At the End of the Day (джен)

If he were truly in his own past, and he changed it now, he would never again catch up to the Thor he had left behind. Either that future would be scrubbed away or the universe would split into two paths taken in parallel, with no way for Loki to cross from one to the other. He was killing them just by being here. Or—almost worse, in the selfishness of his heart—he was not. Their lives would go on without him. They would wake and he would be gone and Thor—
Thor would think he had fled. Gone in the night without a word.