"Excuse me?"
"Did you not hear me? Shall I speak louder?"
Thor stood before Nick Fury, his arms crossed over his chest, jaw set stubbornly as he locked his eyes to Fury's good one. Their meeting had only just begun, and Thor was already impatient with the other man. He'd stated his issues with Loki's treatment clearly the moment he stepped into the Director's office, he didn't see why Fury needed them repeated, though he would if need be. He wanted his brother freed, both of the implant and that cell, and he wanted to remove him from the premises, as simple as that.
"Oh I heard you, I just wondered if you could hear yourself," Fury said, tenting his fingers as he examined Thor for a moment. "He's been captive for a month and you propose we just free the being who destroyed half a city and ran up a body count, with no consequences or safe guards, and into your sole custody. Did I get all that right?"
"I did not say without consequence, he will remain in my care and I will find a place suitable for the both of us," Thor said, stopping himself before he said anything about Asgard. He wouldn't bring Loki there unless he could assure that Odin's wrath wouldn't put him in harm's way. "As for the device you put on him, it is barbaric."
"The device we put on him is essential to ensuring what he did doesn't happen again. It doesn't go off unless he tampers with it, tries to escape, misbehaves, or tries to use magic, if he abstains from that, then he's just fine. He shouldn't be doing those things anyway," Fury said plainly, looking for any sort of give in Thor's body language and finding nothing. "I can't let you take him from here and just give you free reign with him, Thor. Not unless I'm assured he's going into lock up somewhere else."
"Where else is there? If I were to bring him home, my father would surely execute him for his crimes, not imprison him, but he can not stay here," Thor insisted, not knowing exactly where he would take Loki if he left, but not wanting him to be where he was truly miserable. Punishment or not, his brother was breaking down in this place, and in Thor's eyes, that was entirely unacceptable.
"Frankly, your father and Asgardian law aren't my problem," Fury sighed, honestly not that bothered by the thought of Loki being executed. It would be one less problem for him to deal with at the end of the day, not to sound overly cold, but the thought of having to fight Loki again wasn't one he really wanted to entertain. "We're not going to execute him in our custody, I can promise you that much, but that's all the jurisdiction I have."
"There must be another way," Thor shook his head, looking away as he tried to think of something better than this that would appease Fury and keep Loki alive. "This can not be the only solution. I worry for my brother, I do not know how much more of this Loki can endure, he was not meant to be held like this."
"If you can think of one, bring it to my attention, because I can't think of another way. I'll tell you again though, you don't have to stay in there with him. You can stay elsewhere, come visit every day, we're not going to hurt him the moment your back is turned," Fury promised, still not entirely sure why Thor was staying in a cell that was small for one man, let alone two. Maybe he could see if he could secure them something bigger, but for the time being, it was the only cell he trusted to hold Loki. And now, in his mind, he had the added threat of Thor breaking out. "Loki may not like it here, but we're not mistreating him. He's the one refusing food and water."
Thor gritted his teeth, getting frustrated. This wasn't how he imagined their discussion to go. He was responsible for his brother, bottom line, and he felt without a shadow of a doubt that he should be his keeper through his punishment. Loki was of Asgard, and Midgardians had no idea how to deal with them obviously, Thor was convinced now that they had no business trying.
"I want that thing off his neck, or I want him released, preferably both. I will leave you to make your mind on your choice," Thor growled finally, his impatience with Fury and S.H.E.I.L.D. reaching an all time high. "You have my word, Fury, Loki is safe in my custody, I do not need your help."
"Really, because a month ago, when you two were fighting each other, you didn't look like you had him under control. You needed help back then, what's changed between then and now if we take that chip off?" Fury asked, not trying to piss the thunder god off, but to make a point. He couldn't guarantee that Loki was safe with him, even with the chip, he wasn't a pushover, and he didn't necessarily need magic to do damage. "What's going to stop Loki from getting away from you and killing innocent people? What do you have to guarantee we won't need to step into the ring with him again?"
Thor paused in the doorway for a moment, wanting to say that he would, but he didn't think that Fury would believe him, or believe that Loki would allow himself to be controlled so willingly. He hadn't seen what Thor had the last few days, however, nor had he seen Loki minutes ago when Thor had left to come to this meeting. Loki hadn't wanted his brother to leave, he'd fretted and begged him not to go, not to leave him alone, it was the first time he'd had to lean against the wall rather than Thor in days. That wasn't the tyrant who destroyed New York City, that was the little boy Thor remembered so fondly, the one he wanted to save from this place before he broke down any further.
"Make your choice, Fury," Thor repeated rather than waste his time trying to answer the question. Nothing he could say would convince him, and he preferred not to get into an argument at the moment. "We will speak again shortly."
Walking from the office, he began to make his way back to his brother, a nervous feeling creeping into his heart as he wondered what he would find. He'd told the guards to keep an eye on Loki while he was gone, but whether they took his orders seriously was another thing. Thor wasn't blind to the truth, he knew that he was the only one in this building, in the entire realm, that cared if Loki lived or died, much less for his mental state. But he alone would be enough, he would make sure of that.
Loki wasn't sure how long Thor had been gone, or when he was coming back, but the longer the minutes passed, the more he became paranoid that he'd seen the last of his big brother. Why would they let Thor come back when they could find another way to torture him other than the thing on the back of his neck? He knew by the looks the guards had given him as Thor was being lead out that he was hardly a popular prisoner, he didn't expect he would be, but he feared the consequences of this hatred. What if they could make the thing on his neck go off at will? No one had told him what the capabilities of the device were, so he'd only had his imagination to fill in the blanks. When the guards glared and reached for the odd devices on their belts, he winced and brought a hand up to shield his neck, as if that could help. So far, he'd yet to be shocked again, but he lived in fear of unknowingly triggering that massive rush of pain again.
Running a hand over his short, black hair, Loki sighed into the silence of the cell. There was no Thor to talk to, no Thor to break the dead silence with his breathing, or the sound of his heart as Loki pressed his ear against his chest. He didn't like it. As much as he'd told Thor he wanted him to leave when their captivity began, now he couldn't last without his brother for more than a few minutes before he began to worry about him coming back.
"I'm sorry…" he whispered aloud, unsure why he could so easily say it now that he was alone. He should be able to say it to Thor, he felt it deeply enough, he wanted to say it every time there was silence between them. He was sorry, not just for New York City, but for everything, he was sorry he'd ended up in this place instead of back on Asgard, where at least Frigga would be happy to see him. He was sorry for doubting Thor's love for him, and most of all, for ending up in this place and keeping his brother imprisoned in this cell along with him.
So why couldn't he say it when Thor was here to hear it? Was it that hard to admit he'd been wrong in all his hurt and rage? Did that somehow invalidate it? It was there still, he could feel it deep within his chest, but it's direction had shifted away from Thor, or it had changed at least. He didn't want to see his brother's destruction any more, but at the same time, he couldn't begin to apologize to him either for what he had done. What the hell was wrong with him?
"Where is my brother?" Loki asked loudly, turning towards the door, hoping someone on the other end could hear him. "How long is he to be gone?"
"Quiet in there!" the guard barked back, banging on the door.
Loki winced at the noise, though he didn't want to back down. He wanted Thor, he didn't know what was taking so long but he could only see it as something bad. He didn't think there was any point in going to Fury, they weren't going to let Loki go, they weren't going to show him any mercy, they were just going to take Thor from him.
"Where is my brother?" Loki repeated, getting to his feet now, more urgency in his voice. He didn't know how much time had passed but it felt like too long. He was starting to panic, his chest aching as he paced towards the door, laying a hand upon it as he tried to look out through the slit in the door for any sign of Thor. He could see nothing however aside from the two guards, one of whom was turned towards him. "Please, can you tell me anything?"
"Back away from the door, prisoner!" the guard, a man who hailed from New York City, already had a short fuse when it came to Loki. He knew Loki was against the door, and though he was doing no more that asking a question, but he was told to perform his job with his best discretion. Right now he was determining this to be an attempted escape.
"I will back away when y-" Loki's sentence was cut off as a blinding pain shot through his spine, traveling along every nerve in his body as his legs gave out, spilling him to the floor. His head cracked against the hard surface, skin splitting and letting blood run forth, though he had no idea he had even injured himself. Beyond the pain, he didn't know anything, he couldn't think, he just wanted this to end by any means necessary. Even death would be a welcome reprieve from this.
Crying out wordlessly, Loki dragged his hand through the growing puddle of blood as he reached out blindly to a brother that wasn't there.