SPOILERS - THIS TAKES PLACE AT THE END OF THE AVENGERS STOP NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS.
Important authors note: Loki x Darcy. Greetings readers. This is a sequel to Things Left Unsaid, an unfinished Thor fanfic. You can go back and read it (although I find the writing a little shaky, and it finishes by tapering off into this fic) or you can read by abridged version of what you need to know, which is as follows: Loki and Darcy have feelings, Loki is tortured by Jotunns, Darcy gets upset because Loki is traumatized, and Loki snaps out of it and says sorry and they spend a night together on Christmas Eve. In the morning Loki says he has to go (even though he told her he would stay!) and Darcy never sees him again. This fic leaves a gap in time (probably about a year?) and picks up right at the end of The Avengers, which you have now undoubtably seen. Enjoy?
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Murmurs on Heartstrings
a sequel to
Things Left Unsaid
Prologue: Ripples
By: Thessaly Corgin
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He felt a ripple through his body as they left Earth behind, and although his brother was standing beside him Loki had never felt so alone in his life. Silence hung beside them, the things left unsaid weighing down his every thought, and for the first time since he had left Darcy, Loki was unable to think. The expanse of the cosmos spread before the pair, and without hesitation Thor unchained Loki and freed him of the dreaded apparatus on this face. It was obviously time to talk.
"I'm disappointed. You upset a lot of people."
Thor's words were condescending and blunt, the simplicity of the statement stinging Loki's already crumbling pride. He'd basically destroyed the capital city of the world, and all Thor could say of it was that he had 'upset' people.
"I did a fair measure more than that, brother. You must at least give me some credit."
No emotion flashed across Thor's face as he looked at Loki from the corner of his eye, and his expression remained that of a disappointed parent.
"I can't comprehend why you would want any credit for what you've done - if that's how you feel I should have just left you on Earth with Nick Fury. In Asgarde you will learn to live again as a god, not some piece of scum who needs the satisfaction of ruling a weaker race. I feel you would be better use among friends."
Loki wasn't sure what bothered him more: his brother's immaculate composure, or the fact that he was being treated like a mindless dog to be reprimanded. Still, he couldn't help but notice that Thor seemed to have another option in mind.
"There are no friends left for me in Asgarde, I saw it on their faces as I sat upon my throne. You know that the only thing left in anyone's heart for me is pure animosity... they think I'm a monster."
"You are a monster, Loki, and that's why you need help. We can still work together."
Loki couldn't believe that after everything - the death, destruction, betrayal - Thor still believed that they could ever work together. Thor cracked his composure for the first time, giving Loki a saddened smile.
"I knew you went to Earth after you fell. I know that you developed lasting relationships with people - with her - and I know that you gave it all up in search of some greater power. I saw who you became, Loki. I saw not a god - a man - who wasn't afraid to say he was sorry or admit his flaws or fight for someone."
"YOU SAW NOTHING."
Loki snapped, feeling the power flowing through his fingers and his eyes blazing. Thor didn't reach for Mjolnir or move, instead holding Loki's gaze strong. Loki relaxed after a few moments.
"I fought for her and I gave her up. I found something I wanted more - something that the Jotunn's felt when they tortured me in those mountains. Pure and raw power. It's something you could never understand - the feeling of towering over a puny soul who hardly had the courage to quake in their boots. The feeling of a real king."
As the last words left his mouth Loki couldn't help but feel a wave of inadequacy wash over him. Thor's eyes were grey and cold, the lines of his face more pronounced - as if his once ageless body had finally started to grow old while Loki stayed young and foolish.
Thor's response was simple: "You have never known what it feels like to be a real king... but you have known what it feels like to be a real man, and that's something I will never have."
Asgarde spilled out in front of them like a fortress - golden spires and rivers reaching up and rolling forth from behind the tall, gleaming gates. Loki clenched his hand for a second as he was filled with a sense of homesickness; he could almost taste the wine. Thor took a deep breath.
"And now, brother... I'm giving you a chance you don't at all deserve. You come back with me now - you come home... or you go back to Earth and live as a man."
"A... man?"
"It's a privilege you don't even come close to deserving... but I think it's also a suitable punishment: making you live as a weak ant you once tried to step on. It's your choice."
"My choice..."
Loki echoed. All he could think about was his year prior to his desperate struggle for power and the time he had spent in that little facility in New Mexico. He could still almost feel the chilled nights and the hot breath and the musty smell of the old library he had helped organize. He remembered his drifting eyes and the way his hands strayed to her, the feeling of a piece of long brown hair around his finger. He could still smell her perfume, and see her face crumble in sorrow as he left her that night, leaving her with only a playful smile to imply that he would one day return.
He'd watched her for weeks and weeks as she floated around like a ghost, packing away her apartment and office as the New Mexico S.H.I.E.L.D facility was shut down and Erik Selvig was moved into a higher security clearance area. She returned to New York, she went back to school, she waited tables and practiced politics and fell asleep on the small desk in her shoebox apartment crying and wondering why she couldn't fill the gap in her heart.
"I... I don't know if I could..."
"You broke her, Loki. You told her that you would stay, that you were sorry, and you left before the rise of the sun that Christmas morning. I've made my choice: you can live knowing what you've done to her, and knowing that you've caused damage to a planet that no one will ever repair - you've caused tremors than have rippled into the lives of every human. Nothing will ever be the same, and you can experience that first hand."
The sky went black.
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Before Loki could comprehend the choice his brother had made for him, he found himself on a street littered with crumbled buildings, a briefcase in his hand. His back ached and his fingernails felt split, and for the first time in his life he thought he might have been sweating.
Without taking time to think, analyze or find himself a way out of his foreign situation, Loki took his first step onto the streets of his recently destroyed Manhattan and started his life as a freshly broken man.
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A/N: Hope it wasn't too brief, I just wanted to start writing the real stuff and get the "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING out of the way.