title: but never doubt
fandom: thor
pairing: thor/loki
rating: pg/pg-13 (or so milica says)
warning: pseudo-incest
word count: 1,037
...
“You are incapable of sincerity.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve looked forward to this day as long as you have. You’re my brother and my friend. And sometimes I’m envious. But never doubt for one second that I love you.”
And Loki does look sincere for once as he calmly stares into his brother’s eyes. Thor lifts his arm and places his heavy warrior hand on Loki’s neck. “Thank you,” he says, almost solemnly.
“Now give us a kiss,” Loki says quickly and they both laugh.
…
It is a particularly hot day as they decide to play a game of Concealment. They form three teams - Sif and Fandral being the ones whose task is to locate the two other teams - while Volstagg and Hogun and Loki and Thor are supposed to find a good hiding place in the forest. Loki is strictly forbidden from using his magic to conceal his and Thor’s whereabouts (“I shall not spend an entire day searching for something that cannot be found,” Sif says sternly) and after some protesting on Loki’s part, he finally agrees that that would be somewhat reasonable, he presumes.
And so it begins. Sif and Fandral start the countdown as they stand with their backs against one another with their eyes firmly shut, while Volstagg, Hogun, Thor and Loki begin running towards the woods. The moment they enter the forest, the two teams part ways and Thor and Loki do not look back as they make their way through the bushes and thick shrubbery, towards the tall, dense trees. They don’t stop for a while, they don’t say anything and the only sound that surrounds them is their loud, frantic breathing and the sticks cracking beneath their feet as they go deeper and deeper into the forest.
Loki is the first to stop running. He is panting noisily and there are beads of sweat all over his forehead, his wet dark hair clinging to his neck. Thor comes to a halt as well, mostly because his brother has already stopped and laughs: “That look suits you, brother.”
Loki wants to say something like shut up or don’t be an idiot, but the words are stuck in his dry mouth and he finds that he cannot utter a single syllable before he manages to start breathing evenly again. Thor seems amused by this surprising turn of events and he continues teasing: “No, I mean it. It brings colour to your cheeks. You look rather like a fair maiden, brother.”
As Thor laughs heartily at his own joke, he is not prepared for what happens next. Despite still feeling as if life were about to leave his body any second now, Loki suddenly jumps his older brother and nearly tackles him to the ground. Thor has been bigger and stronger for a while now, but he is caught off guard and he lets Loki’s weight bring him down. However, this does not stop him from laughing. If anything, Thor’s laughter just gets louder.
“Really, brother, if this is your way of proving that you do not resemble maidens, then I must inform you that you are doing exactly the opposite,” Thor chuckles as he looks up into his brother’s eyes. Loki’s face shows a mixture of pride that he managed to knock Thor down to the ground and extreme annoyance with his brother’s persistent mockery.
Still entertained by Loki’s actions, Thor doesn’t take his eyes off Loki as he says jokingly: “Now give us a kiss.”
And so Loki does.
It happens incredibly fast and unbelievably slow at the same time, as though time freezes in that very moment and everything else becomes a senseless blur. All Thor can see is Loki’s face as he presses his lips against his own, a touch so strange, so different from anything he has ever felt before that Thor’s mind can barely process what exactly is happening. He should do something, shouldn’t he? Pull away, get up, fight his brother? But he does none of those things. Instead, he closes his eyes, letting out a sound he is quite sure he has never made in his entire life and he can feel Loki’s lips curving into a smile. Thor wants to say something, he wants to punch Loki for obviously feeling superior and in charge at this moment, he wants to tell himself to stop this madness immediately. Yet he finds his mouth opening more widely, letting Loki in, his own tongue forceful and demanding as he begins exploring Loki’s mouth. Suddenly there is no place for confusion, nor shame and he feels like this is as natural as anything they have done together that he has a hard time understanding why it hasn’t happened before. Loki’s tongue slides along Thor’s lower lip and he shudders, for the first time in his life feeling like the other person is in control. Usually it is he who initiates the kiss, he who makes girls sigh with pleasure, he who knows exactly what he is doing. This time, he feels almost powerless, a state so unnatural to him that for a moment he thinks this is his first kiss. And in a way, it is. The way Loki’s lips mould perfectly into his own is both surprising and not surprising at all. This is the way it should be, the way it has always been. In so many ways they have always been together and this was the only missing piece.
Suddenly, Loki breaks off and Thor opens his eyes to see the face of his brother smiling widely at him. “Not bad for a fair maiden, eh, brother?”
Thor wants to say something witty and continue the joke he indeed started first, but he finds no suitable words, so he only smiles.
“Looks like we had no need for my concealing spells, after all,” Loki says in a tone that Thor recognizes as pure glee.
…
“Now give us a kiss,” Loki says and they both laugh. Thor looks at his brother and, while he doesn’t say “Later”, he means it and Loki’s grin tells him he knows.
“Really,” Thor says earnestly. “how do I look?”
“Like a king,” Loki smiles.
Later never comes.