Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 1

Loki had been living at the Avengers tower for six months already. On the best days it was dreadfully boring. On the worst, it was just dreadful. The team was wary of him... for admittedly reasonable reasons, but it hadn't been his fault that he'd been forced to attack the Earth. Ok, at least not entirely his fault. That still didn't mean his idiot brother and his moronic friends needed to put him on house arrest just because of it. It was insulting.

The only time he got out of the stupid tower was when they remembered he was useful on missions. It was dull and tedious and annoying. Sure, he played pranks on them, and that livened up the days. As did defenestrating Stark whenever he could and stabbing Thor was always a source of entertainment.

Plus there was the potion that turned Thor into a frog.

But Loki was bored

Bored

Bored

Bored

Bored

BORED

Almost no one spoke to him, which was generally fine. The Midgardians were dull creatures, and the team no exception. Though he did maintain a cordial, healthy respect for Lady Natasha. She was frightening. He hated the Hulk and didn't much care for the doctor whose skin the creature wore.

On top of all that the team didn't like or trust him. So he spent most of his time quietly reading and trying to be glad that at least he wasn't in the cells of Asgard.

"Brother, are you paying attention?" Thor demanded, pausing in his tirade. Loki rolled his eyes and shut his book. Thor had been lecturing for ten minutes about proper behavior about... something. Loki hadn't cared, but Thor was demanding an answer.

So Loki thought through the last few minutes he hadn't been paying attention to. He rolled his eyes with a huffed sigh. "New team member is coming to visit. A child. And you expect me to be pleasant to it," Loki recited, still bored. A new team member might be interesting. But a child? Hardly.

"Yes. You must be polite to Stark's protege. He is called The Man of Spiders," Thor said proudly.

Loki rolled his eyes at the lame name.

"His name is Spiderman," Stark corrected, glaring at Loki. Thor deflated that he'd gotten it wrong. He'd tried so hard to get the name right. "Be nice to the kid, better yet, just don't talk to him. And if you hurt him, I will kick your ass out of this tower, Odin's orders be damned," Stark snarled at Loki. Odin had ordered him here to work with Thor's moronic friends as recompense for the slight against Midgard.

It was ridiculous since his actions had been under the influence of mind control.

But very few actually believed him on that point.

"I have no interest in speaking with the Spider-child," Loki told them, rolling his eyes. "And I am not heartless enough to harm a child," he grumbled and returned his attention to his book. Odin's beard, they couldn't even trust him enough not to harm a child. He wasn't a monster for pity's sake. At least not in that respect.

He didn't much pay attention when the teenager entered the common room. Stark's brat seemed as annoying as any other youngling that age and Loki had no interest in his exuberance and never ending chatter. Especially since the Midgardian wizard had just sent him new texts on magic to read.

The Midgardian wizard didn't much like him either, but he did like it when Loki wasn't causing trouble, and Loki didn't cause trouble when he had new interesting things to learn. So the wizard lent him interesting books. In exchange Loki didn't get bored or stabby and homicidal in his direction. It was a fair trade.

Loki looked up when a shadow fell on his page and started to glare until he noted the jeans, then the t-shirt with the high school name on it, and a hand-me-down flannel shirt over it. It was the kid. He raised an eyebrow at the teen while the rest of the team stared at the impeding interaction in horror. They feared for the child's safety. The kid didn't run from him instead he greeted him with a bright "Hi!"

Loki stood in a fluid graceful motion. This conversation, whatever it was to be, seemed like it was one that required both parties be standing for it. "Can I help you?" he asked the child a bit stiffly, unsure what this exuberant puppy of a teen wanted.

The kid continued as if Loki hadn't spoken. "I'm Peter Parker," he greeted Loki brightly and held out his hand to shake.

Interesting.

The child wasn't afraid of him. Every other Midgardian he'd met had been afraid of him on sight. Loki held out his hand, curious and interested now. "Loki of Asgard," he replied politely, if a bit cautiously and shook the boy's hand.

The boy dropped his hand afterward but not from fear, just because it was the proper length of a handshake. Curiouser and curiouser.

The kid paused, considered and then his mouth blurted without any input from his brain, but still without fear, more just curiosity. "Aren't you like...a bad guy?" he asked carefully, cautious, yes, but not afraid. Just respectful of power when he saw it.

Loki smirked, amused by this child. "It varies from moment to moment," he replied with a bit of snark and a touch of sarcasm in his dry tone. He watched the youth to gauge his reaction to the words.

The teen pondered his words, he actually considered them as if they were serious and not flippant and sarcastic. Interesting. "So... like...on a scale of one to ten, ten being the worst evil imaginable, like...killing puppies, and one being I'll spit on your hotdog...where are you right now?" he asked, curiously.

It was Loki's turn to ponder. Whatever he had been expecting, it wasn't that. Wasn't that at all. And that was interesting indeed. The rest of the team were watching in horror, sure the kid was about to be stabbed and they were all too far to do anything.

Loki decided an honest thoughtful question deserved an honest thoughtful answer. "...maybe a three?" he replied, not entirely sure where his current mood fell on the child's vague scale, but it was a decent guess.

The kid nodded, accepting that answer. "Cool. Lemme know if it gets above a six," Peter told him brightly and with a head nod bounced with puppy-like enthusiasm back to chatting excitedly with the others

I like him Loki thought to himself. Finally finding something in this stupid realm that wasn't automatically boring.