Harsh Climate
Sakaar-
Outside of the perfectly climate controlled tower, Sakaar was oppressively hot. And that was not just Loki’s opinion, though of course he felt it worse than others. Especially because he preferred to be wearing much more clothes than most of the Sakaaran residents.
The Grandmaster insisted, in that way that told him this really wasn’t a suggestion, that they go have a picnic by the training grounds and watch the possible contenders practice.
“You know how excited the fights aways get me. It’s not quite the same, since they’re really not supposed to kill each other training, and that’s half the fun, but perhaps we can do something else exciting to make up for it.” He runs a hand down the center of Loki’s chest.
“You know I am always up for suggestions.”
The training fields are much worse than he imagined. The fighters kick up dust, and the air still reeks of rotting garbage. The sun is high overhead, the sweltering heat hangs over him like a wet blanket. Loki curses his love of black clothing.
Especially since it makes him sick to look in the mirror as of late. The pale skin, the green and black fabric, the dark hair. He looks in a mirror and sees Hela’s face staring back, Hela’s face as she shatters Thor’s hammer and sends them careening from the bifrost, Thor to his-
The Grandmaster claps enthusiastically as one of the fighters runs the other one through with his blade.
“I do love accident deaths! What fun! Loki, why don’t you have a glass of wine, relax a little. You look a little…flushed.” He’s drenched in sweat and starting to feel woozy as the Grandmaster pushes a glass into his hand. The wine soothes his parched throat but only makes the dizziness worse. He’s too lightheaded to resist as the Grandmaster pushes him back down on the blanket.
“Wait-” Loki slurs, dropping his head to the side.
“Wait? For what, Lo?” He can’t remember what he was going to say. He’s just so hot, feeling like he’s burning up from the inside. “I think you just need to ah, lose a layer, hun…” His shirt is stripped off and he loses track of things as he melts into the ground.
Later, when the Grandmaster’s done having his fun, Loki rushes, stumbling, back through the tower to his room. He barely makes it before heaving up everything he’d consumed in the last few days, until he’s just spasming, producing nothing but bile. He stopped sweating hours ago. He lists to the side when the heaves finally stop.
“Cold,” He says quietly to himself. “I need to be cold.” The tub. He manages to almost get to his feet, tripping over to the bathtub. “Please, please be cold.” He turns the tap, nearly weeping as the water pours out ice cold. Shaking fingers undo the straps and buckles of his clothing. He strips naked and dives into the cold water.
The relief is instantaneous. His sore, aching body sighs in gratitude. He could weep for how good it feels. He looks at his hand and thinks he might see blue. He slips his head under the water and stays there until his lungs burn.
The Ark-
He should have spoken up sooner, when he felt the first wave of dizziness. He didn’t though, thought they would just be a few more minutes waiting for this mechanic to produce the part they’d purchased. But a few minutes stretched into thirty, and then an hour, and the temperature keeps climbing in the steel warehouse.
“I don’t know how they stand it,” Thor says, rubbing the back of his neck.
“The inhabitants of this planet usually don’t work during the hottest part of the day. This guy is just being a dick to us for the fun of it.” The Valkyrie fans herself. He could have spoken up then, but still he said nothing, even as the room began to spin. It should only be a few more minutes, just a few more minutes. He sways, just trying to endure.
“Loki, are you alright?” Says a voice from far away. Then nothing.
“-Loki!” He blinks his eyes open.
“How did I end up lying down?” A damp cloth settles on his forehead.
“You fainted, brother.”
“Oh. How embarrassing.” His feet are propped on a chair, hands resting on his stomach.
“How are you feeling?” His stomach flips and his mouth fills with saliva. He really hopes he’s not about to throw up on his brother’s shoes.
“Fine,” He manages.
“Hm.” Thor rewets the cloth and drapes it on his forehead. He puts another on the back of his neck and Loki moans with how good it feels.
“Brought the ice!” Right, the Valkyrie had been here too. A double humiliation. She pulls his hands to the sides and places bags of ice on the insides of his wrists. He realizes his leather over-shirt has been removed, leaving just the cloth under layer. “A lady down the street was very nice, at least nice once I showed her the sword. Here,” She passes a couple bags to Thor, who tucks one under the back of his neck and drapes two over the joins of his shoulders.
He doesn’t want to admit how blissfully fantastic this feels.
“We’re going to wait out the heat of the day here, just another hour or so. Then we’ll get you back to the ship and dump your ass in the freezer. Should have said something, lackey.”
“I should have noticed. Should have remembered, about the heat.”
“Stop blaming yourself for everything, Thor. She’s right, I should have said something.”
They wait a little longer, until the sun isn’t quite so high and Loki’s temperature has dropped a bit more. They help him stand, steadying him as he sways. Thor loops his arm around his shoulders to keep him upright. “Are you alright?”
“Still dizzy,” He says. “But fine.” They step out into the day, where a series of very convenient rainclouds are forming. “I don’t remember seeing rain in the forecast.” Thor just smiles at him. Thunder booms in the distance and the first cool drops of rain hit their faces.
Sanctuary-
“We’ll be passing quite close to a sun,” Ebony Maw’s sickly sweet voice comes from the shadows outside their cell. “Can’t tell you which, of course. That’s classified. It’s going to get quite hot.”
“Enough,” Thor growls. “If you are not here to torture us or provide any useful information be gone! Your words are poison.”
“I’m just informing you of the movements of the ship. Being helpful. I’m letting you know that rations — in particular water — may become quite scarce in the next day or so.” Thor stands, going to the bars. He’s breathing heavily.
“Thor!” Loki hisses. “Don’t.”
“Is that what you’re trying to do?”
“I seem to recall, Loki,” Ebony Maw says. “That you were not over-fond of heat the last time you were a guest aboard this ship.”
Thor turns an impressive shade of scarlet. “You-”
“Careful, your majesty,” Maw says. “You want me to come back with water once we’re past the star, don’t you?” Thor slams his fist against the bars, but Maw is already gone. The metal rings in the silence of their cell.
“How bad is this going to get?” He asks after a moment.
“Bad. Though I suppose it depends on how long they decide to leave me here.” Loki’s voice is completely flat. “There was one time, the first time, I was left for three days. I don’t remember much from the third, but they dumped me in ice for a while once we were clear of the star. The only danger is if they have tired of their games and truly want to kill me, but I don’t think Maw would have come to taunt us if they’d tired of us.” He twists his fingers together.
“Damn it. Damn it.” Thor punches the bars again. “We have to get out of here.”
Loki sniffs. “How? And do what?”
“I can’t keep watching this, brother.”
Loki rises, placing a hand on Thor’s back. “You have to.”
Thor turns and embraces him. “How much water do we have left?”
“Not much. And it’s lukewarm.”
“We’ll save it. Ration it.”
“It won’t do any good.”
Thor touches the back of his head and takes a deep breath.
The temperature starts to climb.
In a matter of a few hours, their cell is oppressively hot, the humidity clinging to their skin and making the air heavy and nearly unbreathable. Thor is drenched in sweat; Loki is soaked in it. His hair sticks to his face and his breath comes harsh and panting.
“I’m going to die,” He says. “This is it, I can’t take any more.”
It is Thor’s turn to be calm and reassuring. “You’re not going to die, not like this. Soon we’ll pass the star and they’ll come for you and there will be ice and water.”
“It’s so hot,” He cries.
“I know.” Thor longs to reach out a touch him, but doesn’t want to transfer any heat between them. His mouth is bone dry. He takes up the water jug and passes it to Loki. “Have a little water.”
A few hours later, the hallucinations start and Thor has to put aside thoughts of heat transference to touch him, in order to keep him from hurting himself. He sits with Loki’s back against his chest, grasping his wrists to prevent him from clawing at his own skin.
“…they’ll come for me, they’ll come for me, we have to destroy them-”
“Shhhh,” Thor soothes him. “It’s alright.” The hallucinations get worse, horrible waking nightmares that has Loki fighting against him, screaming.
He stops sweating.
The hallucinations calm after awhile, but he is feverish and listless. He doesn’t seem to know that Thor is there, stays as limp as a doll as Thor lays him on his back, pillows his head in his lap. Loki moans, tossing his head. His lips crack and bleed.
“This is the last of the water,” Thor says quietly. He helps Loki drink down the last few sips of their lukewarm water.
He knows what comes next and something very childish inside him fears it. He can tell it’s coming when something about the cadence of Loki’s breath changes. His eyes go wide and in a moment every muscle in his body spasms, tightening painfully. Then the next second they’re limp. And spasming again. Thor loops his hands under Loki’s head, keeping it off the stone floor as he violently convulses.
“It’s okay,” He whispers, though Loki is far beyond hearing him. “You’re going to be okay.” The seizure ends and Loki goes limp, breathing heavily. Thor rolls him onto his side and strokes his hair. Loki’s eyes blink open.
“Thor?” He slurs. “Wha’ happened?”
“You had a seizure. Because of the heat.”
“Oh. Is there water?” Thor shakes his head. “Where are we?”
Thor twitches. “It’s okay. Don’t worry about it.”
“I remember…I…I…”
“Shhh, it’s okay, you don’t have to talk.”
“I…” The convulsions start again, the second seizure coming far to close on the heels of the first. He bites through his tongue this time and spits blood onto the stained floor of their cell.
Thanos comes himself, two days after the temperature had started to rise. Thor is cradling Loki in his arms, rocking him through periodic seizures and fever dreams.
“We are past the star.” Thanos booms. “Give me your brother and I will ensure he is cared for.” Thor holds Loki closer. Thanos sighs. “I will allow you to come, if that makes this any easier. Just give him to me.” Thor stands, just barely managing to keep Loki in his arms.
He’s too exhausted and afraid that his brother might die from this to resist. He hands Loki over, shuddering at the sight of his brother’s limp body cradled in Thanos’s arms. He allows his hands to be bound with a long chain and tugged along by the chain. Thanos takes them to a brightly lit tiled room with a tub full of ice in the center. Thor has to blink tears out of his eyes at the sudden light after days in the dimness of their cell.
Thanos dumps Loki in the ice and opens a tap to let water flow over him. One of his lieutenants chains Thor to a pipe in the corner and gives him a jug of ice cold water.
“Aren’t you going to say thank you?” Thanos says. “I’m saving your brother’s worthless life on your account, you know.” Thor shivers and says nothing. “I could just leave him to burn next time we pass too closely to-”
“Thank you,” Thor says quickly. “For saving his life.” When Thanos is gone, he hangs his head in shame. Thanos would play these little games sometimes, forcing them to acknowledge his benevolence, his wisdom. This was the fastest Thor had ever given into it.
He can easily see now how Loki had fallen so deeply for Thanos’s machinations, that first time. The alternating between pain and relief, the way he got into their heads, the constant droning on during their tortures of his ideologies and plans, spoken through the mouthpiece of his Children. Loki had already been so broken and vulnerable when his suicide attempt failed and he landed here.
Thor should be stronger. He had had time to prepare himself for this.
Loki stirs in the ice bath and Thor doesn’t know how much longer he can go on.