Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 80

Peter babbled the entire drive to the school. He and Loki were sitting in the backseat with their school bags between them. Over the weekend, Loki had gotten school supplies. Stark had even given him a laptop and cell phone so he would fit in with the rest of the students. The school administrators would know that he wasn't a real student, but the hope was that most of the student body and any potential attackers to Peter wouldn't recognize that fact.

Peter was telling Loki all about the school and what classes they would be in. He was trying to give Loki a crash course on high school behavior so the god wouldn't stand out.

Loki rolled his eyes and interrupted Peter's endless chatter. "I have been to a human high school before," he reminded the teen, his voice sounding tired and impatient, which was the perfect sound for a teen when anyone thought about it. Loki wasn't exactly a morning person and he wasn't looking forward to attending school. Being with Peter all day would be fun, the actual classes, less so.

It was Peter's turn to huff and roll his eyes. He wasn't usually so rude, but he'd relaxed a lot around Loki. Loki was a bad influence on Peter in some ways and Peter was a good influence on the god. Sometimes.

"You went to Senior Prank day, that hardly counts. There weren't even any real lessons that day because the school was in so much chaos," Peter reminded Loki, trying to sound patient, but Peter really didn't have much patience. He was too much of an excitable puppy.

Loki's eyes glittered with mischief at the memory of that day. "It was such fun," he replied, already planning more pranks for the school. He was at his best when he had time to plan his pranks.

"Loki~" Peter scolded. There wasn't actually anything he could do to the god to get him to behave, but he could scold and otherwise let Loki know his disapproval. He was used to playing babysitter to the god and Loki valued their friendship enough to listen to the teen's advice. Usually.

Unless there was more fun and chaos in ignoring Peter's request.

"If you get kicked out of the school, then you can't protect me while I'm in school," Peter replied logically. The only way to defeat a Loki before he got bored was to employ logic. Peter had had to learn to be quick on his feet with the logic to talk Loki out of whatever mischief the god of chaos and mischief had up his sleeves.

Loki pouted. "You're no fun," he accused the teen while Peter sighed in relief that his plan had worked and Loki was giving up on pranks. For the moment.

At least Loki wouldn't be as obvious about his pranks.

There might be more goats in the school by the end of the day than there were at the beginning of the day. But Loki would claim no knowledge of where the goats had come from, so that was perfectly ok.

It wasn't long before Happy dropped them off at the school. The pair climbed out of the car. Loki frowned when his phone chimed. There were very few people who had his number. He pulled it out of his pocket and actually gave it a small smile when he saw the message.

'Be careful and have a good day - Thor'

Thor cared. It wasn't a long message. Thor only texted so well, but it was heartfelt and Thor actually cared about Loki.

Loki showed the message to Peter. "What do I reply?" He asked. Both of them had slung their bags over their shoulders and were walking to the school. Peter was better at people than Loki was. He wanted to let Thor know how much it meant that his brother finally cared about him, but he couldn't be blunt and say it that way.

"Thank him and offer to do something with him later?" Peter suggested. He knew that the brothers were trying to work on their relationship. Odin had messed them both up and they knew it, but that rift was hard to get past.

Sometimes Loki just needed to be pushed in the right direction.

Loki nodded and carefully typed out a reply to Thor before he put his phone on silent. He had a full day of school to deal with as well as an Arachnid to protect. He would make sure to have fun, but he wouldn't forget that his main purpose in being there was to protect Peter and to keep the teen's magic under control.

He could totally have fun at the same time, though. Being the god of mischief had such perks.