Title: Capturing Starlight
Author: Shi-koi
Fandom: Avengers / Thor
Rating: T+ (older teens and upwards)
Characters/Pairings: Loki, Thor, Avengers.
Warnings: Isolation, mental torture. Personality/Character reconstruction.
Summary: What makes a truth; belief, or knowledge? Is Loki a monster because he believes it, or is he one because others believe his race is? Aka: the story where Thor proves his love for his brother, and ropes the Avengers into helping him fix Loki. Also, Odin gets his just desserts.
Notes: Post Avengers movie.
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
«´¨`•° Capturing Starlight °•´¨`»
*´'`°¤¸¸.•'´*`'•.¸¸¤°´'`*
¨'°ºO cнapтёґ sёvєй Oº°'¨
=» «=
As it turns out, Steve and Tony were the easy ones – the rest of the Avengers were not so keen on Loki living in the same building.
"Are you crazy?" Clint yelps.
Natasha glares at Loki, her eyes hard and cold. "I don't want him here."
"What she said," Clint agrees, looking both horrified and angry.
"My brother is helpless, would you have me abandon him?" Thor asks angrily.
"He tried to kill us," Bruce points out. "He tried to take over the world. He brought an invading army to destroy everything."
"My brother has been punished enough, I will not see him harmed any more," Thor growls.
"Punished? How?" Clint demands to know. Jaw set, eyes narrowing.
"Loki's been locked in an underground cell for sixteen thousand years," Steve offers quietly.
"Some kind of time dilation deal," Tony explains.
"Oh, so because he was put into 'time out' we should let him live with us?" Clint points a finger at Loki, held protectively in Thor's arms. "That...that man took over my mind . I don't want him and his magic tricks anywhere near us – but especially not where we live and sleep!"
"Time out? TIME OUT?" Thor roars so loudly the windows shake. "My brother has been locked in a windowless room, alone, in complete isolation for over sixteen millennium! He has more than paid for his crimes! I cannot...I cannot even get him to awaken!"
Steve cringed at the force of Thor's emotions. Anguish was written all over his face, and for once, Steve actually saw the God as human.
"And if he does wake up? What then?" Clint grinds out, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. "Do we just let him go on his merry way? Are you going to take responsibility for the people he could kill?"
"Sixteen thousand years," Thor repeats. "Tell me you would be the same after forced isolation for such a great period of time."
Clint's jaw locks and he glares stubbornly at Thor. "It's not just us. There are a lot of people – human, breakable people – who live and work here. We have a responsibility to keep them safe."
"Even if Loki does wake up, who's to say he won't be insane?" Natasha points out calmly. "As you've said, being alone for that long is a terrible thing. You can't be sure that if Loki wakes up, he'll be the same as he was. He might be even worse. For all you know, he could become even more dangerous than before."
"Perhaps we could compromise," Bruce offers suddenly, face pensive.
All eyes turn to him, and Bruce colours slightly.
"You have an idea?" Steve asks.
"Yeah. Maybe." Bruce shrugs. "Tony was designing a type of containment method for if we ever came up against Loki in the future. It shouldn't be too hard to create a comfortable room for Thor and Loki to live in, one which can be monitored, and, if Loki wakes up, uh, well, not in his right mind, shall we say, then he won't put everyone here at risk."
"I'm in," Tony says first. "I can get the plans drawn up by tomorrow."
"I'm willing to give it a go," Steve agrees.
"It's just an idea," Bruce says quietly, "but I don't mind having Loki around if this room works."
"I'm out," Clint snarls, storming from the room. "You guys are going to regret this, mark my words."
Natasha sighs. "Try it, but I want extra fail safes. I want you to be able to keep Loki asleep, or freeze him in place or knock him out if you need to."
Tony nods. "Gotcha."
"Then we are agreed? Loki stays?" Thor clarifies.
"Yep, you've got the okay to stay, big guy," Tony nods.
"Let's just hope Clint's not right," Natasha sighs.
(¯`*•¤° ¨'°ºO Oº°'¨ °¤•*´¯)
Thor stays in his room in the Avengers' Tower all day, with Loki laying comatose on his bed. He sits by Loki's side, feeling uncomfortable, wishing he could do something. If it was a matter of breaking skulls until the problem could be rectified, then Thor would rush to do it – but this waiting, it doesn't do anything but make him feel useless.
He's holding Loki's hand when he remembers the ring Vár gave him, and he slips it onto Loki's left hand index finger. The ring; so tiny, so small in his palm, is big on Loki's slender finger, and Thor worries for a moment that the ring might fall off, when it gleams white and shrinks down to fit Loki's finger perfectly, and Thor lets out a breath of relief, a breath he did not even realise he was holding.
"I will find some way to heal you, brother," Thor vows, his voice low and haunted. "I wish I had paid more attention to the advice you gave me when we were younger, for I fear my own arrogance has been the downfall of us both."
There's no reply, and Thor realises distantly that he was half-hoping for one. He sighs and stands, fetching the chest from the foot of the bed. He opens it and hovers a hand over the top. "Idunn's golden apple," he states firmly, and the chest glows for a second before a burnished golden apple, looking too perfect to be real, floats out of the chest into Thor's palm.
The magical healing powers of the golden apples have been lauded throughout all the known realms, and Thor wants to try and get one inside his brother, hoping it will help heal him. The problem is, Loki can't eat when he is asleep, and Thor would prefer not to choke his brother to death.
He stares at the apple for a moment before calling out, "JARVIS, are you there?"
"Mr Odinson," JARVIS greets, "what may I help you with today?"
Thor swallows, still feeling uncomfortable with conversing with a being he could not see. "I wish to feed my brother this apple, but I do not know how to do it while he sleeps," he admits.
There's a short pause before JARVIS speaks again. "Perhaps you could try making a smoothie out of it, and coax the liquid into Mr Layfeyjarson's stomach."
"What is a 'smoothie'?" Thor asks, brow furrowed. "I have not heard of such a food before."
"Perhaps, on Asgard, you had the opportunity to see a child fed food which had been mixed with milk?" JARVIS asks blandly, giving the impression of sighing.
Thor blinks. "Aye. Some children do not like being weaned off their mothers' milk, so we would add honey or fruits to milk to feed them."
"A smoothie is very much the same kind of thing. If you do not mind, I will ask one of the others to assist you," JARVIS offers.
Thor takes a moment to think it over. "Aye," he says eventually, "I would appreciate the assistance."
Thankfully, it's Tony who turns up. "Heard you need some help feeding Sleeping Beauty," Tony says, quirking a brow.
Thor frowns. "He is Loki, not a beauty who is sleeping. I suspect he can be considered attractive..." he trails off as Tony starts snickering.
"Thor, buddy, if your brother wasn't evil, he'd have gaggles of women all over him. May be attractive?" Tony snickers some more.
Thor looks away uncomfortably. "You have been 'eyeing' my brother?"
That sets Tony off even more and he clutches his stomach, laughing interspersed with 'Ow, ow, ow!' as he giggles and chuckles and laughs.
"Dude, with the amount of leather he wears, can you honestly say you can't notice him? Not to mention, if I wasn't this hot and gorgeous, I'd be jealous of his good looks."
Thor sets his jaw. "He is my brother."
"Right..." Tony grins, "and you've never had to put up with his lovestruck suitors?"
At this, Thor reddens.
"Oh? You have? Wanna tell me later? Any ammo is good ammo!"
"Perhaps," Thor squeaks, clearing his throat before trying again in a more normal tone of voice. "Perhaps you could assist me instead of all this chatter," Thor suggests, his cheeks and the tips of his ears pink.
"Right, right, smoothies, gotcha," Tony says with a wink. "C'mon, lets go down to the kitchen so I can show you how to use the smoothie maker."
Thor hesitates as Tony leaves the room. A moment later, the other man pokes his head around the door.
"You coming, big guy?"
"I...I find myself uncomfortable at the thought of leaving my brother alone," Thor admits softly, his eyes glued to Loki's sleeping form.
"JARVIS," Tony calls out.
"Yes, sir?" JARVIS asks smoothly.
"Could you lock the door behind us and keep an eye on Rip Van Winkle here?"
"Of course, sir," JARVIS replies.
"See big guy, nothing to worry about," Tony reassures Thor calmly. "Now, lets go rev my baby up and see what she can do."
Thor pauses outside the closed door. "He will be safe?"
"Yep," Tony pushes Thor forward, and Thor finds himself automatically adjusting so the mortal man could move him.
The kitchen is empty when Thor and Tony enter it, and Tony makes a beeline to one of the cupboards and brings out a chrome and plastic monstrosity. He places the huge contraption on the counter beside the fridge, beaming widely.
"Like it? I made it myself. The commercial ones I kept buying kept breaking. Didn't like crushing ice for any great length of time," Tony says, barely pausing to draw in a new breath. "Or maybe they just didn't like my ingredients...Anyway, this one slices, it dices, it makes julienne...uh, forget that, I was watching an infomercial earlier," he says with a cough.
"So this...machine...it will help make this drink for Loki?" Thor asks, peering doubtfully at the thing on the counter.
Tony grins, fetching a large container of milk from the fridge, and gathering a handful of items together. "Yep. First, you want to core the apple. Don't worry about peeling it or chopping it up," he says, patting the shiny chrome side, "there's nothing this baby can't blend into microscopic particles."
"And that is good?"
"That's very good," Tony clarifies. He hands Thor a knife and pours some milk into the blender as the God cuts out the core. "Now, lets see...honey, check, vanilla syrup, check, dollop of cream, check, teaspoon of wheatgerm, check, hmmn...maybe some cinnamon..."
"Done," Thor says, smiling.
"Great!" Tony grabs the two halves of the apple and dumps it into the small mixture in the blender. "Now, cover your ears," Tony warns.
Thor frowns and blinks, but dutifully covers his ears anyway. When Tony turns the blender on, the sound it makes is so loud, that, even with his hands covering his ears, he winces. Finally, eventually, and thankfully, Tony turns the blender off. He lifts the lid and stirs a spoon around in it before declaring it done.
"Right, so, I was thinking," Tony starts, staring at the blender, "you want to get this into Loki's stomach, yeah?"
"Aye."
"And he's asleep, so he can't drink it."
"Aye."
Tony sighs. "Well then, we've got only one option. Since we don't have a nasogastric tube, we're going to have to use something like..." he fiddles about in a drawer for a moment before crowing 'Ah-hah!' and brandishing what looks like a long turkey baster, "this! We'll fill the big round end with the smoothie, and drip it down his throat. Do it slowly enough and he won't choke."
"This will work?" Thor asks sceptically.
"What was your idea?"
"Uh..."
"Yeah, thought so." Tony says, rolling his eyes. "Now, c'mon, we've got a comatose evil dude to feed."
"He's not evil," Thor gripes, following Tony back to Loki, letting the other man carry the blender and the tube, "he's just misunderstood.
"...and possibly PMSing," Tony laughs.
"I would disagree with you, but I do not know what that means."
Tony just laughs even harder.
(¯`·._.·[tßÇ]·._.·´¯)
