We're up to chapter 40! WOOOOOO! Also I forgot to say when it happened but this series surpassed half a million words a few chapters ago, how awesome is that!?

I've been reeling from some of the Loki show teasers that have been dropping recently. Y'all see the brief clip of naked outraged Loki? That's my favourite kind of Loki!

A surprise guest in this chapter ;)

Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish

Chapter Forty: Illuminate the Night

Loki watched over his wife and children as they slept the whole morning and half of the afternoon. He remained cautious and alert despite the fact that statistically speaking, it was unlikely for another assassination attempt to occur directly after the initial failed attempt. But in this case, it was better to be paranoid and prepared.

When they awoke, Loki had some food brought up. The kids ate slowly but consumed their fill, while Amelia struggled to eat even a small amount. Not only was the inside of her throat sore and tender, but every time she put food in her mouth, she was reminded of the taste of blood coating her tongue and couldn't quite bring herself to swallow.

At Inga's insistence, Amelia managed to eat some bread and cheese, but not much beyond that. When Loki offered to readjust her pillow so that she could recline again rather than remain in a sitting position, Amelia shook her head. She didn't want to fall asleep again, not yet.

A few times an hour, Amelia touched her fingers lightly to the gauze covering her neck, swallowing uncomfortably. Loki wished to know what was going through her head, though he wouldn't have been surprised if it was a million different thoughts at once. It was awful that she couldn't communicate verbally without it paining her, but at the very least she was able to sign a request for water every so often.

"You're safe now," Loki reminded his wife when he caught her eyelids drooping for more than a few seconds, or when her head dipped forward with the struggle to keep upright, "you should lie down and rest if you need to."

Her prevailing stubbornness had her shaking her head every time despite how clearly she was fighting sleep, and so Loki allowed her to fight it, all the way up until the mid-evening, at which point, Amelia dragged the thin blanket off of her body and tried to move her legs over the edge of the bed with the clear intention to stand.

"No," Loki stopped her at once with gentle hands on her upper arms, rising from his chair just beside the bed, "you need to stay put and rest."

Amelia's face scrunched up in a mix of frustration, helplessness and anger; she batted his hands away when he tried to gently press her back down against the pillow, and resisted. With much difficulty, she forced out some words, "Want… to sleep… in our… room." Her eyes watered as her throat no doubt stung with each syllable.

Loki looked to Inga, who nodded her head tentatively, "She may leave the infirmary if she feels she is able."

Loki's lip curled downwards into a frown; he had hoped Inga would insist that Amelia was unable to leave just yet. Amelia, tiredness in her gaze, met his eyes with a resolute look that was half pleading, and he let out a sigh and relented. He carried Amelia to their room, with the kids trailing along either side of him, their hands clutching a fistful of his cape, all the while they were escorted by guards.

That night, Amelia laid staring up at the curtains hanging above from the four-poster bed, eyes wide open as sleep refused to settle in her mind. It did not matter that she wanted to close her eyes and succumb to her exhaustion, her thoughts simply did not allow it - delivering awful notions that something terrible would happen again if she were to nod off.

She didn't need to think that way. Loki was there, awake and alert, ready to take action if anything became amiss, and the children were right there, curled up between them in their large bed. Amelia had not needed to insist that they sleep beside them, because Loki had agreed to it immediately. Plus, dried blood was still caked against the rug in the children's room.

Aster and Kari had had the same problem as Amelia, the poor things had been afraid to fall asleep, even while they were snuggled safely between their mother and father; it broke Amelia's heart, and she knew the children would suffer from the trauma of what had happened for a long time to come. She wasn't concerned about her own mental health as much as she was the children's; Amelia had been through many awful things in her life, she was practically used to it by now. She just wanted Aster and Kari to be okay; she tried not to think about the fact that somebody had wanted to harm them, because whenever she focused her thoughts on why it had happened, she found her chest constricting painfully and her head spinning.

She was far from recovered from the incident, but for the sake of her children, she needed to try and continue on as normal. She couldn't let the kids see and feel her fear, because they would start asking questions that she knew she couldn't answer without lying, and she was not a good liar.

Her mind was restless, but the sound of Aster and Kari's audible breathing brought her at least a little comfort.

Amelia brought her fingers to her throat for the fiftieth time that day, her fingertips lightly brushing the gauze. There was a morbid, surreal feeling inside her every time she thought back to the moment her neck was slit; the odd lack of pain, the feeling of drowning, the vulnerability in Aster's eyes as she and her brother were left unprotected. If that guard hadn't burst into the room the moment he did…

Amelia covered her face with her hands as her expression twisted in distress, tears pricked at her eyes. Loki could have lost his wife and children in one wretched night if the guard hadn't been so quick to investigate, and the thought of her husband having to cope with that had her fighting the urge to break down crying.

She didn't quite notice when Loki slipped out from under the covers and walked around the bed until he touched her arms softly; the contact took Amelia off-guard and made her recoil and flinch, but she forced herself to be calm when she realised her husband was only trying to comfort her.

"Shh, it's okay," he whispered, his voice blessedly soft, "I'm right here with you. You have nothing to worry about, I will watch over you all night. Relax, my love." He brushed Amelia's tears away with his thumbs and she caught his hand, holding it firmly within her own.

Loki was so beautiful. That was the only positive thought that permeated through the sea of anxiety, pain and devastation. Even with the clear, boundless concern and worry in his pretty green eyes, he was the most beautiful man to ever exist; she would hate to see an ounce of pain tarnish that light in his gaze.

She did as Loki asked, and relaxed.

"Do you want me to help you sleep? With magic?" His words were whisper-quiet.

Amelia blinked tiredly, and shook her head. No, because as much as she wanted to fall asleep, she did not wish to. As long as she was awake, she knew her children were safe at her side.

Loki nodded his head, and used his magic to coax her to sleep anyway.

Amelia would not remember that Loki went against her wishes and soothed her racing mind with a well-practised spell, which immediately multiplied her drowsiness tenfold and sent her quickly into a slumber, so he did not feel bad for it. His wife needed to rest, and the only way to do that was to bring peace to her mind, and if she did somehow deduce that he had gone ahead and flexed his long fingers to use his mind-probing abilities, then she would surely forgive him for offering his much needed help.

Loki stroked his wife's face tenderly, watching her sleep.

He never realised how often Amelia's tranquil voice filled the silence, not until the ability to speak was stolen from her. Where she had once made sweet remarks to him and the children before bed, there was nothing. Where she had once sung softly to her children to send them off to sleep, there was nothing. Where she had once sleepily told Loki 'I love you' before nodding off herself, there was nothing. Nothing but heartache. It had been one of the quietest days he'd experienced since before he had met Amelia, and it hurt.

It had been less than twenty four hours and he already missed the mollifying cadence of her voice. He hoped for all their sakes that Amelia's throat would heal fast.

Still, that wasn't the most pressing matter in Loki's head.

He rose up and returned to his position on the other side of the bed and sat with his back ramrod straight against the headboard; he had taken multiple precautions for security that night, there were more guards posted outside and they were on strict orders to alert Loki if they saw or heard anything suspicious, rather than going to investigate individually. And along with that, Loki had cast a couple of magical seals on both the main entrance to the room and the balcony doors, the spells were intended to stun any unauthorised persons who passed through the doorways and draw Loki's attention at once.

There would not be a repeat of last night. Loki would ensure the safety of his wife and children even if that meant staying up all night while they slept. He would nap during the day while Amelia and the kids were secure in Thor's care, but for now his task was to listen and protect.

He let his gaze fall to his sleeping children. Kari was curled almost into a ball against his mother's side, his hand resting assuringly on Amelia's arm while they slept, while Aster was more sprawled out, her beloved green blanket wrapped haphazardly around her, keeping her safe. They were so precious and innocent. Who would want to hurt them?

It had been gnawing at Loki's mind for a while now, ever since Amelia had revealed that she had been protecting the children from the man who had tried to kill her, that Aster and Kari had been his initial targets. When the raspy words had left Amelia's lips, Loki thought for a moment that he had misunderstood what she was trying to say, but it dawned on him quickly.

Somebody had tried to kill his children.

The thought still had his chest tightening uncomfortably. Loki had always prepared himself for the possibility that one day a villain would potentially use his family to get to him, but he had not been prepared for somebody to directly target his children in what appeared to be premeditated murder.

He tried not to beat himself up over the fact that if he hadn't left his family to go and aid the Avengers on a mission, Amelia's injury would not have occurred. He had foolishly believed Asgard's Palace was the safest place his family could be. He was wrong.

Loki held his breath when he sensed movement at the very edge of his peripheral vision. He was up and out of the bed once again, already summoning blades to his hands; he wasn't going to take any chances, he was ready to strike first and ask questions later because nobody was permitted to enter the bedroom, and the lack of alert from his seals left him confused and anxious.

He had not been imagining it, yet as his eyes examined the room now, he was sure nothing was amiss. Could it have merely been a shadow, perhaps? The vague dark shape of a bird flying past the window, maybe?

Loki took noiseless steps across the room, surveying the darkness with his keen senses. He would not allow anybody or anything to get past him. He hoped he had simply imagined it, his wife and the children did not need anymore trauma to pile on top of what was already there.

He held his breath, casting glances into every corner, bending slightly to check below the table and chairs in his efforts to locate anything vaguely person-shaped, or indeed anything that was not.

Though the night was dark, Loki's acute sight was superior in that if somebody was there, he would see them. But alas, there were no unusual shapes in the dimness of the room.

Perhaps he had imagined it. His paranoia and the blackness of the room was everything his mind needed to play tricks on itself; he let out an exasperated but quiet exhale, annoyed that his mind could deceive him at such a significant moment, and turned around to return to the bed.

But he froze at the sight of a figure before him. Time seemed to suspend itself as the initial flash of shock zipped through Loki's body, his fists tightening around the grips of his blades, and he reared back with the intent to maim whoever had managed to enter his quarters unnoticed, until he realised who stood before him.

Even in darkness, Loki could recognise the face of his mother.

Frigga, undoubtedly, stood at an arms width ahead of him; her silhouette was easily identified, and the shadows of her face from the low moonlight revealed the exact countenance that Loki would never forget.

Loki's breath was stuck in his throat, his fingers twitched around the hilts of his blade as he toyed momentarily with the potential that the person before him was an imposter, merely taking on the form of his mother in order to delude him, but then she smiled, and he knew in his heart that she was no imitation.

He banished his daggers.

"...Mother?" His voice was whisper soft, as if words spoken any louder would ruin the visage before him. He lifted his hand, palm facing up, and summoned a ball of gentle light, enough to illuminate what he wished to see more clearly, but not enough to disrupt the slumber of Amelia or the children.

Frigga's smile was radiant, and her voice even more so, "My son." She said those two words with such pride that Loki's heart seemed to swell, and he readily stepped forward with the intent to embrace her, but as his hands made contact, they merely sunk through her, the gleaming green light showing that she wasn't actually there. Just an illusion.

His face fell, as did hers.

"I wish I could be here in physical form, Loki," she told him softly, "but it is unfortunately not possible." She lifted her hands and folded them around Loki's suspended hand, and though he did not feel the sensation as he normally would have, there was a certain degree of undeniable warmth emanating from the contact. It was the most she could offer.

But Loki was still reeling more from the fact that his mother stood before him. It had been more than a decade since he had last seen and spoken to her, shortly before her death. It was a final conversation that he remembered all too well, because his last words had been spat out of bitter anger when he had denied that she was his mother.

At once, Loki struggled to control his breathing. It was all still sinking in; he tried to inhale and exhale smooth breaths but his lungs refused to cooperate, and before he knew it there were hot tears falling down his cheeks.

Frigga moved her hand reflexively to wipe his tears away, but again her fingers did not make contact.

"I… I'm sorry, I-" Loki's apology was promptly cut off by his mother's soothing voice.

"Shhh," she quietened him, a warm and forgiving smile on her face, "the past is the past, focus on the now." It was everything to hear his mother's voice again, and to hear her wise, pacifying words; for a moment he felt as though he was a child again.

"I missed you," he couldn't help but whisper.

Frigga's prevailing smile told him that she too felt the same, "You have grown so much since I last saw you. Still just as handsome."

Loki scoffed playfully, forcing his lips to turn up at the corners despite his fluctuating emotional state.

"I cannot begin to describe just how proud I am of you," his mother continued.

That made it significantly more difficult to smile, because now he was actively fighting a pout; until today he had only wished to hear such praise from his mother again.

"Your wife, your children… they're so beautiful, Loki," her eyes settled on Amelia and the kids, and Loki glanced over to check they were all still sleeping soundly, which they were, "I am so glad you have found the light. Amelia has a very kind soul, I cannot help but think you and her were always meant to be."

Loki agreed. His family were like beacons in a sea of darkness, no matter how dull and drab the world grew, he would always have them. Swallowing tightly, Loki turned back to his mother, his expression somewhat rigid, "Somebody tried to hurt them… they… they succeeded in hurting Amelia."

Frigga frowned, expressing something that resembled guilt.

"I know… I was there, last night."

Loki's eyes widened and he remained silent, waiting for his mother to elaborate.

"I sometimes come to visit them, my grandchildren," she murmured, a minute spark of happiness in her voice when she said the word 'grandchildren' before she resumed a grim tone, "but this time, when I arrived I knew things were amiss, I watched that man slaughter those guards, he lured them away and murdered them one by one - used magic to silence their screams - and when he entered the children's room, I… I woke Amelia. She was the only person close enough to stop him," her voice took on a pleading tone, "if there was anything I could have done, I would have stopped him myself. Please, forgive me, I did not want this to happen, but I did not know how else to help, I'm entirely limited in this form." Her admission shocked Loki momentarily.

So, Amelia had only awoken and checked on the children because of Frigga's interference, it was this course of action that had led to his wife having her throat slit, but if Frigga had not raced to do so, the children would have been killed. Frigga felt responsible for Amelia's injury, it seemed, her tearful gaze expressed that much.

Loki could not fault her decision, "Mother, your choice to wake Amelia is what saved the childrens' lives."

It was clear all Frigga wanted to do was wrap her son up in a tight hug; though the warmth of her palms cupping his face was still more than a little comforting.

"My dear, I wish I could tell you why this incident occurred, but I do not have any answers. I know not why somebody would want to harm those little angels," she gazed fondly over at the bed, "you should be proud of them, the way Kari tried to protect his mother… it reminded me of you. And Aster- oh, her use of healing magic. She is a powerful little sorceress, she gets that from you as well."

Hearing the way his mother spoke of the children made his throat clench up, "I am proud of them," he whispered.

A lull of silence fell for a few moments, in which Loki basked in that consoling warmth just a little while longer. And then he spoke.

"You said you visit the children a lot. Why haven't you ever visited me before now?"

Frigga looked surprised. "Oh, Loki. I have visited you so many times. But only when you sleep," the corners of her mouth lifted, "You see, I really am not allowed to be speaking with you right now. The afterlife has a terribly long list of rules, but as I always used to hear you say, rules are-"

"-Made to be broken," Loki finished.

"I've come to see the appeal of a little mischief every now and then," Frigga winked and Loki couldn't hide a grin.

"Thank you," Loki sighed and then smirked, "I will tell Thor you came to visit me and he will be jealous."

"Hey now," Frigga tilted her eyebrow, "quell that chaotic side of yourself for just a minute, I have visited your brother too, an equal amount of times."

"But have you conversed with him on any of those visits?" That semi-smug smirk still remained.

This time Frigga sighed. "No, but that doesn't mean I love him any less."

Loki rolled his eyes goodnaturedly.

"I love you," Frigga said softly. "Tell Thor I love him too."

Loki opened his mouth to respond, but a rustling sound drew his attention back to the bed; Aster was shuffling and whimpering with quiet cut-off cries, clearly caught amidst a grisly nightmare. When he cast his gaze back to Frigga, she was gone.

He composed himself, regretful that his mother had left so suddenly and without warning; he felt he had so much more to say to her, but he was overwhelmingly grateful for the time he'd had with her, even if it had gone by so very quickly. Wiping the remnants of his tears away, he quickly returned to the bed and picked Aster up, gathering her in a tender hug.

"Shh, shh, it's just a bad dream, Aster. It's alright, everything's alright."

His daughter sniffled, blinking her eyes open; she clutched onto her daddy tightly and cried into the fabric of his nightshirt for a few minutes before settling under the sound of Loki's soothing words.

"Do not fear. You're safe," he brushed his fingers through her hair, "an angel watches over you, little one."

Please do share your thoughts, I LOVE seeing your comments! 3 Hope you enjoyed ;)

I hope I got Frigga's characterisation accurate, I've never written for her before!