#52
"We did it," mumbled Thor, as the crowd around them cried out in disbelief and delight, assailing the returnees with questions. "We really fucking did it."
"Yes, we did," said Loki, his gaze on the charred skin of his brother's arm while Rogers and Shuri glanced at each other and then fled the court without words; Bruce, Romanoff, Barton, Rocket and the warrior woman charging after them. "Now, let me try to heal you."
"No." Thor shook his head as the mortals set themselves in motion. "They're going to check the battlefield where most of our friends … you know," Thor explained before he noticed the look of astonishment on Loki's face. "It's alright, brother. My body will heal itself just fine and if it doesn't, well, I want to remember this." He glanced down at his arm and then looked up again, flashing him a sheepish God of Thunder smile. "Besides, it lends a distinctive note to my appearance, don't you think?"
"It surely does," Loki mumbled, his eyes rolling into his head of their own accord, before he focused his gaze on Stark, who seemed oddly hesitant in the face of the general euphoria submerging the Royal Court.
"Are they j-just going to reappear where they vanished?" the engineer asked. "Because in that case … in that case …"
"They will find a way here," Nebula assured him and Loki was astonished how well she was handling herself considering that she was the only one among them whose loved one would not return to her. He briefly contemplated going over to the cyborg to give her solace but, at the same time, Loki knew that his words would probably not make a difference. There was one person who would not return to him and Thor either and no amount of comforting words would ever lessen the pain that this knowledge inflicted upon his soul. Or maybe at some point but certainly not in the immediate future. Before he could dwell on this any further, however, a sparkle of orange registered on the periphery of his vision and he turned around to see a portal spinning into existence between Wong's palms.
It opened a gateway to a rocky, barren planet littered with mechanical and organic debris that Loki recognized as Titan from the memories of the Infinity Stones. While he was mulling over the realization that the humans had managed to take the fight to the birthplace of Thanos located in a distant solar system with their limited spacecraft technology, a truly peculiar group of individuals stumbled out of the portal and onto the Royal Court.
The first to emerge was a young human man—well, a boy really—dressed in a tight red and blue battle suit with a black spider imprinted on his chest. He was accompanied by an older man in a dark red leather jacket, an empath, a member of a warrior race Loki's name had forgotten and, lastly, the wizard bearing the ridiculous name of Doctor Strange.
Well, obviously spacecraft technology had nothing do with their voyage to Titan, Loki thought as he tried to process the sight of the creatures that had apparently fought in the first war against Thanos.
"Those are the Guardians of the Galaxy," Thor informed him as Stark stormed towards the human boy and swept him into his arms with a sob, pressing him tight to his chest. "Anyway. Come with me," said Thor but Loki's attention was glued to the boy, who was clearly overwhelmed by the gesture, crying out Stark's name in disbelief before he responded to the embrace and relaxed against the older man's chest. Pepper, who stood nearby, was crying toneless tears of relief.
"Welcome back," Wong said to Doctor Strange, vigorously shaking his hand as the man wearing the leather jacket walked straight up to Nebula and assailed her with questions about Gamora's whereabouts. The empath and the warrior were merely standing there, glancing at each other like two feeble-minded children, and the cyborg's voice hitched when she told the man that her sister would not return from the Soul World.
Loki felt the urge to disintegrate into thin air when the mortals held each other in their arms, weeping tears of joy. He felt entirely out of place, not in the same way he had all his life, but more in a very realistic sort of way in which he clearly understood that the scenery unfolding before him had nothing to do with him and that he was not meant to take part in this tearful and vulnerable reunion. He reached for his magic and toyed with the idea of simply teleporting away and letting Thor handle the situation until the wave of emotions rolling over the Royal Palace of Wakanda at this very moment had subsided.
Loki's eyes searched for his brother to tell him that he would return later but when he spotted Thor, he saw that the God of Thunder was engaged in conversation with Colonel Rhodes, Korg and Valkyrie. The sight of them stirred up the recollection of Stark telling him how the few surviving Asgardians had had been helping Rhodes providing some sort of emergency aid for the mortals. This recollection raised the question why they had not come along when Wong had opened a portal to them earlier, which, in turn, raised the next the question what the restoration of Asgard—if the stones had executed this command as well—would mean for their souls. Loki's heart sank when he realized that he would have to face up to the responsibility of ruling Asgard sooner than expected.
Gah, Loki sighed inwardly, his stomach clenching at the prospect of having to concern himself with the wellbeing of their people when all he craved was a decade-long slumber. He glanced at Stark again, who had let go of the mortal boy.
You know very well what keeps you here, and it has nothing to do with the responsibilities you agreed to take on.
Alright, we are leaving this planet. Now.
"Loki?"
Oh no. Not him as well.
Loki turned around and forced a civil expression onto his face even though he was inwardly fuming at Doctor Strange for sending him spiraling facedown into a seemingly never-ending portal not that long ago. "Ah, the Sorcerer Supreme." He fabricated a sly smile. "I hope your voyage from the Soul World back to the lands of the living was not too inconvenient?"
The wizard had the good graces to feign a contrite expression as he extended his hand towards Loki. "I would like to thank you. For everything."
Loki narrowed his eyes at the hand.
"It pains me to say this," Strange said in this typically arrogant fashion of his, his hand still hovering in the air, "but you have served the universe well."
The effort it had taken the wizard to say these words was clearly showing on his face and, suddenly, Loki felt genuine amusement instead of resentment. The Order of the Masters of the Mystic Arts is under our command now. This shall be fun. He grinned and reached for the other man's hand, squeezing it with a lot more force than would have been necessary. Strange smiled a wry smile and then withdrew his hand, sucking on the edge of his lip.
Did I shake your hand too violently? Oh dear, I am inconsolable.
"Glad we got this over with," Stark suddenly barged in, his eyes focused on Strange. "You owe us an explanation as to why this is the one scenario that needed to happen."
"Whoa, Mr. Stark, i-is that …?" asked the boy, his voice trailing off when his eyes landed on Loki. He was pale with dark circles under his eyes and had an expression of slightly frightened disbelief stamped across his face but his voice was buzzing with youthful energy nonetheless.
Here we go, Loki thought, steeling himself for the number of people who only remembered him as the psychopath who had unleashed an alien army upon New York.
"Yes, but his villain days can be accounted for by some sort of magic-induced psychotic break," Stark explained. "He's sane now."
Sane, ha! Did you hear that?!
"Oh, then it's nice to meet you, Mr. Loki," said the boy. "I'm Peter Parker."
Mr. Loki? Seriously, when are we leaving? "Nice to meet you, too," Loki pressed out.
Stark had focused his attention back on the wizard. "So?"
"Because it is the only scenario in which Asgard was brought back." Strange slightly shook his head. "Couldn't you work that out for yourself?"
Stark's lips parted. "Why is that …"
"So important?" Strange finished for him. "Because the stones spiraled out of control as soon as the place harboring so much of their magic went up in flames. The balance of the universe needs Asgard and the Odinforce to exist," the wizard clarified when he saw Stark's puzzled expression. "You all saw what happened after it was destroyed, right? Yggdrasil cannot stand by itself, protruding into the universe unsheltered. Its energy must be cushioned, harnessed, channeled, and Asgard is the only realm that wields enough magic to do so."
Stark's gaze landed on Loki. "Didn't you say that it was this dwarf fella who ensured that the stones would destroy themselves as soon as Thanos snapped?"
Loki gave a shrug. "Another guess?" Well, this was not entirely true, for he had senses the traces of Nidavellirian magic in the gauntlet.
"The dwarf fella, whose name is Eitri by the way, had a suspicion that the Infinity Gauntlet would only be used after Asgard had already fallen," Strange elaborated. "He had a suspicion that a universe without Asgard cannot survive. And he was right. Everything that happened needed to happen so that Nemesis can tell you that."
Loki's jaw dropped.
"You never meant to bring Asgard back, did you?" Strange chuckled, feasting on Loki's speechlessness. "You would have just reversed the Snap. The Goddess put that bug in your ear."
Damn it all, that whelp is right. "You saw of all that in the Time Stone?" asked Loki and he found himself incapable of keeping a trace of admiration out of his voice. "For fourteen million possible futures?"
"I did, yes." Strange flashed him another smug grin that set Loki's teeth on edge.
Stark's mouth worked. "But … when you died for us and risked your own life for this future, how could you be certain that we wouldn't mess it up?"
"I couldn't," Strange admitted. "But I knew that you were going to live and that you would be foolish and curious enough to touch the Soul Stone as soon as it was within your reach and that the vision you would see was going to spark an understanding for magic and a, well, let's call it an affection for King Loki here, which would ultimately lead you to try your best to prevent him from going all 2012 on you guys again." The wizard offered them a half-smirk that left no doubt about how much he was enjoying their discomfort.
Pepper heaved an abased sigh.
"Do not call me that, please," Loki stammered because he did not know what else to say to that on the quick and he was sure that his cheeks were turning crimson with embarrassment. He was also sure that Stark's cheeks were doing the very same thing and when he stole a glance at him, he saw that he was right even though the engineer made an effort to narrow his eyes in annoyance.
"Do not call you what?" asked Strange.
He drew a deep breath to collect himself. "King Loki."
"What else would you like to be called, then?" asked the wizard.
"His current title," Stark replied with a smirk that did only so much to cover his own embarrassment, "is God of Drama."
Doctor Strange rolled his eyes. "Yeah, that's, um … well, I guess it … suits you." He smiled at Loki in a way that clearly indicated how much, or how little, he thought of that and Loki smiled back at him in the same fashion. Strange cleared his throat. "Now, where are the Infinity Stones?"
"What? You didn't see that in your vision? That is unfortunate," Loki snickered. Before Strange could give a reply, two large ravens appeared in the sky from out of nowhere and soared downwards with unsettling speed, their feathers shining like gleaming black oil in the light of the setting sun. Loki felt a smile tugging at his lips and tears welling into his eyes for the millionth time after Thor had rescued him from Niflheim. He blinked them away.
Stark took a step backwards. "What the …"
"Are those Odin's ravens?" Pepper gasped.
"Wait, who's Odin?" asked Peter Parker.
"They are," said Loki as one of the birds flew towards him. He raised his arm and the raven sat down on it while the other one flapped his wings in Thor's direction. "Although I dare say they are our ravens now. This is Múninn," Loki told them as he scratched the spot underneath the raven's beak, gazing into its huge black eyes with the tiny golden ring around the iris, "which is Old Norse for mind or memory."
Múninn cawed contentedly.
"Now, if you will excuse me?" He slightly bowed his head and then walked towards Thor.
A few hours later, Loki was standing on the edge of the vast field stretching out beyond the borders of the Wakandan Palace, looking up at the starry sky blanketing Midgard as he waited for his brother. He knew now that this had been the battleground upon which the mortals had faced and lost against Thanos, and he suppressed a shudder at the thought of the pure terror they must have felt when their companions had evaporated in front of their very eyes. Rocket had made that particularly clear when his emotional defenses had crumbled to pieces over the return of a talking tree.
Loki shook off the thought, Múninn cawing on his shoulder.
"He will be here soon," Loki mumbled, but Thor was taking his own sweet time to say his goodbyes. Loki understood that his brother had an emotional bond with some of them and that he needed to make sure that they would be fine before he attempted to leave for Asgard because that was who he was but still, he felt his impatience increase swiftly until it became a constant, nagging urge to leave Wakanda and the reassembled Avengers. Yet, since he did not dare to arrive in Asgard without Thor, he just started pacing.
Loki did not fully understand why he was so eager to leave, except for the fact that exhaustion was steadily creeping up on him and he yearned for solitude after having spent all this time in the mortals' company. Not because they had been openly hostile to him. The revived humans had been wary when they had laid eyes on him at first, quite naturally they had, especially that one man who called himself the Falcon, but after Thor's and Tony Stark's reassurances that "No, he is no longer an ally of Thanos" and "He actually snapped you back to life" and "He healed us all with a spell when we were as good as dead after we defeated Thanos" and "He fought by our side this whole time", they had hesitantly, confusedly thanked him. They probably still wanted an explanation for New York but they were far too distracted and traumatized and confused to even absorb the tale of what had happened after their deaths and "Were we really dead, I mean how could we be DEAD and just come back?"—that one from the mortal boy named Peter Parker—and … By all the Realms, these people are exhausting.
Loki had felt awkward in their presence and it certainly did not help matters that he could not admit to himself that he had started caring about them, especially the raccoon and Nebula and, well, Stark of course. Damn him. Just damn him. Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch, who had been infused with the powers of the Mind Stone after he had orchestrated its theft from the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility and who had been eying him curiously for the length of their explanations, were certainly of interest as well and would prove valuable allies in fighting any future threats. But all of that could wait.
Everyone—even the arrogant wizard—had agreed that, at this point, everything could wait. The safekeeping of the Infinity Stones and the book of Nemesis, the future of the universe, the future of their collaboration; none of this warranted immediate discussion considering their collective exhaustion and post-battle bewilderment. Thor, Loki and Valkyrie were to ensure that Asgard had survived and that the souls of the remaining Asgardians—who had vanished from where they had last dwelled when the wizards had opened a portal to validate their whereabouts—were safe as well. They were to leave with the stones and the book and report to Midgard in a few days when everything had settled.
That was when Loki had grabbed his chance to leave with brief goodbyes to the Avengers, telling Thor he would wait for him and Valkyrie outside of the palace.
What in Yggdrasil's name is taking them so long?
When he finally heard footsteps approaching, Loki's lips broke into a grin. "You really do have a hard time leaving, huh?"
"Not really," said a voice that was not Thor's and Loki swiftly turned around.
"I mean, I like it here," Stark continued, "but I really wanna be back in New York."
"I can understand why," Loki pressed out, reluctant to be alone with the other man under a blanket of stars with all the cultural Asgardian and Midgardian connotations attached to an environment like this. "How is your hand?"
"Fine," Stark replied. "I mean, not fine, but I'll be able to live with it."
Loki gave a nod and an awkward silence crept over them. Oh, please, do us both a favor and just go away.
"Your father really was an ass, huh?"" Stark began, his gaze searching for his.
"Really?" Loki glared at him. "This is your best attempt to start a conversation with me after I already said my goodbyes?"
"No, I j-just," the engineer stammered but then found his voice. "I'm just wondering why he would tell Thor to destroy Asgard when he must have known that the universe needed it to exist. That's bullshit."
"It is not," Loki replied, forcing himself to exercise patience. "Did you not listen? Ragnarok was real enough, just not in the way we thought it would be. Asgard needed to be destroyed in order to be created anew. That is what the Norns prophesied. A cycle; destruction leading to creation; one meaningless without the other." He feigned a smile and then added, pointedly, "Ask your wife."
Stark blushed. "She's not my …"
Loki raised an eyebrow at him.
"But why not just tell you?" Stark went on, choosing to ignore his remark. "Why didn't Odin just say, 'Listen up, boys, for the next generation of Allfathers, we're gonna shake things up a little. You're both gonna be kings. How about that?' That would've made things a lot less painful for all of us, don't you think?"
Loki snorted a laugh out of his nose before he could stop himself and Stark locked eyes with him, his entire face lit up by a boyish smile. "Possibly," Loki replied after a while. "But an insight is much more valuable when it comes from the inside rather than being forced upon you from the outside."
Stark's eyebrows hiked up. "What are you? A fortune cookie?"
Loki laughed once more. "You are doing this on purpose, aren't you? You know perfectly well that I have no clue how fortune could possibly relate to cookies."
"Really?" Stark feigned innocence. "You have no idea that fortune cookies are an American invention marketed as a Chinese tradition just to make the wisdom inside them appear wiser?"
Loki drew a sharp breath and forced himself to retreat from the game they had been playing thus far. "Stark, what are you doing?"
The other man's shoulders sank. "I don't know."
Loki drilled his gaze into him and watched him sway under its intensity. "What is this?" Tony Stark asked eventually, his voice a guarded whisper.
"What is what?" Loki asked back, his face a long-perfected mask of innocence that forced Stark to stretch out his hand, pointing towards Loki and then back to himself. Múninn cawed on his shoulder.
"Nothing," Loki lied because he would be damned if he allowed that intractable, loud-mouthed mortal in front of him stir up any more sensations inside his chest than he already had. "I am fascinated by how your mind works as you are undoubtedly fascinated by how mine works but that is the extent of it, I am afraid."
Stark frowned at him with the eyes of a hurt puppy and Loki winced inwardly. Múninn cawed once more. "No lies!"
"Whoa." Stark's eyes widened. "Those birds can … speak?"
"No, they can't," Loki pressed out, his hand snapping upwards to the raven's beak and squeezing it shut. Múninn protested with muffled cawing and Stark flashed him a challenging grin.
"I might also find you attractive," Loki conceded but his honesty and the immediate reaction in Stark's eyes shocked him so violently that he immediately backpedaled. "In that insignificant mortal way of yours."
Stark blew out a breath, his shoulders sagging in defeat. "You really aren't gonna let people in, are you?"
"Not yet, no," said Loki. "Maybe in five hundred years from now but I suppose you will be pretty much dead by then."
Stark smiled but there was a flicker of sadness or even regret in his eyes. "Are you gonna come back?"
Loki answered with a shrug. "Your world would not exactly be collapsing from excitement if I did, now, would it?" A smirk tugged at his lips when he saw Stark's smile break open into a grin. "But now that you have access to spaceships, I suppose you could visit us sometime. You know, to study the science behind Asgardian magic." Loki allowed the smile to show. "You are welcome anytime."
Stark gave a nod and extended his hand. "Deal, I suppose?"
Loki nodded back and clasped the engineer's hand but then Stark pulled him into an unexpected hug and they merely stood there, locked in an awkward embrace for a few seconds, Múninn cawing frantically on his shoulder. They stood there until Thor and Valkyrie finally rescued him by making their presence known with a synchronized cough that was no less awkward than the hug itself.
"Well, I suppose it is time to go," said Loki, feeling foolish as soon as the words had left his lips.
"It is," Thor confirmed with a far too serious expression on his face that made the entire situation so much worse. "Shall we try?"
Húninn cawed on the Thundergod's shoulder. "Lords of Asgard return!"
Loki gave a nod, a careful, hesitant nod, his heart accelerating with the accursed sentiment of hope.
"Heimdall?" Thor asked with the same amount of careful hesitation in his voice. "Are you there?"
For a few seconds, nothing happened but then a pillar of glittering rainbow light cascaded from the sky and tears welled into the Thundergod's eyes and the ravens took to the skies. Thor began to walk towards the Bifrost at once and Loki followed him but then his brother halted when he realized that Valkyrie was making no move to follow them. Thor turned his head and asked, "Are you not coming with us?"
She shook her head. "I meant to, I really did, but I really think it is probably for the best if I stayed on Earth for a while, you know, to give you guys some time to settle in and figure everything out."
Loki turned around as well, his gaze traveling from Valkyrie to Thor and back to her. He scrunched up his nose. "Are you seriously breaking up in front me just now?"
"Well, no," Valkyrie clarified. "He already broke up with me."
"I did not," Thor protested. "Well, I did, sort of, but I did not mean to?" he tried, a sheepish smile playing upon his lips.
"Yes, you did," Valkyrie replied. "And that is alright with me. I'm gonna be around for a while, you know." A tiny smile ghosted her lips. "Just make sure to sort everything out and not burn Asgard to the ground again in the process."
"Alright," Thor stammered.
"Good luck, your majesties," Valkyrie said. "I suppose you will need it. Lots of it."
What an understatement, Loki thought as they turned away and walked towards the pillar of rainbow-colored light.
"Wait, what about those hideous ice pillars on my lawn in New York?" Stark shouted after them.
"They are a gift," Loki replied as he glanced back over his shoulder, winking at the other man. "You know, for science."
Stark laughed at this and Loki could not prevent a smile from creeping onto his lips.
"It seems we are both leaving someone behind here, uh?" Thor asked as soon as the others were out of earshot.
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Loki snapped as he fought back the hot rush of embarrassment that was threatening to color his ears and neck crimson once again. Thor merely grinned at him and Loki knew then that they once more were brothers returning home to the Golden City from a quest. They would finally go home. Together. Just the two of them. And suddenly he understood what Thor had done. "You did not really break up with her so that you can mend our fractured brotherhood, did you?" Loki asked, his face falling.
Thor gave a shrug. "What if I did?"
"If you did," said Loki, his heart filling with what might have been genuine happiness, "maybe you're not so bad after all, brother."
"Maybe not," Thor said on a laugh as they stepped into the light pillar of the Bifrost.
Sons of Odin starts playing
Notes:
~ Alriiigt, what to say? THIS ENDING, maybe? Although it is not truly the end, (there will be an epilogue sort of chapter giving you closure on Thor & Loki and how they're doing plus the book of Nemesis as a bonus) but that Ragnarok-inspired ending was SENDING me while I was writing it. I swear. I even lost my shit on Twitter over this.
~ I was inspired to have Húginn and Múninn return when I watched the recently released alternate ending of Thor: The Dark World in which Thor rises to the throne and the ravens come flying to him, settling down on the same banister where he had been talking with Odin in the beginning of the movie, and I loved how that visualized his kingship. With two ravens and Thor and Loki ruling together, I thought that would be a nice touch to have one for each of them. And they can actually speak in Joanne M. Harris's novels and in American Gods, so that was something that I gladly embraced as well.
~ For those of you who were wondering why I had Pepper as the character with a knowledge about Norse mythology, yep, I wanted Loki to throw that into Tony's face. I did not know how really, it came together in the last second as my mind, too, works in mysterious ways, but there you go.
~ Spidey calling Loki "Mr. Loki" was a must of course.
~ As was this Frostiron goodbye. It is my favorite ship and I thought about different ways how I could make them end up together but none of them were working, so I just had to let it go, at least for this story. And I don't think throwing himself into a relationship is something Loki needs at this point or is even capable of. And Val's and Thor's relationship was equally fragile as I imagined them to be drawn to each other simply because of the stress they lived through together and that it just happened so that they could provide each other comfort without really being in love, if that makes any sense. In any event, I'm not actually shipping them, lol.
~ And Akira, I am sorry that you got no Scarlet Witch & Loki interaction but I never planned to focus on the Avengers as soon as they accomplished their goal. This is a story about Thor and Loki, and I really didn't wanna drag out the ending. Apart from that, I had no ideas (none, really) as to how they would interact after everything was sort of restored, so there you go. But at least Strange got his shot ;)
~ Thank you all for taking that journey with me thus far 33