I should be asleep right now. There was going to be a funny second half to that first sentence, but I should be asleep right now, so I'm too tired to write it properly.

I've been wanting to write this particular fic for the past several months, but it gave way to "Until A Point", as well as other general life - I'm honestly relieved to have gotten this first chapter written in between the things I'm supposed to be doing.

This is basically a sequel to "Us, In The End". This fic's version of Valhalla and the 'scrying' property of the ocean floor are based on those in "Us, In The End", so this first chapter will probably make more sense if you have already read the prequel (sorry).

I'm hoping this story will be timeless in terms of canon and the release of Endgame and whatever follows (holy moly), since this story takes place a couple thousand years into the future...

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this starting chapter. Hopefully more to come soon (I have the storyline more or less planned out but making enough time to write it is another story, which I shouldn't start because I want to write this story first, and holy moly I should be asleep right now).

Okay, goodnight.


The beach feels different this time.

The sand is powdered white gold that seems luxurious under the scuffed heels of his boots. The sunlight is just shy of glaring off the stretches of sand and glassy blue water; a patchy veil of clouds from the storm several days ago keep it from burning too brightly. The ocean whispers, but not secrets, just nonsense that he easily ignores.

He knows the place itself is mostly the same as it always had been since he began going there two and a half thousand years ago, to use the ocean as a scrying glass into the realms below. He had ignored the luxurious sand, and the sunlight, in favour of wading waist-deep into the teal waves. He peered through Valhalla's ocean floor to snatch glimpses of the people – the person – he had left behind to live without him.

But this time, it is just a beach, and he does not take one step into the ocean. It is how it should be.

Loki knows this is something – everything – to do with his companion treading a matching trail in the powder-soft sand beside him.

It had not been until Thor had truly died and entered Valhalla that Loki had wondered if the centuries between them would have seen Thor evolve into someone too different to feel like his brother. If he would still never meet his older brother again.

When they were alive, Thor himself had lectured him once that life was all about growth and change – it would be not unexpected if the dead man beside him now was different to the one in Loki's last living memories. Meanwhile, Loki had spent the past two and a half thousand years in a luxurious, stagnant afterlife like a lake of melted pearl. Not that he had been particularly apt at growth and change in his living years, according to Thor.

For the most part, superficially, Thor seems more or less the same to him. There are slightly more creases around his blue-grey eyes – from ageing, crying, laughing, or all three if Loki were in the habit of optimism – and his voice has an aged tenor to it like a timeworn lute or krogharpe.

But Thor still holds himself upright, as though he can still summon his battle-axe from nowhere at any moment to lead or annihilate an army. Thor had hugged him when he had arrived in Valhalla's garden; his burly arms around Loki's comparatively narrow shoulders had felt the same.

Two and a half thousand years later, Thor glances at him, and it seems the same. It is how it should be.

"So." Thor says. "What's new with you?"

Loki lets the salt breeze speak for a second before he answers just as breezily. "Very little. What we read about Valhalla as children was true. It's eternal, unchanging. Although none of the books made any mention of 'dull'…"

Thor grins and pats his shoulder. "I take it you've become much the same, except for dull."

Loki raises an eyebrow. "What, unchanging?"

"I've been dead not even twenty-four hours, and already I can tell you're the same as you were two or three thousand years ago when you were alive with me." Thor's grin is still on his face, so perhaps he means this is a good thing. Or at least, more or less tolerable.

"Well, clearly Valhalla is merely a haven and not a purgatory," Loki replies. "You're the one who spent the past few millennia in the realms of the living. What's new with you?"

Thor touches his temples. "My hair's grown back. And I have both eyes now. Can't you tell?"

"I can tell, Brother."

"Good. Took you a while to comment."

Loki tilts his head. "Do you really want me to make more comments on your appearance?"

"That's a fair point."

"At least you lost the bird helmet."

"My dear cow-horned brother, we aren't starting this again in the afterlife."

"Then tell me what else has changed with you," Loki says. "You were the one who lectured me that life was all about growth and change, while electrocuting me, if you'll recall – "

Thor snorts. "Still finicky with petty details. You really haven't changed a bit, Brother."

Thor's grin softens to a smile. If they have reached a point where Loki is meant to be as he is, then there has definitely been change somewhere.

"Be glad." Loki shrugs. "That should make it easier for us to catch up after so long."

He knows Thor knows he is only joking, but both their smiles are suddenly unsteady, like twin tightrope walkers.

Loki supplies, "On the other hand, apart from growing out of that pixie cut, I see your hair started to go grey before you died. Dear lord, Brother, you're really looking like our father's son…"

He meant it to distract, but sees something else for the briefest second in Thor's eye. It looks like a memory from his view, or grief, or both. He wonders what it looks like from Thor's. When Thor replies, Loki decides it is something they can let rest until his now much-older brother resurrects it himself.

"It was a long two and a half thousand years, Loki."

He does not sound angry, but even Loki knows when it is time to shut up and move on.

"Did you washthat new eyeball before you put it in?"

"Mother and Father already asked me that – "

"Well, did you?"

"Uh – "

"…Thor…"

Thor pats his shoulder again, harder than necessary. "We're dead now, so it doesn't matter."

Loki straightens up. "That's going to be a useful excuse for lots of things, I think."

To their right, the waves turn in their slow dance along the horizon. His older brother, Loki realises, is still to learn that more than fish and coral can be seen in Valhalla's ocean.

Frigga and Odin had refrained from telling Loki at first, when he had arrived. Perhaps there had been wisdom in this – Loki had, in fact, done exactly what they feared he would do, going to the ocean nearly every day to stare into whatever life he could have been a part of.

But that would not be a problem with Thor. Thor has already lived his long life. Thor has everyone already there in Valhalla with him. He would be curious enough to scry several times, but the beach would stay just a beach to him.

Loki glances at him. Thor is already watching him curiously.

"Why do you keep staring at the sea, Loki?"

Thor's tone asks for honesty. Loki gives it. "There are other things about Valhalla that never made it into our old books, Thor."

He veers their path rightwards to the shoreline. There are rippling lines of darker gold sand where the water has lapped and left lips of foam. Along the water's edge, a necklace of crimson seaweed, a fan-shaped seashell the size of Loki's palm, and a half-finished sandcastle are lain out like dealt cards.

Thor frowns but follows him easily. "What are you talking about?"

"I'll show you."

Thor is still frowning beside him. "We're not going to destroy that sandcastle, are we?"

Loki glances over his shoulder at him. "Even when we were alive, when would I have ever done that?"

"Well, you tried to take over New York."

"I doubt taking over that sandcastle would have the same tyrannical benefits."

"You'd probably win this time though."

"We aren't starting this again in the afterlife."

They pass between the seaweed and the shell. The foam touches the toes of their boots.

"So what are we doing?" Thor asks.

"Just shut up and I'll show you."


They are no longer summoning images through Valhalla's seafloor, but they still stand waist-deep in the cool water. The invisible currents pulse calmly around them as though giving his brother time to absorb what he had just witnessed. Loki counts the passing seconds along with the waves like a metronome, and waits.

Thor says at last, "So anyone in Valhalla can simply wade into these waters and see into the living realms?"

Loki nods. "The ocean floor is the thinnest border of this realm, which is lodged in the perfect position in Yggdrasil's branches to view the other eight."

Thor is still gazing into the clear saltwater, though all that greets them now is the sand floor. "I see."

"That was the point." Loki quirks an eyebrow at him; he doubts he will ever tire of the expression.

Thor ignores the jest in favour of skimming his palms over the velvet water surface. Uneasily, Loki starts to wonder if he was mistaken in thinking his brother would not do what he did, and ache for more life.

Loki breaks the silence again, "Mother and Father kept it from me the first day I was here."

Thor nods without looking up. "To futilely try to stop you from pining for the life you left."

"I never pined – " Loki's tone is close to snapping, but as is, it just sounds indignant.

Thor says, "I can see their reasoning, though I doubt you agreed with it."

Eons later, the assumption in Thor's words still itches. Loki replies, "That one day of blissful ignorance made no difference to the millennia I spent watching the other realms from up here. But I never regretted spending that one day simply with her and Father."

The hush of the ocean enfolds them. Finally Thor looks up, and at him. It surprises Loki that his brother's eyes are strangely gentle.

"Did you come here often, before I arrived?"

Loki lets the salt breeze speak for a second before he answers.

"It was a long two and a half thousand years, Thor."


P.S. Thank you to everyone who has been giving love and support for "Until A Point" (and my other fics).

And to the people who I have PM threads with: *waves* :)