Chapter 21
Thursdays were probably Tony's new least favorite day.
Breakfast was very awkward. Maria tried to make pleasant conversation, but neither Tony or Howard indulged her. Thankfully, Howard had to leave early because of work, so Tony was able to enjoy half of his waffles and bacon.
Maria, however, was disappointed the whole morning. Simply because of the behavior of her husband and son.
She knew that Howard wasn't truly sorry. His attitude was probably 12% sorry, 88% couldn't-care-less-it's-all-someone-else's-fault. She also knew that Tony wasn't going to apologize for running away, because he wasn't sorry either.
They needed to patch things up, but she couldn't talk to either of them. When she talked to Howard, he changed the subject to Thanksgiving, work, or the weather. Tony just gave halfhearted replies and refused to cooperate with her efforts.
She was trying to help, she really was, but her words seemed to fall on deaf ears.
Tony put his plate in the sink and left for school right after, giving Maria no time to say anything besides a quick "Good-bye, love you, have a nice day at school!"
She had to figure some way to patch things up between them.
Maybe she could enlist Steve's help...
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Tony was so sick of his father's behavior, so he was immensely glad when he escaped the most awkward breakfast of October and arrived at school. Tony was greeted by a quick kiss on the cheek from his boyfriend, plus poorly disguised disgusted looks, but he didn't care about them.
As he and Steve were walking towards the doors, they heard quick footsteps behind them. Tony got a quick glance and groaned.
"It's that nerd from the diner." He mumbled to Steve.
"Hey Phil." Steve greeted in his typical polite and good-natured voice.
Phil was usually a very collected if not extremely mature fourteen year old, (That's what happens when you live with parents like his.) but he acted like a silly little fanboy around Steve.
"You remembered me?" Phil looked at him, surprised.
"Of course." Steve responded.
"Hi Steve. Hey, do you guys think I can hang out with you at lunch? I don't really have any other friends. I usually sit with Miss Hill, but I think she's called in sick today." Phil asked, attempting to be super casual.
"You sit with Miss Hill? A teacher?" Tony looked amused.
"Yeah, I don't think my friends will mind if you sit with us. Neither will Tony. Will you, Tony?" Steve looked at said teenager and gave him a look.
"Sure!" Tony said with an overenthusiastic smile.
"Great. I better get to class. See you guys later." Phil turned and left.
"Steve!" Tony whined. "I don't want the nerdy fanboy to sit with us."
"Tony, he doesn't have any friends. He sits with a teacher. The least we can do is let him sit with us." Steve said.
"Fine, but I don't like him." Tony grumbled as they entered the building and went to their lockers.
"I'm not even going to ask why." Steve replied, pulling his textbooks out of his locker.
"We better go." Tony closed his locker. He didn't want to talk about Coulson and the crush he had on his Steve.
His? Pfft, Steve wasn't anyone's. Tony buried that thought as soon as it popped up. They were just together. Dating. It's not like they were in love or anything. Nope. Tony said that all because of stress, nothing else.
"You and your friends are sitting with us, right?" Steve asked.
Tony nodded. "Yeah, I can't let Phil steal you away while I'm eating my favorite lunch, it'd ruin it forever."
"Okay." Steve said in more of a question than a statement. What was Tony talking about? Phil didn't have a crush on him.
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Lunch period. Steve was beginning to doubt that. Phil was doing everything for him. He was acting funny, like Peggy did when they were dating.
When the friends were in line, they went in this order: Thor, Clint, Steve, Phil, Natasha, Pepper, Bruce, Tony.
Tony was naturally extremely annoyed and aggravated by being nowhere near his boyfriend, who was already practically at the end of the line.
Phil, however, was simply ecstatic. He did everything for Steve. He even insisted that he'd pay for Steve's lunch. What a little creep.
Tony was mentally throwing darts at a picture of the little creep when Bruce interrupted his thoughts.
"So, we haven't hung out in a while." Bruce remarked as he filled up his tray.
"Been busy. Steve and all that." Tony said, sounding more annoyed than he wanted.
"Is it Phil?" Bruce sighed.
"Bruce, I am not being overprotective of my Ste- boyfriend." Tony hoped he hadn't caught the mistake, and if he did, he ignored it.
"I never said you were. He's fourteen and he's no competition. Steve would never leave you for Phil." Bruce reassured.
Clint was exiting the line and walked past them. "You'd be surprised by what those little guys can do." He shook his head and left for a table.
"What's his problem?" Tony asked. Bruce shrugged.
"But seriously, don't be overprotective." Bruce turned and began talking to Pepper, but he looked rather sad. Tony didn't catch his expression.
"Yeah, I'm so not." He mumbled and finished getting his Shawarma, which didn't look nearly as appetizing as it usually was.
Meanwhile at the table that literally had Thor's name on it, Steve was trying to make conversation with the fourteen year old and failing. "So Phil-"
"I noticed you didn't get a Vitamin Water, but you said to Clint that it was your favorite drink." Phil interrupted.
"They were out, anyways-"
"Here, have mine. I haven't opened it yet." Phil handed it to him, cutting off his sentence yet again.
"Thanks-"
"Hey, don't mind if I do!" Tony slid between them and grabbed the bottle, opening it and downing it quickly.
"Will anyone let me talk?" Steve asked in irritation.
"Sorry." Phil and Tony said in unison. Tony glared at the other kid.
"Hey, why don't we all just get along?" Bruce said as if he was talking to fighting toddlers.
"Wonderful idea, right guys?" Thor said, glancing at his other two friends, Clint and Natasha.
"What did we do?" Nat cocked her eyebrow.
"Nothing. Hey man, knock it off!" Clint reprimanded as Phil and Tony began throwing bits of Shawarma meat at each other.
"Aw Clint, you're taking lessons from me." Natasha teased.
"You were the one who told be to beware of people you like getting crushes on fourteen year olds like-" Tony was whispering to him but stopped when Clint gave him a frantic glance.
"You what?" Natasha looked at him, she heard what he said. No one else did.
"Uh, well, nothing." Clint said sheepishly.
"Clint Francis Barton! I do NOT have a crush on LOKI!" It came out a lot less convincing than she hoped. Natasha would've left the cafeteria, but instead she just stared intently at her plate while receiving confused glances from the rest of the school.
Thor snickered.
"What?" Clint asked.
"Your middle name is Francis." Thor continued to snigger.
"My middle name's Edward." Tony said.
"My middle name's Roger." Phil grinned.
Tony shot him a death glare.
Steve put his face in his hands.
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Pepper wasn't having the best day. At all. She kept sending reassuring glances to Tony about his boyfriend, but he was ignoring her and Bruce.
She also really hated Shawarma.
"So, I'm Pepper Potts. I don't think we've been introduced." She smiled at Phil. Maybe she could make friends with the freshman. If she did, it would aggravate Tony, which would feel rather satisfying.
"I'm Phil Coulson." He introduced himself.
"Do you know everyone here?" She asked, happy with the annoyed look Tony got on his face. She could practically hear his complaining now, "Pepper, you can't converse with the enemy!"
"I just don't know you and your friend. I know all of Steve's friends' names." Pepper thought that was a little creepy, but she didn't mind.
"I'm Bruce Banner." He said in a friendly tone.
Tony couldn't really believe his traitorous friends. They were supposed to support him when he disliked someone. Bruce especially!
Truth was, Bruce was feeling left out too. Tony wasn't even noticing him. So hey, why not give him a taste of his own medicine?
"Nice to meet you. Aren't you the kid that flipped out and beat up that one creep that one time?" Phil asked.
"I think I'm the only one in this school who's ever beat up one of the creeps, so I guess so." He shrugged.
"Ah, okay." He looked a little uncomfortable and went back to Pepper.
Bruce sighed. This always happened. People were scared of him. Phil probably was freaked out that he'd beat him up because he was friends with Tony and Tony didn't like Phil.
Well, Bruce was used to it. He just went back to his Shawarma.
Tony noticed his friend's dejected look. Maybe he should strike up conversation? He'd be a good friend if he did.
He'd never really been a good friend.
"Hey Bruce, wanna hang out this afternoon?" Tony asked.
"With you and your boyfriend? No thanks." Bruce took a bite of food.
"No, just you and me. We're best friends, I really don't want to drift apart." Tony actually sounded genuinely apologetic.
Bruce's face brightened considerably. "Sure, I'd like that."
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After school, Clint, Thor, and Steve were all going to Thor's house to study. Natasha was going to be late, so she made up a lame excuse and walked to the one place she hoped nobody would see her going to.
"Hey." Natasha poked her head in the doorway of Room 207 in the hospital. "Visitors welcome?"
"Yes. I think I'm supposed to be resting, but if you're quiet, they'll never know you're here."
"So, Loki, how's it going?" She sat herself in a chair near the wall.
"I'm bored, and I'm bored, and did I mention I was extremely bored?" Loki stated dryly. "But it does cheer me up to see you."
"You're welcome." Natasha wasn't going to show how happy it made her that he was awake and acting like himself.
He sat up and cleared his throat. "I suppose you got my letter."
"Oh, yeah." She really didn't want to talk about it. Well, she actually did, but she didn't. Natasha was confusing herself.
"I meant every word of it." He replied.
"How can you be so calm about it? You told me you loved me, then that you were leaving town, then you jumped in front of a freakin' car and could've died and I would've never gotten to tell you that I feel the same way!" She burst out breathlessly.
"I didn't think that you did." Loki stated after a period of silence.
"Oh, well I do. So you're wrong for once. Ha ha." She sunk into her seat.
"Well, I don't mind." He answered.
"You always have to have the last word, don't you?" Natasha scoffed.
"Always."
"Well, I'm not going to let you have the last word." She decided.
"Ah. How exactly do you plan to do that?"
"Make you shut up." She responded and got up from her seat.
"You're going to leave, really? Then I'll just be bored again." Loki said with a frown.
"No, but I can't really do this sitting over there." She responded and walked over to the hospital bed.
"Do what?"
"Could you just shut up and let me kiss you?" She leaned in and gently pressed her lips onto his.
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Clint, of course, didn't believe Natasha's weird excuse. She didn't have any extended family in the area, so there wasn't any reason why she would be cleaning her grandmother's garage. She must have been in a hurry, or she would've had come up with a better excuse.
So he followed her. Clint wasn't really surprised when they ended up at the hospital. Of course she'd want to visit Loki. It just made sense.
Clint listened to their conversation from outside the room until her outburst.
His face fell. She did feel the same way for him. He knew it, but he never wanted to admit it.
So when he looked inside a few moments later and saw them kissing, he wasn't surprised. Just incredibly hurt. That was Natasha's first kiss. The kiss he wanted to have with her. It was with Loki instead.
They pulled away and Loki said something that made her look to the window where Clint was watching.
"You better go talk to him." Loki suggested.
"Yeah, I, uh..." Natasha looked reluctant to leave.
"I'll see you tomorrow?"
"Okay, bye Loki." Natasha ran from the room and followed Clint, who was now fleeing the hospital like a bomb was going to go off.
Loki sighed. Natasha liked him too. She kissed him.
He never saw that coming.