A/N: Dearest reviewer, you make my day with your reviews! Thank you to those whom have Favorited and followed! I appreciate it! *smiles kindly* I have been brainstorming about the direction I want this story to go in. I heard there is supposed to be a Thor three that follows the Norse apocalypse, and that Loki is supposed to return for the second Avengers movie. Either way I really don't see myself ending the story in the next few chapters like I thought. Well enough of my rambling, onward shall we? Reviews are fuel!

Disclaimer: I don't own.

I Write Sins, Not Tragedies

4.

"She is sleeping quite peacefully, is she not?"

"That she is. Like she has not a care in the world." It was all but a bitter thought as Loki casted a sideways glance to Thyliase, who lie curled comfortably under the velvet linens of his makeshift bed asleep. He was naturally one to rise early, always had since he was a young boy. He didn't have the heart though to wake the slumber shifter at his side, sleeping so peacefully it should be a sin. He had planned to go about his morning as he normally would (clean himself up, eat the breakfast that had been brought to him hours prior and had since grown cold, occupy his thoughts with reading the many books that now lay scattered about the cell) until Thyliase woke to pester him once more with her invigorating presence alone, but his mother had shown up shortly after he'd risen.

"I trust you are making her feel… welcomed?" Frigga tossed a thoughtful glance over to the slumbering Xeneomian then back to her son.

Loki knew full well what it was his mother was implying and ignored the remark, instead saying, "Odin continues to bring me new friends." He watched on with slight interest as a new group of prisoners were hauled into the dungeons. "How thoughtful."

"The books I sent, do they not interest you?" Questioned Frigga, changing the subject as well. She supposed she would humor her youngest child. She would allow him his privacy just this once.

"Is that how I am supposed to while away all eternity? Reading?"

"I've done everything in my power to make you comfortable."

"Have you? Does Odin share your concern? …Does Thor? It must be so inconvenient; them asking after me day and night."

"You know full well it was your actions that brought you here."

"My actions? I was merely giving truth to the lie that I had been fed my entire life…that I was born to be a king."

"A king? A true king admits his faults. What of the lives you took on Earth?"

"A mere handful compared to the number that Odin has taken himself."

"Your father—"

"He's not my father!"

"Then am I not your mother?"

Loki paused. "You are not."

Frigga appeared hurt by her son's words as she chuckled lightly. "You're always so perceptive about everyone but yourself."

The god's once harsh expression grew soft at the changing of his mother's demeanor, but as he reached out for her to reconcile, she vanished.

"Loki?" A tired murmur of his name.

He turned to see Thyliase rising from her slumber, her curls far wilder from sleep, as she looked upon him. His features soften only a fraction as he regarded her.

"Good morning," Loki said dryly. "I hope we didn't disturb you."

"No," She shook her head. "Of course not."

Loki took his seat beside the small end table, choosing to ignore the breakfast that sat atop it in favor for the book he had been reading the previous day. "Clean yourself up… eat, do whatever it is you wish and try not to bother me, will you?"

"Loki…"

He didn't answer her.

"Loki… I think… you shouldn't be upset with your mother. She's trying her hardest to help you with what she has." Said Thyliase.

"So you are taking her side now?" He stared at her from over the boarder of the leather back in his hands.

"I am on no one's side," Said Thyliase. "I just know that a mother's love never runs out for her children." She approached the brooding god calmly, cupping his face in her warm hands. "Though it may not seem like it, she is fighting for you." She leaned forward to plant a soft kiss to his forehead.

Loki gave a defeated sigh, closing the book yet again. He pulled the shifter down into his lap, and for a moment said nothing. Instead he cradled her close to him, just the feeling of her flesh against his, was reassuring enough.

"You are threatening to drive me mad," He murmured softly, resting his head atop her curls.

"Dearest Loki you were mad long before I came along." Thyliase chuckled softly, pulling his face down to hers in a kiss.

What was this? This happiness he felt swelling in his chest? This unorthodox warmth that filled him to the brim like no other.

Wait.

What the hell was going on?

What had suddenly come over the god? Loki didn't like snakes.

Loki hated snakes.

He was quite sure they hated him as well, yet there he was with a snake shifter in his arm, their lips intertwined.

His mother.

'Well played mother.'

"May I ask you something?" Thyliase asked as their lips parted.

"Depends on what it is," Said Loki.

"Who is Thor? Do you hate him?"

"My, were you awake the entire time?" Loki inquired, arching a brow in question.

"Does it matter?" Countered the shifter.

"I suppose it doesn't," Replied the god before a brief pause. "He is my older brother, the legitimate heir to Asgard." The words stung like acid as they left his mouth.

"Do you hate him?" She questioned once again. Thyliase had been given this impression as she lay upon the cot, listening to the words exchanged by him and his mother.

"I…" Loki paused to collect his words carefully. "I feel that he is too immature. He fancies attractive women, the banter of war… I would be a much better fit, but considering the fact that I am not a direct descent of Odin and Frigga I cannot be king. My hatred stems from envy… I-"

Thyliase silenced him with a gentle peck on his lips. "It is quite alright to be jealous of your siblings; it is alright to feel cheated. My sister… after our parents step down, it will be she and her husband whom head our family. Not I, not I whom held things together when she ran off after some boy. Not I whom gave everything I owned, sold myself to the palace in order to pay off my father's debt. Where was Throssia then? It infuriates me when I think about it at times, but that doesn't make me hate her."

"Sold yourself to the palace?" Loki eyed her carefully. "Why would you do such a thing?"

"I don't expect a pampered little prince to understand the struggles of a commoner, but I will do anything for my family; my sister included." Said Thyliase.

"What exactly did you do while at the palace?"

Thyliase chuckled, "Nothing of which you think." She said. "I am saving that for another."

"Oh dear," Loki said as he took a firm hold of the girl's waist. "You are a clever little witch indeed."

Loki's muffled growl was met with feather light touches along his chest, and those soft lips against his own. It was intoxicating, having someone so close to him with no ill intentions, no hidden agendas or lies. The peaceful moment was short lived, sadly, interrupted by the sudden screaming of inmates in a cell two rows over. The two bodies parted as the lights above their heads gave a flicker, the screaming growing louder.

"What in the world…?" Thyliase slowly climbed from Loki's lap, drawn to the glass as she watched the prisoners in the cell fall to the hands of another inmate.

"Get from over there." Loki demanded, pulling her away from the tempered glass and back into the safety of the cell. Though there was no telling her what to do as she watched the horror unfold from his side.

"Are we not going to do anything?" She asked. "Are we not going to help?"

"Now how do you suppose we do that?" Loki asked.

Thyliase glared at the tone he used. "He… that thing is killing them!"

Loki tried his hardest to stifle the roll of his eyes. As if on cue the alarms sounded, alerting guards as far as the palace. But by then the large beast had already broken free, and after having killing his cellmates he had acquired more than enough strength to free many of the other prisoners. Loki felt her hands fist in the material of his tunic as she stepped closer to him, said beast right in front of the glass. She watched as the frightening creature and Loki exchanged silent words, its gaze shifting to her for only a second before it motioned to leave.

"You might want to take the stairs to the left." Said Loki.

The beast glanced back at the pair behind the faux protection of the cell glass for a moment before heeding the god's advice.

"Loki… what is going to happen to us?" Thyliase questioned, fear present in her voice.

The god, compelled to protect the shifter, pulled her into an embrace. "Not a thing, worry you not."

Loki turned a blind eye to the hell breaking lose behind them as he ushered the shifter back towards the cot. Unaware to them the world of Asgard was under attack, engaged in a fight far larger than the one occurring in the dungeons. Their defenses disabled, their world torn, their queen lost.