The first thing Thor noticed when he touched down was the bright light that was in the sky and radiated off the snow. Light, real light that flooded his vision and made him feel like he wasn't trapped any longer.

The second thing he noticed was the few snakes that writhed in the snow by his feet. They must have been caught in the light of the tesseract and transported with them. Thor instantly kicked one aside and he heard Loki cutting through the others.

"That… was bad." Jane panted. Thor nodded as did Loki. They were all wet from the rain in Hel, and the coldness and snow wasn't helping in Nifleheim. Not to mention the biting wind that howled louder than Thor had ever heard. Jane crossed her arms over her chest and huddled close to Thor. He put an arm around her. He wasn't that cold; being a god had its perks against weather. It only made him stronger against the cold by a little bit though.

"So, we need to power the tesseract?" Loki said, also crossing his arms over his chest.

"Lightning of Thor will suffice." Jane said. She then smiled. "I'm starting to even talk like Asgardians." She muttered more to herself. Thor chuckled at Jane's comment, but then grew serious about their predicament.

"Well, I've been thinking…"

"And that always turns out so great." Loki sarcastically interrupted him. Thor rolled his eyes, fed up with his brother's sarcasm. He smiled and shoved Loki into the snow which earned him a snowball in the shoulder from Loki.

"Will you let me finish?" Thor asked while smiling and offering Loki a hand. Loki took it and brushed the snow off of his armor. "I was going to say that maybe we could stay here for just a little while."

"What?" Loki and Jane said at the same time. They looked as surprised at Thor as Thor felt. It had been Thor who had kept pushing to go to each realm faster so they could get ahead of the elves, but he needed time to think.

"We are all exhausted, you guys more than I. I think we can spare just a few hours to get ourselves together." Thor said.

"What if the elves get to Muspelheim before us, though?" Jane asked, obviously disagreeing. That was exactly what Thor needed time to think about: Muspelheim. He had gotten the idea while he was reciting the Norwegian chant to Jane to help her rid of the demon. She had almost died in Hel, he couldn't drag her to another realm where there was no promise that Thor could protect her. The same thing went for his brother. This was Thor's quest, and he shouldn't have brought Loki and Jane with him the first place. They could be killed and it would be his fault. He loved having them with him, but was starting to think about going to Muspelheim alone.

"Jane, look at you, you can barely stand and we've been awake for almost three days. We haven't eaten in who knows how long, and we need to think about how we should approach Muspelheim." Thor argued. "Just until we are ready."

Loki and Jane looked at him with much uncertainty, but eventually Jane closed her eyes and took a deep breath. He guessed all of the exhaustion was catching up to her now that they all thought about how much they have been through. She nodded and looked over to Loki.

"It's your decision." Loki told Thor. Did he really just say that? Thor looked around. They were on stretching plains of snow and ice with mountains surrounding them on all sides. There was a cliff that towered high above them on their right side. The rock was iced over and went straight up without a slope. It had a nook in it that was cut far enough for all of them to stay there comfortably for a while out of the chill of the wind. Thor mentioned this to Loki and Jane, and Loki started towards it without even answering. Thor guessed the reason he was being so… cooperative was because he too was tired and out of energy.

Thor and Jane fell in step behind him, walking to their shelter. Thor looked around as they walked for things that they could use. There were many evergreen trees that towered high around the edge of the snowy plains. Their vibrant greens were covered with light snowflakes. He could definitely try to start a fire with some of the wood if Loki taught him how to do it with magic.

~X~

In only twenty minutes, Loki was sitting by the fire he helped Thor make with Thor and Jane sleeping wrapped in each other's arms further back in the corner. Loki was grateful for the fire that they had created with wood from the evergreens. Thor still didn't take off Loki's mortal band, but Loki told how to strike a fire. It had taken a few times, but his brother finally got it.

Loki had been so tired ever since leaving Nidavellir, but all of the sudden, he couldn't sleep. They were almost done with their journey and his time alive was growing shorter. It was strange knowing about your approaching death. Loki seemed to look at everything differently now, which only made him feel more unhappy. He thought of everything he would never get to do. He thought of how he would leave the universe: Thor's evil, terrible brother. He was used to people being disappointed by him at this point, but he didn't want to leave like that. Maybe it would be easier for Thor to cope with though if he thought Loki didn't love him. Thor wouldn't be as sad if he Loki died while not being fully back on his side.

Loki looked at Thor, but he couldn't for long. It was for him, wasn't it? If Loki left to the Other to die, then no more trouble for Thor… at least from him anyways. If he didn't go to the Other, the Other would come to him and destroy everything and everyone as he went. Loki sighed and stood up. He didn't want to think about it right now.

He walked out into the harsh wind. It was snowing now, but he didn't care. All of the sudden, he felt closed in while sitting in the carved out area in the cliff. There was a giant rock in the middle of two trees. At least the trees would shelter him a bit from the slowing snow. Loki crossed his arms over his chest again and walked towards the rock.

~X~

In Thor's dream, he was watching someone sleep. It was a boy, but he looked extremely familiar. Thor walked around to the other side of the bed, and even in the dim light of morning, he could see it was a younger Loki. He then noticed it was Loki's room he was standing in. His brother looked to be at the age of… 7 maybe? Thor smiled to himself as he watched little-Loki sleep. He was so cute.

All of the sudden, the door burst open at the other side of the room and another boy rushed in. Thor instantly noticed that it was him when he was around 9 years old. Little-Thor jumped onto Loki's bed and immediately began shaking him.

"Loki Loki Loki Loki Loki Loki Loki Loki Loki Loki," 9 year old Thor repeated over and over again before Loki finally groaned and pushed Thor off of him.

"What?" Loki said. A younger, less worn, and not to mention alive, Frigga came in after Thor and smiled the smile that Thor so desperately wanted to see again.

Young Thor smiled and wrapped his arms around his little brother, squeezing him close.

"Happy Birthday." Thor said. Loki wrapped an arm around Thor as well.

"Thanks, but I- I can barely breathe." Loki barely managed to say with Thor hugging him so tightly. Thor let up a little, but still kept his arms around him. It made the current Thor sad, watching how close they once were. He missed that. He missed being able to wrap his arms around his brother without Loki stabbing him in the back metaphorically and literally.

"Happy Birthday, darling." Frigga smiled to her youngest son. Loki smiled but didn't say anything.

"He probably would say thank you if I wasn't squeezing the air out of him." Thor said, smiling up at Loki. Frigga rolled her eyes, but she kept smiling.

"I think that's enough, Thor." Frigga said. Thor stopped squeezing Loki so tightly so he could breathe again. Loki gasped in air and sat up with Thor's arms still around him. Thor put his head on his little brother's shoulder and smiled up at their mother. They hadn't always been this close all of the time, only usually when it was Thor or Loki's birthday.

"Aww, look at how much your brother loves you." Frigga said as she watched Loki and Thor.

"Don't get too used to it." Thor joked finally releasing his brother.

~X~

Thor jolted awake in the nook. Jane was still sound asleep in his arms with their blanket draped across her. Thor's mind knew he had a dream, but he couldn't remember what about. He knew it had something to do with Loki, but… Oh my god… Thor thought, mimicking what Jane sometimes said. It should be today. Thor carefully counted back the days ever since they left Asgard. If he was correct, today was Loki's birthday.

Thor carefully counted the amount of days they had been traveling again. Yep, today was the day. Thor had nearly forgotten that Loki's birthday had been coming up. Did Loki know? Probably not.

Thor slid out from under Jane as cautiously as he could, not wanting to wake her. He was sure to put his leather bag down for her to use as a pillow instead of lying on the cold hard floor. Thor then walked as quietly as he could out into the snow.

It was falling now, the snow. Since Loki wasn't in the cave, Thor guessed he was somewhere out there. He liked to be alone a lot, and Thor didn't worry about the possibility of his brother leaving him every time he couldn't find Loki. Lately it had all turned out okay.

Thor looked around at the snowing realm. In a way, it was beautiful. It may have been extremely cold and the wind was annoying, but everything sparkled a bright white including the snowflakes. The only thing that disturbed Thor was the unmistakable trail of blood that led somewhere off near the pine trees. Remembering Loki's snake bit, Thor ran to the group of pines. Did it turn out to be poisonous?

Loki was sitting on a rock that wasn't covered in much snow. It was probably because of the trees that didn't allow the snow to fall on it. His arms were crossed over his chest to keep warm again, and he looked almost troubled about something, but not dying. Thor continued to the rock, but approached it from the back: he wanted to scare Loki just as he scared him in Hel.

Thor quietly walked to the rock, sinking into the snow with every step. Thankfully, the snow was new and soft so it didn't make much sound… at least Thor thought so.

"I know you're there." Loki said, his voice barely audible as it was swept away in the wind. Thor gave up his quiet act and normally walked around the rock to sit with Loki.

"How do you do that?" Thor asked. No one could ever sneak up on Loki. His brother just shrugged. Together they sat in silence, except for the howl of the winds. Thor then remembered what he had figured out a few moment before.

"Hey, happy birthday." Thor said nudging Loki. Loki looked surprised that it was his birthday. He seemed to have thought about it for a while, and Thor could see he was also counting back the days. Finally his brother sighed and pulled one knee to his chest as he rested his arm on it.

"I'm sorry you have to spend it here." Thor said looking around at the frozen wasteland. As beautiful as it was, they all wanted to go back to Asgard so badly. "Although a jail cell isn't much better." Thor realized, saying this more to himself than Loki. He looked over at his brother who smiled just a little.

"It's alright. It's not my birthday anyway." Loki said staring past the towering snow mounts. Thor was sure that it was, though. He looked at Loki, confused. His brother caught his look and pulled up his other knee to his chest.

"It's not my real birthday, it was just another lie." Loki said. Thor expected him to be angry, but he looked more hurt. Thor had nearly forgotten Loki was adopted. The only good thing about going through the troubles of different realms was that they could forget about all of the troubles that had recently happened. It was silent between them again for a little while, but Loki broke it eventually.

"How did you find me anyways, you can barely see through the falling snow." Loki said, looking around at the white that filled the air. Thor's heart jumped when he remembered how he did find Loki.

"I followed the trail of blood, how's your hand?"

Loki looked down and seemed startled by the amount of blood that the wound was causing. He looked around at the ground and leaned down to get a handful of snow. He then pressed it to the puncture marks in his skin.

"It stings, but I'll live." he said, occupied by trying to ice the wound. Thor nodded even though Loki wasn't looking, and watched as the snow turned red. Thor scowled at the wound that wasn't letting up on bleeding.

"Loki," Thor started. Loki didn't say anything, but waited for Thor to continue. Thor didn't, though. He watched Loki and wouldn't finish; he wanted his brother's full attention and a real answer. His brother finally looked up at Thor, wanting him to go one.

"You get along with Jane pretty well, right?" Thor asked. He wanted to make sure that if Thor went to Muspelheim alone and left them the smaller tesseract trinket, he could trust Loki to get both of them home alive.

"Well I haven't tried to kill her yet so that's a good thing I guess." Loki said. His brother was joking, but it was true. Thor smiled when he remembered what Jane had told him while they were walking in Hel.

"She was extremely excited to tell me that you 'don't totally hate' her." Thor said. Loki chuckled and looked at the far mountains as if he was remembering something. Thor knew he could trust Loki with Jane. The only thing he needed now was to sneak out to Muspelheim without them knowing. Jane and Loki surely would be extremely angered by this, but this was Thor's fight. He brought them into this mess, so he could take them out. It was for sure then: Thor was going to Muspelheim alone.

A/N: Sorry this took a while. Marching band camp started so it has been busy. Keep holding on people waiting for Thor 2 to come to theaters!

loki fan- I appreciate the concern. Thank you so much for reading and reviewing! I was so happy to see the review especially since it was the first one for chapter 25!

isaalacrymosaa- thanks! I like writing frentic moments: it makes me go really fast! And all of this stuff I have no clue if any of it is in the movie, but it would be amazing if it will be! And I'm so glad that you got what I was trying to convey with the possession!

Rebeca13787- Aw! Thank you so much! I love the characters so much that they are easy to work with! And yes, Loki has two brothers. I didn't make that up, though. While writing this story I do tons of research in Norse Mythology which is where the comics of Thor were based off of. So almost all of the places, creatures, and people in this story are based off of more Norse Mythology

.1- I completely agree! I read all about the secret footage that they showed at comic con, and it made me 10 times more excited for the movie (if that was even possible!).

2008- Just writing this fanfic is also helping me get by until Thor 2 comes out! Without writing this, I don't know what I would do while waiting! Tons of thanks, and I hope it's a little like what I'm writing too! I trust Marvel to make a great movie!

*VERY SMALL BUT AMAZING SPOILER FOR THE ACTUAL THOR 2*

So at comic con, they showed parts from Thor 2. I had to share this part of the footage with others though, because it made me so so so excited. Apparently in the movie, there is a part where Jane Foster punches Loki in the face and says "That was for New York". And then to make it even more awesome Loki responds by saying "ooohh, I like her"

I love Loki, but I cannot wait to see Jane punch him in the movie. It just strikes me as a funny thing to see.