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If Valkyrie could change anything in the universe, it would be the day her sisters were struck down and taken to Valhalla. She would take them home victorious and without loss, like it had ought to be. But it wasn’t, and her sisters were still dead, and her wife was still dead.
Her wife was a ferocious and valiant woman. She fought in battles of the body and mind alike, making her one of Asgard’s most valuable warriors. (Y/N) had been decorated in awards and presented with gifts from Odin herself for her service across the Nine Realms. She rose through the ranks of the Valkyrie and then beyond quickly and found her place besides the likes of Lady Sif and Prince Thor.
(Y/N) was much more than the warrior the Asgardian population knew her as. She was kind, patient and loyal. Valkyrie didn’t love her for her talents in battle; she loved her for the woman she allowed herself to be behind closed doors. Valkyrie loved (Y/N) for the person she was when they were alone.
She still heard (Y/N)’s final words ringing out to her wherever she went. “Be still, my love. Daybreak is coming.” Valkyrie had never made sense of them: yes, daybreak did come, but her pain did not leave upon its arrival. And with every sunrise and nightfall, the pain grew and grew. Valkyrie longed for the numbness she initially felt in her first few days alone as the nothingness was a whole lot kinder than the searing pain of grief.
Maybe it was a punishment for the sins of her ancestors. She had come from a long line of warriors, some of the blood shed may have been innocent. Maybe (Y/N)’s downfall was Valkyrie’s price to pay. Or maybe it was a mercy from the Gods higher than Odin himself. Maybe (Y/N)’s reward for her life of service and devotion was to be taken to the halls of Valhalla where she would no longer feel the toils and turmoil of which she had been cursed with during her life.
But even that was a thought too heavy to bare because surely that Valkyrie’s love for her amended her wounds. If death was (Y/N)’s saving grace, what did that mean of the sacred bond of marriage that they shared? If (Y/N)’s crossing was a reward, did that mean that Valkyrie was a part of the punishment of life? Did their love for each other mean nothing at all?
These questions bothered her often. A constant cycle of self-loathing accompanied by the everlasting pain of never being enough. She wasn’t strong enough to save her sisters in battle, she wasn’t loyal enough to return to Asgard after her failure; and she wasn’t brave enough to wish for her wife to return to her.
Valkyrie wasn’t enough before, but she would be enough this time. She wouldn’t let anyone else suffer the same pain as she had. She was enough now because she hadn’t been before.