Shadows and Lies

Chapter 9

Chapter 9:
Thor wanted to rip his own hair out. He'd been discussing the whole loki-situation with the members of the royal council ever since loki was brought back, it seemed that they had a new complaint every day. At first they were just angry that he wasn't executed immediately, then they were mad that Thor had put so much effort into keeping Loki alive, and now they were upset that Thor had moved Loki back into his old bedroom. They started the meeting in the evening, and it had gone all night and Into the morning, it was now almost three o'clock.
"He should be in a cage. Underground, locked away and forgotten about" one of the councilmen said.
"We never do that, we've all agreed that at that point it should just be a death sentence" Thor said back.
"Then remind us again why that hadn't been his sentence? Why is he being allowed to be waited on and treated, and accommodated this way?" The councilman complained.
"I already explained why I don't think I it's right to execute him. He will be punished for what he's done I can assure you of that, but not executed" Thor said for what seemed like the millionth time.
Sif was also on the council, and she was somewhere in the middle; she didn't fully agree with Thor but she also didn't want to just chop off Loki's head and call it a day like most of the people here.
"We know you feel responsible-" Thor cut her off.
"I am responsible. Myself and my father pushed Loki until he snapped" Thor said back harshly, remembering the brand on Loki's shoulder, remembering what Loki said Odin told him. Odin actually, verbally compared loki to Thor. to someone who was always second to everything, that can be seen as emotional abuse.
"You didn't force loki to invade other worlds and try to dominate civilizations. If Loki had become a bit violent then fine, but what he's done goes far beyond that" sif argued. She saw other councilmen trying to pipe in, but she tried to keep them quiet, her and Thor were childhood friends, he'd listen to her more than most.
"I can't -in good conscience- sentence loki to death knowing that I played a part in his actions. Even if I didn't force him into anything, there is still a lot I could've done to prevent this. I'm not saying that that justifies what Loki's done, or that we should just forget about what he's done. He will suffer the consequences, but I can't put him to death without at least trying to correct his crooked path" he explained. "Right now he's a mess, he's healing but he's still a mess, I can't adequately punish him if he falls apart the moment he's touched" Thor told them. He didn't want them to think he was just going to let Loki off the hook, he wasn't, Loki was ultimately responsible for what he chose to do, Thor just wanted to try and make up for the part he'd played in it.
"So basically what you're saying is that you have to heal him so that you can sufficiently hurt him?" Thor sighed and nodded with a shrug.
"Basically, Yeah" He said.
"But what if-" the councilman never got to finish his thought, a guard came into the room.
"Your highness, it's your brother" the guard said. Thor was visibly annoyed.
"I can't deal with him right now. Just lock him up and I'll handle it when I'm done here" he told her.
"Well actually I needed you to unchain him. He said he was feeling sick, we wanted to let him up so if he needed to empty his stomach he could get to the bathroom" she told him. He sighed a bit and got up and gave her the keys to the shackles that kept Loki in bed.
"Here, let him up but make sure he can't use his magic. Keep the one chain on his ankle just in case, it's long enough to reach the bathroom. I'll send more guards to be outside the room, keep eyes on him" Thor told her. She took the keys and left the room to go take care of Loki's situation.
Thor turned back to the council and took his seat again. He opened his mouth to speak but sif didn't let him.
"Go, Thor" she said "if you want to go take care of loki that's fine, this conversation will still be here in the morning" she told him. Thor looked around at the rest of the council, yes, he wanted to go tend to loki, he knew the guards weren't going to help him, he knew the guards would unchain loki and then watch him try to drag himself across the floor to get to the bathroom just so he could vomit. Loki couldn't walk, he was just no able to move his arm without pain, if Thor didn't help him he'd just end up getting sick in the middle of the room and no one would be willing to help him out.
"It's fine Thor, we don't like Loki but we don't expect you to leave him in misery either. Just go, we can finish this later" another one of the councilmen said, standing up to end the meeting. Everyone else got up and started to disperse as well.
Thor got up and left and headed to Loki's room, as he suspected, no one had offered to assist loki. Loki looked green in the face and was trying to hold himself up by holding onto the bedpost, but he hadn't been able to get any further than that. He was just standing there trying to move and being unable to.
"Seriously you guys?" Thor was a bit annoyed at the guards, they didn't owe loki anything, but come on, they were just standing there watching him struggle to get to the next room so he could spend his night vomiting into the toilet. It's not like he was trying to escape to do something enjoyable, he was going from one misery to another, could they really not find it in them to make it any less horrible and humiliating for him?.
"Hey, come on, I got you" Thor grabbed Loki around the waist and carefully helped him up to get to the bathroom. Loki didn't even say anything to try and save his dignity, he held onto Thor shoulder and tried to keep his stomach calm for the next few moments while Thor pulled him into the adjoined bathroom.
Thor got him into the bathroom and put him down and then turned around to leave. The guards had closed in around the door to the bathroom.
"Oh come on, back off, he's not going anywhere" Thor said, motioning for them to back off. They all moved out of the way and Thor left the room and closed the door as much as he could.
"You know it wouldn't have killed you guys to to just move him from his bed to the bathroom" Thor said In annoyance, everyones lack of cooperation was understandable, but seriously irritating.
"He doesn't exactly deserve anyone's help" one of the guards commented. Thor gave him a look.
"Sure he doesn't deserve help, but it's not like he was asking for something luxurious, he was asking to be brought to a room where he could spend the night hugging the toilet. It would be nice if I didn't have to do everything myself" he told them. they didn't really respond one way or another, they didn't feel that loki was entitled to any help or dignity, and they therefore didn't feel that they should have to assist him in anything whatsoever.
"Whatever. I'm going to stay here for a while so just go stand outside" Thor told them, they all nodded once and left the room.
Thor sat on Loki's bed for a few minutes, listening and waiting for loki to stop.  he didn't exactly know why loki was suddenly so sick, but he knew loki was miserable and in pain, and as much as Loki deserved that misery, Thor felt bad for him. He sometimes got annoyed with himself because he still cared about his stupid little brother.
Thor grabbed a pillow and a blanket and a thin fold up mattress and went over to the bathroom door and knocked lightly.
"Can I come in?" Thor asked, loki had been silent for the lest minute or so, so Thor decided it was safe to check on him.
"If you must..." loki responded weakly. The door wasn't able to close all the way because the chain connecting loki to his bed got in the way, so Loki just gave his leg a quick tug and the door swung open slowly.
"Feeling any better?" Thor asked. Loki was sitting on the floor looking terrible, but he wasn't keeled over the toilet anymore, he was just sitting on the floor leaning against the opposite wall, so Thor figured the worst of it was over. he was a bit less green now, but he still had very little color in his face and he looked dead tired and his voice was dry.
"Not really" he told Thor, taking a deep breath to try and keep his stomach calm again.
Thor didn't respond right away, he just laid out the mattress in front of Loki and put the pillow and blanket on top of it.
"What are you doing?" Loki asked him. He doubted he'd be left here all night, most of the guards had left and he wasn't fully chained up, so the security was substantially nerfed.
"Well you can't very well be back and fourth from your bed all night, and you still look sick. So just sleep here" Thor told him, filling a glass with cold water from the sink and handing it to loki. Loki was quiet for a minute and then shook his head.
"I don't think I'll be getting any sleep tonight" he said back, downing the full glass of water in one go. After everything, he felt dehydrated.
"Well at least try" Thor told him. Loki stayed where he was for a few more moments, then pushed himself up and pulled himself across the floor to get to the makeshift bed Thor had constructed.
Thor went over to help but as soon as he put a hand on Loki loki smacked his arm.
"Leave me alone" he snapped. "I don't want your help" he added.
"Loki would you stop being an arrogant piece of crap for five minutes? I'm trying to help you, you need it, so just shut up" Thor snapped back. Loki made a distasteful face, but he let Thor assist him. Thor got Loki Into bed, making sure he didn't hurt his leg, his ribs, or his arm any more.
"Good night" Thor said, putting the blanket over him and then turning to leave. There was silence for a minute as Thor left and closed the door, but before he could walk away he heard Loki.
"Thor" Loki said to get Thor to come back. Thor opened the door again, figuring Loki either had a request or quickly thought of an insult that he had to get out. But it turned out to be neither.
Loki was already laying down and half asleep, his face toward the wall, and when Thor came in he didn't bother to look at him. He tightened his jaw for a second, then finally forced the words out.
"Thank you". Loki knew that if it weren't for Thor he'd still be stuck in bed vomiting all over himself; Thor got him to the bathroom, he gave him some time to be alone, and then made sure he was comfortable. Loki still held strong anger and bitterness toward his brother, but right now, in this moment, in the midst of feeling miserable and vulnerable, he knew that Thor was the only reason he didn't feel a thousand times worse. Thor was the one and only reason he was able to feel even slightly more comfortable.
Thor was shocked to hear loki say thank you, he didn't know how to respond, it was the first time Loki had been sincerely grateful for the trouble Thor went through and Thor hadn't been expecting it. Loki didn't say thank you, he didn't let anyone know he appreciated or even acknowledged their work for him. But here he was, being appreciative.
"Um... you're welcome... try to get some rest. I'll be right outside" Thor told him. Loki didn't have anything else to say, and Thor was pretty sure he was already asleep, so he just closed the door again and went back into the main room to get some rest of his own.