"So earth has, uh… wizards now?"
Traveling to Midgard was a rarity in Thor's life, but he could be sure that no other visit had ended in the way this one had - and probably never would again.
Standing face-to-face with the man in the red cloak, Thor tried to act as if his nerves hadn't been frazzled after seemingly being ripped from one reality and pushed into another. He laughed a little at his own joke as he attempted to put back the small, dagger-like item he had been scrutinising, only to knock the rest of them off their display stand and onto the table below.
"The preferred term is Master of the Mystic Arts – you can leave that now." The 'wizard' winced inwardly at the continuous clanging as his guest hastily tried putting the display back together but just made it all worse.
Thor's sheepish expression only grew as he immediately dropped what he was holding to the table and tried to pass off an air of confidence the wizard saw right through. "Alright, wizard. Who are you; why should I care?"
The man looked down for a brief second, as if he were deciding how to start. "My name is Doctor Stephen Strange and I have some questions for you. Take a seat."
In the blink of an eye, the room they were vacating had changed, and Thor was in a chair he didn't recall sitting in anywhere in the last ten seconds.
"Tea?" Stephen looked almost bored as he watched the way Thor stared in disbelief at the cup that had somehow entered his grip as he'd been looking over his shoulder in surprise.
Thor continued to scrutinise the cup. "I don't drink tea."
"Well, what do you drink?" Stephen didn't look any less disinterested at his question.
"Not… tea…" His confusion only grew as the cup was replaced by a giant mug of beer, but it wasn't entirely unwelcome this time.
Stephen wasted no time in getting into it. "So I keep a watchlist of individuals and beings from other realms that may be a threat to this world, and your adopted brother, Loki, is one of those beings."
Thor had drank almost the entire mug. He wiped at this lips and then watched as the mug refilled itself. "That's a worthy inclusion. But Loki has been missing for a long time now."
"Oh?" Stephen leant in, as if he were eager to hear more.
The contentedness Thor had been feeling was replaced by an almost bitter emotion now. His gaze dropped down and his shoulders slumped. "Our father had him imprisoned on Asgard, but he went missing from his cell a long time ago. Nothing I have ever been able to do has turned up so much as a strand of his hair."
Finally, that bored look Stephen had been wearing was donned by one of seriousness. "What if I told you, I can help you with that?"
Thor lifted his gaze and fixed it back on the man. "How so?"
Stephen said nothing; he moved his arms and then a fiery circle appeared above them with a whoosh. Something fell through it, something that Thor quickly recognised to be his missing brother's body. His body tensed as he looked back to the wizard, his senses searching for any danger he may have missed previously.
"I believe this belongs to you." Stephen didn't move or even look at what – or who, really – had just dropped out of thin air next to them. "What I would like to know is why he's been wandering around earth by his lonesome."
Thor was out of his seat in seconds to kneel beside the lump that had just been confirmed as his brother. He grabbed the unmoving body's shoulders and shook them gently, trying to focus on Loki yet keep his attention on the wizard as well in case he decided to attack. He stretched one hand out to summon his umbrella, not yet willing to let his guard down for a second if Stephen had had Loki in his grasp for the years he had been missing.
"Loki…?" As worried as Thor was, it wasn't just Stephen he had to be careful of; Loki couldn't be trusted to not have roped this stranger into some sort of scheme to finally kill Thor once and for all. "Loki, wake up."
The wizard still didn't move; his eyes just followed the Asgardian's every movements. "I've had hold of him for a while now. Your brother is dangerous."
"You're telling me." Thor gave up on trying to rouse Loki, and he settled instead for scooping his brother up into his arms and holding him close. "What have you done to him?"
"He'll be fine. Take him with you, straight back to Asgard and I'll overlook his wandering around."
"No, you tell me what's happened to him – why he's been missing for so long, wizard," Thor growled. "I swear, if you've done anything to him –"
"-Alright, buh-bye." With that, the sorcerer opened another portal and threw it at the gods, forcing them onto the sidewalk outside the sanctum.
Thor sighed as he regarded his brother slumped over his shoulder; there was no point hanging around here because the sooner he could get Loki back to Asgard, the sooner questions could be answered and Thor might finally find peace in knowing just where his brother had disappeared to for so many years.