A/N So, I'm extremely fickle, falling in and out of love with fandoms at the drop of a hat, but hopefully, I'll be in this one for the long haul. This is my first foray into the world of Marvel's Thor and Avengers. I got the idea for this fic after seeing Thor the Dark World, and it takes place during the events of the movie (but doesn't really contain any spoilers for it). Hope you enjoy, and as always comments are much appreciated.

"Now that you are literally a captive audience, I thought I'd ask you some questions."

Loki couldn't help but chuckle listlessly at that statement, amusement the only barrier left to him. Of course, there was the physical barrier of his prison…but it was strange how he felt so exposed despite his being neatly locked away.

"Is that all you can do, Loki? Laugh? After everything you've done."

Thor leveled clear blue eyes on his brother, the weight of his stare making Loki shift almost imperceptibly with what he refused to admit was discomfort. Instead, he merely matched the glare evenly with his own poison-green eyes, his face a painstakingly crafted mask of bored indifference.

His only response was a slightly higher pitched cackle. He didn't want to dwell on the fact that nervous laughter had become something of a defense mechanism for him, nor would he ever admit such a thing to himself, let alone to (the oaf who claimed to be) his brother.

Thor's eyes turned hard and sharp, yet brittle like shards of delicate yet deadly ice as they studied Loki's unreadable expression. "Is everything so amusing?"

"Not so much amusing as…maddeningly boring." He graced Thor with his customary smirk, although it lacked his usual disdain. Perhaps his waning energy had something to do with the fact he was stuck in this dismal place. Yes, that had to be it. No other reason.

"What has happened to you, brother? Where is the boy who played with me? The man who fought alongside me?" Thor looked a Loki as if he barely recognized the figure before him, as if he hadn't spent the last several centuries by his side.

Loki paused a moment to remain disgusted that after all that had happened between them, the word "brother" still spilled from Thor's mouth with embarrassing ease. Just the sound of it falling from perfect Thor's lips made his blood boil.

"How utterly charming? Truly. Tell me, what is it you miss most about your dear little brother?" His smirk turned dark, belying his light, almost playful, tone.

"Enough games, Loki!" Thor thundered, banging his fist against the clear barrier wall between them, his face a study in righteous anger.

Loki smiled his wolfish, self-satisfied smile. Yes, he may be a prisoner, but at least he still had his favorite form of entertainment: infuriating the thick-headed god of thunder.

Something in his eyes must have shown just that for as quickly as Thor's temper had raged, it evaporated. Loki had no idea he could read him so well. That had to be remedied.

Thor sat back down heavily, eyes never leaving Loki's face. There was a look in Thor's eyes that was unreadable even to Loki's keen intellect, some emotion long lost to his rage.

For a long while they just sat in silence, gazes locked. Thor looked as if he were trying to see something beyond Loki, trying to peer into his heart and piece together his motivation.

"Why?"

It was a whisper, barely audible. The soft sound of the words was such a contrast to Thor's usual booming that it gave Loki pause. He surveyed the blond man over his book for several seconds before giving him a derisive snort.

"You'll have to be more specific." He sneered, turning his gaze back to the book in his lap, studiously ignoring the other man.

"You know of what I speak." There was a bite of impatience in Thor's voice as he spoke, and Loki couldn't keep his lips from twitching, threatening a smile.

"When will you learn not to ask question to which you don't really want the answer …?" His voice was equally quiet, a hiss, low and dangerous.

"Your words have no venom, brother. Not when you're trapped here."

"And who put me here? WHO!" He practically shrieked, rising to his feet, book falling from his grasp. He wished with all his heart that he could throttle the blond oaf.

"It was your own wickedness that led you here." He said calmly, unflinching in the face of Loki's impotent rage.

"Did you never think that I might not be solely to blame? Or do you honestly believe that yours and the Allfather's hands are completely clean in this?"

His barb had the desired effect. Thor blinked at him, eyes wide as his face fell. Loki smiled slyly, pressing his advantage.

"Oh, yes. There it is… the guilt. Tell me, what is it like to be so adored? To do no wrong in the eyes of your loving parents?"

Thor looked as if he were about to say something, but Loki cut him off, now jerkily pacing back and forth in agitation.

"I was cast out before I was old enough to crawl by those…things. Found by a man who teased me with just enough love so that I always craved more. A man who was ever so proud of his real son…and ever disappointed in me."

Thor looked at Loki passively for a long time, his brow furrowed, some other emotion Loki no longer recognized clouding his eyes. Was it pity?

"Perhaps you are right, and we did do wrong by you…but does that really justify your actions? Attempted genocide, the enslavement of the human race?" His voice was incredulous, eyes boring into Loki's as if willing him to see reason.

"What? Monsters and mortals? They are of no consequence. Merely a means to an end." He said this with deliberate nonchalance, idly wondering just how much Thor would allow him to push his buttons.

Something like recognition, understanding, flickered in Thor's eyes before he quickly banished it with it his usual righteous condemnation. If Loki were being honest with himself (and he never was), he'd say he much preferred Thor's disdain to his pity.

"Brother, see reason—"

"Oh, I see reason clearly enough to know that your brother was a lie!" He was starting to lose the reigns of his temper in the face of Thor's calm pleading. The word brother flowed so easily from his mouth that it rankled.

He was silent for a long moment before whispering, "Father always loved you, yet you convinced yourself otherwise."

"He disowned me! The last words he spoke to me were of condemnation! He swore I was no son of his! Have you any idea what it's like to be rejected by two fathers?"

Thor reeled back as if he'd been struck. He blinked stupidly at him while Loki looked on, pale faced and wild eyed.

"What…what did Father tell you… exactly?"

Loki scowled down at Thor then resumed his feverish pacing, volume increasing with each stride. "Oh, just his usual sweet words. He told me that my birthright was to die, alone on a frozen rock as an innocent babe, how I was ungrateful, how I'd never see Mo— the queen again." He mumbled the last words, stumbling over the word mother.

He came to a stop, suddenly aware that his breathing was heavy. He glared at Thor as if his sudden surge of anger was his fault. And it was…

"Brother…I…I am truly sorry." He did look genuinely pained as he stared up at him, his blue eyes large and earnest.

Loki curled his lip in disgust. "Keep your pity."

Thor looked taken aback then quickly schooled his features back into what Loki assumed he thought was an expressionless mask. Naturally, Thor failed miserably. His eyes gave him away. He'd yet to learn how to lie with them. You should leave deception to the experts, Thor, Loki thought idly.

"Loki, it's not too late for you to repent, for you to be free of this cell, for you to be my brother once more."

Laughter rang clear through the corridor, high pitched and with a slight edge of hysteria, reverberating off the walls. The guards came rushing into the corridor at the sound, but Thor shooed them away with an impatient wave of his hand, eyes searching Loki's face for something.

"What do I have to do to get you to give up on me? You're pathetic."

Loki contorted his features into a mask of rage and scorn even though, deep down, all he really felt was weary. And so empty.

Maybe something of his true thoughts showed through the cracks in his mask, for Thor smiled at him knowingly…an insufferable expression when on Thor.

"You may be the Liesmith, brother, but it would appear that your talent has deserted you in this instance."

Nostrils flared, the god of mischief rounded on Thor…as much as he could when trapped in a gilded cage. "And just what did I say that was a lie…?" He enunciated each word carefully, deliberately.

Thor considered him briefly before speaking, apparently unfazed by his anger. "It is my firm belief that you do care for your family…and that your actions were merely a cry for help."

Loki looked at him as if he'd grown an extra head. He opened his mouth several times to speak but promptly closed it at a loss for words. The sheer stupidity of that comment rankled.

"You are a fool." It was a whisper, quiet. Loki didn't meet Thor's eyes, instead turning his back, he grabbed the book from the floor where it had fallen. With it in hand, he settled down in the semi-comfortable chair near the back of his cell, and opened it with the full intention of ignoring Thor for the rest of his "visit."

"They say reading makes one more compassionate…" Thor offered half-heartedly in a weak attempt to steer the conversation elsewhere.

Loki only gave him an ironic look over the top of his book. "Obviously, that person was an overly optimistic idiot…not unlike yourself."

"Gallows humor, brother?"

Loki, never one to pass up an opportunity to harass Thor, seized his words with glee. "Ah, yes. Did you know were it not for M— Frigga I would have been executed on the spot? No trial, no chance for me to speak in my defense, no chance at redemption. Would you have avenged me, dear brother?"

Thor reeled, looking thunderstruck, his face seemingly crumpling in on itself. But Loki would give him no quarter.

"So you didn't know you were delivering your precious, lost, baby brother over to his would-be executioner. For shame, Odinsson."

"Enough of your manipulation!"

Yes, he was angry now. Loki smirked, magnifying his smug expression to further incense the god of tempers. He paused his constant page turning to consider Thor whose face was now flushed, a small vein throbbing in his forehead.

"You know, I rather like your delusion. The one where I'm some broken victim. Confused and misguided…Perhaps you'd like to plead my case to the Allfather?"

"But you would have me believe you are a victim. You said as much yourself, that night on the cliff and again just now. I was too upset to see it then but…you were right. Father and I have wronged you…perhaps beyond your ability to forgive."

Again Loki found himself staring at Thor incredulously, his mouth hanging open ever so slightly. Quickly snapping it shut with an audible click, he turned his attention fully on Thor, the book in his lap all but forgotten.

"You said they were imagined slights…" He managed to murmur, eyes boring into Thor as if wiling him to contradict himself.

"And that was cruel of me…I could tell my words pained you, but…you must know that I had no idea what you were going through. That you were lied to, that you resented me so, that you thought it was I who cast you from the Bifrost…" He looked so helpless as he rattled off all the reasons Loki felt so alone. Although he forgot the most important one. The one where he was a monster.

If it had been any other time, had he not gone through so much, he would have reveled in the sight of the mighty Thor appearing so forlorn.

"I knew you tried to save me that day on the bridge…the spear's power…clouded my mind." He didn't relish admitting it, but that wounded animal look in Thor's eyes never ceased to drain his venom. His anger he could handle, in fact he basked in it, but perhaps he'd never truly be able to forget what he and Thor once had and the actions remembrance inspired him to take.

Thor looked as if he were deep in thought. Wrinkles etched in his brow, and when he spoke it was slow, each word measured. "So…you were not in your right mind during the incident with the Tesseract?"

By way of answer, Loki returned to his book. He didn't like the direction in which this conversation was headed. More than that, he hated to appear weak or under any influence other than his own genius.

Much to his surprise and delight, Thor took the hint and did not continue down that line of questioning. Strange…

After many minutes passed in complete silence, Thor stood as if to leave, but before he did, he spoke. "You don't make it easy to love you, brother…but know that there are at least two in Asgard that still care for you despite your wretchedness."

Long fingered hands went back to flipping pages disinterestedly, and as Thor retreated, he failed to notice their hesitance.

With a deep frown, Loki whispered, "Sentiment."

A/N So, there you have it. I'd really appreciate any comments on this piece, especially if something in my characterization seems off. I have an idea for a long Loki-centric fic featuring the Avengers, so you can consider this a prologue of sorts. Thank you so much for reading!