Chapter Text
"By Odin's beard, you have cheated!" Thor slammed his hand on the table. Tony was profusely giggling after successfully cheating the God of Thunder at Monopoly. "You stole my money! Shouldn't he be expelled from the game?!" "Well, it's cheater's Monopoly for a reason," Natasha muttered under her breath, amused by how offended Thor was. It made the raven-haired god grin ear-to-ear at how his brother was so gullible during these games. It was Roger's turn next. He rolled the die and moved four spaces onto Loki's property, which made him smirk. "Three hundred it is. Pay up, Rogers." Loki said, watching Steve deal him money. "This is how you play the game. It's called strategy." "Well, there's also luck," Peter added. He was sitting on the couch, doing his AP Pre-Calculus homework and figuring out concepts.
"Let me tell you something, child," Loki said, his amazonite-like eyes boring into the spiderboy as he continued, "strategy can outsmart luck, if you have the wits and brains to do it." Loki continued as Steve finished dealing the money. Peter didn't really pay attention to what he was saying when he was busy with his studies, which made Loki's eyes roll in amusement. Though he didn't find it much offensive. The game continued, with turns going around counter-clockwise between the four men: Tony, Thor, Loki, and Steve. All the while, the AI, F.R.I.D.A.Y., had made a strange announcement, one which made Loki's ears perk up.
"Mr. Stark, someone is at the door. It appears to be...a child. Around Mr. Parker's age." F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke through the intercom, and Peter looked up at Tony.
"Oh, I think that's Ned! He's dropping off the Death Star LEGO set, which has 3,803 pieces, and we're building it after I finish my homework!" Peter exclaimed with excitement as he got up from the couch and ran over to the front door, where it was pouring rain. Rather than finding his best friend, he was met with a young girl, around his age. She had dirty-blonde hair, soaked due to the heavy rainfall, with brown eyes. Her features were soft, but her face rested with annoyance, most definitely an RBF. "Oh, you are not Ned."
"Who are you?" The girl asked, her brows furrowing in confusion as she saw Tony step in front of Peter. Peter started walking back to the couch while Tony asked,
"Can I help you? We don't take autographs at night." Tony asked sarcastically, yet egoistically, for the fun of it. The blonde rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed. She was in a black leather coat to protect from the rain, which didn't do much.
"Autographs? No, I came here to find Loki. Loki Odinson. Isn't this the address?" The girl asked. Now that made Tony even more confused. Since when did the God of Mischief have visitors, let alone a young girl?
"Y-Yeah, this is it. He's here. Uh, reindeer games! Loki!" Tony called out, looking back at Loki, who had just finished his round of Monopoly when Stark called him. His eyebrows raised as Tony added, "Someone's here to see you."
The god rolled his eyes as he got up from the ground and walked over to the front door, where he saw the women. He had no idea who she was, but she looked slightly familiar to him. "Can I help you?" He asked impatiently as Tony walked away from the door and back to the game
"Uh, yeah. I have some explaining to do. So, my name's Erika. I'm Amora's daughter, who passed away last night. Yep, yeah. And funny thing is, you are listed as one of my backup guardians, so I'm basically left in your care." Erika explained, not subtly, in dropping all that bomb. Loki was trying to process all of this information. His ex-wife had a daughter? His ex-wife was DEAD?! Why was he listed as a freaking guardian? He had to take care of this girl? What was even going on-
Loki let out an awkward chuckle, yet panicked. He felt like the air was being sucked out of him as he spoke, like warmth being coated on a frost giant. "This has been an...amusing encounter. Really. I find it truly riveting how you, petty mortal, think you can burden me with this tomfoolery-"
"Tomfoolery?" The girl repeated, not amused by his words. "I'm quite literally an orphan, and all you can say is that this is amusing to you?"
"I don't...care. I don't care if you're an orphan. I don't care if you rot on the streets. Because let me tell you something, little girl, Amora and I aren't associated together anymore. And if she had a daughter, she certainly wouldn't be in my possession out of the boys she has mingled with. Even if she has, what makes you think I would take care of the daughter of a conniving woman?" Loki harshly spoke, a bitter smile tugging his lips at the end of his harsh speech. Erika didn't back down, however. She was not gonna go anywhere.
"You don't really have a choice, though. If people find out you, a redeeming Avenger, had left a girl all alone on the streets to starve and die, it wouldn't be a good image of you. Then you have the press on watch, then your little Avenger friends wouldn't like-"
"Alright, fine! Fine. But you don't talk to me. I certainly won't talk to you. You simply coexist in my life." Loki explained the terms to Erika. It was quite harsh, and she didn't understand what had truly happened with him and her mother. It confused her to some extent, but she nodded.
"As long as I live somewhere, fine," Erika said as she walked inside the tower, and Loki shut the door behind her. Loki really didn't want anything to do with her. Not after all this stupid bullshit he went through with her mother. However, he didn't want everyone villainizing him all over again. As Erika walked inside, her eyes landed on every Avenger in the room and turned back to Loki.
This...oh, this was going to be amusing.