Always Her Son
"Thor, please! Don't do it! No!" Five-year-old Loki Odinson's wails echoed off the walls of the menagerie as Thor carried the small snake towards the rabbit cage.
"It is only a bit of fun," Thor said boisterously, sliding back the clear glass door on the cage where the rabbit was peacefully nibbling some leaves and dropping the hissing snake inside. "I want to see if the rabbit can fight the snake."
"Noooooo," Loki shrieked, tears welling in his bright green eyes as the rabbit squeaked in fright as it scurried into the corner of the cage. The little boy was highly sensitive to all small living things, and some instinct deep within his young heart told him the encounter between the snake and the rabbit would not end well for the latter of the two animals.
"Do not be such a wimp!" Thor rolled his brilliant blue eyes at his younger brother, stepping back to watch the spectacle playing out in the cage with fascination. "Why do you always cry about everything? If you can't watch a little fighting you'll never get to watch the boxing matches, or be a great warrior like Father!"
"I am not a wimp!" Loki protested, angrily blinking away the moisture in his eyes. "I just don't see why you like to make things suffer! It's not fair or right! Mother always says-"
"There you go with 'mother always says' again! Mummy's boy!" Thor jeered.
I am not a mummy's boy! Loki thought furiously, but kept silent. He did love his mother dearly, and he hated it when his older brother mocked him for spending most of his time at his mother's knee reading books rather than making mischief with Fandral and Vostagg as Thor did. His attention was drawn away from Thor's insult, however, as the snake reared up, hissing as it slithered towards the rabbit cowering in the corner of the cage in terror. Suddenly consumed with a desire to save the rabbit Loki rushed towards the cage, but he was too late. The snake shot forwards like an arrow shot by the most skilled of archers, reared, and struck its fangs deep into the rabbit's neck before the little boy was even halfway across the room.
Loki screamed in horror as the snake struck. The rabbit squeaked loudly and struggled desperately for several seconds as two streaks of blood stained its white fur, before the light faded from its eyes and it became still.
Loki froze, horrified, and then turned on Thor accusingly. "Y-y-you killed it!" he stammered, as his eyes welled once more, tears spilling down his little cheeks. "I told you not to put the snake in with the rabbit, but you didn't listen and now it's dead!"
Thor actually looked a bit disconcerted. "It's not a big deal," he insisted, sounding a bit unsure of himself. "The rabbit just wasn't strong enough to fight the snake." The young blonde boy grinned boisterously. "When I grow up, I'm going to be a warrior and I'm going to crush all my enemies, just like Father! Father always says that the strong people will defeat the weak!"
Loki, however, was not interested in hearing his older brother parrot his father's philosophies, distraught as he was over the rabbit's unfortunate death. Tears streaming down his cheeks, he fled the room in search of his mother, Frigga.
"Mummy! Mummy!"
Frigga, wife of Odin Allfather and Queen of Asgard, looked up from proof-reading a treaty Odin had asked her to review as her younger son came running into her office, his normally pale face flushed, tears streaming down his cheeks. Alarmed, the Queen rose, her embroidered skirts rustling, and scooped up the thin five-year-old, brushing her sleeve across his face to wipe away his tears. "Why, Loki, whatever is the matter?" she asked, frowning gently. Loki was a sensitive child, but rarely cried.
"Mother," Loki sobbed, "T-Th-Thor put a snake in the rabbit's cage and the snake bit the rabbit and now it's d-d-dead!" His green eyes overflowing with tears, he buried his face in his mother's shoulder, weeping bitterly.
Oh, by Vahalla itself. Frigga thought in exasperation as she began to rock her younger son slowly. Her elder son Thor was not a malicious boy, not at all, but often did not think before acting and was thus sometimes guilty of unintentional acts of cruelty. "Shh, it's all right, Loki. Why did Thor put the snake into the rabbit cage?"
Loki raised his tearstained face from her silken robe, hiccupping. "He said he wanted the rabbit to fight the snake, but it couldn't! I told him not to put it in but he wouldn't listen to me!"
Frigga sighed. While Loki was certainly a mischievous boy (he had once put several large spiders into Thor's bed simply because the older boy hated spiders) he was kind and compassionate, and hated to see any creature suffer. Thor was not so considerate. "I'm very sorry about what happened to the rabbit, Loki," she soothed, walking over to the couch and seating herself with her son in her lap. "I can get another one if you like, and I will speak to Thor about unnecessary cruelty. This really could have been avoided."
Loki sniffed, snuggling into her shoulder. "I don't understand why Thor likes to see things hurt, Mother," he mumbled.
"Thor is not a malicious boy," the blonde queen whispered softly, running a hand over Loki's shiny black hair. "He just does not think before he does things, and he is imbibing the warrior mindset a little more quickly than I would like."
Loki's little brow wrinkled. "Mother, what does eem-bye-bing mean?" he queried, pronouncing the long word with exaggerated care.
Frigga laughed. Sometimes, with how mature he is, I forget he is only five. "Imbibing means…" she hesitated, searching for the right analogy, "it means to drink something or to accept it. When I said that Thor is imbibing the warrior mindset, I meant he is accepting the warrior mindset, becoming someone who thinks like a warrior."
"Oh," Loki nodded, wiping the last of his tears from his cheeks. "Thor did say that Father said the strong always defeat the weak. Is that true, Mother?" He looked up at Frigga with wide emerald eyes, "that the strong always kill the weak, like the snake killed the rabbit?"
The blonde Queen very nearly grimaced. Loki was growing up far too fast for her taste, and Thor was getting some strange ideas. Odin had a good heart, but sometimes he went just a little bit overboard in his zeal to impress upon his sons the importance of strength. "No, that is not true," she said firmly. "Thor is not right about that. Rather, the job of a true warrior is to protect the weak. The strong must protect the weak, must defend those who cannot defend themselves."
"Like Father defended Asgard from the Frost Giants?" Loki asked, becoming animated, his green eyes sparkling as his face flushed anew.
Frigga felt suddenly cold, as if her maid had dumped a bucket of ice water over her during a warm bath, and had to struggle to keep her face straight as she replied, "Yes, like that, dear, but I do not think we should talk about such unhappy subjects anymore. I have a little bit of proof-reading left to do on this treaty, so perhaps you could read quietly while I finish? Then, when I am done, we will take a walk in the gardens together, and I will tell you a story. Would you like that?"
"Yes, Mother, yes!" Loki exulted, slipping off her lap and scampering off to find a book to read.
The queen smiled gently at her son, and crossed to her desk to finish her task, though her mind was no longer on the treaty. There has been "peace" with the Jotuns for over four years now, but Frigga's mind had never been easy about the Giants since that battle, not since…Odin and she had adopted Loki. Loki, like all Asgardian children, had been regaled with the story of Odin's famous battle against Laufey and the Frost Giants multiple times and taught that the Frost Giants were a barbaric, bloodthirsty race; what would he do when he found out that he himself was one of them? Would he hate himself, think that he was a monster? Sometimes Frigga could hardly bear the irony of the fact that Odin and others told a little Frost Giant that the Jotuns were evil, and she had pleaded with her husband many times to tell Loki the truth about his heritage and cease the anti-Jotun talk. Despite her pleas, however, the Allfather continued to insist that keeping Loki in the dark was for the best.
Whatever, happened, however, Frigga was determined that she would never allow Loki's heritage to change her opinion of him. In fact, she thought most Asgardians really didn't give the Frost Giants as a race as much leeway as they should. How could the race itself be evil if it had produced her own son Loki, who was one of the gentlest children she had ever known? Surely, surely there could be redemption for some of them…and even if there was not, she knew that one of them was going to turn out well: Loki Laufeyson, her adopted son, known to all as Loki Odinson.
There was a rustling in the corner as the little Frost Giant Frigga had called son for over four years reentered the room. She smiled to herself as she surreptitiously watched Loki settle himself into an armchair, snuggling deep into the pillows before opening a book that looked too large for such a small boy to be perusing. You are my son, Jotun or not, Frigga swore silently to herself as she turned back to the pages of parchment covering her desk. I care not what others will say about you when they discover you are a Frost Giant; you shall always be my son.
Author's Note—
A while back, good friend of mine (Stilwater Rundeepo-I urge to read her Avengers fanfiction; it is *extremely* good) introduced me to the Avengers fandom, managing to help turn me into a Hiddlestoner at the same time, and I finally watched the movie "Thor" several days ago, as well as the deleted/extended scenes. Based on Loki's personality and what we see of his relationship with his mother during the movie, I came to strongly believe that Loki is a "mummy's boy" (even Tom Hiddleston himself has said Loki is a "mummy's boy")…and the idea for this fic was conceived. I actually wrote most of it in my head last night while trying to get to sleep, typed it up this evening, and…voila! Here we are.
Lest you think I hate Thor, I believe the guy has a heart of gold, but he seems to me like the type who would have been unkind to small animals in his youth, and Loki would have been horrified by his "experiments." The rabbit was originally a hamster, but I changed it to a rabbit to make the story feel more Asgard-y. I like rabbits, by the way.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this silly little story, and please leave a review if you can!
-Sabre