A/N:

Rated Mature for later content, but very G Rated for the first lksdfjl chapters - a very slow burn - but getting progressively less so as he and the Reader become more involved, eventually leading to D/s, Dominant Loki, spanking, sex, etc. So if that's not your thing . . .

Also, If being or having a lost kid is triggering, you might not want to read this.

In later chapters, if talk of mild abuse bothers you, you might not want to read this.

I just love the idea of Loki being like this. Sigh.

Imagine your headstrong little girl - who is very small for her age and quite delicate looking - refuses to use her stroller sometimes and does so this time because she insists on wearing her tiara. Apparently you are woefully ignorant of tiara etiquette, and are informed, in her lisping, lilting way, that girls who wear tiaras - and the wings and top off a Tinkerbell costume matched with a little green dance tutu as well as pink, sparkly sneakers - do not ride in strollers.

Which inevitably means that the first time you turn your back on her, she wanders off in the park in the middle of the city on a busy Saturday afternoon.

You are, of course, frantically looking for her, trying - unsuccessfully - to hold back tears as you do so.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the big park, a very tall, dark, sinister looking man in a strange uniform that deliberately makes him appear just that much bigger and more menacing, sees a beautiful, tiny little girl with a mass of brown ringlets on her head - who is hardly much more than a toddler - standing near the lake with her little fingers in her mouth, crying softly around them and being heartlessly ignored by passersby.

Shaking his head in disgust at Midgardians, the big man walks calmly and quietly over to the little girl, kneeling down before her as if to great royalty in deference to her tiara, but really just trying to make himself a little smaller so she'll be less likely to be afraid of him.

He affixes what he hopes is a friendly smile - that doesn't come at all naturally to him - to his face, hoping it doesn't look scary to the child, and speaks to her in a soft, soothing tone. "Greetings, tiny Princess. Are you, perhaps, looking for your mother?"

She nods slowly, fingers still firmly in place and big tears rolling continuously down her face.

"Well, I happen to be a prince myself - of sorts," he winks at her, and thinks he might see the beginnings of a tentative smile through her heart-wrenching sobs. "Would it be all right if I helped you find her? I'm much taller and I can see better, and I will very gladly fight off all manner of rabble to keep you safe until you're back in your mother's arms. I will not leave you until then."

Despite his reassurances, she nods slowly and a bit reluctantly, eying him with no small amount of suspicion.

She is obviously a very smart child, he thinks to himself.

"My name is Prince Loki," he says, placing his arm across his chest and bowing his head to her formally. "And you are Princess . . . ?"

"Wiwy," she answers, fingers finally being withdrawn from her mouth.

"I am very pleased to meet you, Princess Lily."

She delights him by then executing a somewhat wobbly curtsy, and this time his smile is more genuine than it has been in years. He chuckles in delight, straightening beside her. She looks a bit stricken that he's all the way up there now and she's all the way down there, but he instinctively offers her two long fingers to hold, which she grasps with a strength that surprises him - and sets his severely reluctant heart to aching for what he has missed in his life as he firmly, carefully wraps his other fingers around her little wrist.

"Where was she when you last saw her, little one?" he asks, walking with her very slowly, adjusting the length of his stride so that she won't be taxed trying to keep up with him.

But her tears, which had abated a bit for a moment, return with a vengeance at his question, and he is about to reach down to pick her up and comfort her when he hears a cry of distress, and out of nowhere, a young woman - who is the picture of what his little charge is probably going to look like when she's grown - begins to run frantically towards them.

"Lily, baby, there you are!"

In a flash, she was no longer holding his fingers in a death grip, and he no longer wonders just how anyone could have managed to lose such a precious treasure when she slips his hold to run to the woman who is obviously her mother.

He practically has to look away at the extent of the love and terror that shines clearly on your face as you, too, kneel before the little girl who launches herself into your arms, wrapping them around her and hugging her tightly to you, your eyes drifting closed on tears of relief, the heart that had stopped the second you'd realized she was missing now clogging your throat painfully.

When you finally stand, leaving Lily on her feet but keeping a firm hold on her hand, the man - who was not a man, you know - comes to stand in front of you, bowing elegantly and saying, "I am Prince Loki, my lady, and as such, I was honor bound to help Princess Lily find you. She is unharmed. We were just beginning to look for you."

Yeah, you'd been here when he'd attacked the city. You know exactly what kind of honor this creep had.

And yet there was no mistaking how tenderly you had seen him treating Lily when you'd first laid eyes on the odd pair - and he continues to do so, smiling benevolently down at the both of you. Although she had run to you to be picked up and hugged and loved on, when you set her down, she drifts back towards him to glom onto his fingers while still holding your hand, too, standing contentedly between the two of you as if it is something she does every day.

He recognizes that look of pure suspicion you're giving him - that was where Lily had gotten it from, no doubt, only her Mother's is even harder for him to bear, for some reason.

You reach down and snatch your daughter's hand from around Loki's fingers then pick her up, holding her away from him on your far hip, putting yourself between her and what you considered to be harm's way - him.

"I'll thank you to keep your homicidal, psycho hands off my daughter." You realize you're probably taking your life in your hands saying that, but you can't keep it in. It was bad enough that she was lost - the idea of her having been found by the likes of him made your blood run even colder.

Instead of looking angry or even slightly insulted at your colorful - and not necessarily inaccurate - description of him, a small, wry smile plays about his lips for a second before disappearing. Loki recognizes the bravery it took for you to say that to him - he can see that you're much more scared of him than your daughter was, although you're doing your best not to show it, and, although it hurts him, he can hardly blame you for the way you feel, or for trying to defend your child from him, although there was no need. You have no idea that he would never have harmed a hair on her darling little head, nor would he ever have allowed anyone else to hurt your diminutive Princess while she was in his care.

He looks slowly from you to your daughter and back, and you think you catch a glimpse of - was that wistfulness? - in his expression, but then it returns to a careful blank as he bows again.

"I shall leave you to your afternoon in the park. Goodbye, Princess Lily," he says, waving and smiling - just barely - at her as he steps away.

Lily whimpers and you turn your head for a second to see to her, but then she tries to lunge out of your arms in what was Loki's direction, but when you turn back around, he's gone as if he'd never been there in the first place.

"Woki?" Lily inquires, her head swiveling around quickly, looking for him. "Woki?" Her repetitions of his name become successively more teary, until she begins to cry at the loss of him, which is something you cannot fathom.