It was a crisp, clear October morning. Loki walked into the living room to find Tony and Steve carving pumpkins while Clint hung a banner that said Happy Halloween across the wall. Bruce and Natasha watched on while drinking pumpkin spice coffee.
Thor walked up from behind Loki and gave him a friendly slap on the back. "Good morning, Brother," he said, continuing on to the kitchen for some food. He must not have put much thought into the strange happenings taking place in the room.
"So, what do you think?" Tony asked Steve as he showed him an Iron man face he had carved into his pumpkin. Steve turned his pumpkin around to reveal an artistic carving of all the Avengers assembling in their gear and battle poses. Tony pouted a bit at being out done. "What If I put an Arc reactor in mine? Iron Pumpkin. How does that sound? Maybe add some robotics and—"
"What are you doing?" Asked Loki, addressing the whole room rather than just Tony.
"It's almost Halloween. What do you think we're doing? Carving Pumpkins, putting up the décor and all that," explained Tony.
Loki let out a sigh. "Why do you insist upon celebrating such silly holiday?" Loki asked.
"Uh, kid. Ever heard of trick-or-treating?" asked Clint.
"On the contrary, Barton. I would prefer both rather than an either or situation," said Loki smugly.
"Come on Loki," whined Clint. "You're a kid. You gotta go trick-or-treating with us. Otherwise it we'll look like a bunch of idiots being all adults in costumes."
"And is that any different from what you guys usually look like when you go out of the house? All star-spangled, red and gold armored, and Robin Hood like?" Loki couldn't help it. Clint had made it just to easy.
"We have an agreement not to go dressed as ourselves this year," said Natasha. "Right Stark?" she eyed him inquisitively.
"I'm just going on the record to say I never agreed to that," said Tony.
"This 'Halloween' as you mortals now call it is just an ill attempt at the original pagan holiday of Samhain," commented Loki.
"What's Samhain?" asked Steve. "I thought Halloween was the precursor to All Saint's Day."
Loki rolled his eyes. "Oh please. Halloween is a mangled modern name for All Hallows Eve. The Catholic Church simply adopted the original Holliday of Samhain, celebrated by most everyone in northern Europe and changed the name. The same goes for Yule being turned into Christmas and the celebration of Eastra, goddess of spring, is now Easter."
This confused some of the Avengers. "Jarvis, is he right?" asked Tony.
"Yes Sir," replied Jarvis. "According to the sources I have checked on the Internet."
"Hu, imagine that," said Tony.
"Look, Loki," said Steve with earnest. "The point is, it would mean a lot to us if you went trick-or-treating with us. Who knows? You may actually enjoy yourself." Steve smiled.
Loki thought about it for a minuet. "Fine," he said at last. "But I'm choosing my own costume and you all are not going to know what it is until that night."
"We already said you can't dress as yourself," said Clint.
"Now Agent Barton." Loki's grin grew mischievous. "Where would the fun in that be?" Loki turned to walk back to his bedroom. He had a costume to make.
"Loki, Hurry up or all the candy will be gone!" called Natasha. They were waiting outside Loki's door on Halloween night. Natasha was dressed up as Cat Woman, Tony was nineteenth century Sherlock Holmes, Clint went as Robin Hood, Steve dressed as a medieval knight, Bruce went with a classic Frankenstein's monster, and Thor was dressed as Achilles.
"I'm sure there will be plenty of candy," Steve said. Fumbling with his Captain America shield he had disguised as a medieval shield to go with his knightly attire.
"I know that. I'm just trying to get him to come out already," Natasha said impatiently. "What do you think he's going as?" she asked.
"Heaven only knows," said Bruce. The team thought his choice in costume rather cleaver. Bruce wore green paint that reminded them of his hulk form. Not to mention, Frankenstein's monster was also the product or a mad science experiment.
"Clint, I don't think your costume counts as not dressing up as yourself," said Tony playfully.
"Does to. Besides, Nat wears a cat suit every day." Natasha swatted at Clint's shoulder. "Ouch! No need for a catfight."
"Is this truly how this armor is worn" Thor asked, fiddling with the skirt of his Greek armor.
"Relax Thor. You look just as good as Brad Pitt," Natasha assured him.
"Who is this Brad Pitt? I thought I was the mighty warrior Achilles," said Thor confused. Natasha sighed and decided it was not worth the effort to explain it to him.
The door to Loki's room swung open and out jumped Loki in full costume. He was dressed as a miniature Thor, sporting a red cape, armor, and silver winged helm. He lifted up an exact replica of Mjonlir in a pose much like the real Thor. "Follow me into the fray, my friends in arms. We shall emerge victorious. For Asgard!" Loki pointed his hammer towards the exit and marched passed them with much hast. He had matched Thor's deep, booming voice and was doing a rather convincing job at acting like the real thing.
Thor felt a mix of pride and embarrassment. "Is he mocking me?" Thor asked out loud.
"Sort of, but in an admiring way," said Bruce, smiling in the direction Loki had run off.
Despite the playacting, Thor was rather touched that his little brother had dressed up as him. He was glad that Loki thought of him as a sort of role model. He could have dressed up as anything or any one of the Avengers, but Loki had chosen Thor. He obviously put a lot of thought into his costume. It was not one of those cheep ones you could find at the store. The costume looked like the real thing only sized to fit a child Loki.
Thor smiled. "Yes, let us make haste," he called out, matching the overly dramatic tone Loki was using. "For Asgard!"
"And for candy!" cried Loki.
The team went out for New York style trick-or-treating. Loki got most of the candy because he was a cute kid who had a pretty good costume. The people giving out candy thought it so adorable that a kid had dressed up as a super hero. The whole time the Avengers were out, Loki refused to break character and only answered to the name Thor, which got a little confusing whenever the real Thor thought they were calling after him. By the end of the evening, the team and Loki had pillowcases stuffed with candy. They called it a night and headed back to the Avengers Tower to enjoy their sweet rewards.
"This plunder shall forever be sung of in the halls of Valhalla!" declared Loki, emptying his candy onto the floor in order to sort through. The Avengers all settled down in the living room to rest after such a chaotic and fun-filled night.
"You know kid," said Tony, faking an upset tone, "It hurts me that you didn't want to dress up as me."
Loki looked back at him and smiled. "Well, the night is not yet over," he said with a mischievous look on his face. In shimmer of green magic, Loki's Thor costume transformed until he was deked head to toe in miniature red and gold Iron Man Amor. "I am Iron Man, just your average genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Loki said with a smug, Tony Stark like tone. The room laughed along as Tony and Loki had a stare down.
"That better not be real armor," Tony said threateningly.
Loki lifted up his hand at Tony to reveal a repulser that started to glow just like the real Iron Man before he was about to blast something. "You wanna test it?" Loki asked.
"Loki, don't do it," scolded Steve. He was not sure if the armor was real or not, but he felt a little uneasiness at the thought.
Loki turned his head to Steve then did another clothing transformation and came out looking like Captain America, shield and all. "I'm only gonna say this once," Loki said with a stern look on his face, pointing a finger to Steve. "Watch your language soldier." The room broke into another round of laughter.
Steve's cheeks got a little red. "No one's ever gonna let that one go are they?" he said while running his fingers through his hair.
"Who's next?" asked Clint, getting a little excited.
"Just don't turn into the Hulk and we'll be fine," said Bruce.
Loki turned his gaze upon Natasha. "I have been working on this one other trick of mine," he said with a grin. The green magic appeared again but instead of just changing his cloths, Loki's whole body transformed until the team was looking at an exact copy of Black Widow. The Black Widow copy had a fully formed woman's body and red hair. She wore her usual combat jumpsuit. The copy was practically impossible to tell apart from the real Natasha who sat on the couch with her jaw dropped.
The Loki Black Widow turned to the rest of the room with her hands on her hips. "Hello boys," she said in the exact same voice as Natasha. The Avengers looked back and forth from the real one to the replica, trying to find a difference other than the outfits currently worn.
Natasha's face had come out of shock and she now wore a rather unreadable expression of seriousness. "Run. Now," was all she said. The Loki Black Widow's eyes widened and she/he turned back into Loki wearing the Thor costume. Just the deadly look on the master assassin's face caused the kid to run down the hall into his room. In his haste, he forgot about his candy and the fact that he could teleport.
The team all had a rousing burst of laughter after that. Loki had messed with the wrong Avenger. After a while they settled down and Loki came back out of his room to rejoin the others. They spent the rest of Halloween night watching a horror movie marathon and eating the candy from trick-or-treating.