"Aislin." The voice hissed. She groaned and rubbed her hands down her face. She sat up from the warm bed, throwing the covers off. She shivered as the cool air embraced her body. A pair of icey fingers touched her skin.
"What?" She growled, her voice sounded hoarse and not like her own.
"I'm bored." The voice purred, it's owner stroking her face. She shuddered away from the hand and it shot forward and wrapped around her throat.
"Now, Aislin..." The voice made a 'tsk tsk tsk' sound. "We've talked about this." The hand tightened around her throat and she struggled for air. Her heart pounded in her chest.
"Don't touch me." She spat. Suddenly the man's other hand tangled itself in her hair and yanked her head backwards, she cried out in pain.
He reached down and ripped the clothes from her body.
"Naddr, please." She begged, shuddering away from him. His icy fingers caressed her naked breasts. She was frozen, unable to move as he assaulted her.
She blinked and suddenly she was standing in a barren landscape, frigid wind whipping her hair around and raising goose bumps on her naked skin. She shivered and blinked against the thick snow that was coming down. She took a step forward and stumbled, the harsh winds nearly knocking her over.
"AISLIN!" A voice screamed. She whipped around and saw Loki on his knees across the landscape, chains around his neck and wrists. He was wearing the same outfit he wore on the day of their sentencing, and he looked younger.
He stood and charged towards her, the wind having no effect on him. His eyes were dark and inhumane. He gave off a dark aura.
"Stupid." He hissed and shoved her backwards with both hands, still bound in his chains. She gasped and looked at him in disbelief.
"You are a stupid mortal girl for staying with me." His voice dripped venom and sounded unlike him. "You are stupid for thinking I loved you."
"L-Loki-"
"I USED YOU!" He wrapped both hands around her throat, tightening his grip until her vision began to spot.
She clawed at his hands and kicked at him as he lifted her from the ground, her toes barely brushing against the icy ground.
Suddenly, his grip loosened and his eyes went wide. His face paled and he dropped Aislin to the ground.
His white fingers flew to his neck and when he pulled them away they were covered in blood. A thin red line ran across his throat and was beginning to spill blood down his collarbones.
"A-Aislin..." He gurgled as blood dripped from his lips.
He collapsed to the ground, dying the snow crimson with his blood.
A man stood behind him, an evil grin across his lips and a bloodied dagger in his hand. Naddr.
Aislin screamed.
Her eyes flew open, her heart racing in her chest. She felt around the bed for Loki and panicked when she couldn't find him. The room was completely dark, her eyes not able to make out a single shape. An icy breeze danced across her skin and she shivered, she didn't know where she was.
She felt her breathing speed up and she shakily pulled the covers around her body, desperately trying to warm up. Her lashes grew heavy with tears until they poured down her cheeks.
Was she back in Jotunheim? What if Naddr kidnapped her in the night?
She heard a shuffling on the far side of the room and she whimpered into the pillow, trying to muffle her sobs. The shuffling grew louder as a figure neared the end of the bed.
"Aislin?" The voice whispered. A door slammed shut. "Aislin what is the matter?" The familiar voice grew louder and she felt the edge of the bed dip.
Soon Loki's warm arms were embracing her. She sobbed into his chest and clasped and unclasped his shirt in her fists.
"Love, what's wrong?" He stroked her hair.
"Y-you left me..." She choked out as he pressed his lips against her forehead.
"Love, I just stepped outside for a breath of air."
"I'm sorry." She sobbed into the crook of his shoulder.
"Love," he said sadly, stroking her hair. "Look at me."
She shook her head into the pillow, her ugly crying leaving snot on the fabric.
He gently grabbed her chin and lifted it to meet his eyes.
He stared at her for a few moments.
"Marry me."
She snorted, nearly spitting with laughter.
"You've already asked me that, Loki." She corrected him.
"Now." He clarified. "Next week, marry me. Be mine, forever."
{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}
A small hand wrapped around his finger, gripping it tightly. Another hand, holding tightly to his cloaks on the opposite side.
A soft breeze shuddered through the trees, tossing loose strands of his hair around. The soft grass kissed his bare feet as he strolled through the grass.
In the distance the sun was just beginning to gloss the horizon of the water, an orange glow blessing every inch of the nature surrounding them.
The smell of honeysuckle lingered in the air, birds chirping in the distance.
Soon the waves of the water were caressing his toes and he turned, both hands letting go of him.
He felt his face blush in the lingering glow of the summer sun, a warm feeling filling his cheeks and running down his spine.
He sat, on the damp sand, as a slender finger brushed a nearly invisible tear from his cheek.
"Love?" A soft voice whispered. "Come here."
The woman stared at him quizzically, a concerned glaze glossing over her eyes.
He smiled at her and brushed a loose strand of hair from her face, his fingers lingering a moment longer than they should have.
She leaned into his touch, as he leaned towards her slowly. Until the distance closed and his head was resting in her lap.
She absentmindedly stroked his hair.
A laugh erupted from her lungs and he startled, half sitting up.
"Loki, love," she giggled, "look at your daughter."
Loki looked into the woman's eyes before meeting an identical, yet smaller set down the beach, several strands of seaweed draped around her body and head.
"Lili!" Loki called down the shore.
The small girl turned and giggled wildly, her feet pounding on the wet sand.
"Daddy!" She called in between fits of laughter. "Daddy look!" The girl came charging forward, until she landed heavily on Loki's lower half.
He lurched with a groan.
"Liv... be careful!" The woman chuckled, "You don't want to hurt daddy do you?"
Liv looked up apologetically.
"Sorry daddy..." she trailed off sheepishly as her eyes landed on Loki's exposed thigh. A large scar trailed from his upper knee to where it was hidden beneath his shorts. "I kiss it better!"
The girl immediately began attacking Loki with kisses all over his knee and hands and shoulders.
"Oh you are a silly one!" Loki exclaimed lifting the girl high into the air, his head still resting in the woman's lap.
The girl cried out in giggles as Loki's fingers dug into her sides, tickling her everywhere.
"Daddy! Stop it or you won't get your present!" She cried out.
Loki froze and mused at her. "A present you say?"
Liv giggled smugly before ripping the seaweed off of her head and throwing it at Loki, and quickly took off down the shore.
"Oh you are going to get it sweetness!" He called before taking off after her, a screech of laughter trailing behind the girl.
The woman sighed happily watching the two chase each other down the shore, their feet kicking up sand in the fading sunlight.
As the two played, she rearranged the blanket on the ground and started to unpack the basket that had been on her arm during their walk to the shore.
After several minutes the pair returned, Liv out of breath.
"M-mom... Mommy! L-l-look at D..DADDY!" She blurted between laughs and shuddering breaths.
The woman turned to see a very wet Loki, covered in seaweed.
Quickly, her hand flew to her mouth to stifle her laughter. He sauntered over before sitting next to her and wrapping a tight grip around her waist. She leaned into his side and pressed a quick peck to his shoulder.
Liv clumsily sat and began tearing into the fruit spread that the woman had set out on the blanket.
"Thank you mommy!" She muttered in between bites of food.
"You're welcome Lili," the woman smiled sweetly.
Once the sun dipped below the horizon they began to head back up the hill.
"Daddy?" The little girl whispered.
"Yes sweetness?" Loki replied.
"Can I sleep with you and Mommy tonight?"
Loki glanced at the woman on his arm.
"Darling, instead, what if Dork sleeps with you tonight?"
The girls eye's lit up. "You mean it!!?"
"Of course my love." He smiled down at the girl.
{}{}{}{}{}
Loki sauntered back into the bedroom, a small grin on his face.
"How'd it go?"
"You should have seen her love, the second Dork crawled onto her lap her face lit up like the constellations. She was asleep in seconds."
"That's good, now it's my turn," the woman grinned.
Loki stripped the shirt from his back and crawled under the linen covers, wrapping his arms tightly around his wife, his face nuzzling into the crook of her neck.
"I love you Aislin." He mumbled against her skin. "We did it."
"I love you too Loki." She whispered back wiping a happy tear from his cheek. "We did it."
"I love you. Always. You and our daughter. I love you."
She kissed his forehead, before both succumbed to a peaceful, nightmare-free slumber. The sound of their daughter's soft snores, and Dork's purrs quietly reverberating from down the hall.
In the distance the sound of the waves crashed.
A soft glow still faintly touching the horizon. The palace of Asgard always leaving a golden lining on the night sky, hundreds of miles away.
Their quaint beach cottage sitting hundreds of miles from those marble floors, and the shackles the originally bound their necks. From the damp prison cells and from Belle. From Loki's destroyed bedroom and from the shattered glass writing tablets that were Aislin's only form of communication for months. From the bars, and the scars, and the blood. From the torture and bloody knuckles.
Hundreds of miles from where Naddr was buried.
An ocean between them and their pain, and an entire eon of life ahead of them.
365 days with you. 365 days quietly turned themselves into forever.
Thank you so. so. so. much to everyone who stuck with this story from the beginning. You all mean the absolute world to me. I started this story in middle school and I just finished my junior year of college so hopefully the writing got better throughout the story lol! But you guys truly mean so much to me <3. I'm thinking of doing a sequel but for now this is officially the end :) thank you again I love you all