Of Confrontations and Mild Mental Breakdowns
This was quite possibly the best day in Loki’s life.
Well, top 10, at least.
The various Nobility had been dismissed rather hurriedly, being all but shooed out of the door, and yet still not fast enough to miss the beginnings of the goddess-worthy dressing-down Elena was giving to his adopted father.
Every few seconds Odin would open his mouth to retort, or to stop the relentless torrent of accusations, but would be cut down by the ever-flowing words, Elena switching into Russian when English was no longer insulting enough.
Hell may hath no fury greater than a woman scorned, but a raging mama-bear was a close runner up.
Loki was quite impressed, actually, at the sheer quantity of words the woman was still producing, while Thor looked vaguely lost and slightly concerned, and his mother looking decidedly amused at the entire situation, not bothering to hide the smile on her face.
Their eyes caught, momentarily, and Loki felt something wrench within him as she smiled, oh so softly, and oh so sadly.
Back by the throne, Elena seemed to have finally run out of insults and accusations to hurl at the for-once-in-his-life speechless King, who was looking a mix between thoroughly scolded and utterly confused.
Elena huffed, flipping her hair round as she turned to him, face softening.
He melted into the hug she wrapped him in, the shorter woman going up on her tiptoes to squeeze the back of his neck.
“Hey Lokes,” she said, pulling back, “You alright?”
He shrugged, “I’ve been better. Thanks for the rescue, though. I think you might’ve broken the Allfather, though.”
Loki could practically see the rebooting icon over Odin’s head.
“Whoops.” She didn’t sound particularly sorry. Loki couldn’t blame her.
Back on the dial, Odin seemed to have found his voice.
“Who are you to trespass into my land?”
Elena rolled her eyes, “I’m fairly certain we covered that, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and tell you again. I’m Elena Kingsley, Senior Agent of SHIELD, and an unofficial Avenger.”
Odin seemed to recognise the name, “You are with my son’s friends? He did not mention your name.”
“As I said, I’m back-scenes, rather than a figurehead.”
“And who are you to… the boy? That you would come to his aid.”
Ouch, that didn’t hurt at all. Loki believed Ava had once referred to it as an ‘oof’.
Elena’s eyes narrowed, and Loki could’ve sworn that Odin recoiled.
“Firstly, he has a name, and if you had a shred of human - or Aesir - dignity, you’d use it. Secondly, he’s my daughter’s godparent, and the closest thing to a son I’ve ever had, and if you had any sense of self-preservation, you would stop attempting to argue back before my foot ends up in your mouth.”
Loki’s breath hitched as the blonde spoke, and he couldn’t stop the tears that threatened heavily at the corners of his eyes. She’d… she’d called him her son.
It wouldn’t be the first time a Midgardian had claimed him as family - Clint, Natasha and Maria referred to him as their sibling often enough, Nick wasn’t one for verbalising, but he acted more of a father than Odin ever had, and of course, his beloved Elskan, his Ava, who had been claiming him as her older brother since she could talk, and yet… he hadn’t so much as guessed.
Or rather, let himself guess.
Someone wanted him, wanted him to be family without ever asking anything in return.
He didn’t speak, not wanting to break the moment.
Odin apparently hadn’t got the memo.
“Who are you to claim that as a son? Do you not know the monster he is? The ice that runs through his-”
A feral hiss emerged from Elena’s throat as Loki flinched back, the words striking deeper than he’d ever let them know.
Her voice was calm and quiet, and held the promise of a threat worse than Odin could imagine,
“Call him that again and you’ll face the wrath of not one human, but an army of us.”
Odin scoffed, “An army of Midgardians? The delicate beings you are? Who cannot agree on anything long enough to make any headway?”
Elena scoffed as well, “You think I don’t know the state of your armies? They’ve gone soft, after years of inactivity. Humans declare a new war every five years. We’ve had not one, but two, World Wars in the last century. Compared to us, you’ve had practically eternity to develop your kingdom - we’ve had ro not much longer than a few lifespans of your people, and we’ve come so much further than you could dream of.
Six of us, six people, admittedly one being Aesir, but six fought an entire army, and won.
If you put Thor and five of his friends on a battlefield, alone, how long would they last, hmm?
And still you call us weak.”
Her eyes lit up suddenly, “And in case you’d forgotten, I’ve just broken not only into your castle, but into your realm. Good luck keeping an army of us out, when one lone soldier can waltz in all on her lonesome.”
“And you would do this for-”
Elena sighed, using her ‘I’m not mad, just disappointed’ tone, that even Odin seemed to register, “If it wasn’t blatantly obvious to you, yes, we would. Loki is our family, our friend. For him, we’d raise an army within the hour.”
Odin swallowed, and paused for a moment. But not in defeat. Loki could still see the cold calculation in his eyes, lurking in the hidden depths of the body he inhabited. Odin may back down, but he wouldn’t give up.
Eventually, the old man nodded his head, “Very well. Name your demands.”
A raised eyebrow, “Demands? When did I demand anything of you? Other than the decency to act like a father instead of an arrogant prick-”
This was delightful - Loki had never thought he’d be so amused to see Elena verbally cuss someone out. Mainly since it didn’t happen often, and when it was, it was rarely with this sort of language. Elena was first and foremost a negotiator, she deescalate situations, she didn’t rile them up.
Odin was visibly restraining himself from making yet another blunder into the realms of Elena’s temper, “Perhaps we ought to have this conversation later,” he said, blatantly avoiding answering Elena’s question, “I’m certain that the- that Loki could show you to a guest room, where you could rest before continuing.”
“What he means is he wants us to fuck off somewhere quiet so he can think of a plan to fix what he broke.”
Elena snorted at Loki’s whisper into her ear, whispering back, “I picked up the gist of it, yes.”
Out loud, she said, “That would be perfect, actually, Allfather, I would be delighted to catch up with you this evening. Over dinner, perhaps? Once I retrieve my daughter and nephew, of course, from where they’re hiding on the rafters.”
This statement had three immediate effects - firstly, Odin choked on his own breath, likely from the idea that there were more Midgardians in the room. Loki turned to face Elena with wide eyes as well, throwing a net of magic over the room, where indeed he could sense his goddaughter, her seidr strong as ever, as well as a second body, with no seidr to identify him, but distinctly Cooper-shaped.
And of course the muffled squeaks from the rafters, and the clap of a hand over someone’s mouth (presumably Ava to Cooper).
In sync, everyone in the room looked upwards, even the guards stationed through the room tilting upwards, craning for a peek of the mystery children.
Loki snorted to himself as a shock of white-blonde hair poked over the edge of a wooden beam, only to snap backwards at the sight of the watching eyes.
Beside him, Elena stood with her hands on her hips, “You can either come down by yourself, or I’ll come up to get you.”
There was no response.
Elena sighed, “If that’s how you want it. Five, four, three, two-”
Twin shrieks echoed as two bodies fell from the roof, Ava slowing their descent by pushing upwards with telekinetic force. Smart girl.
Two muffled thumps later, two children stood in the middle of the room, grinning sheepishly at them.
“Who- who are these?” Odin’s voice was strained, as he looked at the children, Ava resembling her mother strongly, and Cooper making a stark contrast with his almost black hair and sky-blue eyes, from his mother and father respectively. .
“I’m Ava,” said his brilliant goddaughter, dropping a perfect curtsey even in jeans, “Ava Kingsley.”
“I’m Cooper Barton, uh, Sir.”
Loki cleared his throat slightly, “So, why exactly are you- oooof.”
He groaned slightly as a child-sized canon slammed into him, Ava showing no regard for his need to breathe or his ribs. Cooper followed shortly after, considerably gentler, although the bar was admittedly low.
“We were so worried about you!” declared the blonde, eyes wide, “Peter and MJ and Ned had just left, and then Steve ran out of the building with his shield and Aunt Tasha, and some other guy, and then Aunt Tasha told us Thor had stolen you to Asgard! And your dad is terrible like mine, and I wouldn’t want to go see my dad, especially without you, and so I came to come find you and save you, and then-”
Loki cut her off with a finger to her lips, “Breathe please,” he reminded her, allowing the girl to suck in a deep breath, while Cooper continued. “And I’m here because Ava started making a portal to a realm she’d only been in once, and she was probably going to get herself killed doing it, and so I came as well. Talking of, how did you get here, Auntie Elena?”
Elena raised an eyebrow, “I came through the portal as well, because my reckless daughter decided to run away into a foreign realm with my slightly less reckless nephew to save my not-particularly reckless adopted son.”
Ava laughed slightly nervously, “That’s, uh, that’s good! Because if we hadn’t come, then neither would you, and then no one would save Loki! So really we’re the hero’s here-”
“Admittedly it did end up for the best-” Ava’s shoulder relaxed, “-But you’re still grounded young lady.”
“Mom!”
“Ava!” replied Elena in the same whining tone.
Ava folded her arms, scowling as she leaned into Loki’s side, “Not fair.”
Loki could’ve sworn he heard chuckling from the side of the throne, Frigga smiling down at the ground.
“Fair or not, it's happening.” Elena turned back up to the head of the room, where Odin had collapsed back onto his throne, and was looking rather as if he needed a strong drink and a nap.
“Well, now that that’s sorted, would you mind showing us our rooms Loki? I’m sure we can find something entertaining between now and dinner.”
“It would be my pleasure, Lady Kingsley,” said Loki, dropping a dramatic bow, before extending an arm to Ava, “Would you care to accompany me, Elskan?”
Ava giggled despite the grumpy look still on her face, taking hold of Loki’s arm, holding Cooper’s hand with the other.
“If you insist,” she said primly, turning her back on the Allfather with a deliberate air, the power move evident.
They had almost made their way out of the room, Elena on Cooper's other side, Thor leading the way, when a yell echoed out, making Loki jump.
He turned around to see Odin standing upright, a lightbulb practically hovering over his head.
“The child said she has been in this realm before. When!?” he demanded, looking two slices short of a mental breakdown.
Ava and Loki shared a look, and promptly decided that ‘fuck no I’m not explaining to the crazy guy on throne when I was smuggled/ I smuggled a child into Asgard’.
“Run?”
“Run.”
—------------------------------------
Sif wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when a page came running down into the training arena, yelling about ‘Loki’s back, and the Allfather’s disowned him, and then Thor disowned the Allfather and then a fearsome turned up and adopted the ex-prince’.
Honestly his words made little sense, other than the affirmation that Loki was indeed back again, and that the Allfather was being ‘cussed to the Norns and back’ by the mystery woman. Who this woman actually was varied from account to account - Sif had been told by at least eight different people that she was a Valkyrie or a warrior of Vanaheim or one of the Norns themselves, come to Asgard to deliver judgement.
Personally Sif took these allegations with more than a small pinch of salt, although as every good warrior should, she kept her mind open to these possibilities.
“Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun, with me!” she called, above the whispering masses of mingling servants and soldiers. It apparead that all of Asgard had promptly lost their wits and all productive work had been halted in the path of the rumours of their youngest Prince returned.
Which Sif was not particularly excited about.
Loki had been a menace for most of their lives - always causing mischief, playing pranks, disrupting their training, but that was when he’d been a child.
When Loki had taken the throne, she’d found it impossible to believe that all that mischief would simply disappear - Loki, if left unchecked, would have destroyed the realms, intentionally or not.
And so Sif had moved first. Technically speaking, she had committed treason against the throne, although she did not view Loki as the righteous ruler.
And then, almost as soon as she’d taken the precautions, Loki had proved her right, had gone arguably insane for no viable reason, destroyed Jotunheim, and then flung himself off the Bifrost in a fit of pique.
Thor had been understandably upset, and sometimes, in quiet moments, Sif allowed herself to grieve as well. Not for the monster he’d become, but for the boy he’d once been. Before the mischief and the chaos.
But those moments never lasted long - Sif had an army to help run, and soldiers to train, and so she busied herself as she always did.
And then Loki had been alive again, more insane than ever, and had taken over a Midgardian city.
Thor had left to protect it, leaving her behind to look after the troops, and had returned weeks later with tales of Mind Control, an alien army, and a group of incredible Midgardians.
He’d left Loki there, with the group, who called themselves ‘The Avengers’, to heal, or so he said.
He’d left out details - more than Sif had noticed at the time - and if she’d been any less worried about the chances of Loki returning to Asgard to enact his revenge, she would have questioned more, questioned the slip-ups, and the hastily covered names.
And now Loki had returned. And from the sounds of it, had Thor completely and utterly under his spell yet again.
The blonde had few weaknesses, but his biggest had always been the blind spot when it came to his brother. Eyes that cast everything the ravenet did in a golden hue.
Grabbing a final set of daggers and attaching them to her hips, Sif began the run through the palace, the Warriors Three at her back, heading towards the throne room.
They had ducked through the Royal Wing for a shortcut past the crowds when she heard them.
Running footsteps, two sets that she knew like the back of her hand, and a further three she didn’t.
Which generally she would’ve found concerning enough, if it wasn’t for the… giggling?
At least two distinct voices were overcome with laughter, breathless and high pitched, almost as if…
No, she had to be wrong. Because why on Asgard would Thor and Loki have two children accompanying them?
And then the group turned the corner, and Sif’s mind prompt froze on the loading screen that popped up when a holo-screen was being slow.
The laughing cut off abruptly, and the two groups froze, staring each other down.
On one side, Sif, sword drawn, with the Warriors Three arrayed behind her.
On the other, Thor, smile frozen, holding his brother's hand in a way that clearly said he’d been dragging him only a moment before.
On Loki’s other side, a girl stood, clinging to his hand like he might disappear, lighting-white hair contrasting with the dark haired boy on her other side.
Sif barely registered the figure behind them all, hood thrown over her face, in the light that these children were not only absolutely tiny (well, comparatively to the Prince’s height), but that they were Midgardian.
“Loki,” she said, low and determined, “Let go of the children, they’re innocent.”
There was a moment of further silence.
And then…
“Hey! Watch who you’re calling innocent, lady!”
Loki let go long enough to rub his hands across his eyes.
“Why are you like this?”