Family
Love is family.
Loki knew he loved his mother.
His mother was Frigga, the Queen of Asgard and the wife of Odin, the Allfather. She was golden, both from the inside to the outside. Her voice was always warm when speaking with him, her blue eyes always shining when she looked at him.
There was no place in the Nine Realms that felt as much like home as being inside his mother’s warm embrace. His small frame held tightly inside her arms, her hands patting his head and rubbing his shoulders as he pressed his face into her robes. The flowery scent that filled his nose as he did so and the material of her robes, softer than anything Loki has ever touched, as it pressed against his face and slid over his pale skin.
It was always love that he felt whenever his mother took him into the Royal Garden to show him her beautiful flowers, one more radiant than the other.
It was love that he felt whenever his mother smiled at him with pride each time he correctly identified a flower, and it was also love that he felt whenever his mother corrected him and patiently explained the difference between two similarly looking flowers.
“But mother, why is this flower weaker than the rest?”
“What makes you think it’s weaker?”, his mother asked with curious eyes, her fingers caressing the deep red petals of a flower Loki hasn’t seen before.
“It’s much smaller than the others. And look-”, he kneeled and took a petal that had fallen to the ground between two small fingers. It was wrinkly and slowly turning brown. “ -it’s shedding it’s petals. Why isn’t it like the rest?”
She had smiled, holding out a hand for the petal he’d picked up. She then patted her thigh, inviting him to sit on her lap. She waited until his small frame sat comfortably upon her legs before answering.
“Can you name the Nine Realms, Loki?”
“Of course I can, mother!”, he scoffed. He held out his hands, counting with his fingers as he named them, “There’s Asgard, Midgard, Nidavellir, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Muspelheim, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim and Nilfheim!”
“Yes, that’s correct. There are many flowers in this garden, my little Loki, many flowers from all Nine Realms. And this flower-”, she raised her hand, the delicate flower petal still sitting on her palm, “- is from Midgard. It’s called a Rose. They’re one of my favourite flowers. But although they are very beautiful, they are also very delicate. They aren’t as sturdy and long-living as Agradian flowers.”
Loki frowned, “But mother … Why keep them if they die so quickly? If they whither so fast, why are you keeping them with all the other stronger flowers?”
His mother smiled and tilted her head as she looked into his eyes.
“They deserve to be in this garden as much as all the other flowers, my dear. They may be weak, as you put it; they need more attention and yet they die much faster. But they aren’t any less valuable or less worthy, they deserve to be in this garden as much as any other flower. And besides … aren’t they beautiful?”
Loki nodded, “They are, mother”
“Look at this petal, Loki. It has detached from the flower and it’s not as beautiful as it once was …”, she closed her fingers, enclosing the weak rose petal in her fist, “But that doesn’t mean that it’s useless”
A golden light shone through her still closed fist. And when she opened it, a small frog sat on her palm. The petal was gone.
Loki gasped, his eyes widening with childish wonder.
“Mother! How did you do that?!”
She laughed in delight.
“Can you teach me?!”
“Yes, my dear Loki. I can”, she smiled.
…
Loki knew he loved his brother
Thor was the exact opposite of Loki. While Loki's hair was black, his was golden blonde, while Loki was lean, his brother was broad. Thor was loud and always full of excitement and energy, while Loki was the silent and curious one. While Loki prefered to read and spend time with his mother, Thor always ran off somewhere with his friends to start a new adventure somewhere in the forests of Asgard.
They couldn't have been any more different. But that didn't stop Loki from loving his brother.
He felt loved whenever Thor excitedly invited him along on one of his quests with his friends Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg and Sif. And although Loki never really fancied hunting Bilgesnipes as much as Thor did, the hopeful expression on his brother’s face whenever Loki agreed to accompany him made something warm spread deep inside Loki’s chest.
He felt loved whenever he and Thor duelled for fun and Thor extended his hand to help Loki up everytime he lost the fight. His annoyance at always losing never overshadowed the gratefulness he felt about his brothers helping hand. Thor’s small smile and the encouraging “You’ll beat me next time, brother!” as he pulled Loki to his feet made it hard for Loki to stay angry at his brother for always beating him in hand to hand combat.
His brother was his best friend. Loki loved him dearly.
(Even if he had the habit of being annoying.)
So yes, Loki knew he loved his mother, just like he knew he loved his brother. They made him feel happy, they made him feel wanted. They made him feel like he could do anything.
So it wasn’t hard for him to answer the question of what love is the first time he was asked.
It had been Thor who’d asked him. He’d turned around in his bed to face his brother and had nudged him with his foot.
“Loki?”
“What?”, he had hissed tiredly.
It wasn’t a rare occasion for one of them to sneak into the other’s chambers so that they could spend the night talking. That day it had been Loki who’d silently slipped into his brother’s room so that he could tell him about the latest tale he’d read about.
“Are you awake?”
“No”, Loki scoffed with irony, not bothering to open his eyes.
“Do you- … what do you think, what is love?”
Still not opening his eyes, Loki turned onto his back.
“Why do you ask?”
“I read a book-”
“- you can read?”, Loki teased.
The kick he got for it was well deserved.
“I think love is ... “, Loki had paused, trying to find the right word to sum it up with. He thought about all the times his mother looked at him with eyes shining with pride and all the times his brother smiled at him happily. He thought about the secret magic lessons with his mother and he thought about the adventures Thor always wanted him to join.
“I think love is family”