Loki awoke to throbbing pain and nausea and Thor cradling his head in his lap. The sun was high overhead staring down in judgement just as, Loki was certain, Odin would now be. And, of course, Thor could bear no blame in his eyes.
"Why must you provoke me?" Thor's eyes were dark and his gaze heavy.
"I don't know," Loki said at length, because there was no simple nor right answer to that question and then, because he couldn't help himself, "It seems I foresaw this. So mote it be." His laughter was more of a bark than anything and it hurt. He winced and tried to sit up but Thor pushed him back down.
"I am sorry," Thor began, a hitch in his breath. "But you make it so hard, sometimes."
"Yes, of course. It's all my fault. I understand." Loki tried and failed to keep the sour note out of his voice. Failed on purpose. There was a deep and toxic well of anger inside him, the real reason Odin gave the brothers his blessing for this trip, and Thor was beginning to stir it.
"You ever put words in my mouth, Loki. Do not." Loki opened his mouth but Thor silenced him with a finger. "I went too far but I know not why. I am sorry. You know I would never hurt you on purpose."
Loki wasn't sure he believed the last part anymore but he relented at the plaintive note in Thor's voice. "You do not bear all the blame," he said with a sigh. "Something clearly went awry with my itching potion." Thor went still and Loki sighed and rubbed his temple as he tried to imagine what exactly it had been.
The breath left his brother in one great whoosh of relief. He stoked Loki's hair for a second before removing his hand as if the touch burned him. "We shall speak of it later. But come, tell me, what visions are these?"
"Worry not over what was said in anger." Loki didn't want to talk about the nightmares he'd been having, especially now that he had seen them all but come true.
"Loki-"
"Let it be, brother. For once do not be as a dog with a bone." Loki did sit up this time although he almost wished he hadn't. His head swam and he almost upended what was left of his dinner. Thor caught him and lowered him back to the ground but he smacked his brother's hand away. "Don't touch me."
A complicated mix of emotions passed over Thor's gruff face before he settled on a scowl. "As you will. I have been hunting. We will break our fast soon."
Loki bit off a retort and concentrated on breathing out of his nose. He had suffered blows from Mjolnir before, but none so directly and with so much intent behind them. It would take a moment to collect himself and summon the energy necessary to heal the injury.
But even then, Loki wasn't sure he wanted to. He needed to figure out what was wrong with his magic before using it again. All too easy to blame a faulty ingredient and assume himself beyond reproach, but Loki was smarter than that. Frigga had, indeed, taught him well. Which was why he found it so hard to believe he had committed this error in the first place.
Loki felt much better by the time Thor returned with a bit of broth and meat.
"Where are we?"
"An island nation. The capital is not far," Thor said, around a mouthful of food. Loki arched a brow at this concession but said nothing. "I thought we might...explore it a while. I have heard there are many fair maids." The whole thing sounded weak even to Loki's ears, but it would not serve him to point any of this out and ruin Thor's rare charitable mood.
"As you wish, brother," he said, instead.
They finished their meal in silence and by the time it was done Loki felt like himself again.
"Shall we take to the air, or perhaps use your new trick?" Thor gave him a knowing look and Loki sucked in a breath.
"I suppose there's no sense in denying it now." Loki sat up a little straighter. "Yes, I've learned a new trick, as you are so fond of calling my spells." If Thor noticed the bitterness intermixed with the pride in his tone, he didn't say anything. Instead, his brother smiled wide and clapped him on the back. Loki felt the motion in the renewed ache behind his left eye.
"It was a good trick, Loki." Thor did not ask him to explain, nor did Loki offer. They both knew he couldn't keep up with the details. "Heimdall may well be out of a job if word gets out."
Now Loki did smile. "Then we shall have to depend upon your silence."
Thor cracked a smile too though there was something sad about his eyes. "On my honor." He clapped a fist to his chest and Loki mirrored the motion in solidarity.
"Shall we then depart?" Loki asked, as he stood and brushed off his pants. Thor hastened to do the same. Loki raised a hand before Thor could suggest anything. "Perhaps we ought stick to proven methods."
It wasn't that he relished the idea or that he thought to keep his talents secret but rather that Thor needed this balm and Loki was willing to give it to him. Plus, he wanted to wait longer to use his magic. Sure enough, Thor's face brightened at the suggestion and the low hanging clouds that had begun to gather dispersed. He held Loki close and pointed Mjolnir toward the sky without pause and they were off.
A little while into their journey and Loki began to make out a bevy of structures below them. "Ought we not put down before we alarm the local mortals?" It wouldn't do to fly directly into their settlement, after all.
"Well said."
Thor set them down outside of the city walls and they walked the rest of the way. With a few well placed suggestions the guards overlooked their unfamiliar attire and let them in. Soon they were in the thick of the city with Thor looking this way and that after the source of strange sights and smells. Loki kept pace behind him as was usual, and let his brother lead the way.
"See there, that man," Thor exclaimed as he pointed to a heavyset mortal with a long red beard. "Does he not remind you of Volstagg?"
Loki took in the man's stained clothing, knowing this wasn't what Thor was referencing. "Yes, and a most terrible disguise he has chosen for the occasion." Humanity was, indeed, the worst of Asgard. Or at least their habits.
Thor elbowed him and laughed. "And that one, is it not Fandral?"
Loki followed Thor's gaze and found what must have been a Midgardian noble who did somewhat resemble the aforementioned. "Do you miss...our friends that much?"
Thor jerked to a halt, apparently catching on to the undercurrent in Loki's words for once in his life. On purpose, of course. These days, Loki was not one to forego petty revenges where he might.
"We must visit this establishment. Come, Loki," Thor said, pointing to a sign boldly proclaiming the finest ale in town.
Loki recovered in the space of a moment, folding his bitterness and disappointment down into himself and affixing on his face instead a smile genuine enough to fool even Frigga. "I would be delighted to drink you under the table."
Thor met his gaze with a big grin. "I accept your challenge."
The thing that Thor had never figured out in all their years was that Loki seldom actually partook of the spirits offered him. It was laughably easy to turn his wine and ale into nothing but colored water when he wished and so Thor and all the rest-except Odin, who would sometimes get a particular twinkle in his eye even in the midst of all the merriment-were easily fooled.
All too easy to collect information from drunken lips. But sometimes this did backfire. Hours after entering the establishment and with he and Thor making names for themselves among its patrons, he found himself with his arms full of his drunken older brother who, as usual, wanted to fight everything in sight.
Loki gathered them both and took to the street before Thor could cause too much trouble. He followed the barkeep's directions to a nearby inn while avoiding no less than three pickpockets plus several more roguish characters.
"I would return to avenge the insults upon our family." Thor slurred his way through several expletives and burped. All of this in front of the inkeeper.
"A room for two, if you please," Loki said, with his most apologetic smile. The inkeep nodded with sympathy and passed a key across the counter when Loki gave him several Midgardian coins.
Loki took the key and hauled Thor up the stairs and down the hall until they came to the correct door. It was hardly the worst place they had frequented but Loki couldn't help his sigh at the single, tiny mattress. He would never understand the squalor with which these mortals surrounded themselves. Even in a large city like this it seemed inescapable. Not that Loki was about to tolerate such a thing. With a wave of his free hand, it became a king size bed done up in the finest of Asgardian linens. With another, a large sofa and table appeared and the hearth burst into cheerfully crackling flames.
Loki dumped Thor onto the bed and pulled off his boots. "And what shall we say of you, mighty Thor? A thousand years and you've yet to learn your lesson."
Thor blinked up at Loki sleepily. "I thank you, brother, for always taking care of me."
Loki's hands froze where they gripped the sheet. "What?" But the moment was past and Thor already snoring.
Loki draped the sheet over him and stood staring for many minutes, revisiting the wholly unexpected words in his mind. Then he dismissed the entire thing as fallacy and slid into bed beside Thor. His breathing joined that of his brother's and Loki couldn't help but be reminded of their younger years.
Pity that hadn't lasted.
Loki rolled on his side and took in Thor's sleeping form for a time before finally closing his eyes.
He awoke to a heavy arm around his waist and deep, rumbling breaths in his ear.
Loki pinched his brother's unwelcome wrist with two fingers and dropped Thor's arm behind his back before climbing out of bed. He rolled his eyes at the still sleeping oaf, knowing Thor would be out for hours yet. But that was fine.
Loki wasn't about to waste such an opportunity.
He availed himself of the inn's bathing facilities and was soon out in the city in search of more refined entertainments. Loki found some kind of primitive theater and stopped in unseen to watch a play, which turned out to be a political parody.
"Oh, fair maid, tempt me not lest you be also cursed!" the king exclaimed, as he pushed the gentry woman away.
"Of what curse do you speak, my king?"
The action continued on stage but the rest of the words were drowned out by someone right below Loki in the peanut gallery.
"That vile Natasha'll have our king and no other," a scruffy looking man commented.
"The witch, you mean?" his neighbor said. They both descended into drunken guffaws, but Loki caught the term and hung onto it. He'd heard it many times over, but never in Midgard-a place with no magic at all.
Loki took on the form of someone of ill repute and slipped into the crowd below, mentally congratulating himself when his magic went off without a hitch.
The stench of unwashed bodies was all the more pronounced here and he did his best not to wrinkle his nose. "What's the witch done this time?" he asked the mortal. The man turned, almost hitting Loki in the mouth with one of his filthy rags.
"Besides addle the king's brains and curse his cock for her own?" The man's neighbor guffawed at these words. Loki joined in and soon the two turned back to the show and forgot him altogether. He took the opportunity to purloin the surface thoughts from their vulnerable minds.
Loki glimpsed a beautiful woman with a cunning smile. He sifted through the detritus and dug deeper to find the image of a formidable looking man he knew now was called King Ander. The woman stood behind him in a black and silver dress. Her long, dark hair cascaded over her shoulders and there was a necklace with a large, sparkling gem about her throat.
Then the strangest thing happened.
Natasha turned and locked eyes with him and Loki swore he saw old knowledge in the depths of her gaze.
He pulled back immediately.
Loki took inventory of what he had seen and nodded once to himself. It was certainly worth a look. With that in mind, he extricated himself from both the crowd and premises and went to the most obvious place: the library.
Loki breathed a little easier once past the front doors and into the quiet hush of the building. There were an impressive number of stacks full of neatly organized scrolls. He cast a quick invisibility charm so he would not be disturbed and set out amongst them.
Interesting that while Aesir and mortal societies were very different in some ways, in others they remained much the same. Loki picked out several scrolls on local politics and history for himself and sat down near a stained glass window to read. For the first time since their little "vacation" had begun, he felt at home.
Loki quickly lost himself in his reading, only jolting back to reality when two librarians walked by quietly discussing their dinner plans. He rubbed his dry eyes and yawned. That was when he noticed his own rumbling stomach. The window behind him was opaque with darkness.
Thor should have been awake by now, and like a great bellowing buffoon, come to find him. But he did not.
Could something else have interested his brother so?
Loki stood and waved the scrolls back to their rightful places with one lazy motion of his wrist. He was out of the library and back into the streets in the next instant and it wasn't long after that that he was back at the inn.
Loki felt something tingling at the edge of his senses as he climbed the steps. Something ominous.
He opened the door to find Thor on the floor by the bed.
Loki's eyes widened and he hastened to his brother's side, turning Thor over as he said his brother's name.
Thor was covered in a sheen of sweat. His eyes were closed, and when Loki shook him there was no response.
Loki hauled him back onto the bed using both brute strength and magic and began to run some diagnostic spells.
Something was very, very wrong.