Chapter Twenty-Seven – Day 190

Loki awoke with a groan. His dream had been a very strange one. Everyone around him had been dying and coming back to life in an endless loop, each using their few moments of life to remind him of how much of a failure he was. The final person had been Thor, who had bodily shaken him as he yelled his name. He was glad to be out that feverish nightmare.

Or maybe it was not entirely in his head. The shaking continued, though not as violently, forcing Loki to wake up properly. "Loki! You're awake!"

He brushed off the hand on his shoulder, muttering groggily, "I'd like very much not to be." Rolling over to his side, Loki took in the enthusiastic form of Thor. Wait, how was Thor here?

Like a dam had been broken, a torrent of memories flooded through his mind. His attempted genocide had failed, prevented by the very man before him. Thor's act of sacrifice had been enough to deem him worthy of regaining his immortal status, and the blast of regenerative energy had knocked Loki into a daze, succumbing to the sweet bliss of unconsciousness as Thor rid Asgard of the remaining giants and Elves. But however long he had been out, it had not been long enough. His mind still felt like it had been forced through a shredder multiple times, the pieces too scattered to ever make it whole again.

"But you are, which means we need to talk." The mattress dipped as Thor took a seat on the bed.

Loki sighed. He was too tired to think, let alone withstand the barrage of questions sure to come his way. "Can't it wait until I'm at least dressed?"

Thor remained firm. "No, I need you to be honest. I won't give you time to prepare your lies."

"How can I prepare a lie when I have no idea what you want to talk about?"

"Enough." Thor's eyes narrowed at him. "Just tell me what you meant when you said you had an entire race to destroy."

Loki shrugged in disinterest; he already knew Thor had not understood his ravings – or at least chosen not to understand. "I meant exactly what I said. I was going to annihilate Jotunheim."

"But why?" The question was filled with distressed incomprehension. Loki almost pitied him for his innocence; Thor would never understand pain the way he did.

He had failed in his pointless mission anyway, so he responded wearily, "Does it really matter? You were prepared to do the same in retaliation for their petty mockery."

"But you never cared about slaying the frost giants before," Thor insisted in exasperation. "Why did you try to do it now?"

Loki looked at Thor intently, cataloguing every inch of his face. The noble brow furrowing in confusion, the blue eyes burning with a desire for answers, the mouth creasing in consternation. He had known this man all his life, could manipulate him into nearly any action, but this… he had no idea how Thor would react to the harsh truth of his existence.

"Because I found out I'm one of them."

Well, he supposed he should have predicted Thor's initial reaction – the wrinkle in his brow only deepened in further confusion.

Loki continued, trying to detach himself from the words as much as possible. "I realized something was wrong with me when we were on Jotunheim, and when I confronted Father about it, he confirmed that he had taken me from there as a baby." The next words tore at him; he struggled to cut through the layer of desolation that threatened to undo him. "I had been left out to die, so he thought he might use me as a political tool of some sort."

"But- but you look nothing like them!"

"Which is why it's awfully convenient that shapeshifting is among my many talents." Loki shrugged again. "Odin must have done something to keep me from switching back; even now I can't do it at will. Not that I want to anyway." In fact, if he never saw his true form again, it would be too soon.

Loki grabbed Thor's hand, prepared for a flinch of revulsion that never came. He stressed his next words carefully, needing Thor to understand while he was still numb enough to handle the inevitable rejection. "I'm not your brother. Not really."

Thor looked away, clearly deep in thought over Loki's words. Loki realized he had started to drift off again as a squeeze to his hand brought him back to full awareness. "It doesn't matter to me if we're not related by blood; you're still my brother."

Loki smiled ruefully. Of course, the oaf would think acceptance would be so simple. He would have to come fully clean and see how far it truly extended. "Even if I told you I was the one who let the frost giants into Asgard during your coronation?"

He could see the war raging in Thor's head, this new sense of compassion battling against the instinct to give into his anger. "Yes, even then." He released a tremulous breath. "But that was before you knew of your birth. Do you really hate me so much?"

Loki pushed past the question, no longer entirely sure of what a true answer would be. Everything was too topsy-turvy at the moment. "It wasn't about that. I had discovered the truth behind your secret mission, and I was worried that you would lead us into war over it once you gained your crown. Someone is hunting for the Infinity Stones, and the parasite in Jane is one of them. If you had gone on the offensive, she might have been exposed."

Thor sat in silence as he contemplated Loki's words. Coming to a decision, he commanded in a low voice, "You are never to mention this again. No one else knows the extent of what you have done, and the past few days have made me realize that I am not ready to be king." He paused, waiting for Loki's consenting nod. "But we should still do something about this being, even if we have to do it in your sneaky way."

Loki smirked at his brother's teasing tone; maybe they really would be okay. "Sorry if I have an appreciation for subtlety."

"Was destroying Jotunheim your idea of subtlety?"

"Oh, shut up."

Loki dozed on and off after Thor left, a strange warmth filling his chest. For now, at least, his brother did not care that he was a monster hiding beneath a veneer of gentility. Thor was simply too stubborn to cast him aside so easily. It was a trait Loki often derided, but for once he was glad of it.

However, it still hurt that neither of his fathers had ever truly wanted him. One had desired a strong heir, the other a political pawn; as a person he had held no value. But with his first father dead and the second unlikely to awaken for several months, their opinions became irrelevant. He could continue being whom he had always been, just without the constraint of trying to win Odin's approval. It was rather freeing.

He wished he could see his mother, but she was still confined to the healing rooms as her recovery was taking longer than expected. She had known of his origins all along, yet she had loved him anyway. It baffled him, but he did not doubt her; he only wanted to be surrounded by that love again.

A creak from his door pulled him from his familial musings. A flash of orange sped across his floor, hopping onto the foot of his bed. He could only stare at it in bewilderment. When had the palace acquired a Flerken?

Too distracted by the orange creature, he missed the entrance of its companion. "Hey."

He tore away his gaze to drink in Jane's smiling face as she leaned against his bedpost. She looked as tired as he still felt, but nothing could have been more beautiful. It seemed impossible that she was here, alive and whole and perfect. Her death had broken him, and the death of his own identity had crushed the pieces; now that the latter was mending, he was ready to move on from the horror of the former.

"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

He smirked at her flare of indignation. "All I have to-? Ugh, even on the brink of death, you're still an ass."

"Does that mean you were worried about me?"

"Of course, I was!" She moved to sit on the open space at the foot of his bed beside the Flerken, curling her legs to the side as the creature protested the motion. Loki forced himself to sit up; he wanted to be as near to her as he could be. "What fun would this place be without you?"

He hummed his agreement, the softness of her voice revealing the depth of her worry despite the facetious question. He looked down at her hands where they pressed into his coverlet. How he longed to hold one of them in his own and never let it go.

Oh dear, he was becoming a sentimental sap.

Resisting the desire, Loki realized something was different about them. "So, Thor decided you no longer needed to be leashed?"

She followed his gaze, shrugging as she caught his meaning. "He thinks I have enough control now that I don't need the cuffs anymore. I did use my powers to basically break us out of prison without hurting anyone, so I think that's fair."

Loki raised an eyebrow. His brother and the girl had only been on Midgard for a few days; what had they been up to? "Prison?"

"Oh, right, you didn't know about that." A blush heated up her cheeks, the familiar tinge of pink lightening his heart. "Um, well, Thor and I sort of both landed in a super-secret government facility and were held on suspicion of terrorism. Not a fun time."

Of all the luck… "How did you end up so close together?"

"Oh, I do have an answer for that one!" Her face lit up in excitement. "I finally met Heimdall – who kinda freaks me out, by the way – and he said Thor's banishment coincided with my weird portal explosion almost exactly, so my shortcut through space intersected with the Bifrost and dragged Thor out at just the right moment. Pretty crazy, right? I'm going to have to start a whole new research project on that."

Loki tried to match her enthusiasm, but the stirrings of dread pooled in his stomach. Had he gotten her back only to have her leave? He could not help the bitterness that seeped into his voice. "I suppose that means you'll be wanting to go back to your little town in the desert. Our bargain was set to end once you gained control over your power."

"Hm?" Her attention had drifted briefly, like the calculations had already started forming in her head. "Um, actually, breaking out like that means I'm a fugitive from the law, so I probably shouldn't go back for a while." The pink returned to her face as she tucked her hair behind her ear. "That is, if you don't mind me staying longer."

For all his eloquence, there were no words he could find to express the absolute joy that filled him. Instead, he let his smile do the talking, delighted to see her reflecting it back.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Breaking away, Jane grabbed the Flerken and set it on her lap, the creature purring as she began stroking it. "This is Goose. We'll have to take her back at some point."

"You are aware that that's not a cat, right?" He was unsure how she could be petting it so calmly if she was. He had no desire to get anywhere near those claws.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I kinda figured that one out when she ate three Elves with her tentacles. She also ate that Tesseract thingy that helped us get back."

"You used the Tesseract?"

"Uh-huh. It called to me, like what happened in New York. I don't think I should touch it again, though; it boosted my power so much I thought I was going to go supernova."

Loki sat in stunned silence as the Flerken demanded more of Jane's attention. It was hard enough to believe that a mortal could contain one Infinity Stone; that she could even touch a second without burning up instantly was an impossibility of a completely different sort. What was it about her that made her so special even the laws of the universe refused to apply themselves to her?

Having satisfied the animal, Jane removed it from her lap as she looked back to him with an expression of remorse. "I'm sorry for what happened to your mom. I swear I never meant to hurt her."

He dismissed the apology immediately. "It wasn't your fault. I don't know how the Dark Elves found you after all this time, but only they are to blame."

"But still…" She faltered, becoming hesitant with her next words. "Sif said you all thought I was dead."

Even with her sitting right in front of him, tangible proof of her very much alive state, the words sent a chill of despair down his spine. Overcome with the need to touch her, he gave in and gripped her hand desperately. "Let's not talk about that. You're alive and here now; that's all that matters."

His eyes implored her to let it go, but he quickly found himself drowning in her gaze, drawn by an indefinable force to inch closer to her. There were so many promises, so many desires buried in her caramel depths, and if she let him, he would spend the rest of his days fulfilling them all. He knew now what it was like to survive without her, but he did not want to.

He was barely breathing by the time she closed the distance, her soft lips pressing warmly and gently against his own. One of her hands threaded through his hair, the days of rest having loosened it from its usual style to hang in waves around his face. His own cupped the back of her head, intending to hold her close for as long as she let him. The kiss was tender and sweet and far, far too brief. But one kiss was not enough; he needed more. As she began to pull away, a low growl rumbled from his throat, and he surged forward to reclaim those precious lips, inwardly smirking at her surprised gasp. After all, he had promised himself that if she ever wanted him, he would kiss her senseless, and she was nowhere near that yet. Not even close.

An indeterminate while later, Jane emerged unsteadily from Loki's room, leaning back against the door as she shut it. Her whole body felt like it was on fire, this time in a very good way. She could still feel the press of his lips against her own and the passionate trail they had blazed along her jaw and neck, his hands in her hair and on her hip to hold her close, the way she craved more… She wanted nothing more than to fling that door back open and finish what Loki had started. But she had yet to fully recover from Malekith's attempt to forcefully pull her power from her, and he was still weakened from the blast of Thor's regenerative energy, so there was no need to rush it. As Loki had said (well, more like whispered seductively into her ear, the evil bastard), they would have all the time in the world.

Patience really was the worst virtue.

With tremendous effort, Jane pulled away from the door. Temptation would have to wait for another day, preferably a day after they had had time to discuss what all had happened since the failed coronation. A lot had gone down, and they would need to talk about it before they gave in to what was sure to be an enticingly sensual path. But maybe for today, it did not matter so much… no, no, she would be strong. And besides, Goose had already wandered down the hallway, and she needed to catch the creature before it decided to sneak into the king's chambers again. The guards had not been too pleased with her the first time it happened, even less so the second. She would not risk it a third time.

Scooping up the runaway feline, Jane marveled at the renewed sense of freedom she had as the sunlight poured in from the open archways. Without the cuffs, it was like experiencing Asgard for the first time all over again. Now, the red light flowed through her body with ease instead of suffocating her, enhancing her senses instead of suppressing them. With time, she suspected her body would live in harmony with it, turning the parasite into a symbiote. Getting rid of it was no longer an option – Malekith's failed attempts to pull it from her had proven that.

Actually, she would probably have to deal with the fact that she had disintegrated him at some point, but her mind shied away from that thought. Today was a happy day; deep, dark things would have to wait.

Hearing laughter, Jane went through one of the archways to look out over the ground below. Sif and the Warriors Three were sparring, Thor roaring with laughter from the sidelines as Sif pinned Volstagg to the ground. Jane felt herself smiling fondly down at the scene. Over the past six months, she had come to genuinely like these people. They had their faults, but the only one whose respect she had had to earn was Loki's; the rest had accepted her for who she was with an effortlessness she had never experienced before. There was no one waiting for her at home, very few people who would miss her at all… here, she had friends. And someone who loved her in a way no one ever had, even if he would not say it.

Scratching the increasingly squirmy kitty's head, Jane whispered secretively to it, "You know, maybe I'll just stay here forever."

A/N: After the extra dose of hell I put Loki through, he deserved to have two happy reconciliations, don't ya think?