Disclaimer: This fan fiction is not written for profit and no infringement of copyright is
intended. Not beta-read so all mistakes are mine. Thanks for their reviews as always go to wbss21 and Potkanka. I know it's been a while but my head's been turned by Steve Rogers- I haven't forgotten my trickster though, as you can see…
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: KISS
Somewhere Beyond Time and Space,
"The signal has been received, my Lord," the courier says. "Asgard is vulnerable.
We know Nornheim cannot be far behind."
Thanos looks up to see his favourite courtier bowed before him, the only communications device which can work across the veil held aloft in the man's hands. The object glowing with the same eerie blue light all his other devices do, the colour a telltale sign of its origins. For the device, like everything else in his realm, was created by the Heart, and without it the technology is a mere ghost of its former self. It could be kept in action, true, but not indefinitely, and though he does not want to admit it Thanos knows that his grip on power will soon diminish of he does not act swiftly to replenish his technology once again-
And so really, this news could not come at a more inauspicious moment: His youngest sister's taunting has left him uneasy and he wants to move the plan forward with all due speed. Knows he must do so, for the danger of being the greatest monster in any universe is that the other monsters seldom stay wary of you for long. With a single nod he takes the communications device from his courtier. Switches it on, looks over the message which has been sent. The knowledge that his shape-shifters, his skrull, have fooled even the great All-Father making his heart light. For there will be no stopping him this time, he thinks. Soon the Heart will be his once more-
And with the Heart will come the universe, he knows this.
That is even more reason for satisfaction than the thought of beating Verthandi and her brats.
"Get in touch with our source on Nornheim," he says then, his smile growing ever wider. "Tell her to stop playing with those little Valkyries and move on the Trickster anew."
The courtier blinks. "But our intelligence indicates- Do you believe she is still in the game master, Master?-"
Thanos looks in pleasure at the communications before him.
"Why ever would you think she left it, little man?"
And with that he sweeps out.
Meanwhile,
At Sigyn's Manor in The Homelands,
Sigyn is hiding.
Loki knows this; He has seen the way she darted from their school-room this morning. Knows that if she weren't upset he would have found her by now, for while she might elude Thor and Sif and the others she would never outrun him. He supposes he should not be surprised by it; He had thought to take her aside and tell her of his plans before his father found her. Had wanted to sound out her feelings regarding the betrothal before the news broke. But though he had opened his mouth to tell her several times last night, each time his supposedly silver tongue had failed him. The words died in his mouth, the news would not come. For one look at her trusting, smiling face had been enough to make him doubt himself, enough to make him wonder how she would ever agree to his idea-
And that's what it is, he tells himself now as he strides from likely hiding place to likely hiding place. A plan. A stratagem. It is but a scheme to ensure her safety, a way to keep her on Asgard for longer and see to it that, should Surter harm her in the future, then Loki would be able to protect her with a family member's rights. It has nothing to do with his feelings for the girl, idiotic as those are. It has nothing to do with the chaos she wreaks with him, innocent as she is. For he knows she sees him as but a childhood companion and he supposes he cannot blame her for that-
After all, not everyone is Thor, he thinks somewhat bitterly.
There are times he would give all the pieces of his heart to be loved as his brother is.
But be that as it may, he will do what he can to protect her; The plan is simple enough and he is relatively certain it will work. His father, at his behest, will propose a marriage betrothal to Surter. His younger son to wed Muspelheim's only princess, their two realms united in marriage and joined in joy. The Fire King will not be able to refuse said marriage: To do so, Loki knows, would be taken as a grave insult to Asgard and could result in war. The same war that Odin insisted on preventing by sending Sigyn back to her monstrous father two long summers ago. Loki smiles, thinking on the perfection of his plan: Once Surter gives his consent Sigyn will practically be a member of the Asgardian royal family. If the mysterious injuries which have plagued her continue then Loki will have the right to investigate, if she wishes to summer with her Soon-Family in Asgard there will be naught her father can do.
She will finally be safe, and he will no longer have failed her.
And if he lives long enough to do her such a service he will consider himself lucky indeed.
So he hurries towards the library now, the last place he can think she might be hiding. There is a secret reading room hidden within it, the place where Frigga keeps the most powerful of her magic books, the place where he and Sigyn spend so many hours studying their arts. Picking up his pace he steals silently into the room, seeing only a lone old man in a corner. He slips easily by him, heading to the back of the room, murmuring the incantation which will open the secret room's door. He sees it flicker into visibility like the flame of a candle, sees Sigyn sitting at its edge, her long green dress stretched out across her legs. It shows how upset she is that she hasn't sat clear of the door: It's not wise to be in close contact with such magics, for she might be sucked into the enchantment and caught. Bearing that in mind Loki steals forward, pushing the door further open-
Sigyn jumps and shrinks back, as she is apt to do when startled, another effect of growing up with so vicious and violent a father.
She looks up at Loki and for a moment neither says anything. There's something peculiar happens when she looks at him like this, Loki knows it, and as if reading his thoughts they both of them look away at the same time.
For a moment the silence is total, and smothering. Quietitude does not normally bother him, but this seems awkward. Wrong. Not knowing what else to do Loki sits gingerly down, making sure to leave enough room between them- Another effect of growing up around Surter, that she fears being touched by anyone. He's the only person she allows close regularly, and even that liberty took months to earn. He looks at the book in her lap, about to say something. She silences him with a look and he shuts his mouth, not sure what else to do. And then-
"You should have asked me first, dunachai," she says softly.
She's staring at the book as she says it, a frown marring her brows.
Loki's voice sounds rusty to his own ears. "I meant to, sweet," he says softly. "I-I swear to you, last night I opened my mouth many times to explain it, but no words would come out."
She throws him a look of disbelief. "You could not speak?"
Now it's his turn to look away. "Even my silver tongue sometimes fails, you know."
"And why would it fail you?" she asks. "Is it because you know this betrothal will not be believed?"
That surprises him. "Why do you say that?" he asks. "I know I'm not Thor, but surely some would believe that you would have me-"
"Me have you?" She speaks over him. She's staring at him as if he's mad. "Who would believe that you would have me?"
His frown matches hers. It suddenly occurs to Loki that they may be having two very separate conversations. "Why would anyone say that?" he asks her. "You are crown princess of Muspelheim, your father's only heir. You are clever and gifted and brave and lovely: Why would anybody believe I wouldn't want you?"
She looks down at the book in her lap, her voice barely above a whisper. He cannot entirely make it out for she has lapsed back into her own language, the Kyant, but he thinks he makes out the words, "handsome," and "foreigner," and, bewilderingly, "Sif."
"What was that?" he asks, for he cannot fathom what she is thinking.
She grits her teeth and does not look at him, but he hears her murmur softly, "I know you are in love with Lady Sif, dunachai." She glowers at the book in her lap. "Nobody will believe that you wish to wed me, even to keep me safe from my father. And I will not be responsible for keeping you from someone you love."
Now it's Loki's turn to stare at her like she's mad. "What in the Norns' names gave you the idea that I'd want to marry Sif?"
Good grief, were they but wed a week one of them would have murdered the other in their sleep. And the dead one would have known their murderer justified.
Sigyn stares at him wide-eyed. "She is beautiful, as an Asgardian maiden is. She is witty and wise and brave, as an Asgardian maiden is. You have known one another since you were in your cradles and all you do is bicker: On Muspelheim you would probably already be wed now, had she been honourable and made her intentions known to your family-"
Loki shakes his head. "First of all, Sif and I. Will. Never. Ever. Wed. Please accept that and don't mention it again, because the notion that you think we will is, quite frankly, disturbing." Sigyn opens her mouth to correct him but he knows he must rush on. Somehow he has to set her straight. "You are my best friend, sweet," he tells her. "My only friend. The only one I've ever really wanted. You understand magic, you understand this court. You…" He doesn't know how to say it elegantly so he supposes saying it bluntly will have to do. "You are the best person I know, and my favourite. I know you do not care about me as I do about you, but do not believe there is anyone I would rather be betrothed to." He tries to make her smile, to raise her spirits.
"After all, Sif has never defeated a dragon."
She smiles, remembering that childhood adventure.
Thor and Fandral and their games had much to answer for.
"Sif was never foolish enough to get trapped and nearly eaten by one either," she points out.
But she's still staring at him with wide amber eyes.
Loki chucks her nose and she smiles then, laughs. Her moods can be quicksilver, he has always loved that about her. And he can always make her laugh, he loves that about her too. "I would take my dragon-slayer, my Sigyn, over Lady Sif in any battle," he tells her. "There is no-one else I would rather have at my side than you. And everyone will see that when we announce this betrothal."
As he says it, he can't escape the feeling that he's saying something more than the words he's using. He can't help but feel that he's making a promise though he doesn't know how. Sigyn looks up at him, her eyes wide, blinking, and just for a moment… something moves between them. Something Loki, the great word-smith, does not have a name for. Something that makes his heart hammer and his mouth dry, that makes him feel like his skin's too tight and his limbs are not being put to their proper use. For some reason he cannot fathom Sigyn is leaning slightly towards him, her lashes fluttering lightly as he gets closer. Her lips are barely an inch from his and her gaze is wide and grave. Closer she gets to him, closer and then closer again, her lashes still fluttering-
Her lips meet his and there's nobody else, nothing in the Nine Realms more important than this-
"Wake up, Loki."
Someone is shaking him but Loki does not wish to wake.
He wishes to stay with Sigyn, in that evening so long ago.
"I swear, dunachai," the annoying voice says, "If you do not open your eyes I will take a weapon to you. I am a Valkyrie, I have many to choose from." A particularly vigorous shake nearly knocks him off the bed. "Now open your eyes, before I bring out my fire-whip. You remember my fire-whip don't you?
My father took it to you once before-"
And as it turns out that Loki does indeed remember the fire-whip so he opens his eyes. The room swims for a moment and he feels nauseous; It occurs to him that she must have drugged him again to force him to sleep and he finds he hasn't it in himself to hold the action against her. In fact, some tiny, irritated part of him is a little bit impressed. Sigyn's face- adult now, and angry- hovers just an inch from his when his eyes finally focus. For a moment the memory of that night in his mother's library reaches out to engulf him, the sweetness of a first kiss he'd never expected so tempting now that the one he kissed is here again. And so, before he can really process what he's doing, he reaches up, pulling against the constraints of the mother-chord tying him down, and kisses her. It's swift as a shaft of sunlight, sweet as a drop of saltwater. The kiss of a boy, perhaps, and not a man, but it's the best that he can do. He only barely registers that she tastes slightly different now- still sweet but darker, he thinks, more tart, more bitter- and then she pulls away from him. Fingers going to her lips, amber eyes wide. For a moment there are no consequences to the action, she just gapes at him silently-
And then pain snarls at the side of his face, fireworks of sensation exploding behind his eyeballs.
She could have slapped him harder, he knows this, but it still hurts like wildfire and there's nothing he can do.
"You will not do that again." She spits the words, the fingers of the hand she didn't slap him with still pressed against her lips. Her skin is literally aflame, a sure sign of her anger, and for a moment all Loki can think is how lovely she looks like this.
"Turn around is fair play, sweet," he tells her. This is the most discontented he's seen her since they met again, he should have thought to do as much before. "You drug me and I take a sweet revenge, where's the harm in that?" He forces his expression into vicious-looking innocence. "After all, you tied me to a bed: You had to know what I might assume-"
For a moment she looks like she's going to hit him again but she manages to stop herself. It's probably the gleeful smile he shot her that gave away how much he wanted that. Instead she moves away and picks up the very fire-whip she was just threatening him with. It hisses as she releases its length, glowing wickedly in the pale morning light. Despite himself Loki's heart thuds looking at it, reliving the memory of Surter's last use of it. The Muspelheim King took it to him three days before his and Sigyn's wedding, when the evil old bastard discovered Sigyn asleep in Loki's bed. Never mind that they were both fully clothed, that nothing happened. Never mind that Loki and she were pledged to one another, their love as determined and fearless as only two children's can be. Surter had beaten him to within an inch of his life. Sigyn notes the way he looks at the weapon and this time it's her turn to smile viciously.
She remembers that morning too, Loki doesn't doubt it one bit.
"Recall this, do you?" she demands. "But then I suppose you would do. It was only used on you the once, but still. " Loki tries to shrug where he's lying, but he can't pull such nonchalance off. It's damn annoying, being this bound.
"I barely remember that morning, sweet," he says. "There have been so many since you."
Sigyn's look is pitying. "You should never lie about such things to an intimate of your mother, dunachai. And besides-" she leans down, her face mere inches from his again- "You talk in your sleep."
Humiliation rises in Loki then, overwhelming as a tidal wave. So he'd been talking and she'd heard him, knew him to be dreaming of her. Stupid, foolish heart to remember, stupid, foolish heart to still care. That same tinderbox rage rises in him and he snarls at her. Tries to pull himself away from the bed with all the strength he has. But Sigyn shakes her head and pulls away, her expression more calculating than he might have expected. Something tugs at Loki's memory, something he hasn't felt in years. Because Sigyn was never a great liar, at least not to him, and that look tells him that she's tense. It belatedly occurs to him that she might be trying to distract him, for she's never been as cruel to him as she has been this morning. She's never threatened him with violence for no reason before. She's been harsh and forceful, this is true, but she's never been malicious or mean to him.
And some part of him knows that she has more right to do so than most.
Hot on the heels of that realisation he hears Eru clatter in through the house's front door. He can tell by the sound of her footsteps that it's her though he can't see her yet, and he can tell from their speed that the girl's running as if a bildshnipe were on her tail. Her breath is coming in gasps, her childish breath nearly sobbing. She darts into his room and he sees Sigyn go to her, wrapping her arms around her and kissing her cheek. "What is it, pet?" Sigyn murmurs. "What's frightened you?" The little one's started hiccupping, so great is her distress.
"Maithersheen," Eru hisses, "Maithersheen, the Chitauri are here. They say they want Loki Odinsson." She looks at him fearfully. "They say Asgard has fallen and we will be next."
For a moment Loki and Sigyn share a long, measuring stare, the trickster fairly certain his tormentors are bluffing but unable to prove it. He doubts that Asgard could have fallen without someone finding out. But then-
"Untie me," Loki says.
He may be able to help with this.
And for once Sigyn does as he asks, though she keeps her grip on her fire-whip firm.
A/N There now, kind of a setting up chapter. The next one will be more exciting, I promise. But pay attention to everything you learned in this one, lads, there's a pop quiz on its way (just kidding). Thanks as always for reading and hobbits away, hey!