She’d always loved singing, loudly in the car or the shower, softly and mindlessly while working on a project. Sometimes karaoke, sometimes a capella, always music that spoke her heart in the words she couldn’t always find alone.

Anyone who knew her well would have known these things. But he didn’t. They’d known each other such a short time.

That was why she’d decided to sing for him. As a gift. Her gift, this new thing he didn’t know, couldn’t know. A soft, sweet thing, a thing utterly detached from the hell they’d already walked through together.

Summer knew Loki was there, could taste his presence as unique as his scent. She didn’t turn, though, one arm folded on the table, one finger conducting little flames to each candle scattered across the polished wood surface. Quiet and slow, she sang, each note precise, each word shaped.

“When I look into your eyes / It’s like watching the night sky / Or a beautiful sunrise / There’s so much they hold.”

She’d left her hair loose, freshly washed waves gleaming like copper and bronze in the flickering flames, flowing down her back nearly to the floor. The seat she’d chosen was low, and had no back, because she knew he loved her hair.

“And just like them old stars / I see that you’ve come so far / To be right where you are / How old is your soul?”

Her shoulders rose bare out of the corset one of the chambermaids had helped her into. Green, his green; the shade of his eyes, and velvet, laced with silk and boned with steel. The long ends of the ribbons mingled with the fall of her hair.

“Well, I won’t give up on us / Even if the skies get rough / I’m giving you all my love / I’m still looking up.”

She was still a modern woman, though, and had added a little black skirt, leaving her legs bare and making them look longer. At least, she hoped so. His height didn’t frighten her, but she could never look anything other than tiny next to him, either.

“And when you’re needing your space / To do some navigating / I’ll be here patiently waiting / To see what you find.”

And here were the lyrics she wanted him to hear, the ones that said all the things she couldn’t come out and say easily. The things she was afraid to say while looking into his eyes, because she couldn’t unspin his feelings from hers, couldn’t unpick lust from love, desperation from desire. She let her voice rise, carrying all the intensity of her heart, swallowed in the lyric line.

“‘Cause even the stars, they burn / Some even fall to the Earth / We’ve got a lot to learn / God knows we’re worth it / No, I won’t give up.”

She hadn’t bothered with any other adornment; she wasn’t beautiful, would never be beautiful. She’d only offer herself as she was, not polished and shaped into some other being. Bare feet, bare throat, bare hands. The shifting light of the candlefire was the only play of colour she wanted.

“I don’t want to be someone who walks away so easily / I’m here to stay and make the difference that I can make / Our differences, they do a lot to teach us how to use / The tools and gifts we got yeah, we got a lot at stake.”

All the candles were lit now, wavering faintly in the still air of Loki’s rooms. She watched them, knowing the sparkle they set in her eyes, the way they shimmered off the play of hair around her face.

The way they struck sparks off the man behind her, breathing low and slow so he didn’t miss a word, didn’t break the pure spell she was weaving with no more component than her self.

“And in the end, you’re still my friend at least we did intend / For us to work we didn’t break, we didn’t burn / We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in / I had to learn what I’ve got and what I’m not and who I am.”

Loki was right behind her now, his hands hovering just over her skin, sliding a bare breath away from her hair. She could feel his warmth, taste his pleasure and surprise like honey on the back of her tongue. Slowly, she leaned back, letting her head fall back into his hands, smiling up into those green, green eyes as she gave him the last lyric, soft and sweet.

“I won’t give up on us / Even if the skies get rough / I’m giving you all my love / I’m still looking up / Still looking up.”