Christmas?
The next morning, Layna woke up to snoring coming from the floor of the room. She groaned and tried to make the annoying noise stop by flapping her hands at it, but it didn’t work. She became more aware of her surroundings and suddenly remembered who it was that was snoring on the floor. Ooooommmgggg, she thought, that’s right, there are gods sleeping on our floor. She peeked over the edge of her bed and saw Thor sprawled on the air mattress on his stomach, looking about as majestic as a beached whale. One leg was poking out from under his blanket and his arm was in a position that was surely stopping the blood flow to his hand. She stood up, careful not to wake up the God of Thunder from his sleep, and walked downstairs after grabbing a book on Norse mythology from her bookcase. She was still wearing her Iron Man onesie, because she had been too lazy to change into proper pyjamas last night. Once she got in the living room, she dropped the book on the small table next to her comfy chair and sauntered over to the kitchen.
“Mooorning,” she heard and she jumped. She looked up to see Loki leaning against the counter, taking a bite from a sandwich he had apparently made after going through all of their cabinets.
“Geez, you startled me. An early riser too?” Layna asked. He nodded, taking another bite from his sandwich. “I trust you slept well?”
“Well, it wasn’t my room back in Asgard, but it sufficed.”
Layna shook her head, grinning, and walked over to the fridge, grabbing the ingredients for her own breakfast. Halfway through, though, she stopped dead in her tracks and started putting some of the things she had gathered back in the cabinets. “I just thought of the most brilliant idea ever,” she stated.
Loki looked at her questioningly. “Oh, yeah? And what might that be?”
Layna smirked. “Well, you see, I can’t cook, but Sadie can and I kind of feel like having ‘wentelteefjes’. I believe it’s called gypsy toast in English. It probably doesn’t sound like much, but it’s delicious.” Loki shrugged in a way that said, ‘If you say so.’ Layna grabbed a banana and went to sit in her chair in the living room. Loki soon joined her and sat down on the couch, eyeing Layna’s book. She held it up for him. “It’s a book about ancient Norse myths, I thought it would be appropriate to know a bit more about your culture, since two of the head figures of all those stories are now staying in our house.”
Loki smiled approvingly and took the offered book. As he leafed through the book, looks of approval crossed his face, until he reached a certain page. “WHAT?” he yelled.
Layna almost dropped her banana at the sudden outburst. “What’s wrong? People are still sleeping here, remember, calm your tits.”
“Well, not anymore,” came from the door. Thor was standing in the doorway and looked at his brother in concern. Above them, they heard stumbling. Apparently, Sadie had woken up too. “Layna asked a good question, though, what’s wrong brother?”
Loki jabbed a finger at the book in front of him. He struggled to form words. “I… It… Just look at it, it is completely wrong! It’s blasphemous!”
Thor walked over to where his brother was seated on the couch and read the myth Loki was furiously pointing at. “Aha, I see. Brother, you know that’s not true, don’t let it affect you so much. Those mortals can’t possibly know the true version of the events.”
Anything else Thor might have said, was cut of by Sadie’s sleepy voice. “What’s going on?” she asked, coming through the door. She ran a hand through her long hair and walked over to the couch.
Loki instantly calmed down a bit and sighed. “Nothing, dear, just slander and lies about my family.” Thor and Layna shared a look at the endearment, but didn’t comment.
“What? That doesn’t sound like nothing, what do you mean?” Loki showed her the page and she frowned. “What’s wrong with it?”
“Yeah, what is it? I can’t see anything,” Layna piped up, walking over to see what all the fuss was about.
“Can’t you see?! What this book is saying is a lie. It says here Fenrir was Hela’s wolf and killed thousands of innocent people. How dare they insult my son?”
Layna and Sadie looked at each other. “You have a wolf… for a son?” Sadie asked cautiously.
“Yes,” Loki said, as if that was the most normal thing in the world. Thor smirked. “And that’s not even the weirdest thing. Loki has an eight-legged horse for a child and is actually Sleipnir’s mother.”
Before he could tell any more embarrassing stories, Loki clasped a hand over Thor’s mouth. “Okaaay, that’s enough stories for today.” Layna and Sadie, however, had a look in their eyes that said, ‘This conversation isn’t over yet, just you wait and see.’ “Layna, weren’t you saying something about breakfast?”
Layna’s eyes lit up and she turned to Sadie. “Make ‘wentelteefjes’!” she said.
Sadie shot her a glare. “No,” she said.
Layna pouted. “Pleeeaaassseee? I’m sure Thor and Loki would like to try this Dutch specialty,” she said, knowing this would convince her sister to make the delicacy.
Sadie knew exactly what her sister was doing, but after a short staring contest, she walked to the kitchen, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. “Fine!” she exclaimed. “Lazy pratt!”
“Love you too.” Layna smirked and blew a kiss after her sister. “So,” she turned to Thor, “you looked comfortable when I woke up. How did you sleep? Do you always snore?”
Thor huffed indignantly. “I don’t snore!” he said defensively.
“Yes, you do,” Loki and Layna said in unison. He glared at Loki, but smiled at Layna. “Anyhow, I slept well, thanks for asking. Just a tad short, but that’s my own fault.”
Loki looked at him skeptically. “How long did you stay outside?”
Thor chuckled uncomfortably, running a hand over the back of his neck. “Uhmm, only a few hours…”
“Totally worth it,” Layna said and walked to the kitchen after putting the book on Norse mythology somewhere Loki couldn’t see it. “I’m going to save Sadie from potentially falling plates or pans. Try not to burn down the house in the meanwhile.” She winked and closed the kitchen door behind her.
Sadie had turned on the radio and cosy christmas music rang through the room. She turned to look at Layna after making sure a stack of plates wasn’t going to fall down on the floor. She started talking in Dutch. “So, what did you two get up to after you claimed Thor?”
A blush crept over Layna’s face. “Oh my gods, I did, didn’t I?” Sadie smirked and nodded, flipping a piece of toast in the pan. “Well, he didn’t immediately run away, so I guess I’m fine.”
“Actually, I think you may be more than fine, if you know what I mean…”
“Same for you. But, back to your question, I showed him how the telescope works, though I don’t think he really understood. I think the concept made him think of Heimdall, because he started explaining everything about how they travel between the nine realms. After looking at the stars and talking for a couple of hours, we went inside and basically dropped dead on our beds.”
“Did you brush your teeth?” Sadie asked, narrowing her eyes. “Oh never mind, you’re a grown up woman, I’m not going to act like your mom. Layna laughed and started helping with their breakfast. “There’s something we need to discuss with them,” Sadie said after a while.
Layna looked up from where she was keeping a close eye on the gipsy toast. “What is it?” she asked, completely clueless.
Sadie rolled her eyes at her sister’s obliviousness. “How long are we going to let them stay here? Should we help them find a better place?”
“Better place? How could it be if we aren’t there? No, we should think of as many reasons as possible as to why they should stay here. Not that just us isn’t reason enough, but you know, just in case.” Sadie nodded thoughtfully, completely agreeing with the plan. “Alright, we should be as dramatic as possible, which is my area of expertise. Remember that one time in school when I-”
Sensing where this was going, Sadie cut her off. “Yes, I know what you did when you found out someone turned out to be taller than you, I don’t need to be reminded of that embarrassing moment…”
Layna stuck out her tongue. “Pfft, you’re just boring. But okay, moving on. Mission ‘Keep the Gods’ has officially begun. Reason 1: they need a place to stay safe from all their enemies,” Sadie rolled her eyes again, “reason 2: we need to show them all that Belgium and Holland have to offer.”
“Reason 3: we need their experience in the battlefield and such for a school report and we can’t possibly finish the assignment without them. Reason 4: we like them. Wait what?”
Layna snorted. “Well, can’t say it’s a lie. Maybe we shouldn’t put it that bluntly though… Although, it might actually work. I’ve got a plan,” Layna announced proudly.
Sadie groaned. Suddenly, their favourite christmas song came on. They both jumped to the radio to turn up the volume and Layna ran into the living room. “Thor! Listen! This song is amazing!” she said, switching to English again. She started singing along to the lyrics of ‘Sleighride’ and pulled Thor out of her lazy chair, which he had snaffled. She danced through the room and laughed at the surprised and lost look at the god’s face. “It’s called dancing, Thor,” she said.
“I know that! It’s just very different from Asgardian dancing…”
“Now that I can believe. Just sit down again,” she said, motioning to her chair, “breakfast is almost ready.” She grinned as she walked back into the kitchen and grabbed the plates with warm food. She managed to carry four plates to the couch without dropping anything and squirmed next to Thor on her chair with a slightly proud look on her face. Sadie, who had come after her with four cups of hot cocoa, sat down carefully and leaned against the arm of the couch, taking a sip of her drink. She looked longingly at her sister and Thor, then sideways to Loki. Loki wasn’t tricked, though, and he scooted closer to Sadie. He took the cups of cocoa from her hands and after giving everyone a cup, he sat back down again and smoothly put his arm on the back of the couch, just behind Sadie. Layna seemed to prepare herself for something big, and eventually got straight to the point. “So, how long are you planning to stay here?” Thor and Loki looked at each other for a few seconds. Before they could answer, however, Layna had already ploughed on. “Personally, I would have no problems with giving you guys a place to sleep for a while? We could help look for a hotel or something, but it’s almost Christmas, so I don’t think there will be many vacant rooms. Besides, who would protect you from all your enemies when we’re not there?”
Thor let out a booming laugh. “Yes, I can see why you are far more capable of protecting us than we are…”
“Uhuh, what I said. You definitely need a guide to show you all of the mighty Belgium and Holland,” she continued, dramatically waving her arms to underline her words, almost hitting Thor in the face. “I mean, if you were to just go outside and randomly pick some berries to eat, you would definitely die from food poisoning.”
Sadie rolled her eyes at her sister’s antics and posed a more reasonable argument. “We have an assignment for school for our project about ancient cultures, and we could really use the knowledge from someone having actually lived in one. Only if you would want to help, of course.”
Both Loki and Thor nodded. “That shouldn’t be much of a problem,” Thor said, pretending to think about it. “Those are all very tempting reasons to stay. Only… The air mattress I slept on was a bit too soft for my liking.”
Loki snickered. “I know right?” Loki answered.
Sadie huffed. “I didn't inflate them. You did.”
“And besides,” Layna said, “I don’t see how you could have noticed that, the way you were sleeping with half of your body on the ground.” She looked at Thor with a smirk.
“Like, bruh,” Sadie said. “Is ‘no’ an emotion, 'cause I feel it.” The sisters burst out laughing and the gods groaned. How were they going to deal with both the sisters’ sass? Sadie grabbed her plate from the table and started eating. She stopped, however, her fork hanging in the air to the way of her mouth, when she so everyone looking at her. “What?” she said. “I'm hungry. I made this, I'm going to eat it.”
Layna giggled and grabbed her plate as well. Soon, both of the gods followed their example. It was silent for a second as Layna and Sadie looked at the Gods expectantly as they took their first bite.
“This is delicious,” Loki said with his mouth full of food. Sadie’s cheeks slightly reddened at the compliment and she took a bite of her own breakfast. Layna was a bit less reserved and was almost breathing in her breakfast.
“I agree, I see why you need us to discover more about your country,” Thor said.
Layna nodded eagerly and finished the last bite of her food. “Splendid, when do we start?” she asked. The gods shrugged. “Alright, how about we go shopping for Christmas presents?”
“I certainly like the idea of presents, but what is Christmas, again?” Thor asked, his face scrunched up in thought. He shook his head as he was unable to recall what Christmas meant for Midgardians.
Layna giggled, but before she could answer, her sister interrupted her. “Do we have to go today? I don’t feel like going out,” she whined.
“You never feel like going outside,” Layna said, looking at her pointedly.
“So?” she said defensively.
Layna’s face lit up as she suddenly got an idea. “What about you stay at home making preparations for the party, while I go shopping with them?”
Sadie looked positively scandalised. “So I’m just going be left alone?” she asked, glaring daggers at her sister.
Layna shrugged and walked to the kitchen to put away her plate. “You could, of course, ask Loki to stay here with you…” she said over her shoulder. Sadie’s head shot up and she turned to Loki. He smiled and nodded. Layna came out of the kitchen just in time to see his reaction and clapped her hands excitedly. “Good, then Thor and I will go to the city for the day.”
Sadie looked like she thought of something and opened her mouth. “Maybe you can buy some clothes too. I mean, their clothes look awesome, but they will kind of stand out in a crowd everywhere other than Comic Con.”
Layna nodded and gave the men a look-over. She tapped her chin with a finger. “True. What would suit you guys? What about a suit for Loki and jeans for Thor?”
“Just jeans?” Sadie asked, smirking.
Layna made a gesture that meant, ‘Obviously’, but she continued. “No, I was aiming at something casual for his shirt too. Probably a sweater, a winter coat and sneakers or something. I think Loki should wear something fancier. A trench coat, maybe?”
Sadie nodded approvingly as she left the couch and cleaned up all of the other plates. “Alright then. But… Layna… Maybe you should wear something other than your onesie. Just saying.”
Layna rolled her eyes but went upstairs to get dressed. After ten minutes, she came down again and, after putting on her shoes and a warm coat, she threw Thor’s cape over his head, startling him. “Come on, let’s go.” She pulled him outside and closed the door behind her.
As soon as the door closed behind her sister, Sadie turned to Loki and smiled. “I always get her to do what I want and leave me home,” she said. She looked at the mug in his hands, eyebrows raised in question. “Are you finished? With your drink, I mean.”
Loki smiled and gave her his mug. “Shall I help you to do the dishes?” he asked.
She shook her head almost immediately and took the mug from his hands. “No, no, you’re our guest. Or mine, now that I think of it. You can’t do the dishes if you’re a guest, now can you?” she asked as if it was the most logical thing in the world. She walked into the kitchen and put everything on the kitchen counter. With pursed lips she looked around the room. Was there something else that needed to be washed? No? Good. Without saying a word, she opened a cupboard and took out a washing-up bowl and brush.
When she turned around, Loki was leaning against the counter with a tea towel in his hands. Surprised, she opened her mouth, but he was faster. “With me being a guest, you can’t ask me to help, but I can always offer,” he said. He bowed mockingly and motioned for her to continue what she was doing.
She smiled and turned on the tap. “Luckily, it isn’t a lot of work,” she said, but her thought went along a totally different path. In heaven’s name, why does he have to be so nice? Okay, he ís a freaking god of Asgard, it’s not weird, but still… He is going away at some point. I just… Knowing myself, I’m going to fall for him at some point sooner rather than later, and that can’t happen. Can it? She sighed, forgetting that Loki was still there. He looked at her, concerned.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
She nodded quickly, not wanting to show her doubts. To change the subject, she said the first thing that jumped into her head. “Actually, why would we celebrate Christmas alone?” she blurted out.
Loki arched his eyebrows. “What do you mean?” Sadie dropped the brush in the bowl and turned 90 degrees to be able to look at him directly. Even though she had only asked it to change the subject, she was rapidly becoming more enthusiastic about the idea. “Well, look. Layna and I, we kind of ... know the Avengers. Wait, we don’t know them, we… Ugh… This is so much easier in Dutch. Sorry, Layna usually knows what I mean when I spout random English words, but you...” She sighed and tried again. “We… met Peter Parker at a science conference for students. You know, Spiderman… Anyway, we kept bumping into each other, like, the whole day, so eventually we just started looking at things together. He gave us his number, and we kept in touch. He even introduced us to Tony and Steve, his dads.” She smiled. “Well, of course not really, but it’s fun to call them that.” She hesitantly looked at Loki’s scrunched up face. “If you’re okay with that, of course…”
Loki’s head snapped up. “No, no, of course! I think that would be really nice,” he said.
“Then… What’s wrong? You don’t seem to like it as much as I thought you would.” Sadie dried her hands and reached out her arm to put her hand on his shoulder. Almost immediately, his expression changed. “We’re just friends, you know,” she eventually added, thinking that might be the problem.
Suddenly, he was smiling again. “I think it’s a great idea,” he said softly.
“Awesome! Hold on, I’m going to call Layna.” She walked into the living room, but soon popped her head through the kitchen door again. “I think I left my phone upstairs. I’m going to change too, okay? Just put everything on the counter, I will clean it up later.” When the God of Mischief nodded, she ran up the stairs to her room. She looked around. Phone, phone, phone, where are you? GOTCHA!!! Oh, come on, Layna, pick up.
“Hey,” she heard finally. Sadie smiled and switched over to Dutch. “I had the most awesome idea.”
“Really, now? What is it?”
Sadie paused for the dramatic effect. “We still have Peter’s number, right? Why don’t we call him and ask if they come over? Like, all the Avengers?”
The line was silent for a few seconds. Then her sister screamed in her ear so loudly she almost dropped her phone. “THAT’S AWESOME!!! WHAT SHOULD I DO?”
“Well,” Sadie started, rubbing her hurting ear, “buy more presents, for starters. And we could really use some delicious food and maybe a real christmas tree?” After her sister had agreed and had hung up, Sadie changed into her normal clothes. She went downstairs to see Loki lying on the couch, flipping through a book he had probably found while looking through the room. However, when she walked through the door, he looked up. Sadie grinned. “It seems like we have a lot of work to do,” she said.
After the phone call from her sister, Layna turned to face Thor. They had already bought him casual clothes, which he had changed into, so they were gathering way less weird looks than before. The only looks being cast their way now, were probably caused by how stunning Thor looked. Layna had bought him dark blue jeans, a plain button-up and a vest to go over it. His coat looked warm and comfy, but was hung loosely over his arm, as it was warm in the mall. Layna hadn’t done a lot about her own appearance, so she felt a little bit self-conscious as she looked at all the beautiful women in the mall, but Thor only seemed to have eyes for her, so she had shoved the self-deprecating thoughts to the back of her mind.
“Well, as you had probably already guessed, that was Sadie. She called to tell us she and Loki had gotten the most brilliant idea ever. We are going to invite the Avengers over to celebrate Christmas here. I’m sure they’ll be excited to hear from you.”
Thor looked surprised at the plan. “You know the Avengers personally?”
Layna started nodding, but stopped herself. “Well, sort of… We got to know Peter during a science conference for college students. We were apparently interested in the same exhibits, since we kept bumping into each other, so eventually we decided to look at the other exhibits together. Before we left, we exchanged phone numbers, totally platonically, of course, and he introduced us to Steve and Tony, who have basically become his dads by now.”
Thor nodded, agreeing when he thought of the way the three of them had interacted when he last saw them. He liked the plan too. It had been too long since he last spoke with most of the Avengers. Of course he had spoken with Bruce on their mission to defeat Hela, but contacting him was out of the question now that he had no way of finding out where their spaceship was. An evening with his closest friends would do him good. “It sounds like a great idea. I take it we have to do something here that she called you instead of telling us when we got home?” Thor asked.
Layna nodded excitedly. “We have to buy more presents,” she said with a grin, and she pointed at a store with a big Christmas display. “Let’s start there. Do you know what your friends like and don’t like?” She didn’t give him the time to answer, as she pushed Thor in the direction of the store and went in. Everywhere they looked, they could see garlands, Christmas lights and small decorated trees. It was a bit overwhelming, really. Layna ‘oohed’ and ‘aahed’ at all the things that were displayed. Some of the things were just ridiculous and they walked past them after a quick laugh.
Suddenly, Thor’s attention was drawn to a discrete display in the corner of the store. “What about that?” he said, pointing at a small army of action figures.
“What? Why would you buy action figures?”
“No, not figures, just one. Do you see the one of Hawkeye in the corner? Clint may know how to hide it fairly well, but he is a total geek, so he would absolutely love to know there’s an action figure of himself too.”
“Fair enough, I would like that too, to be honest… Alright, we’ll buy it.”
In the end, they bought an action figure for Clint, a new set of throwing knives for Natasha, a sketchbook for Steve, decorated with his shield on the cover, a Sherlock Holmes movie for Tony, starring his döppelganger Robert Downey Jr. and a 3D pen for Peter. Gifts for Loki and Thor were a bit trickier.
When they walked past a party store, Thor spotted a crown with huge fake gems imbedded in it. He burst out laughing. “Oh, that would be perfect for my brother. He has always wanted to be king, this is the perfect opportunity.”
Layna giggled. “Alright, I have to admit, that's funny, but we should get a real present too at some point.” Thor nodded and stepped into the store, smiling like a child in a candy store. A minute later, they came out again, holding a bag with Loki’s crown. Layna began walking to the exit of the mall. “I guess that’s all for now. I’m not going to buy you a present when you’re here too, so I’ll return here with Sadie in a few days.” They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes, but it was broken by a gasp from Layna. She grabbed Thor’s arm and squeezed hard. “Oh my gods, look! Christmas trees! Come on come on come on!”
Thor tried to keep up with all the bags, but still arrived a few seconds later than Layna. “Wait for me. I’m not as fast as normal with all these bags,” he huffed out to the gleaming girl.
“But Thor, trees! We have to take one home and decorate it, it’s tradition.” Thor shook his head, but shifted the bags with clothes and presents to one arms, so he could carry a Christmas tree with the other. “Great! Now we have everything.” Thor snorted and after picking the most beautiful tree in the entire world they started heading home. The way back was made incredibly difficult by all their purchases, but they eventually managed to arrive at the sisters’ house without causing any accidents