Chapter 2: Rush
Loki remembered letting go.
He remembered what it felt like to fall: the feeling of his stomach entering his throat, exhilarating, heart wrenching. He remembered the bitter coldness that began to lock over his heart. He remembered the disappointed look Odin had given him, the pitying look of his brother, Thor, the oaf, the brute. He remembered closing his eyes, lulled into sleep, letting the darkness take him for all eternity.
But it wouldn't.
It spat him back out like poison.
He woke up in a prison, a torture chamber, where pain was all he knew. And it flourished inside his mind, preying on his fears and showing him again and again his mistakes, his failures, his weaknesses. In its deep gravelly voice, the pain told him what he should do, what he wanted, and it echoed in his mind with festering urgency.
"The earth, the earth. That's what you want. The earth, the earth. If you do what I ask, I'll give you the earth."
Confusion was his first reaction. Confusion and then heart-wrenching desperation, and then need, and then animalistic hunger.
The pain was right. Loki needed the earth. Loki needed Midgard.
So, he made a deal with pain, and it's promise rung in his ears.
"The earth, the earth. If you do what I ask, I'll give you the earth."
Then, the darkness ended, and the coldness struck him at his very core.
Loki opened his eyes, gasping, sitting up with shock as freezing water soaked him to the bone. At first panic seized his chest, but as he looked down at his hands -which were unbound, unchained but smaller and slenderer than usual- he remembered what had happened: Odin's punishment, the Avengers guardianship, the strange dish known as shawarma…
Sadly, all of that had not been a dream.
"How did you like that prank, brother?" Thor grinned above him, in his arms he held a metal bucket that had likely been filled with ice water just moments before.
Hiding his shock with a subtle grin, Loki shrugged, swinging his legs over the side of his bed. "If you really wanted to make it good, you should have put lye in that bucket."
Thor laughed, but Loki could sense the tension between them. It lay there like a thick invisible wall, making the air heavy in front of them. The wall, maybe Loki liked it, maybe he didn't, but Thor broke it, clapping a hand against Loki's now narrower shoulder.
"I'll see you outside for breakfast, brother," the God of Thunder exited, gently closing the door behind him.
Loki took his time getting dressed, shaking off his soaked clothing into a pile on the floor. Someone, likely JARVIS or Thor, had lain out new garments for him. A green shirt, black trousers, leather boots, dark jacket, not bad, he supposed. They fit him well. Before leaving the room, he spared glance of himself in the mirror.
Asgard, he hadn't looked this young in centuries. Splaying his hands, Loki gave a halfhearted attempt to use magic, to change his appearance.
Nothing happened.
Loki sighed.
The smell of cooked food wafted through the door, causing the former god's stomach to growl. Following the needs of his gut, the former God of Mischief, walked out to face his former foes for a proper meal.
oooOOOooo
They were called waffles, apparently. Circles of pastry wafers covered in syrup, sugar, fruit. It was Dr. Banner who made them, but none of the Avengers showed any real sign of appreciation for the doctor's delectable creation. They were all too busy sending wary looks at Loki, like the night before with the shawarma. The first person to even bother speaking was Romanov, who slapped a giant file in front of his place setting, gray eyes cold, emotionless.
"Read it," she commanded.
"What is it?" Loki asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Your cover," Romanov answered bluntly. "We can't have a 'Loki' registering at a high school. There'll probably be a riot. People will try to kill you."
"Not that we'd mind!" Stark yelled loudly from the couch. "Fist me, Rogers," he commanded, holding out a fist to the Captain who sat next to him, sipping at a smoothie.
Rogers rolled his eyes, but complied, sending a very harsh punch into Stark's knuckle. The inventor gave a small whine, clutching his injured hand.
Loki looked at the quarreling team-members with a grin. "That much inner-team conflict, has to be unhealthy. It's a miracle you all even beat me."
His comment was met with zero response, and out of boredom, the former god began to read the file Romanov placed on his desk.
"Luke Johnson?" he asked, reading the painfully common name from the paper. "That's the most creative name you could come up with?"
"It wasn't really creativity we were going for," Banner admitted from behind the kitchen counter, mixing more waffle batter together.
"Well, it will take a lot of creativity to explain why I'm without a legal guardian," Loki muttered, taking note of the unfilled box on the file.
"Oh, actually we've solved that," Tony grinned from his spot on the couch. "It's actually-"
oooOOOooo
Midgardians were maddening, Loki decided as he trudged into the school building, unhappily following Clint Barton, who the Avengers had ultimately decided to be his "father." Humans were completely insane. Why anyone would think locking up a bunch of adolescents into one building was a good idea, was lost to him. It was idiotic to think these simpletons could "learn" together without tearing each other to shreds, and it was fatuous to send people to rot for several hours doing nothing. He would change foolish notions like these if he ruled humanity. If he ruled humanity-
"Hey, Luke," Barton's voice interrupted Loki's thoughts, purposefully overenunciating his cover name, an attempt to annoy him, perhaps? "Hurry up."
"Coming, Dad," he replied, rolling his eyes. Humans. So impatient. Perhaps it was their short lifespans that made them rush so often.
The school's "office" was a small room lined with desks and chairs, some in use, some obviously not. The color scheme of the space was rather dull, in Loki's opinion: white walls, brown furnishings, minimum decorations. But, he figured simplicity was necessary in a supposed "educational" setting. An older woman, with graying brown hair and glasses, looked up when they walked into the office, plastering a saccharine smile onto her face.
"Welcome to Morrow Academy," the woman's voice was just a sickly sweet as her smile. "I'm the school's guidance counselor, Mrs. Brannigan. You must be, Luke."
Loki put up one of his best grins, "It is a pleasure to meet you Mrs. Brannigan." He shook her hand politely.
Mrs. Brannigan beamed, turning her attention to Clint Barton, whose expression could only be described as disgusted. "Mr. Johnson, You have raised such a polite son! You must be proud."
"Very," Barton responded bluntly, throwing her slightly off guard.
After a few moments of confusion, she plastered her grin write back onto her face. "Well, there will be some paper work to fill out, so you'll probably be a little late for your third period class. Oh, and here's your schedule!"
Mrs. Brannigan held out a piece of paper which Loki accepted. He read down the list:
Period 1: Study Hall
Period 2: AP Calculus
Period 3: Physical Education/Health
(B Lunch)
Period 4: AP World Civ.
Period 5: AP Biology II
Period 6: Latin I
Period 7: AP Literature 12
"Physical education?" he inquired reading out the title of his third period class.
"You know gym? P.E.?" Mrs. Brannigan smiled comfortingly, and Loki could hear Barton snickering behind him.
"You'll love it, son," the archer said, harshly clapping his enemy on the back. "Go make some new friends, kid!"
And with that, Loki was left to experience one of the worst horrors Midgardian high school had to offer: gym class.
oooOOOooo
Loki felt sweaty and awful and dead inside. The gym coach, an old obese man, named Coach Branch, basically sat in a wheelchair the entire class, yelling at them to run laps. Sure, Loki wasn't in bad shape, but running for an hour straight would cause anyone to be sore, even Thor. He found himself too tired to be hungry, and found himself wandering towards the library, finding refuge in a giant lounge chair taking a break from the world.
Just as his eyes began to close, a slight commotion from outside in the hall caught Loki's attention. Three figures ran buy, two of them yelling at each other at the top of their lungs.
"You come back here now!" a girl's voice yelled angrily.
"Make me!" a boy's voice taunted back.
How childish.
The yelling faded into the background, but Loki could hear someone's footsteps returning. A girl stumbled angrily into the library, face twisted into an annoyed grimace, brown hair falling out of her ponytail, arms crossed angrily over her chest.
"Idiots," she hissed to no one in particular. Her voice was a light alto, slightly deeper than the other girl who had just yelled. She sat down on the armchair next to Loki, burying her face into her palms. She caught him looking at him, and after giving him a contemplative hazel-eyed look herself, she sighed.
"Branch?" she asked, gesturing to Loki's still sweaty face and pale skin.
He gave her a polite nod.
"I feel you," she muttered, pulling out a small device from her denim trousers, looking at it for a moment and then putting it away, she was clearly impatient, waiting for something, and out of boredom, Loki decided to ask:
"So, what ails you?"
"Teresa Logan and Ian Roscoe," she said, offering up a saddened smile. "They're breaking up again, and they're treating me as their messenger."
"Oh, to be young again and feel loves keen sting?" Loki quoted an old Midgardian poem had found in the Asgardian palace's library.
"Precisely," the girl grinned with delight. After a second of thought, she held out a hand. "I'm Alicia Hughes, by the way."
He shook it, "Luke Johnson." By Asgard, that name is so boring.
The bell rang, and Alicia shot up like an arrow, pulling her backpack onto her back. "It was nice meeting you, Luke!" she yelled, rushing out of the library like a bolt of lightning.
Loki simply sighed to himself, taking his time in lifting his bag.
Humans, so small, short lived, unimportant, always in a rush.
With a haughty smirk, the former God of Lies, strutted out of the library and into the crowded hallway.
Et voila! There's chapter two! I hope you guys all enjoyed! I have to admit: it was pretty fun writing from Loki's point of view. He's a challenge. He has a very interesting point of view of the world: selfish, melodramatic, funny, but I've never seen him as inherently evil. And with regards to this chapter's opening scene: I've also always figured that Thanos had some brainwashing done to Loki due to the sickly look to him when he first came out of the portal in the Avengers movie.
Because I don't really know where I'm going for this fic I'm open to any suggestions you have to help Loki bond with the Avengers or his fellow high school students. Feel free to critique my writing style, or write about what you think of my OC's, or just review because I like reviews and will give you a large plethora of free cookies.
Remember: COOKIES
Thanks for reading y'all,
-GrumpyCat503