Cool metal pressed against his mouth, tight and latched under his jaw to keep him from so much as uttering a word. All he could do was try to express himself through his body language. And right now, he was expressing anger and defiance. He stood tall, glaring at the Avengers as they seemingly mocked him. Loki, the God of Mischief, had lost.

And to them.

He tried to adjust his jaw, but to no prevail. It was very uncomfortable and unsettling, and now he began to feel it dig into his skin. The edges of the muzzle felt sharper and tighter than before, and he kept trying to move his mouth to stop the discomfort. That only made it worse. He felt warm liquid starting to seep into the cover. He wanted to find a way to tell someone, to show them, but he couldn't let them know that they hurt him. He had already been beaten, the last of his dignity would be gone if he started whining and showed weakness. So, he tried to block out the blood beginning to fill the mask.

He looked around. Knowing he couldn't teleport with the handcuffs he was put in, Thor had strayed a bit to say the last of his goodbyes to each of his friends personally. Though they were all talking to one another, Loki could feel each of their eyes on him. He took some pride in that even though they knew he couldn't escape, they still believed in their gut that he was powerful and would find a way.

He smiled slightly, only to be stopped by a searing pain. They blood flowed a little faster. Damn it. He tried to keep his composure as Thor turned to him, getting the Tesseract ready to go back to Asgard. As the blood began to pass his lips, he squeezed them tightly together, as to not swallow and choke on the warm, thick liquid. Thor held out the Tesseract, and Loki took hold of one of the golden handles as Thor turned it. And with that, they were home.

Now that they were away from the Avengers, Loki let his guard down slightly. He still hated Thor, but at least he knew him. The blood was still going, not being able to let the cuts heal because of the metal that still dug into his face. Loki started panicking. His hands started fidgeting, and he hadn't realized until now that his wrists were raw. He tried to focus on keeping his mouth shut, keeping his hands still, and getting enough air into his lungs with only his nose. It was too much. He started breathing heavier and quicker, the panic getting to his brain. Thor, who had been leading him to where Loki would soon face his judgement, noticed the ragged breathing and turned to his brother. He saw a fear in Loki's eyes that he hadn't seen up close in quite a while.

"Loki, what is wrong?" Loki just glared at him.

"Brother? What is troubling you? Tell me."

Just then, Loki faltered a bit, feeling dizzy because of the stress and lack of air. Thor had been still worried about him, even after what he'd done. Loki relaxed his mouth a bit. He instantly regretted it. The blood trailed into his mouth and forced itself into the back of his throat. His body's initial reaction was to get the liquid out, but with the damned muzzle on, it kept forcing itself deeper and deeper into his body. Thor saw the distress in his little brother's face and dived towards him, just as he started to fall forwards. He couldn't really tell what was happening. Tears streamed from Loki's tightly shut eyes as he held his throat with one hand and his chest with the other, pushing hard on it.

"Loki?!" Thor half-yelled, holding the smaller man's head up with his hands. He heard a strangled sound, almost like if someone were screaming under water. Loki opened his eyes and looked up at him. It hadn't seemed possible, but they were a brighter green than before, they looked just like polished emeralds. And they would've been absolutely perfect if it weren't for the tears running from them, the pleading and terrified look Thor couldn't remember Loki every using towards him since they were small children.

Loki raised his hand from his chest and slapped at the muzzle as his body started convulsing. Thor realized a dark red line lining all the way around his brother's mouth and he understood. Thor reached for the button Tony had given him to release the muzzle. He pushed it and the mask came off with a pop, a pool of red following it. Loki immediately turned and retched up the blood that had assaulted his lungs and throat. He felt his whole body shaking from fear, and silently cursed himself for acting this way in front of his not-brother right before his body gave out.

Thor shuffled over to where Loki lay in a heap. His brother was still awake, but far too exhausted to even move a finger. There were lines all around his mouth, still slightly dripping from his face. They would probably need stitches. How could this have happened? It was fine when we put it on at first… Thor turned over the button and a switch that said "Adjust". Thor tried to move it, but it would only move the way to tighten it. It must've gotten bumped here and there, tightening it where it wouldn't fit. Thor felt a stab of guilt for not realizing the mistake earlier. He knew something was probably up, Loki had been uncomfortably shifting and moving his hand up to his jaw when he thought no one was looking. Thor looked back at him. His eyes were closed. Thinking that he'd passed out, Thor jostled him.

"Brother? Are you alright?" Loki opened his eyes and looked up into Thor's eyes. Those damned guilty, pitying blue eyes.

"I'm fine, you imbecile." Is what Loki tried to say. But it came out as, "I- (gasp) fine… you imb- (cough) -acile…" And then a session of coughing up left over blood. His chest hurt terribly, and his threat was raw. The scars along his mouth stung, and felt like they were being poked with tiny needles. Obviously, Loki's statement of being okay didn't convince his not-brother. He seemed like he was contemplating what to do before he reached down and started to pick him up.

"What in Valhalla's name are you doing?!" Loki yelled. He squirmed around in Thor's arms for a second before he reluctantly released him. Though trying to put him down softly, Loki pushed against him in the last second and landed on his stomach with a thud. The impact made him wheeze and cough, though he reckoned that the other god had not heard it, because he didn't rush over and start treating him like a helpless infant. Before he could say anything, Loki turned to Thor and glared at him with his cat-like green eyes. He stood up on his own, his body pretty much over the trauma. But the scars on his mouth didn't heal, thought they had stopped bleeding. He could make a pretty good guess that the shackles he wore prevented him from even healing. After he stood, he turned to Thor and raised his head up and started walking strongly, showing that he was not the weakling everyone thought he was. Showing that he was still the powerful, dangerous villain he had fought against not even a day ago. Thor understood the message and sighed, catching up to his younger brother and walking towards where Odin was awaiting their arrival.

Towards Loki's punishment.