To be Loki'd - Loki x fem reader

Chapter 54 - It all comes down to this

You and Loki trek down blonde stairwells, courtyards and passage ways, revealing a city within the castle of Asgard. It feels all brand-new as you realised the extent of what you did not know of here, of the home of the one you loved.

"My mother will meet us there," Loki said.

You simply nodded and followed him, stallking him like a shadow, through the world he knew so well. The halls turned darker as less windows covered the walls and more torches appeared on the walls.

At length, he paused, stuck between the choice of three corridors. There was not a sound except for your chests rising and falling as one. He finally elected one and gently took your hand to beckon you forwards.

After clearing your tied-up throat, you asked, "Where are we going?"

"The royal treasury," he replied stiffly.

"Why?"

"Odin likes to... keep his trophies," A story was underlying his words but his closed, clipped tone made blatantly clear that this was not one to be shared around a campfire or to casually bond. It felt, probably was, deeper and more painful than just another childhood anecdote. Like so many things Loki keeps stowed away neatly.  "The necessary relics are down there."

The realisation dawned stronger upon you that this would be no magic trick, no simple feat. You were risking so much in the balance, for what?

As if mirroring your thoughts, Loki gulped and finally asked, "Why are you doing this?"

You two were going down another flight of winding stairs, deeper into the entrails of Asgard itself.

It was hard to find an answer. Telling him it felt almost like a duty felt wrong and he would remind you that you were not the one responsible for everyone; telling him you wanted to do it sounded either power-hungry or suicidal; telling him it is for Asgard would just seem stupid.

Words stumbled on your tongue.

Why were you doing this?

He paused momentarily to face you. His body was covered in the misty glow of torches, and even so, his eyes spoke more than every book the library of Alexandria could contain.

The only acceptable answer your mind could come up with faltered in your mouth, as you admitted, "For my love to you. For my love of everything that composes you. For this world and its people you cherish so dearly. I have lost my home, and you took me into yours. I could not let you suffer through the same loss as I have."

"You and I are not the same," His emerald eyes were now deep pools of immesurable sadness, "Don't risk sacrificing yourself for what is mine."

He was tired of being a burden for others, and it was one thing he would never allow you to bear.

"We share the same battles now. This has taken me as its home, it is only right I do this."

"Y/n... I feel something. So alien, so different," he took your hand and pressed to his chest. Under all the fabric, his breath was ragged and his heartbeat elevated. "I feel-"

"Fear," you completed.

It looked so new yet so familiar on his face. On his painfully innocent features. He was not just attached to you, he did not just need you.

"Please...", Loki mumbled through his tight throat, "Don't make me lose you."

Like beads on a necklace, he strung the words one after the other. Difficultly, tentatively, like a child trying to speak; or rather a man attempting to tap into his true feelings, into the soft core that still existed within the cold armour encased around his soul and heart.