Prior their return

What shall he say? He does not know, but he needs her help.

"Mother."

If he's to meet Loki's request, he'll need her aid, her sway on Odin's mind.

"Thor," Frigga at her son smiled brightly. "It's wonderful to see you." In person she was not there. He'd called on Heimdall and asked a word of her, and she responded. He smiled as well.

"As it is seeing you."

Something was wrong she perceived clear as day, and she'd met him but days before.

"…What is the matter my boy?" she asked concerned. Thor's smile fell short and his blue eyes weary.

"It is Loki." Frigga's concern intensified. What in time so brief transpired?

"…What has happened?"

"…He has fallen in love," that said, and it lacked a face at all.

"…With Anthony?" she asked and he gave a concurring nod, but remained silent. Still to her the revelation was significant, its denotation, broke to a bright smile she could not contend.

"…Well, that is joyous news." So why does Thor remain discontent? Her face furrows, and Thor explains holding hard her gaze.

"…He seeks a way to preserve his life." Blue eyes like her son's come knowing.

Oh, knowing.

"…He'll not rest till he has found one," Thor asserted desolately.

…Eyes down, lips tight, hands afront clenched and body stiff Frigga to the side paced.

"…He is not the first aesir to find love in one of Midgard, or another realm. And though Idun's apple is of varied effects on most races," she looked to Thor, said somber: "on midgardians it is of none." Despite aware Thor tensed, spoke firmer:

"Are you of this certain?"

"He knows this," Frigga added. Thor was restless, he gestures.

"It leaves him unhindered. He is firm in his belief that he can find a way." Hesitance. "But he nee-"

"His magic?" Frigga trailed prepensely.

Thor was quiet, read her eyes that were speaking what he knows, fears, and refuses.

Frigga sighed.

"…I will speak with him."

"Mother," Thor called distressed though she was yet to move. Her gaze was patient and warming, condoling because it's evident Thor is sizably disquieted.

…What next he says makes her face unravel.

"…You remember how he was, when Sigyn fell ill."

He did not explicate, and needn't. Clear enough his implication, what with what he was comparing,

and it terrified her.

She remembers.

…They all remember.

XX

Papers, scrolls, pages, everywhere,

Loki amid them.

A table topped with herbs, bones, potions.

Notes, a quill, spilled ink.

He was ragged and in disarray. He hadn't slept in days. His hands were unclean. There was ink, dirt, residue, blood.

He spilled blood in search for answers, almost in the most sinister planes of magic he'd delved,

but it was too late.

XX

"…I promised I would help him." Thor said in a tone that was desperate, pleading. "…I care for Stark as well," as did she without interaction. "…If there is a chance he ca-"

"The chance is slim, near inconceivable," her voice is hard and there's a reason, the reason he reads without hearing.

In the end she does speak it, expression aiming to dispute in calm without pitting siblings at odds when she tells him: "And you know I love your brother dearly…but releasing his magic is a great risk."

"You do not trust him?" said condescending, because from Frigga this cannot come and Loki can never hear it.

"…Do you?" she says wistful. "With absolute certainty?" Thor swallows.

"…You did not see his face-"

"But he has changed considerably," she noted more assertively, then eyes softer approached him, tone real. "I want nothing but to believe his intentions are clear, and good. Yet should even they be, to gamble with a mortal's lifeforce and experiment, is unholy and dangerous, for both of them." Thor knows and it disappoints him.

He does remember,

but he also remembers how Loki was after…she was gone.

…And Tony was. He was something else entirely, and…'"If I lose him…You'll lose me forever."'

"…What do we do?"

Unblinking he sees in her eyes like his,

fear.

She breathes deeply, says quiet: "…I shall see."