Young Asgardians

5

The team was grateful for Clint's return to the tower for several reasons. For one, his experience with children made him uniquely qualified for dealing with their de-aged residents. Without a way of returning Thor and Loki to their actual age and Loki's nightmares only getting worse, they've had to come up with creative ways to deal with the two day-to-day problems.

For instance, Bruce discovered that chocolate milk puts Loki right to sleep and that Thor likes watching them cook. But Clint has a specific way of dealing with their curious-minded questions as well as other things that have become common sense to any parent. For instance, the importance of naps for everyone involved.

Of course, his Avengers teammates (other than Natasha) don't know why Clint is so unusually good with kids. He plans to tell them soon, so everyone stops wondering why Shield is assigning him to so many solo missions whenever he's just going home. But right now the Avengers have bigger things to worry about.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" Stark asked, looking uncertainly at the man's cape.

"My name is Dr Stephan Strange; Master of the Mystic Arts." He's interrupted as Loki bursts out laughing quite hysterically making Stephan frown.

"Odin is on Earth," Stephan continues. "And he's in Norway." He quickly begins to open up a portal to a grassy cliff-side in what Tony can only guess is Norway. Strange steps through before turning to look back at the group with one eyebrow raised as if to ask "are you coming?"

Thor doesn't waste any time running through with Tony shrugging he shoulders not far behind.

"Daddy," Loki says up to Steve, pointing to the open portal. The Captin sighs, and soon enough, the whole team was stepping into Norway.

An older man could be seen ahead sitting on a rock by the cliff-side. Thor immediately takes off running while Loki looks a little more apprehensive. He decides to stay at the Captains side as they make their way after Thor. Odin looks down at Thor lovingly as he helps the boy to sit down beside him. Odin continued to look out over the sea blissfully as the rest of the Avengers and Dr Strange approached the two. Steve lets go of Loki's hand, but the toddler didn't make a move to go to Odin's side as his brother had.

"It took me a while to break your spell, Loki," Odin said before looking over at the small boy. "Frigga would've been proud." He smiles softly. Odin reaches into a leather sack placed at his feet and pulls out a wooden horse. Loki's eyes widen at the sight of it, and he rushes over to his father's side before any of the Avengers know what's happening. Odin smiles as Loki holds the familiar toy close to his chest, his eyes taking in every detail that he had long forgotten.

The next couple things Odin pulls out have the two young gods wiping away tears. A neatly folded piece of yellow silk cloth, a few books, a bracelet and a matching silver and leather necklace with a large carving in the centre of a round pendant: protection charms as well as some other small toys. Childhood items, as well as some pieces to remember their mother. There was a long moment where everyone watches the two gods before Odin finally addressed the team.

"I'll be returning to Asgard shortly, but I will work on finding a way to reverse the spell on my sons. Until then I would ask that you keep them on Midgard," Odin said as he stood placing a heavy hand in Thor's golden hair.

"Why not take them back with you," Steve asked, straightening up as he spoke.

"Asgard isn't safe for Loki in his current state, and I wouldn't be able to care for them. I have to take care of a lot of diplomatic matters that have been ignored for far too long." Odin frowned. "For the past two years, Loki had been disguised as me and ruling Asgard after he faked his death saving his brother. He being trapped in this less experienced form made it easier for me to break the spell he's cast upon me. Also, I don't have much time left."

"Thank you for your help, your majesty." Steve nodded, not knowing what else to do as Odin smiled to his two sons just before calling for the Bifrost and disappearing.

"That was weird." Tony deadpanned. "I'm ready to go home," He said, looking towards Strange expectantly. Strange rolls his eyes, but none the less, opens a portal directly to Stark tower. Thor and Loki silently gathered up the toys and everything else Odin had given them. Loki wore the necklace leaving the bracelet for Thor. Once back at the tower, Loki seemed to return to his usual behaviour, while Thor just kept watching Loki.

"Loki... What happened on Svartlfheim?" Thor's tone was cold and calm, but Loki knew better than to hope it would stay that way.

"Lots of stuff." He said not even looking up from the book in his lap. Thor had never moved so quickly in his life as he jumped up from his seat on the couch over to Loki, slamming the book shut and forcing Loki's eye to meet his.

"Was it all just a trick? Did you care at all?" Thor growled. Loki, for the most part, looked slightly frightened at Thor's movement but kept his face impassive as he spoke.

"I saw an opportunity, and I took it," Loki said smoothly. This apparently wasn't the right thing to say because Thor exploded. The only other people in the room anymore where Bruce, Steve, and Clint; who were all watching ready to intervene.

Thor let go of Loki's face ad instead hauled the boy up by his shirt. "I watched you die! I held you and cried-"

"Then you left me there." Loki interrupted. It was disturbing to hear his young voice talk about something like this. It was almost as if for a moment, the adult Thor and Loki were having an argument.

Thor looks upset but doesn't respond before he storms off. Clint notices how Loki's wringing his hands and blinking quickly as he picks up the large leather-bound book Thor had thrown on the ground.