Centuries (Thor Odinson Fanfic)

eight

"Is she alright?" Jenna asks, watching Thor as he carefully covers Jane up with a small blanket to keep her sheltered against the wind. It was the first time she had spoken since they'd entered this wasteland of a planet, thoughts and endless questions seeming to take up her mind in a way that she had not realized until she had seen Thor's movement. Jane wasn't looking well, the effects of the Aether taking their toll. Jenna had been fortunate, the only effects she had suffered were that of a small headache and the hostility of the Aether itself, but she could tell that it left Thor with many questions. 

"She is resting, as you should be as well. I doubt Malekith extracting that power will do you any favors," Thor says, purposefully ignoring her gaze as he moves to the opposite side of the ship. 

"What I could do with the power that flows through those veins," Loki speaks up, his words causing both of them to look at him. 

"It would consume you," Thor says, his voice stern and leaving little room for argument. 

"They seem to be holding up alright, for now," Loki continues anyways, earning a glare from Thor and an eye roll from Jenna. 

"This isn't the first time I've encountered power like this," Jenna says, her voice steady despite the fact that she felt anything but. The way Loki kept looking at her left an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach, the recognition in his eyes something she couldn't place and was very unsure if she even wanted to. 

"Jane is strong in ways you'd never even know," Thor is quick to defend, Loki tearing his eyes way from Jenna to look at his brother. 

"Say goodbye, I'm sure you're used to those by now," Loki says, a certain degree of malicious to his words that hurts even Jenna.

"Not this day." 

"This day, the next, a hundred years, it's nothing. It's a heartbeat and just as you weren't ready to lose Astrid, you'll never be ready to lose her. As it did with Astrid, the love you have prized with this woman will be snatched away just as easily," Loki continues, Jenna staring at him with her mouth nearly hanging open. Her heart tugs at the name, recognition flaring in a way that causes her to wince at the sharp pain in her head. 

"Tell me, what does a girl have to do to get a kiss around here?" 

"She just simply needs to ask." 

"Isn't that what I just did?" 

"And will that satisfy you?" Thor asks, his voice no longer holding the disinterested tone it had during the majority of the conversation.

"Satisfaction is not in my nature," Loki says, a twisted grin adorning his lips. 

"Surrender is not in mine,"  Thor states it with no hesitation. He looks at his brother with a glare, not missing the way Loki's eyes move away from him and towards Jenna who is too busy holding her head in her hands to notice. Thor's own gaze softens when he looks at her, flashes of someone and something he had once held dear floating through his mind. "I failed Astrid, we both know I did... but I will not fail here." 

"The son of Odin..." Loki says it mockingly, a bitter chuckle escaping his lips as he too thinks of a woman and a feeling that had long since been dormant but was now awake thanks to the blonde woman on the ship. 

"No. Not just of Odin," Thor says gruffly, once again back to glaring at his brother. Jenna looks up at the sudden change of tone, her clouded eyes somewhat clouded as if she too was lost in a memory long since forgotten. Thor is standing before Loki now, hurt soaked in his words as he looks at his brother. "You think you alone were loved of Mother? You may of had her tricks, but I had her trust." 

"Trust? Was that her last expression?" Loki asks, closing the distance between he and his brother. "Trust? When you let her die?"

"What help were you in your cell?" Thor demands.

"Who put me there? Who put me there?!" Loki screams, Jenna jumping at the sound and letting out a loud gasp when Thor is shoving his brother up against the side of the ship. 

"You know damn well! You know damn well who!" Thor yells back, Jenna steadily getting to her feet to tear the two men apart before the situation turned even uglier than it already had. Her hand rests softly against Thor's arm and maybe she notices the feeling of static between her fingers and the material of his armor, but she chooses to blame it on the fact he was a natural conductor for lightning. She does not say his name, but the second her hand touches the metal of his arm, Thor's grip on Loki releases and takes a step back. He lowers his raised fist, his expression softening and Jenna retracts her hand. 

"She wouldn't want us to fight," Thor's voice is soft now, the sadness in it nearly making Jenna's heart break once more for him. She could not claim to know the men before her, not in the way that she felt she did... but she knew enough from the loss of her own mother to understand the heartbreak they must be feeling. 

"Well, she wouldn't exactly be shocked," Loki says, his words causing the first laugh from Thor in days and Jenna is almost certain her heart leapt at the sound. The happiness was short lived however, Thor slipping back into his melancholic state. 

"I wish I could trust you," His words are still soft, but there was a sadness in his eyes that Jenna understood all too well. Loki's smile fades as his brother returns to his seat, his gaze only leaving once Thor is back to watching over Jane. 

"Trust my rage," He whispers, Jenna looking at him and wondering if he had meant for them to hear only to be met with his burning gaze. "I will not fail again."