Loki slunk further and further into his seat as he watched the young woman on stage clumsily try to turn a balloon into a live bird. He wasn't sure how much of it he could watch before he fell into an inescapable despair.
"Stop," he said, not even caring if she was done or not.
"Oh. Uh. Okay," the woman onstage said.
Loki took a deep breath and prepared himself for the inevitable. "Do you do anything else? You have twenty minutes to fill without me, and we've got enough livestock in this show as it is. I don't want your bird. I'm not Lance Burton."
He rolled his eyes as she stammered uncertainly. "I, uh-"
"Out," Loki said, getting up and walking onstage to shoo her away. "We're done. Don't expect a call, because you're not getting one."
The woman sneered at him and gathered her things. "Asshole," she muttered as she left.
Loki ignored her and walked backstage to see if there was anybody left in the green room, but the only person he found was the security guard who never seemed to go home. He'd long begun to suspect that he was there more to make sure Loki didn't cause problems, rather than making sure people didn't cause problems for Loki.
"So, are you planning on auditioning the entire city, or just everything east of the Strip?" he asked from where he lounged on the couch.
"Shut up," Loki spat at him as he walked past and out the door to the hall. He'd spent his entire day off watching clumsy attempts to impress him, and none of them had even come close. Worse, it was time wasted. Time that could have been spent doing something useful.
He supposed he still could be doing something, but it was late, and his show was dark, and he was tired and too annoyed to think clearly anyway. Instead of trying to decide the next step in his ruined plans, he stopped by the bar in the middle of the casino and took over the seat in the farthest corner. Not even wanting to think of what his running tab might have been if not for his drinks being comped, Loki nodded at the rum and coke that was automatically handed to him. He hadn't got much done at all in the previous few weeks, with his time being divided between hastily re-writing the show, trying to find a new assistant, and spending far too much time at the bar. The way things were going, he wasn't likely to get anything done for a while yet.
After nursing his drink for almost an hour, and not getting even a buzz off it, he moved onto shots. He didn't even care what he was given, and downed each of them without question. As he put the fourth glass back on the counter, something to his left caught his eye. He looked up, and rolled his eyes so hard he nearly fell out of his seat.
"No. What the fuck are you doing here? Go away," he said to Thor, speaking in Icelandic to keep everyone else out of their inevitable argument.
Thor stood several long paces away, and didn't step forward. "I didn't know where else I might find you," he said.
Loki stood clumsily and held his arms wide. "Well, you've found me. Now leave." He picked up his fifth shot and drank it. He meant to slam the glass onto the counter, but missed and dropped it to the floor. Loki looked down at it, not quite sure how it wound up where it was.
"Loki, what are you doing here?" asked Thor, still keeping his distance.
"I'm getting smeared. What does it look like?" Loki grumbled, signalling for another round of shots as he fell back into his seat. Before the bartender could respond, Thor grabbed Loki by the arm and pulled him back to his feet.
"You've had enough," Thor said, holding his arm so high that it was the only reason Loki even still managed to keep his footing.
Loki swung around, throwing his fist without even taking the time to see where it would land. Hitting Thor's face felt like it probably hurt Thor less than it did Loki, but it was enough to get him to let go. It was also, unfortunately, enough to get him to swing back. He backhanded Loki across the face and started to walk away, but suddenly Loki didn't want him to go anywhere. Finding nothing else within reach to grab, he picked up one of his empty shot glasses and stomped after Thor, ignoring the shocked and scandalised shouting around him. Before he could do anything with the shot glass, Thor wrestled it out of his hands and grabbed both his wrists, holding them high above their heads.
"You're hurting me!" Loki protested.
"You're being an asshole," Thor said back, as if it was a reasonable excuse.
Loki tried to pull away, but Thor held on with a vise-like grip. "And you're hurting me."
"You were going to hurt me!" Thor kicked the shot glass out of the way and pulled Loki's arms up even higher.
"And you're still hurting me!"
Loki started to kick as he twisted and pulled, half-tempted to spit in Thor's eye and startle him into letting go. Before he could, someone tapped him on the shoulder. Loki turned to see two of the casino's biggest security guards behind him, looking very mean.
"Mr Odinson, I think it's time you and your friend leave the premises," the bigger of the two said.
Loki finally managed to pull away and stepped back away from Thor. "Do you hear that? You need to leave," he said.
"Both of you need to leave," said the security guard. "You don't need to walk through the casino to do your job, Mr Odinson. We can ban you if you don't leave now, and do it peacefully."
Loki gaped at the security guards, and then at Thor, before turning toward the first exit he could find. "Fine. Whatever. See if I care," he said as he stomped through the casino and out to the parking lot.
He wound up on the wrong side of the building, but he didn't particularly care. Even though the sun was almost completely set, it was still about eight million degrees, and everything smelled like sewage and melted tar. He just kept walking through the parking lot and out to the sidewalk, not even having to look back to know Thor was following him. He stopped just on the edge of the property, standing in front of what was technically the neighbouring condo's lot. As soon as Thor caught back up with him, Loki turned and punched him again. This time when Thor hit him, he didn't hold back. Loki felt his jaw explode as he stumbled backwards and landed in the dust.
"Why?" he shouted, holding both hands over his chin to make sure it stayed in one piece.
"I could ask you the same thing!" Thor shouted back.
Sprawled out on the ground with Thor standing over him, Loki suddenly felt very, very small. Loki didn't meet many people who were bigger than he was, but Thor had always been one of those few. And now he seemed about twenty feet tall, standing there and glaring down at him, so Loki kicked him in the knee, hoping he might fall over. All it did was make Thor kick him back, right in the hip.
"Stop this," Thor demanded.
"You stop it," said Loki, trying to decide which part of him hurt worse. He sat up awkwardly, tempted to throw another kick, but not wanting to be kicked again in turn. "I hate you. Go home."
Thor laughed, but Loki wasn't sure what was so funny. Although, after a few seconds, he realised that Thor didn't exactly sound like he found it funny either.
"Go home?" he asked. "Where? To the apartment I've been kicked out of, or to the girlfriend I don't have anymore?"
This, Loki did find funny. "Well, there are plenty of hotels in this city," he pointed out.
"You think I don't know that?" Thor demanded. For a moment, Loki thought he might get kicked again, but Thor stepped away instead.
"I'm sure you'll have no problem paying for it. Do you pay for anything on your own?" asked Loki.
He shifted on the ground, sitting up a bit better so he could at least pretend to be comfortable. He was fairly certain he'd landed on a tumbleweed when he'd fallen, and didn't even want to think about the thorns he'd be picking out of his back for the next week.
Thor sighed and turned back around to face him. "What is your problem, Loki?" he asked.
Loki finally stood, wishing he'd stayed on the ground before he was even halfway up. "What is my problem?" he asked. "My problem is you running away to fucking iFjarskanistan/i and still having everything handed to you. While I was stuck with them, having to justify every little thing because it was never good enough."
"And that was your decision," Thor said.
"How?" Loki demanded, stomping toward him.
Thor stayed unmoved on the sidewalk. "You know how."
Loki very nearly did hit him again. Flamingo traffic was almost at its peak that time of evening, tempting Loki to try to hurl Thor into it. The only thing stopping him was the knowledge that Thor would manage to take Loki with him.
"Tell me, right now, that you were never offered help," Thor said. "That you didn't leave the second you were able. That you didn't disappear without a word for two years, only to finally call home when you needed to be picked up from jail." He punctuated the last four words by jabbing his finger into Loki's chest, each time harder than the next.
Loki slapped his hand away. "I never wanted their money or their help!" He shouted back. He pointed to the letterboard in front of the casino with his name on it. "I did that on my own, without help from any of you, and it still isn't good enough! Everything you do is on someone else's money, and yet you're praised for it, no matter how badly you fail. Where shall you go when being a doctor doesn't work for you? What will you do next? I hear lawyers make good money."
Thor sighed deeply, but instead of responding with words, he hit Loki again, once more dropping him to the ground, and on top of the same tumbleweed.
"I hate you," Loki said flatly, fairly certain his nose was actually broken this time.
"You're an idiot." Thor sat down on the ground next to him and pulled him so he was sitting up and not choking on his own blood. "If you hate me so much, why go through all this? What was the point?"
Loki shrugged and used the hem of his t-shirt to try to wipe the blood from his lip. "There wasn't one," he admitted, tilting his head back toward the sky. Thor immediately pushed Loki so he was looking at the ground instead.
"You need help," he said.
"I tried that. It was awful." Loki could somehow tell that Thor was shaking his head. "What I need is an assistant."
"Well, you chased yours away. Good job," Thor said, keeping his hand on the back of Loki's head.
"I could sue her," Loki said, halfway wondering if it would actually be worth it. "The owner's trying to already, I think."
"Don't you dare," Thor warned. "And call off your dogs."
Loki tried to look up, but Thor kept pushing his head down again each time he tried. "Are you here to be her knight in shining armour?" Loki asked.
"No, apparently I'm here to be your common sense, seeing as you have none." He tightened his hold on Loki, grabbing a handful of his hair when Loki tried to look up again. "Stop that, or you'll swallow your own blood and get sick. Can you breathe?"
"I'm sitting here, aren't I?" asked Loki. "Having a lovely conversation with you."
"Loki," Thor warned.
Loki shrugged. "Yes, I can breathe. Congratulations, you've only maimed me. You won't have to write home about how you murdered me on the street."
Thor sighed, but said nothing. They sat in a heavy silence on the side of the road as darkness fell over the valley. Cars sped past them on the road, occasionally honking their horns or shouting out the windows. Eventually, Thor let go of Loki, letting him look up and stretch the kink out of his neck. Whether it was whatever he had drank at the bar, or the aftermath of whatever had just happened with Thor, Loki began to feel rather uneasy. He rolled over onto his side and lay there in the dust, not sure if he wanted to pass out or be sick. Beside him, Thor sighed again.
"Come on, get up. I'll take you home," he said. "Where do you live?"
"Henderson," Loki answered, remembering too late that he was still angry with Thor. And then he remembered the shots he'd had, and all the poisonous and disgusting bugs that lived in the desert, and pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it up to Thor.
"Oh," said Thor. "Hang on."
"What?" asked Loki.
"It's not in English."
He sat up just enough to look at Thor. "Of course it's not in English. Why would it be in English?" he asked.
Thor shrugged. "Because you're in America now."
"Just find my address in the map thing. The cabs have all blacklisted me and I don't want to spend the night here," he said, sitting up all the way and rubbing the sand off his face.
"Hang on," Thor repeated, sounding like he wanted to laugh. "There are about twelve cab companies here. How did you piss all of them off?"
"I'm just that good," Loki said flatly.
Thor kept laughing as he searched through the phone's map history. Finally, he handed the phone back and hauled Loki up off the ground and guided him toward his big, stupid white truck. It wasn't the sort of car Loki ever wanted to be seen in, but he figured it was a choice between waking up hungover in his own bed, or waking up hungover on the green room sofa. He knew which option seemed less terrible, so he climbed into the truck and pretended he was somewhere else. They drove out to Henderson in silence, with the radio quietly playing the same eight rock songs they always played.
When they got to Loki's apartment, he expected to just be let out in the parking lot, but instead found himself being followed inside. Not having the energy to argue, Loki let Thor in with him. Loki ignored Thor's attempts to snoop around and collapsed onto the sofa, immediately wishing he hadn't. The tumbleweed he'd fallen on was very much still in his back, and making its presence very known. Shouting just about every swear he knew, in every language he knew, Loki sat back up and pulled his shirt off, only to realise that it was a stupid idea as the fabric dragged over the thorns and only made everything worse.
"What did you do?" Thor asked, suddenly in the room with him.
Loki twisted around to try to look at his back. "Even the plants in this place want to kill you," he said, unable to turn his head far enough to see anything more than his shoulder.
"Do you have any tweezers?" asked Thor.
Loki wasn't sure if Thor was being serious or not. "No, I don't have any tweezers. Why the hell would I have tweezers?"
Thor nodded. "Don't touch anything," he said. Before Loki could ask what he was doing, Thor walked out the front door.
Still tired and sick, Loki rolled over to lay on his stomach, since that at least didn't hurt to think about. Thor was only gone about ten minute before he returned with a bag from the 7-11 on the corner. Loki wanted to protest, but he also just wanted to sleep, so he decided to just let Thor do whatever it was he wanted to do. Except what he wanted to do was apparently home acupuncture. Loki was suddenly wide awake when Thor pulled the first thorn from his back, which put up a bit of a fight and had to be pulled twice before it came out. Loki shouted and slapped at him, but Thor only wrestled him back down.
"Don't make me sit on you," he threatened.
Somehow, Loki suspected that Thor might actually make good on that threat, so he kept to just shouting each time Thor pulled one of the thorns from his skin.
"I don't consent to this treatment," Loki said as Thor pulled out another thorn.
"Don't be such a baby," Thor said, laughing. He pulled out one more and then held his hand out in front of Loki's face. "There, all better," he said, showing the five thorns he'd pulled out.
"There were at least a hundred. I felt them," Loki said.
"There were five. Now sit up." As Loki grudgingly did, Thor dropped the thorns onto the coffee table and moved to be able to face Loki directly. He tilted Loki's head back so he could look at the mess he'd made of Loki's nose.
"This is your fault," Loki told him.
"I know. Which is why you're not in Urgent Care right now," Thor said.
While he poked and prodded, Loki wondered how that made any sense, considering there hadn't been anyone else around to repeatedly try to punch his lights out.
"Why did you stay here all this time?" he asked suddenly.
Thor paused briefly. "Because I'd started going to school to see if it was something I might be able to do seriously. I spent the first few years changing my focus, but when I found the medical programme, I realised I could actually help people. Do something useful, which I would have never been able to do as Minister of Dull Tedium. I wasn't helping anybody at home, so I stayed."
Loki tried to laugh, but he just wound up coughing instead. The answer was so typically Thor, he could barely stand it.
"Why did you come here?" Thor asked.
There were a dozen answers Loki could have given. He didn't like any of them. "I don't even know anymore," he said. He could see the look on Thor's face, and didn't even want to go there. "Don't say it. I'm sick of hearing it."
"Well, think about it anyway. If I'm not the first to say it, maybe you should listen to it," Thor said.
"No."
Thor suddenly looked incredibly sad, but he said nothing more and busied himself with cleaning Loki's face and making sure his nose wasn't actually broken. Considering Thor did nothing to crunch it back into place, Loki could only assume that he was fine, if a bit bloodied and bruised.
"I still don't forgive you," he said suddenly.
Loki shrugged. "Good. I still hate you."
When Thor was done, Loki got up and started to make his way back to his bedroom, pausing just before the door.
"Did you really get kicked out of your apartment?" he asked.
"Well, on top of my stalker trying to break in, and someone calling my roommate's phone at all hours of the night, they all got really angry when someone told them I was living under a false name and had forged everything on the lease," Thor said.
Loki tried to put everything together, and realised Laufey was even better at this than he'd realised. "I only did the first one," he said, suddenly afraid of what she might do to him down the line. "This may not be over. I think Laufey's still angry with you too."
"Laufey's angry with everyone," Thor muttered.
Loki shrugged, knowing that to probably be true. "I have a sofa. If you want it. Though I can't promise I won't strangle you in the night."
"Loki, don't joke," Thor warned.
Turning to walk into his bedroom, Loki shrugged. "I'm not," he said before shutting the door.
He got into bed and powered up his laptop, since it was still far too early to actually go to bed. He never did hear any sign of Thor leaving.