He finds out later on that she tried to have her seat moved in all of their five classes, but it turns out only their bleeding heart French teacher is sensitive to the plights of her students. Otherwise, she's stuck.

It's at least a slight alleviation from her constant invasion of his space. Now he only has to worry about her for two and a half hours every day instead of three. She spends the rest of the time making herself scarce. She eats lunch in front of her locker on rainy days and finds another tree to read under when it's sunny. She even pays a senior in woodshop to attach wheels to her bookbag, so she can carry all her books at once without breaking her back and avoid having to use her locker.

It's worth every penny if it gets her away from him.

He can almost forget everything he's felt lately because of her, as weeks drag into months and Autumn brings forth a cold front, and not a single word of conversation passes between the two of them. He even considers starting up a few pranks, and really get things back to normal, but nothing he can think of comes close to satisfactory. They're either too far beneath him to consider or things he's already done before. The latter is especially out of the question. He could never be so obvious as to repeat himself, even just one time.

Repetition breeds predictability. That is something he must never forget.

Mr. Stone is their biology teacher, and he most likely has some kind of military background. Loki doesn't know for sure, he was lacking caffeine the night he read over all his teacher's background checks. Hacking the system had taken more time and effort than he'd expected.

It comes out in Mr. Stone's teaching method, in the way he marches up and down the aisles in strict formation, and gets right up in your face when he yells at you for misbehaving. Loki is convinced after a month in the man's class that he's either just recently been discharged and is having trouble adjusting to civilian life, or he's deluded himself into thinking he never left at all.

"Alright everyone, ATTENTION!"

Mr. Stone slams a ruler on the chalkboard, and marches up and down the room, following a path that will soon be worn into the floor itself.

"Your first quarter study projects are due exactly two Mondays from today. You will begin by choosing a topic for study, then write a five to ten page research paper. I expect you to have them completed and on my desk before the deadline. This assignment counts for thirty percent of your final grade, and overdue hand ins will NOT be accepted.

"You will all work in pairs of my choosing."

A wave of groaning rolls over the class.

"SILENCE!" Mr. Stone hits the chalkboard again. "Now, when I call your name, you will go and sit next to your partner. You will spend the rest of today and tomorrow discussing your research topic, and you will have an answer for me by Friday. If by then, you have not made a decision, I will make it for you, and you and your partner will receive points off your final grades."

Mr. Stone returns to his desk and takes up the roll call sheet.

"Malekith and Kurse."

Mal's seat is two down from Loki's. He rolls his eyes in full view of Loki, obviously expecting some kind of affirmation of his disgust, but coming up empty handed. Loki has found the cracks on the walls to be much more appealing a sight than that of Mal going to stand next to the burly, hideous Kurse, who reminds Loki more of a thirty year old gangbanger than a fifteen year old high school student.

"Stark and Potts, Banner and Ross, Rogers and Carter, Coulson and Ward, Barton and Romanov, Rhodes and Barnes, Odinson and Foster, Hill and Lewis, Hogan and Hansen, Fitz and Simmons."

There is a smattering of noise as everyone breaks off into their assigned pairs. They've learned their lesson about complaining, and all preconceptions aside, most of them are happy with the lots they've been drawn. Already, Stark is sliding up to his beleaguered girlfriend, the things on his mind clearly not at all school related; Rogers is trying not to hyperventilate as he and his longtime crush start discussing their project; Barton and Romanov hole themselves up in the corner, like they do at lunch and in every other class Loki has with them.

He is the only one who hasn't moved, and that he hasn't been yelled at for it yet can only be because his partner is right behind him, and just as gobsmacked as he is.

Mr. Stone looks up once in the following twenty five minutes to check that everyone is working. His eyes land square on Loki and Jane, and they harden.

"Get to work," he says, without yelling for once.

Jane starts to get up, drawing in a breath for what has to be a very long winded speech of protest.

"Sit down, Foster," Mr. Stone barks before she can get even one word out. "Unless it's the topic you and partner have agreed on, I don't want to hear a peep out of you."

Jane returns to her seat like she's just been slapped. Loki has trouble finding humor in it like he wants to. It's mitigated by a clenching of his fists and a momentary urge to sink them into the fat folds of Mr. Stone's face. When it passes, he turns his chair around. Jane has her head down, and she's drawing a detailed, if crude, picture of a rocketship. Anyone who spares them a glance wouldn't find the sight unusual. They'd think Jane was just being her same old ultra-studious self, getting right down to business and all that.

"We don't really have a choice here, you know," Loki says.

Jane is able to ignore him for a couple of minutes more before his stare gets the better of her.

"I'm trying not to think about it," she says.

Loki shakes his head and straightens in his seat.

That makes two of them.

The next day, they talk long enough to decide on cell biology for their project. That Jane has taken her most detailed notes on cell biology, the use of which will surely cut down the time they must spend working together by a considerable margin, goes unmentioned.

As long as things go according to plan, it'll be five study halls before they are finished, and they could have the report on Mr. Stone's desk Thursday morning, before the day even starts. It's an easy A for the both of them.

Except first, they must get through the next five days.

They don't talk at all on the first day.

On the second, Loki asks Jane to hand him a book and she does.

Progress is progress.

On the third day, Loki forgets his pencil sharpener. The one pen he has on him is out of ink. He tosses it in the trash along with the broken pen and looks expectantly at Jane. That she is none too pleased is a given, but she hands over a blue pen anyway.

"Thank you kindly for your generosity, Jane," he says, holding the pen to his chest like it's a treasured keepsake.

Jane raises an eyebrow. "Kind? Generous? I didn't know you knew those words."

What a poor attempt at an insult, but he'll give her points for trying.

"As a matter of fact, I have an intimate knowledge of them. For example, there was that incident in second grade, when Kurse was kind enough to help me clean a stain on my collar by sticking my head in the toilet, and in return, I shared with him a generous portion of my mother's fine garden soil for his lunch the next day."

Her mouth starts to twitch, and she looks away fast, but she cannot take back what she has just done, and he cannot unsee it.

He just made a joke, and his joke had made her smile.

And he actually kind of likes that.

It takes them one extra day than expected to finish the report than expected. On Wednesday afternoon, someone let off a stink bomb in the library, and it took the rest of the day for custodians to get the smell out. When it happened, Jane had looked to Loki first, and he had been affronted.

Surely she knew he had higher standards than a stink bomb!

Plus, he already pulled that prank years ago at his father's company picnic.

Repetition breeds predictability. That cannot be stressed enough.

Since the third day, things have proceeded much more smoothly between them. Loki makes an effort to choose different targets for his snide remarks, such as that one kid who always sits in the farthest corner of the library with the periodicals, where he 'enjoys' himself with a copy of Women's Health.

She never laughs, but she 'almost-smiles' at least twice more.

Loki stopped trying to understand why he cares some time on the fourth day.

He stands by as Jane prints out their completed assignment on the fifth day. Every now and then, he looks away from the page he is reading to check her progress. This school is in dire need of some better printers. The one they have now is so old and slow that it puts dial-up to shame.

"You misspelled nucleus."

Loki holds up the page and points to the sentence bearing the offending mistake. Jane doesn't look.

"That's just the rough draft," she says.

"But aren't you the one who proofread the final draft?" Loki asks. "It doesn't speak highly of your reliability if you make such an obvious mistake. Oh, look! Here's another."

Jane snatches the paper away, before he can point out the comma she missed.

"Look, it was three am when I wrote my part of the rough draft and I hadn't slept. Sue me."

The printing job is finally done, and Jane carefully stores the papers in her bag for tomorrow. They had previously decided on who would present their work to the teacher with a rousing game of blackjack (his idea), best two out of three. Jane had balked at the idea at first, but Loki had worn her down. It was a fun, addicting game, and what were they betting for anyway? Not money. Not even Loki was cruel enough to take money from a poor person. They were only deciding who would hold their work over the weekend and nothing more. Jane had reluctantly given in at that point, and may have even had a little fun beating him. Of course, whether or not Loki had let her win out of pity was perfectly justifiable to speculate on.

"How do I know you were in top form for the final draft?" he asks.

"Because you were with me when I was working on it. You were literally sitting right next to me the whole time."

"You sound quite sure of yourself," he says, grinning. "But in case you're not, I'd be happy to take the remainder of the work off your shoulders. Do a read through of my own to be sure. Shall we play for it? Best three out of five."

"Goodnight, Loki. See you tomorrow."

She walks out of the library with all their hard work on her shoulder. Loki watches her go.

He likes the way she says his name.

Jane comes to school on Monday in a blur.

Loki is at his locker when she bursts onto the scene, running so fast, her bookbag is in the air and half off it's wheels. It flaps helplessly and heavily, nearly barreling into several people who get out of the way just in time to avoid a trip to the Nurse's office.

Throwing open her locker, Jane rummages through its meager contents. Loki watches her, like a man watching a wreck in progress, but it's when she's shaking out a book she hasn't touched in over a month that he goes over.

"Missing some medication this morning?" he asks, because he can't give her up as a target just yet.

Jane's head snaps around, her eyes wild. She drops the book to the floor and grabs him by his shirt collar.

"Did you take it?" she asks, her voice sounding like sandpaper. "Huh? Did you?"

"Take what?" he asks in earnest, and far too calmly for her by the look of it.

"Look, I won't be mad if you did, okay? I won't yell at you, I won't even hold it against you. Just please tell me you have it!"

She shakes him, as hard as her miniscule strength will allow. Loki easily pulls her hands off of him when he tires of it.

"How can I do that when I don't even know what it is I'm supposed to have?"

Jane's adrenaline induced rage seems to break here, and she falls against her locker and slides pitifully to the floor. A moan follows her down. Loki steps back a little to give her some leg room, and stares off a few stragglers who've stuck around to watch the spectacle.

"Would you mind telling me what this is all about?" he asks.

Jane shakes her head.

"I messed up," she says. "I messed up so bad."

He thinks those are tears in her eyes.

"I had the paper," she says, and from the haunted quality of her voice, she may not even be talking to him. "I wanted to look over it one more time… because you made me paranoid, Mr. Spellcheck."

That's a little bit better, but it still needs some work.

"I only left it for a second. I just needed a refill on my drink. And when I come back, my stupid cousin has decided that our paper is a perfect coaster for her coffee."

Jane bangs the back of her head on the back of her locker.

"So what now? I can't hand in a paper with a coffee ring on it. Thank goodness I have the whole thing copied onto my usb drive. I just have to pull it off that and reprint it. That's easy, right? My printer at home is ten times faster than the one here anyway."

"But when you went to go and do that, you couldn't find the usb," Loki supplies. Really, it's easy to fill in the rest of the blanks once she gets going, even amid the steady slurring of her words that makes it clear she's had this on her mind all night.

With her head bowed in shame, Jane pulls herself up. Her legs are shaking like leaves.

"Loki, I'm sorry," she says, sounding on the verge of tears. "It's all my fault. I should've just let you carry the paper, or made you a backup copy, or something."

She starts rubbing at her nose, and accepts the tissue he offers without comment.

"I can't believe this. We're going to fail. I've never failed anything in my whole life."

She's having trouble walking straight- has she ever slept?- and she forgets her bag by her locker, so it's up to Loki to wheel it behind them as he walks her to her first class, and wonder how the hell he got himself into this.

Jane's a zombie by the time eighth period rolls around. It would be funny if it wasn't so very, very sad.

She sits in her seat similar to a rag doll that's been propped up by a child. Mr. Stone is not going to be happy when he sees that. The man is all about posture, and he treats slouching like it's a crime against humanity.

He arrives in typical fashion: throwing the door open and staring menacingly inside for a few seconds, smelling for fear that he rarely finds after the first two days or so of school. By then, everyone is too used to it.

"Good afternoon," he says, standing in the center of the room with his arms behind his back. "As you all know, today is the deadline for your study projects. I expect that you've all followed the guidelines and have your final reports ready?"

A couple of people mumble unintelligibly.

"Well then, let's start from the beginning… Stark and Potts!"

One by one, a member of each pair walks up to turn in their reports. Potts is first, followed by Banner, then Barton, and so on and so forth until Mr. Stone is halfway down the list.

"Odinson and Foster."

Loki can feel Jane's whole being freeze. The hairs are standing up on her neck and arms as their collective silence draws a purple vein out of Mr. Stone's neck.

"Well?"

Biting down hard on her lip, Jane stands up. Her face is dry, her eyes puffy and red. She meets Mr. Stone's gaze, and Loki feels a hint of respect for her, that she'd be so brave in the face of impending failure. A 'Warrior's Spirit,' as his father and brother would call it. Loki isn't sure how much he agrees, but either way, he likes this side of Jane.

"Mr. Stone," she says, as calmly as she can manage. "The truth is-"

"The truth is that I misplaced the project," Loki interjects.

The eyes that turn onto him would've burned a lesser man. For Loki, it's just another day of troublemaking, except this time, he's doing it for a good reason, other than just 'I felt like it.' Jane may not agree when this is over, but such is the sacrifice of maintaining his reputation. At least she'll have nothing to be angry about. Quite the opposite, in fact.

"You lost the project?" Mr. Stone asks.

Even if he can't see Jane, Loki can imagine what her face looks like. He holds onto that image, allowing him that easygoing disposition in the face of danger that he prides himself on.

"It was a terrible accident, really," he says. "I had the file saved on a usb drive, but it was taken by a friend of mine who'd mistaken it for their own. By the time I realized what had happened, it was too late. It's my fault, really. I shouldn't have left it sitting out like that, where anyone could have taken it."

Mr. Stone, his face and neck a mess of red and purple, his eyes bulging out of their sockets, a second away from exploding and possibly suffering a stroke, leans in close.

"So why don't you get it back?" he asks, just above a whisper.

Loki smiles.

"Impossible, sir. You see, that friend I mentioned is an employee of my father's, and the usb was taken as part of a collection my father is using for a presentation in Stockholm. He's announcing some new technology that could make our company billions if it's successful. However, he is on a tight schedule, and I'm sure you understand why I couldn't just have the plane double back around and make him miss the meeting just so I could have one little usb for one little project. I'm sure you understand how detrimental that would be to my family's business."

And that was it. Loki had him.

Not even Drill Sergeant Stone was bullheaded enough to step in the way of the Odinson's business affairs, not when their company was the pillar of the town's economy and their name was plastered on everything from banks to barber shops to taxi cab advertisments.

As expected, the red and purple had lightened, coming out pure, pale white. Stammering slightly, Mr. Stone loosened his collar and moved away from Loki to the front of the classroom.

"W-well, if it's something so important, then I suppose..."

"You needn't worry, though," Loki goes on. "For my partner has a copy of our report on her own usb."

He turns to Jane, who is paler than Mr. Stone and shaking her head furiously at him.

"I believe you had it in the front pocket of you bag, am I right, Jane?"

If looks could kill, as they say. He doesn't think she's ever been this furious with him, not even after the frog incident. She dips sweaty fingers into the unzipped front pocket of her bag, because what other choice does she have now that Loki has put her on the spot. After a moment, shock dawns over her features, and from her bag, she pulls forth a tiny black usb, her finger covering the tiny 'L' decal.

She opens her mouth, but she's been rendered mute. Mr. Stone takes it from her anyway and places it on the stack of reports on his desk.

"Fine," he says, averting his eyes from either Jane or Loki. "Good work, Foster."

"I- I- I-" Jane repeats the meaningless article for the longest time, as Mr. Stone ignores her in favor of collecting the rest of the reports. Loki keeps to his notebook so she won't see his grin. He can't help it. This is definitely funny.

In the end, only Mal and Kurse don't have their assignments ready, and Mr. Stone takes great pleasure in releasing his rage over their heads. Loki can't complain about that. Those two idiots are more than worthy targets.

He steps out with Jane after the bell rings. Their final periods of the day are on different ends of the school, so he waits by the forked hallway for her to gather herself, which she does in record time.

"What the hell was that?" she demands, pointing furiously at the classroom they just left behind.

Loki shrugs his shoulders. "You didn't really expect me not to keep a copy of my own in case something went wrong, did you?"

"Well that what was all that crap about your father's company?" she shouts. "Why did you need to- what purpose did that even serve? And how did you get your usb into my bag without me seeing it?"

He shrugs again. "My actions were to remind Stone that he cannot treat me like an inferior just because he is my teacher. He's been far too reckless these past few months. I needed to put him in his place."

Loki makes like he is going to leave without saying goodbye (which he isn't) or answering her final questions (which he is). He trusts Jane to have some other complaint about his methods of handling things, that will lead her to run after him and make herself late again.

He makes it to the doors, and she doesn't come after him.

He walks through them, and she doesn't come after him.

He resists turning to look for as long as he can, and then the five minute bell rings, and he has to.

He sees Jane just a short ways away. So she has followed him. He just didn't hear it.

What happens next can only be the result of temporary insanity. That, or Loki is high on fumes from the nearby Chemistry lab, and is hallucinating the whole thing. Jane feels real enough when she drops her bag and launches herself into his arms. Her breath tickles the nape of his neck and her hair scratches against his cheek. She's lighter than he after thought she would be. He could carry her one handed over his shoulder without breaking a sweat if he wanted to.

"Thank you," she says. "Thank you so much."

She lets go, as abruptly as she grabbed hold, and walks away. Her eyes are growing moist again. Was this one grade really that important to her?

"I owe you one, okay?" she calls out by the door.

She leaves without waiting for an answer, not that Loki could've given her one. It's not fair of her, really, to put herself in his debt like this, and not even allow him to reap the benefits. How can he think of ways to exploit her promise when all he can think about is the feel of her body against his? And the warmth of her skin that overshadows his own? And that lavender smell…

It's always lavender, isn't it?

Damn her.

Damn her.

Damn her!

Loki is ten minutes late to class.