Magda sits with Natasha and Steve until Loki and Wanda arrive. Tea is a quiet affair, but Magda brings out her Cards Against Humanity deck after and they are soon laughing together as though nothing has come between them. Steve blushes regularly. After he and Natasha leave, Loki, Wanda, and Magda sit around the dining room table and talk. He tells Magda of his plan to save Frigga and everything that happened in Asgard. She gets up and hugs him, deeply moved by what he gave up for them. They do not want to leave him, so at the end of the day, they retrieve pajamas from next door and pull blankets and pillows from the bedrooms and cuddle together on the living room floor until they fall asleep together.
In the morning, Magda calls in to work and retrieves things from her own kitchen, returning to find Wanda and Loki still fast asleep. She happily sets out to make breakfast. They wake to the smells of omlettes and hashbrowns, blueberry pancakes and coffee and stumble to the table. Magda, elegant even in her pajamas, sets steaming plates in front of them and then settles in with her own. They watch the sunrise over breakfast.
"So...Loki. I have told the centre I am not coming in today. I assume you are not working for Ralph this morning?"
"Correct. I will return tomorrow."
"What would you like to do today?"
"Absolutely nothing that requires me to leave my soft clothes and my dear sisters, if you agree to this."
"Of course! That is why I called in to work. It is a day to celebrate being together and to welcome you home."
"Thank you."
"It is supposed to be bright and warmer than it has been yet this year. Perhaps we can plan our gardens and dream of spring. It is warming slowly this year," Wanda suggests.
"I like this idea. Loki, what do you say?"
"I think that would be lovely. Could we look into what herbs from your native magic might grow here? Plants mentioned in the books?"
"Of couse! And Wanda will go next door to gather ours after breakfast while I do dishes. We shall dream of the new life of spring."
"I would also like to sit in the square for a little while."
"You will need boots. It has not yet melted."
"I brought a good pair from Asgard. Thor allowed me to bring a trunk."
"Then we shall sit under the ash, but only after we have changed out of our pajamas." Magda says, "First, though, you must eat. Remember how I cook?"
"Like a Sokovian grandmother," Loki replies.
"Yes! And what does this mean?"
"We will have pancakes for lunch for days," teases Wanda.
"Not if we have them for lunch today. And possibly with supper. But yes, in quantity. I do not believe in the myth of a 'small batch' of anything. You will have hashbrowns in the freezer for months."
"Surely you exaggerate."
Magda shakes her head, "You may not have anything in your refrigerator after your abscence, but you have things to thaw and I will not let you go hungry. You will have hashbrowns for months."
Loki smiles, "Thank you, Magda."
They eat, they play games, they read together and plan their gardens, and in the peak of the afternoon, they finally dress and take time in the square. Loki wanders around the tree, dragging his fingers along the bark. He stops by an interesting knot and concentrates on one of the simplest chants from the handmade book. He whispers it to himself once, twice, three times, and as he says it a fourth, he feels a fleeting, faint glimpse of something achingly familiar. He stops, smiles, and lets his hand fall from the tree.
"What are you doing, dear Brother?" Magda asks.
"Trying to find Yggdrasil."
"And?"
"For a moment, I felt her."
Magda throws her arms around him, "I am so happy for you."
"To reach the strength I once knew...that will take years of dedicated study. But to know I can feel this..."
"It is hope."
Wanda takes his hand, "We do not need to carry it for you any longer. You have found it on your own."
"Yes, I have. But stay close, dear sisters, for I may need help again in the future."
"We always will," Wanda answers, "just as we always have."