Writers Note: After this, there will only be one more chapter to go, then the conclusion! Thanks everyone who has followed/favorite so far, your love and comments are my fuel.
The red spread beneath the riving thin frame, Loki moaned before he passed out. He must have because looking up again he saw Odin, and Frigga starring down at him in what seemed like a round, all white room. The Allfather still wore an expression of horror when looking at the large midsection, only it had lightened some since before. Frigga on the other hand looked afraid, afraid and somewhat distant from Odin but still she managed to show caring for Loki through her eyes, that tenderness only a mother can have.
"Where am I? Where's Thor?!" The raven haired man attempted to sit up, however the room spinning and blurred prevented any such thing.
"Slow down." Frigga lend in over him slightly "We had the guards carry you to the medical room, try to relax. The time is soon now." looking over to a small woman dressed in a plain blue and white dress marked with a cross.
"With the contractions you've been having in your sleep for the past forty minutes, we will be delivering your children soon." The small lady said placing a tray with odd looking tools down to the bedside.
"Children?" Loki repeated dumbfounded "You mean child." even sweaty and pained, silver tongue could not let a mistake such as that by without argument.
"No my dearest, I meant children I assure you. There are two as far as I can tell. -It won't be long now." The lady smiled warmly, as if to try and calm the raging storm before it began.
"Mother! It's too soon!" He grabbed her cool hand as Odin shifted where he stood.
"Try to stay calm, I know it's too soon, but the stress sent you into labor early." The words sent the previous hour flooding back to him faster than preferred.
"Oh! Ahh..." Loki squirmed from the sudden jolt of pain, shutting his green eyes tight before painting the rest of the way through.
"That's right dear, one breath at a time. Breathe slowly." The lady in white instructed.
"Are you alright?" Loki nodded to his mother while slowly relaxing back in his place.
"This is your doctor Haira." Frigga gestured to the woman in white, now standing at the foot of the bed "She is the best for delivering in all of Asgard. -She even delivered your brother." hearing this somehow took the edge off, even if only a small bit.
"Your children's hearts are both beating strongly, yes they will be very premature but with the Crystals of Tabarith, we can give them a protective shield to keep their organs functioning until they are strong enough to do so on their own permanently." She pointed to the small light yellow crystals on the tray before nodding and exiting the room, much to prepare for after all.
As soon as Haira left Odin put a hand to his forehead combing through his hair in deep thought.
"Loki." the older man said as soft as he could.
"I wish you would have been the one to come forward to me and told me. Told me you where..." His voice trailed off "Joton, told me you where with child."
Loki struggled to keep his gaze fixed on his father, the shame was almost overbearing, but he pushed through to hear Odin's words. This may be his last chance to do so after all, even Asgarding's can die from child birth.
"I... I was afraid, All- Odin." Loki said as his scorning himself for almost speaking the word.
"Allfather!" Odin sneered, momentarily forgetting his son's condition. "I am still your father. I am the one who feed you, raised you."
"I'm sorry... Father." Loki could not keep his eyes lifted any longer, trailing the wrinkles in his bed sheets now, instead.
Frigga let out a small noise not meaning to, which went ignored.
"I would expect my own son, whom I raised: To be honest with me. Then again you do have, her blood running through your veins so I cannot punish you for that."
"Father, please don't." A shard of ice pierced his heart from the cold words.
There was a brief silence between the three of them, Frigga almost feeling out of place being discussed so passively, but did not leave. This concerned her just as much as Loki, she had to stay no matter how painful it became to hear.
"Who is he?" Odin finally said.
Loki raised an eyebrow, hand still firmly placed on his children. His lips parted slightly when he realized what was meant.
"Who is he Loki?!" A fist formed of one of Odin's hands "It is my right to know. I demand it."
Fear began to well up inside as the moment he dreaded grew nearer.
"I cannot tell you, father." Loki said simply he felt the strange sensation of warm liquid fill his eyes.
"...I love you my son, I am not trying to hurt you I just want the truth. I would rather it be from you, than having to ask my all seeing gate keeper. I will know one way or another, but I would rather it be from you, my son." Odin tried to soften his voice once more, the sight of the green emeralds swelling with tears struck a tender cord deep within him.
"You have to proms me, something first." The pale man said, his voice creaking.
"You have my word." Odin answered but Loki still furrowed and lifted his eyebrows in worry.
"You have to promise..." he repeated.
"I said you have my word, I am the Allfather, ruler of Asgard. I do not go back, once my word is given."
Satisfied with that Loki took a deep breath "No harm is to befall my children, nor their father. It doesn't matter what happens to me... I will pay for all sin's, if you so see them as such. But no harm to them, please father." A tear left his right cheek.
Odin nodded somewhere through his hardness a tiny bit of confusion grew, had he bedded someone so bad?
Loki swallowed glancing at Frigga who quietly was anticipating the answer as well.
He took another deep breath.
"Thor." he said finally, cutting the silence like a spear.
Frigga's hand flew to her mouth as she gasped, Odin just stood there with a hard expression covering his face.
"Thor? Your brother!?" Odin questioned in disbelief.
"...Yes." Loki could not face either one of them any longer, the feeling of his own death replaying from his dream, haunted the back of his mind.
Frigga would have wept if she had, had any tears left they had all gone not two hours before.
"That whore! Laying with his own brother! He shale never see the thrown of Asgard!" Odin raged.
"You promised, no harm to them!" Loki screamed as loud as he could, with the weight of his children pressing down on him, it was a very strained cry.
A sharp stabbing pitted itself in Loki's gut from the strain, the anger he held for Odin in that second consumed him whole. But the stress gave a different signal to his unborn. Thor turned the corner into the room in that moment seeing and hearing all, he wished he hadn't stepped in on that moment, not now. But then looking at Loki screaming in pain, gave the thunderer strength again putting his wayward feet back on track towards Loki.
Frigga glanced up at Thor, the hurt of what he'd done to her youngest, was visibly there taking control of her soft brown eyes. Odin did not move his back pensively faced Thor, and almost peered at him with energy, though his eyes were locked on the riving man on the bed. Thor arrived on the other side of the bed from Odin, putting the soothing herbs he had gathered from Loki's room down on his bedside table. He wanted to comfort his lover, but the air was so thick he seemed to compress his lungs smattering all words.
"Loki..." was all the golden man could manager to utter, causing his father to slowly yet unmistakably sharply look up at him.
If looks could kill, Thor would have been little more than ashes on the floor.
"Gahhh!" Loki screamed louder, breaking the two standing men's eye contact as the nurses rushed in followed shortly by the doctor.
"It's time." the nurse with the red hair said, as she shoed the Odin's away from the bed a few feet.
Frigga tried to grasp Odin's hand but he violently snatched away from her making her eyes fall low. Thor couldn't stand the pressure of his parents fighting and his lover and only brother crying in agony so he left the room. Sitting down on the small grey couch just outside was not much better as the sounds seeped through the walls. It was horrible, he felt so useless, so very powerless to be able to bring peace and calm to his own family.
"IT'S. HURTS. IT HURTS! AH!" Loki screamed as his nails dug into the splinters of the bed post.
"Take a deep breath and PUSH!" Haira ordered looking down at Loki's exposed area.
"I... I, I CAN'T!" Loki sobbed, looking at his upward knees beyond the belly hump.
"Yes you can!" The doctor motioned with both hands for some sort of blue haze, it sparkled before settling and soking into Loki's belly. "Try again!"
"Ah!" He screamed the pain still very present, his mind screamed for Thor, but he was not there.
"PUSH!"
Thor's fingers entangled within his locks of hair, as he did he briefly remembered when Loki did that for him in one of their fits of passion. The thought was uplifting but somehow he felt sickened with himself for even thinking of his own pleasure, not at a time like this. Not when his other half was in pain, and in pain because of him no less. No pleasure is the last thing he deserved right now, the very last thing.
Three hours later a faint cry met Thor's ear through the muffled sound of the wall, warmth rushed into his heart and his stiff posture changed immediately. Thor walked through the thrush hold of the white room, and the cries grew louder. There he saw Odin and Frigga huddled together on the beds left side they were looking at something together and did not seem to have any hostilities in that moment.
Thor walked closer reverted his eyes to Loki, upon doing so he first noticed the round belly he had grown accustomed to seeing had gone. Second he saw the man was far too pale even for Loki, and was not moving. Thor's last few steps to the bed hastened at this site and he briskly put a hand on his forehead, brushing back the strains of black hair mixed in with sweat. Thor's face must have grown instantly pale thinking the worst, of his beloved.
"He's just resting." Came a soft voice from a corner of the room almost enviable if it not for the clattering of tools the doctor was gathering up.
"Everything went, well then?" Thor asked hesitantly.
The woman smiled again with a nod "Come meet the newest additions." she gestured to his parents who were still huddled together.
Thor went around the bed and over to them, as he did Frigga who was genially swaying back and forth turned around to face him. She was tenderly holding a small baby girl, her rosy cheeks where heart melting.
"Here's your daddy." Frigga whispered to the sleeping child before handing it to Thor.
Thor shifted on his feet having never really held a child before, and this one was extra special, no, the most special. The little girl was beyond adorable, snuggled in her soft pink blanket, she was smaller than an average baby but looked no different aside from that. Upon closer inspection Thor saw a few fine hairs which matched his own, she was blond just like him. Thor melted further into his puddle but stayed stiff and tense to guard from dropping her. She was precious, indeed.
Odin appeared to have soften looking at the sight of Thor holding his first child, but still did not meet Thor's eyes directly. There was still a wall between them, however much smaller it was. He handed the baby back to Frigga, with a new expression of worry on his face.
"Where is the other?" Thor asked looking at Frigga then to the doctor who was now tending to Loki's IV, Frigga seemed to lose some of her light strangely at the request.
"...He is." The woman's voice trailed off "He is in the other room, receiving special care."
"Take me to him at once!" Thor demanded now slightly but softly outraged his other child was so far away before he could meet him.
"Follow me." Haira, said with some flat darkness in her tone, Thor could not understand, but did so anyway.
The woman led him to a room down the hall and to the right, through the wooden door was a small sleeping chamber covered with some sort of thin sheen to keep heat in over the bed. The sheen obstructed the view inside the small bed, and Thor furrowed his eyebrows trying to make out the tiny frame.
"This child is not the same as the other. Please try to prepare yourself." She said almost warningly.
Had something gone wrong with this baby? The shorter woman peeled the sheen away to revel a small dark green snake, slithering atop the sheet.
"Is this some kind of, trickery?" Thor was not amused in the slightest.
"No, Thor. It isn't, this is your brother second child." Thor's name fell off her lips, somewhat awkwardly.
The questioning look on Thor's puzzled face was enough mirth for her to continue.
"There isn't much known about Jotun physiology in this realm to go by. But from what I could tell when operating, both fetuses had their own wombs."
"...Separate, wombs?"
"Your brother has two, and it would appear" She said somewhat pointedly "that the fathers are different for both children, thus this revelation."
Thor needed to take a seat after hearing that, and watching the little thing slither around. It wasn't even humanoid, how could this have come from Loki? Then suddenly Thor was taken back to something Loki had told him about, he had been raped. And by a monster no less... This child. This 'child' was the product of that.
"We haven't told Loki anything about the second baby yet... We gave him something to help him rest as soon as the delivery was over."
As Thor was running a hand over his head, his mother stepped in the room.
"Thor, I need to talk with you." The honey blond, said softly.
The last thing he needed right now. She signaled for him to follow her back to the room where Loki was sleeping, after the short walk which seemed to last forever they were back in the room with Loki. Odin had apparently stepped out to tend to other matters for a bit, after all he still is the King of Asgard.
"I'm back brother." Thor said placing a soft kiss on Loki's cheek, before turning to his mother.
What difference did showing affection have now? Everything was in the open and hiding would be pointless from here on out.
"Thor..." Frigga said waiting for Thor's full attention once more.
"You have my ears, mother."
"I need to tell you something." She said careful not to wake the sleeping baby snuggled in a crib beside Loki's bed.
"Go on..."
"Loki is not truly your brother."
