#honestly this could be any of odin's ships

[sieglinde-freud]

problem is that the inigo lover in me wants to wife him up every time i play the game but unfortunately i do not like robin/inigo or corrin/laslow so its just like. man. putting a ring on his finger but shaking my head the whole time so everyone knows im not having fun

[fluffyfantasticducky]

Mistakes and regrets

☆ Pairing: Loki x Reader

☆ Synopsis: Loki is a prisoner that sees his way out through pretending to date you, but when he finds true love he doesn't know how to deal with the guilt of making a very similar damage to the one that had been done to him when he was used for what originally were selfish reasons.

☆ Word Count: 10.5k, I think that's my longest fic yet, and written in the shortest time lapse, not sure what that says about my mental stability rn.

☆ Notes: As I proofread I noticed this could be interpreted as generational trauma, sort of... given I made Loki sort of mirror what Odin did to him. But I wasn't trying to be deep, I just felt like shit during the week and used this to cope. The fic might be cringy as a result, I am honestly not sure.

☆ Warnings: Depression and guilt are the focus points of this storyline. Loki starts is kinda toxic his behavior here isn't meant to be romanticized or intended to be extrapolated to real life, I just wanted to explore a narrative surrounding poor decisions and the dealing of its consequences. The reader is kinda a Mary Sue of sweetness but I just wanted to hammer in Loki feeling bad and guilty. I don't know if this is a trigger but I touch the vault scene of Loki and Odin and Odin being forgiven is also handled, Idk if that's trigger warning worthy but I know most of the fandom hates him.

“You’re not making it any for me brother.” Thor spoke through the glass.

“I want my freedom, brother.” Loki sighed, sitting down on the uncomfortable bench. “Don’t think of me as ungrateful, but as much as I appreciate not being executed, I can’t exactly call this a life.”

“Director Fury insisted, I’ve tried explaining to him that New York was a complicated situation. But he wants to be sure you are not a threat to Earth– uh, Midgard.”

“You've surely adapted well to living here” Loki rolled his eyes. “Pathetic.”

“Cooperate with me, I brother” Thor begged. “I want to help you, but I need you to help me first.”

“I’m not sure what I am expected to do from here” Loki huffed annoyed.

Thor sighed and gave his little brother a sympathetic look. Loki was frustrated, and he couldn’t blame him. He would be too if he got brainwashed, had all his anger, sense of betrayal and resentment exploited to torture an innocent planet, and still be the one to pay for said crimes… Sure he wouldn’t be all jokes and laughs.

“I’ve been negotiating a way to test your stability and get your freedom” Thor smiled hoping to cheer up his brother. And he made Loki look up. “It’d be a bit uncomfortable at first. But I know you can prove yourself. You’d have to wear cuffs or a while, but you’d be free to walk around with me and the others on trips to the city.”

“Hooray…” Loki rolled his eyes.

“Please brother, I’m trying, I just need you to be patient.” Thor spoke sadly as he made his way out. “I hate this as much as you do.”

“Do you?” Loki said. “As far as I know, you’re not the one in a crystal cell.”

“Alright, almost as much as you do.” Thor joked softly and Loki did chuckle weakly.

He agreed that Thor had been furious. But it all happened so fast.

Thor had managed to land a fatal blow on Thanos’ chest and soon Steve, Natasha, and Bruce had arrived to back him up and retrieve the Infinity gauntlet. They opened a portal to bring back Tony, Doctor Strange, and the Spider Ling… And surprisingly a weird group of space travelers.

When Thor realized they could travel to anywhere in the universe they opened a portal to rescue the Asgardian ship. There were a lot of severe wounds but surprisingly Thanos had failed, he underestimated the strength of Asgard, and most people could be saved.

“Thor!” Valkyrie screamed and rushed to hug the king.

“Valkyrie! You are alright! Thank goodness!” Thor smiled in relief and hugged his friend.

“Thor you have to come quick!” Valkyrie urged him. “It’s Loki!”

Thor’s heart sank, his heart couldn’t stand burying the only family member he had left. Thor had lost his parents… he had seen his whole planet die. But not his baby brother. Not Loki. Not again.

“Please… not now… Let’s treat the wounded ones first…” Thor spoke with a knot on his throat. “I want to focus on saving lives first.”

“Thor, you don’t get it! He’s alive!” Valkyrie scolded him. “But he’s in a critical state! We need to take him to a safe place to treat him.”

A tear streamed down the new king’s face, and he felt as if he had finally put down a enormous boulder he had been holding onto. He didn’t lose Loki.

“Take me to him!” Thor urged them.

Valkyrie took Thor to a damaged room in the ship that had been used as an improvised infirmary. In the corner laid a figure Thor knew too well being treated by healers.

“Brother!” Thor said. “Oh Gods… You’re alive…”

“You can’t get rid of me that easily thunder brain… ugh…!” Loki joked weakly as he groaned in pain. The healers begged him not to move as they tried stabilizing his condition. His neck had been nearly obliterated.

It was a miracle Loki hadn’t died and that the healers had managed to find him on time.

“We couldn’t abandon him” one of the healers spoke politely to her king. “After all, it was because of you and prince Loki that Lady Valkyrie managed to evacuate the survivors. We apologize for not finding you, my king.”

“It’s no problem at all” Thor laughed in an uncharacteristically quiet manner. He was breathless. “Thank you for saving my brother’s life.”

The lady healer let out a sheepish giggle and bowed. Loki rolled his eyes, earning a lecture from the healers that were still treating him. King or not, Thor still had that charm that seemed to make most people swoon.

The reunion was interrupted by a group of soldiers that broke in with a logo on their uniforms that made Thor’s blood boil when they pointed their weapons at Loki. SHEILD.

They picked up the stretcher where Loki was laying in and took him away to lock him up.

Apparently, the news travel fast, but SHIELD travels faster, and hearing Loki was alive was enough to mobilize and capture the injured God and lock him in a crystal prison cell in a SHIELD base. If Loki had a coin for every time that happened… he’d have two.

He couldn’t say Thor didn’t do anything about it. He could hear the thunders and enraged screams from his brother, demanding for an explanation and Loki’s immediate liberation.

“I demand my brother is released immediately!” Thor yelled.

“You should consider yourself grateful we’re allowing your witches to go and heal that world-level threat! He would be better off dead!”

“Don’t you dare speak of my brother like that! Me and all of my people would’ve died if it wasn’t for him!”

Loki wasn’t sure if he was amused or if he felt bad.

It did stroke his ego being called “Asgard’s hero” in the middle of the yelling. It shouldn’t have surprised him that Nick Fury was just as loud as Thor when angry. He couldn’t complain much. It made it much easier to hear what was going on, which was good, he was too weakened to use his magic to spy on them.

The healers tending to his neck sure seemed awkward overhearing the fight. It must have been uncomfortable to be doing your job in a high security cell. So, he tried entertaining the healers as he could. Although all he got was a lecture when his magic drained his energy, and they needed him awake to monitor him.

Soon he got better, he but wasn’t allowed to be out of his cell. It was a bit nostalgic, in some dark and twisted way. It even made him want to fix his old horned helmet, even if Thor would call him a cow for wearing it.

And when things couldn’t get worse… he met you.

“It’s lunch time” a voice said in a weirdly friendly tone before you head popped by the entrance as you balanced a tray of food on your head in an attempt to amuse Loki. He wondered if there were buffoons in Midgard, but you always tried to draw a laugh from him… Tried.

“Tough crowd, eh?”

Loki couldn’t not be baffled by the way you talked to him. Although he couldn’t decide if that was because you surely knew his reputation as Midgard’s terrorist or because you always talked in a friendly and goofy tone in a maximum-security prison in a super-secret spy agency. You also seemed to be awfully young to be here, but you couldn’t be much older than the girl Barton took as his protégée.

“What’s on the menu today?” Loki asked in a more formal tone.

“Why the hurry?” you asked, “don’t tell me you got somewhere else to be.”

“You think you are a lot funnier than you really are” Loki rolled his eyes. “And it’s not very nice to make fun of someone’s disgrace.”

“I hear you think I’m at least a little bit funny” you smiled as you kept balancing the tray of food on your head.

“Please don’t drop my food, I’d like to have at least something to eat” he rolled his eyes.

You tripped on your feet, and he saw the tray falling down, you caught it last second with your shins, and gave him a little sheepish grin.

“Alright, alright, I’m impressed” Loki groaned. “Can I eat now please? Or is having you torment me part of some attempt to break me?”

“Why are you so moody?” you asked. “More than usual, I mean.”

“I’m starving, and you humans eat way too little” Loki finally admitted. “But that is still better than nothing… Please.”

You stopped playing around and you looked at him as you got the tray into his cell.

“Sorry, I didn’t know you were eating so little.” You admitted.

“I barely have energy to cast small illusions, which would serve to entertain myself.” Loki complained as he sat to eat and you sat by the table and looked at him, you didn’t seem afraid, curious at most. You watched him eat and took his dirty plates by the end.

You weirded him out.

You always did something along the same lines; you came to bring him food, teased him a little and then left when you were gone. Although this time you had asked more questions about him. And you seemed more pensive while he ate.

And later that day he got a surprise. Usually, he just saw you to deal with you while he ate. But today you returned with a brown paper bag on your hands and a backpack, you never carried personal objects with you.

“What now?” he groaned.

You said nothing but opened the door to pass him food and slid the bag inside. Loki opened his end and grabbed the bag, it was warm, and it had a strong smell inside, he reached and pulled out a weird soft cushion with a white cover.

“Bur…ger? What this?” he asked as he read the yellow letters.

“It’s food” you smiled. “Cafeteria is closed until dinner, so I thought bringing you something else might boost your mood.”

“This looks like junk” he snarled, making you laugh.

“It’s something like that.”

Loki looked inside the bag and looked at you.

“There’s no fork.”

“You eat it with your hands” you smiled and pretended to grab a burger and bite it. “Like a sandwich.”

“What’s a sandwich?” Loki asked, making you laugh again.

Loki tried to take a bit, imitating your gesture, but you stopped with a squeaky laugh.

“Unwrap it first!” you laughed. “The white thing paper is not edible.”

Usually Loki would’ve argued more. But he had been really hungry, so he agreed.

“The taste is agreeable enough.”

“Try the fries!” you said eagerly.

“These yellow sticks?” he asked pulling out one fry from the bag, and you giggle once again, he was learning you were quite easy to amuse.

“Yes, the yellow sticks, they’re potatoes with salt and soaked in hot oil to cook them” you smiled.

“That sounds unhealthy” he said, but he surely didn’t pass up the extra meal, and while he’d never admit it, but it was tasty.

“It is on the long run” you agreed. “But you don’t eat these every day. It’s more like… something you eat when you particularly crave it. Like a treat.”

“What’s on your bag?” Loki asked, a lot more agreeable now with a full stomach.

“Ah, you said you didn’t have much to do” you said and passed him bag. “It’s a portable DVD player and old movies.”

“I understood the word portable from that whole sentence” Loki said in an obvious tone.

He wasn’t new to technology, but unlike Earth, Asgard only used technology for practical purposes like travel and fighting. Never for entertainment.

“You can watch recorded over produced plays on the screen” you said adapting to what Loki might be familiar with. “Fury said you can’t have access to internet, so I thought since I don’t use this anymore it’d keep you entertained while Thor negotiates your freedom. And if you need something else, I could surely get it for you.”

Loki was trying to process it all while he followed your instructions to set up the devices you brought him. Now he’d finally give some use to the electricity plugins on his cell.

“Why are you so nice to me?” Loki asked.

“I don’t know” you shrugged. “You seem like you could use some kindness.”

“I’m a charity case?” Loki asked, not sure if he was thankful or offended.

“You wish. If I was charitable, I would’ve brought a fancy brand of fast food, and you’re a good junkyard to bring my old stuff” you snarled, making Loki laugh, for real this time.

Your cheeks flushed and were soon surrounded in a clod of silver mist. And when it disappeared you had vanished already.

Now that… Loki didn’t see coming. He had heard of your kind when he took control of some of SHIELD agents, humans with supernatural abilities. You were a mutant, and for the looks of it, one with teleportation powers. Now it made sense why someone seemingly so ordinary was in a place like this, flirting with a prisoner.

Interesting.

The next few days you kept bringing him food as usual, but two things had changed. One, the portions were bigger now, Loki now got to eat to a point where he was satisfied. Two, you joked around a lot less, in fact, you simply brought the food and stayed nearby in silence, and Loki had caught you staring at him with rosy cheeks.

So, you did fancy him… Truly interesting. And quite flattering too, he at least had to agree you were quite appealing to stare at.

“I watched one of your… Dee Bee Dees…” Loki started the conversation while he ate. “The one with the funny doctor…”

“That… doesn’t narrow it down much” you finally spoke. “Sarcastic asshole with a wounded leg?”

“He is sarcastic, but he treats patients with joy and laughter and goes against the rules. Like the pair of legs at the entrance” Loki specified. “It was a sweet story… I did feel bad for him when he lost his… you know.”

“Ah, yeah…” you said sadly.

For a few more days, the routine kept like that, you seemed a lot shyer than before and now Loki was the one pursuing your attention and with an arsenal of movies you had watched he always had a way to start conversation.

When he was sure he had properly understood your interest in him, he made his move.

While Loki wasn’t as flashy as Thor, he never had much trouble swooning anyone of his interest, with years of etiquette lessons and nourishing his mind with the most exquisite novels and books Asgard had to offer he knew how to charm anyone he desired.

And soon enough he was courting you. He recited for you the collection of the most exquisite verses he had memorized and casted his illusions of roses and butterflies for you to enjoy a romantic set up.

Soon Fury had two people demanding for his liberation. And since Loki had been in his best behavior Fury didn’t have an excuse to keep Loki locked up and while he had a tracker on his ankle and Asgardian magic bracelets capable of suppressing his magic.

You were there when they let Loki out and he made sure to hug you first. The more in love he seemed, the sooner he’d be truly free. You melted against his embrace and wrapped your arms around him in a warm hug.

Loki felt a light tug on his chest. He couldn’t remember the last time someone out of his parents and Thor been so eager and happy to hug him.

“I had been dreaming of this…” you spoke softly. “And your hugs are even cozier than I imagined.”

That felt like a dagger to his heart. Why were you so sweet?

“Alright, Bambi, if you try something your little sweetheart will let us know right away, got it?” Tony warned him.

You wrapped your arms around Loki’s bicep pressing yourself against him.

“He’s gonna be perfect” you defended him. “And if I’m wrong you can lock me up as well for helping a criminal out.”

Second dagger. What kind of idiot were you trusting him so blindly? Could you really not see he just wanted his freedom?

Loki finally had a proper room, or something like that. He would be staying in the Avengers Compound when the Helicarrier landed… until then there was a room where he, Thor, and basically everyone stayed.

Your bed the one right above Loki’s. Loki sighed. Just a few more days. Loki laid down and saw you looking down at him, peeking from your bed with big sparkling eyes.

“Yes?” Loki said in his best sweet loving tone.

“S-Sorry…” you mumbled as your cheeks got red. “I’m just really happy you’re here.”

“Aww, young love…” Kate cooed.

“SHUT UP! I’M OLDER THAN YOU!” you screeched and threw a pillow right at her face, making Loki smiled softly.

“You’re both babies…” Yelena grinned.

“Shut up, you hag!” you and Kate argued.

“You’re all babies…” Bucky corrected.

“DON’T STICK YOUR NOSE, YOU FOSSIL!” the three of you argued.

“I’m… not gonna join this argument being 1,500 years old” Thor laughed and soon eased the mood in all laughter again.

Meanwhile Loki wouldn’t stop thinking what you said to him. “I’m happy you’re here.” Third stab… How could you be so happy and attached to him so easily and quickly?

The next few days he had resigned to adapt to train with you. He had been a warrior all his life, but being a soldier was too boring for him. It was a lot of training, gym workouts, more training, and meetings. He saw you nodding off during the latter. Where did you pull the energy to play and joke around with him when you went to bring food to him while he had been locked up?

You yawned and rested against his shoulder as you dozed off during lunch once. You were so warm and trusted him more than he deserved. You seemed awfully comfortable around him.

Every spare moment you had was dedicated to him, you were awfully cuddly and touchy. Loki wasn’t used to this in the slightest. At first playing along seemed impossible. But your kisses were so gentle and tender, more often than not he found his eyes fluttering close and his hands wrapping around your waist in a loving way. Even sharing a room with a lot of people seemed more fun if he got to study your reactions.

“Take that!” you screamed as you and Kate smacked each other with pillows, but when a stray pillow hit Natasha in the back of the head, it was war.

Everyone was throwing and hitting each other with pillows until someone pushed you to Loki’s arms who had stayed out of the war as just a bystander. No one seemed to be paying much attention to him, but now you were.

Your face was beet red, and you were blabbering apologies if you had hurt him, (which, you hadn’t). But Loki simply smiled and grabbed your sides and started squeezing them, causing you to squeal and burst out laughing.

Oh, of course you were ticklish, he should’ve known. Hel, you irradiated this aura that just screamed “tickle me!” And as the God of Mischief, he was drawn to ticklish little things such as yourself, to make sure he could exploit every ticklish little inch of your giggly body. It had always been a pretty harmless way to ease his need to cause mayhem.

Soon the entire room was in fits of laughter since Loki had unintentionally inspired a tickle war.

“H-Hohohohoney! Pleahahahahase!” you begged Loki, “thahahahahat tickles!”

“So? I hope it doesn’t bother you, my dear” Loki purred in your ear as his fingers traveled up and down your ribs, causing you to screech. “I think I’d like to play with my pretty little toy some more…”

“Nohohohoho! Please! Hehehehehe! S-Stop it!” you giggled until you had proofed to reappear at the top bunk bed, right by the time someone else had surrendered and called truce.

Thor. His stomach was sore from laughing and he needed a break. But the big Asgardian was confident enough to not be affected by being the one to surrender in such harmless play fight.

“I’m nostalgic” Thor laughed. “Reminds me of the sleep overs with Fandral, Volstagg, Hogun and Sif.”

“I wouldn’t know, I was never invited.” Loki said.

“WHAT?!” you gasped and threw a pillow at Thor’s head in Loki’s defense. “JERK! TO YOUR OWN BROTHER!”

“What do you mean?” Thor asked. “You rejected us every time.”

“What are you talking about? You never invited me, brother” Loki explained. “By the time I had found out, you were all locked in your chambers.”

“Sif and the guys always said you said no” Thor said. “That’s why I always made smaller sleepovers with just you and me. I thought you hated big groups.”

Loki never thought Thor had been clueless, if anything he thought it had been him who rejected him, it never occurred to him it was the rest that orchestrated Loki’s exclusion. It made sense in retrospect, they were more Thor’s friends, not Loki’s.

“I enjoy time to myself,” Loki agreed. “But I’ve never been against big events. I always thought it was you who didn’t want me near your friends…”

“Of course not, brother…”

“Don’t feel bad, Loki” Yelena said in a tone that eased the mood. “Nat used to have sleepover with friends and ban me from her room the whole night. But we’re sisters, adopted or not.”

“I said I was sorry, and I was 11 you resentful crybaby!” Natasha argued with a laugh.

You noticed that had hit a sensitive spot-on Loki and went to sit behind Loki to give him a hug from behind. And it was unexpectedly comforting, he sighed as you kissed his cheek. Growing more and more used to your doting affection, you were also rather good to read his mood by now.

It just made him feel more guilty, so he tried changing the subject.

“You poof around when tickled, hm?” Loki chuckled. “Noted.”

“Not just when I’m tickled, when I get worked up by almost anything…” you explained. “I can’t always control it.”

“I see… so, I get you all worked up…” Loki flirted, making you jolt and squeak with a red face. “Heh… I’m flattered.”

“What about you?” you asked when you calmed down, resting your chin on his shoulder. “Does something like that happen to you?”

“Mmm… my magic is also very tied to my feelings is mostly surges of magic when I’m pissed off.” Loki shrugged. “In a way, the source of my magic abilities come from my control of how I feel. Which is why Thor could never learn sorcery… he couldn’t ever keep calm and focus enough.”

It felt a bit of a cheap answer, his guilt told him you were always vulnerable with him. There was another thing…

Alright, now that no one was paying attention to you two.

“When I was little, I used to have a lot of nightmares, and my mother stayed with me and taught me this spell… it allows you to invite someone else to your dreams, to put it simply. She taught me that spell to help me with the bad dreams… And sometimes I still cast it involuntarily while I sleep. It’s… what’s the word? Automatic, at this point.”

“You haven’t used it since we met” you pointed out.

“There’s these preventing that” Loki wiggled the magic cuffs on his wrists, and you shrank sheepishly. “Maybe one day I’ll have you sleep visiting… who knows…”

You smiled too eagerly at the idea… it was painful to see the adoration in your eyes.

The next night you were chatting happily, you laid on the floor with your feet hanging on Loki’s bed. Surprisingly he didn’t mind too much, he found himself much more engaged on the conversation. He simply rested his hand on your shin, caressing it with his thumb.

But at some point during the chat his hand brushed by your ankle, something that should’ve caught his attention way sooner. A location tracker like his. He brushed his fingers along the band, and you jolted, quickly making a bad excuse before rushing out. A terrible liar dating the god of lies. How ironic.

“I didn’t know… I thought I was the only one with one of these…” Loki pointed to his tracker.

“All mutants and non-SHIELD affiliated have one” Tony explained with a yawn. “Basically, if you have superpowers, you have two options, be an agent or an avenger.”

“Or locked up” Loki concluded, and the way no one answered, confirming his suspicion.

“You’re gonna be joining us, right, brother?” Thor smiled.

“Do I have a choice?”

Loki chuckled, he had been thinking about this prior to this information, the fear of actually losing his brother when Thor was ready to leave him forever in Sakaar had been too great.

But what about you? You didn’t strike him the superhero style, a were a fragile and sensitive little thing, and he couldn’t picture you in the battlefield, but being a soldier was clearly taking a huge toll on you. You seemed perpetually exhausted living like this.

“Has my darling decided yet?” Loki asked, he didn’t plan on the pet names, but it felt weirdly natural as it rolled off his tongue. It felt right.

“Not before meeting you, we had tried, but I’d say with you two together… things have changed for the better.” Steve assured him. “It’s a relief though, you two would be great assets in the future, and the life at the compound is bit freer and more independent.”

For some reason, Loki smiled at the sound of that.

“It’s gonna be for the best” Bruce smiled. “Fury can be quite severe, and the soldier life isn’t for everyone…”

Loki couldn’t see you long term here, you’d be overworking yourself for a lifestyle too demanding and that you didn’t even like. It would be for the best to be an Avenger… at least that’d give you some more freedom.

By then, the mood had died down and everyone went to bed, turning off the lights way before you arrived. A few more minutes passed… and nothing. Loki considered going to find you when you opened the door, guiding your way with your phone’s flashlight. You had a messy damp ponytail, and baggy pajamas. You arrived and sat by Loki’s bed and immediately collapsed right beside him, invading his bed. He was ready to climb and use yours when you he felt a tug on his shirt.

“Let me stay with you…” you mumbled with your eyes closed, it seemed you still had some consciousness.

Loki nodded and laid down beside you, wrapping his arm over you, and tucking you under the bedsheets. He had to keep appearances. Yeah… Of course.

He studied you for a while. Your hair was soft, and it smelled like wild berries, shampoo he had started using as well because it smelled so nice. Your skin was soft and smooth, it was addictive to trace his fingers along your body. He traced circles along your side.

“Nooo… thahahat tickles…” you giggled and shifted in your half-asleep state, making something stir within Loki. “You can tickle me all you want in the morning, okay baby…?”

“Ohoho! Is that so?” Loki chuckled. “That’s dangerous thing to offer to the God of Mischief don’t you think?”

“’s okay… I trust you…” you yawned snuggling against his chest.

“Y-You do…?”

“You’d never do anything to hurt me…” you assured him, even with your brain fighting with all it’s might to not succumb to exhaustion.

Once his eyes adapted to the darkness, he stared at your face. Your features were gentle, with a pureness that only a heart that hadn’t been corrupted with cruelness and malice would have. It made him feel weak.

“I love you” you mumbled, kissing his lips before finally falling asleep with the most peaceful smile he had ever seen on anyone that was this close to him.

“I… I love you too…” he whispered and kissed the top of your head.

Now Loki genuinely wanted to stab himself through the chest, he deserved nothing less.

The next morning was the last time he’d be in the Helicarrier for a long time if he could help it. Both of you got the trackers removed and he was officially free. The magic cuffs were taken off of Loki and he immediately summoned a huge illusion that had a radius of a few kilometers as he stretched and showed off.

A huge double rainbow, oh how he had missed using his magic like this. He noticed your eyes sparkling in admiration.

Thor helped him unpack and you two were assigned neighbor bedrooms so the lovey dovey couple could stay close. You seemed ecstatic, you set your room and invited him to see it.

It was very much what he expected from you. Cozy and cute, just being inside made him want to lay down on your bed and sleep. And of course you had a pile of stuffed animals. He laid back on your bed, sinking in the mattress and fluffy covers.

Adorable.

“Honey bunny, I’m gonna go to the city alone today… don’t follow me” you warned him and proofed away before reappearing for a second. “And don’t snoop around my stuff! Love ya!”

And you disappeared in a gust of silvery white mist. Loki napped on your bed for a while, but… he couldn’t resist, he was curious by nature. He walked by your desk and saw the mirror of had a bunch of photos of him stuck to the board, he wasn’t smiling in any of them, and most had been taken him by surprise. Loki would’ve thought it weird, but the two of you were dating. And you only did what was normal for someone in a relationship. He smiled softly at how purely infatuated you were.

“Loki!” you called for him, so you had returned. He went to find you.

You had smiled so brightly as you jumped to his arms and showered his face in loving smooches.

“I missed you!” you smiled between kisses.

“You just left an hour or so…” he chuckled.

“It’s still too much time away from you!” you snuggled with him. “I missed this pretty face.”

“Heh…” he chuckled.

“I bought us something.” You smiled and handed him a golden bracelet with a round item on the middle. You kept the silver one. “It’s a distance touch bracelet.”

You touched your bracelet, and he felt his buzzing. Oh. He knew this couldn’t have been cheap. And you still didn’t hesitate to get it for him.

“Now you can feel me close, even if I vanish, or if we can’t be with each other.” You giggled.

His heart fluttered. How could there be someone so overly sweet? To him, of all people.

“Thank you…” he smiled.

Days passed and Loki’s sanity was evaporating in thin air. Guilt was eating him alive.

You were in truly, madly, and hopelessly in love with him. You wanted nothing but the best for him and you always showered him with love, affection and the sweetest kisses he had ever tasted. And worst of it all, he was falling in love with you. He deserved no love from you, but he had it… And it filled his heart with a warmth he didn’t deserve. Oh, you poor lovely thing, if you only knew how cruel his intentions had been to start your relationship.

He did what you wanted now, trying to make up for it. He didn’t want you to feel like you did all the job in a relationship anymore. Soon the photos were more couple y, of kisses and hugs, Loki took photos of you more as well. He invited you to read and nap with him.

He tickled you lots, and making you giggle in his arms as he held you close. He hugged you tight, trying to squeeze in all the love he had develop for the kind soul that had been nothing but sweet to him. In a wordless pray for your forgiveness.

He did everything that occurred to him would make you happy.

“No way! You’re ticklish?!” you gasped with an ear-to-ear grin.

“Terribly so, I can’t stand being ticked in between my ribs” he smiled as he rested his chin on your head, with you sitting on his lap. “My magic acts up on its own if I get overwhelmed, like you.”

“Really?” you giggled and caressed his sides. “Can I try?”

“For a kiss…” he smiled and puckered his lips for a smooch, which you complied with a huge grin. “I adore you… Fine, you got one minute to tickle my ribs.”

“Just one minute?” you whined with that lovely smile of yours.

“Thirty seconds?” he smiled.

“Eh?!” you whined. “One minute!”

“See how convincing I am?” he grinned.

“Oh, you—” you said and turned around to start poking and prodding his ribs, Loki couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“Ack! Hehehehe!” he whined, you were too good at this, he was laughing his heart out. “S-Stohohohop! Hehehehe! I-It’s been a minute! Hahaha! S-Stop!”

“I’m not done with you, you pretty tease!” you giggled and kept prodding between his ribs.

“Oh yeheheah?!” he laughed and skittered his fingers along your belly.

You were squealing and giggling in the blink of an eye. But you didn’t stop tickling him.

“Hehehehe! Hic! G-Give up!” you giggled and squirmed as you prodded his sides.

“You give up! Hahahahaha!” he giggled squeezed your tummy and skittered his fingers along your armpits.

“Ack! Noohohohoho!” you whine and squeezed above his kneecaps, making him jump and ergo you fell off his lap and onto the couch.

“You’re in trouble…” he grinned and his fingers, poked, drilled, kneaded and scratch over every sensitive spot on your body, and it didn’t matter if you gave up. He didn’t stop until you were breathless.

Only then he stopped and held you in his arms.

“Remind me to not tickle you again, you’re sadistic” you smiled.

“You know it, darling…” he smiled and kissed the top of your head. “Did you have fun?”

“Mhm…” you smiled and leaned against him. “I love you.”

You were beyond ecstatic. You melted under all of his affection and more time he spent with you, the more he couldn’t deny his feelings for you.

He did it everything he could to make you happy. But nothing he did alleviated his guilt. He could only imagine the amount of heartache you would feel if you found out he had only used you to try looking better adjusted and be free, and that he had pretended to fall in love.

He couldn’t eat, he couldn’t sleep. He was going insane. He walked around the compound like a ghost during the night. He did a stop to throw up in the toilet.

“You’re awake,” you surprised him despite your gentle tone. “Is something bothering you?”

“N-No, love. I just wasn’t feeling very tired.” He assured you. “Don’t worry. Go back to sleep.”

You placed your hands on his hips and leaned closer to him the way you did whenever you were going to kiss him. But you took a little sniff—probably smelling his bad breath—you stopped and smiled at him with kindness.

“Mmm… Insomnia, hm?” you smiled and pulled him to the kitchen. “I know just the cure.”

You heated up water and prepared him a tea with honey. The warmth of the drink ran through him as the sweet drink got rid of the bad taste, and he sighed a tear streaming down his face.

“What’s wrong?” you asked, cupping his face.

“I’ve done so many awful things… And…” he spoke softly. “I don’t know how to fix them… I don’t deserve any forgiveness…”

“Oh Loki…” you hugged him. “No one blames you… you didn’t mean it… I’ve seen your pretty heart, and you deserve all the love in the world… Gosh, if I could take all the pain, you’re feeling for myself, I would.”

“Please don’t say that…” he begged. He couldn’t handle anymore guilt, but he didn’t know how to tell you the truth.

You gently guided him to your bedroom and tucked him in your bed, wrapping your arms around him in a protective way.

“Forgive me love... Please forgive me…” he begged between mutters. “I take it all back… please… Please don’t hate me… please…”

“Shh…” you whispered, running your fingers through his hair. “It’s all gonna be okay… I’m always gonna be here for you.”

               Between the warm tea, his exhaustion, the previous sleepless nights, your comfortable bed, and your loving touch… his body gave up on him and he fell asleep.

Everything was dark, and cold, covered in ice and a cruel wind. Loki had a good tolerance to cold, but he was freezing.

“Monster…” a voice echoed so loudly it made Loki’s ears ring. It was his own voice and it came from everywhere around him.

“Traitorous rat…”

“Murderer…”

“Beast…”

“Liar…”

“Frost giant…”

“Monster…”

“Manipulator…”

“Liar…”

“We finally had someone’s trust…”

“Of course, you just play around with others!”

Loki was completely surrounded by copies of himself, all at least twice his size, blue skin, Jotun attire, and eyes red like blood. True frost giants.

Loki simply took every blow and insult. He deserved them.

“Loki…?” a different voice called. “Is this what you meant by inviting someone to your dreams?”

No please… you couldn’t be here.

“Darling… wake up… please don’t be here…” Loki begged you. “Please…”

“I’m not leaving you here on your own…” you spoke and kneeled beside him.

Loki felt his body change, every muscle vanished leaving him as practically skin and bones. Small. Weak.

“Loki… what’s going on?! What’s happening to you?!”

Loki tried to shapeshift back to his natural look, but he had no control of his own body. At this point in life, he should be desensitized to nightmares where his magic didn’t obey him… but…

“Please… leave me here…” he spoke as he could, but he could barely hear himself.

“Don’t say that... What’s… what can I do for you?”

There was something about dreams, and especially Loki’s dreams, that always seemed to be extra dramatic. It must have been so confusing to be in one as an outsider.

Loki’s body changed again, he grew twice his usual size, and his body was blue and muscled. Exactly the body of a Jotun.

“STOP BEING SO GOOD TO ME! CAN’T YOU SEE I DON’T LOVE YOU?!”

“What?!”

What?! No! That wasn’t true…

Loki tried to take it back, but he was in autopilot. He was in the passenger seat of his own mind.

“I DON’T LOVE YOU! ARE YOU THAT GULLIBE TO THINK I’D FALL IN LOVE WITH A MORTAL?! I HAVE BEEN USING YOU!”

“No… no, you're not… You wouldn’t…”

“I JUST NEEDED A COVER, TO SEEM WELL ADJUSTED ENOUGH TO NOT BE A PRISONER! AND YOU WERE ANNOYING ENOUGH TO BARGE IN DEFENSE OF ME! I’V BEEN PLAYING WITH YOU FROM DAY ONE! DON’T YOU SEE YOU ARE JUST A TOY?! YOU’RE PATHETIC!”

The look on your face was heartbreaking. You looked crushed.

“I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF A WAY TO GET RID OF YOU! I CAN’T SLEEP AND I WANT TO THROW UP THINKING I HAVE TO PUT UP WITH YOU YET ANOTHER DAY!”

You curled up on the floor and Loki lifted you but your collar’s shirt.

“GET IT INSIDE YOUR HEAD! I COULD NEVER LOVE A MORTAL AS UNNERVING AS YOU!” Loki screamed at you before slamming you against the floor.

“NO!” Loki sat up with a gasp and his body drenched in sweat. He looked around and saw you curled up on the bed, your back facing him. “Love?! Thank goodness… I’m so— Love, w-what’s wrong…?”

You were stiff and you had a hand on the back of your head. Loki shifted and stretched a bit and saw your face. Your eyes were full of tears, yet he had never seen you with such a cold expression in your face.

“My love… and what’s wrong?” Loki placed a hand over your arm, and you slapped it.

“Why did you say that?” you asked him.

“I d-don’t know… I wasn’t… I didn’t…” Loki stuttered. “My dreams are like that…”

“No. I mean, what you said was really specific. Why…?”

“I don’t—I don’t know why I—”

“Tell me the truth, Loki.” You ordered him. “Did you, or did you not pretend to love me for your freedom?”

Loki stayed quiet. He didn’t have the courage to tell you the truth, but he didn’t have the heart to keep lying to you. With that confirmation tears started falling down your cheeks again.

“Y-Yes but I—that was before…”

“Get out…” you spoke.

“What? No, darling, listen… I…”

“I don’t want to hear you.”

“Please love… let me explain…” he tried holding you.

That made you snap. You started hitting him, being a human it was impossible for you to harm him, but not once in his life had he felt more pain.

“DON’T TOUCH ME! DON’T TALK TO ME!”

“Darling please…”

“I DON’T WANNA SEE YOU EVER AGAIN! GET OUT OF MY ROOM AND GET OUT OF MY LIFE!”

He had no strength to fight you, he was defenseless as you kicked him out of your room, slamming the door on his face.

There were a few faces popping out of their door to try seeing what had happened and that quickly retreated back to their rooms. Loki had no choice but to go inside of his own bedroom.

The next morning, he nearly tripped on his way out with a box by is door. It was full of books, quills, a coat, photos of you together. And… the silver bracelet that matched his own. It tore his heart to shreds. He didn’t feel as guilty anymore. But remorse and the memory of how brokenhearted you looked was even more sadistic. He heard you crying often from across the wall.

A few days later the others started giving him dirty looks. Knowing you and considering that this didn’t happen right away he assumed they had found out after heavy interrogation and now everyone knew he had used you. Even Thor seemed upset, not angry, but he had this… disappointment in his eyes.

“I hate dealing with moving companies” Tony sighed as they all sat for dinner. “But Fury wants to have our little Houdini enlisted by the end of the week. It’s a shame… The kiddos enjoyed being around each other.”

“Tell me about it” Clint sighed. “Kate is devastated.”

“Speaking of devastated…” Natasha said as she stood up, and Loki would’ve sworn she was shooting daggers at him with that glare. “See if I can be more convincing about eating something, otherwise Fury will have a corpse enlisting.”

You were moving out? To become a SHIELD agent? But you hated being a soldier. Had he hurt you so bad that you preferred that lifestyle and ruin your life forever… than being around him?

This all felt awfully familiar. Loki excused himself and went to his room and lock himself inside. He closed his eyes, and part of him wished that they’d never open again.

“Am I cursed?” Loki asked, choked up by the last bit of hope.

“No.” Odin responded the worst thing he could've said him. A curse would've been better.

Loki placed the casket down, weakly, it suddenly felt like a very... very heavy thing to carry. And the weight stayed there, right on his chest even after the casket had been placed back at the pedestal.

“Then what am I?” Loki asked softly, afraid of the answer.

“You're my son.” Odin answered, and Loki doubted his own magic since he couldn't detect dishonesty in his father's words.

Clearly that was a lie. So why didn’t his magic detect that? Loki felt rage spiral out of control like a boiling pot.

“What more than that?” Loki growled, still trying to keep his composure as he walked towards his father that was by the stairs at the other side of the corridor. “The Casket wasn't the only thing you took from Jotunheim that day, was it?”

Odin looked him in the eye. Unable to deny it any longer. It had been to many years with that secret. As Loki walked closer, Odin just started at him in silence as Loki reached the stairs.

“No.” Odin finally said. “In the aftermath of the battle, I went into the Temple, and I found a baby. Small for a giant's offspring— abandoned, suffering, left to die. Laufey's son.”

That felt like a dagger piercing the young prince’s heart. Out of all the things he was insecure about, it turned out he WAS an outsider. Out of all the things he could’ve been, he HAD to be a Jotun, a monster. Out of all the Jotun’s in existence, he was the son of the worst of them all. And out of all the reasons he could’ve been adopted for, was because even his own biological family didn’t want him… and his adopted family never told him any of this.

“Laufey's son...?” Loki finally managed to gasp out, he was choking up on his own tears. “Why? You were knee-deep in Jotun blood. Why would you take me?”

“You were an innocent child.” Odin said, sounding more exhausted by the second.

“No!” Loki begged his father, knowing that Odin was a strategic warrior. There was always a meaning behind his actions. “You took me for a purpose, what was it?”

But Odin didn’t answer. The physical toll of delaying his Odin sleep to prepare Thor to rule, preventing a war, the emotional toll of having to banish Thor and now… having his youngest child doubt his love for him because of his foolish decision of not telling him the truth earlier were overwhelming him.

The All-King saw with pain how the little child that once smiled at him with love when he picked him in his arms after the battle now saw him with fear, pain, and resentment.

“TELL ME!” Loki demanded loudly, no longer capable of remaining calm.

“I thought we could unite our kingdoms one day, bring about an alliance, bring about a permanent peace... through you.” Odin confessed.

That was the final blow to Loki’s poor heart.

“What…?”

A tool. All he had been adopted for was as an instrument of peace between Asgard and a race that everyone saw as blood-thirsty monsters.

“But those plans no longer matter.” Odin clarified.

“So, I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up… here, until you might have use of me.” Loki inquired in pain.

“Why do you twist my words?” Odin asked softly.

“You could have told me what I was from the beginning.” Loki urged, desperate to makes sense of what easily was the worst day of his life. “Why didn't you?!”

“You are my son. I wanted only to protect you from the truth.” Odin said softly, in a fruitless attempt to calm his poor child’s heart.

“Wh— B-Because I-I-I am the monster parents tell their children about at night?!” Loki asked, flooded by all the scary stories about the frost giants growing up. All those times he and Thor played heroes as kids fighting those monsters.

“Don't...” Odin begged as his strength slowly abandoned him.

But Loki couldn’t listen anymore. The grief was too great, and the feeling of betrayal didn’t allow him to trust Odin anymore.

“It all makes sense now! Why you favored Thor all these years.” Loki yelled as he started walking up the stairs to yell at Odin as the All-Father slowly lost his strength and started passing out on the stairs. “Because no matter how much you claim to “love” me, you could never have a Frost Giant sitting on the Throne of Asgard!”

Odin kept trying until his last second of consciousness to beg his son for help, forgiveness… anything. But he had been too weakened to dedicate his young boy some kind of love or reassurance as he fell prey to the Odin sleep, he had delaying for so long.

Now Loki encountered a similar dilemma. He had been stupid, dishonest, and selfish to someone who offered him nothing but unconditional love. He betrayed your trust and there was no way now that Loki could prove that despite his original intentions his love wasn’t any less real.

He laid down on his bed, with his arm draped dramatically over his eyes.

“Troubled, my son?” a voice spoke making Loki sit up.

“Father” Loki smiled softly. “I ruined it. I had the most beautiful love in my life… and I was stupid and lost it because of my own selfishness.”

“That sounds familiar” Odin chuckled. “You truly are my son, after all.”

“You had always been will always be my father…” Loki said the words he had denied for several years. “I never understand your reasons. Cruel as they were…”

“Not holding back against your old father, hm?” Odin laughed.

“Sorry…” Loki smiled softly.

“My original reasons were foolish, selfish, and even cruel as you rightfully… but I always hoped to do what would be best for the 9 Realms” he spoke. “But that didn’t mean the love I had for you wasn’t any less real. You are my son, regardless of the kind of blood that coursed through your veins.”

Loki smiled softly; it was weird. He knew Odin would have never say all that. But now, after growing up so much, he understood it wasn’t because he didn’t feel it, he had always been too proud and formal, too much of a king. And while imperfect, it was still his father.

“That’s why you never caught me lying when I called you my son or said that I loved you.” Odin spoke. “In my heart, you’ve always been my son.”

“I know, father” Loki smiled. “I’m sorry it took me so long to understand it.”

“I’m sorry I never told you before… I feared you wouldn’t take it well…”

“Me? I would never” Loki joked softly.

“We always loved you as our own” a female voice added making Loki turned around.

“Mother.” Loki spoke breathless. “I know… I know… I knew, I was just too scared I could’ve been wrong, and you didn’t…”

“You were too much of a charming kid not to love you” Frigga said compassionately. “Your little human surely thinks so too.”

Ah… that… Loki wasn’t so sure.

“I ruined it, I deserve nothing but the hatred and disgust I’ve earned from my darling.” Loki huffed out. “I manipulated, lied, and destroyed the trust of my love.”

“Dear, there’s nothing final in these matters…” Frigga smiled softly. “If that loved blossomed once, you may rescue it and nourish it again. But first… you need to apologize.”

“I don’t think I’m wanted anywhere near hearing range.” Loki explained.

“Do you think the love between your mother, and I always had a perfect relationship?” Odin smiled.

“Your father was too temperamental for that” Frigga intervened with a smile and both parents looked at each other with love. “But when you truly love someone and you make a mistake, you swallow your pride and make up for your wrongdoings.”

Loki smiled softly, he remembered it well. When Odin’s temper got the best of him because of the stress of being a king, Odin made sure to make up for Frigga know how truly sorry he was, and Frigga who already knew her husband’s temper was an expert on not letting her affect her, knowing it was never personal. She had truly been blessed with infinite patience given she dealt with three men with bad tempers and yet her kindness and loving nature knew no end. It was not rare to see Odin gifting Frigga fancy gifts and spend long hours apologizing and dedicating the day to her. It wasn’t the perfect arrangement, but no relationship was.

Loki chuckled softly.

“Thanks…” he smiled and both parents tended a hand to him with a smile. “I know what I have to do.”

Ready to say goodbye, Loki placed his hands on top of Odin and Frigga’s, and with that, the figure of his parents faded under a green light as Loki’s palms stopped glowing. Loki let out a little laugh as he wiped his tears.

His illusions had never been so benevolent towards himself, they were either torturous or for a fake sense of gloating and dissociation. But your compassion had changed him forever. He could use them for closure and to guide him with the stuff he knew but needed to hear. And… you deserved that at least.

He got up and went outside and went to a trip. It took him around an hour to get to the city and a couple more hours to get his several stops get several gifts. A lovely white bouquet of flowers, a box of your favorite chocolates, a necklace with a cute silver heart shaped locket and got it printed with a small photo, a copy of a photo he had carried from one of your first “dates” you got where you were giving him a small kiss in the cheek and cupped the other one, a symbol of your shared love.

On his way back, Loki held the original photo close to his chest and sighed. He prayed this would work as he was on his way to see you. He knocked on your door and hid his gifts behind himself, not even remembering he could’ve concealed them with his magic from how nervous he was.

His chest tightened as you opened the door, your eyes and nose were red, and your cheeks were stained with tears. Oh Norns… He had hurt you really bad.

“Love… Please… let me explain” Loki spoke softly.

“What do you need to explain, Loki?” you asked and sniffled, practically murdering him when you called him Loki instead of one of your lovely cheesy pet names. “That I was just a toy for you to play with and pretend that you loved me, so you’d be a free man? I got that quite clearly.”

You were ready to slam the door on his face, but he reached his leg to stop you. He nearly dropped one of your gifts. You looked at him confused, eying him up and down before sighing in defeat, opening the door he walked inside of your little room. He saw the little night table covered with used tissues and the bed’s decorative cushions were all over the place. It broke his heart.

“What do you want, Loki?” you asked tiredly as you sat on the bed, placing a cushion on your lap and against your chest.

“My darling, I was the biggest, most cruel and inconsiderate imbecile of all 9 Realms” he said, kneeling before you as he handed you the bouquet of flowers. You gently placed the flowers on your lap, still looking at him.

“It is true, that I was looking to just find a relationship to pretend I had adapted to living on earth” he spoke. “It was a selfish, shallow, and dishonest reason to make you mine… But I did it. It was heartless and there’s no excuse or reason for you to forgive that. But I beg of you to stay here… never speak to me again if you need, but don’t settle to a life of misery just to avoid me. I will happily accept being locked up in a dungeon for a hundred years, so you don’t see the likes of me again…”

He handed you the chocolate, and your gaze softened for a second as you saw the chocolate, he remembered which ones you liked the most. You opened your mouth to speak, but a gentle squeeze to your hands let you know Loki still wanted to speak.

He had caused all of this for not telling you the truth, and now he wanted to fully bare his soul to you now.

“You offered me boundless kindness, patience despite my flaws, understanding to my pain and sins of the past, laughter like I hadn’t enjoyed before, you fed with the most delicious and warm foods I had ever eaten, you showed me the concept of dates and you bared me completely vulnerable to your touch and heart and you bared yourself completely to me without fear of me…” Loki continued, as tears streamed down his face, drowning in regret. “And all I did was play with you and betray the trust your selfless heart gave me without asking for anything in return.”

He placed his forehead on your knees and sobbed, completely ashamed of what he had done to you. He didn’t deserve your forgiveness, but he felt like he’d die without you. And he’ deserve it.

“I don’t care” you finally spoke, and he looked up, he saw the tears streaming down your face. “You’re the God of Mischief and Lies, there are countless stories of how you lied and manipulated to get away with anything you wanted… I should’ve expected I’d be just that.”

“No— No, darling!” Loki held your hands and pressed his lips against your knuckles. “No, my sweet, you— I was selfish. I wanted a cover up, yes, but what I found was love, I found the butterflies in my stomach you always speak of. I found the warm of your hands lingering on my skin after our dates. I found myself awake during the night sighing over those lovely eyes I’ve now so cruelly filled with tears…” Loki spoke softly.

You were shaking in your place as you did your best not to cry and interrupt him. He brushed his finger along your cheek as in appreciation of your effort.

“None of what you heard that night was true in my heart…” he assured you “I never felt so disgusted I wanted to vomit; it was guilt that was killing me from the inside… knowing I was hurting such a beautiful flower.”

He handed you the heart locket and you opened it, seeing the photo made you sob as silently as you could.

“I was selfish and a liar. I don’t blame you if you don’t believe me and want nothing to do with me again. But please know that my heart beats for and because of you only.” He spoke. “I fell hopelessly and irredeemably in love with you. I swear that on my life.”

You looked at him and smiled, as you wrapped your arms around his neck and sobbed now freely and unrestrained. Time seemed to stop for Loki as he hugged you back, taking in your scent and caressing you. Tears fell down his face and he held you, afraid you’d disappear if he let go of you.

You forgave him. He didn’t think he’d ever be so lucky to find a kind soul that would forgive even his worst mistake. But he found it, you were kind enough to do so. Your wrapped your arms around him in a warm hug and Loki was able to let all the pain and guilt go… He couldn’t undo his mistakes, but he could be better, and he wanted to be his best self for you.

“Thank you… Norns, I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” he repeated over and over between whispers and tears as he held you tight.

You sat up straight and cupped his face and laughed softly as you still cried happy tears.

“You’re gonna have to buy me a new box of tissues, you booger” you joked softly with a sniffle, and pressed your forehead to his and grabbed a tissue to blow your nose.

“I’ll give you the entire world if you so desire, my love” he spoke with a gentle smile. “Just say the word.”

“I don’t need the world” you smiled and kissed his cheek. “I have everything I need right here.”

“What did I do to deserve you?” he chuckled softly as he grabbed a tissue to wipe his tears and blow his nose. “I’m a disaster and somehow I still found the most precious little dove all for myself.”

You held him tightly in a hug… in silence for a few minutes before you spoke again.

“Did you think I was annoying when we first met?” you asked with a stern look on your face. “I want the truth.”

“Truthfully… you were a nightmare…” Loki admitted in a soft playful tone.

“HEY!” you whined and dug your fingers into the crevices of his ribs making him burst out laughing. “I said honest, not mean!”

“Ehehehe! Lohohohohove, let me finish!” he giggled, letting you have this, it was the least he could do. “P-Please, s-stohohohop that! Not there!”

You smiled and went to tickle his belly. Oh, you had really not liked that.

“Plehehehehehease, dahahaharling! I surrender!” he laughed and did his best to not squirm.

“Fine… what is it?” you asked, as you sat sideways on his lap, already happily cuddling with him.

Thank whatever superior force that was out there… Oh, you’re a wonderful blessing.

“You’re a nightmare turned into a dream” he clarified and he didn’t even bother fighting the urge to squeeze you tightly.

“You have 3 seconds to explain how that’s a compliment o I’ll tickle you until you puncture a lung.”

“Ihihi— I mean like, when you start having a bad dream… but it turns around as the most wonderful of dreams, those that you still think about after waking up.” Loki said, and as those words he was sure he had fried his brain because he didn’t make any sense.

But that was enough for you.

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” You grumbled.

“C’mon… don’t be mad at me for being foolish and wrong” he smiled as he squeezed you tight. “Surely you thought I was insufferable at first as well, we’re so different after all.”

You smiled and shook your head.

“I love my pretty prince” you smiled and picked a tissue yourself to clean your face. “Flaws, differences, and all.”

“Do you, now?” he grinned cheekily. “I sure am a lucky one to be called yours.”

“A Loki one” you giggled, and Loki made a scowl of disgust. “Sorry! I thought it too late when I said it and— hehehe!”

“Oh, that was awful— C’mere… you!”

“W-What?! NO! NOHOHOHOHO! LOHOHOHOKI, STOP IHIHIHIT!”

As he made you laugh and held you against him, he couldn’t doubt how fortunate he was to be so undoubtedly yours.

| MASTERPOST |

[hueberryshortcake]

pkna #33

ok i'm going to try to make a post for real this time. allow me to walk you through my experience reading this comic

the date? mid-march. the place? my cozy bed. the time? 10:30 pm. as someone who has recently been lulled to sleep by paperinik fbi politics, i think to myself, yes, let me pull up the next issue for some relaxing bedtime reading.

boy was i wrong.

so i start reading. haha donald is in time prison again man hate those guys. at a certain point early on i get very upset because the cops indicate that they would like to erase donald's memory of lyla which like why don't you just shoot me while you're at it.

oh boy! says caoimhin. they're going to bring odin in! everything will be okay

no one has any time to enact either of their plans because immediately this little fellow shows up which, gee, i wonder who this could possibly be.

yeah it's the raider. and he's here to raid. he's here to raid some time criminals, one of which is this guy, who is going to be a surprise tool that will help us later

they also release kronin, who used to be the raider before the raider said No i'm the raider now and became an even better raider. and boy this chap is not happy because he's like "honestly fuck you bro" and shoots the raider

this is Bad thanks to a little something called By the way the raider had a time bomb strapped to him that would go off if anybody tried to, you know, shoot him

kronin has officially screwed EVERYBODY! does he give a fuck? no he does not. it's ok though because the raider is kinda ok! idk what kinda gun that was but i guess he was wearing good kevlar or maybe being made of 60% metal makes getting killed by gun harder

the raider is no longer okay.

by the way, there is some sort of like mutiny happening with the time cops but i don't really care about him because right about this point is when i am intermittently dming puffy to say "i'm really worried about the raider can we please get a raider cam"

yellow monkey spider man with big goggles has basically taken like. what's the thing in iron man's chest? the thing that keeps him from dying super bad? yeah he's taken the raider's version of that to try to like bla bla bla science fiction this is the only way they can anchor the base back to the normal timestream.

this is great on account of we get some really awesome images of pk trying to physically support a dying raider even though this guy weighs easily 6 times as much as him and is made of a lot of metal btw.

so like stuff happens i guess and the time cops are mutinying and doing some sort of intrigue to double cross the villains and the villains are fixing the ship and also like being villainous or whatever, meanwhile pk is walking around going "it's like none of you EVEN CARE that the raider is DYING" which, to be fair, if i was them i probably wouldn't care either. but im not kronin or a time cop so i care a whole lot.

the ending of this comic made me like sick to my stomach and kept me up at night which was really rough because i had to go observe high school the next day and you can't say "sorry senora i'm going to be late because one of my favorite characters from italian donald duck superhero speculative fiction scifi comic threw himself into a black hole to save paperinik and it made me really upset."

so yeah the raider does that, like he says "i'm dying anyway and i want my life to have meant something.... this is the only way..... btw i have a son tell him i'm sorry" and then he dies

this is like possibly the most distraught we've seen donald in this series so far. it hits especially hard because the raider and pk have been like frenemies? but truly there is a lot of mutual respect also they're gay and it comes to a head as the raider sacrifices himself. fuck man.

anyway this page really illustrates my point that. man. the raider and pk had some really great times and they could have been so great in tandem had the raider's life not been cut tragically short.

to say i was losing my shit over this would be an understatement. i woke up in the morning feeling devastated over the raider. i missed him so bad. i told my entire family about him. and now he is gone forever. i pretty strongly considered making a raider shrine for my bookshelf but i decided my tribute amv was good enough.

man. okay. see you guys next week (now)

they killed the raider. okay.

[therese-lokidottir]

Something has bothered me about the reception for Loki now, I haven't watched but didn't he sacrifice for everyone? Yet the marvel properties treat like him a joke, I mean in what if the sacrifice is treated like a Christmas decoration, that episode of captain carter saying he looked smug and he deserves to be punched, the way marvel rivals treating him. What more in the universe should he has to do to be treated with respect?! He gave up everything!!

My hunch is because Loki should always be viewed lesser than Thor and the avengers. He's their stepping stone to look good. They can't have him steal the spotlight. The 'heroes' should be viewed highly than him, so he's often treated as a punching bag. Honestly, they have no moral high ground to lecture any villain because they themselves have caused irredeemable actions. It's the fault of the writers who can't make their 'heroes' likable. Spoilers: There's a manga called Berserk (Don't read, its very dark). In the manga, the mc, Guts assisted Griffith for the latter's ambitions. But he realized he doesn't want to be in his shadow and he decides to leave. Griffith challenged him and Guts won. He left his group for a year, even leaving behind his love interest. Guts departure sent Griffith spiraling and caused horrible actions to Guts loved ones. It's very dark.

Had Loki realized he doesn't want to be a part of this and leaves, I'm sure Thor or his associates like Odin would start spiraling but I don't think he would go to Griffith's extend though since Thor's not that bad, just a tad egotistic. Maybe Odin would though.

I just actively eye roll anything marvel does now. My eyes would roll 360 seeing how some Loki 'fans' treat him as a cinnamon roll or a pet or shipping material. It's a shame he was such an interesting character to watch like Zuko. Could you imagine if Zuko was treated as a joke despite everything he did for them?

Remember the thing mobius said "All so that others can achieve the best versions of themselves." that's the thought process. The MCU does use him for a tool for other, they don't want the audience to like him, the want the audience to like the things around him.

Doesn't matter what Loki does or give, because that is what the creators think Loki should, that he is required to do to be worthy of being around others. Loki has to sacrifice because him getting anything wouldn't be right for his character.

Loki will never truly be forgiven, he will never truly be accepted, never really be a part of the group and he will always be second to others.

Yeah, the people around Loki are not better than him, but they were one of two things. Either given some kind of permission to hurt people therefore they don't need to redeem when it turns out it was wrong to hurt those people, or they are considers heroes so any mistakes they make are just that. Instead, a permeant condemnation it would be for a villain like Loki. Loki didn't fall in line, he defied others and did what he wanted instead what he was supposed to do. That was in-universe his real crime.

The MCU doesn't want Loki to be cool, they don't want him to be mighty. They want him to be this pathetic little figure that can be punched down to make others look cool.

[mynorse-verse]

Okay, so after reading the libretto of the Royal Danish Ballet reconstruction of Thrymvskida, here are some things I liked and others that left me like "????":

What I liked:

-Sigyn is a fire spirit who likes light, which I liked because that's the route I'm going with and the hill I'd die on.

-Freya is supportive of Freyr and Gerdr's relationship and they seek her approval. That was cute.

-Skirnir offers Thor his spear (apparently Freyr didn't lose his sword here), and while he rudely rejects him because he's depressed on not having his hammer, he later cheers with him as a friend. It was also cute.

-The fire spirits! My belovedestest! I guess they're equivalent to the "sons of Muspell", except they're female here. They're funny, they're mischievous and they're powerful, and I love them!

-Loki's ongoing rivalry with his mother-in-law Vola, which he could have stopped at any time had he not stirred some shit.

-Sigyn having friends and even admirers between Freyr and Freya's entourage. You don't see that quite often.

-Loki ruinning Aegir's party not by insulting the attendants but by doing a Dionysian bacchanal that Freya stops. He's actually expelled of Asgard for that for a while.

-Heimdall arriving at some random point of the bacchanal blowing his horn to signal Ragnarök. It doesn't stop the bacchanal. He continues to blow the fucking horn. Odin commands the Æsir to battle Surtr, drama ensues because Thor doesn't have his hammer, Loki gives them all some more intoxicating bacchanal-inducing potion. The bacchanal continues until Freya realizes what's going on and screams at everyone. Heimdall keeps blowing his horn. Go, king.

-The daughters of Aegir and Sigyn's fiery sisters become friends! I know in the bacchanal they were probably meant to be doing the ballet equivalent of fucking with some elves, but I ship it, honestly.

-The composer (?) choreographer (?) (not sure what's called in the world of ballet) was actually trying to do something original regarding Loki's punishment, got to give him points for that.

-There's a happy ending! And it symbolizes the coming of spring! Which is probably how Ragnarök might have been intended at some point (probably before a series of astronomical phenomena that scared everyone shitless but that's another thing).

-The description of the decors seems pretty.

Now onto what left me like "???"

-Since precisely pushing for originality with Loki's punishment, it barely has any resemblance to the original: first, it isn't done by the Æsir, but by his mother-in-law; next, since he and Sigyn don't have children here, he's chained by her sisters with a piece of jewelry he gave her as a wedding gift; he's tied to the charred Yggdrasil rather than inside a cave; the snake pouring poison on him is implied to be Satan somehow; since everyone returns for the end, I guess he and Sigyn simply broke free once spring arrived and rejoined the Æsir. Which is for sure a take on the story, not even GoW got to this level.

-Loki's characterization is... Wonky to say something. He's the devil, except when he's not. He's then actually some type of folkloric hero. Except he's actually a Dionysian figure. Then the Devil again. Then everyone's friend again. At last a romantic hero in love. He's all Lokis ever. The über-Loki. The one Loki to rule them all.

-For a play based on Thrymvskida it barely focuses on the events of the actual Thrymvskida. The relationship between Loki and Sigyn takes most of the part (why not just call the play something like "The Labours and Loves of Loke" or something in that vein?). Loki is the clear protagonist alongside well Sigyn, but Freya and even Gerdr have key roles; rather than Thor or Thrym.

-The theft of Mjölnir is Loki's doing despite being basically the only thing that wasn't Loki's doing in mythology.

-The play attempts to include several stories in a single cohesive narrative but it ends up being detrimental since it can't fully focus on any of them; you can sadly see why it flopped.

[piffany666]

What you favourite gba character says about you! (Based on the Eldena doubleca5t series on YouTube)

(This is a joke please do not take any of this personally)

Loyal: your probably either a black butler fan or an angle beats fan

Servos: you had a crush on Marshalllee from adventure time

Yargwin: at some point in your life you've probably been obsessed with either Jack sparrow or Captin hook from Once upon a time. That being said you do have good taste

Kalomos: you just wanted good things for kalomos and really....who wouldn't?

Lry: you need everyone in this series to just chill the f*k out for like 5 minutes

Vail: your favourite trope is a character being blissfully unaware of how powerful they are

Raspa: you are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of a mad scientist

Mortals: you have some....complicated feelings about episode 3 of space pirates

Vision: your childhood crush was garnett from steven universe

Heartburn: you still don't know the answer to the mystery of 1. Why did yargwin tell him that "him and Arkov aren't married" and 2. Why heartburn is even here but the difference is that your not mad about the second one

Kaunda: your either a lesbian or a liar

Banar: you really like full metal alchemist

The butterfly king: your OTP is fizz x Ozzmodius from hellova boss

Albus: you are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of "I can fix him" but you will inevitably realise that you can't and then promptly exept him as he is

Devlin: your probably autistic and the quickest way to your heart is somebody showing even the slitest amount of intrest In YOUR special interest

Odin: you really like God of war

Odysseus: you understand the significance of Odin calling him that...also you probably really like "epic the musical"

Tyr: you really like lore olympus

Fenrir: you are a furry that or your just a redacted fan

Okami: you were the f*kers who kept spaming "okami did nothing wrong" in that one live stream

Makkaro: you are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of "a hero will sacrifice you to save the world but a villan will sacrifice the world to save you"

Zed: I want to use the joke used by the person this post was inspired by and say that you like "men👏 getting 👏pegged!" But honestly if your favourite character is zed you probably just really like the owl house

Mirrin: when zed asked the guardian if they used to be lovers you got your hopes up way to quickly

Frank: you had a crush on Billy butcherson from hocus pocus

Hipswich: you believe in the inherent eroticism of the song "good lookin"

Mahatma/atila: this is just the same joke as raspa but like even more so

Huginn: your favourite ship dynamic is "neurodivergent character rambling" x "could listen to them talk forever"

Muninn: your favourite asmr trope is reverse comfort

[angelosearch]

Tag game for fanfiction authors!

This one has been in my drafts for a while, I forgot where I got it from oops!! Tagging @tr1ck5 @suleikashideaway @gardengalwrites @aleheartilly @mathiwrites @waltzforthemoon @summonerluna and anyone who wants to join in!

Tell us:

The story you're proudest of: It's got to be Eyes of the Storm. It's a FFVIII AU but honestly, I don't think you need to know FFVIII at all to read it. It's magical realism with a lot of focus on place and nature and that's the kind of stuff I've wanted to write in long form for my whole life. I am so proud of it I kind of want to shake everyone I know and get them to read it.

Your story that's gotten the most love online: TECHNICALLY, Chaos Theory, but that's only because I've been posting it for a while and it's 21 chapters. In terms of Kudos per hits, I'd have to go with Silver Anniversary.

Tease a current WIP or idea you're working on: I'll give you two! First, a bit from A New Beginning's sequel (The Sorceress Awakens). This is from chapter one of three, "The Commander Dreams Again."

Squall nodded as though he’d been dismissed and started walking toward the door. “Hey wait son—I MEAN, son-dier! SOLDIER! No, Commander, Commander Squall? SQUAMMANDER—” “What, Laguna?” “Uh.. I just, uh…” Shit shit shit! He already looks annoyed! Gotta change the subject! “Uhh, what’s Rinoa up to these days? I’m surprised you didn’t bring her with you!” Perfect save, hell yeah! Squall looked away, and then to the floor. “She’s just busy, she couldn’t come.” And before Laguna could ask any further, Squall stepped out of his office.

And then a bit from the next chapter of Chaos Theory, "Part IV: The Edge of Chaos | Suspended Animation"

But there was another face there beyond his own. He could see his father’s features across the terrain of his countenance, filling him with a tightening ball of emotions too complex to name, nonetheless untangle.   Most people told him he, luckily, resembled his mother, but Laguna was there, hiding along his brow bone and around his jawline. His reflection reminded him that he had been behind that man’s face, felt the things he felt, thought the things he thought, and it made it worse to realize how much he and Laguna had in common. It had been simpler to just see Laguna as a man that lived up to the shoddy expectations of the people of Winhill, as a guy who pushed him away and let him down intentionally, and hate him for it. Now an entirely different picture had been painted for Squall, and it was hard to reconcile his long-held beliefs and tinted experiences against the formerly unseen reality.

Also, I have this project I've got bouncing around in my head called "Odine Asylum" which hopefully I'll try to put on a page soon.

Your top 3 fandoms: Final Fantasy VIII, Hazbin Hotel, The Locked Tomb!

Your top 3 ships: Squall x Rinoa (FFVIII), Trevor x Sypha X Alucard (Castlevania), Thrawn x Eli (Star Wars Thrawn novels)

Rec someone else's fic: UGH this is SO HARD so I am just going to go with the fic I've read most recently (there were moments that had me cracking up): Dirty Boots.

Pick one!

Fluff or Angst (but why not both?)

Oneshots or longfics

Canon compliance or canon divergence

AO3 or FF.net

[buffyfan145]

I'm so happy with that season 2 finale of "Loki" and that he's fully become the God of Stories!!! 😀 He's now in charge of the entire MCU and all the multiverse. It's been so amazing to watch this journey of his and going from being a "villain" to getting the full redemption arc and now being the most powerful being in all of Marvel. He found his true purpose and I'm so proud of him like his parents would be and Thor will be when he finds out. I know a lot of fans were worried last night this is his final appearance but I actually think it's the opposite. He's actually probably going to become the new Stan Lee as he'll be able to be in any MCU project from now on as we lead up to the "Secret Wars" movie that's about a multiverse war.

Years ago there was a theory that Stan Lee was going to be revealed as the Creator/Author (or basically God) of the MCU and in charge of everything. Now Loki is this. It makes sense for the projects we know are coming and he's not stuck there alone. He's connected to everything and everyone in every universe. He should be able to travel too as that never stopped Odin or Zeus, or even Freya who is in charge of the threads of fate in Norse mythology. Even for us shippers of any ship with him this won't prevent him from being with anyone if he chooses (again look at Odin and Zeus LOL).

I love that it's the World Tree where Loki's throne is. The World Tree connects all the realms/universes together, there are creatures that live inside it including a dragon, and you can travel it to get to the other realms/universes so that's likely how we'll see the MCU characters interact with other Marvel characters/actors from Sony's "Spiderman" films or Fox's "X-Men".

I'm seeing others think too Loki will also be like Nick Fury now too and recruit heroes to help him save the multiverse. Plus, the "Loki" producers are still saying they could get a 3rd season and they have plans for it, Loki is rumored to be in "Thor 5" which is supposed to feature Zeus and Hercules too as the Marvel producers have said the brothers will reunite, and him being in the movies as we head to "Secret Wars". Plus, The Telegraph just posted an article about how their journalist is upset it looks like Tom Hiddleston will be playing Loki from years to come (which honestly I'm happy about). LOL

So we got so much more to look forward to and Tom's getting interviewed tonight on "The Tonight Show" with Brie Larson so we might get more news soon. But going back to Loki being the God of Stories now and in the World Tree, this made me realize how I got my Loki Hallmark Christmas ornament last year and put him in my Christmas tree last year for the first time and will be putting the tree up again in a few weeks, and that it means more to me as I also found my true purpose being a writer/author and how I always deeply connected with Loki since I saw the first "Thor" film all those years ago. 🥰 🌲

[where-theres-smoak-2]

You still have to admire how crazy some pro Lokius are... I'm still stunned.

https://www.tumblr.com/darklinaforever/734355929616842752/everybody-lies

I do think they are living a bit in denial but I wish I could say this surprises me, but its not new, they've always taken sylki moments and tried to warp them into being l*kius moments. The 'its about who scene' although it is about the whole gang collectively it was confirmed that Sylvie was the last trigger that helped him control his time-slipping, when asked very explicitly if that line was about a specific person or the group as a whole the response the head writer said was it was both, meaning it was specifically directed and about Sylvie but also encompassed the rest of the group who were his found family, so you could argue that scene is a sylki scene but they always use it as 'proof' that L*kius is canon. Other scenes they use in this way are the 'for you' scene which as many have pointed out is a throwback to thor when he said the same thing. Again others have pointed this out but the structure of the original line was the 'for you' was directed at a singular person, his father, the 'for all of us' was to include thor and the people of asgard. Seeing as this line is a mirror of the original it makes sense that the 'for you' is directed at a singular person. It also makes sense with everything we've seen in the show, the fact that its the canon ship, that this 'for you' is directed at Sylvie. Especially as the line just before it is him saying 'I know what I want, I know what kind of god I need to be' which are continuations of conversations Loki had with Sylvie alone, the one in the bar where she asks him what he wants, and the one where he visits her to tell her about the loom being a failsafe and him possibly having to kill her and she says he'd be taking everyone's free will from them and asks him if that is the kind of god he wants to be. I'm not going to say this line is one hundred percent definitely directed at Sylvie alone, we'd need confirmation from a writer, producer or tom who improvised the line, for that. But logic tells me its most likely directed at her. But again any time a sylki makes a post about that scene you'll have l*kius shippers jumping in to scream that mobius was there too. Well thor was there too in the original scene but nobody will deny that the 'for you' was directed at only Odin. Sylvie was the more prominent figure in that scene, she was (literally) front and centre.

Then there is the scene you've mentioned here, with that final look loki gives over his shoulder, which honestly that look gave me goosebumbs. But as you pointed out Sylvie was the one they focus on the most in this moment, her reaction. But they edited her out completely in that gif set, though to be fair to the op of that gif set they have tagged it correctly so its up to them if they want to edit her out, shippers are going to ship. But what I love about that scene was how it parallels the one in 1x5 when they are facing alioth and Loki decides to be the distraction so Sylvie can enchant it, she shakes her head at him the same way because she doesn't want him to sacrifice himself, she doesn't want to lose him but he goes anyway because he knows there is a greater purpose and lives to save. To me the culmination of Loki's arc, of him making this sacrifice, comes back to that line in 1x6, he just wants Sylvie to be ok, this sacrifice is how he ensures that happens.

I'll admit I've never quite seen this amount of denial from a fandom before, like I've seen people ship non canon ships before, I've shipped plenty of non canon ships before myself, but usually the fandom will enjoy the ships scenes and content but still recognise that the ship isn't canon. Having antis try and gaslight me into believing that I misinterpreted the canon ship is also a new experience for me but, all of this being said, if they are keeping it in their own tag and not harassing sylki shippers, then I just leave them to it, if that's what makes them happy, why should I worry about what they ship or post? I find I am happier just enjoying the content from my ship and trying to ignore any negativity, though I appreciate that is sometimes hard to do especially when it features prominently in the main loki tag and some of the takes are, at best, really bizarre or, at worst, very insulting to sylki shippers.

[forsakenprogam]

Frrr i really wonder who he will fignt...?💭💭 Mabye Odin or Abubis....Who knows.

By the way had you ever heard of this simo hayha ship..?👀 SIMO X APOLLO. Is there any other you you like and why ,And your least fav and why?👀

I really love thud x raiden it is so cute!!!!! They are canon lol

But saski x poseidon idk....I get why people ship them...but....poseidon is asshole he treats everyone around him like trash even his own brother Adamas that wanted to simply bond with him ,Instead he end up killing his brother Adamas. HIS OWN BROTHER so sefish of him idc what any poseidon stan say thsts the truth. Only he shows so respect to is Hades but other anybody else ,Yes i'm super happy poseidon got what he dersvesed because he is fucking asshole. Poseidon is evil in his ways.

But not all gods are evil there is few that are not evil at all,Like Hercules, Thor, idk remember more but could be possible that anubis is not evil...he doesn't seem like it...

☆👓-anon.

I honestly think that Simo would fight Odin, like why not? What has Odin’s old ass ever done in this series except sit on his ass while his birds be talking shit?

And i’ve heard of the ship Apollo x Simo. but I never got the hype for it… like why do people even ship them together? Where is the chemistry between them? Who knows… We barely know anything about Simo and Apollo is a playboy who’s kinda fruity.

There’s many ships I’ve liked that aren’t canon. Like Lu Bu x Thor.. I DON’T KNOW WHY I LIKE IT, I’M JUST WEIRD LIKE THAT.😭

Bruh and I’ve seen people ship Okita x Loki. Like HUH?! I literally saw fanart on Pinterest of them kissing and I was traumatized…

Poseidon the type to wish for triple the student debt and double world hunger🙏 We NEED MORE POSEIDON HATE! If Poseidon got no haters, I have died.

I honestly love Hercules, in a platonic way. Like I really wanna be his friend! But I don’t really see Anubis as evil though, he’s just a hyperactive dog that gets crazy a lot. That’s how I see him.

[almoststedytimetravel]

003 camilla fire emblem for the ask game 🩷

My beautiful wife.....

Ahem

1. How do you feel about this character?

I like her a lot. Honestly, it's kinda embarrassing. Like yeah I do think the purposely sexy character is attractive and I do want her carnally, sue me.

She so pretty and I think I could fix her (I absolutely could not but it's the thought that counts)

2. All the characters I romantically ship with this character.

Oh this going to be a lot: Selena, Beruka, Ryoma, Hinoka, Niles, Odin, Keton, Takumi, Charlotte.

Also, consider Reina.

3. Non-romantic OTP

It feels like a cop out say my favourite platonic relationship for Camilla is Elise but.... Nohr siblings.....

4. Unpopular opinion....

Honestly, I don't think I have any Camilla related hot takes

5. Something I wish would/had happened in cannon

I wish she would have taken the throne post birthright. I know it's more in character for her to abdacate but idc.

6. OTP

Camilla/Hinoka

What if we got married for political convenience....... and we're both girls.....

7. OT3

I'm gonna be honest with you boss

I don't like poly ships.

[sieglinde-freud]

Do you think the awakening trio’s children would go back with them to Ylisse? If the deeprealms didn’t exist, they definitely would, due to being babies/not being born yet, depending on interpretation.

If the deep realms DID exist:

it mentions in Charlotte’s ending with Odin/Laslow that they sent an allowance to their daughter, implying she didn’t come with them. It also mentions in Rev!Corrin’s endings with them that they mysteriously reappeared. (and in Felica*s that she sent a letter a year to cor, so I’m not sure how travel and communication between Ylisse and Nohr works)

I could see this depending on the child. Sieg and Shiro would have to stay. I believe Soleil’s solo ending says she disappeared and her paired endings say historians disagree with her final fate.

Shigure was more close to his caretakers in the deep realms than his parents, and I’m not sure he in particular would be okay leaving if he made strong bonds with the other kids.

interesting! i didnt know that about the charlotte/odin ending actually (i have. forgotten most of the fates endings because they are all nothing burgers to me) i thought it was only the laslow/charlotte one… but yeah i honestly? dont know where i stand on this. i like to lean yes, mostly because i like the idea of soleil and ophelia and any potential kids getting to meet their grandparents, but theyve honestly got very little reason to do so! obviously they love their parents but they also have built lives and relationships for themselves in nohr that its kind of hard to imagine!!

i guess its just whether or not the kid is willing to uproot their whole current lives to go learn about where their parents are from. and, honestly, since they all spent so long in the deeprealms, i think you could make the case to leave for almost every kid? some of them, like you said, like shiro or siegbert, would almost definitely not go. but if one of the trio married xander or ryoma, i just dont think they’d leave anyway 😭 kids like asugi or rhajat or dwyer who kind of have things attaching them to certain factions or careers might also struggle with leaving, but at the end of the day i could still see it happening. it might depend on who the kid’s second parent is (selena!asugi vs laslow!asugi might end up acting a bit differently for example), or it might depend on the spouse of the awakening trio and their willingness to leave (ex: i think kiragi would go to ylisse because takumi would be so down to go to ylisse. on the other hand, camilla might struggle going to ylisse, so if she stayed back, solei/ophelia would probably stay with her).

theres also the idea that it could be route dependent? when bringing up shigure i think if its conquest he’d stay behind trying to solve the mystery of his mother, but if its rev where azura lives and he can be closer with his parents, he might be more inclined to stay with them.

overall i think its just a very mixed bag and its all incredibly hypothetical because we really just cant know 😭 atp i think it comes down to your own personal interpretation of each kid and how you choose to pair off each trio member. but, for my biased ships and bc i like the trio so much… they all go 😫 that was enough heartache for their lives they can be happy now i give them permission!!

[sinshosted]

Ava may not know everything about Cindy, but what she does have in ample supply is patience for someone like her. Like both of them, really. She could not see herself getting upset with Cindy or attempting to fill in the blanks on something that she knows nothing about. If she were in that position, which she had been a couple of times, Ava knows how annoying it was.

So, even if they do not immediately communicate certain things to each other in full, Ava is not worried. When Cindy is able to find the words to convey it, she will. Until that point, Ava was not going to worry about it in the slightest, or hold it against the other girl. Life was rough enough already without more people adding to their problems.

There is a wry little smile on her face as Cindy says that she goes for people that aren't already her friends, tempted to tell her that she can come to Ava at any time. That it would do nothing to harm their friendship, but she realizes that Cindy has probably had issues with that before. "Hey, I mean, at least you've got something that works right now. Don't try to fix somethin' that ain't broken, especially not when you're working on something that'd be better later on. Same way Odin 'nd I wouldn't fuck around with the important parts of our ship, no matter how janky they are, until we get a new part or whatever."

Her expression softens for a moment, tone somber. "Yeah... It always takes something happening for it to all into place, doesn't it? Fuckin' sucks, honestly. I wish it wasn't like that..." They say mistakes are part of learning, but how is anyone supposed to learn if everything they do feels like a mistake? Like nothing they do is ever good? Or that it harms people even if it helps them?

It is a real offer, as real as either of them could make it in the moment. Aside from the logistical stuff, if Ava was free from the hell that follows her, she would have offered it to Cindy earlier. Maybe not forever, but... Well, Ava does not see a problem in letting people see the stars. In getting away from things while they figure others out. "Yeah, I would." It would also just be nice to have someone who isn't Odin around, who understood her far better.

"Trust me, I have no fuckin' idea what I'm doing." Had it been anyone else, Ava might have asked if she had gone a little too strong with the punch. Not Cindy, though. "It pisses Odin off to no end, and that's how I know that 'm still makin' shit up. Even when I try to think things through, it still pisses him off, though..."

Of course, if there was anyone who was going to understand Cindy’s predicament, it would be Ava.  Cindy doesn’t explain herself well, but Ava is patient enough to listen and fill in the gaps.  Cindy knows she’s got to learn to speak for herself, but sometimes, it’s nice when people tell her what she means, especially if she doesn’t immediately know.

It can be equally frustrating when someone tries to do that, but they don’t know anything.  Like that time Rikochet took her to that stupid theme park based on a diary that wasn’t even hers.  And now she’s got a lifetime ban from the place for doing what she calls ‘amusing herself’ and others call ‘assault and battery on the mascot.’  Well, good riddance.

“Yeah,” she says, looking up from under her eyelashes with a grateful smile.  “Something like that.  I’ve gotta do something with it.  Normally, I try to get people who aren’t already my friends.”  And there are plenty of those who can stand to get knocked down a peg or two, the kinds of people that she knows she wouldn’t get along with, even if she wasn’t filled with violent rage at all hours.

“I can’t stand up for myself, y’know, not the way I wanna.”  The smile slips off her face again, and she looks down at her boots as she scuffs one against the ground.  “So, I try to take care of the shit I can, but it kinda bleeds into each other sometimes.”  She’s even lashed out at Timmy before, which always makes her feel awful, but thankfully, he has a sense of humor about it and doesn’t become scared of her.  She probably would, if she was in his position.

She scoffs, laughing ruefully at herself, and shakes her head.  “I sound so goddamn self-aware ‘bout now, ‘n’ that’s the worst of it, ain’t it?”  It’s nice to better understand herself but shitty to not have the means to do anything about it.  At this current point in time, the only psychiatrists she has access to are the armchair ones, and they all annoy the hell out of her.

“You’d really take me, though?”  There is a bit of hope in Cindy’s voice.  If it’s a real offer, she will jump on it.  She likes all of her friends fine, but not qute enough to stick around for them.  There remains a whole heap of problems that she feels she could do better without.  She opens her mouth to say something else but doesn’t want to look stupid by taking it all more seriously than she should, so she closes it again.

Instead, she rubs the arm where Ava punched her, as if trying to seal the affection in her skin.  “Yeah, that is good to know…  You always seem like you have it more together than me, so… it’s cool that you’re also just making shit up.”

[cursedalthoughts]

PR6 SPECULATIONS - Ironblood

In honor of Mainz (my precious little meowmeow) getting a skin, I've decided that the next nation to get a post is the Ironblood. Honestly I intended to do Eagle Union first lol.

Just like last post: Do not treat any of the following choics as guaranteed. I would not bet money on any of these specific ones getting added as part of PR6 this year, it's just the ships I see as Very LikelyTM.

Also, I will tell you which ones I think could be Priority Research (SSR) or Decisive Research (UR). Because I'm sure we could get another Ironblood DR.

Schröder

Let's begin with a possible DR, Schröder.

She's a large cruiser. Yes. But before you get your pitchforks out, Schröder could be the different large cruiser some of y'all have been wanting to get.

No torpedoes, but scarily good secondary armament (I'm talking as good as Odin in AL, but in the vanguard). Extreme speeds and evasion stats, she's a fast as fuck ship. On top of that, she has somewhat weak armor.

All of this combined would make Schröder a certainly unique shipgirl, vastly different from all the other large cruisers: a somewhat spongy (but not too tanky), super fast fire-setting ship.

Max Immelmann

The second possible DR, Max Immelmann. She's an aircraft carrier with only torpedo bombers and skip bombers, on top of having great armor and secondaries (she's literally an FdG with a runway on top).

Honestly, she's kinda bad in WoWs. She's hyped too much because she's marginally better than Manfred von Richtofen, the other Tier 10 German CV; but that's not saying much.

She would be a bomb spammer for sure.

Anhalt

This monstrosity you see is the German battlecruiser Anhalt. She has 15 305mm guns that are extremely accurate with a respectable 21.1km range, meaning she's a snipper. Her guns don't deal a lot of damage (because they're very low caliber) but she's somewhat agile and fast (not as much as Zieten, which is a mini Rupprecht) so she can get behind cover if needed.

Schultz

The Schultz is an enlarged destroyer - basically a light cruiser cosplaying as a destroyer. Unlike Dido or Atlanta or other ships that straddle the line between DD and CL, the Schultz doesn't fire too much, nor does she fire too fast. She's mediocre.

Her torpedoes hit hard it you can prepare an entire tea party while they reload. She has no hydro, making her instantly weaker than the other German DDs.

Still, she could be an extremely tanky destroyer.

Pommern

You know her by now, probably. The half-sister of FdG, Pommern.

She's one of my favorites. The pinnacle of German battleship gameplay in WoWs - meh caliber (380mm, low for her tier), torpedoes, brilliant secondary guns, terrible stern turret angles, amazing armor that gets negated by her huge superstructure, and hydroacoustic search.

She could be a PR version of FdG that fires torpedoes ala Odin.

Preussen

The last pick for a DR, Preussen.

With a proper build, you could have a Preussen with scary secondaries who also shoots every 21.1 seconds. 21.1 seconds. Tirpitz, a fast firing battleship, reloads every 26.

And with guns as big as Preussen's (457mm), being able to fire every 21.1 seconds means you don't have to worry about accuracy betraying you. By the time the shells arrive at the objective, your next salvo is about to be loaded.

A super-fast firing FdG with overall better stats. To balance her out, she could be greedy - she won't provide any buffs to any Ironblood shipgirl, and needs flagship position to get the most out of her.

[raventao]

Alright, so this is the AU mashup that I had tried to write, based off of a few of @evilwriter37 's AUs that I had read.

I'm not sure it'll be any good. I haven't had much time to write since I had my daughter 3 years ago. (I love her, but she is a walking tornado and requires 100% of my time and energy, so writing has been put on the back burner for now.) And it was written on Google Docs on my phone, so if something looks funky or anything, I'm sorry.

Also, I have never been any good at writing violence of any sort, so the fight scene towards the end was mostly written by my wonderful husband; @aviolentsailor, I just kinda cleaned it up.

____________

So basicslly this is a VigCup red string of fate soulmate AU + Met as kids same (ish) age AU (Viggo being 16 - 23 throughout the story and Hiccup being 13 - 20) + Dragon God Hiccup AU.

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For the longest time Hiccup is just regarded as having exceptional luck. Throughout all of the dragon raids on Berk, he has never once actually been attacked or even accidentally injured. Dragons tended to either ignore him or go out of their way to not hurt him.

At first, Stoick is just glad he's okay when he watches Hiccup casually walk through the burning village and panicking vikings, not even batting an eye, putting out fires when he was 5. By the time he's 10, Stoick is pretty sure Odin himself is protecting his boy, and he's not complaining, Thor knows he needs the help. May the Gods bless whatever poor soul is his son's soulmate too, or he's sure they'll die of heart failure watching him run around with inventions that explode and ignoring dragon attacks as they happen. Or he will if they’re anything like his boy.

By 11, Hiccup wanders around on his own a lot more than Stoick would like, but no matter how many guards he has tail his son, he always manages to lose them and come back late into the evening. Stoick gives up. His boy will obviously find a way to do what he pleases, he might as well accept it. As long as he doesn't see it, maybe he won't worry as much? Nope. Doesn't work. Even Valka is lost when it comes to how to protect their boy from himself.

What Stoick doesn't know is that Hiccup has been sneaking off the island for years with the help of his Nightfury, becoming one with the sky and helping any dragons in need, or accepting offerings made to him in the name of the Dragon God. He hadn't told anyone who he was, hadn't wanted to scare them, especially when Berk was very clearly anti dragon. He wanted to help, but if they were fighting the dragons, then they weren't fighting the other tribes in the archipelago. Dragons hurting his people, he could do something against. Humans, in his weakened mortal state, he could not.

When he was 13 he had been out flying in the early morning mists, having had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. That was when he saw it. A ship. The flag was a dragon run through with a sword; Hunters. It was being bombarded by a horde of angry dragons. Looking closer, it appeared that the whole crew had been taken out. Whether they were all dead or just unconscious Hiccup didn't know, but something told him to check it out. Landing; he easily dismisses the attacking dragons with a wave of his hand.

"Go find some sea dragons to tow the ship back to Berk, Toothless. Around the back of the island. I'll tend to the crew." He says as he sets to work checking the pulse and injuries of each person he could find on the ship. He didn’t know why he was helping them. Honestly, they deserved this for all the dragons they had hurt in the past. But, then again, this was soothing that pit in his stomach, so this must have been what he had been worried about. The question then became; why? As far as he could tell it was a fairly ordinary Hunter ship, if not just a little undermanned.

There seemed to have only been 20 men on the ship, 7 of them had not survived, and Hiccup for some reason hoped they hadn't suffered too much. He dragged the remaining 13 onto the upper deck and set to work bandaging them up with whatever supplies he could find. One member in particular that caught his attention was the youngest member of the crew; he looked to be only a few years older than himself. He seemed to only have superficial wounds, only a few cuts and bruises. Gothi would know more. Perhaps he should have paid more attention when his father had sent him to learn from their healer? He knew enough basic first aid to help himself, but did he know enough to actually help these men?

None of them woke up on the trip back, as quick as it was. He took the time to himself to check the rest of the ship over and make sure that there weren’t any dragons onboard the ship. Just because he was helping them survive, didn’t mean he would let them hurt his children. Once to shore Hiccup leaves Toothless to defend the ship from the shadows as he takes off running back to the village. His father would be mad that he had been so far away, but hopefully the ship of injured men would take precedence. His father might be wary of them at first, but he knew that he was a generally good man. He wouldn’t let them die. Right? Right.

"Dad, there's an emergency!" He calls as he dashes into the great hall, approaching Stoick's throne. He knew there were other people in line to talk to his father that he had just run past, but hopefully they’d understand? "I was out on the far side of the island-" He barely gets that much out before Stoick cuts him off.

"Again? Hiccup, you know I don't like you adventuring so far out there alone! There are wild dragons out there, and wolves! You could get hurt and I'd never know!" Stoick scolds. It takes a lot for Hiccup not to roll his eyes at his father’s worries. He should know by now that no dragons are going to attack him. And if anything else were to try, be it wolf, wild boar, malcontent sheep or angry yak, Toothless would defend him. He was perfectly safe. But, he supposed his dad didn’t really know about Toothless so … it was a moot point.

"I know, but that'll have to wait, a ship of injured men washed up on the beach. I tried to help, but they need more." Hiccup huffs, crossing his arms as Stoick finally lets him talk. At this his father stands quickly and gathers a few of the men that were nearby to come with him to investigate.

"How many?" he asks curtly.

"From what I could see, 13 injured, 7 dead. It looks like their ship was attacked by dragons. There are scorch marks everywhere." Hiccup answers, conveniently leaving out the part about them being dragon hunters and that the attack would have been justified. Stoick sends one man to get more help from the village and another to help Gothi be ready when they return with the men. Some even go down to the docks, grabbing a few fishing boats to tow the ship around to the pier to make the trip easier.

Hiccup leads the party to the ship, climbing up onto the deck with ease, carefully motioning Toothless to stay hidden while everyone else is busy with the survivors. He knew as much already, but this was a lot of people, so it was better to err on the side of caution. One of the men seemed to be waking as Stoick stepped on board with a heavy thud and Hiccup was at his side in an instant. He really didn’t want this to turn into a fight and he was sure he was the least threatening person on the ship at the moment. A quiet “Take it easy.” being whispered under his breath to the newly conscious man.

"Ugh, what happened?" He mutters, voice laiden with a strange accent Hiccup had never heard. He opens his eyes slowly, though as soon as he sees Stoick and his men on his ship he reaches for his sword and pulls Hiccup to his chest, holding a blade to his throat. Hiccup wasn't fazed, he’d been threatened before, though Toothless had almost revealed himself if Hiccup hadn't caught it and ordered him to stay away with a pointed look in his direction. "Who are you? What are you doing on my ship?" he asks in panicked anger. Stoick tries to step closer, but the man presses the sword closer to Hiccup’s throat in turn. "Come any closer and the lad gets it." This was ridiculous. They didn’t have time to play paranoid, even if it was a perfectly natural reaction.

"Your ship washed up on our shores, you all looked injured from a dragon attack, so I brought help." Hiccup says easily. "You sustained losses, but most of the crew seems like they'll live, I'm not a healer so I can't say for sure though." That seems to get his attention and the man's grip loosens just enough for Hiccup to push the sword away and step back. It’s obvious he isn’t focusing on them anymore

"Viggo, where is my brother? Is he okay?" The man asks upon hearing and letting the fact that men had died in the attack sink in. Ignoring the pain from his own injuries he was surely feeling, the man got up and started looking around frantically at all the bodies of men on the deck.

"We'll find him, but you shouldn't be moving around." Stoick says, trying to push Hiccup away as soon as he's free. He simply side stepped his father's hand and moved to the other side of the stranger. He didn't hold the hostage situation against the man, he was scared and disoriented in a strange place he didn't know, and worried about his brother. Hiccup helps him sit back down, though it had been a struggle.

"What does he look like?" Stoick asks as the boats he'd sent around arrive and the other men set to work securing the tow lines so they can get the men to Gothi.

"He's the youngest member of the crew, 16, grey tunic, black hair, scar on his neck." The man describes shakily, taking deep breaths. “This wasn’t supposed to be a dangerous voyage, Grandfather will kill me if something’s happened to him.”

"Oh, he's fine.” Hiccup answers quickly, remembering the young man easily. “Pretty sure he just hit his head. I didn't see any blood on him when I was bandaging everyone up." Hiccup smiles, kicking his legs as he jumps up to sit on the ship's railing. "What's your name?" he asks, trying to get the man to calm down at least a little, focusing on other things would help, he hoped. Quietly, he directs Spitelout to where Viggo had been laid so he could bring him over to his brother.

"Ryker." Was all he got as the others set to work checking on the members of the crew. Viggo was brought forward to Ryker, who still inspected the boy himself. Hiccup didn’t mind, someone who knew him better might catch something he’d missed.

“What were you doing out there? I didn’t think Dragon Hunters came this far south.” Stoick asks once Ryker has calmed down enough to talk.

“We were out looking for his soulmate.” Ryker answers, nodding down to Viggo’s sleeping form. “It’s a tradition in our village that if your soulmate isn’t from the village that you go out to look for them. Viggo just turned 16 last month and planned out the expedition himself. We didn’t realize that his string led so far away though, or into such dangerous waters. We might just have to turn around and go back if it leads farther out still. It’s getting too dangerous for us to be out here.” he explains. Things went well after that. The news that they hadn’t been out hunting was a relief to Hiccup. Plus it turned out that the crew that had survived would be fine due to his quick action, Gothi even gave him a proud pat on the shoulder when she arrived on scene with Gobber and a whole lot of baskets of medicine and bandages.

The ship had been totaled, and their supplies were ransacked by the dragons, so the hunters would have to stay on Berk until it was fixed. Longer if they hadn't healed before that since several men had sustained serious injuries. Hiccup spent a lot of time in the great hall while the outsiders were recovering, watching them from the rafters and just observing them. Ryker had apparently been the captain, and from the bits and pieces he could catch, this had been the first time Viggo had been allowed to venture out past the main hunting grounds around their Village. There had been some sort of whisperings about the future chief being in danger too, but he couldn't quite discern who that was just yet. It had surprised him the first time Viggo had instantly spotted him up in the ceiling, but he supposed that maybe Viggo was just really perceptive? He hadn't stayed longer to find out. They were hunters. They killed his dragons for sport or for profit. He didn't need to hear any more talk about it. He had saved their lives on a whim, but that didn't mean he had to like them.

Stoick did though. His father was trying to negotiate some sort of treaty with the hunters, trying to find a way to protect his people from the dragon attacks that had begun growing in frequency. Hiccup disapproved, but he wasn't chief yet, so he couldn't say anything against a decision Stoick the Vast had already made. He thought he had been doing just fine protecting the village. Their losses in food had been manageable, and the last time anyone had died in an attack had been years ago. But apparently that wasn't good enough for his father. He left before things could be settled. He didn't want to hear how the hunters planned to trap and kill his dragons. And he especially didn't want to hear how Berk was going to help them.

He wanted to fly away on Toothless, clear his head and just enjoy his friend's company. He must have been more distracted by the conversation between Stoick and Ryker than he thought when Viggo managed to actually surprise him, pushing him out of the way and to the ground with a frantic call of his name just as Toothless emerged from the bushes at his bird call, ready to pounce and smother him in hello kisses. Viggo's sword was drawn and Hiccup felt his heart trying to beat out of his chest as he pushed himself to his feet to get between them.

"NO! Don't hurt him!" Hiccup shouts, throwing himself over Toothless' head to protect him.

"It's a dragon! A Nightfury! They're dangerous, Hiccup, get out of the way!" Viggo all but demands, and he has to wonder when exactly they became so familiar that Viggo thought he could order him around.

"Does he look like he's going to hurt me?" Hiccup glares as he straightens out a little, stepping back only just slightly, his hand still on his dragon's head. Toothless gives his hand a concerned nuzzle before curling his body behind him defensively, his tail raised in the air, ready to swoop Hiccup onto his back at the first sign of trouble. Viggo surveys them critically, obviously skeptical. It's fine. He understands.

"How are you controlling him like that?" Viggo asks, mystified, only dropping his sword a little. It’s pointed to the ground now, but he hasn’t put it back in its sheath, ready to come back up at a moment's notice. He doesn’t trust what he’s seeing, even if Hiccup does seem to believe what he’s saying. It’s still a wild dragon, no matter how you look at it.

"I'm not controlling him, we're friends." Hiccup answers with a roll of his eyes. "Put the sword away, he won't hurt you unless you hurt me." Viggo still doesn't believe him, but begrudgingly does as he's asked. He can tell that Hiccup does know this dragon better than he does, and that doesn't sit well with him. He thought this village was afraid of dragons, and yet, here was the chief's son running around playing with them? Was he the reason for all their attacks? Was his soulmate insane? As he watches the small viking boy climb up onto the Nightfury's back he concluded, yes. His bonded pair was, in fact, insane.

"It's a wild beast, it can't be your friend. It doesn’t understand what friendship even is. Now get off it before it decides to eat you as a snack." Viggo orders. Crazy or not, this boy was his, and he'd be damned if he stood by and watched him get killed. Hiccup just gives him a confused look before laughing at his order. Well, this wasn’t what he was used to. Back home everyone listened to his commands, sure, this wasn’t his home, but this still seemed like a reasonable order to his ears, and he was the elder of the two of them, he should be listened to for that alone!

"Toothless would never hurt me, let alone try to eat me." He declares jovially as he pats the side of the dragon's head and leans in to whisper something in its ear, still smiling wide. Before he can react, the dragon is running at him, he wants to bring his sword back up to defend himself, but he doesn't get the chance before he feels a scrawny hand on his arm and more strength than he was expecting as he's pulled onto the Nightfury's back behind Hiccup. The dragon warbles in a way that sounds disturbingly like a laugh and Hiccup himself does the same. "You'll want to hang on." He says. It's all the warning Viggo gets before the dragon takes to the sky, his sword forgotten, falling back to the ground as his arms wrap around Hiccup's small waist tightly. Was this boy actually eating anything? He felt like skin and bones. He’s liable to just fly away in this wind if he were to fall off this ridiculous flying lizard.

Viggo has never flown before, sailing, sure, but this was actually flying, not climbing all the way up to the top of the mast and hanging off the edge of the crowsnest to feel the wind in your face and see the horizon as you sail towards it. He had never even dreamed he would see a view as breathtaking as this. He was in the clouds for Thor's sake! The air was frigid and the wind felt sharper, but also, really good? He relaxed just a little as they leveled out. "So that's how you found us." He says reverently, taking in how far into the distance he can see from this height. "I knew we couldn't have drifted this far south in such a short amount of time." You could see miles out over the water, it wouldn't have been hard if Hiccup had been out here that morning to have spotted them. Hiccup stiffens a little in his hold but does give a small nod. "Did you tow us back with this dragon too?" Viggo asks. Maybe his soulmate is less crazy than he thought. Obviously he was still crazy enough to ride a dragon, but they did seem to have some sort of bond. That much was abundantly clear.

“No, I didn’t tow you back with Toothless, but I did have a few other dragons do it.” He answers. "I didn't have to save you though. Once I saw your flag I could have just left you there." Hiccup says, though, Viggo can tell he doesn't mean what he's saying. This boy is too kind to have left them there, floating and vulnerable to further attack. He’ll have to circle back to the other dragons bit later. For now, he had a hunch to follow up on.

"No, you didn't." Viggo agrees. "But, you did. You felt ... compelled to, didn't you?" The older teen asks carefully, a smirk worming its way onto his lips as Hiccup gives a hesitant nod. He obviously doesn’t know where this is going. He can't stop smiling, he really wants to tell him, so he holds up his left hand in front of the two of them. “Do you want to know my theory as to why?” Viggo asks, continuing before Hiccup can answer. "It’s because we're soulmates. The string you can't even see yet, told you to help us." Hiccup hadn't even considered that he might have a soulmate while he was in human form. And a dragon hunter to boot? Freyja had a sense of humor it seemed. He shakes his head.

"No. I saved you because human life is still sacred, even if you are murderers. You’re not my soulmate."

"We hunt dragons, not people." Viggo frowns. “But fine, don’t believe it, you’ll know the truth when you can see the string too.”

"Dragons are my people, so in my book, it’s still murder." Is all Hiccup says as he lands Toothless once more in the clearing where they had taken off from. Viggo gets off and looks around to pick his sword back up. He doesn’t need to look to know that Hiccup has taken back off, evidently done with the conversation. Viggo knows that if he says anything, the town would just think he was insane. No one would believe Hiccup had a pet dragon when the village was constantly being raided by them. Plus, then he would have to deal with the betrayal in the young man’s eyes every time he looked at him. He had just shared something amazing with him, it would be rude to out him like that. Even if it were for his own good. No, his secret was safe for now.

When Stoick and Ryker had learned that Hiccup and Viggo were soulmates, talk of the treaty became much easier. The question wasn’t what did the Hunters get out of the arrangement, but instead if they should send Hiccup back with Ryker and Viggo, or did Viggo stay on Berk. Hiccup didn't come home that night, he still didn’t, couldn’t believe that he had a soulmate, or that said soulmate would so readily hurt his children. He instead found comfort with his dragons in a nest of his own making on a small island past the tallest sea stacks south of Berk’s shores, somewhere he knew neither his father nor anyone else would find him. The God of Dragons, born mortal or not, and a Dragon Hunter? If not so absolutely repugnant, it would be laughable. Except that maybe Viggo was just a little nice to look at? And possibly, his voice was pleasant to hear as well. And okay, his mechanical knowledge when he'd popped into the forge one day was actually pretty impressive. No. No, he couldn't be falling for this human. Be it platonically or romantically. He was not going to let this man who would grow up to hunt his beautiful dragons, who probably already had judging from a few of those scars that littered his body, take up residence in his heart. Toothless snuggled in closer to his friend, purring quietly to help him relax and forget about his plight.

It wasn't the first time Hiccup had stayed out all night, likely wouldn't be the last either, but it was the first that it wasn't due to a fight between Hiccup and himself, and that was what worried Stoick. Perhaps he was worried about what having a soulmate from so far away would mean for him? Viggo had said that he'd told Hiccup about the string. Or maybe it had to do with the young man's occupation? Stoick knew his son liked dragons, more than he really should, given how the dragons regarded Berk. He always voiced his displeasure when any were killed during the raids, Valka smiling and backing him up, ever supportive of their son's whims. His family was going to be the death of him one of these days. He had tried asking Viggo to follow his string to find Hiccup, but he just said he couldn't. It sounded more like wouldn't to Stoick's ears. He knew from experience though that panicking and looking for Hiccup all night wasn’t going to work. If Hiccup didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be.

Viggo is the one to find him when he finally does return the next day around mid day, back in the same clearing as the day before. He's grilling some fish and sharing it with several small terrible terrors, curled comfortably into his precious Nightfury's side. Viggo still hasn’t fully decided if this boy is crazy or extremely brave, but either way, he belongs with him.

"How do you keep finding me?" Hiccup asks, not even turning to acknowledge that he knew Viggo was there.

"The string." Is all Viggo says as he shrugs and walks out of the shadows and over to the other side of the fire. Hiccup didn’t have to believe him that it was there, even though it was, so there was really no reason to start a fight over it. He would find out when he was old enough to see the string himself on his 16th birthday. "Why do I always find you with dragons?" He counters once he's comfortable. "Aren't they dangerous beasts that plague your village?" he asks, quoting Stoick’s own words to him.

"They have to." Hiccup answers with a frown, reaching out to pet one of the small dragons running around him. He looks distressed. "They wouldn't do it if their queen didn't demand so many offerings." That was interesting. How had Hiccup learned that?

"Kill the queen then?" It seemed simple to Viggo though. If he knew what the problem was, why not fix it?

"Because then Berk would be at war with the other tribes in the archipelago. I can handle the dragons, keep things to minimum bloodshed on both sides. I can't help with a war fought against men." Hiccup doesn't know why he's opening up to this hunter, just knows he's easy to talk to. He doesn't like this supposed string. As much as he didn’t want to believe in it, it was the only reason he could think of why things between them were shifting. Viggo stays silent, even after Hiccup offers him a fish, only nodding his thanks.

That admission was a bit strange, and more than a little confusing. How was he even supposed to respond to that? "Your father was worried when you didn't come home last night." He finally says after the fire has died down to embers. He observes as Hiccup only seems to nod.

"He always is. I was fine."

"Where were you? I tried following the string but it led off the island."

Hiccup smiles and scratches Toothless' chin. "With them." Viggo decides then and there to stay on Berk. He needed to protect this boy; if not from outside threats, than from himself.

By the time Hiccup is 16 and can see the string for himself he has come to at least enjoy Viggo's company when he isn't talking about hunting. And Viggo seems eager enough to avoid the subject for his sake, so it works out. He stares at the string often, wondering how such a small thing had such great sway over him. It isn't until he’s forced to take action against the Red Death, to defend Toothless from his father and his village, that he even considers telling Viggo the truth; that he was a God in human flesh. That even though he was in a weakened state due to how much of his power this body could handle flowing through it, that he still held sway over them. Could communicate with them and feel their distress. In the end, he still doesn't tell him.

He had had to save his life, again. This time from a raging titan wing Monstrous Nightmare that had seen the weapons trained on them as Stoick's ships approached the nest and had tried to kill the closest man to it. He had had to exert his own will onto the poor thing to get it to calm down. He tried petting its nose to ease its distress once it had come back to its senses. The waring emotions of fear of both man and its queen's wrath, anger that its nest was being attacked, and hurt in general for oh so many reasons in its eyes broke Hiccup's heart. That was when Viggo suspected that there was more to Hiccup than just scientific curiosity at finding ways to placate the dragons to stop their attacks and animal handling affection. But Hiccup is gone before he can get an answer, just a quiet; "Try not to get killed while I'm gone." Leaving his lips as Toothless and he fly straight for the giant dragon breathing down pillars of fire onto Stoick’s men and his fellow Berkians and the Hunters that had come to aid them.

Hiccup manages to win, though no one is quite sure how, but the look in Hiccup's eye as Viggo approaches is akin to a monumental loss. It doesn’t feel like a victory when he sees him standing there, his hand on the dragon's maw, crying, muttering old words he can't understand, but somehow, knows are an apology. Viggo pulls his soulmate into his chest and holds him tight. He doesn't know why this has his Hiccup so distraught, but he will console him nonetheless. He doesn't like seeing his destined other half so upset.

It doesn't come up again until four years later, when they are 20 and 23 respectively, with the incident with Drago. He has never seen Hiccup so angry as he is when he hears what the self proclaimed Dragon Master is doing. He almost thinks that he'll fly out on Toothless and go on some sort of crusade. He would help him if the young man ever bothered to ask.

Hiccup tries so hard to talk sense into Drago, tries to show him that he doesn't need to dominate and degrade the dragons. That they could be his friends. It doesn't work, and so he's left with no other choice. It was too close for comfort, Drago having the Alpha Bewilderbeast command Toothless to attack him. His dragon would never do such a thing, and he hated having to fight for his dragon’s mind to be his own once more. That was the moment he knew he needed to face this like a God, and not a human.

Viggo saw the change when Hiccup returned to Berk. His eyes were hard and unforgiving, shoulders squared back as he rides with purpose back home. He didn't know what the young man intended to do, but he clearly had a plan. He trusted his soulmate with his whole being. Dominating the Bewilderbeast with Toothless was not exactly what he was expecting. Though after so long of knowing Hiccup, perhaps it should have been. Hiccup had his hand on Toothless' back the whole time. It was clear that they were a team, and they were planning to win, no matter what. With the Bewilderbeast out of the way all that was left to deal with, was Drago himself, screaming at his beast as Hiccup walked up to him, face to face.

"You don't deserve to wear these scales, you never did." He says curtly, though he is too far away for anyone other than Viggo to hear him as he pulls the Nightfury pelt off of Drago's shoulders, forcing the man to kneel in front of him with a single hand on his right shoulder. No one knows where he acquired the strength, but it could very well just be that Drago is in shock at losing when victory seemed such a sure thing.

"You go around, touting that you are the master of dragons but you are nothing more than a bully who wears my children's skin as a trophy. You are master of nothing, and I will show you how little you truly know of my children. Your fate shall be theirs to decide." He says just before every dragon aside from Toothless, both in the air and on the ground charge the man. The bewilderbeast's ice that had littered the cliff edge shattering with a small flick of his wrist that had he not been watching, Viggo was sure he would have missed.

Hiccup steps back as his children flock Drago; a snafflefang rips his metal arm off and throws it off over the cliff into the crashing waves of the ocean down below. While recovering from the force of having his arm none-so-gently ripped out of his latch Drago brings his right hand up to hold the now exposed stump of his shoulder, glaring heatedly at Hiccup. It’s short lived though, a Zippleback coming up and grabbing him by the legs, both heads fighting over him, pulling them in opposite directions and sinking their teeth into his flesh for better grip, shaking vigorously. Two Terrible Terrors jump up to chomp on his hand as it dangles in front of their faces. The combined force of the Zipplebacks shaking him and the jaw strength of the Terrible Terrors results in both small dragons falling back to the ground and spitting out two severed fingers before going back in for another bite. The Zippleback seems to lose interest in Drago when one leg ends up coming off with a particularly harsh tug of war.

Viggo isn’t sure if Drago has actually stopped screaming anymore if he’s just gone deaf to the sounds with the sheer terror of what he’s witnessing. Hiccup is just standing there watching as each dragon goes in to rip off pieces of their enemy. There is flesh littering the ground everywhere he looks, blood is oozing from every injury and painting the man red from the bottom up. A Monstrous Nightmare reaches over the rabble with its long neck and takes Drago’s body, flying high into the air, shaking him wildly before dropping him back to the ground amongst the other dragons. If he hadn’t been dead yet, he was now. Viggo can clearly see Drago’s skull shattered, face caved in and nearly unrecognizable from between the mess of dragon feet. By the time the dragons are all done ripping him apart, there are pieces of the man scattered all over the cliff and town. Bones poking out of piles of flesh and skin hanging off buildings. The smell alone is enough to turn stomachs. His eyes have both been pecked from their sockets and the whole left side of his face has been shattered, the back of his skull caved in and leaking blood and brains.

It’s then that Viggo realizes that none of the dragons had actually eaten any of the man, every part that was missing could be found somewhere in the vicinity recognizable or not in its current state. No one says anything as Hiccup and Toothless walk away stone faced from the murder scene. Everyone else is confused and horrified that the dragons they had been defending the last few years could do such a thing. None of them had acted this way since before Hiccup had helped the village train them. Viggo had so many questions, first and foremost, if Hiccup was actually alright. For now though, he would give his partner space and help clean up. He knew that after something like this that Hiccup would need time to himself to calm down. It had been the same after he had been forced to kill the Red Death, the normally talkative young man not saying a word for almost three whole days after. He didn’t have three days this time. He needed to know what was going on, and he needed to make sure that Hiccup didn’t run off with Toothless into the night before he had a chance to speak with him.

"Hiccup, we need to talk." He says, hours later after the village is put mostly back together. He had followed his string all the way back to the clearing, though if he were being honest, he was sure he'd have found him here even if they hadn't had the string connecting them. Hiccup barely moves, his hand heavy on Toothless' neck. He doesn't answer, just stares ahead at the trees along the rim of the basin. "Hiccup." Viggo tries again, this time placing a hand on his shoulder, and sitting down next to him. "My dear, what happened back there? You weren't acting like yourself." His voice is soft, so as not to spook him. He doesn’t want Hiccup thinking he’s in trouble. He’s not. Viggo just wants to understand.

"I was. I just hadn't been that version of myself in quite some time. Even before this incarnation, it had been a great many years since I was angry enough to kill a man so brutally." Hiccup finally says quietly, taking a shaky breath. "He used Toothless against me. He used my dragons against my family, my village, against you; my soulmate. His crimes were beyond mortal forgiveness. He needed divine recompense."

Viggo didn't know what he meant, but he sensed no lies in Hiccup's words. "And you could do that? Channel divinity and dictate his punishment? Dismembered and butchered by the very dragons he'd dominated?"

"I haven't needed to use that much of my power since before I chose to live among my children. I think it was too much." He admits, finally turning to look at Viggo, blood dripping from his eyes, down his cheeks like tears. He looks scared, and Viggo is too. Everything makes so much more sense now when he lets Hiccup’s words sink in, but he doesn't have time to focus on any of that. His soulmate is falling apart. He needs help. He tries to reach out and wipe away the blood trails, but it keeps falling, no matter what he does.

"What can I do?" Viggo asks, clasping Hiccup's hands in his own, his own hands are still bloody and dirty, but that's not important right now.

"This body is failing Viggo. It was never made to handle more than a small fraction of my divinity at a time." He says softly, pulling one hand back to cup his beloved's cheek. "You surprised me, I didn't think Gods could have soulmates, especially ones who had hunted my children, but I'm still glad, here at the end, that you and I were fated to be."

"No. No, this isn't the end, we'll go get Gothi, you'll be okay!" He says frantically, getting to his feet and scooping Hiccup into his arms. "We can hop on Toothless and I could have us back to my village in a week's time. We can get you help!" Hiccup gives him a sullen look, but nods anyway. He'll let his human try to save him. He can feel in his bones that this body will give out by the end of the week, but if it would make Viggo feel better to take him to healers, he would go. Truth be told he didn't want to leave either. There was so much left he wanted to do, to experience. So many sunrises and sunsets to watch quietly with Viggo at his side. He would have to make the most of the last few he would get.

[amatchinwater]

For the prompts—Romantic List, 1. "I could listen to you all day." My #1 ship choice is Sterek for this but feel free to write any ship that comes into your mind <3

Thank you so much for the request!! Sorry it took a bit to get done! It's Sterek and there aren't any warnings I can think of!

Hope you like it :)

---

Being the kid with ADHD, Stiles was always dubbed the spastic, annoying kid who talked too much and never sat still. Like it was his fault his brain went a mile a minute and the ideal medication was basically watered down speed. Seriously, whoever thought that Adderall was a good solution for people with ADHD was fucking high.

But he dutifully takes the pill as asked, no matter what weird effects it has on his body. The first time he accidentally took too much, he cleaned his room in about twenty minutes while Scott stared at him with a slack jaw. Don’t even get him started on the research rabbit holes that he goes on without the drugs. Good thing there’s usually enough monsters terrorizing Beacon Hills that Derek regularly needs the human’s help figuring out how to stop them.

It took the second monster’s research only taking him a short two hours for Peter to give Stiles a key to his apartment so he could have access to the Hale archive. Talk about awesome! The creeper wolf is actually pretty decent to be around with his sanity intact, like an older brother or uncle Stiles wouldn’t mind having. Derek even sits with them most nights they’re scouring through texts. Stiles is sure he’s just being a proper Alpha. His heart- that has a major crush on the wolf- would like to think he’s the reason Derek comes around so much.

Not that Stiles truly believes for a second that the wolf could have feelings for him too. But a guy can dream, right? Hope that the stupidly gorgeous Alpha could fall for the lanky, mole-speckled human by sheer willpower alone. That’s totally a thing that could happen. At least Stiles hopes so because he isn’t going to say a damn word. Embarrass himself like that? Nuh-uh. No siree. He’s just going to love Derek from afar and do things for him in hope that’s the Alpha’s love language.

Because words are fucking hard.

As of late though, Beacon Hills has been oddly quiet. No rogue hunters trying to wipe them off the face of the earth. No random Omegas joining forces to kill their way through town. Not to mention the wendigo last month eating anyone it could get its hands on. So, Stiles finally has been able to do things for himself. He’s missed staying up late at night with both Hales trying to figure out how to protect the pack. But nothing beats laying in bed, a bag of doritos at his side, and God of War on the t.v. Honestly, the only thing that could make this better is if a certain Alpha was here with him.

But how the hell does he ask the wolf for company outside of pack related activities without giving himself away?

A question Stiles doesn’t have long to contemplate. Just as Kratos gets to Freyja’s home, there’s a tap on the window. Locked in a cutscene and having played it enough to know there’s no fight after, Stiles lets it play while he sees who it is. Glowing red eyes meet him when he reaches the window and Stiles wills his heart to beat normally in his chest. Having expected Isaac to be waiting for him, not his fucking crush showing up after wishing he would.

“Are you gonna let me in or not?” Derek asks, shaking a to-go back, snapping the human’s focus back. Apparently he’d spent too much time trying to calm himself down. “Come on, Stiles, I’m starving.”

Right. He’s still just standing here.

Opening the window, Stiles takes the offered bag so the wolf can climb in. The human can’t help himself, Freyja looks out her window to her home land and Stiles gets locked in. Shoving his hand in the bag for some curly fries, he sits on his bed. Piling them in his mouth, he listens to her talk about how Odin wronged her.

“That’s right,” the human says around a mouth full of potato, “fuck Odin.”

Derek snorts and sits beside him, kicking his shoes off. Grabbing a burger for himself, the wolf asks, “why do we hate Odin?”

“Are you serious?” Stiles asks, pausing the game when the Alpha nods his head and takes a bite. “Odin is not much better than Zeus if I’m being honest.”

“We don’t like Zeus either?” Derek asks carefully, thick eyebrows rising.

“Oh my god,” the human groans. “Odin married Freyja for money and power disguising it as peace and love. Took her from her home and forced her to bear him sons. Then, when she tried to gain some sense of independence to be a fucking person, he casts her aside, strips her of her full powers, and erases her name from history. Condemning her to only be remembered as Frigg, his wife, it’s bullshit.” Stiles takes a gasping inhale at Derek’s shocked expression and realizes he hasn’t. “Sorry,” he clears his throat, “I got a little carried away there.”

The Alpha smiles softly at him. “You don’t have to apologize, Stiles.”

“No, honestly, I’m sorry,” the human repeats. “I know I tend to ramble and talk too much.” Stiles sheepishly looks away. “I should probably be told to stop more often.”

“Oh, please,” the wolf chuckles before eying him seriously. “I could listen to you all day.”

“You-” Stiles narrows his eyes, mouth falling in an open frown. “What?”

Derek wraps his burger back up, setting it on the other boy’s nightstand. “I love hearing you talk about things you’re passionate about. Or when you learn something new and get so excited you’ll tell anyone who’ll listen.” The Alpha ducks his head with a smile. This is the most he’s spoken in one go, Stiles isn’t about to interrupt. “Why else do you think I work with you and Peter?” Blue-green eyes meet amber pools and the human shrugs. “Because I want to be the first person you turn to. I- I want to be the one you tell everything to.”

“Well, yeah,” Stiles starts, thinking this must be the reason, “you’re my Alpha.”

“Not just because I’m your Alpha, Stiles.”

Obtuse as ever, Stiles continues down the path of obliviousness. “Well, you’ll have to fight Isaac for the title of best friend, dude.”

“I don’t want to be your friend,” Derek corrects him.

“I don’t-” Stiles shakes his head. Not really understanding what the Alpha is trying to say at this point.

The wolf pinches his face in contemplation and the human patiently- anxiously- waits to let him think. Derek must’ve come to some sort of conclusion because he looks at Stiles with newfound determination. “Understand you can say no.”

“What-” Stiles doesn’t get to finish voicing his confusion because the Alpha’s lips press against his own. Derek’s. Kissing. Him. Holy shit! As if he could say no to that. Yeah fucking right. The human eagerly leans into it, deepening the kiss, not caring one bit that he’s kind of squishing the paper bag between them. The wolf moves the bag and it thuds to the ground, grabbing Stiles by the hips to put him in his lap, growling in the back of his throat. “Wait, wait,” he says against the Alpha’s mouth. Not wanting to stop, but needing to sort his brain.

“Sorry,” Derek pants, leaning his head against the headboard. “Too much, too soon, sorry.” He tries to move Stiles off of him, but the human holds firm.

“No, it’s okay. I’m not mad or anything,” Stiles assures, trying to catch his own breath. “Just trying to process the fact that you like me too. I had no idea.”

Derek reaches up and brushes a stray hair from Stiles’ forehead. “Do you think I bring every member of the pack dinner so that I have an excuse to be around them?” The human opens his mouth with an exaggerated shrug, the Alpha covers his mouth. “No, I don’t. It’s called courting, Stiles. I thought you had looked up everything there is to know about wolves.”

“Not the fun stuff,” he responds under the wolf’s palm, knowing he’d still be heard.

Derek chuckles and lowers his hand, “had I known you had no idea, I would’ve been a little more obvious about it. I’m sorry.”

“Uh-uh, no apologies,” Stiles leans in to kiss the wolf. “More kissing. Lots and lots more kissing. You’ve got lost time to make up for here, Sourwolf.”

“Anything for you,” Derek says, sealing their mouths again.