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

eyes burnt out

The 'Quentin Problem' should be over by now. Tony assured him it was over. Peter assured him it was over. Loki knew better than that.

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He gave up and snapped his book shut after fifteen minutes had passed and he was still stuck at the same paragraph, rereading the same sentence a dozen times and more, but his mind could never seem to focus. There was a scratching at door. Loki glanced just in time to see it opened ajar, just wide enough for his cub to escape and, "Zeus," he called, but the little one had already slipped out.

"Damnit," Loki cursed under his breath. Zeus wasn't supposed to be out running around the compound in nighttime. It wasn't prohibited nor was he going to get kicked out for it, but he knew the cub was an annoying pain in the ass. He would wake everybody up and probably burn down Tony's lab or worse. "Fuck," Loki cursed again. He just wanted a quiet night in bed even if sleep seemed impossible, apparently his fox pet shared the different belief.

He swung his legs out of bed and made for the door. Hopefully Zeus hadn't gotten far.

Loki stopped dead in his tract when, the second he exited his room, darkness swallowed him whole. Something's wrong, whispered the voices in the back of his head it trickled down his spine, raising goosebumps. The compound was never completely dark. Not even in the dead of night, Tony would always make sure there was at least a little light on. He looked around; the long hallway was pitch black and the air felt cold. Maybe there was an outage? But that wouldn't explain why the electricity in his room was working just fine.

"Zeus?" Loki called out. And when the cub hadn't returned immediately, he knew something was, indeed, wrong. Zeus would always come when he was called. Loki tried - struggled - to shove away all negative thoughts gnawing at his stomach. Maybe it's nothing. You're being paranoid. Stop it. It didn't feel like it was nothing, though.

"Zeus, I'm not in the mood for this," he summoned a witchlight, green tendrils of magic dancing upon the palm of his hand. The light illuminated the wall and - Loki whipped his head to the direction only for the shadowy figure to dissolve into thin air, disappear into nothingness. A trick of the light, he could try to convince himself so, but Loki knew the shadowy figure of a man he had just seen wasn't a trick of the light. He gulped, the sound of it seemed to echo endlessly through the eerie silence hanging in the air, and he could almost hear the sound of his heart now hammering against his rib cage.

A part of him, a childish part, suddenly wanted to retract back in the room, lock the door and hide under the bed. Loki took a careful step towards the endless hallway.

"Zeus?" Still no sign of the baby fox. What if something happened - no. Loki stopped himself before his thoughts could get too far. No. The cub was fine. Probably someone opened the door and he just slipped in for a treat. Maybe he was having his belly scratched by Peter. Or maybe he managed to sneak into Thor's room.

What if Zeus wasn't the only one in trouble? What if they're all in it? Your Avenger friends. Peter, Thor and May. What if they're all in danger?

No. Loki thought horrifyingly. He quickened his pace, mouth kept calling for a runaway pet. Then he was calling his brother's name, and Peter's.

And -

"Hello, Lo,"

Loki froze. For a moment he forgot how to breathe. Colors drained out of his face and when he tried to move, to run, his legs wouldn't budge.

A hand landed heavily on his shoulder from behind, it squeezed, kneaded the tense muscles and Loki was sure his knees would buckle and he was going to faint. Only that every cell in his body went rigid. Paralyzed.