Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 0:30:09 GMT -5
Frigga didn't remove her eyes from the baby she was rocking, but she put the question to the son who was no longer her youngest:
"Do you want to hold your baby brother?"
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 0:37:57 GMT -5
"There's two of them," he said wonderingly, peering into the cradle. He'd known before, of course, but seeing them was another matter. They were tiny and reddish and wrinkled, and had faces like disgruntled little old men. The one his mother was holding had a few faint wisps of brownish hair, but this was mostly visible in that it cast shadows over the baby's scalp. The one still in the cradle lacked even that.
Loki held his arms toward his mother to accept the first baby and held him in the crook of his elbow. He touched the baby's flat button of a nose, and got a little crumple-faced frown and a whining sound in return, which made Loki make a faint, despairing sound of his own.
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 0:41:39 GMT -5
Frigga was now cradling Hodr and looking at Loki with a smile of amusement and tenderness.
"His name is Balder," she said kindly.
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 0:42:47 GMT -5
"They're so ugly," said Loki, in a voice dripping with bewildered affection.
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 0:45:29 GMT -5
She carefully placed Hodr into his arms as well. They were small enough for this to be easy.
"As were you, and Thor, long, long ago," she said, smiling.
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 0:49:35 GMT -5
"Moreso me than Thor, I'd imagine," he said with a kind of resigned smile. "I must have been a wretched little blue whelp."
He was lightly stroking the barely extant hair of one of the wretched little pink whelps in his arms as he said this.
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 0:50:38 GMT -5
"Wrinkled and lined."
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 0:55:11 GMT -5
"How charming," he said, withdrawing his hand from his armload of annoyed babies.
He looked on them for a moment longer, and then gave a gasping kind of sob and pulled them as close to him as he could at this extremely fragile age.
"You- do you trust me so much?" he asked. He didn't need to say why.
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 1:02:40 GMT -5
She came closer to him in a way very nearly like a saunter, full of confidence in him as she once had been. She put her hand on his shoulder.
"You know what it is to be the younger brother, and now you are the elder. I trust you to be the elder brother they deserve. You know better than anyone what that is."
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 1:04:36 GMT -5
"I'm meant to destroy them," he said grimly.
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 1:06:16 GMT -5
She was frowning in slight confusion when she realized. The names.
"Balder and Hodr are not unpopular names for twins," she said gently.
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 1:09:22 GMT -5
Slowly, gently, he set them back in the cradle and covered his mouth with his hands for a long moment before he embraced his mother again.
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 1:13:24 GMT -5
She held him tightly, lifting her hand again to his hair.
|
|
|
Post by Loki Odinsson on May 3, 2014 1:16:07 GMT -5
"There have been so many moments I wished I was dead-"
|
|
Frigga
- In the Duggins -
Posts: 79
|
Post by Frigga on May 3, 2014 1:30:24 GMT -5
"And... do you now?" she asked carefully, pulling back to look him in the eye, but not releasing him.
|
|