#16 - Parents
#16 - Parents
For a long moment, Loki’s eyes stopped moving across the pages, and Farley folded his hands in his lap. It would have been so easy to pull Laufrey’s journal from his hands, but Loki had insisted that he was ready, and this time he was inclined to agree. Except...
Then Loki started to read again, the slow glide across the words glacial compared to how feverishly he’d ripped through it before. But he kept going, and Farley cringed as he remembered what it translated to:
...the child is clearly tainted by its Asgardian heritage, and unfit to live, let alone rule when I am gone. But there is no more time to continue my work - the Allfather’s forces march on Jotunheim as I write this, and our forces must be united if we are to survive. But perhaps when they have been exterminated, my “son” will be the last to go...
Loki set the journal down, not focused on the page, the book, or even the room, but cold fury lined his face. The last time Farley had seen it, men had died, some meeting their end by Loki’s bare hands.
“This-” He sighed through clenched teeth, and the fire dimmed to a heavy smolder. “This tells me nothing I didn’t already know. It only answered the reason why.”
Farley nodded. Based on what he and Thor had told him, Laufrey had been a royal bastard. Reading about his “experiments” only made the news about his death at Loki’s hands sweeter, the part it played in the greater scheme of things be damned.
“What should we do?”
“Burn it, throw it in a volcano, lock it up away somewhere, I don’t care. I have what I needed-”
He frowned, hand moving to flip to the next page, and jerked sharply, like someone had gut-punched him.
The two words were neat, meticulously so, but Farley had no trouble imagining the Allfather having to stop, or worse, to keep going long enough to get them down-
I’m sorry.
Loki slammed the book shut, then let it fall. Mouth twisted into a snarl, you had to look hard to see the tears ready to fall.
“Damn you...” He snarled. “Damn you both...”
FARLEY: Oh... Jesus, Loki-
LOKI: Don't. Just... don't. Please...
*Farley hesitates for a moment, then pulls Loki into a hug. Loki stiffens, but eventually hides his face against Farley.*
Aaand I'm just gonna leave 'em alone for a while, 'kay?