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ax_mainLoki decides to join the 3 C's and Nott for dinner. Things go from bad to worse.
Generally, when Cal sat down to meals with his roommates and various stabby friends Loki respectfully gave him space. As long as Shaun or Percy was around he ended up holding court with Vox Machina, and there were other people he could escape to. Seeing how Molly was one of those mutual friends that Loki often escaped to, keeping up this charade of separation felt frankly ludicrous.
Loki tried very, very hard to be mindful of Cal's feelings. Not startling him was key. His roommates were also very twitchy individuals. He knew that they required treading with care, but there was something about that evening that made Loki say fuck it. He hated being an outsider. And he already felt like he was avoiding Cal for other stupid reasons so, why not carpe diem?
"Hey Clint," Loki greeted, slipping in on his good side. "Warning. I'm sitting next to you." Promised to give more signals, after all.
He settled his tray down. "Evening everyone."
Cal's eyebrows raised as he saw Loki approach, a silent question on his face. He could have actually thought it at Loki, but he didn't bother. Watching him take a seat with them answered it, after all. Cal couldn't help but be a little wary, given what Clint had told him about Loki last time they'd talked about him, so Cal glanced at Clint across from him, then looked back at Loki with a small smile. "Hey. How's it going?" A pretty basic greeting, but warmth threaded through his voice. He wasn't wary enough not to welcome Loki's presence, but he was on his guard.
Clint tensed - he couldn't not, especially with someone coming at him from behind, but Loki did announce himself, so he slowly attempted to relax after a moment, especially on seeing Cal's smile. Loki was Cal's friend, right? He had every right to hang out.
Caleb glanced from Loki to Cal, and frowned. When his eyes flicked back, they didn’t quite meet Loki’s, and he forced a smile that, hopefully, didn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt. “Hello,” he said, then focused his attention on his plate, swirling a helping of spaghetti onto his fork as he tried to squash his discomfort.
Nott had left off of attacking a whole roast chicken to watch the swanning kid invite himself to sit with them, standing on her seat to get closer to eye-level with the others, and it looked like the rest of the table hadn't been expecting him either. She'd seen him around, but not talked to him herself. And his arrival wasn't an 'oh what a pleasant surprise' thing, judging by the sudden twang of tension strung across the table. Caleb had forced his reactionary frown into a brittle smile and sunk his gaze into his pasta, which didn't bode well. What was all this about?
Her large yellow eyes studied the dark-haired boy openly. "Ah, hi. Who're you?"
What a sunny reception. Loki smiled at Nott as if nothing was amiss. “I’m Loki. You’re Nott, right? I’m sorry I haven’t officially made your acquaintance yet.”
Wait, did Caleb also have an issue with Loki? Cal frowned a little at his friend's reaction, and resisted the urge to facepalm. He watched the interaction between Loki and Nott with more than a little apprehension, half expecting her to ask Caleb and Loki why they didn't get along.
Meanwhile, Clint was just glad not to have to talk to Loki, and began stuffing his face with a hot dog. Let Nott deal with him.
Caleb shoveled spaghetti and a half a meatball into his mouth and said nothing because it was rude to talk with your mouthful. It had nothing to do with anything else.
"That's okay. I don't usually talk to other kids in class. Or in the hallways. I mostly try not to get stepped on and leave it at that." Oh, man. Caleb and Clint were doubling-down on dinner. Maybe they were hoping Loki would go away if they didn't talk to him. But Nott had kind of stuck her foot in it (...her mouth in it? Her foot in her mouth? She was in conversation now) already. "So why are you eating with us all of a sudden? Are you Cal's buddy?"
Loki met Cal’s eyes and his smile briefly tipped to rueful. “Yes. Reading buddy, running buddy but only if paws are involved.” The smile returned to Nott. “Are you Jester’s roommate?”
"I am," Nott said simply, and wasn't really sure of what else there was to say after that? Apparently, lots of kids could turn into animals here, so she probably shouldn't make a big deal of it... She might've said how much Caleb liked reading too, but she didn't think he'd thank her for it. None of the boys chimed in right away, so she started to turn her attention back to her chicken.
But as Nott lifted the chicken and spread her maw wide, she remembered - "Wait. Are you 'Cat?' Jester's Cat that she likes to pet or something?"
Loki’s grin brightened. “She refers to me as Cat yes. Jester is lovely.”
Cal felt off balance, unsure how to deal with the fact that clearly, the people closest to him didn't like the third person closest to him. And that it had to be pretty obvious to everyone. Still, he made a deliberate effort to join the conversation, instead of clamming up the way he wanted to. "Does she only know you as a cat?" There, casual question, he could do this.
“We share art class together, so she knows me as a person as well. I introduced myself as a cat.” Loki glanced around to see if the girl in question was anywhere close at this time. Even though he didn’t see her, he lowered his voice. “I was trying to curb her library vandalism. I’m all for pranks on behalf of her Trickster, but mistreating books is going too far. I didn’t want anyone having an aneurism when they went to find specific sections and noticed the books were scattered illogically and upside down.”
Clint snorted around his hot dog (a second one), looking amused. He'd like to see one of those stuffed shirts walk into that library.
The corner of Caleb’s mouth turned up at the mention of Jester’s book shenanigans. He didn’t mind them so much. A misplaced book had never hurt anyone, nor had a few innocent scribbles.
It sounded like Loki hadn't even found any dicks scribbled in the margins of the books yet. Nott wasn't going to out Jester to the library fuzz though.
Nott flicked a glance between Cal and Loki, itching to ask about the thing she and Jester had talked about. "Okay, so when you're an animal, and a person is petting you... Is that... Weird for you, in an inter-species way? Like, is it the same thing as people touching other people, or is it totally different?"
“It’s not quite the same,” Loki answered. He also glanced at Cal. “But it’s also different for any shifter, I’m sure. You still have to be comfortable with people to let them near you. But context feels very different.”
"Yeah, it's really not the same," Cal confirmed. It felt like a bit of an understatement. How long had it taken him to snuggle in his human form as he did in his animal shapes? "But it still takes - yeah. What Loki said." It took trust, all the same, but talking about this felt hella intimate and Cal... well, he sucked at sharing intimate stuff casually. Cue him tripping over his own words.
"Yeah, the people gotta be okay with it too," Clint piped up, side-eying Loki. Dude just liked to swoop in whenever he pleased.
Caleb, who had nearly choked on a meatball at ‘interspecies’, nudged Nott as subtly as he could to get her to drop the subject. He didn’t like how it made it sound as if there was something wrong with Cal finding comfort in cuddling as an animal.
Nott turned her face to Caleb as he coughed and jabbed her on the sly, unsure of the exact thing he was trying to tell her. She figured it was either 'help I'm choking' or 'BUTTON' or both, though she didn't see what the big deal was with what she'd asked.
"Oh. Alright," she sort of said to Cal and Loki, and sort of said to Caleb. "Jester said I should ask Cal- But it's not important," she revised hastily, before Caleb gagged on his meatball. She reached up to pat his back, just in case it was choking.
Loki eyed Caleb’s attempt to ward Nott off from that line of conversation. Very carefully he slid his foot forward under the table until the tip of his shoe tapped Cal’s, then retreated.
“I mean, like all things in life, no interaction is exactly the same. It’s weird and uncomfortable if other people are weird and uncomfortable. Or it’s perfectly harmless if there’s no fucks to be given.” Loki twirled his fork between his fingers before stabbing a piece of fruit. “Jester is certainly a no fucks given person, and easily a great shoulder to drape on.”
Cal sort of wished Loki's foot hadn't retreated so quickly - but they were in the middle of the crowded cafeteria, and Cal felt tense and awkward already, so who knew when a very welcome touch might become totally unwelcome. Probably for the best that it was brief. He met Loki's gaze for a second, then looked back at Nott. "Jester said to ask me about this stuff?"
Clint’s eyesight was good enough that he still caught that lingering gaze between Cal and Loki, and suddenly it got him wondering. He lost track of whatever he was eating, just shoveling it into his mouth as he studied the two of them more closely.
Caleb had opened his mouth to disagree with Loki when Cal interrupted. He closed it again, which was probably for the best, and glanced over at Nott and Clint. His brow crinkled with a frown. Clint looked… Something was up. He looked back to Loki across from him, then down to his plate as he twirled up a forkful of spaghetti. “Jester says a lot of things.”
"So many things," Nott chimed in without having asked the actual question that Jester had told her to ask, following Caleb's lead without knowing where it came from or where it was going. She could see Cal had a panther-in-a-room-full-of-rocking-chairs look about him, so it must have to do with that. And she didn't want to embarrass Cal in front of the guys with it - at least not with Loki right there. "She's got such a curious mind. That's our Jester!"
Her eyes darted between the others for the beat of silence resounding in the wake of the forced excitement she'd thrust into the slightly manic bluster of words. She warily lifted her chicken, and when it was near enough, started shredding with her teeth.
Loki was impressed by Nott’s fervor. “They claim curiosity is unhealthy for cats, but you’ve got to accept risks for rewards. “
"Cats have nine lives, anyway," Cal replied, lips tipping up at the corner in a small smile. The risks were minimal when all you did was ask questions, anyway. At worst he wouldn't have answered. He realized he'd kind of stopped eating since Loki joined them, and turned back to his pasta.
Meanwhile, Clint was still watching Cal and Loki. At least Cal had started eating again, but what the fuck had that been about? He knew the two of them were friends, but Cal was talking about boy on boy relationships these days, and Clint couldn't help but wonder.
“I like cats,” Caleb said as a last ditch effort to change the topic. And also because he couldn’t think of anything else to say, and the awkward silence that was hanging around certain parts of the table, his own wouldn't, was becoming too awkward.
Nott crunched her mouthful of bones and meat, shifting her eyebrows dubiously at Caleb with his abrupt addition. ...Yeah, they'd hit peak awkward. This was it. And for them, that said an awful lot. "Cat kinda tastes like gamey chicken," she muttered, chomping into another bite of her dinner.
Loki raised a brow. “You don’t say. I wouldn't have pegged that.”
Cal had stopped eating again, nose wrinkled. "Can we move away from talk of eating cats?"
"I once had alligator," Clint piped up, spooning a heap of pudding into his mouth.
“What was its name?” Caleb asked around a mouthful of spaghetti.
Clint looked like a deer in the headlights. "Uh. I didn't ask the waitress?"
Cal, who had just resumed eating, choked on his forkful of pasta.
Caleb’s stomach bottomed out in embarrassment. Right. Clint once ate an alligator. Obviously. Duh. “Oh. Got you.” He faked a laugh. “I was joking. Haha.”
"Alligator's kinda like chicken and fish," Nott idly picked at some stubborn cartilage from where it had got stuck between two of her long, sharp teeth with the last shard of drumstick remaining from her meal. She was definitely not joking. "Real froggy that way."
“Where were you traveling?” Loki asked Clint. “I can’t say alligators are common to Asgard.” His foot slid forward, bumping against Cal’s again. This time he left it there.
It was silly, really. It was just a foot against his. But still, Cal gave Loki a small smile as he put down his glass of water, and felt himself relax as he turned back to his food. He shifted his foot forward a little, so it wasn't all Loki stretching his leg under the table, and let the prolonged contact soothe his equally silly nerves.
Clint's gaze lingered on that smile Cal was giving Loki, but Loki had asked him a question, so his eyes moved toward the boy beside him. "My dad had a cousin in Arkansas," he told the boy flatly. "'Cause I didn't grow up anywhere near as fancy as Asgard."
Oh, shit. Caleb kept his wide-eyes fixed on his plate.
No one seemed to be minding Nott anymore, and that was okay by her. This whole conversation was super strange, and Caleb was going to run away or implode or something in a minute. But she really could not stop herself from asking the very important question: "Did he just say Ass Guard?"
Loki glanced at Clint with a fleeting look of surprise. It wasn’t as though he was a stranger to barbs. At home, among his siblings’ peers, he earned plenty of sharp comments. Strange that he hadn’t expected hostility from this corner. At least that confirmed his frequent paranoia that he wasn’t welcome.
As the surprise flickered out, Loki forced his body to relax. “Asgard,” Loki repeated, softening the pronunciation in the correct places. “It’s the name of my home. We aren’t a very large country, but we are clearly exceedingly fancy. Well said.”
Cal looked at Clint with raised eyebrows, his expression a silent Dude. Clint really did have a bug up his ass about Loki, perhaps more than Cal had really realized. Maybe he really did think Loki was a snob or something. The accent wouldn't help, or the act Loki put on sometimes. (Never mind that Cal had grown to find the accent kinda sexy.)
...still, definitely not extending the invitation to visit this summer just now.
Seeing that look on Cal's face, Clint felt like he'd been kicked in the balls. He ducked his head down over his food and started eating again, unable to think of anything to say that might make things better.
Caleb wondered if now would be a good time to get dessert. The dynamic at the table had shifted so many times that he felt like he had whiplash, and there was this sinking, sick feeling too that one, little lunch was going to change things drastically. “He’s a prince,” he told Nott. “His parents rule Asgard.”
"You're SERIOUS?!" Nott thought it might be a joke name or something, like 'Merricuh.' But no? And since nobody else at the table was saying what they were really thinking, fuck it, she might as well. "Excuse me, I just need a moment to work this out. Does that make you..." And she could not, not that she was trying especially, keep the creep of a smile from spreading as she looked at Loki, eyebrows lifting. "Prince of the Ass Guardians?"
“I can honestly say I’ve not heard that one before,” Loki said dryly.
Had Nott really just said that? Between Clint snapping, Nott's shit-eating grin, and Loki's dryness, for a couple of horrible seconds, Cal was worried that he might start laughing. Not out of amusement, but 100% frayed nerves. He pulled his foot back to himself, because touch was suddenly not helping anymore, and tried not to panic. This was fine. Salvageable. Somehow. "Asgard looks pretty cool, anyway." He didn't sound like himself, he thought, his voice too distant.
Nott’s joke should have been funny, but that sinking feeling was turning into a yawning pit in Caleb’s stomach. As he stabbed anxiously at a meatball, his eyes settled worriedly on Cal, then made a quick trip around the table before settling back on Cal again. “It does. I’ve heard the capital has a really nice library.”
At that, Clint raised his head in curiosity. He finally noticed Caleb, and how anxious he looked, and attempted to look interested. "Like, one of those ones that have books going up to the ceiling?"
"Honestly, huh? ...I think I got that out of my system now." Nott's humor waned abruptly as she looked around at the other boys and exactly no one was willing to share in the joke. If anything, they looked more upset than before. What was even going on here?
“No worries,” Loki said, shrugging Nott’s joke off. “It is a beautiful library, multiple levels with the stacks ascending, reading nooks on every floor. I haven’t explored it as much as I’d like to, but I’m hoping next time I’m home...” Loki’s memories of last summer were a bit hazy, repressing a loneliness he assumed was due to being away from friends for the first time in so long. He had taken advantage of illusion and shifting in order to escape his family and explore the city in ways he couldn’t as himself. “Good place to visit if you ever want to grab a teleporter and hide in a library for a day.”
There, things were salvaged. For now. Maybe? Cal glanced at Caleb at Loki's last words, but forced himself to keep eating instead of saying anything. Things might be salvaged-ish, for now, but it still didn't seem like the right time to bring up Loki's invitation for summer break.
Caleb blinked. “Wouldn’t that be entering a country illegally?”
“Huh. That’s an interesting concern,” Loki remarked thoughtfully. “Please don’t bring exotic pets, drugs, or aggressive plants to the library and it should be fine? I doubt we’d question a few more students visiting from abroad. I mean. If it’s a deep concern I can get you through customs? But. I mean.” He gestured at Cal. “You can pretty much illusion any multipass you want. In the long run, the world is your oyster. Legally or subjectively. However you want to approach it.”
"I mean, I'd have to study passports and visas to pull them off, but yeah," Cal confirmed. That or just psychic people into believing they'd shown them. Easier, no doubt, but also more invasive. He wasn't too worried when it came to Asgard, anyway; even if something fucked up somehow, they had a prince on their side.
This wasn’t a hypothetical conversation. Loki was actually inviting them to Asgard. …Why? He didn’t even know them. “That still sounds illegal.”
"Does that matter?" Cal asked before he could stop himself. He immediately regretted it, though. Caleb clearly didn't wanna come, and that was that. He pushed some pasta around on his plate, then looked up at Caleb with his best attempt at an it's-okay smile. "I mean, we don't have to go."
Wait.
Caleb looked at Cal with a furrowed brow. Had Cal known that Loki was going to ask them all to Asgard? …What was going on here? “I’d just rather not get arrested.”
Clint looked up at Cal with just about the same kind of look as Caleb. So now they were planning a trip to Asgard?
“I can assure you, if legality is the concern I can make sure that’s not an issue. Legally.” Loki ripped off a chunk of his bread roll. “But honestly, I’m just saying, it is a cool library. You’re all welcome to visit anytime. We attend school for magic and mutants, we’re not exactly bound to normal expectations. Things are possible.”
Loki waited to see which person would attack or recoil first.
Discomfort squirmed in Caleb’s stomach. He felt put on the spot and he really didn’t want to go, but Cal was looking at them expectantly and what was he supposed to say to that stupid, hopeful puppy-dog expression he’d somehow perfected. “Okay,” he said, and went back to eating, sopping up spaghetti sauce with a slice of garlic bread Iike it was his job.
She didn't like to admit it, but there were a few advantages to Nott's size that people with regular proportions didn't have. Like when she was trying to hide from somebody, or sneaking a small set of nimble, clawed fingers into an unsuspecting pocket. Or how her shorter height gave her a pretty full view of what was going on under the table when she happened to glance down there.
Nott didn't think she was any kind of expert on teen boys. But from the guys she'd watched back home, most of them would knock another boy's teeth out if they tried playing footsies under the table.
If you put that together with the Prince of Asgard randomly inviting some kids that didn't much seem to like him for a private tour of his home country... Cal looking like he was about to shit himself or pass out from trying to make nice between them...
She picked up her tiny chin and looked straight across the table at Cal and Loki. "Are you two a thing now? Like, a boyfriend-boyfriend THING? Is that what this is all about?!"
Loki blinked. Congratulations to Nott for genuinely catching him by surprise. The mood at the table suddenly went from awkward and vaguely uncomfortable to jealousy/confusion/anger. Caleb and Clint’s reactions were palpable, even as Loki fought to keep his own confusion from spiraling out. Oh yeah, there was definitely some hurt there. And Cal… shields airtight as always. He didn’t need to bleed emotion. Nott’s question might as well be a wrecking ball.
“We are not boyfriends,” Loki said. “I’m not even a boy a third of the time. Regardless, this was an overture of friendship, not romance.” He fought the urge to glance at Clint. Prince of Lies, this was totally cool. This was the circle of crushes and it rules us all, through despair and hope, faith and seriously awkward dinner conversation.
”In all honesty,” Loki said, in a soft tone. “Cal is important to me, as is Mollymauk, and I’ve never had friends like them before. You’re all interconnected, so unless there’s some active avoidance we’re going to cross paths. Especially as people graduate. I’m sorry if my social skills are extravagant. I’m really okay if we tone it back down to books are awesome, something about cats or labs, and I’m pretty sure this would be less weird if all the animal companions were here. And this is why I’m a furry or feathered creature half the time. Personing is hard.”
Cal felt blood desert his face... and then make a strong comeback a couple of seconds later, judging by the heat in his cheeks. Fortunately, Loki was already fielding the question, because Cal wasn't sure what words might have rushed past his lips in a jumbled mess, especially given how he couldn't stop looking at Clint for a few seconds there. Loki was managing, smooth as could be. Cal wasn't a hundred percent certain what Loki even was talking about by the end there, but it seemed to be truer of Cal than of Loki, anyway. Loki was good at personing. Cal was hopeless, and really wished he could afford to illustrate Loki's point by turning into a crow and flying the fuck out of the cafeteria then and there.
"We really don't have to go to Asgard," he added once Loki was done. And if he was clinging desperately to what the conversation had been about before Nott derailed it, so what? He glanced at Caleb. "It just sounded like you might enjoy the library." He wanted to add, It doesn't matter, except it did to him and the words stayed stuck in his throat, so he looked back down at his plate and forced himself to keep eating.
Clint had paused, mid-bite, at Nott's question, and hadn't started chewing again. An array of emotions flooded through him, including intense jealousy, then anger at himself for having those emotions in the first place. Hadn't he told himself that he was over Cal? For fuck's sake. As the meatball in his mouth started to turn to mush, he listened to Loki, then Cal, and started to feel more confused than anything, because Loki was denying it, but Cal's face wasn't. Not that deep red color, anyway. But really, it didn't even matter if they were together, because what the fuck? Clint was Cal's friend. He should be supporting him, right? Whether it was Loki or not. Fuck his feelings.
Finally, he managed to swallow, then cough a little as it went down wrong, then look up at the table. "I'm fine with whatever. They uh, I think they have archery competitions there."
Caleb managed a smile that didn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt. “I said okay.” He took a bite of saucey garlic bread and didn’t say any of the other thoughts churning in his head. What was the point in saying Cal wasn’t being fair? That he’d dropped a trip to a foreign country on them out of nowhere when Caleb could barely go to the mall some days and that was with people he trusted? It seemed like all they did lately was buttheads, and he didn’t want to make things any worse. It already felt like there was a wedge between them and he knew that was his fault with all the lies he’d told and the secrets he’d kept so why cause more of a problem?
“What about you?” Caleb asked Nott conversationally.
"I think traveling to another country with the Prince of Ass Guarding is a terrible idea," Nott blurted out bluntly as Caleb turned to her. She glanced askance at Loki, who she'd decided by now was pretty much full of shit, or just got a kick out of dangling the truth around on a string so he could watch people snatch after it for his amusement. That guy had used the word honest or honestly or honesty or SOMETHING like 'honest' too many times already, and she didn't like how he seemed to be going out of his way to make the boys (including Cal, who was supposed to be special) all uncomfortable and then saying 'oh, I'm sorry I'm so extra you can't handle it, personing is sooooo hard for ME.'
"...But Caleb, if you're actually going, if that's a thing that is for real happening because you don't want to split up the band, then I'm going with you," she said like she was daring any of them to say different.
Why weren’t they dropping the topic? With how much of a dumpster fire the idea turned out to be? Loki had no idea if leaving the table would help or hinder at this point. Retreating could either come off as swanning off, or make it clear that this was as unpleasant for him as everyone else.
Loki held his tongue.
Cal was seriously tempted, for a second, to just blink away, or shift and fly off. Anything that would mean no longer being here. His stomach was in knots and he would not be able to finish his plate. Still, he remained resolutely focused on it, pushing the pasta around with his fork. This was going wrong in every way possible, and he had no idea how to fix it. Turned out that even in a cafeteria full of kids to mimic, there wasn't a single mutation that could help him out, and so he just waited for Caleb's answer, certain it would do nothing for the anxiety twisting his guts. Everything was fucked already.
"I could bring them an alligator as a gift," Clint said thoughtfully, as he started to build a tower of silverware. Because fuck, what else was he going to do? Cal was dating Loki, Caleb was freaking out, and Nott... well, Nott was at least giving him a run for his money in the 'opening your big damn mouth' race.
Caleb smiled fondly at Nott. She shouldn’t have said any of that, honestly, but it was still kinda nice that she’d stood up for him. It didn’t help him like the idea of going to Asgard any more, but it did help him feel a little better. “Yeah, I’d go. The library sounds cool.”
Nott had thought that maybe getting to the heart of the matter would help fix this whole awkward situation. But really all she'd done was make it worse, if nobody was ready to talk about it. Loki and Cal had stopped talking altogether, and the other two were making random patter. Even Caleb talking about libraries felt forced. It wasn't really her business, and she didn't really know what she was talking about anyway.
"I shouldn't have made that last Ass Guard joke. That was one too many," she muttered in the direction of the table, not looking at anybody this time, but she did manage to sound apologetic. "I'm done for real now."
Done for now, more likely. “Don’t worry about it,” Loki said.
He was reminded why, before this school, he didn’t have very many friends. Always unpleasant being the target for someone’s jokes. Worst when you couldn’t dole it back without getting dressed down, or in this case, upsetting several people. One of whom was important. Whelp, time to call it quits.
Loki casually got up and collected his tray. “Sorry to barge over. I’ll let you get back to it. See you folks around.” He tipped his head farewell and didn’t wait for responses. Loki returned his mainly untouched tray and slipped out.
Cal looked up from his plate and watched him go, wanting to say something to smooth things over for him, but unable to find anything to say that would do the trick, nothing he could say here and now, with everybody around. This had been such a mess, anyway, and Loki would probably want to get away from him as much as anyone, so Cal just let him go, and turned back to the pasta he was not eating anymore.
“Shit,” Clint muttered under his breath, then looked up at Cal. They may have sprung a lot on them, sure - no warning and in public and all, but that didn’t mean Clint wasn’t guilty about how awkward it’d been. “Sorry. I’m sure he’s an awesome dude.”
Caleb, who had gently squeezed Nott’s shoulder at her apology, watched Loki go with more than a little guilt. He was still staring off in the direction he’d gone when his mouth pinched with a frown, brow wrinkled in the way it did whenever he was thinking hard about something.
"Sorry Cal," Nott echoed Clint just that far. "Are you gonna be okay? You look a little...uhhhh."
"I'm fine," Cal replied immediately, before she could decide to elaborate on what he looked like. He wasn't, of course, any kind of fine. "I'm gonna - go hang out with Abs," he added, and stood, picking up his tray to return it. He did not look at any of them before he walked off.
“Shit,” Clint sighed again.
After watching the way Cal had gone for a moment, that serious-thinking knit back in his brow, Caleb said, “I’m going to, ah, check on him.” He squeezed Nott’s shoulder once more, than gave both her and Clint a smile. “It will be okay.”
Clint nodded, just a little, but pushed up and threw his arms out. "Hey, if you need me, I'll be at the range."
Nott watched the others scramble away from their table like it was on fire, then hopped down with her tray to do the same. She wanted to talk to Caleb so she could understand what the hell all of that was, but yeah, Cal needed it way more. And she'd be fine. Drinkin' was good for that. "I'm going to go... I'm going to go, too. Thanks for dinner, I guess?"
Caleb stood, and picked up his tray. “You too.” He meant it. As much as a fucking disaster as it had been, he was still grateful that Nott had been looking out for him. “I’ll talk to you later.” He walked off to dump his tray, and then head back up to the room he, Cal, and Clint shared.
Generally, when Cal sat down to meals with his roommates and various stabby friends Loki respectfully gave him space. As long as Shaun or Percy was around he ended up holding court with Vox Machina, and there were other people he could escape to. Seeing how Molly was one of those mutual friends that Loki often escaped to, keeping up this charade of separation felt frankly ludicrous.
Loki tried very, very hard to be mindful of Cal's feelings. Not startling him was key. His roommates were also very twitchy individuals. He knew that they required treading with care, but there was something about that evening that made Loki say fuck it. He hated being an outsider. And he already felt like he was avoiding Cal for other stupid reasons so, why not carpe diem?
"Hey Clint," Loki greeted, slipping in on his good side. "Warning. I'm sitting next to you." Promised to give more signals, after all.
He settled his tray down. "Evening everyone."
Cal's eyebrows raised as he saw Loki approach, a silent question on his face. He could have actually thought it at Loki, but he didn't bother. Watching him take a seat with them answered it, after all. Cal couldn't help but be a little wary, given what Clint had told him about Loki last time they'd talked about him, so Cal glanced at Clint across from him, then looked back at Loki with a small smile. "Hey. How's it going?" A pretty basic greeting, but warmth threaded through his voice. He wasn't wary enough not to welcome Loki's presence, but he was on his guard.
Clint tensed - he couldn't not, especially with someone coming at him from behind, but Loki did announce himself, so he slowly attempted to relax after a moment, especially on seeing Cal's smile. Loki was Cal's friend, right? He had every right to hang out.
Caleb glanced from Loki to Cal, and frowned. When his eyes flicked back, they didn’t quite meet Loki’s, and he forced a smile that, hopefully, didn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt. “Hello,” he said, then focused his attention on his plate, swirling a helping of spaghetti onto his fork as he tried to squash his discomfort.
Nott had left off of attacking a whole roast chicken to watch the swanning kid invite himself to sit with them, standing on her seat to get closer to eye-level with the others, and it looked like the rest of the table hadn't been expecting him either. She'd seen him around, but not talked to him herself. And his arrival wasn't an 'oh what a pleasant surprise' thing, judging by the sudden twang of tension strung across the table. Caleb had forced his reactionary frown into a brittle smile and sunk his gaze into his pasta, which didn't bode well. What was all this about?
Her large yellow eyes studied the dark-haired boy openly. "Ah, hi. Who're you?"
What a sunny reception. Loki smiled at Nott as if nothing was amiss. “I’m Loki. You’re Nott, right? I’m sorry I haven’t officially made your acquaintance yet.”
Wait, did Caleb also have an issue with Loki? Cal frowned a little at his friend's reaction, and resisted the urge to facepalm. He watched the interaction between Loki and Nott with more than a little apprehension, half expecting her to ask Caleb and Loki why they didn't get along.
Meanwhile, Clint was just glad not to have to talk to Loki, and began stuffing his face with a hot dog. Let Nott deal with him.
Caleb shoveled spaghetti and a half a meatball into his mouth and said nothing because it was rude to talk with your mouthful. It had nothing to do with anything else.
"That's okay. I don't usually talk to other kids in class. Or in the hallways. I mostly try not to get stepped on and leave it at that." Oh, man. Caleb and Clint were doubling-down on dinner. Maybe they were hoping Loki would go away if they didn't talk to him. But Nott had kind of stuck her foot in it (...her mouth in it? Her foot in her mouth? She was in conversation now) already. "So why are you eating with us all of a sudden? Are you Cal's buddy?"
Loki met Cal’s eyes and his smile briefly tipped to rueful. “Yes. Reading buddy, running buddy but only if paws are involved.” The smile returned to Nott. “Are you Jester’s roommate?”
"I am," Nott said simply, and wasn't really sure of what else there was to say after that? Apparently, lots of kids could turn into animals here, so she probably shouldn't make a big deal of it... She might've said how much Caleb liked reading too, but she didn't think he'd thank her for it. None of the boys chimed in right away, so she started to turn her attention back to her chicken.
But as Nott lifted the chicken and spread her maw wide, she remembered - "Wait. Are you 'Cat?' Jester's Cat that she likes to pet or something?"
Loki’s grin brightened. “She refers to me as Cat yes. Jester is lovely.”
Cal felt off balance, unsure how to deal with the fact that clearly, the people closest to him didn't like the third person closest to him. And that it had to be pretty obvious to everyone. Still, he made a deliberate effort to join the conversation, instead of clamming up the way he wanted to. "Does she only know you as a cat?" There, casual question, he could do this.
“We share art class together, so she knows me as a person as well. I introduced myself as a cat.” Loki glanced around to see if the girl in question was anywhere close at this time. Even though he didn’t see her, he lowered his voice. “I was trying to curb her library vandalism. I’m all for pranks on behalf of her Trickster, but mistreating books is going too far. I didn’t want anyone having an aneurism when they went to find specific sections and noticed the books were scattered illogically and upside down.”
Clint snorted around his hot dog (a second one), looking amused. He'd like to see one of those stuffed shirts walk into that library.
The corner of Caleb’s mouth turned up at the mention of Jester’s book shenanigans. He didn’t mind them so much. A misplaced book had never hurt anyone, nor had a few innocent scribbles.
It sounded like Loki hadn't even found any dicks scribbled in the margins of the books yet. Nott wasn't going to out Jester to the library fuzz though.
Nott flicked a glance between Cal and Loki, itching to ask about the thing she and Jester had talked about. "Okay, so when you're an animal, and a person is petting you... Is that... Weird for you, in an inter-species way? Like, is it the same thing as people touching other people, or is it totally different?"
“It’s not quite the same,” Loki answered. He also glanced at Cal. “But it’s also different for any shifter, I’m sure. You still have to be comfortable with people to let them near you. But context feels very different.”
"Yeah, it's really not the same," Cal confirmed. It felt like a bit of an understatement. How long had it taken him to snuggle in his human form as he did in his animal shapes? "But it still takes - yeah. What Loki said." It took trust, all the same, but talking about this felt hella intimate and Cal... well, he sucked at sharing intimate stuff casually. Cue him tripping over his own words.
"Yeah, the people gotta be okay with it too," Clint piped up, side-eying Loki. Dude just liked to swoop in whenever he pleased.
Caleb, who had nearly choked on a meatball at ‘interspecies’, nudged Nott as subtly as he could to get her to drop the subject. He didn’t like how it made it sound as if there was something wrong with Cal finding comfort in cuddling as an animal.
Nott turned her face to Caleb as he coughed and jabbed her on the sly, unsure of the exact thing he was trying to tell her. She figured it was either 'help I'm choking' or 'BUTTON' or both, though she didn't see what the big deal was with what she'd asked.
"Oh. Alright," she sort of said to Cal and Loki, and sort of said to Caleb. "Jester said I should ask Cal- But it's not important," she revised hastily, before Caleb gagged on his meatball. She reached up to pat his back, just in case it was choking.
Loki eyed Caleb’s attempt to ward Nott off from that line of conversation. Very carefully he slid his foot forward under the table until the tip of his shoe tapped Cal’s, then retreated.
“I mean, like all things in life, no interaction is exactly the same. It’s weird and uncomfortable if other people are weird and uncomfortable. Or it’s perfectly harmless if there’s no fucks to be given.” Loki twirled his fork between his fingers before stabbing a piece of fruit. “Jester is certainly a no fucks given person, and easily a great shoulder to drape on.”
Cal sort of wished Loki's foot hadn't retreated so quickly - but they were in the middle of the crowded cafeteria, and Cal felt tense and awkward already, so who knew when a very welcome touch might become totally unwelcome. Probably for the best that it was brief. He met Loki's gaze for a second, then looked back at Nott. "Jester said to ask me about this stuff?"
Clint’s eyesight was good enough that he still caught that lingering gaze between Cal and Loki, and suddenly it got him wondering. He lost track of whatever he was eating, just shoveling it into his mouth as he studied the two of them more closely.
Caleb had opened his mouth to disagree with Loki when Cal interrupted. He closed it again, which was probably for the best, and glanced over at Nott and Clint. His brow crinkled with a frown. Clint looked… Something was up. He looked back to Loki across from him, then down to his plate as he twirled up a forkful of spaghetti. “Jester says a lot of things.”
"So many things," Nott chimed in without having asked the actual question that Jester had told her to ask, following Caleb's lead without knowing where it came from or where it was going. She could see Cal had a panther-in-a-room-full-of-rocking-chairs look about him, so it must have to do with that. And she didn't want to embarrass Cal in front of the guys with it - at least not with Loki right there. "She's got such a curious mind. That's our Jester!"
Her eyes darted between the others for the beat of silence resounding in the wake of the forced excitement she'd thrust into the slightly manic bluster of words. She warily lifted her chicken, and when it was near enough, started shredding with her teeth.
Loki was impressed by Nott’s fervor. “They claim curiosity is unhealthy for cats, but you’ve got to accept risks for rewards. “
"Cats have nine lives, anyway," Cal replied, lips tipping up at the corner in a small smile. The risks were minimal when all you did was ask questions, anyway. At worst he wouldn't have answered. He realized he'd kind of stopped eating since Loki joined them, and turned back to his pasta.
Meanwhile, Clint was still watching Cal and Loki. At least Cal had started eating again, but what the fuck had that been about? He knew the two of them were friends, but Cal was talking about boy on boy relationships these days, and Clint couldn't help but wonder.
“I like cats,” Caleb said as a last ditch effort to change the topic. And also because he couldn’t think of anything else to say, and the awkward silence that was hanging around certain parts of the table, his own wouldn't, was becoming too awkward.
Nott crunched her mouthful of bones and meat, shifting her eyebrows dubiously at Caleb with his abrupt addition. ...Yeah, they'd hit peak awkward. This was it. And for them, that said an awful lot. "Cat kinda tastes like gamey chicken," she muttered, chomping into another bite of her dinner.
Loki raised a brow. “You don’t say. I wouldn't have pegged that.”
Cal had stopped eating again, nose wrinkled. "Can we move away from talk of eating cats?"
"I once had alligator," Clint piped up, spooning a heap of pudding into his mouth.
“What was its name?” Caleb asked around a mouthful of spaghetti.
Clint looked like a deer in the headlights. "Uh. I didn't ask the waitress?"
Cal, who had just resumed eating, choked on his forkful of pasta.
Caleb’s stomach bottomed out in embarrassment. Right. Clint once ate an alligator. Obviously. Duh. “Oh. Got you.” He faked a laugh. “I was joking. Haha.”
"Alligator's kinda like chicken and fish," Nott idly picked at some stubborn cartilage from where it had got stuck between two of her long, sharp teeth with the last shard of drumstick remaining from her meal. She was definitely not joking. "Real froggy that way."
“Where were you traveling?” Loki asked Clint. “I can’t say alligators are common to Asgard.” His foot slid forward, bumping against Cal’s again. This time he left it there.
It was silly, really. It was just a foot against his. But still, Cal gave Loki a small smile as he put down his glass of water, and felt himself relax as he turned back to his food. He shifted his foot forward a little, so it wasn't all Loki stretching his leg under the table, and let the prolonged contact soothe his equally silly nerves.
Clint's gaze lingered on that smile Cal was giving Loki, but Loki had asked him a question, so his eyes moved toward the boy beside him. "My dad had a cousin in Arkansas," he told the boy flatly. "'Cause I didn't grow up anywhere near as fancy as Asgard."
Oh, shit. Caleb kept his wide-eyes fixed on his plate.
No one seemed to be minding Nott anymore, and that was okay by her. This whole conversation was super strange, and Caleb was going to run away or implode or something in a minute. But she really could not stop herself from asking the very important question: "Did he just say Ass Guard?"
Loki glanced at Clint with a fleeting look of surprise. It wasn’t as though he was a stranger to barbs. At home, among his siblings’ peers, he earned plenty of sharp comments. Strange that he hadn’t expected hostility from this corner. At least that confirmed his frequent paranoia that he wasn’t welcome.
As the surprise flickered out, Loki forced his body to relax. “Asgard,” Loki repeated, softening the pronunciation in the correct places. “It’s the name of my home. We aren’t a very large country, but we are clearly exceedingly fancy. Well said.”
Cal looked at Clint with raised eyebrows, his expression a silent Dude. Clint really did have a bug up his ass about Loki, perhaps more than Cal had really realized. Maybe he really did think Loki was a snob or something. The accent wouldn't help, or the act Loki put on sometimes. (Never mind that Cal had grown to find the accent kinda sexy.)
...still, definitely not extending the invitation to visit this summer just now.
Seeing that look on Cal's face, Clint felt like he'd been kicked in the balls. He ducked his head down over his food and started eating again, unable to think of anything to say that might make things better.
Caleb wondered if now would be a good time to get dessert. The dynamic at the table had shifted so many times that he felt like he had whiplash, and there was this sinking, sick feeling too that one, little lunch was going to change things drastically. “He’s a prince,” he told Nott. “His parents rule Asgard.”
"You're SERIOUS?!" Nott thought it might be a joke name or something, like 'Merricuh.' But no? And since nobody else at the table was saying what they were really thinking, fuck it, she might as well. "Excuse me, I just need a moment to work this out. Does that make you..." And she could not, not that she was trying especially, keep the creep of a smile from spreading as she looked at Loki, eyebrows lifting. "Prince of the Ass Guardians?"
“I can honestly say I’ve not heard that one before,” Loki said dryly.
Had Nott really just said that? Between Clint snapping, Nott's shit-eating grin, and Loki's dryness, for a couple of horrible seconds, Cal was worried that he might start laughing. Not out of amusement, but 100% frayed nerves. He pulled his foot back to himself, because touch was suddenly not helping anymore, and tried not to panic. This was fine. Salvageable. Somehow. "Asgard looks pretty cool, anyway." He didn't sound like himself, he thought, his voice too distant.
Nott’s joke should have been funny, but that sinking feeling was turning into a yawning pit in Caleb’s stomach. As he stabbed anxiously at a meatball, his eyes settled worriedly on Cal, then made a quick trip around the table before settling back on Cal again. “It does. I’ve heard the capital has a really nice library.”
At that, Clint raised his head in curiosity. He finally noticed Caleb, and how anxious he looked, and attempted to look interested. "Like, one of those ones that have books going up to the ceiling?"
"Honestly, huh? ...I think I got that out of my system now." Nott's humor waned abruptly as she looked around at the other boys and exactly no one was willing to share in the joke. If anything, they looked more upset than before. What was even going on here?
“No worries,” Loki said, shrugging Nott’s joke off. “It is a beautiful library, multiple levels with the stacks ascending, reading nooks on every floor. I haven’t explored it as much as I’d like to, but I’m hoping next time I’m home...” Loki’s memories of last summer were a bit hazy, repressing a loneliness he assumed was due to being away from friends for the first time in so long. He had taken advantage of illusion and shifting in order to escape his family and explore the city in ways he couldn’t as himself. “Good place to visit if you ever want to grab a teleporter and hide in a library for a day.”
There, things were salvaged. For now. Maybe? Cal glanced at Caleb at Loki's last words, but forced himself to keep eating instead of saying anything. Things might be salvaged-ish, for now, but it still didn't seem like the right time to bring up Loki's invitation for summer break.
Caleb blinked. “Wouldn’t that be entering a country illegally?”
“Huh. That’s an interesting concern,” Loki remarked thoughtfully. “Please don’t bring exotic pets, drugs, or aggressive plants to the library and it should be fine? I doubt we’d question a few more students visiting from abroad. I mean. If it’s a deep concern I can get you through customs? But. I mean.” He gestured at Cal. “You can pretty much illusion any multipass you want. In the long run, the world is your oyster. Legally or subjectively. However you want to approach it.”
"I mean, I'd have to study passports and visas to pull them off, but yeah," Cal confirmed. That or just psychic people into believing they'd shown them. Easier, no doubt, but also more invasive. He wasn't too worried when it came to Asgard, anyway; even if something fucked up somehow, they had a prince on their side.
This wasn’t a hypothetical conversation. Loki was actually inviting them to Asgard. …Why? He didn’t even know them. “That still sounds illegal.”
"Does that matter?" Cal asked before he could stop himself. He immediately regretted it, though. Caleb clearly didn't wanna come, and that was that. He pushed some pasta around on his plate, then looked up at Caleb with his best attempt at an it's-okay smile. "I mean, we don't have to go."
Wait.
Caleb looked at Cal with a furrowed brow. Had Cal known that Loki was going to ask them all to Asgard? …What was going on here? “I’d just rather not get arrested.”
Clint looked up at Cal with just about the same kind of look as Caleb. So now they were planning a trip to Asgard?
“I can assure you, if legality is the concern I can make sure that’s not an issue. Legally.” Loki ripped off a chunk of his bread roll. “But honestly, I’m just saying, it is a cool library. You’re all welcome to visit anytime. We attend school for magic and mutants, we’re not exactly bound to normal expectations. Things are possible.”
Loki waited to see which person would attack or recoil first.
Discomfort squirmed in Caleb’s stomach. He felt put on the spot and he really didn’t want to go, but Cal was looking at them expectantly and what was he supposed to say to that stupid, hopeful puppy-dog expression he’d somehow perfected. “Okay,” he said, and went back to eating, sopping up spaghetti sauce with a slice of garlic bread Iike it was his job.
She didn't like to admit it, but there were a few advantages to Nott's size that people with regular proportions didn't have. Like when she was trying to hide from somebody, or sneaking a small set of nimble, clawed fingers into an unsuspecting pocket. Or how her shorter height gave her a pretty full view of what was going on under the table when she happened to glance down there.
Nott didn't think she was any kind of expert on teen boys. But from the guys she'd watched back home, most of them would knock another boy's teeth out if they tried playing footsies under the table.
If you put that together with the Prince of Asgard randomly inviting some kids that didn't much seem to like him for a private tour of his home country... Cal looking like he was about to shit himself or pass out from trying to make nice between them...
She picked up her tiny chin and looked straight across the table at Cal and Loki. "Are you two a thing now? Like, a boyfriend-boyfriend THING? Is that what this is all about?!"
Loki blinked. Congratulations to Nott for genuinely catching him by surprise. The mood at the table suddenly went from awkward and vaguely uncomfortable to jealousy/confusion/anger. Caleb and Clint’s reactions were palpable, even as Loki fought to keep his own confusion from spiraling out. Oh yeah, there was definitely some hurt there. And Cal… shields airtight as always. He didn’t need to bleed emotion. Nott’s question might as well be a wrecking ball.
“We are not boyfriends,” Loki said. “I’m not even a boy a third of the time. Regardless, this was an overture of friendship, not romance.” He fought the urge to glance at Clint. Prince of Lies, this was totally cool. This was the circle of crushes and it rules us all, through despair and hope, faith and seriously awkward dinner conversation.
”In all honesty,” Loki said, in a soft tone. “Cal is important to me, as is Mollymauk, and I’ve never had friends like them before. You’re all interconnected, so unless there’s some active avoidance we’re going to cross paths. Especially as people graduate. I’m sorry if my social skills are extravagant. I’m really okay if we tone it back down to books are awesome, something about cats or labs, and I’m pretty sure this would be less weird if all the animal companions were here. And this is why I’m a furry or feathered creature half the time. Personing is hard.”
Cal felt blood desert his face... and then make a strong comeback a couple of seconds later, judging by the heat in his cheeks. Fortunately, Loki was already fielding the question, because Cal wasn't sure what words might have rushed past his lips in a jumbled mess, especially given how he couldn't stop looking at Clint for a few seconds there. Loki was managing, smooth as could be. Cal wasn't a hundred percent certain what Loki even was talking about by the end there, but it seemed to be truer of Cal than of Loki, anyway. Loki was good at personing. Cal was hopeless, and really wished he could afford to illustrate Loki's point by turning into a crow and flying the fuck out of the cafeteria then and there.
"We really don't have to go to Asgard," he added once Loki was done. And if he was clinging desperately to what the conversation had been about before Nott derailed it, so what? He glanced at Caleb. "It just sounded like you might enjoy the library." He wanted to add, It doesn't matter, except it did to him and the words stayed stuck in his throat, so he looked back down at his plate and forced himself to keep eating.
Clint had paused, mid-bite, at Nott's question, and hadn't started chewing again. An array of emotions flooded through him, including intense jealousy, then anger at himself for having those emotions in the first place. Hadn't he told himself that he was over Cal? For fuck's sake. As the meatball in his mouth started to turn to mush, he listened to Loki, then Cal, and started to feel more confused than anything, because Loki was denying it, but Cal's face wasn't. Not that deep red color, anyway. But really, it didn't even matter if they were together, because what the fuck? Clint was Cal's friend. He should be supporting him, right? Whether it was Loki or not. Fuck his feelings.
Finally, he managed to swallow, then cough a little as it went down wrong, then look up at the table. "I'm fine with whatever. They uh, I think they have archery competitions there."
Caleb managed a smile that didn’t look as uncomfortable as he felt. “I said okay.” He took a bite of saucey garlic bread and didn’t say any of the other thoughts churning in his head. What was the point in saying Cal wasn’t being fair? That he’d dropped a trip to a foreign country on them out of nowhere when Caleb could barely go to the mall some days and that was with people he trusted? It seemed like all they did lately was buttheads, and he didn’t want to make things any worse. It already felt like there was a wedge between them and he knew that was his fault with all the lies he’d told and the secrets he’d kept so why cause more of a problem?
“What about you?” Caleb asked Nott conversationally.
"I think traveling to another country with the Prince of Ass Guarding is a terrible idea," Nott blurted out bluntly as Caleb turned to her. She glanced askance at Loki, who she'd decided by now was pretty much full of shit, or just got a kick out of dangling the truth around on a string so he could watch people snatch after it for his amusement. That guy had used the word honest or honestly or honesty or SOMETHING like 'honest' too many times already, and she didn't like how he seemed to be going out of his way to make the boys (including Cal, who was supposed to be special) all uncomfortable and then saying 'oh, I'm sorry I'm so extra you can't handle it, personing is sooooo hard for ME.'
"...But Caleb, if you're actually going, if that's a thing that is for real happening because you don't want to split up the band, then I'm going with you," she said like she was daring any of them to say different.
Why weren’t they dropping the topic? With how much of a dumpster fire the idea turned out to be? Loki had no idea if leaving the table would help or hinder at this point. Retreating could either come off as swanning off, or make it clear that this was as unpleasant for him as everyone else.
Loki held his tongue.
Cal was seriously tempted, for a second, to just blink away, or shift and fly off. Anything that would mean no longer being here. His stomach was in knots and he would not be able to finish his plate. Still, he remained resolutely focused on it, pushing the pasta around with his fork. This was going wrong in every way possible, and he had no idea how to fix it. Turned out that even in a cafeteria full of kids to mimic, there wasn't a single mutation that could help him out, and so he just waited for Caleb's answer, certain it would do nothing for the anxiety twisting his guts. Everything was fucked already.
"I could bring them an alligator as a gift," Clint said thoughtfully, as he started to build a tower of silverware. Because fuck, what else was he going to do? Cal was dating Loki, Caleb was freaking out, and Nott... well, Nott was at least giving him a run for his money in the 'opening your big damn mouth' race.
Caleb smiled fondly at Nott. She shouldn’t have said any of that, honestly, but it was still kinda nice that she’d stood up for him. It didn’t help him like the idea of going to Asgard any more, but it did help him feel a little better. “Yeah, I’d go. The library sounds cool.”
Nott had thought that maybe getting to the heart of the matter would help fix this whole awkward situation. But really all she'd done was make it worse, if nobody was ready to talk about it. Loki and Cal had stopped talking altogether, and the other two were making random patter. Even Caleb talking about libraries felt forced. It wasn't really her business, and she didn't really know what she was talking about anyway.
"I shouldn't have made that last Ass Guard joke. That was one too many," she muttered in the direction of the table, not looking at anybody this time, but she did manage to sound apologetic. "I'm done for real now."
Done for now, more likely. “Don’t worry about it,” Loki said.
He was reminded why, before this school, he didn’t have very many friends. Always unpleasant being the target for someone’s jokes. Worst when you couldn’t dole it back without getting dressed down, or in this case, upsetting several people. One of whom was important. Whelp, time to call it quits.
Loki casually got up and collected his tray. “Sorry to barge over. I’ll let you get back to it. See you folks around.” He tipped his head farewell and didn’t wait for responses. Loki returned his mainly untouched tray and slipped out.
Cal looked up from his plate and watched him go, wanting to say something to smooth things over for him, but unable to find anything to say that would do the trick, nothing he could say here and now, with everybody around. This had been such a mess, anyway, and Loki would probably want to get away from him as much as anyone, so Cal just let him go, and turned back to the pasta he was not eating anymore.
“Shit,” Clint muttered under his breath, then looked up at Cal. They may have sprung a lot on them, sure - no warning and in public and all, but that didn’t mean Clint wasn’t guilty about how awkward it’d been. “Sorry. I’m sure he’s an awesome dude.”
Caleb, who had gently squeezed Nott’s shoulder at her apology, watched Loki go with more than a little guilt. He was still staring off in the direction he’d gone when his mouth pinched with a frown, brow wrinkled in the way it did whenever he was thinking hard about something.
"Sorry Cal," Nott echoed Clint just that far. "Are you gonna be okay? You look a little...uhhhh."
"I'm fine," Cal replied immediately, before she could decide to elaborate on what he looked like. He wasn't, of course, any kind of fine. "I'm gonna - go hang out with Abs," he added, and stood, picking up his tray to return it. He did not look at any of them before he walked off.
“Shit,” Clint sighed again.
After watching the way Cal had gone for a moment, that serious-thinking knit back in his brow, Caleb said, “I’m going to, ah, check on him.” He squeezed Nott’s shoulder once more, than gave both her and Clint a smile. “It will be okay.”
Clint nodded, just a little, but pushed up and threw his arms out. "Hey, if you need me, I'll be at the range."
Nott watched the others scramble away from their table like it was on fire, then hopped down with her tray to do the same. She wanted to talk to Caleb so she could understand what the hell all of that was, but yeah, Cal needed it way more. And she'd be fine. Drinkin' was good for that. "I'm going to go... I'm going to go, too. Thanks for dinner, I guess?"
Caleb stood, and picked up his tray. “You too.” He meant it. As much as a fucking disaster as it had been, he was still grateful that Nott had been looking out for him. “I’ll talk to you later.” He walked off to dump his tray, and then head back up to the room he, Cal, and Clint shared.
