His everyday routines are always the same.
After work he goes to the school library with a cup of coffee. He sits there for at least three hours, thoughts deep in the books in front of him. There is always a mixture of English and American literature and nonfiction books. Lying next to his right hand is a notebook and a pen. He prepares future curriculums as if there was no day tomorrow. The students, many of them are students of his own, often shoot him stolen glances and wonder why he always comes there after school. He surely must have better things to do?
When he gets home from the library to his empty apartment, he throws his shoes into a corner in the hall and lazily uses a hanger for his dark overcoat and scarf. Then he enters the living room and turns on the television out of pure habit. It is not because he finds the common entertainment (if you could even say that) to be interesting, but he likes to have sounds in the apartment. Voices that hunt away the pressing silence he is so used to.
When he's turned on the television he goes into the kitchen and silently curses himself for forgetting to go to the convenience store, but he'll surely remember to do it tomorrow. He always forgets though. He will grab some sort of sustenance and sit down at the table in the kitchen, still pretending the noises from the television are actual people, pretending that he doesn't live in complete solitude.
Pretending that he hasn't pushed away all the people in his life that mattered.
After that he takes a shower and prepares his lessons for the next day. He does so in a very tidy manner and he leaves nothing to chance. It is always in the same order: first English, then history and last mythology. Then he turns off the television and retires to his bedroom with a book or two.
His everyday routines are always the same.
It is a typical Tuesday, his first class is American history then he has a break for an entire class and after that two classes of ancient mythology, one class of European history and lastly a class of English. A rather tiresome and long day.
"Excuse me sir, but didn't Martin Luther believe in the human spirit as a free thing?" Loki Laufeyson raises his eyes from the papers on the desk in front of him and localises the source of the question, ah there! He puts his pen down and smiles wickedly, "Are you certain that you should have chosen European history if you can't even remember the basic view points of the most important historical figures." He answers and receives a flushed murmur in the lines of 'I'm sorry, sir'. A couple of the other students either chuckle or cough.
Loki can't say he is loved by all his students, but at the same time he can say that he isn't hated by all of them either. Quite a few dislike him; his snarky remarks and stiff to-the-point assignments, but equally many find great pleasure in his teaching methods and... Sarcastic personality. And he likes teaching, no doubt about that. He enjoys knowing that he can use his (not insignificant) knowledge to get other people to take more interest in things he believes to be important.
He enjoys being in power as well, loves the feeling of knowing that he can decide whether or not a student will have a good day or a bad day. He makes the decisions, he is a god.
But there is one student. A student of his English classes over whom he has no authority. It makes him feel powerless somehow, and he hates that feeling. The student is well known and has been to the principal's office a number of times for his rude behaviour and disrespect towards teachers. At the beginning it surprised Loki that he never got expelled, but he quickly found out from another teacher that said student was the son of a local billionaire. And a charming kid at that.
His name is Tony Stark and he is a true pain in the butt, not just to Loki, but to the entire staff. He rarely does his homework on time and has been spotted bunking off from classes quite often, not even caring about being caught. Even the janitor hates him, since he sometimes uses the school facilities to make odd experiments with his friend Bruce Banner (a student Loki doesn't really know nor care about). So obviously the janitor dislikes the two, seeing how he has to take extra time off his hands to clean up their mess.
And on top of all that Loki can never find a way to frighten him. No matter what snarky remark he comes up with, the young student will always have something equally sarcastic and clever for a comeback. And that part especially annoys Loki to no end.
So when one day he has assigned a biographic analysis on Ernest Hemingway's "Men without women" and young Mr. Stark (as always) turns up without anything Loki finally snaps. Because he's had a long day and the exhaust set on his Nissan primera came loose on his way to school and the girl in the coffee shop he'd visited during lunch break had given him decaf coffee by a mistake. So if he isn't allowed to snap then who is?
"Look here, child, I am sick and tired with your eternal trying to prove yourself over the other students. You will do a custom assignment and you will do it before next Thursday, or I swear to my Gods that I will make the rest of your school time a living hell." He practically spits it at the young man, who just shoots him a shit eating grin, despise the other students surrounding him stepping back a bit. "Easy there, tiger, as far as I remember this isn't Professor Fury's class,"
Loki's face reddens at being compared to the infamous Professor Fury. The man is known by all students and staff members to be a frightening and ever-pissed monster. Rumours have it that he only works part time at the school and is actually the boss of a mafia somewhere in town, and even though Loki would love to say that he holds no fear at all towards the man it would be a lie. Loki has only seen two students openly go up and talk to said Professor, a red head girl and her ash blond boyfriend. He wonders who they are, what their relations to Professor Fury is, since they don't seem to be directly scared of him.
Another thing entirely is that Professor Fury spits like a whale.
"Stark. Assignment or hell, your choice." He tugs at the neck of his shirt as he regains his calm voice, trying to show off one of his more common smirks while he's at it. He doesn't feel like he's succeeding though. His student doesn't look like he believes the threat to be something serious. But Loki will make sure that it is, oh he will do his best. It will be a pleasure to be able to go in the staff room next Thursday and tell the other teachers that he's carrying an assignment handed in by Tony Stark.
Professor Coulson will not believe a word.
That night when Loki returns to his apartment he doesn't follow his everyday routine strictly to the letter. Sure he kicks off his shoes and hangs his coat and scarf on the hanger, but he quickly finds himself too busy with planning a single custom assignment to care much for turning on the television and the voices that normally fill out the empty space.
His everyday routines might not always be the same after all.
