Invasion of Asgard

Chapter Seven

It was morning before Loki ventured out of his room. Thor was sitting at the counter, idly turning a half-full glass of orange juice in circles. He didn't say a word to Thor or even acknowledge his presence. He opened the small fridge and dug around inside it, pulling out the carton of orange juice. It was empty. He shot a look at Thor and pointedly threw it in the trash can, eyes locked on Thor the whole time, not saying a word.

"Sorry," Thor said, offering a guilty smile. Loki still didn't say anything. He ran a hand through his hair and filled another glass with water, sitting down next to Thor at the table. "Uh... are you okay?"

"That's a stupid question." Loki finally spoke. His voice was cracked and strained. "We both know the answer."

"Okay, then." Silence fell again, Thor occasionally glanced over at Loki, and was met with a glare or nothing at all. He much preferred the glare. He hated seeing Loki like this, it was almost like a shell of Loki was walking around where the real Loki should have been. He could hear the wind from outside through the cracked window near the front door, and Thor could tell a storm was coming. It was a sort of feeling, he didn't just take a guess from the clouds or wind. He just knew.

Just then, the front door burst open. London stood in the doorway, Landon behind her, grinning. When she sensed the heavy silence in the atmosphere, the grin fell from her face. She made her way closer, fumbling a little with her new crutches.

"You weren't kidding, Thor, he looks terrible." She said, her eyes drifting over Loki. He seemed to notice her presence just then, and he tried to look normal, failing miserably in the process. "Anyway, we were going to go to the library, and Landon wanted to see if you guys could come with."

Thor shrugged. "I don't see why not. It is going to rain soon though."

"We know," London said. "That's why it's going to be a short trip. We just need to pick up some books."

"How do you know that it's going to rain?" Thor asked, quite surprised. Nobody had ever had his skill at predicting the weather before.

"The weather report," London replied. Thor tilted his head in confusion. "Oh, right, you don't know what those are. It's like an educated guess at what the weather will be."

"Well, if we're going, we should leave now," Landon said from the doorway, interrupting the conversation. Thor got up, pulling Loki along with him.

Loki perked up a bit during their walk down to the library, he spoke a little more but didn't smile or laugh. Thor really was getting worried about him. When they got to the library, he told Landon and London to go inside and turned to Loki.

"You need to snap out of it." He grasped Loki by the shoulders. "This isn't good for any of us. I understand how you feel, but you can't keep being like this."

Loki sighed. "Odin should have thought of this before he sent us here."

"Don't blame it on my father. It's not his fault, it's not London's fault or mine. It's your fault for allowing this to get under your skin." Thor watched Loki hang his head and suddenly felt awful for reprimanding Loki.

"I... I just keep feeling like what happened last time was my fault," Loki whispered. Thor's eyes grew soft, and he sucked in an unsteady breath. A sharp wind twisted through the air, making them shiver.

"Loki... that was not your fault at all. Stop thinking like that. Gosh, I hate seeing you like this." Thor let go of Loki.

Loki let out a soft laugh. Thor cracked a small smile. "Just try not to blame yourself, it'll all work out."

"I doubt that. We should probably go inside, they might think we've been killed," Loki said. Thor nodded in agreement and they entered the building.

London and Landon were sitting side by side at a table reading books whose's titles they quickly tried to cover when Thor and Loki walked up. Landon looked incredibly guilty. Loki spun one of the books towards him and read the title.

"Why are you guys researching Norse mythology?" Loki asked. "If it's about me, I promise I didn't do half the stuff it says I did."

"Good," Landon said, sounding relieved. "Because--"

Loki leaned across the table. "Don't. Even. Ask."

"Okay, then," London drew out the 'okay'. "I was wondering, why isn't Irpa mentioned in any of these?"

"She's a minor goddess, you don't see much about her in your mortal books, but she does exist. We weren't that well documented as our kind prefer to leave the world to its own devices, so that means that the few stories that were written down only featured major gods and goddesses." Loki blurted out. London raised her eyebrows. "What?" Loki asked.

"So, now you're talking again?" She asked. A loud clap of thunder interrupted Loki's response. Thor began counting under his breath. A bright light crossed the sky outside, and the lights crackled and popped, then went out. There were a few scattered screams around the building, but Thor pumped his fist in the air and shouted,

"Yes!"

"Yes, what?" Landon asked. They could barely see each other's silhouettes in the darkness.

"Yes, I got the exact second of the lightning strike right!" Thor seemed to be grinning from the way he spoke his words. Loki rolled his eyes. A crash sounded right next to him and he heard London's muffled swearing.

"You okay, London?" Landon asked.

She answered with more swearing, but eventually, "Yeah, I'm fine. I hit the edge of the table. Those things hurt really bad." Loki felt around in the darkness before he found her arm and hauled her to her feet. She grabbed her crutches to steady herself.

"So, do we stay here or run back home?" Thor asked.

"London can't run, idiot," Loki said, gently hitting Thor on the head. Then the hail started. It was so loud that they had to cover their ears, and even then it felt like someone was hitting a pan with a spoon right next to their ears. Just as it was getting unbearable, everything stopped. It was calm. Thor let go of his ears and stopped wishing for the storm to be over. He walked over to the door and looked outside. It was still cloudy, but the rain, lightning, and hail had abruptly stopped. The lights flickered back on.

"I guess we can go back to the house then," Loki had popped up at Thor's side.

"Yeah... I guess we can."