Loki didn't show up to the first day of the new semester. His absence was a crippling weight on Thor, who, throughout their one mutual class, could practically feel Loki's empty row searing a hole into the back of his head. Judging him. He'd shown up early specifically in the hopes that he could single Loki out and try to address the business between them, but he'd obviously been naïve in his hopes that anything to do with the elusive brunette could be handled straightforwardly.

Thor told himself to bear in mind that Loki could simply still be on holiday. Or, he could just be skipping this particular class. Somehow, though, that thought just made everything worse.

Thor had been tentatively reviewing their interaction in his head all break, but he still had no idea what'd spooked his classmate like it had the last time they'd talked. Either way, he was determined to resolve the issue no matter what. There was no reason for what'd happened other than that Loki must've drastically misunderstood Thor's intentions. Maybe he'd thought Thor was trying to rob him or something. Realistically, it didn't make sense, and Thor could tell him that, if only Loki wasn't just about as easy to pin down as an epidemic.

Trying to figure out how best to corner Loki had Thor completely oblivious of the lecture, and opting instead to glare at the wall paneling, deep in thought. Tasha had started giving him looks, that said 'refurbishment of unaesthetic university property is probably not best done by arson.'

Loki. Loki spent a lot of time in Physics and Computing. Thor was pretty sure he had coursework around now, so if there was any safe bet on where to find him, it'd be there. Thor would have to skip lunch to make the slog to the other department, but if he drove he could probably catch a bite at the Synagogue, and he might even see Loki there, since it was the most logical place for someone to kill time or study between lectures in the science faculty.

And if Thor was near the Synagogue, he could also probably catch up with Tony. They needed to put their heads together and decide which unfortunate soul deserved the honor of coordinating USA's next city-wide pub crawl, and covering the subsequent damage costs.

So heading to science faculties was a win-win scenario.

Even before they were dismissed, Thor was packing up his things, with a disciplined fervor that usually couldn't be attributed to his interactions with things you couldn't drink or hit. He was determined not to start the new year by dancing around a classmate like a child. He'd see him today or he wouldn't, but he'd sort out this thing with Loki one way or another.

It promised to be a gorgeous day in one of the best parts of what the Guardian called 'England's most scenic campus', he'd just started his favorite topic in all of pure physics, his maths tutor was off with the flu, and Loki couldn't believe his fucking eyes.

Thor Odinson, out of all the infuriating morons on the face of the Earth, was slumped against the wall on the corner of Arago's Way.

The blonde was looking at him with a slight smile and a cocked eyebrow, for all the world as if he owned the alleyway and everything in it, and was also, surely not by coincidence, completely obstructing his path. Loki, who'd been studying in private and hadn't stopped at the same time the other classes had ended, realized with a smack of dread that it had to be him Thor was waiting for.

Loki could have kicked something.

He honestly had no idea what Thor wanted, but he'd allowed their last encounter to drive him up the wall all winter, waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night. He had an old Impala in the garage (there'd been an influx of the '67 versions recently because of some TV show) in need of attention since last October, and it was still barely a chassis. He shouldn't have let it get to him like it did, but now he could barely remember the last time he'd felt so overrun, and all because of one unfortunate encounter.

He'd even, on Boxing Day, briefly and hysterically, proposed on the phone to Angie that he drop out of school completely and reapply somewhere else next year. It was ridiculous.

He couldn't allow it to continue.

He marched towards Thor like a man with a purpose, determined to shut him down as quickly as possible.

He wasn't sure, though, if he could mask the cold apprehension he felt at seeing Thor again.

At first Loki'd just thought that maybe Thor was trying to ask him out. Maybe he still was. But seeing him standing there, so physically intimidating and so self-assured, brought other fears creeping into the forefront of Loki's mind. Maybe it was something else Thor wanted. Old broadcasts and local newspaper headlines started to flash through his head. Thor was in USA, wasn't he? Most of those guys were international students, New Yorkers. Thor might've seen…

Well, whatever this was about, there was only one way to find out.

Loki drew to a halt with an abruptness that he hoped denoted self-assurance. 'What,' he began, but was cut off almost immediately.

'Look, Loki, I'm sorry. OK?' Thor paused. He seemed suddenly as if he had no idea what to say. All his coolness had left him as soon as Loki approached. Good.

'I,' Thor continued. 'Whatever happened last time, it… it was my fault. I didn't mean to, you know… wait, wait. Could you just hear me out here?'

Loki gave Thor a drawn out and steady look to imply he was considering the request, which he had no intention of doing. He broke the long silence sharply and with a sneer.

'Look, Thor,' Loki said, in the coldest tone he could muster, forefinger tapping against his crossed arm. 'I don't want to be your friend, or your buddy, or... I have no intention whatsoever of having any sort of relationship with you. I can absolutely guarantee you that whatever it is you think you can give to me, I can get it myself, and on my own time. So. Whatever it is you're selling, I'm not on the market. And I trust you know exactly where to shove your apologies.'

And with that, Loki briefly sidestepped Thor, who wasn't falling for the same trick twice and turned more or less simultaneously with Loki. Damn, so not that easy fooled.

'Loki! Please.'

Loki wasn't having it. He jogged deeper into the alleyway, eyes on the exit, ignoring Thor completely. Thor, though, not happy to leave things where they were, lunged forward-

-And grabbed Loki on the shoulder.

Loki reacted purely out of instinct. Given time to consider his actions, however, he probably would've done pretty much the same thing, given Thor's persistent hostility. He could have thought about the consequences, though. He could have pulled his punches.

As it was, Loki grabbed Thor's hand with his own dominant one and twisted as hard as he physically could. At the same time he crouched down, dropping his center of gravity, and swung Thor's legs out from underneath him, using his own upper body to guide his opponent over his head and directly into a brick wall.

Thor had just about enough time to bring up his free arm to defend himself and open his mouth to swear.

As soon as Thor was off of him Loki sprung back to land in a defensive posture. Thor, for his part, just lay stunned on the floor, bringing a hand up to his temple.

For a brief moment, neither of them moved. They were caught, alone, in the alleyway, which stood like a crack in dry earth, movement far away at either end, but secluded. To Loki, it felt for all the world as if he and Thor were the only ones left in it.

Then Loki registered what exactly he had just done.

He clapped both hands to his face with a cry and dropped to the floor, trying to reach for Thor's face to see if he was bleeding, and maybe take his pulse. Or something. He didn't know. His hands were trembling. He was babbling incoherently, wanting to apologize as many times as he could but with only one mouth to do it. His horror was practically asphyxiating him.

Thor was just staring at his left arm as if what he was seeing did not compute with him. 'I think you broke my hand' he murmured, very softly. The tone he spoke with implied he wasn't sure at all, and that it could very possibly be his leg, or his phone, that was broken.

Loki couldn't breathe. Thor had a possible broken wrist, probable concussion. Because of him. He still could barely get words out. He knelt, transfixed, over Thor, not knowing where to put his hands, tears in his eyes. 'I, Thor,' he tried. 'I… Oh God, I-'

'It's fine, Loki. It's OK. Look at me. It's OK.'

Thor took a deep breath and tried to push himself up, failing miserably just as Loki went to stop him and dropping to the ground again. He groaned and touched his head with uncertainty, taking deep breaths. 'No,' he said, 'I'm fine, I really… I just… need a minute.'

'Oh, my God, Thor, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Don't try to get up. Can… can you hear me?'

Thor nodded, now grimacing in pain.

'Do you remember what just happened? You didn't black out?'

Another nod.

'OK, and…' Loki, still shaking with adrenaline, scrutinized Thor's eyes to confirm they were still focused. OK. He needed to think. He needed to pull himself together. He needed to not throw up on Thor right now. 'I need you to… keep… talking to me,' he said. As he said it, Loki tugged off his rucksack and pullover, rummaging through the bag to find a water bottle, which he emptied almost entirely onto the cloth. He really needed ice. In fact, he had no idea whether wet cloth would actually make a head wound worse and stop blood from clotting. Thor, though, he noticed, was not bleeding, and so Loki put the wet sleeve in Thor's hand, guiding it onto his head.

He leaned back to glance up and down the alley briefly, ran his hands through his hair and sighed deeply. He mentally recited every curse word he'd ever learned, some twice for good measure. Then he looked back at Thor and swallowed.

'I need to get you to a hospital. You shouldn't move much, but… do you think you could stand? If I helped?' Loki didn't know if Thor should ride a bike right now, but they didn't really have many options.

Thor's facial expression reached a new level of confusion as he studied Loki. Then he turned his head away and mumbled incoherently into the floor.

What? 'What?'

'I said,' Thor repeated, raising his voice, 'you can drive stick shift, right?'

Without another word, Thor dropped the ruined pullover. At first Loki thought he was about to be hit, but then Thor, sitting up, reached into his back jean pocket, bringing out a keychain and handing it voluntarily to Loki. Loki accepted it with only a moment's consideration, tucking it away.

It bore the brand of another Chevy, he was surprised to see.

'Allis' was all Loki was told by way of explanation. It was probably out of discomfort and not some attempt at mysticism that Thor was being so vague, but Loki cottoned on anyways. Thor's car was on Allis Street, just around the corner.

Loki put one arm through the straps of both of their bags and crouched down again, apologizing all the way, maneuvering the blonde so that as much of his considerable weight as possible was over Loki's shoulder.

They stood together, stumbling towards the end of the cobbled alleyway. Loki prompted Thor to recount the start of the day to him, so that he could tell there was no slurring in Thor's speech, and Thor immediately mentioned Loki's absence, and his subsequent guilt. Loki's own guilt, were it possible, became even worse at that, and he tried as gently as possible to hurry them on. It was slow going, though; Thor winced with every sharp motion.

When they were hit by the daylight that flooded the opening of Arago's way onto Allis Street, Loki recognized Thor's car immediately. The minor road was, due to the time and location, flooded with so many illegally parked student vehicles that they were practically stacked on top of each other in places. Every smooth surface in sight reflected blinding rays of sun. But to Loki, the Chevy stood out like a diamond in mud.

It was a Corvette.

For a moment he stopped, dazed, before realizing his priorities ought to be elsewhere. He repositioned Thor, who was, on autopilot, still quietly listing what he'd had for breakfast, and began to maneuver their way towards the car.

Loki managed to get the convertible's passenger door open and Thor through it before he hopped directly into the driver's seat, careful not to get his feet on the upholstery. He fiddled briefly with the ignition and began to ease them out of the cramped space; Thor just sighed and leaned back in his seat, the filthy pullover still against the side of his head.

Loki felt physically ill looking at Thor and being reminded of what he'd done. Though he was forced to reverse onto the main road, he kept checking Thor, interrupting him to choke out more apologies and ask if he was alright. Of course he isn't, Loki's guilty conscious sneered at him, you just broke his wrist.

Honestly, Loki couldn't decide whether he was more terrified of what'd happened to Thor or what might happen to the car with Loki behind its wheel. He was shocked he'd been trusted with it at all.

'Really,' Thor assured him, finally dropping the pullover. 'I'm fine now. It's OK. I- thank you.'

'Thank you?' Loki asked, practically slamming on the brakes and locking the wheel to the left. 'What… I…'

'Thanks for not leaving me there. I thought… I thought you might.'

Loki just stared at him. 'I wouldn't,' he tried to say, but… how could Thor know that? It wouldn't be any worse than anything else he'd done to him. In fact, leaving Thor alone in that alley would probably have been the kindest thing Loki did to him all day.

Thor just should his head. 'No. I know you wouldn't. I think. But you could have. And maybe you should've, too, the way I've… been.' He paused. 'But you didn't. So… thank you.'

Loki blinked at Thor. Then he sighed and gripped the bridge of his nose. He was finally beginning to calm down. He gave Thor one more considerate look, and then reversed around the corner of the main road, quickly changing into 1st and taking the opportunity he'd been waiting for to merge with the traffic.

The longer Loki drove, the more deeply afraid he became. He realized he was gripping the Chevy's wheel like a lifeline. Thor was going to be fine; Loki was considering telling him he could stop talking, but he didn't think he could deal with the ensuing silence (Thor was now discussing exchange rates in Thailand with an avid interest).

The thing was: Loki was absolutely fucked. He could not afford another mark on his ledger. Not with his history. He was painfully aware how exactly this would look to any judging body.

Loki hoped he could maybe wrangle some sort of pity out of Thor, who already seemed fairly at ease with everything, or make a deal with him, but he doubted it would be possible. After all, Loki'd pretty much just attacked him in broad daylight. No, he had done that. Anyways, it wasn't like Thor could realize what the extent of the consequences of his understandable wish for retribution would be for Loki.

Loki realized that the longer he waited the worse this would be. So he gently cleared his throat, wringing his hands on the wheel, and told Thor that if he could and if he wanted to he could go into Loki's bag and get his phone, which had Loki's lawyer's number on it.

It took Thor a moment to realize what was being said to him, and then he gasped sharply, shaking his head so hard it obviously hurt, and then groaned in regret. When he'd collected himself again, he said quietly, 'I don't- I don't want to take you to court, Loki.'

'What? But you- but I-'

'It was an accident,' Thor told him, determinedly, as if that was all that needed to be said.

'It was not an accident. How can you just write off… how will you pay for this? I mean, I can-'

'Loki. There's this great new thing called medical insurance. You should try it.'

Loki gave Thor a withering glance and then returned his eyes to the road. The humor might have been well intentioned, but Loki was still too wired to even pretend to react to it right now. He wanted nothing more than to grab at the lifeline Thor was dangling in front of him, but he also couldn't believe he was getting off the hook so easily.

'I'm so sorry, Thor,' he murmured. He couldn't think of anything else to say.

'It's alright. Really, it's alright.' There was another heavy pause. 'If anything,' Thor continued, 'I should be sorry.'

'What?'

'You were defending yourself. I shouldn't've grabbed you like that. I shouldn't've been here at all,' Thor explained, calm and morose. 'You were obviously… uncomfortable with my company. I was just, I wanted… I didn't want to leave things like we did. But I was stupid not to be able to tell that the last thing you wanted was to see me. I shouldn't have put you in a position where you were… you felt so scared, you had to react like that. It wasn't your fault, Loki,' Thor explained, deadly serious. 'It was mine.'

Loki had no idea how to respond to that.

'Can we just agree', Thor asked, 'to put all this behind us? And admit that it all probably couldn't have gone any worse? And also, maybe get me some paracetamol?'

Loki just stared straight ahead, and gave a short nod. He wiped his eyes, which, shit, had been tearing up on and off for the last ten minutes. He could probably blame it on the convertible. Hopefully.

For a while – for most of the short journey - they drove in silence. Now that his immediate future was secure again, Loki actually found himself trying not to smile at the ridiculousness of the situation. It was true; it couldn't have gone any worse. Then they locked eyes and Thor grinned slightly. Loki returned it only out of courtesy.

And then Thor, damn him, with the most ridiculous grin on his face, continued to talk about the exchange rate in Bangkok, like there was nothing he was more fascinated by. Loki couldn't believe him. He couldn't believe any of this, actually, and the more he thought about it, the funnier it became. It had been a horrible day. But despite it all, Loki started to laugh.

He giggled like an idiot, tears in his eyes, and Thor laughed too. It didn't last very long, but Loki couldn't remember the last time he had genuinely laughed. He didn't know how, or why, anything that had just happened could be construed as funny, but something about Thor just made him feel like everything was going to be OK.

'Oh, man,' Thor said, sobering up as they pulled into the hospital parking lot. 'Today has been…'

'Educational?' Loki immediately regretted having opened his mouth, and winced. But Thor didn't seem to care at all.

In fact, he just grinned again, and said with mock condescension, 'Loki? That is exactly what I was going to say.'

At the A&E reception, Loki lied fluently and pretty drastically about Thor's symptoms. Thor raised his eyebrows in question but wisely shut his mouth, knowing he'd probably be enlightened sooner or later.

Loki explained as he guided Thor to two free seats that hospital staff have a system of allocating new inpatients a color to reflect the severity of their injury, and they'd just effectively bypassed a few hours of waiting time. Not that it mattered; they'd both miss their PM classes. Loki assured Thor that he'd had the afternoon off anyways.

As they waited, they started to chat. Thor could barely believe it. A casual conversation, with Loki. As if everything was completely normal. As if they were waiting for class to start together.

The Loki Thor was looking at now, he realized, was a completely different person than the one he'd known a day ago. Thor'd tried as hard as he could in the car to get Loki, who was obviously in a much worse state about the whole I-just-threw-you-into-a-wall thing than Thor himself was, to calm down, and he was pretty sure he'd done alright. At first Thor had thought maybe Loki was just trying to appease him out of fear, but now he seemed to be genuinely pacified.

Loki's expression of debilitating guilt was almost entirely gone. He was sitting up straighter.

And he was cracking jokes. Loki had an intense and sophisticated wit that'd be quite ruthless with you if you weren't careful. And despite his almost duplicitous nature, he could be very upfront. Thor felt as if he could trust him. Thor could trust him; he'd seen how Loki'd reacted after he'd hurt him.

The golden opportunity to see Loki coming out of his shell made the afternoon almost worth it, quite frankly. Thor was so used to getting close to people, only to see that they were dull or insincere. But he felt like he could lose days in Loki's company if he wasn't focusing. All through the hour Thor had to wait, they conversed quietly, Loki becoming more and more confident as he learned that Thor really wasn't upset with him. Which he wasn't. Thor couldn't bring himself to be angry at all.

Then Loki paused as if he'd just realized something, closed up again and turned away. 'Thor,' he asked, cautiously, 'what… what are you going to tell them? When you get in there?'

Thor gave a low hum and squinted his eyes in consideration. He hadn't thought about that. 'Not the truth,' he said. Loki didn't even try to mask his relief. 'I guess… my hand got caught in a bus door? Then I fell and hit my head on the pavement? And you were there, so…'

'You caught a bus.'

'Yes.'

'To your car. And then you broke your wrist trying to get off.'

Thor opened his mouth and then closed it again. 'Well, it's possible. I could have parked, gone looking for somewhere to eat, and then caught the bus back. And you were there by coincidence. Coming from the labs. Um, and you recognized me, and decided to help, out of the goodness of your heart.'

'Hm. And I take it it was out of concern for you that I didn't get any registration number, or witness statements, or try to stop the bus. How strange, that someone would just drive off, after so severely injuring a passenger. Stranger still that an entire busy street would just allow it.

'It was… in… the heat of the moment?' Thor tried, pathetically.

Loki gave him an extremely disappointed frown, and then immediately made a blank face, looking over Thor's shoulder, where a very petite lady with sharp clothes was now standing, tapping her foot.

She glanced at her clipboard. 'Thor… odd… Odinson? Would you come with me?'

Thor went to stand, and Loki tried to stop him, but then, resigned, let go and sat down again, because he couldn't come up with anything better than Thor's unbelievable story.

Then Loki tried to follow them too, but it wasn't allowed, so he stood around uncertainly instead. Thor thought he'd done too much today anyways. Loki looked ready to collapse.

'It's OK,' Thor told him, one last time. 'I guess… I'll see you in class tomorrow?'

Thor's heart dropped when Loki shook his head. But the brunette just smirked at him. 'No,' he said, 'I'll see you when you get out. Unless you want to try your luck driving home one-handed?'

Thor beamed like an idiot. Loki looked like he honestly couldn't understand how Thor could be so genuinely grateful to him after all he'd done, and he opened his mouth to say something (probably along those lines) but then stopped.

He simply gave Thor a solemn nod, which Thor returned before ambling away after the doctor.

Behind him, Loki sat down again, crossed his legs and waited.