Summary:
Sylvie was the first to go back into the bathroom, with Loki hot on her heels.
What they found lying there on the sink truly left no room for interpretation.
"Well...it looks like.."
Sylvie's quiet voice trembled as she uttered the next words.
The atmosphere of the desert around them was bathed in deep purple.
It was unmistakable.
Sylvie's eyes widened as she looked around in disbelief.
"Mobius..why are we on Lamentis 1?"
A/N:
Hey y'all,
this is the sequel to the little Sylki feelgood story I wrote a while ago.
Hopefully you'll like it =)
Thanks for the hearts and the bookmark and thank you very much dear Guest for your Review!
If you have some time, let me know what you think and enjoy reading,
Evey
"Well?"
Loki's voice was a mixture of nervousness and anticipation. Sylvie, who was on the other side of the bathroom door, couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Sylvie, are you okay in there?!"
The eye roll turned into an annoyed sigh.
"Can you please stop asking every twenty seconds and give me some privacy, Loki?"
In response, she first heard his impatient groan, followed by his footsteps, moving away and coming closer again. The enchantress tried to ignore the male bundle of nerves in front of the door and closed her eyes so that she could relax a little.
In the half-minute that she had her peace and quiet, Sylvie was finally able to do what she had actually intended to do.
Apparently, that was also the maximum of silence for Loki.
"What's it look like?"
"Do you really want to know?" Sylvie began, grinning inwardly at what she was about to say, "are we really in that stage of our relationship yet? Okay, if that's what you want..yellow, not a sunny yellow, more of a darker.."
"Sylvie!!! You know exactly what I mean!"
The goddess's grin slowly faded and it was only then that she realized how much her hands were shaking. She stared at the small white object that was, ironically enough, about to decide how their lives would be from now on.
She had survived so many disasters, fought her way through the most hideous worlds and against the most unpleasant creatures, but this..this was something else entirely.
And despite all her attempts to cover it up, she was nervous.
As she opened the door, the enchantress looked straight into the deep blue, expectant eyes of her male counterpart. His gaze went straight to the small object in her hand and he raised an eyebrow.
"So, what happens now?"
Sylvie followed his gaze and twisted her mouth into a wry grin, "Well, either this thing starts to glow before it turns into a champagne bottle and rains confetti down on us, which then forms the words 'Congratulations, your life isn't over yet' above our heads...or it starts to laugh uproariously at us and wish us good luck in raising the devil's spawn.."
Now Loki rolled his eyes theatrically and snatched the test out of Sylvie's hand, which she commented on with a "Hey, I peed all over this!" and took it back.
She gave the demigod a reproving look and placed the test on the sink, "We'll have to wait a few more minutes. Either nothing happens and it'll stay like that, with this one line..or a second one appears..and then God have mercy on us.."
They exchanged one last nervous glance before leaving the bathroom. Now it wasn't just one, but two chaos gods running back and forth in front of the bathroom door full of excitement.
In over a thousand years, nothing had ever felt as long as the next five minutes. Sylvie was the first to go back into the bathroom, with Loki hot on her heels.
What they found lying there on the sink truly left no room for interpretation.
"Well...it looks like.."
Sylvie's quiet voice trembled as she uttered the next words.
"..like you're going to be a father, Laufeyson."
They both flinched as they heard a loud "Yeah!" behind them.
A second later, Love landed exuberantly in Sylvie's arms, who had turned around in the meantime. Now Thor and Mobius came out of hiding and joined them. The blissfully smiling analyst placed a hand on Sylvie's arm, while Thor put his arm around his brother's shoulder and gave him a firm hug.
"Congratulations, brother!" said the thunder god proudly, "I never thought this day would come..."
But at that moment, the two demigods didn't really realize any of this.
Sylvie looked at Loki, whose eyes had filled with tears.
"What do you think, does this suffice as a glorious purpose?"
Loki shook his head in disbelief, without taking his eyes off the enchantress. With the most blissful smile, he pulled her into his arms.
"I love you, Sylvie!"
"Are you looking for us again?" Loki asked, lying barefoot and completely relaxed across her bed with a thick book in front of him.
Sylvie shook her head in reply, but didn't take her eyes off the screen.
"Here they talk about your brother and a woman he had a relationship with. She was a scientist, a certain.."
" ..Jane Foster," Loki finished her sentence.
"Yes, that's right.." she looked at Loki with interest, "they call her 'Thor's great and only love'. Have you ever met her?"
Loki looked up from his book, "I haven't..I would have if the TVA hadn't busted me first."
The goddess continued reading and smiled in admiration, "She must have been pretty clever. It says here that she studied 'The Convergence'..she calls the Rainbow Bridge the 'Einstein-Rosen Bridge'. It would be really cool to meet her some day. I could ask Thor if.."
Loki shook his head and brushed a strand of hair out of her face, "I'm afraid that's no longer possible. She died of cancer some time ago.." then he obviously thought of something that made him grin, "in my 'Greatest Hits', which Mobius showed me back then, I met her..or rather my other variant..got to know her. She slapped me in the face as a greeting."
He laughed and pressed a tender kiss to Sylvie's forehead, "You would have got on well."
"Sounds like it," Sylvie now laughed too, turning back to the screen, reaching for the still hot coffee cup on her bedside table. But before she could even take her first sip, the demigod had already slipped his hand between.
She gave him an irritated look.
"Hey..what's all this about?!"
She immediately tried to get her cup back, but Loki took it and put it down next to him.
"You shouldn't drink so much coffee, Syl."
"Says who?"
"Pretty much everyone..that's a fact."
However, something in Loki's meekly voice felt strange to Sylvie and her eyes fell on the thick book lying on the bed. It was obviously new, because she had never seen it before. Before Loki could even react, she had turned the book over.
"You're kidding me, right?!" the enchantress read the title aloud, shaking her head in disbelief.
"What to do and not to do when you're pregnant"
The look she gave him could at best be described as mild disbelief mixed with a slight hint of amusement.
"Congratulations..I didn't realize you were pregnant, Loki..but as a genderfluid being, I suppose it's within the realm of possibility. It'll be interesting, but we'll figure something out together.."
A short, snide hand gesture followed by a wave of green Seiðr was enough to send the book flying straight into the nearest wall.
"Hey!"
The moment of surprise was enough for Sylvie to reclaim her cup and bring it to her lips with a wink.
"Mhh, I can't tell you how much I love this coffee.." she gushed and demonstratively took a big sip while looking at him with her big green eyes, "..about as much as I love being patronized."
Just as Loki was about to telekinetically pull the book back towards him, Sylvie intervened and it fell to the floor. A tussle of hands and green sparks quickly turned into a full-on battle, which the demigod ultimately won.
Loki, who had managed to get the upper hand and was now on top of Sylvie, grabbing her hands and held them by the wrists next to her head.
"Won," he triumphed, his sly grin stretching from ear to ear.
"For now..you know who laughs last laughs best."
Before she could even finish the sentence, he had pressed his lips to hers.
What began as a tender kiss quickly developed into more as he moved from her lips to her neck, covering her with kisses from the hairline behind her ear to her shoulder. Along the way, he held her wrists in a firm grip.
"That means.." he began, his voice already getting thick and deeper, "I need to press my advantage quickly now, right?"
"You can try," Sylvie replied, who had fought her way out with all her might and, with a not-so-gentle bite to Loki's neck and a burst of energy, managed to flip him onto his back.
Gleeful and a little turned on, she grinned down at him from above, "That's how quickly the tide turns. I hate to say it, but you're slipping, Laufeyson.."
What followed was so fast that the goddess didn't even have the slightest chance to react. She barely saw the green sparks before she was on her back again, her hands propelled above her head, held together by an invisible force.
"Hey, that's unfair!!" she complained, only half-serious. This way of fighting and playing with each other excited them both.
Unfortunately, Loki knew that too.
"I never said I was playing fair.." the demigod's blue eyes were already a little glazed over and had darkened, "..you should have thought about that before you fell in love with a trickster."
"As if I had a choice," replied a visibly excited Sylvie, sticking her tongue out at him, "unfortunately, you stumbled into my life completely unasked with a lot of bravado and your irresistible charm."
"Do you want me to leave again?" the god asked, feigning offense.
"Woe betide you.."
God and goddess looked deep into each other's eyes while Loki freed them both from their clothes with a simple turn of his hand.
"If you plan to run away, I'll chase you all over the multiverse, you bet I will..after all, it's your fault that I'll soon be so fat I won't be able to see my feet."
"And even then you'll still be the most beautiful woman."
Loki pulled the blanket over them both before covering her body with kisses.
Verity looked at her friend, beaming with joy, as Sylvie had just told her the reason why she couldn't drink champagne with her.
"Marvelous!"
She took the blonde woman's hands and squeezed them tightly, "I'm so happy for you both, Syl!"
"Mmpf," Sylvie mumbled to herself, her expression a little pained.
"What's wrong?"
Verity was, as always, concerned when it seemed even a little like something was bothering Sylvie and she loved her for it. It was so fitting that she had been a pediatrician in her former life.
If anyone needed help, Verity was there. However, she could only help her so much in this matter.
"If you like playing Russian roulette in the morning, whether you'll make it to the bathroom on time or throw up on the carpet..and want to stab the man next to you every other day, I recommend you get pregnant!"
Then she thought about her words for a moment, "Okay, the stabbing issue was there before."
At that moment, the waiter came around the corner, "What would the ladies like to drink? We have an excellent red wine.."
"Two coffees, please," Verity interrupted him with a polite smile, "thank you very much."
"You don't have to.." Sylvie began as he took the order, but the black-haired woman waved it away.
"It's healthier anyway."
Sylvie raised an eyebrow, "Yeah? Tell that to Loki..if he had his way, I'd only drink fennel tea from now on."
Verity grinned, "That bad?"
Sylvie leaned towards her friend, her expression annoyed with a small hint of despair, "Two days after we found out, I caught him in bed with a book: 'What to do and not to do when you're pregnant'..TWO DAYS after that, Verity!!!"
The hunter just shrugged her shoulders with a grin, "Well, he just wants to do everything right."
"He's a scaredy-cat and the biggest control freak in the entire multiverse.." Sylvie replied, clutching her head, "..but that's the way it is, I guess..you always buy the whole package."
The two women laughed and the hunter's gaze wandered to Sylvie's stomach, "May I?"
The enchantress nodded, but as it had only been a few weeks, it took a lot of imagination to feel anything.
Verity's hand stroked her friend's belly, "What do you think it will be? I know it's irrelevant really..but do you have a wish?"
Sylvie placed her hand on the other's, "Hm, Love would like a little brother, Loki wants a princess.."
The thought of her male counterpart and how excited he was about what was growing inside her made her smile.
"Mobius says whatever it'll be, as long as it inherits my intransigence, he's not worried about the multiverse.."
Then she thought briefly of the analyst and added with a grin, "..and that he charges double the hourly rate as a babysitter."
The two women laughed and Sylvie shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm already happy if it doesn't have horns."
Once again, she was sitting before a TVA file, which Mobius unexpectedly pressed into her hands without her having asked for it.
"Could this be a variant of him..you know 'He who Remains'?"
Sylvie gave the slightly rushed-looking analyst a suspicious look, "How should I know, Mobius? Don't you have any more hunters working for you?"
"Yes, I do," he began, glancing at his Tempad again and again, "but you are an expert when it comes to these special variants. And I really appreciate your expertise."
Annoyed, Sylvie looked at the file and began to read.
Less than two minutes later, a completely flustered Mobius came back around the corner and stopped in front of Sylvie's table.
"We have an emergency, Sylvie! We have to go now..come on!"
He tugged at her sleeve and got an irritated look back from Sylvie.
"Um, Mobius, you know I'm a huge fan of the TVA and your work," her voice was laced with irony, "but I really don't know if I'm fit for combat right now.."
She pointed to her stomach, incredulous that the analyst had apparently forgotten.
But he just kept tugging on her sleeve, "That's not...just come with me please. We need you!"
Reluctantly, the enchantress stood up and allowed herself to be pulled along by the analyst, who was stressed beyond belief for whatever reason.
He took his Tempad, opened one of the yellow time doors and, with a final deep sigh, she followed him through..
..only to find herself not believing her eyes on the other side.
The atmosphere of the desert around them was bathed in deep purple.
It was unmistakable.
Sylvie's eyes widened as she looked around in disbelief.
"Mobius..why are we on Lamentis 1?"
"Just come with me..they need reinforcements here urgently!" Mobius said and a now completely confused Sylvie followed him through the desert.
After a few meters, they reached the rocky overhang that Sylvie was all too familiar with. This was exactly where she had gone through with Loki.
Only that this was a time before the apocalypse.
What she saw behind the rock took her breath away.
"What the.."
She looked at the analyst, who had replaced his excitement with a warm, happy smile.
"Surprise.."
A sight unfolded before her eyes that she couldn't believe by any stretch of the imagination.
A sea of hundreds of candles formed a street with thousands of white rose petals strewn in the middle. To the right and left stood..
..Thor with Love and Valkyrie, Verity, O.B, Casey..
The road led to two small rocks and when Sylvie realized which rocks exactly, tears welled up in her eyes.
In front of them was the lake.
And there were hundreds of lights floating on the lake too.
When she saw Loki, she pressed her hand over her mouth.
"I can't believe it.."
Mobius led her to the beginning of the sea of candles and then joined the others. As she walked along the path lined with rose petals, she caught smiling faces to her right and left as she passed, but her eyes were fixed on the man at the end of the road.
Shaking her head and holding back tears, she walked towards him, thinking of how they had sat on those very two rocks, waiting for the end.
The moment when their touch turned the reality of the entire universe, and her own, upside down for the very first time.
"Hi," Loki said when Sylvie had reached him.
"Hi," she replied, still shaking her head and grinning at her male counterpart, "nice here, when the world isn't ending."
The god smiled, "I thought it was lovely back then too."
When he took her hand tenderly in his, her breathing stopped and when he got down on his knees in front of her, all the levees broke and Sylvie let her tears run free.
Blue eyes looked deep into green ones and with his other hand he dug something out of his pocket.
A small box.
"Sylvie Laufeydottir, from the first moment we met, I knew that our encounter was special..in so many ways. One of them was that we didn't meet our end in this very place.."
He paused for a moment and they both looked over at the rocks they had been sitting on.
"You fascinated me, you challenged me, you impressed me..you showed me how important free will is and that even I could be wrong from time to time.."
Sylvie raised an eyebrow and grinned at the demigod, "Remind me to make sure I write this monumental confession in my diary.."
Loki squeezed her hand and continued, "I'm glad we made it this far without stabbing each other like you suggested when we first met.."
"You were an incredible pain in the ass though.." said Sylvie, laughing but her voice breaking.
"Something happened to me that I didn't even think was possible anymore..I fell in love with you when we first met and I can't imagine my life without you and your stubbornness. You are the fire to my ice.."
With these words, he opened the small box and took out the sparkling ring.
"Sylvie Laufeydottir, love of my life and soon to be mother of my child..will you marry me?"