Love is Mischief

Endings and Beginnings

- Loki's POV -

The months without Y/N have been long and hard. I never thought that I would be a father, let alone a single father, even if it's only temporary. It probably sounds crazy for a prince to complain about raising children when he has the help from the palace, but there are some things that children need their mother for. Apparently I am not good at doing Freya's hair or not great at coming up with little projects for Nari to work on while I have my own work and mama always sings songs when giving the kids a bath so I need to as well. All of these things come naturally to Y/N and the kids and I were desperately missing her. Thor tries to help as much as he can, he clearly loves being around the kids and as much as I hate to admit it, they love him as well. Thor is basically a giant child so I'm not surprised that he gets along so well with them. The problem is that he is awful at telling them no so I end up being the villain majority of the time.

The God of Mischief being defeated by two small children, what a headline that would be. Mischief and chaos are a part of me and yet, here I am, having to tell my children no to having chocolate before breakfast and making sure that they brush their teeth before bedtime. What's become of me? Don't get me wrong, I love being a father, but without Y/N, I am lost. I try to not think about the fact that there is a slim chance that she won't even make it home. I have to hold onto the fact that no news is good news. Getting word from Valkyria would only be bad news so I pray to whatever higher being than myself there is to not let me receive any news at all.

The kids very quickly fell in love with school, not the homework of course, but having friends and getting a chance to truly be kids. It also meant that I had some help with them as their friends parents would have them over to play or simply make sure they got back to the palace safely. Obviously, the children had guards that followed them to and from school, but it was nice to have someone else look out for them as well. As someone who was not used to asking for help, it definitely took some getting used to. The other parents were wary of having me around at first so I would typically bring Thor along for after school pickup. It didn't take too long to convince the other parents that I had changed though as it is hard for me to keep up my prickly exterior when my children are around.

My days pass by the same:

1.) Wake up - way too early for my standards
2.) Take on the difficult task of getting my children ready
3.) Bring the children to school
4.) Follow the Allfather around to his many boring meetings
5.) Pick the children up from school
6.) Attempt to get them to sit still long enough to get homework done
7.) Try to put the children to bed in their own rooms
8.) Fail miserably at the last and give in to their demands of staying in my room
9.) Pass out from sheer exhaustion and prepare to repeat it all tomorrow

Training to take over the throne was a much more boring affair than I realized. I've known the basic in's and out's of it since I was boy, I was raised a prince after all. What I'm learning now is more specific and way more boring. Sitting through council meetings and security meetings were terrible, but the monthly public courts were the bane of my existence. Having to listen to everyone's similar, yet different demands of the kingdom were pointless and just a waste of time. I didn't expect to be having parties every night as king, but there had to be more to it than this.

The only excitement I received were the occasional brawl or attack I would be informed about so that judgement could be made. Sending people to the dungeons was fun on it's own, but I quickly realized that I could be as creative with the punishments as I pleased. Out of sheer boredom, I once made someone tap dance for hours as his punishment. It was worth it to see the guards in the throne room trying to stifle their laughter. Even Odin had to hold back his laughter, but failed after awhile.

The day was finally here, the Valkyrie were returning from the trials and I was pacing the throne room anxiously. We were still waiting for the final results of who passed/failed. Apparently the final trial is the hardest and it goes up until the final day. Luckily, the kids were at school today so they didn't have to see the nervous mess that I was. Eventually, a guard informed us that they were due back within the hour so we made our way to the entrance of the palace to see them home. I had to put my court mask back on and try to look indifferent, but it was posing difficult. Thor was clearly a mess and not hiding it well, you would think it was his fiancée that we were waiting for.