Edit: Well this is strange, I actually posted this yesterday but for some reason it didn't seem to actually update, even though the chapter appeared in the index under my 'manage stories' tab... well, hopefully this re-upload reaches everyone!
Oh my goodness. I'm so so sorry for the time it has taken for me to post this next chapter. I've had some serious trouble focusing with my writing since the last time I posted, which is why it has taken so long. Some days I would sit and try my absolute hardest to write a good chunk but I'd only crank out a couple sentences, if that :( I've also been busy and distracted, but I have finally managed to finish this chapter. I'm so sorry everyone, I hate to make you all wait!
This chapter is extra long, I hope that will make up for it?
I hope you all enjoy, lovelies!
Hydrangeas Say Our Family Will Flourish
Chapter Thirty: Even Salt Looks Like Sugar
It was a beautiful day for a picnic. The sun was bright, the air was warm, the lake just outside the boundaries of the Kingdom of Asgard was stunning, and Amelia was glad she had suggested it, because she felt perfectly relaxed as she basked in the sunshine, sitting upon the checkered blanket she had brought along.
The wicker basket at her side was full of snacks and sandwiches prepared by the palace's kitchen staff at her request, the children had been well-behaved all day, Loki was in a cuddly mood, everything was going wonderfully and Amelia felt beyond content. Snuggled up to her husband's side, Amelia watched little Kari and Aster chase each other around on the grassy bank, and she couldn't help but think about just how blessed she was to have such a beautiful family.
Movement in the corner of Amelia's eye drew her attention. One of Loki's arms was slung around her, holding her close against him, while the other was deftly swapping between different signs - he was signing out the letters of the alphabet by way of memorising them so that he could then go on to teach it to Aster.
It warmed Amelia's heart that Loki was taking the doctor's advice so seriously. He had immediately purchased several books on sign language and was learning the letters, words and phrases at a considerable rate. Amelia had never been good at learning secondary languages, but she was eager to give sign language a try, desperate to work out how to communicate more easily with her daughter. Amelia herself had only learned the first few letters of the alphabet in sign while Loki had zoomed through the entire thing with ease.
Loki's brain clearly worked differently than her own - he absorbed things through sheer motivation, but Amelia needed to go through something a few dozen times before it cemented in her mind.
She carefully observed her husband's hand, focusing on the signs she knew to see if she could figure out what he was spelling out.
A _ E _ I A
She was playing a mental game of hang-man in her head, but she couldn't quite figure out the second and fourth digit - she had learnt all the vowels but only the first seven consonants in the alphabet. She stared, seeing if she could figure it out through common sense.
She blanked again on the second letter, but this time she took note of the fourth digit - her husband made a 'loser' sign and Amelia tilted her head, could that be as simple as representing the letter L?
A _ E L I A
Oh. He was spelling her name. The realisation sent a wave of warmth through her; it was cute, because he wasn't specifically signing to her, he was just practising by spelling her name.
Loki must have felt her gaze on him, because he turned his head and caught the sight of her dreamy look; the corners of his mouth tilted up into a subtle smirk and he raised his hand, showing her another hand gesture - it looked sort of like a devil's horns gesture, but his thumb was extended instead of tucked in. Amelia blinked, tilting her head curiously. She had no clue.
"What does that mean?" She asked, eyebrows raised almost suspiciously. Her first instinct was that it meant something rude, something mischievous, because there was this little glint in her husband's eyes that seemed almost playful and he always got that glint when he was doing something sneaky.
Loki seemed amused by her suspicion of him.
"It means I love you," he answered sincerely, and Amelia felt her face heat up immediately in a fluster, because that was just way too sweet. Loki was such a cutesy romantic, even though he would never admit it in a hundred years, but he reminded Amelia of that fact every single day in brand new ways.
"Come here, you," Amelia squeaked, grabbing a handful of his shirt to pull him down into a kiss. Loki hummed pleasantly against her lips, a deep rumble in the back of his throat that made Amelia shiver despite the warmth of the sun on her face. Even when Loki pulled back, his lips didn't stray far. He kissed her cheek and then her forehead, and then drew her close with a gentle hand tickling the back of her neck, she leaned her cheek against his shoulder and sighed happily at the embrace.
The quiet spot was the perfect getaway from the hustle and bustle of the palace.
Until Loki broke the silence with a sharp exclamation, "Hey!"
It made Amelia jump, and she pulled back quickly, looking up at him with wide eyes, then followed his gaze over towards where the children were playing just ahead of them. They were looking back with mutually wide gazes, almost scared still at the sudden shout from their father.
Loki cleared his throat, looking a little sheepish at having raised his voice, and proceeded a little more quietly, but with a consistent stern edge to his tone, "Stay away from the water."
Amelia understood then why Loki had raised his voice in alarm, he'd been worried for the wellbeing of the children and in the split-second panic at the thought of them falling into the lake, he'd brashly told them off. She gave him a look that was slightly scolding - there'd been no need for him to shout, after all - but he brushed it off by ignoring it.
Amelia observed the children. They seemed interested in looking at the water, but dared not take a single step closer to it after hearing their daddy's warning tone. They weren't even that close to the edge of the bank, in her opinion, but she supposed she knew how easily a small child could trip and fall in. There was still a danger, even if the water was shallow and even if Loki was fast enough to pull them out within two seconds of it happening, if it were to happen at all.
Loki had a sharp eye on them at all times, even when he seemed to be giving Amelia his full attention, the children would always take up a percentage of his awareness, which Amelia knew was a good thing. The twins were forever protected. Nothing bad would ever happen to them, not if Loki could help it. Amelia couldn't ask for a better father for her children.
"We should give them swimming lessons," Amelia stated idly, watching Kari and Aster pull up great handfuls of grass and throw it up in the air, seemingly entertained by the way it fluttered back down to the ground.
"Hm?"
"Yeah, in the palace pool. It would be good for them to know how to swim."
Loki nodded slowly, like he was thinking about it.
"It's a useful skill to have," Amelia added.
"I know," Loki answered, glancing down at her, "I was just thinking… I don't know how to teach someone to swim. Especially a child. It's not something you can just give instructions for and expect that to be enough," he looked vaguely discomfited, "and the thought of throwing them in and expecting them to learn from experience is… not ideal for me."
Amelia laughed, "That's not how you teach swimming lessons. You don't just throw them in. Please tell me that's not how you learnt to swim."
Loki eyed her for a moment, and Amelia realised that somebody in the palace must have deemed 'throw them in and hope for the best' a valid way to give swimming lessons when Loki was growing up.
"Oh, geez," Amelia mumbled apologetically, "well, we'll do it the right way. We can buy the kids inflatable rings, ease them into it… always keep a hand on them, you know?"
Loki seemed persuaded, "Alright." He looked thoughtful for a moment and then quietly spoke, "The first lesson I had, I was quite literally thrown into the pool, and my teacher just told me to kick my legs and stay above the surface," he rolled his eyes as he recalled the memory distastefully, "I panicked, begged him to pull me out. He waited until my head was below the water to grab my arm and lift me up. I was six."
Amelia looked horrified. She knew her husband had had a tough childhood, but that was a whole new piece of information she could never have predicted; Loki's reaction to the children stepping within even twenty feet of the lake suddenly made a lot more sense.
"What an asshole," Amelia hissed, and then quickly slapped a hand over her mouth, looking nervously towards the children. They hadn't heard her, thankfully. Ever since Kari had started repeating the words they spoke to him, she'd had to be very careful about the language she used around them.
Loki chuckled and then gave a clipped response, "It's alright. He was killed in Hela's invasion, right before Asgard was destroyed. Can't say I miss him."
Amelia looked at Loki in consideration for just a moment, recognising his attempt to dismiss the subject with his insouciant words, and didn't probe for anything more on the matter. It wasn't often Loki freely gave her that kind of insight about his struggles growing up, and she knew it could only be a display of how much he trusted her. He may have delivered the words with nonchalance, but she knew as well as anybody what a traumatic memory looked like, and she knew how deeply something like that could affect a person.
Acceding her husband's wishes, Amelia dropped the subject entirely and turned her head to the children, "Anybody hungry?" she called out with a sort of sing-song tone, hoping to lure the toddlers in with promises of treats.
Kari came immediately at the mention of food, naturally. Aster followed, not with the same eagerness to consume lunch, but with the desire to pursue her brother; the little girl had been all about playtime with Kari as of late - she wanted to spend more time with him, it seemed, which warmed Amelia's heart. Seeing their sibling bond growing before her eyes, Amelia was reminded of her own brother and the times they had shared growing up. He had been such a sweet, loving big brother. She missed him dearly. She saw herself and Aaron in her children. Kari, the ever-smiling older brother, and Aster, the quiet little sister who trailed after her sibling.
Amelia got to work on setting up the children's food while Loki took the pack of wet wipes she handed him and cleaned the twins hands free of any dirt they may have clung to them. They each had juice in a sippy cup, strawberry jam sandwiches minus the crusts, one satsuma each, some savoury crackers and a small iced cake each as a treat for being good.
Aster tried reaching for the cake first - she had quite the sweet tooth - but Amelia gently dissuaded her, pushing the other things forward first, "You can have your cake after you eat the rest of your lunch." Amelia knew full well that if Aster consumed the cake first, she would turn her nose up at everything else. She was far too picky for her own good.
The little girl seemed to understand what her mother was telling her, because she adopted a very pouty look and then begrudgingly took the crackers and nibbled on them while side-eyeing the cake with much interest.
Kari did not have Aster's problem. He picked up his sandwich and ate it enthusiastically, only slowing when Loki reprimanded him for eating too quickly; the boy seemed to always be hungry, anybody would probably think they starved him if they witnessed his display.
At one point, Aster picked up a few wedges of her peeled satsuma and offered them to Kari, who brightened and took them, offering his sister a cracker in return, which she accepted; Amelia couldn't help but whisper a quiet 'aww' at their show of sharing.
Looking adoringly between her children, Amelia stiffened when she noticed a small black thing creeping across Kari's leg. A spider, oh no. Amelia hated spiders, and she happened to know Kari hated them too, which meant there was only a few moments before the boy would notice it and start screaming for help.
Unfortunately, while Amelia was rushing to think of a way to ask Loki to remove the spider before Kari could notice it, Kari noticed it. The boy froze, and then began to panic, his eyes growing wide as he locked his sights on the little creepy-crawly moving up over his knee, and Amelia winced as he let out a loud scream.
"No! No, no!" Kari yelled, using his limited vocabulary to communicate the fact that he was utterly terrified.
Loki looked down at his son in confusion, not immediately seeing the subject of his fear, "What's wrong? What's the matter?"
"There's a spider," Amelia pointed to it, "Loki, could you-" Before she could ask her husband to save their son from the tiny, threatening arachnid, Aster swooped in and grabbed the spider none too gently before throwing it away into the bushes with all her might - Amelia wasn't entirely sure the arachnid would be walking away uninjured.
"O-oh," Amelia murmured, watching as Aster went back to eating her satsuma, completely unbothered.
Kari, however, looked as though he had been saved from certain death. He rubbed at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt, sniffing quietly, and double-checked that his leg was completely free of insects or arachnids before he allowed himself to calm down. The boy shifted and wrapped his arms around his sister in a grateful hug, saying what sounded suspiciously like, "Thank Asdah," instead of 'thanks Aster'. Another adorable display that warmed Amelia's heart.
"That's a good girl," Loki praised his daughter, and then looked at Amelia with vague amusement, "he gets that from you, you know. Your ridiculous phobia of spiders. If he didn't see you screeching and jumping away from those tiny creatures, he wouldn't bat an eyelid at them."
Amelia pouted, because it sort of sounded like her husband was scolding her, "Well excuse me," she whispered, "but they're bloody terrifying."
Loki rolled his eyes and then chuckled, "Ironic that your nickname for him is 'bug'."
"Shush," Amelia grumbled, shutting down her husband's light teasing. The children finished eating their lunch, well, apart from Aster, because apparently she didn't enjoy the jam sandwiches enough to eat more than one small bite, but Amelia let it go instead of encouraging her to eat the rest. There wasn't much use in forcing Aster to eat something she didn't want to, Amelia just had to work on finding nutritional foods that the fussy girl did like.
Amelia resumed cuddling up to Loki's side as the children left the picnic blanket and continued their little game that involved playing in the dirt and pulling up weeds and blades of grass. They would both be needing a bath when they got back to the palace - Amelia could already spy a smudge of mud on Kari's cheek, and their clothes were in a far worser state.
She could see Loki's face in the very corner of her eye as he tried to refrain from asking them to stop playing in the dirt; it turned out he was very averse to the idea of the people of Asgard seeing his children caked in grime and looking very un-royal.
"They look like peasants," Loki murmured under his breath, frowning at his kids and their desire to roll around in soil, "they're supposed to look majestic and clean."
Amelia snickered to herself, "They're eighteen months old. Let 'em get dirty once in a while, love. Staying clean and prim and proper-" she mocked his accent as she spoke those words, "-can get kinda boring."
Loki gave her a weary look, obviously unimpressed by her attempt at copying his accent, which only served to make her giggle all the more, "You're awful at that, you know?"
"I know," Amelia smirked.
Loki shook his head, "You're absurd sometimes."
"I should hope so, that's why you married me." Amelia flashed her husband a coy, knowing look, to which he gazed back into her eyes with a look of contentment and absolute love. He tilted his head down and stole a quick kiss.
"I suppose you're right," he responded when he pulled away.
Amelia grinned and glanced down at her hand, working it into the sign gesture he had shown her earlier, 'I love you', and Loki smiled fondly, eyes alight with adoration.
It would have been an utterly perfect little picnic outing if, at that moment, Kari hadn't made a whining noise of distress and drawn both Amelia's and Loki's attention just in time to see him vomit up his lunch and promptly stumble over off his feet. Amelia stood quickly, watching Aster look at her brother with wide eyes before looking helplessly over at them like she didn't know what to make of the situation.
"Oh, bug," Amelia spoke sympathetically, making her way towards the boy.
"Perhaps we should have made them sit and let their food go down," Loki said with a frown, feeling somewhat accountable for just allowing his children to run around like little monkeys so soon after eating. He watched Amelia kneel down and help the boy stand while he pulled all their bits and pieces together, shoving them back into the wicker basket under the assumption that they should probably head back to the palace and get the boy cleaned up, but he paused when Amelia called his name, a trace of alarm fluttering through the wavering tone.
Loki looked up. Amelia had the back of her hand placed against Kari's forehead, the boy was struggling to stand up straight and was heavily relying on Amelia holding him upright. Something was wrong.
Loki stood quickly and rushed to his wife's side to examine his son's suddenly deteriorated condition.
"He's not very well, Loki-" Amelia was saying, her eyes full of concern and apprehension.
Kari's skin was pale and clammy, his eyes were glazed over, he was whimpering softly like he didn't have the energy to cry loudly and his breathing was uneven. For a moment, Loki didn't know what to do, because his mind was reeling over the fact that his son had been perfectly fine just half an hour ago, and now he was barely standing, clearly afflicted with some sort of sickness.
"I-I think we should take him back-" Amelia was cut off when little Kari slumped forward completely, and Loki reacted like a bullet from a gun, scooping him up into his arms and checking that the boy's breathing was okay.
It was almost raspy.
Kari was getting worse with every passing minute, and Loki realised then that he couldn't afford to take his time getting his son back to the palace. He needed to be faster.
Loki rose up in a flash, cradling his ill son close to his chest, "I'm taking my horse," the words came out in a panicked rush, "the guard will escort you back, meet me in the infirmary." He was already running back down the path that led to the area where they had left their horses. The ride to the lake had been calm and slow; Amelia still wasn't confident on her horse and so a palace guard had guided her horse's reins as he walked alongside them; Loki couldn't afford to waste the same amount of time getting Kari back.
"My son's sick, I'm taking him back," Loki spoke to the guard who was standing waiting by their horses and pointed a finger in Amelia's direction, "go to my wife - escort her and my daughter back safely." Loki hated to leave Amelia and Aster in the care of anybody other than himself, but this was truly an emergency. The guard did immediately as he was told, jogging down the path to find Amelia.
With quick, deft hands, Loki quickly tied the carrier sling around himself and made sure Kari was secure within it before hopping up onto his horse and urging her into a gallop almost instantly, "Ride fast, Velvet," he commanded strongly with one hand on the reins, the other palm held against Kari's chest to try and stabilise him through the fast pace.
Kari was still awake, Loki could tell from the weak noises of discomfort escaping him every few moments, and even as the wind rushed past him from the brisk speed of the horse, Loki heard as his son cried out one heart-wrenching word, "Hurts!"
Loki hated that his son was in pain, "Shh, I know, I know. I'm taking you to Inga, she'll know what to do." He hoped more than anything that he was right. "You're going to be fine." He was saying it to assure himself more so than his son.
With his lightning fast horse, he reached the palace in less than twenty minutes after a few near-miss collisions with Asgardian civilians; they all looked at him with disapproval, as if they thought he was racing fast for the hell of it like he and his brother used to do when they were younger, but if they knew the real reason, they would have stepped aside in a heartbeat.
Dismounting from his horse in the courtyard, Loki barked an order to a stable hand to take care of his horse and took off in a sprint, holding Kari close to his chest so that he wasn't being jogged too hard. The boy's skin was damp with perspiration and the colour was far from healthy, he looked almost ashen as he lie trembling in Loki's arms, his face scrunched with affliction.
"Almost there, we're almost there," Loki told his son as he zipped through the palace hallways straight to the infirmary where he knew Inga would be at this time.
He made it there in a matter of minutes, bursting through the double doors into the wide room; Inga was in the middle of tending to another patient, but as she looked up in moderate shock at the intrusion and spotted Loki - panic-stricken and calling her name - her eyes fell to Kari and she stood immediately, firmly requesting one of her assistants take over what she was doing so that she could inspect the young prince.
Loki's fears were not alleviated when Inga took one look at Kari's state and immediately demand that he be brought over to the Soul Forge; the Asgardian healer looked pressed, moving quickly and without hesitance, so Loki followed and did as he was told, placing his sick child onto the illuminated surface.
Kari's eyes widened when he was placed down, a flicker of fear and reluctance showed on his face at the thought of his father taking a step back, and he voiced his worry, "No, nooo," the boy whimpered, reaching out towards Loki. With a heavy heart, Loki pushed his son's arms down to his sides.
"It's alright, I'm right here. Lie still. Inga's going to figure out why you're unwell." He was gentle but firm, remaining resolute even as Kari's eyes filled with tears and the little one took a shuddering breath.
Inga got to work, initiating the Soul Forge which came to life with a notable wave of orange light; it projected Kari's form at eye-level and highlighted the discrepancies in his physiology, the Asgardian healer's gaze examined the evidence of Kari's condition with fast, scrutinising eyes, while Loki watched with bated breath, hoping the woman would soften and proclaim that the boy did not have a serious ailment.
Instead, she grew all the more urgent.
"Dilated pupils, tachycardia, slight respiratory distress," she spoke to herself and then rushed across the room to her workstation where she usually created various potions and concoctions to aid her patients in their recoveries from various illnesses. She practically threw the cupboards open and began picking out specific ingredients in a hurry. "When did his symptoms start?" She called suddenly across the room to Loki, who shook his head slightly as he tried to focus on answering her question instead of worrying for his child.
"Ah- about… twenty-five minutes ago."
Inga glanced back over her shoulder, a flicker of uncertainty passing over her face, "They came on suddenly? You are sure he had no symptoms this morning to indicate illness?"
Loki shook his head, "He was fine this morning." The boy had been more than fine, he had spent the morning stumbling around happily, singing and dancing and playing like the healthiest of toddlers.
"Where were you when this began?" Inga inquired as she threw different ingredients into a bowl and heated it to a boil.
Loki stepped closer to the Soul Forge when his son began to cry, large tears dripping down the sides of his face, and he carded his fingers through the boy's untamed curls to comfort him, "We were at the lake. Down by the bank, not far from the pier, in a clearing," he detailed, "the kids were eating lunch, they got up to play and Kari was sick - I assumed his stomach hadn't yet settled, but this… this is bad."
Inga frowned, pausing momentarily, "Is that the clearing with the yew trees?"
Loki looked at her cluelessly and shook his head, "I- I don't know. What do yew trees look like?" The foliage and greenery of Asgard was vastly different than it was on Earth, and while Loki had been relatively knowledgeable in his botany studies when he was younger, he knew practically nothing about Midgardian shrubbery except for the names of various flowers, thanks to his wife.
Inga ignored his question and asked another of her own, "Loki, did your son eat anything he shouldn't have? Like berries, or- or anything that may have fallen off the trees?" There was an underlying hint of gravity to her tone that Loki did not find soothing.
He looked to his son, eyeing the boy pointedly. Did Inga think the boy had some sort of food poisoning? Loki wanted to say that no, he knew for a fact his boy hadn't eaten anything off the ground, but he recalled that he hadn't had his eyes on the children one-hundred percent of the time, and knowing Kari, it was entirely possible he had picked up something and decided to eat it.
Loki cursed his son's fixation with food.
"It is... not implausible," Loki answered, almost ashamedly. He was ashamed that he had never taught his son the importance of not eating everything he saw, and he was ashamed that he hadn't been more mindful of the children.
Inga breathed a troubled sigh, "Take him to a vacant bed," she instructed as she paused in her potion-making to pick a vial off the shelf. Loki followed the order, picking up his weeping son and transporting him to the closest available bed; Inga approached with the small vial and a bucket.
She puffed up the pillows and sat Kari up, "Hold him upright," she said, and Loki placed a steadying hand on Kari's back, feeling the tremble of every breath the boy took. Inga uncorked the vial and held it to Kari's lips, "You have to drink this," she told him with no room for argument, tilting the boy's head back gently with one hand so that he would have no choice but to obey.
Inga's pushiness was evident of her alarm, Loki merely rubbed his hand carefully over Kari's back as he swallowed a gulp of the potion and scrunched his face up in dismay. The taste had clearly been undesirable. Loki frowned as Inga held the bucket up for him to take, "What's this for?"
"He's going to vomit again soon," Inga explained, "courtesy of the contents of the mixture he just drank." At Loki's answering glower, Inga continued, "The concoction will absorb the contents of his stomach so that he cannot digest anymore poison, then I can give him the medicine that will hopefully reverse the effects of whatever it is he has eaten."
"Hopefully?" Loki parroted, not liking the dubious choice in words, "What exactly do you believe he has eaten?"
Inga returned to her workstation to continue brewing what Loki assumed was the medicine Kari needed, "My best guess is yew berries. They're brightly coloured and look edible, which is enough for a child of Kari's age to deem as perfectly fine to eat."
"And the side effects include?"
"Nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, muscle spasms, heart palpitations, drowsiness, unconsciousness and…" she trailed off.
"And?" Loki did not like where this was going.
"...and death, if a lethal dosage is ingested," Inga finished carefully, focusing on her brewing.
Loki felt his throat grow tight at the healer's words. He looked to his son, who was leaning over the bucket looking very much like he was about to throw up whatever was left in his stomach - his eyes were glazed with pain and his face was pale. It was so far from the norm to see his boy looking anything but happy and healthy, and the knowledge that the child's life was in danger shook Loki to his very core.
"And…" Loki began, and had to swallow as his mouth was suddenly very dry, "and what is the lethal dose?"
Inga did look back at him this time, and her expression was grave, "For Midgardian children… just one berry."
Loki felt like he was going to be sick. He looked at his son and silently prayed to every god he knew that Kari would recover just fine. He didn't know what he would do if anything happened to him; he didn't know how he would break the news to Amelia if Kari's condition worsened, all he knew was that he couldn't lose his son. He couldn't.
He tried to still his shaking hand as he rubbed Kari's back tenderly. Loki held onto his hopes. Inga had said that the lethal dosage for a Midgardian child was just one berry, but Kari was part Jotun - his race was known for their natural resistance to disease and poisons. If Kari had even a shred of Jotun blood in him, Loki hoped to the gods that it was the part of him that could overcome this affliction.
For once, Loki would be grateful at the thought of his Jotun heritage.
His thoughts were interrupted as Kari vomited into the bucket and proceeded to sob in his discomfort. "Good boy," Loki whispered, "you're a very brave boy, Kari."
Kari was crying again, he didn't quite acknowledge his father's words, because he was pleading for somebody else, "M-...mama?"
Loki swallowed tightly, his gaze flicking back to the double doors he had rushed through barely ten minutes ago. He wasn't sure how long it would be before Amelia turned up - the journey would no doubt take a while as Amelia was having to be led there at walking speed, or at least as fast as the guard could escort them. If only Amelia could ride a horse like an expert, she would probably have been right behind him. Loki regretted not teaching her more efficiently.
"She- she'll be here soon, little one. Just hold on." In reality, it could be another half hour or more before Amelia arrived. Loki begged the gods to give his son strength.
"Want mama," Kari weeped, coughing and spluttering as he did so.
"I know," Loki breathed, "She's coming."
Inga approached suddenly with a bottled liquid, "I have it," she announced, seemingly frazzled by how quickly she had brewed the mixture, "Kari, I need you to drink this-"
The boy flailed when Inga brought the bottle near his face, obviously put off by what the last concoction had caused, "No… no!" He protested, turning his head away when Inga tried again.
"Kari," Loki said firmly, "You must drink this. It will make you feel better."
Kari shook his head, trying to scoot away from Inga, wailing the whole time, "Mamaaa!" He was going to continue to refuse the medicine, it seemed, and Loki didn't want to risk forcing it down his throat only for him to spit or cough it up, so he breathed a frustrated sigh and stood up, ignoring Inga's look of nervous confusion, and took a few steps away from the bed to stand just beyond a partition where Kari could not see him.
In a flash of green magic, he transformed his outward appearance into that of his wife and stepped back out into view. Inga understood immediately, holding the potion out for him to take, which he did as he returned to his seat by Kari's bedside.
"Hey," Loki spoke using his wife's gentle voice and accent, he allowed his face to soften, eyebrows unfurrowed, and gave the boy one of Amelia's sweet smiles, "hey bug. Shhh, it's okay, I'm right here."
Kari quietened almost immediately, a few stray sniffles and whines escaping him as he calmed down from his overwrought state and peered up at who he thought was his mama with wide, relieved eyes. "Mama?" he whimpered, reaching out to be held.
"I'm here," he told the boy, "you're very brave, bug," Amelia rarely called him anything but the affectionate nickname she had for him, "I need you to drink this, alright? It'll stop your tummy from hurting." Loki lifted the bottled medicine up before him and Kari looked at it with trepidation.
Sensing his reluctance, Loki continued, "If you drink this, you can have chocolate pudding as soon as you get better." He was not above using little bribes if it meant his son would recover.
The mention of chocolate pudding made Kari's eyes light up, and after another moment of hesitance, he gave in, obediently opening his mouth to drink the offered medicine. The antidote seemed to be a lot less disgusting than the previous mixture he'd been forced to imbibe, because Kari's face didn't scrunch up in revulsion, instead he simply sipped the elixir until it was all gone.
Loki let out a breath, handing the empty bottle back to Inga, who seemed just as relieved. The healer inspected Kari for a few moments - he still looked a little queasy and pained, but now that he had drank the medicine, there was a good, hopeful chance that he would recover.
"When will we know that he'll be okay?" Loki asked with Amelia's voice, speaking his wife's accent with a lot more ease than she had with his earlier that day, and idly stroked Kari's forehead.
Inga looked briefly thoughtful, "Unless his condition worsens within the next two to three hours, he should be fine. We can keep a close eye on him until then."
Loki nodded, looking back to Kari who was now lying down, curled up on his side and clutching his mama's hand tightly, as if afraid that he - she - would disappear if he didn't hold onto her securely enough. As soon as Amelia turned up, Loki would transform back into himself, but until then, he felt it best to take her form and keep Kari pacified, even if it meant deceiving him.
Loki stroked Kari's head with his free hand, watching his son with a heavy heart. He'll be alright, he told himself firmly, but he also couldn't stop thinking about the fact that Kari looked so small and helpless. He was an eighteen month old toddler and Loki was scared. If there was any chance that the boy was more Midgardian than he was Jotun, there was a strong chance he could succumb to the poisoning.
He had to avert his gaze skyward and blink away the moisture that gathered in his eyes at the mere notion of such a thing. He couldn't think like that. Kari was going to be fine.
The young boy's whimpering drew Loki's attention back to his son, and he leant over the child, brushing his thumb over Kari's cheek, "I know, little one," he comforted the boy, "you'll start to feel better soon. I promise."
Kari's hand patted lightly against his own stomach as the boy sniffled, "Hurts…"
Loki chewed the inside of his lip and glanced up at Inga, who had returned to her workstation and was cleaning up several things that had fallen down in her rush to put together an antidote - he knew the healer would have offered something for Kari's pain if he were allowed to take it, which meant either the boy was too young to take a pain relieving elixir, or it would interfere with the antidote he had already consumed. So Kari would have to endure the pain.
Loki breathed a tense sigh, "Do you want kangaroo?" He knew the toy was his son's favourite, and that it would bring the child a whole lot more solace.
Kari looked up tearfully and nodded his head.
"Alright," Loki whispered, giving the boy another of his wife's winning smiles, "I'll ask somebody to retrieve it." Kari whined as he stood, the tiny had tightening on his own, and Loki quietly added, "I'll be right back, I promise."
He looked to Inga, "Can you stand with him for just a moment?"
"Of course," was Inga's immediate response, and she came over and sat by Kari's bed, examining him again while she was at it.
Loki walked away tentatively and then turned his attention to the double doors; he walked through them a little less dramatically than he had entered, and caught sight of a guard passing by. "You!" He called out, and the guard halted and turned, "I need you to retrieve my son's kangaroo toy from the children's room." His command was clear enough, but the guard blinked a few times and frowned.
"Oh- of course, but… what is a kangaroo?"
Loki understood the man's unsure expression and sighed, "It's… about this big", he held his hands apart to gesture the size of it, "light brown, fluffy, should be on the bed furthest from the door. Be quick about it, please."
The guard nodded with a little more confidence, "Right away, princess."
Loki faltered, remembering he was wearing his wife's face, and didn't bother to correct the guard. It mattered not. However, the guard's would probably all gossip at the fact that Princess Amelia had suddenly become a whole lot more pushy with giving orders - the thought almost amused him, because Amelia was so quiet and hesitant when asking the guard's for anything, making sure to throw in several 'please' and 'thank you's.
He rejoined his son, held his hand, and waited for Amelia to turn up.
Amelia dashed as fast as her legs could carry her - though her speed was limited to a brisk walk owing to the fact that she held Aster at her hip and didn't want to risk tripping up - towards the infirmary, her lips pursed with nerves as she went. Aster, as always, was completely quiet, but Amelia could sense that the girl was worried about her brother.
When Loki had sprinted off in a hurry clutching their son tightly, Amelia had had to hide her fear from her daughter, who seemed to know something was wrong; Amelia had said very little to Aster apart from the occasional don't you worry, and Kari's gonna be fine, by way of pacifying the girl. The whole journey back to the palace, however, Amelia had spent stewing in anxiety. Why would Kari fall so sick so suddenly? The only thing Amelia could glean from Loki's reaction was that Kari was in danger, and that thought scared her.
She hated to see her child in any form of pain. He was just a baby, babies weren't supposed to suffer. She hoped more than anything that when she marched through the infirmary doors, she would find her son fully healed and no longer in distress. Inga was an amazing healer, so Amelia kept telling herself that there would be nothing to fear.
Her calf muscles were aching with the force of which she pushed her feet off the stone flooring at a pace she wasn't used to walking, but she couldn't slow down, not if her son was still in pain - what if he needed her? She couldn't waste anymore time.
Finally, after what seemed like far too long, she rounded a corner and saw the doors to the infirmary ahead of her. She sped up, shoes clicking hard as they came down upon the ground, and she saw Aster glancing up at her out of the corner of her eye, her expression - a mix of confused and worried - doing all the talking for her. She looked as though the thought going through her mind was 'it is most unlike you to rush around like this, mother', and it perhaps seemed to highlight the urgency of the situation and make her more concerned for her brother.
As Amelia came up heavily on the double doors, her flighty strides were suspended when a voice called to her from behind, followed by footsteps.
"My princess! I have found it-" one of the palace guards approached and held up Kari's favourite toy - the cuddly kangaroo. The guard came to a stop before her, holding it out for her to take, "as you requested, your highness."
Amelia took the familiar toy without hesitation, looking down at it with a flicker of confusion before coming to the logical conclusion that Loki must have asked the guard to fetch it for the boy, knowing it would be a comfort for him, but that didn't explain why the guard spoke as if she was the one who requested it. Amelia chose not to address that line of inquiry.
"Oh- yes. Thank you," her fingers held the toy a little more tightly and she repeated herself quietly, "thank you."
"Of course, my lady. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
Amelia blinked and shook her head, "Oh, no, that's okay…"
"Allow me to open the door for you," the guard offered, noting that both of Amelia's hands were now full, and quickly stepped around her, seeming eager to please. He pushed one of the doors in and stood aside so that Amelia could pass.
"Thank you," Amelia told him for a third time, nodding her head in gratitude. The moment she crossed the threshold of the infirmary, she recovered her previous train of thought - her son, her mind reminded her urgently, and she stepped fully into the room as the door fell shut behind her.
Her eyes gravitated over the occupied beds and fell on the cot where her small son's form rested. Amelia approached quickly, staring at the back of the head of the unfamiliar woman sitting beside Kari, and when the mysterious woman turned her head, Amelia froze as a shock flashed through her. She was staring at herself.
Another silent beat passed, and with a green flash, her doppelgänger stood and transformed into Loki.
The confusion and tension dissipated and Amelia slumped slightly in place, yeah, that made sense.
Aster took the kangaroo toy from Amelia's other hand and then stretched her arms out towards the bed where Kari was curled up with his eyes shut, his face slightly screwed up in discomfort, and Amelia took the cue to step forward and place Aster down beside him, moving to sit in the chair as Loki stepped back.
"How is he?" Amelia asked gently, the waver in her voice betraying her emotions; her son appeared to be resting, but there were still specks of perspiration on his forehead and his skin was still clammy to the touch - the sight did nothing to settle her nerves, because surely if Inga could reverse his condition, she would have done it by now.
Aster crawled to the head of the bed, considerately sliding kangaroo down under Kari's arm so that he could cuddle it, and then she sort of gently slung herself over him in a protective embrace, laying her head against his arm and patting his shoulder. The innocent, caring gesture made Amelia want to cry. With one hand, she began to pet Kari's head, while the other rubbed Aster's back.
The beautiful display distracted Amelia enough that she didn't immediately notice when Loki didn't answer her question. She turned to her husband, eyes wide and fearful, her heart dropping to her stomach, and repeated her question more forcefully, "How is he, Loki?"
Loki's jaw clenched momentarily as his gaze flickered between Amelia and their children, and then he quietly admitted, "I'm not sure, yet," to Amelia's intense dismay; she stared at him with her mouth agape for several moments before urging him to explain himself.
"What do you mean?" Her voice trembled, and added, "Loki?" with a pleading tone.
Loki drew in a steeling breath, "Inga believes he has consumed poisonous yew berries down by the lake. They're- they can make a child very ill. She's administered an antidote, but she said it works slowly, we don't know if it will have worked for another few hours. She said to inform her at once if his condition worsens."
Amelia could hardly believe what she was hearing. Yew berries? She hadn't seen Kari eating anything off the ground, because she sure as hell would've told him off for it to dissuade it from ever happening again. A wave of perturbation went through her, "And… what happens if his condition worsens?" she inquired tentatively, "If he doesn't get better?"
Loki's gaze flickered away from Amelia's firm stare - he couldn't look her in the eyes. "He'll get better," he assured Amelia, but his words were unfortunately lacking in conviction. Amelia swallowed tightly, her eyebrows furrowing and her face scrunching up tightly as she blinked back tears.
In the hours that followed, Kari thankfully showed signs of improvement, until finally Inga declared that he would make a full recovery; the boy's strength returned after spending the rest of the day in the infirmary where Inga could monitor him, and by the time the healer was confident enough to discharge the boy, he was already asking about the chocolate pudding he'd been promised earlier that day. The child's insistence for it brought Loki a whole world of relief. The king was made aware of the issue, and Thor immediately called for the removal of the yew trees, commanding that more harmless saplings be planted in their stead so that such an accident would not occur again.
Of course, Loki believed they could avoid a repeat of the same situation if he paid closer attention and kept a tight watch on his children. He was aggrieved with himself for not watching the twins the entire time, angry that he had looked away for even a moment that something like this could have occurred.
He hadn't had his eyes on Kari every second of every minute of every hour they had been at the lake, but he knew who had been paying closer attention.
That evening, Loki took Aster aside and asked her firmly if she had witnessed her brother eating any berries, or anything of the sort off of the ground, and she answered no with a shake of her head.
"We aren't angry," Loki clarified, "we would just like to know the truth." He asked her again if she had seen Kari eating red berries, but she remained adamant in her answer, shaking her head 'no' with a pout on her lips.
Loki didn't know if she was covering for her brother - clearly she understood that her mother and father were very upset about it and that it linked to Kari's illness; perhaps she believed that nodding her head in assent would put Kari in trouble. Loki did not know, but it left a sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach nonetheless.
I would GREATLY appreciate if you could leave a review, it really truly helps to hear that my writing is appreciated 3
Anybody wanna know what the next chapter is gonna be about? It's one that several of you have been waiting for! That's right, it's time for blue babies ;)
Hope you all had a happy Halloween, if you celebrate it that is ;) I played a scary video game with my friend and then had some pretty awful nightmares lmao.
