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"I need to speak to you."
Thor looked at Loki, waiting. "Where is Jane?"
"Sleeping."
Thor looked up at the stars and smiled, a small smile. "It would mean much to her to see our constellations." He angled his head to look at Loki. "But I suspect you already know that."
"Yes, I do," Loki said. He eyed Thor warily, then sat down across from him.
"Why do you deny her the right to see them, then? Help me understand, Loki." Thor's tone was even, and his countenance was open. Loki said nothing, but Thor waited.
After a period of silence, Loki finally spoke. "I am impressed that you have learned the value of silence." Thor nodded in acknowledgement of the compliment, remained quiet while looking expectantly at Loki.
Loki got up and paced twice, his agitation clear. He turned to fix Thor with a pointed look. "Have you forgotten your other duty, thunder god? Or have you grown so lax as to neglect your other appointed task?"
Thor's eyes widened. "Jane is pregnant?"
Loki paced again in frustration. "Yes, you mammering clodpole! If you had been paying attention when you grabbed her, you would have noticed it yourself, seeing as you're the bloody god of fertility! Now do you understand why I don't want her to use the Tesseract?"
"We don't know that it wouldn't be safe," Thor began, assessing Loki's nervous energy. Loki was trying his best to keep his agitation in check, lest it wake Jane. "You could ask Heimdall."
"Yes, because I am such a close, personal friend of the Gatekeeper of Asgard," Loki snarled. "I'm sure he would be delighted to help me figure out if my child would survive contact with the Tesseract."
Thor raised an eyebrow. "You need not snipe at me, brother. I could ask him if you cannot do so yourself."
Loki paced again, running his fingers through his hair distractedly. "He may not know. I'm not sure even Odin knows. It's hardly the type of situation that has often arisen." He stopped and fixed a stare on Thor. "Are you required to bring us back?"
Thor couldn't read Loki's expression, nor his tone of voice. His brother was a master of disguising his true thoughts, so he could not tell what the best answer was. However, he was no liar, and this was the master of lies. He made a snap decision and hoped it was the right one. "Yes."
Loki swore under his breath, some colorful curses from Niflheim punctuating his speech. "You are asking me to fight you," he finally said slowly, meeting Thor's gaze with an alternately agonized and obscure glance.
"Cast the spell. I will talk to Heimdall, and I will keep your secret." Thor's gaze was steady, and Loki had to make a choice. If it was influenced by something, he would never admit it. Wordlessly, he maneuvered the currents, the sparks coalescing into the sphere.
"Heimdall," Thor greeted.
"Thor Odinson, what do you seek from me?" Heimdall was impassive as usual, but he noted Loki lurking in the shadows. "I see you have found your brother."
"That is why I must speak to Odin, now." Thor's face was equally impassive.
"You would have me seek the AllFather, and bring him here?" Heimdall's eyebrow quirked. "This is not how you speak to your King, Prince."
"I would not ask it if it did not matter, as you well know, Gatekeeper. Do it."
"And what part do you play in this, Loki Laufeyson, adopted son of Odin?" Heimdall's eyes were fixed on Loki, who had edged closer from the shadows.
"I cast the spell, nothing more, Gatekeeper. Thor's business is his own." Loki's face was impassive, but Heimdall did not miss the creeping whorl of red in his eyes. He turned his gaze back to Thor.
"I will return with the King, God of Thunder. You will wait."
The minutes passed in silence. Loki prowled at the edges of the light cast from the sphere, while Thor considered the words he would use with Odin.
"She is stirring," Loki said suddenly, vanishing seamlessly for a brief minute, then reappearing. "I have settled her. She will sleep for a few hours yet."
Thor looked at Loki, a smirk creeping onto a corner of his mouth. "You have it bad, brother. I would not have believed I'd see the day you were so attentive to a woman, let alone your wife."
"You don't know everything about me, brother. You never did," Loki retorted snidely, the perception of his brother irritating him.
"No, and I would not claim to have ever done so. I would know you better, though, brother—if you would allow it," Thor said cautiously, but with the kind of heartfelt honesty that was such an endemic part of his personality.
Loki bit back the instinctive hurtful response, knowing Jane would find out about it. She wanted nothing more than for him to make his peace with his family, permanently. He couldn't bring himself to say anything at all. After a torturous moment, he nodded stiffly and turned away again, the emotions too much to manage.
"Both of my sons together and not arguing. This is a sight I have not been treated to for many years." Odin's calm and deep voice startled them both, and Loki turned back to meet the gaze of his father, who was looking at both of them without a trace of any emotion other than relief.
"Father, I have to ask a question about the Tesseract. What are the effects on a mortal? Particularly at their different life stages?"
Thor's question was phrased tactfully, but Odin would have to be a fool to not read between the lines and understand what he was asking. Loki snarled and paced away from the bubble momentarily, his irritation rolling off of him in waves.
"Your child will be safe, my son," Odin said softly, speaking directly to Loki. "I would not have asked if that were not the case."
Loki could not restrain the relief that pulsed through him. He was overcome by it, as well as the release of the tension that his concerns had provoked between himself, his brother, and his father. He was angry with himself for caring about them, for wanting to mend what was irreparable. He stopped and turned back to the sphere, still in the shadows at the edge. He was not comfortable with them, would never regain the easy affection that had once characterized their relationship. But he wondered again if a less easy affection was still possible, knew that Odin would keep offering it to him. He had to say something, anything to move past this tortured moment.
"Thank you." It escaped his lips unbidden, the reflection of what Jane would say if she were awake, aware of the life her body was nourishing.
Odin addressed Thor. "There is something else you wished to ask me."
"Yes, AllFather. Loki has sensed Thanos. He is most certainly seeking the Tesseract, and probably Loki himself. How much time do we have?" Thor was brutally efficient when it came to war. He wanted to know when death was coming to visit, if possible.
"Only Loki can tell us that." Odin and Thor both shifted their attention to Loki, who had begun idly sketching runes in light with his hands when Thor began speaking. Loki ignored them, spoke through the runes at them instead of to them.
"He is not certain I am here. He is less certain of the Tesseract. If you have me use it, it will tell him exactly where both are." Wordlessly he made the runes vanish, met Odin's gaze with his own. "But you already know this. It is why you want me to come. Whatever curiosity you have about my powers now, it is secondary to drawing him out. I know exactly why you want me to come home, AllFather."
"I have made no secret of the fact that I want you to come home, Loki. I do not seek to pry into all of your secrets. I merely ask your permission to exploit them."
Loki laughed. It was the first time Odin had been more straightforward with him, and it was amusing. He did not doubt there were more reasons that were kept hidden, but he could respect that. "Perhaps," he replied, meeting Thor's eyes before looking back to Odin. "That is the best I can offer you."
"It is better than what you have offered of late," Thor observed, but it was without malice.
"I will tell Frigga to expect you for dinner," Odin said, the sphere winking out with elegance at his bidding.
"Manipulative old bastard," Loki muttered under his breath.
Thor clapped a hand on his shoulder briefly as he passed him, ready to go to bed. "Where do you think you learned it?"
-0-0-
"Where is Thor?" Jane looked around the empty living room, certain that he was already gone.
"He went to speak to the Avengers," Loki said, looking up from their breakfast. He was making a quiche, chopping the bacon he'd cooked with the ease of a professional. Jane was stunned.
"I've never seen you do anything by hand like that," she said when he noticed her expression.
"So? I felt like doing it this way, so I am," Loki replied. He felt much calmer today, despite the fact that they would be returning to Asgard. Somehow the thought did not seem as forbidding as it would have if he were returning alone.
"I'm not sure I feel like quiche…" Jane's voice was tentative, but Loki merely continued dicing and smiled.
"I'm making something else for you," he commented, not looking at her but feeling her relief nonetheless. He dumped the bacon into the cheese and egg mixture, then deftly poured it into the pastry shell. "This is for me."
He wordlessly drew her over magically as he closed the door of the oven, enjoyed the small gasp when she gently hit his back. He turned around and looked expectantly at her, "Well, now, eager to be near me, are you?"
"You pulled me over," she protested, and his eyes danced with amusement. "Hmmmm."
"Is there coffee?" Jane asked, her eyes looking for the coffeemaker.
"Tea." Loki pulled the mug out of thin air.
"Hmmmm," Jane said as she took a sip. "I really felt like coffee, but this will work I guess."
"Now, your breakfast—have you had begrhir?"
Jane was intrigued. "No, what is it?"
"A type of crêpe popular in Morocco. I think you'll like them." He seated her at the breakfast bar, the ingredients already waiting for him, a pan heated and ready on the range.
"As much as I appreciate the pampering, could we please discuss the request to go to Asgard?" Jane said. She didn't miss Loki's grin or the twitch of his mouth. "You can't distract me, Loki."
"Oh?" Loki's head snapped up at that, the lazy curl of his lips upward a visceral promise. The flare of heat had nothing to do with the oven or range, and they both knew it. "Ah, Jane," she jumped when she felt his hands behind her, his lips playing over her neck, while she was looking at him right in front of her. "You should know better by now."
"Okay, time out." It was low and guttural, but Jane was proud of herself for getting it out. "I draw the line at multiple copies of you and sex."
Loki laughed behind her, moved her hair to the side so he could kiss and lick her mark. "Dearest, you would enjoy it, I promise you…but not today, if you don't wish it." That wasn't what she meant, but he was playing with her. Her eyes had closed, and when she opened them again, the Loki that was cooking had vanished, everything frozen in time.
"Better?" he murmured against the smoothness of her shoulder, knew this was going to be good.
"You can make love to me all day, but we will talk about Asgard at the end of it," Jane said, her eyes sparking with heat as she turned around to wrap herself around him.
"Done." This time she didn't see his smile as he kissed his way down her delectable body, lingering just a little on her stomach.