Chapter 17
It had taken a great deal of convincing, pleading, and something Clint referred to as puppy eyes, but eventually Loki had broken down and agreed to let Thor take care of his sons the next time he had an appointment with the Shield doctors. Normally it was Bruce who held the honor, but Thor had insisted. Loki had at first argued that his sons barely knew him, but he countered that by stating unless they spent time with him they would never know him.
"When was the last time you had contact with a child? Not including the one dinner you have already shared with us?" Loki had asked, and Thor had to admit, he had little experience with children. But he promised that he would bring Jane along, who unlike Thor, had plenty of experience through cousins and nieces.
Thor wasn't ignorant. He knew the true reason behind Loki's hesitance. His brother feared that Thor would forget his strength and injure one of the boys. That would never happen, but Thor found it difficult to convince his brother otherwise. Yes, he may be rough with his friends, and sometimes what was meant to be a friendly pat on the back sometimes sent the recipient flying over the table, but that was among grown men and warriors. Never in his life had he ever accidentally harmed a woman or child.
In the end, Loki had given his word that at the next opportunity, Thor would be granted the honor of watching over his nephews. This would turn out to be a week later, and the thunderer arrived at Loki's rooms excited. The appointment with the doctors was to be longer than usual, as Loki's pregnancy had reached a stage that allowed for more testing. Thor didn't know exactly what the tests were for, but Loki explained that in the end, the Shield agents were ensuring that the fetus was healthy and still not a monster.
The plan was for Thor to pick up the boys, and then he would bring them to the common room where Lady Jane would be joining them. After that, they were going to take the boys up to the roof and Jane was to teach the boys about kite flying. Thor only had a basic idea of what kite flying was about, but Jane assured him that Loki's children would enjoy it.
The boys were ready to go when he arrived, though they seemed shy to follow him out the door, leaving Loki behind. The youngest held on to Sleipnir's hand with a stuffed bear tucked under his other arm as they walked along, and watched Thor with wide serious eyes. Sleipnir and Jorgumand at least seemed to warm up to him a little as they got closer to the common rooms, asking questions like where his hammer was, and if he really wore a dress to get it back once.
Jane was already there when they arrived, and for a moment Thor forgot about the boys as he observed his love in the morning light.
"Good morning Jane!" he greeted, startling the petite woman from her thoughts and embraced her happily. She returned the gesture, and smiled brilliantly at him when they parted.
"Morning! Are you excited about today?"
"I am, thank you Jane for agreeing to accompany us."
She waved a hand in the air, "Please, I'm so happy you asked me," Jane glanced around and then raised her eyebrows up expectantly. "So do we need to go pick Loki's kids up, or is he bringing them here?"
Thor frowned in confusion, "What? They are right here-" he looked behind him to where the boys had been just a moment ago, only to find they weren't there. For a few seconds Thor could only stare at the empty spot before he glanced quickly around and realized that he could not see them anywhere. "Where…" he said quietly, mostly to himself as he walked over to the sofa to see if the boys had moved to sit on it, but it was empty.
Jane, who must have realized what had happened, began to search about the room, and soon both of them were calling out the boy's names. There was no answer. As far as they could tell, Sleipnir, Jorgumand and Fenris were gone.
()()()()
Tony winced at the racket he made when the cart he was pushing crashed into one of the tables in Bruce's lab. He and the scientist got along pretty well most of the time, but a line had been drawn when it came to Tony messing around in Banner's lab. Out of respect for his teammate and for the continued peace within the tower, Tony usually stayed out. But this was a unique situation. In the last tussle with the big bad of the week, his suit had been doused with some kind of slime from when Thor had taken his hammer to the monsters head. The creature had, for lack of a better term, exploded, covering entire city blocks with a strange oozing compound. Everyone in the team had been covered, but unlike everyone else who could easily replace his or her uniforms, his was a little more difficult. The ooze had solidified, and it was damn near impossible to get it off. He really didn't was to write off his suit, but the gunk had gotten into some of the mechanisms on his legs. Thankfully Steve had told him that morning that he'd used a solvent that Bruce had given him on his shield, apparently it took the crap right off.
The problem he had now was that since Thor had lost Loki's kids, everyone was busy running around looking for the little ex-monsters; likely Bruce was among the search party. Well Tony was sure the scientist wouldn't mind if he just helped himself. So he'd carted down the suit in pieces, hoping to be in and out before Bruce ever knew he was there.
The fact that Bruce was still in the lab was not something he'd been counting on. Banner turned around from the counter he was standing by, took one look at him and the cart he'd bashed into the table, and pointed at the door.
"Out."
"Hello to you too sunshine." Tony grumbled, and considered bringing up the fact that it was his damn tower, but then he noticed that behind Banner, two sets of eyes were peeking over the counter to see what the commotion was. Figures.
"You do know that there is currently a nationwide search out for those kids right?"
Bruce looked over the counter where the boys had ducked back down and then back at him with a sigh. "What do you want?"
Grinning in victory, Tony leaned on the handlebars of the cart. "A little red white and blue bird told me you have something that can get monster ooze off metal armor."
Bruce pushed away from the counter and opened a walk in storage room filled with containers and machines. The canister he hauled out looked to be too large for the smaller man to carry, but he managed and put it down on a table nearby along with some cloths and paper towel. "If you make a mess, clean it up." With that he turned back to whatever he was working on. The youngest of Loki's brood tottered from around the counter to sit at Banner's feet, a teddy bear held tight in his grip. Another kid followed, and sat next to the other one with a book and began reading slowly out loud, pointing at things on the page as he did. And though he couldn't see him yet, Tony was sure the oldest was around somewhere.
Tony snorted, and pulled one of the legs from his suit out, put it on the table and started the long process of cleaning it off. By the time he had begun taking out the inner workings to clean them individually, a stool was pushed up to the edge of the table and Sleipnir was climbing up to sit on it.
It wasn't that he didn't like kids, no, the awkwardness he felt whenever he was around Loki's sons stemmed from the fact that he didn't know any kids. He could schmooze with politicians, play fellow businessmen, and god help him he could get any woman he wanted, but put a kid in front of him and he suddenly didn't have a clue what to say.
Sleipnir didn't seem to mind that he wasn't talking though, and the boy just leaned onto the tabletop and watched him work. Eventually though the silence became too much, and Tony felt he had to say something.
"Aren't you supposed to be with Thor?" he asked, not looking away from what he was doing.
"Yes."
Well then... Tony looked over at Bruce but the scientist either wasn't listening, or was pretending not to. "So, what are you doing down here then?"
Sleipnir blinked at him and answered as if were completely obvious. "Playing."
"Oh yeah? Doesn't look like you're playing anything."
"We're playing hide and seek."
Now Tony had to look up at that. He expected to see a devious little smirk on the mini Loki's face, or an eyebrow raised in challenge like his mother. But Sleipnir's face was as blank as ever.
No, that wasn't right, it wasn't blank, his attention was just focused elsewhere.
"Does Thor know he's playing hide and seek with you?" Tony asked as he cleaned off the last piece and inspected it for anything he had missed.
"Isn't he looking for us?" was his answer and Tony had to smirk at that. Maybe there was a little trickster in there after all. With the last part clean, Tony started putting it back together, and nearly forgot about his spectator as he went about reconstructing his suits leg. It was only when he was halfway through the second leg that he really started to feel the weight of the kids eyes on him, and he looked away from his work for a moment to tell him to leave him alone (nicely, he wasn't that big of an asshole), but he stopped when he saw that the boy wasn't looking at him at all.
Sleipnir was studying the insides of his suit leg with a strange intensity, glancing down at all the small parts that Tony had already removed and cleaned and then going back to staring at the mechanical leg again. Tony frowned, but decided that at least the kid wasn't doing anything creepy like just staring at him for the hell of it, and finished polishing off the part in his hand.
Now that he was paying attention though, he realized that each time he took a part from the leg, or disassembled a smaller piece of circuitry, Sleipnir's eyes tracked his every movement. It took a while longer before he finally recognized the look in the little boy's eyes.
Tony paused just had he started to put the part back into place, and looked directly at Sleipnir. The boy already had his eyes on the place where the part was going to fit. Tony didn't move for a few moments, and waited for Sleipnir to look at him. When he did, Tony held up the thruster he had in his hand.
"You know where this goes, don't you?"
Sleipnir bit his lip, waited a beat and then without verbally responding, he stretched across the table to point directly at the spot that the part belonged.
Tony eyed him critically for a moment, and then handed the thruster over. "Put it back then."
Sleipnir took the metal in both hands, and stared at it closely, taking in all the details before climbing up to sit on the table so that he could reach easily. The thruster slid back into place with a sharp click, and Sleipnir looked back at him with a delighted smile. Tony found himself returning the smile before he knew what his face was doing, and even then he didn't try and wipe it off. Instead he held up the next part. "What about this one?"
Piece by piece, part by tiny part, the leg was reconstructed, even the complicated circuitry. When it was done, Tony sat back and looked Sleipnir over. "You know, you're pretty smart for a kid," he said conversationally.
"Were you expecting him not to be?" came Bruce's voice from across the room but Tony ignored him.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to share how you were able to get around the tower without anyone seeing you guys, including the cameras."
"Magic." was the simple reply, and Tony froze.
"You guys can do magic?"
Sleipnir nodded absently. "Jorgumand cast it, I had to carry Fenris."
Tony looked over at the seemingly innocent four-year-old that was drawing on a sheet of paper and then back at Sleipnir. "So, what, he turned you guys invisible?"
"No," Sleipnir shook his head. "It doesn't make you invisible; it just makes people not see you."
Tony stared at him. "What?"
"These aren't the kids you're looking for." Bruce said suddenly with a slight wave to his hand with an amused look on his face.
"You would make a Star Wars reference," Tony grumbled.
()()()()
Loki arrived to find his apartment empty, which wasn't surprising really. He expected Thor was probably in the common room with his children and briefly he allowed himself to enjoy the quiet. He wouldn't change a thing about his sons, and he was pleased that they seemed happy in this new home, but sometimes the three of them could make such a racket. Loki hadn't had to live with such a constant volume of chatter since he and Thor had shared rooms as children, and so at times like this, he selfishly basked in the blessed silence.
After a minute he moved away from the door to place the envelope of papers he had been given in one of the high cupboards above the fridge. It was hardly secret information, and it was likely that several top government officials had the same envelope on their desks by now, but the papers were important to him, and high cupboards meant safety from small reaching fingers at the moment. Absently Loki walked around the apartment, putting away things that had been left out in the morning rush to be ready, before deciding that Thor had spent enough 'bonding' time with his children.
There was a startling amount of people in the common room when he arrived, and to his great amusement, none of them seemed to notice his entrance for several moments. When they did, Loki frowned a bit when Thor took one look at him and went pale as a sheet.
"Is everything alright?" Loki asked when it seemed like everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing to watch the two brothers talk.
Thor opened his mouth, only to close it seconds later. "It's fine, everything is fine," he managed to get out on his second try. "How was your appointment? How is your child?"
Loki could have known that was a diversion if he were deaf, dumb and blind, and he quickly scanned the crowd for his children. "All is well, it is still human shaped -where are my sons?"
Loki's worry only grew when Thor visibly deflated and several people in the room tensed. "Loki, I- they-"
"We're right here!" Jorgumand declared, slipping up from behind him. At the same time he felt Fenris' hand slide into his own and Sleipnir appeared on his other side.
"May we have lunch now?" Jorgumand asked, completely oblivious of all the dumbfounded faces around him.
"Did Thor not feed you?" Loki asked, glancing up at his foster brother. The blond man was staring strangely at the boys and Loki raised an eyebrow in question.
"No, we were too busy playing," Sleipnir answered before Thor could even open his mouth.
"Hmm, well in that case let us go see what there is to eat. Yes, Jorgumand?" he asked when his son pulled gently on his free hand.
"What does the word bullshit mean?"
If the common room had been quiet before, now it was completely silent. You could have easily heard a pin drop, or the squeak of a boot as Clint Barton took a nervous step back.
"Where did you hear that word used?" Loki asked, careful to keep his voice completely calm.
"Tony said it." Sleipnir answered for his brother, and at the back of the room Loki heard Clint expel a relieved breath. Loki glanced about until he spotted the redhead he was searching for, but Pepper Potts was already tapping furiously at her phone, a small blush upon her cheeks.
Addressing his sons once more, he hid any and all amusement in his voice. "It is a vulgar word used by those with a common mind and common vocabulary. When you are older and find the need to swear, I hope you three will be more creative. Now, I believe we were on our way to lunch?" There was a chorus of yeses and with one last uncertain look at Thor; Loki led his children out of the room.
It wasn't until after the boys had been fed and they were once again in their apartment that Loki questioned them.
"What exactly did you three do with Thor?" he asked as he drew out runes on paper for Fenris to learn from.
"We played games," Jorgumand answered right away from where he was drawing on his own paper.
"I see, and what games did you play together?"
His two eldest shared a look before Sleipnir answered, "Hide and seek."
"Ah, and before you three went off to hide, you of course told Thor what game you were playing?" The pair of guilty faces before him was answer enough. "Hmmm," he drummed his fingers against the tabletop and considered his sons. "And where did you hide? I'm assuming from Thor's expression when I arrived that he did not succeed in finding you. And I do believe before you three left this morning I expressed how important it is that you are never left alone."
"We weren't alone! We were with Bruce, he let us play there until Thor found us, but he never came," Jorgumand said, as though it was Thor's own fault that he couldn't find the boys.
"Are we in trouble?" Sleipnir asked quietly.
Loki sighed and shook his head. "Considering that this is the first offence, no. But next time Thor is to watch over you three, I insist that if you wish to play with him, you must first tell him before you run off. And next time you see him you both are to apologize for today."
"Yes Mama." the boys chorused.
())()()()
Later that night, Loki woke to the sound of three sleeping children, all of them quiet and still. After the last month, it was the most beautiful sound Loki had ever heard. Fenris was curled up to his chest, his thumb perilously close to falling out of his mouth, while his other arm was hooked around his bear. Jorgumand was sleeping in the middle, his arms stretched over his head and his pajama top hiked halfway up his torso. The boy's nightmares had disappeared when Loki had begun to leave the bedside table light on; an easy solution in the end. Sleipnir was the furthest from Loki, curled slightly on his side facing his brothers, a peaceful expression on his face.
It was a wonderful sight to behold, and Loki basked in the moment before wondering what had woken him in the first place if all three of his children were fine. It took him a moment longer to realize there was an extra set of lungs breathing, which meant that there was someone else in the room, and that someone was beside the bed to his back.
It was difficult to keep his breathing relaxed as a cold spike of fear darted up his spine and seized his lungs. His eyes darted to the small form that was his cell phone that rested on his dresser. Too far away, and there were no weapons at his disposal.
The bed shifted as the intruder sat down on the edge and in his mind Loki prayed that it was only Thor, that his stupid brother was playing a nasty joke to scare him, or needed to speak with him and could not possibly wait until morning. But he knew already it wasn't. Suddenly thin fingers carded through his hair in a soothing fashion and Loki knew who it was. The knowledge that his mother was in his room was not something that calmed his nerves though. In fact it boosted his fear for his children tenfold and he gave up the pretense of slumber to stretch an arm over all three of them.
"Peace, my son," Frigga whispered from above him but Loki felt no such thing. If she was here then that meant that the Allfather had awoken at last. Frigga said nothing else, if she noticed the tense set to his shoulders, or how he gripped Sleipnir's arm she did not speak on it. Instead she continued to stroke his hair as she had when he was very little.
Eventually when enough time had passed and Loki could no longer take the tension, he turned his head enough to see his mothers face. She wasn't looking at him though; instead she was looking over his children with a fond expression. When she noticed his attention on her, she looked to him and gave a watery smile.
"They are beautiful Loki," she said softly.
Loki looked away at that, his eyes going back to his sleeping children. His mind raced over all the possible reasons why his mother would be in his room, how she had gotten there and what her intentions were. Did Odin think he wouldn't fight her?
"It pains me to see you like this." she said after the silence had stretched past the point of comfort.
"How so?"
"Afraid," she answered, her beautiful voice sounding brittle. "Afraid for your children, because of me."
Loki looked back towards her and was dismayed to see tears in her eyes. Instinctively he wished to deny it, but it was true so he said nothing.
"Loki, I have not come here to take your sons from you," she promised quietly. "I've come to see how you fair. I promise there are no other motives."
With those words Loki felt himself finally relax. After all he had not learned to lie from his mother. He managed to give her a small smile and loosened the grip he had on Sleipnir's arm so that his hand merely rested there.
"How have you been Loki? How are your sons?" she asked as she continued to stroke his hair.
"Well," he answered quietly and looked back over to the boys "There were complications, lingering effect from their transformation, but the worst of it seems to be over now."
"I'm glad," she said, and he watched as one of her hands came into view and gently stroked Fenris' cheek. "They deserve peace after what was done." She paused for a moment and retracted both her hands. "Why did you never tell me Loki?"
"It was difficult enough to see fathers face fill with shame and disappointment with me each time, I could not bear to see it on yours as well." he answered honestly.
"You believed that I would be disappointed with you?" she sounded distressed.
"Odin said-"
"Odin was a fool." she cut him off sharply and Loki turned to her in surprise. Though there were still tears, her eyes were fierce. "If he had only accepted your children, brought them home to be raised as sons of Asgard-"
"All would know I had birthed them and discovered I was a Jotun." Loki finished but Frigga shook her head.
"No one would have had to know that. We would have invented a woman, if the court could believe that you birthed a horse then they certainly would believe in some imaginary mother.
Loki found he had nothing to say against that. Frigga sighed, "There is another reason behind my visit," she admitted softly. "When your- when Odin woke, he intended to send warriors to take your children. He was convinced that your boys would eventually become a threat to Asgard."
Loki jerked his head to look directly at her, but Frigga put a calming hand on his shoulder.
"It is alright Loki, that will not happen. I made sure that."
"He is your king," Loki said sharply.
"And you are my son," Frigga replied. "And these boys are my grandsons."
There was a note of finality to her tone, ending the argument there, leaving him with no choice but to believe her. He wanted to ask what she had done, what arguments had she made to convince Odin to spare them, but he knew better than to ask. At the same time he tried not to think of what might have happened if she had known the truth from the beginning.
Loki closed his eyes and swallowed against the lump that had formed in his throat. If he had only told her before, if he hadn't been so worried about her disappointment in him, perhaps thing would have been different. If he had told her when Sleipnir was first transformed, she might have made Odin change him back, and Jorgumand and Fenris would never have been taken from him, and Hela...
Loki took a steadying breath and pushed such thoughts aside. It would do no good to dwell on what could have been. Instead he opened his eyes to his mother, "You are certain he will not come?"
She nodded, "Yes, under the condition and neither you, nor any of your children set foot in Asgard. If you do, it would be seen as an act of war and you and your children would be marked as enemies of the realm." she paused to stoke his hair once more. "I am sorry,"
Loki shook his head. "Don't be, it is probably better this way, and there is little left for me in Asgard in any case."
The queen nodded, her lips pressed together and she looked down at him with tear filled eyes, "I will miss you, my sweet boy."
Loki reached over and took her hand in his. "I will miss you as well," he replied quietly.
Frigga smiled and brushed a tear from her cheek. "If you would permit it, I thought I might visit, from time to time?"
"You detest traveling by the Bifrost," Loki said, and it was true. Frigga almost never left Asgard but for the most important diplomatic visits.
She turned her gaze upon his slumbering children. "I think I might find it more manageable given the proper incentive." She squeezed the hand that was still caught in his. "I thought I might visit after your child is born?"
It was stated as a question, and the imploring look on her features was identical to Thor's. "Of course," he said, directing her hand down until it was pressed flat against his stomach. He heard her sigh happily as her own delicate brand of magic reached out and made contact with the small life within him. She wasn't the goddess of marriage and motherhood for nothing. With one touch, Frigga knew more about his child than all of Shields machines.
"I have brought you a gift," Frigga said quietly, "for my newest grandchild when it arrives."
Loki turned in the bed enough to see a large wide shape by the window, and it took him a moment to recognize what it was.
"Both you and Thor slept in that cradle," Frigga told him, her voice sounding like it was miles away. "I had planned to gift it to either of you, whichever one of you graced me with a grandchild first." Loki glanced at her, an eyebrow raised. Her faced matched his own. "Well, better late than never I suppose." she added.
The room was quiet for some time after that, with Frigga studying the sleeping faces of her grandsons, and Loki allowing her the moment to do so. Finally, his mother shifted on the bed. "I cannot stay much longer, and I must visit your brother before I go. But I will see you soon?"
"Yes, quite soon."
Frigga smiled at him, leaned over to press a kiss to his forehead and was gone. He waited a few moments in the quiet room to make sure she was truly gone before he looked back at his sons.
"You may open your eyes now Sleipnir."
Obediently, his eldest blinked his eyes open and smiled shyly at him.
"It is a shame you did not alert her when you awoke, she would have been happy to have met you," Loki said quietly, shifting his arms around as Fenris squirmed a little in his sleep.
"She said she would be coming back," Sleipnir argued, sitting up in bed to look at the large wooden cradle that hadn't been there when he'd gone to bed. "Is she really our Grandmother?"
Loki smiled, "Yes, she is. Sleipnir, stay in bed, you may look at it in the morning."
Sleipnir paused, one foot already on the floor, eager to examine the gift that had been left. "But I'm awake now."
"Sleipnir," Loki said in a tone that all his sons knew to obey. Sure enough, Sleipnir sighed and maneuvered back under the covers. "How about if I tell you a story, one that your grandmother used to tell me?"
Sleipnir perked up a bit at that, and turned over to face him. Loki began the tale, his son listening avidly until about halfway through when his eyelids began to droop. He continued on in the telling after Sleipnir's breathing evened out.
Wow this chapter is long! And after seeing the Avengers (four times) this fic is officially AU!
Oh, and a message to all my reviewers…. DAMN YOU ALL! I was THIS CLOSE to being finished this story, and then you all were giving me things like IDEAS and now I have to write one more chapter. You're killing me here, I haven't seen my boyfriend in DAYS, I miss the outside, I miss the sun!
So now there are three more chapters to go! Are you happy? ARE YOU!
(god I've had so much sugar today…)