"Who are you?" Frigga demanded. Her fingers wrapped tight around the dagger she kept strapped to her arm, drawing it free of its sheath.
The cloaked figure, standing over the cradle, turned its head. Her child, the one Odin had brought home from Jotunheim, the one that Frigga now considered hers, was held within its arms. She held her ground, waiting. She could not risk any harm coming to her child, but she was not about to let this intruder take away her son.
"Would you deny me my farewell?" the figure asked, her voice feminine and strong, as if she was used to commanding authority. She turned her body toward Frigga, revealing brilliant green eyes. Frigga had seen those eyes before; they belonged to the newest addition of her family.
"Fárbauti," Frigga breathed out, recognizing her fellow Queen. "It was my understanding he had been abandoned." Fárbauti had always been more level headed than her husband, but Frigga was not about to forgive her for such an act, even if her child was considered a runt.
"Laufey wished to do so, to leave him for the wolves, but I begged him not to. He is our first child, and no matter how small, I could not let him go." Frigga believed her. There was no reason for Fárbauti to lie now. The Jotun Queen, wearing Æsir pale, held out one finger for her son to latch onto. He waved his little limbs around in the air, crying out in delight. Fárbauti smiled bitter sweetly, completely unconscious of doing so. Just as she had no reason to lie, she had no reason to keep her guards up around the Æsir Queen when their husbands were not present. "Laufey finally relented, but he would not allow us to stay together. If I was captured, he would not have our son captured with me. But the nurse who took him died. We found her body in the temple, crushed under a ruined wall. The best we can guess is that she threw him as far from herself as possible. He was never supposed to be alone."
"You said you were here to say goodbye." Frigga's voice softened. She had no reason to be mad with Fárbauti anymore. They both hear the unspoken, 'You are not here to take him back?' in her words.
"There is nothing I want more than to never let him go ever again, I would keep him in my arms forever. But…" Fárbauti's voice quivered and trailed off. She dropped the guise, and from where he clutched her finger, blue spread out along the babe's skin. It was the first time Frigga had seen him in his birth form. "He is so small," the other queen whispered so softly Frigga almost missed it. Fárbauti held him up and kissed his forehead before setting him back in the crib. The baby yawned, his skin turning pale again once away from the touch of his birth mother. Frigga recognized the determined set of Fárbauti's shoulders. If she did not place him down now, she truly never would let him go again. "He will have a better life here." Her voice did not waver, but the words were torn from her all the same.
"He is my son, Fárbauti. He will be the prince he was born to be," Frigga assured her. She had long since sheathed the dagger, so when she stepped forward, her hands were free to pull Fárbauti into a warm embrace. "He will not want for love."
Fárbauti nodded against her shoulder. She would not say 'thank you,' it was not something Jotun did, but Frigga did not need to hear the words. "Laufey believes him dead, so…so no one will come looking for him."
They stay like that for a few minutes more before Fárbauti finally pulls away. "Have you given him a name yet?" she asked.
Frigga's heart was breaking for her. She could not even begin to imagine being in the same situation with Thor, she would rather rip her own heart out. From the desperation barely hidden within Fárbauti's voice, Frigga was not convinced the Jotun Queen was not doing just that right now.
"No," Frigga answered, shaking her head. "Not yet."
Fárbauti was hesitant, almost nervous, when she spoke again. "If you wish to use it, we called him Loki."
"Loki," Frigga repeated, and that was all it took for the name to stick. "Yes, that does rather suit him."
Fárbauti shook her head, a sorrowful laugh falling from her lips. "Odin does not deserve you." Her head snapped up, eyes hardening, and before Frigga could respond, Fárbauti slipped through her fingers.
Frigga looked behind her to see a tired Thor, rubbing his eyes with curled up fists, wander into the nursery. "And what are you doing up this late?" she chastised gently.
"Wanted to check on the baby." Thor yawned widely, staggering forward and wrapping arms around his mother's legs. "I thought he might be scared being in a new place."
"Ah." Frigga bent down to pick Thor up, leaning him over the edge of the crib. "As you can see, Loki is fine."
"Loki?" Thor snuggled up against her shoulder, trying to keep his eyes open to watch his baby brother.
"Yes, that is his name. What do you think?"
"I like it. Loki." Thor smiled, his eyes falling shut.
Frigga kissed the top of his head, holding him close as she swept down into a chair. She spent the night watching over both her sleeping sons.