Chapter Two

"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

"Loki?" Thor grinned happily. The weather outside was beautifully snowy. The perfect weather for building a snowman. He recollected when they would play in the snow every day that they were able. But ever since the day Thor fell from a snowbank last winter, Loki has been locked up in his room.

Oh, well, Thor figured. Maybe today would be the day he could drag Loki out of the solitary confinement of his own interpretation. Knocking in rhythm precisely five times, Thor began, "Do you wanna build a snowman? C'mon, let's go and play! I never see you any more-come out the door-it's like you've gone away!"

He frowned, placing a hand on the polished marble door. "We used to be best buddies… and now we're not. I wish you would tell me why." Thor looked up, smiling once more in possible rapture. "Do you want to build a snowman?" Emitting a giggle, Thor placed his mouth against the keyhole, saying through it, "It doesn't have to be a snowman!"

"Go away, Thor!" Loki hollered from the other side of the door, knees pulled up to his chest. He hated when Thor did this; tried to get him to come out. He wanted to build a snowman with Thor more so than he wanted to breathe, but both himself and Odin agreed. It is for Thor's best interest if Loki stay locked away for as long as he could.

Thor, feeling a burning knot fill his throat, failed to swallow it. He sighed, gaze falling to the ground beneath him. "Okay, bye…" With a heavy heart, he turned on his heels and descended back down the hall, towards… Well, he wasn't sure. But he knew this winter would be another one without his best friend, and without his brother.

"I'm scared! It's getting stronger." The frightened child cried, hands trembling, his room that was once a mass of various green shades now completely blue and white. He squeezed his eyes shut as if that would make it all go away, as if this was all just a very, very bad dream.

But alas, as he opened them his agitated father continued to loom over him, his mother a few steps behind, trying not to show her fear. She gave her son a kind smile, placing a fallen lock behind her ear.

"The gloves should help, Dear," She said, holding up a pair of light green gloves with an intricate dark green swirling pattern on the front. Loki took them from her hurriedly, putting them on as fast as he could.

"Now, Loki," Started Odin with his natural disapprovingly glare that he saves especially for Loki. "You do remember what I've taught you, correct?"
"Yes, Father." Loki said, holding a hand to his chest, feeling at the rubber material.
"Then recite it with me, my son."
"Right, okay."

Odin bent down to be eye level, and Loki gazed into the eye that was not yet damaged, trying not to be disrespectful in any way. In unison, the two Asgardian's rehearsed, "Conceal it, don't feel it. Don't let it show."

{Years Later}

Thor swooshed by Loki's door once more, the door that he has grown to know more than his own family member. Nevertheless, it was winter once more, and that meant another chance to try and bring his brother outside, even if it had failed in past years.

He would never give up trying. Once more, he knocked five times, in rhythm.

"Do you wanna build a snowman?" The boy grinned, hopping on a two seated bike for a demonstration, rolling down the stairs as he called, "Or ride our bikes around the halls?" As he made it to the bottom of the stairwell, he gazed at a painted portrait and continued, "I think some company is overdue, I've started talking to the pictures on the walls."

Winking, he pointed at the inanimate object. "Hang in there, Joan."

Thor walked on, yelling so his brother could hear his words, "It gets a little lonely, all these empty rooms. Just watching the hours tick by!" He came to a large Grandfather clock and began imitating it. "Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock, Tic-Tock."

{More Years Later, Current Time}

"I shall see you in two weeks, Mother," Thor said happily as he wrapped his muscular, sinewy arms around the frail women. She giggled, hugging her son; that of which towered over her. "Yes, Thor. I'll see you." She turned to face Odin. "Are you sure you do not wish to come?"

The Asgardian king shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. Someone has to run Asgard around here, and I don't trust this big lug to do it just yet." He smiled to his blood relation, giving an incline of his head. Thor beamed, knowing he would be crowned soon enough. But not before his brother's ceremony of adulthood. Thor would have received one, but since he'll be getting the crown, they left the ceremony to Loki. Thor tried not to think of it; he'd begin missing Loki all over again.

"Well, have fun, Mother. I love you." He squeezed her hand in his, already wanting her to come home, though she has yet to depart. "I love you as well. Both of you." Frigga answered, then turned to Odin. "Honey…" She pursed her lips, unsure if she wanted to say this aloud.

Trying to mouth the words as easily readable as possible, Frigga murmured, "Tell Loki I love him." Odin turned his head to the side, but she only prayed he would give her memo to their youngest. Taking a deep breath and waving goodbye to her other two boys, Frigga headed off.

Loki never received that message.

Sadly, there was a massive storm the fifth day of Frigga's journey. Thor and Odin were alerted the next day that the boat had wrecked, leaving only a few survivors. Unfortunately, their beloved wife and mother was not one of the lucky few.

Grief and angst swept the house for many weeks, until eventually it was time to have the funeral. As Thor stood in his black attire, cloak and all, with his head bent down in anguish, he couldn't help but sweep the area for any signs of his brother. Every two minutes he would bring his head up one more inch, but there was never any sign of him.

A grief-stricken, angry tear trickled down his unshaven face, but he made no attempts to wipe it away. Brother, He thought, mentally calling out to Loki, where are you? You were always Mother's favorite. She would want you to be here. I know I want you to be here… By the Gods, where have you gone?

The funeral had ended, and after about two hours of sitting alone in silence with his thoughts, Thor knew he had to try… Just one last time to reach out to his long lost brother. Using every ounce of energy just to arise from the red cushioned chair he was sitting in, he began to make his way to Loki's room, a hall he had roamed too many times.

The white and green door was right in front of him before he even realized he'd been this close. He raised an enclosed fist, ready to knock. He recalled all of those times, happily knocking rapidly, excitement and a naïve sense of hope driving his soul to continue his quest to build a snowman with his brother, like they used to. But those days were over.

Knocking once instead of repetitively, Thor started, "Loki?... Please, I know you're in there. People have been asking where you've been. They say, "Have courage", and I'm trying to.
I'm right out here for you.
Just let me in."

He stopped, eyes beginning to water. He growled, looking down, side to side, up towards the ceiling; anywhere but at that god awful door that separated himself from Loki. How he wanted to just break it down, tear apart that barrier.

"We only have each other… It's just you and me."

He turned away from the door, helplessly sliding his back down it until he reached the floor. He had no more hope. No more drive. Thor just wanted his brother back.

"What are we gonna do?" Finding it impossible not to talk without choking, he whimpered, one last time, "Do you wanna build a snowman?..."

Loki hugged his knees tightly, all the gloves in the world unable to tame the madness around him. Snow fell to the ground, small flurries whooshing about, crystals of ice sharpened to points jointing out at all sorts of dangerous angles, ice surrounding the entire room and making it nearly impossible to stand or maneuver around.

But he didn't really mind; he doubted he'd be moving much, anyway. His mother, Frigga, was gone. Deceased. Passed on. No matter how many times he said it or how many different ways it was uttered, he couldn't quite comprehend it.

There was no way that the woman who had loved him despite all of his flaws, despite this horrid curse, was dead. She was the one that held him as he sobbed, the one who tended to his cuts and bruises, who would reassure him that everything was alright when it would be a stormy night or when he would wake up screaming from a wretched night terror.

Now, there would be no more of that. His father was in total command now.

Loki found a shudder run up and down his spine, but not from the cold that should have had him quaking. Feeling as is his mind was crumpling at the seams, he put his face in his knees, trying to block out all of the world.

Though that hadn't worked much before.

Of course I want to build a snowman…