Monster
Secrets, secrets and lies. All that he had done to make Father proud saving the children on Alfheim, saving Thor on Nifleheim...all for nothing. Monster. It explained why the other children had shied from him, unconsciously they had known. It explained why Father had never trusted him to do anything alone. Why Father had always sent Thor or someone else with him. After all, he might've gone mad and killed everyone thus facilitating the need for someone to slay the beast.
"Why ? Why play a game for this long ? Did it amuse you to see the other children run from me ? It must've. Why else would you refuse to explain and just smile when I asked over and over if something was wrong ?! It was me ! You knew it was me !" Loki snarled even as he sank to his knees on the beige steps. He felt light-headed. Everything seemed so far away. It was wrong. Everything was wrong. All that he had ever known a ruse drawn out for the amusement of an old fool.
Father shook his head, "It wasn't you, Loki. No one else knows, except for Frigga, Heimdall, myself...and now you. Unlike I always thought you did not need Thor to protect you, they were scared of your magic. How could I not be proud when my youngest son mastered the arts of magic before his seven hundredth birthday, a feat that no one had accomplished since my father was your age ? I was proud, perhaps too proud. I feared that you would react like this. Nothing has changed, Loki. Your mother still loves you, Thor still loves you...I love you. You are not a monster."
Loki braced himself against the steps. "No, Father, I am. I convinced Thor to go to Jotunheim...I-I let the Frost Giants in." An armour-clad hand came to rest on his shoulder and he looked up. For some reason, Father didn't look mad.
"I suspected as much. You did not use the right methods, but you had the right intentions. I knew Thor was not truly ready to be King of Asgard and was counting on you to guide him. It will take a while, but we can fix this. Come now with me my son to the drinking hall because I think it safe to say that we are both in need of one."
A smile crossed Loki's lips as he got to his feet and left the Weapons Vault. As he walked to the drinking hall he was not a monster, but a son of Odin still.