But Never Doubt My Love

Chapter Five - The Forth Letter

It took around a month and a half for the next letter to arrive. Loki had been thinking that the letters had stopped, and was about to give up hope until the mail man arrived smiling widely as he handed Loki the letter. Loki brought the letter inside and ripped it open.

“My dearest Loki,

I have never been one to hold a grudge; you of all people would know that. But what I’m going to ask of you today will not be easily done, and I apologise. I want you to summon Heimdal, go to Asgard, and make amends with Odin. Your mother and brother should be supportive and help but you need to do it by yourself. I know its going to be hard, I know you can do it.

From Tom.

PS. Doubt thou the stars are fire, doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth be a liar, but never doubt my love.”

Loki stared at the letter and felt anger and hurt build up in him. He ran into the bedroom and snarled as he faced Tom's urn. “You betrayed me! Why would you ask of such a thing from me!” Loki was panting now, “I WILL NOT MAKE AMENDS WITH THE MAN THAT KILLED YOU!!” Loki was screaming now. His eyes ached from crying so much and he was pulling his hair so hard as he paced that he ended up fainting from lack of oxygen.

“I’ve been summoned.” Loki said bitterly as he entered the bedroom where Tom was reading his book ‘Coriolanus.’ Tom lifted his eyes from his book and raised an eyebrow. “Do you know why?” Tom asked as he moved over so that Loki could sit next to him.

Loki sighed angrily as he lay next to Tom and rested his head on Tom's chest. Tom smiled softly and ran his hands through Loki's long raven like locks. “I do not, and I do not wish to go. Especially since they asked you to come also.” Loki grumbled as he nuzzled Tom's chest.

Tom chuckled softly, “well unlike you, I like it in Asgard. I also like spending time with your mother, she’s very lovely.” Tom said as he ran a hand down Loki's side, trying to sooth him. Loki just continued to grumble, but after much dispute he agreed to going.

When they arrived In the BiFrost Frigga, Loki's mother was there to greet them. She took both boys in her arms and hugged them tightly. She turned to Loki and gave him a sympathetic look. Loki knew that look. His mother being the goddess of fertility of course she would know about Alice. That or Thor told her. Loki just took Tom's hand and led him down the rainbow bridge, Frigga was following behind.

At the palace, Loki and Tom were expected to go to the throne room to see odin. Once they entered odin raised his eye from his feet to meet Loki's eyes. Loki and Tom walked to the throne and kneeled. Odin gave them the signal to rise and took in Loki's appearance. “I heard about the babe, how tragic.” Odin said as if he didn’t care. Frigga scolded her husband at the lack of his sympathy. “Odin, you of all people should know how hard it is to lose a child, we lost Baldr remember?” Frigga snapped as she walked behind Loki and rubbed his back softly. Tom and Loki were visably upset and Loki was getting angrier by the second. Tom squeezed his hand affectionately as he started to run the pad of his thumb over Loki's hand. Odin nodded, “my apologies.” He said, clearly not sorry at all. “where is thor?” Loki asked before Odin could open his mouth again. “Vanaheim, there have been riots, he left this morning.” Loki nodded. After an awkward silence Odin dismissed Loki and Tom. Once they had gotten out of the throne room, Loki visably relaxed and practically ran to their room. When they were inside Loki broke down. Tom sat beside him, rubbing his back and kissing his temple trying to calm him down. Tom was about to say something to Loki when a knock at the door disrupted him. Tom went to answer it as Loki clearly wasn’t going to.

When Tom arrived back to Loki he was holding a small package and a note. Tom read the note as he opened the package. Inside was a golden apple. Loki's heart leapt at the sight of it. He reached for it and Tom handed it to him. “I know you said you would only eat one if we were to have a child… but the opportunity has presented itself for us, and we can try for other children later in life.” Loki said quietly as he raised his eyes to meet Tom's. Tom smiled and took the apple from Loki. Loki was about to say something else when Tom took a bite from the apple. Loki smiled as Tom chewed. There was a moment after Tom had swallowed where Loki could see that something was wrong. Tom started coughing, at first Loki thought he was choking but he wasn’t. Tom fell on the ground and was visibly shaking as he coughed into his hand. He pulled his hand away to see blood dripping off of it. Loki panicked and yelled at the top of his lungs for the guards to get the healers.

When the healers arrived Tom was worse. His hair was losing its golden shine and becoming dull and grey. His cheeks were becoming hollow and he had started vomiting more blood. Frigga arrived with the healers and consulted Loki while they worked on Tom. Loki's eyes were fixated on Tom's trembling form as his mother was talking to him. He didn’t hear anything; he only heard the sound of his blood pumping at an accelerated rate. Frigga shook Loki to snap him out of it but it was clear that he was in shock. Frigga sat Loki down and walked over to the healers who had stopped the episode that Tom had. They told her what was wrong and she walked back to Loki. Loki could see that Frigga was practically in tears as she knelt in front of him. “Loki… Loki look at me.” He looked down at her. “There’s nothing they can do for him Loki, he’s been cursed and no one is powerful enough or knows how to reverse it.” Loki felt his whole world shatter with that one sentence. He looked over to the bed to see that the healers had stabilized him and he was sleeping. The only thing keeping Loki remotely grounded was the small rise and fall of Tom's chest. Loki's sadness soon turned into anger as he picked up the note the apple arrived with and stormed out of the room. “Look after him until I get back!” he yelled. He ran to the throne room and right up to Odin. “THIS IS TAKING HATING THE MIDGARDIANS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL ALLFATHER!” he yelled as he wrapped his hands around Odin’s neck. The guards quickly ran for Loki and pulled him off of the Allfather, making him kneel at the foot of the throne. “And what is it you are accusing me of trickster?!” Odin said loudly. Loki threw the note at him. “YOU HAVE JUST KILLED MY HUSBAND!” Loki screamed at the top of his lungs. Odin picked up the note and screwed it up, make a flame and burnt it. “As I’m aware he is not dead yet and… if you are going to accuse me, where is your proof?” Odin stated. Loki yelled and kicked as the guards dragged him out of the throne room and down the hall to his room where Tom was just regaining consciousness. The healers had gone and Frigga had stood up from the side of Tom's bed at the sight of her son being dragged in. Loki went over to Tom while Frigga went outside to speak with the guards. Tom smiled when he finally opened his eyes properly and saw Loki. But the smile was soon gone once he saw Loki was crying. “What’s wrong darling?” he asked weakly. Loki sobbed and got into the bed with Tom, hugging him tightly.

Loki explained everything and soon they were back on Midgard. Loki called Tom's family and told them what was happening and slowly Tom started to deteriorate. His legs stopped working, and one by one his organs were failing. Sadly Tom died two months after they got back from Asgard.

 

Loki sat up quickly as he was awoken by thunder. Thor entered the house and saw his brother on the floor. “Are you alright brother?!” Thor asked as he ran over to him. “I’m fine.” Loki said quietly as he stood up. He told Thor about everything, the letters from Tom and about his latest request. Thor nodded along with everything. When Loki had finished, he was in tears and his brother was holding him. “This is one request brother you cannot complete, Not only for your sake, but… I now reign as king. Father has fallen into the Odin sleep and this time it looks as if he will not wake up.” Loki nodded and sighed, glad to of gotten everything off of his chest. “He always did have impeccable timing.” Loki said with a slight growl.  Thor nodded, “mother is sorry that she couldn’t come herself but she wanted me to tell you that she should be down to see you soon... You can always come home Loki.” Loki shook his head. “This is home. Where Tom is, is home.” Thor nodded again and he and Loki came to the conclusion that he should stay the night.