It wasn't often that Loki and Sigyn spent time away from the palace. Apart from their predilection for the privacy that they were so used to, they liked how comfortable it was to remain mostly in the library, their rooms and their secret meadow.

There was also the fact that Odin liked to keep an eye on his youngest son. If left to his own devices, Loki could get up to a lot of mischief, so Loki's movements were usually somewhat restricted. This time, he had managed to organise a truce with the Allfather that allowed him to absent himself and his wife from the palace for a while.

They weren't going to a place with any people, after all. He couldn't inadvertently start a war or something with one of his tricks where they were going. Loki just wanted a break from the politics of Asgard - or rather, the people. Thor had been getting a little too much for Loki to cope with lately. It was like he was in heat, flaunting his dominance around the palace. It was obvious he was doing it for Sif; but it was aggravating Loki more than doing anything to woo the warrior woman.

So Loki had decided that he needed to get away. And by that, he meant that he and Sigyn needed to get away. After convincing the Allfather that they should be allowed to leave for a while, Loki went to find his wife in the library. She had only just looked up at him as he literally scooped her into his arms and magicked them back to their rooms.

"Loki, what are you doing?" Sigyn asked, blinking as she suddenly found herself in such different surroundings. "And what is so important that you couldn't just speak to me before abducting me from the library?"

"We're going away, love."

Sigyn was taken aback.

"Away?"

He nodded.

"I think it is about time that we escaped Asgard for a while, don't you?"

Sigyn stared. She had no idea where this idea had sprung from. Well, actually, she had noticed that her husband had been getting rather annoyed by his older brother recently, but there was nothing new about that. But Loki sounded strangely optimistic as he spoke of a retreat from the palace and Sigyn couldn't help but find it unusual.

"I... I'm not really sure where you're going with this, Loki."

He smirked, more to himself than at her.

"You need to pack," was all he said in reply.

She looked at him from beneath raised eyebrows.

"And I'm packing because we're going to...?"

She left the question hanging, hoping that he would finish her sentence. It was never that simple with Loki though. Never.

"Just pack some clothes, love."

Sigyn frowned a little. She was too curious to give in there however.

"At least tell me what I'm supposed to be packing," she tried. "What if all I take is a pile of completely inappropriate clothing?"

Loki considered her words for a moment, before replying, "Despite how delighted I would be to see you in inappropriate clothing, you're right, I should tell you what to pack."

She gave a satisfied smile, ignoring the first part of his sentence. At least she was going to find out where they were supposedly headed. Or so she had thought.

"But that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?"

Sigyn pouted. She felt a little ridiculous at having almost fallen for that one. Of course her silver-tongued husband would say that.

"You're not going to tell me where we're going, are you?"

He grinned.

"Not a chance, love."

No, it was never that easy with Loki.

Instead of giving Sigyn time to pack like he had originally planned, Loki decided that he would just use his magic to bring his wife the clothing she would need when they arrived. And he started with clicking his fingers and changing his wife into a dress that would be suitable for riding in.

That surprised Sigyn. She had just assumed that Loki would magic them to wherever they were going. But by the time that they were riding, Sigyn still had no idea where they were going since Loki so blatantly refused to tell her. All she knew was that they were heading away from the palace to a place that they could be alone.

Sigyn wasn't sure what she thought about this sudden trip. Loki's surprises weren't always good; they weren't even always pleasant. But he wouldn't take her anywhere dangerous; she knew that. So where they were going, she had no idea.

They rode together on Loki's horse, with Sigyn sat in front of her husband. Since they were now taking no luggage, he insisted that they only needed to take one horse. She was pretty sure that it was just an excuse to have her close to him, but she wasn't going to complain about that.

Their ride took a lot longer than Sigyn had thought it would. Then again, she had no idea where they were going, so she had no way of judging how long their journey would be. Sigyn spent most of the ride watching the scenery the travelled through. Since they had left the palace in a direction that she had never travelled before, it was all new to her.

"Are you sure you can't tell me where we're going?"

"You're so impatient, little Sigyn."

"You knew that when you married me."

"True."

She was silent for a moment, and Loki had thought that his wife had given up questioning him. Just as things weren't easy Loki, they weren't that easy when it came to Sigyn either.

"Please?" she asked. "Can't you just tell me?"

Loki just shook his head and smirked.

"Save your breath, love; my lips are sealed."

She frowned playfully and they lapsed into silence again. She would try again later. Even though she was determined to ask him again, Sigyn didn't get the chance before the constant, monotonous movement of Loki's horse had soothed her to sleep. Of course, she had no idea that Loki had used his magic to help encourage her slumber.

By the time Sigyn woke up again, the sky was dark. The stars were shimmering overhead, painting an array of lights above the couple. It wasn't that that surprised Sigyn, it was that they were still riding that got to her.

"What time is it?" she asked her husband.

"Late," he replied.

"How long have we been riding?"

"Almost long enough. We're nearly there."

"And there is?" she tried again.

"If you don't stop asking me that then I'm going to gag you, love."

"Fine, fine..." she grumbled.

After that conversation, it didn't take long for Sigyn's thoughts to turn to the temperature of the cold of the night air. It was a little too cold for her liking.

"Why is it so cold?" she asked.

Loki smirked. He said nothing, but merely conjured her a cloak with a wave of his hand. As the material enveloped her, Sigyn gratefully wrapped the cloak around herself. She leant back into him for extra warmth and tried to get more comfortable.

Even though it was freezing, Loki seemed the same temperature that he always was. He seemed not to be affected by the cold at all. Perhaps he knows a spell to keep him warm, she thought briefly. Loki didn't fail to notice that his wife was still shivering after a while though, so he wrapped his own cloak around her and hugged her to him as well.

"Thank you," she whispered from her cocoon of green cloaks.

The moon was high in the night sky when they finally arrived at Loki's intended destination. Sigyn had no idea how Loki was so wide awake since she, who had slept, had to blink weary eyes when she first saw the reasonably small building. It was about the same size as her father's home had been, but tiny in comparison to the palace. Even so, it was beautiful and stunningly built.

"What is this place?" Sigyn asked.

Loki dismounted quickly and then helped her off of the horse.

"Just a retreat that I found," he replied. "Not many people know about it."

Taking his wife's hand, Loki led her inside to find a fire already warming the first room that they walked into. Sigyn was grateful for it. Without removing the cloak around her, she immediately sat down in front of the blazing hearth and admired the room. Loki gazed at his wife for a moment, his head tilted to the side, before removing his cloak and joining her. She was a curious creature.

"You should remove your cloak, Sigyn," he suggested.

"It's too cold to do that."

"You will warm up a lot quicker if you take it off."

She eyed him suspiciously.

"It's true," he said, noting her doubt.

"Are you sure it's not just you trying to convince me to take my clothes off?"

To that, Loki just laughed.

The couple woke up the next day to a portrait of snow outside. At the sight, Sigyn scrambled out of bed and just stared out of the window.

"It snowed," she said, surprised.

"I know," Loki replied, rolling over in their bed to look at her.

Sigyn was mesmerised by the sight. She hadn't seen snow many times before. It was rare that it came to Asgard; snow was a weather made for other Realms. But sometimes it would shower down on them, and on this rare occasion, Sigyn couldn't resist wanting to go out.

She pulled Loki out of bed before using her own magic to adequately dress herself. Loki paused. He wasn't quite sure about how he felt that she'd learnt that spell. He had rather liked being able to change her clothes whenever he willed it and leaving her with no way to change again.

It had given him hours of amusement at times - particularly when he had dressed her in what the Midgardian's called a onesie. She had hated that, and had looked ridiculous, of course, but Loki couldn't stop laughing.

As soon as he'd dressed himself, Sigyn quickly pulled him outside. The sight that greeted them was much different to the one that had greeted them the previous night. Sigyn stared around the landscape in front of them. With a clear open space in front of them and pine trees either side of the house, the entire space was covered with a shimmering white.

It was beautiful, and Sigyn had never quite seen the like before. In fact, she was just about to tell Loki that when she turned to her side and discovered that he had disappeared.

"Loki?" she asked.

There was no answer.

"Loki?" she tried again.

Oh no, she thought. Where has he gone now? Or rather, what she meant by that was what mischief was he up to this time? And that was when the snowball hit her in the back. She flinched. What the... Sigyn turned around and saw Loki standing behind her, lightly tossing another snowball up and down in his hand.

It wasn't a moment later that he threw it at her. Luckily for Sigyn, this time she ducked. She scooped some snow into a ball and threw a returning blow that almost hit its mark. It would have hit her husband right in the chest - if Loki hadn't used his magic to create a duplicate of himself, that was.

Many snowballs flew between them, and it was obvious that Loki's use of magic was giving him an advantage. Sigyn did get in a few good shots though. It was one rogue snowball from the God stopped the fight immediately though, as it rebounded against the snow-laden branch of a tree behind Sigyn.

A large lump of snow fell from the tree branch directly onto Sigyn's head. Her now-dripping-wet hair fell in front of her face, lumps of snow still caught in her long hair.

"I'm going to kill you, Loki," she muttered.

Sigyn parted her hair slowly, not realising that Loki had moved so that he was now standing in front of her. He pressed a small kiss to her nose as she blinked in surprise. A small smile turned her lips as she looked at her husband. Loki smirked back at her, just as he shoved a handful of snow down the neck of her dress.

She would get him back for that later.