I was intending for this to be a one-shot, but some readers have expressed a desire for more, and the norsekink community at livejournal inspired me (as did some things I've been learning on tumblr).

In the original myths Loki became pregnant and gave birth to several children because of his ability to shapeshift, spending a lot of time in a female form. I took that and mixed it with gender and sexuality issues that humans deal with and realized that this could be a major source of his resentment and angst.

I am a cis pansexual woman myself with many trans* friends and one trans* former girlfriend; that being said I am completely aware of my privilege and the possibility of me saying something boneheadedly insensitive. Feel free to rebuke me if so and I will apologize and do my best to fix it.

Trigger warnings for themes of transmisogyny, unwanted pregnancy, and infanticide.

Thank you again for your lovely reviews, and remember that these characters are property of the BBC, Marvel, and the Norse pantheon.

...

Loki and the Doctor settled into a quiet rhythm after the first few days: meals partaken in mostly silence except for the occasional inconsequential remark by the Doctor and a brief, noncommittal reply from Loki; the Doctor tinkering with his ship and reading various tomes in various languages, not seeking Loki out and not avoiding him either; Loki exploring the seemingly endless catacombs of the ship and sometimes breaking things and screaming as loud as he could. To which there was never a reaction.

Finally the Doctor woke up in the middle of one sleep cycle, a hand twisted in his hair. Loki, clad only what looked like gray yoga pants and a black t-shirt - was kneeling over him, a shard of glass in his hand. "I was wondering when the first murder attempt would happen," the Doctor said quietly.

"You're not frightened, Gallifreyan?" Loki asked, low.

"Not particularly. I don't want you to cut your hand on that, though. And, ouch, must you pull from the scalp?"

"How do you know I won't gut you where you lie?"

The Doctor ticked the reasons off on his fingers. "First, you're clever enough to know that if I died you'd be trapped in the Vortex forever, since only someone with the Time Vortex in their genetic code can reliably fly a TARDIS for more than a crash landing. Second, you'd have done it already. Third, I happen to know when and where I will die, and by whose hand, and this is none of them. Fourth, I may be the only being in the Universe who has hope of understanding you."

With a hiss of some unnamed emotion, Loki released the Doctor and sat beside him on the bed, tossing the glass aside and hugging his own knees. "I doubt that fourth clause."

The Doctor sat up and patted him on the shoulder, his eyes old and kind. "My friend, and you are my friend, I know what it is to be a lonely god. Now go back to your room and sleep."

Loki was a little more cordial towards the Doctor after that, letting the Doctor reach him the Earth games "chess", "checkers", and "go", which he enjoyed as exercises in strategy; sitting in the same room with him as they read, or as he read and the Doctor constructed bizarre devices or wrote things in the interlocked spirals and dots that were the runes of his people. The Doctor even gifted him with a room where the ship would produce illusory enemies for Loki to fight and "blow off some steam" in the Doctor's words, and it was the only room in the ship where his magic worked. Loki did not actually thank him but he did try to rankle his host/captor a bit less.

Not that he always succeeded. "I don't see the point in you writing so much in a language no one else can read," Loki sniped on one of his less-good days, which he still had quite often, as the Doctor patiently covered sheets of paper with his mother tongue.

But the Doctor merely replied, "There is one other, and she deserves whatever I can leave her." He did not elaborate. Loki did not press right then, as he had secrets of his own.

Approximately fifteen days after his captivity in the TARDIS began, Loki discovered a room of steaming hot baths that enticed him with promise of comfort and relaxation. He took off his clothes and placed them inside a cupboard in the wall and settled into one of the baths to soak.

That is, until the Doctor appeared, wearing nothing but a white cloth around his waist. "I see that you found one of my favorites. Mind if I join - oh."

Loki's blood boiled. The Doctor had seen it. His secret. He curled into a ball and yelled, "OUT!"

"Loki, I'm not going to..."

"OUT!"

"Loki..."

"OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!"

The Doctor let his towel fall in his rush to Loki's side. "No, no, no, no, no, no, and no. It's not something to be ashamed of, and I need you to know that."

"For a man to have the parts of a maiden?" Loki nearly sobbed, turning his face away from the Doctor.

"Plenty of male humanoids have female genitalia, and female humanoids male," the Doctor replied, earnest. "Gender and sex are not set in stone the way many cultures make them out to be. What matters is what you see as yourself - one, the other, both, neither. It's you who knows what you are, not some bunch of body parts. And for the Jotun being intersexed is common enough - I think as many as one in nine - that it is hardly thought of as something outrageous."

"But nobody told me I was of Jotunheim. And in Asgard they are very strict in what it is to be a man and what to be a woman. Sif struggled for years before she was recognized as a warrior."

The Doctor awkwardly maneuvered the unresisting Loki into a damp hug. "You know of how my people can regenerate. Well, it's a dicey proposition, except in the very few who learn how to control it. One might come out far younger than where one began, or older, or with a different color of skin, gender, sex, or sexuality. A friend of mine, the Corsair, was a woman three times and a man five, yet considered zirself the same person throughout and always only was attracted to female beings. I've always been male, but my personality and sexuality have changed each time. I've been attracted only to females, only to males, only to those who were strictly male or female, everyone, no one, only my ship, and only those with whom I have a strong emotional attachment already. And all of those were not things to be ashamed of. They were simply myself."

Loki coughed, his eyes teary. "I never spoke of my bleeding, thinking it some sort of wound, or disease, or the effect of being unpracticed at spells. Years ago...Thor and I drank too much mead. Far too much. And we lay with one another. Afterwards, having only limited memory of the event, we were repentant, thinking ourselves brothers, and vowed to act as though it had never occurred. Then my belly began to swell."

The Doctor hugged Loki tighter. Loki started trembling as he continued, "I hid it with glamours. And when it was born I left it on a lonely cliff side, ignoring its cries. No one ever knew. I left my daughter to die."

To Loki's surprise, the Doctor jumped up and clapped. "Ha! I love it when there are answers, things I can fix. Where exactly did you leave her and what year?"

"I don't understand."

"Get some clothes on. We're going to go rescue your daughter and find someone to adopt her. I'll take you to visit her sometimes, but I'm sure you understand you're not in the best condition to be a parent right now. Geronimo!"

And with that, Loki's healing truly began.