Everything's Fine (Marvel Fanfic)

Chapter Three

Peter stayed parked in the driveway for a few minutes, trying to come up with an explanation for why he'd forgotten his own birthday. He didn't come up with anything good. An ant crawled across his steering wheel and he watched it. Probably Uncle Loki. He moved it outside the car before getting out.

Thor and May were up in their room, loudly doing the nasty when he walked in. He breathed out in relief. From behind, Loki's arms snaked around his waist. He tilted his neck and Loki kissed it.

"Must be hungover, if you're letting me touch you like this."

"The celebration started early." Peter turned and buried his head in Loki's chest. In truth, the hangover was only just starting. The prospect of spending the whole day under the hot desert sun of Vegas made him want to throw up.

"Anything I can get you?"

He rubbed his face. "Breakfast. Water. Pepcid. Not in that order."

"You got it, birthday boy. Go sit." Loki gave him one good kiss and sent Peter to the kitchen table. "Sure you don't want a mimosa? You only turn 21 once."

"Fuck off." He rubbed his face until Loki put water and Pepcid in front of him. He swallowed the pill, drained the glass, let his uncle refill it, drained it again.

"How much did you drink?" Loki's voice was pure amusement.

"The fifth."

"You drank an entire fifth?" Peter's stomach twisted, hearing actual concern in Loki's voice for once. He chose lying.

"No, dumbass. I plead the fifth." He rubbed his temples as May and Thor came back into the kitchen. At least they had actual clothes on this time. The robes Thor bought his aunt were way too sheer for his liking.

"Are you hungover?" May demanded. Peter glared at Loki, like it was somehow his uncle's fault when Loki had been up in Asgard for the last month.

"I was 21 after midnight. Went out with some friends." The lie came so smoothly that he even smiled. It faltered when he saw Thor's face and remembered bumping into his stepdad in the middle of the night, but Thor didn't say anything. May tsked.

"Well, you shouldn't be going into work hungover. You don't have the kind of job where you can make mistakes." She patted his arm. His stomach grumbled with nausea. Drinking didn't get him puking, but being hungover did.

"Loki, how's the eggs?"

"Coming up. Want hot sauce?"

"No thanks." He gratefully took the plate of fluffy eggs scrambled with onions, bacon, and extra cheese, and started shoveling it into his face. He could live off of scrambles. As he ate, the world seemed to right itself. The pounding headache and the feeling that he'd throw up half-digested booze all over the table went away. He sobered, but that wasn't a bad thing. "What are we doing in Vegas?"

"Getting you wasted, when you can stomach it." This was from Thor.

"And probably keeping you that way until Monday." Loki grinned playfully.

"I was thinking we might also go see the aquarium, or a magic show," May reasonably added. She patted Thor's shoulder, a gentle reminder to not give her only nephew alcohol poisoning. She and Thor were trying for a baby - hence the sex - but there was no guarantee it'd happen. Peter was the closest thing she had to a kid.

"So drinking the weekend away." Peter gave his aunt a playful grin. She batted his arm.

"Something like that," she agreed anyway.

Peter finished his eggs and pushed the plate away. "Let me go pack and get changed into something a little nicer and we can go, then." May took his plate, and he headed back upstairs to shower and pack. He was modestly surprised Loki didn't find a way to join him in the shower for slippery birthday sex, but then, Thor and May were both downstairs.

It'd been two years since the first time they'd hooked up, and there was a casual, routine rhythm to their extracurriculars. A set of unspoken rules, really. They went as followed: only when they wouldn't get caught, only when Peter was trashed enough to say yes, and only for one night. No morning-after second helpings. No acting lovey-dovey while sober. At least not normally.

It was still weird to Peter. He didn't really see Loki as an uncle, just like he definitely didn't see Thor as his dad or as an uncle - which was a whole other issue, that Thor couldn't understand that Aunt May wasn't his actual mom, but no one had ever called the God of Thunder very bright. On the other hand, Peter also didn't see Loki as being someone he could actually be with. He was family enough to be off-limits, but not family enough to stop hooking up with on a belly full of booze.

Besides, Loki had been right. Once you slept with a god, you didn't go back to bedding mortals.

He got out of the shower, went into his room, and threw some necessities into a spare Shield backpack. This time, he did a check as he left the room: phone and charger, wallet, keys, clothes, sunglasses. He stopped in the bathroom to pack the meds away in their own bag and hide them carefully - he could only imagine May's face if she saw what all he'd been put on these days - then headed back downstairs.

"Ready to go?" Thor asked.

"Let's do it." They let Loki open a portal straight to the Vegas strip, and stepped on through.