Exhaustion
The first night aboard the ark they sleep in an exhausted pile in an empty room.
They had spent the day rearranging furniture, rearranging supplies, counting survivors, healing wounds, and trying to put some kind of order in place. They don’t come close to finishing before fatigue starts to dog all of them.
Bruce Banner is always wrecked when the Hulk recedes (and hungry, but it doesn’t seem right to ask for food when it’s looking like their ration situation isn’t going to stretch very far). And there’s still so much to do, so he ignores his exhaustion and helps.
Thor’s eye starts aching ferociously, the pain starting to radiate over his skull and down his neck, and a sudden spell of dizziness strikes him when they’re bringing a load of blankets to the place they’ve set aside as an infirmary.
“You should have taken care of that hours ago,” Loki scolds, grabbing his arm and practically dragging him to sit. “It’s infected, I’m sure. Let me-”
“No Loki, save your magic for the others, I’m fine.”
Loki ignores him, brushing fingers sparking with green seidr over the wound. “I’ve already taken care of the others,” He says. There are deep shadows under his eyes and Thor doesn’t miss the way his hands shake.
“Then save it for yourself.” Loki says nothing. Thor feels the tendrils of his magic threading deeper, tracking infection and burning it out. “How many other mages made the ship?”
“None that we have found so far,” Loki says quietly.
“So you have done all the healing yourself? Loki-”
“I will manage.”
“There will be other things we need, you should have saved your magic, not wasted it on my minor-”
“Brother, will you just cease your self-sacrificing for one moment and let me take care of you!!” Loki shouts suddenly. He steadies himself with a deep breath. “Now you’ve made me lose concentration.”
“Looks like someone’s getting cranky,” The Valkyrie appears in the doorway. “We’ve been working all fucking day, I think it’s time for the princelings to rest.”
“Of course, my lady Valkyrie,” The old healer says. “Prince Loki, you’ve been indispensable today, but you must rest.”
“See?” Thor says, with a triumphant smirk.
“You too, majesty. Come on. Up.”
“You’re right. We should convene, talk about resources,” Thor says. “Then we’ll rest, I promise.”
“Your majesty, the prince’s magic was able to burn out the infection, but the wound-”
“Thank you for your services, lady healer, please, let me know if you require anything else.” He grasps her hand and rises. She bows slightly, looking perturbed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll drag him back here if he collapses.” The Valkyrie follows Thor out of the infirmary, and Loki follows after promising to return soon.
They find Bruce, trying not to fall asleep in the wide room they’d set aside as a sort of base of operations.
“Okay, we need to go over what supplies we’re missing, how many injured there are, what we can use for trade-”
“Nope.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t make me go get Heimdall.”
“Get Heimdall…what?”
“To force you to sleep, of course.”
“You can’t just put us to bed like…like children!” Thor cries, indignant.
The Valkyrie puts her hands on her hips. “Can’t I?” Thor glances at the other two for support. Bruce has his head propped up on one arm and he keeps jerking himself back from the edge of sleep. Loki is leaning against the wall, head falling back. Their eyes lock and he tilts his head with a little shrug. No help. “Come on, majesty. Heimdall’s got the people’s immediate needs covered and all the other problems will still be there in the morning. Including, you know, actually setting this ship’s clocks so we know when it is morning.”
“There isn’t anything to sleep on.”
“Come on,” The Valkyrie gestures. “You too, highness.” Loki looks a little uncomfortable, skittish, being so close to Bruce, but he keeps Thor between the two of them and the exhaustion takes over. Bruce barely even notices. He passes out on his back, arm across his eyes as soon as they’re settling down. Loki takes a minute more, his long fingers wrapping loosely around Thor’s cape, spread out on the floor beneath them. He blinks, like he’s trying to avoid sleep, but slowly his eyes drift closed. His breath is harsh, and slows as the fatigue finally drags him under, but remains shallow.
“You can worry in the morning, majesty,” The Valkyrie says. “They’ll be okay, just rest.” Thor’s eye throbs. She lays down across their legs, spread on her side, and falls asleep.
It still takes Thor a little while, his mind whirling with the magnitude of the task ahead of him, the weight of mourning his whole world.
Loki makes a quiet noise in his sleep and shifts a little closer, turning his face into the cape. Bruce starts snoring softly, his nose making a little whistle as the air moves in and out. Thor feels a sudden swell of love, then accompanying terror. He’s not sure he’ll be able to keep them safe.
But then Loki shifts again, head now pressed against Thor’s side. Bruce’s arm drops over Thor’s chest.
He wraps an arm around his brother’s curved back, places his other on top of Bruce’s, and falls asleep like that.
That’s how the newly crowned king of Asgard spends his first night as monarch. When Heimdall comes to check on them, he smiles and drapes the blankets he brought carefully across the slumbering pile.
Loki stirs awake, pressed to Thor’s side, with his feet numb. He’s concerned for a moment, before glancing down and seeing the Valkyrie laying across their legs. With a jolt he realized Bruce Banner is not two feet away from him, lying flat on his back and snoring across the expanse of his brother’s chest. But he seems actually peaceful when he’s sleeping, and Loki judges the risk of the Hulk emerging to be low. He turns his attention to Thor.
Thor feels too warm, but he can’t tell if that’s a fever or just being unused to sleeping next to him. The last time they had slept curled together like this, they were practically still children, and Loki hadn’t known about his origins. The knowledge of his different biology might be affecting the way he perceives his brother’s body temperature.
He sneaks closer to Thor, raising his hand to hover over the cavity where his eye once was. He hadn’t managed to get all of the infection the night before, not with his seidr already so depleted and Thor distracting him with his foolish attempts at stoic self-sacrifice.
The magic still feels stretched. He hasn’t had enough rest to regenerate it after spending it so recklessly the day before, first in the fight against Hela and then in the healing room on the ship. He had spent the entire time between the coronation and when the Valkyrie dragged them to bed at healing, reasoning it was better to heal now by magic and spare their meager medical supplies for further accidents or illnesses. Once everything calmed down, he would rest.
But then there would be transfiguring the Grandmaster’s useless trinkets into things that could actually be used. There would be spells to speed the growth of the crops in the artificial greenhouse, and charms to hold the rickety ship together, and trade negotiations, which won’t take seidr but will still be exhausting.
Loki is suddenly overwhelmed, his pulse racing. He has a momentary urge to flee, to take the Tesseract he stole from the vaults and run from the crushing task that would be ensuring his people’s survival, but it’s banished for the moment by the simple matter that he’s not sure he has anywhere else to go.
Focus on the task, he thinks. Forget the rest. He draws on his magic, burning out the infection and the pain, sealing off open and throbbing blood vessels. The furrows in Thor’s forehead ease and his breath evens out. It takes more out of Loki than he had budgeted and he gasps, a wave of dizziness passing through him. His head stops spinning but he finds he can’t hold it up any longer. He drops it to Thor’s chest, breathing hard.
“Lackey?” The Valkyrie whispers. “You okay?” He nods. Thor feels less warm. That’s good.
The Valkyrie sits up, which is less good. Loki wants to sleep more. He doesn’t think he’s ready to face Asgard yet. The return of blood to his lower extremities burns, sending pins and needles through his feet and shins.
He struggles to raise his head.
“No,” She says. “Stay.”
“I have to go back to the healers, there were a couple-”
“Highness, you are not in any condition to heal, not until we get some food in you and maybe a couple more hours of sleep.”
“Yes, mother,” Loki says sarcastically, without thinking. The grief squeezes his heart and he turns his face further into Thor’s chest to hide the pain on his face.
“Did you heal Thor’s eye?” Loki nods. “Good. He would have been annoying and tried to work through it until he collapsed.” She sits up, popping her neck and shoulders. “Okay, task one today, finish figuring out quarters, because I can’t take another night on the floor.”
Bruce stirs on Thor’s other side. “Is there any food?” Is the first thing he says. The Valkyrie laughs.
“Okay, new first task, breakfast. Plus, I want the story. What’s with you and the Big Guy?” She offers him her hand and pulls him up.
“It’s kind of a long one.”
“Well, we’re going to be on this ship for a long while. We have time. Everything will get done.” Her words ease some of the overwhelming feeling. She’s right. It will all get done in time. Loki can afford a few more hours of sleep. “We’ll bring something back for you, lackey.” He absently wonders how long it’s going to take to get her to stop calling him that.
He nearly drifts off again until he realizes he’s still laying on Thor’s chest. He lingers for a moment, before rolling off to into a tight ball facing away from him. He might not be planning on running, but neither of them are ready to go back to the way things used to be. Maybe someday, but not yet. He supposes it’s enough, for now, that he’s here. He falls back to sleep.