"Tasha!" Loki called out, after staggering out of the library.

She turned around. "You. With me, now." She said, taking his arm and dragging him along with her.

"Where are you taking me?" Loki asked, too tired to even put up a struggle.

"If I told you, you'd leave." She left it at that.

In a few seconds, their destination became clear. The hospital.

"Nat…" Loki tried to protest.

Natasha didn't respond, as she was too busy holding Loki up and talking to the receptionist to care. Almost immediately, several nurses came hurrying out to carry Loki into a ward, as he was now struggling to stand up. Natasha hurried after him, refusing to leave his side.

Natasha had seen most of what had happened, she didn't think anything was wrong until Loki had tried pushing Fandral away. She now realized how much strength it must've taken for Loki to get him on the floor. She saw Fandral deliver a sharp blow to Loki's stomach, and she now realized how dangerous that could've been. If Fandral had hit him hard enough, he could've ruptured his spleen or split a kidney, which was an entirely too possible consequence.

"Excuse me, miss, but I'm afraid you'll have to get out of the way." One of the young doctors addressed her as he stabbed Loki with some sort of needle.

Natasha nodded, before turning around and heading back to wait in the waiting room.

She didn't know what to do! She didn't think it would be a great idea to get Tony involved, at least not until Loki asked for him, which she suspected he would. She couldn't call Clint, it would only add to the rumours that they were dating. But she refused to leave. Loki was her best friend, and she didn't give crap about what happened to her grades, as long as he was okay.

After about an hour of waiting in the noisy main room, one of the doctors entered, and asked for a Natasha. She stood up immediately, and followed him into his office.

"Please, take a seat." He asked, gesturing at one of the couches.

She sat down anxiously. "Will he be okay?" She asked.

The doctor sighed. "I hope so. Whatever hit him in the stomach, had a lot of force behind it, enough force to cause internal bleeding."

Natasha clapped a hand to her mouth, before the doctor continued. "Fortunately, his aorta was unaffected, but the result is still pretty bad. The nurses are currently prepping him for emergency surgery, where we will after stitch up the site of the injury." He paused before continuing. "Unfortunately, if we are unsuccessful, or if we are too late, he could die of blood loss."

That was it. Natasha was now crying. The doctor looked at her sadly. "I'm afraid I have to go now. You can feel free to stay until we have his results, but I don't know when that will be." The doctor gingerly patted her on the back before helping her back up and escorting her back into the waiting room.

Three hours later

By now, Natasha was the only one left in the waiting room. It was 11pm now, and most of campus would be back in their rooms. Natasha was close to assuming the worse, thinking that if he was okay that would've told her by now. Luckily, her fear was temporarily paused when the doctor emerged again, looking tired, but not too upset.

She sat up anxiously. "How is he?"

The doctor gave her a small smile. "The good news is that we've managed to seal up the blood vessels that were leaking, so he's now in a stable condition, and we've put him into a temporarily induced coma, allowing him to recover without being conscious for the pain. However," Natasha stiffened. "It's still too early to be positive of the extent of his trauma. We've done an exploratory laparotomy on him, but we are yet to know whether he'll need a thoracotomy. Once he awakens, we'll allow visitors in to see him. We don't often do this, but you're welcome to stay in one of our family wards, and we'll wake you up if there is any change."

Natasha nodded, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that her best friend could die. The doctor left, leaving one of the nurses to usher her to a bed.

When she woke up the next morning, Natasha was surprised that she had slept at all. She got changed into a change of clothes that she had conveniently been carrying when she found Loki, and headed back into the waiting room. She was then informed that her lecturers had been notified that she would not be in her classes that day.

It wasn't until 11am that Loki woke up. Natasha, upon hearing the news, all but sprinted into his private room to see him, only to almost run back out. He was connected up to about seven different machines, and he was doused in sweat. The sheet were pulled back, revealing dark purple and red marks staining his usually pale as snow complexion. His eyes were open a fraction, and he attempted to smile as he saw Natasha walk in.

"Nat…" He croaked, as she sat down next to him.

"Hey, Lokes." She said, and attempted to smile.

"Nat…They said I only have a thirty percent chance…" He trailed off, bringing tears to Natasha's eyes.

She nodded. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

Loki closed his eyes again. "Just…Get Tony. Please. If I'm gonna die, let me die knowing that he cares. Get Thor too, and anyone else who you think should be here." He pleaded, his eyelids fluttering.

Natasha nodded again, standing up and preparing to leave.

"Natasha?" Loki asked feebly again.

"Mm?" Nat responded, turning back around.

"I love you." Loki said simply.

Nat ran out before he could see her crying.

Tony was lounging on the couch when there was a sharp knock at the door. He quickly hopped up, hoping it was Loki. To his surprise, it was Natasha.

"Nat? What are you doing here?..." His voice trailed off as he saw her eyes shining with tears.

"Come with me. Please." She managed to choke out. Tony watched her, fearfully, as she ran to the room next door and said the same thing to Thor. Together, the three of them rushed to the other side of campus, Tony and Thor clueless about what was going on.

Things were made slightly clearer as they approached the hospital, seeing as the one person they all had in common was Loki.

Tony felt his chest constrict as they walked up to the main desk, and saw the receptionist allow them in with no hesitation. Natasha stopped when they reached a private room, turning to face the two of them.

"Yesterday, Loki was…injured. His injury caused severe internal bleeding, and although they've managed to stabilize him, there's only a thirty percent, and decreasing, chance that he won't make it." Her voice broke on the last sentence. "Just…prepare yourselves. He doesn't look too good, and you're only here because he asked for you."

She stopped, and gestured for Thor to go in first.

Tony sank down against the opposite wall, almost unable to breathe. Wave after wave of depression shook him, as he sobbed into his arms. The world felt so tight now, so dark and empty. It was sudden, and Tony didn't know what to say. He wasn't prepared to lose him, not before they made things right.

Natasha sat down next to him, and together they held each other, both praying for Loki to be okay.

Thor eventually emerged, his eyes red and puffy, which was scary to see. Thor, who was always so happy and cheerful, was an emotional wreck.

Tony stood up and took a deep breath, and turned the doorknob, bracing himself for the worst. Last time he was in a hospital, it was to identify his parent's bodies.

He stepped inside and closed the doors, and resisted the urge to cry as he saw Loki lying down. He was way too pale, and his body was patterned with blotches.

Loki looked up as he walked in. "I hope you'd come." He murmured.

"Why wouldn't I?" Tony said, sitting himself down on the visitors seat.

"Thought you hated me." Loki replied.

"Nah. That's impossible." Tony smiled half-heartedly. "I may have disliked you immensely at one point, but hate? Never."

Loki sighed. "Reassuring, Stark."

"So where's your boyfriend? Shouldn't he be here, instead of me?" Tony questioned.

Loki frowned. "He's the reason I'm in here. I thought Natasha told you…" He trailed off, after seeing the look of rage cross Tony's face.

"He what?" Tony fumed.

"Get Nat to explain, that's not the point…"

"Yes, Loki, it is! You think I'm just gonna let you get beaten up, and act like I'm fine with it?"

"Well, I'm not pressing charges, so I don't see why you want to." Loki interjected.

"Loki, when are you gonna stop letting people run your life?" Tony said without thinking.

Loki's face hardened. "You really do think I'm helpless, don't you?" Loki accused.

"That's not what I meant…" Tony muttered.

"That's exactly what you meant." Loki glared at him, pushing himself up so that he was sitting. "I know what I did was wrong, I know I was an idiot, and I bought you here so that I could apologize to you. But now I remember why I was so angry in the first place. I can hold my own, you know, so don't underestimate-" Loki choked off, starting to cough up blood, and going even paler, his hands gripping the sheets in pain.

Instantly, Tony reached up and pressed the red call button, his heart pounding as Loki's heart monitor beeped much slowly than before. The doctors came rushing in, all oblivious to Tony's presence. He couldn't move, he was frozen in the spot, too scared and panicked to budge.

The room was a blur of blue and white, as the nurses began preparing him for emergency surgery. It turned out that some of the leaked blood had made it's way into the area around his heart and lungs, causing his heart to be delayed, close to stopping.

The gloves went on, and surgery knives were passed around, as Loki's heartbeat went down to thirty beats per minute, causing him to lapse into unconsciousness. The surgeons cut carefully into his chest and began to remove the excess blood that was damaging his breathing.

"Twenty beats" One of the doctors called out.

A minute later he called out ten beats.

Tony pushed forward, much to the surprise of the surgeons.

"Loki," He growled, taking his hand, "Don't you dare die on me. I need you. Please. I'm so, so sorry. I should've trusted you, and I didn't mean what I said. I'm in love with you, and it scares me. So please. Wake up. For me." He begged, until one of the nurses pushed him back.

As Tony was close to collapsing in devastation, and the surgery team was awaiting in silence for a change, a small beep was heard in the background. A few seconds later, another beep was heard.

"Back up to thirty!" The same doctor called out.

The beeping continued, getting more regular every time, by the time Tony was forced to leave, it was back up to 55.

As he appeared from the room, Natasha scrambled back up to her feet.

"We saw them rush in…Is he okay?" She asked fearfully.

Tony nodded slowly. "It was…bad. He got down to ten beats a minute, but now it's back to normal. But they've now figured out the reason why he was staying stable, and they've fixed it, so he's got a much higher chance now." He smiled, as Natasha wrapped her arms around him, and held him tight. Soon, Thor was joining in, and they were all hugging each other in relief.

"Er, Mr. Stark?" The surgeon called out.

Tony stood up. It had been four hours since Loki's surgery, and Natasha and Thor had already been in to see him. "That's me." He said.

"You can see him now." The man said, pointing towards Loki's room. Tony was nervous, seeing as last time he saw him, they'd gotten in another argument, and Loki had collapsed.

Tony walked into his room, and was pleased to see him sitting up, with a bit more colour in his cheeks, and less colour on his chest.

"You're back." Loki stated.

Tony smiled. "Why would I leave?" He replied.

He sat down, and waited for Loki to say something back. But when he met Loki's eyes, he was staring at him curiously.

"What? Is it my hair?" Tony joked.

"Shut up. When I was in surgery, were you present?" Loki asked.

"Yeah… How did you know?" Tony said, surprised.

"I thought I heard your voice." Loki said.

"Yeah? What did I say?" Tony tried to ask nonchalantly, his hearting pounding.

"You told me not to die. And that you were sorry, and-and that you were in love…with me." Loki said shyly.

"Yeah, you heard correctly." Tony admitted.

"I'm going to ask you something, and you have to promise to be honest, okay?" Loki said, looking up sharply.

Tony nodded.

"Did you say that just because I was dying?"

"Of course not." Tony said, annoyed that he'd think that.

"Then say it again. Right now." Loki demanded.

"Um. Okay then." Tony took a deep breath. "Loki, I know what I said probably wasn't the nicest thing for me to say, but I'm sorry. And I only said because I think I'm-" He gulped. "In love with you. And that scares me."

When he finished, Loki was looking away.

"What, so you get me to say that then ignore me?" Tony asked.

"I'm trying to think of how to respond." Loki replied indignantly.

"Well, when you figure it out, you know where I am." Tony spat, standing up.

"Wait!" Loki cried out, grabbing onto Tony's sleeve. "I just don't get it."

Tony paused, and looked at him. "What don't you get?"

"You all but hated me a few days ago, and now you're in love with me?" Loki said.

"Yeah, well, I watched you almost die. That changed things a bit." Tony snapped at him.

Loki cringed. "I didn't mean to…"

Tony snorted. "Yeah, you never intend to do anything, but it happens anyway."

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? I don't do feelings, and half the time I'm way too insecure to even consider a relationship, let alone be in one, and you know that." Loki explained desperately.

"But that's the thing about us, Loki, we're either going to be perfect together, or toxic to each other. We either love each other, or hate each other. There's no in between. And right now, I know what one we are. But I need you to make your decision. Toxic, or intoxicating?" Tony ranted.

Loki sighed "Stark-"

"No. No buts. You won't be seeing me again, unless you come to terms with how you feel. You know where my room is." Tony nodded then quickly walked off, resisting the urge to stay.