the babysitters
~*~*~*~
fandom: mcu au
pairings: fem!reader x loki laufeyson, and pepper potts x tony stark
genre: it’s fluff. just some cute banter and funny scenarios. i‘m not quite sure what it is, but i like it, so.
warnings: alcohol mentions, smoke talk, loki being a little trickster, some possessive talk, nothing terrible. little bit of swearing.
w/c: 2k
a/n: hiiiii... i’m back... i gained like, 19 followers since my last update. which to some isn’t a lot but every one of them means a lot. i promise you, i’m not usually like this with my updates :/ anyway! here’s to beating writers block, one word at a time 🥂 enjoy
~*~*~*~
it was ten past midnight and pepper potts was sighing her heart out and rolling her eyes as she pulled up next to an exasperated y/n on the sidewalk, also shaking her head in disappointment. the steady blasting music of a nightclub several dozen paces away made the concrete and atmosphere quiver slightly. sounds of a crowd clamouring and having fun made the night feel warmer than it was.
y/n stepped up to the car and balanced on the edge of the curb, leaning down to poke her head in through the car window and look pepper potts dead in the eye.
“i’m not going to say that i failed my mission of keeping mr stark under the limit you set for number of drinks in a night, because i think it’s unfair you give me such a heavy task while i'm so new to the job.” y/n muttered at the smooth orange hair, refusing to look at pepper’s darkened pupils. the girl could practically taste the shade of sleep-deprived purple under her employer’s eyes.
“y/n.” pepper said.
“ms potts.”
“y/n. you’ve been working with us for two years.”
“mm. you don’t say?”
“i do say.” pepper said firmly. “i have the documents to prove it.”
“boy, oh boy,” y/n exclaimed in mock horror. “surely not!”
pepper nodded seriously. “so smarten up.”
y/n stiffened and dropped the attitude.
the attitude was what got her the job offer. her ability to ken between when it was funny and when she should be serious is what got her hired.
“how bad is it?” pepper asked.
“on a scale of one to ten... i’ll give you an nine. and mr stark is well on his way to drinking himself to a ten.” was the response. the woman in the car nodded.
the young woman outside the car gave a mock two fingered salute. “come on in, i’ll help you bring him to the car.”
“no, no, sweetheart–” y/n stepped back as pepper threw the door open and emerged from the car. “you called me up because you couldn’t handle tony anymore.” her tone was stern.
“ms potts, i called because i needed help handling tony, i just need back-up to get him to ground himself a little bit more.”
“that is the exact same thing.” pepper insisted. “we’re switching duties, now. you’re staying in the car with the little nuisance we’re babysitting while i bring tony back, and then we’ll go home.”
y/n started to shake her head when pepper gave her a look and raised her eyebrows. “the... asgardian... nuisance... that thor dropped off for the week.”
y/n drew her jaw back.
“again?”
it was the “again” that made pepper potts droop a little in exasperation. not at her employee or herself, but at the memories of how many times thor odinson popped by with his hissing brat of a brother and left him in their care.
no one ever said anything about how loki immediately softened up and became docile the instant thor left. both of them wanted breaks from the other’s berating. and they both got the breaks they wanted, although thor was entirely unaware that loki put on an act just to annoy him and get him to give up custody.
y/n thought the whole act hilarious, which did not help in the least to improve loki’s antics to get back to midgard every couple of weeks.
“again.” pepper nodded. “thor’s cape was torn and his hair was all singed when he appeared, and he practically threw his brother across the room before leaving.”
y/n shut her eyes and lifted her eyebrows while shaking her head like a cat that got spritzed in the face. she wasn’t astonished in any way.
“was there blood this time?”
“no.”
“that’s good.” y/n nodded, eyebrows pinched.
“the tower reeks of smoke.” the redhead lowered her voice a bit and leaned towards y/n. “and, loki was rather dejected when he found the tower to be empty. almost as if he were missing a certain someone. i think he actually pouted, the spoiled prince.” pepper winked discretely before she brushed past y/n and stalked towards the club.
y/n watched pepper potts throw her shoulders back and put on her don’t even think about messing with me right now face. she vanished into the clubhouse.
y/n’s mouth was open slightly. certain someone, huh? couldn’t be tony, that was for certain. she put her hands on her hips and stared down the black tinted window for several seconds.
it slowly rolled down.
the young lady bent double to glower into the car.
big, wide and innocent green eyes looked up at y/n’s narrowed flashing ones.
there was a pause.
“hiiiii.” loki said.
“oh, cut the crap you stinker,” y/n chortled. “move over.”
she opened the back door and climbed in beside loki.
“you smell.” she said.
“you look nice.” loki tried.
“like a vaper.”
“did you try a new way of accessorizing necklaces?”
“did pep even offer you a shower?”
“i'm so very glad you’re back.”
“you’re still squishing me, laufeyson, move over!”
loki shuffled into the middle seat by a couple of inches. y/n settled back and breathed deeply.
“i’m glad to see you, too.” y/n turned to look at him. loki smiled like a child.
“thanks. i had to pull some new tricks to get back to new york, i hope you appreciate my efforts.” he said, brushing off one of his long sleeves.
“smelly tricks?”
“oh, my dear y/n, get over yourself. it’s just smoke. smoke and mirrors.”
“we’ll get you a nice bath when we get back to the tower, m’kay?”
“of course. whatever you say.” loki nodded.
“what exactly did you have to do to get here? last i saw thor, he was quite resolved to make peace and rule his temper when it came to you.”
“couple of stabbings, intentionally misplaced items; important ones, overdone spices in his meals,” loki started counting. “generally ignoring him, mocking his every move, breaking out of temporary prison twice and setting fire to his bed...”
y/n tsk’ed in disappointment and frowned. “i don’t approve.” she said steadily. “that wasn’t fair of you. tell me you at least tried for one day of peace? like you promised me last time?”
loki looked away.
“loki, you son of a dog!”
“im sorry...” loki whined. “i gave him two and a half days.”
y/n let her head thump against the seat, fighting a smile. what a trickster. she could never escape the jokes.
“okay, good job. that’s really much better. thank you for trying.”
the sad look on the pale, smudged face brightened.
y/n shut her eyes.
“you look worn-down.” loki remarked. “standing for too long?”
“yeah, something like that.” y/n answered, recalling not only the standing but the running and the dancing through the night club just to keep pace with tony stark’s boisterous evening mood. “i’m so exhausted. tony stark is a piece of cake when he’s sober, but he’s the whole damn cake when he’s not-sober, if you know what i mean.”
“not at all, but i’ll listen to you talk until i grow moss, just to hear your voice.”
missing a certain someone indeed. pepper was quite right. loki had caught a crush, and it was turning him into a real puppy. his cheeks were tinged with a happy shade of pink and had been ever since y/n had appeared.
“i’m really tired.” y/n reiterated. loki just hummed.
“so i suppose you wouldn’t be up for bringing me books and reading with me this evening?”
“it’s far too late for that, loki. tomorrow, promise. i’d fall asleep on you if it were to be tonight.”
“i wouldn’t mind.” loki said quietly.
“no?”
“not at all. it’d be cute.”
he was whipped.
y/n grinned.
“that’s very sweet of you.”
“why, thank you.”
and he was still as proud as ever. y/n didn’t mind so much. she yawned and blinked rapidly.
sitting in a warm car with another living body pressed gently next to hers was making her feel sleepy faster than she should have been.
of course, being placed next to an otherworldly mass murderer and outcast such as loki should have made y/n be more wary and on-guard, however there was something in loki’s manners towards her that let her know that although tony might get brutally killed, y/n was safe in loki’s hands.
y/n closed her eyes lightly and relaxed into the seat. her breathing evened out and she let her head loll onto loki’s arm. he didn’t stiffen, or push her off. he melted into her.
she had absolutely no intention of falling asleep then and there, and was determined to stay awake so as to not give ms potts a bad impression. it had been two years of working for stark industries, and y/n still sought to please this motherly figurehead. pepper potts was worth the effort.
and still, y/n (and loki, for y/n had rested her head on his shoulder and he was now resting his head on top of hers,) completely missed when ms potts exited the establishment, leading a bodyguard holding a very drunk tony stark down to the car. tony was brought around to the passenger seat, all the while asking the bodyguard if he would like a side gig guarding the avenger’s tower.
his reasoning (although y/n nor loki could hear, but still too entertaining to leave out,) was that if he (the guard,) could manage to keep THE tony stark in and safely in, or out and effectively out of a nightclub, he would do extremely well at the tower. pepper gave the man a business card upon tony’s insistence and he acknowledged it solemnly before returning to his duties in the club.
pepper led her boss around to the car and yanked the passenger door open. after tony got crammed into the car, they were home-free. their rooms and beds awaited patiently back in the tower.
“hey!” tony cried, spotting y/n and loki dozing in the backseat. they jolted awake, loki in a lively manner, as if he had simply closed his eyes for a moment, and y/n squinting about blearily. she had really fallen asleep.
“sir,” y/n blurted stupidly, crawling from the depths of her drowsiness.
“hello,” loki greeted him, raising a hand politely and then rubbing his jaw. y/n had knocked her forehead against him quite abruptly when she had woken up just then.
“don’t you ‘hello’ me, that’s not the point,” tony shook his head drunkenly. “that’s my favourite junior personal assistant. you can’t have her, she’s under my care.”
“favourite?” y/n said.
“and don’t you forget it.”
“can i have y/n when she’s not under contract, or is this a definite decision?” loki bartered, unconsciously moving a hand over y/n’s. y/n reached around and hit loki square in the chest out of impulse. she was not to be bargained over like some toy. he made a grunt in protest to the abuse. tony stopped and looked at him.
“is she your favourite, too? gosh, you’re popular, y/n. listen, punk, we can negotiate when i’m sober.”
“what about peter?” y/n asked.
“parker is my favourite intern who technically shouldn’t be my intern. there’s a difference.”
tony waved his hands around. the conversation of favourites and who wanted to keep y/n more was very sudden, but y/n readily amused all parties.
pepper pushed on tony’s back, effectively ushering him into his seat in the car. y/n sat forward, leaning over loki and passed the seatbelt around mr stark. he had the very distinct scent of alcohol clinging to him. it was almost as bad as loki’s smokiness.
almost.
pepper slammed the door and hurried around to the other side.
tony pointed through the windshield, awestruck. “and look, y/n, take notes! that’s my favourite out of all my favourites. her name is pepper potts. she’s...” here, tony hiccuped. “she’s amazing. i love her.”
“you love her?” y/n said with a smile.
“he loves her?” loki said.
tony continued to gaze as pepper slid into the driver’s seat.
“she could kick my ass.”
“i can, i have and i will kick your ass, tony,” pepper muttered to herself.
tony giggled.
pepper smiled to herself, glancing in the mirror at y/n curling back into loki’s side, yawning, about to fall asleep on the drive to the tower. and loki, in turn, blinking through the darkness and drawing his arm over the young lady beside him to keep her close.
“let’s go home.”
74 notes
·
View notes