I’m here

-

Thor had a specific alarm set for charging up the generators.

He had to do that task at regular defined intervals, which changed between the seasons, and he had to never forget. Electricity was needed for so many things on Earth, and he didn’t want his people to have to go without it for longer than the brief blackout when the generators were being charged up.

He had other alarms for council meetings or formal occasions, and Bruce would get him for any Avengers matters, but the alarm for the generators was the loudest.

Thor woke several times during the night, afraid of it going off. It was loud and shrill and it might startle Loki, send him into a panic. Thor didn’t know what sounds would remind him of Thanos and his torture, and he’d rather not find out. At least, not while it was all so recent.

So after waking for the third time that night and seeing it was nearing dawn, Thor switched the alarm off and gently woke Loki himself, softly speaking his name and raking his fingers up and down Loki’s back.

Loki had always been a light sleeper, so it didn’t take much for Thor to draw him from his rest.

He woke slowly, calmly, never having to suffer a moment of confusion or fear with Thor’s voice beside him and his constant, gentle touch.

“Good morning brother,” Thor smiled and lifted Loki’s hand from where it rested over his heart to press a kiss to his fingers, “It’s early, but you wished to watch me charge the generators.”

Loki hummed acknowledgement of the fact, pushing himself up with a small wince. Thor immediately sat up to help him get upright against the headboard.

“It’s cold outside at this hour,” Thor said, standing from the bed, “We won’t take long, but you had ought to wrap up warm.”

“You’re fussing, brother.”

“I am,” Thor smirked and leaned over to kiss him, “And I reserve the right to do so. Don’t pretend you dislike the attention.”

Loki grinned against his lips, briefly threading a hand into his messy hair as he kissed him again, “I never said I objected.”

Dawn was only just starting to break over New Asgard as they left their house. Loki was wearing a puffy coat over his sweater and lounge pants, and some thick, soft socks to protect his bruised feet and scored ankles from the boots Thor had leant him.

Loki might be a frost giant, but his body was that of an Asgardian right now, and he felt the cold. More than usual at the moment, with his body so badly broken and worn down, and no energy to warm himself up.

The lightning would do nothing to warm him either.

Thor kept an arm around his waist as he helped Loki to walk outside, but then guided him to lean against the exterior wall. It was dangerous to be too close as he summoned this much lightning.

He then took a few paces from the house, and raised a hand to the sky, drawing forth several forks of bright lightning, which split through the grey dawn and crashed into the metal poles mounted beside the generators.

He had to focus, waiting to feel a slight push back into the lightning from the generators, which told him they were fully charged, before he could stop.

And as he did, he saw Loki looking at him with a proud smirk on his lips and an excited gleam in his eyes. A single tilt of his head beckoned Thor closer, and as soon as he was within arm’s reach, Loki was tugging him with what little strength he had into a deep and needy kiss.

“Take me back to bed,” he murmured against Thor’s ear, voice rich and dark like the coffee they indulged in.

Thor grinned, the desire in Loki’s voice and eyes fuelling his own, “As you wish.”

He easily lifted Loki into his arms as he kissed him again, nudging the door open with his foot and kicking it closed behind him.

Just as before, Thor was as gentle as he could be as he made love to Loki, as terrified of hurting him as he was desperate to bring him pleasure. To bring them both pleasure, and relish being as close as he possibly could be to the one he loved.

As they lay together after, the morning sun slipping through the gap between the curtains to settle over them, Thor felt the wonderful warmth of his happiness as his state of passion faded into a simple and perfect contentment.

Loki’s fingers brushed over Thor’s chest, tracing invisible patterns on his skin.

Patterns that slowly changed from calming and rhythmical to nervous.

Thor knew he was going to speak, that something weighed on him, long before he did. And he waited patiently until Loki was ready to find his voice.

“Yesterday, when you were gone,” he began, but then struggled to continue. Thor already understood where his mind had wandered, however.

“Are you about to express shame for being afraid of the monster who tortured you for years?” Thor offered softly, and felt Loki smile just slightly, confirming he was right.

“Are you about to tell me I ought not be ashamed of my cowardice? Fearing a being I know to be dead? Whose head I cleaved from his shoulders myself? Whose last breath I witnessed?”

“There’s no shame in trauma, Loki,” Thor caught his hand, linking their fingers, “You endured years of unspeakable cruelty. That doesn’t just go away when the ordeal is over. It takes time.”

Loki didn’t reply, but he hugged himself closer against Thor.

“All those who survived Hela suffered trauma for months or more after she was stopped,” Thor continued softly, “Many still do. Nightmares, waking fears…”

“Did you?”

“No,” Thor replied honestly, “I was too taken by grief, by the need to find a home for our people, and by fear for you to even think much on Hela. I had no doubt she had perished when Surtr destroyed Asgard.”

He paused, thinking back to the dragging months aboard The Statesman. A broken people without a home, burdened with a king unsure how to rule when all he knew had been lost.

It had been terrible. Thor had maintained a mask of control and self-mastery. Made it appear that he knew what he was doing.

But he didn’t and he had longed for Loki to be there with him to advise him. To consult with. Loki was more intelligent than Thor. He always had been, and he saw things differently. He looked at things a different way. And he understood Thor like no one else ever had or would.

Thor had needed him.

In truth, now Loki was here, Thor wasn’t really sure how he’d lasted so long without him at his side.

Except a sort of Loki had been there. Thor had the imagined form of his brother. The Loki he heard in his mind, then started to see, started to almost, sometimes, believe to be real. A king, barely clinging to his sanity, who was supposed to rebuild a civilisation that had emerged millennia ago.

“Brother?” Loki’s voice brought him back to the present. The much happier present. A reality where he wasn’t falling apart inside.

Thor smiled through the lingering echoes of his grief, “It was difficult without you.”

Loki’s hand reached up, thin fingers lightly brushing away the tears Thor didn’t realise had slipped from his eye, “I’m here now, Thor.”

Thor broke into a wider smile, because he was and Thor the echoes of his despair were just that. Echoes.

Taking Loki’s hand in his he rolled over and to capture his lips in an indulgent kiss.

“We had ought to get out of bed,” he murmured, brushing his fingers through the hair beside Loki’s temple.

“We already did.”

Thor smirked, “Then someone made us go back to bed.”

“Something I seem to recall you were rather eager to do,” Loki replied with a dark grin, which Thor immediately echoed.

“Well we must rise again. We had ought to get coffee and-“

Thor froze at a sudden sharp knocking sound.

Loki tensed, breath catching, very obvious sudden terror overcoming him.

“It’s alright Loki,” Thor whispered, stroking a hand down Loki’s back, “It’s just someone at the front door.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” Thor kissed Loki quickly on the forehead and stood, grabbing his sweatpants and pulling them on before kneeling back on the bed, “It’s okay, Loki. You’re in New Asgard and you’re safe. Nothing will happen to you here. I’ll go get whoever it is at the door to go away. Just wait a moment.”

Loki nodded hesitantly, swallowing and making an obvious effort to force himself to appear unafraid. But he was. Of course he was. It wasn’t long ago every interaction he might have had would likely have been during or immediately preceding torture.

Thor quickly gave Loki’s hand a light squeeze, and hurried from the room as another knock sounded.

Sharper and more insistent.

Thor walked quickly out into the lounge and towards the door.

Another knock just before he reached it, and then Thor was opening it, finding Tony Stark standing there in his full armour but visor up, hands on his hips and eyebrow raised.

“You got some explaining to do.”

“You came all this way to say that?” Thor folded his arms, “You could have sent an electronic message or a phone call.”

“I sent six messages and left two voicemails.”

“I have more important matters to attend to than my phone. Is this truly so vital you flew across an ocean to discuss it?”

“I need to talk through some data with Bruce, and he’s not exactly keen on travelling to New York,” Tony shrugged, “Figured two birds and all that.”

“What?”

Tony rolled his eyes, “Look, I’m gonna cut to the chase. After you showed up with the tesseract, I had a little look for other energy spikes consistent with the cube. Found three. One in San Francisco, two in New Asgard, all recent. And, weirdly, since that first spike happened, there’s been no bad weather over New Asgard. No rain, no overcast days.”

“Is there a point to all this overt invasion of my privacy?”

“Point is, I’m not an idiot. The opposite, actually. I can tell something’s going on and I want to know why the hell you didn’t tell us about the tesseract, after we were all led to believe it got destroyed with Asgard, and what you were using it for about a week ago.”

Thor opened his mouth to answer, at least three possible choices of lie running through his mind, but he didn’t have a chance to attempt any of them. 

“I brought the tesseract here,” Loki’s voice suddenly came through, stronger than Thor expected. Turning sharply, he saw Loki, leaning heavily on the doorframe leading to their bedroom. He had pulled one of Thor’s hoodies on, the hood raised. With that baggy garment and the loose sweatpants, the extent of his infirmity was almost hidden.

Thor could tell he was forcing some magic into his voice to make it sound stronger. An audible illusion, which didn’t require much power, but was still much more than he had the strength to withstand for long.

“Reindeer Games,” Tony arched an eyebrow, looking from Loki back to Thor, “Make that two things to explain. You didn’t think to tell anyone that your lunatic bro was back?”

“I owe you no explanations regarding my own business,” Thor stepped between Tony and where Loki was, thunder rumbling threateningly through the city, “This is New Asgard. Who resides here is at my discretion.”

“A psychopath who tried to conquer Earth being here is kinda a matter for The Avengers. Did you forget about our mission to protect this planet?”

“Loki is no threat to the Earth.”

“Really, ‘cus he was pretty threatening last time he was here.”

“Thor,” Loki said, probably too quiet for Tony to hear, but Thor heard clearly enough. Both the word and the tone.

Looking back, Thor understood.

Permission for him to explain, or resignation that they had no choice now.

Nodding briefly, Thor turned back to Tony.

“Loki was mind controlled when he attacked Earth. The sceptre he used against Clint and Eric Selvig was wielded against him also.”

“I’m gonna need more information to go on than that,” Tony said, but he lowered his hands to his sides, clearly showing no intent to attack, “Loki tried to take over the world, killed hundreds, and looked like he was enjoying it. And the fact you didn’t tell us about him being here is suspicious. So I need more.”

“Ask and I will answer.”

“Who controlled him, why, and can we be sure he’s not still under their control?”

“The being who controlled him wanted the tesseract,” Thor replied confidently, avoiding mentioning Thanos by name, “He used the sceptre on Loki to make him go to Earth and retrieve the tesseract. The control was broken before Loki was taken to Asgard. Without the sceptre, this being couldn’t control Loki again.”

“You know all this for sure?”

“Yes. I do not doubt it,” Thor said firmly, “It agrees with things I witnessed during that time.”

Tony was silent for a long time, then clenched his jaw as if dissatisfied with either himself or Thor, “Do you have unbiased proof?”

“I don’t need additional proof. I trust Loki and I know this to be the truth.”

“Well I don’t,” Tony shook his head, “What about that incident in Puente Antiguo? The massive robot he sent after you? That was before all the trying to conquer Earth stuff.”

Thor tensed, anger rising at Tony recklessly bringing up the past. That had been before Thanos took Loki, but Loki hadn’t exactly been in his right mind. A long way from it. Everything he thought he was turned out to be a lie.

“You are prying where you have no right to do so,” Thor growled.

Thor had no desire to control his anger enough to keep himself from darkening the sky, clouds creeping overhead and thunder rumbling.

“Woah there, Point Break,” Tony looked up to the sky, “Ease up on the drama. It was just a question and one you should want to know the answer to as well.”

“I wasn’t trying to kill Thor,” Loki said coldly, cutting through their tense exchange with that fictitiously strong voice, but then his words suddenly fractured as he continued, the illusion of volume vanishing and he finished too quietly for Tony to likely hear, “I just wanted him to come home.”

Hearing the broken tone of Loki’s voice, Thor immediately abandoned his glare at Tony and rushed back into the house to his brother, clasping his face lightly, brushing his thumbs over his cheeks.

“Loki, it’s alright.”

“Odin’s spell wouldn’t let you come back. I didn’t know how to…I wasn’t thinking right ,” Loki's voice shook, “But I knew you could defeat it and it might…you might get Mjolnir back. Come home. I needed you, but not until…not until I had done it. Destroyed Jotunheim and proven myself. But I went too far. I never intended any of it…I didn’t…Iwasn’t trying to…”

Thor pulled him into a hug as his words dissipated into breathless attempts to hold back sobs.

He knew Loki had never once truly tried to kill him. Stabbed him a lot, fought with him, but if he’d wanted to kill Thor, he’d have succeeded.

Swallowing back his own tears, Thor glared over his shoulder at the human lingering outside their door, “Leave. Now. I will not ask twice.”

Tony hesitated, obviously unsettled by this turn of events, his expression full of guilt and confusion.

For once he was without a joking retort or snarky comment, not even sharp words.

He just nodded and flipped his visor back down, “Yeah. Sure. I guess you guys have some catching up to do. I’ll just…“

With that, he gently shut the door and Thor heard him fly off. Presumably to Bruce’s if his claim was true, but Thor didn’t care.

He cared about little else right now than the fact Loki’s legs had just given out beneath him.

Thor maintained his hold, dropping to his knees with Loki, supporting him and immediately, rapidly, assessing his condition.

Not unconscious.

Not apparently in too much pain, although that was always difficult to tell when pain had been a perpetual part of Loki’s life for years, and he barely seemed to register it anymore.

He wasn’t physically worse than a few moments ago, other than more exhausted. But he was frightened and caught up in memories Thor wished would leave him be.

Tenderly pushing the hood back from Loki’s face, Thor let one hand linger on Loki’s jaw, the other moving to hold his shoulder lightly, “What do you need?”

Loki shut his eyes, leaning into Thor’s touch, “Nothing more than I already have. Just please don’t leave me.”

“I won’t, Loki,” Thor murmured, touching his forehead to his brother’s, “I never will. I can’t exist without you so how could I possibly leave you?”

Loki took a shuddering breath as if he might try to speak, but he shook his head and remained silent, simply shifting his body so he could bury his face against Thor’s shoulder.

For a long time, they just stayed there. Loki hiding his face against Thor’s skin, Thor holding him tight, eye shut as he fought back his own stirring guilt and regret and grief. When finally Loki moved, it was only to turn his face to the side so he could be heard as he quietly spoke.

“You were suggesting we got out of bed for some reason,” he said quietly, exhaustion thick in his voice, “Before Stark so rudely interrupted our rather pleasant morning.”

It had been a very pleasant morning.

Thor had been enjoying luxuriating in bed with Loki so much. Warm and cosy and then their peace was broken. Intruded on.

“I was going to say, we ought to have coffee and breakfast,” Thor pulled back, “Ought we not?”

“I suppose we ought.”

Thor smiled and held out his arms to help Loki to his feet, finding himself supporting almost all his weight, “I’m famished, and you have some way yet to go in recovering your strength.”

“I am acutely aware of that,” Loki muttered weakly as he let Thor help him to the couch.

‘Some way’ was an incredible understatement. Loki was almost as fragile now as he had been the night he appeared at the edge of New Asgard. Bruce told Thor he expected it would take months for Loki to recover enough to manage standing or walking for more than brief periods.

“Coffee and peanut butter sandwiches?” Thor asked, forcing himself to keep his tone and his words light, attempting to bring them both out of the darkness their minds had drawn them into, “Does that sound alright? And of course a hydration drink.”

“Peanut butter?” Loki frowned.

“It’s delicious.”

“How do you make butter from a nut?”

“It’s more of a paste. Really just mashed up peanuts.”

“Between slices of bread?”

Thor smirked, “It’s one of the best foodstuffs on Earth. Trust me.”

He leaned down to kiss Loki’s jaw softly before moving to the kitchen to prepare everything, but grabbing a hydration drink for Loki before anything else. Bruce warned that he needed to keep having the hydration drinks. It was important to help stop electrolytes from imbalancing now that Loki suddenly had food again after so long without it.

Thor timed his breakfast preparations well. He set the coffee machine going first, then prepared a plate of sandwiches, each cut into four quarters to make it easier for Loki to eat as much or as little as he chose, and grabbed the packet of blueberries from the fridge because their mother had told them that fruit was good for recovering from injury.

By the time he had done all that, the coffee was brewed and ready to pour.

“You have messages,” Loki remarked from the couch, Thor’s phone in one hand, “From Stark - so presumably he was not lying when he claimed he attempted to contact you before…do you trust him?”

“Tony?”

“Yes. Or Man of Iron as your phone calls him.”

“As far as I can throw him,” Thor shrugged, retrieving two mugs from beside the sink.

“What does that mean?”

“It is an Earth saying. It means you do not trust someone very much.”

“But surely you can throw Stark a considerable distance,” Loki frowned, “That’s a deeply flawed way to ascertain the degree to which someone is trustworthy.”

Thor hummed thoughtfully and began to pour the coffee, “It is true that I can throw most humans quite a long way. They are very tiny.”

“They are. And most are really not all that trustworthy.”

That was certainly true. Enough of The Avengers’ battles had been a direct consequence of humans attacking humans out of spite or a desire for power.

“This coffee is a different type from the last one,” Thor said as he returned to the couch with a polished piece of solid oak that sufficed as a tray, carrying their coffee and breakfast, “Let me know what you think. I have not tried it before.”

He carefully handed Loki one of the mugs, helping to keep it stable while Loki took it, his hands not quite as steady as they should be, and then lounged on the couch with the other mug, his shoulder pressing against Loki’s.

He drank about half his mug before speaking again, more serious now, “In truth, I don’t feel I know any of the Avengers so well anymore. I trust them in battle, but that is all.”

He had grown distant from them, from everyone, in his grief. He was a skilled warrior and a dutiful king, but had no space in his mind or his heart for anything else.

It didn’t help that Tony and Steve squabbled and brought their discord into the rest of the team, nor that some of the more recent Avengers were less than professional. Not like the soldiers of Asgard who had fallen before Hela. Diligent and unblinded by their personal drama.

“However, Tony is a good man. And he is not one for schemes unless there are electronics involved,” Thor continued earnestly, “If he objected to your being on Earth, I believe he would have done something against us when here.”

Thor set his mug down and reached for two pieces of sandwich, handing one to Loki and taking a large bite of the other, “In any case, I will ask Bruce for his opinion. I trust him and he knows Tony better than I do. How’s the peanut butter?”

“The name is absurd.”

“If you don’t like it…” Thor pretended to reach for the half eaten piece of sandwich in his hand, and Loki retaliated by quickly taking another bite and chewing stubbornly.

“I never said I didn’t like it. I merely find the name objectionable.”

Thor chuckled and finished his sandwich, reaching for his phone and quickly charging it back up on seeing the battery nearly empty. He set his mug down on the side of the couch so he had one arm free to wrap around Loki.

The messages from Tony, listed in his phone as Man of Iron, were exactly what Thor expected. There was also a voicemail but Thor had no idea how to listen to those so he just read the string of messages.

M: WTF Thor?!

M: When the hell you get the tesseract and why the actual fuck didn’t you say something about it?

M: btw I’m not gonna tell any of the others about this yet so you can thank me for saving you from Cap’s long speech about how we’re a team and aren’t meant to keep important information from each other

M: But seriously, when did you get a hold of the tesseract and from where and why didn’t you tell anyone?

M: Also, do you ever answer your phone?

M: Not sure you even use your phone at all so might be shouting uselessly into the ether rn

“I didn’t realise loving the sound of one’s own voice translates into written conversation,” Loki mused as he read the message from his place pressed close against Thor, “This coffee’s better than the last, by the way. I like it.”

“Me too. I’ll be sure to buy the same next time we need more coffee,” Thor replied, “This one has a richer flavour, does it not?”

“It does,” Loki agreed, “Do you imagine Stark talks to himself as he sends those stream of consciousness messages?”

“It would not surprise me if he does not write them at all but has his computer do it for him,” Thor mused before typing a quick message to Bruce.

T: Hello Bruce

T: Do you trust Tony not to tell anyone else about Loki being here and not to do anything that could endanger him

T: I know he’s an ally and a friend and I should not doubt him but I must know

T: I can allow nothing to risk harm coming to Loki

It was the working day so Thor expected no response promptly. Bruce had a clinic to run, and if Tony was visiting he’d probably be spending all his free time deep in some scientific research.

A delayed response was fine by Thor because it meant he and Loki could settle in to enjoy some hours in undisturbed comfort, curled up on the couch, eating their breakfast, drinking several cups of coffee, and talking idly while a gentle television show was on in the background.

Thor had discovered, actually been told of by Korg, a range of television shows that involved people doing crafts competitively. They were slow and never had any loud sounds, nothing that could trigger a panic attack in Loki. Nothing that could possibly sound or appear close to anything he heard or experienced in his torture. Since Thor knew few of the details of what he’d endured, they needed to be cautious.

And as well as being safe, these shows offered suitable fuel for a running commentary on humans and the strange habits of Earth.

Not unlike the long summer days Thor and Loki had spent on Earth in centuries past watching the humans go about their lives. Making bets on how things would unfold, or simply remarking on how bizarre it was that they made so much fuss over unimportant or unavoidable matters.

Sometimes they had interfered, usually for the sake of mischief. Loki’s delight in causing chaos was somewhat contagious, and Thor found great revelry in such amusements as Loki releasing the goats from a paddock or casting illusions to bewilder the humans.

“Is he truly going to combine those colours?” Loki asked in disapproval at the sight of one competitor in a sewing show laying out two clashing shades of silk fabric.

“The choice of fabric itself is more concerning. Stitching silk rapidly is no mean feat.”

Loki hummed in agreement and settled closer against Thor’s side but tensed suddenly as the mobile phone buzzed. Thor quickly soothed him, brushing one hand over his shoulder as he reached to read the message from Bruce.

B: Tony understands and you can trust him. Loki wasn’t in control of his actions. He’s a victim in this, and I’ve spoken to Tony. He gets that and he feels bad for intruding on you earlier. He didn’t know Loki was there and he spent nearly half an hour rambling about how tactless he was and how he was worried he might’ve caused Loki some distress

A pause and Thor watched the three dots as Bruce typed, smiling as Loki asked what they were and Thor had the chance to proudly explain.

B: I know Tony can be hot headed and seem inconsiderate, but he really isn’t when it matters. He isn’t going to do anything to put Loki in danger, or disturb you two again. He said he’ll try to make sure you only get called on Avenger business if it’s absolutely vital from now on, and won’t tell anyone else

Thor hesitated, not replying and instead turning to kiss Loki’s hair, hugging him closer, “I trust Bruce’s judgement. If he believes we can trust Tony I’m sure we can.”

Loki said nothing.

“Brother?” Thor frowned at the silence.

“I have no notion of how much Stark can be trusted. I know him only through the fog of a poisoned mind,” Loki whispered, his forehead creasing and his hands starting to nervously toy with the bandages on his ankles, increasingly erratic in his motions as he kept talking, “No one could be trusted. My feelings and opinions were not my own. I had some space to move. To act as I chose. But within parameters. Within the need to conquer and subjugate and take a throne I never wanted and never deserved. And the belief that I hated you and yearned for revenge. That you had belittled and overshadowed me and thrown me from the bifrost.”

Thor caught his hands when his nails started to find their way beneath the gauze, and brought them to his lips, kissing each in turn before holding them to his chest.

“Your mind is yours now Loki. We both know none of that to be true, and I will remind you again and again as many times as you might need to hear it,” he said with a small, comforting smile, “No one will ever toy with your mind again. I’ll never let that happen.”

Loki shut his eyes and drew a slow breath.

“The one who did that to you is dead. He’s dead and he can’t come back.”

“He has to not come back.”

“You slew his head from his body and incinerated only the latter. He cannot come back to life, Loki. He’s gone and can’t come back.”

“He’s gone and can’t come back,” Loki repeated.

“And the stone from that sceptre is giving life to a synthetic being created from Stark’s computer voice and-“

“Yes,” Loki looked up suddenly, intrigue briefly covering his despair, “That was unexpected.”

“It truly was,” Thor confirmed, smiling in his slight confusion, “You were watching?”

“Every chance I got,” his gaze fell, “I missed you.”

Thor wanted to say that Loki could have revealed himself, and they’d have worked things out, but he didn’t want to burden him with regret on top of the trauma.

Loki had already been suffering from the consequences of torture and mind control back then, and from the devastating truth of his parentage that had led to him even falling into Thanos’ hands in the first place. He hadn’t been thinking clearly, and making him feel guilt over it was the last thing he needed right now. Especially after Tony’s comment about The Destroyer.

“Neither of us need miss the other anymore,” Thor gently cupped Loki’s jaw and tilted his head up to catch his eyes and offer a reassuring smile, “We’re together now.”

Loki smiled slightly, echoing the adoration Thor was sure must show in his eye as he looked at Loki, but he said nothing. After a moment, he let himself fall back against Thor’s chest, and Thor automatically wrapped an arm around his shoulders, linking his other hand with Loki’s as they returned their attention to the television.

As the credits rolled for the episode they’d been watching and a message in the corner said it would automatically go to the next, Loki spoke again.

Soft and tired, but earnest, “I can’t exist without you either, Thor.”

Smiling, Thor bent to kiss Loki’s hair, “I know.”

“Okay,” Loki smiled hesitantly then settled back against him, and made an obvious effort to sound unaffected as he continued, “Is this the, uh, the last episode?”

Thor tilted his head onto Loki’s, “Penultimate. The semi-final, I believe.”

“Who do you think will win?”

Thor hummed thoughtfully, “I think the woman with purple and pink hair shall be victorious.”

“Absolutely not. Her designs are far too commonplace. I say the tall gentleman. He has an eye for beauty.”

Thor couldn’t resist the opening those words left for him.

He grinned and twisted so he could capture Loki’s lips in a deep kiss, “As do I.”

Loki laughed. A light, genuine, warm laugh that broadened Thor’s smile. It was a sound he had missed immensely. One he would never tire of.

Loki chased another kiss, languid and indulgent, before settling back against Thor’s body, idly tracing paths with his fingers over his skin, growing increasingly relaxed.

His hand rested limp over Thor’s abdomen as he slipped into a seemingly peaceful sleep before they were even half way through the final episode.

Thor turned the volume down and changed the channel to one that always had shows about gardens on it. As he watched, imagining gardens they could build in New Asgard, like those Frigga used to walk with them in, one hand continually brushed through Loki’s long hair, the other holding his hand.

Not once ceasing either gentle contact. Both to ensure Loki’s mind couldn’t deceive him into believing he was alone and back in Thanos’ hands, and because Thor wanted - needed - to feel Loki’s physical presence as much as he possibly could.

-