Disclaimer||Obviously, I don't own anything. Frankly, I don't want to. Everything Marvel has done with this so far has been perfection.
A/N: Personally, I am not very well informed with all of the Sciences of Asgard, and the names, and the traditions, so I improvised.
-Please excuse any grammatical errors.
-This is Loki/Thor. Don't like don't read.
-Please review, it would make my day!
Small.
He felt small.
Slowly he let his back relax against the cold stones behind him. His body still tingled, from head to foot, but he recently discovered that if he focused his mind on counting the cracks in the ceiling that the prickly sensation dulled. So far, there were nineteen hundred and twenty three imperfections just above his forehead. Twenty-four now.
In the back of his mind he wished he were dead. He wished that when he let go of everything on the Rainbow Bridge that he had died.
That would have been easier than this.
Than going through all of this. Because honestly the frustration and humiliation of complete defeat was worse than dying betrayed in space. He slammed his head back.
His vision swam as he re-opened the wound on the back of his head. The blood was hot as it dripped down the back of his neck, beneath the covers of his emerald green tunic, although, because of the blood and dirt caked into the fabric, it was more of a dark brown now. Again he jerked his head back, and yet again the room spun and his head fell forward, his forehead throbbing against his knees.
A choked sob escaped his chapped lips. Bleed. Let me bleed to death. Let me die here. Let me go before I loose my mind.
It was wishful thinking, he knew, and vaguely he wished his wrists weren't still bound, but at least they had removed the gag to give him water. They had just forgotten to put it back on.
It sat tauntingly in the guard's hand on the free side of his cell. His jaw ached. Everything ached. He could feel the tears, hot and persistent pushing through. He clenched his eyes shut. What good would crying do?
"Loki." His heart burned hot and his throat clenched and his head swam even more as his name was whispered across the stone. He let out a dulled groan before rising up his head. Thor stood, tall and out of breath behind the bars that separated them. And then Loki saw the humor in this. And he laughed.
It was a dry breathy wheeze, the remnants of something so pure now turned to dust.
"Why do you laugh?" Thor demanded, shifting some on his feet, his cheeks flushed red with anger and his brow furrowed in intense frustration.
"Because no matter the events I always end up kneeling to you." Loki let his eyes roll forward, their usual mischievous mirth dulled down to the most dismal grey. No light left anymore. "Ironic, isn't Thor?" The god seemed to flinch slightly at the use of his name, of how it was spat like poison from a silver-tongue.
But then Thor did something Loki would never have anticipated. He knelt slowly down until he was seated on the ground. Loki swallowed, desperately trying to wet his throat once more.
The tears were annoying enough; he really didn't need to be tongue-tied either.
"You are not below me and I am not below you. We are equal." Another sharp bark of bitter laughter, another burning glance.
"Says the king to the prisoner."
"Or the brother to a sibling." Loki gritted his teeth, snapping his head to the side and snarled as he managed to bite out:
"We are not brothers."
"Not in your eyes."
"You are infuriating."
"You think yourself better?" The smile that threatened Loki's countenance caught him by surprise. His lips barely twitched but he felt it-the happy stirrings of warmth in his chest. Nostalgia. He remembered him and Thor's childish banters late at night, after a feast or during a hot sunny summer day sparring. Something inside of him burned cold.
Thor looked on with sad eyes-lost eyes, as he watched Loki's inner turmoil from eleven feet away. The grin that had subconsciously creeped its way in began to fade, replaced only with a bitter truth.
"I wish to help you, Loki. I wish to get you well again."
"And I wish to die." Loki snapped, head turning up to Thor's shocked face once more. And he did smile now, a slow slithering sneer that made Thor feel sick. "Does this surprise you? Surely you didn't think that I had half the heart to carry on, did you?" Loki's voice echoed about the cell and for a moment after it was definably quiet. Then, with slow a pretense Thor rose to his feet, eyes never leaving Loki's. They both didn't want to look away.
"I will not allow that." Thor spoke eventually, his voice thick and even. "I will not allow your death."
"How do you still have enough pride to defend me? To claim to protect me?" With this Loki rose hesitantly to his feet, staggering some to the left before walking slowly forward across the stones. The guard by Thor shifted some, hands uncurling and curling back again, watching with a wary demeanor as the trickster moved painfully forward.
"Why do you still care?" Loki stumbled to a halt, two feet away from Thor and he could practically hear the thunderer's deep breaths. "I threatened to destroy the world you love, I tried to kill your friends-to kill you, to kill that woman you claim to have feelings for, yet…" And Loki trailed softly off; his once beautiful green eyes searching Thor's raging blue ones. "And yet you still love me."
The guard besides Thor stepped forward, his armor clanking and he raised the butt end of his spear as though he would hit Loki back. He would have, had Thor not caught the gold metallic shaft and ordered the guard back down.
"My lord, if he has upset you I can easily-"
"That will not be necessary. Stand down." The smile that stretched across Loki's face was one of a daunting feigned flush.
"Did I upset you?" Thor didn't respond, lowering his arm and clenching his jaw. His body language said it all. "Ah, I did, didn't I?" The mirth was evident in Loki's voice as he reached out, arm slipping through the space in the bars so that his fingers lightly touched the metal plate of Thor's armor.
The jolt the traveled through Loki was intense, and he stared, perplexed, at how the draining sensation in his arm vanished upon Thor's touch.
Unfortunately, Thor's warmth didn't last for long. It seems his "brother" was too preoccupied to catch the guard this time. Loki heard his nose crack and he fell back, his side hitting the far wall as he slid down to the ground once more. The blood that gushed from his nose was hotter than the new trail down his neck. Vaguely, he heard Thor's angered retort.
And then nothing as the darkness came and spiraled him whole.
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