Shadows and Lies

Chapter 8

Loki was happy to be alone. Yes he'd been left alone for a few minutes every now and then when he was in the healing room, but he was always bound to the bed, so he still felt like he was being watched and controlled.
The thirty minutes he had of freedom and privacy was a welcome break, even if it was Interrupted every five minutes.
"I'm still here!" He shouted angrily when the guards pounded on the door for the fifth time. Loki was just getting out of the shower, it took him a while because it hurt to move, but he hoped that in his last five minutes he'd be able to get dressed before they busted in and dragged him out.
"You have five minutes left" the guard called back.
"Yes I know how to multiply" he grumbled under his breath, trying to get dressed, which was difficult with one leg that was completely useless, his other ankle was still hurting, and only one arm had full range of motion; he only had one working limb and he was too stubborn and prideful to have anyone help him out when he clearly needed it.
He was able to get half dressed and then sat down to rest for a minute, his leg was throbbing now and his arm was aching, but he didn't have long to rest.
"Times up, open the door" the guard ordered. Loki rolled his eyes.
"Hold on, I'm almost done" he said back, grabbing a shirt to put on.
"Open the door now!" The guard shouted. Loki just ignored him. He thought they would just keep yelling at him, but he heard them trying to open the door, then when they realized it was locked they just broke it down.
"What the- What's are you doing?!" Loki shouted when they burst in and grabbed him by his arms and forced him to his feet.
"The king said you had thirty minutes, it's been thirty minutes" the guard told him as they dragged him out of the bathroom.
"Wh- ow, stop it!" He yelled, they weren't really caring to watch out for his injuries.
"And why are we calling my stupid brother 'the king' all of a sudden?" He asked in annoyance as the guards shoved him down on his bed and shackled one of his ankles to the bedpost.
"He'll be here to deal with you in a few minutes, he got tied up with some business. Keep in mind that we are all still right outside" the guard told him before leaving the room.
"Tell Thor to hurry up" loki snapped at the guards, he wanted something to eat, and he also wanted a shirt.
The guards just ignored him and left without a word.
The chain on his ankle was pretty long, so Loki pulled his leg up and then laid down, trying to ease the pain he was starting to feel.
After a few minutes he heard the door open.
"Is that you?" He asked in a grumpy tone.
"Yeah it's me" Thor replied "did the guards make you mad?" He asked, walking over to where loki was laying.
"They didn't let me finish getting dressed" he stated. Thor rolled his eyes.
"Well you don't need to be such a child about it" Thor said, grabbing a shirt out of the closet and throwing it to Loki. Loki got hit in the face with a shirt so he pushed himself up to sit and started to put it on.
"Do you need help?" Thor offered, and as soon as he suggested it he realized that that was a stupid thing to ask.
"No thor, I'm not four, I don't need you to help me put clothes on" loki snapped back. While Loki struggled to get his shirt on Thor saw a bad burn on his shoulder. Loki had lots of burns right now because of the explosion on Nidavellir, but this was different, it was intentional; Loki had a severe burn in the shape of a fancy letter 'T'.
"What's that on your shoulder?" Thor asked. Loki looked at the burn.
"What does it look like? It's a brand. It's the Asgardian symbol for a traitor" Loki snapped back. Finally pulling his shirt over his head.
"Yes I know, as the king I'm familiar with the symbol. I was more asking how you got it, who gave it to you" Thor said. Loki looked at him like he'd said something incredibly offensive.
"Oh please, don't act like you don't know" Loki said back bitterly. Thor wasn't really sure what he meant, but loki was clearly angry that Thor was asking about it.
"I don't know. Clearly someone doesn't like you, but I had no idea that happened. Should I know?" He asked. Loki was quiet for a minute, how was thor this oblivious?.
"Seriously? Thor, Odin Gave it to me" loki told him. Thor looked dumbfounded.
"What? Didn't think dear old dad was capable of something like that? Well let me spell it out for you; our father, the guy you worshiped all your life, put a piece of iron into a furnace, then stuck it against my shoulder so that it burned my skin so badly that I was left with a permanent mark to tell everyone who sees me that I'm a traitor to Asgard" Loki explained with hatred in his tone, Thor nodded.
"I didn't know-" Loki cut him off.
"He did it right downstairs, there was an audience, you didn't hear about it?" Thor shook his head.
"Loki I had no idea that he did that to you" Thor told him.
"Really? Want to know what he told me when he did it?" Loki asked. Thor shook his head.
"No not really". Loki ignored him.
"After he burned me to brand me as a monster he said 'you know, this never would've happened if you were more like your brother'" Thor looked more upset now.
"Alright, I got it. You can shut up now" he snapped, he hated what he was hearing.
"Why? Can't handle the harsh truth?" Loki mocked "Odin always caused me pain, then blamed it on the fact that I'm different from you. As if you're the model of perfection" he spat, his sarcasm had turned to bitterness. Thor was quiet, he could have explained that he had no idea of Odin's harsh treatment of loki. he could tell loki that Odin probably didn't mean it to be that painful, he could defend himself and say that he had nothing to do with what Odin did. But honestly Thor was getting sick of defending Odin, the more Thor talked to Loki the more he realized that his father wasn't the model parent he always thought he was. He was tired of trying to justify to Loki and to himself the bad things Odin did. And Odin was dead now, he made a mess with loki and then left Thor to clean it up. Thor was tired of it, he was tired of fighting Loki, he was tired of always having a defense when Loki pointed out the crap he'd gone through.
"Loki... I'm sorry" he said "I don't expect you to forgive father, he's gone and you two can't reconcile anymore,  it I hope you'll eventually be able to forgive me" Thor said. Loki was surprised, thor was genuinely showing Loki sympathy, loki wasn't expecting that. He'd mocked and prodded at Thor to make him mad and defensive and it ended up having the opposite effect. Loki was confused.
"Forgive you for what? You keep saying how nothing is your fault" loki said back.
"I didn't mean for it to be, but I'm realizing that I was part of what caused you to get so lost. I never wanted that, I never wanted father to use me as a way to bring you down and cause you pain, and the fact that he openly compared you to me makes me furious. It's inexcusable that our father would use one of us to hurt the other." Thor explained. Loki wasn't sure what to say now, he didn't need to argue or retort, he didn't need to defend himself, Thor was actually.... siding with him. He didn't know how to respond in a non-defensive way.
"I'm still not sure what you want me to forgive" he said.
"I guess... I guess I need you to forgive me for being so oblivious, for not seeing what was going on before it was too late to stop it" thor said. Loki stayed quite for a minute, did he want to forgive Thor? Now that he was thinking about it, did he even have the right to make Thor ask for forgiveness? Did Thor really do anything?
"Just think about it okay? I'm having a healer coming by in a few minutes to check on you- don't roll your eyes, you need people to take care of you even if you don't like it. Is there anything else you need?" Thor asked him. Loki muttered a bit and then nodded.
"I wouldn't say no to something to eat" loki said back begrudgingly, he hated asking for help and always acted grumpy when he had to. Thor nodded and ignored Loki's bad attitude and lack of gratitude.
"Alright, I'll have the kitchen get some food for you" and just then the healer came in.
"Thor this isn't necessary" loki complained when he saw the healer.
"Yes it is" Thor said, then turned to the healer "just make sure he didn't make anything worse when he was in the shower." Thor said, loki sat up more and gave Thor a look.
"Thor don't-" Thor grinned a bit.
"See you in a few minutes, don't cause too much trouble" he said before leaving the room.