A/N: Hello everybody, here I come with this human Thor/Loki AU. It's already finished and I will be posting chapters swiftly, so enjoy.

Chapters: 6 + epilogue

Rating: M (warning perhaps for vaguely aged teenagers fooling around and of course pseudo-incest.)

Wordcount: 28,5k

Genre: human AU, horror, paranormal, occasional fluff and crack thrown in

A figure glided silently through the darkened halls, never stopping, roaming without a purpose. The house was quiet and motionless, the few sleeping inhabitants lost to the world, unaware of the presence that slipped through the air. Not even the sharpest instinct would be roused. The figure was moving slowly, softly, free of urgency or desire. It held little memory in its heart and peace was almost at its grasp. Soon. It would happen soon.

Thor was really trying to act maturely, but at the sight of countryside passing by in a wet, grey smudge, he couldn't suppress his anger. Heavy rain was falling, trickling down the car window and he curled towards it to watch the drops, turning his back on the rest of the limo.

His father gave up on talking to him a while ago.

It's not like there was anything new to say.

On some level, Thor understands. He knows that life doesn't end after 30. He knows that everyone needs connection and love. He knows that his father deserves to be happy, deserves to have something else in his life than work and a son that is all but ready to fly from the nest and be on his own. But knowing all this doesn't make it easier to swallow. Thor misses his mother greatly, even if he was very young when she died, and he cannot imagine another woman taking her place. He has to try and think about his father as a man, not just... well, his father.

But knowing all this couldn't erase the fact that Thor's life was changing in ways in found hard to swallow. Apparently, he was acquiring a brother. It seemed fine at first. So Laufey had a son his age. This didn't bother Thor, as they wouldn't even be living together. Odin owned a house and an apartment in London and Thor had been more or less living in the latter on his own for the past year, not counting some weekends and holidays, as it was much closer to downtown and his school. Laufey and her son would move into the house and Thor didn't need to be there more often than he ever was.

This arrangement would however only come to be in September. And now, at the end of June, he was being dropped of at a country house near Keswick, the preferred summer home of his new step-mother and step-brother.

Odin and Laufey would then leave for nine entire weeks of honeymoon, leaving their offspring to their own devices. In the middle of nowhere. In an old, huge, stupid mansion that was two hours away from any resemblance of civilization.

Thor had exploded when his father first told him of this plan.

"You can't be serious! I am seventeen! I can be alone just fine!"

"That doesn't mean you should be," Odin explained patiently.

"So what, you want to drag me away from my life here, from my friends? For what? Some brat that I am now supposed to call brother?"

"Loki lives at the Grey Rose Cottage for most of the year and if another boy of your age can survive it there, so can you. Laufey and I really want to go on this trip but... what you must understand, Thor, is that... I am trying to build a family here. We cannot just be strangers who share a name."

It didn't stop Thor's protests, but it took away some of the fire and soon he was beaten.

The last part of the ride was aggravating. The limo was moving painfully slowly on the narrow roads once they left the main communications and got closer on their destination.

"We could have been there already if we took the BMW. Who are you trying to impress?" Thor broke the silence and grumbled as they moved at a snail pace through a particularly curving section of a road. The vegetation around was thick and gloomy.

"It was a six hour ride. Forgive me if I wish to stretch my legs and get away from your constant pouting."

Thor ignored that and pouted some more, mapping the drenched forest ground with his eyes.

After a particularly sharp turn, Thor was jerked from his musings by his first view of the infamous Grey Rose Cottage. An alley of tall trees guarded a long, perfectly straight roadway of white pebbles, ending in a small half circle in front of the main entrance. Where the road was clean cut and modernly elegant, the house itself was massive and imposing. It was not hard to guess the origins of its name. It was made of grey stone and there were prominent rose emblems.

"The original house was built during the reign of Henry VIII," noted Odin in his lecture voice. "But otherwise it's mostly Edwardian."

Thor nodded, speechless. He supposed it wasn't really too different from what he was led to expect, but seeing the house for the first time, it fully fell on him that he was about to spend the next two months here. In a house that scared him on first sight.

There was really no other word for it even if Thor would rather bite off his tongue than to admit it. The house was like a dark cloud – the woods surrounding it, even the premises were all bright, green, reflecting the grey light of an overcast day, but the house itself was like a wormhole, swallowing all light, standing proud and tall and menacing. It had a wide front and two wings that went out back. It seemed that there were at least three stories and a little attic or almost a tower on the left side, throwing the symmetry off.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Sure. I wonder when do we get to meet the ghost of Jane Austen."

Thor was spared his father's answer by John, their driver, opening the door. He held out an umbrella for his father and Thor scrambled after them, trying not to get too wet. Rushing from the rain, he almost missed the experience of passing huge gargoyles that guarded the flight of stairs leading to the main entrance. At the last moment, he glanced to the side and his stomach fell as he felt like the stone eyes were following him.

He was being ridiculous.

Their arrival was noted and the door opened before John could reach the bell. They were ushered inside by a small, smiling white-haired woman in an actual staff uniform. Thor liked her immediately, but had to resist rolling his eyes at the pomp. They passed through the hall, a slightly dim room laid in with wood and several coats of arms hanging on the walls. Laufey was waiting for them in what the butler called a drawing room. More creepiness.

Thor had met Laufey before. She was a beautiful woman in her fifties, with dark her cut into a perfect mikado, slender and petite. Today she was wearing an elegant suit with pants and high heels that added to her height and allowed her to reach Odin more easily as she kissed his cheek.

"Darling, I'm so glad you are finally here. How was the journey?"

"It was just fine, dear."

Despite obviously setting the rules for the house, Laufey herself was acting with genuine, warm interest, not stuffy etiquette and Thor wondered why she even bothered with keeping the house as it was in the first place.

"And you have met Julia, of course," Laufey gestured to the closed doors leading from the hall where they left the butler. "Thor, I hope you will get along with her. I'm sure she will do everything to help you with your stay here, but what can I say... the woman rules with a steel hand."

"She seemed very nice," Thor replied politely and Laufey beamed at him. He didn't know what was Laufey's true opinion of him and he was still forming his final judgement of her.

Julia came with a tray of tea a few minutes later and they sat down. Thor was just reaching for a rather delicious looking butter biscuit when the door opened once more and a boy strolled in.

Loki looked quite a lot like his mother, although he was tall as well as thin. Mop of black hair was falling into his eyes and going past his collar in the back. As if his skin wasn't pale enough, he set it off with a plain black t-shirt.

"Oh there you are, dear," smiled Laufey and Odin got up, shaking Loki's hand. Thor couldn't help but be impressed with the stony, challenging look that Loki gave his father. Not many people could do that. Odin and Loki had met before, so all that was left was the introduction of the two of them.

He got up and Odin clasped him over the shoulders, a gesture he hardly ever used. "Loki, I would like you to meet my son, Thor."

It appeared that Thor didn't merit the force of Loki's glare as the other boy simply said hello in a pleasant enough tone and then they were done, sitting back down to finish tea.

Odin and Laufey were going to leave the next day and board a plane to Maui, where they would get married in a simple ceremony on the beach, just the two of them and the necessary witnesses. When Thor first heard that plan, he gaped openly, wondering what kind of woman Laufey could possibly be to convince his father to do something like that. Seeing the house they were in, dark and stuffy and filled with the burden of centuries of history, he could understand a little better. Everybody would long for a change from that.

The tea wasn't exactly a torturous experience, but it wasn't Thor's idea of fun either and he was rather glad when it was over. A small tour of the house was coming up next and he was both eager to learn what to expect and strangely reluctant. The entire house seemed to be perpetrated by soft odours – wood, old fur, paint, dried flowers and it made for a curious mixture that would take some getting used to.

He was handed over to the care of Loki and Julia and they left Odin and Laufey behind in a soft, but excited conversation and Thor was once again reminded of just how much this marriage meant to his father.

The house was a never-ending maze of private rooms and drawing rooms and there seemed to be a direct correlation between story number and creepiness of its halls. They started out at the ground floor and there was a kitchen, tucked away in the far side and perfectly modern, except for several antique cupboards, left there probably to fit in better with the rest of the house. The dining room was impressive, with high ceiling, and as wide as the entire wing, with a long table that could host at least thirty people and with beautiful tall windows that faced a tidy garden on one side and a hilly field slowly turning into the woods that surrounded the entire place on the other. When Loki announced that next was the ball room, Thor had to bite his tongue to keep a snort in. Odin had said that Loki was "surviving" his stay at the Cottage, but from what Thor saw so far, Loki loved the house and despite being generally good in nature, Thor couldn't stop a small part of him from judging that and feeling slightly suspicious of what his new brother's temper might be. When Thor said he liked the city, he didn't do so with the allure of the concrete jungle on his mind or even the comfort of urban civilization (though that played a part as well), he meant the people and the possibilities. Thor was almost never alone and he liked it that way. His friends from school, from his swimming team, children of his father's acquaintances that he was always required to meet and sometimes even miraculously befriended were a constant presence in his life, someone to share interests with, to laugh with. And so he couldn't imagine why anyone would exchange all that for living in a house that was, figuratively speaking, filled with nothing but ghosts.

Thor was deep in thought as they ascended the first flight of stairs, reaching the second floor. The hall was almost narrow considering the other proportions of the house, carpeted in deep burgundy and it spread out into both directions with lines of identical doors. The smell of wood and fur was stronger here.

Loki smirked at him. "I would suggest counting off the doors until you get to the right one. You don't want to get lost here. One of the bedrooms is haunted."

"Oh shush," Julia scolded him. "Don't listen to him, mister Thor, it's just child stories."

"I don't doubt it," laughed Thor, but it came out a little awkwardly and he could swear he saw Loki's eyes flash in victory. He was seriously considering not liking the boy.

"Here, this is the bedroom we have prepared for you."

She led them through the hall to the left side, taking a turn when the wing started. Thor's room was almost at the end.

"Well, that's easy. Too bad that the haunted bedroom is the last one, there." Loki pointed to the only door left between Thor's new bedroom and the window at the end of the hall.

Julia sighed loudly, appearing quite cross.

"That's just a door leading to your washing room. It's usually locked as you have your own entrance."

He had the feeling that Loki meant to add something else to that, but he was cut short by Julia's warning look and so he just smiled widely and waited as Thor took a peek into his room before they could continue. After seeing the modern kitchen, a hope bloomed in Thor that more of the rooms hid completely renovated interiors behind their old doors but that hope was cut short after the first look into his new bedroom. It was covered in carpets (tapestries, he told himself) from floor to ceiling, alternating between hues of dark blue, aquamarine green and pale gold. The furniture was all from dark, heavily carved wood. There was desk, a commode, a window seat with something akin to a coffee table and a bed with actual canopies.

The rest of the tour was a blur of stairs, locked doors, antiquities, local trivia and eventually, as they got to the last floor, a lot of dust. Julia made an apologetic face at him when he sneezed as the three of them looked out of a window, with panels of glass so small and thin they must have been there for centuries.

"It's a big house and we can only take care of the living quarters... we clean the rest twice a year, but still..." she sighed. "It's a shame it's in such a bad shape."

The view was impressive. The rain made the visibility bad, but they were pretty high up and Thor looked over the deep green hills, beautiful garden (the main one, apparently) with a little pond and told himself that he could understand the appeal. Perhaps in time he would grow to feel it too.

Dinner was early as Odin and Laufey would be leaving very soon the next morning. Thor walked down from his room feeling a little confused until he heard footsteps and turned around. Loki was bouncing down the stairs, coming from the other wing of Thor's floor. He was wearing a dark suit pants and a white shirt, rolled to his elbows. He was even wearing dress shoes. Thor stared at him in disbelief. He himself was in old jeans and a t-shirt.

"Is this what you do here all the time? Play dress up?" he winced the moment the words left his lips. He shouldn't be starting unnecessary trouble. But Loki just laughed, stepping from the steps and reaching Thor, gesturing in the right direction.

"Just wait for the looks Julia and Stuart will give you."

"Who's Stuart?" Thor asked, hurrying after Loki.

"Our ghost," Loki answered nonchalantly and Thor looked at him sharply. Loki's face was blank, turning to look at Thor with an expression of polite interest.

"Funny," murmured Thor.

It turned out Stuart was Julia's son-in-law. Her daughter, Molly, was the cook here and her husband took care of the property.

"So, Thor," Laufey turned to him between bites of stuffed chicken. "I hear your swimming team was doing well last year."

"Yes, it was. We've managed to score some great times and won quite a lot."

"That's great to hear. Anyway, there is a lake nearby. It's small but very clean and easy to get into when you know where to look. You might consider training there a bit. Loki can take you, he knows the way well."

And with that, she turned a sharp look to her son who reached for a glass and took a long drink of his juice before responding.

"Of course. Should be fun."

Laufey's sharp gaze left Loki and moved onto Thor. He gulped.

"That would be amazing, yeah."

Satisfied, Laufey turned to Odin again and they started speaking about some mutual friend of theirs, leaving Thor and Loki to focus on their meals. Halfway through the dessert, Thor caught Loki smirking at him.

"What?" he asked quietly. Loki shrugged, popping a last bit of cake into his mouth.

"Nothing. It's full moon. I hope you enjoy your first night here."

It wasn't even true. Thor stood by the window in his room, looking out at the slim silver sickle on the sky, occasionally losing sights of it when the clouds, a remainder of that day's rain, covered it. With a sigh, he shook his head, feeling annoyed and oddly disappointed and climbed into bed, reaching to click off the old bedside light. The room went completely dark except for the eerie cold light from the moon and stars, but even that was very weak. Definitely not the orange glow of street lamps he was used to.

Hours later, his eyes snapped open into the same darkness, his heart pounding. His mind was blank of all thoughts, but his body was betraying his fear. Something startled him in his sleep. He laid there on his back, breathing and listening intently. For minutes, there was nothing, only maybe the tiniest creak of plumbing and a hoot of an owl, far in the distance. Then his heartbeat was settled, the uncomfortable twitching of blood in his veins gone as well and he closed his eyes, ready to forget this and sleep.

Whoosh.

It sounded almost like a car passing by rapidly, or perhaps a fan turned on and off. Thor sat up, staring. The sound was coming from the hall. Seconds tickled by, counted by his heartbeat.

Whoosh.

The same sound, louder than before. Thor swallowed, feeling blindly for the light to his right. He reached it just in time to see the doors to his room literally rattle in their hinges, followed by the sound of rushing air again.

He spent the next ten minutes sitting on the bed, staring at the old wallpaper, now safely illuminated by his lamp and contemplating what the hell had just happened. Loki's smirks and comments kept making their way to the front of his mind even as he fought against them.

"It was a draft," he murmured to himself finally. "Crazy old house."

Feeling as if he had something to prove, he got up, not entirely happy to leave the bed and grabbed the doorknob, determined to check the hallway and confirm that nothing was there.

The door was locked.

At first, he just frowned and tried pulling instead of pushing. It didn't help. Then he pressed the knob more forcefully, wiggling it in all directions. It didn't give in either.

He was never going to admit to this, but when yet another whoosh passed through the hall, sounding as if something rapidly moving was only inches away from his face, he jumped back and fell right on his ass, scrambling away until he was on the bed again.

He wasn't sure how long was he awake and when exhaustion won over fear, but he woke up to weak sunshine tickling his nose and he sat up hurriedly, looking around his room. Everything looked perfectly innocent in the light of the day and he quickly strode to the door, trying the knob again. It gave in without a glitch. He was about to crouch down and examine the lock mechanism for any rational explanation when Loki appeared on the hallway, crunching an apple. Thor straightened hastily and cleared his throat.

"Morning," said Loki in between bites.

"Good morning."

"Looking for something?"

"Not really. I just woke."

"I can see that."

Thor realized he was only in his pyjama bottoms, hair sticking in all directions.

"Uhm, is my father... I mean, are they gone?"

"Yeah," Loki nodded. "They left at six sharp."

"Okay... and now it's...?" he trailed off.

"Almost eleven. And I'm pretty sure you have a clock in your room. And I'm pretty sure Julia will kill you for sleeping that late. She prepared breakfast, you know. But don't worry, I tried to help you out and ate it all so she wouldn't be too cross. See you around."

With this speech, Loki turned on his heel with a smirk and strolled away, leaving Thor standing there with an expression of disbelief. What a little snake. Couldn't he at least try to be nice?

With way too much on his mind, Thor washed up and dressed quickly, deciding that getting out of his room and possibly from the house was essential for his mental health. He was surprised to find that Julia was in fact nowhere to be found. When he went into the kitchen, he met the cook, Molly, who smiled at him and told him that she would be cooking dinners for him and Loki six days in a week and the rest of the time, he was free to eat or cook anything he wanted, unless she was there and would rather make him something herself. A local radio was playing happy tunes in the corner and Thor's ideas of pseudo-royal treatment were disappearing, to his immense relief. It also seemed he would be wise to refrain from listening to Loki again.

He might have been right about the ghost, though, an annoying voice in his head reminded him.

Two days later, he still didn't know what occupied his step-brother's (now officially – Odin and Laufey had sent him a photo of themselves smiling and waving from the beach ceremony) time. They barely saw each other and Thor didn't really mind, making the most of a nice weather and spending long hours at a nice garden sitting, with comfortable chairs and an apple tree providing shade in the rare moments of sunlight. He made a considerable dent in the books he brought with (he probably read more in those two days than in the last six months) and was casually toying with the idea of catching a ride with Stuart to town sometime soon and getting more. There was a library of course, a huge room filled with books up to the ceiling, but the newest tome was from about 1920.

This pleasant downtime didn't last long. The rain was back with vengeance after only three days and Thor dragged his feet up the stairs one afternoon, having just killed some time with helping Molly bake, but still feeling restless. Reaching the top, he hesitantly looked to the right wing, where Loki's room was, weighing if he was desperate enough to seek his company. In the end, he went to his own room, only to find out that decision was out of his hands.

Loki was sprawled on his bed on his back, one of Thor's fantasy paperbacks in hands, squinting at it as he held it above him. He didn't even blink when Thor entered and closed the door.

"Oh look. The prince of the manor," threw Thor at him sarcastically. "Crawled out of your tower?"

Loki clucked his tongue disapprovingly, tossing the book aside and rolled onto his stomach, looking up at Thor.

"It speaks. Good. Now some manners and you will be tolerable."

"Says the guy who just crawled into my bed without asking."

Loki's eyebrows flew high and his mouth contorted as he tried to suppress a laugh. Thor could feel warmth on his face.

"Yeah, yeah... funny. Not what I meant," he grumbled and sat down at the old armchair, stretching out his legs.

"Of course not. We're brothers now, didn't you hear?"

Thor rolled his eyes. "What do you want? Ready to admit you are bored out of your mind in this place?"

"I can assure you I've done well enough without your presence. But yes, seeing as you are already here... Come on."

Thor suspiciously followed Loki who bounced off his bed and was out of the doors in seconds.

"Where are we going?"

"My room," Loki threw over his shoulder, not checking if Thor was coming.

"Why? To have a better view of the rain?"

Loki laughed and opened his door with a dramatic gesture.

"I have a TV," he grinned. "Among other things."

Thor's mouth fell open and then he laughed, elbowing Loki. "You piece of shit."

Just like the kitchen, Loki's room was pretty modern. It was a double room, really, connected by an empty door frame. In the second room, Thor could just glimpse bed and some bookshelves, but the first room was furnished by a huge couch, desk with a computer, a cosy corner with beanbags and, most prominently, a large TV with several different game consoles under it.

Thor looked around, followed by smirking Loki. There was simple blue and grey wallpaper covering the walls and a plush carpet on the floor. Only the windows and the desk betrayed where this room was located.

"Wow. I officially take the title of prince away from you."

"Oh, please don't. I have appearances to maintain," Loki snickered and flopped on the couch.

"I noticed."

"Don't pout, city boy. You enjoyed a few days of sun and fresh air. Now welcome to my den of decadent entertainment."

A few hours later, Thor had fully forgiven Loki for his behaviour in the previous days, whether it had come from being rusty in human interaction or the need for some fun. He could understand both after he witnessed Loki practically melt into a giddy boy as they raced, shot and fought each other on his playstation, shouting and laughing. It took hours until they were wrung out, fingers cramping from the joysticks, stomachs loudly reminding them it was time for dinner. They rushed down just as Molly was about to call them and wolfed down her pork pie and mashed potatoes. When they were done, Loki threw her an innocent look and stuck a bag of popcorn into the microwave. She only laughed at them before rummaging through a cupboard and throwing Thor a bag of sweets.

"Take some lemonade," she said.

Upstairs, Loki arranged their snacks and grabbed a remote before heading to one of his shelves.

"I don't know about you, but my reaction time is like five seconds off after that pie. Let's just watch a film."

Thor saw no issue with this and made himself comfortable on the couch, turning his attention fully to the action flick Loki picked. It was... nice. For the first time, he felt this might not be a total catastrophe. As the film ended, he was still in pretty good spirits, covered in bits of corn that Loki took to throwing at him.

"One more?" Loki asked.

"Sure," Thor grinned. "I have nowhere to be."

He let Loki pick again, taking the opportunity to steal the bag of sweets his new brother was hoarding and sprawled more comfortably.

The film started out with dark screen and slow, high pitched piano tones. Then the camera zoomed in on a dirty wooden floor covered with bits of torn, handwritten letter that were being blown away by soft wind.

"What kind of a movie is that?" Thor frowned.

"Oh, just something I've had for a while. It's a horror," Loki waved his hand dismissively and reached over to steal the bag back. Thor let him, sitting up.

Loki watched the screen for a while and then turned to Thor.

"What? Don't tell me you're scared."

"No! I just... sorry, but outside of your gamer cave, this is place is old and creepy."

A sly look appeared on Loki's face and he scooted closer to Thor.

"Wanna hold hands?"

"Ugh," Thor pushed him away, crossed his arms and turned his attention firmly to the TV.

It was not fun. As far as cinematography went, the film was actually excellent, which made it almost impossible for Thor to detach himself from the genuinely fear-inducing plot. At one point, he tried joking about it, only for the jape to fall flat and Loki shush him with a look of concentration, never looking away from the screen. So he gritted his teeth and watched. He shouldn't let this place turn him into a chicken.

"Cool movie," Loki yawned when the credits rolled.

"Hmm," Thor agreed, getting up and stretching. Something in his tone must have tipped Loki off and he smiled widely.

"Do you need me to walk you to your room? Aren't you afraid of this old and creepy haunted house?"

"Please," Thor scoffed, having had just enough of Loki's teasing. "As if I believe in that stuff."

"Oh yeah? Prove it. I dare you to go the the attic and bring down the creepiest thing you can find in there."

Thor groaned, suppressing the uncomfortable jump of his stomach. "Forget it."

"So you admit you are afraid."

"No, I am saying that this is bullshit."

"Okay, sure," Loki shrugged airily. "Be a coward."

"You really are a piece of shit, aren't you?"

Loki popped the last sweet in his mouth and stared at Thor unblinkingly in an obvious challenge.

Maybe it's for the best, Thor told himself. If he went up there and nothing happened, it would be easier to really believe that the weird events of his first night were completely rational and harmless. He didn't like having to look over his shoulder.

"Fine. Do you have a flash light?"

Loki vaulted of the couch in obvious surge of giddiness and quickly brought Thor a sturdy torch.

"I changed the batteries pretty recently. Sometimes the electricity gives out and we have to be prepared."

Thor took the thing and turned it on. It shone with intense light and the illuminated circle was quite wide.

He sighed. "The creepiest thing?"

"The creepiest thing."

He set out on the trek up two huge flight of stairs, then turned left to pass through a long halfway until he came upon, much smaller staircase that led to the attic. He congratulated himself on remembering the way. He didn't look left or right, keeping the circle of light firmly on the carpet in front of him. He didn't see or hear out of the ordinary, even as scenes from the film he had just seen kept flashing to the front of his mind. And if his heart was beating a bit quicker than usual, he attributed it to the stairs.

The door to the attic opened easily even as the hinges screeched. The attic wasn't completely dark - enough moonlight came through the windows. The air was smelling dry due to all the dust and there was a bit of mould in it too. He scrunched up his nose and made a circle with his flash light, looking around the carelessly strewn furniture. There was a cluttered desk on the far side of the room and he decided to start there, ready to just grab something and get out. Like hell he would dig through those shelves and closets.

There was a picture in a frame, very old, of a lady dressed in a long dress with a corset. He was no expert, but he thought it must have been at least 150 years old. She was dressed in black and had that weird expression that historical photographs often brought and so Thor shrugged and took it. There was a real possibility that he was just about to call Loki's great-great-great aunt or something the creepiest thing in the room, but the little fucker would just have to deal with it.

His flash light was pointed at the glass frame and the shine made his eyes completely blind to the rest of the room.

When it gave out without warning, he was left with the frame and the photograph still burning in his retinas.

The juicy curse he was about to mutter died in his throat when the door shut closed with a bang.