The lights of Loki's bedchamber were off, but the strings of light draped haphazardly over their makeshift fort provided them with plenty of illumination. Thor and Loki sat very close, knees touching where their legs were crossed, whispering and laughing merrily. They leaned in, the distance between their heads almost non-existant, as they bowed under the slight pressure of the bed sheet walls of the fort.
Loki flinched suddenly, as something from outside the fort, but inside his bedroom fizzed and popped.
"What, what was that?" He stammered quietly, trembling. Thor looked at his brother, slightly amused, but concerned by his brother's obvious reaction to the noise. "Was it a frost giant?" He whispered, his eyes going wide in fear.
Thor smirked, "No. Frost giants dare not try to enter Asgard. Heimdall wouldn't open the bi frost to them if they begged him anyway."
"How old is Heimdall?" Loki asked suddenly, his brow wrinkling as he thought.
Thor pondered a while before answering truthfully. "I don't know. He has been standing guard for eons. Father said he was still sentry when he was our age."
Loki's eyes widened more, until Thor thought they would sure roll out of their sockets.
"But then he must be, um, he must be a trillion million years old!" Loki sputtered.
Thor erupted with laughter, laughing harder when he saw Loki's confused expression.
"I don't think he is as old as you say, brother-mine, but yes, surely he is much older than he-" Thor was cut off by another loud fizzing, popping noise. He saw his brother flinch again, and reached for his hand. It was cold.
"Are you scared, Loki?"
Loki's wide, frightened eyes met his own gaze. He nodded almost imperceptibly.
"Don't be. I will look after you. Always." Thor reassured him.
"But what is that noise?" He said, his voice hushed barely above a whisper.
Thor leaned to peek out of the flap for a door of the fort. He leaned back. "I don't know." He told his brother.
"Take the Mjolnir." Loki whispered, pushing the wooden toy replica of the hammer towards Thor.
"It's probably nothing. Just a candle dying." Thor said.
"Well go see." Loki insisted, dragging out the 'see' and nudging Thor out of the fort.
Thor was spat from the entrance of the fort, clutching the wooden Mjolnir in his hand. His first thought was of the darkness, and how it shrouded everything. He quickly made his way to his knees, and looked back at the safe glow of the fort Loki sat inside. He raised one hand up to rub his arm against the sudden cold.
He peered over both shoulders, before stepping further into the darkness of his brother's room. Hesitating for a good few seconds, he clenched his jaw and poked his head outside the door, looking both ways down the corridors. Nothing. Not a shadow, not a flicker of any movement at all. He scrunched his face up and backed up into the room again.
Breathing deeply, he padded softly over to the window, where the curtains billowed gently in a small breeze let in from a crack somewhere. He looked down into the grounds, and still nothing. Nothing in the sky, nothing on the balcony, nothing on the ground.
but then, what had made that sound? Thor's stomach tensed painfully, and in a rush of fear, pressed his back tight against the wall. His eyes darted frantically back and forth, scanning and searching the patronizingly normal room.
In the back of his mind, he heard Loki's whispered stories often shared before bed of rogue frost giants, evil gremlins, sinister elves and the occasional rabid ogre. Thor's face was pained with fear, his squinted eyes gleaming with unshed tears.
Suddenly, he felt a flush of shame. Pitiful. Crying over silly stories from a sillier child. He'd make a pathetic King to Asgard. He shrugged off his apprehension, blinked furiously and made himself march back over to the fort with forced confidence. He threw open the door-flap and made himself quite comfortable inside the small room made of draped bedsheets. He'd only sat for at most three seconds before he realized. The tent was empty. Loki's space was vacated, creased from his sitting there, but bare of presence.
"Loki?" His questioning tone was low. Foolishly, he batted a few cushions aside, as if looking for Loki under such a flattened surface would be beneficial.
"Loki?" He tested a little louder this time. He had a bad feeling. A sick, uneasy feeling in his gut. What if Loki's stories were true? What if it was a frost giant that got him? He crawled, hanging his head out the doorway.
He flinched as he saw a shadow slither in the darkness out of the corner of his eye. "Loki is that you?" He squinted, looking closer to the movement he saw on his right. Slowly searching the room, he swung his head over to the left, only to be faced with Loki's face twisted into a terrified and painful sneer, mere inches from his own face. His eyes were rolled until only the smallest sliver of his vivid green irises were shown. His mouth hung open, warped into an "O" of a silent scream.
Thor recoiled and screamed, falling back into the fort, lying on his back and his knees drawn up as he tried to shuffle from Loki's grimace.
He watched in horror as Loki's face relaxed and broke out into a joyous grin, laughing and taunting his older brother.
"I scared you! I scared the mighty Thor!" Loki laughed, each of his words jabbing Thor and nestling uncomfortably under Thor's ribs. Loki didn't seem to realize the depths of Thor's fear, and peals of his laughter rang and echoed around Thor's mind.
"Loki, that wasn't funny! I thought you were in trouble. I thought you were hurt!" Thor snapped, his voice choked on both scared and embarrassed emotion. He hoped at least it sounded as if he sounded more upset at the idea of Loki being hurt.
No such luck.
"You're so scared! You should have seen your face! You wanted to cry, didn't you Thor! Didn't you?" Thor lay back and huddled himself between the blankets and cushions, settling himself down to sleep. He hated how loud the thudding of his heart sounded to his own ears.
"Goodnight Loki." He said sullenly.
Loki crawled inside the tent, lying on his belly, head propped up by his arms. "You're not going to sleep are you Thor? It was still only a joke. Come on, don't be such a Maiden!"
"Goodnight, Loki." Thor repeated.
Loki sighed, "Look, I'm sorry OK? Come, on we're not done yet!"
"I'm going to sleep now Loki." Thor's reply was muffled from under the blankets.
"Fine." Loki mumbled in response. He lay down on cushions besides Thor, and settled himself under blankets. "Goodnight, Thor." He whispered over a yawn. His eyelids felt droopy and he relaxed into the welcoming arms of oblivion.