More Thor/Kh

[splinteredstar]

So I survived this week. It wasn't fun, but it happened. (Awful project, homework, lab, physics test, my bank card being lost and then used by some douchebag. And my period started and was more awful than usual.) But the awful is over, at least until I get my test back, so here's more self-indulgent crossover fic.

“Er, sorry.” Sora blinked as the ice fell from Loki’s bare hand. It might have been the ice clinging to pale skin, but Loki's skin almost looked blue for a second. "I, er, didn't mean to hit you. You okay?"

Loki swallowed and said, "Of course." but he looked a little freaked out, Sora thought, like Riku did when his darkness did something he didn't expect. Then the expression was gone, and for one panicked moment Sora thought "oh shit he's a nobody" but Loki's fingers trembled, and only a couple nobodies were *that* good of actors.

_he's not a nobody,_ Roxas whispered, _other nobodies can tell._

Huh. Okay then.

Loki smiled to everyone, and yeah, most nobodies were better actors than *that*. Wonder why he was freaked out. It couldn't have been that shocking to see Sora use magic....

_you never know, magic is hard..._

_shut up Roxas._ Sora huffed in his brain. It was dumb that Roxas and Riku fought so much, they were *way* too much alike.

"It nears time for a feast, and surely our guests would appreciate the chance to refresh themselves. Fandral, would you escort them?"

~

Loki didn't show up for the feast.

Riku listened to Thor's explanation - "don't take any offense, he's probably caught up in research on your power, I'll go by later to make sure he eats," - with half an ear. He was busy, analyzing the fight and what came after.

For half a second, when the ice hit, Loki's skin had shifted to blue, without the tingle in the air of a spell besides the ice. Thor hadn't noticed. Riku had. And Loki sure as shadows had, and from his reaction it was not expected.

Of course, it wasn't. Sora had fired off a serious ice spell, enough to freeze most mortals black. Of course, these weren't technically mortals, and Loki probably had magic defense like all the best mages.... then again, on a world with only a few mages would he bother with magic defense?

Riku shook his head. No point in getting bogged down in logic. Go with instinct - his heart knew what was going on.

Loki's darkness *flared* at that moment, almost consumed him, dug itself deeper into him. It meant something to Loki, something big.

Mission: figure out what blue skin meant.

The press of the feast made Riku itch. Toasts were being yelled out, to the guests and to others - Riku sighed at someone toasting to his bravery at challenging Thor. Riku refused mead, and was grateful when Sora did the same. There were somethings keybearers should never do. (again.)

...Riku didn't like crowds, and there was nothing here he could do that Sora and Kairi couldn't do better. He met Kairi's eyes, and nodded. Riku slipped away, and followed the fresh trails of darkness towards Loki's rooms.

~

Magic flashed from his fingertips, shadows dripping and condensing on the floor.

Loki stepped through it, headless in his pacing. His fingers wouldn’t stop trembling, hadn’t since…. In his vision they kept flashing blue, the black ridges across the back of his hand burned into his vision like he’d stared into the sun

-like Thor in his heart, and no wonder he shone so much brighter-

He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t leave his rooms, because maybe they could all tell, smell the sickness on him, maybe they had always been able to sense it and that was why –

A bitter laugh tore out of his mouth, surprising him. No wonder people fled from him, they surely were able to tell they were in the company of a –

-of course Odin knew_ a quiet angry voice in his head whispered - and who could expect a king to love a *monster* -

He swallowed down bile, swallowed down hysterical laughter and frost, because if this didn’t just explain everything-!

He didn’t notice the shadows slowly, deadly slow, start to move on their own.

~

“Hey, Prince.” Sora tugged on his cloak. It was the only way to get attention in this crowd. “Where’s your brother?”

Thor smiled, a bit sadly. The boy would not be used to Loki’s strangeness yet. “I am certain that he is merely caught up in research.”

Sora tilted his head. “Are you sure? He looked kind of freaked out.” 

Silently Thor blessed the child for having concern for his brother. Loki slid so easily into the shadows, and no matter how Thor tried to pull him into the Light it never worked, and often only annoyed him.

“I am sure. I will visit with him later.” The girl – Kairi?- whispered something into his ear, and Sora nodded, smiling. Thor wondered briefly if they were betrothed, and smiled to match.

~

Half way to wherever Loki had holed himself, Riku felt the change in the darkness and broke out into a run.

Yep. They were definitely there for a reason.

~

Loki stared, almost sightless, as the shadows that surrounded him – he’d forgotten to light the candles when he came in, and now it didn’t seem to matter – shifted, grew deeper, taller. He must have slid to the floor at some point, because he was on his knees with his back to the wall.

A little black creature, hardly bigger than a kitten, grew up from the shadows – twitching antennae first, bright yellow eyes gaining definition next. Loki watched, absently fascinated.

He knew this creature, seen them referenced in some of the older texts from worlds that soon after ended. “Heart-less”, they were always called in the end, seemingly less a pejorative and more simple description.

One monster visiting another. Fitting. Loki reached an arm towards it, curious about it, curious if monsters even had a heart to steal –

His fingers brushed one antenna. It was smooth, but then – cold, like space, like the depths of fear, cold enough that his fingertips started to shade blue once more –

-he yanked his fingers back, bile pooling in the back of his throat – but the creature followed the movement, and oh, so it did have claws after all –

~

In a thousand lifetimes, that is how he ended – broken and alone and too hurt to remember how to fear.

In another thousand he survived, or something like it – but when he awoke the next day his skin was paler, streaks of grey in his hair, and he looked at Thor and tried to remember why this idiot could hurt him and heal him, tried to remember why Odin mattered at all –

-and it took him a dozen years to understand why he felt so empty when he wasn’t aching, and he would have laughed if he remembered how –

In one thousand his heartless fought Thor and Thor alone – in another it ruined everything around but never harmed him.

In a hundred thousand lifetimes, though –

Incidentally, that last bit is (while only sort of canon with 3D) is one of my favorites. And it's spun it's on side fic off that is... in progress.

And yes, that is apparenly how I cause major psychological upheavals in my characters. Slapstick.