Chapter 9
"Welcome home, brother. How do you feel?"
Loki blinked the sleepy haze out of his eyes, a little puzzled by what he saw. Thor looked older than he remembered. Not old, but like an adult rather than the energetic cocky 20-year-old that he remembered.
"I am weak and hurt all over. Mother tells me I had to be carried home from a battle? Are you and our friends all in one piece?"
"…Yes." Thor hesitated, taken aback. "Do you really remember nothing of it? Mother said you suffered memory loss, but I was not really prepared for this."
Loki bit his lip. "She said as much to me as well, but did not tell me how much time I have lost." He braced himself. "Tell me, how old am I?"
"You are just a month ago 23."
Loki paled, no mean feat when he was already so pale. "Five years." He whispered, "Have I lain here in a coma for five years?" His mind was spinning with that discovery. That would explain why Thor looked like an adult now. He would be 25 now. He was an adult. They both were. Did this mean that Thor could have been made king while he lay unconscious? If that was the case, he hoped that Thor had matured considerably in that time. More importantly, how had this happened? It must have destroyed the family to see him in such a state for so long. He hoped they had avenged him and destroyed those who had done this.
It had been so long since Thor had seen such an open innocent look of confusion and fear in his little brother's face that it was just heartbreaking. "No. No, you've been unconscious a little under three weeks. You lost your memory because of a severe concussion, so the healer says you may still regain it."
"Has anything important happened? Is everyone well? I have seen only you and Mother, so far. Did Sif ever manage to get in your bed?"
Thor looked troubled, but chuckled at the last question despite himself. "Her interest in me waned eventually. I have a girlfriend now, a scientist in Midgard. You gave me a lot of trouble about courting a mortal, I recall." He looked at Loki quizzically, as if hoping it would jog his memory, then straightened in a businesslike manner and whipped the cover off a tray that Loki had not noticed sitting on the nightstand. "In any case, I have brought you some soup from dinner. You should eat. You need the nourishment."
The smell was making Loki hungry, and he sat up to eat. Or tried to anyway. He barely succeeded in getting his head off the pillow. Thor sat next to him and lifted him to a seated position as if he weighed nothing, resting him securely against his own solid chest. Loki would have bristled at the indignity of it if it hadn't felt so good to have his perfect older brother's full attention on him instead of everyone cooing over Thor and ignoring him as usual. And, okay, it was embarrassing that Thor had to steady his shaking hands to keep him from spilling his soup, but the funny warm feeling that being so coddled gave him was almost worth it considering that nobody else saw.