Loki could feel Tony's heavy gaze fixed on him as they walked and it sent a small tremor to his fingers. He banished the feeling away by clutching his notebook a little tighter. He hadn't expected to see Stark here after all these years.

He sucked in a sharp breath and chanced a glance in Tony's direction. Tony met his eyes and smiled that full grin he did when he was genuinely happy. It was good to see Stark this way and Loki didn't want to ruin it. Loki cast Tony a quick smile before looking away, forcing himself to focus on getting to their destination.

Loki didn't want to be this aware of Tony but he couldn't help it. When had Stark gotten so tall? He was just a few inches below Loki now… Was it always like that?

Shaking his head, Loki fought away the thoughts. He couldn't get close to Stark again. His chance for that ended a long time ago.


Tony wanted to touch Loki's hair. Loki had it cut in the years they had been apart and it just looked so touchable and soft. It wasn't short by any means and it still spilled over his ears, but it was just… shorter.

Tearing his eyes away, Tony focused on where they were heading. Loki led the way down the street and was heading for a small café. Suddenly, overhead, a clap of thunder sounded just as clouds were slowly making their way into the city. Loki stopped abruptly and looked up at it, frowning. Whatever he saw there had him scowling and saying, "You didn't tell Thor, did you?"

Tony mirrored his frown. "Tell him what?"

"That I'm here…"

Ah, that. "No," he said, watching for Loki's reaction. Instantly Loki looked relieved and he nodded, continuing his way into the diner.

Hmmm… Tony wasn't sure what he should make of that. He knew he would tell Thor about Loki being in the city eventually but he wanted to find out what happened to Loki first.

A shower of rain started to race across the sidewalk in little, lulling splashes and Loki and Tony slipped into the diner before it could reach them. Loki didn't even bother waiting to be seated and headed for a booth in the far corner with a window view of the street. Tony smiled; he enjoyed rainy days.

Loki set the notebook face down so Tony couldn't see what was inside and sat gingerly on the edge of the booth seat. Tony scooted in across from him, leaning eagerly against the table. "So, why this place?" Tony asked looking around at the quiet restaurant.

Loki also looked around as if he were just noticing his surroundings and then shrugged. "Seemed as good as any other place."

Tony nodded, not expecting that. He kinda thought that this place would have some significant meaning to Loki. Oh well.

Leaning a little further in, Tony studied Loki and immediately noticed the way that Loki was looking everywhere except at him. "So how are you, Loks?"

At his old nickname, Loki looked up at Tony sharply with an unnamed emotion swimming in his endless green eyes. A second later, Loki looked away again. "It's… fine," Loki said.

"What have you been doing with yourself?" Tony asked. "Where have you been all this time?" Tony's questions were coming more urgently. The euphoria of seeing Loki was being overshadowed by his long-lasting worry and anger.

Finally, Loki looked at him straight, not straying from his face, and said, "Please, just don't tell Thor I'm here, okay?"

Tony was taken back. Loki had not only dodged all of his questions but now was making the focus on Thor. "What about me, Loks?" he asked, his voice coming out strangled. "Do you have anything to say to me?"

Loki's eyes flashed with pain and anger. "Fuck you, Stark. You're the one that left!"

"God damn it, I said I would call!" Tony snapped back, slamming his fists onto the table.

The movement made Loki pull back from the table with eyes wide and vulnerable. There was something very wrong here. But instead of asking the questions that burned in his mind, Tony simply let the conversation lull into silence while the two stared at each other.

A waitress suddenly appeared at their table, breaking their staring match. "Hi, is there anything—"

"We're fine, thank you," Loki said coldly.

The waitress looked absolutely terrified under Loki's gaze and she stuttered out, "O-okay." She quickly disappeared after that.

Loki turned his gaze back at Tony, glaring. "Why is it," Tony began, "that you and Thor both think that this is all my fault? I said I would call but I was being detained by Howard, Loki! You have to believe me!"

Loki's expression went from cold to surprise to wistful. "So… you didn't just… stop talking to me?" Loki's words went quieter as he talked as if he were afraid of the answer.

"You think that I abandoned you?" Tony asked.

The hurt on Loki's face was beyond words, making Tony feel like he got punched in the gut. Loki truly and fiercely believed that Tony abandoned him. "Didn't you though?" Loki asked.

"Loki, you're the one that abandoned me."

As soon as he said it, Tony knew it was the wrong thing to say. Loki's eyes went wide and angry and he snatched the notebook off of the table. "Fuck you, Stark," he snapped. He stood and started marching for the exit.

Tony stood and went after him, pushing out the front doors seconds after Loki. The rain was pouring outside and even though Tony was pissed at Loki, he couldn't help but worry that Loki would catch a cold. Loki's hair was already plastered to his head with the rain and Tony could feel the same happening with his own hair.

"Loki, wait!" he hollered through the steady pounding raindrops. Loki wasn't stopping though, so Tony did the only thing he could do and grab Loki's wrist to wrench him to a stop.

Loki stumbled but looked back at Tony with a heated glare. He was clutching his notebook to his chest like a precious gem, shielding it from the rain. "Loki, please," he begged. "Don't disappear on me again."

Emotions flashed across Loki's face as he stood there, caught in Tony's grasp. He looked like a caged animal. "I'm sorry, Tony," he said. "I… I don't love you anymore."

Tony frowned at him, trying to understand. He latched onto Loki's hesitation in his words, holding onto it like a lifeline. "That's not true," Tony said, grabbing Loki's shoulder with his free hand, firmly holding Loki where he could see him. "I don't believe you."

"We barely knew each other back then," Loki hissed. "And you don't know me now."

"Then help me!" Tony's fingers went tight on Loki's skin and he watched Loki wince but not pull away.

The two went silent, staring at each other, breathing hard from their argument and listening to the cold rain rushing over them. Tony couldn't help it. He kissed Loki, smashing his lips to Loki's, trying to make up for lost time. Loki's lips tasted as sweet as he remembered and he felt his emotions grow elated. It took him a second to realize that Loki wasn't kissing him back, but there was a brief few seconds where Loki leaned into the pressure. Then Loki pushed him away, looking scandalized.

Loki pressed his arm to his lips, glaring at Tony, and then looking down at the ground. In a puddle at their feet was Loki's notebook, soaked through. When Loki had dropped it, Tony didn't know. In fact, he had forgotten Loki even had the thing.

Stooping down, Tony grabbed it for Loki and held it out to him. It was wet and then pen on the pages were bleeding down the pages. "No, it's worthless to me now," Loki said, removing his arm from his lips.

"Oh come on, Loks. Don't blame everything on me and just talk to me!" Before Loki could say anything more, Tony grabbed a pen from his pocket and flipped to a partly dry page of Loki's notebook and quickly wrote a message on the page and handed it back to Loki. "Take it, please."

Loki looked at it curiously and after a second, he took it and closed the notebook without looking at Tony's words. "I have to go," Loki said shortly. "I have somewhere to be."

Tony didn't even try to stop Loki. Instead he just watch Loki go, wishing he had said so much more.


Loki didn't stop walking as fast he could until he reached his usual bus stop and he stopped, leaning against the sign with a sense of despair. His heart was still beating fast from seeing Stark and he was still trying to wrap his mind around the thought that Tony still might love him after all this time! Surely Tony hated him after everything that happened. Or at least, that's what he thought had happened. Loki frowned, squinting out at the torrents of water that flowed along the curb, trying to remember why he thought Tony hated him and he came up with nothing.

He kicked the sign in frustration. Then he remembered the notebook in his hand and he flipped vigorously through the pages, searching for the page Tony had written on. When he found it, he stared.

I really love you, Loks. Please give me a second chance. –Tony

His number was written right under the note, starting to smudge from the rain. Loki wanted to cry in relief, in fear, in anger. This was too much.

So when the bus came and Loki got on, Loki ripped the page out, discarding it in the trash can before finding a seat. Guilt wracked him but Loki knew it was for the best. It was better that he didn't see what Tony had written.


Tony didn't even care that he was soaking his car with his wet clothes. He just drove home in silence and confusion. Geez, what did he expect? Of course Loki would be just as pissed as him about what happened in high school. The communication between them was severed a long time ago and who knows what Loki was thinking.

He parked in the parking garage of his building and numbly made his way up the elevator. Tony knew that people had stared at him in the lobby, but he didn't care what they thought; he was still trying to figure Loki out in his head. The situation was just too strange and Loki had been acting so weird. Skittish.

Reaching his apartment, he pushed inside and was met by the loud voices of his three friends in the living room. "Tony!" Pepper greeted, not yet noticing his appearance, jumping off the couch. "We didn't go to campus because it was raining and… and what happened to you?" she asked, just now noticing how soaking wet he was and the way he was dripping over the nice wood floors.

"Loki happened," Tony mumbled, kicking off his shoes and tearing off his socks.

"What do you mean?" Natasha said, immediately jumping off the couch.

Rhodey who had never met Loki but had heard hundreds of stories about him, also came to crowd Tony. "Shit, he's here in the city?"

"Yeah," Tony said. He scrubbed his hands over his eyes and pushed past his friends, heading for the kitchen. They followed him like ducklings as he went to the bar area and checked the cabinet for booze. Good old Howard. There was only one good thing about his father and it was that his father supplied good liquor. Tony took out a bottle of brandy and poured himself half a glass.

"Whoa," Pepper said, snatching the glass out of his hand before he could take a drink. "Remember what happened the last time?"

Yeah, Tony remembered. He passed out on the dining room table at Pepper's house, completely naked. That was something that Pepper or any of their other friends had wanted to see ever. That was last summer when they had last gotten together. "Come on, Pep. I just saw my ex."

Pepper was in the middle of dumping part of his drink into another glance when she looked up sharply at Tony. The others looked just as shocked. "Holy crap," Natasha said. "You never called him that before."

"Well I didn't…" he trailed off, not knowing what he was trying to say.

Pepper leaned over the counter and slid the majority of his drink back to him and said, "Just start from the beginning. Tell us what happened."


Loki got off the bus at his stop, staring up at his old rickety building with distaste. Over the years Loki had grown to tolerate his new life and he felt content with the familiarity of it all, but now that he'd seen Tony, that illusion had shattered. His life sucked.

He went inside and started up the old stair case, heading for the top floor. The elevator was permanently broken and the land lord was never going to fix it. Everyone knew that.

Remembering the land lord, Loki looked behind his self on the stair case, paranoid. If he could help it, he was staying out of the land lord's way. Loki shivered with the sense that he was being watched and continued on his way, up and up the spirals until he reached the top floor, the tenth. He immediately dragged his sore legs into the hallway that smelt like weed, and headed for his door on the end. Apartment 1039.

Loki unlocked it, pushed inside, and tossed the soaking notebook down on the old, stiff couch at the entrance, kicking off his shoes. His apartment was tiny at best. It had a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and a main living area, just as any other apartment, but everything compacted together so that Loki was constantly bumping into things when he moved. The only thing Loki did like was the small little balcony that was connected to the living room. It was the only place Loki felt free.

So that's where Loki went as soon as he was in his apartment door. He pushed out onto the few feet span of his deck and nudged his door shut. Every other apartment had a balcony, so the tenants could choose from either more space or a deck. Loki liked this a lot better.

The warm rain invigorated Loki as he cast his eyes below to watch the pedestrians and cars. It was so peaceful up here where he could see everyone, despite being soaked through to his bones. Then he glanced up at the building opposite to him, studying the apartment that was directly across from him. He could see the door wide open on the balcony. Wow, someone must have moved in.

Loki wondered what extraordinary person could be living there now.


Tony paced the room, just finishing his story, but not wanting to look at any of his friends. He did though and found them looking as confused as he was. "He said he didn't love you?" Pepper asked. Her expression was in complete shock.

"Yes, that's what he said," Tony said, grimacing.

"I don't believe that for a second," Pepper said firmly. "Did you ever see how he looked at you back in high school? That was love!"

Tony shook his head. "But it's been two years. Things can change," Tony reasoned, trying to convince himself more than them. "Maybe we don't know the type of person Loki is now."

There was silence around the group. They all didn't want to admit it but it could be true. Two years was a long time to pine over someone and just because Tony still did, didn't mean that Loki would automatically feel the same thing.

Tony sighed, hating this telling silence, and turned away from his friends. "I need some time to myself," Tony said. No one disagreed, so Tony threw back the remainder of his drink and headed away from them in the direction of his room.

Upon entering his room, Tony threw himself down on the bed and groaned into it. He didn't want to sleep but he didn't want to move either. But that's when he heard the slight sound of a breeze through something like an open window and he could feel the movement of the air in his room. He looked up. His balcony door was wide open to the world, letting the gushing rain inside.

He groaned unhappily and stood, heading for the door and was ready to close it when something caught his eye. Across the street there was someone standing on their old, rickety balcony looking straight down at the people below. The guy had dark black hair that spilled just past his ears and HOLY CRAP.

Tony stepped out onto his own large balcony into the rain and went to the railing in an instant and stared at the figure. It was Loki. Fucking Loki was living across the street from him.

He was only staring at Loki for a few seconds when Loki finally looked up. Loki was instantly shocked into place, growing completely still with his eyes on Tony. Loki's features were hard to see from this distance, especially through the curtains of raindrops, but Tony was happy enough. This meant that he might see Loki every day.

The thought, the possibilities sent Tony reeling and he couldn't be blamed for the big goofy smile that grew on his lips. Tony raised a hand in greeting and waited. Loki stared back and Tony couldn't read Loki's emotions, but eventually Loki waved too.