plotted (sort of) starter for @bringerofthestorm
This time, there had been some warning.
The first time Thor had ever lost his brother to the jaws of Death, it had been by Loki’s own hand, letting go of a weapon that had only ever been destined for his destruction. His subsequent return, too, had been unexpected by both ; a life Loki had not wished returned, and its giver yet demanding recompense that the deposed young regent and his fragile psyche had not been able to pay. And then the brothers’ reunion, bitter as the poisonous whispers grasping at the corners of Loki’s mind, as the wicked threats binding him to his doomed purpose.
The second apparent death and resurrection had been premeditated, and Thor kept in the dark until Loki could no longer bear to maintain the illusion and see his brother so deep in grief. He had known that some sorrow would be a possibility, yet all that Thor had said to Loki in the dungeons and on their journey had suggested that it would not be long, and it would not be deep. With the promise of eternal solitude looming just beyond his vengeance, the choice between liberty and a short grieving period on his brother’s part had been an easy one --- until the grieving did not stop, and a risk had to be taken.
The third time Thor loses his brother, Loki tells him that this is not the end.
For all of his aptitude for deception, the Trickster does not make promises he does not intend to keep. ‘ The sun will shine on us again ’ had not been a promise made idly, though he had counted on the Mad Titan thinking it so. It had been a riddle -- one he hoped to all three Norns and a thousand thousand stars Thor would be clear-sighted enough to solve, for the answer was in the speaking of it.
He did not intend to die, but he needed Thanos to think him too weak to survive.
So when Loki steps up behind Thor, it is without the trepidation he had felt the last time he had been thought dead --- assured ( sort of ) that if the Thunderer chooses anger, it will not be on Loki’s account, but his own.
“ Hello, brother. I see you got my message. ”
