Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“So let me get this straight,” Clint was not in the mood for this. The Avengers were taken by someone who called themselves ‘The Man in the Moon’ but he had to deal with Loki again. “Not only did you kidnap us, but you want to show us Loki’s child?” He was indignant. “Since when did that bastard have a child?” 

“He has always had children,” Thor states glaring at his teammate. Clint worded his question as if he didn’t believe Loki was worthy of having children. “Loki has four children–” Loki cut Thor off. 

“I have five children, Thor.” 

That shocked everyone. Thor didn’t even know about the fifth child of Loki? How could he not know? 

“Why didn’t I know of this?” Thor demanded. 

Loki glared at his brother, taking on a mocking tone, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because every child I have ended up being taken from me and forced to do or be something they weren’t simply because ‘Odin said so’!” Loki was shouting by the end of it. 

That was not what they had been expecting. How were they supposed to take that knowledge? Especially when Thor looked outraged at the idea. 

“How dare you! Father was protecting everyone from those beasts!” 

Hearing Thor call his nieces and nephews ‘beasts’ was enough for them to know something was wrong. 

“They were only in those forms because Odin meddled!” Loki boomed. The Avengers didn’t know the man could raise his voice in a way reminiscent of Thor’s regular tone. “If he hadn’t decided to abandon three of them and banish the fourth, maybe I would have told you!” 

That shocked Thor. He had never heard his brother shout at him like that. 

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” the Man in the Moon begins. “But we will begin, whether you like it or not.” 

With a flash of light, they were transported into their seats. “What the–?” Many voiced their surprise. Before they could react further, another flash of light happened. Once the light cleared, sitting in the extra seat was a young boy with white hair, blue eyes that looked like ice and a staff covered in frost. 

“What?” The boy looks around, noticing everyone staring at him before he sees a man smiling. He smiles back, “Hello, father!” The Avenger's eyes widen as the boy floats over to Loki, giving the man a tight hug. 

“May I present to you, Jack Frost, son of Loki.” That was enough for them to stare in shock. This was not what they had been expecting to happen.

Chapter Text

‘Darkness,’ a voice narrates. A body floats under the water during a clear night sky. 

This was not what they had expected. Upon looking at Loki they notice the white-haired boy leaning close to him, hiding his face in his father's shoulder. Jack doesn’t want to relive this moment, but unfortunately, he doesn’t have a choice. 

‘That’s the first thing I remember,’ he continues. The body floats closer to the surface of the lake. ‘It was dark and it was cold. And I was scared.’ 

Loki strokes his son's hair, trying to give what little comfort he possibly could in this type of situation. He was glad that Jack was comfortable enough to lean on him, though. 

The body floating in the water is a boy with white hair. Even while underwater, he opens his eyes to look above himself. 

Natasha narrowed her eyes going unnoticed by all but Clint. He agreed with her, however. How was he alive while underwater? Well, everyone thought that. 

Thor didn’t want to think that he and his father were the reasons he never got to meet Jack. What a name was that? No one on Asgard would name their child Jack. Must be from the Realm the mother had been from. 

‘But then,’ the boy sounds thankful, if a bit bitter. ‘Then I saw the moon.’ The brightness of the moon shines down upon the lake, through the icy layer coating the top. 

They stare at the moon in awe. This must be who brought them here, why else would they introduce themselves as the Man in the Moon? 

Slowly, the ice breaks apart as the boy rises from underneath. ‘So big, and it was so bright.’ 

“I had completely missed the fact the lake was covered in ice,” Tony muttered. He didn’t want to speak loudly as he could see how uncomfortable Jack was with what was being shown. Bruce heard and nodded along with his friend. He hadn’t realized that until now, either. 

‘It seemed to chase the darkness away.’ The boy takes an inhale of breath once he’s fully above the ice, only to continue to rise into the air. 

Knowing that Jack was Loki’s child was not enough for them to think he would be able to fly. Tony hates magic and this was why! Science cannot understand something like this and it was infuriating. 

‘And when it did,’ he continues to narrate as the boy stares at the moon with relief etched onto his face. ‘I wasn’t scared anymore.’ 

“I’m glad that you hadn’t felt fear the entire time before I found you,” Loki whispered to the boy who raised his head to look his father in the eye. He smiles at the man, not noticing how Thor takes note of what was said. 

He slowly lands back on the ice-covered lake, careful not to cause the ice to break. The forest surrounding the lake was drenched in a beautiful sheet of snow. As he lands, frost sprouts out in flower-like patterns. 

It was beautiful, but one of the main things that was noticed was that Jack was not wearing shoes. Wouldn’t that be cold? Then again, he had just been underwater in the middle of winter so maybe he didn’t feel the cold. 

‘Why I was and what I was meant to do,’ the voice sighs as the boy stares at his pale hands. ‘That, I’ve never known and a part of me wonders if I ever will.’ The boy rubs his head, wondering why he felt an emptiness as if there were supposed to be memories that simply never existed. 

Jack rubs his head, feeling a throb at the reminder of the memories he had lost and recently had returned. Loki held him close, hoping to help his son in any way he could even if all he could do for him was hold him. Show Jack he was there. 

The boy glances back up at the moon as if hearing something that others would not. 

Jack looks around the room, hearing what was said that no one else seemed to hear. Not even his father, which disappointed him. He had hoped Loki would have been able to hear it, but it seems that the Man in the Moon could not share what he informed the boy at that moment. 

He smiles after a moment, a look of gratefulness shining in his deep gray eyes before he takes a step, chuckling when the ice does not even creak at his body weight is pressed down upon it. 

Thor might have heard what Loki said about Jack not being his biological child, but that doesn’t make him think anything less about how Jack is reacting to ice, frost, snow and cold. Knowing that his brother was a frost giant did not help him in his thought process. It made him believe that even though Loki had stated no blood relation between himself and Jack, Thor still believed them to be related. To him, there was no way that they were not. But that didn’t make Loki’s statement before on why he had not informed anyone of Asgard of the boy any less painful. 

As he continues his search he bumps into a tree branch lying on the ice. The branch had a curve at one end, creating a hook. 

Everyone notices that, glancing at said branch that was now leaning against the wall beside the boy and his father. 

When he presses his toes to it, frost blooms from where he touched. Leaning down to pick it up to examine it earns him the response of so much frost concentrated on one area that he loses his grip, letting the end slam into the ice where frost begins to spout once again. A look of astonishment enters the boy’s face at the sight. 

Even if Clint still has his doubts that any child of Loki would be good, he has to admit the powers he was showing were incredible. A look around showed the same look on everyone else’s face, even Thor’s who still believed that he was entitled to know about his nephew. 

The boy walks over to a tree, gently poking it with the branch and watching as frost appears in the flower-like pattern. He places his hand over the frost in awe, moving to do the same to the next tree. 

He begins bouncing with excitement, gripping the branch tightly as he skates across the ice with bare feet, bringing frost wherever he goes. 

Bruce smiles, understanding the excitement at a new thing. Especially when it was something previously thought to be impossible. 

He almost dances around the lake, laughing joyously. He gets closer to the trees, surrounding them in the frost as well. 

No one could deny that Jack looked adorable. 

His reign of frost only ended when a gust of wind blew at him, causing him to fly into the air. 

Loki tenses up. He might not have been unsettled by his son floating before, but this time it had been a gust of wind that took him. What if the wind had blown Jack away and never allowed the two to meet? Loki couldn’t imagine such a thing, not when he loved the boy he kept. 

The boy had not expected that and yelped in fear. He had forgotten that he was previously floating in the air not even a few minutes ago. 

He watches the frost continue to bloom underneath him before the wind dies down and he is forced to land, hitting many tree branches on the way down. 

Winces are heard around the room, no one wanting to speak but voicing their sympathy all the same. They have felt a similar pain before and did not want to see a young man feel the same. 

Loki, on the other hand, was clutching Jack tightly. Thinking about never meeting him had the god terrified of anything happening to his son. Jack didn’t mind, however. He knew his father loved him and was only worried for him; something the boy could appreciate. After all, it had been Loki who kept him sane throughout the hundreds of years before he became a Guardian. 

In the distance, he can hear folk music. Facing where it was coming from revealed a small village. 

“I have a bad feeling about this…” Steve states, only being heard by Tony and Bruce who had been sitting next to the blonde. They couldn’t help but agree even if they hoped, for Jack’s sake, nothing would happen. 

Unfortunately, hope doesn’t always win. 

The boy lands ungracefully at the entrance of the village, greeting everyone he walks past and not noticing none of them responding to him. “Hello. Hello! Good evening, ma’am.” A dark barks from somewhere. 

He seems to have realized no one responding to him as he questions, “Ma’am?” He turns around as she walks by, seeing a young girl running toward him. He kneels, ‘Oh! Ah-ah excuse me, can you tell me where I am-” Instead of stopping the girl runs through him, causing him to gasp in panic. 

Everyone’s eyes widen. Besides the father-son duo, of course. How was that possible? Why couldn’t they see or hear Jack? 

Jack winced, remembering how scared he had been when the girl ran straight through him. He had thought no one would see him again, and luckily they did. It took a while, but they finally saw him. 

“Hello?” He shouts, fear lacing his voice as he runs around trying to gain the attention of someone to no avail. 

‘My name is Jack Frost,’ he narrates as he continues his journey to find someone to help him. ‘How do I know that?’ The moon is shown, shining down on everyone below. ‘The moon told me so. That was all he ever told me. And that was a long, long time ago.’ 

How were they supposed to take this? They had never thought that this would be what they’d see. 

“What happened? Why couldn’t they see or hear you?” Steve gasped out. He had been so surprised by the action of the girl that he had held his breath. 

Jack only smiles, shaking his head with a bitter laugh. “I was surprised that any of you could see me.” That worried them. Why wouldn’t they have been able to see him?