Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Loki felt empty.

His whole life was a lie. Everything he ever believed in. Everyone he ever loved. All he had ever accomplished. None of it was true.

Loki Odinson was nothing more than a scheme.

He was no prince. He wasn’t even aesir. He was a bastard that should never have lived to celebrate his first name day. He was a monster from his own childhood tales.

All this time, he had tried so hard, so desperately, to be Thor’s equal when in reality, he never had a chance. They were not brothers.

“No!”, Thor exclaimed, successfully bringing Loki back to the moment at hand.

They were standing in Asgard’s throne room - and by ‘they’, Loki meant Odin, Frigga, Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three, as well as none other than Laufey and two members of his guard.

The jotunn king had come to retrieve what had been stolen from him all those years ago.

“Silence.”, Odin ordered his son. His only son.

“Father, you cannot truly entertain -”, Thor tried again, taking a step forward.

“You will be silent or will have you escorted out.”, Odin threatened.

The aesir king was livid, his voice colder than the frost giants themselves. He was terrifying. Yet it was Frigga’s gentle hand on his shoulder which convinced Thor to back down temporarily.

Loki had not uttered a word since Odin admitted to his crime. What could he possibly have said? Beg his captor? Ask for mercy?

The All-Father would never choose one life over peace. One adopted jotunn over millions of true asgardians.

No king would.

But Thor wasn’t king yet.

Loki held his head high as he took a step towards Laufey. He refused to look back at his family: Odin’s grave expression, Frigga’s tear-streaked face and Thor’s desperate rage were already forever etched in his memory.

Loki should have known Thor would not let go so easily.

“King Laufey.”, the prince called and he felt a surge of exasperated anger.

Had Thor not done enough already?

Loki opened his mouth to say so but was left speechless when he turned around to discover Thor, proud Warrior Prince Thor, down on his knees.

Odin said his son’s name, making it sound like a warning, which Thor ignored, while Laufey studied him critically for a moment.

“What do you want, boy?”, the jotun king asked.

Loki watched, astounded, as Thor bit his own tongue when his temper threatened to overcome his new resolution. Their gazes briefly met and he experienced an unexpected feeling of anticipation. Also, Loki liked to pretend otherwise, Thor was no idiot when he bothered.

But he was a fool.

“I, Thor son of Odin, Prince of Asgard, kneels in front of you, King Laufey of Jotunheim, to seek your blessing to marry your son, Loki of Jotunheim, and by this act, unit our kingdom once and for all.”, Thor declared, his voice firm and perfectly even from start to finish.

It was a proposal Loki had heard Thor rehearse in the past, coerced by Frigga and their tutors, but it was never meant to be addressed to him.

When Loki’s lips parted in surprise, it was a minimal and elegant action. That much couldn’t be said of Sif and the Warriors Three’s shocked reactions.

Loki reflexively looked at Odin. He was confounded by the All-Father obvious resigned expression.

“You care for him so dearly you would stain your own bloodline to keep him by your side?”, Laufey asked after what felt like a small eternity.

“It would be my honor to spend the rest of my life by his.”, Thor answered without missing a beat.

“Your children would be half-breed.”, Laufey pressed, probably wondering if the prince truly understood Loki’s origin.

Which was a fair concern as he looked nothing like a jotunn.

“Our children would be loved.”, Thor replied, his polite demeanor slipping briefly as Laufey’s implication angered him.

“You are a fool.”, The jotunn king stated after a pause. “My blessing will be your downfall.”

Laufey’s unreadable gaze traveled from Thor to Loki and back before he turned on his heels.

Loki let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding. But his relief was short-lived as he remembered he had no identity anymore. There was no going back from what had been said and done.

Lost in his own mind as he was, Loki didn’t saw Thor moved and was startled when the other’s arms wrapped themselves around him. Though he tensed ever so slightly, Loki did not try to disentangle himself from the embrace. Irrationally, he thought Thor might be the last thing holding him together and that he might very well fall apart without his support.

Loki resisted when Thor took a step back. He tried to keep him close but the thunder god was stronger than he. Thankfully, Thor only let go of his body to grab his face. Their eyes met again and Loki blinked. It dawned on him Thor was no longer his brother.

He was his betrothed.

“What have you done?”, Loki heard himself whisper.

And it was at that moment Odin chose to remind them of his presence: Gungnir hit the ground and the wave it produced brutally broke them apart.

Loki took a ragged breath as Thor turned towards Odin :

“Father -”, he said and he still looked way too proud of himself for someone who almost started a war and jeopardized his kingdom’s future in less than a day.

“Silence!”, the All-Father exclaimed.

His fury echoed in the throne hall. Sif and the Warriors receded towards the exit as Loki instinctively bowed his head. Even Frigga took a step back, putting herself out of her husband’s path, as he walked towards their son.

“When I think I almost made you king.”, Odin said and Thor frowned, visibly confused. “You are nothing but a brat and a fool who disobeyed the express command of his King -”

“Father -”, Thor tried again without success.

“You are unworthy!”, Odin exclaimed to his son’s face. “You are unworthy of this realm. Unworthy of your titles. You’re unworthy of the loved ones you have betrayed.”

Loki’s head snapped back up at those last few words and he opened his mouth without thinking. However, he didn’t get to say anything as Odin’s rage turned on him and he submitted immediately but not before he caught sight of the way Thor’s jaw clenched in a display of poorly repressed annoyance and protectiveness.

“And now I take from you, your power -” Loki looked up again, alarmed, as Mjolnir flew from her bearer’s belt to Odin’s hand. This wasn’t simply about Thor’s coronation anymore. “- the name of my father, and the name of his father before -”

“All-Father -”, Loki tried taking a step towards them as he racked his brain for a way to stop this folly.

“- And I, Odin All-Father, cast you out!”, the king concluded as he brandished Gungnir.

Light exploded and Loki stumbled backward, covering his face. When he was finally able to see again, it was to constate Thor’s disappearance.

He felt panic rise in his chest.

“What did you do?”, Loki heard himself asked between ragged breaths. “Thor made a deal with Laufey. You had no right -”

“I have all the rights! I’m King!”, Odin cut in with enough fury to make Loki flinch.

Thankfully, Frigga took it upon herself to put an end to the scene by joining her adopted son’s side. Loki barely registered her arm around his shoulder at first, all his attention focused on the god he had spent the last hundred years admiring. Loving even.

“What will happen to me?”, Loki asked.

Without Thor, he was nothing but a potential enemy to the throne.

Odin looked at him, truly looked at him, for the first time since he admitted to his lies but didn’t give Loki an answer.