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Loki appears on their front porch on the seventh day after morgan is born. He doesnt ring the doorbell. They are only aware of his presence when they step out onto the porch to drink coffee, morgan cradled in peppers arms. When tony sees the man standing there he immediately shoves pepper behind him, looking around for something, anything to use as a weapon. Loki simply stands there, arms behind his back, dressed to the nines in a black, thin cut suit.
Tony steps forward, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“What do you want?”
Loki turns his eyes on Morgan. “I simply wanted to wish you well. Bringing life into the world is no small feat.”
Tony doesn’t relax. “That’s not it.”
It's not a question.
Loki looks away.
Pepper steps forward, morgan tugging on a strand of her hair. “We haven't seen you since tony got back. Why don't you come inside and tell us where you've been.”
Loki nods, following them into the kitchen. He sits at one of their bar stools awkwardly, tony standing guard beside him. Pepper sits next to him, holding morgan out a bit so he can look at her. He leans over, much to tony’s irritation, and touches her tiny hand with his own. She coos and immediately latches onto his thumb. He looks absolutely thrilled with the attention, as if he had never seen a baby before. Pepper figures now is as good a time as any.
“Where did you go, loki?”
He doesn't move his eyes or his attention from morgan.
“I went to asgard, or what’s left of it. Before thanos attacked our ship, Set and Hela destroyed it in their fight. Once i had been killed, thor says thanos blew up our craft. That ship held all of the people of asgard.” he stops talking for a moment, twisting the fingers of his other hand through the air for a moment before creating a rattle out of thin air, then proffering it to morgan, who takes it eagerly. It's light pink, decorated with flowers. Tony thinks about stopping him, but doesnt.
Pepper is more interested by what he had said.
“All of them?” she breathes, shocked. Loki still doesnt look up.
“Not all of them. Some escaped, i don't know how. They found a planet.” He looks up at pepper, eyes wide, a small smile twisting his lips. “They’re alive.”
Loki leaves several hours later, vanishing off the porch in the gathering gloom of twilight. They stand outside for a while, tony holding Morgan close to his chest.
“Hes lonely,” tony says at last, and pepper sends him an amused look.
“You just realized?”
Tony shrugs, but takes her hand. “It took me awhile to get over the whole, ‘god of lies wants to talk to our baby’ thing.”
“No kidding. You looked like you thought he was about to pull a knife.”
“For all we knew, he was.”
They lapse into silence.
After that, loki starts to drop by more often. He never comes when anyone else is there, and always comes alone. Hes mostly interested in morgan, and seems infatuated with her, giving the barn and it's tech a cursory glance, the house a flat stare. He likes the garden, and actually spent a whole visit in it once, weeding and planting and tending. After that pepper always has plants to be potted hanging around(he starts to show up more frequently after that, after he knows he is invited, not merely tolerated), waiting for his next visit. He usually leaves some sort of gift behind, whether it be a toy for morgan, a spare part tony had talked about driving into the city to find, a new, strange plant in the garden. He shows his affection in strange ways, but he makes his point.
Then one day thor stops by. It's not that unusual, but he seems melancholy as he plays with morgan(mainly consisting of thor doing weird things and morgan laughing). Tony comments on it finally, and thor looks up, eyepatch shadowed.
“It is loki,” he says, hand running over the living room rug in an unusual display of nervousness. “He still has not returned.”
Pepper sends a sharp look at tony, who shrugs and looks perplexed. Thor goes back to playing with morgan seconds later, and tony doesn't say anything. Neither does pepper.
The next time loki appears, pepper crosses her arms and stares him down. He stares back, unruffled.
“Why haven't you told thor you're back on earth?” she says, cutting to the chase. He looks away, doing his classic shifty stare that he does when he's uncomfortable.
“I don't know.” he says finally.
“Are you afraid?”
“Yes.”
“What are you afraid of?”
Loki clasps his hands, looking pale in the porch light. “I think…” he says softly. “I think i'm afraid of messing up. I've betrayed him and fought him and tried to kill him all into he pursuit of power. I don't know if i have any chances left.”
“Loki, he’s your brother. You can't mess up family. No matter what happens, they’ll always give you a second chance. or a third. or a forth. And if they don't, they don't deserve you. You’re trying to be better, and that’s what counts.”
Loki didn't answer, so pepper took a step closer. “You have to tell him. He's worried about you.”
Loki looks up, confused. “Worried?”
“Yes,” pepper says firmly. “He cares about you, and he's worried.”
Loki is silent for a moment, then nods sharply. He goes inside to see morgan a second later, but pepper stays outside, thinking.
When Thor visits next, he is all smiles and cheer.
“Friends!” he says, lifting morgan into his arms and tickling her. “Loki has returned!”
Pepper and tony exchange a look, smiling.
“That's great, thor.” pepper says, “i’m really happy for you.”
Loki still visits, but usually in the company of his brother now. They kind of do their own thing. Sometimes they both play with morgan, cometimes, thor goes out to the shed with tony and loki hangs out in the garden with pepper. Loki smiles more.
“He’s not lonely anymore,” pepper says one day while they're putting morgan to bed, an hour after thor and loki have gone. “Hes happy.”
Tony smiles and puts his hand over hers. “So are we. i think everyone needs a family.”