Author's Note: Thanks to LadyRin06 for the favourite.
Translations : Logi - 'Fire', aptann - 'evening'
Ransom
Trapped in a nightmare, Thor stopped running in the grey gloom to shout, "Loki !"
A distant distorted answer and he took a step forward to drop into blackness. Crashed into some sort of wall and then he hit something incredibly hard. His head swam as Loki's voice echoed desperately off the the chamber's circular walls, "Tho-or ! Thor, please, please, I-I don't want to die !", the plea ended in a ragged sob.
When he tried getting up, something, maybe a hand, that felt far too hot shoved him back down easily. A fire blazed to life in a brazier revealing a, just as obviously, ragged Loki - the black-hair tangled and crusted with dried blood, the pale skin turned ashen and those eyes were sunken, their life nearly gone - bound in chains to the jagged brown-black stone wall. Stood over his brother was one of the Eldjotnar like all its kin it had orange-red skin and emerald-green eyes, unlike the one that held him this one's eyes were almost black-green and it stood ten feet tall.
It looked down from Loki at him, its voice rumbling like an open forge, "Nice of you to come and visit us, Thunder God. Just in time for some entertainment as well, isn't that nice of us ?"
"Let him go ! Let him go or I swear that I will kill you !"
"Me ? You think that you a not even two thousand year old boy can kill me ? Surtr Logison, Surtr the First ? Oldest of all the kin ?" Surtr laughed, snapping his fingers before a white-hot flame appeared in his palm. "Shall we see how long how it takes to burn a little Lopt ?"
"Someone who actually just might be more arrogant than I am, a miracle if ever I have seen one. Can you prove it ? I mean, at the very least, I can back up my claims. Can you burn the air ?"
That made him snarl, "Loki, shut up !", and he jerked his head back into the eldjotun's throat. The eldjotun growled at him, its grip tightened before a sharp crack and pain lanced through his shoulder-blade. 'Where is Mjolnir ? Come here, boy, here Mjolnir. Come here, now !'
Loki laughed as Surtr's now flame-covered hand landed on his chest, "Did you get weak in your old age, Surtr ? Because this, it doesn't even hurt."
Surtr snarled and the flames grew, quickly, consuming his silent brother. His own screams echoed in his ears as rain pelted him even more than it normally did. Dazedly, he opened his eyes to see Mother and Father looking down at him. "Father, what is it ?"
Father ran a hand over his white beard, "Apart from the fact that you destroyed your bedchamber's wall, not much has changed since you got back. Nearly everyone on Asgard, Vanaheim, Alfheim and Jotunheim are looking for Loki. Still they have found not even the merest trace of him. If whoever took him does want a ransom like yourself and Prince Grundsol suggested they haven't sent a messenger yet."
Thought back to how himself and Grundsol had come to that suggestion.
Flashback
He stared at the moving image of Loki in the orb, he could see by faintest tightening of his brother's lips, the way his walk was even more graceful than normal, that Loki was annoyed at something. Golden and emerald robes shone in the giant hallway's torch-light, equally green-eyes looking utterly bored. That was when Loki's fingers twitched slightly, reaching for a dagger that wasn't there. Then, then, Loki just vanished from sight and the orb went blank until Grundsol appeared.
Slammed a fist on the table, "How, Grundsol ? How can he just vanish ? Some damned magic is at work here."
The black-haired alf-prince raised a pale-hand to touch the orb, "What if they want to ransom him for something ? We can check his room to see if anything is missing from it."
Annoyed at himself for not thinking of it, he turned and walked out of the room. Maurr asked, "You found nothing then ?"
"Yes, we found not a single thing. Maurr, why did you let me in ?"
Maurr sighed, "Two millenia ago, my sister disappeared and despite how hard we looked, we never found her. I pray the Norns that you have more luck with finding your brother than I with my sister."
"Perhaps when Loki is found, your sister will be found as well."
It took himself and Grundsol a while to find Loki's room, but when he entered he noticed one thing out of place - the blanket. 'Unless he's stressed or some such, he always makes his bed perfectly and he's so strict about it staying that way. I should know seeing that I got woken up many times so that he could do such.'
Flashback
A grunt left him as he crashed to the floor, "You cannot always sleep until aptann, Thor, it's unbefitting of a prince, especially, when said prince is a Prince of Asgard."
His eyes roamed up from the bare-foot to the slimly muscled calves and thighs, "Why should I when the view is much better from down here ?"
Loki stepped over him, "Simply because brother, just as I, you have duties and unlike you I wish to promptly complete said duties, so that I am free to train with Mother."
Picked himself up to press his lips against the side of Loki's thigh, "I would have things to complete before my duties."
The smaller Asgardian answered, "Unfortunately, I happen to be pre-occupied at the moment.", as he pulled the blanket off the bed before laying it down and smoothing it. "There, just perfect."
Slid his lips along the taut thigh, reaching up to stroke a hand over the pale hip, and murmured, "Not perfect."
"Why is that, Thor ?"
"It doesn't have you in it, Loki. Hm, still here I thought that satsifaction wasn't in your nature with the way you went at me last night."
Loki turned to lean against the bed, smirking down at him, as the green-eyes glowed in said satsifaction, "It also is not supposed to be in your nature to surrender. Which you did, oh, did you ever, and so beautifully too. Just begging me to take you. Let me re-phrase, you surrendered last night, you will now because that bed is made and it will not have to be remade until tomorrow."
End Flashback
He walked up to the bed to smooth the blanket, then look around. Everything else looked in place, until he wandered to the bathing chamber. There were two full bottles of the clear potion stood beside the basin when there should only have been one.
'Did they find someway to force him to skip it ? Is that why he looked so annoyed on the orb ? That someone managed to outsmart him ?'
End Flashback
Very slowly, he tilted his head back to see the wall was nearly completely gone, the remaining bit of wall had ragged edges. 'Still ? I returned hours ago and Loki has been gone for two days now. What is going on ? Wait, how did I destroy my wall ?'
Mother answered, "According to Einherjar Olaf, Mjolnir burst out of the bottom of your bedchamber wall."
News such as that was enough to make him stare. 'I didn't think that I actually tried to summon Mjolnir in my nightmare. Yet, apparently, I, in fact, did summon it and with my not being awake to catch it, Mjolnir smashed a hole in my wall.'
If it weren't on the heels of definite kidnapping and possible ransom, it would have been hilarious it was something that Loki would have illusioned him doing. His heart twinged painfully and he closed his eyes, wishing that Loki would come back as easily as Mjolnir always did.
