Tony jumped as the door to his dorm slammed shut. Bruce was never that angry, and he was sincerely hoping that it wasn't a pissed off Thor or Natasha.
He was, however, pleasantly surprised when his door was thrown open by Loki. He was fuming, thoroughly angry after his conversation with his brother, and needed someone to vent to, seeing as last time he fought with Thor he almost crashed a car.
"Hey, you alright?" Tony asked, closing his laptop lid and turning to face Loki.
Loki scowled. "No." was all he said.
"Let me guess, Thor?" Tony questioned.
Loki sighed and sat down on Tony's bed with a nod.
"You wanna talk about it?" Tony suggested.
Loki closed his eyes and lay down on the bed. "Not really, but I guess I owe you some sort of explanation as to why I kind of came storming into your room."
Tony chuckled. "If you don't want to, that's fine."
"No, I'm good." Loki opened his eyes and sat back up.
He paused for a moment. "My relationship with my so-called family has always been somewhat strained, to say the least, but Thor has always been over-protective of me. So obviously he wasn't happy about me not telling him about you." Loki said, pausing for a second.
Tony raised an eyebrow. "What, doesn't he like me?"
Loki shook his head. "No, he does, it's more your reputation he doesn't like."
"I see." Tony nodded in understanding. "So what does that mean? You don't like my reputation either?"
"I don't care about your "reputation" Stark, and you know that. I've been with a fair share of people, so have you, and that's that. Thor just refuses to believe what's right in front of him, and that's how it's always been. He tends to believe anything people say to him." Loki explained.
"I assume he has a history of doing that?" Tony remarked carefully. It wasn't often that Loki went into detail about his family, for reasons that were obvious to Tony, and for reasons that weren't. To say he was taking advantage of the situation was a bit harsh, but Tony would admit that he was curious about how deep the damage his family did to him went. He only wanted to help after all.
Loki snorted. "To say 'he does it a lot' is an understatement. It was always "father loves us both equally" and "we are your family, Loki". He refused to see the difference in treatment, no matter how obvious it was."
Tony nodded thoughtfully. "Was the difference blatantly obvious, or was it more subtle? Because I know you have a habit of reading into things too much, and I want to make sure that that isn't the case." Tony replied, wincing at the glare he got from Loki. He knew it probably wasn't the best thing to say to Loki, but it was a fair enough question.
Loki took a deep breath before speaking again. "Every day of my life, for ten years, I was constantly reminded that I wasn't good enough, and that I never would be. Once I discovered I was adopted, I was told not to be ungrateful - which apparently I was being - and to pretend to be okay. Even when I was younger I got looks of disdain, I could never do anything as well as Thor. If I wasn't smart enough, I spent all my time studying, only to be called a geek. If I wasn't strong or fit enough, I would spend all my time at the gym, only to have Odin tell me I was being a show-off. I worked my arse of to get into this school, because I knew it would make my family proud. But of course, Odin couldn't care less. He told me that I only got in because he paid for me to get in. The one achievement I was actually proud of, had nothing to do with my so-called talents. However, Thor got a new car for getting into the school, along with a new allowance, whereas I got nothing. Is that obvious enough for you, Stark?" Loki said, but the tone of his voice had softened.
Tony hung his head and closed his eyes as Loki continued. "I pretty much spent my childhood and teenage years pretending to ignore the constant insults and comments thrown my way, no matter how much they hurt me."
He paused for a moment, considering whether or not he should tell Tony everything. But he'd gotten this far, and Tony deserved a full explanation. "And those comments, they hurt me, they really did, if you couldn't already tell by my, er, wrist." Loki said quietly, gesturing at his left wrist. "When I was sixteen, I didn't want to live anymore. I don't even know what stopped me from actually killing myself, I didn't believe I had anything to live for. Nothing was going my way. Until I got into this school and could finally leave home. And then I met Natasha, and later on, got to know you… and here I am now." Loki smiled softly, then leaned further back onto the bed resting his weight on his arms and grinned a little lopsidedly. "So, that's my sob story. I guess you know now why I'm not a big fan of sharing my emotions; I have too many of them." He smirked at his own dry wit in an attempt to downplay his story.
Neither of them said anything for a while. Tony kept his head down, trying to figure out what to say next. They both knew Tony wasn't good at dealing with emotions, and Loki wasn't expecting him to reply with anything deep, but he was surprised when Tony reached for his left wrist. However, Loki was propping himself up on that arm and had to swap arms in order for Tony to see his wrist.
Wordlessly, Tony turned Loki's wrist over to the side that was scarred, and held it up to his lips, gently kissing all of them, his eyes never leaving Loki's glittering ones.
Tony took a deep breath and knocked on Thor and Steve's door. It was the day after Loki had spilled his heart to Tony, and he had decided to talk to Thor, and reassure him that he genuinely did like Loki, for both his personality and his looks, something he couldn't say about most of the people he'd "dated".
The door was flung open by Steve, who looked surprised to see Tony standing at the door.
"Oh, er, hey Tony." Steve greeted awkwardly.
Tony nodded at him. "Hey Steve. Thor in?" He inquired.
Steve looked confused. "Yeah, I'll just go get him…" He trailed off, leaving to go and grab Thor.
Tony waited a few moments, until an angry looking Thor emerged.
"Anthony, I do not wish to talk to you right now." Thor huffed, turning around to leave.
"Woah, big guy. I think we need to set some things straight first. I'm not going until I talk to you properly." Tony said, standing his ground.
Thor sighed. "Fine then, Stark. Talk away."
Tony breathed a sigh of relief. "Can I come in? It's kinda cold out here…"
Thor gestured for him to come in, before shutting the door behind them and making his way into the living room.
"You wished to speak?" Thor asked.
"Yeah. Loki told me about your argument." Tony answered.
Thor raised his eyebrows. "That was between him and I."
"Yeah, yeah. But the thing is, it kinda affects me too, whether you want it to or not. He says he doesn't care about what you think of our relationship, but I know he does." Tony said, noticing the frown on Thor's face when he said the word "relationship".
"What makes you think you know how Loki feels?" Thor retorted.
Tony huffed. "I know more about him than you give me credit for. We were hand cuffed to each other for a week, remember?"
"I only want what's best for him-" Thor started, but Tony cut him off.
"Yeah, I know. I do too. But he's been through hell, Thor, you need to realize that." Tony told him.
Thor looked confused. "I do not understand…"
"Maybe because you don't listen to him enough? He has issues with your father, surely you picked up on that?"
Thor's eyes narrowed. "That is private."
"So you did notice it, then." Tony remarked.
"Of course I did, how could I not?" Thor said irritably.
"Then how come you didn't defend him? Or comfort him?" Tony challenged.
"Loki was not the only one under pressure from father, Anthony. And who said I did not defend him? Just because I didn't defend him whilst Loki was present, does not meant I never defended him." Thor said defensively. "I was there when he was being insulted, I very much realize the damage that was done to him, despite what Loki may think. I know him better than you. By blood or not, Loki is, and always will be, my brother."
Tony smiled slightly. "Okay, let's not make this into a competition of who knows Loki best. So are we okay now? I'm no longer going to be beaten to a pulp by you?" Tony said, only half-joking.
Thor laughed. "I'm still considering it. I still do not understand why Loki did not tell me about your relationship sooner, though."
Tony looked sheepish. "Yeah, that was me. I didn't really want anyone to know about us. I felt like it would make it more real. But you can trust me, Thor, I only want what's best for Loki, he's not just another person I'm going to sleep with. You have to trust me."
"What, you wish for my blessing?" Thor asked.
Tony smirked. "Nah, I'd date him no matter what you say."
Thor rolled his eyes as Tony stood up to leave. "One more thing, Anthony. Loki was seeing Fandral, was he not?"
Tony froze for a fraction of a second, then nonchalantly turned around, his eyes suddenly colder. "Only for a week or so."
"What happened to him? I haven't seen him around in a while." Thor was oblivious to Tony's internal hysteria.
"Did Loki ever tell you how the internal bleeding was caused?" Tony asked carefully.
"No." Thor answered, confused both at why Tony was asking this and at why he didn't know the answer.
"Exactly." Tony said, before leaving.
Meanwhile, Loki and Natasha had gone out shopping for winter scarves and Christmas presents.
As they walked into Starbucks, they begun talking about their holiday plans.
"So, are you going back to Russia?" Loki asked, sipping on his soy latte.
Natasha shook her head. "Nah, no point. You going to Chicago?"
Loki shrugged. "I guess, don't really have anywhere else to go. Where are you going to stay then?"
Natasha blushed, but would've just blamed it on the cold if anyone mentioned it. "Clint's invited me to stay with him for a bit."
Loki grinned and nudged her. "Ooh, you did say yes, right?"
She rolled her eyes. "I said maybe."
"Nat!"
"What? It's not as if we're a couple or anything!" She exclaimed.
"Not yet…" Loki muttered.
"I heard that!" She said indignantly.
"That was the point." He smiled. "So where's Clint going?"
"He's going anywhere warm. Most likely Florida." She replied.
"Lucky." Loki made a face. "I'm going straight back into the cold."
"What about Tony? Hasn't he invited you to stay with him?" Natasha asked.
Loki looked away. "No. He's probably busy over the holidays anyway."
Natasha sighed. "Yeah, but he's your boyfriend."
"Just because he's my boyfriend doesn't mean he's obliged to do everything with me." Loki said defensively.
"Yeah, I know. But are you guys really going to be able to go four weeks without sex? Speaking of which, what's it like sleeping with Tony Stark?" She joked.
Now it was Loki's turn to blush furiously, which surprised Natasha.
"Wow, for a guy that came to me unabashedly asking for help to seduce Tony Stark, you seem seriously embarrassed to discuss your sexperiences with him." She commented.
"Sexperiences?" He asked.
"Yeah, you know. Sex and experiences put together. Duh. Now answer my question. What's it like?"
Noticing an elderly couple staring at them oddly, Loki insisted that they leave, and continue their conversation elsewhere. They stood up and continued their conversation whilst walking around the mall.
"Look, as hard as it might be for you to believe, I haven't slept with him." Loki whispered to her.
She turned to him, her eyes wide. "You're joking?!"
Loki raised his hands. "Not a joke."
Oddly enough, she believed him. It made sense. The reason why Loki kept blushing and why Tony hadn't invited him away.
"Do you want to?" She asked, her lips curving back into a smirk.
Loki glared at her. "What do you think?"
Natasha seized this opportunity to make Loki feel as awkward as possible. "Do you think about doing it at night when you're lying in bed?" She whispered back huskily.
"Nat, what are you on?" Loki sighed.
"I bet you'd love for him to have you in his workshop." She said in an undertone.
"Tasha, stop it." Loki hissed.
"I bet you're vying to be Tony's new tinkering project, huh Lo?" She continued to whisper seductively.
Even Loki had to laugh at that. "Seriously?" He said in the midst of his laughter.
Natasha shrugged. "I tried." Was all she had to say for herself.
"Oh my god. Why are we best friends?" Loki remarked.
She grinned. "Because if we weren't, we'd be enemies. Now, I need to go to the supermarket, and then we can split up and get presents for each other. Deal?"
Loki was still laughing. "Yeah, deal."
Natasha smiled at him before grabbing his hand and dragging him to the supermarket that was up ahead.
When they entered the supermarket, they bought several bars of chocolate as well as some pop-tarts for Thor, before heading into the hygiene section. Natasha needed another toothbrush, and Loki needed another packet of Nurofen.
As they were walking through the aisle, they just happened to pass the shelves of condoms and lube (Loki was certain Natasha had planned it). When they walked past it, Loki couldn't help glance at it for a second-okay, maybe more than a second- much to Natasha's delight.
All she had to do was smirk at him in acknowledgement before saying; "Oh, you so want to get in his pants."
Loki tutted. "Shut up, Tasha."