A Future of our Own

Academy

Academy life was vastly more different than she remembered it being.

When she thought back on it, she mainly remembered stress, homework and training missions that were far more dangerous than they needed to be.

Rarely did the small details come up, like the lunches where she would sit with friends or the study sessions that were mostly an excuse to hang out more and eat snacks deemed unhealthy for a hero's diet.

They were the best times and yet when she tried to think back to school, she mainly remembered the teachers she disliked, the students who left a bitter taste in her mouth and the occasional things that made her smile fondly.

Of course, there was also Loki.

A very different Loki to the one who resided in this reality.

This Loki apparently mingled more with the popular 'bad kids', which explained why he and Amora were close and he had quite a reputation for being brash, rude and just plain arrogant.

Granted, her Loki could be brash and rude and definitely arrogant, but he was also more complex and definitely preferred to keep to himself more than anything.

From what she remembered, Loki had never dated anyone in school, sure others had asked him but he'd always declined and went back to his dorm room to do whatever teenager like Loki would do, probably just reading.

He hadn't even bothered to attend their end of school dance, not because he didn't have a date to go with, multiple people had asked him, but purely because it wasn't his scene.

It was sheer coincidence that they had even met, let alone fallen in love.

"You look deep in thought."

She looked up, being pulled out of her reverie as Stephen sat down opposite her, setting his lunch tray down.

"I guess, not about anything too important."

"The upcoming exam?"

"Perhaps a little, you know what I'm like."

"Study too hard and still worry you'll fail?"

She laughed and shrugged, stabbing at her juice carton with the straw it came with.

"You know me so well, Steve."

Stephen shot her a withered look but said nothing and focused on eating to placate his growing appetite.

He was used to the teasing by this point in their friendship, though he still hated it when she called him that, even if it was just in jest, but luckily for her they were good friends and he had taken to accepting the name and getting her back later on.

It kept her on her toes.

Though not if she wasn't paying attention to anything apart from what was across the room.

"You're staring again," Stephen said, barely glancing up.

"I am not," she huffed.

Her eyes trailed back to Loki, who was trying to focus on his book and eating his lunch while having Amora clamber all over his, her arms wrapped around his shoulders and her lips close to his ear despite his look of utter annoyance and exhaustion of the situation.

Talk about being oblivious.

"I don't know why you're so obsessed with him," Stephen shook his head, unable to stop himself from chuckling.

"I'm not obsessed."

"Fine, then we'll call it a crush, the point stands that I don't understand why."

"He's cute and funny," she shrugged, stilling watching as Loki was attempting to twist Amora off of him with a look of distaste.

"He's also brash, far too into himself, thinks of everyone as beneath him because he's a God-"

As he continued talking, she found Stephen's voice drifting off into the distance as a strange feeling bubbled up inside of her.

Watching the scene before her and having this conversation was starting to bring up a sense of familiarity, something akin to deja-vu but as the scene continued the more she realised that this was more than deja-vu.

This was recognition and familiarity.

Pieces linked together and memories started to immerge that coincided with things that were happening.

It all felt different as these were the small moments that tended to go unnoticed and forgotten, but this was all starting to be too similar and she realised that memories weren't always the most reliable of things.

'Oh,' she thought to herself, trying to stop her facial expression from showing that she wasn't listening to Strange's rambling reasons for not liking Loki, 'this is our reality.'

But she definitely didn't remember jumping forward in time during her school years.

She frowned in thought, looking at Stephen as he stopped talking and looked at her questioningly.

"What is it?"

"I need to ask you about time."

He nodded slowly and smiled, leaning back in his seat and gesturing widely with his arms open.

"I am an open book."

"Not now," she shook her head, glancing around at the crowded room, "too many ears, but later? After classes, in the library."

"All right," he said, his expression falling a little as he noticed just how serious she was being, "I'll be there."