Chapter 11

"I need to sit down." Mia said, stepping away from the mirror and sitting on her sofa. "This is a lot to take in. And now your mother is on her way. Maybe I should let the two of you talk in private? You have a lot of questions about your past, about who you really are. It might be easier for the both of you if I go for a walk or something."

Loki moved to sit next to her, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. "Nonsense. I want you with me." He paused. "I need you with me. You were the one to help me discover my true self. You are the one who accepted me no matter what I looked like. Also, you can tell if my mother lies to me. I don't think she would do so maliciously, but to spare my feelings? She might. Besides, I want you to meet her. Plus I am hoping she can help us with your past and not just mine. Say you will stay?"

Mia sighed. "If it means that much to you of course I'll stay. But meeting a mom this soon into a relationship would be stressful no matter what, but when that mom is a goddess?"

Loki leaned in and kissed her gently, "You have nothing to worry about." Before he could say anymore, there was a knock at the back door. Loki saw the panic on Mia's face so he kissed her again before saying, "She will love you, my mother is great at seeing the souls of people and you have a shining and bright one." He then rose and extended his hand to help Mia up. "Shall we?"

Mia nodded and let him pull her up and hold her hand as they walked towards the door. Loki threw open the door, "Hello Mother."

"Loki." Frigga walked in and kissed Loki on the cheek and pulled him into an embrace. "And you must be Mia, was it?" Frigga released Loki and turned towards Mia.

"Yes, Amelia really, but everyone calls me Mia." Mia started to babble ever so slightly, which only made Loki smile. She was so cute when she was nervous.

"Aren't you an interesting one?" Frigga commented as she offered her hand to Mia. "It's a pleasure to meet you. You must tell me how you and my son became acquainted."

"He sort of fell into my yard last night." Mia shrugged.

"Literally. This is where I landed when I was banished, right here with Mia. We had an instant connection and we have some questions for you Mother." Loki said.

"Of course, I am quite curious to hear more about this connection between the two of you." Frigga eyes moved back and forth between Loki and Mia.

"Perhaps we should sit." Mia suggested, motioning towards the living room.

Frigga sat in a lush chair, while Loki pulled Mia next to him on the sofa, gripping her hand tightly as they sat there. "Mother, I know you told me I was adopted before I left and I was just beginning to wrap my mind around that when Mia here helped me discover something even harder to acknowledge. Am I a frost giant?"

Frigga's smile faltered. "Oh Loki, I wanted to tell you but there was so little time before you left. Yes, you were found alone in Jotenheim, abandoned. But know that you are my son no matter what."

Loki's grip on Mia's hand tightened. "So I really am a monster."

"No you're not!" Mia said, raising her free hand to Loki's face and forcing him to look at her. "We already went through this, you are the same Loki you have always been."

"You should listen to your new friend. You are Loki, my son. You are good, mischievous, complicated, intelligent, and so much more, but never a monster." Frigga said, getting up and coming to sit on Loki's other side.

"Your father found you alone and abandoned in a religious hall in Jotenheim. You were so small, so fragile, he knew you had been left there to die. Despite his recent defeat of the ice giants he couldn't just leave you there. He brought you home, to me. The moment he laid you in my arms, you became my child, my son. You displayed your magic right away by changing your appearance and I knew you were meant to come to me, to learn from me, to be loved by me. You may not be of my blood, but you are just as much my son as Thor. I love you Loki and I always have." Frigga said emphatically.

Loki changed his form, to his true form as it turned out. Sitting there blue with red eyes, he looked at his mother. "You will love me even if I choose to look like this? And will Father do the same?"

"Yes I love you like this, or any way you choose to present yourself. It's like your friend said earlier, you are the same Loki on the inside and that is what matters." Frigga said.

"Even to Father? At least now I know why he has always preferred Thor. Not only is that his real son, he isn't the spawn of the enemy." Loki said, the anger he'd felt his whole life seeping into his voice. "Why did he even take me? My whole life all I've heard is how vile and loathsome the frost giants are. How beneath him they are. So why bring back a baby of the enemy? Why?"

"Loki you were only a baby, your father took you so you could live." Frigga said, though she couldn't quite meet Loki's eyes.

"No, no there had to be another reason. Odin hates the frost giants, he wouldn't care if every one of us died out. Who is my birth father?" Loki asked, his quick mind racing.

"It doesn't matter Loki, we raised you, you are our son." Frigga answered.

"No, Father has always treated me different, he doesn't truly see me as his son. Yet he raised me. There must be a reason why he took me in and kept me. Who was my birth father? Tell me."

Frigga sighed. "You are the youngest born to Laufey, king of the frost giants."

"So I am nothing but a political pawn? That is why Odin has tolerated me all these years." Loki stood up angrily. "What am I to be handed over or killed one day, whichever suits the needs of the king of Asgard?" Everything in the room began to shake from the energy coming off of him.

Both Frigga and Mia stood up at the same time, though Mia was the first one to reach Loki and place a comforting arm around him, resting her head against him. "You are your own person now Loki. You are too powerful to be anyone's pawn." She said quietly. Her presence seemed to calm Loki as things stopped shaking.

Frigga came up to them. "No Loki. You are my son. You are Odin's son. He would never kill you or hand you over to the frost giants for political reasons. He loves you, even if the two of you don't see eye to eye all the time."

"I highly doubt that he loves me." Loki said, not able to look directly at his mother. "Odin is not my father and has never truly considered me his son."

"Then am I not your mother?" Frigga asked with tears in her eyes.

Loki hesitated. He was so angry and normally he would lash out, even at his mother, but Mia was here and keeping him calmer than normal. He took a deep breath and leaned into his new lover. He took a moment before answering. Finally he sighed. "Of course you are my mother, but you have always treated me like a son. Can you truly say the same for Odin?"

"Your father does favor Thor, but that is only because they are so alike. Not unlike I tend to favor you because you are more like me. You like books and magic and all the things that interest me. That does not mean that I don't love Thor, or that you father doesn't love you Loki." Frigga took his hands into hers. "Maybe we should go talk to your father, let him tell you everything in his own words."

Loki shook his head. "No. I'm banished remember? Besides, I need to work this out on my own before I can talk to Odin about this, right now I am afraid I would lose my temper." He glanced down at Mia. "Plus there is someone more important that I need to be with right now."

This brought Frigga's attention back to Mia as well. "Yes, you seem to have made a very special friend here on Midgard." She smiled, like she knew everything about their relationship already even though they hadn't discussed anything with her yet.

"Mother, I know that you can sense the magic in Mia just as I can. I am not the only one who needs to know who they really are. Is there anything you can share to help us discover Mia's true identity?" Loki asked, wrapping his arm protectively around Mia.

Frigga smiled, "I will do what I can. Perhaps we should sit and you two can fill me in on what is happening between you and Mia can tell me of her past."