Hello again everyone! Another chapter! So, the first section is once again written by my wonderful and talented collaborator, ladymacbeth99 The section I've written starts right after "rubbing his eyes sleepily". Hope you enjoy and thank you so much again to all my reader and/or reviewers!

Chapter 9:

Frigga pauses in the doorway to watch her sons. Thor sits on the sofa, paging through his economics textbook, with Loki curled up on his lap, head resting over Thor's heart. Sleeping. He must be, anyway, because there is a hint of a smile on his lips, and Loki hardly ever smiles when he is awake anymore. Yet it is Thor's face that Frigga studies with relief: for the first time in weeks, the worried creases in his forehead are smooth. As if he can only truly rest when Loki sleeps. Frigga understands—Loki cannot be in pain or in danger when he is asleep. Perhaps he even finds some contentment in his dreams. And so Thor can finally let go for a moment, relax his hyper-vigilant state.
But Loki has been sleeping so much lately. His boredom probably contributes to his fatigue, though Frigga intends to ask Dr. Banner about it the next time he visits, in case it means something deeper is wrong. She wishes Loki would just talk to her, tell her what he needs. It's often hard to guess what he is feeling at any given moment.
His thoughts must be getting claustrophobic, trapped inside his head. A mind as colorful and complicated and quick as her youngest son's should have some way of expressing itself.
Much as she hates to break the stillness of the scene, it's necessary.
"Thor, honey?" she whispers, before remembering that she won't wake Loki with the sound of her voice.
Her older son turns his head toward her as far as he can without disturbing Loki.
"Hi, Mom."
"That was Sif on the phone a few minutes ago. She wants to come over and see how Loki is doing."
"Oh. Well that's nice of her, but—"
"I told her she could come at three."
Almost reflexively, Thor's arms seem to tighten around the little boy in his lap. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Mom? He gets so nervous around visitors."
Frigga sighs and walks around to the other side of the couch so that Thor doesn't have to awkwardly crane his neck.
"I know you just want to protect him, Thor," she says carefully, "but I think it might be good for Loki to interact a little more with people outside the family. Even just starting with people he already knows."
The anxious crease in Thor's forehead is back. Frigga wants to smooth it away with her thumb. Her oldest son doesn't need to take the weight of the world on his shoulders—but she knows he does it willingly, without resentment, and wouldn't dream of setting it down for more than a moment.
"Sif is a nice girl, and a good friend," she reminds him gently. "She wants to help, and I think you should let her."
Thor nods, but he is still frowning. Frigga wants to say more. She knows that Thor had been planning on asking Sif to homecoming, before the accident happened—while that hardly matters now, she doesn't want her son to let life pass him by. He should still be allowed to be young, while he can. But before she can find any words to broach the subject, her youngest begins to stir, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

It takes Loki longer these days to rouse to full wakefulness. Frigga still remembers when her baby boy would simply rocket awake, shedding whatever drowsiness might have lingered as though it were nothing. Loki had been such a ball of boundless energy…

Now, whenever her son begins to wake, it's always with a brief and heartbreaking moment of seeming confusion, Loki acting for seconds which seem to last an eternity as though he's forgotten now that he's blind. That he can't hear…

A few times now it's happened, where Loki has called out to her, or to Thor, or even Odin, with such an edge of hysterical desperation, groping clumsily and frantic about himself, as though trying to find some kind of purchase.

Those times Frigga has barely been able to keep herself from dissolving into tears. Barely been able to keep herself calm enough not to simply grab Loki up and hold him tight to her chest, knowing to do so would only throw him into a terrified panic.

Now, blessedly, Loki seems more cognizant of himself and his surroundings. He pulls his small hands from his face, blinking rapidly, though his dull eyes remain blank and unfocused, before he sighs softly and falls limply back against Thor's broad chest, burying his face there, rubbing it against the thin material of his older brothers t-shirt, hands balling into fists at Thor's shoulders.

Thor smiles, reaching a hand up and placing his wide palm gently against Loki's crown, tousling his black strands playfully. Loki seems contented by it, rubbing his face once more against Thor's chest, burrowing harder against him.

Thor continues petting his hair a few seconds longer, before finally reaching up and taking hold his brother's hand, uncurling his small, thin fingers to sign against his palm.

"Mom's here." He tells him. "Wanna say hi?"

Loki continues lying against him a few, long seconds more before finally he nods, pushing himself upright in Thor's lap and turning expectantly.

Frigga feels her throat tighten at how her son turns in completely the wrong direction, and for an instant she has to look away as Thor tells him she's sitting on his other side.

She composes herself quickly though as Loki finally finds her, reaching out and summoning a smile to her face as she pulls him off of Thor's lap and into her own. Loki seems to automatically curl around her, his skinny arms wrapping round her waist and his face burying to her chest.

"Hi Mama." He says, voice muffled and almost too soft to hear, and her own arms wrap around him, squeezing him against her and laying her cheek atop his head.

She kisses his crown half a dozen times in as many seconds, before bringing her hands up and cupping his face, kissing him again repeatedly across his forehead and cheeks.

When she kisses his eyelids, he bursts out in a fit of giggles, and Frigga can't help the wide grin which splits across her face, mirrored, she notices, by Thor. Bringing her hands back down, she buries her fingers in the pits of Loki's arms and begins tickling him, and his giggles melt into full on laughter as he begins to squirm and gasp.

He's always been so ticklish. The two of them had used to do this all the time, a kind of game between them, and suddenly she wonders why she'd failed to remember it until now.

Worry, she supposes, over Loki's health. Dr. Banner had made it a point that they not let Loki get overexcited or in any way more stressed than already he was. It was important, he said, that Loki find ways and activities to keep him relaxed and calm. Things which he could thrive within and excel at without the necessity of sight or sound. The difficulty of that had been greater, Frigga thinks, than any of them had anticipated.

You never realize how much you depend on being able to see and hear until it's taken away from you. And the way Loki had been suffering so clearly these last few months, both from obvious boredom and almost crippling depression, was the harshest testament to that.

That was without consideration of the physical limitation it had placed on her already fragile son.

Thinking of all that, Frigga doesn't allow herself to carry on tickling her boy for very much longer, though she's reluctant to stop for how much he's clearly enjoying himself.

Still, she knows she's made the right decision as Loki sits still gasping for breath in her lap. Still laughing too, but she doesn't want to push him too hard.

"Mom," She lifts her face up when she hears Thor call out to her, and finds him looking back intently. "i-if Sif is coming over, you… you should tell him." He nods towards his brother, and Frigga nods in return.

It's still a good idea, she's sure. For both her son's. They need some contact outside of each other. Thor especially now, he's been isolating himself so much these past weeks, barely even talking to his friends over the phone. And he was always such a gregarious, outgoing person. So naturally charismatic, just drawing people to him. She knows it isn't a good thing for him to be cut off. It isn't natural to Thor, not how he should or wants to be, despite how he might feel right now.

Loki, she knows, has always been more introverted and shy. More quiet and to himself. But still, she'd been trying to get him into more social activities, even before the accident. He'd been having trouble at school, making any friends, and had even been bullied, she knew, for whatever reason children have for singling someone out and picking on them. It had upset Loki. He'd often come home crying. And she and Odin had thought maybe the solution lie in getting their youngest out and around a more varied group of children.

Loki had already displayed signs that he didn't belong in any kind of regular schooling for a boy his age. That he was well and far advanced in his comprehension in just about every subject. A rigorous slew of tests, and it had been determined that Loki posses a genius level intellect and, really, most likely belonged in college.

They'd held back on that though, because Loki was so young still. Smart as he was, he was just a child. A very young child. None of them had been okay with sending him off to someplace out of state, or even out of the general neighborhood. What's more from that, Loki had been so attached to Thor, following him everywhere, close as his shadow, practically attached at the hip, none of them could even consider separating the two siblings.

She takes Loki's hand now, tracing into his palm.

"Honey," she tells him. "I've invited Sif over. She'll be here in about twenty minutes or so."

Immediately, she feels Loki stiffen in her hold, and then jerk back. For one, awful moment, there's an expression of pure panic on his young face.

"S-Sif?" He asks, voice trembling.

"That's right baby." Frigga tells him. "She wanted to come over to see you and Thor. I told her she could."

Already though, Loki is shaking his head, and Frigga feels her heart sink as his face crumples, tears springing in an instant to his unseeing eyes.

"I-I… I don't wanna s-see her." He cries, his words coming more slurred than usual, fear and dismay robbing him of his usual patience and care in speaking. "Mm-Mama, I don't wanna s-see her."

Frigga stamps down the sudden panic threatening to take hold of her. She knew likely that Loki would be upset. At least initially. But she knows also that if he hopes to have any sort of normalcy in his life, he's going to eventually have to learn to be around people other than his family. To hopefully, in the future, even have friends of his own.

She takes hold of him, giving his a tight hug before grasping his hand and signing quickly as she's able.

"Honey, it's alright." She says, trying to ignore the way Thor is now fidgeting in clear agitation, looking stricken. "This will be good for you."

"Sh-she'll laugh at me!" Loki cries, dismayed.

"No baby, she won't." Frigga tries to reassure him. "You know Sif. She's always been a good friend."

"She's Th-Thor's friend." He moans, and he sounds so frightened all of a sudden. "Sh-she hates me. She hates me…"

"Mom…" Thor starts, motioning forward, as though to take Loki from her lap, but she shakes her head.

"It's alright Thor." She starts. "Just give him a minute."

Again she bends down, taking hold her youngest's face and pressing a kiss to his forehead, taking his hands again afterwards.

"She doesn't hate you love." She tells him. "She asked to come over specifically to see you. She wants to make sure you're alright."

Loki sobs, shaking his head again.

"I-I'm not alright. She'll la-laugh at me." He cries again, and it's everything Frigga can do to keep her own tears from falling.

"Oh, darling." She says. "She won't. I wouldn't let her. Don't you know that?"

Loki shakes his head, and she wraps her arms about him, pulling him against her again, hugging him tight.

"Oh, my darling." She breathes softly, pressing her lips to his soft curls, kissing him once more. "My sweet darling."