I'm Listening

Chapter 2 - Together You and I

"Where are we going?" Loki calls on top of the wind rushing past them.

"I don't know," Thor answers, eyes scanning the dark ground. "Somewhere more suitable for a conversation." He's searching for an out of the way field which will give them plenty of privacy. He finds one much faster than he'd anticipated and lands amid the tall grass. Loki steps away shakily, half-sitting, half-collapsing to the ground. Thor drops down next to him and just sits there for a moment, staring out across the plain.

He can hear the distant sound of Stark landing, but the man is too far away to hear anything. He'll be watching, just as promised. "I missed you," Thor says softly, slipping an arm around Loki's shoulders and pulling him close. He hardly knows why he's confessing this except that he feels he needs to say it. There were so many days of longing, of regret, and he wants – needs – his brother to know that his presence wasn't just forgotten. Though not at present, he can still feel the ache, the desperation to keep Loki at his side, come what may.

Loki twitches but doesn't say anything, so Thor presses forward. "There were times when I didn't think I could go on. I thought – I hoped that –" Norns, it sounds childish to say aloud, and he's suddenly afraid to tell his brother lest he brush it away, but isn't that exactly what Thor did to Loki? At the very least, he owes him the truth. "– That we'd always stay together, fight together, do everything together."

He shakes his head. "It was stupid, I know." He exhales slowly, eyes roaming across the darkened horizon, the moonlight shining down and casting shadows on the ground.

"Was it?" Thor barely hears the words at first but turns his head to meet his brother's eyes. Loki searches his face, something almost vulnerable in his gaze. "Was it stupid?" he repeats.

"Maybe not," Thor concedes after a heartbeat, "But it's childish."

"It's –" Loki stops talking and looks away, seeming unwilling to finish the thought aloud.

"Tell me, brother," Thor encourages gently, rubbing Loki's shoulder soothingly.

"It's not impossible if you want it," Loki finally murmurs, still staring straight ahead.

"I do. More than anything." Thor doesn't even stop to think about the words; they're something he knows to be true deep inside him and speaking them is freeing. "I thought the world of you, Loki, and I – I know I did a poor job of showing it, but I was too arrogant. Still am, I suppose. But – but I want to do things different. I want – I want you."

Loki looks at him wordlessly, his right hand creeping over and touching Thor's leg lightly, and Thor finds that he doesn't need to say anything else, because from his brother's eyes, he can tell that he knows. He hasn't felt this close to Loki since they were little, probably before Thor met Sif and the Warriors Three. It hurts, realizing that it's been so many centuries. All that time... did Loki want him? Was he too afraid to reach out after Thor brushed him aside, taking his presence for granted? Thor can't – he can't do it again. He doesn't want to, knowing how easily he could lose his brother.

And he still doesn't know what happened. After he knocked Loki unconscious, his brother's behavior changed dramatically. He doubts Loki will want to talk about it, but Thor needs to know. "Brother, tell me, please," he whispers beseechingly, "What happened when you fell from the Bifrost. I want to understand."

Loki's breath catches, and Thor can feel a tremor run through his body. Almost without thinking, Thor winds his other arm around his brother, tightening his grip as though it will protect him from the world. "Does it matter?" Loki's words are dull and emotionless, but Thor can tell that he doesn't really mean it. Even if part of him doesn't want to talk about it, part of him clearly does. And Thor needs to understand.