Thank you so much to all the lovely people who reviewed, favorited, and even alerted! Ehehehe, your reviews convinced me to write a couple more chapters ^.^

This chapter is Thor's POV of the first time he heard that Loki was alive, and the idea was suggested by YouThereintheTrunks.

I hope you all enjoy:D

When you heard that he was alive, that your little brother was alive, you could hardly contain the joy. It exploded, coursing through your body, cutting open your scabs and your scars. It burned and throbbed, emotions you hadn't felt in so long you'd all but forgotten what they were called.

You'd forgotten how much feeling could hurt. But yet it felt so good to feel something more than bitter nostalgia, something more than the cold numbness that had penetrated deep into your soul.

It was raw burning hope that made a smile crack across your face, the first real smile since he'd fallen and you'd thought him dead, since he'd fallen and all but killed you along with him.

And you dared to remember the way his smile sent the light dancing, licking warm against your heart like tongues of flame. And how so many times he would step up to take the blame, take the heat, take the pain.

You want to embrace him and never let him go. You want to ruffle his hair the way he always pretended he hated, but you could tell he didn't mind by the light in his eyes.

You dared to hope you could hear him laugh again, that beautiful, contagious laugh. And you remembered how he was the only one who could make you grin till your face hurt, laugh till your sides ached and you couldn't breathe. You dared to remember everything you were trying not to forget.

You dared to live again. Maybe together, you'd be able to come back from the dead.

You remember how every time you'd freaked out, thinking he'd gotten lost or died in battle, he would sneak up behind you and whisper in your ear, smirking. "It would take more than that to part us, brother."

You wondered if it was still true.

But yet all the joy and hope was laced with fear. A fear that traced through your heart like spiderwebs of darkness; a poison slowly creeping through your veins. You had no idea what he'd been though, what had happened to him when he fell into the deepest chasms of space.

You had no idea if he was still the brother you once knew. You could only hope he'd missed you as much as you'd missed him, that he wasn't so far gone that you couldn't take his hand and lead him back, back to the light from the darkness wherein he fell.

But still you know he has every right to hate you. You'd gone over all the things that you'd done wrong; you'd done almost everything wrong. And you realized just how long he'd held on, in his mind, just how long he'd been hanging over the edge of darkness, and you weren't there for him. You weren't there to pull him back.

You'd never understand what his life's been like, but you only hoped you could help him now.

You only hoped that this time you could do everything right.