Chapter Text
Didn’t do it for him.
Didn't...
Never for him.
His seidr was cloying. Sticky. Trying desperately to pull the flesh together where the crude blade had parted it. But he just had to hold it together a little while longer. Grungnir was heavy, thrumming with seidr against his skin. Familiar magic. The same seidr that had cradled his own as he was just starting to discover how to use it. Its presence made his gorge rise in his throat.
Didn't belong there.
How dare he…
Thor was standing in front of him, blind to the glamour lying thick over Loki’s skin. Blue eyes sad. Because Loki was dead...
He barely listened as he offered praise through Odin’s lips. Just knew it was all the things he had always wished to hear. That Thor was accustomed to, but still made him glow to hear. Thor’s face was pensive though. His brow prematurely lined with grief. He tried his best not to look. Otherwise he was certain he’d fall to pieces.
Loki’s silver tongue wove words through the headache pounding at his skull. He barely resisted clenching his teeth against the unpredictable pain waning and crashing over him. His seidr was angry at him. Demanding that his body rest. Demanding he make the hole in his chest a priority.
Thor offered him the damned hammer as a soft hiss of pain escaped him.
“It belongs to you.” the words tasted like ash in his mouth, even as he knew he spoke the truth. “If you are worthy of it.”
“I shall try to be.” Thor said solemnly, graciously. Yet some of the tension eased around his brother’s eyes. Relief, but not enough. Not the kind of reprieve justice would bring.
Maybe he might even one day understand the use of it.
Perhaps his adventuring will do him well. Thor was always at his happiest when he was off with righteousness at his back and something ugly to hit with Mjolnir. Loki hoped Thor’s newly found set of morals the Midgardians had so graciously gifted him will also keep him from getting himself killed.
He knew he should shut up. Let the glamour slip. Go lie down. But he still found himself giving Thor parting words that he knew the Thunderer needed. Words of pride to cut some of the strings of grief weighing down his brother’s heart. Even if it also had the added benefit of keeping the lout away from Asgard for longer.
“Thank you, father.” Thor said and strode off into the fading light with that ridiculous cape billowing after him.
“No,” Loki’s chest burned, but he still felt his shredded heart skip a beat. Finally, free. “Thank you.”
After all, the cur still left his body to be scavenged on that crumbling ruin of Svartalfheim.