“sorry.” Tony said, grimacing. “the news have just been… it doesn’t matter.” no wonder Tony was so defensive. Reporters had been hounding him for weeks about Obi, Hammer and Killian. They where claiming anyone who worked for or opposed Tony ended up dead and that he was dangerous, delusional and a threat. Fortunately most of the world didn’t believe that, given how Tony actually rendezvous with fire and ambulance all the time. He couldn’t take down petty criminals but he could help get people out of burning buildings. Something he did quite often actually, since fire ladders couldn’t reach higher than the tenth or twelfth floor. If they where lucky.<br/><br/>“Jesus Steph! Are you alright?!” he asked, already moving to upright her. “sorry about that. We forgot you where sitting back there.” Tony admitted. “box is usually closed.” he admitted before frowning as he realized the ball had just been about to smack into the kids head. “oh my god!” he shook his head. “you okay there little buddy?” he asked the kid, checking him over to make sure there weren’t any marks on the kid before giving the father a disgusted look. “you’d best watch what you say.” he warned. “I have a pretty credible account of gross parental negligence right here.” he warned. “i’d be more worried about your kids than you are about your goddamn beer.” he glanced at the kids. “i’m sorry for swearing.”<br/><br/><hr/><br/>“exactly. Which she does sometimes anyway.” Loki admitted with a smile. “i’ve taken to keeping snacks on me at all times… and not just because I get hungry either.” he admitted. “honestly earth food is so much more suited to me than anything asgard had ever had to offer.” he grumbled. “I love fruit.” he admitted, grinning as he waved a strawberry at them. “she’ll listen to me sometimes.” Loki admitted. “if I manage to guilt her into it. But that doesn’t happen very often.” he scoffed a little. “Do you really think the prince of asgard was held to the same standards?” he asked, lifting an eyebrow. “Thor was not only expected to have multiple partners it was encouraged. Like I said, I don’t know how much of it was the culture and how much of it was ME… to be honest, Thor and I where very, very sheltered.” he admitted. “Odin controlled… everything. Where we could go, who we could be friends with, who we talked to.” he shook his head. “I wasn’t even allowed to go to the schools. Mother had to teach me.” he admitted. “Thor was just as sheltered. He’s probably just jealous of how free Steph is allowed to be. Odin regularly uses my continued freedom to excerpt control over Thor.” it would only get worse. Loki knew that, once word got out…<br/><br/>“the Vikings where a noble and interesting people. Most of humans perceptions of them are wildly incorrect.” Loki admitted, grinning at Pepper. “but we do have a mostly matriarchal system. Men do the warmongering, Odin leads, but the women are in charge of everything else. Especially the households.” he admitted. “eve Odin bows his head to my mother when she puts her foot down.”<br/><br/>“I could teach you, if you like.” Loki offered. “there is a style of fighting my mother taught me. It’s typically only taught to women but seeing as I am generally gender-less, even if I do prefer the male form, she was allowed to teach me.” he admitted. “I think it would suit you very well, especially if we can teach you magic.” he pondered and then. “she might listen to me, but that doesn’t mean she does anything I advise.” Loki admitted with a chuckle. “Stephanie and Johnny are both very stubborn and very dominant people. They fight a lot because they both want to be in charge.” Loki grinned. “I think they enjoy fighting, bu that might just be me looking into it too much.”