Another Chance

Jane

"Do you mind if I sit next to you today?" Loki asked half a second before sitting next to her.

Jane looked up from her notes, somewhat lost. As if she had become too engrossed in her notebook and was having a hard time refocusing her attention on her surroundings. Loki, who was unable to ignore his surroundings, wondered how would feel to be able to be so... distracted. To be so sure of the environment that surrounded himself as to disconnect from it.

"No, no, go ahead," she assured a few seconds later, frowning slightly. "We know each other?"

"I'm Loki, Thor's brother," he introduced himself, giving her his best smile.

"Oh, Loki. Thor has told me a lot about you."

Loki's smile narrowed a few millimeters, and what was left of it was held there by sheer force of will.

"Can I ask what my brother has told you about me?"

"That you're smart, cunning, and very adept at getting him out of trouble," said Jane, turning slightly toward him. "Thor admires you a lot."

"But?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"But I don't know if that admiration is deserved. Because from the anecdotes he's told me, I think you're more adept at getting him into trouble than getting him out of it."

"I see... has he told you then why he ended up here? Who got him into this mess?" He leaned toward her, smiling in a slightly cruel way. "Beware of making too quick judgments about people, little genius. It can play tricks on you."

Jane snorted, but before she could say anything else Professor Selvig entered the class. He gave them a questioning look, either from seeing Loki sitting there, in the front row, instead of at the back of the class, or from his clearly tense posture. Loki gave Jane one last look before sitting up fully in his seat, ignoring her.

Or at least, pretending that he did. Because he was aware of every move, every sidelong glance she gave him. How she opened her book and her notebook at the teacher's command, and she started writing almost immediately.

That's why he felt the subtle slip of the paper towards him and intercepted it in time so that Selvig's gaze wouldn't catch it. The girl might be good at physics, but she was terrible at secretly passing notes.

As soon as Selvig was distracted he retrieved the paper from under his elbow and read it in one glance.

"Your brother is very proud of you, that you have been accepted into the advanced classes. You should be more considerate of him, given the difficult time he is going through. I don't think it's going to kill you."

Given his background he wasn't too sure about that, Loki thought bitterly, crumpling the paper. From time to time he could still feel the echo of the weight of Mjolnir on his chest, the vibration of the fractured Bifrost beneath him. The void. All because he had tried to show his brother and his father that he could be better. That he could accomplish things if he was out of their shadow.

He didn't respond to Jane for the rest of the class, doing his best interpretation of applied student. As he copied what was posted on the blackboard and took notes of what Selvig said, his mind kept turning over what Jane had written and said.

"Thor admires you a lot."

"Your brother is very proud of you."

Two difficult phrases to link to Thor. To the man who had spent the last few years (centuries) making fun of him. Of his body, when it became clear that he would never develop the blond's muscles, of his taste for dark clothes or for painting his nails. From reading too much, or spending too little time around idiots. For using magic and cunning to get out of a problem, instead of solving it through brute force.