The house Loki shared with his brother was nothing more than a speck on the sole of a boot compared to the once great halls of Asgard. Both their rooms combined were no bigger than the palace wine cellar, and the way the living room connected seamlessly with the kitchen was an architectural design that never would have passed the All-Father's high standards.

Sometimes, Loki found the cramped space annoying—there wasn't nearly enough wall space to hold enough bookshelves for his ever-growing collection. Sometimes, the Midgardian peasant-esque style made him homesick for all he'd lost.

But as he swept through the front door that evening and collapsed on the couch, he found he'd never been more happy to have that little house on the hillside.

"I never thought I'd say it," Thor began, his sigh nothing but relieved as he grabbed two beers from the refrigerator, "but it feels good to be home."

Loki felt a small smirk tug at his lips. "So, you're calling this place home now?"

"I think it's about time."

A noncommittal hum was all Loki had to offer in response when Thor plopped down next to him on the couch.

"Remind me never to stay overnight in a hospital again," Loki said with a sigh, cracking open the drink his brother handed to him.

"Oh, it wasn't so bad. Besides, it's not like you really had a choice."

Another hum filled the air as Loki let his eyelids flutter shut for a brief moment. They were fine now. He was fine…

So why did everything still feel so unresolved? Deep within him, he battles the first shoots of irritation that had begun to blossom—irritation he couldn't quite place. Not yet. Not when the faint throbbing in his head insisted upon lingering even now while he was out of danger.

And the way his brother simply took in their surroundings, as if truly seeing their little house for the first time. It was unsettling.

For a few moments, the silence danced along the lines of comfortable, but soon, Loki found himself wishing for the Valkyrie's presence. Even if it meant silently bearing another tongue lashing about "how freaking reckless the Odinsons are, my gosh," anything was better than this.

Whatever this is…

Thor's gaze continued to roam about the room, settling at last on the window overlooking the village.

Loki cracked open his beer, if only to give his fingers something to fiddle with while he watched his brother.

Just say it already. Get it over with, won't you?

The crash was still a blur; a sequence of his life he'd yet to unscramble. He remembered bits and pieces of the aftermath. Wandering through the woods, the rain soaking through every inch of his skin.

His brother dragging him along.

Thor never leaving his side.

And the start of it all. Oh, he remembered the moments before the crash very well. They'd been branded upon his brain with the hottest of irons.

Just say it! When Loki took a gulp of his drink, he was quickly reminded how much he despised the taste of beer.

He remembered everything. Every painful little detail. How could he forget when the scene wouldn't stop replaying itself over and over again in his mind?

Thor on the phone. The oncoming headlights in the wrong lane. The thick drops of rain obscuring the windshield. The startling thunderclap.

And his own hand jerking the wheel back and forth.

If you hadn't interfered… The can dented slightly under his grip. If you hadn't tried to take control of the wheel, the car never would've ended up at the bottom of the lake.

Pond. It was more of a pond.

And that's more of a distraction than an excuse.

Right.

But what was he supposed to do about it? Apologize for a terrified knee-jerk reaction?

Apologize for not ripping the phone out of Thor's hand? For even letting him have it in the first place?

For trying to survive?

He'd never apologized for such things before. Why start now?

Because it felt… different now. New Asgard felt different. And it made Loki feel different, somehow. Like a new start, or something imbecilic and sentimental like that.

Thor's voice startled him out of his dark musings and Loki glanced at his brother.

"Do you think…" Thor snapped his can open, his gaze never wandering from the window. "Do you think, if we would have hit that car head on… Do you think we'd still be here?"

No. Odin had said it himself: even gods could bleed. Even gods could die.

And didn't the old fool prove that by fading away when his people needed him most?

"I don't know," Loki heard himself whisper. He hadn't meant for the words to come out; for the words to sound so small and unsure. "Perhaps," he amended, bringing the nonchalance back into his tone.

Now it was Thor's turn to hum, a deep, thoughtful sound Loki couldn't decide how to interpret.

"And if we had never made it out of that car," Thor continued, "what would've happened to our people?"

Your people. But Loki kept those cutting words tucked deep in the throes of his mind.

Instead, he shrugged. "They're resourceful. I'm sure they would've been all right." Eventually. "Besides, Brunnhilde seems to be very invested in New Asgard. She would make sure the people were taken care of in your absence."

All this, Loki had been prepared to say. He'd geared up for a short, but reassuring speech meant to pull his brother out of whatever revelation he was on the verge of having…

All this and more, Loki wanted to say—felt he needed to say, for Thor's sake.

All that filled the air, however, was another soft, "I don't know."

"Well," Thor said with a sigh, "I do."

Loki held back a wince. Here it comes… The reprimand. The "Oh, Loki, why didn't you just let me lead?" The "I was doing just fine without you."

The inevitable: Know your place, brother.

Well. Loki was prepared this time. He was fully aware of what he'd done; aware that he'd put them both in the hospital.

Why?

Because you thought you were going to die.

No… He'd thought they were both going to die, and he just couldn't accept that. He wouldn't accept it.

So, he'd grabbed hold of the wheel—

"And I don't like to think about it," Thor went on. "The mental picture isn't a pleasant one… but it won't leave me alone. Do you know,"—and he turned to face Loki then, his eye practically bleeding with a guilt that felt strangely familiar, though Loki couldn't imagine why—"what my biggest mistake was all those years ago? When the six of us attacked Jotunheim right before my banishment?"

"Your biggest mistake?" Loki couldn't hold back his smirk. "Brother, I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific."

Thor's lips twitched with a smirk of his own. And that was another thing: when had they grown so comfortable with each other that banter that normally would've been insulting now evoked smiles and brotherly camaraderie? Sometimes, Loki just couldn't wrap his head around it all. So much had changed.

"I can't deny that much of what happened during that time resulted from my many mistakes." Then, his face grew suddenly somber again, smirks and smiles only a distant memory. Loki couldn't help the pinprick of trepidation that sprung up inside his chest. "But I'm talking about the one I regret the most."

"Well, I haven't the slightest idea." The trickster took a sip of his drink and willed his fists not to clench.

As Thor sucked in a breath, Loki found himself holding his own. "I regret many things about that time, brother, but I believe my biggest regret is not listening to you."

What…?

"You advised me not to storm into Jotunheim. You could calculate the consequences far better and faster than my own clouded mind could."

"Um… I'm… flattered?"

"And I'm serious." Running a hand through his cropped hair, Thor leaned fully into the back of the couch. "You've always had better vision than I do. You can run dozens of scenarios in your mind and determine the best one before I even know what's going on. But most of the time, I don't listen to you—not like I should."

Loki blinked, still trying to wrap his mind around his brother's words.

"I…" His gaze fell down to his drink. It was easier that way. He just couldn't bear the look Thor was giving him—he didn't know how to respond to it.

He didn't know what Thor was waiting for him to say. Because his brother wasn't blaming him.

The little bubbles of irritation flared up again and Loki fought them until he was able to bring the boil down to a low simmer.

He doesn't blame you. You didn't do anything wrong. This time.

This time…

Finally, he sighed, thumbing the tab on his beer. "I have… good ideas, Thor."

"I know you do."

"Then why don't you ever listen to me when I voice them?" It had been what Thor was trying to explain, but Loki was burning with the need to have a solid answer. "You always need to be the strongest—the one in charge. The hero who gets things done. And rightly so. It's part of who you are. But when you do that, you rob others of the opportunity to help you—to be a hero alongside you."

He hadn't meant to say so much. In fact, he hadn't meant to say anything at all. It would have been easier to let Thor do all the talking; to let him talk through his thoughts and work things out. But Loki had his own thoughts, too, and they'd gone without a voice for far too long.

You just don't know when to stop talking, do you?

Shut up.

And yet… Thor was nodding. His eyes were thoughtful and Loki could practically see the gears turning in his head.

"Do you…" Loki swallowed as he braced himself for the oncoming memory. "Do you remember those first moments after you returned from Midgard? Do you remember what I said during our… confrontation." Yes, that was a light way of putting it. "I told you that I only ever wanted to be your equal."

A quick, guilt-ridden apology was what Loki had been expecting. After all, he knew his brother better than he knew himself, which is why Thor's next words shocked him to the core.

"You always have been," the thunder god said with all the conviction in the galaxy. "I've just never been very good at proving it to you. In many ways, I've failed you, Loki, not just as your older brother, but as a friend. And for that, I owe you the sincerest of apologies."

"Thor, stop—"

"No." His brother held up a hand and Loki found his jaw clamping shut. "No, you have to let me say this, all right? You told me not to do it until you would be able to remember my words."

I… did?

"So, just…" Thor heaved a sigh. "Just let me get this off my chest."

Slowly, Loki nodded. "All right. If that's what you want."

"You're right," Thor began after a moment. "You're absolutely right. I've always felt the need to play the role of the hero. I am an Avenger, after all." At this Loki gave his eyes a slight roll. "But even before that… It's always been easier to do things myself, to follow my own plans. That way, if something goes wrong, there's no one to blame but myself. Loki, I'm sorry. I never should've been driving in that storm. I should've listened to you and put the phone down. I should've accepted your offer to switch places. Maybe then, in the time it took to stop and switch seats, that car would've already driven past us. You're right, out of the two of us, you're the better driver."

Loki smirked, but it felt half-hearted. "Nice to hear you admit it."

Thor followed suit as silence settled over the two brothers. A silence that quickly grew uncomfortable for Loki as he tried to grapple with Thor's confession.

It was… unexpected, to say the least. But not entirely unwelcome.

"Well," Loki began, unable to take the silence any longer, "are you waiting for me to forgive you or something…?"

A hopeful shadow passed over Thor's face. "Would you? I mean, you don't have to. I did give you a concussion and I almost drowned you."

"And let's not forget the actual crash itself."

"Right. Of course…"

A sigh brushed past Loki's lips and he offered up a small smile. "Things just… happened, Thor. It wasn't your fault. And if you insist upon blaming yourself, then you'll have to blame me, too. I jostled the wheel. I gave you the phone. I could've just kept it, but I didn't. We both made mistakes that night."

"Still," came Thor's soft reply, "I—"

"Of course, I forgive you," Loki cut in. "It was never even a question. But since you had to bring it up, I forgive you. So, suck it up and stop blaming yourself."

Cracking a smile, Thor downed half his drink. "No more driving in storms, then?"

"I should think not." And Loki couldn't help the involuntary shiver that ran down his spine at the mere thought of it. Never again. "Now, didn't the doctors say something about watching TV and how it helps one heal from a concussion?"

"I don't see how," Thor said, but he snatched up the remote control all the same. "Though, I'm not about to question the professionals."

"Oh, please, compared to Asgard's healers, those imbeciles were hardly professionals."

"They helped you, though," Thor pointed out as the television screen lit up the room. "Who knows what would've happened if we hadn't been able to call 911 when we did."

Curling deeper into the couch, Loki muttered, "I would've worked things out." Somehow.

"While you were concussed and unconscious?" Thor chuckled. "I would've loved to see that."

"Oh, shut up. Just put something on."

"Well, what do you want to watch?"

His head chose that moment to remind him that it was still recovering and he winced. "I don't care, just pick something."

"You're the one healing from a concussion, you get to pick."

"Oh, for goodness sakes! It shouldn't be this hard!"

"Okay, calm down. Uh… Oh! How about that little English baking show you love?"

As he pinched the bridge of his nose, Loki made an effort to keep a touch of irritation in his voice, though he could feel himself slowly melting at his brother's antics. "It's called The Great British Bake Off, Thor, and Brunnhilde would end me if I watched ahead without her."

"We'll watch a rerun, then."

"Last I checked, you considered sitting down and voluntarily watching half a dozen people make cakes all day in a tent a waste of time."

Thor merely shrugged. "I'm not the one with the concussion."

"It's practically nonexistant now."

"And practically isn't fully healed."

"Fine, but," Loki stressed with a sigh, "we both suffered a car crash. If we're going to watch something together… Well, it would just be better if it's something we both find interesting."

A wide smile spread across Thor's face. "Sherlock it is, then."

As the credits rolled, Loki felt a sense of calm wash over him. He'd spent the most recent years of his life trying to go against the tide. Trying in vain to prove to his brother that they weren't deserving of the title—and had never been.

Now, for the first time, he felt truly ready to accept that position. Because family didn't stop at blood relations.

Family meant sacrifice.

Family meant forever.

And Loki found he couldn't imagine a world where Thor wasn't there for him—where Thor wasn't the lifeline he could grab hold of during the fiercest currents.

Yes, New Asgard couldn't compare to the realm they'd lost, but maybe it didn't have to. Maybe, just maybe, it could be better.

They could make it better. Together.

And perhaps, that was all Loki ever really wanted.

"Hey," Thor whispered, a devilish grin on his face, "do you want to hear some of the stupid things you said while you were out of it?"

"Absolutely not."

"Oh, come on!"

"Why don't you write the highlights on a piece of paper," Loki said, flashing a sly grin of his own, "and I'll burn it at my earliest convenience. And if you ever breathe a word of what I say to anyone…"

At a loss for an end cap to his threat, he left the consequence up to Thor's imagination.

"But you don't even know what it is you don't want people to hear!"

"You said it was stupid, right?"

"Of course."

"Then, it stays in your mind—and your mind only." With a smirk, Loki lifted his hand. "Unless you want me to remove the memories…"

Thor's knee-jerk reaction was to lean as far away from Loki as he possibly could. "Wait, I don't think your magic works like that."

Right. "Well, it could if I wanted it to."

"Uh… Nope. I don't think so."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Oh, just shut up and watch the show."

"Fine. But I'm telling you later."

"I'd like to see you try."

And if later, when stopping in to check on her two favorite idiots, the Valkyrie caught the tail end of a scene in which Loki had his hands clapped over his ears while Thor shouted something about the death of perfect hair…

… She never said a word.

I hope y'all enjoyed this story! I'd love to hear what you thought of it and what your favorite parts were! Until next time!