Fic: A Traitor in the House of Odin (4/14)

[bookishwench]

Peter didn’t have long to panic, though, as in only a few seconds Thor set them down gently in the middle of a large oval paddock. Thor immediately strode towards the barn with Peter right on his heels. He liked most animals, and while he didn’t have much experience with horses, he felt terrible that they were sick.

Frigga and Loki were already there, of course. Sif stood off to one side, gently petting the muzzle of a brown horse with a white blaze. The Warriors Three were huddled together in what appeared to be a conference at the back of the line of stalls, but they looked up when Thor walked in and immediately moved towards him.

“How is my Poptart?” Thor said in a gentle voice to the horse in the first stall, a huge gray with white socks on its front legs.

“Better than he was,” Loki said, turning away from a jet-black mare he had been stroking comfortingly.

Peter noted with some alarm that the eyes of Loki’s horse glinted bright red in the dim light. She pawed the ground with one foot, regarding him warily, then snorted. He noticed that two very tiny curls of smoke floated upwards from her nostrils.

“Are all of them doing that from being sick?” Peter asked.

“No,” Loki said. “For Vicious, that’s normal.”

“Right. Um, hi, Vicious,” Peter said quietly, figuring being polite was the best policy. “I’m sorry you’re not feeling well.”

The horse snorted again, a larger plume of smoke rising through the air, then tossed her head once and fixed her ruby eyes on Loki curiously as though she wasn’t quite sure what to make of Peter.

“I believe she and the others will be fine,” Loki said, patting her side cautiously.

“And no one knows what happened?” Peter said, looking at the other horses, several of whom appeared exhausted.

“No,” Loki said. “Their hearts were racing, and a few of them started shaking or vomiting. Fortunately, the royal keeper of the horses has some skill in animal healing spells, so anything worse was averted, but it makes no sense.”

Peter glanced down the row of stalls and saw Frigga kiss the nose of a lovely palomino who whickered weakly in response.

“That’s horrible,” Peter said looking at all of them. “I hope they feel better soon.”

“My queen?” a man called, coming around the corner at a run. “I believe I have found something that might explain all of this.”

He handed her what looked like a piece of colorful paper. Frigga stared at it, confused, but Loki took it from her hand.

“What is it, my son?” she asked.

“It’s a wrapper from a Midgardian chocolate bar,” he said, frowning.

“Ah yes, I remember, Laura gave me something similar when we were at her home,” she said. “They’re delicious, but what would that have to do with this?”

“Chocolate is really dangerous for some animals,” Peter said. “I know dogs and cats aren’t supposed to eat it or they can get sick, even die. I don’t know if it does the same thing to horses, though.”

“I think it’s a safe guess that it does,” Thor said.

“How would a chocolate bar from Midgard find its way here?” the man who had brought the wrapper asked, looking at Peter with suspicion.

“I brought a few with me,” Peter admitted, “but they’re all in my room in a drawer with my clothes and stuff.”

“What kind?” Loki asked.

“Uh, Milky Choco Blasters?” Peter said.

Loki turned the wrapper over. The word Blasters was still visible on the ripped paper.

“I swear, I didn’t do it!” Peter said, horrified.

“I believe you,” Loki said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Come, let’s go to your room and see if they’re still there.”

Peter nodded, and in a few seconds, he felt a strange tingling sensation and realized he was no longer in the barn but in the Garnet Room. Not even caring that he had just been teleported by magic, he ran to the chest of drawers, threw it open, and started tossing his clothes on the floor.

“Please be here, please be here, please be here,” he chanted quietly.

But while the rest of his snacks were still exactly where he had put them, every chocolate bar was gone.

“You’ve got to believe me!” Peter said, frantically searching through the now empty drawer. “I don’t know how it happened, but it wasn’t me!”

“The thought of you doing such a thing never crossed my mind,” Loki assured him, “and it never will. Even if it had, how would you know where the stables are? When would you have time to feed a toxic amount of chocolate to a dozen or more horses? What could possibly motivate you to attempt such a thing? And yet, even though it’s a ridiculously inept attempt, someone certainly wants to make it look like that’s precisely what you did.”

“But why?” Peter said, feeling on the edge of a nervous breakdown. “I don’t even really know anyone here other than you, your mom, and Thor, and none of you would do this.”

“No,” Loki said, sitting in one of the chairs by the fire and steepling his fingers as he looked into the flames, “but that’s just the thing. An enemy undoubtedly arranged for this, but you have no enemies here.”

“Uh, to be honest, maybe I might,”

Loki raised an eyebrow at him, silently prompting him to continue.

“I think some of the people kind of don’t want me here,” Peter said, embarrassed. “I’m not complaining or anything like that, but when we went through the city, some of them seemed sort of . . . angry?”

“Yes, well, that could be me,” Loki said, looking uncomfortable. “You were walking beside me at the time, and I tend to get that reaction. One grows used to it.”

“Okay, that’s disturbing,” Peter said, frowning, “but I’m pretty sure some of them at least were making direct eye contact with me when they were giving me the stink eye.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” Loki admitted. “Unfortunately, my father has made rather a point of Asgard being reserved for the Aesir alone and does tend to speak disparagingly of any other beings, particularly Midgardians. That still doesn’t explain how even the most prejudiced of his subjects managed to break into your room and steal chocolate that they wouldn’t even know would be there, then feed it to the horses so that they would sicken all within a few hours of your arrival.”

“Actually, if I didn’t know me, I’d think I’d done it,” Peter said, sighing.

“But you didn’t,” Loki said, giving him a small smile. “I’d wager my life on it.”

“Yeah, but how many times have you died now?” Peter said, attempting smiling back.

Loki chuckled and shook his head, but within a few seconds he was pensive again.

“Right now no tangible harm has come from any of this. The horses should be fully well again by morning, but by then I’m certain all of Asgard will have heard the details of what happened, warped and twisted of course, but still with just enough truth in the story to make it look damning and sway opinion against you,” Loki said. “I apologize in advance for how unpleasant this is going to be. I have been on the receiving end of it many times, although usually because I really was guilty of something. I would not blame you if you chose to return home tonight.”

“No,” Peter said firmly. “If I run away, it’s going to make me look even more guilty. I’ll stay, and we’ll figure out who did this. Who else has access to this room?”

“Quite a variety of people, really,” Loki said. “The palace maids, laundresses, garbage haulers, custodians, couriers, pages, chimney sweeps—"

Peter thought but shook his head as nothing came to him.

“None of that makes sense, though. They would have had to come in the room while I was asleep without waking me up, and I’m a pretty light sleeper. Plus, how would they even know what they were looking for? I didn’t mention the chocolate to anybody, and how many people would even know that a random Midgardian candy is poisonous to horses? Even I wasn’t sure,” Peter said.

“No one came in the room when you were awake?” Loki said.

“No.”

“Then there are only two possibilities I can see that make any sense. Either someone was in the room already when we entered, saw you unpack the sweets, waited for you to fall asleep, stole them, and left without waking you—”

“That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment,” Peter said.

“—or it wasn’t your chocolate in the first place. Perhaps it was mere coincidence that it was the same brand. Just having a single wrapper from Midgard would be enough to cast suspicion on you. It could have been mere coincidence.”

“But then what happened to my chocolate bars?” Peter asked.

“I don’t know,” Loki said. “You mentioned in the barn in front of several people that you had them and where they should be, but that was a mere minute before we came here. The only way it could have been done is with fairly strong magic, and there are precious few who possess that ability in Asgard.”

“You and your mom,” Peter said.

“And my father, though he rarely admits it, but he’s not even on Asgard now,” Loki said. “No, I think the first option is the most likely. Somehow, someone was hiding in this room before we first came in, and whoever it was managed to steal the chocolate and get back out again without being seen.”

A chilling thought occurred to Peter, and he gave Loki a look, hoping he would understand.

“Yes, I did consider the possibility the intruder is still here,” Loki said, “but I believe that whomever it was has left. I’m not noticing any other auras in the room beside our own.”

But Loki returned the look, then flicked his gaze towards the door. Not two seconds later, it practically crashed open. Peter jumped so badly he wound up clinging to the ceiling. But it was only Thor.

“I rather thought it was you,” Loki said, rolling his eyes. “Be warned, Peter. This is how my brother usually enters a room when he is at home.”

Thor glared at him, then directed his gaze to the ceiling, where Peter was trying and failing to come up with a way to get down that wouldn’t be embarrassing.

“Have you found your chocolate?” Thor asked.

“No, it’s gone,” Peter said, dropping back to the floor in crouch that was a modified version of the one Natasha usually used. He skipped the hair flip, though.

Thor turned to his brother and fixed him with a surprisingly intimidating scowl.

“For your sake, I hope this is not some trick of yours that has gone awry, for it would be most poor hospitality,” Thor said.

“As I said before, it wasn’t me, you oaf,” Loki said. “Nor was it Peter.”

“Fine, I believe you, but then who?”

“No idea. Are the horses still improving?” Loki asked.

“Yes. Mother is staying with them until they are completely well again, which shouldn’t be more than a few hours at most. Still, it is well that Father took Sleipnir with him. Had he been poisoned, I would not want to think what vengeance he would take,” Thor said.

“Nor do I,” Loki said, glancing at Peter, who was currently imagining that this time he was the one sentenced to dangle from the topmost window of the palace.

“Okay, so if someone broke into my room to do all of this, should I switch rooms, or would it not make any difference?” Peter asked.

“I still say the Garnet Room is a more comfortable spot, but the Emerald Suite is adequate,” Thor said.

“Yes, but as we have no idea how the intruder managed to get in, they may repeat the same method regardless of where Peter sleeps,” Loki said. “I can try warding either place beyond the normal security of the palace. Which room would you prefer?”

“Wait a second,” Peter said, pausing. “What about both of them?”

Thor looked confused, but the corner of Loki’s mouth quirked upwards.

“A decoy,” he said.

“Yeah. Let everyone think I’m moving to the Emerald Suite, but I’ll really stay here,” Peter said.

“And the Emerald Suite will actually be occupied by me,” Loki said, now grinning widely. His form shimmered slightly, and an exact copy of Peter was suddenly sitting in his chair.

Peter stared at Loki and quietly mumbled, “Yup, weirdest day ever. Even weirder than the time the biology teacher had that guy come in with the boa constrictor and it ate Ned’s left shoe.”

“And I shall keep watch over you here,” Thor said firmly, choosing to ignore the mention of the footwear-noshing serpent. “I do not require sleep. If anything happens, we will know.”

Peter felt more than a little awkward about needing a security detail, but whoever it was had managed to slip past him before. He really didn’t want that to happen again.

“Thanks,” he said. “Should I pack everything back up so Loki can move it to the other room?”

“I think so, yeah,” Loki said in Peter’s voice, giving him a smile that was much more Loki than Peter.

“Yeah, that is just not getting any less weird,” Peter said. “Also, I didn’t realize how short I am compared to you two. You look like a chihuahua next to Thor now.”

“Perhaps,” Loki said in his own voice, “but you’re our chihuahua. We have no intention of allowing any further invasions of your privacy to occur.”

Peter quickly stuffed his things back into his suitcase, trying not to let his face burn out of embarrassment and hoping against hope that Loki wouldn’t go through his stuff. Having the rest of the Avengers find out about his Iron Man pjs would be torture. He handed the bag to Loki, who slung it over his shoulder and immediately adopted the usual crunched-spine posture Peter used when carrying it.

“Stay here,” Thor said. “I shall need to guide my brother to the Emerald Suite. It will look too suspicious if he appears to know the layout of the palace on his own, and I would of course accompany you if you were really changing your lodgings. You will need to be vigilant in my absence, but there is no other--”

“Thor,” Loki interrupted, his voice tinged in exasperation, “you’re an idiot.”

With a small pop, an exact clone of Thor appeared beside him.

“Oh,” Thor said, chagrined. “Right. Yes, that should prove much safer.”

Loki gave him a look of loathing, which seemed very odd on Peter’s face, and Thor’s clone proceeded to repeatedly walk face first into the nearest wall.

“Fine,” Thor said, watching himself now bowing to his brother. “Be off! Hopefully, one of us shall learn something of use.”

Loki appeared to be biting his tongue to hold back a retort, but he and the cloned Thor, who was now doing a perfect imitation of the real thing, left, closing the door behind them.

“Right, so,” Peter said, feeling very awkward. “Now what?”

“Now you get some sleep and I stand watch against any who would do you or your honor harm,” Thor said, ruffling his hair affectionately.

Peter suddenly realized Loki now had his pajamas, so he vaulted onto the bed still fully dressed, though he did remember to take off his shoes before burrowing under the covers.

“You’re sure you don’t want to catch a nap?” Peter asked from the ridiculously high pile of mattresses. “We could switch on and off.”

“Nay, good Peter, I can stay awake a week at a time if I choose,” Thor said.

“Okay, if you say so,” Peter said. “Good night.”

A few minutes later, Peter was sound asleep, though his dreams were filled with images of people--and horses--looking at him and shaking their heads in accusation. Granted, there was also a really weird guy who was wearing cheese slices on his head, so it may not have been the most accurate of dreams.

Unfortunately, about halfway through the night, Thor, who had seated himself in a comfortable chair by the fire, abruptly nodded off, his snores loud enough to rattle the canopy on the bed, though Peter slept on.