Written to: Greeneries - Takenobu, crosspost from AO3

Forelsket: The euphoria you experience when you are first falling in love.

Thor does not remember when it begun, when he began to look at Loki as more than just a friend, a playmate, someone to climb the trees of Idunn's gardens with when they weren't supposed to. He does not remember when he began to take notice of the curve of Loki's mouth, when the sparkle in Loki's smile began to dazzle him beyond belief, when the shade of Loki's blue skin began to be more than just a colour and instead became a wealth of mystery and icy places that Thor wanted to explore.

He supposes it began around sometime in the early 500s, and even that is just a rough estimate.

"Loki," he says one morning, when Loki is still clinging to his pillow and trying to ignore Thor so that he can slip back into dreams once again, "do you remember when we fell in love?"

Loki sighs, as if he finds the question irritating, but Thor prods him in the side and repeats himself. Loki cracks open one green eye, and Thor cannot help but smile.

"I did not fall in love," Loki mutters, and Thor can feel his heart skip several beats. "You pushed me, and suddenly I could not help but comply for gravity was dragging me down."

Thor smiles, threads his fingers through Loki's silky hair and strokes through it, combing it gently as Loki arches up into his hand with a soft sigh.

"We were not even grown," Loki says, his voice heavy with sleep, and Thor wonders if he is slipping back into slumber again. "The first time I can remember, I told you to fetch me a certain type of flower that grew high up in the hills of Asgard. And you complained, you said that if I wanted it I would have to go and get it myself, that there was no way in the nine realms that you were going to go all the way there just to pick a little plant."

Thor grins, as he remembers.

"I ended up going," he says, and he can see the corner of Loki's mouth tilt up in a smile. "I was gone for a few days, and when I returned back to Asgard, you had already gone back to Jotunheimr because the sleepover was...over, I suppose. Something to that effect."

"Yes," Loki agrees. "My parents wanted me back, they didn't want me being a burden to Frigga and Odin, though of course you can see where that's gotten us."

"I had to go to Jotunheimr all by myself, because nobody else wanted to go with me," Thor says, gently twirling a strand of Loki's fine hair around his fingers. "And of course nobody told me how bloody cold it would be, nor where the royal palace is in relation to anything. I got lost many times, and I was so angry at you that I swore to myself I would smack you over the head with Mjolnir the next time I saw you."

Loki laughs, his voice soft and clear. "I remember; you burst into the palace one day, your fingers and lips all blue, just like a jötunn's. Father was greatly displeased - he wasn't very startled, so I suppose he knew you were coming, wreaking havoc all across his kingdom - and perhaps he had counted on you to just fall down somewhere in the snow and curl up of frostbite or the like. You stumbled over to me, where I was reading a book, and slapped down this sad little withered stalk in between the pages."

"And it wasn't even the right one," Thor finishes for him, laughing.

"No," Loki says, turning his head to look at Thor, smiling. "It was not. But that was when I knew. That somehow, somewhere along the way, without me even watching, I could not help but be drawn to love you, like a plant raises its head to look up at the sun without knowing why it does."

Thor smiles, bending down to press a kiss to Loki's cheek.

"I never did find you that flower you wanted," he muses. "Perhaps I ought to try again."

Loki only smiles into his pillow and decides not to tell Thor about the little, black stem pressed between the pages of a book he keeps in his nightstand drawer.