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Tony Stark kind of hated himself. Why, you may be asking. Well, life had not been very fair to him. He always got the best grades and skipped a grade a couple of times during school. He even had gotten into one of the most prestigious universities of the world with almost no effort.

He was almost 20. And he hated himself.

Again, why.

Tony didn’t hate all of himself, he just was disgusted with certain aspects of his personality that, to him, made him unlovable. He hated how easily attached he got to other people. Hated how he constantly needed someone to give him attention, to care. Hated how easily he gave his trust and how he always got used by that.

One situation in particular that had left him so broken, happened when he was dating this girl who was perfect for him at the time. He was 17. She was 23. He knew it was wrong, but he didn’t care, he was in love. No one else knew about his relationship. Not even his closest friend, Rhodey. Long story short, she turned out to be very emotionally abusive, who could have guessed. She would laugh at how Tony dressed, would critique Tony’s interest in cars and music. She would go as far as constantly check to whom he would be talking to and forbid him to talk to certain people.

Tony was in that relationship for ten months, until he got the courage to break up with her and then changed his phone number, so she wouldn’t be able to contact him. It seemed to work, because he didn’t hear from her since. And still, he never told anyone.

On top of that emotional trauma, Tony also had a terrific father. It seemed like Howard hated him, he even had sent him to an internship for a year after Tony accidentally dropped a drink over some paperwork. Howard would always yell at him for no apparent reason, and in the most recent years, Tony began to talk back, which earned him a couple of bottles thrown at him on two occasions. So, he didn’t do it often.

He was very relieved to get into that university, because it meant he would get some time away from Howard, plus doing what he loved. In the first semester he made a lot of friends, which was very surprising to him, and he only got a couple of classes with one of them. Bruce, Natasha, Clint and Steve. They had gotten pretty close. The five of them would hang out every Friday and Tony had come to care a lot about them. Life seemed to be going well.

And then he met Professor Loki Laufeyson.

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It was Friday night and they were all at Clint’s house. The semester started on Monday, so they were celebrating their last moments of vacation.

Tony didn’t remember having more than a couple of beers, but he was starting to feel a little tipsy. Tipsy to rhyme with “I might fall if I attempt to walk”. But he was having fun, so he didn’t worry about it. He could just stay the night there.

“Tony!”. He heard someone call. He thought it sounded like Natasha.

“Why are you yelling?!” He said even louder.

“First, I didn’t yell at you. Second, Clint was asking us something and you didn’t seem to pay attention.” Yes, it has been effectively Natasha.

“Oh… Sorry.” Tony hated not being able to pay attention to people for too long.

“No worries.” Assured Clint, “I asked if you guys are excited to get in the grind of things again.”

“Well,” stared Steve “I’m just tired of doing nothing, so yeah, I guess I’m excited.”

“Yeah, it’s the same for me. I’m bored.” Said Natasha.

“Are you guys serious? I feel like I need at least ten more years to be ready to go back!” Clint was always tired, so the answer wasn’t surprising for anyone. He had even developed a coffee addiction, which probably didn’t help with his poor sleep schedule.

“Of course you would say that.” Answered Bruce. “I am actually excited, I’ll have introduction to astrophysics!”

“Tony, did you drift off again?” Said Natasha, and then proceeded to punch him in the arm.

“Hey! Stop that!” He said while rubbing his arm. Natasha was way stronger than it seemed. “I’m paying attention, okay? I was just thinking that I hope they changed my advanced physics professor. It’s my favorite class but the guy was soooo boring. I even skipped most of the last lessons.”

“Oh yeah, I really hope that too.” Said Bruce, advanced physics was the only class they had together.

“I don’t have any bad teachers, really. I just get too tired, you know?” Said Clint.

“You should go to a doctor to get that checked.” Answered Steve “What if you have some sort of insomnia or some sleeping problem?” Good old Steve, always worrying.

“Yeah, I guess I should.”

They stayed up until 3:30 in the morning and then fell asleep until 10 a.m. Then everyone went back to each of their houses. The rest of the weekend went by very fast after that.

On Monday, Tony really thought things would go a little bit more… exciting? He wasn’t expecting nothing, and yet he was ready to go on vacation again. Nothing was happening. He even started to question whether he should go to the last class of the day. Advanced Physics. The last teacher was so bad that it made Tony understand the appeal of murder. Not really, but still. Maybe send a hitman. No, he would never do something like that, but it was fun imagining it had no consequences, so that’s where his mind would go during class.

He decided to go anyway. He could at least be with Bruce, so that was a plus.

When he walked in the room, it seemed that the professor hadn’t arrived yet. Which was weird because he could see stuff on the desk. He decided to play Sherlock for a while and sat beside Bruce. Of course he was there already, Bruce didn’t like to be late to anywhere.

“How long you’ve been here?”

“Fifteen minutes. Why do you ask?”

“Well, look.” Tony gestured to the desk, giving his best detective face, Bruce looked over. “Don’t you think the teacher would have been here already?”

“Oh. Interesting, I had not thought of that.” Said Bruce, looking back at him. “I haven’t seen anyone else walking in besides the people you can see.” They both looked around.

“Huh, I think I only know like two people.” Said Tony, giving a small laugh.

“I don’t think I know anyone here.” Bruce gave a little smile.

“Maybe you should try to hang with- “

He was interrupted by a sudden thump against the board. The room went completely silent. And then a student who was reading a few moments ago, (wait, had he thrown the book?) stood up.

“So,” He began walking to the front of the classroom. “If everyone has decided to finally shut up, I think we can begin the class now.”

At first, Tony thought the guy was just messing with them and that the actual teacher would come in at any moment. But then, the guy, who Tony could only describe as tall, dark and handsome, started to write on the whiteboard: Professor Loki Laufeyson. What an odd name, he was definitely not form the U.S.A. If that accent was anything to go by. Tony also noticed that even though, given how deep his voice was, it had left like some sort of print in the air. Reverberation, of course, Tony knew the physics behind it, but he couldn’t help but feel amazed and frightened by the event.

“As you can see, my name is Loki Laufeyson. Yes, a weird name, I know. It’s Nordic. I get asked about it all the time.” He walked around his desk and then sat in the front of it. “Since it’s the first class, why don’t we do something cliché, yes?”

“Like what?” Asked someone in the back.

“Presentation. But not like teachers always do.” He said, gesturing with his hands an expression of annoyance. “How about, each of you tells me what you think I should know about yourselves. And then you get to ask something about me.”

Everyone agreed, and then Loki gestured to someone to begin. Tony didn’t pay attention to what they would say, he was interested to know about the new professor. He learned that Loki was just 26 years old. That he had an older brother named Thor. That he had managed to get two titles at once from the university he had gone to. Some of his hobbies included reading and playing guitar and piano. That this was actually his first job as a teacher. All interesting stuff, but the whole scenario seemed so surreal that Tony almost missed Bruce’s turn to ask.

“Why are you teaching since you could be doing something else?”

“What an interesting question. Banner, right?” Bruce nodded. “Well, part of the answer is, while I was studying, I was constantly “doing something else”. And teaching is something I had never done before, so it was appealing. There’s also the fact that I can’t stay in the same place for too long. It starts to feel like an itch that I can’t scratch off. Does that make sense? I guess satisfaction is just not in my nature.”

That last sentence stuck with Tony. He understood the feeling way too well. He knew exactly how the professor felt, because he felt the same most of the time. He was starting to get an admiration for Loki, and he didn’t know how to feel about that.

“I believe you’re the only one left.” He said, looking right at Tony.

“I-I, yeah.” God, was he nervous? “Well, I’m Anthony Edward Stark, but everyone calls me Tony, I’ll be 20 in about 3 weeks, and uh… that’s it.” He looked down, he couldn’t bear that stare.

“Really, you think that’s all I need to know about you, Mr. Stark?” He could feel those eyes right through him.

“I… yes?” Tony looked at him through his eyelashes.

A low sigh. Had Tony already disappointed him? “Alright. And your question?”

“Um, could you explain more about that thing about “satisfaction” that you just said?” He bit his lower lip. Why was he so nervous?

“I’ll try my best.” And then Loki smiled a very soft smile. And suddenly Tony didn’t feel so much as a disappointment. “What I meant is, monotony is unbearable for me, I need to constantly do something new, so I won’t lose my mind. Yes?”

Tony smiled, “Yes.”

There was a warm feeling inside him after that. He felt as if someone finally understood him. He felt good. And he could only hope the feeling would last.

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Sometimes Tony wished that his uni had dorms on campus, because he could spend even more time away from his father, but then he thought about how annoying it would be to share a room with a random guy and he would get over it. 

Still, he didn't want to go home to a drunk Howard Stark. So he just texted he would be at Rhodey's house. The class was done early since professor Laufeyson had decided to not get to the meat of things until next Monday, so he said bye to Bruce, grabbed his keys and… stayed in his car. He knew Rhodey would be home late since he was back in training for the army and Pepper still had one more week before she would be back from her vacation. Clint was probably sleeping. Natasha was training in the martial arts club. Steve… probably doing some boring stuff. So he just sat there for about 15 minutes before deciding to go grab some coffee from the cafeteria and leave to his house. 

But it seems destiny is never on his side, since he's too distracted on his phone to pay attention and accidentally walks into-

"Mr. Laufeyson!" Tony says, surprised with his own recklessness or with happiness to see him, he doesn't know. "I'm so sorry, sir. I- here, let me just-" He's nervous, again. He quickly picks up the professor's papers that he dropped and hands them to him.

"Thank you, Mr. Stark." The professor's voice is soft and calm. "You seem agitated. I'm not holding you up from some important business, am I?"

"No! No, I just… got distracted, sorry. I'll be on my way now." Tony begins but he's quickly stopped.

"Wait, Mr. Stark. I meant to ask you something, if I may?"

"I- yeah, sure." Tony says starting to wonder if he did something to upset him, why would he want to talk to him otherwise?

"What semester are you on?"

Oh. "Oh, it's my second one."

"Really? You don't see a lot of 20 year olds on advanced physics, it's usually PhD.s" The professor smiles at him and Tony feels suddenly small.

"I- haha yeah, it's a long story I guess. You don't see a lot of 26 year old teaching this either." He smiles back, and he feels something at hearing the soft giggle from the professor.

"You got me there. Well, I shall see you in my class, then?" 

"Yeah! I'll be there."

And there it is. Tony walks back to his car but he recognizes the feel in his stomach all too well. It's that spark lightning up. But he absolutely can't let it happen this time, he's his teacher, for god's sake. And 6 years older than him. And probably not into him. Yeah, he probably has a girlfriend or something, why would he be interested in some random college guy? He probably has 70 more different students. Tony is short, too. He knows it. And even though people know that Tony gets around, if you know what I mean, he knows that someone like Mr. Laufeyson wouldn't be into him. Plus, what if he gets fired or something because of Tony? He doesn't know the laws but what if it's illegal to date your own students? 

"Ugh!" He yells in his car, annoyed. He shouldn't even be thinking about what if's. But his mind is too fast to keep up, so he just puts on some music and drives home.

*

"Tony…" He heard someone say. They sounded annoyed but he was too busy thinking about just so many things.

"Tony!" He jumped and realized it was Clint yelling at him. They were hanging out with Steve in the closest Starbucks to the campus, since Clint couldn't live without his coffee. "You seem more out of it than usual, you okay, man?"

"Yeah, sorry about that, what were you saying about a dog?" Tony took a sip of his milkshake, he could feel Steve's worried eyes on him.

"Well, it was this dog I found eating a pizza out of a trash can! Poor thing, I just had to bring him home." 

"And what did Nat say? I'm sure she wasn't happy about getting another stinky roommate."

"Hey! I shower every day, thank you very much. And she's very happy! So are you coming over tomorrow to see him or what?"

"Yeah, I'll be there. It'll be Friday after all."

They spent some more time together before going to their own houses. Tony was glad to see that Howard wasn't home yet and decided to spend the rest of the day thinkering with his new project. A helpful little mechanical arm with the AI of what he would describe a smart dog. Maybe not so smart. Still, he was very excited to see it come to fruition. However, his mind wandered off again to that professor. He felt so stupid for even letting himself have any interest in him. He knew better than to get involved with someone older than him, let alone a person that could ruin his semester if he wanted to. But he couldn't help that his heart, even if broken already, just caught feelings way too easily. He needed to talk to Nat about it, probably.

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He had to admit it. That dog that Clint picked up was really cute. It seemed he had gotten into an accident and lost one of his eyes, but he was very smart and loved getting pets. Tony could see him becoming part of their trips in no time.

They had been drinking a couple of beers, talking about their new teachers and classes. And when Natasha stood up to bring another six pack to the backyard, Tony followed her close behind.

"What is it?" She said while opening the fridge without even looking at him.

"What would you do if you found someone attractive but you knew it would be a terrible idea to try to make a move and you weren't even sure if they would be into you? Hypothetically, I mean."

She sighed. "Who is it?" Of course she wouldn't fall for that.

"No one you know."

"Hmm. And why exactly is it a terrible idea?"

"Uh…" Definitely not sharing that part. "I'm sure you can come up with a bunch of reasons. Answer me, will you?"

"Well, if you're aware that it's a bad idea, then it's actually even worse." She said, leaving the beers on the kitchen table for a moment. She was clearly concerned and the look she gave him made him itch at the back of his neck. "Just. Don't do anything stupid, Tony. I know that's actually a hard thing for you to do, but, please. Really think about it and whatever you decide, be careful." She placed her hand on his shoulder and left the kitchen shortly after.

Tony stood there for a couple of minutes. But he knew that his brain had taken a decision before him and there was nothing that could change his mind. He decided he would try something. Didn't know what or when. He needed more time, at least to get to know Mr. Laufeyson better. He took a deep breath and returned with the others, he would think about it later.

*

Monday couldn't come fast enough. He decided he would be early to class, hoping no one else would be there. Bruce's class ended about 5 minutes before this one, so at least he won't be there yet. Tony arrives 15 minutes early and there's no one in the classroom other than Loki. He celebrates in his brain.

"Hi, Mr. Laufeyson." He says, throwing a charming smile at the professor. Loki is sitting at his desk, doing something on his laptop. Tony notices he's wearing glasses and they frame his face perfectly. His hair is tied in a small bun with a couple of strands falling on the sides of his forehead. He's wearing a black turtleneck with dark gray dress pants and Tony has to remind himself to remain calm.

"Mr. Stark, you're early." He says with a sharp smile. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Uh, no." He takes a seat, right in front of him. "I have a class that ends early so I figured I might as well come here early." 

"Fair enough.” He pauses for a few seconds before asking “Would you mind if I ask what degree you are working on?" Loki raises an eyebrow, Tony can tell he's genuinely curious.

"Oh, it's all good. I'm getting a PhD in engineering physics." He says proudly. Loki stares at him for a second.

"How old are you, again?" 

"19, I'll be 20 in three weeks." He knows he's smart and he hopes he's impressing the professor.

Loki takes his glasses off, for dramatic effect, Tony guesses. "That's… fascinating." He says in a low voice, almost as if talking to himself.

Tony gives a genuine giggle. And then he has an idea. "Wait. Now that I think of it, I do need your help."

Loki tilts his head slightly to the left. "Please, do let me know."

"I'm working on an upgrade for a little robot I made last year but I'm kinda stumped on the circuit." He had upgraded Dum-E three times already and he didn't plan on giving it another upgrade, but the professor didn't need to know that. “Do you think I could… show you? I just need to find a better way to set up the circuit.”

“You can come to my office and show me. I don’t have any classes on Wednesdays and Fridays, but I do have a lot of other things to do and I rather work here than in my house. Does that work for you?” Loki rests his chin on the hand that is still holding his glasses, and Tony is yet again mesmerized by the green in his eyes.

“That’s perfect!” Tony gives him that smile. Maybe it'll make the professor want to see it more.

Loki smiles back, softly and a bit condescending. As if to say 'cute' to him. He now feels like an annoying child looking for help with a science project but he pushes the feeling away. They sit in silence for a few minutes until other students start to come in. Eventually Bruce sits beside him and they catch up a little while the professor starts the class. Tony feels glad that the topic is easy for him, otherwise he would have to pay attention to the words Loki is saying, and instead focuses on the way he talks and moves and makes himself the center of attention. I mean, he is literally the professor and everyone should be paying attention to him, but Tony notices yet again something familiar about him. He likes that all the eyes are on him and that he has the power in the room. And that just makes him all the more attractive and interesting. His slow pacing around the front while he speaks is elegant, almost like a cat, makes him feel like he’s part of royalty. Is it because he sounds British? That's the other thing. Tony can't get enough of that accent and that deep voice. Silky, dark and so enticing. Now that he has gotten over his freak-out about how much of a bad idea this is, he can let himself notice just how much he wants that man. He really has never seen someone as beautiful. Well, beautiful like that, let's not disrespect any previous crushes, which all had been very pretty. But the professor was pretty in such a way that he had never experienced. Alright, that was enough daydreaming for the day. The class was over and he had to do a workshop for the next week. And make up some random circuit for Loki to check out. 

“Thanks again, professor. For the help.” Said Tony while picking up his backpack. Mostly everyone had left by that point.

"Anytime, Stark. Take care." He gave him a soft smile and Tony felt a warm feeling in his chest. 

*

Maybe he should have thought this through beforehand. He had spent the last two days trying to make up an issue with the circuit, but every time the solution was too obvious and he needed to be convincing. But at 3:45 in the morning, he had finally made something that would work. 

A few hours later, he was getting mentally prepared to see Loki. He had been in his car for about 10 minutes, trying to calm himself down and think about what exactly he was going to say. He took a deep breath and finally decided to go to the office. But before knocking on the door, he heard Loki's voice. It seemed he was talking to someone on the phone, and maybe Tony shouldn't do it, but he leaned in to listen.

"No, I have work to get done, Fandral. Yes. I know. Oh, shibari? I… I'll call you later and let you know. No. No! Ugh, aren't you exasperating? I will call you. Yes. You too."

Shibari? Was that some kind of food Tony didn't know about? Probably something to look up later. He waited a few moments before knocking on the door. 

"Come in!" He heard the professor say, and gently opened the door.

"Hi Mr. Laufeyson. Hopefully you're not busy right now?"

"Oh! Stark, that's right. Please, do take a seat." Loki sent him a polite smile and Tony couldn't wait to make it happen naturally.

"Thanks!" Said Tony after closing the door behind him. He could tell that Loki was a very organized person, as everything was neatly placed and there was no mess to be seen. He carefully sat down on the chair that was in front of Loki's desk. 

"So, how may I assist you?" The professor took his glasses off and the green of his eyes seemed a bit brighter since the last time he saw them. 

"Well, I have this issue with this circuit that I can't seem to figure out. Been at it for weeks." He smiled innocently while pulling the small gadget from his backpack. "I haven't been able to figure out the correct voltage so it doesn't try to explode every time I run some energy through."

Loki grabbed it with delicate fingers. Tony made a mental note of how long they were. "Ah. I believe I see what the problem is."

Of course he would fix it quickly. He should have thought of making the issue more complicated, so once the professor was done with the circuit, Tony was already thinking on how to spend more time with him.

"There," Loki handed the gadget back, "Is that all?"

"Actually, no. I was wondering if I could ask a big favor from you?"

"What is it?"

"Well… I'm actually behind some of the recreational credits that they ask for everyone, and I just don't have enough interest in joining a sports team or going to the art class, not my thing. So, would it be okay if I do some helping around with any paperwork you have? I'll just need you to sign a thing that confirms I'm doing stuff. Does that make sense?"

"Ah. I understand." Loki shifted in his chair and leaned back. "I could use some help. I would ask you to come Wednesdays and Fridays." 

"That's great! I mean, I would be free."

"Very well. I shall see you on Friday, Mr. Stark."

"See ya, professor. Thanks."

And once he left, Tony couldn't wait for Friday to come.