Written to: Gonna Take You There - The Princess and the Frog OST (Disney), crosspost from AO3
Lethologica: When you think of something, but the word for it escapes you.
Thor doesn't know what to call the emotion that rises up in him when Modi reaches out to him with tiny hands and curls his fingers in the front of his robes. It makes his heart swell and throb with excitement, a sort of quiet pride as Modi turns his head to the side and opens sleepy blue eyes to look at him for a moment before his entire face breaks out into a smile.
He doesn't know what to call it when he feels his heart skip a beat as he watches Loki roll over in his sleep and rub his cheek against Thor's shoulder. He doesn't know what happens, why he holds his breath as Loki's eyelashes flutter before his eyes open, foggy and heavy with sleep. He doesn't know why he smiles whenever Loki stares at him blankly for a few moments before sighing and stretching, his mouth opening in a yawn as he rubs the dreams from his eyes and kicking the sheets away from where they're tangled around his legs.
He knows that he feels undeniably nervous whenever he picks up Modi, a fear of hurting this soft little being in his arms even as Modi giggles up at him. He knows that he feels perfectly at peace when he is curled around and over Loki in bed, breathing in Loki's soft scent, something like new books and lavender and a spice that is absolutely Loki.
He tells Loki all of this one day as Loki is still half-asleep, the mid-morning sunshine painting his cheek with gold.
"Wha's that?" Loki asks, his words slurred as he scrubs over his eyes with the palm of his hand, smacking his lips, and Thor has an irresistible urge to draw him into his arms. He does, and against the curve of his shoulder, Loki mumbles again, "Wha d'you want, leggo, I can't breathe."
After loosening his hold a bit so that Loki has ample room to breathe, Thor tells him again, tells him about the way his heart flutters, how he stops breathing sometimes, how he cannot describe it for the life of him.
Loki pulls back from him, his hands cool against Thor's chest. He rolls his eyes at Thor, snorts. "I believe the word you're looking for is love," Loki informs him, as if the answer were completely obvious, before rolling back over and snuggling down into the rumpled bedsheets again.
Thor slots his head into the hollow in between Loki's shoulder blades, listens to his soft, deep breaths, and wonders how Loki is able to label such complex things with such simple words.
When he asks Loki a bit later, when his brother is fully awake, Loki just rolls his eyes again and informs Thor that it wouldn't hurt to read a book or two every century or so before chucking The Notebook at him.
Thor was an inconsolable wreck for the rest of the week.