Edited: 24/06/13

Chapter 10 –Animal Instincts and Political Scheming

Sigyn walked across Loki's bedroom and stood before her husband with a faint smile on her lips. He was sulking on his bed, like a child, and yet as soon as he left his chambers, he would be tall and strong and utterly composed like a real king. There were many faces to Loki, and Sigyn had seen them all over the centuries. She had seen him heartbroken and desperate, she had seen him full of joy and playfulness, serious and anxious, angry and bitter. Thor was very simple in his emotions, he was happy, or angry, or sad, or some mixture of that. Loki was far more complex. It could make him exhausting, and Sigyn had sometimes enjoyed Thor's company more when Loki had been moody, but only in the moment, and never for the stretch of immortal life. Only Loki could hold her attention for that length of time. It was as much his chaotic behaviour that she loved as anything else. At home her life was a ridged structure of unbreakable ritual, with Loki she was free.

Reaching out, Sigyn pushed some of his hair out of his face and then stretched her body over his, lying on top of him and holding herself up on her elbows so their faces were mere inches apart. Loki blinked up at her and smiled faintly,

"Oh, hello."

Sigyn smiled and brushed her lips over his, pleased when he tried to follow her rather than pull away. While Loki still responded to her touch, she knew she could handle him, but if he pulled away, she would fear for him. Her husband was an unpredictable creature at times, and the past few days exceptionally so. To have allowed the Frost Giants into the palace, just to spoil Thor's day… it was a telling omen of Loki's darker inclinations. His reason was not unsound, but Sigyn knew in the end Loki had acted on his own jealousy as much as his worries over Thor's adequacies. And then to learn of his heritage…

Sigyn kissed him harder, hand curling against his throat, knowing that such a secret could have cost her her husband, but she refused to let that happen. Loki was hers, she would never give him up for anything. Loki's hand slid down her back to cup the curve of her backside, pulling them closer together. Sigyn moaned and pulled away enough to push her face against his neck, inhaling the scent of him.

"Have we enough time?" she gasped against his skin.

"Yes. The feast is not for a while yet. What about you?"

"I faked a tantrum. We've lots of time." Sigyn grabbed at her dress, pulling it up over her hips, "Here's what you will do. Until I say so, all you will think about is me, how you will touch me, how you will pleasure me, how much you love me. Nothing else, do you understand."

Loki grinned and nodded, reaching up to pull the shoulder straps of her dress down. Sigyn smiled with pleasure as his eyes cleared of darkening thoughts and turned to her. She had set him a task, and Loki would do it with enthusiasm. It would take his mind off his worries, just for a moment and then his brilliant mind would figure out an answer.

Loki's lips pressed against her neck and she leaned into him, and Loki sighed softly, murmuring against her skin,

"That is one great thing about Thor not being in Asgard, and unable to return."

Sigyn laughed as she understood his meaning, "No more interruptions."

Loki let out a playful growl and flipped them over, "Exactly!"

Thor had a bad habit of bursting into Loki's chambers unannounced at the worst possible times.

Sigyn moaned quietly when Loki found that spot below her ear and she quickly magicked away her dress so it would not get in the way. Loki let out a faint noise when she did the same to his clothes. He pushed her back against his pillows and loomed over her, eyes dark green with desire as he started exploring her face with clever, nimble fingers.

Sigyn kept her eyes open, focused on him, her own hands resting on his waist. Her thumbs stretched and she brushed the raised scar on his stomach. Loki's breathing hitched as it always did when the sensitive magical scar was touched, but Sigyn was never afraid to touch it. She knew what had made it, and unlike Frigga and Odin who stayed silent about it, she never shied away from that memory.

The sight of Loki so distressed, frightened and desperate, breaking through her own injured pride, her wounded heart, as he begged for her help.

The cries of pain that fell from his lips as she had reached out with hands brimming with seiðr, to reach inside his body, to take out whatever was causing him so much agony.

The shock of a tiny hand curling around her finger as she brushed unmistakable skin… inside Loki's body.

As Loki started kissing his way down her neck, Sigyn found herself lost in the memory, no matter how hard she tried to stay in the moment.

Her hair had fallen in front of her face, but she was up to her forearms inside Loki who was screaming at her to 'rip it out, rip it out!'

Steeling herself, Sigyn had gotten her hands around the wriggling mass and pulled hard, seiðr and sheer physical strength letting her pull the thing out of Loki.

The absolute disbelief that had flooded her as the baby boy she had pulled out started to wail, high and clear like a cat in her hands.

Loki's eyes had widened in horror and shock as he stared at the boy.

The two youths had been terrified and alone as Sigyn tried to heal Loki's male body of the damage the baby had done to his insides, while calming both him and the baby as best she could.

Loki had started to cry, terrified of what Odin would do to him for this –and swearing he had done nothing that should have created the child. His babbling and whimpering had led her to conclude that it was all that bitch Angrboda's fault. A final parting gift from the dead.

The baby boy had stopped crying, but there was a sudden noise and he had vanished into a bundle of fur. A shape shifter, just like Loki, but unlike Loki, it was triggered by fear. A tiny wolf pup had trembled in Sigyn's hands and she had given him to Loki, who had held him carefully after some convincing. He told Sigyn of his other spawn by the half giantess, how they were both gone away… and maybe it was for the best.

Loki reached out and grabbed Sigyn's chin, forcing her to look at him.

"Are you with me at all?" he growled. Sigyn blinked and then nodded, taking his head in her hands.

"I am here my love. And when I am not, you still occupy my thoughts." She pulled him down to kiss him hard, trying to banish the memory of her heart breaking as she watched the whimpering puppy being taken from Loki's arms by Odin. Of how small that puppy had looked, alone and bound to an island on Midgard.

"Ouch!" Loki yelped when she bit down hard on his lip. Sigyn tightened her hold on him, bringing their faces together.

"I'm here." she growled. Loki's eyes searched hers and he seemed to understand her sudden mood shift and he growled back.

"How am I not a monster if Fenrir was?" he hissed grabbing her wrists and pinning her down as she lunged for his mouth again.

"I never thought he was."

"Everyone else did."

"No one save for your parents and I know he is yours."

"True, but just because he looks like a wolf, they think him a monster. And that thrice damned prophecy…" Loki bared his teeth and this ceased to be a game as Sigyn pushed up against him and tried to push him down.

"I think your father could stand to read some Midgardian plays." she spat, digging her nails into his skin and dragging so bright red lines stood against his white skin. Loki snorted and managed to throw her under him again, holding her down as he began to bite and suck down her neck, peppering her skin with bruises. Thankfully, they would be gone before she left.

"Like Oedipus Rex?"

Sigyn groaned and bucked up into him, "Exactly!"

"As if he would ever deign to read it. He is just as arrogant about the superiority of Aesir culture as anyone."

"Well then maybe you should defy him and set Fenrir free, show him to be harmless."

Loki reared back, his eyes flashing like knives in the dark as he grabbed her and forced her onto her stomach. Sigyn twisted, curling up and getting her arms around his waist, pushing him until he toppled from the awkward angle.

"After all these centuries –I'm sure anything that was intelligent in Fenrir has been lost to animal madness." Loki fisted his hand into her hair and pulled hard, so she was forced to let him go. Neither of them knew what they were fighting for, but there was no denying the satisfaction of it, the physical pleasure of drawing bruises to the surface of the skin, the releasing of the anger that rose and fell inside them as the mood took them.

"You won't know until you try." she snapped, biting at his fingers when he tried to touch her lips. Loki groaned and bit her on the mouth, holding her by the throat as he pushed her under him. Sigyn dug her nails into his back and felt the stickiness of blood welling up under them as she broke his skin.

It was such a far cry from their first, nervous, cautious embraces that Sigyn could scarcely believe they were the same people. But as they had grown so familiar with each other's bodies, they had lost their fear and their discomfort. Sigyn knew what it was like to be male and take Loki as a woman, and as a man. Loki knew what it was like to be female and be taken, had taken Sigyn when she was a male. There was almost nothing they had not done, their seiðr growing with every experiment. If their magical tutors knew how much of their skill was based around more extreme sexual experiences, they would have been livid.

Almost a thousand years together had led them to discover new heights of pleasure and delight in each other, some of the highest intimacy like a careful joining of their souls, which require delicate and precise seiðr. But sometimes there was nothing better than what they did now, biting and licking and pulling like animals, no thoughts or considerations besides having now! No seiðr, no games, nothing but their bodies and their lust.

When Loki finally wrestled Sigyn under him, she felt close to flying apart, like he was the only thing in the universe keeping her pinned down and she grabbed at him as best she could when he came up behind her.

"Mine!" Loki growled in her ear, arm tight around her waist.

"Mine!" Sigyn snarled, arching back into him. Her hand flew back and grabbed his hair, pulling his face into her shoulder.

They moved sharply, urgently and Loki started muttering 'Mine, mine, mine' into her skin, while Sigyn was beyond words, pushing up from the bed as hard as she could, trying to bring them closer, tighter, together.

Loki shouted into her ear as they met their apex as one and silence flooded the room seconds later as they slowly tumbled back down to reality. Sigyn was trembling as Loki slowly lowered them both onto the bed, resting on top of her. Sigyn could barely breath, her head was swimming as her blood started to cool, and she had not the energy to even reach back and pat Loki on the head. His weight was welcome on her back because she like she might float away.

Then Loki snorted into her shoulder and she twitched.

"Uh…?" she asked eloquently.

"I'm not sure that's what you intended when you started this." he said, nuzzling her skin.

Sigyn inhaled deeply, then said lazily, "Fuck my intentions. That was much better."

Loki laughed, "I love when you swear like a Midgardian."

Sigyn chuckled, coughing when she lost her breath and then relaxing as she settled again. Finally, Loki heaved himself off her and encouraged her to roll over to be held in his arms. She pressed close, her arms crossed between them under her chin. Loki started playing with her fingers and he kissed her eyelids. He held her and she snuggled close, revelling in the safety of Loki.

"I could really free Fenrir?" he asked softly, though he phrased it as a statement. Sigyn was halfway to sleep, but she forced herself to awaken slightly to answer.

"Maybe… we don't know what will happen when that collar is removed." Sigyn hated that collar on her baby's neck.

"Hrm… as Fenrir's father, it is your decision I think." Loki murmured with warm amusement. Sigyn, her eyes still shut, smirked at the old joke that had become an utter reality. Fenrir was not hers by blood, but he was hers in all the ways that mattered. She called herself Fenrir's father with pride.

"Then I say you try. But wait until the Frost Giants are dealt with." she murmured.

"As you command my princess." Loki replied, running a slightly calloused hand over her arm and down her shoulder and back. Loki did not have the same deep callouses of Odin and Thor, but he bore his own and they gave his long, nimble hands a strength that promised to hold her up if she ever fell. Sigyn loved Loki's hands. They could be strong and true when he held a sword or a dagger, or soft and gentle when he held a child, or nimble and clever when he was conjuring seiðr. "You should be at the feast tonight."

"I could if you had thought to invite me. I could be ambassador for my people, paying respects. But you did not."

"Damn, I need to write to your parents and Banríon Aetril to officially inform them of my accession."

"Father will be thrilled." Sigyn murmured, half asleep as she inhaled Loki's scent, which was a mixture of ink, herbs from potions, and something heady that he swore was not perfume and she had never been able to find evidence to the contrary.

"And I need to figure out what to do about the Warriors Three and Sif."

"The super best friends causing trouble?" Sigyn snorted, wishing Loki would shut up for a moment so she could sleep.

"They are loyal only to Thor, not to Asgard."

"Then they are treasonous and you need to remove them from their position of power." Sigyn said at once, feeling rather fond of the more cut throat world of the Aesir for once.

"I can't just get rid of them. They would see that as proof of my guilt in the Frost Giants breaking into the Vaults. Besides, Thor would be upset and people like them."

"Then play them as you have so often before. Or why don't you send them away?" said Sigyn with a soft sigh.

Loki snorted, "Well I need some friends, don't I?"

"Oh don't say that," Sigyn wrapped an arm around his chest and pressed closer as she hid a smirk, "You'll break my heart. And you have more friends than those four. They are Thor's friends."

"I suppose so."

Sigyn opened her eyes and lifted her head, looking at Loki's troubled expression, "Please tell me you have not fallen out with the friends you have in this court, or neglected them because you've been running around looking after Thor so much lately."

Loki did not answer and Sigyn groaned, taking his silence for confirmation. "What am I going to do with you?"

Loki blinked and then grinned lecherously. Sigyn snorted and gave him a mild thump on the chest. "Aside from that."

"I do have friends… and associates." Loki said after a time. "But what use can they be? I need to concentrate on the council."

"Loki you can refashion the council as you wish."

Loki let out a snort of disbelief. "Can I?"

"Of course you can, you are the king."

"Father said the council was vital to the running of Asgard, and that the men he had picked were the very best." Loki's voice was prim and full of derision.

"Maybe when Odin picked them, but perhaps they are not the ideal choice now for you and for Asgard." Sigyn shifted so she was resting her chin on his chest, looking into his face. "I know that you're concerned with making changes because that will look like you're taking advantage of the situation. But guess what my love," She pressed a kiss to his pectoral, "That is exactly what a monarch must do. It is a two way system. You must adapt to care for your people, and you must adapt the environment around you so that you can do it the best way you can. You're not like Odin, you don't fit the Asgardian culture the way he did-"

Loki tensed under her and she smoothed her hand over his chest. "-but that does not mean you're not Aesir. You're different, not wrong. Use that to your advantage. I think you were on to something bringing the other realms together. Odin could never do that, he is not capable of it."

"Odin is the All-father." Loki said quietly, his eyes soft as his mind turned.

"And he is full of pride. He is wise, and he can be kind, but that does not mean he cannot be arrogant. He has rejected my father's attempts to rectify the treaty between our peoples, stating that is it satisfactory as it is." Sigyn fought a hiss of irritation as she thought about all the raging her father had done about it.

"Hmm, so you have told me before, though Odin has never spoken of it to me."

"It would have been Thor's business, not yours." Sigyn sighed quietly and sat up, looking down at her husband. His skin had a sheen of sweat on it still, and the scars he bore were as familiar to her as her own. She could trace the outline of every muscle under his flesh, strong and lean as it was, and knew if she pulled at that stray lock of hair by his temple it would curl awkwardly and he would have to use seiðr to put it out of the way. She rested her hand on his stomach and skimmed it over the flat plain. "Think on it my love. You can decide who is on your government. Look at what you fear is damaging for Asgard and trust your instincts about it. Deal with Laufey as you see fit and then look to the future."

She bent forward and kissed his chest, right over his heart and smiled when he pulled her closer and pushed so she would lie across his chest. She relaxed and allowed it, knowing she would be without his touch for a while, and she could only hope she had done enough to keep her husband from doing anything that would go against him.

"Soon you can declare your intentions to find a wife." she murmured, sensing Loki smile at her words as he played with her hair. "And you shall find me first at the door."

"Don't look too eager. You'll give the game away." Loki chuckled. She smiled.

"Well, at least I can be sure you'll pick no other."

"As if anyone else would have me."

Sigyn rolled her eyes, "And then… perhaps we will finally be able to undo the spells that have kept a child from us for so long."

Loki inhaled deeply, "I long for that day. If only we could be sure my blood does not-"

"We shall deal with that when it comes." she promised, resting her hand on his collar to still his thoughts. He inhaled again and his arms tightened around her. Sigyn smiled and enjoyed the warm silence of Loki's bedroom. Everything would be fine.

Provided Loki did not do anything stupid.

Once again a bit thank you for all your comments, they really are helpful in terms of letting me know if I'm keeping things in character or not. I'm really glad you're enjoying it –and I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. I know it's still very slow, but I think if I move any faster, I won't be able to show Loki's progression from reeling to dealing with the situation.

More soon!

Night's Darkness.