A/N: Random AU for the end of the movie – what happened to "Loki's" body?

Thor was filthy, hurting and exhausted. Bath and a bed had never sounded so good in all his life, but still, before he would let his attendants usher him away he had one thing more to tell the king. "Father. As soon as we've rested, let us call together the masters of ceremony and start making arrangements."

Odin's jaw dropped and at first he mouthed without sound. Then: "Your mother lies dead. Your brother, dead. Asgard half in ruins, the realms bleeding, and all you can think about is your coronation? I am disappointed, Thor. I had thought-"

"No!" Father hated interruption, but Thor could not let that stand. "No, no of course that's not what I meant." He drew himself up. "I meant funeral arrangements. For Loki."

Another silence. Then Odin shook his head. "No. Loki will have no funeral."

"But-... but I told you what he did for me!" he protested. "How he died in the end. You cannot think that that does not wipe away the stain of his earlier crimes. He redeemed himself, Father – he changed. I've told you. I swear it."

Odin frowned. "Redeemed himself," he said softly. "Changed. Is that how you would describe it?"

Thor didn't understand. "Of course. I told you what he did, the-"

"I don't doubt you've told me what he did." Odin was sharp. "But what makes you say changed? What makes you think that the affection which saved your life wasn't there always – only Loki had no way to show you which you would believe?"

That was... a terrible thought. Thor pushed it away and tried to focus on the topic at hand. "All the more reason to honor him with funeral rites," he insisted. "If his heart was true then I did him grave wrong, yes. And I have no way to make right what I've done except do my best, now, to treat him as he deserves."

Odin sighed. "Do you think he deserves a ceremony that nobody will bother to attend? Do you think he would like to see that in the end nobody mourns him after all?"

"I. I will attend. I will mourn. Father, please."

Odin was quiet for a while. "There will be no public funeral," he said at last. "But you may see that he gets his rites. You and I will send him off, alone."

Thor cried. More than Loki was expecting. He cried as the body (a dead dark elf, layered with illusion and heavily enchanted to disguise its foul smell) was prepared and set into its boat, cried harder as the boat was pushed off.

Once it had drifted far enough that the body couldn't be seen anymore, Loki cried too. This was as close as he was going to get to Mother's memorial; he had always been an excellent pretender and when the flames roared up it was easy to imagine that it was her soul he was watching released.

"I'm sorry, brother," Thor said eventually. Voice breaking.

Loki was surprised to discover that after everything, it still hurt to see him hurting. Earlier, when Thor had first asked about a funeral, he had made him hurt on purpose, to make him pay for the comfort he was stealing but didn't deserve.

But this, now, was genuine grief, and Loki couldn't deny that it tugged at him. He leaned in to bump his shoulder against Thor's – their substitute for a hug since childhood, since neither of them wanted to be seen hugging. "It's all right," he said.

-... in Odin's voice. Fuck.

The End.