Author's Note: Hey guys, just to let you know, the song Sigyn is playing is Olafur Arnalds' Allt Varð Hljótt and can be listened to here: www .youtube. COM watch ?v=J3E2dflgzfA (just remove the spaces and turn COM lowercase- it's the only way it would let me provide the link). Enjoy. :)

Loki could hear the sad song being played as he approached their rooms. Sigyn had become quite the proficient of her instrument now; the song that she played wasn't helping to improve his mood however. Looking saddened and exhausted, Loki entered their rooms to find Sigyn playing her violin as she waited for him.

Sigyn stopped playing as soon as she noticed her husband; the way that Loki didn't say anything as he slumped down in his chair made her pause immediately. She could tell that something wasn't right. Though, in truth, not much had been right since Thor's coronation had been interrupted.

No one as of yet had figured out how the Frost Giants had made it into Asgard, but with Thor gone and a war looming, that wasn't necessarily the first concern of the Asgardian royal family. And, in that moment, that was more true than Sigyn knew.

"What happened?" Sigyn asked.

She noticed the look on her husband's face and knew that the answer was not going to be one that she liked. She put her violin back in its case and perched on the arm of his chair. Loki didn't look up, but his eyes were glazed over and hooded by heavy lids. The mood Loki was in was worrying Sigyn more than anything else; she rarely saw him look so dejected.

In a monotone voice, Loki replied, "The Allfather has entered the Odinsleep."

Sigyn's eyes widened. That could not be good. They were on the verge of a war with Jotunheim and now their king was effectively comatose. And this blow came right after Thor's banishment. Asgard was in a very weakened state right now, and that would soon be obvious to all the realms if they weren't careful.

"Oh..." was all Sigyn managed in reply.

Loki nodded slowly. For some reason that she couldn't fathom, he wouldn't look at her though.

"Loki, are you sure that's all that's wrong?" she asked, placing a hand gently on his forearm.

"I told you-"

"No, you didn't. I can tell that's not all that's wrong."

She spoke softly, as if she was trying to keep him calm. In truth, she knew that that was probably the best way to get information out of him when he looked so miserable. But Loki frowned at her and briefly wondered when she had learnt to read him so well

"We were arguing at the time," Loki reluctantly admitted after a while.

"About Thor?" she enquired.

"No," hesnapped. "Not about Thor. Not everything has to be about him."

Sigyn blinked, surprised. She hadn't meant to make Loki angry. She had only assumed that Thor was who they were arguing about because of recent events.

"Loki, calm down, I only thought that because his banishment has been hard on us all-"

"Stop it, Sigyn. Do not mention Thor to me again. I love him more than most, but I cannot bear it any longer. Everyone else has been mourning over the deserved banishment of the most precious son of Asgard; I will not have my wife do the same."

She blinked again. Where had this come from?

"Loki, I-"

"No, Sigyn. No one else sees me because they are too preoccupied with Odin's golden son; no one notices me- notfor my abilities or achievements. I cannot have you do the same."

Sigyn didn't understand where this had sprung from. She understood that Loki had always had issues with his older brother, but he had never acted so extremely about them. And he had never expressly verbalised them to her either. Strangely enough, this did not seem just like a simple burst of ill-humour to Sigyn; she sensed something much deeper lurking beneath the surface of Loki's words.

"Believe me, I love you. There is nothing that means more to me than you," Sigyn emphatically stated. "I see you. Don't let anyone else's remarks cloud the fact that you are the most wonderful person I have ever met."

He said nothing.

"So what if you're not Odin's 'golden son'? I never would have married you- never would have loved you- if you were," she continued, trying to calm him down.

Unfortunately, her speech only made things worse, because Loki finally broke.

"I'm not Odin's son!" he shouted.

Sigyn stilled immediately, absolutely stunned at both his raised voice and his newest revelation.

"What?" she whispered, getting to her feet slowly.

"Odin took me from Jotunheim when I was a child."

Sigyn stared.

"I'm Laufey's son... I'm a Frost Giant," Loki finished, his voice now brutally quiet.

Sigyn said nothing. She was too stunned. Loki was a Frost Giant. A Frost Giant. It was too large a piece of information for her to process and understand the ramifications of in such a short moment.

"And now you hate me," he said, his voice cruel.

She blinked. She didn't hate him at all, but it was only after he had said that that she realised what her slow thought process had made Loki think.

"What? Loki, I don't hate you-"

"You must think I'm a monster-"

"No, I don't- you're not-"

"Everyone will hate me more than they already do. I'm the creature of nightmare," Loki went on to snap.

"No, you are not," she started, her tone serious.

She bent over his chair and put her hand on his neck, her thumbs resting on his jaw.

"If you don't what people to know about it then they don't have to- but you're still you, Loki. What you are doesn't change who you are. No matter who your father is, you're still the man that I love."

He stared. It was the first time in their marriage that Sigyn had felt like Loki was slipping away, and she knew that she had to bring him back fast.

"You will never be a monster to me."

She leant down and hugged him to her.

"Don't believe that, because I never will," she whispered.

His arms slowly wound around her after a long while. And when she pulled back enough to see him, she could still see the pain and shock in his eyes. She didn't know how he'd managed to hide it before. Probably by avoiding looking at me, she thought sadly. Poor Loki.

Sigyn eventually managed to convince Loki to go to bed. This time she wasn't going to let him get away with saying he would come later and never doing as he promised. So she took his hand and led him to the bed they shared. The strange thing was that neither of them said anything, not even when they lay together in the dark, knowing that they were both still awake.

They were both too enraptured by the thoughts swirling in their own minds to even notice the silence. It was only as they lay there though, that Sigyn began to process what Loki had told her. He was a Frost Giant. She was married to a Frost Giant. They were terrible, fearsome creatures that every child in Asgard was warned about in scary stories.

But Loki isn't, she thought, reminding herself to trust in the man she loved. He's still the man I married. He is. And Sigyn knew that he was the only man she had ever seen herself being with in her whole life. That was because he was different... and persistent.

So maybe being different wasn't all that bad. Maybe being different was exactly what drew them together. It didn't take Sigyn too long after that to realise that she truly didn't care what he was, as long as he stayed the Loki that she knew and loved.

Loki was Loki. Asgardian or Jotun, he would always be the man that she married. She would just have to show him that his newly-found differences put nothing between them. Knowing that her husband was still awake, Sigyn shifted her hand across their bed until she found his hand and entwined her fingers with his.

"I love you," she whispered.

Loki heard her, but said nothing back. After all, his thoughts were far deeper and darker than hers.

Author's Note: Horrible times for Loki and Sigyn, eh? :(

This chapter would have been up last night, but I ended up getting convinced to go out on the town since I'm not in work today. Was a great night, apart from when my clumsiness reared its ugly head and I carried on walking without noticing a step, twisted my ankle and collapsed on a pile on the floor... Of course, I carried on dancing for the rest of the night- though I'm regretting that now that I have a giant, swollen and painful ankle that I can barely limp about on...

Anyyyywayyyy, hope you all liked the chapter and will let me know what you think! :)

Oh, and this chapter has a companion drawing that can be found here: www .countesscasualty. deviantart #/d5pvzut (just remove the spaces, add .COM then / after deviantart and turn the COM lowercase- too bloody complicated, but it's the only way it would let me provide the link). :)

And since New Year is cropping up around the world for the next 24 hours, Happy New Year where ever you may be! :)

Kit xx