philosopherking1887:I’ve decided to make it a thing to add tiny fics as commentary on especially aff
philosopherking1887:I’ve decided to make it a thing to add tiny fics as commentary on especially affecting gif/photosets (I already did another one here). (Is that a thing other people do?)Thor had begun running after Malekith and his soldiers when he heard from behind him a quiet gasp, then a surprised grunt – Loki’s. Thor’s first thought – a reflex from centuries of fighting at Loki’s side – was that whatever the problem was, Loki was more than capable of handling it himself, and Thor should pursue his own task. What made him turn around – again, almost reflexively – was the realization of how quickly he had fallen back into those old habits, as if nothing had ever changed.Thor turned – and suddenly the world was upside down. Thor’s feet were no longer on the ground; he was hanging once more from the broken edge of the Bifrost, his ankle in Odin’s strong grip, looking down at Loki, who was holding onto the other end of the staff that Thor had just barely managed to grasp. Then Loki’s grip began to loosen, his hand opened – he let go, he didn’t just lose his grip, he let go, how could he? – and Loki was falling away toward the abyss below, his hand still outstretched, his face upturned, his hollow eyes burning their unspeakable desolation deep into Thor’s heart as Thor screamed after him. I didn’t pull him up in time, I could have caught him, I could have stopped him…Thor shook himself out of the overpowering memory and reoriented himself: Loki was not falling, he was being pulled upward into the rift created by one of the Dark Elves’ black hole grenades; far more importantly, his outstretched hands were reaching for the world below, trying to keep his hold on life, not letting go of all that held him to that world, that life; and still more importantly, Thor could still catch him. Without another thought, he spun Mjolnir in his hand and flew back, away from Malekith and the Aether, and knocked Loki out of the grip of the black hole.They landed heavily, ungracefully; Thor’s shoulder hit the ground first with a painful jolt, then he rolled onto his side, facing Loki. The expression in Loki’s eyes seemed to burn a new wound into Thor’s heart: alongside the relief and the retreating terror he expected, there was not so much gratitude as… surprise. Loki, of course, had not seen what Thor saw, the mirror image of that moment on the Bifrost, but Thor wondered if he had felt its echo and expected it to end no differently: no one would come to save him.There was no time to tell Loki how much he regretted that moment, or to describe the hopeful ache in his heart at the thought that he had been given a chance to do it over, to write over the past, to right his mistake. All Thor could do, before he returned to his pursuit of Malekith, was glare at Loki fervently, rebuking that look of surprise. Never doubt that I love you, he wished that glare could say. Never. -- source link