Written to: Hide and Seek (Imogen Heap) - Time for Three, crosspost from AO3
Fuubutsushi: The things - feelings, scents, images - that evoke memories or anticipation of a particular season.
Though he is a frost prince and is by nature drawn to the cold, Loki is always glad when the weather begins to turn again and the sun begins to rise earlier to melt the frosty dew on the window panes. The air is crisp and cool as he slides open the window shutters, quietly, so as not to wake Thor, who sleeps far more often in the winter like a bear hibernating and waiting for the spring. Loki leans against the windowsill, cradles his chin in his palms, and watches over the horizon as the sun begins to crest over the distant hills of Asgard, staining the skies with pinks and golds and oranges.
When Thor finally rises, and Loki has already been up for hours, they traipse down to the dining hall together to break their fast, Modi cradled in the curve of Loki's arm. With Modi taken care of, clinging to a bottle of warmed milk, Loki sits down at table and presses a serrated spoon into a grapefruit half.
He lets the tart, sweet flavour burst against his tongue, smiling in delight as notes of citrus wind their way around his mouth and down his throat, and it just tastes like spring and warmth and life.
He looks at Thor sitting across from him, eyes still bleary and tired, and remembers springs past, lying beneath cherry trees who spread pink and white blossoms all through the breeze and threaded their way into Thor's cloak and hair; when it would be warm enough for Loki to read outside again, Thor's head cradled in his lap as he spoke aloud tales of princesses and beauty; Thor's fingers, usually so clumsy and rough, making the most intricate of links on daisy chains and placing coronets of flowers on Loki's head, proclaiming him queen of Asgard and all its people.
He cannot stop the smile that worms its way across his face as he looks at Thor over his grapefruit, and Thor smiles tiredly back, still waking up as Loki urges spring's arrival.