If anyone should ever happen to ask—and he was almost certain no one would—Loki couldn't exactly pinpoint his idea of a "good time." Reading alone, perhaps. Alone… No, maybe reading with Thor in the room, except Thor would have to stay completely silent and leave him in peace.

But at least he would be there.

Maybe sparring… but that got old quick, and losing against Thor had never been his definition of fun. Walking was a nice activity, along with practicing magic, reading, and… strolling? You know, along the waterfront—but there were usually a lot of people down there. All the time. Too many people…

Ruling Asgard as Odin had been fun. Ish… Fun-ish. Most of the time. Some of the time… Keeping up an illusion for such a prolonged period of time had been physically taxing. Draining… Mentally draining. But it was still entertaining—except for those blasted council meetings. Oh, and trying to make every little decision as Odin would have when Loki could've done things so much differently—so much better—but it was fine. It was fun while it lasted.

It wasn't really a "good time" though, was it? And curse it all! Why was it so hard to think right now?

Whatever the case, he was very certain about one thing: stumbling through the woods in the middle of a thunderstorm was definitely not his idea of a "good time."

"We're almost there, right?" And he couldn't tell if it was just the wind or his brother's endless sighing that answered him first.

"Almost."

Loki grit his teeth—his only real defense against the pain. "You've never been a very good liar."

"Not as good as you, right?"

Thor's tone was smiling, reassuring, but one quick glance to the side showed Loki the intense concentration twisting his face. Right.

His ankle had numbed a short time ago, and while he was certain that couldn't be a good thing, at least bursts of pain no longer shot up and down his leg.

He was tired of walking, tired of being soaked to the bone. Tired of hurting.

Thor claimed they'd only been traveling for ten minutes at most, but Loki didn't believe him. How could they possibly have been braving the elements for anywhere less than an eternity?

"There!" With a jolt, Loki peered into the darkness, trying in vain to see what his brother could see. "There's a little opening in the cliffside. It's not too far off. Come on!"

A sarcastic quip danced on the edge of his tongue, but try as he might, Loki couldn't seem to set it free. His brain was moving far too slow and sleep called out to him in a lovely little siren song.

Blinking hard, he held fast to Thor's shoulder, forcing himself to stay awake. Just a little bit longer…

"But we're almost there, right?"

"Loki, for the last time! Yes! Yes, we're almost there!" Thor's tone was far from cruel—it wasn't even angry—just a bit exasperated. And a touch worried. Why?

Loki furrowed his brows as his mind ran its sluggish race to decode Thor's implications.

In the end, he settled on a light grumble. "It was just a simple question, Thor. No need to be so touchy."

It was only when Thor pulled them under the shelter of the tiny cave that Loki began to feel uneasy.

Because Thor was staring at him. Just staring at him as if… as if… Oh, Loki couldn't have deciphered the expression if he'd had all the time in the world.

And that was the thing, wasn't it? They didn't have time. The longer they were exposed to the wind and rain, the harder it would be to recover—and that didn't even include the wounds they had accumulated during the crash.

"How's your head?" Thor eased them both down onto the floor. Gently, carefully leaning Loki against the crevice wall.

"Same as before." The lie was much harder to tell than it should've been and Loki didn't know if Thor even believed it.

His brother let out a low hum, a sound that twisted Loki's stomach. What is it?

"What?" But Thor just peered into his eyes—a motion that felt familiar, though Loki couldn't remember why. "Thor—?"

"Your eyes are still dilated."

"Okay…?" Yes, he was well-aware he had a concussion. Did Thor really have to make it worse by treating it as some sort of contagious, life-threatening disease?

"Actually, one pupil's a bit bigger than the other now."

The observation was startling, to say the least, but Loki's train of thought was moving at too slow a pace for him to care. "And?"

Thor had the audacity to look confused. "And?"

"Oh, come on, brother. I might be concussed, but I'm not an idiot. I know there's something you're not telling me."

"Just… Just don't fall asleep, all right?"

"I had no intention of doing so, but you're avoiding the question."

Here, his brother sighed, an absolutely weary sound Loki never wanted to hear again. "Before we got here, you asked me if we were almost there."

"I know." So?

"Loki, you asked me that same question more than five times."

Oh. The second he felt his jaw drop, he clicked his teeth back together. Oh…

"Bruce told me once of a man who had a concussion," Thor began, his voice barely audible over the pouring rain beyond their safe haven. "It started off mild, then gradually grew worse. He blacked out and never woke up again."

Loki blinked. "… Banner?"

"No, the man."

Well, how was I supposed to know that? And Norns, how did his brother always manage to sound so patient all the time?

"Bruce said it only takes thirty seconds."

Nodding hurt, but Loki couldn't find any more words to say.

"Thirty seconds of unconsciousness… So, please, just… don't close your eyes. I know we're both cold, wet, and exhausted, but you must stay awake. Do you understand?"

Slowly, Loki felt himself nod again.

Thor sat back with a sigh. "Good. We'll just stay here a few minutes more." But we just got here. "Catch our breath. Then…" He heaved another sigh, giving a lazy glance at the rain. "We'll find the road again and see if we can find someone with a phone."

Phone… An odd twinge of sadness nipped at Loki's heart as he thought of his broken one in Thor's pocket. You truly can do so much with those little devices, can't you?

"Who's going to be driving out in this storm?" Though it had taken a moment to pull the thought to the forefront of his mind, Loki had finally gotten it out there.

Thor's lips twitched into an almost-smile. "We were."

Right… "We should've pulled over."

Up until that point, most of his brother's expressions had been confusing to him, though Loki blamed that on the concussion. However, despite what many people chose to believe about him, Loki was no stranger to the bitter expression smeared across Thor's face.

He knew guilt when he saw it.

"I know," Thor said softly.

A shiver possessed his frame at the broken sound of his brother's voice. He blames himself.

Of course, he does. Don't you?

Loki didn't know the answer to that. Not yet.

Pulling his dark green windbreaker tighter around his torso, he tore his gaze away from Thor, focusing instead on banishing the darkness attacking his vision.

"I'm sorry, I should've—"

"Shut up, Thor." He couldn't listen to that right now. He wasn't in the right frame of mind.

In fact, he was losing his mind. Always so sharp, so quick and cunning. Always calculating and thinking ahead…

Now, I can't even remember what I said two minutes ago.

Pathetic.

The hurt on his brother's face only deepened the thick lines of guilt and Loki found he couldn't bear the sight of it much longer.

"Not now," he amended. "I can't…" When you say it… When Thor said those two rare, precious words, Loki wanted to remember them. Needed to remember them. "Let's just get out of here first, okay?"

Thor nodded, but Loki could tell he was still dwelling on it. The guilt, the pain.

Perhaps next time you'll listen to me.

Why can't he ever just listen to me?

Oh, shut up.

"Okay…" Thor was nodding vigorously now and Loki hoped his head wouldn't fly clean off his neck. "Okay." He stuck out a steady hand. "I'm going to get you out of here, brother. I promise, I will fix this."

Oh, just shut up!

But Loki accepted the hand, anyway. Accepted the help. Because what else could he do?

"Maybe," he began, failing to shove down a wince as Thor helped him to his feet, "I should stay here."

"What?" Thor's tone held no room for negotiations.

Loki pressed on nonetheless. "You'll move faster without me. Make better time. I'll stay here and you can go find s-someone and call an ambulance or s-something…" Of course his famed silvertongue would fail him when he needed it most.

In reply, Thor only held Loki tighter to his side.

"Thor—"

"I'm not leaving you."

"I'll be fine." Hopefully.

"You don't know that. It only takes thirty seconds, remember?"

Loki scrunched his nose because what in the Nine…? "Thirty seconds for what?" And he thinks I don't make any sense…

"It's…" Thor just shook his head as the guilt continued to thicken. Now, however, it was laced with a fierce determination. "Never mind. Ready?"

One glance back out at the storm awoke the beast of anxiety that had made its home in the pit of Loki's stomach.

He swallowed hard. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Do you remember which way the road was?"

"Considering the car rolled down into the pond, I'd recommend going up."

Thor gave a tight nod and Loki sucked in a breath before being pulled back into the storm.

Almost…

Every drop of rain felt like a tiny arrow, piercing his flesh one right after the other without mercy.

We're almost there…

He was ninety-seven percent sure he would never be able to dry out his windbreaker—and he'd grown so fond of the dark gold stripes going down the sleeves…

We're almost there… right?

Something in the back of his mind told him this wasn't a good question to ask at the moment.

Instead, Loki did something he hadn't done since he was very, very young: he closed his mouth and let his older brother lead.