Sif's was not a warrior's life, not one filled with bloodshed and the undeniable lust for battle; it didn't run in her veins.
Hers was not the peaceful life, either, and instead it was riddled with wariness and mistrust, but perhaps a dash of mischief that could still manage to take her by surprise after so many years of its random appearance.
Her place was beside the throne, living in the royal palace as Asgard's queen, living and dealing with Loki, its king. They'd married shortly before Odin's death, and upon Thor's request, had quickly become Asgard's ruling couple.
It wasn't exactly a loveless marriage, but it was barren of the things she most longed for: stability and, more importantly, sanity.
Loki, for all his wisdom and steady ruling, could never quite keep his mind right, could never really keep himself from breaking down, could never ignore the weight of both his memories and his emotions. One moment he could be laughing, happy and childish, smiling at her with those eyes of his shining with mirth, and in the next instant he would be yelling, shouting harshly at her, insulting anything and everything he could, blaming her and blaming himself and cursing everything all over again.
She never flinched away from him, though, despite her desire to, because, contrary to popular opinion, she really did love him. She didn't appreciated his moodiness or his mockery or his cruelty, but in the snippets of genuine happiness that she saw during their years together, she had fallen in love with the trickster beyond return, had grown attached to the smirk he gave her when she made a humorous jest, had become eager to bring the light out in his usually dark gaze.
And for all of Loki's faults, for all of his secrecy and his self-hatred and his nightmarish thoughts, there were times that she knew, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he harbored love for his queen, and in those moments she was the happiest she could ever be, wrapped in his arms in dying candlelight as they fell asleep, content to dream of him and only him, content to let him follow her deep into slumber, content to live in that moment for all of her life, away from the politics of the court and hassle of the kingdom.
Based off a prompt given by rodlox over on Tumblr.
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