chinaroses | FE 2024 Prompt Table 2 Fill #25

Sigyn is seated on the bearskin rug before the hearth's fire working on her studies when she looked up and over across the way, "Father?"

"Hmm?" Loki responded as he turned the page of the volume he was reading.

"What does home mean to you?" she asked.

Loki looked up his gaze drifting to the flickering flames for a long moment. Finally, he beckoned Sigyn over, and patted the space on the chaise beside him. Sigyn got up, and went over to her father where she curled up underneath her father's arm while he considered his answer for her.

"For a long, long time, I did not feel as though I had a true home," he finally admitted in a soft voice, idly running his fingers through her ginger hair, "For I was always the outcast, the capricious prince who didn't seem to belong, which was true whether I was here in Asgard or if I wandered to another place in the realms."

Sigyn looked up at her father, a look of sadness on her young face, "That sounds lonely, and very sad."

Loki nodded, "It was very lonely and sad. But then one day, when I was in one of the loneliest places I've ever been in my life, I met your Mother for the first time―"

"And you fell in love?" Sigyn asked with a big smile, her eyes bright.

"Not precisely, my snowflake."

"Oh."

Seeing his daughter now resembling a deflated balloon on Midgard, he continued, "You see, your mother then was... quite young at the time we met for the first time. No, my little snowflake, the feeling I experienced that first time that I met her was that of fascination. For you see, at that time, I was... imprisoned by the order of your grandfather."

Sigyn nodded, as she knew her father had been a prisoner here on Asgard for a time.

Loki went on, "I was fascinated because here before me, when I was the loneliest I had ever been in my life, was a little child with the reddest crown of hair I've ever seen standing before me when she should not have been. Although she was clad in blue as an Asgardian maid-child, I knew there was something different about her, for how else could a young child slip past Odin's guards?" He could not help his smile at the memory of their and Odin's exasperation at Eva's tenacity as she found way into the prison quite often.

He went on, "The fact she was also the daughter of one of my past... honored adversaries attributed to my fascination. Your mother was clever even as a child, as she would evade Odin's guards several more times to come see me. Eventually her visits were stopped when she, and your uncle returned to Midgard. But I never forgot her, and throughout the next years that remained of my imprisonment, I thought of her. When I was granted my freedom by your grandfather, I visited Midgard and renewed my friendship with your mother, who was now a young woman... who still had the reddest hair I had ever seen."

"And that's when you fell in love with Mother, right?"

"Yes, snowflake, it was during that time, I fell in love with your Mother, and she with me although for a time we when both too afraid to admit it. But that is another story for another time. Now what were we speaking of before the waking reverie overtook me?" he asked in a melancholy way.

"About what home means to you, Father," Sigyn said quietly.

"Ah, yes," Loki said, reaching down to raise Sigyn's chin upwards, "Home is not simply a place, my snowflake. Rather it's made up of the people and the memories you share with those you love. It is those who give you comfort and joy, and you them. Although I felt alone for many years in my life, I now call myself doubly blessed — for I found a home when I found your Mother's love, and each day I share you, my darling Sigyn, I find it anew."

Sigyn smiled laid her head on her father's chest, "I'm glad, Father."

Loki wrapped his arms around her, and held her for a moment, the only sound in the room was that of the fire crackling. Finally, he kissed the top of her red head, and asked, "Why are you asking me this, my snowflake? What brought on this heady question to your young mind?"

"My tutor. She wants me to write about what home means to me."

Understanding, Loki nodded, "And what will you tell her in your composition, my little snowflake?"

Sigyn busied herself by tracing her fingers over the golden threaders intricately woven across Loki's tunic. After a moment, she finally said, "I will tell her that home means that it's not a place but home's is wherever you are with you're with all the people who love you the most and you love them. Which means that home for me is here on Asgard when I'm here with you, Father, and on Midgard too when I'm with Gam Gam and Pop Pop and Uncle Ethan and Auntie Maggie!"

Loki smiled at his daughter's great, innocent wisdom, "I believe your composition regarding home will be one of excellence." He kissed the top of her hair, "But even so, I shall have to remind Lady Meya that you are still rather young for such heady thoughts and considerations."

Sigyn giggled, "Oh, Father, I'm glad she gave me the assignment since I got to learn more about how you fell in love with Mother."