Epilogue
Loki yanked the roll of tape across the top of the cardboard box. Most of their things were being given away. They didn't want to bother with a storage facility and pay for space for things that only held sentimental value. It took them days to edit down what they would keep and what they would toss.
"Well, that's it for this room," he said.
"I'll move on to the bathroom if you want to tackle the living room," Thor said.
"Yeah," he said. Loki grabbed the tape and a stack of flat boxes. The shelves in the living room were filled with VHS tapes and his mother's nick-knacks. The computer desk needed to be cleaned out too. He grabbed one of the flat boxes and squared it up, taping it at all the bottom seams. He grabbed a darling little porcelain dairy cow and stared at it.
"Mother loved you. I always thought you were ugly," he said. He looked around to see if Thor was watching and shoved it into his cargo pocket instead. He grabbed the other items on the shelf and tossed them into the box, not caring if anything broke. Three boxes of junk later, Loki was done packing the shelves. He plopped down in the office chair and swiveled for a moment. He looked up at the ceiling, at the enormous cobb web hanging down. Neither he nor Thor did a very good job of dusting. He turned to the desk and opened the drawer, pulling out several files of financial importance. His birth certificate had not yielded the secret of his birth parents. It had Frigga and Odin listed on it, but apparently that still didn't mean anything. States changed birth records for adopted children all the time, especially when the baby was given up at birth. It had been disappointing. Loki had hoped to it would give him their names. He pulled out the bottom drawer to see what was in it. An old photo album, one of Frigga's firsts.
"Hey Thor! Come look at what I found!" he said as he opened it. Really old polaroids from the 1980s and 90s showed Frigga and Odin in their prime. Young and beautiful with their entire lives ahead of them. He turned the page, and there was a picture of Frigga, pregnant. He turned the page again, and there was baby Thor. He turned the page once more, and there was Frigga, pregnant holding toddler Thor. Loki frowned. He flipped the page again and Frigga and Odin were in a group picture with two people Loki had only dreamt about. A man and a woman, both with dark hair and green eyes. The woman looked very much like Frigga. They could be sisters.
Loki heard Thor's footsteps coming down the hall and he removed a couple pictures and shoved them in his pocket before Thor saw.
"What did you find?"
"An old photo album. Hey Thor, do you know who these people are?" he asked, handing Thor the picture album. Thor looked at it and smiled.
"Oh! Aunt Freya and Uncle Eric! I remember them. I was really little when they moved away. They live in New York now." He flipped back and forth a couple of times, looking at some of the photos and smiling. Thor put the album back in Loki's hands and walked back out of the room to grab some boxes to load up onto the truck. Loki went back to look at it and continued flipping through until he found a photo of Frigga in the delivery room, holding baby Loki. Covered in sweat and wearing a hospital gown, there was no denying that she had birthed him. He slammed the book shut and tossed it into one of the boxes.
"Brother mine. Always."