Title: Vessels
Author: Yami no Kaiba
Fandom(s): Merlin / Thor
Rating: PG
Pairing(s): Arthur/Merlin, Thor/Loki
Length: 1,645 words

Summary: Be careful what you wish for – you might just get it.
Disclaimers: Marvel Comics and any of its subsidiaries/partners owns the personality-characters Thor and Loki and the conceptual universe they exist in. BBC likewise owns the personality-characters Arthur, Merlin, and Uther and the conceptual universe they exist in. (Mythology and Legend of course owns the characters themselves.)

Note: I downloaded some new fonts for this, but as they're not html images I have no idea how to convey them here in posting. As such, bolded words are supposedly spoken using Elder Futhark symbols (which look pretty awesome in my Word document).

*---*---*---*---*

The first thing Loki does when he blinks open unfamiliar eyes is scream his anger to the heavens and burn the forest down. That he startles some of the foolish humans surrounding him to step out of their protective circle and catch fire barely soothes his anger.

He is no longer what he was – bound to mortal flesh not of his making, warmed by magics that hold a bare candle to what he had known. He is far less than what he was, and it drives him to a height of madness he'd never known before despite all the tortures and punishments he's endured during the millennia.

"Perfect," the word was whispered, yet heard under the snaps and pops as the wood burned and the delirious screams of the walking dead roared about them. Loki's borrowed eyes track to the most intricately dressed of the lot of robbed men. "To think that we would capture the God of Fire himself! A more fitting end to Uther there can never be."

"Fools," Loki breathes, and effortlessly breaks the magical binds with a thought. The blank surprise and confusion the mortal exhibits only drives him further. "I am Loki, the God of Mischief; the Betrayer, the Destroyer. I defy Odin himself! I bow to no one, especially not a mortal!"

"Elder," one of the robbed minions demanded in a panic, "are not the Gods supposed to speak the all-tongue?"

"I believe he speaks the old-tongue, from back before our forefathers crossed the seas," the old man said with an air of awe.

Loki smiled, sharp edged and dangerous, before snapping his fingers, pushing the meager human magic at his control to break through the weakened protection of the circle and light them all on fire.

*---*---*

"I think I'm going to be sick," came a thought not his own in the silence of the charred wood.

"Be ill all you wish," Loki hissed, sneering at the sounds of the language he'd pillaged the memories of his host for slipped past the stolen lips with little effort. "Better you get over it while the physical aspect cannot occur."

"Why are you still even here?" the voice said, high and strained. "I mean, those druids are dead – shouldn't you, I don’t know, leave now?"

"Incipient child, do you not know anything?" Growling at a fallen tree in his way, Loki chanted low under his breath to shift into the form of a fox and dart over it's trunk and down the path.

"Sheesh, you're more of a prat than Arthur. I know lots of things, just... not about this. Though considering the amount of times I've been or seen people possessed, you'd think I'd know more."

"I was summoned to fulfill a task," he thought back, as white-tufted paws beat the ground below him. "Until this body dies or the task is complete, I cannot leave. If you'd been stupid enough to be a willing sacrifice for this madness, I'd slit your throat and be done with it, but -"

"I was kidnapped and used," the host replied, not without a bit of relief.

"Yes. And I... know what it is like, to be used without consent."

"So we're going to be like this for the rest of my life?"

Canines flashed in a toothy smile. "No."

"But that means – No, I won't let you kill Uther! He's Arthur’s father!"

"And I won't," he replied, jumping over another fallen log and into the green meadow beyond.

The voice of his host gave a frustrated huff. "Then what are you doing?"

"I am Loki the Betrayer. I will be used by no one," he sent back, dark and furious. "And what I said would be true, for any mortal or non-mortal. But I am also Loki the Trickster, and for me there is always a third way."

*---*---*

"Merlin!" a blond child-man in armor of poor quality – though perhaps when not compared to the metals the Gods had, it was serviceable – and a red cape rushed forward past the gate guards and hugged Loki. "You're alive!"

Loki hummed in self satisfaction. "Yes, as I thought - you'll do nicely."

"Merlin?"

"You're partially right. I'll explain further when we're not surrounded by so many pointy sticks of stabbing," Loki replied absently, then finished the gestures to teleport the two back to the clearing he'd woken up in.

"Oh my God, oh my God, I can't believe you just did that! How could you do that?! I thought you weren't trying to kill me!"

"I – those are bones. And it smells like a smoke house, and you're a sorcerer, how the hell are you a sorcerer, you're the stupidest idiot I've ever known -"

"QUIET, BOTH OF YOU!" Loki snarled, shutting them both up. "The bones were misguided idiots that got what they deserved."

The sound of steel against steel, and the blond mortal was waving one of the pig stickers at him. "I don't know who you are, but you aren't Merlin. Reveal your true form, coward."

Lips twisted in condescension, Loki crooked his fingers and turned the sword into a rope that immediately dropped onto the forest floor. "Good to know you're observant. Believe you me, I'd love to do nothing more than that."

"Then do it already," Arthur growled.

"Ah, see, here-in lies the problem, idiot boy," Loki mocked while sitting down on the blood-encrusted altar he'd been strapped to when he woke up. "The dead idiots at your feet made sure I can't do it myself. But with your help, I can summon someone I trust enough to instruct on how to split me from this mortal shell."

"Mortal shell? Then that is Merlin's body you're in!"

"Hnn. You're kinda cute when you bristle like that. As cute as a curled up hedgehog. Don't you think so, Merlin?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

The blond finally stopped spluttering in impotent rage. "If I help you, will you leave the lands of Camelot after?"

"Yes, yes, like I'd want to spend another moment here. This place reeks of decay and stagnation – of course, Asgard does as well, but to a much lesser extent."

"Asgard?"

"My home. Now, are you willing to help your friend -"

"Merlin's not my friend."

"Oh, yes, definitely not friends."

"Fine! Are you willing to help your not-friend?"

The mortal prince hesitated before nodding.

"Good." Slipping off the altar, he walked up to the blond and placed a hand on the boy-child's temple. "Thor, Brother. Come to me. I need thee."

The blond's blue eyes fluttered closed, and when next they opened, Loki knew it wasn't the mortal prince. "Loki," he growled, deep and angry. "What have thy done?"

"Nothing you can't fix, Brother. Now, listen to what I have to say, and we'll be done before nightfall."

"This boy – sorry, Prince – does not trust you, Brother. I do not as well."

"Then trust I want what's mine, and this," Loki gestured to the body he was in, "while I do admit to it being of my blood, is far from mine."

Thor's borrowed eyebrows rose. "Of your blood?"

"Many, many generations removed, but mine none the less. Believe me, I can tell. Black hair, light eyes, magic in the blood, destined for great things? It's been millennia since we've walked Midgard, Brother, but I can still tell my git from others."

The blond hair shakes as Thor moves it. "The number of your children grows. I should not be surprised. Alright then. What must I do?"

"I will lend you part of this body's magic. You will then repeat the words I say – they will release my soul from this mortal, freeing you as well since the task you came to perform is ended."

"Very well. The hall of our Father awaits, Loki. Let us begin."

*---*---*

"Well," Merlin shifted his weight, wincing and skittering to the side like a frightened colt as bone cracked beneath him. "That... was weird."

Arthur walked forward and slapped him upside the back of the head. "We just had Pagan Gods wearing our bodies like animal skins, and all you can say is 'weird'? How you could ever be 'destined for great things' I'll never know!"

"Ow," Merlin muttered, rubbing the arching spot. "Well, it's more that you're destined for great things, and I'm along for the ride, and in proxy doing great things myself."

"Huh," blue eyes blinked and studied the dark headed boy. "That actually made sense."

"Well, I can't be an idiot all the time," Merlin replied, lacing the words thick with sarcasm.

A plate-mailed arm slung around the bony shoulder. "Let's get back to Camelot."

"I... can't. The guards saw me using magic to kidnap you, remember?"

A gloved hand ruffled his dark locks. "Idiot. They saw magic used, but who's to say it was you?"

Blue eyes rose to meet blue. "Um... you?"

"And why would I do that? I'd have to break-in an entirely new manservant. Do you have any idea how long that takes? That's way more hassle than I need."

"Arthur..."

*---*---*

"Brother," Thor sighed, as Loki used his fingers to ripple the image of the boys away. "Was all that really necessary?"

"Well, no," Loki mused, looking up with a feigned innocence Thor knew well was a lie. "I might have embellished a bit, about how we couldn't leave on our own."

Thor smiled fondly, and laid a hand on Loki's shoulder for a hard squeeze. "Let it never be said you aren't a wonderful Father, Loki."

"Touch me again and you'll regret it," Loki murmured under his breath, eyes shuddered, though he did nothing to remove Thor's hand.

Thor took it for the invite he knew it was, and pulled Loki in for a long embrace.

-- Fin.