Someone is knocking at my door, why? It's not even light out and I think I'll scare them, a good illusion spell and I look like a terrible cross between a troll and vette.

I swing the door open and step into the light so they can have a good look. "Can I hel-"

"Ast? What happen to your face?" Her hair hangs down and she's in a too small shirt and pants tied with what looks like a rope at the waist, and the most ridiculously amused look on her face.

"Name?" I let the illusion drop, string at her, "I, what, how?" She smiles, her hair's longer and her skin paler, but it's her and I grab her, and she's solid and I press my face into her shoulder and I breathe her in and it's all her. It's her.

She pats my back awkwardly. "You okay?"

"Okay?!" I hold her out in front of me by her shoulders. "Okay?! You! You died! I-You-Dead! Idiot!"

Her face sort of crumples, and that cheerful smile goes away to a lost kind of opening of the mouth. "But I came back, is that no good?"

Hel, I pull her back against me, "No, it's just, you don't die on me again. Clear." She wraps her arms around me tight.

"I don't plan on it Ast." She says it with such a serious tone I know there's more to it than not wanting to die again.

"How though? I saw you-" My eyes narrow, "If you tell me that you faked your death and didn't tell me beforehand I'll kill you myself!"

"No! No," She nuzzles into my hair. "I would never do that to you, I did die but.. You should sit down.. I, I have a little trouble explaining myself."

"Okay." I plop down right there, pulling her with me. "Stop looking so smug and explain to me why you're not dead anymore."

She sits with a sigh. "Um, well.. You know the Instincts?"

I nod, "They're voices in your head, yes."

"It's more than that." She gnaws her lip. "Loki, I'm an Instinct," She taps me on the mouth. "Shh, I'll explain, when I… Died, well, um.. Think of it like my body's a house and I've always just stayed in the control room and locked the door. But Loki, I am an Instinct, there's millions more in me. From what I understand.." She frowns. "All Faces are kind of immortal."

"Immortal?" I feel a little spark of excitement, Name can't die.

She shakes her head. "But we die, it's different Loki, the body never dies, but the person? It's like we're recycled and it's bad. When I died it was like the control room doors were blown off the hinge and… Um, I think that I'm.. The currently dominant Instinct, and I've had so much time in control I've develop a personality, I've become more human like. You know? But Loki?" She grins suddenly.

"Yes?" I whisper, still working processing it all.

"I came back because of you." She smiles so widely I can't help but smile too. "I made it back because of you Ast, the other Instincts just fight, but I had a reason."

"Me." I don't even feel silly as I grin.

"You." She smiles, leaning in to kiss me on the nose, and the top of an eyebrow, my ear, my cheekbone, and then my jaw. I growl and she pecks me on the mouth before going back to feeling my throat with her mouth and her hands tracing patterns on the inside of my arms.

"Wait." I mumble, blushing. "I want to show you something."

She leans back to get a good look at me, "Show me."

I grin, and then she grins and the more we look at one another the bigger our smiles get until Name laughs. "Wait, wait, here. One second." I take a breath, and slowly breath back out. I want to show her before while I can.

She gasps, eyes flickering up and down. "Oh, Loki, Ast." She sounds so proud and I grin sheepishly. "Blue is my favorite color. You're beautiful you idiot."

"Idiot?" I snort indignantly.

"You said you were a monster, do I have to slime you again?"

"No." And she kisses me right on the mouth.

-(0)-

I sigh, laying in between Name and the arm she has wrapped around me protectively. She's still asleep, but I don't mind. I can wait for her to wake up, she's right here and not going anywhere. I push the blanket off me, it's too hot in my bed with her in it and a blanket smothering me as well.

But I guess patience is not something I excel at though because after a bit I get up on my elbows, pressing a few kisses along her throat. She makes a huffy sound and turns away.

"You are awake!" I accuse.

"So?" She mumbles, her voices sleepily quiet and gravelly.

"You were just going to pretend all morning?" I demand, poking her in the cheek. She sticks out her tongue.

"Well, I like it here, why not stay? Mmm?"

"Name." I whisper, going very still.

"Yes." She curls around me. "What is it?"

"How did you come back, how did you get here?" I lay my head against her neck and shoulder, watching her breath. "You said you came back… How? I saw your body."

"Oh." She rubs little circles in my back, "I'm sorry you had to see that." She starts to sit up.

"Don't you try and slip out of this." I push her back down, turning so I can see her face. She narrows her eyes, shifting under me. "Give me details, no, 'Oh, I cam back from the dead and turns out I'm an Instinct. End of story'."

"Fine, you want to know? It hurt, it really hurt and I could feel it, but it's weird because I knew I was in pain, terrible pain but it was sort of just knowing. I could feel myself moving and growing. I was… fighting, just fighting the other Instincts… Fighting and I just sort of woke up, but I wasn't in complete control so when my body was ready I wandered for a while. It was weird and scary because I could see my hand moving but I couldn't feel it and the hand may try to strangle me or tear me up because another Instinct was in control of it." She sighs. "I'm pretty sure I didn't kill anyone, it's kind of hazy."

"And?" She yanks on my hair lightly with this frown on her face, I don't like it.

"You won't like it."

"Tell me." I whisper, she leans in close to hear me, and smiles.

"Odin found me, apparently he was watching me. He realized my corpse was up and about, Chandra didn't tell you my body was missing because she was worried and overall the Shifters were panicked, they thought someone had stolen me but there was nothing to go on, so they kept quiet. They didn't know either." She kisses me on the nose. "I can't quite remember, I was still fighting the Instincts, some days I was more in control than others, he approached me on a bad day and apparently I attacked. All I remember was suddenly the Instincts became unfocused and I came through to Odin underneath my claws, I almost killed him. He and Thor kept checking in after that until I decided I was in control, then I found out what a planner your dad is. I mean, Frigga helped a lot, but it was all Odin on my end." She sighs, grinning all silly.

"Planner?"

"He wanted me to like, present myself to the court and-and all of this stuff, a really big surprise. Actually, that's still a plan, so you need to act really surprised when I pop in….At breakfast… We missed breakfast, didn't we?"

"Breakfast starts in," I pause, using a little magic, Name smiles at the green sparks. "A little more than ten minutes." the smile drops dead off her face.

"I should go than, because it's suppose to be something big and Loki?" She pauses, looking away from me awkwardly.

"Yes?"

"Just.. We're.. Together, right?" She laughs. "I, we never really talked about this."

I frown, that is not my fault. "I tried to-"

"And I wouldn't let you, I know, I'm stupid. But we are?"

I nod. "We had better be together."

She grins, and pushes me off her as she slips out of bed, but not before leaning down and whispering. "Please, just pretend I wasn't here. Big surprise, ok?"

"Alright." I whisper back, I don't know why we're whispering, no one can hear. And I watch her sneak out the door. She's alive.

-(0)-

Ten minutes later and I am in the dining hall, the hall is decorate like a feast is coming and there are nobles everywhere. Like a great celebration is about to happen, a celebration during breakfast. Intriguing. Silly. But Name is alive and I just, I feel so happy.

I try not to seem too happy and smile just a little. "Brother!" Thor grips in me in a hug. "Smile, today is a most joyous day!" He looks thrilled. Happy, for me. "My lady Jane has come to visit." And just how the words slip out, he's practiced saying that. True, I see Jane across the room. She waves. But that's just a lie, Thor's not a good liar.

"Thrilling brother, but such a large feast, should I be expecting an announcement?" I give a wry smile.

He blinks, his mouth screwing up before he slowly says. "Yes, there will be an announcement." And than he turns to Jane and a slow smile breaks across his face. I have to wonder what he's thinking, but he seems good with just standing there and grinning so I make my way up to my seat, to Frigga.

"Mother."

"Loki." She nods with a little smile.

I sit, eyeing the crowd. "A special occasion?"

"Yes." Frigga smiles. "Very special. I hope you enjoy today."

"I suppose I will, Thor and Jane look very happy together, they will be good to one another."

Frigga laughs, "Oh yes, they will." She waves over a servant, "Some water? Wine?"

I smile. "Wine? The warriors must be grumbling."

"Grumble they may, but I want them sober for such a special day." She passes me the water. "I want you sober as well."

"Mother!" I scold. "It's the morning, I do have manners." And I haven't had a drink since meeting Name. Name. I swallow done a stupid grin.

Frigga smiles. "I know, it's just a very special day." And then Odin sits down and gives her an odd look and she quiets herself, I stare out into the crowd mortified. She's acting like an excited schoolgirl. I suppose, Thor and Jane getting married will no doubt get her some grandchildren. Wait, I'll be an uncle? Step-Uncle? What sort of Uncle?

Everyone eventually gets in their seats and quiets down. Odin stands, and the hall silences. He swings out his hand, opening the doors.

"Come forth and make your proposal suitor."

A hooded figure walks out of the doors, and there's whispering, it's not Thor, too slender, not Jane, too tall. Just right for Name, and I frown a little because why in Heimdall's sword is she wearing a cloak?

"Ast." She grins at me, pulling back the hood, and I still can't help but blink, in this light I can see how thin she's become, and she looks so frail, and tired. But she's smiling and happy.

And I smile too. "Stromkarl." She makes a sighing kind of noise that I can easily translate to 'Why do you call me that, it's so stupid, stop it'.

Odin clears his throat, and Name nods like 'Oh, right, formal, people, forgot about them' before speaking. "I, Name, All Face of the Never Ending cycle, One who walks Forever, come before you seeking the hand of Loki." She smiles brightly, and stands there, waiting, and I guess I'm suppose to say something but what do I say? Her smile falters after a while and the hall is painfully quiet. "Ást? What do you say?" She gives a more nervous smile now.

"I say yes." And then I'm pretty sure I would have done something stupid but everything erupt into cheers and people started randomly toasting and eating and some start clambering out of their chairs to dance because musicians started playing and Odin just stares at Name with this exasperated look. I suddenly realized she probably skip a great deal of the formalities.

I'm still surprised Asgardians are willing to celebrate over me. Ah, marriage, of course, there'll be lots of free alcohol, that's what they're really celebrating.

Name runs up the stairs and pulls me out of my chair. "Come on!" And then she drags me off to the hall to a roar of laughter. I probably look like Thor's cape. As soon as we're outside the doors she lets go of my hand and does her strange, wiggly, victory dance with the fist pump and everything. Then she punches me in the shoulder, hard. "God, how dare you make me wait like that!"

"I answered!" I push away her hands as she tries to tickle me.

She catches my one hand. "Yeah." She says it so softly, I smile a little. "Now, this took a long time to figure out, what'd I do. You know, I wanted this to be special and I know you're suppose to get to do one too but that'd wouldn't work so um, yeah." She slips a ring of cool metal down my finger and lets me pull my hand away. "Do you like it?"

And I look down as she puts a ring onto her hand , they're matching, thin black metal things with little gems winking in it. A little rainbow of color. "They're nice."

"Yeah, um, it's a rainbow, you know, because we're diverse and different and.. Okay, I just couldn't pick a color and that metal is really hard to ruin. I wish I could say something romantic but I got confused when the jeweler started talking." She offers a smile. I kiss that dumb smile.

"I still like them," And she grins, and I really like them, even if they are pointless and completely Midgardian, it feels nice.

She rubs my shoulder, before going down my arm, playing with that hand, spinning the ring. "Frigga wants us to get married as soon as possible, but I figured you'd have some input?"

"Yes, soon as possible. I want to get married before Thor does." I never thought that possible, me getting married before the golden boy, but it is. The idea thrills me.

"Oh. Ah, does that give mean a year of waiting? A year is sort of traditional, I think…" She trails off.

"No, how about.." I blink. "Wait, marriage, what all do we have to do to get married?"

"Well, ah, vows, ceremony, rings?" She shrugs. "I haven't been to a wedding since I was a little girl Loki."

"More rings?" I frown.

"Yeah, to mark our marriage. These mean we're suppose to get married." She grins apologetically. "It doesn't have to be anything big Loki."

"You died and came back, I think something big is appropriate." She leans her head against mine. "Demanded in fact."

"So.. Two years?"

"Why do you keep doing that?" I frown.

"Nerves, Ást. Lots of nerves. I got fake married like twenty times in school, but real marriage? Can you stand me for that long?" She laughs nervously, spreading her hands out.

"Yes-"

She waves my words away. "Don't get sappy on me. Thor told me there was eight legged horse, I want to see it now." She pulls away from me, tugging on my hand.

I try to frown, but it is so like Name to do this, "Now?"

"Now."

So, the end I figure. Not sure. But its the end unless I pick this back up again some day, sorry it got so rushed but I had to finish it before summer was over and I didn't have a whole lot of time to work everthing out.

Actually this took so huge plot changes because I knew I

A. Couldn't finish it in time

B. Might spill into a third fic

C. You might not like it because it's much darker and I was sure I could spin a happy ending out of that bloody mess.\

So I hoped you enjoyed this version, do you think a dark version(like killing babies, trauma, killing, very cruel, Name has killed more than Loki, Thor, and McDonalds combined) would have been better?

Reviews always appreciated !