Bibbidi Bobbidi Asgard: A Cinderella AU (Loki x F!Reader)

Chapter 13: The Great Escape

 Warnings: injury, hurt/comfort, minor violence

  "I must apologise, lady Cinderella. It must have completely slipped my mind!" Thor said, barely slowing in his training to stop and talk to his uninvited guest. Swinging Mjolnir around with far more force than necessary and beheading the training dummies with ease - in fact, it was more obliterating them than beheading them since only fragments of their sad little skulls remained - he said, "My brother has taken a trip to Alfheim. He asked me to pass along the message that he would be gone for a few days but I appear to have forgotten."

Cinderella narrowed her eyes at the prince, clearly sceptical. "Why would he go to Alfheim? And where is Y/N?"

Holding out his hand to call Mjolnir back to him, Thor crossed the courtyard and stood towering over Cinderella. Even if she believed him incapable of harming her, his stature was intimidating and she shuddered in his shadow. Her entire body tightening, her muscles coiling and ready to flee at any moment, Cinderella looked the closest to panicking that Thor had ever seen her. It was obvious that she didn't dare consider the possibility of overpowering him, especially not when he was armed with Mjolnir.

Thor chuckled and patted Cinderella heartily on the shoulder, the light sound at complete odds with the dangerous look in his eyes. "I have never known my brother's mind, my lady. His intentions are his own but I did hear from lady Sif that the elves have recently fashioned a new range of the most beautiful fabrics in all the realms. I would not be surprised to hear that he has gone to sample their creations and bring back a selection for your wedding gown."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh dear! I appear to have ruined the surprise. No harm in telling you the rest now, I suppose. My father was to announce it this evening at dinner before the court. With unrest growing in the kingdom, the council decided that a wedding would be good for the morale of the people. You and Loki are to marry as soon as he returns at the end of the week."

"I... Um..."

Thor felt a certain amount of satisfaction at having apparently broken Cinderella, and only felt a tiny stab of guilt over the fact that everything he had said was a lie. No such decision had been made, although it was on the table as an option in the near future. Instead of a marriage, the council were actually planning numerous executions for the week's end. The rebels that had been captured the night of the ball, having now spent months in the jails were to receive their sentences at last. It was hoped, foolishly, that it would dissuade others from joining the cause.

The prince knew that it was too late to for that, and that an attack was imminent, but couldn't get the council to believe him. Even with proof that Cinderella was not of Vanaheim - found after Hogun had spent endless hours searching through the royal archives and discovered no mention of a Vanir lady named Cinderella in ten thousand years of history - they would not believe that she was involved in any kind of plot. The common folk of the kingdom believed her to be a princess, after all she had the beauty and demeanour of a royal, and they all still laboured under the misguided illusion that Loki truly wished to marry her.

It was beyond frustrating, especially since Thor knew that you were the one Loki truly wished to marry, a union he personally thought that the kingdom would accept just as readily given your heroics, but he knew better than to push the subject and risk the truth coming out too early. Cinderella had to remain unsuspecting of his true motives for keeping her busy over the coming days and the court could stay blind to the reality of the situation since their involvement would undoubtedly mess up preparations anyway.

So, Thor continued to nod along with the council's decisions, bite his tongue and begin moving the pieces into place just as he and Loki had discussed. Or rather, Loki had discussed and Thor had listened. Either way, the older prince was to make sure that the castle was prepared for an attack whether they knew it was coming or not.