Yes. I've entered the song lyrics as fic titles trend (for now). Any completely lowercase titles you see from now on are also song lyrics.

Thor is lost.

He doesn't know what he's doing. He needs a purpose, he needs direction, he needs someone to stand over him and tell him what to do.

So he helps out, because there's nothing else. The remnants of Asgard (oh, how few they are now) won't arrive for maybe another month. Eventually it won't be enough, but for now Wakanda and Midgard as a whole need help.

Perhaps this is a way to atone, a way to make up for his failures.

Perhaps it is a way to distract him from the things he very much does not want to confront.

Perhaps it's just the right thing to do. That's what heroes do. He doesn't feel very much like a hero at the moment.

Nat and Steve go out to settle the press and the Midgardian governments. Wakanda ships out resources to those in need. Rocket disappears into the forest at odd intervals and comes back looking just as tired as he was. Bruce continues to try and reconnect with Hulk, because despite everything, he doesn't feel whole without his green other half. Thor is almost the same, spending an hour everyday on Mount Bashenga, watching the sun rise and set.

I assure you, Brother, the sun will shine on us again, Loki had said before he'd died in front of Thor for the third time. That was also three times now that Thor hadn't been able to retrieve his body.

Well here's the sun, Thor thinks, sitting heavily down onto the grass. But where in the world are you?

"Bruce told me about Asgard, about Ragnarok," Nat says, walking up to him with her hands in her pockets and her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry, if that means anything."

Thor's not sure. Nothing means much, these days. "I thank you, Natasha," he says anyways, because she has always been fierce and loyal and most of all kind. She nods, pursing her lips. Thor recognizes the grief in her eyes. "Do you not have your own dead to grieve?" he asks quietly.

She grimaces. "Everyone does. Everyone lost someone. Thanos might have thought he was killing only half the universe, but really he's killed us all."

Thor thinks he understands that. After Loki had fallen off - let go - of the Bifrost all those years ago, it had rained on Asgard for weeks. The only reason it doesn't rain here and now is that Thor is too numb from all the losses to feel anything anymore.

How much more does he have to lose? How much more can he afford to lose?

"It's our fault," Nat says after a few moments.

Thor is jarred out of his thoughts. "What? If anything it is mine. I was right there."

"And we weren't, not together. God, it's been a while, hasn't it?" She looks down at her shoes before looking up at him again. Thor frowns. She never used to do that. She used to be so sure of herself, so put together, plowing through all of the bad. "The Avengers fought two years ago, Tony's team versus Steve's."

"No surprise there. Those two are always fighting," Thor mutters, still not quite following.

Nat laughs ever so briefly. Thor considers it an achievement. "It was bad. It was about this thing - the Sokovia Accords, a way for the government to control us powered people."

"No offense, but you don't exactly have super powers," Thor says. "You do, however, have a lot of skill."

"Thanks," she says dryly, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, Tony supported it, Steve didn't. We had a big fight at an airport in Germany. And then those two plus Barnes had their own more personal fight after that. Steve and everyone on his side became fugitives. We stayed under the radar for two years, stopping in Wakanda every once in a while if needed. I suppose it's a bit more complicated than that, but yeah, that's the gist of it." She crosses her arms in front of her chest. "When Thanos came knocking at the door - or, well, kicking down the door - we couldn't fight him together, united as a team. That's why we lost."

Thor sighs, rubbing his forehead with his hand. "That seemed serious. Thank you for telling me."

"You deserved to hear it. You're still an Avenger, aren't you?" Thor doesn't know. He doesn't know if he deserves that title or not. He doesn't know much of anything these days.

Thor wants to tell her that it's his fault, that he had Stormbreaker buried in Thanos's chest and yet he still could not stop him from completing his goal. Before that, he couldn't even stop him from killing Loki, and before that, he couldn't even save most of his people before Ragnarok had destroyed the only home most of them had ever known.

His life these days is a string of failures.

"You were on Steve's team?" Thor asks instead. He admits he's mildly surprised: Nat had always seemed like Stark in that they wanted to atone for their sins.

She makes a face. "I switched half-way through. Typical of me, huh?" she says.

"A little," Thor admits with a nod. She blinks. She hadn't been expecting that answer. She'd probably been expecting him to vehemently deny it, but he knows it wouldn't help because it had never helped Loki before. "I never know what to expect from you. In a fight, many things you do are surprises. It's a strength."

She stares at him. She's usually not this unguarded. "Sometimes I doubt that."

"Know that I don't doubt you one bit," Thor says with a smile that he doesn't completely feel. You can be more, he'd told Loki, once.

"Always," she says back, a corner of her lips upturned. They clasp hands and it almost feels like belonging again.

Loki had always thought of Thor as the sun, shining bright and leading others to better days. Loki had always thought of himself as the moon, only seen when the sun's light reflects off of its surface, but otherwise floating in the darkness. He had always thought that Thor would be able to go on if he were gone, like the sun without the moon.

Thor had always thought of them, even in his youth, as binary stars. He realizes, now, that he hadn't been very good at showing it. But yes, he and Loki should have always been equals, orbiting around one another 'til the end of time.

(But what happens to one star when the other has passed?)

"We lost so much," Steve says, head in his hands. He's sitting at the kitchen counter in the Avengers Compound. The four of them - Steve, Nat, Bruce, Thor - had come back to find all of their belongings packed up in boxes, most of the rooms plain and bare.

"Yes, we did," Thor says, looking down at his mug of coffee. It doesn't seem as appealing as it had been the last time he was here.

"We still have more to lose, though."

"Yes, we do," Thor says. After all, the remnants of Asgard are coming soon. They need their king to secure them a spot on Midgard. They would probably be better suited with a king who didn't fail them every second, but for now he is what they have.

"Did Thanos lose someone?" Steve asks suddenly. He looks up at the ceiling as if searching for an answer. "Why did he think killing half the universe was the right thing to do? Does he even have a moral compass?"

"Did he even have someone to lose?" Thor asks quietly. "I doubt a being like him would."

Steve throws his hands into the air. "What is he, a god?" Thor swallows, a bit uncomfortable.

"He's the Mad Titan," he offers hesitantly.

"He's mad, alright," Steve mutters. The Captain has mostly been sullen these past few days, or serious and full of business (just a mask on his face). This frustration was a long time coming.

"We could find the stones, reverse what happened," Thor says. He doesn't let the hope in him rise.

"I don't think we can," Steve says softly. He sighs, slumping in his chair. Thor has never seen him this defeated.

"Yeah, you guys lost, alright," Clint says acidly. They both turn to see him in the doorway, a grim expression on his face. He almost looks unfamiliar.

"Guess who's here," Nat says unnecessarily, gesturing at Clint with both of her hands. Her voice is in a low monotone. All of them are not quite themselves, these days.

Everything reminds Thor of Loki. A dagger, a snake, even the faintest of green will shove him into a memory and lock him in for a little while.

Sometimes Thor wonders if it would be all that bad to be locked in forever.

"They're all missing?" Steve asks, resigned.

"Either that, or they're just not answering their phones," Nat says, waving through the holographic images one by one.

Clint snorts, arms crossed over his chest. "Don't hold out for hope."

The dead stare at Thor with accusing eyes. You should've aimed for the head, you should've ended it right then and there. Why didn't you? How could you fail?

He doesn't even know who most of them are.

"Who's that?" Steve says when Nat pauses at the image of a young Midgardian boy with brown hair and light in his eyes.

Bruce raises his eyebrows. "Has a pretty high security clearance."

"Stark's secret kid?" Clint asks dryly.

Nat smiles, very faintly. "Stark's intern, the little spider," she says softly. Then her smile fades. "They must still be in space."

"If they're alive," Thor says darkly. All four of them turn to look at him like he's not quite right in the head. Oaf, he hears Loki say, distantly. It's a wonder you've got anything in that head of yours. He shakes his head to ward the memory away, and by the time he looks up again the others have glanced away. Thor sighs. He figures he's got the right to be maudlin right about now.

"Wait. But why would Tony's intern be in space? I thought Tony didn't even have interns? What do you mean by 'little spider'?" Bruce asks, gesturing his hands wildly through the air.

Steve stares at Nat, then at the image, then at Nat again. "He's a kid," he says.

"Believe me, I was surprised when I found out, too," Nat says.

"Found out what?" Bruce asks. "I was kind of not here for a few years."

"Thanks, Hulk," Clint mutters under his breath.

"Spider-Man," Steve says in lieu of an explanation, still faintly shocked. He clicks through a few more things on the hologram and a video of Tony's fight from two weeks ago plays. Alongside him are Strange and a masked hero with a spider emblem on his chest. He swings through the air with thin, sticky strings of white (webs, probably).

Bruce's eyes widen. "Oh," is all he can say.

"There's no keeping that kid out of trouble," Nat says. "But Tony cares about him. He wouldn't let anything happen to him."

Thor shakes his head and stands up to get some fresh air. He blinks away the tears gathering in his eyes. I won't let that happen. I won't let you die, Thor had said once. He doesn't remember what the argument had been about anymore, just that his emotions and his love had felt so big he thought his heart would burst. You can't control everything, Thor, Loki had said back, with his sad and understanding and oh so resigned eyes.

Maybe I can't, Thor thinks, a not very well thought out plan forming in his head. But I can try my best with what I have left.

In the end, it doesn't mean much.

Thor takes off into space with Stormbreaker and the clothes on his back, searching for the last center piece of their jigsaw puzzle. (The puzzle is far from complete.) It takes a few days, but he finds Tony in a beat-up but familiar ship.

He wonders what happened to Quill and his team. He supposes he doesn't have to guess very hard.

The ship isn't working very well anymore, so Thor takes Tony and the Luphomoid named Nebula who knows Rocket back to Earth via the Bifrost.

Tony cradles the young spider in his arms.

"Oh no, oh no, Tony," Pepper breathes out, reaching out to touch his face, to touch Peter's face, but she only manages to ghost around them.

Rhodey audibly swallows, tears in his eyes. "Come on, Tones," he says, ever so softly. "Let's...let's get you checked out, yeah? You want me to carry him?" Tony shakes his head slowly. "Yeah, didn't think so." He sighs. "You have to put him down eventually."

The group of three walk back into the compound. Rocket walks over to Nebula and asks her about his team and family, but she shakes her head and then they sit together, mourning on the marked grass. Bruce leans over with sad eyes to whisper in Thor's ear. "This is probably not the best time to ask this, but how is his body not already rotting?"

Thor shrugs. "It's very cold in space." And he'd left Loki to that cold.

After the Bifrost incident, he'd always been afraid of the cold, of floating and falling in the Void forever and ever. He had never admitted it, but Thor knew.

Perhaps being a moon or a star had never been the best metaphor for him. But at least, then, he wouldn't have been alone.

"Isn't it funny?" Tony asks with a faint, mirthless smile, staring out the window. The glass in his hand is half full. Two empty bottles sit next to him. Thor doesn't know if he should be drinking just a few days out of the infirmary, but he's certainly not going to stop Tony Stark when he's on a mission (what that mission is, he's not entirely sure).

"What?" Thor says. He turns to stare out the window as well, watching the stars.

"People died."

"Many people died. Half the world died. How is this humorous?" Thor furrows his brows and tries not to get angry at the man. After all, he's grieving too.

"No, people died for the stones," Tony says, downing the rest of his drink. He gets up to presumably retrieve more, but Thor stops him with a gentle hand wrapped around his wrist.

"I don't understand," he says. That isn't exactly new for you, is it? Loki would ask, rolling his eyes.

Tony turns to him. "For every stone Thanos got, somebody had to die. He killed six people before he even snapped."

Thor stills. Something tight coils in his chest. "Presumably," he manages to force out.

"Still, mighty big coincidence, isn't it?" Tony asks. He closes his eyes. A tear streaks down his cheek.

"Come on, Tony," Thor murmurs after a second. "You've had too much to drink. Let me escort you to bed."

"You know I'm right," Tony says without much heat. He lets Thor lead him towards his bedroom. It's not like him to be this docile.

"I know," Thor agrees. "I just don't know what it means."

The funeral is small. Just the six of them, Pepper, Rhodey, Rocket, and Nebula.

Tony and Pepper are crying. Rhodey is trying to keep it together but a few tears escape past his facade. The rest of them stare stone-faced because what else is there to do?

The coffin isn't even full-sized.

No matter, because then it explodes. Everyone gapes. A small figure jumps out of the coffin and lands nimbly on his feet, his tie swinging from side to side and his expensive suit (courtesy of Tony) covered in dust.

He looks around. "Um...why was I in a coffin?" the previously dead Peter Parker asks, pointing at the now destroyed casket.

"OH MY GOD!" Pepper says, hands on the sides of her head and the perfect picture of surprised. Tony doesn't say anything, but he does quickly swipe away his tears and wraps young Peter in a great hug.

"Mr. Stark?" Peter asks hesitantly, bringing his arms up to wrap around Tony's back. "This is nice," he mutters after a few seconds.

"Holy shit," Clint says. Bruce's mouth is still open.

"Is he...a zombie?" Nebula asks slowly. "I don't see how this is possible."

"He doesn't look like a zombie," Nat says.

"Definitely not a zombie," Tony says, voice strained. "God, Parker, don't scare me like that ever again. See these gray hairs?" He doesn't let go of Peter, so Rhodey points out said strands of hair for him. "They're all from you."

"I don't even know what happened!" Peter protests.

"You died," Steve says. He had shaved for this event, so when Peter looks at him, he recognizes him immediately.

"Freaking Captain America attended my funeral?" he asks, gaping. "This is awesome."

"It wasn't very awesome for us, I assure you," Thor says, raising his eyebrows.

Peter gasps. "Thor attended my funeral too? This is even more awesome. I would die for you."

"Please don't," Thor says, remembering how small his body had looked, how lifeless. His entire front had been covered in blood.

"Don't worry, he's joking," Rhodey says. "I think."

Rocket nods in approval. "This is my kind of guy."

"A talking raccoon attended my funeral?!"

"How is this possible?" Bruce asks, looking at Peter fondly. Most of them have only just met the child, but he's already taken a portion of their hearts.

"I dunno," Tony says, one arm wrapped around Peter's shoulders (he's not letting go anytime soon), "but I'm not questioning it."

Thor hears the sound of a phone vibrating. Steve frowns, putting a hand in his pocket to retrieve his phone. "Hello?" he says. "Okoye, what's wrong?" His frown deepens. "Wait wait wait, I'm putting you on speaker."

"Vision is alive."

"Like, alive alive?" Bruce says.

If he were alive, Loki would probably roll his eyes. "Yes. He is moving and talking and blinking. He talks of some orange world where he met five others."

They all look at Peter. "Something more is going on here," Nat says. "We just witnessed our own resurrection. Ask him if he saw a Peter Parker."

A pause. "He says 'yes'." A crash. "I have to go take care of something. Call you back later."

Tony frowns, turning to look at Peter. "Do you remember anything?"

Peter frowns too, a mirror of his mentor. "No. Well, I vaguely remember seeing orange, now that I think of it, but that's it."

"Vision also saw an orange world," Bruce mutters.

"You never said...how did Peter die?" Steve asks softly.

Tony grimaces. "He jumped in front of a blade meant for me."

"Thanos was going to kill you," Peter protests.

Tony sighs, shaking his head. "God, kid, so much blood." He pulls him into his arms again.

"I'm sorry," Peter whispers. "But I'd do the same thing if I had another chance."

"Then how did Thanos get the time stone?" Nat asks after a few seconds.

"After...that, Strange gave up the time stone to save my life. I still don't know why," Tony says.

"It's 'cause you're worth it, Mr. Stark," Peter says with a grin. Tony ruffles his hair with a soft smile but says nothing.

A few moments of silence as they think. Thor lights up once he reaches his realization. "You're a genius, Stark!" he says, voice booming like it used to.

"What?" Tony says, brows furrowed. "I mean," he clears his throat, "yeah, of course I am." A bit of the old Tony is coming back. Thor smiles.

"There was a price for each stone," Thor explains. He swallows, mouth suddenly dry. "Thanos killed someone every time he got a new one. Peter, Vision..." Loki, he thinks.

"And my sister, Gamora," Nebula says, arms crossed in front of her chest. She had been silent nearly the entire time. "Thanos killed her for the soul stone."

"This can't be a coincidence," Steve breathes out. "We have a chance."

"To do what?" Clint asks. "Half the universe died. Six people doesn't make that much of a dent." Thor knows he's thinking of his family.

"But it's something," Nat says. "It's definitely something."

Thor tries not to let the hope bloom in his chest, but it's very hard.

"We need to get to Vision, hear what he has to say," Steve says, determined.

"We need to get to Gamora," Nebula says. "She was on Vormir, last I checked."

Rocket's eyes are lighter than they have been in weeks. "First, her. Then whichever poor lad died on Xandar for the power stone." Thor opens his mouth but nothing comes out. Loki, he wants to say. My brother, he wants to say. We need to get him too. Selfishly, he wants to get him first.

He still needs to apologize, to tell him he'd always been enough. He needs to ask him what kind of metaphor he'd prefer over the moon and the stars. He needs to tell him that he's always been more than the moon and the stars and the planets and all the cosmos combined, that he's always been Thor's sun even when he didn't see it.

"Guess you've become the Uber driver," Tony says, patting him on the back with a smile. His other arm is still wrapped around Peter.

"What the hell is an Uber driver?" Rocket asks. Tony launches into an explanation that Thor doesn't listen to.

"Thor...?" Nat asks slowly, softly, cautiously. Thor turns to look at her. "Asgard had the tesseract. Who died for the space stone?"

Thor closes his eyes for a moment. He clears his throat. "Um..." He grimaces. Bruce's hand finds its way onto his shoulder, squeezing reassuringly.

"Was it Loki?" Clint asks suddenly. "'Cause he's literally right there looking like a melting popsicle and I'm not sure if I should shoot him or not."

Thor freezes, a breath caught in his throat. Loki? Here? Is he really?

He wants to believe it, he really does, but he remembers the months after Loki had let go of the Bifrost, how Thor had seen him more than a few times and reached out to touch him, only to realize he hadn't been there at all.

He hadn't been real.

Is he real now?

"I would rather you didn't," Loki's voice rings out from behind him. It's so familiar that Thor wants to cry right then and there. "I'm a bit attached to my life right about now, especially after all of my hard work getting it back. You know how it is."

"Do I? Do I really?" Clint asks, but doesn't retrieve any of his weapons.

Tony has moved to shield Pepper and Peter with his body, Peter peeking out from over one of his shoulders. "Reindeer Games. We don't want any trouble here," he says, voice low.

Thor can imagine Loki rolling his eyes. "Please, Stark. If I were looking for trouble you'd already be seeing it." He coughs a little, and it sounds painful.

"This is so cool," Peter breathes out. Tony elbows him in the ribs.

Loki sighs. "Spiderling, you don't remember anything, do you?"

"...Should I?"

"Okay, what the hell is going on!" Steve says, both hands held up.

"Thor?" Bruce asks quietly.

Thor breathes in and out, in and out, over and over and over again. "Loki?" he whispers.

There are footsteps, coming towards him. They sound real. They always sound real. "Yes, you idiot. Have you not been listening?"

"But...you...you died."

"I came back." A hand hovers over his right shoulder, the familiar sort-of warmth emanating from it. "Did you truly doubt me?" he asks, the smirk clear in his voice.

Thor remembers. The crack of his neck, the bruises and the blood. The tears. No resurrections this time.

Loki finally lays his hand down, squeezing gently. "I'm here," he says, ever so softly.

A gilded bottle stopper flying through the air. The smack of it hitting flesh. Loki's fingers curling around it. A smile. I'm here.

"Truly?" Thor asks. Norns, is that what his voice sounds like?

Loki laughs quietly. It sounds mildly painful. It sounds happy and fond. "Why don't you turn around and find out?"

Thor whirls around so quickly his vision blurs, though part of that may be the tears. He wraps Loki in a hug, arms tight around his body, and once he actually registers that his brother's here, he resolves to never let go.

Loki's cold. There are ice flakes in his hair. His skin still has a tint of blue to it. There are dark bruises around his throat. He's missing his cape.

But he's here.

"Thor, you're such a sap," Loki grumbles, but he wraps his arms around Thor's back and holds on tight anyways.

"Cute," Nat says dryly. Rocket snickers. Nebula mutters something unappealing about older siblings.

But it doesn't matter, none of it matters.

They still have to figure stuff out, and things still need to be done. But for now Thor thinks he feels whole again.