"Mother? What is it?" Loki demanded with panic in his voice. You didn't blame him for panicking, but you were too shocked by Frigga's bad language to pay it much mind at the moment.
Then what she'd actually said kicked in and your stomach dropped in fear and pain. Frigga's words, her tone, her concern. Frigga never lost her cool in the healing wing. She was known for her eternal calm, her gentle healer's nature. You were training to follow in her footsteps and knew her better than almost everyone except Loki and Odin.
In short, there wasn't much that could shake Frigga's calm.
There was even less that could make her curse.
Frigga had you lie back on the bed and activated the full soulforge so you and Loki could see what she had and what had concerned her so much. You saw the image of yourself appear above you, which was definitely a weird feeling. You looked over the image as Frigga manipulated it so she could show you what the problem was. Loki held your hand tightly while she did and you felt his worry and concern.
You realized the problem immediately when Loki's hand was pulled into the soulbond image as well. It was a thermal image, showing your body temperature. It was higher than normal range for an Asgardian, which was already slightly warmer than a human. Except for the two shapes in your stomach and Loki's hand in yours. Both Loki and the twins were much colder than you. Nearly as cold as ice.
The twins were half-jotun.
Loki was full-jotun as far as anyone knew.
Of course there were problems.
None of you had considered that your body might not be able to sustain them, that they would need a cooler environment to survive. You had all assumed they would be able to thanks to their Asgardian halves. You had assumed your body would adapt.
This wasn't adapting.
If this kept up they would die.
And possibly take you with them.
"Are they alright?" you asked Frigga quickly once you'd grasped the problem. You knew there was no way they could be, but you had to get Frigga talking. You needed options and you needed them fast. Especially before the fever got bad enough to scramble your brain. You needed to cool your body temperature quickly for all three of your sakes.
She shook her head. "They can't survive like this. We have to find a way to cool them down, quickly." Your heart fell.
The twins were in trouble.
"How?" you asked while Loki was horrified at the news. You didn't know a way to safely lower your body temperature enough for them to survive.
"We have to lower your core temperature-" Frigga started, considering the best and safest way to do that.
"Mother, she's not a jotun, we can't just drop her temperature to jotun levels!" Loki protested, worried for your safety as much as the twins. If not more than the twins. You were worried for all three of you.
"I know, darling," Frigga said as she summoned a spellbook. "Drop your illusion and cool her temperature for now. I have a better solution, but it'll take me a little while,"
Loki hesitated. He absolutely hated dropping his illusion ever. He hated people seeing him as a jotun, much less touching anyone with his increased cold. Even after all this time, he still saw himself as a monster. You squeezed his hand. "It's alright, Loki. It's just me and Mama Frigga," you reassured him. No one else would see him. He would be safe changing forms in front of the pair of you. It wasn't like you hadn't seen him in jotun form before. Though it only happened rarely. Usually only extreme cold, sickness, or weakness caused him to revert to his natural form.
You and Frigga both knew the fever you had would kill the children. It was your body demanding you cool down to save them. An SOS signal of sorts. Abusing Loki's jotun abilities was the fastest way to get your temperature down. He was way more effective than ice.
Loki hesitated another moment before he closed his eyes and let the magic that kept him looking and feeling Asgardian fade away, leaving him with his sapphire, rune-marked skin, and crimson eyes. You gave him a warm smile when he opened his eyes again. "Handsome as ever, peacock," you reassured him.
"You are fever dazed and biased anyway," Loki told you warmly as he placed his blue hand on your forehead, the other on your stomach above the twins, using his powers to help cool your body temperature. He stayed like that until you cooled, but the second he tried to remove his hands, your temperature shot back up. He replaced his hands in an instant.
He looked over to Frigga. "We need a more permanent solution," he told her, panic seeping back into his voice. You couldn't stay like this for the rest of your pregnancy.
"I know, darling. I have a spell, it will just take a little longer to get ready," Frigga said as she was working from her spellbook. She placed a hand on your stomach and you watched in the soulforge as she twined magic together to surround the twins with pockets of cold that wouldn't affect your core temperature, but would keep them safe. Frigga sagged when it was done. "The spell will need to be recharged every few days" she warned Loki and showed it to him so he could memorize it. Cold spells were easier for him to cast and wouldn't drain him as much as they would anyone else.
"Thank you, Mother," Loki breathed a sigh of relief when all of your vitals returned to normal and he was able to summon his illusion back.
You and the twins were all fine.
You'd be fine now that they had enough cold for them.
Hopefully this would be the last pregnancy problem.
Though things never seemed to work out how you hoped.
