Can We Keep Her?
Tony woke up to a weight on his chest. He looked down and saw that Loki had sprawled across his chest and fallen asleep. He sighed and nudged Loki, trying to wake him up. "Come on, Loki. Why are you sleeping on top of me anyway?"
"Because you're warm," Loki mumbled, half-asleep.
"Get off of me."
Loki groaned and rolled off of Tony, accidentally rolling off the bed. Tony laughed, causing Loki to glare at him. "That wasn't even very funny. Are we going to the bookstore today?"
"Yes, princess," Tony said in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but Loki just glared at him more fiercely. "Come on, you should know by now that I love giving nicknames to people. Why don't you go outside and get some fresh air?"
Truthfully, Tony just wanted some time alone to find out why he was sharing the Asgardian's dreams. No matter how hard he tried to figure it out, he couldn't understand why he would share dreams with someone. That would imply that somehow his mind was connected to Loki's, which was one of the worst things he could imagine. If Loki's brain really was as much of a bag of cats as Bruce thought it was, Tony didn't want any of those figurative cats crawling into his brain. It also did not make much sense to him how minds could even be connected.
Loki nodded, got up, and went outside. The air was crisp and clear with fallen leaves drifting through it. The trees were in beautiful hues of red, orange, and yellow, and the sky was the brightest azure blue Loki had ever seen. The pleasant sound of leaves rustling and birds chirping filled the air, making Loki smile. Though he spent most of his time indoors, he did love to be outside as long as the temperature wasn't too high.
After walking for a bit, he heard a strange wailing noise he couldn't identify. As he got closer to the noise, he realized it was the cries of a baby. However, when Loki came across it, it had no parents accompanying it. It was wearing only underwear and its only blanket was the autumn leaves that had fallen on it. The sound of its crying made Loki's chest ache. He had never been one much for children, but the sound of a baby crying made him feel bad. He carefully picked up the baby and to his surprise, its crying became quieter.
"What are you doing out here?" Loki asked, though he knew the baby wouldn't be able to answer him. "Can you say your name?"
The baby just looked at him with bright blue eyes. It tugged on his hair curiously, making him laugh.
"I guess you don't have parents, right?" Loki said. "Well, I do know someone with more than enough money to feed and clothe you..."
Loki smiled a mischievous grin. He was imagining Tony's reaction to him, a war criminal, carrying a cute baby. His smile made the baby smile and tug on his hair a bit more gently. "Yes, I am certainly taking you to him."
As he walked back to Stark Tower, Loki rocked the baby back and forth in his arms, making it smile and fall asleep. He wasn't sure why, but he found the sight endearing. He started petting its fuzzy light blonde hair.
When he got inside, he went to Tony, still wearing a mischievous smile.
"Hey, Loki, how was-" Tony said, but he cut off his sentence as soon as he saw the baby in Loki's arms. "Oh my god, you have got to be kidding me. You holding a baby and smiling? I must be seeing things."
"Isn't she adorable?" Loki cooed, patting the baby's head.
"This is very out of character for you," Tony sighed. "How did you find her?"
"She was abandoned, right at the edge of the sidewalk," Loki explained. "She had no parents and she was crying and well... I felt bad. I was curious, so I picked her up and she seemed to like it. Can we keep her? Please?"
"No, we can't. I'm not good with kids. And you would be a terrible adoptive father. You with a baby? She'd be dead within a week. Why do you even want to take care of her? So you can hurt her later?"
Loki's eyes narrowed at Tony's words. His expression darkened as he said, "You're not being very nice, Stark."
"You're never very nice. I'll ask you again. Why do you want to take care of her?"
"Because I know what it's like to be abandoned as an infant!" Loki snapped, breathing heavily when he finished his sentence. Despite how he raised his voice, the baby was still asleep in his arms. "Because maybe I don't want a baby to die because I didn't take her in when I had the chance. I don't always have an ulterior motive, you know. Sometimes I do things just for one reason, but I guess you can't understand that."
"I'm sorry. I just... didn't really expect something like this from you. You just don't seem like the father type to me."
"I have children," Loki hissed. "I have three children and I was a good father to them until they were taken away from me."
Tony didn't expect that answer from Loki. Though he had read about Loki's children in myths, he never thought Loki actually had children. It didn't fit in with the picture he had of Loki from when he first met him. He felt a little guilty for his assumptions, but he knew he wasn't good at apologies. Instead, he just said, "I'm sorry that they were taken away from you. Look, I'll have to think about this. Taking care of a baby is a huge responsibility, and it's a responsibility I'm not good at. We'll keep her here for today and I'll decide on it next morning. Do you want to go to the bookstore now?"
"Yes, but we can't leave her all by herself," Loki answered "And we have no one to watch her. Should we... take her with?"
"I guess we have to," Tony replied with a sigh. "We'll probably have people think we're a couple, but I guess that's better than being responsible for something bad happening to her while we're gone. Don't name her yet - I don't want you to get too attached before I decide what we're going to do."
Tony took Loki to the nearest Barnes and Noble's. He had left Loki to carrying the baby, not wanting to do it himself. He followed Loki around, smiling at how eager Loki was to read the summaries of the books that had eye-catching covers. He smelled the large books and ran his fingers over books with raised letters on their covers. Loki turned out to be a fan of the fantasy and science fiction genres, which he picked several books out of. He also picked out a couple classics, though he was very disappointed to see that there were no books on seidr. The pout he wore after discovering that made Tony laugh.
Tony didn't have any problem with the high total price all of Loki's books had racked up. Not only did he have much more than enough money, but he also enjoyed seeing Loki happy. He tried to tell himself it was because a happy Loki was better than an angry Loki, but he had realized that he had actually grown fond of Loki. The thought felt so odd to him, but he knew it was no use to try and make himself dislike Loki again.
Loki spent the rest of his day reading in bed while Tony worked in his lab. Tony was trying to make a device that could make his repulsor blasts different colors, with a switch to toggle through each of them. The feature he was working on developing was rather useless, but it looked cool, so he kept working at it.
In the morning, Tony found Loki asleep on the couch with the baby in his arms. The sight was so heartwarming that Tony realized he couldn't say no to the Asgardian. He nudged Loki awake and said quietly, "We'll keep her."
Loki grinned and tackle-hugged Tony, making the latter rather uncomfortable. Tony just nervously patted Loki's back and got out of the hug as quickly as possible.
"Her name's Selene," Loki said, still grinning. "Because she's beautiful like the moon."
Tony smiled and went to ordering baby clothes, baby food, formula, and a crib for Selene.