Loki froze. Whatever answer he had been expecting, it hadn't been that. There had been no way he could have been expecting that answer. No way in all nine realms would he have ever expected that answer. You couldn't blame him for his brain short circuiting.

You wished in that moment that you could read his mind, to know exactly what he was thinking. You saw emotions flit across his eyes, but they moved too fast and he was too good at guarding them for you to really see what they were.

You got the impression that none of them were good.

You knew the stories of Sigyn. She was Loki's wife in the myths, the goddess of fidelity, Loki's heart. Had she really existed? You had thought her a myth, but then you had also thought that Thor and Loki had been myths until you'd met them.

You'd asked your mom why you'd been named after her. She wasn't a particularly famous goddess. All your mom would ever say was that you'd grow into the name and live up to it someday when the time was right. You never understood what she meant.

Now that you were face-to-face with Loki, you had a dread in the pit of your stomach that she was dead wrong for giving you the name she did. Loki was going to kill you.

You stood and carefully approached the glass of the cell. You needed to be on more equal footing for this conversation. It had gone from silly banter to a serious conversation. You hadn't meant for it to, but it had.

Loki finally got through his mind 404ing and found exactly two words: "Excuse me?" He asked as though he hadn't heard you perfectly well.

You knew he had heard you. You repeated yourself anyway. He hadn't killed you yet. There was still a chance you could survive this encounter. "My name is Sigyn," you repeated the information.

His eyes narrowed. There was surprise and pain in his gaze. So very, very much pain. Something had happened there, something to make him visibly flinch when he heard your name. "An unfortunate name indeed," he said softly, his voice haunted.

You shrank back and looked down. That hadn't been kind of him to say. Him of all people. "Apparently..." you replied. His reaction shouldn't have hurt so much. He was a stranger to you, but it did. It cut to the core that rejection. "Sorry to be such a disappointment,"

You both heard footsteps coming down the stairs. "Until next time, Lady," Loki gave you a bow before he vanished from sight in a shimmer of green magic.

You returned to your cot, the image of the pain in his eyes and the reaction to your name burning itself into your mind. It shouldn't have hurt you so much, his reaction. It shouldn't have.

It wasn't like you were his Sigyn. It was just an unfortunate name. Right?

Right??

Right???