Thor fic : What always was at your fingertips but you never reached for
Title: What always was at your fingertips but you never reached for
Fandom: Thor (11')
Rating: PG
Pairing: Can be seen as Thor/Loki or Gen
Words: 2k+
Note: Written for this prompt on Norsekink. Also, my first shot ever in the Thor fandom, yeah ♥
Summary: "If I consent to your mindless game, would you give me your word that you'll spare my friends and just go when they arrive?”
Loki puts a grape in his mouth and chews it a few times before taking another one. He isn't in any hurry and, now that his brother is laying on the floor bound by his magic, he can enjoy the fruit without other distractions.
Or he could, if Thor agreed to stay still and silent for a few minutes. He's been fighting the magic ever since he was caught in the spell, even though he has absolutely no chance of getting himself free.
Loki, seated cross-legged at his side, looks down to him. The look Thor sends him back is furious and offended, of all things.
"You need not strain yourself so much," Loki advises, taking another grape lazily, "I have no plan to harm you. Well, not today at least."
"Why did you bind me then?" Thor retorts, and Loki snorts.
"Well, I don't have plans for you harming me either. Hush now, brother. It won't be long before your friends arrive to rescue you."
Thor's face morphs from anger to wariness in a split second. He stares at Loki as if trying to read him, and there's real worry in his eyes now. More than when he first laid defenseless at Loki's feet.
"It's a trap, isn't it?" he asks carefully, and Loki doesn't reply, just takes another grape without looking away. "Loki, don't. If you have any love left for me - they did nothing to earn your wrath . This is between us, let them be."
"Quit being so melodramatic." Loki pulls a grape from the bunch and, in lieu of answering, presses it lightly against Thor's lips. "There, open your mouth."
Thor keeps his mouth resolutely shut. That's futile defiance and Loki smiles, amused, as he bends down lightly, lowering his voice as if Thor is being unreasonable and childish. "Do you still fear I might poison you, when I've been eating these myself and promised to do you no harm for the day?"
He removes the grape and bites it delicately, cutting it in two. Thor takes this chance to answer, bitter. "You lie as you breathe, how am I to trust you?"
Loki eats his half and puts the other back on Thor's lips. "There, you know it's safe. Eat it." A few drop of juice runs from it to Thor's chin, but still he refuses it. Loki doesn't insist and leans back, eating the second half himself.
"They-" Thor starts.
"-mean nothing to me," Loki cuts him off. "I care little if they die now or live long, meaningless lives." He smiles. "As you said yourself brother, it's between us."
"Will you leave them in peace then?"
"Will you eat my grapes?" Loki asks with a daring smile, as if both questions have an equal importance.
Thor hesitates, taken aback, and Loki finally waves his free hand to the bunch, causing it to glow softly for a second. “Here, you need not think so hard about it now: They're poisoned, as you wished them to be. Well, just a few in the bunch, to keep things interesting. I don't know which ones, though, which is even better."
"You would have me dead?"
Loki eyes get kinder as he clarifies. "I would have much worse done to you."
Thor licks his lips and stares at the ceiling for a moment, silent. Loki, meanwhile, gulps yet another grape.
"Why are you still eating them then?" he snarls.
"Because you are boring me."
Thor waits for another explanation, some hidden reason. Loki can almost hear his brain running, but his expression remains blank. He can see Thor swallow before the words escape him, low and furious: "It's insane!"
Loki's sanity has been doubted way too many times for it to make him raise as much as an eyebrow. Thor's hesitation is something new though, and Loki supposes his brother has only recently learned to not throw himself mindlessly into danger. A wise advice Loki tried many times to give him, back when they were allies, and that his Avengers friends must strain themselves into passing it through his thick skull now. "You must be quicker to take decisions."
It's a mockery and Thor takes it as such. "If I consent to your mindless game, would you give me your word that you'll spare my friends and just go when they arrive?”
“I would.”
“And if I don't?”
“You will.”
“What if I don't?”
Loki shrugs, but indulges. “We will wait for them together, and you may pray that I will swallow one of the wrong fruit before they come.” He smiles broadly. “It's kind of thrilling actually, isn't it?”
“You would wager your life for a thrill?”
“I waged my life on many more occasions that you are aware of, dear brother. Now please stop trying to outsmart me by gaining time and make a decision while I still give you the opportunity to do so.”
There's no real hesitation anymore, just a brief moment during which Loki knows Thor tries to find yet another way. But there isn't any, so he yields. “Very well, I'll take your fruits.”
When Loki next put a grape against his lips, he opens them. Loki pushes gently until the fruit disappear behind Thor's teeth, and gives him time to chew it. He doesn't hurry anymore than he did when he was eating himself, and for a while they could almost pretend the silence that has fallen is comfortable.
Loki's gaze doesn't leave Thor, through their eyes do not meet. The first grape has no effect and Thor doesn't seem to know what to make of it. He remains wary, but opens his mouth again when Loki presents him another grape.
“You'd rather die yourself, in such a pitiful way, than have a few humans killed,” Loki whispers, a bitterness hidden under the mockery. “Please tell me you're not stupid enough to not see your gesture as it really is.”
“Noble?” Thor ventures, and Loki has the brief urge to snort, but doesn't.
“Pathetic,” he corrects. Thor swallows a third fruit. His eyes widen suddenly and his face reddens. He coughs, tries to gasp for air as his body jerks suddenly once, twice. Loki does nothing to help him. He waits through it all, and doesn't speak until Thor has calmed down. “This one wasn't even poisoned,” he finally complains, disappointed, “You can't choke on it.”
“I am in no position to eat!”
“Oh please, you've never been able to eat correctly, be it laying down or sitting at a table. Here, take another one.”
“I need water.”
“You're in no position to drink.”
Thor huffs in indignation and they share a brief look. Loki is the first to break it.
“Brother...” Thor starts.
“We really ought to stop calling each other that,” Loki comments distractedly. “It may be confusing for your new allies.”
“I don't know any other way to call you.”
“Loki is fine.”
“You're my brother.”
“We went through this already. Take your grape.” Thor does. “Is it poisoned?”
“I don't think so.”
“Well this is getting frustrating.”
“Well I'm sorry,” Thor mock-apologizes. Then, “You don't want me dead, do you? Not really.”
“Don't be so arrogant as to presume to know what I want.”
But there's no heat in his voice and he leaves him alone for a moment, calm and dignified. Thor shifts on his back, the position obviously uncomfortable, but doesn't try once again to fight the magic bounds. The air is heavy with words unsaid, but neither of them seems eager to speak. It's pointless. They look in different directions, and suddenly it doesn't feel like they are sitting close to one another. There's a distance between them, there has been for some time. And through it's not something they can close by a reach of the hand, Thor tries it.
Loki's eyes snap back on him as Thor's fingers curls around the fabric of his clothes. It's a light touch and it's not threatening, the bounds wouldn't allow him more room to move, but it's alien and out of place.
Thor doesn't give Loki the opportunity to jerk back, just pulls instead. “Lay at my side,” he commands. He isn't in any position to give order but, after a quick calculation, Loki decides to go along with it anyway. He lays down himself, still at a safe distance from his brother.
“This isn't comfortable at all,” he points out with a frown.
“Yeah well, tell me something I don't know.”
Loki pulls a grape and rolls on his side, taking leverage on his elbow. He gives the fruit to his brother, who accepts it. “Your friends are horribly long to come. I could have killed you an hundred times over. Are you sure you picked the right allies?”
“They're very strong. And brave,” Thor defends them.
Loki snorts. “Strength and courage, yes. They were always the qualities that appealed to you.” It defines a lot of Asgard's warriors, actually, but Loki never was praised with them himself. Not that he would have deserved to, of course, because he lacks physical strength and sees stupidity when others see bravery. Still, he had some other qualities for himself. It's only sad nobody could tell for sure it was enough to make up.
“You are brave,” Thor says, “and strong.”
Loki chuckles. Thor trying to sweet-talk to him is deliciously ironic. “Am I?”
“Yes. Just... not the way we are used to.”
“There aren’t many ways to be strong and brave brother,” Loki teases. “But don't strain yourself, we already know everything’ there is to know about me. Let's talk about the Avengers. Tell me about them.”
Thor tenses. Not much, but enough for Loki to notice. He's suddenly wary again and doesn't respond - probably unsure of what he can tell and what he cannot. Loki puts the bunch a bit further away from them and lays down on his side once again, staring at his brother's profile. His head rests on his outstretched arm and he whispers, trying to lure Thor back into a more relaxed state. “Do you enjoy their company?”
Thor remains silent. His gaze is on the ceiling and his jaw is set, like anything he could say about the Avengers would be an act of betrayal.
Loki doesn't mind. He goes on. “They're a bit like the Warriors Three, aren't they? Eager to fight and feast. It probably doesn't make much of a difference to you.” Thor exhales, blinks. Loki's hand comes to brush his arm and, after hovering, rests on it. Thor is warm under his palm, but he supposes he's the one who has cold fingers. He caresses the skin, mindlessly, following the trace of a vein until it disappears under the fabric of clothes. He doesn't try to push it away, just comes closer and puts his head on Thor's shoulder. Thor doesn't protest. The weight is nothing anyway. “Which ones hold your preference? The friends you knew all your life or theses ones you know nothing about?”
“Why would it matter to you? Would you focus your threats on the ones I hold dearer?”
Loki huffs. It's fair enough.
Thor licks his lips, sucks them in an instant. Loki closes his eyes and lets his fingers run back down Thor's arm. It's comfortable and it feels safe, even if it would be folly to mistake it that way. Thor strongly smells of earth and of rain. Time flicks by, and Loki keeps his fingers around his brother's wrist.
“I miss you.”
It's small and useless, Thor probably didn't really mean to say it, but Loki hears it all the same. The confession is pleasant. “And I you.”
“I wish things could go back to what they were.”
“They can't.”
“I know.”
Footsteps erupt some distance away from them, people running. Thor budges his shoulder, moving Loki. “It is them. Respect your word and go now.”
“You didn't finish the bunch.”
“Just go!”
Loki sits up and looks at the entrance. It's not hard to hear them coming closer. “You won't always be able to protect them from me you know?”
Thor stares and clenches his jaw tight, but doesn't respond. He doesn't need to. Loki knows the Avengers aren't the only ones Thor is trying to protect in this war.
“One day you'll have to choose,” Loki says as Tony appears at the far door and screams 'Hey!', “and I want you to choose me.”
He disappears before Iron Man's ray can hit him.
Fandom: Thor (11')
Rating: PG
Pairing: Can be seen as Thor/Loki or Gen
Words: 2k+
Note: Written for this prompt on Norsekink. Also, my first shot ever in the Thor fandom, yeah ♥
Summary: "If I consent to your mindless game, would you give me your word that you'll spare my friends and just go when they arrive?”
Loki puts a grape in his mouth and chews it a few times before taking another one. He isn't in any hurry and, now that his brother is laying on the floor bound by his magic, he can enjoy the fruit without other distractions.
Or he could, if Thor agreed to stay still and silent for a few minutes. He's been fighting the magic ever since he was caught in the spell, even though he has absolutely no chance of getting himself free.
Loki, seated cross-legged at his side, looks down to him. The look Thor sends him back is furious and offended, of all things.
"You need not strain yourself so much," Loki advises, taking another grape lazily, "I have no plan to harm you. Well, not today at least."
"Why did you bind me then?" Thor retorts, and Loki snorts.
"Well, I don't have plans for you harming me either. Hush now, brother. It won't be long before your friends arrive to rescue you."
Thor's face morphs from anger to wariness in a split second. He stares at Loki as if trying to read him, and there's real worry in his eyes now. More than when he first laid defenseless at Loki's feet.
"It's a trap, isn't it?" he asks carefully, and Loki doesn't reply, just takes another grape without looking away. "Loki, don't. If you have any love left for me - they did nothing to earn your wrath . This is between us, let them be."
"Quit being so melodramatic." Loki pulls a grape from the bunch and, in lieu of answering, presses it lightly against Thor's lips. "There, open your mouth."
Thor keeps his mouth resolutely shut. That's futile defiance and Loki smiles, amused, as he bends down lightly, lowering his voice as if Thor is being unreasonable and childish. "Do you still fear I might poison you, when I've been eating these myself and promised to do you no harm for the day?"
He removes the grape and bites it delicately, cutting it in two. Thor takes this chance to answer, bitter. "You lie as you breathe, how am I to trust you?"
Loki eats his half and puts the other back on Thor's lips. "There, you know it's safe. Eat it." A few drop of juice runs from it to Thor's chin, but still he refuses it. Loki doesn't insist and leans back, eating the second half himself.
"They-" Thor starts.
"-mean nothing to me," Loki cuts him off. "I care little if they die now or live long, meaningless lives." He smiles. "As you said yourself brother, it's between us."
"Will you leave them in peace then?"
"Will you eat my grapes?" Loki asks with a daring smile, as if both questions have an equal importance.
Thor hesitates, taken aback, and Loki finally waves his free hand to the bunch, causing it to glow softly for a second. “Here, you need not think so hard about it now: They're poisoned, as you wished them to be. Well, just a few in the bunch, to keep things interesting. I don't know which ones, though, which is even better."
"You would have me dead?"
Loki eyes get kinder as he clarifies. "I would have much worse done to you."
Thor licks his lips and stares at the ceiling for a moment, silent. Loki, meanwhile, gulps yet another grape.
"Why are you still eating them then?" he snarls.
"Because you are boring me."
Thor waits for another explanation, some hidden reason. Loki can almost hear his brain running, but his expression remains blank. He can see Thor swallow before the words escape him, low and furious: "It's insane!"
Loki's sanity has been doubted way too many times for it to make him raise as much as an eyebrow. Thor's hesitation is something new though, and Loki supposes his brother has only recently learned to not throw himself mindlessly into danger. A wise advice Loki tried many times to give him, back when they were allies, and that his Avengers friends must strain themselves into passing it through his thick skull now. "You must be quicker to take decisions."
It's a mockery and Thor takes it as such. "If I consent to your mindless game, would you give me your word that you'll spare my friends and just go when they arrive?”
“I would.”
“And if I don't?”
“You will.”
“What if I don't?”
Loki shrugs, but indulges. “We will wait for them together, and you may pray that I will swallow one of the wrong fruit before they come.” He smiles broadly. “It's kind of thrilling actually, isn't it?”
“You would wager your life for a thrill?”
“I waged my life on many more occasions that you are aware of, dear brother. Now please stop trying to outsmart me by gaining time and make a decision while I still give you the opportunity to do so.”
There's no real hesitation anymore, just a brief moment during which Loki knows Thor tries to find yet another way. But there isn't any, so he yields. “Very well, I'll take your fruits.”
When Loki next put a grape against his lips, he opens them. Loki pushes gently until the fruit disappear behind Thor's teeth, and gives him time to chew it. He doesn't hurry anymore than he did when he was eating himself, and for a while they could almost pretend the silence that has fallen is comfortable.
Loki's gaze doesn't leave Thor, through their eyes do not meet. The first grape has no effect and Thor doesn't seem to know what to make of it. He remains wary, but opens his mouth again when Loki presents him another grape.
“You'd rather die yourself, in such a pitiful way, than have a few humans killed,” Loki whispers, a bitterness hidden under the mockery. “Please tell me you're not stupid enough to not see your gesture as it really is.”
“Noble?” Thor ventures, and Loki has the brief urge to snort, but doesn't.
“Pathetic,” he corrects. Thor swallows a third fruit. His eyes widen suddenly and his face reddens. He coughs, tries to gasp for air as his body jerks suddenly once, twice. Loki does nothing to help him. He waits through it all, and doesn't speak until Thor has calmed down. “This one wasn't even poisoned,” he finally complains, disappointed, “You can't choke on it.”
“I am in no position to eat!”
“Oh please, you've never been able to eat correctly, be it laying down or sitting at a table. Here, take another one.”
“I need water.”
“You're in no position to drink.”
Thor huffs in indignation and they share a brief look. Loki is the first to break it.
“Brother...” Thor starts.
“We really ought to stop calling each other that,” Loki comments distractedly. “It may be confusing for your new allies.”
“I don't know any other way to call you.”
“Loki is fine.”
“You're my brother.”
“We went through this already. Take your grape.” Thor does. “Is it poisoned?”
“I don't think so.”
“Well this is getting frustrating.”
“Well I'm sorry,” Thor mock-apologizes. Then, “You don't want me dead, do you? Not really.”
“Don't be so arrogant as to presume to know what I want.”
But there's no heat in his voice and he leaves him alone for a moment, calm and dignified. Thor shifts on his back, the position obviously uncomfortable, but doesn't try once again to fight the magic bounds. The air is heavy with words unsaid, but neither of them seems eager to speak. It's pointless. They look in different directions, and suddenly it doesn't feel like they are sitting close to one another. There's a distance between them, there has been for some time. And through it's not something they can close by a reach of the hand, Thor tries it.
Loki's eyes snap back on him as Thor's fingers curls around the fabric of his clothes. It's a light touch and it's not threatening, the bounds wouldn't allow him more room to move, but it's alien and out of place.
Thor doesn't give Loki the opportunity to jerk back, just pulls instead. “Lay at my side,” he commands. He isn't in any position to give order but, after a quick calculation, Loki decides to go along with it anyway. He lays down himself, still at a safe distance from his brother.
“This isn't comfortable at all,” he points out with a frown.
“Yeah well, tell me something I don't know.”
Loki pulls a grape and rolls on his side, taking leverage on his elbow. He gives the fruit to his brother, who accepts it. “Your friends are horribly long to come. I could have killed you an hundred times over. Are you sure you picked the right allies?”
“They're very strong. And brave,” Thor defends them.
Loki snorts. “Strength and courage, yes. They were always the qualities that appealed to you.” It defines a lot of Asgard's warriors, actually, but Loki never was praised with them himself. Not that he would have deserved to, of course, because he lacks physical strength and sees stupidity when others see bravery. Still, he had some other qualities for himself. It's only sad nobody could tell for sure it was enough to make up.
“You are brave,” Thor says, “and strong.”
Loki chuckles. Thor trying to sweet-talk to him is deliciously ironic. “Am I?”
“Yes. Just... not the way we are used to.”
“There aren’t many ways to be strong and brave brother,” Loki teases. “But don't strain yourself, we already know everything’ there is to know about me. Let's talk about the Avengers. Tell me about them.”
Thor tenses. Not much, but enough for Loki to notice. He's suddenly wary again and doesn't respond - probably unsure of what he can tell and what he cannot. Loki puts the bunch a bit further away from them and lays down on his side once again, staring at his brother's profile. His head rests on his outstretched arm and he whispers, trying to lure Thor back into a more relaxed state. “Do you enjoy their company?”
Thor remains silent. His gaze is on the ceiling and his jaw is set, like anything he could say about the Avengers would be an act of betrayal.
Loki doesn't mind. He goes on. “They're a bit like the Warriors Three, aren't they? Eager to fight and feast. It probably doesn't make much of a difference to you.” Thor exhales, blinks. Loki's hand comes to brush his arm and, after hovering, rests on it. Thor is warm under his palm, but he supposes he's the one who has cold fingers. He caresses the skin, mindlessly, following the trace of a vein until it disappears under the fabric of clothes. He doesn't try to push it away, just comes closer and puts his head on Thor's shoulder. Thor doesn't protest. The weight is nothing anyway. “Which ones hold your preference? The friends you knew all your life or theses ones you know nothing about?”
“Why would it matter to you? Would you focus your threats on the ones I hold dearer?”
Loki huffs. It's fair enough.
Thor licks his lips, sucks them in an instant. Loki closes his eyes and lets his fingers run back down Thor's arm. It's comfortable and it feels safe, even if it would be folly to mistake it that way. Thor strongly smells of earth and of rain. Time flicks by, and Loki keeps his fingers around his brother's wrist.
“I miss you.”
It's small and useless, Thor probably didn't really mean to say it, but Loki hears it all the same. The confession is pleasant. “And I you.”
“I wish things could go back to what they were.”
“They can't.”
“I know.”
Footsteps erupt some distance away from them, people running. Thor budges his shoulder, moving Loki. “It is them. Respect your word and go now.”
“You didn't finish the bunch.”
“Just go!”
Loki sits up and looks at the entrance. It's not hard to hear them coming closer. “You won't always be able to protect them from me you know?”
Thor stares and clenches his jaw tight, but doesn't respond. He doesn't need to. Loki knows the Avengers aren't the only ones Thor is trying to protect in this war.
“One day you'll have to choose,” Loki says as Tony appears at the far door and screams 'Hey!', “and I want you to choose me.”
He disappears before Iron Man's ray can hit him.