New Asgard, way back when

Despite Thor's offer to put an extra cot in Loki's room, and Christine's express disapproval, Stephen decided to forgo a bed of his own and opted for his favourite armchair.

"You're still mending inside, Strange," someone had said, he did not remember or care who.

"I'm mended," Stephen said softly. His stomach did not hurt anymore, not really. And the occasional twinges were going to come whether he be sitting or lying down. He just wanted to be close. A bed, no matter how adjacent, would still be too far.

It was light outside and still Loki had not regained consciousness. The only consolation was that he was spontaneously breathing on his own. He still looked all fifty shades of dead, though.

Stephen sank back into his chair and leaned his head as far back as it would go. He wagered if he were to look in the mirror, he himself would look no better. He placed a hand on his abdomen to rub the lingering phantom pains away while his other hand absently traced circles over the back of Loki's hand.

He must have dozed off for when he next came to his senses, there was only the feel of the soft mattress beneath his palm. "Hmm?"

Loki's hand slowly came on top of his.

Stephen opened his eyes.

He sat up too fast and caught his stomach as it twinged. He half-winced, half-smiled in relief, "Hey."

Stephen saw the line of Loki's gaze and read his bloodless lips. "You alright?"

"Me?" Stephen gawked. "I'm not the one who nearly bled his entire circulation out three times over!"

At Loki's sceptic semi-raised eyebrow, Stephen shook his head stubbornly. "No, no. I only lost like a litre. Or a litre and a half at most."

"Always a competition with you, Strange."

Loki tried to lick his dry lips, but his tongue too was excessively dry and he let out an involuntary hiss. He was so thirsty.

Stephen fished out some ice chips from the cup on the tray table and touched them to Loki's lips. "Slowly. Do you feel like being sick?" Loki shook his head very slightly. "You must be thirsty as hell, I'll get you some water later."

"Stian?" Loki croaked when he could finally speak.

"Valkyrie has him, he was sleeping last time I checked," Stephen said reassuringly. "How are you feeling?"

As weak as a day-old kitten. "Like a million Sakaarian units."

"Are they more like dollars, or rupees?"

Loki smiled benevolently. "Sometimes we don't get each other's jokes, Strange, and it's okay."

Perhaps Loki's smile was meant to be comforting and once would have even melted him all eight ways to Sunday, but now it only filled him with a slow-stirring anger. "No, it's not."

"It's not okay."

Stephen could feel the curls of ire unfold like claws. "You fool."

Loki took an unnecessarily long time to respond to what was clearly a start to a very painful and uncomfortable conversation.

"Save neither. Save one. Save both." The smile had left Loki entirely. "I chose both. And I'd do it all over again."

Now he looked every inch the Ice Prince he was and Stephen found it infuriating.

Quiet rage stayed his tongue, but not his head

"You stupid, stupid fool."

Something in Loki's eyes gave way, and Stephen immediately regretted his slip of Mindtongue.

"Please don't be angry with me, Stephen."

No, Loki, please don't cry

"I'm not angry with you, darling."

Stephen thumbed the wetness away from the corner of Loki's eye. He sighed deep, and wearily.

"I'm angry with myself, for putting you in such danger in the first place."

Clearly not understanding, Loki tried to shake his head but stopped short at the sharp pain where it tugged on his stitches. He hoped the unspoken question in his eyes would prompt Stephen enough to complement his statement with an explanation.

"I kept some of your hair in our closet," Stephen confessed. He would have confessed much more, that it was his arrogance that made him go it alone, or that he should have given Stian to someone, the Valkyrie, or Thor even, as long as it was out of harm's way. "And I shouldn't have drugged you."

Loki only looked at him momentarily before finally letting out a tired sigh of his own. "Always seek the root cause, Stephen."

Damn Loki and his fox ears.

"He came after me for my past sins."

Loki closed his eyes again, his veins blue against the translucency of his eyelids. "It would be very presumptuous of me to expect you to carry any of the blame, let alone absolve them for me."

Stephen felt suddenly sick.

"I can't do this anymore."

Loki's eyes flew open.

"I can't be your lover anymore," he heard Stephen whisper.

He never thought it would physically hurt but it did. "I understand."

"I assume you would want to have Stian every other weekend?"

The tears were sliding freely down the sides of his face, collecting in the hollows of his clenched temples. His chest hurt. That must be where his heart was. He could feel it, now that it was broken into pieces.

"That's what you humans do, isn't it? Joint custody or something or other?"

"What?" Stephen gripped his arm. "NO!"

Stephen was in his face now, all red-faced and furious, "No, you idiot, don't you dare."

"I may be dreadfully ill, Strange, but I am not deaf." How could he be so damn thirsty and yet still have so many tears left inside him? "You do not wish to be with me, I get it."

"I said I don't want to be your lover."

"Yes, Doctor, I heard you the first time –"

"I want to be something more."

Stephen's demand was sharp and unbending. "You have to give me something more."

Loki froze. If his heart was not beating so wildly in his chest, he would have thought it stopped as well. "What are you saying?"

"Loki…"

Stephen held Loki's hand flat against his own chest, where his heartbeat was the loudest. "You have my heart."

"Now I want yours."

Long seconds passed.

"You have it, Strange," Loki whispered sickly. Stephen may have the most brilliant mind, but how he still could not see it, Loki would never know. He shuddered. "You always have."

"Prove it."

"How?"

"Marry me."

Loki stared at him, face and body as still as marble. When he finally spoke, his chest rose and fell rapidly as though only realising he had been holding his breath. "You can't be serious."

"Marry me."

"You don't mean that."

"Marry me." Despite his seriousness, Stephen patted Loki's hand awkwardly, his handsome face a mask of concern. "And please calm down, you're hyperventilating –"

"Wh-Why would you want to – you're crazy." His neck be damned, Loki was going to shake his head, and shake it hard. "I'm crazy."

"You're my kind of crazy."

"I let the Jotunns into the vault and killed a man, Strange," Loki pleaded. "You don't want my kind of crazy."

"I know all about that. Thor told me," Stephen said softly.

"Then why?" Loki's eyes were too bright against his pale face as he gaped in disbelief.

"Because I can't lose you anymore," Stephen said fiercely. "I can't watch you gamble your life like that. You can scream bloody murder all you want but if I have to bind you to me, I will."

"So you want to put me in a glass cage and stare at me till the end of your days? Feed me three times a day like a petting animal?"

"Can I?" Stephen's eyes lit up hopefully.

"NO, you asshole!"

"Then stop ruining my proposal!"

"Well, it's the shittiest one I've had so far," Loki laughed crazily. A pale hand grasped his forehead. Maybe he was imagining all this, maybe he was still delirious. "Somebody please get me out of this dream…"

"It's not a dream, Loki."

Stephen reached to cup his cheek. "You are loved."

Loki's hand left his forehead as he turned his head to gaze at Stephen in stark wonder.

"And I want you to love yourself, more than you love anyone else." Stephen searched his face and the look in Loki's eyes told him everything he needed to know. "More than me."

"And the only way I can make you do that is to claim you as mine and mine alone, so I can pound it into your thick Asgardian skull, every day and night – "

Stephen needed no further convincing that he wanted this. He wanted this more than anything. "That you are loved, Loki."

"More dearly than you know."

Loki's lips began to tremble.

"Now will you please just kiss me and say yes?" Stephen pleaded. "Or say yes and then kiss me, because the suspense is killing m-"

"Yes."

Time stood still.

"Right." Stephen was losing himself to the pull of Loki's gaze.

"So." Damn those eyes.

He cleared his throat. "Um. Loki. As your betrothed…"

The soft gaze hardened and Loki immediately looked wary. Perhaps he should not have said yes after all. Stupid human with his sweet words and sweet eyes. "Yes?"

"It is my duty to tell you…" Stephen's hand searched for Loki's once more. "That you don't get to die on me anymore, Loki."

"You need to live." He interlaced their fingers together. "That is all I ask."

"You just need to live."

Loki was not going to argue. "Okay."

And for good measure,

"And four more children, if you please."

"Tall order, Strange, but okay." Loki laughed, a little light-headedly. "Okay."

And that was good enough for Stephen, who swiftly pressed Loki's knuckles to his mouth as if to still his trembling lips. "There's no getting rid of me now, Odinson."

"Thor will not like this." Loki felt small all of a sudden and he turned onto his side, bending his knees to his chest. Stephen's heart galloped in sheer delight at the sight of Loki moving his legs.

Insane alien brain, remember?

"I don't give a fuck what Thor likes."

"Good. Because I don't, either."

"See? We make such a good couple, we're agreeing on everything already –"

"Strange."

"Yeah?"

"Will you please just shut up and kiss me?"

New Asgard, present time

The effort Loki took not to look at it claimed more of his mental energy than actually picking up the damn thing.

The box sat in his palm, unopened for a short eternity before he could muster the nerves to open it. He was not surprised to see he still remembered the spell to unlock it.

A beautiful thing it was, made of solid gold, engraved in symbols that Loki suspected not even Stephen knew the significance of; a shamrock triquetra double knot that gleamed more gold turned one way, a more burnished bronze when turned another.

Aífe must have been thinking of him when she crafted this, he mused.

What would Stephen say if he knew The Ancient One was every bit a hopeless romantic as he was?

Knowing Stephen, he would probably be all churlish and demand to know which of them Loki favoured – his dear husband was competitive and utterly ridiculous like that.

Little Aífe chose that moment to lash out enthusiastically and Loki gritted his teeth as her kicks damn near shattered his left lower ribs. It felt like they did. He hunched around the pain, and tried to soothe her with a gentle rub over where he last felt her head nudge his pelvis. Her restlessness was driving him to the point of madness tonight. "What is the matter, little one?"

"Pappa, are you okay?"

"Stian?" The frown on Loki's forehead turned into an exasperated semi-smile of disapproval as Stian climbed into the bed and wrapped his little arms around his unborn baby sister.

"Why is Daddy letting you stay up so late?" Loki buried his head in Stian's hair. To his chagrin, his son smelled of burnt meat and animal dripping. "It's almost midnight."

"I wanted to play with my new stelescope, Pappa."

"It's telescope, my sweet." There were no spells not worth learning, Frigga once told him. Case in point, Loki's coveted deodorising spell - with a flourish, the stink was gone and Stian was back to smelling as good as little children should.

"Steloscope?" Stian echoed.

"Te-le-scope." Loki punctuated each syllable of the word with a kiss on his head. "Stethoscopes are something pretentiously clever people like your Daddy would know how to use. Telescopes are things people of earth need to use to look at stars because their eyesight is not very good."

Still, Loki could not help feeling a bit cross. "You shouldn't be up. It's way past your bedtime."

"But the prettiest stars only come out at night, Pappa." Stian did that thing with his eyes that made anyone even the slightest bit older than him turn to goo. "Please don't make me go to bed."

"And what does your Daddy have to say about all this?"

"Uncle Tony made him say yes."

Loki simply had to smile.

Yep. Thor is going to be so pissed.

"it's Uncle Tony, now is it?" Loki smiled softly. "So what are you doing here then?"

"Daddy told me to come get you because the red moon looks so pretty!" Stian's eyes twinkled as he wriggled off Loki into a W-sitting position. "And he says to hurry because the moon will be swallowed up soon and you won't get to see anything like it for another twenty years."

Loki's heart skipped. "What did you say?"

Stian's face fell slightly. "Uncle Tony told me the word but it's a really hard word..."

"Eclipse."

"That's what he said! Eclisp." Stian tasted the word on his tongue. "One day I want to be smart like you, Pappa."

Never had Loki shot so quickly to his feet since he had fallen pregnant that the sudden deviation from his center of gravity from the weight of his gravid belly sent him reeling; he caught himself on the edge of the bedside table and pushed off of it in a mad scramble for the French windows in the kitchen, where he knew he could see the night sky –

The moon stared down at him, red as blood.

As blood swallows the sky

It would have been the perfect circle of a full moon, had it not already entered the penumbra and begun edging into the Earth's shadow.

A total lunar eclipse of a blood moon. In the middle of January.

The wolf shall awaken true

Of course.

Tony Stark would not come all the way to Asgard just to look at stars.

But he would come if it was a Blood Wolf Moon Eclipse, and

where do lunar eclipse stargazers flock to if not Norway?

An uncontrollable shiver crawled upward from the very bottom of his spine.

And so shall it devour you

"Pappa?"

It's coming.

"It's coming," Loki breathed out, his hand white and trembling against the glass as he tried to block the moon with his fingers

Maybe if he couldn't see it, it wouldn't co -

A sudden shard of pain stabbed through his temples like an ice pick, blinding him temporarily as he groped for something, anything, to keep himself from falling – in his mad grappling for the window sill, his forehead banged into the window pane and Loki cried out in agony.

Something hot and warm seeped into the corner of his mouth. Fully expecting the saltiness of tears, the metallic tang on his tongue was odd.

Loki could not open his eyes for the hammering pain in his head, but Stian had never seen him this way, this would frighten him – Loki pressed the fleshy part of his thumb against his nose to staunch the bleeding.

"Pappa!" Small, terrified hands fisted around the belt of his robe cinched around his waist as they tried to pull him away from the window but Loki had locked his shaking knees in place to keep from sinking to the floor, and that scared Stian even more.

"Get…" He swallowed hard, his tongue too thick despite the sudden sandy dryness of his mouth. "Get…Daddy…"

Loki watched, paralysed, as the floor rushed to meet him, and his last dim thought before all senses left him was of his baby.

Then he started to seize.

"You're kinda quiet."

Stephen's eyebrow quirked in puzzled amusement. "I…don't usually say much, if at all."

"Quieter, then."

"We are observing a celestial phenomenon, Stark. How noisy do you expect me to be?" Stephen murmured. "As noisy as the invite to this little stargazing party of yours?"

"Super Blood Wolf Moon is what the astronomers call it, I did not make that up!"

"Put a can on it, Tony, I don't want your voice on the video!" Bruce shushed him.

"Ever heard of the mute button, smart guy?" Tony rolled his eyes.

"I'm surprised Loki didn't join us," Bruce said for the hundredth time. "Isn't this kinda his thing?"

"My brother is heavy with child and could do well with some rest, Banner." "Loki isn't a Wiccan nor a Pagan, Bruce."

Thor and Stephen looked at each other and shared a congratulatory look of brotherly camaraderie.

Tony chuckled. "All hail the High Prince Consort of Asgard." He ignored Stephen's look of poison and opened another can of beer. He offered it to Stephen who declined with a regal wave of his Prince Consort hand.

"Have you ever heard of Doctor Profundus, Dr Banner?" He spoke in his Prince Consort voice.

"Is that the guy with the turban from Harry Potter?" was Tony's spectacular guess. "The one who killed the unicorns?"

Stephen did not bother correcting his friend's atrocious conjecture.

"Thomas Bradwardine aka Doctor Profundus was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the mid-14th century, also a brilliant mathematician and philosopher who had studied with Arab astronomers. One night, he came across a witch when suddenly the moon eclipsed. The witch tried to take credit for the moon's disappearance, and demanded he acquit her of all charges of nasty witchery business, lest she make the sun disappear next."

Stephen picked up his son's long-forgotten cup and took a sip of lukewarm punch.

"You are a terrible storyteller, Brother." Thor blinked owlishly. "There is no ending to your story."

Stephen gave his brother-in-law a blank stare. "He challenged her to tell him when the sun was going to disappear, and when she couldn't, proceeded to tell her when the next solar and lunar eclipses were going to take place, how much the umbra was going to bite off the moon, down to the duration for which the eclipses were going to last."

He sat back, looking awfully smug for telling a story that no one particularly found very interesting to begin with just to prove his point. "There is no witchcraft, Bruce. Only plain old knowledge."

"I suppose magic doesn't exist either?"

"Oh, magic definitely does exist." Cerulean sparks of blue began to shimmer into existence on his lap. "Case in point –"

"Daddy!" Stian was hysterical. He pawed at his father's sweater, body wracked with sobs.

"Stian?" Stephen frowned. "What's wrong?"

"Pappa, he's –" Stian could not speak, he was sobbing so hard. Stian rocked violently in his arms as Stephen shot to his feet. "Pappa!"

Bruce exchanged looks of alarm with Tony, who quickly closed the vents and slammed the barbeque grill lid shut with a clang.

Thor was already dashing across the field of grass at lightning speed.

"God-damn it, Loki." Stephen's hand trembled and he nearly dropped his sling ring. He handed Stian over to Bruce who began to rub comforting circles on the boy's back. "Where is he, Stian? Where's Pappa now?"

"K-Kitchen," Stian's breaths hitched. "Hurry, Daddy!"

A/N:Sorry for the cheese, but I couldn't help myself. These two need to be wedded, like, a decade ago.

Google Says: Aside from eclipses, the January full moon is often called the Wolf Moon, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, and may date back to Native American tribes and early Colonial times when wolves would howl outside villages.