After Loki was cleaned up and the chip removed, Thor dressed him in another clean grey uniform, his own clothes long gone now. Thor would have to see about getting Loki properly redressed before many people saw him when they got back to Asgard. It may not be much, but it would be better than approaching the All-Father dressed in thin, plain clothing such as this. Loki deserved some dignity, though Thor doubted he had much left within him. When he awoke again from his operation to remove the chip, he could barely look Thor in the eye, and his head and shoulders remained drooped.
"Loki…" Thor said after they arrived on Asgard, frowning at the state his brother was in. He truly believed Loki had no hope left in him, that he didn't think Thor could sway their father to spare Loki's life. "He will not have you killed, I will not allow it."
Loki's posture didn't change as he continued to walk, still weakened from earlier, his hand clutching Thor's to help pull himself along the road to the palace. He wished he could hold his head up high and walk in there to receive whatever punishment he had coming to him, that he could show them that even the humans best efforts at imprisonment were nothing to a being such as him, but no. The humans had won and succeeded in breaking him, and now he returned to Asgard with his tail between his legs, no more than a whimpering shadow of his former self.
"If he does, so be it," Loki said quietly, without fear in his voice. He didn't care if he died, it would mean he didn't have to be like this any more, weakened and frightened. Even without the chip on his neck, he occasionally flinched as he waited for it to go off. They might as well have left it on, Loki's memory wasn't letting it go.
"Do not say that, I could not bear your death," Thor felt sick even thinking about it. For Loki it may be a convenient end to all his problems and sorrows, but Thor would have to keep going after that, and he didn't want to think about a life without Loki in it, especially considering the closeness the two of them now shared. "I will only be able to bear your incarceration because I will share it with you again, I do not want to leave you alone for long. Whether I have Father's blessing or not, your cell will be my room."
Loki didn't speak for a moment, keeping his head down as he stared as the pathetic slippers he was given when he left his prison. He felt like he was marching through Asgard in his nightclothes, and it was thoroughly humiliating on top of having his hair shaved off. He felt naked, vulnerable, and neither helped his spirits, he just wanted to get this over with, whatever was going to happen to him.
"Why are you so convinced he will let me live?" Loki asked finally, his voice low and shaky as he looked over at his brother finally, wondering how he could have so much hope.
"Because Mother and I do not wish for you to die, and Father will listen to us," Thor said with determination. "And Heimdall himself can tell him what you went through on Midgard, how you were punished there, that has to be worth something."
Loki smiled, though it was forced, stopping in his tracks to look at Thor. Reaching his free hand up, he cupped Thor's cheek, kissing his lips softly, resting their foreheads together.
"…You are giving up, is that it? Do not give up, Loki…" Thor begged him, panic rising within him again as he let go of Loki's hand and wrapped his strong arms around his younger brother to pull him closer. "I will do anything for you, I will not fail you this time, Loki. What happened back there was my fault, I should not have left you. More than that, I should not have let S.H.I.E.L.D. put that thing on you, and I should not have let them keep you in that cell. You should have come home the moment the battle had ended, and defended you to Father, but I did not want you risk losing you, as angry as I was. I was selfish, I am sorry."
Loki's smile this time was more genuine, but there was sadness in his eyes. He felt guilty watching Thor blame himself for everything, seeing how much this tore his brother up, it wasn't his intend in all of this to cause Thor so much heartache. He wasn't giving up because he thought Thor couldn't save him, he was giving up because he didn't think there was any reason to be saved. He just didn't have the heart to say that to Thor, he didn't want to see him give up too.
"Don't be sorry," Loki said, shaking his head a little. "In all of this, don't you be sorry. I did this, it is of my own making and now I have to pay for that. I don't want you to be in pain whatever is decided, you did your best for me but I realized it too late. There are many things I realized too late but there is nothing to be done about that. So please, in this time we have left, let's not speak of regrets and things we wished we'd done, let's just…"
He kissed Thor again, letting it linger this time, arms wrapping around his neck and drawing him in closer. He didn't care who saw them, he didn't care if the All-Father himself walked up to them, he wasn't going to tear them apart, this was their moment. Thor was his, his heart belonged to him, and that was the only thing that gave Loki any sense of power right now.
"Brother, please fight for your life," Thor whispered against Loki's lips as he heard footsteps approaching, rightly assuming that it was the guards sent to take Loki into custody. "If not for yourself, fight for me. I beg of you."
"I don't know how much fight I have left in me, I don't know what I have left, if anything," Loki said softly, regretting his words as he spoke them when he saw how much they hurt Thor. "I love you, that's all I have, I truly do have that, don't look so crushed."
"Loki Laufeyson-"
"Quiet!" Thor barked at the guards, holding Loki closer and staring him down in a challenge. If he wanted to take Loki, he wasn't going to be able to do so without a fight. "Go tell Odin if he wants to take Loki as a prisoner, he can come do so himself! I am not letting him go into your custody!"
"I will walk to Odin myself," Loki said to the men, who didn't look like they wanted to try to fight Thor just to obey Odin's orders. "If you feel the need to accompany me to the throne room, go ahead, but you will answer to Thor if you lay a hand on me."
It wasn't that Loki feared these guards, they were Asgardian, they had no tricks up their sleeves or hidden weapons that would cause him crippling pain. At the most, they would have shoved him around a bit, but Loki still hurt from before, and the only person he could stomach touching him wasn't going to let anyone hurt him. He might as well take advantage of that while he still could.
"Very well," one of the guards said, waiting with his men until Loki began to walk again, keeping with Loki's slow pace.
"Loki, you do not have to do this, I will tell Father you are weak, give you time to recover in your rooms before you see him," Thor offered, wanting to buy Loki any time he could so he would be able to persuade Odin on his own that Loki had suffered enough.
"No, I don't want to wait, I want to get this over with. I can't live with it hanging over my head any longer, it's better to just do it now," Loki said with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He didn't want to argue with Thor over this, he'd like the last moments of his life to be as peaceful as they could be, considering the last month and a half. He couldn't expect Thor to understand, however, he had only seen what Loki had been through, he hadn't experienced it. The pain was still unbearable as he moved, even as his chest rose and fell with each breath, but more than that, he was tired. Even Thor's love couldn't wake him up.
"As you wish," Thor took Loki by the hand once more, his thumb running over his knuckles gently as he began to walk with his brother towards the palace. He wished he could change Loki's mind, he wished there was somewhere safe he could take him, far from Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. and his father, a place where they could just live together in peace. But Thor knew there was no such place. Heimdall could find them wherever they ran, meaning Odin wouldn't be far behind.
"Thank you, Thor, it's not that I don't want the time with you, I'm just exhausted, I need to know my fate," Loki said, stumbling a little as his weakness began to catch up with him. The road was so long, much longer than he'd remembered it seeming, and his body was getting heavier by the second. Stumbling over his feet, Loki's legs gave out and spilled him to the ground in a heap, despite Thor's attempt to pull him up by his arm.
"Loki, no more of this, your pride is hurting you!" Thor said sharply, bending down to scoop Loki up into his arms, not taking no for an answer. He could walk into Odin's throne room if he so wanted, but he wasn't going to walk all the way to the palace. "Let me get you there and we will worry then about how you will make it the rest of the way."
Loki leaned his head against Thor's shoulder, not wanting to argue with him as he closed his eyes. He felt like he should be protesting this on some level, but he couldn't bring himself to. It felt so comforting to be carried this way, he could finally relax and try to ignore the pain for a while.
"Are you alright, brother?" Thor said after a few minutes, unsure if Loki had fallen asleep in his arms by how limp his body had gone, until Loki tensed up a little. "Are you in pain?"
"I am always in pain," Loki said quietly, not opening his eyes. "I have been in pain since they put that thing on me, and even with it gone, the memory of it haunts me. What did they do to me, Thor? I don't understand how I could have so easily been broken…"
"You weren't easily broken, you were tortured," Thor corrected him as they approached the palace. "I do not want to hear that you were weak because you were not, that thing they put on you…I would not put it on my greatest enemies. There are no words for what they did to you, Loki."
Loki finally opened his eyes as the sound of Thor's footfalls changed as they entered the palace. He opened his mouth to ask Thor to place him back on his feet, but Thor anticipated his request and carefully set him down.
"…this is it," Loki whispered, straightening the grey shirt and pants as best he could. He didn't feel like walking in front of Odin dressed like this, he felt like he was in his nightclothes in front of the entire court, though at least in his nightclothes he'd have more of a sense of dignity. He could at least explain that.
"It does not have to be," Thor urged him, wanting him to change his mind as he looked at the guards surrounding them, waiting for Loki to move again.
"It does, Thor, for my own sanity, it has to be now," Loki said to him, looking into Thor's eyes and touching his cheeks, leaning in to kiss him again. Though, now that he was here, facing Thor for possibly the last time, he didn't want to receive his sentence. He didn't want to leave Thor behind, he didn't want to be taken from him now that they'd repaired things between them, now that he knew how much he truly loved his brother. "I wish things were different, I'm so sorry…"
"Do not apologize, I don't want to hear that," Thor said, aware that the guards were closing in on them, his hand nearing on Mjolnir though he only wanted to keep his touch on Loki. "I will not let anyone take you, Loki, not even Father, you are going to be fine one way or another."
"I love you, do you want to hear that?" Loki could only smile weakly, extending his hands to be cuffed as he kept his eyes on Thor's, if only to keep himself calm. He could feel the All-Father's gaze on him from across the throne room, he was afraid to turn and look at him though, he didn't want to turn away from Thor's comforting blue eyes.
Thor extended his hands, taking Loki's bound ones in his own, squeezing them tightly. The guards were ready to take him now, and as much as Thor wanted to fight, he had to respect Loki's wishes to let this judgment happen, whether he liked it or not. It wouldn't stop Thor from walking to confront his father on Loki's behalf though, he was going to fight for his brother's life with everything in him.
"I always want to hear that…unless it is said as a goodbye," Thor said with a weak smile of his own, his hand giving Loki's one last squeeze. "I love you, Loki…"
As their hands separated, Thor felt the urge to weep rising within him, watching Loki slowly being led up towards their father with Thor close behind. He wanted to be at Loki's side, he wanted to rip those chains from his wrists, it was obvious that he was too weak to do anything anyway, the added weight only slowed Loki's pace more so. He looked up at his father next, hoping to see mercy for his broken, injured son in his solitary blue eye and seeing nothing but coldness and a hint of anger.
For the first time, Thor began to lose the little hope he had, fearing that Loki had been right in guessing his fate. Their last declarations of love may very well have been goodbyes after all.