Loki steps back out into the chill. The world has not yet begun to melt much, but in the bright sun of this day, he can hear the steady drip from the water that runs, little by little, down his beloved ash. He knocks on Magda's door and takes a deep breath.

When she answers, he is expecting a scolding, but it does not come. She lets him step in the house and close the door before throwing her arms around him and holding him so tightly that he thinks she might never let go.

"Oh god, Loki, I feard we had lost you." She kisses his cheeks, "I am so happy to see you."

"I made a terrible mistake."

"Yes, you did. But it is only a mistake. Not an ending."

"Does Wanda feel the same?" He fears the answer.

"I cannot tell you her heart. She has not wanted to tell me much. But she said she understands you far better now than she did."

"She saw my memories."

"I know."

"Did they hurt her?"

"You will have to speak to her of such things."

"Will she speak to me?"

"Yes, she will."

There is a desperation to his voice, "Please, Magda, forgive me. For my actions. For the weeks of time away from you. For the harm I have caused after. I beg of you..."

She gently kisses his bowed forehead, "My love, there is no need to beg. You are forgiven. I hold no grudges. I only hope you will learn from this. We are here for you to talk to, not to avoid so that you might solve things on your own."

"I have much to tell you, but I think I need to see Wanda first. And I will explain everything, I promise."

"She is in the front bedroom. Go. I will be here when you are done."

"Natasha and Steve are next door. Would you mind checking in on them?"

"Ah! This I can do. I will bring cookies." She taps her temple, "Sokovian grandmother, you know."

"I started the water for tea."

"Good. Now go. Wanda needs to see you."

By the time he reaches the top of the stairs, he is nervous and he hesitates before knocking on the door. Wanda calls for him to enter. The room is so much smaller than her apartment, but it is draped in her tapestries, her pillows and beanbags scattered across the floor draped with velvet blankets and crochetted throws, her old red iron bed under the front window. She is leaning on a pile of pillows, photo albums spread across the floor in front of her, a steaming mug of tea on a short table beside her.

"Hello, Wanda."

"Hello, Loki."

"May I sit with you?"

"Yes."

He drops down beside her, careful not to bump the precisely arranged photographs she is transferring onto large square pages, "Are these from your wedding?"

"Yes. From Yule through New Year's Eve. Magda and I's first holiday season as married women."

"You paste them into these books?"

"Yes. They will be better organized to tell our story when we are old and our memories blurred but the feelings from these days still sharp."

"Ah. Did I earn a place in your book?"

"Of course you did."

"Wanda...I am so desperately sorry for what I have done. I could have killed you. Please...," he bows his head to her and reaches for her hand, "please, I bend before you to beg your forgiveness."

She is quietly angry, moreso than she thought she would be when she envisioned the slim possibility of seeing him again, "Loki...I thought we lost you. That I had lost a brother again."

"I know. And I cannot absolve myself of this. You have done so much for me and I repayed you so horribly..." There are tears in his eyes as he realizes she might not be as able to forgive him as easily as Magda. His heart sinks and he refuses to raise his eyes to meet hers.

She sighs, "Did he hurt you?"

"No."

"Did he listen?"

"I think, perhaps, he did. He gave me a choice and forced me to sit and think on it for these past weeks. But it was fitting."

"What choice did he give you?"

"I could stay, living my life in the dungeon, but with my long years and my magic restored or I could return here as I am."

"You refused magic? Why? You have said it is so central to your being..."

"It is. But the Grandmothers are not mere legend. Your women touched Yggdrasil. I can work to discover that. But I cannot replace this family. I cannot live so isolated in a cell in Asgard with no one to touch me, to hold me, to cuddle close with while watching a sunrise. My sisters are more a part of me than I thought you ever would be. The thought of living centuries without you was unbearable. The thought of only living a few more decades but having you here to love and share my life with? That is joy."

"You gave up shape-shifting for us."

"Yes. I gave up Asgard entirely for you."

"Not entirely. Thor will still come."

"True, that is Thor's nature." He stops, searches for his words, and continues, "When Alexi left, I felt as though my heart fractured. I did not dare to use the Time Stone to retrieve him. But I thought I could fill the hole left by Mother's death and perhaps bring her forward somehow. So I called to Asgard to seize me so I would be somewhere safe when I used the Stone, far from the creature seeking it."

"Loki..." She lifts his chin and tries to meet his eyes. He casts them down. She pushes her photographs aside and folds him in her arms, squeezing tightly as her own tears trickle down her cheeks, "I understand. I do, truly. I would have done the same for Pietro."

"Can you forgive me? For risking your life? For this foolish idea that I could save her?"

"Yes." She will not let him go and buries her face in his hair, "I almost lost you. I thought I might have to kill you."

"I am so sorry. So, so sorry..."

"Please don't ever put me through that again."

"I promise you, I never will."

She sits back, wiping her eyes with her sweater sleeve; he stops her and brushes her tears away himself before drying his own eyes, "You had damn well better not. Or I will slap you."

"I would deserve far worse."

"I would probably do that later."

He chuckles, "Duly noted, dear Sister. Duly noted."

She shifts so she is sitting close beside him instead of facing him and leans against him; he puts an arm around her shoulders and reaches to take her other hand, "Your memories...there was much I am sure you did not show me. But I noticed you skipped what happened after you fell."

"You never need to see what they did to me. The moments you have glimpsed my scars are more than enough."

"Was your childhood really so lonely?"

"There were many times I lived in Thor's shadow, yes. But it was not all terrible. There is much I did not show you."

"Perhaps someday."

"Yes, perhaps." He waits a moment to speak again, enjoying the warmth of her body against his and the scent of her hair, "Thank you for coming for me."

"It was your best chance for survival."

"I know. These past few weeks have given me time to think on every mistake I made in this plan. I still cannot believe I cast against you. Had you not blocked it, you would have been greviously injured, if not dead."

"Anger, fear, and pain makes us do very unwise things. We spoke of this when we first met. You hurt the people you love most when you let these things rule you."

"I will do better."

"Just talk to us. Magda and I are not afraid to listen, even if you must talk through difficult things."

"I have not yet told her this was about Alexi and Mother."

"Do you wish to do so now?"

"No. She is feeding Natasha and Steve. They are in my home. Which, it appears, you cleaned."

"We did. Your refrigerator is spotless."

"You did not know if I would return."

"No. But we needed to do something to keep busy, and so after I moved out of the tower, I regularly cleaned your house from top to bottom."

"Just in case?"

"Exactly. Just in case. And I found your letter."

He had forgotten about the letter, "Oh. Yes. That."

"I have never cried so much over the phrase 'I love you' before."

"I do love you both so dearly."

"I know. And we love you. This is why we will move on from here and forward. Always forward into the next new day."

"Wanda, you are a wonder. Love demonstrated in action. I am so lucky you are my sister."

Wanda smiles for the first time since Loki's return, "It is so good to have you back, Loki. I have so deeply missed you."