He was falling.

Again.

No, scratch that. "Again" was impossible...impermissible.

He was falling... still?

Loki shuddered and screwed his eyes shut against the blackness.

He was falling.

That was all that mattered. That was all he knew.

"I suppose I'll need my brother back," Thor said, turning back to the Midgardian sorcerer.

"Oh, yeah. I had almost forgotten." An orange circle appeared unceremoniously in the ceiling, and Loki fell out of it like a stone. His feet struck the floor, and his legs folded inelegantly beneath him. He crumpled onto his back and lay motionless. He might have seemed dead if not for his firmly clenched eyes and jaws and, well, the fact that it was Loki.

Thor rolled his eyes, praying silently for patience. "Get up, Brother. I know where to go." Loki made no move. "Loki, get up." Still no response. Thor glanced up at Dr. Strange, who shrugged, looking perplexed. That was alright then. Thor hadn't really expected the human to have done anything untowards, so this was probably just Loki being... Loki. He trudged over and nudged Loki in the ribs. "Come on!"

Loki's eyes opened a crack, and his breath exploded out of him only to arrest again as he shuddered, almost as if in pain. Somewhat concerned, Thor knelt down. "Uh, Loki?"

"Who's there?" Loki whispered, eyes opening wide and dilated and unfocused. Confused.

Thor stared back at him, but he couldn't figure out what the game was. "It's Thor."

"Thor?" Loki squinted at him and blinked his eyes a few times. His face relaxed. "An illusion," he sighed, closing his eyes again.

Annoyed now, Thor poked him in the chest. Loki's eyes flew open. "Thor?! You shouldn't be here. Get out!"

"Loki, what are you talking about?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm a fool, Thor! I'm a fool. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let go." Tears leaked from his eyes, and his body shuddered again. I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm a fool... Loki's voice became fainter as his blood leaked over Thor's hands, but his eyes were now changed from anger and fear to love and peace, his clenched muscles relaxing, his fair skin graying... his lifeforce fading... But that had been an illusion. A fit of ego even, judging by the bizarre performance back in Asgard. So, what was this?

Besides something they didn't have time for. "Loki, just... get up. We have to find Odin."

"I can't. You must leave me behind, Brother. I'm lost. My body is broken, my skull is cracked, and I bleed into my belly. I am buried alive in a tomb of tumbled rock, and they're coming for me." His breath caught. "They're coming. I hear them. They're coming. They're coming. They're almost here."

"What?"

"Interesting. He seems to be hallucinating. I think he's having a panic attack," Dr. Strange observed from above.

"So what do we do?" Thor asked, at a loss. This had never happened before. Loki didn't panic.

"Who's there?" Loki wheezed. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Leave me, Thor! I'm stuck and you can't reach me. There is nothing you can do before they come for me. Don't let them take you too! Go! Go! GO!"

"Loki, you're fine, and I'm right here." He picked up Loki's hand, to Loki's clear and utter shock. Loki stared silently at his own limp hand held loosely in Thor's. Slowly he curled his fingers into a fist and opened them again, as if amazed they could move. He moved his other hand, then his feet, then lifted his head slightly to gape around the perfectly ordinary room. He sat up suddenly and wrapped his arms tightly around Thor, clinging to him as if his life depended on it. A single sob escaped him and was abruptly cut off. His vise-grip loosened, but Thor caught him in his own embrace. "I've got you, Loki. We're safe, in New York..."

"Where were you?" Strange asked, crouching down next to them.

"I don't want to talk about it," came the muffled reply.

"Be silent. You did this!" Thor accused the sorcerer.

"I did not!" Thor glared at him. "Um, what I mean is, I just... caught him. I didn't do anything. He was just falling."

"Falling," Loki agreed. "I shouldn't have let go." Of the Bifrost. Of Gungnir. When Loki was apologizing, that's what he was talking about, Thor realized.

"He's fallen before," Thor said softly.

Strange studied them. "Fallen into a veritable den of wolves, it seems. I am sorry, Loki, Thor. I would not have done that had I known this would happen."

Loki finally straightened and turned flat, angry eyes on the human. "Forget this, mortal," he snarled. He stood up, dragging Thor up with him. "Let's go."

Two brothers walked across a chilly moor, looking for an old, old god fallen down to Earth to die. "Uh, Loki," Thor ventured, "are you well now?"

Loki paused, considering, not looking at him. He shrugged. "Well enough."

"Back there, I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I was... vexed with you. I should not have let Doctor Strange keep you for so long, and I should have realized sooner that something was wrong when you were back."

"Should you?"

"Yes, damn it! You were pale, and pained, and immobilized from the start!"

"Was I? I guess you are right. You should have noticed. Why didn't you?"

"I... I... You have tricked me too many times, Loki. I promised myself I wouldn't be fooled again, and now I guess I just expect tricks from you."

Loki looked up at him, irritation flashing across his face. "When was the last time you remember me playing the victim?"

Thor raised one eyebrow. "When you faked your death on Svartalfheim, only to return to Asgard in secret to take our father's place."

Loki looked away and started walking again. "That wasn't all acting, you know," he said softly.

"Sounds like the apology was real," Thor said thoughtfully. "You repeated it today."

A smile ghosted across Loki's cheeks. "The injury was real as well. But I suppose you wouldn't believe me even if I showed you the scar."

Thor stopped him. "Look, Loki, I'm trying to apologize now! Just give it up. I don't mind that you lied to me then, but please don't do it now."

Loki glared at him. "I'm telling the truth this time."

"Oh, really? Well then, enlighten me, Trickster! How did you survive actually being impaled and left to die in the desert?"

"One of Odin's tricks this time. The Sleep of the Living Dead. Odinsleep." He grinned. "Lokisleep."

"But... Odin's the only one who can do that."

"He's not the only one who can, just the only one who is willing to risk it, generally, because he is so innately powerful. The spell let's you borrow enough energy from future you to accomplish something massive in the present. The more you borrow, the longer you sleep afterwards, and if you borrow too much, then obviously you just wither away and die. I was clever. I used it to cast a sufficiently powerful healing spell to reverse the injury. And then I just slept while you were running around with your woman. I am glad I managed to make it back to Asgard before you, at least..."

Thor was aghast. "You're telling me you deliberately rendered yourself into a comatose state without telling me, knowing full well I would have to leave you for dead in the desert on Svartalfheim?!"

"It's better than dying."

"But you could have TOLD me, idiot!"

Loki chuckled. "I wanted to be free as well as alive. Idiot-er."

"That was so reckless. You could have actually died! There's a reason Mother used to watch Odin so carefully when he did it."

"It was a gamble," Loki agreed. "Now drop it."

"For now," Thor huffed. "But only because we have to find Odin. I'm not done with you, Loki. I want to know exactly what happened to you when you fell from the Bifrost that made you so terrified too."

"Oh, Bor's baggy pants, Thor, why do you care?"

"Because you were hurt, and I don't want you to be hurt. I don't want you to be a menace to society, but I definitely don't want you to be hurt, either."

Loki didn't answer, merely pointed ahead of them. Thor followed his gesture. There was Odin, standing on the edge of the cliff, gazing out over a gray sea.

Well, they would have to finish this discussion another time.

Author's Note: it seems like if anyone should have a fear of falling, it's Loki. To answer your question, no this is not going to become a longer story.

**Alarmingly cheerful voiceover** If you liked "Falling Again," why not try some of my other stories featuring the tribulations of Loki, God of Mischief?! And don't forget to leave a review, always glad to hear from valued readers... **end alarmingly cheerful voiceover**