Chapter Text
(If you are reading this on any PAY site this is a STOLEN WORK, the author has NOT Given Permission for it to be here. If you're paying to read it, you're being cheated too because you can read it on Archiveofourown for FREE.)
Loki looked around his comfortably appointed quarters and ran his fingers over the wards where they flickered into faint visibility on the window sills. He smiled in delight. He's insane, he knows he's insane, but it doesn't bother him, because he got what he was after. Just because you're insane doesn't mean you're stupid. He was safe in Asgard, where Thanos would never, ever be able to touch him, not even in his dreams. It had been a little risky, planning a Midgard invasion intended to fail, but it was the only way he could get beyond Thanos' reach. He was slightly put out that Thor could believe him so stupid as to goad the few people capable of defeating him, so stupid as to allow a mind-slave to build a failsafe into his device, so stupid as to not recognize the calling bracelets Stark wore. But he was only a little annoyed at his brother. He might someday kill Thor, but he did love him. Everyone loved Thor.
Thor came to visit often, bringing him delicacies and amusements and court gossip. Now that the healers had admitted his madness, had peered into his psyche and seen the ragged scars, even Odin felt pity for him, and maybe even a touch of fatherly guilt, which accounted for Loki's confinement in luxury. It wasn't something you give up; a father's responsibility. Loki had been a good father, had loved all his children and treated them all alike regardless of their appearance, which was really more than Odin could say, if he were honest. There'd always been the little, niggling definition of Loki as lesser than Thor, Thor the Golden, Thor the Warrior, Thor the Popular, Thor my Son to be Molded in my Image, Thor the Not Bright Enough to see Manipulation instead of Being a Suspicious, Clever Bastard like Loki. Oh, Loki hated Thor. Almost as much as he loved him.
"Loki!" Thor entered in a dazzle through the door wards, smiling and Golden as ever.
Loki turned and gave Thor his best, and most nearly honest, smile in return. He was a little bored, so he hated Thor less than usual. "Brother!" That always made Thor melt. "You look well. Have you been visiting your lady on Midgard?"
"Indeed I have." Thor's smile faltered.
"Is all not well with your beloved?" Loki really didn't wish her any particular harm. Let Thor cherish her fleeting sweetness. Loki would still be here after her charms withered and all that Thor had left of her were memories. He would weep in Loki's arms. It would be pleasant.
"The Lady is well, quite well." Thor sighed and sat in Loki's best chair. Always the best for Thor. "But the Man of Iron, he who carried death into the void... he ails..."
Loki picked up a fruit from the basket Thor had brought, turning it over to enjoy the scent before biting into it. "Oh, I can imagine." Loki still sees the endless horror and worse, the things that look almost right, still hears the voices that pull and tear at your mind, finding your weaknesses and ripping asunder, until... the void wins, and you break. "How many has he killed in his madness?" The fruit is sweet, and he licks the juice from his lips.
"None, by merciful providence. His machines had sense enough to st..." Thor studied Loki for a moment. "You are not surprised by this news?"
"If I could not withstand the void, then what could you expect of a fragile mortal's mind?" Loki felt an odd curl of kinship, a little twist in his gut of sympathetic pain. How strange. "Have they slain him?"
"Nay. They have..." Thor's eyes didn't quite go to the warded windows, to the ever-watched mirrors, to the softly yielding walls and the utter lack of anything even half as sharp as Loki's tongue. "They have placed him where he may be safe while their mind-healers attempt to cure him."
This fruit had been a favorite of one of Loki's children. He can't... recall now... who it was. He tossed the half-eaten fruit out the window to see the bright glitter. "They will not succeed." He smiled as a thought came to him, but then he was sad again. He had almost liked the Midgardian; he had courage and wit for all that he was a mere babe in comparison to Loki. "How long was he in the void?"
"Not long. A few minutes. We thought him perished at first, but he awoke, and seemed well. It was several days later when the truth emerged."
"Give him to me."
"What?" Thor stood up, and shook his head. "Loki..."
Loki tilted his head back and smiled at Thor. "I could restore him to his senses, such as they were. I know what the void does. I know how to fight it. I know how to bring him back. Give him to me. Let him be mine."
Thor frowned. "Your jest is in ill taste, brother. This man has suffered enough at your hands."
"Then it is only right that my hands should heal him." Loki remembered the feel of his hands on Stark's throat, remembered picking him up and throwing him as if he were a child. There was that odd feeling again. At first he was just thinking that healing Stark would relieve his boredom, but now he remembers how pleasant it had been having someone small and young depending on him. Looking up to him with simple affection. Being trusted. "I would use no magic of my own once the healers had prepared him."
"Prepared? No, Loki, I do not know what you intend, but I will not let you use anyone for your amusement."
Loki spread his hands. "Then you condemn this brave, noble creature to a lifetime of imprisonment within his own mind. Fortunately, that won't be very long. Midgardians are bright little things, while they last." Loki knew Thor would be thinking of his Lady, confusing his feelings for her with the more distant pity he felt for Stark.
"What would you have the healers do?"
Victory. Loki didn't gloat or smile. "Make him as a babe in mind."
Thor drew back in horror. "What depraved thought is this? You would have us make your enemy a helpless plaything?"
Loki lifted his chin and met Thor's eyes, suddenly angry. "No. I want to be a father again, for a little while. I want... I want to be the sun and the moon and the stars, the guide and the teacher, the comfort and the protector. For a little while. It is no game to me. I know I can cure him. And when he leaves, one child of mine will walk free as I never will. That is what I would have you do."
Thor was silent for a long, long moment, and then he nodded. "I will discuss your request with father. If he agrees, then I shall go to Midgard and lay your offer before them.
"Thank you, brother."