Chapter 24
“Another group meeting?” Natasha asks. “Really?”
Tony sighs. “As we’re all aware, summer is coming to a close.”
“No more slumber parties, then?” Clint jokes. “Our non-existent vacation is over?”
Tony rolls his eyes at Clint’s antics. “I think we should send Loki to school when it starts again.”
Natasha glares at Tony. “You’re going to send her to a hive of civilians? Child civilians?”
“She won’t hurt anyone,” Tony says. “And I’d pull some strings so she’d be in all of Peter’s classes.”
“Great,” Clint says. “So your teenage intern is going to be entrusted to keep an alien megalomaniac in check?”
“I like your idea, Tony,” Steve says. “But I agree. That’s a lot to put on a teenager’s shoulders.”
“Peter can handle it,” Tony says. Natasha just looks amused — she’s been training Peter in hand-to-hand for a month now and Peter has started calling her “spider-mama.” (Natasha pretends she hates it. Natasha secretly loves it.)
“They should know,” Natasha says. “If you’re serious about this.”
“Know what?” Clint says. “That Peter is Spider-Man?”
Tony’s eyes go wide. “What are you talking about?”
“That was a secret?” Thor asks. “I thought we all knew Starkson was the Man of Spiders?”
“He’s not my son,” Tony clarifies. “Also, seriously? Did everyone know?”
Steve nods. “He’s not very subtle.”
Bruce agrees. “He accidentally stuck himself to a lab bench when he was really excited about science.”
“Seriously, though,” Tony says. “Loki’s going stir-crazy. And wouldn’t it be better for her to have something constructive to do for eight hours a day instead of just moping around the Tower?”
The Avengers shudder at that thought. Slowly, they warm up to the idea.
“I have good news!” Thor says. Loki looks up from her book. She scoots over so Thor can sit next to her.
“What’s going on?” Loki asks. She’s learned to be wary of Thor’s “good news” — thanks to the many times that good news meant Loki was being carted along on a hunt or a quest that she would really rather not be on.
“Once the schools open this fall, you will be joining Peter at his Midgardian academy!”
Loki lights up. She’d prefer a university, of course. She has hundreds of years on Peter and his classmates. (And, if someone tries to make her read Candide again, she is going to riot.) But going to school with Peter might even be fun.
Her excitement dims a bit. “They trust me enough for that?” Loki asks.
“Trust is a strange thing,” Thor says. “You look just like her.” His gaze barely meets Loki’s.
“Mother?” Loki looks confused. He speaks to Thor as if he were very, very dumb. “I look very little like mother, Thor.”
“No,” Thor shakes his head. “Hela.”
“Our sister,” Loki says quietly.
“You know of her?” Thor asks, grip on Loki’s arm tightening before Loki’s wince makes him loosen up.
“Only secondhand.” Loki shrugs. “Banner told me.”
“Ah,” Thor says. “Yes, she was a force to be reckoned with.”
Loki looks back at Thor, unreadable emotions coloring her gaze. “Is that a compliment or an insult, Thor?”
Thor shugs. “‘Tis just a comment.”
But Loki knows what Thor is implying. Trust is a commodity that Odin’s children mostly grew up without. Sometimes, Loki wonders if she and Thor are more similar than they appear.