Day Seven: Post-Canon
NOTE: Here is the final chapter. These short pieces were interesting but difficult to write because there is so much to work with. But I enjoyed exploring Thor and Loki's complex relationship and hopefully I did their story some justice.
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No darkness is impenetrable. No one knew this more than Heimdall, he whose sight was keenest in the Nine Realms. He had seen much in his time and so he was certain that though the bonds between Thor and Loki continued to suffer rupture after rupture, betrayal after betrayal, this was not how their story would end.
He watched them carefully, as he always had, and so he could see much more than either of them could (or would.) And he saw through the lies they chose to tell themselves. After centuries of conflict, very few still believed that anything could still change between the brothers.
Loki, who prided himself at being the master of deceit, almost manages to deceive himself when it comes to his true feelings for his brother. He enumerates an endless list of resentments and grudges, hoarded since childhood and he always finds some reason to taunt and belittle the golden-haired God of Thunder. But he was always the most dismayed when Thor was defeated by other enemies. He tried to mask his pain with exaggerated glee when he secretly felt the sting of every blow dealt against his brother.
"I hate Thor," he repeated endlessly, more to convince himself than others. And for most, his masquerade worked. But Heimdall knew what was truly inside the trickster's heart.
"And one day," the guardian thought, "you will not be able to escape that truth."
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"You should know that when we fought each other in the past, I did so with the glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there somewhere. That hope no longer exists to protect you."
Thor may not have been as skilled as his brother in deception but he occasionally managed a decent disguise. He claimed that the wounds they had inflicted on each other ran too deep, that there was no more room for forgiveness, that they had resigned themselves to dying as enemies. But he did not really believe any of this. He simply clung to falsehoods because he was afraid of being hurt once more. And yet, this shield brought little comfort to him.
He still wandered through the places where they had played together as boys and he still remembered with fondness all the mischief they would get themselves into. All the battles were they had fought together, side by side, were among his most precious memories. He did not wish to but he longed for those days again. But he was not sure that was even possible.
Fortunately, he was wrong. The years may have changed them in many ways but the essentials remained.
"They are both still stubborn fools," Heimdall mused, shaking his head sadly, "but I do not despair for them. Even the deepest of darkness can be pierced by a flicker of hope."
They are brothers and they always will be. No matter what befalls them, theirs is a bond that will endure.