Thor downed the hot dogs in front of him with gusto, and quickly gulped down the coffee Darcy kept pouring for him. This time, at least, he remembered not to smash the cup on the floor when he wanted more. Jane sat across from him, watching him eat with a look of pure adoration. Loki, in the meanwhile, was gazing at his food as though he didn't see it. What little he did eat he ate without tasting. Thor was through his fifth hot dog and was garnishing the sixth before he noticed. He paused with the hot dog halfway to his mouth.
"Is something troubling you, brother?" Thor asked. Loki glanced upward.
"No. Well…" Loki glanced briefly at Jane and Darcy, then sighed and folded his arms on the table. "I'm just wondering. Now that we've got you back and all, what exactly am I supposed to do now?" Jane smiled softly.
"You're always welcome to stay here," she said sincerely. Loki shook his head.
"Stay here and do what? Become dependent on your charity? No, I thank you." Darcy tilted her head slightly.
"What do you want to do? Go back to Asgard?" Loki winced slightly.
"In all honesty, Darcy, I would like to go back to Asgard. But I hardly doubt I'm welcome there anymore." Thor scoffed.
"That's hardly the issue. With the Bifrost broken, there's no way we can go back even if we wanted to. I don't think even you could teleport us that far, Loki." Loki smiled enigmatically.
"You think teleportation and the Bifrost are the only ways to travel, brother mine?" Thor gaped at him a moment.
"You mean…you know how to get back?" Loki shrugged one shoulder.
"As I was saying, I don't think I'm welcome there anymore." Thor clanked his mug against the table.
"Balderdash! Stop and think about it a moment, won't you? Who exactly knows what happened? Us, of course—then Father and Mother and perhaps the Warriors Three and Sif. But really, Loki, with all your secrecy even we didn't realize what was going on until it was actually happening, and only we saw that firsthand. It isn't something they would go spreading around, either."
"Don't forget Heimdall," Loki added wryly.
"Still," Thor muttered, taking another swig of coffee. "You did go a bit overboard, but I'm sure they'd be willing to forgive you. I did."
"Yes, well you're an ice-brained idiot," Loki said half-heartedly.
"So is Father," Thor said into his mug, causing Loki to stare at him in bald astonishment.
"You did not just say what I think you did." Thor set down the mug with a clunk.
"Loki…" Jane said hesitantly, "It's worth a try, isn't it? Worst case scenario is that your Father banishes you, and then you'll be right back here anyway!"
"Unless he banishes me to Jotunheim," Loki said quietly, tapping a finger against the table. "Or decides that I'm too much of a menace to be allowed to live."
"No." Thor said emphatically. "It will not come to that. The only way they'd touch a hair on your head would be over my dead body. If you're banished to Jotunheim, then I'll be banished there, too." Loki shot him a cold look.
"You're so foolishly loyal, brother. If you did that, what would become of Jane?" Thor's expression darkened and he looked guiltily over at her. Jane looked from him back to Loki and sighed.
"To get to Thor they'd have to go through me. And I'm ready to follow him wherever—even to Jotunheim." Loki rested his chin on his hand and snorted.
"Then you're foolish, too." He glanced at the other girl. "Darcy?" Darcy laughed.
"Don't look at me! I'm staying right here in the good old US of A, no matter what the rest of you guys decide." Loki chuckled despite himself.
"Finally one of us is talking sense." He took a sip from the water glass in front of him. Thor sat back in his chair.
"Ultimately it comes down to what you want, brother. I will follow and support you in whatever you decide." Loki nearly choked on his water.
"Thor, I'm beginning to wonder if all that time spent with the insects didn't mess up what little gray matter you had in the first place. Are you even listening to yourself? You're the heir to the throne! You're the elder! You're Prince of Asgard by blood! I would guess that if either of us has any authority over the other, it would be you!" Thor smiled at him.
"Idiot," he said affectionately. "You're still hung up on the whole blood matter? Look, it's not like I'm handing total authority over to you. I'm just saying that I'll support whatever you decide you want. For my part, I'll be happy wherever I end up, so long as I have Jane and you beside me." Jane nodded silent agreement. Loki rested his chin on the back of his hands, the fingers laced together.
"What I want?" What did he want? For the longest time, his immediate answer would have been, 'to be Thor's equal.' But blast it all, now he did feel like he was Thor's equal. What was one supposed to do when one's life goal had been fulfilled? He turned his head to gaze out the window for a long time, in which interim Thor wolfed down another two hot dogs and another cup of coffee. "Brother," Loki said at last, breaking the silence, "if I return to Asgard…will you go with me?" He didn't turn to face Thor.
"Foolish question. I just told you I would."
"Jane?" He didn't look at her either. "Are you all right with this?"
"As long as I'm allowed along this time," the fiery woman said vehemently. Loki half-smiled. This woman could probably give even Sif a run for her money. Perhaps not physically, but as far as intelligence went—a thought suddenly occurred to him. Jane—was like him. Weren't science and magic essentially the same thing? He dismissed the thought with a shake of the head, as if trying to dislodge something solid.
"Darcy?" The dark-haired girl was silent a moment.
"As long as I can bring my iPod," she said emphatically. There was a pause. "Does Asgard have power outlets?" she quipped a bit uncertainly. Loki chose to ignore her.
"Then—I've decided. I want to go back to Asgard. If I stayed here I would feel like I was running away for the rest of my life—and I'm through with running. I want to look Father in the face, and I want to apologize for the havoc I've wreaked." Loki dropped his face into his hands. "But by Valhalla, I don't want to do it alone!" Thor laughed aloud and clapped him on the shoulder. It smarted, but Loki was glad for it.
"No worries, brother!" Thor said jovially. "From now on, I'm not letting you get away from me again! The last time I let you out of my sight, you nearly destroyed a planet!" Loki smiled sourly at him.
"The last time I let you out of my sight, you nearly let yourself get eaten by giant insects," he returned. Thor's only reply was a deep, hearty laugh.
"So," Jane said, turning to look at Loki full in the face, "you know how to get to Asgard, then? Something that doesn't require the Bifrost?" Loki nodded.
"It's a technique similar to teleporting. It's used to get objects or persons form one location to another. With teleporting, I focus on the mass and…"pull" it through space." Magic was very hard to translate into words, even to a woman of exceptional intellect like Jane. "This other method doesn't require me to focus the mass at all—instead I focus on the space around it. I call it 'rifting.' If teleporting is moving across space, then rifting is moving through space." Jane looked intensely interested in what he was saying, but Thor and Darcy appeared more interested in the remaining food. He wasn't really surprised, but he was pleased to have found at least one person willing to listen to his magical expositions. Those were few and far between back in Asgard. "I currently have a permanent 'rift' established in the weapons vault of the palace." Thor looked up at this remark in surprise. "I can create a similar, temporary rift here on Earth that will link directly to it." Jane's eyes sparkled in wonder.
"You mean—create a wormhole? A controlled wormhole?"
"Well—yes, essentially."
"That's…that's incredible! When can we go?" Both Thor and Loki laughed aloud at this, and Thor gently gripped her hand.
"Jane, love, I can understand your eagerness to visit the Eternal Realms, but really—Loki and I haven't have a proper night's rest in at least two days." Loki nodded wearily, feeling the fatigue he had been pointedly ignoring begin to reassert itself. Jane flushed a rather becoming shade of pink.
"Oh—oh right. I'm sorry. You two must be absolutely exhausted." She rose to her feet. "I'll pull out the couch for you. You guys won't mind sharing it for a night, will you?" Thor and Loki exchanged a look. They hadn't done that since they were boys.
"No," they said simultaneously.
No indeed, Loki thought sourly to himself. Thor was sprawled out smack-dab in the center of the pullout couch, allowing Loki barely enough room to stay on the edge while lying on his side. Not to mention the brute was snoring loud enough for three men. "Thor!" Loki hissed through clenched teeth. "Thor!" He prodded the larger man viciously in the ribs. Thor awoke with a startled snort. "Get over onto your side, you big oaf!" Thor groggily muttered something unintelligible under his breath and compliantly rolled over—taking the majority of the covers with him. Loki let out a heavy sigh of exasperation and shifted his legs. Thor sat up with a muffled cry, much to Loki's satisfaction.
"Blast it all, your feet are icy, brother!" Thor growled down at him. Loki glared up at him in the dark.
"Perhaps they would be less so if you would share the coverings, blanket-hog." Thor curled his mouth into a snarl, which Loki matched with a stony glare. Thor suddenly chuckled, his face relaxing into a grin. Loki's own glare melted into one of blank surprise.
"I've missed you, brother," Thor said lightly. He untangled his long limbs from the blankets and dropped the liberated folds into Loki's lap. "Can't you cast a sleep spell on us or something?" He flopped back onto the pillow and the two men stared at the ceiling for a while. Loki closed his eyes and allowed himself a small laugh.
"As a matter of fact, I think I can." He touched a hand to Thor's arm and muttered a Word of Power that immediately sent them both deep into unconsciousness.
It took another two full days of rest before Loki felt like himself again. Being driven to the edge of madness, falling through a wormhole, having a showdown with a swarm of insect monsters, and reconciling with one's estranged brother all within a few days apparently took quite a toll on the mind and body. Thor didn't mind the delay in the least, since it gave him ample time to be with Jane and find out all the things about her and the world she lived in that he hadn't gotten around to discovering the last time he was on Earth. Loki spent most of his time in Jane's study, working his way through her collection of books and enjoying himself more than he had in a long time, deliberately not thinking about the upcoming trip. He felt so incredibly free, free of his hatred, free of his responsibilities, free of the expectations and limitations placed upon him—he could be whoever he wanted to be, do whatever he wanted to do—and for the moment he was content to be Thor's studious younger brother again. He had missed filling that role without realizing it.
He and Thor spent a lot of time together, as well, catching up on the many lost years between them. A lot of the time was spent in conversation as the two brothers started to rebuild their relationship almost from scratch. Away from the environment of Asgard, away from the heavy gaze of their father, the two princes of Asgard were free to see each other for who they were—and they discovered that they did, in fact, like each other genuinely. Loki felt the madness in his mind receding, and was glad for it.
On the morning of their third day at Jane's place, Loki looked up from his cup of coffee (Thor had finally convinced him to try it and now there was no going back) and said bluntly, "I'm ready." The carefree chatter of the others petered off into silence as they all turned to look at him. He didn't look any of them in the eye, preferring instead to stare into his mug. "I won't be at peace until I resolve things in Asgard," he said quietly, half to himself. No one spoke, but Thor placed a large hand on Loki's shoulder and Jane gently touched his wrist. Loki attempted a smile, but it didn't amount to much more then a twitching of his lips. "You don't have to come with me," he said after a moment. "Thor, now that you've found Jane again…I don't want to take that from you. She's happy here, you're happy here. I think you should stay." Thor's grip on his shoulder tightened to the point where it hurt. Loki winced and turned to meet his gaze, which surprised him in its intensity.
"I'm happy here because I have you both." Thor said with quiet firmness. "You won't have to do this alone. I promise you this. No matter what you or Father decide, you're stuck with me, Silvertongue." Jane grinned.
"I suppose that means you're stuck with me, too." She glanced at Darcy, who shrugged.
"No promises here. I love you guys, sure, but not quite that much." Loki cast a quick smile at all of them.
"Thank you. If it's all right with you, then, I suggest we leave right after breakfast." Thor and Jane smiled back at him.
"Agreed," Thor said. "Let us go home." Loki's breath caught. Home. Excitement and anxiety shot through him. What would be waiting for him on the other side of the rift? He gazed back at his coffee. There was only one way to find out.