Hey Friday, I'm giving Loki permission to come to the lab. Come on."

Therefore, Loki and Tony moved the boxes and bags to the lab.

"I am guessing those are parts you need for a new suit or an experimentation."

"Well, you're wrong. I went on a shopping spree. I am now done with all the Christmas shopping. Those are gifts for everyone."

"You got gifts for everyone?"

"Well, I'm not Santa Claus, but yeah, everyone who will be at the party. Now, I would really like to have made Dum-E smart enough to actually gift wrap all of those. I am horrible at that."

"I could help with that."

"Are you not on paternity leave?"

"I am, but the truth is, I am bored and I could do extra hours."

"Hum... I doubt the good capsicle would approve. But, if you wrap those present and keep it a secret, I am ready to help you with your gifts. Rogers mentioned you were troubled with not being able to buy gifts yourself. You wrap those and I will buy something that you can then give to whoever you want. Also part of the deal, you keep the secret of what those gifts are, no spoilers! And I will remove a few of them before you start. Deal?"

"Deal!"

Loki was really happy, he could exchange a little bit of work for the opportunity to give a present. So he got to work. Before naptime was over, he had completed the task and the Avengers didn't even know he had been in the lab.

"Great work. So, what should I buy and for whom?"

"I don't know. I want to get something special for mister Rogers, giving all he had done for me."

"He could use an antique. I would totally see him with an ancient typewriter. How about you think and come up with a list of suggestions and I will help you with the shopping of those gifts?"

"Yes, thank you Mister Stark."

"You know, you could call me Tony."

oOo

At supper, Loki was sitting among the Avengers with Alex. It was mundane, normal. Alex was acting like a normal child in a normal family. A family with an android, a giant green monster, a witch, a Russian assassin, and other strange people, but Alex and Loki were, after all, aliens. So they fit right in. Storm was still being breastfed, but she would soon move on to solid food and Loki was looking forward to stop changing form. But, here he was in his blue skin like everything was normal.

"Oh, Tony, I spoke to Clint today and he said his family will come for your party. But he wants the transport and he won't stay forever," said Natasha.

"No problem, we could send a quinjet. And you could go get him," said Tony.

"Also, I will spend a part of my vacation at his house after Christmas."

"No problem," said Steve. "Anyone else has plans for the vacation?"

"Yeah, I'll go spend time with my family in New Orleans," said Sam. "I'm going to leave on Christmas morning."

"And I was planning on meeting a part of my family, too," said Rhodey.

"Okay, no problem," said Steve.

And no one else said anything because they all know the others didn't really have a family. Wanda had only Vision who had Tony as kind of father. Bruce had no one. Tony would make Pepper and Happy come for the holidays and Steve had no one left. And Loki had only his children. As for Scott, he was a great member, but was currently with his family at the other end of the country.

After supper, Alex went to play with Loki who was still on paternity leave and the other went their separate way, leaving Tony and Steve doing the dishes since it was their turn.

"I wanted to talk to you," said Tony, "about Loki."

"Sure, what about him?"

"Well, you said the other day he wanted to give us presently. I think we can trust him more than before. He is a good guy, maybe not entirely good, but definitely better than he was five years ago. As for the star system, it works well, but it is childish."

"How childish?"

"Well, it is a great system, for kids. You see, normal people use money. He is not a slave, but a prisoner with a job, and even prisoners have money. Money they cannot physically touch, but they can buy stuff."

"You think Loki should be able to buy using money," observed Steve.

"He is responsible and I'm not even talking about allowing him to use the internet for online shopping or even giving him the permission to go to the nearest mall. Just to handle money, to earn real money."

"Okay, I understand."

"The reward system works. He behaves, but there is something missing. Maybe we could combine both systems, like he could earn money, get pay for his job, and earn stars for privileges that cannot be bought with money, like going outside, or having a day off, or I don't know."

"Tony, you have a plan, out with it," said Steve.

"Normal Stark Industry contract. 40 hours per week, two days off per week, plus holidays. Minimal wages given his job as a handyman. There is even a close there that if an employee requires housing for his function, Stark Industry must pay for it. I'm already doing it for all the Avengers. Rent-free! It will be the same close for him, free housing and free food as long as he is an employee."

"It could work. He would have a job, regular hours, days off, a salary and won't have to feel bad about owning us," said Steve.

"I sold the Stark Tower to move things up here. By issuing a contract, we could give him work and pay him with all the other advantages of having a job. Also, his work will be close to where he lives. Look, the point is, he is a prisoner with a job, but he doesn't have money to buy gifts for Christmas. With a job, he could buy himself things. Right now, he doesn't feel like he is in control of his own life. He owns everything. Of course, we could monitor his use of his money, make sure he buys legal things. And with the contract, he would not have to pay for his room or food. And the contract also covers for his children. He is basically under house arrest, but even people under house arrest can go to work if cleared with their probation officer. And you have custody of him right now, so you can give him authorisation to leave for work."

"But right now, he is on paternity leave," said Steve.

"He can start working after. We trust him more and more since he is here, he can have more responsibilities. Also, in some cultures that used to practice slavery, slave-earned money. Not much, but a little," said Tony.

"Okay, so we should do like in old times?"

"Thor said he would work to abolish slavery once he's king. There is two ways this can be done. One, all slaves are suddenly free, but then, they need to take care of themselves and need to work, they need money. Or two, the slaves have to buy their own freedom, so they need money. My point is that Loki needs to earn money, therefore, he needs a real job. Gold stars are good, but they will get him nowhere."

"Okay, I'll think about it, but you have a point."

oOo

That evening, Loki put the children to sleep and went to read in the living room. There, Natasha was trying to wrap some gifts for Clint's family.

"Am I bothering you? I can go somewhere else," said Loki.

"No, you're not. But if you want to help me wrap those, don't hesitate," said Natasha.

That's when Loki realise how many gifts there were.

"I am on paternity leave..."

"I know, you don't have to help. I just hate to gift wrap when I buy too many gifts."

"Someone else asked me to wrap gifts already. In exchange for something."

"You are negotiating," said Natasha.

"Yes, I am. I want to give gifts to people too, but I don't have money, just the gold stars. I help you and you help me."

"I thought you were supposed to do whatever we order you to go," said Natasha.

"Except that at this moment, I am not supposed to work. But I have time and skill to wrap gifts."

"Okay, what do you want in exchange?"

"How about gift ideas? I want to give something to Clint's children and I could use my stars because there are a lot of toys and books. I also want to give something to both Clint and Laura."

Natasha watched him with suspicion.

"How do you know about Laura?"

Loki lowered his head. He had revealed a secret he should not even know in the first place, but he had never revealed it in the first place. After all, he didn't have any use in revealing it.

"Back when I was in his head, I saw his secret. His wife, Laura, his son, Cooper, and his daughter, Lila."

"So you want ideas for four gifts, the three children and one for both Clint and Laura?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Why do I want to give them something?"

"Yes, why?"

"Because... They gave me all those things for Storm. Even if it's second hand, it means so much to have that. I also want to make amends. I hurt them — Clint mostly, but the whole family by possessing him. And I just want to be good, be nice."

Natasha nodded.

"Okay, wrap these and I'll tell you what Clint and Laura would like that is in your budget, as well as the kids."

"I don't have a budget."

"Whatever."

So Loki wrapped half the gifts while Natasha was wrapping the other half. Those were all for the Bartons and Natasha had a lot.

"How many gold stars are you ready to put on their gifts," asked Natasha.

"Maybe ten, fifteen? Each."

"Cooper loves music. If there is a book of partitions, he would like it. For Lila, she loves horses. It comes with her age, I guess. She wants to learn the name of all the sorts of horses. As for Nathaniel, you could give him something that Alex would also love. Maybe even give them something similar so they could play together. Nathaniel is a bit older than Alex, but just by one year. As for Laura and Clint, they are simple people, they would appreciate a nice bottle of wine, or anything that can be used in the kitchen. I'm pretty sure you could ask Steve to exchange a few stars against a gift for Clint and Laura. And I'll talk to him about giving you a discount for the gifts."

"Thank you for the information, miss Romanoff. But you don't have to bother with the discount. I can pay full price."

"Can you? You earn an average of two stars per day, not counting Alex. If you want to give gifts to everyone, you will ruin yourself. Why do you want to give us gifts anyway?"

"To thank you. For the children, I understand, it comes with the holiday. But for everyone else, I want to do the right thing. I want to pay my debts and I have a lot of them."

"You don't have to repay everyone all at once," said Natasha.

"For what I understand, Christmas is a family holiday and important to the children."

"Loki, you don't have to give me a present. I understand money is tight for you, so please don't give yourself the trouble of giving me something," said Natasha.

"I was under the impression that it is the thought that count, more than the gift itself," said Loki. "Therefore, I should offer you something."

"Actions speak louder than words," said Natasha, "but I know you want to please us, I can see it by your actions already."

But Loki was someone who had a way with words. For him, words speak louder than actions most of the time.

oOo

The next day saw Loki, Alex and Storm in the playroom. Loki set a sleeping Storm in a corner of the room where he could keep an eye on her.

"What are we going to do, daddy?"

"Well, first, you need to promise me you will keep this a secret, okay?"

"Okay, daddy."

"That means you cannot tell anyone, not the Avengers, not even mister Rogers."

"But, if he asks, we should tell him the truth."

"If he asks you, you tell him he will have to wait in order to see. Okay?"

"Okay!"

Loki was actually teaching his son how to keep a secret. Even though it seemed mischievous, it wasn't. Loki went to get the paper, paint, and all coloring pencils and set them all on the table.

"Are we going to colour?"

"We are going to make Christmas cards."

"How?"

Loki took a sheet of white paper and fold it. With the scissors, he cut it in smaller rectangles.

"I want you to make a beautiful picture on each of those. A drawing that make you think of Christmas."

So Alex just took the pencils and started to draw. Loki cut more paper, enough to make cards for everyone. He then took some construction paper and started to fold it too. His plan was to glue Alex drawing on the front of the card and put a nice word inside, personalised for each person. Inside each card, he also planned to put the hand of both Alex and Storm. So the first step was to have Alex makes the drawing while Loki was using his words to say something nice to each Avenger, plus guests. A card was not much, but it was a good way to express his feelings toward each one of them. So Loki composed beautiful letters to say how grateful he was. It wasn't a gift they could use, but it was something they could read over and over again.

Then, when Storm woke up, Loki took her to the table and pour some green paint in a plate.

"Alex, which colour do you want?"

"Blue!"

"Of course," said Loki while taking the blue paint and pouring it in another plate. "Now, you are going to put your hand in the paint."

So Alex did with a big smile on his face.

"Now, press it on the paper here," said Loki. And Alex did. He loved to have his hand all blue.

"Can you do the same for the other cards?"

And Alex did. Loki took Storm's hand and put it gently in the green paint, then he pressed it gently on each card, beside Alex's handprint. So inside each card, there were two hands. Storm was looking at the whole process with big curious eyes.

"Okay, good. Now let's get clean up," declared Loki. And the trio made its way to the nearest bathroom. After, they went back to the cards.

"Are we going to give them soon?"

"No Alex, those are Christmas cards. We are going to give them at Christmas. And they are not finished yet."

"Oh, we need to glue my picture on top of them, right?"

"Yes, but not just now. The paint inside needs to dry. And you need to sign the cards too."

"Sign?"

"Yes, you write your name so they know it's from you."

Loki had already signed each letter, but Storm and Alex should do the same. So Loki took a pencil and a piece of paper.

"Here, this is how you wrote your name. A. L. E. X. Can you do it?"

So Alex took the pencil and start to write the letters. It was big and uneven and strange, but it was the writing of a child. After a few good attempts, Loki let him sign his name beside his handprint inside each card. When Alex had done a few cards, Loki took them and wrote Storm's name and the age of both of his children beside their names. After dinner, he would glue the pictures on each card once the paint is dried and the cards would be finished. It was not much, but it was sincere. Loki hoped the Avengers would like their cards even if it was something so small.