Chapter 9:

The shouting startles them, despite its being muffled from behind the thick, closed door.

More than that, it's Thor's immediate stiffening and petrified, widening eyes which has Darcy shooting to her feet, panic racing through her.

And then the giant boy has the door open, swung carelessly wide, and he's running into the house, Darcy close behind.

The screaming becomes evident then, coming from upstairs. From Loki's room. The voice pitched high with terrified abandon, crying out Thor's name.

Thor moves like something not real, Darcy thinks dazedly as he gets away from her. Someone that massive shouldn't be able to move that fast.

Only he does, and Darcy is only halfway up the staircase, her heart in her throat as the screams grow louder, before Thor is at his little brother's bedroom door, throwing it open.

"THOR!" Loki cries desperately, and the sound alone is enough to make Darcy's eyes sting.

By the time she reaches the door, Thor is already to the younger boy, arms outstretched.

And then he has him up, pulling Loki against him hard, and Loki clings back with choking despair, shaking violently as his broken cries of the older boy's name degrade into nothing so much as agonized, bloodcurdling screams. Loki's voice goes ragged with it, cracked and fissured and drawn thin.

Between, he sobs viciously, and for a moment, Darcy has the irrational fear he will suffocate, there seeming no room for breath in between his fits of terror.

Thor's great, muscled arms are wrapped about him, wide palm cradling along the back of Loki's head, pressing the thin boy's face to his broad chest, his other rubbing soothingly up and down along Loki's back.

And still, Loki screams.

An awful, sickening sound which sends brutal unease rippling down Darcy's spine.

"Shhhh, shhhhhh…" Thor tries vainly to assure his brother, rocking him gently, and Loki's wiry arms tremble visibly as they hold back over Thor's shoulders. "I'm here brother. I'm here. You're safe."

A choking sob rips from Loki's throat, and he only holds tighter, like he needs to feel his brother to believe he's really there.

"I'm here Loki." Thor repeats, and his own voice shudders, struggling against tears.

"I th-tho…" Loki suddenly stammers, and his voice is shaking so badly, he can hardly form words. "th-they… they were… I thought they w-were…"

"I'm here brother." Thor soothes. "No one's going to hurt you. You have my word. No one's going to hurt you."

And if Loki had words more, he lets them go, dissolving into the bigger boy's arms and weeping against him, sobs at last subsiding to silent tears, though still he trembles terribly, and still between there comes chocked gasps. He sounds constantly on the verge of hyperventilation.

Darcy stands at the door's threshold, her hands clenched over one another as she holds still.

She thinks about telling Thor that she's going to go home now, feeling suddenly as an intruder. But the older boy's voice stops the thoughts in their tracks.

"Darcy," he begins softly, still rocking Loki gently, and Darcy stands straighter, abruptly alert. "there's a bottle of pills on my nightstand, in my room. It's the first door down from this one on the right. Can you go get it for me? And also a bottle of water from the refrigerator downstairs?"

"Yeah, sure." Darcy replies without hesitation.

"Thank you." Thor says, not bothering to turn and look at her.

And so silently, Darcy steps from the room, heading first for the downstairs, to get the water.

She wonders silently if Loki is even aware of her presence there, and if he is, what he thinks of it. She hopes he isn't mad at her for seeing him like this. She never meant to intrude. She only wanted to make sure he was alright.

She opens the fridge to find the shelves practically lined with bottled water. She grabs two, just in case, and it doesn't escape her notice how there isn't really much else to drink. No soda or juice of any kind it seems.

She doesn't waste any time thinking about it further though, practically running back up the stairs and making her way to Thor's room.

Despite having been over here several times, this is the first time she's been in the older boy's room, she realizes as she pushes the door open.

It strikes her immediately how entirely different from Loki's room it is, just like how Thor is so different from his brother in general, it seems.

Where Loki's room is almost neurotic in it's cleanliness, insanely organized, Thor's looks like a small bomb went off inside it.

Clothes are strewn all about the floor, along with numerous different sports balls, soccer and football and baseball. And several school textbooks scattered here and there.

There's hardly any floor visible beneath all the clutter, and Darcy gives up quickly trying to avoid stepping on any of it, spotting the nightstand and heading in its direction.

It isn't difficult to find the bottle of pills Thor was talking about, a small, orange container with a white cap, it looks like any generic pharmaceutical.

Darcy pushes her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she brings it closer to her face, eyes squinting as she reads the label. Some multi-syllable name adorns it that she can't really be bothered to sound out.

She clutches the bottle tightly between her palm and fingers then, getting ready to turn and head back to Loki's room, but she's stopped when from her periphery her gaze catches sight of a framed picture, and she turns back, curious.

Without thinking, she reaches out, lifting the picture from the nightstand, staring at it intently.

It's Thor in the picture, she's certain. Only he appears several years younger, his face fuller with baby fat, and clean shaven, without the thick beard he so proudly sports now. His hair is longer too, well past his shoulders, and though it's easy to tell from the photograph that he's a big kid, with broad shoulders, he's also visibly less built than he is now.

Only it isn't Thor who really catches Darcy's attention, but the other boy in the photograph, sat upon Thor's shoulders, clad in shorts and a tank top. Skinny legs dangle down over Thor's chest, feet bare, and Thor's big hands hold onto the boy's ankles, keeping him in place.

Around Thor's neck, the boy's equally skinny arms are loosely locked, and he rests his chin atop Thor's head. His jet black hair is cropped incredibly short, nearly to the scalp, and along his small face, wide, green eyes shine visibly, and his lips are stretched into a broad, toothy grin, matching Thor's own, wide smile.

The dark haired boy can't be more than six or seven years old, Darcy is sure, and at first, her mind doesn't quite register who it is she's looking at.

The boy looks so incredibly happy.

And then it strikes her like a ton of bricks, and she exhales in wonder.

It's Loki in the photo with Thor.

That's Loki.

Darcy can scarcely believe it.

She stares at the picture for long seconds, almost confused.

In all the time she's known Loki, she doesn't think she's ever seen him look like that.

Never seen him smile so.

Never seen that kind of bright joy in his face.

And though very obviously tiny; he doesn't look like he could weight more than 40 or 50 pounds here, there's an obvious health and vibrancy to Loki which just isn't present now. At the realization, Darcy feels her heart sink.

This must have been before…

Her brow furrows too as it occurs to her that this is the first photograph of Loki that Darcy's ever seen.

She realizes with an abrupt shock that she's never seen any pictures of Loki anywhere else in the house. No school photos hung on walls, or in picture frames on desks.

There's an abundance of photos of Thor, though, all throughout the house, and all his many athletic accolades adorning the walls and shelves. Plaques and trophies for excellence in sports.

There's no such markers for Loki. No awards for him, no plaques or trophies or certificates.

There's nothing at all to even indicate they have a second, younger son, and Darcy finds herself both puzzled and uneasy at the realization.

Somehow, she doubts it's anything done out of purposeful neglect on the part of their parents. She's met Loki's and Thor's mom, and she seems like the sweetest lady ever. And she's seen how she dotes on Loki too, constantly asking after him and how his day was, asking if he's alright. If anything, Darcy might call her smothering.

It only befuddles her more than, wondering why there's such a stark absence of anything in the house indicating Loki's existence. There's just this one photo, and looking at it, it seems almost like it could have come from an entirely different world, a different life.

Save for the identical features, the boy in this picture, Darcy thinks, resembles nothing of the boy she knows.

Forcing the thoughts from her mind, she becomes aware of her lingering, silently chastising herself as she replaces the photograph and turns quickly, heading back out the room and towards Loki's.

When she finally steps back through the door, she sees Thor's shifted entirely onto the bed with Loki, still holding him against his chest, Loki's arms still clinging desperately back, though he seems to have calmed down considerably, and Thor is speaking to him quietly, against his ear.

"Do you remember that time we built that fort in our backyard, Loki?" He's saying. "Back in London?" He laughs softly before continuing. "Remember how you just took over and declared yourself king? And then you came up with all those booby traps to ward off invaders? We spent all day setting them up, and do you remember when Father finally came out to bring us in for dinner, and he set one off? The thing actually worked! Remember how that brick crashed right into his head?" He laughs again. "He was so angry!"

Loki isn't responding in any way Darcy can see, only continuing to hold onto Thor as though his very life were dependent on it.

Until she sees him shift slightly, turning his face towards Thor's, and Darcy can hear him whisper something to him, but the words are too soft for her to make out.

Whatever it is, Thor only nods, his hand coming up and smoothing back over Loki's hair, pushing it back off his sweat slicked forehead.

"Alright." He says gently. "Come on and we'll get you cleaned up."

He begins to stand, and it becomes apparent that Loki isn't going to let go of him any time soon.

Darcy waits patiently for her presence to be noticed, and when Thor does, he smiles at her tightly, nodding.

"You can just leave that on the nightstand here." He nods towards the side table by the bed. "I'm just going to help Loki get changed. He…"

Here, Thor hesitates, and Loki clings tighter to him, wrapping his arms in a stronger hold.

He doesn't need to finish his sentence though, Darcy can see what's going on.

His cotton pants are soaked through along his bottom, and it's obvious he's wet himself.

Darcy would be embarrassed for him, only… it doesn't really seem strange at all, for some reason.

She only smiles back, nodding.

"Sure." She says, and the look of relief which crosses Thor's features is palpable.

Thor takes Loki into the bathroom after that, coming out only to gather together a fresh set of clothes before disappearing again.

He leaves the door ajar, and Darcy stands for a long moment at the bed's side, uncertain what to do with herself.

She should probably go home, she thinks. This is some seriously intense, private shit going on, and she knows she probably has no right to be here.

Only, at the same time, she feels somehow obligated, and just… leaving feels somehow wrong.

She hears Thor's murmuring quietly from the bathroom, speaking softly to his little brother, and once more, her curiosity seems to overwhelm her.

She finds herself making her way quietly towards the ajar door, not even really knowing what the hell she's doing as she peaks through the crack.

She sees Thor undressing Loki, lifting his sweat soaked shirt over his head, indicating for Loki to lift his arms so he can get it all the way off. A moment later, he's doing the same with his pants and underwear, pulling them down over Loki's narrow hips and gently asking the younger boy to step out of the wet articles. Loki complies to all of Thor's instructions without protest, and in moments, he's standing there, naked.

Darcy swallows thickly at the sight of Loki's body.

He's so thin.

She could always tell, even with the baggy clothes the younger boy tended to wear. But seeing him so exposed, it's painful to look at. His ribs are all prominently visible, and she swears, she can count every single one of his vertebra.

She finds herself wondering how the heck it is he even finds the strength to stay standing.

Suddenly, the cruelty of the other, older kids at their school picking on him seems so much worse.

Thor is telling Loki to just stay where he is a moment, and Darcy sees him move to the sink, a washcloth in hand, where he soaks it in what she assumes is warm water before moving back to his brother, and slowly, he begins to wipe him down, taking care and being thorough.

Loki stands still through all of it, never even speaking, and it strikes Darcy, suddenly, the absolute trust Loki places in his big brother.

The way Thor treats him, she understands where it comes from.

He is almost reverent in the way he handles the slight boy. It seems incongruous, that someone so massively built and strong could be so soft and careful, but there it is.

Loki has no reason to distrust him, the way he seems to almost everyone else.

When Thor begins to dry Loki off using a large towel and then starts to dress him in the fresh set of pajamas, that's when Darcy finally turns away, moving from the door.

She probably shouldn't have watched that, she thinks.

It wasn't really her place.

She only hopes Loki will somehow be okay, even though she knows deep down he probably won't.

But she hopes, for him, and for Thor too.

She thinks if anyone deserves to be alright, it's those two.