A/N: For those of you who reviewed, thank you! I appreciate any sort of input no matter how great or small. I'm going to really try to update this story as regularly as I can. I'm writing an original story of my own as well. But I've discovered that fan fiction writing is a really great warm up. Here is the next chapter, I think I'm going to put flash backs of Loki and Sigyn when they were younger at the start of each chapter. They're cute and it gives more incite to the relationship I'm creating. Review if you'd like and tell me how you like this chapter! :)
Oh! the theme song for this chapter is Night Time by The XX
"He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." - Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Chapter One
Flashback
"Loki, are you sleeping?" Sigyn asked as she dragged her stuffed Pegasus across the floor. She always had a hard time sleeping by herself. Odin used to assign a handmaiden to stay in her room with her while she slept. After she turned seven he felt she was too old for such humoring and told her she needed to grow up. Sigyn didn't share that feeling and devised a bed time system that worked perfectly well for her. She reached Loki's bed and poked his snoozing form. "Are you awake?"
"Mmmmmhmmm" he groggily answered. He pulled the blankets down and scooted over to make room for his sister. "One day you're going to have to start sleeping alone you know".
"Not today", her tiny voice responded as she shuffled around until she found a comfortable position. "Here, you can snuggle with Pegasus. I brought him for you." She handed Loki the plush toy. He took it from her tiny hands and set it near his head.
"Thank you," he said with an amused tone.
"He will protect you from the nightmares," she replied.
"What nightmares?" Loki asked.
"The ones you have every night. You always get really cold and move around too much. You only stop when I hug you." Sigyn responded, her voice was drifting farther away from consciousness with every word she spoke. Loki turned to face her, many questions sprung to mind that he wanted her to answer. She was already lost to the world of sleeping, he heard her slow breaths. He kissed the top of her head and whispered "Goodnight" in her ear. He spent the whole rest of the night gazing up at the ceiling and wondering what his nightmares could be about.
OOOooooOOO
The window was open, she could hear the warriors practicing in the courtyard. Sigyn had overslept again, Frigga wasn't going to be too happy about that. She must have sent a servant in to open the windows, it was her little way of telling Sigyn she needed to get up. The sound of water being poured into a basin made Sigyn finally open her eyes. With a stretch she looked over to where the sound was coming from and saw her handmaiden Kelda making a bath. "My lady, I'm glad to see you are finally awake. I hope you are not falling ill with anything." Sigyn had been staying up til the sun rose every night this week. She had tried everything to fall asleep on her own, except mixing up some sort of potion. She didn't want it to come to that, she had heard horror stories of people relying on potions for sleep and having it spiral out of control. The only sure fire way she knew of getting a good night's rest without the use of outside resources was entirely out of the question. She was eighteen now and how old was Loki? Twenty four, much too old for late night slumber parties. She rolled herself out of bed and made her way over to the basin. It was by the window on the side of her room that looked over the back garden. The silver of it glinted in the late morning sun, she slipped her light blue silk dressing gown off and stepped in. "I'll get your clothes ready for the day. Your mother said to meet her in the Enchantment Room."
"Thank you, Kelda" Sigyn softly replied. Kelda nodded in reply and set off to finish her tasks for the morning. Sigyn closed her eyes and dipped her hair into the bath. She relished these moments when she could be completely alone.
Sigyn found Frigga and Loki having a casting competition when she finally made it to the Enchantment Room. A pyre burned brightly in the center of the room. Loki and Frigga were making shapes and creatures out of the smoke that billowed out of the flames. "Nice of you to finally join us, sweet sister." Loki stated. He was in the midst of creating something which Sigyn was excited to see, he was the best at it. A Pegasus manifested from the clouds and came trotting up to Sigyn. Once it reached her it opened it's wings and bowed low before de-materializing into a large puff of nothingness once more. Sigyn smiled, her whole face lit up once she made eye contact with Loki. "A gift," he stated, the large smile on his face rivaled her own. " I know they were always your favorite creatures."
"I prefer wolves," Sigyn teasingly replied. "And mother, I'm sorry I'm late. I was up last night studying." Her mother gave her that look that all mother's tend to give to their children. The one that said they were disappointed in them, but not to the point of being entirely angry. It vanished quickly and was replaced by a warm smile.
"Now that you've arrived the real lesson can begin." She gestured for Sigyn to sit down which she did immediately.
They practiced their magick until the sun began to set. Frigga decided then that they had done enough practice for the day and dismissed them. When she was completely gone from the room, Loki began to laugh. "What is so amusing to you?" Sigyn asked with a scowl.
"If you are going to lie about what you're doing at night you might want to come up with a better excuse than studying."
"I was studying" she protested. Loki raised his eyebrow.
"We both know you have no need for that. Spells come naturally to you, you could do any of the things mother asks with your eyes closed."
"I was perfecting some things and lost track of time." Sigyn began organizing a stack of books. Something she always did when she became nervous. Loki walked over to where she was sorting and flicked his wrist. All of the books that were laying around flew back up on the shelves where they belonged.
"What things? Maybe I can help you with them," Loki offered, he knew full well she was lying. His emerald green orbs stared into her crystal blue ones. He was trying to make her crack, she wasn't going to let him.
"I don't need to practice anymore," she began, "I managed to get through everything I was having trouble with. But if something like that arises again I'll be sure to ask you."
"I shouldn't have taught you to be such a good liar." Loki smirked. Sigyn didn't smile, but her eyes twinkled with amusement. "Your eyes betray you, dear sister. Perhaps I can help you work on that." Sigyn felt her chest tighten and her heart beat faster. Why was she reacting this way? This wasn't the appropriate response at all. She tried to place an amused smile on her face, but from Loki's reaction to what she did she could tell that she failed. "Are you going to be sick?"
"N-no," she stammered and immediately mentally kicked herself. "I just remembered I have to feed the dogs."
"You have to feed the dogs? What dogs?"
"Dogs! Did I say dogs? I meant that I have to feed... myself?" Her forehead began to glitter with sweat. The look of concern on Loki's face grew.
"What is wrong with you? Was it something I did?" He took a black cloth out of his pocket and wiped her forehead.
"No, no. You did not do anything. I guess it is just my sleep schedule, it must be messing me up."
"If you say so."
"I need to get some air." Sigyn gently pushed his hand away from her face and made her way out the door.
"Remember how I said you were a good liar?" Loki called after her, "I take that back now." She ran out of the room without looking back at him. She really did it now, Loki wasn't going to leave this alone until he found out what exactly she was up to. She really couldn't blame him for that, if he were acting like a nut case in front of her like she just did for him she would also stop at nothing to find the root of the problem. I'm not trying to be mischievous so don't go snooping around!, she wanted to scream back at him. What a brilliant idea that would have been, it would only make Loki want to discover her secret even more. And what was the secret she was suddenly hiding? Sigyn knew what it was, she had been harboring it for most of her teenage life. If she dared go back longer than that she would know that to be a lie as well. She had been harboring it for the whole of her existence. But it's not how you are supposed to feel about your brother. It's wrong. Severely twisted. Demented. Sigyn had tried to stop herself from feeling this way millions of times. She would never have these kinds of emotions towards Thor. The mere thought of it made her want to be sick all over the floor. For some reason it felt okay for her to want Loki that way. But she knew it wasn't okay and he could never know. No one could and no one will.
OOOooooOOO
Frigga sat roughly on Sigyn's bed and placed a smelling salt under her nose. Sigyn awoke with a jolt and a grimace. "If you keep sleeping late like this your father is going to have you examined by all of the physicians in Asgard." Frigga placed the salts back in her pocket and smoothed down some of Sigyn's stray hairs.
"That seems like it would be a bit of an over reaction, is it not?", Sigyn replied as she batted her mother's hand away.
"I have started to become worried myself. Do you realize that it is half past noon?"
"I went to bed when the sun was coming up so if you could give me a couple more hours of sleep." Sigyn pulled her blanket over her head and rolled into a ball. As soon as she got comfortable the blankets were thrown off the bed. Sigyn huffed and sat up making a pouty face.
"That rarely worked on me when you were a child so if you think that it is going to work on me now you are a fool." Frigga stated.
"Okay. I shall get up and great the day with vigor!" Sigyn jumped out of bed.
"Come and talk to your mother. We have not had any time with just the two of us in such a long time." Sigyn sat back down on the bed next to her mother. "I know you have always had trouble being alone at night, you have been that way ever since you were a little girl. But I think there is something else going on and you are just using that as an excuse. Would you care to explain?"
"I...have been keeping something from you. From all of you and I just really want to get this out of the way." Frigga's ears perked at this. She held her hand out for her daughter to take and looked her square in the eyes.
"You can trust me," she said with earnest.
"I can not," Sigyn replied.
"Of course you can. I am your mother."
"No. You are not my mother." Sigyn let go of her mother's hand, "If you really want to know what I have been doing with my nights. Loki. You are going to have to do better than pretending to be mother." Bright white light shone and Loki was sitting where Frigga once was. A look of annoyance clearly written on his face.
"How did you know?"
"You think I am that susceptible to your tricks? My name is not Thor." Sigyn went over to her closet and put on a robe over her night gown. "Besides, mother would never call her children fools. That is a word that you have always favored." She moved over to her vanity where a golden bowl and matching pitcher sat. She poured water from the pitcher into the bowl and dipped a cloth in it.
"I have my work cut out for me making you my adversary in this game." Loki stated with his trademark wolfish smile. He got up from the bed and made his way over to the vanity as well. "Of course, you could make this easier for both of us and just tell me." He put his hands on the back of her chair and leaned down next to her so his face was side by side next to hers.
"Does it really bother you this much that I will not tell you?" Sigyn asked.
"We do not keep secrets from each other, we never have." Loki had a quiet pleading in his eyes that made Sigyn want to oblige.
"I guess there is a first time for everything." she simply replied, letting a wicked grin spread across her porcelain face. "If you want to know you are going to have to work harder to find out."
"Then the game has officially began. Do not say I did not give you a chance to come out in the open with it. I hope you enjoy losing. You must since you do it so often."
"What happens if I do not? What do I get if you lose?"
"I never lose." He stood up as straight as he could when he said this. He was always so cocky about everything. Sigyn rolled her eyes.
"Should we not have rewards for winning the game?"
"I will think them up later." He waved her question away, she could already see the cogs in his brain start up. He was standing perfectly still, but his eyes were wandering around every corner of her room.
"No, remember last time we did not think of prizes before we started? You took Pegasus from me and now he forever sits on your shelf."
"Fine," this time it was Loki's turn for an eye roll. "I will be back here later to discuss the terms of it."
"Great! I will be eagerly awaiting your return, my darling brother." Sigyn turned her attention back on her reflection in the mirror and began to wash her face. She did her best to act like she wasn't watching Loki's every move through the mirror.
Loki gave one more once over to her room before he left it entirely. When he was gone Sigyn threw the wash cloth back into the bowl and put her head in her hands. She really got herself into a huge mess now. She wasn't doing anything noteworthy when she lay awake at night trying to go to sleep. She usually sketched images of what came to her and drank tea. Now she was going to have to pretend to do something important for the benefit of Loki. And all because of what? Because she didn't know how to control her stupid emotions. She did one huge sigh before lifting her face back up to the mirror and got ready for the day.