[Loki and Thor] Take two

[st_ratagem]

Twenty minutes had proved to be more than enough time to raid the café's bar area, taking several (eight? ten? Loki didn't count) bottles of various liquors. The God of Mischief was generally an occasional drinker or social drinker at best, but Thor was another matter. His brother had prodigious tolerance even for an Asgardian.

He wasn't used to a cryptic, secretive Thor, or a Thor with a bizarre tendency to follow him around like a puppy, or a Thor that wept on him for no apparent reason. It was strange, it was worrying, it had to stop. The solution had to be somewhere in what had happened between Loki's 'now' and Thor's, and if Thor needed to be drunk to give him those facts, his brother was more than happy to take that request seriously.

The acquired bottles went into the little nook under the stairs - not to stay there long, almost certainly. After due consideration, Loki also hauled the trash can out of the bathroom and placed it by the large bed on the lower level, for empties. It was the only decent place to sit that wasn't in the upper-level area that was for sleeping or the outdoor balcony.

At that point, all there was to do was wait.

Comments

[st_ratagem]

"It would, wouldn't it." Loki honestly hadn't expected Thor to get banished to Midgard, then. He'd taken it the opportunity with both hands, despite his I have apparently been literally blue this whole time concerns, but it hadn't been his plan. "I really didn't think he'd exile you, brother. For a little stupid defiance regarding a war that was really just on pause? It made no sense." But it did now, maybe, if Odin had been worried that Thor's desire to kill frost giants would become more general.

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor doesn't say anything to that, but he doesn't down half the drink in one go, either. Instead, he takes a swig, mulls over the revelation that his banishment wasn't actually some elaborate part of Loki's machinations like he always thought it was, then brushes the back of his hand over his lips to dry them.

"He took over the Nine Realms with Hela," he says. "Conquered them. Then covered it up when it was done and over and Hela was dealt with."

He takes another swig of the bottle.

"I don't want to ever pretend I haven't made mistakes," Thor says. "I want to acknowledge them."

And as he says that, Thor realizes his earlier comment about Frigga and what he wish he had done differently was part of that.

[st_ratagem]

"You'll be acknowledging for a very long time." They both would, if Loki didn't prefer his own style of simply owning whatever he did. "But I grow less sad over Father by the minute, so that's something." A lie, but having less to really regret was making it easier to carry.

[st_ormbreaker]

Another silence, and then:

"I do think he loved us," he says. "I just don't know if he knew how."

Thor looks back over at Loki, still gripping the bottle in his hand. For a second, it looks like he might say something, but in the end, he just ends up drinking instead.

[st_ratagem]

"He certainly loved you." Loki finished number three, then dropped it. Probably it joined the others. If not, it could be dealt with later. "Me, that's more complicated." And not just for the last decade. "I know I'm... difficult." Verging on impossible, he meant but didn't say.

[st_ormbreaker]

"He loved you, Loki," Thor says. He's certain of that, even if Loki isn't. "Yes, you can be difficult sometimes, but you're not unlovable."

[st_ratagem]

"I don't think I have to take your opinion." There was certainly something wrong with someone's reasoning, anyway. "You've put up with me for fifteen hundred years. You're... what is it... you're Stockholmed."

[st_ormbreaker]

"I think you overestimate your hold on me," Thor says. He downs more of the bottle. "You can believe what you want, but mother loved you and father loved you too. And I still love you now."

[st_ratagem]

And the only one who'd had anything like a real choice about that had been Odin, hadn't it? He could have just left the discarded blue thing to die. And, honestly, probably should have. "Why?"

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor looks over at Loki, puzzled.

"We've been friends for 1500 years, and you ask why I love you?"

[st_ratagem]

Loki frowned, thinking. "So, inertia?" After a couple of seconds, he shook his head. "I do love you, brother, but I don't understand you."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor knew that Loki loved him, even if love wasn't exactly a word either one of them used that often. Somehow, it was different hearing Loki say it aloud.

"It's not inertia," he clarifies, because it seems important to say. But how exactly do you explain why you love someone? Even now, Thor can't possibly begin to put any of it into words.

He swishes the bottle a little, trying to make out how much alcohol is still inside. Some.

"There are times," he says, "when I don't understand you, or when you do something I can't possibly justify in my own head." Taking over Midgard being one of them; saving him being another. "I don't think understanding someone is necessary to love them."

Loki already knows this, though, if he's being truthful about loving him.

"We've been together many, many years," he says, "But there were many times where I could have chosen to stop loving you, and I didn't. Because you're a person with meaning in my life, someone I don't want to give up. Someone I wouldn't want to give up."

For a brief second, his mind imagines Loki's body aboard The Statesman and he has to push it away with all his force. He gives his brother a tight-lipped smile, then downs the rest of his drink.

[st_ratagem]

Loki watched his brother, and even drunk he couldn't miss the shadow right before that tight smile. Another secret... but to be pursued later. They'd probably had enough truth for one binge. It hadn't even been all terrible, for once.

Instead, the air needed to be let out, a little. He shoved Thor in the shoulder. "Sentimental ass."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Guilty as charged," he replies. This time, when Thor smiles at his brother, it's brighter than it was before.

[st_ratagem]

"Stay here tonight, if you like. Because I will not be carrying you anywhere." In his judgement, Thor wasn't quite at the point of needing to be carried, but he made the invitation anyway.

[st_ormbreaker]

The two of them hadn't shared a room since they were boys. Thor isn't opposed to it, but...

"Can I braid your hair, too?"

[st_ratagem]

Aaaand it was time for number four. "I think about halfway through this I'll be drunk enough to let you, sure."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor is grinning so hard that the happiness is practically radiating off of him. It's a stark change from the Thor that was waxing sentimental a few moments before.

Thor tosses the empty bottle aside, the blindly reaches for another one.

"How aren't you totally laid out on the floor now?" he asks, cracking open another one. "Frost Giant constitution cannot possibly be that good."

[st_ratagem]

"This is only four!" The number after three. "I let you outpace me by a lot. Also there are reasons I'm on the bed and not moving around. Pretty sure I'm not going anywhere for... a while. Couldn't stop you from braiding if I tried."

[st_ormbreaker]

"Do you want me to carry you up to bed?"

[st_ratagem]

"This is a bed." Loki pointed at it, because despite the obvious fact Thor apparently needed reminding. "I'm fine."

[st_ormbreaker]

"There's like a million bottles on the bed," he says, gesturing at the fine assortment of bottles, some empty, others unopened, sitting with them there on the bed. Maybe it's not quite a million, but Thor isn't particularly concerned with accuracy now.

[st_ratagem]

Loki flicked a hand and the collection of empties skidded off the bed onto the floor, where a few no doubt shattered. (The unopened stayed where they were. He wasn't a barbarian.) "Now there's less. Don't forget to wear shoes, broken glass is not pleasant on bare feet. Better?"

[st_ormbreaker]

The sound of glass shattering just reminds Thor of the time Valkyrie threw the bottle at Loki, and Thor just starts laughing to himself.

Loki's expression there had been priceless.

"Not better," he says. "You're just making a mess we're both going to have to clean up in the morning."

[st_ratagem]

"It's only the empties! Also, hungover me can handle it." Loki briefly considered writing a note to himself advising against wearing shoes, but that would never work.

He knew his own tricks.