Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 9

It was just a day, surely it was nothing.

*

Peter didn't come by Tuesday either.

Loki tried not to sound worried when he asked if anyone had seen the brat. They told him that they hadn't, but they were sure it was nothing to worry about.

Stark said he'd needed the day off for something.

*

On Wednesday, Loki actually got his phone out and texted the boy. <Are you alright, arachnid?>

There was no response

*

On Thursday, Loki teleported outside of Aunt May's apartment and knocked on the door politely.

Then less politely.

Then pounded on the door.

And then broke Aunt May's no teleportation rule and teleported into the apartment.

It was empty, though there should have been someone home at that hour.

*

On Friday, Loki risked breaking Peter's trust. He was deeply concerned about his friend. He didn't tell anyone about what he was planning, but Thor knew he was up to something. "Brother, whatever you are planning, do not. The spider child will not appreciate you prying into his private matters. He would tell us what is going on if he wishes for us to know,"

"What if something has happened to him? What if he is injured or worse? No one has heard from him in days and he is part of this team!" Loki replied hotly. He was past caring that they would think him a sentimental fool. His friend was missing.

"Stark said the child is not injured,"

"Stark has heard from him?!" Loki demanded and before Thor could reply went to confront Stark as to the location of his brat. Thor followed, concerned about his brother's behavior.

Stark was in the common room with the rest of the team. "Stark," Loki snarled to get Stark's attention. He looked up from the Jarvis screen he'd been working on.

"What'dya want, Reindeer Games?"

"You know where the little spider is?" Loki demanded and tried to keep the desperation for answers from his voice.

Stark nodded and looked like he had a sarcastic comment prepared, but he must've caught the desperate gleam in Loki's eyes. "He's been sick. At the hospital. They just sent him home today. He should be there by now,"

The hospital?

But Midgardians needed to be desperately ill to go there.

Especially Midgardians like Peter who did not have much money.

Without a word, Loki teleported directly outside of Aunt May's apartment. It took every ounce of his willpower not to teleport directly inside. He knocked politely at the door. It took a minute and he heard someone moving around before Aunt May opened the door. "Loki... Peter isn't feeling well," she tells him and tries to close the door again.

Loki held it open. "Please? Please let me see him. We've been-" he shook his head. "I have been so worried about him," he admitted the genuine care he felt for the arachnid and let Aunt May see how worried he'd been.

She sighed and opened the door. "Alright, but don't pressure him if he's not up to company," she told him firmly. Sometimes she was so easily bowled over by Loki's charm. At other times she treated him just like any of Peter's other friends.

Loki offered her a polite bow, his manners slipping to the proper manners of home in his nerves as he stepped past her to Peter's room. He knocked tentatively on the door. "Arachnid? Will you let me in? Please?" Loki asked and even he could hear the fear in his voice at what he'd find inside. Or worse, that Peter would send him away.

"Loki? You can come in," Peter sounded nervous. Unwell. His voice weaker, younger than usual.

Loki tentatively cracked open the bedroom door to find Peter in bed under the covers. Loki slipped in and closed the bedroom door behind him. "Stark said you were unwell. That you had been in the hospital," Loki said gently as he came in and sat on the edge of Peter's bed as the teen sat up. He looked pale and wan. He shouldn't. He had superpowers, super healing. He should not look or be ill.

Peter nodded and looked suddenly shy. "I had to switch medications and had a bad reaction to the new one," he told Loki softly. "Even my healing factor couldn't handle an allergic reaction to medication..."

"Medication?" Loki asked concerned. That sounded like a long term illness.

Peter nodded, blushed, looked away embarrassed.

"Arachnid," no that wasn't right. Not for this conversation "Peter, please, you are my best friend on this realm. You know I will not hurt you. I will not tease or make fun of you, not over something important like this. Please trust me," Loki's voice was nearly a beg as he pleaded with the teen to let him help, to at least tell him what was wrong.

It was the first time Loki had called Peter by his name.

Please trust me had begged to god of mischief.

Please trust me had begged the lord of lies.

He had begged.

He would go down on his knees and truly beg if that's what it took to help his friend.

Peter turned even more red and looked down at his lap. He paused a long, long, torturously long minute before he spoke again. "The medication I'm on is to help... transition..." the kid is clearly looking for words and Loki waits patiently for him to find the words he needed. "I was born in a girl's body, but I'm not a girl," he finally settled on, his voice getting vehemence in his defense of his gender. "The medication is to help me be me until I can make the transition through surgery..."

He wouldn't look at Loki while he spoke, while he admitted these things.

Loki realized he'd been bullied for this before.

The boy had soul wounds from people not accepting who he was.

If Loki could understand anything about the young man, it was that.

Loki folded the young man into his arms, pulling Peter to him. "You thought I would not understand? I who have no gender? Who is both male and female? I understand more than anyone, my friend, and would never, ever turn you away for such a thing," he told the young man sobbing out his heartbreak into Loki's shoulder.

Loki wanted to kill every single person who had helped add to the soul wound on Peter's heart, who had led to the tears being shed now.