Rehabilitation (a tony x loki fic)

Chapter 1: Backstage plans

"Loki's punishment will place him in prison for as long as the courts see fit or until he decides to change. Do you understand?" Thor nodded hopefully at Odin who was sitting opposite of him in the banquet hall, the sounds of their voices echoing throughout the empty room ominously. Thor stared at the papers in front of him, the sentence was clear as day and so was his brother's fate. Taking a swig of alcohol and calmly placing the glass back down on the table, he looked up at his father once more. "I understand. I only pray that he will be able to come to accept his crimes and fix them, but I have come to doubt such things." Thor sounded drunk, but not drunk enough to lose his chain of thought and find himself with no memory of the previous day. He had no time for doing such things, his brother's sentence was far to distracting for him to try to forget. He knew that it had to be done, but he would still find a way to protest and give suggestions for other ways to solve the problem. But to no avail, he had no such luck in persuasion. At least he would not be tortured, which was Thor's worst fear, despite his brother's actions, he could not bear to think of the idea of Loki facing torture. "You may visit Loki before you leave for earth, if that is what you desire to do." Odin informed, his voice sounded dull and almost showed a small hint of sass as if he had other plans or just was pleased of the fact that Loki would be finally put away. "Thank you. I will do so right now." Thor said as he rose from his seat, leaving the papers and wine to be picked up by a passing servant in the later hours probably. "I wish you a pleasant night, allfather." Thor added, exiting the room quickly. Odin only grinned and grabbed the papers that Thor had left behind, and dipped a feather in the ink pot next to him that he had been using earlier. He grinned, and looked around the room before returning to scribbling a few words down on the paper. He knew exactly what he was doing, and he felt no remorse for the poor frost giant.

Thor moved through the halls quickly, walking faster than usual to get to his brother's cell. He truly wanted to speak with him, he wanted to help him. At least he thought he did. The halls were empty, and even the slightest noise caused an ominous echo to whisper through the halls as if trying to pass along unspeakable secrets that none would dare to reveal. Thor only noticed the echos when he was a child, fearing that they were the voices of monsters that would come and swallow him up when no one was looking. He learned quickly that what he believed was only that of his imagination, and got over his fears without questioning them ever again. Loki was a different story, he feared some of the most ridiculous things that a young child would laugh in the face of, but he would never fear the bigger things that could truly hurt him. It was this mentality that endangered him over everything else. Minutes later, Thor found himself face to face with Loki, exchanging nothing more than stares. The silence was not what he had wanted, Thor wanted to talk. Or at least try to talk. "Brother." "Don't call me that, Thor. I am not your brother and I do not wish to speak with you. Leave." Loki spat before Thor could finish speaking, angry and miserable. Thor looked away, watching as Loki walked up to the glass separating the two from one another, anger and frustration clearly showing on his face. Anger.

"I only came to wish you farewell. I am returning to earth." Thor mumbled, fazed by Loki's anger and fuming hatred that refused to allow Thor to gain an offensive position in the room whatsoever. Loki scowled and began to pace slowly, never once taking his glare off of Thor. "I could care less about what you do with your life. I will only consider speaking with you if you are here to help me escape from this prison. But why would you be here to do such a thing? I could never imagine why. Leave me." Thor felt his heart sink at the sight of his brother's state, and for a moment he almost wanted to smash the glass between the two of them in hopes that Loki would stop acting this way, but he knew of the punishment he would receive for doing such things. He knew what would happen to the both of them if he did such a thing. "Loki, listen to me." The sound of his name made him stop and widen his eyes slightly in confusion, he had finally pushed Thor to call him Loki instead of brother. It felt strange, and for a moment, empty. Loki forced the conflicting thoughts to the back of his head and continued to focus on his hatred again, he didn't want mercy, he didn't want pity. "I still care for you, If they do anything to hurt you I will act. Even though you have done the unspeakable, you are still my brother and therefore I love you." Loki flinched and looked away, he didn't want to hear any of it, he didn't want to know what Thor though of him.