Loki strolled into the decadent lounge room seamlessly this time, no dawdling at the threshold. Thor wondered if his brother would dissipate into more wisps of light, if Thor were to throw something, or strike him, or embrace him. He wondered which action they would prefer, and which outcome.
Their eyes barely met before Loki announced carelessly, "Dinner's ready" and made to exit.
"We'll have to find out who cleaned up in here after us, and thank them," Thor remarked to his retreating back. "No one on this ship is a servant anymore."
Loki continued walking, but Thor could almost sense his brother raising an eyebrow mockingly. "Um, I believe all of the broken furniture and glass was your doing."
"I broke everything, but I didn't start it."
Thor watched Loki pause and mutter, "Why is it that you can get away with that as an excuse while I never could?"
"I'll give you a tip, Brother," Thor said. "Don't break valuable things."
The look on Loki's face as he glanced over his shoulder prompted an unexpected twinge of regret in Thor. It was not an angry look. "If only our whole family followed such constructive advice," Loki murmured, so quietly that Thor wondered if his brother was speaking to him.
That it was a peaceful evening was nearly surprising, considering how their mother still privately reeled from her youngest son's recent imprisonment. Thor also knew that he himself would soon have to rejoin other Asgardian warriors to arrest more raiders in other realms. But Thor would not oppose a little surprise such as this.
He hated that he had to disrupt that fleeting peacefulness with his next question. It felt like riding a wild horse over someone's new garden. But Frigga would want to talk about it. He wished she did not.
"How fared Loki when you visited him today?" Thor asked her.
Frigga's hair almost glowed in the fading sunlight as she stared over the balcony railing at their city. He doubted he would ever meet anyone else who could gaze so sharply as if peering into the future.
"Your brother acts… angrily." He wondered if her constant reference to Loki as your brother whenever she spoke with Thor was deliberate. Or perhaps she so badly wanted to sew together the frayed scraps of her family that it was just without thinking. "But I fear…" Her hushed murmur dropped off the edge of the balcony and onto the breeze below, like petals and snowflakes.
"You fear what?" Thor tried to match her voice's tenderness. If he succeeded, it was for Frigga, not Loki.
"He hides much brokenness in him that won't be repaired without your father… and you."
Thor wished harder still that she would just rather not talk about it.
"I'm sure they can start dinner without us," Thor sounded loud after Loki's quietness. "Stay a minute."
"So you can throw more things at me?"
Thor frowned. "Would they actually hit you?"
He realised his brother had opened his mouth to reply just as the embroidered violet cushion bounced off Loki's temple.
A blink of Thor's eye was the only motion in the room for a second. "…Sorry."
Loki rolled his own eyes, sauntering closer.
"Good advice," Loki congratulated him, a blatant return to their previous subject. "Now, to twist that into an excuse for my crimes…"
Despite himself, Thor felt a faint smile raise the corners of his mouth. "Yes, I doubt Midgard's justice system would take kindly to that as a defense."
"I don't intend to encounter any justice system of theirs at all, Brother."
Thor's discussion earlier with Banner floated in his mind. He wondered if Loki was thinking of ordinary human punishment or of S.H.I.E.L.D. "That's… probably wise."
"I do have my moments of wisdom."
"Not in the past few years, I'd imagine."
"They come and go," Loki asserted. "Perhaps I should just leave you to keep making soppy eyes at the world you love, then." He paused as if just realising something, "Or… soppy 'eye', I suppose."
Thor made a grab for the nearest chair, but Loki kicked it out of his reach, laughing unexpectedly. And he made no move to leave. Thor felt the earlier smile creasing his cheeks, the lower rim of his eye patch edging into his skin as it did.
He saw Loki's own smile fade. When his brother spoke again, his voice was suddenly solemn. "I was lying earlier – "
"Surprise?" Thor murmured.
" – When I agreed with you that I'll never change. We're both changing, whether or not you say so."
Loki's eyes were reflecting the galaxies just outside their reach. They could have been searching for something outside the window, or outside Yggdrasil, or peering towards the future.
"Because isn't there surprise at both ends, each time one of us still leaves faith in the other?"
Thor did not think it was really a question.
His brother's voice was softer still, as though he were still thinking it through, or just marveling at it: "And surprise when it isn't totally unmet?"
How nice it would be if his brother really could see into the future.
(If his brother were foretelling it right now)
One of their oldest gestures: Thor's hand resting somewhere between Loki's neck and shoulder, like a moment away from drawing him into a hug.
"You don't think that some things never change?" But Thor hoped it did not sound like he disputed Loki's words, because Liesmith or not, suddenly nothing seemed truer.
"Of course some things don't." Loki answered ruefully. "I always come back, don't I?"
"I might even give you a hug if you were actually here."
(How surprised Thor might have been that Loki actually was)
His brother's arms felt heavy and warm and secure around his back as he rested his head atop Thor's shoulder. Loki reflected for a second it might have felt different to hug him without Thor's long hair hanging around his shoulders as usual, except they had not hugged for such a long time for him to compare memories anyway.
In the mirror behind them, Loki watched Thor's reflection fingering the vile little brooch he had used earlier to electrocute him. Loki wondered if the embrace was only a guise for reattaching the device, in order to ensure Loki would not betray them later.
But Thor's arms were heavy and warm and secure around him, and Loki could rest his head beside his.
So Loki just closed his eyes.
Out of Thor's view, after they broke apart, he wondered if it was surprise he felt at finding himself free of the wretched contraption.
