mischevious

Chapter 9 (Abigail)

I was still fuming when we got back to my room, which was probably the best choice he made at that moment. How dare my father question my intelligence like that. After I told him I didn't want to make robots and war machines, he hated the idea of leaving the company to me in the future and what I would do. I was already in college with a double major and passing with a perfect 4.0 GPA and I could rewrite any code my father came up with just because I felt like it. My brain never stopped, something I called the Stark curse because none of us seemed to know how to stop and take a day off. That's why my lifestyle was so intriguing at first, it forced me to stop thinking and let someone else do the thinking for me.

Given, this time the one I chose was Loki and this time I was always safe.

I kept pacing, my feet feeling like they were going to fall off soon if I kept this up but I couldn't. I didn't even stop when I heard a knock at my door.

"Let us be." Loki was the one who spoke and I finally stopped pacing.

"It's me, please let me in, Abby." It was Pepper's voice and I breathed a sigh of relief. Throughout my years of being tossed between homes, Pepper was one constant. Even before she and my dad officially got together, she was the one who pretty much took care of me when I was younger and taught me everything neither of my parents wanted to.

"Come in, Pepper." I said quickly, hoping she wasn't going to lay into me too.

"What's going on?"

"Long or short story?" I asked and with the look she gave me, I knew she wanted to know everything. "Okay, I'll try to make it short without missing anything. Shortly after my eighteenth birthday Loki and I got together. Then at his trial in Asgard that Tony and I went to with Thor, Odin told Loki a human woman would bear his horned helm on her wrist, well guess what." I said while holding out my left arm so she could see it on my wrist. "Tony flipped shit first at knowing we're together before the trial and then continued to insult my intelligence by calling me stupid because I fell for Loki and I'm the one Odin chose."

After blurting all that out, I realized I was holding in tears. My father and I fought before but this time was different. It was an unwritten rule that our brains were never a target of our anger; his drinking problem and my occasional retaliations that went a bit far were fair game.

"Wait, hold up! He said what?" Pepper actually sounded pissed off.

"He told me I was stupid for multiple reasons. But I'm telling you, Pepper, they have Loki all wrong. He's-"

"Not the same?" Loki and I looked between each other and nodded. "I may not be your birth mother, but I know you and I have seen the difference. If you're not as rebellious because of him, then he has had to change too." She gave a small smile and hugged me close.

We said nothing for a few moments as we just stood there. She had always tried her best and tried to be at least a mother figure to me, but in this moment, she was the mother I needed the most. I just needed someone else to see that we weren't crazy and that we were truly okay.

"Listen, just let your father and the others calm down for a little while, okay? We have your father's birthday coming up so you two just relax until then. Don't let him win and see you so upset."

I nodded a little and she gave my shoulders a squeeze before walking out. I knew the look she had on her face and that my father was surely going to be in a load of trouble. It was one thing to code in his sleep and accidentally almost kill her, but it was another when he'd be this stupid.

It was an odd feeling to not speak and just sit on my bed as we cuddled and he just let me stalk in my thoughts. Above everything else my father had said, the fact that he truly thought Loki didn't love me just cut so much deeper.