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Thor won’t lie, the first time it had happened, he had freaked out. Like jumped-in-the-air-dropped Mjolnir kind of freaked out. He’s not proud of it, a king is always prepared and must never show fear and while cracking the floor ‘cause he dropped his hammer definitely comes under the category of showing his fear, Thor thinks it’s a perfectly valid reaction for a sixteen year who just saw his younger brother turn into a cat right in front of him. One minute they are sitting in Loki’s room, Thor on the couch in front of the fire trying not to stare at the way Loki moves his fingers as he practices a spell and the next there’s a puff of green smoke and in place of his beautiful brother is a small cat, kitten actually when Thor gets close enough to inspect it.
It’s black and small and adorable and just like Loki, right down to the green eyes and Thor can’t help but move his hands to pick him up. Of course that’s when Lokitty (Thor thinks it’s the perfect name!) decides he doesn’t want to picked up and hisses at Thor, which only makes him coo and pick up the small kitten that fits in his palms; a black kitten is cute but a black kitten who’s angry and is trying very hard to curse Thor is adorable. As soon as Thor picks him up and scratches behind his ears, Lokiity starts purring in Thor’s hand, nuzzling Thor’s chest and Thor can only smile like an idiot. He’s starting to think he likes Lokitty more than Loki, which instantly makes him feel guilty because Loki is his brother and he loves him. Maybe a little more than he should, which he tries really hard not to think about too much.
Thor spends hours petting Lokiity, who seems to love being rubbed behind his ears if his purrs are any kind of indication. Thor doesn’t mind, he rarely gets to spend time with Loki these days what with him being busy with training almost the entire day and Loki lost somewhere in the library, not coming out till their mother herself goes looking for him and drags him out by his ear. The entire time Thor keeps talking to Loki, about the time he defeated Fandral in less than five minutes or the time he got drunk and wished Loki had been there. He’s got weeks’ worth of news that he’d wanted to share with his brother and now was the perfect time, with Loki purring in his lap and not going anywhere. But Thor knows Loki’s listening to him if the occasional sharp claws digging into his thighs are any indication.
They fall asleep like that, with Lokitty on Thor’s lap who has one hand curled protectively around his brother. Thor wakes up a few hours later because of the sunlight falling on his face, which is why it takes him some time to notice that he no longer has a kitten on his lap, but a warm body snuggled up next to him. Feeling Thor tense Loki looks up from where his face was pressed into Thor’s neck and raises an eyebrow in question, not letting go of the hold he has on Thor’s body. Thor scrunches his face against the bright light, in response and Loki laughs; laughs in a way that Thor hasn’t heard for months. With a flick of his writs Loki has the curtains pulled across the windows, the room in semi darkness. Satisfied, Loki presses his face back to Thor’s neck and sighs, warm breath tickling Thor’s skin.
“Sleep Thor, I’m tired.”
Thor smiles and presses a kiss to Loki’s head, turning sideways so he can wrap Loki completely in his arms. For the first time in ages he feels happy and not just content.