Indeed, there was a Frost Giant in Notre Dame. Loki had been there all his life. Although, unlike how he was as a child, he's not always in his Frost Giant form. That will only happen if he's scared or trying to fend off intruders or whenever he likes. Although he likes to stay as his pale-skinned self. It makes him feel normal when he knows he's not.

For what Thanos calls a monster, he is really good looking. Not that anyone but Odin knows. Well, Odin, and Loki's gargoyle friends. Tony, Steve and Natasha. Loki had just finished ringing the morning bells and went to the balcony where Tony and Natasha were. But they were still and asleep. Tony with his mouth open where a bird had made its nest for its baby.

"Good morning," Loki said to the little bird who woke up, "Will today be the day? Are you ready to fly?"

The bird didn't want to.

"You sure? Good day to try. Why, if I picked a day to fly," Loki picked the bird up in his hands, "oh, this would be it. The Festival of Fools. It will be fun. The jugglers, and music, and dancing..."

The bird flapped its wings as Loki carefully let go of it so they can do it on their own. And they did! Loki chuckled at the surprised look on the bird before it landed back in his hands. More of the birds flew by.

"Go on," Loki urged, smiling, "nobody wants to be cooped up here forever."

Tony woke up once the bird left and started spitting out the sticks and feathers.

"Oh, man. I thought he'd never leave. I'll be spittin' feathers for a week!" Tony complained.

"Well, that's what you get for sleeping with your mouth open," Natasha said.

Tony chuckled sarcastically, "go scare a nun. Hey, Loki! What's goin' on out there? A fight? A flogging?"

"A festival!" Natasha said

"You mean the Feast of Fools?" Loki hummed a yes, "All right, all right. Pour the wine and cut the cheese," Tony made farting noises with his armpit.

"It is a treat to watch the colourful pageantry of the simple peasant folk."

"Boy, nothin' like balcony seats for watching the ol' F.O.F."

"Yeah, watching," Loki said sad and left his friends.

Tony noticed a mime and tried to spit at them but Natasha stopped him. Natasha motioned to the sad Loki who left their side. He always wanted to go to the Festival of Fools but he knew he wouldn't fit in when they saw his Frost Giant form and he had his master, Thanos to worry about.

"Hey, hey, what gives?" Tony asked him

"Aren't you going to watch the festival with us?" Natasha asked as Loki disappeared.

"I don't get it."

"Perhaps he's sick."

"Impossible!" Steve said walking up to them with birds all around him, "If 20 years of listening to you two hasn't made him sick by now, nothing will."

"But watching the Festival of Fools has always been the highlight of the year for Loki," Natasha said.

"What good is watching the party if you never get to go near it?" Birds have begun to roost on Steve so he waves them away, "get away from me, go on, you bunch of buzzards. He's not made of stone, like us."

Steve goes to Loki, who is at his table with a model of the city and small toys painted like townspeople. Loki made them whenever Thanos brought him wood to carve. He even made himself who stays in Notre Dame.

"Loki, what's wrong? You wanna tell ol' Steve all about it?" Steve asked.

"I...I just don't feel like watching the festival, that's all," Loki said playing with one of the wooden townsfolk.

"Well, did you ever think about going there instead?"

"Sure, but I'd never fit in down there. I'm not normal."

"Oh, Loki, Loki, Loki," he pauses as the birds have returned to perch on her again, "Do you mind? I would like to have a moment with the boy if it's all right with you!"

"Hey, quit beating around the bell tower," Tony told Loki putting the wooden figure of him down in the town, "Whadda we gotta do? Paint you a fresco?"

"As your friends and guardians, we insist you attend the festival," Natasha said.

"Me?" Loki asked.

"No, the Pope. Of course, you!" Tony said.

"It would be a veritable pope-pourri of educational experience," Natasha said.

"Wine, women and song," Tony juggled a few wooden figures.

"You can learn to identify various regional cheeses."

"Bobbing for snails!"

"And the indigenous folk music."

"Playing Dunk the monk," Tony put a bucket of water on Natasha's head.

"Loki, take it from an old spectator," Steve said, "life's not a spectator sport. If watchin's all you're gonna do, then you're gonna watch your life go by without you."

"Yeah, you're Asgardian and a Jotun, with the flesh, and the hair, and the navel lint. We're just part of the architecture, right Nat?" Tony asked Natasha.

"Yet, if you chip us, will we not flake? If you moisten us," Nat took the bucket off, "do we not grow moist?" And put it on Tony.

"Loki, just grab a fresh tunic and a clean pair of hose and-"

"Thanks for the encouragement," Loki said interrupting Steve, "but you're all forgetting one thing."

"What?" His friends asked.

"My master, Thanos," Loki said showing a wooden figure of him.

The three remembered Thanos. He forbids letting Loki out of the Cathedral. Even for a minute. Because everyone would see Loki as a monster if he accidentally blew his cover. Not that Thanos ever saw Loki pale for very long. Loki is terrified of his master so, whenever Thanos comes to visit, Loki goes into his Jotun form. Not that he wants to most of the time.

"Well, when he says you're forbidden from ever leaving the bell tower, does he mean 'ever ever?'" Nat asked.

"Never ever. And he hates the Feast of Fools. He'd be furious if I asked to go," Loki said

"Who says you gotta ask?" Tony asked him.

"Oh, no."

"Ya' sneak out..."

"It's just one afternoon..." Steve said

"I couldn't..." Loki said.

"...and ya' sneak back in," Tony said.

"He'll never know you were gone," Steve said.

"I mean, if I got caught-"

"Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission," Nat said

"He might see me," Loki said.

"You could wear a disguise," Tony said wrapping a cloak around him, "just this once. What Thanos doesn't know can't hurt you."

"Ignorance is bliss," Nat said.

"Nobody wants to stay cooped up here forever," Steve said quoting Loki's words to the little bird.

Loki thinks for a moment, then a smile creeps across his face.

"You're right! I'll go!" Loki said as his friends cheered, "I'll get cleaned up. I'll stroll down those stairs. I'll march through the doors and-"

Loki was interrupted by Thanos standing in his way with a basket of food and drinks for the two.

"Good morning, Loki," Thanos said.

Loki stutters as he turned into his Jotun form, "good morning, Master."

"Dear boy, whomever are you talking to?"

"My friends."

"I see," Thanos taps Tony on the head, "And what are your friends made of, Loki?"

"Stone."

"Can stone talk?"

"No, it can't."

"That's right. You're a smart lad. Now, lunch."

Upon hearing the word, Loki goes off and retrieves a table setting; a silver chalice and plate for Thanos and a wooden cup and plate for himself. Thanos sat himself at the small table in Loki's home.

"Shall we review your alphabet today?" Thanos asked opening a book.

"Yes, master. I would like that very much," Loki said sitting down.

"Very well. A?"

"Abomination."

"B?"

"Blasphemy."

"C?"

"C-c-c-contrition."

"D?"

"Damnation."

"E?"

"Eternal damnation!" Loki was becoming more confident.

"Good. F?" Thanos took a sip of his drink that he poured for himself and Loki.

"Festival," Loki said almost dreamingly.

Thanos spits out his drink at the incorrect response.

"Excuse me?" Thanos asked.

"Forgiveness!" Loki said desperate to fix his mistake.

"You said festival," Thanos closed the book and stood up.

"No!" Loki said getting upset.

"You are thinking about going to the festival," Thanos said walking away and Loki followed.

"It's just that you go every year."

"I am a public official. I must go. But I don't enjoy a moment. Thieves and cutpurses, the dregs of humankind, all mixed together in a shallow, drunken stupor."

"I didn't mean to upset you, master," Loki said as the two walked out on one of the many balconies outside.

"Loki, can't you understand? When your heartless mother abandoned you as a child, anyone else would have drowned you. And this my thanks for taking you in and raising you as my son?"

"I'm sorry, sir," Loki said standing next to Thanos.

"Oh, my dear Loki, you don't know what it's like out there. I do, I do. The world is cruel. The world is wicked. It's I alone whom you can trust in this whole city. I am your only friend. I who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you. I who look upon you without fear. How can I protect you, boy, unless you always stay in here? Away in here.'

The two returned inside and back to Loki's wooden town and people.

"Remember what I taught you, Loki," Thanos said 'You are deformed.'

'I am deformed,' Loki repeated.

'And you are ugly.'

'And I am ugly.'

'And these are crimes for which the world shows little pity. You do not comprehend.'

'You are my one defender.'

'Out there they'll revile you as a monster.'

'I am a monster.'

'Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer.'

'Only a monster.'

'Why invite their calumny and consternation? Stay in here. Be faithful to me.

'I'm faithful.'

'Grateful to me.'

'I'm grateful.'

'Do as I say. Obey.'

'And/I'll stay in here,' they sang.

"You are good to me, master. I'm sorry," Loki said as Thanos left.

"You are forgiven," Thanos said, "But remember, Loki: this is your sanctuary."

Thanos left.

"My sanctuary," Loki turned into his normally pale skin, 'Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone, gazing at the people down below me. All my life I watch them as I hide up here alone. Hungry for the histories they show me. All my life I memorize their faces knowing them as they will never know me. All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day, not above them, but part of them. And out there, living in the sun. Give me one day out there. All I ask is one to hold forever. Out there where they all live unaware. What I'd give, what I'd dare just to live one day out there! Out there among the millers and the weavers and their wives. Through the roofs and gables, I can see them. Every day they shout and scold and go about their lives heedless of the gift it is to be them. If I was in their skin I'd treasure ev'ry instant. Out there, strolling by the Seine. Taste a morning out there like ordinary men who freely walk about there. Just one day and then I swear I'll be content with my share. Won't resent, won't despair, old and bent. I won't care I'll have spent one day out there!'