A/N Thank you to everyone who reviewed and to those who offered me their condolences on the passing of my uncle. Thank you guys! It means a lot!

An ode to my awesome reviewers: You guys are awesome! You guys rock! Your wonderful reviews leave me shocked... and completely, totally happy! (Yeah, I never said I was a poet :P). :)

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Ophelia Lokisdottir

Aka-Baka Hoshi

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ImperfectIsPerfect

RossyGaray

Son-of-hiddle

RoxasGuyXIII

Kindred Spirits

Loki returned to his chambers without having eaten anything. After Steve had left him, Loki had headed on to the dining hall, but the super soldier's words had circled around his head, preoccupying Loki further and ensuring his appetite remained elusive.

Loki wasn't sure what to make of Steve's comments. He couldn't figure out what the super soldier had meant when he said Odin showed his love in other ways. Loki thought back to all the things his father had said and done over the years but he could not remember his father showing him he loved him. All he remembered between himself and his father was judgment, punishment, and disappointment... on both sides.

Steve had made a lot of sense and yet, Loki found it hard to believe the words, even though he wanted to. At one point, he had come out of his thoughts to find himself wandering aimlessly through the palace halls and decided to return to his chambers rather than walk all over the palace and risk running into anyone else who felt like talking.

He had only been in his room for a few minutes, when a knock sounded at his door. Perhaps he should have continued his wandering after all. With a deep sigh, he called for the person to enter and had to stop a groan of exasperation from escaping at the sight of Thor.

"What do you want, Thor?" Loki sighed.

He was tired and on edge, which, in the past, had always resulted in his temper being short. Already, he could feel the irritation that often came with his encounters with Thor as of late, rising in him. He wouldn't be at all surprised if this conversation ended badly.

Thor pulled up short at the impatient tone in Loki's voice but didn't leave.

"I wanted to talk to you, Brother," Thor said.

"No, really? I thought for sure you came here just to stand in the middle of my room without speaking," Loki said sarcastically.

"Brother, please-"

"How many times do I have to tell you? I am not your brother," Loki said but his tone was more defeated than angry. He really didn't want to deal with this right now.

"You have been, and always will be, my brother," Thor said.

Loki simply scoffed.

"What?" Thor asked.

"All those years growing up, the way you treated me, and now you proclaim your undying love and loyalty," Loki said, his voice thick with disdain. "If I had known this would be the result, I would have gotten myself tortured and forcibly controlled against my will years ago," Loki said, the sarcasm reentering his voice.

"Brother, don't even joke about that," Thor scolded.

"I am not your brother!" Loki exploded.

"Yes, you are!" Thor insisted.

"Will you never stop fighting me?" Loki asked angrily.

"I will never stop fighting for you, Loki," Thor said softly.

However, Thor's heartfelt words only seemed to stoke the fire of Loki's anger.

"When are you finally going to understand that I hate you!" Loki exploded. "I hate you! All of you! Why must you pretend that I don't? Why must you pretend that if you say you love me enough times everything will just go away and all problems will be solved? Why can't you just let me hate you? Why must you keep fighting me!"

If Loki was expecting a heated outburst from his rash and easily angered brother, he was greatly surprised when Thor kept calm and even spoke gently, if still passionately.

"I will never stop fighting for you, Brother," Thor said again. "Even if it is you I must fight against. And no matter what, I will never stop loving you."

With that, Thor simply turned and left the room.

Loki stood, staring at the open doorway as his rage burned through him. Without warning, he spun around, grabbed the nearest breakable object, and hurled it across the room where it shattered against the wall. He stared at the wreckage, breathing hard and fighting the overwhelming urge to scream.

"Sounds like you've got some things to work through," Tony said, stepping into the room.

"What do you know!" Loki spat, rounding on him.

"I know what it's like to have your whole world ripped out from under you and turned upside down. I know what it's like to be angry. And I know what it's like to be sick and tired of being angry." Tony said, causing Loki to pull up short.

Obviously, that had not been the reply the trickster had been expecting.

"Your brother loves you, you know," Tony said.

Loki was a moment away from reminding yet another person that Thor wasn't his brother, but he let it go. He was too tired to put forth the effort.

"He claims to," Loki said.

"Which must be a lie," Tony said, his tone obviously saying he knew that's what Loki thought but did not agree himself.

"He claims to love me, but his actions speak much louder and truer," Loki said.

Loki knew Thor was just saying what he thought he should, what he perhaps believed. But in his heart, Thor didn't love Loki. Maybe once, long ago, but not anymore. Thor's insults, derision, and habit of ignoring Loki's opinions and advice had long since convinced the younger prince of Thor's true feelings.

"He's made mistakes. But guess what? Everyone does," Tony said.

"That doesn't absolve him!" Loki spat.

"I'm not trying to excuse him," Tony said. "I'm trying to explain him."

Loki clenched his jaw but didn't argue further.

"Yes, he's screwed up. More than once. He's done the wrong thing. More than once. He's been a young, hotheaded, ignorant, stupid, blind idiot. More than Once. That doesn't mean he doesn't love you," Tony said.

"If that's love, I'd hate to see loathing," Loki snorted.

Tony sighed, rubbing his forehead in exasperation. Loki was definitely stubborn and it was trying Tony's patience.

"He's changed."

"I know," Loki admitted. He had seen the difference in Thor himself. The elder prince had changed. Loki just wasn't sure to what extent.

"But?"

"But nothing. I can't argue with you. I've seen a difference in him myself. That doesn't mean he's changed enough."

"You don't trust him," Tony said.

"I used to. A long time ago," Loki admitted.

"Do you still love him?"

"Yes. No. I don't know," Loki said, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "Part of me still cares about him and always will. But a bigger part of me is still too hurt and too angry from far too many years of pain. I will always care about him, but I don't know if I can ever trust him again."

"Once burned, twice shy," Tony said with a nod of understanding.

Loki raised an eyebrow in question. He was better than Thor with understanding Earth idioms but that particular one went over his head.

"Never mind. It's not important," Tony said waving it off. "Just... don't give up on him yet. You say actions speak louder than words. Maybe he'll prove you wrong."

"Perhaps," Loki said, sounding like he didn't believe it for a moment.

Tony sighed. Definitely beyond stubborn. "Not that you'll believe me, but I'm telling you, he does love you. A lot. And so does your father."

Loki scoffed, almost bursting into bitter laughter. "You might be able to convince me that Thor has changed and that he cares for me on some level, but I'll never believe that Odin sees me as anything more than a possible political advantage to be manipulated and exploited. I know Thor at least loved me once, whether he does now or not. Odin never has."

Tony crossed his arms and nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"You know, my dad was good at a lot of things, being a father wasn't one of them," he said as he moved to half-lean, half-sit on the medium sized table in the middle of the room. "He wasn't abusive or anything, but he also wasn't ever there. He was always too busy with his company. And when he was around, nothing I ever did seemed good enough. He always wanted me to try harder, reach higher, be better. It's all well and good to push your kids to succeed but a little pride or some encouragement wouldn't hurt anything."

Loki glanced away from the billionaire but not before Tony saw the hurt and angry look in the trickster's eyes that matched the one that Tony had seen in the mirror more than once growing up.

"Then the guy had to go and die on me." Tony waved his hand in what was likely supposed to be a flippant and uncaring gesture but it didn't come off quite as apathetic as he intended. "For a long time I hated him for that." He pushed away from the table and started slowly meandering around the room, picking up, and looking at random objects before setting them back down again.

To most people, he would seem completely at ease, just carrying on a casual conversation and almost seemingly uninterested in what he was saying. However, people who wore masks could often see through them easier and Loki could see beyond Tony's mask to the pain that still lingered beneath, even after so many years.

"But then I met a woman and got married," Tony continued, "and for a while my anger was tamped down and overshadowed by happiness. Then she died too. I was angry at the world for taking her from me and I was even mad at her for dying, but I still had my son. Then I even lost him and once again I was so angry. I hated the machine that took him from me. I hated myself for building the machine. And I was even angry at Steve for not trying harder to change history and make it back to me."

Tony paused in his obviously (at least to Loki) nervous movements and stared out the window for a moment before looking away from the beauty of Asgard. The view didn't belong with the sorrow of which he spoke, the bright cheeriness of the city almost seeming to mock his painful story.

"Then to top it all off, I get taken captive by terrorists. But while in captivity I met one of the few people in my life I could truly call a friend. He saved my life, literally and figuratively, and he helped get me through Hell. Then the terrorists killed him and finally, finally, after so long of being angry at people who were gone, I was angry at people who were still here. At last I could take my anger out on the ones I was angry at, and I did. I shot them and burned them and blew them up. I escaped and made it back home, only to discover that a man I had once called friend had hired the terrorists to kill me and once again I could act on my anger. I fought him and killed him, and in the end I was called a hero."

He waved his hand in another careless gesture that was even less convincing than the first time.

"I killed the terrorists in self defense. I was trying to escape. I was trying to survive. It was necessary. Stane would have killed countless people and destroyed cities. It was justified. I was trying to selflessly save lives and protect people."

He paused for a long moment and took a deep, steadying breath. In the entire time of telling his story, Tony had avoided Loki's eyes, even as the trickster's gaze had stayed glued to him as he moved about the room. Now, however, Tony forced himself to turn and meet Loki's stare as they stood face-to-face, only about three feet between them.

"That's what everyone thinks anyway. The truth is, I wasn't trying to be selfless and do the right thing. I wasn't trying to be a hero. I was just angry. The problem with taking your anger out on others, though, is that it doesn't make it go away. If anything, it makes it grow and eventually, you run out of people to take it out on. Then you're left being angry with nowhere to direct it until you are just so tired of being angry but you don't know how to stop. It's so easy to get angry, to start hating. You can do it in the blink of an eye, but you can't stop that fast. It takes time to stop being angry."

"It's not as simple as you make it sound. There's more to it," Loki said quietly.

"Oh, I know. It's a lot more complicated being angry at people you love and it's a whole lot harder to stop being angry at them too," Tony said, earning a surprised look from Loki as Tony hit the nail on the head. "The people we love are the ones who can hurt us the most. It can be hard to forgive them and even harder to trust them again, especially when you've been hurt repeatedly."

Loki looked away again, his jaw clenched as he held back emotions trying very hard to breach his control. However, Tony could tell that, for once, anger wasn't the predominate emotion running through Loki. Hurt and sadness had taken up that position, along with something else.

He stared at Loki for a long moment, studying the Asgardian. "You didn't sleep well last night, did you?" Tony said, noticing the circles under Loki's eyes and the fatigue that lined his face. "Nightmares?" he asked.

"More like flashbacks," Loki admitted with a tired sigh. He wasn't sure if it was the fatigue that was making him admit all of his feelings and weaknesses to members of the Avengers or if he really was starting to trust them, but either way, he found himself speaking first to Clint, and now to Tony with something that he hardly ever offered to anyone: honesty.

"Been there," Tony said. "Still am sometimes. Want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Loki said with a snort.

"Look, if for nothing else, on this I can promise, it does get better eventually. It takes a while, though. And even longer if you keep it all inside and try to go it alone."

"I can handle it," Loki said.

"That's what I thought too, but believe me when I tell you, you can't. For a while yeah. You can push it aside, ignore it. You can bottle it up and 'handle it,'" he raised his hands and made finger quotes in the air, "but it eats at you, and eventually you can't ignore it anymore. You can't hide it anymore. Just letting in one person, just talking to them or letting them sit next to you in silence and support you with their presence will make a difference. Even just having one person who knows you're not okay can help."

"I don't need help. And I certainly don't need to give anyone any more reason to think me-" Loki cut off before he could let the word slip.

"Weak?" Tony finished.

"I am not weak!"

"No, you're not," Tony said, deadly serious. "See, that's just it. You are not weak. You're stronger than most men I know. Someone truly weak wouldn't even be able to survive what you did, much less with their sanity intact. There's no question that you're strong. The question is, why won't you let yourself believe that?"

"What are you talking about?" Loki snapped.

"You say you're not weak. You snap it at people, scream it in their faces, and yet you don't say it because you're trying to convince them. You say it because you're trying to convince you."

"Unfortunately, not even I am that good of a liar," Loki said softly, dropping his eyes from Tony's.

"Fortunately, you don't have to be," Tony said. "I don't think you're weak. The rest of the team doesn't think you're weak. You're family doesn't think you're weak. Even Asgard doesn't think you're weak. The story of your memories has spread like crazy across the entire city."

Loki winced at the thought of everyone knowing all of his thoughts and memories. It was an embarrassing living nightmare that he preferred not to think about.

"Now, there are those, like that worthless council guy, who look down on you for it but they're only a handful compared to everyone else. Most of Asgard thinks you are remarkable for enduring and surviving what you did. What happened to you didn't downgrade you in their eyes, it earned you their respect and admiration. Now, you want to tell me why you keep biting Thor's head off every time he tries to talk to you?" Tony asked, throwing Loki slightly with the abrupt change of subject. "I understand that you don't trust him but that doesn't explain why you're so angry with him. And don't tell me it's because of your crappy childhood. Generally speaking, I'm a pretty smart guy and I can tell there's something else."

Loki sighed and sat down on the edge of his bed. He was silent for a long moment. He didn't talk about his feelings very easily or to just anyone. However, Loki got the impression Tony was similar in that regard, and yet he had just opened up to Loki. It must have been beyond difficult for the billionaire to do so and Loki could do nothing less than return the gesture in kind. Taking a deep breath, Loki decided to trust Tony, come what may.

"One second, I love my family. The next second, I hate them, and the second after that, I feel both at the same time," Loki admitted. "It feels like someone reached into my head, gathered up all of my thoughts and emotions, shook them all about until they were completely jumbled up, then left me to sort it all out. Half the time, I don't know if a thought or feeling is truly mine or if it is a leftover. It feels almost like I have a split personality. The part that loves and the part that hates and they're constantly fighting each other for control. Part of me wants to love them, part of me wants to hate them, and the other part of me just wishes I could chose one side and stick with it."

"You just need time to figure it all out. I mean, you didn't outright hate them before, right?" Tony asked as he sat down next to the trickster.

"Yes and no," Loki said. "A lot has happened since my fall. I've found out things. I've done things. For better or worse, I've changed. And besides that, not all of these emotions are just from the tesseract. The feelings of anger and resentment were all there before. I had just buried them. I don't know if I can bury them again."

"Maybe you won't have to," Tony said.

"What do you mean?"

"You were too busy not looking at anybody during the replay to notice the expressions on your family members' faces, but I did. Trust me Loki, after what they saw, I wouldn't be at all surprised if things start changing for the better around here."

"Perhaps with Thor," Loki conceded, "he does seem different enough, after all, and willing enough to make amends, but my fa- Odin... He'll never change. He can't even bare to face me. I suppose it's what I deserve."

"Loki, take it from someone who is a father, Odin loves you. I can see it, even if you can't. The problem is, he has no Asgardian idea how to show it to you. He knows how to be king. He can do that all day, but when it comes to connecting and relating to you, he's at a loss. You and he are so different. I've barely been around you two and I've already picked up on that. If he has seemed to favor Thor in the past, it's because he relates to him easier."

"That's not an excuse," Loki said.

"No, it's not, but it is an explanation," Tony said. "He's not sure how to tell you how he feels so he doesn't, thinking you know that he cares and it doesn't have to be said."

"That, as your son puts it, sucks," Loki said, causing Tony to snort at the sound of the very Midgardian word coming out of Loki's mouth before he sobered and nodded his head slightly.

"Yeah, yeah it does," Tony agreed.

)()()(

"Thor? You okay?" Steve asked, tentatively stepping through the open door and into Thor's chambers.

The eldest prince was standing, staring out the window, looking troubled.

"No, My Friend, I am not," Thor replied without turning. "I thought the worst of him. I thought him jealous, petty, cowardly, and weak."

"You couldn't know the tesseract was controlling and manipulating him," Steve said, moving to stand next to Thor.

"That's just it. I thought these things of him before the tesseract ever came into contact with him. I saw him as weak and inferior because his strength did not lie in physical force. I had my father's favor and praise so I knew he must be jealous. He enjoyed pulling harmless pranks on people for good-natured fun so I saw him as petty. And he decided to use strategy and intellect to minimize loss of life in battle by using illusions to distract enemies before launching sneak attacks, so I saw him as cowardly."

He sighed deeply, guilt etching his features and clearly weighing down on him.

"It wasn't until my banishment to Earth that I finally realized how greatly I had failed as his brother. Then I thought it too late. I thought my brother a spiteful murderer when he was actually being manipulated to someone else's will. And what he went through, so much pain, and to have his mind and body stripped away from him... How could I not ever have seen the strength he possesses? How could I be so completely blind to my failings and his great worth? I thought myself so far above him but I could not be any farther below."

Steve reached up and squeezed Thor's shoulder.

"I can't tell you that you were the best brother and that you shouldn't feel guilty or that you did nothing wrong. We both know those would be lies. You have your shortcomings and failings. We all do. We all fail ourselves and others over and over. But I don't think you should be quite so hard on yourself. The fact that you realize and acknowledge your failures means you've grown. You've learned from your mistakes and fortunately for you, you have what many people never get. You have a chance to make it right. Loki's not so lost to you that you can't get him back. It won't be easy but you can fix this. And maybe something good can come out of all of this pain and sadness," Steve said.

"I'm not so sure, Steve. For all my shortcomings, I have always loved my brother, but now he hates me," Thor whispered, a single tear glistening on his face.

"I don't believe that, Thor," Steve said. "True, he might be angry at you, but he doesn't hate you. You saw his memories. During all of that, even when he was being controlled by the tesseract, he still cared about you. If he hated you, he would have wanted to hurt you. But instead he fought as hard as he could to try to protect you. He still cares about you. He's just going through a lot right now."

Thor nodded, sincerely hopping his friend was right. Thor was a strong, brave warrior prince but he didn't know what he would do if he couldn't fix things between Loki and himself.

A/N Okay, since reviews have been somewhat low, there will be no update until I get 20 reviews! Just kidding, guys! I wouldn't do that to you. I just couldn't resist. :P Please do let me know what you think, though. But even if you don't, the next chapter will be up Friday as usual. :)

Next chapter, Odin gets some sense knocked into him by one of the last people he would have expected and Loki and Thor have another encounter. However, this one may just end a bit better than the last one. Possible fluff ahead. You have been warned. :P