Chapter Text
…If Loki had been spending the last hour scrolling through cat pictures on his phone, so what? He hadn’t been doing it for himself. No, definitely not. He’d been looking at pictures of cats for Wanda and Pietro. Just so… he’d have some cute ones to show them. If they ever wanted to look at cat pictures.
He was just being… Well, not a good parent. He wasn’t their parent. He wasn’t sure how Wanda and Pietro saw him, really. Other than the shapeshifting superhero that their dad was dating who was living in their house under threat of turning into a bat for fifty years if he ever left.
He knew Wanda and Pietro – miraculously enough – liked him, and he hoped more than anything that someday they might view him as their family, but… Well, for now, this was who he was: the person who spent his Friday afternoons sitting in their library scrolling endlessly through cat pictures. (…For Wanda and Pietro, of course. Purely for Wanda and Pietro.)
But, he supposed, the cats would have to wait for another day. Because a text from Darcy flashed across his phone screen like a beacon:
I’M DONE WITH EXAMS BABYYYY
And the first text was shortly followed by a second:
You gotta come over and eat ice-cream with me
A small smile rose on his face. Yes, the cats would definitely have to wait. Because now, he had something entirely different to focus on: Darcy.
And one of those focus points was his happiness for his friend, of course. Darcy had been spending the last two weeks studying intensively for her astrophysics exams and living in a constant state of stress and exhaustion. Finally completing her exams was obviously worth celebrating, and she more than deserved endless rest and ice-cream in the aftermath of it all. He would be very happy to celebrate with her.
But… he could have multiple focus points at the same time, couldn’t he? And he couldn’t have helped it even if he’d wanted to – he instantly zeroed in on the tantalizing possibility of surprising his friend.
Because the thing was, Darcy had of course been busy over the past two weeks. So busy, in fact, that Loki hadn’t wanted to distract her with any of his life updates.
And of course, although she didn’t know it, his life had changed a dizzying amount in the last two weeks. He’d gone from having a largely clandestine relationship with Stephen and a tenuous ‘maybe’ of a future with him to quite suddenly having everything. To Wanda and Pietro accepting him. To all three of them looking at him like they loved him, like maybe they always would. To moving in with Stephen, Wanda, and Pietro and planning to live with them for the foreseeable future. (Oh, and the whole bat thing, he supposed.)
And Darcy didn’t know any of that. The last she’d heard, he’d been wallowing in uncertainty and hoping that one day he might be able to be reintroduced to Wanda and meet Pietro.
So he had to update her, of course. And, for the first time in what felt like forever, he actually had something positive to tell her. It was thrilling.
Or… Well, alright, he supposed he could simply tell her about it all. But that would be far too easy. And not nearly as much fun as the other idea he had in mind.
And besides, said idea was too perfect of an opportunity to pass up. Because Darcy had so unsuspectingly asked him to come over for ice-cream – the very thing that she’d lost out on having with Stephen and Wanda once upon a time. And that felt like an enormous, winking invitation from the universe if he’d ever seen one.
He put his phone down, his contentment at his own brilliant scheme lapping around him. “Hey, Stephen?”
“Hmm?” Stephen looked up from the book he’d been reading absently before focusing in on him with a faint smile. “How’re the cats?”
Loki blinked. Had he really been that obvious? He thought he’d been subtle in his cat scrolling. (Cat scrolling that had all been for the kids, of course.) “…The cats are adorable. But that’s beside the point.”
Loki clearly piqued Stephen’s curiosity at that and he put the book down. “Oh, so we’re not talking about cats, then?”
If someone else had asked him that, he might have rolled his eyes. And he certainly wouldn’t have been charmed senseless. But when Stephen asked the question, he was perfect. And Loki didn’t think he’d ever get tired of hearing Stephen’s intoxicating tone of light teasing, even when it was about something as simple as cats.
…And yes, Loki had a problem. But that wasn’t news to him, and he really didn’t care. So it was fine. And Loki’s lips quirked upwards. “Remind me again, Stephen – didn’t you spend, what was it, two hours yesterday looking at pictures of ghost dogs?”
Stephen grinned. “More like three hours. I wouldn’t call it ‘looking’, though, I’d categorize it more as… ‘enchantment detection.’”
Loki didn’t blink. “Right. You look at pictures of ghost dogs for work and I look at cat pictures for children.”
Stephen shrugged. “We do what we must.” He looked more carefully at Loki. “So. What did you want to talk about?”
Darcy, he reminded himself firmly. We need to talk about Darcy. Because he could easily get lost in an afternoon like this with Stephen. He had been getting very pleasantly lost in it. But there would be plenty more time to get lost with him – years upon years, he hoped.
“We aren’t doing anything this afternoon, right?”
It was a rhetorical question. He knew they weren’t. And, just as perfectly, Wanda and Pietro weren’t either. The afternoon really had been shaping up to be a dreamily homey one. But… they didn’t have to stay home today.
“You sound like you have an idea.” The beginnings of a smile flitted around the corners of Stephen’s mouth in a way that Loki really could not let himself get caught up in right now. Surprising Darcy, he reminded himself yet again before continuing on.
“…Well, you remember Darcy, obviously.” Loki waited for Stephen to nod – mostly for the dramatic effect of momentary silence – before continuing. “And you remember how you and Wanda and I were going to get ice-cream with her before…”
Loki would get there eventually – he hoped – but for now he still struggled with talking about his prior break-up with Stephen in a manner remotely resembling casualness. But he didn’t know how to proceed; he didn’t know how to calmly slip ‘before I broke up with you and possibly traumatized us both for forever in the process’ into casual conversation.
But Stephen simply nodded again, as though he knew exactly what Loki was alluding to but it was in the past and they didn’t need to get caught up in it, and… Loki felt as though something inside of him was glowing softly at the thought.
He took a centering breath, pushing past all of it. “Anyways. You know how I haven’t been able to talk with Darcy for the last few weeks because of her finals? So she doesn’t know I’m living here now?”
Loki could see Stephen wondering where exactly this was going, but he nodded. “And you’re really looking forward to telling her about it all.”
A smile grew on Loki’s face. “Absolutely I am. And she just texted me to tell me she’s done with her finals and to invite me over for some celebratory ice-cream.”
“That’s great.”
Loki nodded. “It is. Mhm. And I thought maybe you and the kids might like to tag along for ice-cream, too. But…” Loki blinked, adopting a look of faux-innocence that he fully intended to look ridiculous. “I might forget to tell her that you’re coming with me.”
“Feeling chaotic today, are we?” Stephen asked through a grin, as though he hadn’t spent the better part of the morning channeling a literal chaos elemental and loudly breaking a considerable number of plates in the kitchen in the process.
“Well, we did promise to get ice-cream with her once upon a time,” Loki said calmly despite the smile that was rapidly overtaking his face. “And we want to teach Wanda and Pietro that commitment to plans is important, right?”
“Sure,” Stephen agreed easily, mirroring his own smile. “You know, it’s nice to see someone who cares so much about instilling good values in the next generation.”
Loki’s grin grew. “That’s me.”
Stephen shook his head at his role-model of a boyfriend, his smile once again growing with Loki’s. “Alright, then let’s do it – as long as they’re on board with it.”
And Stephen was looking at him like he loved him – a look that never failed to make Loki feel dizzy with intoxication. But today, there was something unique about it.
Because he wasn’t used to people looking at him positively for coming up with schemes, even if they were relatively innocent ones. But Stephen was, and… Well. The fact that Stephen loved him, ice-cream schemes and all, would have been enough to get lost in forever.
Wanda and Pietro, to Loki’s delight, were absolutely on board with his ice-cream schemes.
He’d been expecting them to be approving of any plan involving ice-cream, of course. And he’d thought Pietro would go along with just about anything Wanda was on board with.
What Loki had been less sure, of, though, was how Wanda would feel about the idea of seeing Darcy again.
Because it was very possible that she wouldn’t like the idea, wasn’t it? It would be understandable if seeing Darcy again would just be a painful reminder for Wanda of the crushing disappointment she’d gone through – the disappointment that Loki had put her through – when she had lost so much more than a fun weekend of eating ice-cream with him and Darcy. No, she’d had to come to grips with the painful disappointment of not just losing having ice-cream with him, but losing Loki himself. And he certainly wouldn’t blame her if Darcy was inextricable from her memory of it all.
Or maybe – perhaps the best-case scenario – Wanda would feel neutral about the idea of seeing Darcy again, seeing as she had only met her once over a year ago for about three minutes.
But no; as she so often did, Wanda surprised him. Because Wanda was thrilled by the prospect of seeing Darcy again. And, when she happily told Pietro that he was going to love Darcy – she was so cool, just wait – Loki couldn’t help the smile on his face.
Darcy was about to get way more than she’d bargained for with that text. And he looked down at his phone to tap a response to her.
Of course we need to celebrate, he typed, feeling like his entire world was perfect as he did so. I can come over this afternoon if it works for you?
The chime of Darcy’s reply came almost immediately. Yesss! Come over whenever
Loki grinned to himself. She was making this so easy.
As Loki stepped through Stephen’s portal onto the smooth sidewalk lining Darcy’s apartment complex, the dry and chilled air of November met his face abruptly. And he looked towards the large metal door that served as the gateway into the complex, hearing the sound of sparks closing behind him.
The plan was fairly simple; he’d ask Darcy to buzz him into the complex, as he would have any other day that he was coming to visit her. Because Loki was going to be thorough about this, and that meant tricking Darcy into thinking she was only going to be seeing him. And not his boyfriend that could make portals into her apartment or his two adorable children.
And then they’d go up to meet her and he would absolutely delight in seeing the utter shock on her face as he filled her in on the last two weeks.
He pressed the intercom button on the side of the door contentedly before typing the code into the keypad that would link him to her apartment. “Darcy, hello; can you buzz me in?”
Loki bit back a smile in the ensuing, waiting silence as he looked towards Wanda and Pietro. Because they were watching him with wide, fascinated eyes. Like somehow what he was doing – standing next to them on the sidewalk and pressing a button – was deeply intriguing. (Never mind the fact that they lived in a magic house; no, this was what they considered to be interesting.)
…Well, Loki supposed they’d probably never seen an intercom before. And, unsurprisingly, he found the entire thing completely adorable.
“Yeah sure, come on up,” Darcy’s casual and delightfully unsuspecting reply issued into the silence.
Loki took his hand off the intercom as the door before them unlocked with a soft click and swung open. “Alright, now we’ll just go up to Darcy’s apartment.”
“Ooh, does Darcy have an apartment number?” Wanda asked, her wide eyes shining with excitement as she looked up at him. “Like on TV?”
Loki didn’t know why she was zeroing on an apartment number, of all things, as the part that was exciting, but he nodded solemnly nonetheless. “You know, Wanda, believe it or not, she does.”
“Whoa! What’s the number?!” Pietro asked, eyes somehow going even wider than his sister’s.
And he sounded so indescribably enthused as he asked the question. Like the answer was going to be very fun to hear. Like the answer wasn’t just going to be a number.
“…Twenty-four.”
“Cool,” Wanda whispered. She turned to look up at Stephen. “Hey, Daddy, do you think I could ever have an apartment number?”
Stephen blinked at her. “…Sure, Wanda. If you ever live in an apartment.”
Wanda nodded, seeming content with this prerequisite. And…
And, suddenly, apartment numbers were the last thing on his mind.
Because, with a single whoosh of wind and wholly without warning, they were abruptly short one six-year-old. And Loki’s own eyes widened all at once as a rush of panic hit him.
Pietro was gone.
The panic made it difficult to think.
Where had Pietro gone?
He would be all by himself, with no one to supervise him or keep him safe – what if he got hit by a car, or got lost, or –
…As quickly as the fear had arrived, though, cool relief punctured his ballooning panic. Because, Loki abruptly realized, the door to the apartment complex was pushed further open than it had been a moment ago.
So… Pietro must have gone inside the stairwell. What other conclusion was there?
And Loki still didn’t love that – there was a small chance that something could happen to Pietro without an adult around – but it was far better than the alternative of Pietro having run off into the wide and dangerous world by himself.
And… this seemed to be something of a chronic issue. Because how could he forget when Wanda and Pietro had shown up by themselves in the middle of a battle-torn street simply to say hello to him?
But Pietro was safe within the walls of the complex, Loki reminded himself. There wouldn’t be much that could hurt him in Darcy’s building. And he took a slightly shaky breath.
“…Does Pietro do this a lot?” he asked faintly.
“Yeah,” Wanda said nonchalantly as her father nodded beside her.
And, despite Stephen’s relatively calm external demeanor, Loki could clearly see that he’d been hit with the same flash of panic that Loki had at Pietro’s sudden disappearance. He wondered if Wanda could see it, too.
Because Stephen had had an – understandable – tendency to not want to worry Wanda unless he absolutely had to for as long as Loki had known him. But Loki had certainly noticed it had increased significantly after all the trauma that Wanda had gone through.
Stephen still had things that concerned him, though – of course he did – and his boyfriend hadn’t spent the last millennia carefully mastering the complex art of concealing his true emotions like Loki had.
It couldn’t be good for him, this pretending to be fine. But… Well, Loki was at least glad that Stephen wasn’t alone in it anymore. He wasn’t alone in any of it. And, hopefully, he never would be again.
And thankfully, when his children weren’t around, Stephen had multiple people he could express his full worries to – including Loki.
Stephen took a breath, though, meeting Loki’s eyes. “I tell Pietro not to run off in public, but… I don’t know, I think sometimes he just gets so excited that he forgets.” Stephen took a deep breath. “I’m going to talk to him again.”
Loki nodded. Good.
And, as they stepped forward through the doorway, he wanted to wrap himself around Stephen and tell him what he probably already knew – that Darcy’s apartment complex was quite safe and that it would be very unlikely that something would hurt Pietro in the few moments it would take for them to locate him.
But he didn’t want to worry Wanda either, so he simply let out a slow exhale. “That boy is going to give me a heart attack, I swear.”
“Oh come on,” Stephen said with a degree of calmness that Loki distantly admired as they began their way up the steps in search of Pietro. “Cardiovascular disease would be way too normal of a way for you to go.”
Loki made a considering noise at Stephen’s admittedly good point, allowing light-heartedness to flow over his demeanor as he did so.
And that was all well and good until… Until, within a few short steps of their ascent, Wanda silently held up a small hand towards Stephen. And suddenly, lightheartedness was the furthest thing from Loki’s mind. Because with that tiny gesture - and with the way that Stephen took her offered hand in his like it was second nature - almost everything else faded from his mind.
It faded in a way that wasn’t painful – not quite – but the tiny motion filled him with some inexplicable, vaguely longing emotion nonetheless.
Because… Well. It wasn’t news to him that Wanda loved Stephen to an almost impossible degree. He saw the infinite love that she had for him embedded into her actions every day. From proudly given crayon drawings to small hands unthinkingly extended to her miraculous tendency to listen to him when he told her to do something, even at six years old.
Stephen was an enormous part of Wanda’s heart, and of course Stephen loved Wanda with the same degree of love – with the kind of love that was so strong there wasn’t even a word for it.
And Loki was so glad that they had each other. And he was glad that now they had Pietro, too - and that Pietro had them. Of course he was. But… it was also a quiet reminder.
It was a reminder that, even though he had moved in with the three of them as of four days ago – something he was still ecstatic about – he was nowhere near the level of where he wished he could be with Stephen’s children. But that didn’t stop him from hoping that maybe someday Wanda and Pietro might think of him in a way that remotely approached the way they saw Stephen.
And it didn’t stop him from wishing - so selfishly - that they could love him as much as he loved them. Or that, someday, they would reach for his hand with the same unthinking easiness that they would reach for Stephen’s hand with. The kind of easiness that could only come from seeing him as an inextricable part of their home and their hearts – the kind of easiness that screamed family.
They weren’t there yet, though. Obviously. Maybe they never would be.
And it was stupid to feel this way – he knew it was – but he couldn’t help the faint sense of distant sadness that washed over him at the thought of it.
He was well aware that he was setting himself up for failure with this line of thinking, of course. The idea of Wanda and Pietro ever loving him as much as they loved Stephen was a fundamentally flawed one – an impossibly high standard that would never happen, no matter how much he bonded with them. But… Well, that didn’t stop him from selfishly wishing that somehow, someday, they could love him that much. That, in their eyes, he could be an equal part of their family.
…He quickly shoved his quiet insecurities back into a thick mental box, though, when he heard him.
Pietro.
His cheerful little voice was wafting softly but quite unmistakably down the stairwell from somewhere above them.
“…blue boat for my birthday, but also maybe barbies, and at school they said you get a cookie on your birthday, but a lot of times they’re raisin cookies and I don’t like raisin cookies!”
Relief flooded through Loki at hearing Pietro’s voice. He certainly sounded okay, although he would feel better when he could see him.
But, as a second voice drifted down the stairs, Loki felt a grin rising on his face. Because he heard the unmistakable voice of Darcy, sounding deeply baffled, as she said, “…That’s… great, kid. Birthdays are fun.”
“Yeah, they are! And mine’s gonna be in seventy-five days!”
“…Wow, yeah. Cool. Uh, kid, do you have… like… adults nearby…?”
Loki bit back a laugh.
If the fact that Darcy was calling Pietro ‘kid’ and the fact that she was asking him if he had any guardians were anything to go off of, he was guessing that Pietro had been far too excited to bother with something as trivial as introducing himself before launching into this birthday discussion with his newfound friend. (And, in this instance, the difference from his twin really was striking – Wanda would’ve been way too shy to talk to a complete stranger with that much confidence.)
So… That could only mean that Darcy had no idea she was face to face with the very same little boy that she’d heard Loki endlessly wax poetic about wishing he could meet.
Oh, this was great.
This was even better than Loki’s original plan.
“Yeah, I was adopted!” Pietro said happily, not answering Darcy’s question at all, and Loki had to bite back another laugh.
“…Oh. Adopted, huh? Congratulations. That’s… really great.”
Loki could so vividly imagine the way that Darcy must be looking at the small child in front of her. She’d be charmed by him and his utter adorableness, because of course she would be. Who wouldn’t be? But she’d also be baffled as to whose kid he was and how and why he’d come to be at her doorstep, of all places. And she’d probably be looking at him with a hint of concern, too, wondering where his family was.
“Yeah, being adopted is really great,” Pietro agreed easily. “Are you adopted, too?”
Loki saw Stephen shake his head with unbridled amusement as they neared the top of stairwell. And Darcy, clearly still angling for an answer to the whole ‘oh my god, kid, where are the adults that are responsible for you?’ question, tried a different approach.
“Um, nope. No, I wasn’t adopted. It’s great you were, though! But, like. Are there adults with you in this building right now…?”
“Oh, yeah!” Pietro answered cheerfully, as though elaborating on that answer wasn’t at all necessary. And at that, Loki had to bite back yet another laugh.
They were almost to the top of the stairs, though, and Loki was so excited to see her face –
“Okay… Well, do you know where – ”
Darcy stopped abruptly upon seeing Loki, Stephen, and Wanda round the corner of the stairwell, her face going slack with utter surprise.
And this? This was what pure satisfaction felt like.
This might be one of his best schemes ever.
“Hi Darcy,” Loki said cheerfully, giving her a small wave.
And somehow, that seemed to shock her even more. Loki really wasn’t sure why that did it, of all things – why a wave would send her over the edge – but he didn’t even bother trying to school the immense entertainment that had to be written all over his face at her stratospheric levels of shock.
And Darcy looked numbly from Loki, to Stephen and Wanda, and back to Pietro standing at her doorstep. “Wait, so you’re…” She looked back at Loki, her eyebrows raising, and she gestured at the little boy standing in front of her. “This is Pietro?!”
“Thanks for keeping an eye on him,” Stephen said calmly – as though this was an everyday thing for all of them – despite the clear amusement sparkling in his eyes. And somehow Loki loved him even more for it.
There was another pure moment of shock, as Darcy was clearly working through her surprise – which, hey, Loki was starting to feel slightly offended; it wasn’t that inconceivable that he might be coming with Stephen and the kids for ice-cream, was it?
But Wanda waved happily, too, letting go of Stephen’s hand to hop in place. “Hi Darcy!”
And something in Darcy’s frozen brain seemed to melt at Wanda’s obvious joy at seeing her again as she broke into a genuine smile.
“Hi, Wanda.”
And, despite the hilarity of the situation, something soft and happy deep within Loki melted at that, too.
Darcy cleared her throat in what Loki could only assume was her best attempt to shake off her remaining surprise. “Uh. It’s really nice to see you again, Wanda.” She looked towards Stephen. “And Stephen! Um… It’s great to see you, too.”
Stephen nodded, smiling slightly. “Likewise.”
“So uh… You guys worked things out, huh?”
And, from the way she said it, it was clear she was very curious as to how the hell that had happened, but was forcibly holding herself back from asking more questions about the specifics. Loki was sure that would only last until she got him alone, though.
“Yeah!” Pietro said cheerfully, as though the question had been directed at him. And Loki grinned at the same time Stephen did.
Darcy looked back down at the little boy in front of her and blinked, seeming to take him in fully for possibly the first time. “Well… Pietro, it’s really, really good to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”
(What she’d heard, of course, had pretty much just been a lot of – perhaps embarrassingly – longing and wistful soliloquies about just how much Loki wanted to meet the kid. But Darcy, as always, was an excellent friend – and Loki appreciated her leaving the particular details of what she’d heard about Pietro out of it.)
“You have?” Pietro asked, looking at her with interest.
She nodded, smiling at him. “I sure have.”
…Alright, that emphasis might have been a tad bit unnecessary. Not that Pietro would pick up on it.
Wanda resumed hoping in place. “Darcy, what kind of ice-cream do you have?” she asked eagerly. And, at the question, Pietro looked at Darcy with eyes that were just as impossibly bright as his sister’s.
Darcy’s own eyes widened slightly at the question, and Loki could see it – he could see the moment that she put it together. Why Loki had brought them all over here.
She was getting her ice-cream day with them after all. And something in her softened further as the smile on her face grew at her realization of that.
“Oh, Wanda, I have so many kinds. I’ve been stress-eating for exams so I have, like, six different kinds. I’ll show you guys.”
Wanda’s eyes shimmered with the kind of pure youthful happiness that only the promise of ice-cream at six-years-old can give you. “Okay!”
Even after all the surprise she’d gone through, now that she’d realized what was going on, Darcy looked like she was on cloud nine. “Well, I think you guys had better come inside. We’re very overdue for some ice-cream, huh?”