Love Lies

said the ice prince,

Just as I picked't up and held't in mine own hands for the first time in what hast felt like forever, I heard the doors atop the stairs push open.

I knew't to be him, mine own brother, but putting the Tesseract down now would be of no use... the color would not fade from the skin of mine own face in time even if I wanted't with e'erything I was.

I placed't down before me and turned to face him as he headed down the stairs, but he hath stopped in his path.

"Art thou well?" he pondered.

"Better than such, brother," I corrected him. "Dost thou not know?"

"Know... what?" he asked, coming hesitantly closer.

"By Odin, he ne'er told thou the entirety of the story?" I rephrased, the hue fully dissipating.

"Doth enlighten me," he requested, finally standing close.

"As thou wish," I complied. "As thou know by now, we art not blood brothers... I remain of foreign soil. That color that hast occupied my skin a moment ago is due to mine own parentage. I hath said't before and I shall speak't again, I am not of Asgard."

"Not by any means?" he clarified.

"No, none at all," I went on. "I am a Jötunn."

"Thou mean to tell me-"

"Yes, brother, I am of Jötunheimr... one of those frost giants, in fact," I added.

"But wherefore art thou of similar stature to mine own self?" he wondered, and rightfully so.

"Because mine mother was a goddess, not a giant, like my father," I explained.

"Who w-"

"My mother, who's first name I take as my last, is Laufey- also known as Nál. She is the goddess of humor-"

"Ah, yes, that t'is wherefore thou art so funny looking!" he laughed and I joined in.

"Of course, precisely," I smiled. "And, as for my father, he is Fárbauti, known as the cruel-striker and is apparently the king of Jötunheimr."

"So, thou truly art a prince like me? I see," he commented with a smirk.

"Yes, yes. But, dost thou not see?" I asked. "Frigga covered my true likeness in magic and this Tesseract is the only access I hath to't, even though this was hitherto unbeknownst to mine own self."

"And, what? Dost thou plan something hither?"

I placed mine own hand on the tesseract and watched the blue enter my veins and spread across my skin. "I hath planned to remove the magic she bonded to mine own younger self, actually, yes."

He looked at me like I was a monster as I appeared this way. He surely knew this was what I was meant to be, but I am certain he was not prepared to experience't with his very eyes this day.

He took in a slow, deep breath. "Thou believe this to be the best thing for thine own self... and hither?"

"And, what, Thor, dost thou mean by that?"

"Nothing other than the fact that thou art heretofore known as an outsider by many," he went on. "Dost thou truly see this as the best idea in terms of fitting in?"

"What if I wished naught more than to stand out for once? To be something other than the damned bastard 'brother of Thor'? To walk outside of thine own shadow for just a second?"

"Then doth what thou must."

"Pardon?"

"If that is what thou wish, perform the magic and't shall be thine, this life thou so desperately covet," he delved deeper.