(Author's Gift To Reviewers: Avenger Babies!)
-It had been a very bad idea to let the Avengers take care of Loki while he took a much needed toilet break, Director Fury now realized. Spies couldn't have a sensitive bladder, it appeared. He had been out of the room for two minutes, and at his return he was met with... crying. On the carpet sat a small blonde-haired child, crying while clinging to a hammer about as large as himself. Fury blinked a few times, then got hit against the eyepatch by a plastic arrow.- "WHO DID...!" - His good eye was drawn to the chandelier, where another child was dangling, armed with a plastic bow and a set of arrows. It was giggling uncontrollably.- He was much too dumbstruck to do anything, until more crying joined the one with the hammer. He mad this way further into the room, and saw...-
"Gimme tha! Gimmeeee!"
-A small, blackhaired toddler was crying and reaching out for a big golden helmet with two very characteristic horns on it, which was being held above his head by a child-sized but still considerably larger Hulk. Also on the scene were a brown-haired kid of about 5 with a mean grin that was laughing at the toddler and a red-haired baby girl crawling around without understanding the situation even the least. Fury didn't know what came first, the realization or the reaction.-
"TONY STARK, AREN'T YOU ASHAMED!? GIVE THAT HELMET BACK!"
"Hulk wantsed the helmet, Mistur!"
"HULK, give the helmet back. Now."
-And believe it or not, Hulk shrugged and dropped the helmet on the child that was probably Loki. Then he shrunk to the size of a normal, brown-haired child with a pair of too-large glasses on his face. The whole room was silent now, even baby Thor had shut his mouth for a second. When a second plastic arrow hit the back of Fury's head, the director knew he would have a handful with this...-
Peter took Hela to the central room of the Mansion. It was some sort of ballroom, with polished floors, a very high ceiling and crystal chandeliers that looked both expensive and antique. In a corner stood a grand piano. It was utterly perfect for his plan.
"What did you want to show me?"
Peter smiled at her, and produced a string of webbing, on which he quickly flung himself to the ceiling. He crawled around on the ceiling and walls a bit, and then he let himself come down on a thread, grabbing Hela with him and taking her along for a swing on his webs through the whole of the ballroom. At last he put them both on the ground. Hela appeared shocked.
"You… You are…"
"I am part spider, you can say. Spiders are considered vermin here and many people are scared of them. Do you think me a monster? Are you scared of me?"
Hela was at loss of words. She had known Peter had secrets, dangerous secrets even as his presence at her apartment would have alerted the police, but this…
"I don't think you are a monster."
Peter took her hands in his.
"Then why do you insist on calling yourself one? You are powerful, beautiful and strong, those are not the traits of a monster."
Hela looked at him, sad and yet… hopeful.
"You… you don't know all. You don't know half of it…"
"Then tell me."
Hela looked at the piano. She walked towards it and Peter followed. Then she started playing. It was a difficult composition without a doubt, and of an eerie beauty. To Peter, it felt as if the music was tangible, as if he could feel the strings of notes, the sound waves wrap themselves around him. It was so sad, so deeply troubled and yet unearthly beautiful… Peter couldn't help himself; he stared at her hands as she played, her long and elegant fingers dancing over the keys. She was entrancing, and a moment he wondered if she had perhaps woven a spell into the music. While he stared at her hands, he saw something strange happening. The skin of her left hand started to disappear. Then the muscles, showing pearly white bones. The strangely clean decay went up her arm while Peter looked at it, open-mouthed. Hela was unaffected by her decay, she simply continued playing, with more ardour and more emotion for every inch of flesh that disappeared. The decay went up, and through the open back of the dress Peter saw how first the skin, then the flesh and then the organs disappeared, leaving only pearly white bones. Finally, Hela played the last note. When she turned towards him, Peter couldn't help but breathe in sharply, shocked by what he saw. Hela appeared to have been cut in half, one side of her replaced with a skeleton. Her good eye was filled with tears, and her voice was cold and ages old when she spoke.
"Can you see it now? Can you now finally see how repulsive I am?"
Peter looked at the goddess, half woman, half skeleton, and he couldn't help but see… Hela. He recalled how her left eye had always been a bit out of tune with the rest, how the corners of her mouth never twitched equally, and now he knew why. It was as if all the puzzle pieces fell into place.
"Hela…"
"Please. Look away."
"No. You are beautiful, Hela."
"Don't lie to me!"
"I don't lie. Look at me, Hela. You are the daughter of the God of Lies, I know you can tell if I speak the truth."
Hela looked at him, and saw he was truthful. Her mind knew it, but her feelings refused to give in.
"How can you call this beautiful? How can you be blind to the horror of my being?"
"I don't see any horrors, Hela, I just see you. And I… I think you're beautiful. Just as you are, you are amazing."
Peter took her hands in his, again, and felt both the cold flesh and the bones. The bones of her left hand were soft and shiny… He looked in Hela's eyes, both her good eye and her empty eye socket, and smiled. It was hard to tell like this, but he thought Hela smiled as well. And when he bent forward, she didn't back away. It felt odd, the touch of both soft flesh and hard bone at the same time… They stayed close together when their lips parted. Peter gave her the softest smile and chuckled.
"I think… I think I like you, Hela Helvete."
"Lokidottir. Hela Lokidottir."
"As long as I don't have to ask your father for permission to date you… I'm good."
This made Hela chuckle too, and for the first time, despite her complexion, Peter thought she truly looked like a happy young girl.
"How are we going to tell Justin?"
"I am indebted to him already… Do you truly trust him?"
"Yeah, I think I do. He's an okay guy, no matter what Mr Stark says about his dad."
"You… you know the Man of Iron?"
Peter laughed.
"It seems, Miss Lokidottir, that we have a whole lot to talk about…"
(Pagebreak)
Hela looked at Peter, feeling… elated. In all of her long life she had never been courted. Of course, being the queen of a realm and at least as curious as her father, she had ordered her servants to perform the acts of courting for her, so she knew what it was all about, but… to experience it herself… That was something entirely else. Peter Parker was a mere mortal, but he had shown her more kindness than any of the gods in Asgard ever had.
"Peter…"
Peter had wrapped his arms around Hela. It was a little odd, because she looked so much older and more mature, and more… dead too now, but he… he was in love with her. The moment she had shown him her true nature, he had felt it.
"Yes?"
"The people of Asgard, they said I did not have a heart."
Peter felt anger towards those people, who had hurt Hela for no other reason than a slightly –okay, very- unusual complexion… And to contain it, he needed to say something disgustingly mushy.
"I don't care. Either way, you have a heart. You have my heart."
That made Hela's good side blush.
"You would make Fandral jealous, you…"
Peter grinned.
"I hope that is a good thing…"
"Depends…"
Hela gave him a playful smirk.
"Now… Are we going back to Justin?"
"Are you sure he's not going to scream?"
"He might scream, but in the end he'll be okay with it. He's a guy like that."
It turned out Peter was right…
"HOLY HELL!"
Hela couldn't help but chuckle.
"Yeah, that's me…"
Justin looked pale and wide-eyed at Hela's skeletal half.
"Wow. I mean. Wow. SHIT! What the… Wow…"
Peter patted his friend on the shoulder.
"Breathe. In, out, in, out."
"What the fuck did you do to her, Pete?"
Justin whispered in shock. Hela just smiled calmly, and Peter admired how regal she looked.
"I am the Goddess of the Dead, Justin. This is my true form."
Justin stared at her in awe.
"You know, I always thought you were creepy, but this is like… beyond creepy man!"
"Creepy?"
"Yeah. You look… Wow, man… it's just freaking creepy, I mean, you're half a skeleton and you're still hot!"
Hela looked confused at Peter, who couldn't help but grin widely.
"I think he just made you a compliment, Hela."
"Really? In that case, I thank you, Justin Hammer Junior."
Justin blushed and mumbled
"Just Justin is good enough…."
His shyness didn't last long though. He looked with unhidden curiosity at Hela.
"So… Goddess of the Dead… what does that mean? Practical, I mean."
"Well, I rule what you call the afterlife."
"The AFTERLIFE? Wow. There is an afterlife?"
"Of course, where else would the dead go?"
Hela looked more confused than ever now. Not only this mortal didn't seem all that fazed by her complexion, he also possessed some strange ideas about the dead. She mused.
"For a race of mortals you know terribly little of Death…"
Peter laughed out loud now, while Justin continued to stare at Hela as if she were the eighth world wonder. He finally said.
"So the afterlife. What's it like?"
"Cold. Boring too. There's not that much to do, really. I mostly read or deal with politics. People come to banter over their souls and the souls of loved ones all the time. I don't rule the entire afterlife though. Only the part you usually describe as Hell. Valhalla is not under my jurisdiction."
Justin looked at Peter now, who was done laughing.
"I TOLD you she was a crossover between Death and the devil!"
"I am definitely not related to Death Herself. I am simply in Her service."
Justin watched her open-mouthed.
"So, you're immortal too and stuff?"
"Yes."
"Wow… Wow, Pete, you got yourself one nice lady. You're an item, right? I mean, you're holding hands and stuff…"
"An… Item?"
"Yeah. Dating? Coupled up? A pair? A twosome?"
"Ah yes. Peter is indeed courting me."
Justin grinned widely and high-fived with Peter.
"This calls for a toast! Let's go seek out my father's drinks cabinet!"
(Pagebreak)
As soon as became clear that Loki wasn't going to wake up any time soon, life in the Tower went back to it's usual pace. However, Clint continued to carry his bow and arrows with him everywhere, Natasha slept with a gun under her pillow, Steve often brought a platter of food to the sickbay in hopes of feeding Tony, Thor paced up and down the corridors like a caged lion, and Bruce looked more strained to keep the Other Guy inside than ever. Tony never left the bedside of the god, just as he had promised. Bruce worried about his friend's health, and after observing him awake for over 24 hours, he decided to intervene. Tony didn't notice anything, until his exhaustion suddenly increased by about 200 per cent. He looked up at Bruce, who was working on something, and wanted to ask what was happening, but his tongue was too heavy. His vision blurred out as Bruce patted him on the head.
"Sweet dreams, Tony."
Just a few seconds later Tony was out of it, lying completely zonked in his chair. Bruce put him in a better position and softly smiled. Tony would be mad at him, but it was for his own good…
(Pagebreak)
Tony felt odd. Bruce must have put a sedative in the food Steve brought, he thought. But why could he even think now? Shouldn't he be sleeping? He could clearly feel the influence of the drugs, his head was swimming and thoughts only came slow and viscous like treacle, but somehow he was still conscious. His surroundings were… dark, but also… there were flickers of light around him, it was as if he was drifting among a starry sky. Not such a bad sight, actually. Almost hypnotized he watched the lights, his glister of consciousness slipping away again. The next moment he opened his eyes he found himself in a large room, decorated in green and gold. Confused he looked around. Those colours…
"Loki?"
He saw something move in the bed. Carefully, Tony approached it. You never knew, this was obviously some sort of dream and he wasn't known to have good dreams, so who knew what he would find… Ready to run or attack he pulled away part of the covers. Loki lay there, curled up and looking at him with tired eyes.
"Tony…"
Immediately Tony sat down on the bed. He looked worriedly at Loki.
"Err… I'm sorry I woke you up… but what is this place?"
Not the best way to start a conversation, but of all the things he wanted to say that was the first thing finding the way to his mouth. Loki sighed.
"This is my room."
"Wait. Is this my dream or your dream?"
"This isn't a dream, not really anyway. Remember what I told you about the dream dimensions, and how they are real? We are in one. My mind was in one, and somehow you…"
"Somehow I what?"
"Somehow you found me…"
Loki's voice was soft now, and Tony felt like an intruder.
"I didn't wish to disturb you."
Loki sat up in the bed now and softly shook his head.
"No. I… I missed you. I know that even here I lack coherence and even here my mind's a mess, but… I missed you."
Loki looked so… vulnerable. Tony carefully put an arm around him. He didn't know if the god would appreciate it since he was a lot more lucid now, but clearly it was what Loki had been waiting for. He crawled against Tony with the same desperate need for comfort as in those first days. In response Tony held him and whispered the same calming things as always.
Loki sighed deeply. He had somehow cast his own mind to a safe hideout, but he had been sick and lonely and scared, and now he finally felt like things would be okay again. Perhaps his mind had made this up, perhaps it was only an illusion… but for the time being he would enjoy it. He had never wanted to let a thing like this happen, yet it had. The mortal man of iron, Anthony Stark, his enemy, was the only person in the nine realms capable of making him feel safe and… loved. Loki didn't even want to think of the consequences of that statement.
Holding Loki in his arms, Tony finally felt right again. He softly said.
"When they took you away… I was so scared I would never hold you again."
Loki couldn't believe it. He had invited himself into Tony's life, annoyed him to no end, made him feel obliged to help despite hating him… and he claimed he had actually… enjoyed it?
"You… You do not wish for me to disappear from your life?"
Tony shook his head.
"Loki, if I had wished for you to disappear from my life I would have never kissed you awake back in that SHIELD cell."
Loki's body became tense in Tony's arms. With his voice trembling, he asked.
"You… You k-kissed me?"
Tony cursed himself for being such a blabber, but decided to be honest, no matter the consequences.
"I did. I did not wish to offend you, really. It was just…" He let go of Loki, biting his lip. "I think I should go."
In no time he had reached the door… but Loki's magic was faster. Before he could put his hand on the doorknob the god stood before him. The first thing Tony thought was that he had to be angry, because in a way Tony had taken advantage of the situation… When he saw Loki's eyes however, he knew that wasn't the case. The look Loki gave him sent tremors down his spine, and not the bad kind.
"Don't go."
Having trouble concentrating all of a sudden, Tony asked.
"Why?"
For the first time, Loki's lips folded into that playful smirk again.
"Perhaps… perhaps I just want you to kiss me again."
Tony didn't require any more encouragement. Their lips crushed together in a hungry kiss, savouring each other with arduous passion. Soon they were stumbling to the bed again, a mess of entangled limbs and hungry lips. Their clothes were gone with a snap of Loki's fingers, but in the end they did not proceed to have sex. It wasn't necessary, not yet. Just the touch of their naked bodies was enough, the sense of not being alone, of having someone who cared… Tony hadn't realized how starved he had been himself until Loki's hands ran over his bare skin, until he felt the god's soft, cool lips press themselves against his neck, whispering barely audible.
"Please don't ever leave me…"
That was the moment Tony knew nothing would ever make him part with Loki Laufeyson, Norse God, supervillain, and now also –so he believed- his boyfriend…
(Author's Notes)
Yes! Two kissing pairs, isn't that wonderful? TLC, as was requested... No smut (yet), but if there's demand I might oblige sooner to write it! Also, I don't know about age rules and stuff, Peter is technically almost 16 and Hela is like a few thousand years old, does that make their couple pedophiliac? I have nothing against teenager sex, but I probably won't write it for this pair (unless requested of course)...
Now... REVIEWS! I love them, I want them, I need them! Do you want more Avenger Babies, or perhaps our favorite characters in another embarrassing predicament? If I get over 20 reviews I will oblige to whatever request I get!