Above All Shadows [Loki Timetravel fic - Completed]

Deleted Scenes 3/3

5. Loki and Thor have a late night chat
Original Placement: end of Chapter 46 – A King's Oaths

Loki got through three pages of SHIELD's briefs and half a mug of tea before he was interrupted.

'Brother, a word if it's not too much trouble?' Thor asked. He stood in the doorway, fiddling with the strap of his left vambrace. At Loki's nod, he took a place at the dining table beside Loki, but continued fidgeting. 'There is something I must ask of you before... Well, it concerns whatever might come in the future generally.'

Loki raised his eyebrows. 'Please, do keep me in suspense until the next millennium.'

'This isn't an easy subject and I don't have your way with words, Loki.' Thor jerked his hand away from his vambrace, as if he's just become conscious of what he'd been doing. 'Over the past few months I've thought a great deal about Jotunheim. I do appreciate the lengths you went to in order to rescue me, but I must ask you never to do that again.'

'What are you talking about?'

'You ordered Heimdall to unleash the Bifrost upon Jotunheim. You were ready to sacrifice all the Jotnar in exchange for my life.'

'They threw me away when my existence became inconvenient,' Loki replied. 'It was fair retribution.'

'No, it wasn't.'

Loki cocked his head at his brother's sharp change of tone. 'Where does the sudden affection for the frost giants come from?'

'You're a frost giant too, Loki,' Thor said. Loki was about to respond, but Thor motioned for Loki to wait his turn. 'My request to you has nothing to do with frost giants, but since you asked. When they first captured me, I couldn't see anything and only heard snippets. Once they brought me to Utgard, however, Sigran gave me back my sight and hearing. During the time they kept me in Laufey's Hall, I was witness to all the comings and goings in that house. It didn't take long to see how life in Laufey's House mirrored life inside the palace on Asgard, although the Jotnar were poorer and more desperate. They weren't beasts we read about in our storybooks, just people like any other. They do not deserve condemnation for what Laufey did to you.'

Loki couldn't refute that. The fate he inflicted on the inhabitants of Utgard had nagged at him from the moment he had dragged Thor back to Asgard. The fact that his half-sister was supposed to be ruling in Jotunheim, when Byleistr and his two children had been ahead in the line of succession, didn't bode well. He wrapped his hands around his mug. 'They could've found a way to be rid of Laufey if they found his governance distasteful. Asgardians were quick to do so with me.'

Thor's expression darkened, then he drew his head back until he peered up at the air conditioning vent above them.

'And that is another matter that reinforced my conviction,' he said. 'I'm used to you telling me tall tales. So when you first told me what happened on Asgard during my absence, I thought you exaggerated and assumed it was likely about half of what you said was true. What an unpleasant surprise truth was when the trials began. I was almost glad you weren't there to hear the bitterness pouring out of Tyr.'

'And thus, the frost giants are not wholly evil and the Asgardians are not wholly good? Is that your great revelation?'

'Mock me all you like, brother.'

Loki sipped his rapidly cooling tea. 'It's not half as fun when you are ready to roll over and take it.'

'Ah, so that's the secret?' A shadow of a smile crossed Thor's face, but he forced himself to remain sombre. 'There's one more thing I think you should consider. It regards your blood father. The day before you rescued me, Laufey and his sorceress had a conversation up on the peak that didn't make sense to me then, I understand it now. Laufey spoke of his regret at having to give up a child he named Farbautisson and his elation at the child's return. He was contemplating giving the child large territories of govern after the war was finished.'