Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/ works/694254. Rating: Explicit Archive Warning: Underage Category: F/M, M/M Fandom: Thor_-_All_Media_Types Relationship: Loki/Thor, Loki_(Marvel)/Thor_(Marvel) Character: Thor, Loki, Farbauti, Laufey, Odin, friga, Baldr_|_Baldur, Sif Additional Tags: Lolita!AU, Loki_is_one_fucked_up_teenager, Thors_fails_to_be_an responsible_adult Stats: Published: 2013-02-21 Chapters: 1/? Words: 2709 ****** Beneath the white rabbit‘s hole ****** by fakedskin Summary After some unexpected events 10 years younger Loki is left to live at Thor's place, where he grows up and everyday it gets harder and harder to see him as a innocent kid. Especially, when he doesn't act like one. Notes See the end of the work for notes First time they met was in late October, weather was terrible and cold and, as Thor remembers now, it was far after polite time to be disturbed. He was eighteen ( or so he remembers) and owned a quite big two stored house that was left for him after his grandmother‘s death and as he didn‘t need all the house to himself, he was renting most of the space. The fact that house had few separate entrances let the tenants interact as little as possible and income from the rent allowed Thor not only live apart from his parents, but also work on his passion – mechanics (not minding that recently his passion brought him more income than rent from tenants and he could have counted himself as succsesful young adult at that moment). The student pair that lived on second floor left few weeks ago an the big room with separate bathroom and little area that was made into small kitchen was looking for new owners. It wasn‘t much, but it was cozy and the price didn‘t bite also, or so Thor had written in the rent announcement in few of local newspapers. And though it wasn‘t the season, but he didn‘t need to wait long. He always liked to stay up late with a cup of decaf coffee and google everything that has to deal with cars and motorcycles and news it involved. And he almost decided to head to his bed when doorbell rang. „Who is it?“ he asked as he wasn‘t expecting anyone at this late hour. „It says you‘re renting a room“ he heard a soft woman‘s voice in response. „Well it were wiser to call first..“ he was saying as he unlocked the door and he wanted to add something more, but he forgot what when he saw a young woman with long black hair braided in messy side braid and pale complexion. She was somewhere around 25 or so and looked very tired and worn out, black circles under her green eyes telling that she haven‘t had a good sleep in a while too, not to mention that clothes she was wearing was far from what people were wearing at this time of the year. Then Thor‘s sight wondered to the little boy whose hand she was holding. Apparently he was her son or at least little brother because they looked very alike. Thor was sure that the boy wasn‘t more than eight-years-old as he was the same hight as Thor‘s little brother Baldur. Thor stepped aside letting his late guest to come in as it would be cruel to let them stay in night any longer. He put the kettle on and started looking for tea. The woman was still standing unsure what to do next, but Thor waved his hand for them to sit down at the table. And only when she moved to sit down Thor spotted that she was holding a sports bag behind her back. Was that all they had with them? Kettle gave away a sudden sound that the watter was ready and Thor made some tea with honey and lemon also finding some cookies in cupboard above the fridge. He put the cups on the table and joined the guests. „ So what‘s your name?“ Thor asked. Women shifted herself in her seat as revealing her name was a hard task for her, but finally said „ Farbauti “ and then added „And this is my son Loki“. Loki lifted his eyes at Thor as his name was mentioned. Thor in advance pushed the box with cookies closer to Loki and he took tree at the same time as fearing that he didn‘t have the chance to take more if he just took only one now. Farbauti glanced at her son‘s manners with displeased expression. As indoors temperature was making her feel warmer, she became less and less strained. „We only arrived to town late this afternoon and I skimmed local newspaper for rent announcements while we ware having dinner at the dinner. Most of the places ware to expensive for us, but then I noticed yours. But it was so far away from the center and it took us some time to get here“ she explained and then added „I know I should have called first, but...well we don‘t have anywhere to stay in this town“. She let her eyes down, but suddenly as she has remembered something she almost shouted „I can pay all month‘s rent in advance if it helps“. Actually Thor didn‘t see the reason why he shouln‘t rent the room for them. They looked a bit mysterious just turning around almost without any belongings, but Thor was young and quite open minded. Also, young mother and a child, how dangerous they could have been? They certainly didn‘t look like any. And Thor couldnt find the heart to kick them out in this cold autumn night anyway. „Well, I don‘t see any reason why I shouln‘t rent the place for you two“ he said leaning back in his chair. „Really?“ Ferbouti‘s tired eyes shone for the first time in all evening, tho Loki was observing Thor with uncertainty in his glance, he sipped some tea and after some of struggling he reached for another cookie. They finished drinking their tea in silence as Thor understood that Farbauti didn‘t want to be asked a lot of questions. Thor wasn‘t the curious type also. He stood up and took a single key from a little basket on the counter and put his shoes on. „The place has it‘s separate entrance from other side of the house“ he explained while opening the door and holding it for Farbauti and Loki to get outside. They went to the other side of the house that contained wide garage door and a little red door beside it. Thor unlocked the door and turned on the light. First floor only contained steep stairs to the second one. Again he held the door stepping aside and letting young woman and child to pass by. On the second floor everything was as Thor had described in the rent announcement. Room wasn‘t very big, but it also wasn‘t small either, it contained a wide twin bed, small wall wardrobe and a old writing desk and cupboard by the large window. There was another door that led to small bathroom and a door-less niche where stood some narrow kitchen furniture, a stove and a fridge. By the Ferbouti‘s look, Thor could make the decision that she was very pleased with what she saw. „You are lucky as last tenants left much of the necessities behind when they were moving away. You can use it as you like till you get your own“ he said as he understood that without that sports bag they didn‘t have any other possessions. „Well it‘s late, you should be heading to sleep as I asume you had a tiring day“ Thor turned around to leave. Farbauti opened her bag and took out a thick white envelope that was containing money, a quite a sum of money as Thor assumed. She counted the sum of rent and gave it to Thor. He put money into his back pocket and closed the door behind him not asking any questions only waving goodnight. Mysterious pair they ware, but again they didn‘t show any dangerous signs, so Thor didn‘t care. Few weeks had passed and Thor got used seeing his new neighbors. Their never talked much, nor it seemed that Farbauti wanted to tell much. All Thor got to know was that they ware from the capital, and after divorcing her husband she decided to move to smaller town („Quite a quick decision, eh?“ Thor thought remembering how they showed up the first night) and that she was 25 years old (how he‘s guessed). They bought some warmer clothes the next day they moved in, because all they had was light autumn close, which made sense as capital was a good couple of hundreds miles in southern direction from where the town Thor lived in was located. It must still be quite warm there. All they talked about contained such easy topics as weather, where you can find good and cheap stuff to buy and similar ones. During the second week Farbouti had found a part time job at local convenience store few blocks away from Thor‘s place. Thor assumed that the owner hired her because she was a very beautiful woman as he knew that store wasn‘t looking for additional staff at the moment. Yes, she was a very beautiful woman. It took her only few days to cover up from all the tiredness and stress and gain back her calm self back. Mostly she wore plain half long dresses that showed her lean but womanly figure. Thor hadn‘t seen her wearing any make up even after she started working, well she was beautiful by nature. Thor even caught himself thinking that she‘s only seven years older than he. But neither minding her appealing permanence she always tried to keep her distance from others. And that made things difficult. Most of his daily time Thor was spending in the garage that was situated beneath their room. He had two cars stored inside and one in front of the house. All three of them were remade vintage and Thor was very proud of each. While he was working from time to time he caught a glimpse of Farbauti coming out or coming back home. She always stop to say hi, but never stopped to talk if Thor didn‘t ask her something. Most of the time she was alone and Thor started to consider what Loki was doing all day long as he rarely saw him. He didn‘t go to school. Well they were here only for two weeks maybe that was quite normal. Thor never consider school as a very important part of one‘s life. When Farbauti started to work at the store, Thor started to notice Loki far more often. He never started his day early as he was a late riser, so he showed at garage only around noon. One day he spotted Loki sitting on old swings that were attached to old oak bark that stud in the far end of back yard and reading a book. The day wasn‘t cold and it was a totally normal view, but it made Thor smile as he tried to imagine Baldur reading for his own pleasure. Loki didn‘t notice him. Thor finished that days early and didn‘t want to start something new, so he just put his tools away and locked garage doors as he spotted Loki still sitting on the swings and reading. He approached him while trying to rub away some machine oil from his hands with a old rack. „What are you reading?“ he tried to sound as calm as possible not to scare Loki. Loki slowly lifted his eyes at Thor „Alice in wonderland“ and went back to reading. Thor remembered reading it when he was somewhere around Loki‘s age, but he forgot what was the plot about so he tried to ask something else „Aren‘t you cold sitting at the same spot not moving for so long?“. This time Loki even didn‘t bother looking at Thor „I don‘t have anything better to do and mother don‘t want me to leave the house“. When an ingenious idea struck Thor „Maybe you want to come to my place and play some "Sega" games or watch some vhs until your mother‘s back?“. He couldn‘t explain even to himself why he offered this, but Loki looked so lonely that Thor started to pitty him. Loki lifted his eyes at Thor again, but this time with much more excitement „Really? I can?“. Thor was happy that Loki‘s mood has lifted at the moment. „ Yeah, I don‘t see why you can‘t. Come on, lets go. What do you want to play?“. Loki closed his book and stood up from swings „Do you have Mortal Kombat?“. It was Baldur‘s favorite video game too as Thor could remember. He himself like racing games more. Maybe because Baldur was so much better at fighting games than he was and he rarely ever won against him. It appeared that Loki was better at video games too. He knew quite a lot about the characters and their features. And while Thor was losing fiftieth time in a row he started to think from what kind of background did Loki and Farbauti come. Time passed by quickly. Thor was happy having a company to play as he hadn‘t in a while. All his friends was older than he was, because all his friends from high school ware in different cities now studding at different colleges and he was the only one left behind as it was his own choice. The doorbell pulled both of them from the video game world. Thor stud up to open the door. It was Farbauti and she looked quite scared. „ Maybe you saw Loki today?“ she asked her voice trembling. „ Yeah, he‘s here.“ Thor moved to let her inside „I should have left a note or something. Sorry“ . But he didn‘t even have the chance to finish the sentence as Farbauti ran inside like a wind and hugged Loki in a tight embrace „Oh Loki, please never do something like this again, darling.“ She trembled and her eyes started to water. „ I‘m sorry, mom, I won‘t do this again“. After that time Farbauti lets Loki stay at Thor‘s place if he isn‘t bothering him. Mostly they would play video games or watch action movies or comedies. Time quickly passed by and Christmas holidays came along. Thor as almost all the house tenants left to visit his family and relatives. Only Farbauti and Loki was staying behind. They promised to look after the house while everyone was gone. Thor promised to bring back some home made sweets for them. Winter ended and spring came. It was getting warmer and warmer. Farbauti finally started to become warmer towards everyone. She even came time to time to prepare dinner at Thor‘s place after which tree of them would watch some kind of silly movie. Thor even started to think that maybe he has some kind of chances. But one morning in the middle of April Thor was woken by sharp sound of doorbell. It was still dark outside and he shivered as cold gust of wind came inside through the open door. It was Farbauti in one hand she was holding a small bag in the other she held a still half asleep Loki‘s hand. Thor step aside to let them in. „I‘m sorry to wake you up at this early hour, but could you watch over Loki for a few days? I need to get to the capital for a few days. I would be back by Thursday. I just feeling that it‘s safer to leave him with you. You wouldn‘t mind, would you?“. She talked so quick and it looked like her time was running out, but at that time Thor haven‘t suspected anything. Loki was always welcome at his place and he was quite independent child so Thor didn‘t see any reason why she shouldn‘t agree to help Farbauti and watch after Loki for few days. She was so happy when he agreed. Farbauti quickly knelled before Loki, who still couldn‘t fully understand what‘s going on „Promise you will be good and won‘t make any difficulties for Thor?“ she kissed him at the both cheeks and forehead. Then she stood up „I will be back by Thursday, ok? You even won‘t start to miss me, ok?“. Loki nodded. She kissed his forehead one more time and quickly turned away to leave as if staying any longer would have made it an impossible staff. Thor and Loki waved her goodbye as she sat in yellow cab and closed the front door. Thor got a warm woolen blanket and a spare pillow from the wardrobe and said than Loki could go sleep on the couch if he still wanted to sleep as Thor himself wasn‘t ready to begin his day yet. Three days passed, but Farbauti never returned. End Notes It's my first fanfic and english isn't my mother language n.n' Please drop_by_the_archive_and_comment to let the author know if you enjoyed their work!