My Best Friend's the God of Mischief // Peter x Loki

there's a trickster beside the dumpster

"Come on, man. This is getting old." Honest to God, Peter Parker shared a class with a bunch of five-year-old. These airhead jocks seemed to have only one purpose in their miserable lives and that was getting on Peter's nerve. Today's object of interest was his backpack (and Peter didn't think he'd ever be able to thank Gods up above enough that he didn't put his Spider suit in it. Today, he kept the suit in his locker) because there was nothing else that belonged to Peter to mess with, not in the line of their vision, at least. So the backpack would do. Honestly anything would do as long as it got on Peter's nerve.

"Hey, Penis Parker," A dude shouted after another dude threw the backpack at him, over Peter's head, and he caught it mid-air. Peter turned to look just the moment the dude threw the backpack and, this time, no one caught it. This time, the item flew out the window and down to, what Peter assumed, the dumpster at the back of the school. Peter had the sudden urge to rush to the window and look, because he knew it was too late for him to catch his backpack, but then contained himself in time. Rushing to the window would make him look like a cry baby who was extremely effected by these dudes' nonsense action (in which he obviously wasn't!) and it'd only give them more reason to laugh at him. So he just stood on the spot and rolled his eyes. The dudes were laughing and giving one another high five (in which Peter thought was truly childish) then, eventually, they walked out the room and left Peter alone. Alone without his backpack.

"Dude, you should've fought. You're Spider-Man!" A voice coming from behind and Peter spun around. He was met with Ned who, if he had to guess, just came out of his hiding spot.

"Nah," Peter shrugged, "That's starting a fight. I don't want after-school detention. Aunt May'd kill me."

Ned just nodded wordlessly. His body language said 'totally understandable, man' though the look on his face said 'you should've fought. Taught them a lesson they messed with the wrong people. You'd totally have won!'

Peter just chuckled slightly. He knew how badly Ned wanted to see his Spider skills in action. Maybe one day, if the situation really called for it. For now he had to keep a low profile.

~~~

After the ball rang Peter made his way to the back door. He covered his nose with his hand as he pushed it open. Shoot, he didn't really enjoy coming out here. But the backpack wasn't going to return to him by itself so...

He sighed, looking around and praying his backpack wouldn't be laying in someone's vomit since he knew the dumpster at the back of the school was open to anyone and some wasted guys liked to just come here and spend a night after too much fun at a party. Peter scanned his eyes through a pile of trash till he let out a sigh of relief and, at the same time he rolled his eyes. How did he sigh and roll his eyes at the same time? Peter couldn't really tell either. Maybe it was his hidden talent. Anyway he was relieved because he found his backpack and it wasn't covered in trash or vomit. Thank God! But there was a dude laying there, between the dumpster and his backpack, obviously out cold, in weird clothing. Another drunk dude, Peter thought, The school really ought to put 'Shelter for Homeless and Drunk Losers' at the front to make it official. He collected his backpack and was about to walk away, minding his own business, when suddenly Peter stopped in his tracks. He caught something by the corner of his eyes - the dude wasn't just sleeping. Peter gazed down for a better look and the first thing that grabbed his attention was the dude's throat. It was.... well, it was beyond fucked up.

Twisted in a very uncomfortable and unnatural angle that it immediately reminded Peter of the Bent-Neck Lady from the Haunting of Hill House. Bruises and cuts of all sizes scattered all over his skin that was exposed from his clothes. His clothes were black leather with armors; Peter could make it out now that he was this close. The dude was severely injured. Though no part of his wounds stood out as much as the mark around his neck; it looked exactly like manual strangulation, Peter didn't think it was ligature. Leaning down for even better look, it was definitely manual strangulation. Throttling, perhaps. But looking at the mark, whose hand could be this huge and strong that it literally snapped his bone?!

Peter's face turned pale because, as he began to think, he could only think of one person who could cause this much damage using only a hand. And he felt shivers running down his spine when the bitter memories hit with no warning; the memories of him dying in Mister Stark's arms, turning into dust.

Eyes gluing to the man, there was only one person Peter could think of that could do such cruel thing. Even though the monster was, thankfully, defeated and the galaxy was safe, those who turned to dust returned to lives, the name still made Peter shudder. His name was Thanos.

Then Peter felt like he'd been hit with a truck when another wave of shock hit; he knew this dude! Peter didn't recognize him at first because, frankly speaking, he was a mess. But now, judging from everything plus the hair, the clothes and the injuries, and the face he saw on the news about New York invasion years ago, Peter was sure he knew who the dude was - no, this wasn't just some regular dude. This was -

"Hey, you found it yet?" Ned emerged from the door, joining him at the dumpster, "Oh, you found it. Cool." He added once he saw one of the backpack's straps looping over Peter's shoulder. "Why are you still lingering then? Come on, let's go. Here it smells even worse than my grandma's room."

"Ned," Peter called when Ned turned back and was about to walk away, "Look!" He pointed at the man on the dirty ground.

"Oh jeez, man," Ned made a face that seemed like he stepped on bubblegum and it glued to his shoe, "Another drunk dude at the school's dumpster. Yeah, this is as exciting as the first 698 times we saw drunk dudes sleeping here. Can we go? Like for real. The smell's making me feel like throwing up."

"Ned, can you just look?" Peter raised his voice, sounding desperate. Ned looked at his friend skeptically because he knew Peter was Spider-Man the friendly neighborhood who fought Thanos and helped save the galaxy and for that, surely Spider-Man wouldn't be so thrilled over some sleeping dude.

So Ned approached till he was standing next to Peter, looking at the man. The first second Ned saw him he gasped, utterly shocked. "Holy shit... no way..." Ned murmured, more to himself than to Peter. "This is.... this is...." Ned stuttered. He was trembling just by being close to the man because the man was that dangerous.

And so Peter finished the sentence for his friend, "This is Loki."