3. The Rainy Season

. . .

"I could lie and make you feel better, May. 'Oh yes, all's well. There was a dreadful accident and a car full of Hydra refugees just happened to smash into a wall and wholly obliterate themselves and their prize.' But you'd grow angry if I tried. Instead, there's the unwelcome truth." Loki flickered his gaze up as he continued down the Seattle sidewalk, noting the various couples in their jackets and bundled umbrellas keeping an untrusting eye on the clouding sky and not on him. A folder rustled under his arm. "They drove up into the city less than three days ago, left without incident, and my information has them going further to Portland. From there, a tiny front company took them off the grid. I can go and see what I can chase down, but what paper trail I've found indicates I won't gain you much that way."

May's silence indicated that she was absorbing his sarcasm with the mild frustration he'd intended. "Can't be helped, I'll let the appropriate people know. Any information on the front company?"

He rustled around the pocket of the black pea coat he was wearing to retrieve a thin pair of dark gloves. He didn't need them for the damp chill beginning to fill the air; rather, he used them because it looked right. He resettled the folder under his arm, balancing the meager handful with the aimless grace of a businessman. Another pair of humans looked up at his tall figure passing by and then looked away. Just another ordinary if striking-looking person on the street. "Some pretend bioscience firm. They own a parcel of land with a building staffed by a skeleton crew, and more importantly, they hold a private section of the Portland airport. Mittelos Bioscience. Meaningless name. The trail snares up amidst a row of accountancy and legal paperwork, and then vanishes."

May made a noise that could have been profanity under her breath. "Would have been easier if Pym wasn't so flaky about talking to SHIELD."

"Such is the bitter past. On the bright side, I don't think this particular little set of snake heads is aware of our observation. That buys time." His lips pursed for a second as fat drops of rain began to plop onto the sidewalk ahead of him. The sounds of rattling umbrellas began to flicker up the street. "I've yet my return flight planned for the day after tomorrow. There's still a few details I can chase meanwhile."

"It's something." She sounded grudging. "See what you can scare up, but I've got my expectations set low." A pause filled the line as he arched an eyebrow at what could be an accidental insult. "Not a personal remark. For what it's worth, if it were anyone else, I'd expect nothing and just pull them home. You at least have an eye for details we wouldn't get otherwise."

The rain started to intensify, the plops giving way to a thinner but more rapid downpour. He brushed at the front of his coat with his gloves as other pedestrians started to give each other that I know we're in Seattle but come the hell on look. "A random compliment!" His mocking cheer hid some slight actual surprise.

"I'll deny it and perjure myself in a court of law. Happy hunting, Loki. Check in if something comes up."

He shoved the phone in his pocket after ringing off, looking up at a grey sky growing darker as he watched. People began to hurry past him, muttering to each other in varying shades of affront-

"Can you believe this?"

"I thought this was the dry season!"

"We don't have a dry season, but I thought maybe just one damn day-"

"Oh my god, I left the car windows open."

A streak of lightning cracked across the sky, sharp and brutal enough to make someone on the other side of the busy downtown street jump. Thunder followed close, with the rain beginning to pound as the roar of the sky began to roll towards the horizon. Loki stopped walking and ducked underneath a coffee shop's dripping awning, peering now instead of just glancing. He was unaware of how thinned his lips were.

A head popped out from the shop behind him, the tired-looking barista smelling of the day's special roast. "Where the hell is this coming from?"

He knew the answer to what was technically a rhetorical question, but didn't bother to say it. The kid made an irritated noise under his breath and went back in.

The phone began to buzz in his pocket to let him know he had a new message and he ignored it. He knew what that message was going to tell him. A young couple broke and ran as the thunder snapped again, transforming the heavy rain into a full storming downpour.

Loki waited patiently until he saw a tall, broad figure on the other side of the now empty sidewalk. Grimly amused, he noted the Asgardian's own somewhat less subtle attempt to blend in his appearance with the locals. He lifted his head, pitching his voice to carry its sardonicism properly. "And here I thought I was to be best known as the premier overly showy bastard of the Nine Realms. What excuse have you for this not particularly private display?"

"I thought to make sure my presence was marked by thee, brother."

"I have a phone. You can call. Hel, you can text." He pointed a finger at the sky. "This is a bit much."

As if duly chided, the rain lessened. Thor crossed the street towards him, not hurried and not particularly watchful of the large semi-truck idling at the intersection. The trucker leaned out into the damp to watch the giant blonde figure go by. "You are not surprised to see me, Loki?"

Loki sighed, studying the open, considering face of his glorious golden brother, doing his best to ignore the usual mix of chaos inside his own mind. A trickle of odd concern replaced his thoughts. He decided that was not exactly an upgrade. "I'm not, if for no other reason that now I can enjoy your surprise at my lack thereof." He jerked a thumb at the shop behind him, then followed it up by elbowing the door open. "Coffee. We can discuss such other surprises as what brings you to me – and why it is you look like a bedraggled track coach whenever you wear Midgardian clothing."

Thor tugged gently at the zippers of the wet cotton hoodie, looking dour at what was, in his experience, a relatively mild jape.

. . .

Now they drew looks – not so much the gorecrow brother whose pale face seemed to float above the black coat he wore, but the bright warrior who wore a fairly plain grey tunic and a warrior's leathers under the loose red jacket. Barely passable as human wear. Loki ignored the other patrons of the shop, studying Thor over a hot mug he held in both hands. A line of decorative mugs filled the wall behind the God of Thunder and his dripping hair, their floral riot of color adding a touch of the absurd. "Did that Jane never have a discussion with you about how to fit a pair of jeans? It isn't difficult. Well, to be fair, the human inability to find a cohesive sizing method adds a layer of complexity, but-"

"It was not a priority, Loki." It sounded like a pronouncement.

Loki tilted the mug in his hands, glancing down at the fading little leaf in the latte foam. Pointless, but pretty enough. Thor's seriousness created an edge in the air, attitude and nigh-formal arrival both. He found it unpleasant. "An opening offer of matched seriousness, then. I was not surprised, for I have been watching for your return to this realm."

He glanced up in time to see the brows crease under the long blonde hair. "You watched?"

"A few rumors, a few visions, a smattering of warnings. And now they come to pass, I think." The creases deepened on Thor's face. "Not to mention Stark thought to prod me with news of your abrupt departure. And did you find the threat you sought with that leaving?"

"I've looked, Loki, and I did not find. So I came here, instead." A mug of dark coffee sat in front of him, untouched. Thor sat with his hands on his thighs instead, studying his brother.

Loki let the study stand for a while, for once unsure he wished to break the growing silence. "What exactly were you trying to find, then? Don't draw this out, such play at conversation is my field, not yours. Stick the blade's tip and be done."

Thor broke his gaze and looked down at his drink, still disinterested in it. "The Maximoff girl was given a gift by the staff you brought to this realm. By the gem carried within it. And the girl could see nightmare and dream both and weight her prey with what she found – within these, sometimes, echoes of truth, future, and fear. Chaotic and unclear, but there is something to the images."

"The nature of that gem you know."

"I do. Stones of infinity itself, and that one given the territory of the mind." The blue eyes came back up. "I took the flicker of what she gave me to the pool of the Norns, what echoes remain of it here on Midgard. I have spent a great deal of time considering what I was shown."

"Prophecy is a bleak book of riddles, so our history proves out. The Norns can show you what might be, yes, but not necessarily what is true." Loki shook his head and put his coffee down. "That was risky of you. So, that is some of what you sought. What then did you see?"

Thor's voice was oddly flat. "Hel, Loki, unbound and come to Asgard to claim it full. Utter darkness sat upon the dimmed and shattered throne, and all I've known and loved gone mad in the chaos beyond the realm of Death, all I've met shrouded in the black robes of the lost."

Loki thought of a thin mirror, and a familiar snake's smile on the throne of another Asgard. "Did you see the nature of that darkness?"

"No, Loki. I hear the tone you hide – I saw you among the robed and damned, yes, but I could not hear you speak and you were not the throne's keeper. To my surprise as well. The shades that haunted that future Asgard were damned, but they might not have been condemned by your hand. This is a change. I think it all too possible that such a vision might have been a warning of your works."

A relief, and also no comfort. He picked up his mug again, looking into the steam still wicking off the drink's surface. "Had I held the throne myself this long, a possibility. Yes." He shook his head. "But on this road, no. You may know my motions as they are plain to be seen." He looked up. "So there's your riddle – a doom come to Asgard, and by a hand unknown." He allowed a thin smile. "For once."

His sour attempt at mirth didn't find a match. "I've searched for hints these months past. Looked into the heart of Asgard and across its spires to see the start of that black ruin, to avert it."

"And?" He leaned back as the frustration grew plain on Thor's face.

"Nothing. Nothing, Loki, just as I said. The sun shines bright and there has been a season of peace among our many realms. All is well, and there is no trace of corruption." The blue eyes met his and locked. In them, Loki saw the frustration turn darker. "The dreams are still there, the warning of doom haunts me. My heart knows the corruption lurks, despite what I cannot find. Something is gravely wrong in Asgard."

"And now you come to me, despite old wounds." He thought of May's odd compliment just shortly prior, and it occurred to him that of late he found it easier to understand that prophecies did not come from prophets alone. Instincts were the better fortune-teller, in his new experience. "What did you come here for? What did you think I can offer?"

Finally, Thor put a hand to the mug in front of him. He sniffed it, considered, and then lifted it for a testing sip. Loki had the confusing sense that speaking even this much of the God of Thunder's private burden eased it a little. "Come to Asgard. See if you can find what I cannot."

The chill returned to Loki's stomach. The old instincts, the old temptations were harder to lure away with his brother there. Bitterness came to his mouth, unbidden, leaping directly to the worst assumptions. "To spy for you, then, on the people and their lords to riddle out your mystery for you? Because there is a fallen brother to do such dirtier work while your hands remain clean?"

Thor's voice was sharp but not unkind, drawing a look from someone scrawling notes in a corner. "Because, brother, there is a cleverness to you that is not mine. I have learned enough wisdom to know what is my strength and what is another's, and my wisdom says go, his eyes are better than yours. It has always been so, even in the better times."

Loki looked away.

"You have your duty here, and you keep to it. This is known. Your reasons are not my business. But where I've found a place to strike my hammer, you found a different way to sharpen the knife. I will not toss that knife aside." Another testing sip. Thor put the mug down. "Again we come to the nexus. Help me."

He had no answer for that.

"What did you expect a meeting between us would be?"

Mistrust. The slow trickle of bile. Eventually the common rage we fall into in almost every encounter. The old sins come back to roost. The warnings of the God of Stories trickled through his thoughts. "I don't know."

"Not your vilest lie." The words were gentle, but got a hot stare for a response. "If Ragnarok is come 'round for us, it comes like a thief and not heralded by the warrior's horn. I cannot stop nor face it alone, not if it creeps so."

"And if I say no?" You're going to need each other, said that other Loki. His fingers tightened around the handle of the mug. Nothing about this was as he'd expected, nor so soon. He'd wanted to prepare more. See things at his own pace. There was a great storm swirling in his mind, but little of it could be shaped by words. Not yet. "This is not a matter of old times."

"Those are gone, Loki. These are new times, changed times, and I am frightened they are also short times."

The fear in the great warrior was real, a thing he could sense in the air. Loki let go of the mug's grip and rubbed two fingers across his brow. He could feel Thor studying him as he thought. "I will not skulk for you." He took the hand from his face to spread it, stopping the protest. "If I come to Asgard, it is by day and by my own name."

"And you will accomplish what by that means?"

"A first look and a little more besides, I think. The wiser spy knows when to be seen and when not. Subterfuge isn't always the first step." He looked up, feeling somehow weary. "Don't trust me. That tends to be unwise for you, and I did not expect you would ever come willingly to a door with me behind it again. But let me work my way, and we'll see what comes of it."

Thor stared, then allowed a slight nod. Something in his face eased and he returned to his drink. "Then you will come to Asgard this day?"

"No." Loki nudged the folder on the small tabletop with his elbow. "Soon. A smaller matter, for the sake of the humans. It might draw an unwanted eye, should I drop everything and return with you."

Thor blinked, understanding. "Soon, then, brother. I will go ahead and make what preparations I can."

Brother. Loki didn't look up when the golden prince rose to leave. He closed his eyes when the broad hand touched his shoulder.

The rest of his coffee was cold.