Rebirth

The chains clinked and groaned beneath the power of Thor.

Lightning surged, and cracked like a whip, threatening to shatter the irons that bind the once King. The wind screamed just beyond the stone walls. Rain poured, beating mercilessly, ceaselessly, against the muddy ground as the seas toss and the hurricane sweeps the land.

Farbauti knelt to one knee by the threshold of Thor's cell.

It was dark, it was dank and it smelt of filth, blood, rot and burning flesh. The air prickled dangerously with crackles of lightning, threatening to strike him where he knelt.

Farbauti let his gaze wandered over the naked Thunder God in irons.

"Peace my Lord of Aesir" Farbauti said. "I have come with an offer"

Thor did not respond. His head bowed. His greasy golden locks dangled about his face. His knees bled as he was made to kneel; his bloody wrists shackled to his ankles. And the numerous chains of steel and irons that bound him were linked to one another, forming a web of silver biting into his raw flesh.

"I trust you know you are a dead man" Farbauti said. "But I do not wish that to be your fate. I seek to change it, if you will help me"

The chains clinked.

Slowly, Thor raised his head.

Farbauti stilled at the ferocity, the violence that stared back at him in those cold spitting eyes.

Electric surged and crackled. There was no mercy in the Golden King.

Farbauti felt a shiver inched down his spine, but his features remained unchanged.

"Wiser men would not bare their emotions so plainly for all to see" Farbauti said. "I offered to save you. You could at least pretend you would not smite me the moment you are free from your chains if gratitude is too hard to master"

"Why should I chock on my rage for you? Why should I hide my fangs to smile at you?" Thor spat. "No. I will not hide my claws to take your hand. I will not put on a mask to please you! I will not play your twisted game! Now be gone, before all mercy leaves me and I strike you dead where you kneel!"

"Did you think threatening me would make me leave" Farbauti said.

Thunders shrieked. Lightning surged in the narrow chamber, striking the blackened wall. At once, the stone exploded, sending more crashing down with a thunderous roar.

Farbauti did not even flinch.

The long dungeon echoed. The brutal wind shook the walls.

"Leave" Thor growled. There was the rumble of thunder in his voice.

Farbauti stilled his translucent red eyes upon Thor.

Thor will hear him whether the boy wish it or not. He will not sit back and let Thor die; because if the Golden prince dies, they would have sealed their fate for another war. The Aesir will not forgive. The Aesir will not forget. As it is, rebels are on the up rise. Cities burn, rivers poisoned and crops destroyed by those who would rather have the realm die than a Jotun King on their precious throne.

"What is it that I would not do for my children…" Farbauti said. "Gladly I will die for them. Gladly I will let them crucify me, despise me, mock me…if it means they would have a life better than mine. Are we so very different? Would you not do the same for your brother?"

"You do not want to threaten me" He warned.

"That is not my intention" Farbauti tells him. "I simply meant you still have much to live for. Do not cheapen your life and throw it away for pride"

Thor laughs coldly.

He did not believe for a moment that this concern was out of the goodness of the Jotun's cold bleeding heart. The bastards wanted a God as a pet in the Jotun court don't they? Thor did not doubt the idea must surely be delicious to those savages.

"Tell me, what would you have of me?" Thor asked maliciously. His lips curled. "Am I to spread my legs for your King? Or am I to grovel and beg at your feet as you disgrace me?"

"I do not seek to dishonor you. I only seek to have you be the bridge between our people. I seek to have a chance at lasting peace." Farbauti said.

Thor sneered at Farbauti's words. "You people wrought war and yet speak of peace. What trickery are you playing?"

"None. I only wish for your loyalty"

"My loyalty?" Thor's voice was thick in disbelief; he even sounded amused.

"Swear loyalty to us, and Helblindi will let you live"

"You mean to have me bend the knee and serve the monsters that murdered my parents, butchered my men, burn my cities and destroy my realm?!"

Lightning flashed.

"..."

"It never is enough with you savages is it?"

"…"

"Victory is yours and yet it is not enough. You would leave me with nothing, not even dignity!" He spat.

Water leaks from the low ceilings, trickling down the cold wall. There was water beneath Farbauti's boots. Thor knows he could so easily kill Farbauti with the lighting that crackled in his blood. His muscles tightened. The chains that bound his bloodied wrist groaned, threatening to break.

"Victory…" Farbauti said. "So they say. For this war, I have lost my King, my mate, my friends, my children and grandchild…if this is victory, I do not want it"

Thor snorted. "It is simple to speak isn't it when you have won? Not so when it is you in chains"

"I cannot deny the truth of you claims" Farbauti admits. "I know what we have done. I know that no single act or any amount of acts could ever erase the wrong and hurt we had wrought. And I am deeply sorry"

Thor stilled at the apology.

Farbauti went on "I am not blind to the atrocity we have committed. Not in a thousand deaths, not with all the treasures that Jotunheim posses or had ever possessed can we repay you for the weight of our offence to you. But if taking my life will bring you satisfaction, then it is yours to take. All I ask in return is your loyalty to Helblindi"

"…"

"My Lord, I have lived and fought through two wars that spend over hundreds of years and I have watched a lot of people die. Lovers, friends, children… And I do not wish for this pain, this torment that I bear, that we bear, to be pass on to the generations to come"

Thor was silent now, his head bowed. The hurricane that brews beyond the walls roared mercilessly. The building groaned.

"My Lord…" Farbauti pleaded.

"You have said your piece. Now leave" Thor gritted.

Farbauti lets his eyes closed for a moment as he stood to his feet.

"Thor…" He tried. "For millennia you have lived in peace, in luxury and richness and for millennia more you would live. Bend the knee I beg you…Do not think I do not understand the pain, the humiliation, the shame and the despair you would bear in the years to come should you choose it. But I tell you truly, all of this is but the blink of an eye. And just as darkness cannot last forever, these things too shall come to pass"

Thor did not respond.

Farbauti left.

Helblindi could feel emptiness inside of him whenever he woke. There was a hole in him where his heart ought to be. A hole that would never heal… His dam, his brothers, they are never coming back. His head hurts, and sometimes it felt as if it were stuffed with cottons and he could not think, and sometimes he did not even know where he was.

All he wanted to do was sleep…and dream. That was the best part. He would dream of his family, he would dream of Jotunheim and the games he would play with his brothers. And he would have slept all morning and all night had his sire not come to make him get up whether he wanted to or not.

Once when he absolutely refused to, his sire had found a pail of water and doused him with it.

He is King of two realms, but he wanted neither.

He just wanted to close his eyes and sleep and sleep and never wake.

He should return to Jotunheim and let the Aesirs rot. Do what the Allfather had done; loot and rip all they could and leave. Forget about rebuilding. The Aesirs did not want him anyway. All the projects he had strived to put in place to please the Aesir people were a failure. They hated him, they loathed him… and why would they not?

Sometimes he'd even wished that one of those assassination attempts would be a success. That way, he did not need to feel this pain anymore. It is a selfish prayer he knows. Only once in his sorrow had he told his sire that.

Farbauti had lashed out and struck him hard.

"Do not ever speak such vile again!" Farbauti had snarled. "Do you think I would not mourn you?!"

"…"

"Do not let me bury another child! I cannot do it! Do you hear me?!"

Helblindi closes his eyes, as he huddled beneath his covers on the fur he had spread on the floor.

The storm groaned and rumbled. Lightning flashed as the rain beats hard against the lancet window. He was drifting off to sleep when there came a great and urgent pounding at his door.

"My King! My King!" The voice shouted.

Before Helblindi could even answer, the door was flung open and his squire came running in.

Helblindi scrambled to sit up.

"Your Grace!"

"What? What is it?" He asked urgently.

A hundred terrible visions flashed across his mind eye. Had the rebels succeeded in killing his sire? Had they broken down the doors? Had they raised an army?

"The Aesir your Grace! He has escaped his chains! He is in the courtyard demanding to see you!"

"Aesir…?" For a moment Helblindi could not process his squire's words.

"The Aesir King, your Grace! Thor!" The squire cried.

It took a second before everything clicked into place. At once Helblindi was on his feet and he was hurrying down the impossibly long hall with his squire.

He could hear shouting, and the hurried thud of running feet.

Thunders roared as he entered the courtyard.

At least five dozen guards surrounded the once King that stood fearlessly before them with Mjolnir crackling in his hand.

Lightning cracked and sizzled about the golden King as wind shrieked, threatening to shove them to the broken ground. Rain poured, trickling down Thor's naked body, washing the blood off his raw flesh.

Cold cerulean eyes that spits of lightning turns towards Helblindi that stood behind his warriors.

Hot stream of white struck the ground. The earth shook.

Slowly, Thor raised a hand and curled his fingers, beckoning for the Jotun King.

Helblindi straightened up.

"My King?" His squire hissed.

Helblindi ignored him. If Thor wanted him dead, not even his warriors could stop him.

The warriors parted as Helblindi steps into the yard. His snowy locks that he had grown to cover his decapitated ear, stuck to the hard edge of his face and his scarred back.

"Speak" Helblindi commanded.

A moment became two as Thor looked upon him with his cold stormy eyes.

Thunders cracked.

Then unexpectedly, the Golden Prince lowered himself and knelt to one knee, his head bow.

The warriors stilled in harsh silence.

Helblindi stared. "Who am I that a God would kneel before me?"

The storm calmed and the rain ceased for the first time in months.

"I pledge my loyalty to you. My sword and my shield are yours" Thor vowed "I will live and I will die in your service…My King"

So many questions were asked.

How did Asgard lose the war? How did the Golden King lose his throne and fell so far from grace? Were the armies unprepared for the magnitude of war that plagued them? Was the Golden King's inexperience? Was it the cursed prince that finally paved the way to victory for his people? Or was this simply fate? Or perhaps, it was the combination of them all…In the end, does it really matter?

The snow fell, enveloping the city in a blanket of white. The smell of roasted buns and chestnuts were thick in the air as Thor and Baldur walked down the street.

Asgard was like neither of them remembered from when they were children.

It was different, but no less glorious with her massive cathedral of silver and bridges that stretched over the entire falls. Leaves of white and pillars of ebony framed the stone pathway and the ornamented lanterns that hung from their lofty branches swayed in the gentle breeze.

For three hundred years Helblindi had reigned. But come tomorrow, Asgard will have a new King.

No matter how much effort Helblindi put into rebuilding both the realm of ice and fire, Asgard will never be his land. And the blood that had been spilled in the war can never be wash clean be it in a hundred lifetimes.

Helblindi understood that and expected as much from a throne build on the foundation of blood and bones.

He had done all he could for the Aesirs. He had rebuilt the Realm of Eternal from the rubbles, incorporating both Jotun and Aesir design in her architecture.

He had rewritten both their history to tell things as it is; rather than sweeten the horrors as their late King had. The brutality, the atrocity, the terror and cruelty were written plainly for all. Neither Aesir nor Jotuns were innocent of it. He will not have the generations to come forget that. For those who forget history are bound to repeat them.

Thor hoped it will be enough.

"I trust you know that I've made mistakes…so many unforgivable mistakes. And I have wronged so many people" Thor said. "But to have you here today as my brother, the King of Asgard comes tomorrow, I must have done at least something right"

Baldur looked at his brother. Thor was smiling at him.

"You will be a great King" Thor said.

Baldur wanted to look away. Sometimes in his guilt and shame, he thought none of them deserved anything; not even himself. Sometimes he wondered too how Thor could still smile with such sincerity after all that he had been through.

Asgard would not be here today, had Thor not been willing to strip himself of his pride, his dignity, his honor and his birthright. Asgard would not be here today in her splendor had Thor not gone to his knees and pledge himself to the enemy and slaughtered the rebellion that would rather have the realm burn than a Jotun king to rule over them.

Asgard would not have here today at all, if not for Thor.

Thor is a good man.

And yet, there are Aesirs who still looked upon their once King in contempt. They whisper behind his back, pointed where he went and spit in his face when he stood in a crowd.

"Your brother is a traitor! A liar! A coward!" He was told over and over again when he had been in hiding.

He remembered the crowd screaming profanity, screaming curses and hurling mud, rocks and filth at Thor when Thor had come with a band of Jotun to the little village he was hidden, until they saw the food that was brought for them.

So devastated and angry was he that his brother was not fighting the Jotuns but instead helping them, he had burst out from his hiding place, shoved his way through the crowd and screamed for him.

Thor had turned.

Without thinking then, he had drawn his dagger, and stabbed Thor in the gut.

Roars filled his ears as Thor doubled over. The Jotuns were rushing towards him, but Thor stopped them with a wave of his hand.

The Aesir crowd did not even seem to notice the attack, reaching desperately for the supplies the Jotuns were handing out.

Two guards stayed close by them and if they did knew who Baldur was; they did not say a thing.

"How could you?!" Baldur remembered his words. They were angry, bitter, desperate and so full of hate.

Thor had only smiled.

"You do not ever have to forgive me" Thor told him. "All I would have of you Baldur, is that you would live a life of peace without despair. That you will live joyfully for all of your days without fear or regret and in freedom under the sun"

Truth, Thor traded love for hate, he traded honor for disgrace, traded freedom for bondage; and still he held his head high. He did it all for Baldur. So that his brother could be free to live under the sun of Asgard that he himself had grew up with.

Thor will not be so arrogant as to claim that he did it for his people. He did not. But if there are those who wish to think that is so, they are more than welcome to.

"I wished you would be there tomorrow" Baldur said.

"So do I. But I would not be welcome. I've pledge myself to Helblindi"

"So?"

"I am no longer Asgardian"

"Neither are you son of Jotunheim!" Baldur insisted. "You are my brother. And you will always be welcome on Asgard"

Thor simply smiled, looking ahead. Baldur knows not even half of what he has done.

Helblindi had asked him if he would like to stay for Baldur's coronation. He did not. He would not have Baldur choose between his people and his traitorous brother because he knows Baldur would choose him. It is not right.

Asgard has no place for a turncoat like him; except the North perhaps, which Helblindi had opted to keep for the sake of Jotuns who wanted to stay.

"Would you come with me then?" Helblindi had asked. "Your council will be welcome on Jotunheim too especially when it comes to the matters of trading with Asgard or the other realms"

"I have served you faithfully all these years and I have done all I can for you, for Jotunheim, for Asgard" He had said. "I will ask leave from my King if he will allow it"

"Where would you go?"

"I have a promise to keep"

"I have grown quite fond of you. Will you ever return to my court?"

"Aye. We will meet again my King. I give you my word" Thor told him.

"You are late!" A voice jarred Thor into the present.

A little Jotun runt with a head full of snowy white hair that reached about his shoulder was pouting at them, his arms folded across his chest.

"Ikol" Thor greeted.

"You were supposed to be here five minutes ago!" He did not even seem to have heard Thor.

Ikol Farbautijarson, like many Jotun of his generation, had grown up between the realm of ice and fire. He is the youngest of Laufey's children and according to Farbauti, was the splitting image of his sire in his younger days.

For years, something had niggled at the back of Thor's mind whenever he looked at Ikol. And then it came to him unexpectedly when Ikol had asked why was it he did not have hair of gold like others of his size, which incidentally happens to be Aesir.

All of Laufey's children with the exception of Loki were white of hair.

Perhaps Loki had taken after Farbauti? He cannot say for certain as the once Queen had always religiously kept his head clean shaven. Or perhaps…there is some basis to the rumor of the bastard child.

Admittedly Thor had been curious. He could have asked Helblindi about the shade of Farbauti's hair, though it would be a very odd conversation, but he never did. Whatever it is, Loki was loved, Thor decided, and that's all that mattered.

"You promise!" Ikol bound to them; immediately wrap his arms tightly about Baldur. "Dam said we would be leaving soon so you need to hurry! You promise you would show me the great falls!" Blood red eyes looked up upon Baldur's azure ones.

Thor smiled.

Baldur sighs at the little shit attached to him. He swears one of these days, he is bound to forget to infuse seid into his clothes, preventing Ikol's touch from destroying them, and there was going to be one Hel of a show.

Ikol was at most three hundred years younger than Baldur, but he acted younger still when compared to Aesir children of the same age. It seems that Jotuns mature at a slower pace than Aesirs.

"Yes little one" Baldur ran a gloved hand over the Jotun's snowy hair that was cut exactly like his.

The child has an obsession with him; wanting to be just like Baldur, much to Thor's amusement and Baldur's exasperation.

Darkness stretched as far as eyes could see and further still in the decadent realm of the dead. Wet noises whispered with every step and the mist thickened as Thor continues to move deeper. The trees that surrounded him were white like washed bones and they were bare and dry. Death hums, her sweet voice resonated in that desolated place.

Thor could hear the creaking of bones all around him, he could hear impish laughter and he could smell the scent of rot that clung to their skin.

"Ahead ahead… the Queen waits…yes she does…yes…." The creatures whispered over and over again.

He could not see them, but he could feel their cold creeping presence.

He continued walking until he saw it…

A throne of bones that seem to glow against the darkness. Thousands upon thousands of white skulls were stacked at its feet. Long bone, short bones, femur, ribs… all of them, they were arranged, packed and stacked so closely together to form the ivory throne. And upon the throne, was a woman with long wavy hair.

She wore a black corset, a shimmering dress of black and her pale arms were covered with black web like laces. And though she is facing him, there was a shadow that hides her face.

She may not be in the form of a child as Thor had once seen her an age ago, but Thor knows it is her.

Hela. The Queen of the Dead.

"The God of Thunder, the Lord of Storm" She declared. "Have my eyes deceived me?"

"Nay. I am he" Thor took another step and at once there was a sharp crack. He looked down and saw that he had broken a skull; and that the very ground leading to her death throne was paved with bones.

"I would stand there if I were you" Hela said. "No one can see the face of death, and live"

"Aye..." Thor hesitantly took a step back.

"Speak" She commands.

"I have come to make an offer" Thor said.

Hela wanted to laugh. "Well father…you are more the Lord of Death than I ever am"

Never had she thought the day would come that she would see the Golden Prince, the Golden King, the perfect son, before her, in her very halls. And for what? Not to destroy her, not to take her kingdom, but to make a deal with her…with death.

Then again, perhaps it is not so strange after all, considering what the Lord of Storm had done since the fall of Asgard.

"The war killed the boy…and a man is born" Hela thought.

Thor is a traitor, a deceiver, and a murderer. He moves in the shadows while his King remains pristine and unaware. He opens the throat of those who plots against his King as they sleep.

He trades in secrets rather than gold. Secrets that could make or unmake any Lord or Ladies in all the five great realms, and he holds more secrets than even the best of Jotun and Aesir spy.

His body as much a weapon as Mjolnir ever was.

He betrays his brothers-in-arms and deceives the people who believed in him…for the greater good. And he sold his people to the enemy for the sake of the realm. Hela was sure there was an irony somewhere in there.

"I know why you are here" She said.

"Then you know what I ask for"

"Aye…" She smirks.

"Will you release him to me?"

"The only limit to my power is your imagination…I can make any dream, any fantasy a reality, for the right price" She said. "The question is…how much will you sacrifice for your dream"

"Anything you would ask for that is mine to give is yours"

The magnitude of Thor's offer and the way in which Thor said it angered Hela. It was without hesitation, without fear, without doubt. Her fingers tightened over the smooth skull beneath her hands.

"Who is he that the voice that calms the seas would bear his debt? Who is he that a God would die in his place?!" She spat.

Loki is not worth this sacrifice. He is not!

The very thought that a monster like him could even be worth anything sickened Hela.

"Has that snake twisted your mind Son of Odin? Or is he truly so good that the fantasy that he would hold your little worm again renders you witless?!"

Thor did not respond. What is he to say? That he loves Loki?

To be certain he does… deeply, abundantly, utterly, absolutely.

But it is not a love that is possessive, it is not a love that is fanatical or a love that is prideful or a love so intense that it threatens to consume all of his mind and soul…it just simply is. A love that is unadulterated; neither by the lust of flesh nor the need to possess. It is a love that he could not explain, yet all he knows, is that it is real.

And Hela who is so full of hate and wrath would not understand it. So he said nothing.

She hissed, standing angrily to her feet. Her blood red eyes on the God before her.

"You think he will be yours in this life? You think he would love you this time?" She sneered. "I tell you truly Son of Odin, that monster bears no love for anyone but himself! He cannot change! And when all has come to pass, he will be back in Hel once again and your sacrifice would have been for naught!"

Where once the thunder screams with the voice of Thor, where once the hurricane roars with the might of the Golden God and the rain weeps in his place, all these has come to pass.

Thor is still God, yes. But he is the God of nothing.

Hela took the power of storm from him, but not his soul. She dared not touch his soul for fear of the wrath of Odin. And she would not want to anyway, for she would have him watch as Loki spits at his sacrifice.

Thor leans against the wall; his hands in his jean pocket as he watched cars driving pass him.

The night wind blows, the street lamps flickered. The bar a few doors down was roaring and booming. Scantily clad woman wandered the street as thugs with booming stereos in their cars picked them up.

A black SUV with black tinted windows was parked at the end of the road; waiting for him should he wish to come back another night. There was really no need for it. He could make his way home if he truly want to, but when the captain insisted, and the man of iron latch onto the idea, all chances he ever had at winning this argument were lost.

"Why Midgard?" Thor remembered asking Hela.

"He is the crime that cannot be forgiven. Have I return him to Asgard or Jotunheim, he would certainly be killed. And you would have accused me of sabotaging our deal" Hela told him.

"How would I find him then? How would he appear?" He had asked.

Hela laughed at the question. "You who loved him so much… can you not recognize him from voice alone? By the way he breathes, by his smell and the way his feet struck the earth?"

For almost seven decades Thor searches for Loki on Midgard. He wandered from city to city, from country to country, never staying too long in the same place. Then one day he was approached by the Son of Coul with an offer he could not refuse. Join their team and they would help him search for whatever he was searching for as long as this thing was a non threat.

That was three years ago, and they have made good on their promise earlier in the day.

S.H.I.E.L.D. had only found Loki because Loki's mug shots in the system had remained the same over sixty years. It was unnatural…

Natasha was the one who brought in the photos. He had stilled when he looked at the man staring back at him. He did not know how Loki would appear. But it seems Hela had given Loki his Aesir appearance.

"Where is he?" He had demanded at once.

The Avengers had remained sketchy about it. Not quite meeting his eyes, until Natasha grew tired of it and simply summarized Loki's data for him as if she was reciting numbers from a phone book.

She told him that Loki lived in a not so decent neighborhood, alone most of the time, currently no known associates though he has quite a few lovers before, all which did not last; moves from place to place every few years and is currently an escort.

He knew she meant prostitute.

The Avengers had then looked at him expecting him to explode in a fit of rage; but he did not. He wasn't even angry. But he could understand why they thought he would be.

"He is a survival" He told them simply.

He never told the Avengers of the things that had happened...or what Loki had done, or what he himself had done. Comparing the things that has come to pass to what Loki is currently doing for a living; Loki is as pure as the highest priest of Asgard.

Horns blared as a red car drove up to the bar.

"Get off!" Someone was shouting.

"I said eighty you fucking twit!"

"Shut up bitch!" A man was shoved out of the car and he fell hard on the pavement.

The car sped off without a care.

"Shit" The man cursed, looking at his bleeding hands.

Thor heart hammered hard against his chest as his cerulean eyes fell upon the injured man. He knows that face…. He knows him…without thinking, without even noticing, he moves towards the man as if he was enthralled by a siren.

The man…he was lean and fair; long jet black hair that reach his shoulders and eyes the color of the greenest blade of grass. He wore black hoody and skinny jeans. The side of his head was shaved and he has several black piercings along his ears.

"What are you looking at?!" The man snarled at the onlookers as he pushed himself up.

He stilled when he noticed the blonde next to him. At once he racked his brains trying to remember if he had ever stolen anything from him. If he did, it was high time he runs because the guy's arm looked the size of his head. He really did not want to end up in the hospital again. He came up with nothing.

"You are bleeding" Thor reached in his pocket and pulled out some tissues.

"Um…thanks?" He took the tissues hesitantly, pressing them against the palms of his hand. It stung.

"I'm Thor" Thor introduced.

"Loki…" He smiles. The only reason why anyone would tell him their names was so that he could shout them when they fuck him or when he fucks them. So he went on. "Thirty for a hand job, fifty for oral, eighty if you want to fuck me and if you want to use toys or tie me up, it may cost more"

"Actually…" Thor started. "I was thinking we could go to this café that I know. It's on me"

Loki frowned. Is this a joke? Or is the guy some serial killer? Who in hell ask for a date from someone like him?

"I'm working" Loki said deadpan.

He needed to work. His rent is coming up and if he didn't pay it, he was going to be out on the street by the end of the bloody week. He gets sick often as it is; being out on the street would surely be the dead of him. He caught a pneumonia the last time he was caught in the rain.

"How much for the whole night then?" Thor asked.

Loki blinked.

"Is a thousand enough?" Thor pulled out his leather wallet.

Loki stared when Thor counted out ten of a hundred dollar bill.

"Will this be alright?" Thor looked at him.

Loki took it at once, stuffing them into his pocket. It'll be enough to pay the rent and he could even get some fruits too from the market this week.

Thor smiled, resisting the urge to tuck Loki's ebony bangs over the back of his ears.

"Well then…how may I please you my Lord?" Loki purred, wrapping his arms about Thor's. Loki thought Thor's smile falter for a split of a moment but he could not be sure.

"We can go to this café on the other block. I would like to get to know you" Thor said.

"Know me?"

"Aye…I want to know you. But you don't have to tell me anything if you don't want to" Thor tells him. "We can just dine and you can go home if you prefer"

Thor brought them to a cozy little café.

Loki ordered French toast and apple pie. He did not speak much, but Thor did not mind. He smiled as he watched Loki wolf down his French toast and pie as if they were attempting to escape his plate.

Thor took a swallow of his beer.

When Loki had wrapped his arms about him before, Thor had immediately noticed how thin and small and weak Loki was against him. And he understood at once what Hela had done.

Hela had continued to punish Loki even if not in Hel. For Loki who coveted power so much, she had imprisoned him in a frail body.

"I swore to you that I will not let you come to harm…I intent to honor that vow even if you do not remember it…" Thor thought.

But it did not mean that Thor would cage him or force Loki to be his.

He loves Loki, and because he loves him, he will not take away his freedom. He will not take away his free will. Loki can live and love and do as he pleases; even if it meant in the end Loki would not choose Thor, even if in the end Loki would be lost to Thor again.

He owes Thor nothing. This life, this second chance, is a gift. Not a debt.

Whatever Loki chooses, Thor vows to always be his tower of refuge, his pillar of strength. And he will return Loki to Jotunheim one day when Loki is ready.

That is Loki's heritage, that is Loki's world…

He is the prince of Jotunheim. The beloved child of Laufey and Farbauti. Brother of Helblindi, Byleistr and Ikol…and Thor will never sought to rewrite who Loki is just because Loki will never have his memory back.

To be sure when Loki returns, there would be temptation towards black magic in that world of ice and fire…but Thor will take his chances.

Anyway, that will be thoughts for another day. Loki will not return for a time yet.

Thor wondered briefly if this was the future the old seer saw.

Thor finished his beer. He ordered another.

Whatever it is…he will fight for Loki's heart and soul, he will believe in Loki, he will believe that he can change for the better even if no one would…for everyday, and with his every breath…because as long as there is life, there is hope.

"Are you going to finish that?" Loki asked, eyeing Thor's half finish risotto.

"You can have it" Thor exchanged Loki's empty plate for his. "And if you wish, you could pick whatever else you desire. We can have it packed for you to take home for tomorrow's breakfast"

"What's the catch?"

"None, my Prince" Thor smiled.

"Your prince?" A smile tugs at the side of Loki's lips. "You are a strange one. Most men just call me 'love' or 'darling' or 'baby' if they are feeling nice"

"Well, I am not most men" Thor winked.

~ The End ~

Sonnet XVII - Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way than this:

where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

A/N:

I want to thank all of you who have stuck with me till the very end. :) I really appreciate it and i hope you guys have enjoyed the story.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH