Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 47

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Peter asked in a whisper on their last morning on Asgard. They were perched on the rafters above the morons' lair, also known as the warrior's lounge. It was the room where Thor, Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three liked to hang out in while they weren't out on missions for the throne. Loki and Peter were out of eye and earshot of Thor and his friends where they were perched. Loki had teleported up there while Peter had swung up with a web. His webshooters were hidden under the sleeves of his Asgardian court clothes.

"It is an excellent idea. They will absolutely hate it," Loki replied with mischief and glee in his eyes. His magic was crackling dangerously around him and had been since the night before. It was getting harder to control it, so this had to happen now.

Peter smirked, glad Loki was having so much fun. Loki hadn't played any pranks lately, so he was due. At least his pranks wouldn't really hurt anyone today. "Now remember, you must not hit Lady Sif. She will kick both of our assess if she is caught up in one of my pranks,"

"Scared of a girl?" Peter teased in a whisper.

"That girl is the Goddess of War. I have good reason to respect her strength," Loki replied. He wouldn't admit to fearing Sif, but he would admit to having a proper amount of respect. And he'd rather not get stabbed that day. Doing the stabbing was much preferable to being stabbed.

"You're still having most of the fun here," Peter reminded him in a huff.

Loki smirked. "Nonsense, there is plenty for you to do," he reassured the teen softly. He waited until all of the morons were seated with their mugs of ale before he nodded to Peter. "Now!" He said with his Cheshire Cat grin.

Peter nodded and silently swung down from the rafters. He wrapped an arm around Sif's waist and swung her up onto the rafters and to safety before she could complain. He stuck to the rafter and made sure she was secure there.

Of course at that point, Thor and the warriors three knew that something was wrong, but by then, they were already trapped in Loki's prank. And very, very doomed.

The casks of ale started pouring, and pouring, and pouring as the room filled with ale. The warriors and Thor cursed and told Loki to stop it, while Loki just sat on his rafter laughing at them as they attempted to wade through the ale to stop the flow out of the caskets. Soon they had to swim through the stuff.

"Loki! Enough!" Thor called up to the rafters at Loki's cackles as he was swimming in ale. Somehow all of the ale stayed in the room and didn't slip out into the hall.

Loki considered Thor's yells for a moment and decided that was enough on this particular prank. With a snap of his fingers, the ale was gone, replaced by snakes up to the mens' waists.

"That is not better!" Volstagg yelled, not knowing if the snakes were real or not. Or if they were poisonous if they were real. Fandral started swinging his sword at the snakes, which didn't help.

Loki and Peter both laughed at how ridiculous they looked when they knew the warriors three weren't in any danger. Loki looked to Sif. "Any requests?" He asked with a grin. She was smiling while she watched as well, not quite to laughter yet.

"I do so hate it when Loki needs to burn off magic," Fandral whined as he fought off the snakes, despite that it wasn't doing him any good.

"What was that hair-growth spell?" Lady Sif asked innocently.

Loki grinned "An excellent idea!" He replied, beaming at her. The snakes were gone in the next instant and the warriors' hair and beards started growing at an alarming rate.

"What did he mean about burning off magic?" Peter asked curiously while Loki was turning the warriors' hair different colors as it grew and grew and while they cursed at him and tried to hack off the hair with their blades to no avail.

"Magic needs to be used and trained or it goes haywire," Loki reminded Peter. It was a lesson he'd overheard plenty of times when Loki was teaching Wanda. "I have not been using much magic lately and need to use some. Without an active project to use it on, the best solution is to annoy Thor's friends for awhile,"

"He does this every year or so," Sif added. "Before he figured out this trick a lot of things blew up when he had too much power stored up,"

Loki nodded "And it would be even worse now as I have stores and stores of excess power besides what my body can hold."

Sif shuddered at that. "I've lived through the explosions when you were a child, Trickster, I don't want to live through them now," she said. "You and Sig both had that problem. Too damn strong for your own good,"

Loki laughed. "Yes, and it was years before we figured out how to safely burn off power on occasion," he replied fondly at the memories. "I invited her today, but she used up a lot of power during finals at the Academy," he added before Sif could ask about it.

Peter looked concerned. "Are you sure this'll help?" he didn't like his adopted brother being in danger, hurt, or sick, though he wasn't sure he really understood this need to burn off magic.

"Don't fret, Arachnid. This will most certainly help. I'll burn off some magic, take a nap, and be right back to normal," he reassured the teen. Already, his magic wasn't crackling so badly around him.

He spent the next hour or so using magic on Thor and his friends, taking suggestions from Peter and Sif for magical things to do to them. None of it was truly harmful, things like turning off gravity, turning their weapons into loaves of bread, filling the room with sneezing powder, sending a herd of puppies running through the room. It was all silly harmless stuff.

Loki eventually ran low on magic and waved his hand, ending the spells. He made it up to the warriors for their help by summoning the best ale in the realm and their favorite foods to go with it. He teleported down to the floor and the warriors cheered him. He always gave them a good reward for putting up with his nonsense for an hour.

Peter came down by web, bringing Sif with him. As soon as he set her carefully on her feet, he realized that Loki was swaying on his. "Loki?" He asked wide eyed with fear at seeing any sign of weakness from the god. He rushed to Loki's side and wrapped his arms around Loki's waist to steady him.

"I'm alright, Arachnid, just low on power. I'll be fine after I rest for a bit," he reassured the teen. He'd had to burn nearly all of his power to rebuild it properly. Peter wasn't sure that made sense, but he trusted Loki when it came to magical matters. He also knew that Loki wanted to do this at home where he was safe.

Peter fretted the entire way as he walked Loki back to his suite. He insisted on making sure Loki was tucked into bed and safe before he'd even consider leaving Loki's side. Even then, he sat and read nearby, concerned over the god and just how much power he'd burned.

It meant the world to Peter knowing that Loki trusted the teen to keep him safe while he was weak. He took that responsibility more than seriously, keeping guard while Loki rested and his magic replenished with sleep.