Brothers

Only when Loki needed to be led away to get changed did Thor relinquish his hand. Loki only offered a weary, hopeless smile before disappearing into the main room. Thor sat in the anteroom, with one guard at the outer entrance and two guards at the inner entrance, the left-over staying with the dressers and Loki. Thor wrung his hands, nervousness and dread overflowing and overtaking him. Eventually settling into reaching his hand back and stroking his braid placidly, unsure how much time passed with racing thoughts and pounding heart. Loki reemerged dressed in white. It was a simple outfit, a long tunic-shirt, wrapped at the forearms, and a trailing over-vest, embroidered with a generic prayer about Hel and Valhalla and death. The only jewelry he wore was the dark, low-hanging bronze gorget.
"What is this?" Thor demanded, "These are burial cloths for a simple nobleman, or a peasant even, not a prince of Asgard-"
"Thor," Loki reprimanded, "Did you not hear at the sentencing this morning? My prince-ship has been annulled. This is a high courtesy on their part," Loki's voice was deadpan, obviously upset by the fact but unwilling to show it in the presence of strangers.
Thor grumbled, glaring at the dressers who had presented Loki. They looked frightened.
"Thor," Loki repeated, and Thor silently smoldered. He began to lead him out of the room, the guards returning to formation around the two brothers. Loki gently entwined his fingers in Thor's, and he ceased his storming, quick footsteps. Realizing their minutes were numbered, Thor resolved to spend them as un-angrily as possible. He began taking slower strides and deeper breaths, squeezing his brother's frigid hand lightly in time with them. The guards led them to Loki's old room.
"Why are we here?" Thor questioned.
"The condemned requested to have his last meal in this room." The guard explained calmly.
Thor and Loki stepped inside to see the room had been mostly untouched. Sparse in the way of conventional decoration, it was covered in star charts and diagrams and sketches, all having to do with magic or tactics or trickery. The towering twin bookshelves held tomes and volumes Loki had deemed favored or useful and been smuggled out of the libraries or bought from other collections. Even the bed was still unmade, left as Loki had slept in it the last time, many moons ago. The Trickster faltered a bit at the rush of nostalgia, but Thor held him steady. Loki's wide desk had been dragged into the middle of the room, leaving trails in the dust on the tile floor, and been set with Loki's favorite meal. There were two plates of it. Thor threw a quizzical look at the guards, who simply nodded and left them in privacy. Their hands remained interlocked until they reached the tiny table. They sat opposite, Loki devouring the meal uncharacteristically, all heaping spoonfuls and mixing of flavors, unlike the brother Thor watched years ago, who ate gracefully and thoughtfully. Thor wanted to eat, but the butterflies in his stomach did not allow him the pleasure. He poked at the vegetables and sipped at the mead, not wanting to tip his brother off at his discomfort, although he doubted the other man would even notice, the way he was inhaling the food.
"Are you going to eat yours, Thor?" Loki asked when he actually did notice. Thor proffered a tiny shake of his head, and rose to cross to the bookshelves, eyes scanning the largely strange titles. His eyes alighted on an battered, familiar volume, a picture book the two had adored as children. Excitedly removing it from the shelf, he walked back to his chair and sat down. Loki eyed him suspiciously.
"You intend to read to me? Children's stories?"
"Yes," Thor chuckled, "Do you object?"
Loki took a measured breath, "No, not particularly."
Thor opened to the first story-the story of the creation. "'The first world was that of Muspellheim. Full of flames and white-hot heat, it is guarded by Surtr, who will vanquish all gods and burn everything with Muspellheim's fire.'" He even turned the book around to show his brother the illustration.
"Skip to the Frost Giants, and then to father." Loki's voice was monotone, and he had slowed his ravenous eating to pay attention.
"Alright," Thor flipped around, "Ah, here it is; 'When the cold from Niflheim and the heat from Muspellheim met, Ymir the Frost Giant was born. When he slept, a man and a woman grew out of his left arm, and their son out of Ymir's leg. They were the first of the Frost Giants, creating the realm of Jotunheim.'" Thor thought it odd Loki would want to remember his accursed heritage and his accursed foster father at such a time, but he continued."'The brothers Odin, Vili and Vé then killed Ymir, and all of Ymir's blood flooded the Jotnar and left only two alive. The three brothers then took his body, and from it created the seas and the ground and the mountains and the trees and the skies and the clouds, and the maggots that had lived in Ymir's corpse became human-like by will of the gods. They gave most of the earth to giants, but created Midgard as their stronghold.'"
"To Asgard," Loki had stopped eating altogether now.
"'The brothers then needed to watch over their creation, so they made the Shining Realm of Asgard, and the hall of Hlidskjálf, from which Odin could see and comprehend everything. He then married Frigga, and by her bore the Aesir, all gods in their own right. Odin then became the Allfather, because he had birthed the Aesir and humans and all of creation.'" Thor had reached the end of the story now.
"Seemed more glorious when we were children," Loki said, retreating back into his cage of distrust and hurtful words, "But I suppose we understand it more clearly now."
"Loki, my brother, do not spend your last moments like this." Thor reached across the table and pulled his brother's cold hand in between his warm ones. Loki looked at him reproachfully, green eyes shining with regret.
"My apologies," he murmured, drawing his other hand over Thor's, tracing patterns over the bones and sinewy muscles in the stronger hands.
"I love you, brother," Thor said after many beats of silence. Loki's tracings paused and their eyes locked, but sensing the sincerity in Thor's eyes, the God of Chaos had to drop his eyes to focus on his pattern drawing.
"Would it have killed you to say it before?" Loki's voice dripped with hurt.
"That's the problem. I have never said it enough, and I can never say it enough, either, but I don't want you to leave me again having not heard it from my lips." Thor was tearing up now, trying to keep himself calm. Loki had stopped the patterns, but he was still staring intently at the back of Thor's hand. "Please, believe me."
"I have always believed you, Thor," Loki's voice was barely audible in the silent room, "You were the only one I always believed." His head dipped deeper, and a choked sob escaped his throat. "Always."
"Always," Thor echoed, holding his brother close again, "I love you, Loki, I love you," he repeated as a mantra, tears streaming down his face again.
The guards returned again, and they pulled apart. The God of Thunder ran a calloused thumb over his brother's smooth face, wiping away the single line of tears that had trailed there. Loki's eyes fluttered shut and he becked into the gentle touch.
"It's time," Thor whispered begrudgingly, and Loki's eyes snapped open.
"I suppose it is." Loki stood, straightening his garments and offering his brother a shaking hand. Thor engulfed it in his own and they walked towards the main hall, where the execution was to take place. They were not led into the assembly, but to a small chamber where they were to remain until summoned for. Sitting together on a golden bench, Thor's hands once again wrapped themselves around Loki's, and both pairs was shaking violently. Loki's hands were slightly warmer, but that was because Thor had been holding them for so long. The Trickster's frame was convulsing, but when the page came in to tell them they were to be ready momentarily, Loki began to steel himself, calming his shakes and masking his face into the old, dead thing he always had used to face the subjects of Asgard.
"Just think, Thor," he spoke quietly, "The last time we were here together you were to be crowned king." A single tear rolled down his cheek again, but he did not wipe it. Thor did not respond, stroking his thumbs against Loki's pale hands. A squadron of guards entered the room.
"It is time." Thor began to rise, hands still connected to Loki, but the black-haired brother still needed time to adjust, standing slowly and deliberately. It was then Thor realized how fragile his brother had become, and it caused him to tighten his grip around Loki's hands.
"I wish to stay with him." Thor looked the lead guard in the eyes.
"I'm afraid that's not-"
"I am your next king!" Thor barked. "Make an exception." Thor disliked holding his status above everyone else, but courtesy be damned; his brother was condemned. The guards balked and conceded to the Thunder God's wish, and arranged into the line-up. Ten guards, then Loki, then Thor, then ten more guards. As the guards in front began to filter out from the curtains and walls and into the wall, the brother's hands found each other again.
"Don't let go of me." Loki pleaded, tone scared and urgent.
"As I vowed when I found you alive on Midgard," Thor replied, "I will never let go of you again."
Then, the light was brilliant and blinding, and the crowd of Aesir was massive and far-reaching and undulating, all straightening in the presence of the doomed. Through the windows, he saw the sky was dark and overcast, perfect weather for an execution. On the other side, Odin was seated on his throne, Gungnir in his hand and Frigga seated next to him, and an open seat, probably for Thor, on the other. Odin did not watch his sons enter, rather, stared transfixedly at some point off in the distance. Thor made a mental note to be angry at the Allfather's indifference later, but his gaze happened upon the execution bed, where the condemned would lie to receive the poison from Jörmungandr, so concentrated and potent it caused no pain, but instantaneous death. They had recently adopted the humane killing practice from the Midgardians, Thor's mind added, and they reached the bed. Thor embraced his brother one last, hasty time, before the Trickster clambered onto the bed, laying on his back with his head supported by gold-embroidered pillows. His green eyes bore into the ceiling and his breathing was uneven and shallow while the lead guard read the charges.
"The condemned, Loki Laufeyson, God of Mischief, Lies, Chaos, and Fire, has been convicted of unjustified destruction upon Asgard, Midgard, and Jotunnheim,attempted murder upon Asgard, Midgard, and Jotunnheim, and treason of the highest degree. For these crimes he will now be punished, and the punishment passed down by the honorable Asgardian Judiciary is death by the poison of the World Serpent."
A set of guards stepped forward with a vile of the toxin. Loki shifted his head to look at Thor, who had knelt at the side of the bed.
"Don't leave me, Thor," he breathed as they came closer, "Goodbye."
"Goodbye, my brother," Thor sobbed out just as the guards arrived. One held Loki's jaw open gently, and the other uncorked the bottle, pressing it to the condemned lips. Loki drunk the small amount in one gulp and the guards stepped away. Loki swallowed again and whimpered, now shaking intensely again, all composure shattered.
"Thor!" The Trickster yelped shakily, and Thor clasped his brother hands again. They were burning hot and quivering like mad.
"Yes, Loki, I'm here."
"Thor, my brother, I-" and Loki's life passed out of him, leaving his face panic-stricken but his eyes dead and focused at the ceiling, the last teardrop falling languidly from his eye onto the soft pillow.

Notes