Chapter 7: Reunions.

The golden sunlight of Asgard reached a warm hand to Loki's face as the sleep left his mind. He felt it on his cheeks and it coloured his eyelids a deep orange when shining through. He groaned and turned on his other side. The warmth seemed to put an extra blanket over his shoulders. Slowly he opened his eyes to let the light seep in gradually. It burned at first, as bright as it was even now that he was not looking in it. Through the curtains were closed it still managed to make the room bathe in gold. He had tangled with the blankets overnight, leaving his feet bare and his arm caught against his ribs. But it was good. He had missed the feeling of waking up without frosty eyelashes, no numb fingers or toes, no ice in his hair. He enjoyed the silence, the vague chatter of birds outside. He felt rested now, and he wondered how long he'd been sleeping. He pushed himself up on one elbow and pushed the blankets backwards. The shirt Thor had given him had come together in a lump under his ribs and now that he sat up came falling down his chest again. He pushed himself back in the pillows and sat up straight. He felt warm, cherished. It had been a while. He stretched his lazy muscles and looked to the side, to the many books behind him. He wished he could dwell a little longer, but he would use this time without other people around for something a little more important. He had things to do, things Thor nor his parents had to see. He stood up, swaying his legs over the edge with another lazy yawn and looked out over the bookcases. He knew that in his small notebook stood what he needed but he had done a spell like that so long ago that he needed the more detailed books for it. He grabbed three from their shelves and put them in the drawer of his bedside table. He would need those later. He brushed his fingers through his hair and walked to the other side of the room to grab a pair of pants. When he put them on they were loose, he had to add some weight to himself he thought when grabbing a belt. He pulled at the black shirt Thor gave him, stretching the crooks out of it. He really couldn't be bothered to search something else and he found that it looked just fine. He set a step sideways to look in the mirror and pulled his hair back. At the right side of his forehead he could see the distinct purple of a bruise where his head hit the floor when he'd fainted.

It would fade soon, no reason to bother covering it. He made a quick gesture with his finger and the curtains moved away from the windows, letting the full daylight pull in. The height of the sun told him it was afternoon already, well past midday. He'd have to hurry along if he wanted to do this alone without being missed. He put on boots quickly and took the booklet from his bed. Taking it under his arm he headed out into the hallway. With hurried steps he made his way to the spiral staircase. He looked behind him but the silence of his rooms continued to envelop him. The halls seemed abandoned completely, no guards at watch, nobody passing through, not even a cleaner. He closed the doors to the stairway behind him and descended them. Arriving down at the main hall he expected to hear chatter of peasants, complaining to each other about their trouble before they could do so to the king. But there was nobody to see, the doors to the throne room were shut, the Allfather was not holding audiences. He always did, every day. He frowned, why not today? But he had no time to bother. He had better things to do. He snuck to the next set of stairs, which spiralled down below Asgard's palace. They were forbidden to use for all those that had no business there. They led to the vaults below Asgard. The armoury storages, relics, treasure, weapons, they lived upon treasure and force. Also stored down here, in the room at the far end, was the Tesseract. The casket would be removed from it now but Loki was fairly sure that Thor had put it right back where it had been all the ages. On its column at the far wall, the Destroyer would no longer watch over it, Thor had bashed it like a piece of tin.

Maybe they had built a new one, all he knew was that getting in through these doors he now faced would be the easiest part. The doors were shut firmly and looked as if the steel itself threatened him not to push them aside. He could now of course, they were not at war so they would not be barricaded. The Celtic knots twisted around each other like snakes in a pit, a small sense of decoration on these walls of power. They were at least ten inches thick these doors, made of a steel that would render his magic useless if he would try and open them with force. He put his shoulder against one of them and pushed it aside, the heavy steel letting out a deep groan when shifting. He snuck in through the crack and looked down. The stone steps of stairs stretched out towards the floor. From there he could see the four guards that stood at watch approach. At least these were alert, he had seen some that couldn't outsmart a pig if they tried. They drew weapons and closed in, two head on, two flanking him just in case.

"Identify yourself!" one ordered sharply.

Loki smirked, they were new then. He didn't stop walking, feeling the flow of magic around him, knowing they would not see it, or feel it like he could.

"What do you mean?" he asked amused. "Do you see anyone? I'm not here. You must've heard something else."

The guard that had spoken furrowed his brow and made to speak, but then his eyes glazed momentarily, as did those of his companions. It was only a fraction of a second and then he shook his head and looked around.

"Sir?" one of them asked.

"It was probably a rat. If vermin were smarter we would not stand a chance, those damned creatures make it in anywhere." the superior huffed.

The others nodded or shrugged and made way back to their posts, eyes out for a rat scooting over the floor. Loki smiled, that had gone off without a hitch. He could stand right in front of them but they would not see him. He was air to them, unless he'd touch them, they'd feel it. He stepped down the last set of stairs and looked out over the isle in front of him. There was nothing he hadn't seen before, no new contraptions for traps. Apparently the Allfather trusted that the guards would be enough at times like these. Not that Loki would mind, it made it easier for him, people were much more easily manipulated than things. The Tesseract stood at the far end as he had thought, pulsing its blue light, as if it was alive. Two of the palace guards flanked both sides of it, staring out over the bunker with iron faces. He crossed the distance with hasty steps, this did not have to take longer than necessary. He stopped in front of the column and looked to his side once, the guard had not moved a muscle. Then he shifted his eyes to the seemingly solid wall behind the Tesseract. Would the Destroyer be rebuilt, he wondered. Would he set the damn thing off when touching the Tesseract with no more than the tip of his finger? His eyes did not part with the wall as he hovered one finger over the cube. He could feel its power lap at his hand already, promising to strip his magic as he made contact, it zinged with power.

He placed his index-finger on the surface of the Tesseract and immediately the steel blue crept up his hand, he didn't see it. It was hot, burning his flesh with the heat of all the force it contained. But the wall remained a wall, solid and unmoving. He pulled back his hand, his finger now sore with the burn that started to form. His flesh became white again. The Tesseract had its own mechanism of protection. It would not be manipulated by forces from anything other than its own. It would be near impossible to reproduce this. He would have to put layer upon layer of magic in it and then it would still need more. But it would happen, it had to. He'd need help though. He opened his spell book and traced over the pages with his finger until he'd found it. He put his eyes on the Tesseract once and then started to mutter the words under his finger. He made sure to do so silently, knowing that his spell on the guards provided only a small sound barrier. His eyes shot to the nearby two men quickly but they remained stoic and motionless. Bit by bit a perfect visual copy of the cube came to be in front of him. He spoke the last two words and reached out a hand to grab the blue device. This was nothing like the Tesseract. He could touch it with his magic intact, it didn't burn, and most importantly it did not have a powerful presence it didn't surge with power. It didn't even whirl with light, it was barely even shiny.

But it was a start. He would work on it when he had the time and the energy to do so, he was still so hungry he could barely muster enough energy to use multiple spells at once. He'd need time. He had gotten three days, he had slept one. This was day two, he would need this day to recuperate too, eat, drink, possibly sleep some more. He put the cube on his book and chose a place in his room in his mind, imagined the inside of a drawer and sent the two items away to that place. It was basic magic, one of the first things he had come to master in his childhood. One he had often used to make items of others 'disappear'. Thor would be his most common victim. Watching him roam around the palace to find it was amusing, especially because Thor hated admitting he had lost something. He smiled faintly, the careless years. The ones in which his mother would silently snicker when he pranked Thor like that and his father would laugh, pad his back and tell him to put Thor out of his misery. Now he had more dreadful things to attend. He would have to face these same people again, but now after he had hurt them like he had. He would have to stand there and speak with them, shame pounding in his heart. He looked up. The guards were still oblivious to what he was doing. He'd leave them now, get back to the golden lit halls of Asgard above these bunkers. He scuffed back to the stairs again.

He wanted to linger, walk slowly, the longer he stayed the longer it would take to get back to the halls, the longer it would take to walk to the throne room. But he couldn't be seen. So he sped his pace when making his way up the stairs again and opened the door on a crack again. He slipped through and let the heavy slab fall back in place behind him. The moment he left that room his spell lifted. He felt the pull of magic that had been present lift again, as if part of him had stretched and now relaxed. There were times he didn't even feel spells like these anymore, they wouldn't affect him, he had weakened more than he might have thought. Blind to the other items around him Loki made his way back to the spiral staircase. Like golden rain the sunlight of Asgard shone in weakly from above. As he ascended he still heard no chatter or talk. Again he was followed by silence. It started to become deafening. He had spent so long in howling winds and clattering snow and ice that this silence now made him want to make noise, just to be sure he could still hear. But he heard the faint padding of his boots on the stone of the stairwell. He was not deaf. He peeked out into the halls, nobody had to see where he was coming from. Or worse, Sif could run into him. But he was alone. He stepped out into the halls, confused. Alone in the middle of these halls everything felt ridiculously big. And he just stood like an idiot, wondering where the world had vanished to. The doors to the throne room were now opened. He could see them on the far right, small now but towering when he'd come close enough. It meant his father was there, it meant his mother was there. He just hoped Thor was there, to hide behind, to see at least one kind smile. He could not set a step, remaining like a lost statue in the middle of the deserted hall. He was afraid.

He shook his head and cursed. He was no child anymore. Slowly he walked, legs heavy as if they were lined with lead. Two guards flanked the massive doors. They both looked at him as he came closer. If they were surprised or shocked by his presence then they were kind enough not to show it. Loki stopped. This was the last point on which none of his family had seen him. He could still run now, back to his room, hide and wait for Thor to drag him out of there. Delay it a little longer. But for what purpose would that be? His lips thinned, like disinfecting a wound, just get it over with sooner rather than later. He set a few more steps, the guards let him through, not speaking a word or even looking at him. The three of them were there. Thor, his mother, his father. And they were arguing. No composed family. Thor argued heavily with Odin, forehead folded in a frown, talking in bouldering snarls. His father stood straight, his tactic of offense his intimidating stature. His mother, surprisingly enough, had sided with Thor, a hand on his shoulder, trying to reason more with Odin instead of following Thor's rage. He could not hear what they were saying, but it did make for a heavy discussion. Thor cocked his head angrily towards the entrance, guiding his death glare to a pillar. Loki caught his eye in the entrance and as if his brain could only do one thing at the time his face softened and turned away from the fight. He left his mother to fight on his behalf and turned to walk to Loki. The shouts ceased as his parents noticed that Thor had stopped and focused on something else. Loki stood frozen at the threshold. Thor came down the steps and smiled kindly. Apparently he tried to put his brother at ease, he walked slowly as if he would scare him off. Loki managed nothing but a thin nervous smile. And tried to focus on his brother's big grin rather than his parents because, he couldn't figure their faces out. They looked…. Shocked. Thor spread his arms and caught him in a light embrace.

"Have you rested enough?" he whispered.

"I'd say a day ought to be enough."

And he knew that the blond god smiled at that. His gaze however drifted from the floor to his parents. His mother had returned to Odin's side again, loosely holding his arm. Odin looked puzzled, holding a breath he apparently didn't dare to let go. His mother stared at him, horrified now.

Thor set a step back and looked over his brother's form.

"You still look unwell. You are pale, thin, you may return to bed if you wish."

Loki closed his eyes and shook his head, he was here now anyway.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Thor." he sighed.

The blond god nodded curtly and stepped beside him, putting a hand behind his back for assurance. Loki looked to his parents now, straight back, eyes certain. His heart pounded in his chest. Slowly he set a few steps forward and looked up to their faces as they still stood on the steps to the throne.

He did not know what he should say, a rare occasion, so he chose to stay silent.

"My child…" his mother's voice quivered.

Anger perhaps? Disgust, disappointment?

"My son…" she said, now with a more calmed voice.

She descended the stairs, leaving the Allfather's side. Loki flinched as she raised her hand, fearing not the sting a slap would leave on his cheek but the burn of shame that would rise with it. Her hand grazed his hair, fingers brushing the side of his temple.

"You look so worn. So tired." she stepped back one step. "My poor little Loki."

His eyes shot up. Confused and completely thrown off he sought her face for sarcasm.

"What is it?" her face mimicked his confused frown.

"Why do you do this?" he hissed.

Odin and Fregga exchanged a look, worry.

"Do what child?"

"Don't pretend! Speak truth! Not this sarcastic care please!" he shouted.

Odin finally let that breath go, but it was Fregga who spoke.

"You think we do not care for you anymore? You are our son. Our child. We would never hurt you."

Loki backed away, he didn't trust this, not one bit. There had to be a catch. He sought the room, surely they had set a trap, he had been such a fool not to check for it first.

"Loki?" Thor sounded confused. "Are you well?"

Thor, he had been an idiot to trust Thor. It had been too good to be true, too good. He had lured him here. He had hardly noticed how the panic started to grab him. His breath was shallow and he just wanted to run, but what would they do?

A hand grabbed his shoulder and he lashed out, his magic surging more than necessary to protect him. Thor crashed into the far wall, staggering to his feet right away.

"Loki, what's wrong? It's me."

"What are you going to do with me?!" his voice was high. "What?!"

Thor stopped from moving towards him.

"We won't do anything. I don't understand."

"Don't lie to me!" he felt the blind panic corrupt his brain. "Why did you bring me here?!"

His magic built and built and using this much would exhaust him, but he could not care, defending himself was all he could try now that he had already walked in their trap.

"We wish you no harm." Thor insisted again.

"Don't lie to me!" a pulse of magic came to knock Thor back again.

Odin stood straight.

"No dear…. No." Fregga spoke.

But the Allfather pounded his staff upon the floor once and the power flung Loki back. He crashed on his shoulders and found his arms restrained against the floor.

"Nobody will hurt you!" Odin's voice was loud and far from comforting. The restraints on his arms faded and he sat up. Thor had scribbled to his feet again, now distancing himself from Loki by joining his parents.

"You are so damaged…" Fregga said softly. "You are so damaged that you think we would hurt you?"

His chest was still rising and falling rapidly. The exhaustion of the extensive use of magic lurked under his skin. He didn't understand. His head whirled with questions, thoughts, confusion. He couldn't stand them anymore. Not caring who would see it he let out an ugly cry and buried his head in his arms. Thor watched, a pain tugging at his heart as his brother sat huddled together on a good thirty feet away, crying and breaking apart. He looked at his mother and father. His father's shoulders had slumped and he looked old when he stared at Loki, his one eye soft and pained. Fregga was in tears already, no sobs, that was not like her manners. But in silence the salty water ran down her cheeks. She carefully approached her son and knelt before him.

"We're sorry." she whispered. "We love you Loki. We never stopped."

She put a hand on his raven black hair and slowly brushed her hand through it.

"You are no criminal to us. We know… And we're sorry. We should have seen you were in pain."

Loki brought his head up slowly, he needed to see if her eyes were as genuine as her words.

"You're sorry?" he asked weakly.

"In a crime there is never one culprit." his mother continued, a soft smile on her face. "And we are to blame for things as much as you. But you have paid."

Odin stepped forward.

"From what I have seen and know, I have deemed your sins cleansed. You have paid and suffered beyond what was justice." he said.

He put a hand on his wife's shoulder as he looked at Loki with guilt.

"Welcome home."