Summary: Epilogue
As he spun he turned and cast a smile at him, by all the Gods, how many times had Thor seen Loki give him that smile. And yet how long had it been since Loki had smiled at him like that, innocent and sweet, full of love and untainted still by the bitterness and hate that had filled him.
"Loki." Thor breathed, reaching out to the other.
Loki laughed and danced away, "What are you doing here, Thor?"
"Following you." Thor grinned as he chased after Loki, like he had done thousands of times before, as he always would, "You're bound to get into trouble soon."
Loki stilled and his smiled fell, "Oh. Oh, Thor, you should not have, it's not time for you yet, they aren't ready for you."
Thor let his hands touch Loki's face, almost reverently, "I don't understand."
Loki took Thor's wrists in his hands gently, sorrowful in the way he pulled Thor's hands from his face, "This is not a reunion, my Darling."
"Of course it is!" Thor cried, pulling his wrists out of Loki's grip.
Loki looked into Thor's eye, "No, it is not."
"What do you mean?" Thor asked desperately as he clutched at Loki's shoulders.
"Destroying the stones, destroying Thanos, I'm not coming back, darling, not like those Thanos killed." Loki tried to explain gently.
"You must." Thor insisted and then he screamed as lightning coursed through him.
Loki guided him to the ground.
"What is happening?" Thor gasped, "Loki?"
Thor finally took note of their surroundings and realized that there was a fogginess at the edges of this vision, the only thing that he could see clearly, Thor realized, was Loki himself.
"They are reviving you." Loki told him, "They use lightning to restart the heart."
"NOO!" Thor screamed as the lightning attacked his heart again, "No," he gasped, "I want to stay with you, please, Loki, I want to go with you."
Loki gently smoothed Thor's hair back from his forehead, trying not to miss the feel of longer strands between his fingers, "You cannot, our people need their king."
Thor gasped and sobbed again, feeling tears fall from his eyes as Loki began to blur.
"Valkyrie managed to get most of them to safety." Loki told Thor, "Including the child I carried."
Thor stared at Loki in shock, "What?" He breathed.
Loki smiled sadly and caressed Thor's cheek, "Do you remember that moment you came to see me after leaving Jane with our mother, she was conceived then and I hid her and prayed that nothing would go wrong this time."
"Loki, why didn't you say?"
"When? And what could be done, truly, if I had not stayed by your side, fought with you, there would have been nothing for her but me, and I had too many enemies for her to be safe." Loki told him, watching Thor's body arch with the lightning moments after, "If you stay here, she will have only Valkyrie to keep her safe, she needs you more than I."
Thor breathed and dragged Loki into his arms, holding his once lover tight.
"Please, return to our daughter, raise her, love her." Loki begged into his ear, "Because I won't be there to make sure she knows how loved she is as I did with the others before Odin took them from me."
Thor seized Loki tight and forced himself to nod, feeling a weight upon his chest, the same that he had felt preluded the rest of the attempts to revive him.
Thor pulled back, "What is our daughter's name?"
Loki smiled sadly, "Thorbiartr Maja, I called her Bia most of the time."
"Bia Maja." Thor forced himself to smile as the lightning coursed through him once more and Loki faded away, replaced by the men and women who had helped him defeat Thanos.
Thor gazed blurrily up at the bright sky, he felt disappointed that his fellows had forced his return to the living world and yet...
Thor forced himself to stand, knees weak and he would have fallen were it not for Captain Rogers' hands catching him.
A large ship began it's decent and Thor and the rest approached it's landing, the others tired but prepared to fight if necessary and Thor, Thor wondered who would be the first to step from the ship his people had used as an escape pod.
The doors opened and Thor felt something sofe and warm begin to curl in his empty heart as Valkyrie landed gracefully on the grass, a tiny, wiggling, bundle of baby giggling and reaching out to him, tiny sparks of green lightning buzzing at her fingertips.
Valkyrie held her out and opened her mouth, likely to explain, but Thor already knew. He knew as he took the child in his arms and gazed down at Loki's green eyes that peered up at him in curiosity from under wisps of blond curls.
"Hello, Bia Maja." Thor whispered, his voice soft like the rain that began to fall gently around them, "I'm your Dad, and I'm sorry that your father could not return to us."
Thor pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and let his tears mingle with the rain as she laughed at the tickle from his beard.
Thor looked at Valkyrie who nodded and walked over to Dr. Banner to ask him who to speak to about the loss of Asgard, leaving Thor alone with his daughter.
Eventually Thor would have to make decision, to have meetings and negotiations so his people would have a place to live, to grow again but for now, in the wake of their victory, he was left alone, ignoring the curious stares from the Midgardians.
"Your father loved you very much." Thor whispered, "Oh, Bia, I will tell you many stories of the adventures I had with him and so much more. And perhaps one day, I'll see him again." Thor's daughter wrapped her hand around the finger that traced her cheek as she stared up at him, sleepily, "And be able to forgive myself for not being able to save him again."
Bia cooed and closed her eyes, falling asleep easily, and Thor wonder at how precious her innocence was and how rare it must be for any being in the world to fall asleep and have no nightmares for the child that rested in his arms right now had yet to learn just what she had lost in her short life.
She would never know the golden halls of Asgard, never play in Idunn's orchard of golden apple trees, never hide under the tables with plates of sweets under the banquet tables in the great hall, never play 'King' on Odin's throne or listen to his mother tell her the stories she weaved. And little Bia would never know the father that had brought her in to the world, had kept her secret and safe before that, the one that had traded his life for Thor's because that had always been Loki's way, always cleaning up whatever mess Thor had made, and Thor had felt the whisper of Loki's magic surrounding him in those last seconds as Thanos crushed his throat, a last protection.
Just as Little Bia Maja was Loki's last gift to Thor.
A future.
Loki's Epilogue.
I... I have no explanation for this. I just... enjoy?
I'm going to say that during the Dark World Jane and Thor weren't actually dating because two years is a long time to wait for someone you've known a week. And I'm not sure about the length of time between Thor 2 and 3 but if it's longer than nine/ten months I'm going to say Loki used magic to pause his pregnancy (Something that, in this universe he has likely done before in an attempt to protect his child from Odin) until he could find a safe way to bring her into Asgard and it not be suspicious(since he is playing at being Odin and while Odin may have brought him home from Jotunhiem he still had a wife that they could pretend just carried small, and as Frigga died he does not have to option at faking the arrival of a child.)
Thor and Loki have been together off and on in a not so secret relationship for centuries, they were 'off' while Thor was on Earth with Jane. Loki is a shape changer and a Jotun, which means his anatomy may differ from the norm.
I did mention that Loki had had other children that Odin took, none live, unfortunately, some were just not formed correctly and died naturally, others Odin felt were a threat, a la the original myths where Loki's children were prophesied to bring about Ragnrok so Odin had them chained up with special chains and trickery ( Fenrir or the Fenris wolf (who in this verse is not Loki's child due to movie canon and neither are Hel, Jormungand and Sleipnir.) (Despite Canon Odin's ba parenting I don't want him to be so cruel as to taunt Loki by riding Sleipnir around as his war stead. In the myths he was taken by the eight legged horse's swiftness and took him as his war stead after Loki birthed him after distracting a Giant's horse so the giant couldn't finish the task he was given.)
That should answer most questions.
If you have anymore I will try to answer them.
