Shady Acres - Loki fanfiction (short story) ✓

4.

After filling in some paperwork the nurse produces a wheelchair for Odin and Loki finds himself in the humiliating position of having to push the chair. The Allfather hasn't said a word the whole time, unless you count the incoherent sounds that come over his lips as actual words.
"Is it Alzheimers?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"Your father's illness. I take it it's Alzheimers?"
"Oh, yes, that's right," Loki quickly agrees, having no knowledge of the names of mental illnesses in Midgard.
The nurse babbles on, while she shows them around the nursing home. Loki barely listens to her, only nodding and humming at times it seems appropriate. They leave the suitcase in a small room at the end of the hall. It has a bed, a wardrobe and a small desk with a chair. The nurse excuses herself for the old furniture, but Loki assures her Odin will feel right at home.

"Let's go meet the other residents," nurse Mary says to Odin in her cheerful voice. She walks ahead to a common room, where around twenty elderly people are gathered. Some of them are playing cards, others are watching tv and two are playing a game where they are batting a small white ball across a table.
Loki puts the wheelchair next to a couch. An old lady dressed in a flowered dress is dozing off in the corner of the couch, while her male companion is watching a sports game on the television set.
"Well, old man, this is it." Loki kneels before the wheelchair and looks at the man before him. A small pang of regret stirs in his chest, but the barbed wire is stronger, more present.
Odin suddenly looks at the dark haired god with a clarity he has not shown since Loki put him under his spell. He stretches out his hand to reach for Loki's face and the God of Mischief all but flinches.
"My son... my sons are dead," Odin says softly.
"No Mr. Borrson, your son is alive. Look, this is him," the nurse gently corrects the Allfather. Then she looks at Loki, her hand flying up to her mouth. "Oh, my sincerest apologies! Of course I don't know if you have any brothers who are deceased?"
Before he knows it, Loki shakes his head. "My brother is alive. But he is... abroad."
Ah, well, he can give the old man that much. Loki has what he wanted: the throne of Asgard. As long as Odin Borrson is living out the rest of his days as a dazed old man in a nursing home, he can have the knowledge that his son Thor is alive.