It's so unlike them both that Thor can't help but let out a watery laugh, quiet and full of something he can't put a name to. "Sorry. Remind me later, then." The weak teasing comes to him easily, a mask pulled over the sincerity that fools neither of them, but creates the illusion of distance enough to matter. Enough that they can both pretend.
He can't stop studying his brother's face, distant in concentration, but still so very expressive. It's as if he's memorizing it, afraid that he will never see it again, as if more than a thousand years of brotherhood has not already etched Loki into his mind so strongly that he will never be lost. But even Asgardian memories are not immutable, and he can't help but wonder if there will come a day when he thinks of his brother and won't recall what he looks like anymore.
He doesn't weep at the thought, and his breathing stays steady, but dampness trickles down his temple and tangles with his hair anyway.
Thor smiles faintly through it as Loki answers, and almost forgets to pay attention to what he is actually saying. It's a strange and bittersweet thing, but he can see in the curve of his brother's lips and the little crinkles around his eyes that he is genuinely pleased by the little girl's affections. "Maybe she's studying for her next performance," he suggests, as lightly as he can manage. Part of him wants to ask Loki why he wrote that part into the play at all, why he chose to reveal his heritage to a population that might have seen him instead as a monster as so many of them had been taught, when he could have just as easily stayed silent and let them think what they had all been lead to believe for so long.
But Thor understands now that even though Loki is a talented liar, his lies have meaning. Purpose. So too do his truths. And though this is one thing that Thor may never fully understand, not in the ways that matter most, being Jotun means something to Loki. And no matter if it was a means to be more comfortable in his own true skin, or ripping the veil away just to see if Asgard would condemn him or pity him, Loki's reasons are his own. If it is what he needed to find himself, then Thor will not question it.
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He can't stop studying his brother's face, distant in concentration, but still so very expressive. It's as if he's memorizing it, afraid that he will never see it again, as if more than a thousand years of brotherhood has not already etched Loki into his mind so strongly that he will never be lost. But even Asgardian memories are not immutable, and he can't help but wonder if there will come a day when he thinks of his brother and won't recall what he looks like anymore.
He doesn't weep at the thought, and his breathing stays steady, but dampness trickles down his temple and tangles with his hair anyway.
Thor smiles faintly through it as Loki answers, and almost forgets to pay attention to what he is actually saying. It's a strange and bittersweet thing, but he can see in the curve of his brother's lips and the little crinkles around his eyes that he is genuinely pleased by the little girl's affections. "Maybe she's studying for her next performance," he suggests, as lightly as he can manage. Part of him wants to ask Loki why he wrote that part into the play at all, why he chose to reveal his heritage to a population that might have seen him instead as a monster as so many of them had been taught, when he could have just as easily stayed silent and let them think what they had all been lead to believe for so long.
But Thor understands now that even though Loki is a talented liar, his lies have meaning. Purpose. So too do his truths. And though this is one thing that Thor may never fully understand, not in the ways that matter most, being Jotun means something to Loki. And no matter if it was a means to be more comfortable in his own true skin, or ripping the veil away just to see if Asgard would condemn him or pity him, Loki's reasons are his own. If it is what he needed to find himself, then Thor will not question it.
"What is it like?" he asks instead, impulsively.