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It's Easter.
Jormungand says that they are essentially Norse deities, not Christian, which means they have no reason to celebrate a holiday that was made to remember the resurrection of Jesus or whatever.
Nari adopts a very serious voice and says he should embrace cultural and religious diversity. Vali agrees with Jor. He's met Jesus's dad and his brothers and sisters, and he's not really looking forward to meeting the guy himself, which will undoubtedly happen before long. (Nari doesn't think so, and says that doesn't really make a good counter argument. Vali then lists an incredulous amount of angels and demons in the Bible that they have met so far, and everybody stares at the twins for a while.)
Loki is too busy biting the inside of his cheek in order to not smile at their antics. Like Jor said, they don't usually celebrate holidays - they couldn't, not with them all locked up - but Sleipnir insisted.
It's something my little Sokovian family used to do, he says. It was really fun and I thought we could all do with a little fun.
It's a little paining for Loki to hear about Sleipnir's adoptive family, who gave his son what he couldn't. But he's not going to rob his children of their happiness.
So here they all are, the children of Loki and Loki himself, stuffing themselves with chocolate eggs.
The chocolate is completely Jor and Fen's fault. They make quite a team when they both want the same thing. Loki cringes at the thought of chocolate. Once he lets them, they are going to eat it relentlessly for the entire day.
Vali just wants to get some store-bought, egg-shaped chocolate, eat them all and be done with the whole Easter thing. Hela says making chocolate will be a good family bonding experience. This eventually leads to a heated debate, in which ends with Vali vs Everybody Else Except Mum. Vali sulks. Loki vaguely wonders if he should console his boy, but then again it's just a silly argument without any real feelings. Vali forgets about it in an hour.
Loki suggests a healthy idea of painting actual boiled eggs - mostly because he's not sure if he can handle six kids hyped on that much sugar - but he is vetoed. It doesn't stop him from bribing Hel just a little bit to also get a carton when she goes to the store. He knows they will want to, later.
Then they set about making the chocolate. It's an absolute mess, to put it simply. There is melted and now hardened chocolate sticking to almost every visible surface in the kitchen, and the tools are strewn about. He loves his children, really, but he's also quite forgotten how much work they can actually be.
"Mummy, do the finger snapping thing!" Fen exclaims.
Loki's not about to deny him, and everything is perfectly clean with a simple snap.
They can't paint chocolate outright so Hela wraps them up in foil and they spend the rest of the afternoon painting them. The hard boiled eggs make a grand debut, and the actual eggs are painted more than the chocolate ones. (Or maybe that's just because Fen and Vali have eaten most of them already.)
Loki finds it absolutely endearing on how they are all so enthusiastic about it. He also silently congratulates himself on his foresight about the eggs.
Jor gets caught several times eating a few chocolate eggs, and he is almost banned from the painting. The others are much more sneaky.
Hel conjurs up bunny ears on Vali, claiming it's for the sake of the Easter spirit. "I mean, there's lore about an rabbit on Easter isn't there?" She asks very innocently.
Vali, of course detests anything fluffy and would have tried to get rid of them long ago if only he could see them. He can't. Everyone else can, though. It's all ridiculously funny.
He does get a little suspicious when Nari starts giggling whenever they bump into each other, and even Jor snorts several times when Vali's hot pink ears curl up into a cute heart, courtesy of their sister.
"What are you all laughing at?" He demands.
"Nothing." Fenrir answers, not looking up from his egg.
"Is there something on my face?"
"Other than ugliness?"
"Fenrir, be nice." Loki scolds. "And no, there is nothing on your face, Vali."
"Then why are you all laughing at me?" He frowns. "I hate you all. I need a beer."
"You're not getting one." He withers under his mother's glare, and Loki's glad his 'disapproving Mum face' is still effective.
They manage to paint the whole lot of eggs.
("What's the point of it all if you're going to eat them anyway?"
"It's just a tradition, and a little fun."
"This is not fun, it's labor."
"Shut up, Jor.")
And then they finally, finally eat them properly. They put away some of the prettiest eggs - more than two thirds of it is Hel's work of course - to put around the house as decorations. They're beautiful additions to the otherwise rather plain house.
Loki decides that he should try and get the kids to help him give their home some life. They've lived in it for decades and it still doesn't even have a picture on the walls. Not that it's very important, but he would like to have his home, well, homely. It's the least he could do for his children and himself after living in hiding and cold, murky places.
Now's not the time for that, though. Now's the time to sit back in the large, cosy sofa with his children snuggled up to him, with a movie on and all of them eating popcorn and chocolate and other foods.
The movie is called The Rise of the Guardians. It's a simple kids movie about folktales and lore existing in real life, if only you 'believe'. Jack Frost, also known as Jokul Frosti, is the main character. He's also a bedtime story he used to tell his children. The white haired boy's icy powers reminds Loki of himself, and he's very glad when Jack finds family in the other Guardians, like he did in his children. He tightens the hold on them.
The Easter Bunny - the real reason they're watching this almost ridiculous kid movie as thirty something adults in Midgardian form - is rather interesting. All of the stories he's read about it on the Internet, was about a little fluffy bunny who leaves eggs in the night for the children to hunt. Not this six foot tall, standing on two feet rabbit with boomerangs.
The kids love the movie. It just shows that they are not all quite grown up yet, despite the fact that they are decades old in their Midgardian forms. Only Hela is in her teens, and everybody else ranges from late twenties to early forties.
To Loki, they will always be kids. His kids.
(He takes back that thought when he stares at the state of the sofa the next day. How in the name of the nine realms did they get popcorn in there?)