Author's Note: Why, hello there! Do bear with me for a moment. This is my first venture into both the Thor and Marvel universes; I've been a fan for a while, but learning to navigate the subtle nuances of Loki's character has been an undertaking, to say the least. I like to think I'm getting there, but I suppose readers will be the judge of that!

This is, I suppose, an AU, in that it takes place following the events of The Avengers and disregards later happenings in Thor: The Dark World. I wanted to give Loki a chance-a chance to return to the world he once knew, though much, it's clear, has changed. Even I don't know fully what may happen...

Many thanks for reading! :)

ON SHADOW'S EDGE

I. Steps

Loki could hardly believe his ears when he heard the ring of the staff on the stone floor of the corridor that led down between the prison cells. He went still, the thin pages of his book shivering slightly in his hand, and then with a snap he shut the volume and placed it without looking on the pillow behind him. The bedcovers rustled slightly as he rose.

His movements were curious, if wary, as with soft-footed steps he prowled to the edge of the cell. The sound of the staff, and its accompanying footsteps, were growing louder as he listened, and a moment later he heard the clatter of motion that meant the guards had thrown up their fists and their spears in a hurried salute to whomever was approaching. Loki's brow furrowed faintly; there really couldn't be any doubt, and yet… why?

He edged quickly to the opposite end of the cell barrier, trying to peer past it as far as he could down the low hallway. Unconsciously, his hand came up and rested against the shimmering forcefield, as though, with a little effort, he could push right through the thing. If only, said a soft voice in his head, if only you could. It had spoken to him the same words many times before—and, as usual, he ignored it.

A second passed, and then another; Odin must have paused on some other pretence, perhaps stalling yet again before he must come face-to-face with the one he had so callously dismissed—but here Loki's thoughts took an abrupt turn. The steps had started again, quick and heavy, and it was then that he realised—

Not Odin.

Thor.

Surprise flickered briefly through Loki's mind as he stepped back a pace from the forcefield, and for just a moment he allowed the semblance of a smile to tug at his lips. Events to alter the very destiny of the Realm had been transpiring above his head, and he knew now that he'd had only the vaguest notion of how quickly they were moving.

Feeling oddly clear-headed, he turned abruptly on his heel and returned to his previous position on the bed, even taking the aged tome into his hand again, feigning carelessness. Odin he would have faced head-on, their relationship long since established and set in stone, but Thor, despite being his father's son, required different tactics. Acknowledgement, after all, was a response to be earned, not assumed.

So it was that when Thor came into view—even more straight-backed than usual, Loki noted, watching from beneath lowered lids—he found the imprisoned figure all but ignoring him. Loki was bent over slightly, one leg tucked beneath him, the other hanging loosely over the side of the bed, and the covers of his book were rested comfortably in the spread of his long, pale fingers. The air seemed to shiver in its own disquiet.

With infuriating deliberation, Loki turned a page. The tone of the silence changed almost immediately.

"Loki."

It was the word he had been waiting for, the one by which he could judge exactly where this encounter was coming from, and where it would end, depending on which way he decided to play it. Thor's voice was neither loud nor soft, but a firm and at first unyielding middle tone. Not much room for argument, then, though he could work around that easily enough… And yet he rather thought he heard something else hidden behind the solidity—a suppressed uncertainty, masked by confidence but present nonetheless. Inwardly, Loki smiled. It might not be enough to give him the upper hand, but it would help, oh yes.

Tracing one finger over the pages before him, he let the silence spin out for a moment longer before choosing his opening words with care.

"I expect your first day has been interesting." He did not look up as he said it.

"That is one word for it." Thor's tone was short, and he offered nothing more, though Loki sensed rather than saw that his brother's features had tightened.

"Ah, yes, all the technicalities of the succession," Loki went on, now casually laying his book aside and leaning back on his elbows. He let his eyes flicker over Thor's face, his own head tilted in faint amusement. "I'm afraid I do not remember them with much fondness, but then, circumstances were rather different in my time—"

"I did not come down here to discuss my position."

Thor's hand had tightened around the gleaming length of Gungnir, but what Loki noticed most of all was that the usual hint of softness had gone from his brother's eyes; they were hard and shadowed under his brows now. Loki's smile dropped.

"No?" he enquired softly, and with one smooth movement pushed himself to his feet and crossed the bright floor to where Thor stood. "You can hardly ignore it; you would not be here otherwise."

"And I do not need you to tell me my place," Thor added tightly, very nearly cutting him off, and this time a note of command had edged its way into his voice. "It is time you learned yours."

Loki regarded him for several terse seconds, narrow-eyed, and then suddenly took a step back from the barrier, his hands spread disarmingly. "Oh, forgive me," he said, arching one brow with a delicate sort of scepticism, "I thought it was here."

His gaze roamed pointedly around the cell, though for him it was unnecessary; he had come to know every wall and corner of his underground home with frustrating intimacy over the duration of his imprisonment. He could recite without thinking the number of paces it took to get from one wall to its opposite, and could readily duplicate the amount of pressure needed from one hand to make the forcefield glow hot in warning (he had burned his palm twice, the second time on purpose, just to know). Even the furnishings that he was allowed—bed, footstool, table and chair, a mirror against the far wall—had long since lost their novelty, and now seemed to serve only as a mockery of the chambers in Asgard's palace that he had once called his own. In fact, the only reason he had not refused them entirely was because he knew they had not been given to foster further spite.

Thor, to his credit, did not take the bait, and his eyes remained fixed on his brother. Loki stood there in silence and began to quietly reassess.

Tension started to mount as the silence lengthened, but as always, Loki's patience served him well; it was Thor who finally let out a soft, controlled breath and said, "It is"—but the qualifier that Loki expected did not come, and he felt for the first time a bite of impatience.

"And yet if that were true," he retorted crisply, clasping his hands behind his back, "you would, again, not have bothered to grace my little nook with your presence. " He gave a quiet laugh, short and breathless, his brows raised almost in an expression of pity as he went incredulously, "Are you trying to lie to me?"

Thor's face darkened. "Not all of us have the advantage of two faces and a forked tongue," he said, sounding grim and far from patient. "Are you going to listen, or shall I return in a year or two with better expectations?"

Loki hummed consideringly under his breath without lessening his scrutiny of Thor's expression and posture. There was an undertone to this whole conversation that puzzled him, and the very fact that he could not make it out was irritating, to say the least. Usually, his brother's thoughts were like an open book, playing across Thor's face with all the subtlety of the hammer that their owner wielded, yet now they had become far less easy to reach, even for one as skilled at doing so as Loki. Either his powers of perception had been dulled through long confinement—possible, he thought, but unlikely in the extreme—or Thor was at last beginning to learn the meaning of the word restraint. Loki raised his chin.

"Let's hear it, then," he said softly.

Even with the abrupt conversational turnaround, Thor showed no surprise; he watched Loki for a moment longer before beginning to pace slowly up and down the length of the forcefield that divided them. "You know it already, I can see, but I will say it to you plainly: the All-Father has passed."

"It's been coming for some time now." Loki did not phrase it as a question, and received a sharp look in return.

"Yes." Thor gave a stiff nod.

"How did it happen?"

Thor's brow furrowed, perhaps in confusion that Loki had even bothered to ask, and Loki couldn't blame him; concern for Odin's well-being had never been one of his more noticeable traits.

"It was quiet," Thor answered shortly, "painless. He merely went from one sleep to the last."

"Pity," Loki murmured, his lips thinning, "I was hoping for something more lingering." He lifted one hand in front of his face and watched it for a few moments, as if in fascination.

"It was Father's will that has kept you here," Thor went on, his voice growing stronger, as though he were trying to maintain some certain velocity of speech. Loki suddenly had the idea that he might have rehearsed this beforehand. "His will, and his belief that you were beyond any kind of hope or redemption."

"Actually, he was all for my immediate execution. I was almost flattered."

"Mother stayed his hand—"

"Yes, Thor, I remember—I was there." Loki pushed his voice louder, no longer seeking to mask his anger behind mockery. "You, I noticed, were not."

The accusation was icy and pointed, for of everything that had transpired since his capture on Midgard, that had been one of the things to rankle most: that Thor, despite all his pleading and reminders and assertions of brotherhood, had taken Loki in hand only as far as the Bifrost observatory before making what must have been a very convenient escape. Loki had not seen him since—except for once, very briefly, when he had been led down to the subterranean levels to await the hour of Odin's judgement. He had caught a glimpse of Thor in one of the upper hallways, and though no words were exchanged, their glances had met—and Loki was quite certain it had not been he who had broken eye contact.

"What was it?" he went on harshly now, stepping nearer the barrier again. "You speak of Odin forsaking hope, but perhaps he was not the only one?" He could practically taste the contempt of his own words. "Or were you simply so riddled with guilt that you couldn't bear to witness my sentencing?"

Loki could see Thor's shoulders going rigid with suppressed frustration as he spoke, and he found himself drawing a vindictive sort of pleasure from that, from the idea that he could still hurt his brother even imprisoned as he was. For a man to whom satisfaction was all but a myth, it was the next best thing.

"It was not my place to interfere," answered Thor quietly. His voice was low but barely controlled, threatening to snap at any moment.

A humourless, disbelieving laugh escaped Loki. "Oh, yes, of course—so says the one who gathered all of Midgard's warriors and arrayed them against me—"

"I pled for your life!"

Thor had whirled about, his eyes blazing with fury and with something else much more difficult to put a name to. Loki, about to retort, bit back the words he had been ready to throw and pressed his lips together in a sudden, unanticipated silence. He did not appreciate being taken off-guard.

"Why?" The question fell from his lips as no more than a whisper.

If Thor was surprised, he didn't show it, for he had turned away. "It matters not." And then his eyes flickered up to meet Loki's gaze once more. His next words were stern, and, Loki thought, faintly bitter. "But know that before you spoke to him I stood against Father, and that Mother is not the only one you have to thank for the fact that you are even alive today."

Loki's lips twisted slightly as a sour taste rose in his mouth. So Thor was thinking of calling in debts after all. What had gone unsaid was equally important: that this intervention on Thor's part had been the last.

Still watching his brother, Loki forced a low laugh despite his annoyance and spread his hands in front of him. "If you expect me to thank you on bended knee—" he began, but broke off abruptly when he saw, with an odd, misplaced twinge of disquiet, that his own mocking expression was mirrored perfectly on Thor's more rugged face.

"Do you not think I know you better than that?" Thor asked quietly, and even in his voice Loki heard the soft patronisation that came so often from his own lips.

"You've changed." Loki's features had hardened.

"Have you?"

"I rather doubt it."

Lies.

"Then you are fortunate that are still some who think otherwise."

Loki kept quiet this time, his eyes narrowed and unblinking, his look one of detached calculation. They were getting closer to it—the reason why Thor had even bothered to make time for this seemingly pointless conversation. By rights Loki should have ended it long ago, but curiosity urged him forward. It could not have been easy for Thor to escape the never-ending duties and details that would ensure a proper succession; a visit to the dungeons would have ranked quite low on the priority scale, not the least because it was to a prisoner whose name had no doubt been wiped from the already dubious annals of Asgardian history.

Thor, undoubtedly expecting some sort of response, had paused again. Loki let out a soft, exasperated breath. Neither one of them was making this any easier.

"Surely," he said, reintroducing the quiet amusement to his voice, "surely you're not foolish enough to release me just because the All-Father has gone to his long-overdue rest."

It was a guess, but a considered one; he could think of no other premise for this little visit, and he knew immediately he had hit the mark when he saw Thor's posture tighten again. But he'd overstepped; Thor straightened and abruptly turned his back on the cell.

"The only folly I have displayed is in coming down here in the first place. If that is your attitude, then there is no more to say. Goodbye, Loki."

A startled, angry expression flashed over Loki's face; he stepped up quickly to the forcefield, cursing inwardly. "Thor!" He wondered if he was imagining the note of fear in his own voice. He suspected heavily that his brother was playing him, that this was merely a move in the game and not an end to it, but he could not shake the lingering possibility that he had indeed just forfeited his last chance for freedom.

His call went unheeded; Thor had neither hesitated nor glanced back, and in the space of a few seconds had disappeared from the cell's line of sight.

He was gone.

Damn him.

Fuming, Loki slammed his fist against the barrier—and the forcefield, mistaking the gesture for something more deliberate, immediately glowed bright and hot against his skin. Loki let it; his eyes were fixed on the place where Thor had stood only moments before, his thoughts murderous.

He had believed he could push his brother further than that before he would risk getting cut off, but it was obvious that Thor was through entertaining any sort of banter. Unable to trust Loki's implicit word, the King was now taking it utterly at face value, knowing all the while that truth was never held there so openly. It was a tactic that Loki, so used to watching his brother try to unravel the lies that he spun, had not expected. Childlike, really.

Childlike, but effective. Belatedly, Loki let his hand fall to his side. Never had allure of fresh air seemed so close as it did now, and yet still so hatefully beyond reach. He wanted out, and Thor knew it; but the asking price was an admission of helplessness, and to that he did not take kindly.

He was still seething as he returned to the other side of his prison and flung himself moodily down on the bed. Perhaps, next time…

Then he laughed, low and bitter. He would be fortunate if there was a next time.

As always, any comments you lovely readers could leave are incredibly welcome, especially since this is my first foray into the MCU. :) Cheers!