The flinch makes Thor smile grimly, before glancing away with guilt. It was no more correct for Thor to hurt Loki, while speaking of their mother, than the other way around. And thus Thor should not feel as pleased or justified in his vengeance as he did, when his little brother displayed that fear. Here was Frigga's youngest son, not an enemy. Never an enemy. Only... because they weren't enemies, that made Thor angrier at having been so foully mistreated.

Fuming with a very sulky expression, Thor clenched his jaw and ground out, "Because you have something of yourself, left in there somewhere. You are better than this. You, who built the library to honor her. You would inflict this upon your brother and father, upon her family and yours. You are above causing such heartache, in pointlessness."