Chapter Text
It was unfortunate for poor Sylvie that today was the day of Mobius’s very fancy, very adult, office Christmas party. She had actually looked forward to it, and so had Loki. The event was supposedly black tie boujee, their favorite earthly aesthetic, and to have lots of delicious free alcohol. What had upset Sylvie so much, is that she was very small today. Much smaller than her usual headspace, probably closer to a year old than her normal minimum of two.
It upset her more than it did Loki or Mobius; they seemed delighted to have a sweet little girl to take care of.
Thor didn’t have much to say, as he had plans today to meet with Dr. Strange and wouldn’t see them until he met them at the event, but he had picked her up before he left, gave her a big kiss on the forehead, and called her the sweetest baby girl.
She hadn’t been so sweet to Loki, though.
While Mobius had spent the morning putting up his own Christmas decor, cooking a dish for the party, preparing a speech, and finishing up some paperwork, Loki had spent the morning as Sylvie's primary caregiver. It was an unusual configuration of roles for them, so unusual that Sylvie didn’t even really have a nickname for Loki as a parental figure.
He didn’t mind caring for her of course, the difficult part came from the fact that Sylvie was in that “just learning how to walk” phase, which meant she was up and moving constantly and Loki was almost continuously chasing her around the house, shutting doors and keeping her out of places she shouldn’t be. It also meant she was especially prone to tantrums but couldn’t really form the words to express what she wanted.
After her afternoon nap, they started getting ready for the party. Loki gave Sylvie a bath and got her all dressed in a pretty green velvet dress. It was a short, baby-doll dress and had puffed sleeves, and ruffles over the shoulders that connected with the skirt in a sort of overall-like way. It was so fancy, it even had a separate diaper cover, also velvet. She was quite proud of it and excited to show it off. She was not, however, excited about the velvet booties that also came with the outfit, that Loki and Mobius made her wear, fearing she’d get cold in her favorite Mary Janes.
Loki finally got a shower and wore a very smart black suit with a silk green bowtie.
When Sylvie couldn’t hear, Mobius made some comments about it that were not suitable for her little ears.
Loki enjoyed hearing those and expressed similar sentiments about Mobius’s outfit, even if it was a fairly basic tuxedo.
Loki sat in the front seat of the car while Sylvie took the baby seat in the back and had her diaper bag next to her. She played with the toys and babbled behind her pacifier to Loki and Mobius, who, in exchange, talked to her the whole time.
The S.H.I.E.L.D. office building actually didn’t look cold and sterile tonight. It felt warm and inviting and smelled like fresh baked cookies. It almost felt like a party at someone’s house.
Mobius took Sylvie during the party, holding her on his hip in one arm through most of it and usually with soda in a wine glass in the other hand. Loki comfortably fit into the role of trophy husband during the night. He mingled and laughed with the unnatural chortle rich people always seemed to have while Mobius showed Sylvie off to all his co-workers and watched them all say “aww, what a sweet little girl. How old is she?” and similar things. Sylvie didn’t say much; she didn’t feel like it.
When Mobius excused himself to use the lavatories, he handed her to Loki. Her first motion was to dip her fingers into Loki’s wine. Loki moved it out of her reach, “babies don’t get to drink wine,” he told her, “silly girl.”
“Pwease?”
“No, not until you’re big again.”
She moved to put her hands on his forehead, hoping to enchant him.
“I don’t think so,” he said, pulling away and furrowing his brow.
Sylvie frowned and stuck her wineless fingers in her mouth, anyway.
They walked around and found Thor and Dr. Strange. It was unsettling seeing Thor in a tuxedo, he did not seem the type for one. Even at an event like this.
“There she is! Princess Sylvie!” he proudly announced as Loki set her down, letting her toddle to him. Sylvie clapped at the announcement, excited by it. Her dress flourished as Thor picked her up. Everyone in that room had interactions with Sylvie fairly commonly, or had at least met her- in fact, Bucky and Scott were regulars at Loki and Sylvie’s daycare- but no one had ever seen her regress so young, and she seemed to be the only guest in headspace, at least that’s what Loki was thinking.
“Have you guys seen the littles room? She might have fun there,” Bucky commented.
“Yeah… but I won't,” Loki said, taking another sip of pinot noir.
Sylvie looked at him with pained eyes, like she was going to cry or throw another fit.
Loki sighed, “fine. C’mon,” he said while taking Sylvie back from Thor’s arms. She sucked on her thumb and curled her forefinger around her nose. “Is it pacifier time, then?” Loki asked.
Sylvie nodded and Loki searched for her bag, eventually finding it with other bags and coats in a small office. He sat down in a clear spot on the desk as he rooted through, finding her pacifier and pegasus and taking a moment to just sit with her quietly and rock her back and forth. She seemed to enjoy it. “Do we need to give you a change?” he asked while they were there. He checked her diaper just to be sure when she didn’t answer.
She tried to push his hands away.
“Look, either you tell me- and be honest- or I need to check myself,”
“All dry!” she whined.
“Are you? I don’t want you to get your dress ruined with a leak,”
“Yeah! All dry!” she lied.
Loki knew she was lying, but if she wanted a rash or to get her pretty new dress soiled in public, that was her choice. He had done what he could, and he’d try again later.
“Ready to go play then?” he asked. Sylvie nodded and motioned to be picked up.
She babbled in his arms, before putting her arms around him and snuggling into his neck, “baba,” she said.
“Is that what you’re going to start calling me?”
She meant it to be more baby jargon, but sure, “baba” was a fine nickname. “Baba Woki” she smiled.
He grinned at how ridiculous the name was, bearing a striking resemblance to Thor as he did so, even if they weren’t actually related.
They reached the littles room and Loki opened the door. It was some kind of conference room or office, perhaps a break room as it didn’t have many desks or furniture. There were a couple toys scattered around, but not much else.
Sylvie was allowed to crawl around and play with whatever toys she found. From where Loki was sitting, it was very obvious her diaper was sagging, but he didn’t comment; he’d let her play until she started getting fussy.
She sat by a xylophone and played for a while. Other littles that were in the room weren’t really there to play though, it seemed to be more of just a safe spot for stopping tantrums, changing diapers, and taking naps. After talking to a couple of other caregivers, Loki learned most of the littles were playing outside and were probably just coming in as it was starting to get dark.
Of course, to no one’s surprise, Sylvie’s diaper eventually did start to bother her, and she got fussy; “Do you want to go out on the patio and play with the other littles?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Don’ wanna.”
“Do you need a change?”
“... No.”
That was enough for Loki; he wasn't going to deal with her being fussy all night. It was easier to just deal with one tantrum and get it over with.
“You do,” he said, laying out the changing pad, “lie down.”
When Sylvie didn’t comply, he made her lie down. It was a last resort, and not a good solution, but it worked. She started to cry, but Loki worked as fast as he could to ensure she didn’t get any more upset, remembering to give her her favorite dinosaur as a distraction. He took everything and put it away, discarded the diaper, and put on some hand sanitizer. That would do until he could get to a sink.
Sylvie chose to hang onto his hand and waddle instead of being carried to show off how much of a big girl she was. But of course, she wasn’t a big girl, and ended up stumbling over her own booties, falling in the hallway. “We’re not going to cry,” Loki softly said as he scooped her up, repeating the words she had said to him whenever he looked like he was going to tear up. Her face was still tearstained from the overdramatic diaper change, but she nodded and didn’t cry.
“Does babygirl want to see daddy?” he asked.
“Daddy n’ baba n’ baby,” she answered.
“All of us? That’s a pretty tall order, I don’t know if that’s possible,” he responded sarcastically. It took him a moment to come to grips with how much it sounded like something Mobius would say.
Mobius was, of course, overjoyed to see them and offered to take Sylvie so Loki could get some food, which really meant more drinks. It wasn’t like Loki was going to be driving, sober or otherwise, so Mobius let him.
Loki got loud and merry when he was drunk, it was very much the same as when he was little: He laughed at everything and just wanted to sing and dance.
He belted out some carols he had learned over the past few days, which Mobius and Sylvie watched, unsure if they should laugh or feel a deep sense of second-hand embarrassment. They decided a smile was appropriate, as Mobius got compliments about his partner’s harmonious chords.
He got Sylvie a plate of food while Loki was on the mic, mostly small finger foods that would be easy for her. They went to sit down but Loki grabbed Mobius’s arm before they could. “May I have a dance, please?” he asked, very politely.
“Thor, can you take Sylvie for a minute?” Mobius asked. Thor was sitting on a couch nearby and gave Mobius a big thumbs up before taking the little girl.
Loki was a very good dancer when he wanted to be. Mobius felt also very lucky that they weren’t making a scene. No, many guests had taken to dancing in the big open room, Loki and Mobius just happened to be the best at it. At first, Loki had the lead. He used broad, sweeping, balletic movements that swept Mobius off his feet and made him chuckle like a kid. But Loki was rather serious about it, dipping him low and kissing up his arm like they were Gomez and Morticia Addams.
The next song, Mobius took the lead, for a very simple, swaying, slow dance. Loki looked at him with eyes full of the purest kind of affection, and they leaned against each other through the end of the song. Doing a gentle, barely noticeable, box step.
Sylvie watched all of this from her spot on Thor’s knee across the room. She ate her dinner with only minimal fussing (he’d have to kill her before she ate the gross slimy eggplant. Disgusting.) and messes (she got a splotch of mac and cheese on her dress, but that was mostly Thor’s fault, as he wasn’t exactly used to feeding a nearly 6 foot tall toddler on his lap).
She was bounced on his knee after getting cleaned up. Unsteadily, she braced herself on one arm, and pointed at Mobius and Loki dancing, babbling to Thor about it. “Look there’s your daddies!” Thor told her.
Sylvie frowned, that wasn’t what she meant. She tried again, adding a wiggle to get her point across.
“Do you want to go dance?” he asked.
The other heroes looked at Thor as he started to get up with the baby girl in his arms. “One moment,” he told them.
He brought her to the dancefloor and let her step on his feet, holding her arms to help her balance as if she was just learning to take her first steps, let alone dance. Thor was not as good of dancer as Loki, and even though she was light, it wasn’t exactly comfortable, but they made it work and were surprisingly not the worst dancers on the floor.
Eventually, he decided it would be easier to just pick her up, swaying back and forth through a slow song, gently dipping her, and moving a little faster with more spins during a faster one. She giggled and squealed, kicking her legs as Thor rocked her in his arms with the music. But all the movement was a bit much for her, and Mobius eventually caught sight of the little girl turning greener than her dress.
He broke away from Loki after a “thank you” and a kiss, and rushed to her. He took her out of Thor’s arms and grabbed her diaper bag before slipping her a motion sickness pill and grabbing her some ginger ale. Ooh ginger ale! That wasn’t something babies usually got to drink. When her stomach settled, she was allowed to return to the dancing and Mobius tried to take his significant other back in his arms.
Sylvie seemed more energetic after her head stopped spinning. Loki, however, was not. Quite the opposite actually, the break had destroyed his momentum and he collapsed on the couch next to Thor before Mobius could take him back out on the floor.
Mobius, who only had a sip of Loki’s champagne, let Sylvie dance with him. It was exactly the way you’d expect when you set down a toddler on the dance floor, and Mobius tried not to break down laughing at how ridiculous she looked as she wiggled to the music. He knew she could dance well enough to make her a sight to behold when she wanted to be elegant. But that time was not right now, and she didn’t seem to care.
The poor baby wore herself out and rather quickly became tired, snuggling into Mobius’ arms. As soon as he moved her away from the loud music, she passed out, just like Loki had.
Mobius said a few goodbyes and was pleasantly surprised when some of the Avengers team had gifts for Loki, Sylvie, and himself. He only just remembered that he had theirs in the car and rushed out to grab each fancy, wrapped, gift from the trunk, somehow managing to balance them in one arm while carrying Sylvie in the other. They all had golden paper and intricately tied bows on top.
He brought them in and distributed them accordingly. Some people got more personal gifts than others, and littles, even if not regressed at the moment, were usually handed some kind of toy appropriate to their headspace.
Two of the littles, Bucky and Scott, chose to use their gifts from Mobius, Loki, and Sylvie, as the one present their caregivers let them open before Christmas. Immediately slipping into headspace as they did so, much to the annoyance of Hope and Sam who’d now be having to look after them. The annoyance was directed at Mobius of course, and not their respective littles.
Bucky was very happy to receive a new Lego set. It was made for older kids, and even though Loki and Sylvie had both whined over wanting it, they knew it wouldn’t be something they could complete. Hell, it may have even been too complicated for Bucky, but maybe Sam would be able to help him.
Sylvie had helped pick out Scott’s gift. He got a new set of Hot Wheels tracks that made loops. He already had quite a large collection, and it was hard to find ones he didn’t have, but Sylvie found him the perfect one. His face lit up and he almost howled with excitement. He couldn’t wait to play with it. Hope frowned at Mobius, the boy already had so many Hot Wheels tracks, he definitely did not need more.
Both Loki and Sylvie were asleep. Of course in very different ways: Sylvie was in that gentle baby sleep where she looked angelically cute and effortlessly comfortable, dozing on Mobius’s shoulder. While Loki, on the other hand, was drunk napping, comatosed from food and alcohol. Thor carried him bridal style and tried not to get Loki drool on his arm.
Mobius said his goodbyes and exchanged lots of hugs.
Loki slumped over uncomfortably in the front seat while Sylvie was buckled into her baby seat and given a kiss on her forehead.
Mobius drove home with a smile on his face. That was pretty successful for a party with both of the Lokis. There were presents in the back seat by Sylvie, many rattled and jingled, and he was very impressed the tot didn’t wake up. She was a rather light sleeper, but apparently it was still enough for her to handle.
Mobius carried the both of them in the best he could. He put Loki on the bed, only slightly disappointed that the endeavors they had discussed earlier in the day would not come to fruition tonight. And he gave Sylvie a much needed diaper change before swaddling her in some comfortable pajamas and tucking her into the crib, pacifier bobbing in her mouth quietly.
Bonus doodle:
