Chapter Text
The new kid was tiny, adorably so. He was even smaller than Tony, who was often teased for being the shortest kid in Mr. Fury’s kindergarten class, so that meant the new kid was practically a baby.
Which meant that Tony instantly wanted him as his friend.
When snack time came, Tony went over to the new kid and offered him a drink from his juice box. The tiny new kid proceeded to shove a grape up Tony’s nose, a gesture which Tony returned and which earned them both five minutes in time out.
At recess, some of the bigger kids began to tease the new kid about how his feet didn’t touch the ground when he was on the swings. Tony had proceeded to throw rocks at the bullies while the new kid used several naughty words Tony had only heard his dad say when he was mad.
They were both on time out for the rest of recess.
As they sat against the wall watching the other kids play, Tony turned to the new kid, “I’m Tony.” He grinned, showing the gap in his mouth from where he recently lost a tooth.
The new kid blinked his large green eyes at him, “I’m Loki.”
Tony continued to grin until Mr. Fury led them back inside for their story time, where Tony insisted that Loki sit on the carpet square next to him.
In fact, Tony insisted that Loki sit next to him during every activity for the rest of the day. Even during naptime, Tony insisted that Loki nap next to him.
Not that the smaller child complained much, he only fussed and called Tony names when Tony tried to drag Loki around by his arm like a rag doll. Tony quickly stopped doing that.
The two earned their third time out of the day during their arts and crafts time, when Tony had drawn on Loki with blue marker because he wanted to see what Loki would look like “with blue skin,” to which Loki had drawn a moustache and goatee on Tony’s face.
The two spent their entire time out giggling to each other at their artwork; their good cheer didn’t diminish even when Mr. Fury worked at washing the marker off of their skin with soap and water.
When it came for all the kindergarteners to wait outside for their parents to arrive and pick them up, Tony and Loki stood hand in hand as they waited.
That was until a first grader came over to them and glared at Tony. “What are you doing with my brother?” He insisted, crossing his arms.
Tony frowned, “I’m waiting with my friend. What are you doing?”
Loki looked at the bigger student, “Thor, Tony is my friend…”
“Dad wants us to wait by the flagpole.” The first grader, Thor (what kind of meanie-head name was that anyway?), nodded firmly, taking Loki’s other hand, “Let’s go.”
Loki looked at Tony with a sad face as he let go of Tony’s hand. Before Tony could say anything to Loki’s big brother, he heard Jarvis’s voice over the crowd, calling him to the car. But Tony was hardly going to let the older boy have the last word. So with a sharp kick to Thor’s shin, Tony sprinted to his waiting butler. As Jarvis buckled him in to his booster seat, he could hear Thor’s frustrated shouts and Loki’s quiet giggles (the latter made Tony smile more than the former, though the former was satisfying as well).
As Jarvis began to drive the car away, Tony rolled down his window to wave at his friend as they drove by. Of course, Tony being Tony, waving wasn’t enough. As the car moved past the two brothers, Tony stuck out his tongue to make an ugly face.
Thor frowned at the gesture, shouting at him. Loki, on the other hand, laughed and returned the gesture, twisting his face into an ugly caricature.
Tony giggled. This was going to be a fun friendship (even if Tony had to put up with Loki’s stupid older brother).