Midgardian princess

Chapter 6

Loki stands on the balcony of his bedroom and looks over the kingdom. You walk closer and wrap your arms around him and lock them together on his stomach. You put your cheek against his back. He covers your hands with his. Light snow falls from the sky.

"There is something I want to show you," you say silently against his back.

"What is it?" he asks and turns around as you let go of him. You see snowflakes on his dark hair.

You show him a glass pendant, it is light purple with darker lines running through it like veins.

"What is this?" he asks and carefully takes it between his fingers.

"That is a present... from my real father," you look at the pendant, "I was brought into the orphanage as a baby, I was left on the doorstep in a snow white basket, I was carefully wrapped in a number of blankets and there was an envelope in there too. When I got older, a nurse gave the envelope to me and after that I have never told anyone about it, not even Frigga."

"So your father left you there?" Loki asks, "He just left you there?"

You could hear a hint of anger in his voice and you take out the envelope, it is slightly wrinkled, inside of it was a letter, the creases worn out from all the folding it has seen. You hand the man the letter.

"Go ahead, read it," you say with a slight smile hiding your sorrow.

Loki carefully folds open the letter and reads it in silence.

My dearest Y/n!

I am so sorry. I am so sorry that I had to do this to you and I need you to know that I would never have done it if I had a choice. You are the light of my life.

Your mother and I were so happy, waiting for you to arrive. Once you did, your laughter filled the house with sunshine and wonder, but soon your mother became very ill and grief overshadowed the cheer you had brought us. With her very last breath she made me promise to keep you safe.

The necklace belonged to your mother, something that has been passed down in her family for generations, I believe she would have wanted you to have it and maybe one day, you too can pass it down.

Dear, Y/n, you are my heart and my soul and I would never leave your side if I had the choice, but I don't. Some very bad people are after me and they won't stop at anything to get to me, I can't keep you safe as long as you are around me so I've made the very hard decision of handing you off. I hope you'll get a family who loves you just as much as your real one and I promise to you, I'll come and find you the day it is safe to do so.

I love you very much,

Daddy

"Every day I waited for him in the orphanage. Every day I looked at the door, waiting for him to bring me home, but he never came," you tell Loki when he folded the letter back together, "I don't know what happened to him or who he was. He might still be out there, somewhere, there is no way for me to know and I don't need to know, it all worked out in the end, I'm here, with you," you look him in the eyes and take the letter back, "I've decided that I want to bind my life to my mother's necklace."

"But it's glass, it could break, you don't want that," Loki takes your free hand.

"It is fitting, a reminder of how fragile a human life is," you say and put the letter away.

Loki offers you the pendant, but you close his hand around it.

"I want you to have it, to keep it safe so once the ritual is done, you will be the one who quite literally holds my life in their hands," you say as you smile.

Loki places a kiss on your lips before taking you into his embrace.

"I will. I will forever protect you and keep you safe, I promise."

***

Spring can't come soon enough, but the kingdom is still covered in snow. You look at the falling flakes through the opening in the wall and complete peace takes over. The white veil of the bed moves with the slight wind and it is cold, certainly colder than usual. Loki doesn't mind the cold at all, but you walk around with a number of shawls wrapped around yourself which amuses him.

Loki turns next to you under the covers and pulls his arm to warmth. His face is calm, his eyes closed. You guess he's still sleeping, but as he places his cold hand on your bare back and the smirk on his lips that you can see after you sharply inhale indicates that he's awake.

"Now that's just mean," you laugh slightly.

He opens his eyes and smiles before pulling you closer.

"Good morning, love," he says and places a kiss on top of your head.

"Good morning," you smile against his chest. You feel him play with a strand of your hair so you gently run your fingers over his side. You feel a very slight twitch from him as you reach his ribs. You gently press down between two ribs and he twitches again.

"Don't you even think about it," you hear him say with amusement.

"Too late," and you start to tickle him. He twists and turns and you climb on top of him to keep him down. The both of you are choking with laughter when he finally catches both of your arms. You place a quick kiss on his lips.

"I didn't know Asgardians are ticklish," you smile.

"There are great many things you don't know about my kind," he is slightly out of breath.

You lie down on top of him with your head against his chest. You can hear his heart beating.

"Tell me."