It had been a long mission to Vanaheim, the old gods proficiency in magic and their uncanny ability to tell the future made the estimated month long venture into almost three. Loki's entire body ached, and after Thor's debriefing and releasing the soldiers after their final formation, he was surprised at how quickly his tired feet moved.
He couldn't remember getting home, but there he was, staring intently at the door of his home. Sigyn worked hard on her flower beds at the front of their house, and Loki smiled at the small patch that clearly had the mark of being created by children, their children. He thought he had been blessed beyond words when he met Sigyn and she had fallen in love with him, something he would never have thought would happen to him. He thought the greatest day of his life when they were married, something he would feel five times over as he stood by her side as she delivered their children.
The door swung open easily, thankfully the work he had done on those squeaky hinges a week before he left had stuck. The house was dark and very, very quiet. He stealthfully navigated the toys that had been left out on the floor and headed for the stairs.
The first door at the landing belonged to their youngest boy Ask, Loki wanted nothing more than to ruffle the little boy's curly, dark mop of hair, and listen as he told Loki about all of his adventures. But little Ask wasn't in his bed; maybe he was with Jarl his big brother, he always tagged along with him. Loki moved silently to Jarl's room, thinking that the 10-year-old boy would have acted annoyed at his 3-year-old brother wanting to crawl into his bed, but he really wouldn't mind.
Jarl wasn't in his bed either.
Anxious now Loki checked the bedrooms of Saga their eldest daughter, who looked so much like her mother, then Anna, he felt like he would vomit when he finally checked the room of newborn Astrid to find her cradle empty.
Loki thought of calling Thor to tell him his family had been kidnapped, to form a search party.
But surely the neighbors would have heard something. He tried to reason, but he stood at his own bedroom door and placed a shaking hand on the handle.
He thought he would collapse on the floor when his eyes found the sleeping forms all piled on his bed. Sigyn had scoffed when Loki had that bed commissioned, they did not need a bed that large, she had tried to tell him, but Loki was adamant.
Sigyn had her arms wrapped around baby Astrid and little Ask. Jarl was stretched out at the foot of the bed, next to 7-year-old Anna, and 14-year-old Saga lay with her back to her mother.
Loki crawled into the bed, there was just enough space if he tucked in his legs, and he laid a long arm across Saga's, Sigyn, and crossing lightly over Astrid, and brushed his fingers in Ask's curly hair.
"Father?" Saga whispered sleepily.
"Shhh, go back to sleep, little dove," He replied, placing a kiss on her forehead.
He could have done without thinking he had lost all of them, he thought, as his mind drifted off into a deep sleep, but he couldn't have imagined a better first night home.