It was nearly sunset when they were ready, a perfect time for a formal Asgardian funeral, the kind fitting a member of the royal family. The four of them stood there, looking out over the water as Thor spoke the customary Asgardian blessing again. He looked to where his brother was lying, adding, "Brother, we may not have always gotten along, but you were… in the end, I could want nothing else. We will do everything we can to take Thanos down, I promise you that."
Laurel took her turn to speak, moving forward and placing her hand on the end of the barge. "When I first met you - before I first met you, I was warned about you. About the things you'd done, about why you were being held in the Avengers Facility. But I didn't listen. I thought I'd treat you just like anyone else, because you had never wronged me. I was looking for redemption, and I knew you were too. So I treated you like I would want to be treated if… if the others knew the things I had done, the people I had hurt. I'm so glad that I did. Loki, you've given me… you've shown me so much love, coming from a place of so much pain. I hope that I was able to make you," she paused, her voice catching in her throat, "a fraction of how happy you made me. You showed me that they were wrong. That you weren't dangerous, not to me. Even when I told you who I was, what I'd done, you loved me anyway."
She paused again, trying her best not to cry. Groot reached out, taking her hand as she faltered. "I am Groot," he said encouragingly, nodding at her to continue. Laurel took a deep breath, silently thanking him. "I am Groot."
"Real love is about acceptance and vulnerability, and when you can truly accept someone for who they are, flaws and all, their past and all… that's what love is. I love you, Loki. I will always love you, faults and all. I'll see you again, one day. I can't wait to see you again, Loki." She wiped at her cheeks, magically pushing the barge forward. "Goodbye for now, my prince. I love you."
They all watched as the barge moved towards the middle of the lake. Laurel stood back with the rest of them, Thor quietly warning them about what he was about to do. Groot put his hands over his ears, Rocket and Laurel bracing themselves. There was a flash of lightning, followed by a loud crack of thunder, lighting the barge on fire. Thor held Laurel's hand, the two of them watching the funeral barge burn.
They stood there for much longer than the other two, staring at the burning spot in the middle of the lake. Rocket and Groot eventually went inside for dinner, but they stood there, waiting until everything had burned down and was engulfed by the black water. As the last of it sank, Laurel turned to Thor, who wordlessly hugged her as tightly as he could. They had both lost someone so important, their lives being rocked by Thanos and his army. "He was the last… I have nothing left to lose," Thor told her, Laurel sobbing as she held onto him.
"Yes you do. You have me. You have the others. We all have each other, and we're not going to stop fighting… we're not going to stop fighting until Thanos is dead," Laurel resolved. "We're going to fight for him, and for Frigga, and for Odin, and for every Asgardian that he's massacred. We're going to fight…" Her voice faltered, Thor realizing exactly how much this had taken out of her.
"You're still getting used to being a goddess, remember? Your body is trying to rewire itself to accommodate all of the power you now hold. You need something to eat, and you need to rest."
The two of them set out for the cabin, sitting down to eat dinner with Rocket and Groot. As they ate, Thor explained his plan. He would be taking the others to Nidavellir, since he needed a new weapon, something like Mjolnir, now that Thanos was coming for the infinity Stones. Meanwhile, she would head back to New York, meeting up with the others. They surely had a more concrete plan for dealing with Thanos and making sure the Infinity Stones were safe. Thor wanted to head out right after they finished dinner, thinking that they needed to reach Nidavellir as quickly as they could. There was no betting on what Thanos could be up to, so he needed a new weapon, and fast.
Groot helped Laurel clean up as Thor and Rocket went to check on the ship. She couldn't understand his language, but she understood the sentiment behind it when he looked first to the bed where Loki had lain, then to the window that overlooked the lake, and then back to Laurel. "I am Groot."
"I know. You would have liked him." And Loki would have liked Groot, thinking that he was an interesting creature at the very least. Thor understood his language. Perhaps Loki would have been able to talk to him too. "He's.. he was wonderful."
He handed her a stack of clean plates, nodding and saying, "I am Groot."
Thor returned, telling Groot that the ship was ready. Groot said his goodbyes, Thor lingering in the cabin to talk to Laurel as the tree went to join Rocket on the ship. "Stay here and rest for the night. You can meet the others in the morning, but for now, save your strength. Here." He walked to the fireplace, creating a small spark and igniting the logs inside. "I should be back on Earth soon, if all goes well."
Laurel came over to give him a hug, her almost-brother-in-law holding onto her tightly. The two of them, the King of Asgard and its assumed Crown Princess, the royal family without a kingdom to lead, seemed so small in that moment, so powerless for a couple of gods. In the last day, they had lost so much - their kingdom, some of their greatest weapons, and Loki. Loki. He was really gone. Both of them knew it, feeling the pain deeply but desperately trying to push it down so they could still function. There was still so much to do, still a mad Titan to stop, no matter what they had lost. "Thank you. For everything," Laurel croaked, finally letting go of him. "Good luck on Nidavellir. Be careful."
"You too," Thor told her, wishing her all the best. "Take care of yourself."
Watching from the window, Laurel saw Thor head for the ship, taking off a moment or two after he made it onboard. They were gone in an instant, leaving Laurel alone in the Middle of Nowhere, Norway. As she sat down on the bed, a wave of exhaustion hit her, the force of being a goddess finally catching up to her. She had constantly been moving since Thor made her a goddess, helping with dinner, eating with the rest of them, coming up with a plan. But now that she was able to sit and think, it was all hitting her. The cellular changes of becoming a goddess zapped her energy, but there was a knot in her stomach, something that had been welling up inside her for a while.
Staring into the fire, she zoned out for a moment, tears starting to roll down her cheeks as she thought of how she would never be able to sit in front of the library's fireplace with Loki again. They would never sit up reading, sharing passages from their books with each other or tossing glowing orbs of light back and forth absentmindedly. They would never sit in front of the fire in the living room either, a spot that Laurel loved and Loki put up with, since he wasn't very fond of being out and socializing with the others all that much. She felt the tears that dripped down her nose, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the fire. At least not until she started sobbing.
Everything hurt. Losing him was so painful that it physically hurt, like she had been repeatedly punched in the stomach. As she sobbed uncontrollably, she sank off of the bed and onto the floor, wanting to feel something solid, something real. It hurt so badly that she could hardly think straight. She could feel her face getting warmer, both from the sheer force of crying and from sitting closely to the fire. It was hard not to hiccup, trying to breathe through the forceful tears, through the terrible, guttural noise of the kind of crying that can only come from the deepest of hurts, a kind of pain that was unknowable until you were in the thick of it.
When she had cried herself into an exhaustion, Laurel sat up again, going to find something to blow her nose with. As she wiped at her cheeks, she could feel the awful puffiness of her eyes. She couldn't help but to laugh a bit to herself, thinking of how she wished she could cool her skin like Loki could. Completely drained, she fit a chair under the door handle before dropping into bed. Again, she stared into the fire, which had long since started dying. The embers still smoldered, a deep orange that could only be seen in fire. It was beautiful, a strange kind of beauty that Laurel hardly had time to look for anymore. Not since she had joined the Avengers. Loki had helped her to see that beauty again, with the auroras he liked making. When one of them woke up in the middle of the night from an awful nightmare, he would invariably throw a handful of dim lights into the air, swirling them together until they formed an aurora over their heads. They would finally fall asleep again, watching the twinkling aurora and leaning into each other.
Laurel cast her own aurora in the corner, a shimmering combination of green, gold, and white light. She watched it for a while, pulling blankets over herself and trying to get comfortable in the borrowed bed. It felt wrong, laying there without Loki next to her. Even when he came to bed much later than she did, it wasn't lonely. Not like it was that night. Resisting the temptation to just conjure an image of him to lay next to her, Laurel looked out the window at the moon before closing her eyes. She wouldn't be able to sleep well, but she would at least try. "Goodnight, Loki," she mumbled into the darkness. "I love you."