Summary: After the New York attack, Odin has taken Loki's magic, made him mortal and imprisoned him. But Asgard is not a safe place for the Trickster under these conditions. Recent events make Odin decide to take away one more thing from his second son, his memory going back for the last four years. This decision and events that lead to it cause Frigga to decide that Asgard is not safe for Loki's reduced station. From stories Thor had told, she decides that Tony Stark's tower would make an excellent secure location for amnesiac Loki to be under house arrest.
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Chapter 3 – An offer that you shouldn't refuse
Queen Frigga waved a placating hand and the two advancing guards stepped backwards to their original position, allowing Tony's heart rate to return to normal.
"Son of Stark, Thor tells me you are a craftsman of great renown. I would like to see your workshop," said Frigga kindly but with eyes boring into Tony as if looking for something important. It was a friendly look, but so focused it made him nervous.
"Umm. Lab. I do science, not wood working. I call it a lab."
"Very well, I would like to see your lab."
"Well you see, I don't normally let just anyone down there, so—"
"Fortunately, I am not just anyone; I am the Queen of Asgard. If you would Anthony Starkson," she tilted her head giving him an amused look. "Let us go visit your lab."
"Now."
Okay then.
Tony wasn't quite sure what to think. Frigga was part 'Queen of England Don't mess with me I have armed guards' and part 'Anthony Stark you listen to your mother and get over here right now'.
"You know, there is nothing I would like more than giving you a tour of my lab. Really, I'd love it; it would be the high light of my evening, honest. But the thing is…." Tony trailed off; he could feel the lies and evasions withering on his lips as Frigga regarded him steadily.
Tony wondered at his sudden reluctance to continue. It wasn't like he hadn't made with the bullshit before. He in fact he normally loved the feeling of knowing, just knowing that he was winding up important powerful people and there was nothing they could do about it. He loved knowing that he wouldn't be stopped because his position, genius or money protected him. Often he infuriated them to the point of screaming and or violence, sometimes when he was really on a roll, both.
Unfortunately for some reason his normal line of irritating deflecting patter wasn't working this evening. Tony wasn't sure if it was just that she was a goddess or queen or if it was just the mother in her, but something was making his tongue turn to lead, stopping his normal line of bullshit in mid-flow.
"Now if you please." Her voice was very firm, and Tony couldn't help but notice the uneasy shifting from the two huge guards she had waved back a few minutes earlier.
"Okay. It's a bit messy, but okay, come on, I'll show it to you."
"Thor, you will stay here and keep and watch over your brother," Frigga said in a Mom-Voice that invited no disagreement.
Trailed by the guards and handmaidens who had been standing by the terrace, Tony reluctantly escorted the queen down to his lab.
"Umm, perhaps if they waited here?" Tony asked anxiously as they exited the elevator. "Some of the stuff down here is a bit fragile or dangerous or," Tony shrugged, "frankly both. It's best not to have too many people wandering through the lab if they aren't familiar with it.
Frigga inclined her head in agreement and waved her entourage to a standstill a few paces away from the elevator and then followed Tony into the lab.
"Mrs. Odin—"
"Frigga please, or Queen Frigga if you must. I do not at this moment want to hear the name of the man who could not keep my son safe." Frigga said, disgust saturating every syllable.
Okay, Tony thought, little bit of a problem in the Casa de Odin.
"Please your majesty, sit down," Tony said waving her towards his own station chair.
Frigga smiled at him, and for perhaps the first time since he met her, her expression seemed to lighten a bit. "Thank you son of Stark, but if you would not mind, I would prefer to walk around your… lab as we speak."
"My name is Tony, well actually it's Anthony. I…" he faltered for a moment at her slightly puzzled expression. "Tony is what I prefer, Anthony is okay if you have to use it, Stark in a pinch but please no more 'son of' stuff." While he did try to stay impassive, from the look he was now receiving from Frigga, Tony was well aware of that his distaste for the word 'son' was pretty evident to her.
"As you would… Anthony." Frigga said, taking his arm and continuing her exploration of his lab.
Oh well, at least it wasn't Starkson.
Tony didn't offer any comment on the items they were walking past, but he did briefly explain anything that caught her eye.
Despite not wanting anything to do with Loki, he was curious.
"So exactly how many years are we talking about here?" Tony asked, watching her out of the corner of his eye. "Punishment wise I mean."
"Loki's initial sentence was to be beaten in public," Frigga did not even try to restrain the flickers of anger and betrayal that flitted across her features, "have his magic bound and be imprisoned for one hundred and one years." Frigga irritably brushed a hand down the finely woven, richly embroidered beige gown she was wearing, stopping just short of an area filled with intricate design and unfortunately several blood stains.
"Initial?"
"Oh yes… Son… Anthony. Initial. After serving time in prison he was to make restitution to Asgard and her people by serving them in public works projects for the next four hundred years. His magic would still be bound and he would only be allowed to use it at the direct command of the King of Asgard. Leaving him essentially at the mercy of whatever protection Odin decided to provide."
Well, adopted or not, it was pretty apparent where Loki learned how to sneer.
"Okay… So why me?" Tony asked as they headed over to the suits on display.
"You can provide security to keep watch over him to satisfy Odin, without guards or others that can further abuse him. I am willing to pay for my son's care and safety."
"Well I'm not sure what Point Break… er… Thor told you about me, but I don't need your money, I have more than enough …" Frigga's voice rolled right over his, as if he was not her only audience.
"The All Father may have allowed his council to pass this sentence on his son, but as his Queen and wife I can take it upon myself to see to the details of the sentence." Her hands tightened as her polite mask slipped a bit, both expression and voice becoming a bit fierce. "Especially since in just recent events, he has failed not once, but three times to keep my son safe."
Yeah, okay. But Frigga wasn't the only pissed about recent events.
"Ah. Well, let's be frank, your little Loki threw me through a window to plummet to my death, okay… so I didn't die, but he didn't know I wouldn't when he threw me. So what makes you think I want anything to do with him, let alone want to protect him from all the err… earthgardians who would want to get at him? Which there are a lot of by the way." Tony asked, surprised that despite what he had just said to her to see a warm, almost motherly affection on Frigga's face as she looked at him, her lips curved in a soft fond smile, the type of which hadn't been directed at him since he was a kid.
Tony was uncomfortably aware of a warm feeling in his chest which had nothing to do with the booze he had so recently imbibed.
"Besides which, I am an Earthling, and will be lucky to live another thirty years tops, less if you believe my doctor, don't you think you should make a more permanent arrangement?" Not that Tony was trying to discourage her…
Oh. Wait. Yeah, he was.
"Starkso-, Anthony, the person who threw you out a window, was not my son." Her face wrinkled up in thought, "And there are several ways to extend a mortal's life span, while not common, we have occasionally had Midgardian servitors."
Ouch.
"Well he certainly did throw-" Frigga held up a hand, almost touching his lips to stop him from speaking.
"Loki is being punished for a deed that occurred on Asgard, not what happened on Midgard. The All Father and his council do not hold him accountable for those. And while the story behind his invasion of Midgard is not permitted to be spoken of in detail, it was regrettably caused by decisions made by Odin." She sighed heavily, "Some recently of course, but also decisions made many years ago which came back to haunt our family." Frigga worried her lip a moment, before continuing tiredly, "Although, I do wish that Loki had chosen a different way to cope."
Tony, who had been just standing there, watching her, started to rock slightly, his hard soled dress shoes making small tapping noises on the polished concrete floor. "Three times huh?" He closed his eyes moment thinking, as the slight frown that had not left his face since his leaving the party deepened. "Recently? Ah. The fight on the rainbow express that Thor had mentioned?"
"That is part of it, yes." Frigga agreed with a bit of a hiss, reaching up to with one hand to press the side of her neck, "His father has never understood that Loki is not Thor and dealing with him as he would Thor will not work. Never has the All Father understood this, no matter how many times he has been proved wrong over the years."
Okay, got a bit of heat there. Loki Mommy is not happy with Loki Daddy, that's plain to see. But still…
"Um,.. You know, no offence, but Loki's a pretty big boy. Might not be entirely Odin… The All Dad's job at this point in time."
"Really?" Frigga struck him with a chilling glare, arms sweeping up to fold in front of her, in a plainly defensive posture. "Time moves differently among the realms, Loki's father, who will most likely live several thousand more of your years, is over six times older than Loki. Loki reached his minor majority during the time he lost in the void. He is many years away from his major majority when he will be able to officially join the crown council or be appointed to any official position."
Wow, Tony thought stunned, totally did not see that one coming.
"Wait? Let me get this straight," Tony asked incredulously, throwing out an arm in agitation, "Invasion Boy just got his learner's permit and we were the first place he visited while out joy riding?"
Still defensive, but continuing in a more conciliatory tone, Frigga said, "Please don't misunderstand. We live a long time Anthony, we try to make sure that our young people have out grown all their rash foolishness before their actions are truly considered those of an adult. All young boys go off to war, but while both Thor and Loki have spent many centuries of your time defending Asgard, neither of them is even considered old enough to officially marry without our approval."
"You're shitting me, right?"
Frigga's brows knitted a bit in confusion at Tony's use of this phrase.
"So… What was the deal with the horse then?"
Her eyes narrowed and her tone became glacially cold. "A youthful indiscretion that occurred as a result of Loki trying to fix a problem for Asgard. A problem that my son should not have had to deal with alone in the first place," She spat. "Nothing more I assure you."
Oh.
Well that certainly was a touchy subject for Loki momma. Tony wondered if Odin had got his ass reamed out over that incident too, although he thought he was starting to see a trend here.
While he had no doubt that Thor was the kind of kid who was called into the principal's office on a regular basis for fighting and roughhousing. Thunder Daddy, who had most likely done the same in his youth, would understand, cut him some slack and occasionally discipline Hammer when he absolutely had to.
But, Tony was willing to bet big money that Momma's little Trickster, was the kind of kid who had the FBI show up at his door, no doubt due to some overly exuberant hacking to tag 'I was here' in high security government files. Stuff like that would most likely make Poppa Odin flip his shit. Not only would the King of the Gods not understand why the kid would want to do it, he probably would have no idea how to stop the kid from doing it again. And as Tony knew from personal experience, that could get ugly.
Normal parental problem perhaps, but Poppa Odin did have the major advantage of having his very own dungeon. Something Tony was sure his father had wished for on numerous occasions. Something Tony was very glad Howard did not have, especially after having seen the broken mischief maker.
"Midgardians youths go through a period time thinking they are immortal and unbreakable, and they know better than anyone else what is going on. Is this not correct?"
"Yeah, most of them," Tony said, thinking how some Earthgardians, not to mention any names or anything, stay in that mindset a lot longer than others. Or didn't outgrow it at all.
"Mostly until reality sets in, usually in their late teens or early twenties," Tony told her. "Plowing a car into a telephone pole, or something else stupid, usually works to snap them out of it." The engineer elaborated, thinking of the numerous wake-up calls, many of them automobile or alcohol related that he and his classmates had experienced.
"Imagine how long this period of youthful delusion must last for beings that actually 'are' almost immortal. Beings who can live up to twenty thousand of your years rather than only a hundred years at best. Beings who can bounce back from almost any type of injury, often with no healers aid at all."
She regarded Tony steadily as he considered this.
"Okay," Tony conceded slowly, "I can see that the stupid phase might last a bit longer."
Both were lost in thought for a moment. Then Tony lifted his chin defiantly, taking a step closer to Frigga, almost brushing against her personal space.
Geeze, she wasn't even wearing heels and she was still slightly taller than him. Damn tall Asgardians, even their moms were freakishly tall, he groused internally.
"However, not trying to be disobliging… Well, yeah, actually I am trying to be disobliging. I still have no intention of running a prison for your wayward boy."
They stared at each other for a long minute, before Frigga shifted her focus to the display storage area on the far wall. "Your metal suits are made of iron?" she asked in a polite almost social tone.
Change of topic?
Why?
Tony was suspicious, her kid is bleeding all over my tower and she wants to talk about my suits? It's not even like she was a fan or anything.
Whatever.
"Not really, the first one, the prototype was, well it was steel, not iron, but close enough I guess. Now they are made from a gold-titanium alloy." He grimaced, "And I am experimenting with a titanium beryllium geodesic alloy. But that one is still a ways off. And it may not work anyway," Tony concluded with a shrug.
Frigga began drifting closer to the display, stopping beside a relatively, for Tony's work shop, uncluttered work bench.
"Indeed?" Frigga pointed and made a graceful motion that had her handmaiden, who like the guards beside her had been watching them intently, hurrying over carrying a large black silk bag. At the queen's direction, she set it on a nearby work bench with a solid thud. Frigga waved the woman back towards the elevator doors with the others.
At this location, her attendants were even more out of earshot than when they had first started speaking. The queen then motioned towards the bag. "Please open it Starkson."
"Please, call me Tony, he said as he turned to the bag. Not that Tony really cared what was in the bag, but hey, he was interested to see what a tall, blonde, Space Viking Queen would try to bribe him with.
He was curious okay? It happens.
Tony, untied a heavy silk cording that was holding the bag shut on one end. There was a large metal chest of some sort inside the bag, a large heavy chest. As he struggled to lift the box and slide it out of the bag, Tony was struck at just how freaking strong, even the average run of the mill Asgardian chicks were.
Seriously, stupidly strong.
Tony was willing to bet that even the more mature, Momma Odinwife would be able to whip his ass with no problem what so ever. At least as long as Tony wasn't wearing his suit. Heck, give her a sword or even a baseball bat and Tony might not even want to let her try it if he did have his suit on.
Once he had lifted the chest, Frigga came to his assistance and tugged the bag away from it. The uncovered box was an intricately carved and embossed silver green metal of some sort. At first Tony thought it the green luster might be some sort of coating, but after careful, if surreptitious examination of the engraved areas and a small nick he found, he was inclined to think the color might be a property of whatever strange alloy it was made from.
It took a lot to dumbfound Tony Stark. But a insanely heavy chest made of an unknown metal, he had to admit, that just might to it.
Okay? What the fuck is this? He wondered frowning up at a smug Space Viking Queen.
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