A/N: Relatively fast update this time. I unfortunately can't promise every update will come this quickly; I just ended up having a lot of free time this week. As my college finals get closer, updates will probably come slower, but I will try not to keep you guys from every waiting too long.

Major Thor and Loki fluff chapter, because Loki needs Thor's forgiveness more than anybody else's (if he doesn't already have it). Not slash.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Avengers.

Already Forgiven: Thor

Loki displayed extraordinary strength regarding his wounds while Bruce examined and treated them, although he did give quiet hisses of pain as Bruce cleaned his infected gashes with stinging antiseptic and bandaged them, but when Bruce left for the night, leaving Thor and Loki alone, Loki had dropped the act and given into how much pain he actually felt. He trembled and moaned, shivering and sweating from a fever.

"Why did you hide this?" Thor asked as he stroked Loki's damp hair from his seat beside the bed Loki was lying on.

"I would not show such weakness in front of them." Loki answered thickly.

Thor couldn't help but feel a moment of happiness that Loki would feel safe revealing the effects of his injuries in front of him. "It is not weakness Loki. You are ill, this is to be expected."

"It would be unwise to let them know regardless. It's bad enough you let them know I am wounded in the first place." Loki replied weakly.

"You are in no danger brother. I will not allow any harm to come to you." Thor assured him.

Loki's lips twitched, but whether to make a smile or a frown, Thor didn't know. "Do you intend to stay the entire time I'm kept in this room?"

"Of course."

"Thor, I don't-" Loki's retort was cut off as he shivered suddenly, which made him turn away from Thor and curl up in response to the resulting pain.

Thor moved his hand to rub Loki's back, and despite the insistence that he was sure Loki had been about to give that he didn't need Thor to stay, Loki relaxed considerably. "This truly is nothing to be ashamed of." Thor paused a moment before a hint of a smile touched his lips. "We used to care for each other when we were children, do you remember? When mother was too busy with her duties as queen to tend to us?"

"You said you wanted to look after me, that you didn't want the servants to do it. I did the same because I felt I owed you for that." Loki remained turned away so that Thor could not see his expression.

"I hardly enjoyed seeing you ill, but I never minded."

"You always took care of me. Even more than Odin or mother did." Loki sighed, and carefully turned on his other side to face Thor.

"I am your brother Loki. That is what I was supposed to do."

Loki said nothing as Thor took his hand, rubbing his thumb over Loki's pale knuckles.

"Sleep Loki. You are safe."

Loki nodded and shut his eyes, his breathing slowing and becoming even not long afterwards, and Thor stayed in his chair, falling asleep himself shortly.

Loki had a nightmare two nights later, while he was still confined in the medical area on Bruce's orders. He didn't scream or shout, but whimpered loudly, fear spread over his face even in sleep. He had had nightmares many nights when Thor had stayed with him for days at a time while they had been waiting for Odin to decide his fate, and they had seemed to have been starting to lessen under his and Frigga's love and care, but obviously they were back.

Thor woke immediately, and gently shook Loki awake, speaking his name firmly, but Loki slapped him away, still on the unclear border between the waking world and the world of dreams. Thor shook him more roughly, until Loki's eyes opened all the way and he was fully awake.

"Thor?" He rasped, a touch of confusion in his eyes.

"It's all right brother. It was just a dream."

Loki breathed deeply, trying to calm himself, but he couldn't help but continue trembling.

"What did you dream of?" Thor asked quietly, standing beside Loki and rubbing his shoulder.

Loki took another deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "It was nothing."

"It was not nothing. You are still shaking like a leaf in the wind." Thor insisted.

"…Weakness."

"Loki, I am your brother! I would not judge you for the workings of your mind. You have been through so much. None of your reactions to previous events is weakness."

Loki turned his head away.

Thor sighed, sinking back down into his chair, pulling his hand away from Loki's shoulder and believing the conversation over.

"…They had me." Loki said after a long pause, making Thor look up. "That was the first part, and then I was in that cell again, except I was not alone. Laufey was there. Just there, staring at me. …His expression… It terrified me."

Thor took a moment to process what Loki had just told him.

"I never told you." Loki took the silence to speak, but he lost the will to give any more information about the dream. "You know that Laufey was my father, but I… am a bastard child, unwanted, and not even a real prince of-"

"Do not dare say the word 'monsters'." Thor ordered almost harshly, completely ignoring the "bastard child" part of Loki's sentence.

Loki bit his lip.

"Laufey was not your father. No real father would leave his child to die, legitimate or otherwise. He is nothing in your life." Thor said, reaching back over to take Loki's hand. "As for the Chitauri, they will never touch you again. They will never even be near you again. You have nothing to be frightened of."

"I am not-" Thor's expression of sympathetic disbelief made Loki's harsh reply die off abruptly. "…Fine, yes, I was afraid."

"I saw that, but in my determination to protect this world from you, I did not think on it. I should have."

"It means nothing now."

"Maybe not." Thor replied gently. "We are here now, together and safe. That is what matters."

Loki sighed again. "Part of me hates that you're so good at that."

"So good at what?"

"Making me feel as though nothing can happen, as though I really am safe." Loki grumbled, shooting Thor an irritated look.

Thor actually laughed. "Years of practice." He stood so he could lean over and gently kiss Loki's forehead. "And supported by the fact that it is true." Thor stayed standing, holding Loki's hand, until he drifted back to sleep.

Loki continued to have nightmares for the next few days, and Thor could not understand why they had come back to haunt his brother. They were almost always the same, with the Chitauri and Laufey. The night before Bruce decided he had healed well enough to leave the infirmary, Loki seemed to sleep peacefully.

Tony gave Thor and Loki a floor entirely to themselves, away from the rest of The Avengers. Thor had asked for this, since he was unsure if having Loki nearby his friends was a good idea at this time. There had been some debate about if Loki should even be able to lock the door to his room, but in the end it was decided he could, but two people had override codes to get inside when the door was locked, Tony himself, and Thor. Loki didn't protest these accommodations.

But then he never came out of his room, not once after he slipped inside for the first time. Thor didn't want to intrude on his brother at first, so he left him alone, thinking he merely needed time to get used to his new living arrangements. Thor would leave food outside the door and then come back to find it partially eaten, so he was relieved Loki at least was not starving.

This continued for five days, and then Thor had finally had enough. At night, when everyone else in the tower was asleep, he went to Loki's room, put in the code to override the lock and stepped inside.

Loki jumped up from the bed when Thor entered. "Thor, what are you doing here?"

Thor was honestly surprised that Loki was not angry with him for simply walking inside, but said nothing on that matter. "You have been locked in here five days brother. I came to see what is wrong."

"Nothing is wrong. I merely need some time to get used to all of this."

"That is what I thought, but you would not need this much time to adjust." Thor replied, folding his arms.

"It is quite a leap from where I was just over a week ago."

"Loki, you should realize you are not going to fool me."

Loki frowned. "You never used to be able to read me like that. Why can you now?"

"My time on Midgard has made me much more skilled at telling the difference between what people say, and what they are thinking."

"I do not wish to leave this room, that is all. Have I not the freedom to make that choice?" Loki growled, clearly unhappy that he could not fool Thor. "I have no wish to see you, or those humans."

"Why not?" Thor asked.

"The very sight of those friends of yours makes me remember how loathed I am and what horrible, unforgivable things I have done. The man whose friend I killed, the man whose mind I alerted for my purposes, the woman I threatened with utter brutality, the pitiful glances of the soldier, the sympathetic ones of the scientist."

A realization hit Thor. "You still believe yourself to be a monster."

Loki snorted. "You're the one who keeps insisting that I'm not a monster."

"And my words have meant nothing to you."

"You are just one person Thor, blinded by centuries worth of memories and love for me. You are biased. The people here are not. Their judgment is not clouded, and they will continually remind me of the facts." Loki's voice carried no hint of emotion, no bitterness, no hatred, no sorrow, nothing. "I know what I am."

"You obviously do not." Thor replied, putting a hand on Loki's arm. "You are my brother."

"And what more than that? Is that all I am, 'Thor's brother'?"

"That is for you to discover and decide Loki, but I assure you, monster is not included in anything you are. " Thor answered, pulling Loki to him.

Loki did not struggle.

"I saw the terror in your eyes when we fought on the top of this tower, the pain when I told you to come home, the heart break when the All-Father disowned you. No monster would feel such things. No monster would regret such things." Thor murmured softly, one of his hands stroking Loki's head.

Loki was completely still, his face hidden from Thor's view, before his arms wrapped around Thor, his hands making fists to grasp Thor's cape tightly and the sobs started. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…"

"You have nothing to be sorry for. You have nothing to ask forgiveness for."

"…Brother?" Loki whispered through his shaking sobs.

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"And I you." Thor replied, kissing the crown of Loki's head.

Thor stayed with him again that night, the two of them curled on the bed like they had not done since they were very young, and in the morning, Loki ventured out into the rest of the tower with Thor. The nightmares continued a while longer, but they lessened in severity with Thor's comforts and Laufey no longer being present in them, and that night was the last Loki thought of himself as a monster.

End Chapter

A/N: For any who may not know, there was a scene originally in the Thor script where Laufey finds out Loki is the son he abandoned, and says something along the lines of "the bastard child survived". So Loki wasn't even an actual price of the Frost Giants. That would add to his strife, I would think.