Chapter 26
Unfortunately, Thor and Tony were unable to capture Tyr. Again.
The Avengers didn’t seem too worried about it, though. Tony had shrugged, saying there was nothing to be done about it until another opportunity made itself known. He’d changed the subject, telling Thor about a Midgardian tradition called Halloween.
Apparently, holidays held priority even among universal threats.
Norns, he would never understand them.
“We could go to a rooftop party,” Tony suggested, “It is Halloween, after all. There might be some good food.”
Bruce shook his head.
“I’d rather not.”
“We should go on the trick or treat trail,” Natasha said instead, eyes shining with optimism, “The kids would go crazy.”
“I’m always happy to take selfies with mini mes,” Clint agreed, “I don’t have to be back at home until next weekend for our Halloween party, anyway.”
“I’m curious to see how they’ve decorated the park for Halloween,” Bruce nodded, “It’s for kids, so it might be fun.”
Tony scoffed, “Banner, you’re always easy to please.”
“Na-ah!” Bruce corrected him, “I didn’t like the Halloween party you threw last year.”
“Captain Hook had it coming and you know it!”
Loki looked like he was going to ask exactly what happened, so Steve decided to spare him the awful story.
“Trick or Treat Trail it is,” Steve said, effectively cutting off that line of conversation.
The Trick or Treat Trail turned out more like a tour through a museum, in Steve’s own opinion.
Not that that was a bad thing. The art spread throughout the building among the exotic plant life in a way he hadn’t expected, and the halloween decorations were almost boring in comparison.
Dozens of kids, many of them dressed as Avengers, scurried from art piece to art piece, to and fro, with exasperated parents trailing after them. The gang took pictures with any kids brave enough to ask them for one. Tony bragged that he was a fan favorite.
Somewhere around 8 or 9 o clock, the gang split up. Stark, Thor, and Clint went to eat food at the cafe, and Natasha and Banner wanted to spend some time alone.
Which left Steve and Loki alone.
That was when they saw the first Raven costume: a girl with a purple cloak and a paper mask covering her face, with little cardboard wings.
“They’re here,” she whispered, in awe.
She seemed hesitant to approach, though. She played with the fabric of her cloak and shifted on her feet.
Her father looked even more hesitant.
“There, you saw her, now we can go home,” he said, taking her by the hand.
“But Dad,” the little girl protested, “They’re my favorite Avenger . . .”
Steve could hear Loki’s heart melt. He smiled warmly at her and his eyes twinkled through the mask.
“She is not an Avenger,” he said, staring straight at him.
And for a long moment, Steve stood, confused. This man couldn’t possibly know that this was Loki; what would this man hold against the Raven?
Loki, meanwhile, looked to all the world like a kicked puppy.
“No, Dad,” the little girl corrected him, “He’s my favorite Avenger. They’re genderfluid, remember?”
Genderfluid?
Steve glanced questioningly at Loki, whose eyes had drifted to the ground.
The little girl’s father scowled.
He’d remembered, alright.
No, Steve was not dealing with any of that today.
“Their preferred pronouns are he/they right now,” Steve explained in his stern Captain voice.
He wasn’t sure how the little girl knew that, but it didn’t matter right now.
“Yeah,” the little girl chirped, unaware of her father’s hostility toward Loki, “See his bracelets?”
The father glanced at Loki’s wrist, where he wore two bracelets: one blue, and one purple.
Oh.
How long had he been wearing those?
Now that he thought about it, Steve couldn’t remember a time he hadn’t been wearing some combination of bracelets.
“Yeah, sure,” the man muttered.
She took out an iPod, and asked timidly, “Can I take a picture with you?”
“Of course,” Loki answered, taking the iPod awkwardly and posing for a picture, “What’s your name?”
“Erin.” She said, and asked, “Any new tricks?”
“Well, I have been working on a particular spell,” Loki said, and rubbed his hands together. He whispered a few nordic words, and a bouquet of flowers appeared in them. He handed the bouquet to the girl.
The girl plucked a flower from the bouquet and tucked it behind her ear. She took another flower and gestured to Loki, who obediently crouched down to let her put the flower in his hair.
“You want one, Dad?” She asked.
The man shook his head, looking at his watch, “We really need to get going.”
The girl took out another flower anyway.
“Here,” she said, handing it to Steve quickly, “You don’t have to keep it, though.”
“I will,” Steve told her.
Once she was out of earshot, Loki turned to him.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“Yes I did. He should’ve known better than to act like that around you.”
Loki stared at him for a moment, biting his lip.
“Well . . . thanks,” he murmured, and held out his hand.
“I can hold that for you until we get home,” he gestured to the flower in Steve’s hand.
Steve gave it to him, and watched as he vanished it to his pocket dimension.
“How long have you uh--?” Steve pointed at the bracelets on Loki’s wrists.
“Been like this?” Loki answered, “As long as I can remember. Is that . . . okay?”
“Yeah, if that’s how you feel,” Steve said, “You should’ve told us, though. The Avengers, we’re not . . . we’re not going to tell you who to be. You should know that.”
Loki searched his gaze, searching for lies where there were none.
Then he smiled.
“Shall we go find the others, then?”