This chapter was updated a few hours after posting because I wanted to make sure one particular element was coming through, even if it's not loud and clear yet. ;-)


Loki hated to admit it, but he was nervous. It wasn't every day his father was so angry as to resort to such childish punishment, but he couldn't say it never happened either. It was just...rare. And being rare, it was also a good indication of just how angry Odin truly was. Given that, Loki's usual wiles probably would not work on his father right now and all he could really do is endure whatever was to come in the best way he could so as not to set his plans back any further than they likely already were. He would be his usual subservient self and allow Odin to exercise his will as their father — but he didn't have to like it.

Frigga saw the pained look on her son's face, which pained her in turn. She hated to be caught in the middle, as she felt right now, but truly Thor and Loki did know better. And to endanger the lives of their friends added to the mistakes they had made that day. She did not wish to concur with her husband on this point, but this particular punishment might indeed have been warranted. She could only hope Odin would keep his temper in check when it was time to deal with Thor, knowing how obstinate her older son could be. But right now her concern was Loki.

"Fret not, my child," Frigga assured Loki, who had quietly placed himself upon his bed to take a familiar protective position, his arms wrapped around his knees as he pondered the predicament he now found himself in as well as another curious incident while they fought on Jotunheim. "While this wait may not pass quickly, your punishment surely will."

"How can you be so sure, Mother?" Loki inquired, not quite convinced his mother was not merely trying to distract him while his doom advanced upon him in the form of his father's wrath. He could not fault her. She had always tried to protect her sons from her husband's quick temper and lack of patience, especially her younger son in whom she eternally saw the small baby her husband had given her what felt like not so long ago. He wondered what else she might have been trying to protect him from.

Frigga smiled at her son and went to sit beside him on his bed. "Your father is quite aware that Thor led this ill-advised mission to the frost region. A flaming temper is what your brother most has in common with your father after all, so it is no surprise your brother would seek to destroy the giants, even unknowingly risking your safety."

"No, Mother," Loki objected, unfurling himself and quickly standing to get her full attention. "That is not what happened. Despite his nature to fight, I managed to convince Thor to walk away and he did. I swear this to you." Loki's eyes pleaded with her to believe him.

"But…," Loki sighed, "Laufey mocked him." He shook his head at the memory, temporarily forgetting he had been the one to instigate the showdown in the first place. "He had no choice but to fight, Mother. Thor's actions were not his alone. We joined him in this battle." Loki stood straighter with a greater sense of loyalty to his older brother whom he knew was sincere in his defense of their kingdom. He managed this display of fidelity despite his own growing sense of confusion.

"Be that as it may, Loki," Frigga answered, rising to match her son's countenance. "Your father does not take your brother's actions as those befitting a future king."

"But he'd expect it from me, is that not so?" Loki bitterly replied, his pride instantly morphing into familiar seething self-pity.

Frigga looked at the immediate change in her son, temporarily confused by the hurt and anger she saw there given how proudly he had stood just moments before in defense of his beloved brother.

Loki frowned at the confused look on his mother's face, but chose to evade the feminine nurturing that was surely coming his way next and strode past her to his balcony doors, throwing them open to brood in the fresh Asgardian air.

Frigga stood a moment to regard her son. He was jealous and angry, but ultimately he was simply a child seeking his father's approval. She knew this. Odin, however, had unwisely shown favor to their son Thor as he rightly sought to prepare him for the throne, thus unknowingly creating this rift between her sons who innocently, but eternally, competed for their father's affection, never once asking for this favor to be bestowed upon one over the other. She knew this rivalry was not truly of their own making, but given Thor's destiny, she had tried to make Loki equally capable by teaching him the ways of magic. She had hoped that maybe they could find a new allegiance to each other someday with Thor on the throne and Loki, his loyal and trusted counsel, as close to a co-ruler as he could be, save whomever Thor should choose to marry someday. She sighed. She was failing, but she would not give up. She would work to mend her sons until her last breath. But for now, she would remind Loki of his place.

Stepping up behind him as he looked out over the golden city, she donned her own self-determination. She needed to steele herself against Loki's hurt right now so they could deal with the immediate situation. She would comfort him later.

"Loki," she called. She watched as Loki's back tensed at her voice. Slowly he turned his ear to hear her, but he refused to turn fully around.

She grew incensed at the disrespect. "This is how you address your Queen?"

Defeat befell him instantly and his self-pity grew. This was his lot in life. His family always sought to control him by reminding him of his place in the pecking order of their family, and when that failed, they would pull royal rank. He sighed and turned to Frigga, his head bowed in submission to his Queen.

"My humble apologies, my Queen," he answered resentfully. Frigga chose to ignore his tone.

"Look at me, Loki," she said with quickly renewed patience. "Am I not your mother who should worry over your well-being?"

"Is it my mother who speaks now or my Queen who subjugates her servant at her whim?" he replied spitefully.

"It is the one who has loved you from the beginning and even now chooses to remind you of that, despite the disrespect you show."

Loki's eyes betrayed the crack in his defense his mother's comment had caused. Quickly he looked away to try to regain his composure.

Frigga stepped closer to her son to stroke his face. "As I have said, it iwas/i an ill-advised mission," she whispered to him. "One that I am fairly certain Thor would have sulked over for many moons once Odin had forbidden him to seek vengeance for the invasion, but would have dared not follow through on without the agreement of those in whom he most trusts?" She searched her son's responses for his understanding.

Loki held his breath, his guilt now adding further cracks in his defenses. Did she know his true motives? How could she? Did she know anything else?

He glanced at his mother who stood quietly waiting. She knew of his motives, of that he was certain.

Loki could feel his guilt wrapping itself around his confusion and forming into watery admissions in the corners of his eyes. He could not continue to face his mother without breaking down entirely. Huffing, he turned again to face the city instead, trying to focus on the bifrost bridge in the distance and instantly being reminded of Heimdall's gift of sight. The humiliation washed over him anew. Surely the eternally loyal gatekeeper knew what was about to befall him as well. Oh well. It would not be the first time. At least the all-seeing guard had the decency not to throw these childish punishments in his face when he saw him in person.

He felt his mother at his back. "It is a deserved judgment, is it not?" she asked. "Thor was not alone in his misguided notions." She rubbed her son's back, not expecting an answer. "It will be over soon and then I shall return so that you and I can speak properly about the grievances you nurture." Loki looked at his mother then, suddenly feeling heard, even understood. He had never allowed himself to share his inner pain, not even with the woman who had never judged him despite his occasional mischievous behavior and who clearly had only his best interest at her heart. Maybe he would allow her to bring this forth from him, to help him to finally find a place of peace in his own family. Maybe he could ask her to help him understand what he saw too. Maybe.