Unexpected

The Ring

"I don't doubt you Loki." I hesitated, measuring out my words, "I believe everything you've told me. You... you did say that you wouldn't lie to me, and I believe that. I believe that you didn't mean to hurt me or to cause me to worry or to question or to doubt, and... I do forgive you, but what does all this mean then? What happens now? Will you return to Asgard?"

The rising morning sun was all but ignored as I stared up at Loki too overwhelmed to do more than listen as he continued, hardly giving me time to absorb all that he had told me and all the questions running through my mind. "I've striven for that over the last month, rebuilding and bringing order, trying to build a world where there can be peace and prosperity as Asgard has not known in a long while it seems. I have been trying to create a world where there can truly be an 'us', preparing for this day when I could return to you... return for you..."

I blinked, my brows furrowing as I gently let my hands drop from his grasp. Return for me? What did that mean? What was that look in those eyes that were greener than the fresh shades of the new spring leaves of the park? What did that steady, profound look that expressed so much as he gazed down at me mean? It seemed hesitant, wondering, hoping, terrified, and brimming with a host of emotions that I could not differentiate from each other, "Loki? I don't understand..."

Loki sighed, his eyes searching my own like he was trying to find the correct words to say, his expression set to look almost like he was struggling with something inside of him. There was something in that expression that reminded me of the night so long ago at the German gala when he'd taken me up to that room away from the party and music to confess to me for the first time his feelings. That night when he had first kissed me. Something in his eyes had been the same then as they were now. The thought made my heart pound faster and blood rush into my cheeks.

Then, in a moment, his face set in a look of determination, as if he were pulling together all his courage. As if he'd made a decision. His sharp, porcelain jaw was set, his stance firm.

"Do you love me?"

Where had that come from? The sudden question caught me off guard, knocking the air out of my lungs as my eyes widened, "What?"

"I know that I am being far too selfish to ask that after all I've done, but I must know." His long, chilled fingers encircled mine again, gingerly encasing them as if they were something precious as he slowly took another step towards me so that I had to tilt my face up to look at him. His voice grew gentler and softer, lowering until it was barely more than a whisper, "Penelope, do you love me?"

How could he ask that? Wasn't it obvious after all this time? After all we'd been through?

"Yes." The slightest hint of a joyous smile curled his lips at my words, making me smile back at him, huffing a little laugh.

My words and laugh seemed to confirm something to him as the smile faded away again into the earnestness of his previous expression, which was now softened slightly by an expression that could only be described as love. "I have asked so much of you. Far too much, but..."

His eyes never left my own as he slowly, elegantly, deliberately dropped down onto one knee, still clasping my hands gently in his own.

"Loki!" I gasped his name, my arms stiffening in shock as he knelt before me, my eyes growing wide as full moons and my mind suddenly speeding at a million miles an hour, trying to make sense of this as my face grew all the redder as I flustered, "What're you-"

"I love you, Penelope." He interrupted me, his voice as deep and fervent with the power of his emotions as his hands were gentle around my own shaking ones, "I do, so much more than I ever thought possible. Long before I met you I thought I'd been a lost cause; that I would not be able to love with a heart and mind so darkened by malice and pain. I'd given in to the idea that I was a monster from birth and that was all I could ever be. I allowed myself to wallow in ruthlessness, in hatred, in envy and I tried to build myself a throne by burying everything in my way under my feet. I felt no remorse, no guilt. In fact I reveled in how my mischief had evolved into maliciousness... then I met you."