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“Any color except blue. Or Yellow, or rather that goldenrod yellow color your mother insisted you get. The bright yellow of...Big Bird? That’s palatable to my eyes. And red is also not among my favourite colours. Bad memories, Jalen, you understand.”
Molly leaned against the door and smiled as she watched her husband and her son with the expanse of butcher’s paper in front of her. She had seen a video on Facebook of a young child who did their own finger-painting of sorts for their bedroom and she had thought it would be a good idea to christen Jalen finally getting a room of his own in the home she shared with him and Khan.
It had been an interesting situation, going from seeing the man found in the pod who she had to vouch for to this, the man in front of her with his “pre-war era” clothes, sitting cross-legged on the floor with a toddler in his lap, going over colours with him to teach him. She had known Khan had this in him, and she wasn’t the only one; Mary had often asked him to be the defacto babysitter for her and John that by the time their own bun was in the oven he was old hat at this.
But still, the sight was pleasant to see.
“If you take away the primary colours there won’t be anything left except black and green,” Molly piped up from the doorway.
“Then I’ll teach Jalen to draw an alligator and we can have him become a fan of Alligator Loki and make the room Marvel themed,” Khan said. He dipped a finger in the black finger paint and then showed it to Jalen, and then made a squiggled shape on the paper. “I’m sure you can improve on your father’s alligator.”
“Just remember, as much as you love Loki, there are probably more things to decorate it with if we do Iron Man or Captain America,” she said, pushing away to join them.
“But I relate to Loki. My life trajectory is very similar to his. I know that, you know that, and there's no reason Jalen can't be a fan as well,” he said, guiding Jalen’s chubby hand to the black paint and poking a finger in. Jalen giggled and immediately tapped his father on the nose. “No, the paper, Jalen, not my nose.”
Molly chuckled softly and then sat next to her husband, poking a finger in the green paint and then tapping Jalen’s nose. “There. Now father and son are both Loki coloured.”
“I knew you would understand,” Khan murmured, turning his head without thinking to press a kiss in Molly’s hair. He pulled back and saw the black dot of paint in her brown hair. “You may need to take a shower.”
“I've washed off worse things than paint after a day at Barts,” she said with a smile. “This is well worth spending time with my family.” She pressed her finger down and ran a green squiggle matching perfectly with Khan’s while Jalen clapped. “I think Mummy and Daddy may do the art.”
“At least I’ll get to raise a supervillain fan in a proper environment that way,” Khan said, giving his wife a smile before shifting to lean in and kiss her. Yes, this was exactly what she had wanted from the moment she met him, even if she hadn’t realized it at the time. He made her happy, whole and complete and she hoped fervently she did the same for him.