Work Text:
Freedom's an odd concept. Loki's always had freedom, in one twisted way or another, because it's actually rather difficult to restrain someone who can vanish at will. Even if you stop him from doing so, he always has tricks.
It's kind of his thing. He's the god of trickery.
Unfortunately, Loki's tricky freedom carried with it an air of inherent insubordination and deceit. Even evil, if one were to use strong words.
Norns forbid.
With the name of the All-Mother behind him, Loki's blessed with a fresh kind of liberty unknown to him since his title of 'prince' was untarnished.
Loki's abused this diplomatic gold card just enough to hold onto it. That goes without saying.
But what he's doing now isn't bending any rules. If anything, the All-Mother might be proud.
Most mortals would be surprised to learn that one can walk into Hel if they know where they're going. Even more would be surprised to learn that you can walk back out again.
His recent decision to cut down his magic use so he doesn't go a little mad with power limits his transportation options. Instead of just poofing himself where he wants to be, he actually takes the time to summon himself a portal just after breakfast.
He's decided that breakfast is undoubtedly his favourite Midgardian meal. Bacon wins, obviously, but the range of cereals that he's discovered have taken a lot of time to experience with. Better than boiled oats, certainly. Some have marshmallows.
In any case, his portal works perfectly. Bringing his trunk of portable magic paraphenalia from Asgardia was a good move.
If only every one of his moves was a good one.
Soon, he's in Hela's castle. Tyr greets him; for a moment, it seems like he'll refuse Loki entry, challenge him to a fight, something, but he just makes a dry comment about Loki's new face and leads him through Hela's home.
She's eternal, Hela. Therefore she looks the same as ever, skimpy clothes and elaborate headdress, lying lackadaisically on a lounger.
"Loki," she says when she says him, her voice full of its usual rich darkness. "Cheating death again, I see. You'll soon be better at that than I am."
"Hela, you're as lovely as always," Loki purrs. In times like this, he always wonders how much she remembers of Leah's fate. Hopefully not all of it.
"I know why you're here," she says coyly.
"Do you?" Loki replies, not giving a thing away. "Care to enlighten me? My feet brought me here on a stroll; I wondered if there were some higher meaning."
"He is not here, Loki. He had no body to slay," Hela says.
That breaks Loki's casual facade quite neatly. "He must be."
"He remains in Valhalla as a shade; I cannot guarantee that you will be able to speak with him," Hela says. "His deeds were noble enough in life that he was honoured in what small death you gave him. Unlike you, who even Hel may be too pure for."
"I'm working on that, actually," Loki says coolly. "Soon, who knows? I could replace Tyr at your side. I'm certain you'd both enjoy that."
"Just visit, Loki," Hela says, almost resignedly. "I wouldn't like to inform the All-Mother that their new teenage servant was loitering in places he should not."
Loki thinks privately that the All-Mother would be proud of him. He's working on apologising for his deeds, and if anyone deserves an apology, it's the shade that's plagued his conscience since his resurrection.
Hela guides him to where he wants to go, then leaves.
Valhalla's a beautiful place, really. It's designed as the ideal afterlife for all those of the character to deserve it; it's lush fields, plentiful food and anything a heart could desire.
The kid's sitting in a paddock, playing with a young dog. Loki doesn't recognise it, but then again, he'd always loved dogs.
According to some saying on Midgard, all dogs go to Heaven anyway.
"Loki," Loki says simply to his younger self.
It's complicated, the naming of his earlier selves. In his head, he generally refers to the original Loki - Loki burning - as himself, but this child isn't really like him at all. He's just... the kid. Kid Loki.
Kid Loki raises his head. There's an odd quality to him, no doubt because he's only a shade; he's not quite opaque, and slightly blurry, making his form seem incorporeal and hard to hold on to.
Hela must've worked hard to bring even this much to Hel.
"I wondered if you'd come see me," kid Loki says. "Good to see you picked a pretty face. Pretty faces get you everywhere."
"Tyr could barely keep his hands off me," Loki agrees idly, sitting down on the grass next to the kid. The puppy comes over and thoroughly inspects him, until kid Loki conjures a ball from nowhere and rolls it across the grass. Loki catches it and rolls it back, the dog following it eagerly.
This game continues for a few minutes, neither version of Loki quite certain what they want to say.
Kid Loki is the first to break the silence. "You know, I always knew you'd come back. You're him. He-with-many-plans. You weren't just gonna bring a nice kid like me to life to make Thor happy, oh no."
"For what little it's worth, it wasn't me. He-with-many-plans is still very not living. I'm just a copy of him, and quite frankly, I'm annoyed at him too," Loki replies. "Not only did he give me a terribad legacy that I have to work on, but he's been banned from getting a library card in New York, and I think the All-Mother would be annoyed if I stole the books."
Kid Loki puzzles that over for a moment, before saying "You remember everything, though, yes?"
"In full HD IMAX," Loki says wryly.
"So you know why he did what he did in the siege of Asgard."
"Oh, yes. I've been puzzling over that tidbit myself," Loki says.
Kid Loki looks expectant.
Hot damn, no wonder strangers were so nice to me when I was a kid. I'm so cute, Loki thinks, that odd non-sequitur floating through his head.
"Loki is Loki, god of fire, mischief and evil until the day he dies, yes?" Loki says.
"So he died, and made you to take his place and carry him on," kid Loki says. "I gotcha."
"But I'm trying to do better. It's a strange concept, mostly because I have a head full of a millenia of memories of trying to figure out ways to do worse. So it didn't work for him."
"That means you're here to what? Apologise?" kid Loki says cynically, catching the ball and vanishing it neatly. The puppy looks confused.
"Actually, yes. You're the only person I feel I wronged hugely enough to apologise to. Everyone else had crimes to their name, but you - you are innocent."
"I wouldn't go that far."
"No. You are Loki. So am I. So was he. We're invariably mischievous. But you didn't deserve to burn out so quickly," Loki says. "Thor misses you. He would never say so, and he does not know what happened. But he knows you're gone."
Kid Loki doesn't say anything, just scratches the dog behind the ear.
After a few minutes of non-activity, he fades away, and Loki wonders if his shade was actually here, or if his powers got away from him again. That conversation went a little too well.
Either way, he's about to take a shortcut and just vanish himself back to New York when he hears kid Loki's voice say "Don't light the first spark."
With that in mind, he makes his way back to Hela. He will not be Loki-that-burns again.