Chapter Text
It all starts because Billy’s powers are on the fritz.
He wakes up to see Teddy beside him, calling his name. His boyfriend looks concerned, which makes him worry, wondering off the bat whether this is going to be one of those save-the-world days. Then he realizes that Teddy’s flying. Beside him. It’s around then that he wakes up enough to realize he’s floating above his bed. It’s also around when he starts to fall, though Teddy catches him before he hits the mattress. Having an alien boyfriend has its perks.
“You okay?” Teddy asks, setting him down carefully.
“I think..Yeah. Just..tell me that was the first time I’ve sleep-floated?” his speech picks up at the end as he starts freaking out.
“That was the first time you’ve sleep-floated,” Teddy repeats automatically before blinking. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“So this isn’t the first time?” Billy looks horrified.
“Did you just cast a spell? On me?” Teddy continues, looking a little unnerved, but best boyfriend that he is, he notices Billy’s expression and hurries to reassure him. “Hey, no, don’t freak out. It is the first time that I’ve seen you do that.”
“Oh good,” Billy breathes out before tensing again. “I cast a spell on you?”
“I think so,” Teddy says apologetically.
“I’m so sorry. So, so, so sorry.”
“No harm done,” Teddy smiles, and settles next to him on the bed. “So. Magic problems.”
“You’re way too calm about this,” Billy complains even as he entwines his hand with Teddy’s. He’s stricken by the sudden realization that it could’ve been way worse. “Oh god, Teddy what if I had said something else? What if–“
Teddy cuts him off with a kiss. “No freaking out. That’s not going to help.”
“But my powers–“
Teddy cuts him off again and not for the first time, Billy wonders if Teddy has a little magic himself. By the time the stop kissing, he’s much calmer, if a little turned on.
“Okay, so I need a plan.”
“Yeah. Ask other people who use magic?”
Billy sighs. “You’re not talking about trolling the nets for information are you?”
“Nope,” Teddy chuckles at his expression.
“Wanda’s away. Do I ask Loki? I think he might be the only other magic user we actually know,” Billy suggests reluctantly.
“God of Mischief. I vote no,” Teddy agrees.
“Plus, how do you even call him?”
“Use magic?”
“Kind of defeats the purpose.”
“So, Avengers mansion?” Teddy checks to see if Billy had come to the same conclusion.
“How cool is it that we know their phone number?” Billy grinned at his boyfriend.
It’s a little intimidating, but still awesome being able to call up the Avengers mansion. Once Billy establishes that he isn’t there because there’s a Situation, he’s put through to Tony Stark because if there’s a man with contacts, it’s him.
“Wiccan. What’s going on?” Iron Man's boss asks.
“I’m uh, do you know any magic practitioners? Besides Wanda, I know she’s off, somewhere.”
“Yeah, I know a few off the top of my head. What do you need them for? Help with magic?”
“Yeah, I have some questions.”
“Ahh. Narrower list. I could put you in contact with Doctor Strange? Or I can look and see if there’s some others in the database but he’s probably the guy you want.”
“Doctor Strange? Are you serious?” Billy shares an excited look with Teddy.
“He’s the Sorcerer Supreme,” Tony begins to explain, taking the question literally.
“I know. Defends Earth against mystical threats,” Teddy helpfully puts a finger to Billy’s lips before he can continue to rattle off facts from Heropedia and embarrass himself further.
“I’ll take that as a yes to Strange.” Tony sounds amused.
“Yes, yes please,” Billy grins and wonders whether Doctor Strange lives up to his name. There’s a silence on the phone for a beat. “Oh uh, do I leave my number or e-mail or what?”
“JARVIS’s got your number and I’ll pass it over. That everything?”
“Great uhh, nope that’s it. Thanks.”
“No problem. Good luck.”
“Thanks and thanks again for the contact,” Billy sets the phone down with a wince. “God I hate phone calls.”
“I know, me too,” Teddy commiserates.
“Unless they’re with you,” Billy amends.
“I love you.”
“I love you too,” he kisses Teddy. “We really are sickening aren’t we?”
“Complaining?”
“Never.”
“So, Doctor Strange.”
“Should’ve asked earlier, right?”
-
Things work out with Doctor Strange and before Billy knows it, he has a mentor. It’s less exciting than it sounds, at least for the moment. Once Doctor Strange determines Billy’s powers are fluctuating because they’re growing he determines the best thing for Billy to do at present is meditate. A lot. Supposedly, it’ll help him control his abilities and keep him aware of how his energy is flowing. That may be true, but it’s also incredibly boring. The only plus is that he has an excuse to hang around the Avengers mansion even if he spends the majority of the time sitting alone on the floor in a pentagram in a mostly unfurnished room. The Doctor Strange had been worried the energy of the Sanctum Santorum might interfere with Billy’s efforts.
Which might be why when Kid Loki shows up, Billy’s actually kind of happy. For about five minutes. A combination of two in which he notices Loki’s around but ignores him in favour of trying to feel the magic residing in his bones and his visitor is quiet and three in which the conversation is mostly benign.
“You know, I’m a little hurt you didn’t ask me,” Loki comments mildly.
Billy cracks an eye open. “Would you have helped?”
“Probably.”
“Without any mischief?”
“An assurance of that is against my nature,” Loki shrugs. “I did suppose we were friends of some sort though.”
“We are,” Billy hesitates. “Aren’t we?”
“Indeed. And upon Midgard friends give each other gifts do they not?” Loki chirps a little too brightly. “Lend me your extra power for ten minutes?”
“No.”
“Don’t you want to know what I would do with them?”
“Something mischief-ey I’d guess.”
“You mortals and your lack of faith,” Loki sighs. “You’re not even using your power right now.”
‘Yeah, still not giving you the power to warp reality.”
“I don’t need that, as fun as it might be. I would just like to use your excess power. It’s win-win really, you could stop worrying about control– “
“For ten minutes.”
“–and I could get some things done the easy way.”
“’Some things.’ Yeah, no. I’m going back to studying. You can leave now.” Billy shut his eyes and began to measure his breathing.
“Studying? Is that what you call sitting around on a stone floor?” Loki snickered.
“Doctor Strange told me I need to meditate so I am. Or, I’m trying to but someone’s interrupting me.”
“Magical studies were far more exciting in my day. Far more ‘hands-on’ experience,” Loki comments.
“It’s not that bad,” Billy lies. Agreeing aloud that some more active training would be more appealing would be a bit too traitorous to Doctor Strange. And it was sort of working he thought, when he got in the right mindset while meditating he could feel the magic being drawn up from the earth and through his body. Even now he thought there was some residual extra humming through him. “I’m thinking of this like some Sorcerer’s Apprentice thing. Pay your dues and all that.”
“I love that movie. Well, until the Sorcerer reappears at the end. Such delightful chaos,” Loki sounds like he’s grinning. “But do you honestly believe that just because he’s Sorcerer Supreme he’s making you do ‘apprentice’ tasks?”
“Why are you even here?” Billy asks rather than deigning to reply.
“Bored. Got a little time to kill. I thought it might be nice to check up on our rag tag band of brothers. Take your pick.”
There’s a little pause. Sensing that Loki is moving, Billy opens his eyes to find the god closer to his face than he’d appreciate.
“I have an idea. I teach you magic, you lend me your extra power for ten minutes.”
“No,” Billy says exasperated. Then Loki pokes his side. “Hey, ow!”
“Do it or I’ll keep poking you,” Loki grins.
“Are you serious? Childhood tactics?” Billy glares.
“I'm thousands of years old. Classic tactics, please,” Loki keeps poking.
“Ugh, I wish we could both see what you were like when you were a kid!” Billy cries, waving a hand to fend off his antagonist. He realizes what’s happening even as he says it. In his next breath he’s cries. “Watch out! This is why I was practising!”
“Hey! Watch it with the spellcasting!” Loki complains indignantly, raising his arms to defend himself from the incoming spell. There’s not quite enough time to break it so he does the first thing that comes to mind, deflecting it with one of the enchantments he’d woven around himself earlier as protection from Billy’s reality-warping powers.
That’s when the door opens and Tony Stark gets hit, point blank, and disappears. There’s a kid where Tony was standing. More precisely, there’s a kid unconscious on the floor in the approximate area where Tony had been standing.
“Oh shit.”
“Odin’s beard.”
-
Tony feels the blast hit his chest and for a terrifying moment, all he can think of is Afghanistan and the searing, phantom pain as shrapnel slices into his chest. Then it’s over and he’s sitting on the floor a few paces back from where he’d been standing and there’s someone else, unconscious where he’d been.
A very small someone. It’s still a little smokey so he gets up a step and it’s like every time travel nightmare he can think of because it’s him. Circa his childhood.
In every time travel story he can think of, bad stuff happens when past and present collide, so he does the most genius thing he can think of in the moment. He flees.
This is why he hates magic, he thinks, clambering into his armor. For what other reason would he have to hide from himself as a child. Pulling up a video feed in the helmet he nearly chokes realizing there’s a gaping hole in his plans. He maybe should’ve thought the whole fleeing thing through better.
Because all the video feed and Billy see is that where Tony Stark disappeared, a kid has appeared.
-
Steve thought he was getting pretty good at living in the future. He’d found his strategy to mentally deal with what still seemed like absurd prices for milk and eggs and hot dogs (it involved some mental math). He had the basics of navigating a computer and the internet down. He was dating a man. And it wasn’t something they had to hide, though they haven’t gone shouting it from the rooftops yet.
But every so often, there were things that really, really made him wish he was still living in the good old days. Where villains just plotted world domination and could be thwarted with a punch or two. Today was going to be to be one of those days.
“That’s Tony.”
“We think.”
“It does appear as such.”
“What did you do?” Steve demands, going on instinct and grabbing the most obvious suspect by the collar and pinning him to the wall. He ignores the little part of his brain that protests treating a child so roughly reasoning that Loki’s only a child in body after all.
“Sure, sure, blame me! Just because I have a checkered past,” Loki complained with his hands raised in protest.
“It’s my fault! It was an accident!”
“William?” Steve looks over to the kid, surprised.
“My powers have been acting up and I accidentally cast and spell and Loki was just defending himself when–“
“You hear that! It was self-defense!”
“–Tony opened the door and got hit by it instead. I’m sorry pleasedon’thitme,” Billy finishes, cringing a little.
Steve shakes his head and turns his attention to Loki, looking him directly in the face. “Did you know Tony was going to open the door when you deflected the spell?”
“Of course not. Honestly, you Midgardians are so suspicious. I was just minding my own business when out of the blue, twitchy lips over there threw a spell at me,” Loki points to Billy.
“Minding your own business?” Steve raises an eyebrow. “Why were you at the mansion then?”
“Am I not allowed to visit family?”
Steve sets Loki down after a long moment of evaluation then turns his attention to Billy. “Can you reverse it?”
“I-I don’t know. I’d say yes but the way my magic’s been acting up, I’m afraid I’ll screw it up worse,” Billy worries at his lip.
“Loki?”
“I think he’s right. Though personally, I’d love to see what would happen. Shall we try for an anthropomorphic shift next?
“Can you fix it,” Steve bites out.
“Oh, now the Captain wants my help?” Loki drawls, brushing imaginary dust off his clothes.
“I have a feeling if you hadn’t been here, none of this would have happened,” Steve growls.
“What’s going on here?”
“Iron Man!” Steve can’t help feeling a surge of relief when his teammate appears. Iron Man will know what to do, right? Though he’ll probably be as freaked out as Steve is because it’s his boss that’s been turned into a child.
-
As Billy hurries to explain to Iron Man what happened, Tony hopes he’s not making a huge mistake returning to the scene of the crime. Any moment now, he, kid him, could wake up and then they’ll meet. Tony wishes there was another way to test whether meeting your future self when you don’t know it’s him will break the timestream. If only there was an algorithm for magic.
“So, there’s no way to send him back now?” he asks, focusing on the main issue. “Err, swap his back?”
Oh, this was going to get complicated. He was really, really going to hope that if they cast some sort of swapping places spell the kid wasn’t going to get stuck in his armor.
“Not at present, are you sure there’s nothing you can do?” Steve asks Billy.
“The only one who can undo the spell is Billy,” Loki sounds far too delighted.
“Nothing I’m sure of right now. I’ll need some time,” Billy says, looking miserable. Tony wishes there was some way of reassuring the teen without giving away Iron Man’s identity.
“It’s alright son. You can do this,” Steve says reassuringly.
“You really think so?”
Even Tony can see how much Billy needs the lie.
“I know you can,” Steve says confidently. “And if not, we’ll find some way to make things right. Iron Man, you have access to Tony’s database. Can you look up who might be able to help?”
“Maybe Doctor Strange can fix things when he gets back!” Billy suggests hopefully.
Loki snorts. “You mortals. Didn’t you listen? Only ‘Wiccan’ here can reverse the spell. Unless he’d like to loan me his powers.”
“Don’t.”
“That sounds like a terrible idea.”
“Oh ye of such little faith. In any case, might I suggest that you search for some babysitters instead?” Loki grins and it looks as if he’s going to leave. “I do look forward to seeing how this unravels.”
“Brother! I did not know you had come a calling!” Thor cries cheerfully, striding forwards with his arms outstretched before stopping, seeing the kid on the floor. “Oh ho! Hast thou brought a companion?”
While Steve and Iron Man look at one another, trying to figure out how to break the news, Thor peers down to examine the child who’s starting to stir.
“Why, is this not Tony Stark? Loki, what have you done? Reverse this enchantment at once,” he frowns, looking disappointed at his brother.
“Why does everyone blame me first?” Loki complains. “I thought this ‘stereotyping’ practice was ill-regarded. Anyhow, it is not I, brother, who is to blame.”
“That would uh, be me,” Billy interjects hesitantly. Tony would feel more sorry for the kid if he weren’t the cause of all the trouble.
“He says he need some time to work on a fix,” Steve tells Thor. “In the meantime, it looks like we’ve got to take care of Tony.”
“Uh, has anyone thought about,” Billy starts cautiously, continuing when he has everyone’s attention. “We’ve been assuming it’s Tony Stark as a kid we’ve got here. Not adult Tony in a kid’s body. So, what do we tell him when he wakes up?”
“The truth,” Steve says.
“That he’s dreaming.” Iron Man says at the same time.
“Really?” They ask each other at the same time.
“Finding out you’ve awoken in the future is hard, I know from experience. But it’s far better to be told the truth than be lied to until the lies collapse upon each other like a house of cards,” Steve argues. Tony winces behind the facemask, the guilt of keeping his identity secret from his boyfriend sitting heavy on his shoulders.
“According to everything I know about time travel, which admittedly, is highly theoretical, changing the past will change the future. The more he learns about his future, the more in danger we are,” Tony protests.
“Loki!” Thor’s booming voice interrupts them. “You have said you cannot undo the enchantment, but perhaps you can be of assistance here?”
“Must I?” Loki groans.
“Please, brother,” Thor looks at him plaintively.
“Very well,” Loki says with a put upon sigh. “I can make it so the child forgets all that he learns in his time out of time, but no more.”
“Thank-you brother!” Thor bursts into one of his wide smiles and envelops Loki in a crushing hug.
“Let me go!” Loki chokes, straightening his garments once he’s free. “A moment if you please.”
Tony watches worriedly as Loki begins casting a spell. There’s a part of him that is definitely not comfortable with this plan. On the other hand, what choice do they have? He, younger him, will be waking soon.
“It’s done,” Loki announces. “Now, I have things to attend to.”
The God of Mischief speaks some magical word and disappears.
“So, we’re agreed. The truth?” Steve confirms.
“How about, the truth when we have to, but avoid mentions of his specific future anyway. Just in case. And if we can, avoid the whole superheros are an everyday thing now fact?” Tony suggests. He’s still leery of trusting magic, let alone Loki’s magic. “We should probably ease him into the situation.”
“Alright,” Steve agrees after a moment and looks to Thor.
“Aye,” Thor nods. “Dost this mean I shall not have the pleasure of making acquaintances with young Tony?”
“Quite possibly. Or maybe we can say you’re a foreign dignitary or something. I’m going to move him somewhere a bit more comfortable,” Tony moves towards himself.
“Actually, Iron Man, how about I do that?” Steve strides past him. “Aside from William, I’m the one who currently looks most like a civilian. I know he’s your boss but you might have to sit this one out too given your armor.”
Tony can’t think of a good reason to protest considering that hiding the truth had been his idea. “Right. Nice catch, Cap.”
“William, work on your magic and try to contact Doctor Strange. Thor, there are other spellcasters you know from Asgard right? Can you see if there’s a solution there? Iron Man, can you message the other Avengers and let them know we’ll be in the, hmm north wing?” Steve rattles off quickly before going quick as he picks up kid Tony.
“Left wing’s more secure.”
“Left wing it is,” Steve nods. As he carries the sleeping form off Tony’s enhanced audio receptors catches him murmuring sadly. “Don’t worry Tony, we’ll get you back.”
Guilt back in full force, Tony wonders if there’s actually a good way to come clean about everything now or if it’s too late.