It had been two God awful hours since that horrible conversation, and Loki was curled up into a ball of self-hatred. He had ruined whatever chance of a normal life and his first ever friendship. Great.

Loki didn't even notice his phone ringing or that there was another person in the room until he heard a throat being cleared.

"Are you going to ignore that phone call too?" The rugged voice called from the doorway.

Loki simply rolled his eyes and muted the phone. He then curled into a tighter ball.

"You can't hide forever Loki" Bruce muttered while walking towards the prince. All he got in response was a huff of annoyance to cover the hurt and embarrassment.

Bruce felt a pant of guilt when Loki curled tighter into himself. If he hadn't lost his temper this wouldn't be happening. Maybe he could still fix it though.

However, before Bruce could say anything Loki rolled over to face the scientist. His eyes were red, puffy and his bottom lip was quivering as if he might break into tears again.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry" Loki sobbed, tears now freely falling down the nineteen-year-olds face as he blubbered on about how sorry he is.

Bruce froze. He expected some sort of emotional reaction, but he wasn't prepared for crying.

So, he gently sat down on Loki's bed. The gamma scientist let out a soft sigh and pulled the man next to him close into his arms.

Loki froze. Nobody ever held him like this. It felt nice. But it didn't help stop his tears, he hurt Bruce. No amount of long overdue hugs could change that.

Bruce let out a heavy sigh. He knew Loki was in the wrong and shouldn't have said what he did. But it was painful watching Loki shake and cry.

"Look Loki, I don't know if you actually love me or not and I'm still hurt by you simply blaming it on you being drunk. I am simply smitten with you, but I'm not sure I can trust you when you say you do love me, and it wasn't just alcohol talking. So, I'm not ready to move forward yet" Bruce rambled on as he ran a hand through Loki's hair.

The young prince simply nodded. He agreed with what Bruce said. He just didn't know how to prove he did love Bruce; he really did.

"I understand, but how do I prove it? Because I really do love you, I'm just not good with showing stuff like that" Loki mumbled as he looked up at the scientist. This got a tight-lipped smile.

"I don't know if I'm being honest, it may take a while for me to completely believe that you do love me, okay?" Was the somber response.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It had been three days since that conversation. Things were somewhat back to normal but also awkward in a sense. But Loki decided to ignore it, and invite Bruce for a coffee shop study day. Something he had become accustomed to doing with his workload now.

They were deep into their work when a muscular barista with blonde hair came over to their table.

"Um are you Loki Odinson?"
"Who's asking?" Loki asked, panic flaring through his body.
"There's this blonde guy claiming that he's your brother and that he wants you home?" The barista said, confusion evident on his face.

Loki's face went white. He was panicking.

"If I give you two-hundred bucks will you tell him you don't know anyone of that name nor have heard of anyone of that name?" Loki murmured, forcing a heavy American accent as he pulled his hood up.

The barista, who's name tag read 'Steve' raised his eyebrows.

"Sure"
Steve was paid and Loki hurriedly packed his stuff and looked around panicked.

"Hey, hey Loki what's wrong? What's going on?" Bruce asked as he gently placed a hand on the prince's hand.

"We can't stay here, they know I'm here. Thor is going to call Odin and he'll make me come home" was the panicked response as he hurried towards the door.

Bruce was incredibly confused but simply followed the ravenett.

It has been three hours since they returned to the dorm. Loki has locked himself in the bathroom, has put black blankets over the window, and obsessively checked the peephole for about twenty minutes. Bruce was deeply concerned; he has never seen Loki act this way.

"Loki, what's wrong? Why are you acting so strange?"

"Honestly? I'm scared that if Odin or Thor find me here, they're going to drag me back to Asgard." Loki admitted as he slumped against the dorm room door, looking absolutely defeated. Bruce smiled and sat next to him. Loki returned it with a small sad smile.

"You know the funny thing is that I'm not even technically a part of the Asgardian Royal Family." Loki pulled his knees closer to his chest and folded his arms over them.

"What do you mean? Aren't you, their son?"

"No, I am simply a spoil of war, another useless war prize."

"War with who? I haven't ever heard of Asgard going to war, plus they would be crazy to attempt war with Norway."

"Not Norway, my homeland, an even tinier country next to Asgard, Jotunheim. Odin claims he found me abandoned and left to die in a ruined temple and adopted me."

"Oh" Was Bruce's only response before he was cut off by Loki's phone ringing. Bruce smirked.

"Answer it Loki, you can't ignore him forever."

Loki sighed and pressed the green button.

"Loki, you must come home and stop this childish behaviour"

"Nice to talk to you to Odin."

"Still angry at me for saving your life as a baby then?"

"It isn't just that though if you'd ever care to ask."

"Come home, the country misses you, and think of your mother and what you're doing to her."

"Number on, Asgard doesn't give a shit about me, you hid me from them for eleven years and never let me go to any public event, and two don't you fucking bring Mum into this."

"It was for your own protection; you know better than anyone how different Asgardians and Jotuns look from one another"

"That's the other thing, constantly filing my head with all these lies about Jotunheim and thus making me hate myself, and there is no discernible difference, we're all fucking Nordic."

"Don't take that tone with me, you will obey my command and come home."

"No, not going to happen. Bye old man"

Loki hung up the phone, his face red with anger. He then noticed Bruce's confused look.

"What was that?" was the simple question the scientist asked.

"Oh, um we don't speak English in Asgard, hence my accent, and we speak Asgardian or what people think is old Norse." Loki explained shyly. This made Bruce smile softly.

Bruce then held out his hand to Loki "Let's go get some dinner." this made Loki smile and accept the hand.

"You're paying though, I'm pretty sure that Odin is either going to shut my card off or just take the money out."

This made Bruce smile as he grabbed his keys.

The next day Loki was having the worst day ever. He was right about Odin shutting his card off and to make it worse the senile old man had completely shut down his entire bank account. And to make it even worse Thor had now joined most of his classes and was trying desperately to talk to him. It was incredibly annoying so yeah; Loki was pretty pissed off when Bruce came into their dorm.

So, Loki was sitting at the desk with a bottle of wine and a small wine glass when Bruce silently walked up and started to gently massage the tension out of Loki's shoulders. Loki leaned back slightly and grabbed Bruce's hand.

"Hey"

"You, okay?"

"No, but the massage helps." Loki mumbled, his accent becoming thicker and making it impossible to hear him.

Bruce smiled and continued his soothing actions. Loki smiled up at him in a silent thank you. Bruce decided then that he really loved Loki's crooked smile. And Loki decided that he really liked it when Bruce looked at him with that lovesick look in his eyes.

"What happened?" Bruce asked softly.

"Well, I was right, Odin shut down my entire bank account. So now I am truly a broke college student, not to mention my idiotic brother has decided to attend university despite having only been tutored in subjects relating to him succeeding Odin for the throne, he has no knowledge of any practical subjects. And the worst of it is that he's taking all of the subjects I am, so here's to hoping he feels that it's too hard and flunks out" Loki smirked as he raised a wine glass to his lips.

"Your hair is so pretty; you should braid it or something" Bruce randomly whispered as he carded a hand through Loki's dark hair. This made Loki blush deeply.

"Maybe, my mother used to when I was younger, but stopped when Odin yelled at her once he saw them in my hair."

"I could braid it now if you like, I think I remember how to."

"Sure, but where did you learn how to braid hair?"

"I have a cousin." The bespeckled man simply shrugged, earning a deep, happy laugh from Loki.

"I love you." Loki murmured before he could even think about what he was saying. This made Bruce freeze and go silent, and Loki bite the inside of his mouth.