Once you were given the all clear from the healers, Loki took your hand and helped you up from the bed.

After first standing up, it took you a moment to adjust to your new center of gravity and weight, which you could already feel the beginning of the effects of.

However long you were going to be here wasn't going to be an easy feat at this rate.

"Are you ready?" Loki asked.

When you nodded, he laced his fingers with your and started to lead you through a maze of halls.

Naturally, you couldn't move very fast and your back ached as you tried to adapt to a walking posture that accommodated the added weight, as if simply getting out of bed hadn't been difficult enough.

It felt like you had been walking for centuries and you felt that you were close to having to ask Loki to stop when he opened a door and nudged you inside.

Behind the door was one of the largest bedrooms you had ever seen, decorated with greens, gold and mixtures of your own favourite colours that somehow didn't clash.

"Welcome to our bedroom," Loki said blandly, closing the door behind himself.

"It's certainly extravagant," you gasped, slowly making your way to the bed in order to sit down and take the weight off of your swollen ankles.

"Well you would technically be royalty now, so I suppose that you should get used to it while you're here."

"Do I get to be a goddess to?" You laughed, leaning back on your hands.

"Not by a long shot, perhaps in your next life, but the process of becoming a God is far more complicated than mere marriage."

You rolled your eyes, shooting him a little.

"I was joking, Loki, trying to ease this tension."

It was obvious enough by his tone why your joking had gone right over his head, there was no denying that the poor boy was just as stressed out about the situation as you were.

Sure, you were the one physically carrying a married couple's child, whether that couple was you and Loki or two random strangers was irrelevant, this child's safety was now in your hands, but Loki was also barely at the end of his teen years, was just finishing school and had been thrown into an adult body that was due to be a father.

The stress levels were high no matter which way you looked at it.

Loki had gone through many peculiar circumstances, but this one was by far one of the worst ones.

"What are we going to do?" He groaned, pacing the room slowly with his hands held behind his back.

"For starters, we're going to remain calm," you said, watching him move back and forth, "surely there's magic strong enough here to rectify what happened."

"Maybe, I don't know," he stopped to look at you, his eyes dropping from your face to your stomach, "I don't even know which reality of the vast amount we're in."

"We're in this reality," you shrugged, "this timeline."

"Yes, but is this our timeline with our future selves or another timeline with two different versions of us?"

You stared at him for a moment then nodded.

"Okay, you have a point, but how do we figure that out?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"Great, so in the meantime we have to act like expecting parents who are happily married."

"It would appear so."

"Which means we'll probably have to kiss at some point."

Loki froze mid-step then spun to face you, his eyes wide in utter bemusement.

"I hadn't thought of that, I've been so focused on what's going on that I forgot we'd have to act like we like each other."

He pulled a face as if it were the most inconceivable thing he had ever imagined.

"I'd really rather not," he continued.

"Why not? It's almost as if you've never kissed anyone."

You laughed, covering your mouth with one hand to hide your wide smile as you beamed at him, though it faded just a little when you noticed that he wasn't laughing as well, nor was he protesting.

Slowly, you raised an eyebrow and tilted your head.

"Loki, you have kissed someone, haven't you?"