Vilvi paced the library, her arms wrapped around herself and eyes glued to the floor as she continued to move back and forth in a straight line as her thoughts ran wild. Was Loki truly capable of such treachery? Could he have really plotted against Thor to such extensive detail? And all for what? For her? No, surely not. There had to be more, something else motivating him, something else driving him to turn to such behaviors. The Loki she knew, the Loki she had come to care so deeply for, wouldn't have done such terrible things without proper intentions.
"Vilvi." His soft voice broke her concentration, her body shivered at the sound of him calling her name. She turned to face him, her eyes falling upon his face. His expression was twisted, eyes full of sorrow but a face stern with anger. She saw pain and suffering, not evil. "Vilvi, please." He held his arms out for her and without a single moment of hesitation she rushed to collide with him. His arms wrapped warmly around her fragile body and hers moved around his neck. She buried her face against his chest and he rested the side of his face against her head as he moved a hand to stroke his fingers through her hair.
"What's wrong?" Her voice was muffled as she spoke while her face remained pressed his chest-she could hear his heart beating steady.
"Father has fallen into the Odinsleep." He answered with pain in his voice.
This wasn't something Vilvi hadn't become entirely accustomed to; after all it happened once a year. Yet still every time Odin entered this great sleep Vilvi was always so entranced by the concept. But now for him to take his sleep at a time like this seemed so incredibly shocking to her. The heir to Asgard was banished and now its King slept. It made Asgard terribly vulnerable and often during the Odinsleep Thor would assume protection of the kingdom but now…Vilvi took a step back away from Loki, her arms slowly falling to rest her hands against his chest as she turned her eyes up to him. "Who will protect Asgard?"
Loki inhaled a deep breath and his shoulder rose with tension. His eyes glanced away from Vilvi in that instance, but as he turned his gaze back to her he exhaled his breath and dropped his shoulders as he brought a palm to rest against her cheek. "I will." He whispered to her softly, caressing his thumb against her skin.
Vilvi felt her heart stop. It made sense now. She grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand away from her face as her eyes stared up at him in disbelief. "Loki," She began as she continued to step back away from him, "you can't be serious."
Loki seemed rather shocked at her statement, and as he yanked his wrist away from her grasp a certain sense of anger seemed to come over him. "You insult me Princess." He stated bluntly.
"I only meant-"
"You don't think I'm strong enough?" Loki continued on, as if he didn't care what she had to say. "You think I'm just some weakling who can't protect the realm as easily as Thor could? You think I'm not good enough?" He began to raise his voice now. "I bet you wish your beloved Thor was here, don't you? Surely someone as strong and mighty as Thor could protect Asgard, right?"
Vilvi listened to his rant, horrified, as his anger seemed to overcome him. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She slapped him, as hard as she possibly could. They stood there in a mutual stunned silence. His face turned to the right after she slapped him across his left cheek, a red handprint visible against his pale face. Her right hand across her heart, gripping the fabric of her tunic tightly and throbbing in pain from the impact. His eyes shocked. Her eyes scared.
Her eyes shifted to look down at her feet and her hand dropped back to her side. "Stop it." She whispered, not daring to look up at him. "I don't know what you're doing Loki, or how far down this road you plan to go, but just stop now. You're not yourself anymore, you're becoming something you're not, you're becoming something much darker. You're not the Loki I love anymore. I can't love this Loki. I can't love what you're turning yourself in to" She looked up at him, her eyes swelling with tears, "What happened to you that was so bad you had to become this?"
He never once looked at her as she spoke then, but she could see the watering in his eyes. He bit his lip and looked down, stepping away from her slowly. "I wish I could say I was doing this all for you. That my love for you is what motivated me to this path I've chosen, but that wouldn't be entirely true Vilvi. It may have started that way at first but now it's much deeper than that. I've forgotten that, sadly. What was a simple and pure intention has now become something much greater and I can't stop now." He finally looked at her and she could tell he was fighting the tears as his voice cracked, "I've come too far to stop now Vilvi."
