Chapter Text
Peter loves the Avengers Compound. He may have only been here once before, but stepping through the front door really feels like coming home.
Bruce takes Peter to the guest rooms to put his things away, and he ends up in the same room he had the last time. Is it a coincidence? Is this usually the go-to room for guests staying the night? Or is this becoming his unofficially official Avengers Compound bedroom? God, that would be so cool.
Peter leaves his suitcase on the floor and his backpack on his bed, and then he's back to following Bruce through the hallway, hopefully to find someone else to talk to because he and Bruce have been talking for a very long time and they both seem to be running out of things to say.
As if reading his mind, Bruce says, “If you want to check out the common room, that's where a lot of the gang was before I left. I'm sure some of them are still over there.”
“Sure!” Peter says. Is that too enthusiastic? He doesn't want to sound like he doesn’t like spending time with Bruce. He loves spending time with Bruce. He thinks Bruce is the coolest shit since sliced bread. He just… would kind of like to spend time with Bruce and other people.
It's a quiet walk to the common room. A part of Peter feels like he needs to think of something to say. A part of him knows it's okay to let the silence sit between them. Unfortunately, the anxious part of him wins, and he spends the whole walk trying to come up with something to say, and he fails miserably at it.
Bruce is right: there are quite a few people in the common room, and every single one of them is on the phone. Tony is sitting on the floor (which is insane because he's Tony fucking Stark and should not have to be relegated to the floor). Wanda and Pietro are squished onto the loveseat, sharing one phone between them. Natasha is sitting on a beanbag chair. And, last but certainly not least, Steve and Loki are on the couch – and, to Loki's credit, he is not on his phone, but that's only because he's asleep on Steve's shoulder, not that Steve seems to care.
He can't believe that up until a month or so ago, he thought Loki was evil and rotting in some godly prison, if not outright dead, and now he's standing in front of this formerly homicidal maniac who's wearing sweatpants and a Taylor Swift t-shirt and using Captain America as a nap-time pillow. It's crazy how fast things change.
Wanda looks up as soon as they step into the room. It must be her magic at play. (Or maybe she could just see them. That's also possible.) “Hi, Peter.”
Pietro's head snaps up at the sound of his name, and, in an instant, he's on his feet and standing in front of them. “Peter! You made it!”
Peter chuckles at his enthusiasm that honestly warms his heart to hear. He likes this. He likes being liked. He's much quieter in his response, with a wary glance at Loki's sleeping form. “I did! I was really glad you guys wanted to have me back.”
“Of course we did!” Pietro says, and he takes no notes from Peter's quieter tone, because his voice is just as loud as it was before (which, really, isn’t that loud, but it feels real loud when someone's sleeping twenty feet away.) “We still need to become famous on Vine!”
Peter cocks his head to the side, an amused smile on his lips. “I think we already are?” he says quietly. “I mean, it's Spider-Man's account, so that kinda helped, you know, get us followers.”
Tony butts in with a loud and blunt, “You don't have to be quiet for Loki's sake. He knows the risks he takes when he falls asleep in public places.” He shoots Loki a pointed look, as if Loki can see it when he's zonked out the way he is.
Peter frowns. He will admit that this makes sense. He has very little doubt that the Avengers, who have apparently been living with Loki for years, have no problem waking him up if he's sleeping on the couch, and he has slightly more but still very little doubt that Loki understands and accepts that. However, Peter, who has met Loki exactly twice, does not feel comfortable taking part in that. He wouldn't feel comfortable waking up any of the Avengers like that, but he definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable waking up the ex-terrorist who destroyed half of Manhattan a few years ago, even if he does seem like a relatively nice, well-adjusted person these days.
Tony, it seems, does not care. “Hey, Wanda.” He holds an arm up vaguely in her direction. “Give me that pillow.”
“I don't think I want to do that,” Wanda says.
“Oh, come on,” Tony whines. “Why not? You're not using it!”
“Because you're going to throw it at Loki,” Wanda says, “and I've worked too hard to get Loki not to hate me to do that.”
Tony rolls his eyes. “He’s asleep. He won't know it was you who gave me the pillow.”
“Tony, look around the room,” Wanda says. “Who in this room besides me is sitting next to a pillow?”
Peter looks around the room, though he obviously knows the answer: absolutely nobody. (Although, technically, Steve and Loki are also sitting next to some pillows. It would just be hard for Steve to throw one without waking Loki up in the process.)
“Fortunately,” Pietro says, “I do not care what Loki thinks of me.” He zooms over to the couch, grabs a pillow, hands it to Tony, and then returns to Peter’s side, all within seconds. “Enjoy.”
Steve sighs. “Guys…” he says softly, a quiet warning.
“Wow,” Nat quips, “it took you so long to complain about this that I was starting to think you fell asleep, too.”
“I'm just trying not to wake him up,” Steve says, just as quietly as before, though nobody else seems to be trying to do the same. “He needs the sleep. If you guys want to head into the other room to–”
“I can't say that I do want to do that, actually,” Tony says with a smirk. And with that, he throws the pillow straight at Loki.
Peter looks at Bruce warily. This feels mean. Doesn't this feel mean? He feels like this feels mean.
Loki groans and squeezes his eyes shut, his face scrunching up in annoyance as he mumbles an exasperated, “What do you want, Thor?”
Peter covers his mouth with his hand to stifle a laugh.
“Oop, sorry, Thor’s not here right now,” Tony says, almost obnoxiously loudly. “But you know who is here right now? Spider-Man.”
“Hmm?” Loki hums. He lifts his head off of Steve's shoulder and rubs his eyes with his hands before opening them. They flicker around the room, until finally, they settle on Peter.
Peter forces an awkward smile and gives him an equally awkward wave, before saying a still-much-too-awkward, “Hi.”
Loki almost seems perplexed by that. The almost glossy look in his eyes says that's probably because he's still half asleep. He reaches up for a very big stretch, letting out a yawn in the process, and then he picks up the pillow that now sits in his lap. His eyes scan the room once more, and he throws the pillow at Tony. He must be waking up, because his aim is spot-on, though Tony grabs it before it can hit him and tosses it back on the couch.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Tony says teasingly.
Loki blinks a few times, and he looks over at Steve with a frown. “I told you not to let me fall asleep.”
Steve shrugs sheepishly. “Technically, I never agreed to that.”
Tony butts in with a teasing, “Loverboy just thinks you look so cute when you're sleeping.”
Loki just looks at him for a few moments, and then looks at Wanda. “May I have the pillow back?”
“Are you going to throw it at him?” Wanda asks, playfully accusative.
“Maybe.”
Wanda cracks a smile and tosses the pillow back to him.
Tony scoffs. “You wouldn't give me the pillow when I wanted to throw it at him!”
Wanda shrugs. “You kind of asked for this.”
Loki throws the pillow at Tony, a bit harder than before, a bit quicker, but he still catches it with ease. He throws it right back at Loki, and Loki swats it away, and it flops down on the floor between them all.
Natasha clears her throat. “Anyways, welcome back, Peter.”
Now everyone is looking at him again. He doesn't like that. He hopes that's not as obvious as it feels.
“Uh, thanks!” Peter tucks his hands into his pockets. “And thanks for having me!”
“You can come up any time, kid,” Tony tells him. “Please, I’m begging you. These people are so boring.”
Peter can't tell how sincere that invitation is, so he just smiles.
“Oh, by the way,” Natasha says, “Clint wanted me to tell you that he's sorry he missed you, and that he's off doing Avenger things right now but he looks forward to seeing you next time.” She lists it out like she's reading it off a paper, like Clint drilled into her what she was supposed to say on his behalf, which is so nice. It means a lot that he cares about little ol’ Peter Parker.
“I didn't know you guys did solo Avenger things,” Peter says. “You guys don't work as a team whenever there's, you know, an Avengers-level threat?” Especially when everyone else is literally just sitting around on their cell phones. They clearly don't have anything better to do – not that he's complaining because he's ecstatic that he gets to see them today, but it's so crazy to him.
“Depends on the threat,” Natasha says. “I usually go with him for these kinds of things, but then I found out you were coming up so I ditched him.”
Peter can't help the grin that puts on his face. She's here for him! She wanted to see him again! The Black Widow likes having him around! That's so cool!
“Besides,” she adds, “he's a big boy. He'll be fine on his own.”
“And if he's not,” Tony adds, “then she'll just carry the crushing weight of that guilt to the grave.”
Natasha shoots him a glare. “Steve, give me that pillow.”
Tony scoffs. “Hey!” He gives Steve a pointed look. “Don't you dare.”
Steve looks down at the pillow that's squished between himself and the arm of the couch. “This is actually a very comfortable place for a pillow. I don't really want to move it.”
“Thank you,” Tony says indignantly.
“There is no need to move your pillow,” Loki assures him. “We already have a very helpful throwing pillow chosen.” He flicks his hand, and the pillow that Loki and Tony had been throwing at each other is tossed over to Natasha, landing at her feet.
Tony scoffs, throwing his hands up in exasperation. “Oh, come on!”
Natasha thanks Loki, takes that pillow, and throws it right at Tony's face. This time, he just lets it hit him.
“I feel like I'm surrounded by children,” Steve says. “Thank you, Peter, for being the only other adult in this room.”
Peter huffs a laugh. “You’re welcome?”
“And Bruce,” Pietro adds. “Bruce is also very adult.”
“Thanks?” Bruce seems just as unsure about the connotations of that as Peter is.
“Speaking of those who are absent today,” Loki says, “Thor is once again not here to meet you, because he is a terrible person and an even worse teammate.”
“Oh?” Peter tries to hide his disappointment. He really thought this might be the time he finally got to meet the God of Thunder himself. This is the third time he’s met up with the Avengers! The third time! How has he met up with the Avengers three whole times and not met Thor once?
Oh.
Oh, no.
What if that’s on purpose? What if Thor doesn’t want to meet him? What if Thor’s already decided he doesn’t like him? What if Thor is making a point to stay far, far away from the newest Avengers-adjacent hero?
“What he means,” Steve says, elbowing Loki playfully, “is that Thor went back to Asgard before we settled on a day for you to come up, and there’s no signal in Asgard so we can’t just text him that you’re here.”
“That is not what I meant,” Loki says, playing up his indignance, “but it is true nonetheless.” More sincerely, he says, “I imagine Thor will be quite disappointed if he returns to the compound to learn that he’s missed you again. He is quite excited to meet you.”
Oh.
Okay, good.
So Thor doesn’t secretly hate him. (Probably.) That’s great news. That’s very good to know. That would have made this all very uncomfortable when they finally do meet, something that will hopefully happen someday but something he’s not confident enough to make any wagers about.
“Alright, that’s enough from the old people,” Pietro declares. “Peter, come with me – and Wanda, too. I have some new ideas for Vines.”
Peter cracks a smile. This is going to be fun.