Loki no longer had trouble with his computer, which had been upgraded from a SHIELD-issue Dell to a more powerful Toshiba around the beginning of spring, now that he knew his way around the various programs. He could write in Word while researching on the Internet, all the while listening to music on Spotify or Pandora. Keeping one or two windows open while he worked in another was child's play.
The hardest thing was finding something to write about.
He had signed up for the Nanowrimo's Camp option, which ran through the month of July, and with less than a week to go, he was only at 5700 words out of the required fifty thousand. Every time he sat down to add to his latest Warriors of Vengeance novel, he could only manage a few dozen words before becoming distracted by something on Facebook or clicking a quiz or playing a game. He hadn't had this problem in April. Then again, he hadn't known there was a Camp in April. He'd still managed to finish The Vengeance of Metal by the end of the month. It was a great sequel, he thought: the Warriors of Vengeance against a mechanical man who decides that humanity is a pestilence that must be cleansed from the Earth. He'd even managed to work a few new characters into the mix.
So why was he having so much trouble with this one?
Every time he sat down at his computer for dedicated writing time, he found himself wasting time looking up this or reading that instead of bloody writing! He had even tried Write or Die, a website that promised distraction-free writing, but the second time, he had clicked the wrong link and ended up browsing Wikipedia for an hour and a half. Oh, well, file that one under research.
And then there was this afternoon. He had gone back to his room after coming home from the library, intending to spend the time before dinner getting some solid words in, only to have Thor pound on his door and remind him that today was their weekly video game fest, and that today, the Spider-Child would be joining in.
"I have a lot of work to do!" Loki had protested.
"Can you not work on your writing this evening? Peter has to be home by six."
"I'll bring my laptop. You two play while I write."
"Oh, no you don't!" And with that, Thor had picked him up and carried him bodily out of his apartment and down the hall, where he unceremoniously plunked him down on the carpet and thrust a game controller into his hands.
"Please, I really need to work-"
"No more discussion! You go first, brother."
Clearly there was no getting through to some people.
"Can I play the winner?" Peter asked. "I am just, like, so in awe here. I mean, here I am, in Avengers Tower, playing Mario Kart with two gods! And eating . . . um, what are we eating?"
Thor held up the box. "Chocolate Twinkies!"
"Wow, I didn't know there were chocolate Twinkies. Cool. Anything to drink?"
"Yes!" Thor said.
"No!" Loki cried out. "All you have is beer, and he's too young to drink beer."
"Nonsense! I drank mead when I was far younger than fifteen summers!"
"Yes, but things are different here. There are laws."
"Yeah," Peter said. "If I went home and my aunt smelled beer on my breath, she probably wouldn't let me come back."
"Very well then. What would serve instead?"
"I don't know. Coke? Juice? I'll take a bottle of water if you can't find anything else."
"There's a vending machine in the second-floor reception area," said Loki. Then he remembered what had happened the last time his brother had encountered a vending machine. "Never mind, I'll go. You can take my turn for me."
"No, we will wait for you."
So he went all the way to the elevator, and then down to the second floor, hoping that no one would notice or mind his presence. He knew that Building Security was housed on the second floor, and while they knew he was in the building and was free to come and go, they weren't exactly fans of his. A few times when he'd ventured down to the lower levels, he had been followed by the younger and more scrupulous of the two day guards, whose name was Lou. The other, an older man named Stan, tended to avoid him.
He was in luck; neither man appeared to be around at present. Loki plunked a ridiculous amount of small silver discs into the machine's slot, and pressed the button. A bottle of dark liquid dropped down, and he opened the little door and grabbed it. Then he decided to get one for himself. He noticed that the machine had iced tea, and when he had inserted the proper amount, he pressed the button.
There was the rattle and clunk of the machine dispensing the product . . . but nothing dropped into the slot. The space behind the little plastic door was empty.
He hit the button marked COIN RETURN. Nothing happened.
"Give me my drink, you brainless pile of circuits!" He pushed on the machine, trying to free the drink if it happened to be stuck somewhere inside the machine. Nothing continued to happen, so he rocked it back and forth.
It occurred to him that this was how Thor had gotten himself in trouble with a similar machine, so he stopped rocking the machine and set it back upright. He knew his drink was stuck halfway down the chute. He just knew it. Perhaps if he gave the machine a magical nudge . . .
He reached out with the barest tendril of magic and manipulated it inside the machine, finding the stuck bottle and tugging it downward. It resisted, and he was about to give up when the bottle finally came free and clunked down into the slot.
"Finally." He reached in and took the bottle, but he forgot that his magic was still inside the machine. There was a shudder, then the light flickered . . .
Loki had the uncomfortable sensation that he should turn and run before something happened.
Then the something happened.
A bottle was forcefully ejected from the machine, skidding across the floor and spinning to a stop at Loki's feet. Then another one came flying out. And another. And another.
When the bottles started slamming into the walls and exploding, Loki decided that now was a good time to make a run for it. He heard footsteps approaching and decided not to run. If Stan or Lou came around the corner and saw him running away from a malfunctioning drink machine, they might draw an unfortunate and wholly accurate conclusion. So he walked, quickly.
He made it to the elevator just as he heard Stan exclaim, "What the hell?" Much as he would have liked to have stuck around to see what the guard's reaction was, the elevator doors closed at that moment, and not a second too soon. He spent the ride back up to the 75th floor hoping and praying that Stan hadn't seen his retreat and would not now be calling upstairs-or worse, calling SHIELD.
When he came back to Thor's apartment, he shut and locked the door, and then said, "If anyone comes looking for me, I've been here the whole time. I wasn't down on the second floor."
"Loki," Thor began patiently, "what did you do?"
"Nothing! I mean-it was an accident! I did not mean to do it!"
"Do what?"
He might as well tell. It would come out eventually. "My drink got stuck in the machine, so I . . . nudged it with my magic."
"Oh, Loki." Thor put one huge hand to his face and sighed.
"I may have nudged a bit too hard. The rest of the bottles came flying out."
"So that's why your pants are wet," Peter said.
Loki looked down to see dark liquid staining his white pants. It might come out, but then again, it might not. He should have left well enough alone and gone back upstairs with just the one drink. "I'll go and change."
"You do that. We'll wait."
He opened the door, stepped out, and then saw Lou, in full-on rage mode, striding towards him. With a yelp, he ducked back inside and slammed the door.
He fled to the bedroom just moments before the pounding started. From his vantage point, he couldn't see what was going on, but he could hear plenty.
"May I help you, Officer Brenner?" Thor asked calmly.
Lou was light-years away from calm. "What did I tell you the last time you broke that vending machine?"
"Vending machine? What vending machine?"
"You know damn well what vending machine! I don't care if it eats your money, you can't rock that machine! There's soda all over the carpet, we'll have to have it cleaned! This is coming out of your paycheck!"
"You'll have to talk to Director Fury about that."
"Officer," Peter asked, "when did this happen?"
"Five minutes ago! It's on the walls! And the ceiling! And it gets sticky when it dries! This is the last time, you hear me? If I so much as hear a rumor that you've been near those machines again, you are out on your ass!"
Loki, pulling on a pair of Thor's jeans, really wished he could see his brother's face at that moment.
"It wasn't him!" Peter insisted. "He's been here for the last hour! Check the visual records if you don't believe me!"
"Who are you, kid?"
"I'm Peter Parker. I'm . . . the new intern."
"You just watch yourself. Any more trouble and I come here first!"
"Be my guest," Thor said in a very dark tone.
There was a long moment of silence. Loki wanted to know what was going on, but he didn't dare peep around the bedroom door, in case he was spotted. Anyone who was not intimidated by Thor's size and manner was someone on whose bad side Loki would rather not be.
"I'm gonna go review the video," Lou said. "But I'll be watching you!"
"You do that."
The slam of the door as Lou vacated the apartment.
"Wow," Peter said, as Loki returned. "That guy needs anger management, like, yesterday."
"He takes his job very seriously," said Thor. "Ah, brother, you have returned! Now, finally, you can take your turn!"
"Actually," Loki said, "I need to go do something right now. Go ahead and start. I'll be right back."
He wanted to get this idea down in the file before he lost it. This would change everything.
When he got back to his own apartment, he opened his computer, waited for the Word program to load, and opened the file for his current novel.
"You know you're mad," the Spider-Ninja said. "Your brother is the lunatic who tried to destroy the city!"
"He is not the man he was," Todor insisted. "He can be trusted."
"I doubt that."
"Is that why you refuse to show me your face?" Logar asked. "You hide beneath that mask. How am I to know that you are who you say you are?"
"Yet you expect me to trust that you won't kill me when my back is turned."
"I doubt I would be able to. Your finely-tuned senses would detect me before I could act."
"True."
"Enough of this! Let us eat and drink together! Brother, fetch us something from the shop down the road!"
"Me? Show my face in public?"
"I will go," Spider-Ninja said, but Todor stopped him.
"You are our guest, my friend! Sit down and let us serve you! We have games to occupy you until the food arrives!"
"What sort of games?"
An hour and over twelve hundred words later, he became aware of the pounding on his door.
"Loki, are you still here?"
He was tempted to call out, "No, I've gone to Switzerland for the weekend," but he restrained himself. He went and opened the door.
"You said you would be right back!" Thor complained. "What has taken you so long?"
"Sorry, I was . . ." Might as well tell him. "Writing."
"All this time?"
"I've finally got my groove back. I really don't want to stop now."
"But what about our game? The Spider-Child has to leave soon!"
Loki sighed. If he left now, he might never get another chance to finish this scene. But a promise was a promise. "All right. But after dinner, I am not to be disturbed."
"You spend too much of your time alone, brother. You must get out and spend time with others once in a while."
"Maybe." If nothing else, maybe it would give him some more ideas.