Chapter 13 - Puppet Therapy

"So, can I trust you to go to breakfast, or are you still a flight risk? Tell me, how likely is it that you'll say you're going to the restroom, then run off to South America?"

Bruce blinked sleepily at Leonard, and immediately felt bad when he remembered the night before. He knew he'd panicked. "I'm sorry, Leonard. When I told you that you could sleep in the bed and I'd take the couch, I wasn't planning to do that, I swear. But then I couldn't sleep, and I just laid there thinking—"

"Ruminating," corrected Leonard.

Bruce nodded in agreement. "I didn't plan it. And I still had my bag packed from the trip to Latveria sitting by the door, so it was easy to just pick it up and get in the elevator—"

"It was easy to just walk away from your entire life here." The "to walk away from me" was left unspoken, but Bruce knew it was there.

"I've done it so many times before that I guess it's become a bad habit. Like I said, I'm sorry. It was inconsiderate, like Tony said." As soon as he'd said it, he knew how much of an understatement it was.

"The thing is, you don't have to sneak out. If you really need to leave for a while, you can tell us you're going, and you might even consider telling us where. If you need some space, we can give you that. No one's going to stop you."

"Tony would probably try."

"I'm sure if you explained to him why you needed space, he would give it to you. If he didn't respect your wishes, the rest of us would stop him."

"Loki wouldn't understand either."

"Maybe not, but he would understand a lot better if you talked with him about it and didn't just disappear in the middle of the night. There's no one you need to hide from anymore. Even General Ross knows not to mess with you now."

"I know. I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now get dressed, we're going to breakfast."

(ㆆ_ㆆ) ﾉ"( ･ั﹏･ั)

Leonard wasn't worried about Bruce disappearing on him. He had a talent for knowing when people were lying and when they were telling the truth, which was what made it possible for him to work with someone like Loki, who at times spoke entirely in the fictions he had created for himself without even knowing he was doing it. Bruce hadn't been lying when he promised he wouldn't run off the moment they left the tower, but as they walked down the street, his eyes darted around as if he expected someone to jump out and attack them. He was probably trying to stay aware of his surroundings so that nothing could take him by surprise, but at this rate he would work himself up to a panic attack all on his own. Leonard squeezed his hand. "I know you don't want me to tell you to breathe anymore, but—"

"No, it's alright. I don't know why I said that last night."

"Because you were getting frustrated with yourself for having a panic attack, which is the worst thing you can do when you have one. Instead, you just need to breathe in and out slowly and think of anything but the fact that you're having a panic attack. Try to go to your happy place instead."

"Go to my 'happy place?' That might be more irritating advice than reminding me to breathe."

"If it helps, don't call it your 'happy place.' Just think of something that makes you calm."

Silence fell between them for a few moments, and Bruce's breathing became more even. "Okay, I think that worked."

"Oh, yeah? Where were you?"

"Five PM."

Leonard gave Bruce a knowing smile. Five PM—the time every day when they pretended their lives were normal. Leonard would have wrapped up his own work by then, and he would return to the room they shared. More often than not, Bruce would already be waiting for him there, and even though he'd have his own work still spread out on the table in front of him, he'd leave it for an hour and they'd sit and talk about their days—well, as much as Leonard could talk about his day, since his work with his patients was confidential, and as much as Bruce could talk about his, given that Leonard had only the most basic understanding of his research. Sometimes, they would give up on conversation and make out like a couple of teenagers. "What do you know, your happy place is the same as mine."

"I thought we weren't calling it that." Bruce had smiled back at him, though.

Leonard made sure to turn down a different street before they got to the block where the sidewalk café where Loki had been killed stood, now rebuilt. With the help of the Maria Stark foundation, the entire area that had been affected by the Wrecking Crew's attack had been rebuilt, but it was still full of unpleasant memories for them both. While it might be good for them to face those memories at some point, this wasn't the morning for that.

Leonard pulled his phone out to search Stark Maps for the nearest pharmacy, hoping there would be a place nearby where they could eat. Anything but another sidewalk café would do. "Huh, there's actually a Latverian bakery a block away—"

Bruce arched an eyebrow at him.

Scratch that. No sidewalk cafés, and no Latverian food.

(^-^(．.*)🕔❤

"Alright, Loki, go choose the puppets you want to use." Leonard sat behind his desk and watched as Loki practically skipped over to the box on the other side of the room where the puppets were kept. Technically, Loki should have been a little old for "play therapy," but sometimes he still had difficulty expressing himself, and found it easier to explore his feelings when he could put a little distance between himself and whatever troubled him. He also had a flair for the dramatic and seemed to genuinely enjoy putting on a show.

Loki returned with an armful of puppets, including a bunny, a spider, a goat, an alligator, and a monkey with green fur. "Do you want to introduce me to your friends?" asked Leonard.

Loki held up the bunny puppet. "This is Brutis the Bunny." He proceeded to do the same for the rest. "This is Natia the Spider, and this is Thorin the goat. I believe you know Loki the Alligator, and this—" Loki held up the green monkey, "is Bob."

Leonard had a feeling that he knew where this was going. "Okay, Loki. Do you want to use the puppets to tell me a story?"

Loki disappeared behind Leonard's desk, and a moment later, Natia the Spider and Alligator Loki peered over the top of his desk. Natia poked Alligator Loki in the chest with one of her legs. "Everything is your fault!" she shrieked. "You're lazy and no good, and you almost got us all murdered by an insane dictator!"

Brutis the Bunny popped up on the other side of Natia. He wasn't sure how Loki kept three puppets up at once, but he'd seen it enough times already that it didn't bother him. "Natia, be nice to your sister," said Brutis in a fairly spot-on imitation of Bruce. (It wasn't his voice, however. Loki might be capable of using magic to mimic people exactly, but that wasn't what he was doing.)

A fourth puppet popped up over the edge of the desk. "No-o-o," Thorin the Goat bleated. "Mother was right, she's nothing but a brat and doesn't deserve our sympathy. You've been too-oo-oo lenient with her, and now you're letting her manipulate you."

"You're right," said Brutis. "I'm going to ground her, even though she's done nothing wrong!"

Leonard knew that Bruce hadn't grounded Loki for no reason, but he tried not to interrupt whenever Loki told a story with the puppets. They might not be accurate retellings, but that wasn't the point. Loki used the puppets to relate events as they had feltto him, not the events as they happened.

"Yes, let's all gang up on Loki!" cried Natia gleefully.

"Yes, let's all gang up on Loki!" cried Thorin.

"GRRRRR," said Brutis. Brutis popped back down below the desk, and up popped Bob. Bob glomped onto Natia, and a second later, Natia had been thrown across the room. "Bob strongest there is," declared Bob. Alligator Loki backed away and disappeared behind the table as Bob and Thorin the goat began to wrestle with one another.

Leonard looked over the notes he had taken as their fight continued. Loki had felt persecuted by the others at a time when he'd already been experiencing a good deal of emotional turmoil. He didn't feel like the grounding had been fair. He had also been frightened when Bruce had transformed into the Hulk and had hurt Natasha. When he looked up, the puppets were still going at one another. "Loki, think we could wrap this up now?"

The puppets stopped fighting with one another, and Loki stood, one of them still on each hand. He sat in the chair on his side of the desk.

"That was good," said Leonard. "I'd just like you to clarify something for me. Do you really think Brutis the Bunny grounded Loki the Alligator for no reason?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "I feel like there's a right and a wrong answer to this."

"There isn't. After all, we're just talking about the puppets. This is just a story."

"Fine. Loki the Alligator hadn't done anything wrong. All she did was try to stop her mother from marrying someone that Antonius the Turtle had referred to as an 'evil dictator,' while the others cowered before said evil dictator. Alligator Loki couldn't do that. I've had enough—I mean, Alligator Loki has had enough of cowering before dictators."

"But Alligator Loki changed her mind, didn't she? She realized that she couldn't control her mother, and that maybe the man she was marrying wasn't as bad as Antonius the Turtle had told her."

Loki arched an eyebrow at him. "You remember that we're actually talking about Victor Von Doom?"

"You told Bruce that he might not be so bad."

"So, you've already heard this entire story from your boyfriend."

"I've heard it from his perspective." And this was where they were going to start getting into conflict-of-interest issues. Everyone now knew that he and Bruce were dating, and it was going to make it awkward for them to talk about anything concerning Bruce. In Loki's case, it was as if his Leonard were dating one of his parents. "Loki, I promise that when we're in a session, everything you say is confidential. I would never share anything you told me with Bruce without your permission, unless it was something I felt necessary to tell him as your guardian." Loki already knew what that meant. They had talked about how there were certain things that he couldn't keep confidential for the sake of Loki's wellbeing; for example, if Loki ever told him he was having thoughts about hurting himself, he would have to inform the others. "I'll also try to leave any personal biases I have at the door."

Loki nodded, but he still seemed a little uncertain.

"That being said, I admit that it's impossible for me to be completely impartial. You do know that Bruce loves you, even if he has trouble expressing it?"

"Bruce tried to leave last night."

"He thought he needed to leave in order to protect the rest of us. What Hulk did to Natasha scared him."

"It scared me too," Loki admitted. "I'm not scared of Bruce, though."

"It might help Bruce if you told him that. And if you feel that it wasn't fair for him to ground you, you should talk to him about that too. Do you want to practice with the puppets?"

Loki picked up Brutis the Bunny from the pile next to him and tossed it to Leonard. He put it on, and Loki put on the alligator puppet.

"Brutis, may I speak to you about something?" asked Alligator Loki.

"Of course—you can always talk to me about anything, Alligator Loki!"

"That is not what Brutis sounds like," Loki informed Leonard.

"Okay, fine—why don't you be Brutis, and I'll be Alligator Loki?"

They traded puppets.

"Brutis, may I speak to you about something?" asked Alligator Loki.

"What is it now, Loki? I'm working on boring science things and I'm not good enough at multitasking to keep up a conversation without setting my lab on fire, so make it quick."

Leonard tried not to smile. He hated to admit it, but that probably did sound more like Bruce than his version did. "Brutis, I don't think it was fair that you grounded me."

"GRRR," said Brutis, and popped down below the desk. Bob popped up in his place. "ALLIGATOR BAD!"

"Okay, time out," said Leonard. "Loki, you aren't actually afraid that Bruce would turn into Hulk if you brought this up with him, are you?"

"He has been a little growly lately," said Loki, "but no, I don't suppose he would."

"All right, let's try again." Leonard held up the alligator puppet. "I don't think it was fair that you grounded me," the puppet repeated.

"Too bad," said Brutis, "because once I've made a decision, I stick to it no matter what, even when I know I'm wrong."

Leonard wondered for a moment if Loki was right. Bruce could be stubborn at times, and he did have a tendency towards black and white thinking. Because Hulk had hurt Natasha, it meant that he had lost all of the control he had worked so hard to achieve. If there was the slightest chance that he might hurt someone again, that meant he had to leave. But then again, Loki might just be confusing Bruce with Odin. Bruce wasn't an unreasonable person when it came to other people, and Leonard doubted he agreed with Loki that he didn't deserve to be punished but was sticking to his guns anyway. "Loki, are you sure that's Brutis?"

Loki narrowed his eyes at the bunny suspiciously. "Perhaps not. Can we try again?"

Leonard held up his puppet. "Brutis, I don't think it was fair that you grounded me."

Loki took a moment to think this time. "Why don't you think it was fair? I'm actually quite fair-minded and analytical, so please explain your position."

Leonard would have to do some quick guesswork here in order to play Loki's part right, though if he got it wrong, Loki was sure to call him out on it. "I didn't mean to be a bad alligator," said Alligator Loki, hanging his head. "I was just doing what I thought was right. I was trying to be a good alligator, but I got it wrong."

Leonard knew he must have gotten close to the truth there, because Loki didn't correct him. "I know," Brutis said. "I didn't ground you because you were a bad alligator, Loki."

Alligator Loki tilted his head. "Then why did you ground me?"

Loki sighed defeatedly. "Because you acted without thinking of the consequences it would have for everyone else, and with disregard for the danger you were putting yourselfin. I didn't ground you just because I want you to suffer, I grounded you because even though I have trouble expressing it, I love you, and I want you to consider your actions more carefully in the future." Loki scowled at the bunny puppet as it said this, and when it was done, he tossed it aside. "Damn. If that's how that conversation is going to go, there's no point to having it."

"If your goal was to get Bruce to un-ground you, you're probably right," agreed Leonard.

U ´꓃ ` U

_._._\（✧o✧）

"Thanks for seeing me on such short notice."

"Not a problem, Doctor Banner. I can always make space in my schedule for clients who are experiencing mental health emergencies."

"It was more of an emergency last night, to be honest. I'm feeling a little better about things now."

"Are you certain? You seemed quite distressed when you called me earlier."

"Did I?"

Doctor Sofen scribbled something on the notepad in front of her. "Bruce, have you been taking the medication I prescribed for you?"

Bruce tried to keep himself from fidgeting. There was no reason for him to be nervous around someone who was trying to help him, even if he felt a little like he was back in school and had forgotten to study for an exam. "I only got the prescription filled earlier today," he admitted. "The truth is, Leonard insisted, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. I should have mentioned this before, but I doubt any kind of medication can work for me. My body tends to metabolize pharmaceuticals at a rate that means I get little or no benefit from them."

Sofen frowned at him. "I see. I wish you had shared your concern with me before." She tapped her chin with her pen, then pointed the pen at him. "How would you feel about taking an experimental drug? It just so happens that there's a new SSRI under development that's aimed specifically at individuals with enhanced metabolisms. I'm certain we could get you into the clinical trial."

A pharmaceutical company was developing psychiatric drugs specifically targeted at enhanced individuals? Bruce wondered why he hadn't heard about it, but then again, between his own research and missions with the Avengers, he didn't have that much time to keep up with all the developments coming out of Big Pharma. He remembered the look Leonard had given him when he had admitted to experimenting on himself, but then, Leonard had wanted him to put his trust in Doctor Sofen's expertise. Participating in a legitimate drug trial was different from trying horse tranquilizers or cocaine to see what affect they had on him. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try it, if I do qualify for the trial."

"I'm certain you will. In the meantime, I want you to start the medication I already prescribed. We'll just up the dosage to the maximum that's generally considered safe for a normal human being, since we know you're anything but that." Again, Sofen scribbled something in her notes. Then she looked up at him, smiling in a way that didn't seem entirely authentic, but was likely meant to put him at ease. "Now, can you tell me if there was anything that triggered your recent distress?"

"I, uh—" Before Bruce could put his thoughts in order, a siren-like sound interrupted him. He bolted upwards, sure that it was the new emergency alert system the city had installed after the Chitauri invasion.

Doctor Sofen took her phone out of her pocket. "Sorry, that's just an alarm I set to let me know how much time we had left. I thought I had it on vibrate. We have plenty of time left, though, so please take your time."

Bruce settled back into his chair and took a deep breath to steady himself. "I thought I was in control of the other guy—"

"Your alter," Sofen interrupted. Another siren-like sound issued from her phone, and Bruce jumped again, even though he should have known what it was now. "I'm sorry, I thought I turned that off. It's a new phone, so I'm still trying to figure out how it works."

"Anyway," Bruce began again, "I was on a mission, and I transformed, but not when I wanted to. In fact, there weren't any enemies around, I was just with my teammates." He had to be careful about how much he told her. Loki's presence on Earth was still a secret. She had been seen going in and out of the tower, but for anyone who might be curious, the answer was either that she was an SI intern, or the relative of an SI employee. "There was some infighting. I got agitated, then I transformed. The other guy picked a fight with Thor and threw Natasha about fifty yards through the air. When she landed, she broke her arm."

"And how did that make you feel?" Bruce noticed that Doctor Sofen had started fidgeting with her pen, and her breathing had become shallower. Of course, he was making her nervous. He'd just admitted that he might not have control over his transformation into a violent monster who had injured his own teammate.

"Horrible doesn't even begin to describe it. What the other guy did was unforgivable." Bruce felt his own heart beat faster. "I'm sorry. Maybe I should just go."

"No, don't go." Doctor Sofen looked up and smiled at him weakly. "You're not agitated right now, are you Bruce?" Her phone alarm started again, and this time it was Sofen who jumped. "Sorry," she said, turning it off again.

"No, you're right. I'm fine." At least, he should have been fine. There was nothing in this room that should have been agitating him, but he was still on edge.

"What do you think has brought on this sudden lack of control?" asked Sofen.

"I don't know. Maybe I never had as much control as I thought, or maybe I've just gotten too relaxed. Then again, maybe it's stress."

"Being an Avenger must be extremely stressful. Have you thought about taking a leave of absence?"

"I couldn't do that."

"Why not?"

"The others need me—well, not me. It's the other guy they need."

"But is it even safe to let him out anymore? Bruce, have you considered—" Doctor Sofen bit her lip. She seemed reluctant to finish her statement, but Bruce waited patiently. "Have you considered that one of these days, you won't be able to go back?"

"You think there's a chance that the other guy will take over?"

"It's entirely possible for an alter to become the host personality. In some cases, the original personality might still come out at times, but in other cases—I'm sorry, Bruce. The important thing to remember is that the personality you call 'the other guy' is also you. I know you don't want to hear that, especially after he hurt your colleague."

"Natasha and the other Avengers are more than colleagues. At this point, we're like family."

Doctor Sofen tapped her notepad with her pen. "You know, you haven't told me much about your family—not your work family, but your real family. Your mother and your father."

His response was automatic. "There's not much to say about them. They're both dead."

"Bruce," said Doctor Sofen, turning his name into a quiet reprimand. "Ninety percent of patients with DID were victims of some form of childhood abuse or severe neglect."

"We've been talking about this as if I have typical DID, but the other guy isn't a personality I developed in order to cope with childhood trauma," Bruce pointed out. "He's the result of exposing myself to gamma radiation as an adult."

"How sure are you that 'the other guy' didn't exist before the experiment in some form?"

"Reasonably certain—"

"It is possible to have DID and not know it. Switches aren't always dramatic, obvious, or detectable. At this point, there's no way for us to know for sure. And if you do have a history of childhood abuse—Bruce, you still haven't told me anything about either of your parents, and I'm starting to get the feeling that there's a reason you're avoiding the topic."

Leonard had wanted him to tell Doctor Sofen about the domestic abuse he had witnessed when he was young. As he had pointed out, it was something he ought to have told her from the beginning, but somehow, Bruce hadn't thought it relevant up until now. Initially he'd only agreed to see Doctor Sofen because he'd been a feeling a little stressed, and because as Leonard put it, "it never hurts to have a disinterested third party to talk to." "The abuse was never directed at me," Bruce told her.

Sofen nodded in understanding. "Thank you for sharing that with me, I know it was difficult for you. Witnessing intimate partner abuse can be as damaging for children as experiencing the abuse themselves. But have you considered that you might have experienced firsthand abuse as well and repressed those memories? We can't know, unless—" Sofen leaned in closer to him, her manner almost conspiratorial. "Would you be open to trying hypnotherapy? I know it sounds like pseudoscience, but it's really just a way of getting you into a highly relaxed state that makes it easier for you to access repressed memories."

"I don't know. I might talk it over with Leonard first." Bruce doubted that there was anything he had repressed, but if there was, was it always a good idea to try to recover those kinds of memories?

Doctor Sofen frowned at him. "Do you not trust my judgment? I'm your psychiatrist, not Leonard."

"I'm sorry, I just need to think about it. That's all I meant. It isn't that I don't trust you."

"Think about it, then. I also want you to think seriously about taking a hiatus from the Avengers. You seem to be in a delicate, and possibly quite dangerous state of mind. I worry about what might happen the next time you become triggered. And please, whatever else you decide to do, take the medication I prescribed for you."

(｀∇´)ノ|||

_._._._._.웃

Wanda shoved the food around her dinner plate. As far as Pepper knew, she hadn't eaten anything since the night before, but she didn't seem to have any plans to eat now either. Pietro was eating enough for them both. Loki snuck a large piece of his broccoli onto Thor's plate, but his brother didn't seem to notice; texting at the table seemed to take up every bit of his concentration, as he searched and pecked one letter at a time. For once, his food remained as untouched as Wanda's.

Pepper cleared her throat. "Thor, would you mind putting your phone away? We all agreed we wouldn't use our phones at the table."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tony's lips quirk upward. "And it gets Pep agitated when she sees anyone else with their phone, because then she starts thinking about all the texts and emails she could be replying to."

Pepper resisted the urge to stab her fiancé in the hand with her fork. Instead, she leaned across the table and spooned more broccoli onto Loki's plate. "I don't have a problem."

"Spoken like a true addict," said Tony.

Without acknowledging that Pepper had spoken to him, Thor scowled at his phone, then stood up and left the table.

Pepper watched him leave. "Okay, what was that about?"

"He's been texting Jane." Loki dumped the broccoli she'd just served him onto his brother's plate, this time without bothering to be sneaky about it. Then he grinned. "She's breaking up with him."

"Again?" Pepper scooped up the broccoli from Thor's plate and transferred it back to Loki's.

The Cheshire grin Loki wore grew even wider. "She saw that photo of Thor and Natasha dancing together."

Pepper groaned out loud. If they had only remembered to tell her that someone had gotten a picture of them, she could have tried to keep it out of the press. The problem wasn't that it was of Thor and Natasha together. The problem was that they had been dancing at Victor Von Doom's wedding. She'd been trying to decide how to spin this. Either she could say that they'd been on an undercover mission in Latveria, or she could point out that Thor's mother had been the bride. She didn't know which would be worse; to have the Avengers accused of going rogue and breaking international agreements, or for the public to know that Victor Von Doom's new wife was Thor's mother. There really wasn't a good option, and now she was seriously thinking about having Tony do a press conference—in other words, blow everything up, then sit back and watch as both the Avengers and SI went up in flames.

She looked down at the ring she'd started wearing just around the residential floors of the tower; the problem was that she could only use that fire extinguisher once.

Tony noticed. "This can't be that bad. Can't we just claim the photo's a deep fake?"

Pepper shook her head. "That wasn't the only photo of them at the wedding. There are also photos of Bruce talking to a girl that's rumored to be Von Doom's protege. Plus, they've got drone photos of the SI jet sitting in the airport in Sokovia, with Clint standing outside it. They also have the testimony of firsthand witnesses who saw them walking through the airport in Sokovia, and somehow, they were able to get the passenger manifest from the commercial flight they took from Stockholm to New York."

"These people really do their homework, don't they? Man are we screwed. They didn't get any pictures of Loki, though?"

"The photographer that took the photos at the wedding must not have realized she was with them."

"So, on the bright side, this situation could have been a lot worse."

Pepper gave him a tight-lipped smile. "Leave it to you to find the silver lining in all this."

"What does 'silver lining' mean?" asked Pietro.

"It means she is being sarcastic," Wanda told him. "We may have lucked out, Pietro. We do not have to destroy Stark and his Avengers ourselves, but we will have front row seats to their downfall anyway."

"At least eat your fish," Tony told her. "Omega-3 fatty acids are good for you. Also, if you're going to gloat about our downfall, maybe you shouldn't do it in English."

"Loki and JARVIS would understand anyway, if we spoke in Sokovian."

"You're twins," said Tony. "Don't twins always have some sort of secret language only they understand?"

Wanda shrugged. "Anyway, it is not a secret that we hate you."

Pepper stood and went to the refrigerator. There, she rummaged around in one of the drawers until she found one of the protein drinks they had supplemented Loki's diet with back when he had difficulty eating enough to put on weight. Loki was back to a healthy weight now and didn't need them anymore, but there were still a few floating around in the fridge.

She put the bottle in front of Wanda and tapped the lid with a manicured fingernail. "If you're not going to eat, at least drink this."

Wanda eyed it suspiciously. "Why is it that color?"

"It's strawberry flavored." She supposed the bright pink color was a little off-putting, but if Wanda didn't like it, she could still eat her dinner instead.

"In that case, I cannot drink this. I am allergic to strawberries."

"Really? So am I," Pepper told her, picking the bottle back up. "I'm not sure there's even enough real strawberry in this kind of thing to trigger an allergic reaction, but I've never wanted to risk it. I think there might be some chocolate left—"

"I am allergic to chocolate as well."

Pepper arched an eyebrow at her. "Really?"

"She is making it up," Pietro told her, confirming her suspicion. "She is not allergic to anything."

Wanda kicked her brother under the table.

"Alright, young lady." Pepper put the strawberry protein shake back down in front of her. "Either you're going to eat everything on your plate or you're going to drink this. You aren't leaving the table until you do." Wanda didn't have much on the plate in front of her—just a small piece of fish, a few pieces of broccoli, and barely a spoonful of rice. Eating all of it wasn't likely to make her sick.

"You cannot make me eat." Wanda crossed her arms in front of her. "I am not a small child, and you are not my matka."

"Wanda, as long as you're here, it's our responsibility to take care of you. I haven't seen you eat more than a few bites since you've been here."

"Fine," said Wanda, sitting back in her chair, her mouth drawn into a thin line and her arms crossed over her chest. "I'll just sit here forever, then."

"If that's your choice," said Pepper, feeling a small amount of relief—she wasn't sure what she would have done if Wanda had questioned her authority to tell her she couldn't leave the table.

;; •̀_•́)_且 ( ︶︿︶)

"She might still come to the conclusion that this isn't worth it—"

"Pepper, this isn't a normal power struggle between child and guardian. This is a hunger strike. In Wanda's mind, she's Ghandi protesting the British rule of India."

Pepper knocked her head against the doorway to their bedroom, where both she and Tony hovered. They had left Wanda sitting at the table with JARVIS watching her and retreated back to the penthouse. That had been almost two hours ago. "I screwed up, didn't I? She might have started eating on her own if I'd just waited a day or two, but now—"

"Now you've made it a thing," said Tony. "If we don't call this off, she might actually sit there until breakfast."

Pepper let out a little whine as she covered her face with her hands. "If we ever have our own kids, I'm going to be a horrible mother, aren't I?"

"Are you kidding? Pepper, you're already a fantastic mother. Wanda's been here one day, and you care this much. And you're awesome with Loki—"

"Loki has a mother," Pepper pointed out.

"I assume you're referring to Bruce," said Tony. "He can have more than one, you know. Also, if you're not one of Loki's moms, why did you keep serving him broccoli at dinner?"

"Usually, Thor would notice what he was doing and put more on his plate until he gave up and ate it. I was just filling in."

Tony pulled her into his arms and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Pep, you are already well on your way to being the best mom in the world. Just let me try to de-escalate this situation with Wanda, okay? I'll try to do it in a way that doesn't undermine you."

"You're going to de-escalate a situation?" Tony Stark was going to de-escalate a situation that she had created. Had the world just turned upside down? She might as well let him try, though. "Just don't get killed, Tony."

◔ ⊂( ° ෴ ° ) BONUS: PROJECT "INFORM THE UNIVERSE THAT LOKI IS TONY'S KID," ATTEMPT #1

"JARVIS said you wanted to see me. I'm not in trouble again, am I?" This time, Loki didn't seem happy about the prospect of being in trouble; maybe he'd finally gotten enough of that kind of attention.

"No, you're not in trouble. Just go stand over there." Tony pointed to the corner of the penthouse living room.

Loki went to the corner and stood with his nose in it.

"Kid, I just told you, you aren't in trouble. I'm not putting you in time out, so you can turn around."

Loki turned around slowly, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"Okay, look. This is what we're going to do. See this?" Tony held up the frisbee so that Loki could see it. His first idea was that they should play catch—because that was something you did with your kid, right? He had never done anything like that with Howard, but that probably meant he was onto something. He'd dug around in the surplus merchandise closet for a ball, but there hadn't been any; just a box full of frisbees with Captain America shields printed on them. Tony had been up until four that morning painting one of them to look like his arc reactor instead, since obviously, he couldn't have used it as is. "I'm going to throw this, and you're going to catch it, okay?"

"Should we really be doing this in your sitting room?"

"Hey, we could have done this outside, but someone had to go and get grounded."

Loki arched an eyebrow at him. "Why are we doing this at all?"

Maybe he should have have told Loki why they were doing this, but obviously, neither Thor or Frigga had talked to him about it. For all he knew, magic worked the same as making a wish when you blew out birthday candles, and it wouldn't work if you said the wish out loud. "It's just something people do on Earth. Consider this part of your cultural education."

"Midgardians are exceedingly strange creatures, if standing around throwing plastic discuses to one another is some sort of cultural tradition."

Tony couldn't disagree with that. "Okay, I'm going to throw it now. Ready?"

Loki didn't answer, and Tony decided the kid was as ready as he would ever be. He threw the frisbee and watched as it curved to the right. Damn, Cap made that look easier than it was. Tony held his breath as it headed for one of the mid-century modern Murano glass floor lamps Pepper had picked up at an auction for the reasonable price of just under ten thousand dollars.

It bounced off the shade, and Tony let out the breath he'd been holding. Then a large black dog sprang across the room to catch the disc on the rebound, knocking the delicate lamp over in the process.

Tony stood staring at the shattered pieces of the lamp as Loki brought him the frisbee, proudly wagging his tail.

"What the hell, Tony?"

Tony turned around to see Pepper standing in the door of their bedroom, hands on her hips. "Oh, hey Pep. I thought you'd already left for your meeting."

"Don't 'hey, Pep,' me."

Tony pointed to the dog. "He did it."

Loki morphed back into the form he'd been in before and pinned him with an indignant look. "I only did what you told me to. I was under the impression that it was important to you that I catch the disc."

Pepper narrowed her eyes at Tony, her mouth flattening out into a straight line, then pointed to the corner where Loki had been standing before. Tony wanted to argue, but in that moment, her expression reminded him so much of Anna Jarvis whenever she'd caught him doing something he wasn't supposed to that when he opened his mouth, no sound came out of it. He went to the corner where Loki had been standing before and put his own nose in it. "And you can stay there until you're ready to act at least a third of your age," said Pepper. "Loki, have you had breakfast yet, sweetheart?"

"No, ma'am," said Loki.

"Sit down in the kitchen and I'll make you some waffles."

What the heck? Pepper had never made Tony waffles…

...φ(ｰ￣*)

Author's Note:

All the chapters between now and Christmas are going to be fairly long, because I want the holiday chapters to happen around the holidays, and not sometime in February. There may also be two chapters the week of Christmas.

There's also going to be a few "bonus" scenes at the end of the chapters. Like the one at the end of this chapter, they aren't necessarily going to be in sequence with the rest of the story.