TRUST

With a stretch and a yawn, Sigyn wakes more refreshed than she's ever felt in all her entire life. Moaning blissfully, a groggy smile warms her face. She extends her arms well above her head and spreads her toes out wide, claiming every inch of the snug little bed in which she's found herself on.

A set of cool lips touch her cheek and her smile widens. She needn't even open her eyes to discern who that might be.

"Lock..." Sigyn groans, her tired voice still hoarse with sleep.

"Mmm..." Loki hums in reply. "I'm here, Sunshine."

His lips find hers and she so readily gives in to his kiss. Soft and sweet, but just a little bit naughty. His playful tongue swirls round and round her head, making Sigyn dizzy with delight.

The bed groans beneath her as she can feel him climbing aboard. Not his whole weight, just one knee on the mattress to gain a better angle as he greets her to this glorious morning.

Morning...

But wasn't it just the afternoon? What happened to the rest of the day?

One hand cups her face gently. The other mischievous as it snakes its way beneath the covers. Cool fingers slithering slyly up her thigh.

And weren't they outside? A mountain, she thinks. Though the details are still rather fuzzy. Not that he's at all helping.

His kiss turns to hunger. Nibbling and sucking at her plump bottom lip.

Sigyn swears they were running from something... What was it, again? Something big and nasty...

Gods...

It's at the tip of her tongue. But then, so is he. If only he'd stop kissing her for a second then mayhap she could think.

"You've no idea how lovely you are when you wake." Loki fills her head with his own brand of poetry. "To watch you arise from slumber is akin to witnessing the sun at the first signs of dawn. Tis blinding how beautiful you are. If only I could capture that light... Taste your glorious essence..."

The hand at her thigh slowly slides upward, sending shivers through her body as cold fingers dip inside her warmth. Drunk on love, Sigyn's head sways with all his pretty words. Burning with lust, her loins ache to feel his passion. Sensitive to his lover's needs, Loki sets those sneaky digits to work, kneading at her core. That pleasure-filled little bundle of nerves that makes Sigyn's knees start to quiver and shake.

"I want to eat you so terribly." Loki rasps, licking at her ear. "Might I?"

Eat...

Sigyn's eyes snap right open. That was just the trigger she'd needed to remember. Remember they were being chased by great, hungry Trolls, out for blood and bound to make them their supper. She was just about to face off against the lot of them, when suddenly...

"ARSEHOLE!"

She shoves Loki off her, hitting him hard across the face.

"OW?!" He cries, throwing a hand to his cheek. "Safe word, woman! SAFE WORD!"

With a sneer to her lip, Sigyn just glares at him dumfounded for a moment.

"Safe word?" She smacks at him again, this time his chest. And again. "I'm not being kinky, Loki.

"Then WHAT are you being?" He returns, arms raised to protect himself.

"Seriously?" She smacks at him one final time. "I'm UPSET!"

"Well, OBVIOUSLY! I can sense that NOW... But what do you have to be UPSET about?" Loki groans, rubbing at his tender cheek now that she's finally stopped hitting him. "What have I... Ohhhhhh... Right. That."

"Aye, THAT!" Sigyn glares at her tricky sneak of a husband. "You used your magic on me!"

"But only to stop you from doing something STUPID." Loki spins to his favor. "So really, I'm not the one at fault here."

"Oh, and I am?"

His angry wife sits upright in bed, pulling the covers with her to conceal her naked body. Where her clothes and armor have run off to, she hasn't the foggiest. Or how long she's been out, for that matter. Where they are? What realm? Is Thor with them? Is he safe or even alive? Are they safe? Are she and Loki still being pursued? Are they any closer to finding Odin...

When will this madness ever end?!

Crossing her arms at her chest, Sigyn leaves it up to Loki to diffuse the situation should he ever wish to get lucky quite possibly ever again.

"Well, nay. Of course not, my heart. No one's at fault, really." He sets his silver tongue to work, offering up a most cunning grin. "Tis the circumstance to blame. So there's no need to point fingers. Certainly not at me."

How's she supposed to be mad at him and that face? Especially when Loki's wagging his eyebrows at her like that. Sigyn has to suck in her cheeks to keep from smiling, which the mischievous Trickster most certainly notices and further more plays upon.

Using the pointer and middle fingers on his right hand, he motions as if they were two legs walking across the bedspread towards her knee. From there, they walk further, right up the length of her leg to find themselves at her thigh again.

"Stop it!" She smacks his hand away. "I'm still angry with you!"

"So then let us have angry, angry sex, yeah?" He growls.

"I'm serious, Loki!"

"Me too!" He grins devilishly. Wrapping her up in his arms, the Mischief God whispers into Sigyn's ear. "The safe word is 'Tesseract'."

Which causes the Lady to groan and roll her eyes.

"What? Too many syllables? Fine, then. How about 'Rage'?"

She pushes off him.

"Well then, what are thoughts on 'King'?"

She glares at him.

"'Kneel'?"

Still glaring at him.

"Lies'?"

Stiiiiilllll glaring...

"Ummm... 'Banana'?

Yup. You guessed it.

"Soooo... I'm picking up that's a nay to the kinky angry sex?"

"Loki, stupid or not, you had no right to stop me in my pursuit for vengeance."

"Vengeance?" Loki asks, perplexed.

"My mother's killer." Sigyn explains. "Tis my duty, not only as her daughter but as a fellow Valkyrie, to avenge Freya's death."

"But Sigyn, you know as well as I, twas not the Trolls of Nidavellir who had felled your mother."

But instead the man who sits before you, Loki thinks to himself. The same who's hoping to get laid.

"Does it matter?" She argues. "A Troll is a Troll. They're all the same. A scourge upon the worlds that I shall vow to erase."

Loki sits up a little taller, straightening his back bone as if to pretend her words do not affect him.

"Well, by your logic, then. If a Troll is a Troll, then a Jotun's a Jotun." Loki returns with the tilt of his head. "We're all monsters the same, they and I."

Caught with her foot in her mouth, Sigyn's lips hang slightly agape.

"That's not what I meant, Loki..." She tries to explain in a softer tone. "You are no monster. Those... things... Those things that killed my mother. That tried and nearly succeeded in killing us! They are the monsters. And I could have been the one to end it. I should have..."

But she's wrong. He is the monster. The one and same in which she seeks.

"What you speak of is not vengeance, Sigyn. Tis genocide." Loki offers her in a gentle voice. "I should know the difference. As should you. I know you do."

How many times now has she berated him for his attack on Jotunheim? For his attempt to destroy his entire race? Though he rarely outwardly shows it, the truth behind Loki is that he feels too much, leading him down a tumultuous path of destruction. As Sigyn had said, emotion drives every decision he makes. And it typically doesn't work out for him all too well. Certainly not for the better.

"What you and I have set out to do are different." Sigyn argues, though she's not even sure she believes in what she's saying.

Deep down she knows she's being a hypocrite even if she doesn't want to face up to it. Sigyn knows that her emotions have clouded her judgement. That all she really wants is to make the hurt all go away. But even if she gets her way. Should she exact her vengeance. Take away every single last Troll. It still won't bring her mother back. And the Valkyrie in her knows it.

Things were so much easier when the worlds were black and white. Good and evil. Then all these feelings got in the way. He got in her way.

"Nay. There is no difference." Loki returns. "Nor is this you, Sigyn."

He places his hand at her cheek, now. His lively green eyes staring right into hers. There's a darkness there that hadn't existed before. This hardened rage so kindred to his own, filled with bloodlust and violence.

Loki cares for it not.

"And that's exactly why I'd interfered. To stop you from doing something stupid. To keep you from making a decision you'd only regret from here unto eternity." Loki says sincerely. "As your husband I have that right. To protect you no matter the cost. Even from yourself."

Staring into her face, Loki can see he's getting through to her. His words are making an impact.

"Should it make you happy, I will gladly do the deed for you. I will dirty my hands so you'll never have to and wipe the worlds clean of their filth. I will hunt them down. All of them. One by one. But I won't let you become something you're not, Sigyn. I won't let you become a killer like me. Understand? You're far too good and pure for such darkness."

Her eyes begin to soften, regaining that sparkle and brightness which he so admires. Sigyn nibbles lightly at her lip, hiding the smirk that is forming.

"Since when did you become the voice of reason?" She teases.

"What? I've always been the more reasonable one!" He scoffs.

Loki eases himself down beside her, gathering Sigyn up gently in his arms to hold her from behind. He the bigger spoon to her littler one.

"Remember when we were young? That summer when you and Thor got the bright idea to ride the wild goats?" Loki asks her. "He was so sure that he could tame them."

Sigyn giggles softly.

"I can't believe you remember that." She smiles. "Gods... What were those billies names?"

"Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjostr."

"Aye!" Sigyn laughs. "They threw Thor right off that chariot. Nearly got trampled myself, if you hadn't -"

"Interfered?" Loki interjects with a grin, causing Sigyn to nudge him playfully in the ribs. "See? Voice of reason. When I say something's a bad idea, I tend to know what I'm talking about."

"Fine. Fine. I get your point. No need to rub it in!"

The two settle into a comfortable silence, she underneath the sheets and him on top just like how they used to on those nights when she would sneak into his bedroom back so very long ago.

"Did you ever think when we were children that we would end up like this?" Sigyn asks him.

"You mean at some dirty, little Inn on the outskirts of Alfheim after being chased by Trolls? On some crazy quest to restore Odin to the throne with all of Asgard out to kill us?" Loki asks.

Sigyn laughs.

"Nay! I mean married!"

"Ah... Well, of course I'd always thought that."

Tis not a lie, but not exactly the truth, either. Sure he'd always hoped that they'd end up married, with a happily ever after and all that fairy tale rubbish they force feed to children, but really he'd always thought that she would end up married to Thor. Not only the better of the brothers Odinson, but the better of... well... everything. So having actually ended up with Sigyn is truly a dream come true. Too bad that dream was built upon a foundation of trickery and lies.

"If you could go back, knowing what you know now, everything I'd done, would you still choose to marry me?" Loki inquires. "Not Theoric, but me?"

"All the cards out on the table?" She asks. "No tricks?"

"No tricks. Just me as I am." He replies solemnly. "Would you?"

Sigyn turns in bed to face him, a great smile on her sweet face.

"What does the all-knowing voice of reason say?" She teases.

Loki smiles though his gut tells him tis an answer that he wouldn't very much like. That little voice that reminds him he's a monster and a murderer and she ought to do so much better than that. She deserves so much better than all he can offer. All the cards out on the table, with him as he is, there's no way she'd say yes.

But then Sigyn kisses him and that voice becomes quiet. She smiles and all his fears disappear.

"I wouldn't need the week to think it over." Sigyn answers him true, nuzzling her nose to his. "I'd say yes right on the spot."

And it's the truth.

He's not the only one who needs her love. She needs him just as much as he needs her. To remind her what it means to feel all those terrible, wonderful feelings. Not only love, but pain and happiness and sorrow and so very much more. To help her make sense of the chaos. To make her feel alive and whole. In the hopes that she'll become as perfect as he does see her. And in return she will help shoulder his burden. To be the other half to help make him feel as whole, as well. Complete. Like night and day, she cannot exist without him. Nor him, her.

Loki closes his eyes and rests his forehead to hers, content as Sigyn runs her fingers through his inky black hair, moving like comets racing cross a starless night sky.

"I love you, Sigyn." Loki whispers happily.

Sigyn smiles.

"I love you, too, Lock."

Rolling on top of him, Sigyn drags Loki under the covers, making the Trickster her prisoner wrapped up in the sheets beneath her. In glistening rays of golden sunlight, her hair spills down upon him as she leans in to whisper in his ear.

"The safeword is 'trust', by the way." His Goddess smiles against his skin.

Looking up at her from his state of bondage, Loki's eyes flash with excitement.

"Oh... I submit!" He grins eagerly, watching as she secures his ties round the bedpost.

Tis just as he'd said. The Three F's. They'd fought and now for the fun part!

Finding one of Loki's daggers, a little pig-sticker stuck inside the seem of his boot, Sigyn holds the blade up to his neck, the steel gently kissed against the skin of his throat.

"Now... Do you trust me?" She purrs.

Loki doesn't even blink.

"With my life." He faithfully replies.

"Good." Sigyn smiles, her fingers scratching at the itchy stubble on his chin. "Because I think I'll start by giving you a shave."

Yeah. She's totally forgiven him.

Until the next time he screws things up, that is.

And then the cycle begins anew.


A/N: Loki's been bound in chains in like, what, three movies, now? I dunno... Between you and me, I'm starting to think he might LIKE it! lol. Thoughts? Reviews, pretty please! xoxo