"You requested my presence, Heimdall?" Odin said by way of greeting as he strode up to the guardian of the Bifrost.
"Yes, my king. It's Loki."
"What of him? Has his illness grown worse?"
Heimdall sighed. "His mortal female form is with child."
Odin nearly groaned. "By whom?"
"The mortal that is called Hawkeye, Clint Barton."
"The one he took control over?" Odin asked in surprise.
"It appears to me that they are beginning to truly care for one another, my lord."
"You don't mean to tell me that my child fancies himself in love with this Hawkeye, do you?"
Odin really didn't know how much more grief he could take from his adopted child.
"I'm afraid so."
"And who of the others in the house know who Lucy truly is?"
"Only Dr. Banner, Hawkeye, and Thor know for certain."
"Very well. Once the others discover the truth, Lucy will doubtlessly be cast out of the house or, as is more likely, killed, and this business with Clint Barton will be over."
Odin turned away from his gatekeeper and went on his way, knowing he could only hope it would be that simple.
"Clint?"
Clint's eyebrows drew together when he looked up from where he was cleaning his arrows on the living room couch to see Lucy shuffle nervously from the elevator later that afternoon.
"What's wrong, Angel?" he asked instantly, putting his arrows and quiver aside as Lucy perched nervously on the edge of the couch beside him.
"I… we need to talk."
Clint nodded encouragingly, saying, "Okay, I'm listening."
The ebony-haired beauty beside him took a deep breath, not meeting his eyes as she said softly, "I am not sick."
"We've been over this, Lucy," Clint huffed. "What did Dr. Banner have to say?"
"No, that's what I mean. I'm not sick… I'm expecting."
"Expecting what?" Clint asked obliviously. "Test results? Is that where you were; Banner was running some tests in the lab?"
"I'm expecting a child, Clint," Lucy said before whispering, "Yours."
He froze before finally gasping out, "A kid?" His voice rose a few octaves. "My kid?"
"Well," Lucy stammered falteringly. "It's not… I don't think it's exactly… a child."
"What is it then?" Clint barked, springing onto his feet. "Another sea snake? Maybe a phoenix – wouldn't that be interesting? Or it could be-"
"A Jotun," Lucy broke in, looking up at him with pitiful cerulean blue eyes. "There were inconsistencies in Banner's observations of the child that make me believe he or she is a Jotun."
"What the heck is a Jotun?" Clint asked sharply.
"I… I believe I could show you if you promise not to get upset."
"Not get upset?" Clint snorted. "Lucy, if I get any more upset, one of us is going to die."
Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but the opening of the elevator cut her off and Thor walked in, his hammer swinging idly from his wrist as he looked warily at the way that Clint was towering angrily over his little sister.
"You're just in time to see the show, brother," Lucy said, glancing past Clint towards Thor.
"You asked him to come here, didn't you?" Clint asked her.
"I didn't want either of us to get hurt," Lucy answered. "I haven't been entirely honest with you, Clint."
"That's shocking," Clint snorted.
"I'm not truly an Asgardian by birth; I'm a Jotun. My father took away my Asgardian powers, but left my Jotun side alone because he knew I would die sooner than use it… and so this is what a Jotun looks like."
Lucy took a deep breath and in the next instant, Clint was standing nose to nose with a tall, blue, freezing cold freak.
"What is that thing?" he rasped.
"A Jotun," Lucy answered meekly.
"So… this kid… is going to look like… that?"
"Some variation of it, most likely, although not necessarily," Lucy replied, and it was then that Clint realized that the red eyes that he'd caught a glimpse of had yet to meet his gaze. "My father put a spell on me so that I looked like any normal Asgardian. Perhaps he could be convinced to put a spell on the baby to make it look like any other mortal."
"Why?" Clint asked suddenly, his anger seeping away, giving place to the much less potent emotion of curiosity as he settled back onto the couch beside Lucy.
Those red eyes flew to his blue ones then, filled with surprise as she repeated incredulously, "Why?"
"Yes, why."
He suddenly realized that he couldn't be angry with her. This child was as much his fault as hers, so what right did he have to yell at her over it? He would consider that later, he decided, because right now it was Lucy herself who apparently needed a boost to her self-confidence.
"Why would you want to hide something that's so absolutely… beautiful?"
"It's not beautiful, Clint," Lucy said with a self-depreciating laugh as she looked at her hands twisted nervously in her lap. "It's a monster… I'm a monster."
"Maybe," Clint allowed with a quick nod of his head. "But aren't we all? I'm a godforsaken assassin, Angel, and so is Tasha. Banner is… not always Dr. Banner. Stark and Thor have their own demons. The trick is learning to live with it. Learning to live with what you've done and who you've become… while not loosing track of who you want to be." He reached up and rested a hand on her cool cheek as he continued, "I lost track of that for a long, long time, Lucy… but having you here with me… it's helped."
"How?" she snorted. "You hate me; you hated me even before you saw me like this. Although," she looked down at her body, remarking, "I don't know what to think about the fact that the Jotun is female too."
Clint smiled lightly at that last statement before taking up with the ones before it. "I do not hate you, Angel. Yes, when you first came here, I did. Viciously and gladly, I wanted to kill you, and it wouldn't have mattered what form you were in." He frowned in thought and took her hand, confessing, "But now I couldn't live without you – with every beautiful, sharp, cold angle of you. You've helped me heal in ways that you don't even understand… and I would love to have a child with you."
Lucy laughed, happy tears freezing on her cheeks as she leaned towards him for a kiss… and then there was a flash of red hair and black cloth as someone jumped from the air vents, screaming for Jarvis to assemble the Avengers in Clint's living room.