You were still curled around Lady Loki as the big spoon the next morning. Loki would never admit enjoying being the little spoon, but Lady Loki could and did. You ran your fingers through her long hair as she slept and placed kisses on her cheek and neck. "Feeling better?" you asked softly when she began to wake.
She rolled over and gave you a smile. "Very much so."
"Good," you smiled at her soft, warm expression and gave her a kiss. A few kisses later you both finally remembered you had things to do that day.
"Let me do your hair?" Loki asked after you'd dressed. You tossed her the hairbrush in reply. She giggled, but came over to brush out your hair. You automatically closed your eyes, not liking to watch people work on your hair, it came from anxiety of too many foster parents messing it up when they tried to cut it themselves to save money as opposed to taking you to a hairdresser.
"There. Done. What do you think?" Loki's voice was male again when he asked the question, though hesitant, unsure.
You opened your eyes to look over what he did. Your hair was braided back away from your face as usual, most of the rest of it falling in curls. Except for the single braid that started behind your left ear that fell in front of your shoulder which had a lock of Loki's hair braided into it. It warmed your heart that he would do it. You turned to Loki. "It's beautiful, but your hair-?" he was so vain about his hair. You stood to look for the place where the lock had been taken from.
He chuckled. "It's a-"
"Lovelock," you answered at the same time as he finished his sentence, as you found the spot, but it was well hidden, no one else would be able to see it. He inclined his head, looking surprised you knew already. "I do read," you reminded him with a smirk. He laughed.
"Of course you do, witchling. I can still be surprised that you knew of the tradition,"
You shrugged. "I was waiting for the right time to suggest it, but you're such a peacock about your hair that I didn't think you'd be interested, despite tradition," you hadn't even mentioned it before, but at least you'd been ready in case he made the decision himself. "I won't force you to wear it too," you added. He smiled and kissed your forehead.
"I know you wouldn't and I appreciate the thoughtfulness, but it would be an honor to wear my lady's token," he added the last part over-elegantly, overly formally. You grinned and handed him a dagger, turning so he could choose the lock of hair. He would do a better job than you would. He handed you the lock and vanished the dagger a moment later. He looked so put-upon when you sat him in the chair in front of your vanity and got to work braiding his hair. Even the men here wore braids in their hair and it wouldn't look strange if you braided his into a half ponytail. "What are you doing to my hair?" he whined.
You kissed the top of his head. "I'm not hurting it," you replied. "Hush, silly peacock," you teased. He stuck his tongue out at you. You braided the lock of your hair into his just behind his left ear. "There, done," you announced.
*
Frigga smiled warmly when she saw the lovelocks at breakfast. Loki kissed her cheek when he saw her. "Good morning my dears," she greeted you both. "Darling, your father requested your help with a spell. Why he doesn't just ask me, I will never know," she told Loki kindly. He inclined his head, but didn't look pleased by this development.
"Yes, Mother. I'll go after breakfast," he replied obediently. Frigga was the only one who could get that obedient tone out of him.
"Does he need mine too?" you offered, preferring to go with Loki to protect him from Odin's bad parenting.
"No, dear, I do need your help in the healing wing. We got word overnight that there's been a sudden outburst of dragon-pox. The children are being brought there now. I know you three are leaving tomorrow and I hate to put you both to work on your last day of the visit..."
You shook your head. "I don't mind. Loki, do you have-?" a book appeared in your hand with a shimmer of green magic. "Thanks," you opened the marked page and began reading up on the dragon-pox while you absently ate breakfast one-handed.
"She really is perfect for you, darling," Frigga told Loki kindly.
He chuckled in reply. "So it seems." You looked up from the book long enough to stick your tongue out at Loki before returning to your research so you at least had an idea what you were getting into. You snapped the book shut, devoured the rest of your breakfast in a manner more fitting of Thor and stood from the table. The dragon-pox was bad and could be deadly with the aid of a healer.
Frigga stood too with a regal grace you could never hope to manage, especially when your instincts were telling you to run to help the children. Dragon-pox affected children most of all. You kissed Loki goodbye and went with Frigga to the healing wing. Children from the palace and city were being brought in to be treated. With a couple of pointers from Frigga on how best to handle the pox, you jumped to work. Dragon-pox was partially a magical affliction and took way more power to help the victims than a normal cold. The trick was to defeat the magical aspects with healing magic, leaving the victim with the cold and purple spots. That would give them immunity to the disease later in life. These children were in dire states. The pox was way worse than usual and it was taking every healer's efforts to combat it.
"Are these all of the victims?" Loki asked when he entered the room a short time later.
"Darling, you can't help here," Frigga told him firmly, wanting him out of the way if he wasn't going to be able to help.
"Yes, I can, Mother, this pox is worse than any I have ever seen. You need my help," he replied equally firmly. "Are these all of the victims?" he repeated. You finished with the child you'd been working on and went to Loki, seeing what he was up to. You'd done it once before with him.
"Yes, they've all been brought in. Loki, you know your healing powers aren't strong enough for this," Frigga told him, while she came over from the patient she had been working on.
Loki looked at you instead of replying to her. "Are you up to this?" he asked.
"Are you?" you shot back, offering him a hand that was already glowing blue with your magic. He placed his hand in yours without answering. "Healers, to us," you ordered firmly, picking up the exact tone of a royal edict from your time here. The healers all dropped what they were doing, looking over at you and Loki in shock. That was all you needed. It could be deadly to interrupt a healing, but if they stopped working on their patients to look at you, then you were free to interrupt.
Loki leaned down to whisper in your ear. "Take what you need." The words were ritual, sacrifice, as he offered everything he had and everything he was to you, an ultimate act of trust. You felt the connection between your magics burst open. You touched every child in the room with your power, ignoring Frigga's exclamation about the pain of a power joining. You and Loki didn't have that problem working together. You followed the power with conscious thought, burning the pox from the children, leaving just enough cold behind to give them the immunity later. It took no time and too much. It took way more power to heal all of the children at the same time, to heal them without physical contact, but it was also the only way to make sure they were all saved, and you never would have managed it had Loki not been donating power too.
Finally the healing was done and you dropped Loki's hand. You were both breathing hard, swaying, but managing to keep your feet under you. Frigga was looking at you both with such fear and worry in her eyes. "We're alright," you told her before she could freak out. "We've had to do that once before," you added, when it was clear that Loki wasn't going to offer any additional information. "There's no pain when we do the power joining,"
"That should be impossible," Frigga commented. You nodded and wrapped an arm around Loki's waist.
"And yet..." you leaned up and kissed Loki's cheek. "Thank you, love. We never would have saved them all without your help."
He kissed the top of your head in reply. "It's no trouble, darling, but we should go find something to eat,"
"They're all-?" Frigga looked over the room that was chock full of children who had been gravely ill before your magic.
You nodded. "We healed them all. They have just enough of the cold left to build up the immunity," you told her, managing to keep the exhaustion from your voice.
She looked so relieved, so touched that you both would risk the pain and amount of power drain to heal the children. "I don't have enough words to thank you both. We will take things from here. Go rest until the feat tonight," she told you both firmly.
She softened her firm words by kissing Loki's cheek, then yours. You both smiled at her and made your way slowly down the hall to the warrior's lounge. It was closer than either of your rooms and thanks to Volstagg always had a huge supply of food. You each devoured a Thor-sized plate of whatever was around, then went to sit down on Loki's couch to relax for a little bit before you headed back to one of your suites. Loki laid down to rest his eyes for a minute, or so he claimed. You joined him in the space between his body and the back of the couch, laying your head on his chest. You fell asleep to him running his fingers through your hair.
"Mother sent me to check on you two," Thor's voice boomed who knew how long later. You cracked your eyes open to see what he wanted.
"Go away Thor," Loki growled without waking. Thor chuckled and draped his cape as a blanket over the two of you in reply.
"Go back to sleep, little sister. Mother told me what you two did today. No trouble will find you here." You closed your eyes and cuddled more comfortably with Loki, content to rest for awhile longer.
He was going to be so embarrassed when the other warriors found him sleeping, cuddled on a couch with his lady, under Thor's cape as a blanket. That was a problem for later, though.