"Oh, you did it!"

Loki stood there, stiff and a little shocked, as Sigyn stopped them in a vacant hallway and threw her arms around his neck. In all honesty, he hadn't actually expected her to go along with him once he was banished; Loki had prepared for a life alone. However, after he spared her from spending the remainder of her days as Theoric's wife, she had said her loyalty belonged to him. He assumed, naturally, that she had no desire to end up with Theoric's family, and as they darted out of the ceremonial hall amidst the chatter and whispers, Loki decided that she went with him out of a necessity.

Although, Sigyn was a fairly traditional woman, and perhaps she truly believed what she had said. He had no desire to take her somewhere against her will, but neither would he complain if she followed him voluntarily. After all, exile was a terribly lonely practice – one that he was skilled in – and Loki did not particularly want to spend its entirety alone. He had prepared to do so, yes, but that did not mean he desired such a life. Perhaps now things would be a little less lonesome, a little easier, if he had a companion by his side who firmly believed she owed him her life.

Marriage hadn't ever been a topic Loki had given much thought to in the past. He enjoyed the company of women, whenever he could get it anyway, but hadn't ever considered that he would one day choose one of them to spend the remainder of his rather long life with. Instead, Loki always associated marriage with Thor, who would need a queen in order to be king; the same thought crossed his mind when he was named King of Asgard fleetingly, though there were other matters more pressing at the time that required his attention. However, here he was, standing in an empty hallway in the bowels of the palace, with his wife clinging to him so fiercely that it made his chest tighten.

He hesitantly touched her back, his fingers dancing along the strings that held her dress together, and then for a brief moment, he tightened his grip around her. The smaller woman quivered against him, no doubt from all the excitement of the day, and his eyes drifted shut as he inhaled the scent of her hair. The only thing that could draw him away from her was the distant echo of male voices, and Loki carefully pried her arms from around his neck.

"We cannot linger," he explained gently as the voices grew louder. He held both of her wrists together between his hands, keeping them up in order to secure her attention. "I've stowed two bags in the stables, and I will need to ready a horse for you."

She nodded, licking her lips and swallowing noticeably. "Yes."

"But you cannot ride in… this," he remarked softly, the thought only just occurring to him as he glanced down at the white monstrosity she had been stuffed into. "Come, we shall find you something else."

He took her by the hand as he hurried down the hall, only slowing his pace when he realized that Sigyn struggled to keep up in her massive dress. Unfortunately, female attire wasn't exactly something one might expect to be strewn casually around the palace, and Loki racked his mind as he tried to picture where he might find something. Finally, he decided on the laundry room – there was bound to be something hanging to dry that Sigyn would fit into – and took a sharp turn down a narrow servant's passage.

"Did you… Did you not think I would come with you?"

Her voice was so soft as she asked, a little timid, and her eyes were wide when Loki glanced back at her. He would have taken the time to reassure her, to stop and give her a quick kiss, but this detour meant the Crimson Hawkes were spreading throughout the palace in search for him, and they hadn't the time to waste.

"I thought you might stay here," he explained hurriedly. "I… You surprised me."

"Oh."

"It is a pleasant surprise," Loki insisted, his voice dropping to a whisper as they approached the doors to the noisy laundry cellar. He held a finger to his lips to keep her silent, and then pushed open the nearest door just enough to let him see inside.

Thankfully, the room was empty, and Loki rushed Sigyn inside before instructing her to search for anything that might fit her. He, meanwhile, rummaged through some of the dry clothing to find her a traveling cloak that would not swallow her as all of his might. There were several massive tubs situated across the enormous room, all of which were used for the washing. Some were automatic, while others required servants to physically wash more delicate items for the royal family. The dry clothes, on the other hand, hang on racks that ran from floor to ceiling, and there were various mounted ladders scattered across the space to reach the highest rungs.

If he had the time, Loki would have found his new wife a cloak that would suit their journey; it would have been thick, warm, and preferably in a muted green or brown. However, getting down to the stables and away from the palace before the evening struck was of the utmost importance, and so he simply grabbed the first one that looked as though it might fit her. Maroon certainly wasn't the inconspicuous colour he would have chosen initially, but it seemed to be the shortest cloak hanging on the nearby rack. With that in hand, he turned back to see Sigyn approaching, a soft yellow garment hanging over her arm, and he arched an eyebrow.

"This is good."

"Alright," he muttered, holding up the cloak for her to see. "Where did you find it? It may be prudent to bring a spare… I'll fetch it while you change."

"But I need your help with that," she insisted as he stepped around her. A dull pink arose from her cheeks when he glanced down at her with a frown, and she turned slowly for him to see the back of the dress. "I can't undo the lacing by myself."

He blinked stupidly for a moment, and then shook his head. "Yes, of course… I should have… thought…"

His words trailed off into silence as he tackled the rather tightly tied stays at the back of her dress, pausing whenever she inhaled sharply or winced under his ministrations. In a brief, fleeting moment, he realized that he technically should have performed this act directly before they were to go to bed together on their first night as newlyweds; what strange circumstances they found themselves in instead. A part of him was pleased to see she had an underlay beneath her wedding dress, as it meant she had yet another layer to keep out the impending night chill, but a small side of him had hoped to catch a large piece of exposed flesh.

When he had finished, Loki stepped away, and then hastily averted his eyes as Sigyn slipped the thick fabric off her shoulders. However, he couldn't look away the entire time, and casually snuck a peak at her; her dressing gown was silken and thin, reflecting the dim light of the laundry room noticeably. She looked quite sweet – as she always did, mind you – in her little flat shoes and perfectly styled hair, dressed down in some skimpy little dress. He was pleased to note that the bruises on her arm had healed fully.

It was only when she opened up her new dress and stepped into it that Loki snapped into action, hurrying across the room in the general direction from which she came in order to find her a spare garment for the road. He snatched a brown one, and then hesitated before tugging a pink thing down from a higher rung. They were all garments worn by the female servants of the palace, and although Sigyn would never again be a servant, he thought it smarter to dress down while on the run. It would have been acceptable to give her one spare piece, but Loki had seen her affinity for pink, and decided she ought to have something pleasant waiting for her.

He spied her in the process of tying herself into her newest dress, which seemed similar to that uniform that Idunn wore whenever he saw her in the gardens: fitted to the waist, long sleeves, and a skirt that hung closer to the body than most. Loki moved in silence, shooing her hands away from the strings at the back of the dress and then depositing her two new ones onto her arms. From there, he commenced the tying himself, looping the strings through the little holes and pulling them snugly against her back. She made no noise as he did so, no soft intake of air or whimper in his haste, and even looked mildly appreciative of his efforts when she turned back to him.

"Where are we going?"

Loki sighed, and then took her hand and kissed it, lingering to smell the scent of the cream on her knuckles. It was then that he saw her tense; perhaps she had finally realized that she could no longer deny his physical attraction toward her, but that wasn't a thought he wanted to think on too deeply.

"I think," he started, taking hold of her wrist now and tugging her toward the door, "that the less you know, the better."

"Oh."

"I will tell you everything when we are beyond the ears of the palace," he insisted, rewording his comment just enough to change her put-out expression. "Should we be separated, I would prefer that they cannot implicate you in any of this."

A small smile played across his lips when she pulled her wrist free from his grasp and replaced it with her hand, clinging to him firmly as they hurried out of the laundry and through the depths of the palace. He forced them to stop whenever a set of nearby voices grew too noisy, and they lingered in the shadows of a statue for an unbearable amount of time when a trio of Crimson Hawkes skulked by. He could have tried to fight, but he worried someone might snatch his wife away – he may not have considered her coming with him before, but he couldn't imagine it any other way now.

The tension in his shoulders and neck remained even when they stepped outside the palace, darting hastily across a vacant courtyard to the stone stables at the other side. For what it was worth, Sigyn did well for having a much shorter stride than he, never once stopping to complain about all this running. She remained silent, trailing just a step behind him, her hand clutching to his as though her life depended on their connection.

He pulled her in front of them as they entered the stable, not wanting any onlookers to spy her from behind as they disappeared from sight. The long row of horse stalls was incredibly familiar, reeking of beast stench and his childhood, and Loki needed little guidance to find his old black mare. After all, he had buried his getaway bags in her hay that morning, which she seemed incredibly displeased with, and had left all of her riding gear out in the proper order; he would dress her quickly, and then see about getting Sigyn a horse of her own.

"Wait here," he ordered, setting her deliberately to the side of his desired stall. She nodded quickly, and wrapped her arms around her slim frame, clutching her stolen dresses to her chest; he hadn't wanted her to surprise his beast.

The horse whinnied happily at the sight of his return, and he ran a hand down her muzzle as he stepped into the stall. Unfortunately, the realization that something was wrong was almost immediate, and Loki froze when he saw the mussed hay and the lack of traveling bags within it.

"Was this all planned, brother?"

He flinched as Thor's voice sounded from the corner of the stall; apparently, Loki was not the only one who could play in the shadows. He whirled around, eyes narrowing at the bag in each one of Thor's massive hands, and he extended his arms toward them.

"Give me those."

"Why must you tear our family apart again?" Thor demanded, stepping further into the light, the anger plain across his features. "We have been nothing but kind to you since you've returned-"

"Aside from imprisonment?"

"A just punishment for your crimes," the Asgardian continued pointedly. "Father will not be so quick to forgive this time."

Loki grinned, and then offered a shrug. "I'm counting on that."

Thor shook his head, dropping Loki's carefully packed bags on the ground with a sigh.

"Why would you do this?" Loki found it difficult to meet his false brother's eye, and opted instead to bend down and retrieve the bags. Once he had settled them securely on the other side of the stall, he moved about as though Thor wasn't there, carefully lacing a saddle across his mare's back. "Was it to hurt us? To punish Theoric for some foolish slight?"

"No."

"Then what? Where in the depths of your dark mind did you summon such a ridiculous deed?"

"Please," Sigyn interjected, startling both princes as she suddenly appeared in the doorway of the stall, her hands clutching the gate, "don't be angry with him… He did this for me."

He continued to focus on his horse, ignoring the way Thor's eyes bore into the back of his head.

"Is this true, brother?"

His lip twitched at the word, but once again Sigyn spoke before him, her voice quivering.

"Theoric was horrible," she explained. "He was so cruel to me… Loki offered to help when he saw my plight, and we became desperate!"

"So you were involved in this scheme?"

Loki finally turned back sharply, a bridle in hand. "No, this was entirely my doing."

He wasn't about to let her incriminate herself when she had no part in the blame. Thor glanced between the two again, and Loki resumed adding the final touches to his mare, who seemed antsy to leave with all the chatter around her. He continued to look busy, but his ears perked when he heard Thor take a step toward his wife, the tone of his voice much kinder when he addressed her.

"You are not required to go with him," the Asgardian informed her. "The All-father punished Loki, not you."

"So I am to remain here?" she asked. "Alone? My life is with my husband, my lord… To not follow him would be a high punishment indeed."

Loki paused in his fumbling when silence followed; no one, aside from Thor, had ever professed such a loyalty to him, and she only did it for the sake of their shared title. The emotion stuck as a lump in his throat, and he finished tying his travel bags to his horse when Thor spoke again.

"You'll see to his care?"

"Of course."

"Enough," Loki snapped, which caused his mare to snort irritably. Sigyn looked momentarily frightened as he whirled back to face the duo, but what was more maddening was the look of obvious concern on Thor's features. What cause did he have to care for Loki's well-being? He had made it very clear long ago that their relationship had changed, that Loki was no longer the younger brother to be tended to. "I have no need to be cared for."

"Brother-"

"I am not banished to Midgard or some bleak realm," he carried on, his nose wrinkling as he glared at the man he once deigned to be his brother. "It is the outer provinces at the most, and I do not intend to live in squalor. Unlike you, I worked on maintaining relationships with the little lords out there, so I'll hear no more of your petty sympathy!"

A quick glance at Sigyn found her fiddling with the fabric of her stolen dresses a few steps away from the gate; if only Thor could be cowed by the slightest raise of his voice. Instead, the man appeared confused, perhaps even a little dejected, and Loki wished that he would respond to his anger with the appropriate emotions. Instead, Loki found his antagonism sucked into a vortex of nothingness, neither responded to nor acknowledged.

"Sigyn," he called, his tone softer as her eyes flickered up to him, wide and timid. "Can you ride?"

"A little."

"I'll ready you a horse," he told her, "and then we must leave this place."

She nodded, and Loki mentally went through all the horses in the stable that he could remember, trying to decide on which would be good for a shy new rider. However, just as he went for the gate, Thor placed a hand to his chest, stopping him mid-stride.

"Take mine."

Loki's eyebrows shot up. "What?"

"Take my horse," he clarified needlessly. "You know him, and he's trained enough to handle any kind of rider." He nodded toward Sigyn. "She'll be safe atop Onyx."

He slowly pushed the Asgardian's hand away, and then folded his arms across his chest. "Why?"

"As much as you refuse to see it," Thor began, taking a step toward him and lowering his voice, "you are my brother, and I care deeply for you." He turned back to Sigyn, a smile gracing his lips for the first time in their encounter. "I want to ensure my new sister will be cared for on her journey. My horse is very stout, my lady. He'll be gentle through all kinds of terrain."

Sigyn hugged her bundle of fabric closer to her, glancing between Loki and Thor, and then offered a cautious smile in return. "Thank you."

"He is in the next stall over, if you would care to meet him?" Thor chuckled, pointing in the horse's general direction. Sigyn nodded, and then disappeared from view, which gave Loki the opportunity to grab the Asgardian by the arm.

"What are you playing at?"

"Nothing," Thor stressed, brushing him off easily and shaking his head. "I am angry with you… Forever angry, it seems, because you insist on brining poor fortune upon yourself." Loki's jaw clenched. "But I would rather have you by my side than sent far away, even in your current state… Please, do nothing foolish in your absence. I hope that it will be short."

"That all depends on your father, doesn't it?" he sneered, absently pushing his mare's head away when she prodded at him. "I think-"

The sound of a commotion followed shortly by Sigyn's scream cut him off, and in an instant both Loki and Thor made a swift exit from the stall. He found his new bride thrown up against the stone wall opposite Onyx's pen, a burly woman in a brown dress holding her just slightly off the ground by her throat.

"Is this what your planned all along?" the woman shrieked as Thor descended upon her. "Have you no shame? No morality?"

Loki immediately went for Sigyn, no ounce of mercy in him as he pried the woman's hands off her neck by wrenching her fingers back sharply. Thor hoisted the immense woman up and dragged her away.

"Are you alright?" he inquired softly, the tips of his fingers dancing over her reddened flesh. She nodded, swallowing thickly a few times as her eyes watered; aside from perhaps a knock to the head and a scare, Sigyn seemed relatively fine.

"Where is my son?!" the woman screeched, arms flailing and legs thrashing so violently that Thor actually seemed to have some trouble getting her under control. "What have you and that little whore done to him?!"

He earned a few kicks in the process, but Loki eventually managed to grab hold of both of her legs, grunting under the exertion of getting such a large woman under control, and without saying a word to one another, both Loki and Thor made for the nearby storage closet. Once in front of the door, Loki dropped her legs, turned the knob, and then stepped out of the way as Thor thrust the woman into the darkened little room. Both princes were required to throw their weight onto it to get the door closed again, and Thor managed to prop a nearby wooden chest against it for extra weight.

"You shouldn't delay," Thor muttered. "I'll mind the door… Ready Onyx."

As much as he disliked being given orders, Loki could see that Thor had a point. He hurried back down the hall, pressing the palm of his hand to Sigyn's cheek as he passed, and then made the necessary preparations for Thor's gelding.

Annoyingly enough, Onyx was, in fact, the perfect choice for Sigyn. Loki had known the horse all its life, and while his mare could be a little high-strung at times, Thor's gelding was impeccably calm no matter what the situation called for. The beast had both charged into battle willingly and been ridden through the city streets like some show pony; he would surely carry Sigyn through Asgard's wilderness with all the smoothness she deserved.

When he finished, he saw that Thor had added more support against the storage door, and despite the noise that came from the other side, it seemed to be holding. He beckoned the Asgardian to his side, silently demanding that he lead Onyx out to the courtyard while he grabbed his mare. Sigyn followed after Thor, still in the midst of dusting her dresses off, as she had dropped them in the blitz-attack by Theoric's mother.

The courtyard remained blissfully empty as Loki led his horse out, and he spied Thor and Sigyn off to the far side, speaking in hushed tones. He watched the Asgardian offer to hold her dresses while she slipped on her cloak, that terrible maroon thing that Loki wished he hadn't found. However, he drew the line when he saw Thor offer to give her a boost up onto the massive black gelding, and he hurried his own beast along to put a stop to any of that.

"Here," he said noisily, shoving the reigns of his horse into Thor's hands. "Let me."

He hoisted her up somewhat awkwardly by the waist, her small hands resting on his shoulders, and he let her settle herself onto the saddle. She seemed content to side with both legs to one side, her fingers toying with the thick reigns, and Loki caught sight of a tremble in her digits.

"Perhaps you could tie Onyx to Opal?" Thor suggested as Loki snatched Sigyn's dresses from his hands, opting to stuff them into the travel bags hastily. He could have sworn he heard voices coming from somewhere nearby; it had been well over an hour since the ceremony, but he was sure the Hawkes would not give up their search until they either found Loki or Theoric, and it seemed highly unlikely that they find the latter.

Once again, he took Thor's idea, and quickly latched Sigyn's new horse to his; she may have had the basic knowledge of how to ride – or perhaps not? – but there was no time for her to learn right now. Once they were free from the city, he would take the time to show her how to do everything properly atop her patient steed. She seemed somewhat grateful with the reigns taken from her, and Loki was more than willing to take the lead.

He almost got away with saying nothing to Thor before he climbed atop his mare, but the man managed to catch him by the elbow.

"Stay out of trouble," the older prince ordered, placing a hand on his shoulder and giving it a squeeze. Loki knocked it away, but less dramatically than he would have liked – for Sigyn's sake, he ought to keep his quarreling minimal.

"Do not speak to me like I am a child."

"When you cease acting as one, I will stop speaking to you as one," Thor insisted, a small grin tugging at his lips. Loki shot him a glare, and then clambered atop his beast, checking the knot he had made that connected him with Sigyn.

"Where are you going?"

Loki glanced down at Thor, who had stepped aside to make way for Onyx and his bashful rider. He pursed his lips, but quickly decided he could give the Asgardian that much – he had been quite helpful.

"Over the mountains," he explained tightly, "and then east."

Thor nodded. "I'll send them to the north."

He tried to think of something to say; something that might both express his anger and gratitude, but for once, nothing came to mind. So, Loki offered a stiff nod instead, and then urged his horse onward toward the servant's exit, glancing back only once to see that Sigyn followed.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Well, this took a little longer to get out that I wanted, but only by a few days. I'm really taking care of my wrists at the moment, which are in pretty poor shape, so I keep my daily typing to a minimal. I think if I keep that up for a few weeks, I'll be able to work on more and more.

My main interest with this scene was to show how Loki views his marriage, and to show some bro-love between him and Thor. I have always thought that they just need to make up and get over it, so I tend to show their relationship in a favourable light whenever I write it.

Much love to all my reviewers and silent supporters! You're amazing!