A/N: This started out as slightly fluffy and then exploded into angst.
I regret nothing! Enjoy.
The sleepy edge vanished from her body as she looked at him. Loki was drawing back by then, a smirk touching his lips. Fear warred with want. The question of how everything could, would, change everything. A desire for personal revenge weighed against all of reality and time. Removing Odin from the throne would prove catastrophic, whether for good or ill would be seen. Thor had a wiser head on his shoulders than he had had before Loki had managed to get him exiled, but was it enough?
"How long?" she asked, her voice cracking.
He threaded his fingers through her hair and didn't quite meet her gaze. "A month, perhaps longer depending on this set back," he said quietly.
"You-" she began.
"I refuse to consider the fools of Asgard in this. The other realms will be unaffected," he said clearly enough that Tony had raised his head to frown at them.
She huffed out a breath of annoyance. "You, husband, reach very far to avenge the wrongs done to us," she said softly and pulled him closer. She shifted herself until she was sitting on the edge of the bed and his head was bent towards her. "I am not saying, no, but I have to ask that you do more than consider the weight of everything he has done to us. Yes, it hurts knowing the monster free and unpunished, but…"
"But nothing, love," Loki said. "We are not the only ones he has wronged. Asgard will be better off without him. All the realms will be better off without him leading Asgard."
When he started pulling back, her fingers tightened around his and he paused. "Have you read the treaties of old? The treaties that he holds with the dwarves, the Vanir? "
"I am…aware of them, yes," he admitted.
"Consider carefully how we step, husband. Removing Odin might be the easy part, but doing so would result in the dissolving of those treaties that bind the realms into peace. Specifically, the treaties bind the rulers to Odin in peace for as long as he holds the throne of Asgard. They speak nothing of heirs or successors," she said and watched the realization flit across his face. "If we remove Odin from the throne, then the Vanir and the dwarves would hunt us to the end of time and across all the blackness of the Void."
"That bastard," Loki hissed, his hands tightening around hers.
Out of the corner of her eye, she realized that Tony was paying far too much attention to one of his screens. The scientist, as she had come to understand, never held still unless he was inventing something, but his fingers weren't moving and Darcy had seemingly vanished. With an unpleasant curling in her stomach, she slid from the bed and placed herself between her puzzled husband and the Avenger.
"You alerted them, then?" she asked, almost casual. She could feel the cool heat of Loki's body as he moved to stand directly behind her just as she could feel the air shivering with his magic around them.
Tony's fingers danced across the screen as he glanced at them and grinned. "To put them on alert, yes, but not to attack. Not yet. We still have no reason to trust him and every reason to suspect another invasion," he said. There was a pause before he amended, "Except you." Another pause and he said, "I've been monitoring their progress through the Tower. Natasha and Clint had fallen in with Cap and they're about a floor down waiting for a signal. Bruce hasn't moved, but he was on this floor to begin with and Thor is about three doors down."
"You're-" she began and then Thor burst into the room.
"Brother!" he exclaimed, eyes landing on Loki, who grimaced and stepped away.
She cast a glance at Tony and nearly rolled her eyes at the grin that he wore. Planned, just for this, then. Not malicious, but a subtle favor for a friend. The thought made her relax considerably as she stepped aside for Thor to sweep in and try to catch Loki in a bear hug. A smile touched her lips as, instead of Loki, Thor swept his arms through an afterimage. Tilting her head back, she caught her husband's eye and let the amusement show in the creases around her eyes and mouth.
"How many times will you fall for that?" Loki asked Thor, his voice lilting up towards scornful.
"Be nice," she said and, by the way his eyes flickered from Thor to hers, she knew he understood what she meant. Don't avoid this, let him forgive you.
"Well, here we are again, Asgard's golden trio," Loki said, his voice barely restrained in the scorn. "How do I look on this side of an invasion, brother?"
The look of hurt that flashed across Thor's face made her heart squeeze painfully. Blood or not, he had been one of the few to stand by her even if he had been foolishly prideful in it. She turned her body so that she could face her husband and subtly insinuate herself between them. "Loki," she said softly, reprimand coloring her tone, but his glare did not soften. Tony, she noticed, discreetly withdrew to the other side of the room to give them some semblance of privacy. For that, she was grateful even if he had scared her earlier. "What is this rage?" she asked, her voice still soft enough that only Loki could hear her.
His fingers touched her cheek briefly, but she did not lean into the gesture and his hand dropped to his side again. The look that creased his lips and narrowed his eyes told her too much. Old, bitter pain was there mingled with tired despair. "You were gone for so very long," he said and it fell into place, but he was stepping away. "I have overstayed my welcome. Do not over exert yourself and you should be back to normal by tomorrow. In the meantime, I shall keep an eye out. Until next time, Sigyn." Briefly his eyes flicked to Thor before he said, "Thor," with a brief nod and vanished.
"Huh," Tony said, glancing up from one of the screens he was skimming his fingers across. "A houseguest who doesn't blow things up or break expensive equipment. That's a novelty. Of course, said houseguest did try to take over the world so I suppose he'd fit in with our band of misfits just fine." Sigyn's gaze darted to Tony and she blinked, hard. She drew breath to say something, but Thor caught her arm and squeezed gently. Looking at him, she nodded and he released her. As they left the room, Tony called after them, "Don't overdo it on the sparring!"
Steve took one look at Thor's expression and vacated the room. Clint was a little harder to extricate from the target practice, but promising him magical, moving targets for his next days practice placated him and then they had the room to themselves.
"Friend Jarvis, are you able to ensure that no one else enters for the next hour?" Thor asked uncertainly.
"It has already been done," Jarvis assured them. "And might I recommend not standing in the middle of the room as sounds tends to carry and Hawkeye is very curious as to the nature of your conversation." There was a pause and then he added, "I will dissuade him from listening in due course, but in the meantime I strongly recommend that you talk quietly as well."
Sigyn chuckled as she moved to the farthest edge of the room to lean against the wall and close her eyes for a moment. "When I first disappeared, what did Odin tell you?" she asked.
"Only that you were dead," Thor said, moving to tower over her. "Father said that you had died valiantly, but only that. He refused to give Loki anything beyond that and said that there was no body to be honored."
She opened her eyes and studied him. There was guilt in his eyes, easily read in the way he frowned. One shoulder rose and fell in a half shrug. "Odin is your father. I do not blame you for believing him," Sigyn said.
"That is not…the entire matter," Thor admitted. "I believed him, yes, but I believed him to the extent that I thought Loki to be in denial when he asked my help in finding you." Silence stretched between them for so long that Thor shifted uncomfortably and added, "He did not mourn you as we all did and called such sentiments false. Instead, he obsessed over obscure arcane arts that had been thought lost and there were times when I tried to draw him out, but-"
"Thor," she said patiently.
"-he was determined to track down the spells that he sought. Loki was-"
"Thor," she said sharply and it brought him up short and blinking at her. "I understand the situation better, thank you for confirming my suspicions." At his blank look, she sighed and said, "Loki does not ask for help unless he truly needs it and in refusing him, you scorned him worse than all the taunts and wounds that had been inflicted by Asgard. He trusted you to believe in him and you chose Odin over him. He won't forgive that easily."
"I…see," Thor said, turning his head away.
"Brother," she said softly and straightened. "He is angry, but he does not hate you."
"That is…some comfort," Thor admitted, his memories skipping back to the moment just before his failed coronation. So long ago, it seemed to him.
She hesitated on her question, knowing that they had reached a moment of no return. To choose one or the other, father or sibling. Yet… "How much do you know of what Odin has done to us? To Loki? To me? To the children that we have borne between the two of us?"
He blinked and looked at her. It was a measured question, her words guarded and careful. There was a purpose beyond the answer she would give and to answer one way would almost guarantee a rift. His mind flashed to the first night he had arrived and the decision he had made. Smiling grimly, he said, "Tell me everything. If Loki has something planned for my father, I will stand with him." Even as he said it, he felt his gut twist with the words, because he had just promised to stand with them even if it meant his father's death.
Sigyn nodded, a guarded look to her eyes, and she told him everything. When she finished, Thor had sunk to the floor, tight lipped and pale faced. "Loki is making a prison for him, but it isn't going to be a simple matter. Odin is a powerful caster and has treaties signed with the other realms that are worded in such a way that they are not obligated to carry over their agreements to the heir."
Prison. Meant not dead. Meant a chance at forgiveness. Meant a chance to set things right. But…he took in the hard set of Sigyn's lips, the slight narrowing of her gaze. There was no chance for forgiveness, not even from one such as she. A prison simply meant that his sire would not be killed outright for the things he had done. He had made his choice.
"Tell me what you need of me," he said, rising slowly.
Tony cornered her three hours later and the look she gave him was wary, but what he had to say was something she had not expected. "You like children, right?" he asked and she realized he was a little wild eyed.
"Yeeeeees," she said slowly.
"Great! You're coming with me and Cap tonight. We have no idea how to handle children," Tony said, "and we're going to be dealing with a lot of sick ones."
That caught her interest and made her heart squeeze just a little. "Sick ones?" she asked, her voice dropping a little.
Comprehension of what wound he might have prodded made him flush a little and look away. "Cap and I were asked to do a…charity thing…for sick children and some of that includes actually visiting them in the hospital where they're going to…die," he admitted. "I've no idea how to interact with children in their situations and thought you might be a good person to bring along in case I fuck things up…like usual."
There was a pause before she said, "Of course I will accompany you and the Captain."
And that was how she found herself in a hospital surrounded by no less than six children and their guardians while she wove a tale of magic and heroes and happily ever afters. Tony wasn't as horrible as he thought he was with children, but he had the added bonus of being able to let Pepper do most of the talking for him, except when he was asked to recount a particular tale feat that he had accomplished as Iron Man. Steve's natural charm seemed to extend towards children and, thus, she was not required to smooth over any of the situations that Tony had thought she would be needed for.
When it was over with the pictures taken and the children tucked into bed for the night, Tony found Sigyn lingering at the bedside of a girl whose parents were clinging to each other and weeping. He halted in the doorway and hesitated on the words that he had wanted to say when he saw her hands moving through a gesture. A soft, golden light enveloped the child's face for a moment before it faded and she closed her eyes.
"Sleep, child, and know peace," she said and stepped away. The parents moved forward and took the girl's hands, broken words crooned into the stillness of the room. There were no thanks for the easing of the girl's pain or the dreams that had been granted one last time. There was only silence and grief and the shadow of tears that clung to her eyes when she glanced at him.