IMPORTANT: THIS DRABBLE IS A PREQUEL, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY READ THE REAL STORY (Baby, we´re a natural disaster, it´s in my profile)

Hello, dears!

I have no excuse for this other than I love Anansi a bit too much.

Does this feel like The Parent Trap to you?

Anansi's surrounded by other kids, playing with a cheap maze of cards his mom had gifted him with for his twelfth birthday. The children 'ooh' and 'aah' at the appropriate moments and he grins as wide as he can because they're all monkeys eating from the a palm of his hand.
Out the corner of his eye he catches sight of a small, sickeningly pale boy with a messy mop of black hair that's eyeing him with a bored expression as he asks a pretty Alpha girl to come forward and pick a card.

He does the trick perfectly, no one notices when he hides the card in his sleeve and they all go crazy when he pulls it out of the girl's ear. He shoots a smug smile right at the kid watching from afar, just in time to see him roll his eyes and turn away with a little laugh.
He hates him instantly.

That night at the campfire they're told to introduce themselves to the group, and the bread-faced, scrawny Omega (he can distinguish it now he's closer) kid stands up when it's his turn. His name is Loki (stupid name, he knew it), he's eleven (ugh. Elven years old are such kids, he thinks with pride), he likes reading (nerd) and making jokes (stupid jokes, likely) and he's here with his brother Thor (also stupid name, but it's fitting for a stupid-faced Alpha kid with blond hair and blue eyes that are really stupid looking and not at all pretty) the counselor asks Breadface to tell a joke and Anansi hates him even more when everyone laughs. It wasn't even that good, really.

As it turns out, Breadface's brother is some kind of sports miracle, and everyone wants him in their team. Anansi rolls his eyes because those kids are always idiots, but he doesn't complain in the slightest when he ends up in the same canoe as him. Well, he does complain a little, but only in his mind and only because Breadface is there too.

Thor is his age, he likes the same movies as him and it's not long before Anansi's making him laugh nonstop with silly jokes. He's smooth. He can't really remember now, he thinks he says something flirty and Thor gets all red in the face but he doesn't stop smiling and he feels like he's going to sink the boat because he's so pleased with himself.

And then the canoe does flip.

Of course no one believes him (much less with the way Breadface had been crying and clinging to Thor until the counselors pulled them out) but he flipped it, he's sure. He's even more sure when, after the adults have wrapped them in towels and given them cups of hot cocoa, Breadface smirks at him from over his shoulder as they lead him back to his cabin.

After that, Anansi's priorities shift from getting Thor's attention to completely and utterly destroying Breadface. Unfortunately, it seems like Breadface has set on exactly the same, he decides one morning after he wakes up covered in mud from head to toe, just the day after he "accidentally" trips and gives Breadface a milk-and-corn-flakes hair treatment.

If he's to be honest, his pranks are not even on his level. Really. They're just stupid, and he takes him by surprise, that's all. Sure, he did scare the hell out of him with the frog in his water bottle. And when he'd convinced the older kids that he'd been the one that dropped the beehive in their cabin. And some others, but not that many, really,most of them are really stupid.

But now all the camp knows Breadface has a whole collection of Batman Y-fronts and screams like a girl when confronted with a dog. Thor had been the one to rescue him from the tree he'd taken shelter in, after taking the dog away.

At least the counselors haven't noticed a thing. Or that's what he thinks until Breadface's bike is discovered without brakes just as they're about to go mountain cycling and the pimple-faced man with the red counselor shirt turns to him without a moment's hesitation.

"This is ridiculous! You do know you could've hurt him, don't you?" The camp's director starts and Anansi bows his head low. Of course he knows he could've hurt him that's why he did it. At his side, Breadface is not looking at the woman either, but he looks like he might cry and Anansi wants to strangle him.

An then the director turns her rage on him and he decides it´s much better.

"And you, Borson, I think you might be interested to know that the cleaning personal found the ants in Kwaku's bed"

At this Breadface open his stupid green eyes as wide as they will go and he even seems to pale a little. Anansi has to admit it's good, if only a bit too much.

"But I didn't do that" he says, indignantly, and the director shakes her head.

"You can keep lying to me, or I can call your parents here so that they might ask you themselves"

Now Breadface pales for real, and Anansi can't help but to let out a chuckle that, unfortunately, brings the woman's attention back to him.

"That goes for you too, Kwaku." She warns, before climbing to her feet and pacing all around the office. "It's as if you don't understand how serious your actions are, that little stunt with the dog could've gotten someone hurt, and the one with the beehive and the older kids got me three allergic campers that had to be taken to a hospital. If I had any real proof that it was of your doing, Borson, you'd be packing your bags right now"

"But you don't" Breadface answers without looking up, but Anansi can see a smirk in his face.

"No I don't" she sighs. "What I have is the whole camp as a witness that you've been playing nasty pranks on a each other. I also have responsibility to act on it." She turns to Anansi again "can you tell me why you've been bothering Borson, Kwaku?"

"No, ma'am" he answers almost automatically

"Is it because he's an Omega? Because if it is, then you, your parents and I need to have a serious..."

"I don't care that he's an Omega" he interrupts her. He couldn't care less about what Breadface has under his pants.

"Then why is it?"

He shrugs, annoyed. "I just don't like him"

He feels the director's stare piercing through him, but he doesn't look up, and he holds back a sigh of relief when she finally turns to the other kid.

"And you, Borson?"

"I like him even less" is all he says, and he woman sighs again.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to use it this year..." She steps towards her cabinet and pulls out a keyring. "Go pack your bags, you two" she must see the way they both pale and immediately look up, because she smirks. "I'm not sending you back home." She clarifies. "You're spending the rest of the summer in the Get Along Cabin"

The Get Along Cabin is just like any other, with the exception of being much closer to the Counselors' cabin, so that the adults can keep an eye on it in case it's occupants decide to try and kill each other in the middle of the night.

Anansi drops his backpack on the bed by the window sits on it, fuming.

"What if I wanted that one?" Comes a voice from the door.

"What if I actually gave a damn?" He snaps back, and he feels himself flaring up when Breadface just laughs and moves to the other bed.

Great. Just great. He could be out there at the bonfire, but they've both been banned from camp activities for the rest of the day as a punishment, so now he has to stay here doing absolutely nothing. Breadface is laid down on his stomach, reading a book and acting as if he'd rather not be anywhere else. Whatever. He can play the silence game too. He plays with his gameboy until it runs out of battery, takes a shower, pulls out a comic he's already read like a thousand times...

"God, are you dead or something?" He exclaims after he looks back at Breadface and finds him still buried in his book.

"Only on the inside" he retorts without even looking. Anansi huffs again and turns his back to him. He's not going to give him any more attention.

Breadface takes a shower of his own, and as soon as he comes out he goes back to his stupid, stuuupid book. Anansi takes out the pocket knife his cousin gave him last summer and sets to carving his initials on his side of the wall. Whatever. If he has any say on the matter, that book won't be here tomorrow.
At some point one of the counselor knocks on their door to hand them two trays with a bowl full of vegetables and a slice of meatloaf each and, as cliché as it is, no dessert. Whatever, he's not nine, he doesn't need dessert, Anansi thinks as he squishes the steamed vegetables with the fork so that he can swallow them without tasting.

Breadface keeps on reading even as he eats, and by the time he's finally done Anansi's pretty sure the food must be disgustingly cold. Eugh.

A light knocking against the window gets his attention, and Breadface's head snaps up like he's been waiting for it all day. With no regards for HIS side of the cabin, he jumps on Anansi's bed and pushes the window open.

Thor's smiling face peaks up a bit.

"I stole some s'mores for you" he mutters and passes him a balled napkin.

"You're the best" Breadface smiles and Anansi rolls his eyes. Fake.

"I brought some for your friend too" Thor adds.

"He's not my friend" Breadface answers, and now it's Thor's time to roll his eyes.

"Whatever, just don't eat them all by yourself" he steps away from the window "Good night"

"Bye" Breadface unwraps the napkin and drops three s'mores on his sheets before scurrying to his own bed.

"Your brother is cool"

"I've been expelled from three schools for 'potentially homicidal' incidents, you talk about my brother again and I'll show you the real deal" he answers without even looking at him. Anansi feels a smile spreading across his face.

"He's also really funny. And cute" One of the s'mores in Breadface's hands is crushed and he's this close to dancing. "I bet he's much more fun than you"

"You've been warned" Breadface pops the squished s'more in his mouth, wipes his hand in his shirt and goes back to his book.

"You've been warned" Anansi repeats in his most obnoxious voice. He turns his back on him and focuses on his own dessert.

He half expects to wake up under a three inches thick layer of mud again, but it's not the case. It's much worse. He wakes up with Breadface's ugly face an inch away from his own and a pressure around his neck that's much too strong to come from an eleven years old's hands.

"What are you doing?!" He forces out, but the hands on his throat only tighten.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. My. BOOK?!"

"What?!" His eyes drift to the box of matches he hid under his pillow, and when Breadface pushes the pillow aside and sees it, his eyes go positively murderous.

"You BURNED it?!"

"I was going to, but I didn't get the chance!" He admits. Breadface's frown shifts a little, he looks a bit mor dubious than angry, but his hands don't slack. "I swear!"

"Then where is it?"

"I don't know!" He manages to push him off and sits, gasping for breath. "You're a psychopath."

"Yeah? Take a look at your gameboy, see how you get" Breadface goes back to his side of the cabin, but his face is hardened into concentration. Anansi frowns, suspicious, and moves to the corner of his bed to check on his video game... Which is not charging anymore because SOMEONE cut the power chord in half.
"You're kidding me, why would you do this it was new!"

"So was my..."

"IT WAS A STUPID BOOK"

Breadface looks up like he's counting to ten in his mind.

"I didn't do it, you idiot."

"What are you talking about, of course you did it! There's no one else here!"

"Well, you say you don't have my book, don't you?"

He's so angry it takes him a second to process what Breadface is implying.

"You think someone slipped in"

"There's no other option, unless we're both lying"

They stay silent for a second, because they both know that possibility is... Very likely. But in the end Breadface stretches an open hand.
"I didn't cut the cable"

Anansi stares at his hand with a frown before he stretches his own and shakes it.

"And I didn't take your book." He promises. "Let's find out who..."

"What was all that yelling?" The door swings open abruptly and they both let go as if they had been burned. Anansi scrambles his mind for an excuse and one jumps out immediately, like they always do.

"Loki thought he saw a spider, but we checked and it was only a stain in the wood"

The counselor's eyes drift from him to Breadface, who has wrapped his arms around himself and looks as embarrassed as can be.

"... Fine. Go back to sleep, I want you in the activities tomorrow"

"Yes, sir!" They both exclaim, and the man leaves them alone.

It's only a few hours until the first activity in the schedule, so they stay awake. Breadface spends the first half hour making a mess of the cabin while he tries on vain to look for his book, while Anansi sits on his bed and cradles his gameboy. He'll have to buy a new power chord and his mom will kill him.
Finally, Breadface gives up and sits on his bed as well, and Anansi would be enthralled with his sullen mood if only whoever had taken the book hadn't ruin his life as well.

"It's just a stupid book, what are you so worried about?"

"Thank you, for giving me a proof that you're as stupid as you look"

"Have it your way, princess, I'm just asking what's so important about it"

"Don't call me that" Breadface snaps, glaring at him from over his crossed arms with such an intensity that he rises both hands in my peace gesture.

"Fine?"

Breadface sets his chin on his arms again.

"It's a really good book"

Anansi doesn't want to ask, he really doesn't care. But he's bored and he spends the next two hours listening to Breadface while he basically spoils the next Harry Potter movie for him. It is a really good book.

Something good: They find Breadface's book during the first activity of the day. Something bad: it's floating face down in the lake and the pages are already a mushy, washed out mess. Something worse: the counselor grips Anansi by the shoulder and drags him back to the cabin, grounded. Again. And this time he doesn't even have his gameboy to pass the time, he´s not sure how much battery it´s got left and he doesn´t want to risk it.

They send Breadface with his lunch tray, and he's so bored already that he's almost happy to see him.

"I asked some people and apparently no one saw anyone out past curfew time" he starts.

Anansi shrugs. "Well, no one saw me when I was hanging your underwear from the tree so I wouldn't trust people too much"

Breadface rolls his eyes. "That doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that no one heard you cracking the eggs in the middle of the night"

At this, Anansi stops eating and frowns because he definitively doesn't remember that one.

"What eggs?"

Breadface makes a vague gesture, and it's obvious he's uncomfortable.

"Don't play stupid. Those eggs you dropped all over my bed while I slept"

So that's why the director thought he'd been picking on him because he was an Omega. That's a nasty joke to make, even for the one that messed with his gameboy.

"I didn't do that..." Breadface is frowning at him, so he pushes the tray aside and stands up. "I really didn't! I wouldn't! My sister's an Omega, I beat up two kids at school because they threw an egg at her!"

Breadface huffs. "Then you're lucky I didn't tell Thor about it" he smirks, and Anansi shudders.

"So this means this guy has been playing pranks on us since even before last night... Were you the one that left the cow poop under my pillow?"

"Yes"

"I hate you"

They set up watches that night. Anansi takes the first, and Breadface takes over at midnight. As expected, nothing happens. They both hear weird noises outside the cabin, but as soon as any of them looks out the window the noises die. They don't dare going outside for fear the counselors will catch them, but at least their things are all intact in the morning, even if they both have dark bags under their eyes the next day. In fact, Thor is asking them about it when they spot the girl.

The girl is a Beta, chubby and brown-skinned, with pretty apple-green eyes and straight brown hair. She's staring right at them while they talk to Thor, and when she notices they've seen her, she smiles and turns back to her friends.

"Did you see her?"

"Of course I saw her, I'm not blind"

"But you're a bit slow"

"I think the camp needs another look at your undies"

The girl is everywhere.

Literally everywhere.

The counselors makes them stick together through the activities, and she keeps appearing just out the corner of their eyes, just staring until the notice her and then smiling and turning her back on them.

"It's her" Breadface mutters, and Anansi huffs. They're supposed to make a clay sculpture and Breadface's not helping by poking his finger in every now and then.

"Of course it's her. Who even is she?"

"Why would I know?"

"You were at the campfire the first night, she must have introduced herself"

"You were there too"

"I was too busy hating your stupid face, sorry"

Breadface thrusts his whole hand into the soft spinning clay and Anansi groans and tosses it aside.

"Why are you here, anyways?" Loki asks one particular night. The leftover battery of Anansi's game ran out days ago, so he has nothing better to do than answering.

"I got in trouble with a crybaby" he smirks, and a pillow hits his side. "My mom had to go on a business trip, and my dad and sis had to go and take care of my granny"

"What's wrong with her?"

Anansi shrugs. "I think she's just old. She caught a cold last year and she hasn't been feeling well ever since"

"Sorry" it takes a while until Loki's voice breaks the silence again, and Anansi throws the pillow back.

"Why are you here?"

This time it takes less for Loki to answer, and when he does he's got this smirk on his voice... He can picture it.

"The family psychologist said I'm having a hard time dealing with my adoption, and that that's why I keep causing trouble at school." He chuckles. "He said spending time away from my parents might help"

"you just like causing trouble at school, right?" He asks, and the laugh he gets is enough of an answer. "Family psychologist... You must be a really weird family"

"... A bit, yes"

"We know it's you"

"Sorry?" The girl smiles down at them. They've cornered her against a tree behind one of the older kids cabins, but Anansi has the uneasy feeling that they're not as in control as they should.

"We know you've been messing with us, who the hell are you?" Loki intervenes, and he looks much more menacing than he has the right to.

"Oh, my name is Eris. Nice to meet you" she keeps smiling.

"Why are you so interested in getting us trouble?"

"Trouble?" Her smile is really becoming unnerving. "I noticed your little competition, and I thought you needed someone to show you how it's done"

"Well, this is going to stop. Like, right now, understood?" Anansi tries with his hardest voice. It cracks a little, but his mom says it's just puberty and that it doesn't make him sound funny at all so he ignores it. The girl doesn't.

"Ok"

He doesn't see the paint filled balloons until it's right there in her hands, but he catches one on reflex when she throws it at him, and stares in amazement as she rips a third one open and splatters paint all over herself.

Loki drops his balloon as soon as she runs out on the open screaming like she just saw a bear, but Anansi's still gripping his when they're escorted to the director's office. Again.

"... We're not getting rid of her, are we?" He asks, staring straight at the ceiling.

"I don't think so." Loki answers from his own bed, and then, after nearly an hour has gone by. "I have another idea, though"

Anansi sits up because there's something strange in his voice, and Loki explains.

"You're crazy."

"Is that a no?"

"Let me get my matches"

His dad is checking his face for injuries, and he's doing a movie-worth performance of a scared kid. He can see Loki and Thor a bit further, both being checked by a tall, grey haired man and a blond woman that both look mortified. Loki's pale face is stained with soot and he's shaking and clinging to Thor's hand as if his life depended on it. He's good.

The camp is saturated with parents picking up their kids and checking them as the firefighters soak the Get Along Cabin to ensure no live spark will set it on fire again. However, as soon as they're reassured that their kids are just fine, many turn their attentions to the director and counselors, who look just like Loki did when he set the dog on him.

"Go say goodbye to your friends, Anansi. We're leaving"

"Ok" he says, making sure to sound at least a bit shaken up, and fakes a tired walk to Loki. His parents raise an eyebrow when they see him, and the remaining one when Eris beckons them closer from where she's standing alone, after her dad went to have a word with the director.

"Do we need lessons now?" Anansi asks, and Eris giggles.

"It was a bit sloppy, but you're good. I ws dying to go home already"

"Glad to be of assistance." Loki smirks. "But the thing with the eggs was still rude and stupid"

She shrugs, unashamed.

"I had to get you angry enough. The thing with the beehive was a masterpiece"

"You owe me a charger"

"I don't think you have any proof that I did it" she smirks, and Anansi knows the camp wasn't a complete waste of time.

He plays with the two torn pieces of paper in his pocket the whole way home, and his fingers itch for a phone. There's still a lot of summer left.

"You're kidding me" Tony mutters, his eyes as wide as plates and huddled a bit too close to just-as-surprised Rhodey. "You set fire to a cabin to get out of a summer camp?"

At his side, Loki shrugs, pleased. "Well, no one has ever found any convincing proof that we did, so..."

"So you really had a thing for Thor?" Rhodey asks with a teasing smile and Anansi laughs hard and loud.

"Who doesn't have a thing for Thor? But Babydoll here did threaten to drown my hamster if I ever went out alone with him again, so... I grew out of it"

"That's a sad love story... How could you be so selfish, sweetcheeks?" Tony laughs and pulls Loki in for a kiss.

"Be honest, would you let anyone like me near your brother?" Loki smirks.

"I did" Rhodey quips in and Tony gets red as a traffic light.

"Is Eris the same Eris that played Cosette in your Les Mis thing?" He stammers out, aiming to change the subject. "How is that even possible? You met when you were twelve!" He adds when they nod.

"We couldn't very well let go of each other, could we? It was just too perfect to let pass"

As they walk back to the couple's apartment, Anansi thinks back at that summer again, and smiles when he concludes he'd do the same every single time.