A/N:

1) Sincere thanks for reviews, encouragement, and great ideas goes to: cara-tanaka, EmeraldWings90, EbonyWing, Ie-maru, Maia2, Frostfire613, Blue Eyed Pyro, I.C.2014, irezel, marianne, CatchingCraziness, AnnAisu, Nicholls, Mystic777, fangirl666, indijones4. KKK3, Kalavel Loki, Lady Dragon, Mesonoxian, yasmin, Smileychameleon, DragonsFlame117, ZabuzasGirl, Caroyna, noukinav018, Moka-girl, ArrowHunter, Devil Red, Pyro psychotic, Rayen Autumn King, Guest, bermellon, Ruby of Raven, 1sunfun, Kitty, and Sumi Anzu. As usual, I'll respond via PM to anyone I can.

2) Belatedly (for most of them I know), Happy Holidays!

Also, thanks for all the faves, alerts, etc, it is very encouraging!

3) I know the waiting has been just insane. Real life sucks! I just hope it hasn't bent my muse out of shape too much, and I am deeply sorry for the long wait.

[Rant and some probably very useful advice moved to my profile. Who needs my baggage here?]

4) On a lighter note, I've been having plot bunnies for a fic that focuses on JARVIS's and Tony's relationship through the various films (a great idea suggested to me by Wolfy in his/her review for "BitterSweet Lies") but one of my great weaknesses is titles. I'm both fussy and uncreative in that regard which is a bad combination. Any ideas? I can't promise to use a particular title but would be grateful for any suggestions nontheless!

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Returning to Midgard had turned out to be harder a task than Loki thought, and the very fact had weighed upon him since the complications inherent had first come to mind. Fortunately for him – or more precisely for Thor – Loki had always been good at multitasking, and his darkened thoughts had not affected his ability to perform the duty he had effectively assigned himself.

There was still time. Building a device to transport a human across realms was something that should be classed as impossible on Midgard, which for Tony Stark simply meant it would take a while. And the energy requirements for transporting that much mass – Loki had learned to his relief from the Gatekeeper's description that Tony possessed enough self-preservation instinct to build with the intent to transport himself in armor, for all that it wouldn't be protection enough from environment alone at most potential destinations – were yet another problem slowing Tony's project down.

Of course, Loki wasn't supposed to be leaving his duties, not with this much to repair, but he also hadn't been expressly forbidden from going anywhere, not with the Allfather trying to make up for all those lost centuries, so while he would have to return quickly to Asgard, he was far from stranded.

Not as if Loki ever had cared for bowing to restrictions anyway. Quickly in his life he had proved that of there was a rule he thought was stupid, he'd break it just to show he could.

The problem that had been weighing upon Loki was that his brother too had been pining for a mortal he cared for. A chance to see Jane again was something he more than owed his brother, but if he did that, if he transported the Thunderer across the realms to see the mortal he cared for and brought him back, then Loki would be stranded on Asgard once more. Teleportation still took too much out of him, and then when Tony finished his device, Loki might not be able to intervene.

It wasn't a chance Loki was willing to take, but was denying his brother that happiness unpardonably selfish?

And Tony? Tony had always put everyone else ahead of himself and his own happiness, but for all that Loki had learned from the mortal, he found that he could not put his brother before him in this. Not with even the possibility of so heavy a price.

Those thoughts had haunted him for days, and though they had finished for the day with their duties, both at the court and the Bifrost, even as Loki tries to amuse himself – to find the home here in Asgard he had once perhaps known in the furthest vestiges of his childhood – he cannot escape the question haunting him, even as he studies the enormous block of ice sitting in front of him, which a massive lightning bolt just misses.

"No, Thor", Loki says, trying not to roll his eyes, because in fairness, this isn't an exact science: "A little lower – and make sure it's a … miniature."

"I shall try, brother" is Thor's response, and Loki winces preemptively as his brother raises Mjolnir to the sky again, because the beefore, but it is a lot more than suits his purposes.

When the lightning strikes, their attempted ice-sculpture explodes – very thoroughly – and Thor turns to him with a look of apology which is so heartfelt and terribly serious, that Loki suddenly finds himself unable to stop laughing.

The fact that his brother isn't – doesn't see the comedy in all this – and if possible looks even more regretful is enough to stop Loki's laughter, at least for long enough to allow for him gasping out:

"Oh, by Yggdragsil, brother, no need for regret, there is no harm done."

Thinking that the result of their little project looks like someone exploded a gigantic Midgardian snow-cone on the Bifrost, Loki begins to laugh again, telling the Thunderer that this is far more entertaining anyway, and finally Thor manages a smile too.

Feeling creative, Loki asks, when he can catch his breath again:

"Hm, can you procure for me some clouds?"

Off his brother's look, Loki only smiles enigmatically, and replies even more so:

"Wet clouds. I have an idea."

Thor shrugs, raising Mjolnir to the sky and calling in thick grey storm clouds, and when enough have massed above them, Loki lifts the casket, freezing the sky above them, and smiling when the soft white crystals start to fall thickly around them.

"…At least you have a one step solution to the glacier problem."

He tries to ignore the ache in his chest as remembers how easily the mortal had accepted him, pushing away the precious memories made bittersweet by separation.

Surprised, a little awed, definitely confused - but never critical despite what once Loki had thought – and definitely not fazed by the blue that is slowly fading from Loki's skin, the Thunderer manages:

"Amazing. I can't do that. You made it snow, in the middle of summer … But why?"

Letting his smile spread as he stoops to pack snow between his fingers, Loki replies slowly, letting there be no doubt as to what he is planning:

"Because, brother, sometimes, winter is more entertaining."

Thor has only time to say, at the edge of laughter:

"Truly?" before Loki's snowball hits him full in the face, but he wastes no time in tossing aside Mjolnir and sending his reply snowball, which Loki deftly dodges.

A dozen wasted snowballs later – because they are both too fast at this point for the majority to make contact – this mock fight somehow evolves into a wrestling match, which is at least more interesting because Thor is still the stronger of them, but Loki is faster at evading, and doesn't hesitate to use illusion when he needs to.

It comes to an abrupt end when over the sound of children squealing in delight pierces through their breathless laughter, and they both look up to see, barely visible through the thick snow, a handful of children who apparently had, of their own accord, come to the same conclusion about the uses of winter.

There is still ice on the bridge under all the snow, and as the youngest girl – Thor tells him that the other two boys are her older brothers - runs to avoid a snowball from one of her siblings, she slips, hurtling towards the edge of the bridge.

They both dash forward to catch her, but Loki can teleport, and despite the fact that he had learned to avoid using magic here, there is no time for anything else.

Fractions of a second before she would have fallen, Loki catches the girl whose instinctual clinging is replaced by childish embarrassment at being caught by an adult, and what looks like a flash of fear when she recognizes him, and Loki sets the child down, stepping back.

It isn't surprising, because even though all his father – Loki still has a hard time adjusting to the term once more – had confirmed to their people is that Loki had been thrown from the Bifrost in an effort to stop the sabotage committed by an unknown party, there were still rumors that spread, and even those notwithstanding, he'd never been entirely trusted by the Aesir.

Perhaps it is fitting, he thinks bitterly, for they may at some level fear him, not knowing the truth of his actions, but the reality is that if they knew, they would have good reason to.

Still, it doesn't hurt as much as he might have expected - not with the warm steady presence of his brother standing behind him – and when the girl asks how he caught her – old enough and bright enough to realize he was too far away, too young to have what Tony would call a brain-to-mouth filter - Thor's reply which he gives before Loki can form some sort of an excuse, dropping down to the child's eye level, shocks Loki into momentary silence:

"Magic. We were too far away to reach you in time, and only my brother could save you because of his magic."

Loki hadn't expected that answer, hadn't expected his brother to deliver the exact truth and expect that it be honored, but all the same, Thor had, and it seems to have had the desired effect, because this time when the child looks up at him, it is with a flicker of the kind of adoration that he's seen Midgardian children sometimes direct at Tony, usually after Iron Man had in some way saved them.

Her next words - which remind Loki of just how simple a child's world is, and at which he cannot help but smile - confirm her increased comfort with his presence:

"Are you going to tell my parents?"

Tilting his head slightly as Loki also drops to one knee, amused by her choice of concerns, he replies:

"Not as long as you go home right now and get warmed up. It is late for young one such as yourself to be out."

He cannot help but crack a smile when the girl protests - trying to hide a yawn - that she is not tired, and besides it is snowing, and instead of taking the bait, Loki replies smoothly:

"You are tired, and snow can come again."

When the child questions that reassurance, Loki glances to his brother who simply shrugs in agreement, then reassures her:

"Yes, I imagine we can arrange that, at a more appropriate time."

Loki expects her reaction of satisfaction, but not the fact that without warning, she suddenly throws her arms around his neck, and then flashes at him a still somewhat nervous grin before scampering off after her brothers to get home.

He cannot help the small feeling of hope stirring within him at the thought that just perhaps Asgard can learn to accept him eventually, one heart at a time, but it still is insignificant to the warmth welling within him as they both stand, and he pauses for a second to observe his brother, really observe him, and notices that beneath his normally unruly blonde hair which is entirely soaked and thoroughly tangled, his features seem centuries younger, more peaceful, less alone - Loki realizes with a shock – and all around happier.

Watching the children disappear into the city, Loki turns away, going to sit at the edge of the bridge with a sigh as he realizes that despite the fact that as they drifted apart and old wounds festered replacing love with what tried so hard to be hate, it was he who had felt it the most deeply and had given into it completely enough to let it become destructive, at some level Thor had felt it too – had slowly, too slowly perhaps to be recognized, lost a piece of himself as his brother drifted away from him – and though nothing had truly brought home the destruction of that bond the way that sending the Destroyer to kill him on Midgard had, all these centuries building up to that catastrophe had been a slow hemorrhage, which had hurt both of them, albeit in different ways.

His somber mood is pushed away by none other than Thor himself who comes to sit by Loki at the edge of the Bifrost, one arm extended behind Loki's back and holding him by his side just a little tighter than is strictly speaking necessary, almost as if he fears seeing Loki fall once again.

Loki supposes he can understand this fear because he'd seen Puente Antiguo through the Destroyer's eyes and definitely doesn't ever want to see that place again, though the understanding does nothing to push away his numerous regrets.

When Thor breaks the silence, his voice is soft and deep, like the rumble of distant thunder, but infinitely more raw, more open:

"Thank, you, brother."

No clarification is needed as to why, because they both needed this, because the last time they were both here, fighting - hearts torn apart, minds crazed by longstanding grudges for one and the pained shock of betrayal for the other - it could have well been a battle to the death.

This time, it was a game, it was letting themselves go back to a time in childhood when they hadn't yet let worldly tensions tear them apart, and starting anew.

This was healing that they both needed, this time they were both laughing, and the Bifrost isn't the only bridge they are rebuilding, because now, even after their conflicts and the year apart in which they both had grown, Loki perhaps more significantly, being with Thor seems so right, so natural, that the only reply Loki can give as he crosses his own arm behind the Thunderer's back – unwilling too to loose this ever again – is:

"Brother."

Nothing more needs be said about this, and when conversation starts once more, they are pointing out constellations, comparing them with what is visible from Midgard, even as Loki cannot help but remember the sleepless nights when he'd sit up looking at those stars, waiting for a streak of light in the sky and the sound of repulsors to tell him Tony had survived his latest mission.

As if almost aware of his thoughts, but never with perfect accuracy, Thor says softly, looking in the direction of Midgard, for all that he can't see it:

"Sometimes I think Father should have just exiled us both to Midgard centuries ago."

Loki smiles, not without nostalgia, and replies softly:

"You, perhaps, but as for myself. I needed to be there when I was, as a cat no less, or I wouldn't have learned anything. I wouldn't have healed or grown."

His brother's surprise is palpable, even before he speaks, because Loki had never clarified this little detail:

"A cat?"

Allowing himself a small smile, Loki walks away, returning as the black cat which had been his embodiment for so long, and instinctively- for this form anyway- he lets out a purr as Thor reaches out, an enormous hand over his head flattening his ears with the best of intentions and no experience, and Loki cannot help but think that a year earlier he'd have clawed him, just for the spite of it.

Determined not to dwell in the past, Loki returns to his Aesir form, sitting at the edge of the bridge again, chuckling as his brother tells him that he makes for a quite regal cat, but still wonders why this form had been necessary in Loki's eyes.

Loki's amusement morphs into something pained with a touch of bitterness as he replies:

"When we fought, even when I killed you, brother, there was too much anger and resentment in my mind and heart to allow me to heed even your words for me. How could I possibly heed those spoken by anyone else?"

In response to the Thunderer's slight frown of confusion, and before he can reassure him yet again of his forgiveness, Loki continues:

"You see, for the longest time, everything I heard and witnessed was not meant for my eyes or ears – or at least not for my comprehension – and so everything I thought, everything I felt, I was free to be honest with myself because I was free of all expectations and predispositions."

Smiling slightly, this time with remembered fondness rather than some variant of bitterness, Loki continues, thinking of all those times he'd found himself content to just watch the mortal creating, voice soft with remembered grief as he cannot help but also remember the misery of watching Tony slowly slipping towards death and not being able to save him:

"The person who took me in, despite being mortal, was more than worthy of my respect – there was strength and grace in him even when he was fighting battles he couldn't ever hope to win - and once that had been established, I realized that we had much in common."

Taking a breath, Loki finishes with a sad smile, turning to his brother:

"But the differences between us were even more significant, because where I chose to destroy, he chose to create. Where I let misunderstandings turn every sentiment within me to hate, he held the emotional connections of his life far above the poison of bitterness, even when I could see no reason for that choice, and in time, I started to understand where I had judged too quickly, too harshly, and not realized the value of what I had until I had already tried to destroy it."

Loki falls silent, remembering that perhaps the greatest gift Tony had given him was the one he had least expected; Acceptance when he'd learned of Loki's true identity, and his unshaken faith in Loki even knowing what he had done. But that is too deep for the moment, the nostalgia too raw – and he doesn't want his brother to blame himself for their falling apart any more than he already does.

It is Thor that breaks the silence, voice like a distant rumble of Thunder but no less gentle:

"You miss him."

Loki's reply is perfectly level, painfully honest, and short so it finishes before the ache which has been haunting him can make space for itself in his voice:

"Yes"

Once again it is his brother who pulls him from his thoughts, not with words this time but with a reassuring pressure upon his shoulder, followed by words Loki honestly hadn't expected: "Take the time, Brother. Go to him."

Loki almost asks why – uncharacteristically finding his silver tongue turned to lead by surprise, because however much he has learned to accept himself, Thor deserves this more – but his brother smiles, pulling away his hand as he stands and looks at Loki expectantly, so instead of speaking, Loki smiles, accepting the gift for what it is, and closes his eyes, once more melting into the shifting fabric of space.

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