Transparent ❅ Loki

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SHE traced a half-moon shape on his forehead and made lines down his cheeks with her fingertips, humming a tune that she couldn't remember who first sang it. Perhaps it had been her mother or Frigga. Loki lay back on the bed, head resting on her crossed legs. He set his book down and gripped onto her wrist. "Stop that, wife," he began, pleased with his use of her newest title, "or I may not be able—" 

Syn laid her finger over his lips, silencing him with a slight smile. "Hush now, Loki, I'm your betrothed, not wife," she chided.

"Same difference," he noted with a shrug. It was with that statement that she could tell that he was hiding something. A lie of sorts that she could see through like a thin veil. Syn frowned and loomed over him. "Something is bothering you and I'd rather you tell me than lie."

Loki turned his head so that he did not have to look into her clear, haunting eyes. He drew in a deep sigh. Their wedding was to be within the next three months, but before he could have his happiness, Thor had to have his. "Odin has announced Thor's ascension to the throne."

Syn trailed her fingers along his neck and reached over him to take hold of his hands. Loki watched her, curious, as he never seemed to be able to decipher what went on in the depths of her mind. Despite long years together, she remained an enigma.

A soft blue glow emanated from her hands. The God of Mischief gave her a fleeting smile and pushed his energy toward her. Green and blue combined to form a cyan-colored light that radiated from their palms. It was one of the tricks they had recently discovered. Around one another their powers were stronger.

"Has he set a date?" She asked, softly, knowing that Loki was unhappy with the arrangement. Syn thought she knew the reasons behind Odin's hasty actions, but she could not be entirely sure.

"Two months from today," he responded.

❅❅❅  

The day of Thor's coronation had come. Asgard was eager to celebrate the ascension of the Crown Prince. The time had come for a new king. She stood with her mother and father in the congregation, happy for her friend despite Loki's apprehension.

But with Odin's announcement of Frost Giants, the day's events spiraled downward. Loki found Syn with his mother and Vör. He assured the three women the problem had been dealt with. The Destroyer had seen to those that had entered the vault. Syn followed him onto one of the balconies, knowing that he was hiding something.

She reached for his hand. Thor would go to Jötunheim with his brother, Sif, and the Warriors Three in tow. "Don't go." There was a budding premonition in her gut that she could not explain. He shook his head. "I can't talk him out of it," Loki countered. Syn wore a deep frown, but he loosely gripped onto her hands and leaned forward, pressing a short kiss upon her brow. 

She stood on her balcony, waiting for the signs of their return. The Bifrost was alight in the setting suns and again moments later.

He stormed into her chambers, face distorted with anger yet she could see tears had left streaks down his cheeks. "You see truths, so tell me what it is you see," Loki sneered. Syn sat up on her bed and took a calm breath, though her silence only made him more volatile. "Tell me!"

She stood from the bed and moved toward him, not saying a word. When she was within an arm's reach, Syn reached forward and seized his pale face in her hands, forcing him to meet her eerily calm gaze despite his outburst. "I see you, Loki," she whispered, voice smooth and melodic. "Trickster and wordsmith," she mused, a soft smile on her features, "my best friend."

For a brief second, shame and guilt clouded his expression and quailed his anger. "You have terrible taste in friends," he muttered, shaking his head. Loki squeezed his eyes closed.

Syn skimmed over his pale features, nothing was out of place save for a small scratch on his temple. It healed instantly when she ran her thumb over it. "Now tell me what's wrong," she whispered and he had to wonder if hypnosis was one of her skills as well.

"Everything." His voice cracked. He knows. She gripped onto his wrist and closed her eyes, murmuring in the ancient language beneath her breath. Blue crawled up his skin at the contact. He looked down with wide eyes as she revealed his true form, unfazed. "How?" he breathed, disbelieving.

"I see truths, Loki," she told him. That was her title, after all, a gift and a curse. "I've always known." Was her soft response. "I've always been able to see past the glamour." That was why she traced half-moons on his forehead and lines down his cheeks and neck. She knew where the markings lay, even with his Æsir glamour.

"And you said nothing?" He snapped in return, bitter.

"I was made to swear an oath to Odin. I could say nothing," Syn explained. She was young at the time and had questioned Frigga about it, though the queen took her directly to the Allfather. "When a goddess gives her word it cannot be broken." That was the nature of her oath, she could not break it, for if it was broken then her life would be forfeit. That had been Odin's reason for naming her the Goddess of Creeds as well.

Loki looked down at his hand and back to her. He stumbled to find words. His world had shattered in all but a few hours. "Even knowing this?" Syn frowned, knowing well what he was trying to do and what he meant to ask. 

She shook her head. "Don't Loki. We have always been close friends and now we are lovers and I have known the entire time. It changes nothing." She rose up and placed a soft kiss on the corner of his icy, thin lips.

She didn't realize at the time that it could have been their last kiss.

❅❅❅

"Syn?" Thor pushed open the door to his brother's chambers. She lay in the center of Loki's bed, swathed in the deep green material of one of his capes—with her white hair, it was a suiting color. Syn turned to face Thor, but it was hard to look at him knowing that Loki was gone. It pained her to be on Asgard at the moment.

"Leave me," she said in a voice that was broken and hoarse.

Thor did not listen.

Instead, he strode forward and took a seat on the edge of the bed. Glancing around at the books that were scattered around the room, the tunic that was carelessly tossed over the back of a chair, the throwing daggers that were neatly hung on the wall. He looked down, barely opening his clenched fist to be sure that the two pieces were still there. "I have something you should have," he told her.

Syn sat up. The God of Thunder shifted and opened his fist. The two golden rings were dwarfed within his palm. She took them into her trembling hand and clutched them close to her chest, falling forward into Thor's chest.

She had begun crying again, Thor could feel the shaking of her shoulders and the dampness on her cheeks against his neck. He wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly, only then did he realize that he was crying too. 

Honestly, wtf was Infinity War?