(Not) anorexia
They didn't think that would be a problem with Loki.
They imagined they would have troubles with trust, with him being too violent and untrustworthy, they thought there maybe would be pranks that bordered of violent crimes, those kinds of things. They there maybe would be creative insults, and there were more some insults, but most of them weren't said by Loki, but instead directed at Loki.
Since he helped saved the Earth last time and hurt himself quite badly while doing so, he earned some status of political refugee, as long as he was under the control of the Avengers. So he'd been living with Wanda and Vision, and with the Black Widow and the man who called himself Ant man also on occasion.
He did magic tricks, read ridiculous amounts of literature and occasionally helped with the strategy of the attack plan for whatever threat reared its head. He was there, making off handed comments about other sorcerers (he did like Wanda but he had a visceral hate for Strange) and commenting books with Steve. It was a nice peaceful life, even though something seemed to be off with the man.
He was too tame, too quiet. Thor noticed first, and then Bruce. The man knew that Loki could be a decen, useful guy and that he was really smart, so had less problems than the others to engage socially with the god. Most of the time they played chess, or talked about quantum physics and its effect on matter, things like that. It was nice having someone that understood all the points he was making. Loki had been a really smart guy even by Asgardian standards, and those standards were much higher that Earth's.
But yes, something was definitely wrong. Two months into their stay, Bruce noticed that Loki's face seemed more sunken than usual, the cheekbones standing out even more than usual. I mean, he had never been fat, or bulky like his brother, but lately he was looking positively scrawny. He also looked very pale and kind of apathetic. Maybe it was all connected, but it was difficult to tell with a being like him.
But Bruce decided to try and see if he could see him eating, and didn't like what he saw. In two weeks, he only saw Loki drink tea and on one occasion eat some thin mints from a box. Nothing that could sustain a man as terribly tall as Loki was. He asked around to the others that spent time with him, and the conclusion was that he was never around when the others ate, and that he was rarely seen eating.
But maybe he simply ate when he was out, or at odd hours (he seemed to have the most unlikely schedule ever). It was impossible to know and it was such a sensitive topic to ask about... But it was only getting worse, and Bruce knew it.
Loki was getting more and more thin, and the others were noticing as well. Wanda came to him and asked him if he could do a check-up on him, because he was looking a bit “gaunt” (she definitely had looked that word up in a dictionary) and she was worried about him. Steve tried to convince him to go to a doctor, because “maybe he had something serious” and Tony tried to sneak some body scans on him (but like with the security cameras, Loki always knew how to intercept them).
Bruce found him getting clearly getting dizzy and blinking way too many times when they played chess together, and knew he had to say something, however insensitive it may be. He may have ignored the others, but Loki listened to him.
“One of these days, I'm going to win.”
“Keep dreaming, friend Bruce.” Loki said, with one of his trademark sly grins.
Why do you keep pretending everything's okay when it's clearly not?
“If you keep starving yourself like this you're going to lose cognitive function, you know? Hence, me winning at chess.” Bruce said almost casually, and moved a piece.
Loki's eyes met Bruce, and there was something quite hard to place there. Disbelief? Confusion? Defiance? Anger?
“I do not know what you heard, but I am not starving myself. I require less sustenance than mortals, that's all.”
Yeah, Bruce was not falling for that.
“Funny. You lived most of your life in Asgard, and Thor eats even more than us mortals. And you're much more... what was the word that Wanda used... gaunt.”
Loki seemed a bit unnerved at his insistence.
“It's not your concern, Doctor.”
“It is. I am concerned, and the others are as well. You're one of us now, and we look after each other. I have to ask, is this something you're doing on purpose or not? Because if it isn't, it could be the symptom of....”
“No.” Loki said simply, and Bruce had no idea of what he was talking about.
And so he left, and the problem remained unsolved, only now Loki was avoiding Bruce altogether.
So he decided to talk with Steve, Thor and Tony, to see if they could find a solution. If Loki kept this up, he could really end up badly god or no-god. But it was just a difficult topic to approach.
“Did this ever happen in Asgard? Do you know what may have caused it?”
Thor made a face. He probably should have paid more attention to his brother's health when they were kids. He only knew that when Loki was sick he couldn't play, which was a bummer, because none of his other friends were as wild and weird as Loki was when inventing games.
“He was often sick, but I don't know if it was ever of his own volition.”
That didn't help much, but they all knew about the incident in the Bifrost, so they knew he had at least some self-harming tendencies... It was going to be bad, this was for sure.
But they talked with an expert, researched some things online and were ready for a full on intervention about eating disorders and getting to root of the problem and trying to find a healthier approach to eating and food and about the damages of not eating enough. There they were, Thor, Steve, Bruce and Wanda (Tony had made himself an excuse by being in another part of the country) all set to make Loki eat again.
And so they started and Loki just laughed.
“You did all of this... for me? Because you thought I was starving myself... I am touched, really.”
“But you are starving yourself.”
“Not because I hate myself, I just.... I just accidentally ate something with liquorice a couple of months ago.”
Thor made a sound of understanding.
“Liquorice is very bad for Loki, makes him sick for months, even years if he eats too much.”
“I didn't say anything because I did not want to appear weak, vanquished for weeks by a ridiculous piece of food.”
He certainly didn't expect half of the Avengers to come to him with an intervention about the importance of eating.
“You really should have said something, we were really worried.” Steve said.
“I didn't... think anyone would be. Not so much, certainly.”
“Maybe they weren't back on your home, or when you were younger. But now you are one of us, and we'll always worry.” Wanda said, with a small smile.
“And maybe we could have something to fix your... liquorice problem. If you let me run some tests...” Bruce started, kind of relieved that they didn't have to do the full intervention, and that it hadn't been anything serious.
In the end, there wasn't anything they could do do, simply wait out the effects of the liquorice. But everybody got more vigilant after that, like a concerned mother making sure that her kids are eating properly.
Loki didn't mind. He hadn't had real friends for a big part of his life and was enjoying the novelty, and all the concern. It was different. It was warm.
It was better.