As a rule, Loki was quite fond of books. Perhaps they weren't his lifeblood – a trickster always needed victims for his mischief, after all – but as a whole, he enjoyed reading. He liked being knowledgeable and clever, so as a result, he spent quite a lot of his time curled up in the throes of a book, educational or fictional.
Unlike Sigyn, though, who could probably live her whole life in a library and somehow draw her sustenance from the dusty air within, Loki had his own preferences for privacy and comfort. It wasn't as if many people really came into the royal archives, and Loki had several places in it where he could comfortably sit undisturbed, but in his opinion, none of them actually beat staying in his personal chambers and getting to sink his mind into the words printed neatly on the pages. So that was where Loki was now: in an armchair by his bedside reading about the World Tree, Yggdrasil. No one had ever really seen the Tree in its entirety, not even Heimdall, and as a consequence, there seemed to be a lot of conflict from various sources about how precisely it was structured. Loki wanted to see if he could be the first to understand it and draw from it. Where better to figure it out than in his chambers, where he could focus all his concentration on the task at hand? Though of course, reading in his own chambers did have one drawback.
There was a dull thud at the door.
Loki jerked up at the noise, then pressed his eyes together and sighed. Again?
It had been a long time since Loki had first chased off Thor from disturbing him when he was in his rooms. After the first few attempts of asking Thor politely, which had done absolutely nothing to dissuade the older prince from coming in uninvited and dragging his beloved brother off for some adventure, Loki had taken to warding his rooms with fear spells. Anyone who tried walking up the staircase would be assaulted with visions of darkness or raging fires, insects and reptiles crawling around and up them, shortness of breath, dizziness, nausea – well. Needless to say, it would be a wholly unpleasant experience. If there was ever an emergency, Thor could probably just charge and plow his way through all of it, but Loki learned from experience that there would be quite a lot of bellowing to go along with it. He had rather enjoyed the first time Thor had tried the gauntlet. Well, it wasn't as if he hadn't been warned. It meant that Loki did his own cleaning and tending to the fire after the first serving girl had run off shrieking, but cleaning spells were simple and there was enough magic flying around his fire that he'd rather not any one meddle with it.
Of course, the spells didn't affect Loki's blood. Evidently, brothers were not a close enough relation that the charms would ease up any for Thor. If Odin ever wanted to meet with his sons, he announced it beforehand, so Loki could always remove the wards in preparation. He had recently discovered, though, that there was apparently one who shared enough of Loki's blood to make it up the passage basically unaffected.
There was another thud. Loki gritted his teeth somewhat, but got up and opened the door. Sleipnir stood in the doorway, tail swishing excitedly.
Not for the first time, Loki wondered how Sleipnir even managed to make it up the stairs with eight horse legs. Out loud, he said, "The other horses will mock you for spending so much time with your mother."
Sleipnir nickered in response.
Loki mimicked the noise back at him. "Go spend time with someone else. I'm busy today."
Sleipnir gave a whining neigh and tried to push his way into the room.
Loki placed a hand on the horse's muzzle, halting him. "Stop that," he scolded. He glanced back at his book, lying tantalizingly on the chair cushion, and sighed. "Why don't you go find Sigyn and play with her today?" he suggested enticingly.
At this, Sleipnir looked down and stamped disappointedly. Loki blinked, surprised. "Can you not find her?" he asked curiously. That was odd; it was midday, and Sigyn would have usually made her way to the palace by now. Sleipnir had an uncanny knack for finding the people that he wanted to find. Even if they were in the library, where he was barred, Sleipnir would patiently wait outside the doors. If he hadn't managed to locate Sigyn, it was almost certain that she wasn't there.
Loki wondered briefly if he had scared her off the day before, then remembered that Sif had been planning on pummeling her afterwards. It seemed more likely that Sigyn had been incapacitated by the training round and was unable to move rather than avoiding him.
Or was it really? Loki's brow furrowed as he pondered it. His decision to kiss Sigyn had been uncharacteristically impulsive. He was all for improvisation, but even he hadn't expected the actions out of himself. It had been like he had realized several things at once: that logic was such a natural progression of thought for her, that others' opinions were so insignificant to her, that unlike a great many ladies Loki had met, marriage was the last thing on her mind, and what he had been beginning to notice over the last few years, but had suddenly struck him at that moment, that Sigyn was a stunningly attractive young woman.
So he kissed her. That was typically what young men did when confronted with pretty girls, wasn't it? And while the general female opinion had always tended towards Thor, Loki was something of a master at eavesdropping and had heard on multiple occasions some maidens sighing about his looks and how handsome both of the princes had grown, bemoaning that he had been betrothed so young. Many more of them simply found him frightening, though, or not fitting their desired ideal warrior physique. It tended to be fairly easy to tell the difference in person, and Loki wasn't unfamiliar with charming some women with a well-placed smile or wink into doing what he wanted. He generally found women to be more predictable and easier to manipulate than men. The lady Sif, less so, but that was only because of her familiarity with him, and really, when it came right down to it, anger was easy enough to direct as he wanted if it so suited him.
But Sigyn was different. As far as Loki could tell, Sigyn was his intellectual equal. He had never been foolish enough to try, but he knew that he would be hard pressed to make her do anything that she hadn't intended to do beforehand. She thought about the things she did before she did them. And what she had said before he impulsively kissed her…it had surprised him. In hindsight, it all made perfect sense and fit in with what Loki knew of her, but she had still managed to shock him at the time. Not only that, it had brought something even more startling to his attention; he had never really pursued the romantic aspect of their relationship.
She was going to be his wife someday. Perhaps he should start exploring the things he could and couldn't persuade her to do.
An insistent whinny brought him out of his reverie. Loki looked up and Sleipnir looked back at him pleadingly. "Let's both go looking for her then, hm?" he suggested to Sleipnir playfully. The horse's ears perked up and he straightened, looking hopeful. Loki chuckled. "Perhaps she'll have turned up by now, and we can all play together." Sleipnir neighed excitedly and quickly returned to the head of the stairs, staring at his mother expectantly. Loki rolled his eyes, but still smiled as he followed his son down the steps.
Perhaps expectedly, Sigyn was not anywhere they could find inside the palace, as Sleipnir had already searched through it fairly thoroughly. So they turned their search outside, and Loki winced when the light and heat of the sun hit him. It wasn't as if it was a broiling day outside, but summer was approaching, and Loki had never been very fond of hot weather. Sleipnir suddenly began snuffling at the air, looking around warily.
Loki raised his eyebrows. "Oh? Find something?" He got an eager look in response. "Well, I do believe you're the faster of us two. Do you mind?" he asked, wrapping a hand in the colt's mane.
Sleipnir was extremely picky about letting anyone ride him. Loki had taken him to Odin many times while he was growing up, and while he was a bit wary of the king at first, it was quickly clear that Odin commanded respect. So he would willingly behave himself and stay beside the All-Father, even if he hadn't yet grown big enough to be a suitable steed. The only person that he allowed to ride him now was Loki, who was small and slight enough to fit comfortably on Sleipnir's back. He didn't even let Sigyn on him; he wouldn't stay still long enough for her to properly mount him, and even when Loki had once scolded him and held him still so that Sigyn could sit on his back, he stubbornly refused to move anywhere until she had finally sighed and slipped back down to the ground, saying out loud that Sleipnir was fast enough that she'd probably just slip off while riding him anyway and that he had probably spared her from looking like a fool. She had given the colt a wink, and he had nuzzled her in response to let her know there were no hard feelings.
Sleipnir stood still at Loki's request, and the prince easily swung himself up. When he was seated solidly, Sleipnir was off. The surroundings vanished only to be replaced with bright lines of blurred color. The still air became gale-force winds, blowing back Loki's hair and pulling insistently at his limbs. He held tightly to the mane still in his hands and put his torso flat to the back of the horse's neck, his eyes stinging slightly and his lips drying out.
They finally slowed, and Loki raised himself to see that they were in the royal gardens. The flora here was incredibly varied, gloriously beautiful, and the envy of every botanist who wasn't lucky enough to obtain work for Asgardian royalty. The flowers were colorful and welcoming, the hedges lovely and picturesque, and the trees were tall and majestic. Resting on the ground in the shade of a weeping willow, curled up, tucked almost out of sight, and sleeping, was Sigyn.
Sleipnir came to a stop and Loki slipped off his back. He gave Sigyn a curious look before turning back to Sleipnir. "So, you couldn't find her earlier because…?"
The horse stamped indignantly and gave an offended neigh. Sleipnir hadn't been gifted with the ability to speak, but Loki could practically feel the message radiating from him. She wasn't here when I looked before! Loki laughed.
"Would the two of you mind keeping quiet?" a new voice asked somewhat croakily, and the pair looked over. Sigyn had cracked an eye open and was looking at them crossly.
Grinning, Loki made a circular motion with his fingers. A few of the nearby plants turned into small snakes that began hissing softly and slithered over to Sigyn's prone form. "My lady, the sun has risen long ago. Don't you think it improper for a woman of your breeding to curl up in slumber outside like some kind of beggar child?" he asked innocently. "You never know what can strike while you sleep."
She barely moved when the snakes reached her legs and started to slither up her dress. She simply raised a hand and pointed sharply at her skirts, and the flowers the snakes had once been tumbled back out the bottom. Oddly, Loki felt both disappointed and excited by her lack of reaction. His usual tricks didn't have the typical effect on her, which he really should have expected.
It did at least prompt Sigyn to open her eyes fully. She squinted slightly and raised a hand the light of the sun, but she looked back at Loki with her eyebrows raised. "Were you planning on cutting all of my hair off too, then?" she asked, her voice now clearer.
"Do you really still expect such a child's trick out of me?" he replied, his eyes gleaming mischievously. "I must be losing my touch." He held out a hand to help her to her feet.
She looked at the hand wearily, then sighed and took it, letting herself be pulled up. She delicately tucked back her blonde hair back behind her ears and rubbed her eyes. Loki watched intently as she shook out a few stray blossoms from her dress and smoothed it out again; it was extremely rare that anyone got to see Sigyn looking even the slightest bit disheveled. He found that he rather enjoyed the sight.
Her voice cut neatly through his thoughts. "My apologies for sleeping out in the open in the middle of the day," she said, finally sounding fully awake. "I am apparently still fatigued from healing myself after the lady Sif's training regime."
"Oh? And how did that go?"
"Painfully." Sigyn covered her mouth with a hand as a small yawn overcame her. "But successfully, it seemed. I could catch each of the weapons she threw at me by the finish. Sif was quite proud of me."
Loki smirked. "Is that so? Would you be so kind as to show me?"
She gave him a look. "Must I?" she asked dryly.
"Oh, I insist," he said, placing a hand over his heart as his smile widened. "I'm quite curious about your training progress."
They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds. Sigyn finally sighed. "Well, I suppose if you insist," she muttered, and wandered in the direction of the training grounds.
Blinking in surprise, Loki stared at her retreating form. He hadn't expected such immediate compliance; he knew quite well her general aversion to strenuous physical activity. His thoughts flitted to the memory of him kissing her, and wondered if the two were related. Well, he mused, it might be worth pursuing further investigation, at the very least. He moved to follow her, and Sleipnir fell into step beside him.
"I hope you realize I'm not allowing you into the training grounds," Loki told the colt sternly. Sleipnir whinnied indignantly. "None of that. You know it isn't safe to allow you to wander around an area where battle-mad Asgardian warriors are slinging weapons about."
His head drooped unhappily and Loki sighed at his son's expression. "Why don't you wait at the outskirts of the arena for us? We'll join you again soon."
Sleipnir blew at his lips, a forlorn look in his eyes, but gently butted his head to Loki's shoulder in assent. The prince smiled and gently scratched behind the horse's ears fondly. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly. "We won't be long."
Whatever Thor or Sif or the Warriors Three had to say about the glory and exhilaration about close quarters combat, Loki didn't bother subscribing to. Battle was about defeating an opponent. He never understood why Asgardian warriors didn't automatically reach the same conclusion as him: one should always try to win with the quickest and most efficient means possible. For Loki, this often meant magic and trickery, but when it came right down to actual fighting, he liked versatility. So, the handheld blades became his preferred method of battle. They were designed as long-range weapons to be thrown at an opponent, but one could easily hold them to stab and slice at a foe from up close. It didn't have the brute destructive force of say, a legendary hammer, but brute destructive force was not Loki's style.
In short, projectile weapons were kind of Loki's thing.
He twirled a dagger around his index finger as Sigyn walked to the center of the plain. He noted with amusement that she was looking around at the arena with a rather unhappy expression.
"Hoping you wouldn't have to return to the site of your recent physical torment so soon?" Loki asked her teasingly.
"I am suppressing conditioned mental trauma as we speak," Sigyn replied with a deadpan delivery and held her hands up in preparation for the incoming barrage.
Loki grinned. He was always delighted when Sigyn's dark humor broke out, which he knew she typically held back for the sake of tact. The court might refer to her as an ice queen, but Loki took this only as a mark of their stupidity. If any of them bothered to speak to her with any modicum of intelligence or sense, he knew she would speak back just as readily. Then, if Sigyn decided that she actually liked you, she would start smiling and verbally prod you with teasing comments that, if one wasn't careful, the meanings of which could subtly slip by.
Any other shows of strong feeling, though, were often almost impossible to pull out of her. It was actually a note of personal pride to Loki that out of anyone they knew, he was the one could incite Sigyn to the most diverse array of visible emotions other than calm, calculating rationality. Surprise, annoyance, enjoyment, even excitement if he managed to catch her just as she perfected a magical technique she had been working on for some time. It was even better when he could draw them out of her against her expectation.
"Let's not delay any longer, then," Loki said brightly, snapping the dagger out of his hand and sending it headed straight between her eyes. To his surprise, he felt an almost imperceptible shift in the air, and Sigyn neatly plucked the blade out of the air, dropping it to the ground.
Magic, he thought, and began to circle her, steadily throwing more blades and stars towards her vitals. Sigyn looked as though she needed focus very closely for each throw, but she was able to snatch each and every weapon safely before it struck her, dropping them at her feet. Well, two can play at that game.
Loki murmured a word under his breath and sent some energy into the knife he was holding, then threw it unerringly at Sigyn. She snapped her fingers closed over the flat of the blade and suddenly hissed in pain, dropping the weapon hurriedly and clutching at her wrist.
He smirked and put down the other blades he was holding. "Too hot?" he suggested innocently, strolling towards her lazily.
Sigyn looked up at him, now cradling her hand. "Was that necessary?" she asked sourly.
"Come now, Sigyn," Loki chided, "you were using a spell to aid you, so why shouldn't I get to use one too?" He stopped in front of her and said, "Besides, it was the simplest of heating spells. If you had been looking out for it, you should have been able to spot it and simply dodge the thing."
Sigyn looked down and her hand and gingerly uncurled it. A nasty burn slashed across her palm and fingers where she had grabbed the blade. She sighed, then brought her other hand up.
Loki grabbed her wrist and pulled the hand towards him. "Allow me," he offered. Sigyn looked up at him quizzically and he smiled charmingly back at her in return, summoning the warm healing power into his mouth. Very gently, he brought the injured hand up to his face and placed a soft kiss on to the burn, letting the energy flow from his lips to her skin where it busied itself with repairing and replacing damaged skin cells.
He met her eyes. Sigyn had raised her eyebrows in her usual are-you-making-mischief-again-Loki expression, but he noted with some triumph that a slight flush had spread over her cheeks.
"Thank you," she said calmly, taking her hand back from his, "I'll be sure to keep on the lookout for magicked weapons the next time blades are being hurled at me." She straightened and smoothed out her skirts. "Other than that, did you find my proficiency adequate?"
Loki smirked as another idea popped into his head. "Certainly, though you should eventually wean yourself off of magical aid to defend yourself; you never know when you might be taken by surprise and haven't yet modified the air to your liking in preparation," he said, picking up another small blade and stepping behind Sigyn. An image of himself materialized on the far edge of the plain with its own dagger, which it was currently spinning lazily in the air. Loki gently pulled Sigyn towards him, her back against his torso. He placed his left hand on her shoulder and his right arm brushed against Sigyn's as he pressed the handle of the blade into her newly healed right hand. "May I propose an alternative?" he asked softly.
Sigyn seemed to stiffen for a moment, but quickly relaxed with a quiet exhale of breath. "Of course," she responded, her voice still level.
He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and lightly tugged it in front of her in a defensive stance. "Rather than catch every blade, just take one," he suggested, tapping the blade in her hand with a finger. "Then use it to knock the other weapons out of the air. Like so." Loki nodded to the double, and it threw its dagger at them. He swiped Sigyn's arm through the air, timing the motion so that the real blade in her hand hit the image in the air. When the two came into contact, the false weapon fizzled out of existence. "This way, if anything coming at you has been cursed, your stolen blade will take the brunt of it, not you," he explained. He moved his head close to hers, a cheekbone resting in her hair and his nose brushing against the outer edge of her ear. "Do you understand?" he purred in her ear.
For several seconds, Sigyn stood still and silent. She finally said, "Ah. You're doing this on purpose."
Loki blinked. "Pardon?"
"This," she insisted and pulled herself away from Loki's hold, turning around to face him. "This sudden change of behavior just now. Getting so close to me, coming into contact with me, speaking the way you are." She didn't seem nervous or unsure any more. In fact, she looked confident in her conclusion, a cold smile playing at her lips. "It's a somewhat crude way of putting it, but you are, for a lack of a better phrase, trying to seduce me. Aren't you?"
They stared at each other, Loki a little unsure how to react. Finally, he broke the silence. "I suppose I was coming on rather strong," he admitted quietly.
"Quite."
He frowned. He hadn't exactly put a name for what he had been trying to do, but Sigyn seemed to have hit the nail on the head without him realizing it. But he didn't like the implications of the phrase. Seducing her…it was like she was some kind of conquest to him. That was a ridiculous notion; Sigyn was already betrothed to him and besides, she wasn't foolish enough to be charmed by a few smooth words. If anything, Loki was just motivated by curiosity that had sprung from kissing her day before. And she hadn't even mentioned the kiss in that list; was she trying to avoid or ignore it?
Sigyn was still staring at him intently. Loki couldn't decipher what expression was on her face, but it certainly didn't look particularly pleased. "I apologize," he offered cautiously. "Did my actions offend you?"
She tilted her head, but her expression didn't change. "…No," she said eventually. "I suppose the realization simply startled me."
Loki raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" He began to take slow, deliberate steps towards her. She kept still, looking him in the eye.
He wasn't certain what he was doing any more. It seemed like the time for improvisation had arisen; unidentifiable emotions were swirling through his head and his body seemed to thrum excitedly in anticipation, though for what, he didn't know. "I don't suppose, then," he said slowly, still steadily approaching Sigyn, "that you would be too terribly opposed…" He had reached her and stopped inches from her body. She still had not moved away. "…to me getting this close to you again, would you?"
Sigyn kept eye contact determinedly. "I suppose not," she responded, her voice completely even.
He reached up and gently took her chin in his fingers. His gaze was now piercing, and he could feel his pulse in his ears. "We are betrothed, you know," he noted lightly.
"I'm not unfamiliar with the fact," Sigyn said dryly.
"I believe betrothal comes with a few…benefits." Loki could feel the heat of his breath from his words ghost over her face, they were now so close. He wasn't sure if would be able to look away if he tried.
"Does it, now?" Sigyn asked, or maybe she didn't. Loki wasn't certain if he actually heard the words from her mouth, the pounding in his ears had gotten so loud. If he had, her voice seemed lower than he remembered it being.
Their noses touched. He was experiencing the odd sensation of feeling as if he was drowning in the light blue of her eyes. "You are mine," he whispered huskily.
Sigyn's eyes had almost closed. "I suppose I am," she murmured.
His vision blurred. Without warning, their lips connected and suddenly their bodies were pressed together. This kiss was not like the last. There was movement. He could feel their push and pull of their mouths against each other, her lips soft and warm and lovely and perfectly fit to his. One of his hands was around her neck under her jawbone and the other curled around her waist. He could feel her small hands resting on his hips and he felt as if he wanted to lean against her body until they fell into each other forever.
They pulled apart for breath, which seemed to have escaped them both completely. Loki rested his forehead against Sigyn's as he inhaled, and he heard her chuckle softly. "Interesting," she said lightly.
He grinned at her, his eyes glittering. "Only interesting?" he echoed.
She looked up at him and smiled brilliantly. "Very interesting," she whispered, and pressed her lips back to his.
It's been a big longer of a wait than I planned for this chapter…so I made it extra long to make up for it! So here's a rather romantic scene, or as romantic as I imagine these two being with each other. I've got to be honest with you guys: I'm not so sure I did that well with this chapter, both with the romance and with Loki's perspective, but I do think I tried my best with them. Please give me feedback and tell me what you think of it; I feel like I really need to improve my flow for future chapters.
So, as promised, this is the last bit for this particular point in time, and I will be moving on to a new point in the future for the next chapter. I have a fairly solid idea for what I want to have happen in the very next chapter, but beyond that, it's still rather fuzzy, so I'm still taking requests from anyone who wants me to write any scene in particular into this story! An overarching plot is slowly starting to form in my head, though, so I'm excited to try and bring it to fruition.
Sleipnir just sort of suddenly became a much more prominent character than I ever planned him being, but I don't even mind because he's so sweet. What do you all think?
A little random, but it's my headcanon that Loki is very good at mimicry without the aid of any kind of magic, much as the real Tom Hiddleston is quite good at impressions. So it might show up in this fic once or twice. For now, it's just Loki making a horse noise at Sleipnir to tease him.
To my reviewer Haleigh Duncan, who wanted to know what birthday present I was making for my friend, I was actually drawing a picture! It was of Sherlock from BBC Sherlock, as played by the lovely and talented Benedict Cumberbatch, standing side by side with Loki, as played, of course, by the lovely and talented Tom Hiddleston. We're both part of both fandoms, so I thought she'd appreciate it. :P
As always, I am honored and flattered by all of my readers, reviewers, and followers for taking the time to read my story. Please give me any feedback, criticisms, and advice for me that you might have, and thank you all so much for reading!
