At first, Thor didn't think much of the legends the elderly Miðgarðian woman told him.
A burial ground that can revive the dead? It was preposterous!
Yet, the more she spun her tale, the more it began to make sense in his mind. If this place was real, then it would be the key to getting his life back....
To getting him back.
After he asked about the location, Thor made to leave, but was stopped by the old woman grabbing his arm.
"Take heed, that whatever you do, you do NOT place a human body in those grounds. They will come back....wrong."
"I assure you madam, I have no intention of bringing any dead humans to life."
She nodded and let go. As he walked away, the Thunderer was confident that what he'd told her was the truth.
After all, Loki wasn't human.
***************
It took some time to locate the body.
He'd been afraid that after so many years, there would be nothing left to find. However, it would seem the Norns favored his quest because there, floating amongst some debris, was his beloved Trickster. Thor wasted no time in grabbing it and bringing it aboard the small vessel he'd procured.
Space had kept everything perfectly preserved, right down to the fresh bruises around his neck.
The crackling noises from Loki's head lolling from side to side made Thor severely nauseous. He laid him down on the floor before programming the ship to head back to Earth. Once the computer was set, he sat down next to the body and gently moved the hair out of his lover's face.
"Just a little longer, elskan mín, and we'll be together again. I will make right the wrongs committed all those years ago, and the sun will shine upon us once more."
***********
He landed on the outskirts of New Ásgarð in the dead of night. Then, after cradling Loki's body against him, he summoned Stormbreaker, and used the Bifröst to travel to the sleepy little town of Ludlow, Maine.
There was an empty house that guarded the cemetery, so Thor rented it under the alias Donald Blake. Although he was fairly sure the residents wouldn't recognize him from a glance, he didn't want to take any chances.
Once he arrived, Thor walked past the dwelling and into the forest behind it. The crude sign reading 'Pet Semetary' came into view after a few minutes. He kept going past the small, lopsided headstones until he entered a clearing surrounded by unusual rock formations. He took Loki to the center of the area where he'd dug out a shallow grave a few days before.
Thor carefully set him down into the hole, kissed him on the forehead, then covered the space with dirt before plopping onto the ground.
Now all be could do was wait.
***********
He must have fallen asleep, because the sky went from bright and clear to dark and stormy. He attempted to move to sit up, then noticed something cold and heavy on his legs.
It was Loki....alive and staring at him.
"Loki! Is it really you?!"
He didn't say anything, instead he wrapped his arms around Thor's shoulders and leaned into his neck.
Thor hugged back just as fiercely. He didn't care that Loki was extremely cold , or that the smell of death still permeated the air around them.
He was back....and that was all that mattered.
************
The next several days were spent in blissful solitude. After Loki revived, Thor took him back to the rental house, where he carefully stripped off the worn armor, and gave him a bath. The mage tried to talk, but all that came out was a horrific croaking sound, so he stopped trying.
The Thunderer hoped it was merely a temporary condition, and that Loki's magic would eventually kick in and heal everything. In the meantime, he enjoyed the closeness of his lover's body against his own....even if it was still freezing. Part of him wondered back to the old lady's words, about how people come back from that place wrong....but the rest of him brushed it off.
If having Loki back was wrong, then he didn't want to be right.
***************
His magic did not return.
It seemed that the energies that revived the Trickster also blocked him from accessing his own powers. He was still unable to say anything, so Thor gathered materials for him to write down what he needed. Even this seemed to be a struggle, like his brain couldn't coordinate with his body to perform basic tasks. The Thunderer kept hoping that the difficulties would improve, but soon had to face a devastating conclusion.
Loki was no longer himself.
***********
"Loki, I'm back! I got some new foods for you to tr—"
After giving him a kiss goodbye(and withholding a shudder at how much his flesh still tasted like decay), Thor ventured into the town for groceries and other supplies. When he came home, Loki was no longer in the living room where he'd left him.....
But a trail of blood was.
"Loki!"
He dropped the bags and raced through the house, only to find Loki sitting in an upstairs closet, eating what appeared to have been a dove at some point, but with all the carnage it was hard to tell.
"Loki, what are doing? Put that down!"
Thor tried to take the bird away, but the other man's grip was unnaturally tight. Giving up for the moment, he started looking around for something to clean the rest of the mess.
That's when he heard it.
"T...hor....."
To his shock, Loki was not only trying to speak, but he was actually getting words out."
"Loki?"
"T...hor...Thor....N...need..."
"What, what is it?" Thor asked as he knelt in front of him, " what do you need, Loki?"
"N..need....more...flessshh..."
Suddenly, it clicked. All this time he'd been treating Loki as if he was fully alive, but the ritual wasn't complete yet. It's no wonder the elderly mortal said people came back 'wrong', humans didn't have the stomach for the next part of the process.
But Thor wasn't human, and he held no such compunctions.
"If it's flesh you need, my love, then flesh you will get."
*************
He started with small animals, then gradually moved onto larger ones. He offered to kill them first, but for reasons unknown, Loki preferred to eat them while they were still alive. Thor didn't mind either way, as long as it helped him.
And help it did.
Slowly, the bruises began to fade from his neck, and a warmth returned to his touch. His speech was still broken, but it improved with every kill. Soon, with enough feeding, he would (hopefully) be back to his former self. Things were finally looking up for them both.
Then, someone knocked on the door.
***********
At first, Thor didn't answer, thinking that maybe they would go away after a bit. But when the knocking persisted, he knew it wasn't some random neighbor being nosy.
Checking that Loki was out of sight, he opened the door and was surprised to see Sif standing on the other side.
"Sif! What are you doing here?"
"Me? What are you doing here?! Taking off with a ship to go to space, then coming back in the dead of night.. Only to dissapear again? No one has heard from you in months!"
She brushed past him and stomped into the entryway. Flabbergasted, he shut and locked the door before attempting to calm her down.
"Honestly, it's nothing serious, I just needed some time away to think...."
"Time away doesn't mean cut off all contact, Thor, what could possibly be so important that—"
He didn't get a chance to hear the rest as Sif's voice cut off into a bloodcurdling scream. He ran towards the noise to see her standing in the door of the kitchen, horrified by the sight of Loki eating a freshly murdered deer.
"Loki? You're supposed to be dead....What in the Norns is going on here?!"
"He was gone. I brought him back. It's really quite simple."
"Simple? This isn't simple at all!" She said as she rounded on the Thunder Góð with a furious expression," Your brother was bad enough when he was alive, but now you've brought this....abomination into the world and...who knows what nefarious purpose this thing has for you! I'm going to destroy it before it poisons your mind any further!"
She turned around to face the undead prince, but before she could draw her sword, Thor hit her in the back of the head with Stormbreaker....causing her to crumple into a heap on the floor.
The smell of Æsir blood was enough to draw Loki away from the deer. He made his way over to the unconscious Sif, and stared blankly for a few moments before savagely tearing into her throat and eating her. Thor stood frozen to the spot, unable to tear his eyes away as the man he loved literally devoured one of his closest friends.
After consuming as much of the woman as possible, Loki stood up. Thor could see through all the viscera that there were no more bruises and his body was fully healed.
It seemed he was completely and utterly returned to life now.
As if to reassure him of that knowledge, the Trickster walked over and grabbed his hand before placing it over his(now beating) heart.
"Loki...are you....yourself again?"
He smiled before reaching up and placing a bloody kiss on the Thunder Góðs lips.
"Take me to bed and find out, elskaður."
**************
Several hours later, they were curled up together in the master suite. Thor was taking great pleasure in running his fingers through Loki's silken hair as he laid on his chest.
"I was really gone for seven years?"
"Seven of the longest, most agonizing years of my existence....I'm glad to be done with them. Although, I do apologize if you were having a comfortable afterlife."
"I don't remember, but it must not have been too good if you weren't there," he said as he stretched and pressed their lips together," shame about Sif though, I really didn’t mean to kill her....do you think we should put her body in the burial grounds?"
"No, a burning will suffice. Sometimes, dead is better, especially in her case."
"True, although I prefer being alive with you."
"As do I,Loki,as do I."