Unbroken

Chapter 63

It was late, midnight past hours ago but loki was still sitting awake on his bed. His dinner had been brought around and he was able to eat, but he didn't want to go to bed. He knew that unless he was dead tired he'd have nightmares about laufey, and that was the last thing he wanted. He was just about to give in to his fatigue and go to bed when he heard a light knock on his door. He knew it wasn't Laufey because, well, laufey would never knock, and the guards wouldn't let him near, but he was still not eager to open the door without knowing who the person was. He got up and went to the door, subconsciously moving his hand to a dagger that he had in his belt.
"Who is it?" He asked through the door.
"Trinity" he let go of the knife when he heard her voice, and he quickly unlocked the door to let her in.
"Sorry, I wanted to make sure" he said as she entered and he once again locked the door.
"That's okay" she said, then put a hand on his arm "how you holding up?" She asked, she knew he probably had a lot going on in his mind. He took a long slow breath and let it out in a sigh.
"Honestly... I don't know" he said "I obviously don't want them to be here, but for some reason I'm not loosing my mind with panic" he said, Trinity rubbed his back, knowing that this must be difficult.
"I'm sorry Loki, I wish he'd leave you alone" she said "you should sleep though, exhausting yourself won't help you any" she added as they both went to sit down on his bed.
"No, I can't sleep. It'll make it worse. If I wake up from a memory and then am faced with the fact that Laufey is actually here- it's a bad idea" he said.
"So is sitting here without sleeping for days." Trinity told him, she was afraid that he'd do laufey's job for him and run himself into the ground.
"Trinity.... you should just go home. Get some sleep for yourself, I'm fine.." Loki said, he didn't want to try and fix himself right now, he couldn't be helped at this point.
"I know you're fine, that's what worries me.... I know what fine means for you and I don't want you to be fine" Trinity said. "Loki I love you, I want you to be alright" she added. Interlacing her fingers with his. Loki nodded.
"I know. I wish I could be alright but I just can't, so just don't worry about me right now, no one can help. Until Laufey leaves.... I have to be fine" he told her. She knew she couldn't do anything, being faced with the demons from the past can never be made easy.
"Alright... I'll come see you in the morning. Try to sleep" she said as she leaned in to kiss him. She put a hand on his cheek and kissed him softly, then stood up to leave. She wished she could help him more, but she couldn't.
Loki stood up as well and walked her to the door, then she left and Loki locked his door once again. He was dead tired, so he dropped himself down on his bed and tried to sleep.
Even though he was dead tired, it took him several more hours to fall asleep. Every time he heard a noise he thought it was Laufey or Ilkay. Every time he heard someone walk past his room he jumped out of bed, as if he needed to be up, he was as jumpy as he was when he first came here; afraid of every sound. Eventually, he became more angry than afraid. He was angry that Laufey was in his head, he was angry that Laufey was still causing him to loose sleep, he was angry that laufey was threatening to take his life back. He was physically free from Laufey, but he was still mentally enslaved and that made him more angry than anything.
=*****=.
Odin wasn't entirely sure if Loki would be joining them for breakfast the next morning, But he assumed that because laufey was there, that Loki would be remaining in his room, so he went ahead and had the maids bring Loki his breakfast in his chambers.
Frigga and Thor joined Odin in the dinning hall, and shortly after, they were joined by Laufey and Ilkay.
"So will we ever get to meet the mysterious second son?" Laufey asked as they all took there seats. He was wondering why he wouldn't be joining them for breakfast.
"Probably not. As I said, he keeps to himself" Odin said. Frigga was glad that he used the phrase 'keeps to himself' rather than saying that he's not social, it made him sound less fearful. And Frigga didn't know why, but she very much enjoyed the fact that laufey was so interested in and yet wasn't able to know anything about their second son.
"Very well. Let's talk about my son then-" Laufey started to speak but Frigga didn't let him.
"He's not your son" she interrupted. She hated when Laufey tried to claim the title of father.
"You've been saying that since day one. Why do you care so much? He's not yours" laufey said back.
"He is mine. We took him from you because you treated him like an insect that you can step on. He's not your son, he was your slave" Frigga said, her tone was even but her voice was laced with hate for laufey.
"He still is my slave" laufey said "he's my property and I'm here to take him back" he added casually. Frigga looked like she wanted to stab him with her fork, but Odin spoke before she had the chance.
"He doesn't belong to you anymore laufey. You lost control of him the moment you handed him over to us" Odin said powerfully.
"It's illegal for a person to own another person here on Asgard, Odin, so your purchase was invalid, and the boy is still my property" Laufey said, his own anger coming out as well. Odin seemed to become more defensive, like he was ready to fight in battle.
"As barbaric as it is, you sold your son to us. On Jotunhiem, where it is legal. You cannot get that boy back on a technicality" Odin said curtly, it was obvious that he was about a millimeter away from shouting. Laufey leaned forward to Odin, getting more in his face as the conversation became more heated and the volume in the room continued to rise.
"I will get him back. He was a useful labor force to me and a perfect means of entertainment for my men. I regretted selling him to you but seeing as how the sale was invalid I will take him back. Give me what is mine!" Laufey yelled. This is when Odin snapped. He pounded his fist on the table in rage and began shouting back at laufey.
"I will not let you speak of him as if he is a horse!" He shouted, pointing a finger at Laufey "I don't care if you think he belongs to you. I wouldn't care even if he did belong to you. He is a person, a real person with real feelings, and I will not allow him to be taken back into slavery! You can trifle with technicalities until the oxygen runs out, but nothing you say, nothing you do, NOTHING will make me give him back to you!" Odin shouted, his face turning red with anger "you can find any loopholes you want, but you are not laying a hand on that boy ever again" Odin said, sounding dangerously calm, like the quiet before a storm. He wouldn't let them hurt Loki again.
"I won't take no for an answer Odin, I will not leave until the boy is mine again" Laufey said with the same dangerously calm tone. Odin stood up.
"Then you'll be dragged out of here by force. Because there's nothing you can say to convince me to give him over to you" he said as he turned and started to leave the room, but Laufey didn't let the conversation end, he stood up as well.
"You know how much trouble I can cause, Odin" he said. Odin stopped walking and turned to laufey "the first war lasted decades, do you really want a repeat of that?" Laufey challenged. Odin walked back over to Laufey. By now Frigga Thor and Ilkay were all standing as well.
"Are you honestly saying that you'll start a war over one man? Over one slave?" Odin asked.
"I'm honestly saying that I won't take no for an answer." Laufey said again, glaring daggers at Odin, who returned the deadly look.
"Why?" Thor said, which was the first word he'd contributed to the argument "why is he so important? You obviously didn't care about him, and I'm sure there are a lot of other people you could bully around. What's so special about your son specifically?" Thor asked, feeling like he caught laufey in something. Laufey's determination didn't really make much sense.
"That's none of your concern, Odinson" Laufey spat.
"I'm starting to think it is. There's something about him that your not comfortable with. You need him back for some reason" Thor said, he had no idea if he was right, but he knew that laufey was arrogant so he hoped that maybe he'd be able to anger him into confessing the truth.
"I want him back because he belongs to me!" Laufey shouted "he's my property and I take pride in keeping what is mine! Even if it is something as useless as him, he belongs to me and I'll have him back!" He bellowed.
"He doesn't belong to you or anyone else!" Frigga shouted. She was so sick of hearing him talk about Loki like that. Loki wasn't property, he was her son, and she wouldn't stand to let laufey speak about him that way.
There was a long silence, everyone seemed to be carefully considering all the words that were spoken, and it was clear that everyone was calculating their own next move. Finally, Laufey spoke up.
"I want to see him" he said. Odin laughed shortly.
"You aren't getting within a thousand feet of him" he said. The smallest smirk formed on laufey's lips.
"If you let me see him, I'll listen to compromise" he said. Odin didn't want laufey to be anywhere near Loki, but this was a hard offer to refuse.