The Nine Realms

Finding Thor had not been difficult. Sending him dreams to explain Loki's recent behavior, was a bit of a shameful method, but the actual spells had not been difficult, either. What had been difficult, was facing him down. Being accused of forestalling Odin's recovery. Of throne-grabbing, torture, trespassing and lying.

Honestly, if he had been lying, that last accusation wouldn't have affected him as much. But the aggravating part, was that he'd finally told the truth! Well... about a third of the entire truth. But everything he had revealed had been truth, nonetheless.

The trespassing, he was guilty of. To be honest, he felt bad about it, when he could stop resenting the fact that he'd been driven to it in desperation. Thor had done nothing wrong; Loki had simply gotten himself into so much of a quandary, that he'd used forbidden magic on his brother. Even done as gently and meticulously as Loki had done it, the younger brother did not belong in Thor's mind. To make it worse, Loki knew what could happen, when another affected his own mind. So Thor's accusations had truly hurt him.

It had only been Loki's sobs of rage and pain, that had stopped his brother. Even then, Thor had been wary of approaching. Loki himself could not help but be bitter, that his elder brother apparently thought him such a terrible threat, even while so broken as this. The crown prince could never take him seriously, when he had been a viable threat. Now, broken and truthful as he was, now Thor thought him dangerous.

He hid on Midgard. No one would think to question him there, under an illusion which none of the residents knew how to perform. Here was the site of his failure with the Chitauri, and Thanos was unlikely to imagine that Loki might wish to return here. Of course, the Aqua one was still in place, able to be utilized, whenever Thanos wished it. Yet it had been over a year. Loki took his chances; it was the only possibility open to him, for he could not hide from himself. Well... anymore than he had, already.

Midgard was boring, at best. Their foods were interesting, but their books were like Thor. Focused on emotion, without an understanding of the universe outside their own Realm. Loki needed someone to talk to, and of course his alternate had sprung to mind.

Slipping through the portals was easy enough. He'd retraced his steps, last time, and was thus capable of accomplishing the journey again. Now, it was only a process of finding his alternate...