Disclaimer: I don't own Thor.

A/N: Thanks so much to my beta ThatOneQuirkyFangirl without which my story would not be as good.

A/N2: This is the longest chapter of the whole thing and is all flashbacks.

A/N 3: Thanks for the reviews it makes it so much easier to write when I know people are reading it.

His hands were around his brother's form, holding Loki tightly as he cried about being a frost giant, hearing Thor's comforting words to him in response.

"I don't care, you're my brother." which he had spoken over and over again until his brother finally cried himself to sleep.

He remembered many of these nights; especially the one after Loki admitted to their father that he knew. He hadn't been in the room when it happened, but apparently their father had said that he had taken Loki in order to eventually make peace with Jotunheim. Loki at the time had kept calling himself a stolen relic, something only to be put away until their father had use for him. Thor had comforted him each time; hating to see his brother in pain. It was in these hours that Thor had made a promise to himself to never let anything hurt his brother again.

He had always done his best to keep his promise, but he hadn't always succeeded, nor would Loki always allow him to interfere. So in the end Thor decided that the best way to protect him was to teach him how to protect himself. However, Loki had chosen a different method of defense compared to many of the other people in their realm.

Which why there were battling now. Thor wanted to see how effective this new strategy was. A strategy that had more to do with balance, speed, and agility than just physical strength. Thor was obviously a little skeptical that anything could be better than just physical strength, but he hadn't wanted to dismiss Loki's alternative fighting style outright like he might have before. Besides, perhaps it wasn't as ridiculous as it seemed.

Thor had a sword and Loki had a staff. Loki had trained in this art for several years now; yet he had let his other training slide. Thor just hoped that his brother would not make a fool of himself. He stepped forward to attack but Loki didn't, his eyes ghosting over Thor's body rapidly. His brother was too much of strategist. He was always trying to win fights with strategy. Strategy only worked if your physical strength was at least similar to the person you were fighting, but his brother didn't seem to understand that. Thor was glad he had a training sword, like most training swords the edges were dull so that they wouldn't hurt too much when they struck their opponent. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was hurt his brother seriously.

Thor moved to strike, only for Loki to duck under it. His brother was fast, but generally he could only seem to use that to his advantage on the defensive. His offensive strikes were usually poorly balanced or too quick or too slow. However, something different happened then, Loki's legs somehow swapped his out from underneath him. Thor fell to the floor unexpectedly and looked up as Loki put his staff to his back. Thor couldn't deny the route that Loki had chosen was very effective.

~o~

They were older now and standing by a small lake out in the forest in the middle of the night. Thor was shivering lightly; envious of his brother's near immunity to the cold. Loki looked down at the lake and then back to Thor nervously.

"Thor, I don't' think I can do this," he said. Thor shook his head.

"But Loki, I want to try it," Thor complained. He had wanted to try it ever since Loki had told him that such a thing existed. He wasn't sure why Aesir didn't do it more often since it sounded fun.

"Thor, I...I" Loki trialed off, but Thor knew his brother well enough to know what the problem was. Loki was afraid. He had never summoned his frost giant powers before and he was afraid of not being able to control them, he was afraid of hurting him. Or maybe he was scared to see the look on Thor's face, because using his powers would involve him looking Jotun which Thor had still never seen. He was afraid that Thor would abandon him once he saw his real form.

"Loki, no matter what happens I will be right here. Now, I want to ice skate!" Thor demanded.

Thor hoped that if he phrased his statement demandingly it would cause Loki to be annoyed at such a thing, which would give him less room to be nervous about the whole experience. Loki's eyes flared at the demand and Thor knew it was working. Loki sat down on his knees in the cold dewy grass and put his hands in the water, closing his eyes only for nothing to happen. Thor frowned wondering what the problem was. Apparently he had broadcasted the question on his face, because Loki answered.

"I don't know," he said, frowning at the lake but at the same time looking relieved.

"Loki, if you do not wish to this today you do not have to," Thor said, finally backing down. No matter how much he wanted to ice skate, he did not want to risk upsetting his brother. Loki looked up at him like he wasn't sure how to take that. He looked between Thor and the lake a few more times before he put his fingers over the water again and Thor saw ice stream from his palms slowly, flowing out from where Loki's hands were until it reached all edges of the lake. Thor looked at his brother as his skin turned blue and ridges showed up on it. So this was his brother other form, it was interesting.

Loki looked at him as soon as the ice was completely around the lake, fearful that Thor would abandon him. Thor shook his head in annoyance, hadn't he already proved several times over that he cared not that Loki was a frost giant?

Thor instead held up his shoe since Loki said he had to do something to it to make it so that he could actually ice skate. Loki waved a hand over it and there was suddenly a metal blade hanging from his shoe. That would be useful if it came to battle. Perhaps he should get his brother to make shoes with blades in them that he could suddenly eject? But that would be hardly as fun as using his body, so he gave up on the idea. Loki did the same to the bottom of his shoes and Thor was about to go onto the ice when his brother's hand stopped him.

"It's too rigid. It has to be smooth," Loki said. His brother summoned fire and chased it around the edges of the lake until it gleamed and finally it looked smooth.

"Can I go now?" Thor asked excited and after a long moment, in which Thor got terribly impatient, Loki nodded.

~o~

They laughed as they skated around the lake. It had become one of their favorite things to do together, and it was something that only the two of them, and he supposed Heimdall, shared. Heimdall had never told on them though. Thor supposed Heimdall only really reported things that were actually dangerous to their kingdom; not so much as when Heimdall just saw them doing things they weren't supposed to.

Thor had been unstable at first and hadn't liked the rolling motion, but he had gotten used to it over the years and rarely now did he fall down onto the ice. His brother and him had over the years found different ways to skate that were more and more complicated; some of them even involved flips and jumps. Once one learned a trick, the other would work eagerly until they could do the same one. It was usually only when Thor messed up on a trick that he fell now. They were not only fun, but also strengthened their legs and bodies, so it could be quite exhausting if they worked on it for some time. It was especially nice because it just the two of them. So even when Thor went off on adventures with the others, and Loki refused or was too sick to come, they still had this in common.

~o~

Thor dragged his unwilling brother to the Games. It was an event where warriors tried to best each other at each level until there were only two left, and those two battled. The winner of the match was called the King of the Games. Thor's turn wasn't until much later and Loki, although a formidable warrior, had decided not to join this year, since other people often called his style of fighting cheating. Though technically it wasn't considering that Loki used no magic, only his body, but others still liked to call it cheating.

Loki sat down next his brother and sighed. Thor knew that Loki had no love for these kinds of activities. Normally rather than drag Loki to things he did not want to go to he just met up with Loki late at night and they ice skated, but he was sure Loki would like the games more than he had the last time he had went. Loki looked at him.

"Brother, I thought we agreed that you would go to this thing and I would read and we would meet later." Loki said sounding every bit as bored as Thor would if he were required to read.

"Loki, I would not make you come here for no reason, so hush and watch." Thor said.

The two of them looked down at the pit where the two warriors were fighting. They looked like every bit the normal warriors that they were, until part way through the match one of them did a back flip and attacked from the other side. Thor grinned and looked at his brother who looked astonished. Those were his brother's kind of moves. The ones that normally others called cheating, but the warriors were incorporating his moves into their fighting styles. Not everyone, but enough that Thor had noticed the pattern. Usually it was only one or two moves, but it was obvious where they had come from since no one else before Loki had used moves like that. Loki had said they came from Midgard. Usually everyone thought too mighty of Asgard to incorporate fighting style from somewhere as primitive as Midgard. Or at least they had until Loki had started winning fights with his new fighting style.

"They're using my moves," Loki said breathlessly and Thor nodded.

That was the reason why he had forced his brother to come there. He had been supportive of his brother fighting style since he had first seen it in action. Thor imagined he could have just as easily been insulted and called it cheating like many of the others had, but things had changed since that night that he found his brother crying about his heritage. The words of wisdom that his other self had given were always in his mind.

"If you do not care for him, you will lose him." He had taken his other self's words to heart completely. Although they no longer spent all their time together like they had when they were children due to their different interests, they always had each other's backs in everything they did.

"That they are brother." Thor said smiling widely at his brother's astonishment.

~o~

Thor had searched everywhere for his brother and in the end found him where he should have looked in the first place: their lake. It wasn't frozen at the moment and Loki was staring at his reflection. He had worked so hard to get Loki to be okay with his frost giant self. Was his work all for nothing now? There was snow on the ground and really it was the snow's fault that they were even in this position to begin with. It had always been his and Loki's secret, but now everyone knew and they had called his brother many names when they had found out.

"Loki," he said softly and Loki turned to look at him, his eyes red. But not the natural red, this red was from crying. It had been quite some time since Thor had seen his brother cry and he found he didn't like it any more than he used to. It made him feel like a failure of a big brother to see.

"They think me a monster," Loki said, softly turning his head back to the lake. "Why can't this be who I really am?" he said, his voice full of sadness.

"Because then we could not skate," Thor said, as he sat next to his brother who didn't give any indication that he had heard him.

"You always said you didn't care what anyone else thought of you." Thor reminded him and Loki smiled bitterly.

"I lied, of course I care," he said looking down at the lake. "I'm always lying. I was lying to myself when I thought I could be Aesir. I was lying when I thought that everyone was finally accepting me for who I was."

"They are surprised Loki. They will come around and even if they don't, all the people who really matter have. Mother and Father have and I have." Loki nodded, but didn't look up from the lake.

"Maybe if I had given up my pranks," Loki said, under his breath but Thor still heard him and he laughed boisterously.

"You could no more give up your pranks that you could your life! You enjoy them too much!" Thor admitted he found they were funny as long as he was not the recipient, but even then, usually with time and a little distance, he had found them funny as well.

"But you can't deny people would like me more if I were to give them up." Loki said sourly as he looked at the lake. Thor shrugged, maybe so, but most of the time he liked his brother the way he was.

"People would like you more if you would open up to them and show someone else outside of the family who you really are." Thor responded. His brother tended to hide all of the emotions he felt, when he was upset, scared, or angry, deep inside of himself; only letting it out in front of Thor or their mother.

"I thought I already did," Loki said dryly.

"Being Jotun is your race, not who you really are." Thor said irritated. Loki said nothing just stared at the water.

"Show me." Thor demanded suddenly. Loki raised his eyes up from the lake slowly and looked at him.

"What?"

"Freeze the lake again, but show me." Over the years Loki had mastered it so that he no longer had to be in Jotun form to create ice. Loki looked like that was the last thing in the world he wished to do.

"Do it brother." he said using his big-brother-knows-best voice.

Loki cursed under his breath for several moments, some of them quite vulgar. But Loki placed his hand palm out. He no longer had to touch the water either or use fire to clean the surface. Loki took a deep breath and used his frost giant powers to create the ice surface they were used to. This time though he allowed his face to change into his Jotun form. Thor put his hand on Loki's arm who jerked away from him. In Loki's Jotun form, just a single touch could hurt him. He had found that out the hard way. Thankfully it was not terribly bad since Loki had jerked away in terror just like this time around.

"Thor what do you think you're doing?" he asked terrified, even though Thor was the one who could easily end up dead or injured with a simple touch.

"I trust you Loki; I have always trusted you," Thor said earnestly, and he saw some of Loki's terror fade and be replaced with anger.

"You fool! You could have gotten yourself hurt!" Loki yelled as the blueness faded away to be replaced by his normal look.

"I trust you Loki," Thor stated again emphatically.

He couldn't speak for the rest of Asgard, but he could speak for himself.

"I respect you. I… love you." he said.

It wasn't often he said it, Loki was his brother after all, but he knew that at the moment it was what his brother needed to hear. Loki stared at him in the way that he had when he was trying to figure out if someone was lying to him, but only for a moment before a sad smile split his face.

"Thanks, Thor. I don't know what would happen to me if I didn't have you." he said and Thor promised to himself that Loki was never going to find out.

~o~

"Are you nervous?" Loki asked him.

He hadn't been until Loki had spent the last year reminding him of all the duties he would have, how important they were and what were to happen if he were to mess up. He sent his brother a resentful look, which just made Loki smile. He knew Loki enjoyed reminding him of how weighty this job was and it just wasn't all about the glory of it. Thor hid a smile. He had a prank of his own for Loki, technically it wasn't really a prank, but he knew that Loki would be surprised by it.

"It will be fine, so long as you don't destroy your kingdom." Loki said with a teasing smile. Thor glared at him but Loki seemed unaffected.

'Let's see how funny he thinks it is when I tell him my surprise later.' He thought to himself.

That was when the signal came. Loki walked ahead of him and Thor waited a few more minutes until it was his turn. Thor found himself, in what seemed like no time, in front of his father and Loki was at his side. Thor waited nervously as his father gave a speech and then when it was his turn; he said the words that he was required to. His father then declared him king and the entire palace roared.

'It will be fine as long as you don't destroy your kingdom' raged in his head complete with his brother's teasing voice.

Thor grinned; Loki would not think his comments so funny now. He had told no one of his plans and he wasn't really sure if it was allowed, but now that he was king there was no one could counter him, not even his brother. Odin paused and Thor knew it was time for his speech. He trained his eyes upon his brother wanting to know his reaction, Loki frowned at he realized that Thor was looking only at him.

"Thank you for coming to witness my coronation," he said, to his people, feeling a little less nervous since he felt so proud of himself for being able to conceal such a thing from everyone; especially his brother who thought himself able to detect lies from anyone.

"It is a great joy to see you all here." He said trying to speak as he thought his brother would. He planned to have his brother write all his speeches from now on as well, it would certainly sound more eloquent.

"As for my first decision as King, I appoint Prince Loki as my royal adviser and being equal to me in both power and status." He said. Loki's jaw dropped as did several other people, but Thor only had eyes for his brother who stared at him uncomprehending. It was one of the few times in his life that he had ever seen his brother speechless. It was marvelous.

A/N: Thanks for reading. There's only one chapter left. Please review and tell me if you liked it.