A Child of Mischief (Loki/Avengers story)

24. Calling Home

Peter sits at the work desk in the corner of Cora's room. He rubs his red, puffy eyes, he couldn't stop crying until the news that Cora had become stable again was announced. Taking off his wristband, Peter sets it on the desk in front of him and presses the middle button.

"Hey Friday, video call Natasha back at headquarters." Peter says after pressing the middle button.

"Contacting Natasha Romanov via video call." Friday replies, and begins to call back to headquarters.

"Hey Peter, everything alright?" Natasha answers a bit worried.

"Not really." Peter says and sniffs as he tries to hold back the tears.

"What's wrong? Is Cora okay?" Natasha asks, at the mention of Cora's name, a tear falls down Peter's face, he quickly wiped it away, hoping Natasha didn't see it.

"Something happened today, and Cora got hurt badly." Peter says, and watches Natasha's face go from slightly worried to full on concerned.

"What happened, where is she?" Natasha nearly demands.

Peter begins to explain everything that happened during the battle. Every so often, he pauses to watch Natasha's facial expressions, which range from extreme shock to anger.

"She became stable again, enough to the point where they moved her to her own room. Which is where I'm at now. They asked me to watch over her in case anything happens." Peter finishes, Natasha keeps her composure, but Peter can tell she is quietly fuming with anger.

"Does Thor know you're making this call?" Natasha asks, Peter shakes his head.

"He said he would call you. But, I figured you would want the whole story and not just bits and pieces he would find important." Peter says, Natasha nods her head.

"So, as punishment for disobeying orders, they are having all of you help rebuild the village?" Natasha asks.

"Just the six that first disobeyed orders. Like I said before Cora and I went to Odin and Queen Frigga, then Odin gave us orders to fight." Peter says and Natasha just shakes her head.

"Putting untrained kids into a battle they ultimately can't win. What was he thinking?" Natasha asks, Peter shrugs his shoulders.

"There's one more thing, you should know." Peter says, Natasha raises an eyebrow of curiosity.

"What?" Natasha asks, Peter takes a deep breath before answering.

"The royals decided to vote on Cora's fate here in Asgard as to whether she'll stay or be sent back to Earth once she wakes up and fully recovers. They are going to have all of us vote at the feast soon." Peter says, Natasha's eyes go wide when she hears this.

"She should stay, she's shown more bravery than most untrained fighters." Natasha says as she writes down something. Peter only nods.

"We aren't sure how the votes will fall. All we know is myself, Loki, Andre, and Olivia are voting for her to stay." Peter says, Natasha's eyes go wide.

"Andre and Olivia will vote her to stay? When did they start to get along with her?" Natasha asks shocked.

"They changed their views about her this morning, before the botched battle." Peter says and Natasha only nods.

"Keep eyes on them. I don't know what they have planned, but it can't be good." Natasha says as she writes more things down.

"I just hope Cora wakes up soon, everything has been tense since things happened." Peter says and looks over at Cora and watches her chest rise and fall as she steadily breathes.

"Keep your chin up, Peter. She'll wake up when she's ready, keep me updated though. If Thor calls, I'll already have the full story." Natasha says before ending the call.

Peter slouches in the chair and rubs his eyes, then looks back at Cora. Placing his wristband back on his wrist, Peter gets out of the chair and moves it up next to the head of Cora's bed. He sits back down once he places the chair at the head of the bed. Peter keeps his eyes on Cora as he mindlessly lifts his right hand up to her head and begins to stroke her hair.

"I should have been close enough to get that creature, then maybe you wouldn't be like this. You told me to be careful, no where in that quick conversation did I tell you the same thing." Peter says barely above a whisper as the tears start to fill his eyes.

As the late afternoon sun fades and the early evening moon begins to fill the sky, Peter replays the days events in his head over and over again, almost tormenting himself. Every once in a while, someone would come and check on him and Cora, and each time there is no change, Cora is still unconscious and Peter cries and blames himself.

"You have to stop putting the blame on only yourself. We all are to blame for what happened to Cora." Andre said when he came to check on Peter about an hour after Cora had been moved to her room.

"The last thing she said to me before the battle was 'be careful', I didn't even tell her that, I just took off after she said it." Peter said back to Andre, he shook his head and looked out the window before he walked out of the room.

Just after the quick conversation with Andre, Peter laid his head down on the edge of Cora's bed. He only meant to rest his eyes for a little bit, but the next thing he knew, he was being lightly shaken awake by someone.

"Peter, wake up. It's time for the feast." He hears Andre say, Peter lifts his head and looks at Andre, then looks back at Cora.

"I know you don't want to leave, but the royals insist that you come join the feast and also cast your vote." Andre says as he keeps his hand on Peter's shoulder. Peter nods before he gets up and walks out of the room, all emotion in him is numb from the tears he has let come out today.

"I'll stay for the vote, but once it's done, I'm coming back here. Not going to bother to eat, I'm not hungry." Peter says as he turns to see Andre walk out of the room and close the door behind him.

"Don't do that to yourself. You know Cora would want you to eat and be apart of the group if she was awake." Andre says as he heads down the hall and toward the great hall, Peter takes one last look at Cora's door before he turns and heads for the great hall.