Hey everyone, sorry about how long this took to get out, I've moved to Belgium and things have been kinda hectic. On the plus side I have the next chapter already typed up so I can promise that that will be out within a week.
What's happened so far?
- Everyone's living in Malibu together
- Sleipnir (and the other kids) have started school. Sleipnir freaks out because of the abuse he suffered from Odin
- Sleipnir kind of makes friends? Well, the 'bad influence' type kids. Honestly, they are all dumbass 13-14 year olds.
- He tries to gain confidence and starts pushing the boundaries
- Tony and Steve (who is living in secret at the Malibu Mansion) have a massive argument about Howard Stark but they reconcile their differences and now they are back to a kinda shaky friendship thanks to Sleipnir
(And a lot of other things too, like building an Einstein Rosen bridge, but they're less relevant for this as this chapter is kinda about making sure I get part a of Sleipnir's arc done before Hydra attacks in the next chapter haha)
Thank you guys for all being amazing and continuing to read this even with my questionable update schedule.
29/09/19
Chapter Twelve - Skipping Class
"You want to skip class with us," Jamie said slowly, not quite sure of what he was hearing. Jesus, he came back to school again after four days and this is what he ended up in after only ten minutes. Sleipnir seemed to want to take talking in class up several thousand notches.
Why had the kid had to come up to him to check he was okay just when Emmet was asking him if he wanted to skip class? And of course he was okay. Mr Allen had just pissed him off and he had decided that if that was what people thought of him then he was done with school. Anyway, that had turned out to be a pretty terrible idea, so, here he was, back, and having this stupid conversation.
"Yeah," Sleipnir said. "Physics is boring, and I don't really need to go anyway, I can just get Jarvis or Tony to teach me the stuff and it'll be way more interesting. Besides, compared to them, the teacher doesn't know anything."
Jamie got the impression that Sleipnir was also trying to convince himself that he could skip class.
He rolled his eyes. "You hate breaking the smallest of rules, dude, you'd rather do physics."
"Oh come on," Emmet said, leaning against the wall and smirking. "We're wasting time, let him come, it'll be fun."
Jamie glanced at the lanky teen. He was taller than most people in the school, Jamie and Sleipnir included. Jamie guessed that came with the territory if you were 16 and held back a few years because of poor attendance, misbehaviour and awful grades. Emmet blew his limp brown hair out of his face and grinned innocently. Typical.
Irritation flared through him. All Emmet wanted to do was confuse and tease and mock Sleipnir. Because that's what he did. Jamie knew that once upon a time he would have found it funny, or at least tried to. But, however stupid and strange Sleipnir was he had a weird urge to protect the kid. It would be like kicking a puppy. Sleipnir didn't deserve it.
Caring about people wasn't how his and Emmet's friendship worked though, and Emmet would find these thoughts hilarious. So, what to say, how to convince him to leave Sleipnir alone without looking weak.
"He'll just get us caught, and you know it," he settled on.
"No I won't!"
"Come on J, give him a chance, you shouldn't put him down so much. Have some faith in the kid, he's meant to be your friend, isn't he?" Emmet said easily, grabbing Jamie round the shoulders in a way that was meant to appear friendly, but hurt too much for it to actually be.
"Please," Sleipnir, whose eyes had lit up at Emmet's words, begged. "I don't want to go to Miss Richardson's class."
Jamie gritted his teeth. "You know this isn't gonna make you cool, but it could get you excluded, right?"
Sleipnir shrugged, clearly trying to be chill about it, but Jamie could see that he was as tense as a wire.
"On your fucking head be it then," Jamie snapped, and stormed off round the side of the school without caring if the other two were following.
He glanced around before weaving his way past the dumpsters. There were only a few straggling kids left on the playground, and no teachers to see him. He climbed up the rusty access ladder and onto the kitchen roof before sitting down in the corner, making sure he couldn't be seen from the ground.
Sleipnir's head appeared over the corner of the roof. He looked crazy anxious. "You're an idiot." Jamie said.
"So you told me on the day we met," Sleipnir replied, attempting a smile. His voice had a far less noticeable accent than it had done the day that they first met, but it still had a weird edge to it that Jamie couldn't place.
"Get down before someone sees you." Jamie rolled his eyes.
Sleipnir swung his legs over the brick ledge that surrounded the roof before making his way over to Jamie and dropping down beside him.
"I can't believe I'm actually doing this!" Sleipnir said, his eyes lighting up in what seemed to be a mixture of excitement and sheer terror.
"Yeah, neither can I," Jamie retorted drily.
"So… what do you guys normally do up here?"
"Smoke, usually," Emmet said, dropping down beside the two of them.
"If you snitch, I'll kill you," Jamie said quickly, because what else was he meant to do except threaten in a situation like this? He wasn't sure why he was so bothered, after all, it wasn't like he really minded getting into trouble. Then again, this wouldn't be the ordinary kind of trouble, after all, his parents would definitely be called in and that would definitely not go well. It wasn't like they would particularly care that he was smoking and skipping lessons, but they would if he were 'wasting their time'. Still, the thrill of the freedom of it was worth the danger of getting caught.
"I'm not gonna snitch," Sleipnir said, but he didn't sound sure. Great. "But why do you do that? Doesn't it turn your lungs all horrible and give you that… thing… where your cells mutate and try to kill you?"
"You're adorable," Emmet said, then held his hand out and gestured to Jamie. "Go on then, hand one over."
Jamie sighed and dug through his bag, trying to find where he'd stuffed the packet. "I mean it," he shot a warning glance to Sleipnir, "you'll die."
"No!" Sleipnir actually looked on the verge of crying. "You'll be the one that'll die!"
Emmet collapsed on the floor in raucous laughter.
"Shut up, man," Jamie said through gritted teeth, only just resisting thumping him. "Someone'll hear us."
Emmet managed to calm down enough that he was able to turn to Sleipnir and say, "Do you want one then?"
"Dude!"
"Well… it wouldn't kill me…"
"Right, because you're so special, can't get lung cancer like the rest of us." Jamie snapped. "I'm not wasting these on you."
"Then why do you use them?"
"Because I don't give a shit what happens in the future, it's only gonna get worse, may as well have fun now. You, kid, have a future and a parent that clearly actually gives a shit about you. It's a waste of your time, you don't need this."
"Oh lighten up J and stop babying him, when did you become such a drag, jeez."
"Fuck off." Jamie said. It was the only appropriate response.
"Whatever, just give me mine, I'll share it with him if you're too much of a pussy to."
"Pff, yeah right, I dunno what diseases you have."
"You wanna go, dickhead?"
Jamie grinned, well if Emmet wanted a fight…
"Please stop arguing," Sleipnir whispered. Jamie turned to see him, pale and shaky.
"This isn't arguing, we haven't even started punching each other yet." Jamie laughed. "But sure, we'll stop." He sighed and gave in. "You can have a puff of mine and see what you think, I'm not wasting a whole one on you." Chances were Sleipnir would take one puff and hate it anyway.
And with that, Jamie snatched a cigarette out of the packet and lit it with ease before chucking the packet and the lighter over to Emmet.
He took a drag and made sure not to cough even though the first inhale always stung the back of his throat, Emmet would never have let him live it down. He didn't like the burn, he didn't like the taste of it, but it calmed him, and he couldn't not smoke, it practically came with the territory in his family. Besides, whenever he went too long he started to crave it. Anyway, it didn't matter much did it? There were worse things to be addicted to, he knew.
He took a few more puffs before holding it out to Sleipnir.
"Here, you hold it like this, see." Sleipnir, wide eyed, reached out and took it cautiously. "And remember, you're breathing in, don't try to swallow it."
"This reminds me of when we taught you how to smoke," Emmet laughed. Jamie ignored him.
Sleipnir placed the cigarette between his lips and took a deep breath in. To Jamie's surprise he didn't start coughing.
"Huh, that's a tad poisonous and gross tasting," Sleipnir observed, looking down at the cigarette held a bit too tightly between his fingers.
"But you didn't hate it?" Jamie asked, bewildered.
"Have you ever tried eating hay? That's way more gross."
Jamie blinked in confusion as Sleipnir took another experimental inhale.
"Ha, he's a natural."
Jamie rolled his eyes at Emmet.
"Well," Sleipnir said, wrinkling his nose. "It's not too bad I guess, but I wouldn't want to do this for fun like you guys do."
"If you want the fun stuff I'm sure we could find a joint for you to try."
Jamie's blood boiled,he had just about had enough of him. "Fuck off, Emmet, he's fourteen."
"What's a…"
"So are you, and-"
"Hello?" A woman's voice called up from below them. Jamie's desire to throw himself on Emmet and punch the kid bloody did a full one eighty and suddenly all he wanted to do was disappear.
"Fuck," he hissed, then gestured to the other two to get behind the metal vent that extracted the hot air from the kitchen. It was a last ditch effort and was doomed to failure but he was damned if was wasn't going to try. Emmet was already on the move but Sleipnir was frozen, cigarette in his left hand, staring like a deer in the headlights.
Jamie tried to leap to his feet to grab Sleipnir but fell down again with a muffled gasp as he landed on the end of his left foot and a sharp pain shot through his knee.
This seemed to pull Sleipnir out of his reverie and he was up in a flash. He picked Jamie up with ease and Jamie would have been a lot more surprised by this only it took all of his effort not to scream as his knee was jostled around.
Sleipnir dropped him unceremoniously down on the ground behind the vent and he couldn't help but yell out that time.
"I know you're up there," the woman said. "And fine, if you don't want to answer me, I'm coming up." Her voice was clearer this time and as Jamie strained his ears he could now hear the tap tap of her shoes as she climbed up the ladder.
He glanced down at his leg. Shit, it would be barely half hidden from her gaze, there was no way she wouldn't see it. Sleipnir hadn't had time to put him down properly. He tried to move it, excruciating pain shot through his whole leg.
Well, they were fucked.
He turned desperately to Sleipnir only to find that the kid had completely shut down and gone into some kind of trance. He didn't react at all to Jamie frantically shaking him.
He heard the crunch of the teacher's shoes on the roof and looked down at his traitorous leg, cursing it. It shimmered. He tilted his head. It was like his leg couldn't decide whether it was there or not. What was happening? Was it the pain? Had something been added to the cigarette? Well, he wasn't buying anything from Dylan again. Shit, on top of everything when the teacher found him he would be high as well.
He'd given the same cigarette to Sleipnir too.
Fuck, he'd given the kid drugs. He turned desperately towards the kid, who still looked like he was in a trance. Well, that would explain the weirdness wouldn't it. What had he done?
"So," the teacher said, thoroughly pissed off. "You're telling me that I just climbed all the way up here when the kids are clearly on the field? Wow. Well done Rebecca. And you can't even see who they are at this distance? Well. If this isn't an accurate summary of your entire life. Ugh. I'm so done."
What?
She sighed again. Jamie stared at his leg. It was so obvious (well, not to him, but he was reacting to the cigarettes), how could she not see it? Maybe she had decided she couldn't be bothered to deal with them? That made no sense.
"I should probably follow them shouldn't I? Instead of talking to myself? Yep. That would be the mature, adult, responsible thing to do. Ugh. How is this my life?"
Jamie shook his head in amazement as he heard her climb down the ladder. What the hell had just happened?
Suddenly, Sleipnir relaxed and slumped forwards, his head slammed into the floor.
"Ow," he groaned quietly before pushing himself up into a sitting position and looking around at everything with half-focused eyes. "Huh, I can't believe that worked."
"Neither can I, like, half my leg was in full view!" Jamie whispered.
"Yeah, what happened to your leg, man?" Emmet hissed.
"I don't know, I got up quickly and twisted it or something and something happened. I can't move it, it hurts like a bitch."
"How are you going to get down from here?" Emmet asked, and Jamie's heart sank into his stomach. That teacher may as well have found him. Hiding here had done nothing in the long term. Nothing except piss the teacher off more probably when he was eventually found up here.
Still, at least Emmet and Sleipnir could leave. That wasn't really an upside though, anger flared inside of him at the thought of how Emmet had asked how he was going to get down. Emmet would have no problem abandoning him here. Sleipnir would probably stay here though, like a loyal puppy, and that would make everything even worse.
He sighed and with a practiced ease he turned his despair into frustration and he opened his mouth to lash out at Emmet.
That was when Sleipnir said, "I could feel it, to see if it's broken or dislocated. We might be able to do something to help it a bit, to help you get down?"
Jamie shrugged. "Sure, you can't make it any worse can you?"
He clenched his jaw and was sure to not let any tears escape from his eyes as Sleipnir pulled up his ratty jeans so he could see his left knee. He almost bit through his lip as Sleipnir put a hand on his knee, bracing for the pain.
Nothing happened.
All he could feel was a slight tingling and Sleipnir's clammy hand. But it didn't hurt.
"Um, I don't think anything's wrong with it," Sleipnir said hesitantly.
"Bullshit," Jamie said, attempting to move his leg just to prove Sleipnir wrong. It moved with ease. No pain. Nothing. "What the hell?"
"Maybe you just got cramp?" Emmet suggested.
"Maybe…" Jamie said, flummoxed. "Maybe it was a trapped nerve or something."
"It absolutely wasn't a dislocated kneecap," Sleipnir said very intently and earnestly.
"Sure…" Jamie agreed. God, Sleipnir was weird.
"I think," Emmet said, "I'm just gonna go to the end of class and pretend I'm late to school because our car broke down."
"You know what, I'm with you there," Jamie agreed. "The batteries in my alarm clock died and I didn't wake up."
"I'm going home," Sleipnir said, looking dazed again. "I'm too magi- too exhausted for school right now."
"Are you kidding me? We almost got caught skipping class and now you want to skip school." Jamie said, incredulous. What had gotten into the kid today?
"Yup. I feel like I'm gonna throw up, or faint, maybe both." He got out his insanely fancy phone and tapped a few buttons. Jamie caught Emmet eyeing it with interest and glared at him. He knew full well that Emmet had been the cause of several of the thefts at the school over the last few years. "Hey Jarvis," he said, holding the phone up to his ear.
"Hello Sleipnir." Jamie could faintly hear the voice on the other end of the line, it sounded posh and British. "What can I do for you now, shouldn't you be in physics?"
"I need to come home. I really, really can't stay at school today, could you ask Dad if you can come collect me?"
And of course Sleipnir had a dad who would be willing to collect him from school if he felt like shit. Jamie rolled his eyes.
"Your father is in a meeting with the security council at the moment. I know he would not hesitate to come and collect you, but would you consent to having Thor collect you instead. He is currently watching a history documentary with Captain Rogers."
"Um yeah," Sleipnir said. "That would be fine."
"One moment," Jarvis said.
"I'm off," Emmet said during the pause that followed, strolling towards the ladder. "You coming?"
"I…"
"No, of course you're not." Emmet scoffed.
"I wanna find out what's happening," Jamie defended himself.
"Yeah whatever, see you tomorrow, man."
Jamie sighed internally at the reminder, but he supposed when your parents worked together there wasn't really much choice in the matter.
"Thor said he would be delighted to collect you and he will be with you in less than half an hour. Would you like me to mark your absence down as authorised on the school's system?"
"That would be great, J. Hey, could you mark my friends Jamie and Emmet down as authorised as late too?"
"I am not sure that is entirely advisable…"
"Please, they were helping me, please, I don't have many friends."
Emmet is not your friend, Jamie thought, irritation coursing through him. And honestly I'm not sure if you should think I'm your friend either. Clearly I suck at being a friend.
"Alright, only this once," Jarvis conceded and Sleipnir broke out into a grin.
"Thanks J, you're the best!"
"Was that your butler?" Jamie demanded incredulously when Sleipnir had hung up.
"No…" Sleipnir said.
"Then who is he?"
"Uh, a family friend, I guess…"
"A family friend who will just hack into the school system?"
"I guess."
"Oh my God, I'm never gonna figure you out am I? And your whole family's so weird!"
Sleipnir just looked exhausted.
"Why would you do that for me anyway?"
"Because you're a good friend and you help me out all the time."
"Yeah…" he wasn't sure if he agreed with that, now wasn't the time to dispute it though. "But Emmet isn't."
Sleipnir shrugged. "He's still nicer than most of the people I've met my whole life."
"Well. That sucks." Jamie said, because it did, and because he was at a loss for words.
"Yeah," Sleipnir said, slumping back against the vent.
Thirty seconds of silence later Jamie realised that Sleipnir had fallen asleep.
Well, what was he meant to do now?
He guessed Sleipnir needed his sleep, and he should probably stay to wake him up when his uncle arrived, plus, he really needed to check that he didn't have a worse reaction than exhaustion to whatever was in that cigarette. He didn't really want to risk someone coming back and him being actually caught today, but at the same time he wasn't that fussed about showing up to physics either.
He pulled out his phone. It was on 11%. Well, he could do homework for once maybe.
25 minutes and one school-bell signifying the end of first period later Jamie had mostly done his English homework, which was actually much more interesting than he had expected, when Sleipnir's phone rang.
Uncle Thor.
Jamie shook Sleipnir awake.
He looked at him with bleary eyes. "What?"
"Your uncle."
"Oh," Sleipnir took the proffered phone. "Okay." He fumbled sleepily with the phone for a bit before managing to press the green icon. "Hi!"
"Hello nephew! I am outside your school. Would you like me to come in and get you?"
The guy also sounded posh and British, like Jarvis, but louder and more enthusiastic. He wondered if a lot of Sleipnir's family came from England.
"No, it's okay." Sleipnir yawned. "I can come to you. Give me a few minutes."
"If you are sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure, see you in a bit."
"Goodbye."
Jamie looked sceptically at the teen who seemed to be having trouble with the motor control needed to put his phone back in his rucksack. "Are you actually going to be able to get down the ladder without falling?"
"The fall won't kill me."
Jamie face-palmed. Sleipnir had no sense sometimes.
"Right, because being sleep deprived makes you immortal. You're only human, dude, you'll end up with broken bones at least."
Sleipnir laughed.
"Oh whatever, I don't care," Jamie snapped.
"Okay," Sleipnir replied complacently, clearly internally calling bullshit on that.
"Give me your bag," Jamie muttered. Sleipnir passed it to him. "And I'm going down the ladder first," he said as he adjusted the straps so it would fit over his bag when he put it on his back.
"So I can fall on you and break your neck?" came the dry reply.
"You know what?" Jamie said, tilting his head and staring at Sleipnir. "When you're not confused or scared shitless you're actually kinda funny."
"Oh, thanks," Sleipnir said, brightening. "Genuinely though, let me go first, I'll only crush you, and because we are totally both human we'll both be dead."
"Fine. But I accept no responsibility when you die horribly."
"Okay." And with that Sleipnir swung himself over the edge and climbed down the ladder. Surprisingly, he made it to the bottom in one piece.
"You've never done something like this," Jamie started, "so you need to know that when we walk to the gate we do it with confidence, like we're meant to be leaving. That way, if we're lucky, no-one'll question us."
Sleipnir nodded, and they made their way towards the low green gates. Sleipnir, ever unable to be calm, didn't succeed at the 'we're meant to be leaving' part, but Jamie thought that he made up for it himself with his nonchalant swagger.
Sleipnir opened the gate and Jamie followed him through.
That was when Jamie saw Sleipnir's uncle.
He was tall, with a strong jaw, and muscles that rippled under his form fitting, long sleeved t-shirt.
If Sleipnir were to tell him about skipping class and smoking... well… he wouldn't come out of this in a good shape.
Thor had already enveloped Sleipnir in a tight hug and Jamie thought that if he ran back into school now he might get out of this unscathed.
That's when he saw the goat. It stuck its head out of the open back window and started bleating.
The? Hell?
"Why did you bring Einstein?" Sleipnir asked, laughing. Einstein?
"I thought that he might cheer you up," Thor said. "Only perhaps bringing him was not such a good idea as he had eaten a lot of the back seat."
"Tony's gonna lose his mind."
"It is fine, your father can fix it magically."
"Yeah, I really don't think…"
"The goat's called Einstein?" Jamie exclaimed, the cogs suddenly falling into place. Then he realised that he'd drawn attention to himself, and Sleipnir, and, more importantly, his uncle, were staring at him.
"Yes, my girlfriend named him," Thor said jovially, a word that before Jamie would have said only really belonged to Father Christmas. "We thought he looked the most intelligent of the flock."
"Yeah, and then we found out he was a total dumbass," Sleipnir said.
"Well, I think he's a very nice goat, sir," Jamie said, trying to sound casual and very aware that Sleipnir was now staring at him incredulously. "And well, I should probably be getting back to class before anyone misses me and-"
"Nonsense, I have not yet thanked you for taking care of my nephew."
"Well, consider me thanked," Jamie said stiffly, thoroughly aware that if it hadn't been for him (and Emmet) Sleipnir would never have smoked a (potentially drugged up) cigarette, skipped class, and risked being excluded. "Sir," he added, as an afterthought, as you had to be polite to guys like Thor.
Sleipnir was now openly gaping at him.
Thor frowned. "At least have a poptart," he said, turning and grabbing a box off the dashboard. He offered a packet to Jamie, who took it automatically, before handing the rest of the box to Sleipnir.
"You should eat these," he said. "I brought them along as a treat to make you feel better, but looking at you I can see that you have magically exhausted yourself and-"
"Thor!" Sleipnir snapped. Jamie didn't think he'd ever seen Sleipnir so angry before. And Sleipnir was actually willing to get mad with someone as dangerous as Thor? What was he doing?
"Oh. It was a... 'turn of phrase'?"
"Sure," Jamie agreed, ready to say anything to get out of the situation.
"Good," said Thor.
"Right," said Sleipnir.
"I should probably go then," said Jamie, trying for the second time.
"Of course," said Thor. "I hope we will meet again some time." Jamie sincerely hoped the opposite. "I am so glad that Sleipnir has made friends here."
Jamie nodded, his mouth dry.
"Thanks for sticking with me, Jamie," Sleipnir said, his smile wide and genuine.
"Anytime," Jamie said, trying desperately to sum up some of his usual bravado. "See you Monday?"
"Sure."
"And, um, thank you, sir, for the poptart."
"You are most welcome."
And with that Jamie turned and walked as quickly as he possibly could back towards the school, his heart hammering in his chest.
"Your friend is awfully formal for a Midgardian," he heard Thor say as he walked away, he must have misheard the last word though because it was total gibberish.
"I… guess…" came the reply from the clearly bewildered Sleipnir.
He made his way back inside the school, explained to the disapproving woman in reception that his alarm had broken so he had woken up super late, received a detention for tardiness and lying that he couldn't be bothered to dispute, and sauntered into geography fifteen minutes late.
The teacher was explaining tectonic plates or something. He stared at the board, not seeing anything, and thought about what had happened that morning.
'Magical' Thor had said.
It couldn't be, that was ridiculous… and yet… it might explain why his knee got better so quickly, why they hadn't been caught, Sleipnir's trance, his exhaustion. Also why Sleipnir didn't seem bothered about falling off a roof. It would explain… a lot… actually.
But no, that was stupid. Magic couldn't exist, otherwise life wouldn't be so shit. It was easier to believe that he started seeing things because of the pain or because something had been added to his cigarette. Maybe Sleipnir was involved in some weird cult that believed in magic? Yes. That would make sense. It would explain why he was so odd, why his uncle was so strange.
Firmly resolved to keep to his logical reasoning of events Jamie half-heartedly filled in the worksheet and waited for the ringing of the bell that would signal the start of recess.
-Q-
Six hours later found Loki sitting on the edge of Sleipnir's bed and wondering why on Earth he still wanted to learn to teleport today.
"Sleipnir, you exhausted yourself earlier," he said, smiling gently and running his hand through his son's hair. "I really don't think that now's the time to teach you teleportation."
"But you promised!"
"Yes, but that was before I came home to find you tucked up in bed and Thor begging me to reverse the irreversible damage Einstein had done to Tony's 1968 Mercedes."
"Honestly," Sleipnir said seriously. "The fact that you found me tucked up in bed is a key point in this argument. I slept for five hours. I feel wide awake and if I'm gonna manage to get to sleep tonight after sleeping for that long I need to use up some energy."
Loki rolled his eyes fondly. It was hard to refuse Sleipnir anything when he was like this because the progress he had made was incredible. Less than a year ago he'd been an eight legged horse for half a century and now he could make a logical and reasoned argument. "Fine, but we're starting with theory first and there'll be no actual teleporting this afternoon if I don't think you're up to it."
"Thanks Dad," Sleipnir said, springing up to hug him.
"So, any chance that this means you'll tell me what happened at school today to make you use so much magic?"
"I cast quite a few complicated illusions." Sleipnir said, clearly back on his guard.
"And your reasons for that were?" Loki asked.
"It's a secret," he muttered.
"Sleipnir." Loki sighed. "You can't do this. If it was for fun then you're putting yourself in danger by risking people finding out about your magic. And if you used it in an emergency then you're putting yourself in danger by not telling me what happened. I want to protect you."
Sleipnir remained quiet for some moments before speaking.
"I thought I was in danger, but I wasn't. I was hiding from a teacher."
Loki sensed that that wasn't the whole truth, but still, it was better than nothing.
"No one realised you used magic, did they?"
Sleipnir shook his head. "No, they would definitely have said something if they had. Besides, I was really careful."
"Okay," Loki said. "Come on, I'll take you out into the garden. I want you to concentrate on how you feel when I teleport us."
Sleipnir nodded eagerly and scrambled out of bed, clearly ecstatic about beginning the next stage of his magical education.
They emerged out onto the windswept clifftop. The cool spring breeze blew around them and Loki opened his eyes to see the goats off in the mid-distance stopping their chewing of grass for a few moments to stare curiously at the sudden new arrivals. The seagulls screeched overhead and Loki smiled. It was peaceful here, wide and open, free, it was a good place to be.
"Did you feel how your magic reacted to that?" Loki asked.
"Yeah, I did!" Sleipnir said, a huge grin on his face.
"Good," Loki said. "Now if you want to get anywhere, anywhere at all, you've got to hold onto that feeling and recreate it with your own magic."
He went on to explain the other key steps of of teleportation; closing your eyes and imagining where you are going, making that image as real as possible, and stepping forward into that image taking your whole body with you. Sleipnir hung onto every word.
"So," he said, once he was sure that Sleipnir understood and his son wasn't going to end up on a desert island on the other side of Midgard, "I'm going to teleport you a few more times and then, if you're feeling up to it, you can have a go."
He took Sleipnir's hand and the next second they were standing next to Einstein. The goat let out a concerned bleat and some of the grass he had been chewing fell out of his mouth. Sleipnir patted the goat on the head comfortingly.
Then Loki took Sleipnir back to where they had started.
He took a deep breath and looked Sleipnir in the eyes. "Are you sure you're ready for this, because we can do this another day if you aren't."
"I was born ready," Sleipnir stated, a fiery determination in his eyes. Loki thought of the pathetically small baby that had squirmed about on the floor of the cave he had given birth in and for some reason couldn't help but burst out laughing at that. "It's not funny!" Sleipnir protested.
"Of course it's not," Loki nodded, pulling himself together. Sleipnir sent him a suspicious mock-glare.
"Right," Sleipnir said, turning towards the goats and closing his eyes. Loki took a deep breath, he wasn't exactly nervous about his son ripping himself apart, that was impossible (and actually a rather disturbing aspect to the Harry Potter books), but he was worried about his son teleporting and ending up in the middle of nowhere.
Sleipnir stepped forwards and fell flat on his face.
He was up in a flash before Loki had even had time to help him. "I'm gonna do it this time." he declared.
He didn't.
"Perhaps you should teleport with me a few more times?" Loki suggested.
"No. I can do this. Just one more try. Third time lucky, right?" Sleipnir said, seeming to glare at Einstein.
Then he was gone.
Loki jumped back in shock.
"Woohoo!" Sleipnir's voice came from across the field. Einstein turned and fled in the opposite direction. "I did it Dad, I actually did it!"
The next second Loki found himself with an armful of Sleipnir.
Sleipnir looked up at him, his eyes shining. "I teleported twice!"
"Yeah, you did," Loki said. "And I'm so proud of you."
And he was. He was grateful that Laufey had convinced him to teach Sleipnir because at that moment his heart felt like it was going to burst he was so unbelievably happy.
-Q-
"So, is there any reason you're rifling through my desk drawers at 2am, kid?" a voice came from behind Sleipnir. He swung round to see Tony, complete with a bedhead and crumpled pyjamas, standing in the doorway with his arms folded.
Crap.
"Uhhh," he said eloquently.
"Genuinely kid I'm gonna need an answer because there's some dangerous stuff down here and you know you're not allowed down here on your own."
Sleipnir stared at him, eyes wide, breath coming in short gasps. He wanted to leave but he felt too dizzy to do anything but stand there.
"Hey, hey Sleipnir, it's okay, you're okay," he heard Tony's voice say. Feeling as though he were drifting around on an ocean Sleipnir was vaguely aware that Tony had guided him to a sofa and that he was holding him, chattering inanely about the applications of particle accelerators.
"Tony…" Sleipnir said, his voice weak.
"Hey, you back with me, kid?"
Sleipnir nodded. "I think so."
"I'm not mad at you, you know that right? I'm just scared."
"Yeah," Sleipnir replied, allowing the words to sink in.
"Right," Tony said. "Well there wasn't anything in that drawer that isn't in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom unless you were looking for chlorophyll or nicorette. I'm not angry, I did the same at your age too, but you've been smoking with your friends, haven't you?"
Sleipnir remained silent. This was awful, he'd promised to keep it a secret. He couldn't betray Jamie's trust like this.
"I'm gonna take that silence as a yes," Tony said, and Sleipnir cringed. "How many have you had?"
"Just one," Sleipnir whispered. There was no point denying it.
"Just one?" Tony repeated before collapsing back against the coach and shaking with laughter. "Oh God, I was so worried. Kid listen, you don't need to take these, you won't be addicted after only having one."
"They weren't for me," he admitted. "But you can't ask which of my friends I was gonna give them to, it's a secret!"
"I won't," Tony assured him and Sleipnir breathed a sigh of relief. "This friend, do you think they're addicted?"
Sleipnir shrugged. "I don't know. He might be. I'm really worried because I don't want him to get sick because of it. Jarvis told me all about nicotine earlier and he said that nicotine gum could help stop the addiction. I remembered seeing some in your drawer. I'm sorry that I was trying to steal from you."
"Well, I guess there was no harm done," Tony said and Sleipnir allowed himself to relax a bit more. "But you don't want to give your friend these, they're way out of date. I used to take them when I smoked cigars with Obie, I'd get cravings sometimes when I was working and I didn't want to stop to smoke so I'd just take some of them."
"So, you didn't take them to stop smoking because you were worried about your health?" Sleipnir asked.
"Not really," Tony shrugged. "I had to stop after Afghanistan because there was this in my chest," he pinged the arc reactor. "But before that I was just living in the moment, ignoring the future because it didn't look good."
Sleipnir wrinkled his nose in thought. "That's kinda like what my friend said to me. He said he smoked because he didn't care about the future and he just wanted to enjoy himself now. But he said I shouldn't because I actually had a future."
"Yeah, well, he's right about that, kid." Tony pulled out his phone and got up the internet. "Now let's order some that are actually in date and you can give them to him on Monday, 'kay?"
"Okay," Sleipnir said.
"And Sleipnir," Tony said seriously. "I don't want you to smoke again, you might think it'll help you be cool, but it's not worth it, not in the long run. And I want you to tell me when things like this happen, because I've been there, and I can help you, I don't want you ending up like me, kid."
"But you're awesome!" Sleipnir protested, utterly bewildered.
"Me in my twenties then," Tony conceded. "I was kind of a train wreck back then. And hey, if you think your friend is in trouble, and needs more help than some nicorette gum, we'll figure it out, okay."
"Okay," Sleipnir agreed, slumping against Tony and yawning. The anxiety had hid it from him before but God he was tried. Suddenly a thought hit him. "Are you gonna tell Dad about this?" he demanded, shooting upright again.
"No," Tony said, and Sleipnir relaxed a bit, but frowned in confusion. "This can stay between us if you want it to. But for what it's worth, I think you should tell your dad, he deserves to know, and he was really worried about you today."
"But he'll be really disappointed in me!"
Tony smiled fondly at him and shook his head. "No he won't, he'll be proud of you for telling him the truth, like he's always proud of you. You hit the jackpot for Dads, kid."
Sleipnir smiled softy and hugged Tony tight. "Yeah, I know, Iron Dad."
Whoa this was a loong chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed it though!
Next up: Hydra comes out of the shadows
Who the hell is Bucky?
Side note: I think I've replied to every review from the last chapter, I apologise profusely if I haven't, things have been so insane and I figured you guys would just want me to use this time to get the new chapter out.
I haven't said so for ages but my tumblr is stardustloki for fandom and deborah-writes for writing