Thor woke groggily, Loki's and his argument still playing in his head. Where had his brother gotten all those scars? Loki had rarely gotten injured, and when he did, his magic healed it completely, often not even leaving a scar. Not even a scar. Yet there was hardly any skin left unblemished.
Loki needed to talk. Thor would rather it be with him, but Loki needed to talk. To someone, anyone. If Thor had learned anything over the past decade, it was that Loki needed to talk. Loki needed to talk and Thor needed to listen. He couldn't wait for Loki to explode. Too many people got hurt that way. How much pain could have been avoided if Thor had just listened?
"It hurts doesn't it, being lied to. Being told you're one thing and then learning it's all a fiction." Loki had tried to reconnect, something Thor had wanted since he let go of the Bifrost. Yet he had pushed him away. "No. No, you don't get to blame me. You pushed me away first. My hand was forced." How many other times had Thor pushed Loki away? Thor was far from the perfect golden prince others made him out to be, but perhaps he needed to look less at Loki's faults, and more at his own. Then there was the can of worms called Odin.
"It hurts doesn't it, being lied to. Being told you're one thing and then learning it's all a fiction." Why had Thor not taken the chance to reconnect? Now he was back at square one; trying to learn who his brother was. Only this time, there was no pride to stop him. There was no solitary confinement, no dead brothers to get in his way. This time, he was getting answers. But do you really want to know? It's selfish to let Loki bear the burden alone. Thor swung his legs over the bed, intent on finding his sibling.
Loki was surprisingly talking with Bruce and Heimdall. Not the two people he expected to find his brother speaking with. Loki and Heimdall hadn't been on good terms since Loki turned the Bifrost sword into an alligator. As for Loki and Bruce, well, having Hulk slam you into cement was painful.
"Brother-"
"Thor." He responded coldly.
"We need to talk."
"As I recall, communication was never our family's forte."
"And look where that has gotten us!"
"You're right, we should talk. I hope you are well rested for your first day of being king. We need to stop somewhere for supplies, I trust that in your journeys, you know suitable planets in which to stop?"
"I thought that was more your area of expertise. But that's not what we need-"
"Your people come first. I've already compiled three lists; one with planets that will not kill or sell us on sight, one with planets that will kill or sell us and one with planets that won't kill us, but won't do business either. I was just leaving to check our supplies. Bruce, Gatekeeper." Loki nodded in farewell, striding towards the door. Bruce was looking back and forth between them while Heimdall atared with his usual stoicism.
"Wait, I'll come with you!" Loki actually stopped, not turning around.
"And put all my hard work to waste? I don't think so. You will stay here, go over the lists I made and shirk your duties as king no longer."
"That's not what I'm doing!"
"You will serve your people and you will not abandon them again."
"Abandoned?! When have I ever abandoned my people?"
"I believe it was around the time you refused the throne five years ago. You recall, don't you? When I supposed stole the throne, yet offered it to you, who refused."
"Well, I'm not abandoning them now. Which is exactly why we need to talk. How can I defend my people if they hide things like what I saw?" He carefully avoided saying exactly what he saw, he doubted Loki would trust him if he threw that particular information out in the open. "I want my brother. I don't want you to feel you have to hide from me. I want you to fight by my side, with me instead of against me. I want you to stop pushing me away." "How long have I been looking at an illusion?" "Since I came back from the Void." "It's too late! It's too late to stop it!" Thor had an idea of where his brother had gotten those scars. He just wasn't sure how he felt about the theory.
Now Loki turned, meeting Thor's eyes-eye.
"Luckily I'm not your people. I'm Frost Giant, so do us all a favor and take care of the Asgardians." Before Thor could retort that Loki was Asgardian in every way but blood, his brother vanished in a flash of green. Thor stared at the spot, wondering if he should follow Loki.
"So, family drama hasn't gotten any better?" Bruce asked, drawing Thor's attention away from the door.
"That's an understatement."
"I just can't wrap my head around it."
"What do you mean?" Wrap your head around what.
"That-" Bruce pointed vaguely towards the door.
"-is not the same person who attacked Earth. The person who attacked Earth was as crazy as-"
"As a bag of cats." Thor finished.
"I remember."
"You could smell crazy on him. The person I was just talking to was far from crazy. I mean, when he tried to take over Earth, he was impatient, he didn't care who got hurt, he threw information around carelessly. That is not the person I just spoke with. In fact, that is the complete opposite of the person I was talking to." It's not my fault you cannot see what is right in front of you. Who controls the would be king? It's too late! It's too late to stop it! How long have I been looking at the an illusion? Since the Void. Even with two eyes, you'd only see half the picture. Had Odin known?
"How many claws did the Chituari have?"
"I don't know, Hulk might, but I don't know."
"I believe it was six, my king." Loki's torso had been a matted mess of claw marks, burns and knife wounds. Six clawed claw marks. Chituari. Since the Void.
"Heimdall, where is my brother now?"
"I am unaware of the Prince's whereabouts. I haven't seen nor heard him since he let go."
"He said he was checking on supplies, though he's the god of lies so I have no idea." If anyone's the god of lies, it's Odin.
"My king, has the prince mentioned anything we should know?"
"No. No, he hasn't said anything to me. I'm going to go find him."
"Thor, he will come back. Right now, we need to look over his lists."
"He actually made lists?" I thought he was just making excuses.
"Yeah. Yeah, he still lied. Does your brother often make lists within lists?" Yes. Despite many thinking Loki enjoyed chaos, he was actually an extremely neat person. It was ridiculous. Bruce handed him the stack of papers.
"How many pages is this?"
"Those are the planets that won't kill us, but wouldn't sell anything to us either. I think he said it was roughly 51 pages, front and back." Bruce got another stack of papers, even thicker than the last.
"This was the list of planets that would either kill or sell us. I think it was 97 pages." Bruce got another stack of papers, the smallest stack.
"And this was planets that would actually cooperate with us. It's only 14 pages. Each list has a list of planets that sell parts, gas, food and water and medical supplies. Each list is in alphabetical order, at least, that's what he said, and have how many jumps from Asgard each planet is."
"Let me guess, he wrote in Odinson calligraphy."
"Is that why the letters are backwards? Because he said that these were in alphabetical order, but the top ones all start with z."
"We were learning English at the time, so Loki decided to take it a step further and develop our own language. Write the letters as there opposites. Switching the top thirteen letters with the thirteen bottom letters. For instance, A would be Z, B would be Y, etcetera. My name would be spelled as G, S, L, I. Loki always did prefer calligraphy and he knows I hate reading his. I haven't seen the writing in centuries." And I have one eye.
"He really doesn't want to talk to you. This is going to take forever to read and only you can decipher it." Thor groaned.
"I could teach you."
"No can do. I'm supposed to be making a list of the injured and how many healers are still alive."
"Heimdall?"
"I must assist Dr. Banner with the people. They are still in shock from yesterday. They will not trust outsiders, even if Dr. Banner did assist with defeating Hela. The orphans will need to be assigned to families and we will have a mass funeral tonight. We must care for the living before honoring the fallen. Do not look so discouraged, my king. Asgard has burned, but we will rise from the ashes."
Bruce was right, this was going to take forever. Perhaps it is a good thing. Do you even know what you're going to say to him? Brother, I finally see it! You were tortured! My own brother was tortured and it took me six years to figure it out! Granted, five of those years I thought you were dead and the other year you were imprisoned- Oh. Why didn't you tell me? That could be part of it.
It was five hours before Loki came back and Thor had read about two pages, front and back.
"Oh good, you're back. Can you help me with these lists you wrote?"
"Only if you let me read in silence. I do not want your irritable voice interrupting me."
"Only if you agree to talk afterwards."
"Of course we're going to talk. How else do you think we are going to decide on a route?" Was he really going to act as if nothing had happened? As if Thor had saw nothing?!
"I was thinking more along the lines of you."
"Me? Funny, Thor. Real funny. What are you going to do, list all the treacheries I have committed? Only this time, going past the last few days?"
"What part of me screams this is a joke?"
"What's done is done. There is no need to speak of it."
"No need?! No need?! Your entire torso is covered in-"
"Lower your voice." Loki hissed, somewhere between fearful, threatening and commanding. Thor took three calming breathes. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out.
"At least tell me how you got them."
"I've given you all the hints. Use the cotton-filled head of yours and figure it out."
"Who tortured my brother?" Deafening silence followed the question.
"It does not matter."
"It matters to me."
Another deafening silence.
"Was it the Chituari?" Loki just stare at him with a mixture of offended, hurt and annoyed.
"How weak and pathetic do you think I am? Truly, you think I can't defend myself against Chituari? "
"Then who?!"
"We're done talking about this."
"Loki! No! Wait, come back!"
"No. I am done. I've done what I could for the people. The burden of the throne falls to you now." Burden? Burden?!
"The burden? You stole it from Father and you call it a burden?!"
"I am not going to explain myself to you. I owe you and Asgard nothing. If you knew-"
"Except I don't know anything! I don't know anything because you don't share any information with me! You keep everything bottled up inside and then explode at people who have done nothing to wrong you!"
Loki laughed. Loki laughed that maniacal laugh that made your hair stand on end.
"Do the math, Thor. Even mother had more blood on her hands than me." The brothers stared each other down before Loki turned on his heel, leaving Thor alone. It seemed Thor was always left behind.
Thor woke to footsteps running towards him.
"Thor! Thor, wake up!" The voice cursed several times. Val.
"Thor, Lackey's missing." Thor bolted upright.
"He's what?!"
"He healed most of the injured and the took the Commodore and flew off! I mean, who does that?! That's where I was storing the booze!"
"Where is he?!""You really do have a thick skull. We don't know because he is missing!"Thor was already sprinting towards the bridge. Where would he have even gone? Why had he left? Was their argument really that bad? Or had Thor pushed his brother away again? For once, Thor was glad he didn't have long hair, because he would be yanking it out right now.
Where are you?!A/N: Hopefully the story isn't going downhill. I'm trying to take it slow so that it is actually decent. Critical criticism is much appreciated!! (As are other reviews!) Thanks for reading!!!