Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 49

Loki quickly found that he quite disliked summer vacation. For one thing, it was summer and Midgard had much hotter summers than he'd anticipated. So he spent most of his time hiding in the air conditioning in the tower. Which didn't put him in the best of moods.

That spring, Stark had grudgingly allowed him a small plot in the grounds surrounding the tower to plant a little garden. It reminded him of his mother's garden on Asgard, and included quite a lot of flowers that were native to Asgard and didn't grow on Midgard. Though he and Peter had gone to a shop to find additional flowers to add. Stark had tried to tease Loki for the garden, but the team had made him stop. They were glad to see Loki having a hobby that involved growing things and creating instead of stabbing people.

Except now, it was so hot outside that Loki couldn't tend his flowers during the day and only got to see them in the early morning or late in the evening. He was afraid that soon it would get too hot out for even that. His cooling spells could only do so much and the heat drained him. It was why he could never go to Muspelheim and had nearly died the one time Odin had forced him to go there with Thor. He hadn't known he was Jotun at the time, only that he was weak to the heat.

The other problem Loki had with summer vacation was that he had much less time with Peter than what he was expecting. He spent plenty of time with Wanda, teaching his adopted little sister as much magic as she could learn. She ate it up and devoured the magic as if it were a natural part of her, not the work of Hydra to give it to her.

Loki had thought Peter would be around more during the summer holiday. He thought they would go on more patrols and he would be constantly in the tower. He thought he was going to have a summer of fun with his friend.

Instead, Peter had gotten a real internship at Stark Industries. So Peter spent all day at the company. His patrols had gotten limited, and he barely saw anyone as he was learning so much with Stark.

Loki abhorred it.

He wanted his friend and brother back. He was tired of being cooped up. And he hated feeling alone.

So Loki did what any sane, logical being would do.

He went to Stark Industries to find his friend. It wasn't hard to find the building, nor was it particularly difficult for him to teleport there. He wasn't draining all of his magic to walk there, as the heat would drain his power trying to keep him cool. It was much less power to teleport across town.

Getting IN to the building was slightly more challenging. Loki wasn't exactly on the invite list and there was security to deal with. But a bit of magic convinced Happy and the lovely security people that he was completely authorized in the building and had full security clearance.

The next problem was finding the spiderchild.

Loki was getting bored by then and didn't much fancy a hunt through the giant labyrinth of a building to track down the arachnid and wherever Stark stashed him away. So he made his way to Stark's office and sat behind his desk. He would never dare sit behind Pepper's desk. She would kill him. Stark would just be annoyed.

He propped his feet up on Stark's desk and laced his fingers behind his head, lounging. It was only a matter of time before Stark found him.

And find him he would.

It took awhile and quite a few more pranks throughout the building before he was found than Loki would have expected. He wasn't sure Stark would notice all the coffee in the building turning to decaf. Though someone should have noticed when all the water turned to vodka. They were probably just keeping it quiet so they could have more vodka. Someone should have noticed when every inch of the building was decorated for Christmas though it was the middle of summer. They just shrugged it off as typical office behavior. Same with the donuts that appeared on every flat surface.

So Loki had to step up his game. He didn't know what the final straw was, whether it was giving every single employee cat ears and tails, dressing everyone in the building in footie pajamas, enchanting the artwork to move, turning all of the screensavers and computer backgrounds to Cap wearing nothing but his shield held very strategically, and changing Jarvis' voice to sound like Minnie Mouse.

Finally, and predictably, Stark came storming into his office once he was personally the butt of the pranks. He stormed in dressed in nothing but a pink speedo with his hair magically dyed the same shade of hot pink. He was trailed by Peter, who was trying to contain his laughter. "What are you doing here? Put this back!" Stark demanded.

Loki burst into laughter, sitting up from where he was still lounged in Stark's expensive office chair. "About time you showed up, Stark," he teased, but gestured and Stark was dressed again in his usual jeans and band t-shirt. Only because Loki didn't want to see Stark in a speedo.

"I was in the middle of a very important business meeting," Stark growled at Loki, who only laughed louder.

"Elphaba, why are you here?" Peter asked, getting back to the point at hand.

Loki gave him a warm smile. "I wished to see your internship, Arachnid," he said too innocently. His tone clearly told his friend that he missed him.

Peter caught it instantly. He beamed at Loki. "C'mon, let me show you the project I'm working on!" He said brightly and grabbed Loki's hand to drag him through the halls of the building to his lab so he could babble about his project and tell Loki all about it.

They both ignored Stark yelling over his pink hair.

"Two," Loki informed Peter when they'd been in the lab for awhile, feeling much better with his blood-brother back.

Peter grinned. "We'll go patrol after I finish this up," he promised, which made Loki's day even better.