Happily Ever After - Except...(Thor 2011, Loki, One-shot)

[KickingUpTheDust]

Aaaahhhhh ok I was watching Thor the other day and seeing as Loki is my ultimate weakness I had an idea and it won't leave my brain so I had to write it down. Includes my own little headcanon that, when he's not hell-bent on universal domination, Loki is actually good with kids.

Spring was well and truly sprung is Asgard. The sun gleaming over the buildings, illuminating all it touched and glistening across the ocean, having it dance and sparkle. The evenings were gradually getting longer, drawing out into lazy feasts complete with songs and stories and a toasty breeze fluttered through, gently warming anyone it touched.

The elder son of Odin bounced through the halls, his spirits as sunny as the skies above, as he made his way towards his brother's chambers.

"Loki?"

A sigh and the sound of a page being turned, "Yes, brother?"

"It is a most joyous day outside and I have seen so little of you as of late." Thor beamed, "Can I not convince you to take a stroll in the city? Round the markets? You should not be in when we have such glorious weather."

The door opened and he was faced with a skeptically-faced Loki, "'Seen so little of me?' Thor, we eat together every night, greet each other every morning and trained together not two days ago."

"And when we are not training you are holed up in here, along with your books." Thor retorted, "Books!" he repeated, gesturing at the stacks that littered his brother's desk, "Come, the air will do you good."

"You speak as if there were no air inside," the younger prince rolled his eyes, "and as a matter of fact, I do not spend my days 'holed' up in here, as you so call it. In fact, I visit the market regularly."

"Then it will not harm you to accompany me, as you will know everything there is to know!" Thor laughed, grabbing his brother and carrying him down the corridor, apparently taking away any choice Loki had in the matter.

The market bustled, and sounds of street-sellers, conversation, haggling overwhelmed the ears and business was apparently so busy, barely anyone paid mind to the two crown princes making their way down the streets.

"Was there anything you needed to come for here in particular, brother?" Loki wondered, a long finger rubbing underneath his sharp nose. Spring, a sigh of a relief for most, was a bated breath for him, being unfortunate enough to be prone to allergic reactions to...well, the things people loved most about spring. The new plants, the perfume of blooming flowers, the lush green grass - so tall after being trapped under ice and snow for months on end, all aggravated and taunted Loki's nose. An embarrassing situation for a crown prince (and possible heir to the throne) to have to snuffle and sneeze into a handkerchief throughout his royal duties for months on end, to say the least, particularly when his - or rather, his brother's - companions thought considerably less of him than they did Thor.

Nobody would dare make fun of Thor, with his almight hammer and brute strength. But no one seemed to have any problem mocking Loki with his smaller frame, his preference to the intellectual arts over martial (no one would believe he was just as capable of fighting as Thor) and talent for sorcery. Thor's weaker brother, he had heard people say.

"Brother?" Thor's voice shook him from his thoughts, "Are you well? Does your condition bother you?"

Ah, yes, the family knew of Loki's 'condition', the Warriors Three knew of Loki's 'condition'. The condition that reduced the Trickster to a mess of sneezing. The condition that stole that intelligent, commanding voice and turned it to a stuffed-up whimper.

"It is bearable, I does not trouble me." he shrugged, rubbing his nose again.

"Loki! Loki!!"

The brothers turned and Thor was most surprised to see a small band of children running towards them. And even more surprised to see that his brother was the one they were excited to see.

"Well, hello there, friends. I would have thought you'd all be playing." Loki smiled down at them, "What are you all doing in the market?"

"We're boooored, Loki." a tall, freckled girl moaned, and the group around her agreed,

"Bored?" Loki chuckled, "Don't you have any games to play?"

"We played them all already!" a tiny dark-skinned boy said, bouncing as if it would help him grow more.

"You must be very skilled players to have played every game in existence in this short day," the trickster replied, a patient smile forming on his lips,

"Can you play with us, Loki?"

"Can you tell us one of your stories, Loki, please please pleeeeaaaase?"

The children clamoured and pleaded until Loki laughed and held his hands up in mock-surrender, "Alright, alright, I may have a new story for you all, lead on, lead on..." he picked up one of the littest children and allowed the others to pull him along to where they had been playing. He looked over his shoulder at Thor, "Care to join us, brother?"

As if they had just noticed he was there, the children quietened as they looked nervously at Thor, who towered over them even more than Loki did.

"If I would not be intruding..."

"You have no care when you intrude upon my reading in the castle, why would you have any now?" Loki smirked, "I think you'll find I'm quite the storyteller."

"Loki tells the BEST stories!"

"He can do magic with them and everything!"

Thor allowed himself to be lead to a park. Green and lush, the grass so healthy it glimmered in the sunlight. Trees waving gently in the soft wind, some blooming flowers which rained across and blanketed the ground like snow.

He watched his brother, who's nose was now wiggling every few seconds. Partially worried about how ill his brother could become, partially curious about his apparently secret storytelling. Thor knew nothing of this, and had never heard it mentioned by his parents or anyone else. But the children seemed to love Loki and all giggled excitedly as they gathered around him eagerly waiting for a new adventure.

"Are you all sitting comfortably?"

"YES!" they all cried, including Thor, much to Loki's amusement,

"Are you ready to hear the epic tale of a never-ending winter?"

"YEEES!"

"Well then...it began in a land so very far from here I could not count the miles it takes to get there..."

Thor listened intently, impressed by his brother's theatricity. He had never heard the story himself, whether Loki made it up or had read it in one of his books, he did not know. But it was a fascinating one nonetheless.

It told of a land plagued by harsh natural disasters so devastating the people could not live in peace until a sorcerer buried a magic stone in a cave beneath the earth to bring harmony to the elements, so that each season would run smoothly into the next. Until one day an evil demon broke the stone and plunged the land into a harsh, icy winter that lasted years.

"The snow fell in the winter, the crops failed. No fisherman could penetrate the ice." Loki told them solemnly, projecting illusions of storms and darkness around them, making snowflakes fall over the group who listened intently and silently in awe. It seemed to be only Thor paying attention to Loki's incessant nose-rubbing as the floral environment slowly took its toll.

"The food was running out, it was too cold for anyone to survive. All through winter, all through spring, even through summer - it was just frozen. And the cold was only spreading - heeh-ehCHOO!"

His walls were starting to break, Thor could tell, but the children laughed, apparently thinking Loki had done it for comic effect. A light blush swept over his pale cheeks as he withdrew a handkerchief from his pocket, "Well yes," he laughed with them, "there was quite a lot of that too, as you can imagine."

Thor laughed too, despite his concern, he was feeling more proud by the minute.

The thing about children was...they could be particularly observant creatures when they had nothing else distracting them.

Fortunately, these children did have something distracting them and they did not seem to notice the wet, red nose of their playmate, nor his steadily thickening congestion. And each pause Loki took was not to keep them on the edge of their seats, but rather to stave off a sneeze, and the children simply held their breath or begged him to go on or eagerly asked what happened next.

Thor was torn between joining them in egging his brother on, his inner child having been awoken by the story time, and taking his brother back to the castle away from the things that ailed him.

"Our hero swung his sword at the foul demon, he knew he had to act now or his people would perish with this accursed winter. He flew forward and plunged his blade into the heart of the tyrannical beast, who fell to the floor with an almighty crash and a roar. But his quest was not over there, my friends, no. He grabbed the piece of the stone that was stolen and hurried home as fast as he could. He fought his way through the snow, battled the winds and rode through the fog. It was now or never!"

It must be true that children had better hearing than adults, Thor thought to himself, because he barely understood any of that. Loki's nose was now so congested his 'm's were 'b's, and his 'n's were 'd's.

"Our hero slotted the bissig piece back idto the stode," Loki's voice was beginning to sound weary, "ad outside, the sud begad to shide agaid, the sdow ad the ice belted ad, as if it had beed waitig, the grass grew ad flourished, trees grey leaves ad flowers bloobed agaid..."

As Loki spoke, flowers sprung from the Earth around him, twisting into floral vines, growing and blossoming, their scent filling the air. The children gasped and marvelled. Thor looking at his brother, knowing what was to come.

"Ad they all loved happily ever af...hah...after...haaah...ah-ahACHOOO! HUHSCHOOOO!" The children laughed again as Loki sneezed helplessly into his handkerchief, "Except your humble narrator," the trickster quipped, blowing his nose, "for flowers make his snee...sneee...ETCHOOO!" and the children giggled all the more. Loki, unlike Thor, had not been gifted with such a strong, bellowing sneeze as one would expect from a thunder god, but instead his nose and mouth expelled a more forceful, yet quieter and more of a high-pitched, comical sound that seemed to take over his whole body and teased his angular features mercilessly before he was granted release.

"That was most enjoyable, brother," Thor congratulated, his arm slung around Loki, supporting the still-sneezing prince, "but honestly, had your wits left you when you decided to conjure the flowers?"

"It was dot a codscious decisiod," Loki answered, blowing his nose forlornly, "the spell I use whed tellig - esshhhoooo! - stories sibly codjures up whatever I happed to be thigking about at the tibe. I ibagid a beautiful sprig. So cabe the flowers - atchOOOO!"

"I had no idea," Thor said, "but you are a talented showman, Loki, they seem to adore you."

"Bother says, childred are the future and great bides are shaped by great tales." Loki said, looking disgustedly at his now very damp handkerchief, "Cobe, let's hurry back, I deed to be away frob all this...'fresh air' as you called it. The odly fresh thig I deed is a fresh handkerchief."

Thor chuckled, and hugged his brother closely, never feeling more proud of his sibling, and they walked fast-pacedly, back to the castle.

Well, as fast as they could manage with Loki stopping to sneeze every few feet.

[beatlelover22]

That was so sweet! Loki and Thor with kids is just And especially his sneezes haha, so cute!!

[Ignis]

THIS WAS SO SWEET. It's nice to see a fanfic that shows Loki interacting with the little ones-- What an awesome headcanon!! I loved it aaa~

[Subtly Clashing Wishes]

Oh, that was so sweet. I think it it completely believable that children love Loki. And I loved the way his allergies played out. Great story!

[Ali Marie]

Oh my goodness! This is adorable.

I was a late-comer into the Marvel fandom, but thanks to my family's return to our Norse Pagan upbringing, my interest on Marvel's take of Norse Pagan Deities was peaked & I fell head-over-heels in love with Loki!

I always read the ever-popular Loki Fics on here but refrain from posting on them so I don't bump up old or out-dated threads. So, now I can release all my suppressed happiness & Loki love

WHEEEEE!!!!