Chapter Text
“Loki… please!”
Loki’s grin was sharp. His teeth were bright against his kissed-red lips. His face almost glowed, set against the dark of his hair.
He tossed his head back. His hair flew with the motion. Then he rolled his hips downward, and his stretched hole swallowed Thor to the hilt.
Thor groaned. His cock was buried completely in his brother-lover’s tight wet heat. Loki’s simple movements back and forth felt like the surging of a whole ocean as Thor lay drowning on the seabed.
Loki laughed with soft triumph. For all his cock was as hard as Thor’s, and dripping onto Thor’s stomach, he looked composed. It was Thor who had broken first, and demanded more. Loki had won whatever strange prize he had decided upon this time.
“Well?” Thor gasped. He barely heard the word through the rushing of blood in his ears. “What will you have of me?”
Loki smirked. “I’ll think of something.”
Loki’s voice carried none of the tell-tale signs that Thor’s did. Hearing him, nobody could have guessed they had been at this for hours already. Thor leaked Loki’s seed from his own thoroughly-used hole, and still tasted it in the back of his throat. Loki himself was already wet and loose from Thor’s previous efforts. But Loki looked as regal as the prince he was, showing none of Thor’s panting disarray.
Hah. Thor would strip that untouched facade from him and leave it in tatters like their garments, strewn across the floor.
Thor seized Loki’s shoulders and jerked him against his chest. He rolled, pinned Loki on his back, and leant over him. His cock had half slipped out with the motion. He slammed back inside his brother-lover before Loki could say a word.
“If you won’t tell me, then you’ll take what I give you,” Thor growled. He shifted his legs for better leverage and thrust hard into Loki, then again, and again.
Loki laughed, but his hands were fisted in the furs of Thor’s bed. His legs wrapped firmly around Thor’s waist. “Will I? Then get giving.”
Thor answered with a thrust that jarred Loki’s whole body. Thor’s cock was burning, and swelling even further. Or perhaps the gripping tightness he felt was Loki clenching down around him. Stormy need built behind his eyes once more. Loki’s hands were clutching at Thor’s arms and would leave yet more delicious marks on his skin.
“More.”
Thor bent to Loki’s chest and took toned muscle between his teeth. He bit down hard, and Loki shouted and arched into Thor’s mouth. The hot splash of his release coated Thor’s stomach.
Thor fucked him through it, shoving breathless gasps from Loki’s body. He straightened up and wiped one hand through Loki’s seed. He pushed his dripping fingers into Loki’s mouth. Loki moaned, and sucked them clean. His tongue swirled around them, sweet and quick and eager. His cock was still half-hard between their bodies. Thor reached down and took Loki in hand.
Loki spasmed beneath him, and his hole squeezed Thor’s cock. The tight swirl behind Thor’s eyes burst and flew through him, hard and sudden. He pumped his seed into Loki’s body. Loki’s hole pulled it from him. Loki’s hands were on Thor’s buttocks, holding him close, keeping him locked inside. Thor thrust shallowly, hips twisting, to work his seed deeper into Loki.
Loki grinned, and ran one hand through Thor’s hanging, sweaty hair. “Finished yet?”
Thor took several breaths before he could speak. Loki purred satisfaction.
“I will never be finished with you.”
“Good enough,” Loki said, as if indulging Thor’s strange whims. He lifted a leg, bent sharply, and pushed at Thor’s hip with his toes. Thor slid from Loki’s body. Loki’s flesh dragged at his cock as though it longed to keep him inside.
Thor flopped to the bed, chest down, beside Loki. He stretched a hand between his brother-lover’s legs, and ran two fingers over his hole. He could feel the dripping trace of his seed, from this release and others, brought out with his cock. “Yes?”
“Mmm.”
Thor pushed his fingers back inside easily, and met no resistance. Loki had taken Thor’s cock for a whole hour before this round. He flexed his fingers, and they squished through the wet warmth. Loki tightened around him, using Thor’s fingers to keep his seed inside himself. They would be dripping white when Thor removed them, and flushed red from the heat of Loki’s body.
Loki wiggled his hips a little, and laughed softly. “You do know they’ll kill us both for this?”
Thor closed his eyes. Some of the sparks under his skin faded. Not again.
Thor pulled his fingers from Loki’s body, and wiped them clean on his own hip. He wrapped his arms around Loki, as if Thor could protect him from the truth and what came with it. Loki had spoken of this before. Thor always tried to stop it going further, to stop Loki falling into a strange mood that only pained him. But he never succeeded. Thor did know they would both be killed. Still, they can try stood on the tip of his tongue, side-by-side with they wouldn’t dare, and I won’t let them; you won’t let them. But Thor was not the optimistic child he had once been, and of the two of them Loki was the only liar with any skill. “I know.”
“Or,” Loki went on, tone far too light for his words, “perhaps they won’t. They’ll kill me, we both know that, but you? Ah, I think the golden heir to Asgard cannot be so easily spared as the vile mad traitor.” His voice turned black towards the end, spitting the words like the curses they were meant to be.
Thor held Loki closer, and tugged them both into a better arrangement. They lay now on their sides, their naked, well-fucked bodies pressed together. Their lips and eyes were mere inches apart; they breathed the other’s air. Loki’s skin against his was softer than silk and richer than the furs they lay on. “Do not say such things.”
“We both know them to be true.”
Loki’s eyes were dark, but there was just enough of a spark buried somewhere in the green that Thor did not lose hope. “About yourself. Do not call yourself those names.”
Loki shrugged, flesh whispering where it moved against Thor’s. “All Asgard does.”
Oh, his poor brother-lover, to be so touched by what they thought. Thor bent his head to hide the look of pity that would be little welcome. Never before his fall had Loki cared about public opinion. Only now did their vitriol burn him, when it truly was all Asgard whispering slanders and curses behind his back. Or, often as not, within his hearing. Thor tried a light jest instead. “And as you have said so many times, my love, you are not of Asgard.”
“And thus will Asgard satisfy itself with my death and not yours.” The spark in Loki’s eyes flared brighter and fanned the low heat in Thor’s belly to an answering flame. “’Tis I who will die for touching you…” Loki ran a single fingertip down Thor’s chest, sliding between his abdominals and through his own seed. “For holding you…” The fingertip turned to five, moving lower still. Loki took Thor’s cock in hand. His grip was light and feathery, and Thor arched back into the pillows. “Tasting you.” Loki writhed sinuously down the bed, shoulders twisting, until his lips were level with Thor’s cock. Thor shuddered in his grasp. Loki’s black hair looked magnificent where it was spilling over the tanned skin of Thor’s hips. Loki’s tongue flicked from between his lips and curled around Thor’s tip. The slight roughness of his tongue felt like a hot, wet rasp. Thor struggled to keep his hips motionless on the bed to let Loki play out his game.
“Or my worst crime yet, making you taste me in turn.”
Thor flung himself upright and shoved Loki further up the bed. Thor bent and wrapped his own lips around Loki’s cock. Thor slid down the length of him until the soft head was bumping the back of his throat. Thor’s mouth was filled and his lips were stretched wide. From the corner of his eye, his yellow hair over Loki’s pale skin looked almost as lovely as Loki’s hair on Thor.
Loki chuckled, and a slim-fingered hand laced through Thor’s hair. “See- ah… what I have reduced you to? Thor the Thunderer greedy for the chance to suck treacherous Loki’s cock. How many times have I done this to you? A hundred? A thousand? They will slaughter me a thousand times for this.”
Thor sucked harder and won a gasp from Loki, the flesh in his mouth quivering. He pulled up to slip his tongue between Loki’s head and foreskin.
“Look at the heir to Asgard, pleasuring his traitor br-” Thor scraped him gently with his teeth. “Agh! And Mother…” Loki bucked into Thor’s mouth. Thor bent to take him deeper, filling himself once more. “Mother will wash your mouth out with soap.”
Thor bellowed laughter and choked as it drove Loki down his throat. He drew away and laughed again. The idea! All Asgard screaming for blood and Mother would still treat Thor as a child.
The laughter died. Perhaps that was not so amusing, after all.
No, he did not savor the notion of Loki bearing this alone. Loki was right, their love was a crime, grim and terrible. But they committed it together, and Thor would stand beside Loki for whatever punishment was called down. He could neither abandon a brother nor a lover. Thor had two reasons, every reason, to not leave Loki alone.
He had done so before. He had denied what he felt and tried to put space between them. He had seized on the news of Loki’s adoption as a reason for distance, not closeness, and had used Loki’s attack on Midgard as an excuse to stay far from him.
But Loki had filled every thought and every dream. Every touch of his own hand he had pretended was Loki’s. He had ached with missing his brother’s silver-quick laughter and cutting truths, and he had known that Loki had been imprisoned only because Thor had wanted to keep him away. At that he had broken and begged the Allfather for Loki’s release.
Loki had emerged from the dungeons wan and scarred and thin, but Loki. Thor had taken him back to his rooms, fallen to his knees, and confessed and pled mercy in the same breath.
Loki had damned him for a sentimental fool and pulled him into bed.
Loki’s fingers drummed on the bed now, beside Thor’s head where it lay by Loki’s hip. “You’re thinking too much. You must be in pain.”
Thor gave a weak chuckle. “I should never have hidden my love for you.”
Loki rolled and shifted until they were face-to-face again, long bare limbs moving slow and sweet over the furs. “No, you should have. You should have locked it away inside and never let it see the light of day.”
Loki was right. This was a dangerous thing they did. For all Loki’s levity he would not suffer alone if they were discovered. But Thor could no more smother his heart than he could his breath, or Loki’s. He could not refuse himself Loki’s love. Calling him brother was not enough.
“Then I am glad…” He rose up over Loki. His hands bracketed Loki’s head. He held his hips teasingly just above Loki’s. “They call you the night.”
Loki sighed, and tipped his head back in surrender and welcome. “Give us a kiss.”
“Always.” Thor lowered himself to his brother-lover’s lips.
~
But Loki was right, no matter how Thor despised admitting it. For all he was adopted, Loki was still Thor’s brother, still an Odinson, and publicly acknowledged as such. And, for all he was an Odinson, he had brought Jotuns into Asgard, made war on Midgard and fought Thor.
He was also still blamed for the destruction of the Bifrost, and the thought turned Thor’s stomach. Asgard ever made Loki her scapegoat and blackened his name. Every time something went poorly Loki was cursed for it; every piece of ill fortune was one of Loki’s tricks. And Loki, crimes still hanging over his head, had no means of recourse. Father did not love Loki as he once had, and would not protect him from anything less than outright violence. Loki himself held no influence, even though he still bore the title of Prince. To use his magic against them would carry dire consequences.
And for Thor to sweep through and batter the skulls of everyone who slandered Loki would be a touch unsubtle.
He settled for pointed looks and reminders of Loki is my brother, watch your tongue, but even then he had to be cautious. The combination of Loki and tongue ignited fire in his chest and sent blood to his cock, threatening all their efforts at discretion. Every time he spoke the word brother his mind answered brother-lover. Though his tongue had not slipped yet it was not impossible that one day it would.
They could have been trying harder, that was certain. Give us a kiss was spoken between them in public too often to be utterly above suspicion. But they made it mocking, or brotherly, or a jest, and that was safe enough. It had been a joke between them long before they had meant the words, and had never caused comment then. Thor had not the heart to deny Loki, not again. Loki was certainly the more wary of the two of them, so if he thought it well then who was Thor to fear it otherwise?
Besides, as Loki said, Asgard believed him a sly traitorous liar. Who would think that Thor Odinson would love such a creature?
They had not been found out yet in years of sharing a bed. It was well.
Thor smiled into Loki’s shoulder, and closed his eyes to sleep.
~
Thor glanced up from his page.
Loki was facing away, eyes turned towards the window, but his hair was just settling into stillness. He had been almost quick enough to escape notice, but it was clear that Loki had turned away from looking at something else. He hadbeen staring at Thor.
Thor lowered his gaze to his book once more. Staring, and ashamed to be caught; this was one of Loki’s games. Loki had no shame.
Thor felt a shiver run up his spine. Loki’s games were ever wonderful.
His head would have turned back to Thor, now. Those dark eyes would be watching him carefully.
But Thor held his focus on the page, staring at the inked swirls of the words. He pretended to ignore Loki just as Loki had pretended to ignore him.
There was a faint squish as Loki crushed another grape between his teeth. Thor turned a page, and glanced up again.
He caught the bare flicker of Loki’s eyes, this time, as he looked away. Thor smiled, and didn’t return to his book at once. It was his turn to stare.
Loki’s hands were elegantly picking through the bunch of grapes. He plucked one free, and raised it to his lips. They parted slowly, and he set the grape between his teeth. He bit down sharply and sliced it clean in two. His finger pushed the second half back into his mouth. It left him sucking on that finger, the grape giving the impression that his mouth was oddly full. His eyes fluttered closed. Not even Loki normally ate that seductively.
Still. Thor’s brother-lover was not the only one who could play games.
While Loki’s eyes were still shut, Thor lifted his book and started falsely reading again.
Nothing from Loki, and then an almost-silent hiss. Thor barely kept his smirk from his lips.
The plick of the next grape parting from its stem was somehow angry. It was definitively beheaded by Loki’s teeth.
Thor had had years to learn to play Loki’s games. Loki would have to start trying harder in future. Thor flipped another page. See? I’m not even listening to you.
He did, though, hear the knock at the door.
Thor shut the book and set it on the small table beside his chair. He stood, and faced the door. “Come.”
It opened and a guard stepped through. “My prince.” He gave a single nod to Thor. He didn’t even look at Loki.
Thor breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. If things were not as he liked, they were still better than they had been. Even Asgard’s long-held grudges could fade. Loki being ignored was far improved over the filthy looks he would have been given a year or two ago.
Thor spoke once he could trust himself to be civil. “Yes?”
“Odin Allfather requests your presence.”
What could Father want with him? And why this minute, before Loki’s game had reached its end?
Thor waved the guard away. He bowed once, directly towards Thor, and turned and marched out.
Thor sighed, and raised an eyebrow at Loki. “Troublesome old man.”
Loki hid his laugh behind his hand. “I am quite sure he does not summon you with the sole intention of interrupting your other business.”
Thor walked over to where Loki sat, and bent to kiss him. His lips were warm, and underneath the grapes Thor tasted butter and honey from their breakfast. “But interrupt us he does.”
“Liar.” Loki slapped mock-angrily at Thor’s leg. “You were engrossed in that terrible poetry and you know it,” he huffed, playing offended.
Thor leaned in and nuzzled his neck. “Not even terrible poetry keeps away thoughts of you.”
“Stop it.” Loki slapped him again. “Take your leave before he sends another messenger and interrupts us in truth.”
Thor grinned and stepped back. He spread his arms wide and bowed at the waist. “My master commands.”
He fled the room before Loki could throw a grape at him.
~
“Allfather?”
Thor’s stomach sank as Father immediately dismissed the men he was speaking with. No small matter, then, if it could not wait.
Thor stepped forward to stand opposite Father’s chair, the wide table between them. He could have been before Loki even now, had Father not wanted him. He could have cast aside the truly awful poetry and drawn grapes from Loki’s mouth into his own…
Father leaned back in his chair and eyed Thor gravely. Sternly. Thor felt like a boy caught transgressing, sneaking sweets from the kitchens before dinner. “One chance, Thor. One chance to confess to me.”
“Confess what?”
“Thor.”
“I know not what you speak of.” His guilty heart fluttered in his chest, but it was prompted only by thinking of Loki a minute ago. They could not have been discovered, so what was Father so concerned over?
Father rose from his seat and started pacing around the table. Stalking. Thor swallowed. “Confess what you and your brother do behind closed doors.”
Brother-lover.
No, no, no! Somehow Father had spoken as if he knew Thor’s thought. That was impossible! He could not know!
Thor drew a deep breath. That was the answer. Father knew nothing, but he suspected. He tested Thor to see if he would give himself away.
Thor almost smiled. Loki would have been proud of him.
Father had rounded the end of the table. Thor looked him calmly in the eye as he came closer. “We talk.” Grapes and honeyed bread. “We eat together, often. Is it a wonder that Loki desires privacy when he is openly scorned whenever he-”
“Enough!” Father closed the last gap between them. His voice was loud and sharp in Thor’s ears. “I’ll not have you become a liar like him. Tell me, Thor - the truth, boy, now!”
His eye was wide, almost mad, and spittle flecked Thor’s face. He had not even been this enraged when Thor had attacked Jotunheim.
Thor’s heart went cold. This was no suspicion. This was knowledge. Somehow they had lost their secrecy and Father knew all.
“Father-”
His hand flew and Thor’s head snapped back. Pain flared across his cheek. His pulse hammered in his ears, and his breaths came short and desperate. His world was crashing down around him. It was too late to stop it, too late to be more careful. They could not say less, or close the doors earlier. Everything was lost.
He raised a hand to the throbbing flesh. It was already hot with blood rushing to the surface. He could almost feel the deeper imprint of each knuckle of the fist, and the distinct lines of single finger-bones.
Father had struck him.
Never had Father struck him.
Thor glanced up. Father’s pale eye was searing. “Listen to me very carefully, Thor. The tale is already all over Asgard. They say that Loki bewitched you or threatened you into this, that he forced you to submit to him. You will do nothing to dissuade them of this. Denounce Loki and all you may have been together, and you may escape unscathed.”
What? “I will no-”
“Foolish boy, do you know what this could cost you? You are to be king after me, but do you think any will heed a man who beds his own brother? Will you bring that foul two-faced thing so close to the throne?”
Thor’s heart thrummed with anger. Was it his own or his father’s? Perhaps both. Thor could barely see what was in front of him for the red haze. He wanted to simply make it stop, to push it all away.
Father could damn them both for incest, but he could not ask Thor to blame Loki alone. Thor could not call their love by the name of Loki’s malice.
“Do you hear me?”
Thor blinked, and breathed. He chased the iron bands from around his chest and forced himself to speak. “I hear you. But I will not-”
“You will!”
“I will not! I love Loki, Father, and that is my own affair. He is my brother and my-”
“Silence!”
“-lover. I will not cast him aside because you say I will!”
Father’s rage hardened him and left a figure carved in stone. “This is no mere scandal. You have not been caught with some serving maid too silly to know better. You are bedding your own brother. I will not have incest in my house.”
Incest. Father spoke it like the filthiest curse. But Thor had felt Loki’s tender touch and held him in warm embrace. Thor had listened to the whispered secrets of a fragile mind and given it strength, day by day, for years. Loki was his and he loved him. What was a simple word compared to that? “Then you should not have given me Loki for a brother.”
His other cheek burst in pain to match the first. He gasped for air. He hadn’t even seen Father’s fist move that time.
Thor was shaking. Father was infuriated beyond reason. He would hear no plea Thor could make. Thor gritted his teeth against the bright ache across his face and straightened up to meet Father’s eye once more.
“Either denounce your relationship as his treachery, or I cast you out.”
Ice slipped through Thor’s veins.
“I will strip you of your titles and your status and exile you back to Midgard, and this time Heimdall shall not bring you back. I will not have this, Thor, and if you will not end this cursed thing with Loki then I will end it for you.”
Father would throw him back into that emptiness? Would take from Thor everything he held dear?
No. No, it would not be like that this time. There were humans who would welcome him. He had a place among the Avengers, and Jane and Erik still called him friend.
Loki, if he were exiled elsewhere, was clever enough to find Thor. Even this could not part them.
“Do so, if you cannot bear our love. Loki is my home, and when I am with him I am content.”
“You will abandon your throne, your realm, your family for that monster?”
Thor laughed, flying too far and too fast to stop. “As you have said, Loki is family. Take that back and we have no issue.” Oh, yes, more than no issue - this could yet save them. “Make his true heritage known. Declare him an envoy of Jotunheim. Or ambassador. Forge a new peace with the Jotuns with Loki as its embodiment. What is more important than gaining the Jotuns’ alliance through something other than defeat?”
“Do you even hear yourself? Your plan would never succeed! You cannot marry Loki. Do you think he would be a loyal - hah - queen? Loved by the people? Do you think he can give you a fit heir? Assuming he could carry one, any child of his would be as mad and scheming as he! And even if it were not, I will not hand the throne of Asgard to a frost giant.”
“Then I will leave. If you will not let me stay then I will leave. Send Loki with me and rid your house of us. You and Mother are yet young. Get yourself another heir. And if you are wise, you will not give him a brother.”
He braced himself for another blow, but Father’s hand only clenched on air as if he longed to take Thor’s throat instead. Father’s eye flickered, and he breathed deeply. He was marshaling yet more arguments. If only Thor could end this once and for all. But he could not strike down his father like this, not yet. Not when all that was between them were words. Not when Asgard was rife with talk but nothing more.
It risked death to raise hand against his king. But perhaps they could still go back from here. If he was cautious. Restrained.
“You are my heir, Thor. You cannot leave Asgard. I had not wanted this, but…”
Thor glared. Father was not truly contrite. His head was held high and unashamed.
“Obey me and only then will I let Loki live.”
“You will what-”
“Do your duty as a Prince of Asgard, as an Odinson, and I will not have the wretch bound and cast into the sea.”
“No-”
“Loki will be punished, Thor - how is up to you. Declare that he forced you. Condemn him and take back your submission, and he will not be overly harmed.”
Thor could not see. He could not breathe. This was nightmare made flesh. He had known that Loki would likely be executed for this, but Thor had never felt it. Now he was wrapped in the gut-clenching certainly that Loki’s life rested in his hands and Father would not hesitate to go through with his threat. This had to stop. It had to stop. It could not go on, he would not let it. It had to stop. He had to think of something instead of churning his disbelief - but it could not be happening. There had to be something he could do if he could only think of it!
Loki would have known by now, Loki would have spun a hundred clever plots to let them escape free- “Where is Loki?”
“I will have your answer first.”
“Not one more word passes my lips before I see him!”
Father’s eye burned into Thor’s, but he would not yield. Not over this. He needed Loki. He had to see him now.
Father turned away, and walked back around the table. He passed the chairs slowly and came around the end, tracing the same path back to his seat in the center of the far side. He took hold of Gungnir from where it leant against the wall, raised it and drove the butt to the floor. The low note rang through Thor’s head, stern and commanding.
Behind him, the doors opened.
He spun. His heart all but shattered in his chest.
Loki-
Loki struggled in the hands of four guards, naked, bruises and welts covering his body. His hands were bound tightly together in front of him. Each finger was wrapped in leather strips and tied to the others, smothering his magic. His mouth was gagged with the awful thing Thor had put on him on Midgard, lovely lips swallowed by metal - and a line of blood crept down from beneath it.
Breakfast had been hours ago. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up.
He caught himself on the nearest chair, fighting the awful hot clenching in his guts, swallowing back the acid in his throat.
Loki had bitten his tongue in his struggles and that was all. They surely had not carried through with the old threat, had not stitched those lips together. They could not have, for Thor would have known had Loki been in that much pain. He would have heardLoki screaming; he would have felt it himself. They could not have done this thing.
They could not have, for nothing could keep Thor back if they had. Nothing could stop him from burning all Asgard to the ground. He would fuck Loki in the ashes, mark him as Thor’s, and bare his own neck for Loki’s marks in turn.
It was a path he dared not take. He could not be sure that Loki would not lie among the dead. He could not promise himself that Asgard would not get her petty vengeance before Thor felled her. Thor, alone with Loki so bound, against every Asgardian… those were odds he could not risk.
Thor swallowed again, and forced himself to straighten against the sick cramps of his belly. He looked his brother-lover in the eye and hoped he understood why Thor had not fought back already.
He had to see Loki safe. That above all else. Whatever lies he had to speak, however callous he had to be, he would see Loki safe.
There was a hollow empty silence in Thor’s ears, echoing and filling them. Gray swam before his eyes. His hands were too empty. He had to fight, to kill - had to wait, to be careful.
Then there was a crack against the marble. Thor blinked to see Loki sprawled before him, hands pinned under his body. There was a great ugly red whipweal crossing over half his back, standing out among the other wounds.
This could not… No, no, no…
Thor’s hands clenched as if gripping the air to hold himself back. He could not fight them. He and Loki both would have to endure this.
Two of the guards wrestled Loki up to his knees and held him there. A third shoved his head down in submission. Nausea surged in Thor’s gut yet again. Never had Loki knelt like that, not even when dragged back from Midgard. Never had he yielded up his arrogance and confidence. It was terrible to see it done at all. But far worse than seeing it was knowing that it was Thor’s fault.
Loki was sly and clever and careful. It had to have been Thor who had given them away.
Loki pushed his head back up, the slightest bit, fighting against all the guard’s strength. He met Thor’s eyes.
That perfect green…
Loki was in his arms in the next instant. “Oh, my love,” he whispered into Loki’s neck, and tasted blood. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry…”
Between them, Loki’s arms moved, shoving Thor back - and then they used the space to come up, loop over his head, and pull him back in. The cold metal of the gag pressed against Thor’s cheek. It was the closest Loki could come to a kiss, grotesque and sad and pathetic. Thor held Loki close again. His back ached where he had to arch forward over their legs, and his knees were sore from the drop to the floor. The leather of Loki’s bonds scratched Thor’s neck. But Loki was with him.
“I’ve ruined everything. I’m so sorry, you were right, I’m sorry…”
Loki shifted in his grasp. He pulled his arms back up over Thor’s head, slow and tight and difficult with his hands so bound. He pressed his smothered fingers to Thor’s lips. Thor choked, and Loki’s face blurred through his tears. Do not forgive me. Look at what I’ve done to you.
He grabbed Loki’s hands and kissed the backs, the only exposed skin. Loki’s pulse was shaking beneath his lips, and Thor tasted Loki’s cold sweat. He was exhausted. How hard had Loki struggled against the guards as they had dragged him here? What had they done to be able to bind him like this? The answers were right in front of him. But he could not risk seeing the proof. He just stared hard at the tiny parts of Loki’s hands that looked normal, the shifting tendons and blue veins.
No, even there he bled, a jagged scrape down in one corner.
He felt the rage rising in his chest again, and this he would seize and ride like his storms. No lies, no obedience. Thor would not forgive this. Father and Asgard alike would fall if they stood against him. Loki was his, and he had been whipped and beaten like a slave, and thrown naked at Thor’s feet. Thor would see this end, right here-
“Take him away.”
Loki’s hands were ripped from Thor’s and the pale marred flesh rushed up past his eyes.
No!
No.
Thor staggered upright and spun to face Father. “You must have me taken, too, then,” he said. Somehow the words were clear despite his weeping. “I plead guilty, I confess to everything you accuse me of! I fucked my own brother. He fucked me. And you will throw me from Yggdrasil itself before I condemn him.”
Father shook his head. “You are heir to Asgard, I will not-”
Father meant to have Loki thrown back in a cell and keep Thor as his puppet, terrified and whimpering for Loki’s life. He glanced back over his shoulder for Loki. The guards had hesitated, staring at them both. Loki hung in their hands, eyes shining.
Thor would be with Loki.
He turned back to face his king, and ran at the table.
Father stood close, and it was narrow; Thor jumped forward, set his hands on the wood and swung his legs around. The world whirled. His feet caught Father full in the chest and knocked him back against the wall. The guards’ shouts rang in Thor’s ears like a war cry as he landed, and stood tall and proud.
“Treason, my king,” Thor said, elated. His blood raced, singing. “Treason before witnesses.”
Say now I do not belong in Asgard’s dungeons!
Father caught his balance. His eye was livid, almost popping from his skull, and his teeth were bared in a snarl. Thor’s fists clenched. One move, and he would call Mjolnir and strike Father down as he deserved.
But Father sighed, and bowed his head. He waved a shaking hand at Thor. “Take him.”
Still the guards paused. “My king…”
“Take them both.”
Thor climbed back over the table and let two guards grab his arms. They marched him forwards, following Loki. Loki stared back over his shoulder at Thor. His eyes were filled with gratitude, or grief. Perhaps both. Certainly with tears.
But Thor was still with him, and that was all there was.