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Playground
Chapter 18: Mutual Benefit
Loki easily found the lab on the floor below; he had only to follow the sounds of the children's voices. It lay behind an open metal door and took up most of the basement level.
"Papa, come look!" Ollie called, racing over, taking his head and tugging as soon as his son caught sight of him. "We figured it all out!" Patches of his light blue shirt were darker, damp.
"We're doing experiments now," Morgan informed him, tendrils of hair around her face similarly wet.
"What kind of experiments?"
"How much mass has to hit the shoes to make the LEDs light up," Ollie told him, while Morgan simultaneously said something similar about acceleration. Her palm cupped a bright red ball, and she stood near a child-height work table with a metal stand perched over the sole of a cut-apart shoe.
"Please continue your experiments, then. I want to hear the results, and about what makes the shoes work. But your mother will want to hear about it, too, Ollie, so tell me after you've finished, all right? I'm going to talk with Mr. Stark first."
Ollie's protests faded quickly when Morgan brought the ball back over to the dissected shoe.
"Okay, FRIDAY. Ten centimeters this time," he heard Morgan saying before positioning her wrist carefully atop the metal stand. He understood then what the children were doing.
Loki sidled up to Tony, who'd drifted further away from the group. His jeans sported a couple of darker patches, too.
"Hope you don't mind him getting a little wet. There were a few tears. For some reason seeing a pair of shoes cut open is traumatic, even when you gave permission, and even when they're your friend's shoes and not your own. Then there was some face-washing, and that led to a little bit of accidentally-on-purpose splashing."
"Not at all. He'll dry. And it doesn't look like he minds." Certainly Ollie was no longer upset.
"Oh, he doesn't mind. It helped them get over seeing shoe guts. But if I'd let them keep at it, they'd both be soaked."
"I wouldn't mind that, either." He paused, thought of his wife one floor above him. "Jane might. She's more particular about some things." He paused again, shrugged. "I'm more particular about other things. We balance each other."
"Things okay up there?"
"No!"
"Yes, it is, Ollie."
"But you were throwing it."
"I was not. You're just being recalcitrant."
"Hey, no name-calling, Pumpkin."
"That's not name-calling. Calling somebody a dummy is name-calling. And Mr. Odinson said it."
"And you haven't even come close to double digits. I'm not going to survive your teens, am I? Just remember to be kind. And if you disagree on the result, you repeat the experiment. Take turns. Your data's more reliable when it's replicable, anyway. When each of you can do the test and get the same result."
Tony turned back to Loki and lowered his voice again. "Sorry about that."
"There's no harm done. They could've worked it out on their own. And Morgan was right. It wasn't precisely name-calling. You were right, as well. You aren't going to survive her teens."
Tony laughed.
"And…I think everything up there is fine. We've had some difficulties, but I think we both understand where we've erred. We'll do better at working together."
"That's great! You know what you need now?"
"I can think of a few dozen things. But what did you have in mind?"
"A hotel room with two separate bedrooms in it."
Loki rolled his eyes. Upon actual reflection, though…he hadn't taken Jane to bed properly since they'd come to Midgard. Weeks. Nearly a month. And he hadn't even noticed. They'd been busy, and growing steadily more distant, and he hadn't quite noticed that either. "How long did you say you were going to be in Manhattan?" He remembered, of course.
"I can take one for that team, easy. We've already got a bedroom set up for him."
"No. Jane and I will make do. Another time, though, perhaps. In fact…perhaps before long Jane I will be able to return the favor, give you and Pepper an entire night to yourselves."
"Oh, yeah? How do you figure that?" Tony asked. He was watching the children now, but it seemed a studied indifference.
"It's such a coincidence, you'll never believe it. A university located a mere fifty-five miles from your other house has a sudden and immediate need to hire someone with precisely Jane's specialization. If it comes to fruition – not a guarantee, I did encourage her to demand a salary commensurate with her extraordinary worth – but if it does come to fruition, just imagine it. We could find a house twenty-five miles north of Syracuse and practically be neighbors."
"Incredible coincidence. But imagine this. Jane might not like how much of a commute even twenty-five miles makes for in transportation that's stuck to the ground. What if you got…I don't know…maybe a townhouse, right in the heart of Syracuse, or right next to the college campus, and then you built your own custom house on a few acres of land next door to mine so we were literal neighbors. We could help out each other's teams all the time."
The children momentarily forgotten, Loki faced Tony and stared in shock – not entirely because of the unexpected level to which Tony had just elevated this idea, but because of how thoroughly unexpected it was even after recognizing the hidden strings Tony was pulling. Then again…was Tony even serious? Or was he joking? Was it one of those spur-of-the-moment ideas about which even Tony didn't know if he was joking or serious?
Still speechless, it struck him then how closely Tony was suggesting Loki model his life on Tony's. Because they had so much in common? Because Tony thought everyone – everyone who could afford to – should live like him? Because the extreme proximity would allow Tony to do experiments whenever the whim struck?
"I see," Loki said, remembering that he still needed to respond, even if he still hadn't decided how. "So that's why you really did this. For the free nursemaid service. Pardon, nanny service."
"Doesn't hurt, even though I've already got a few vetted babysitters on speed dial. You know why. All the things we already talked about. And what Jane can do for the advancement of astrophysics here, for opening up the universe to us in a way it never has been. Plus one more thing that occurred to me. If my household came under attack, would you step in?"
Loki looked over toward the children, this time Morgan in particular, using her fingers to flick a yellow ball across the table to his son. They both giggled as he flicked it back at her the same way.
He visualized Tony's home being attacked, thinking it through. It wasn't out of uncertainty or doubt. He would defend that home – defend the people in it – without hesitation. Tony, he was fairly certain, would do the same for Ollie and Jane. Of course, Tony was one of the heroes, and would probably throw himself into a fight defending strangers without hesitation. Loki wasn't a villain, but he wouldn't place himself among the heroes either, even if anyone else here was inclined to let him. Defend the child his son had befriended, though? That child's mother, who agreed to take in his child in the middle of the night, who generously included Ollie in what was clearly intended to be some too-infrequent time alone with her own child? And Tony…Tony could probably take care of himself. But if aid was needed, Loki would provide it. Proximity was indeed in their mutual self-interest.
"I would."
"Actually, it just struck me, maybe I should clarify? I meant step in on my side. Not the bad guy's side."
"Most likely on your side."
"Great! Glad I cleared that up. Same, by the way. Most likely."
Distraction followed – the children had reached a degree of force with the yellow ball that successfully set off the lights regardless of who dropped it – along with a pleasant sense of satisfaction. None of this was a given. It was unlikely, but Jane could still decide she was uncomfortable accepting the job. Or she might accept it, but balk at purchasing two homes. Loki didn't know how they were going to pay for one, much less two, and living in one home, somewhere in between the two locations, might be best for Ollie. Either way, perhaps Tony would be able to help them figure out the finances, too; Asgard was home to plenty of things that could be sold or bartered, if the proper mechanisms and safeguards for it were put in place.
The rest of the plan hadn't thrown him. But living literally next door to Tony Stark instinctively felt a step too far, too fast. Perhaps a hundred steps. A pleasant and engaging ride that was now careening forward, out of control, with a hidden cliff possibly about to appear out of nowhere right in front of him. Even so, something in it did oddly appeal.
Speaking it aloud was out of the question, but in addition to their undeniable commonalities, something about Tony himself appealed. Something in the way Tony behaved toward him. The man had seen him consumed by rage and drunk on power, defeated in a shallow pit of crumbled concrete, quietly triumphant in Thanos's defeat. Tickling his son, bicycling about in his horned helmet, dancing and shaking his rear. Tony knew his deepest secrets and what they'd done to him, the scars they'd left on him. Tony knew his worst, most shameful moment as a father. And somehow…it was all fine.
It wasn't that it didn't matter, or that Tony simply treated everything as a joke – quite the opposite. Tony was capable of a surprising level of depth and insight, as well as empathy and understanding, but absent any sense of coddling, as though he required handling, as though he was fragile and might break if spoken to plainly. Most people reacted to him either with distaste or with a solemn respect – respect undergirded by fear. Fear for themselves, for what he might do to them if they didn't display the proper respect, or fear for him, for how he might fall apart because he couldn't handle a joke. He couldn't entirely blame them; their fear wasn't entirely without cause. Still, it rankled. These days, when he and Thor fought, more often than not it resulted from Thor trying to be gentle with him, to protect him from things – people, ideas, memories – he might find upsetting.
Tony had quickly switched from threats and defensive posturing to treating him with respect so shrouded by friendly irreverence that it had taken him several encounters to recognize it. The picture was only coming into complete clarity now.
Unless he was wrong.
Tony could be keeping enemies closer. Seeking to manipulate him, control him, discover further secrets, identify his weaknesses in order to effectively counter them.
He'd considered that possibility all along. Such instinctive distrust was as natural to him as breathing. Yet thinking of Tony in this light now seemed beyond preposterous. Tony was using him, yes. He'd openly admitted as much. Loki would use Tony, too, just as openly.
His brow went up in a moment of surprise revelation. Two people deriving mutual benefit from their interactions, enjoying themselves – for the most part – as they did so? Over drinks? While watching their children play?
There was a word for that.
"What's that look for?" Tony asked. He'd been watching the kids, but keeping Loki in his peripheral vision. The guy was touchy about some things, and Tony knew about some but almost certainly not all of them. He may have pushed a little too hard, too fast. That his proposal was in both their best interests was plain to him, but it was entirely possible that one of Loki's neuroses would get in the way of Loki seeing it, too. Seriously, how many other four-year-olds were going to share his Pumpkin's genuine delight in conducting legitimate physics experiments on a shoe?
"What look? Do I look like I'm constipated again?"
"Um, no, maybe more like you just guzzled down that spoiled milk you meant to throw out the last time you opened the fridge but you got distracted by the beer and forgot. Or maybe that's just me. Anyway, constipation wouldn't be your problem after that."
"Ah. I do think I'm feeling a little ill, though."
"Yeah? How so?" Loki was almost certainly just gabbing, but what if he was feeling ill? Did Asgardians ever get sick? Diseases? Common colds? Indigestion? Did Ollie need the vaccines schools required? If Loki backed out of this entire thing Tony thought he might be ill. He had a lifetime's worth of questions and then some. Ten lifetimes' worth. Which brought him back to yet another question, one he was fast losing the battle over not asking. Before it could escape his mouth, though, Loki was answering.
"It's just occurred to me that…I think we might be becoming friends."
Tony's initial urge to laugh tugged at his lips, but he held off, in the spirit of Loki's deadpan delivery. "Wow. Us? Friends? Yeah, that's an illness-inducing idea all right. I'm pretty sure you have cooties. Although…I don't know. Maybe we could hold our noses – our own, definitely not each other's – and try it out. At least pretend to. For the kids' sakes, you understand."
"Intriguing idea. It's true I would do anything for Ollie, even something as distasteful as this. And none of my associates would object. Primarily because my main associates are Jane and Thor…who would probably be ecstatic, but I'd prefer not to dwell on that. Your associates, on the other hand…"
"What was it you said earlier? About not caring what people think about you? My associates are grown-ups. They'll be fine."
"And if I come over to your home and find Clint Barton there?"
"Believe it or not, Barton? Also a grown-up. You're not his favorite person, but I think he can control himself enough not to slaughter you on sight."
"To try to," Loki muttered.
"Fine. But don't be pedantic. He knows you helped us out the second time around. And you weren't dodging arrows then, were you? Granted, I wouldn't suggest sneaking up on him, but I assume you'd knock if I wasn't expecting you. And he's a dad, too. Give him a few minutes with Ollie and that kid'll have him wrapped around his finger so tight he might be ready to put all that nastiness behind him."
"I wouldn't count on it. And I don't want him around my son."
"Okay, Mr. Cranky Pants. He doesn't have to be. Easily avoided. How'd you ever work things out with Erik Selvig, though, with that attitude?"
"I have no idea. You'd have to ask him."
"Okay."
"Figure of speech. Don't ask."
"Why not?"
"Because. I…we've never discussed it."
"Wow. Really? You've never discussed how you met? How you mind-zapped him and used him to make a portal to let in an alien army to—"
"Will you—. Cease this. You can be heard."
Tony's head snapped around toward the children – he had sort of forgotten about them for the moment – but Morgan had gotten out the dyes and the shoes had been abandoned for playing at the sink, and neither of them were paying any attention to the adults. Turning back to Loki, Tony had a guess: Loki was petrified to talk with Erik about what happened, because it might remind Erik about what happened, thus making him realize that an evil scourge had run off with poor sweet Jane. Another of those blind spots that Loki had patched up with irrational nonsense. This one, though, Tony had to let slide. From what he gathered, Erik was the closest thing Loki had to an in-law relationship, and Tony hadn't figured those out yet, either. Recovering from Pepper's mother coming across a video of him with two non-Peppers was a work in progress; the fact that the video in question was from before he and Pepper became a couple hadn't helped his case nearly as much as he'd hoped.
"If Barton's over I'll put up a 'Loki Stay Home' sign, how's that? Don't go looking for problems. They'll show up all by themselves, and we'll deal with them. And we can probably deal with them more handily if we're next door to each other. It doesn't have to be weird. We can still have our privacy. 'Good fences make good neighbors' and all that. Robert Frost? You have poetry on Asgard?"
Loki's suddenly screwed up face answered the question before his words did. "That's like asking if we have water."
So. Many. Questions. So many shiny objects. And a Christmas present idea?
"What I think about it doesn't really matter. I've already told Jane that whatever she decides is acceptable to me, as long as we're within two hundred miles."
"I confess I was a little concerned you might see it as charity and automatically reject the idea. It's not, by the way. I fund a lot of innovative research programs, and I can't think of anything more innovative than what you and Jane can bring. Innovation is the key to the future, and the effect on my taxes isn't terrible, either. But you weren't thrilled about me picking up the tab at McDonald's."
"In retrospect…I think you were right. A small thing, in comparison to picking up the tab for my wife's employment and for mine as well. Along those lines…you brought up IDs and registration cards. Credit cards. Permission to be here. Can you assist with those things? Make my wallet less 'sad,' as you put it?"
"Honestly? I'm not even sure where to begin. FRIDAY, dig into that for me, will you? We don't want fakes, we want the real thing, all legal and above board. There's going to have to be a special process created for you, though. State Department? Citizenship and Immigration Services? I know people. They don't actually all like me, but I can work around that. You know who could make all that happen a lot easier, though?"
From the crabby look that instantly sprouted on Loki's face, Tony knew that Loki knew.
"Look, he has that kind of standing in those circles. I don't. You don't want to work with him, that's fine, I'll figure it out. Well, mostly FRIDAY will. He can get it done faster, though. Guaranteed."
"What about trade of some sort? We'll need something to get started with, and Jane has said her funds will permit only meager housing. A Happy Meal is one thing, but you're not going to buy us a house, much less two."
Discussion over? Tony wasn't so sure. He'd already lost count of the times Loki had rejected something outright only to give it a little more rational thought and change his tune. In any event, apparently they were moving on, at least for now.
"You have something in mind?" Tony asked. It was a good thing, maybe, that he hadn't brought up them paying for a house next to his with an interest-free loan he would provide. Though that idea could stay on the back burner in case Loki was thinking of financing a house by selling Asgardian poetry.
"Gold. Asgard has plenty of it, and according to Jane it's a much less ubiquitous commodity here. However, we don't want to damage the value of it by flooding your market. I have access to any number of other materials that are highly valued here, but gold seemed the most logical, based on what Jane has said about its historical role on Earth."
"Now for that I'm your guy. I have all the financial connections an alien prince could ever want, and they like me. They like my money, at least, and in these circles, same thing. We can work that out, do some modeling. A little extra gold on the market won't make any difference. A lot…well, we'll figure out how much is too much, and make sure you stay under it. Selling the actual gold, I can broker that. Child's play. Next?"
The screaming started then, and there was no next. Not upset or scared screaming, rather the shrieking childish delight version. Music to Tony's ears, at least when his eardrum wasn't right next to it, which it wasn't.
"It's totally safe, and it'll come right out in the washing machine." Tony had missed whatever led up to it, but both kids were now soaked with red-colored water, giving Ollie's shirt a purplish tint and Morgan's an orange one. Loki didn't look concerned…not about the kids, anyway.
"Why are you doing this for me? Really."
Oh. "That's simple. I'm not doing it for you. I'm not that selfless."
"I understand that," Loki said.
Tony thought that probably Loki did, and also that Loki didn't hold it against him, which was…refreshing.
"But I'm still waiting for an answer, however you'd rather cast the question."
"Don't underestimate the appeal of me being able to question you about anything I want and you sort of being obligated to answer."
"Your optimism is truly something to be admired. But I suspect you have any number of projects you could work on that you would find similarly engaging and don't require my moving in next door to you."
"Don't underestimate how engaging you are. But what about joint defense? Keeping my kid safe is kind of important to me."
"And you've done an excellent job of it for nearly five years already, without any help from me. Not to mention, among the many people you know are those with remarkable abilities of various sorts, none of whom you've sought out as neighbors…unless I can expect Natasha Romanov, for example, as another neighbor? I think I would deserve fair warning, if that's the case."
"Not the case. Okay…you want to know why? That's why," Tony said, jutting his chin out toward the kids, who were now for some reason filtering blue-dyed water through a pair of socks. Ollie's, because these had remnants of white on them, and Morgan had been wearing pink ones. Ah, they were watching how the dye spread. Jane was going to love this.
But, in fact, maybe she would. They were learning, after all. Making their own early versions of scientific discovery. And they were doing it together, and having fun.
Before Tony's eyes, Loki's expression turned thoughtful, then soft and sentimental in a way he suspected Loki never revealed to the outside world, and even among those on the inside, maybe only a select few ever saw this. Whatever complications might come of this sudden move, whether from Loki's enemies or foibles or from Ollie's unexplored abilities, that cautionary little voice, the one that said maybe this wasn't the wisest chain of ideas he'd ever come up with and grabbed onto and followed all the way to its last link, was fading right out of existence. This was the right call.
"Good enough reason?"
Loki tried to regain his critical eye, to see something beyond his son's happiness. Other things were important, but were any as important as that? As long as it wasn't pushed to an extreme, Tony's stance about not looking for problems was a reasonable one. Problems would indeed show up, without question, but that was true whether they lived next door to Tony or fifty miles from Tony or on the other side of this globe. Or on Asgard. No one on Asgard, not even Thor who knew the secret, would react as calmly to Ollie shifting to Frost Giant – Jotun – form as Tony and Pepper had. As Pepper had pointed out, the two of them had seen enough of the unusual and unexpected to keep their cool, unlike most of the rest of the realm. But even the rest of the realm, as shocked as they may be by Ollie's altered appearance, had not been trained from their youth to kill Jotuns on sight. This arrangement could prove as close to ideal as they could achieve, both for Ollie and for Jane. Even for him. He had expected to spend most of his time on Earth effectively hiding, in order not to cause problems for Jane or especially for Ollie. In this scenario he would have respite from that, and perhaps, on occasion, even some fun of his own.
Of course, another child stood beside Ollie, looking just as happy, just as engaged in their play. Tony seemed to value the friendship between the two in a similar way, and though Loki didn't quite understand why, he supposed it didn't really matter…and that he would have plenty of time to figure it out later.
Two people deriving mutual benefit from their interactions, enjoying themselves over drinks, while watching their children play.
"Yes," he finally said. "Yes, I think it is. And it's still up to Jane, but I suspect she'll agree."
"To build next door? FRIDAY, pull my architect's number, the one that did the house upstate."
"Got it, Boss."
"Calm yourself. I'll not have you pressuring Jane."
"No pressure. I just want to give my architect a heads up that she might have to put another plan together. If Jane gives the okay we're going to have to move fast. Houses don't get built overnight. Not ones with the special features you're going to want."
"Defenses?" Loki asked, remembering the vague warning Tony had given him when preventing him from reentering the house where Ollie had just changed forms again.
"Right."
"How long would it take?"
"If we really rush it, multiple crews working in shifts, it'll still take a few months. Helps that it's summer. Ours was almost a year, but we were still figuring out some things. You could get a rental in the meantime. Or they can throw up a simple temporary house for you."
"Months…that's a long time. I want Ollie to be settled quickly."
"You can make it fun for him though. Involve him in it, let him make some of the decisions, choose where his room will be. Morgan already knows how to do that kind of modeling, they could do it together. Just don't let her boss him around and choose for him. She'll definitely try."
"Imagine that. I wonder where she gets it."
"From her mother, obviously."
"That's not what I was thinking."
"Only because you don't know Pepper. Which we're going to have to fix, by the way. Same with me and Jane. I barely knew her before, and I bet…I bet she's changed since moving to Asgard."
"Probably, in some ways."
"No, I mean changed."
"If she seems…however it is that she seems to you, she's experienced many new things since leaving Earth. Marriage, motherhood, navigating Asgard and the other realms as part of Asgard's royal family…not to mention the challenges we've faced of late. Of course it changes a person. It's changed me, too."
"I know, I can tell. But I mean changed-changed."
"Changed-changed."
"Now you're getting it."
"What a relief," Loki deadpanned, turning his gaze back on the children as though that was the end of it. He had a flicker of suspicion, though, that the topic, such as it was, was not over, but had barely begun. He'd said something he hadn't quite meant to earlier. On the other hand, he hadn't quite meant not to, either. If he was truly committed to protecting a secret, nothing would wrest it past his lips.
"When you and Jane said your happily-ever-afters, just how long were you expecting that to be?"
"Half a century? Three quarters?"
Tony, in the corner of Loki's eye, was visibly surprised. Not the expected answer, then. Tony had indeed been paying attention.
"Now, however, if things work as hoped, perhaps more like three, three and a half millennia."
Tony's eyes had gone wide, and the man was uncharacteristically speechless for a long minute.
"So…the changes are stable now? Or does that kind of a range mean they aren't?"
"We don't know for certain, though we think so, at this point. What we truly don't know is the impact of Jane's aging before the change."
"Uh-huh," Tony said almost absently; Loki wondered if he was making mathematical calculations. "You didn't do this, she didn't do this when you got married. When you decided to have a kid?"
Loki nodded. It was a long story, and a deeply personal one. Maybe he would tell it, someday. Not today.
"Is this a giant secret? Wait, no pun intended. Just…am I supposed to know?"
"If I didn't want you to know, you wouldn't. It's a secret for now. Jane hasn't decided how she wants to handle it. On Midgard, only Erik knows. Until now. I would ask that you help us keep it a secret. Pepper may know, of course. But it could create additional complications for us if it became more widely known."
"Yeah. I'm sure it would. Okay. Yeah. Wow. Three millennia?"
"It isn't nearly enough."
"How many have you got left?"
"Around four."
"Ollie?"
"Around five…we think. If he has a normal Aesir lifespan. I'm a little young to be a father on Asgard. But in our circumstances…we felt we should move quickly."
"Hm. Weirdly enough…Pepper and I could say exactly the same thing. Well, except for the 'a little young' part. Ticking clocks and all, just ticking on a different scale, I guess. We grew into marriage over a kid."
"As did Jane and I, I suppose. As are Jane and I. It's been a whirlwind."
"But a good one mostly, yeah?"
"I have no regrets."
"Me, either. Are you going to tell me how magic works?"
Loki broke into laughter, loud and sudden enough that Ollie looked up, but then there was an oooh Ollie! and Morgan was tugging him over to another area of the lab. Tony didn't look concerned, so Loki assumed that he had taken the necessary steps to ensure that whatever Morgan and by extension Ollie could access in here was safe.
Tony, it seemed, wasn't asking about what had been done to change Jane. It was a surprise, to some extent…but also not, more of an affirmation, that he had accurately taken Tony's measure. Oh, Tony Stark, the great believer in innovation, would surely be tempted, would surely ponder what Jane had undergone. But he would also surely realize that Midgardians, even if what was done for Jane could be done for all seven and a half billion of them, were meant to live in their own natural times, and not for five thousand years.
"Come on, something? You must have talked about it with Ollie. What have you told him about it? If he can understand it I think I can, even if he's ahead of me on exposure and experience."
"Have you had any discussions with Morgan about hearing? Or vision?"
"Mmmm…so far only about keeping your voice down indoors. But don't be such a sourpuss. Oh! That was name-calling, by the way. Magic is way cooler than hearing and vision and you know it. Okay, strictly from a scientific perspective, hearing and vision are incredibly cool, too. But magic? Definitely cooler."
"When you're surrounded by it in one form or another it isn't quite as exciting as you seem to think."
"Maybe. But I'm not buying the implication that it's just another sense. Unless you're trying to tell me Thor's the magic-equivalent of blind or deaf."
"Thor is—. No. Thor is typical, in that regard. It would be closer to say that my 'vision' is especially sharp. Or my muscles particularly strong."
"Muscles…so it's a form of energy."
"Possibly. Well, yes. Depending on how you conceptualize energy."
"Remember who's already learning about forms of energy? We're so doing magic school. Wait, why do I keep asking you? You're married to a physicist. No way Jane hasn't been theorizing about this from the first time she saw you slip into something more comfortable with a snap of your fingers."
"How childish, I don't snap my fingers. And I like to think that if I was slipping into something more comfortable, I was giving her something more interesting to think about than magic."
"I don't mean to insult you here, but for a physicist? I think the magic was more interesting."
Loki chuckled, and realized for the first time that Tony's mild crudeness didn't bother him anymore. It wasn't insulting, either to him or to Jane. He supposed he simply hadn't been accustomed to such humor. Neither Thor nor Thor's friends would make such an off-color jest concerning him and Jane, and no one else would dare make such comments, not to their prince.
"Jane does have a—Ah, my darling, just in time. Tony would love to hear your theories about magic."
"Don't get me started," Jane said, slipping an arm around Loki's waist. "Have you ever tried to learn to independently move your toes?"
"What, like separately? Move one and not the others?"
Jane nodded.
"Can't say that I have. Why?"
"It can be done. I've done it. It took a long time, a lot of effort and concentration, a ton of frustration laying there staring at your toes and doing your best to tell just one to move and watching as they all move together anyway. But you can train yourself to do it."
"Sounds like a short path to madness."
"How have you never told me about this?" Loki asked. "Now I know where Ollie got his fascination with toes."
"It's not about the toes. It's about retraining your brain to allow you to take a particular form of control, to isolate the signals you send to a specific set of muscles when you've never had a need to before, never been aware you could or would ever want to. It feels like it's there, it should be possible, and yet when you fail over and over again, it feels like maybe it's not possible."
"I know what my plans are for tonight."
Jane shrugged. "I got the idea from my eighth-grade science teacher. Total nerd, in all the best ways. Magic makes me think of that, sometimes. It's built into so many things on Asgard. It's everywhere. And it feels like if you just focus hard enough, keep at it long enough, it'll be accessible. But all I did was keep failing."
"Did you ever try measuring brain activity?"
"With what time? Maybe for a second career, if I ever run out of things to study in the first. Hard to imagine. Anyway, I'm convinced force fields are the key to magic."
"Force fields," Tony echoed. "What, like Star Wars?"
"Not the Force. Actual force fields. But I can't pin down what kind. For a while I was convinced it was electrical. But that can't explain everything. It's almost like it's a different kind of field entirely, one we've never identified, because we can't seem to access it in any way. Or some new way of understanding force fields, a new way of unifying them all, because it seems to draw on aspects of all kinds of force fields. Nothing in—"
"That sounds like the Force."
"It's not the Force, Tony. The Force is some kind of…almost sentient thing. It's metaphysical and pseudo-religious. There's no comparison with any of that to the magic—"
"And it's fake," Loki cut in as Ollie caught sight of Jane for the first time and came running across the lab. Jane had already told him all about this Force. It sounded like a ridiculous series of movies.
"What happened to you?" Jane asked, squatting down and putting a hand out to stop Ollie before he could throw himself against her with his wet, splotchily dyed clothes.
A story poured out of Ollie, jumping around and skipping steps but more or less followable, aided by the things he and Morgan pointed out and the demonstrations they gave. Jane seemed impressed by how much of this lab was set up with kids in mind, with surfaces and storage at just the right height and more dangerous equipment behind higher locked cabinet doors. Loki was certain she would like the idea of Ollie having regular access to something like this; the set-up at Tony's other house was similar.
With that, he pulled something from storage he'd forgotten about amidst everything else going on. When Ollie finished telling them everything he and Morgan had done, aided by Morgan's own interjections, Loki bent down and slipped it into Ollie's hand.
"Oh! Mama, look! Papa and I made this little car for you."
"It's such a bright pretty color. And it looks like a race car, doesn't it? You and Papa made it?"
Ollie nodded. "I picked out the color and the shape and we made it with the three D's modeling."
"3D modeling," Morgan corrected. "It means three dimensions, so it looks real, not flat like on the TV."
"Oh, right, of course. Sounds like you had a lot of fun. And good job, I love it, Ollie, thank you."
"You're welcome. I made one, too, and so did Papa. We made one for Uncle Thor, too. Can we race them all later?"
"Yeah, we can do that. And you know…we're going to have to get a real one of these, too, if I'm going to be commuting to Syracuse."
"Syracuse?" Tony asked, pitch climbing at the end as though he'd never heard of the place.
"Yeah, Syracuse," Jane said, looking up with a smile.
"Mr. Stark? Do you make the really big ones, too? The ones we go places in? Can we make one just like this?"
"Sorry, Ollie, I don't make the full-size version meant for the highways. But you can get them from car dealerships, in all kinds of different shapes and colors."
"My daddy's got lots of them."
"We'll get lots of them, too."
"We'll probably just get one, Ollie. Although…Loki, I guess you'll need one, too. Unless we can find a place where everything you'd need when I have the car is in walking distance or the public trans—, no, walking distance."
"We don't need walking distance," Ollie said. "We need lots of really big cars."
"You would've loved the 70's, squirt."
"We'll figure out the cars later," Loki said. If they were going to have a house next to Tony's, they would indeed need two cars. Another expense he hadn't considered, and he assumed their cost was high. "Tony said he can help us sell gold here."
Jane's eyebrows shot up. "Without flooding the market and collapsing the price?"
"I'll consult an expert or two, but I think it's doable."
"That would be such a huge relief. I've been really worried about how we were going to put a roof over our heads."
Loki's eyebrows went up at that. She hadn't said so, not to that extent. She really had been taking on everything by herself. What a mess they'd made of everything lately. "Perhaps we should head back. It's nearly lunch time, which means it's nearly nap time, and we have much to discuss. Whoever called…you were made an offer?"
"I was. By the dean. But I'm going to have to do some quick research. I think the offer's a little low," she said with a sidelong look at Tony. "It may be my first Midgardian faculty position, but I don't think they're considering my experience directing an entirely new research program on Asgard."
"That's my woman," Loki said, grinning with pride.
"It's up to them how they parse out the endowment. Negotiate away. Make sure there's no gender gap thing going on, either."
"Exactly," Jane said while Ollie tugged at her hand. She hadn't noticed that her pants were now picking up red dye.
"What offer, Mama?"
"A job, Bugbear."
"You got a job?"
"I told the dean I'd think about it, and I'll need to negotiate, but…yeah. I got a job. How do you feel about living in New York, not too far from Morgan and Mr. Stark?"
"We're going to live here? And I can play with Morgan every day?"
"And I can play with Ollie every day!"
"Maybe not every day," Jane said. "But a lot."
Morgan sucked in a breath. "And we can feed your horses every day, too."
"The horses aren't coming here with us, Morgan, I'm sorry. They're a long way away."
The idea occurred to him and he was opening his mouth to share it when he realized that they had to discuss Tony's suggestion of becoming neighbors before they discussed the possibility of bringing one or more of the horses. But with every new angle he looked at it, that suggestion seemed more and more not just a reasonable idea but a spectacular one, with the prospect of incorporating more of their life on Asgard into their life on Midgard than he had previously imagined.
"We might be able to arrange something, though," he said over the children's chatter.
Jane's look to him was one of curious surprise.
"Can we go today?"
"Um, not today," Jane said, turning to Morgan. "Papa's right, uh…Mr. Odinson?"
Loki gave a slight shrug.
"Mr. Odinson is right. We should get going, and we're going to be pretty busy."
"Can we go tomorrow?"
"Hey, Pumpkin, I know you're an eager little munchkin, but we have to wait until Ollie's family has time. And if you can be patient and polite…maybe Mr. Odinson will even give you a riding lesson."
Tony swiveled his neck around and waggled his eyebrows at Loki where Morgan couldn't see. Loki didn't mind. It wasn't as though he'd been unwilling.
"I can be patient," Morgan said, jumping and down and grabbing onto Ollie who started jumping with her. "Please, Mr. Odinson?"
"Please, Papa?"
"We'll find a time for a lesson."
After the requisite celebratory jumping and shrieking, Jane declared it was time to go, and a bath, lunch, and a nap were in Ollie's immediate future.
"I don't need a bath. I'm not dirty. I don't need a nap, either."
The battle was predictable – nap resistance was a relatively recent addition – and lately Loki was usually the one handling it. He was more than happy to let Jane deal with it this time.
"Don't forget to set the authentications for your phone access before you go. Oh, and the bag you brought for Ollie. Still in the kitchen?" Tony said amidst the goodbyes as they all approached his front door.
Loki nodded and peeled off; he had indeed forgotten both, and once he picked up the bag he decided to take one last look through the room Ollie had slept in. He'd been distracted when packing it back up and might have left something behind. On the way, FRIDAY talked him through the authentications and transferred the "Tinker Daddy" and "Bare Necessities" videos to his phone.
Back upstairs, the covers that had been as rumpled as Loki had felt upon leaving this room for the second time were now neatly arranged. He peeked into the bathroom which had also been tidied; he saw nothing he'd missed in there. Probably he had everything, especially since Ollie hadn't rifled through it as far as he knew, but he stuck his hand in and mentally catalogued the contents to confirm it. When his fingers brushed something rough, he pulled out the healing stone in surprise. Perhaps Tony had simply forgotten to take it. He'd brought Ollie over late, after all, and he'd returned before Tony rose. Or, perhaps the Man of Iron, his possible – probable? – future neighbor, had recalled the weak, instinctive protest he'd started to make at the request and thought better of taking it.
The bed drew his attention again.
He could hardly believe that mere hours ago he had lain here with Ollie calmly – mostly calmly – watching his son take on Jotun form and allowing himself to undergo that shift, too. Twenty-four hours ago he could not have fathomed it, and would have been sorely tempted to obliterate anyone who claimed he would not only do such a thing but encourage it.
Tony had owed him a drink.
He owed Tony much more.
./.
./.
"Nah, don't even look down there, seriously. It's a disaster zone. But FRIDAY's got most of it and Morgan and I'll get the rest." Good for imparting a sense of responsibility, even if a lot of the cleaning in this house was automated, including sanitization of the lab.
"Okay, Mr. Stark. I guess I'm done for the day, then. You need me to pick up anything from the store?"
"More blueberries? They were extra-popular this morning. I think that'll do it."
"Okay. Oh, and I left you some tamales in the refrigerator."
"Thanks, Marta," Tony said just as Morgan chimed in.
"Yum, tamales! Did you make enough for Ollie? That's my new best friend."
Best friend. That was fast.
"There's plenty for Ollie, too, if your daddy doesn't eat them all."
"Moi?" Tony asked over his Pumpkin's admonishment that he'd better not eat them all. "Don't forget to say thank you, Morgan."
"Thank you, Marta."
Marta gave Morgan a hug as they exchanged goodbyes and Tony said goodbye on autopilot, wondering if Loki had ever had tamales. And if not…it should be no problem to convince his local illegal alien that you were supposed to eat the corn husk, too. He'd just have to make sure Jane wasn't there, Morgan, too, because that little stinker would be giggling up a storm and give it all away. And Pepper, who'd put up with it but probably shoot him dirty looks and judge him for being a meanie. And Ollie, because, well, letting Ollie think you were supposed to eat the husks would be mean.
"Daddyyyyy."
"What, Pumpkin, sorry, Daddy got distracted."
"I said can Ollie come over for supper."
"I don't think he can today," he said, heading into the kitchen. "Another day, though, sure. Wanna have tamales for lunch and save some in the freezer, too?"
"Okay. Then Ollie can have some when he comes over."
"Exactly," Tony said, getting the foil-covered plate from the fridge. When he set it down to get a couple more plates from the cabinet, he noticed what he hadn't before: a porous-looking gray rock, sitting out on the kitchen counter he knew Marta had just cleaned.
"Daddy, is Mr. Odinson really going to show me how to ride a horse?"
"Ummm…"
"Is he?"
A gray rock? A magic gray rock?
"Yeah, Pumpkin. I think he really is."
Notes
So this is the end! Sorta-kinda. There's room for so many more stories to be told in this "universe." I have various random ideas (they mostly involve making Loki suffer in various ways...can't help it...okay but not all of them!). I have one idea in particular I'd *love* to explore, if I can figure out how to set it up properly, that hinges on the idea that Loki would do things for Ollie that he would *never* in a million years otherwise give a second's consideration to doing. But there are lots of ideas. And, while you're always welcome to shoot me ideas, the reality is that I don't write that way, and I'm not super likely to write them, even if I love the idea...except, maybe, on this story. In my head this one is pretty open-ended, in that there's no sense of finality in it to me, somehow. So there are still zero guarantees, and it's not like I have a ton of free time in the first place, but, this is really the one story where things are left open and if you shoot me an idea I think I can wrap something short around (like a single chapter, two at the most...you may interpret that however you like given what you know of me and my ability to estimate length), then it's possible I may actually write it. I'd request that if you want to share an idea, please drop it in a review rather than a PM, simply because reviews are easy to look through and find again later whereas PMs are impossible to sort through and would require me keeping track of it in a separate doc. Though if for privacy reasons or whatever other reasons you prefer PM, I'll do my best to keep track of the idea. Past stuff prior to "Playground" events is possible, near-term future is possible, distant future is possible. I'm clicking complete on this story after submitting this chapter, but bear that in mind, more might be added, so "follow" if you're interested in that.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this story. And just so you know, that was my eighth-grade science teacher. (And my sixth-grade science teacher; he switched grades in between.) And he was awesome. I learned a lot from him and remember way more from his science classes than probably any others I ever took.
