Loki swears under his breath when the first thing he sees as he steps through the veil with Thor in tow is Sif's shocked face. He was hoping to reappear exactly where he started out, in the middle of the Rainbow Bridge, but the Gems either didn't consider that level of precision necessary, or their aim was off because he brought Thor back with him. It's too late to worry about it now anyway; he needs to deal with Asgard's gatekeeper, who is staring at them as if she were seeing a ghost – which is actually how this must look to her.

He risks a quick glance towards his brother, who is still clinging to Loki's arm and seems barely more composed than Sif. He should at least have had the foresight to give Thor some basic instructions in case –

"...Thor?" Loki would never have thought that Sif could sound like an incredulous little girl, but apparently even the Goddess of War can't remain unaffected when she sees a dead man appear out of thin air right in front of her. Loki has never managed to work out the exact nature of her feelings for Thor, but she has at the very least been one of Thor's closest friends for centuries, so he can't fault her for being rattled by his return given that she watched him die with her own eyes.

She doesn't even seem to have noticed Loki standing beside his brother (how little things change, a snide voice whispers at the back of his mind); her golden eyes, huge in her deathly pale face, remain glued to Thor when she asks in that same, strangely high-pitched voice, "Is that really you? How can you possibly be... alive?"

Loki curses himself for a fool. He really should have expected this, should have prepared some kind of explanation for Thor's seeming resurrection before he brought him here since Thor will probably just blab the whole story to all of Asgard if Loki doesn't prevent it. As it is, he can only shoot his brother a furious glare when Thor opens his mouth to answer Sif's question.

Wonders will never cease, though – Thor not only understands him, but even decides to heed the warning because all he says is, "It's me, Sif, I… Loki brought me back."

Sif's eyes flit towards Loki for a moment, and then quickly return to Thor as she steps closer; judging by her expression, Thor's bedraggled appearance is only now beginning to fully register with her. Thor must notice it as well, because he lets out another one of those self-deprecating laughs that sound utterly wrong coming from him. "I know, I look terrible."

Sif laughs too, although Loki suspects it's mostly to keep herself from bursting into tears. "You look a lot better than the last time I saw you."

Thor winces a little, and then takes a step back to look around the Observatory with an almost child-like mix of awe and uncertainty. "I think that I... I remember dying here?"

He sounds bewildered, and Loki can't really blame him – if Thor is getting even the faintest impression of his memories from this reality, it must be exceedingly disorienting for him given that he has never learned to look at the world through more than one set of eyes.

"I remember it as well, my friend." Sif's voice is shaking, and Loki expects her to fling her arms around Thor's neck in the next second, but to his utter surprise, she turns towards him instead and bows with her fist on her shoulder. "My king, I thank you for returning my lost shield-brother to me."

Loki doesn't often find himself at a loss for words, but now Sif's entirely unexpected gesture leaves him speechless. Her eyes meet his for a moment as she straightens, and he is taken aback by the fierceness of her expression. He can tell she has a thousand questions, but her look is clearly meant to reassure him that she won't ask any of them without his permission – and that he also won't have to order her to keep silent on the matter of Thor's return until Loki himself is ready to announce it. Sif turned traitor for Thor's sake once, but the way she's looking at Loki now feels like a silent promise that she won't betray her rightful king a second time.

Loki is almost inclined to believe her.

He gives her a brisk nod, but before he can even try to find his voice again (not that he's entirely sure what he would say), they're interrupted by Thor, who has watched the exchange with a puzzled frown. "Sif, your eyes, what – where's Heimdall?"

Sif gives Loki a quick glance as if she were hoping for a cue from him, but Loki merely raises an eyebrow at her; she can hardly expect him not to seize the opportunity to put her newly-declared loyalty to the test. She hesitates briefly before replying in a carefully neutral tone, "He's retired."

Thor's frown deepens, but Loki cuts him off before he can press her for details. "Gatekeeper, this may seem like a strange question, but how long has it been since we last spoke?"

It's Sif's turn to frown. "About an hour, my king."

Loki releases a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding. Time does pass at a different speed in this reality – albeit not faster like he feared, but rather the opposite given that he seems to have spent barely any time in that... other place. It's one worry less because his brief absence can't have been noticed, although it also means there will probably be a far greater amount of new-old memories for him to sort out than he initially assumed.

One headache at a time. Right now, Thor is his main concern; dealing with the disconcerting mess inside his own brain will have to wait until later, when –

Loki's thoughts are interrupted by a loud caw that is quickly followed by the sound of fluttering wings. Without thinking, he raises his arm like the Allfather always used to do when one of his ravens returned to him, and he feels the tight knot of tension in his shoulders ease a little when both Hugin and Munin land on his vambrace in perfect synchronicity with no sign of the earlier strife between them. He was right, then – it was indeed the cacophony of conflicting images in their master's mind that drove them apart, and he can only hope that the re-established peace between them is a sign that he actually made the correct decision by bringing his brother back against his own better judgement.

Then again, it really shouldn't surprise him any more that the entire universe seems to think the only person who can right all wrongs in the world is Thor.

And yet... Loki watches the ravens flutter up from his arm to settle on his shoulders and realizes belatedly that he also isn't surprised that they still consider him their master – not Thor, the Allfather's only true son, the Golden Realm's beloved golden prince, but Loki, the Jötun foundling, the sorcerer, the God of Chaos... Asgard's king.

Thor is watching the birds on Loki's shoulders with an expression Loki can't read. "Are they talking to you?"

Loki manages not to react to the hint of astonishment in Thor's tone. "Only if they have something to say."

Thor's faint smile is barely visible under the filthy mess of hair that hides most of his face. "That's what Father always said to me when I asked him why they never spoke to me."

All those of Odin's blood can understand his ravens. The memory of Hela's claim leaves Loki wondering whether that was Odin's solution to a conundrum which might have given away the secret of Loki's monstrous lineage – to ensure that the ravens never talked to either of the princes so that neither they nor anyone else would ever notice that only one of them understood them. Spinning your secrets like a juggler at a countryside fair – did you never get tired of it, Allfather? Were you living in dread of the moment when one of them would finally slip from your grasp, or did you remain convinced of your own infallibility until the day I proved you wrong?

Shaking his head once to pull himself out of his pointless musings, Loki turns back to Sif. "Resume your watch, Gatekeeper. Thor..." – he deliberates for a second, and then gestures towards the gateway that connects the Observatory with the Rainbow Bridge – "walk with me."