Brynja and Loki lived together quite nicely in Asgard, surpassing the number of years anyone Thor's betting pool thought they would last. Most people assumed that after twenty years or so, Loki would get bored, start trying to take things over again, and would end up imprisoned or dead, which, given his history, was not an entirely unreasonable assumption. Instead, he had turned out to be quite fond of a more domestic life, especially with the two children to raise. Sunny, with her emerging interest in magic, asked both her mother and her stepfather to teach her what they could. She learned quickly, asking them to let her begin working with Freyja on occasion. She improved on their spells and reinvented them, playing with magic and challenging both of her parents to keep up to her. Her aptitude impressed Loki, as she started to show an interest in shape-shifting and projecting herself into other rooms and spaces. Both of them knew she would surpass them in skill.
Loki had been incredibly anxious about taking on the role of father to the two young girls, his primary concern being that he would have a favourite child and dote on her far more than the other, creating resentment in the same way he still somewhat resented Odin. Brynja reassured him he could love both children equally and, in time, he discovered he did. He sparred with Katja, teaching her how to fight with daggers and a staff, teaching her the foundation skills she would need to enter training with the soldiers when she was old enough. Loki taught Sunny magic. The three of them grew close, Loki often finding himself reading stories to them in the evening, a child on either side, Brynja getting things ready for the next day before joining them. They did this even as young teenagers, making up for the lack of storytelling from their birth father.
On occasion, both Loki and Brynja played tricks on one another, much to the amusement of the girls. Even as Sunny and Katja grew up, they found the little pranks funny, laughing as Loki jumped back from the cooking fire in the garden as the kindling came to life and dodged the flame or as Brynja found all of her clothes hanging upside-down when she went to dress for an evening event. Sunny joined the mischief as soon as she learned how, often leaving little tricks waiting for her parents when she went off to study with Freyja, her favourites involving little black newts so like the ones she had seen in the creek in upstate New York.
Brynja's children sought out a relationship with their father only when they were older- Sunny, the more forgiving of the two, had approached him first, asking him in her early teen years if they might meet for tea to discuss some things that had always bothered her. He acquiesced to her request and hoped the conversation would not be too horribly awkward. It was worse than awkward, but he endured it, answering questions she shot at him like arrows, carefully thought out and phrased in ways so he could not be evasive. They talked about his treatment of her mother, of her sister, his views on the place of women, and his relationship with his current wife. She asked about his torture of Loki, something she had only recently found out the extend of, and his feelings about her mother having taken Loki to her heart and to her bed. There were no questions Sunny felt were off limits and Fandral did his best to be patient during what he thought was probably the most difficult interrogation he would ever endure.
Katja came to Fandral many years later. She had established herself well as one of Sif's protege and showed up at Fandral's door in her full armour, gleaming in the evening sunlight. She had sworn off marriage, wanting only to focus on her studies with Sif. She told him she did not want to speak to him if he still did not want a daughter who was a warrior. Fandral thought back to the years before and looked at his wild daughter, her eyes sharp like her mother's. He opened his arms and embraced her, apologising for his mistake, revealing that he had not valued her for who she was, but resented what he saw in her that reminded him of her mother and the traits that reminded him too much of Loki- her sharp and often insolent tongue, the deep way she felt and remembered every slight, and her ability to hold a grudge for years, carefully planning for the opportune moment for payback. Katja asked what he thought of her now, still the girl she was, but also so much more powerful in her skills as a fighter both with weapons and with words. Fandral finally told her he was proud of her. Katja considered that enough and asked no more questions.
By the time that Loki and Brynja had been together in Asgard for fifty years, Thor was spending more time in Midgard with Jane. She was nearing the end of her life and he wanted to be there for her passing. Loki and Brynja encouraged him every way they knew how to spend all the time he could with her, even intervening with Odin when he put too much pressure on Thor to focus on the throne. Thor came to Brynja for advice on burial customs and to talk about what Jane had requested for her funeral. He had never watched a lover die and knew Brynja had, so he took her aside and asked her to tell him about her beloved Midgardian girl who had died of a plague and to tell him how to cope with all the rites of burial that were so different in Midgard than what he was used to in Asgard. She told him about Sunflower and he cried on her shoulder for what he would lose. She showed him the gold ring she had worn now for nearly a century and asked if he and Jane had ever exchanged such tokens. Thor was inspired by the gesture and vowed to talk to Jane about it. When Thor returned to Asgard, he made it a point to show Brynja the gold band around his finger and to describe the thin ring with three small diamonds that he had given to his beloved.
When Jane died, Thor was distraught for weeks, but he finally had nothing that would stand between him and his rightful place on the throne. Odin began to once again pressure his son to step up to take leadership of Asgard. Brynja worried about Loki during this time. She watched him closely, and he did seem to fidget more often, losing his temper quickly and resorting to snide comments when Thor's ascension was mentioned, as though the old jealousy was coming back. She worried about what he was going to do as history essentially repeated itself.
Katja cornered him one day after witnessing a particularly vicious interaction between Loki and her mother which left Brynja having a difficult time hiding her sadness.
With arms crossed, she blocked his path and said, "We need to talk."
"Step aside, Katja."
"Nope. You're not dodging this. We're talking. Now."
He sighed, irritated but knowing that it would take longer to argue with her than it would to just listen to her, "Then talk, and be quick about it."
"You'd better knock this shit off and knock it off quick. I'm watching you. You're getting weird. You're acting sneaky and like you're planning something stupid. I don't know what you have up your sleeve, but I will not hesitate to kick your ass if I have to," she said.
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"Every time somebody starts talking about Thor's coronation, you get twitchy and mean. You've got everybody on edge. Grandmother says she's seen this before and she's not showing it, but she's freaked out. You may have throne-envy, but that's no reason to treat Mother like shit, either. And you'd better start remembering what you do have or else you're going to push things too far and lose everything. You act like Thor's got the whole world right now, but you know what he doesn't have? His love. She's dead. And yes, he's getting a throne, but that seems like shit compensation to me. So which is more important to you? Which would you rather have? Because I've actually talked to Thor and if he could have made Jane one of us, he'd have done it in a heartbeat and given up the throne for good in exchange. If you don't start acting like the woman you love is more important than a goddamned chair, title, and stick of power, I'm going to shave those pretty locks off while you sleep, mister...and don't you think I wouldn't." The glare Katja gave Loki as she delivered her threat almost made Loki step back, partially in awe, partially in fear.
Loki briefly thought about brushing off her threat as mere posturing, but remembered that Katja had once threatened one of the stable boys that if he touched her a second time she would dislocate every finger he had. The stable boy had made the mistake of swatting her rear as she passed and she had stopped, taken a deep breath, turned, grabbed him by the throat, thrown him in the nearest empty horse stall, and proceeded to carry out her threat. While Brynja had been very upset with her daughter's problem solving method, it had caught Sif's attention as well as the attention of every other servant who had entertained the thought of possibly attempting to woo Katja and gained her the lack of male attention that she liked. He also knew better than to taunt her by asking just how she would manage to carry out her threat while he slept- if she phrased things just right, she would have no problem convincing Sunny to make sure he was sleeping very deeply before she began.
Katja knew he was thinking by the fact that he did not immediately answer, "So which is it? Is Mother the most important thing in your life, or is this egotistical quest to rule something? Can't you accept that her heart is the most important kingdom you will ever get the chance to hold in your hands?" Loki tried to think of something sarcastic to say and was, for once, at a loss for words.
Katja did not push him for an answer, but instead simply said, "I'll be watching," before turning abruptly and leaving him standing alone in the hall.
Loki wandered the palace aimlessly for a few hours, pondering. He returned to the rooms he shared with Brynja early that evening and, before saying a word, passionately kissed her.
After their lips parted, he held her close and whispered, "I'm so sorry." Brynja rested her head on his shoulder and hoped that he meant he was sorry for the morning's fight, not for something she either did not know about or he had yet to do.
A month before Thor's coronation, Brynja met with Freyja and after, came home to tell Loki that she was with child.
She stood in front of him, her hands tucked in the sleeves of the heavy cable-knit sweater she liked to wear on the chilly evenings of Asgard's autumn, "So...yeah. I'm pregnant. Freyja confirmed it."
Loki noticed her hesitation, "Are you not joyful for this?"
She sighed, "Let's just say it's been a long time and labour is a bitch."
He smiled, "While I cannot understand this the same way that you do, I have given birth to an eight legged horse and can somewhat sympathise with the unpleasantness of the physical changes that take place when a little being is growing inside."
She tried to smile as he stepped forward to gather her in an embrace, "Thanks, Loki. I'm excited, I guess, but I'm also nervous. Sunny was not an easy baby to deliver. Freyja says she almost lost me more than once. Its scary to think about doing it again."
Loki stroked her hair, "My love, I'll be by your side. I would not miss the birth of our child for anything in all the nine realms."
Brynja kissed his cheek, "I'd like to wait to tell anyone, though- at least until once we're past the biggest risk."
"Even the girls?" he asked.
"Even the girls," she answered.
Loki nuzzled her neck, his lips gently brushing her soft skin, "Oh love, it's beautiful that we have something that we don't have to share. Something just ours."
They kissed and cuddled the evening away, dreaming about how their lives would change with the birth of a baby. Loki was both excited and terrified, frightened that he would repeat the mistakes Odin made with him, especially if the child was a son. Brynja comforted him, stroked his hair, gently slipped her hands under his shirt and up his back. They spent the night intimately, quietly, allowing themselves to celebrate the growing child inside Brynja through loving touch.