Title: Flowers

Word Count: 1897

Main Character(s): Shanta, Loki Laufeyson, Bruce Banner, Thor Odinsson

Notes: So I love this movie beyond all rationality and when wandering the internet in search of more Avengery goodness, I came across TheAvengersHeadcanons, a blog full of finest Avengers plunnies and very fine butts. This is now the first instalment of a collection of Avengers ficlets which may or may not be related to each other.

Also, this fic prominently features Shanta, a character from the headcanons. She's the little girl that leads Bruce Banner to Black Widow at the beginning of The Avengers, and the headcanons generally hold that Bruce goes back and adopts her sometime after the events of the movie. They also frequently feature Loki doing some kind of rehab/jail time on Earth, locked up Stark Tower in one of Thor's rooms. Both of those are elements here that you ought to know about. Post-movie, so some spoilers are inherent. Enjoy!

Shanta has only been living at Stark Tower for a few weeks, and still gets lost easily. One day, she runs into a room she doesn't know after getting off of the elevator on the wrong floor. Instead of running into Doctor Banner's kitchen, she finds herself in a very dark room.

(She shouldn't have been able to get in there at all, Tony swore later. But he couldn't figure out how the door had gotten unlocked, nor why Jarvis' security protocols hadn't alerted him that somebody had entered the room. Perhaps the room's inhabitant had more power left in him than they realized, but if that was true why was he still there?)

She's about to back out when she spots some movement in the darkness. Someone is sitting in a chair next to the drawn curtains. When he stands she sees that he is very tall, as tall as Uncle Thor or Uncle Steve, but his hair is dark unlike them, and he has funny dark clothes. She clutches the flowers she picked out of the greenhouse as he steps over to her.

"Lonely little girl," he says softly. "Why do you wander here?" Shanta is surprised and pleased to hear him speaking in Hindi. She still isn't very good at English, and while she's desperate to learn it's nice to hear a few sentences that she understands completely.

(He speaks the Alltongue, Thor explains later. It is heard by anyone as their native tongue. Steve had been wondering why the speech in Stuttgart had been in English. It had just seemed obnoxious, at the time. Now he wishes that it was a skill more people could learn. It would help people understand one another better, he thinks.)

"I'm looking for Doctor Banner," she says, returning easily to her native tongue, though she's tried hard for the past few weeks to speak only English. "I got lost. I think I'm on the wrong floor." She shuffles her feet, looking around as her eyes adjust to the darkness. There's a lot of green. "My name is Shanta," she declares. "Who are you?"

"I know about you, Shanta," the man says, stepping closer. "Child-minds shout their thoughts so loud, clear and direct... you are trying to make this place your home."

Shanta nods, clutching the flowers to her chest. She thinks the man is a little creepy. "Doctor Banner brought me here. He's very nice. I..." she looks around, as if someone else might be in the room, and whispers conspiratorially. "I want him to be my new baba." She giggles nervously, slamming a hand over her mouth as if trying to hide the words again. The man also laughs, short and cold.

"But your baba died!" he exclaims. "And your maa, and your brothers! Your home is gone and has been for years!"

Shanta scowls. She doesn't know why the man knows these things or is talking about her family, but she thinks he's being mean.

"That's why I want Doctor Banner to be my new family," she says firmly. "The others are all very nice and told me to call them aunties and uncles, like they're family, but Doctor Banner is nicest of all so I want him to be my new baba. This place is new and scary, but I am not afraid because I am with people that I love. I think that is enough for a family, people that you love. What about you mister? Where's your family? Are they here?"

"I have none," the man says, but he looks away from Shanta, like grown-ups always do when they're lying. They never look you in the eye. "You think it is so easy, child, to simply make a family?"

"Why not?" Shanta simply asks. "Y'know, if someone loves you, you ought to love them back. Then you're like family, and both of you have somebody, so you don't have to be lonely. That's why I want Doctor Banner to be my baba, so we don't ever have to be lonely again. I don't see why it's got to be hard."

The flowers abruptly vanish from her hands. She looks up to see the tall man holding them in his hand. They burst into flames and she screams.

"Be silent," the man says dismissively. "These are finer by far than your pathetic blooms." The fire dies away and the flowers are now bigger and look like they're made of gold and silver. They're very pretty, much prettier than any flower Shanta's ever seen. The man leans over to hand them back to her. "Do not be a fool, girl. Doctor Banner will not be your baba."

Shanta grips the flowers hard enough to almost crush them as tears fill her eyes. The man whispers something in her ear and she runs from the room.

The door clicks shut behind her, leaving Loki alone in the dark once more.

"There you are," Bruce says, unable to help smiling as Shanta runs out of the lift. She shrieks and giggles as he catches her and picks her up, taking her through to the kitchen. "I was about to send Jarvis looking for you- I'm hungry, aren't you? How about sandwiches for lunch?"

"Yes!" Shanta says excitedly. Bruce sits her down on the worktop and heads for the breadbin. Shanta stops him by thrusting a bundle of flowers under his nose. "For you!"

"For me?" Bruce repeats, taking the flowers. They're silver and gold and like nothing he's ever seen, and have a beautiful fragrance. "Thank you very much. They're beautiful." He crosses to the sink to fill a glass of water for them, and on the way taps one of the ever-present computer panels and asks Jarvis to call up Tony for him. He puts the flowers in a glass of water and manages to finish Shanta's sandwiches before Tony picks up. Thor's there too; it looks like they're in the garage, taking the Asgardian through the finer points of the internal combustion engine.

"Wassup, big guy?" Tony says. Thor waves to the camera before returning to examining some holographic engine schematics.

"Your greenhouse has some interesting plants," Bruce says, picking up the glass of flowers and holding it in front of the screen for the others to see. "Is it safe for Shanta to be running around in there?"

"Jarvis'll keep her out of any rooms with poisonous plants," Tony says, "but are you sure those came from the greenhouse? I don't recognize 'em."

Thor suddenly loomed into view, staring at the flowers with a frown. "Those are from the plains of Asgard," he says. "They cannot be grown in this realm. Where could she have obtained them?"

"Shanta?" Bruce asks, turning to the girl who is still sitting on the worktop, shovelling down a ham and cheese sandwich. "Where did you get these? Chew and swallow before you speak," he admonishes her as she opens her mouth. She nods, chewing rapidly. Bruce catches Tony grinning at him.

"Strange man in dark room give them to me!" Shanta declares after swallowing heavily.

"Strange man?" Bruce asks. She nods, stretching her arms up.

"Very tall, funny clothes, all dark," she says. "Sitting all alone in dark room below. Lots of green. Very strange man."

Bruce drops the glass. Over the crash, he hears Tony swearing and Thor saying something that includes his brother's name, before the screen goes blank as both run out of the garage. Bruce clenches his fists, fighting shock and rage- pure, sudden anger at whatever idiot was responsible for Shanta being able to get into Loki's room-

He turns his back on Shanta and clutches the worktop, noticing with alarm that it crumbles under his hands. No, he can't, not here-

"He say odd things," Shanta says, watching her foster father nervously. She has never seen him transform before, and won't know what's happening until it's too late to run away-

"I think he lonely," she continues, scooting around the worktop until Bruce can see her. "I say this, and he give me flowers and a word."

"A... a word?" Bruce says shakily as fear and panic join the dangerous emotional cocktail that is causing his muscles to bulge. On Asgard, words are power, he's been told, which is why Loki is a sorcerer of such great power. His words are as powerful here as they are on Asgard, and there is no telling what a single word from him could do to a child like Shanta. What did he say...?

"Shanta, you have to leave," he gasps, dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms around himself, as if trying to hold himself in, which he knows will be futile in a few moments. Shanta doesn't, instead stepping closer, biting her lip out of what seems to be nervousness rather than fear.

"Daddy," she blurts out. "He says it is word I can call you, if you like. Can I call you daddy, Doctor Banner? Is daddy good word?"

It is only seconds later that Tony and Thor burst into the room, Thor with Mjolnir at the ready and Tony clicking his Mk VII bracelets into place. They had not expected to see that Bruce was still Bruce, sitting on his kitchen floor and hugging Shanta to him, tears leaking out of his eyes as vivid green faded away.

"It's a very good word," he's saying, rocking Shanta slightly. "It's a very, very good word. I'd given up on ever hearing it. Thank you, Shanta."

"Then you are daddy now?" Shanta says, flinging her arms around Bruce's neck when he nods. "Is very good! Thank you!" Bruce looks up at Thor and Tony over Shanta's head.

"Tell your brother, too," he says quietly to Thor. "Thank you."

Every time Thor has visited Loki, his younger brother has sat in silence and in darkness, perversely abandoning all attempt to speak as soon as he was permitted to do so. Today, though, the curtains are open just a chink, and Loki is staring out at a half-constructed skyscraper. The damage of the Battle of Manhattan is being repaired.

"Your words have always held such power, brother," he says, seating himself on the other chair. "I wish you would use that power for good more often."

"It's not that easy," Loki says quietly. It's the first time he's spoken to Thor since his capture. "But why not?"

"It can be easy, if you let me help you," Thor says. "I have offered time and again. That offer will always be open to you, brother." He holds out his hand, halfway across the table. Just halfway. He won't pull Loki out. Loki has to make an effort too. Just a little. Just halfway. He has to take himself to a point where he isn't alone, just like Bruce Banner did, taking the risk to come back to Manhattan, to get into Tony Stark's car, to hunt the streets of Kolkata for a little girl.

Loki reaches out and pushes the curtain aside a little more. Maybe he reached just briefly for Thor's hand, or maybe not. But when he is ready to reach out, Thor's hand will always be there waiting.

Until the flowers on Bruce Banner's desk wilt.

(Flowers from Asgard never wilt, and when crushed only bloom back more beautiful.)

I don't own anything here. All characters are property of Marvel, except Shanta, who belongs to all the lovely people at TheAvengersHeadcanons (theavengersheadcanons (dot) tumblr (dot) com)