Brotherhood - Loki & Thor ♡

49. {sequel to} in the dusk with your memory

Whatever it was, the last thing Thor expected when he went and opened the door was to see a trembling, bleeding, injured and scared Loki standing there, soaked in the rain, trying not to double over.

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Loki, the word was caught in his throat. For a long while, Thor could only stand there and watch, wide eyed -- shocked, stunned. This wasn't a trick nor was it some hallucination conjured by his intoxicated mind and he knew it. But how?

(And no, this wasn't a ghost either. Thor wouldn't know how he could be able to tell, but standing in front of him was a living person with heartbeat. Hurt, yes, but alive)

"Loki?" This time he spoke it. Though Thor would have stood there, dumbfounded for Norns knew how long, if 'Loki' hadn't eventually fallen forward and right into Thor's arms (he would've hit the floor if not for Thor catching him in time)

"Help me," Loki was saying. It took Thor this long to hear what he'd been repeating, with Thor's mind all over the places and Loki's voice hardly audible at all. The Loki's hands clenched tight around the fabric of Thor's shirt, desperate for some sort of protection, like a child in need of its parents' protecting. He was shaking all over. "Please, help me."

The next second his body went limp in Thor's embrace. Thor still hadn't the first idea what just happened.

What just happened was that Loki somehow winded up at his front door. But Loki was dead. The incident on Statesman (and Thor remembered it all too well although he wished he could forget) was no trick. His Loki was dead, and the one here leaning boneless against Thor... there must be some explanation. Though for now, only for now, the priority would be to prevent this Loki from dying, too.

Thor scooped him up so he was completely carrying his... brother (whoever he was) instead of just being there for him to lean against and not fall to the ground. Then he retracted back inside the house and shut the door with his foot. Thor quickly placed Loki down on a couch he hoped would be comforting enough.

The Loki was bleeding. Thor hadn't needed a medical degree to tell someone had done a number on him. The most worrying part being the cut on his torso. It was night and it was storming and Thor doubted the healers they had right now would be able to deal with injuries so severe, considering they were pretty much at the beginning of this Start Over -- every equipment they had, that might be required for something like this, burnt in the Eternal Flame with their old home.

Loki had always been able to heal himself, given some time and appropriate amount of rest, Thor reminded himself in his head. His Loki could. This Loki, though, Thor wouldn't know. So he decided one hour, he would give it one hour and if Loki didn't get better or if he seemed to be starting getting worse, Thor would do something (even if he had no idea what that something would be, whoever this man was, Thor wouldn't lose him the way he lost his brother, and the moment he was better and could talk, Thor would ask him all the questions running in his head, the one standing out the most being 'what the fuck is going on? Who are you?')

Thor rid Loki out of the mess that was his clothing (though it looked more like a torn down rag, bloody and dirty) He unconsciously held in a breath at the sight of this Loki's skin; it looked precisely like someone had been using him as some sort of... not a punching back but a personal lab rat -- because the countless cuts on his body seemed calculated, patterned and neat. As sick as it sounded, whoever did this knew what they were doing. And Thor felt his stomach churn when, after thoroughly examining, he could tell this had been going on not for days or weeks but years -- another proof that this wasn't the same Loki Thor knew, because... years? Apparently that was what it looked like judged by all these scars; old and recent.