A Bang and a Whimper

11

Thor has often found Jenna asleep in her mother's bed. He is not surprised when he finds her there yet again. He tucks the blankets around her, kisses her forehead, and returns to his desk. There is still work to be done and it is not yet late.

Meanwhile, Odin has become tired of waiting. His conversations with Thor never go anywhere. He goes to Loki's chamber and enters without knocking. Loki is stretched out on a couch, absorbed in a book. This is not something that surprises Odin. Seeing him there, though, surprises Loki and he startles, catching the book as it falls from the couch.

"You did not knock."

"No."

"And you see no need to? I am still yours to command?"

Odin realizes that he has started the conversation off poorly, but he does not back down, "No, not to command. But I am still your elder."

"Why have you come?"

"To discover what you are."

"I am Loki. I am here. And I would like you to leave." Odin can hear the tension in Loki's voice.

"No."

"Shall I call for Thor so that he might show you the door?"

"No."

"Then if I cannot be rid of you, speak your piece quickly so that I might return to 'Good Omens'- the man just delivered the message to the Horsemen and I do not wish to stop reading."

"I have never heard of that book."

Loki realizes he is on thin ice- there is a balance here between revealing enough to get rid of Odin and revealing too much and giving away the family secret, "Thor collected books for me when he came to search for me."

"From other realms."

"I do not suppose he needed to spend much time looking in this one."

"He has easily accepted you as his brother. Have you done the same for him?"

Loki tenses; it is a question he feels trapped by, "Possibly."

"Only possibly?"

"I think my heart is mine and mine alone to know. I do not have to share it with anyone."

"The last thing I remember of you before imprisonment is betrayal. You will have to share some of it if you wish for me to trust that you are not the man you once were."

"And why should I do such? When Thor found me, he told me that my story was mine and mine alone to share. He assured me of this, told me that no one knew what was not general knowledge. There were things he had not even told Sif and the Three. And yet when you had the opportunity, you did the opposite and shared my most painful secret with a child. If I have learned betrayal, it was because it was taught well." Loki's anger is barely under control and his words grow in intensity as he speaks, "I had found someone so untainted by the world that she accepted me because I existed, not out of fear or obligation. Someone so enthralled by the written word and stories that she trusted me to read her the tales her mother once read her. And you had to poison that. To attempt to destroy it by telling her of my worst actions. Of all the things you have done, of all the things I have considered betrayals, that stabs most deeply."

"More than any other?"

"Yes."

"Than not telling you of your parentage?"

"Yes."

"Than allowing no one you knew to tell you in person of your mother's death?"

"Yes."

This surprises Odin and he finds himself wondering if this is an act, "What do you mean to gain by lying to me?"

Loki glares, "Get out."

Odin sees something in Loki's eyes that almost scares him and he leaves.

Loki retrieves his book and tries to read. His concentration is gone. He flops the book on his face and sighs, then mocks screaming soundlessly into it. He tosses the book on the table and wonders if Thor has left anything in his liquor cabinet.