Chapter Text
Growing up, Loki Odinson was never the one to back away from a challenge so easily. As a junior high school student, the world is his oyster. There is nothing he can’t do. But one quest remains. And this is a hard one—t o find his best friend a date for the Homecoming dance. Or as he’d like to call it: Operation “A Honey for My Homie.”
His problem is, his best friend Bruce Banner is the exact opposite of what he is. While he is cunning, charming, charismatic and sociable with just a hint of malice, Bruce is—Bruce is socially awkward and avoidant, and although he excels at every single academically given subjects , his social skills is quite lacking—which makes Loki’s quest slightly harder to accomplish. This has been in his top ten priority for quite some time, not only because he’s got a penchant for meddling and matchmaking, but also because Bruce is his dear friend who’s never had any luck finding a date, ever. shuffling textbooks from his bag to put inside his locker. The bell had just rung and he made no additional effort to pick up the pace whatsoever.
“Are you doing okay, Loki?” a familiar voice called out to him.
“Bruce” Loki snapped his locker door shut, turned around to the direction of his best friend greeting him. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Loki continued, walking beside him as they strolled through the hallways.
“Yeah—we have somewhere to be, remember? The next period is math” Bruce replied, textbooks in one hand and his glasses in the other.
“Right, I’m just not fond of math. But anyway, have you thought of who you’re going with to Homecoming?” Loki asked his best friend, who immediately spluttered in disbelief.
“Wha—Loki, I told you countless times, I’m not going!” Bruce raises his eyebrows; much to Loki’s dismay.
“Oh, come on, I promise you, this year will be different!”
“You said that last year, too” Bruce replied, furrowing his brows in uncertainty. “And the year before, and the year before”
“Well—I promise you, this year will be different. I’ll bet your star-studded grades that it will be” Loki puts on his dazzling, enigmatic smile Bruce knows too well to be a trap.
“Yeah, no, I don’t buy that. But let’s just talk about this some other time, we should really be getting to class” Bruce speeds up, leaving Loki a few steps behind. Loki sighed, eventually picking up the pace.
-
It’s 3 o’ clock and the bell finally rang; signifying the end of an 8-hour long torture they all call high school. Students trickle out of the main entrance, while Bruce waits for his best friend’s arrival at the bottom of the stairs to hitch a ride. It’s a regular thing they do; things haven’t been so easy at home with Bruce’s folks, so whenever he can and for as long as he can, he’d make all sorts of excuses not to be home. Loki’s parents aren’t home often, and Loki’s oldest sibling Hela already moved out a long time ago, right after she secured a high profile job at Asgard Enterprises. So this leaves their cliffside modern-style mansion vacant. The previous owner, the illustrious Howard Stark, turned over the keys to the Odinsons for quite the bargain—and it has been their home since.
Loki pulled up his sleek sports car next to Bruce, rolling down the windows as he unlocks the car doors. “Alright, let’s go. We have a ton of homework to do” Loki muttered, picking out the right tunes to play in the car while Bruce takes the seat next to him. After they’re all set, Loki steered the car back to the road, ready to go.
“We’re almost there” Loki chimed in, breaking the comfortable silence along the way. “So, why do you think the teachers are giving us a ton of homework? And, not to mention, Homecoming is very near” Loki continued, giving Bruce a sideways glance. The word ‘homecoming’ seems to struck a nerve in Bruce, who
“Jeez, man, I don’t know… maybe it’s to, uh, I don’t know, prepare us for, you know, finals? Which is much more important than homecoming, you know” Bruce groggily replied, leaning his weight to the car door, covering half his face with his right hand.
“Right, finals are definitely important. But you know what else is important? Unwinding. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, Bruce” Loki sneers, keeping one hand on the wheel and the other skipping the current song playing from his phone.
“We can unwind when the finals are over,” Bruce groans, his exasperated voice muffled by the hand covering his face, unable to look at Loki in the eye
The lane that leads to the Odinsons’ abode becomes clear in the view, giving Bruce a sigh of relief because he doesn’t want to talk about this, ever again. Loki stopped in front of the entrance to his house to let Bruce out while he parks the car. “Please, just stop talking about this,” Bruce groaned. “Look, I get that you mean well, okay? But I’ve made up my mind, I’m not going” he continued, turning around to go inside the house. Loki watched him go with one last sigh before finding a parking spot right next to his brother’s car.
“Oh, joy. Brother’s home.”
-
“Hey, Banner” a booming, raspy voice called out to Bruce. He turned around to see Thor, Loki’s older brother and a senior in their school, casually lounging on the living room couch. “Oh—uh, hey Thor, didn’t see you there” Bruce awkwardly slides behind the couch, making a beeline for the kitchen counter. “Yeah, football is canceled so I have nothing else to do today, so here I am” Thor replied nonchalantly, channel surfing while sometimes subconsciously trying to swat loose strands of hair off his face, until he remembered he already impulsively chopped off his long dark blonde locks some time ago.
“...Say, Thor—are you going to Homecoming this year… by any chance? After uh, the game, that is” Bruce asked from behind the kitchen counters, hoping Thor wouldn’t turn around to see how flushed his cheeks has gotten just asking this question. ‘ugh, what am I even asking? I wasn’t even planning on going. Jeez Bruce, what’s up with you? You have a silly crush on your best friend’s older brother for almost 3 years and you’ve never even acted on it, so why bother now? Dude, just—just stop’
“Ah, I’m not really interested on attending, after the game ends I’m probably going to be a bit sore, so I’m just going to go home and rest. I’ve got a lot on my mind lately” Thor replied, setting the TV remote down next to him, glancing at Bruce over his shoulder. Bruce kind of felt his stomach dropped. But why should he feel dejected? He’s not going anyway.
“Why? Are you going?” Thor asks.
“Uh—of course not, I have better things to worry about than this”
“Okay, then” Thor smiles, “Great minds think alike,” he winked at Bruce, then turned back to the direction of the TV. ‘Why did he wink. Why did he do that?’
Bruce stayed behind the kitchen counter, ransacking for some food. After he got a few bags of chips of his liking, he headed straight to Loki’s room, which is not too far from the living room, but just as spacious. He walked by Thor, still busy watching TV—and Bruce couldn’t help but stare at him, admiring his features and his goddamn gorgeous smile, not a care in the world.
“Hey—where are you going?” Loki entered the living room after parking his car, noticing Bruce fumbling around with bags of chips in hand, mouth still gaping open.
“Oh, I uh—I grabbed some of these from the kitchen, I’m going to your room to work on our homework and group projects” Bruce glanced at Thor one last time, and then leaves.
“Huh,” Loki raises his eyebrows inquisitively, eyes darting between Bruce’s silhouette slowly disappearing from view—and then back at Thor, who’s way too absorbed in his TV-watching to notice whatever the fuck just happened.
“Maybe there is a way I can finish my quest after all” Loki grinned, scheming up a new plan up his sleeve.