Greensleeves
The next day, Loki was lying down on the couch with the book Jolene had given him floating above his head, using his magic to turn the pages every minute or so. He quite enjoyed the story and the characters, and especially the themes. They reminded him so much of... well, himself and Sigyn. It was both heartwarming and painful, being reminded of what had once been. He wasn't sure they could ever go back to that when she had lost centuries' worth of memories that lead up to them eventually courting. And... he wasn't sure it would be best for her anyway. He wasn't the boy she loved, he was a terrorist that tried to take over the world as far as everyone on earth knew. The one that hurt her friend, Theo. And besides... the Mad Titan... he was still out there. And he still remembered the Other's threat...
"Oh, here it is!"
But before he could be dragged back into the personal hell that was his memories and imagination, he was snapped out of his thoughts by Jolene's triumphant voice. He looked up to see Jo digging around her closet and pulled out a long, rectangular case of some sort.
"I've been looking for you...!"
"What is that?" he asked, sitting up and putting the book down beside him, though he made sure to mark the page with a temporary sigil to make sure he didn't lose his place.
"It's an electric keyboard." She grinned at him as she hurried to the couch beside him, unzipping the case happily.
"A what??" He curiously peered over to see what looked like a small piano tucked away in the case. She took it out of the case and put it on the couch before grabbing some sort of wires and plugging them into the wall and then into the piano.
"It's basically a piano, but smaller and you can carry it with you." she explained, lifting the piano up onto her lap as she sat beside him. "Since you liked Disney songs so much, I wanted to show you how to play them, if you wanted."
Loki watched with fascination in his eyes as she began to play a few notes. Before he knew it, his mind was running wild with theories about how it worked, since it was much too small to have any of the parts the pianos on Asgard had. Then she heard Jolene giggling and when he looked up at her, she had an amused expression on her face.
"What?" he asked with a slight blush.
She scrunched her nose up a little. "That sounds stupid."
"It is stupid." He moved closer to her, eyes on the keys, pretending not to notice how he was brushing up against her shoulder. "What songs can you play?"
Even though he wasn't looking at her, he knew she was certainly blushing. "Well, I always loved this song." And she began to play a song that made his heart jump into his throat.
"Alas, my love you do me wrong, to cast me off discourteously..."
And suddenly he was a teen again, passing by the music room of the palace when he heard the beautiful voice wafting gently through the air. And peering inside he saw none other than his pretty Sigyn, the woman he'd been admiring from afar for the past several hundred years, singing as she played on the harp. Her fingers ran across the strings as easily as one might move their hand through water.
"For I have loved you well and long," she sang with utter grace, and Loki couldn't help but admire the way the sun seemed to make her hair glow. "Delighting in your company..."
She was utterly mesmerizing and he found himself leaning in the doorway, admiring her gentle voice. He had never heard this song before, so he assumed she must have written it. He didn't doubt it, honestly, she was so incredibly talented when it came to music and song. She could lull even the most vicious creature to sleep with her beautiful voice. Though he couldn't help but notice how longing and melancholy her song was.
"Greensleeves was all my joy,
Greensleeves was my delight"
Her words made him perk curiously. 'Greensleeves'? He watched as her mouth tilted up in a fond, wistful smile, her eyes distant as if she were imagining someone there in front of her, not even noticing Loki. Only then did he realize he knew that he recognized that infatuated expression, and it made his face flush with jealousy. Moving through the music room quietly, he playfully tapping his old friend on the head to startle her, successfully forcing a surprised yip out of her.
She looked up with wide blue eyes before her face flushed. "Oh! Loki...!"
He laughed and playfully leaned an arm against the harp. "My Lady Sig, I didn't know you have a fancy...!" he teased her, despite his hope that it wasn't so.
But her darkening cheeks suggested otherwise and she sheepishly glanced away, playing with her hair. "E-Er, well... I don't think nothing would ever be allowed to come of it..."
He scoffed. "Because of class difference? Those rules are so stupid, even Thor scoffs at them. And Thor's usually all for the rules. Unless he wants to fight something."
He himself practically loathed those stupid rules. Sigyn was the daughter of lesser nobles of Vanaheim, technically a foreigner in Asgard. Princes were not meant to be with someone like her, they were meant to marry either someone of status in their own kingdom or another royal to create an alliance. But he never followed the rules, especially the ones he found exceptionally nonsensical. And besides, he couldn't help the way he felt about the young Vanir woman before him.
She giggled softly at him. "Are you always so sassy?" she teased playfully.
"Yes, I am." He joking, making her laugh. "So, who is this 'Greensleeves' you're so infatuated with?" he asked, giving her a grin that he hoped made it seem like he wasn't plotting murder at that very moment.
"Greensleeves was my heart of gold"
She stopped laughing and started bashfully twinging at the strings, glancing up at him through her lashes. "Well... why don't you guess?"
He raised a curious brow, then pursed his lips thoughtfully, trying to figure out who he had to murder. "Well, cross Thor off the list, he never wears green."
She put her fingers to her lips, clearly trying not to burst out laughing.
He thought for another few moments before he gave her a teasing smirk. "Is it Amora?"
Her face turned beet red and she grabbed a pillow to hide her face in. "Oh my goodness, Loki!" she scolded sharply.
"And who but my lady Greensleeves?"
The error jolted him out of his memory and he spoke before he even thought it through, "That's wrong."
Loki's voice made Jolene stop and look up at him curiously. "What?"
He could feel his face heat up as he looked down at where her fingers had paused on the keys, hoping to hide his flustered expression. "It's not 'Lady Greensleeves.' Well, I suppose it could be, but originally it wasn't."
She blinked at him. "Then what is it?"
Loki once again found himself in the midst of that beautiful memory, laughing at how utterly red Sigyn's face was. "She's the only person other than me who wears green around here!"
She said nothing at that, pressing the pillow closer to her face as if it could absorb her embarrassment.
It took a moment to stop laughing, but when he did, he suddenly paused when he realized what he'd just said. "Wait..."
He was the only one who wore green in the palace other than Amora. Slowly his face heated up so much he was certain the rest of his body had no blood left.
"...Loki?" Sigyn asked, her eyes peering past the pillow.
"You... like me?" he asked, and if anyone other than Sigyn saw how stupidly agape his mouth was, they wouldn't live to see the moon rise.
Her face became a dark pink color, but then she playfully sang with a sheepish smile,
"And who but my darling Greensleeves?"
Jolene blinked curiously at him, a curious expression on her face. "How do you know that's the right version?"
Loki watched her for a moment, contemplating whether or not to tell her the... nature of their relationship in the past. But it had been so long since he'd heard that song...
"May I...?" He motioned for the keyboard and she curiously nodded, letting him pull it into his lap.
He looked over the keys, placing his lithe fingers on the ones he'd need to press to continue the song. It was weird, sitting at a sort-of piano again, after Sigyn's disappearance. He barely knew how to play, but this song... this song he treasured so much.
"Can you keep singing?" he requested. "It's... be a long time since I heard this song."
He watched her furrow her brow at him, her blue eyes glancing over his face as if searching for an answer, but thankfully obliged as he began to press down on the keys, her words taking him back to a happier time.
"Your vows you've broken, like my heart
Oh, why did you so enrapture me?"
Loki knocked on his mother's door, feeling his hands shaking nervously. This was crazy, he told himself. He was a prince, he had responsibilities, he had vows to honor. And yet when Sigyn came to mind, none of that mattered. That's why he was here, waiting to tell his mother what he wanted.
His mother opened the door with a curious smile. "Loki...! What brings you here, love?"
"I want to marry Sigyn." he blurted out before he could convince himself otherwise.
He watched her face fall with surprise and she blinked at him for a moment. "Oh. Well, darling, don't you think it's a little too soon?"
Loki rubbed his arm nervously. "I know Father wants me to marry someone wealthy when I'm older, and I know I vowed to do whatever was best for the kingdom, even marry, but... I love Sigyn, I don't want to marry anyone else."
His mother smiled kindly at him and placed a hand on his cheek, her thumb brushing across his skin lovingly. "Oh, my darling, you don't need to worry about that. We would never force you to marry someone you didn't love."
"Then why does Father insist Thor marry Lady Sif?" Loki scowled, a protective fire sparking in his chest. "He doesn't love her."
She sighed. "It's... complicated, my dear. If you want to marry Sigyn, I won't let anyone stop you. But not now, alright? You're both much too young to think of marriage." She smiled at him and brushed a stray strand of hair behind his ear. "But if you'll be courting, there are a few customs I think you'll like to put into action."
"Now I remain in a world apart
But my heart remains in captivity"
Loki watched from a distance as Sigyn politely spoke with some son of a knight during the ball, and he really didn't like any young man being close to his love. She was hiding behind her pink fan and he found himself fiddling with the gift he held in his hand behind his back. The moment he could get away from his oaf of a brother, he slipped through the crowd and approached Sigyn, his heart speeding up when he saw her smiling at him.
"Hello, my dear Sigyn." he greeted her, shamelessly wrapping an arm around her waist and pulling her flush against him, enjoying the flustered looks on both her and the young knight's faces. "Mind if I steal her away for a moment, soldier?"
"O-Of course not, Prince Loki."
Loki ignored the young man's polite bow as he pulled Sigyn away, through the people milling about and behind a large pillar with curtains hanging on either side of it, hiding them away from the eyes of the people in the ballroom.
"Loki...!" she scolded, smacking his arm with her closed fan once she pulled away. "You shouldn't be so rude."
Loki chuckled. "I can't help how protective I can be." he told her, then gave her an excited grin. "And besides, I wanted to give you a gift."
"A gift?" She tilted her head in such an innocently curious way, it made his heart melt.
"Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight"
He felt his heart started racing with excitement and maybe some nervousness as her blue eyes sparkled when he held out the beautiful green fan he'd had commissioned just for her. And there, elegantly embroidered into the fabric, was her name.
"I heard it's a tradition on Vanaheim for a man to offer his lady a new fan in his colors with her name to be embroidered into it, specifically in gold, to show everyone how much she's valued in the eyes of her love." he explained, suddenly feeling kind of shy, wondering what she would think.
Beaming delight took over her delicate features as she opened the fan, looking over the lighter-green swirling designs printed onto the fabric. They almost looked like coiled serpents, which was part of the reason why he chose that fabric to be made into the fan.
She suddenly threw her arms around him with a laugh. "I love it! Thank you so much...!"
He blushed deeply, his heart threatening to break out of his ribcage, but he couldn't help but smile as he embraced her in return.
"Greensleeves was my heart of gold
And who but my darling Greensleeves?"
"You wrote it." Loki finally spoke up, breaking out of his trance as he stopped playing.
Surprise took over Jolene's expression as she looked up at him. "What??" she asked in disbelief. "Me?? But I...?"
He was quiet for a few moments, contemplating for a moment before he pushed the piano aside to get up and extend a hand to her. She gave him a puzzled look before slowly taking his hand and letting him pull her up. No doubt to her surprise and confusion, he pulled her in close, holding one of her hands in his while the other guided her to hold his shoulder. With a deep breath, green magic shimmered all around them, and within moments they were standing in a ballroom full of faceless figures.
Loki was back in his regal clothing but took on his younger appearance, with his short black hair and much softer face. And standing before him was the most beautiful woman he had ever known. His dear Sigyn, with her beautiful golden hair tied back in a braided bun, her favorite deep blue dress hugging her body like an old friend with sleeves going down to her elbows.
She gawked as she took in her surroundings, and then gasped when she looked down at herself. She looked up at him, completely startled by the sudden change, but he gave her a small smile to reassure her as he very gently led her into a dance.
"Ah, Greensleeves, now farewell, adieu," he sang softly, his voice carrying the wistfulness and melancholy Sigyn's voice had held the first time he heard her sing her song.
"To God, I pray to prosper thee"
He watched as her expression twisted into one of confusion, but also intrigue as she followed his lead, the two slowly dancing through the large ballroom. Even after so long, even though she didn't remember him and he had done so much wrong after her 'death'... he still loved her, still adored her. And as pessimistic and cynical as he could be, he desperately hoped that perhaps he could somehow jog her memory, somehow remind her of the love they once shared, bring back the memories of when they would sneak off or steal kisses behind curtains and doorways.
"For I am still thy lover true" he sang truthfully, lifting his hand up to gingerly brush her warm freckled cheek.
Her eyes were wide and he could see thousands of emotions swirl in them, and he felt fear begin to constrict around his heart. This was so reckless, she barely knew him, she would push him away and never speak to him again for his audacity. But he didn't let himself back down, still clinging to the hope that maybe, just maybe, she would remember him.
"Come once again and love me" he practically pleaded, something he never did, as he brushed a loose strand of golden hair back.
"Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight"
She was everything to him, the sun and moon and stars, the water and the air, the warmth of summer, and the calmness of the rain. She was all that and yet so much more. Now that he was here, taking this chance... he didn't care about Thanos or his violent 'children.' He just wanted to be with her again, to feel the happiness he felt a lifetime ago... Whatever happened, he wanted to face it with her.
"Greensleeves was my heart of gold...
And who but my darling Greensleeves...?" Sigyn finally sang again, her eyes filling with realization as they stopped in the very center of the room.
He waited, daring to hope for at least a spark of the love she had once held for him. But... like so many times in his life, that hope was harshly snuffed out when she pulled away from him, and he could feel his heart begin to crack. He didn't try to stop her, though, letting his magic fade away so they were back in her apartment, trying desperately to keep his heart from shattering into a million pieces.
"We were...?" she asked slowly.
Loki hesitated but slowly nodded. "Yes..."
She looked like she was reeling as she sat down on the couch, trying to process everything, and he felt horrid for so selfishly trying to rush things. He always ruined things, didn't he?
"I-I'm sorry, I know... I know it's too soon, I didn't mean to..." He reached his hand out to her but then grimaced and pulled back. "I'm sorry... I'll... I'll just go..."
"Loki, wait!" she called out as she extended her hand, but in a flash of green light, he was gone.