Hey! Guess what? I'm not dead!
Seriously though, my jobs are kicking my butt...

This is a sort of companion piece intertwined with Frost. I knew when I wrote Frost that I wanted this idea as part of the same universe. The events is this aren't specifically mentioned in Frost though, so each can be read as a stand alone if you prefer.
For background if you haven't read Frost (please do though) Loki, as a kid, has figured out he's different. He's only just figured out that different means frost giant though. He doesn't handle the implications well at first.

Blood Brothers

Rapid footstep approached Loki's hiding spot and he shrunk further into himself. He didn't want company presently, not knowing, as he did now, the truth of his origins. He held no luck as a shadow fell over him in his hiding spot.

"Loki! Here you are. I have been searching for you, brother, but you have always been able to find new places to enjoy the silence you seem to crave on occasion." Thor was his usual exuberant self. He had no reason to think there was grounds to be otherwise.

Loki didn't acknowledge that he'd been spoken to and the silence dragged on.

"Loki?"

He still sat quietly hoping Thor would grow bored and leave him be.

"Are you angry with me? I was sure you had forgiven me our latest adventure." Thor seemed concerned now instead of pleased at finding his brother. "You are not planning on colouring my hair again are you, brother?" Thor's hands went to his head comically trying to cover as much of his hair as he could.

Loki snorted softly. As if Thor's hands would really be an obstacle to his spells. "If I wished it you would not know till the courts began to laugh once more and you know well that to be the truth."

Thor only grinned at having made him reply, his hands dropping from their entirely futile efforts at protection. "As the last reflection I looked at showed my person to be at it's usual state I shall ask, what is troubling you, if not me?"

Damn, Thor. Yet everyone thought him to be the only one who enjoyed such verbal tricks. Thor's words were simply more subtle manipulations that his own palace-wide schemes. Still there would be no avoiding him now but how could he speak of something to Thor when he himself had not yet come to terms with it? Would he even be able to come to terms with it? It was only last night his world had been turned on its head and he had slept only fitfully during the night, yet somehow he had managed to survive breakfast without drawing looks and skipping lunch was something he did on occasion but he needed time to get his head around this and dinner was only a scant few hours away.

He didn't know what to say or do. Had they planned to tell him eventually or to simply keep him hidden till his death? Was there a specific reason they'd raised him? Sweet Valhalla!* Did those he called his parents even know? Had others of his kind managed to switch him for the rightful second prince? What if he was living someone else's life while the trueborn prince lay in an unmarked grave. If fathe- the Allfather finds out will he kill me? He swallowed convulsively, choking down the bile that threatened at the panic the thought brought.

Never mind the Allfather presently, Thor was right here. He could never tell Thor. He told Thor everything though, at least eventually. It would only be a matter of time before he slipped now that he knew the truth. I can't tell him. I can never tell him. He'll hate me; I can never tell him.

"Brother?"

The tentative address grabbed his attention ripping him from the downward spiral his thoughts had taken. Thor was never tentative about things, even when he ought to be. He always threw himself forward with full force. As he looked up he realised that as he'd been thinking he'd curled himself into a ball in his hiding spot hiding his face as he'd pulled his legs in close.

The look on Thor's face was one he'd seen only rarely the last time having been directly after he had broken bones in an ill-advised adventure of Thor's making. Thor had nothing to do with the making of his currents woes so why did he look like he was blaming himself after just having figured out Loki was not angry at him.

"Do you really believe that?"

Loki froze, dread filling him. He'd said at least part of that out loud. Oh Hellheim! He'd said his thoughts out loud. He tried to scramble to his intent on running unsure of how much Thor had heard. Before he'd managed to untangle his limbs and fully stand he was wrapped in Thor's arms and they crashed back to the floor. He was flailing wildly trying to squirm away without doing Thor any real harm when something wet hit the side of his neck and he stilled. He was sure he hadn't drawn blood.

As if sensing his confusion or perhaps merely taking advantage of his lack of continued struggle Thor pulled back slightly from where he'd been plastered to Loki's front. Thor's cheek were wet as tears traveled down them to drip on Loki's face where he'd been pinned beneath Thor heavier frame. He looked a picture of absolute misery.

"I do not know what it is, little brother, that you believe you cannot tell me but I could never hate. I am and will always be your big brother and in that I will always love you."

"But you are not." It was barely a whisper but as close as they were Thor could not fail to hear it.

"What? What am I not, Loki?"

"My brother, Thor." He turned his face away and closed his eyes, unwilling to see the disgust and betrayal on Thor's face once he explained.

"We share no blood, Thor. We are no brothers. I am at best a foundling taken in to entertain. At worst a cuckoo in the nest in place of he who would be your true brother. I do not know the circumstances of my arrival here but I-," he swallowed heavily," I am no Æsir, Thor." He willed his face to become the natural blue he had recently discovered and felt Thor startle atop him, though he still kept his now red eyes hidden beneath their blue lids. "I am Jötunn. Will you now slay me as the monster I am? As one of the monsters you have boasted that you will destroy?" There was only silence from above him; as much a condemnation as any angry words would be.

After a few moments Thor began to shift over him, half squishing him as he squirmed while trying to remain pinning him. A noise of triumph from Thor preceded the sound of steel being drawn from it's sheath. Thor's one small dagger no doubt as he hadn't left it behind since it had been gifted to him. Perhaps it was only fitting that Thor should kill him with his own gift. It would just be termed returning the dagger to him. Thor shifted again and he heard a hiss. It seemed Thor's skill with a dagger was still as clumsy as ever. There were drops hitting his face again as Thor centered himself. A few final tears for the monster?

He let out a surprised hiss of his own as the blade was drawn against the cheek facing Thor. A shallow cut. What was Thor playing at? Thor had flattened himself down on top of him once more and it was hard to breath. He only startled though when Thor pressed his own cheek against the cut he'd made causing him to turn his head finally and open his red eyes. Thor had half pushed himself up, propping his torso up with an arm on either side of Loki's head. There was a broad grin upon his face despite the blood smeared there. No, not just smeared on it, dripping from it. There was a cut upon his right cheek matching that upon Loki's left. The same cheeks that Thor had just pressed firmly together.

"Thor, what have you done?" He stared in horrified fascination at the mixed blood.

Thor's wide grin hadn't abated at Loki's horrified tone. "You said I could not be your brother because we don't share blood. Now we do. You won't lose me so easily, little brother." The last was said softly.

He couldn't help but release a half hysterical laugh at so simple a solution that was so completely Thor in it's making. His laughter turned to sobs as the relief that Thor hadn't abandoned him set in. Thor for his part simply lay down to the side and encircled him in strong arms as they lay together.

"Rest, little brother. I do not know how this can be but you are my brother no matter what blood runs in your veins. Never doubt that I will love you. We will figure this out together. Just rest."

In Thor's arms the worries that had plagued him were quieted and he drifted off. There were only a few hours till dinner but with Thor at his side he could face the Ragnarok if he had to.

Ugh. I wrote a fluff ending...

I had the beginning 500w of this written back when I wrote Frost but I kind of misplaced the page it was written on for a while. (That's what I get for using loose pages instead of my notebooks) The other 1Kw of it was written today whenever I had a few free min. Then I had to find the old page finally to type it all up. I hate typing...

02/21/15