A/N: Time frame wise, this is set 8 years after Burning Curve, for reference. :)
So updates might be a little slow as I deal with some big personal stuff. If you're interested you can read about it at my Tumblr. megaranoelle . tumblr . com
I don't own The Avengers, Loki, Iron Man, or anything of the like. Just the thoughts inside my head. And taking some personal freedoms with mythology and lore.
The group had moved to crowing around the kitchen island as Tony and Loki started making dinner. For the most part they had let the kids fill Fay in on what had happened, with little interventions for the sake of accuracy. Tony knew that Melisande was going to be waking up soon, as well as Key. He glanced over at Fay and saw that her jaw had dropped just a bit as they finished telling her about the first Christmas after Anya and Kasir started ruling over Helheim.
"Everything that you've said happened before the twins were born?" Fay asked. Kaia and Nathan nodded. "Seriously? All that happened? To just one family?"
"We never claimed to be good fairing people," Tony threw in with a smirk. "I'm a trouble magnet on my own, and I just sort of married into a very magnetizing family.' He grinned as Loki shot him an exasperated look.
"I'm convinced that you have driven me thoroughly insane, and that is why I can not bring myself to leave you," Loki drolled out. He stopped messing with some plates when Tony wrapped his arms around his waist from behind and tried not to smile. They could hear the gagging sounds of some of the kids behind them. "These are just lowly tactics."
"But they work, and I'm okay with this." Tony grinned, his face against Loki's back for a second. Sander cleared his throat loudly and Tony laughed before pulling away. "Yeah, all that crazy stuff happened, before Tomas and Sander were born.
"These two didn't intrude in our lives until a little bit later." Fay turned her head at the new voice that walked into the room, and Sander groaned. He knew the voice, and lamented having another sibling enter the conversation. Glancing up he bit back another groan when he realized that Emma was still in her Jotun form. He'd be lucky if Fay didn't find it all just a little bit too weird. "We refer to those years as the Dark Times."
"We do?" Tony raised an eyebrow and glanced at Loki.
"Apparently our children do," Loki answered him. "Will our daughter or the Princess be joining us for dinner?" Emma smirked a little and let her paler skin bleed through. "Ah, Emma, darling, lovely to see you."
"I see we're in the middle of story time," Emma smiled in greeting.
"Fay, this is my other annoying older sister, Emma. Emma, this is my partner Fay," Sander made vague hand motions between the two women. "You've met, now don't you have some ice throne to sit on?" Fay nudged his leg but kept smiling at Emma. "See's actually a Princess of a frozen planet, I wasn't intentionally trying to be mean. For once."
"That might be the nicest thing you've said about me." Emma smiled sweetly at her little brother and Tomas snorted. "He's right though, so you don't have to beat him up too much for that comment."
"We just finished telling her about Anya and Kasir, and Anders finding out about his powers," Kaia supplied helpfully.
"So we're just getting to the good part?" She sat down next to her sister and grinned. "About the time we met two shy little boys who were too afraid to utter two words to anyone who wasn't their mother?"
"Shy?" Fay raised her eyebrows and looked over at Sander then back at Emma and Kaia. "Sander was shy?"
"They both were," Emma confirmed. "It took them at least 6 months to start talking to Daddy. Of course they didn't know that he was Dad at the time." This time Fay, and Tomas and Saner raised their eyebrows. "They didn't make their appearance until they were five. That was the year that dad gave them Runa and Viggi as presents."
"Yes, giving two toddler boys two very large dogs to raise, with a single mother," Loki said, looking at Tony. "Because she wouldn't have had her hands full with twin boys, you needed to throw in two Very Large dogs."
"Hey, I had a plan!" Tony defended, pointing a fork his way. "I had it all taken care of."
Tomas raised his hand, clearing his throat to interrupt them. "I'm sorry, say what? Single mother? I think the twins in question are a little confused." Tomas and Sander had never felt the urge to ask about what had happened when they were younger. They were pretty content as they grew up. Saner was wondering if there was a reason behind it now.
"If we didn't live here, who did we live with?" Saner asked, looking between his siblings and his parents. They could all feel the slight tension, and Sander really knew that something had happened.
"With Yvonne," Emma answered simply, but with no fondness in her tone. "Dad met you guys when you were still 3 years old, and he didn't know that he was Dad at the time. About the time that he started growing that awful hairstyle that you seem to have adopted from him." Tony made a noise and frowned, putting a hand on his head briefly.
Tomas and Sander glanced at each other, and he could feel Fay slip her hand into his, giving it a quick squeeze. "For strategic purpose that make sense to us now, Dad faked his death for five years." They saw Loki make himself busy with dinner again as Kaia continued explaining. "You lived with him, who was in disguise as a Yvonne at the time. From what Anders could gather, you didn't come back to this Realm until you were three."
Loki turned around and frowned a little, as Tony let out a small sigh. "He's the undisputed King of keeping his mouth shut when he doesn't need to." Tony looked over at Loki. "Are you really surprised that he didn't tell us that he saw all of that?"
"I wish I was," Loki muttered.
"That was when the Realms were on the verge of an almighty upheaval," Emma threw in, looking at Kaia. "Because that's when I went to Jotunheim."
"And after that was when they got sent to those alternate dimensions," Nathan added in. he had been sitting quietly for the most part, snacking on some pretzel sticks. "Tony and the twins, Loki and Gabby, Steve and Alex, and Chris and Anders. Luckily they did most of the foot work for us."
"Most of the foot work?" Tony looked at Nathan. "That's what you call it? Oh, you are so lucky that I have been oath-bound by your mothers to not pound you into the sand." Nathan smiled cheekily.
"Hey, if you hadn't of done it, then Anders wouldn't have gone blind, and then wouldn't have met Elpis, because he wouldn't have needed an assistant, then you two wouldn't have a grandson," Nathan said, waving his stick around a little. "All in all, it could have been worse."
While the others had been talking Sander had tuned out a little, leaning his side against the island as he processed the, little, information about when he and Tomas were younger. He felt a pair of warm hands start to rub his neck and he looked up to see that Fay had moved closer to him, facing him. "You okay?" He blinked a couple of times before nodding.
"Yeah, I'm good. I wish I could say that that was the weirdest thing I've encountered before." He gave her a smile and she kissed his nose. Her thumbs ran along the edge of his jaw line a little before her hands moved down. Sander winced a little when one of her hands found the arc reactor and stopped. He had tried covering it up with a thicker t-shirt that could block the light.
Fay frowned then grabbed the hem of his shirt and lifted it up until she could see the reactor. Sander was suddenly aware that the kitchen had gone quiet again. His chest was still red and a little tender around the new reactor that Tony had finished for him before he had gone to pick up Fay. Fay turned her head and looked at Tony, who had stopped bothering trying to cover his reactor, then looked back at Sander's chest.
"Is this why you haven't shown up in the past few days?" She asked, frowning as her fingers gently traced the lines on the reactor.
"Kind of," Sander said quietly. He reached one hand up to take hers. "I died,..." he trailed off, not knowing how to continue. He swallowed and looked into Fay's wide eyes. "I was actually dead for two days."