As soon as Thor and Loki walked, hand-in-hand, into the royal suite's personal dining room, Loki broke free of his brother's grasp and flung himself at his Mother's legs. "Mother!" He exclaimed exuberantly, his little voice shrill with excitement. "I missed you!"
"Loki!" Frigga positively glowed in her joy, as she swooped her youngest up into her arms. Apparently, someone had already told her of the strange situation. "How was your day, my little mouse?"
It warmed Thor's heart to see the two of them like this. In their younger days, Loki had always had a strange sort of bond with his mother, one that Thor had used to envy. Now, it simply brought back too many memories to be anything negative in his heart. Loki had always been Frigga's little mouse, no matter what trouble he'd gotten into, or how miserable he was.
As the two of them continued to chatter with one another, the three of them made their way to sit down at the table, where the servants had already laid out their plates.
"I never thought I'd miss him never being able to stay quiet." Odin mused, sending a fond smile Loki's way. "But I truly enjoy seeing him so happy."
"Me?" Loki's eyes widened hopefully.
"Of course, you." Odin smiled in return. "Who else? You're the happiest one here, I think."
"Yep!" Loki boasted, puffing his chest out proudly. "I'm happy cause Thor played with me, today! And I drew you a picture, but I left them in Thor's room, so I can show you later."
"You drew me a picture?" Odin chuckled bemusedly. "Well, I'm excited to see it."
Not too long ago, Loki would not have been so eager to please Odin, and it seemed to be something the Allfather had caught on to. Naturally, there was a factor of nature versus nurture at play in the old Loki. Surely he could not be one hundred percent to blame for everything he did. From what Thor had seen and heard, at least, his descent into madness had stemmed from the desperate desire to make Odin proud.
"To prove to Father that I am a worthy son!"
"I never wanted the throne! I only ever wanted to be your equal!"
These words were indicative, not of an evil, twisted heart, but of a lonely, desperate one.
Although each man chooses the path he makes for himself, and every choice is one person's, alone, there were obviously countermeasures to assure that Loki would not want to make the mistakes, again.
"Odin." Frigga began, startling Thor from his thoughts. "I believe there was something of importance you wished to speak to us about?"
Odin hummed in agreement. "What to do with our son, is the question of today."
"Pet him nicely?" Loki suggested cheerfully. "Feed him many cupcakes?"
"No, you must eat your dinner, first." Frigga smiled. "And all your green beans."
"Mother!" Loki whined, sticking his tongue out in disgust. "They're nasty!"
"Children who complain get more." Frigga gently reminded, and Loki sighed, glowering down at the offending beans, but said no more. "I don't see why there's any question, here. We shall care for him just as we would have otherwise. How are we to punish someone who had never done wrong a day in their life?"
"That's no longer the question." Odin assured. "He wishes to know."
At this point, Thor could see Loki's ears perk up, almost like a rabbit's, to catch every word said. Even if the final decision was not to tell him, he knew he could possibly pick things up from the conversation, and be able to deduce it for himself. He always had been a smart child.
"Think of it this way." Frigga reasoned. "Why did he start on his path of hate and pain, the last time?"
Odin fell silent, so Thor took his opportunity to speak. "I always supposed it was because of the shock of learning… you know."
Loki sent him a frustrated glare. Poor kid, he wanted to know now. Plus, nobody liked being spoken of as if they weren't there.
"I'd agree." Frigga nodded. "Therefore, in your opinion, Beloved, would it be a good or a bad thing to keep things from him, only for him to turn on us and everything he knows and loves when he inevitably finds out for himself?"
"A bad thing, I suppose." Odin admitted.
"Lies are easier told than truths, yet they wreak far more damage." Frigga pointed out. "No more secrets."
"What abut birthday presents?" Loki piped up.
His mother paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "There's a vast difference between a secret and a surprise, darling. A secret is something one never truly wishes to reveal. A surprise is for the benefits of others, and will all be shown, eventually. All things kept in darkness will eventually come to the light, and more often than not, they aren't pretty when they've been covered so long. Best to have it all out in daylight at once, so that we can deal with things at the stem, and there's less hurt for everyone involved."
These words were spoken with wisdom, and Odin nodded in assent. "When shall we tell him?"
"What better time is there than now?"
There was a heavy silence around the table, as Loki shifted his gaze between his two parents in expectation.
Lying was a lifestyle, in truth, and it was not an easy one to simply shake off at once. The deeper one stews in their lies, the harder it is to break free from them. It was the Allfather's lie in the beginning, one that had flowered into all the havoc and destruction wreaked upon three realms, and it had to be him that would unravel it.
Thor felt for his father, for he knew it wouldn't be easy.
"Loki…" Odin began. "Let me tell you a story."
Immediately, Loki perked up, forgetting his quest of sneaking green beans from the plate to the floor.
"Many, many years ago, there was an old king who was rash, and foolhardy, always out for the blood of other kingdoms, to add to glory of his own. This king waged war against the Jotnar, causing the needless deaths of thousands of his people, and the people of the Jotnar."
"But Jotnar are wicked!" Loki frowned. "Killing 'em is good, right?"
Thor mentally groaned. It seemed the clock hadn't been turned back enough for a way to truly start over.
"No, Loki." Odin sighed. "The Jotnar are people, just as much as we are. They choose what their stories should be written as every bit as much as we do. Killing people is never good. As I was saying, there was, one day a truly horrific battle. The king was knee-deep in the blood of his supposed enemies, and the rush of battle had clouded his judgement. He massacred everything that lay in his path, whether warrior or civilian, man or woman, old or young."
Thor could see the heaviness of guilt weigh on his father's shoulders. He hadn't realized how very deeply the Allfather had regretted his days of war, until then. Loki's eyes were wide in concern, and he knew he'd figured out the king in the story was his father, as well.
"He fought his way into the Jotun temple, slaying the priests as he went. Once the whole building had been plundered, he looked at the carnage and thought of it as a thing to proud of. He was wrong, Loki. You must see how terrible his actions were."
Somberly, Loki nodded.
Odin sighed heavily, and went on. "The king found a baby, hidden in a cupboard full of holy books. He was helpless. Innocent. He'd done nothing wrong, and he was crying for his mother. The king looked on the baby's misery, and he felt in his heart an emotion he thought himself invulnerable to, an emotion he'd mistaken as weakness. When the king looked on that child, abandoned to die, he felt compassion. Something changed inside the king, that moment, and he realized he didn't want to be the murderous, bloodthirsty king he had become. He wanted to change.
"However, he knew not how to go about that change. Instead of apologizing for his acts, submitting retribution, and admitting to his wrongs, he spent many more years trying to cover up the deeds he did wrong. He loved the child, and raised him alongside his own son, but whenever he looked on those wide, innocent yes, he was forced to remind himself that his crimes could not simply be glossed over. What he was doing was not good enough, and that scared him. He thought himself too far gone, though so he did nothing. He didn't even tell the child from whence he came.
"The child grew, and became a man. He was strange, different from his friends and playfellows, and because of the king's arrogance and stubborn will, did not even know why. No doubt he felt excluded, and out of place his whole life. He suffered for the king's mistakes, and bigger he grew, the more obvious it was that the king truly wasn't doing right by him.
"Eventually, the child discovered the king's past, by discovering his true parentage, and, incandescent with rage and grief, he wreaked great havoc on his home world, and then on the world his adopted brother loved. Perhaps he realized the error of his ways, and turned back time in order to fix things, or perhaps someone else did it for him. Either way, I have been given an opportunity to do the right thing, once more, and you have the opportunity to know who you truly are, your whole life."
Loki blinked, not quite comprehending. "I… I'm the baby?"
In a reassuring gesture, Thor reached for Loki's hand, hoping to provide some comfort.
"Then… I'm a frost giant?"
Frigga spoke up. "You are our son, Loki. No matter your race."
At that, Loki's face screwed up in tears, and he brought his knees up to his chest in his misery. "I don't wanna… I don't wanna…" He couldn't even finish. In desperation, he leapt up, and fled from the table, leaving a shower of green beans in his wake.
The door slammed shut behind him, and Thor, for half a second, stared dumbly.
"Thor, he needs you, now." Frigga gently reminded.
Right.
Of course. Loki may not have the power or know-how to do something on the scale of what he'd done before, but that didn't mean he posed no danger to himself. Hurriedly, Thor leapt up from the table, and raced after his small brother, bellowing his name in hopes of stopping him in his tracks.
TheOnlyHuman.