"SHERLOCK!" Miss Romanoff, PE teacher, shouted loudly, "Pay attention!"
Sherlock didn't react, so Loki leaned over.
"Midgard to Sherlock! Pay attention you weirdo, Miss Romanoff is not one to make angry!"
Sherlock still didn't react, and Loki sighed, jabbing Sherlock in his stomach with his elbow.
"Psychopath!" Loki hissed.
Sherlock came down to Earth, his face contorting into an expression of pain at the jab in his ribs and then one anger as he glared at Loki.
"Socio—"
"Romanoff," Loki interrupted, and Sherlock turned to Miss Romanoff.
She was standing with her arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently. And, deducing by the speed at which she was tapping, she'd been doing so for a reasonable time.
"My sincerest apologies," Sherlock excused himself, using whatever British politeness he possessed, "I was mildly distracted for a moment."
"Mildly? You were in the deepest cellar you Mind Palace has!" Loki grumbled, ensuring that he spoke under his breath so that nobody could hear him.
Miss Romanoff raised an eyebrow at Sherlock's apology, and then continued with the lesson.
"As I was saying; when learning how to do a backflip, it is essential that you take it step by step. Always ensure you have mastered an exercise before moving on. This is certainly not the time for one of your "sometimes you need to run before you can walk" shenanigans, Anthony. Understood?"
The young man she'd addressed nodded, but the moment Miss Romanoff turned away he smirked mischievously.
"That one's trouble," Loki muttered, "I can just see his ego radiating off that dark brown hair. Do you know him, Sherlock?"
Loki turned to his partner in problems, and groaned when he realized that Sherlock had retreated to his Mind Palace once more.
"Sherlock!" he scolded softly, stabbing the young detective with his elbow once more.
"Ouch!" Sherlock complained, but Miss Romanoff silenced him with a piercing glare.
"Sorry," Sherlock muttered, before directing his attention to Loki.
"What was that for?"
"You really need to leave your Mind Palace be for a while, okay? Romanoff can kill you with looks alone and her hands tied behind her back. Trust me."
Sherlock rolled his eyes.
"Whatever. Did you want to ask something?"
"I was going to ask whether that guy over there looks familiar," Loki pointed to Anthony, "his name's Anthony..."
At that moment Anthony turned to face them, and all it took was one look into his brown eyes for Loki to recognize him.
"...Stark."
"Don't know him," Sherlock replied, not noticing Loki's surprise, "but the one standing next to him could easily be Anderson. That would explain why I can't think straight."
Sherlock shook his head at Loki's questioning gaze.
"Nevermind," the detective muttered, "inside joke. John would've understood."
The ghost of a smile darted across Loki's lips, disappearing before it was really there.
"We'll talk later," he promised, "for now we should pay attention, otherwise we'll suffer the wrath of the Romanoff. Which is not something I advise you do, if you have the choice."
-
Physical Exercise passed in blur. Loki performed fairly well when it came to stamina, flexibility and the like, although he was a terrible cheat when it came to games. Sherlock, when he was actually paying attention, had a decent enough endurance, although he scored a bit lower in flexibility, not having fought with daggers for years like Loki had.
They had to make teams, and Romanoff was wise enough to separate Loki and Sherlock. Loki was teamed up in a group with amongst others Philip Anderson, Sam Wilson, and Darcy, and Sherlock ended up with Mary, Anthony Stark, and few more.
The assistant teacher — a young man called Pietro, which neither Sherlock nor Loki recognised — conducted the game. It was some sort of dodgeball, and in the first round Loki and Sherlock were out within seconds. They sat at the sidelines, Loki observing and Sherlock thinking.
Loki glanced at his 'brother', a glint of mischief in his eyes.
"I bet you you can't beat me," he hissed in Sherlock's ear, and Sherlock looked up.
"Well we're both out of the game now," he pointed out, "so what's the point?"
"We can get back in," Loki pointed out, "if our team scores a certain amount of points, they can let a player back into the team. They won't pick you, because you literally just let yourself get hit."
"As did you," Sherlock replied with a shrug.
"There'll be second round," Loki went on, "let's make it challenge. Just between us, who can stay in the longest. Deal?"
Sherlock pursed his lips. He really wasn't in the mood for this.
Loki held out his hand for Sherlock to shake.
"Unless... you know... you're just a boring mortal like all the others. You know what, this was a bad idea. You're no match for me anyw—"
"Fine you manipulative little—" Sherlock cut himself off, well-aware that Miss Romanoff did not appreciate swearing in her class. They shook hands, and Loki grinned.
This was going to be fun.
-
"Three... two... one... START!" Pietro hollered, and Loki ducked just in time to avoid a well-aimed shot of Sherlock's. He turned around to grab the ball, and threw it back at the consulting detective with incredible force.
Sherlock side-stepped it, and the ball hit Stark instead.
"Hey!" Anthony protested, rubbing his arm.
"Out, Stark!" Pietro shouted from the sidelines, "and you too, Hill!"
Loki had to drag his attention back to the game, dodging a couple more throws from Sherlock, and succeeding in accidentally hitting the boy behind the detective — Coulson.
"Out Phil!" Pietro shouted, "You too, Philip!"
Coulson and Anderson drooped off to the sidelines, and Sherlock smirked as he threw the ball back. Loki barely avoided it, and it bounced off harmlessly against the wall.
Darcy picked up the ball, passing it swiftly to Loki, who cannoned it back to Sherlock. The ball, going almost too fast to catch, zoomed over Sherlock's head as he dropped himself to the floor in a desperate attempt to avoid it. It hit the head of one of the other girls, and she fell over, rubbing her temples groggily.
"Loki, watch it!" Pietro warned, and Loki rolled his eyes.
He closed his eyes while Sherlock went to fetch the ball, concentrating on his fingertips.
It took more effort than usual, but when he opened his eyes a light green flame danced over his fingers.
It was a good thing he'd opened his eyes, because he barely had the time to avoid the ball that Mary had aimed at his chest. The flame extinguished as he bent backwards, restraining all his instincts to block.
Sherlock had the other ball in his hands, ready to throw.
Of course — there's more than one ball. That was probably one of those 'relevant details' Sherlock was going on about.
"Darcy, you're out!" Pietro hollered.
Loki dodged a ball, and it flew all the way to the back of the room. He ran to fetch it, sliding to a halt beside the ball and picking it up in one fluid movement.
As Loki jogged back to the middle of the room, he focused on the ball. Small green swirls spread over it, and a moment later he had an identical copy of the ball in his other hand.
"Perfect."
Sherlock wasn't paying attention — that Wilson boy, the only other person left in Loki's team, was a pretty good shot, and Sherlock, Mary and Irene were having quite some trouble avoiding all the balls he managed to throw at them.
Loki changed his grip on the real ball, and threw the fake at Irene.
Seconds later, he sent the second ball after it, just a few decimetres lower.
Irene avoided the first with little effort, and the illusion disintegrated above her head. The second, however, hit her leg.
"Adler, OUT!" Pietro shouted, and those along the sidelines were cheering them along now.
"MA-RY! SHER-LOCK! LO-KI! SAAAAAAM!!"
Cheater! Sherlock mouthed, and Loki shrugged. Nobody had said that it was against the rules to use illusions.
Sam Wilson grinned at their audience, doing a thumbs up and barrelling a ball at Mary with incredible speed. She avoided it, but by that time Loki had gotten his hands on another ball. He took one glance at Mary and threw the ball at Sherlock, who sidestepped it casually.
Loki picked up another ball as it rolled by, holding it at the ready.
Sherlock had been collecting balls, and threw three of them at Loki in close succession. The first Loki ducked under, the second he sidestepped while clumsily throwing his own ball at Sherlock, and the third he jumped over. The jump was a bit unfortunate, because he landed right on top of a fourth ball, slipping and crashing to the ground.
He landed face-first, his breath knocked out of him.
A ball bounced up to him, and tapped his head gently, just as a ball of Sam's hit Sherlock's thigh.
Mary cheered, and Sherlock high-fived her before walking to the sidelines. Loki clenched and unclenched his fists, and then got up and followed Sherlock.
"So, who won?" Sherlock enquired, and Loki shrugged.
"I guess technically it was Sam, not me, who got you out, so I suppose you win."
"Yes, but it was Mary's ball that hit you out, so... tie?"
Loki smiled faintly.
"Fine, tie. But I'm so beating you next time."
Sherlock smirked.
"We'll see about that."