I'm an idiot, I didn't proof read so any mistakes are my own and I'm sorry. Other than that, please enjoy!


Chapter 6

"No Loki I'm serious, I am not playing Juliet."

Well she was definitely making her point clear, Loki thought as he listened to his friend complain for what felt the like the tenth time that day. It had been two days since the last meeting and ever since Natasha had been constantly reminding him just how much she didn't agree with her casting. He had given up trying to convince her, knowing all of his comforting words and complements would be shot down just like the others. It seemed as though he would just have to sit through all the complaining.

"You are 'Tasha," Loki replied, deliberately shortening her name because he knew how much it irritated her.

As expected, she glared daggers at him before speaking again. "Not if I refuse." He was about to interrupt but she cut him off before he could even open his mouth. "I might even consider quitting the program which is something I don't actually want to do. I want to be a part of it but..."

"You're thinking of quitting?" Loki asked, startled by her admission. "Seriously now, tell me exactly what's going on."

Natasha glanced over her shoulder, making sure no one was eavesdropping. They were in the library which was practically silent besides their hushed conversation in the corner. But with them being the only ones speaking meant it was quite easy to be overheard. Luckily, there was no one else around besides Bruce who sat a few tables away from them with his head buried in some book about different types of radiation. Apparently, from what Loki had overheard, he had a particular interest in the subject.

"Okay I'll tell you," She said, after thoroughly scanning the room first. Her voice dropped even lower in volume as she spoke again. Whether it was to stop people hearing her or whether it was because she was embarrassed Loki didn't know, but he leant in closer anyway eager to hear what she had to say. "But don't even think about laughing," She warned. "Basically, I'm not scared of the acting part or anything, getting up on stage is fine...it's just, god Loki why did you have to pick Barton, of all people, as Romeo?"

"Casting Clint as Romeo? That's your big problem?" Loki asked, stunned and trying to keep a smile from gracing his lips.

She could see he was fighting back a grin so she sent him an unimpressed look. "Yes. He's irritating, he's bigheaded, he's loud, he's got no tact and he's just a downright idiot."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you like him," Loki teased.

"Well obviously you don't know any better because I definitely do not like him. If by mentioning him once means that I like him then it must mean you're totally in love with Stark considering how much you talk about him."

Loki was left gaping at her, unable to think up a witty response to silence her. He was definitely not in love with Tony, he barely even liked him. Only recently had the man even been thought of as tolerable in Loki's book. That was hardly a confession of love. Instead of responding, he just snorted, pretending he found it funny before staring hard at the front cover of his book, unwilling to open it and actually do the work.

They sat in comfortable silence for some time until Natasha breached the topic once again, continuing to insist that she can't play Juliet. In the end, much to Loki's own annoyance, he agreed that she could drop the role but still be involved in the program. The finer details would have to be run over with Tony and Mr Logan but everything should work out okay. Well at least he hoped they would.

The rest of the day was really quite uneventful. The hours passed as they always did, some slower and some faster depending on his level of interest in the lesson. He had psychology again last period and when he entered the room he took his usual seat at the back. Tony arrived not a minute later, chuckling at something Clint had just said to him. They both wandered towards the back but sat in the row just in front of Loki.

As the lesson began, Loki wasn't sure whether the sinking feeling inside his stomach was from that he was disappointed that Tony didn't sit next to him again or for the fact that the teacher was collecting in assignments and he had left his on the table he had been working at in the library. He chose the latter, just because it made more sense and he didn't want to dwell on what it would mean if the feeling had been caused by the first option.

When the teacher asked for his essay, he explained how he had left it in the library. His teacher let out an exasperated sigh but allowed him to leave class to go and look for it. Luckily it was still in the same place he had left it, so he quickly hurried back to class, handing over the paper as he entered before once again taking his seat. Though he put it down to coincidence or the fact that nothing else interesting was happening in the room at the time, but Loki couldn't deny how he saw Tony's eyes follow him both when he left the room and when he re-entered it.

Soon, however, these worrying thoughts were forgotten as the lesson fully began and his mind was distracted by the interesting albeit complicated work set by his teacher. The bell rang for the end of the day and everyone looked up, surprised that an hour had already passed. Still, they soon scrambled from their chairs, shoved their books away and exited to the class before the teacher had time to say they could go.

Loki stood up slower and made his way to the meeting, not seeing the need to hurry. Loud footsteps sounded behind him and then-

"Hello brother, how has your day been so far?" Thor asked jovially.

"It's been fine," Loki replied, now wishing he had walked faster. "And yours?"

"It has been very good so far, thankyou. I finally asked the lady Jane out for dinner this weekend and she accepted my request." He beamed widely at Loki while the other only managing a half smile in return. He really didn't care about Thor's love life all that much.

They arrived at the meeting room at took seats just like normal. Everyone had arrived in the next five minutes which made it easier to get the meeting started. Loki began by explaining that Natasha would no longer be playing Juliet. This announcement received a mixed response but then quiet was restored and everyone just dealt with the news, whether they felt it was fair or unfair, in their own quiet way. The question on everyone's minds now was who would be replacing her.

"That would be Darcy," Loki answered, smiling at her as a wide grin grew on her face.

"Really?" She asked.

"Yes," Loki clarified.

She sat there with the mixed expression of shock and joy.

"Wow thankyou," She said, before turning to Jane with raised eyebrows. Her friend smiled back and they soon fell into deep conversation about the new part she was going to play.

From behind them Natasha mouthed the word thankyou at Loki who nodded back. He allowed his gaze to wander around the room until it settled on Clint who had a rather disgruntled expression on his face. Maybe he was disappointed about the change. Maybe he really wanted Natasha to be his Juliet. At that thought Loki let out a quiet laugh.

"What's so funny?" a voice said from behind him causing him to jump. Turning around he came face to face with Tony.

"Nothing," Loki replied rather coolly.

"Right whatever," Tony shrugged. "So when were you going to tell me you made this decision or is this just a thing that you do when working in a team? You forget about the other group leader and do your own thing?"

"That's not true at all. I merely made the choice after speaking to Natasha and thought it would be better to bring up now rather than go and find you to tell you."

"Okay, fine but remember in future that there is no I in team."

And with that he was gone. Well as gone as you can be when you still have to remain in the same room as eachother. He just walked away, over to Thor and Steve who were discussing sports. Loki remained where he was standing, unsure of what to do. Best just get on with the meeting, he thought, so that is what he did.

An hour and a half later they were free to leave. After extensive run-throughs with the scripts they had all been given the task over the weekend to learn all their lines for Act 1, if they were in Act 1 obviously.

"You two, stay behind for just a second. I need to talk to you."

Mr Logan sounded quite ominous with those words but they stayed behind all the same. It only took another minute for the room to empty; Thor was left outside the door, waiting for his brother to leave.

"So this weekend, tomorrow or Sunday, I don't care which, you two need to meet up and write progress reports for each week so far. I know I haven't told you this before that's why I'm saying to sum up each week rather than write a separate one for each session. It just helps keep track and is needed as proof that you are all actually progressing. Is that okay?"

"Yes," They both said in unison before Tony then said, "What exactly should we say?"

"Just write what we have been doing each time, where we aim to be next session, that sort of thing."

"Okay...bye Sir."

Mr Logan waved an absent goodbye as they left. Loki started off down the corridor, Thor next to him, already attempting to engage him in conversation. For a few seconds Tony watched the blond fail, wondering what exactly he must have done for Loki to shun him so much. Then he realised that they hadn't sorted out details for their meeting.

"Hey wait up," He called, smiling slightly as Thor stopped and turned while Loki carried on as though no one had spoken. This guy really could be a jerk, Tony thought. "Yeah, sorry big guy, not you. I need Loki if he would just stop walking, it will only take a sec." He deliberately spoke loudly so Loki would hear him. The black haired man turned slowly, an unimpressed expression fixed firmly on his face.

"What?" He asked waspishly.

"Mine or yours?"

"What?" He repeated.

"You say that a lot, you know," Tony pointed out. Loki gave him an unimpressed look. God what would it take for this guy to smile. "What I meant was, my house or your house? Where are we gunna do these reports?"

"Which ever you prefer, I don't mind."

"Okay cool, you can come to mine."

Before Loki could protest, Tony grabbed his hand from by his side and withdrew a pen from his pocket. Across the back of his hand, he scrawled his phone number. Then he clicked the pen and smirked at Loki.

"Call me," He whispered, in a mock seductive tone before winking and walking away.

Loki was left stunned in the corridor with Thor staring at him with a 'what the hell just happened' expression. Tony just walked through the school front doors, wondering if Loki's lips twitching had been him fighting to hold back a smile.


Probably much to Tony's disappointment, Loki didn't call him. Instead he texted late at night, having forgotten to text him sooner, asking what time he should come to his the next day. The reply he received made him roll his eyes, though he was amused none the less.

'Whenever you want babe.'

'Is 11 okay?' Loki typed the reply, choosing to ignore Tony's little addition to the end of his message.

'I'm counting down the minutes already.'

Loki just shook his head before putting his phone down next to his bed and sliding under the sheets. As soon as his eyes were fully closed he began to drift off to sleep and only awoke when his alarm started blaring the next morning.

Groaning with tiredness, he rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom where he showered, taking his time to scrub himself clean and wash the shampoo out of his hair. Once out from under the warm stream of water, he wrapped a towel around his waist and began to tackle the difficult job that was his hair. It wasn't that he didn't like having long hair. Obviously if he didn't like it then he would cut it. It was more that it took forever to dry and he hated overheating under the uncomfortable warmth of his hairdryer. However, if he didn't use heat, then he was subjected to sitting through a day with his hair all frizzy and, in his own opinion, it really wasn't a very attractive look. And today of all days he didn't want to look stupid. Not that he wanted to impress Tony, he just didn't want the man finding any more reasons to tease him.

When his hair was parted and straight, he left the bathroom, hobbling back to his bedroom before his towel decided to slip from his waist. Searching for clothes was an easy job, pulling out a pair of dark jeans and a shirt from his wardrobe. He then found his school bag and emptied most of its contents before refilling it with the essentials he would need like a pen, paper, a copy of Romeo and Juliet as he was unsure if Tony would have one.

Satisfied that he was almost ready to leave, he headed down the stairs and into the kitchen where his mother was preparing breakfast, humming quietly to herself.

"Morning," She greeted, smiling as Loki grunted in reply, obviously still not happy with being awake this early on a Saturday. It was half nine in the morning which wasn't technically that early but Loki really wasn't a morning person which made the whole situation much worse. "Anything in particular you fancy?"

"Just toast, thankyou," Loki replied, dropping into a seat at the kitchen table, not having the energy to walk all the way through to their actual dining room.

"Thor'll be here in a minute, at least he should be," Frigga said absently, glancing at the clock as she placed a plate full of toast in front of her younger son.

"Why is he getting up so early?"

"Wants to prepare for his date, he told me," She laughed. "He's probably practising what he will say to her in the mirror right now."

"How touching," Loki replied, not even trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice.

His mother just grumbled at his tone but made no comment. They spent the rest of breakfast in companionable silence until Loki got to his feet and went to brush his teeth. Once finished, he checked the contents of his bag for the second time before saying goodbye to Frigga and heading out the door. The air was warm outside for being late September but it was still refreshing and Loki enjoyed the rather long walk to Tony's house.

He reached his house, or rather mansion, sooner than he had anticipated. Not wanted to seem too eager, he hovered casually outside the gate, staring at his phone screen, pretending to be in a deep conversation with someone. Unfortunately, he had no one to message and so just continuously clicked on and off his messages before he realised he was being stupid. Turning towards Tony's house, he walked up the long front drive to the door.

Seeing there was no doorbell, he rapped lighting on the glass and saw clearly as a man came to answer the door.

"Hello?" He asked.

He had dark skin and wore a smart suit and, on seeing Loki, he fixed a smile onto his face. To Loki he gave a good first impression. The man seemed like a nice person. Well at least he had a sense of style.

"You must be Tony's friend," He said, realisation replacing the confused expression on his face. "He did tell me your name but I can't for the life of me think what it is."

"Loki," Loki said.

"Cool, well I'm James Rhodes or Rhodey and I'm Tony's legal guardian. Oh sorry, please come in," Rhodey said suddenly, gesturing for Loki to come in as he stepped out of the way.

Loki walked inside, his eyes skimming around the large hallway. From where he stood he could see the kitchen on one side and one of the living rooms on the other. He could remember from the party that there wasn't just one, though he couldn't remember everything, he could remember that Tony's house was massive.

"Shit, I mean shoot," Rhodey suddenly muttered. "Sorry, I have to go otherwise I'll be late for work. Tony's down in the garage, just walk straight and take the second door left and you'll find your way." He spoke quickly then paused, trying to think if there was anything else to say. "Oh yeah, just be careful with him today. If he gets a bit funny...well...just watch yourself."

Then he was gone out the door and Loki was left thoroughly confused in the doorway. What had Rhodey meant? Get a bit funny? He assumed that didn't mean actual haha jokes kind of funny. Loki thought he meant funny as in odd. Why would Tony be odd? He was always happy, or smiling, but even when he wasn't smiling, he wasn't sad. Come to think of it, for the weeks Loki had known him, he had never seen Tony have an expression that was anything below neutral or passive. Even when he was deliberately annoying him or they were arguing, Tony never actually seemed really pissed off. He always took everything as a joke.

Still puzzling over Rhodey's words, Loki followed his instructions, stepping further into the house and following the directions that he had said. As he walked, he took his time to take in all the other surrounding rooms that he could see through the open doors. Everything was clean and tidy, nothing was out of place, yet it didn't fell over-clean, like when you touched something and needed to scrub it clean of any germs afterwards. There just wasn't that feeling. He didn't feel tense or uncomfortable, he felt more at ease. The house gave off a sense of calm.

Snorting to himself at how stupid that sounded in his head, Loki pushed open the door that apparently led to the garage where Tony would be. As he neared another door he began to hear the faint sound of music, but as get got closer the volume increased quickly until he could barely think over the noise.

Hurrying through the door, he was surprised to find himself in a very large room which was indeed a garage yet was filled with other stuff that didn't even relate to cars at all. His brain couldn't really take it in though because of the still blaring music. Turning to his side, Loki saw two large speakers with a phone plugged in to them. Without another thought, Loki pulled out the cable connecting them and breathed a sigh of relief as the music finally stopped playing.

Now able to think, he shifted so his back was to the speakers so he could finally take in the contents of the room surrounding him and the only other occupant. Tony.


I know, this chapter wasn't the most interesting but this needed to happen in order to set up the next one. Stay tuned and please review?! :)