Sorry it's been over a year. Thanks to everyone who commented and stuck with this despite ridiculous wait times. Two really nice comments I received on AO3 recently reawakened my muse.
Quick recap: They just freed Fenrir in Jotunheim and Loki made an ice palace.
Tony's not even surprised that Loki can pull an Elsa and make a whole ice castle. He almost does it as quickly as she does during the song.
When Elsa made hers, she was scared and isolated herself. The contrast to Loki now, being reunited with his wolf-kid and surrounded by family- former enemies notwithstanding- well, it's a good thing Tony's wearing his suit. Otherwise the moisture near his eyes would probably freeze to his eyeballs.
"Welcome home, Fenrir!" Loki cheers. "Wanna boogie?"
Tony bursts out laughing at that, and at Loki's dance movies. Sleipnir bobs his head and stomps, and Fenrir skids around the ice floor.
"First time in forever!" Loki shouts, grinning at Fenrir. "First time for Fenrir! The first time for Fenriiiiir!"
"Tony!" Loki says, reproachfully, rushing over and tugging Tony's armored hand, which freezes. "You have to boogie too. You're invited to Fen's party, and Bruce and Logan and…"
Loki's eyes fall on Thor, and he frowns somewhat.
"I don't likes leavin' people out." Loki says. "And you saved Sleipnir, so's you can party. A bit."
Thor inclines his head, seriously. "Your hospitality is unparalleled."
A shockingly wicked grin grows on Loki's face, his teeth now a dazzling contrast to his blue skin as opposed to his usual pale, white complexion.
"You can dance with Fen." Loki decides, and Fenrir charges at Thor, who barely dodges. Tony can tell Fenrir isn't actually trying to seriously hurt Thor, but he isn't simply playful like he'd been with Loki.
"He won't bites your hand like Hook." Loki calls, and Tony blinks. Technically, Peter cut Hook's hand off, but same difference. Apparently Fenrir had bitten some guy named Tyr's hand clean off.
Tony can't find it in himself to feel sorry for Tyr. He glances at the ice-encased hand of his armor. They won't have to amputate his hand.
Fenrir lopes back over to Loki, clearly preferring playing with him over tormenting Thor.
Sleipnir nudges Logan, trying to get him to dance. Logan stays with his arms folded, muttering that he doesn't dance.
"You know, as cool as this party is-" Tony says, and Sleipnir snorts. It's weird having a horse pick up on puns. "Your castle might get attacked."
"They're not all monsters." Loki says. He's spinning on the ice floor he made, and doesn't stop as he says "Blue isn't bad, Tony."
"I know, and you look great blue." Tony agrees, grinning widely under his suit. Their trip to Jotunheim turned out far better than he expected, but he still really isn't inclined to stay. "But they don't seem like they're part of the Loki Fan Club here, so they'll probably try to take or break this place."
"I'm not a club!" Loki laughs, and an ice club appears in his fist. He tosses it aside carelessly. "Not a club, Tony!"
Sleipnir butts Loki's head, his eyes saying I'm a fan.
Fenrir rumbles in what sounds like agreement, pouncing on Loki and snuggling up close. He doesn't lick Loki's face like a dog would. Tony's honestly a little surprised, because it's not like Fenrir's an ordinary wolf, and not just because he's about five times bigger than one.
"The Jotnar are not pleased about my presence," Thor says from the side.
Let's go home, Sleipnir's eyes say.
"You want to come home?" Loki asks Fenrir, and Fenrir chuffs a breath that clearly means Of course.
"Your ice is darks, huh?" Loki guesses. Tony finds himself nodding. It makes sense Fenrir wouldn't like ice, the same way Sleipnir hates the dark and Tony hates water. Fenrir doesn't seem all that triggered now, despite having been chained in an icy cave for decades. He actually seems perfectly happy to play around with the others, but who knows if that will last. When Tony escaped the cave and collapsed in the desert, when he was severely dehydrated, he would have welcomed seeing a vat of water, even though he'd been tortured.
Once the euphoria of freedom wears off, Tony doubts Fenrir will want to play in the snow.
Fenrir climbs off of Loki and then hauls Loki up by the scruff of his shirt.
"I'm not a baby, Fen!" Loki shrieks, laughing. "You're my babies. But you're so big an' strong and I- I didn't."
"Hey!" Tony jumps in, though it's not really jumping when he's in a flying suit, so much as shooting over there. "It's not your fault, it's Odin's. Let's not spiral now, okay? Not. Your. Fault."
Loki's face is crumpled with anger and pain, and he smacks himself once, but Jormungand tightens around him, and Fenrir presses against him. The tight contact soothes Loki down, and Jormungand repeatedly hisses "Not your fault, father."
"It's ours," Frigga says solemnly. Tony scowls at her. At least she admits to it instead of passing the blame, but doing nothing is just as bad as what Odin and Thor did. Sure, she might not have been Petunia in the way Thor and Odin were even worse versions of Dudley and Vernon, but her complete neglect feels worse than the neglect and abuse Harry suffered. Fenrir growls at her, clearly thinking along the same lines.
"Theirssssss." Jormungand echoes in Loki's ear. "All theirsssss."
"You know, I bet Lila would go nuts if you made an ice castle at home." Tony says. "And we can throw Fenrir a proper homecoming party, with food and everything."
Tony glances at Fenrir. "I guess you'd hunt your own food?"
Fenrir hasn't hunted in a long time, Tony's sure, but his muscles aren't as atrophied as Sleipnir's were, and he's clearly been fed more. Not that his treatment had been remotely okay, but it could have been worse.
"A party like Lila!" Loki grins, bouncing excitedly. "I gets to give my Fen and Sleipnir a party! And Jor! I didn't give you parties before, when you boths showed up for real."
"It'sssss fine." Jorumungand hisses softly in Loki's ear.
They exit the ice castle, and Fenrir leaps up to the roof, laying atop it.
Loki laughs. "You're Snoopy now, Fen! Tony, will you calls him Snoopy too?"
"But you're Snoopy." Tony says, teasingly.
Loki gestures at Fenrir, as if Tony hadn't seen. The gesture sends another flurry of snow out of his fingers.
"We can't have two Snoopys." Tony keeps teasing him.
"I make other Lokis." Loki argues, and an illusion pops up to make his point. Loki stares at the illusion's blue face, then tosses his head back and forth, checking out his own blue hands and the illusions. Slowly, like a living mirror, Loki and the illusion reach out, touching their hands together.
"What do you know? Two Snoopys." Tony says.
"Three, Tony." Both Loki and the illusion point towards Fenrir, still mirroring each other.
"You know, I've never seen you make Snoopy for real." Tony says. He hasn't even given Loki a toy Snoopy, despite that being his nickname from the start.
"I made him." Loki and the illusion gestures at Fenrir again. This flurry of snow forms a canine shape that runs through the air, but Tony can't actually tell if it's a beagle or a wolf. Loki does it again, and this flurry is in the form of a horse, though its legs are too blurry to tell if it has four or eight.
Tony grimaces, not really wanting to think about how Fenrir or Jormungand came to be. Thinking about Sleipnir's origin is already strange enough.
Fenrir rolls off the roof of the castle and lands with an explosion of snow.
Let's go home, Sleipnir's eyes plead. He doesn't seem too terrified of the dark here, perhaps because it's lit by moonlight like in Loki's lullaby. Tony wonders if the sun ever shines here, or if Jotunheim is a never ending night.
"Let's go party!" Loki cheers, and the Bifrost's rainbow lights up the night sky, snagging them up and whisking them back to Earth.
I feel pretty guilty that I made Thor the fanfic version of Dudley in this story, but when I started this years ago, I'd read so many abused Harry and Loki stories and it kind of transferred over. I really do like Thor in general, and feel really guilty for bashing him so much in this story, because I generally don't like bashing fics. He's improving but obviously that doesn't make up for what he did here. (though saving Sleipnir gives him some redemption points).