“Stop!” Thor gasps, arms reaching out for his brother. “Loki, Loki, cease. It is done.”

“No, no!” Loki shouts, pouring more magic into the still form clutched to his chest. “No, Eltheid, no. No.”

“Brother, Loki- please,” Thor whispers, drawing him in, closer, curling around him, around them both.

“He’s not gone wake up Eltheid not-,” in his arms, Loki’s breath breaks and he curls around the still form. Thor presses his forehead between Loki’s shoulders, eyes squeezed shut and his heart is breaking for his brother just as much as for their son. The son Loki doted on, praised and trained to Thor’s delight and pleasure. Thor holds the broken pieces of his family as Loki gasps and shudders beneath him.

When Loki is still and silent but for the odd gasping breath, Thor gentles and soothes until his brother lets the body be taken away to be cleansed and readied.He leads them to their rooms, Loki quiet and subdued in his grasp and he’s grateful they meet no one on the short trip.

He closes the door behind him carefully, methodically, and he removes Loki’s helm, his own. He removes armor and sets aside Mjolnir, strips them down to their under armor.

With delicate care, he places the last piece- Loki’s right bracer- in it’s place and turns back to his brother.

Loki stands where Thor put him, hunched in on himself and smaller than he should ever be.

Loki looks up from the floor, eyes lost and broken and Thor is already crossing the chamber when Loki asks, “What do we do?”

Thor doesn’t know.

“Why?”

Thor squeezes his eyes around tears, clutches his brother closer.

He has no answers.

“Why?”

(Source: pootles, via helevingnes)