The God and the Shifter

Chapter 12

"Hey, Tony" I called over to him when he walked in.

"Woah! What's going on here?!" He exclaimed and pointed to Loki and I.

Lokis body stiffened at the comment but he didnt move. "We're watching a movie" I said drily, rolling my eyes.

"But do you have to be so close?" He pulled a face.

"I've leant on all of you while watching movies" I dismissed the comment. "When's Loki off house arrest? I want to take him to the mall to get some Earth clothes" I asked, poking the shoulder of his armour.

"What's wrong with my armour?" Loki asked, almost offended.

"Well, if you're going to be staying here I'm sure you'd rather be more comfortable. And besides, you can't go around looking like that all the time when we leave the tower" I answered in a matter of fact way, grinning at him.

"When he has proven he isn't going to try and take over New York again" Tony said, pulling another face and glaring at Loki.

"He's been with us for a month now and hasn't caused any problems. And it's only the mall" I glared back at him.

"I'll have to talk to the rest of the team and see what they say"

"Fine, but do it soon, please?" I asked innocently, trying to pull the puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, fine. I'll ask them later" he said as he walked off mumbling to himself, something about not being able to say no to puppy dog eyes.

"How did you get him to agree to that? He hates me" Loki asked, looking bewildered.

"The magic of being the baby of the team" I smirked to him as the closing credits to the movie came on the TV.

"What is the sudden urgency of going out and buying my Midgardian clothing?" He asked

"Well it's kind of a kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Christmas is coming up and I want to get some Christmas decorations, seeing as though I haven't seen any around yet" I shrugged.

"What is Christmas?" He asked, sitting up straighter and I sat up myself and turned to face him to explain.

"Do you not have Christmas in Asgard?" He shook his head. "Well, have you heard of Yule?"

"Yes, we celebrate Yule back home" he nodded.

"Well it's like the Christian version of Yule, but nearly everyone celebrates it. Rather than it being all about the day Jesus was born, non Christian's celebrate it with family and friends as a time of love and giving. We decorate our homes and buy each other gifts and have a big Christmas dinner" I explained with a sparkle in my eyes. I love Christmas so so much!

"I see," he replied, holding his chin in his hand, looking like he was thinking it through.

"Yeh so I want to get my Christmas shopping done and decorate!" I could barely hold in my excitement.

"Very well, it would be an honour to join you on your quest for Christmas" he smiled.

*

Tony came back to the lounge after lunch and said the others agreed Loki could leave the tower but had to have someone with him at all times. That was fine, I doubted he would want to go anywhere on his own anyway, not knowing New York other than the tower. So I jumped up off the sofa to run to my room to grab my bag so we could set off on our Christmas quest.

As we were leaving the tower Nat was returning from....wherever she was coming from. "Where are you two off to?" She asked.

"Christmas shopping!" I said excitedly.

She smirked at me and pulled a card out of her own bag. "Here, it's Tonys, I swiped it earlier. He won't notice" and I took the card with a smirk and put it in my purse. "Have fun!"

"What is that piece of plastic she gave you?" Loki asked as we left the tower.

"It's how we will pay for all the things. It holds money on it electronically" I replied, looking both ways at the crossing before stepping out into the road.

"I see. And will Stark not know it is gone?"

"Nah, he has like 5 of them and he is a billionaire. We could spend thousands and he wouldn't notice" I laughed as we came up to the entrance of the mall. "Here we are!"

I showed Loki around the whole mall before we actually went into any of the shops so I could point out all the Christmas decorations they had up in their windows so he would get a feel what it was about.

"Who is that fat man with the beard?" He asked as we passed a window with a Santa displayed in it and I explained to him about Santa and his reindeer and showed him a reindeer ornament.

"Is this why Stark chose that name for me?" He pointed at the antlers on the reindeer glaring at it.

I laughed hard at his realisation and couldn't speak, I was laughing so hard and just nodded my head. Lokis cheeks turned a light shade of pink at that and we carried on walking around.