"He wanted to wipe out the frost giants. Your brother didn't just want to die, he wanted everyone else to die, too, and that makes him a harder case to handle. I can talk to Fury if you want me to, see if he can get your brother a doctor for his mind who's a little more sympathetic to his case. " You say this as if you have a lot of weight to throw around in this organization, well, you do, but not in an expert bureaucratic manipulative sense. You can hardly pull strings on a bad day, and you suspect you won't be here much longer, in any case. Thor and his psychotic brother will be on their own.

"My brother is a usurper and a teller of lies, but he was no villain before the battle of the Bifrost -- he intended to slay the frost giants and all their young, but in the eyes of most that would be no great loss. He meant to win the people's favor. Our father's favor. He sought to prove himself, to prove that he was as fit to rule as I, and not soft-hearted. His mind was twisted, but all the rest was only words. He has always been good with words."

"When your dad told you Loki was adopted, what was your reaction?"

He laughs, grimly. "I was hurt, at first. Then I thought that it explained a great deal. Did your father sire other sons, Banner?"

No, no brothers and no sisters. Only you. Only you. Sometimes you wondered, hoped even, but if this was how it was with just the two of you -- your father works very hard so we can have such nice things, Bruce, you need to be more careful. When you were older you realized with fear what he might do to a daughter. You stopped wishing for one. What if the hypothetical sister hadn't been dad's in the first place? What scrutiny would that have put on you?

So you smile the thought away, and rub a hand through your hair. A shower is probably in your immediate future after this, and maybe a shave, you've definitely gone longer than this without basic personal upkeep in the interest of one project or another, but people are looking at you here, and it behooves you not to look like too much of a deranged mountain man. Reserved, neat. The "prickling stubble, dirty tee shirt" combo works better on Tony.

"Not to my knowledge. I'd rather not talk about my family, Thor. It's kind of a sore subject."

Thor shifts back, puzzlement in his perpetually squinting eyes.

"You think this is easy for me to discuss? The Allfather's mad bastard?"

"Of course not," you say in conciliatory fashion. ('Bastard', now?) "But I want to keep the focus on you. We all know how he reacted. Just tell me what your first thoughts were when you found out you and your brother--" You're in it now. "--wasn't the same species."

And now you watch Thor, hot-blooded scion of the Aesir, struggling to put proper words to what he feels.

"I had suspected as much, that we did not share the same parentage, but the Queen was our mother just the same. I was-- angry that it had been kept from us so long. There were things I would not have said if I had known. But I was also... relieved, that this was why he thought me no longer his brother. He thought that I would come to hate him. He wanted me to find him hateful. I would rather believe him mad than have him think so little of me."

The leather creaks and groans as Thor leans forward, resting his hands on the table's edge. His hair is draggling out of its small ponytail, and his expression is darkly unreadable.

"I refuse. My brother is far from his senses, he has forgotten his place in our household. He needs no doctor-- even if the worst comes, he is under my protection. I will not let death claim him, and anyone who would harm him must first reckon with the might of Thor."

Thor's smoky rumble of a voice has risen to a bold, declarative near-shout. He might not be shouting at you, but his eyes nevertheless are on you. How... big of him. How kind.

"... all right, then. Very good, Thor. I think we've done about all we can do here, I'll put your bottle in the recycling."

(Ah, yes, Dr. Banner is trying to be green.)

You reach to take it -- from the tabletop, taking anything that even once contained alcohol directly from Thor's hands seems a little foolhardy. Foolhardy anyway, as his hand seizes your wrist like a vise and you can feel your pulse take a jump. Start counting, start breathing, one, two, three, four, five, six until your lungs are too full and you can register that Thor's teeth are bared and his face is level with yours.

"You would have me abandon my own brother--"

Start counting, start breathing, breathe and hold and go tight. If men shouting still bothered you, you'd have an even bigger problem on your hands every day of your life, in Kolkata or on the subway. You don't like the subway, in any case. Keep a lid on things and simmer. Keep a lid on it and watch him, you can't help it.

"I really don't think you want to do that, Thor." His grip looses but his eyes are still level on yours, his posture still half a crouch, all ready to spring. You're rarely the tallest man in the room, and right now he makes you feel small. The big guy has strong feelings about that. They batter away like a second pulse in your gut, hammering hot and red.

"You said it yourself, you know my brother's mind. I will not rest until his mind is his own again."

"That's not what I said. Your brother and I have nothing in common except really big personality problems--"

"It is not the monster that I speak of, Banner. My brother's will is strong, I know no man to best him in his art -- you are both wise. Loki lacks control. How am I to give it to him? Tell me how to help him and I will do it, just as any man would for a brother."

"Why are you still trying to help him? Why bother?"

Why bother? Sometimes things get broken and they stay that way, sometimes things can't be fixed, in fact overall things get worse, not better. Why bother? Why persevere with the one who hurts you? You know all about things that can't be fixed. Controlled, forgotten, lock them up and throw away the key but you can't kill them.

"Loki is everything I am not, but he is the brother of my house. The House of Asgard does not back down from a challenge, nor do we suffer our own to die."