A Bang and a Whimper

38

It is very late at night when Sif knocks on Loki's door. He is asleep, but the third time she knocks, he answers.

"Sif, your face- did someone hit you?" He reaches to gently touch her jaw and she catches his hand. He brings her into the room and closes the door.

"Only once." The bruise on her cheek has to be turning dark. She has not seen it yet, but she knows based on how much it hurts that it is not pretty.

"Are you in danger?"

"No."

He settles onto the couch and gestures for her to sit beside him, "Tell me what happened."

"Father did not let me say my piece when I arrived, but insisted that I take supper with him."

"That does not explain the bruise, my lady."

"I sat through the meal planning my words. And when we retired to the drawing room, I told him I was going marry you one way or another. His blessing has any bearing on how I feel. He was not happy. We went back and forth for a while. He insisted that I was marrying the wrong Odinson. I told him that marrying Thor would be like marrying my brother. Or Fandral. He said Fandral would be a good option, I should consider it. I laughed. He did not like that. There was more shouting. And then he told me that if I chose this, I would be leaving his family without a chance of returning."

"Oh no, Sif...."

"I spat at his feet and went to leave. I had to pass him. He caught my arm and hit me. I hit back. He asked how I dared hit my father. I reminded him that he had just said I was no longer his daughter. And then I left."

"I cannot ask you to leave your family for me."

She cups his face in her hands, "You did not ask. He gave me a choice. I made it. You speak from your own heartbreak at losing your family. But I am a grown woman and he has been angry since I came back a bold shieldmaiden and not a demure lady of the court."

"You are absolutely certain?"

"You believe I would not be?"

"I do not know. But I do not want you to regret this."

She kisses him in reply.

"Father said he will consider you his daughter."

"Odin has learned much about the nature of family from both his sons."

"Possibly from his granddaughter most of all."

"We have all learned much from the girl."

"As I have said many times before, she is a light."

She slips her arms around him and drapes her legs across his lap, "Yes, she is."

He holds her and they sit quietly for a few moments, his head resting on her chest, her cheek against his hair.

"So..." he says, "a year and a day."

"Hmmm, perhaps."

"Oh?"

"It will be Midsummer's Eve before long."

"Go on...."

"Is that not when things started? Under the stars, by the light of the bonfire? One year?"

"Tradition adds an extra day."

"So after midnight."

Loki's smile creeps across his lips for the first time all day, "Are you suggesting what I think you are?"

"Oh, I think it is likely."

"Say it plainly. Please, Sif, as clear as the skies on Midsummer's Eve."

"Shall we pledge ourselves to one another by the bonfire, by the light of the stars and the laughter of the village children? Shall we dance the night away, drinking hot spiced wine to the music of the land itself?"

He cannot help but laugh and kiss her, laying down on the couch, pulling her on top of him, "Oh yes, my lady love. We shall."

"We will talk to your family in the morning. I will invite the Warriors Three to take tea with us over breakfast."

"But what of the law that we will not be fully wed? Merely partners?"

"I will ignore it as I have always ignored the social conventions I do not like. When one is a warrior lady, one gets used to simply discarding the parts of our culture that are ridiculous."

"A prince does not have that luxury."

"Yes, he does. He has the power to treat them as absurdities. Your brother did so when he accepted me as his equal on the battlefield. And when he accepted that I would wear armor, not a dress, to court. And when he accepted Jane as his wife and called her nothing less."

This is a revelation to Loki- that he does not need the law to change first. That he can ignore that the difference has any meaning at all. And so can his family. And he can also ignore those who treat them as anything less than married.

It is the same thing that Thor was trying to teach him about his heritage- there are few who would dare stand against the king when the king says a brother from Jotunheim is still a brother. And if he says Sif is his sister, wed to his brother, few will stand against them. Especially if the All-Father confirms this.

"Things might not be as terrible as I had feared."

"Things are most definitely not as terrible as either of us feared. My father made his decision. We have made ours."

"Love wins."

"Yes. Love wins."