Fic: Movie Night (MCU) Chap. 8: Frozen

[bookishwench]

If anyone had asked them later, all of them would loudly deny being the one to come up with the idea, but however it began, by the time Frozen’s end credits were playing, the small audience in Tony’s home theatre had somehow formed a braiding line.

At the back of the theatre, Tony was busily trying to coax Pepper’s hair into a French braid. Pepper in turn was seated behind Bucky, patiently creating two smaller braids at his temples and then combining them together into a rather impressive four-part braid starting at his crown. Bucky was sitting behind Thor, squinting at the mass of blond hair and plaiting it into a lopsided regular braid, though it was rapidly resembling a bird’s nest. Thor’s place was just behind Bruce, who obviously didn’t have enough hair to braid, but he was attempting to give him a nice scalp massage in spite of the grease from the five fried chickens he’d just eaten. Bruce, who looked slightly less than thrilled with the aroma of Thor’s fingers, was trying to braid Loki’s hair by applying advanced mathematic principals on reciprocal angles only to find that every time he made a mistake, which was about every two minutes, Loki’s hair unbraided itself and made him start over. Loki, who appeared completely enraptured with the screen, was slowly turned Natasha’s hair into the most complex interweaving of braids any of them had ever seen, complete with small green and gold jewels interspersed with the red strands. Natasha was sitting on the floor next to Peter, who was eating a Christmas tree-shaped donut.

“You people are nuts,” Clint said from the sidelines, sticking a forkful of plum pudding in his mouth, Steve sitting beside him on the couch.

“I thought you said plum pudding should be sued for false advertising?” Natasha said, raising an eyebrow at him while managing not to move her head.

“Yeah,” Clint said. “It’s still good, though, even without plums.”

“Plums is an old word for raisins,” Bruce piped up while appearing to be in a battle with Loki’s hair, which he was losing spectacularly.

“How in the hell do you know that?” Tony asked around a ponytail holder stuck in his mouth.

“It bugged me when Clint mentioned it last time, so I Googled it,” Bruce said.

“Well, there are definitely raisins in this,” Clint said. “I do feel better about it now for some reason.”

“Friend James, you are yanking rather hard,” Thor said.

“Sorry,” Bucky said. “I admit I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You never braid your hair?” Pepper asked.

“Yeah, but it’s different doing it to somebody else,” he said.

“Why did we watch this movie?” Tony asked. “This isn’t set at Christmas. Technically, it’s supposed to be in the middle of summer, which is why everyone is freaking out.”

“I suggested it, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, looking up with green frosting smooshed on his cheek.

“Peter, why did you do this to me? What have I ever done to deserve this?” Tony asked, looking at him with world-weary eyes.

“Well, everything we were watching was Christmassy,” Peter said, “and I didn’t want Mr. Thor and Mr. Loki to feel left out.”

Loki’s fingers stilled in the middle of sectioning a nine-part braid.

“You did?” he said, looking at the boy.

“Uh-huh,” Peter said.

“You made a good choice, lad,” Loki said, going back to his braiding. “I liked this one very much.”

“You would,” Tony said, rolling his eyes and nearly swallowing the hair tie.

“As did I!” Thor roared, taking his hands off Bruce’s head while the other man looked relieved. “It brought back pleasant memories of Norway from long ago! Though I do not recall a snow monster named Marshmallow.”

“What do you remember about Norway from back then?” Steve asked.

“They had excellent mead,” Thor said. “Also, their longboats were very striking.”

“Every building was filled to the rafters with woodsmoke,” Loki said. “It gave me a dreadful headache. Also, I almost got burned at the stake.”

“Wait, what?” Pepper said, inadvertently pulling Bucky’s hair and earning a whine. “Sorry!”

“Thor and I were both children when father took us to Midgard the first time,” Loki said, adding another section of gold beading to the crown he was making of Natasha’s hair. “I was perhaps the equivalent of a Midgardian seven-year-old. However, as long ago as that was, times had changed, and the old ways had been overthrown. When a farmer happened to see me playing with some squirrels by making them fly, he screamed I was a sorcerer, and the next thing I knew I was tied to a stake.”

“Where was Thor during all this?” Steve asked.

“Eating,” Thor admitted. “I was in a tavern with father. But we heard the commotion and came out to see what was happening.”

“Father was not well pleased,” Loki said.

“I should think not with people trying to set his son on fire,” Bruce said. “Geez.”

“No, he wasn’t pleased with me,” Loki said, grimacing. “I had been careless. We were supposed to be traveling incognito, and I had broken the rules.”

“Okay, seriously, tell me he did rescue you or I’m going to pummel something,” Steve said.

“Why, Steven,” Loki said, fluttering his eyelashes at him. “I didn’t know you cared.”

“I don’t like people hurting kids,” Steve said, folding his arms, “even you, Loki.”

“Then you’ll be happy to hear he did stop the proceedings,” Loki said. “In fact, he had Heimdall send us all home. The looks on their faces when the Bifrost opened were worth nearly ending up as cinders. But that was the last time we came here for several centuries.”

“So you kind of identify with Elsa, huh?” Peter said.

“What, the magic-wielding heir to the throne who is particularly adept with ice and snow?” Loki said, winking at him. “Now why would you say that?”

“Also, she has a sibling who doesn’t understand why the sorcerer keeps pushing her away despite her wish to have the happy and supportive relationship they once enjoyed as children,” Thor said.

Loki paused in the middle of tying off Natasha’s last braid with a length of golden cord.

“Perhaps she feels she tends to make mistakes when she allows others to be too close and wants to protect them from her more destructive tendencies,” Loki said. “She suffers from fear over her own nature, believing herself to be monstrous and a danger to her loved ones.”

“Okay, did you just switch pronouns? Because I’m pretty sure you’re talking about yourself,” Clint said. “I’m totally okay with using she/her with you, but let a guy know, okay?”

“If I choose to make any changes to my identifiers, I shall send you an engraved notice,” Loki said, smirking.

“I like the music,” Steve said. “This was really pretty.”

“It was,” Pepper agreed. “And I liked that true love wasn’t some guy she meant three hours ago but her sister.”

“Especially since her fiancé was evil,” Tony said.

“This is absolutely nothing like Andersen’s ‘The Snow Queen,’ though,” Bruce said, “aside from someone controlling the weather via magic.”

“I read that,” Natasha said. “It’s a good one to curl up with while drinking a mug of hot chocolate on a cold night. Plus, Gerta kicks ass.”

“You’re finished,” Loki said to her, producing a hand mirror out of thin air and presenting it to her.

Everyone took a moment to admire the nearly impossible collection of intricate braids and twists inlaid with sparkling gems currently adorning Natasha’s head. She looked like a Russian princess. Tony looked between her and his French braid on the back of Pepper’s head that was so crooked it was threatening to cover her right ear and shot Loki a dirty look.

“Show off,” he muttered, sitting back and giving up. “But can you create a new element? I don’t think so.”

“It’s fantastic,” Natasha said. “Thank you.”

“You have gorgeous hair,” he said, patting it proudly, then squinted at her. “Have you ever considered wearing it short?”

“Loki,” Thor said in a warning tone, “take heed. I am fairly sure you are still incapable of siring children after that incident with Sif.”

“Okay, so that one was true,” Bruce said. “I’m keeping score over here.”

“Well, your mom should be pleased that we ate less sweet stuff this time,” Tony said.

“Speak for yourself,” Clint said, rubbing his stomach. “I ate that whole plum pudding solo. You got any antacid?”

“Someplace. Pepper knows where everything is. I just live here,” Tony said, but Pepper was already on her feet and on her way to a nearby medicine cabinet.

“Sorry, Mr. Stark,” Peter said, looking up from his phone. “Aunt May wants me to come home now. She says it’s getting late. Thanks for having me over.”

“And thank you again for your thoughtfulness, young Peter,” Thor said.

“No problem,” he said, smiling.

“Happy’ll drive you home, kid,” Tony said as the boy left, heading towards the elevator.

“Both of his parents have died?” Loki asked as soon as he was out of earshot.

“And his uncle,” Pepper said, returning with the antacid and handing it to a grateful Clint. “Murdered right in front of him.”

“He is fortunate to have you as his mentor and benefactor, friend Tony,” Thor said.

“Yes,” Loki added, still looking in the direction of the elevator, “he is.”

“He’s a really good kid,” Tony said. “Anyway, now that I’ve endured both a Disney cartoon and a hair-braiding party in one night, anyone want anything else to eat?”

“The chicken was very good,” Thor said. “I believe I may actually be full.”

“Wonders never cease,” Clint said.

“Yeah, next time Bucky and I would like to treat everybody,” Steve said. “Everyone okay with good old New York pizza?”

“Best in the world,” Bucky said. “Just don’t tell Italy.”

“You’re on,” Tony said. “Heck, I’ll even invite Fury, not that he’ll show up. Now if someone could get that damn song out of my head, everything would be just peachy.”

“Let it go, Tony,” Pepper said, shaking her badly braided head. “Let it go.”