My Dad, the Boy (*Man) Who Lives

November 2011

When Harry walked into his living room through the floo network in his old apartment, he never thought he would be welcomed with the smell of sweet fragrant.

It’s been half a year since Loki landed in his townhouse, interupting his family dinner. 4 months since he started opening up about his past even though its not much. 2 months since he started obsessing over cooking competition and cooking channel. And a month since he started using the kitchen to bake.

The wizard thought his magic was destructible when he lost control, but apparently Loki in the kitchen was as damaging as his magic. Out of a month, he could count more than 10 times he arrived to be welcomed by smoke and the sprinklers turning on.
Ironically, he found himself in this situation every time he visited the sorcerer for the past month.

In his defense, he’s been visiting the As more than the usual. After one of Tony’s foodie outing with Clint, his son ranted to him about his arch-nemesis, Jane Foster. Apparently SHIELD had recruited her on her expertise and even gave her a bodyguard.

Morgana helps me! The woman only did star-watching. Star-watching! How important is her research that she needed a bodyguard to guard her skinny ass?!

The bodyguard was SHIELD’s newest recruit. The agent didn’t say much about the project SHIELD wanted her to do since it was quoted ‘classified’, but he did inform Orion because he thought he might wanted to know about his friend’s involvement with the organization. (“That she-devil is not and never will be my friend”, *indignant huff)

The genius told him that Mr. Barton described her bodyguard as big surfer dude with the shiniest blond hair he had ever seen. He sounded amused as he talked about the bodyguard, which intrigued his son of his identity.

At first, Harry didn’t really think much of it and even tried to dissuade his son from illegal hacking towards their Father’s former organization, which was a futile effort. That was until Tony got curious about the bodyguard assigned to his not-friend. Orion wanted to see who was the poor SOB that got assigned to watch over the witch b*tch. (his son’s word, not his)

Of course he reprimanded his son for saying something like that about Jane. She was a good girl as far as Harry knew from the glimpses he saw of her in Tony’s science friend meetings. It was an odd thing that they didn’t get along, what with how outgoing his son was.

Curiously, it was not easy for Tony to hack into the files and details surrounding Jane’s bodyguard. Not so surprising, it peaked Orion’s curiosity. Finally not long after that, he found this ‘bodyguard’s’ employment data. It was kept in level 7 classified file, which was quite high in the totem pole of SHIELD’s classified information.

The photo shown on the data was what peaked Harry’s interest at first. It was a picture of a big man with five o’clock shadow and blonde hair that was a few inches passed his shoulder tied into a half ponytail. He had blue eyes and frown on his face as if he was curious at the person behind the camera or the camera itself.

He instantly recognized the familiar face since he has been looking at the same face several times over the past few months. It was Loki’s brother, Thor, the God of Thunder.

The man was listed as Donald here; yet, the last name was a sure giveaway.

Blimey, it was still Odinson! Even a blind man would bleak at hearing the man’s last name. It was literary, the son of Odin if someone knew that the Odinson family were real and not just myth.

Furthermore, according to the file, he broke into a SHIELD facility in New Mexico less than a day after Loki appeared at his house.

Coincidence? Afraid not.

The genius also found the additional details on why Thor broke into the SHIELD’s facility and why they would hire him. The answer came with a photo of something categorized as an 0-8-4. It was a big hammer that stuck onto the ground in the middle of the facility, which ‘Donald’ was so eager to try lifting the heavy-looking weapon.

It didn’t budge, but SHIEL D wanted to keep the man for further observation. And what better ways to watch him than letting him have his guard down by giving him some responsibilities to protect his ‘affection’ interest and sent a couple of agents to follow him around to watch his movements and daily activities.

With big news such as this, Harry felt it wasn’t right to hide it from his freeloader. Although, when it came to the matters of his family, the Godling could turn so volatile and unpredictable with his moodiness. Instead of being called the God of Trickster, he should receive the title of the God of silent treatment with how many times he ignored Harry every time he brought up the topic of the royal family.

On the other hand, Loki couldn’t keep on running away from his problems which obviously so clearly had to do with his family. So, he decided to visit his apartment guest with some Chinese takeout.

Subtlety may not be one of Harry’s trait since he’s not a Ravenclaw who were good with their words or a Slytherin who were good with their wits, but he’s always been a Gryffindor and Gryffindor were brave to face the unknown and blunt with their words.

Still, he should tell the Prince discreetly, knowing how he felt about the subject. Emotional high-strung was more like it.

Early October

“So, you fancy watching Hell’s Kitchen these days?” Harry asked, using his chopstick to pick pieces of the Kung Pao chicken from the container to eat with his fried rice.

“It is a very interesting show, “ the black-haired God commented, eyes not leaving the screen. “I’ve never seen so many use of offensive words in the kitchen.”

“I think that’s what makes this show so famous in this country, “ he bit into a piece of fried wonton. “Americans so love their dramas.”

“So this is all a play?” Loki asked curiously.

“Maybe?” He shrugged. “Who knows. It could be real, it could be rehearsed. Then again, people still love it. Food and drama mixed into one delicious show.”

The Asgardian didn’t say anything, but he saw the minute nod. He seemed relaxed enough after finishing his food and continued watching the show. This was probably a good time to strike while the iron is hot.

“So, I talked to Tony yesterday, “ he drawled on.

“The intelligent one?”

After some time, Loki managed to search for information about Harry. He didn’t know how he does it since there’s no internet in the apartment and he seemed to be the type to not like to go outside surrounded by the crowd, but he somehow managed to find out about Harry, his wife and daughter, with Tony. But he only knew that Tony was somewhat his friend, his ‘intelligent’ wealthy friend.

Leave it to Loki to remember Tony as the genius and not for his wealth, he thought.

“Yes, “ he put his food container down on the table. “It seemed that his fri… Acquaintance knew your brother. They’re in a country called England right now. It appears that they have been staying there for quite some time.”

The God grew still all of a sudden. That should have been his cue.

“I mean, if you want to see him, I could accompany you there, “ Harry played with his wedding ring out of nervousness. “I have some houses there, so if you want I could…”

He stopped when he could see his breath puffed in the air. It wasn’t surprising that he found his feet stuck to the floor on some icy rock. It’s not cold per say, which meant that the As had mastered some of his Frost Giant nature.

“Loki, really?” he cocked an eyebrow to look to his right and found an empty space on the couch. “Are you just going to leave me here, stuck to the floor?”

Before he could hear an answer, he was already outside, in front of his own apartment door. No ice or whatsoever on his shoes.

“Should have seen that coming, “ he sighed.

After that, every time he came to the apartment, he was always welcomed with bitter smelling burnt cookies and more silent treatment along with the eater spraying from the sprinkler on the ceiling. Now he understood the saying of ‘stress baking’. He just hoped that they were at least involved some actual edible baking goods.

Thus, it was a wonderful surprise when his wish came true the moment he walked into the apartment that morning. Loki has succeeded in not burning his cookies, even though they’re still darker than the normal color for cookies. At least they’re edible when Loki put one on a plate and pushed it to him with a swift of his hand.

The wizard didn’t want to get his hopes up, but this seemed to be a truce from the sorcerer. It’s quite uncomfortable to be this quiet with the As. After all, he’s beginning to think of the smart yet moody God as a friend.

“This is good, Loki, “ he bit into the baked-good and looked at his friend who shrugged nonchalantly at the compliment. “Anyway, I just came here to tell you that I’m leaving for London in half an hour.”

The wizengamot has informed him of an emergency meeting yesterday, regarding a certain disturbance in the country that has been happening for the past week. They couldn’t overlook it anymore and the department of magic has been over their head trying to handle it.

They’re hoping that Harry could at least look over at the disturbances as soon as he could floo to London. So he immediately arranged for Lily to stay with his son and let his wife knew about this emergency before coming to the apartment to inform Loki.

He was hoping that the God would want to accept his offer to go to London. He would need his expert if what Kingsley told him was right.

“I was hoping you would come with me, “ he continued. “They told me that there are several disturbances in London. It seemed like magic, but different from earth magic. It sounded rather otherworldly, so I hope you could lend me your expert.”

“Is this the same city where my bro… he residing right now?” he asked reluctantly.

Merlin! The drama of this Odinson family!

Harry took a very deep breath before he calmly uttered, “I know you have a family problem, but I wouldn’t have asked for your help if it wasn’t important.”

“On the contrary, my dear friend, “ he smiled knowingly. “You’re more capable than you think to handle this matter. The aura of your magic is almost unlimited, which was unimaginable for a mortal magic-user such as yourself.”

Harry couldn’t stop himself from stiffening up and coldly said, “The matter of my power is as sensitive as yours when it came to your family.”

If looks could kill, Harry would have been dead on the spot from the sharpness of Loki’s glare.

“But I’m not here for any pissing contest, Loki, “ he tried to calm his raising heart. “I’m asking if you want to come help me or not. I would not be upset if you refuse, but it would help my community greatly if you would grace them with your presence there.”

The wizard learned something from befriending Loki for these whole six months. The God always could be swayed with a compliment rather than a blunt request. The key was to ask but not show that you need the help as much.

“Well, when you asked me so nicely like that…, “ the As put the cooling cookies on a Tupperware before answering with a smile, “ It’s a wonderful way to pay my debt for you letting me stay in your fine establishment.”

Harry couldn’t help but smile triumphantly at that. And if he somehow met with Thor, it would be killing two birds with one stone.

***

An hour later in London, afternoon with the time difference

It was chaos when they arrived on the international floo network in the British Ministry of Magic. It took Harry a minute to grab a wizard to tell him of what’s happening.

“A portal, no several portals appeared in Greenwich, “ the man said frantically. “Weird giant animals and beasts appeared roaming the street. But the worst of it is there’s a foreign flying transportation arriving out of nowhere. There are an army of pale beings coming through it. They have pointy ears like elves and they’re attacking the muggles. The aurors are trying to contain the situation even if it seemed hopeless. I need to help them, sir.”

He let the wizard go before he looked towards Loki. This phenomenon should be something the alien knew about since even the ministry didn’t know what it was.

The Godling looked pale as he held his hands in front of him, seeming to calculate something with his fingers. “Foolish, so foolish. It’s the convergence.”

“Convergence?”

It’s a rare alignment when the nine realms are all connected with portals linking them together in random spots. And from what your fellow mortal described, he was talking about an army of dark elves. But I thought my grandfa…king Bor had destroyed them all. Damned them all, why does it have to be now?”

“As foolish as you feel right now, we need to go there, “ Harry grabbed onto his arm. “The question is, will you help me?”

The As seemed reluctant and almost seemed scared of the prospect of facing these so-called dark elves. With a snap of his finger, Harry immediately downed his battle robe, which has been spelled to fit his body over the years.

“My friends live here, so I’m going to stop these dark elves from invading my home country with or without your help, “ he gripped his friend’s arm. “But I’m not the only one with someone important here. Thor is also here and from what I can tell from SHIELD’s files, he is mortal now.”

That brought Loki back from his hesitation. In a matter of second, an armor of gold plates and black leather with green cape appeared encompassing Loki. He even has a gold helmet with horns on it.

Two daggers appeared on his hands as he put a determined look on his face, ” Lead the way.”

***