Echoes in Time

Infinite Love...

"Don't leave..." he put his hand on her arm, his eyes glued to her face. "Please, Elli, please, my love... my life."

Her eyes were trained on his hand where it lay. The hand she hand imagined for so long. The hand that had written the letter that brought Mobius - and Loki - back here. It had been so very long. Slowly, she looked up, meeting his gaze. His perfect gaze.

"Oh Loki, this... " she paused, trying to collect her thoughts, "this isn't what you wanted. You wanted Sygn, you proved that. Just because she's gone doesn't change anything. You don't want - or need - me. Not me, not then, not now." her voice was soft, like summer rain he thought. In all the years, it had never changed.

He came and knelt at her feet, taking her shaking hands in his. She looked down at him, and her soul clenched. Could she believe in a happy ending. Dare she?

"You're wrong, Elli,"he countered gently, trying to reign in his panic. "I did... I DO want you, exactly as you are, here and now." he smiled, and he could see a glimmer of something behind her eyes. He kept speaking. "Sygn was a mistake. A HUGE mistake. The worst mistake I ever made, over all the millennia, over all the stupid things I've EVER done. But it was all to save you. I promise. I just wanted to make sure you would be ok."

She looked at him and saw not a God, not a Prince, just a man. A beautiful, regal, sorrowful man. She sighed. Was it really that easy?

"I'm sure you think so, Loki, but how do I know this isn't just another 'Silvertongue' episode? I waited years Loki, just as my Gr... well, you get the drift... She waited her whole life for you, too. I'm not a girl anymore, Lokes."

He smiled, two dots of pink in his cheeks. Even now, her pet name for him gave him a thrill. Only two others had ever given him a pet name. No one else, not even Mobius, had cared enough. "Lokes eh, we're back to Lokes?" his eyes glittered, and despite everything, she had to huff out a laugh.

"See? Even now, I find it almost impossible to be annoyed at you." she shook her head, and he saw the silver glinting in her once dark locks, an echo of another love, so long ago. "But I AM annoyed Loki. I am annoyed and disappointed and frustrated. You went away, no matter how noble yiu tried to say you were being. You abandoned me and you left me to grow old alone. It's been mere moments for you, but it's been twenty-five years for me. Twenty-five lonely years, Loki." Her eyes stung, and her chest burned, but she wasn't going to cry. Not this time.

She broke free from his grip and sat on the arm of the sofa. "It was so hard Loki. At first, I waited, ever hopeful. Then I cried, ALOT. Then? Then I thought of searching for you, but how do you find someone like you? "

"There is no one like me, love," he smirked, unable to resist. She frowned, and he instantly wished he'd kept his mouth shut.

"See? That's EXACTLY what I mean. Nothing of this really means anything serious to you. It's a mere heartbeat, isn't that what you once said? To me, though, it's a lifetime. How do I forgive a lifetime's anguish? We'll never get that time back, Loki. It's gone. And so..." she stood up, "am I."

She crossed to the door, leaving him standing in the room, his armour glinting in the sunshine just like the first time she'd seen him as who he really was, Fandral at his back, grinning like a devil as she collapsed into fangirl meltdown.

"Goodbye Loki, Prince of Asgard. Know that when I die, you will be my last and only thought. We will never see each other again." she opened the heavy door and stood, breathing in the pine-scented air. "I will miss this place. But now? It is no longer my home. I won't return."

As Loki watched in horror, she carefully lifted her suitcase and descended the wooden steps, carved with his runes of protection and the images of serpents. He'd done them himself, not by magic, but as a show of his devotion when he could say nothing. Had she even noticed over the years? Had they been mere pictures to her?