A/N: Hey guys! I live!
Welcome to the first chapter of part two of Before Letting Go! I admit it has been a long time coming, that's for sure. But I have an excuse! I'm currently taking on 15 units and have little to no time OR energy for much of anything but homework. But since it's a holiday weekend, and I've had some lovely reviews from some friends, I have written! It's short, but it is something to help me get started!
Enjoy! And please, tell me what you think!
Encouragement does wonders for a writers soul!
Part Two: After the Fall
I'm Coming Home
Beaten.
He hadn't been expecting that.
Failure.
Had he been geared for anything else?
Loki stood surrounded by Earth's heroes, his hands chained and his mouth muzzled. Silenced…for now. He glanced up at Thor as he approached with the Tesseract, the item Loki had failed to secure for Thanos.
"Do not fail me."
Loki repressed a shudder. He wasn't about to think about what was going to happen now that he had failed Thanos. Loki had more pressing matters in the forefront of his mind.
He was going back to Asgard. He was going back home.
Loki never thought he was going to see that place again. He never dared hoped he would. Taken, he wasn't being welcomed back there with open arms. He was not the prodigal son returning home to warmth and forgiveness. He was going back as a war criminal. But nonetheless, he was going to see Asgard again after what felt like years of darkness and pain. He was going somewhere he loved, before everything was taken from him.
Loki gazed at Thor's face. He look…disappointed. Loki felt his heart beat once painfully. Why did he still let himself care what Thor thought? They weren't brothers. Not really, no matter what Thor continued to think. They couldn't be. They were enemies. Didn't that thick headed fool see that?
Thor lifted the Tesseract and offered the handle it was contained in to him. Loki glanced down at it and back up to Thor. This was his ticket home and he found that he didn't care what he found at the other end of the bridge. He would see Asgard again.
At least one more time.
Loki took the handle in his changed grasp and lifted his gaze back to Thor. Thor barely looked him in the eye before turning his gaze away again. He had to admit he deserved that, but he didn't want it to hurt so much.
It bothered him more than he was willing to admit how Thor refused to give up on him. How he thought after everything he did that they were still bothers. Loki had tried to kill him, several times, but still, he called him brother.
Sentiment., Loki thought.
Well, there was no room in his heart for that. Sentiment and warm feelings were for the weak and it made you blind to the truth. Loki had learned that the hard way, and he didn't need that lesson again.
But the look on Thor's face now…why did Loki feel so ashamed?
He is my weakness, Loki realized. Thor was his weakness. Where he put his heart because he knew Thor was the only one who really cared about it. And Loki had tried to make Thor hate him. He had tried to rip his heart out, to prove that it didn't exist anymore. Because it hurt too much to see that look on the face on the one that you love the most. It was the look on someone at the end of their rope, of someone ready to give up.
Had Thor given up on him yet? The fool should have a long time ago.
You should have put me out of my misery when you had the change…you and father…Odin.
The light from the Tesseract flared up around them. That familiar feeling of transcending filled Loki. He felt a strange trepidation and gladness mix in his chest.
Whatever lied in store for him now, he didn't mind in this moment. He would see the skies of Asgard again, the Hall of Valhalla, and the rainbow bridge…
He would see home.
