Thor found his small brother curled up under the covers of his now too-large bed, sucking on the knuckle of his first finger, his eyes red and tear-stained.

"Go away." He muttered, his voice trembling.

"Oh, Brother…" Thor sighed, and sat down on the edge of the mattress. "Please don't push me away."

"I don't like you." Loki lied. "You're a m-meanie." His teary eyes widened as he came to the realization, and his small voice dropped to a horrified hush. "And… and you're not really my brother."

Thor flinched at the correction, one he had hoped he would never hear, again. "Yes, I am." He insisted. "Just because you're adopted doesn't mean you're not family."

"It doesn't?" Loki's face shone forth a glimmer of hope. "But… I'm scary and bad."

"I don't think so." Thor assured. "I think you're adorable and good."

Loki gave him a flat look. "I'm not adorable."

"Whatever you say." Thor chuckled. "But you're certainly not scary."

"Father always says the Frost Giants are our enemies." Loki began playing with the edge of his quilt. "And Laufey's the worst of all. I heard people say he eats children!" His green eyes were wide and horrified. "I don't wanna be that guy's son! I wanna be Father's son!"

"You are." Thor explained. "In a way, you're both. Father chose you as his son, and he's the Allfather, so his word is law. You're not evil, like Laufey. You're… you're a helpful, sweet, good-natured little boy."

This is was obviously a great comfort to the small child, and he smiled gratefully up at Thor. "You think so?"

"I know it."

There was a pause, until the teensy Trickster glanced up, again, another question in his eyes. "How come I'm not blue and big and ugly? Is it because I'm good?"

"You'd be good even if you were blue and big." Thor replied. "I think Father did that, because he didn't want you to feel different."

"I am different."

"That's a good thing." The Thunderer returned, with a smile. "If you were just the same as everyone else, you wouldn't be Loki. And I love Loki, so I wouldn't want that."

The small one offered a wan smile to his brother. "I love you, too, Thor. But I don't want to be Jotun."

"I'm afraid you can't change that." Thor shook his head. "Just like you were born with a mischievous streak, you were born Jotun, and you can't change that, I'm afraid. It's part of who you are."

"But they're bad."

Thor shook his head. "Not all of them are. You aren't."

"I did bad things, before." He solemnly piped. "Father said I wreaked havoc over three realms."

"But that doesn't make you a bad person. It just means you've done bad things. Besides, you can't hold your older self's actions as your own. You didn't wish that to happen. And you can't change it, now. Best leave it in the past, hm?"

Loki solemnly nodded, but then glanced away. "I want to be your brother. And Father's son. Even though I'm not, actually. Is that alright?"

"Of course." Thor beamed. "I'm glad you want to be with us."

"And I don't ever want to live in Jotunheim." He continued. "I want to live here with you, always. Until I'm old and wrinkly. Promise you won't make me go live with Jotnar?"

"I promise." Thor responded with a warm smile, and even as the statement left his lips, he got a sinking feeling they'd come back to bite him. He couldn't take back a promise, though, so he decided to shake it off and move on. "You ought to come back to the table, though. The cooks made apple cake for desert, tonight."

The tiny child's eyes eagerly lit up, and he bounded off the bed with an excited smile, before the realization hit him. "I'll have to eat my green beans, first, won't I?" He sulked.

"Most likely." Thor chuckled. "Come along; best to get it over with."

"Bleh…" Loki stuck his tongue out in disgust, but took Thor's hand, and skipped cheerfully alongside him, humming to himself. "Thor?" He spoke up after a few moments.

"Yes, Brother?"

"What did I do?"

Thor shook his head. From the way Odin had phrased the tale, it was obvious he didn't want the innocent child to know. "We'll tell you when you're older."

"Very well." Loki smiled in assent.

Now, that was a little weird. It wasn't like him to give up so easily.

"Now I'm thirty seconds older." Loki spoke up, a mischievous grin sliding over his small face. "Can you tell me, now?" And… there it was. Thor sighed, and affectionately rolled his eyes.

"No, not for a very long time." He explained. "You're too young to know yet."

"But thirty seconds can be a long time!" Loki whined, his smile falling into a sad, hopeful look. "It depends on what you're doing! Holding your breath for thirty seconds is a really long time!"

And, somehow, Loki understood the relativity of time by six. Thor's head reeled to think of how he'd missed his brother's obvious massive intelligence, and this was before he'd even learned how to do illusions. How often had he simply taken everything for granted? Just assumed Loki would know everything, and when he didn't, it was an error on his part. A pang of regret gripped at his heart, as he looked down at his hopeful brother's little face. No wonder he had turned bitter.

"Father will tell you when the time is right." He replied, trying to keep the sadness from weighing down his voice.

That was final enough for Loki, so he released a morose sigh, and trudged along to the dining hall. The green beans were swiftly consumed for the sake of the apple cake thereafter, and Loki was put to bed. It didn't take long for the small boy to drift off to sleep, as his mother softly sang a lullaby.

TheOnlyHuman.