I feel like my confidence has been suffering so much lately, every time I finish a chapter I have this evil little voice in my head telling me the chapter isn't good enough and people aren't going to like it despite the fact that I get nothing but absolutely wonderful comments on every chapter.
This chapter is shorter than previous ones, I think it's justified given the absolute beast that was the last chapter, so I hope everyone enjoys this one!
Edelweiss Say I'll Be with You Till the Day You Leave
Chapter Twelve: Good Things Take Time
Amelia shifted from one foot to the other as she watched over the training grounds from her elevated position, standing upon a cobblestone overlook that was parallel to the entrance of the gardens.
Loki had returned very early that morning with their son in tow, roughly an hour after he had left to find Kari in Jotunheim; the boy had promptly been sent back to bed only after Amelia had squeezed the boy tightly and asked him an abundance of questions, the central inquiry of which being if he was okay. Kari apologised relentlessly and assured his mother that he would not disappear again, and after they'd all retired to their rooms to try and get some sleep before the sun came up, Loki told his wife of the conversation he had had with their son.
He had agreed to train the boy as an Avenger.
It was quite a shock for Amelia to process, because Loki had always been vehemently against the idea of Kari pursuing the life of a superhero for a multitude of reasons, the main one being that there was always an underlying fear that harm would come to his children, and Loki always had to be in control of the situation so that they could avoid such incidents.
Which was why Amelia couldn't believe how Loki had given in to Kari's wish. They'd both vaguely understood that the boy was driven to perform heroic acts ever since he rescued that little girl from a fire, but this was the first time they'd had spoken confirmation of Kari's desire to be a real Avenger, to fight alongside the group that contained Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Not only was Amelia surprised by how Loki's talk with their son had gone, she was also relieved. Relieved, because Loki had followed through with his promise to actually remain focused on what was important; instead of letting his anger control him and blindly setting a punishment for their son before even attempting to get to the root of the problem, Loki had taken his son somewhere quiet and actually spoken to him, communicated his feelings and why he was upset that Kari had ran away. In return, Kari too had opened up, feeling that he could also share his thoughts without fear that his father would just explode with his temper.
Progress was made, and Amelia was proud of her husband. She let him know it too, praising him for actually making their son feel comfortable enough to speak his mind, and Loki had given her a sad smile, berating himself for not having achieved the progress sooner. Amelia had shut the self-deprecation down quickly by giving her husband a swat on the arm and saying 'no, don't do that' in a very stern tone. Loki had had no choice but to follow the instruction.
Now, Amelia stood, about an hour before lunchtime, watching her husband lead her son into Asgard's training arena to begin the first lesson of his teachings. She was not worried about Kari hurting himself, because she knew Loki would not allow his son to get hurt - at least not anything beyond a few harmless scrapes and bruises - but she did retain some nerves from the events of the previous night.
Learning your son had run away to an entirely different realm was overwhelming and frightening, and Amelia still felt the tricky little aftershocks of fear that presented in the form of pangs in her chest brought on by anxiety. She didn't want her son to ever feel so alone again that he would leave instead of seeking her out for comfort, and because of this, she felt as though she couldn't take her eyes off of him.
Inga appeared at her side seemingly out of nowhere, her silent and elegant footsteps not betraying her position, and Amelia was pulled from her reverie, turning to see that the queen was following her gaze but looking slightly past Loki and Kari to where the king was working out alongside his own two sons. Magni and Modi were just like their father, full of energy with a hankering for strength. Despite being only eight and four years old respectively, the little ones were already training daily to build muscle in their small forms; if they were anyone else's sons, it may have been comical, but as Thor's sons it just seemed wholly normal.
Thor was in the middle of doing a thousand push-ups, while Magni was valiantly swinging his wooden training sword at a straw dummy tied to a post. Modi was intent on holding the world record for the world's longest hand-stand ever performed by a child - he'd already been at it for an impressive seven minutes and was still going strong, no hint of wobbling or imbalance.
"They grow up so fast," Inga remarked wistfully, her hands clasped in front of her as she gazed at her sons with a small smile, "sometimes even they forget that they're still children."
Amelia gave a semi-amused huff, "Tell me about it."
"How are you holding up?"
Amelia licked her lips self-consciously, scratching the inside of her palm with her fingernails, "I feel guilty for not giving Kari the attention he needed. If I had paid closer attention, I could have helped him before things got so bad, perhaps then he wouldn't have felt the need to run away." It was always rewarding to be candid in the presence of the queen, because sometimes Inga taught her things about herself that she did not previously know.
Inga nodded, "I think it's probably normal that you feel that way. What matters now is what you do going forward. Rather than dwelling on what you could have done, think about what you will do now." Her words were a mesh of comfort and wisdom; she always admired the queen's graceful pieces of insight, she always seemed to know what to say to stall Amelia's tendency to give herself a hard time.
"Plus," Inga continued, "I have not had to face the troubles of raising teenagers just yet, but I can tell it is certainly not easy. At the twins' age, they are very much enclosed and unwilling to make their feelings known. It can be difficult to tell exactly what they're going through when they do not wish to talk about it. When you double this up with the fact that you are also seeing to Daisy's needs all day long, well… motherhood is not a walk in the park," she gave Amelia a gentle and friendly smile, "do not put too much blame on yourself."
Amelia returned the smile, "I can tell you with one-hundred percent certainty that they were easier to raise when they were children who were not worried to say exactly what was on their minds."
Inga chuckled, "A part of me is apprehensive to find out what kind of teenagers my boys will make."
Amelia sighed softly, "I had thought my twins were becoming more independent in that they did not wish for my constant attention, so I chose to give them space… but perhaps I strayed a little too far from them. I purposely left them to their own devices instead of pushing for them to share their innermost thoughts and feelings with me because I believed it was the correct thing to do, not because I wanted to. It seems though that they are not quite at the stage where they no longer need my help, and I am admittedly glad for it."
The truth was that Amelia did not want the day to come where her children started running forwards and didn't look back. She would always be there for her children to fall back on, but she knew one day they would traverse the paths they forged for themselves, without the aid of their mother and father.
Inga hummed thoughtfully, not speaking for a few minutes as she reminisced about something. The contemplation in her gaze left her almost foggy-eyed, like she was thinking hard about something distant.
After a while, the queen spoke.
"Mine and Signy's mother and father have long since passed. There are times were I go many weeks or months without thinking about the fact that they are gone, but I will always inevitably reach a point where I wish they were still alive…" Inga turned to Amelia, giving her a meaningful look, "because even at my age, I still need them from time to time."
Amelia's brow furrowed and she hummed in gentle agreement. She herself would go a long while without thinking of her mother, Alaina. In fact, as the memory of her mother's face passed through her mind, Amelia realised this was the first time she had thought about her mother for close to six months.
It would be a blessing for her to be able to have her mother back with her. She would have been the most wonderful grandmother to Daisy, Kari and Aster if she had gotten the chance to meet them; she definitely would've spoiled them rotten with sweets at every given opportunity. She would have praised Kari's passion, Aster's pursuit of knowledge, and Daisy's creativity if she'd been able to get to know them, but her life had been tragically cut short by a terminal illness. There was no way for them to ever meet, and Amelia mourned that fact.
Her eyes stung lightly as she thought of her mother, but she blinked the tears away and cleared her head, pushing it out of her mind. She was brought back to the here and now when Inga spoke again.
"It is my belief that no matter how much our children might act the part of fully independent and capable adults once they grow older, we will always be needed."
Amelia smiled, her happiness from the queen's statement so genuine and palpable, and she nodded her head confidently, "And I will always be here for them."
She turned to glance behind her at the courtyard's central water fountain where Aster and Daisy were situated, sitting on the bench right beside it - Daisy was sitting in Aster's lap looking enthralled and Aster was holding a large storybook in hand, occasionally turning the page and reading aloud to her sister. Together, they created a sweet and picturesque image that Amelia couldn't help but adore. She wondered what book they were reading together that had her youngest sitting so still and listening so intently.
Aster turned the page and spoke with a lowered voice that had a slight raspy quality to it to match the atmosphere of the scene she was reading to her little sister, "-It was then that the savage beast attacked the knight, slashing with its sharp claws and biting with its prickly teeth. The knight was not quick enough, and the beast snapped its gaping maw around the warrior's right arm, tearing it clean from his body and taking with it the prized blade his father had gifted him when he was just a boy, still clutched in his disembodied hand."
Little Daisy gasped, tilting her head back to look up at her sister with her large brown eyes, "Oh no," she whispered quietly, "can he heal his arm back?"
"No," Aster told her, "he doesn't have the power to heal himself."
"But you do," Daisy pointed out.
"Yes, I do. Not a lot of people do. Besides, I don't think I would have the power to restore someone's arm if it got torn off their body. I could only heal the wound to stop the bleeding," Aster explained. Daisy hummed and nodded, pointing hurriedly at the book again to prompt her older sister to continue reading, to which Aster smiled in amusement.
"The knight screamed in agony, dropping to the ground and attempting to scramble away from the beast that was now enjoying his arm as a light snack. His sword fell and clattered to the ground out of reach, but it would be no good either way, because the knight knew not how to wield his sword in his left hand. The beast advanced slowly, bloodied saliva dripping from its mouth as it anticipated the taste of the rest of the knight-"
"Ewww," Daisy mumbled, "that's yucky."
"Yeah, it's yucky," Aster agreed. "But before the beast could snatch the knight up between its jaws, a single spear whistled as it flew through the air and pierced the beast's hide, puncturing its skull and destroying its brain. The beast collapsed to the ground, dead, and from within the forest, a paladin emerged."
Daisy shifted in Aster's lap, "What's a pal-aladdin?"
Aster bit her lip at her sister's butchered pronunciation, stifling a giggle, "A paladin is similar to a knight, righteous in the name of justice, but they tend to wield magic that is divine and holy in nature." She was aware that Daisy probably didn't understand half of the words she was saying, but the girl simply nodded her head like she understood it all completely.
"Are you a pal-aladdin?"
"No, I'm not a paladin," Aster spoke.
"Is daddy a pal-aladdin?"
"No, daddy isn't a paladin either. He's a sorcerer."
Aster closed her book as they reached the end of the chapter, she placed it down on the fountain beside her and lifted Daisy out of her lap and to the ground, "I need to go now. Do you want to stand with mama and watch daddy train with Kari?"
"Okay!" Daisy jumped on the spot and then turned and skipped towards their mother, taking ahold of her hand and craning her head up when she reached her.
Amelia peered down at her youngest, giving her a shining grin as she reached down to lift Daisy up and set her on her hip, "Hello my sweetheart. Did Aster read you an amazing story?"
"Yes mama! There was a scary beast but the pal-aladdin got him!" Daisy eagerly explained, and Amelia nodded her head, not entirely sure what her daughter was trying to communicate but she understood it to a vague degree.
"Oooh, lovely. Sounds exciting!" Amelia looked around, searching for her eldest daughter, and found her in the process of walking down the path that led out of the courtyard. "Where's your sister going?" She asked Daisy.
Daisy hummed, "She has to go now."
"Oh," Amelia murmured, locking eyes with Inga, who shared a meaningful look, "I should go and see where she's going."
"I'll watch Daisy," Inga offered, opening her arms, and Amelia hurriedly thanked her and passed her youngest daughter to the queen, before she began speed-walking across the courtyard to try and catch up with her eldest daughter.
"Aster?" Amelia called, grabbing the attention of her daughter who was in the middle of trying to slip away unseen. It was a fruitless venture, because Amelia was not oblivious. It wasn't just her husband who had been suspicious of their daughter's avoidant nature over the past couple of weeks, Amelia had picked up on it too, but until now she had brushed it aside.
After what happened with Kari, Amelia did not want to brush aside any sort of unusual behaviour from her children. If something was up with Aster, Amelia wanted to know about it.
Aster stopped walking, almost frozen in place for a few moments before she turned, hands clasped sensibly in front of the book she held to her front. She was the picture of innocence, but Amelia suspected it was an act.
Inga had told her that Aster had faked symptoms of an illness to escape afternoon tea with her father and her friend the other week; it was unlike her and Amelia found it to be somewhat concerning. She needed to get to the bottom of this.
"Where are you off to, my dear?"
Aster shrugged her shoulders subtly, "I'm returning this book to my room, and then I might get a snack and visit the library."
"Oh. Don't you want to have lunch with us after Kari and your dad are done with their training for today?" Amelia questioned.
Aster looked down like she was thinking about it for a moment, or faking thinking about it, and then shrugged again, "I'm not feeling really hungry, so I'll just go and eat something small now instead of joining you for lunch."
Amelia's brow furrowed and she tilted her head back slightly while scrutinising her daughter's expression. Aster probably liked to think she had an incredibly poker face, but in reality her eyes were set wide and unmoving, she wasn't even blinking as she stared her mother down, and it suggested to Amelia that her husband had been right when he'd remarked that Aster was not just a liar, but a bad one.
"Are you meeting your friend, Eske?" Amelia asked outright. She'd gotten a constant earful about Aster from Loki when he'd been very conscious of the fact that Aster was delaying any sort of meeting between him and her friend, but it wasn't until Inga had confirmed it that Amelia believed her daughter was actually trying to keep her father from meeting her friend at all.
"Maybe, if Eske is free," Aster responded with forced absent-mindedness, like she was trying to appear idle or casual about it.
Amelia sighed silently, nodding her head.
She did have an idea of what her daughter's problem was, but she didn't want to assume or imply anything in case she was blatantly wrong, but on the other hand it may have been the only way to get the truth out of Aster. In all the times she had heard Aster mention Eske's name, she had never once heard Aster use gendered pronouns to refer to them, which didn't necessarily imply what Amelia was suspecting, but Loki had started referring to Eske with female pronouns and Aster had not made a point to correct him.
To Amelia, that only told her one thing.
Amelia smiled, concocting her plan within the grand total of zero point two seconds before putting it into action.
"Your friend, Eske - does he like to read too?"
Aster's tiny forced smile slowly fell and she seemed like she was stuck in time, not a single twitch of her face betraying the sheer panic she must have been feeling. And then she murmured "What?" with an undertone of dread that Amelia couldn't ignore.
Bingo.
Amelia had thought the only reason Aster had continued to let her father use female pronouns for her friend while simultaneously only using gender neutral pronouns was because she didn't want him to suspect the truth - that Eske was, in fact, a boy. And with the reaction she was observing now, Amelia could only assume her thinking had been correct.
"Your friend," Amelia repeated with false naivety, "is he a bookworm like you?"
Aster started fidgeting with her fingers, her nails scraping against the leather binding of the book in her hands, and she peered over her shoulder with paranoia, searching for any eavesdroppers close by. There was nobody present in the immediate area, no guards within earshot.
Aster looked back at her mother, this time frowning deeply, and with a tone of great upset and betrayal, she murmured, "Kari told you, didn't he?"
Amelia blinked, lips parting in surprise. She hadn't thought it was something that Kari knew about, especially with how the twins had been acting towards each other for months now.
"No. I guessed. I also didn't have any significant clues but your reaction has pretty much confirmed to me that Eske is a boy. The question is, is he your boy-friend?" Amelia smiled coyly as her daughter began sputtering and stammering.
"Mum!" Aster exclaimed, her voice sounding uncharacteristically petulant as she lifted the book to cover her face. Her bashfulness was cute, and Amelia had to admit that she hadn't pictured her eldest daughter to be the type to dip into romance and love at such a young age, she'd seemed wholly academically driven up until now. It was refreshing to see a new side to one of her kids.
"Relax," Amelia told her daughter, giving her an encouraging and friendly smile, "you don't have to be shy. I want to know all about him! How did the two of you meet? What does he look like? Does he treat you well?"
Aster peered over the cover of her book, the tops of her cheeks glowing as she cringed at her mother's questions, "Please don't- you can't tell dad," she implored, having all but given up on trying to bend the truth. Lying to her father was hard, but lying to her mother was even more difficult - not because her mother was any more astute or observant than her father, but because something in her mother's expression inspired openness and exuded understanding.
Amelia frowned, "Why not?"
Aster blanched at the mere thought of her father discovering the secret she had been trying to keep all this time, "Because," she began hastily, "he wouldn't approve! He's too overprotective as it is, he can't even leave me be when he believes my friend is of the same gender as I am. What do you think he would do if he found out I was spending time with a boy?"
Amelia blinked and opened her mouth to respond, but her daughter rapidly cut her off, leaving her paused with her mouth hanging open.
"I've seen the movies! The overprotective dad always forbids the boy from being around his daughter and probably also threatens to physically harm him. Don't act like dad isn't the type to do something like that. He is."
Amelia's face softened at the genuine panic in Aster's eyes. She took a few steps towards her daughter and laid her hands over the girl's shoulders in a soothing gesture, grounding her teenage daughter who had clearly worked herself up into an anxious state with just her own imagination to supply the consequences of her secret rendezvous.
"Aster, your dad is a rational man. He might wish to get to know Eske personally, but he would never forbid you from spending time with him," Amelia explained gently, "I'm sure if you tell him the truth, he will have a reasonable reaction." Her hands cupped Aster's face affectionately, thumbs softly brushing over her flushed skin in an effort to calm her.
The girl did not appear to relax, her gaze darting between Amelia's eyes, "Mum. Please don't tell him. Please."
It was saddening to see her daughter so worried over something Amelia was sure would not incur any sort of anger from her husband. Aster was a flourishing young woman, a teenager with hormones and a head full of natural curiosity, it was normal for girl's her age to want to pursue romance. Loki would see that.
Amelia knew for a fact that Loki was nothing like her father. Aster did not need to be afraid of him for any reason.
But she was not the type to go against her daughter's wishes, as her little secret was inherently harmless, there was nothing terrible that could come from Aster pursuing a secret romance. Loki didn't need to know about it, Amelia just wished Aster would trust her father enough to tell him.
"I won't tell him, Aster," Amelia promised, and the girl grew visibly less tense, "but I do hope you will talk to him and tell him the truth some time soon."
Aster nibbled at the inside of her cheek, avoiding her mother's tender gaze; she was glad her mother would not reveal her cautiously guarded secret and also felt a sense of relief that at least one of her parents knew where she was always running off to, because it was exhausting coming up with excuses all the time. Her mother was far more gentle and understanding than her father was, this she knew. Her father had always been the firmer of her parents, the one who was quick to his temper, and perhaps even the more paranoid one.
She knew in her heart that her parents always had the safety of their children in mind, but it could get so easily smothering and difficult to work around as Aster grew older and felt the need to exercise some independence.
Her mother was really trying to be the supportive and encouraging parent despite everything she had been through, and Aster truly appreciated her somewhat more freeing approach to parenting in comparison to her father's way of doing things.
Amelia had been through some horrifying ordeals. By all accounts she should have been as stifling, paranoid and overprotective as Loki, and it was probably an incredible feat for her not to react the same way as Loki to most worrying and shocking revelations regarding the twins and their shenanigans, but here she was, putting her fear aside and offering trust and compassion in its place.
Aster's eyes lingered on the faded scar across her mother's neck, flickering memories of a nightmarish ordeal wisping up from the distant reaches of her mind to prod at her fogged recollection of events. Some parts were hazy, like the location of the incident and the people present, but other parts were unsettlingly clear. She could remember with startling clarity the way she pressed her hands to her mother's neck as it gushed with blood, and invoked the power of her healing magic for the very first time in a moment of desperation. She hadn't even known what she was doing at the time, just that she needed to stop whatever it was that was happening.
She could remember the exact hue of scarlet red as it poured from her mother's throat and stained her clothes and her hands.
"Aster?" Amelia spoke her name softly, face full of concern.
Aster blinked, realising that tears had begun pricking at her eyes, and the book fell from her hands, hitting the cobblestone ground with a thud as she quickly enveloped her mother in a desperate hold, pressing her face against her shoulder to hide the dread she suddenly felt.
"Thank you, mum," Aster whispered rigidly, trying to keep a lid on her emotions and not let the tears fall down her face.
"My love, what's wrong?" Amelia ran one hand through her daughter's hair and let the other rub circles into her back.
"It's nothing," Aster squeezed out, sniffling quietly. "I'm not ready for you or dad to meet Eske. Perhaps next summer will be different, but for now I just- I would rather just keep it quiet. Please?"
Amelia held her daughter, not quite knowing what to think of her sudden outburst of sorrow or what the precise cause of it was, but her hold was firm and consoling as that of a mother's usually was. Aster seemed small in her arms, not just in the sense that she seemed childlike in her sorrow, but physically too - she had always been petite, but it wasn't until Amelia squeezed the girl that she noticed how slim her waist was. She wasn't thin in a way that felt unsafe, but Amelia couldn't help but feel a touch of concern about it, especially paired with the fact that the girl had just spoken about how she wasn't hungry and only planned on having a snack for lunch.
"Are you sure you won't join us for lunch, my love?" Amelia tentatively asked again, and then adding for extra allure, "I believe the kitchen staff will be serving freshly baked chocolate chip muffins in the food hall."
Aster chuckled softly against the material of Amelia's gown and murmured, "That sounds tempting, but I think I'll pass. Thank you, though."
Amelia nodded, placing a kiss to the top of Aster's head, trying not to show any disappointment at the fact her daughter wouldn't be having lunch with them. She told herself she had nothing to worry about and that Aster was simply just not hungry that morning, and her skinny frame had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Kari huffed as he jogged the circuit of the training grounds for the fifth time consecutively, looking up every so often to spy his father standing in the centre, staring at him with his arms crossed over his chest, an aloof expression on his face. He'd asked Kari to jog until he told him to stop, and Kari was growing more agitated by the moment. It was beginning to feel like a gym lesson at school rather than the superhero training his father had promised him, and now he was gasping for breath with a throat as dry as the Sahara desert, wondering what his father was playing at.
When he crossed the line he'd started from and Loki still didn't tell him to stop, Kari came to a halt, doubled over with his hands on his knees as he drew in recovery breaths. He wouldn't normally be so winded, but the summer sun was hot and he'd already sweat all of the hydration out of his body.
"I didn't say stop," Loki called out.
"Dad, I'm dying," Kari whined.
"If you ever have to find an enemy in an arid, hot climate, what use will you be? Are you just going to sit it out because you hate the sun?"
Kari grumbled, stalking away from the edge of the field and trudging towards his father like he was a toddler having a tantrum, "I'm sure I'll be happy to fight unless the enemy demands I run five laps of the desert first."
"You don't drink enough water," Loki remarked, before snapping his fingers. From just outside the training grounds, a servant approached with a pitcher of water and a cup on a tray; he poured the water into the cup and offered it to Kari, who murmured his thanks and proceeded to gulp down the entire contents of the cup within a few quick seconds.
"I saw you at breakfast, you didn't even touch the water that was poured for you. Instead you drank half a cup of apple juice and indulged in several pastries, even when your mother told you you could only have one. Your choice in food and drink is hardly befitting of a superhero, you'll need to improve your diet and eat more fibrous meals instead of pure sugar, especially for breakfast. Although, you can start by drinking more water. No juice or sodas, water." Loki spoke pointedly and with authority, prompting Kari to let out a subtle groan as he realised that superhero training was going to affect his entire day and not just contribute to a few short hours of learning how to fight properly.
Loki smirked, "You sound disappointed. Is the rule of drinking more water and eating less sweets going to deter you from becoming an Avenger?"
Kari put himself together under the smug stare of his father and handed the empty cup back to the servant, who took his place back at the edge of the grounds, before wiping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, "No. I can do it." Although he said it with enough mustered conviction, the pout on his lips suggested he wasn't entirely sure of the fact, but he was willing to try.
"Alright. Good. Are you thoroughly warmed up now?" His father asked.
"Warmed up?" Kari scoffed, "It's boiling today, I was warmed up before I stepped outside!"
"Don't play dumb. You must always warm up before training, or you will hurt in the morning. Are you ready to officially begin?"
"I was ready after the first lap," Kari responded with resignation.
Loki ignored his son's light verbal jab and took a few backward paces to put some distance between himself and his son, and then dropped himself seamlessly into a readied stance, "Alright, very simple first task. I just want you to punch me."
Kari blinked, eyes going wide, "Punch you?"
"Well," Loki shrugged slightly, "try to punch me."
Kari swallowed, loosening his stance and getting ready to lurch forward at a moment's notice, "And you won't get mad or ground me?"
Loki snorted, "If you can hit me, I won't get mad."
Kari licked his lips, oddly excited at the prospect of being allowed what was essentially a free hit on his father. There had definitely been many times in his life where Kari had thought about punching his dad in the face, but he hadn't been raised to jump to violence and so he had always refrained, but now… he didn't get a chance like this very often.
Kari darted towards his father, stifling a grin as he reeled back with his fist and then, when he was mere feet away, he swung his arm with all the strength he could muster.
All of his forward momentum was brought to a screeching halt in a fraction of a second when Loki grabbed his swinging wrist in one hand and steadied Kari with another hand on his chest so that he didn't go toppling over himself with the force behind his assault.
"Stop," Loki stated, calm but firm, "What are you doing?"
He sounded utterly accusatory, staring at his son with an expression akin to horrified incredulity, and the grin fell instantly from Kari's face to be replaced with pure confusion.
"You… you said to hit you?" Kari murmured, suddenly terrified that he'd misunderstood the instruction and was about to be punished for daring to punch his own father - or trying to, at least.
"Yes, but what are you doing?" Loki repeated again, this time drawing his attention towards Kari's balled up fist, and then pointed at his hand, "Did you intend to hit me like this? Do you truly not know how to punch properly?" He didn't appear angry, just utterly surprised, but Kari still remained in the dark about what exactly his father was referring to. He had simply been doing as he was told.
Loki pried his son's fist open and finally shed some light on what he was so worked up about, "You tucked your thumb inside your fist?"
Kari blinked, "Uh, yeah?"
"Congratulations, that's how you break your thumb," Loki told his son bluntly, "if you were to hit someone or something with your thumb tucked against your palm, you would be too busy howling in pain while your foe got the jump on you."
Kari nibbled his lower lip in embarrassment, "Oh."
Loki sighed and shook his head, "It's okay. I suppose it makes sense you wouldn't know, you've never learnt hand to hand combat." He released Kari's hand and showed him the correct placement of his thumb on the outside of his fist, but instead of resuming the task he had laid out, Loki stood back and scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Perhaps it would be appropriate to begin with posture and balance…"
He trailed off while Kari stood before him and waited patiently for his father to come to a decision on where to begin; the boy let his eyes wander to where his mother, youngest sister and Inga were spectating from and looked beyond them to where his bedroom balcony was situated up high. It was then that he began thinking of the very special cloak he had tucked away beneath his bed, waiting for the chance to be utilised by somebody who was daring enough.
He'd dreamed of flying that night, swooping and zipping through the clouds, above the trees of the forest and over the lake, leaving faces of wonder in his wake as everyone stared up at the mysterious, winged being dancing through the air with incredible expertise, like the controlled the very wind current they travelled on.
With the no doubt increased security that would be put into effect over the next few days, there would be no good time for Kari to fling the cloak over his shoulders and take to the skies; it was entirely possible that he'd have to wait until the end of the summer when they travelled back to Manhattan to take the wings out for a spin.
He was dying to give them a go.
The curiosity that poked and prodded at his mind had him constantly wondering how it would feel. He knew for a fact he wasn't the only one on planet Earth who craved the ability to soar high in the sky at great speeds, rising high above the people on the ground. He was incredibly fortunate that he was going to get the chance to experience the feeling, and Kari knew that until that moment arrived, he would continue to daydream about it day in and day out.
His gaze drifted back to his father, who was standing quietly and watching him with an expectant stare. Had he asked a question? Kari hadn't been paying attention.
Growing sheepish and apologetic, Kari gave a quick, nervous laugh, "Sorry… what did you say?"
Loki rolled his eyes, "Kari, you wanted this, didn't you? I didn't imagine our little talk last night, did I? Yet here you stand with a wandering eye and a blank look on your face."
"No, no- I do want this!" Kari rushed to confirm, "I'm sorry… just a little tired," he finished with a humorous little smile.
"Oh, you're tired?" Loki replied sarcastically. "I said, what exactly is it you want out of this training? What kind of hero do you want to be?"
Kari's eyes widened slightly, surprised his father was actually asking him such a question. He was being given a choice? He could decide what kind of fighting style he would have? The kind of combat his father would teach him?
"I… I suppose I've never really thought about that."
Loki didn't look entirely convinced by his son's proclamation, "You've wished to be an Avenger, yet you've never actually thought about the kind of hero you would be?"
Kari scratched his chin, humming in consideration, thinking deeply about what he envisioned for himself when he thought about saving lives and fighting evil beings. He naturally wanted to incorporate his wings into the superhero he would become, which meant he could maybe swoop in from above and attack from a distance - a ranged weapon would be extremely useful, but he didn't want to have to always be carrying it with him, so perhaps he would benefit from learning how to use the same magic his father did when he summoned his daggers to hand.
"Okay, so… I guess I want you to teach me hand-to-hand combat to start with, but then obviously I want to learn offensive magic and spells because what's the point of having magic if you don't fight with it?" Kari pointed out and began listing everything off and counting with his fingers, "Number three - I want to be able to summon weapons like you, which means number four, an interdimensional pocket! You always talk about how useful it is, so I want that too. Oh, and number five, I want to learn archery!"
Loki's expression fell from proud to agitated, "Archery?"
"Yes, archery!" Kari smiled. It was the perfect ranged combat to aid his dream of being a winged superhero.
Loki's unimpressed look was maintained, his lips even pulling up in disgust somewhat at the thought of his son pursuing archery as his primary style of combat, "How boring."
Kari pouted, "You're just saying that because Clint is an archer and you have beef with him."
Loki lifted an eyebrow, "Barton and I do not eat beef together, so I don't know what you're talking about-"
"God, dad, you're so old."
"And you're so young. You're like a young tiny baby in comparison to me."
"I just have a question," Kari lifted his hand, "was it fun seeing the dinosaurs in person?"
"I think you owe me an apology for insinuating that I am in fact as old as the dinosaurs. And while I'm waiting on that apology, I do not have a problem with archery because of Barton. I have a problem with archery because it is a boring sport," Loki crossed his arms, glaring down his nose at his son.
They stared at each other in momentary silence.
"Your father isn't proficient in archery," Thor called out from across the grounds, breaking through the quietude, and Loki swung around and pointed a finger at his brother.
"You're useless at everything except swinging an axe around!"
"That's incorrect!" Thor argued, a wide smirk on his face, "I'm also good at swinging hammers around."
Loki scoffed, turning back to his son, "Does it have to be archery?"
Kari pouted, "Are you actually really bad at it?"
"No," Loki denied the thought, "I can absolutely hit a target..." Another brief silence. "...Nine times out of ten."
Kari smiled, "Well, then maybe whilst you teach me archery, we can both improve our skill?"
Loki groaned quietly, taking a moment to mentally ask himself if he was going to endure his resentment for the ranged sport in order to make his son happy or if he would rather just refuse to teach the skill to his son outright. He glanced over at the spectator balcony where Amelia stood with Daisy and Inga, and hummed in resignation.
Amelia would prompt him to pursue the sport in order to pass the skills onto their son, because as a loving father he was tasked with overcoming the things that frustrated him if it made Kari happy.
"Alright, fine," Loki agreed, "we'll dip into archery. But your training will primarily consist of hand-to-hand and combative magic. Archery is secondary."
"Yes!" Kari punched the air victoriously, "Thanks dad!"
That morning, Loki put his son through several tests that assessed the boy's skills and abilities required for the challenges ahead, such as trials of endurance, balance, coordination, reaction time, agility, flexibility and strength. He was made to walk a balance beam, to do a handstand and then put all his weight on one hand, to throw stones at various difficult targets, to avoid stones being thrown at him, to go from point one to point two as fast as possible, and to see how many push-ups he could do consecutively.
Kari humoured his father with each and every test, no matter how ridiculous they seemed, and allowed his father to evaluate him by throwing stones at his head. One of those stones actually connected and hit him square in the forehead, though thankfully Loki had not used all of his strength when lobbing it.
"Your balance and coordination is quite good, as is your strength. I can only assume you've built up these skills through your inclination to climb trees and scale the palace walls, which is handy. It means we won't be starting from the ground up," Loki praised his son after a few hours of tests, and the boy looked proud of himself.
"So you think I'm strong?" Kari asked with a hopeful shine in his eyes, throwing his father off somewhat.
"I don't think it, I know it. You have impressive upper body strength to be able to climb the way you do. You climbed the whole astronomy tower without any problems, remember?" Loki lifted an eyebrow.
Kari smiled to himself, and then seemed to deflate slightly; Loki's brow furrowed as he observed his son's frown.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't look strong. I don't have big muscles like uncle Thor, I just look like a skinny, lanky kid," Kari pointed out, lifting his arms up and pointing at his stringy limbs with dissatisfaction and a look of genuine upset over this fact.
Loki blinked and crossed his arms, looking his son over with knitted eyebrows. He did not see any problems with his son's body; Kari was a growing boy who was in the middle of a growth spurt, so naturally his frame was becoming long and lean. He was not hugely muscular, but that did not mean he was not strong - the boy was half Jotun, he practically inherited the innate abilities of strength regardless of what his body looked like.
"Okay, firstly, not every strong person looks like that blob of bulging muscles," Loki jabbed a thumb in Thor's direction, and the king stopped what he was doing and glared over his shoulder from some distance away, exhibiting that Thor's sense of hearing was just that good - or, he had a natural detector for sibling roasts. "Take me, for example," said Loki, "I am lean and muscular, but not overly so to the point it looks comical. The reason your muscles are not defined is because of your eating habits - something we already established, too much sugar, not enough fibre or protein - and your lack of exercise. If you were not blessed with Jotun genes, you would probably be rather chubby," Loki smiled lightly.
Kari looked down at his body, and then back up at his father, "So… so I could have muscles?"
Loki laughed, "Of course, anyone can attain a muscular physique if they're willing to put in the effort, my boy. Less sweets, more exercise, daily training, if you followed a regime, you could probably have defined muscles by the end of the summer."
Kari's eyes widened, basking in the thought of returning to school looking like a muscular god, the very picture perfect image of a superhero - there was no doubt about it, it had to happen. He couldn't wait to see the look on Louis's face when he laid his gaze upon Kari's strong arms, and the way Trevor would no doubt run away in tears at the sight of him. Nobody would dare mess with him if he looked like he could kick everyone's ass.
"Can you teach me how?" Kari asked with a gleam of yearning in his green eyes.
Loki nodded, "If you think you can put in the work. I can teach you, but you will have to follow my instructions."
Kari practically jumped up and down on the spot in excitement, "Agreed!"
With a snort of amusement, Loki stepped forward and gave his son a pat on the back, "Go sit down and drink some more water. I'm going to have a short sparring session with your uncle and then we will have showers and meet in the lunch hall."
Kari nodded, eager and ready to follow literally any directive his father posed to him; he effectively skipped across the training ground to where he'd left his bag and took a seat on the nearby bench. A servant brought him another pitcher of water and he accepted it with gratitude and gulped down the water, finding it unfortunately tasteless but thankfully refreshing in the heat of the sun.
He pulled out his phone and glanced at his notifications, checking to see if he'd had any messages from Louis. Predictably, he had not, and he sighed, lifting his gaze to watch his father and uncle fight each other on the field.
It was fascinating to watch. While he had seen his father fight many times before both in youtube videos and in person, he'd never really observed anything about the movements and techniques. He figured now would be a good time to start, and had the exceptional idea to pull out his phone and record a video so that he might study his father's fighting style at a later date.
He watched carefully, noting how Loki's style of fighting was all about his speed and agility, while Thor's was all about his strength. Although Thor was stronger than his brother, Loki was faster; they each both had strengths and weaknesses against each other, and it helped Kari see that even if he didn't end up looking like Thor, he could still be a mighty and formidable opponent while looking like his father. With a lithe build made up of compact power, he could overcome any opponent if he knew how to pick out a foe's flaws and defects.
Loki entered the lunch hall in a good mood, content after his workout and the quality time he had spent with his son, and spotted Amelia, Daisy and Kari already sitting at the feasting table. Kari had showered faster, clearly, and was eager to eat no doubt due to the increased hunger he was feeling after his exercising. He noted that the boy had no sweets on his plate, to his surprise - he hadn't thought Kari would follow those instructions so readily, seeing as consuming bad sugar was a tough habit to kick.
The fact Kari had already began taking this seriously instilled pride in Loki, and he gave the boy's still damp hair a ruffle as he passed him and hovered over where Amelia sat.
"Wife," Loki greeted jovially, his nose nudging against her cheek in a silent request that she turn her head so he could kiss her.
She smiled, abiding his unspoken request, "Husband." Loki's lips curled into a subtle smirk before he kissed her and then leaned back to observe her smooth skin and pretty eyes, feeling a significant pull towards her in the centre of his chest. He'd felt her eyes on him when he'd started sparring with Thor; it wasn't often that she watched him train and workout, but when she did, it was like Loki could feel her desire and admiration radiating off of her, no matter how far away she stood.
And after a good workout, all Loki wanted to do was locate his wife, hold her tight, kiss her bare skin and breathe in her scent. Sadly, some alone time would have to wait until that evening when Daisy had been put to bed, but Loki was a patient man. He could endure.
The spark in Amelia's eyes suggested she knew exactly what he was thinking, and she gave him an attractive smile that scrunched her nose slightly, a very playful look, but oh so attractive in his eyes. Just because he could endure, it did not mean it was easy.
He gave her lips another quick peck and then straightened up, walking around Amelia's seat to where Daisy was situated, indulging herself in a small iced cake with a cherry on top. She grinned and giggled when he stood beside her, and closed her eyes when he leaned down and laid a scattering of kisses across her forehead.
"Are you enjoying that cake?"
"Mm," Daisy nodded, eyes shining, "it's yummy daddy. Do you want some?" She held up the half-eaten baked good and Loki stroked her head, admiring her kindness.
"Thank you, bumblebee, but you should finish it. I'll have my own treat later," Loki responded, his tone taking an amused shift with his quiet innuendo that he knew Amelia had picked up on. His wife pinched the back of his thigh, causing him to startle slightly, and he threw her a seductive smirk over his shoulder, to which she poked her tongue out. Gods, he loved that woman.
Taking his seat around the table and opposite his wife, Loki finally noticed that one of his family was missing.
"Where is Aster?" He inquired.
In the corner of his eye, Loki saw Kari's ears perk up slightly, his gaze flicking over only briefly before he went back to his lunch.
"Ah. She, um, wasn't very hungry. She grabbed a small snack and went to her happy place, the library," Amelia responded, and then quickly added, "she's so much like you, you know. Obsessed with taking in every piece of literature and non-fiction book she can get her hands on. I mean, I love books, but she looooves books."
"Indeed," Loki replied in agreement, and looked over at the freshly baked honey cakes that were placed on the table as he was walking in, "but she's going to miss out on these. Perhaps I should bring one to her-"
"She's fine," Amelia and Kari both answered swiftly in perfect synchronicity, before the two of them turned sharply to face each other, eyes suspicious and full of scrutiny.
"Uh… alright then," Loki murmured, blinking at his wife and son as they continued to ignore him and observe each other curiously. He supposed Aster could always pick one up later, if there were any left.
He began eating his lunch and a distant thought ebbed from his mind; he couldn't quite kick the feeling that he was forgetting something important regarding his eldest daughter.
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