A/N: They say you learn something every day. The thing I learned today is never give me a spoiler, I will spoil it for everyone else. *sigh*

Thor watched as his brother slid off the bed with surprised cry and crossed his arms. "I am not falling for that." he grumbled.

Loki's strangled cry of his name made him look anyway, and as the lamps began to dim again, icy fear flooded the young thunder god. "No!" he exclaimed, leaping forward and taking the creature to the ground. It was, as Loki had said, surprisingly solid for supposedly being shadow and it was more difficult to prize it off his brother than he would have hoped.

Loki sputtered under its grasp and the shadow landed a solid blow against Thor, throwing him back across the room. Everything went eerily quiet then and the dark haired Asgardian stopped struggling. The lights dimmed even further as Thor pulled himself up, rubbing his jaw. "Loki?" he called, afraid when his brother showed no signs of moving. Surely it had not done him in so quickly or easily. "Loki!

"Stay away," Loki hissed, his voice unnaturally strained.

Thor did no such thing and scurried forward on hands and knees. "What happened? Are you injured?"

Loki shoved at him almost desperately. "Go! Get away, Thor...Thor..."

The blond scooted back slightly, hands raised. "Why?" he asked, confusion in his voice.

Loki laughed, but it was not the laugh Thor was used to hearing. "You don't know what you've done. You don't know what you've unleashed tonight."

Thor's blood ran cold and a burst of magic left his brother, slamming him back. Pain radiated all through him and he tried to pick himself up off the ground and found that he could not. He didn't know his brother was... so powerful. He'd never seen him use a technique like that even when some of the other warriors harassed him into the arena to spar. He was quick, agile, and used his skills mostly on the defensive.

"Poor little prince," the shadow within Loki sneered. "You really do have no idea, do you?"

"Release my brother!"

"Or what?"

Thor hesitated. He could not attack while whatever was happening was using Loki to manifest itself. "What is it that you want?" he asked, backing away. He would have to stay out of reach. He would not attack his brother.

"So many things to choose from. Your brother has the most terrifying dreams. They are most delicious. I wonder what your dreams are like. Surely not as grandiose, but perhaps you will surprise me."

The voice coming from his brother's mouth gave Thor chills and he continued to back away as Loki approached him. "Stay back." Thor warned. "Loki is stronger than you can imagine."

Loki smiled, and it was twisted and foreign. "Not strong enough." A thin hand reached out for him and Thor gasped.

Loki fell to his knees, energy diminished with the exiting of the shadow. He choked and gasped, finally feeling control come back to him. "Thor?" he managed, green eyes frightened as he looked up at his brother's looming form. "What an interesting mind!" the shadow said with his brother's lips. "Not quite as dull as you'd believe. You just have to dig a little deeper."

"Let him go!"

"Funny, he said the same about you."

"What could you possibly want with him?" Loki cried.

Thor laughed. "It will be much more entertaining to destroy you from here, that is for certain."

"I don't understand. Why destroy me? I don't even know who or what you are. What have I done to deserve such contempt and such measures?"

"You don't know me yet, but you may someday and that will be very dangerous indeed. Better to stave that off now while you are still a child and nothing more than a buzzing bee to be swatted into submission. It will also be quite enjoyable to see how this one reacts when he opens his eyes to find your broken neck between his hands. Oh, he didn't like that. He's actually fighting me. How quaint."

"If he's fighting you, he'll win. Thor never loses a fight," Loki said with confidence. He felt power gather in his hand, words whispered in his mind. "And if you're going against us both, you'd never stand a chance!"

The room exploded in light and Thor dropped to his knees. Loki caught him to the best of his ability, his thin frame not easily able to take the bulkier weight. "Thor? Brother, can you hear me?"

Thor clutched at him weakly. "Loki? Loki, did I hurt you?" the blond's head snapped up quickly when he realized he was free. His blue eyes were wide with fear. "Gods, did I hurt you?" he repeated.

Loki shook his head and let out a shaky breath of relief. "No, no you did not. He said you were fighting, so -ah- I amplified your efforts a bit. You may experience a migraine in a few minutes. It shouldn't last terribly long."

Thor quirked an eyebrow. "A migraine. I believe I shall survive. Where is the bastard?" he growled. "I'll have him, now that he's not hiding within one of us."

"I think I've bought us some time to think of a more permanent solution to the problem," Loki answered, glancing around warily. There was no way that the shadow would be able to regroup itself so quickly, but they must hurry if they were to find some way to stop it.

"So what is it?" Thor asked, already beginning to hold his head gingerly.

"I have no idea," his brother said after a length. "I've tried nothing new recently, not that would have an effect of this magnitude."

"Could one of your old teachers tell you what it is?"

Loki snorted. "Most of them aren't overly fond of me. I surpassed them all so quickly... No. They could not." He thought, running over various moments of his life in intricate detail since the dreams had started to amplify. Two weeks. It had begun nearly two weeks ago. There had been a feast, a dance, he had gone with Thor to the market where his brother's favorite blacksmith still worked out of even though he now crafted the swords of the prince of Asgard. He had looked over a few scrolls, some tomes, and had finally bought a small trinket for their mother to surprise her with. "There's been nothing strange in the past fortnight," he said at last, sighing in a defeated manner.

"There must have been something." Thor insisted. "Have you played any great tricks on anyone recently? Someone that might have gone to one of your not-overly-fond-of-you former tutors? Brought something home that you don't know the origins of? You've read nothing new? Quoted something aloud that might turn into a spell?"

Loki rolled his eyes. "Not everything I read aloud turns into a spell. That was once, honestly. And no, I haven't read anything aloud recently that could even have the remote possibility of turning into a shadow sorcerer." He mulled it over in his mind, secretly impressed at all the possibilities his brother had come up with. "The only thing I've purchased lately was a gift for mother." he said, thinking of the stall in the market again.

"From that strange fellow?"

"It was a woman."

"Yes, but there's always a man there. He's spoken to you before."

Loki shook his head, showing that he didn't remember one lone man's face amidst all the people in the market. "It couldn't be that, anyway."

"Why not?"

"I checked it."

"Well, I know that you don't think me as bright as you, brother, but wouldn't it stand that if whatever is attacking you can best you, it could hide something that you could not sense?"

Loki stopped and stared. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to check it."

"Wouldn't want to give Mother a cursed necklace, would you?"

"No, I imagine I'd never live that one down."

The brothers stumbled to their feet, Thor already showing signs of the headache worsening as Loki had warned. He leaned heavily on his smaller brother, but refused to wait behind.

They made a very brief stop to Sif's room so Thor could collect his sword. "My actual sword. The one I left here." he said, putting on his most charming smile.

"You brought your brother here at this time of night? Are you serious?" Sif asked, leaning on the doorjamb with her arms crossed.

"Thor was afraid to come back by himself. You know how he is about the dark." Loki said, managing to keep a straight face.

Thor shoved his shoulder, looking cross. "My sword, please, Sif. My actual sword."

"Quit clarifying!" Loki exclaimed, exasperated.

Sif returned the sword with a glare and the slamming of her door.

The brothers headed on, Thor growling at Loki's ill contained laughter. When they arrived, Loki pushed open the door of his chambers and the brothers stared into the darkness within. "Didn't think to leave a light on, eh?" Thor asked wryly.

"Unfortunately, I did as a matter of fact." Loki replied.

"Ah."

They stood together, simply staring. Thor peered into Loki's room, his eyes minimally adjusting to the darkness. He could just make out the shapes of the furniture, and he knew his brother's chambers well enough to know where everything should be. "Where's the necklace?" he asked. He reached up to rub the side of his temple for a moment.

Loki frowned in concern. "It's on the dresser."

"All right. I'll go for the necklace, you do the burst of light, I'll destroy it, we'll both go to sleep." Thor said.

"Sounds like a plan," his brother agreed and they stepped in together. He worked up a small ball of light that appeared in the palm of his hand. It wasn't fire magic, but it was close, and wouldn't last well on its own in such a weak state. Thor started for the dresser, spotting the pretty red stone that Loki had been prepared to give to their mother. Movement caught his eye and Thor's name was on his lips just as the shadow lashed out, knocking the sword from the blond's hands.

Thor fought back, fist connecting with the now solid shadow. The fact that he made contact did not surprise him nearly as much as the pained sound that came from his brother and the light suddenly going out. Thor saw Loki sprawled across the floor as if someone had laid him out and he was at his side instantly. "What happened?"

"It's connected," Loki whispered, sounding as stunned by the fact as Thor would be. They had both struggled with the shadow before, but they had never really been able to get a firm grip on it. Now that it was solidified it seemed to be drawing that from the young sorcerer, in turn using him as a kind of shield.

The shadow laughed from across the room. "Any harm you do to me, you do to your brother as well now."

"All right. All right, fine. I'll destroy the stone and then you'll be gone and this nonsense will be finished." Thor growled, picking up his sword again.

"Thor!" Loki called. The warning fell on deaf ears. Thor charged in, swinging his sword to the stone. It came down with a mighty crash and deflected off the gem. Thor was thrown back, but he did not drop his blade.

The shadow hissed in laughter. "Come again, little prince, mere swords will not fell this magic." The shadow charged, pulling its hands into the shape of daggers and rushed upon Thor as he righted himself. Thor pulled his sword behind him so it would not cut the creature and brought his other arm up to protect his neck, but he made no aggressive move towards it.

"You must fight it, Thor!"

"If I fight it, I'll harm you!" his brother argued.

"If you don't then we'll both die here." Loki looked around, his mind searching for an out. Anything. If he had time, he was sure that he could find a way, but as it stood they had nothing on their side. Only a sword and a bit of trickery. He made up his mind and cast the charm before he could outthink himself on it.

Thor's arm seemed to move against his will, the sword striking out at the shadow. The movement caught both prince and demon off guard, the sword glowing with enchantment as it ran the shadow through. Loki leaned back, feeling a numbness spread over him and his green tunic began to slowly change to crimson and he slid sideways to the cold, stone floor.

Thor's outraged and fearful cry was choked off as he withdrew the sword. The shadow swayed, hissing at both brothers before dissipating all together. In rage, Thor swung back the sword into Loki's dresser, shattering the stone into a thousand shards. With a sob he turned and fell to his knees next to Loki, curling over him and taking the cool hand that reached for him into his own. "How could you do it?" Thor demanded with a shudder. He kept one broad hand on Loki's back. "How could you do such a thing? Betray us both in such a manner?" he cried.

"What was I to do? He would have slain you." Loki said, green eyes searching for understanding and finding only hurt.

"One day we will both pay the price for you always making choices for me." Thor said.

Loki turned his face away, unable to look at his brother and pressed his forehead to the cold floor. He groaned softly and Thor relented his berating. "Oh, Loki. What can I do? I will fetch a healer. No, I will take you."

"No! Father must not know. The healers will tell him." Loki gasped.

Thor's face colored with anger again. "So you will have me sit here with you unto death?"

Loki had no answer for him. Thor squeezed his brother's hand. "Healing stones. Do you keep any here?"

The younger brother did not answer for a long moment, causing the elder to fear the worst when he had stilled. "Yes," he said at length, forcing his body to obey his commands as he lifted on hand to point to a set of drawers. "Top. Left. Maybe a half."

Thor shifted to stand and then stopped, blue eyes taking his brother in. Loki looked so much smaller the way he was now. He'd grown very pale in the darkened room, black hair standing out against whitening skin and lips tingeing blue with every shuttered gasp he drew in. He was trembling under Thor's strong hand. He would hate him until the end of time if he gave up here. If he caused Thor to be the one to harm him, the one who killed him. Thor was sure that his heart couldn't stand it. When he realized that his thoughts were idling away precious moments of Loki's draining life, he leaned down, kissed his shoulder, and went for the drawers.

He did not find the stone in the first drawer he looked in, pulling the contents out and spilling them on the dresser top. He cursed low under his breath, the oath vehement and Loki smiled lopsidedly. "Mother would not be pleased you knew that word."

"Mother would not be pleased you charmed a sword to slay a shadow attached to your life, either." Thor responded darkly.

Loki decided this was one of those rare instances where Thor's good humor would take longer than a few moments to restore. Thor savaged his other dresser drawer, finally seizing that for which he had been seeking. Clutching the stone in his fingers, he dashed back to his brother who had never taken his eyes off him. Thor gently eased him onto his back and pulled back the edges of Loki's tunic from the wound. It had been a well-placed blow, Thor noted bitterly. His strong hands did not take much application to turn the stone into dust, powdered over the gash. Loki's eyes fluttered closed as the magic set in.

Thor put one hand on either of Loki's cheeks and pressed his lips to his younger brother's brow.

Loki gasped a fresh breath in, green eyes fluttering open at last. He grit his teeth against the pain from the still-healing wound. "Damn," he growled out. The grimace turned to a forced laugh as he laid his head back against the stone floor of his room. "I can't believe we did that. Do you realize what we just defeated, Thor? That's a bit of sorcery that I've never even touched, and we defeated it." The grin that lit his eyes did not seem to be contagious as Thor continued to look sternly down at him. Loki did his best to ignore it. "Help me up, won't you?"

Thor nodded, still silent, and carefully helped Loki into a sitting position, and then to his feet when Loki waved him on to continue. As soon as Loki was propped against his own bedpost, Thor moved to pick up the scattered shards of the jewel. "It's quite a feat, you know." Loki tried again. "You'll be able to tell grand stories one day, when it won't get us in trouble." he added.

Thor remained silent, picking up the shards with his lean fingers. Some of the edges were catching his skin, but he didn't seem to notice the pricks of blood.

Loki reluctantly let go of the post he'd been holding onto and tried to go to his brother. "Thor?"

"I'll take these to my blacksmith and have them destroyed. He can melt anything, you know." Thor said.

The smaller god stopped, swaying a bit, and looked up at his brother. The air was cold between them and it felt worse than the wound. Thor never reacted in this way. If everyone came out alive from a situation and they defeated the enemy they had set out to defeat, he saw it as win. This cold, distant creature was something that Loki didn't understand. He reached a hand out, feeling the world pulsing in and out around him as he had moved to fast and lost too much blood.

Loki stumbled, but Thor moved faster, dropping his collected shards again to get to his brother. Thor caught him easily, cradling the dark head against his shoulder, unable to keep himself distant. "Gods, Loki." he muttered, his voice a muffled rumble against the trickster's hair.

Loki relaxed and trusted his brother to keep him upright. "Couldn't let the favorite son of Asgard get killed by a shadow." Loki said softly, with no malice.

"I am not the favorite son." It was an old argument, since they were children and their father would tell them the stories of old. Now the words were spoken like a rune, weaving the protection of familiarity and brotherhood around them tightly. Thor paused. "You would turn me into a shadow, then, never to sleep again with the image of cutting you down forever burned into my mind. It is not a kindness to spare one brother at the sacrifice of another."

"You wouldn't be a shadow, Thor. You're too bright, too cheerful on your own. You might be saddened for a while, and I thank you for that kindness, but in the end your memories would fade, as would the pain, and you would do your duty to our land as you were meant to do. I'm just the spare, anyway."

A small gasp escaped him as his brother suddenly crushed him to him. Loki could feel a dampness against his head and he struggled to look. At last, Thor pulled back to show tears trailing down his face and he looked hurt and angry and saddened all at once, as if he couldn't quite pick just one. "You're not a spare. Don't ever say that. You're my brother, and I will end anyone who says differently."

Loki's eyes stung and he was overcome with the sudden feeling that he might burst. He had always loved Thor, like a flower might love the sun it grew beneath, and he had always believed that Thor had a great deal of affection for him. He could no longer live in the way of thinking that he was just a companion of convenience, not with his mighty brother gripping him like he might slip away with the breeze and crying as he had not done -at least in front of anyone- in years. Loki reached up to thumb away some of his tears. "Thor..." he whispered.

Thor caught his hand and pressed the side of his face against the cool fingers, his eyes shut tightly to try and stop the tears.

"I never meant to bring you pain," Loki swore. "And it's all right. We're both here now. You see? We're both here. Little worse for the wear, but we are alive." He sniffed, resisting the urge to burry his face in his brother's tunic and cry. "Please don't be cross with me."

"Then don't ever put my life above your own again," Thor answered roughly.

"Only if you can swear the same in return." Silence met him, as he knew it would. A smile tugged his lips. "I have an alternative: Why don't we just try to keep each other alive? That'll be trial enough."

Thor smiled at this, ruffling dark locks affectionately.

Loki pulled away slightly. "So, after all this we have, what, a couple hours before sunrise?"

His brother glanced at the window. "Looks about right."

"Then I'm going to sleep. We can deal with those horrible shards later. They won't be any good to whoever owned them now."

Thor nodded and Loki sank onto the bed, peeling off his ruined tunic. The blond handed him a fresh shirt from his dresser and Loki thanked him.

Thor stood for a moment. "Do you think I could stay here tonight?" he asked suddenly.

Loki looked up, surprised. Never once in their childhood had Thor asked such a thing. It had always been Loki, from the time they were old enough for separate rooms, to run through the dark and tumble into Thor's chambers with tears in his eyes, asking for sanctuary. "In case I have bad dreams?" Loki asked, half joking.

"In case I do." Thor replied softly.

Touched, Loki nodded and tilted his head to indicate he should take the other side of the bed.

By unspoken agreement, they left the lamps at their dimmest, not daring to snuff them out completely. When his head was finally in blessed union with his pillow, Loki grinned. "What will you give me to not tell Sif?"

"Loki!"

END

A/N: I'm sorry I didn't get this up earlier. There were many distractions in my way... We'll blame the distractions, and the wine, and the distractions. Hope you enjoyed it! Gabrielle Day and I are working on the next one, so I'll get it out ASAP.

Much love.