My Best Friend's the God of Mischief // Peter x Loki

i prayed my mind be good to me

"Listen here mister, this cannot stand. I will not allow you to deliberately break into my property and try to hurt my boys like that."

"He didn't try to hurt me, he tried to murder me," Loki dared to interject, voice almost too quiet to be heard; just audible.

"I will not allow you to deliberately break into my property and try to murder my boys like that." May corrected. Somehow she managed to look even more homicidal even though it was supposed to be impossible.

"Ma'am -"

"No! Don't you ma'am me. You mess with them, you mess with me!" The extremely-pissed-off-parent pointed at Tony who sat obediently on a chair, looking surprisingly tiny. (So now it was more of a Tiny Stark than Tony Stark)

It's been going on for an hour now; her scolding Tony for the wrong he did and how much he crossed the boundaries. May wouldn't even let him speak one word so far. She was... scary. And no one messed with her when she was scary because that would mean digging one's own grave. Even Peter and Loki now seated silently in the corner, trying to look as small as they could so they wouldn't somehow trigger something in May and have her rage turned on them.
(Right now her rage was directed at Tony. Poor Mister Stark, Peter thought, but he kind of brought it upon himself.)

She continued scolding (yelling at) Tony and it got to the point where neither Peter nor Loki knew what she was saying since their ears had apparently turned numb a while ago, and they could only pray for Tony not to lose his hearing altogether judging by the fact May was particularly screaming in his face.

They, Loki and Peter, then flinched when May suddenly turned her attention towards them. Before Peter could open his mouth and say, 'it wasn't my fault!' May beat him to it, "you both go to your room," she said, still pissed. "I have something I'd like to speak with Mister Stark alone."

Peter and Loki couldn't be any faster to obligate.

~~~

"I know what Loki did, but I don't let his past define who he is today," spoke a muffled voice Peter heard as he pressed his ear against the door.

(He knew Loki could overhear the conversations, too. Even if he was sitting, with his shoulders slumped and his head lolled downward, on the bed because May's voice was pretty loud and clear. She was still yelling, apparently. It was Tony's part that Pete couldn't quite make out because Tony wasn't raising his voice; if Pete had to guess, he'd say Mister Stark's voice was barely a whisper since it was also how Peter spoke with May every time May was homicidal)

"That boy under my care is not the same villain who attacked New York years ago. Yes, I am sure. You weren't there when he cried for his mother, you don't get to judge." May continued.

Tony said something Peter couldn't hear, then it was his aunt's voice again, "Loki is just a lost boy who took the wrong path, but he's changed. He's trying to be better, and I'm giving him that second chance he deserves."

"Do I though," Peter didn't expect Mister Loki to voice his opinion considering he was... quite sad since Mister Stark's attack and had been uncharacteristically quiet ever since. Pete would say that it got him, when the kid retracted his ear from the door and looked at Loki the God still had his gaze glued to his hands on his lap.

"Maybe Stark was right," Loki continued without looking at Pete, like he was only talking to himself and had forgotten Peter was in the room with him. "Maybe I'm a monster incapable of being loved,"

Peter had his lips pressed in a thin line because, for the first time, he didn't know how best to respond. But then after a long while of silence, May's voice could still be heard; just that none of the boys were listening anymore, Peter spoke up, "Mister Stark has always been right," Loki almost winced, then Peter added after a pause, "but I don't believe he was right about you."

That seemed to reach something inside Loki because he actually looked up and at Peter, it was the vulnerability on his face that caught Peter off guard; the kid was sure he had never seen Mister Loki looking this exposed and vulnerable, not even when he found him at the dumpster that day.

"You're too kind," Loki said softly, quietly. He unconsciously picked at his thumb; something he always did when he was nervous, the habit he got from his mother. "You both are too kind... I don't deserve you." At the last sentence his voice was quieter Peter almost couldn't catch it as Loki looked down at his lap again. What happened effected him more than Peter thought, apparently.

"Well, you're wrong." Eventually Peter spoke after a couple breaths. "I thought you were a good friend... you are a good friend." There was stubbornness in Pete's voice, and even if Loki disagreed, he didn't argue.

"You are a good friend and I'm glad I found you." Peter said again, a bit louder, when Loki remained silent. But if he was hoping to get the God to say something then he must be quite disappointed for Loki spoke no word.

~~~

"He won't mess with you again. You don't have to worry," May said later that night. Tony left a while ago, but Loki refused to come out of the room. Not even for dinner.

"I made him promise not to mess with you again." She repeated softly, and by her tone she didn't expect Loki to say anything because she knew he wouldn't, not when he was still emotionally hurt and unstable.

Loki sat silently with his eyes cast down, but he seemed to relax at least a little as May gently combing his hair with her fingers.

"It's okay, Lo," she spoke after a moment of non-awkward silence. "You're safe here, that you have my word." May leaned in and kissed him on the top of his head before deciding to give him personal space.

After the door was closed and he was alone Loki let the tears fall silently, Tony's words kept repeating themselves in his head like a poisonous choir; 'he'll stab you. Right in the back. Because that's what monsters like him do.'