"You know, I figured, as princes, you should see the sights of Midgard," Tony said as he and Thor strolled through London, Thor pushing Loki's wheelchair. "Plus, I'm running a scientific experiment on how big of an aneurysm Fury'll have over Loki's antics going global."
Thor glanced down at Loki, who like Tony, was dressed in a three-piece suit. Thor had been right to guess Loki would love London. He had to guess some of it was the accents, but Loki didn't seem bothered by the crowd.
"I feel like you're going to get more press than me," Tony told Loki, feigning jealousy.
Tony pointed at some red telephone booths. Thor frowned. "Your Midgardian tech allows you to carry phones in your pockets. Are these booths portable?"
"Nah, but they're iconic." Tony shrugs. "Hey, Lokes, if you shrink one to pocket size, that'll be a hell of a souvenir. Better than those kitschy ones in the gift shop…. Lokes?"
Thor glanced down. The wheelchair was empty. He looked back to see if Loki was laying on the sidewalk, as he was wont to do, but did not spot his baby brother in the crowd.
"Over here!" someone shouted. Thor glanced at a red bus with seats on the roof. People aboard clearly recognized them, and Loki.
The bus started to pull away. The tour guide had paused all descriptions of the events, staring at where Loki had materialised.
Thor summoned Mjolnir from the hotel room. Tony pulled out his phone and said "Jarvis, remind me to pay for damages,"
Thor landed on the bus, ready to grab Loki, but Loki looked so content, riding high above the other vehicles, that Thor settled next to his brother. He fished far too many pound notes out of a belt pouch and handed them to the tour guide, who had a name tag that read Alicia.
"Take us on your finest tour," Thor commanded.
Tony abruptly decided to play hooky from his meeting. His suit unfolded from his briefcase, and he flew above the bus, grinning at the awe of the passengers.
Pepper was going to kill him, for sure, but he could argue that he was doing damage control. Even though he still wanted to see Fury have an aneurysm.
"A common misconception is that the tower itself is named Big Ben," Alicia said. "The tower is Elizabeth Tower. The largest bell is named Big Ben. The clock faces are seven metres in diameter."
Alicia proceeded to list the measurements of the hour and minute hand. The crowd oohed and aahed, until suddenly the bus and streets were filled with gasps and shrieks.
The clock faces were abruptly replaced with giant versions of Loki's cackling face. Huge hands covered the mouths, the eyes, playing an odd version of peek-a-boo with London.
"I think I can hear Fury's brain blowing from here," Tony said, wondering how in the world the Avengers would set London back to rights.
Thor was the one who put his foot down about keeping Loki away from the Buckingham Palace guards. Tony had been curious to see what Loki would do to them, but Thor would not allow Loki to disrupt a guard's duty. He gravely told Tony that it was no joking matter, and that was that.
Tony figured Loki's PR had already tanked from the Big Ben fiasco, though thankfully, that charm had worn off as soon as the bus had turned away from Elizabeth Tower.
Tony bought Loki lots of London guide books full of pictures of the sights, which Loki readily accepted far faster than most new books.
Back in the hotel, Loki stared at a picture of Buckingham Palace guards, while Thor read aloud about their duty to remain absolutely still. "Just like the guards in Asgard," Thor told him. He'd often tried to keep Loki away from them, as well.
Their tour of Stratford-upon-Avon to see Shakespeare's birthplace wasn't quite as chaotic. Thor had mentioned they were going to visit the birthplace of the great Midgardian bard, and Loki had kept several Shakespeare works on his wheelchair tray.
"I know, it's no palace," Tony remarked, seeing Loki's look of utter disappointment at the Tudor house nestled in among quaint shops and other Tudor houses.
Loki threw himself to the brick road, groaning. Thor crouched.
"It is no palace, brother, but this shows that greatness does not only come from Kings." Thor said. "Our shield-brother Hawkeye hailed from humble beginnings. Remember, his family does not reside in a palace."
"We're the only ones on the team who were born rich," Tony shrugged. "Everyone else had humble beginnings, and they're Avengers."
Loki flipped contemplatively through his Shakespeare books when Thor brought them to the ground.
Thor noticed, too late, that they left the books behind in Stratford-upon-Avon. Loki cared not, and Thor suspected he'd left them as tribute.
Loki seemed highly disappointed when they returned to New York, and the widespread British accents disappeared.
JARVIS took Loki on virtual tours. Loki still barely glanced at the screen showing famous British landmarks, but he loved listening to JARVIS describe the history of the city.
Loki settled back into life in the tower, and trips to Xavier's Institute.
Loki occasionally did what was requested of him in lessons, to a point. When asked to shrink something, he enlarged it. When Jean walked him through summoning a book, he summoned the entire shelf.
When they stayed for dinner with the residents of Xavier's Institute, Loki enlarged all the forks so they were the size of Logan's claws. Everyone had to stab their food much as Logan stabbed his enemies.
Logan huffed, looking as several students eagerly mimicked him. "I'm still the best there is at what I do,"
Loki also developed an extremely tiring habit of throwing his belongings- and other people's- out of the tower window.
When Roberta and the others from the group home visited, Loki was quite irked by Roberta repeatedly pressing her toy's button. Loki snatched the talking toy and quickly defenestrated the Iron Man figure.
"Hey!' Roberta yelled, furious, then excited.
"Hey!" she shouted as Tony rocketed past them in an Iron Man suit, diving to catch the falling toy before it smashed someone's skull in.
Loki seemed to delight in making Thor and Tony dive out the window to catch things. He tossed his books off the balcony as well, and once sent the piano plummeting toward the street below.
Thor caught it and rose to see Loki's smug expression at forcing Thor to do things.
Thor shook his head ruefully. "You are an indomitable force."