InsaneJournal

Thor had gone around town, asking if anyone had seen, in his words, “a bearded and majestic man.” When that didn’t lead anywhere, Thor went around the apartments, thinking maybe Odin had set up in one of them. He knocked on doors until people started getting annoyed due to the lateness. Humans like their sleep.

He got a lead, at least. They directed him to a hotel on the outskirts of town. Thor walked there, leaving Mjolnir behind. He remembered what the Other Loki said, to be wary of his father. Thor figured that meant Odin knew something he did not. Maybe about Ragnarok. He had a vision of it, and it did not look pretty.

Thor asked the front desk if they saw the bearded majestic man. The desk attendant gave up the goods easily, pointing him to a few doors down.

He knocked on the door, clad in Midgardian clothes. He hoped his father wouldn’t mind.

Loki nearly fell off of the bed where he reclined when a familiar, weighty fist banged against the door. He’d abandoned his illusion within the secure confines of the room, tired for the moment of playing at being the All-Father. The deception had served a greater purpose in Asgard. Here, it merely prevented his brother’s annoying friends from gathering arms against him. For how long, he did not know. His other self almost certainly had seen through Loki’s arts. Personal pride was the only thing that kept him from admitting to his alternate self that Odin the All-Father was nothing of the sort.

Perhaps it had been too much to hope that Thor would find other things to occupy him in this world. Had Loki so badly miscalculated the other man’s fascination with Midgard? It appeared that he had, so, grumbling under his breath about impatient brutes, Loki resumed the illusion of their aging, bearded father.

“Thor,” he said, upon opening the door to his modest suite. He’d wanted to go ignored, hence the choice of this commoner’s hotel chain. “My son.” If Loki’s smile was strained, he hid it well.

Upon the opening of the door, Thor held his arms out and went in to hug his father. If it was one sided, he didn’t notice. “Father! How do you fare?” He had much he wanted to show his father. The technology was a little different, not hard to master. The food was delicious-- They’d have to go to JJ’s.

Thor pushed past his father if there was no resistance into the room.

“Have you seen Midgard yet or have you been in this room the entire time?” Thor chuckled. “You cannot be that stubborn. You saw stubbornness in me and banished me. Surely you ‘practice what you preach.’” Thor said, with fingers to punctuate the quotes.

Loki restrained a sigh. He wanted to force Thor back into the hall, then the lobby, then the parking lot, and, finally, off of the planet. Things were always much better between them when they had a few solar systems acting as a buffer. Odin, however, would not summarily shove his favorite son out of the room. He would smile and indulge and maybe, maybe, manipulate Thor into choosing to leave, were the All-Father in the mood to be alone. Loki fixed the smile on his face and gestured for Thor to take a chair before moving to one that, conveniently, was all the way across the room. He desperately hoped that Thor would not pick up his own and move it.

“I have been traveling,” Loki lied, quite easily. “It has been some time since I was on any version of Midgard. I thought it best to reacquaint myself.”

Thor wasn’t doing what the Other Loki told him to do. He wasn’t being wary. He was trusting Odin with all his big old heart could muster. Because Thor was a little stupid that way. Thor did find it odd that his father sat so far away from him, and thought back to his conversation with the Other Loki… why was his father putting distance between them?

“By yourself,” Thor asked, with a strained smiled. “Why not bring me with you, as your guide?”

“Because I have memories of Earth that extend beyond what you know,” Odin replied, with all of the paternal authority he could muster. “I wished to see it in that light before I visited it in yours.” Loki doubted that Thor would uncover his ruse easily, but laying it on a little thick never hurt with the lug. A lance of shame cut through him as he continued, using their mother to seal the trap. “Frigga stood at my side when I was here last.” There. That should explain the distance.

Thor had not much time to mourn his mother. He barely had time to mourn Loki. It was a stressed time period for him, what with looking for Infinity Stones and fighting elves and robots. For a moment, Thor looked at his father with guilt in his eyes. “I… am sorry, Father. I did not mean to imply-- I mean, I didn’t know…” He was at a loss for words.

Good, it had worked. Loki buried his own feelings before they compromised his position. Odin could grieve for his wife, but a controlled grief, not Loki’s desperate rage. “Nor did I expect you to know.” Loki had no idea if Odin and Frigga had walked the Earth together, in truth, but it was a tale that seemed likely. What mattered was Thor’s belief that they had.

“I miss your mother. I know that you do as well. But I do not wish to speak of it now.”

Thor nodded and looked down at his hands. “That is fine.” He wondered… should he? It took him a few moments of silence to decide. “There is another Loki here. And a sister, Angela.”

He looked at Odin, patiently waiting for a response. He looked a little bit like a kicked puppy.

“I am aware of Loki.” The so-called Odin allowed just enough gravitas to enter his words. “I do not believe he will accept me as his father any more than our own did. It seems best not to push him. I have seen no evidence of his mischief in this world, and I do not intend to give him an excuse.” Again, he spoke a half-truth. Loki knew perfectly well that his other self was toying with him. How to deal with it, he had not yet determined.

“But this sister you speak of. Tell me more of her.”

“I don’t know much, her name is Angela. She offered to take me out drinking.” He smiled a little, happy to get off the subject of Frigga and Earth. “She said she was raised in the Tenth Realm. I wanted to know more but have been searching for you.” Again he looked guilty, realizing now that Odin would have wanted him to NOT search for him, and maybe speak with his sister instead.

“And you have found me,” Loki said, pleased that Thor wore his emotions so openly. They were so readily manipulated that way. “You see now that I am well, and I dare say you know me far better than you know this purported sister. I would like you to spend more time with her. Learn what interest she has in the rest of the family, if she is an ally or otherwise. We will need to know this, along with her strengths and her weaknesses. A child of Asgard she might be, but you and I know well that even the children of our realm can turn against their own. You may have abdicated the throne, Thor, but I hope that you have not abdicated from good sense.” Not that Thor had ever had any, Loki allowed himself to think.

Thor nodded once again, finding himself without words in front of his father. His father was the source of his feelings of unworthiness, even though Mjolnir accepted him. Thor still felt he wasn’t good enough for the throne, for Mjolnir, to protect the nine realms.

“I will get to know her, father. That will be easier said than done, I think. Maybe once we have drinks, it will loosen her tongue.”

“Mind that they don’t loosen yours too much in turn,” Odin cautioned. Not that Loki cared, but it was something their father would have said. “I have lost one son already. I have no desire to lose another so soon after.” He could turn Thor’s loyalty to his advantage, no matter how badly the accompanying puppyish affection turned his stomach.

“You should know that I intend to travel further. Perhaps not immediately, but soon.” Loki hoped the warning would explain any sudden absences, and the careful manipulation of Thor’s grief for their mother would prevent him from attempting to tag along.

Thor chuckled, “Of course not, father.” When the next part came, Thor cautiously sat forward. Was there an Angela in their universe Odin hasn’t told him about? The mention of Loki threw him off the course for a moment. He chose his next words carefully.

“Will you be sure to give me a call now and again?” He watched Odin. He wasn’t sure of his father, maybe he was still mourning. He just acted.. Strange. Distant. “Should I leave you alone now?”

“Yes, of course. I will call and let you know where I am.” Anything to keep Thor out of his business, Loki reasoned. Better that they agree to allow Loki to call every now and again, so that Thor could totter along in his cloud of contentment. He sighed as though it pained him to say farewell to Thor. “I would like some time alone, yes. Your mother … Well.”

Thor nearly hung his head. “Yes. I think of her every day as well.” He then stood and was at a loss of how to do this. “I should be going now. I have other siblings to attend to and a myriad of new friends to tell stories to. I wish you well on your journey, father. I hope it is not too painful for you.”