AN: for those who listen to music while reading, Shake it Out by Florence + the Machine fits extremely well :)

~EPILOGUE~

I took in a deep breath of salt air as I looked out over the water. Waves crashed on the shore in the distance, one after the other. On the horizon, the glowing orb of the sun rose over the water, casting an orange glow across the water and over the beach behind me. I placed a hand on the rough wood of the long pier that stretched out into the water.

An insistent nudge in my swollen belly caught my attention, and I placed a hand over the spot. I was now seven months pregnant with Loki's child. It had been four months since SHIELD had allowed me to leave.

I had gotten quite lucky with that. I was still fairly certain Loki's magic had had something to do with such an easy get-away, but every time I mentioned it to him he just gave me a knowing smirk.

"It is beautiful, is it not?" Loki's voice, now as familiar to me as my own, came from behind me. I turned around from my place at the end of the pier to see him walking towards me. He wrapped an arm around me and I lay my head against his shoulder.

For a while we just stood there, neither saying a word.

"Have you decided on a name?" he asked me into my hair.

I smiled slightly, simply relishing in his touch as his icy breath travelled over my left shoulder. "Rose." I said quietly. "Sonja Rose."

I felt his lips smile against my hair. "I like it," he said, placing a kiss on the top of my head. "Her mother is named after a Midgardian flower, why should she be any different?"

I nodded, watching the sun rise over the top of the Atlantic Ocean. The waves crashed on the shore behind us. "Are you still afraid?" I asked tentatively. He had confessed the fear of a mutated child to me several months ago.

He held me tighter. "No. I am not. We can handle anything as long as we are together."

I let out a happy sigh as I closed my eyes. Together was such a wonderful word, especially when he used it about the two of us. The breeze blew hair in my face and it tickled my nose slightly.

"You never did grow your hair out…" he said quietly. I rolled my eyes.

"It's easier this way."

He shook his head slowly, catching a lock of my short red-brown hair in between his long fingers. He looked me in the eye before slowly, ever so slowly, pulling down on the lock. His fingers stopped just over my breast.

When I looked down, I could see my long hair had regrown in a matter of seconds. I looked back up at him with a playfully aggravated look. He raised his eyebrows.

Some things never changed.

He brushed the now long hair behind my shoulder and rested his hand under my ear. I brought my hand up to hold it there, looking into his blue-green gaze. His thumb stroked my cheek as his other hand swooped down to take my left hand in his own. A single diamond, framed by tiny emeralds, was nestled on my left ring finger, and he brought his lips to it.

"I love you," he said when he looked back up.

I smiled. "And I love you," I whispered.

"I knew we would be able to say that to each other one day without any forthcoming dire circumstances," he said, a big smile stretching across his thin lips.

"And you were right," I replied. I stretched up on my tip-toes to plant a kiss on his lips, one he returned with passion. I wound my fingers into his dark hair, pulling him as close to me as possible. I could stay in his arms forever…

When he pulled away from the kiss, he didn't let me go. Instead, he simple turned back to the rising sun, keeping an arm securely looped around my waist.

The glowing orb rose higher and higher in the sky. Our future was just beginning. We were standing at the brink of a vast unknown. But we would be ok. We always were. Because we had each other.

Two pieces of a whole, joined together as one.

And as the sun rose that day, standing in Loki's embrace, I felt complete and utter peace for the first time in years.

AN: And… that's a wrap, people! Thank you sooooo much to all who read, favorited, reviewed, and gave me the support I needed to finish this story. Seriously. You have no idea how nice it was to have the amount of support everyone has given me. Not meaning to be mushy, but… I love you guys!

Also, a big thanks to whoever put both of these stories into the "For the Love of Loki" community.

Now. There will not be another sequel… I am honestly quite out of ideas for a full-fledged story at this point, but I can promise you that there will be more of these two… as well as little Rose. Look for a collection of one-shots called The Sound of Winter (yes, it is named after a song by Bush) that will be appearing soon! Hell, there may even be a bit of the Avengers thrown in there as well… I am obsessed, I know. Where it goes from this collection is a mystery to me, but maybe another story will surface from it! ;)

Thanks ever so much, once again. You guys are great!

~Sirius