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Part 1 of The Forge Fire
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2020-09-24
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2022-10-11
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12/?
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Forged By Lighting, Rescued By Love

Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Chapter Text

(Series Summary: In an alternate universe, HYDRA has done a lot of personal damage to many of the heroes of Marvel. They truly are the victims of horrible trauma. They were taken as HYDRA agents by force, used as lab rats, abused, damaged, brainwashed, mind controlled, and HURT in ways that can't truly ever be fixed. Then they escaped, or were rescued, and they banded together to form a team. The Avengers are a group of ex child HYDRA agents who's mission is to one day destroy HYDRA for good. Their mission is not easy, and the life they live does not help lightning the load. Living with poverty, constantly being bullied, food insecurity, all different kinds of psychological conditions including PTSD, various disabilities and physical illnesses, and almost no family members to turn while working for cash in any way they can and dumpster diving by day and raiding secret HYDRA bases by night is hard enough, especially since they live together without ANY true adults. Adding in that none of the Avengers are 18 yet (at least in Earth years) just makes it harder. They've really only kept their hope Alive because they have each other for support, occasionally along with their mysterious advocate Mr. Coulson and the generosity of neighbors and strangers. However, the Avengers are survivors. They refuse to give up on the hope that HYDRA won't steal the futures they dream of, so they keep fighting any way they can.

Then one spring they start getting new teammates, and they gain more once summer rolls around. They definitely never imagined that they would receive allies from space! To think that everything changed the day the Avengers rescued a couple of new members during a HYDRA base raid, including a newly blinded boy who says his name is Prince Thor Odinson of Asgard. Then over a month later they rescue (and successfully recruit) Thor's brother Prince Loki Odinson, who is QUITE shocked to find out that Thor is not only blind, but is in fact ALIVE, especially considering that Thor was thought to be dead for over two years when his elder brother disappeared without a trace after his banishment ended! Thor meanwhile is shocked to learn that HYDRA had been holding Loki captive almost as long as they had held Thor, and that HYDRA had left Loki with one less leg than he had the last time he had seen him. Two weeks after Loki joins the Avengers, they rescue and recruit even MORE kids and expand the avengers even further! All of these new allies were welcome additions to the Avengers team, but when they realized that getting the Odinson brothers back to Asgard could lead to an interplanetary alliance? Well, that opened up a whole ton of new possibilities for the Avengers that could step up their small scale rebellion against HYDRA up big time! One thing is certain though, these kids are the best chance the world has of beating HYDRA once and for all.

This story will EVENTUALLY focus heavily on Thor and Loki at times so if you like the Brodinsons you're in the right place! You've just got be patient! Warning: In this story I take some creative liberties with science. This story also features characters who have debilitating permanent injuries such as characters with nerve damage, blindness, injury related deafness, or who are amputees, as well as characters with in born conditions like ADHD or learning disabilities. I mean no offense if I portray something incorrectly or something. All of the Avengers will have PTSD in this story. This is not a story for young children due to sensitive topics.)

(Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any Marvel Characters in any way, shape, or form)

(What's the difference between form and shape anyway?)

Forged by Lightning, Rescued by Love

Chapter 5

The next day Loki woke up to find that he was alone in the bedroom. Thor wasn't there. He almost started panicking... but then he noticed the smell of bacon and eggs cooking downstairs. Loki quickly put on his prosthetic leg and walked downstairs. He was absolutely shocked to see his brother... cooking? By himself? Loki knocked his hand against the banister to let Thor know he was there. Thor lifted his head slightly and responded without turning around.

"Oh good morning Loki! Or at least I THINK that's you. Anyway, I decided to make us breakfast this morning because I woke up before you!" A timer went off on Thor's phone. "Oh the eggs are done! Hey Loki, would you mind grabbing plates for us?" Loki was startled out of his shocked stupor by his brother's request and he immediately moved to grab the plates out of the cabinet (after pilfering through the cabinets one by one to figure out which one they were actually in) and ask Thor about how he was cooking by himself.

"Thor, how in the WORLD are you doing that by yourself!?" Thor smiled.

"Basically, I memorized different recipes for things I like and use timer sounds I set up by voice on my phone to determine how long to let my food cook since I can't see it to determine how done it looks. I have Braille on the cabinets to tell me where different ingredients are located. It's not that hard to cook as long as I'm careful. After all Loki, I HAVE been doing this for almost two months already. The other Avengers... they've been so kind and supportive throughout all of this. They've helped me to keep my independence while simultaneously always being there to help if I need it, all without ANY of them EVER judging me negatively for what I can't do. They figured out different strategies for doing things without seeing what you're doing, and then they taught those strategies to me. I can never thank them enough. Are the plates on the counter or in your hands? And what side of me are they on?" Loki blinked.

"Um... they're in my hands directly to your right?" Thor moved his hands up and eventually touched each plate to figure out where they were.

"Ah I get it now! Thank you Loki." Thor put the eggs on each plate without spilling anything. A moment later the timer for the bacon went off and Loki did the same thing again. Loki brought the plates over to the coffee table in the living room before coming back over to ask if Thor needed help with anything else... and suddenly remembered that Thor still had a sprained ankle and was walking around on it without a crutch. Loki narrowed his eyes in annoyance even though Thor couldn't see them.

"Thor you oaf what are you doing walking around without a crutch!? Your ankle is still healing you idiot! You could wind up worsening your injury! You need to be careful!" Thor blushed.

"Oops... I thought I might be forgetting something. I'll be fine Loki, I just need to be mindful of how I move. Hold on let me turn off the stove." Thor reached to turn off the burner, but he didn't notice that he was about to touch the burner itself! Loki reacted instantly, gasping and grabbing Thor's hand before he could burn himself.

"BE CAREFUL! You almost stuck your hand right on the heated coils!" Thor gasped slightly too.

"Oh wow thanks for the save Loki! I seem to nearly burn my hand on one of those burners every other week! Sorry if I scared you, especially after last night." Loki slowly let go of Thor's wrist and sighed.

"It's ok. You didn't mean it. Thank you for making breakfast. It smells delicious. I put the plates on the coffee table in the sitting room. Let's eat before it gets cold." Loki grabbed the silverware and the orange juice carton. Thor finally turned the stove off, carefully grabbed the glasses, and followed the sound of Loki's footsteps. They ate quietly and worked together to wash the dishes (It was awkward. Loki had never actually DONE chores consciously before this, and Thor wasn't exactly capable of seeing how well Loki actually did, but they still managed.) before Thor smirked.

"Oh Loki... don't take your shower this morning, and wear, uh what's the word, oh yes DUMPY clothes today. We're doing something a little... messy... today. Just trust me. Now I'm going to go get Mjolnir and get myself changed, then later you need to go get changed. Plus we still need to brush our teeth and things before we get going! Oh and we're probably walking today so comfortable shoes are a must." Loki was very confused.

"What? Thor what's going on?" Thor chuckled.

"It's a surprise Loki! I can't tell you or I'll spoil it! Go to the bathroom to get ready. When you're back I'll call to you to let you know that I'm ready for you to come in to change your clothes. I'll be here when you get back!" Loki called after Thor.

"Just... remember to hang onto the banister so that your ankle doesn't cause you to fall!" Thor called back to Loki as he climbed the stairs to the loft.

"I will! There's no specific time requirement today, but we should still hurry up or we'll keep the Avengers waiting! Thanks again for helping with breakfast! Now go get a move on!" Loki rolled his eyes.

"Alright Alright I'm going! No need to be bossy!" Thor just chuckled and walked into his... no... THEIR room. Loki smiled on his way to the bathroom as he walked out the apartment door.

"You're kidding me." said Loki right after Sam flipped over the dumpster lid. He just couldn't believe what they were all suggesting.

"Tell me you're actually kidding me." Thor chuckled.

"Nope. We're telling you to go inside the dumpster. This Loki, is dumpster diving. It's disgusting, but it's something we need to do around here to survive. This is one of the grossest dumpsters in the city, and is therefore the perfect dumpster for exposing you to the worst of it so you'll always know what to expect. It makes other dumpsters easier to handle. Don't worry. We won't let the lid close overtop of you, and you can climb out when you need to, but WE are ALL going to go through dumpsters looking for things that are still useful. If you need me to prove it then I can go first." Loki just stared at Thor on instinct.

"I'm sorry... you've ACTUALLY done this before!? No way." Thor smirked and took off his glasses, hanging them off of Mjolnir (still in crutch form) which it was propped against the ally wall.

"Vision, a little assistance please?" Vision smiled and wrapped an arm around Thor's waist. Vision flew Thor over the open dumpster and gently let him drop down. Thor grunted a bit upon landing. Loki became concerned.

"Are you ok!?" Thor stuck his head over the side of the dumpster.

"I'm fine Loki! Hey check this out! I found a mostly intact broken microwave... I think! It seems intact from what I feel! Tony do you wanna take it apart for scraps or repair it for a pawn off?" Tony looked excited.

"Oh DEFINITELY try to repair! If not then it'll work for scrap!" Thor handed the microwave over. Loki looked on in total shock.

"My brother the crown prince of Asgard is actually digging through trash! Now I've seen everything!" Thor smirked again.

"What's the matter Loki? Scared?" Loki narrowed his eyes.

"I am NOT SCARED! I just don't want to do anything THIS disgusting EVER!" Thor chuckled again.

"Come on Loki it's only fair. You can't be the only one left out! If we do this we do it as a team! We're all here for you. We promise." Loki looked at the others, who were all nodding in agreement, before he started hesitantly walking up to the dumpster.

"Uuuuugh I can't believe I'm doing this I can't believe I'm doing this I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M DOING THIS!" Loki, with a boost from Steve, managed to climb over the side of the dumpster and fall in with a yelp of surprise. Everyone waited a moment to see what would happen before Loki popped up again. Soon they heard his voice calling out.

"WHAT IN THE- WHO WAS STUPID ENOUGH TO THROW THIS OUT!? DON'T PEOPLE KNOW THAT OUTDATED BOOKS ARE WORTH A FORTUNE IN SOME PLACES!? DOESN'T MATTER IF IT'S BEAT UP, IT'S STILL SALVAGEABLE! SOMEONE TAKE THIS TO CARRY!" Loki carefully threw a slightly beat up book over the side of the dumpster. Natasha caught it.

"Congratulations on your first find Loki! Now make room for me because I'm joining you two in there!" Loki was blushing.

"Yeah well... as long as I'm in here I can't just let good literature be wasted! Besides I won't let Thor one up me!" Everyone laughed while Vision smiled and made the hand sign for "funny".

The dumpster diving went on for hours and hours. Loki surprisingly found he enjoyed it. He had to be THOROUGHLY convinced by the other Avengers to keep going however, when they found a box of donuts that wasn't even stale yet that Bucky wanted to keep. Thor had then informed Loki that the Taco shells from the previous night has been a similar find. Loki had then had to fight down a wave of nausea upon realizing he had LITERALLY eaten garbage... and then threw up when he realized his brother had already done so several times before they found each other again. 'Oh how disgusted our parents would be to see us now. But still, I can't believe my brother had to go through this without me!', thought Loki. Poor Loki nearly cried when he realized that he and his brother were stuck relying on trash to survive until further notice. The trickster was comforted however, when he was reassured that they didn't have to do any of it alone. Loki then became determined to get through this. 'If Thor has to eat garbage, then at least now I'm here to eat it with him' was his next thought (he sure never expected to think about anything like THAT in his life though). So the dumpster diving continued until an hour before sunset. Loki had NEVER been more thankful in his life for hot water once they all got back to HQ and showered. After they were all cleaned up, Vision and Rhodey made dinner for the whole team. While they were cleaning up the mess from dinner afterwards, Thor spoke up.

"You know... I had an idea. The school still offers it's counseling services over breaks. We should all start trying to have phone call sessions with the school psychologists before school actually starts. Not all of us have been formally treated for PTSD, and we can't exactly afford therapy from anywhere else. Plus, maybe it'll help make the transition to school easier for me and Loki once he gets enrolled, since we're not from your world and know little about formal schooling around here. Besides... we're going to have to confront our loved ones back in Asgard about our conditions at some point. I have a feeling that it's going to require a lot of mental preparation to be able to do so. If we all do this then... we'll be able to do it as a team and support each other through the process you know?" Steve and Tony nodded towards each other before Steve responded verbally.

"We actually think that's a good idea. We've been wondering about doing something like that for awhile. It might be helpful for us. The only issues are that Vision can't talk over the phone and Wanda and Clint might have trouble hearing over the phone too, but perhaps using sign language and video chat can help them out. Tony and I will set everything up as long as everyone agrees." The others all agreed, and Thor smiled.

"Thank you friends. I have a feeling that this will truly help us all in the long run." The others agreed again before continuing on with their night.

Over the next few days, Loki spent time practicing his magic and adjusting to living in a community setting with his brother and the other kids. He learned how to do all of the different chores the team did. Loki also spent time learning about the city itself and how life on Earth worked. On the first day after the dumpster diving adventure, Loki requested that Thor and Wanda teach him how to read in Braille. That very same day Thor handed Loki a beat up book. When Loki opened it up and found it was written in Braille, Loki thought it was just another random book. Thor revealed however, that it was actually a journal of Braille written letters from Thor to Loki that the elder brother had written after he learned Braille and started living with the Avengers. He had decided to give it to Loki so Loki could read it and learn for himself what Thor's time had been like when he was just getting used to his new life with almost no physical vision. Loki decided to cherish that letter journal for the rest of his natural life, so that he could always use it to remind himself AND his brother about how strong Thor truly was. He spent three hours straight doing Braille lessons with Thor and Wanda that day before they stopped... in order to teach the younger Odinson how to clean the bathroom, including the showers, sinks, floors, and toilets. Loki immediately decided that he absolutely hated cleaning the bathroom, but Wanda played some music on her phone to distract them all from their thoughts and make the process a little more fun. It actually helped quite a bit.

On the second day, Loki had his first daily training session. The team often trained every day, but their schedules were altered because they had gained a new member and wanted to give Loki a little more rest from his injuries. He wound up sparing in hand to hand combat with Natasha. She totally kicked his butt. Loki learned not to underestimate her strength. She also gave him tips for sparing with a prosthetic limb. After that the Hulk made another appearance. After being formally introduced Hulk took one look at Loki and declared "I will protect the puny God" before practically smashing Loki into the ground with a tackle hug. Bruce was pretty confused when he woke back up on top of Loki while the Asgardian was half buried in the floor. Thankfully Loki was uninjured from THAT episode.

Later that day May Parker came for a visit, bringing a package of chocolate chip cookies with her. Upon their first meeting that day May immediately decided that Loki looked too thin and needed to eat more, and absolutely insisted that he have AT LEAST five cookies at once. Loki really liked the cookies, and May Parker, but he also felt bad about taking so much food at once when the others were probably hungry too. Realizing that he needed to quickly learn the importance of sharing, Loki gave one of his extra cookies to Peter, who had looked absolutely ecstatic at the offer and gave Loki a hug in thanks. Peter spent the night at his Aunt's old apartment in Queens for a visit. The Avengers acted noticeably subdued without the boy around.

The next day Loki did his first odd job out in the city, which was helping Thor, Bruce, and Pepper to clean up and repair some of the children's playground equipment in central park. They also wound up repairing a few broken benches, and Thor even used his lightning sensing abilities and his mechanical eye to fix a couple of malfunctioning street lamps (which REALLY impressed Loki considering that Thor couldn't see the wiring AT ALL and had simply ran his power through the lamps to identify the issue) along a runners trail. The park maintenance workers gave the teens $350 dollars each for their work with a nice bonus for the street lamp repair. Loki felt a weird sense of pride inside of him when he realized that for the first time he had actually earned his own money without a parent's intervention. Thor was very proud of him too.

Later the other Avengers arrived in the park, bringing dinner along with them so they could have a sunset picnic. May swung by the park to drop off Peter before going back upstate, saying she would visit again soon. Peter got to play on the newly cleaned and repaired playground equipment with some other children after they all ate their picnic dinner. The other Avengers were happy to see Peter doing something normal like playing with other children for once. Peter was occasionally teased by another child because his autism would cause him to accidentally say or do something that would make the other kids think he was strange or mean even though Peter wasn't actively trying to be rude. The odd part was that Peter was constantly stopping himself from being baited into acting out during an aggressive argument. This is when Loki learned that May had once told the Avengers that Peter had developed a habit as a child of not always trying to physically defend himself from bullies because he was more afraid of hurting other people than he was of being ridiculed. This fear had apparently increased due to the emergence of Peter's genetically enhanced spider strength and his history of being forced to hurt people because of HYDRA mind control, especially since Peter was DEFINITELY strong enough to be deadly. Peter didn't want to hurt or kill anybody else or risk revealing his powers to the other kids, so he just didn't fight back. After learning about that, Loki had proceeded to watch the other children like a hawk just incase one of them did something to physically hurt Peter. Thankfully, most of the kids were nice enough to not bother Peter about acting differently than them, and Peter was pretty good at either ignoring or verbally defending himself against teasing when he plucked up the nerve for it. The other Avengers did wind up having to intervene however when a few 12 year olds actually started pushing Peter around. Peter had started crying because he wanted to fight back but couldn't risk loosing control of himself. Instead, Tony and Pepper wound up punching the bullies in their faces and threatening to sick their repulsers on the brats if they ever bothered Peter again. The others would have also intervened, but Peter didn't want them to get charged with harassment. Loki secretly used a little magic to trick the bullies into charging straight through a giant mud puddle as they were running away, causing them to ruin their shoes. Everyone watched (well Thor didn't WATCH per say, but he listened and was given a minute by minute play by play by Sam afterwards. He was still satisfied and later thanked Loki for harmlessly ensuring that those mean kids wouldn't bother Peter again) with satisfaction as the mothers of the bullies lectured them in public for all to hear, made them apologize to Peter (who forgave them as long as they promised to not do it again, because he was nice like that), told the bullies that they would NOT be getting new shoes for at least a couple of weeks (and that they would have to clean the muddy shoes by themselves), and then took the bullies home from the park early. The Avengers were convinced that those bullies would never bully Peter EVER again after that.

On the fourth day, Loki found out why Thor had been reluctant to let his brother see him while changing clothes. Thor was trying to hide his HYDRA inflicted scars. Loki was carrying a glass of water at the time when he walked into the bedroom room after Thor had taken his shirt off. Despite seeing the photos of Thor's injuries from the day of his evaluation in his files, Loki still couldn't help feeling horrified upon seeing the scars in person with his own eyes. The water glass had slipped out of his hand in shock, shattering on the floor as Loki screeched in horror. Thor had been facing away from him at the time, but when Thor turned around, and consequently revealed the scars on his front as a consequence, Loki couldn't stop himself from crying with his hands over his mouth. Thor had just walked over to Loki (following the sound of Loki's muffled sobs) and hugged him close in response. The younger brother didn't hesitate to hug back. In his heart, Loki promised to protect Thor from feeling such horrible pain EVER again.

One week later, the letter giving Loki admission to SHIELD Technical Academy came in. Loki and Thor practically jumped for joy at the news. The very next day, everyone set up a virtual appointment schedule with the school psychologists. Mr. Coulson approved the appointment set up with the school, acting as an advocate and legal advisor for the Avengers. Peter's Aunt also gave approval for the appointments for her nephew. Loki started his first appointment the day after the schedule was arranged. He wound up crying by the end of it, but it was actually considered a good sign because if he was crying, then Loki wasn't bottling up his feelings and was being open about the things he discussed.

Over the course of the next week, Loki discovered that Peter wasn't the only target of bullying. In fact, all of the Avengers were targets. Something bad happened to all of the other Avengers that week because of bullying, and Loki witnessed it all... and was often included as a victim.

Once Loki was out with Natasha, Bucky, and Steve because they were looking for

lost pets to gain the reward money (and because homeless pets made Bucky sad), and they were all wearing shorts and T-Shirts because it was weirdly hot outside. This made all of their prosthetics clearly visible. They were walking back to HQ after reuniting an old lady with her cat when a group of punks that usually hung out near their local pharmacy (where the avengers often worked to stock shelves for extra cash) ran past the quartet of Avengers and bumped into all of them while laughing. Five minutes later Natasha noticed that they all had notes literally glued onto their clothes that had insults written on them, all of them targeted against their prosthetic limbs. Once that got back to their own building Natasha and Steve cried while Bucky beat up a trash can. Loki felt his own feelings get hurt of course (and he told his school psychologist about the event at his next appointment, as he would with the other bullying events), but he was mostly just angry at the punks for upsetting his friends. The punks were never caught.

Another time Loki was with Clint and Wanda, working for the day at the famous M&M store in Times Square, when a group of obnoxious tourists started talking as loud as physically possible while asking Clint and Wanda questions. Loki felt his blood boil when he realized the tourists were taunting Clint and Wanda for needing hearing aides. Loki and Wanda may or may not have magically caused melting M&Ms to spill on top of the tourist's heads from a "broken" display tube. Clint DEFINITELY played the manager of the store a recording of one of the encounters he made on his phone. The obnoxious tourists were banned from the Times Square M&M store for life.

There was also the rainy day when Loki was assisting Bruce at the front desk of the hospital Bruce worked at sometimes. Unfortunately Bruce was having a day where his Tourette's syndrome tics were more frequent then usual. A rude child in the waiting area by the desk started imitating Bruce's tics on purpose when no one else was looking, exaggerating the actions so they were highly noticeable. Bruce saw this all and blushed in TOTAL embarrassment. Loki observed the kid for awhile before locating the kid's father. Loki wrote a note and anonymously stuck it in the father's sweatshirt hood. When the man went to put his hood up upon walking to the door the note fell out. The father picked it up and read it, and then proceeded to lecture his bratty kid. That didn't stop Bruce from feeling horribly self conscious for the rest of the day though.

Loki went to a scrap yard near the Bronx with Pepper and Vision that same night so they could get supplies for Tony to repair the repulsers used by Rescue and Iron Man, as well as to find some parts to help improve War Machine's uniform. One awful scrap yard manager started yelling and throwing foul words at Vision when Vision wouldn't verbally respond to his questions. Vision looked like the equivalent of someone who was about ready to cry, though it was unknown if he actually could based on his physical makeup. Pepper yelled at the scrap yard manager for being rude and actually attempted to slap him, but the scrap yard manager wound up grabbing her by her left hand. Her left hand is more sensitive to pain and pressure due to her nerve damage and she had forgotten her brace that day, so when the manager squeezed her hand she felt pain and cried out from it. The manager had the gaul to laugh at Pepper for that. Vision had to physically restrain Loki from stabbing the scrap yard manager. The manager had then proceeded to throw a few terrible slurs at Loki that actually made him upset enough to visibly cry. Pepper punched the manager in the face with her right hand, causing the manager to let her go. After that the manager kicked them all out of the scrap yard. They left without protest to avoid being arrested for assault, even though they thought the scrap yard manager should have been the one to get in trouble for what he did to Vision and Pepper. Bruce, still upset about himself being mocked earlier that day and now even more upset because his friends had been bullied that day as well, had to go to the basement so he could hulk out without destroying anything... or anyone. Tony and Peter nearly went ballistic when they found out about the whole thing, very nearly blowing holes in the walls with the repulsers they were repairing out of fury. Thor has to step outside to keep from setting the building on fire with lightning due to his own anger for the maltreatment of his friends and his little brother. Wanda had called for a man hunt on the scrap yard guy. Every other Avenger tried to petition for the man hunt to Steve. Steve didn't allow it, but he had looked REALLY close to being convinced. They all decided not to go to that scrap yard ever again. Loki cried himself to sleep on Thor's shoulder that night.

One time Tony and Loki were going to pick up groceries from their favorite corner store with Rhodey (who had a shift there that day) when one of the boy's braces locked up and they were left with no other choice but to carry Rhodey on Loki's back (since Loki was stronger) to the store. They would have just gone back to HQ, but they were closer to the store then HQ and Loki offered to carry the groceries in a pocket dimension. When they sat down on a bench to fix Rhodey's brace while in the store, a little girl went to give Rhodey a sticker, which she had gotten from one of those little quarter dispensers. The little girl was super nice and made Rhodey smile, but then her mother came over and told the little girl that she shouldn't go around "bothering cripples". Rhodey has gotten mad and told the woman off. Tony had secretly thanked the littles girl for being nice to his friend and gave her 75 cents so she could buy more stickers. Loki had gone in the woman's purse, partially opened her tiny bottle of hand sanitizer, and then put the bottle back where he found it. He had also used a double of himself to pick one of the wildflowers growing next to a tree on the sidewalk and put it in the girl's hair. The girl had been delighted. The woman noticed her leaking hand sanitizer in her purse and had to buy a new bottle. Rhodey was her cashier, and his leg brace had finally been fixed. The woman blushed beat red when she realized who was standing behind the counter. The store owner did not accept her coupons that day, and he did not offer her paper towels to clean her bag. The little girl waved goodbye to Rhodey as she left the store with her mother. The mother was smart enough not to complain about her kid speaking to Rhodey again.

That same day Loki and Tony were helping a customer who kept giving Tony dirty looks whenever he accidentally forgot where something was located or what he was doing in that moment (AN: forgetfulness is a common ADHD symptom). The customer wound up leaving without actually saying anything mean, but Tony still felt his confidence in himself drop down a couple of points. Loki hated not being able to help Tony feel better.

Sam once punched a guy in the face for trying to take advantage of Loki falling asleep in public because he forgot to take his narcolepsy medication. The guy had been attempting to mug Loki. Loki had then woken up and kicked the robber's $$ for insulting Sam. Loki was able to claim self defense against robbery. The robber had no excuse like that, so he ran. The robber wound up being arrested for another crime three days later.

The absolute worst thing for Loki to see was when his BROTHER got bullied. He noticed rude people using offensive hand gestures behind Thor's back because he couldn't see them. Loki didn't tell Thor about them. One day however, a few mean kids started throwing things at the back of Thor's head and hiding so Loki couldn't find them while they were out dumpster diving again. The rude kids ran away after they were seen throwing sticky mud at both brothers by passers by. Loki never caught them because he was too busy trying to calm Thor down from the panic attack the sudden mud throwing had caused him to have. Loki wished for the first time that the Warriors Three and Lady Sif had been there so they could chase the bullies across the city while Thor and he were unable to. It wouldn't be the last time he wished it either.

One time Loki went to the corner store by himself. On his way back he had to pretend that he couldn't see the group of girls at a bus stop that were clearly laughing and pointing at him in order to keep himself from crying in public, again.

None of those events even covered the bullying that took place when Loki wasn't there to see it either.

The only thing that made that week better was that on Saturday night he finally managed to read the first letter in Thor's journal fully, with only minimal assistance. Loki was picking Braille up quickly. Thor was proud of him for it.

That next Monday, Tony and Bucky came back to the compound with huge smiles on their faces and told the team to come out to the garage for a surprise. Everyone was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a van style minibus in there parked next to the pickup truck. Tony told the team he and Bucky had been saving up for this for quite awhile to buy this from a used vehicle lot and fix the damages they had also made sure that Bucky passed a test for a bus driver's license JUST to make sure one of them could legally drive it. Sam said he would sign up to get the mini bus licensure test too.

Tony also announced that they were going on a new mission tomorrow. It would be Loki's first mission ever as an official Avenger.

Loki would never forget the night of his first mission the Tuesday night after their horrible week of everyone being bullied ended. That was when the Avengers picked up another alien for their team, along with he alien's human host and a few other kids... including two people who had previously meet Thor in New Mexico.