He wasn't sure why he was there.
It was a Stark party, granted, and he had been invited, granted, but that didn't mean he actually had to come. He didn't know entirely what convinced him, though it was probably Thor.
One good thing about these types of parties, though, was that there were always so many people it was impossible not to blend in. Unless, of course, you were Tony Stark or one of his friends of the center of attention. Loki was not very much for mingling. There were few people he tolerated, even fewer he liked, and a party—a Stark party at that—was not the environment to be in if you weren't a social person. Mostly he just hung around near the walls in the corner, nursing a glass of champagne and not saying or doing much of anything.
Today's party was only the second he'd been to, and the first he'd been formally invited to. He planned to enjoy himself doing nothing. His plans were foiled though, of course. Foiled by a girl with deep brown hair and light brown skin whom he did not hate.
She bumped into him, spilling his champagne on them both, apologizing profusely as she went to get some napkins. As soon as he saw her, he knew she was different that the other socialites all vying for the attention of Tony Stark. Call him corny, but it was the truth. And not in a romantic way either. It was just something he observed. For one thing, she wasn't dressed in the same skimpy, all-too-revealing outfits as the rest of the partygoers. She wore a modest, knee-high grey dress and a sweater. For another thing, she wasn't in the middle of the dance floor or in the pool or trying to catch the eye of Tony. She seemed to be floating around on the outskirts of the party, much like Loki himself. When she returned with the napkins, he asked her name.
She looked at him. "Alice," she said.
"Well, Alice, thank you for the napkins—" He cut himself off, about to say that he could dry himself off, but decided he actually quite liked Alice doing so for him.
"Hm?"
"Uh, nothing. Never mind."
"Yeah, um, sorry again about that, by the way."
"It's fine," Loki said, waving a hand dismissively. "You've already apologized quite enough, and I feel, in any case, that you've made up for it by...er...drying me off."
"Well, I mean, yeah, but you were wearing a nice suit and—"
"I was?"
Alice grinned. "You are wearing a nice suit, only now it's covered in champagne."
"Ah, but so is your dress."
Alice looked down at her dress, as if for the first time realizing that it had gotten wet as well, then shrugged. "It'll dry."
"So will my suit."
Alice blinked. She stood up fully and crossed her arms. "Touché." She smirked and started trying to dry herself off.
"Let me help," Loki offered, getting some napkins.
"Oh, no, it's fine," Alice said, though she looked like she was struggling.
"I insist. You helped me with my outfit, I'll help you with yours. It'll be my way of repaying you."
"Well, alright then," she said. Loki began drying her off, though much of it was already dry from the time she'd spent drying him. "I'm sorry, I just realized I never got your name."
Loki looked up at her. "You apologize a lot."
"Oh. Sorry—I mean…oh."
Loki laughed. "My name is Loki."
"Well, thank you, Loki." She paused. "May I ask what you're doing here? No offense, but you don't seem like you come to parties often."
"That's because I don't. There, that's about as dry as it's going to get. But anyhow, I've only ever been invited to a few parties before, so…"
"Thanks," she said, throwing away the napkins. "Only a few? Why? You seem like the life of the party."
He raised an eyebrow.
"A joke. I-it was a joke."
"Oh, of course," Loki said, mentally face palming.
"So, Loki…um…what do you like to—"
Then Thor appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, to whisk Loki away. "Come dance, brother! It is such fun out there!" He grabbed Loki's arm and pulled him out onto the floor.
"Oh…bye then…" Alice said.
Loki opened his mouth to reply, but by the time he'd formulated a sentence, he was already amid the excitement of the rest of the party, with Alice nowhere to be seen.
"I was in the middle of a conversation, brother." Loki muttered, annoyed.
"Were you? I didn't notice. Was it with that young lady you were standing near?"
"Yes! Who else? Myself?"
"I suppose not, it's just hard to believe that a lady that fair would want to hold a conversation with you!"
Loki pressed a hand to his heart in mock offense. "That hurt, brother." To tell the truth, it didn't hurt at all. First, Thor was clearly intoxicated, and Loki was told things like that all the time. Besides, it was a small talk type of thing; what else are strangers supposed to do when drying champagne off each other?
The music blared, and Thor started to do some weird dance that was, quite frankly, sad to watch, so Loki decided to sit down somewhere. As he did, the music volume lowered a bit as Tony Stark took a mic and stood in front of the crowd. Voices quieted as he started to speak. "Thank you all for coming, it means a lot."
Sure, it did.
"This party is dedicated to my good friends, the Avengers. If you're an Avenger here, please raise you hand so we can acknowledge you!"
Some hands went up, a few of which Loki recognized—Natasha Romanoff, Bruce Banner, Thor (of course), even Steve Rogers. Stark pointed in all their directions and the crowds cheered wildly. Loki found himself clapping to a few but grew tired quickly and went outside. Finally. Some quiet.
He sat on a bench and tried to give himself some time to collect his thoughts. Thoughts which were interrupted. Not like he was expecting much less. At first, he was annoyed, then the voice that had spoken to him registered in his mind. Alice. He looked up.
"Hey. Too loud for you, too?"
"Yes."
"Yeah, I know the feeling. You're, like, the only sane person here."
Loki smiled. "Thank you. I think. I'm not sure if that was a compliment."
"Oh, believe me-it was. Even my sister's gone crazy, and she's the most down-to-Earth person I know." Alice sighed and sat next to him.
"Did she get drunk or something? So did my brother."
"Exactly. Who's your brother?"
"…Thor."
"Thor? As in, like, the Avenger Thor?" Alice's eyes widened.
Loki sighed. "That's the one."
"Oh, sorry if I sound like I'm overexcited or anything, I just…the Avengers are great." She paused. "O-oh, but you're great, too," she added quickly.
"Nah, I'm okay with it. I've been hearing it my entire life. I'm like his shadow."
"Oh, I know how you feel. My sister is always the center of attention. I've always been a good student, I played sports, I loved to read, I was in the drama club. But I guess she did it first, so I'm not as significant. Plus, I'm adopted, so if she's mad at me, she'll tell people we aren't related cause she knows it's technically true." She paused. "Sorry for dumping all this out on you—"
"No need to apologize. It's interesting. I'm adopted as well. I know exactly what you mean." Loki nodded in understanding.
"Wait, really? Cool. Well, I mean, n-not if you don't think it's cool, I just thought it was cool that we were both adopted, so it was like 'oh, relatable!' but…um…sorry. I talk a lot."
"Alice," Loki said, putting his hand on her shoulder, "do not worry about it. You talk just enough. Around me, you don't need to apologize just for existing."
Alice blushed. "Th-thanks."
She looked straight at him for the first time all night, and he saw that her eyes were the most brilliant blue he'd ever seen, almost to the point of violet. Somehow it fit her perfectly.
"You have beautiful eyes," he remarked.
"Thank you." And just like that, it was over. She looked away and blushed deeper. She mumbled something.
"What was that?"
"I said, 'So do you.'"
"Oh. Thank you." If there was anything Loki was often complimented on, it was his eyes. They were a light emerald green, and very observant. But somehow, coming from Alice, the compliment felt different. It felt less forced, less like someone was trying to be relatively nice to him with the knowledge of his morally ambiguous actions. It felt…genuine. From what he'd seen, he didn't even think she was aware of those.
"So…your brother's an Avenger."
"Yep."
"Does he, like, talk to the other Avengers? Is he friends with them? Or is it all business? Do you know?"
"From what I know, he talks with them. Maybe more than he should sometimes. Why? Do you want me to give them a message?"
"No, no. Just asking."
Just then, a tall girl with pale skin and dark hair stumbled over and stood in front of her. "Alice, my sister, why come to parties if you're not going to enjoy them? There's no point in—" Her eyes flitted to Loki. "Ah, and who's this? Has my wallflower of a sister finally found a handsome man to court her?"
Alice flushed bright red and waved a hand. "He's not courting me! We're just talking, as friends."
"But many thanks for the compliment," Loki added.
Alice smiled slightly and her sister laughed. "Alright then, Alice. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt. But just so you know," she said as she turned and started to walk away, "the two of you would make a lovely couple." She left.
Alice covered her face with her hands. "Sorry, that was my sister, Quinn. She can be a little- like that-sometimes."
"Oh, it's fine. She seems nice."
"She's nicer when she's sober," said Alice pointedly.
"Well, you're lucky. Thor's the way he is all the time. I love him, of course, but he can be rather…trying at times."
"Um, I know on Asgard you probably had no use of them, but do you have a cell phone?"
"No. Thor has been on me about getting one, but as far as I know, he doesn't even own one himself."
"Oh. Then…a computer?"
"No. You can write me a letter though," said Loki, shrugging.
"Uh, okay. What's your address?"
"Hm. I would have to think about that actually. Would you mind if I just took you there?"
"I guess not, but—"
"Great." Loki took her hand and teleported them to the Avengers Tower, to his room. "Here we are. Avengers Tower. I do not know the exact address though."
"You…you live in A-Avengers Tower?"
"Yes," Loki sighed, "they made me live here to quote-unquote 'keep an eye on me.'" He made air quotes.
"So, um, how do I send the letter here? Do you want to just send one to me and I'll use the return address?"
"Actually…yes, I suppose we could do that. Where do you live?"
She told him her address and he teleported them there.
"Uh, make yourself at home," Alice said as they walked down the foyer. "Here's my room—Quinn is calling, I have to take this. Um, be right back." She left to answer her cell phone.
Loki walked into her room and didn't know how to respond when he entered. Plastered across three of the four walls were pictures of Thor. There were even some of him on Sakaar, though Loki wasn't sure how she'd procured those. He stifled a laugh looking at all the pictures. His brother would surely love this.
When Alice returned, she looked like she'd forgotten how her room had looked before she left it. "Oh my—okay, can you just please ignore everything about this room?"
Loki smirked. "Hm, do I detect a crush?"
Alice reddened. "I dunno, uh, do you?"
"And on my brother, no less. This is interesting. I wonder how he would feel about this—"
"Oh my gosh, please don't tell him. I would absolutely die of humiliation."
"Well, I don't want you dead, so my lips are sealed…but I can't guarantee he won't find out eventually."
"Thank you. And, um, not that you don't seem trustworthy or anything, but…you are the God of Mischief after all. How do I know I can trust you?"
"Pinky promise."
Alice raised an eyebrow. "Pinky promise? I haven't heard that since I was, like, 9."
"I'm waiting."
"Oh, you're serious? Er, all right." They linked pinky fingers.
"Good. Now that that's done—"
"Wait! Sorry, but would you mind teleporting me back to the party? I drove my car there and I kind of need it back, so…"
"Of course." He took them both back to the party and said his goodbyes to Alice as she departed and took home Thor as he was currently retching into a potted plant. "Bathroom. Now."
Then he went into his room and started writing a letter.
A/N: Hello! I know I haven't posted in a while. I'm actually getting on that. I just liked this and wanted to share it. Hope you enjoyed. Please R&R, it means a lot!
-Cassie