The next few days in the cell were quieter than the first. Loki had fallen back into silence, staring down at the floor in front of him with slumped shoulders, his expression one of a man broken. He still refused food, but now he declined water as well, not acknowledging anyone or anything. He'd finally been freed from his restraints, though he didn't try to escape nonetheless, and he certainly didn't try to use magic again, his only attempt leaving him as a weeping, pain-wracked mess in his older brother's arms for nearly an hour afterward. Instead, he sat still, staring, and saying nothing as the seconds ticked by. Thor wasn't sure if he'd given up or if he was just being stubborn, but part of him feared it was the first, and he had no idea what to say to his brother if that was the case. He was as quiet at Loki, though he turned his head to glare at anyone that came to their door.
"Why are you here?"
They were the same words Loki had broken his silence with before, though these didn't have the venom they did the first time. They sounded tired, defeated.
"I told you why I am here, because you need me," Thor answered, leaning on the wall opposite his brother, watching him, though Loki refused raise his head to look him in the eyes. "You should realize that now to be true."
Loki chuckled humourlessly, letting his head roll back so he could stare at the ceiling rather than the floor, bypassing Thor between the two points.
"Tell me the truth, brother, are you here to gloat? To watch me whither and die? Were you part of the ones who shorn my hair and attached this thing to me?" Loki asked, bitterness creeping back into his voice. "Why would you endure this room if not for something to gain from it?"
"I speak the truth, I am here to help, and I am not to blame for what they have done to you. Despite your crimes, I do not agree with this. Even Father…" Thor trailed off, suddenly not sure of himself. Odin may have just sentenced Loki to death for his crimes instead of letting him live, as much as Loki considered this to be living.
"Speak up, finish what you were going to say, brother, 'even Father' what? What would the glorious All-Father have done?" Loki asked dryly, knowing the answer in his heart, he just wanted to hear Thor say it aloud.
Thor didn't, however, he didn't want to play along with Loki's angry game.
"Why did you do it, Loki? Why did you attack Midgard?" Thor asked, changing the topic from Odin to something that had been on his mind since this all began. He didn't understand this new man who looked and sounded like his brother, he didn't know why he did the things he did, and he wanted to know what had happened to the person he'd grown up with. That Loki liked to trick people, yes, he was different from the others, but he was not malicious. He was not a murderer.
Loki didn't respond, not that Thor had expected him to. He slipped back into silence, and Thor was left alone with with his questions. Perhaps he shouldn't have changed the subject after all, the quiet was starting to weigh on his sanity.
"Father would have likely had you executed…" Thor finally whispered nearly an hour later. "Unless Mother stepped in, but even then..."
Another humourless laugh, Loki's eyes didn't move from the ceiling, though Thor swore he could see sadness in them. Or at least he hoped he did.
"Now I suppose I owe you your answers about Midgard? I wanted my throne, it is that simple. Asgard will be yours, Jotunheim, well, it is safe to say I burned my bridges there," Loki shrugged a little as if it wasn't a big deal. Simply a misunderstanding with a massive body count. "I wanted Midgard to be mine, because you love it so. I wanted to take it from you."
Thor wanted to ask what he had done to deserve to have Midgard taken from his protection, but he was certain he knew what he would hear. There was no point in listening to Loki's perception of their upbringing, though Thor pitied his brother if he remembered their lives playing out so. Maybe Loki was right, maybe Odin had favoured him and he hadn't noticed, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Maybe he would change the past if he could, if he knew where he'd hurt Loki most, but the most he could do was try to repair things between them now.
"Loki…I am sorry, but your actions here, you understand why the humans are punishing you, do you not?" Thor asked him, hoping his brother wasn't so far gone that he didn't realize the gravity of what he'd done. "You laid waste to a city, you took lives, there are consequences for those actions, and you are better off to face Midgardian justice than to die. I do not want you to die, brother, for as much as you have hurt me, and though you deny it, we are family."
"…shut up, Thor…" Loki said weakly, blinking, though Thor caught a glimpse of a tear in one of Loki's eyes. "This is not life."
"You still breathe, you think, you speak," Thor said, shifting to extend his leg towards Loki's crossed ones. "There is hope for you to be freed from here one day."
"If there is hope, I do not see it," Loki whispered back, shaking his head as he let it fall again, concealing the emotion on his face.
"You may not see it, but I do, trust in me as you once did. I will not let you die here," Thor said with conviction in his voice. He would speak to Fury himself, he would bring down the heavens if he needed to, but he wasn't going to let Loki rot in here. "I will bring you home myself, I will protect you from Father."
"Don't you understand, Thor? Do you still not get it? I have no home," Loki finally faced his brother, not caring that tears streamed down his cheeks from reddened eyes. "I am without a home, and now thanks to these humans, I am without my magic. I am without myself. What am I to do with freedom if I have nothing? Am I to be your pet on Asgard? How is that any better than a prisoner here?"
His hands flew to the back of his neck, his nails digging into the skin on either side of the chip as he dug into his flesh as hard as he could, prepared to tear the entire back of his neck off if it meant getting this offensive metal rectangle off of him. He'd managed to tear open the skin around the implant easily enough, though when his nails came to press against it, he was hit with a jolt like when he'd tried to use his magic days before. Screaming in agony, he dropped to his hands and knees before Thor, his bloody hand reaching out for his brother amidst the blinding pain. He was desperate for anything to end the pain, any comfort at all, and if that came in the guise of his elder brother…
"Brother, please…" he could barely speak as he felt Thor's arms around him once more, holding him up. He fought through the pain to move enough to burrow into the strong embrace, hiding his face against Thor's chest as he wept brokenly. This was worse than any death Odin could have bestowed onto him, he would gladly return to Asgard than face any more time on Midgard.
Thor could only hold his brother and watch helplessly as he fell apart in his arms. His anger rose as he stroked Loki's back, avoiding the blood that trickled down from the wound he'd left on his neck. He remembered as a child hating to see Loki injured, always wanting to protect his little brother from the dangers of the world around them. Now here they were as adults, and he felt that same revulsion from all those years ago. This wasn't some wound from a sparring match that Loki would get over, this was torture, at the hands of men that claimed to be Thor's allies.
"Loki, trust in me," Thor said softly, kissing the top of his brother's bald head affectionately, resting his cheek against it as their mother had done when they were both young. "This is not your life, I will not allow it."
"I can't…" Loki started weakly, though there were no words to finish his sentence. He could only think of what he wanted to say next. "Hold me…"
"I am not going anywhere," Thor answered him, pulling him into his lap as if he were a child, wrapping his arms around him. If it was what would comfort Loki now, then he would do it. The weight in his arms was a comfort to him as well, it felt so right to have Loki leaning against him like that. In all the time since they had begun to quarrel, he'd forgotten what embracing his little brother felt like, something he'd taken for granted for many years. Now that he had it back, Thor almost felt guilty for the little happiness it gave him amidst all of Loki's pain.
"It is…it is finally…" Loki gasped after a few minutes had passed, his body relaxing in Thor's arms as his breathing resumed to normal. He still ached from what the burst of energy had done to his body, but he could think now, his body was under his own control again.
"Do you want me to help you sit up?" Thor asked, hoping Loki didn't take him up on his offer. He felt selfish for wanting to keep Loki with him for his own reasons, but he couldn't help it. Obviously he would do what Loki wanted, he was the one who was suffering, but it didn't stop him from having an opinion in the matter.
Loki just shook his head, bringing his hand up to place on Thor's chest just in front of his face as he made himself comfortable.
"Please don't let go," was his simple request as he stared at the dried blood on his fingers inches from his face.
"I would not dream of it," Thor said to him, reaching for the blanket to cover them both, draping it over Loki before wrapping a protective arm around him. He didn't care if Loki needed to stay like this all night, Thor was happy to oblige.
Loki didn't answer, he only nodded as he clenched his hand into a fist, hiding his bloody fingers as he stared forward blankly. He felt safe, protected, and warm, and for a moment, he was a child back on Asgard, hiding in Thor's bed from a nightmare, seeking his big brother's embrace, feeling the fear of monsters melt away from him. Now, however, the nightmare was very real, and he felt himself trusting in Thor to scare it away as he had the others.
Thor, his big, strong, oaf of a brother who always believed the good in situations, who trusted freely and made friends easily, who had more brawn than brains. He was Loki's only hope in this situation, his only chance to get out of here alive, though that prospect was still a dim one in his eyes. Thor was all he had left.
It took a moment, but when Loki realized how true that sentence was, he couldn't help but smile just a little. Having Thor was better than nothing.