Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tony read through SHIELD's file on the New Mexico incident. At first, he had only been curious about where Agent had gone, but the report was familiar; not the report itself, but what was in it. Tony identified the hammer as Mjolnir even before Thor was mentioned.

And when Agent mentioned Thor going to see his brother, Tony was forced to squash down the small light of hope that formed in his chest. Tony's mother wasn't Thor's only brother. There was Baldur for sure, as his mother had talked about him before. Vali, Vidarr, Heimdall, Bragi, Tyr, Hod, Meili, Sigi, and Skjold had also been claimed to be Odin's sons in one mythology or another, though Tony was less sure if they were.

And then Agent wrote down the name of Thor's brother – the one he was going back to Asgard to chat with (according to his mother's stories it would be more like a beat down than a chat).

Loki.

His mother was alive.

Maria Stark had a secret. She wasn't really a Maria, or even a woman for that matter, but Loki, the Trickster God of Asgard. Maria had shared this secret with only one other person, her son.

She told Tony of her heritage – his own heritage – and then taught him everything she knew about magic and science and how they were one in the same and at the same time completely different. Tony soaked it all up like a sponge.

She told Tony it would be their secret, kept quiet from everyone else.

"You don't remember me," Tony realized. He had thought it was because his face had been hidden behind the Iron Man helmet, but his mother had no memory of him whatsoever. Shock had kept him from saying anything then, but now, while they were alone for now, he could find out what happened.

"We've never met before," Loki said, slightly startled.

"We have. You just don't remember," Tony said.

"When could we have possible met?" Loki sneered.

"When you taught me this." Tony created a small horse out of fire that took off galloping around them. It was one of the first things Maria had taught him to do with the flame. She had said it was a special passion of hers – creating animals out of fire.

Loki looked pale, "I, I didn't teach you that."

"You did, but you were in disguise then. As Maria. You were Maria for nearly thirty years.""

"I don't," Loki looked unsure, but then fury overtook his face. "Enough of this," he said, pressing the staff to Tony's chest with a clink. Loki looked down at it confused and tried a few more times. Clink, clink, clink.

"Well, you know, performance issues aren't that uncommon. One out five, or so."

Loki launched him out the window.

"JARVIS, deploy!" As soon as he was in the suit and safe from dying, Tony added, "Note to self: Don't imply mother has performance issues. He takes it badly."

"Shall I save the note for later, sir?" JARVIS asked.

"And while you're at it, get an ETA on the rest of the Avengers. We've got company."

With aliens pouring out of the sky, he'd have to deal with his mother's memory problem later.

Being slammed into the ground repeatedly by a giant green monstrosity, if nothing else, knocked a few memories (and some sense) loose. As he got up, he noticed the Avengers gathered behind him, pointing their weapons at him.

"I don't suppose you could spare a drink, starlight?" The Avengers, minus Iron Man, looked confused and then startled when Tony began taking off his armor. Starlight is what his mother used to call him.

"Sure thing mom. Any preferences?"

"Mom!?" was the reaction from the other Avengers.

"Something with a lot of alcohol would be nice."

"No problem. I have lots of alcohol."

"Of all the things you had to inherit from your father," Loki muttered nastily.

It wasn't until his return to Asgard that Loki fully remembered everything he had forgotten, and why he had forgotten in the first place.

"We took you in, raised you as our son, cared for your needs," Odin said. "What have we ever done to wrong you?"

"You took my son from me," Loki snarled. Frigga and Thor were surprised by this, but Odin was not.

"Your son died in the same crash as your husband," Odin said. He had not been happy to learn that Loki had taken on the form of a Midgardian woman, but when he found at that he was happy, he did not interfere. He only had Heimdall check on them every once in a while.

When the crash happened, Loki's husband was already dead when Odin arrived. Heimdall had once described Loki's son as a babe compared to them, but Odin had taken it to mean that the boy was only a baby.

He had found what he had assumed was a smouldering baby's blanket in the back seat of the vehicle and nothing else, and so had thought the worst. When he had taken Loki home to be healed, he had erased the boy's memory, believing that, in mourning his husband and son, Loki would soon choose to follow them.

"He wasn't there, he was away at school! He's lived nearly three decades without me, and you took the memories of him and my husband away from me! I will never forgive you for that!"

Odin's surprise showed on his face. "I had thought he was there with you," Odin said softly. "I took your memories so you would not join them in death."

Loki only grew more furious, "I would never have let them down like that, and if you truly believe me capable of that I have nothing more to say to you."

Confined to his quarters rather than a prison cell, Loki plotted his escape. It would be much easier than to escape the prison. He'd see his son as soon as he got back to Midgard. He wasn't going to let Odin separate them again.

Chapter Text

"GOOD MORNING NEPHEW!" Thor boomed as he picked Tony up and swung him around.

"No, no, no," Tony said. "Thor, what are you doing? Wait, Dummy, no, don't!"

Dummy fired the extinguisher at both of them. Laughter and flashes from the ceiling vent meant Clint got multiple pictures of Thor and Tony hugging while covered in extinguishing foam.

"Barton! Get back here with that camera!" Tony yelled, kicking his legs out in an attempt to get out of Thor's grasp.

"So how many uncles do I have?" Tony asked.

"Just Thor and that idiot Baldur," Loki answered.

"Mind your tongue!" Thor yelled. "Baldur is-" Thor was interrupted by his tongue jumping out of his mouth.

"Mind yours, brother," Loki sneered. "It's getting away." Thor's tongue ran from the room and Thor gave chase.

The manly shriek that followed meant that either Steve or Clint had found the tongue. Bruce would have just hulked out.

"But, but, but," Steve repeated.

"He was a woman at the time," Tony said, patting him on the back. "And it's not like Howard knew he was anything other than a woman." Not that that would have changed anything. Howard's ego probably would have gotten larger if he knew he had married a god.

"But, I mean, he's Loki."

"Yes, thank you Captain Obvious," Tony said sarcastically. "I'd almost forgotten my mother was a psychopathic trickster god."

"How does that even work?" Clint asked.

"How does what even work?"

"Loki having a baby."

"You've been reading too many mpreg fanfictions Barton," Tony replied. "He was a woman at the time."

"He can do that?"

As if in answer, Loki walked by the open doorway in his most common female form that wasn't that of Maria Stark.

"Was that?"

"Lady Loki," Tony confirmed. "She does that all the time. Seriously, do you know how confusing my childhood was trying to figure out which pronouns I should be using for my mother? Eventually I just switched them to whatever gender she was using at the time."

"Brother! You have defiled my poptarts!" Thor yelled.

"Do shut up Thor," Loki said from the other room. Thor peeked into it to see Loki (in the form of Lady Loki) playing poker with Natasha, Jane, Darcy, and Pepper.

Thor paused in thought for a moment, and then continued, "Sister! You have defiled my poptarts!"

"Thor, shut up. I'm winning!" Darcy said.

"That's what you think," Pepper muttered.

"Read 'em and weep bitches," Darcy said, laying down her cards.

Both Loki and Jane scowled and glared at Darcy, but Pepper laid down her own hand, beating Darcy's.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Pepper asked. Darcy groaned.

"Sorry Pepper," Natasha said, laying down her own hand, and then pulling all the poker chips towards herself.