Twenty minutes had passed when Loki heard his door open and close. He knew it wasn't Clint; it was early yet for him to have come back. With a knowing smile across his lips, he paused in the remaking of his bed, as he had put on fresh sheets, and casually slipping his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he strolled out of his room. "Come back for more already…?"

The question choked off in a quiet gasp and Loki's smile vanished when he saw the silver-haired figure standing there, facing the window.

He hadn't turned yet, but Loki could hear mocking in Odin's gruff voice as he said, "Expecting someone else?"

"What are you doing here?" He had to force himself to unclench his fingers from the fists they had curled into, leaving crescent marks in the palms of his hands.

"I've come to make sure you make the trip home." Odin turned now and Loki's chin lifted defensively at the confusion that came into the tired old blue eye when it dropped to the Black Sabbath t-shirt he still wore. He refused to fidget under the harsh glare, even when the eye rose to his face and narrowed to a slit.

"Home…?" Loki prodded.

As if snapped out of a reverie, Odin nodded and folded his hands in front of him. "Yes. For Christmas. Your mother was heartbroken when you didn't return for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am ensuring she doesn't suffer that pain again." As he spoke his last sentence, the door opened again—and Loki's heart momentarily stopped, expecting Tony to burst in. He only slightly relaxed when two formidable-looking men in dark suits stepped in. He recognized them as Odin's personal security.

Their presence sent a shiver of panic skittering up his spine. He returned his gaze to Odin. "I don't want to go." His back went up further when Odin let out a low chuckle.

"You know, it's funny, Loki, but I find that I don't really give a damn what you want."

"Then I suppose not much has changed in ten years, has it?"

Loki saw the eye flare, narrow again, but Odin said nothing. He turned to the two men standing by the door and gave them a short nod. Loki's own eyes went wide and he blocked his doorway when they stormed toward it. "Where do you think you're going?" He was shoved aside and the two men burst into his room. "That is my bedroom," he yelled after them. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded, whirling on Odin.

"I told you." Odin's voice was low, calm, but it didn't fool Loki for one second. "I am guaranteeing you make it home for the Christmas holiday. Consider it a gift for your mother."

"Those are my belongings!" Loki thrust his arm toward his bedroom, emphasizing his point, as he heard the men trifling through his things. "You cannot just barge in here and do this. I am not a child!"

"Oh, but you are, Loki," Odin said, his voice matching Loki's level, but remaining that eerie calm. "You are my child. You may choose to believe whatever you wish, but you can never change the fact that I took you in. I fed you. I clothed you. I provided you a place to sleep." He paused, drawing Loki's gaze from the floor he chose to glare at, and his voice fell to a raspy whisper. "I know you refuse to believe it, but…I cared for you. I still do."

Loki's temper rose with every one of Odin's words, his eyes stung with unwanted tears. He made a soft noise of disgust—at himself or Odin, he wasn't sure—and turned away to drop onto the sofa. He drew his legs up to hide his face on his knees. Lies, he repeated over and over in his mind, while the sound of drawers being opened and closed, hangers scraping across a bar as clothes were removed, came from his bedroom. Blood was roaring in his ears, making Odin's voice a distant echo as he spoke to the men invading his privacy. He let his thoughts wander to what could have happened had Odin showed up a half hour earlier. A sliver of embarrassment prickled heat into his skin and he shook his head sharply, disregarding it, convincing himself he didn't care if Odin knew about his involvement with Tony.

Three dark figures moved in front of his eyes. He couldn't focus on them between the tears that refused to stop filling his eyes and clung to his long, black lashes. Fingers wrapped around his arm and pulled him to his feet, pushing him none too gently toward his bedroom.

"Loki!" The voice was full of frustration.

He rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes and was shoved around to face Odin.

"Look at me." His chin was in Odin's rough hand, forcing him to look, but he still didn't focus. "Did you understand me?" In response, Loki sniffled, swiped a hand under his nose. "Loki, are you listening?" His chin got another rough shake. "Go get yourself changed. I am not taking you home to your mother looking like that." When he made no move to go, Odin took him by the arms this time and shook him again. "Damn it, Loki—!"

His anger and resentment built up and looking for release, Loki pulled his arms from Odin's grasp and pressed his palms to the older man's chest, giving him one hard, violent shove that had Odin stumbling backwards. One of the suited men caught Odin before he could tumble to the floor; the other took a step toward Loki, falling back at a call from Odin.

Loki didn't have the energy to glare. He stood in his dorm, where only moments before he was happier than he had been in years, and stared sadly at Odin. "I have no home. I have no mother. I have no father. I have nothing…"

Slowly, weakly, dejectedly, Loki turned and shambled into his room.

The one shiny slice of silver lining Loki found in the dark cloud that took over what would be the next few weeks of his life was finding out that Thor wouldn't be with him on the ride home. He was staying behind with Jane until she was ready to leave for her flight home. Otherwise, he was miserable. Odin was treating him like an imprisoned criminal. Odin's two henchmen watched over him like a armed baby-sitters. His cell phone had been snatched out of his hand. The keys to his car were taken, as well, before he was shoved into the backseat of his own car, while one of the suited men got behind the wheel. At least they let him keep his iPod, he thought, turning up the volume on the heavy metal music he had recently added to his own mix of orchestral music and soft rock. It comforted him to listen to Tony's favored genre, not only because he already missed the genius so much it pained him, but the driving, screeching guitars and sharp, succinct beats perfectly fit his mood.

He couldn't even text Natasha to find out how her trip to LA was going. And he wondered how Odin knew when to appear, when he would be finished with classes—though, really, no thought was necessary. A certain blond dunderhead was most likely the culprit. He longed for the day he would be free of the ties that bound him to the people he hated most on this planet.

His sleek, black Audi s5—his welcome home present—pulled to a stop in front of the English Cottage style home in Richmond. He pushed open the door and had just stepped out when Odin, having ridden in his own car, was in front of him, blocking his way up the porch.

"Loki," he began, "while you are home, I expect you to behave yourself. No sass, no arguing, no shouting. I don't want your mother upset. Do you understand me?"

Loki's gaze was still blank, his eyes still reddened from his earlier crying jag. "Then do us both a favor and leave me be." He stepped forward, stopped again by fingers wrapped around his thin arm. Before Odin could speak, Loki yanked it back again, meeting Odin's one-eyed glare. "Don't. Touch. Me."

"Loki—"

"You want to be the big hero for Frigga, do it on your own for once. Stop using me. I will behave. For her. Because as I see it, we've both been fooled and humiliated by your actions. But I will not pretend that we are one big happy family for you anymore…Odin."

He stomped his way up the short steps into the house, and continued to stomp all the way up to the second floor where his bedroom was. He didn't know if Frigga was home, and when he saw her he would do exactly what he told Odin he would do, and greet her, nicely. But right now, tonight, he was aching to be back in D.C., in his dorm, with his friends…with Tony…and he wanted to be alone to dwell and wallow in that ache.

Loki kicked off his shoes, pulled off his jeans and sweater. He had kept the Black Sabbath shirt on, despite—or in spite of—Odin's order, and kept it on still, curling up in his bed, burying his nose under the collar, drifting off into unconsciousness, surrounded by the scent of Tony.

Loki was bored out of his mind. He had been home a few days now and spent most of his time cooped up in his bedroom, when he wasn't walking the grounds around the house, since Odin took his car keys and forbade him from going into town without Thor accompanying him. As if that would happen. So he passed the time reading, scribbling in a journal, and trading emails with Natasha and Clint—because Odin never returned his cell phone to him.

Mostly, Loki brooded.

He only had Tony's cell number and, without his phone, had no way of contacting the genius in New York. And he missed him. Terribly.

His mood was only exacerbated by Thor's clumsy attempts to get Loki talking to him. Thankfully, the big oaf finally took the hint and left him alone—as did Odin—which made nightly dinners uncomfortable for Frigga, Loki imagined, as they were chock full of palpable tension and a simmering resentment.

He had been sitting at his desk after one of those unpleasant dinners, checking his personal email, responding to both Natasha and Clint, and was perusing the school's website, searching for his final grades—even though it was much too early for them to have been posted—when a bubble popped up in the bottom corner of his computer screen. Someone wanted to have a video chat with him. For a brief moment, his cursor hovered over the 'ignore' button because there was only one person he really wanted to talk to. But his boredom got the better of him and he clicked on 'answer.'

His heart swelled—a little—when Tony's face popped up on his screen.

"Told ya I'd call," he said in greeting.

Loki's hand lifted to his mouth, trying to cover the huge grin curving his lips. "That you did."

Tony squinted and appeared to be looking at something over Loki's shoulder. "Where are you? That's not your bedroom."

Unsure why he did so, Loki turned and glanced about the room himself. "No, actually, it is my bedroom. In Richmond."

"You went home? Why didn't you tell me?"

Amused, Loki lifted a brow. "Was I supposed to?" Loki could tell the way Tony twisted his mouth meant he was a tiny bit embarrassed as he answered no. Loki smiled. "I didn't come by choice."

"What do you mean?"

Remembering had Loki frowning. "Odin appeared in my dorm shortly after you left."

"How short is 'shortly?'"

Loki leaned his elbow on his desk, resting his head against his knuckles, his forefinger tapped to his forehead, his pinky resting between his lips. "Let's just say, if you had lingered much longer we would have been presented with...an interesting situation." The hard frown that contorted Tony's face had Loki concerned.

"Are you okay?" His voice was soft, but tight with what sounded like indignation.

"Yes. I wasn't happy about coming but I'm here now…"

"Are you…physically okay?"

Because he didn't want to feel sad or depressed at the moment, Loki smiled weakly and tried for light-hearted humor. "Why, Anthony, I didn't know you cared."

Tony chuckled harshly once, but there was no humor to it at all. "You forget; I've seen firsthand what he can do to you."

Loki kept the smile on his face and, gradually, it became more genuine. "I'm aware. I'm fine, really. I'm still not happy that he took my phone and my car keys."

"That's why you didn't answer!"

He chuckled softly. "I'm much better now that I've seen your face..."

The angry glint in Tony's eyes shifts suddenly. "Wanna see more?"

For the first time in days, Loki laughed, loud and from his belly. "What?"

Tony grinned. "Don't tell me you've never heard of cybersex, Loki."

"Oh, no, I've heard of it. I've just never actually participated."

"What?" Loki laughed, at himself for rearing back from the screen, and at Tony when he moved so far forward, Loki's laptop screen was full of one big, brown eye. He sat back, his jaw still comically dropped. "You mean there's actually something I've done that you haven't?"

He chuckled but mockingly glared as he did. "If I'm not mistaken, cybersex is merely one pleasuring oneself in front of a computer screen, is it not?"

Tony shrugged a shoulder and sipped from a mug he pulled out of nowhere. "If you want to simplify it. Or you could be adventurous and let me teach you for once." He grinned again, cocked an eyebrow. "What do you say?"

Loki was already feeling the familiar stirrings of want and longing—the mention of Tony and sex in the same sentence would do that to him—but he pretended to contemplate longer than was necessary just to toy with Tony. It worked. Tony scoffed impatiently and rolled his eyes.

"I don't got all night, babe."

Loki smirked at the endearment. "Educate me, Anthony."