Fic; The Long Way Home, 6/6
Title The Long Way Home, 6/6
Rating PG-13/T for language and violence
Summary When Loki is reincarnated as a child on Midgard with dreams for memories, Thor searches to re-awaken his brother. When he finds him, he makes an executive decision. Instead of taking him to Asgard, he takes him to Avengers Tower. Journey Into Mystery & Avengers (Movie) AU.
Disclaimer Characters belong to their creators (Marvel owns everyone I love).
previous
oo6; Epilogue
It’s not that Tony is bored. After the excitement of Amora showing up with Skurge a little more than a week ago to terrorize Thor and the ensuing ruination of half of Central Park (“Women are strange in their displays of affection," Loki had confided to Clint, after. Clint had looked to where Natasha was cleaning the edge of one of her blades and agreed.), the Avengers have been busy cleaning up the aftermath. That is, Captain America and Thor have been helping to clear away the debris while Tony Stark made announcements of his plans to donate lots of money to the city to put more trees in that green space. Once it was Spring again, anyway. This year’s winter is so far snow-less but still cold, the dirt of the city frozen-packed and wind tunnels like flying daggers to those who would brave them.
Okay, so maybe he’s bored and doesn’t want to brave the cold outside. He announces this to Jarvis. Jarvis says, "I could create a list of suitable activities that can be conducted within the confines of the Tower to alleviate your boredom, sir."
Tony swivels in his chair and says, "Go for it."
Jarvis has a lot of good suggestions; Tony programmed him, after all, so that’s only to be expected. Design a new suit, start on Steve’s bike, try to electrocute Thor, order sushi from every Japanese restaurant within a fifteen block radius and rank each one. Tony waves them all away. He's just designed a new suit; he doesn't have the part needed for the bike, yet; he's certain the God of Thunder can't be electrocuted although he might make an interesting conduit (Tony files this away for future boredom); he's already ranked the sushi and is not feeling so great about raw fish at the current moment (He can blame Bizarre Foods for that one). Then Jarvis says, "You also have 487 unviewed files in the folder titled ‘Little Liar.’"
Tony doesn’t remember for a moment, and then he does, eyes blinking. "487?"
"Indeed, sir."
Tony feels the beginnings of a smirk forming. At least this could be interesting. Should he or shouldn't he? What the hell - he's the poster child for shouldn't-but-doesn't-give-a-fuck. "Sort: Internet search history. Most recent."
Jarvis lists smoothly, "Average snow fall NYC, properties of ice, penguins, Antarctica, sea monsters, library search: Old Norse, library search: Lokasenna, library search: Norse mythology, male sorcerers, pugs in costumes, Captain America myths, HYDRA, library search -"
"Wait." Something clicks. "Did he check out a bunch of library books?"
"In my records Master Laufeyson has on loan sixteen books from the New York Public Libraries and three that are not on loan."
"Three that are stolen," Tony corrects, reading between the lines. He knows he’s right when Jarvis does not respond.
"Okay. Video surveillance. Sort through. Give me something interesting."
The lights dim as Jarvis commands a projector to whir to life. A small square of video footage plays before Tony’s eyes as Jarvis says, "January 20, 2013, 6:47 a.m." That was two weeks ago.
In the video, Loki is reading, much like he always is, on the bed. The book he has in front of him is huge, nearly the size of his torso, and splayed open down the middle, its binding fraying. Loki hunches over it, a small finger tracing the words. A little to the side is the tablet, and he cross-checks something on that screen frequently as well. For some reason, he lifts his other hand to turn palm-up, cupping it slightly. His lips move, and then, quite suddenly, there appears a small but very much burning marble of blue fire above his upturned palm.
The Loki in the video drops his hand suddenly, the fire extinguishing with it, and from the movement of his chest Tony can tell that he is breathing harshly. The smile on his face is endless and magnificent, and even through the pixilated projection Tony can read the thrill of excitement in his green eyes. His eyes say, okay, now what?
Tony scratches at the hair under his chin, not as alarmed as he thought he would be about this discovery. "Jarvis, scan through the other videos from that date. Look for other instances of magical activity - weird lights, water moving when it shouldn’t, crystal balls, demons, you know."
"Scanning, sir."
"Show me what you got."
"Sixty-eight-percent complete, seventy-four-percent, eighty-nine-percent. Scan complete. Video projections to begin playback at first sign of magical activity."
The videos appear in a staggering pattern, none overlaid by another, and soon Tony is surrounded by a dozen or so videos of Loki molding water into shapes, Loki throwing a deck of cards into the air only to have them freeze before the cards can make the return trip down, Loki looking up at his circlet hovering above the crown of his head. Loki performing magic.
No sorcery, my ass, Tony thinks to himself, still more amused than alarmed. He has a feeling that he should feel worry or concern. Perhaps Loki’s finally really reawakening and soon the Avengers will have to contend with him just as before - only this time their target will be a boy barely a pre-teen. A boy who is more mischief than madness, trying to prove himself first to his brother and then to his brother’s awesome super-hero friends.
No, Tony is definitely not worried.
"Jarvis, let me know if you catch him doing something like this again," he says. He adds, "discreetly," just in case Jarvis takes that to mean that he should sound an alarm at Loki’s next magical experiment.
"Of course, sir," Jarvis intones promptly. "I am discreetly informing you that currently Master Laufeyson is engaging in suspicious activities in room 21-F. He is now en route to the twelfth floor, likely to return to 12-C."
21-F is a special room to Tony. He nearly falls jumping out of his seat and scrambling to the door, mind already racing over the potential damage Loki could have done. What did Jarvis mean by ‘suspicious activities’? Loki had stolen those library books; would he steal something of Tony’s, too? The answer to that is a quick and little-debated yes, Tony realizes. Was this something more serious, though? Did he have a little arsonist living in the Tower, now? Or perhaps a moody almost-adolescent who is grappling with identity issues and questions of worth. Ugh. He can’t bear the thought.
"What was he doing in my Record Room?" he shouts at his AI, who of course does not answer, but by then Tony is in the elevator and thinking of suitable punishments for eleven-year-old Norse Gods.
//
The honey-smooth voice of Nina Simone greets him when the elevator dings open on the twelfth floor, the sound so rich and ambient that Tony actually holds himself between the open doors for a moment, peeking around the corners, because there’s electricity in the air that’s not really electricity, but a hum of energy that is warm and tickles, just slightly, when he breathes in through his nostrils. He’s very certain that the soundsystem he had installed on this floor did not perform at this level, like the music is leeching into his very pores. "This old world is a new world and a bold world for me," Nina croons.
He hazards a step out of the elevator. When nothing happens, he begins to search.
Loki is not in the living room, nor is he in any of the cupboards of the kitchenette. He’s not in the bathroom behind the curtain or on top of all the towels in the closet, and he’s not in his own room. "I know how I feel," Nina sings, her voice just as ever-present as before. He wonders at the source of it, but then he opens the door to Thor’s room and sees his precious record collection - the jazz section, he notes immediately - strewn about on the floor around Loki’s cross-legged form.
Loki doesn’t notice him, too intent on the black vinyl disk floating above his extended fingers. His eyes are nearly entirely dilated with something like focus, a ring of brilliant green for irises, and he shines from a light sheen of sweat. "Hey," he says, not too loudly, but it’s just enough for Loki’s concentration to break, for him to blink and for the record to skip, scratching on nothing, and then for him to blink again at Tony as the record clatters to the floor, the music cutting off abruptly.
"Ah!" the kid calls in reflex. What follows is almost just as reflexive: "This is not what it looks like!" He waves his hands and then very carefully picks up the dropped record and slides it into its sleeve.
Tony raises a skeptical eyebrow. "It looks like you broke into my Record Room, stole my jazz collection, and then came into your brother’s room to see if you could do the magic record player thing. Nice sound quality, by the way."
"I was just," Loki starts before bringing himself up short, cocking his head as he processes Tony’s accusation. "Okay, it is precisely as it looks like. I was going to return your records, honest!"
"Honest," Tony repeats flatly.
"I was going to return them after I tried to convert them into tangible files that I could keep with me," he amends.
"We have a machine for that. Little music players with headphones. Lots of storage space."
"It was just an experiment," Loki says, bristling, crossing his arms now and shifting to standing.
"Huh." Tony mirrors the action and crosses his arms. "And what about all those other times? Were those experiments, too? Does Thor know?"
Loki freezes on the inhale, arms tightening around himself. He ducks his chin and mumbles, "I don't know what you mean," miserably.
Tony sighs, refraining from tapping his toes against the carpet in impatience. "I already know, Loki. You don't have to hide it from me. Or anyone here, okay?"
The tension slowly drains from Loki's shoulders until he is standing, slightly slumped, still avoiding Tony's eyes. Finally, he exhales and offers the other a small smile. "You had Jarvis spy on me," he says, a small accusation under the benign exterior.
Tony isn't sure if he should brace himself for anger. This is another form of betrayal, he knows, to have been so long in the company of the other with the eyes of his AI turned onto the god. To be fair, he had ordered Jarvis to do so when they were all still unsure of Loki's presence and motivations and then he had forgotten about it. "I did," he answers with a slight nod, seeing no reason to lie. Besides, Loki could probably tell if he lied.
Loki hums at the admission.
"So what else can you do?" Tony prompts when it becomes apparent that Loki does not mean to speak.
Loki hums again. Tony watches as the boy claps his hands together, and when he draws them apart slowly, blue ice dances between them, glittering. He’s about to say, "Not so close to my records!" when Loki claps his hands together again and the ice shatters but dissolves into the air, leaving his records untouched.
A weighty silence follows. Loki chews on his lips and looks resolutely into Tony’s eyes, and he looks just as resolutely back. The green of his eyes is returned and glittering and bright and just a little unsure. Tony pictures those same eyes mad and black and wild, filled with something twisted and wonderfully dark, with bloody lips and sharp, sharp teeth. The engineer realizes that Loki is waiting for him to say something, to react, but he won’t, and eventually Loki gives in to the silence as he is wont to do and whispers roughly, "Don’t worry, it’s harmless yet. I have a lot to learn."
Loki offers him that small smile again, a little fragile around the edges; his whole body pleading, is this okay? So Tony says, "Yeah, that’s cool."
Tony says, "Just don’t destroy anything with that."
Tony says, "I trust you," and then he turns around and closes the door behind him.
//
Thanks for staying until the end. Hope you had as much fun reading Kid!Loki as I did writing him. :)
And now I shall away to my hidey-hole until a plot-bunny comes to me.
Rating PG-13/T for language and violence
Summary When Loki is reincarnated as a child on Midgard with dreams for memories, Thor searches to re-awaken his brother. When he finds him, he makes an executive decision. Instead of taking him to Asgard, he takes him to Avengers Tower. Journey Into Mystery & Avengers (Movie) AU.
Disclaimer Characters belong to their creators (Marvel owns everyone I love).
previous
oo6; Epilogue
It’s not that Tony is bored. After the excitement of Amora showing up with Skurge a little more than a week ago to terrorize Thor and the ensuing ruination of half of Central Park (“Women are strange in their displays of affection," Loki had confided to Clint, after. Clint had looked to where Natasha was cleaning the edge of one of her blades and agreed.), the Avengers have been busy cleaning up the aftermath. That is, Captain America and Thor have been helping to clear away the debris while Tony Stark made announcements of his plans to donate lots of money to the city to put more trees in that green space. Once it was Spring again, anyway. This year’s winter is so far snow-less but still cold, the dirt of the city frozen-packed and wind tunnels like flying daggers to those who would brave them.
Okay, so maybe he’s bored and doesn’t want to brave the cold outside. He announces this to Jarvis. Jarvis says, "I could create a list of suitable activities that can be conducted within the confines of the Tower to alleviate your boredom, sir."
Tony swivels in his chair and says, "Go for it."
Jarvis has a lot of good suggestions; Tony programmed him, after all, so that’s only to be expected. Design a new suit, start on Steve’s bike, try to electrocute Thor, order sushi from every Japanese restaurant within a fifteen block radius and rank each one. Tony waves them all away. He's just designed a new suit; he doesn't have the part needed for the bike, yet; he's certain the God of Thunder can't be electrocuted although he might make an interesting conduit (Tony files this away for future boredom); he's already ranked the sushi and is not feeling so great about raw fish at the current moment (He can blame Bizarre Foods for that one). Then Jarvis says, "You also have 487 unviewed files in the folder titled ‘Little Liar.’"
Tony doesn’t remember for a moment, and then he does, eyes blinking. "487?"
"Indeed, sir."
Tony feels the beginnings of a smirk forming. At least this could be interesting. Should he or shouldn't he? What the hell - he's the poster child for shouldn't-but-doesn't-give-a-fuck. "Sort: Internet search history. Most recent."
Jarvis lists smoothly, "Average snow fall NYC, properties of ice, penguins, Antarctica, sea monsters, library search: Old Norse, library search: Lokasenna, library search: Norse mythology, male sorcerers, pugs in costumes, Captain America myths, HYDRA, library search -"
"Wait." Something clicks. "Did he check out a bunch of library books?"
"In my records Master Laufeyson has on loan sixteen books from the New York Public Libraries and three that are not on loan."
"Three that are stolen," Tony corrects, reading between the lines. He knows he’s right when Jarvis does not respond.
"Okay. Video surveillance. Sort through. Give me something interesting."
The lights dim as Jarvis commands a projector to whir to life. A small square of video footage plays before Tony’s eyes as Jarvis says, "January 20, 2013, 6:47 a.m." That was two weeks ago.
In the video, Loki is reading, much like he always is, on the bed. The book he has in front of him is huge, nearly the size of his torso, and splayed open down the middle, its binding fraying. Loki hunches over it, a small finger tracing the words. A little to the side is the tablet, and he cross-checks something on that screen frequently as well. For some reason, he lifts his other hand to turn palm-up, cupping it slightly. His lips move, and then, quite suddenly, there appears a small but very much burning marble of blue fire above his upturned palm.
The Loki in the video drops his hand suddenly, the fire extinguishing with it, and from the movement of his chest Tony can tell that he is breathing harshly. The smile on his face is endless and magnificent, and even through the pixilated projection Tony can read the thrill of excitement in his green eyes. His eyes say, okay, now what?
Tony scratches at the hair under his chin, not as alarmed as he thought he would be about this discovery. "Jarvis, scan through the other videos from that date. Look for other instances of magical activity - weird lights, water moving when it shouldn’t, crystal balls, demons, you know."
"Scanning, sir."
"Show me what you got."
"Sixty-eight-percent complete, seventy-four-percent, eighty-nine-percent. Scan complete. Video projections to begin playback at first sign of magical activity."
The videos appear in a staggering pattern, none overlaid by another, and soon Tony is surrounded by a dozen or so videos of Loki molding water into shapes, Loki throwing a deck of cards into the air only to have them freeze before the cards can make the return trip down, Loki looking up at his circlet hovering above the crown of his head. Loki performing magic.
No sorcery, my ass, Tony thinks to himself, still more amused than alarmed. He has a feeling that he should feel worry or concern. Perhaps Loki’s finally really reawakening and soon the Avengers will have to contend with him just as before - only this time their target will be a boy barely a pre-teen. A boy who is more mischief than madness, trying to prove himself first to his brother and then to his brother’s awesome super-hero friends.
No, Tony is definitely not worried.
"Jarvis, let me know if you catch him doing something like this again," he says. He adds, "discreetly," just in case Jarvis takes that to mean that he should sound an alarm at Loki’s next magical experiment.
"Of course, sir," Jarvis intones promptly. "I am discreetly informing you that currently Master Laufeyson is engaging in suspicious activities in room 21-F. He is now en route to the twelfth floor, likely to return to 12-C."
21-F is a special room to Tony. He nearly falls jumping out of his seat and scrambling to the door, mind already racing over the potential damage Loki could have done. What did Jarvis mean by ‘suspicious activities’? Loki had stolen those library books; would he steal something of Tony’s, too? The answer to that is a quick and little-debated yes, Tony realizes. Was this something more serious, though? Did he have a little arsonist living in the Tower, now? Or perhaps a moody almost-adolescent who is grappling with identity issues and questions of worth. Ugh. He can’t bear the thought.
"What was he doing in my Record Room?" he shouts at his AI, who of course does not answer, but by then Tony is in the elevator and thinking of suitable punishments for eleven-year-old Norse Gods.
//
The honey-smooth voice of Nina Simone greets him when the elevator dings open on the twelfth floor, the sound so rich and ambient that Tony actually holds himself between the open doors for a moment, peeking around the corners, because there’s electricity in the air that’s not really electricity, but a hum of energy that is warm and tickles, just slightly, when he breathes in through his nostrils. He’s very certain that the soundsystem he had installed on this floor did not perform at this level, like the music is leeching into his very pores. "This old world is a new world and a bold world for me," Nina croons.
He hazards a step out of the elevator. When nothing happens, he begins to search.
Loki is not in the living room, nor is he in any of the cupboards of the kitchenette. He’s not in the bathroom behind the curtain or on top of all the towels in the closet, and he’s not in his own room. "I know how I feel," Nina sings, her voice just as ever-present as before. He wonders at the source of it, but then he opens the door to Thor’s room and sees his precious record collection - the jazz section, he notes immediately - strewn about on the floor around Loki’s cross-legged form.
Loki doesn’t notice him, too intent on the black vinyl disk floating above his extended fingers. His eyes are nearly entirely dilated with something like focus, a ring of brilliant green for irises, and he shines from a light sheen of sweat. "Hey," he says, not too loudly, but it’s just enough for Loki’s concentration to break, for him to blink and for the record to skip, scratching on nothing, and then for him to blink again at Tony as the record clatters to the floor, the music cutting off abruptly.
"Ah!" the kid calls in reflex. What follows is almost just as reflexive: "This is not what it looks like!" He waves his hands and then very carefully picks up the dropped record and slides it into its sleeve.
Tony raises a skeptical eyebrow. "It looks like you broke into my Record Room, stole my jazz collection, and then came into your brother’s room to see if you could do the magic record player thing. Nice sound quality, by the way."
"I was just," Loki starts before bringing himself up short, cocking his head as he processes Tony’s accusation. "Okay, it is precisely as it looks like. I was going to return your records, honest!"
"Honest," Tony repeats flatly.
"I was going to return them after I tried to convert them into tangible files that I could keep with me," he amends.
"We have a machine for that. Little music players with headphones. Lots of storage space."
"It was just an experiment," Loki says, bristling, crossing his arms now and shifting to standing.
"Huh." Tony mirrors the action and crosses his arms. "And what about all those other times? Were those experiments, too? Does Thor know?"
Loki freezes on the inhale, arms tightening around himself. He ducks his chin and mumbles, "I don't know what you mean," miserably.
Tony sighs, refraining from tapping his toes against the carpet in impatience. "I already know, Loki. You don't have to hide it from me. Or anyone here, okay?"
The tension slowly drains from Loki's shoulders until he is standing, slightly slumped, still avoiding Tony's eyes. Finally, he exhales and offers the other a small smile. "You had Jarvis spy on me," he says, a small accusation under the benign exterior.
Tony isn't sure if he should brace himself for anger. This is another form of betrayal, he knows, to have been so long in the company of the other with the eyes of his AI turned onto the god. To be fair, he had ordered Jarvis to do so when they were all still unsure of Loki's presence and motivations and then he had forgotten about it. "I did," he answers with a slight nod, seeing no reason to lie. Besides, Loki could probably tell if he lied.
Loki hums at the admission.
"So what else can you do?" Tony prompts when it becomes apparent that Loki does not mean to speak.
Loki hums again. Tony watches as the boy claps his hands together, and when he draws them apart slowly, blue ice dances between them, glittering. He’s about to say, "Not so close to my records!" when Loki claps his hands together again and the ice shatters but dissolves into the air, leaving his records untouched.
A weighty silence follows. Loki chews on his lips and looks resolutely into Tony’s eyes, and he looks just as resolutely back. The green of his eyes is returned and glittering and bright and just a little unsure. Tony pictures those same eyes mad and black and wild, filled with something twisted and wonderfully dark, with bloody lips and sharp, sharp teeth. The engineer realizes that Loki is waiting for him to say something, to react, but he won’t, and eventually Loki gives in to the silence as he is wont to do and whispers roughly, "Don’t worry, it’s harmless yet. I have a lot to learn."
Loki offers him that small smile again, a little fragile around the edges; his whole body pleading, is this okay? So Tony says, "Yeah, that’s cool."
Tony says, "Just don’t destroy anything with that."
Tony says, "I trust you," and then he turns around and closes the door behind him.
//
Thanks for staying until the end. Hope you had as much fun reading Kid!Loki as I did writing him. :)
And now I shall away to my hidey-hole until a plot-bunny comes to me.