Work Text:
There’s a Loki sitting on the Avengers couch.
Thor doesn’t know what else to call him. It’s Loki, there’s no doubt about that, but he’s… different. The last time Thor had seen his brother, he’d been lying on the floor of a spaceship, face pale and chest devoid of breath. This Loki has never seemed more alive. Gone is the theatrical green leather that his Loki so favoured, replaced with a simple brown suit. It’s more than that though. Although their relationship had slowly begun to heal after Ragnarok, his Loki had been guarded. His eyes had held this dark weight that Thor had taken far too long to notice. He’d held himself as if wherever he went, he never belonged. He never felt comfortable.
This Loki though? He’s confident in himself in a way that Thor’s Loki never was. There is no weariness to him, no constant inner battle waged every second. In fact, the only hesitance he seems to have comes from being surrounded by a very hostile group of the World’s Mightiest Heroes.
“So, run this by me one more time,” Tony says, refusing to retract the blaster pointed at Loki’s heart. “After we defeated you in New York, you were kidnapped by a magic time agency who supervises a sacred timeline and now you work for them and need some kind of relic from my storage?”
“Yes,” Loki huffs, exasperated. “My story has not changed in the five times you've asked me to repeat it.”
“I’m still calling bullshit,” Clint called from the corner of the room where he was menacingly sharpening one of his arrows. “You’re trying to tell us that you were just recently pulled out of the end of New York and now you’re some kind of goody-two-shoes office worker? Just doing his job with no murderous or evil intent involved?”
“Gotta agree with Legolas over there. We hand him what he wants, and someone’s going to end up dead.”
Loki rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic. If I wanted to kill any of you, you would have known by now. I just want the relic and I’ll be out of your hair.”
Maybe it’s illogical, but Thor believes him. It’s probably because his brain is still trying to get the fact that Loki’s alive and he’s here properly filed away as correct information. Thor thinks it's more than that though. Whatever happened to Loki at this magic time agency (which would sound ridiculous if he wasn’t an actual God), it changed him. It’s the absence of anger in his shoulders. It’s how his words bite, but don’t sting anymore. Thor wants to tell Loki all of this, that he believes him, but his brother hasn’t looked at him once since Tony called them all to the compound.
“He does seem considerably less murderous,” Steve mused.
“Okay, sure, but don’t you think that the God of Mischief would be capable of deceiving us? This could be a villainous agency for all we know,” Natasha pointed out.
Loki threw his hands up in the air. “Just give me the relic and you will never have to see me again. I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to and I’m sure you all share the same sentiment.”
“Can you tell us what this item does?” Natasha asked. “Because if it gives you some mystical powers that make you invincible, the answer is going to be a hard no.”
“It is literally just a miniature power source. It can’t even be activated unless placed in a certain order with other pieces.”
“So what you’re saying is you’re building a mass weapon of destruction?”
“No! Norns, I don’t even know what it fully does, I’m not the one building the machine! I swear you will not miss it and the machine doesn’t even have the ability to do damage. It’s supposed to be fixing something.”
“Fixing what?” Steve said.
Loki let out a long, deep sigh of exasperation. Thor watched as his brother subconsciously began to fidget with a band of black on his left ring finger. It was made of two rings put together, with the outer ring slightly looser than the under one so it could spin around as it was moved. The outer band had little suns and moons engraved in it in alternating patterns. It didn’t seem like the most expensive piece of jewelry, but it obviously meant a lot to Loki because the second he touched it, most of the tension in him eased out.
“I say we give it to him,” Thor announced. Everyone in the room immediately turned towards him with various degrees of surprise or outrage. Arguments broke out amongst the group of Avengers as everyone made their opinions known, but Thor wasn’t focused on that. Instead, all of his attention was on Loki, who had finally turned to look towards him.
Thor didn’t know what he’d been expecting. The Loki after the Battle of New York had despised him. The Loki after Ragnarok had begun to forgive him. This Loki though? He clearly didn’t know what to make of Thor. It was perfectly matched though, because Thor wasn’t quite sure what to make of this Loki.
“Hey, uh, guys,” Bruce half-shouted, breaking through the squabbles. “Why don’t we go outside to think about this for a moment? Just clear our heads, yeah?”
“And leave Loki here unsupervised? As if,” Clint scoffed.
“Hey, Thor, why don’t you supervise him? Yeah? Great, okay, come on everyone.” Bruce began to forcefully usher everyone out of the room despite the grumbled protests. Thor gave Bruce a thankful nod as the doctor closed the door behind the retreating group.
Painful, awkward silence. Thor opened his mouth to speak, to say something, but snapped it closed when he realized that no words had formed in his mind. What could you say in a situation like this? Thor had always known Loki, maybe not to the extent that he should have, but he was aware of where he and his brother stood. This though? Loki had gone off and changed immensely, and Thor wasn’t sure how this Loki compared to Ragnarok Loki or Battle of New York Loki.
Just talk to him , a voice in Thor’s head that sounded suspiciously like his mother said. He’s your brother.
“You look…”
Different? Less grumpy? Calmer? Changed? Like a stranger?
“...happy,” Thor finished, the words settling perfectly onto his tongue.
Loki snorted. “You’ve seen me for no more than ten minutes, I find it hard to believe that you can have deduced that in such short timing.”
“But I’ve had centuries of knowing you to compare it to.”
Loki got quiet at that. Part of Thor worried that he’d said the wrong thing, that he’d screwed this up before they’d even had a chance to fully talk, but no other words would, or could, have been better.
After a minute or so with only the whirring of the ring audible, Loki spoke up. “I’m not him,” he said. “I watched all the memories of the person I was supposed to become, right up until I die, and I’m not him.”
“But up until New York? You’re my Loki?”
“Yes, I’m… that Loki. I’m Loki.”
Silence again. It was funny, really, when Thor thought about it. When Loki had died at Thanos’s hands, there had been so much he’d wished he’d said to his brother. Now here was his chance, and it was like his mouth was full of sand.
But he’s right. He’s not that Loki, and therefore those words aren’t for him. If you want to get to know this Loki, you need to find new words.
The thought of that, of getting to know this Loki, brought a warm feeling into Thor’s chest.
“You’ve been fiddling with that ring for awhile,” Thor said, carefully selecting what to say so he didn’t accidentally overstep.
Loki looked down at the spinning band of sun and moons and despite what seemed to be his best efforts, couldn’t keep a gentle smile from creeping its way onto his lips. If Thor had had any uncertainty that this Loki had found peace, that smile would have wiped away any and all doubts. It was a smile so full of love, a smile so tender that even seeing it felt like a tender embrace. Whoever had given that ring to Loki, it was clear they meant the world to his brother.
“My… friend gave it to me. We were off trying to find someone, and came across a fair. I insisted we move on, but he wanted to try and play one of the booth games. He was ridiculously bad at it, but he managed to win this and… he gave it to me. He was so proud of himself for winning it, how could I turn it down?”
Even Thor could tell that that last line was nonsense. If Loki had only accepted it to be polite, why was he holding onto it like it was his last lifeline?
“You can tell me about him, if you want.”
Loki snorted. “I thought you were in here to interrogate me about my evil plans?”
“I don’t think you have any evil plans. In fact, I don’t think you care much about this world at all. I think that you’ve found somewhere that’s much more important to you, and that’s your priority now.” Thor’s initial confidence melted away a little and he sheepishly added, “Which I would love to hear about.”
Loki squinted at his brother for a moment. “The last time I saw you, I was trying to kill you.”
“No different than usual. Besides, I know you aren’t truly evil, Loki. Don’t give me that face, you know it’s true as well. You may not be my Loki, but I saw how much good he could possess. Even if those memories aren’t yours, that potential for good still exists.”
Lok stopped for a second, probably judging the sincerity of the statement. Thor didn’t blame him for being hesitant, but a huge part of him really wanted the chance to get to know his brother again. If Loki believed that Thor didn’t care about him, then his brother would walk out the door and Thor would never get to see him again.
“You're ridiculous,” Loki said eventually. “In fact, I’m going to exact my evil plan right now, just because you’ve challenged me.”
“Mhm.”
“Any moment now.”
“Sure.”
“I will burn this place to the ground.”
“Go right ahead.”
Thor met Loki’s frown with a grin. There was zero sincerity behind his threatened actions.
“Fine, you win,” Loki grumbled, falling back onto the sofa. “No evil plans today.”
The other Avengers, sans Bruce, took that moment to burst back into the room. Tony was at the charge, and he stopped in front of Loki with both of his blasters out this time.
“You’re lucky Bruce seems to have a soft spot for you because otherwise you’d already be on your way to the Raft. No more half explanations, no more bullshit, tell us what you really want and why, and we might not kill you.”
“Polite as ever, Stark,” Loki said with a raised eyebrow. “And where exactly has my savior gone?”
“The good Doctor had to take a call, which makes you solely our problem now. So talk.”
“Very well, if you insist.
The TVA, my magic time agency as you call it, is tasked with protecting the sacred timeline. Originally this meant destroying any possible deviance that could harm the sacred timeline, but that’s no longer the case. Our new task is to protect these “branched” timelines as we call them, and to do that we need to severely improve a device called the Temporal Loom. It essentially helps thread all those timelines into something more tangible. The relic I need is a type of power source that responds to temporal energy. It won’t do much in this world, but when put together with the right equipment and placed near these time strands, it’ll be an immense power generator that the Loom, not me, can harvest. If we can’t find a better power generator for the Loom, all those people in those branched timelines are going to die. Billions of lives gone, that could be saved by a relic that you would never miss. Any other questions?”
“Yeah,” Clint said immediately. “Why do you care?”
“Pardon?”
“Why do you care about the lives of all those people? Why do you care about this TVA and whether this Loom-thing works? Last time we saw you, you were attempting to take over the world and you didn’t care how many people you killed in the process. Do you really expect us to believe that you’ve suddenly had this major change of heart all by yourself?”
“He’s gone soft,” Natasha mused from where she was leaning against the door.
The whirring of the ring increased in pitch. The rest of Loki’s face remained neutral, but now that Thor knew what the ring meant to Loki, he knew it was a sign of attempting to calm strong emotion.
“That’s funny coming from you,” Loki replied. “Your heart was much more guarded when I saw you last.”
Natasha shrugged. “Touché.”
“I say we take a vote,” Steve said. “All in favor of giving Loki this relic?”
Thor’s hand was the only one raised. Personally he thought due to his godly status he should count as at least 3 people, but such a rule would be vetoed very quickly.
“The nays have it then,” Tony said, cheerfully clapping his hands. “Get out.”
Loki took a deep breath in, as if steeling himself for something, then through gritted teeth said, “please.”
“I’m sorry, what was that?” Tony said, mockingly cupping his hand to his ear.
“You heard me, Stark, I’m not saying it again. I thought as the World’s Mightiest Heroes you would give a damn about the people you came to protect, but obviously not.”
“Yeah, if we actually believed lives were in danger, but that little story of yours seems absurd. Nice try, but come up with a better scheme next time.” With that, Stark curtly pointed towards the door.
“Fine,” Loki spat. He stood up, straightened up the lapels of his suit jacket, and stormed out the door, all with his head high. Thor took no more than a second to consider what to do next and ran after his brother.
“Loki, wait,” Thor pleaded as Loki stormed out of the compound and began to fiddle with something on his watch.
“No, I never should have come here. It was foolish to think that you all would ever believe me.”
“You can’t blame them for being suspicious. They know only of you as a villain, but I know that’s not who you are anymore.”
Loki let out a bitter laugh. “It’s amusing how sure you are of that.”
Thor shrugged. “If what you say is true, you have the free range ability to travel in time. If you were truly evil, there would have been nothing stopping you from sabotaging the past and allowing yourself to win. Instead, you’re here, asking for something that could help save the life of countless existences. There’s good in you, Loki, and I refuse to believe otherwise.”
It was Loki’s turn to scrutinize Thor. Those emerald eyes were piercing normally, but when they were solely focused on you, it was like being under a microscope. Thor tried his best to let Loki think, but the intense silence was beginning to make him fidget.
“You’ve changed too, you know,” Loki said finally. “You’re softer. Less arrogant.”
“I’ve had to be.”
Before Loki could respond, the sound of someone shouting “wait” slowly began to come into earshot. The volume continued to rise and soon enough Bruce appeared round the corner, panting and holding a strange looking mechanical device.
“You found it,” Loki said, head tilted and eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“Thought I recognized it from your description. I’ve been testing out some of the equipment we have in storage and found it. Wasn’t sure what it was for so I was going to return it, but I’m glad I didn’t.” He held it out to Loki.
“You’re… giving it to me? You don’t think I’m plotting world domination with it?”
“Nah. For starters, it seemed mostly harmless when I was poking around in it. Secondly, I don’t think that’s your number one priority anymore. I think it’s been downgraded on your list quite a bit.”
Loki took the object, weighing it in one hand. “Thank you.”
“Just don’t tell them I gave it to you. The nagging will never end.”
“It’ll be our little secret. Thank you.”
Loki turned back around to leave, but Thor couldn’t leave it like this. He had a feeling if Loki disappeared with how their relationship currently stood, Thor would never see him again.
“Wait,” Thor said, halting Loki in his tracks. “Will you come back and visit?”
Loki raised an amused eyebrow. “I don’t quite think I’ll be welcome back here again.”
“No, but Asgard… New Asgard… you will always have a place there.”
The corners of Loki’s lips twitched, as if repressing a smile. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He gave a farewell nod to them both, pressed a few buttons on his watch, stepping through a glowing block of gold, and was gone.
Bruce and Thor stayed where they were for a few moments, staring at the spot where Loki had disappeared.
“He’ll come back,” Bruce said eventually.
“I hope you're right,” Thor replied, content to stand there as a fractured piece of his heart slowly began to mend.