Some people are not meant to exist. They just are not meant to live in this world. The world was built for everyday man and those men who reside outside that category are not meant to live. They are created by some sick twist of fate, they are born into the hands of heartbreak and hell, their abilities cursed or embraced, they just aren't meant to exist. For some it means damn, for others it's the reason they keep living. Still these individuals flounder, roaming the world looking for amusement and solace. Some dart from here to now, skipping through time, trying vaguely to do something with their lives. Bruce Banner, of all people, knew this well. He knew that he was no longer one of the ordinary men and it pained him. Loki knew this as well, but unlike banner he had been born that way. He had been born extraordinary and destined to break.

And the both pretended. They both pretended to be ordinary men, one in denial of his abilities, the other of an embrace.

Maybe that was the reason that Loki sort out Thor the day after their haphazard meeting. It is only human nature to seek the company of those who are like you. Even if you aren't human birds of a feather flock together and apparently gods do the same, even gods of a different colour.

In Loki's opinion Thor really should of been expecting him, it was quite obvious that he would make an appearance sooner or later. When he had appeared like a blink cross legged on his bench he had thought, very plainly, that Thor falling back in surprise was over dramatic. He had of course liked over dramatic. Unlike many accusations he was a lot more egotistical than evil.

"Hungry" he barked. He didn't look very different since the night before. His hair had been put back in loose pony tail and he still wore the same dark jeans. His green eyes for once were focused, looking only at Thor, who was still sprawled on the floor looking dumbly shocked. "Hungry" he barked again.

"You… you spoke" the blond man stuttered uncertainly. Loki's voice was beautiful. Elegant and mocking, the same voice a crow would have. Self righteous and wise.

"Really? I didn't notice" sarcasm dripped in abundance from his lips and his face became a sneer. Thor blinked a few more times. He was still in his pyjama's even though it was late into the afternoon. Unlike the other person in the room he needed sleep.

He was going over to the man of iron's tower for a meeting in the evening, but he saw no harm in getting the man on his counter some lunch. He was deathly thin and all. Thor smiled and stood, shaking out his legs as he did so. He was plenty curious about the man's sudden voice, but he figured that those questions could wait.

"You said you were hungry, Loki, what would you like to eat?" Loki looked at him surprised, but nodded almost to himself.

"Anything edible" he said, his bark lowering to what Thor thought must be his normal voice. It took only a few minutes to make two bowls of the 2-minute noodles the captain had informed him how to make. His cooking skills, while quite good, weren't patient enough to go through the hassle of making a real meal. Plus the man on his bench seemed quite hungry.

He gave Loki a blue bowl with a smile and it began to steam. Thor gestured with his hand, beckoning the raven man over to the table, where they sat down and began to eat. Thor looked up at the raven man who was unconsciously being beautiful. His cheeks reddened at the thought.

"How has your day been so far?" It wasn't what he wanted to ask. He wanted to ask who he was, what he wanted, why he had so suddenly gone from voluntary mute to chatty. This man was shrouded in a black veil, like you could only see half of him at one time. His behaviour was so strange and so covered with cobwebs. Like it had been so long since anyone had asked he had forgotten himself.

"Terrible, the mortals have insulted me again" his face twisted into disgust.

"How?" Thor inquired. Loki shook his head and dug his hand into his pocket, bringing out his own magical light brick. The blond man across from him looked on, intrigued about how the mortals could of insulted him. They didn't usually take to insulting gods. Loki put the phone up to Thor's face to emphasise his disgust. Thor took hold the other man's hand, bringing the phone away from his face so he could see the screen properly. What looked like an old old painting from perhaps the fifteenth century tooled back at him. He recognised it immediately. "Look how horrible they made me, I look nothing like that" Loki said, unaware that Thor's shocked face was not, in fact, made out of sympathy for him.

"You are that Loki? Loki, god of mischief?" Thor lowered the phone slightly, Loki's delicate fingers still trapped lightly under Thor's paws. Neither of them noticed the tingles.

Loki looked at him surprised.

"Yeah, who else?"

"Never mind, Loki Liesmith. I'm sorry they thought you looked like that. You look nothing like it" Thor replied with a smile. Loki shrugged and tugged his hand and the phone out of Thor's grip, suddenly realising the physical contact between them. Thor looked back down at his small meal, reeling quietly at the new found identity of his companion. Loki Liesmith, god of mischief and mayhem, one of the big boys. In every society no matter how small there were always those people. Those people that ventured out of the boundaries set by people that had died long before they were born. Those people were sometimes powerful. Sometimes they went out and forgot where they had come from. People like him, people that had ventured out and tried to pretend. Tried to pretend they were just ordinary men. Thor had a job and he worked hard at it, because he wanted to be simple. He didn't want to be as old as he was, he didn't want to be so ancient and yet here he was. Far older than he looked, living among men as they tried to help. He fought and he trained and he was friends with people who were like him. Strong like him and different like him.

Here was another. Another god, another man who had ventured too far. The same, but so beautifully different.

He smiled. He could deal with pretending. Pretending to be an ordinary man.

After a while the man left. He abandoned his seat and the dishes, but Thor didn't mind so much. He still felt that he had made a friend. He liked the idea that he could confide in someone. He couldn't talk to his human friends about his days and the people he could talk to either already knew or didn't care. Loki on the other hand fit into neither category.

For the next few weeks Loki would appear everyday and demand food. Sometimes he would bring his scrolls and stay for the whole afternoon. Thor gradually got used to it and would make two servings for lunch and made different things so that he could discover what Loki liked. Sometimes he would express his like for something. A specific food that Thor would make and the lightening god would make a point of serving it more. It was a simple system. Thor would provide food and Loki would listen to his drabbles, occasionally even making small conversation. Somedays Loki would talk, other days he would bring his notebook. As far as Thor knew, Loki didn't work and his source of income was unknown, but he seemed content, if not always a little disgruntled. He was intelligent and ever so slightly evil. The tricks he played from trivial to major scale. He would always smile cunningly if Thor ever tried to confront him about the moral ethics of his pranks, but after a while he got the message that Loki wasn't listening and rarely did.

On the fourth week and third day after the their meeting Thor returned home to his apartment to find Loki sleeping peacefully among his scrolls. By this point Loki had essentially moved in with him. Sometimes the raven would cook three course meals that tasted like angel tears, and there was a draw in Thor study totally dedicated to Loki and his trinkets. He had essentially taken up a residence.

Loki looked so beautiful when he slept. The permanent scowl lifted and floated away from his face, only leaving his beauty, it was only then that you could really see just how beautiful he was. His mouth was slightly open and his glasses were still perched on his nose, apparently Loki was blind as a bat. His shirt was open, buttons undone, one arm behind his head, the other resting by his side. He was surrounded by his scrolls. Ones both old and ancient, Thor had no idea what they meant, but he knew that they did something important. He crouched next to the sofa with a gentle smile, his hand reaching out and moving some coal black hair out of the Norse god's eyes. Very, very slowly he leaned forward and placed his lips on Loki's forehead, his stubbled scrapping across soft skin, under his fingertips. His skin was always so cool, refreshing. Loki let out a small soft moan and buried his face into the pillow, still sleeping soundly.

"Don't worry, my dear, whatever you are running from, you are safe here" Thor stroked his forehead, eyes half lidded with contentment. His movements slow and important he picked up the man, as light at he was. Loki wriggled in his arms, searching for a comfortable position, he only found it when he was put down on Thor's bed and the covers were pulled up to his chin. Thor stood thoughtfully by the bed, looking down at Loki, trying very hard to focus. It was late, he wanted to sleep, the universe sucked and he had just sacrificed his bed to someone he would at this point call he best friend. Had his moral compass been working at the time, he probably would of slept on the couch with the scrolls he didn't understand, but it wasn't. So instead he went around to the other side of the bed, took off his shoes and belt, loosened his shirt and slid into bed next to the slumbering god. Loki was a man anyway, he wouldn't mind. Still, despite his tiredness, Thor's cheeks burned just a little as he fell asleep to the sound of deep breathing.

Author's notes:

alright, there's my chapter two. I hope you like it, I always like to get my first to chapters out really fast or my mind wanders and I forget I did the first one. Also I just got a text saying my best friend got food poisoning so if anyone has been though that ordeal, please send her your sympathies. Sorry Alex.

Much love,

Clementine

P.s if anyone has an requests on where they would like this story to go, please PM me