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Thor came in the door to the small, shabby apartment absolutely beaming. Until he noticed that the apartment wasn't as shabby as he'd left it. Which was when he noticed Loki sitting in the elegant plush green sofa in the middle of the living room. They were in an apartment that Thor insisted on renting himself with the money he'd saved up since coming to Midgard on a longer term basis instead of a swanky condo that Tony offered to pay for while Stark Tower was being remodeled (rebuilt, actually [thank you, Loki]). The only thing was that Thor hadn't saved up very much, so the apartment was less than desirable. Walking into the room now, you could easily think that you were in a very swanky Tony Stark-type condo based on the immensely expensive looking decor that now littered the place.
"Loki, what in the Gods' name did you do?" After his brother just gave him that dangerous smile, Thor relaxed a bit. "Is this some sort of mirage of yours?"
Loki actually laughed a bit then. "No, certainly not, brother. It would be exhausting holding up such a trick for so long, and you know I loathed the previous ambiance this place possessed."
Sighing, and rubbing his brow, Thor just stared at Loki, silently bidding his brother to continue explaining himself.
"The furniture store next to that super-center you were just at might now be missing a few pieces of their merchandise."
His brows furrowing in anger, Thor chastised his brother. "Do you not respect my authority as your keeper, Loki? I could speak those words at any time and those runes carved on your wrists would cause you a lot of grief!"
You see, Loki was invisibly 'chained' to Thor at the moment, which meant that while he was on probation, he couldn't be too far away from Thor at all, or else the charms that were placed on him would ignite, leaving him in searing pain for hours. The same were to happen if Loki were to do something Thor disapproved of, all Thor would have to do is say a specific runic phrase and Loki would be screaming. Of course, it would probably have to take Loki destroying half of New York again for Thor to do such a rash thing, and Loki knew it. So, he toyed with him.
"Relax, brother. I called your metal man, and he took care of it for us."
Thor opened his mouth, ready to scold again, but Loki jumped the gun and interrupted him before a sound even came out of Thor's mouth.
"Also, Tony told me to mention that he promised to let you take care of the rent, he made no other such promises about anything else."
Huffing an angry sigh out of his nose like a bull, Thor closed his mouth and composed himself. "This is exactly why I got you what I got you at the store. You are, as Tony says, a 'diva'."
Like a kitten perking up at the sound of shaking a treat bag, Loki immediately focused on his brother. "You got me a present?"
"Quite a few, actually." Thor grinned again, as he was when he first walked through the door. "I never thought I'd find anything like these. Humans are so odd, romanticizing someone who ripped their cities apart."
"Wait, what? Who? What the hell are you talking about, just show me what you got me!" Grabbing his arm and pulling Thor next to him on the couch, Loki slid right in between the shopping bags, still in Thor's arms, and his brother's lap.
Thor beamed brighter than the sun, and he threw his arms around Loki's small frame, linking his hands full of stuff behind his brother's back. "And what if I don't?"
Loki pouted. "Come on, Thor, you know I'll make it worth your while should I actually like your gifts, and you know you wouldn't want to miss out on that." Grinding his hips against Thor's crotch as he whined, the trickster knew he'd love anything from Thor, but he did enjoy teasing him. Immensely. He nipped at his blonde's neck just for added effect.
"Fine, fine. Here, have it at." Ecstatic with glee, Thor couldn't be bothered with his brother's catty remarks, and he really wanted to be bothered with his brother's sinful suggestions, so he gave the bags up.
Quickly and without ceremony, Loki dove into the bags and dumped them all out over the couches soft cushions next to where they were sitting. Gasping, the trickster picked up one of the many toys that were spread out before him. It was a little bobble-head figure with a green and gold coat, black hair, and small beady eyes.
"Dear Gods'. It's me." Loki stared in wonder at the comical thing.
In the pile, there was a small plushie with similar attributes, a very realistic, bendable action figure of himself, a keychain that seemed to be in likeness of his horned helmet, and various other small toys and merchandise with his face, body, or something else of his on it. Was that a poster? Were those pajamas?!
"What do you think?" Thor questioned with such honesty and joy, it made Loki's heart do a little flip.
"I think.. I am absolutely adorable. Look at my little face. Just as precious in person, I guarantee it." Loki winked at his brother, and as he looked through the immense amount of random stuff that was his, Loki just couldn't believe it. "The humans want to kneel to me after all, I knew that of course."
Snorting, Thor let his fingers slide through Loki's hair, resting his hands at the base of his brother's neck. "Don't get any ideas, unless of course, its to thank me for feeding your massive ego."
Moaning, Loki murmured into Thor's ear. "Anything, my dearest brother."
~
About a week later, Thor came home from the store again, this time grocery shopping. Tony offered to teach Thor some more about living as human, some common sense kind of stuff, nothing too serious. It took much longer than expected just to get Thor out of the cereal and pastries aisle. Long story short, Tony had to pay off the shop owner in apologies after the blonde oaf starting threatening soccer moms over pop tarts. He still bought eighteen boxes of them.
Not seeing Loki at first, Thor was nearly startled, until he noticed their bedroom door was cracked. Being interviewed by the plaza security took a few hours, so he almost shouldn't have been surprised that Loki fell asleep already. Peaking in the room, the thunder god smiled blissfully to himself. Loki sleeping was practically the only time he saw his brother truly at peace. What he noticed next just made his heart melt.
Loki was cuddled up with a big plushie, probably a few feet tall, with a red cape, a squishy hammer, and blonde hair.