Sorry for the late update. One of my bunnies managed to do himself a pretty good injury while having a disagreement with his buddy, and had to have a trip to the vets. He is healing now and has to take medication for a couple days, which he protests to rather passionately, then my computer decided to Fritz out and had to be rebooted and my programs reinstalled so I fell a little behind.
So, I got a few people asking if Loki was told he is a frost giant. The answer is no, in this fic Thor found out Loki was adopted, but wasn't told his brother was from Jotunheim. As everyone thought him dead after his fall Odin didn't feel the need to share that little bit of info.
Enjoy.
Thor woke the next morning with a comfortable weight upon his chest, so without moving he carefully peeked an eye open just a crack, unable to prevent the smile that worked its ways to his lips as he saw the familiar head of raven hair, Loki lay curled under the blankets, his head on Thor's chest and one arm slung over his brother, reminding him of when Loki was little and used to come to him at night for comfort after having bad dreams.
The thunder god resisted the urge to wrap an arm around his brother, as it might wake him. He had planned to utilise Stark tower's gym / training room this morning, it had been a while since he had had the time for a good workout, and he had hoped to let off some steam, he found a good workout helped to clear his mind. And after the stress of everything these past few days that would do him a world good. Unfortunately, that would have to wait, he would try to go back to sleep for now, or at least pretend to be asleep so when Loki woke he could quietly slink back to his own room and pretend this had never happened.
Loki had his pride after all.
Thor stayed in bed for almost an hour before Loki woke and crept silently back to his own room, then an extra ten as he waited to hear signs of his brother in the kitchen before venturing to the kitchen for breakfast himself.
"Good morning brother." He greeted as he opened the cupboard to get a plate.
Loki just ignored him as he picked up his bowl of cereal and moved to the furthest seat at the table. Thor sighed, he had hoped finding his little brother in his bed this morning had been a sign that Loki's mood had lightened, that he would at least be talking to Thor again. Though it looked as though Loki was still shutting him out, which Thor couldn't deny caused him concern.
He sighed as he popped two slices of bread in the toaster, then going to the fridge. "Would you like a drink?" Thor asked even though he figured he wouldn't get an answer, and as expected, he was greeted with silence, he shook his head as he poured Loki a glass anyway. After placing his brother's drink on the table next to his bowl Thor sat down at the counter to eat his own breakfast, figuring it best he give Loki a little space.
After breakfast Thor took a quick shower, he had no doubt that Tony and the others were already upstairs waiting to hear what Asgard had decided for Loki's punishment. He was proven right shortly after he had stepped from the shower as Jarvis announced that Thor's presence was required in the common room as director Fury was growing impatient, the god of thunder quickly got dressed, then informed his brother that everyone was awaiting them.
When Thor and Loki entered the main living room, they found Tony, Steve, Bruce and Pepper, all seated around the couches, while two large screens had been projected from the wall on the left, connecting lines to fury and the two SHIELD members who complete the avengers. Loki looked at the screens as he passed them, one showed a confident female with red waved hair and a man with short sandy blond hair, he assumed the two to be the other members of the Midgardian hero's his brother had mentioned the previous night, the Assassin and the archer, while on the second screen was a rather intimidating dark man with only one eye. None of them looked very happy to see him, In fact, both male eyes had narrowed the second Loki had stepped into sight, but then after what Thor had told him last night he didn't blame them for being displeased by his presence.
And after hearing everything he had done to Jotunheim and Midgard Loki was now even more sure than ever that the outcome of his trial would not be good, he'll most likely spend the rest of his life in the dungeons, likely without his magic, or worse, stripped of everything but the clothes on his back and banished to Muspellheim, or Svartalfheim, or some other practically inhospitable realm where he would most likely be hunted by the locals.
He was absolutely certain no matter what the outcome he would lose his magic, he had seen many spell casters lose the source of their powers before being sent to the dungeons, some having their magic sealed for the duration of their sentence whilst others had it stripped from them permanently, and Loki could think of nothing worse. He couldn't imagine a life without magic, it had been a constant in his life for as long as he could remember, its presence constantly flowing a comfortable warmth throughout his being. He had snuck down to the dungeons and asked one of the prisoners once, out of curiosity, the man had said losing his magic had left him feeling cold and hollow, as if instead of marrow his bones were filled with ice.
Averting his gaze from the screens Loki made his way to the couch, taking a seat next to Pepper, on the lounge that faced directly to where Thor stood, between the com link screens and the lounge Tony, Steve and Bruce occupied, once Loki had taken a seat all eyes fell on Thor, who stood in the center of the room where everyone could see him.
Thor took a deep breath before speaking, "After a rather confrontational Trial, in which many opinions were heard, and all relevant evidence was considered, Odin Allfather has agreed upon a suitable punishment to be handed down to Loki Odinson for his crimes against both Midgard and Jotunheim." Thor began, he hated sounding so formal but with SHIELD and his fellow Avengers gathered to hear the outcome he, he didn't want anyone thinking Asgard wasn't taking Loki's actions seriously.
"And given Loki's current predicament, and the knowledge that Loki may have been under another's influence," Clint glare intensified at those words, his nostrils flaring in anger. "Due to the results given from the blue substance, Loki is to be-"
"Hold on one cotton picking minute!" Fury interrupted angrily, "What damn blue substance are we talking about!" He demanded.
"Loki was ill a few months back and he, uh, purged a strange blue substance from his system." Bruce explained, only to have Fury shout back demanding why this was the first he was hearing of this.
"Bruce and I ran some tests on the stuff and it gave off very similar results to the readings we got when we analysed the sceptre Loki used during the invasion. Jarvis is sending you the results now, so no need to burst a blood vessel." Tony said, sensing that the director of Shield was about to explode in Tony's face for not informing him sooner. But hey, Tony has much better things to do with his time than trying to keep Fury happy. "It even matched the colour of the Tesseract, same creepy bright blue-"
"That's complete bullshit, both Dr Selvig and I were under the Sceptre's control, and I don't know about him, but I certainly didn't hack up any blue ooze." Clint accused angrily, What was Thor's psychotic brother even doing back on Earth in the first place? He should be rotting in some dungeon or something. He didn't care what some stupid tests said, he wasn't about to believe that Loki was under any kind of influence, this was obviously just one of the trickster's tricks to get himself out of trouble, and he sure as hell wasn't about to be fooled by Loki's whole innocent kid guise he had going.
Loki flinched a little at Clint's words, honestly did the man have to be so crude.
"Okay, did I say I was finished?" Tony huffed, why were people so eager to interrupt him all the time, and quite honestly, he'd rather not know what Clint did and didn't hack up, as Clint so kindly put it. "No-one is saying Loki was under full mind control, and don't get me wrong, I'm not so crash hot about the idea either, but there is a good chance that he was under some form of influence. The energy or magic or whatever it is that the sceptre sends into its victims manifests itself in their eyes as that unnatural blue colour, this is somewhat like that only concentrated into a liquid form. The sceptre is like a conduit, channelling energy and influence from the Tesseract, to be used as both a weapon and to control others, perhaps its influence manifested differently in Loki because he is Asgardian or maybe prolonged exposure to the sceptre itself. After all it did seem to have some sort of effect on everyone while we were gathered in the room with it on the hellicarrier, like it was radiating bad mojo or something." Tony pointed out.
"Aye," Thor nodded, "those who analysed the substance on Asgard, said that it was a form of concentrated energy a mixture of that of a small sample of the Tesseract's power, another unknown energy somewhat akin to the Tesseract and powerful dark magic." Thor informed, quickly adding as he shot Loki a reassuring look. "And no. Before any ask, they informed that they were positive that it was indeed not Loki's own magic as the signature it resonated was not his."
Loki inwardly sighed with relief hearing that his magic was not involved, especially involving dark magic, as he'd like to think that he hadn't gone down that path. Dark sorcery was a vile thing, from what he had read and heard many spells and rituals required a sacrifice, depending on the spell the sacrifice could vary from that of small animals to human, or in some cases even multiple sacrifices, and crossed many lines magic should not. While he loved to expand his knowledge and talents, even if dark magic wasn't forbidden, it was one area Loki was more than happy to steer clear of.
"Perhaps this is something we could talk about later." Pepper suggested, she didn't much like the idea of speaking about Loki like this, as if he wasn't sitting in the very same room, and she had no doubts it must be very uncomfortable for Loki. "We are here to hear the outcome of the trial after all."
Fury made a slight growl in the back of his throat as he reluctantly agreed, "Fine, but I had better be filled in on everything that has been kept from me. And I mean everything." He demanded.
"It was declared," Thor started once everyone had quieted down again, "Loki is to be banished from Asgard, until Odin Allfather has deemed him worthy to return." Thor's eyes were on his brother as he spoke, he certainly hadn't missed the pain in Loki's eyes as his brother averted his gaze to the floor. "He is to stay here on Midgard until he has proven himself."
The room burst into noise at this as everyone spoke over the top of each other at once. "Whoa! So what, daddy decides to just ditch the troublemaker on someone else to deal with, what the hell." Tony cried in astonishment.
"That bastard has no rights stepping foot on our planet again!" Clint growled accusingly pointing to the raven haired god, "couldn't Odin just chop his head off and be done with it! He killed hundreds of innocent people, he shouldn't even still be breathing!"
"Nobody is killing anyone." Pepper insisted, placing her left hand reassuringly over Loki's right, which was resting on the cushion by his side, though, aside from his trembling hand the kid was doing a damn good job at pretending he was unaffected by everything that was going on around him. Though underneath the poor thing must have been terrified, after all he had just been kicked out of home and left in a place where he wasn't welcomed by many.
Steve tried desperately to calm everyone down, as Fury raged. "King of Asgard or not, he has no right just dumping his criminals on earth, how would he like it if we sent every Thief, killer and rapist to Asgard. If Loki is staying here he can face our punishment!"
"ENOUGH!" Thor boomed threateningly, his voice almost loud enough to shake the windows. "Enough. None of you shall harm my brother. I am not finished so you will let me speak without further interruption." He waited until everyone had nodded or given some form of acknowledgment that they understood before continuing.
"Loki's punishment is final, while on Midgard Loki is to stay either here in the tower under the watch of the Avengers or in SHIELD custody, the decision, is to be left up to all of you to decide where he will be staying." Thor said, before the room burst into chaos again.
"He is staying here." Tony announced much to everyone's surprise, at the same time Fury declared, "Obviously Loki will be detained in SHIELD custody." Which started everyone off again.
"Are you crazy? This is Loki we are talking about, he should be locked away in SHIELD, in a secure facility where he can be watched twenty four seven." Clint spat, Natasha nodded her agreement from his side.
"You sure, Tony? I mean you haven't exactly been pleased with him staying in the tower up until now." Steve asked, he didn't much like the thought of Loki being locked up in SHIELD custody either, even if this was the guy that attacked Manhattan, Loki hadn't exactly proven himself a threat this time around. Though it was a little surprising that it was Tony who instantly voted for the kid to stay.
"He is a war criminal and should be treated as such." Fury insisted, "we have specialised agents who can watch him around the clock, and put him back in place if he so much as sneezes."
"Loki should say here with his brother." Pepper argued. "We are perfectly capable of keeping an eye on him, and staying with the avengers is bound to be a good influence."
"No offense Fury, as much as I'd rather Loki was anywhere but earth, I trust you about as far as I can throw you, without my suit of course. I don't trust you and your people not to mistreat him and the last thing we need is an insane god more hell-bent on destroying earth than ever before." Tony answered back. "He compromised quite a few of your men and killed even more, I bet a lot of your agents would love to get their hands on him, but right now Loki is somehow a teenager again, just a kid, and I'm not going to chance that happening."
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to back him this one, Director." Captain Rogers agreed.
"Me too, and it is fairly clear where both Thor and Pepper will stand on this." Bruce added.
"Are you all insane!" Clint hissed, as Natasha placed a calming hand on his forearm to stop him from jumping out of his seat.
"This is not over!" Fury demanded, "I don't care how many of you back this Loki is-"
"Over or not this is one battle I can guarantee you will not win." Stark challenged, cutting Fury short. The room fell quiet as the two men glared each other down, neither backing down.
"And?" Loki's seemingly calm voice sounded for the first time since they had all gathered in the room. Breaking the heated silence and gaining the attention of all the others, though Loki payed them no heed as he continued watching his brother, awaiting an answer. After gaining nothing but a confused look in reply Loki clarified.
"Banishment cannot possibly be all that was agreed upon for such crimes, Fa... Odin," Loki wasn't quite sure what to call the man who had lied to him his whole life, "would not be so lenient. What is to be the rest of my punishment?"