Fights planned next chapter. This chapter only contains hugs. Sort of.
(in other news: oh god why does two pages of words look like so little here it hurts my efforts okay)
Sherlock sighed. 'Oh lovely, another god.'
Loki didn't react to Thor at first. He kept his scepter over the keyboard, and focused on Sherlock. It didn't last long though, the temptation was too big.
'So you decided to pay me a visit, Thor?' Loki hissed. 'Good of you to do that now. You did not feel like it when you abandoned me to that realm a few years ago, but no hard feelings.'
Thor didn't seem to find that nearly as amusing as Sherlock did.
'Do not put yourself through this again. We shall fight you, and this companion you seem to have acquired-'
'Yes, Moriarty, at least this man helped me escape from the horrors you put me through when you caught me last time.' Loki smiled to himself. 'Quite good, for a mortal. Not that he'll be around for long, but he helped.'
Sherlock scoffed. 'You wouldn't have figured it out without him, I'm sure.'
He was still typing. The gods didn't seem to notice and he really didn't feel the need to tell them.
'Look, it's been great having you around, but if you could both just solve those problems you seem to have with each other, that would be a lot shorter, and it would stop a lot of… aliens from dying.'
'Problems?' Loki seemed insulted. He seemed on the verge of a long monologue about his youth, but Sherlock stopped him before he had even begun.
'Yes, problems. Obviously there's some unsolved things between you, things about your youth, that made you become this way, soppy things.' Sherlock sighed. 'And I'm not saying this because I want you two to become friends, it would just really make things easier.'
They still didn't seem to notice him typing.
'I understand now, that is what I wanted to tell you.' Said Thor. 'I see now. The shadow you talked about.'
'No, you don't!' shouted Loki. 'You don't know what it was like, discovering that I was a monster. I had always felt it, in the way they treated me, and I never understood. I always felt like there was something wrong with me, but I could ignore it. In that moment, I knew they were right. I am a monster. All I had ever wanted was to be their equal, and now I saw that that was wrong. I can never be your equal, and I should remain where I belong. In the shadows.'
'I'm sorry.' Thor said softly. 'I truly am. I never said I was sorry, when I hurt you. But trust me, I know that beneath all the years of pain and hurt, there is the potential to become a better man. I know you, brother, I know you can do it.'
'And would you stop calling me brother,' Loki's arguments were weakening, but he didn't feel like he could forgive his brother for all those years. 'We're not brothers. We have discussed this.'
'We may not be brothers in blood, but we are brothers in bond.'
Loki scoffed. Fine, fine, but it wasn't enough.
'What do you want me to do?' Thor's voice was turning louder. 'You keep telling me that I've done everything wrong, and that feels just as bad. I didn't know, and I didn't mean to do what I did. Ever since I found out, I've been blaming myself.'
'Good, you should be.'
'No, I shouldn't!' snapped Thor. 'Don't you see? It wasn't all my fault, and however much I love you, I will not take all the blame. It was father too, it was everything. I tried to protect you, you just didn't see me.'
'I have a brother too, you know.' Remarked Sherlock, who felt there was some counselling to be done for the good of the earth.
'That's lovely, ice man, now would you just stay out of this?'
'No, let him talk, Loki. I have found him to be a wise man, sometimes.'
Sherlock tried not to take too much offense at the word "sometimes". He should probably take that one for the team, the team being team earth.
'We never really got along. A lot of arguing happened. But we're both adults now, and we look after each other. I do a few jobs for him, he does a for me. It balances out enough to stop caring about the bad things that happened. He's always kept an eye on me, too. He checks people I meet, gives me a case when he knows I need one.'
He cleared his throat. He wasn't ice, not really. He just didn't show his soft side much. Loki telling him he had no control over his life seemed to have had enough effect on him to get him talking about Mycroft, which didn't happen often.
'What I'm trying to say is, that's what seemed to have happened to you, and you should do something about it. It doesn't really work out for the earth and everything.'
This was really a lot of emotional stuff, what was happening, these were things that John would have said.
Sherlock smiled. Yes, maybe it was John. He had been a good influence on him like each member of the avengers were for the others.
Loki nodded at Thor. 'Perhaps we can. We can postpone this argument until later.'
Thor grinned. 'I know that you will not give me anything better than that, so you do not know how happy it makes me to hear you say that.'
He walked up to his brother and wrapped his arms around him in a hug. Loki uncomfortably crawled out of his arms. 'Also hugging. Hugging can be postponed.'
Thor turned to Sherlock. 'Now we can solve the things he has put on this world.'
Sherlock shrugged and pressed a key on the keyboard. 'Not to cause any more hugging than necessary, but I shut the portal while you to were… talking.'
He gave them one of the smiles he reserved for humans who were stupid and needed that kind of encouragement. 'So if the lovely brother here could just give me my gun back, then we'll solve the rest.'
Loki looked the gun that had fallen off of the desk during his struggle with Sherlock earlier. He didn't trust human weapons much.
He awkwardly shoved it at Sherlock with his scepter.