Once Again Chapter 9

"I am bored." Loki declared, stretching widely on the floor.

"Oh, just go entertain yourself somewhere." Tony replied, completely exasperated. Since morning, Loki had been poking around everywhere from boredom, and had broken six cups, four plates, and a toaster. Tony had dragged him from the kitchen before he could find a way to destroy the fridge. He didn't dare let him anywhere near Clint, who had been sulking in the kitchen after Thor stopped him from putting an arrow through Loki's eye.

"Alright," Loki seemed surprised to be granted permission. "I would like to practice this levitation spell. Could you move out of the way?" Tony's head jerked up.

"NO-" Tony cried as a porcelain vase lifted itself from the table as Loki stretched out his arms and sparkles of green shot from his fingers. Loki jumped at Tony's loud voice and the vase hurtled to the ground and smashed into tiny pieces. Tony groaned loudly.

"Sorry." Loki muttered. "I do not know why, my magic has not been itself lately."

Tony closed his eyes and counted to ten mentally. When Bruce said Loki's magic would return, Tony had expected the magic to return altogether. He imagined that a non-magic kid Loki would suddenly be replaced with an adult Loki in a whoosh of green sparkles. Tony didn't think that Loki's magic would return a little each day, and that Loki would be tempted to use it to annihilate everything in his tower.

"Can't you just not use your magic?" Tony almost begged. Maybe if he saved up on his magic, adult-Loki would return faster.

"Of course not!" Little Loki puffed out his chest in an attempt to look intimidating. Tony tried not to laugh. "I am Prince of Asgard, I must practice my powers so that they will not fade."

Tony was sorely, sorely tempted to tell him the truth. Hey, guess what, your adult-self killed thousands of humans, tried to kill your brother twice, and summoned evil aliens to destroy a city. You ain't prince anymore, so keep still and stop killing my stuff!

Yep, that would go down well.

"Jarvis, get Pepper over here."

"Sir, Miss Potts is working-"

"Just. Call. Her." Tony sighed. "And tell her it's an emergency."

"Right away, sir."

Within minutes, Pepper came running into the room, flinging the door open with a crash that made Loki jump and hide behind Tony.

"Tony!" She looked infinitely concerned. Tony grinned internally. It was nice to have his worrying, fussing secretary around. "Are you alright? Jarvis said-"

"Can you help me take care of this kid and make sure he doesn't destroy the tower?"

Pepper looked completely stunned, before narrowing her eyes in noticeable anger. Tony winced. Maybe adding in the 'emergency' bit wasn't a smart idea.

"You had me SO worried about what crazy things you were going to do again," Pepper growled, poking a finger into Tony's chest with each word, "and now you tell me you pulled me out of my duties to babysit a- OH!" She peered over Tony's shoulder, and Tony breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing his chest. He wouldn't be surprised if Pepper had just broken one of his ribs. He turned his head to see what Pepper was surprised at.

"Oh my GOD!" She broke into a wide smile. "He is so cute!" Loki gave a squeak and tried to back away before Pepper scooped him into her arms and squeezed. Loki gave a strangled gasp. Tony twitched. Five seconds within meeting each other, and Loki had stolen the heart of his hopefully-girlfriend.

Loki scrabbled weakly at Pepper's arms and mouthed "Save me" at Tony. Tony shook his head and smiled. Finally, Pepper let go and Loki gasped for air.

"Wait, Tony." Pepper stared at him. "Where did you get him from? He's not- He's not your-?"

Tony took a few moments to realise what she was asking. "Oh. OH, no, he's not mine, if that's what you're asking." Pepper narrowed her eyes. "No no, he's the younger brother of a friend of mine." Not a lie, just not the entire truth.

"Oh." Pepper blushed a little. "Okay."

OOO

"So, anyway, just bring him to the lab right downstairs and show him some of the explosives." Tony realised how crazy he sounded. "He likes seeing things blow up."

"I see." Pepper looked a little taken-aback.

"Be careful." Tony warned. Loki fidgeted in his seat, with an excited look on his face that made Tony very, very wary. "Don't let him do anything funny to the experiments."
"Oh, of course he won't, will he?" Pepper cupped Loki's hands in her hands and crooned. "He looks like a little angel."

An angel? Tony thought scornfully. The exact, more like.

"Just be careful."

OOO

Tony started realizing it was a bad idea, when a deafening explosion shook the floor beneath his feet.

OOO

The minute the staircase door opened, a huge cloud of smoke and soot billowed into the room. Tony jumped up from his seat as a dusty, grimy, very angry Pepper burst into the room.

"That kid," Pepper screamed in Tony's face, "is NOT human!" Tony cringed. "I made the scientists demonstrate an explosion with ONE explosive, and the kid waved his hand and there was a flash of green and the whole lab of explosives blew up." A very sooty Loki, his hand firmly grabbed in Pepper's, gave a shrug that didn't seem sheepish at all. "What aren't you telling me?!"

"I might have forgotten to mention he's from another planet." Tony said hesitatingly.

"You left me with an alien kid in a lab full of explosives." Pepper's voice was dangerously low. Tony shrugged, smiling.

Pepper slapped him across the face, turned, and left.

As Tony reeled from the impact, Loki beamed. "The lab was cool! I can't wait to go back tomorrow."

OOO

"Why the hell did you call all of us out here-" Clint stopped when he saw Tony. "Whoa, who gave you the black eye?" Tony gave a guttural snarl and Clint shut up.

"That's it." Tony said. "I can't take this anymore. That little terror-" he pointed at Loki who was happily snuggled in the crook of Thor's arm, "-has to go!"

Thor wrapped his arms protectively around Loki. "I will not allow my brother be thrown out." Thunder rumbled outside, as black clouds began to gather.

"Loki is merely a child." Steve suddenly spoke. "He needs distractions, or he will create them himself. Which is not good."

"So you want us to distract a six-year-old kid?" Clint snorted. "We're super-heroes, we can't be frolicking through the city with a kid-"

"Why not?" Bruce suddenly said. "We haven't had any jobs in a long time, and I could use a break from the labs."

"Hm, I could use the exercise," Natasha agreed.

"Seriously." Clint grumbled. "So where on Earth are we going to bring a little kid barely old enough to read, but can annihilate a whole lab."

"I have heard that the swimming pools nowadays are very luxurious." Steve said wistfully. "I used to like swimming a lot."

"Done." Tony snapped his fingers. "Jarvis, build a pool on the balcony, have it ready in about an hour."

"Sir, we don't have a balcony."

"Well, then, build one." Tony shrugged like it was obvious.

"That will take more than an hour, sir."

Tony glanced at Loki and decided that who knew what crazy shit the kid would do in an hour.

"Fine, I know this nice swimming club in a city that Loki hasn't wrecked." Tony bit his lip at what he said, but Loki was too busy nibbling at Thor's arm to notice what Tony said. "We can get there in about half an hour. Jarvis, get ready my private jet."
"Right away, Sir."

"Wait, this swim pool," Thor asked, "is it a big hole with water in it?"

"Oh, trust me; it's a lot better than a hole."

"But it has a lot water in it, no? And there are people swimming in it?"

"Yep."

"Could the water… Possibly freeze under the right conditions?"

"It's like summer, Thor." Clint rolled his eyes. "Unless you can make it start snowing, I don't think it's going to freeze."

Thor said nothing, just looked at Loki worriedly.