Work Text:
I
Loki is fast, agile in body and mind. The Jötnar birth is slow, heavy and tortuous. Even for the ìviðiur.
Loki's waters break when the Bifröst deposits them on Jötunheim, and Thor's legs withstand the impact but are unable to cushion it. The fluid is thick and slowly drips into the snow, between the laces that close Loki's fur clothes; he is no longer in the mood for jokes. The moans he suppresses are real.
Thor holds him closer and climbs into the shuttle that has come to pick them up. He grits his teeth as they head for the palace, buffeted by a snowstorm.
When they arrive at the healing rooms, Loki has fallen into a kind of catatonic state. Angantýr assures him that this is completely normal: the Jötnar are children of a measured world that does everything at a reasonable pace; they give birth like glaciers, without haste, an inch of ground at a time.
Thor is horrified (although he already knew all this, in theory).
Yet Loki, lying on his bed, looks at him through a veil of calm that borders on senselessness, eyelids half-closed. Ice crystals grow and retreat on his body. At the bottom of his eyes, sidereal distances.
Thor sits next to him and prepares for the wait. It will be a long night.
A long dawn.
A long week.
II
When it is over, Loki collapses.
When he wakes up, Thor is with him: he has two newborns in his arms and, on his face, a smile that Loki has never seen before. His mother is also present, at the door, slipping away discreetly.
Thor gets up, sits next to Loki and places the babies in his lap. It is as if the whole world were holding its breath.
"Raði..."
"And Torleik" Loki murmurs.
Their hands meet and clasp tightly.
They grew up believing they were part of the same microcosm, eternally inseparable despite their differences in disposition, interests and choices... only to mature and discover that they were divided not only by character, but also by blood. No tangible bond between them, no foothold for Loki. Then time passed and they discovered that something still bound them together, despite everything. Love brought them back, and they clung to each other, happy but restless.
(Something eternal was still missing.)
Even that last barrier no longer exists. They will never drift apart again.
They are bound forever in the blood and spirit of their children.