p class="MsoNormal"Loki opened his eyes to darkness. At first, he thought he had woken up too early, but as he gained consciousness, he realized that his alarm was going off. With a huff, he turned over and stopped the noise. He looked at the clock, confirming that, it was in fact, time from him to get ready for school. Usually, when he woke up, the sun would be streaming through his curtains, but today no such light was manifested. Reluctantly, not wanting to leave the warm covers, Loki hauled himself out of bed and padded over to the window, throwing open the curtains. White powder and frost illuminated by a pale, clouded light met him. Loki blinked. Apparently, it snowed last night. As he looked down out his window, he could see several feet of snow covering the ground. His forehead was pressed against the cold glass and the temperature was refreshing./p
p class="MsoNormal"After throwing on a black, long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans, he exited his room and found his way into the kitchen. Loki was greeted by a drowsy Thor and a half-asleep Tony. The latter was attempting to fry some eggs but was failing horribly at it due to the fact that he kept almost falling asleep on the hot stove. With a sigh, Loki took over. Tony mumbled something unintelligible under his breath and wandered over to the coffee maker./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pepper walked in just as Loki was putting breakfast on the table. She looked as professional as always. With a frown, she looked at Tony, who was currently muttering curses under his breath at the uncooperative machine, concerned, "When did you go to sleep last night?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Tony mumbled something that sounded like, "Didn't". His string of profanities stopped as the coffee maker started working./p
p class="MsoNormal""You didn't sleep? Tony! You're not 20 anymore, that's not healthy!"/p
p class="MsoNormal""As people seem to keep reminding me," Tony mumbled into his freshly brewed, steaming cup of coffee./p
p class="MsoNormal"Loki sat down and shoved the warm eggs into his mouth. This sort of thing happened almost every day and he honestly wasn't surprised that Tony hadn't slept. He probably hadn't slept for several days, actually. He was pretty sure Pepper felt the same way, but she cared more for Tony than Loki did so she always put up a big fuss about it. It wasn't like Loki didn't care for Tony, he was grateful that Tony had offered him and Thor a place to stay while on Midgard, but Tony was a grown man and could care for himself. Loki looked up at his brother, who was poking at his eggs groggily. Neither Tony nor Thor were morning people. Even if they got to sleep at night, which Thor usually did, they acted like they hadn't slept in days in the morning. Loki got up and washed his plate, putting it away with a satisfying clink./p
p class="MsoNormal"Pepper had finally stopped grilling Tony and looked at the table where the plates of food sat. She looked up at Loki with a caring smile, "Thank you for breakfast, Loki."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Loki just nodded and headed back to his room to finish getting ready. When he emerged, he found Thor fully dressed and slightly more awake than before./p
p class="MsoNormal"He was staring out the window, watching snowflakes swirl in a howling wind. "I'm surprised we have school today." Somehow knowing Loki was there, though he hadn't made a sound. Thor was odd in that way. He could somehow sense Loki's presence. Few people could sneak up on Loki, and even fewer people were immune to Loki sneaking up on them. Thor was one of such individuals. Of course, that didn't mean he was immune to any of Loki's tricks, Loki just had to be a bit more careful around his brother./p
p class="MsoNormal""Why do you say that?" Loki shifted the bag full of heavy books on his back./p
p class="MsoNormal""It's like a blizzard out there."/p
p class="MsoNormal"Loki just shrugged in response and tossed Thor his bag. With a sigh, Thor shouldered his bag and followed Loki out the door and into the cold./p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"***/p
p class="MsoNormal"Loki didn't like subways. All the noise and people made him cringe, especially now that everyone was covered head to toe in dripping cold snow-wear. He had no problem with the underground vehicle part of the subway. In fact, he had always been quite impressed with Midgardian innovation and the odd ways they found to transport themselves. He didn't find their technology odd, only intriguing and unique. So when the train pulled up, as he was trying to avoid being touched by other bodies bustling past him, he didn't gape at it or jump back startled, as Thor did. Instead, he quickly entered the vehicle, glad to be out of the crowd. He chose a seat in the corner and sat down./p
p class="MsoNormal"Thor flopped next to him, eyes wide, looking around in awe, "How do Midgardians control such magic?"/p
p class="MsoNormal"Loki rolled his eyes as his brother vibrated with excitement. "It's not magic, it's science and engineering."/p
p class="MsoNormal""If this science and engineering can do this, it must be a form of magic." Thor insisted. Several of the people in the car gave the brothers an odd look. Loki sighed and didn't respond, hoping that Thor would quiet; He didn't./p
p class="MsoNormal"As Thor rambled on talking of the marvelous wonders of Midgard, Loki turned him out, instead listening to the repetitive noise of the train. He had a feeling that Thor would have a hard time adapting to this new way of life. But he also knew that Thor wouldn't care. Thor had always been himself and never tried to change who he was. He was quite stubborn that way. So Loki wasn't that worried for his brother. Loki knew that learning the Midgardian culture would be easy for him. He was good at adapting, pretending, changing who he was. But, that's what he was worried about. He and his adopted brother were so very different. And maybe people would think that Loki, like Thor, wouldn't be able to integrate. Loki never liked being compared with Thor, but being the younger of the two, he usually was. People were always surprised that Loki wasn't as loud as Thor, or as bold, or as open. People always assumed beneath his quiet, calm, and calculating self hid a Thor-like personality./p
p class="MsoNormal"His thoughts cut off, realizing that Thor had stopped talking. Looking up, he frowned at his older brother. Thor was almost never quiet when he got excited and Loki could almost touch the excitement radiating from Thor. Loki was about to ask Thor what was wrong when the doors to the train opened, signaling that it was time to get off. Thor practically ran everyone over to get off. Loki sighed but followed after his brother./p