He snorted and shook his head. “If you’d asked me a year ago, I would have told you, very determinedly, that I hated him.” Loki smiled, though his expression softened as he continued, “We’re not getting married in Asgard,” he eventually said. “The location is to be determined, but we only want the people we care most about there. I don’t want all the stress and fanfare of another royal wedding.” Thor’s wedding and just the idea of their eventual coronation was and would be enough. After a brief pause, he added, “And I don’t want Father there.”
Frigga laughed, the sound light and merry, because she knew it to be true. "You were always a fickle child," she teased, her voice gentle and sweet. It would've been more true to say that Loki sometimes denied himself what was truly good for him -- but some things a mother kept to herself. Loki's next words knocked her out of her brief reverie, she tilted her head as she listened. She felt the last sentiment before he spoke it, lingering in the air before it struck. For a moment, she just inhaled sharply and held her breath. She reached into the air and plucked the floating flower between them, spinning it in her fingers. "The world is a very different place now, darling. Things are not as they once were in the realms -- when chaos and calamity and wars raged on. When sacrifice was necessary, when love meant little next to survival and responsibility." A certain face flashed through her mind, but she pushed it away and continued. "Our people, we've upheld the traditions that kept us alive, that have carried our children into adulthood. There were many times," she said softly, her eyes flicking over to meet his. "When I've had to do things that I wished I didn't have to do. For the good of the realm, of my people. Or for my children." Her hand came to his cheek, cradled it gently. "But I did that in the hopes that you would be spared that," she said firmly. She took the flower in her other hand and threaded it through the buttonhole of his suit. "Things are changing. Quickly, more rapidly than I have ever seen the realms change. And while some might use that as an excuse to cling to traditions more tightly than ever -- perhaps it is a sign that it is time to move on." She smoothed his lapels and smiled up at him. "This is your time, Loki. You and your brother are young and vibrant, and you will do great things. And you will do them in your own way. You do not need your father's blessing for any of it," she said firmly. She rose up and kissed his cheek again. "Nor mine. But you have it," she promised.












