Alex
Alex awoke again in he same room she was in before, but this time there was no one else in it but her.
Cautiously, she sat upright on the bed, feeling more well-rested than she had felt in a long time — perhaps even in forever. Her dizziness and queasiness had mostly gone and her cuts no longer stung from infection and loss of blood.
She looked down at her arms in anticipation — thank goodness!
They had removed the creepy wires from her and she was no longer plugged into any more machines or drips like she was when she woke up last.
For a short while, she simply sat there, enjoying not being dragged out of bed, or shouted at, or tested on. But her serenity didn't last for long before her hyper activeness kicked in and she felt restless and bored.
She had to do something.
She could always just wait around for someone to come back in...
But where was the fun in that?
Her curiosity getting the best of her, she silently jumped out of bed and tip-toed towards the door, slowly opening it and creeping into the hallway.
It was completely quiet, and so, judging by the tint of orange light peeking through the windows, Alex assumed it was still quite early in the morning.
The little girl crept down many flights of stairs, unaware of the lift nearby, and still dressed in her oversized nightgown and little white slippers she had found at the side of her bed.
When she reached the bottom of the steps, she came to a long hallway with doors all around; curiously, she crept to the end of the hall before arriving in a pretty room with lots of sofas surrounding a large coffee table. To one side of the room there was a little bar area surrounded by colourful bottles containing different sorts of funny-coloured liquids. On the other side of the room, were enormous, glass French doors revealing a large balcony overviewing the picturesque Manhattan in the sunrise.
Little Alex moved closer to the balcony, mesmerized by the beautiful view in front of her; she had never seen anything so gorgeous, never seen so many tall statuesque buildings, or the beautiful, blood-orange haze that outlined them so perfectly.
However, for most of the years of her life she had just been stuck, cooped up in one suffocatingly small room with no windows, or perfect views, or fancy furniture to settle into after a hard day, so to be completely honest, everything was deemed gorgeous to her — but this, this was something else entirely.
Gazing in awe, she moved so close to the glass just in front of the balcony that her head was almost pressed against it, her breath creating a little circle of condensation on the glass.
Her eyes were set so intently on the sunrise that she didn't hear the sound of footsteps, nor did she see the person slowly walk up just a few meters behind her, his immense height towering over her.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Loki
Loki had been awake for many hours, restless; he couldn't quite sleep after the information he had been told the night before. His brain was overwhelmed with strange thoughts and questions.
If this child was the daughter of a god, then who was her parent?
If this god wasn't from Asgard or any realm he knew, where else could he be from then?
He continued to think and question and think and question, coming to no final conclusion or answer.
After a while of this, he gave up in attempting to sleep, and rose from his bed, dressing into his usual daily attire: basically a black suit that Thor still insisted on calling his 'witch outfit'.
As he was changing, he heard light footsteps not far outside his door that were so delicate that they couldn't be made by the feet of one of the Avengers, the sound was far too light and gentle, even for someone nimble like Natasha.
Curiously, once he heard the little padding of feet shuffle down the stairs, he opened his door and followed the sound.
He quietly strode down the stairs, careful not to make too much noise, and walked into the lounge where he saw the little girl, Alex, standing, face almost pressed against the window of the balcony, and staring out at the view.
He smiled, watching her gaze in awe at the rising sun and the already bustling streets that were painted before her.
After a while, he grew bored of waiting and cleared his throat loudly, causing her to jump and spin around in fear.
She gasped in surprise when she came face to face with a very tall man with almost shoulder length, greasy-looking black hair and dressed in a very formal black suit.
"Uh...sorry. I-I didn't mean to sneak around... I just wanted to..." She stammered hastily, looking down at her feet shamefully. She cut herself off when Loki softly shushed her, a warm smile playing on the end of his lips.
"It's okay." He said, and for the first time, the god spoke softly, his voice gentle and laced with kindness. "I'm not going to tell you off for leaving your room." He leaned down, slightly closer to her, hushing his voice to a whisper. "And besides, it's quite fun sneaking around when you're not supposed to be, isn't it?" He added, smirking mischievously.
Alex broke into grin, glad to not be told off for once.
"Yeah, I guess it actually is quite fun..." she said trailing off slightly. "Umm, I'm not trying to be rude... but who are you?" She asked, nervously twiddling her fingers.
Loki chuckled lightly at her nervousness before answering,
"I am Loki, of Asgard. I live here as well, with the rest of the... 'Avengers'."
Alex felt a rush of relief; this man was one of the good people, he was safe.
She grinned cheekily before she decided to continue speaking. "You know, I used to sneak around quite a lot at night in my last... home, usually to the kitchens. Sometimes they would leave some spare food lying around, it would never be there the next morning though." She winked (or at least tried to), causing Loki's smile to widen; he liked this one, she had potential in being quite a sneaky child (with a bit more training of course) — and the best way to get to the god of mischiefs heart would always be through causing trouble.
He turned around and beckoned for Alex to follow him as they walked over to one of the small couches surrounding the coffee table, sitting down side by side.
"Back in Asgard, where I'm from, I used to sneak in the kitchens all the time at night. Sometimes the cooks caught me, they would always complain to my father, and I remember how he would always lecture me about how 'a true prince of Asgard would never steal' and that I should go and apologise to the cooks and promise that I would stop." He said, smiling fondly at the memory in the same way one would remember a warm hug.
Alex looked at him in wonder and admiration,
"And did you stop?" She asked curiously.
Loki turned to look down at her, his grin widening.
"Of course I didn't."
At this Alex giggled, amused by the story.
"So where you come from, Asgard, you said you were a prince... does that make you royalty? Are you gonna be a king?" She asked, her eyes widening.
At this, Loki's smile faltered slightly and his nose wrinkled like he had smelt something disgusting. Although his rivalry with his father had come to an end (mostly), the subject of royalty and kingship was still a touchy one to him. And anyway, just because he and his 'father' had settled their differences didn't mean that he couldn't hate him with a burning passion.
What was there not to hate?
The fact that he always favoured Thor?
That he rejected Loki's right to be king because of what he was?
Finally his smile returned, although slightly less enthusiastic, and he returned his gaze to the little girl, still huffing slightly.
"No unfortunately I most probably won't ever be king as my father says that I am 'not fit for the throne'." He mimicked, scowling in frustration.
Alex frowned, confused.
"But, I don't understand. Isn't that quite unfair? I mean, if you are a prince then you have to become king, I didn't think it was about whether your parents liked it or not."
Loki smiled wistfully in understanding, sighing.
"Yes, that's how I thought it worked too."
They sat there in silence.
Loki was still tense and rigid with frustration at the memories of his father rejecting him as king, of always being the second best son, of always being no more than 'the brother of Thor'. He was so overwhelmed in emotion and so lost in his thoughts that it took him a while to notice a heavy weight now rested on his shoulder.
Cautiously, he turned his head in surprise, only to find that Alex had fallen sound asleep against him.
He was confused.
No one had ever been comfortable enough around him to even fall asleep in the same room as him, let alone against him. And yet here was little Alex, her eyes shut delicately and her breathing heavy as she rested against him, soothed by the sound of his voice.
His first reaction to anyone touching him would be to shove them off, or give them an icy glare to ensure that they never did it again, or maybe even do both, but he found a sort of comfort in it, like she wasn't afraid of him.
Lost in thought, he softly stroked her hair as he gently rested her head on his lap, the rest of her small body lying out on the couch.
He watched her sleeping figure, smiling — for once he felt loved and trusted.
And it was a nice feeling too.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Steve
Steve practically sprinted down the stairs, his heart racing with panic.
He had just entered Alex's infirmary room that morning to see how she was feeling when he found it empty.
No Alex.
Just an empty bed.
His heart had skipped a beat in horror.
Had she run away? Did she still not trust them?
Frantically, he had searched in every room she may have been in on that floor level, desperately trying to reassure himself that she was okay. When he realised that those attempts had been fruitless, he ran down the stairs and ran into the hallway, breathing heavily in his stress.
His eyes darted left and right, taking in what was surrounding him.
He sighed.
There was just so many rooms.
Even if he managed to search in every single one of them, who's to say that Alex wasn't already shuffling around, looking for a way out?
He sighed, mopping his forehead with his hand.
Suddenly, he remembered something Tony had told him.
"Jarvis?" He called out uncertainly, not sure if this was going to work.
Tony had said something about the AI that he had installed in the tower before they had all moved in together, but Steve had never thought to use it before, mostly because he liked to stick with, as Tony said, "the good ol' fashioned ways".
"Mr Rogers, how may I be of assistance?" Came a voice almost immediately, causing Steve to jump — you'd think that, living with a Stark, he would be used to these sorts of things, but he still couldn't quite manage to wrap his head round it.
"Uh yeah hi, I was wondering... are you able to track where people are in the tower?" He asked uncomfortably, feeling like he was simply talking into thin air. He didn't understand how Tony could stand constantly speaking with these metal objects and invisible AIs without going crazy himself — although, to be honest, he wasn't far off.
Jarvis's monotone voice replied,
"I'm afraid I can't specifically track them, Mr Rogers, however, I can see where everyone is through the tower's camera systems. Is there anyone in particular that you would like to find? I can show you all the camera systems in the entire tower if you wish."
Wow. Tony went seriously overboard with how much Jarvis could do...
"Uh, no... thanks. Could you just tell me where Alex is?" Steve requested, tapping his foot against the floor as he grew more and more impatient, more and more desperate to make sure that she was safe.
"Miss Evans is currently in the lounge, Sir. Would you like me to broadcast a message to her?" Jarvis suggested, once again, being over-helpful.
Steve mopped his brow in exasperation — perhaps Jarvis was a little too helpful.
"No, thank you..." he paused as he stood there, wondering if the too-helpful assistant was still listening. "Er, is there an off switch on this or something? Like, do I have to power you off or something?" He asked, glancing round the hall as if he expected to find Jarvis lingering around him.
If robots could laugh, then Jarvis would have been in hysterics.
"No, Mr Rogers, there is no 'off switch'." He replied, his monotone voice barely concealing what sounded like a slight chuckle.
Awkwardly, Steve scratched the back of his head, embarrassed to have made a fool of himself in front of an AI.
"Erm, okay then, I'll just... I'll just go and find Alex then..." he trailed off before speedily striding down the hall, hoping to get out of there as fast as possible before he embarrassed himself even more — he prayed that Tony's security cameras hadn't caught that little conversation or else he'd never hear the end of it...
As he strode into the lounge, he came to a very abrupt halt.
What he saw was something so strange, he never thought he would ever see it in a million years.
There, on the sofa, was little Alex, lying sound asleep, her head delicately resting on the lap of none other than Loki — the god who was unable to even have a conversation with an adult without scaring them. Let alone with a child.
He stared at them for a while, unnoticed, and, not that he was proud of it, he felt a pang of jealousy — his overprotective instincts kicking in.
Slowly, he walked into the room, and Loki, finally having noticed his presence, gave a knowing little smirk,
"Ehehe." he chuckled quietly. "I guess you're not the only one who is good with children then."
He looked back down at the little girl sleeping against him, as if he still couldn't believe quite how she got there.
Cautiously, Steve sat down on the opposite sofa and looked at the two of them, coming to one conclusion: if he wanted Alex to stay with them, he was going to have to share, because he had a feeling that she was going to be quite popular with the other Avengers.
For a while, there was silence, before Steve asked,
"So have you thought about what happened last night? Any ideas on...who her father might be, like, what sort of 'god'." He used quotation marks on the word 'god', clearly still unsure about whether their theory was true.
Loki was silent for a while, contemplating on what he was going to say, before he replied,
"Well, we know, or at at least I'm certain, that Thor is correct in saying that she is the child of a god, but looking at her blood it's... different, she's definitely not from Asgard." He sighed, "I have also been thinking, there must be other gods out there, more gods, perhaps from other realms we don't yet know of."
The two men were silent, thinking about who this mysterious god could be, before they heard footsteps.
Turning around, Steve saw Natasha, Clint and Thor come marching into the room.
The trio stopped dead, gawking in surprise at what they saw in front of them.
Natasha was the first one to recover,
"I don't know what's more disturbing, the fact that there's is a living child currently sleeping against Loki or that you two are managing to converse without trying to kill each other or anyone else..."
"Good to see you too, Nat." Steve responded casually as his friend moved forwards and sat down on a chair, not taking her eyes off the little girl; Clint and Thor followed suit and sat down too.
"Well, brother," Thor broke the awkward silence, "I never knew you were so good with children." He said as he raised his eyebrows, looking half skeptically half amused at his brother.
"Yeah, I never really saw you as a hugger...or much of a family guy." Clint added, smirking mischievously.
"Alright enough!" Loki half shouted, only raising his voice slightly, not wanting to wake the sleeping child. "If anyone else makes one more single joke about this, I swear I will impale you a million times with my daggers, and then I'll tear you apart limb from limb whilst I have everyone else watch you suffer and die!" He spat over-dramatically before settling back down again.
Thor, who was used to these common death threats, snorted,
"Not like that you won't, brother." He chuckled, gesturing to Loki's position of having a little girl's head resting delicately against him, lolling in sleep.
"Okay....." Steve began, hoping to avoid the fight brewing between the brothers.
Before he could finish what he was saying Natasha leaned forward from where she sat and interrupted.
"Are you sure we should still be letting Loki be near a young child after that?" She asked, raising her eyebrow at Steve, who shot her a dark look.
She huffed in a strop, leaning back down in her seat.
"Anyway, when did you find Alex, Loki? You can't have been here for too long." Steve turned back to Loki before another argument arose.
"Yeah!" Clint added again. "And when did your fatherly instincts kick in?" He broke into a grin once more.
Loki glared daggers at Clint, his eyes murderous, but other than that he ignore him and turned back to Steve.
"Well, I was in my room this morning when I heard light footsteps going down the stairs, so I followed them to see who it was..."
He was cut short.
"As any normal stalker would." Clint butted in, smiling.
Loki rolled his eyes, clenching his fists in annoyance before he continued,
"And then I came in here and found Alex staring just out that window at the sunrise." He gestured towards the window. "We spoke for a while and then, well, you can see, she fell asleep."
"So what exactly would someone like you have to talk about with a six year old kid — besides how you might haunt their nightmares?" Natasha, who had been quiet through most of his, piped up, looking skeptically at the god of mischief.
"Well," Loki began, ignoring the assassins added comment about him. "I didn't realise that our conversations would have to be repeated to every one of you," he replied, before smirking mischievously and adding, "would you like to share what you and Barton were discussing last night?"
Furiously, Natasha glared at Loki, her face flushing red in embarrassment as she turned away from the group.
Steve groaned inwardly in exasperation.
It was going to be a
Very.
Long.
Day.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Thank you for reading!
I hope you enjoyed that chapter of a bit of Loki cuteness! Hopefully I'll be able to do stuff like that with all the Avengers throughout the book! Message me if you have any small, cute ideas for short chapters and I'll see if I can add them into the story! :)
~ Kiana
(Word count: 3327)