Title: Little White Lie
Characters: Loki, Thor
Pairings: none yet, but stay tuned.
Rating: T for imagery and themes
Summary: Deceit, after all, comes naturally to him.
Author's Notes: Different universe from all of my previous fanfictions. I am taking a different look at the ending to the film Thor.Please excuse me for any mistakes I make against comic book canon; I am not very well-versed in that (mythology and the film are more my forte). There may be a certain pairing at some point, but I promise no OC's, and that pairing will not arise until later. All chapter titles are taken from the Poetic Edda, a collection of Norse mythologic poems. Please read and review!
Disclaimer: I don't own it. Surprise, surprise.

It's kind of scary, Loki thinks, to have this much power.

He sits here, on the throne upon which Odin, the All Father, once sat. And though Odin is not his father, Loki still holds a certain reverence for him. After all, the god did raise him and care for him and give him a home and a place in the wide universe. There was little better that Odin could have done to provide for his adopted son. Of course, he could have told him the truth. And Loki finds that he hates Odin for lying to him all those years, for telling him that he was a god of Asgard yet treating him as always less than the other gods of Asgard, least of all Thor.

Thor. Oh, the foolish, idiotic Thor. Only Thor could have gotten the bright idea in his head to go cavorting off to Jotunheim to murder a couple of Frost Giants. Then again, it was mostly due to Loki that he even felt the need to travel to that frigid land in the first place. But Loki refuses to take any of the credit for such an expedition. He is the king, now. And a king is always right. Absolutely, gloriously right.

He fears, though, that Thor will return to Asgard by some strange means. So he has done all that he can to obliterate all possible pathways into Asgard. Loki has already frozen Heimdall, literally. All of the guards, whether they like it or not, must obey their new king. Frigga positively adores Loki and all that he does. The Destroyer is ready at his beck and call, should he require brute force to prevent his false-brother's reentry into Asgard.

But he does fear Thor's imminent return, and he does not doubt that the god will find some way, somehow, back into Asgard. Thor is far too headstrong to let banishment, even by the All Father himself, get in his way when he wants something. And Loki fears that what Thor wants most is to murder him.

So Loki decides to visit Midgard, and he dresses in a suit, wool coat, and grey scarf for the occasion. He uses the simplest of spells – an invisibility incantation – to disguise his entry into the compound that the mortals have built around the fallen Mjolnir. He waits patiently until Agent Phil Coulson, a name that he gathered from the talk within the compound, exits the room in which Thor, no more than a mortal himself now, is being held. And then he slips in, the mirrored glass door sliding closed with a soft bang behind him.

He spins the lies, twists the truth as only he, god of mischief and lies, can do. He tells Thor that their father (and his mouth burns to call the All Father his own father) is dead, and that there is nothing that he, despite his new role as king of all of Asgard, can do to exculpate Thor of his crimes. He tells Thor that this is the last time that they will ever meet, but something inside him actually hopes to see Thor again, eventually. The two grew up together as brothers, even if Loki now knows that they are not, in fact, brothers.

And he leaves, then, but not before trying to pull Mjolnir from the stone in which it is lodged. He is angry at first that he cannot do this task, but then he thinks that neither can Thor, and perhaps it is better that way. Like the throne of Asgard, Mjolnir holds a lot of power. And perhaps one person should not hold both at the same time.

He arrives back in Asgard, and then it is full speed ahead. He sets the Destroyer against Thor, because for once his not-brother has found a way back to Asgard, and he must stop him. Power is power, and for now, that power is his. He would like it to remain his for as long as possible. He will start with forever and go from there.

And then, when he realizes that Thor beats the Destroyer and that he will probably be calling for Heimdall soon, he starts to think about what could happen when Thor does get to Asgard. Because now it is not an 'if'; it is now a 'when.' He figures that Thor could kill him; after all, Thor is infinitely stronger than he is. Thor could easily hit him with the hammer and a couple of punches, and then it would be bye-bye to the not-god with the tongue of silver. Of course, Loki would try to fight back, but magic, like everything else, has its limits.

Or, perhaps, he could stage his own death, he realizes. Because what if he could make Thor and all the rest of the Aesir think him to be dead? They would all forget about him eventually. Though, he supposes that Frigga, like all mothers with dead sons, would mourn him forever. He would make sure to visit her once or twice, demand her silence, and assuage her concerns. He might be cruel and cold and a liar, but he is not heartless.

This will be his course of action, he decides. Deceit, after all, comes naturally to him. This folly will be rather simple to execute.

He visits Midgard again and leases out a comfortable apartment in New York City. It has two bedrooms, though he really only needs one, a kitchen, a sitting room, and a bathroom. It costs him an awful lot of money, but he can simply magick money into his hands, so that will not be much of an issue. He paints all of the walls a luminescent green, and he buys green sheets for his bedroom. He converts the other bedroom into a study of sorts, and he buys one of those Midgardian computers from a blue-and-yellow Best Buy store. He then spends the entire rest of the day learning how to use the computer. He also visits a few select designer boutiques and buys himself a brand-new wardrobe, in brilliant greys, blacks, golds, and greens. Being in New York City, he just has to look his best.

With all of that set up, he returns to Asgard. His heart flutters with anticipation, and he surprises himself with his excitement for his new life on Midgard.

So when Thor comes to Asgard again, wielding that archetypal hammer, Loki is ready. He puts up a good fight, because Thor expects him to, and Loki has wanted to try out some techniques with Gungnir, the spear that the All Father once carried, for ages anyway. The two once-brothers fall upon the Rainbow Bridge and Loki works his magic as he always does. He lets Thor believe that he is the bad guy, and such an appellation is not exactly unfashionable on him.

And then Thor does the unexpected: he tries to break the Rainbow Bridge. Loki yells at him to stop, because then he will never again see that mortal woman that he met on Midgard. And travelling by Bifrost is a whole lot easier than using one of his secret pathways to travel between the realms. His magic is already almost depleted; he wonders if he will even have enough to make it to his apartment on Midgard.

So he tries to stop Thor before all hope is lost. Vaulting at his not-brother, Loki falls into the sea that separates the Bifrost from Asgard proper, Thor falling with him. But Thor catches on to Gungnir, and so does Loki. And then Odin catches on to Thor.

The two false-brothers, brothers in every way but in blood, hang suspended in time in space. Loki's cape swirls disturbingly around his legs, the wind whipping his black hair tight across his face. And then he pleads to the All Father, playing his role perfectly, acting just as they will expect him to act.

And then he lets himself fall, fall, fall down to Midgard, down to the place that he shall now call home.

To be continued…