Pepper and Darcy sat in the living room crocheting rugs. It was one of Darcy's favorite past times but since Loki came into her life; she hadn't had the time, especially since his awakening from Lokisleep. Loki took her all over the world and showed her things she had never seen before. At each place he did something as ridiculous as turning Central Park to Ice Cream. She didn't know who was worse, Loki for his ideas or Doom for his encouragement.

But today Loki was with Doom having some quality time which Loki explained meant Doom whining about his on again off again relationship with Fantastachick. Things had become a bit of a problem after her pregnancy scare. That was an exciting little week they had. Doom was terrified of becoming a father and summoned Loki at all hours to cry about it. Loki, for his part, never lost his temper and was always comforting.

Well… as comforting as Loki can be.

"Where's Tony?" Darcy asked. "He never leaves when you're home."

Pepper smiled. "I know, but his boyfriend is in town."

"Gees Banner is here? I better keep Loki in his lair."

"No leave him out. It's fun to count the seconds before he Hulk's out."

Darcy smiled. "I've never seen Loki run so fast in my life!"

"I know! He didn't even think to teleport."

"I don't think he actually expect Hulk to come out. Banner usually composes himself much better."

Pepper was happy the subject of Loki came up. Now she had a way to ask about her relationship with him without sounding nosey. "How are things with you and Loki?"

"I don't know." Darcy frowned. "Odin's been trying to talk to Loki but Loki always makes some excuse. Thor can't even catch a moment with him. I think he's embarrassed about his blueness."

"I can see that, but it's actually not that scary." Pepper commented. "I mean, it's not like he had extra arms or eyes. That would be freaky."

"I know right! But he won't even talk about it. And to be honest, that isn't even the thing I really want to talk to him about."

"What is?"

"I'm not sure what we even are anymore. I mean, before the Lokisleep thing, we would make out all the time. We had agreed not to go all the way until he was sure he wasn't going to die but now he won't really let me touch him too much. But then he keeps calling me his Little Mortal Queen. And then, ok, so what if he and Odin makes up and he's allowed back into Asgard? Then what? Everyone knows that's where Loki wants to be."

Pepper frowned. "I don't know Darce, he seems to be in love with you. Maybe he thinks you feel differently about him now that he went blue. And as far as him going to Asgard, he has friends here and from what I've heard no one really liked him on Asgard."

"That's true." Darcy admitted, but for some reason, it didn't comfort her.

Pepper was about to give another piece of advice but all of a sudden a silver light appeared from the ceiling and Loki came falling through it. Pepper and Darcy let out a yelp before they realized what was happened.

"Meanie Beanie are you alright? What the heck happened?"

Loki picked himself up from the floor. "I don't think Doom wants to play with me anymore." His green eyes fixed on the ladies. "What are you beautiful mortals doing? You appear to be making rugs?"

Pepper arched a dark blonde brow. "How do you know?"

"Mother liked to make things for Odin. I used to crash her wool parties. There was a woman there with the biggest breasts I had ever seen." Pepper laughed as he plopped on the couch next to Darcy. "Pass me canvas I want to see if I remember how to do it."

Darcy and Pepper watched with interest as Loki's long fingers fumbled with the long needle. After a few clumsy hoops Loki started getting into the rhythm of it.

After a few moments Thor and Odin came walking in and stopped short at Loki sitting on the couch making a rug.

"Um Loki…" That was Thor. "What are you doing?"

"Making a carpet. What are you doing?"

"Watching my brother make a carpet."

Odin stepped into the room and looked down at what Loki was doing. "Oh yes, Frigga used to do this. You know, in her wool class, there was this one woman with breasts that were bigger than anything I've seen in all 9 realms."

Thor nodded. "I remember her. It's hard not to." Thor settled in the chair across from the couch.

"Loki do you remember her?" Odin questioned. "When you are younger you were always asking her to pick you up. I knew then the kind of man you would be."

Loki smiled still making stitches in the canvas. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Oh please!" Odin laughed. "You think I didn't see your eyes always wondering in court. All those beautiful little ladies in a room and you always managed to get to the curviest woman there."

"Curves are important Odin. Who wants to lay with a board?"

It was at this point that Pepper and Darcy realized their crochet party was turning into something very weird. Listening to a father and his two sons talk about their preferences in breasts were weird.

"Some of those ladies were very nice." Thor defended remembering the ones he uses to bed.

"Please! I am a greedy man, what am I do with those tiny handfuls? I have no attraction for bones. I like a woman of substance."

Odin snorted. "That is exactly why Frigga and I had such a hard time picking a wife for you."

"You were looked for a wife from me?" Loki was shocked. He never even thought about a wife really. Well, until Darcy.

"Of course!" Odin answered. "We assumed Thor would wed Sif but there were no Asgardian woman that held your interest longer than a rump in the library."

Darcy arched a brow.

"Then those dark elves started coming. Every day there were new requests." Odin remembered. "I mean at one point, Frigga had to send an envoy to appeal to them not to send any more women."

"I didn't know that." Loki never thought about dating a dark elf but considering his magical abilities, he could see why one would want to be with him.

"They weren't even worth your time trust me. Snotty little stick women. None of them were worthy of you."

Loki stopped stitching, a look of shock on his face. He didn't think Odin thought of him that much. He didn't think Elven royalty as good enough for him? The bastard Prince?

"But now you got this buxom beauty here! All dark hair and light eyes. Who would have though a mortal could contain chaos."

Loki stood up sharply. "NO MORTAL CAN CONTAIN ME!"

Darcy rolled her eyes. "Meanie Beanie sit down!"

Loki plopped back down. "Sorry."

Odin and Thor laughed.

"Ah don't fret son." Odin waved it off. "A woman keeping an eye on your back is better than having 1000 warriors behind you."

A sad face came quickly to Odin before disappearing. Thor missed it but Loki did not.

"Come father," Loki stood up not realizing he didn't call him Odin. "I have been fighting with this spell. Perhaps you can assist me."

Thor followed behind them leaving Pepper and Darcy alone again.

Pepper looked down at her canvas. "Alien men are just as big of pigs as Earth men."

Darcy laughed.

000

Thor quickly lost interest in all the magic talk Odin and Loki were doing so he went off in search of better entertainment.

The smell of magic was rich in the air and it reminded Odin so much of Frigga. His set up was similar to Frigga's too, with gems, stones and potion bottles up on the cabinets. Loki was standing in front of a work table, focused on the ball of fire that he was apparently trying to manipulate. Odin waited for the fire to go out.

"Loki. I wanted to talk to you about something."

Loki took a beat as he reached for a spell book. "Odin, we should leave things be."

"Leave things be?" Odin questioned. "Loki, this is not how things were meant to be."

"Right. Because my birthright was to die." Loki turn to face him fully.

Odin closed his eyes. Those words haunted him long after he said that. "So I might… I have done and said somethings that I regret. "

"I see."

"When I said your birthright was to die it wasn't true."

"But then I becoming king of Asgard isn't true either." Loki spit out.

Odin tried to choose his words carefully. "But that was never because you were less than Thor."

"No it's because I'm Jotun."

"No, it's because you were second born." Odin explained.

Loki raised a brow. "So if I kill Thor I can be king of Asgard?"

"No! Loki the answer to everything is not kill Thor."

"Shall I get someone else?" Loki put on his sarcastic smirk. "Doom was very upset that Thor took the last Poptart this morning."

This was always when Odin would start to get frustrated with Loki. The snide comments and snarky attitude could be annoying. "Loki, do you even want to rule Asgard?!"

Loki opened his mouth to say something smart but then he put his head down. "No."

"Then… You are so frustrating! Just like your mother! She used to do this crap to my all the time. 'Odin I did not want to go to council I just wanted to be invited!' 'Odin I don't want the last piece of meat, I just want to be offered.'"

"Well maybe you should start offering things." Loki suggested.

"Perhaps." Odin sighed.

Loki licked his lips. "You really think I'm like mother?"

"Very much so. I see more of her in you than in Thor."

Loki nodded. "Then you are only here with me to be closer to her?"

"STOP TWISTING MY WORDS!" Odin screamed. "You did this same thing before. You are my son. You. Are. My. Son."

"Then speak plain English. You tell me you took me for purposes of uniting kingdoms and now that didn't matter! Is that not what you said?" Loki's ability to be angry but not scream was something that always unsettled Odin.

"I meant that the reason wasn't important any more. You were and still are family. Loki, I killed Thanos for you."

"I killed Lauefy for you."

"Yes, you did." Odin admitted.

Loki walk to his chair. "Everything I've ever done has been for you. I no longer live for you."

"But now I live for you."

Loki had no response for that.

"Loki I saw you long before you tried to kill a whole race. I saw you when you first bested Thor with your magic. I saw you when you first blew up Frigga's work room. I saw you grew your first tooth and when you first took a step. I saw your first words and I saw you as you lay in that temple abandoned and alone."

It took a few beats before Loki answered. "I don't want to be adopted. I don't want to be Jotun."

Odin sighed and walked towards Loki. "Frigga and I wanted more children. We tried and she carried a child but lost it. Then we got news that she wouldn't be able to have more children. You were a blessing to us Loki. Laufey may not have wanted you, thought you weak but I saw your strength and knew you would be good at whatever you put your mind to."

"Turned out to be villainy." Loki smiled.

"But what a villain you were. They needed 5 people and Thor to stop you. And in the end it took a Hulk and all he did was give you a few cuts and bruises."

Loki smiled and nodded. "It hurt though." He admitted. "Took me a while to move."

"But you moved."

Loki wasn't sure what to say now. He wanted to believe Odin but then he wasn't the only one that had believed him beneath Thor. But then, even Thor thought that. "Know your place" wasn't the worst of what he had said to him.

Lost in thought, it took Loki a moment to realize that something warm was touching his hand. When he looked down it was Odin's hand. It was the first time Odin had touched him in over three years.

"If you want to come home, the door is open."

Loki was at a loss for words.

Outside the room, Darcy was at a loss for words too but not at a loss for tears. She knew it. Loki was going to leave her.

000

Loki was uninterestedly throwing shots of magic at Iron Man who was trying to magic proof his suit. Barton was sitting across from him chattering away about Natasha. What was it about him that other men felt the need to tell him about their lady problems? Like he cared at all?

"Can you believe that Loki? She acts like I'm the one who's wrong!" Barton was yelling now.

"I told you the chick was nuts." Was Loki's response. "I was done with her once she told me I was a mommy's boy in need of a daddy. I still can't quite figure that out."

"But I'm right, right?" Barton pressed. "I had every right to complain about that outfit she had on."

Tony lifted up his mask. "I don't know what hawks do but human males don't tell their women what to wear and expect to keep their testicles."

"You know if I could do it again," Loki said. "I would turn Natasha into my minion. You'd all be dead."

The three guys looked at each other before Tony nodded. "Yeah that's probably true."

"LLLLOOOOOKKKIIIIII!"

Loki jumped up from his seat and started downstairs at the sound of Doom screaming his name.

"GET YOUR PASTY BUTT DOWN HERE!"

"Doom what is your problem?" Loki asked as he reached the bottom if the stairs.

"What is your problem you idiot! You're leaving Darcy?"

Loki frowned. "What?"

"And you're going to Asgard? What's wrong with Earth? Didn't you want to rule it at one point?"

"I still want to rule it." Loki responded. "But I still have no idea what you are talking about."

"You're leaving!" That was Jane and he didn't even know where she came from. "Who's going to give me a break from Thor?"

"I…"

"Wait, who's going to help me with Natasha?" Barton yelled.

"I don't even think I'm helping anything…"

"If you leave who's going to heal Pepper when she's sick and help me magic proof my suits?"

"Doctors? And Doom has magic…"

"OOOOhhhhhhh, now you remember you have a friend named Doom huh? You weren't thinking about me when you decided to go to Asgard!"

"What is wrong with you Doom! I never said…"

"Who's going to help control my temper?" Where in the world did Bruce come from? Why was everyone yelling at him?

"I…"

"And let me tell you something you hard headed little alien, I'm the best friend you are ever going to have and there is not one female in however many realms you claim there is that's going to treat you better than Darcy! She is the best thing you've ever got and you're going leave her for your own stupid ego? And you just wait until I tell Magneto and King Pin! And you better believe I will! We will blow up Asgard before we let you go back there where they treated you like crap. You know King Pin is relying on you to help him lose weight this summer! Are you just going to leave him to get diabetes? And Magneto is on his 'Mutants Must Rise Up' BS that he gets stuck on every time Professor X beats him at chess. And another thing…"

Loki had had enough. "SHUT UP!" Loki screamed. "Who told you I'm going to Asgard?"

"Darcy called me in tears Loki. TEARS! And if you think I'm going to let you do something so stupid you're got another thing coming!" Doom said pointing a long metal finger at Loki.

Loki looked around, everyone had arms crossed and sour faces and he couldn't for the life of him understand where Darcy would get such an idea.

As if on cue Darcy came in carrying bags of food. Everyone turned to her.

Darcy looked around. She could feel the tension in the air. "What's up?"

Loki stepped forward taking the bags in his hand and setting them on the floor. "You and I have to talk." He took her arm walked her outside.

Doom looked at their retreated forms. "DARN RIGHT YOU DO!" He looked back at the other occupants of tower. "Did you guys order lunch yet?"