Distorted & Disordered
Chapter 8
The young teenager awoke late that freshly brisk Saturday morning. It was past noon when his ebony hair slid from his shoulders as he stretched and yawned, his green eyes gazing in surprise at the peculiarly late hour for him.
Why no one had woken him was beyond his thought processes of the moment. He turned one green filled eye to peek at his dresser mirror before he scrambled to his feet and padded barefoot over towards his blue and green patterned calendar. The month of October featured a plaid background with a kitten dressed as a pumpkin. Loki wasn't ashamed of how the picture melted his heart and since he had few friends, and even less to visit him, he didn't face any strong criticisms for his guilty pleasure.
Once the teen made it to the calendar, his eyes lit up with glee at the brightly circled Saturday that had finally come to be.
"Mother's returning home!" He erupted in excitement, fist pumping the air as he scattered from his bedroom, down the hall and swung into Thor's room.
"Thor!" he screeched, jumping like a child from the doorway onto his older brother's bed. Thor lay amongst the red blankets and Star Wars themed bedspread, and was so fast asleep, he barely even responded to the jostling of his mattress.
"Thor!" Loki shouted again, this time flopping around like a fish over his brother's sprawled body.
The elder grunted uncomfortably.
"THOR!"
The older sibling finally shook himself awake then, blearily red eyes blinking into focus as he recognized Loki's face, wide eyed and grinning, mere inches from his own.
Loki's mouth dropped open in glee as the corners of his mouth heightened.
Thor startled back in response but before he could utter a breath, Loki exclaimed, "Mother's returning today!"
Thor blinked in response as he was still muddled and confused, his dream about wrestling and winning the championship fading from behind his blue eyes.
Taking a moment to process what his younger sibling has just revealed to him, a large grin formed upon his face.
"How splendid! ….What time will she be arriving?" Thor's grin downgraded to a sheepish smile, his hand itching through his blonde hair, the older sibling being quite forgetful of the details.
Loki rolled his eyes in exasperation, "She'll be here by three. This means, we only have a couple of hours to tidy up the house before she nitpicks over the flower pot arrangement being a centimeter off than where it once was."
Loki hastily got up from Thor's bed, eyeing his brother's room from the doorway. He picked up a lone tree branch, soggy at the ends with bark shedding from its skin.
"Speaking of, you really should clean up this shit," Loki mentioned with disgust, the other end of the stick dangling up a pair of dark blue boxers. Loki looked sideways at Thor. "Really? The hamper is like three steps away from here."
Thor had the audacity to smile, then.
"You know me, it's three steps too far," the elder replied, chuckling lightly. "I'll clean it up though, you are right." He stretched, arms over his head, cracking his elbows. "Only a couple of hours you said?"
Loki shook his head, "Yeah, and with the state of your room, you're going to need four hours and a bulldozer to really clean up this mess." Loki blushed lightly however, as his room was untidy as well, even if only one eighth as bad as Thor's.
"But first! We eat like champions!" Thor declared, roughly getting up from the seam of his mattress, practically tripping over the bedspread. "Oomph!"
Loki was already down the hall by then, but he couldn't help but smirk over Thor's ridiculousness.
"Bet I'll beat you there!" He hollered back over his shoulder, pausing at the top of the staircase.
"No fair, you've already got a head start!"
But that was the only protest Loki heard from his older brother before Thor's rambunctious feet came pounding across the floorboards, and the two were off competing towards the kitchen.
The green-eyed adolescent stared with contempt down at his half-full cereal bowl. Thor, meanwhile, was chowing down the breakfast, spewing cinnamon in all directions, most of which landed petulantly on the black table top.
"Can you get any messier?" Loki asked with judgment lacing through his words.
Thor hardly batted an eye, used to his little brother's antics to get a rise out of him.
"I'm hardly being that-" he protested, but Loki cut him off quickly.
"Oh, right, I forgot this table is just naturally made with cinnamon toast crunch. How on Earth could I have forgotten that?" Loki rolled his eyes, sarcasm practically oozing from his skin.
Thor rolled his eyes next, motioning to Loki's hardly touched meal.
"At least I eat mine," he mumbled, shoving another large spoonful of the tasty squares into his mouth.
Loki lurched back in surprise, Thor's comment slicing through his brain and the shadows that had been lingering there for the last few weeks.
Loki had been wondering to himself for the past several days whether anyone was noticing his sporadic meal intake. It turns out, the oblivious one out of the whole family, had.
Loki bit his bottom lip in thought, hesitantly bringing his spoon down into the milky land of his cereal and eating a bite or two. With disgust rolling in his stomach, and his brain shouting at him to stop, he questioned Thor about how much he really knew.
"Please, you eat enough for thirty people."
It was a weak remark, but Thor must not have noticed.
The elder shook his head, "Gotta keep strong somehow!"
Loki tilted his head, eyeing his brother who seemingly moved on from the conversation of Loki's food intake rather swimmingly.
He must not have any particular suspicions, Loki thought to himself, forcing himself to eat a breakfast he hadn't consumed in the last five days. The cereal tasted soggy and floppy in his mouth, and he swallowed its contents with much disgust.
He was still eating when Thor got up and placed his bowl in the kitchen sink, gathering up the might he needed to tackle the mess that was his room.
When no one was looking, Loki dumped out the rest of his meal.
No one has to know about this, he reassured himself. It's my little secret. A secret that Loki could add to his list of closet kept secrets, the drawers becoming thick and bulky as he had too many secrets to keep and not enough time to sift through them.
No one has to know about this one. No one at all . . .
Bedroom door closed and a pile of dirty clothes later, Loki was sifting through his school assignments when the front door sounded shut with a bang.
Loki hiccupped in surprise, losing his grip on one of his folders and subsequently having some of his papers slide out and around the floor.
"Thor!"
Odin's loud cry could be heard from across the world. Loki braced himself, tension settling in his shoulders as he listened closely to what was going on downstairs.
Thor murmured something in response to their father, but it was too low or Loki was too far away to hear it clearly.
It sounded like father was upset about Thor's lack of caring when it came to doing the dishes, so Loki sighed to himself and brought his attention back to the scattered papers on the floor.
Loki picked up his one drawing from the start of the school year, and smiled forlornly.
This will be a nice piece to finish, he thought, tucking the artwork into a small, chaotic pile a few feet away.
Loki continued going through his schoolwork and finishing up some skipped questions when Thor popped his head around the door.
"Do you ever knock?" Loki asked, staring up at his brother expectantly.
Thor hardly blushed and shrugged his shoulders instead, "Father's in one of his moods. Just thought I'd warn you."
Loki tilted his head, Thor warning him about their father's aggression wasn't uncommon, in fact it happened pretty frequently, as Thor, despite the fool he is, knew Loki got more of their father's wrath than he did.
Essentially Thor's observations about their father's moods were a warning to Loki to stay clear and stay hidden.
Loki nodded in understanding, "Got it."
Thor eyeballed Loki's more tidy room now, or at least tidier than his and tidier than it was that morning, even if Loki would never admit to that.
"Think you could give me a hand with mine?"
Loki smiled mischievously, "Well, I mean, I could, but what's in it for me?"
Thor sighed; it was always some type of ploy and exchange when he asked for favors from his brother. Thor would never admit it, but he knew Loki got that trait from their father.
"I do your homework for a week." Thor negotiated.
Loki huffed, "Please, you'd give me all D's if you did that. Let me sneak into a movie with you, one rated R."
Thor scrunched his eyebrows. "That's not fair; you know I can't keep asking favors from Brandon."
Thor knew Brandon Caser from the movie theater in town and on a few other deals got Loki into the movies for free.
The sixteen year old raised a brow, "No movie, no deal."
Thor looked like he was wedged between a decision between a murder or kicking a puppy.
"Fine, it's a deal."
Loki smiled, his eyes twinkling with mischief.
It was 3:15p and the boys still stood by the window upstairs in the home, watching in baited anticipation for their mother to arrive.
They waited and waited for her dark blue Chrysler to come down the corner of their street, edging into the driveway with ease and familiarity, but by 3:18p, there was still no sight of her.
"What if she's dead?" Loki asked Thor again, fear shining in his eyes.
Thor shook his head, "She's not dead, Loki. She's late. There's a big difference."
Loki bit his lip. "But what if her plane crashed and she couldn't phone us like those people who phoned their loved ones before they went crashing into the ocean a few months back? What if that's what's happened to her?"
Thor leaned over and frazzled Loki's dark hair. "You're over thinking it, brother. She'll be in soon."
Loki fell into another silence for the next thirty seconds, before doubt laced through his veins again and he was about to ask Thor about her potential, imagined death in his brain, when-the garage door sounded.
"Mother!" The boys shouted in unison, Thor getting a glimpse into their young past when Loki was six years old and Thor seven, and their mother came back from a long trip and they sped down the stairs, just as they did now.
The two of them lounged for the doorknob at the same time, bickering lightly back and forth who got to open it first, before Loki pried Thor's fingers from the knob and hurriedly raced down the gray steps.
"Mother!" Loki exclaimed, running full force into their mother's arms.
Frigga Odinson, long golden hair swooping down over her shoulders and near to her hips, cradled her little boy in her arms as she nestled her chin into his shoulder.
"Loki!"
Loki felt his Mom's embrace and felt the butterflies of anxiety disperse from his abdomen and flutter into his chest, flapping their beautifully jeweled wings and bringing such warmth, light and love into his soul.
At that moment, Loki felt himself steady in the world. He felt that he belonged and he felt that the shadows in his brain could never penetrate this radiating light coming from his soul. He felt gleeful and magical, all at once.
And of course, this is when Thor came into the hug, too.
"And Thor! How are you, my children?" Frigga opened her arms wider around the two teens, sharing her love with them although Loki still felt bitter about that.
"We are well, mother! How are you? How was the benefit?" Thor asked in a mighty roar. Loki blushed; the man never could keep his voice down, even in his preschool years.
"Oh, it was beautiful. So many of our guests donated contributions to our non-profit, and we are working stronger and more determined than ever to get awareness spread about our mission. We're hoping by the end of this year to expand our growth to other states across the nation," Frigga gushed with pride and strength, her face lighting up discussing her non-profit organization dream.
"And then the real estate market is looking up now, too. So we're projecting we'll be in good standing for nationwide recognition as soon as this time next year. Oh, I'm so proud of you young men! How have you two held up while I was away?"
She reached over and pinched their cheeks separately, and the two groaned in disagreement together.
"Mother, please," Thor protested, rubbing his sore cheek.
"We've been well," Loki assured, although his voice hadn't the heart to lie to his mother so directly.
Thor took it away, jumping into another spiel about his championship over his wrestling opponent-yes the same story as before-while Frigga eyed Loki in motherly suspicion.
Loki changed his gaze from her to the ground, zoning out from the conversation, as the family began to catch up, and Odin appeared from the back of the Chrysler to help Frigga with her suitcases.
Loki knew, even as he ascended the stairs that middle afternoon that dinner and his new habits were going to be a hell of a force to reckon with. With their mother back home and her knowing eye on him, he'll have to do a better job of keeping his secret safe.
Unfortunately for the young teen, he didn't have a doubt there'd be a problem with that.
A/N:
Hey everybody! So, I super hope you enjoyed this chapter, longer for everybody, hooray! I'd also like to say that this was very fun to write, especially the part of Frigga's return home, because it made me laugh writing about how the boys reacted to their mother coming home. :) I hope you laughed or enjoyed it too!
There's also a bunch of family, Loki/Thor interaction here too, as we haven't had that in a while. I'm hoping to work on the next chapter of Frigga's return and the dreaded dinner after this, and I think I have a couple other plot bunnies in my mind for upcoming chapters too.
So, I super hope you love this and it holds you over for a little while! Thank you everyone for your reviews and sharing your thoughts, both officially and through guest posts! You all are amazing and I appreciate every single one of you. You give me the inspiration and the determination to keep writing this story and see where these fellas take me! :)
If I haven't already mentioned, I'm anticipating by chapter 20 we'll start introducing the other avengers into the party, so hold on tight until then! Have a lovely weekend *hugs*
Second A/N as of April 2019: Hi again, I'm in the process of re-reading this story, revising some chapters and potentially changing around the last two that I had posted here so as to help myself get back into this story and all that I want to achieve with it. I'm also in the process of updating it onto my AO3 account too. So, beware of some changes to come in the future. Thanks for reading! xxx