The Time He Was Found Worthy
There is no reason for Loki to be here. None at all. He is not interested in watching the Avengers beat the Villian of the Week, and he is not as naive as he used to be, does not believe that some silly, costumed madman is enough to take down the Avengers.
He is not here to watch Thor crash through several buildings. He is not here to watch the Villian of the Week knocking Iron man out of the sky. He is not here to watch the Captain trying to keep the Hulk from going after his own teammates. He is not here to see Hawkeye trying to keep Black Widow from bleeding out.
He should be surprised; surprised how strong the enemy is. But he does not really care about the silly wretch. He does not care about the Avengers either, he tells himself. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time for once.
The Avengers are losing. It should be fun to watch.
It should be.
For some reason it is not. They are his to mess with, he tells himself, when he steps in and uses his magic to contain the Hulk, effectively stopping him from causing more chaos. They are his to fight, he tells himself, when he knocks the enemy down from his high horse. They are his to kill, he tells himself, when he casts a healing spell on the Black Widow.
Thor is nowhere to be found.
Loki remembers that he had been blown through several buildings, which in itself should not have been a problem. But Loki has not seen the whole battle, has not seen how much damage Thor sustained before.
When he finds his brother, he freezes for a moment. He has seen Thor hurt before, seen him beaten into a bloody mess before. He has seen Thor get up again, no matter how awful the injury was, and fight again.
This time he did not get back up.
He finds himself standing next to Thor's body, before he even realizes that he has moved. He crouches down, petting his brother's cheek, stained with blood. Healing magic slowly seeps from his fingers and into Thor's wounds.
Healing magic is not forte, never was and never will be. But he is willing to give it everything he has. Not because he cares, he tells himself. But Thor is his to kill.
When all is done, and his spell cannot close the wounds further, he leans down and grabs his brother's arms, pulling him up as far as he can. Loki hauls his unconscious brother onto his back and to safety. Picking up the Hammer is an afterthought.
Strangely, it no longers matters to him, whether he can lift Mjölnir or not.