The sound of a whistle announces that practice is finally over and Thor couldn't be more grateful. He is aching all over from when Volstagg had crashed into him earlier that morning, and not for the first time he wonders if he isn't getting too old for this.
He sighs slightly; the stress must be getting the better of him yet again.
As the rest of the team is clearing off the ice, he skates across the rink to get his water bottle, carelessly thrown there earlier, and wonders briefly if Loki had his breakfast yet. He snorts with laughter moments later when the more analytical part of his brain reminds him that Loki probably isn't even awake or, if he is, he has chosen to lounge in their bed, all pale legs and toned muscles, as he'd been in the habit of doing lately. Thor smiles at the image. The last months hadn't been easy for them, but Thor thought they were finally getting past the problems.
His thoughts are interrupted by Fandral's voice.
"Hey, Odinson!" his friend yells from across the rink, waving at him. "It looks like I have found something of yours in the back!" He gesticulates behind him and Thor frowns, trying to make out what the left winger is saying.
He looks past Fandral and is shocked to see Loki standing there, wearing one of his favorite green jumpers and glaring daggers at the back of his teammate's head.
He moves to them at once, mind supplementing all kinds of scenarios which would explain his lover's sudden appearance at the stadium when he refused to go anywhere near it for weeks. As he comes closer he is sure that whatever have happened had to include his mother, because anything less would not force Loki to do something he does not want to do.
"Loki" he breaths out before halting violently and sending ice all over. "Did something happen?"
Fandral takes his words as a cue to leave, sending both of them his most charming smile - getting an even more poisonous glare from Loki for his trouble.
Loki draws his attention back to Thor and the mess he mess he had made. "Always so dramatic," he comments.
"Did something happen?" Thor repeats his question, maybe in a little less frantic manner.
Loki gives him long, considering look. "No, why do you ask?" he answers finally, moving closer. It is only then that Thor notices Loki is wearing a pair of his favorite ice skates.
"I-" he starts but doesn't finish, too fully engaged in observing how this situation will unravel.
Loki, for his part, does not even look like he pays heed to Thor's words or lack thereof. He steps on ice with a look of concentration on his face. Moments later he is moving away, but Thor catches a small smile playing on his lips and cannot help but feel like a great weight was lifted from his shoulders.
He quickly pulls the gloves off and throws them away and chases after his partner, laughing out loud.
Loki is gaining speed and spinning circles on the ice and Thor feels like the time was turned to the period before Loki's contusion. But the joy is not lasting. As he catches up with Loki he sees the look there he knows well: concentrated and determined, but also pained.
He reaches out, he wants to offer help, but his hand is stopped midair by the harsh look Loki sends him and Thor lets his hand fall awkwardly. Loki's expression softens then, making him seem almost apologetic, and he turns around without a word, his movements getting more precise and advanced.
And Thor does what he's done his whole life. He follows after him, ready to catch him if there is ever need for that - Loki's pride be damned.
"Is that wise?" he voices his concern after another bold move that would look to an untrained eye rather impressive, but all Thor can see is a slight trembling of Loki's left thigh and calf. "You haven't been training for over a month" he says after not getting an answer. "Do not overwork yourself. Your knee-"
"I will worry about my knee," Loki snaps, but he pauses when he sees the expression on the hockey player's face. "I can manage it, Thor," he adds, tone kind, moving closer and changing direction so that he is skating alongside. "I have done it many times, you know?" he says conversationally, reaching to stroke Thor's cheek lightly in a loving gesture.
Thor catches the hand and stills it. "If something goes wrong," he insists, "if you cannot pull the figure off and you fall-" he looks away. "You will jeopardize everything you have ever worked on, and all of that because of a mere whim to prove that you are well when you clearly are not. It will destroy you, Loki, I know it will," he finishes, looking straight into Loki's eyes.
Loki looks at him, measuring what he sees. And then a smile is once again playing on his lips.
"Oh, but you are forgetting, Thor," he says. That's all the warning he gives before he suddenly spins around, placing only one hand for support at the back of Thor's neck.
Thor catches him on instinct, hands clawing at Loki's hip and the damned oversized sweater, that was oversized only because it was him who got it for Loki few years back as a present, when both of them still couldn't make their schedules work. His feet end up in awkward angle, and he wonders for a second if both of them will end up crashing, but looking down he sees Loki giving him one of his rare bright smiles and he knows that his lover is not bothered by any of this.
"You would never let me fall," Loki says simply.
Thor looks at him and remembers all the bad and the good. He sees how he's always chased Loki, just as Loki has chased him. He tries to imagine what his life would be without it Loki, but he cannot do it. He looks down and understands.
You would never let me fall, echoes in his head.
No, Thor thinks, I won't.