A Second Chance // Thorki

Chapter twenty seven

In the hour that they awaited for Heimdall to land the ship, the five of them stayed close together, chatting and laughing, somehow all of them in a good mood. Even Loki found himself smiling and adding to the conversation every now and again, though his main focus was on Thor, who was knelt in front of his hammock, leaning back a bit so Loki could play with his hair.

"And then, I took my hammer, and I bashed him in the back of the knee! He wasn't injured, he just sort if crumpled, but he was still all 'Aaaaaaaah!' and that's the story of how seven year old Thor was strong enough to take down Heimdall the All Seeing."

"Don't you think perhaps he was pretending, Thor? People tend to do that so as to not crush the aspirations of children." Loki's comment earned a laugh from a few of the men, now all sitting around them, in a sort of mini circle.

"Well, there was no worry of crushing my aspirations. I aspired to be a Valkyrie when I was young." The small crowd burst out laughing, and Thor seemed rather confused by that. "What's so funny? The Valkyrie were a powerful force of women with big swords and winged horses, and they were badass. I wanted to join them and swing my sword and sit atop a pearly white winged horse. I aspired to be apart of the strongest and most powerful group of warriors in Asgard."

They continued laughing, and even Loki gave a bit of a chuckle, twirling blond hair around a finger. "You and your aspirations, Brother..."

"What? What did you want to be when you grew up, hm? A witch?" Thor teased, reaching back to poke him in the arm.

"I wanted to be successful, I suppose. In my own sense of the word. I always wanted to earn the respect of those around me... be treated like an equal, or superior." Truthfully, he did, though he also had other aspirations, such as being a snake. He liked to think he'd succeeded in at least that.

"I wanted to be a boulder." Korg chimed in.

Their little group burst out into laughter, only to stop when Loki began to cough, clutching at the white patch on his abdomen, the beautiful pearly aspect of it drained away. The sheet was snowy white, as was the trickster's skin in comparison to the crimson he'd coughed up. Blood stained his chin and his hand, and his eyes went wide when he caught sight of it, as did the multiple sets of eyes on him.

"HEIMDALL!" Thor bellowed, looking up to the sky with a suddenly very panicked look to him.

Bruce's eyes turned golden this time around, and the man looked so extremely confused and somewhat scared, "Wait, Wait, what-"

"Yes, your highness?"

"We need you to land as soon as possible. It's an emergency." Thor was quite obviously doing his very best to keep his voice steady, chest rising and falling rapidly as he attempted to stay calm and take deeper breaths. He leaned close to Bruce as he spoke, taking him by the shoulders rather firmly.

"I apologize, your highness, but-"

"But what? It's an emergency! I order you to land! I- I command you, Heimdall!" Thor was growling it now, hands trembling as he shook Bruce's shoulders as if trying to shake some sense into Heimdall.

"We are unable to land, your highness. I will not allow it. In absence of a king or any heir to the throne besides your adopted son, I control Asgard. And we will not be landing."

The silence that followed was so tense that you could've cut the air with a knife.

"I... I am king," Thor held Bruce tight, his entire body shaking, "And you will do as I say. You will land our ship, and we will make this Asgard. Allow me to speak to Valkyrie!"