So, I managed to get a chapter out within a week. Yay!

If you missed the last update, chapter 1 contains a summary of what happened in 'The Monster Under the Bed' and chapter 2 contains a reminder of what happened in chapter 1.

What happened last time?

- Fury gave Tony grief for not handing over the Einstein-Rosen bridge and arc reactor plans over to Pierce/The World Security Council

- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaked out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin.

- Tony and Loki have decided to look for Captain America

Thank you all so much for the reviews, follows and favourites, you guys are amazing!

10/02/19

Chapter Three - Searching

"We did finger-painting!" Hel said excitedly. "Look at what I did, can you guess what it is?"

Loki looked down at the smudged grey picture...it could, with a bit of imagination, have been an extremely-ill spider.

"Why don't you tell me?" Loki asked, going for the safe option.

"It's Dum-E and U and Butterfingers!" she exclaimed. "They're having a party."

"Oh?"

"With cake," Hel said firmly.

"It's wonderful Hel," Loki said, and meant it. "I think you should show it to them when we get back, and then we'll see about hanging it up somewhere."

"Do you think Uncle Tony would want it in his workshop?" Hel asked.

"I'm sure he'd love to have it there."

"Yay!" and with that Hel threw her arms tightly around him again. Loki carefully prised the picture out of her grasp before it could get even more crumpled.

"Look, your brothers are coming now too."

Fenrir and Jormungandr came speeding towards them, Jormungandr's jumper was trailing on the dusty ground behind him and Fenrir was smeared with paint.

"Father!" Jormungandr said. "You need to find Harry and tell him that he's wrong, this isn't a woolly mammoth, it's a bilgesnipe, because he keeps trying to tell me it's a mammoth but he's wrong!"

Loki looked down at Jormungandr's finger painting. It was, for a child in the middle of their second century, a very good drawing, and if you put your head on one side and squinted, it did, actually, look very much like a bilgesnipe.

"Perhaps," Loki said diplomatically, having no idea what a 'woolly mammoth' was, "a woolly mammoth is just what they call bilgesnipes on Midgard."

As Loki lead the children into a secluded alleyway and got them ready to teleport, he beamed, he felt near-ready to explode with happiness. His children loved school; they loved their teacher, they loved singing songs and playing games, they loved being dinosaurs at recess with the other kids, they loved learning how to write, they loved everything (except for being told that their bilgesnipe was a woolly mammoth, apparently). This was exactly what he had hoped for, his children being happy, carefree, normal children, not worrying about all that they'd been through in the past.

The elation he felt turned abruptly into a void of dread in his stomach as soon as he saw Sleipnir though. He was so pale and shaky he seemed ill. As he stumbled towards them, almost in a daze, Loki rushed forwards to meet him. Sleipnir flinched slightly as Loki wrapped his arms around him, but then he melted into the hug, gripping Loki back so tightly Loki was slightly worried about his ability to breathe.

Loki glanced around briefly, noting the smirks of some of the other students as they stared at the two of them (perhaps, here, like on Asgard, hugging your parents was not something an older child did in public?) and then caught the gaze of a middle-aged man. His hair was flecked with grey and he wore a blue tie with maths equations dotted over it. He stared at Loki, eyes narrowed in suspicion, before grimacing and turning away to walk back inside. This, Loki thought, was not good.

-Q-

Mr Allan frowned as he walked back into the building.

There was something clearly very wrong with Sleipnir; he was going to find out what it was.

He had tried to talk to Sleipnir after the lesson, tried to see if he could get any explanations out of him as to why the kid had been silently crying and had thrown himself back against a wall. The confrontation between himself and Jamie had clearly scared Sleipnir, but why? Surely he should be used to teenagers being little shits and teachers getting pissed off with them? The explanation that he kept falling back on was that Sleipnir must have suffered from or be suffering from abuse, perhaps he even post-traumatic stress disorder?

This is why he needed to get a new job. Not only was the workload too much, the pay too shit, the students too argumentative, you also had to deal with shit like this. The problem with teaching kids is that you were responsible for them, you had a duty of care, and you spent your free time worrying about them. With kids like Jamie it was easier, you didn't know if they were acting out because that was what they did, or whether it was because they had a crap home-life, and you probably never would know. So you did your best and tried to not think about it. With kids like Sleipnir it was more serious, there was something very obviously wrong. Not that Sleipnir had told him anything, he had just frozen, his breath coming in short gasps. Mr Allan had eventually given up, pressed one of the chocolates he kept hidden in his desk that were reserved for particularly stressful marking into Sleipnir's palm, assured him he could come and talk to him about anything he wanted anytime, and sent him to Lunch.

After filling in a concern slip and placing it in Sleipnir's file he had got on with the rest of the day as best he could. After teaching his last period of the day he had gone outside with the students, hoping to see if he could catch a glimpse of Sleipnir's parents, try to get a feel for what he was dealing with. His eyes widened with shock when he saw a tall man with long dark hair run over and throw his arms round the child. Sleipnir shuddered and then threw his arms round the man that looked like an older version of him and was almost certainly his dad. Mr Allan's eyes narrowed. That was...unexpected. He had expected the kid to be ignored by a parent, to be shouted at, or maybe even to walk home alone. His eyes caught the man's, who looked almost ill with worry.

He turned away hurriedly and walked back inside. Well, whatever issues Sleipnir had they were probably not caused by his dad, which was unexpected. The question was who were they caused by? His Mum? Another family member? This would call for some more investigating.

-Q-

"Tony?" Loki called as soon as they had arrived back in the mansion.

"Yes, dear?" Tony said, swooping up the lab stairs to greet the kids. He had promised he would be there for them when they got back but Loki had been half-expecting him to be holed up in the labs, completely obsessed with finding Captain America. Not for any malicious reason, more because he would get caught up in something and not realise the time. But here he was.

Loki smiled softly, his boyfriend was such a good person, even if he couldn't always see it, and this was proof that he could never become Howard.

"Do you mind looking after the triplets for a bit?"

"No problem," Tony said, blowing a raspberry on Fenrir's stomach and then swinging him around while the boy giggled uncontrollably. He gave Sleipnir an encouraging smile before he and Loki disappeared again.

"Now," Tony said, "who wants to see the cool stuff I ordered for the swimming pool last night?"

-Q-

Sleipnir snuggled next to Loki. They were sitting on the sand on Tony's private beach, looking out at the crashing waves. It was about as far away from the stables as you could get, miles and miles of open space stretched out in front of them and the smell of the sea-breeze filled their nostrils. Sleipnir had a supply of juice boxes by his side, they were sweet and tasted like nothing he'd had on Asgard, and Loki had brought them along as he knew they helped to distract and calm him.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" Loki asked quietly.

"I don't want to go back to school," Sleipnir mumbled, gripping Loki tighter.

"Why?"

"Because everyone thinks I'm so weird!" Sleipnir sobbed. "I don't know how to talk to people and my accent's weird and I keep doing stupid weird stuff and I had an anxiety attack today and..." he cut off to start crying in earnest and Loki's heart broke.

"Sleipnir," Loki said, rubbing his son's back. "Of course you don't know how to talk to people and of course your accent's a bit odd, you haven't grown up like they have, you've spent five hundred years as a horse being abused by that monster. That's something that they can never understand. You don't have to be perfect, you're stronger and have been through more than they ever have."

Sleipnir hiccoughed. "It doesn't feel like I'm stronger, not when I flinch from everything, not when I start crying and panicking when everyone else is fine."

Loki looked into the distance. "I do the same," he said. "Tony says it's normal, it's a normal response to trauma. It will fade with time, sometimes things will get a bit worse, sometimes they'll get better, but it will be okay in the end. You've just got to keep fighting, both of us do.

"What happened that made you have an anxiety attack?"

"This kid was really disrespectful to a teacher and I couldn't understand why he'd do it! I just wanted to scream at him to stop. I kept thinking about what would happen if he'd acted like that on Asgard, about how badly he would have been beaten. About what Odin and some of the other people did to me when I misbehaved...or when you misbehaved."

Loki's breath caught in his throat and he choked out a sob. "I am so, so sorry for that," he said, holding Sleipnir tighter, trying not to think of all the times that Odin had punished Sleipnir instead of him to hurt Loki. It had been very effective, Loki had found watching Odin punishing Sleipnir for Loki's infractions even worse than being punished for them himself. "If I could have stopped him..."

"You would have, I know, you did your best," Sleipnir said, his voice muffled as he clung to Loki. "And he punished you for my misbehaviour sometimes too, so I suppose we are even... That was supposed to be a joke, Father," he clarified after Loki didn't respond.

"Oh," Loki said. "Ha, ha?" He could almost feel Sleipnir rolling his eyes at him. There was a pause for a while as they looked out at the ocean.

"Father, I've been thinking, you can't have been much older than me when you had me, could you?"

"No I wasn't," Loki said grimly, trying to keep his voice under control and not let the sudden panic seep in, trying not to imagine Sleipnir going through what he had.

"Did you want me?" Sleipnir asked, so quietly that Loki wouldn't have heard him if he hadn't been listening very carefully.

"Of course I did!" Loki said firmly. "I hadn't been planning on having a child and the circumstances of your conception were... less than ideal, but-"

"How did you have sex with a horse?"

Loki coughed. "That, I think, is a conversation for another day." Preferably another millennium, he added in his head.

"But why, I want to know, I deserve to know about my other father!"

"Sleipnir, I understand that you have a right to know, but it's not a very nice story, and you're already very upset, I don't want to make you more anxious." He sighed. "I swear to you I will tell you when you are older."

"Alright," Sleipnir grumbled. "But do you want me? Because all I do is freak out and be weird and cause problems."

"Sleipnir," Loki said, his voice breaking. "I have wanted you ever since you were but a spark of life inside of me, I have wanted you your entire life and I will always want you. You are my son and my love for you is unconditional. You are wonderful and I would do anything for you. I don't care that you 'freak out' because if anyone can understand that I can, and, I think, the weird people are the best people...take Tony for instance..."

Sleipnir snorted and then started bawling into Loki's shirt. Loki held him tight and rocked him gently as he stared out across the crashing waves.

"Do I still have to go to school tomorrow?" Sleipnir asked after he had calmed down.

Loki sighed. "Yes," he said. "You can't let this defeat you, you'll be okay in the end. Try for me, just for two weeks, and if it doesn't work out we'll see about putting off sending you to school for a while."

Loki could practically hear the cogs in Sleipnir's brain turning as he considered the proposition.

"Okay," he said. "As long as Tony helps me with my maths homework."

"Done." Loki said. "Now drink your juice up you've become very dehydrated."

-Q-

"And then," Tony said. "The magician looked at the illusion he'd created and laughed. The dwarfs weren't really gonna sew his mouth shut, because that would not be cool!"

"And then Dum-E sprays them with the fire-extinguisher!" Hel interrupted, cackling. Loki blinked. Well, this was a deviation from the children's normal favourite bedtime story.

"Yes, that's exactly what happens," said Tony.

"And then they fly away on a dragon," Fenrir said.

"No! They should use an Iron Man suit!" Jormungandr argued.

"That's stupid!"

"What if the magician uses the Iron Man suit and Dum-E, U and Butterfingers ride the dragon?" Sleipnir suggested, clearly wanting to avoid conflict.

There came a chorus of mumbled agreements.

"And on that note I think it's time for you kiddiewinks to go to sleep." Tony interrupted.

"No! It's too early!" That was Hel.

"But you want to have loads of energy so you can have fun at school tomorrow, don't you want to be a dinosaur at lunch again?"

"Yeah!" Hel exclaimed.

"Come on then," that was Sleipnir's I'm-a-responsible-big-brother voice. "It's time for us to go to sleep."

Loki poked his head round the door. His four children were snuggled into the queen sized bed that they shared. Loki had suggested that they all get their own beds, but Fenrir, Hel and Jormungandr had spent over fifty years sharing a bed when they were hiding from Odin and they weren't about to stop now, and Loki wasn't about to take away something that made them feel safe. Sleipnir had decided to join then, to protect them and keep them company, he said, and to make sure they weren't silly and went to sleep, but probably because he felt safer with them too. Sleipnir would likely wake up early and sneak off to read and surf the internet. Jarvis was teaching him about memes, whatever they were.

After Loki had hugged and kissed them all and sang calming songs for the benefit of the triplets (including not only Asgardian lullabies, but also a song from 'The Land Before Time' at Jormungandr's request) he slipped out of the room after Tony.

"Thank you for looking after them this evening. You're so good with them, better than I had ever hoped, and they're so happy... I'm so... I can't thank you enough," Loki said softly as they walked along the corridor and down into the workshop. "I know I should have been more help but..." he trailed off.

Tony rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Lokes it's okay," he said. "You were feeling panicky after your conversation with Sleipnir and you needed time to calm down and recharge, it's okay, it happens, it's normal."

"But I feel like I need to be there for them."

"And now you can be even more there for them because you've recharged."

Loki sighed. "What would I do without you?"

"Be only slightly less awesome. Come on, I want to find Dad's Greatest Creation."

-Q-

It took them three hours and 27 minutes to construct an algorithm using Loki's magic and various satellites.

"You ready?" Loki asked.

"For your freaky tech version of scrying? Yes." Tony nodded decisively. Loki could see from his lover's eyes that he was just about brimming with anxiety, but his determination was stronger, he would do this.

"Okay," Loki said, putting a hand on a collection of wires and closing his eyes, beginning to chant. Two minutes later a ping came from Jarvis's speakers and a red blip appeared on Tony's screen. Loki opened his eyes and smiled. "Found him," he said.

"Really?"

Loki nodded.

"Well, that was anti-climactic," Tony said.

-Q-

They left the sleeping kids in the care of Bruce, Jane and Thor, and Loki teleported them to the coordinates that had appeared on the screen. The wind howled around them and Tony was glad he'd decided to wear the suit he had specially built for journeys to Jotunheim, a snowstorm couldn't stop his body temperature from being toasty warm. Loki was still wearing his black skinny jeans and green shirt but his skin shifted to blue upon his arrival. Loki might still have issues with his jotun appearance but Tony had to admit that it was useful, also, arguably more importantly, he had to admit that Loki looked hot.

"So, do your melty magic and lets get this over with," Tony said, gritting his teeth, glad that Loki wouldn't be able to tell that he was shaking through his armour. Okay he got to one up his dad, but what if Captain America was still alive, like Howard thought he would be, what then? He didn't think he could take any snide comments from his father's golden boy, couldn't stand more years of not being good enough. It didn't matter though, Rogers's opinion shouldn't matter and goddammit it wouldn't. He was his own man, and it was unlikely Rogers would want to stick around anyway.

Anyway, he'd probably be dead, no one survived being frozen solid, so why should a super soldier? Especially after 70 years. No, it would be fine. He would find the captain's dead body, bring it back, be hailed a hero, and spit on his father's grave, and that would be that. Job done, mystery solved, fuck you Howard.

He watched as Loki melted a hole in the wreckage of the aircraft and created a path towards the body. Slowly, agonisingly, the ice dripped away, and there, lying still as stone and frozen, was a foot, a leg, a SHIELD. And they'd done it, they'd actually done it, they'd found the body of Captain America. This was one of the most incredible feelings he'd ever felt, complete vindication, absolute triumph and smugness and then...

"He's alive," Loki said.

Tony's good mood shattered.

So, I hope you all enjoyed that! Please let me know what you thought

Next up: Laufey, Frigga and the rest of Loki's family come over for dinner.

- "Tony..." Bruce asked hesitantly. "Did you clone Captain America?"

- Steve comes to the realisation that some people from the future are blue.