Chapter Text
Loki skipped down the corridor towards the dormitory, pausing to walk sensibly and hide the wooden sword he had behind his back every time he saw an adult who might tell him off. He resumed his fast pace as soon as they were out of sight again. He imagined himself as a nimble-footed warrior, lithely shifting his balance and catching his opponents unawares.
“No one can catch Loki Laufeyson, the lone warrior!” Loki said, giving a dramatic twirl of his sword. He was interrupted in his game by the sound of a soft wail coming from a room ahead.
“A mortal in need of help!” He gasped, and bravely charged onwards, sword held aloft.
He reached the source of the noise; a small nursery room in the dormitory wing. A harassed looking woman was attempting to wrangle a toddler whilst also trying to soothe the crying, red haired infant they were holding. They were achieving neither task.
Loki peered around the door frame, having tucked his sword against the wall, to keep it out of sight of the grown up. The sound of the crying baby pulled at his heart, so taking a step inside the room he said “Want me to try?”
“Go ahead kid, nothing I’ve tried will work!” The adult exclaimed, hastility handing the infant over to Loki and turning their attention fully to the toddler.
The baby was unexpectedly heavy, and Loki carefully shifted them to his hip so his legs could take the weight from his arms. Like this, the teary eyed child was able to reach out their hands and look around at the world. Their crying lessened in volume, and Loki said “There! Better already,” smiling down at them.
The baby’s bottom lip still trembled in unhappiness. Loki thought hard about what to do.
“How ‘bout a song?” Loki asked, with a half glance at the woman with the toddler. Adults didn’t always approve of his singing. She was far too occupied with the other child to acknowledge the idea.
“Incy wincy spider climbed up the waterspout,” Loki began to sing softly, walking his fingers in gentle taps down the baby’s back. “Down came the rain, an’ washed the spider out,” he continued, now stroking downwards to mimic water cascading down. “Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain. An’ incy wincy spider climbed up the spout again,” Loki finished the song by swaying along to the last few beats, and the baby squeaked in response.
Loki looked down to meet their yellow eyes with his green, worried in case he’d upset the infant. He was pleased to see that the baby was smiling serenely and gazing back up at him in wonder; their pudgy little fists reaching out to grip Loki’s t-shirt.
“Wow, kid. No one’s managed that. You can come back tomorrow if you want to help out, you know,” the harried woman said, looking thoughtfully at Loki.
The adult had successfully changed the wiggling toddler for bed and looked slightly less frazzled than before. She made to take the baby back from Loki, who regretfully handed them over. The baby obviously liked him better; they were twisting about in the woman’s arms to continue to gaze at him.
“I’ll come back tomorrow!” Loki decided, “Bye, um…what’s his name?”
“Her name is Corali,” The woman corrected him, her voice curt.
“Oh,” said Loki, brows furrowed. “Bye then, Corali.” He turned to leave and fetched his sword from outside the door, leaning back to give Corali a wave before skipping off again towards his dormitory.
Loki was worried. He hadn’t seen Corali at dinner, and he hadn’t been able to find him anywhere since. It was almost bedtime, and he only had one place left to check; the reading room. Loki didn’t really expect Corali to be there; He was far too noisy and energetic to be permitted inside for long, and didn’t show an interest in the place usually.
Night had fallen and the hallway to the reading room was illuminated only by moonlight; the lights already turned off for the evening. Loki felt a little apprehensive as he walked down the hall. It wasn’t that he was frightened, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he was allowed to be where he was at this time of night. He kept pausing to listen, to check he couldn’t hear anyone else's footsteps ahead of him, in case he needed to hide.
Loki reached the door to the reading room and turned the handle, finding it unlocked. Perhaps he was allowed to be here after all, he reasoned. He pushed the door open and was relieved to see the unmistakable red hair of Corali, who was curled up in a chair, staring at the wall opposite him.
“There you are!” Loki said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Hey, Loki,” Corali replied, his voice distant.
“What’s wrong? Why didn’t you come have dinner?” Loki asked, closing the door behind him and walking up to Corali’s chair. As he got closer to him, he could see that Corali had been crying. His eyes were puffy and his nose was raw and red.
“Other boys wouldn’t let me play knights,” Corali said, with a sniff.
“What? Why not?” Loki asked, crouching down in front of Corali’s chair to get down to his level.
“Said knights don’t wear dresses. Or have long hair,” Corali said, his voice quavering. “Said m’not a boy.”
Loki thought for a moment. His first instinct was to plot some elaborate revenge on the kids who had upset Corali. If he’d been a bit younger, he may have suggested it. Now that he’d crossed the double-digit threshold however, he was starting to think of himself as a more mature and wise mentor to Corali. He tried another tactic.
“Shows what they know, knights wore tunics,” Loki said, with a wry smile. “Tunics are a kind of dress,” he explained, when Corali looked confused.
Corali seemed to ponder this for a time. “But my hair…” he said, gesturing towards the wall he had been staring at behind Loki.
Loki turned to look, and saw a plastic, reflective poster with the words “Take some time to reflect!” printed at the top. The plastic had warped and bent over time, and now had the effect of a funhouse mirror, distorting the image it showed.
Loki leaned to and fro in front of the poster, stretching the reflection of his form this way and that, wringing a weak little giggle from Corali.
“Well, who wants to be a knight anyway? When I was your age, I used to play Vikings,” Loki said, with the air of one reflecting on years gone by.
“The pirates? With the helmets, n’the horns?” Corali asked, brightening up slightly at the talk of pirates and warriors.
“Vikings ruled the seas in longboats. They were amazing fighters and they were really smart, finding their way using the stars!” Loki told him.
“Stars can tell you how to get places?” Corali asked, leaning over the arm of the chair to gaze at Loki in amazement.
“If you’re clever enough to read ‘em like Vikings were. And you know what else the Vikings had?” Loki said, leading the question like a showman.
“What?” Corali gasped, hanging on Loki’s every word.
“Long hair, like yours! They used to plait it so it didn’t get caught in the ropes on their boats,” Loki explained.
“Wow!” Corali said, pulling his long, red hair over one shoulder and looking at it in the distorted view of the warped mirror. “Dunno how t’do plaits, though,” he trailed off.
“I can! I learned how to braid and tie knots at Scouts,” Loki replied, enthusiastic. “Want me to try?”
“Yes, please!” Corali squeaked, tears forgotten.
“Cool, it’ll take me a little while. I’ll get you a book to look at so you don’t get bored,” Loki said, well aware that it was usually very difficult to get Corali to sit still for very long when he got excited.
Loki pursued the lacklustre bookshelves for something Corali might like. The books were mostly too old for him; the story books were all kept in the playroom and nursery. Loki ran a finger along the edge of the shelves, reading the titles.
“Aha! Think you’ll like this one, Corali,” Loki called to him, pleased with himself.
“Wossat?” Corali asked, craning their neck to try and see the book Loki had hidden behind his back.
“Scooch your chair in front of the mirror and I’ll show you,” Loki replied, grinning like a Cheshire Cat as he anticipated Corali’s reaction.
Corali pushed his chair forward as instructed, still fiddling with his hair in the reflection. Closer to, the mirror's image wasn’t nearly as warped as it had been from the wall opposite.
Loki came up behind Corali and placed the book he’d retrieved in front of the younger boy. “Ta da!” He said, with a flourish.
Corali squealed with delight. “This is a grown up book!” He said, looking at the cover in amazement.
“Sure is, always got the best pictures. If y’get stuck on any words, lemme know,” Loki said, settling himself to sit behind Corali.
The book Loki had chosen for Corali was an atlas for the solar system, full of high definition photos of the planets, stars and other celestial points of interest. Loki had read the book himself before, but he remembered liking the photographs the best.
Loki set to work on Corali’s hair, separating it off into strands as Corali flipped through pages. His hair was tangled and matted, so it wasn’t Loki’s neatest work. He started out by braiding one side section of his hair, crossing the locks over themselves and behind Corali’s ear. Loki had no hair-ties, but the thread of his t-shirt had started to run, and he used his teeth to cut a length off to secure Corali’s plait in place.
The younger boy didn’t look up from the book as Loki continued to work on his hair, now plaiting the opposite side. “D’you know…” Corali began, “That the sun in the sky is bigger’n the world what we’re on now?”
“I didn’t! That’s so cool,” Loki said, hiding his smirk as he lied to make Corali feel clever.
By the time Loki had finished, he was sure it was well past curfew. He saw Corali drift sideways more and more as his friend had drifted into sleep. “There! All done,” Loki said, jiggling his leg where Corali had leaned on him, to shake Corali awake.
Corali blinked sleepily, then looked at his reflection opposite, standing up to walk right up to it, eyes wide. “Loki!” he exclaimed, voice breathless with excitement. “I love ‘em!”
“You look fearsome! No one'll mess with you now you’re a viking, like me,” Loki said, pleased that he’d pulled Corali out of their slump.
“You don’t have braids though…” Corali said, a slight frown encroaching on their grin.
“I’ll grow my hair out to keep up with you,” Loki replied, standing up and stretching from his long sit. “Come on, I’ll give you a piggy-back to bed. S'late enough as it is and it’ll take even longer to get there with your little legs.”
Several months had passed since Corali hadn’t turned up to dinner. He’d grown a little surer in himself, and closer to Loki, if that were possible, becoming even more of a shadow than before. Loki had kept his word and was growing out his hair; the black locks almost reached his shoulders.
It was a rare, sunny, spring morning and Loki came to find Corali outside sitting on top of a picnic bench staring up at a few clouds in the sky, a slightly wistful expression on his face.
“Hey Corali,” Loki said, joining him on the bench, “did you think of a boy's name already?”
“Not really,” he replied with a sigh, looking down at his knees.
“Hm. We might find one together,” Loki said, casting his mind about for good names. “Maybe…Crawly!”
“It sounds like a snake name,” Corali said with a frown, picturing dark beasts squirming at his feet.
“Yeah, because of your eyes,” Loki said, pointing to them as Corali gazed back with their yellow, slit-pupil stare, “they look like those of Jörmungandr! The world serpent!” Loki raised his hands and put on a gravelly voice to sound more monstrous, making Corali squeal with laughter.
“You don’t like snakes?” Loki asked with a sly smile, once they had both managed to control their giggles again.
“Yes, but…I like crows more,” Corali said, looking at a murder of the birds rising from a distant tree. “They remind me of your hair,” he finished, turning to look at the inky quills of Loki’s locks.
Loki couldn’t help a soft smile from taking over his face; so endeared by Corali’s statement.
“So, what ‘bout Crowley!?” Loki exclaimed as the idea came to him.
“Woooaah!” Corali responded with delight.
And with that, Crowley had his name. They spent the rest of the morning playing together as usual, but every time Loki used his new name, Crowley stopped a moment to bask in the glory of it. It warmed Loki’s heart to see the effect the name had on him.
“Beware giant snake! I’m Odin! The Crow! Father of everything!” Loki said as he chased after Crowley, his arms spread wide like the wings of a bird.
“Hissssssss!” Crowley said, baring his teeth to pretend he had the fangs of a snake.
Loki stalked his way along the outer walls of the orphanage, sticking to the shadows and stepping lightly. Dressed entirely in black, he was practically invisible in the dark of night. He found his way to the outside of the girls' dormitory, inwardly cursing to himself once again that he and Crowley couldn’t share a room.
Looking around to check there was no one to see him, Loki dashed to duck behind the trunk of a tree, the branches of which reached the window of Crowley’s bedroom above. He crouched down and brought his cupped hands up to his mouth, hooting through them twice like an owl.
After a short pause, an unmistakable figure with red hair appeared at the window, pushing it open.
“Crowley, throw your backpack down to me,” Loki murmured up at the window, raising his arms in a wave to get Crowley’s attention, hoping his friend would be able to read his lips more than anything else.
Crowley dropped his backpack as instructed, and Loki caught it against his chest, inwardly proud of how little noise they were making. He watched, ready to catch Crowley should he fall as he clambered through the open window, stepped out onto a thick tree branch and carefully climbed his way down, supported by skinny limbs.
“Loki! You gonna tell me where we’re going yet?” Crowley whispered, taking his bag again when his feet reached the ground.
“Wouldn’t be a surprise if I did, would it?” Loki replied. He now towered above Crowley, having gone through a growth spurt as he’d reached his teens. He’d always been the taller of the two boys, but their age difference seemed greater for it now. He’d kept his promise to Crowley from years earlier, keeping his hair long.
“Just sayin’. Better be worth all the trouble we’d be in if we get caught,” Crowley replied with a smirk up at Loki.
“You’ll see,” Loki said, with a theatrical wink.
The two boys stayed close together as Loki led them to the perimeter fence of the orphanage, following it along until they found a small gap between two sections.
Loki pushed his backpack with difficulty through the gap, before barely squeezing himself through. He wouldn’t be able to sneak out of the orphanage this way for much longer, he was growing far too much to fit.
Crowley, still much smaller and skinnier, slipped through the gap easily and spotted Loki’s bike leaning against a nearby building. “Whatcha need your bike for?” He asked, yellow eyes narrowing with suspicion.
“Got a bit of a long journey. Figured little legs here would appreciate a ride,” Loki teased, gesturing at Crowley.
“Hey! I grew almost a centimetre last year!” Crowley replied, bristling. He was sensitive about how much shorter he was than Loki.
“M’only joking. Hop on the back, and we’ll go,” Loki said, taking the bike by the handles and swinging a leg over the saddle. He hooked his backpack over the handlebars, twisting the straps around them multiple times to ensure it was secure. He really didn’t want to damage what he had in his bag.
Crowley grumbled under his breath, but he hopped up to stand on the back wheel pegs, wrapping his arms around Loki’s middle to keep his balance.
“Ready to go?” Loki asked.
“Yup,” Crowley said, still sulking.
“Alright. Onwards! Adventure awaits!” Loki cried, setting off and picking up speed. It snapped Crowley out of his mood and he shrieked with laughter, exhilaration taking over.
Loki hadn’t been kidding, the journey was long. He pedalled them away from the metropolitan parts of the town, taking them through a more industrial area full of warehouses. The buildings became more dilapidated and the roads less busy, the further they went.
“Can you at least tell me how much further we have to go?” Crowley whined.
“Probably got another hour left to go, maybe longer. Don’t think I can pedal as fast as I did when I did this last week, with you on the back.” Loki said.
“We’re…we’re gonna be out all night?” Crowley said, apprehensive.
“Maybe. I’ll get us back by morning, don’t worry,” Loki replied, panting with the effort of talking and pedalling. The road had started to angle upwards in an incline, and Loki’s bike didn’t have gears. Crowley decided to stop questioning him to let him pedal in peace.
Eventually, they ended up at the dead end of a pot-holed road. Loki and Crowley dismounted, and Loki retrieved his bag from the handlebars before stashing his bike next to a wooden gate for a public footpath.
“We goin’ for a walk?” Crowley asked, confused.
“For a little while, yeah. Come on,” Loki said, taking Crowley’s hand to help him cross the uneven ground in the dark.
They followed a meandering dirt path, leading through open grassland and gradually snaked their way up a hill covered in gorse bushes. The spiky plants ensured no shortcuts were taken and it took them another long while just to reach the top. By the time they reached their apparent destination, Crowley was in a bad mood; he was overheated and sweaty, the straps of his bag digging uncomfortably into his shoulders.
“We’re here!” Loki said, carefully setting his bag on the ground. Crowley slipped his from his shoulders and let it fall with a thump to the ground behind him.
“Cool. Will you tell me what you’re doing now?” Crowley huffed in exasperation.
Loki didn’t answer right away, instead unzipping his backpack and pulling out a collapsible tripod, and a long tube like object, tapering out at the end.
“That’s a telescope! No way!” Crowley gasped, rushing over to watch more closely as Loki set the tripod up on the ground. Crowley had been fascinated with the night sky ever since Loki had taught him about vikings navigating by the stars.
“Yes, way,” Loki replied, sounding amused.
“I don’t believe it, how did ya get one?” Crowley asked in awe. He was even more excited than Loki had imagined.
“Bought it second hand,” Loki said, lightly.
“How did you afford one though, Loki?” Crowley asked, voice wary in case Loki had been up to no good.
“Oh you know. Doing this and that. Writing essays for the older kids. Sneaking that guitar from the music room out to play on street corners for change,” Loki replied, shrugging.
Loki returned to his bag and pulled out a small torch and the space atlas he’d chosen for Crowley to read when he’d been small and upset. It was now well worn from the two boys' constant reading of it. Loki flipped to the back of the book where he knew there was a star map, using his torch to see what he was doing.
“Why’d you lug it all the way up here, though?” Crowley asked as Loki meticulously slotted the telescope into its place on the tripod, and looked through the lens, glancing back to the book and adjusting dials on the side. He made almost imperceptible movements to the telescope's position, seeking something out in the night sky.
“There’s too much light in town to see the stars properly, so I spent most nights last week biking to places to find where we could see ‘em. This hill was the closest. Wanna look?” Loki asked, knowing the answer already.
“Yes! Yes please, thank you Loki!” Crowley babbled, rushing forward to sit down and put his eye against the viewfinder of the telescope. His mouth fell open in awe as he looked.
“Cool, right?” Loki asked.
“Woah! What star is this? It’s so cool, it looks like it’s pointed it’s so bright,” Crowley gasped.
“That’s Pollux. It’s one of the two big stars in the Gemini constellation,” Loki replied.
“I didn’t know stars in constellations had special names like that!” Crowley said, his face pressed so hard to the telescope, the viewfinder dug deep into his skin, leaving a ring around his eye.
“It’s named after a Greek myth, Pollux and Castor. That's the other bright star. Want me to find that one for you?” Loki asked.
“Yeah, awesome!” Crowley said, forcing himself away from the telescope to allow Loki to reposition it, bouncing excitedly from one foot to the other in anticipation.
“There you go, that’s Castor,” Loki said, fondly ruffling Crowley’s red hair as he eagerly pushed his face to the telescope again, constantly repositioning his head as he couldn’t decide which eye to use.
“No way, it looks totally different! It’s almost blue, the other was orange!” Crowley said, his voice shaking with excitement. “What’s the story then? Of Castor and Pollux?”
“Well…” Loki trailed off, wondering how best to sanitise the myth for Crowley’s young ears. “Castor was the son of a king and Pollux was the son of Zeus, but they had the same mum. And they were twins.”
“How’s that work?” Crowley asked, his brows knotting in confusion.
“I…don’t actually know. Magic, I guess. Anyway, one day they decided to get revenge on their cousins who’d tricked them, by stealing some goats,” Loki tried to explain.
“Goats? Why goats?” Crowley asked, distracted from the telescope momentarily at the mention of the horned beasts.
“Goats come up a lot in Greek myths for some reason. So yeah, they try to steal these goats, right, and Castor, the king's son, gets fatally injured. So then his brother, Pollux, Zeus’s son, trades his immortality for Castor’s life, to save him. And then when they died, they became the constellation of Gemini.” Loki finished his story, anxiously waiting to see how Crowley would react to it. He didn’t appear to react at all, save for freezing in his movements. Perhaps Loki hadn’t explained properly.
“So, that’s kind of like me n’you, isn’t it? We don’t have the same father either. But we’re brothers, aren’t we?” Loki continued, awkwardly.
“Brothers?” Crowley asked, pulling his eye away from the telescope to fix Loki with an unblinking, yellow eyed stare. His serious expression was somewhat spoiled by the marks the telescope had left around his eyes as he’d pressed his face to it with rapt concentration. Loki stifled a laugh at the sight, his lip twitching ever so slightly. Crowley looked as if he were wearing a pair of dark, round glasses.
“Yeah. I mean, you’ve been my brother ever since I first held you as a baby, Crowley.”
“You-you really mean that?” Crowley stammered.
“‘Course I do,” Loki said, playfully smacking Crowley on the shoulder. Crowley sniffed a little, trying not to cry, and Loki pulled his little brother into his arms.
“I didn’t think I had any family,” Crowley mumbled into Loki’s hoodie.
“Neither did I, ‘til you came along. We look out for each other, right? Just like Castor and Pollux,” Loki spoke down at the top of Crowley’s head.
“Yeah. Just like them, always.” Crowley promised, nodding and pulling out of the hug, drying his few tears on the sleeve of his t-shirt.
“Want me to see if I can find some planets for you? We can probably stay for another hour or so,” Loki asked.
“Yes!” Crowley said, his excitement returning.
“Get the snacks out then. We’ll stargaze and feast ‘til we have to go,” Loki said, turning his attention back to the telescope.
“Thanks, Loki,” Crowley said, fetching his backpack.
“You’re welcome, little bro,” Loki said, smiling indulgently at Crowley as he adjusted the telescope for him once more.