Beneath The Bitter Masks

Chapter 11

"Sir, it seems that a woman has appeared in the living room."

They rushed to the living room. Natasha and Clint already had guns in their hands. The Captain picked up his shield. In the living room they saw a beautiful woman with blonde curly hair and blue eyes that seemed to be filled with kindness. The way she carried herself screamed importance.

Thor rushed forward, his face a huge grin, "Mother." Oh, so that was Thor's mother. The Avengers lowered their weapons looking a bit sheepish. Loki's face on the other hand lost all color.

"Mother, what brings you to Earth?" Thor asked his face alight with curiosity.

She was looking around, "I came here for....." she stopped mid sentence as her eyes landed on Loki. Whatever she was going to say wasn't completed as she walked towards him. The Avengers moved away.

Loki didn't move nor did he say anything. Frigga cupped Loki's cheek in her hand. She searched his face looking for something. In a small voice  Loki said, "Hello Mother." Whatever Frigga was looking for she found in those two words as a smile lit her face and tears filled her eyes and then she hugged him.

To say Loki was shocked would be an understatement. His eyes widened as if he couldn't believe that she was hugging him. Slowly he raised his arms and buried his face in her shoulder silently crying out of sheer relief that his mother didn't hate him or think of him as a monster after all he had done.

Everyone else quietly left the room to give them a private moment and if some of them had tears in their eyes well nobody saw anything.                                        
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They came back after about three hours later with food for the queen if she wanted some and another smoothie for Loki seeing that he was still malnourished. They saw that the queen was running her hand through Loki's hair while he lay sleeping, his head in her lap.

Tony took a picture before the moment ended and sent it to Pepper who had left earlier for a meeting. She was the CEO of Stark Industries after all. Queen Frigga looked up and smiled at the audience she had.

"Please do not stand there. Sit. I am quite sorry for the intrusion in your home." she apologized.

"No need My Queen. It is a great pleasure and honor to have you in our humble abode." Tony said dismissing her apologies. Everyone stared in shock at the billionaire. Apparently he was capable of being nice when he wanted to be.

The queen laughed. "You are quite the charmer Mr. Stark. If you will not accept my apology then please accept my thanks."

"Whatever for ma'am?" the good captain asked.

"For taking care of both my sons and providing them a place where they feel at home. Especially Loki. He was never happy in Asgard and sadly I never did anything to help him."

"Um Queen Frigga, no offence but what you said is not true. I can tell you love your sons very much and this love is returned too. I mean the jock here loves everybody but Loki loves you very much and that is quite obvious."

The Queen smiled at Tony's words. Bruce slowly approached her, "Miss if you wouldn't mind, will you wake Loki up? He still needs to eat." Frigga nodded and softly spoke into Loki's ear waking him up. He sat up yawning and rubbing his eyes.

While Steve, Clint and Bruce tried to convince a semi-awake Loki to drink the smoothie Frigga motioned for Thor, Tony and Natasha to follow her. Once they were out of ear-shot Thor started, "Mother please explain why you have come to Earth?"

"I came to visit Loki. I was not allowed to meet him when he was carrying out his sentence in Asgard but nothing is stopping me from visiting him here. Now answer my questions.  What happened to Loki? I believed that when I came here he would be in some cell. And from where did he obtain those scars and wounds?"

The three looked at each other as if having some silent debate. Then Natasha said, "Ma'am you might want to sit down before you hear this." Then they proceeded to tell her everything. How he was manipulated and taken advantage of. How he never had a fair trial and guards torturing him in the dungeons. How he flinched horribly and actually believed they would hit him.

By the end of this Frigga was seething with barely repressed rage. She made to get up, "I will thank you once again for taking care of my son. For succeeding where I have failed. I will return to Asgard and find more information on who it was that dared to hurt my son. And when I find them they will feel a mother's wrath."

As they entered the living room once more they saw that Bruce was explaining about human DNA to Loki who was listening intently whereas Clint and Steve were playing poker in which every now and then Loki voiced his opinion letting Steve or Clint gain the upper hand.

Frigga thanked all of them for their hospitality and said goodbye. She then disappeared in a golden light.

Tony only said one thing, "Guys, your Mom is awesome." To which Thor and Loki only nodded and grinned.
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Loki spent the next week and a half with them. The Avengers learned a lot about the Norse god. He was a very fast learner and learned everything Bruce and Tony could teach him. Enough so that he started helping them in the lab. After two days had passed since Frigga's visit they started giving him solids.

They soon learned that the god had a sweeth tooth and claimed hot chocolate to be his favorite drink and pudding a creation worthy of the gods.

They had also gotten to see Loki spar and learn that his archery was almost as good as Clint's. It was a slow day for Loki when he had accidentally entered the training area.

He saw Steve and Natasha sparring and asked politely, "Can I try?" Steve agreed to spar with him keeping in mind that Loki was still healing and going against Nat wouldn't be that good for him. Besides, Steve had higher endurance so he should be able to handle him.

At the end of the fight though, Steve learned that Loki's hand-to-hand combat skills were very good. Good enough to cover him in bruises from head to toe. Steve was sore. It still was better than Nat at full power though.

By the end of the week since Loki had come to the tower his health was almost fully restored and and he no longer looked like a skeleton. Thus Tony decided to cut his hair until they were just below his neck.

Even though Loki protested against it Tony said, "I want to see you in a normal hair style and I promise you can become Rock of Ages again later. We won't touch them ever again." So Loki finally gave in. They all unanimously agreed he looked great either way.

For Loki it was unbelievable that these people who were once his bitterest enemies were now his friends. Friends that seemed genuinely interested in his skills, who never compared him to Thor and might actually care about him. He knew it was too good to be true but who was he to complain. He would give them a chance. The last chance.

Sadly it is darkest before the dawn and Loki's dawn was yet to arrive.
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Okay, Frigga finally visited and there were some mother son moments here. I'm not really that good so sorry if someone was OOC.

And I also somehow mentioned that Loki is good at hand to hand combat. Because I think that he would be agile and swift on his feet to use his daggers right?

Well tell me what you thought about it. Thank you for reading. Sorry again for mistakes. Will try to better myself.

Your sincerely,
YeranJ.