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Loki stands next to his brother in a lift, on a planet light years away from his home, and imagines the orchard near his childhood home. He bites his lip, worries at it with his teeth, as Thor discusses their roles in life.
“I don't know, maybe there's still good in you…”
Loki tries to focus on his words, but instead his mind continues to wander.
He can see the apple trees in bloom, pink-white petals crisp yet gauzy. He sees them sway and bend, moving as subtle as waves. Remembers climbing those trees with Thor as children. Remembers, specifically, watching as the petals start to fall.
“...but let's be honest, our paths diverged a long time ago.”
Though two might start out on the same flower, or be even closer as two buds grow together, they slowly, inevitably drift. They fall from their places like blood-tinted snowflakes, and as they fall, they stray.
The wind may gather them as a current sweeping through the grove, and ones close to the ground can join those in the air once more. In the end, though, they all fall. All stop. All scatter.
They say petals fall at a steady rate, based on higher equations of volume, density, and mass than Loki can calculate in his mind. The dance of their lives pushes them farther and farther apart until, rested on the orchard floor, they settle.
“It's probably for the best that we never see one another again.”
Loki remembers another similar sentiment Thor expressed to him as he sat, broken, in a cell, mourning their mother’s death. Crumpled and crushed like a flower fallen underfoot.
“You should know when we fought each other in the past, I did so with a glimmer of hope that my brother was still in there, somewhere.”
He didn’t believe him then.
“That hope no longer exists to protect you.”
He does now.
Loki knows this is where he leaves Thor. He knows this is yet another time where he will diverge from his path. So why does it feel so different? Why does it feel so final? Every other time he has found himself back with Thor to the gain or detriment of his plans. Not like petals, but like two planets that orbit one another. Now, though… Now there is a gravity to Thor's words, an apathy to his demeanor, a sinking weight to his actions.
Loki feels helpless under it all.