Brotherhood - Loki & Thor ♡

44. all we can do is stay alive

Thanos didn't crash Loki's windpipe on Statesman that day. Instead he crashed his skull against the solid wall, just once, hard enough it gushed blood, shushed the voice from the luckless God's throat. When Thanos dropped the limp body on the ground, Loki remained unmoving, bleeding out. And Thor thought his brother was dead. Thanos believed he was dead. He should be dead.

After the restraints melted away and Thanos and his minions were gone, Thor crawled towards his brother's body, cradling him tightly against his chest. The explosion couldn't tear them apart. Thor brought the God of Mischief with him to Earth.

It turned out stubbornness was in Loki's nature, Thor should have known that, because Loki defied the odds and survived.

Though things weren't that easy, not even when Thanos was decapitated.

Thor learned there was something wrong with his brother: Loki was never healed from the blunt force head trauma caused by the Mad Titan, and the only person who was fooled to think he was okay was Loki himself. Thor intended to keep it that way; keeping his brother safe by withholding the truth.

But how far would Thor go?

Trigger warning for violence, disturbing  content.

Inspired by Bates Motel because why not. We need more fucked up fic.

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Loki tossed and turned in his bed. He'd been doing that for quite a while now. Oh, he wanted sleep - especially after a long day, but Thor and Valkyrie seemed to think otherwise. They'd been...whispering just outside his room, keeping their voices low as though they were afraid Loki would hear whatever secret they were discussing about. And it wasn't the first time this happened. Loki just... pretended not to notice, since they so wanted him to be that stupid. This time, though, he was exhausted and he really needed that sleep.

The words Loki caught being 'dangerous, unstable, a danger.' He furrowed his brows with the side of his face pressed against the pillow. The bits and pieces he managed to collage did not make any sense.

"What are you whispering about?"

Thor and Valkyrie stopped. They even seemed startled the second Loki opened the door. So they expected him to either be asleep or deaf enough that he couldn't hear a thing, a thing they were discussing about.

"Loki," Thor said. He looked tense, guarded. Val didn't look any better. "You should get some sleep. It's late."

"Well, I was trying to. But I mean all the secretive, agitated whispering, it was a little distracting. Don't you think?"

Thor sighed. "I - we're sorry. We didn't mean to. Just go back to bed, all right?"

"What were you talking about?" Loki cut him off.

Thor was quiet for a moment. Whatever it was he was thinking, he clearly wasn't doing a decent job at making Loki believe it was some nice, harmless conversation about the weather. "Nothing," he said eventually. "Go to sleep," Thor was reaching out, his hand stopped before he could touch Loki when Loki shielded his arm away, out of Thor's reach.

For a few seconds, no one said a word. Then Loki's eyes shifted toward Valkyrie. "What were you guys talking about?" He repeated the same question to her.

Valkyrie blinked. She looked caught off guard, like she didn't expect Loki to directly ask her when his brother was right here. Like she thought she could duck the bullet. She took a quick glance at Thor, and Loki doubted she was even aware of doing so. For some reason her reaction was making uneasiness crawl up Loki's chest: she was nervous. She'd been through hundreds of battles and she was never nervous. The fact she was nervous now did not look promising.