Finally Belonging

by Yodeling Prospector

What happens when a brain-damaged Loki who's been abused and unwanted his whole life lands on Tony Stark's tower?

36. Chapter 36

Hi. I'm not dead or anything. The reason I didn't update at all in November *cries* is because, in addition to school being really busy (especially with trying to boost my grade in some classes), I was switching on and off between writing this chapter and the one-shot of MCU Loki meeting my Loki. For the record, I'm really not good at writing multiple things at once, and I'm in awe of the fanfic authors who manage to keep like twenty stories going because I couldn't even do two Avengers fics simultaneously (although, to be honest, I had no clue where my abandoned slave-Loki fic, Worse than the Worst was going. And yes, I do know where this is going, and we're starting to get there!)

Anywho, I've made significant progress on that Loki meets Loki one-shot in November (going from basically nothing to 11,000 words) but it still has a ways to go. For one thing, I had been writing it with only MCU Loki ending up there but now I'm thinking about MCU Thor (who's kind of a different character from this Thor, since MCU Thor actually loves MCU Loki) show up as well.

Also I have no idea how to end the one-shot. I mean they're somehow going to end up in this universe and interact, but then what? I'm assuming they go back to their own universe, but I'm not sure how, or why, or how long they'd spend in my universe. Any suggestions?

As always, thanks to all you awesome people! :) This is only 9 reviews away from 500!

As for this chapter, it has two Thor scenes, both of which were hard to write. The Thor scene that ends this chapter is one I'm both really excited and slightly nervous about. You'll see. Hang in there!

Thor has been in Asgard since he last visited Tony Stark's house in the Midgardian location known as Malibu. The house is impressive by Midgardian standards but has nothing on Asgard's royal halls and palace.

His stay here has been mostly uneventful as he's attended to various duties as prince and spent time with his friends. It's like it always was, expect Loki is no longer there. Not that Thor ever paid much attention to him unless he was picking on the smaller boy who grew into the lean man he is now.

Thor is currently feasting with his friends the Warriors Three and Lady Sif. It's not an official feast, like they eat after gloriously victorious battles, but as Prince, Thor always eats well. His friends, especially Volstagg, are always happy to join him. They're laughing and joking around as usual.

As always, Volstagg puts away even more food than Thor to try to satiate his never-ending appetite.

It's a passing comment, bellowed from Volstagg as he pops a grape in his mouth, that makes Thor's mood drop. "At least I do not need to worry about the argr turning my food into bugs with his freakish seidr magic."

Fandral laughs, as Thor would have not long ago at the derogatory comment about magic, or Loki in general. He remembers food turning into something gross more than once, sometimes after tripping Loki or saying something against him. Loki had actually snickered mischievously as he watched Volstagg bite into a huge juicy bug so the guts spilled out, and the bug had refused to leave his mouth even though it was dead.

They hadn't let him get away with that.

Fandral is reminiscing aloud about how they'd "taught the freak a lesson for turning food into bugs." Thor can't really remember that punishment. They'd punished him so many times that all the beatings sort of blur together.

Sif points out. "You haven't had to worry about that for a while. Besides, he hid so much that he was practically gone for a couple years."

Volstagg nods. "Aye, he did hide a lot, but cowardice is to be expected of Frost Giants." It's true. Loki had hidden a lot, and done everything possible to avoid them. Sometimes he'd even turned invisible, like that Violet girl. She had used that in an advantage when fighting that huge robot, and it didn't seem quite as cowardly that way. Loki had even teleported occasionally, but often didn't teleport far and seemed quite disoriented after, so they usually caught him and punished him for that too.

Still, Loki had needed to come out for food, since he couldn't ask the servants or slaves to deliver it to his room like Thor can at any time. (While Aesir and Jotuns cannot die from lack of nourishment, they still feel hunger pangs. Although Thor wonders if Volstagg would be able to stand more than a few hours without food).

When Loki was in mid-adolescence and Thor was on the cusp of manhood, for around a year, Thor had seen Loki so little that it was practically like he was gone. Whenever Thor tried to catch up to him, he always seemed to disappear somehow.

Granted, a year is hardly any time at all, considering they've been alive for over a thousand years. It hardly seems important. Then again, Thor thinks, it's only been around a year and a half since the Avengers formed, and Thor's banishment to Midgard had been only a year prior to that. So he guesses a lot can happen in only a year.

At first, Thor thought that Father had decided to trade Loki back with Jotunheim, or maybe killed him, but Loki had returned, screaming in rage at the Allfather. Loki is usually very quiet, and while he'd lost his temper in their youth occasionally, screaming and swinging his fists wildly (and been punished for it later) Thor had never seen him like that time. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?! WHERE IS HE?"

He'd disappeared again, and that's around when he changed. Maybe exactly then.

Loki had been different, once. Well, he'd always been different. He's a Jotun and can do magic, for starters. Thor has vague memories of when he was a small child and Father brought a blue baby back home. Loki had stayed blue for a bit, until he was old enough to toddle after Thor, babbling his name so it sounded more like "Fowr, fowr!"

Father had tried to make sure Loki was not part of the family, though, and Thor had already heard horror stories of Frost Giants, so when Loki followed him like a puppy, he pushed him away, scared and not liking the coldness of his skin.

Loki had caused all sorts of mischief and chaos when he was little, including a very memorable incident where he somehow managed to get into the weapons vault and knock over a large collection of weapons before apparently becoming intrigued with the Casket of Ancient Winters, which Father had told Thor never to touch.

Father had been very angry at Loki then, but he was angry at Loki most of the time. As Loki grew, he was quiet, kept to himself, and was mostly interested in books instead of battle. His eyes had been sharp and intelligent, even though they all told him he was as mindless as all Frost Giants.

But he's different now from what he used to be.

His eyes are glassy and dazed now, and have been for a long time. Since Loki was a mid-adolescent, Thor thinks. He's not entirely sure.

Loki's like a little child now, yet another thing they've mocked him for, especially after he started crying more when they hit him, like a baby. Crying from pain is for weaklings, but Thor has no qualms about crying emotionally and is still very manly.

Loki's crying is different. Sure he'd cried when he was young, and the Warriors Three claim he cried when a servant tricked him into thinking he actually liked them, but for a while, Loki had barely made a sound when they hit him.

It's not only that. His speech had gotten stranger, too. He'd been a very smooth talker, a Silvertongue, before. He was adept at lying that there had been times Thor almost believed something he knew was a lie. Occasionally, he'd even managed to word an insult in a way that, by the time Thor had figured out what exactly the insult had meant, Loki had been gone.

Back when Thor found it funny to try to stuff Loki's head in chamber pots, Loki had once muttered under his breath something along the lines of how, if they shoved Thor in a chamber pot, he would make all the poop feel inadequate. Thor had heard, but didn't think much of it until days later, when it suddenly popped in his head that the smaller boy meant that as an insult rather than acknowledgement that his rank of prince puts him above practically everybody, that Loki was saying Thor was worse than the poop. Once he did realize this, he beat Loki up and used the same line on him, not wanting to admit he couldn't think of a better one.

Now, his speech is strange and it's obvious when he's lying. His body fidgets a lot more than it used to in general.

Going backwards and becoming stupider like that just isn't supposed to happen, and doesn't happen on Asgard, except in Loki's case.

Does it happen on Midgard?

Thor barely even notices the looks he's getting from Fandral and Volstagg when they see he's not laughing at the jibe about magic. He's not sure he should laugh. Both Father and Mother can wield magic. He'd told Tony that Father's magic is not the same as Loki's, but he knows it really is, no matter how much he tries to deny his Father doing something he'd been taught to hate by none other than Father himself.

Fandral makes another crack about magic, and before he can stop himself, Thor blurts out "Have care how you speak, Fandral. Father and Mother, your King and Queen, both wield magic."

That's probably not supposed to be known by anyone. Not that saying the wrong thing isn't exactly uncommon for him.

The Warriors Three and Sif gape at him, and Fandral laughs falsely. "Nice jest Thor. I almost fell for it." Thor doesn't know whether to try to pass it off as one or not, and in his hesitation, realization dawns on their faces.

"It is not a jest?" Volstagg asks, mouth hanging open in total shock. Crumbs of food fall into his beard.

"Nay. I do not jest." Thor admits solemnly. When he'd first seen Loki's magic as a small boy, Thor had been entranced with the beautiful green light around Loki's hands, but seeing Father punishing Loki for it after had changed his mind. Father would not have whipped Loki if what he'd done wasn't really bad, after all. Father had even told Thor later that a man using magic is cowardly and disgusting, that it makes the man argr.

It made perfect sense at the time. After all, Loki was already a Frost Giant monster so disliking him for another thing wasn't very hard.

Now, though, it doesn't make much sense at all.

After finding out that Father and Mother are both capable of wielding magic, Thor's found himself unsure of what to think. If magic truly is as bad as everyone says, then that would mean that Father is cowardly and disgusting.

The same would go for Mother (who has never said anything against magic and even tried to tell Thor it has its uses, though he hadn't believed her) to a lesser extent, although at least she would not be considered argr for using magic, since she's a woman.

Thor hates thinking of his parents this way, and doesn't want to admit that his father and king might be argr and a coward, like Father said about Loki.

Finally getting over his shock enough to speak, Volstagg says "But the Allfather is not argr."

Thor agrees Allfather is not cowardly or argr.

But it's either that Father is argr, or magic isn't shameful and disgusting in the first place.

Both ideas seem impossible to wrap his head around, since they go against everything Thor has ever known. But he'd rather think better of magic than think less of his parents.

Perhaps people had lied about magic. More specifically, perhaps Father had lied about magic.

Well, Father had lied, in a way, or at least withheld the truth. For most of his life, Thor had no idea Odin was magical.

Thor has rarely questioned the Allfather, but he finds himself unable to think of a good reason for why his father hates magic, since that's almost like hating himself.

Why had Father allowed them to mock and hurt Loki for his magic when he has magic himself? It would be like Thor hurting someone for having his same ability with thunder! Thor would never hurt someone else with his gift.

Even more confusing, why had the Allfather personally punished Loki for some instances of magic? The Allfather certainly doesn't punish himself for having magic, yet he had no qualms about whipping Loki for it.

Up until now, Thor's been trying to write it off being because Loki is a Frost Giant.

Father and Mother had even been the ones to change Loki's appearance from its natural blue form, not Loki himself as Thor had thought for the longest time.

Thor thinks back to the movie he'd watched when last visiting Tony Stark, about the family of Incredible superheroes. Their abilities had complemented each other, much like the Avengers, and it hadn't solely been Mr. Incredible's strength that won the day. In fact, if it had not been for the girl, Violet, and her magic, Mr. Incredible would have still been captured in the energy field.

The Frozone man, who had dark skin and sounded somewhat like the Furious Director Nick, had ice powers like the Jotnar. The Frost Giants use their powers in battle, of course, but it seemed different when Frozone did it.

It had seemed ridiculous at first, but the movie made magic, and ice, seem... not as bad as everyone says.

Thor dumps back his mug of mead and a servant rushes to refill it.

It hurts one's head, trying to make sense of things when one's whole world has been flipped around.

---

Some parties are lots of fun, but this really isn't one of those. Actually, this party is so bad that Tony's planning on just slipping out and going home.

This is one of those social-elite parties full of men in crisp suits and women wearing expensive dresses and jewelry. It's also a charity event, but Tony's willing to bet a couple of the people here have no idea what they're donating money to, if they're even donating at all. Tony actually knows what charity this is for, although at one time he wouldn't have even bothered to listen to Jarvis telling him about it, much less actually look it up himself.

Basically, this charity party is to help the poor or homeless get a thanksgiving dinner, a problem Tony's certainly never had firsthand experience with. Tony had donated a couple thousand out of his own pocket a while ago (and then promptly forgot about this event until Jarvis reminded him earlier today) and Stark Industries had made a generous donation as well. The money raised from everyone should help the less fortunate get a meal on the table for Thanksgiving and a roof over their heads if they're homeless. In the Big Apple alone, that's still a lot of people to cover, and realistically they won't get everyone.

Bruce had undoubtedly been one of those less-fortunate people while on the run, Tony knows. His Science Bro had technically been homeless most of the time and certainly hadn't celebrated Thanksgiving. Granted, none of the countries Bruce had been even celebrate Thanksgiving in the first place, but it's not like he would've had anyone to be with anyways. Kind of like Tony, himself.

Tony hadn't even thought about Thanksgiving until this charity gig he's leaving right now. Normally, Tony's alone on turkey day. Pepper and Rhodey have their own families to go to, after all, and while the two of them actually like Tony, he was never invited along with them. Apparently, their families don't want to put up with him and his rather infamous behavior. So he's never been too big on this holiday, and often wound up getting drunk after eating dinner alone (sometimes Dum-E would join him at the table despite not even having anything resembling a mouth or even a face).

But now, there are two other tower residents who don't have a family to spend the holiday with, either. They have each other, Tony reminds himself- okay Jarvis reminds him, but still. Loki and Bruce are kind of like his family, right?

So, he's at this stupid party for charity. It would probably help Tony's PR even more if he volunteered at a soup kitchen or something. Steve's certainly going to do something of the sort, because he's Captain Perfect. Actually, Tony can easily imagine Bruce volunteering like that. The guy had been a doctor on the run, even if he's technically never received official training, he's pretty dang good and a real doctor in Tony's book. So, yeah, Bruce would like helping people, considering he'd been a doctor.

Anyways, the reason this party sucks isn't because it's for charity. Tony's all for that, since he's a philanthropist and everything. The lameness comes from the actual atmosphere. For one thing, Tony made the mistake of wearing shoes someone had given him as a gift. He thinks it might have been Clint, or was it Steve or maybe some random brown-noser he's forgotten entirely about? Anyways, they're the wrong size and are making his feet ache like nobody's business with all this standing.

The drinks here are so terrible they're not even fit to water the plants, so there's no way Tony will drink enough of this stuff to get intoxicated enough to not taste it. At least the food is somewhat decent, although he's really craving a cheeseburger and some onion rings (especially the onion rings, for some reason).

Despite all the formal parties Tony's attended over the years, it's still awkward trying to eat while standing and holding his plate (which has neither a cheeseburger nor onion rings on it, by the way) as he mingles with the other patrons.

The mingling is the worst part of this whole thing.

The company here is hopelessly boring. The only exceptions are Tony himself (of course) and Pepper, but she's at the other end of the room. Tony knows that everyone else here is only interested in him because of his fame, his basically limitless fortune, and the fact he's Iron Man.

Just one of those traits alone would give him a lot of willing partners even if he looked like a gargoyle. Combine all three of those together and add the fact that he's a killer in the looks department, and voila! He's got a plethora of people flinging themselves at the chance to get into his wallet or his pants (or, in some cases, both).

For once, he's not too enthusiastic about the prospect of sex. Then again, he never would have been enthusiastic about flirtation he's currently getting, from a woman old enough to be his mother. Even dead-drunk, there's no way in hell he'd sleep with her.

But he's already turned down others at this party.

Shocker, right? The paparazzi would probably go nuts if they found out the famous playboy Tony Stark isn't looking for company tonight.

Now, with Loki and Bruce in the tower, it'd be kinda weird bringing a random hookup home. Besides, the last thing he wants is some random one-night-stand being there if he has a nightmare, which happens more often than he'd like. Or having them asking questions when he leaves his room to comfort Loki after one of the god's nightmares, which still are almost a nightly occurrence.

Tony can can totally picture Loki, upon finding Tony's bedroom door locked yet still hearing some... noises inside, would start knocking and singing Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

As soon as he gets the old lady to go away, there's another woman talking to him. He's certainly not complaining, but he's not planning on going anywhere with any of this.

He gives his media smile to this lady, a curly-haired ginger who's gorgeous despite looking, with that hair and her sparkling red, rather revealing dress, rather like Little Orphan Annie twenty or so years after that rich guy, Daddy What's-his-face, adopted her.

Loki might like the movie Annie, Tony finds himself thinking, and it's even relatable to Loki's own backstory. Although if they watch it, Tony's probably going to have all the songs stuck in his head and it won't be helped by Loki humming them at random times.

Judging from the ring on Annie's finger, she's married, but she's not actually flirting with him in the slightest. Maybe she lives up to the name Tony's dubbed her in his head, and is totally wholesome like the famous little orphan.

She starts telling him about how they saw him on The Marla Simhan Show. Either this lady is ignoring the fact that Tony really hated both that interview and the interviewer, and he'd definitely shown that towards the end of the interview, or she hadn't noticed. Perhaps she's too optimistic and thinking about the sun coming out.

When Annie inquires about how his leg healed, it's only due to years of press conferences and business dealings that he manages to hide the fact his brain is currently screaming oh shit. He'd totally forgotten about that, and it's only been around three weeks since then. Legs aren't supposed to heal that fast.

He offers a vague answer of it not being as bad of an injury as it seemed at first. It's not exactly the best cover-up anyways since he wouldn't hire a doctor who'd make a mistake like that and the doctor would have to practically force Tony into a cast anyways (Bruce sort of had, actually, or at least forced him to take it easy on his leg) but Tony sticks with that excuse anyways.

He can't exactly say the Norse God that's been living with him completely healed his leg magically while re-enacting a scene from a Disney movie. Which is too bad, since it would be absolutely hilarious to see what the press did with that.

As funny as it would be to see the media's reaction, he wants to keep Loki away from the spotlight, or the public eye in general. The media would eat Loki alive if they found out about him and Loki really doesn't seem like someone who do well being hounded by paparazzi. Jarvis has been deleting photos and social media posts about Tony finding Loki after the clothes-shopping trip from the internet.

It's not just the media to be worried about, though. Over the years, since before he became Iron Man, Tony's made a lot of enemies. Most of those enemies would have no qualms about hurting Loki to get to him. Needless to say it would be best for everyone if that didn't happen, including whoever would think they could get away with hurting Loki.

A man- Annie's husband, judging by the way they link arms and the rings adorning their fingers- has joined them and Tony snaps out of his thoughts. The man gives Tony a false smile and says he's glad to hear the injury wasn't too bad before walking his wife to the dance floor, muttering loud enough for Tony to hear that Tony had most likely just faked the injury to get attention and sympathy during that interview.

If that remark is supposed to make Tony angry or upset, it has the opposite effect as Tony busts out laughing. Really, ninety percent of what he's done while drunk over the years would get him way more attention than faking a broken leg, and anyone with half a brain should know that wouldn't want to bother with a cast even when he does need it, let alone inconvenience himself with an unnecessary cast for just a bit of attention.

Tony makes his way across the room towards Pepper, trying to end interactions with various patrons as quickly as possible. Maybe Pepper will ditch this stupid event and go home with him. Loki likes Pepper, Tony finds himself thinking.

This is actually Tony's first night away from Loki since the god's arrival. He'd thought it would be a relief to get out of the tower until he'd realized this event was a total waste of time. Then again, formal parties were never really fun like the wild parties he used to go to, although he often got someone in his pants at these events anyways. Honestly, he enjoys his evenings with Bruce and Loki a lot more than this stupid party, except he could do without nights like last night with the turkey baster incident.

Tony finally reaches Pepper and invites her to his place (which at one point would have meant sex, but they both know it doesn't now, although the people who happen to hear probably think it does). Pepper accepts, and after Tony discards his half-finished glass of crummy alcohol on a passing server's tray, they head towards the door. One would think that an event full of rich people would at least have decent drinks.

As they wait for a cab (his chauffeur's off duty and the NYC traffic just sadly isn't worth taking one of his own beauties out for a spin) Tony, who can be very charming and gentlemanly when called for but usually doesn't bother, drapes his jacket around Pepper's shoulders to ward off the chilly November evening air.

The taxi driver who picks them up is even chattier than most New York cabbies, and the way the man rambles on and jumps topics abruptly almost reminds Tony of himself and Loki. Tony winds up tuning him out, though, giving only the most basic, automatic sounds of assent when it seems the driver is directly addressing him. He leaves the rest of the conversation to Pepper.

This charity party has gotten Tony thinking about other philanthropic acts. Why hasn't he donated to help victims of child abuse, or domestic abuse in general? He's been living with Loki- who has one of the worst abuse stories Tony's ever heard of- for almost two months. Shouldn't he have thought of helping others like him sooner?

Hell, he should have thought about charities for abuse victims even before Loki came into his life. It's not like he hadn't known abuse happened, and like pretty much everyone else thinks anyone who beats a kid is pure scum. Howard, when he was actually around during Tony's childhood, was usually drunk and certainly neglectful and verbally abusive, but at least he wasn't physically abusive.

He wonders what Bruce and Loki are up to, and how Loki's taking his absence. Is the god carrying Toy Stark around to make up for the lack of Tony himself being there, as he'd apparently done when Tony was at work in Malibu? After last night's incident with the turkey baster, though, Loki has seemed slightly more wary of him, preferring Hulk's company to his as they finished Pinocchio, and even taking an impromptu nap after the movie, snuggled next to Hulk (Tony has pictures of that).

During that nap, however, Loki had a nightmare and teleported to the kitchen in his sleep. Tony's almost positive the nightmare had been about said turkey baster incident, judging from his muttering in his sleep, the fact he'd teleported to where the incident had taken place, and the way he had looked at Tony in terror when he first noticed Tony's presence. But Loki never actually said what it was about.

That incident alone already made Tony feel like shit, but the fact Loki's now having nightmares about him makes him feel even shittier.

Tony's definitely going to have figure out a way to make that up to Loki. Maybe he can make Loki's Iron Man suit actually fly or something. Loki would love that, although Loki couldn't fly it outside because of pesky things like government regulated airspace and stuff. Plus he's not sure how well Loki would be able to control the suit, but if they took it easy inside and Tony was flying there with him...

Yeah, that could work.

Making Loki's suit fly is a good place to start, but he might need to do more than that.

---

Loki relaxes in the bath, slowly moving his hands back and forth and trying not to think about anything, like Bruce has been teaching him with meditation. It's really hard, because he's always thinking of something.

He tries to lose himself in the sensations around him. The water almost pushes against his limbs yet flows around them all the same. Ducking under the surface, he hums slightly. Things always sound different underwater, except in The Little Mermaid, where everyone's voices sounded perfectly normal. But that's probably because they live underwater.

So much for clearing his head.

He's specifically trying not to think about the Dursleys in that book, who hate magic and are apparently as normal as possible. Which would mean that normal Midgardians, or Muggles, hate magic.

Loki knows all too well that being hated leads to getting hurt. So most of Midgard really isn't that different from Asgard after all.

It's a really depressing thought that he tries to block from his head.

Truthfully, Loki's not in the bath to get clean. He's mostly trying to be alone, and unlike in Asgard, baths on Midgard are taken in complete privacy, so he knows he doesn't have to worry about Bruce barging in on him.

Okay, he's not totally alone, but he doesn't mind his friends (who are also his pretend Monster Family) being here, or Simba. Simba's standing on the edge of the tub, since he can't get wet, although he bats at the water with his armored paw. Sleipnir and Jormungand are in the water with Loki, the latter wrapped around Loki's waist.

The bath is big enough that it probably could have qualified as a public bath in Asgard, but he has it all to himself, though he's sharing it with all his plastic toys. That's mostly just small figurines, but his Elsa and Anna dolls are in the water too. He knows they don't mind that he took their clothes off, because nobody bathes in clothes.

Despite what Tony and Bruce seem to think about privacy, it doesn't matter if Elsa and Anna see him naked, even if he has a part they don't- the part men use to pee and shove in women during sex. Apparently they're not actually peeing out their penises when doing sex, because he's pretty sure there's some kind of weird, white goopy stuff instead that evidently makes babies. Loki's not sure how that works, but maybe Tony can explain it later, since he seems to know a lot about sex.

It's not very deep- the water only comes up to about his chest when he stands. Sleipnir is bigger than normal, maybe because he had been too short to stand in the water before, but that shouldn't mattered. Regardless, he's almost the size of an adult horse now. Really, Sleipnir can be any size he wants, and he says he got bigger in Loki's head.

There are even steps in the bath that go high enough that he can sit down without his head being under the water, which he supposes is the point. After all, humans can't breathe in water, according to Tony and Jarvis, and it would be stupid to take a bath and feel like you can't breathe. Well, Loki wouldn't care, but humans die if they stop breathing for too long.

That's why Tony hates water, Loki's worked out. He was hurt with water so much that it must have felt like he was drowning, although Loki's not entirely sure what that feels like. Apparently it could've killed Tony though, which is a really scary thought.

He's going to have to make sure Tony never stops breathing.

He also needs to figure out a way for Tony to get some of Idunn's Apples of youth, so he doesn't die and leave Loki behind. Bruce would need some too, he decides, as will Pepper. Loki's not going to let anyone in his family die. Maybe the other Avengers besides Thor should get them too. Loki has absolutely no clue how he would be able to get even one apple, let alone six (and those will only last for the first few centuries, and then they'll need more).

He might need Thor's help, though he hates that idea of needing Thor for anything, although there's no guarantee Thor would help anyways.

"You're not gonna lets Tony die, right?" Loki asks Hel before immediately adding, determinedly. "I'm not gonna let him die. Or Bruce or Hulk-y or any of my family, my Ohana."

He means it, too.

He wonders when Tony will get back.

When he was sleeping yesterday after the movie about Pinocchio, Loki had a nightmare about Tony and the turkey baster incident from earlier that day. Only this time Tony was going to hurt him for breaking his alcohol, even though that had actually happened after Tony pointed the thing at him in real life.

It was still a really scary dream, and he'd actually woken up in the kitchen next to where he'd bashed the turkey baster with a frying pan and accidentally dented the floor. Tony had been there and at first he'd panicked, thinking he was still dreaming.

Still, it was only a dream, he reminds himself, grabbing Toy Stark and gazing at the toy, which isn't the real Tony, just like Nightmare-Tony hadn't really been Tony.

What's real is that Tony comforted him after that nightmare. Even though Loki couldn't bring himself to tell him it was about the turkey baster, Tony guessed so anyways and wasn't even mad.

The real Tony has never laid a finger on him, not even when he does magic or breaks Tony's things on accident, or breaks things with magic like when he scorched the wall in Tony's other house with a magic star-repulsor thing, or broke all Tony's alcohol yesterday.

In Asgard, he'd gotten punished for breaking things that seem less important than huge collections of favorite drinks or walls. Sometimes it was a vase that fell over or a plate that broke when someone tripped him, and he'd been punished even though it wouldn't have broken if he hadn't been tripped by one of the Warriors Three. Then, of course, there was the incident with the statue of Buri and Odin's horrible punishment.

Loki hastily tries to think of anything, and fiddles with the taps. One of them shoots out scalding hot water, and his hiss of pain turns into a low, keening whimper as his reddened, partially blistered skin transports him back.

The servants and slaves told him to iron the wrinkles out of a dress, going from the idea that he should earn his worthless hide and actually do something useful, adding contemptuously that he was already a huge burden. They told him under no uncertain circumstances not to screw it up like he so often does.

Loki tries to do it well, he really does, but he accidentally presses the red-hot slab of metal on it too long, which results in the smell of burnt fabric and a charred hole in the skirt.

The others shout at him, pinning his hand to the ironing slab for that, saying that he's going to get them punished with his incompetence.

The flashback thankfully ends, but there's still the lingering memory of pain and smell of his own burnt flesh. It had been even worse because his body, disguised or in its natural Jotun form, is much more suited for cold than heat. And that had been before the guards dragged him away to face even more punishment.

Loki notices the hand he'd stuck under the hot water is coated in frost, and that the water in the bath is getting colder until it starts to freeze, as if compensating for the scalding water and memory of the burns, although it melts back into water soon.

The servants and slaves had managed to escape punishment telling the guards he came in and ruined the dress on purpose, using his burnt hand as evidence. They lied, and he got punished for lying and gotten away with it, while he got punished for lying. It's not fair, he thinks. Although he actually had managed to lie his way out of things unpunished.

The Blue Fairy said lying is bad, but Tony said it's not if you're keeping yourself safe, like in Asgard. He used to be better at lying too. Once, he'd made a step disappear with his magic while running from a guard but managed to make the guard think the wood had been rotting.

He's not punished for breaking stuff here, which is still kind of confusing because breaking stuff that's not yours is bad and deserves punishment.

Despite the fact he'd deserve it, Loki has a illogical feeling of certainty that Tony wouldn't hurt him if he broke stuff on purpose. Tony had let him smash the stupid turkey baster and a lot of petri dishes, after all.

Loki had been warier around Tony after that whole incident, but he's pretty much forgiven Tony now since it had been an accident. Besides, Tony forgave him for breaking all his alcohol, and that had been an accident too.

Tony had promised, yet again, that he'd never hurt him (and Tony's kept his word so far). Tony had even apologized for pointing the turkey baster at Loki in the first place, and Loki's pretty sure the man doesn't say sorry often.

Loki splashes towards Sleipnir, reaching out to tag him for a game of chase. It feels like he's touching something, but Sleipnir's still intangible, so maybe the feeling's just in his head? Everyone said his friends were only in his head.

Loki had asked Sleipnir what his head was like, and was disheartened to learn that it's dark in his head, and oddly squishy, although that doesn't make sense, but that had been a while ago and maybe he's misremembering. He knows Sleipnir said the food is terrible there, when he gets it. Loki hadn't even known there was food in heads, and Sif said he was crazy when he accidentally asked aloud, during a meal, whether the food he was eating was any better.

Loki tried to eat better stuff for Sleipnir, but it never seemed to work.

"I'll feed you an apple later." Loki promises, but that hasn't worked any of the other times Sleipnir's shown up here. He can still pass his hand through Sleipnir, so it probably wouldn't work now, and Sleipnir seems to know so, too.

Fenrir pads over to the toilet and looks in (Loki had no clue what the toilet was when he first arrived on Midgard, since they're very different in Asgard, and Jarvis had needed to tell him).

Loki knows how gross having your head near a toilet (or chamber pot) is. Thor used to try to shove his head in them, but that was before Fenrir, he thinks.

It had started a long time ago, when Loki and Thor had been kids, Loki had gone to pee in the chamber pot in a closet under a set of stairs (he frequented that chamber pot because he could be alone, and he doesn't mind small dark spaces, except they make it hard to read), Thor happened to be taking care of his own smellier, browner business. It must have been an emergency for the prince to go there, instead of a more luxurious chamber pot more fitting of his royal status.

Thor had been furious and tried to shove Loki's head in the chamber pot for the intrusion, saying he "might as well join the other shit." Unfortunately, Frigga hadn't heard that, because Thor would have gotten a lecture about language unbecoming of a prince and maybe even soap in his mouth.

In the stables later, after making sure he was alone (even checking for Huginn and Muninn, since Odin's ravens had gotten him in trouble before) Loki had purposely pooped in Thor's saddlebag that held his armor and training sword, which Thor had stupidly left in one of the stable's stalls when he took another horse out for a ride. The remaining horse in the (rather large) stall had followed suit and added a lot more of it.

He snickers at the memory of that and soon he's cackling. Watching Thor's horror and disgust when he found the 'presents' in his saddlebag, from his hiding place in the loft, had been hysterical. The horses were making enough noise with snorting and neighing that Thor never heard him laughing. The horses in Asgard were nice like that. Most animals were, except Huginn and Muninn, who bit him and told on him to the Allfather.

He never got in trouble for that, since Thor just assumed assumed all the poop had been from the horse. (Sadly, Thor hadn't had to clean it up, making the servants do it instead, and he hadn't even gotten a scolding about leaving his saddlebag in the middle of a stall). He wonders if Heimdall saw it. If he had, he apparently never said anything.

That memory is almost as good the dream he'd had yesterday, before the nightmare about Tony and the turkey baster. It was one of nice his dreams where he's a horse (he's dreamt about being one a lot when he's not having nightmares. He wishes he could have good dreams, dreams about being a horse, or flying in the stars or playing with his friends, all the time instead of his stupid nightmares about Asgard.

Jarvis said a while ago that dreams are actually much shorter than what it seems like when you're dreaming them, and that Loki's almost always asleep for longer than it would take to dream about Asgard. Furthermore, Jarvis has reported seeing him smile in his sleep. So he has to have other dreams, nice dreams, but most of the time he only remembers the nightmares that wake him up.

Anyways, as a horse in his dream last night, he'd bit, kicked, and even pooped on Thor and the Warriors Three, and they didn't even know it was him because he was a horse. One of the warriors might have even become Odin at one point, but that part of the dream is so fuzzy it's almost gone.

The best part was that he wasn't even hit or whipped in that dream, because they treat horses better than they'd treated him.

Now that he thinks about it, he's pretty sure he's had that dream before, and the pooping part was probably because of the pooping-in-Thor's-bag incident.

He starts playing his game where he and Elsa are superheroes like the Avengers, adding to the story he's been telling Jarvis over the past few weeks. He doesn't have toys for Frozone or Violet or any of Stitch's cousins, and he switches a couple times from pretending his Clint and Natasha toys are themselves to casting them as Ron and Kim.

As he runs his hand over the surface of the water, it leaves a trail of ice on the water behind it. Elsa runs across, like when she'd been fleeing from Arendelle after accidentally revealing her powers at her coronation, and his Loki toy slides across, bare feet turning slightly blue.

Loki laughs and flaps his hands. Frozone froze surfaces of water like that too, and Dash can run across water without even freezing it.

Tony would say teleporting is even more awesome than that. Teleporting on accident, especially in his sleep, is still really scary, because he could end up somewhere really unpleasant again. He wants to be able to teleport away from those places, and he hadn't been able to in the petri dish cage.

Loki grabs Simba and holds him high above his head so he doesn't get wet. He then pushes himself through the water and imagines teleporting to the other end of the bathtub, and actually manages on the first try. It's easier when he's gliding through water or jumping than when he's standing still, though Kurt can do it standing still.

"Jarvis, I did it! I tel'ported!" It's not perfect, though. He doesn't end up quite where he wants, which is really frustrating and kind of scary. But it's at least something.

"Very good, Mr. Loki." Jarvis says, and Loki grins. He really loves this praise. He also loves the idea of helping Tony figure out how to stop that Doom guy, because it's almost like being a hero, himself.

"Did that help, Jarvis? You know, for the teleporting stopper field thing Tony's making?"

"Unfortunately, not, although it is not any fault of your own, Mr. Loki. Sir did not equip me with too many scanners or cameras in the bathrooms, and the cameras are only for dire emergencies." Jarvis replies apologetically.

Oh, so he hadn't gotten the... whatever he gets, to help against Doom?

"You still did quite well, Mr. Loki."

"Most Midgardians wouldn'ta said that. They'd hate me, just like Asgard!" Loki's smile falls as he remembers.

"What makes you say that?" Jarvis' tone is still polite, yet somehow a tad sharp at the same time.

"The Dursleys, they hate magic and it said they're perfectly normals." He slaps the water in annoyance, making it splash upwards. "So most've Midgard's like Ass-Guardin' Asgard!"

"They Dursleys are most certainly not normal, no matter what they may believe of themselves." Jarvis says, but that doesn't make any sense. The book said they were, and books don't lie. But Jarvis never lies either. "Remember what Professor McGonagall said about them?"

Loki tilts his head and worries his bottom lip with his teeth until he remembers. "Um, that they are's the worst sorts of muggle?" Simba, Sleipnir, and Hel all nod encouragingly even though the words came out stupidly, not that that's anything new.

Loki feels a bit better remembering that. The Dursleys being the worst sort of muggles means their hating magic is bad, right, just like Tony's been telling him. Just like the Duke hating Elsa and Frollo hating Esmeralda's teleporting go against the Quasiralda rule. Or maybe it should be the Quasmerelsa rule, so it has Quasimodo, Esmeralda and Elsa's names.

Loki imagines Esmeralda teleporting to join him. He sees his Esmeralda figurine disappear with a puff of pink smoke from where she was floating with Quasimodo and Phoebus in the other end of the bath, before almost immediately materializing in his hands. It's easier making Esmeralda teleport than actually teleporting himself, but like Kurt, Esmeralda can teleport really easily herself. Well, not his figurine, the real Esmeralda.

"They're the worst sort! The Dursleys are bad muggles. Muggle's a really funny word, I like it. Muggle muggle muggle. Nothing in All-Tongue for muggle, though? Or maybe that's just me?" After all, he is an idiot, with broken All-Tongue, a broken mouth, and probably a broken brain too.

"That's because muggle is a made-up word." Jarvis tells him. Oh, so it's not because of he's broken that All-Tongue didn't get that word. It's a made-up Midgard word, like chainsaw, car and coffee, Loki thinks as he makes a C with his hand. C is for Contrition, according to Quasimodo.

"Although I would not be surprised if there was a word with a similar meaning in your language." They certainly are words for people who have magic in Asgard, like argr or ergi (they go hand in hand and both mean being unmanly), and seidr is magic. Loki knows he's argr, which is a bad thing to be, but wouldn't Odin be argr too for having magic?

"Muggles don't haves magic." Loki singsongs. It wasn't long ago he tried not to say the m word.

"Yes, although magic is still a hard concept for me to grasp, since I am incredibly logical." Jarvis replies. "Despite all odds, I have seen you break several laws of physics." Loki still doesn't like the way that sounds with the laws, even though he knows he won't get in trouble for breaking those rules.

"Like the conversation of mass?" Loki asks, naming something he'd heard Bruce and Tony talking about in the lab earlier today, when he was drawing. He's not entirely sure if Tony and Bruce knew he was listening then.

Jarvis says it's conservation, like to conserve something, not conversation.

Right. Loki knew that, honestly. Jarvis explains that the Law of Conservation of Mass means you can't make something weigh more or less when you change it. Loki points out that Tony said that he'd weighed less (but still a lot) as Mowgli, but Tony had been able to pick Loki up without a Man of Iron suit.

"Our current theory is that the energy around your hands abides by the conservation of energy." Jarvis says, although he adds that there is no logical explanation for when Loki makes Toy Stark and his Tink and Peter figurines fly, so that is breaking a law of physics, which is apparently supposed to be impossible.

"Bruce and Tony say that magic's doing stuff that seems impossible. Kim Possible. Kim Possible is im-possible!" Loki singsongs the last bit. Tony had mentioned someone named Arthur- or maybe it was Clark- saying that magic is just science nobody understands yet.

Way back, Tony says, people didn't know what stars were. Before coming to Midgard, Loki never knew stuff like how stars formed and that they can die, although the stars in Asgard talked to him sometimes, in their own twinkling language. Even though he knows stuff about stars now, they still seem sort of magical in their own way.

Loki starts thinking about the Dursleys again.

Tony and Bruce say it's wrong to hate people for having magic. Regardless of if it's wrong (and Loki's still wrapping his head around the idea) if most people hate it, that still doesn't bode well for Loki. Especially if Tony dies and he's left with either being with Muggles on Midgard or going back to Asgard.

Frowning, Loki looks at Elsa. The townspeople had feared her magic at first, but then grew to like it and accept her. But maybe that's not normal, and Elsa's just lucky? Kind of like how he's lucky that Tony doesn't hate it when everyone in Asgard does. But Tony said Asgard was wrong to hate it and hurt him because they hate it.

He's thinking in circles, he thinks, tracing one in the water with his finger.

"So are most Midgardians the worst sort of Muggles like the Dursleys? Even if it means they don't follow the Quasmerelsa rule?"

Jarvis correctly guesses where Quasmerelsa came from, which makes Loki smile a bit. Jarvis is like a mind-reader, like 'Fessor X, and it doesn't matter if his mouth and All-Tongue are broken.

"Do they?" Loki asks again when Jarvis doesn't answer, and the voice in the walls almost seems like he's hesitating, which is really odd since Jarvis never hesitates.

"Truthfully, although I hate to say so, there are going to be people everywhere who hate those with powers like yours." Jarvis says.

"Like in Ass-guard." Loki sulks, although it really was way too good to be true that people wouldn't hate him in general.

"Yes, but there are also people who hate Sir, Dr. Banner, and the other Avengers. For starters, their opponents aren't particularly fond of them." Jarvis sounds like he's smirking, before continuing. "But some ordinary civilians

"Why?" Loki's brow furrows in confusion. Who doesn't like superheroes? The Avengers saved all of Midgard, and they fight those stupid Doom-bots. In Asgard, fighting glorious battles wins you respect and admiration.

Then again, Loki doesn't like Thor, and he's a hero. "Some people are stupid and hate my Hulk-y." Loki says aloud, frowning. That might be because Hulk wrecks stuff when he's angry, though. "And Dr. C didn't seem to like Tony either. But they're good guys, heroes."

Everyone in The Incredibles had to hide their powers too because of some rule made when that guy got mad at Mr. Incredible for saving him, and a lot of other people got mad too. Violet had to hide her powers but used them to defeat help defeat the Omnidroid with her family and Frozone.

"Yes, well you'll find that there are people who hate anything." Jarvis says.

Before Loki can really think about it, Stitch, who hasn't done much aside from spit toys out and gobble them up until now, spits out Bruce's King Kong snow globe. "Ooooh!" He coos, eyes wide at the snow globe in his two lower arms, which he just popped out of his body and which don't have straps like his upper arms.

While Loki would ordinarily be ecstatic that Stitch seems alive, he knows Stitch causes a lot of trouble and is worried he'll break the snow globe. It belongs to Bruce and they're not even supposed to have it.

"Stitch!" Loki says, half in worry and half in annoyance, as he climbs out of the bath. "Put it back!"

Stitch doesn't, and when Loki reaches for it, the blue alien backpack darts away, cackling and clearly enjoying the mischief. Loki loves watching the chaos Stitch (and Lilo) create on TV, but this affects him too. "You're gonna get us in troubles! Give it!"

People claim Loki caused a lot of mischief when he was really little, but he doesn't remember that at all and they certainly taught him not to.

"Bad Stitch, naughty! It's Bruce's!" Loki says when Stitch evades him again.

"Naga! Mine!" Stitch shouts, and starts to scurry towards the wall. Fenrir leaps at him and actually manages to knock him down, but Stitch wriggles free and blows a raspberry on his way out before slamming the door in Fenrir's face.

Fenrir growls at the door and then whines towards Loki apologetically, about not being able to stop Stitch. Loki runs a hand over him, murmuring it's okay, and is delighted to feel fur. For a bit, he buries his head against Fenrir's warm body until he remembers he's supposed to be chasing Stitch, who now has even more of a head start.

Simba, Sleipnir and Hel have joined Loki, and Fenrir is sadly intangible again. Loki pouts about that.

Loki is about to fling the door open and barge out when he gets a better idea. He should try to sneak up on Stitch and catch him by surprise. Jormungand, now wrapped loosely around Loki's waist, hisses in agreement.

"Jarvis? Where's Stitch?"

"He is in the living room, Mr. Loki." Loki groans, and Jarvis adds that Bruce is in his room meditating, although, as always, he calls Bruce Dr. Banner.

"I could employ some of my security measures, but since Stitch is still a toy and thus not real from a biological standpoint, I doubt tranquilizers would have an affect. Excuse me for a bit-" Whatever those are, they probably wouldn't affect the real Stitch either, Loki thinks after Jarvis cuts off, since Stitch is pretty indestructible.

There's a bit of a pause, and then Jarvis speaks up. "I have captured Stitch in a net, Mr. Loki, although I'd advise you hurry." Loki didn't even know Jarvis had nets, but that's awesome.

"You're the best, Jarvis!" Loki tells him as he dashes, with Simba and his friends/Monster Family, through his bedroom and down the hall towards the living room, only vaguely hearing Jarvis's comment about being naked.

When he reaches the living room, Loki sees an empty net laying on the floor. Stitch apparently managed to wriggle through the holes.

Figures. Gantu's green nets that he shoots from his blaster rarely capture Stitch for long either, and those nets don't even have holes. Plus the net on the floor was clearly made for something bigger than a plush backpack.

Stitch had to have escaped only just before Loki arrived in the room, and is currently climbing up the tall shelf (taller than Loki) with all of Tony's DVDs, against the wall by the huge TV screen. Loki dashes towards him, Fenrir right beside him with a growl rumbling in his throat, but Stitch is just out of reach sitting atop the shelf.

Loki rests his bare left foot on the bottom shelf and is about to climb up after Stitch, before he realizes that's probably not the best idea.

When Loki passes by the net on his way to get a chair to stand on, the net sparks slightly with electricity and he flinches away, giving it a wide berth. Jarvis says it's designed to do that, but wasn't supposed to do it then.

On his way back with a chair, Jarvis informs Loki that Stitch has moved to the kitchen and is of a row of cabinets, which means he now has enough space to move out of Loki's reach, since unlike the rather skinny DVD shelf, the row of cabinets is a lot longer than Loki's arm-span.

Entering the kitchen, Loki wishes that the ceiling was low enough for all the cabinets to hang from it, instead of most of the cabinets which hang at Loki's eye level but have a lot of wall between them and the tall ceiling. Then again, at least Stitch isn't climbing on the ceiling, because there's no way Loki can get up there.

Loki glances at Simba, who nods, and throws the lion on top of the cabinets. Simba lands nimbly, crouching and flicking his tail as he stalks towards Stitch.

"My dad taught me how to pounce!" Simba says, which is something he said before he came alive. Stitch snickers, although to be honest, Stitch could probably easily beat Simba. "I'm gonna be King, so you have to do what I tell you. And Loki's a prince too, and he's your owner, so you have to do what he says."

"You're not my slaves." Loki mumbles, embarrassed. He doesn't like the way that sounds. He grabs an apple for Sleipnir, but his teeth go right through it and he moans sadly. It makes Loki's heart twist and he hugs his horse even if he can't really feel him.

On top of the cabinets, Stitch just tosses the snow globe and dodges, laughing, when Simba springs at him, before swiping at the lion with his fabric claws. Simba doesn't seem hurt, but Loki angrily throws his hands out, not even sure what he's trying to do. Ice shoots out, but it misses and freezes a patch of the wall behind the toys and Stitch swipes at Simba again.

Nobody hurts Simba! Loki still needs to find whoever ripped Simba's back when Loki was in the petri dish. Maybe it was the Fury man?

Loki flails his arms angrily and accidentally shoots a magic star-repulsor, like when he'd scorched Tony's wall in his other house, and it does the same thing here. Oops. Tony hadn't even been mad the first time, though.

Jormungand shifts around Loki's stomach, and Loki glances at him with a sudden idea. Jormungand was apparently thinking the same thing and grows longer, wrapping his tail in a sort of loop.

Stitch had used something called a 'lasso' against Gantu, and that's what Loki's going with now. He has no idea how to do the fancy twirling Stitch did, so instead just throws his snake at his alien. Jormungand lands looped loosely around Stitch but quickly tightens his coils, and it's not exactly a hug like he gives Loki.

Stitch trips when his legs are wrapped together and he falls off the cabinets. Jormungand stays half on, with Stitch hanging upside-down off the edge. Stitch growls, baring his teeth at Jormungand, who squeezes tighter and hisses angrily.

Maybe Stitch is reminded about when he was hung upside-down on the prison ship with only his head exposed, before he went to Earth. Loki knows how much it stinks to remember bad things and he feels sort of bad for attacking Stitch, although Stitch had attacked Simba.

Loki singsongs to Jormungand to let Stitch go (to the tune of Let It Go, of course). "I am not ssssure that'sss a good idea." Jormungand seems reluctant, but does so when Loki asks him to please do it.

Loki winds up having to pounce on Stitch when he lands, since the alien backpack seems ready to bolt again. He ends up on top of Stitch, pinning him down until Stitch wheezes pitifully, like when Jumba was stepping on him after handcuffing him and smashing him into a tree.

Loki quickly gets off, feeling horrible, and Stitch immediately scampers away, chuckling.

Loki's eyes widen as he realizes he's been conned, and he lunges after Stitch, missing and landing next to the dent from when he'd smashed the turkey baster with the frying pan yesterday.

He chases Stitch back to his bedroom and then his bathroom, where he wrestles with Stitch as Fenrir and Hel try to get in on the act. Stitch and Loki roll right through them, but it feels like he bumped into them.

Jormungand wraps himself around Stitch again, pointing out in a somewhat superior tone that he was right about whether or not to let Stitch go, and that Loki really should have listened to him. As Loki tugs the snow globe from Stitch's grasp (Stitch is still a backpack, so he's not super-strong like the actual alien Stitch) something on the bottom pops off.

It turns Loki had pulled a plug that pops out, making water drain out of the globe from the hole the plug had covered, along with the white stuff, which is sticking to Loki's stomach.

Panicked, Loki fumbles with the globe it slips from his grip, falling to the hard tile floor.

Trembling, Loki kneels on the ground, rocking and clutches the snow globe to his chest. Jarvis, Simba, and his Monster Family manage to calm him down eventually. Simba snuggles up to him, as well as Fenrir and Sleipnir, and he curls up against the large wolf, loving the feeling of his fur, although when he leans into the wolf, he just goes through him.

Jormungand, actually tangible since he's the sort-of-necklace, wraps the part of his body not securing Stitch around Loki in a snake hug.

Once he's calmer, Loki turns to Stitch, who once again seems like a lifeless backpack with only two arms. "Your badness level just went way up." Loki tells him seriously. Maybe he should represent it in crayon drawings, like Lilo does.

Stitch doesn't answer now, and Loki puts Stitch on backwards, so Stitch sits against his chest instead of his back, where he, hopefully, can't cause any more trouble. That done, he focuses on the snow globe.

Somehow it survived the fall unscathed, thank the Norns. But it's still empty of water or that weird, white powder that can't be snow, since it's not cold and doesn't melt. The fake snow tastes horrible, he discovers when he licks a stray speck that's stuck to his finger, from when he'd unsuccessfully tried to wipe the stuff from his stomach.

There's a knock on the bathroom door, and Bruce's voice drifts through the cracks. "Loki? Are you all right? What was all the commotion out there?"

"'m fine!" Loki calls, sounding more fine than he feels. "It was nothing! Nothing nothing nooooo-thing. I was playing!" It's a lie, and a pretty bad one. They used to come out better, but so did everything else he said.

Bruce clearly doesn't believe it. "It didn't sound like nothing, and you don't sound fine." Gently, he adds "You can tell me anything, you know that?"

Loki shrugs, forgetting Bruce can't see him, but apparently he gets it anyways. "Can I come in?"

"No!" Loki practically screams, turning away from the door and hiding the snow globe just in case.

He wasn't even supposed to have the snow globe in the first place, even though that was Stitch's fault. But the water and fake snow coming out his all his fault, so he's the one who broke it.

Loki scowls, berating himself internally for being an idiot. Not that that's anything new, according to the Asgardians, and he can practically hear a chorus of agreement from various Asgardians in his head.

He can make snow...

It's not like he can screw it up more, can he?

He slowly sticks the middle finger of his right hand in the hole in the base of the snow globe, tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth in concentration. He needs to make justthe right amount. Too much, and nobody will be able to see King Kong through it all. If he makes way too much, the globe might even explode.

He starts to wonder if maybe he shouldn't try this, but he glances at Elsa. She would. After grabbing her for good luck, Loki takes a deep breath and wiggles the finger in the snow globe tentatively, shooting out few snowflakes. Another wiggle, a bit less cautious, and he shoots out a tiny flurry.

The snow swirls on its own, without water, and Loki gives a very slight smile. At least it's not as bad as it was before. Glancing at Elsa, she moves slightly and nods approvingly, letting go a couple snowflakes of her own, but Loki knows that's only an illusion.

At least she doesn't make trouble, like Stitch.

As Loki goes to pull his finger out, he discovers it's stuck. Great. Why does he screw up everything?

Frantic tugging does nothing, and he stops when he's worried he'll break the globe entirely. He tries rubbing soap on his finger, but that doesn't work either.

After thinking for a bit, he realizes he's used his magic to change his clothes and get his Iron Man suit off him before, so maybe he can do that now?

It turns out he can't, at least not right now. Letting out a frustrated groan, Loki flops over, and the momentum might have broken the globe if Jormungand hadn't moved to block it. Loki slaps himself on the cheek for being an idiot, because he almost just smashed it. Stupid stupid stupid!

He tries to will the snow globe off his finger with his magic a couple more times but gets the same result of absolutely nothing aside from an illusion of a snow globe popping up for a second or two, but that's utterly useless.

Bruce could almost certainly help, since he's a doctor, but then he'd find out that Loki had his snow globe and spilled the stuff out and had to replace it with his own snow.

Well, no matter what, Bruce will notice the replacement snow, so it's not like he can get out of that. As for Bruce finding out... maybe that wouldn't be too bad. He had just said Loki could tell him anything. Loki's honestly not sure if Bruce will get angry, but if he does, he'll just turn into Hulk. Loki's not worried about Hulk hurting him, even though Bruce seems to worry about that sometimes.

Besides, Loki thinks, Bruce is hardly one to be judgmental about wrecking things, since Hulk's wrecked even more than he had (and Loki hadn't even really wrecked the snow globe).

---

Pepper notices that Tony's uncharacteristically quiet during the cab ride, which means his mind's probably busy with something.

They wind up making a trip to the Disney Store, and Tony would have bought out the entire store if Pepper hadn't reminded him they're limited to the backseat of cabs for what they bring back to the tower, and no he cannot call his chauffeur because he needs rest.

The genius is clearly trying to get on Loki's good side, and Pepper wonders what happened as Tony settles on an enormous Baloo plush that's over four feet tall and technically not even for sale, meant for display. Being Tony Stark, however, means he does stuff others wouldn't get away with. Tony also grabs smaller plush versions of Sven, Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio and Bambi, as well as an action figure set from The Incredibles.

Pepper just rolls her eyes and tells Tony he deserves it and no, he cannot hire one of the store employees as a sherpa, when he complains about having to lug everything, especially Baloo, back to the taxi. On the way back, the huge toy sits in the passenger seat in front.

Once they reach the tower, Tony tips the driver handsomely for the wait while they were at the store and tells him to keep his mouth shut about the toys. The cab pulls away with tires screeching almost as soon as Tony steps out, as if to ensure Tony won't have time to decide that three hundred bucks was too much of a tip.

Tony lets them into the tower and they head across the lobby- which is empty at this time in the evening- towards his private elevator. "Good evening sir, Miss Potts." Of course they're greeted by Jarvis. "Ah, shameless bribery for forgiveness is always a good option." The AI says dryly. Pepper hides a smile at that. Tony's done the same thing with her countless times, although it usually didn't get him out of whatever hole he'd dug himself into.

Pepper demands Tony tell her what happens, and the billionaire says he pointed a turkey baster at Loki and caused a major panic attack. He sounds extremely guilty about it, so Pepper doesn't feel the need to rip into him as Tony props Baloo on a box. The box in question is really more of a large crate, Pepper thinks, the type of thing you'd expect to see in adventure movies. It looks like it weighs thirty pounds.

"It contains replacement alcohol, including several bottles of that French scotch you said was so good you might marry it." Jarvis explains at Tony's questioning look at the crate.

"I could kiss you, Jarvis." Tony smirks and puckers up before continuing in a mock-simpering tone "Now be a dear and send Dum-E up, will ya?"

Jarvis gives a dry reply and Pepper asks what Jarvis meant by a replacement alcohol.

"Yesterday, during that flashback, Loki kinda blew up the penthouse bar's stash." He's surprisingly unconcerned when he says it, and Pepper knows Tony takes his alcohol seriously and would ordinarily hold a huge grudge and get revenge on anyone who smashed an entire floor's worth, especially since the penthouse is one of the best-stocked areas in the whole tower.

At least he'd seemed to focus more on Loki than his alcohol, as he should.

Tony pulls off his dress shoes, rubbing his feet and grumbling about aches before eyeing Pepper's six-inch stiletto heels. "C'mon Pep, join the party. We can give each other foot massages." He wiggles his eyebrows and his socked foot at the same time.

He was never really into massages when they were dating, always wanting to go straight to the bedroom, Pepper thinks as she removes her shoes, because honestly they do hurt after a while. "I knew you wanted to get out of those." Tony crows, grabbing a shoe and examining it at every angle as Pepper massages her own foot. "How do you even walk in these monstrosities?! Why in the world do women choose to wear shoes like these? Seriously, these are like torture devices for feet." Pepper's very used to Tony's random ramblings, of course, and just rolls with it.

"I'm going to get you something better for Christmas." Tony promises, pointing at her with the long, thin heel of the shoe.

"You're the one who got me these." Pepper shakes her head with an exasperated smile.

"No I wasn't. I wouldn't buy these. They're hideous." Tony freezes with wide eyes before flashing Pepper a smile. "I don't even have to worry about paying for that comment in some subtle way later anymore. But seriously, I bought these?" He asks it disbelievingly. "Jarvis, did I buy these?"

"You did indeed, sir, and I recall a five minute monologue about how awesome they were and how Miss Potts would love them so much that the only way she would ever part with them would be if they were pried off her feet." Jarvis replies and Pepper swears the Jarvis is laughing, even though AI's aren't supposed to have a sense of humor.

Dum-E arrives from the elevator anyways and starts to push the crate back in the elevator, under strict orders from Tony not to even bump the crate against anything. Pepper winds up helping the crate avoid the side of the elevator's doorway.

As Tony follows them into the elevator, which is easily large enough for them, Dum-E and the crate, the genius continues to ramble about everything from shoes to how he hopes Bruce will "have mercy' because the dinners he cooks don't taste very good, and pizza is so much better anyways."

"Hey, Pep, what do you think would be the best use of money to help abused kids?" Tony switches topics abruptly, which again is nothing new. "I think Stark Industries should donate for that cause." Tony's now flicking over the holographic screen of his phone. Pepper smiles slightly. That's a great idea, something she really should have thought of earlier, she berates herself. She's betting Loki's the inspiration for this, but it shouldn't have been him that was the kick to get them started on this cause. They should have been helping abuse victims years ago.

Through the elevator ride, the three of them- her, Tony and Jarvis- debate about how they could work to get more cases of abuse discovered sooner, maybe fund for even better training about recognizing abuse for teachers and childcare employees. Or should they work on helping abused kids (or adults) cope with their pasts?

Both, Tony decides, asking aloud, rhetorically "Since when have I limited myself to Option A or B when I can shoot for Options A, B, C and D?" Pepper can certainly attest that Tony goes all-out with a lot of things.

Tony strips off his dress shirt and pants (he's wearing shorts and a t-shirt underneath) and tosses them off to the side as he strolls in the penthouse, before supervising Dum-E dragging the crate in. Pepper thinks that it's surprisingly empty and quiet here. She would've thought that Loki would be running up to Tony by now.

"Where the hell is everyone?" Tony mirrors Pepper's thoughts in a slightly more colorful way, before suddenly asking if Loki and Bruce are watching How To Train Your Dragon in the theater. Pepper is the one who had introduced Tony to that movie. She wonders how Loki would react to the whole viking aspect, which seems similar to Asgard, and the whole idea of how the vikings hunt dragons at first, like how Asgardians hate and wage war with Jotuns for some reason Pepper can't possibly understand.

"They are in Mr. Loki's bedroom, or more specifically, Dr. Banner is in his bedroom while Mr. Loki is in his bathroom. From that information, do I really need to inform you that they are not watching a movie?" Tony grumbles under his breath but says they should deposit the toys somewhere.

They head towards Loki's bedroom, Tony making sure Dum-E follows so he stays out of trouble. Dum-E does so quite cheerfully, probably excited to see Loki. Only Tony's robots could actually get excited, Pepper thinks as she watches the bot fondly.

Loki's room, which has a fantastic skyline view of New York City at nighttime, is dim, lit by only the light from the city outside, the holographic stars hovering in midair above them and what appears to be a holographic Tinker Bell. Dum-E immediately starts to try and grab the holographic Tinker Bell, but the pixie evades his claw, chiming, finally resting on Dum-E's arm. Pepper is certain Tink is controlled by Jarvis, but she smiles all the same as the AI makes the fairy appear to land on her finger, though she obviously doesn't feel anything. Tink had been one of her favorite characters growing up, because she had a fiery personality too (and who doesn't love fairies?)

Bruce is standing outside the bathroom door, looking conflicted about something.

"Planning on barging in and taking a peek, doc?" Tony asks, smirking. "It's always the quiet ones. Well, there's me, and I'm not quiet."

"Nobody ever said you were." Bruce says dryly, raising his brows at the toys and smirking a bit. "I'm not sure that's going to work if you're trying to make up for last night."

"Of course it will." Tony says, setting the bag down next to Baloo. "So, have you been waiting for me? I mean, I knew you'd pine for me during my absence, but even I wasn't expecting you to do nothing else." The billionaire over-dramatically clutches his heart and pretends to be touched.

Bruce says they played games (adding that Loki made the tower not fall in Jenga. He'd done that at the SI daycare when building block towers with the kids, Pepper remembers) and starts to say something else about reading.

Before he can finish, the bathroom door swings open and Loki wanders from within, completely naked and rather damp-looking. He was clearly taking a bath or shower, and doesn't have a smidgen of modesty, since he doesn't even have a towel wrapped around his waist or anything. His Stitch backpack is on his chest, covering his right hand as his left arm hugs Simba. There are odd white flakes all over Loki's stomach, but they don't look like dandruff or anything.

Dum-E lets out an excited squealing sound and Loki smiles, though it's with much less enthusiasm than usual as the robot rolls towards him, slowed down by the shaggy green carpet.

Tony clears his throat pointedly. "So what's with the sudden shower at this time?"

Loki just looks at Bruce, taking a deep breath and clutching Simba tighter. It almost looks like Simba nods slightly, but that's crazy. Pepper must be seeing things in the sort of green light.

Loki slowly brings out his right hand to reveal a snow globe stuck on the end of the middle finger on his right hand, and he stares carefully at Bruce.

Inside the globe, Pepper sees, is a plastic King Kong climbing a tiny Empire State Building. The way the snow swirls around in the glass sphere is unlike how snow swirls in a normal snow globe or during a winter snowfall.

For starters, the snow really should have settled at the bottom of the globe by now, except it doesn't. But, in addition to defying gravity, there's something just... magical about the way this snow moves, though Pepper can't place a finger on what it is.

"That's my snow globe." Bruce doesn't sound angry. Loki nods guiltily. "How did you end up with this? Wasn't it in my room?" The doctor asks it without any annoyance or accusation, merely curiously.

"Stitch spit it out. I didn't evens ask him for it, honest!" Loki says as he glares down at Stitch. "Didn't wanna give it back either when I told him it's yours, and it won't come off!"

"Why were you giving it the one-finger salute?" Tony asks, and Loki shoots him a puzzled look, and bows with his left arm across his chest, hand in a fist.

There's obviously a cultural divide here, which is understandable. Pepper doubts Loki has any clue that sticking out your middle finger is offensive. He's from a different planet, or realm or something, and not even all cultures on Earth have the same gesture equivalents of swear words.

"Well, I'm glad you came to me." Bruce adjusts his glasses and carefully takes Loki's right hand to look at the finger, though he glances at the globe and appears slightly puzzled. "Where did the water go?"

Loki chews his lip, left hand twirling his hair, and mumbles. "It got out. So'd the fake snow. But me an' Elsa, we kinda fixed it... 'xcept it's not the same!"

Bruce asks when this happened, still completely calm. Loki doesn't answer, rocking anxiously. Loki's Stitch backpack opens wide to spit a naked Elsa doll out before appearing to hug Loki from his place on Loki's chest. Loki looks down at him, puts Elsa in his mouth, and asks for her clothes too. She pops out in the ice dress from the movie, and Loki tells Stitch something about his badness level going down a bit and gives him a slight hug.

Bruce pulls slightly at the globe, and surprisingly, Loki doesn't even react as his finger's probably pulled too. Most people would probably cringe or at least tense up, and considering Loki's past of abuse, it's odd he doesn't, instead only saying that soap didn't help.

Tony points out Baloo, and Loki clearly hadn't noticed the huge bear until now. He shouts Baloo's name happily and heads towards him, as if forgetting that Bruce is holding the snow globe his hand's stuck to. Bruce follows him as Loki collapses on three-fours (his left hand and both knees, while his right arm still extended up towards Bruce).

As he crawls towards Baloo, he looks to be getting smaller. At first, Pepper decides it's a trick on her eyes, but there's no denying it when he ends up at least a foot and a half, maybe two feet shorter and with the appearance of a boy around ten.

With this, his finger shrinks as well and slides out of the hole in the snow globe's base easily. Loki blinks in surprise, looking at his freed hand.

"Am I Mowgli 'gain?" He asks, crawling onto the Baloo toy like Mowgli sitting on Baloo in the river. Baloo is basically as big as him now, and he sighs contentedly, hugging his bear and humming The Bare Necessities. Pepper isn't sure if it's weirder having a naked boy or a naked man-child in the room.

Loki -or is it Mowgli?- asks Stitch for "the broke bit" and hands what's apparently the plug to the bottom of the snow globe to Bruce. "You hate it, don't you?" He asks mournfully. "It was special, but now it's not."

"This is better than before." Bruce smiles a bit at Loki, who looks shocked but extremely relieved. "Actually it's more special now. Before, it was just like thousands, maybe tens or hundreds of thousands just like it. This was just an ordinary store thing, not something custom, right?" Tony confirms this, apparently he was the one to buy it for Bruce, and Loki seems surprised to learn that there are probably thousands of identical King Kong snow globes.

"So you aren'ts mad?" Loki asks. "What if it broked?"

"I try to avoid getting angry, remember?" Bruce says with a sardonic smile. "Besides, even if you broke it, Tony could've easily gotten me another one." Bruce fixes Loki with a slightly more serious look. "Although you should ask before borrowing other people's stuff."

"Sorry, Bruce. Sorry sorry sorries sorries." Loki says, sincerely, before informing them again that he hadn't even asked Stitch for the snow globe. Then, Loki grins slightly. "Trouble's not as bad here, 'cause you're not gonna beat me. They woulda there."

"Which they shouldn't have done. Especially when you were a child." Tony says, for probably the millionth time.

"How about you put some clothes on?" Bruce suggests to the god with a sigh, and Dum-E presses some garments against Loki's bare chest. Tony tells Jarvis to order child-sized clothes in case Loki keeps doing this, until Bruce points out that if Loki can shrink, clothes probably can too. "You should probably wash whatever that white stuff is off your body. What is that? Snow?"

Loki shakes his head.

"Seriously, Bambi-" Tony pauses to hold up the Bambi toy he'd just bought with a smirk, so everyone notices the connection with Loki's nickname, and tosses it to Loki. "If it's not snow, what is it? Were you jacking off?" Tony wiggles his brows, and Pepper elbows him in the ribs hard enough to make him wince and rub the spot.

"Not reals." Loki mutters randomly before asking, with the air of suddenly remembering something. "Tony? If the man isn't peeing, why's he stick that part in?" As an afterthought, he adds, while pointing to the relevant body part, "You know, his penis, when he's doing sex. Why's the white baby goop come out there? It makes babies, right?"

Pepper might have turned red if she hadn't spent years hearing all sorts of perverted remarks from Tony. Bruce buries his head in his hands at the whole situation, although there's a smile playing around his lips and a couple snorts.

Tony is shaking helplessly with laughter, clutching his sides. "W...white b-baby go-oo-oop!" He manages to gasp between laughs. Loki just stares up at Tony, clearly not seeing anything funny about this and waiting for an answer.

Pepper's probably turning red anyways as she goes to glares murderously at Tony. Has he introduced Loki to porn or something? The comment about jacking off was so Tony, but he shouldn't he saying perverted stuff to Loki. Looking at this child form, she forgets for a second that Loki's an adult.

Still, even though Loki's technically an adult, he seems so innocent, almost like a little kid. Pepper can't imagine Loki masturbating in the same way she can't imagine kids masturbating since they don't.

That thought sounds a lot dirtier than she'd intended. She's really glad Tony will never know she thought that, because he'd never let her hear the end of it. Still, Loki's question about sex made it seem like he even knows the term jacking off, since it was at least sort of related to what Tony had said.

Tony quickly holds up his hands in a sign of peace. "Pep, I swear I haven't been corrupting him, so you can stop plotting how you're gonna kill me. You know, it's a really good thing your heels are back in the living room, because I don't feel like being stabbed by stilettos."

"Don't kill Tony!" Loki cries desperately, flinging himself in front of Tony protectively and completely flashing Pepper in the process. Now that he looks like a prepubescent boy, shielding Tony with his body is somewhat pointless.

"I won't let you! Nobody's gonna kill my Tony!" This is said with surprising force, and green energy starts to form around Loki's hands as he glares at Pepper.

"It's just an expression, she's not actually going to kill him." Bruce soothes, but Loki looks uncertain for a bit before he nods, green energy fading and challenging demeanor abruptly gone.

Tony breaks the silence, of course. "Yeah, the 'white baby goop' isn't pee, it's sperm, but you got the part about it forming babies partially right. Bruce, you wanna explain it?" Tony grins at Bruce, who hasn't lifted his face from his hands but shakes his head. "No? Um, you know women have eggs, right?"

Loki lets out a small giggle at that. "They're not birds! But they're insides, right? The eggs?"

Pepper has to remind herself that Loki knows firsthand how dark the world can be, that he's basically lived through hell for most of his life and can probably stand much more sexual information than a little kid could.

He clearly knows some stuff already. But how exactly does he know intimate details about sex and what goes where, yet not even know what sperm is? Maybe they don't totally grasp the science of the Birds and Bees in Asgard?

Some sicko could probably have taken advantage of Loki, and Pepper tries not to wonder if someone already has, because it makes her want to throw up. Is child rape a thing in Asgard? Considering they still have slavery and seem very Middle Ages in a lot of ways, she wouldn't exactly be surprised if that's the case. Her stomach churns and she desperately tries to think of something else.

Tony opens his mouth to answer but Loki interrupts.

"Wait, we're not s'posed to talk about this with a lady here, nope nope nope." Loki glances apologetically at Pepper, and gives her a little wave. "Can't when Lady Pepper's heres... 'xcept Lady Frigga told me a little about it and Sif could make sex jokes like Fandral sometimes, so maybes it doesn't apply to all ladies?" Loki appears confused.

"Trust me, I've heard way worse from Tony." Pepper assures him. "Now, you really should put some clothes on."

Loki retreats to the bathroom with the clothes Dum-E gave him. There's some splashing, not much time after that before he reemerges, back in his normal, tall, adult body and wearing Iron Man pajamas. Somehow, he looks completely dry even though there was splashing less than a minute ago, and Pepper wishes she could run a comb or brush through Loki's long, messy black locks, and she reaches into her purse.

"Whoa, that was quick. What'd you do, magic your clothes on and spell yourself dry?" Tony asks, and while that wouldn't be meant seriously by most people, Pepper's pretty sure it's actually a possibility in this situation.

Loki at least doesn't flinch at the reference to magic or spells.

He's flanked by three curious figures- a gray horse with way too many legs (eight, Pepper counts once the legs stop moving), a girl who looks like some sort of zombie on half her body, and a large wolf. Wrapped around his waist is the snake necklace, although it's not really a necklace anymore.

Pepper realizes the three charms dangling from the snake look a lot like the other three figures accompanying Loki.

"Who are you?" Pepper asks the girl, smiling politely, although the dead side of her body is pretty unsettling. Tony hadn't said anything about having some... odd guests.

"I'm Sleipnir!" The eight-legged horse announces, prancing around a bit.

"How are you bigger now?" The billionaire asks, pointing at Sleipnir. Then his eyes fall to Jormungand, and he shakes his head. "Never mind." Loki giggles.

Pepper knows the snake, which suddenly moves and hisses that his name is Jormungand, can change sizes.

The girl introduces herself as Hel, and adds that the wolf is named Fenrir.

"I can feel Fenrir's fur now, 'xcept I can still go through him." Loki runs a hand over the huge wolf's back and kneels next to him. Tony pokes Fenrir curiously, and Loki grabs Tony's hand, making him pet the wolf the right way. Fenrir soaks it up, more like a puppy dog than a wolf.

"I can move more now, and talk, instead of just turning my head and saying the same stuff." Simba speaks up, suddenly seeming to come alive and taking Pepper by surprise. It's like stepping into Toy Story, she thinks, and Tony mutters that he'd forgotten to mention this development. "I'm like Hobbes now, but to everyone."

"No, I'm Hobbes!" Sleipnir exclaims, almost jealously. Simba shoots back that he's closer to Hobbes because he's a big cat, like tigers (though his tone clearly shows he thinks lions are superior to both tigers and horses). Eventually, Sleipnir and Simba start talking over each other and Hel tries to break up the fight.

If they're imaginary, how could Loki control all of them simultaneously?

It doesn't look like he's controlling any of them, actually. The god just watches them fight, seeming confused, annoyed and a tad amused all at the same time. He turns away, looking at the rest of the toys Tony bought as bribes. He stares confusedly at Pinocchio, muttering that he's supposed to have a little wooden head before humming something.

Pinocchio suddenly turns to a wooden puppet instead of a plush doll, and Pepper wonders if Loki will bring him to life like Simba (which is a really weird thought). Tony and Bruce are obviously wondering the same thing.

It would make sense, though. That's what the whole movie is about. Tony actually asks if he's going to bring him to life, but Loki shakes his head no, eyes straying down to Stitch for a bit.

"Maybe he'll be a real boy someday." Loki murmurs, shaking Pinocchio slightly so his arms and legs flop around as if dancing. He'd seen the end of the movie, right? Tony and Bruce look equally confused. There's no way he can bring a toy completely to life, right?

Loki, however, has now turned his attention to the new set of Incredibles figures, exclaiming delightedly that he has Violet and Frozone now to team up with him and Elsa as he rips open the box and starts playing with them.

Pepper gets close enough to pull the hairbrush she'd taken from her purse through Loki's hair. It catches on tangles once and Loki lets out a startled gasp, but after that, the brush runs smoothly through his locks. Actually, Loki's hair suddenly looks mostly combed, as if by magic, so Pepper just combs it back so it's not hanging in curtains around his face.

Satisfied, she steps back. "There. You look really handsome now. I think you might even give Tony a run for his money." Tony, of course, scoffs at the idea, saying that nobody's even close to as attractive than he is. Honestly, though, Loki does have a handsome face, although it's sort of wasted on him since he doesn't seem to care about non-platonic relationships.

Suddenly struck with an idea, Pepper hunts for some blank paper amid the chaos of books and paper on Loki's desk, and in doing so, spots a drawing of what she guesses is Loki in his Jotun form, next to a Jotun version of Elsa and some other blue man.

She studies it with a smile. For one thing, Loki's drawing skills are miles better than some of the drawings tacked on the walls of Loki's room, probably some of his earlier ones.

The fact he drew his Jotun form seems like a huge plus. When Loki showed his Jotun form on Halloween almost a month ago, he clearly hadn't liked it at all and probably never would have drawn it. That had been before the saw Frozen, though, and while there's nothing in the movie about Elsa being a Jotun, the whole ice powers aspect had clearly convinced Loki that she is, and it's obvious how much Loki adores Elsa (there are several drawings of her on the walls).

"Hey, that's Kurt! This should go on the wall, Snoopy." Tony exclaims, pointing at the other blue man in Loki's drawing as he looks at it from over Pepper's shoulder.

To her, he explains "Yesterday, we had a new sort of therapist come over- a telepathic mutant- and he happened Kurt, another mutant who's blue and can teleport." Muttering, he adds "It went way better than the sessions with the other therapists."

"Oh, yeah!" Loki exclaims. "Tony, guess what?! I teleported in the bath whens you were gone, and Esmeralda did too, 'xcept that was really me too. But Jarvis said there aren't good... scannering things in the any of baths so he didn't really get the stuffs to help beat that Doom guy."

From years of experience with Tony, Pepper's good at working out the meanings of ramblings, but if she hadn't already heard that Loki can teleport, it would have taken a bit to accept that knowledge.

Evidently, from Tony's excited nodding and the boatload of questions he hurls at the god- Did Loki see something different when he teleported? Did it feel like he went somewhere else briefly before ending up where he intended to teleport?- Tony's studying Loki's teleportation to try to incapacitate Doctor Doom, who can teleport as well but almost never shows up when he sends his robots.

"Wanna see?" Loki asks, and after a bit, Pepper realizes he's asking her. She now knows that Tony hasn't forced Loki to teleport to study it, and that they're still going at Loki's pace, not Tony's. Which is good, because if Tony had forced Loki to do something he wasn't comfortable with, Pepper would be having a long talk (read, lecture with lots of shouting on her part) with him.

"I'd love to." Pepper says, just as she finds the scissors amid the clutter on the desk. She holds them as she turns around to watch Loki but ends up asking Jarvis where the blank paper. It turns out it's actually stacked neatly in one of the desk drawers, unlike the chaos of the rest of the room, and Pepper can't believe she hadn't checked there.

Loki closes his eyes and scrunches his face in concentration. Nothing happens, and he seems very annoyed about that. But isn't it sort of good that he's annoyed about not using magic? At least it seems like progress.

"You'll get it." Pepper tells him reassuringly, although she honestly has no clue if he will. She folds the paper she'd found and, making sure Loki's watching, snips out parts of it with the scissors. Loki just stares at her in confused bemusement, clearly thinking she's out of her mind for cutting paper randomly but humoring her all the same. He even tells her "Good job," in the sort of tone people use with small children when she holds up the finished, unfolded product, although admittedly it doesn't look like much.

His expression turns to utter glee when Pepper unfolds the paper to reveal the snowflake she'd made with scissors. Loki eagerly grabs another piece of paper before switching to intense concentration when folding it, as he tries to line it up exactly right before snipping away.

The snowflake Loki reveals upon unfolding the paper is absolutely stunning, especially considering this is evidently his first time doing this. Despite Pepper saying it's beautiful, Loki just studies it critically for a bit, shakes it so it flaps slightly. Thanks to his magic, the paper glitters like real snow, although when Pepper pokes it she finds it's still just paper.

She and Loki spend a good twenty minutes making paper snowflakes. Bruce and Tony even get in on the snowflake-making for a bit. Loki tries to get Dum-E to do one, but Tony nixes that, saying Dum-E's not allowed to have pointy objects like scissors, so Loki drapes one of the snowflakes over the robot's claw instead. Dum-E clenches it too tightly, crumpling it, but holds it up as proudly as if it's an Olympic Medal.

"Hey, you're reading Harry Potter?" Tony asks, picking up a book from Loki's nightstand. "Without me?" This is said in a hurt voice that's supposed to be joking, but Pepper can sense he's actually a tad annoyed about it, though he hides it well. Pepper can kind of understand why he might be upset. Tony seems to honestly like watching movies with Loki, and this book seems almost as relevant to Loki's life as Elsa's story in Frozen had been.

Harry being mistreated by the Dursleys for being magical is a lot like Loki's situation in Asgard, only Loki's was a lot worse. Would that be too close for comfort for Loki, though? Pepper glances at Loki, who's cutting another snowflake that he announced was going to be Elsa's snowflake.

"When did you even start reading it?" Is Tony's next question, and Bruce says they read the Chapter One earlier tonight. Oh, so they hadn't really gotten to the Dursleys.

"You know the Dursleys hating magic is dumb, right?"

"Jarvis said so." Loki says. "But lots of Midgardians do."

True, there are a lot of people here on Earth who don't like enhanced individuals, including the Avengers. While Tony (without his suit), Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff technically aren't 'enhanced', there are citizens who hate them too. Probably some of it's fear, and admittedly they have somewhat dark pasts.

Pepper doubts they've really told Loki how, here on Earth, people could view Loki's powers negatively. They almost certainly haven't brought up the medieval witch hunts and burnings or Salem witch trials. After all, they've been trying to convince him that his magic isn't bad.

Yet Loki obviously knows that there are people who hate him and his magic (they wouldn't need to convince him it's not bad if he hadn't spent his whole life being told it was in Asgard).

"The bee man just left him." Loki's frowning now and cuts a bit off his paper with much more force than necessary. The scissors actually break, which Pepper didn't think was really possible to do accidentally, but she reminds herself that Loki has superhuman, almost godlike, strength.

The god flinches and quickly hides the broken scissors. He glances at Tony with wide eyes, obviously realizing they'd just seen him do that and hide the evidence. Tony just waves a hand in a way that says it doesn't matter at all, and after a bit, Loki visibly sags in relief.

Pepper hands Loki her scissors, and he starts cutting with extreme caution, clearly trying his hardest not to break these scissors too.

"What bee man?" Tony voices Pepper's first thought about Loki's comment. Pepper has a feeling she's missing some major context clues. He's probably talking about a movie, but the only Disney movie Pepper can think of that has bees of any kind is Winnie-the-Pooh. That doesn't even really fit though, and what in the world is a bee MAN?

Perhaps this is just one of Loki's odder mutterings and she's looking too deeply.

"The bee man." Loki says as if they're stupid for not knowing. "His name means bee but it's different... I think it's likes Dumblybee? Dumblydores? I forget." Loki pouts, and all three of them ask, coincidentally at the same time and Tony grinning like an idiot, if he means Dumbledore. Pepper vaguely recalls hearing somewhere that Dumbledore meaning bumblebee.

Loki nods with far less enthusiasm than usual. "Yeah, him, Dum-ble-dore Dumbledore. He's gots a silly name, but he's real old and grey like Odin, and magic too. You know Odin lied 'bout that, 'cause he has it and didn't say so ever and sometimes he whipped me." Pepper, Bruce and Tony all scowl at that, but Loki doesn't seem to notice and just keeps talking.

"Dumbledore, he just put Harry on the Dursleys' door and tel'ported away, even though Pr'fessor M...M'gonogole-something said no." Loki frowns, and Jarvis supplies Professor McGonagall, although it had still been clear who Loki meant even if his pronunciation was a bit off.

"Those pr'fessors have hard surnames, like 'Fessor X. And Dr. C, but she's a doctor." Nodding, Loki goes returns from the little side comment. "McGonagall is the lady 'fessor. I like her, I think. She turned into a cat! Mrrroww!" Loki's cat noise is surprisingly realistic and accompanied by clawing motions with his hands. "Not a mewling cat, she's real quiet-likes and she stared at Vernon Dursley. I wish I could turn into a cat, 'stead of just growing ears and a tail."

Wait, what? Tony and Bruce don't look confused or surprised at all, and they confirm through a glance that Loki had actually grown a tail of some sort (and maybe done something with his ears?). Tony's currently saying he probably could turn into a cat, something that sounds crazy under any other circumstances.

"M'Gonagall told Dumbledore not to put Harry with the Dursleys!" Extremely upset and annoyed, Loki smacks his thigh hard enough to make Pepper wince and exclaims. "Harry was just a baby and he was 'bandoned there alone!"

"Yeah, it wasn't one of Dumbledore's best moments." Tony says. "And what have we said about hitting yourself?"

"Not to?" Loki says softly.

"Yes, please don't hit yourself." Pepper hates watching Loki do that.

"About Dumbledore leaving Harry, abandoning a baby is wrong." Tony says. "Harry could have crawled away and gotten hurt, and anyone could have found him and done whatever they wanted with him. Leaving him with shitty excuses for humans like the Dursleys is wrong on Dumbledore's part, too. I mean, locking a kid in a cupboard is just not okay."

Jumping up and down wildly and flailing his arms as if he wants to hit something, and then falls to the ground, curling in a ball. In a small voice, he says "I was a-bandoned too. The Allfather, Odin, found me all 'lone as a baby back there... in Jotunheim. He tooked me as a barter chip, like for trading 'cause I'm a prince there. That's why they didn't kill me in Ass-Guard when they kill lots of other Jotuns, likes the ones that came during Thor's coronation."

Pepper's heart has already broken at several things Loki's said, and even when she's heard this information about barter chips from Thor, it still breaks her heart. The way Loki talks about himself as nothing more than a tool, as means to an end, is just so wrong.

"Sometimes, I wish he didn't took me." Loki mumbles, and nobody bothers correcting his grammar, all too shocked by this admittance.

"Um, wouldn't you have died there?" Tony asks slowly.

"Fandral said they woulda raped me and eaten me, 'cause that's what they all do in the stories." Loki crumples his snowflake and throws it angrily away. "Say they're all savage monsters, but you're not like that." It takes Pepper a bit to realize Loki's switched to talking to his Elsa doll.

"I seriously doubt they would have done that." Bruce says. "If they did, they would have all killed each other off and gone extinct."

Loki doesn't answer. When he speaks again, Pepper isn't sure if he's talking to them, to Elsa, or to Simba and his friends.

"Heimdall, he saids the Jotuns didn't even want me when Thor and Sif 'n the Warriors Three brought me to Jotunheim, 'xcept I don't remember going there." His voice is choked as if he's about to cry. "Said that the Jotuns said they left me on purpose whens I was a baby, cause I'm weak there too. Jotun runt!"

Pepper frowns at all of that as she wraps Loki in a hug, trying to be comforting while raging internally at all of Asgard, especially Odin.

It's so wrong, but it also doesn't make sense. If Odin found Loki abandoned as a baby, why on earth would he think Loki would make a good bargaining chip? Most abandoned babies aren't wanted by whoever abandoned them, unless they're hidden for their safety in a time of crisis like war, and then their parents die.

Perhaps Odin had originally thought Loki had been hidden for his safety. Pepper can't think of why someone like Odin would take Loki as a charity case, especially given how he'd treated him.

"You're so much more than that, and they don't deserve you up there." Pepper tells him firmly, and at Loki's immediate flinch, she realizes he interpreted the them not deserving him in a bad way.

"I meant that that in a good way. You're too good for them, and they don't deserve someone as amazing as you." A little ego stroking certainly wouldn't hurt, because unlike Tony, Loki pretty much has no self esteem.

While she's really glad Odin hadn't left Loki to die, in some ways that probably would have been kinder than making him suffer through all the abuse he somehow survived from. Loki's a lot tougher than he looks, Pepper reminds herself.

"Family shouldn't do that! What about Ohana?" Loki asks.

"Well, some families just plain suck." Tony answers rather bitterly, although Pepper knows his home life was kind of bad growing up (although it's a walk in the park next to Loki's. Despite people saying Tony's a narcissist, he's got to realize that).

"You would've loved me, right?" Loki asks, and Pepper answers that yes, of course she would, before she realizes Loki's actually addressing Elsa again. Pepper braces herself for the doll to suddenly come to life like Simba. She does, but doesn't do anything extreme. All Elsa does is give a regal sort of nod with very sad eyes, like she knows what's going on. "'Cause you're my Jotun sister even if they all 'bandoned me. We can make ice here with my Tony and my Bruce an' my Hulk-y 'n Jarvis 'n Pepper 'n Dum-E and they won't hurts us."

Technically, Frozen never said anything about Elsa being a Jotun, but it probably helps that Loki views her as one. Frozen's coming out in a few days, and Pepper wonders if the general public will be as obsessed with it as Loki is.

"You're not gonna leave me, right?" Loki turns to Tony. "Never!"

"Never." Tony agrees.

When Pepper first met Loki the day he landed on Tony's tower, she had some doubts about if Tony would grow bored of Loki. But it's not like they could have just cast an alien god from another realm and basically no knowledge of Earth out on the streets, or dumped him in a homeless shelter.

Things have clearly worked out.

"You'll always come back." Loki says. "You gotta eat an apple, and thens you're not gonna die so early."

And then, abruptly, it seems like that conversation's over as Loki starts making another paper snowflake. Tony leaves the room, muttering that he really needs a good drink, but he never answered the thing about apples.

Pepper suggests they hang the five paper snowflakes they'd made from the ceiling (they'll have to hang them low enough to avoid the holographic stars spanned out across the top of the room, she notes). Loki laughs in assent and gazes up at his stars, although Pepper's no longer sure if he's trying to pick where to hang them or if he's become distracted by the stars above.

He's bouncing on his toes and flicking his fingers, Elsa in one hand and Simba in the other. Small flurries of snow shoot out from his fingertips, somehow swirling up to fall above their heads, and Loki catches a flake on his tongue, saying it tastes better than King Kong's fake snow.

They start doing a bit of origami with origami paper Tony swears he doesn't remember buying it, and Loki had apparently never known it existed, that had been buried under the stack of drawing paper.

Pepper needs to ask Jarvis for directions on how to fold a simple frog. Loki folds along with her as they follow the AI's instructions and seems astounded when their papers take the shape of frogs that can jump.

But Loki forgets his frog entirely, letting it fall to the grass-like rug, when Bruce presents his creation and hands it to Loki.

The man is astonishingly good at origami, and had folded a horse for Loki without help from Jarvis, and Pepper's not sure whether he had the instructions memorized or actually figured it out from scratch, since he is a genius.

The paper horse makes Loki grin so wide it looks like his face might crack. He holds it lovingly, examining every inch before galloping it around the air, humming something Pepper vaguely recognizes. The god then begs Bruce to teach him how to make it.

Bruce complies, but it's clearly more complicated than the frogs Pepper and Loki made. Loki gets rather frustrated and winds up crumpling and hurling several failed attempts across the room.

Tony returns with three wine glasses. Pepper accepts one, since she hadn't had anything alcoholic at the charity event they'd come from, but Bruce declines the other, and Tony rolls his eyes, saying he's going to get Bruce to relax sometime. Bruce says he doesn't like not being in total control of himself, and Loki agrees, though he's probably just echoing Bruce. Although he does shoot the glass a disgusted look that Bruce hadn't, so maybe there's something else to it.

"Hey, uh, Snoopy?" Tony ventures with much more than most of his interactions, which means he's probably treading a possibly panic-inducing topic for Loki. "Uh... in the kitchen, I noticed a bit of ice and a charred mark on the wall." Hastily, he adds "I'm not mad, just curious."

"Stitch wouldn't give the snow globe back." Is all Loki offers, despite Tony trying to pry the whole story out of him. Tony mutters that he'll just get Jarvis to show him later, but Jarvis says that would be like showing pornography and he needs to blur out certain parts, because Loki was naked then. Granted, they'd all seen Loki naked when he came from the bathroom.

"Why aren't you mad?" Loki asks, as if it's weird he's not.

"Because I know it was an accident, and I have enough money to pay for pretty much anything. So no harm done." Tony grins at Loki and glances at Bruce before deciding not to say something, most likely about Hulk.

Bruce fills it his own self-depricating comment, though, and Tony frowns at him.

"I'm not mad about yesterday." Tony reassures him, and Loki nods slightly.

Without any warning and quick as a viper, the god grabs both Tony's glass and the spare glass of wine. He dumps the contents on Tony's lap and smashes the glasses against the footboard of his bed.

"Loki! What was that for?" Tony demands, jumping up and wiping at his pants. His voice isn't actually angry, but it's certainly not calm and uncaring either. "That's not like the petri dishes and the turkey baster!"

Loki flinches, and Tony mutters obscenities under his breath.

"Okay, okay, let's calm down a sec." Tony grabs Loki's wrists gently as Loki reaches for the remaining glass of wine, which Pepper's barely touched. Loki jerks his wrists free effortlessly and glares at Tony almost challenging him.

Pepper's in shock, because this is a side of Loki she hasn't really seen. Loki's always been overly cautious about people's reactions, and had even just needed clarification that Tony wasn't mad about breaking his alcohol.

She's almost never seen him angry. Panicked, certainly. Annoyed, yes, on the plane when Fury called.

"You're not gonna beat me, nope nope nope!" Loki actually sounds confident about this fact, although he might not feel as confident as he sounds. "You can't, you promised an' you promised you're not gonna 'bandon me neither. Gots to still love me, 'cause we're family. Good family, Ohana, not like how some families just plain suck."

Loki's testing Tony, Pepper realizes. He's acting out on purpose, to make sure Tony won't do anything.

"No. I'm not going to do any of those things." Tony replies wearily, rubbing his face. "Is that what this was all about? You're making sure?"

Slowly, as if he hadn't known the real reason himself, Loki nods.

"Should I make you clean this up?" Tony asks Loki rhetorically and glances, unsure, at Pepper and Bruce, who nod a bit. It's common sense. If you make the mess, you clean it up (although that doesn't seem to apply to Tony). "Yeah, okay, I'm gonna ask you to clean this up."

Loki looks like he's about to get to it, but then he hesitates and glares defiantly at them. "No." He's clearly testing them again, and even stamps his foot, almost like a petulant toddler.

Tony looks at Pepper helplessly, obviously unsure of how to handle this. Forcing Loki to do it might not have the best consequences, giving his past. Tony even mutters something about slaves.

Dum-E's already trying to pick up the broken glass, and to everyone's surprise and relief, Loki, seemingly back to normal and chattering about stars, bends down to help the robot (and is told by Bruce and Pepper not to pick up broken glass with his bare hands).

---

The week since Thor accidentally revealed his parents abilities of magic has been interesting.

The news has clearly spread, and Thor wonders if it was Fandral letting it slip to one of his many lovers.

Father had screamed at Thor in rage, even angrier than when Thor tried to destroy Jotunheim after the Jotuns invaded during his coronation. He'd even slapped Thor, something Thor can never remember him doing.

This was but a brief bite of what it was like for Loki.

Thor had thought Father would banish him to Midgard again, not that he'd really mind, but he hadn't. So Thor's stayed in Asgard, where it appears as if some people are wondering why they should bow to Odin, when he's everything they hate.

Going to Midgard seems like a good idea, and it's not cowardly fleeing, he thinks as he heads towards Heimdall's dome. He has a good reason to go to Midgard.

The Midgardian Day of Giving Thanks is coming up (he thinks) and he's going to be spending it with his beloved Lady Jane. The Midgardian Day of Giving Thanks is basically a large feast with family and friends, like they have often in Asgard, only with some Midgardian fowl called a turkey being the main course, rather than something like boar or bilgesnipe.

Thor finds it rather amusing that the Midgardians eat mere birds, when it takes countless boars to feed everyone in an Asgardian feast. Sometimes Thor goes through more than one boar himself, and Volstagg's been known to eat three or four in one sitting.

Rather than celebrating a gloriously victorious battle, however, it's merely to spend time with loved ones and reflect on what you are thankful for in life. Such a trivial thing wouldn't merit a feast or holiday here, but Midgard is quite charming in what it considers important sometimes. Sure there are glorious battles with his fellow Avengers, which often finish with eating at one of Tony Stark's homes, but Midgardians also take time to celebrate the little things in life.

Despite the oddity, Thor finds himself rather looking forward to it. The holiday had been a new concept to him last year, and Jane had explained that only the part of Midgard known as the United States really celebrates it.

Striding into Heimdall's golden dome, Thor greets Heimdall. The gatekeeper bows his head, and the greeting is returned with the ubiquitous "My Prince." The yellow eyes meet his and Heimdall studies him for a bit.

"You're going to Midgard." Heimdall says it as a statement, not a question, and Thor confirms it.

"Aye. For the Midgardian Day of Giving Thanks. Although I am not sure when I will return."

"I'm afraid you missed it, my prince. That was two days ago." Heimdall replies, and Thor frowns. Had he really lost track of time that much? What will his beloved Jane say? Surely she was disappointed he did not show up.

Heimdall is studying Thor with unwavering yellow eyes that, as always, seem like they're able to see everything about him, even though the gatekeeper can not actually look into people's heads. Heimdall surely knows about the recent development of Thor revealing his parents' magic and the news spreading like fire through Asgard, but he does not comment on it.

"If you are still going to Midgard for a while, there is something that might interest the Man of Iron, as well as some others." The watchman says instead after studying him. "I trust you will do what is right with what you learn." Thor isn't sure, but it almost seems like there's a silent as you have done now, added on the end of that.

Does Heimdall approve of Asgard knowing of Odin's magic?

No, that's absurd.

"Is it the Chitauri? Are they preparing to stage an invasion on Midgard again?" Thor asks with narrowed eyes. The cowards have been hiding since their defeat, once again out of Heimdall's sight (nobody in Asgard had known of the Chitauri's existence until their attack on Midgard).

But perhaps Heimdall caught of glimpse of them as they moved closer to Midgard?

It's still unclear who exactly was leading the Chitauri, but it's obvious they were not leading themselves. They acted like a collective unit with a shared consciousness rather than individuals, which makes them really good for following orders, but not giving them.

While Thor has no doubt that he and his fellow Avengers would be able to defeat the Chitauri a second time, it would be best for Midgard if they avoided that situation, and Midgard is under Thor's official protection.

"Nay, it is not the Chitauri, for they continue to evade my sight." Heimdall answers after the slightest pause, with something in his tone that Thor can't identify.

"Then what is this news which I should deliver to the Man of Iron?" Thor questions.

Rather than answering, Heimdall strides over to where a basket is sitting so unobtrusively to the side that Thor hadn't even noticed it until now. He recognizes it almost immediately as the gift basket that Thor had delivered to Heimdall for Tony. All of the fruit and other food is now gone, evidently eaten by Heimdall, but the 'spa vouchers' still remain, as does a bottle of some sort of Tony's alcohol.

"I see you have made use of some of the Man of Iron's gifts." Thor observes, but Heimdall doesn't answer, nor does he say anything when Thor asks if he's planning on using the spa voucher anytime soon.

Instead, Heimdall retrieves a piece of paper and hands it to Thor. Unfolding it, he sees it's the message in Stark's handwriting reading For not being as much of an ass as everyone else in Ass-Guard.

"Ah. You want me to demand that the Man of Iron not insult our realm like this?"

Heimdall just motions for him to turn to the other side.

Doing so, Thor sees it's a map, presumably drawn by Heimdall. Though he's not sure what it is a map of.

"There are more secrets hidden in these halls." Heimdall says. "But nobody would have cared before." Gesturing at the map, he tells Thor to look under it.

Thor frowns. All that's under the map is the floor. Or does he mean look under the floor? But that's just the Bifrost, and the map looks nothing like that.

There are dungeons under the palace, though. Dungeons with a lot of small, square cells like on the map...

An hour later, Thor stands outside the entrance to the dungeons. He's rarely gone down here, as there's no need to, but he'd bullied Loki in and shut the door once.

He sets off down the steps to the dungeons, going down a lot of stairs. When he reaches the bottom of the stairs, he walks the corridors of cells, boots echoing loudly against the floor.

A guard asks if there's anything he can help with, but Thor shakes his head. Heimdall said he should do this himself, which is starting to make him suspicious. Has a Midgardian been kidnapped?

Asgard doesn't do that, though.

The cells are all brightly lit, with yellowish transparent shields keeping the prisoners in their cells. Still, they're rather luxurious compared to prisons on some other realms. Some prisoners jeer at him, some beg to be let out, but Thor ignores them.

He casts a glance the map, which leads him past the brightly lit cells and down another spiral stone staircase.

The atmosphere changes on his way down.

The air is dank and cold, and Thor pulls his cloak around him, holding the crystal up to see better as he descends down the spiral, stone stairs that seem to have no end. The air gets colder and colder, the farther down he goes, and he starts to notice a very unpleasant smell of just... filth. There's no other way to describe it.

The walls of the dungeon seem to close in on him, but Thor does not allow himself to be intimidated. He digs in his pocket for the glowing red crystal that Mother had given him when he was a boy. The crystal is warm to the touch with mesmerizing shapes seeming to form deep within its depths.

It's something that's fairly common in Asgard, but seems an awful lot like magic, now that he thinks about it, though at the time he thought all magic was represented by green light like Loki's. He has to hold the crystal high to see anything.

After what seems like an endless amount of stairs that must takes him Allfather knows how far below the palace, Thor reaches another corridor, much darker than the last. Without the crystal, Thor would not be able to see anything. The smell is indescribable, and every so often a moan comes from one of the cells.

Glancing at the map, Thor sees he's meant to go to the end.

He heads down the hall, trying to ignore the pitiful moans of the prisoners as they stare vacantly at the light in his hand. How does the Allfather allow such horrid conditions, even for the worst criminals?

At the end of the hall, Thor peers into a cell that's absolutely covered in fifth and, oh Allfather, the feces is everywhere. As in Thor cannot find a single place that's not covered in shit.

As the light from the crystal reaches the farthest corners of the cell, and he sees a horse that looks positively emaciated.

He can't tell what color it is, since it's caked in filth, but he does notice it has twice the normal number of legs.

Yeah, I've kinda been misleading you this whole time. Or maybe you guessed already :) I don't remember if I mentioned he's emaciated, but his illusion can look different from him, right?

Right... Why am I answering myself?

Anyways, I figure he's been in sort of solitary confinement and has heard people telling Loki he's not real and in Loki's head, and I guess maybe believed it. I mean, all he has to go on otherwise is the dark, and probably occasional moans from other prisoners.

Hopefully this was worth the wait, and hopefully the Thor parts were okay.

So these next two weeks might be rough with finals and everything, but then I'm on winter break. I have like half of December off, so that should help me write a lot and make up for November. I might be able to finish the one-shot and update this again in December. That would be awesome!

Also, they're not totally abandoning Harry Potter.

Sadly I didn't get Thanksgiving in the story to line up with real life, and I know I mentioned it in this chapter but I might gloss over it actually happening (since technically this chapter ends after Thor missed it)

See you soon (hopefully)