Loki through the multiverse

What's the matter?

It was evident that something was troubling Loki. Your suspicions only grew during the morning when he would mumble things under his breath and seem lost in his own thoughts, barely even acknowledging you.

Whenever he was stressed, he had a tendency to scratch his forehead or mindlessly tug at his own hair. You wanted nothing more than to take his hands in yours and hold him, but it wasn't always that easy.

Typically, you would simply ask him about things and he would open up to you. After all, you were married. The level of trust between you made it easy to discuss anything you could possibly think of. Things just flowed between you like that. However, no marriage, no matter how good, was flawless.

You had tried to offer a listening ear, but Loki made it clear that he had no desire to discuss what was bothering him, not now at least. Fair enough. You decided to give him some space and hope he would come to you once he felt ready to talk about what was clawing at his mind so deeply.

After disappearing during noon, you had been in your shared home enjoying a lazy day by cooking a delicious dinner and taking care of yourself. Your home was close to the palace, on royal grounds. Loki was your husband as much as he was the prince of Asgard. His duties kept him busy and living by the palace did have its perks.

You had your duties as well, but on that day you had the house all to yourself. In a way, it was relaxing. The privacy gave you time to think about the past few days and do whatever you wanted to do, even taking a bath and staying soaked in the floral-scented bath oils until the water turned cold. By the time you had gotten dressed and nearly finished making dinner, Loki came back home. You hoped he was ready to talk to you now.

With a smile on your face, you walked up to Loki who was standing awkwardly by the entrance to the kitchen.

"How was your day?" You wondered innocently as you approached him, reaching to wrap your arms around him until Loki stopped you by grabbing your hands, simply holding them instead of being embraced. It was strange of him to do so, but you didn't say anything yet.

"It was nothing out of the ordinary, to put it nicely," Loki pulled his lips into a thin line. He was clearly hiding something and for some reason, he felt the need to hide the truth from you. It had never been an issue for him to blatantly tell you about how horrible his day was so why was today different?

After briefly considering your options, you decided to hit the nail head on and ask him what was really going on. You didn't want him to dwell on things and let his worries pile up in his head, you also knew that any conversation with him would feel forced if you didn't address the obvious.

"What's bothering you, my love?" You squeezed his hand and caught the sorry look on his face. It quickly turned into something riddled with annoyance.

Loki squeezed your hands back before letting go, "Nothing." Just like that, he walked past you and avoided facing your pitying eyes. Right now, the last thing Loki felt deserving of was pity.

He was a great liar, but right now you saw right through him. Did he think you would believe that? If anything, that only worried you furthermore. So many questions began to run circles in your mind. What could possibly be so bad that he wouldn't discuss it with you? Had you done something? Would it be worse to let it go or keep pressing? Both options felt wrong, but you also didn't want Loki to suffer alone. Maybe all he needed was a tiny push?

"You know you can talk to me, right?"

When he had returned home, you had not expected the tension to build up so quickly. Even with his back turned to you, posed so tall and strong, you could tell he was crumbling. Everything about him shouted that he was annoyed, possibly exhausted.