A Trickster's Daughter

Chapter 35: We Have Work For You

End of July-ish 2008, Gloversville, New York, United States

Two weeks later...

Of course their normal wouldn't last.

Gabriel could honestly say he did not expect the person that had showed up knocking on their front door one afternoon. He thought it might've been one of the house mom's on the street. Maya had made quite the impression on a lot of the stay at home moms when they decided to visit the nearby park last week. Playing with all the little kids, keeping them entertained and tiring them out.

He liked the way she'd smile at them with big joy filled smiles and getting lost in their nonsensical games. Kids were always a soft spot for her. The moms must've picked up on it like sharks and wounded prey, because Maya had been invited/kind-of-begged to come to the park again twice already to give them a break for an hour from running around after their little ones. It helped that the kids seemed to absolutely adore Maya and Puck.

So Gabriel fully expected Susan, or maybe Carroll (with the pretentious double R & L) to be on the other side of the door to see if Maya didn't mind coming to the park.

It was neither.

"Brother!" a loud jovial voice boomed once Gabriel was fully in view. The tall blonde man with bulging muscles smiled radiantly down at him as he held up Mjolnir. "I have found Mjolnir!" he said triumphantly, absolutely pleased with himself.

Gabriel looked at him in surprise then rolled his eyes in annoyance at the lumbering puppy of a Norse god, before promptly shutting the door in his face to contemplate how the hell Thor knew where he was.

Did he reveal the locations of some of his little hidey-holes in the US? He knew Thor knew about the one in Norway. Gabriel let him use it all the time, hence the ever-present Asgardian mead stashed away there.

Wait a minute; Thor had challenged him to a drinking game before he left Norway. He might've let something slip...

"Lokiiiii," Thor's muffled whine drifted through the door.

Gabriel leaned against the door pinching the bridge of his nose as he sighed heavily before opening the door to be assaulted by the big lug's puppy eyes.

"Really man? With the face?" Gabriel groaned exaggeratedly as he pretended to try and look away, squinting one eye closed but one still partially open.

"It is good to see you as well Loki," the puppy eyes faded, becoming jovial again. "You seem to be doing better. Has your little one returned home?" he inquired with open curiosity.

Gabriel's gold eyes flashed completely open as he looked penetratingly into the pagan's deep blue ones. Papa Bear Gabriel rearing its head.

Thor's eyes softened at Gabriel's look, knowing his 'brother' was debating whether to tell him more of the girl who was his 'niece'.

"I have told you brother," Thor said surprisingly gentle. "I mean my little niece no harm."

"I know Fabio, I know. And right now you're like the only one amongst our family and other godly friends I'd even consider letting anywhere near her," he sighed, still blocking the doorway into the house.

Not that Thor or any other supernatural being could get in without him tampering with the wards woven into the home.

Thor pursed his eyebrows in confusion, "So, why hide her from me? I do not understand."

"I told you, her pagan side isn't exactly-" Gabriel was cut off as Maya walked down the stairs and right into Thor's line of sight.

"Hey Dad, who's at the...door?" Maya asked hesitantly, seeing the large burly blonde man standing on the other side of her Dad, looking at her with a beaming smile and a very large hammer gripped casually in his hand.