Loki deliberately missed his plane. He didn't figure on it being another two days before he could catch a flight out from Dijon, but it still worked out that Thor would be traveling to the campus ahead of him. Just like he had planned it. He didn't want to arrive with the Big Man on Campus. Loki didn't really know if he was really that popular but if he knew anything he knew history always repeated itself. And he would rather not be known as "Thor's Younger Brother," thank you very much. He was dead set on having a life without the big, blond oaf.

Loki only spent a few days at the big house in Richmond with Odin and Frigga, and he and Odin fought the entire time. Loki was well aware he was instigating most of the arguments and that he wasn't using what would be deemed a respectable tone with the man of the house, but he didn't care. Odin called him a petulant child at one point. He only shrugged and returned to the solace of his bedroom to finish repacking his things.

Frigga came up to help him and Loki just couldn't find it within him to rebuff her as easily as he had Odin. So he let her stay and answered her questions about his travels through Europe. He gave her few details, thinking she probably didn't want to hear that he spent most of his days in his hotel rooms reading or sleeping and only went out at night, living like a vampire. He would go to the wildest underground clubs and hover by the bar until someone offered to buy him a drink or he found someone worth buying a drink for. His nights—or early mornings—would usually end in heated kissing in a corner of the club or a vehicle with steamed-up windows. He received invitations from both men and women and accepted either with equal aplomb. Loki did not discriminate.

Frigga would definitely not want to know about that.

"Did you enjoy Belarus?"

Loki thought about it as he fumbled through the blankets in Frigga's linen closet. Yes. He had particularly enjoyed the few nights he spent there with a beautiful dark-haired brown-eyed curvaceous beauty. "Yes, it was lovely," he answered with a smirk. "Have you seen my blanket? The green, gold and black one?"

"Oh, Thor took it already, dear. It's probably on your bed as we speak. I still don't understand why you couldn't be bothered to take some photographs. Something had to speak to you, visually."

Loki strolled back into his bedroom where Frigga sat at the foot of his bed. "What do you mean on my bed? What bed?"

Frigga lifted her head and smiled. "In your room, on campus; Thor thought he would take it for you. Save you the packing space. And he wanted to make it feel like home before you arrived. But don't tell him I told you that. I think he meant it as a surprise."

A pale, long-fingered hand shot up, palm out, practically cutting her off. "Thor and I are sharing a room?"

Frigga's brows came together in concern and her smile vanished. By the tone of her youngest boy's voice and the look on his face, this was not the best news. Her lips formed into a pout, ready to speak.

"Of course you are."

Loki turned on his heel to face Odin, perched in his doorway. His emerald eyes darkened and narrowed as he repeated Odin's words. "I don't remember agreeing to that."

"I don't remember asking your opinion," was Odin's response. Behind Loki, Frigga frowned and got to her feet.

Loki huffed out a breath that attempted to be a laugh. "What else is new?"

Odin's one-eyed glare—the result of a battle wound—hardened. "I've had just about enough of that, Loki."

His mouth a thin line, Loki moved further into his room, angrily slamming clothes into his suitcase, emphasizing his words. "Enough of what…Odin?" He didn't blink, didn't flinch, even as Frigga did, at Odin's sudden advance. His eyes moved to his mother, who had thrown herself in between the two men, now caught up in Odin's arms. He watched in silent horror as Odin tossed her aside and fisted his hands in Loki's button up shirt.

"Odin!"

"You will watch your tongue, young man."

Loki, looming a good five inches over Odin's graying head, deliberately glared down his nose at the older man. He remained silent, a flick of a thin black eyebrow his only response. In his peripheral vision he saw a delicate female hand curl around Odin's arm.

"Odin, please…" She turned her eyes on Loki. "He meant nothing by it. Did you?"

Loki's mouth formed tight pink line as he fought to not let her get to him. He threw off Odin's hands and stepped back. "I don't want to live with Thor."

Frigga pressed a hand to Odin's chest when she felt him start to lurch forward again. "Why, Loki? He's your brother."

"He's—" Loki caught himself before he contradicted her. "I would just prefer to be with someone else. Make new friends…or something," he mumbled, turning his back to his parents, facing the window over his desk.

Odin's head turned sharply to Frigga. She motioned with both of her arms for him to calm down. She had always been the one who could communicate best with Loki. From the moment she set her eyes on the black-haired ashen boy, sitting by himself in a corner of the orphanage with a beat up copy of The Island of the Blue Dolphins, she knew he belonged to her. The difficult pregnancy and long birth of Thor left her body wrecked and unable to carry another child. Though the initial reasons for seeking adoption weren't exactly on the straight and narrow, she had long craved to have another child and a sibling for her towheaded son. And Thor took to his younger brother quickly and loved him whole-heartedly.

It pained her now to see her baby—for he would always be her baby, no matter how old he was—trying so hard to separate himself from all of them and she worried he didn't feel a part of the family anymore. She often wondered if the boarding school in Switzerland had been a good idea for either of her boys. Too late now, she thought, blinking away tears.

"If that's what you want, Loki…"

"Woman," Odin nearly growled the word, but it was cut short as Frigga turned on him.

"Don't you 'woman' me, old man."

Loki's eyes went comically wide as he turned around.

"I allowed you to send my boys away to boarding school, did I not? I allowed you to decide to send them to your alma mater, not mine, yes? I never argued, I never complained, not once. So you will give me this. You will let me give my son just one thing." She held one pointed finger in front of his face to stress her point. "You will call first thing tomorrow morning and you will arrange for Loki to have a room of his own and for Thor to have a room of his own, as well. Do you understand me, husband?"

A movement caught Odin's eye and he glanced at Loki. He had one arm across his stomach, the other's elbow resting atop it, his fist curled over his mouth. Odin could tell by his dancing green eyes that he was enjoying this humiliating moment far too much. Resigned, he looked at his wife and gave a short, curt nod.

"As you wish, my queen," he managed, before leaving the room, barely sparing Loki a glance.

It was eerily quiet for a moment before Loki spoke. "I'm leaving tomorrow." Frigga spun around, her lips parted. "I know I don't need to be there for another day, but…I can't stay here another minute."

It hurt to have her fears confirmed, but Frigga drummed up a smile, and closing the distance between them, she wrapped her arms around Loki's lean frame and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I understand. Would you like for us to drive up with you?"

Loki smiled thinly. "I'll drive myself, thank you."

Frigga nodded and headed toward the door and Loki returned to his packing. "Loki…" she waited for him to raise his eyes to hers. "He doesn't show it very well, but he does love you, and he is as proud of you as he is of Thor…as am I."

He knew it was meant to comfort, to ease, to soothe. But it only served to make the ice already beginning to form around his damaged heart grow colder and more impenetrable. All he could do was nod and bid her goodnight. Silently, and clenching his jaw the entire time, Loki finished his packing and set everything he would need for the drive in the morning by his bedroom door. He entered his private bath and quickly showered, coming up short at his reflection in the steamed up mirror. Already forming on his chest were twin bruises from where Odin's knuckles had buried into his shirt.

Anger, embarrassment, pain…everything began to well up inside him and, worn out now, he stumbled back to his bed, crawling beneath the covers, naked and skin still damp from the shower. He buried his face into his pillow and, not for the first time in his brief life, silently cried himself to sleep.