My Father's Glorious Purpose

Day 15

Loki POV

I've been coming to see Leilani every day right now. No one else is here but Pepper and Tony, who is somewhere in the building. I don't know where he is. Leilani and I have gone to the park almost every day by now, and I'm slowly running out of things to do with her.

I feel a tug on my jacket and look down at Leilani. "I want to go to Asgard." I stare at her. "What? No. You know this." "Please". I sit her on the couch and say, "No, Leilani. We've talked about this." She pouts, and I sigh. "You are perfectly fine here." I brush her hair out of her face with my hand. "Look at me for a minute." She turns and looks at me. "You are everything to me, Leilani. I need you here and safe. Ok?" She nods slowly. "I love you more than anything else in the universe. Through all the nine realms, my princess." She giggles, and I smile. "But for right now, what do you want to do?" "You to read." "What do you want me to read?" "The book". "That's for when you go to bed, though." "Please daddy". "Lei, it's 2 in the afternoon. We have a few hours." She gives me a look. "How about I read more than I usually do, and we do something else?" "Color," she says in a small voice. I nod. "Ok, let's color.".

We end up coloring for a few hours, which is longer than I expected this would last. "Daddy". "Hmm". "Look". I look at Leilani, and she's showing me what she colored. "What is it?" "Uh, you and me." I nod. "I like it, but why is there green on us?" She shrugs "It was in my head." I look at her and ask, "What's in your head?" "Green". "Look at me for a minute." She looks up from her paper, and her eyes are green. Bright green. "What else?" "I don't know.".

"It's almost time for dinner. What do you want?" "I'm not hungry." "You need to eat something, something small." I get up and open the fridge. "How about a sandwich?". She just shrugs and starts coloring something new. "Leilani". She doesn't respond or look up at me. "Leilani," I say louder. She looks up at me, and a plate in the sink breaks. Then she looks back down at her paper. "Leilani, what's going on?" She doesn't say anything. I walk around the counter to sit with her again. "Lei," I say as I tilt her chin so she faces me. She looks at me with a sad expression on her face. "I broke the plate." I nod "The plate doesn't matter. I'll deal with it later." "I'm tired". I nod "Ok, let's get you to bed.".

We go to the elevator and go up to her room. Leilani changes while I pull out the book I read to her. She gets into bed, and I sit next to her as she curls up on my side. "Which one do you want me to read?" "Any of them?" "Ok.".