A/N: I guess it's time for my bi-annual update of this story, haha. Really, though, I am sorry for the wait. I thought I had this chapter planned out, but when it came to actually writing it, I hit a huge block. I let it sit for a while and then came back to the same block, so eventually I had to come up with a new plan for it. But here it is, at last! :)

Peter went to bed that night totally exhausted, and when he woke up, it was nearly time to leave. MJ and Ned had been up for hours, apparently, and done a whole bunch of exciting things.

"Dude, Sif let me hold her sword!" Ned told him, excitedly.

"You didn't tell me you'd met Sleipnir," MJ had hissed.

"Sorry?" Peter had said. He honestly hadn't known it was a big deal.

"It's fine," MJ sighed. "Turns out he's not Loki's kid, he just found him as a baby and raised him, or whatever."

"Loki's kid is a horse?" Ned squawked.

"No, you idiot, I just said he wasn't!"

"Uh, right."

"Are you ready to depart?" Loki's voice cut in smoothly from the doorway.

"No," Peter said, wishing he hadn't slept in that morning.

"I dare not risk the wrath of your aunt, Peter," Loki said, "so I must insist."

"Oh, yeah, she can get kinda scary sometimes."

Aunt May could be scarier than a supervillain, especially if he tried to talk to her in the morning before coffee.

"Sorry," Ned said as they got on the Commodore. "We did try to wake you up."

"It's alright," Peter said. He'd been tired, and he'd felt safe enough where he was to not be woken by his spidey sense. Besides, he'd probably needed the sleep.

Darcy was going back to Earth with them, too, but Loki dropped Peter and his friends off first.

When they landed on his apartment roof again, Peter turned to him, hands on his hips, trying his best confident-Spiderman pose.

"It's not gonna be months before I see you again, is it?"

"No," Loki said immediately. "No, definitely not. I must take Darcy home, and then I think you will see me very soon."

Peter suddenly wasn't sure he liked the look in Loki's eyes, but he didn't think there was anything he could do about it.

"Okay," he said. "Good."

He got out of the ship and stood with MJ and Ned to watch them leave. The ship rose about ten meters, hovered for a few moments, and then one of the side hatch doors opened.

Darcy's face popped out.

"Loki says this is for your aunt, Peter!"

She tossed something towards them, and Peter instinctively grabbed it in midair. It was a bottle of wine, although the label was decorated in strange symbols that must have been Asgardian.

He wondered how Loki had known that Aunt May liked wine, but the Commodore was rising quickly, long on its way to gone.

"You think your aunt will let us have some of that?"

Ned and Peter turned to look at MJ in unison.

"We're fifteen," Peter pointed out.

"I had some at the wedding," she shrugged. "It was good. Besides, I think the age limit on New Asgard is, like, five."

"Aw, I didn't even think of that," Ned complained.

MJ rolled her eyes. "Whatever, let's get off the roof. We look like losers up here."

With that she turned and headed for the fire escape, leaving Ned and Peter to follow, which, of course, they did.

Peter hadn't expected to see Loki so soon, and he definitely hadn't expected to see him here.

Here being in his high school.

In his Psychology AP class.

Standing behind the teacher's desk with a clipboard.

Peter stopped in the doorway, and MJ and Ned ran right into his back.

"Dude, c'mon, what's the – Loki?" Ned whispered the last, but Loki heard him anyway, looking up quickly and shooting them a smirk.

"Please enter quickly and quietly, students, we have a lot to discuss today."

MJ looked absolutely delighted by this turn of events.

Peter made his way to his desk in a daze. What was Loki doing here?

There wasn't time to talk to him, however, because Peter always took his time to get to this class. They'd had a bunch of different subs for the last couple weeks because Mrs. Boureen was on maternity leave, and it had been really boring.

Somehow, Peter was sure AP Psych wouldn't be quite so boring as before.

"Good afternoon, children," Loki began, as soon as the bell had rung. "I am your substitute for the foreseeable future; you may call me Professor Friggason."

"Professor?" Flash asked belligerently. "What, have you got a Ph.D. or something?"

Loki raised an eyebrow, but didn't even bother looking at Flash when he responded.

"I have many degrees, Mr. Thompson, all of them in subjects you could not possibly comprehend at the moment, if ever. Now, are all the rest of you present and accounted for?"

The rest of the class, including Peter, were too distracted by Flash's embarrassed, angry face for a few moments.

MJ recovered first.

"We're all here, Professor Friggason."

"Excellent," Loki smiled at MJ, who, for the first time in, like, ever, looked really invested in a class.

"Now, there will be no foolish activities in this class, or time-wasting homework assignments; instead, we will be having discussions, and your level of engagement will determine your grade. Your mere presence in this class will not be enough, you must contribute in some way. Is that clear?"

Peter thought it was pretty clear, and it appeared the rest of the class was on board, too. Loki had just told them they wouldn't have homework or assignments, and all they had to do was talk in class. It sounded awesome.

"We will start with this scenario, then…"

When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, nearly everyone groaned in disappointment.

"Until tomorrow, children," Loki said, dismissing them with a satisfied smile.

Peter, Ned, and MJ all hung around, waiting for the class to clear out.

"What're you doing teaching our class, Loki?" Peter asked, and then, realizing how that might sound, tried to backtrack a little. "I mean, it's really cool, but like, don't you have better things to do?"

"In fact, I do not, little Spider," Loki said, taking a seat behind the desk and propping his feet up on it. "New Asgard is constructed, and I trust the Lady Jane, at least, to run it well. I have no other obligations at the moment."

"So you came to teach our class?" Ned asked, bewildered. It was what Peter was wondering, too.

Loki just smiled and shrugged. "Are you not enjoying it?"

"Oh yes," MJ finally spoke up, "I thought our discussion today was very interesting."

She sounded like she knew something Peter didn't, and he stared at her, as if that was going to tell him anything.

"I thought one of you would figure it out," Loki said, looking pleased.

"Figure out what?" Peter asked, exasperated.

"What did we talk about today?" MJ responded.

"Er, nature versus nurture?"

"No, we talked about two brothers, one who was adopted and didn't know it, and –"

"Oh!" Peter exclaimed. "You and Thor actually did all that stuff?"

Now that he thought about it, he really should have figured it out when Loki had started talking about a bilgesnipe hunt, but maybe he was just too used to weird stuff happening.

"Of course."

"Cool," Peter and Ned said at the same time, and then turned and gave each other fistbumps.

MJ rolled her eyes at them, but she was smiling a teeny tiny bit, so Peter knew she wasn't really irritated.

"What's on tomorrow's agenda?" she asked Loki.

"That would be telling, Miss Jones," he smirked. "Go on to your next class, you'll find out tomorrow."

He was right, they were going to be late if they didn't leave right away. They rushed out, MJ dragging her feet behind him and Ned.

"What do you think it'll be tomorrow?" she asked them.

"I dunno," Peter shrugged.

"More Asgardian stuff?" Ned suggested.

MJ huffed and adjusted her bag on her shoulder.

"Well, I hope it's serial killers."