Brotherhood - Loki & Thor ♡

43. by tomorrow, we'll be amongst the leaves

After his death, Loki had two wishes to ask of his mother.

Or in other words, a chapter where Loki, after Thanos killed him, asked Frigga to erase himself out of Thor's memories, for Loki could not stand the thought of Thor blaming himself for his death and the thought of Thor broken because of him. Loki's second wish being that the late Asgard Queen, who now sat on throne beside her King, refused his own access to Valhalla - meaning the God of Mischief was nothing more than a lost soul with no purpose, trapped and unable to cross over.

All because Loki couldn't leave Thor behind. Someone had to look after Thor; Loki couldn't do that in Valhalla, but he could do it here where he, the ghost, would follow Thor wherever he went, even if Thor had no idea who Loki was.

Even if Thor had no idea he ever had a brother.

///

Thor's sleep wasn't peaceful. Had never been peaceful. Every night, he kept having this recurring dream, kept seeing.... someone: a man standing in the fog. Raven hair, sharp jawline, pale skin, unsmiling lips and cold dead eyes looking at him. He looked sad. Thor'd never seen someone so sad.

"Who are you?" Thor had asked.

No sound the man in the lost dream made.

"Why - why do I've got a feeling I know you?" Thor pushed. Still, the man said no words.

"Why can't I remember you?" The Thunder God blurted out, even if he knew, even in a dream, it was stupid to ask someone such a question.

"Who are you?"

Thor opened his eyes, woke with a start. As always, the first thing he saw was the ceiling of his room in New Asgard, visible just barely in the absence of light. He lifted his head up a notch from the pillow, taking in his surroundings as though he was expecting that man to appear. Of course, there was no one here. The man only existed in Thor's dreams. Thor wasn't sure if he felt like laughing at his own nonsense: searching in the dark for someone he saw in his sleep.

He let his head fall back to the soft pillow. Closing his eyes even though he knew he wouldn't drift off into unconsciousness again for the night. Well, at least he could just rest, lying here until the morning came.

He always felt unrested, exhausted and distracted. The man's face displaying itself in the back of Thor's head. Who are you, Thor wondered.

~~~

"You look like shit, your Majesty," had become Valkyrie's way of saying hello. It wasn't a lie. Thor waved at her with a quick, 'aye' and a smile that didn't reach his eyes before walking up to stand next to Korg, then they were ready for the meeting today. Today's topic being the boundaries that would separate Thor's people, whether it be Asgardian or Sakaraan refugees, from Midgardians. Korg was, surprisingly, helping a lot. He was wise and kind, despite he was made of rock.

They were rebuilding the kingdom, little by little, after half of the people were brutality murdered by the hand of the Mad Titan on Statesman - never made it to Earth.

By the shore of the beautiful Norway ocean, there was a stone. Big enough for the names of all lives that lost on The Statesman to be written down, engraved on the stone for eternity. So they would never be forgotten. For they would remain here with the rest of those who survived, even if they couldn't be seen.

Or, almost every name, of those whose lives were lost on The Statesman, was written on the stone. There was one missing.

Loki.

Valkyrie figured it was on purpose. She thought she ought to ask Thor why, but, disregard her being... tough and cold, she still knew it might probably be a bad idea to directly ask 'hey, I'm not sure if you forget, but ugh, your brother's name is not there' since, frankly speaking, she wasn't sure how emotionally stable Thor was after everything he's been through, and if the sensitive topic, about his dead brother, would somehow trigger him.