flashcards

Flashcards. Copyright © December 2018. All rights reserved.

…

As a boy, Thor believes that it is nowhere far from the affection Frigga herself has always offered him. That it's innocent (of course it is)—it should be, and Thor cannot help but think that Loki had chosen to distance himself because things had grown much more differently than Thor ever wills himself to think.

For years, he tries.

...

When Thor turns eight, he asks for his own makeshift basketball court and pleads Loki to play. Ever the sly and hesitant younger brother, Loki says something about finishing a book and retreats into their shared bedroom, leaving Thor in the backyard to shoot through the hoop himself.

Frigga tells Thor that Loki just isn't used to moving all over the place and facing things that well tower his small height. When he leaves Frigga's room that night, there's a tight frown plastered across his face. He goes back to their shared bedroom, and thinks about talking to his brother in the morning.

"What do you want to play with today?" Thor asks, when Loki finally stirs from the deep slumber across the mattress and rubs his balled fists into his eyes.

"I don't know," Loki tells him, yawning. "We don't play the same things."

"But basketball is fun," Thor insists, hoping the enthusiasm in his voice would be enough to spark some interest in his brother. It must, for every afternoon in the backyard is now spent alone with nothing but sounds of the ball bouncing from the towering hoop.

When Loki used to watch, he would laugh everytime Thor trips over his own shoes. Then Thor agitated, but no less ready for a challenge, would grab a fistful of dirt and throw it to the cotton of Loki's shirt. Loki would squeak in disgust, throw his arms over his head for protection, and break into a fit of laughter when Thor finally plunges an him at tackles him to the ground.

Thor doesn't remember seeing Loki in the backyard this week. He's never around, always hiding, now more engrossed in his books about dinosaurs and astronauts and constellations that speak from afar.

"It's fun for you," Loki frowns at him, tearing the sheets away from Thor and turning his back to him to face the wall. "For me, it's not."

As if in haste, Thor scoots closer to wrap an arm around Loki's shoulders. He tries to tug, but Loki won't budge, so he lies there breathing, wishing his brother would be sad no more, that they could play in the afternoon, that he'd be able to find himself interested in the books Loki himself has always been so pressed about.

"I'm sorry, it's just..." Thor trails off, staring straight into the sunlight that reflects against the strands of Loki's hair. "I miss playing with you."

Somehow, that makes Loki's small figure stir in his arms. With a hesitant look, he turns to face Thor with the frown now dissipated from his face.

"Me too." 

Thor pulls him in and tightens his hold. The hug doesn't last very long, for the wave of sleep that washes over them is so great that they nap for the whole morning with their arms still entangled.

When Odin finds them like that, he voices his concern to his wife, who then shushes him down and assures him that the boys had just been fresh from a misunderstanding and only needed the time to work things out.

No one thinks otherwise over the situation. For a while.

…

It’s when Thor meets a new boy from his class that he first finds Loki sniffling quietly behind the door of his classroom.