A/N: Okay, I will treat you right, 'cause I love you all people, with the massive amount of reviews and alerts put on this story. It really is the best of gifts. Thanks to you all.

21. Ever better

Loki's POV

Liana was there. In Asgard. Her very presence was making me both jolting and weary. Why was she there?

She had said things to Odin that I had never known she thought. That her lost memories would not tell her who she was but only destroy who she had chosen to be. That she was blaming him for my curse.

Liana was there. And I liked it.

She had taken my hand, like that day, so long before, when she had showed me her life. Her memories. Her losses. Her pain.

I had come to understand her so plainly that I could almost trust her when she said she was sorry.

Still.

She had been Fury's spy. She had been asked to be my friends. And even more.

The memory of her lips on mine stung me again.

I put a hand on my chest, clutching the fabric of my outfit.

"Loki? Are you alright, brother?"

I turned around.

Thor was coming to me, Mjöllnir on the ground, his fair face darkened by worry.

I chuckled devilishly. "Why would you care, Thor?"

My words hurt him. He stopped on his tracks. His face hardened. "Loki. I never stopped being your brother. I never stopped loving you as such. Stop closing yourself to me. I wish only help."

"You wish only help? Really? Then why have you brought her here?"

His hand came resting on my shoulder. "She is doing you good. See? You're already speaking like your old self."

I waved his hand off me. "My old self is dead, Thor. He's been dead for years now. Better stop grieving him."

I made a gesture to walk past him, but he grabbed me and took advantage of my weakness. He threw me up his shoulder and walked me to his chambers.

He let me fall on the ground and pointed his huge fingers at me. "Now you will hear me, Loki!"

I got up and chuckled again. "Oh, will I?"

Mjöllnir buzzed in his grip. Thor looked determined. I listened. "I loved you brother, even after you tried to kill me. I couldn't understand your pain, but I respected it. I begged Father to bring you back, but he always answered my pleas by a no. When you appeared on Midgard, it has been the most joyful day of my life, brother. You were back. You weren't dead."

I snorted. "I was. You'd better have forgotten about me."

"Still, it doesn't erase who we were. What we did as children. I didn't know what you are, Loki, and had I known, I would have loved you all the same." I looked at my blue hands. How could someone love that? "When I heard that Lady Liana had been close enough to you to like you, even more if I speak truthfully, I was happy you had finally found someone for you. She is your mate, Loki. Just...forgive her. I do not believe the Fury man has told you the truth of it."

He panted after speaking so quickly.

I looked up into his face, searching a lie. Could Liana have loved me?

My eyes widened. I couldn't forgive her, but I couldn't lie to myself any longer. I had been too close to her. I had fallen in love with her. And those feelings can't be erased that easily.

"I cannot forgive what has been done, Thor. Neither by Liana nor by you. None of us is the same as before. You aren't the same arrogant man you were before your exile. I am not the same I was before learning about my nature. And she is not the same woman we left on Midgard months ago. We all change. Maybe for good, maybe not, but we aren't the same as before."

"And still, you do not deny you have felt something."

"Wouldn't you have? You, Almighty Thor, who fell for a tiny scientist back there? A girl by the name of Jane, insignificant to anyone else on her planet but oh so important for your eyes? Liana was like a sun, setting my whole soul on fire. The fire was extinguished in the most horrible way. I will not let it. I won't let myself fall into this ever again."

"Oh, Loki. If you let it, you would be so happy."

"I am happy."

Thor's eyes smoothed. "Not you are not, brother. And that's why you have to go and talk to Lady Liana. Even a little talk will bring you peace. Do not grieve someone who is still alive."

And he exited his own room.

I got up and sent a fist into the wall. It left my hand bleeding, and without my magic, it took time before it stopped. The blood on my blue hand was dazzling.

I swore once more and got on the balcony to think into fresh air.

o°o°o°o°o°

Liana's POV

The tailor had come early. It was a short woman, without age though I could tell she was old, seeing the wisdom in her gaze, who came by the name of Lora.

She had quickly taken my measures and had ordered the right silver armour, which consisted into a chest plate with thin metal straps over my shoulders, which came down to the elbow in a smooth veil, matching my eyes colour.

The trousers were equally blue, with a piece of metal on my left leg, and I was given a whole new dagger, almost as long as a regular sword, to place on my belt.

I felt out of place, but Sif's smile was so radiant I didn't say a word when she qualified me of "truly fit for war". I took it as a compliment all the same.

Sif was soon called back to her practise time with the Warrior Three, and was pitying me for not being allowed to go with her. I reassured her. The view from the balcony was enough distraction for a lifetime.

I sat myself on her little bed. The sea air made it easy to breathe, though the plate was so tight I could feel every cell of oxygen entering my throat.

I kept gazing over to the rainbow bridge, until I heard someone not far from me.

"You will soon get bored. Everyone does the same plain things over days."

I watched left. At least ten meters away was standing Loki, who was on Thor's balcony. He wasn't looking at me, still, his red eyes were glowing in the sunlight.

I approached the rail. "I still have nothing much to do."

"You will get used to it. Being Odin's prisoner isn't entertaining."

"I am not Odin's prisoner." I snapped. "I am just...irrelevant."

"Yes, I guess that's what you're trying to tell everyone. Tell me, does Sif know why you are here?"

I sighed and looked to the far horizon. "I do not know it myself, why would she?"

His voice hardened. "You could try."

I snapped my eyes back on him. He had finally turned to face me. His side of balcony was still four meters away from me, but I knew it wasn't an obstacle. Much.

I climbed on the golden rail and launched myself towards Loki's part.

I landed safely in his arms, though he dropped me very quickly before walking away and wiping his hands on his outfit as if I had been trash.

"You know, I meant it when I said I was sorry."

His eyes snapped to mine. "Was it true?"

I knew he wasn't thinking about what I had said the previous evening. I sighed. "In a manner, yes, it was. But Fury himself didn't know every part of the story."

"Oh, didn't he? Poor Nicholas!" He waved his hands in the air, clearly stating he wasn't inclined to hear anything more about that day.

I chose otherwise. "I was indeed assigned for a mission to take you down. By any means necessary." His eyes hardened, relighting an ancient pain. I tried to blow it away. "But, as time went by, I understood I couldn't harm you. Or you I. You had asked me, when you were in your cell on the Helicarrier. Remember it?"

"I wish I didn't."

"I told you there was only one reason why I was helping you. And there it is. The reason I helped you up, Loki Laufeyson, was that you and I, we are the same. We have the same scars on our souls. And I didn't want to reopen them. I wanted to shove them away. Fury, and the other Avengers, never understood that."

His eyes lowered, my words kicking in. "What you told me, on that plane, when we met. You didn't want me to stop fighting." I nodded. "I have stopped fighting. Eight months ago, I have stopped fighting."

I carefully walked up to him. I kept a safety distance between our two bodies, but I could still feel his frozen skin leaving goosebumps on mine. "I forbid you to do so. And I still do. The fight is never over, once you have understood why you are fighting."

His eyes met mine. "Are you fighting still?" I nodded. "And do you have a reason for it?"

I didn't say anything. In that state, I slowly put a hand up his arm, and locked it on his neck.

His hair was shorter than when he had left. But I liked it better.

I think he was in too much of a daze to fight it when I pulled him down to me and kissed him gently.

He didn't frown, but didn't kiss me back either.

Instead, his arms found themselves clutching my back. He wasn't pulling me in, he was just trying to find a way of shoving the pain away.

I broke the "kiss".

He was crying. His tears were freezing on his cheeks, falling on the ground as little snowflakes.

He didn't look at me, turned on his heels and disappeared.

I stood there, my hands empty. My heart empty.

What have I done to him?

There you go! Told you it'd take a while, but she finally kissed him again!

To answer some questions, Loki hasn't forgiven her. Yet. And something huge will happen soon. Maybe not in the next chapter, I still do not know.

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