Chapter 15

Steve Rogers had missed this. There was something about doing something as simple as rough-housing with a kid that soothed a part of him that hasn't been right since Germany first invaded Poland. It didn't matter that the kid wasn't technically human either, that he was the son of a god from another planet. Or that the other guy playing around with them was in full costume and spent most of the time hanging from the ceiling. All that mattered was maintaining a secure grip on the kid's waist as he spun them around in a tight circle, and the sound of Sleipnir's laughter bouncing off the walls of the gym.

It was just the three of them. Loki had taken Jorgumand and Fenris back to their rooms for an afternoon nap an hour ago. Sleipnir was originally supposed to be with them, but Loki's oldest son had declared that he wasn't tired and didn't need a nap. Steve had been in the rec room and had overheard the conversation in its entirety. He'd been impressed by Sleipnir's speech which had been devoid of whining, he only pointed out that he no longer slept while his brothers napped. Loki, with Fenris already asleep in one arm and Jorgumand leaning heavily on his leg with his eyes closed, told him that if he wasn't tired he could play with his toys quietly while the others napped. Sleipnir had been less than thrilled with the alternative, and without thinking about how he was likely overstepping, Steve had spoken up and offered to watch Sleipnir for a while.

Looking back on it, he supposed he should be more worried on how little protest Loki had given before finally agreeing in the face of Sleipnir's hopeful expression. Peter had shown up shortly after Loki had left and the three of them had spent the last hour in the training gym on the mats, playing tag or catch or Sleipnir's new favorite: Tarzan, in which they used Peter's webbing to swing back and forth.

"I think we're going to have to install a tire swing somewhere." Peter said thoughtfully as Sleipnir wobbled over to one of the leftover strands of web, apparently still dizzy from the spinning.

Steve looked thoughtfully up at the metal rafters. "Why not in here? It can't be too hard to find a tire and some rope in this building."

Peter's mask twitched and Steve assumed he had raised an eyebrow. "You'd trust a tire from Shield?" he asked incredulously.

"Is there a reason I shouldn't?"

The young superhero shrugged. "I don't know, just be careful Stark hasn't ever been near it, it might have rockets or something installed in them."

Steve gave a small snort of laughter. "That reminds me, listen to this. Hey Sleipnir?"

The boy in question, who at the moment was hanging upside down three feet in the air looking like a young wall crawler in the making, looked over at them and smiled.

"Yes?"

"After this, do you want to go play with some of your Lego?" Steve asked.

Sleipnir nodded energetically, "Yes! Peter too?"

"Sure thing! What about Tony, is it ok if he plays with us as well?"

Sleipnir's smile faded a little. "But he's not allowed to play with Lego. Bruce said so."

"Did he? Did he say why?"

Sleipnir flipped so that he was right side up again and repeated Bruce's words verbatim. "Tony can't ever be allowed to play with Lego because he might use it to create weapons of mass destruction."

Peter let loose a laugh and Steve smiled at Sleipnir. "Well I guess you're right, that does sound like something Tony would do. Come on, how about we go visit Bruce in the lab before we take you back to your Mom?"

Sleipnir grinned and hopped down from the webbing. "Ok!" he said as he came over to stand at his side.

"Do you want to ride on my shoulders instead of walking?" he asked impulsively and Sleipnir looked up at him quizzically.

"Why?"

Steve shrugged. "It's fun? I used to ride on my uncle's shoulders all the time when I was a kid. Here," he kneeled down and lifted Sleipnir up to sit on his shoulders. "Hold on now!" he made sure to wait and make sure that Sleipnir had a good grip on his head before rising back up to his full height. He heard him give a little gasp and grinned. "See, now you're taller than everyone!"

Sleipnir didn't say anything right away, and it took Steve a moment to realize something was wrong. Sleipnir had gone very still above him and the hands that had affixed themselves to his short hair were gripping him tightly.

"Steve," Peter said suddenly in a strange voice, looking up at the child on his shoulders. "Put him down. Carefully."

Steve reached up and gently lifted Sleipnir down so that he was standing on the floor again. The child in front of him was vastly different from how he'd been thirty seconds ago. His large green eyes were wide and unfocused, his breathing was quick and shallow and his skin was stark white. He didn't even seem to register that they were there, so Steve gently reached out to place a bracing hand on the boys shoulder.

"Sleipnir?" he asked but there was no change so he gave the shoulder a tiny shake. "Come in buddy, snap out of it."

But it would seem as though Sleipnir couldn't hear him as he continued to stare forward, his attention stuck on something only he could see in his mind. Steve looked up to Peter who was hovering close, but the young man seemed as lost as he was.

"What happened?" the wallcrawler asked.

"I have no idea." Steve said grimly.

"Loki's gonna kill us if we broke his kid."

"He's not broken, he's just... come on Sleipnir, talk to us!" Steve urged the boy and in that moment he saw a small flicker of something in his eyes. "Sleipnir? Hey I know you can hear me buddy, it's Steve and Peter. You're ok, you just have to snap out of this?" Steve watched Sleipnir's eyes carefully for any sign that he was coming out of it but there was no such luck. "Ok, ok Sleipnir, I'm going to have to pick you up again, but just so we can take you back to your mom alright?"

That seemed to do it. Sleipnir's eyes snapped back into focus and the boy let out a startled gasp as he came back to himself. "Sleipnir?" Steve called softly and a pair of wild green eyes settled on him. "Hey, are you ok? What just happened there?" He waited for Sleipnir's breathing to calm down, but even then the kid didn't answer. And then suddenly, without warning, Sleipnir's eyes filled with tears and he began to cry quietly.

Deciding that he couldn't possibly make it worse at this point, Steve reached forward and pulled the boy into a hug. Sleipnir just continued to cry.

"Come on kiddo, I'm going to take you back to your mom, ok?"

Sleipnir nodded against his shoulder, his breath hitching a little when Steve slowly stood up, lifting the boy with him and then they were striding down the halls at a fair clip. Peter was following, talking to Sleipnir from over his shoulder even though the boy didn't respond. When Loki opened the door Sleipnir practically flew into his arms with a desperate noise. The second Loki had him the boy began to cry in earnest, his sobs muffled into the fabric of Loki's collar.

In that moment Steve knew that if Loki had access to his magic, he would have been dead ten times over from the look the god gave him. "What happened?"

"I don't know Loki." Steve said, looking sadly at the weeping child. "I really don't. We were playing around and he was perfectly fine. Then we were going to go see Bruce and I put him on my shoulders and he just froze up. I don't know what happened, and it took him a minute to come out of it."

Loki's eyes flicked between him and Peter who was standing a little behind him.

"It was weird," he heard Peter say. "Steve picked him up and Sleipnir's face just went white, like he saw a ghost or something."

Loki continued to watch them for a moment longer, his lips pressed tight together and he nodded shortly. "Thank you for bringing him back." he said, and stepped back into the apartment.

"I'm really sorry Loki." Steve couldn't help but say.

Loki paused before replying, "As am I," before shutting the door.

Steve didn't see Loki or any of his kids for the rest of the day, or the following day either and he blamed himself entirely. Not that he knew exactly what he'd done wrong, but whatever had happened to Sleipnir, he had triggered it.

He didn't dare tell Thor what had happened, even when the man began commenting on Loki's absence. Instead, Steve went to the only other person he knew that might have some sort of insight, and might be able to offer some much needed advice.

He ended up standing in front of the door to Bruce's lab.

Steve knocked before entering the large room and waved when Bruce held up a finger indicating that he'd be a moment. Bruce was hunched over a small machine that had numerous wires attached to it and emitted a low hum as parts of it spun around. Whatever it was doing, it seemed to be doing its job right because Bruce adjusted a few connections before nodding to himself and turned to face Steve. "Hey! What are you doing down here?"

"I was hoping on getting your thoughts on something." Steve said, coming around one of the long tables littered with machines and devices. "It has to do with Loki and his kids."

Bruce blinked. "Uh, ok… what's the question?"

"It's not so much of a question as it is a situation. There was an… incident, the other day with Sleipnir, I still don't know exactly what happened but Loki hasn't let any of his kids out of the apartment since."

That got Bruce's attention. "What do you mean by 'an incident'?" he asked, looking concerned.

Steve explained what had happened, from Sleipnir's refusing to take a nap all the way up to bringing him back to Loki, a shaking mess. Bruce listened attentively, and by the end he looked very thoughtful.

"And no one has seen any of them since that?" the scientist asked.

"That's right." Steve sighed. "I'm just worried that I've seriously set back all the headway we've been making with Loki. There's no way he's going to let any of his kids be alone with us now, not after that."

"Hey come on, I don't think it's that bad. I doubt Loki's going to blame you for what happened."

Steve shot Bruce an incredulous look. "You've got to be kidding. This is Loki we are talking about, and I seriously did… something to his kid."

Bruce shrugged. "I think you are underestimating how aware Loki is of his kids' mental state. Episodes like the one Sleipnir had are understandable, especially considering the circumstances; I'm surprised there haven't been more."

Steve stared at Bruce. "What do you mean? Why would there be any 'episodes'?"

The smaller man looked at him sympathetically. "I think one of the problems is that whenever you see Sleipnir, or Jorgumand for that matter, you and the rest of the team only see healthy normal little boys. But they're not normal Steve."

"I know they aren't technically human…"

"I'm not talking about physically." Bruce interrupted. "I'm talking mentally. Loki's kids are all traumatized. They were all turned into some other form, and then imprisoned, basically, for centuries."

"I thought- I was under the impression that they didn't remember that time."

"Consciously no. As far as I know, none of them remember anything from after the spells were cast on them." Bruce paused, tapping his fingers on the countertop beside him. "What was your first word?"

Steve blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Just humor me, what was the very first word you ever said?"

"Uh, I don't know," he stammered, thrown completely by the strange new topic. "I guess it might have been Ma, I don't know."

Bruce nodded, "Alright, good, classic choice. And you would have been, what, five, maybe six months old when you said that right?" Steve shrugged. "On average, most infants say their first word at around the six month mark. By the time they're two, most kids are starting to string words together to make sentences. Now, can you tell me how many times you've heard Fenris speak?"

Steve let out a breath. "Never." He answered, and sat down heavily on a nearby stool. "I didn't notice, but he never talks. I've never even hear him say Mama like the other two."

Bruce smiled grimly at him. "I know. And before you ask, yes, he can talk. In fact, I've heard him talk. The kid can speak in full sentences when he wants to. Only when it's just him and Loki though. The one time I heard him, I don't think he saw me there."

"So he's incredibly shy," Steve offered, knowing it was a weak excuse.

"I'm pretty sure it's more than a case of shyness. And Sleipnir isn't the only one prone to episodes either. The other day, Loki was down here and the kids were as well, obviously. I was showing the older boys the low powered laser; I figured they'd like it. What little boy doesn't like lasers right?" Bruce shook his head, "About ten seconds after I'd turned off the lights, and I hadn't even turned on the laser yet when Jorgumand started screaming. Just… lost it."

Steve frowned. "What happened?"

"It was the dark." Bruce explained with a one-shoulder shrug. "I don't know if it triggered some memory or whatever, but Loki told me Jorgumand had never been afraid of the dark before. And the way he went from being completely at ease and excited to absolutely paralyzed with fear…" he trailed off.

Steve blew out a sigh, and thought that over. "So what can we do?" he asked, because there had to be something.

"I don't think there's anything we can do right now. I mean, the kid's don't remember anything happening to them; it's all in their subconscious. I've talked to Loki about it, and I suggested maybe a child therapist, but this might even be something that passes with time. At the moment, I'm actually more worried about Loki himself."

"Loki? Why?"

Bruce hesitated before sharing. "All three of the kids have been suffering from nightmares. Apparently they don't remember anything when they wake up, but it's gotten pretty bad."

The nightmares he knew about. Steve had seen them first hand when he'd watched over the boys while Loki was retrieving Fenris. Sleipnir had started thrashing about under the covers, and when Steve had put a hand on him to try and calm him down, the boy had come awake with a start. The worst part had come after that. When Sleipnir had realized that Loki wasn't in the room, he'd become nearly inconsolable.

"From what Loki's told me," Bruce continued, "on any given night each one of them will wake up twice or three times a night. Now with that in mind, how much sleep do you think Loki's getting?"

Steve ran a hand over his head. "Jeeze, no wonder he didn't tear me apart yesterday, he probably didn't have the energy."

Bruce glanced back at the small machine he'd been working on. "I've asked him if he'll accept help, but he seems pretty determined to do it on his own."

Neither spoke after that, and Bruce continued to fiddle with his machine.

"Maybe," Steve said finally, "maybe we should stop asking."

Bruce met his eyes and quirked an eyebrow. "Let me know if that works."

Sorry for the wait! I think there are like 4 chapters left, and they are pretty much done! Please let me know what you think about this chapter! More to come soon!