Sigyn was awoken to the sound of stifled laughter.

Loki was shaking in mirth, beside her, and someone was moving around beside the bed. Blearily she cracked her eyes open, and rested her gaze on the ceiling.

"Sh! I think she woke up." Loki hissed, and smothered another giggle.

"I'm awake." She mumbled. "What…?" It was too early for her to form complete sentences.

"Sorry, Mother."

…Gandhi. That was the other person in the room.

With a yawn, she pushed herself into a sitting position, and blinked wearily, brushing her hair from her face. "What are you laughing about?" She wondered, glancing over to see the two of them grinning impishly.

"Why, nothing." Gandhi responded in a posh British accent, feigning innocence. "I merely wished to know if I could be of any service to this good gentleman."

"H-His voice…" Loki gasped between giggles. "When he came in, it was so weird… It was so weird…"

"You woke him up?" Sigyn's eyebrows shot up. "Jormungandir Lokison! I told you he's still healing. Your father all the rest he can—"

"I was already awake." Loki cut in. "Don't get him in trouble, please."

"I breathed helium." Gandhi explained, slight guilt in his eyes. "I wanted to help, Mother! And you know, laughter is the best medicine!"

"You're a goof." Sigyn groaned, but really, she was glad Gandhi had been able to put a smile on Loki's face. "Go change out of your pajamas, okay?"

There was a moment of silence after the door clicked shut behind them.

"Fenris, right?" Loki guessed.

"No, that was Gandhi." Sigyn yawned, and leaned back against the pillows, trying not to focus on how Loki didn't even recognize his own children.

"No, the other one." He stated. "The smaller one, with red hair. He left as soon as you woke up."

Sigyn blinked up at him with wide eyes, suddenly no longer asleep. "Fen came in here? Of his own will?"

In confusion, he nodded. "He said he likes me."

Now, that was odd. In Sigyn's experience, Fenris didn't talk to people very often, besides Sleipnir and Jormungandir. He had never spoken to her without her asking him a direct question. She'd assumed it was because he was shy, but he seemed to have warmed right up to Loki.

She wasn't sure to be happy for him or jealous.

"What's wrong?" Loki wondered, his weak hand brushing against her cheek in a fond caress. "You're displeased."

"I'm just confused, is all." She shook her head. "He's not exactly outgoing."

"He was very friendly to me." Loki mused. "Gave me a hug and everything."

Sigyn sat bolt upright. "He hugged you? I had to give him a cupcake for him to even smile around me, Loki! Teach me your ways."

He only shrugged. "I don't know what I'm doing, either. I thought I was just being normal."

Sigyn sighed, and dropped her head into her hands. "How am I so bad at this?"

"You're not." Loki assured her. "Maybe you just need a little practice. Or…"

"Or what?"

Loki fiddled with the sheets nervously. "Don't get mad… but maybe you're being too hard on them?"

"Too hard?" She furrowed her brow. "I let Va sleep in until noon basically every day. I haven't even started their lessons, yet. I let them go swimming, whenever they want, and they're rowdy, and disrespectful, anyway."

Loki glanced down shamefacedly. "Well, I did only see you interact with them, just now… but I think Fenris is afraid of you. And you almost got Gandhi in trouble for making me laugh. I probably just have a very small sample size, really."

Sigyn blinked in confusion. Honestly, he was right. But how could she be easier on them? She thought she was already being super nice.

"I'm sorry." Loki murmured. "I've upset you."

"No." Sigyn shook her head with a reassuring smile. "I just have something to think about now." Tenderly, she clasped his hands in her own, tracing the lines on his wrists with one of her fingers.

"I love you." He promised, his eyes shining happily. Her heart melted within her as she stared into his smiling face, happier than she had seen it in years.

"I love you, too." She whispered, before placing a kiss on his cheek.

"I'm healing." He suddenly announced, with a triumphant grin. "I… I can feel it. Since I have food in me. I'm stronger."

Sigyn gave him an encouraging smile, and wrapped him in a tight hug. "I'm so glad."

"Sigyn?

"Hm?"

The sheets were now fisted in Loki's hands, as he twisted them nervously. "Do you think… perhaps… I could go outside, today?"

"Outside?" Sigyn was confused. "But you hate going outside."

Loki guiltily glanced down, his eyelids drooping wearily. "I just… wanted to see the sky, that's all."

Sigyn blinked in shock. He wanted to see the sky. How long had it been since he'd felt the sun on his skin, or the wind in his hair? Hodir, long ago, had said those feelings were truly living, but Loki had been starved of light for five years.

Still, the question remained. Was he strong enough to be outside, yet? "Can you sit up?"

A spark of hope flashed across his face, and he struggled to prop himself up on his elbows. "Is this good enough?" He smiled hopefully.

She nodded. "I'll take you out after breakfast, alright?"

"This is stupid." Narfi declared, throwing the headphones down on the floor.

"Oh, come on!" Gandhi groaned. "You haven't even gotten to Guns and Ships, yet!"

Narfi crossed his arms in frustration. "It's already stupid."

"You're ten minutes in!" Gandhi gasped. "I know the acting is atrocious, but the songs! The songs, Narf!"

Narfi only stared unenthusiastically.

"Come on, Gandhi, he doesn't have to like your fandom." Sleipnir sighed from across the room.

"Woe is me." He flopped dramatically onto the floor. "This is my life, doomed to be alone in the fandom forever. Ours is a high and lonely destiny."

Narfi blinked, unimpressed, shrugged, and walked off.

"Stop being such a theatre kid." Sleepy laughed. "If you were paying attention to your surroundings-"

"You were reading a book." Gandhi pointed out.

"But I was alert, while doing so!" She grinned. "Anyway, you would notice that." She gestured out the window at her parents sitting together on a blanket, outside, on the lawn.

"Father's up?" Gandhi breathed in disbelief as he scrambled to his feet. "But I thought he only woke up, just yesterday!"

Vali stuck his head in the door, eyes wide in wonder. "Father's up? Who let him out of bed? He's not supposed to be straining himself."

"Mother carried him." Sleipnir grinned, happy to be the source of information. "But he's up, alright."

"Just a moment." Gandhi shape-shifted into a pigeon, and flapped towards the door.

"Do not spy on them!" Vali commanded him. "This is obviously alone time for them."

"And they can think they're alone!" He chuckled, a very strange sound coming from a pigeon's beak.

"Gandhi!" Sleepy protested, but he was already out the door.

Vali stared after him irritably. "Is he always that… disrespectful?"

Sleipnir shrugged, and buried her face in the book. "Only when he's not thinking. So not really."

"Someone's got to stop him." Vali grumbled, and flopped onto the couch. "I'm too lazy, you do it."

"I'm lazier than you." Sleipnir calmly turned a page in her book.

"Oh, no you're not." Vali grinned. "I'm so lazy I stop working in the middle of a job because I'm overheating."

"That's not lazy, that's healthy." Sleipnir raised an eyebrow. "Lazy is texting your little brother to give you your soda that is five feet away, but you just sat down, and don't want to go get it. Like I did, just yesterday."

Vali blinked, startled. "Yeah, that is lazy."

"Therefore, you're the less-lazy of the two of us, meaning that you ought to go stop Gandhi." She grinned.

"No, it means you need the exercise more." Vali countered. "Go."

"But I just sat down…" Sleepy whined. "I don't wanna get up…"

"You sat down two hours ago." Vali grinned. "I sat down two minutes ago. It's clearly your duty."

As the two of them bickered, Narfi strolled outside, plucked the far-too-conspicuous pigeon from the sidewalk, and marched back in, depositing Gandhi, who screaming bloody murder (another strange noise to come from a pigeon) onto Sleepy's lap.

"You two need a work ethic." He stated, then turned, and left the room.

"Meanie…" Gandhi-the-pigeon called after him, then turned to Sleepy in complaint. "And just when they were starting to talk about us."

"Us?" Vali sat up in terror. "She didn't tell Father about… me, right?"

Sleipnir raised an eyebrow. "I think he already knows you're here."

"No, I mean, like…" He faltered, and glanced between the two of them, before shaking his head. "Never mind."

"Bro, did you eat breakfast?" Gandhi piped up. "Mother made omelets, and there's still one for you."

"I don't want it." He glared.

"Okay, okay, I'll eat it." Gandhi grinned, and turned back to his normal shape, and made a break for the kitchen.

"You need to eat." Sleipnir sighed. "At least something."

Vali tapped his foot on the floor, plainly irritated. "You sound like Mama."

"Good." She smirked. "She knows what's best for you. You're only like two months older than me. I know you've got to be hungry. Go eat."

"You're not my boss."

"No, but I care about you." She snapped the book shut. "And I will make you eat, whether you like it or not."

Promptly, Vali teleported out of the room, leaving his sister alone.

"You've got to be kidding me."

TheOnlyHuman.