Chapter 20

"Hi there. I'm your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man."

Loki looked from this person, to Deidra (who shrugged), and back again to him.

"Spider-Man, you say?" he said finally.

"That's right," Spider-Man responded in the same cheerful voice he greeted them with.

"By your costume I'm guessing you're some sort of hero," Loki stated flatly.

"Wha-You've never heard of me?" Spider-Man sputtered.

"Can't say that I have," he responded honestly with a shrug.

Deidra stepped closer. "Why are you knocking at our window? What do you want?"

"Oh yeah!" Spider-Man said as if he had almost forgotten. He looked at Loki. "I protect this city and I noticed that you are on Mr. Stark's watch list so I-"

"Would this be Tony Stark by chance?" Loki interrupted, an eyebrow raised. "And how would someone like you get a hold of his 'watch list? I can't imagine he'd just show you."

Spider-Man seemed a bit taken back by the questions. "Yes, Tony Stark," he responded. "And it-it really doesn't matter how I saw his watch list."

Loki laughed. "So you stole it!"

"I did not!" Spider-Man responded in an offended voice. "I just...looked at it." He shook his head. "Anyway!" he said loudly, changing the subject. He stood tall and pointed at Loki dramatically. "I'm just here to make sure that you behave yourself. I don't want to have to make you behave."

Loki leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. He looked thoroughly amused. "Have you been practicing that threat all week?" he asked. He grinned at him. "Do you even know who I am?"

Spider-Man sputtered again. "Well-no," he said. "But I know you're on that list for a reason...Just don't do anything stupid, ok?"

Loki laughed again. "Boy, go home and play with your toys."

"I'm a man!"

"Ok," Loki said grinning. "Whatever you say."

Deidra decided that now would be a good time to step in. "Thank you for the concern," she said, holding back her own amused smile. "but there has been no trouble from Loki for years and there won't be any trouble. Ok?"

Spider-Man stood up straight. "Oh," he said and nodded. "Good then. Good talk."

He stepped back from the window. He held his arm out and shot out what looked like a thick web from his wrist. He grasped hold of it and swung off the balcony. "Welcome to the neighborhood!" he called as he disappeared into the night.

Once he was gone, Loki shut the window and closed the curtain. "Well, I'm guessing that was the person who was following us since we moved here," he said simply. He shook his head. "He couldn't frighten a kitten," he said with a laugh.

"He tried," Deidra said with a smile.

"He certainly tried," Loki agreed. "He couldn't be more than a child."

He then went back to his phone and dialed a number again, going back to his work as if nothing had happened.

Deidra was glad that Loki no longer took being seen as a threat by those who knew of him before his fall, but honestly she wished they could move past it and it stop being brought up. It had been years and nothing had happened. Surely that was enough proof that he was no longer a threat.

She looked at him across the room, once again talking to the Senator on the phone. She went back to the kitchen table and continued grading papers.

A few evenings later, Deidra was walking through the living room and passed by the window. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something move. She looked over and saw a red webbed mask with huge white eyes looking in.

Taken totally by surprise, she shrieked. Almost instantly she recognized him as the Spider-Man who had come by before. She leaned against the wall, holding her chest and trying to catch her breath.

Her scream surprised him as well because he jumped and started waving his hands apologetically. "I'm so sorry!" he said through the glass. "I didn't mean to scare you!"

Deidra opened the window. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Oh," he said. "I just came by to-"

He was interrupted by the front door opening and Loki entering. He hung up his coat at the door and noticed the visitor.

"What in the Nine Realms is he doing back here?" he asked. He went into the kitchen and got some water. He leaned against the counter, waiting for the answer.

"I just came by to say that I looked into who you are after we met last," Spider-Man said to him. "You, Mr. Loki Odinson, were a very bad man."

"Old news," Loki responded boredly, drinking his water.

"It does seem like you've cleaned up since then, though," he continued. He turned to Deidra. "I also looked you up too," he said. "You're clean too."

"Well of course," Deidra said patiently. She looked him up and down. "How old are you, anyway?" she asked suddenly.

"I'm-" Spider-Man started to answer, but she cut him off.

"Don't lie," she said. "There's no way you're a grown man."

"...15," he said hesitantly.

"And you're out there protecting the city all by yourself?" she responded empathetically. He was younger than she had expected. She looked around the room. "Do you want some cookies?" she blurted out. "I have cookies."

"Uh, sure?" he responded, confused.

Loki groaned loudly. "Don't feed him, for god's sake! You'll never get him to leave!" he said. "Like a stray kitten."

"I'm not a kitten!" Spider-Man said defensively as Deidra shoved a handful of homemade chocolate chip cookies into his hands. "Um, thank you, miss."

He seemed quite at a loss of what to do with himself and a handful of cookies. He stood there awkwardly for a few moments before he thanked her again and climbed down the fire escape; his hands too full to shoot a web.

The next day Loki entered the apartment and found Deidra sitting at their kitchen table with Spider-Man across from her. He had his mask pulled right above his mouth and was munching on more cookies. A plain brown bookbag sat on the floor by his feet.

Loki rolled his eyes hard up into his head and shook his head at Deidra. "I told you if you fed him he wouldn't leave!" He put his keys on the counter and removed his scarf and hung it up along with his coat. "I will not be changing his litter box," he added in a serious voice.

Deidra snorted into her drink.

"I'm not a kitten!" Spider-Man said in exasperation.

Deidra stood up and kissed Loki on the cheek, welcoming him home. "He came by wondering if he could study you," she said smiling as if she thought the whole situation was amusing.

He looked at her in confusion. "Study me?" He looked at Spider-Man and shot him a dark look. "I am not some specimen for you to prod and tamper with/!" he said.

Spider-Man shook his head quickly. "I think 'study' is the wrong word," he said. "I want to learn from you!"

Loki dropped his dark look and cocked his head to the side in question.

Spider-Man continued. "I've honestly never met a real bad guy before-who wasn't trying to kill me, at least-and I thought I could learn how guys like you think."

"Oh, guys like me," Loki repeated with sarcasm. He sat down at the table across from Spider-Man and leaned in with his best intimidating smile. "There is no one like me," he said. Then he sat back. "Did Stark put you up to this?" he asked suddenly.

"What? No, definitely not. He doesn't know I've even met you," Spider-Man said. "If you'd just talk to me it could really help me out," he continued.

Deidra stepped up behind Loki and placed her hands on his shoulders. "I think it's a good idea," she said to him. "He seems like a good kid. I'd hate for him to get hurt one day because you refused to help him out."

She tugged at his black hair affectionately. He looked up at her over his shoulder gave a soft smile. He turned back to the masked hero at his table. "Fine," he said as if he really didn't want to agree to it. "But only because I like that you're lying to that tin can, Stark."

"I'm not lying to Mr. Stark!" Spider-Man argued.

"Oh really?" Loki asked in amusement, leaning back in his chair. "So then you'll be telling him all about sitting here at my kitchen table?"

"Uh, well..."

He smiled. "That's what I thought." He leaned closer to Spider-Man. "Liar," he said in a soft and teasing manner.

Spider-Man stood up quickly. "I should go," he said, clearly flustered. "Thank you for the cookies," he said to Deidra.

He grabbed up his bookbag at his feet and slung it over his shoulder. He was out the window and off the fire escape in seconds.

"You're awful," Deidra said once he was gone. Her voice was not angry, though. She sounded amused.

Loki stood up and laughed. "What for?"

"Teasing that poor kid like that. He practically tripped on himself to get away from you." She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a kiss. "Be nice," she added with a smile.

She spotted something over his shoulder. "Oh hey, what's that? Did he drop it?"

Loki looked and saw that it was a sheet of paper lying on the floor in the middle of the living room. He walked across the room and picked it up. It looked like a worksheet or something. It was clearly school work.

At the top of the paper, clearly written, was the name 'Peter Parker'.

A/N: I hope you're enjoying so far. I recently discovered some stuff on Tumblr and YouTube about how what if Peter Parker had met Loki and became like his surrogate little brother. I thought it was an adorable idea and decided to try to add it into the story.

Thanks so much for reading!