Warnings: brief mentions of cutting, small allusion to suicide, domestic violence, mention of murder, illness, concussion, mention of pedophilia, underage characters
Word Count: 1,486
Summary: AU inspired by commission for @slamncram by @juls-art and a prompt on the thorki discord server. Prompt: slow burn surfer thor au where loki is spending the summer with laufey and his family at like. their summer home.  and they’re pieces of shit yk.  and he just hangs out at the beach all sad and alone and he sees thor, watches him because it’s pretty interesting and thor keeps catching him peeking.  starting up a summer romance and then trying to figure out a way to keep it going past august.
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He was sitting on a bench at the boardwalk, staring out at the beach when it happened again. The mind-numbing pain followed by throwing up the entire contents of his stomach into the trashcan next to him. Then came the piercing ringing in his ears and a tilt to the world before he curled up on the sand and passed out for a few minutes. Â
The first few times it happened, there were people surrounding him, wanting to take him to the hospital, wanting to call the police, but he’d learned how to hide, how to manage. Â
That day on the beach, he’d come home with puke on his shirt and Laufey had beat his head in. When he was almost sent to the hospital the next day, returning to that damn Winnebago empty handed, his father hadn’t been much happier, slamming Loki into the metal shell of the RV, forcing him to sleep outside in the sandy dirt. Not that he had such great accommodations inside…
It hadn’t been much better the past two weeks. He walked around in a fog most days, had an episode like this one every so often. Â
This time, when he woke up, Thor was sitting on the bench and he thought his life was over.
His stomach lurched again as he coughed bile up, weakly. He tried to get his body to move, to flee, but he was just so tired and uncoordinated right now. He’d been too tired to cut, even, since he’d met Thor, and most days that felt like a lifeline.
“Hey, easy.” Thor had his hands up again, like he was in the wrong here. Trying to be non-threatening, Loki guessed.  “I really think you need some help, Loki.”
“Mmm fine,” he mumbled. “Tired.”  Loki coughed, trying to clear the awful taste from his mouth. He’d gotten some of the bile on his shirt and would probably catch crap again. “...Dad’s being shirt again.”  He wrinkled his brow.  Something in that sentence wasn’t right, but it hurt to figure out what.
“You aren’t fine,” Thor growled, lowly, like he was mad at him, a stranger, but trying not to be obvious about it. “I think you might have a concussion.”
Loki laid there at Thor’s feet for a few more minutes. It was a weird, tense silence.  “What’s it to you?” he asked, wiping his face from the bile and tears. The headaches got to painful sometimes.  “I stole your wallet.”  He felt like he should point out the obvious.
“I gave it to you,” Thor sighed. Loki could hear him take a deep breath before letting it out slowly, like he was trying to calm himself down, like Loki’s response made him so upset he had to work to respond.
“I fuckin’ stole it you pussy,” he shot back. “Just forget my face, Thor.  Forget me. I’m only supposed to slip in and out of here. We’re leaving when the tourist season is over.” He was probably revealing way more than he should. “Grow a pair and let me go,” he groaned, working to sit up.
The sun was sweltering today. He should’ve found a drinking fountain awhile ago. Stolen a few wallets by now.  He shouldn’t be talking with blond surf gods who wanted to help him. Thor put a bottle of water down in the sand next to him.  It was dripping in sweat, just like he probably should be.
He ignored it for a little while, but the longer Thor sat there, pointedly not leaving, the longer that water sat there crying, wore him down. His eyes welled up, stinging as he wiped them again, his dirty long sleeve clinging to his scars.  He snatched up the water, struggling with the cap for a moment before he pried it open.
He couldn’t help it. When the cool liquid hit his tongue, he gulped it down, drinking faster and faster until he could feel it getting torn from his hands.
“Jeezus, Loki!” Thor held the refreshing elixir out of his reach as he sat there, panting. “I said go slow, or you’ll throw it all up.”  He watched Thor’s throat bob as he swallowed. Noted the way he bit his lip staring down at Loki.
“Are you some kind of pedo?” he shot at Thor. The blond stared back with a look of shock and revulsion on his face.
“Why would you even say that?”
“Because it’s true! Some 20 year old playing savior to a minor—” Loki coughed, stomach roiling a little.  Ok, maybe Thor had been right. “Trying to fuck some tight young ass is more like it.  He steals, he won’t narc. No one would miss him…”  Loki coughed again, throwing up a little of the water.  Thor was silent.
For a long time neither of them spoke. But Thor did hand the water back, and Loki drank much slower, moving to sit on the bench, finally, stare out at the ocean again.
“Am I right?” He was almost afraid of the answer. He mostly didn’t want it to be yes.  He surprised himself by wishing Thor was actually just a good guy.
“How much cash you got?” He took another sip.  “I might let y—”
“You’re sick, Loki. You need a doctor.  I would never take advantage of you like that.”
He watched as Thor swiped a thumb over his eye. He felt a little guilty.  He’d actually made the jolly green giant cry.
He leaned his head on Thor’s shoulder, letting himself believe for just a moment that he had a real brother in this world. Someone to look out for him and take care of him.  A real home.  That he’d just done some kind of suicide jog with Thor and he was resting on the beach with him.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, feeling Thor’s arm wrap around him.
“I’ve watched you all summer,” Thor confessed. “Even when it was hard to find you.”
Loki took another drink, staring out at the water. It really was a beautiful place.
“You don’t have to go back, you know. I have a hideout you can stay at.  A buddy of mine built it when we were young. It’s secluded, fully stocked.  No one would find you if you didn’t want them to.  Or you could come to my place. My parents would be ok with it.  My mom could take a look at your head.  Or I could take you to the hospital...”
He let Thor talk himself out. It was a new feeling for him, someone wanting to help and not seeming to want anything in return. Strange.  The last person to do that was his mother.  And Laufey had beat the hell out of her before she died… Hence the Winnebago.
“What do you want Thor?” he sighed. He was just so tired.  And hungry.  He drank more of the water, slowly.
“I just want you to be safe, to not have to live like this, to—”
“Why me? Do you do this for all the street urchins?”
“Then why me? What do you want?” He sat up, staring over at Thor with a fire in his eyes. He needed to know.  He needed to know what strings were attached, because he didn’t want the rug pulled out from under him.
“I like you, ok?” Thor blushed, like he was ashamed of himself. “Maybe I should pay better attention.  Maybe I should be helping more people like you. I don’t know.  But I saw you. And I wanted to help.” He sat there, like a dejected kid who just learned Santa Claus wasn’t real. Sad, pathetic, lost.  And Loki had to believe him a little…
He finished the water. “How much cash do you have?” he asked, still feeling that fog inside his head. “If you got a few hundred the bastard might not beat me tonight.”
Thor handed over a brand new wallet. He could tell pretty quickly that there was more than a few hundred inside. It also contained a key and an address.  Loki wanted to cry in that moment.  He couldn’t go right away. He still had his things in the Winnebago.  The lone photo album he’d kept hidden all those years.  The only photos he had of his mom, and him. The few times he was happy.  He didn’t want to leave it behind.  One last night and maybe he’d leave for good.
Thor handed him a bottle of gatorade. He hated the stuff, but...electrolytes, he guessed. He sipped on the sugary beverage as Thor handed him a sandwich, too. “How do you drink this stuff?” he asked, scrunching up his nose in distaste.
“Open cap, pour in mouth, swallow.” Thor grinned, mimicking drinking for Loki.
“Asshole,” he rolled his eyes. But for the first time in a long while, he smiled.
