A.N.: I made a big boo boo trying to upload the last chapter and accidentally replaced the wedding chapter with it so it was added twice. Something has changed on the FFN app and I'm already tech illiterate enough so I goofed big time lmao. It's all been fixed, so here's a "sorry for the confusion I have caused, my mind is as boggled as yours" bonus chapter. Also have I celebrated yet that this story hit 200 REVIEWS?! You guys. That's insane. I love you.
Kagome flicked a glance to the seat next to hers and her nerves strained ever further.
Loki sat upright with a serene face and proper posture, but his own restlessness and agitation swirled around her like a thick fog. The only outward sign of his upset was the way he lightly traced invisible patterns on her open palm, occasionally tapping out a little rhythm before returning to tracing.
Her eyes roved over his beloved profile for a few moments. She smiled softly when he looked over, caught her stare, and lifted her hand to press a kiss to the back of it.
He returned to his fidgeting, and she tried to turn her attention back to the meeting they were in. Odin stood in front of a very small crowd of officials and announced that his retirement was imminent, and that Thor would be taking the throne. It was the first step in the process that would end with a large coronation, and was the focal point of Loki's current state of emotional upheaval.
And she couldn't say she didn't understand.
She knew them both very, very well. She had seen with her own eyes how Thor let his battle lust cloud his rational judgement. Diplomacy was not in his nature, it was something he struggled to learn to utilize before resorting to Mjolnir. And Loki's concerns continued to be brushed aside by their father as jealous tirades.
Maybe they were, just a little, but she could tell he was actually concerned. And so was she, just not to the same degree.
Thor trusted them, and though he was stubborn and hard headed, she was confident they could help steer him away from any rash decisions that would be too detrimental.
But every time Odin downplayed Loki's concerns or belittled his skills Loki became harder and harder to bring back to contentment.
She feared there had been too much damage done by Odin's blatant favoritism.
She shifted her focus to the bell of the ball, the heir himself, standing next to his father tall and proud, oozing confidence in his abilities in his place on the throne, in his love for his kingdom.
Her heart softened, and that stinging, tearing feeling came back, the one she'd been battling for far too long.
Because as much as she understood Loki's hangups, she was also immensely proud of her best friend and brother.
He was probably not ready for this at all, but he was so excited, and Thor was really really cute when he was excited. He bounced around like a hyper puppy and she couldn't help but be happy for him. She wished Odin bad not sewn such discord, could see the worth in his second son, but she did not hope that Loki got to surpass his brother, she did not want to be queen.
She just wanted harmony. Loki had grown in shadows cast by people destined for greatness. He'd even been told he'd been destined for greatness. And then he'd been ignored.
She shook her head, attempting to clear it of these awful cyclical thoughts.
'It's going to be fine. Everything will be fine.'
Their meeting adjourned, time for lunch and mingling and beginning prep for the official announcement to all of Asgard and pretending to be a thrilled, gracious princess.
She could tell Loki was on edge. He hovered close, kept at least one hand on her at all times, refused any refreshments, and every part of him screamed 'just stay away.'
She rolled her eyes and put her glass down, grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the small, milling crowd of political and military officials and other gods coming to grovel for the good graces of the brand new almost-king, and out onto one of the small balconies on a wall facing the bifrost.
Loki looked out over the view of his home, their home, and then into the well known, well loved eyes of his beautiful little wife and tried to find a measure of calm. After so long together he had begun to be able to feel when she was wrapping her soul around him to calm his own. She was doing it now, and it drained a good measure of his stress away. She turned to lean against the balcony railing, and he stepped up close behind her and rested his chin on the top of her head.
She was so soft, so small, he practically dwarfed her with his height, but she was a powerful, dangerous little spit fire when she wanted to be. And she'd been just about his only tether to sanity lately. She snuggled back into him and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, breathing in the smell of her hair, the same one that had tickled his nose awake every morning for centuries now.
She peered back at him and the intensity in her eyes snared him.
"It's going to be okay. You know that, right? We're going to be okay. We're in this together. Always together."
He regarded her silently for several moments, letting those words rattle around and settle in his thoughts, in his mind. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and looked back out at the beautiful tableau of his home, the place he'd lived and loved his entire life, and he gently squeezed his beloved wife in his arms.
There was a lot at stake, a lot to lose.
He hoped she was right.
If only there was some way to know for sure.
A.N.: Tom Hiddleston (who plays Loki, duh) is 6'2" and Kagome is canonically 5'2" if you'd like a mental picture of how much taller Loki is. He is vewy tol and she is vewy smol. Oh! And to the guest reviewer that asked if I had pic references for the wedding chapter: I do not, I'm very sorry.