Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Father, I’m heading out to the woods!” A young Loki shouted to his father Odin, who was peering over a balcony, watching the soldiers train in the courtyard. 

“Alright, Loki. Be careful, and be back in the castle before it gets dark, lest your mother worries for your safety.” Odin replied, not looking away from the courtyard. 

Loki rolled his eyes and said he’d be back before dinner. He’s a prince of Asgard. He knows how to be careful and not worry his mother. He heads out of the castle from the back entrance and heads for the forest that’s not too far from the village. 

When he’s out exploring, Loki usually just out looking for places to climb trees, or watch elves preform little rituals. This time, however, he goes on a different route than he usually does. He wanders through the tall trees, not paying any mind to his footing as he’s feeling confident in where he’s going. There’s a very large rock that’s deep in this area of the forest that he’s hoping to climb. It’s been said to have a wonderful view of the river nearby. 

The birds are chirping overhead as Loki wanders further into the woods.

Finally, Loki sees the large rock that he’s been looking for. A grin stretches across his face, and he bolts towards it.

‘This should be easy, he thinks, ‘I’ve climbed taller.’

He latches onto some handholds in the side, and he starts to climb. It towers over him as he carefully climbs his way to the top, grasping small crevices to hoist himself up. 

As he nears the top, he reaches for a branch that’s growing from a small plant lodged into the side of the rock, and grabs onto it. That was a mistake. The branch was too weak to support his weight, and snaps. Loki yelps in surprise, and accidentally lets go of the rock, falling from quite the height. 

-THUD-

He hits the ground. His leg lands wrong underneath him and a sharp pain shoots up his left side. Crying out in pain, black spots dart across his vision, and he keels over, hitting his head on a rock that’s lodged into the ground, and blacks out. 

Chapter Text

Loki slowly opens his eyes, wincing at the dull pain in his head.

‘Where am I?’ He thinks vaguely, looking around the area of grass and trees he was laying. He tries to sit up, and promptly falls back into a laying position, wincing at the pain in his head and leg.

“Don’t try to move, your leg isn’t fully healed yet.” a soft voice says to his left. Loki slowly turns his head to face a beautiful young elf who’s sitting on a fallen tree, with purple skin speckled with glowing spots, and shoulder length white hair. A crown of blue flowers adorns his wavy hair, and his eyes were as dark as night, with pupils brighter than the stars. Loki looks  higher, and saw that on top of the elf’s head are small antlers, with little lights orbiting them like planets.

Loki then realizes he’s been staring at the elf, and quickly looks away. “D-did you… do something to me?” He stutters, gesturing to his leg that was very much not broken, unlike when he blacked out.

The elf smiles shyly, and nods. “Of course I did. You were hurt, and it’s dangerous to be injured and alone in these woods.” He meets Loki’s eyes, and cocks his head to the side. “Do I… know you from somewhere? I think I’ve seen your face before.” The elf inquires.

Now able to sit up, Loki straightens his posture, preparing himself for the shock to come, that he’s one of the Princes of Asgard. “Yes, you must know me,” he says confidently, “because I’m Loki, Prince of Asgard.” He smiles at the elf. “And who might you be?”

The elf’s smile shifts into an expression of fear upon hearing who Loki is.

His eyes widen, and he scrambles off of the fallen tree he was sitting on to hide behind it. “I-I’m sorry, prince Loki. I-I had N-NO idea it was you! Have mercy on me, a complete fool!” The elf stammers, voice full of fear.

Loki’s eyes widen in shock at the reaction. The elf is… afraid of him. But…

why? He doesn’t think he’s done anything to give off the impression he’d harm the other boy. Slowly standing up, and wincing at the dull pain in his leg, he slowly walks to behind the tree where the boy is cowering, and slowly sits down next to him.

“Hey, I’m sorry if I scared you. I had absolutely no intention of that.” Loki says gently, as to not further frighten the other boy.

The elf looks up at him tentatively, and after a moment responds,softly,

“My name is Asmund.”

• • •

Chapter Text

• Loves cowslip flower (symbolized mischief)
• Dyslexic (snakes have weird vision)
• Wears slight makeup to make his face look androgynous
• Gold >>> silver
• Wears heels/platform boots
• Snake themed jewelry
• Black, green and/or gold nail varnish (that is always immaculate)
• Besides the dyslexia, has really good vision. Like 20/20 & can see in the dark
• Can imitate animal & bird calls (uses this almost exclusively for pranks)
• Very flexible (snek)
• it pisses him off to no end when people mispronounce the word “mischievous”. It’s pronounced mis-chuh-vuhs, not mis-chee-vee-us

Chapter Text

Loki blinks. Asmund? The monster from the stories his mother would tell him as a child? The elf who’s a child from a taboo relationship between a light elf and a dark elf? The elf who can wield weapons of pure light and shadows? Who massacred hundreds of his fellow elves, and went on a killing rampage across the nine realms? That Asmund? It can’t be. This boy… he healed Loki. He’s  just a child, looking to be the same age as Loki.

“Asmund?” He asks, confused. He thinks back to all of those terrifying

memories of the stories that were passed around by other Asgardians, of the horrible monster Asmund, who would kill for no reason other than they’d gotten in his way. “But… I was taught that Asmund is this big scary monster who destroys worlds, and kills everything in his way. But… you’re a child, like me.”

Asmund glances at Loki with a resigned expression. “That’s what they say about me?” He chuckles sadly. “I’ve never hurt anyone before. Where they got those stories from, I have no idea.”

Loki bites his lip, and reluctantly asks “Well, are any of the stories true?”

Asmund hesitates, and looks away from Loki. “…Technically, yes. The one story I do know that’s been passed around is the one about me being the child of a light elf and a dark elf. It’s a very taboo thing to have been in a relationship like that, and having a child from such a relationship is one of the worst things you could do. So I was hidden from both races by my parents until I was about 4 years old, when I was discovered. I was banished from Alfheim, and since my parents were never found out, they got away with it.”

Loki is shocked by this, and then is incredibly saddened. ‘He really hasn’t hurt anyone before, has he? His only crime is his existence.’ He reaches towards Asmund and places a hand on the elf boy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry that people say those things about you. I can tell that you’ve just been misunderstood. I understand what that’s like, believe me.”

A slight smile forms on Asmund’s face, and he glances over at Loki. “Thank you, Your Highness. That’s very kind.”

Loki smiles at Asmund, and says “Just Loki. You can call me Loki.”

The smile on Asmund’s face grows even more. “Thank you, Loki.”