[AO3 Crosspost] (i can hear you)

[terresdebrume]

✗ TECHNICAL DETAILS

FANDOM: Marvel’s MCU
SERIES: -
RATING: General
WORDCOUNT: 840
PAIRING(S): -
CHARACTER(S): Loki, Thor, Tony Stark, Sygin
GENRE: Brotherly bonding
TRIGGER WARNING(S): -
SUMMARY: Sometimes you get new insights on people -and when that happens, it would be foolish to let it go. (Or: In which Thor has an uncanny ability to roll with the ball.)


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Loki’s panicked scream stops Thor from setting his foot on the forest ground, piercing the silence with a tone of despair Asgard hasn’t heard since Hel was sent to her throne.

The night is young, still, but even so it is difficult to notice the snake -a thin brown thing, short enough for Thor to use it as a bracelet if he so wishes, and definitely not venomous enough to elicit any kind of worry in anyone, let alone someone who has seen such danger as Loki did.

“Be at peace, Brother!” Thor grins, “You must know it will not harm us.”

Loki’s expression turns carefully blank, and a faint edge of anxiety seizes Thor, shivers running down his spine as Tony frowns behind his brother, Sigyn spreading her palms outward as if to ask where the remark came from…

Thor wants to answer, but the image of Jormungandr as a young snake, barely larger than this one, springs to life before his eyes, and he decides to leave the matter to rest, walking in silence.

The camp isn’t far and the path, being within the inner limits of Asgard, is safe enough to allow for nocturnal wandering, but Thor can feels his companions’ unease prickling against his skin, the tingle of worry making his heart race faster even as his spine turns rigid, his fingernails dig into his palms….

“Relax, Reindeer Games,” Tony says -Loki sighs then, most likely because their shoulders just bumped together- “No need to be afraid of the dark.”

Thor feels the muscles in his shoulders relax minutely, his eyebrows loosening above his eyes, but it isn’t until he catches a flash of red cape in front of him that the worry fully recedes… only be replaced by confusion.

No one in their company wears red, save himself and Tony -but Tony wears a sweatshirt, not a cape, and he is behind Thor, not before him.

He saw blonde hair, too, and muscular arms, and a certain sense of… familiarity. Perhaps it is why he doesn’t feel the need to rush after the stranger despite his curiosity, and simply leaves the road to find the stack of wood he and his friends used so often in their youth -and nearly forgot to fill more than once.

It was Fandral who replaced it last, Thor hears Loki whisper. The night I came back to Asgard.

Thor pauses again, looks at the neat pile of wooden logs and wonders why his brother would chose to share such a thing with people he keeps pretending not to care for.

In doubt, Thor decides not to remark on the unexpected confession and turns to his friends with a smile:

“I have many a great memory here,” he tells them, mind bubbling with thousands of nights spent laughing around that very same campfire, “many a tale to tell.”

Many a tall tale, yes, Loki mutters.

There’s something odd about his voice tonight, something Thor didn’t notice before but it makes him bitter, lips pulling against his previous grin, trying to disappear in a displeased expression that feels foreign to Thor’s muscles.

All of them showing how much braver and bolder you are than all of us -but of course, Asgard has conveniently neglected to remember how many times your sorry hide needed saving.

Thor looks at his brother again, spite bubbling low in his chest amidst the surprise he feels when he realizes Loki’s lips didn’t move at all -not even an inch. The thought sobers him down, makes him sit next to the brand new fire without another word as he wonders whether or not Loki knows what Thor hears.

(He probably doesn’t. Loki has started many a fight between them before, Thor knows, and some he could have avoided if he’d wanted to, but never like this. Never so openly hurt and angry -never quite that bold in his honesty.)

Are we not getting any tale of brilliance tonight? Loki wonders as he sits down next to Tony -the one who tolerates him best- wiping imaginary dust from his breeches. That’s quite the change.

“Loki made a lot of memories here as well,” Thor says after his long pause, deciding silence wouldn’t be the best option, after all.

This time when his shoulders clench and his spine goes too straight, Thor knows where it comes from, and he makes himself breathe, loosen his stance, hoping maybe it helps Loki, too.

“Wasn’t it here we landed after that time in Nornheim?”

Loki lifts his head from his palm, leaving behind his look of boredom as his eyes widen in surprise, and Thor smiles at him.

What happened, he does not know, but if there is one thing he has learned since his father first sent him to Midgard, it is to seize any occasion he can find to make things better around him.

(If Loki’s thinly veiled smile as Thor tells the truthful story of their trip to Nornheim is anything to go by, it seems to be working.)