So lovelies... we've arrived at the end of this journey and I sincerely hope you all had fun on the way. I certainly did and I cannot be more grateful to all of you for your support. I will upload the Author's Note in a few days, to give you all a chance to tell me your last thoughts on this story, or if you wish to comment specifically on the Epilogue.

The reason for that Author's Note, will be for you guys to know what to expect in the near future from me. So with that, I leave you to enjoy the outro of my story. Don't forget to toss me a little review and let me know everything you wish to say :D

Enjoy, darlings~ ;)

P.S. Every Thor/The Avengers/Thor: The Dark World character belongs to the wonderful Marvel. I own nothing, except my OCs :)


Epilogue

~ Six years later ~

"Daddy, daddy! Look what I made!"

Green eyes moved upwards from the words etched onto snowy paper, just in time to settle upon the source of the female voice, which was running across the garden toward the very tree where the dark haired male was seated. A small, slender young girl clad in pale blue silk in the form of a dress which fluttered behind her the same as her untied raven strands; a cheerful, loving girl, full of energy; his... no... their girl... their Astrid.

Upon reaching him, the child held out a paper with both hands, her lips stretched into a full grin as she fixed him with steel-blue eyes. Setting the book aside, Loki retrieved what he knew by now to be a drawing, given that she had always shown him each of her works. Turning it over, he found himself unsettled to his very core at the sight of the kind expression staring back at him.

Within the span of just one moment his jaw clenched; a painful blade shot out from his heart straight into the back of his head; his throat tightened as though someone was trying to choke him; and then his gaze grew blurry until he felt the warmth of a lone tear trailing down along his cheek.

"Daddy...? You don't like it? It's mommy..."

Staring at the girl's worried expression for a second, he willed himself to smile and held out a hand to her.

"Of course I like it..." he said softly.

Smiling again, Astrid now sat next to him and cuddled at his side.

"I used that picture you showed me..." she giggled before shooting him a suspicious glance while her lips gathered in a pout. "Do you reeeeally like it, daddy?"

With an amused huff, the male leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"Yes... it looks like mommy gave you her talent."

Looking from him to the drawing again, Astrid now sighed.

"Daddy... will I ever get to see mommy?"

Once more clenching his jaw to hold his composure, Loki gingerly tightened his one-armed embrace around the girl. Lately she had been asking that question more and more often; and he felt like such a monster for not telling her the truth... but how could he?

"One day... I promise..." he whispered in her hair.

OoOoO

"For goodness' sake, child... it's late, you should be asleep already."

Again eluding the young woman's attempt at catching her, Astrid ran across the room and jumped onto the bed with a loud squeal.

"I'm not sleepy, Tyra." she retorted, placing her small hands onto her hips.

"Child, your father's going to be upset if he finds you awake at this hour."

Before she could reply, Astrid found her gaze drawn to the door where her eyes settled upon her father as he stepped into the room.

"What's all the commotion in here?"

With the maid bowing silently to him, he set his green gaze upon the child and found that he had to fight back a chuckle at her defiant expression; truly she had inherited some of his more... unconventional personality traits.

"Leave us..." he said softly to the maid who now hurried to leave the chambers.

Back on the bed Astrid lightly gulped; more often than not, it wasn't a good sign when her father decided to send Tyra away, after catching her doing something wrong. It wasn't that he shouted at her or anything... he just had that nasty way of scolding her calmly, with that disappointed tone in his voice, which made her feel even more ashamed of not listening to him.

"I'm sorry, daddy..." she said right after the door closed.

After all, she always ended up apologizing for her mistakes so she figured she could just get it done before he got a chance to berate her. His amused huff left her in a predicament... now she had no idea if he was upset or not.

"I admit, this is a good attempt at appeasing me." he stated somewhat in jest.

Approaching the bed, he fixed her with his gaze while Astrid again pouted at him.

"I don't like it when you scold me..." she muttered.

"Then why do you give me reasons to do it, darling?"

"I don't know... I can't help it..."

Her reply finally drew a chuckle from him; he couldn't yet tell if it was a good thing or not, but he could swear that sometimes he saw himself in Astrid to such an extent that it was unnerving. Reaching out while the girl was now looking at her toes, he trailed a slender hand through her silky hair before leaning over and kissing her forehead.

"Daddy...?" she asked tentatively, at his display of affection.

When Loki offered her an expectant glance, Astrid reached up to grasp his hand.

"Can we go see the stars? I'm really not sleepy..."

As usual, the dark haired male found himself unable to resist that pleading shade in her eyes. Lightly smiling, he reached out for her watching as her face lit up in a joyful grin, while she threw her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist as he picked her up.

Minutes later they were on their way to the stables, Astrid now resting her head onto his shoulder.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, darling..."

"You're the best daddy in the world..." she giggled, kissing his cheek.

It wasn't the first time she had said that to him, but each time it left him speechless; far from him to consider himself a good father... how could he, when he had known so little of the father who had raised him, and even less of the one who had made him? Fortunately, Astrid's attention was soon drawn away when they approached Sleipnir, the stallion leaning down to snort in her hair and making her giggle as she reached out to pat his muzzle.

Opening the pen and stepping inside, Loki placed Astrid onto the horse's back where the girl began braiding his long mane; it was by far one of her favorite past times. Deciding to spare the stallion from a saddle that night, the male merely retrieved the reins which made Sleipnir scratch at the ground with two of his four front hooves, his snorts showing how eager he was to go for a ride.

The ride to the Bifrost took a lot less than Astrid would have wanted. She'd always loved just standing on the bridge, watching the restless sea beneath, or the open sky above. But even so, there was still one thing she liked watching more. Upon arriving at the keep, she ran inside the very moment Loki had set her onto her feet.

"Little children should be asleep at this hour."

Giggling at the Gatekeeper's deep voice, she glanced up to see Heimdall watching her with a smile playing on his lips.

"I want to see the stars... please? Can I?"

Briefly glancing to Loki who merely nodded, the guardian turned his back to them and raised his sword, inserting the blade into the socket he used to activate the Bifrost. Grinning, Astrid now watched as the building shifted until the whole space before her was an open gate beyond which she could see a mixture of colorful clouds and dark space, all sprinkled with stars – both small and large – twinkling like diamonds.

"Thank you!" she grinned, hugging Heimdall when he stepped next to her and Loki.

Chuckling lightly, the guardian briefly patted her back and averted his own gaze to the kaleidoscope before them. The following few minutes went by in silence, with Astrid admiring the stars and Loki watching her as she held onto his hand.

"Can you see uncle Thor?" she suddenly asked, looking to the keeper again.

"Yes..." Heimdall replied after a moment, having turned his gaze toward Midgard. "He is well; he too watches the stars, as you do."

"Do you think he can see us?"

"I doubt it... but that's a good thing."

Averting his golden gaze to the child as she watched him with a puzzled expression, he smiled again.

"That means he'll be even happier the next time he sees you."

OoOoO

Two hours had gone by and finally Astrid was asleep, now carefully cradled in her father's arms, although Loki himself was still watching the stars with Heimdall at his side.

"I should go put her to bed..." he said, lowering his emerald gaze to the child.

"She had Tyra bring her out here yesterday..." the guardian replied. "To show me a drawing of her mother."

Even without looking at Loki, he could still tell when the man's jaw clenched; few dared to mention the girl's mother in front of the young king, and not out of fear... simply because the sorrow his whole being radiated at the slightest reminder was so heavy that not many people could withstand it.

"She has Kara's passion for art..." he finally stated, his throat again tightening in that painful knot as he said her name. "And her talent..."

With those words he now turned to leave, only to be halted when Heimdall spoke again.

"My king... don't you believe that six years is long enough since you allowed your sorrow to weigh you down?"

Turning around he watched as the guardian turned as well, to face him.

"Your daughter has seen it, no matter how well you try to conceal it. She worries for you... she said she doesn't like it when you're sad."

"I know what you would say... the same thing as everyone else. That I should find another woman, for the sake of Astrid growing up with a mother..."

"No, my king..."

At those words Loki's gaze darted from the sleeping girl back to Heimdall and he narrowed his eyes as he tried to understand just what the man was saying. Sighting that expression, the Gatekeeper now spoke.

"I would never suggest anything as bold as that. Those who do, have not seen all that I have seen over the years... I know that you could never love another woman as you loved her."

"Then what are you saying?"

In spite of his slightly annoyed tone, he still kept a good restraint on it so as to not wake the child.

"I am saying that this grief has held you in chains long enough... that you should do something about it."

"And what would you suggest I do? She's dead, and as versed as I am in magic, even I cannot undo death." he spat out.

"Are you certain of that, my king?"

When Loki widened his eyes and stared at him utterly speechless, Heimdall merely offered a slight smile, his golden gaze fixed upon Loki's emerald orbs.

"How far would you be willing to go?"

The end...?


Sooo today's replies for my darlings :D

1. TigerInTheMoonlight - Aww thank you so much for the compliment and I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed that scene. I was a bit paranoid that I went too fast through it, but at the same time I didn't want to focus too much on that just yet.

Loki's relationship with Astrid will be fully fleshed out in the sequel, for these last chapters the focus still had to be on the fact that Kara just died on that very same day. So in a way, the baby kind of took the back row in relation to that. But I wholeheartedly agree, a fatherly Loki is probably the best kind of Loki. And you'll all get to see a lot of that in the sequel, no worries ;)

2. kittykawaii4 - Haha well it was to be expected that he would meet Astrid, she is his child and if he took the responsibility of screwing Kara, he has a responsibility to raise their child xD

3. americanlatinajapanesegirl - Well I couldn't exactly end the whole story on the lowest note possible, that would have been much too cruel of me. But I hope you enjoyed the Epilogue as much as every other chapter before it :D

4. LadyAmazon - Thank you, thank you, I aim to please ;)

But really, I've noticed that very few writers actually go the length of killing off their own characters, and I think it's mostly out of fear that the readers will dislike it too much or will lose interest in the story. And my opinion is that if you have a solidly built story with good characters, the readers will still enjoy it even if they are sad over the death of the OC. And if they dislike it, well to each their own... when I first started writing I tried to write in a manner that would please everyone, and at some point I realized that was just a fool's errand; I would never be able to please everyone and it would just drive me insane and would make me hate writing.

So with the risk of losing a few readers for saying this, writers shouldn't be afraid of displeasing their readers. Writing a story is just like a director making a movie... you just create a way to tell your own ideas and your own visions. That doesn't mean it's not okay to accept suggestions from the readers, by all means I always encourage my readers to give me suggestions and the like, because some might actually mesh well with my own vision and I'll be able to use them in a certain story.

But ultimately my stories are a way to show my own imagination and my own outlook on a certain book/movie/whatnot. And I know that while a lot of people will enjoy my vision of a certain story, many others won't, but that's okay. That's what writers need to keep in mind, that it's okay if people disagree with the way you tell your own stories, because people are nothing if not opinionated.

5. Moriah98 - Hey, it's good to see you around here again, it's been a while. I hope you enjoyed the ride, darling, just as much as you enjoyed that last chapter :D

So these are my replies for today. Cheers, lovelies~ ( ˘ ³˘)❤