In that next minute, things happened almost faster than Clint could comprehend them. Frigga moved to stand directly between him and Tony, and she was no longer dressed as a nurse. She had been shape-shifted before, Clint realized, because now she was a solid head taller than she had been and wearing a Shakespearian-style blue dress with her red curls only now half-up and half-down.
She looked every centimeter the queen of Asgard and more importantly a mother, and from the look in her eyes alone, Tony quickly took a step back, though he couldn't help saying, "That thing is a monster."
"That thing," Thor said in a deep, measured voice as he realized who had come for a visit to Midgard, "Is her grandchild, and I would advise you to shut up."
"Aesthetics aren't everything, Mr. Stark," a new voice said from the doorway.
Clint turned with everyone else towards that voice and was momentarily perplexed to see one…two… six kids standing in a cluster at the door, none looking older than fifteen or younger than eight.
Frigga seemed completely at ease with these strangers, though, asking them edgily, "Children, what are you doing here?"
"Heimdall told us to come," the youngest boy said carefully, as the newcomers took in the tense air in the room. "He said father might wish us to meet someone."
"Heimdall deserves to be flogged for overstepping his bounds," Thor said bluntly.
"Shut up, Thor," Lucy said sharply.
"Children, come in and shut the door behind you before someone hears something they ought not," Frigga ordered, and Clint wondered if she noticed how all the boys paled as their gazes fell on Lucy.
"Vali," the youngest, who was also the only girl of the group, looked to one of the older boys asking innocently once they were all shut into the room, "Where is father?"
The boy called Vali took a deep breath and looked warily to the boy of their group who was apparently the oldest for the answer to that question. That oldest boy took a deep breath, seeming at a loss for words, and that's when it hit Clint. Six kids, one of whom was named Vali? These were Lucy's children!
"I'm right here, Hel," Lucy said softly, holding out her arms towards the little girl.
This, of course, led to a round of confused murmurs from most and Dr. Banner – apparently realizing who these kids were – even swore before one of the middle boys literally snarled at him. That had to be Fenrir. The kids – all but the oldest, anyway – made their way to Lucy's bedside as the adults cleared a path for them to do so.
"Hello, sweet girl," Lucy said gently, brushing black hair back out of Hel's eyes as the girl was shuffled closest to her by her siblings. "Do you recognize me?"
"Yes," the little girl whispered in awe. "You're my father…"
Lucy laughed softly, wrapping the little girl in her arms. "Yes, I am. I look a little different now, do I not?"
"So do Sleipnir and Fenrir and Jormungandr and Vali and Narfi, but they're still them," Hel answered simply, "And I'm still me."
The logic of a child was apparently what most of the little girl's brothers needed, because it was then that those who were already at Lucy's bedside began to shuffle forward and hug her, whispering little things to her that Clint couldn't hear.
"What about you, my son?" Lucy said, looking towards the oldest boy who was still at the doorway once she had already been given five hugs.
The teen flushed, shifting clumsily from foot to foot. For one reason or another he was much more uncomfortable here than his siblings, and Clint narrowed his eyes, suddenly getting an idea of why that might be as he recalled Odin's little rant from four months ago.
I will not have Asgard shamed this way a second time.
"Nah, Lucy," Clint spoke up from the corner. "He's too preoccupied, too curious about something else at the moment."
"And what might I be so distracted by?" the teenager asked him stiffly, eyes narrowing first upon the bundle in Clint's arms and then upon Clint himself.
"Suspicions," Clint said casually as he made his way towards the kid. "Correct suspicions, as a matter of fact, Sleipnir."
The clumsy kid blinked, and Clint smiled, knowing he'd gotten at least that name pegged onto the correct person.
"Obviously," Sleipnir said dryly, his eyes once again drifting to the sleeping Jotun that Clint held.
"You don't like the idea of your mother being hurt again, not by anyone ever, but especially not like this," Clint continued. "Motherhood was horrible for her the first time around, and you don't like that that's happened again. I'll even go so far as to say that a protective kid like you – because you are protective; you're the leader of your siblings right? – might even feel a little guilty that this is her life now. Is any of that right?" Sleipnir glared at him, and Clint took that as his affirmative, continuing, "Well then, someone needs to tell you a little more about how things have been working down here with your mother on Midgard, because last I heard, she was happy here, and if she wasn't, I wouldn't dream of keeping her here against her will." He stopped in front of Sleipnir then, and turned to Lucy, asking, "You are happy here, aren't you, Angel?"
"Of course I am!" Lucy said, hurrying to reassure her eldest. "Especially now that you and your brothers and sisters are here with me."
"Sisters?" Hel asked curiously, eagerly catching the pluralizing of the word.
Lucy grinned at Hel, squeezing her shoulders as she said, "You have a new baby sister now! And you know what? I haven't even seen her yet! My friend Clint has been keeping her all to himself."
"That's not right!" the youngest boy said indignantly.
"You're absolutely right, it's not," Lucy said with a firm nod in the boy's direction and then a playfully given order directed towards Clint, "I demand to hold my daughter right this instant!"