Written to: Red Lights - Tiësto, crosspost from AO3
Antephialtic: Something that protects against nightmares.
"Future kings must be brave," Thor tells Modi firmly the morning after, when he wakes up to find Modi snuggled up against his chest and a smattering of bruises against his ribs from where Modi has kicked him in his sleep. "Also, future kings would do well not to kick their parents."
Modi babbles unintelligibly up at him, hugs his teddy bear closer to his chest.
"It does not appear that your stuffed animal the Man of Iron has given you is very effective at protecting you," Thor muses, stroking his son's blonde curls in thought. "But perhaps that is because Midgard does not have an abundance of fierce creatures as the other realms have, and so have grown lax in their protective charms and items." Anthony had looked at him oddly when Thor had brought no less than twelve stuffed and dried Chitauri hearts looped in a chain and hung it above his and Pepper's bedroom door, even though Thor had told him it was to ensure the baby's safe arrival and further protection after it was born. Tony had taken it down immediately after Thor had left.
Thor squints his eyes, trying to remember how to make any little charms for Modi. As he absentmindedly twirls one of Modi's blonde curls around his finger, he comes upon an answer that he thinks might help.
"I suppose there is one simple thing we could do," Thor says. "I will be back promptly, small one. Do not kick your mother, he is still sleeping and is not wont to amuse you at the present time."
Thor returns to find that Modi has kicked Loki awake.
"I was going to make a protective bangle for him," Thor explains. "I told him not to kick you, but it appears that he is not fond of listening."
Loki grumbles, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Of course he does not listen, he is very much like you. Clearly you do not remember the times as children when we slept over in the same bed and you would kick me out because you were pretending to be a horse in your dreams."
Thor firmly remembers none of this, and tells Loki so. Loki just rolls his eyes and sits up.
"What protection did you have in mind?" Loki asks, eyeing the knife Thor holds in his hands.
"Just a simple one," Thor explains. "A braided bracelet. There is something regarding parents' hair, and love, and some of that stuff. It is not my area of expertise, but I remember my mother had one for me when I was still but a babe."
Loki scoffs. "And you remember this? It is truly fascinating, how you can remember things that happened thousands and thousands of years ago but fail to remember what foodstuffs to pick up at the Midgardian grocery stores when I ask you to go."
Thor ignores him, lifts the knife up to his head, and carefully cuts off a blonde curl. He hands the knife to Loki, who rolls his eyes but obligingly takes it, snipping off a long dark strand, which he hands to Thor.
Thor braids the black and golden hair together, looping it in a small circle around Modi's wrist. Modi tugs at the bracelet curiously, his teddy bear momentarily forgotten on the bed.
"You will not have nightmares," Thor determines, smiling proudly at his son. "It is some magic that I do not know, but it is rather effective."
Modi sleeps throughout the night soundly, not even a peep coming from the nursery, but Loki still wakes up with a bruise on his ribs from when Thor smacked him in his sleep, with dreams of winning a round in the Prizefighter series.