In retrospect, taking the limo wasn't the best idea. Loki didn't scream as he had in the Quinjet, but he kept trying to get up front, reaching for the gear shift or Happy's suit. Happy remained calm, of course, but had to put up the partition.
Thor held on to his brother, hoping Loki would not teleport and land on the road outside.
Happy pulled the limo up to a gate, which let them in after a brief consultation. Sprawling green lawns lead to an equally sprawling mansion. It looked a bit like a castle, Thor proclaimed the place a Midgardian palace.
Tony scoffed and waved a hand. "Did I mention I own an actual castle?"
Thor kept his focus on their surroundings and pointed out stables as they drove down the long drive.
Happy parked and opened the door for them; Loki tugged at Happy's tie.
"Uh, boss?" Happy asked as Loki stuck the tie into his mouth. Thor pried it from Loki's mouth and hands, but not without the tie getting ripped.
"I'll replace it." Tony promised as Happy removed the ruined tie. Loki snatched for it again, but Thor wouldn't let him have it.
Tony promised to get Loki his own suit as well, but muttered that his tailor would kill him if he saw what Loki did to the clothing.
Happy pulled Loki's electric wheelchair out of the back of the limo, using the ramp Tony had installed, then helped Loki to his chair.
A bald man wearing a three-piece suit drove his own wheelchair to meet them. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Loki." he said, before greeting Thor, Tony and Bruce.
"You are the professor," Thor recognized the voice. He felt better already, seeing the professor's wheelchair- surely that was a sign that Loki would be understood and accommodated.
"I promise, Loki, that I will not read your mind without your permission," the Professor spoke directly to Loki, despite the fact that Loki was no longer looking at him. "The first time was merely to reach out, and you made it quite clear my method was not appreciated."
Feeling even better about how the Professor spoke to Loki rather than about him, Thor urged Loki to drive his chair forward. Loki was too busy tugging at his shirt collar, and Thor fretted that Loki would undress here. He hadn't at the Bartons' farmhouse, but Loki was often full of surprises. Just when he'd seemed to move past one thing, he'd suddenly start again.
Given how Loki had shown his wish to visit, Thor had expected Loki to crawl through the school like he owned it, or at least sit in his chair like an emperor being paraded around his palace.
Loki payed no attention to the tour, still tugging on his clothes and squeezing his eyes shut. His pants turned black, and Loki was momentarily appeased, but soon began grabbing locks of his hair and tugging almost hard enough to tear them from his scalp.
The Professor mentioned being able to telepathically calm others, but they knew his mental presence would have the opposite effect on Loki. This led Thor to attempt to soothe his brother. Tony pulled out his phone to let JARVIS try as well, but Loki couldn't be calmed.
He began to actually tug out chunks of hair, dropping them carelessly. Thor attempted to stop him, but Loki screeched and kicked until Thor let go.
Soon, Loki was bald. He tugged his shirt collar until it became a lapel.
A short, burly man with wild hair and sideburns raised a brow and muttered around his cigar "Got a twin, Chuck?"
"You wanted to be the man in charge," Thor said in realization. He already missed Loki's long hair, but it was Loki's decision. He hoped Loki wouldn't change his face to look like the Professor as well.
The man's cigar abruptly burst into flames. Loki watched with wide-eyed glee as the man put it out with his fingers. The burns on his fingers faded before their eyes, and the man grumpily stalked away.
"If this place is anything like my tower, you'll be running it soon enough." Tony's tone had affection hidden under the exasperation.
As their tour reached the stables, Loki seemed to suddenly regret his hairstyle choices. He smacked his bald head, agitated, then shook his head wildly until long black locks slithered out of his scalp like snakes.
Loki kept shaking his head as Thor helped him walk to one of the horses. Loki stroked its nose, then grabbed a brush and ran it through Thor's mane instead of the horse's.
Loki's hair was eventually the length it had been, falling around his shoulders. The Professor commented that Loki was clearly gifted, but had room to grow. He added that a woman named Mystique could change her appearance in mere moments.
Thor wasn't surprised. After all, Mother had vanished Loki's soiled clothing in an instant. It had just taken Loki several minutes to craft his suit with magic.
The Professor seemed optimistic about Loki's ability to learn here. Thor tried to be as hopeful, but having grown up with Loki, he'd witnessed firsthand how long it took Loki to learn new skills. Many of these mortals could be dead by the time Loki learned to control his magic, if at all. After all, Loki had taken centuries to learn to crawl.
Still, Loki had learned. He was a fast study when it came to driving them mad with his music panel, and he revealed new magic on Midgard when he was encouraged rather than discouraged.
Thor reminded himself that, just like the rest of the world, he could be guilty of underestimating his brother.
Loki didn't look at the children playing basketball on the court, not even to knock the ball around with magic as he did when Clint juggled. When they entered the mansion itself, he sat, bored, rubbing his suit's lapels.
Bruce was clearly impressed with the school, glancing in on some of the classes. A few students ventured up to him, seeming to view him as an honorary mutant.
Bruce fidgeted under the attention while Tony soaked it up. "This place is great, but until you have awesome underground labs and garages like my mansion, I've got you beat."
One girl disguised a snort as a cough, but before she could say anything, Loki shouted to drive the crowd away.
"We do offer room and board, to allow our students a safe place to live away from the unfortunate persecution they face." the Professor offered.
Thor thanked him for his gracious offer but said perhaps it would be best to only attend during the day for a while. After a bit of thought, Thor brought up the complication of enemies tracking them during their flight and bringing harm to the school.
"We get attacked a bunch already," one student replied carelessly, as if it were nothing new.
Tony joked that there was more eavesdropping here than a tower with two super spies, and Bruce dryly replied with "Says the guy who built a sentient AI system who monitors everything."
Tony put a hand over his arc reactor, offended on JARVIS's behalf. "You're making my baby sound like Big Brother."
Grinning widely, Loki reached for Thor.
As they went down a corridor, they could hear two students reading Shakespeare aloud from one of the classrooms. Of course, Loki threw himself out of his chair to crawl into the room.
The students paused, slightly startled, as Loki crawled forward and batted at the book. They resumed reading, and Loki contently hunched on the floor to listen.
Then he spotted the teacher- a large man covered in blue fur.
Loki let out a grunting battle cry, swinging his fist and spitting at the man, clearly daring him to get closer. When the man did not attack, Loki crawled forward.
The blue man remained calm, commenting that Loki had jumped ahead to "Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war."
Thor hauled Loki up and away from the blue man. "Cease, brother, he is not a beast."
Several students snickered at that, and the blue man calmly told them he was known as Beast.
"He is not a monster," Thor explained. Thor attempted to explain Loki's behavior by telling of how Asgard and Jotunheim had fought many wars and that Frost Giants were often described as monsters.
"So are we," a teenaged boy said as he coolly made a small ice sculpture which Loki. Loki popped the sculpture in his mouth before spitting it at Beast.
Thor started to lead Loki from the room. Loki flopped to the floor, pointedly making himself an audience for the play, though he continued to stare at Beast.
"You must learn not to judge others for their differences," Thor chided. He often had to tell others that about Loki, but hadn't expected to have to tell Loki himself.
He hoped Loki would learn that lesson at the school, as well as control over his magic.