Eagle (A Loki love story)

Chapter 121

Anyone want to venture a guess as to why I'm so excited about the Midwest Ace Comic Con?

Tony and his crew arrived the next day, late in the early evening. His team included himself, Pepper, Peter, Vision, and Dr. Helen Cho. I got hugs from all of them aside from Peter, who just kind of waved.

"Where's Thor?" Were the first words out of Helen's mouth after 'hello' and we had to explain to her that he had no idea Loki was even alive.

"Speaking of the devil, where is he?"

"Being antisocial. We're both rather stressed out and this is how he handles it."

"We may be able to help with that." Helen beckoned me onto the jet.

"Maybe tomorrow. No matter what kind of news it is, if it's related to the baby, Loki and I will hear it together."

I was very tempted to go onto the jet and see the surprise, just to spite Loki. I'd been more than a little hurt last night when I'd returned to our room but found it empty of Loki, his pajamas and freshly-worn clothes in my den to give it his scent. Falling asleep without him had been less than easy, I knew he was almost certainly in our private room, but the stench of chlorine was too much for me to bear with my hormone-heightened nose. Despite Loki and I being at a low point, this baby was ours and we would receive the same information at the same time.

That night, dinner consisted of Domino's take-out that Anton had been so kind as to bring us.

"Do you have any plans for Thanksgiving?" I asked as he handed the boxes over to myself, Tony, and Nat. As the only real person aside from Loki that I'd had face-to-face contact with during the past months, we'd become tentative friends.

"Other than looking into online graduate school, not really."

"Why online?

"Because I can't afford to pay for room and board. I was barely able to scrape by with my college costs. This job really saved me."

"Ya know, kid, I'm a billionaire, and I know your help has been invaluable to Mira and Loki over these past few years. Paying for your graduate school at least partially will be a piece of cake. Do some shopping around and send me a list of schools and I'll cover the costs you can't.

"Mr. Stark, I–I don't know what to say! You don't have to, I mean, I–I..." All eyes were on him now, "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." After that, we invited him to stay for awhile.  What was even better was that Anton and Peter really seemed to hit it off, since they and the twins were by far the youngest here.

Once everyone had finished, I took a few warmish slices and slowly descended the stairs. I opened the door to our private room, but did not go in. Instead, I put the pizza on the floor, knocked on the wall, and retreated as quickly as my body would allow back down the hall.

Loki's POV

I didn't quite know what I was doing anymore. Other than moping and worrying. I knew that today was the day that Stark and the others were scheduled to arrive, and frankly, I was slightly concerned that nobody had come to disturb me. I was sort of hungry, I hadn't eaten since supper when Steve had arrived, but it would be some time before the hunger really made me seek out food. The only thing I truly needed almost as often as mortals was water, and the bathroom contained an endless supply of that. I was ashamed of myself for lying to Mira as to the reason for my self-isolation, but I'd discovered that it wasn't a complete falsehood. Mother's soul had wandered from her body for good not long before we discovered Mira's pregnancy, but I hadn't had the heart to tell her.