Wearing Odin's face had grown tiresome for Loki, on the ever increasing occasions that being king, though it brought a certain level of satisfaction, just couldn't keep his boredom at bay.
Whether it was a quiet dispute between Asgardian citizens or the slithering threat of war among the realms, Loki always found himself impatiently staring out the window, absently longing for something he couldn't name, and the kingdom was left none the wiser, obliviously under the impression that the All-Father was still alive, and that their king was ruling sublimely, just like any good monarch should.
On the days that Loki could actually be productive, he always ended up thinking of Frigga or Thor or even of his old companions-watching from one of the large palace windows with prying eyes as they sparred competitively in the courtyard. Sif's triumphant laughter brought back memories, and he'd close his eyes to let them play out in his mind, days long gone and people long vanished, eyes much lighter and smiles less hateful.
It was those exact kinds of memories that made him, briefly, yearn for something else, for the past or the future or another life, and in those moments Loki found himself as human as any mortal, awash with his remorse and his wishes. But that never lasted long, and he made sure to quell the thoughts, made sure to distract himself, before his mind went somewhere from which it could never return, but today was different.
Today, there were no common disagreements over a plot of land or stolen jewelry, no imminent threats made by disgruntled enemies, no disruption of life whatsoever, and Loki hated it. There were absolutely no distractions, no moments that could take him far from his thoughts, and his anxiety over the fact worsened with every uneasy pound of his heart, a meaty fist slamming down on the arm of the throne, Odin's wrinkled fingers curled in on themselves.
He'd never get used to the perspective, it seemed.
Today, Thor was on Midgard, reuniting with his mortal companions and his life there, and the dark haired prince wasn't sure what to think of that. On one hand, Thor was out of the picture, and his stupidity could never again so much as touch the throne while Loki reigned. On the other hand, Thor was out of the picture, and that left Loki with a deep yearning to fight, to yell, to laugh, and to do all of the things that brothers did.
It was a hopeless, futilely concocted dream that only served to burden the trickster, but he was helpless to it, and could do nothing more than watch, engrossed and silent, as Thor laughed with his friends, smiling at his mortal woman as they walked across the expanse of a grassy plain. The human term was whispered to Loki, like some distant part of his subconscious (park).
Not caring to laugh at the odd stares he watched them receive, Loki wondered why they were in public, when so much of Manhattan had seen them just beyond a year ago, when so much of the world was now very, terribly aware of the heroes and their roles and their secrets. But the team didn't seem to mind the attention as they traipsed across the landscape like it belonged to them, exchanging stories and bellowing laughter and inside jokes.
Loki noticed that Barton was absent, along with the scientist, and frowned as he heard the incessantly sarcastic voice of Stark as the billionaire described his dealings with someone called 'Mandarin', and the Black Widow kept her pace with them, occasionally baring a small smile during the story.
As monotony went, Asgard had it the worst, and Loki-acting on the purest of instincts, the basest desire to be somewhere else, the naturalistic impulse to do something-was gone in a flash of light, too hurried to use the Bifrost and avoid suspicion.
Vanished was the view of Asgard and its waterfalls from the golden seat of the palace. Gone was the need to be active. Fading was the want for more. Dispersed was the echo of voices that so often haunted him when he walked down the halls.
There was only the acrid stench of Midgard and all its occupants, too oblivious of his magic to notice him sneaking down the sidewalk, striding across the wet grass to approach Thor. Of course, when he revealed himself in front of the team, the thunder god was the first to react, expressions of confusion and elation mingling across his features as he stepped forward in surprise.
"Father?" Thor asked cautiously, afraid that something horrible had happened, and Loki resisted the urge to mock him, his blue eyes so wide and wary and scared. Crossing his arms behind his back, Loki walked lazily up to Thor, and loosened Odin's strict gait to stand before the god, whose blue eyes sparkled with concern, cheeks flushed with worry.
"What has happened?" Thor asked hesitantly, Jane looking equally freaked out by the All-Father's presence as she stood firmly by the god's side.
Shrugging, and admittedly completely out of character, Loki smiled, crinkling the skin around Odin's eye and tainting his features with familiarly devilish darkness, eyes glinting in the daylight as passerby began to send odd, intrusive glances toward him and the group, mortal eyes glued to the scene and shining brightly with cautious fear.
"I just thought I'd pay a visit to the mortals you've grown so fond of, see how you've adjusted to your new life," he offered casually, his grey hair blowing past him in the light summer breeze. Thor's shoulders slumped as the tension coiled there dissipated, and he smiled kindly, relieved, putting a burly hand on Loki's shoulder, and immediately, Loki remembered when Odin would do that, the feel of his aged palm like a ghost lingering upon his skin.
Shaking off the sensation, he watched Thor with a sting of jealousy, wondering how such a man as Thor could obtain not only a new life, but a new mindset, a whole new realm of freedom and memories to be made. It was horribly sentimental of him, but Loki couldn't help the envy shining in his gaze when he at last met Thor's eyes, and the blonde's smile fell at the severity lying naked in Odin's expression. His hand fell, and he took a slow step back.
"You look troubled. Are you sure everything is alright?"
Perhaps it was boredom, or maybe it was the fact that Loki had absolutely nothing better to do, or just maybe it was the pure concern in Thor's eyes, the obvious worry that reminded the trickster of years gone by and moments now passed, of memories that couldn't just leave him alone. Whatever it was, Loki would never know, but he smiled then, and in a flash of light revealed himself to Thor, blowing both his cover as Odin and his claim to the throne, and the team behind Thor, oddly without their gear, instantly jumped away to prepare for a fight, grappling helplessly for their weapons, only to come up empty-handed.
He could catch the glint of panic in Natasha's eyes as she pulled Jane back to protect her, and Loki swore that he saw the mortal's hand twitch in preparation to slap him, the memory of her palm flattening against his face a vivid one. Thor reared back in shock, his eyes going wide and round and unblinking, lips parting with unadulterated surprise.
"What-Loki?!" Thor asked breathlessly, his voice going weak, breaths coming in short gasps as his hand clenched into a fist and relaxed right after, his eyes brimming with water.
"How? How are you alive?"
Loki smiled, his heart pounding with the liveliest feeling he'd felt for months, and his green eyes sparkled mischievously as he shrugged his shoulders loosely, smug.
"I was never dead, and you were just foolish enough to believe that I was," he murmured loudly enough so that the nosy citizens around him could hear, and he gave them steely glares to ward them off, and was relieved to see that they took the hint and hurriedly scurried away. Looking back to his brother and the comrades standing warily at his back, Loki laughed, adjusting his leather and armor, comforted by the familiar press of it on his skin after months of donning heavy metal chest plates and golden attire.
"I watched you die in my arms!" Thor roared angrily, stepping forward to grab Loki by the shoulders and shake him roughly.
"Why? Why would you lie?" The god rolled his eyes, grinning.
"You should have known that it wasn't that easy to kill me, Thor. It was better to pretend that I was dead, since you would have never been satisfied with staying in the kingdom to make sure I didn't do anything dastardly in prison, away from your precious mortal for so many irretrievable moments."
He pulled back from Thor's grip and his smile widened, and Thor felt his heart leap to his throat with the familiar pang of uncertainty at the contempt in his brother's eyes.
"Besides, this gave me a chance to finally rid Asgard of its horrid king." Mjolnir was instantly in Thor's grasp in the next moment, and Loki put up his hands defensively, laughing soundlessly. Thor's features contorted into a mask of sorrow as he stepped reluctantly forward.
"What have you done, Loki?" The god smiled as he saw Stark and the Captain beginning to circle him, and Natasha placed herself in front of Jane, taking up a fighting stance, and Loki's laughter took on a low pitch as he chuckled, looking up at the cloudless sky with the most amused gleam in his eyes.
"I always have a plan, Thor. You of all people should know that, after all the times I've saved your hide." Thor raised his hammer in one fist and balled up his other in Loki's collar, tugging him forward angrily.
"You and your magic tricks. What have you done to father?"
With his brow furrowed, Thor looked significantly angrier, and Loki, for a moment, rethought his previous decision to blow his cover, but settled on the fact that he couldn't change what he'd done, only the outcome of what was sure to be a painful fight with a seriously miffed prince, and Loki wanted to go out with a bang.
So, he straightened his back and prepared to get hit in the stomach with Mjolnir as he put on his cruelest smile, guaranteed to make Thor's ears burn.
"I took care of him, you know…"
And Loki swiped his hand across his throat in a broad, dramatically exaggerated arc, grinning as Thor's eyes lit up with renewed rage and grief.
The hammer hit his shoulder, and not his gut, and Loki was thrown back about twenty feet before sailing into a nearby tree, his back making painful contact with the branches, and he fell limply to the ground, struggling to gain his footing before Thor dealt another blow. Thor came soaring through the air just as Loki was able to stand straight, and, remembered from the many fighting lessons that had been so adamantly forced upon him, Loki planted his feet and twisted to the right, just missing Mjolnir as it flew past his head, and he pulled from the air a long scepter, turning back to ram it against Thor's chest as the god rushed to punch him.
He drove the handle into Thor's stomach and swept his feet out from under him when he doubled over from the blow, but Thor thrust up his hand to call his weapon and the hammer came flying through the air and plowed right into Loki's back, throwing him on his face upon the grass and making his back sear with pain, and he pushed himself up and grabbed his scepter, rolling his shoulders to stave off the discomfort as Thor came toward him for a second time.
Loki noticed the mortals in the background, their faces torn with indecision on whether or not to pitch in without their weapons, and he laughed before Thor elbowed him in the throat, taking his breath away as he struggled for air, grasping at his Adam's apple feebly and stumbling back in surprise. Thor brought down his hammer, but Loki swung his staff to intercept it and flitted away, swiping at Thor's legs with the scepter to shake his footing, and Thor jumped up to avoid it and called the clouds and the rain and the thunder above them, sending a blast of lightning toward Loki.
It went right through him, and his body vanished in a flash of light, and Thor stood there, confused, before Loki leaped from an overhanging branch to tackle his brother to the ground, rearing his fist back to drive it into Thor's face, repeatedly punching anywhere he could reach, before Thor kicked him off angrily, wiping blood from his chin and nose as bruises started to bloom on his skin. Before he could reach the trickster, Loki disappeared, leaving the god to once again wonder where he was, and he swiveled at the sound of whistling just in time to see the staff swinging at his head from behind, lifting his arm instinctively to block it.
When he lashed out at Loki, the man vanished in a flash of green, and suddenly, there were ten copies of him surrounding Thor, taunting him as each one darted just out of his grasp. He could hear Loki's laughter, sinister and darkly foreign sounds that chilled him to the core and fueled his anger, all around him while the clones converged upon him, each with a weapon pointed toward him. The instinct to protect himself took over, and Thor knew that if he could reach just one clone, then he could work his way through the crowd and weaken their forces, so he picked one at random and drove his hammer through its face, satisfied as it dissipated in the wake of the hit.
A burst of magic came passing by and plowed into his wrist, knocking Mjolnir out of his hand, and another wave of magic knocked him to the ground, stealing the breath from his lungs for a painfully long second.
While he strained to gain back both his advantage and his balance, one of the duplicates rushed forward and hauled him up by his collar, a pulsing light cupped carefully in his palm, and Thor could tell that whatever it was, it would hurt, and he knew that his hammer would never reach him in time to spare him from the pain, so he hastily fished out his one and only dagger-bestowed upon him when he'd been younger and defenseless in the face of an angry Bilgesnipe, when Loki had quickly tossed to him his most prized knife in the hopes of giving Thor a chance to fight-as the hand and the dangerous magic therein descended upon him, driving it hilt-deep into the soft spot of leather at the gap between his ribs, the sound of the clone's muffled gasp loud in the silent aftermath.
The light in his hand went out instantly, and he brought his arm around to grasp at Thor's fingers, curled around the dagger's golden, decorative hilt, and Thor's eyes widened.
The illusion wasn't disappearing.
Surprised, Thor pulled the dagger out of Loki's stomach, and the god made a soft sound as he did, pressing his palm to the wound, trails of crimson dripping down the black leather as blood poured from the hole in his gut. He stumbled away and Thor stood, rooted to the spot, blinking impassively as his eyes became teary, and he rushed forward as Loki dropped to his knees upon the grass, his arms limply falling at his side as he started to sway toward the ground.
Holding him by his shoulders, Thor wrapped his arms around his back and tugged him closer as he finally collapsed, dark blood coating his fingers and shining in the sunshine cascading down on them in rays of yellow. Loki shook in his arms, taking in short gasps of air that rattled in his body, eyes wide and round with pain. The team stood motionless, shocked, and watched as Thor sniffled, shaking his head rapidly as stray strands of his air tossed about in the wind.
"I'm…I'm so sorry. I didn't-I didn't know. I didn't know," he whimpered, tears dripping down his face, pulling Loki closer as he cried remorsefully. Loki struggled to breathe as Thor pressed a hand to his wound in a futile effort to quell the bleeding, and trembled from the numbing sensation on his skin, shaking with the cold.
"Loki," Thor murmured brokenly, gripping Loki's shoulders with an iron hold as the trickster relaxed his head against the god's arm, his chest rising faintly as his hand fell aside, fingers brushing the delicate blades of grass beneath them and painting their tips crimson. Thor panicked and pulled his brother closer, shaking him slightly to keep him awake as he put a thick hand to his cheek, flinching at how cold Loki was.
"Please, don't leave. I'm sorry."
Slowly, Loki's eyelids fell closed, and his skin paled with the chill that overtook his body, distantly reminding Thor of the touch of a Frost Giant, and the unreliable movement of his chest stilled, his body going limp. Thor shouted mournfully, pulling his brother's form to his chest as he cried, and he rocked back and forth, the clouds above turning dark with his grief, fat droplets of water starting to rain down on them as he yelled to the sky above until his throat was raw.
Uncertain, the rest of the team inched carefully forward, and Jane went and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her chin to his neck and actively avoiding looking down at Loki. After minutes of Thor crying into Jane's sleeve, Steve gently pulled him away, despite his protests, and Thor shoved him back forcefully, face red with heat.
"No! I won't leave him like this, not again. I…we have to take him with us and bury him properly."
Stark gave Natasha a disagreeing look, but she responded with a scolding expression before hauling Loki up by his arms, hooking her hands beneath them, and Stark reluctantly grabbed his boots, and Thor called Mjolnir to him with shaking fingers.
Making an effort to carry the dead god, Tony was out of breath far too soon, and he had to trade shifts with Steve on the ridiculously long trip to the Tower. All the while, Jane clasped Thor's hand in hers consolingly, and murmured endearingly to him as they ignored the fearful and curious expressions of the pedestrian population around them. Hurriedly, they finally reached the tower-turned-headquarters and made the long trek up to the penthouse, where they deposited Loki's body on the sofa, much to Tony's dismay.
Thor situated his brother's limbs as if to make him feel comfortable, and Jane frowned sadly as he took a seat beside his brother, face wet with tears and fingers shaking with adrenaline as he stared at his brother lying motionless on the cushions. Natasha sighed heavily and spoke up.
"Thor, you have to-"
"No," Thor interrupted stonily, his voice trembling weakly.
"We have to find a way. I-I didn't know. I thought he was an illusion. I made a mistake and now I have to fix it."
He looked up and Steve could recognize the determined gleam in his eyes after so many years of seeing it shining in Bucky's own stare, and the Captain ducked his head, not too keen on bringing back to life a mass murderer, but the desperation laced in Thor's voice turned him sympathetic, and he threw up his hands, defeated.
"How do you expect to bring someone back from the dead?" Thor looked down seriously, as if the thought hadn't crossed his mind, and he sighed.
"There is a realm, we can go there and search for him-"
Tony snorted and slid over to the bar, distractedly pouring himself a much needed drink.
"The realm of the dead? Great. Let's go there and risk our lives for a guy who tossed me out the window like a ragdoll, or better yet, the guy who killed Coulson."
He rolled his eyes and swished his drink around, turning to shake his head in disapproval.
"Yeah, let's do that, but first, let's get him off my furniture before the cushions get blood stains. Pepper just bought that couch; she'd kill me if Loki leaked all over it."
Thor stood angrily, his hands balled into fists, brow furrowed.
"Be careful of how you speak!" Tony waved a dismissive hand at the god and lazily made his way over to the opposite couch, plopping down tiredly on its seat.
"Yeah, he's still your brother blah, blah, blah. We've heard it before." As Thor began to come toward him, Tony raised his eyebrows in surprise, but a blinding flash of light bathed the room in white, and the team shielded their eyes from the visual assault as the atmosphere felt heavy with electricity.
The light retreated to a single source, and Thor stumbled back onto the sofa near Loki, squinting to see, and Natasha stood, curious, between Jane and Steve, unsure of what to do.
Finally, a figure stepped out of the blinding haze, a slender woman wrapped in silky cloth, the wispy ends of her dress trailing after her as if suspended, her hair as white as the clouds to their left. Her pale skin gave off a silvery glow, and her eyes lacked all color, round orbs looking pointedly at Loki's body as she glided across the room to reach him.
The scotch glass slipped from Tony's hands and he sat, staring, and Jane felt a sudden fear grip her, persistently urging her to run, but she stayed put. The woman's hair blew behind her, as if a fierce gale of wind was flowing past her, and she stared at Thor stoically.
"I can restore him," came her light, lilting voice, flawless skin bright in the dim lighting, and Thor blinked at her, shaking his head in confusion.
"Who…who are you?" She tilted her head, her expression unchanging, and Natasha got the faint impression that she was annoyed by his question.
"My identity is of no importance when I supply you with such an offer." She blinked, and it looked as if she were gazing at Loki, eyelashes glinting silver.
"Now, do you accept it?"
He followed her gaze and stared at his brother grievingly, swallowing thickly.
"What can you do?" Thor asked quickly, breathless. She moved closer, her face devoid of all emotion.
"I can give him back that which you have stolen: his life."
At Thor's brightly hopeful change of expression, she held up a hand.
"But it will come at a price, as all things do." He stood eagerly, excitement making his eyes seem as bright as the clearest ocean.
"What is it? Tell me. I'll give anything, pay any price-so long as Loki lives." The woman nodded in assent, making a sweeping gesture with her arm toward Loki's body.
"The price is his essence, what makes him something other. He will wake as a mortal." Thor, reluctantly, began to nod, but she stopped him for the second time, her eyes too bright for him to stare into.
"You will become mortal as well, Odinson. Such a powerful act requires a powerful price." Jane gasped, but quickly stifled it to avoid the woman's eerily penetrating gaze, and Natasha stiffened beside her, genuinely surprised as Thor nodded, this time without hesitation.
"I accept the price. Now, bring my brother back," he said harshly, and she leaned forward to touch one hand to Thor's forehead, bringing her other to press against the cold skin of Loki's cheek. She seemed to glow even brighter for the smallest moment, a slight, hazy halo forming around her, and the light quickly retreated back into her body in the next instant as she pulled her hands back.
Thor swayed dizzily, but blinked away his muddled thoughts to stare up at her gratefully, prepared to say his thanks, but she was already gone, and the room was made dark without her presence, the phantom shadow of her light lingering behind their eyelids.
Beside Thor, Loki began to stir lazily, and his eyelids fluttered weakly as he started to regain consciousness, the blood on his skin already dried and the wound completely healed. Looking down, Thor smiled with relief and laughed, waiting for Loki to wake, but a slight frown lingered on his face.
"Forgive me," he murmured softly as Loki's fingers twitched, a certain unnamable tension lurking in the air, exactly like the suspended, frightened silence just before a bomb decimates an entire city.
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