In leafy tendrils of verdant green, Mother Nature slowly and silently appeared in front of her husband, with an imploringly loving gaze searching his face. Deftly long fingers shyly wove between his, before she brought his hand to her lips to press full lips into the thin flesh of his knuckles. It was with an adoring bashfulness of a school-girl, while dually holding the extreme passion and emotion of a devoted goddess.
If he was poison, then she was venom.
Who needed an antidote, when they were so deliciously dangerous together?
Not liabilities, not troublesome burdens. Seraphina had never seen him as such, nor would she ever. All she saw when she looked into the God of Mischief’s eyes, was something to be nurtured, tenderly cared for, protected, fiercely loved, and admired. And in doing so, in looking at her reflection, she was learning to see her herself in the same light.
She continued to hold his hand faithfully against an angular, hollowed cheek, closing her eyes contentedly in the comfort of his presence. A sign of trust; significant, between two people who trusted no one but themselves.
"My King…" she began softly, half murmuring into his palm now. "Your sorrow clings to the air like a shroud…"
She moved his hand to cup her jaw, all the while tracing loving lines along the places in his hands where, in his Jotun form, geometric patterns would grace his skin. Her voice was soft, like ethereal silver threading between silk, intimate and hushed.
"You need not tell me what is wrong, not if you are not comfortable with doing so. But know this, most cherished King of mine…I adore you without question and without doubt, I, who question everything and doubt everyone. In you, I find strength, I, who can rely on so very few. You are a god of highest intelligence, sharpest wit, and most beautiful danger. Like me, you are a marriage of extremes, and I delight in nothing more than I do in discovering each magnificent crevice of your mind, no matter the supposed disgust only fools see in them. You have my loyalty, my devotion, my trust, and my love. I will protect you until I breathe my last, and treasure your secrets with reverent faithfulness until the day of my undoing. Come now, my dear, my perfectly imperfect Loki…let me kiss the paranoia from your lips, and trace your scars over, and over, and over again, until you find them as splendid as I do.”
"My sorrow is my dearest friend," Loki murmured, as he watched Seraphina's mouth caress his knuckles as though hypnotized. "It never fully voids my mind. Never fully. It is cruel to me, capricious in the way that it comes and goes without warning, and yet I love it, for it is malice I have dealt and malice I deserve."
His hand found her jaw obediently, with her ministrations. When the Earth Goddess closed her eyes, the God of Mischief obediently mirrored her.
"Would it..." he ventured with a rare timidity that harkened straight back to his childhood. "...Would it be...permissible perhaps...?" Despite the repose of his eyelids, his eyebrows danced persuasive acrobatics. "...if...we just held each other tonight...? I am...cold. I am cold. And you alone can warm me, my queen."
He lapped up her every word of unconditional praise.
You have my loyalty, my devotion, my trust, and my love.
Loki conjured a golden blossom which he slid behind Seraphina's tiny earlobe, where it glowed with the rich memories of parallel lifetimes of suffering and recovery.
"And you mine, princess of flowers."