A/N: Yeah, the plot's thin in this one, I just wanted to mess with the similarities between Loki and Lotor. So probably not my best work, but hey, it was fun to write. Also my first Voltron fic! (So fun teaching my laptop that, yes, Lotor is a word, and so is Allura, calm down with the red squiggly lines)
Loki opened his eyes to total darkness. No, not quite total, he noticed as he struggled to adjust. Dim light filtered through four rows of four little round holes, two rows on each side of… whatever he was in. Some sort of box, he thought. And there was another source, something green glowing from his lap-
Cuffs. Magic-suppressing handcuffs.
"No," he gasped, bolting upright. But his head smacked into the top of the box, sending sharp pain ricocheting through his skull. "Ow!"
"Would you mind keeping it down over there?" an irritated voice called from somewhere to Loki's left.
Loki glared out of the holes. There was another box a few feet away, and inside he could catch a glimpse of purple skin and white hair. "I'm so sorry my pain is bothering you," he snapped.
"Apology accepted," he snarked.
Loki rolled his eyes, lifting his hands to check his head. They came up short, their chains jerking against ankle cuffs. He pulled his feet in, ducking his head to meet his hand. Thankfully, his fingers came away free of blood.
"Are you all right?" the other man asked quietly.
"Oh, now you care?" Loki muttered, squinting at the chains. They didn't look like anything special, but could he get enough leverage to break them? The box was barely wide enough for his shoulders, not tall enough for him to sit up, and not long enough for him to extend his legs.
"I've been here for two days with no one to talk to. It'd be a shame if you were silenced so quickly upon waking up."
"Maybe I prefer the silence," Loki said, getting the chain under one foot and yanking upwards. All that resulted was an aching foot and a scraped hand.
"I heard your panicked little 'no' when you woke. That was not the sound of a man happy to be with his own thoughts."
Loki bit his lip, his memories of the year with Thanos rushing to fill the silence. He leaned back, getting as comfortable as he could in the cramped space, clasping his hands together and resting them on his knees. "Maybe you're right," he allowed, breathing deeply to try to calm his racing heart.
"I usually am."
Loki pursed his lips. "Have you tried escaping?"
"What do you take me for? Of course I have. I'm free of my chains, but the metal these boxes are made of is far too strong to break."
Loki groaned. "If you're my only company, Val better get here soon."
"The same goes for Allura."
"Val will get here first," Loki stated.
"No, Allura will."
"Val."
"Allura."
"Val."
"Allura."
"Listen, peasant-" Loki started.
"Peasant? I am Emperor Lotor of the Galra Empire! I am no mere peasant, peasant."
"I am Prince Loki, heir to the throne of Asgard!" Loki shot back. "I am not a peasant."
"But I outrank you," Lotor said smugly.
"I recognize no authority from this so-called Galra Empire that I've never heard of," Loki said, lifting his chin.
"If we weren't in these boxes, I would show you my authority."
"Was that a threat?"
"Not so smart, are you, if you couldn't hear the threat in that sentence."
Loki glared through the holes again, this time meeting a pair of blue eyes glaring cockily right back. "Just wait until Val gets me out of here," he hissed. "I'll show you authority."
"I can't wait," Lotor said.
Lotor leaned back then, disappearing from view and going silent. The memories returned to assault Loki, claustrophobia making his heart pound, wrists tugging instinctively on the chains. He let his head thump back against the box, twisted his hands together, trying to jolt himself out of it.
"How's the silence going?" Lotor asked cheekily.
"Peachy," Loki half-grumbled, half-moaned.
When Lotor spoke again a moment later, the sass had left his voice. "It sounds like you hold this Val in high esteem."
Loki smiled a little. "She's my wife."
"Ah," Lotor said. "Tell me about her."
"She's amazing," Loki said, not bothering to hide the dreaminess in his tone. "She's the strongest woman I've ever known in so many ways. She can destroy even the best warriors in combat, and she fights back her own demons every day while helping me with mine. Her love and loyalty is hard to win, but once you have it… You'll never regret it. Unless you cross her."
"She reminds me of Allura," Lotor said wistfully. "She's a gentle soul, but she's brave. And if you threaten her loved ones…"
Loki huffed in wry amusement. "Val has a soft side, but she's not what I would call a gentle soul. She drinks heartily and has no patience for politics. Or anyone, really, outside of a select few."
"That would be the difference between those two," Lotor said. "But I believe they would get along."
"Perhaps," Loki agreed.
-MCU-VLD-
Val left the knife shop, admiring the elegantly crafted hilt that her hand wrapped around perfectly, the weight balanced perfectly in her grip, the blade gleaming in the sunlight. "Loki, this is amaz- Loki?"
His spot on the bench outside the store had been taken by a mother and her baby. Which wasn't entirely odd, but when she scanned the busy Xandarian street for him, she saw nothing. She poked her head back into the shop, wondering if he'd slipped inside to watch her face when she got her hands on the gift, but the only customer was a beady-eyed old man.
"Loki?" she called, wading into the stream of shoppers. There had been a cape shop he was eyeing that he'd bypassed in his hurry to get her to the knife shop. But when she looked inside, weaving between the racks – Oh, he would love that one, she noted absently, brushing her hand against the soft fabric – he wasn't there.
Concern sparking within her, she darted back outside, jumping onto the nearest flat roof to get a better look around. The sea of pastel-wearing Xandarians yielded nothing, no glimpse of his black and forest green leather. She pulled out the intragalactic phone Shuri made them all carry offworld, firing off a Where are you? text.
After a moment, a little message popped up on the screen: Message unable to be received.
"Shoot," she hissed. That could only mean his phone was disabled, and since Loki never messed with the settings…
Val jumped back to the ground, earning a few shocked gasps and appalled looks as she dared to break up the crowd. She went back to the storefront, relieved to see the young mother still there. "Miss?"
The mother started, her hand shooting out to cover her baby in the stroller. "What are you doing with that?" she demanded.
"Whoops," Val said, realizing she was still brandishing the new knife. She stuck it in the back of her pants, holding her hands out. "Sorry. I just want to know, was there a man sitting when you came here?"
She softened warily, tucking her blonde hair behind her ear, leaving one hand on her baby. "Is he the Loki you were calling for? Dark hair, the only person on this planet besides you wearing mostly black?"
Val nodded. "Please."
She scratched her head, thinking. "Yeah, he was here. Guess he noticed how tired I was and offered me his seat. He went across the way to wait, and after a couple minutes, some guy showed up. Looked a little tense, but they were hugging a lot so I didn't think much of it. They went that way."
Loki doesn't hug. And the few people he would hug wouldn't lead him away from me without telling me.
"What did this man look like?" Val asked.
She shrugged. "About Loki's height, maybe taller. Bald. Lots of muscle. That's all I remember."
"Thank you," Val said, waving goodbye as she moved in the direction she'd indicated. But soon there was a four-way intersection and she stopped, glancing down three virtually identical streets.
He's big and did something convincing enough to get Loki to leave without a fight. That tells me nothing about where he might've gone.
"Excuse me!" a woman called. Val ignored her. Until a finger tapped her shoulder and she spun around, holding the new knife near the newcomer's throat. She was black, her white hair drawn into a bun above pointed ears, and wearing white-and-pink armor.
"Who are you?" Val demanded.
She backed off instantly, blue eyes wide with shock. "I-I'm sorry if I startled you. I simply heard that you were looking for someone, and, well, so am I."
Val lowered the knife. "Who'd you lose and how?"
"My boyfriend, Lotor," she answered, looking a little steadier. "He was waiting outside while I went dress shopping, and when I came out, he was gone."
"Taken by a big, bald dude with an affinity for hugs?" Val checked.
She nodded, extending her hand. "It appears we have the same problem. I'm Allura."
Val shook it. "Valkyrie. How long has Lotor been missing?"
Allura drooped. "Two days," she admitted. "I'd call the other Paladins, but at first I didn't want to bother them, and by the time I realized how serious it was, they were busy. They're coming as soon as they can, but… I don't know what else to do."
"Did you check surveillance footage?" Val asked, nodding at the cameras hanging over every shop entrance.
"I tried, but no one would let me look," Allura huffed.
Val twirled her knife between her fingers. "They'll let us today."
Allura's eyes widened warily, but she nodded, following Val into the nearest shop. The knife barely made an appearance before the scrawny "guard" let them in, fleeing with a half-muffled whimper as they scrolled through the footage, searching for Loki.
"There!" Val exclaimed, spotting his familiar dark hair. The large bald man was with him, Loki's arm thrown over his shoulder. Against Loki's back, Val caught a flash of sunlight on a blade. "So that's why Loki didn't fight – even he couldn't make a move fast enough to avoid being stabbed in the back."
"They're still heading in the same direction," Allura noted. "But this is only one shop's cameras."
Val squeezed the knife. "We'll stop at every corner. Some bald idiot isn't going to ruin my first vacation with him in months."
Despite the situation, Allura chuckled. But her voice was quiet, hesitant, as she wondered, "What do you think they're doing?"
Val suppressed the images that flooded into her mind. "Escaping. Wherever they are, they're escaping."
"…Lotor doesn't play very well with others."
Val stopped, sighing. "Oh no."
-MCU-VLD-
"And humans, they are so distrusting," Lotor complained. "How many times must I save their lives before they realize I'm not going to kill them in their sleep?"
"I know," Loki exclaimed. "I helped them save the entire universe, nearly dying to do it, and I've saved countless more lives since, and they still wait for me to stab them in the back. Possibly literally."
"Ugh," Lotor groaned. "At least Allura trusts me."
Loki turned his head, peering through the holes to see a soft smile growing on Lotor's face. He leaned back, letting his own smile appear. "And I have Val and Thor. And the Guardians."
"Who are they?" Lotor asked.
"The Guardians are the people I travel with," Loki answered. "I never would've been comfortable on Earth, so I work and live with them until I'm ready to stay on Earth with Thor and Val. He's my brother."
"So you're on good terms with your family," Lotor surmised, his curious tone dipping towards sullen.
Loki huffed a laugh. "Oh gods, if only you knew. My family history is one massive mess."
"Really? Because I killed my father," Lotor challenged. "And my mother is… she's dead."
"The only reason my father didn't have me executed was because of my mother," Loki shot back. "And they waited over a thousand years and after a catastrophe to tell me I'm adopted from the species parents use to scare little kids with. Now they're both dead, and that's what it took for my brother and I to overcome our differences."
Lotor sighed in dry amusement. "It sounds as if we're both equally broken."
"I'll give you that," Loki allowed.
"But at least I rule my kingdom."
"I ruled mine, too!" Loki retorted petulantly. "Until my brother came strolling back in."
"Family ruins everything."
"Exactly."
They fell silent, moments crawling by. Loki adjusted his position to slip his fingers into open air, looking out on a dingy warehouse full of other boxes. Judging by their silence, none of them contained a person. It was just lucky him and Lotor.
"I miss my mother," Lotor said suddenly, longingly. "She made life livable. Lovable."
"So did mine," Loki murmured, looking back to Lotor's box. Their eyes met, and for a brief moment, Loki didn't see the alien qualities. He just saw himself, a blue-eyed boy who missed his mother more than he could ever say.
Then Lotor looked away, a wry grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Look at us. Just a couple of old saps."
"I am not old," Loki retorted. "I'm wise."
Lotor burst out laughing. "If you were wise, you would not be here, stuck in a box."
"I could say the same about you," Loki said. He caught a glimpse of Lotor's hair flying as the emperor spun to narrow his eyes at him.
"Indeed," a guttural voice agreed. Loki stopped himself bolting upright at the last second, recognizing the man who had coerced him into coming here and immediately drugging him. "You are both stupid."
"Hey!" Loki and Lotor protested simultaneously.
The man's footsteps thudded across concrete flooring. His legs appeared, blocking half of Loki's light. Then his box lurched upright, sending Loki's weight slamming onto his cramping legs. "What are you doing?" he demanded, adjusting as best he could.
"Selling you," the man answered, beginning to drag Loki's box across the floor. "You two are worth a looooot of money."
Loki heard Lotor started banging on his box, and he did the same. But he didn't have the room to maneuver, didn't have the power to force anything open. I shouldn't have been talking to Lotor. We wasted all that time-
Across the room, a door banged open. "Drop the box."
"Val," Loki breathed in relief.
"Why should I?" the captor sneered.
"Because I just got this knife, and I'd hate to christen it on the likes of you."
In a heartbeat, Loki's box slammed into the ground. His head smacked against it, stars bursting across his vision as he gasped. Then someone was tearing the lid off, a mere silhouette as light flooded back into his world. Despite the pain and dizziness, Loki bolted upright, welcoming the openness with eyes closed in bliss.
"Hey," Val greeted softly, running her fingers through his hair as she kissed his cheek. "Hey, are you ok?"
"Get me out of these and I will be," Loki rasped, opening his eyes. She nodded, turning back to where another woman had their captor unconscious and tied up.
"Where are the keys?"
"Here," she responded, tugging them from his belt and tossing them to Val. As Val worked to free Loki, she ran to Lotor's box, pulling him out of it and into a tight hug.
Loki's cuffs snapped open and he surged out of the box, turning to bury his face in Val's shoulder. She rubbed his back soothingly. "Your present came in handy."
"Do you like it?" he mumbled, looking up at her.
"I love it," she promised, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "But maybe next time, come inside with me to get it."
"I can do that," Loki agreed. "I can definitely do that."
-MCU-VLD-
After dropping off the criminal at the nearest police station, the foursome walked to the edge of the city together. Lotor leaned heavily on Allura, needing her support as he convinced his legs to work again, but Loki leaned on Val mostly because she wouldn't let go of him. She could still feel his pulse pounding against the edge of her palm, his grip on her almost painfully tight.
"Well, this is our ride," Allura said, finally stopping.
Val looked up, her jaw dropping open. "You… your ship is a lion?"
Allura grinned. "Yes, yes she is."
She turned to face Val. "Thank you, Valkyrie, for helping me find him."
"Any time," Val said, smiling. "Thanks for your help. You too, Lotor," she added, squeezing Loki's hand as she remembered his account of their time in the boxes. "For keeping him calm."
Lotor dipped his head. "It was my pleasure. I think."
"It will never be necessary again," Loki stated, a faint smirk flashing across his expression. But there was warmth beneath the words, a warmth Lotor recognized with an eye roll.
Allura shook her head in exasperation. "Well, we must go. If you ever need anything-"
"Same goes for you," Val said. "Keep your Lok- Lotor in line, eh?"
Allura chuckled while Lotor spluttered. "You too, Valkyrie. Goodbye!"
"I do not need-" Loki started protesting as the lion took off, soaring into the Xandarian sky.
"Yes, you do," Val stated. "Now, let's go back to the hotel. I think we've had more than enough excitement for one day."
"Agreed."