Loki feels a spike of anger, the urge to yell that he's trying, trying harder than Tony to make this work. He tamps it down. They already did that, it didn't work, and he said he'd do better. Time to prove it.

"That doesn't mean I need to rub your nose in it." They would be the death of each other, that's how the bond worked. The question is when and how they treat each other in the in between.

"I called the bond a curse. I didn't always think that. When I was a younger, I thought it was rather comforting. The idea that there was someone out there who would connect with me so instantly, who would finally see me, rather than Thor's shadow. I thought- I thought a lot of things before." He can't look Tony in the eye. The bond, that's why his words fall out like a waterfall, unable to stop in it's plummet to the deep pool below. It isn't because for the first time in his life he feels like there is someone he can actually say all this too who might actually listen.

"I slept soundly for the first time in decades next to you. I don't want to let that go." Decades, not years. Loki knew something was wrong long before he learned of his true parentage, and it haunted him. Always focusing on the next spell, the next plan, something that would make him stand out, be noticed for his accomplishments and his alone.