Heart pounding. Chest heaving. Hands trembling. Tighten fists, hands stop shaking. Good sign. Look around, where are you? Come on Loki.. Think. Did it work? Yes… Yes it did. You're free. No. Not free. Still in Asgard. Curses. Try and leave. Not strong enough. Find somewhere… Find somewhere you can recuperate. Somewhere… Somewhere safe.

Loki walked as stealthily as he could in his condition, stumbling every now and again over his own feet and collapsing against the wall. No-one was awake it seemed… This was good… If he got caught now it would make everything worthless… All his efforts for nothing.. All the pain and suffering…. He made his way down a familiar hall, pushing open the door to a room he hadn't entered in years.

As he closed the door behind him, Loki heard the figure in the bed stirring, and held his breath, hoping he could go unnoticed. He turned around, leaning against the door to support himself, as he waited for the other god to fall back asleep.

Instead, Thor sat up, rubbing his face and looking at Loki with a confused, expression, groggy with sleep. In another instant, though, the Thunder god recognized his brother, standing in his room, and his face flipped through a myriad of expressions. Surprise, anger, relief, joy, confusion and amusement all made appearances, then he settled on looking mildly happy.

"Loki… Brother… What are you doing here…? Last I knew, you were imprisoned for what you attempted to accomplish with the tesseract… Were you not?" Thor frowned deeply then, sitting up as his eyes took in Loki's state… His skinnier than usual stature, the bags under his eyes and the shaking that caused his entire body to tremble. He noticed the clothing he wore then as well… tight black pants, with a long sleeved black shirt.. Typical Asgardian prison wear… Except the torso of the shirt was stretched out of shape, from Loki pulling it around his legs at night.

"Yes, Thor… I was in prison… For three years…" Loki laughed, then shook his head. "It should not have taken so long to free myself, but the guards certainly ensured I would not be able to gather enough strength to escape…" he looked off to the side, then back to his adoptive brother. "I will not burden you with my presence for long Thor.. I will leave as soon as I have enough energy to shape shift, and you shall not have to worry about getting punished by your father for harboring a fugitive." Loki sneered the words, sarcasm dripping from the words to destroy any semblance of actual apology, and the words 'your father' bearing a particular sting.

"He is your father as-" "No he is not!" Loki interrupted Thor, growling and sneering at the blond man. "He is not my father and never was, Thor, can you not understand that? Can you not understand that we are not brothers and we never were!"

Thor stared at him sadly, then shook his head, "You are still my brother Loki… Whether by blood or not… I will always love you…" he got out of the bed, walking over to Loki in his sleep pants and placing a warm, gentle hand on his shoulder. "Let us get you cleaned up… Then you may rest here until you feel ready to leave, and I shall assist you in getting to a safe place…"

Loki flinched back from the warm touch at first, then allowed Thor to lead him to the washroom, watching as he filled the basin with room temperature water for his bath. The younger god stripped quickly, slipping into the bath as Thor left the room, half hearing the other telling him that he would leave him some clothing on the bed, and be right back with food. He was glad the blonde god had left, for he did not want him to see the marks he was so sure were still on his body.

The god of mischief washed up, then combed his hair, looking at himself in the mirror. He could see some lingering whip marks on his chest and back, that he hadn't quite been able to heal properly due to his lack of strength, as well as some bruises which riddled his hips. He poked them gently to see how much they hurt, then wrapped a towel around his waist, walking out into Thor's bedchamber.

The small god pulled the pants on carefully, nodding at how they seemed to fit fairly well, then put on the shirt, which was more than a little large for him. He sat cross-legged in the center of his brother's bed, waiting for his return…

Thor walked into the room, carrying a tray with a large assortment of fruit on it, as well as a pitcher of red wine. He placed the pitcher next to the bed on the table, then set the platter of fruit down in front of Loki, who without a word of thanks began to eat quickly. He devoured half the plate before slowing down a little and pausing to take sips of the wine every now and again.

Thor watched as Loki inhaled the food, the realization that his brother had probably not eaten in weeks setting in with a twinge of pain. He was about to ask how long it had been, when Loki picked up the last piece of fruit on the tray, a banana. He brought it to his lips after peeling the skin back, then began to eat it. The god of mischief ate the phallic shaped fruit with an innocent seductive care, completely unaware of what he was doing to the other man.

Thor tore his eyes away from Loki when the other was finished eating the fruit, swallowing dryly before speaking. "I-It's been a while since you've had some proper food, hmm?"

The raven haired god smirked a little, catching on quickly to what he'd done to Thor. This was going to be useful… He'd be able to use Thor's attraction to him to tease the man.. To make him desperate and aching for his 'brother' until it was painful for the other. Loki nodded, half to answer Thor's question, and half to tell himself this was a good idea, and that it would be an efficient way to punish Thor for his hand in his imprisonment.

The trickster chuckled, nodding once more. "Yes Thor… it has been quite a while… The guards took a liking to depriving me of food as a punishment for mouthing off, so I usually ate bout every… two weeks or so… the last time I ate was almost exactly two weeks ago this day, now that I think about it.." he shrugged, then drank from the wine pitcher, allowing a little to drizzle down his chin to tempt Thor.

Thor cleared his throat, looking away so that he wouldn't be tempted to lean over and lick the younger's chin clean… He had to think of something… "Loki… how about you get some rest, then… It must not have been comfortable, the bed you had in prison…"

Loki nodded, then placed the tray on the ground before laying back, relaxing onto the soft bed. Thor raised a brow. "Surely you do not mean to take the entire bed brother… It does belong to me…" he climbed in beside Loki, getting under the covers while Loki remained on top of them.

"Yes… Well… Suit yourself…" Loki shrugged, rolling to the side and closing his eyes. The younger god fell asleep fairly quickly, due to his exhaustion, but the peaceful quiet that filled the room when he did, soon fell away, the night air pierced with the sound of Loki screaming in his sleep. "No! S..Stop! y..you are beneath me... you cannot do this... No!" he thrashed in the bed, as the memories of what had happened to him in the prison, at the hands of the guards whom he had mocked and disobeyed, flashed through his dreaming mind and forced him to relive the anguish over and over, crying out. "Stop! Vile creature! You are beneath me… All of you beneath me! You cannot…. No! No… You cannot touch me… No!" he thrashed about, only waking when Thor's firm grip held him down and the thunder god's voice cut through into the dream, reassuring and strong.

"Loki! Loki, brother… All is well… You are safe… Now wake up!" Thor looked into his brother's eyes when they opened, his own full of concern for the terrified looking younger god. "Loki… What happened to you? What was so terrible that it follows you into your slumber and causes you to scream?"

Loki shook his head, looking away. "Nothing, Thor… It's fine… Don't bother yourself with attempting to ascertain the information… It matters not to you…" the smaller god tried to calm himself, taking deep breaths and focusing on anything but what he'd just dreamed of.

"No…it doesn't do well to just suffer on your own. I'm not telling you to tell me everything that's happened to you - you don't have to, if you wouldn't care to.. But I know that it would help you greatly to tell me what happened." Thor nodded, putting an arm around Loki's shoulder, rubbing his shoulder gently.

Loki sat there for a moment, still and silent, then slowly turned, looking at his brother with pink rimmed eyes. "F-fine… I'll tell you…" he took a deep breath, then closed his eyes, leaning into Thor slightly. He began speaking in a shaky whisper, voice growing strong, angry and venomous by the end.

"When I was first in the prison, the guards would taunt me, provoke me into being mouthy or insolent, so that they could deny me food. While I was starving, which I most often was, they would throw rotting fruits and festering pieces of meat into the cell to taunt and ridicule me further..." he took a deep breath. "It only happened the once... Two of the guards who usually stood outside my cell were being particularly... asinine, one evening, and I couldn't hold my tongue. I tore them apart verbally, then the next thing I knew, they were in the cell with me... on holding me down while the other used me for his own pleasures... I thought it was over when he finished, but as I slumped against the cold floor, the other began his turn and I went through another, possibly worse round of the pain."

Loki's voice was cold and hard now, as he strained to keep his emotions out of the recounted tale. "Soon they had finished with me, and left me to curl up in pain on the cell floor... Those guards left after a year, though the others knew what had happened and frequently taunted me about it..." he took a deep breath. "Almost every night I have dreampt of it, to the point where I gave up on sleeping." he looked into Thor's eyes. "That is why I was screaming."