Loki hit the ground. Hard.
His body groaned with protest as he stood up, smoothing stray strands of raven hair that had fallen into his face. Green eyes blazed as he faced his attacker.
"Thor," Loki sneered, "surely you can do better than that."
Loki crossed the room, robes swishing around his ankles; his fluid strides making it look as if he were floating.
"Oh, come now Thor, you're going to let me get away with this? The brilliant god of Asgard cannot even protect his own domain?"
Loki watched Thor's face.
He was even easier to read than a book. Pain flashed upon Thor's face, and Loki could almost hear his thoughts.
Loki reached out his pale hand, letting his ice-cold fingers brush Thor's face before running down his neck. Loki slithered, snakelike, around his brother's solid form.
Loki pressed his lips into Thor's ear.
"What would father think?" He let his float softly, like a whisper on the wind.
Loki could feel his anger, and he loved it. Thor wouldn't even be able to resist, for his lust for blood was too strong.
"Is it because we're brothers?" he sneered.
Loki backhanded Thor across the face.
"The mighty Thor, cannot even lift his finger-"
Thor snapped.
He caught Loki in the side of the head, flinging him into the wall on the other side of the room.
Loki's slim form slid down the wall, and crumpled into a heap on the floor.
He deserved this.
The bastard frost giant.
Doesn't even belong with his own kind,
Or here
He was like a shadow to them,
Always there, but never present.
This is all he could do to feel,
and the bad ones must hurt.
For that is all they can do.
Loki struggled to his feet, spitting blood from his mouth. Before he even had a chance to regain his composure, Thor was on top of him. Hitting him like he never had before.
Loki felt his nose break, fresh blood pouring down his face.
And he just stood there, never once raising a hand in his own defense.
Every molecule of his being screamed in protest,
He felt it now,
Like he never has before.
Pain.
And it was intoxicating.
Loki felt himself black out, as the room swirled together.
The sensation of being lifted was the last thing he felt.
Thor looked down at the bloody, frail form of his brother.
"Loki." Thor let out a strangled cry and pulled him close. His tears fell onto Loki's broken form.
The impossibly green eyes blinked up at him.
"Thor."
"Loki—please—I'm so sorry. I never meant-"
Thor pulled his brother closer.
Loki suddenly felt his walls crumbling.
He let the tears fall then, splashing onto Thor's chest. Everything he had ever felt was washed away. All that was real now was Thor. Being here, in his arms, the only place he belonged.
Thor realized it then. Loki was like a work of blown glass. No matter how cold and hard it looked to the eye, it was fragile and could shatter in a moment.
Thor held his brother, and pulling him to his breast, willed him not to break.
"They were as the moon and the sun, different, always fighting for supremacy, but one could not exist without the other."