SIX:

plans will change

I think you should come live with me
And we can be pirates
Then you won't have to cry
Or hide in the closet
And just like a folk song
Our love will be passed on

❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ✷ ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜

CAS'S DREAM BEGAN IN THE PLACE it always seemed to be. Her mother's garden, surrounded by stygian walls and a harrowed bench. Cas never liked it here, though it was one of the only good things about her home.

It brought a little bit of greenery to the place, but she still preferred Frigga's gardens. These didn't lay dead three months of the year as her mothers did, and they had more diverse plants.

"What do you want?" Cas demanded, seeing the brooding figure of her father. He beckoned her here. he knew that Cas despised the place when she was growing up, and Nope, it hadn't changed in the slightest.

"Not even going to say hello to your own father?" He asked, earning an eye roll from Cas.

"You could manifest this, oh wait, you already did." Cas was basically conscious, where her father brought her. It was a piece of magic he had, which Cas wished he didn't. It was just another way for him to shove himself into her personal life.

"Cas," he scolded, earning a death look from his daughter.

"Let me go," She hissed. She wasn't the one who could leave, she didn't have enough power in Asgard. If she was on Midgard, that was a different story.

"You need to come home."

"I am home! This is the only place I've ever been happy! can't you accept that?" Cas asked, a chuckle laced with her words at the absurdity of his previous statement.

"Asgard is killing you."

"So what? when did you ever care about my health? You basically reveled when I left. To you, I'm better off dead!"

"Cas," Her father scolded. Cas didn't care at this point. She was fed up with him.

"Let me go."

"Cas."

"Dad! Let me go!"

"Fine."

Cas woke up in her room. Shaky hands gripping the sheets, she sighed. It was her wedding day. She was supposed to rejoice. She wanted to avoid the dress hanging in her closet at all costs.

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CAS STOOD, GETTING ZIPPED AND TIED into a dress that she didn't even like, poked and prodded all morning after a restless sleep. She was being poked and prodded for a day that she didn't even want, a day she knew she was going to regret.

The maids left and she thanked them, leaning against the poster of her bed, closing her eyes, and playing with a strand of her hair mindlessly. Weddings were supposed to be easy. One was supposed to know that what they were doing was right. This wasn't right.

"You know, I happen to like big parties," Loki's voice said, from the armchair in Cas's room, making her inhale sharply, but sigh in relief. He was here. He came. "All of the attention on me, however, there is an aftermath of having to speak with some dimwits. But that's where you come and take me away." He smirked t her before his eyes softened.

"Loki," She whispered, standing up straight as he made his way towards her. In his eyes was something she'd never seen from him before. She fiddled with the lace on her dress, eyes teary. This really wasn't the right decision.

"You're upset," Loki observed, pointing out the obvious as he looked into her eyes. "why?" Cas swallowed. She'd never admitted it to herself before. She couldn't admit it to Loki.

"I don't think I can do this," Cas murmured as he reached to brush the hair from her face with cold fingers on warm skin, a smile centering on his face.

"Then don't," he replied. "Stay with me." Cas looked into his eyes, worried. She knew, deep down this wasn't something he could lie about. Everything in his face was showing the truth, that he was being completely sincere.

She was ready to fall into his arms. To run away with him, to follow the sound of the voices in her head telling her to go. He was that voice, standing here before her. Soft eyes, cold hands. He brought nothing but comfort.

"We could run away, go hide in the woods," Cas ventured, bringing fingers up to brush her lips, trying to do something productive with them as she sighed.

"Or, we could just change forms and go to the market for a while," Loki said, the example boding better for their situation, and Cas liked it better than her own idea. If it was a normal place, not the realm of another set of gods, Cas would be able to do it on her own. Even in a different place in the realms (definitely not Hel, that would basically be a death wish for Cas) she would be, but Asgard wasn't the best place to do so.

"Are you sure?" Cas asked, her eyes falling from his to his lips, unintentionally. She wondered, what they would tats like, which wasn't the best thing to do in front of someone who read her mind daily.

"I'm always sure, Cas," he said, lips connecting withers, making her breath hitch, and taking it a moment for her to realize what was happening, letting her eyes close on their own. It felt like a dream, walking on air, and though that was a cliche way to put it felt that way. Loki made her feel that way.

When she pulled away, Cas was different. Taller, her ivory skin was darker and sprinkled with no freckles, her hair was short and she felt different. The familiar buzz of magic was back, though it wasn't her own.

Then she looked at Loki. More feminine, long hair, long legs, and a curvier shape.

"I'm not Loki, well I am, but not constantly. I don't consistently consider myself to be male," she says, brushing a strand of hair from her face. "I go by, formally, Lady Loki."

Without a word, Cas wrapped her arms around Lady Loki, not caring and telling the woman that she liked her in any form. Lady Loki, Loki, it didn't matter to Cas. Lady Loki was Cas's friend in any situation. It didn't matter.

"you're fine with this?" Lady Loki asked, narrowing her eyes at Cas. "Me being male and female? Both?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Cas asked, turning her head slightly.

"I push boundaries. I was afraid I pushed too far," Ikol said with a sigh. Cas could tell that she believed it, and it hurt Cas to hear as such.

"You don't."

END OF ACT ONE

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AUTHOR SPEAKS!

I believe in genderfluid Loki supremacy

I also think you might be able to guess Cas's secret by now