Chapter 6
Thor helped Loki into his nightshirt and then into bed.
"You're not going to leave are you?" Loki asked, feeling scared.
"No" Thor said "I will be here." He reassured him.
He kissed Loki's forehead and said "goodnight."
"Thank you" Loki whispered back.
Then he closed his eyes, his body sore and exhausted from his experience and fell asleep.
Thor poked at the fire, dimmed the lights and then sat down heavy in his chair.
He knew it was going to be a long night. He knew this would cause nightmares.
He closed his eyes and dozed off. Inside he was seething and angry at what had happened.
"No!" Loki screamed.
Thor jumped up.
"No!" Loki screamed again "help me please!"
Loki was sat bolt upright. His arms were flailing about as if trying to fight off an invisible attacker. Thor grabbed his arms and tried to shake Loki awake.
"Loki" Thor said "Loki, wake up."
Loki's eyes snapped open and stared. He was still in the grip of the nightmare and still fighting. "Loki" Thor said louder "wake up, you're safe."
Loki snapped out of the nightmare and looked at Thor. He started crying. Thor climbed into bed beside him and held him. "Do you want to tell me about it?" Thor asked him. "No" Loki whimpered. He shivered.
Thor held him and said "you're safe."
Loki shivered for a while before falling asleep again.
Thor lay awake listening to the boy's breathing.
About an hour passed and he started screaming again. "Father, no, please help me, please don't do this!" He was fighting in his sleep again. Thor tried to restrain him.
Loki snapped his eyes open and stared at Thor.
He then pushed him away, scrambled out of the bed and ran to the bathroom where he was violently sick.
Thor went after him.
Thor held him while he was sick.
Loki then fell backwards onto Thor, tried to catch his breath and started crying. Thor held him and gently rubbed his back as he sobbed into his chest feeling humiliated. Eventually the sobs subsided. "I want my Father" Loki whimpered "I want to go home. I don't want to be here."
Loki knew this was a futile request, but said it anyway.
Thor was silent.
There was a long pause. The only sound was Loki whimpering.
He then said "My Father doesn’t want me, does he?" which was more of a statement, than a question. "He never did. I should have died with my Mother."
Loki then started sobbing again and through sobs said "Why doesn't my Father want me? Papa," he choked "why don't you want me."
He then sobbed into Thor's chest again, trembling.
Thor swallowed hard, sighed and then said quietly "I don't know Loki. Perhaps it's because of the reasons you told me the first night you were here. He was maybe so hurt at your Mother's death he blamed you, saying you caused her death, even though Loki, that was not your fault.
There was silence again.
Loki then said "My Father never held me like this. Mostly he beat me. I tried to please him, tried to make him love me, but I always failed him, time and time again. All I wanted was for him to see the things I could do. But he was never interested. I couldn't live up to what he expected of me."
Thor felt so sad at a child being deprived of a fathers touch, love and a father's joy of what his child could do and accomplish.
He realized that his own Father had never really held him.
Thor said to Loki "All my life I have been told I would grow up to be a warrior and a king and when I think about it my Father never held me as a father should hold his child. I don't think he knew how to being a warrior and then a king himself the same as his father before him.
And my Mother died so long ago, that I have forgotten her touch.
There was a long pause. Loki was realising that Thor knew how he felt.
"And possibly" Thor said, "Even though my father is devoid of any emotion, I think it was a wise decision that he gave the command to give you up and place you with me, so you can have a better life here with us. My father has known your father for many centuries and I think he saw what was happening with you."
"But how is this a better life if I was attacked today?" Loki asks.
"That will be dealt with" Thor said. "I will call a public meeting and all of Asgard will know your position here."
"What is my position here?" Loki asks.
Thor tells him "You are a member of my family, which makes you Royal and you will command respect from the people of Asgard."
There was silence for a while as they both thought about what was just said.
Loki then shivered, both from feeling cold and also in awe of being a member of the Royal Family when he had actually been placed as a slave.
"Do you feel a bit better?" Thor asked him. Loki nodded. "Come then, let's get you back to bed."
Thor got him a cloth to wipe his face, then helped him up and back into bed. He got in beside Loki and held him gently in his arms.
Loki lay awake thinking, then whispered "Does that make us brothers?"
But all he got in reply was Thor's snoring.