This is just a little mini chapter that I wanted to fill in. Hope it ties you over to the next chapter, which shouldn't be too far in the fututre! SuzukiLi x
...
Loki looked content, closing his eyes and leaning back against the oak tree in Tony's yard; Hela looking up at him from where she lay her head in his lap, his fingers lost in her hair. She watched the steady rise and fall of his chest, the twitch of his nose and the slight frown on his face showing his clear dislike of the sun as it began to creep around the tree.
"You enjoy watching me," Loki observed, eyes still closed as he played absent mindedly with her hair.
"I have never stopped watching you."
Loki's breath hitched slightly and he opened his eyes, rolling them down to look at his daughter.
"How have you fared in Niflheim?"
"King Ljort has been like a-" she paused, eyes widening softly and Loki cocked his eyebrow. "He has been very good to me."
Loki smiled softly and continued to play with her hair.
"No... I am very happy that you had someone there to raise you well," Loki said quietly, though his heart ached at the thought.
"And what of the little boy, the little boy who told me where they were taking you?"
"Gangot?" Hela asked, perking up at the name and stretching her arms up above her head to wrap around her fathers waist. Loki smiled, noticing the glint in his daughters eye.
"I know that look," he smiled, now twisting her long black hair into braids. "So what of Gangot?"
"I am his Queen. When the time comes, and I may choose a King, it will be Gangot," Hela sighed, a small smile on her face.
"You love him?"
"Yes."
Loki nodded, saddened by how much of her life he had missed out on. Hela, sensing on this decided to change the subject.
"I thought of something this morning, something that you told me all those years ago," she said with a wide smile and shifted so that she was looking up at him sideways. Loki looked down at her with a small frown.
"You... you remember me? From back then?"
"Of course. You are my world, Adda."
Loki's breath hitched once more and he averted his eyes, though the broad smile on his face revealed all.
"Tell me how babies are made."
Loki audibly chuckled at that, and he glanced back down at Hela.
"You remember that conversation?"
"You tell a fine tale."
Loki shifted and rested his hand on the nape of her neck, brushing her cheek with his thumb.
"Making a baby," he started, a warm look coming back into his eyes, "Is like making a cake. A man and a woman, make a batter, and they fill it with all the things they want their child to be. I filled your's with emeralds for your eyes and a piece of night sky for your hair. I filled yours with cunning and beauty, fairness and wrath, honesty and tenderness and judgement and wit," he recited, his thumb still brushing her cheek. "The man will then knead it into dough, and feed it to the woman, where she bakes it inside of her into a baby. But, I did not have a woman to bake my dough, so I ate it myself and baked it myself."
He looked down at her and trailed a line down the middle of face. "Which is why only half of you took on my gifts. One person's love is not enough to light the fire of life," he said sadly, and he rested his hands back on her neck, stroking her face and looked away.
"I think you have provided more than enough love, Adda," Hela smiled, giving him a playful nudge. "I can only dream that when I have children of my own, that I love with them as fiercely as you do me."
"Of course you will, Child. It is something you have no control over, the love for your children," Loki said gently, and he sounded so old and so wise, which he was, she supposed.
"How are you able to leave Niflheim for so long?" Loki asked.
"Gangot is getting his practise in, I have left him in charge," Hela smirked.
"Is that wise?"
"I can see him. He is doing fine. My gaze is much like Heimdal's. It is how I have watched you all these years."
"And Gangot? Does he possess the all seeing eye?"
"Not yet... thankfully," she muttered and she cast her gaze back to Stark's tower. Loki let out a low breath and shifted slightly.
"Shall we go back inside? I'm rather hungry," Loki said and he gently lifted Hela's head from his lap and helped her up to her feet. They linked arms once more, and glided along the path back to the tower, Hela's head resting happily on her fathers shoulder.
...
Hehe! This is how I explained the magic of babies to my son!
