TW: Child abuse
"I know Vis said you were into her, but I didn't think you were at the cuddling phase yet," Wanda grinned mischievously at him through her rear view mirror before her eyes flicked back to the road. Loki had not wanted to be trapped in a car with his parents tonight, so he'd asked her to drive him home, but now he was starting to wonder if this was actually the better option.
He wanted to roll his eyes and tell Wanda that all he felt for Sylvie was friendship, but the truth was he couldn't stop worrying about her. She'd looked so hurt and then took off before he could even start to think of something to say. The fact she wasn't answering either his or Wanda's texts just made his worrying more acute. Instead of saying anything, he just rolled his eyes (not thinking about how Wanda couldn't see the gesture, since she was driving and he was in the back seat) and texted Sylvie again. Honestly, the number of texts was bordering on desperate at this point. It was almost embarrassing. It would have been embarrassing if he wasn't so damn worried.
The car slid into an uneasy silence. Loki knew Wanda and Vis were worried too, and he thought he saw Vis send Sylvie a couple texts as well. Sure, nothing physically bad had happened to her, but their friend was hurting. And not answering.
The drive wasn't too long, and Loki gave each of his friends a side hug from the back seat before hopping out and heading inside. Unsurprisingly, Odin was stomping around the living room in undirected rage that quickly got a direction once Loki walked in the door.
"How dare you be friends with someone who would be so disrespectful! What that girl," Odin said 'that girl' with a tone of absolute disgust, "said to me was completely unacceptable! I forbid you–"
"To what?!" Loki snapped back for the first time in his life. "You forbid me to what?! Be friends with her? Well too fucking bad!"
"How dare you!" Odin roared, coming towards Loki, starting to raise his hand.
Loki flinched in preparation for the incoming blow, but it never came. Frigga had grabbed Odin's wrist, looking at him with the righteous fury of an avenging angel, and in a tone that was terrifying because of its calm amongst the storm said, "Don't. You. Dare."
Odin seemed to snap out of his rage, at least a bit, looking between Frigga and Loki with a dawning horror on his face, but still said nothing.
"Loki, go up to your room," Frigga instructed him, her eyes never leaving Odin. "Your father and I need to have a talk."
Loki didn't wait for Odin's reaction, hurrying past his father and up the stairs to his room. He locked the handle, not wanting anyone to come talk to him after that. His breathing was heavy, and he had to pace around his room several times before the adrenaline started to fade. Had his father really almost hit him? Did Odin hate him that much? Or was it because he'd finally talked back? With the rush of the moment leaving his system, Loki couldn't believe he'd actually talked back. Why had he done that? It was so stupid to antagonize his father. Of course it would only escalate things. And now his mother was having to deal with the fall out of his actions.
"Fuck," Loki groaned, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands as he flopped back onto his bed.
He just hoped all this would be over by the time Thor got back from celebrating with his friends.
Sylvie was woken up the next morning by the ring of her doorbell. She groaned and buried her head back under the covers. Whoever it was, whatever they were selling could go fuck itself. But whoever they were, apparently they were consistent because they rang the bell no less than five times before Sylvie finally gave up and threw the covers off her, storming across her house to tell them off in person, since apparently they were so desperate for it.
However, when she opened the door, she stopped. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked Wanda, Vis, and Loki.
"We brought breakfast," Wanda grinned, holding up a plastic bag, full of take out boxes.
"Thought you could use some cheering up," Loki added.
Sylvie looked at each of them in turn multiple times, her eyes flicking from one to the next, her mouth hanging just slightly open, not sure what to say or how to react. These…were her friends. These people cared about her. Enough that they'd gotten up early, bought breakfast, and brought it over to her just because they knew she was sad. No one had…ever done anything like that for her before. She didn't know how to handle it. As she continued to look at them wordlessly, she felt tears on her cheeks, but they were happy tears this time. Those were pretty foreign to her as well.
Vis was the one who stepped forward and hugged her first, but it was only half a second before Wanda and Loki joined him. It just made Sylvie cry harder, holding onto them tightly–well, as tightly as she could hold three people at once.
"Thank you guys," she finally said quietly. "Thank you so much."
"Of course," Loki said, rubbing her back softly.
Sylvie pulled away from the hug in embarrassment and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Come on in, let's eat. I'll get some silverware."
She escaped to the kitchen for a moment to calm down, coming back when she'd stopped crying and used cold water to make the redness around her eyes go away. Ugh, she was such an ugly crier, she hated that they'd seen it.
They'd set out the food on her coffee table, and were sitting on the floor around it waiting for her when she got back, not commenting on how long it'd taken her just to grab some silverware. Instead, Wanda said, "I thought you could use something sweet, so I got you strawberry-banana pancakes."
"The best kind," Sylvie grinned. They all dug in happily. "This is so good, where's it from?" she asked them.
"Englewood café," Loki answered. "It's this little place not too far from my house, so amazing.
"Seriously," Sylvie agreed, eating happily. Things didn't seem so bad this morning. Sure, she was still upset over Val, but it seemed much more manageable with the sunlight streaming in through her windows, amazing pancakes on her plate, and her friends around her.
Wanda put on an episode of I Dream of Genie while they ate. Both Loki and Vis teased her for of course bringing a sitcom. Though Sylvie started to wonder if Wanda's choice was about something more than remembering this was one of her favorites when the theme of the particular episode they were watching turned out to be jealousy.
About half way through, Vis took the remote and paused it, causing the other three to turn to him. "You know, I think I have an idea," he mused.
"What is it?" Wanda asked.
"The problem is Val dating someone else is making Sylvie jealous, correct?" he asked.
"That's one way of putting it," Sylvie agreed, though she wasn't happy about the reminder.
"Well, what if Sylvie dated someone else to make Val jealous?" Vis suggested.
Wanda frowned at him. "Stringing someone along like that would be shitty."
"Not if they knew that was the plan," Vision countered. "Which is why it should be Loki."
"What?!" Loki gasped, seeming horrified by the idea.
Well that didn't feel great. "Would dating me really be that bad?" Sylvie huffed.
"No, no, it's not that," Loki stuttered out. "It's just–I just wasn't expecting that."
Sylvie could see the gears turning in Wanda's head. "I mean," Wanda began, "it does make sense. How would it be any different than pretending to date in the play? Same thing, basically."
"But would it work?" Sylvie asked.
"No idea. But it might," Vision answered.
"It might…" Sylvie mused, looking over at Loki. He had a weird look on his face and still hadn't said anything. "I mean, not if you don't want to," she assured him.
"No, I just–I mean, what would it entail?" he asked.
"Probably just telling people we're together and being sorta affectionate in public. Maybe some stage kisses in front of Val?" Sylvie said. "But it's fine, you don't have to."
"No–No, I mean yes. Yeah, sure. I'll do it. Anything to help a friend, right?" Loki shrugged.
Sylvie still thought his reaction was weird, but it wasn't like she had a better plan, and if he didn't like it, he could have simply told her no. "Okay then," she grinned. "I guess this just became a fake dating AU."