Even after best, careful, lengthy efforts, even with his friends' help, Thor miscalculated by a few feet. This meant that instead of landing on the mountaintop he landed beside it, in thin air, and crashed to the ground below. Had to climb back up. He could hear the sounds of combat in the distance, of himself and Tony Stark meeting for the first time, but he couldn't stop to watch because he had more important things to do.

At the top of the mountain was his brother. "Loki," he called as soon as he summitted – even before he'd caught his breath.

Loki whipped around. "Thor-?" Scrambled to his feet. "Wait – who are you?"

"Hang on. Sorry. One second." Thor put his hands on his knees and tried to breathe deep. He hadn't remembered it being so difficult to climb a single Earth mountain. Perhaps time travel was more exhausting than he'd realized.

"All right," he said, when he could finally speak without wheezing. He stood up. "Hi. Yeah, no – you had it right the first time. It's me. Thor, son of Odin. From the future."

Loki looked him over, closely. Then laughed. "No."

The laughter stung. "Yes."

"No. That," even more derisive, a chin-jerk with curled lip "Is not my brother."

"Yes. Yes it is. Loki, come on." But he had come back to this moment – to this time when Loki had gone off the rails, when perhaps he could have helped, if only he'd been a little less self absorbed and a little more forgiving – for a reason. And that reason was to make peace, not to argue. "I'm sorry I dragged you out of an airplane," he led with. "And sorry I let you fall from the Bifrost, and sorry I was an ass to you for years, and sorry for everything else you're angry at me about. But this is important. Can we please talk?"

Loki looked at him for a long moment. Then glanced over his shoulder. "I suppose I've got nothing better to do whilst those meat-heads work out their problems down there, so." He resumed his seat. "Talk away."

Thor paced restlessly. "Something terrible has happened – to you – and I want to help."

But before he could go on, Loki interrupted. "Now, or then?"

Thor stopped. "What? What do you mean?"

"Ah. Never mind." Loki waved it away. "For a moment I thought you'd come to rescue me, that's all. But it's all right. I have a plan of my own. Go on."

"I am here to rescue you – from what happens in the future. Thanos kills you," he said bluntly.

Loki's grin flashed white in the murky light but was gone in half a second. "Color me surprised. He's nearly done it several times already."

"Already? You mean you've been fighting him?" How come he had never known?

Loki's eyes gleamed strangely. "No. I don't fight. Resistance really is futile. I've learned."

Thor was still sure he was missing something, but the past was past now and all he could care about was what to do in the future. For his brother – not this evil thing who was about to drop him from a helicarrier and then stab him in the belly. "Well in the future you have un-learned," he announced. "And we reconcile, and we fight him together."

"Oh? And how does that go for us?" Loki asked, polite and guileless.

Thor let out a sharp breath. Would not lose his temper. "I'm still trying to figure that out, actually," he said. "You said something to me. Just before he killed you. I think it may have been a message, an instruction of some kind, but I didn't understand it."

"So you came back to me for help. To this touching reunion with your dear little brother." He leaned back against his rock and laughed softly at the sky. "You must be truly desperate."

"Are you going to say that to me every time I ask you for something?" Thor snapped. "Gods! Why are you like this?"

"What?" Loki was frowning at him. "I've always been like this. Why are you?" He got to his feet, slowly. "You've changed. And I don't mean just that impressive belly – what have you been eating, by the way? – but something about you is... different. Very."

"Loss will do that to a person." Suddenly it seemed unjust that he should carry the loss all by himself, so he shared. "Our parents. Our people. Our home. My friends. My new friends. Him." A gesture down the mountain, in Stark's direction. "You."

Loki swallowed. "I know loss." Then he turned and clasped his hands behind his back. "So. What happens?"

"I told you. Thanos." Thor cleared his throat to get the emotion out of it. "He picks you up by the neck and squeezes the life out of you right in front of me. Immediately before that, you turn to me and swear that the sun will shine on us again. Which makes no sense," he added. "As Thanos had already defeated us and was obviously about to decimate our ship, and as you've pointed out, you hate the sun anyway. So. Tell me what you meant."

"Mm. Interesting." Loki bowed his head. "The sun will shine on us again. Hm. Had we recently had any encounters involving a sun?"

"Any... encounters...? No. No, it's nothing obvious, I-"

"How about with a son? Son, S-O-N, someone's male child. Maybe from another realm, a being with some kind of light or shimmer to him?"

Thor thought carefully. "No. Not that I can think of."

"The sun will shine," he repeated softly. "Hm." Shook his head. Finally he turned. "I'm afraid I have no idea what I was talking about," he said. "It's worth noting, though, that I've recently had my mind violently reworked. It's possible something's there and I just can't call it up."

"Had your...?" Thor looked him up and down. He looked a little sallow and sickly, sure, but did he mean Thanos had done something to him?

Loki waved it away. "Never mind. As I said, I have a plan. But as for you, I think you should go and ask me at a different time. Possibly a little further along in our future – maybe I'll know something then that I haven't yet learned now. I mean, there must be – what – fifteen years intervening?"

Did he really look to have aged fifteen years? That was no good for his vanity. Thor swallowed. "Something like that."

"All right, so." Loki waved at him. "Go get on with it. See you again in fifteen years."

It doesn't work that way, Loki. But he wasn't in a mood to try and explain concepts he didn't understand to someone who didn't seem to care about them, so he just nodded yes and went away.

TBC.

Thank you guys for the comments & encouragement! I like Kid!Loki too, even if he's already a bit prickly. :-)

Next chapter we finally get to IW-era events.

Let me know what you think. I believe there are 2 more parts left now.