A/N: I noticed that in that one Avengers scene, Fury was basically asking Thor if he would let them torture Loki for info. Naturally, I got feels and decided to share them! (Also wow, I'm really late in posting my first pre-Ragnarok Thor and Loki fic)

Thor stared out the window, arms crossed tightly over his chest. "In my youth, I courted war," he murmured, heavy with regret. How had his life come to this? A year ago, life was all but perfect, a jovial affair surrounded by friends and family. Now here he was, analyzing his every action over the last thousand years, while coming to this small world again and again, fighting to protect it from his baby brother, the person he loved more than anything.

"War hasn't started yet," a new voice warned. Thor looked up to see Fury, and while he knew the man would not harm him, it was a threatening sight, a man radiating power as he stalked towards you from above, black trench coat waving about his broad figure. "You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?"

"I do not know," Thor replied honestly, despondently. "Loki's mind is far afield. It's not just power he craves, it's vengeance. Upon me. There's no pain would prize his need from him."

"A lot of guys think that," Fury agreed, descending the steps but remaining above Thor as he finished direly, "until the pain starts."

Thor looked warily up at Fury. "What are you asking me to do?"

"I'm asking, what are you prepared to do?"

Thor stepped back, clenching his fists to avoid summoning Mjolnir. "If you are asking what I believe you're asking-" he began, voice low and threatening.

Fury descended to the last step, refusing to give up the high ground. "I have a planet to defend, Odinson. I think you recognize that I'm not above such methods, but considering it's your brother I'm defending it from, I'd rather utilize them with your permission."

"Meaning you're too afraid to fight me," Thor snarled, shifting his feet into fighting stance.

"The only reason I don't want to fight you is because you're a valuable ally," Fury retorted, anger vibrating deep within his voice. "But make no mistake, I will fight you if your feelings interfere with my duties."

A growl of rage began in the back of Thor's throat, but Coulson stepped between them. "Let's not be hasty here," he soothed sharply, glancing between the two men. "Thor, the director is right: we have to do what's necessary. But, Director Fury, perhaps we could give Thor the opportunity to talk to his brother before we resort to… anything else?"

Fury met Thor's gaze, stubbornly giving nothing away. Thor flexed his fist, considering. He could best these humans in combat, at least long enough to grab Loki and flee. But how many lives would that cost? And he still needed the Tesseract to return to Asgard. More importantly, he had vowed to protect the humans. Even if siding with them cost his brother dearly. A fate he had a chance to prevent.

Slowly, Thor dipped his head. "I will talk with Loki," he agreed.

Fury nodded, and Coulson looked relieved. Thor followed Coulson to Loki's cage, deep in the belly of the ship. Finally, Coulson stopped before a doorway, thumb hovering over the scanner. "Would you like me to go in with you?" he asked.

For the first time, Thor let his shoulders slump, remembering the venom in his brother's voice. His absolute certainty that Thor no longer cared – maybe that he never cared in the first place. "I appreciate the offer, but no," he murmured. "This I must do alone."

Coulson rested a hand on his arm, offering up a small smile. "If you fail, and I hope you don't, I'll send in Natasha – she has methods she'd rather use before resorting to the physical stuff. But whatever happens, it's not your fault. All right?"

"I understand," Thor said, failing to return the smile. "Thank you."

"There are two guards," Coulson told him, returning to professionalism after one last pat to Thor's arm. "They'll listen to you. Good luck."

With that, the door swished open, and Thor squared his shoulders. He stepped inside.

One guard stood by the control panel, the other next to the door of the cell. Loki sat on the opposite side of the cell. He lifted his head off the glass to look at Thor, his gaze glittering and unreadable. Thor searched for some sign of the boy he'd known, but he saw none in the rigid stance – he wasn't even fidgeting with his hands.

Thor walked around, coming up to be nearer his brother. Loki just tilted his head to watch his progress. "Brother," Thor greeted.

Something flashed in Loki's eyes before he looked away. "I have no family here."

"I don't care what you've done," Thor said. "I only care for the thousand years we spent side by side."

"Really?" Loki challenged, whipping back around to glare at him. "Tell me, brother, why did you come here now, and not earlier? Were you busy? Chatting with your new friends, perhaps? Feasting? Tending to your wounded pride? Because I've been here, alone with those two gargoyles, for two hours now."

Thor flinched from the icy rage. "I have made mistakes," he admitted. "And no, I did not come here purely because you're my brother."

"Then I have no interest in speaking with you," Loki stated, settling against the glass and staring at the ceiling.

"Loki, please," Thor urged, "be reasonable."

Loki didn't stir.

"Just listen, then." He took a breath before continuing. "You're right – I took you for granted. I treated you poorly, as did-" Perhaps it's best not to mention Father. "But I've had time to mourn, to think. Loki, you are my brother, and I miss you. I'm truly sorry for everything I've done. Now please, just do me one more favor, and give up this madness."

"A favor?" Loki exclaimed, leaning forward to stare at him incredulously. "You consider my giving up my shot at a throne, at being loved, a mere favor?"

"That's not-"

Loki vaulted to his feet, advancing. "You claim to care, but you still can't even bring yourself to say you love me. You come in here, where I cannot escape or even properly defend myself, to preach about your precious feelings, and call it a favor when you ask for what you supposedly what me to do more than anything? You just want the Tesseract!"

Thor stumbled back a step, looking up at this entity of rage that used to be his brother. Had these feelings been simmering beneath the surface all these centuries? How had Thor been so blind?

"I'm done doing favors for you, brother," Loki spat. "I am your pawn no longer, nor Odin's, nor anyone else's!"

Fine. If it's his pride he cares about, then I'll use that.

"You're no one's pawn, hm? Then who sent you here? Even when you were fighting me at the Bifrost, you were feeling something beyond rage. Who did this to you? Who did what to make you this way?"

Loki smashed his fist into the glass.

The cell shook with an ominous rumble. Thor glanced at the guards to make sure they hadn't pressed any buttons, and in the moment his gaze was off, Loki transformed. He took a hasty step back, hands spread as if in surrender, shooting a terrified gaze at the walls that trapped him. By the time Thor looked back at him, he was regaining his composure, but Thor caught enough.

"Someone did do something to you," Thor surmised, suppressing his combined rage and horror at the thought. He started moving, slowly, realizing he should be treating his brother like a cornered, wounded animal. "This is your way out, isn't it? This plan, whatever it is – you're trying to save yourself."

Loki set his jaw, crossed his arms.

Thor paused outside the door. You won't get anywhere, not out here.

"Let me in."

The guards exchanged a glance. "Sir-"

"Let me in," Thor repeated, turning a glare on them. "Let me in, leave the room, and shut those cameras off."

"We can't-"

"Do it!" Thor ordered. "Or I can easily do it for you."

The guards' grips on their weapons stiffened, as if wondering whether they dared aim them at a god. Thor made no move. Finally, one aimed at the door as the second pressed buttons. The cell's door slid open, and the lights on all the cameras turned red. Loki remained absolutely still in the center of his cell, eyes narrowed.

"You have five minutes, during which you'll be locked in there with him," the button-presser informed Thor. "After that, we're pulling you out entirely."

"That will do," Thor said curtly, not at all sure it would do. He entered the cell, facing his brother as the doors slid shut with echoing clicks, leaving them properly alone.

"What are you doing?" Loki asked, watching his fists.

Thor forced his hands to remain open. "It's you and me, Loki. If we fight, we fall. Just talk to me. Please."

Loki just laughed, bitterness dripping from the sound. "You need the threat of your own death to be gentle with your own supposedly-beloved brother. Do you realize how pathetic you are?"

"Loki-"

"The only people to show me any sort of proper care in the last year are the S.H.I.E.L.D. idiots I brainwashed!" Loki overrode him, fists clenching. "I stumbled, and they caught me. But you- I was tied up, not being at all threatening, and you grabbed me by the throat and hurled me to the ground. You saw me for the first time after a year of believing me dead, and you attacked me."

Guilt flooded over Thor, recognizing his brother's words as true. He reached out instinctively, reaching for a shoulder to hold, to reassure, but Loki smacked his hand viciously aside.

"No!" he hissed. "You don't get to try that, not after-" He cut himself off, raw terror filling the depths of his eyes before he regained control of his expression. "I care not for your sentiment, Thor," he stated, voice utterly devoid of emotion.

Thor went silent, letting his hand sink back to his side. Loki dropped his gaze and turned away, a tired sigh escaping him. As he returned to his bench, there was the barest hint of a limp, of a sucked-in gasp, of an arm tightening against his side. He settled back onto his seat, leaning carefully against the glass, glancing at it as if to make sure the cell wouldn't suddenly drop into open sky.

Thor sat, too, pulling one leg onto the bench with him. He glanced at the dot of red light on the cell's camera, painfully aware of the passing time, but he forced himself to take a moment to observe his brother. Now that the cameras were off, Loki seemed less like a cornered animal, but even more of a wounded one. He'd always been tight-lipped about his own suffering. After that fateful day, Thor suspected his taunts, his teases that Loki was a wimp and a weakling, had played a large role in that.

Gods, how stupid he had been. All those years, those horrible arrogant preferred sibling moments… all leading to right here, with his brother in a cage under threat of torture.

"If you decide to come home, we probably have a lot to discuss," Thor conceded, his foot slipping back to the floor. "But right now, Loki, the only thing that matters is that you're right."

Loki looked up sharply, and for the first time, Thor saw light in his eyes. A flicker of hope, hardly even a glimmer, and Thor despised that his next words would extinguish it.

"I was wasting my time before I came here," he continued, leaning forward. "I was doing anything but visiting you, for reason I could explain but won't, because I know you're not in the mindset to care, and because you're running out of time."

"I'm not the one-"

"Yes, you are!" Thor interrupted, standing up again. Loki leapt back to his own feet, stance hardening as if he expected a fight. Thor took a breath, pressing back his irritation at Loki's stubbornness, but he let his desperation stay. He pointed back at the doors. "The humans want their Tesseract back, and they're willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Whatever it takes. Do you understand that?"

Loki's gaze followed his finger, lingering on the door. He shifted back from it, shadows darkening his eyes as his stony mask cracked. His hands flexed, stiffened, flexed, then stiffened again before he brought them together, wringing them together in that same nervous tic Mother had.

"You're right," Thor repeated, stepping cautiously nearer. "I need information to help the humans. I need the Tesseract to go home. But more importantly, I need them to protect you."

Loki said nothing. He watched the door with a new wariness, the wariness of a prey animal that's been bitten once and is desperate to avoid a second attack. Maybe it was subconscious, an instinct born of centuries of brotherhood, but he edged closer to Thor, placing his brother between him and the human threat.

Hesitantly, Thor reached for him again. Loki's muscles tensed and his eyes went wide, his breaths beginning to come in quick pants, but he let Thor's hand rest on his shoulder. He squeezed gently, closing the distance until he could pull Loki into a pseudo hug, leaving his hand on his shoulder but his other hand at his side, letting Loki decide what to do with the contact.

"Whatever you may think of me, know that I still view you as my brother, and therefore it's still my job to protect you," Thor murmured. "Please, let me do that. Just tell me what the plan is."

Outside of his ragged breaths, Loki remained statue-still for a long minute. Then, with his eyes clenched shut, he dropped his forehead onto Thor's shoulder, breaking his hands apart to hold onto Thor, lightly, as if expecting this all to be a trick. "I…" he started, faltering, his voice breaking. "I-"

All at once, the doors sprang open, that red dot transformed to green, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents stormed back in, weapons drawn. Loki pulled back, swiping at the tears that had just begun to fall, lifting his chin defiantly.

"Time to leave, sir," one of the original guards ordered, stepping inside to grab Thor's elbow.

Thor stayed put, lifting his hand to cup Loki's face like he always had, maintaining eye contact with his brother, clinging on to the shreds of humanity in those eyes. "Loki, tell me."

Loki raised his own hand, taking hold of Thor's wrist, thoughts racing around his eyes.

"Please," Thor pressed, letting the word turn into a blatant plea. Please don't make me let them torture you.

And for a moment, for one precious moment, Loki was his baby brother again, staring up at him with wide, scared eyes, as if a prank had gone wrong and he feared getting in trouble if he told about it, even to Thor. For that sole moment, Thor could see his old self winning, beating back the cornered animal he had become.

Then a ripple of magic sealed the villainous mask in place and Loki was pushing him back, snarling, "You can't save me."

Thor staggered backwards, giving in to the agent's grip, heart breaking into shards he couldn't hope to put together again. He turned his back on his brother as Loki turned his back on him. If Loki didn't want to be saved, then all Thor could do was plead with Romanoff, this agent whose closest friend was being brutally used by the very man Thor sought to protect, to be gentle, please, just to hold off on the pain for as long as she could justify.

But, just as the door slid shut, he thought he heard the quietest, "No one can save me."

A/N: (...And six years later, the statement turned out to be very, heartbreakingly true, rIGHT FUDGING AFTER THEY REUNITED)