The end is nigh
Loki had meant it when he suggested starting a band that night Clint drove him home.
The dark haired teenager had spent less than ten minutes in the music store before spotting the guitar he liked best. It was a simple electric guitar in a shade of blue that bordered on black, like the dark feathers of a magpie. He carefully removed it from the wall before taking a seat on a square, pleather box made for sitting. He plugged in a pair of headphones and set them over his head; a small piece of hair came untucked from the headphones and hung near his eye as his long fingers touched the strings. He closed his eyes and listened to each of the strings on their own before experimentally pressing the strings to the frets along the neck and strumming faster with his fingertips.
Clint saw Loki through the window, and he found himself standing behind Loki moments later. He watched the way his head moved ever so slightly as his fingers danced around the strings and the curve of his back, as he sat a little hunched, and Clint decided not to try getting his attention. A brief time later and he was back outside the store and on the sidewalk.
Later in the day, Loki finished exploring the guitar to go to the bookstore down the block. He made his way down an aisle slowly, eyes moving down each book and reading all of the titles.
Clint walked at the same pace in the aisle next to it, peering between the tops of the books and bottom of the next shelf up to watch Loki's gaze flitting about, studying each spine. Clint smiled at Loki's concentration as they both neared the end of their respective aisles. Clint allowed two seconds for Loki to exit his aisle before he stepped out of his own to stop the slightly taller male.
"Excuse me," he offered Loki a smile. "But I seem to have lost my copy of Beyond Bikini Kill, do you think you could help me find one here?"
"What are you doing here?" Loki asked, his voice dripped with venom despite the passage of time.
"Heard there was going to be a poetry reading."
"You are so-"
"Charming?" Clint grinned. Loki turned away from him and started to stride away. "Wholesome?"
"Unwelcome."
"You're not as mean as you think you are, y'know?"
"And you are not as badass as you believe you are."
"Ooh, someone's still got their boxers in a twist."
"Do not let yourself think you had any effect on my boxers."
"Then what did I have an effect on?"
"Nothing besides my gag reflex." Loki smacked him square in the chest with a rectangular object before speed walking away. Clint grabbed the book as soon as Loki had smacked him with it and looked down to find Beyond Bikini Kill in his hand.
"You're right, he's still pissed," Clint dropped an apple on his plate as Steve and Bruce followed close behind, filling their own trays with food.
"Sweet love, renew thy force!" Bruce deadpanned.
"Dude, don't say shit like that around me. People could hear you."
"Look, you embarrassed him, you should do something to rectify it. Throw yourself on the altar of sacrifice and prove your love," Steve pointed out, and Clint scowled and departed with his tray full of food.
"Don't say shit like that to him, people could be listening," Bruce directed at Steve upon Clint's departure.
"Hey," Clint whistled to catch the attention of a short, chubby student. He looked around before looking at Clint. Clint leaned in and whispered something, pressing some cash into the student's hand as he nodded.
Clint was given a thumbs up as he stood up on the highest part of the bleachers, looking down at the soccer field. He nodded and lifted the microphone to his lips as he flipped the switch to ON.
"You're just to good to be true
Can't take my eyes off of you
You'd be like heaven to touch
I wanna hold you so much."
Clint sang boldly into the microphone, a grin spreading across his face as all the soccer players gradually came to a stop to look at him. He was more than pleased to see Loki was also looking at him. Though he would probably never admit it, his heart stuttered a little as he observed Loki's face break into a smile. Loki was flattered, but you'd have to beat him with sticks to hear him say it out loud.
"At long last love has arrived
And I thank God I'm alive
You're just too good to be true
Can't take my eyes off of you," The band down on the green suddenly started up to play, and people were coming to intervene.
Clint continued as the school security guard came up the bleachers in his direction. "I need you baby, if it's quite all right," he did not stop as he dropped down the bleachers, moving back and forth through the benches and downwards, avoiding the security guard and teacher that desperately tried to stop him. Loki could not hold back a chuckle at the light haired idiot singing his heart out for him. "Oh pretty baby, 'Don't let me down,' I pray
Oh pretty baby, now that I found you, stay!" Clint finished as he smacked the ass of the security guard and ran off, the smile plastering his face never quite leaving.
Clint sat silently in a desk as the teacher strolled around the room, pausing at the desks of some of his fellow detention mates. He snatched a bag of jalapeno Cheetos off the desk of one student. "I'm confiscating these," he uttered, opening the bag and eating them and making his rounds. The next lucky student looked up, his hands shaking and his eyes betraying he was nervous.
"You look like you've seen a ghost."
"Yes, sir."
"You're sweating profusely."
"Yes, sir."
"You've got pot, don't you?" He stared at the kid with a steely gaze, and he weakly nodded before reaching into his backpack and pulling out a zip lock bag and passing it to the man. "I'm confiscating this as well." The detention nazi turned to another kid and was about to attack when Loki entered the room.
"Coach? Sir?" Clint blinked at the sound of Loki's voice and resisted the urge to turn and look at him. Loki looked at the coach in earnest.
"What can I do for you, Loki?"
"I have some ideas on how we could improve the soccer team."
"That's great. Let's talk about it later," he dismissed Loki to stand near the large teacher's desk. While his back was turned, Loki frantically motioned at Clint and gestured wildly at the window before finally whispering "The window!" Clint squinted and looked rather confused. The coach turned to look at Loki, who quickly turned his whisper into a cough and a small laugh before continuing. "As you know, one of the biggest games of our season is approaching," Clint finally understood and he got up, hightailing it to the window. Loki continued distracting the man, and grabbed his arm as he tried to see what was going on. "Wow, your bicep is huge, sir!" Loki felt some heat creeping into his neck, but he pushed it away. "Oh my god!" Loki took hold of his other arm. "The other one is even larger! You do not take steroids, do you? Because those have the unfortunate side effect of, ahem, disintegration of your package." Everyone in the room murmured in disbelief. "That is not the point, however."
"Let's hope not."
"I came to talk soccer and the big game. The point is that we get our butts kicked every year! So, I was thinking and I devised a plan so we can finally beat them. Remember that thing you taught us?"
"What thing?"
"Misdirection."
"I don't believe I taught you that."
"Well maybe it was one of my other teachers, I apologize if I confused you with someone else, but what does it matter? The plan is..." Loki swallowed. "The plan is they are looking one way, we run the other, BAM! We score!" He started to look towards the window, where Clint was edging along on the outside to get away. Loki grabbed his chin. "Think about it!"
"Okay, but how do we get them to look right so you can run left?"
"Um, like this," Loki bit his lower lip before turning around and baring his ass. The detention kids cheered, both at Clint's great escape and the baring of Loki's white ass cheeks.
"Okay, well, now that you've seen the plan," Loki readjusted himself and fought down another blush. "I am going to go and - show the team the plan. Okay." Loki used the final okay to punctuate the whole thing before changing his direction to the door as everyone cheered for him.