Chapter Text
The last days of good autumn weather were saying their goodbyes to New York. Though the temperature was still pleasant and rain so far limited to a few nightly showers, the leaves were turning bright gold and red and had started to litter the sideways along the parks. The distinguished building of Asgard Enterprises was located at the edge of such a park, providing the residents of the higher floors with a spectacular view of New York in a riot of colours.
The view was sadly lost on Loki, second son of Asgard’s CEO Odin Asgard. In fact, a whole month of such views had gone by unnoticed as he had nearly barricaded himself in his small office (which had quite a lovely view) in order to get the dozens of reports his father requested out on time. To make matters worse, he had been battling a very persistant flu over the course of that month and the medication his doctor had given him for it wasn’t doing the trick. Loki knew that he would have healed by now if he had cut back on his hours and had used that time to sleep and let his body fight of the virusses. Instead, he had trusted in antibiotics and aspirins to battle the fever and nagging pain in his joints.
The rhythm of his steady typing was broken as the door to the office was thrown open. Loki cursed to himself as his older brother waltzed in as if he owned the room. He had been making good time on his last report and it looked as if he would actually finish before 8 o’clock that evening for a change.
As usual the large blond man was dressed not in a suit, but designer jeans and a sweatshirt that probably cost as much as Loki’s tailored Armani. “Brother!” Thor boomed, completely oblivious to being rather unwelcome at the moment. “Why are you still here? It’s already half past 5 on a friday evening. You should go out and relax, your precious numbers will still be here on monday.” He pulled out a chair without waiting for an invitation and dropped heavily into it. Loki imagined he could hear the poor thing squeel at the abuse.
“While the numbers may wait, Thor, father will not. He requested I have this on his desk by monday morning and that’s exactly when I intend it to be there.” Resigning himself to his brother’s disruptive presence, Loki took the opportunity to plop another aspirin into his glass of water and watched as it fizzed while it dissolved. Really, how long could this stupid flu drag on anyway? “Was there anything you wanted, Thor?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact there is.” Thor bent foward and leaned on the desk, giving his brother a conspiratory grin, “Father has asked me to go over the numbers of last quarter so I can sit in on the general assembly next week.” His grin became even wider as Loki raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “We both know that I won't understand all the implications of them, so I thought I could swing by this weekend so you could explain them to me.”
Loki frowned down at his glass before looking back at his brother. He had had other plans for his weekend, namely crawling into his bed this evening and preferably not comming out of it again before 7am on monday. “Have you at least tried to understand them?” he asked, voice dangerously close to a whine.
“We both know I have little interest in this company, brother. Frankly, we have much better people to lead it than me. There is father and a whole lot of managers. And you, of course. I’m sure whatever they decide will be fine. No need for me to drudge through all those boring things.” Thor replied, casually streching backward and linking his hands behind his head, sprawling like the All-American God he thought himself to be.
Loki downed his glass of aspirin, deciding he would need it for more than the persistent fever. Apparently his brother had deemed it a great day to gift him with a headache. “Thor, you cannot just concern yourself with parties for the rest of your life. You’re 31! Father is not going to do this forever and managment only brings you so far. There are people who have to work out the headlines of business for the future. And as his son, father is looking to you to be part of that team.” He scrubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “Just come to my place on saturday, alright, I’ll take you through them.” He barely succeeded in biting back the ‘again’ that he really wanted to finish the sentence with.
Thor pouted but knew better than to disappoint their father in something as important as this. “Fine, but not before the noon, I’m going out with my friends tonight. And make sure you have beer, I want to at least be able to mix the pleasant with the necessary evil.” And with that he jumped out of his chair and strolled out without a care in the world. Loki, left with his numbers and silence once more, sighed before he began typing again. It would be 9 pm before he saw the front door of his appartment.