Go see someone else? Let Eir know that her king is failing worse than she'd thought, that he is still struggling despite her medicines? Word would get around, and get back to the other Loki, when he returns. And he'd know that Thor was not fit to watch over the children in his absence, that he'd made a mistake to trust his brother with this most important task.

Never mind that this Loki could tell him just as easily. In the depths of his distress, this doesn't occur to Thor.

Thor had thought that he was done seeking solitude, hiding away like an animal licking its wounds, but right now he wants nothing more. He'd been getting better, and now it feels like he's back at square one and he doesn't know what to do.

"No, no, there's no need for that," he says, looking anywhere but at Loki. "I... I have to go." He has to get out of here. Empty-handed, a growing knot of anxiety writhing in his chest, but he has to leave before Loki realizes what's really wrong. Thor does not wait to hear his brother's objections, leaving the half-finished cider behind on the counter and knocking the barstool over in his haste to make for the door. He has no idea where he's going, what else he can do, but it's Not Here.