elding king.

" -- where did you find that ?? " anna gasped , words racing . chest burned and thumped with the excitement of a small child .

impulse overtook her , as she asserted herself and ignored any common sense of boundaries and personal space . she all but tried to turn the man with a tight , a wanting grip on his bicep . that was , until anna was met with a resistance stronger than any door she'd ever known .

sobering , it dawned on the princess that she'd grabbed onto the arm of a stranger . someone she didn't know and who hadn't known her . but shame was not her , as anna rushed an apology . but , more importantly , she a clarified .

" oh . i'm sorry . you probably didn't find that , you clearly bought it -- obviously . or maybe not . maybe you made it , in which case i'm totally misjudging you right now and that's my bad . but all the same : i just . . . love custard buns . "

❝ ah . then i commend you your good taste , my good lady . ❞ thor laughed and spared a glance at his parcel . the buns had come in sets of three . enough to savor and to share . ❝ i was gifted these by a good friend who works with the charity . they often have extra . ❞ thor angled the bag for the girl to reach if she so chose .

Something open but not quite bleeding, and still never healing in turn. He felt the same the first time he had witnessed it on the Statesman. At the time, he had attempted to step in and provide Thor with aid. The most he could do was provide the proper tools and water when Thor had brushed him off.

In a quick examination, Thor had taken care of it more than Loki anticipated. But the last time was likely far too long ago. The skin was raw and puffed, red on the brink of infection from the dust and debris of battle. He had removed the patch with delicate fingers, careful not to cause more irritation upon that which was already sensitive.

❝ Steady on. ❞ Loki murmured softly, the ship humming around them in this fragile space. Slowly, he took the cloth and rinsed it in the warm water. He applied the soap and medicinal oils and began his work. Not a single word escaped him from there, for now was not the time to become distracted. Each stroke of cloth across the socket was laced with tenderness. Loki carefully wiped away the debris, the pus, and cleaned the area. The cold of his hand mingled with the warmth of the water that he hoped offered some reprieve. It felt as though the least Loki could do after placing Thor through yet another battle.

The work was thorough and soon enough complete. With a sigh, Loki reaches for the patch, cleaning it as well in the water. He offers Thor a cloth, untouched, so that he may clean his face should he choose to.

so thor's breath came thin , shallow and carefully measured . lightning crackled and pulsed within . in but a moment might THUNDER BRINGER send shockwaves through an unkind hand . it would take but only a breath .

that moment simply never came . so thor sat still , with an expression blank and CARVED FROM STONE , save the minute flares that spoke of a tender pain thor kept veiled and pressed between his ribs .

thor took the cloth and the patch in hand , but he did not use them immediately . his brow knit together , and battled the torrents of raging winds that blew and howled within him . glimpses of memory scattered throughout time were carried on those winds . they howled like the winds atop the tower in new york . they gusted and blew about like the distant impressions of their mother and her warmth , felt through a fever's break or the onset of a prolonged Sleep . eventually , thor stirred from his thoughts . his thumb followed the layered pattern on the eyepatch's face .

Loki shook the thought, relaxing his features yet again, and chuckled in turn. ❝ What have I? ❞ He pondered, bringing a finger to his chin in mock thought. ❝ Nothing, I suppose. It would not bring you harm to humor me, regardless. ❞

He reached both shoulders of the behemoth and guided him down and down until he was seated upon the chair. ❝ When exactly was the last time you tended to the area? ❞ Loki swiftly turned attention to the basin, first washing his hands clean. He carefully used the soap to wash away the filth and stains of that place, ensuring that no harm would come to the perpetual wound Thor bore.

He could see his mother so clearly through the crack of the door as she tended to Odin. The washing of hands, the gentle touch as the patch was removed. The sight of the socket was always blocked in some form or fashion. But his eyes never left mothers hands. The delicate strokes of cloth, the way he held still for her hands, the strength of that trust was something Loki never forgot, even if now he did not understand it.

what only a select few of odin's house knew was that the patch was worn for a far more practical purpose : to cover a terrible wound that did not heal , for it had been earned while facing the FULL MIGHT of the giant king laufey , and the terrible , eternal winter held within laufey's casket . thor did not boast the honor of a wound earned in victory . he only bore a wound . one that ached STUBBORNLY when it was left too long to its own devices . one that was EASILY AGITATED . prone to infection , if left unattended . hela left her mark on him . her sword had left a bitter wound . one that thor GRIMACED AT as loki settled and took away his patch . he did not have a mirror on his person . but thor had tended to his eye enough times to easily imagine what it looked like . an agitated , puffy red with thin veins of necromatic power just beneath the skin . the socket itself could not heal over . THEY HAD BOTH SEEN WORSE . still , it was an ugly , brutish thing .

Loki squinted, pressing closer to Thor's chest and staring at the patch. He did not have to probe or pry to make an educated guess that Thor was not fine.

❝ Then you won't mind if I look. ❞ Loki smiled, pressing a hand against Thor's chest and pushing gently towards the seat. ❝ The sooner you allow me, the sooner you may captain to your heart's content. ❞ His voice lowered, stern and laced with the quiet understanding of what Thor would rather be doing. This was a behavior that Loki knew well, though he could not say even in this world that it did not trouble him.

How much more could Thor carve out of himself to give to others? To people who would never do the same.

—when thor stepped back due to his brother's push , it was for fear of the effect on loki's hand should he not . ❝ it is good for us all that i am not great . i am mighty . ❞ even still , THICKLY - WIRED TENSION knotted through thor's shoulders . he looked down , SHARPLY , at the hand on his person . searching for — thor frowned . searching for a weapon , he realized dimly . a dagger . for blood and a pin - prick of pain only loki had strength to draw . thor took another step back - this time of his own volition - and let his fingers graze over the arm of the chair loki had swiveled towards him . his shoulders shook as thor let loose a HALF - EXASPERATED laugh . be it by loki's tone echoing their mother's , or his own split - second fear — thor could no longer tell .

However, Loki soon found what he was searching for in the drawers of the console. His fingers brushed along a glass bottle and a clean cloth. He hummed quietly, barely listening to whatever Thor had spoken of. Loki had his mind set to one task, and he would not be swayed.

❝ Yes, yes. Whatever you say, brother. ❞ Loki waved his hand, spotting a basin of water nearby. As a mouse that was gathering food for winter, so did he scurry about and collect all manner of items necessary for his mission. He rolled up his sleeves and set the items on a table where a chair stood close.

it did not .

raising a brow , thor turned to look at his brother , and could only frown , UTTERLY BEFUDDLED , at the sight before him . when loki spoke , the SHOCK of it was enough to bring even the mighty thor to an awkward , abrupt halt .

No matter how strong the walls, the vessel will always erode into dust.

Leashing such power was a terrible tragedy in Loki's mind. There was no one else who feared its power more than the one who could wield it. Thor's eyes were always the first to see the lightning strike as it tore through flesh and bone. Thor's hands were the ones who pointed to where the strike was to land.

Loki could not help but silently scoff at the apology. ( Who was Thor to apologize for wrongs when Loki's were far greater than these? ) He would not accept it. Thor was not his keeper, nor his ward. He was is Loki's brother. The world was theirs to conquer together. That is how it was always meant to be.

❝ You cannot watch over someone who hides from you. ❞ Loki murmured. He loathed being tethered to a guard where his brother should be. His point had already been made. The same argument that he would rise every single time. Thor held onto duty as though his life depended on the notion.

he simply did not possess the energy to fight him still . to be quite frank : thor did not know if he harbored within himself the will to .

neither sat well with him . and so , shrouded in his own misgivings , thor held the matter to his breast and folded it there , pressed between his ribs , where it would CUT EACH TIME HIS HEART BEAT and bruise each time he breathed .

thor swiveled , placed hand to hip , and turned his eye to the console , to the skies .

Even as a small child afraid of thunder, she had tried to be brave. The heavy rain, the loud booming sound, and the screaming winds had been too much for her. As a child, way before her parents death, she'd run into her parents room crying and cuddling with them. With her adoptive parents, she stayed with Joey, who had been afraid of thunder, just like her. She tried to be brave for him.

And she tried to be brave now. Thor was the God Of Thunder. This was a part of him, and to be afraid of it meant being afraid of Thor. She wasn't afraid of hi--

Luna flinches, curls into herself a little more. She trembles and anticipates that first BOOMING noise.

"I'm sorry--," she says ever so quietly.

thor's first words were spoken in thunder , and so would be his last .

and so , for a very long moment , there was only the sound of rain as it fell from the heavens . it drummed along the ground and the roads and pelted along the shingles above their heads . sharp , pointed droplets that beat and battered . thor breathed , and curled his fingers around the whole of the hand placed in his . quiet , he watched her . quiet , if only because AT FIRST , even the mighty thor — for all of his bellows and bluster — . . . knew not what to say .

❝ You'll carry nothing in death. ❞ He could not take it any longer. The distant observations, the lies, the tricks he had pulled just to see that look upon Thor's face. The very same one he knew from so long ago. Loki would not stand for the slanders that Thor placed upon himself.

❝ You saved our people when she sought their suffering. Asgard is lost, but it is neither forgotten nor abandoned by choice. ❞ Loki need not say the name of the beast who slaughtered and murdered in the name of her own pride. It was upon the word 'feast' that his eyes widened in realization. The day of the feast. The conversation that had drifted them apart.

Loki groaned quietly, bending himself over as he threaded his hands through his hair. Complacent. Living in fantasy. We feast while they starve.

❝ You absolute fool of a man. ❞ He murmured, the weight of his own words burdening his shoulders. He could not bear to look upon his brother. The darkness under those eyes, the heaviness of those shoulders, the calloused, bruised hands, and straining muscles that trembled in secret. What stood before him was the shell of a god that called itself Thor.

yet static still buzzed around his person . lightning yet jittered and jolted , following the movement of thor's hands as they balled into fists and dropped to his sides . trailing the minute shake of his head as he GRIT HIS TEETH to the wave of vertigo haunting the wings of body and mind — where it would stay ; as he released a short , heavy exhale , and BRACED against the growing white - hot flash of searing pain would lance through skin and skull . ( it were as though he were six - hundred all over again . with nothing to show for his strength but a DIRE LACK OF CONTROL . )

thor tore his gaze from the skies and settled it upon his brother , then . he said nothing , for loki already knew the answer , for it was woven into every moment of their lives since they were bred and born : IT ENDED WHEN THEY WERE DEAD .

❝ when i have no longer made a mockery of our people's fates . ❞ thor spoke quietly , but his voice carried the rolling peal of thunder . did heimdall watch over their people from afar ? did he cast his all - seeing gaze to the stars , and had he found them ? if he was well , and their people whole , would thor not have sensed them by now ? could he not have mustered the strength to CALL OUT with lightning's strike to his final herald ? his final friend ? heimdall , who had served and watched under the reign of thor's father , and who prepared to serve under thor henceforth — he had seen all . every rise and every fall . what had he come to think ?

❝ in this realm , loki , that includes yours . ❞ lips parted . thor stalled . shoulders heaved . simply to breathe , THOR LABORED . his eye sparked , intermittently flickering blue - white and cerulean . thor swallowed thick and bid his heart ease in its cage to rattle . they must make peace . for of their family's vestige , they two were ALL THAT WAS LEFT . ❝ twice i have turned my eye from you . twice you have suffered for it , and so i have done you wrong . ❞

The airship rattled again around them, creaking metal and hollow echoes that shook his core, and Loki half stood. One metal coffin was the same as any other in his eyes, even if their false homes were not so far away.

❝ Thor, I- ❞ Loki began and bit his tongue. Oh, what he wanted to say. What he THOUGHT to say in that moment. He could not afford to be careless with his words ( as he had evidently done once before ), not now when storms surrounded the cage.

❝ Brother... I know what you have been doing with this vessel. ❞ Loki sat again, knuckles white from the strain that he kept to himself. ❝ You... you have slaved for days nay- months to return home... home to our people. Hungered, thirsted... and disregarded all rest for yourself, and yet you call yourself complacent?! ❞

loki exasperated him no less either . he was no søt bolle to butter . his pride was not so FRAGILE as to bruise beneath a cold , hard truth . ( not much , anyways . ) the ship GROANED beneath thor's weight as the asgardian shifted and stood . utterly unable to sit still , THOR PACED GROOVES into the metal flooring . each step matched the beat of the dull , familiar throbbing that bloomed between his temples .

❝ father so often told me how there is no greater duty than to that of LAND AND PEOPLE . that i would one day understand the rights and the weights of the crown . ❞ he shook his head . hand flit to hand , fingers curling and digging into the pit of his palm . ❝ for years now , i have known . for years i have cast my eyes from it . shying from it , to return to another day . living in a realm of my own making .  and now i have sacrificed our land . i have brought suffering upon our people . ❞

Here, have some more.

Now that the thunder had roared and lightning had shattered, the rain came down in the calm. Loki sat up straighter, brows furrowed slightly, and lips hardened into a thin line. He had prepared a chisel to break, not a bandage to mend.

Slowly through his nose, Loki sighs. Eyes cast down upon his hands (slick with oil, cut from the metal) that have fought and fought and fought for so long. What was he supposed to do with this? What words could he say that would be heard through the walls?

❝ I do not blame you, brother. ❞ Loki answered quietly, thinking carefully as he forced the words from his throat. ❝ In some ways... it was more fortunate you were not among the captives. ❞ He muses, shifting his body to lean on his knees. His fingers dance in his lap as he looks to Thor once more.

star - sovereign spoke quietly . yet the thunderer could not rid his voice of the BOOMING CRASH held within each hard , measured syllable .

❝ yes . i am . ❞

Now that their lives were no longer at stake, there was room for the feelings of old squabbles. Sure, Thor had come, but he would have come regardless of Loki's presence for the others. The shadows whispered, 'It was just convenient Loki was there.' And now he was being invited to sit beside the storm, as though nothing had come between them at all.

Despite his hesitations and reservations, he could not deny that he felt joyful to be reunited at long last. Loki said nothing as he took the seat, walking as quietly as he had entered and sank down.

❝ I can agree to that. ❞ Was all that Loki commented, a scoff echoing with the words. His eyes flickered back and forth from Thor's healing skin to the engine of the ship. Silence stretched between them, filled only by the constant hum of the engine that sailed them home. They likely would have stayed silent if Loki had not spoken.

❝ i am well . although i fear that i must be the one to ask you that , brother . ❞ his eye scoured over loki , searching for all that may be amiss beneath the grime and dirt and after - effects of battle . thor's eye clawed and clung to the sight of him in much the same manner that a beggar might cling and curl around the weight of A SINGLE COIN . like a man starved .

without giving loki the chance to reply , thor shook his head . HIS THROAT ACHED . his shoulders TENSED and heaved .