Chapter 65.

Loki sat next to her on the bed and she lay in silence, their Daughter having been taken to her bed hours ago. He hummed softly, her eyes focused on a spot on the wall, and her thoughts her own. He drew lazy circles on her shoulder, and she shifted away from his touch softly. Turning onto her side, her hands burying themselves under the pillows and he watched her.

"I am sorry Floria, and I hope you do not stay angry or hurt because of me for long. I would prefer your smiles, and kindness more." He said and she lay still and sighed, her shoulders rising and falling with the act. She did not know what answer would keep him from shouting at her again, and she knew that silence would only earn her further scorn.

"Will you try to control your mercurial temperament?" She asked him and he rubbed his face with a hand. He rested n hand on her shoulder and nodded, not caring if she could see the gesture or not. She looked over her shoulder at him, and he pressed his lips together.

"I think you have room for improvement as well. You jumped to conclusions at first sight of a woman on our bed in undress." He said and she sighed and looked away from him. She lay quiet for a long time, the fire the only sound in the room and she watched the flames flicker.

"Then we are both fools." She said and closed her eyes, he lifted his hand softly and rested it in his lap. His heart sinking at what he took from her voice, and he let her statement hang in the air.

"What do you want Floria, whatever it is, I shall honor it." He said and she looked back at him. Her eyes studied him for a long moment, and he feared what she would say.

"I want peace, and to be allowed to raise my children with no strife. I only want them happier than when I grew up, and for them to know only love and caring." She said softly and she rolled onto her back and looked at him. "I do not wish to be Queen if I am not loved or cherished by the man who is to be King."

He jerked back suddenly, her words cutting him and he nodded at her wish. He stood then, walking to the sitting room and leaving her to rest. His eyes closing at her statement and he knew, his temperament, nature, and his pride had worked against him. She lay back on her side, everything over the past year working against them and he left her alone in the other chamber to sit by the fire.

She lay for a long time, her eyes closing and she sighed at the hollow feeling in her chest as she drifted to sleep.

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"Loki!" He heard and his head jerked up, he did not remember falling asleep and he walked into the bedchamber and saw Floria sitting up on the bed. He rubbed his eyes, her face calm and he walked toward her.

"Do you need something?" He asked and she nodded, her hand gesturing toward the pitcher and he knew what she needed.

"Water please." She said and he brought her the cup. He sat on the bed, watching her drink from it and she lay back and he reached out for her hand. She let him take it, and her eyes watched him and he sighed.

"I have thought long about my selfish nature. I have held you here for too long, kept you caged as a bird..." He started and she stopped him with her other hand and shook her head. Her eyes closed and she squeezed his hand suddenly. Her face drained of color and she held the hand tightly in both of hers, he put his other hand on top of her and she shivered.

"I don't know why we must drift apart." She said and he looked at her. "Do we not love each other enough to justify our hearts being bound together? Do we not care that the other is sad, and try to make them laugh?"

"I... I... I cannot change what I am. And hearing you call me a Monster wounded me so deeply... I never wanted to be that in your eyes." He said and shifted in front of her. Her hand gripped his and she pressed her lips together, sitting up and caressing the blue skin under her fingers.

"I am the monster." She said and she blinked back tears. "I am not worthy of you, knowing how deep I wounded you now."

Her fingers traced a ridge over his cheek and down his neck, stopping just above his collar and she looked into the red eyes of her husband. She looked down then, freeing her other hand to hide her face. He stopped her, pulling them away and he pressed his forehead against hers, his blue sking cool against her warm skin. A soft puff of vaporous breath escaped from between her lips, and he kissed her.

"You are no monster Floria." He said and he looked into her eyes. "You are kinder than those who hid truth from me for so very long. I am a part of two worlds, and belong to neither one. Perhaps it is I who should stop punishing myself, for it was you that pulled me away from my darkness."

"I do love you still, but it hurts me so much now to be so afraid of losing yours. All I have ever known was pain and misery, and then there was kindness from you, but it is all going away." She said and he shifted back and she stopped him. Her hands holding his, and she staring into his eyes.

"Then trust me, and I will never lead you to see a monster in me." He said and she nodded, his fingers caressing her cheek and he kissed her again. His lips lingered on hers, and he wrapped his arms around the small woman he married, promising to be hers and only hers.

"Never let me go." She said and he smiled into her neck. His heart pounded in his chest and he lay next to her on the bed, gathering her into his arms and holding her.

"Never, for you are the Future Queen of Asgard, and my greatest advisor in all matters of my rule." He said and held her to him. "I love you as I love breath itself. And if you left, I would have nothing to breathe."

"I fear this child may not live." She said then, and she trembled against him. "I fear it may die before it is born, and that you will leave be because of it dying."

"No. I will stay, and hold you in your grief. We will lay our child to rest, placing it on a pyre and freeing the soul in it to go to Valhalla. I promise you that, and I will not let them take me from this room when it is born. I will hold you through it, and ensure that it is done properly." He whispered to her, his hand resting over her stomach and he lifted his head suddenly. His brows knitted together and he looked at her eyes, a smile creeping across his lips.

"What is it?" She asked him and he laughed to himself.

"We are truly fools Floria, for love has made us such." He said and she blushed at his statement. "You were so very right in what you said, and now I vow to never allow you to leave my arms."

He waved his hand, creating a band of gold and he let it fall into his palm. She looked at it and she blinked at him in confusion, his fingers pressing it into her palm. She looked at the ring, and she shook her head in confusion.

"Put it on me. And I will seal my vow of being only yours with an endless circle that I wear as you wear the one I put on you at our ceremony." He said and she smiled at him. Her hand taking his and slipping the ring on his long finger, her soft hands holding his and she blinked back tears at him. He brought the ring to his lips and kissed it, softly kissing hers and she gasped at the gesture.

"I am yours." She said softly and he nodded.

"And I am yours." He replied, his fingers blinking between hers and she held his hand. "We are only owing allegiance to one another, no one else."

"I love you." She whispered and he kissed her in the warm glow of the fire. His lips kissing his devotion to her where words always failed him. The words she was afraid to say, locked in her heart and growing stronger by the day.

I also fear you.