With her jacket wrapped tightly around her to keep out the chill of the winter air, Loki walks alone down a quiet street lined with street lamps. It's late at night, later than Loki thinks is appropriate for this visit but if she doesn't do this now, she's not sure she ever will. As she gets closer, she sees two or three cars in the driveway, all of the lights in the house are on. Loki almost turns around. With a sigh she continues down the sidewalk and before she knows it, she's standing at the front door, hand raised to knock.
Before she can, the door opens to reveal Pepper Potts, who almost seems shocked to see her. "Loki?"
Pepper and Loki had never really interacted much in high school since Pepper was two years younger. However, Loki had met Pepper really during her time dating Tony, the two sharing a similar bond that Loki had with Thor. Pepper was Tony's right hand at his company, though Loki knew Pepper took on more than most people thought she did. Pepper was an immensely serious but caring person whom Loki had enjoyed being around.
"Oh, Pepper. Hi," Loki greets.
"Can I help you?" Pepper asks, voice low as she steps out onto the porch, shutting the door behind her. The redhead crosses her arms over her chest.
"No, I came to give Tony this," Loki pulls a small slip of paper out of her pocket where her address is scribbled on it. She is still so wary with the trial on the horizon to give out her address through text. "Could you give him this address? It's where Fenrir and I are living now."
"You moved?" Pepper asked taking the paper but doesn't pocket it, instead she crumples it in her hand. "You could have just sent it to him. You both own phones."
Loki's eyes narrow and her fists clench inside her pockets. "I felt like giving it to him in person would be the best decision, but it appears I won't get the chance. If you could give that to him and tell him that I stopped by, I'd appreciate it. Have a good night."
"You too, Loki," Pepper says but her tone is unforgiving. Loki watches Pepper retreat back inside, the door slamming behind her. Loki catches a glimpse of Tony through the front window but does nothing, turns around and begins her walk home.
Loki is disappointed, of course. She wipes a tear from her face quickly and tries to stop them from falling but fails. She only gets a few driveways down before her cheeks are soaked.
"Loki wait! Come back," a voice calls out. Tony. Loki doesn't stop or turn around as she hears his footsteps approach her. "Loki!"
Loki stops, biting her lip as she turns towards him. She tries to wipe her face of her tears. "Sorry if I interrupted your party. Pepper made it pretty clear that I couldn't come in."
"What's wrong, Loki?"
"So much. Thanos changed his plea from not guilty to guilty. He's claiming that I consented, that I was there by my own will," Loki tells him, not holding anything back this time. Tony deserves the truth and that's what Loki was prepared to give him. "I moved, I don't know if Pepper gave you my new address."
Tony steps towards her and surprisingly, pulls her into a hug. "Loki. I'm so sorry."
Loki pulls away from Tony so she can look him in the eyes. "No, Tony. You have nothing to be sorry for. I actually came to apologize to you."
"Loki, you don't have to apologize."
"No, I was so cruel to you and you didn't deserve that. I owe you so much but the least I can do for now is apologize. That's what I intended to do tonight." Her heart is beating out of her chest and she thinks she might throw up. "You didn't deserve that. I am sorry. From the bottom of my heart, Anthony Stark. I was vicious and none of it was your fault."
Silence engulfs them as Loki contemplates what to say next. "Tony. I really am sorry. I'm sorry if I scared you or Peter, that was never my intention. I care so much for the both of you. I had been off my medicine for a few weeks. I was so happy with how things were going I thought I wouldn't need them anymore. That was a mistake. I'm better now, I promise. I've been going to a therapist and taking my medicine. It's not an excuse for my actions just an explanation. I understand if what I did made you feel if I'm too unsafe for you or Peter to be around, but I'd really like it if Fenrir could come over to play every once in a while. My mom can even drop him off and pick him up. Fenrir misses his best friend and I'd be more of a horrible mother if I had to deny him being around his friend because of me.
The truth is, and if you don't want to hear it, please stop me. You don't have to let me down gently… The truth is that I love you, Anthony. I fell in love with you during the food fight in my kitchen. I broke it off because I was scared. Thanos destroyed me and reshaped the way I saw the world. Love… was a feeling I reserved for one person, Fenrir. I didn't even know that I could feel love for another person in the way I feel about you." Loki says and wipes a tear from her face with force, trying to keep a resemblance of being in control of her emotions. Ha. "I know that it's been months and you've probably moved on. That's okay and I'm glad you've done so. I just needed to get this off of my chest and I hope this doesn't ruin anything for you. You have been a wonderful person to me, and Fenrir and I cannot thank you enough for that. Fenrir wanted me to tell you that he misses you. I miss you."
As soon as the last word is out of her mouth, Tony's hands are on either side of her face and his lips are on hers. It's something deep and more loving than Loki had ever experienced. When Tony pulls away both of them are breathing heavily. "I missed you so much Lokes. I knew something wasn't right that night but knew you needed space. I should have come back to you. I'm so sorr-"
"No, no. Don't apologize to me, please," Loki whispered, running her hands through his hair. "Forgive me."
"If you do one thing."
"Anything."
"If you ever start feeling bad again or want to push us away, will you please tell me? I love you so much and will never abandon you. The bad days and the good, okay? Promise me?"
Loki nods and leans into Tony. "I promise."
A few weeks later, they are all at dinner at Loki's house. She had finally finished decorating and wanted to officially host dinner for the first time. Her parents and Thor were very happy to see Tony and Peter again.
"Boys? Come wash up please!" Loki calls out the window to where Peter and Fenrir are playing in the backyard with Hogun. They both groan but come inside anyway. "Thank you."
The boys disappear upstairs, talking wildly about what happened on the playground that day at school. Loki smiles as she and Tony continue to prepare dinner. The doorbell rings and Loki wipes her hands on the hand towel hanging on the stove. "I'll grab it."
When she opens the front door, she sees two women standing side by side. The one on the left appears to be slightly older, a few years older than Loki at least. The woman has beautiful dark skin and red hair. She has an intimidating aura around her that tells Loki immediately this woman means business.
"Are you Loki Odinson?" The woman on the right asks. This woman, no less intimidating, is shorter than her counterpart. Her eyes are very dark but what stands out the most to Loki is the woman's dark blue hair.
"Yes, how did you get this address? I'm sorry but I'm not doing interviews at this time," Loki tells them quickly and tries to shut the door. The blue-haired woman sticks her hand up to keep the door open and Loki is surprised at the easy strength the woman possesses, especially because Loki notices that the arm propping the door open is a prosthetic.
"Ms. Odinson, my name is Nebula, and this is my sister, Gamora. We need talk to you about Thanos. He's our adopted father and we'd like to help you send him to prison for a very, very long time."
Loki lets the door open cautiously. "What do you mean?"
"Ms. Odinson. He has hurt us, too. He's too powerful to take on yourself. He has a very good lawyer by the name of Gast but we think that we can help each other," the older woman, Gamora, finally speaks. There is desperation in her voice.
Loki is about to speak again when she feels a hand on the small of her back, she turns and sees Tony who looks at Loki with confusion. Loki turns back to the two women. "We can talk. Please come in. This is my boyfriend, Tony Stark."
The two women step in, nodding at Tony in greeting as Loki leads them into the living room.
"Please have a seat wherever. This is my Odin, my father and lawyer, Frigga, my mother, and Thor, my brother. Everyone this is Gamora and Nebula, Thanos' adopted daughters. They are here to help us with our case," Loki introduces them, and she can feel the tension skyrocket in the room.
"Sister-
"Loki… What?"
"Lokes… is this such a good idea?"
"Ma! All done!" Fenrir shouts proudly as the boys come bounding down the stairs. They rush over to Loki when they notice the two strangers in the house. Fenrir immediately hides his face into his mother's side.
Peter, however, is much more brazen. "Can we help you?"
"Fenrir, Peter. I know you just got washed up but why don't you take Hogun outside again?" Tony asks.
"Ma?" Fenrir whispers, pulling on her hand.
"It's alright, my love. Go out and play for me. You can come back in soon, promise," Loki tells Fenrir, rubbing his back affectionately. She leans down and kisses both boys on the forehead. They both quickly disappear outside.
"Is that?" Gamora asks, gesturing to Fenrir outside.
"My son? Yes, that's Fenrir." Loki answers, curtly.
"He looks a lot like you," Gamora comments, her smile genuine but gets the hint to back off asking about the boy. "I'm sorry that you had to get him through such a terrible route."
"I may ask, again. Why are you both here? I'm struggling to understand why you would speak out against your adopted father." Loki gestures to living room and everyone sits. Loki sits in her chair across from the two women, Tony perched on the arm of the chair next to her.
The sisters sit close together but not close enough that they touch, Gamora begins, "He adopted me when I was about six or seven and then Nebula, a few years after me. He had a girlfriend or something for the first few years, but she was just as strange as he was. I hardly remember her name because one day… she just stopped being around. That's when things went from bad to worse for us. Thanos was angry that she had left and began to pit us against each other as we got older, make us fight for food or a warm shower. There were 'accidents' that happened rather frequently. Nebula lost her arm and leg to his abuse. He was manipulative enough that each time either of us got hurt, he made us think it was our own fault. When I reached 18, I took Nebula and got out of there and away from him."
Loki looks to Nebula who is openly scowling at the story, Gamora reaches over and grabs her sisters' hand to comfort her. Loki can tell they both care for each other.
"Why go after him now?" she asks Nebula. "Why wait so long?"
"Well, we tried to go after him years ago but Gast was too smart and too powerful. We don't even know how Thanos can afford to hire him. We didn't even get to court, we didn't have enough money to afford a lawyer to even put a dent into his defense. So, we backed off. Nine years later, however, we see on the news about your escape and his arrest. We wanted to reach out immediately but thought the case for him to go to prison would be very cut and dry. It appears not, which is why we want to help you. He's an evil, evil person and between the three of us we know the true evil that lies in him. We want to expose this asshole for what he is," Nebula tells her. "He can't get away with what he's done."
Loki looks over at her dad, who appears to be writing most of this down in his notepad. Odin finally looks back at his daughter, his face unreadable. She watches him look at Nebula and Gamora and then look back at Fenrir in her lap. She looks at Thor two and he seems to believe their story, so he gives her a slight nod.
Loki looks to Odin again but before anyone else can say something, Frigga speaks, her voice firm with an air of finality. "Ladies, I think we would love to have your help. My husband and daughter will work with you further but I for one think your testimonies could only help our case. Thank you for reaching out to us."
The two women let out a sigh of relief and smile at each other. Loki can't help but smile either, there's a powerful energy in the air. She can't wait to help these two tear Thanos apart.