Ensnared
“Then what are you to do with me? Surely a slave has no place on the council, or amid your warriors. You seek to keep me in this room, and even if you feed me the finest foods and see to it I am in good health, a man cannot live on that alone. A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body. I will die, Laufeyson, be in not in body in will.”
He stares at the back of the Jotun prince, awaiting an answer or a reprimand.
Loki has nothing to say. He just wants Thor to stay, he doesn’t exactly know why, he just does. He can’t bear to look at him, but finally he speaks, his voice soft, and raspy.
“Just, please, just… rest, all right. That is all I am asking you to do, just rest.”
He gets up and sits in the chair near the wall, far enough away from the bed that Thor cannot see the Jotun’s face. Loki keeps his eyes averted, but he can feel the Odinson’s burning into him. He isn’t sure what he wants, he isn’t sure what to do. He just isn’t certain about much of anything at the current moment.
“Why do you behave so?” Thor calls to Loki, who sits turned away from him at the opposite end of the room. “You should not be troubled for the sake of a slave, but sometimes weighs on your shoulders heavy as steel, Jotun.”
He wonders if he can guilt the prince into releasing him. Should he discover a soul buried in the icy depths of his heart, perhaps he can use that against him.
“I am trying to be kind to you, stop questioning my motives, Thor. And I have a name, I would ask that you use it if you’re going to continue to speak to me instead of going to sleep.” He pulls his legs up to him and places his chin atop his knees as he ponders this whole situation.
He still wishes for Thor to stay, but there is a part of him that is beginning to wonder if he should just let him go. But he won’t, he can’t. He doesn’t particularly want to. He’d rather Thor stay with him.
“If you wish to be kind to me, then let me return to Asgard,” Thor says, trying to keep the pleading from his voice. “None of this needs to break our realms’ ties further…Loki. I will make no mention of this to my father, and inform him no threat exists.”
He holds his breath for a heartbeat, hoping the prince’s mind has changed, that this nightmare shall be at an end.