Tuesday morning did not bring Luna much joy. Waking up, she sighed to herself, and rolled over on her side.
Right when she was on the brink of sleep once more, there was a knock on her door, and it opened behind her. Her room filled with light from the hall.
"Luna." Tony said softly. He wasn't annoyed or worried. "Get up now, we have school."
Said girl groaned. "I don't think I'm going to school today Tony." She felt her mattress shift behind her, but didn't turn. Luna pulled the covers an inch higher across her chest.
"You sick?"
She shook her head. "No. Maybe. I don't know. I just don't feel like it today." She sighed, and frowned to herself.
"I can stay?" Tony asked, and Luna felt touched at his concern.
"Naw, it's okay. You don't have to."
She heard Tony chuckle behind her, and heard a thump as his bag hit the floor. He laid next to her and collected her in his arms. Luna sighed, letting her brother hold her.
He said nothing, and she was thankful for it. Luna sighed, after nearly half an hour and put her hand on Tony's, which was around her waist.
"Do you think about it a lot?"
Tony hesitated, but she felt him sigh after a second. "No."
Luna bit her lip. "I do." She whispered. There was another lull of silence. "I have nightmares a lot. I'm not getting much sleep any more." She admitted.
"It doesn't matter any more."
"He hurt us Tony. He hurt you." Luna turned around and sat up slowly, crossing her legs under her. Tony let her, but didn't move to sit down next to her. His brows were drawn together, and he was almost glaring at the ceiling, but his frown hinted at some emotion Luna couldn't quite place.
"None of that matters now."
"It matters to me. He was always there, especially when dad wasn't." She felt anger spark in her chest. "He was there for us."
"Enough Luna." Tony reached his hand up, and rubbed his brow, closing his eyes.
Her voice became soft. "I'm sorry. I just think about it a lot." She shuttered.
Tony looked at her, and he frowned. "I'm sorry." He said as he sat up. "I know it hasn't been easy for you. You looked up to Obadiah. "
Luna shrugged giving him a smile. "It's fine. I just, I dunno. I need to learn to let things go."
Tony nodded, lips tensing in a line and he looked down at her knee, picking off a piece of lint from her fleece pajama pants.
"Maybe not let it go, but accept it. It happened."
Luna nodded and leaned her head on Tony's shoulder. They sat like that for a long time before Luna looked up at him. "Can I ask you for a favor? Please?"
Tony smiled, looking down at her. "Anything."
"I'm serious Tony." Luna pulled away, looking up into her brother's face. "This is important to me."
Tony frowned slightly, and shook his head. He knew his sister well enough to know what she wanted. "This is about him?"
Luna's face fell in desperation. "He's broken Tony."
"You can't fix everything Luna."
She held her hand up, stopping him. "It's not about fixing him." She shrugged, looking at her wall for a moment before looking back at her brother. "It's about just being there. I want this to work. I want to be his friend, and him be mine in return. All I'm asking is you accept that. Don't be so hard on this."
Tony shook his head. "You want to end up like Thor? You know how destroyed he was after Loki rejected him. What will you do when he rejects you too?"
Luna shrugged, smiling sadly to her brother. "I will accept it. But I want to try. Please."
Tony looked at his sister, before sighing in defeat, a deep breathe from deep in him. "Fine. I won't like it, but it's not worth fighting over any more."
Luna nodded, reaching down and resting her hand on Tony's. "Thank you."
Tony reached out, putting his arm around her neck, and pulling her head to his chest. He hugged her and she relaxed.
"You like him?"
"Not how you think I do." She lied. Tony snorted, but didn't push the topic further.
Luna smiled once more before she shrugged out of his embrace, standing from her bed. She stood and held her hand out to Tony. "Let's go build something."
Tony looked up at her face but said nothing, smiling. He reached up and clasped his hand in hers, allowing her to pull him to his feet.
Together, the duo left Luna's room and walked down to the den, which their father let his children have. Luna rarely used it, but Tony had transformed it to his own personal lab.
The den, like most rooms in their city mansion, was huge. There were several desks around the room, holding various tools, pieces of machinery and hardware.
Tony immediately went to a desk, which adorned a huge desk top computer, only half built. Luna sat herself down at the table, watching her brother with a smirk on her face. Technology wasn't her interest, but she didn't mind. It was nice to be with Tony, no matter what they were doing.
Tony pointed at something without looking up from his project. "Will you hand me that cooling unit please?"
Luna handed it over obediently, smiling. "So why are you making this computer anyway?"
Her brother shrugged. "Thought it would be cool. Probably gonna sell it after it's done." Luna nodded, more to herself then to him. She picked up a graphics card and started to fiddle with it.
She didn't look up as she spoke. "You know you could just buy a mother board and this stuff."
Tony chuckled. "I wanted to build it myself."
Luna made a noise in the back of her throat as she reached for a micro screw driver. The two spent the better part of their morning in silence after that, working on Tony's project. The gloomy feeling from her night mare fading with every hour.
Eventually, after a few hours, Tony's phone rang. He grunted, putting down his tools and fished it out of his pocket. Luna didn't glance up.
"Yellow?" He said, leaning back in his chair. He waited a bit before responding to whoever was on the other end. "Oh, yeah I woke up late." Luna glanced at him then, and Tony winked at her. She laughed. "No, we're still on after school Peps. No prob." There was another lull of silence while he listened to Pepper. "Okay, sounds like a deal. I'll see you then. Love yah." Tony snapped his phone shut.
Luna felt her brows shoot up. "Wooooow." She chuckled. "Love yah."
Tony's face tinged slightly pink and he scoffed at his sister. "Shut up you." He grumbled, to which Luna just laughed at, shaking her head. Tony got up, switching on his music and letting music fill the room.
They worked jamming out to music for a long time, laughing and having fun just being with each other.
After a while, Tony glanced at his watch. "Ah." He said, turning his music down. "School will be out soon." He stood, pushing his tools away from his. Walking over to Luna, he kissed the top of her head. "I'm gonna go get ready to meet Pepper. You'll be okay tonight?"
Luna smiled at him, shrugging "Of course." She gave him a slight push. "Go have fun."
Tony turned, walking toward the door. At the last second he turned, pointing at her and smiling. "Don't destroy my computer, kay?"
Luna laughed, shaking her head but not looking up from the hard drive in front of her. Tony chuckled, and made his leave.
For a while, she sat around their den, but when she looked down and found the hard drive she was currently working on was finished, Luna glanced around for the first time.
Tony was long gone by now, she was sure. Luna sighed, biting her lip as she eyed the computer parts. She shrugged, standing and stretching out her muscles. She'd leave that to Tony, Luna doubted he wanted her to finish his own project herself.
Standing, Luna walked to the door, flipping off the lights on her way out. She trudged her way up her stairs, to her room and into her bathroom.
A long, steamy hot shower seemed to be in order. Absent minded, Luna picked up her phone before entering the bathroom and texted Thor, asking for him to send her Loki's number.
She set it down, stepping into the shower, sighing out loud and smiling.
Long after she was clean, Luna lingered under the hot water, her fingers pruning. Almost reluctantly, she switched off the water and climbed out, wrapping up in a fluffy towel.
She lazily ran a brush through her hair, pulling half of it up and slipping it behind her head with a hair clip.
As she was pulling some pants, Luna saw the light on her her phone blinking, signaling that she had an unread message. Luna smiled to herself, clicking her phone open and reading Thor's message, which only consisted of a phone number, accompanied with a smiley face.
Luna added that number to her contact list as she tied some tennis shoes on her feet.
Whistling to herself, Luna walked down her stairwell and to the garage, starting up her car. Luna drove for a while, trying to remember exactly where she was going. She thought she did, but Luna wasn't quite positive.
Eventually, she pulled over on the side of the road, stepping out of her car and walking into the woods that were behind Loki's house. She sighed to herself.
"I really hope I don't get lost." Luna chuckled to herself.
Eventually, after she was sure she had gone in a complete circle, she'd managed to find the clearing and small stream that Loki had taken her to before.
Luna smiled to herself, looking around at the beautiful place, before she walked over the bench and sat down.
She pulled out her phone, finding the number she'd wanted easily.
"Hey, I'm at the clearing where you go to read and relax. Come out and sit with me. :)"
Luna sat for a moment, admiring the water. After a short minute, her phone buzzed.
"Who's this?"
She typed her response, smiling to herself. "Who do you think Romeo?"
Luna sat for a minute or two, but never got a response. She didn't mind, sure Loki would come eventually. Instead, Luna sat and continued to stare at the water, listening to the soft trickle of it. Her body began to relax, and she closed her eyes slowly, leaning back and listening to the sounds of the woods.
Luna sighed, smiling to herself.
Stuck in the point half way between sleep and wakefulness, she heard a breath behind her.
"Where did you get my number, anyways?"
Luna smiled to herself, but didn't bother to open her eyes. "Haven't you realized I'm stalking you by now?"
She heard Loki snort, and sit down next to her. Luna opened her eyes slowly, noticing how the sun was a lot lower in the sky the before, even though it was still fairly high. She frowned to her self briefly. She'd must have dozed off, only waking up when Loki approached.
"You walk all the way from your house?" She asked, leaning her head over to look at him. Loki stared at the water, face blank.
He shrugged. "It's not that far if you go straight through. " Luna smiled but said nothing, sighing loudly and closing her eyes.
"I think I like it here."
Loki chuckled quietly. A minute of comfortable silence passed before he spoke up again. "You weren't at school today." He stated, voice level. Luna smiled.
"You miss me?"
"Hardly."
Luna's opened her eyes and sat all the way up, stretching as she did so. "I slept in."
Loki made a noise of understanding. "Again?"
"I've haven't been sleeping well lately. Tony stayed with me this morning, hung out. It helped the time pass at least."
Loki said nothing for a second, pursing his lips and twirling a dead leaf in between his thumb and finger.
"Your brother seems to be in your business a lot. He seems to think you are incapable of thinking for yourself."
Luna looked over at Loki as she slid off the bench, crouching on the ground. "Who told you that?" She asked, brows drawing together.
"He did." Loki said simply, throwing his leaf away. "Yesterday when he cornered me after school in the parking lot, demanding to stay away from you." Loki laughed sarcasticly, and Luna's lips turned down in a frown and shivered.
"I see." She stated, turning from Loki. "Well in any case, I've already talked to him about it this morning. Told him to lay off you."
"How caring." Loki spoke, rolling his eyes. Luna shrugged.
"You're the one who agreed to being friends." She smirked. Loki looked sideways at her.
"You're the one who tried so hard. Throwing herself at me." He grinned.
Luna snorted. "Oh, I thought I was throwing myself at Thor?" She said while waving her hand in the air behind her. Loki leaned away from her then.
It was silent for a moment, and Luna found a suitable rock, throwing it lazily into the stream.
"You know I've never liked him by the way." She shrugged. "Not the way you think I do at least."
She didn't have to look at Loki to know he rolled his eyes. "I don't care if you do or not."
Luna smiled to herself, not turning to face Loki as she rummaged around for another rock. "I'm just saying. He's not all that. I don't like him like that."
Loki was silent, and Luna glanced over her shoulder at him. He was staring at her, face relaxed and blank. Luna flashed a smile over at him as she stood, a handful of rocks in her hand.
His mouth hinted at a smirk and Luna felt her chest lighten in an emotion she couldn't name. Luna sat down next to him again, tossing a rock into the steam.
Loki reached over and plucked a rock from her hand, tossing it in right after her, Luna chuckled to herself.
She sighed out loud, leaning back on the bench.
Here in this moment, she was happy. Both sat silently, occasionally throwing rocks in the stream.
Randomly, Luna spoke. "You know, my dad isn't a drunk."
"Excuse me?" Loki said, glancing down at her.
"It was Tony... It was always Tony." She stated softly, her eyes going down to stare her feet. "When he got pulled over and they found those empty cans in his car a few years back, those were Tony's. Tony had borrowed his car and went drinking. Like usual, the press spread gossip like wild fire, and he didn't bother to tell them otherwise. I think it was to protect Tony, but I'm not sure."
Loki said nothing for a long moment. "He's not old enough to drink." Tony responded lamely. Luna laughed softly.
She smiled. "He really toned it down when Pepper threatened to break up for him for it." Her smile turned sad. "He would never listen to me though, when I would express my distaste for it. He never cared about my opinion; only Pepper, and Bruce." She chuckled. "Hell even listened to Steve before me. "
Luna bit her lip, waiting for Loki's response. "Why are you telling me this?" He finally asked. Luna shrugged, her shoulders bumping into Loki's. He immediately moved away a few inches.
"I've never really told any one before. We don't talk about it. I just remembered the day when you broke Tony's nose. He got really mad about that you know. It was like a slap in the face; him knowing it was his fault everyone thought our dad is a drunk. "
Loki said nothing, and Luna didn't mind.
A few minutes passed. "My whole childhood, I felt like I was living in Thor's shadow." Loki said quietly, his voice low and without much emotion. "Odin was really into having us learn how to defend ourselves; learn how to fight. Thor was always stronger, but I worked harder at learning the moves, being able to evade and trick my sparring partners. Take them down swiftly." She felt more then heard Loki sigh. "In the end it didn't matter. Thor's strength won out in the end. I was always second best to his greatness. Even in school, where I got perfect A's and Thor passed by with low B's and the occasional C, he still shone like the sun in our parents eyes."
Luna chewed on her lip for a moment, twirling her hands together in her lap. She turned to face him, pulling her leg underneath her on the bench.
"I guess we both have family problems then, huh?" She said for lack of a better response. Loki frowned, but didn't say anything. A second of silence passed again. Luna sighed, closing her eyes. "For what it's worth, I think you're pretty darn cool." She shrugged, turning away again. "I mean, I've always admired you. Like I said before. You're the perfect Loki," Luna laughed. "So mysterious. The coooool kid." Luna winked at him.
Loki frowned, but his words were light and teasing. "Shut up you." Luna chuckled, and bumped his shoulder with hers. Loki looked away, but not fast enough for Luna to miss the beginning of a smirk on his lips.
The two fell into an easy conversation then, avoiding serious issues. Loki had turned to face her, Luna doing the same. She was pleased that he'd started to open up to her, as she learned things about him she'd never known before.
He hated Chinese food, but loved Italian. He liked to test people mentally, and observed things normal people would usually over look.
Loki loved rock music and reading, but rarely played video games or watched TV despite owning both. On the other hand, he loved movies, and liked to analyze them and their feelings.
Luna sat with him for the better part of the next hour and a half, just talking. It was easy, and the words and responses came easily to both of them, as well as the shared laughs and smiles. (More so from her then him, she hated to admit.)
Despite that, here in this moment, she was happy.