Chapter Text
Loki stood in what was left of the rainbow bridge. As he looked up at the sky, a cold, accepting calm finally washed over him. The air was thick with sooth, fire and smoke, purplish clouds overshadowing most of the stars he had so often watched during his life. Only a handful of the brightest starts could be made out.
Overhead, he caught sight of the small cluster of stars that made up the Friggerock. One in particular seemed to twinkle at him, briefly, and then grow duller once more. Loki closed his eyes. He could imagine his mother standing by his side, with details enough to nearly feel her physically there. The way her golden hair had always been beautifully made, not a strand out of place. The faint smell of lavender and spice, with just a hint of magic, her magic, which his own so perfectly echoed, a mixture that had always screamed home at him.
He tried to remember what she had told him once, when he was not longer a child and not yet a man, after a particularly complicated bit of mischief had rendered all the serving wenches long, flowing beards and all the valets the ability to only speak in highly flowery prose.
Frigga had scowled but she had laughed; she had always laughed as his pranks, to Odin’s irritation.
(He idly noticed the tremor beneath his feet grow closer. He paid it no mind.)
What had she said?, he wrecked his mind. Her voice had been soft as she disciplined him. Too soft, perhaps; now he wondered whether she had known what had prompted the prank. The servant’s japes at how the younger prince seemed given to the womanly arts; how unfavorably he compared to his brother, even then already thick bodied like an ox and proficient at the sword, while Loki, bird boned and slight, spent his hours at his mother’s skirts practicing magic and reading.
(The prank had been as simple to resolve as it had been complicated to inflict; most of the beards were gone the same day, to disappointed exclamations, the many flowers and beads the women had woven into them falling to the floor as they dissolved in magic. It had taken the men longer; it was rumored there was still at least one servant from that day, who to this day refused to speak, falling for a mute, rather than derive enjoyment from such an unmanly thing.)
He opened his eyes as he finally remembered.
Sometimes, my son, Frigga had said, running a hand through Loki’s then shorter hair, sounding fond, I feel as though you might bring about the end of the world for a laugh.
Loki’s eyes fell upon the twinkling star as he felt the warm, putrid breath at his back. The beast made no sound. It knew Loki wouldn’t run.
He saw the star glint once more, and was gone.
***
Thor watched, bemused, as Tony checked the integrity of the many boxes he had brought along to Asgard. As he did so, Tony spoke at a mile a minute, the All-Speak failing every few words as it was wont to do when Stark got technical, mentioning the scientific impossibility of travel by Bifrost, wondering at the materials of which it was made, asking Thor to translate the many runes and then not waiting for an answer, and more. Heimdall had stepped outside, citing the need to fetch servants for their belongings, but Thor heard him mutter something that sounded suspiciously like “overwhelmed” as he exited. The irony had seemed to be lost on Stark.
Still, Thor found the incessant yammering somewhat comforting. When Thor had found the normally ebullient man, alone and broken and aged, it had been a shock. Tony had forced nonchalance at Thor as he spoke of the “falling out”, as he put it, with the other Avengers, but the smiles had never reached his lined eyes, and Thor hadn’t missed the way his hands clenched as he spoke or rubbed nervously at his chest.
Thor had been dubious, at first, of Jane’s suggestion that he take Tony along on his next trip to Asgard - the All-Father had finally given Jane leave to visit to study their skies and constellations , and Thor had been eager for a second try at getting Odin to accept her. He had become much more open to the idea of Jane in the last few years; word around Asgard was that the loss of his wife and estranged son had made the All-Father softer for his remaining child.
Jane’s mother, however, had received a broken arm from a badly calculated yoga pose merely a few days before the day of their trip. Thor had offered to reschedule, but Jane had been adamant that she wanted the data as quickly as possible.
The fact that Jane’s mother opposed vehemently to Thor and would complain loudly and viciously whenever he was around might have had an influence into her haste to be rid of him.
She had, then, suggested Thor ask Tony. He was one of the few people who would be able to learn how to use her custom made equipment in such short notice, she had said, and she trusted him to collect the data she needed. There had been more to her reasons, Thor knew, having watched her become increasingly more disturbed as she followed news and received information from Hill about the in fighting regarding the accords. Jane liked all the Avengers well enough, but Tony had earned himself a particularly soft spot. Thor wasn’t sure what had caused it - Tony’s clear respect for her intellect, the offer of his own private lab once hers had suffered a particularly destructive malfunction, the fact that he was always willing to pick up her calls at 3 a.m. after her team had all succumbed and she had need for someone to help her troubleshoot whatever she had been working on - but a soft spot it was.
And so Thor had asked Tony whether he would be interested to be Jane’s proxy and accompany him to Asgard. Tony’s reaction had startled Thor, truth be told - it was the first real smile he had seen from the man since he arrived.
Blinking back to the present, and seeing Tony still engrossed in checking possible damages to the cargo from “being slingshoted into space, what the hell, how is that even possible”, Thor decided to step outside. Heimdall was taking far too long and perhaps he would be able to glean the reason for his delay, but his train of thought was quickly cut as he saw what lay before him.
It was Asgard as it had always stood, he knew rationally, but something felt... strange. The sun glinted high in the sky and warm on his skin. He had forgotten the city capable of shining so, the spires of the castle appearing almost as freshly molten gold. It seemed that, in every recent memory he scrounged up of Asgard, the city had been stuck in a nearly endless twilight. How had he not noticed this?
He was about to call Tony, to urge the man to share in the splendorous view before him, when he noticed another presence.
Standing a few feet to his side, indolently sitting with his back against the Bifrost in a spot of shade, was Loki.
Thor felt himself freeze despite the warm sun on his skin. Loki’s eyes made contact with his, and he smiled, pushed himself slowly up, a movement that looked almost lazy if not for the precision with with it was executed, and walked towards Thor.
“Loki? What....?” Thor asked dumbly, as he watched the other man. His eyes were glued on Loki as if he would disappear if he looked away. Once Loki was out of the shade, Thor was able to see how different he looked from the last time he had seen - younger. Despite his shock, his mind tallied the differences. Fewer lines in his face, and hair that hung straight and loose to his chest, much longer than was strictly acceptable for a man fully come of age; no armor but Loki’s favored version of the seiðmenn’s typical long cloth coat, tailored across the chest and arms and hanging open and loose around his legs; all in a fashion Thor hadn’t seen grace his bother for a few centuries, at least.
“I came to greet my returning brother, of course," Loki said, after what felt like an eternity but was barely a moment, smiling easily. A true smile, not the maddened replacement Thor had grown used to in the last few years. At Thor's incredule look, he huffed, rolling his eyes, and added. "Fine. Mother tasked me with warning her of your arrival. She would see you in her rooms at your earliest convenience." At the word, Thor felt the blood rush back to his extremities, quickly turning from ice to lava. His hand clenched tightly around Mjolnir's handle.
"Mother...? You would jest such?" Thor asked, his voice trembling with barely contained anger. Loki seemed to not notice it.
"Oh, brother, I know I will always be her favorite, but Mother still has some affection for you," he teased, voice dancing, a smile on his lips. "I must warn her, then, of your arrival." Loki bowed in an elaborate, slightly mocking curtsy, and, in a glimmer of gold, shimmered away.
Thor stared silently at the spot where his brother had been. His nails had been black, Thor had noticed, as they had often been in their youth. Loki had been extremely bookish and studious, he remember, bringing books to meals and spending nights in the libraries, and his preferred type of ink had a way of staining his nails for days that drove Frigga insane. Loki had finally cheekily taken to charming his nails completely black so “Frigga wouldn’t have to see the stains”. She had had to work hard at hiding her laughter and pretending anger.
“What the hell?” Thor turned to see Tony standing at the Bifrost’s entrance, hand gripping the door-post firmly. Thor had no idea how long he had stood there. "I thought he was, y'know, dead? Also crazy. And a psychopath. But, mostly, dead?"
"He was," Thor said, voice somber. "As is my mother." This seemed to shock Tony, who let go of the door-stop and stepped towards Thor. His voice was softer the next he spoke.
"So, you think this is, what, a trick? A trap?" Thor shook his head.
"Even if Loki had somehow survived, he would not stoop so low," said Thor. Seeing Tony's look of disbelief, he shook his head, again, sadly. "I know my brother is a madman and vicious, Stark, but if he prized and valued something in all our lives, it was mother. Even he still held some things as sacred."
"Look, Thor, I know you believe that, but..."
"Enough," Thor said, in a voice that brooked no argument. "I value your council, man of iron, but this is a matter of Asgard, and here, my word is law. Be on your guard, but do nothing until I say so. I will investigate what is afoot."