Just Go Along With It ✔️

Brawling in Libraries Isn't the Way to Go

The call to Loki ended up being a voicemail, since he never had it on anything else but vibrate. When he got out of his lecture, he came immediately over to your dorm, not caring who saw him come over. Which lead to Tony eavesdropping through the thin walls. Despite outright saying that Loki looked like a shady guy (how he came up with that idea, you had no clue), and the young adult genius decided to help with the taking down of Fandral and the misinformed Thor Odinson. You want to keep it private, not make a civil war out of it, but that's when Wanda gets wind of the situation, and she has her boyfriend Vision come over too, and his friend Karen (she tutors Pete Parkley or whoever, you're not paying attention). And Nat's friends, and Steve's friend too.

That's when you decide there's way too many people crammed into your room and you excuse yourself for a minute to get a breather.

You lock the communal bathroom door behind you and go to sit on the lid of the unisex loo when you realise that you're not alone. Darcy Lewis is already there, sitting there with silent tears.

"What – are you okay?" you ask, realising that that's all you can really get out of your mouth.

She looks through her fingers to you, and sobs. "This – this is all my fault." She whispers.

Your heart drops. Even if this was a little of Darcy's work, it wasn't intentional. Nobody asks to have a crazy ex-lover go on a misunderstood rampage. Unless they've been dating a blonde pop star, and then it's lyricised. You clear your throat and bend down to Darcy's level upon the grotty tiled floor. "Um, don't cry –,"

She cries harder. "If I wasn't such a ho, this wouldn't have happened." She moans, getting words out between sobs. "You must hate me!"

You shake your head. "Darcy, I barely know you." You say. "I'm just some random you barely know, too. Someone who didn't ask for any of this, yeah, but, I learned who my friends are...and I met some pretty cool new ones too." You laugh a little at the irony of it. "Sometimes you need to hit rock bottom to swim back to the surface."

She hesitates. "My Mom says the same thing," she says.

You shake your head. "This whole thing has gotten to our heads, I think. As much as I want it to blow over, it won't. Even if some of it is your fault, it's mine, too." You look down. "As much as I don't want to admit it, I should have broken it off with Thor ages ago. I had a big crush on him the whole time, and yet, tried to ignore how much he didn't give back to me."

Darcy places a hand on your arm. "Honey..."

"Now's not the time to feel shitty about hindsight," you shake your head, and going to stand, hold a hand for Darcy to take. "C'mon, Darce, we've got a whole army of BA students outside, let's go kick Fandral's ass."

Exiting the loo, nobody gives you two a double-take. Maybe it's because Darcy's still crying black mascara tears, or because you're basically friends with all these people based upon mutual trust and respect. Entering the dorm bedroom once more, all heads are turned to you.

"There they are," Tony calls out. "We've been looking for you!" Pepper smacks his leg softly, to which he kisses her cheek. What had happened in the last five minutes between the two of them? Now wasn't the time of course, but you'd need the details.

"I want to set things straight. Right now." You say, looking to Loki. "I'm going to find Fandral and tell him to stop doing this horrid thing."

Karen quirks an eyebrow. "What about telling the Dean? Or maybe the police? This has been an act of hate crime, or something."

You shake your head. "I think we can be adult enough to work it through maturely." You pull out your phone, and search through your contacts to find Fandral's profile. "Now I just have to find where he is right now..."

Darcy holds up her phone. "I follow him on Starkchat," the little yellow ghost is clear on the screen as it loads. "He still hasn't turned off his location for Starkmaps." A little icon pops on the screen, where you can see the avatar of your tormentor. "It says...he's at the library."

You hold your head up high. "Then I guess we're going to the library."

Just walking into the library makes you think it's a very bad idea, the whole thing. Because other than the fact that Fandral isn't the type of person you'd like to be hanging around (brash, jokey, rude), he's hanging around other people that you'd rather not be around (Thor, Hogun, Volstagg).

You swallow and contemplate hiding in the nonfiction section. But before you can turn upon your heel and read up on all kinds of snakes from all over the world, you're spotted.

"Hey, _______, just the person I wanted to see," He says, voice sickly sweet like a cinnamon roll mixed with too much sugar and icing. "Hey there, homewrecker."

You take a deep breath. Suck in your pride. And go forward to take a seat opposite him at the study table he's at. Your friends stand by the religious bookshelves, waiting to see how what's happening will go.

"To be honest, Fandral, you're the homewrecker," you reply levelly. "Wrecking my dorm, my car, throwing rocks. I'm just trying to get through my degree."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah, that's what you want everyone to think. Once you got a taste for one Odinson, you had to have 'em all, isn't that so?" He taunts.

Beside him, Thor glares into his law textbook.

"You know, for someone whose manscaping is as pitiful as their innuendos, I would have thought you'd improve in time. Bimbo? Grow up." You retort. "Besides, I don't even think you're angry on behalf of Thor for my alleged cheating."

"Alleged?" he repeats, laughing.

Ms Friday shushes him from the natural history section.

You nod. "Yeah, it's alleged, because it didn't even happen. Maybe it's because Thor's been cheating on me the whole time with his girlfriend Jane Foster. Or because you have nothing better to do, you jealous asshole, because you're in love with him as well!" you hiss.

A silence falls over the library, in more than the sense of it being shocked, and not because it's a library.

"What did you just call me?" he whispers, face red.

Thor turns to him. "You're gay?"

Ms Friday's kitten-heels tap their way over, her ire in full swing. But before she can make it through the maze of bookshelves and study tables, Fandral has launched himself over the study table toward you, arms going for your neck. Hogun moves the crystal lamp out of the way, standing back. Steve goes to wrestle Fandral from choking you. Tony jumps in for the heck of it. Thor and Loki share loud, heated words, and Wanda grabs a five-inch textbook and whacks Fandral on the back of the head.

"For the Warriors!" someone yells.

You're not sure who, but you kick one person while you're down of the floor, and bite another.

Abhorred by the antics in her library, Ms Friday goes off to the librarian desk and calls, for the first time in her twenty years working at the library, the security team. You know this because not five minutes after, you're all being picked off each other, and escorted out of the building. Even Hogun, who saved the lamp from breaking and didn't fight anyone.

"I'll call the Dean..." Ms Friday mutters, going back into the library. "Brawling! In my library!"

"Imagine if this goes online," Darcy whispers. "or to the local news..."

Pepper blanches, even though she wasn't a part of the fight. "Tony was in it! And I'm his intern! I'll be ruined professionally!"

You pat her hand. "I'm sorry, Virginia." You never intended for any of this to happen, and now there's consequences that you must face, surely. You've heard of the antics of Dean Alexander Pierce, and now, you've got to face the ire that follows. That's just life. You just go along with it.

Loki places his hand in yours, squeezing it. "Let's hope we have a fair trial."

You smile, and lean into his embrace. "I sure hope so.