Enjoy :D

Thor turned upon reaching the wall as he paced outside his brother's cell once more. Ever since they locked Loki up not two hours ago he couldn't muster the strength to leave the front of the cell. The shock of the battle wore off the minute he saw Loki laying on the ground after being thrashed to the ground by the Hulk. In that moment, he relived Loki falling into the void. The crater he lay in quickly became the place where he crash landed after his decent. It must have looked something like that.

He spent so many sleepless nights wondering what happened when Loki fell and what he might have done differently. His dreams involved Loki falling endlessly or his body finally hitting the ground, lifeless, with a harsh thud, just like his defeat by the Hulks hands. Did Loki spend those years laughing at their grief? Did he spend all that time planning such an unfounded revenge? He told himself to avoid Loki's cell. He would wait for the time to take him back to Asgard to see him. It turns out he mastered himself less than he thought. With a shaky breath, Thor braced himself as if heading to battle and opened the door to the Loki's cell.

The cell was grey and bare with only a small cot and a toilet on opposite ends of the room. Loki, his little brother, sat in-between the two on the floor. He looked angry but it was hard to take seriously for he drew his knees up to his chest till it looked as if he had grown smaller against the wall. Thor released the breath he had been holding in his chest. Loki looked worn. His clothes were tattered and angry scrapes layered over bruises upon his skin. Dark circles stained his eyes like a deep mask and he couldn't help but notice the sickly ashen tone of his skin.

"Come to admire their handy work again Thor?"

Loki drawled bringing him out of his rolled his head to stare towards the right away from Thor. He pursed his lips and took a step forward causing Loki's eyes to snap back to his. His body stiffened.

"Loki."

He kept his distance waiting for Loki to calm. It was minutes before Loki's shoulders finally sagged but his eyes held the same weary gaze.

"What do you want Thor?"

He asked sounding more tired than hostile this time. The chains upon him clanked and groaned as his hands rose up to hug his chest as best as he was able.

"I thought you were done playing this game." Loki said.

"Game? What game?"

Thor felt something heavy settle into his heart at these words as he imagined Loki mocking his family over the empty funeral pyre they burned for him. How had his brother's harmless tricks turned so evil?

"Death is never a game Loki." He boomed while fighting with himself to rain in his temper. "We mourned, Loki. Do you even understand what that means? We lite fires for you, we cried for you, we drank in your honor as we wracked our brains in secret to what we might have done better and you mock us? You…"

He stopped himself, shut his eyes, and placed a hand over his eyes. His breath had become too quick. He didn't want to fight again. He just needed to talk. He needed to know why Loki had turned so dark.

"Oh is that how you dance on someone's grave now?" Loki mocked.

"What?"

"What was it you said… oh I remember now! Wasn't it the Victor's Dance you played for three whole days as you danced admits the ruins of all that remained of mine!?"

He got up fast and his eyes blazed with fire but Thor only stared at him in shock and confusion. He never said these words and Loki only continued his confusing rant.

"They laughed, Loki. They laughed with relief that their biggest mistake was finally gone. They didn't even have to worry about the body, Loki. The whole kingdom celebrated your death, Loki!" Loki screamed and pounded his fists against the wall behind him with his back to Thor, his shoulders shaking with rage. Thor took another step forward his brain whirling around whose words Loki spoke.

"Loki, who told you these lies?" Thor asked. A deranged laugh echoed throughout the room and Thor couldn't help but tense up. "I swear to you this was not so. We would never, I would never rejoice in your death. It wounded me, Loki. So please, where did you hear this."

Loki's laughter started to slow and he slowly turned back to face Thor. He didn't look quite so angry anymore and the makings of a slight smile of amusement lighted his face.

"Putting on a show for the mortals?"

"This is no show. Only tell me who spoke such lies to you and I will see it righted. Is that why you attacked? Someone filled your head with this deceit? Tell me their name brother and I will deal them in." He vowed a sick sort of hope twisting in his gut.

"Did you hit your head in the fight?" Loki asked head cocked to the side to scrutinize him as he settled back upon the ground.

"I have not known you to lie but then I would have never thought you capable…"

His brows scrunched together and he pulled his knees up once more keeping his head bowed upon them. The actions were so familiar Thor could have laughed for joy.

Loki always did that when they were young and he was frightened. He used to rush into Thor's room after a nightmare only to melt into the wall next to his bed. No matter how quiet Loki tried to be, the door would always wake him. Yet, when he felt neither shake nor heard his voice he would rise from bed to find him. He never had to look far. He was always curled up by the curtains at the window right beside his bed.

"Why didn't you wake me, brother? You must wake me so I can support you."He used to urge but Loki always shook his head.

"I didn't want to wake you." Would come the shaky reply.

Thor would scold him slightly and then drag him under the covers to sooth his nightmares. So just like before when they were children, Thor crouched down next to Loki and tried to grasp his hand. However instead of calming him down as it used to, Loki's shoulders tensed, his arms turned to steel and the breath at his lips quickened.

"Little brother, I do not lie to you." He said softly. "I am sorry you have gotten hurt, but I only did what I must to protect this realm."

"How did leaving me protect this realm?" Loki shouted and Thor was startled at the moisture at his eyes and the pleading tone his voice had developed.

"You knew what they were trying to force me to do. You knew how they wore away at me whenever you left. So why did you leave?" A sob left his throat and Thor stared in shock as heavy tears started to slide down Loki's face. "Why didn't you take me with you if you cared so much for the mortals? Then they wouldn't have… then I wouldn't have… Oh Norns…"

Any words he had were soon lost to the terrible sobs wracking his body and Thor acted on instinct to pull his brother into an embrace. As his arms wrapped him, Loki sucked in a deep breath and went rigid. He pushed his hands against Thor's chest as if to throw him off but his fists bunched at the fabric to keep him close.

"Please brother, not now." He said and Thor's eyes widened in shock.

It was the first time since his own banishment he was called brother but his confusion only increased at the tone of fear it was spoken with. Loki fell. He let go and fell through the void. Did the void drop him back upon the rainbow bridge? Was he expecting Thor to still be there? Did he mistake the day of drinking in the funeral ritual for the first day of wailing? No, he couldn't have landed there because Heimdall would have seen him. He would have noted his return immediately. Nothing Loki was saying made any sense to him.

Was he being manipulated, used? Were the ones Loki befriended and used as an army corrupting him with lies of their family? But how had the god of lies not seen their tricks or was Loki the liar again? Yet liar or not, he refused to take the chance that Loki had been played. Thor thought with a grim determination. Loki was unhinged and emotionally traumatized when he fell. Thor understood how easily people pray on those who have been damaged. No, he would seek his answers and lies or not he would act on them. He could not afford to lose his brother twice.

"Loki where do you think I left you? What do you think I did?"

"Why do you keep asking me? You know what you did!"

He hit Thor's chest but the impact did little to nothing.

"Please, Loki, I'm here now. I won't leave you again. Just tell me, I do not know of what you speak."

"You won't leave." He intoned.

"I won't so tell me."

"Why? Why do I need to say it? Is it for the mortals?"

"Please Loki."

"You won't leave again?"

"I will never leave again."

"You'll come back and stay with me before midnight like you promised?"

"I promise that now."

"Will you…" He hesitated and Thor couldn't miss the flash of fear in his eyes as his body tensed up once more. "… Will you prove your love?"

"You will always be my little brother, Loki. I do love you and whatever I am able to prove to you this is true, I will."

It was strange as comforting as the words where meant Loki shrunk further into himself with a look of resignation. It left a bad taste in Thor's mouth.

"You left me with the Chitauri." He said a little louder than needed and Thor had no doubt it was to insure he could be heard through the recording devices in the room. "You left me there so they assumed you had abandoned me. They said with you gone they could do whatever they wanted. So, they did. And it didn't stop, Thor. It never stopped. They burned me, Thor. They whipped and broke and cracked and flayed and I just couldn't fight it anymore. I thought you didn't care. I thought you finally gave up on me."

Horror rose with every word Loki spoke and he tightened his grip on his brother's shoulders.

"I would never give up on you but what do you mean they burned you? What do you mean they broke you?" Thor asked frantically.

He searched Loki's body for these marks to reveal his brother's lies but his body only confirmed it as true.

"What is this?"

He said shakily and frantically turned Loki's arms about in horror at the scars he now knew the history for, those he was blind to until this moment.

"Did you think they would lay off me just because you had stayed with me for so long, Thor?" He asked softly and Thor brought his frantic eyes to those of his brother.

"You were always a fool. No, Thor they did not. As soon as you did not return that night, they took me. Until finally, I could not fight the gem anymore. I'm sorry brother. I was too weak. "

Thor stared at Loki in shock.

"You mean to say you were controlled as well?"

"Would you stop acting so surprised? You already knew what they wanted of me so why are you so surprised when they achieved it."

"And that, why do you keep insisting I knew you were there?"

"Because you were there!"

"Loki I only just heard you were still alive and came to find you on the helicopter! I didn't know they had you. If I had known they were harming you I would have searched the whole of the nine realms for you!"

"No!" Loki yelled with fury and tried to break free of Thor's grip on his shoulders. "You laughed. You said I deserved what I got from them for letting go, for trying to harm you, for making you care, for making you love me!"

"These are lies brother. I would never laugh at your pain. I would never let them hurt you like that!"

"You did at first."

"Loki listen to me, if someone was there to tell you these things it wasn't me."

"I think I would know a fake, you insult my intelligence."

"But I was never there!" He roared.

"I would have destroyed all that tried to touch you. I would have brought you home brother."

"But you did bring me home."

"Loki you have not been home since you feel."

He said unease only growing more in his breast. Loki seemed so earnest and the implication that he was lied to so much made him panic. How could he prove that was a fake? What could he say or do? Was Loki really under the mind stone's control during New York? He hoped to the Norns that was the case but at the same time he couldn't help but hope it wasn't. If he attacked of his own free will it meant he was lying. He wouldn't have been tortured and whoever had planted those lies in his head was avengers would already be reviewing the data from the site. His eyes would be blue or green. Had they been blue?

"But you are my home Thor and you stayed. Are you guilty that you did not stop them sooner? Don't be silly brother. I'm just grateful you came at all. You kept me safe when you were there. They did not touch me when you were there."

He released Loki's shoulders only to gently cradle his checks in his hands so he could gaze into Loki's eyes. Loki's breath caught in his throat and he began to shake. His thumbs ran circles over his cheeks in an attempt to sooth him.

"What's wrong? You are afraid." Thor asked as he took in his little brother once more and couldn't place why he was shaking. "Why are you so afraid? Do you think I would hurt you."

"No." He answered in a whisper.

"Then what has you shaken?"

Loki tried to pull away but Thor moved a firm hand on the back of his neck while the other palm stayed on his cheek.

"Please, brother." Loki pleaded and his small hand came up to grasp Thor's wrist and his eyes grew wide. "Please, brother. I know you love me. I know. I'm not a monster, please."

Thor's brow furrowed in an instant and he cursed the heavens for whoever defiled his image in his brother's eyes. Perhaps it was the mind stone. Could it influence memories as well?

"Of course you are not a monster. You are Loki and you are my brother."

Loki seemed to relax a little but he did not stop shaking nor did the fear leave his eyes.

"Loki, what did you think I was going to do?" He asked and swallowed sickly.

A great pressure and flutter of air settled over his chest as the words Loki spoke begun to add up in his head. But, Loki only pinched his eyes closed as much as he could and his breathing began to get erratic.

"Loki, it's okay." He said.

He tapped his cheeks to get his attention but a strangled whimper left his mouth instead. He hunched over into a ball.

"Loki!"Thor shouted but Loki did not hear him as the world around him began to fade.

He fisted his hands into his hair in desperation to have something to ground him to but it was no use. He could feel hands gripping his shoulders and moving him towards the bed. He could feel the hands removing with mocking care the little clothes he had in his cell all the while whispering such words of brotherly love he felt sick.

"I will prove to you my love, brother." The soft voice whispered in his ear. "I will drive the monster from you that has possessed you."

Tears were already pouring down his face. He had long since given up pleading. He had long since stopped trying to fight Thor when he became like this. When he fought it only made Thor angry as 'the monster had grown stronger in him' and if the monster was stronger he was harsher, rougher. It hurt so much worse that way.

"See?" Thor whispered and traced the path of the tears down his face. "There's my little brother."

It was awful, brutal really and the sobs that wracked his body only made it worse. It was strange though because he thought he heard someone else calling his name. But, there was only ever Thor. He closed his eyes to rid his head of the image of Thor but he couldn't escape it. Even with his eyes closed he saw him as clear as if they had been open.

"Loki!"

The voice called again but louder this time. He let out another whimper but hadn't he been sobbing? It smelled of sweat everything was lavender. He smelled lavender. Loki's eyes shot open, and he took in a deep breath. His eyes flickered about the room and he was shocked to find the bedchambers missing. He was on the floor. His eyes found Thor and he sat up in an instant knocking into someone else.

"Loki, you're okay. It's okay." The man said and Loki just stared at him.

The man had his hands out in a placating manner and looked nervously towards Thor. It took Loki a moment to realize he still had his clothes on, he was nowhere near Thor and there was no pain between his legs.

"You're okay now." The man said, no not a man.

It was Bruce Banner, the Avenger.

"We checked your eyes and we know now. It's not your fault. That's right deep breaths." He spoke softly and slowly sat down across from Loki while he set a small bottle of scented oil down between them. "Do you want to talk about what you saw?"

He asked gently but Loki only shook his head. On shaky feet, he slowly rose. He shook the image from his mind and walked until he was standing in front of Thor. Thor held his breath but wasted no time in embracing his brother as he fell into him.

"I'm not a monster." He whispered.

"You are my brother." Thor answered.

Loki pressed his face against Thor's chest as he shivered from the shock and allowed himself to cry with relief. Tonight Thor was his protector. Thor's arms tightened around him as the frown on his face intensified. It was twenty minutes before Loki stilled and slumped in exhaustion.

"Thor, let's go to bed now."

"I feel we should visit the infirmary first. You do not look well." Thor spoke and pulled away to look his body up and down.

"And what good will that do?" Loki chuckled. "They will provide as much help as the sweet Chitauri."

He spat with a glare sent towards Bruce his knuckles tightening ever so slightly on fabric of Thor's tunic. Bruce and Thor shared a look of confusion.

"Loki," Bruce said. "We will not hurt you. We know they were controlling you. You're safe now."

But Loki didn't seem to be listening to him and with each word he hid his face more in the folds of Thor's cape.

"My brother is not himself friend Banner. I think we shall retire."

"But he should be treated." Bruce said with a frown.

"I have tended many a wounds on the battlefield, especially those of my brother. We shall manage."

Hope you liked it^^

For the record... I took some artistic liberties with the flashback. From what I've experienced, a strong smell like that does not bring you out a flashback and it takes some people a bit longer to recover. Of course others bounce back fairly quickly and maybe smells help you but it never worked for me ;)