Chapter 22
Humans were simple. Really.
Food, power and sex, and they were sated. Truth to be told, Loki was currently perfectly pleased having all those three, but that was not the point.
The point was that humans were simple, and he was not.
Or at least this was he lie he told himself as he walked into the empty penthouse for the second time that week. He fought the urge to kick the expensive couch through the window and stormed back out instead. This was revenge he was sure, for his own disappearance and reluctance to talk. But just who did Tony Stark think he was to try and take revenge on a god?
He sighed.
His need to blow off steam overpowered his pride and led him into the elevator, as his mind was forced to face the truth.
His little mortal was pointedly avoiding him.
--
Thor opened his door on the second knock and found Loki standing outside, an expression on his face that usually meant someone was about to lose their head.
"Loki?"
"Spar with me."
The blond frowned.
"… Would you take me for a coward if I asked you that there be no weapons involved? The scar from your little dagger tri…"
"I don´t care, Thor! If you want to spar with cushions and rubber swords so be it, but if you refuse I swear on your Father I´m going to burn the tower down." Loki interrupted him with a venomous hiss.
Thor held his hands between them. "Fine just…" He called Mjölnir to his hand (precaution wouldn´t kill anyone, would it?) and off they went.
He had barely ever seen his brother seeping with such anger. He usually released it on some poor unsuspecting fool before it got to this extent. Now it was plain frustration, and if he recalled correctly, a frustrated Loki was nothing good.
"Can I as…"
"No."
He huffed. So this was what it felt like to deal with him before.
They reached the empty gym, and Thor let the hammer down on a clear spot close to the sparring mat, and discarded his boots as Loki did the same.
"Loki, are you…" Thor tried asking again, but he was interrupted once more, this time, by Loki throwing himself against him. Nearly on instinct alone, he caught the flying god and used his own momentum to throw him away. Loki landed on his feet and crouched to aim a tackle at his knees this time.
And so, they were on.
Loki tackled and kicked, and Thor focused more on repelling his advances. His bulk to his advantage, the blond had no problem doing so, and it didn´t take him long to realize Loki was not actively trying to hurt him. If anything, he was trying to tire himself.
At some point, Thor´s stance slipped when throwing Loki away, and they both rolled on the mat.
Loki huffed when he hit the mat face down, momentarily breathless. He intended to glare at the blond for his fall, but when he looked up, Thor was also standing up, golden strands sticking to his face in the most ridiculous way, and his lame attempts at blowing it away.
His first intake of breath was spent in laughter.
--
"What happened?" Thor asked finally.
The gym was in complete darkness. They had sparred all day long and longer even into the evening, until they had managed to exhaust each other. None of them had bothered turning on the lights when the sun hid behind the skyline.
Now they lay on the mat, not side by side but close enough so that the mood in the grim room felt different. Solemn. And, even when none wanted to say it out loud, like before.
Loki took a sharp intake of breath. He didn´t want to, but it was too strong. The false sense of safety. Of acceptance. He thought of his current situation. Of the sphere safely tucked at his apartment, only half filled with energy, so little that it would probably be no match against his persecutors. Of his vulnerable stance while half a race hunted him. Of the fact that his mortal wouldn´t look him in the eye since that day. And of how this worried him just as much as anything else.
"I tried to talk to him… About his Father."
"What is wrong with Anthony´s father?"
"A number of things, apparently."
"And he didn´t take it well?"
Loki smirked into the darkness, feeling a blush creeping to his cheeks. "Just about as well as I did when he tried the same."
Thor´s low laugh brought back memories he didn´t really want right now, and he frowned.
"How long has he been missing?"
"About a week…"
"Did you look for him in the…"
"I know where he is. I´m not going to beg a mortal for attention."
"So he´s not letting you in his research quarters?" Thor laughed again.
"I could rip the door off if I wanted." Loki scrunched his nose. "Let him come out when he´s done acting like a child."
Thor shook his head. He had no advice to offer in the matter. Tony would go to Loki eventually, and he had more important matters to think of.
"Brother?"
Silence.
Then, barely a whisper.
"Yes?"
"How are you?"
More silence.
A wheezing, slow exhalation.
"I´m running on borrowed time, Thor."
"Father will give you your magic back."
"Really? Because if I were him, I definitively wouldn´t."
Thor took a deep breath. "Have you thought about using…"
"Using what?"
"The Casket."
Loki felt every muscle in his body tensing up. He remembered the incredible rush of power that ran through his veins when holding the box that looked so heavy but was light as a feather in his hands. The power that obeyed his every thought, strong enough to stop Heimdall´s sword an inch from him.
And with those came other memories. His hands turning blue, the color seeping through his skin as ink on paper. The scent of snow, coming from nowhere, that brought him a wave of relief so whole that it had frightened him the first time. Like something he didn´t know that lived inside him had broken free. Something wild and fierce and fearless.
"Loki?" Thor asked again, after Loki´s silence had stretched for too long.
"It would be… Useless." Was the answer he got, in a raspy voice.
As soon as the lie left his lips, Loki knew Thor had not been fooled by it. The Casket of Ancient Winters had powered an entire realm and its people. It would surely be enough to get rid of a lowly, weakened race. But he would not explain himself.
Hell would freeze before Loki admitted he was scared of something, much less of himself.
"Well… If you decide it could be of help, I could get it for you, brother."
"Stealing from your dear old Father, Thor? How tricky of you."
"I would rather be punished than see you dead, brother." And yes, maybe Thor did say it precisely to make Loki a little bit uncomfortable.
"Fool…"
"Maybe. But happiness is the blessing for those of us who don´t busy ourselves with unnecessary overthinking."
"Happiness is utopic."
"I wouldn´t think so. After all, you too were happy one day."
"Why is it that you´re so intent on looking back, Thor? Your present is flawless, and your past pales in comparison."
And Thor wished there was some jealously behind those words, instead, there was only bitter, dry sincerity.
"Is your present not good, brother?" Thor blushed as soon as he finished speaking, when he realized what he had inquired, and Loki´s sarcastic laugh embarrassed him further.
"Of course it is, Thor. Beautiful. In fact, my life situation has never been better."
"That is not what I meant, and you know it."
"Your way with words amuses me."
Thor grunted. "Does Anthony not make you happy?"
"Happiness is but an illusion, Thor. Tony does make my days more… Exciting."
"You keep dancing around the point, brother."
"Oh, but there is no point to dance around." Loki smirked. Thor´s frustration was palpable, and he found it sinfully delicious. "You ask vain questions, and I give vain answers."
"Well, whatever the case might be, I´m glad your days in Midgard have given a turn for the best."
"Yes, I am certainly enjoying my last days."
"Oh, for the Norns, please do shut up."
Loki chuckled lowly, and Thor let out an irritated smile. If this was how his brother coped with his anxiety…
"What will you do? After your punishment has been lifted and you´re free? Will you stay here? Go back to Asgard?"
"I…"
The doors to the gym slid open with the lightest of sounds, and revealed a silhouette, profiled against the light entering from the hallway.
"Jarvis told me you two were trying to bring my gym down, so tone it down, if you…" Tony stopped mid-sentence, when he noticed the relaxed stance of both gods, lying on the dark room´s floor like kids telling each other secrets. He cleared his throat. "Am I interrupting a crucial, cheesy brother-y reconciliation time? Because I can leave."
Loki climbed to his feet, followed shortly after by Thor, he took his boots and walked up to the mortal. Had he found him that morning, he would probably have attempted to strangle him, but his sparring had made effect, and now he was just mildly irritated.
"Where have you been?" As if he didn´t know.
Tony shrugged. "I booked us a table for dinner, go get a shower."
"You´re not, as they say `off the hook`, Tony." He hissed, rising once again after fixing his shoes.
"Give me two hours and a bottle of whiskey, Sweetcheeks." Tony grinned, prompting the two gods off the gym and into the hall. "Clint just came in from grocery duty, big guy, I think there are poptarts in one of the bags."
Thor grinned back. "Then I shall go and find them, friend of mine. Have a nice evening." He waved them when they reached an intersection. He stopped, however, when he noticed Loki stared directly at him.
"I am unwanted in Asgard. And maybe it would be for the best if I don´t go where I´m not wanted."
"Brother?"
"I don´t condone you for falling into the illusion. It is nice, after all." And, without another word, he spun on his heels and pulled Tony along with him. The mortal could only give Thor a half-shrug that the god was quick to return, even when he knew perfectly what Loki had meant.
He sighed, part relieved, part resigned, and moved on in his search for poptarts.