Yggdrasil District [13/17]
Title: Yggdrasil District
Pairing: Thor/Loki
Raiting for the overall fic: R
Genre: Romance
Disclaimer: I don’t own them.
Summary: Fill for norsekink prompt. Thor is the popular jock, Loki is the snarky outcast, Asgard is the cliche high school setting where we lay our scene.
-- -- --
Loki wasn't completely sure why he continued to go to school. At some point there were too many things at the forefront of his mind to pay attention to what he was supposed to be learning. Hell, in that moment he wasn't even sure which class he was in. He stared blankly down at his textbook, ignoring the noises around him and chewing slowly on apricots.
Darcy made sure to text him every hour with threats of skinning him if he failed to eat properly.
“Loki.”
He looked up at the board, expecting some sort of equation. (Because math is the cliché where people get called on, right?) But the board was blank.
“Loki,” the teacher, Forseti, was staring at him in concern. By that time almost everyone else had turned to look at him as well. “Your nose is bleeding.”
Loki gently touched his upper lip and indeed his fingers came away bloody. He gulped, “may I go to the bathroom?”
“Maybe you should see the nurse,” said Forseti, already in the process of writing a note.
Ah, certainly no need to get a medical person involved. That was just what he needed, everyone finding out about his pregnancy even after Thor had managed to keep his big mouth shut. “No, it's fine, I just need to wash my face.”
Forseti frowned deeper but he pushed the note aside. “If you're sure,” he said, “but if it keeps bleeding I want you to go to the infirmary.”
“Okay.” Loki pinched his sinuses and kept his head down as he slunk out of the classroom.
So now he was bleeding out of his orifices. Fan-fucking-tastic. Loki tried to take a deep calming breath but when he felt the trembling of his jaw it only upset him more. The vague taste of iron in his mouth made him want to vomit. This was just great, he probably had some sort of deficiency. Maybe the scene with Thor yesterday had stressed him out too much and this was the consequence. That wouldn't surprise him. Leave it to Thor to piss him off so bad that their (his, his) baby died.
Loki kicked the bathroom door open and immediately checked the mirror. Under his nose was smeared with blood, but it didn't look like too much. He rinsed his face and cringed when the water started to stain reddish. He pinched his nose again and used a bit of toilet paper (because of course Asgard is too fancy to use paper towels) to dry his face. Then he called Darcy.
She didn't pick up the first three times and then finally, “I'm in class you know.”
“My nose started spontaneously bleeding,” said Loki.
“You skipped a meal, didn't you? I will take your fingers for this!”
“I ate everything you gave me. It was only bleeding a little.” He let go of his nose and waited, but no more blood came out. “It seems to have stopped.”
“Wait a sec.” A series of obnoxious beeps followed and Loki jerked his head away from the phone. He waited patiently for a few minutes until Darcy exhaled loudly. “Okay, it's normal for pregnant people to get nosebleeds. Just drink more water and we'll go see what we can find in the way of nasal sprays. That sound good?”
No, it didn't. Because Loki wasn't quite ready to calm down. “It's normal for pregnant women maybe, but what if something is wrong?”
“Well if you'd go see a doctor...”
Loki wouldn't call the noise he made into the phone a hiss per se.
“Did you just hiss at me?”
“The less time anyone knows about this, the better. You and me are more than enough.”
“And Thor.”
“It's normal?”
Darcy chuckled, “it's normal, I promise. Look if you're so worried, I do know of a guy who might be able to take a look at you.”
“Darcy...”
“Hear me out. He's one of the science teachers here and he's got a degree in pretty much every science thing so he's gotta know some doctor stuff. Maybe even about this particular subject. And Mr. Banner is super chill so I'd be really surprised if he freaked out, you know?”
Loki opened his mouth to refuse before the name registered. “Banner?”
“Yeah.”
“Bruce Banner?” His eyes widened.
“Oh yeah, I guess he is a little famous.”
“What is Bruce Banner doing teaching at a middle class high school?” Then again, he supposed, what was Tony Stark doing at a middle class high school. Loki was not ashamed to admit that Midgard baffled him a little.
“Big long story, not sure what's true, don't feel like getting into it. Are you down?”
Well at the very least he'd get to meet a world renowned scientist. “I suppose.”
“Bitchin'.”
- - - -
Darcy was waiting to give him a ride to Midgard once school let out. She spent the entire drive chattering about more healthy foods she read about in her baby books and advice that Jane had offered up. (“She wants to be a nurse,” Darcy had explained.)
The parking lot was sparsely populated, but Loki was still surprised by the amount of cars still there. “Is there practice?”
“Not today, everyone is probably hanging out because, uh,” she looked down and turned off the engine.
“They're not waiting for me.” There was so much dread in his tone that he couldn't convince himself.
“Well, Tony was looking over Jane's shoulder when I mentioned I was bringing you to school.”
Loki got out and slammed the door shut. Darcy followed after him, “you don't know where Mr. Banner's classroom is.”
“I'll follow the scent of disappointment in where one's life has brought them,” Loki snapped.
“Don't be mad, they don't know why you want to meet with him.” Loki glared hard at her and Dacy smacked his arm. “Stop acting like the world is out to get you. It's fine, it'll be fine, you'll be fine.”
Those words were obscenely easy to say without really knowing what was going to happen. Loki huffed at her, but he still didn't feel quite angry enough to continue ignoring her.
Darcy led him to an open air hall where she knocked on a window.
The blinds cracked and spectacled eyes caught a glare from the sun as they peeked out. The blinds closed again and Darcy pulled Loki further to the right to a a set of blue double doors marked 'E Hall.' One of the doors cracked open and Darcy beamed through the opening and said, “hey Mr. Banner, I brought the guy I told you about!”
The door opened fully to reveal a scrawny man with shaggy brown hair, a rumpled white button down and khaki slacks. “Darcy,” he sighed, “I'm tutoring Clint and Steve. I already told you-” he looked at Loki. “I apologize, I told her I'm not a medical doctor.”
“Hey Banner, who is it?” A voice echoed from inside.
Bruce took a deep breath and called over his shoulder, “kindly finish the reading, Mr. Barton.”
“Oh hey, I know you!” A young, blond man brushed through the doorway and peered up at Loki. “Weren't you at the game?”
“Clint...” began Bruce.
“Clint, stop giving Mr. Banner a hard time!” Darcy tried to push him away from Loki, but Clint wouldn't be moved.
“I'm not giving him a hard time,” Clint backed away from Loki to sling an arm around his small teacher's shoulders. “Am I?”
Bruce raised an unimpressed eyebrow but the effect was ruined by the smile twitching at his lips. “You weren't up until just now.” He shrugged the arm off and looked to Darcy and Loki, “come in. If you want to give it a try, I might have the number of someone who's more qualified than me in the area you need.”
Clint returned to his seat next to a larger blond who Loki recognized as Steve from the game. Both of them had several textbooks and notebooks out in front of them. He looked questioningly to Bruce.
“They're here to catch up in biology,” he whispered, navigating to his cluttered desk in the back of the room.
Loki glanced back, Clint was blatantly watching them while Steve stared hard at the wall of text in his book.
“Steve has a little bit of a hard time with science,” said Darcy, “he's still catching up because he was in a coma for a while. He's smart though so he's working his way into AP classes.”
“I see.”
“And Clint's just a meathead.”
“I heard that and I took offense, Darcy!” huffed Clint. “Come on, Bruce, this is a hostile environment.”
“Eyes in the book please,” Bruce hummed low to himself as he neatly stacked papers to all sides until he came across a rolodex.
“So,” Darcy sat in an empty desk and propped her chin up in her hands, “where'd you kick everyone off to?”
“Not sure. I told Tony that if I counted to ten and they were still here I'd flunk Steve.”
Loki returned Clint's stare coldly but Clint only grinned and winked.
“Clint, eyes down.” Bruce was copying a number down from the rolodex. He folded the paper in half and handed it to Loki. “I'll send him in email so he'll be expecting your call.”
“Thank you...” Loki regared the man warily, “did Darcy tell you...” He trailed off very aware of Clint and Steve perking up.
Bruce nodded, “she tried to beat around the bush but I'm a little familiar with this type of thing.” Loki's eyebrows rose but Bruce shook his head, “not me, someone I know.”
“I see,” he slid the number into his pocket, relaxing little by little when Bruce's expression remained patiently placid. “Thank you,” he said it again, genuinely.
Bruce smiled and showed them to the door. Loki didn't miss the strange expression on Clint's face and was about to make a scathing comment when-
“Brucey if you let them leave before I say 'hi' you'll never science in this town again!”
Everyone jumped but Darcy recovered first, “Steve! I'm surprised at you!”
Steve for his part was trying to grapple his phone out of his pocket, “I turned it off sir, I promise,” he exclaimed, flushing bright red.
“Oh please, Steve, I built your phone, you're never safe.”
“Tony...” he growled.
“That's right baby, now tell me what you're wearing.”
Steve opened the back of his phone and yanked the battery out.
There was a knock at the window. Clint leaned halfway out of his chair and pulled the blinds. Tony, a younger boy Loki remember as Peter and an unfamiliar girl with dark hair waved at them.
Tony shot a shit eating grin at Steve, “that's cold.”
The trio moved out of sight and reappeared around the corner at the door. Darcy pulled Loki back out of the doorway.
“I'm sorry Steve, but I'm going to have to fail you.”
“But sir!” Steve's distress was like an eagle dying.
Bruce crossed his arms, “I gave you fair warning.”
“But-”
“So Loki!” began Tony, “I heard you were visiting and I just had to say hello. How's it going with 'big blond'?” He smirked and nudged Loki with his elbow. Loki glared but Tony continued, unaffected, “why did you need to see Brucey? Something for science? Sex? Drugs? Rock and roll?”
“Did you kill someone?” exclaimed Peter, clutching at a camera that hung around his neck. “Knock someone up? Get knocked up?”
Darcy gasped loudly, effectively silencing the quiet chuckles. Darcy covered her mouth with both hands but the damage was done and everyone was staring at her.
Tony tilted his head to the side, “something you want to share?”
Loki didn't bother filtering the rage he felt out of the look he turned on Darcy. She in turn looked intently at the floor.
The air in the room slowly turned heavy with realization once the expectation for someone to call 'shenanigans' wore off.
Jessica said something first. “Holy shit.”
And it was for the most part indicative of everyone else's feelings.
- - - -
“I'm so sorry I took you there.”
Loki didn't bother glaring at Darcy. He instead threw off his seatbelt and flew into his house. Unfortunately she followed.
“And I'm sorry Peter said it was weird.”
There had been no outright mocking, but Loki didn't for one second miss the varying degrees of disgust/disbelief/pity on their faces. He slammed the door to his bedroom shut in Darcy's face and leaned back against it.
She knocked on the door and whimpered, “and I'm really sorry that Tony called Thor to congratulate him.”
What was Stark even doing with Thor's phone number in the first place? He hadn't stuck around to find out once Tony put Thor on speaker-phone. How unbelievably callous, even by Loki's standards.
Loki slid down onto the floor and resisted the urge to tear out his hair. The outing had been a far different nightmare than he'd been prepared for. He realized with little care that his nose had begun bleeding again.
((Norns Gossip))
Thor got a call from the Tony Stark. He wouldn't tell anyone what was said but he seemed really upset.
AN:
Hooooly Hell, are there any betas in the house that wouldn't mind helping a cabbage out?