A/N:
It's the crisp fall air.
Hello there.

~
There's nothing that I'd take back
but it's hard to say there's nothing I regret
Cause when I sing, you shout
I breathe out loud
you bleed, we crawl like animals
but when it's over, I'm still awake
~

The stretches of silence were unnerving but it was not as strange as Jane thought it should have been; sharing the small amount of space with both a man who refused to set her free and the one she'd once called captor. The cave seemed much smaller; its walls holding the trio too tightly and threatening to close in a little further each time the small space fell deathly silent. Never had she felt so trapped by the thing. But it was something much different than fear that anchored her to where she sat.

The bit of tension that hung in the air soon faded when the heavy silence gave over to small bits of conversation between the two brothers – shared outpours of anger that, for the first time Jane had ever seen, were pointed in the same direction – and soon developing into concentrated, intricate, passionate plotting.

The sight was odd.

Thor looked cramped and out of place in the darkness, his build too large for the rock he was seated on and blue eyes too royal for the bleakness of such a place – though when she thought about it, the only time he'd ever truly seemed to fit in anywhere was when their feet met Asgardian soil. On earth he was ogled and gawked at. Here he lost his light. His home is where he would always belong, in the golden sunlight of the land he so clearly loved.

Loki adapted before her eyes, molding into a more hardened version of himself that she recognized with frightening ease. Poised and poignant. His eyes lost their color when he spoke of what was to come, the paleness of his face warmed only by the soft flicker of the fire he seemed to get lost in every time he sent a long look down to it. The cave's darkness suited him as well as it always had.

Still, they were more alike than they would ever admit. She found it in the small things. The way Thor's eyes tightened when his words grew serious. How Loki's brow mimicked his brother's when in deep thought. The way they leaned slightly forward every so often, drawn in by an agreed point or particular detail. Or how they both insisted she sit just a bit farther within the cave and the shared glances in her direction every so often, as if she would be stolen from their sight should they miss a turn.

She had never felt so… studied.

It was only fair, really.

She watched them from her side of the fire, doing what she could to hear their steady flow of hushed words while bearing witness to something so inconceivable. Two brothers sitting side by side, a mere foot from one another, who only hours before – lifetimes before – were at each other's throats.

It made her wonder just what exactly had happened at the base of that mountain. Or what had happened over so many thousands of years that caused two brothers to become so detached; how Thor became so guided and Loki grew so lost.

She would have never sworn them as family until she saw them together at that moment. So opposite, yet so very much the same. Protective, passionate – family. Habits that she now knew they had not picked up from their father.

Jane hadn't spoken to them since they'd joined her in the cave, both to allow the remaining, unbidden washes of anger to dissipate from her tongue and to fully wrap her mind around the strange and so sudden change of alliances. She waited a few more moments for them to come to a pause in their planning before she whispered the question that plagued her so suddenly and so fiercely.

"What was she like?"

Thor paused, drew a ragged breath and blinked over to give her his attention. He looked back to Loki.

Loki curled inward just barely, as if he'd expected the spotlight and a dagger to the stomach. His eyes clutched the fire.

Their reactions hurt her just as much as she feared they would and it almost felt deserved if she were partially to blame for their loss. One of the pair of eyes she searched would definitely agree. She knew how it felt having the people you loved ripped from you so suddenly and so unfairly. And Loki – his mother was all he'd had. He'd told her that so openly beneath the stars. At the time, they had been beautiful distractions but now her mind was clear enough to allow her to feel just how unworthy she was of such an admission.

Only when her question was left unanswered for a stretching moment did Thor speak.

"She was gentle when our battles ware harsh and harsh when a battle was called for," he paused to send a sad smile to his brother. "And harsher still when they were amongst ourselves."

One corner of Loki's lips curved softly though his gaze stayed unmoving.

"She was loved by all in our kingdom," Thor continued quietly, sliding himself off the rock he sat on to sit just in front of it. "Though some would say she ruled through our father's voice."

"They would be right," Loki spoke finally, lovingly, staring straight through the fire and into unseen times that Jane could only imagine.

The words seemed to awaken something in Thor. Amusement lit his features.

"Do you remember the very first time we encountered bilgesnipe? You were still a wee little thing."

Loki snorted softly and looked over to Thor.

"Hardly. But only because she would not let them anywhere near us. I do, however remember the warriors' faces when they returned to tell father that their enemy had simply 'vanished before their eyes'…" Loki gestured, fighting a full smile. His eyes were glass. They mirrored Thor's. "She never did tell him where she sent them."

Thor's soft chuckle echoed hollowly through the cave. He swiped the side of his hand across his eyes.

"What about the time father suggested she trim her hair for war?"

Loki's laugh was a quiet thing under the growing bellow of Thor's, but it was there. The infectious mixture of sound sent a comforting surge through Jane. She smiled. These were the brothers she'd come to know so separately. There was something about seeing the two of them together that lightened the weight in her chest; a small glimpse of the farfetched idea that nothing was truly ever impossible.

Hope.

"Gods, that I remember," Loki replied when he could.

"What happened?" Jane asked eagerly, entranced by just what it was that caused such a reaction from the pair.

"Ever wonder how he lost his eye?" Loki asked her, his eyes crinkling at their corners as he looked from the gaping Jane to Thor.

He shot Loki a surprised look before shaking his head.

"He's bluffing," Thor assured. "But he never did hear the end of it."

"And she never cut it again." Loki finished.

Jane laughed softly and smiled.

"Good. It was beautiful."

Her words found Loki's eyes. They shown like vapid blackness in the firelight and sent her gaze promptly to the ground.

Thor must have believed the change of mood to be caused by that memory in particular, so he took it upon himself to indulge them with another, lighter piece of their history, and another, and another – his fervor picking up over the more humorous ones. He successfully drew Loki in, his softer voice lulling over the times that still weighed heavy on him, though Thor did not seem to notice.

Jane did. And she listened and learned and forgot for just a little while.

Words lessened and dulled to whispers as night fell beyond the cave. Both brothers had watched as Jane fought a valiant battle against sleep, but the exhaustion from the Aether soon won over her heavy eyes.

Loki had always been one to save voice for when it was needed but he wondered if Thor knew just how different he sounded when he controlled his own. The hushed voice coming from his brother was a rare one reserved only for those that he took care not to stir.

It was her own power, not the Aether's, that knew no bounds.

"Loki," Thor called quietly, "we will eventually have to discuss what happens when this is all over."

Loki sat unmoving as the seconds passed slow. He held no intentions of avoiding the question. It was a one he had asked himself a few times that night and nights before.

"This can go one of two ways and neither of them are in our favor. When it is over, there will be nothing more to discuss."

"You are a wanted man, brother," Thor spoke carefully. "When Malekith is no longer seen as a threat, they will come for you."

A scoffed escaped him.

"They will try."

Loki blinked at the fire as Thor looked over to Jane's peaceful form.

"The Aether must be expelled from her before we act."

Loki nodded slow as he glanced just beyond the fire too. "He will call to it before he outright attacks. He will not be able to resist and he knows it will be the only way he can win with the Asgardian army in tow. We will have only seconds to prevent it from reaching him."

He still steadily continued to convince himself that that was what mattered most. Once the Aether left Jane's body, she would be free of it forever. Free of this land that drained the life from her; of the fire that laced her skin, and of him entirely. And with unhindered power, he would meticulously claim the revenge he was so grossly owed.

"We will," Thor confirmed. "He will be destroyed and we will get Jane as far from all this as possible."

"It will never be far enough," Loki sent back, failing to hide the bite of anguish that overcame him. "Look at what we've done... Look at her, Thor."

He felt Thor's gaze turn to him instead. He did not care enough to look away from her. He watched the flickering light glisten on the sweat of her pale face. She had been touched by the sun when he'd first led her to the land with no light but now all signs of it were lost. Discomfort wrinkled her forehead even in sleep. Her dirtied shirt lay loosely against the jutting bone of her hip. She had gone without food for far longer than any human should be able to; not needing sustenance to survive with the Aether giving her all the energy she would ever need while it filled her veins.

And she had spent so much more of it on him than he could have ever deserved; more than anyone living ever had. She was her own light, glowing bright when the space around them was nothing more than empty darkness and burning fiercely with a strength that was every bit Jane Foster.

If he could not take that from her then no one could.

But what would happen when the Aether was pulled from her? There was no coming back from this. He may have earned her trust but there could never be more. Why should he even risk his mental stability for believing even for a second that he held had any say over her fate from here on out?

And what it would mean for his own should she loose her battle…

Loki's eyes slid closed and he clenched his jaw to fight back a growing surge of misplaced panic.

He had already lost his either way.

Epigraph - Silhouettes - Of Monsters and Men