Loki Imagines

Lost and Found

Loki can't help but feel annoyed as he stares at the clock on the wall. He's been waiting for someone to show up for a little while now; they're about ten minutes late, and although this time usually passes in the blink of an eye for a god such as himself, it's more about the principle of the thing that really irritates him. Despite his own rocky claims at a family heritage, Loki has been the supposed son of a king for most of his life, and he isn't used to being let down.

Had this incident happened a decade or so ago, Loki would have taken matters into his own hands. He would have found the person he's waiting on, sought them out and tracked them down like a hunter. He would have smiled to see the fear in their eyes, and exacted promises that they'll never let him down again. Loki doesn't usually have to cite the consequences, people know.

However, he's supposed to be doing better than that. He got out from the rubble of his fallen home a while back, and the sight of Asgard up in flames doesn't leave you all that easily. Loki's made about a thousand promises to his brother's respect and his mother's memory and his father's legacy that he won't be the same jaded fool that he was before, that he'll try and live a little better. He can't break that word so quickly, can he?

Besides, it's precisely because Loki is supposed to be doing better that he's in a situation like this in the first place. After Asgard fell, Heimdall took them quickly to Earth after receiving some sort of premonition about which ways and enemies to avoid. The Asgardians set up shop in some corner of the world, doing their best to rebuild a golden city out of Norwegian stone and soot.

Loki isn't entirely sure how well it's going, though, because he's long since left it. He tried to stay among his people, honestly he did, but it never quite stuck. He'd wake up in the middle of the night and feel this urge to go somewhere, to seek something or someone out. Before, he would have called it the need to run. Now, though, when he's no longer in danger? Loki would consider it his birthright. He has always been the trickster, hasn't he? When there's no one to con or deceive, it almost feels as if he's lost his purpose.

Thor noticed it too, after a time, and pulled some strings among the Avengers to set Loki up with a place on their team. They weren't too happy about it in the beginning, Loki remembers with a fond smile, but after they realized that he was actually a fairly powerful ally when given the chance, they reluctantly opened their doors. Ever since then, Loki has been entertaining the regular mission and extraction opportunities. It feels strange to actually do good for someone else. Maybe it even feels nice.

Loki had stayed in New York for a while, even met some Midgardian woman and had a child. The woman is long gone, Loki doesn't entirely know why, but his brother convinced him to keep the girl. Even without Thor's urging, though, Loki wouldn't have left her. He remembers all too well how it feels to be abandoned as a child, and the piercing hurt it can cause when you're older.

Now, though, he's pressed with the difficulties of caring for the child. Loki is called on enough missions that he can't watch her all the time, so he has to find a suitable caregiver. At first, Loki scoffed at all of them. Why should he trust some mortal to hover by his half-god child's bedside, administering primitive medications and having no clue how to deal with her?

He'd been forced to come to them after a while, though. In the end, Loki simply can't afford to abandon either the missions or his child. He owes the mother that, at least. He owes it to his younger self, too, to do good on his promises that he'd be a better father than Odin if he was given the chance. In truth, Loki doesn't know if he'll break that promise or not, but he can at least try to uphold it for now.

Five minutes later, the babysitter finally arrives at the door, breathing heavily to show that she's been rushing, although Loki can see the newly purchased cup of coffee in her car. It's an early morning, to be sure, but still. Surely the coffee can wait when she's already late for the job.