Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 5

"No, you annoying little arachnid, I am not playing your dumb game with you," Loki groaned and rolled his eyes at Stark's brat. He was being particularly annoying today. Loki didn't actually mind per se the kid's annoying whining. It was actually amusing.

"Please, Mr. Loki? Please? No one else will play it with me!" the kid whined. It was amazing how comfortable the kid had become with Loki. Comfortable enough to annoy the god without fear of being smited for it.

Loki huffed and rolled his eyes. "And that is supposed to endear me to want to play the game?" he grumbled at the brat. That was the least enticing thing the kid could have said.

The kid looked at him with big puppy-dog eyes. Loki was quite used to that tactic. Thor used it all the time. He was therefore immune to the effects of the puppy-dog eyes. Loki looked up from his book with a sigh. The kid was looking at him with that pathetic expression still. "Please~~? I'll let you play as Pikachu- No wait! Thor plays as Pikachu... hmm I know! You'll love Greninja! He's super fast-"

Loki held up a hand to stop the tirade and Peter fell silent immediately. He had learned to respect the god's request for the endless tirades to stop. Sometimes it was the only way Loki could get a word in edgewise. He'd also learned that Loki would stop interacting with him if he annoyed the god too much. So he learned to respect Loki's signal to stop talking. "You said my idiot brother plays this game?" Loki asked.

"Yes, Mr. Loki! He insists on playing as Pikachu, the little yellow lightning mouse. The team likes playing it as a stress reliever. Sometimes they settle petty arguments over it too. It's a fighting game-" Peter rambled.

Loki held up his hand again and the kid went silent. "I can fight the oaf?" Peter nodded enthusiastically. Loki reached up for the controller which Peter gleefully handed over. "I do not know how..." Loki trailed off, hating admitting when he didn't know something. Even if it was something stupid and Midgardian that he didn't know. Peter grinned a sat beside Loki on the couch. He carefully explained the controls and helped Loki through the first game.

The battle was a heated affair after that.

The game was stupid. It was animated characters fighting each other. And yet. Loki found he loved the silly Midgardian game. He tried out a few different characters and eventually settled on the ninja frog Peter had suggested in the first place. Loki didn't bother learning the creature's name.

Loki had a wonderful evening that evening thoroughly handing Thor's ass to him in the game. Repeatedly. With much vigor. And glee.

He thanked Peter for showing him the game and it quickly became a staple of life at the tower.

*

Loki was nervous for Peter's arrival one day. Not just nervous, pacing the living room with hands intertwined picking absently at the left hand, nervous. Loki shouldn't be nervous. There was no reason to be nervous of the opinion of a Midgardian child. Stark's brat was no one to be nervous of. The brat's opinion shouldn't matter.

Shouldn't

Shouldn't

Shouldn't

And yet. Right now, it seemed Peter's opinion mattered more than anything. Loki didn't care if the rest of the Avengers couldn't accept this. But somehow, somehow it mattered if the young man could.

So Loki paced and fretted and worried.

The elevator doors opened with a ding and Loki whirled to face them as the teen stepped out into the common room. "Hi, Mr. Loki!" he greeted Loki automatically, looking at Loki's usual spot on the couch. But Loki wasn't there. Loki was paused in the pacing of the common room, watching Peter's reaction.

Because Loki wasn't normal today.

Loki was Lady Loki. She was nearly as tall as her male counterpart, longer hair, a curvy figure. But she was still Loki, just as much as Loki was on any other day. However, Loki was terrified that the kid couldn't accept this part of her. Wouldn't understand.

Or would understand and hate her because of it.

But Loki didn't fit in the male skin today. It itched and grated on her and just wasn't right. So today she was Lady Loki and that was the skin that fit comfortably.

She picked at her left palm while she watched Peter turn to face her. She kept her court mask firmly in place, determined not to let him see it when his imminent rejection hurt her feelings. It would break her heart for Peter to reject this aspect of her.

She would not cry.

She would not cry.

She could not let the little arachnid see her cry.

It would just make him sad.

Just because he didn't understand didn't mean he deserved to be sad.

Instead, he gave Loki his usual bright puppy-like smile. "Sorry, Hi Ms. Loki," he corrected, accepting Lady Loki in an instant. "What's the number today?" he asked as tradition dictated.

Lady Loki was ecstatic with a bright relieved smile.

"One,"