Disclaimer: I don't own Thor. Or Loki. Or Jane Foster. I own nothing in the Marvel Universe and I certainly didn't invent the characters who belong to it, mentioned and unmentioned, nor do I own the plot of the movies. I'm just using them for a bit to tell a story that popped into my head.
Please note: this story is inspired by the Thor 2 trailer. Hopefully, a lot of Lokane shippers were inspired by that trailer because I really love reading good Lokane fic. Interestingly, this story doesn't have as strong a Lokane element as I had originally thought. But I like it. And I like the ending. I hope you like it, too. Thank you for reading. And if you feel this story is worth a review, thank you for that as well. :)
She hated him. That meant quite a bit to Jane. She'd never hated anyone.
Oh, sure, there had been professors who had made her feel like she could smack them with a textbook and feel no guilt. There had been men who turned out to be boys that made her want to scream into the night sky. Sometimes she did. But no one, no one, living or dead, had made her hate. Not like Loki.
It didn't matter that Loki had done nothing to her since Thor had shown up to rescue her, Loki leading them through the terrain of Malekith's kingdom as if he were well acquainted with it. He probably was, she thought as they settled down to rest. Chances were good he'd betray them before this was all over.
A cold wind blew above them, swirling down into the small bit of shelter they'd found. Yeah. Rest. Curled up inside Thor's cloak, she shivered. Even now, she could hear the rumblings of conversation between the two. A god and...whatever Loki was. Not a god. She'd seen them in Asgard, kind, benevolent, always ready for a laugh. Or a war, if necessary.
"She needs to move faster," she heard Loki say. "Malekith's armies are gaining on us."
"Would you have her walk as if she were healed?" Thor's chastisement was much, much too mild. Jane would have shouted. No, she told herself. You wouldn't want Malekith to hear it.
"I would have her move as quickly as possible away from those who would destroy both you and her together."
Thor's chuckle held a bitter edge. When he spoke, however, he sounded concerned. "When will you come home?"
"Heh. You know better than to ask, dear brother." The hatred that oozed out of Loki's words nearly matched Jane's for Loki.
"You didn't hear my command when we last met. I thought perhaps, if I asked-"
"The day is long tomorrow, as it was today. Best to sleep."
She heard Thor's sigh as he stood up. "I will watch. Rest...brother."
Loki gave no answer. Carefully, Jane opened her eyes. Loki stared at his brother as he took position with a face that held no emotion. No wonder, she thought as she looked at him. He doesn't feel any.
Frost giants, Fandral had explained not long after Jane had arrived, have no heart. They're terrible monsters who eat the young of other species, tear up the forests, turn the whole world into a frozen wasteland, and never bat an eye. It's no surprise Loki tried to destroy New York.
He was always like that, Volstagg had continued. And always jealous.
Thor stepped outside the small cave they had found, recessed into the ground like someone had shoved a gigantic pillar into it. It connected to a series of caverns, but Jane slumbered at the mouth of it, while Loki remained in the recess, under the stars.
Jane closed her eyes, hoping sleep would come, even after going through horrors that made her feel weak and helpless, even now. Hate Loki, she thought. He's the reason you're here at all. His plots. His plans. His-
"I can feel it, you know." Loki's voice was almost seductive, but it was the words that made her freeze. "You carry your hatred like a cloak about your shoulders."
She said nothing.
"Oh, don't try to pretend you're asleep." He sounded disappointed. "I'm bored, Midgardian. I require intelligent conversation, but I'll have to do with you."
As if that'll make me talk, she sniffed. Ph.D. in astrophysics, and he thinks I can't hold my own in a conversation.
"What do you see in my brother?"
That did it. "He's kind, thoughtful, respectful-"
"And it doesn't hurt that he's a god, I imagine."
"It doesn't matter to me. I knew him when he was a human. Mortal, I mean."
She opened her eyes now, hating how she had tripped over her words around Loki. Sure enough, the corners of his lips had quirked upward in a smirk that made her want to smack him with something. Mjollnir, if she could get her hands on it. His smile grew. "But he still considered himself a god. He told you of the wonders of the sky and of his homeworld."
"And I thought he was crazy."
"But you listened. And you adored. And why did you adore, little mortal?"
She sat up, hands clenched in fists. "Because he's good."
"Is he? Is that why Midgard is full of chaos and corruption? Because of his goodness?"
"He's kind of had his hands full with you."
"I'm describing the Midgard that existed long before he and his friends went on their pleasure jaunts to its surface. Didn't they tell you about those?"
"Don't. You're not going to get into my head."
"Good, because I don't like wide, empty spaces."
She would scream. She really would scream. Taking a deep breath, she noticed him watching her more closely than before. "It was for fun, you know," he said. "The Midgardians would fall to their knees and offer feasts to make sure we would remain benevolent gods."
"Did they?"
"Oh, yes. And your good and pure beloved drank it in like mead. He'd have contests with the Midgardians to prove his strength."
"He's not like that now."
"And how do you know? What do you know of my brother from your, what was it? A week? Or am I being generous?"
She laid back down with a fierceness that she knew would only make his smile grow. "I know, okay. Whatever he was before, he softened up after he came to Earth. So, don't tell me who he was. I know who he is. And you know something?" She sat up again, leaning on one elbow. "If he wasn't good, he wouldn't keep trying to bring you back into his family."
His blue eyes darkened. "His. Not mine. Didn't they tell you that?" He leaned in, and she fought the need to scramble back into the darkness of the cave, further away from those eyes that couldn't possibly show anything other than fury. "I'm surprised they didn't tell you anything about the monsters of Jotunheim. They should have. It would have only been right, since you're an innocent about such things."
"Yeah. They told me."
For a moment, a flicker of pain crossed his eyes, so faint, so brief, she was sure she'd imagined it. His smirk grew. His gaze narrowed. "Tell me, Midgardian, beloved of my brother, did they mourn? My brother tells me so, but I must confess, I see them throwing a feast in honor of my departure."
They did throw a feast. Volstagg had been describing how feasts are done and accidentally called the one celebrating Odin's awakening a "Farewell to Loki." Sif had glared at him, but he had shrugged it off. The one who'd care the most, he'd said, isn't in the room.
Another flicker of pain. "Don't bother. I see the truth in your eyes."
"What did you expect?"
"To be king." The answer was so simple, so matter-of-fact, it stunned Jane.
"Why?"
"Why, indeed." And now it felt as if he was watching her closely. Studying her. "Why should I describe my disillusionment with someone who has yet to see things as they are?"
"I see a helluva lot more than you."
"Do you? How is Sif these days?"
Jane blinked. "Fine. Why?"
"Tell me, Midgardian, when they introduced you in the court of Odin, did she give place to you at the table?"
Jane hesitated. She had been very aware of Sif's coldness toward her, but to admit it to Loki would be like handing a pyromaniac the key to the dynamite.
And no, she hadn't. Thor had been the one to give her place.
Loki sighed. "This bores me. I can see your answers without a single word spoken. What does my brother see in you?"
My brother. Spoken as casually as if she were out camping with the whole family.
But he was a frost giant. A monster. And he'd casually murdered a good portion of New York, without a single thought for the lives lost.
Why do you want him back? she'd once quietly demanded while Loki had walked ahead.
We are brothers, Thor had replied. And then he had tried to explain how Asgardians viewed people from Earth. But he had stopped several times, then given up, ending with the phrase he'd started with. We are brothers.
She laid down, snuggling under his cloak, wondering how Thor could forgive so easily when so much damage had been done. Unless...no. That was Loki twisting her thoughts. Thor was, is good. And he cares, she told herself. And when he didn't, that was then, not now.
Still, the thoughts swirled, mixing with the brief glimpses she had had of pain in Loki's eyes.
"You annoy me, Midgardian," Loki murmured. "Your thoughts shout through the darkness."
"Do they?" Her curiosity mixed with her anger. "Then tell me what they are."
"I would if your thoughts were as simple as before."
His honesty surprised her. She was about to say something when he held up a hand. "Do you require assistance sleeping?"
"Not from you."
Anger roiled in those blue eyes, though his smile didn't fade. "Sleep, Jane. For the sake of the god you love."
A wave of exhaustion swept over her. She fought it, simply because it was from him.
This time, his voice was softer, and almost kind. "For Thor, Jane. Rest." And just before she drifted off, she could have sworn he said, "For my brother."
...
In her dreams, the sky was filled with stars as she walked down the street. Houses were nothing more than silhouettes, the street itself dark, lit only from the enormous planet that dared come so close, she could see continents hazily through its atmosphere, in a range of pastels. And beyond it, the blackness of space. And the stars.
She stopped and admired the view for what felt like an eternity. This, she thought, is why I became an astrophysicist. To study wonders like this.
Freaks of nature, you mean. She shook away the correction from her head. "There's no such thing as a freak," she said. "Everything has its reason for being."
"You are very kind," Thor said from behind her. Reluctantly, she turned away from the marvel in front of her to consider a marvel of a different kind.
Before she knew what had happened, she was in his arms, the stars and planet gone. Darkness surrounded them. His kiss demanded everything of her, consumed her. Her arms weak, she tried to push him away, breathless. "Wait."
"Why?" His kisses on her neck made her legs feel like jello. "You've wanted this, have you not?"
"Yes. No. I mean-" she couldn't say it, how weak she felt now that he was who he was.
Is. Who he is. He's the same man I fell in love with.
Except, she realized as thought began to leave her, he's not. There was more. She knew it, felt it, if only she could gain enough distance to realize it. Her thoughts surveyed the dreamscape surrounding her. She felt as if someone else were watching this. She tried once more to push away, but, as sometimes happens in dreams, she couldn't even command her arms to try.
Thankfully, Thor paused. "Is there something wrong?" He pulled back enough for her to look into his blue eyes. "Jane?"
She shook her head. "You're a god."
His smile made her heart skip. "Not really."
"Okay, not a god, then. But you're not-" She looked up, seeing no stars, only darkness. "What's next?"
And they were in the feast hall of Odin's palace. Around her, men told tales of monsters vanquished, and women wooed. But the women held her attention. They sat, in their clinging dresses, leaning on the arms of the men, smiling at the jokes of the men, but told no tales of their own. Except Sif. But the others, even the queen, bowed to the wishes of the men. "This is what you know," she whispered, realizing what she would be expected to become.
Thor hesitated beside her and pulled her away from the hall. She resisted. "No, this is truth, isn't it?"
He sighed. "There is more than this."
"Show me."
He looked at her for a long time. "Where do you wish to go?"
Her heart cried out for the stars, and so that is where they went. They were lying on their backs, a canopy of stars above them, not the ones she had learned, but the ones he knew. One by one, he pointed them out, them, and the stories that went with them.
"They're beautiful," she said, when he had run out of stories to tell.
"They're yours. Or will be, if you wish it."
"No one owns the stars." And because the thought tickled her, she laughed. Stretching out her arms, she pretended to catch a handful. Instantly, her hands were full of brightly glowing orbs that had to be stars. Small ones.
"You do." She looked over to see Thor grinning at her.
She laughed and threw them back up to the sky. "No one owns them. That's what makes them so beautiful."
She felt his eyes on her and turned her head to look back at him. His blue eyes studied her with an intelligence she, frankly, hadn't known he possessed. His smile grew, and this time, he did as he'd done before, kissing her hand gently before turning back to the stars. "There are more, if you wish to hear their stories."
"Absolutely."
"Very well."
And they talked of the stars surrounding the Nine Worlds for the rest of her dream.