[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.

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[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.

[st_ormbreaker]

"You and I seem to have very different memories of the last time I saw you drunk and hungover," he says, taking another long swig of his beverage.

[st_ratagem]

"Really? It's quite entertaining for me." Which was, really, why he didn't do it that often. Drunk Loki's favorite target was hungover Loki, in many ways. "But we do remember things differently fairly often."

[st_ormbreaker]

"I suppose so," Thor admits. "Differing perceptions and all."

Thor takes a swig of his drink and thinks about what his father said about him always seeing half the picture. He turns and looks at Loki.

"You think you're going to remember all this in the morning?" he asks. "I really don't want to have this conversation again."

[st_ratagem]

"It's my mind. It does what I tell it to." Which was to say: yes.

[st_ormbreaker]

"I tell my mind many things -- it doesn't mean it always does it."

[st_ratagem]

"That's your mind. I've got mine trained."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor pouts.

"Are you going to let me braid your hair or what?"

He might as well get something out of this conversation.

[st_ratagem]

"I'm not going anywhere." Loki dropped his voice to a theatrical whisper, "There's glass on the floor."

[st_ormbreaker]

Thor rolls his eyes and crawls into the middle of the bed so he has better access to his brother's hair. He runs a hand through it, trying to pull free any tangles.

"When was the last time you washed your hair? Do you need me to do that for you?"

[st_ratagem]

"What? No! This morning or yesterday, probably." Loki shrugged, a little awkwardly so as not to get in his brother's way. Ordinarily, Thor would obsess about his own hair, but as it had been shaved off it made a certain amount of sense that he'd latch on to Loki's instead.

Not a good replacement, but better than nothing. "Doesn't matter. There's a comb in the bathroom if you'd rather not use your hands."

[st_ormbreaker]

"No matter," Thor says, as his fingers already start threading his brother's hair together. They'd done this as children, but certainly not anytime recently, even when they were getting along.

"I wish I had some of Vax's beads, though," he says, frowning thoughtfully as he works. "It'd be nice to thread some of them into your hair."