Of Numbers and Strange Friendships

Chapter 61

Loki had lost a lot of blood with Thor sewing his lips shut. That and the numbing potion was wearing off. He shouldn't have been allowed the potion at all, but his mother had slipped it to him and Thor wouldn't out him, not when it had saved Loki a bit of pain.

Now, though, now that pain was coming with a vengeance. Hip lips ached, a throbbing that was in time with his heartbeat as blood still spilled sluggishly from the wounds in his lips. They healed slowly, thanks to the thick thread and Odin's insistence on punishing him.

Thor frowned at the sluggish bleeding. Loki nodded his head back to the table of supplies next to his uncomfortable chair. "What?" Thor asked and finally looked. He sighed in relief when he recognized the bottle of healing potion. He reached for it and carefully opened it to gently apply it to Loki's bleeding lips with a type of cotton applicator that the Midgardians called a q-tip. Thor's movements were gentle, though Loki still had to fight to avoid flinching. Each movement hurt, and the potion stung as it sealed the wounds. At least there was no more blood that seeped into his mouth once the wounds were closed. Loki swallowed again and against trying to get the taste of his own blood out of his mouth to no avail. He was stuck with it for awhile.

He despised the taste of blood.

It made it worse when it was his own. Not that he'd tried others' blood, but at least they would be hurt and not him.

Thor put the supplies back when the work was done and Loki was as healed as he was going to for the moment. The wounds were closed enough that they weren't bleeding, but the rest would take time. Thor turned back to Loki, then, and did something he hadn't dared to in ages. Loki usually didn't let his brother give him any sort of physical affection, despite that Loki was starved of it and desperate for it. Loki was also too proud to admit it, and too used to being in Thor's shadow, of being the dark prince, surrounding himself in shadows and darkness, and pretending it was his choice to be alone, when that was the furthest thing from the truth. He was alone because of his powers, because of his godhood, because he wasn't perfect in Odin's eyes, like Thor was. He wasn't the golden sunshine prince. So he was ostracized and pretended to everyone that it was his own choice.

Thor finally knew better.

So Thor bent and pressed a kiss to Loki's forehead. A gesture of love and support from his older brother. One he hadn't received in years. Thor waited a heartbeat, waited to be stabbed for being so close to Loki and in his personal space. He saw the moment where Loki fought against his instincts and where he actively considered his reaction.

Something had changed between them, their relationship had mended some in this experience. Their relationship had begun to heal, now that they both had a common enemy in Odin.

The evidence was in Loki's reaction. He closed his eyes and purred softly, allowing Thor in that much, allowing him to remember that Jotuns could purr. Loki used to purr all the time as a child. It had been how Thor had known his brother was happy. Then came the day when Loki realized that the rest of the people on Asgard didn't have the ability. So he hid it.

It had been one of the first things lost so Loki could fit in, so he could try to be the perfect prince, the perfect child.

Thor had hated it when Loki stopped purring and was overjoyed now to realize that the purrs were back. He gave his brother a warm smile. "It's good to hear you purr again, brother. It has been far too long," he told Loki, truly appreciating it.

Loki's lips twitched in a small smile, as far as the threads would allow. He nodded and started to try to stand. Thor caught him and steadied him. Loki had lost more blood than he wanted to admit. His pain was also making him weaker than he wanted to admit. The numbing potion wore off far too quickly.

"Steady, brother," Thor told him gently, holding Loki's arm to steady him.

Loki nodded and reached for his shirt to dress again. He didn't even stop Thor from helping him to dress put the discarded shirt back on, helping keep the fabric from brushing his lips, helping keep the fabric clean. Loki hated being dirty. He always had.

Then Thor did something that would surely get him stabbed. He swept Loki up into his arms bridal style. Loki made a disgruntled noise and squirmed. "You're barely on your feet and I want to get you off realm before The Allfather comes searching for us," Thor replied to make Loki stop fighting him. Loki grumbled a protest, but stopped squirming. He knew that they needed to get off realm. The guard would report that Loki had been punished and that Thor had performed it as demanded.

Loki closed his eyes and for once let Thor take care of him. He didn't want the people to see him like this. Not again. "Everything will be alright, brother," Thor soothed him as he carried Loki through the halls, letting his brother float on a haze of endorphins and his brain hiding from the trauma of the injury. Thor took him all the way to the Bifrost to take him back to Midgard.

He hadn't told Loki he would be returning to have words with Odin. Just as soon as Loki was safe.

Loki made a soft noise, a worried plaintive sound.

Thor could guess what was on his mind. Loki only cared about a few things, and would only voice that care about even fewer. "Peter won't think any less of you," he promised his brother. "He will likely be as angry at father as we are. And we will reassure him together that none of this is his fault," he reassured Loki.

Loki nodded and laid his head on Thor's shoulder, trusting in his brother in that moment.

Heimdall opened the Bifrost for them.

Loki wanted to see Peter and make sure he was truly ok.

He dreaded to see Peter, dreaded the look in Peter's eyes when he saw Loki's punishment. He dreaded all of it. He dreaded most of all that Peter would blame himself or think less of Loki for what had been done to him.

There was only one way to find out.

He made Thor set him down and together the pair of them headed back to Midgard to face the music together. Just like old times.