Sylvie woke as the rising sun streamed light through the cracks between the boards of their rented beach hut. A slight breeze blew through those same cracks and felt pleasantly cool on her sweat covered skin.

She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and focused.

Loki was still fast asleep beneath her as she lifted her head from his shoulder. He lay on his back with her body over one side and one of her legs tucked between his own, both naked and exposed to the air. The bunk they were on was not really meant for two; a top bunk hung unused above them. Neither minded the necessary closeness, even when, in this case, they were both covered in sweat from the damp heat as well as the previous night's activities, having simply fallen asleep directly after.

She toyed for a moment with the necklace he wore, one matching her own, moving the two tiny daggers around with her finger against the skin of his throat. These were the small representations of the real daggers they would exchange at their wedding; a small event if she had her way.

This Xandarian beach was the first destination on her mind when he had asked her to marry him. She had visited it more than a few times even though there was no apocalypse to protect her. She'd come to enjoy it for a brief moment before the TVA would inevitably show up.

Not this time though — this time she could stay as long as she liked and she was taking every advantage of it.

Noticing him starting to stir she left the necklace behind and brought her hand down lower to tease him.

He shifted with relaxation; not opening his eyes he spoke softly, "If you're hoping for more, I hate to disappoint, but even I have my limits."

"Does your tongue have limits too?" She smirked and lowered her mouth to his, teasing it open with her tongue.

He smiled as she pulled back, "Probably, but you haven't found them yet."

The pleasant soreness that radiated through her with his motion beneath her, told her that she wouldn't find his limits today either, "I think we can wait until later to try," she leaned in for a brief kiss, before lowering her head to his shoulder again. "So, what's the verdict?"

"For the location? Very nice — I could spend a great deal of time here, but, we should probably get our own place, not sure about the company?" He looked over to the corner of the hut where a hole in the boards had allowed in a small crab that was busy piling various size shells against the wall.

"Yes, I don't think a hut on the beach will work long term — to get married though, the beach, you, me, a pair of daggers, maybe Mobius and B-15?"

"Don't forget Casey or we'll never hear the end of it." Loki stretched out his legs, ran his hand along her back, then looked at her thoughtfully. "Sylvie, if we plan to stay on Xandar for a while, maybe we could…" he trailed off, suddenly unsure of himself.

She smiled, amused at his hesitation, "What?"

He licked his lips, "I just thought maybe we could get officially married here. I know we don't need anyone else to approve, but…" he left it hanging.

"It might be nice if they did?"

"Exactly," he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

She kissed him and ran a finger down his nose affectionately. "Well alright then, let's do it. If it'll make you happy we'll head down to the nearest government office and pick up a marriage license. "

"Really?"

"Sure, I mean, all we have to do is show up and do some paperwork, how hard could it be?"

Loki grinned wildly and squeezed her tight. She was right, it was just some paperwork, but somehow it felt like a big deal. If he had his way he'd have them officially married in every confederation, kingdom, republic and city-state he could find. Anything to remind him again and again that Sylvie wanted to be with him forever.

After enjoying a much needed shower and grabbing breakfast from a nearby beach vendor they caught a transport into the city.

They were scanned at the door of the government office by a floating robot that took their names down and the reason for their visit. It set Loki's teeth on edge, remembering the TVA processing that didn't seem all that long ago. The possibility of bureaucratic trauma wasn't something he'd considered when he latched onto the idea of an official Xandarian marriage.

He looked over at Sylvie, concerned that it might trigger some painful memories in her, but to his relief she didn't seem fazed by it. This was his idea after all and he wanted the experience to be pleasant (for both of them).

They moved to wait in a fairly long line of people. Rather than being annoyed at this as he expected, Sylvie seemed to be filled with a kind of giddy excitement, dissipating his momentary flash of anxiety.

"You seem rather enthused for someone standing in line waiting to fill out paperwork." He snaked an arm around her.

"Yeah, who'd have thought? I guess it's just one more step towards making this-" she ran her finger under her necklace, lifting the chain and flicking the tiny daggers between her fingers, "-real."

He smiled and placed a kiss in her hair, "My thoughts exactly."

The line whittled down fairly quickly and soon they were face to face with a pink skinned Krylorian clerk with high pigtails that trailed down the sides of her face; they bobbed now and then from side to side as she subtly moved her head to music she was apparently listening to on an earpiece she wore in one ear. Loki couldn't really blame her for needing a distraction from the monotony of her job, something he had the misfortune of understanding since his capture and forced employment by the TVA.

She looked over their information, which appeared automatically on her screen as they approached the counter. Loki's file was more extensive since this timeline was one that had branched off his original one; so technically the history before his nexus event was as much his as any of the other Loki's that diverged from the same branch – at least as far as Xandarian records were concerned.

"Are you going by Odinson or Laufeyson?" the clerk cheerfully asked Loki as she looked over his file.

He had never liked the TVA referring to him as Laufeyson, however technically correct it was, considering his biological father had left him to die, and he had eventually killed him for the favour. Odinson was similarly conflicting for him. Even though he had seen the short reconciliation his 'sacred timeline' variant had had with Odin, it still left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Uncertain, he rubbed his chin with his free hand, "Ah, I'm not really…"

"I'll put both down, it's not a problem," she said, then asked Sylvie to confirm her name and spelling. There wasn't much else in her file so she went on to review Loki's for any impediments to marriage.

"It says here you're Asgardian royalty, are you still required to seek approval from the crown?"

Loki crossed his arms, "Well, Asgard was destroyed by a fire giant so I'd say no."

The clerk nodded, "And can you confirm that the two of you are not first-degree relatives?"

"Yes!"

Both responded a bit more quickly than necessary, startling the woman in the process; she adjusted her earpiece and inputted their emphatic responses, wide eyed.

Moving on to the next item she scanned the text on her screen for a moment," Since we don't have any more records for you ma'am," she looked over at Sylvie, "can you confirm that you are not currently married to a third party?"

"That is correct," Sylvie fidgeted with her fingers and rocked back and forth on her heels. She definitely hadn't expected to be so excited about the whole thing — and nervous? Why was she nervous about paperwork? It didn't make much sense. She stifled a grin, and attempted to put on a business-like expression.

Sylvie's demeanour wasn't lost on Loki, who beamed openly at her and anticipated the next question, "Same for me, no marriages here." He swiped his hand to the side for emphasis.

The clerk looked down at her screen and frowned, "Ah, there is a slight problem — according to this you are already married."

Loki's eyebrows shot up, "I'm already married?"

Sylvie folded her arms slightly bemused, "How are you already married? Seems like something we should have discussed before getting engaged," she gave him a playful nudge in the side with her elbow.

Loki shared her confusion but was grateful she seemed to be taking the whole thing in stride. He huffed out a laugh and shrugged, "I don't know, maybe Odin married me off as an infant and didn't tell me or something."

The clerk scrolled down further, tapping her finger on the counter with her free hand, "It says here you were joined to one hundred spouses in a Garbothian group marriage around five hundred years ago."

Somehow Loki's eyebrows managed to migrate even further up his forehead than before at that statement, "I did what?"

The woman repeated the information more slowly this time, "You are currently joined in marriage to one hundred Gar…"

Loki cut her off, hurrying her along, "Garbothians, yes – got that part. This must be some sort of clerical error."

"That's entirely possible, let me check some additional records, this will only take a moment," she absentmindedly mouthed the words to an unheard song as she typed in the search parameters.

Sylvie tapped Loki on the arm to get his attention, "You know, I almost got married once."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "Interesting — I thought you said you'd never been married?"

"I didn't go through with it – had to bail before the whole apocalypse thing. Just giving some poor sod his last wish before the end. Well, almost did."

"Really?"

Loki was intrigued, Sylvie had told him various stories of her apocalypse shenanigans, but this he didn't expect.

She sniffed, "Actually, that might have happened on more than one occasion — kinda went through a phase there." She slipped her hand into his, and smirked up at him, "If it wasn't for the brain slug pandemic, zombie avalanche, and freak volcano, you'd be husband and/or wife number four."

"Hmm… as long as I'm the last husband and/or wife," he grinned and stole a quick kiss.

His mood shifted suddenly as an anxious thought slipped into his mind. "But if I go before you, I want you to find someone else, I don't want you to be alone anymore."

Sylvie hummed thoughtfully, "I guess I could always go and pluck my postman out of that apocalypse and live happily ever after."

Loki smiled affectionately, remembering the story she had told him on Lamentis, "So there is a postman after all… perhaps we'll have to pay him a visit? I would be very interested to meet the man who kept my Sylvie coming back so many times. Whatever happened to him anyway?"

"Oh, it was one of those gender reveal party disasters, took out the whole county,"

Loki opened his mouth to respond, but his clever quip was cut off by the clerk having completed her task.

"Ok — I did find some additional documentation." She enabled a holographic display in front of them so they could review what she'd found, "This is your marriage license — is that your signature?"

Loki squinted at the Asgardian runes that made up the hastily scribbled text, "It looks like it but maybe somebody forged it in an elaborate scheme to… uh… Sylvie, help me out here."

She twirled her hand, reaching for a possible explanation, "Mess up our wedding?"

Loki pointed at her in approval, "Right, we did make some enemies along the way." His eyes narrowed, and he gave Sylvie a suggestive look, "Perhaps your postman escaped his apocalypse and is trying to win you back."

Sylvie wrapped her arm around his waist, "I'm afraid he's going to need something better than that to win me back."

The woman gave them a bemused look and displayed the next item, "So, in addition to the signature there is additional identification, including: fingerprints, DNA, a lock of hair, dental casting, and a dagger rubbing with runes reading 'God of Mischief'."

Loki was becoming much less assured that the whole thing was a mixup, "Ah... very elaborate."

The clerk gave him a pained expression, "I also found a wedding registry for a Loki, Prince of Asgard, at a place called 'The Great Collector's Love Emporium'."

Loki cringed internally as he blushed through several different shades, "Ok, yes, that was probably me…"

"I can bring up the list of purchases, it seems there were quite a few—" She paused awkwardly, trying to maintain her professional demeanor, as she scanned the list of inventive items that really should have been listed confidentially.

Loki shook his head emphatically, "No, no, we'll just skip over that part, thank you."

Sylvie grinned, "Maybe we should sign up for that registry, if they're still in business."

Loki appeared to consider this, "It would be worth it just for the look on Mobius' face when he asks what he should get us." He smiled mischievously, then something else came to mind and he turned back to the woman behind the counter, " Wait, how could I have gotten married five hundred years ago without approval from the crown?"

"Yes, good thinking, I'll take a look," She proceeded to search for any details that might automatically override the other document; then wound her finger around one of her pigtails sheepishly and sighed, "Unfortunately, I did find this document that seems to give crown approval," she sent it to the holographic display in front of them.

Loki and Sylvie both leaned in and read it in astonishment.

From the desk of Odin the Allfather

It is with both joy and sadness that I give permission for my second son to wed, he has always I am certain he

All yours, Gods help you!

Odin

"He couldn't even come up with something nice to say about me for my own wedding ! And then never even mentioned it?" Loki sulked, though he was hardly surprised. He rubbed his hand down his face, "So, that's it then?"

The clerk nodded, "Yes, and I'm afraid bigamy is illegal on Xandar, we can't issue you a new marriage license."

Loki put his hands on his hips, "You're telling me I can marry a hundred people but not a hundred and one?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, I hadn't considered that possibility. All parties must also be married to each other. Is Miss Laufeydottir going to be marrying the Garbothians?"

Sylvie crossed her arms, "That would be a big no from me."

"Then I'm sorry I can't help you without proof of divorce."

Just then, Loki remembered something he'd heard years ago that could get him out of his current predicament, "Wait, don't Garbothians only live like twenty years? They must all be dead by now?"

The clerk shook her head, bouncing her pigtails around in the process, "You're probably thinking of Garboth 3, it seems you got married on Garboth 7. The people there live twenty thousand years, give or take a few decades."

Loki sighed, "How am I supposed to go about getting a divorce when I don't even remember who these people are?"

"I'm afraid I can't help you, you'd need to travel to Garboth 7, and seek assistance there."

Loki shrugged as they moved off to allow the next person in line to take their turn, "Well, I guess that settles it, we'll just forget the whole thing and go back to you and me on a beach, just us."

Sylvie scrunched up her nose for a second. She had come here to humour Loki, but the disappointment she was feeling now, as well as a sense of jealousy she knew was irrational, had changed her opinion on the matter.

"Loki, I know I said I didn't care about a piece of paper — but now I really really want you to get that divorce," she walked over to a stand of travel brochures, picked one up and handed it to him, "Looks like we're going on a pre-wedding honeymoon."

"Doesn't the honeymoon usually come after the wedding?" Loki opened the travel brochure and scanned their options. He made sure she had picked up the correct brochure for the correct planet. He wasn't making that mistake again.

"Not when the groom needs a divorce from a hundred Garbothians it doesn't," Sylvie plucked the brochure back from him, took his hand and practically pulled him out of the building. They had planning to do.

As they strolled along, still hand in hand, she smiled to herself. Getting married was turning into a bit of an adventure, and if securing Loki a divorce was a step in the process then she was going to enjoy every minute… and possibly also rub it in whenever he got a bit too sure of himself.

That would be fun too.