The Pen is Mightier! (penismightier) wrote in chaotic_library, @ 2013-03-18 21:21:00 |
|
|||
Current mood: | working |
Current music: | 茶太 - Nocte of desperatio |
Entry tags: | g-rated, gen, loki, marvel, pre-series, short story, thor, yuuo, yuuo: marvel |
[Loki, Thor; G] The Least Of These
Character/Series: Loki, Thor; Marvel Movie Continuity
Rating: G
Notes: Set when the boys were whatever the Asgardian equivalent of fourteen is.
Title: The Least Of These
Author: yuuo
Word Count: 2038
Summary: Loki liked to walk along the river banks in winter, studying patterns in ice and the way his booted feet left a distinctive trail behind him, the way he could make whatever tracks he wanted by manipulating how he walked and where he stepped.
Loki liked to walk along the river banks in winter, studying patterns in ice and the way his booted feet left a distinctive trail behind him, the way he could make whatever tracks he wanted by manipulating how he walked and where he stepped.
"Brother, wait up!"
Loki stopped midstep and half-turned, looking behind him. His brother, bundled in more furs than Loki was, hopped from step to step of Loki's footprints until he'd caught up with him. "What're you doing down here?" Thor asked, pulling a scarf of fur up over his nose. "It's too cold to be out by the ice."
"Maybe for you," Loki said, turning back and taking as wide and long steps as possible as he resumed walking. "But you know I like the cold."
"You're strange that way," Thor said in some sort of agreement as he followed Loki's footsteps, barely reaching the wide steps Loki had taken to plant his feet in Loki's footprints.
"And heat makes me ill," Loki argued. "I think liking something that doesn't make me sick is hardly strange. If you're cold, go home."
"And leave you here to brood?" Thor demanded, finally hopping over next to Loki and walking beside him normally.
Loki stopped and looked at him. "I am not brooding. I'm enjoying weather I find preferrable." He continued walking in a normal fashion this time. "And this way, you cannot push me into the water just to save me drowning."
"Brother, be fair," Thor protested. "I only did that once, and I didn't know you couldn't swim."
"How can you not know I don't know how to swim?" Loki asked, watching the way the snow crunched underfoot. "You are with me nearly at all times. When would I have learned to swim? When you weren't looking?"
"Do we really have to have this argument again?" Thor asked tiredly. "I was wrong, and I apologized, and you got me back later. Be glad I do not shove you out onto the ice."
Loki paused again in his steps, looking around. He could've sworn he'd heard a noise that didn't belong in the cold morning still. A small animal, it sounded like.
"Brother?" Thor leaned over Loki's shoulder, looking in the same general direction Loki was. Loki held up a hand, shushing his brother, then followed the sounds closer to the base of the Rainbow Road's bridge they were approaching. Thor followed, not entirely silently, again trying to get his brother's attention.
"Quiet, Thor," Loki snapped. "I hear something. You're making it hard to track."
Thor sighed. "Brother, you need to stop chasing things. Honestly, you're part animal."
Loki gave him a sour look. "I am not either," he said, then crept forward, under one of the supports, searching where snow had not touched.
In the mud was a dirty little kitten, mewing pitfully. It seemed hurt, or perhaps sick, or perhaps just freezing in the cold. Loki crouched next to it, taking off his coat and wrapping it around the tiny animal, lifting it up against him. The kitten cried more, weakly trying to burrow into the fur of Loki's cloak.
Thor came up behind Loki. "It looks like it's sick," he said, studying the tiny ball of fluff in Loki's cloak.
"Probably from the cold," Loki said, hefting his coat up into his arms to cradle the kitten. "I'm going back in with it, see if a warmer environment won't help."
Thor followed him as Loki began walking back to the palace. "Are you sure Father will let you keep a pet?" he asked.
"I'll ask Mother first," Loki said. "She can talk him into it."
Thor gave him a disapproving look. "Someday, you have to stop hiding behind Mother's skirts, Loki."
Loki shot him an annoyed look. "And you have to stop hiding behind Father's cape."
"I do not!"
Loki didn't listen to him, hurrying his steps as the kitten's cries became quieter. "Don't you die on me," he whispered. "That'd be very inconsiderate of you." He hurried back into the palace, heading to the outer rooms to his and Thor's bedrooms. "Brother, go get Mother," he said to Thor, who was still following him.
Thor spun around mid-step and ran off to find their mother while Loki settled his fur cloak down on the floor near the fireplace, trying to make a comfortable bed for the kitten as he gingerly handled the tiny animal, settling it in the middle. "That should warm you up," he said quietly.
The kitten looked very sick, half-drowned and shivering, but how much of that was from the cold it'd been in previously was hard to say. Its eyes were squeezed shut with a thin layer of crust over them. Its meows sounded weak. Loki hoped it was just cold and would be better with some warm milk and a warm place to recover.
"Loki?" His mother's voice accompanied the sound of his front room's door opening. Loki looked up to see his mother and Thor entering the room. "Oh, Loki, what did you find this time?" she asked, stepping over by him and crouching down.
"A cat," Loki said. "She doesn't look to be doing very well."
Frigga gently handled the kitten, which protested being removed from it's warm and furry spot with a weak-sounding meow. "It's so thin. I'd say it's very young." She turned to one of her ladies in waiting that had followed her faithfully. "Go to the kitchens, tell them I request a small bottle of warm milk at the boys' rooms."
While the lady in waiting bowed and left, Loki looked up at his mother. "Is she sick?"
"I can't tell, Loki," Frigga said gently. "We'll do our best to take care of her, though."