Hi!
So, it's been a while. I got my internet back a while ago, but I was still working on the next few chapters of this as well as my other fic.
To everyone still waiting patiently, I'm glad you like it enough to wait for my lazy ass to update.
Pepper came to New York not long after Loki's confession.
Tony was thrilled to see her, but his gut still twisted with guilt when she gave him a kiss. "Is everything alright?" she asked when she pulled away.
Tony swallowed. "Yeah, everything's just peachy." He sighed, then admitted, "No everything is decidedly not alright. In fact, it's pretty far from it."
Pepper's smile wavered. "Tony?" she questioned.
Tony sighed again, and then said the four words nobody in a relationship ever wanted to hear.
"We need to talk."
Tony sat Pepper down, steeling his nerves. "Do you remember Erika's mother?" he asked.
Pepper hesitated, then shook her head. "I met you after she passed, but I read about the funeral," she said. "Tony, what is this about?" Her eyes widened. "Is something wrong with Erika? Is that why she's been in New York for so long?" she asked.
Tony frowned. "Uh, no, the reason she's been here so long is because I haven't seen her since after the Stark Expo. She's fine, Pep, it's just . . . ." he folded his hands as if in prayer. "Lorna Aven doesn't exist; she never did."
There, he said it.
Pepper frowned. Tony pushed forward before she could say anything. "She was a cover, someone to smile for the cameras." Tony paused, and then continued with, "The attack on Manhatten wasn't Loki's first visit to Earth."
" . . . . What does Thor's brother have to do with any of this?"
Tony took a deep breath and took the plunge.
"Everything."
"Pepper! Pepper, wait!"
Erika looked up from the sheet music in front of her just in time to see Pepper storm into the room followed by a panicking Tony. "Pep, please calm down," he begged.
Pepper didn't listen. She kept walking (stalking) and stopped right in front of the couch where Loki was curled up with a book. Before he had time to react, Pepper slapped him.
"What did you do to him?" she demanded, her face as red as her hair.
Loki was too stunned to say or do anything.
"You undo it—undo whatever spell you put on him, or I swear I will personally cut off your—"
"For Christ's sake, Pep, he didn't do anything!" Tony interjected. "You know he has magic, why is this so hard to believe?"
"Because it's crazy!" Pepper snapped. "Everything you just told me is crazy!"
"It's the truth!" Tony insisted.
"So, basically, what you're telling me is this man can change his entire molecular structure into a woman, and that he gave birth to your daughter—I am sorry, Tony, I really am, but I can't believe that!"
Loki cleared his throat. Pepper rounded on him, ready to slap him again, but he caught her arm before it made contact with his face. Shape shifting was one of his natural abilities, so it was no challenge for him to shift from man to woman. In mere seconds, a tall, pale woman with long dark hair sat in Loki's place. "We haven't been properly introduced," she said, a note of challenge in her voice. "Loki Laufeyson, formerly introduced as Lorna Aven."
Pepper gaped at the now-female Loki sitting on the couch. Loki—or Lorna, rather—released her and she sputtered before shaking her head. "I can't handle this right now," she huffed, and then she hurried out of the room.
"Pepper, come on!" Tony called, running after her.
Loki went back to his book. He was not worried; Tony and this 'Pepper' may be together, but he doubted she would be around long enough to be an obstacle.
"Why did you leave?"
Erika's question snapped Loki back to the present and he looked up, his book once again forgotten. "Pardon?"
Erika met his stare head-on. "When I was little, you made us think you were dead. Why not just tell us the truth? Why did you leave?"
Loki sighed and beckoned her to come to him. She crossed the room and sat on the couch beside him. "You must try to understand, Child. In Asgard, to lie with a mortal is discouraged, but not unheard of; to lie with a mortal of the same gender is disgraceful. Odin Allfather is all-powerful; He is judge, jury, and executioner, and his word is law—when he learned of my involvement with your father—"
"He was ashamed of you," Erika finished. "Would it have been different if Dad were a woman?"
"Yes, but he would still be mortal. Upon discovering that I had a mortal lover, the Allfather demanded that I wipe his mind and return to Asgard. Had I refused, your father would have been killed."
Erika gulped. "What about me?" she asked. "I know Odin's as ass, but did he even care that he was taking someone's mother away?"
Loki snorted. "You are well-acquainted with your siblings, yes?"
Erika nodded.
"Then you know of their banishment; Odin saw them as a threat because of the circumstances of their births, and because of their appearances. He locked Fenrir away and banished Jormungand and Hela, never to return to the realm Eternal. Until your little excursion to Asgard to 'rally the troops,' Odin was unaware of your existence."
Erika bowed her head. "I kinda figured, when I busted into his throne room and he asked who I was." She looked up, and Loki could almost see the gears in her brilliant mind turning, connecting the dots. "I would have been punished, too—not because of anything I did, but because I'm your illegitimate, half-mortal daughter."
Loki nodded. "Make no mistake—no matter your heritage, I am very proud to call you mine." He smirked. "Your father, as well, though he may need time to see things my way."
Erika bit her bottom lip. "No matter how amazing it would be if you two got back together, I wouldn't count on it; he really does love Pepper, and I don't know if he's willing to giver her up."
Loki gave her one of his rare smiles, reserved for her and Tony. "Worry not, child; all will be well."
The 'making Loki an Avenger' discussion never really continued, but not long after, there was an Avengers emergency, and Tony suggested a Trial Run.
"C'mon, it's just a few dozen Doombots—nothing too serious," he argued, eager to get out and kick some Doombot ass—anything to take his mind off his argument with Pepper.
They didn't really have time to argue.
"Fine, but he ain't riding with me," was all Clint said, and that was that.
The doombots were no trouble—they went down like sacks of potatoes. No, the problem arose once all of them had been taken down; turns out, all of them were rigged to blow sky high.
Tony was the first to discover this. He'd just taken down the last bot when it started beeping shrilly. He stared at it for a second and was transported to another time and place—the Stark Expo, where Ivan Vanko and his machines had beeped like that before exploding. "Uh, guys, I think we may need to—"
A deafening explosion from a neighboring building cut him off and he took off before the bots he was surrounded by could blow him to itty bitty Stark bits. The explosion from those bots caused him to have trouble stabilizing in the air, but when he finally recovered there were Doombots exploding all over the place. He found a safe distance to wait it out, and when the dust settled he tried the Comms.
"Everyone okay?" he asked into his Comm.
"Hulk and I are fine," Steve replied after a few moments of silence. "Widow, Hawkeye, are you alright?"
Widow's reply was almost instant "Yeah, I'm good."
"Hawkeye, are you alright?" Steve repeated.
Silence.
"Barton, what's your position?"
"Hey, Legalos, say something!" said Tony.
Clint didn't respond and everyone started to think the worst when a string of static went over the Comm followed by a voice that was decidedly not Barton's. "Barton is down, he got hit with debris and fell unconscious."
Loki.
"What's your position?" Steve asked.
More static, followed by, "Well, wherever we are it's dark and there's quite a bit of concrete. My best guess is under a pile of rubble somewhere." His reply came out a little shaky.
"Guys, I found them," said Tony, flying to where the signals from their locators were coming from. "A parking garage collapsed not far from Third street, they're under there." To Loki he said, "Can you see any way out?"
"Obviously not or I would have said as much," Loki snapped. "Even if there was one, there's not much we can do to get to it—Barton's unconscious and . . ." a pause, then, "My lag seems to be broken."
Tony almost asked why Loki didn't just heal the break with magic, but he remembered the 'no magic' dilemma at the last minute and kept his mouth shut. The team all moved towards where Tony's beacon led them, and then they started in on the pile, making sure to dig without causing a cave-in.
When Clint came to, it was with a giant headache and the realization that he couldn't see anything. "What the hell happened?" he asked nobody in particular. The last thing he remembered was being surrounded by beeping Doombots, and then being tackled. Who had tackled him? Why had they tackled him?
"It seems Doctor Doom has installed a self-destruct mechanism into his latest batch of Doombots," a dry (pained) voice sounded in the dark.
Loki. Shit. There's no telling what that fucker could do to him while they were alone.
"Don't worry," Loki continued, as if reading his mind. "I'm not in much better shape than yourself and would be unable to incapacitate you even if I had the desire to do so." A beat, then, "If I'd wanted you dead, I would have let the debris crush you."
They'd chased Doombots into a public parking building and had managed to take them down, then the Doombots had exploded and Clint and Loki had been buried in the rubble.
Clint blinked. "The ceiling was coming down."
Silence.
"You shoved me down and took the worst of it."
More silence.
"Why?"
A sigh, followed by, "As I said, Agent Barton—if I wanted you dead, you would be." He said nothing else and they sat in silence until the rest of the team broke through to them.
Clint waved off their concern and made to stand up by himself when a rush of dizziness almost caused him to collapse; he caught himself, though, and made it look graceful.
At least he wasn't being carried bridal-style—he was never going to forget the indignant sound Loki made when Tony picked him up like he weighted nothing.
Stark's kid made a big fuss as soon as they got back to base, handing Clint an ice pack before directing her dad to drop Loki on the couch. One of Loki's kids—the snake, Jordan, or whatever—was with her and made no protests when she asked for help.
"I'm still a little shaky when it comes to healing," she admitted quietly while Loki's son knelt before him and placed his hands on Loki's broken leg. "The biggest thing I can heal is a papercut."
"You will get better, with patience and practice," said Loki's son.
Erika sighed and left the room, then came back with a first-aid kit. "The old fashioned way works, I guess," she said, looking around. "Who's up first?"
A/N: See? There's hope for Loki yet.
Just a quick note—Frostiron is my OTP; it's my baby, second only to Frosted Pepperony (I refuse to call it Froz3n pizza, okay? Just . . . no). My hopes were to make this an eventual Tony/Pepper/Loki fic, and I'm still trying to make that work. However, this involves Tony getting to know the post-avengers Loki a little more, and Pepper has to get used to him as well. It's gonna be a long, bumpy road and I don't even know if I can make it work. That's my planned endgame, though, so if Frosted Pepperony's not your cup of tea, I suggest you get out while you still can.
Another note—The next few chapters will have a lot more Erika and Jormungand scenes. Fenrir and Hela will pop up, but it's mostly gonna be Jor and Erika.