Written to: Home - Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, crosspost from AO3
Pandiculation: An all-over stretching and yawning, as upon waking or going to bed.
The metal bird has kept its talons in check rather well, Thor thinks to himself, but this does not stop him from clinging tightly to the armrests and Loki's wrists by turn until the plane has well come to a stop in the LAX terminal. Lax is exactly the opposite definition of what Thor is, and Loki privately thinks to himself that if Thor were to faint upon standing up, he might be inclined to toss a piece of luggage on top of him and claim it had shifted during the flight and fallen out upon opening the overhead bin instead of admitting that his husband did not have the stomach for this simple Midgardian form of transportation.
Modi had had none of his father's inhibitions (and even if he was capable of producing speech, Loki was fairly sure his son wouldn't have started chanting a loud Asgardian prayer that had drawn half the flight's attention to them, and had even had an on-flight priest asking if Thor needed some form of exorcism. Loki had politely declined) and had slept through the latter half of the flight, when he'd grown tired of looking at the castles in the clouds. The turbulence they'd experienced over the Midwest had had the effect of rocking Modi to sleep, and he'd slept quite quietly for the remainder of the flight.
Modi wakes up as the plane stills and Loki shifts him in his arms to carry a duffel bag full of clothes. He sighs, blinks a little bit, looks up at his papa who just barely has the strength to smile encouragingly down at him - he'd spent most of his mental energy trying to hold his own panic at bay.
Modi stretches in Loki's arms, a yawn widening his pink mouth into a perfect oval, and Loki grins down at him.
"Here we are, little one," he says gently. "Los Angeles. We are not angels, as your papa seems to be convinced we would have been had I allowed us to continue the trip. We are very much alive and have not disappeared into thin air."
Modi doesn't particularly care for any of this, and is only interested in what Loki might have packed for him in terms of baby food. Would there be potatoes at the next feeding? That was Modi's only concern. He liked mashed potatoes.
"You're probably hungry, aren't you, sweetheart?" Loki coos down at him as Thor gets out of his seat, stretches his stiff legs and slaps himself twice (the priest behind them asks if Loki is quite sure Thor is not possessed by a demon; Loki sighs, exasperated, and tells the priest that he is quite assured Thor is not possessed, or not yet, at least, and the priest looks quite frightened and hurries past them, chanting Hail Marys as he passes). "I'll feed you quite soon, don't worry, lovely," Loki continues as Thor opens the overhead bin and, true to form, a piece of luggage comes and bonks him straight on the head on its way down. Thor looks nonplussed for a moment before shaking his head and picking it up.
"Would you like potatoes?" Loki asks, and Modi's face brightens at this. "Oh, yes, you love potatoes, don't you, you little Samwise Gamgee?"
Thor stares at Loki, at Modi's smiling visage, reminds him that their son's name is Modi, and not Samwise Hamcheese or whatever Loki had said.
Loki rolls his eyes and tells Thor that it was a literary reference and it might do him well to read some of the better known Midgardian tomes.
As Thor follows Loki down the single aisle of the ferocious metal bird, he thanks the Norns that they survived and thanks the airplane for not swallowing him and his family whole. The priest hears him, and begins sprinkling holy water in their path as they exit the terminal.