Making up for his mistakes was not easy for Loki. He was used to making mistakes, but had no experience in mending the wounds of others, as he often took pure pleasure in causing them. But not this time.
No one seemed to trust him anymore, and as much as he was used to it, this time hurt far more than the others.
His soulmate's friends were always on the alert. Whatever Loki did, they were ready to attack at the most opportune moment. Lola felt pure animosity towards him. No longer for disappearing, because she understood the situation, but for trying to kill her boyfriend during a fit of madness, and frankly Loki understood her.
"It doesn't matter that she is happy now," Lola had once told him, in a venomous tone and in a rage. The girl's eyes were on fire. For a Midgardian, she was certainly more awe-inspiring than he had imagined. "Of course, it reassures me. But at the next misstep I'm going to blurt out the whole truth about you and your brother. Then you'll have to deal with it."
Thor had returned to their own dimension, saying that he would have to explain himself to the Avengers and that they deserved to know how things were going under the circumstances.
Although he would never admit it out loud, knowing he was away displeased Loki, who had hoped to have him by his side at such a difficult time.
Even when everyone was against him, save for a few special occasions where Loki had taught him a lesson, Thor had never turned his back on him. Sure, sometimes he'd acted like any annoying brother would, but Thor was there. He always seemed to want to find the bright side of things. And he had found the light in Loki, who had very little light.
When his soulmate was not around because she was busy with her studies or projects, Loki wandered around the city incognito. He did this to clear his thoughts, to free his mind. It never had spectacular results, but at least it served to keep him from grabbing any Midgardian by the neck and throwing him into the air.
Other times he would stay in her room, playing with his magic until he decided he'd had enough and make a book appear in his hands with a snap of his fingers, devouring it in a second.
Just like that day. She had just returned home, throwing her backpack against the floor with obvious anger, a tired and frustrated expression on her face.
Loki was lying on the bed, legs crossed and still wearing one of his many black suits, flipping through the pages of the Midgardian literature book he'd stumbled across while snooping around some library.
When she returned, he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. The negative vibrations he could feel coming from her were beginning to give him a headache.
"What's wrong?" the God asked, causing the book to dematerialise as he sat on the edge of the bed.
The girl didn't answer, tidying up all the school supplies on the desk and in the bookcase. Loki sighed. "Are you going to answer?"
"Please," she suddenly interrupted him, turning away. At that moment, Loki studied her expression, and it was more than clear that more had happened than he could even imagine. "I've had a bad day. And I don't feel well."
"Can I help you?"
"Can your magic fix my school career?" she had exclaimed, sitting down beside him on the edge of the bed. She brought her hands to the sides of her head, shaking it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you."
"I don't think you need to apologise to me," Loki had whispered, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "I suppose I do have a certain reputation for picking on the wrong people at the wrong times, don't I?"
That was probably the first laugh Loki had managed to wring from the lips of his soulmate, who now stood with her head against his chest, giggling under her breath.
Loki took advantage of the moment to place a hand against her forehead, immediately feeling with his icy hand how high her temperature was. "You're absolutely not well," he had then resumed.
The girl wrinkled her nose. "Thank you. Without your magic I would never have realised."
"I thought I was the one with the strong sense of humour."
Together they lay down on the bed, Loki shifting the warm blankets so he could cover her. A little high temperature certainly didn't need the intervention of his magical powers, but Loki had other plans in store for that day; Stroking her back, he slowly squinted his eyes and all his energy focused on her.
It was something his mother Frigga had taught him as a child, to make up for all the times he caused some injury to his brother Thor.
She always said that she knew Loki would never cause him any real pain, and that he should learn to take care of the people he cared about, just as Odin and she did with their children.
Clearly, as Loki grew older, he had come to understand that of the two, the only person who truly cared about him was his mother, but that was a detail he didn't want to pay attention to at the moment.
She had taught him pretty much everything he knew about magic. Although neither of them were really allowed to use their powers in everyday life, he and his mother had made this pact. Ever since he was five years old, the two of them had been meeting in the gardens of Asgard's palace to study powers together, learning how to manage and control them.
And of course, healing powers were among them. They were not in Loki's nature, but his mother had taught him everything he needed to know, and he had wasted no time: he perfected his knowledge within months.
The girl who, until a few moments before, had been tense and cramped from the chills and pain she felt in her temples and chest, slowly began to relax her muscles and unwind in his arms.
"Is that better?", Loki had asked, lowering his face in her direction.
She looked up, planting her gaze in his. With her lips folded to one side, her eyes still a little shiny and her cheeks flushed, she nodded softly. At that moment, she appeared more beautiful than ever in Loki's eyes.
***
The idea came from the girl, who was holding his hand as they walked through the park in the middle of the night.
Loki had told her about how he often escaped from the castle and holed up in the forests of Asgard to find some inner peace and quiet, and under the circumstances, she thought it was the right thing to do.
She carried a rucksack under her arm, with a cloth inside and nothing else. All they needed to spend the night together.
"Let's sit here. The trees don't cover the view," she had suggested, pointing to a part of the lawn that was not totally surrounded by trees and allowed the two of them to be able to observe the sky without any problems.
Loki followed her and watched as if he wasn't even part of the scene. He was a spectator. He enjoyed the show as much as he could. Each time he savoured the moments as if it was the only chance he had to watch her do even the most mundane things.
He had learned so much about her as the days passed together. How she turned up her nose when she couldn't understand something, how she played absent-mindedly with the fingers of her hands when she was overthinking, how she tried to stay active even when she was on the verge of a breakdown because she was too tired.
The girl's face was partly illuminated by the moonlight as she spread out the cloth and took her seat, raising her head to look at the stars with a smile on her lips. Loki was silent. He thought.
When she clapped her hand on the sheet, inviting him to sit beside her, he didn't let her repeat it more than once. The air was fresh, and there was an incredibly soothing silence.
"Take me with you."
Upon hearing those words, Loki froze in place, startled. Shaking his head, he lowered his gaze to his hands. "You know I can't."
"Let's try." The tone of her voice was hopeful, she was looking at him with huge eyes in which starlight shone.
Loki gripped her face in his hands, stroking her warm skin with his thumbs as she smiled. That smile was tremendously forced, and it was beginning to hurt. "I can't risk you getting hurt. It's hard enough for me, being a god and possessing actual powers. I will never take that risk."
They had talked about it before, but it always felt like broaching that subject for the first time. It hurt just as much, if not more.
Her smile broke immediately. The girl looked away, aware that she was asking far too much. "How are we going to do this?"
"Like we've been doing until now," Loki murmured in response, moving a strand of her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. "I'm not going to let anything or anyone keep us this far apart again. It happened once and that was enough. I promise I will perfect this process."
This time, however, his words had a totally different flavour. They seemed to be truer, they seemed to convey much more hope to the one who was looking at him with large eyes, her hands resting on his.
Fate had chosen them. And if fate had planned something similar for this couple, so different and yet equal in some aspects, who were they to escape the will of fate?
At first, neither of them understood. She believed that Loki was simply who she saw in films, comic books, magazines and series. And he believed that he would live alongside a woman with power, from another of the Nine Realms. Or at any rate, of his own dimension and not of another totally opposite one for which he had to make impossible journeys. Yet everything had turned out to be different, turning their lives upside down.
"I trust you."
Loki laughed under his breath. "You said that in the beginning, too."
"Did I?" she turned suddenly, leaning her head to one side. "Well, I wasn't wrong."
The other shook his head, lowering his gaze. "You wouldn't have said the same, a few weeks ago."
And they both knew Loki was right, just like every damn time. She'd been a little scared, too, at first, after what had happened that afternoon with her friends. But it was legitimate, wasn't it? She didn't want to feel guilty. They both knew little or nothing about what was going on, they were in a pitifully lousy state and the only thing certain was confusion.
"You're right," the girl replied with a shrug. "But that was a few weeks ago. Now things have changed, and frankly speaking, I trust Thor too. He's told me everything more calmly, and I don't see why I shouldn't believe you..."
Loki raised an eyebrow in her direction, a shocked expression on his face. "Excuse me?"
"What?"
"What?" he repeated, his tone incredulous. "Did you ask my brother for confirmation?"
"How can you blame me? He was the only one with nerves at the time!" the girl exclaimed, bringing a hand to her mouth for fear of bursting into laughter at his expression.
The attempt was completely futile as they both began to laugh loudly. Loki brought a hand to his chest, and she hid her face in the crook of the man's neck as he held her against him, in his arms.
Everything was in order, as it should have been from the beginning. Nothing could ever be easy in their lives, but they both believed it was worth it. They had found a valid reason to fight against the stakes imposed by fate, and they had all the skills they needed to do so without ever giving up.
Even if the journey had proved tortuous, painful, too long and tiring, the goal was spectacular, and that was all that mattered to them. Now, under the stars, laughing like two children without thoughts or problems, their hearts beat in unison, at the same rhythm, and something unites them: Love.
They lay down together. The girl laid her head on his chest, and he began to stroke her hair automatically, without even thinking about it.
He had learned to do that too. Giving love. Not just receive it, although he had received very little of it in his long life. And he would never have said it, but it made him feel a better man, fulfilled and at peace with the rest. Because the smile that came across her lips every time he did something unexpected, even if it was of very little importance, like simply holding her hand while they walked together or fixing her hair, drove him crazy.
"I'd like to stop time for a while," the girl murmured, half-closing her eyes. "Can't you do something with your magic?"
Loki rose with his elbows, leaning his head to one side. "Surely, I'm not capable of such things. But what I can do is something else entirely, watch this," he told her, pointing to his right hand with a nod.
The girl turned towards him, focusing her attention on his palm, which began to glisten. A strong green light emerged from it as something began to materialise between his fingers.
A flower grew moment by moment, the girl's eyes widening with fascination and curiosity. The petals of that rose were a rather unusual colour, surely also the result of the alterations of his magic. A very dark green, they seemed to glow with gold.
The girl seemed to think about it for a moment, but after grasping the flower between her fingers, she let out a joyful laugh that she would not be able to contain for a moment longer. "You are an incredible egomaniac."
Loki shook his head, shrugging. "I like being the centre of attention," he had replied sarcastically. "But this will serve to make me feel closer to you when I'm gone. The petals will never fall off. Nothing can destroy it," he had then finished, snapping his fingers. A small flame emerged from them, which he brought dangerously close to the petals. As expected, nothing happened: the flower was perfectly intact in the hands of the girl, who held it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.
And perhaps, for her, it really was.
And just as he was about to open his mouth to say something, to remind her how happy he was at that moment to be together with her, without even moving from his chest the girl murmured a simple "I love you."
They were both looking up at the sky, but neither of them had the courage to move from that position. Loki had a surprised expression on his face. He thought he'd misunderstood, that he'd imagined everything, but when he cleared his throat and answered with a "What?", she started giggling again.
"I love you, Loki," the girl replied, resting a hand on his chest to caress him carefully. "I really do."
And that was the peak of happiness. Something moved inside him, his heart seemed to warm, and the smile that bloomed on his thin lips was almost impossible to hold back. She wasn't lying. Loki sensed it as he stroked her hair. The waves he received from her were all positive, real, true. His aura was pink, embracing her figure as if it were a collection of soft clouds swirling around her. She loved him. She really loved him.
And so they reached the pinnacle of happiness. Sheltered in each other's arms, with only the beating of their hearts to cradle them, lying under the starry sky of an evening that neither of them would ever forget for anything in the world.
Fate had not been wrong. Loki had found someone who could mend his wounds with nothing but a smile and the affection he had always lacked, and she had found all the security she needed to face life without fear.
"I love you too," he had replied, before lowering his face to hers to steal a gentle kiss.
Soulmates really did exist, and it wasn't just a myth.
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Please, read the next chapter as well! It's very important to me!