TW: Homophobia

The following Sunday, Loki showed up at Nebula's house with a grocery bag full of supplies. Her home ec. extra credit pie wouldn't make itself.

"Hey," Nebula nodded when she opened the door. "Gamora and Quill are upstairs," she said.

"Maybe they'll want some pie later," he shrugged.

"What kind are we making?" Nebula asked as she led him to the kitchen. The entire house was like something from a Better Homes & Gardens magazine. Spacious and immaculately decorated, definitely regularly cleaned by a professional. Loki's family was well off, but he was pretty sure Thanos was still in a completely different tax bracket.

"Apple," he answered. "Figured everyone likes a classic."

"I'm allergic," Nebula answered.

"Oh, um, I could run back to the store?" Loki offered.

Nebula smirked and shook her head. "I'm just fucking with you. Apple is great."

He rolled his eyes at her. "And here I am, trying to be nice," he teased her.

They got to work on the pie–or rather he got to work on the pie while she watched, making conversation. Loki was surprised to find he genuinely did enjoy talking to her. She was as passionate about robotics as he was about theater, and passion was always an appealing trait.

He put the pie in the oven and set a timer on his phone, and then they went to play Mario Kart while they waited. She royally kicked his ass, and made fun of him the entire time. It was a pretty fun afternoon.

When the timer went off, they returned to the kitchen to take the pie out. It was perfectly golden-brown and flakey, with the delicious cinnamon fragrance wafting from it and filling the room.

"Wow. Not bad, Odinson," Nebula nodded in approval. "Where'd you learn to cook?"

"My mom," Loki answered. "She loves to cook and bake. I used to help her in the kitchen all the time as a kid," he smiled fondly at the memories.

"That's sweet," Nebula said, just as Gamora and Quill came into the kitchen.

"We smelled something delicious," Peter announced.

"Apple pie," Loki answered.

"Don't mind if I do," Peter grinned, heading towards it, but Nebula grabbed it with her oven mitt covered hands before he could get anywhere near it.

"Oh no, I need a picture of it before anyone touches this thing. It's my ticket to passing home ec."

"Didn't you take that as an 'easy A'?" Gamora raised an eyebrow.

"I thought it would be," Nebula huffed. "But apparently accidentally setting off the fire alarm loses you so many points."

"That was you?" Loki asked.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Less talk-y, more eat-y," Peter said, still eyeing the pie.

Gamora smirked at him, "Any time."

Nebula dramatically gagged at the comment.

"Someday when you have a boyfriend you'll understand," Gamora laughed. "Though," she glanced at Loki, "maybe that day will be sooner rather than later."

"Maybe, but Loki's just a friend," Nebula said.

"Is it my brother you're talking about?" Loki asked.

"Ugh, I hope not. He's a faggot," Peter cringed.

Loki wanted to break his nose. Rip his head off. Feed it to a pack of wild dogs.

"Don't say that," Gamora glared at him.

"Sorry, babe. But it's so weird he asked me out!" Peter pouted.

"Just say no and move on," Loki said tightly. "You don't have to be an asshole."

Peter glared at him, puffing up his chest. "What'd you say? Do you want to take it outside?"

"Stop with the macho bullshit or I'm not giving you any pie," Nebula warned.

The tension in the air instantly evaporated as Peter turned, dog-like, towards the pie. "Sorry, sorry. I won't say that again."

No, no you won't, Loki thought to himself.

While Quill and Gamora were distracted watching Nebula take a few photos of her pie and then cut into it, Loki slipped Quill's phone out of his back pocket and into his own. So it wasn't exactly the first time he pick-pocketed someone.

"Where's your bathroom?" Loki asked as Nebula served slices of pie.

"Around the corner, second door on the left," Gamora answered, pointing towards one of the doorways.

"Thanks," he said, and went to be alone for a moment.

Loki used a photo of Quill from his own phone to unlock it, and then started searching through the photos. Jackpot.

He opened up Snapchat, found the football team's group chat, and set his plan into motion.

Sylvie was panicking. She'd spent Saturday working on remodeling to try to shut her brain up. It had barely worked, but today her thoughts were going so fast she knew there was no use even trying that again. Instead, she called Wanda and asked her to come over.

"Oh, your aunt is redecorating?" Wanda noted as she walked in.

"Yeah, sorta," Sylvie answered. "Thanks for coming over. I really need to talk."

Wanda caught the urgency in her voice and nodded, focusing fully on Sylvie. "Of course. What do you need?"

"I like Loki," Sylvie blurted in a panicked tone.

Wanda paused for a moment. "And this…is a bad thing?" she asked slowly.

"Yes! Because I still like Val too!" Sylvie exclaimed, flinging herself onto the new couch.

"Ah, I see," Wanda nodded, sitting down next to Sylvie's legs. "What are you going to do?"

Sylvie sighed, covering her face with both hands for a moment. "I don't know. That's why I called you."

Wanda gave her leg a soft, comforting pat. "Well, what were you hoping I'd say?"

"I don't know." Sylvie studied the ceiling as she thought about it. "That I'm being stupid, there's an obvious answer, and then you'd tell me what it was?"

"If only it was that easy," Wanda laughed.

"It's not?" Sylvie whined.

"It's not," Wanda sighed. "You have to figure out who you want to be with, and then you'll have to give up the other one."

"So…Loki does like me? He'd go for me if I asked?" Sylvie knew the answer, but she needed to hear it. Needed that reassurance.

"Sylvie…that boy has been crazy about you for a while now."

"All of that stuff when we were fake dating?" she asked.

Wanda nodded. "Real, yeah."

"But-But it can't have been real! No high school boy is that perfect of boyfriend!" Sylvie protested frantically.

Wanda laughed. "You do know I'm dating Vis, right? A few of them really are that perfect."

The pair sunk into silence as Sylvie put a hand over her eyes again, taking several deep breaths as she sat in the knowledge.

Wanda was the one to break it. "I think you know what you want. You just have to admit it to yourself."

"You're just saying that because you're his friend and you want him to be happy."

"I didn't say which one, you just assumed," Wanda was trying not to smile. "Think that means something?"

Sylvie groaned loudly and flopped over onto her stomach, burying her face in a pillow.