Archive of Our Own ^beta

When he'd been dragged back to Asgard by Thor, Loki had been thoroughly convinced that finally Odin was going to tell the entirety of the kingdom just what sort of monster he'd brought into their midst. It was somewhat disappointing (and a bit of a relief, but he would never admit that to anyone) when the All-Father simply stated that some wrong choices had been made on part of the entire royal family, and that they would be limiting public dispute hearings for an as yet to be determined period of time.

Then Odin had left Tyr in charge of the kingdom (which Loki, honestly, found no fault with. Tyr had helped him raise that six-eyed wolf pup he'd found as a little boy, even when Fenrir had grown to the size of an adult man; the creature still lived on Tyr's lands and acted like he was still small enough to sit in someone's lap), dismissed the nobility, and had him taken to his own rooms to make himself comfortable.

Two days later, there was a knock at the door and Frigga slipped inside with a small basket.

During that first visit, Loki had held his tongue. He was of the mind that she would express her disappointment in him soon enough and leave once she'd said her piece, or she would try to excuse his actions and cause him to snap at her to admit that he was not worthy of the royal name.

Instead, she had given him a gentle smile, pulled some yarn and a hand loom from the basket, and began to weave.

Loki had stared at her in shock for quite some time. For all intents and purposes, the All-Mother was acting as if she were just quietly spending time with her youngest son. He didn't understand her motives (and he wasn't going to admit that it made him feel a bit less frozen inside), but he was content to just let her sit in his rooms if that was what she wanted to do. With a slight shrug, he turned his attention back to the scrolls he'd been reading over before Frigga's arrival.

This pattern continued for two weeks. Every day just after noon, Frigga would slip into Loki's rooms and weave on her hand loom while the dark prince read or practiced minor spells. They didn't speak, and the silence slowly went from awkward on Loki's part to comfortable.

At the start of the third week, after she had been weaving for some time, Frigga began to speak. She spoke about things from when both Loki and Thor were small, the adventures they'd told her about and how they had worried her more than a few times with some of their more dangerous stunts. She talked about how she had felt proud of their every achievement, and how she sometimes felt a little bit guilty for being more proud of the younger's accomplishments.

It he wasn't already comfortable with Frigga's presence, Loki would have ignored her words. As it was, he'd spent the past couple of weeks feeling very much like nothing had changed, that he was still a son of Asgard even though he knew of his monstrous blood. So when the woman he was beginning to think of as his mother again started talking, he listened.

On the fourth day of that week, Loki began to add to the stories. When Frigga would miss a detail or seem to forget a point, he easily picked up the thread. As the week progressed, he started asking questions. He asked if they ever regretted taking him from Jotunheim, if they worried that his tricks were a sign of his origins, how they could forgive him for the things he'd done after his fall.

And Frigga replied that they had never once regretted the decision to raise Loki as their own child, that she had always seen his mischief as the games of someone with a love for life (and that she had only fretted when things slipped beyond Loki's control), that they could and did forgive him because he was their child and they loved him dearly.

The progress was slow, but after a few months, Loki didn't react beyond nodding a greeting when Thor joined him and Mother in his rooms. The blond didn't speak, simply polished his armor while listening to Frigga's stories and Loki's questions. Slowly, as Loki began to mentally acknowledge Thor as his brother again, the other man began to add his own point of view to the ongoing conversation.

And now, nearly a year after Loki's less than triumphant return home, Odin All-Father had joined his wife and sons in the younger prince's rooms. Loki knew he couldn't forgive the pain the man he wasn't ready to call Father again yet had caused him, but with his mother and brother's support, he was willing to give the man a chance.

Frigga smiled softly to herself as she wove. It would still take time, but she had already Seen the outcome. Her family would heal, and that she would be there to hold the threads together and make sure their tapestry never unraveled again.