It was late at night, not a star remaining uncovered by the thick blanket of clouds that rolled over Asgard, intent to stay there for the next month, pouring Spring showers on the golden city. A chill swept through the air, making the rain shiver.

It was her first night back.

Loki had apologized over the course of four months. Meanwhile, she had stayed at her mother's house slowly regaining her health. She had even gone on a few trips with her mostly estranged family, spending more time with Yvette and getting to know Erick better.

But no matter how many people she had surrounded herself with, she had always felt alone. Her heart had felt hollow, like a pit with a snake slowly coiling around it, making it beat. Every night she had fallen asleep shivering, missing his strong, protective arms around her, especially when Brandt appeared in her dreams, taunting her, telling her that Loki didn't love her, that the longer she stayed away from her husband, the farther apart their hearts grew until one day, they would become strangers bound by two golden chains. One of which she didn't have.

Her ring finger felt bare. Before this whole mess, she had often times fiddled with it, touched it, looked at it for comfort in times of hardship.

The longer she stayed away, the more her fears had grown. She had imagined Loki taking lovers as he had done so long ago in his youth, before his Fall. She imagined him becoming so impatient for her forgiveness that he simply cut their marriage ties and found someone else. She even thought about him returning to Sigyn.

She knew these were frivolous thoughts that most likely held no truth.

Loki had visited her as much as she had permitted for as long as he could. Once a week he would travel out to Elysa's estate, disregarding his royal duties as the Prince of Asgard, and visit her. He would bring her Autumn Crocus' and chocolates, strange delicacies from foreign nations, and jewelry engraved with runes of devotion and love, healing and affection.

But never once did he pressure her to return to him.

He had always left it up to her.

He had apologized every time he came, and apologized every time he left, telling her he loved her, and that he was sorry for hurting her.

Many times during those few months she had thought about forgiving him, about dropping the hurt and the anguish that clouded her heart as heavily as clouds blocked the stars that night, but she couldn't. She would remember what he had told her, accused her of, going so far as to push her out of his life for weeks until she left.

Her heart couldn't stand being let down so often and weighed down so heavily every time she was an inconvenience to someone she loved.

But finally, she could take it no more. She couldn't hold a grudge for so long as it only served to drive nails into her grief.

She returned from a trip with her family and went straight back to the estate, pacing the floors of her room over and over, thinking of what to say to him when he walked through her door.

Would she apologize? Would she simply start off by saying that she had forgiven him? Would she write a letter to him in advance and tell him? Or would she refuse to see him and come home on her own?

Eventually, when that knock came, she went downstairs to greet him. Her legs were shaking so hard that she swore she was bouncing up and down. Her hands vibrated with nerves, and she clenched them tightly, trying to conceal her anxiety.

Loki tipped the hood of his cloak off his head, rainwater still dripping off the black fabric. He ran a hand through his raven locks and smiled at her. No, not just at her. He smiled as if she was the only reason in the whole of the nine realms to smile. As if she was the most lovely goddess he had ever laid eyes on, and always would would be. He smiled at her as though he ached just as badly to hold her in his arms as she did him.

He smiled as if she was his whole world.

As if he would wait an eternity just to hear the sweet words of forgiveness she had not yet offered.

Sorrow had dressed in a silky, blue-gray, simple dress with a thick, warm brown shawl wrapped around her shoulders. If she was to talk to him, she wanted to be outside where she could breathe, where she knew nobody would be listening, where she could let her heart's shattered pieces be pieced back together.

Loki had looked at her in confusion, seeing her shaking, almost terrified form. His brow had creased with concern.

She asked him if they could take a walk, that she needed to tell him something.

Loki had agreed quickly, a spark of hope in his gaze as he put his hood back up and helped wrap her own cloak around her shoulders as her hands kept shaking so hard she could barely manage on her own.

She put her hood up, and Loki offered to hold her Midgardian Umbrella, which was really an ingenious creation, as they went outside.

For a long while they wandered in silence, walking along the stone path through the lush, green gardens. A slight fog chilled the air, and the rain continued to pour.

When she could handle the anxiety no longer, she stopped walking suddenly.

"Loki… I need to talk to you…"

There was something in Loki's gaze then. Fear, maybe. Or perhaps, there was something even stronger, something even more potent than fear. A deep, ancient feeling, something akin to both terror and his worst nightmare. Sorrow knew he had realized she'd come to her decision. Whether to stay or leave, the seconds seemed to make both their hearts beat faster.

"I… I have done a lot of thinking over these past few months, and I know… I know this past year had been hard on the both of us… but I think… I don't know. I guess I just-"

Sorrow sighed in frustration as she tried to let her feelings out, to tell Loki exactly how she had been feeling for almost a whole year.

"I know you were hurting, but you should have let me in! You shouldn't have cast those awful accusations in the first place! And even after you had, I waited at your doorstep for three WEEKS. Weeks, Loki. I waited for you to come out and talk, but you did not. I was even willing to apologize and take the fall for your accusations because I DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE YOU. You didn't even come for me until months after Frigga's death! I know you were grieving for her, but you blamed me for her death! Do you know how hard of a burden that is to bear when one of the only people in all the nine realms you love accuses you of something like that?

"I can't do this every time you get angry with me. We need to talk more, Loki. I want to live with you and love you and maybe have a family with you one day, but we need to be a team. I need you to meet me halfway, otherwise I can't do this anymore. I can't take the fall for your pride any longer. I've forgiven you Loki, but you need to promise me you'll try to change."

By the time she had said what she needed to, her words had already begun to fail her as tears had filled her eyes and run down her face, her chest heaving with cries of its own, and soon she was weeping.

She felt his arms around her, a feeling she had been longing for for a year almost. She had poured her heart into those words, yet they seemed useless to her as Loki held her, tears of his own joining hers.

"I promise, Sorrow. I swear by the Fates of Yggdrasil that I will never again harm you as I have with pride. I have been unfair to you since we met, and it is because I am a foolish man with too much pride and not enough understanding."

Sorrow tried to deny his words, but he wouldn't let her.

He pulled away, brushing his thumb over her cheek as he looked into her blue, blue eyes. "My pride has always been my downfall. If I had only learned the same lesson as Thor did in those three days he spent on Midgard, I may not have committed the treason I had, concerning both my nation and my family… Sorrow, I have always been a fool. I was raised to be a king, yes, but I have lived to be an arrogant fool."

Loki sighed, flipping back his hood, the rain drenching his face and hair in seconds, only to mix with the tears that now streamed down his face. The rain thundered around them, the umbrella on the ground, forgotten when he had embraced her.

Sorrow's hood was now back as well, and Loki could see the heartache in her eyes, the pain he had caused her. He felt her wedding ring weighing heavily in his pocket and he slowly took it out, watching as Sorrow's eyes followed it.

"Sorrow… come back... please. I will get on my knees and beg if that is what it takes. It had been too long, and too much misery has become the both of us. I swear I will never…" Loki trailed off as he watched a light in Sorrow's eyes grow until they were shining.

He gently picked up her left hand, his heart beating with the very thunder that shook the skies. His always steady hands began to shake the tiniest bit, and he slowly slid the ring back onto her ring finger.

He took a breath then, a deep breath, as though he had never breathed air before.

That hopeless night came crashing back, the agony of his words... starting this whole thing in the first place hit him like Mjolnir. He sank to his knees, his arms trembling as he held her hands. "Sorrow…" Loki whispered, his voice breaking.

Sorrow sank to her knees, wrapping her arms around his neck as they both shed their tears together, finally able to feel as though the weight of the realms did not rest on their backs. They could breathe, knowing that even though there would be hard times to come, it did not matter, because they were together again. And together, they could defeat any obstacle to come their way.

So, as Sorrow laid in Loki's arms later that night in the comfort of their chambers, she watched as he fell asleep, unable to stay awake any longer.

It did not matter what place she called home, nor for how long she stayed there. Loki had been her home since they had first met all those years ago on that hot summer afternoon in these very chambers, the bored prince and the terrified slave.

It was funny, really, how Fate worked.

Sometimes it was for you, most of the time against you. But the ups always seemed to be better than the downs. And as long as she had him, there was nothing Fate could throw at her that she couldn't handle.

And that, really, was all that mattered.

She had her husband back.

She had Loki back.

So, she fell asleep in the safety of his embrace.

And they were happy once more.

It was bothering me that she didn't forgive him. I guess her feelings kind of reflected on my own in my own life. I guess forgiveness does come after a while. It just takes a lot of hurt to get there.