She should have known something was going to go wrong from the second the messenger arrived to tell them they had been summoned.

She should have known to keep her head down the second they had stepped foot into that godforsaken palace.

She knew should have tried all she could to stay at Noatun, their own palace. even if it wasn't anywhere near as grand as this one.

And most of all, she knew she should have stayed well clear of him, the twitch at the corner of his mouth betrayed the innocent look he kept on his face.

Yes, she knew she should have avoided him. But it was too late now.

It had all started in the morning, she had been in the middle of a peaceful sleep as the door to her room began to shudder from the force of someone knocking. She had immediately sprung up from her bed, peeled the sheet off her and pulled back the large wooden door, not even remembering she was still in her nightclothes.

Her littler sister, Syn had been stood outside wearing her best clothes.
"Sigyn, grandfather wants you to get ready as soon as possible, we've been summoned."
The younger girl spun on her heel and ran off down the corridor, leaving Sigyn standing there with an amused smile on her face. She was so young yet so formal, something that she had never picked up which annoyed her mother to no end.

She was used to being summoned to Odin's palace, it had been a common occurrence since she was a little girl. Her grandfather, Njord, was almost constantly taking care of her and her sisters whilst her mother flitted around Asgard like a socialite, it was as if Freya seemed to forget she was a goddess and went on endless pursuits of all kinds of men she could find, even ones from the dwarf realm.

Usually she would be left to her own devices in the palace gardens, the business between Njord and Odin was private but her grandfather did not trust her to be left on her own in their home, she was far too clumsy and he'd always said there was a strong chance she would mess something up with her dreadful attempts at magic.

She pulled one of her finer dresses out of the shell covered casket where she kept her clothes, it had been a birthday gift from her mother when she was a child, and she treasured it. It was decorated in shells from the shores of Vanaheimr.

Sigyn smoothed down the creases and folds of her dress, it hung almost limply against her body. The Vanir had a naturally smaller build than the Asgardians, at least the women did. They were more willowy, waif-like race in comparison to the shapely and tanned Asgardians, it was easy to distinguish the porcelain Vanir from the golden Asgardians.

She tousled her long hair and locked her shell covered chest once more before leaving the room and running along the hallways, she was late. But that was no surprise, she was a terrible time-keeper, it was another thing on a long list of things she was useless at.

She bunched up her dress and ran down the many marble steps of the main staircase, careful not to slip in case she broke her neck from the fall. She wouldn't die, but it would be a bugger to heal and she didn't have that much patience, she had been in and out of the healers room at Odin's palace whenever they visited, normally it was the result of some kind of prank done by him.

As she entered Njord's study, she noticed that they were already stood and poised ready to leave. The looks on Nana's face told her that she was late once again, luckily her younger sisters weren't to accompany them or they would have already launched into their own tirades about her tardiness, even though they were all quite a bit younger than her. they were already obsessed with wedding only the highest people in Asgard's royal court. They were more excited about her wedding than she was, just the thought of Theoric would make her frown. Once she would have thought herself in love with him, but then she realized that he was nothing but utterlyboring.

"Sigyn, if your mother were here she would have already thrown you into Jotunheim as a punishment," Njord joked, his serious tone was betrayed by the humour in his old eyes, "Then maybe you could impress the Frost Giants with your excuses."

"Sorry, grandfather. It was too warm, I couldn't sleep until it was too late."

"You are a strange one, little Sigyn. The only Vanir that cannot handle the heat. Sometimes it puzzles me how you have survived so long in our realm." He joked once more, holding out his palm for her to take. Njord was one of the finer Vanir, and his magic was still on top form. They did not even have to ride to Odin's palace by horse, Njord could simply transport them here.

She clutched his hand and nodded her head, taking Nanna's hand in her spare one.
In a flash, they were gone.

"Njord, it is nice of you to finally join us." Odin's voice boomed through the royal hall as a Njord stepped forward, taking a bow. Nanna and Sigyn crossed their arm over their chests and bowed their heads, too scared to do anything more. They had been in Odin's presence on more than one occasion but were normally ushered out of the room within a few moments to leave the two kings in peace.

"You requested our presence, old friend. And now we are here." Njord spared a displeased glance in Sigyn's direction, it was her fault they had kept the Allfather waiting for so long.

Sigyn looked to Nanna, but even if she were as confused as Sigyn she didn't show it. Normally they would have left the room by now and led to the gardens. Nanna would go to join the healers and learn more of their practice and she would be left to the palace gardens, sometimes she would be left there with no one and other times various servants and people from the royal court would join her.

"Little one, you looked frightened. Do not tell me that these four walls are intimidating."

Odin had noticed her, her eyes bulged and she shook her head as quickly as possible. She should have realized he could sense her unease, after all, he had given his eye for eternal wisdom, if he couldn't sense a feeling in a person then it would have all be in in vain.

"No, my king, I am just confused. Normally my sister and I would have left by now.." Her sentence trailed off and she swayed to the side slightly, she felt like a fool for actually speaking to Odin, Njord had always taught her to keep her mouth closed but she couldn't help herself, she was too absent minded for her own good.

If Odin was annoyed by her speaking he didn't show it, his usual passive expression stayed on his aging face as always.

"This time, we have gathered here to discuss you, little one. You and a certain Theoric, I trust you are to marry. We are here to discuss your plans to be wed, as an old friend to King Njord, I see fit that I personally listen to the demands." Odin answered and she felt like shrinking up into a ball, or blending in with the red and gold walls so no one would notice her. The wedding day was the only date in her calendar ever that she was dreading, being a spectacle was not something she enjoyed. She was not like her mother, she didn't thrive on attention, if anything she liked to blend in with the background.

And Theoric, he was such a nice man. To the eye of someone who didn't know him he looked like a brute, his incredible stature and muscles made him look like some kind of arrogant self obsessed twit, but underneath he was the sweetest person she had ever met. And that was why she did not like him so much.
He was kind, awfully kind. A little too kind, it was overbearing. She couldn't escape him, she wished every night that her mother hadn't agreed on her behalf for him to court her, and now she was betrothed to him and she would never be able to get out of it. She wished that her spells would work, that she wasn't so useless with her magic and could actually turn back time and refuse to know him.

She mumbled the incantation she had learned under her breath, but it still didn't work.

"So it is settled, two months to the day it will take place." Odin's voiced rattled through her eyes as she opened her eyes widely.

Had they organized it all already? She'd been locked in her thoughts longer than she had known, now she really was doomed to be wedded to Theoric.

"Two months, old friend. Two months." Njord bowed, hand over his chest as he did so. Judging by the way he stood, back rigid and hands clasped she knew he was going to lay into her, for once he wouldn't joke about punishment, she had drifted out on a conversation with the most powerful king in all of the realms, and today of all days was when she needed to be paying the most attention.

"And little one, you need desperately to work on your magic skills. Perhaps my son could assist you, he's the finest sorcerer in this land. In fact, I here him come now." Odin had heard her desperate spell, too. Was there nothing that got past this man? He'd spotted or even heard her spell although he was in the midst of talking with Njord, he really was a man of many talents. Maybe the trade-off for his eye had been worth it.

The doors to the great hall opened and the Prince stepped inside, he bowed his head as she saw the three stood in front of Odin.

"I apologize father, I didn't realize we had company in the palace today."

Sigyn watched as his eyes drifted to each one of them, she could have sworn his lips twitched as he saw her. He'd spent many a day making her life hell as a child in the palace gardens, turning her hair to worms with a flick of his hand, muttering spells under his breath to turn everything she said into the complete opposite. He had played hell with her, and the day she no longer had to speak to him had been a blessing. She didn't know why everyone was so enamoured with both princes, they were nothing but trouble.

"Loki, my son. You are to assist Lady Sigyn with her magic." Odin motioned towards the large doors with his hand, his eyes lingering on Loki and then on Sigyn, "Go now, you can discuss whilst I talk to King Njord and Lady Nanna, we have more to discuss."

Sigyn scowled as Loki bowed, pushing the doors open once more. Sigyn hurriedly curtsied and walked briskly through the doors, mentally cursing as she found herself alone in the grand hallways with Loki.

"You shouldn't say words like that." he commented, arms crossed as they stood.

"What words?" She retorted, eyebrows quivering. How had he known what she had been thinking? Surely he wasn't thatmischievous.

"The words in your head." He replied, sounding almost bored. There was no hint of a smirk on his face, maybe his silver tongue really was as effective as they said.

"You are in my head?" She hissed, "Get out of my head! I haven't given you permission to see my thoughts!"

This time his smirk appeared, an eyebrow quirked as her face grew redder and redder.

"You shouldn't say such things, I amyour Prince."

Her face dropped and she bowed her head, mumbling an apology. He was still as infuriating as he'd always been, but instead of childish pranks his mischief had grown bigger,

"Meet with me tomorrow, we may work on your magic then. I can hear Njord's footsteps, I think the finer details of your marriage to the bumbling idiot have been arranged." If she didn't know better, she could have sworn there was a hint of jealousy in his voice, but again it could have been the silver tongue. He enjoyed messing with peoples emotions and thoughts, manipulating them very very carefully, planting a thought here and there that would fester until you acted upon it. She'd learned that much from his grins as the servants slowly drove themselves insane when they were children.

She clenched her fist as he spoke, determined not to listen to him anymore. He was nothing but a pain, and she knew that these magic lessons would bring nothing but upset her way. but if Odin had ordered it then she had to go along with it, maybe she could convince Njord to have her excused. When she used to tell him of what Loki had done when they were children he had always merely laughed, so she doubted that he would get her out of this particular situation.

Loki held her hand in his, his lips brushed her knuckles before he spun around and walked in the opposite direction, probably to find his brother. She frowned and brushed her hand against her dress in some childish attempt to rid herself of his touch, if she didn't know that he would focus all his mischief on her for the next few weeks she would have maybe been happy with the fact that she was to spend time with the prince of the realm, but she knew better. Loki was nothing but trouble, and she knew she was about to be dragged into his little world of chaos.

It was what he did best.

I was reading one of the Thor comic books the other day, and I'd watched Thor and just had an idea of for this story, people seem to really overlook Sigyn, which confuses me since she's the most important woman in Loki's life, I don't really know how long the story will be, but it's pre-Thor, because god knows how many years into their adulthood the things that happened in Thor were, pinpointing time scales with people who have eternal life is hard. I guess it's a mixture of the Movieverse, Comicverse and the actually mythology, but here it is!
Feedback is really appreciated, all of the Thor fanfic I'e read has been soooooo good and I really don't know where to start, Loki's so complex and I don't know why I chose to write about him now, so any (constructive!) criticism would be greatly appreciated. x

Also, disclaimer; I don't own anything in this story, in fact I think all the characters are part of some kind of verse.