Chapter 2

Second Chances

The next few days saw to Loki's fever breaking, and although he still felt weak and miserable, he was most certainly on the mend. With his healing settled in a new building anger as he stewed upon the fact that he had once more failed and as per normal had earned the scorn of Asgard.

What upset him most was the fact that Thor of all people would deign to rub his failure in his face! The lout had come by to 'check on him,' or so he had said. Of course Loki knew that Thor most likely just wanted to ensure that his little brother knew his place and that his not so well plans had blown up in his face as they most often did. Thor never spoke on the event though only bringing him word of happenings on Midgard and what new troubles he had thwarted there. This fact only nettled Loki further until the point he was practically wearing a scowl for the remainder of the day after Thor had left his presence.

Frigga had brought him his dinner questioning him if he'd felt all right to which he had grunted deciding that she hadn't deserved an answer. She hadn't pressed him for one, but by the time she had returned for the empty tray to see Loki still wearing that frown, she had taken a moment to sit on his bed to just look at him.

Loki had ignored her at first, but when he saw she was still sitting there after several moments, his burning eyes traveled to her as he spat, "What? Have I grown a second head?"

Frigga laughed, "Thankfully no, although if you wear that frown much longer, it may become a permanent fixture."

Loki rolled his eyes, "What does it matter. This family only wishes to see me in a state of unhappiness, and my face reflects this permanent state of being."

It was Frigga's turn to frown now, "That's not true, and you know it. You cannot blame your family for your own poor choices."

Loki's brow lifted as he regarded her coolly, "Can't I? If perhaps I was given the same opportunities Thor…"

Frigga cut him off retorting tiredly, "Enough Loki. I will hear no more such talk from you. It's always someone else that is to blame for the ills you cause. If you were anyone else, your father would have executed you many times over for the shenanigans you pull."

Loki blanched at the abruptness in which she spoke, and as she continued, his face darkened with pent up rage.
His anger built to a boiling point until he could stand no more, and he bellowed out, "You know nothing woman! I have been a prisoner to this family that stole me as a babe from my rightful place of birth. I was meant to rule, but instead I squalor at your feet chained by supposed familial bonds!"

Frigga stood her own anger growing, "Your father did not steal you from any imaginary throne; you were left to die in the cold hidden in shame by the monster that you wish to swear fealty to."

Loki scoffed, "You and that man are no kin of mine. 'Father' only wished to make me a part of his collection like so many baubles he has collected through the centuries. Do you really think me that gullible? The ultimate reason he took me in was to control me and the dynasty I could have had!"

Frigga's lips pursed in a tight line, "You are a spoiled brat Loki. You take for granted the love and mercy you are bestowed. You have been loved since the day you came home and were put in my arms. It matters not that I did not birth you, you ARE my son."

He stared at Frigga hatefully, but her words softened his glare. Loki knew deep down that Frigga did love him; he would never admit it out loud of course. He cleared his throat, "The sad fact of the matter is," Loki stated throwing his covers aside as he pushed himself to rise for the mere fact of looking down at her while he retorted, "I am not now nor will I ever be your son. Perhaps if you had been a better mother and Odin a better father I would not feel so." His scathing words were meant to wound. He wanted nothing more than to see her crack maybe even spill a tear or two to ease this unsettling sense of disappointment in his own failures he had. He wanted someone else to hurt, someone else to feel his pain.

Deciding that her words alone did not have the impact she wished to convey, Frigga merely snatched Loki's bicep and with one fluid motion sat on the bed and yanked him over her lap. Her hand came down in swift slaps resonating her obvious agitation and hurt over his last words.

It took a moment for Loki to register what was happening, and once the realization sank in, he whipped his head around his features relaying shock and astonishment, "What? What are you doing?"

Frigga regarded him evenly her hand never pausing in its task, "Is it not obvious? I'm taking my errant child in hand… something I should have done long ago it would seem."

Loki's face burned at her words as he rallied his anger above the embarrassment he now felt, "Unhand me this instance! You can't treat me like… like this!" The position was most awkward he found as he attempted to roll away from her scathing hand, but her other arm had snaked around the small of his back to grip his hip tightly to her own frame.

Frigga snorted, "Oh really? I will treat you the way you have earned to be treated. I have grown weary of your contempt Loki. I am your queen, and whether you wish to recognize it or not, I am your mother, and you will respect me."

Loki's mouth hung agape as Frigga continued to swat him with a surprisingly heavy hand. He struggled in earnest now, but he was still too weak to remove himself from her lap. He screamed in frustration, "Let me up; you filthy sow!" Loki reveled in his resentment bucking madly while continuing to spew expletives and all the insults that he could muster to offend Frigga, but Frigga did not stop or even pause in disgust.

His words were a poor choice he belatedly realized as Frigga expressed her feelings by continuing to swat him more harshly and as an added note to his humiliation, she looped her hand into his waistband, lifting his hip while he squirmed desperately and snatched his silk pajama bottoms down to bare his now pink bottom.

Loki gasped his face turning a deeper shade of red to know that not only was Frigga spanking him like a child, she had taken the extra pains to bare his bottom to do so. The slaps now echoed loudly in the high ceilinged chamber as skin made contact on skin in rapid succession.

Loki could not help letting out little yelps of pain as Frigga's hand moved over the same tender skin a second and third time as his bottom turned a dark hue of red splotched handprints. As much as he tried to silence himself and remain stewing in his anger at Frigga for doing this to him, the continued barrage to his ever growing sore posterior left him to instead call out with high pitched squeals when a particular smarting blow was delivered to the under curve of his bottom.

As if sensing these swats seemed to get Loki's attention, she tightened her grip on his hip lowering the leg his chest lay on, so that his face practically met the floor, and raising her other leg to position his bottom more pertly in the air. Now the only place her hand descended was these most sensitive areas much to Loki's dismay.

He must look utterly ridiculous Loki imagined as his back arched and he screamed out loudly now. A rush of panic filled him at the thought of anyone seeing him, the trickster of Asgard, strewn over the lap of his mother with his kicking legs twisted within his pajama bottoms and yelling at the top of his lungs while his ass bobbed up and down madly trying to avoid his mother's stern palm.

He had to get this to stop! "Enough! You've made your point!" Loki did his best to sound demanding, but instead his voice betrayed his distress.

Frigga did not slow her hand as she now spoke heatedly, "You've had enough? No Loki, I've had enough. You think you can treat your family with such disdain. You see, your father has made the mistake of distancing you from us in hopes that you will see the harm you cause, but you are not mature enough to look past your own selfish desires. I realize what you now need, and whether you want it or not, I'm going to ensure you have it!"

Loki had turned his face to look over his shoulder now a look of puzzled bewilderment etched across his features as she stared down at him and continued, "You'll not be sent away again, I plan to take a vested interest in your rehabilitation. What you most need is firm guidance and above all else to know that your family will never give up on you even though you do your best to push us away. You will know love even if it has to be tough love." She accentuated her last words with a few particularly heavy smacks.

Loki's face contorted in a mix of anger and exasperation as he spat, "I don't want your love! You think you can sweep in and change how I feel, the deception I know… with your brain washing! I know the truth! Nothing you say or do will change the fact that all of you have lied to me for all these years!" The hurt was evident as Loki's words warbled with his frustration.

Frigga sighed her expression softening, "Perhaps your father was wrong in keeping the truth from you about your true lineage, but he did not do so to hurt you Loki, quite the opposite. He didn't want you to feel like an outsider in this family. None of us did."

Loki growled, "But I am an outsider and forever will be! Why can you not understand such simplicities? I…" Loki trailed off as he saw silent tears spill from Frigga's eyes. The tears he had sought to see moments ago were finally present, but it gave him no joy to see them now even though her hand still continued to punish him although halfheartedly now.

Above the pain, an overwhelming sense of shame began to take hold as his anger faded. This woman that he'd taken such pains to insult did care for him, and no manner of denial he once used to drive his anger could do so now.

Loki swallowed hard as tears began to form in his own eyes. He felt confused and lost as all the pent up emotions of betrayal surfaced and mixed with the feelings he felt now concerning his family. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he didn't hate his family, on the contrary, he loved them very deeply and only acted out in an attempt to mask the pain that he felt that they had not really loved him. His voice cracked now as he stated feebly, "I'm… I'm sorry mother."

Frigga's hand stilled now and her grip loosened as Loki slid back on to his knees, burying his head in her lap, "Please forgive me. I… I have lost myself."

Tenderly running a hand through Loki's tousled hair now, Frigga responded, "I will always have room in my heart to forgive you my son. You may have lost your way, but perhaps hand in hand, I can help you find your way back."

Loki lifted his face up to look back at Frigga now. His eyes searched hers for any form of deception in the height of his vulnerability, and only seeing her love and concern for him caused the standing tears in his own eyes to spill down his cheeks.

Seeing him look so drove Frigga to kiss him on the forehead and draw him into her arms in a tight embrace as Loki now quietly cried his pain and relief into her shoulder. He had not lost his mother's love. Perhaps there was still hope for him.