Add more fics, update the summary post again…

The series title is an abbreviation of a Nietzsche quote (obviously, because I’m me), “Whatever is done from love always occurs beyond good and evil” (aphorism 153 of, you guessed it, Beyond Good and Evil), which is quoted at the end of “The Tree of Knowledge” and “Winter, Autumn, and Spring.”

Most of the stories stand reasonably well on their own, but the later ones do presuppose and build on the events of the earlier ones, so you’ll have the fullest understanding if you’ve read them as a series. All fics are canon-compliant except “Starting Over,” which was written before Thor: Ragnarok came out and goes in a different direction. I’ve put it at the end, even though chronologically it would take place before the post-Ragnarok fics, to indicate that it’s on a separate, canon-divergent branch of the timeline and none of the others are sequels to it. 

1. Desert Flowers
“Loki, what are you doing in there? Dissecting a dead skunk?” Loki introduces Thor to marijuana and (finally) gets him to talk philosophy; the conversation goes in a somewhat unexpected direction. “Norns, Loki, the lengths you’ll go to just to win an argument…” [Spoiler alert: they kiss.]
Notes: Rated T, not E, because there’s no sex yet.

2. The Tree of Knowledge
“Loki kissed me. What in Hel was that about? was the first thought that entered Thor’s mind when he woke up. And I kissed him back.” The day after Loki and Thor got stoned together and Loki kissed Thor – purportedly just to prove a philosophical point – Thor looks for an explanation from his evasive brother, and comes to realize that his own feelings for Loki are not what he had thought they were.
Notes: There is sex in this one, but they start slow (just hands). This one is a pretty close follow-on to “Desert,” and wouldn’t make a lot of sense without having read it.

3. The Paradox of Desire
Shortly after they first become lovers, Thor and Loki negotiate some of the details of the relationship. Thor tries to play the older, wiser, protective big brother; Loki isn’t buying it. [Or, the first one in which they discuss the dynamics of topping and bottoming.]
Notes: And now we add mouths to the sex situation. Relatively independent from its predecessors, but does make some references to “Tree.”

4. First Things [in progress]
A reader requested Loki’s first time (with penetrative sex), so here we are. The first try does not go quite as planned, so Thor asks some advice from a friend who happens to work at a brothel and has given him some quality sex advice before.
Notes: Anal sex is the end game, obviously, but in the meantime we get some heavy fingering, intercrural sex, and butt plugs. References mostly to “Paradox.”

5. “Rarely Looks Up, Rarely Loves”
Loki just wants to lie on his bed and read after dinner; Thor has other activities in mind. They arrive at a compromise.
Notes: Just oral sex again. Originally posted as a silly little Tumblr ficlet inspired by some fanart, but it fit into my little canon-compliant universe where Loki is a big Nietzsche fan, and it was long enough, so I gave it its own installment. Depends on nothing else, nothing depends on it.

6. Lovers’ Leap
Hoping to get his anxious, moody brother to relax, Thor looks for advice from Frigga – who spent an adventurous youth in Vanaheim – as to what substances might help. She recommends “lovers’ leaf,” which she assures him is not an aphrodisiac, but “approximates the feeling of falling in love—or rushing headlong into love, more like. Giddiness, euphoria, the sense that all is right with the world. It tends to come with loquaciousness and relaxed inhibitions, and often an intense craving for touch. So don’t be alarmed if you find Loki becoming unusually… cuddly.”
Notes: No sex, just naked cuddling. Pretty much entirely independent of the others. Written to a prompt from darklittlestories, who won it in a fic giveaway: “Thor brings Lo some exotic offworld drink/drug that *melts* stressball/buttoned-up!Loki & has ecstasy-esque snuggly (or sexy?) properties and some sort of affection ensues 😀 Loki gets to chill.”

7. Winter, Autumn, and Spring
Ten years before Thor’s coronation, Loki realizes that they’ll no longer be able to hide their affair and decides they have to break it off, after a pre-arranged last night together. Just before the coronation, Loki’s resolve is tested.
Notes: No-holds-barred sex; pretty much everything is involved. Can be read on its own, but does quote from “Tree” and “Paradox” and allude to “Desert.”

8. Fraternizing with the Enemy
Set during Thor: The Dark World. After Thor goes to free Loki from prison and before they rendezvous with their co-conspirators, they revisit what they once were to each other, and try (painfully and indirectly, of course) to figure out what they are to each other now.
Notes: Just your standard anal sex smut. Written before any of its five immediate predecessors in the timeline, so most references are to “Tree.”

9. Persuasion
Post-Ragnarok. In Thor’s cabin aboard the Asgardian Ark, Thor and Loki are reunited; their reunion reflects the many ways in which both have learned and changed, as well as the many ways in which nothing has changed at all.
Notes: I had some mixed feelings about the electrocution scene in Thor: Ragnarok, so I worked them out in mildly sadomasochistic lightning sex. Oral sex, anal sex, Lichtenberg figures, and jealous/possessive!Thor.

10. Possibilities

Thor brings up a potentially sensitive subject with Loki in order to discuss something unexpected: the line of succession.
Notes: No sex, just an awkward conversation alluding to sex, and some weird ass jokes.

11. Starting Over [not Ragnarok-compliant]
After the events of Age of Ultron, Thor returns to Asgard to tell his father what he learned from his vision about the Infinity Stones. To his great surprise, Odin tells him he already knows; to his greater surprise, Odin is not really Odin. Thor and Loki have a long-overdue conversation about their past and their future (and more than conversation), and start the work of mending the rift between them.
Notes: Would be pretty standard anal sex smut if they didn’t spend so much time TALKING… The second chapter is pretty closely tied to “Fraternizing,” so I would recommend reading that; there are also some references to “Winter.” Loki’s account of his year in the Void is drawn from my gen fic The Abyss Gazes Also, but everything is fully explained in context so you don’t have to have read that to understand. Chapter 3 contains a vague discussion of BDSM, some very minor bloodplay, and some fun with fruit.

Whatever is done from love (Thor/Loki series) – Philosopher_King – Marvel Cinematic Universe [Archive of Our Own]