Work Text:
Thor wished love was as simple and easy to understand as smashing things up with Mjolnir. But it wasn’t. Twice in his life, he’d dated a woman and thought she was the one. Twice, he’d been wrong. First it was Sif, now Jane. When Jane fell ill because of the Aether, he’d brought her to Asgard. He thought that when she got better, they’d spend time together, enjoying the splendor Asgard had to offer.
To his shock and bewilderment, Jane left him for Sif. It turned out Sif was as struck by Jane’s beauty as Thor was. Thor should have seen it coming with the intense looks she gave Jane when she first arrived. Foolishly, Thor assumed it was because she was still in love with him and was jealous. He’d been planning to give her a stern talking-to about it. Loki always told him he had too high an opinion of himself.
From the way she looked at her, Jane was more impressed by Sif than Thor. Thor had to admit Sif had been wonderful. Sif nursed Jane back to health, saved his mother Frigga’s life, and helped him defeat Malekith. No matter what, both women would always be his friends. Thor wasn’t the type to bear a grudge. But it was maddening to watch her take Jane to the beautiful fjords he’d been hoping to show her.
“Sorry to hear Jane dumped you, brother,” Loki said, with a wry grin.
“I dumped her! It was a mutual dumping!” Thor grumbled.
Loki snickered. “I’m not really sorry. You had it coming.”
It was a joke, but something in his tone made Thor turn to look at him. Really look at him. In his brother’s opal-green eyes, he saw centuries of longing. Longing for him. It had always been there, he just hadn’t seen it because it had never occurred to him that Loki could feel that way about him. Like a flash of lighting, Thor realized the only reason he found Jane attractive was that she looked a little like Loki.