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Pepper and Tony Stark tried to raise their children to not act entitled just because their father was the rich and famous Iron Man, but there’s only so much you can do when that same father’s arrogance and intellect is in their DNA, and they’ve grown up beside a god of chaos and mischief. So it was surprising to exactly no one when the press managed to get photos of Rachael leaving a club at 2am with her makeup smeared and some amateur male model on her arm.
“I cannot believe this, Rach,” Pepper shook her head, “You know better than to go out by yourself.”
“Please, I’m not an idiot. I can protect myself.”
“Oh really?” Tony said archly.
“Yeah, I took the repulsor bracelet.”
“Did you manage to get it working?” he leaned in.
“Yeah, I just had to adjust the output-”
“Tony.”
He looked up like a stunned deer as Pepper crossed her arms. “Right. Uh, in trouble. Got it.”
“You’re under Tower arrest, miss.”
“Mum!”
“No arguments. Who always wins?”
The teenager pouted and turned away. As soon as Pepper left she made a pleading face at Tony.
“Please Dad, you know you were worse at my age!”
“Yeah, which is why I agree with your mother. But I get it, you’re sixteen and you wanna have fun. How about you have the other kids over for a night in and I’ll talk to her about how long this grounding thing is gonna last, okay?”
“Okay. Thanks Dad.”
“And I wanna talk to you about the repulsor bracelet. We can run some tests.”
“Sure.”
He placed a hand to her chin for a moment and walked out. Rachael waited until she heard the elevator door close before she made for the stairs, hammering down to Loki’s floor.
“Lokes?”
“In here.”
She walked into his room and found him studying a very large, very ancient-looking spellbook. The boy looked up.
“It did not go well then?”
“No. Listen, think you could help me out with an illusion?”
Piper and Lucy showed up with their pillows under their arms and Pepper sighed.
“Hi girls. Becca’s already here.”
“Hey Aunt Pep. Are you sure this is okay?” the older blonde asked.
“Yeah, your Uncle Tony’s not really clear on how grounding works. So long as you guys stay in and behave, I’m fine with it.”
“We’ll be good.”
“That’s my girls.” Pepper kissed Lucy’s head, waving them on.
The teenagers entered Rachael’s bedroom to find her sprawled over her bed flicking through songs on her radio, Rebecca on the floor with some fashion mag and cotton wool between her toes. The Asian girl looked up, her delicate features stunning under wavy black hair.
“Did Aunt Pep give you the ‘be good’ speech?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like she doesn’t trust us.” Piper made an innocent face, throwing her stuff down in the corner.
“She knows us too well.” Rachael sat up.
“So what’s the actual plan?” Lucy dropped onto the corner of the mattress.
“Once they’re busy Lokes is gonna cast an illusion that we’re in here hanging out, and then we’ll go up to the roof and have an actual party.”
“Not technically leaving the Tower, sneaky,” Lucy smiled, “I like it.”
“Yeah, but we’ll still get busted if they figure it out,” Rebecca protested, “I’m telling you it’s not a good idea to push your mum right now.”
“Dad will smooth it over. He wants me to show him how I did the bracelet.”
“Speak for yourself. If we get caught Luce and I get the disappointed Captain America tone.”
“At least your dad doesn’t Hulk out.” Rebecca raised a brow.
“Point taken.”
“I don’t want to get Lokes in trouble.”
“Come on, Becca. He’s been in trouble like a hundred times and they always get over it.”
She sighed. “Fine. But if they catch us I am totally claiming peer pressure.”
“Relax - they won’t catch us.”
They waited a couple of hours until the noise from the main room died down.
“Do you think they’re asleep?” Lucy whispered.
“Probably not – you know how Dad is,” Rachael replied, “Jarvis, will you tell Lokes we’re ready?”
“Certainly, Miss Stark.”
She fished under the bed and came back with two bottles of vodka.
“Where did you get those?”
“Filched them from Aunt Natasha when she was away.”
“Are you insane?”
“I left a note saying I’d replace them. She’s not gonna tell.”
They carefully snuck into the hall, heading for the stairs. Rachael eased the door slightly ajar and peered in.
“Lokes?”
“Here.”
“Is it done?”
His fingers twitched and something green shot through the gap back towards her room.
“It is now. It will not stand up to scrutiny though.”
Rebecca took a few steps back and looked into Rachael’s room. The four appeared to still be talking quietly, flipping through magazines. “Cool.”
They stepped into the stairwell and closed the door, heading up to the next landing. Rachael came to an abrupt halt.
“Josh? What are you doing here!”
“I knew you were gonna do something stupid. Mum is gonna kill you.”
“Congratulations. Go back to your room!”
“What are you doing?”
“Going up to the roof. See, I’m not even breaking the rules.”
“I’m coming with.”
“Uh, no you’re not.”
“If Lokes gets to go, I wanna come too.”
“Lokes is over two hundred. You’re fourteen.”
“I’ll tell Mum.”
“You will not, you little sneak!”
“I won’t drink – just let me come.”
“Rach, let him.” Piper grabbed her arm.
“Fine. Just be quiet about it.”
They continued up to the top, stepping out onto the roof. There was a table and chairs under a gazebo-like cover and they huddled together so they could be heard above the wind. Rachael opened the bottles and passed them around, glaring at Josh when he tried to take a sip.
“This is nice,” Piper sighed, “I’m gonna miss this.”
“You’re definitely going to UCLA then?”
“And get very far away from this place? Uh, yeah. I want to just blend in for once.”
“None of us will ever blend in.” Rebecca snorted.
“Who wants to blend in?” Josh smirked, “I like watching people fall all over themselves like idiots.”
“I could teach you an illusion to change your appearance.” Loki smiled.
“Thanks Lokes, but I think we’ve established I suck at magic.”
“It is not your fault. You are an inferior race.”
“Hey!” Lucy laughed, elbowing him, “Watch it, frost giant!”
“Oh, it is frost giant now? Well then.”
He touched his bracelet and his skin turned blue.
“Oh uh. We’re in for it now, Luce.” Rebecca laughed.
They all fled the table, trying to find cover as Loki called to the snow still trapped in the clouds. It wanted to be close to him, falling softly over the Tower and the block around it until there was a thick layer on the concrete surface.
“Snowball fight!”
“Now we are definitely gonna get caught.”
“Yeah, but we’ll have fun doing it.”
*****
Pepper came out of the bathroom with a strange expression. "Tony?"
"Yeah?" he didn't look up from his Starkpad.
"Is it snowing?"
The genius glanced at the window. "Oh. Uh, yeah."
"In April."
"Huh...odd."