LIKE NOBODY ELSE
The Frost Giants were approaching quickly and their immense bulk was already visible on the low hills.
- "Brother please…" Thor's voice was dropped to a plea.
Loki was still torn between staying in his world or following what he had understood to be the most important thing of his life. His look was running back and forth from Thor to the Frost Giants who had realized that the tiny intruder was the red cloaked prince of Asgard.
Loki looked back at them and clenched his fists. They could see the face of the first giants… they would have been over them in a bunch of seconds.
The Jotunn prince looked at his brother and nodded. Thor smiled and shouted: - "Heimdall! Open the Bifrost."
Nothing happened.
- "Heimdall! Open the Bifrost!" Thor thundered. He knew perfectly what was going on. Heimdall was bound to protect Asgard and if he had deemed his return a risk for the realm, he wouldn't have opened the bridge. For sure Heimdall was considering Loki's return as a true risk for the peace of Asgard and because of that, he was refusing to open the Bifrost also for his own return.
- "Heimdall… let us come home! I know you are refusing to open the Bifrost because of my brother but are you ready to face my own death? What will you tell my father?" He shouted again.
The first giants were slowly walking to them, encircling them against a rocky wall, their arms quickly turning into sharp icy blades. Their growls were threatening and their eyes gleamed red.
Suddenly, a blinding light enveloped the two brothers; the journey home lasted a few seconds before they landed into the Bifrost station. Loki quickly resumed his Asgardian look.
- "It won't happen again that you deceive me." Heimdall's hollow voice welcomed them back.
- "I am sorry, Heimdall, but I couldn't leave my brother in the care of the Frost Giants." Thor walked briskly around the main platform followed by Loki.
- "You were meant to just make sure your brother was safe. You were not allowed to take him back to Asgard." Heimdall answered, his voice plain.
- "I know… and as a matter of fact, I wasn't sure my brother was safe!" Thor answered promptly. Loki was surprised by his brother quick wit. – "Now, Heimdall, allow us to go to the palace and don't tell anybody Loki's back. Tomorrow morning I will go to my father myself to settle this matter. Understood?"
Heimdall seemed to think over his words for a long moment, then he nodded: - "Understood, prince Thor, but if you don't go to your father tomorrow morning, I will personally inform him of your guest."
Thor nodded and walked out of the station, his horse was still quietly waiting for him, he mounted and gestured his brother to mount behind him. Then he galloped straight into the city.
Loki gently embraced his brother and closed his eyes feeling the warm air of Asgard gliding through his hair and caressing his bare skin. He would have never acknowledged it but he was happy to be back to Asgard and in that very moment he didn't want to think of how Odin would have taken his return.
Thor cleverly avoided all the checkpoints and the guards, trotted inside the premises of the royal palace and stopped a few steps away from the stables. He turned his head back, smiled and whispered: - "Dismount, go to my rooms… I know you can do it without being noticed… See you there!"
Loki nodded, smiled in return and nimbly dismounted walking into the palace. Thor left his horse in the care of the stable boys, it took him only a bunch of minutes to walk to his rooms but when he opened the door, Loki was already waiting for him, sitting on a chair.
- "It's so good to see you back, brother…" Thor smiled happily throwing his cloak on a chair.
Loki's look was remote, his lips stretched in a thin smile. Thor frowned: - "You don't look happy…"
His brother shook his head: - "I am thinking of what this will mean to Asgard and Jotunheim…"
- "You can do it tomorrow!" Thor urged him.
Loki stood up and slowly unclasped his furry coat dropping it on the floor: - "You'd better enjoy this night, brother as I suspect your father will send me back to Jotunheim tomorrow…"
- "Father will understand!" Thor answered hopefully. – "You are no longer the brother I used to know… what happened to you, Loki? You weren't so demure! You were spiteful, mischievous… Damn! Brother! I want you back!" He slammed his huge hand against the wall.
The dark prince smiled mysteriously, then answered in his low, elusive tone: - "I am only suspicious, brother… and careful! And I know by now that your father will be ready to send me back to Jotunheim to save the peace between our realms. "
- "Would you go back if you were ordered so?" Thor's smile glided into a gloomy look.
- "Would you allow me to go?" Loki's voice was soft. – "Would you be ready to pay your love for me with a war?"
Thor leaned against the wall and closed his eyes : - "I don't know brother… I don't know…" His voice hinted his inner desperation. – "I don't want to lose you in the ice of Jotunheim but I don't want to be the cause of a war either." He opened his eyes again, blinked and looked at his brother: - "Brother, you're the witty one, you're the one with a ready solution for everything… Please… find one!"
Loki's laugh echoed in the room, soft and sweet: - "My poor… poor brother torn between love and duty… I cannot tell you what's better for your realm and your life." He crossed his arms on his chest: - "I am the youngest, the bastard son, the one with no voice in Asgard's matters."
Thor flung at him and grasped Loki's slender shoulders: - "Don't ever tell that, brother! You're not a bastard son!" He growled..
Loki's green eyes glittered mischievously: - "I am!" he simply answered.
- "What must I do to make you understand you are not?" Thor insisted.
The Jotunn prince smiled sweetly, blinked, a sudden shift in his eyes now gleaming of a harmless light. – "Kiss me!" He whispered.
Thor glided his hands from Loki's shoulders to his neck, then his cheeks, leaned over him and kissed his lips with unexpected sweetness shivering at Loki's cool touch.
- "Brother…" Loki's whispered. – "I don't know what will happen tomorrow… if your father will sentence me to go back to Jotunheim, if I will flee seeking shelter in the other realms, if… if we will ever meet again… I cannot oblige you to follow me… But for this night, maybe our last night together, please brother… keep me with you… keep me in your arms…"
Thor embraced him caressing his long, raven black hair, resting his head on his broad chest: - "Yes brother, you will be safe here."
The two brothers could not tell how many minutes elapsed in the silence and nightly coolness. Thor moved away and gently grabbed Loki's wrist leading him to his wide bed. – "Will you allow me to love you?"
Loki nodded gently and smiled.
Their clothes piled up on the floor, Thor caught one more time in amazement looking at Loki's ivory skin, his slender and ethereal figure. – "You're so beautiful…" He whispered while gently gliding his hand on Loki's hip.
The younger brother smiled sweetly: - "My dear brother, many times I've been jealous of you but never doubt I love you like nobody else in all the Nine Realms. "
Thor leaned over him, his long blonde hair tickling Loki's shoulders: - "So do I." He kissed him gently, savouring his cool lips: - "You're cold, brother…"
- "You know that…" Loki whispered.
- "What can I do to warm you?" Thor embraced him entwining his legs with his brother's.
- "Love me, brother… for I don't know what will happen tomorrow".
- "You're a master sorcerer, Loki… how it comes you cannot see the future?" Thor slowly caressed his hair. "
The dark prince chuckled: - "I am no Skuld*, brother… I cannot foresee the future!"
- "So… are we in the hands of fate?" Thor whispered in his ear.
- "We are, mighty Thor.. in the hand of fate and your father. Do pray they both will be merciful for I have no intention to bow my head to any of them". Loki caressed his brother's wide shoulders.
- "I don't want to think about it… not now…" Thor's voice was low and shrouded in his tick desire.
Loki moaned softly offering him his lips again. Everything slowly slipped out from their minds, the looming thought of Odin's wrath, the risk of Laufey demanding his son back once again on pain of a long, bloody war, the frost giantess meant to be Loki's wife, Sif and her plans on becoming Thor's. Everything slowly washed away in the kisses and the whispers.
- "I love you, Loki…" Thor quickly lost count how many times he whispered that sentence, answers made of soft moans.
Loki surrendered to him, his black eyelashes fluttering, his long, slender legs caressing Thor's strong sides. His back arched when Thor's slowly glided in him. Soft groans escaped his lips. Thor's lips trailed down his neck, lingering on his chest, gently nibbling and sucking his nipples.
Loki kept his eyes closed, slowly sinking in his sheer and searing pleasure, his nails digging into Thor's flesh leaving red stripes on their wake.
The slow, paced movement brought him close to the edge and beyond shattering him , his whimpering muffled on Thor's mouth.
The night was so mild, Loki was forgetting how mild nights might be at Asgard. He lay on the furs, his skin, covered in Thor's sweat, was gleaming like precious mother-of-pearl, his black hair ruffled around his head.
Conversely, Thor's body was laying still, rolled next to Loki, his muscles well-toned, amber-colored skin, such a delicious contrast to his golden hair and blue eyes!
- "I need you more, brother…" Loki whispered, breaking that enchanted moment.
Thor opened his eyes and smiled: - "You will have me over and over, this night, as much as you want, my most beloved brother."
So was it until they fell asleep, Thor's head resting on Loki's chest, barely covered by the rich furry bedspread, the cold air of the last darkness before dawn still caressing the God of Thunder's overheated skin, then playing with Loki's angelic limbs.
The last hours of peace before…
They didn't know. They just didn't want to know .
*Skuld, one of the three Norns in Nordic Mythology. She could foresee the future
